Greetings, Western Family! Thanks to all of you who participated in the annual congregational meeting last week. It was one of those meetings where we did more listening to a smaller group of people talk than sharing – an easier format for a large group on Zoom.

This week, though, we’re going to practice the unity in community a little differently! Deacons, the intercultural group, and others have been talking about how we grow our connections as a community – even more challenging given that we are worshiping using Zoom and still not able to meet together in person.

Western Friends,

My gratitude to all of you who stayed following worship for a time to reflect on the events surrounding the mob insurrection at the Capitol. As we look forward to next week – to remembering Martin Luther King’s birthday, to the transfer of power to a new administration – I remember Susie Farr’s words on Sunday, “I don’t want to forget what happened.”

The white supremacy stirred up by the president and others cannot be ignored. While the violence continues to be disturbing, I’ve also been pleased by the response of corporations, some even going so far as to ask for a “refund” from Josh Hawley in terms of campaign contributions!

Western Friends,

We have lived through another dark day in our nation’s capital. My friends have used all kinds of words to describe it: “violence… insurrection… white supremacist… terrorism… hate… sedition…” (those are the words I can print in a church email).

We have felt all kinds of things over the last day: anger, grief, trauma, tears, shock, and relief. I’ve noticed a level of sentiment not felt since September 11, 2001.

“My work never ends these days.”

She was the third person, yesterday, to share the challenges of her schedule, and it wasn’t even lunch time.  My friend was glad to still be working. But her father in another state was struggling; she had just spent a few hours on the phone trying to arrange a follow-up visit with his oncologist.

If you are feeling overwhelmed these days with the tasks of life, you are not alone. Joining a group to work on anti-racism, spending six-eight hours a day in front of a computer, negotiating child care in a summer without camp, just figuring out cereal for dinner – our lives are full of intensity!

In a world that values us based on our earning power, in a time when even if you’re not working in a traditional sense, you could spend all day on Zoom, sabbath rest is more important than ever.

In some ways 2020 will give us a different 4th of July. We won’t travel as much; gatherings will be limited. In a time when our nation continues to come to terms with the deep flaws in the system we’ve inherited, I hope our celebration includes reflection and repentance.

“Liminal,” from the Latin limen, meaning door threshold, refers to transitional moments or spaces. You’ve left one place but you’re not yet in the next. Anthropologists describe liminality as the ambiguity and disorientation that happens in rites of passage, when a person is finished with one stage, separated from their old habits and ways, but not quite landed in the next.  Liminal times in our lives are both exciting and anxious, creative and exhausting.  (Think middle school.)