Help Blyth Finish Seminary
Donation protected
I’m on track to graduate from seminary in May! But unfortunately, severe illness and grief had made it impossible to continue working full time, and I need help raising my final tuition expenses.
I began attending seminary so that I might better serve the communities I come from. Folks deemed "too much" for the church. Too difficult, too poor, too addicted, too queer, too mouthy, too sexual, too political.
These are the people who raised me. These are the people who taught me what is sacred. I went to seminary to learn how to hold spiritual space for them.
It is with humility now that I'm asking my community to support me by helping me fund this final push.
My first sermon , July 2015
♥ "Blyth Barnow is the real deal -- we need people like her in ministry, especially in a time like this." - Leslie Leasure ♥
WHAT I NEED...
I need to raise $6,961 in order to graduate.
I was granted the Dean’s Award which pays for 75% of my tuition. It’s the only reason I was able to attend. The rest I paid for out of pocket by working full time (+) while also attending school full time.
Last May I became very ill which made working full time impossible. This, combined with holding intense communal and personal grief through the fall, has made it very difficult to gather the money I need to pay tuition.
I was raised working class and have always lived without savings. Everything I earn is immediately used for expenses. I began working full time when I was 15 and have independently supported myself since then.
I need to raise $6,961 to pay off my tuition. Here is the breakdown:
♥ Tuition for January Session: $1,597
♥ Tuition for Spring Session: $2,957
♥ Remaining Balance from Fall Tuition: $1,892
♥ GoFundme service fee (they charge 8% of all that is earned): approx $515
♥ Total: $6,961
Any additional funds raised will be used towards other expenses like books ($250), parking ($270), my spiritual direction sessions ($300), fee for the Peacock Training Course which I'm also currently enrolled in ($400) and other necessities for attending seminary.
With Chanelle, after my 1st sermon as a Pastoral Intern
♥ "I THINK WE CAN ALL AGREE: WE NEED WHITE WORKING-CLASS CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP AGAINST FASCISM. I'm contributing financially to Blyth's efforts to finish seminary because I want to be able to have a relationship to Christianity that is founded on the principles of justice, courage and clear moral vision--a vision that respects and values the people that right-wing christians abandon into jails, detention centres, institutions and wire coat-hangers. Fuck those guys. Let's support our own spiritual leadership." - Chanelle Gallant, activist, writer, catholic witch ♥
WHY SEMINARY?
I’ve lost many friends to overdose and suicide. My desire to go to seminary stems from attending my friends funerals.
Too often the people I loved were disrespected at their own funerals by clergy wielding harmful theology or ignorance.
I wanted better for them. I wanted better for those of us left behind. I didn’t imagine it would take me down this road. But I am grateful that it has.
In pastoral care and preaching I get to address the specificity of people’s lives. It is some of the most deeply resonant and politicized work I’ve yet to do. It has demanded that I bring all I’ve ever learned about survivor advocacy, harm reduction, racial justice, and intersectionality. It’s demanded an integration of self that other organizing work hasn’t.
While attending seminary I’ve been called to officiate two funerals. Both were for prominent members of communities I am connected to, both were lost to suicide. It has been transformative to be able to offer the sort of ritual care that previous loved ones had been denied.
Ritual work. Spiritual work. Is revolutionary work. I didn’t know that 3 years ago. I know it now.
My last first day…
♥ "Blyth adds elements to the conversation about social change that often go unheard, and the clarity, courage, and candor, with which Blyth shares her views can immediately shift the perspectives of others in invaluable ways. Helping Blyth complete seminary is an investment in a transformed future." - Valerie Purnell, MDiv Program, Pacific School of Religion ♥
FEMMINARY
In fall 2015 I started a blog called Femminary. It has since grown into a larger platform and unofficial chaplaincy service.
It is a space to reclaim all that is sacred about being Queer, Femme, and Working Class. It is a space where I get to think spiritually and theologically, through my own lens instead of the one required by the academy or the church.
As I graduate I hope to continue growing into this project. I plan to explore formal chaplaincy training while also pursuing ordination in the United Church of Christ.
You can check out Femminary on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and WordPress.
ADDITIONAL WORDS OF SUPPORT
♥ "Blyth’s lived experiences have given her a lens into the lives of many people who go through the world “invisible.” They are not invisible to her and when we encounter Blyth, they do not remain invisible to us; she will not allow it.
...I better understand the role of preacher and prophet because of how she exercises her voice, femininity, and queerness. And my faith in the process of becoming a spiritual leader has been strengthened because she is showing me just what we are capable of.
The church—the world!—needs more voices like Blyth’s. Your support could not go to a more dedicated, creative, bold seminarian and prophet.” - M. Todd Whitley, MDiv/CSSC/CSR Student ♥
♥ "Blyth Barnow, aka Femminary, is a light reflector and healing salve to those of us who live deeply nuanced lives in a world that would much rather we adhere to pre-determined binaries. She is a necessary bridge in this world for those who have been relegated to the shadows and denied access to spiritual care. The impact of her gifts, like Jesus, are most seen out in the world and not in the confines of a place of worship, and for that, we must give thanks and deep support. Thank you Blyth for all the ways you see us and remind us that we are already whole." - Latishia AV James, M.Div., Reproductive Justice Chaplain Consultant, Director of Community at O.school ♥
Sonny, Latishia, and I at PSR’s annual prom
♥ "Now, more than ever, we need religious leaders that are dedicated to a common good, to serving and centering the most vulnerable of our world, and who strive to cultivate anti-oppressive ritual and relationships. She takes her experiences of both the margins, and of privileges and uses them to cultivate truth telling, compassion, and justice. She embodies in her creative ministries the good word of John 16:22 that says, "So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy." Let us make sure no one will take away our joy, and support Blyth finishing her preparation for ministry at seminary so she can continue to lead us from our sorrows towards our bright, shared horizons of Hope." - Sonny Graves ♥
Ritual for a beloved Femme, gone too soon.
♥ "A few times in your life you meet someone with such rare intelligence, intuition, and presence that it makes you hopeful about the world just to be around them. They make real change and deep growth seem not just possible but tangible, alive, and happening right now. This is absolutely true of Blyth.
You may be struck first by her gentleness. Everything she does, she approaches with extraordinary care, awareness, and generosity. But that gentleness does not translate into timidness. She is fearsomely clear-sighted and grounded in what is real, and electrified with a sense of what real possibility and transformation look like.
Last fall, in the bewildering and unspeakably painful aftermath of a suicide in our community, Blyth instinctively took on the role of healer and leader when we needed her most. I will never forget or begin to repay her for the grace and love she brought to those impossible moments, not just for me, but for our lost friend's entire family and circle of loved ones. And all this she did while she was grieving herself.
Blyth has a gift that can't be learned, and the fact that she's decided to devote herself to helping create space for healing, learning, and spiritual growth in our community is an immense blessing to us all. I wholeheartedly encourage everyone to help make her journey possible.” - Sophie Spinelle, Photographer & Founder of Shameless Photography ♥
Studying
**cover photo by Portraits To The People **
I began attending seminary so that I might better serve the communities I come from. Folks deemed "too much" for the church. Too difficult, too poor, too addicted, too queer, too mouthy, too sexual, too political.
These are the people who raised me. These are the people who taught me what is sacred. I went to seminary to learn how to hold spiritual space for them.
It is with humility now that I'm asking my community to support me by helping me fund this final push.
My first sermon , July 2015
♥ "Blyth Barnow is the real deal -- we need people like her in ministry, especially in a time like this." - Leslie Leasure ♥
WHAT I NEED...
I need to raise $6,961 in order to graduate.
I was granted the Dean’s Award which pays for 75% of my tuition. It’s the only reason I was able to attend. The rest I paid for out of pocket by working full time (+) while also attending school full time.
Last May I became very ill which made working full time impossible. This, combined with holding intense communal and personal grief through the fall, has made it very difficult to gather the money I need to pay tuition.
I was raised working class and have always lived without savings. Everything I earn is immediately used for expenses. I began working full time when I was 15 and have independently supported myself since then.
I need to raise $6,961 to pay off my tuition. Here is the breakdown:
♥ Tuition for January Session: $1,597
♥ Tuition for Spring Session: $2,957
♥ Remaining Balance from Fall Tuition: $1,892
♥ GoFundme service fee (they charge 8% of all that is earned): approx $515
♥ Total: $6,961
Any additional funds raised will be used towards other expenses like books ($250), parking ($270), my spiritual direction sessions ($300), fee for the Peacock Training Course which I'm also currently enrolled in ($400) and other necessities for attending seminary.
With Chanelle, after my 1st sermon as a Pastoral Intern♥ "I THINK WE CAN ALL AGREE: WE NEED WHITE WORKING-CLASS CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP AGAINST FASCISM. I'm contributing financially to Blyth's efforts to finish seminary because I want to be able to have a relationship to Christianity that is founded on the principles of justice, courage and clear moral vision--a vision that respects and values the people that right-wing christians abandon into jails, detention centres, institutions and wire coat-hangers. Fuck those guys. Let's support our own spiritual leadership." - Chanelle Gallant, activist, writer, catholic witch ♥
WHY SEMINARY?
I’ve lost many friends to overdose and suicide. My desire to go to seminary stems from attending my friends funerals.
Too often the people I loved were disrespected at their own funerals by clergy wielding harmful theology or ignorance.
I wanted better for them. I wanted better for those of us left behind. I didn’t imagine it would take me down this road. But I am grateful that it has.
In pastoral care and preaching I get to address the specificity of people’s lives. It is some of the most deeply resonant and politicized work I’ve yet to do. It has demanded that I bring all I’ve ever learned about survivor advocacy, harm reduction, racial justice, and intersectionality. It’s demanded an integration of self that other organizing work hasn’t.
While attending seminary I’ve been called to officiate two funerals. Both were for prominent members of communities I am connected to, both were lost to suicide. It has been transformative to be able to offer the sort of ritual care that previous loved ones had been denied.
Ritual work. Spiritual work. Is revolutionary work. I didn’t know that 3 years ago. I know it now.
My last first day…♥ "Blyth adds elements to the conversation about social change that often go unheard, and the clarity, courage, and candor, with which Blyth shares her views can immediately shift the perspectives of others in invaluable ways. Helping Blyth complete seminary is an investment in a transformed future." - Valerie Purnell, MDiv Program, Pacific School of Religion ♥
FEMMINARY
In fall 2015 I started a blog called Femminary. It has since grown into a larger platform and unofficial chaplaincy service.
It is a space to reclaim all that is sacred about being Queer, Femme, and Working Class. It is a space where I get to think spiritually and theologically, through my own lens instead of the one required by the academy or the church.
As I graduate I hope to continue growing into this project. I plan to explore formal chaplaincy training while also pursuing ordination in the United Church of Christ.
You can check out Femminary on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and WordPress.
ADDITIONAL WORDS OF SUPPORT
♥ "Blyth’s lived experiences have given her a lens into the lives of many people who go through the world “invisible.” They are not invisible to her and when we encounter Blyth, they do not remain invisible to us; she will not allow it.
...I better understand the role of preacher and prophet because of how she exercises her voice, femininity, and queerness. And my faith in the process of becoming a spiritual leader has been strengthened because she is showing me just what we are capable of.
The church—the world!—needs more voices like Blyth’s. Your support could not go to a more dedicated, creative, bold seminarian and prophet.” - M. Todd Whitley, MDiv/CSSC/CSR Student ♥
♥ "Blyth Barnow, aka Femminary, is a light reflector and healing salve to those of us who live deeply nuanced lives in a world that would much rather we adhere to pre-determined binaries. She is a necessary bridge in this world for those who have been relegated to the shadows and denied access to spiritual care. The impact of her gifts, like Jesus, are most seen out in the world and not in the confines of a place of worship, and for that, we must give thanks and deep support. Thank you Blyth for all the ways you see us and remind us that we are already whole." - Latishia AV James, M.Div., Reproductive Justice Chaplain Consultant, Director of Community at O.school ♥
Sonny, Latishia, and I at PSR’s annual prom♥ "Now, more than ever, we need religious leaders that are dedicated to a common good, to serving and centering the most vulnerable of our world, and who strive to cultivate anti-oppressive ritual and relationships. She takes her experiences of both the margins, and of privileges and uses them to cultivate truth telling, compassion, and justice. She embodies in her creative ministries the good word of John 16:22 that says, "So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy." Let us make sure no one will take away our joy, and support Blyth finishing her preparation for ministry at seminary so she can continue to lead us from our sorrows towards our bright, shared horizons of Hope." - Sonny Graves ♥
Ritual for a beloved Femme, gone too soon. ♥ "A few times in your life you meet someone with such rare intelligence, intuition, and presence that it makes you hopeful about the world just to be around them. They make real change and deep growth seem not just possible but tangible, alive, and happening right now. This is absolutely true of Blyth.
You may be struck first by her gentleness. Everything she does, she approaches with extraordinary care, awareness, and generosity. But that gentleness does not translate into timidness. She is fearsomely clear-sighted and grounded in what is real, and electrified with a sense of what real possibility and transformation look like.
Last fall, in the bewildering and unspeakably painful aftermath of a suicide in our community, Blyth instinctively took on the role of healer and leader when we needed her most. I will never forget or begin to repay her for the grace and love she brought to those impossible moments, not just for me, but for our lost friend's entire family and circle of loved ones. And all this she did while she was grieving herself.
Blyth has a gift that can't be learned, and the fact that she's decided to devote herself to helping create space for healing, learning, and spiritual growth in our community is an immense blessing to us all. I wholeheartedly encourage everyone to help make her journey possible.” - Sophie Spinelle, Photographer & Founder of Shameless Photography ♥
Studying**cover photo by Portraits To The People **
Organizer
Blyth Barnow
Organizer
Oakland, CA
