Embedded Files
Kimberly P Chastain, Pastor
For me, the high point of the “No Kings” rally was meeting Miss Clarine, a 96-year-old Black woman who marched in the 1963 March on Washington and has continued to participate in political resistance ever since. We spoke together about the challenge of keeping hope when it seems that the same challenges and the same fights have to be faced every few years. We prayed together for new vision and for our community to find connection in a system that seems designed to set people against each other.
Miss Clarine told me stories of how, back in the day, every Black person went into the demonstrations and marches knowing that violence was likely, and that all of them were vulnerable. Trainings were held about how to protect the young and the old, and how to refuse violence without responding to it. No one in the 1960s suggested or believed that cooperating with or involving the National Guard or the police was going to keep the demonstrators safe. Miss Clarine wondered if the safe atmosphere at this demonstration was related to the fact that most of the people present were white.
That remark has been haunting me ever since. Our “whiteness” has always been a shield, and so far, most of us white folks have not had that shield eroded or taken away when we exercise our right to assemble and protest. If our whiteness is a shield, can we use it to protect Black and Brown people? Can we take risks for those who are more vulnerable than we are? Can we begin to speak to white people about the serious imbalance in arrest rates, about the unequal distribution of resources, about the targeting of specific populations? Can we even enter awkward conversations with people who are different from us, to find out how they think about and experience the world we take for granted?
I expressed (then and in the blessing I offered from the podium) my sadness that the organizers’ emphasis on cooperating with police meant few Black and Brown people felt welcome to attend. I asked everyone to join me in singing “Lift Every Voice” and was saddened when a crowd that sang “The Star Spangle Banner” did not seem to know the James Weldon Johnson anthem. If unity is to come, perhaps it’s time for us to catch up to the people who have been living with and learning to resist oppression since the first colonizers arrived in this land: to learn from them, and to begin the hard work recognizing that “justice” is for more than “just us.”
Let’s work together to keep learning, to keep building, to keep finding ways to restore healing and hope to our badly fractured community and country. Let’s face our fears and enter awkward conversations, and commit ourselves to moving ever closer to God’s reign on earth, where
“they shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,
and the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of God
as the waters cover the sea.” (Isaiah 11:9)
Blessings,
Pastor Kimberly
Dear Friends,
Fall is underway and with it activities are starting up again. Pastor Kimberly and I took some time this summer to plan out Church Activities this program year. Spending time together as a church family can be a great way to build relationships, strengthen your faith, and balance out some of the negative things that are happening in our world today, and give you the knowledge that you are not alone and we can work together to make a difference in this world. The list of events each month are in this newsletter and we hope that you will join us!
There are other activities that we are thinking about, so these aren’t the only ones we will have this year. And we are always open to hearing your ideas that you would like to participate in or even lead. Self-care and soul care are important, especially now, so we would love to hear what you are doing that is helpful or practices you might need.
Becky Kindig, Associate Pastor
I have had the opportunity this fall to offer some soul care events on campus with the Binghamton University Interfaith Council. We have done gratitude journaling, meditation, and forest-bathing (pictured), and will do prayer/meditation/intention bead-making later this fall. Taking these moments to center, breathe, connect, and feel gratitude are helpful practices in many faiths and for mental and physical health as well.
The other thing that I have been doing on campus is a new program called “Dinner with Jesus”. I am partnering with some Lutherans to bring a progressive mainline protestant service on campus for Presbyterian, Methodist, Lutheran, UCC, and other students, that is LGBTQIA-celebrating — which hasn’t been an option on campus before. We have dinner, read scripture, and have a discussion about what it means. It has been 6 weeks and we have 1–9 students every week. Thank you for your support of this ministry on campus that is able to give some support to students.
As we move through the rest of the fall, I hope you all are finding ways to enjoy the colors, the crisp air, and cozy blankets. And I hope that you are finding ways to take care of yourselves and others.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Becky
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