Random information in no particular order 😊

Name: Helen Ryde

Pronouns: they/them

Job: Since 2012 I have worked as an Organizer for Reconciling Ministries Network (RMN)

Previous work/education: I've been a Vice President of a global financial services company and a special needs teacher. I graduated in post-graduate secondary education from Canterbury Christ Church University, Kent, England.

England you say? How come you live in the U.S.? I fell in love with the United States in 1983 when I visited New Jersey and Virginia for a field hockey tour with my high school. It took a while, but in 1998 I finally managed to find a way to come and work here on a temporary visa, which led to another visa, then eventually a Green Card and now I am a U.S. citizen.

Mrs Lovely: My love ❤️ Kate, together for 24 years, married for 10, couldn’t do any of this without her.

Faith journey: I was christened and confirmed into the Church of England, had a full immersion baptism in my early twenties during 15 happy years in non-denominational charismatic churches in the UK (mostly London and Canterbury). Eventually the whole being gay thing was too tricky to navigate - they didn’t want me to be gay, I tried very hard not to be, it didn’t work! Eventually I moved to Massachusetts in 1998, met Mrs. Lovely (see above 😍) in 1999, and re-found a spiritual home at Provincetown United Methodist Church in 2004.

In May 2016, at General Conference I was consecrated a Home Missionser in the Order of Deaconess and Home Missioner.

NOTE: this is my personal blog, and reflects my own thoughts, not those of my employer Reconciling Ministries Network.