Canon Becky Zartman Returning Home 

Opportunities Say Goodbye

Coffee with Becky
Opportunities to visit with Becky in a more intimate setting before she departs:
Thursday, June 8, 11:30 a.m.- 1 p.m., Mellinger Room
Thursday, June 15, 6:30-8 p.m., Mellinger Room

Celebration and Farewell Honoring Canon Zartman
Sunday, June 25, 10-11 a.m., Reynolds Hall

It is customary to provide a Love Offering for a departing priest and if you wish to express your appreciation for Becky’s ministry in this way, you can donate through the church website (choose “love offering” option under “Fund” choices) or send a check payable to Christ Church Cathedral marked as “Becky Zartman Love Offering.” It will be presented to Becky on Sunday, June 25th. Please mail any notes to Becky and checks toward the Love Offering to:

Christ Church Cathedral
ATTN: Louise Langford
1117 Texas Avenue
Houston, TX 77002

At the end of June, I’ll be moving back home to Alexandria, VA, for some really exciting and life-giving work I can’t quite announce yet. But this call means leaving the Cathedral. It’s been a wild ride, and through it all I’ve come to love you fiercely, which means I will miss you fiercely. This place is special, this community is special, all of you here are so, so special. In the fall of 2018 I called Eileen O’Brien for advice about coming here and she said, “You will love them. This is perfect.” As usual, Eileen was right.

My time here has been meaningful in ways I can’t even begin to express. Mostly, though, you have taught me how to preach, teach, and priest, but perhaps more than any of that, you’ve taught me to accept myself in a way I was never able to before. My time here has been transformative, and I am so grateful to you all. Whatever I do and wherever I go, I take the Cathedral with me.

Over the years, many of you have commented on “my” joyfulness. What I want you to know is that “my” joy is not actually mine, it never has been. It’s simply a gift of the Spirit that I was called to bring here and share with you. If you let it, that joy will remain with you. And that’s the secret of joy; you have to let it happen.

Be willing to be foolish, be willing to laugh. Be willing to shriek with delight when you see a baby animal. Be willing to say, “What’s the worst that could happen?” and try it. Then be willing to try again. Be willing to pray for the impossible, and to praise God for the miracles that surround you every day. And then share that joy with others. The world needs it.

I also feel that I have earned the right, by virtue of being a Canon of this Cathedral of the Diocese of Texas, to close with the following: God bless Texas.

Love,
Becky