Barbara Limandri

A friend invited me to attend services at Trinity in 2016, and it was a warm, friendly, and genuinely spiritual experience. As a recovering Catholic, I had spent over 15 years searching for a spiritual home and settled on a Buddhist practice, although I missed the ritual and pomp. Attending Catechesis (twice!) helped me understand what it means to be an Episcopalian and convinced me that this is where I belong. I still struggle with some beliefs, but the clergy allayed my worries – and I feel accepted, even as I cross my fingers during the Nicene Creed! ​ I was raised as a Catholic, attended Catholic schools, and even earned a graduate degree at the Catholic University of America. As I came out as a lesbian, I felt the strong rejection by clergy. It was intensely discouraging and made me hesitant to commit to other traditional religions – a feeling I could immediately set aside when I came to Trinity.

I grew up in Virginia and wandered first to Richmond for my bachelor’s degree in nursing, to Washington, DC, for my master’s degree, to West Virginia for teaching, and finally to California to for a PhD in nursing. Over the course of my career, I have taught nursing and have maintained a practice as a psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner. In my clinical experience, I have been most concerned about those with severe mental illness, and even though I have been retired for about 4 years, I maintain that commitment by helping our house-challenged neighbors with Trinity Outreach. I appreciate that Trinity Cathedral manifests “love thy neighbor” in such a substantive manner.