Session Notes - September 2020
Your Session sat for its regular monthly meeting earlier this week.
Sometimes our meetings are mostly administrative; other times they involve thoughtful contemplation. This was one of the second kind. We discussed community.
Whatever your definition of church, it probably includes the word community. Worship has always been a “corporate” experience – a time when we come together as a body and interact with other believers. As Jesus said, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
A Word from Laura: Listening for Grace Notes
The spiritual toll of the pandemic weighs heavily on my own spirit these days. This Atlantic article on the “intuition nightmare” describes America’s response to COVID-19 in the shape of a death spiral. Our leaders (one in particular whose name rhymes with “dump” and “slump”) have led us down a trail using magical thinking, false dichotomies, theatricality and moralism, to the point of inevitable burn-out. Death rates continue significantly higher among health care workers, Black Americans, Indigenous people, and the Latinx community.
How are we to continue without being overcome? This week I’ve heard from some of you who are mourning loved ones and unable to travel to be with friends and family. Others of us are struggling to keep our children at home and in virtual school, while others are trying to figure out long-term work futures. Finding meaning in all of this seems a cruel venture, absurd at the very least.
Sanctuary DMV Food and Justice Fund for Immigrant Families
Please donate to make sure immigrant families know they are welcomed and can feed their children. Western CCB online giving can be used to help support the volunteer led effort of Sanctuary DMV.
Read letter below from Denise Woods to learn more about their work.
Hello💞,
For many immigrants loss hangs in the air for jobs lost, shoes they can’t afford for their children or the covid inundating their communities, but Paulina embodies the fighting spirit that captures their truth more vividly:
Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival
With the DNC and RNC behind us, election season is in full swing in a democracy that seems to be crumbling before our eyes. Our voting rights have been stripped over the years with the gutting of the Voting Rights Act, racist gerrymandering and voter suppression, and now with an attack on the U.S. Postal Service, in a year where voters will be relying on casting their votes by mail more than ever.
It is clear that our rights are all but guaranteed. It's up to us, the time is now, our backs are against the wall, and we've got nothing to do but push.
Read on to learn more about the current political and economic situation with our new weekly "Forward Focus" policy briefing, RSVP for our Sept. 14th forum on voting rights, and register for this week's trainings on how you can help protect the vote.
A Word from Laura: Flunking Fall
“I don’t know how we’re going to do this fall. I really don’t. We’re so…”
My friend finished her text with an expletive appropriate for a working parent already overwhelmed with on-line schooling for her youngest two, upon finding out that her first-born’s college dorm is closing due to a covid outbreak. Not appropriate for a church-related email.
At our house Scott and I are coming out of denial that this fall would bring extra stress. Unable to find my battery-dead cell phone all morning, I felt like I was flunking life, when Scott brought my phone to me a few minutes ago. And told me it had been behind my laptop, at the desk where I had been sitting, the whole time!
Reclaim Our Vote (ROV)
About two weeks ago, twenty-seven (27) Westerners signed up to be Reclaim Our Vote (ROV) postcard writing volunteers. Twelve hundred (1200) voter names have been distributed to Western volunteers! Postcards are now being written, with messages to check registration and encourage early voting, and sent to voters in targeted southern states where voter suppression is occurring.