Helena L. Martin is a Master of Divinity candidate at Berkeley Divinity School at Yale. She is passionate about the ways that prayer, community, and music call us into deeper relationship with God, ourselves, and one another. For fourteen years, she has been a Songwriting Master Teacher at YPI Creative Arts Camp, where she helps students discover their own voices through songwriting and performance. Helena is discerning her call to ordained ministry with the Episcopal Church in Connecticut and hopes to become a parish priest.

Additionally, after completing her MDiv, Helena plans to pursue further education and contribute to the growing field of Biblical studies’ intersection with disability studies. Her main interests in this area are the healing miracles in the Gospels and the body metaphors in the Pauline epistles. How have language and narratives in the New Testament affected the way Christians think about our bodies? How have these Scriptural elements reflected the way we think about people with physical differences and disabilities? Helena has been active in the disability community, most recently as a committee member for the Sibling Leadership Network. Outside school, she loves teaching and practicing contemplative prayer, spending time with family, and making music.