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 25 - Birthing Dreams
…that grows? What if abolishing the prison industrial complex is the fruit of our diligent gardening, the building and deepening of a movement to respond to the violence of the state and the violence in our communities with sustainable, transformative love?” – Alexis Pauline Gumbs Into the cages, behind the bars, under the barbed wire, freedom sings like a…
December 4
…your body. The transcript for the video is available below. Access a transcript of the video here. Coke Tani is a liberatory spiritual director, body memoirist and teaching artist. She holds an MSW, MFA and MDiv, and can be found on Instagram: @CokeTani, Facebook: @Coke.Tani and at CokeTani.com. You can also meditate with the podcast version of our…
December 3 - So That We Might Have Hope
…with healing and mercy. Root us in your word that births a “hope not made of wishes but of substance, hope made of sinew and muscle and bone,” so that we might move in the pathways of restoration not punishment, of transformation not retribution. In advent hope we pray. Amen. Artwork: “Hope” by Yohana Junker (discover more at: https://www.yohanajunker.com/)…
December 19 - Here Am I
…of Creation and all that the Woman-born One comes to abolish. Prayer For co-creating hope, here am I. For a more just world, here am I. For envisioning freedom, here am I. For birthing Love and Transformation, here am I. Let it be with me according to your word. Amen. Artwork: “Consent” by Yohana Junker (discover more at: https://www.yohanajunker.com/)…
December 20
…empathize with Palestinian pain, are convicted by our complicity in it, and ultimately choose solidarity with their liberation struggle. It comes down to whether we have tears to shed alongside them. Grief is important for transformation, same as water to a garden. Shame and denial are weeds that choke growth. Shouts of joy come with shining sunlight clearly, until all…
Following Jesus - the Revolutionary Storyteller - beyond Book Bans
…logics of dominance and oppression that live in us. Perhaps he knew that stories can move, compel and inspire us to imagine beyond empire. Perhaps he recognized the way stories invite transformation by expanding the experiences that shape us. From good Samaritans and prodigal sons to persistent widows and dishonest managers, Jesus told stories as sacred encounters with new ways…
December 6
The poet who created Psalm 80 was immersed in a community that was in deep distress. So distant they felt from God’s steadfast love and tender care that they were singing the story of their liberation and flourishing back to God, in the hopes that God might remember, turn back toward them with regard, and restore their freedom and…
December 7
…reproductive care they have discerned, journeying with them toward freedom. Jesus would have us sit in grief with those who have lost community and family members to violence at the hands of the system that is supposed to protect and serve them, mourning with them toward healing. Enriched, equipped and yet still waiting, we are called to be partners in…