Tracy Simmons

I heard the same quiver in my mother’s voice when she learned she had a gay daughter. She couldn’t reconcile her faith with this kind of motherhood, so she left. I grew up practicing the same faith my mom did, so I understood her abandonment.

Instead of packing his things, Phelgye spent the summer slinging a hammer and renovating a 92-year-old, 3,700- square-foot church building into Spokane’s Buddhist Institute of Universal Compassion.

Although it’s uncomfortable, I face these stories because I worry that if I don’t I’ll become insensate to them. If I truly believe we all exist in relation to each other, then I need to remain tender, not calloused.

Stories are powerful. They have the ability to destroy illicit assumptions and ignite understanding. That’s why I made the decision to become a religion reporter.

I thought I’d tell you about my 15 years as a religion reporter and why I chose this peculiar and remarkable path. And I will, eventually. But on Aug. 28 my grandma died. And now my mind is drowning in grief and angst.

She posts inspirational memes, notes on how people can contribute to area wildfire relief and, recently, reminders about Saturday. That’s when throngs of clergy and parishioners will assemble at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church to install her as the next bishop of the Eastern Washington-Idaho Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Kuempel will be the synod’s first female bishop.

Spokane’s second Sikh temple, Gurdwara Shree Guru Nanak Darbar, opened last month about 5 miles west of an older temple on Barker Road.