Since her childhood on Long Island, Katherine Bauman Griffis has lived in many other parts of the United States including the mountains of Alabama and the mountains and high desert of Colorado and New Mexico.  She is enjoying the prospect of living now in the mountains of the Allegheny Plateau which she studied in eighth grade New York history many years ago.

As a follower of Jesus Christ, Katherine has said “yes” to the call to shepherd, lead, and share in ministry with local congregations as a pastor and to be part of God’s healing work with those who are hurting.  For her, that healing work has focused on three areas. 

She is acquainted with grief, through training in death studies and bereavement; through work as a hospice chaplain, in hospital ministry, and as a pastor; and through journeying with her husband through his five-year struggle with cancer and his recent death.

She has worked and trained in areas of crisis including suicide prevention, domestic violence, and community disasters;  knows how to work with an incident command structure; and earned a certificate in spiritual care in crisis situations.

She is committed to peace building through full-time service with a congregation; through offering her skills and training in community and family situations through restorative justice and trauma healing work; and through connections with peace building efforts in the wake of violent conflict around the globe.  She has a graduate-level Certificate in Peace building from the Center for Justice and Peace building at Eastern Mennonite University and is continuing her studies there.

In all of this, she attempts to stay connected to the Living Vine that is Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit in prayer, scripture, and spiritual reading, and longs for others to know the beauty and music of life lived in breath-by-breath communion with the living God.  She agrees, despite the faulty grammar, with Teilhard de Chardin that “Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God.”

You can contact Pastor Katherine Griffis at:      e-mail kgriffis@presbyhornell.org       office phone 607-324-0755