Buried Windows

by Heidi Neumark

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Well, I wouldn’t know. Would you? Who among us can boast of purity of heart? Alleyna didn’t dare to even imagine it. We were sitting at a table in the church basement eating lasagna. "So," she asked me, "when are you going to give me the lecture?" The lecture? I had no idea what Alleyna was talking about. "The one that every minister gives me." "What lecture is that?" I asked. "The one where you tell me I’m going to hell."

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The Rev. Heidi Neumark is pastor of Trinity of Manhattan Lutheran Church in New York City. She is speaking at Women of the ELCA’s Seventh Triennial Gathering, July 10–13, in Salt Lake City, Utah (see advertisement on our inside back cover). Her experiences in congregational and community ministry led to her book, Breathing Space: A Spiritual Journey in the South Bronx.