Remembering Ginger Kaney

The eulogies for Ginger Kaney at the amazing memorial service at Druid Hills UMC on October 12 were full of place names. Read them slowly: Kirkwood, Reynoldstown, the Pittsburgh neighborhood, Clarkston, East Atlanta, City Hall, the State Capital, sweet Auburn Avenue, Buford Highway, Wesley Community Center, East Lake, DeKalb County Jail, Metro State Correctional Facility for Women.

Did you read slowly enough? The list is almost too much to take in – and it includes only Metro Atlanta locations. Now add these: the U.S.-Mexico border, Nicaragua, Cuba.

In each of those places Ginger opened the eyes of her fellow travelers. Most often these were students at Presbyterian or United Methodist seminaries, who, like many of us, had trouble seeing beyond the bubble of their comfort zone. She demanded, gently, that they pay attention. There was always “a soft reminder that among those in the city were the poor, the sick, the visitors in our midst, and those in prison, whom Jesus would have us serve,” said Harvey Newman.

He spoke of two trips that Ginger led: “The first January we worked together (2003), we took a group of students on an incredible trip through Atlanta. It was a journey that led from the soft leather chairs of the boardrooms of powerful business leaders to hard folding chairs listening to those who were homeless and those trying to overcome addictions.

“I never thought we would top that experience. But somehow, the next January was even better. That year where we went became less important than the spiritual growth we felt as a group—all shaped by Ginger’s guiding hands, her deep faith, and her spiritual gifts. That group of students was sorry for the other students who went to Europe, Mexico, or Jamaica.”

David Jenkins said she was the best travel agent the church could ever have. He accompanied her on her last trip, in January. They took students to the U.S.-Mexico border, walked with them through the Mexican desert on a path littered with water bottles, empty cans, and grave markers. “Because we were paying attention to real people - we ate at their tables and slept on their floors - we also saw God’s beautiful presence in local communities: graceful, prophetic, powerful, undeterred, organized, visionary.”

Seeing God in all their faces, all our faces . . . Mary Logan and Wayne Williams also spoke of Ginger’s unique ways of seeing. Williams said, “It wasn’t in some quiet contemplative solitary space that Ginger most clearly saw God. It was always, for her, in the faces of those around her; she so believed in that God in us that we began to believe it, too. . . She received us with such graciousness, so completely, with so little judgment, that we would begin to believe that we were indeed graced, forgiven, accepted and cherished. . . . I truly think there was no one she was intimidated by or afraid of. No matter how powerful or powerless, no matter how rich or poor, no matter how sick or healthy. She embraced us all equally. She delighted in us and treasured us one and all.”

Mary Logan said, “If I could pass out little hand mirrors at this moment, I would ask you to hold them up to your own face. . . At this moment, look at yourself deeply, not with the usual critical eye, but really look at how your face became the face of Christ to her; your face, the face of delight to her.” And isn’t this the corollary, to learn how to see others in that that same way?

David Jenkins told a story that Ginger would have loved; here’s part of it: “I suspect that Ginger is still paying attention to the world. Can’t you picture St. Peter ushering her through the pearly gates?

“‘Welcome, Ginger,’ St. Peter says. ‘Welcome to heaven. Let me introduce you to the angels and archangels.’

“And Ginger replies, ‘Angels. Archangels. That’s not working for me. This kind of hierarchy is not good for community. How are we going to intercede in the earthly power structures with an organizational chart that looks like this? Doesn’t God cast down the mighty from their thrones and lift up the lowly? Have you been paying any attention to what’s still going on in Central and South America? What have you been doing since Katrina hit the Gulf coast?’

“‘Well, Ginger,” a sheepish St. Peter begs, ‘please, at least first come with me to feast at that heavenly banquet with Abraham and Sarah, Mary and Joseph, all the prophets, apostles, martyrs and saints.’

“And Ginger replies, ‘I want to see the menu and then the guest list. I’m not crazy about salmon and I doubt if you’ve set enough places. I’ll have a number of people to add to your list. And Peter, have you paid attention to who on earth will be hungry while we’re feasting at this heavenly banquet? Who keeps getting left out, left off, and really left behind?’

“‘Regarding the seating: Peter, people who died of AIDS and former prostitutes, people still on parole and those former homeless addicts will sit at the head of the table.

“‘Tell the seraphim and cherubim they’ll be sitting at the children’s table. And instead of the praise music we’d like something we can dance to.

“‘Peter, pay attention.’”

Pay attention, indeed. Thanks, Ginger, for helping open our eyes.

– by Jean Wynn, with much help

Ginger had worked with Faith And The City for the past several years, serving most recently as Director of the Faith And The City Program at Columbia Theological Seminary and previously as Associate Director of the Faith And The Program at Candler School of Theology.