by Kris Rocke, Executive Director/Director of Seminary; Street Psalms 

Dear Ordained, Staff, Board and Friends of Street Psalms, 

It is with a heavy heart that I share with you that Sue Hudacek, (ordained member of the Street Psalms community), unexpectedly passed in her sleep on Thursday, December 4. She died the way she lived…peacefully. 

Sue served the L’Arche Community for nearly 50 years. L’Arche was her missional home – the place where she experienced the love of Jesus most fully.   

I first met Sue at St. Leo, the local Jesuit parish here in Tacoma. She was a vital part of the congregation and instrumental in introducing us to Ricky, a core member of L’Arche community and longtime employee of Street Psalms. Ricky was the official paper shredder for Street Psalms for several years. Each week, on Tuesdays, Sue would bring Ricky to the Street Psalms office where she would help Ricky shred papers. After shredding for an hour, Ricky and Sue would join the Tacoma Preaching Peace table for lunch and help us make sense of the Gospel text for that week. That, in turn, brought Jordan Sampson to the table as well as others from the L’Arche community.  Together, all three of them became, not just guests of the Preaching Peace table, but vital participants and deer friends. 

Of course, Ricky was the star of the show each week with his ginormous heart and preternatural presence of love and mercy. And Jordan went on to become not only a weekly participant of Preaching Peace but also fellow with Street Psalms. But it was Sue who created the space for all that to happen and she loved doing it.  

There are leaders who take up space and then there are those who create it. Sue was the latter. Don’t get me wrong, she was no shrinking violet, nor was she afraid of entering the spot light when needed. In fact, she was a courageous soul and a pioneering leader in the L’Arche movement. She was also in the first class of women to be ordained with Street Psalms. But what gave Sue life was pointing to how God showed up in those she served. That was her delight. She embodied the gift of the L’Arche community, who delights in those whom the world often wants to forget. In this sense, Sue lived a life of holy transgression. I last saw Sue recently at a community event that featured another holy transgressor, speaking about what it is like to be love and liked by God. That was Sue’s passion. She found great joy delighting in the God who delights in the disinherited. 

Finally, Sue was a true catholic and by that I mean she was committed to “catholicity,” which is the universal community of all God’s people. She was very much at home in her faith which was so much bigger than the fractured and flawed institutions to which she remained faithful, including Street Psalms, L’Arche, and the Catholic Church. She has now joined the great cloud of witnesses who are know the resurrection of Christ and are now doing their part to free the rest of us up to love and serve.  

Please join me in prayers of thanksgiving for Sue’s life and for the L’Arche community who is now grieving her loss. 

Link to a Street Psalms reflection by Sue on Jesus washing the disciples’ feet.