In this bright, hopeful, and epiphanous account of her experiences at Trinity Episcopal Church in Santa Barbara, California, Nora Gallagher gives a sturdy and stirring testament to her supple and imaginative Christian faith. "I understood that Trinity was where I was meant to muck around, to unlearn habits, to give my life."

Gallagher writes lyrically about her involvement as a regular worker at the soup kitchen, as a member of a Thursday evening base community, as a lay Eucharistic minister, and as a participant in alternative liturgies. As a member of the vestry, she must decide whether or not to call a gay minister to be their new rector.

"Church is both familiar and a foreign planet," writes Gallagher as she ponders the presence of God and the meanings inherent in the seasons of the church year. While walking the labyrinth installed at the church, she senses the movement of her own soul and the inherent joy in being part of something special. "We are living in the intimacy of community carrying the altar of our lives." This excellent spiritual work should find a large audience in Christian book discussion groups.