We're discussing Danya Ruttenberg's book, "On Repentance and Repair," for our Lenten adult forum series. Ten months into our ministry together, this parish continues to show great willingness to engage hard truth with open hearts. That trust is a real gift.
What's the pattern?
What a gorgeous red, and so beautiful! I haven't knit lace for a while, but this is making me want to pick it up again.
(Our minister of music is pres of the board for the professional choral ensemble we heard tonight. I know tomorrow will be great!)
Brandi Carlile's Chicago show last night was amazing! Tonight, I got to hear a professional choral ensemble and an advanced high school choir perform contemporary choral works, including one the high schoolers composed.
The bar's pretty high for church music in the morning
I didn't drive the first day. Maybe I would have been fine, but I felt odd. I had been told to avoid falling back on my contacts or old glasses while I'm adjusting. And it's def getting easier.
Yep, that does sound about right. I'd worn contacts for thirty plus years, with glasses just for backup. I'm looking forward to being on the other side of the adjustment
Probably, I haven't heard that word. But it definitely matters which part of the lens I'm using to look through for reading, distance, mid-range.
I have just made the necessary switch from wearing contacts (mono vision) to progressive lenses in new glasses. My brain is resisting this with admirable stubbornness.
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Some people talk about love as something "out there," something lofty and ideal. But our love is often messy, we are often not at our best, and harm still happens. Still, that doesn't empty love of its power. In fact, our being human is the point.
I do hope you write that someday!
Same.
It was such a gift
I had a pretty good sermon from three years ago, but Hannah's commentary helped me get more precise in my current-day call to repentance.
I used @hannahnpbowman.com's preaching resources to introduce the concept of Migration with Dignity Sunday and to talk very plainly about repentance, welcome, and care. People were so grateful that I addresed the violence head on. (I'm sure some weren't, but they didn't tell me).
Thanks, Hannah!
Important. Especially after the horrific detention ruling from the Fifth Circuit last night, which I’m still working to understand. Concentration camps for children and people claiming asylum and more.
I can’t overstate that nearly every good headline coming out of Minnesota has been followed up by retaliation by the Trump administration—which tends to get a lot less attention.
This is infuriating and devastating.
This is my first rector call after several interim cures, so I have seen a wide variety of practices. With all that's new here, I'm not about to shake everything up just to be different. I want to know what signals Lent to them.
We are discerning how to be church together. It's fun
⚓️In prep for our first Lent together, I've started a worship committee to help me make liturgical choices that fit with their particular pieties and parish history.
I love this stuff!
I'm so glad you were able to put together something that worked well. Well-written, even simple liturgy can provide exactly what we need for emotion-laden times when Spirit "arrives."
A small brown dog with floppy ears is lying on a blanket on a person's legs.
The 158th Annual Meeting of Church of Our Saviour, Chicago is complete.
This little guy was shaking with excitement when I got home, and it was all for this. Sunday afternoon snuggles are the best!⚓️
Yes, I do the same.
Why this (pretty solid) letter instead of something from the church as a whole? Is it tactical, or quicker, or does it suggest dissension? (Not thinking anyone here really knows, but I wonder)
Finally picked up Eve Ewing's Original Sins for my morning reading, and my brain feels like it's playing in a forgotten corner of the playground for the first time in a while. What a teacher and writer she is!
DHS has a whole citizen detainment system set up in Minnesota. They snatch citizens off the street (often with proof they are citizens), detain them for a few hours, steal their phones, then release them into the cold.
It ain’t about deporting citizens; it’s about terrorizing a whole population.
I've been mostly working from home for the past two weeks while I recovered from the MegaCold I had. Today, I got to work in the office all morning and preside at a committal service for a longtime parishioner. Seeing his varied communities come together was beautiful.
I'm so grateful🙂⚓️
To be clear, they want to do things to support our most vulnerable neighbors (or help an org already doing that work), have accompaniment trainings, other actions. And they want regular prayer for our country, too.
How the parish can respond. And they want to start a regular prayer service "for our nation."
Once again, I feel so blessed to get to do this work!
The prayer vigil was exactly what I needed tonight. It's a new congregation, I've only been here 9 months, so I'm still learning how they respond in times of anger and pain.
We started early to check in, then prayed. When we were done, I asked, what now? They're going to start a group to explore
