Greetings to you.
Hope you are well and keeping yourselves and others safe.
I've been reflecting on our unsettling experience of having our worship service disturbed by the Zoom-bomber this Sunday. I know that I am not alone in feeling how inappropriate, disrespectful, demeaning and violent the behavior of the individual disrupting our service was. We've been experiencing deepening and intensifying ideological division in our communities, sadly often fueled by our leaders in the highest positions of responsibility. The Black Lives Matter movement also reminds of our long-seated biases and aggressions against our neighbors with black and brown bodies.
I invite you to listen to Dr. Bertice Berry's powerful words on the hurt we inflict when we lord it over, when we dehumanize people. Dr. Berry also shows how can we share power with others, celebrating and affirming their beautiful personhood, no matter their circumstances.
My prayer for each one of us is that we learn our places so that we can build the Beloved Community where all God's people can grow into the person God dreams them to be. Let us seek ways in our daily life to "encourage one another and build each other up" (1 Thessalonians 5:11). May it be so.
Grace and peace,
Pastor Enikő
