As the United States’ 250th anniversary weekend approached, I was preparing to spend the weekend before it with the United Church of Canada, so I asked folks on either side of the border what I should ask the Canadians and what I could possibly say to them. I got back a lot of fun food banter about Canadian delicacies from poutines, to butter tarts and advice about all the chips and candy bars I needed to load up on at the last gas station before crossing the border to fill my tank more cheaply at home. The talking tips about food, rather than tariffs, made sense. Food is how human beings connect and celebrate. When I arrived at the meeting in Canada, their theme was Connections, and I was welcomed as a guest at their table, both figuratively, with beautiful worship, and physically, with my own bag full of ketchup chips and Crunchie bars. 

But on a more serious note, many Americans had suggested that I use my time for official ecumenical greetings to apologize to the Canadians for the United States government, the president and a long list of policies. With all that in mind, I carried a spirit of confession into the Canadian sacred space but when it was time for me to speak, I did not spend our precious conversation together on the things we can hear debated elsewhere. Instead, I told them specific stories about Michigan and how, amidst a backdrop of decline in religious life, I still see signs of vitality and hope when I visit our local churches one at a time. I described the outsized leadership presence of our small but mighty American denomination, the United Church of Christ, when we marched to the capital in Lansing waving branches with our ecumenical partners on the Palm Sunday Path. 

And because our time for cross-national conversation was precious, I also told them our true and sad stories about the shifting religious landscape that affects both of our countries, from a shortage of clergy, to a surplus of tiny churches burdened by budgets, by-laws and buildings built for a different era. 

And because life is too short to stay on the surface, I knew I could not separate our American church stories from our nation’s particular sins of unchecked greed, from slavery, to the taking of land from those who were here first, to cruelty to strangers seeking shelter from abroad, to the betrayal of the poorest citizens we claim as our own but treat like an afterthought. The sins of the past, present and future affect us where we are, whether we are inside the church looking out or outside looking in, too worn out to remember a better way for a country with the lowest level of civic discourse anyone can remember. This is how sin works societally, how it sneaks in generation after generation, nation against nation, until we think it is normal, and sin becomes the air we breathe, toxic and sickening, but we inhale it anyway. 

And yet, the breath of God, ruach, is also here, filling the lungs of the world, whispered, chanted and sung more than four hundred times in the scriptures Jesus was raised with. After his resurrection, that same divine sigh ushered in the countercultural communities that today we call church, where the Holy Spirit keeps calling us to love the stranger, feed the hungry, heal the sick and even, in these politically polluted times, to preach. 

This is why in the end, the highlight of my Canadian visit was not the physical food but the spiritual food of worship that included testimonies by their new candidates for ministry. What filled me up more than bread was witnessing a diverse group of God’s children, kneeling, one by one, for the laying on of hands for ordination, freshly called to serve congregations in Canada that sounded a lot like ours in Michigan, as a father celebrating his fifty-fifth year of ordination laid his hands upon his own daughter as she began her first.

Here we were, two different denominations, two different nations, both approaching our national birthdays in difficult times when life is no party. But worship is always worth celebrating. North American congregations may be the only public spaces that either nation has left, where we sit next to someone with politics different than our own, in order to worship something other than ourselves, in two countries that still give their people the freedom to choose whether or not to do this, which is a right that so many people around the world do not enjoy. 

On the fourth of July, my prayer is to love my country the way Jesus loves humanity, loving us not because we are perfect or because we deserve it, but because in Christ, everyone gets to grow and change and new life is always possible. 

Peace and Blessings, 

Lillian Daniel 

Michigan Conference Minister 

Dear Colleagues,

My faith has taken me on a journey, widening my understanding and experience of God's love for all people. Another Christian narrative is alive and well in our time, seeking to define categories for full participation in the life that God has given and who may receive the inalienable rights of being a citizen of our country. Silencing the voices of some people by restricting or suppressing who can vote has a long history and is a current reality.  

I am partnering with Faith in Us because I am concerned about current threats and want a path to address them. These threats include:

1. Proposals to limit mail-in voting 
2. Misinformation undermining people’s faith in election outcomes
3. Attempts to restrict voter access, including the ballot initiative that would make it more difficult to get the paperwork to prove citizenship for voting
4. Efforts to stop the counting of votes
5. Refusing to certify election outcomes or seat duly elected leaders 

If you share these concerns, join Conference Minister Lillian Daniel, Associate Conference Minister Lawrence Richardson, and me, along with other interfaith clergy across the state, as we work to defend our democracy. Please sign on to this national interfaith clergy letter: "Faith Leaders Defending Our Democracy" before July 3rd.

Sign on letter

Then plan to attend one of the Protect Our Vote press conferences on 

July 7th 10:00 am - 11:30 am (press at 10:30 am):

Lansing - Capitol steps

Register for Lansing

Grand Rapids - Fountain Street Church 

Register for Grand Rapids

Detroit - United Methodist Church

Register for Detroit

We need hundreds of clergy to make an impact.

"We are not just fighting for November. We are drawing on centuries of wisdom about what it means to love our neighbors, welcome the stranger, and insist on the dignity of every human being." (Faith in Us)

Peace,

Cheryl Burke

Associate Conference Minister

Leadership Lunch: Living Out of Control

July 1, 2026 12:00 PM ET

Join Lillian Daniel in conversation with author Rodney Clapp to discuss his most recent book, Living Out of Control. The book is an invitation to explore how American Christians can respond most graciously, effectively, and faithfully to our political situation.