When grief meets calling

Kiri Jane Erb recounts her move from the UK to rural Canada, her experience of pastoral life, and the lingering impact of her father’s death. Through it all, she explores how wrestling with grief, calling and study led her to a deeper confidence in a theology that speaks honestly into suffering and hope.

In 2010, not long after my father passed away, I transposed my life to become a Brit fully submerged in North American “trad-mum” life. Based in rural Saskatchewan, Canada, I made my own kombucha, home-schooled, and embraced being “the pastor’s wife.”

I found prairie values and way of life fascinating; anthropology was always a favourite subject in my undergrad. At times it felt like stepping back in time. It had a wholesome air about it; a good contrast to the biting -50 degrees Celsius that came in the winter seasons when we’d boast being colder than the north pole.