Abstract
Abstract Heidi Neumark’s Breathing Space is not about her conversion or her call. It tells the story of her ministry in one of the most dangerous and impoverished sectors of America, the South Bronx. Her memoir recreates the Bronx of the 1980s, with its speed, AIDS, routine crime, and rat-infested housing projects. She is the new pastor of a small Spanish-language Lutheran Church named Transfiguration. It is her first parish. She stays for twenty years. She conveys no vocational anguish or uncertainty about her calling. It’s all about the work. She is meant to be there. Breathing Space is mainly a story of people, and especially the many children, who are suffocating in numerous ways. Neumark tells their stories, often interleaving them with stories from the scriptures. The book’s plotline is provided by her parish’s ten-year effort to build a new parish hall. Its completion marks the conclusion of her ministry and a move to another equally demanding New York City parish.
Published Version
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