Compassion Camp is our virtual Summer Intergenerational Interterm being launched July 13. There are activities for kids, teens, families and adults. Look for information in the July Placard, coming soon, and of course at plymothucc.org/compassion.

Zoom for 7 is the adult-focused segment of Compassion Camp, although all activities are for folks of all ages. Zoom for 7 (the "seven" refers to the number of households) is a small discussion group that meets weekly for five weeks to discuss the topic of the week. Each week, groups will be given the theme for the week, the Bible story, and a list of questions to discuss.

Sign-ups open on Friday, July 3! Watch your email! There are a limited number of Zoom for 7 discussion groups and, of course, space in each one is limited. Here are the days and times for the groups:

• Mondays at 7:00 p.m. (July 13, 20, 27. Aug. 3, 10)
• Tuesdays at 10:00 a.m. (July 14, 21, 28.  Aug. 4, 11)
• Wednesdays at 1:00 p.m. (July 15, 22, 29. Aug. 5, 12)
• Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. (July 15, 22, 29. Aug. 5, 12)

We ask that you select the day/time that works best for you and stay with this group for the entire five weeks. Questions? Email me.

Carla

"How do we live a life worthwhile of our breath?"
- Ocean Vuong, poet, novelist, professor

This morning as I walked in our beautiful Colorado sunshine, I listened to Vietnamese American poet and novelist, Ocean Vuong, as he was interviewed by Krista Tippet on her podcast, On Being. I was not familiar with him or with his work before today. He is a young man of amazing intellect and insight, creativity and sensitivity. The podcast is definitely worth a listen! Such a rich conversation about how language makes our lives, sets the tone and parameters for our values, creates our world. Recorded this past March just before the pandemic shut-down, you would think Vuong and Tippet were conversing just yesterday in the midst of the two pandemics we are living with now, Covid-19 and the much older, Covid-1619, or the systemic racism our country has had since its beginning. 
 
Vuong reflected on his Buddhist practice of “death meditation,” a practice in which one meditates on the impermanence of life, the inevitability of death and our fear of dying. Vuong spoke of the vitality this meditation practice brings to his life and to his creativity. It brings him to the question, “How do we live a life worthwhile of our breath?” 
 
A life worthwhile of our breath…this phrase can take us so many places. To Genesis 1 where the world was created as the Spirit of God “breathed” upon the waters of the deep bringing forth life. To the automatic breathing that keeps us alive without our thinking consciously about it. To the concentration on our breath that can slow and calm our minds and hearts in meditation and prayer. To George Floyd’s last cry, “I can’t breathe!” Breath is life. Breath is sacred. What will we create in the breath of our life? “How do we live a life worthwhile of our breath?”
 
It is so easy to be overwhelmed by the grief of our times. I feel it everyday. The grief of illness and unemployment, the grief of mourning for loved ones, the grief of injustice. Our first instinct as human beings in the face of such overwhelm is to push away the pain and find what to DO. Yet spiritual teachers of all traditions call us first to BE and even to be with the pain. We cannot change a troubled situation, a tragic systemic injustice, or offer change to another hurting person unless we have allowed ourselves to be changed first. Change begins with us. 
 
Tedious as it may seem, the change for justice, the healing of enmities, the transformation of minds and hearts for loving one another, all these begin with allowing our selves, our souls, to be transformed by God’s love. We begin by accepting the love of God and welcoming it into our very bodies. We slow down for at least some moments of each day to Breathe. To consciously let in the Breath of Life acknowledging it comes from Love and will heal our overwhelmed souls; then breathing out the Breath of Life knowing only Love can heal the world. 
 
I challenge you to practice breathing this way five minutes each day. See where it might lead you in living a life worthwhile of your life-giving breath. Concentrate on your breathing, on Love, not on what you want to change when your five minutes is over. Allow the Spirit to transform your nervous, anxious thoughts, your feelings of not being enough or doing enough. Just Breathe in Love. Pause and let it be in you. Then Breath out Love and trust God is ahead of you in the work for justice and healing our world needs. Pause and trust. Then Breathe again. Just BE in the Breath of Life. For five minutes. See what happens for the rest of your day. (And, of course, you can always repeat when needed!)
 
“How do we live a life worthwhile of our breath?”
With you in hope on this pandemic journey!

Blessings,

P.S. If you want more information on meditation/breath prayer practices, please let one of your pastors know. We have lots of resources. One place to begin is WeRiseNow.org, a site for Christian meditation practice that provides daily emails with a recorded guided meditation practice. One of the founders, the Rev. Dr. Robert Martin, is a dear friend of mine. 

I have been cleaning out my office and finding many things that spark memories. Old class notes, meeting agendas, lists of volunteers (some of whom have gone on to their reward), computer cables, prayer beads and blessing stones – all the sundry of ministry with you. Some memories led to a giggle, and some to a tear, but all reminded me how much you have helped me grow and mature as a minister and as a Christian over our years together. So I say again, thank you.
  
So much of my thoughts and heart about leaving, and my deep thanks to you for walking with me for many years, are in my sermon from June 7th. I know that the AV gremlins were wreaking revenge on me for the times I forced them into submission for a forum or class. I imagine them plotting before church, “I’ll get you my little pretty, and your little dog too!” I am sorry for the frustration many of you experienced with the Facebook feed, and that Hal and Dean experienced trying to make it all work. They did the best they could, and in the end our brilliant AV team had a backup, and there is a clean copy of the audio (as well as a printed manuscript) here. I encourage you to read or listen to that, for it covers many things I would otherwise have tried to say in this my last Staff Reflection.

I can now tell you where I’m going and what I’ll be doing there. I will be at First Congregational Church of Rapid City, South Dakota. It is an old historical church, founded during the gold rush as the first Christian church in Rapid City. A medium-sized congregation, they were about 125 in worship prior to the pandemic, and are now doing worship on Facebook Live. The current building was built in 1960 in a modified A-frame style common to many UCC’s of that era (including Plymouth), with a large fellowship hall and an education wing with numerous classrooms. Once considered a fair distance from downtown backing up to the ridge of Dinosaur Park, it is now quite surrounded by the city. They have an enormous 60’ tall white cross that can be seen from the freeway into downtown. The sanctuary has a beautiful pipe organ in the back balcony choir loft, and they employ part time a talented organist, music director and office staff. I am following an ordained husband and wife team who served as pastor and education director, who have been there for 25 years. They gave the church notice of their retirement a year ago, and the church has honored and celebrated their service well. I met them briefly last week and we chatted about their plans to visit children on the west coast and then relocate away from Rapid City. Talented and nice people, whose ministry will be missed.

That is the context my interim ministry for the next two years. They will need some time to mourn, remember, and evaluate their past. Then they will work together to discern their vision and mission for their community. In interim work, we use three key questions: Who are we? Who is our neighbor? What is God now calling us to do? My job is to guide them through this transitional time. (There are different types of interim ministry, and for this sort the term “interim” is falling out of use in favor of the term “transitional ministry”). In this time of Covid, we’ll reevaluate how online worship is and can be improved; with the loss of the education director, we’ll be looking closely at their needs for children and youth formation and explore hiring someone new; they want to explore an ONA process (and are taking a leap and risk in calling me); they are involved in many justice ministries in the community like food banks and homeless shelters; and continue to build their longstanding relationships with the Native American communities both in town and on the reservations. One fascinating ministry they have is the “Woodchucks”: a group of people who split firewood all spring and summer for people whose primary or backup heating is by wood. They deliver the wood to churches on the reservations who then distribute it to people with need. When I was there last week, a half dozen people were working like beavers, adding to the several cords already stacked.

Oh, and I will need to keep all the current wheels moving! Worship and education and justice making and pastoral care and weddings and funerals. One of the things that makes me most nervous is getting back in the flow of preaching Every Single Week (which I did for some 15 years prior to my ministry with you), but let’s just say I’m rusty, so pray for that. I’ll be negotiating a different cultural and very red political context; the church sees itself as “moderate” for their community where the GOP out-registers the Democrats by 2:1. A state both where the governor refused to issue any stay-at-home recommendations, and a community where there have been several Black Lives Matter marches (to considerable, but thankfully peaceful, controversy). As some of you have said to me, “May you live in interesting times.” Interesting times indeed, but with a God who knows what “interesting times” are about.

So I am excited. I am nervous. Sometimes I am downright terrified – God is calling me to do what? But I go into this with your many kind, encouraging and beautiful words buttressing my soul. Some of you have revived the lost art of card writing, some have sent emails and Facebook messages, and many of you have spoken to me in our Zoom party last week, by phone, or even a few in physically distanced personal encounters. It has been heartening and humbling. So thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for walking with me. I love you. And more important: God loves you --- Go live accordingly.

Peace,

Rev. Dr. Mark Lee

In 2015, after the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, a group of local clergy gathered to be in touch with Chief John Hutto to talk about race, use of force, training, and hiring in Fort Collins Police Services. The group was started by the late Rev. Frank Gibson, whose life we celebrated at Plymouth last November. Frank was a retired Presbyterian minister who had worked extensively on issues of policing, race, and violence during his long and distinguished career. It was Frank’s knowledge of the law that helped our group of clergy frame our ongoing dialogue with former Chief Hutto, Interim Chief Jones, and Chief Swoboda. My own assessment is that Fort Collins Police Services, through its training, policies, practices, and culture, though not perfect, is far ahead of other police departments, as well as the Larimer County Sheriffs Office.

It was Frank who read volumes of legal documents, including President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, which provided recommendations and implementation strategies that should have prevented at least some of the killing of African-Americans by police.

But that isn’t where we find ourselves today in the wake of George Floyd’s killing.

Again, we cry, “How long, O Lord? How long?” How long will it be before our nation comes to a great reckoning with our history? How long will it be before we dismantle the systemic racism and injustice that dogs our justice system? How long will it be before European-Americans understand and disassemble the wide-ranging privilege that we and our forebears have enjoyed?

My prayer is that our nation is being given a chance to address what the Rev. Jim Wallis calls “America’s Original Sin,” and a big first step is listening to the voices of our sisters and brothers of color and exploring how we can be a part of the solution. We can use our voices to decry the loss of sacred lives at the hands of police and the inherent inequities in the justice system. A bill in the Colorado legislature addressing police accountability is a good first step. (Many of its recommendations have already been implemented by FC Police Services.) And if you have not seen the film, Just Mercy, (telling the story of Brian Stevenson and the efforts of the Equal Justice Initiative) it is an important that you watch it and talk about it…and it’s showing free on many streaming services right now.

The lives of our sisters and brothers of color are sacred. And for European-Americans to remain silent at this time would not only be a sin of omission, it would mean that we are complicit in perpetuating a system that deprives God’s beloved not just of opportunity, but of life. For those of us who are white, it is especially incumbent upon us to listen, to talk, and to act to dismantle racism. We cannot do everything…but we can do something.

In a sermon a few weeks ago, my colleague, the Rev. David Williams of Abyssinian Christian Church, said that the best thing for non-black allies to do is to talk about confronting racism with your own circle of contacts, friends, and family. So, I am talking to you. And I am praying with and for you, as we stand up and engage the struggle, which is a marathon and not a sprint. We’ll hear more at Plymouth as we move forward, and in the meantime listen, read, watch as we take further steps toward God’s reign of shalom.

Together with you in faith,

P.S. If you missed it, here is a link to Sunday’s Coloradoan and an Op-Ed piece I wrote (before the death of George Floyd) on keeping houses of worship closed during the pandemic

I still have Pentecost on my mind. The longer I am in ministry the more I gravitate to this one Sunday in our church calendar year as one of my favorites. It’s not because it signifies the beginning of the church – the church we have today, but because the Holy Spirit offers us a rich theological perspective that is so expansive it can’t all be covered in Sunday morning sermon.

Pentecost is a hopeful season when we are called to action – to find the fire of longing in our heart and to make positive changes. Even in the midst of a corona virus pandemic and a racial injustice pandemic, in the midst of anger and frustration, I believe there is reason to be hopeful.

In Acts 2:4: All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them. This is about how we all speak to God in our own languages and God speaks to us. The hope is that we will have compassion for all the possibilities and different ways we connect with God.

The hope of Pentecost means we don’t have to speak the same language AND we can still be a church community. There is so much we can do during this time of two pandemics. We may not all understand the current injustices but we can listen and let the spirit be our guide.

Another, very important reason I love Pentecost? I was ordained on Pentecost. It seems appropriate and an important connection with my theology that I would be ordained on a hopeful, disruptive and spirit filled day that allows us to connect with God in our own special and unique way. This day will always be my Pentecost moment.

Howard Thurman, a prominent religious figure who played a leading role in many social justice movements and organizations of the twentieth century, said this: “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

Do you have a Pentecost moment? A day or an experience where you have felt the spirit move you to come alive? You know I love to hear your stories! Please share.

Also, I have enclosed a prayer for our current time. It is a prayer relevant to Pentecost and a prayer for justice.

Carla

Prayer for Justice

God the Holy Spirit,
You are the restless breath of love that sweeps through the world.
You move where you will, breaking down barriers,
Stirring hearts to change, making all things possible.
Inspire each one of us to hunger and thirst for justice!

Come, Spirit of God,
Sweep through our world bringing great change.
May the bounty of your goodness be shared more justly,
So all may share in the rich blessings of your creation.
And, for us, bring transformation in our praying and living,
So that we may act justly, love mercy,
And walk humbly with you all the days of our lives.
Amen.

~ posted on Third Space