“These are people!”
I was asked to submit a blog entry for Mennonite Church USA’s Learn, Pray, Join initiative focused on immigrant justice. This was my submission: ——————— “These are people!” This was a favorite phrase of my friend Ruben Castilla Herrera. He had heard it from his mentor Cesar Chavez with whom…
Marriage and ‘what is real’
Marriage rests upon the immutable givens that compose it: words, bodies, characters, histories, places. Some wishes cannot succeed; some victories cannot be won; some loneliness is incorrigible. But there is relief and freedom in knowing what is real; these givens come to us out of the perennial reality of the…
Learning how to pray
Amidst the many losses of the Covid era, I keep coming back to something spiritual writer Richard Rohr wrote years back and reiterated this past spring as it was becoming clear the pandemic would alter church life for the foreseeable future. What wrote however many years ago was that he…
Over my head…
Last evening Ila had a softball game at Whetstone. Not long into the game the sky darkened, the wind picked up, and it looked like it might pour. Instead there was some distant thunder, a light rain, and a brilliant rainbow appearing across the eastern sky. And the game went…
“Mennonite peacemaking”
This morning I was asked to share with an interfaith group on “A Mennonite Perspective on Peacemaking.” The broader context was thinking together about divesting from the current police/incarceration system and investing in other forms of community well-being. So, open question, What does Mennonite peacemaking have to contribute to the…
The joy of rereading
I’m usually not one to re-watch a movie or reread a book. Maybe it’s the combination of limited time with seemingly unlimited viewing and reading options that makes repetition feel like a missed opportunity. But I’ve noticed that’s been changing. It coincides with Eve and Lily now at an age…
A Zoomy day
It’s been a very Zoomy day. 4x so far, with one more to go. Put another way, despite physical distancing, it’s been a day of meeting with others to listen, discuss, pray, and plan. 1) This morning was the monthly gathering for faith leaders through the Interfaith Justice Table, organized…
Colonizer Mennonite Church
Lots of Mennonite churches are named after the city in which they’re located. Our city happens to have chosen the name Columbus. The headline of the Metro section of Sunday’s Dispatch read, “Columbus statues still stand in city.” It noted: “Statues of (Christopher) Columbus have been beheaded, toppled or plunged…
Counteracting anti-Semitism
Last Thursday I attended a webinar organized by Faith in Public Life Ohio called “Counteracting Anti-Semitism and Dangerous Narratives in the Time of COVID-19.” The call included several rabbi friends from the Columbus area with whom we partner in BREAD. After the call I had an email exchange with Rabbi…
Grief
The theme of this Sunday’s service will be grief. A few years ago someone passed along the adage: “People aren’t afraid of change. They’re afraid of loss.” I’m wary of blanket statements about “people,” but that one sounds more true than not. We naturally protect what we love, which means we…
