During our worship services on 10/17 (no worship service on 10/16) and 10/23–10/24, Cross Creek will welcome local author Katrina Kittle and author and pastor Chris Glaser to share their perspectives on marriage.
Also, please register below for a special workshop on 10/23 with Chris Glaser about marriage.
Local author Katrina Kittle will return to Cross Creek during our weekend worship services on on Sunday, October 17th at 9:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. (there will not be a worship service on Saturday, October 16th), reading and reflecting from her new book The Blessings of the Animals, a novel that explores the meaning of marriage.
Katrina was born in Illinois but has lived in the Dayton area since first grade. She attended Ohio University and was Outstanding Graduating Senior for both the English and Education departments. She taught high school English and theatre at Centerville High School for five years, and she taught middle school English and theatre at the Miami Valley School for six. She has also worked as a house cleaner, a veterinary assistant, a children’s theatre director, a costumer, and as case management support for the AIDS Resource Center (formerly AIDS Foundation Miami Valley).
Katrina’s earlier books are Traveling Light, Two Truths and a Lie, and The Kindness of Strangers, which was a BookSense pick and the winner of the 2006 Great Lakes Book Award for Fiction. Early chapters from that novel earned her grants from both the Ohio Arts Council and Culture Works.
She earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Spalding University in Louisville. When not writing, Katrina enjoys gardening, cooking, traveling, acting, and time spent in the presence of animals (especially horses). She is the proud aunt of Amy and Nathan, and lives in the Dayton area with her cat and a kickass garden.
Featuring special music by Kent Ross Brooks
The weekend’s worship services will also feature special music by Kent Ross Brooks, Director of Music Ministries at First Calvary Baptist Church of Durham, NC.
Kent is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he studied music composition and music theory with Dr. Ingrid Arauco and Dr. Allen Anderson. At UNC-Chapel Hill, Kent was active in various choral and instrumental ensembles, honing his skills as a vocalist, instrumentalist and composer. He is a BMI-affiliated composer who was twice the recipient of the Waljo Gospel Music Award. In 1994, Kent was commissioned to compose and perform Heal the Land, the theme for the Raleigh-Durham area’s first observance of the Black Churches Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS. In 1999, he performed the theme for the Special Olympics World Games, Let Your Dreams Take Flight. His Fanfare for Celina opened the inaugural International Igor Stravinsky Festival at UNC-Chapel Hill in 2000.
His string quintet, A Prelude for Spirituals, also debuted in 2000. For the past four seasons, Kent has performed annually with the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra as chorus master for their community gospel concert. In 2008, the GSO performed Kent’s original gospel ballad, “You Are My Everything.” This same piece was presented at the new music seminar of the 2009 Gospel Music Workshop of America in Cincinnati, Ohio. Kent currently resides in Carrboro, NC.
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Gay Christian author and activist Chris Glaser will preach during this weekend’s worship services on Saturday, October 23rd at 5:30 p.m. and Sunday, October 24th at 9:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.. In addition, Chris, the author of As My Own Soul: The Blessing of Same-Gender Marriage, will also lead and facilitate a workshop on Saturday, October 23rd from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.. Register to participate in the workshop using the form below.
Glaser, the author of twelve books including Uncommon Calling, Coming Out to God, Coming Out as Sacrament and The Final Deadline: What Death Has Taught Me About Life, is a frequent speaker and retreat leader across denominational boundaries throughout North America on issues ranging from sexuality to spirituality. After graduation from Yale Divinity School in 1977,
About the workshop
Saturday, 10/23, 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., $35 per person (includes lunch) — register below.
Come and spend a day with author, Christian, theologian, minister and gay man Chris Glaser as he engages participants in an exploration of the blessing same-gender marriage. This is a great opportunity for GLBT people and straight people alike to learn how to give voice and witness to marriage equality that is proactive and positive rather reactive and defensive.
Ever wonder why marriage for same-gender couples generates such passion? Why is it so important to gay people? And why is it felt as an attack on “traditional” marriage by others? Writing accessibly for the general reader, author Chris Glaser narrows it down—first to taboos around sexuality, then to taboos around the sacred.
Glaser presents the many contexts in which the conflict plays out, beginning with the present civil and religious contexts, and retrospectively in the biblical and historical forms and meanings of marriage. The reader comes away with a better grasp of the issues at stake, as well as the persons and the personal behind the “issue.” The chapter “Sex and the Body of Christ” especially prompts a reconsideration of Christian attitudes toward the body and sexuality.
Glaser contends that the public debate on same-gender marriage has proven a blessing for the institution of marriage itself. His own conclusion of what marriage is—regardless of the genders involved—may surprise you.
In recent years he has served as an interim pastor in MCC and UCC congregations in Atlanta and San Francisco. While remaining Presbyterian, he was ordained to the ministry in MCC on October 2, 2005, which allows dual affiliation. A native Californian, he has called Atlanta home since 1993. His family includes his partner Wade and their golden retriever lab, Hobbes.
Featuring special music by Debra James Tucker
The weekend’s worship services will also feature special music by vocalist Debra James Tucker, trained in jazz, classical and gospel music as featured on the CD All of Me.
Debra is a resident of Columbus, Ohio. She earned a law degree from the Univeristy of Michigan Law School and Philosophy degree from Denison University in Granville, Ohio. She is an accomplished vocalist with extensive training in jazz, classical and gospel music. She has sung in appearances ranging from Maya Angelou, Michael Bolton and the Columbus Symphony Orchestra. She was featured soloist in Vanqui, a work commissioned by Opera Columbus with libretto by acclaimed writer John A. Williams and appeared in the Theatre des Westens production of Porgy and Bess while concurrently performing jazz and gospel at Berlin’s Quasimodo nightclub. Debra is committed to using the law to effect social change and has dedicated herself to working with young people, having served as artist in residence with Days of Creationarts for Kids, Short Stop Youth Center, and The Arts and College Preparatory Academy. Debra lives in Columbus, Ohio.