Reverend Katie Snipes Lancaster: The Embodied Shape of Grief
“Grief is tactile. It is beyond words and yet bodily—never disconnected from the earth.”
Chapter Summary:
In The Embodied Shape of Grief, Reverend Katie Snipes Lancaster explores how grief lives in the body—aching, restless, and wordless. Through reflections on theologian Serene Jones and poets like Joy Katz and Wendell Berry, she illustrates that healing doesn’t arrive with clarity or resolution, but through slow, grounded movement. Walking, singing, praying, remembering—all become physical acts of survival and restoration. With lyrical insight, she shows that grief is not something to escape, but something to be carried, bodily, through a world that still holds beauty and meaning. Healing, if it comes, happens in the midst of things.
About Reverend Katie Snipes Lancaster:
Katie Snipes Lancaster is a Presbyterian (U.S.A.) pastor and writer. She finds time to write in the string of silence just before dawn, where language and spirit converge.