Seasons of a Ministry

About the Book

Seasons of a Ministry: A Memoir in Sermon and Story is a collection of sermons and essays about the big questions of life, infusing spirituality and justice into contemporary themes. Written by a seasoned hospital chaplain who is also an openly gay and HIV-positive minister, the book delivers a life-giving dose of courage and hope to spiritual seekers of every faith and lifestyle. Organized around the changing seasons, the essays and sermons resonate with the heart’s yearning for a simple spirituality that is grounded in the cycles of the universe, well illustrated in Chapter 10, The View from Yosemite:

Christmas Day was the last day that we went skiing. We had gone skiing the day before as well. At the end of the last day, my partner Greg was frozen solid. I was nearly that cold. We were on the lift and he said he wanted to get inside, but I wanted one more run from the top of that mountain. I wanted to see one more view from the top of Yosemite.

As I was standing on my skis and just looking and feeling the wind and the cold and taking in the view one last time, I thought of Albert Einstein's question. “Is the universe a friendly place?” From my view, seen from the top of the world, I decided it was. Even in the darkness and cold of winter where I stood, I knew the snow would melt and wildflowers would bloom and spring would come again. I'm not denying evil here. Even in Yosemite, the senseless news of the world found its way to us. But I believe to my core that out of evil's darkness, light does eventually come. I've seen this cycle again and again in nature and in my own life, and standing on my skis at the top of Badger Pass, taking in the view of Yosemite, I thought, and I thought, and then I thanked God for cycles and nature and the snow and the chilling wind that made me feel so alive.

I pulled down my hat and cinched up my gloves and skied fast and free down that spectacular mountain and, amazingly enough, I didn't break any bones, and I thanked God for that too.

About the Author

The Reverend Donald B. Stouder is Chaplain and Manager of Pastoral Care at Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa, California. He is the author of A Thomasine Prayer Book (2000), Differences (1993), Living in the Summer of Life (1986), and was a contributing author to Wilderness Basics, published by the Sierra Club and The Mountaineers (1990). On most weekends, he can be found tinkering or sailing aboard his sloop Waterwings in San Diego Bay.