Remembering Beth Reed

Beth Reed

✠ Rest eternal grant unto her, O Lord: and let light perpetual shine upon her.

Over the last seven years, Beth Reed has become what I want to be when I grow up. I first met Beth when I came to Montreal to attend The Montreal Diocesan Theological College (Dio). Beth was the secretary there. I was immediately in awe of her. She was knowledgeable, witty, irreverent and sardonic. She was cool. She knew all the gossip, and with four principals and four directors of studies in seven years, she also often seemed to be the only one who knew much of anything else at the College too.

There were many facets to Beth. To me, she was the perfect college secretary. She knew everything in regards to administrating Dio and was always happy to help the seminarians. Beth was also a theologian. She read theology widely and even taught it informally to the students, usually at Friday breakfast after Mass. She also gave organized talks and she even preached. And when needed, she was a shoulder for us to cry on.

Outside of Dio, Beth was deeply involved in the life and work of the Diocese of Montreal - most notably travelling with Bishop Mary Irwin-Gibson to our companion Diocese of Masasi - and she was of course, invaluable as a warden of St. John the Evangelist. In her personal life, she was a loving wife to her husband Marc and a devoted mother to their daughter Josephine.

Beth was great fun. She often went out drinking on Friday nights with us at Dio until 3 in the morning, and I remember all the alcohol-fuelled evenings, coffee-fuelled mornings, and a few boredom-fuelled drives. Even during these times, Beth always had ideas about how to bring the Kingdom of God into the world: the circular economy, maker spaces, paid volunteers, downtown churches working together and all pulling in the same direction, universal income, clericuses for wardens, better public transit, clothing swaps, and the list goes on.

Beth’s ideas were all well-researched, well-thought-out, and well-defended in a humble, open-minded way. They were seemingly and genuinely doable if Beth and her interlocutors put their minds to it. She was ready to get to work and have you join her. And that to me is the greatest loss. Beth was the most energetic and competent practical theologian I have ever known. Now without her, we’ll all have to think outside the box for ourselves.

Beth, with her daughter Josephine, at the Offertory

In reading Dom Gregory Dix, we understand that the place of the laity in the Mass seems to be the work of bringing little bits of the world - in bread and wine - into the heart of the Church. The people are transformed by the body and blood of Christ, consumed by the Church, and brought back out into the world to build the Kingdom of God. As a warden of St. John’s, Beth most often was the one carrying the gifts in procession up to the altar at Mass for the priest to call upon the Holy Spirit to transform. By this humble act of hers, Beth was the very embodiment of the laity doing its part to bring about the heavenly kingdom.