An Investment in Freedom: Join the Movement at General Synod 34
Join the Movement Curator Sharon Fennema reflects on finding hope at General Synod 34 through literally hundreds of conversations with folks who are doing the work and urging their communities to keep moving toward racial justice. She explores the need for interconnected and intersectional movements as investments in freedom for future generations.
December 4 - Repent
…the drumbeat of justice. Hear us as we repent our complicity and our complacency with systems that harm, and strengthen our hands to lift the downtrodden, the lonely, the outcast, and the forgotten, so that your new realm of freedom may come. May it be so, in Jesus’ name. Amen. Artwork: “Repent” by Yohana Junker (discover more at: https://www.yohanajunker.com/)…
December 5 - Like Those Who Dream
“As freedom is a constant struggle, abolition feminism has always been a politics – the refusal to consign humans and other beings to disposability – inseparable from practice… [It] is an intentional investment of our resources to support the flourishing of our collective best selves, a fuller vision of freedom that allows us to reclaim “accountability” and “justice” from…
I Must Go: MLK’s Radical Commitment to Collective Liberation
…force of white supremacy’s resistance to the dream of freedom. He refuses to use his privilege as a nationally known figure to protect him from the risks and demands of solidarity. What if this commitment to collective liberation was the legacy we chose to live into this MLK Day? What if we understood this courageous embrace of the risks and…
December 3
“Hope is a discipline.” – Mariame Kaba Abolition asks us to commit to birthing the communities we want to live in and want our children to be able to grow up in in the future. It asks us to imagine anew how we want to be in relationship with one another, with ourselves and with the world, far beyond the…
December 12
…orientations, our neural pathways will strengthen and compel our actions in that direction. Prayer When punishment seems to be the only way to justice, teach us to sing, comfort, comfort. When harm seems to demand retribution, show us a more tender way. When the mountains seem unsurmountable, enliven our imaginations. When the valleys threaten to swallow us, lift us…
December 23 - Defund/Invest
…I recommit to my covenant and embrace the new world you are offering. I trust my yes to you will always lead me to goodness. Stay with me through my fear and distrust. This beautiful new world is dawning and I want to be part of it. Amen Artwork: “Defund the Police” by Yohana Junker (discover more at: https://www.yohanajunker.com/)…
November 29 - Borders and the Promised Land
…practice, make us and our communities a sacred refuge, a sanctuary, a “house of the Lord” for all seekers and sojourners, so that we may be the welcoming blessing that makes others glad. May we wait with as much eagerness for their coming as we do for yours. Amen. Artwork: “Promise Land” by Yohana Junker (discover more at: https://www.yohanajunker.com/)…
December 16
What I am sitting with in my spirit and feeling in my bones this Advent is somewhere, everywhere, oppressed, enslaved, traumatized people are practicing freedom. Somewhere, everywhere, throughout all of time, amidst lives stolen and worlds crumbling, people and communities reflect “our intentional relationship to divine change in apocalyptic circumstances” (from Foreword by Alexis Pauline Gumbs in Practicing New…