Have you ever felt slightly nervous, maybe just a low-level anxiety, that makes your shoulders tight? And a little bit of tension in your neck but you’re not even sure why? Looking back, that’s how guest Reverend Sherri Ginand now realizes she felt prior to finding deep connection in a community. 

Then one day she knew she belonged. “My body could relax; my soul could relax”. She knew she had found her place and could now be herself and not be guarded any longer.

That is the beauty of finding a loving community, you are accepted as you are. 

Hearing Rev. Sherri tell her story will inspire you to keep going if you haven’t found that one place for you yet. She is full of ideas on how to connect both in community and with your God and your Self. She knows how it feels to not belong, she’s been the outcast and had to try, or at least pretend, to fit in, so now she shares on getting to the other side of that. 

In this episode you’ll learn: 

• ~Rev. Sherri’s tips to start feeling the self-love she now has 
• ~Why community is so important and ways to find yours 
• ~This episode’s personal, life-changing, spiritual connection exercise 

About Rev. Sherri:

Rev. Sherri grew up in a small town in New England. After graduating from college she worked for the Lutheran Church as a Youth Ministry consultant. Although she felt a call to a vocation in ministry at an early age, it wasn’t until a friend introduced her to a Science of Mind and Spirit community many years later that this calling was reawakened.

After graduating from the Holmes Institute with a Masters in Consciousness Studies, Rev. Sherri is now a licensed staff minister at Universal Spirit Center in San Diego. There she serves two special populations, pets and their human companions, and the elderly.

She shares her home with her wife Gail, of 25 years, and two cats. Sherri loves music and has sung in choruses all her life. She also enjoys word games and was recently introduced to the number puzzle, Sudoku (She says she’s hooked!).

A statement of Rev. Sherri’s higher purpose in life was crafted during one of her ministerial classes and still holds true. She states, “My noble purpose is to compassionately share the teachings of Religious Science so that others may experience love and unity with God, and gain tools to lead meaningful and joy-filled lives.”

Universal Spirit Center

World Ministry of Prayer

Welcome to the Connectedness Podcast.

Just as you might have guessed, I talk about connection in this

podcast, our connection with everything in the world around us.

We're connected, whether we see it or not.

Whether it's your connection with your dog and your cat.

Or your connection with your God.

Also, I talk about things that are more abstract, like your connections with your

career or your land, your community, your family, your emotions, your body Life

is truly all about connections, and the sooner we recognize this, the sooner we

get to have an easier, more enjoyable.

I'm gonna talk about these connections through different lenses, but things

like synchronicities and coincidences, or everyday little bits of magic or

miracles that we tend to dismiss, it's important we pay attention to

all of this to help us, like I said, live and easier, more satisfying life.

So welcome to the show.

I'm your host, Reverend Care in Cleveland.

If I asked you if your soul was able to breathe deeply and

freely, what would you say?

This is metaphorical, of course, our soul breathing, but what I mean is,

are you living in a way that feels like you are complete alignment

with what your soul wants you to be?

Maybe you don't call it a soul, I call it my soul, but maybe you call it God

or Jesus, or fate, or your highest good, or your purpose, or your divine wisdom.

What I'm getting at is are you living in a way that you feel good about yourself?

At the end of the day, the thing that makes you say, Yes, I feel good

about the decisions I made today.

Yes, I feel good about my behavior today.

Yes, I acted in complete alignment with my values today.

Now I ask you this because sometimes we don't even know that we're walking around

in some kind of a tense or anxious state.

It's such a low level of anxiety.

You know, maybe your shoulders are a little bit tight.

Maybe there's a little bit of like tense nerves in the pit of your stomach,

or you're guarding your heart, you're protecting your heart a little bit, and

it's not until you find that connection with something that you feel like

you can take a deep breath and relax.

Today on our guest episode, I am talking with Reverend Jerry Gand, and she talks

about her connection with community, her connection with connection even,

and what it has meant to her and where it has taken her in her life.

You know, we don't always even know how we are walking

around, not in a relaxed state.

And Reverend Sherry talks a little bit about this.

She's also going to give you some, some tips, some hints that.

If you find yourself wanting to connect in a different way with yourself or

your God or your community, she's gonna give you a few ways to do that.

Here is my conversation with Reverend Sherry.

I wanna welcome today on the show I have Reverend Jerry Gand.

She is a minister at Universal Spirit Center in San Diego, California.

She is with the same centers for Spiritual Living that I am a minister with.

Reverend Sherry is gonna tell us a story about her connection with the community.

Welcome Reverend Sherry.

Hi.

Thank you Reverend Karen.

And hello all.

You beautiful ones out there listening in.

Yeah.

This is exciting to talk about connections cuz that's what it's all about, right?

It is.

If we're not connected, then we're disconnected.

And that is a lonely place to be.

Yeah.

It is a lonely place to be.

And that's kind of what this is all about, is if feel like we're not connected, you

know, we're in the teaching, that we know that that's not necessarily the truth.

But it feels like it.

And we might feel alone.

We might feel unhappy, all kinds of stuff.

But anyhow, I'm dying to hear, hear your story, how your story

of this particular connection starts or, or how this story goes.

Absolutely.

Thanks for inviting me on.

So some people connect with, you know, individuals or memory or a place, but I

thought I'd share about my connection.

With a whole community of people different as that may sound, and

I'm gonna back up a little bit and just tell a little history about me.

I'm one of those people, I guess, who would call a spiritual seeker

spiritual in the sense that I was seeking connection with that.

Greater higher power I call God or Spirit.

And so I did what's known as church shopping.

You know, I grew up in one faith.

Oh yes.

And then I, I, at college, I went to the chapel there and

I, no, that wasn't quite it.

It was nice while it was there.

So I just tried to find connections with all these different flavors of

religions and denominations, and none of them were quite the right fit for.

One day, a good friend of mine that I knew through music, she said, Sherry, you

like music and you like spiritual stuff.

Why don't you come over to my place?

It's a Wednesday night and I think you'll like the music and the people.

And so I did.

It took me a couple weeks, but I finally went.

And oh my gosh, the young man that was speaking there, he spoke my language.

He spoke about our connection, about our connection with the divine and that it

doesn't have to be this highfalutin thing.

It can be real personal.

And loving not the connection of the God of my youth, which was very

demanding, authoritative, kind of critical and judgemental, right?

Uh, punishing.

It was none of that.

And also the music I, if I remember, it was just very simple.

It was just a keyboardist and someone who had just a lovely

voice and just sang very.

Heartfelt songs about the love of earth and each other of

all people and of the divine.

How beautiful.

Yeah.

And so I fell in love.

I said this, this has been said quite often, people in our

group say, I found my tribe.

You know that group of people that thinks the same way, speaks the same way.

And just automatically seems to know my heart before I even know it.

Yes.

So tell me, was it that night, that Wednesday when you walked in,

was it another day that you were in there and you really felt like.

This is it.

Yes.

So it was a, a, a process.

So even though I had that, wow, that just very heartfelt and spiritual experience.

Luminous is a fancy word for it.

. Yeah.

And so I said, Okay, that was pretty sweet.

Let me come another week.

So I think I went to maybe 10 of those services.

And finally somebody said to me, Well, since you like this smaller.

But you seem like someone who would, who likes people too, and a group of people.

Why don't you come on Sunday morning where we have our, our, our big service?

So I said, Oh, okay.

I, I dragged my feet for a little while, but I went . And in the message when

the minister, who was the founding minister, I'll say his name, Reverend

Kevin Busey, got up there and spoke.

I just started crying.

Well, first tears started seeping outta my eyes.

Now I don't remember exactly what he was talking about, but I know he was talking

about the connection of my soul, my heart.

With the divine.

That's not predicated.

It's not based on anything that I, I can't do that I can't think of.

It was just loving and automatic, just like a parent would love a child.

They love 'em no matter what they do.

Right.

Wow.

So I started attending on Sundays regularly for that whole year.

I think I cried every service.

Not bawling, but just the tears, you know?

Have you ever had those joy tears?

And, uh, and I called them.

I started calling 'em truth tears.

My eyes leaked a lot.

. Wow, that's amazing.

Every Sunday.

They, Every Sunday.

So tell me, what was it that sent you church shopping in the first place and.

What was it then that you were finding with those tears of joy?

I think it was a combination of things in the church I grew up in and, and some

of the other places I went to the message that you're broken, your spirit is broken,

your behavior is broken, you need fixing.

Mm-hmm.

. And there was just something inside of me that said, God, don't make no jump.

How can this all powerful, loving essence and being.

Just make something that doesn't work right.

And I have to, we have to go through all these hoops and, you know, prayer

or ab ablutions, that's like rituals and things you need to do to purify yourself.

Now, I'm not, again, I love ritual.

Don't get me wrong, . It helps.

Yeah, it helps tell my, my conscious and my subconscious to like, calm down,

open up, be open or receiving spirit.

Right?

So, so some of that, it was the kind of the negativity part.

Now, did I like the music and the formula of it?

Like on a Sunday, the, the, the songs in the, I grew up in the Lutheran church

and it was the same service every Sunday except to plug in different music.

And there's a different message from the minister, but it was the same format.

So that part was comforting, but it was a little stiff and a little boring for me.

So that sent me searching.

Okay.

Another important thing, as I'd say it was probably in college and I was developing

my feminist, uh, kind of view of things.

I was like, Well, you know, it's not all just about the guys, nothing about, I

love men , nothing about the bad about the guys, but like, does God have to be a guy?

I don't.

Think so.

God is, for me, God was non-gender, you know, God was

bigger than, than the human form.

Right.

And also that, you know, the women in, in the churches, the old churches

I went to, there was a hierarchy.

There was absolutely, you know, anybody who was a president,

the deacons, they were all men.

And us women had to be like the servants and that.

That just rubbed me the wrong way.

Right?

God is male.

The hierarchy of women being seen less, less than.

And so what I would do is if I was, I was in the choir,

you know, I was very involved.

I started inserting words.

I started, you know, inserting, uh, like in the Lord's Prayer instead

of our Father who Art in Heaven.

Oh, my creator who is in heaven.

You are a rebel, aren't you?

Uh, yeah, but I was under my breath . Yeah.

And sometimes they would say to, Ah, man, I would go a

woman . I was a bit of a stinker.

So you I was still in my twenties . Right, right.

Well, good for you from recognizing that.

Now I wanna kind of take a step back and just say if for you, uh, the

image of the divine as masculine or as a father figure all power to you.

There are many paths to the divine to God, and we each have our, our

vision that just helps us to connect.

Mm-hmm.

Absolutely.

What, whatever works for us, but knowing that it, we don't have to

subscribe to someone else's idea.

I'll also let you know after college thinking, I, I, I had a

calling, as they call it, a call to the vocation of ministry.

Mm-hmm.

, and I was still affiliated with the Lutheran church.

I served a year as a youth.

Youth minister was called Youth Staffer, and I traveled around New England.

That was the territory that I had and helped other churches

with the youth ministry program.

At that time, there were only two women, at least in New England who had become

ministers in the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and I was thinking becoming a

third, but working and seeing all these different churches and how they were set

up and everything, I just didn't see a fit there for me as a woman minister.

Which is sad.

I probably could have made it, but I wasn't mature enough quite

yet, even though I was a bit of a rebel with I, I wasn't quite mature

enough, confident enough myself to be a 4runner in that sense.

So it took another 20 years till I found a place that honored men and

women equally talked about the divine, mostly in neutral language, and just

felt like that's the place for me.

Wonderful.

Each Sunday if I didn't sneak out from the back row first.

But as I stayed longer and kind of observed the people afterwards, and

so I started meeting some people.

And I found that, well, it wasn't just the minister and the choir

director, but the people there were also open and friendly and.

Talking their, their talk talk, walking their talk.

There we go.

Walking their talk.

Right.

Of openness, of loving new people.

Now I'll share right here on the airwaves, I'm a lesbian, right?

I'm gay . Mm-hmm.

. And in a lot of religious communities, that's you're, you're seen as less than.

Exactly.

So I had couple, couple strikes get me in, in my older communi.

Right.

Oh, and also I had turned vegan, so here I was, uh, white,

lesbian, female, uh, vegan, not following traditional religions.

So I just, I was seen as kind of this, wow, this oddball but spiritual center.

They're like, Well, welcome to the club.

You know, we're all shapes and sizes.

We've got feathers of every color and kind here, and we'd love you just

for who you are as long as you're open hearted and, and mindful, right.

And sharing.

So how did that feel?

So what did that mean for you, knowing that you were accepted in this

community, that you had been going to.

And you liked, there was probably part of you on the edge a little bit, wondering if

it was all gonna play out like you hoped, I imagine because of previous experiences.

How did you know what, what happened that you knew you were in the right place?

Yeah.

Great question Karen.

Thank you.

Well, a couple things.

So I don't remember who I first told that I was gay.

It's probably when I'd made a comment something like,

Well, yes, I and my wife and.

Oh, well, yeah, me and my partner, we've been together 15

years and we just love it here.

And we got talking, so there was just that like, Oh yeah, no big deal.

Yeah, that's part of it.

Yeah.

Uh, Other, and, Oh, you asked me how it made me feel.

Yeah.

It just, it was like my shoulders had been scrunched up to my ears and

tension prior, and I just, you know, my, my spirit, my soul could just take

a breath, my shoulders could relax.

Mm-hmm.

, my body could relax my, my soul could relax.

I could start feeling instead of tension, I could feel a warmth and expansion.

Nice.

Um, you know, and, and somebody very smart right away said, Hey,

why don't you join our beginner's class that talks about our faith?

It might be a little different than what you grew up with.

I said, Oh, that just sounds like a good idea.

So, being a lifelong learner and a curious, I wanted to see, So how does

this thing called science of mind weird?

We weird.

Right.

Science.

I was a biology major, by the way, in undergrad and, and mine.

What do they mean by mind?

Are they talking about psychology?

Are they talking about consciousness?

Right?

What is that?

So, yes, I, I went to that class and it was another step into coming into

community cuz we talked about deep stuff.

It was our deep sharing of ourselves.

You know, I had never felt a, an honest.

And, uh, what does Brene Brown say?

Vulnerable sharing.

Mm-hmm.

. Mm-hmm.

without blame.

Or shame as with that group.

And so that initial group of 12 became my, uh, my support group

and kind of my little cluster.

So on Sunday morning when I walked into this big room, um, I could

go, Oh, hey, I know Bob or, or, or Jamal or Right who, whoever.

Right.

Um, so that's, it's very relaxing and freeing to feel that way, isn't it?

Yeah.

So how has it changed your life?

What's different in your life?

So I've got three little initials in front of my name now.

R E v abbreviation for Reverend Rev.

Rev, Sherry.

I had mentioned earlier that I had thought of becoming a

minister for the Lutheran Church.

Mm-hmm.

. And when I went to this class and started talk about talking about these

things that mattered to me with people, that it also mattered in ways that

the language that I could understand that wasn't all highfalutin about.

Absolution and confession of sins and, and whatever language we use in church.

Right.

Um, that I said it awoke my desire to that calling to ministry against it.

Okay?

I'm a little older now.

When we're confident, more mature, I've, I've, I've seen a lot of different, uh,

styles and folks and ways of living.

This is a broader thing.

I can say yes to this now.

So my journey was, and I continued to unfold, to evolve.

If you might say, and went through the classes.

There's quite, there, there are seven years of preparation.

Become a minister with science and mind.

It's, It's like going for multiple PhDs.

Yeah.

. But in terms of the, The intensity, not my, Yeah.

So I took classes at my local church or center and then I enrolled

in what is in some places called seminary or ministerial school.

Mm-hmm.

And silly me in my fifties.

I also decided to go for a master's degree in consciousness studies.

Talk about that in a moment.

So, uh, that was three and a half years and graduated this past June.

Got my license and am now.

Um, working at my, my Home Center, Universal Spirit Center

as a staff minister and working with the founder of that church.

And also one of my classmates is also a staff minister.

Nice.

So, grew from one to three.

Nice.

That's fabulous.

And congratulations.

That's that's wonderful.

Very good.

Not to put you on the spot, but if someone out there wants to know, Well,

what can I do right now to start feeling this, this love that, something that you

felt or what, what could I start doing?

Do you have any ideas what, what someone could do to start on this path of.

Self love and self discovery from God.

Absolutely.

This is what I love.

You know, I said I'm here to serve and to bring God's love tools for

finding and re reconnecting with.

Mm-hmm.

, God's love.

So those of you out there, you're listening to this

now, that's a great step.

You know, hearing lots of different voices talk about connection.

One of the things that is wonderful, if you're a person who has, who loves

prayer, maybe you've never prayed before, you might go check in your

browser and look at, um, world.

Oh, you might have to help me, Karen.

I just went on my, on my brain World Ministry of Prayer, Ministry of

Prayer, I wanted to say Service World.

Ministry of Prayer.

And, uh, a licensed, trained person or prayer will, will do a prayer with you.

Mm-hmm.

that can open up now.

Praying is not your thing.

Then I invite you to, uh, find what's called a new thought center.

New thought is that idea that God isn't just the big dude in the

sky or out there, but God is in me and you and in all of creation.

It's eternal.

It's powerful.

It works in a certain way, but it's also love.

So if you can find a community, if you have.

You know, you can go online, you can go to centers for spiritual living.org

org and see if there's one near you.

And there's also services broadcast online.

That's kind of outward things, you know, finding another group.

Yeah, like, like for me it was saying, Oh, I'm not crazy.

Well, I am, you know, there's other people out there who are seeking the same kind

of love and, and connection with others.

Who are also loving and feel a calling on the earth, but you can also just

in the privacy of your own home or whatever's a safe place for you, maybe

it's walking in nature and just get still and, uh, some call it contemplation.

It might be meditation.

And just take a few deep breaths and just say, I don't know what, I

don't know what this is about, but I.

I'm just opening my heart to something that is greater than I am, that I

know is love and loves me no matter what that I'm the beloved one of that.

And there's also wonderful books out there.

Yeah.

Um, one of my favorite ones is this thing called you mm-hmm.

. Yes.

This thing called you by Ernest Holmes.

He's the founder of Science of Mind and Spirit back about 90

years ago, and it just talks.

These things that we've been talking about and I just want to mention,

I'll have links on my show notes so you can go to the website that I'll

talk about at the end of the show and there'll be links to the books and, and

links to Sherry center and links for, actually Sherry has some prayer support

that I'll put the link into as well.

And I, I wanted to touch back because you mentioned something

about your masters of Consciousness.

Oh, thank.

Is there something you wanna add about.

Yes.

So I had to learn what consciousness was.

It's kind of funny, I, I took the Masters in consciousness, course of studies, not

really knowing what it was, but it was the master that was offered that went

with the license, with the ministry.

So it may seem kind of silly, some of you may be old hands.

At meditation and consciousness.

So consciousness, let's just kind of do that real quickly.

It's more than just what your brain thinks it is that higher way of

perceiving things that's kind of cosmic or universal, at least how I define it.

There are many studies, even science is starting to move toward the more spiritual

side of things in that they're saying, you know, in quantum physics, At the quantum

level that things come into existence by some consciousness, by some thinking, by

some observer, thinking them into being.

Well, isn't that like for those of you who are Bible based, God spoke the word,

and you know, six days, you know the heavens, the earth, the stars, the sun

came into being God thought into being.

So consciousness is an awareness.

So we have a consciousness on the human.

Of our behaviors and outer things.

There's a consciousness of our inner self or some call it the subconscious.

Mm-hmm.

. And there's the consciousness.

That's the big, broad awareness of connectivity.

Oh, and that's what I wanted to say about community and connection.

So much is going on in the world right now.

I might date this show, but , you know, the Ukraine and Russia or in

South Africa, even in our own streets, in our own cities here in the us.

This idea that this individualism, mm-hmm.

, don't get me wrong, being unique.

You know, I said earlier on, I've certainly got my uniqueness,

but that we're all separate, you know, and that's what all.

Angst and violence and words about cuz we just feel like, you know, nobody else

can help me and nobody loves me and I'm just a piece of the trash science of

mind and spirit and many other faith paths say no despite appearances.

We're all connected because we're part of that spiritual family.

It may be hard to accept that in your life, particularly if you've

had a pretty, pretty tough life.

Many of us had have had tough childhoods.

Ch tough be tough beginnings.

Yeah.

But there is a love out there and if you can have someone that you know, community

like I found to reflect that back to you, until you can accept that and believe

it, uh, it's just the most wonderful thing to know that all is connect.

We're connected to the divine.

We call it unity.

We call it oneness, togetherness.

That doesn't mean we're all the same, right?

Diversity is beautiful, but we're all connected in community,

and it's refreshing and freeing to know that because.

There can't be any mistake.

We're all one.

We're all connected.

There's give and take on all ends, but we all come out as one.

I think it's a very important concept that a lot of people don't understand

and it causes a lot of strife to not understand it, to not feel it,

to not live it, to not know it.

So thank you for bringing that up.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Uh, Reverend Sherry, I really appreciate having you and your story on this show.

Very inspiring, and, and I can feel your, your passion and your heartfelt

behind, you know, everything that's developed in your life and a great

appreciation for, for what has happened.

So very, very lovely.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you, Reverend Kevin.

And I'll just say that I am so.

For you, for all you out there and for that greater presence that

showed me that love is possible no matter how unique I am.

Beautiful.

Thank you.

If you enjoyed the show, don't forget to head over to rev karen podcast.com.

That's R E V K A R E N podcast.com.

There you're gonna find the tools for finding more meaning

and happiness in your own life.

Plus, if you have a story that you want to share with me, either on or

off the air, be sure to look for that.

Make sure you follow me so you get notified when new episodes drop.

And also I'd love to connect with you in my Facebook group,

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So head over to rev, karen podcast.com.