Week of May 13

Dear Friends:

In the United Kingdom and parts of Europe during the 16th century, there was a Christian festival known as "Mothering Sunday," which was celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent, and was a day to encourage everyone to return to their “mother church” for a special Sunday.  After some years, the holiday morphed: many female laborer and domestic servants were given the day of to visit their families and mothers.  

In the late 1800s, In the United States, one Ann Reeves Jarvis started “mother’ day work clubs to teach women hoe to properly care for their children.  Around the same time, Julia Ward Howe wrote the “mother’s Day proclamation," which was a call to mothers to united in promoting world peace.   Mother’s day was envisioned by Anna Jarvis in 1908 and became a holiday in 1914.  Jarvis herself would end up denouncing the holiday because of its commercialization, and even went so far as trying to get it taken off the calendar as a US holiday.  How wanted a Mother’s Peace Day, Jarvis’ daughter wanted her mother’s work continued.    President Wilson signed the holiday in to being in 1914.  But soon thereafter, Anna Jarvis lamented that the card companies, florists and other merchants were capitalizing on its popularity.  

For many, Mother’s day is a complex holiday, full of guilt, grief, sadness and longing.  Many mainline churches have attempted to rebrand the day as “the festival of the Christian home.” But somehow mother’s day has a cultural velocity that is hard to stop.  

What I do know if this:  When life is complex, church is the place I want to be.  It is here we are able to be welcomed whether Mother’s day strikes you as a welcome day to get and give attention, or a day in which you’d rather hide in your bedroom.  We have no expectations for you, no dogma regarding the holiday.  What we do have is worship, good music, your new and old friends, and lots of food to share.  

Blessings, 

Susan

Meditation

“Keep your language. Love its sounds, its modulation, its rhythm. But try to march together with men and women of different languages, remote from your own, who dream like you for a more just and humane world.” 
― Hélder Câmara

Meditation

The key to wisdom is this - constant and frequent questioning, for by doubting we are led to question and by questioning we arrive at the truth. --Peter Abelard (1079-1142)

Week of April 15, 2018

Dear Friends,

I've been thinking about hope lately--Mostly because my independent study for my Post-Master's Certificate program at the New School is on the role of hope in change leadership.  I always loved the idea of hope. 

What I didn't realized is that there are official definitions of hope from a social psychology point of view.  Researcher C R Snyder talks about hope being an element of willpower and an element of waypower--namely hope both manifests as a  sense of agency or self-efficacy, and manifests as a sense of pathmaking or direction.  

All this makes me read a lot of these resurrection stories in a new way.  Jesus keeps reminding us "you are witnesses," which is a way of saying "you've got this, people!"  And Jesus also gives plenty of way advice--including things like " go make disciples, " or "I am the way" or "wherever two or three are gathered in my name I am with you."

In the end, hope is the church.  Hope is the practice of seeing the story of new beginnings, and the community that holds and weaves hope when we as individuals cannot.  

So in some sense, the mystery of resurrection is all about hope.

Hope to see you soon!

Blessings, 

Susan