Stories that Open Space: Women Who Walked Ahead
Every year on January 8, the Episcopal Church remembers Harriet Bedell. A deaconess whose life reads like a map of holy courage. She walked ahead, often far ahead, into places where others hesitated, creating space for dignity, healing, and hope. Before her death in 1969, her ministry stretched from the Alaskan tundra to the Florida Everglades (making her one of the church’s holy women I can personally relate to because both places are dear to me in my own life), connected by the simple, yet unmistakeable thread of: believing that every person bears the image for the Divine and living as though that truth demands something of her.
Bedell’s feast day arrives at a tender moment in the year: when the light in the Northern Hemisphere is still thin and when many of us are discerning the kind of life we want to live in the year ahead. It’s a fitting time to remember a woman who refused to let fear, scarcity or convention determine the shape of her calling (note that she held the title of deaconess which was the only role available to women in the male-dominated church until the Philadelphia Eleven and the formal acceptance of the ordination of women in 1979). She stepped into the unknown again and again, trusting that God’s grace would meet her there.
A Life that Made Room
Harriett Bedell was formed by the quiet, steady work of presence. As a young woman, she trained as a teacher and nurse before becoming a deaconess in the Episcopal Church. Her vocation took her first to the Cheyenne people in Oklahoma (which DioNeb will be visiting as part of our Sacred Ground pilgrimage during the summer of 2026), then to the remote First Nations communities of Alaska, and later to the Seminole and Mikasuki peoples indigenous to southern Florida.
Wherever she went, she listened first.
She learned the languages of the Native American and First Nations peoples. She honored the traditions of their communities. She advocated fiercely for economic and social justice, helping indigenous artisans preserve their art and receive both compensation and acknowledgement. She created space and widened the world by centering the people she served rather than herself.
Her ministry was not glamorous. It was not tidy. It was not easy. It was faith-full, resilient, and deeply relational. Bedell’s life reminds us that the sacred and God are often found in long devotion, and the discipline of showing up, paying attention and loving people as they are.
Walking Ahead with Courage
One of the most striking things about Bedell is how she kept beginning again. When the Great Depression forced the closure of her mission in Alaska, she did not retreat into disappointment or wallow in failure. She discerned where she was needed and followed that call to Florida, where she spent the rest of her life walking alongside the Seminole and Mikasuki communities.
She walked ahead. She didn’t walk recklessly but instead was ground in faith that believed the future God plans for us is always bigger than our fears.
Her feast day encourages each of us to consider where we, too, are being invited to walk ahead. Where is there a threshold we are circling? Where might courage look less like boldness and more like quiet perseverance or even stubbornness and a refusal to surrender or think anything is impossible?
These are the kinds of questions that shape a year. They are also the kinds of questions we’ll be exploring in greater depth and broader terms over the coming weeks as we prepare for a season (Lent) that invites honest reflection and spacious renewal.
Real Life Spiritual Practices Inspired by Harriet Bedell
To recall Bedell in our own lives, here are a few practices inspired by her story yet simple, grounded, and spacious enough to meet you wherever you are:
Listen First
Choose one conversation today where you intentionally listen without preparing your response. Let the other person’s story be the center. Notice what shifts in you.
Showing Up
Identify one place in your life where you’ve been hesitant to begin (perhaps an overdue conversation, a creative project, or a small act of service). Take one step forward, no matter what the size.
Honoring Craft
Bedell championed the artistry of the communities she served. Spend time with something handmade, either by your own hand or someone else’s. Let it remind you that beauty, patience, and skill are forms of prayer.
Walking With (Not Ahead Of)
Reach out to someone who may feel unseen or overwhelmed. Offer presence, not solutions. Let companionship be a gift.
Holy Curiosity
Set aside five (5) minutes to be with God. Ask where You inviting me to open space this year? Hold the question gently. Let it echo.
A Beginning
Recalling Harriet Bedell is a fitting doorway into our new series—Stories that Open Space: Women Who Walked Ahead, which introduces women whose lives, celebrated in the Episcopal Church, widen our imagination as to what faithful courage can look like.
As we move through the days after the Epiphany, a time of light, towards Lent, a season that invites deeper reflection and honest becoming, Bedell stands as a companion on the way. She reminds us the path forward is rarely obvious, although it is always held. Remember, sometimes the most spiritual and holy thing we can do is take the next step with open hands and a willing heart.
Showing Up Together
If Harriet Bedell teaches us anything, it is that showing up, quietly, consistently, and with an open heart, can change the shape of a life. Functioning Faith is my own small practice of showing up and honoring craft: a place where I can return week after week to write and make space for reflection, courage, community, and holy possibility.
If this reflection opened something in you, I’d love for you to accompany me by subscribing and join the conversation by adding your comments below. Your presence helps shape this space, and together we will keep walking into 2026 with compassion, grace, and hope.