Dear Katharina: Letters to Sixteenth Century Reformer About Faith, Revolution and What Matters

“In the format of letters to a Strasbourg-based reformer of the early 1500’s, a modern pastor dialogues about friendship, money, violence, marriage, hospitality, church, migration, justice, pandemic, tyranny and other conundrums we hold in common. ”

Team Members/Contributors

Jennifer Garrison Brownell Vancouver United Church of Christ Contact Me

About this pastoral study project

Set to take place over the course of a year, in this project I will research and write about the life of Katerina Schutz Zell, sixteenth century reformer, author and (in the modern language of powerful women of faith who refuse to be silenced) badass. The research part of the project will consist of reading as many of Zell’s own words as possible, as well as taking a deep dive into the words of those who have studied her.

Because so many of my and Zell’s circumstances intersect, even though we are five hundred years apart, the writing part of the project will be in the form of letters to her. As I reflect on her life as well as my own, I will glean wisdom about societal and personal revolution, from Zell’s response to the tumultuous times in which she lived.