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Rev. Kristi Denham
Rev. Kristi Denham is pastor of the Congregational Church of Belmont, United Church of Christ, located in Belmont, California. As a solo pastor she works with all sorts of wonderful people and especially loves teenagers. She is passionate about social justice for all people. Her children are bi-racial. She teaches liturgical dance and believes worship should be a celebration of the abundance of God's blessings in our lives, an opportunity to share our strengths, our struggles, our gifts, as well as our questions and doubts. God is still speaking and we are all a part of God's voice for justice, compassion and prayerfully, humility. You can learn more about her church at www.uccbelmont.org You can contact her at revkristi@aol.com

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Always Guided

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

May 12 2008 05:04PM

God has a way of working through coincidences. The Spirit of God, like fire, water, air and earth, is everywhere working to inspire our lives with meaning, with presence, with love. We are never alone. We are always guided.

On Being Grandma

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

May 5 2008 09:13PM

I never expected to be a grandma. It never occurred to me that I might be a link in the chain of life, blessed not only with two wonderful sons, but with their children as well.

Rest for the Weary

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Apr 28 2008 12:02PM

I’m facing my hidden feelings of guilt today in hopes of letting them go, in hopes of acknowledging my humanity and my need for balance.

Depression Can Be Deadly

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Apr 20 2008 06:56PM

A member of my church committed suicide this week. He was a kind man, an ordained minister, who crashed into a clinical depression last fall.

Have You Read the Bible?

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Apr 13 2008 07:42PM

Have you ever actually read the Bible? Cover to cover? From Genesis “In the beginning” to Revelation’s “Amen, come Lord Jesus”?

On the road to Emmaus

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Apr 7 2008 12:46AM

Paul declared that we are now the body of Christ. When the Spirit of the living God was poured out onto all flesh, we became the hands and hearts, eyes and ears and voice of the Christ in our world.

Talking with God

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Mar 31 2008 01:45AM

Have you ever had a conversation with God? I've been talking to God and listening for practical guidance since I was 14, a long, long time ago!

Holy Week meditation

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Mar 24 2008 12:46AM

Do we need to believe in the doctrine of sacrificial atonement, that Christ died for our sins, to explain the power of Jesus' life, teachings, death and resurrection?

Money, money, money, money

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Mar 17 2008 02:00AM

You can learn a lot about a person from his or her checkbook. What do we spend on necessities? On frivolities? On charity? What charities?

Come on, everybody, let's dance!

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Mar 10 2008 12:52AM

Dancing reduces the risk of dementia by 76 percent. The Bible recommends it. Jesus encourages it. Come on, everybody, let's dance!

Oh, he's so gay!

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Mar 3 2008 02:43AM

Larry was an eighth-grader in an Oxnard, Calif., middle school when he asked Brandon to be his Valentine. Brandon killed him.

The rhythm of life

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Feb 25 2008 12:54AM

Listen to the rhythm of your life. In rich detail your sacred beauty unfolds. You are a masterpiece.

Dreaming of death

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Feb 18 2008 01:43AM

I had a lucid dream this week, vivid in every detail. I found myself falling and knew I was about to die.

Stardust

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Feb 11 2008 02:24AM

The Universe is so much more magnificent than our religions can even begin to fathom. And the Universe is just another name for God.

The Lenten journey begins

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Feb 4 2008 02:33AM

Honoring Lent is new to many mainline Protestant churches. But the opportunity to set aside time for renewal and deeper spiritual practice is calling more of us to travel with Jesus into the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights.

Sacred conversations

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Jan 28 2008 02:35AM

Sacred conversations, born of a true commitment to healthy dialogue, are central to the practice of the law of love.

Alligator brain

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Jan 21 2008 12:35AM

My personal spiritual practice involves a variety of disciplines all designed to help me do one thing: develop my peaceful centers of consciousness over and against my alligator brain.

When I get a cold

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Jan 14 2008 12:54AM

I reject the notion that getting sick is in any way my fault, but I do believe 'all things work together for good,' or at least they can.

Practical prayerful new year suggestions

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Jan 7 2008 01:26AM

If you can't argue with God, who can you fight with?

But seriously, folks

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Dec 31 2007 12:40AM

I want my faith to be outrageous and joyful and full of fun. I want to dance in church and sing loud and off-key.

Silence is not a waste of time

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Dec 24 2007 01:56AM

Every time I really observe the Sabbath as a day of rest and silence, I am surprised by the leaps of awareness and perspective that begin to appear. My creative soul is watered and enriched.

Why we love Harry Potter

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Dec 17 2007 12:42AM

J.K. Rowling has said that she hopes her books will teach us tolerance. She has shown us that even the most difficult people may be amazing good spirits. (Part 4 of a series.)

Harry Potter and the war on terror

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Dec 10 2007 02:22AM

As the powers of this world tell us that fear and terror can be conquered through more fear and terror, our Harry Potter story challenges us to use laughter, love and friendship to conquer terror. (Part 3 of a series.)

Harry Potter and the Beatitudes of Jesus

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Dec 3 2007 02:27AM

We can deepen our faith through reading and understanding the Harry Potter books. The Beatitudes of Jesus and the adventures of Harry both emphasize choices. (Part 2 of a series.)

The boy who lived

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Nov 26 2007 02:07AM

Harry Potter, witches and wizards have no place in the church, right? Having created a four-part sermon series on the books, I obviously don't think so! (Part 1 of a series.)

Out of the slow cooker and into the fire

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Nov 19 2007 12:19AM

Leaving my husband of three years and opening my life to new adventures took me out of the slow cooker into the fire. I would need some 10 years to really figure that out.

Catholic guilt and its consequences

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Nov 12 2007 12:45AM

Sister Nicholas asked, "When are you going to marry that nice young man you live with?" Having fully embraced the finer aspects of Catholic guilt at this point, I knew what I must do.

Dark night of the soul revisited

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Nov 5 2007 12:22AM

I went to my first confession. It was horrible. Every sin I confessed, the priest restated as bigger and worse than I had imagined.

Catholicism calls me

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Oct 29 2007 02:15AM

The ancient roots of the church universal called me. I studied the medieval mystics and researched the theme of incarnation in T.S. Eliot's 'Four Quartets.' Was I ready to convert to Roman Catholicism?

A tree planted by streams of water

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Oct 22 2007 02:12AM

The image of many streams has been used by religious writers to express the gifts found in many different faith traditions. From these many streams we receive many blessings.

Meltdown

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Oct 15 2007 01:14AM

They called me a Jezebel and read me passages from the Book of Revelations about 'the daughter of Satan.' I was shunned.

Shadows in the Crusade

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Oct 8 2007 01:06AM

The belief that non-believers will go to hell justifies almost anything. (Part 9 of a series.)

The Crash

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Oct 1 2007 01:51AM

I was spitting out glass, counting my teeth, taking inventory of my body. I sensed that there was damage to five bones.

When I was born again

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Sep 24 2007 01:18AM

My tears felt like a healing baptism coming from the inside out. I awoke the next morning feeling born again.

God and LSD

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Sep 17 2007 12:23AM

In the '60s God was able to use even a dangerous drug like LSD to draw me forward on my journey through the dark woods. (Part 6 of a series.)

Out of the frying pan into the fire

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Sep 10 2007 12:54AM

Living with my father didn't remove me from the adolescent temptations that my mother had condemned. (Part 5 of a series.)

The burning time

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Sep 3 2007 12:43AM

I was forced to leave behind the journal I kept from age 12 to 17. I never saw it again. I was told, months later, that my stepfather had burned it. My life, my poetry, my adolescent traumas were deemed worthy of the fires. (Part 4 of a series.)

I cried out and God answered

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Aug 27 2007 12:47AM

When did God, or the awareness of a higher power or a significant meaning, break upon your day-to-day awareness? I was 15 and in the throes of adolescent despair and suicidal angst. (Part 3 of a series.)

Into the darkness came an angel

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Aug 20 2007 01:56AM

The dark woods of our lives carry painful memories - times we would just as soon forget. They also contain the rich fertilizer that helped us grow to be the adults we are today. (Part 2 of a series.)

The dark woods

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Aug 13 2007 12:47AM

The time in life that is plagued by demons and hormonal adolescent chaos is not easy to revisit or remember with clarity. To do so requires courage or demented self-obsession. Why do I choose to do it now? (Part 1 of a series.)

Mapping a life

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Aug 6 2007 02:05AM

Each of us is drawing a life map with every breath, every choice we make. Is your path now a gentle one, or hard? Do you feel prepared? Thankful? Inspired? Or overwhelmed and desperate? Needy?

Playing Peter Pan!

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Jul 30 2007 01:25AM

I liked playing Peter Pan. Magic was everywhere. Our playfulness inspired courage and friendships. Imagination strengthened our minds and allowed us to explore and grow.

Mommy, I want to dance!

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Jul 23 2007 02:22AM

Dancing has saved my life - literally, as well as emotionally and spiritually. Being an embodied human being, always aware of the space I inhabit, has helped me to protect myself in harrowing circumstances.

The gift of denial

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Jul 16 2007 02:07AM

Sometimes life gives us too much information too soon. Reality threatens to completely overwhelm us. At times like these God gives the gift of denial.

Grandma Hill

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Jul 9 2007 02:34AM

Grandma's unconditional love gave me courage in the face of whatever life brought my way. It was not complicated by expectations or demands. She just loved me.

Map your spiritual journey

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Jul 2 2007 01:01AM

When did you first realize you were not alone in the universe; that a mystery, a presence, a spirit of deep compassion was longing to guide and inspire you? (First of a series)

Jesus Freak flashback

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Jun 25 2007 12:58AM

I was against the Vietnam War and the military industrial complex. Forty years later I'm against the War in Iraq and the dangers of Halliburton.

But seriously, folks

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Jun 18 2007 01:58AM

I want my faith to be outrageous and joyful and full of fun. I want to dance in church and sing loud and off-key.

I choose love

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Jun 11 2007 12:53AM

Responding to the unknown with love sets me free from anxiety and allows me to discover the wonder, the joy, the awe that are available in every moment.

Whales of wonder

Column: Woman at the Well

Rev. Kristi Denham

Jun 4 2007 01:59AM

The story of Delta and Dawn, the mother and child of another species who filled our airwaves with their struggle, their need, their healing, their celebration and farewell, was followed by people everywhere on our planet.

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