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Dear Indiana Kentucky Conference,
On this cold snowy morning walking past my front door and into my living room, I passed a candle that I lit the night before. We placed it outside in the falling snow at 8pm eastern to join our hearts with our siblings in Minneapolis. I stood praying for the family of Alex Pretti, for the family of Rene Good, for friends and colleagues in Minnesota, and even for some of our IKC clergy who were present. Walking past these flickering flames of prayer this morning awakened me to our need to bear our lights as people of faith this day and so I ask you to join me.
As a Just Peace Conference of the United Church of Christ, we have joined our hearts with the grieving, the violated, the harmed, and the vulnerable for over 4 decades. The voices and presence of our churches in moments of crisis have offered love, solidarity, and partnership in such places from the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S., working for peace in the midst of a civil war in Sri Lanka, taking to the streets of Louisville after Breonna Taylor and George Floyd were murdered, to solidarity presence with our Palestinian siblings, and now facing the violence in Minnesota.
Today, our faith calls us to stand with our siblings in Minnesota in rejecting the use of force and violence on the streets of Minneapolis, which extends not only to what has happened to Rene Good and now Alex Pretti, but also what daily occurs among our immigrant and refugee communities there. I want to urge us to draw upon our long history in this Conference of calling for a Just Peace and end to violence. I ask us to draw upon our legacy in the coming days, specifically in calling upon congress to end the violent tactics happening on the streets of our cities and using your voice in prayer for those who continue to bear witness to God’s love in such contexts.
We are blessed in the Indiana Kentucky Conference to have leaders among us willing to be present in solidarity and show God’s loving compassion and justice in the midst of all that we are seeing. Over the weekend, Revs. Kent Gilbert of Union Church in Berea, KY, Sara Ofner Seals of Plymouth Congregational UCC in Ft. Wayne, January Simpson of Plymouth Congregational Ft. Wayne, Cross UCC in Berne, IN, and First Congregational in Angola, IN, as well as IKC Board member and First Congregational in Angola, IN, Nikki Shaw, were all present to bear witness in Minneapolis. Thank you to these clergy of courage for offering your gift of presence and solidarity. Kent Gilbert as of this writing remains there in Minneapolis and asks for your prayers that “there be accountability for what has happened here, that all people will be safe from violence, and that God’s people will be a light for that just peace in our world.”
Friends, we live in difficult times. We have been here before and the courage and love that preceded us in faith will be the very light that carries us forward. I offer you two items as you pray through this week for where it is that God’s love, compassion, and justice can be offered as a light for a just peace in your life. I have written the following poem and hope it encourages you and I also share with you the response from our General Minister and President, the Rev. Dr. Karen Georgia Thompson to the events of this weekend. May the God of all peace and hope surround you and embolden you as a shining light of love in these days.
The Burning Light
Lately the world seems to be on fire.
Violence is our daily film reel.
Cruelty dominates the main title sequence.
Mortality falls to our streets as autumn collapses to the cold death of winter.
Shadow, like fire, can overwhelm, can consume,
and convince us that our days are only written
on the pages of grief and loss
or ghostly grey skies.
In whispers to a single candle sitting
in the sparkling snow of a January night,
we wonder:
Is there any hope left?
It is easy to despair, to say all is not calm and all is not bright.
The fire of calloused hearts practically beg us to give in.
Yet, what if out of such a heartless flame, we dare to spark a different kind of
light in our stories? One that pushes back the shadows.
Together we could bear a light that
bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things,
a light that refuses to go dim.
Do not tell me there is no hope.
Do not tell me there is nothing we can do.
You cannot convince me to give up on a kairos moment descending
like a dove on a shoulder in the Jordan.
Give me the burning light
of hope,
even when it seems
there is none.
In Christ and Covenant,
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