I interviewed Ruth two weeks ago while she was in town for the Human Rights Campaign Clergy Call for Justice and Equality conference. Ruth lives in Cleveland, Ohio with her partner, Adrienne Brockway, and is the Executive Director of the United Church of Christ's Coalition for LBGT Concerns.

I met Ruth my first year at Union when she was in her third and final year of the M.Div program. At some point after our initial meeting, we realized we graduated from the same high school, Upper Arlington High School in Upper Arlington, Ohio. Ruth's parents still live in Upper Arlington as do my parents. One of my connecting points with Ruth is our critique of Upper Arlington: a place that was once home and a suburban community with strong boundaries of racial and class privilege.

My second year at Union I started my two-year field education placement at Broadway UCC and Ruth was on staff as a parish associate. It was in my two years at Broadway that initially exposed me to Ruth's commitment to a welcoming Church, especially in the ways a church can deconstruct its positions of power around race, gender, orientation, and class.

When Bob and I were planning our wedding, we had the gift of being able to pick our friends as officiants. Bob was very clear that he wanted to have Ruth as one of the officiants because of her welcoming presence in worship. This was a key element of the service for us; we wanted our friends, especially our friends who live without marriage equality, to feel welcome at our service. So Ruth and Anna Olson (soon to be interviewed!) were our two amazing officiants for our wedding at First Congregational Church in Washington, D.C. in 1999. Barbara Gerlach, interview #1, was on staff at First Congregational when we were married and graciously opened the doors of First Congregational for our two friends to officiate.

In the past several years, we've been honored to shelter Ruth when she makes trips to D.C. for lgbt conferences. When she asks to stay with us, I usually have this internal monologue going on, "Ruth remembers we have three kids, right?" But I admire Ruth's appreciation for being in our home where she can be around our kids, see their coming and goings, drop them off at school with us, and observe our family in action.

This past visit, Ruth was our pastor-in-residence when we had to put our dog, Murphy, to sleep. We realized within a period of 24 hours that we had to do the kind thing for Murphy as the tumor on her spleen was creating an internal nightmare. The picture to the right is of Sam and Maddie anointing Murphy the day before we had to put her to sleep. Ruth is on the other side of the room.

Also during this last visit, Ruth was inundated with questions from Ryan. "Why are you here?" "Why are you sleeping in the basement?" "Why is that your suitcase?" Ruth's favorite was, "Why is that your computer?" As I dropped Ruth off at the airport, she said to me, "don't get homicidal." I think she was referring to parenting three kids.

I'm thankful for Ruth for her intensity, her sarcasm, her critical analysis of the Church, and her ever evolving vision of who she is in the midst of many.