by Emily Huff
For the 9th year in a row, we hosted our Blessing of the Backpacks, but this year, we hosted it social distanced style. Families were able to come over sometime in a two-hour window and pick up the blessing in a basket along with an ice cream sandwich to enjoy.
We hope this helps students have a fun start to this school year, and as they go to school (be it online or in person), we want them to know that their neighborhood loves them and will be praying for them.
Blessing of the Backpacks from 2012-2019
Blessing of the Backpacks 2020
Adapted from St. John’s Lutheran Church in Knoxville, TN and saltproject.org backpack blessings
~~~~
All photos by Emily Huff, used with permission.
~~~~
For other Back to School resources, see our Back to School section in the Seasons & Blessings page
by Tom Sine
In 2020s Foresight: Three Vital Practices for Thriving in a Decade of Accelerating Change, Dwight J. Friesen and I provide Christian leaders with essential resources for life-planning and change-making in the turbulent 2020s.
We show Christian leaders three new vital practices for times like these and how to adapt the first two vital practices that are essential to the work of environmental, urban planners and business innovators in this time of accelerating change. First, we show Christian leaders, and those they work with, how to anticipate some of the incoming waves of change (before they start planning), so they have lead-time to respond. Secondly, we show Christian leaders how to broadly research innovative ways to respond to the incoming waves to expand their range of options. Finally, we encourage Christian leaders to select those innovative options that most authentically reflect the ways of Jesus.
As you will see, 2020s Foresight will enable you, and those you work with, to not only go on a quick tour of some of the waves of change you and others are likely to encounter in the turbulent 2020s, Tom and Dwight will also take you on a tour of those remarkable innovators who are already finding ways to create their best lives, communities, neighborhoods and churches for times like these.
Best of all, this book is designed as a study book for use in churches, campus ministry groups, colleges and seminaries. Tom and Dwight are often available to do Zoom visits if you and your study group contact us ahead of time. Email Tom or Dwight.
Finally, check out my weekly blog posts at NewChangemakers. I would like to share some of your new innovative expressions with others who are going for their best in these tough times.
Celebrating hope and imagination in turbulent times like these!
~Order now!~
2020s Foresight released today!
by Rowan Wyatt
As a Celtic Christian and a member of the Community of St. Aidan and St. Hilda I revere Aidan and his works. I revere his way of being and hold him in admiration for all he achieved in his lifetime.
Here I want to focus on his way of being with the people, on his way of spreading the Gospel whilst amongst them and how this way of being should be core in our lives and faith journeys today. In fact, I would go as far as to say in this uncertain, unpredictable time that it should be an essential practice.
St. Aidan was known as a man of the people, he was respected as being one who would talk to everyone as equals, status was not something that concerned him or got in his way for he would speak and spent time with the lowliest peasant or the highest of Lords. He spoke to and with the people not at them, he taught the people, rather than ‘educating’ them, and he did it all with a heart of love and compassion and a soul full of wisdom and understanding.
In these rather strange times we are living in isn’t Aidan’s example be something we should be following? Loneliness, despair, solitude, and indifference are modern-day problems of large proportions. Suicide numbers, especially amongst men, are rising. Working hours are rising along with decreased job security, hand in hand with financial instability. We need each other more than ever now.
As Aidan went amongst the people so should we. I am not suggesting that we go on a public soapbox for in these modern days I am quite sure that is counterproductive, no I suggest we should be going amongst others and get to know them. Talk to them, come alongside them, befriend them.
People are desperate for community, they are longing to be heard, to be accompanied, to be supported, but we also have a need to be there for others. We will never grow in the Gospel we are preaching if we do not listen to one another, and be there for them in their times of need. Nor will that Good News seem of any relevance if we are not living it out ourselves.
Likewise, people need to trust us and respect us, as they did Aidan and his friend Hilda, if we are going to earn the right to speak about our faith with them. An egalitarian, honouring approach, where we see ourselves as “the least of these,” is very much needed in these times, perhaps especially amongst younger people, who view authority figures and religion as things to distrust. We need to humble ourselves and earn the right to speak by first and always acting out of Christ’s love. That way, instead of preaching at people, we shall always be simply speaking amongst friends.
by Christine Sine
This last week my discernment process has been sorely tested and I decided to share not just my testing but the vulnerability it raised and the healing it has brought within me. I hope that it will help you to face the hurts within you that restrict you from becoming the person god intends you to be.
I posted a link to Michelle Obama’s speech at the Democratic Convention on Facebook, and was overwhelmed by the derogatory comments that ensued. I don’t expect people to agree with me, but I do expect them to be respectful. The conversation soon degenerated into one about abortion and birth control. What really sent me over the edge was when someone commented “if women would just get their sex drive under control everything would be OK”.
On the surface, what really upset me was the lack of recognition of how male domination restricts women’s choices even today, and of how men love to blame women for their own failings.
I soon realized, however, that my response was far more than a reaction to the comments. It really revolved around some deeper issues that I needed to deal with myself. So I found myself returning to the process I outlined last week for help.
What Was I Having Trouble Naming?
What I was having trouble naming was the scars of male domination, beginning with my father’s domination of my mother and myself. As I grew into adulthood, and entered a male dominated world, there was the added shame of times in the past that I was left feeling dirty and violated. In my vulnerability, there were times that I almost succumbed to sexual advances because my job was at stake. Thank God for the strength of divine presence that made it possible for me to avoid these situations. You were there, God, protecting me in the midst of these violations, and though I still bear the scars, you have covered them with your healing balm.
I also have trouble naming the times I struggled to be the person God called me to be in the face of a male dominated world. Like the times I was told I was more like a man than a woman and wanted to run away and hide. There were other times I was told I could not lead because of my gender, or was rejected as a mate because of my leadership skills and intelligence. Sometimes I was silent when I should have spoken out. At others I spoke out of anger rather than love.
How Does This Lack of Self Awareness Make Me Vulnerable?
These scars from the past sometimes mean that I am tempted to walk down paths that are not of God’s choosing. Sometimes I want to walk the path of least resistance without really understanding why. Thank God for the strength and resilience that have built up within me as God has slowly peeled away the layers of hurt and anointed the scars with that healing balm.
Follow the Stirrings – Maintain Your Freedom.
In the midst of my struggles, I hear God say “I am proud of you. I chose you and I formed you in your mother’s womb with the strength and resilience for the job I prepared you for. You have not just survived, you have thrived and become a model for others to follow.”
Then I hear the echo of a young medic in the refugee camps in Thailand, “My prayer is that my daughters will have the same freedom that you have.” God has granted me incredible freedom and I need to embrace it and to do all I can to model it for others.
As I reflect on all of this, I see Jesus who responded in the exact opposite spirit, not dominating but releasing women. I hear him say “I am not like that. See how I treated my mother and the women that followed me. Don’t let your joy be stolen by those who are imprisoned in their bigotry and narrow mindedness. I have set you free. Live into that freedom.”
I wonder if the way Jesus treated women was in part a reflection of how his earthly father, Joseph, treated his mother. Such respect for Mary and the child she carried that was not his own, when he could have discarded them like Abraham discarded Hagar and Ishmael. So much love to protect you both when the world would have thrown you away.
We often talk about how God chose Mary but rarely think about how and why God chose Joseph. He must have been a man of great love and integrity and I claim that love and integrity as a model I can cherish in my heart. It heals me, and strengthens me.
Out of my reflections came this poem which is written as though Jesus is speaking the words:
In the midst of your whirling thoughts,
Do you feel my pain?
Is your distracted focus
The agony of my heart
For women oppressed
By men with no respect?
Do you hear the cries
Of those who are abused
Forced and then abandoned
To bear the guilt
And hatred of society?
My heart aches,
As my father Joseph
Ached for my mother Mary,
Accused and blamed
Without reason or understanding.
In his love,
He reached out with embrace
And not accusation.
Loving caring, protecting
Until the wonder of God
Was birthed through her.
Christine Sine August 2020
I chose the photo above because I wanted to express my awareness of the fact that we do not stand alone in our struggles and our vulnerabilities. A loving spouse, close friends and community members have all been instruments of God’s healing for me. I hope that you can say the same.
So my question for you today is: What do you have trouble naming and how is it restricting you from becoming the person God intends you to be?
A contemplative service with music in the style-of-Taizé for the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost from St Andrews Episcopal Church in Seattle. Enjoy.
Carrie Grace Littauer, prayer leader, with music by Kester Limner and Andy Myers.
Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-710-756 with additional notes below.
“‘Tis a Gift to Be Simple” – Traditional Shaker folk song – words and music from the American Shaker tradition, public domain.
“Magnificat” – “My soul magnifies the Lord…” — The song of Mary, from the Gospel of Luke. Copyright and all rights reserved by GIA/Les Presses de Taizé.
“The Law of God is Love” – Text and music by Kester Limner, composed June 2020, shared under the Creative Commons License, Attribution (CC-BY)
“Kyrie for July 5” – Music by Kester Limner and Andy Myers, text by Kester Limner. Shared under the Creative Commons License, Attribution (CC-BY).
“In the Lord” – Copyright and all rights reserved by GIA/Les Presses de Taizé. www.saintandrewsseattle.org
by Carol Dixon
In May 2007 I stayed for three Days on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne living in the Bothy at St Cuthbert’s United Reformed Church Centre where the Director, helped me to reflect on ‘changing gear’ from working life to retirement. I spent the days walking and meditating, taking photos and trying a new venture – painting (not very successfully), using the trellis of set times of prayer as a framework. Each day also I went to look at St Cuthbert’s Isle, just off the coast of Holy Island to observe it in different lights and tides as well as from different angles to help me to reflect on the routine of life from different perspectives.
Cuthbert’s Isle
Each evening I re-membered my impressions of each day before sleeping – a kind of walk through the day with Jesus, ending with a prayer of dedication committing the coming night into God’s good keeping:
‘Stay with me, Lord, as another day living in your presence fades into darkness and silence.
This day leaves behind it reminders that we do not do your planning for you. I know that I was, and am, and always will be in your hands.
Carry me along the shortest route to your heart.’ [A prayer of Brother Lawrence]
During the day I also spent time apart with St Aidan, standing by the statue of him near the Priory, not far from the religious settlement he founded in 635AD when he first arrived from Iona to bring the flame of faith to the heathen Northumbrians at the request of King Oswald who had been raised on Iona.
During the day I also spent time apart with St Aidan, standing by the statue of him near the Priory, not far from the religious settlement he founded in 635AD when he first arrived from Iona to bring the flame of faith to the heathen Northumbrians at the request of King Oswald who had been raised on Iona.
Statue of Aidan Holy Island
As a way of reflecting I used a hymn I had written, meditating on a verse at a time:
- Behold the beauty of our God, in vast expanse of sea and sky, in bobbing seal and cuddy duck, in tern and puffin’s raucous cry.
As I sang the first verse, I thought of how Aidan must have immersed himself in the beauty of his surroundings. Although St Cuthbert was more associated with the birds and animals on Lindisfarne, they must have reminded Aidan of the island he had left to come to this foreign place, peopled by Anglo-Saxons, a totally different race from the Celts & Picts he was used to, and how in all the strangeness, he was able to feel at home in the beauty of God’s creation. When we find ourselves in a strange place, literally or emotionally, what do we cling to that reminds us of God?
- We sense the imprint in the sand Aidan and Cuthbert’s feet once trod, upon their daily pilgrimage to draw them closer still to God.
As I walked along the beach I felt as though I was walking on holy ground, where saints of old had passed. How many other pilgrims had following in their steps over the centuries, I wondered. Are there places where we feel closer to God?
- We catch the whisper of their prayers in gusts of wind on rippling dunes, and lapping waves on Cuthbert’s Isle dance to creation’s joyful tunes.
Perhaps Aidan felt the same wind of the Holy Spirit driving him on as he looked out over Hobthrush islet (as Cuthbert’s Isle was known). It seems as if it inspired him to walk alongside the poor and the downtrodden he met along the way, as well as when he was with the King and the court that he had come to serve? How does the Holy Spirit inspire us to bring the joy of Christ to our world today?
- We learn to praise the living God in service and in solitude, and draw aside from teeming throng to work and pray for greater good.
Window, St Aidan’s Roman Catholic Church, Holy Island.
- The Spirit wings across the air to touch us with God’s kiss of peace, and so renewed in heart and mind, our love for all will never cease.
I thought about Psalm 84 that I had learned as a child in its metrical version ‘How lovely is thy dwelling place, O Lord of hosts to me’ and as I sat on the grass beside Aidan I re-read it in my Bible:
How lovely is your dwelling place,
Lord Almighty!
2 My soul yearns, even faints,
for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh cry out
for the living God.
3 Even the sparrow has found a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may have her young—
a place near your altar,
Lord Almighty, my King and my God.
4 Blest are those who dwell in your house;
they are ever praising you.[c]
5 Blest are those whose strength is in you,
whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.
6 As they pass through the valley,
they make it a place of springs;
the autumn rains cover it with pools.
- All glory be to Christ our strength, safe haven of the Father’s love, and praise to God the three in one, from saints below and saints above. © Carol Dixon
When Aidan left the ‘safe haven’ of the monastic life on Iona to set out on his missionary journey perhaps he felt all at sea. Yet following God’s guidance, he didn’t set up his church within the safety of the king’s stronghold at Bamburgh as he was invited to do. Instead he found himself close to the Triune God in the wildness of a tidal island out in the cold North Sea and the small settlement he founded there continues in different ways to this day.
What ripples do our Christian lives drop in God’s pool of love that resonate for others, I wonder?
Prayer: A meeting of earth and heaven…
I came – thinking I knew how to pray,
and discovered that all my preconceived ideas
crumbled to dust, and ran through my fingers,
like grains of sand upon the shore.
Instead I decided just to be, to wait
and see what happened, or not,
and not worry about the difference, indifferent
to feelings of whether God was present.
And God was here, was everywhere!
Whether my intellect, imagination, or spirit
could comprehend was of no consequence.
Deep down, beyond the depths of reason,
beyond fathoming, I know:
‘Surely God is in this place.’ © Carol Dixon
Music for hymn (Whittingham Fair Northumbrian Traditional) from CD Cuthbert’s Isle © Carol Dixon [click on link below]
(All photos by Carol Dixon)
By Lilly Lewin
It’s back to school time here in the States but this year looks very different thanks to Covid19.
In my part of the country, students have already started back, some virtually and some in person. In the middle of a pandemic there is so much to consider for administrators, parents, teachers and for students too.
So many emotions to add to our pandemic fatigue.
I have one son doing law school totally online this fall when he’d much rather be across the street at the law school going to class in person. I have a friend who chose to retire from teaching, realizing her health issues made it too risky to teach in person this year. I know of other teachers working extra long hours prepping for online learning, in person classes and a combination of both, while waiting to see what will happen in their districts. And already this month, my college alma mater chose to meet in person, but has had to shut down and go online due to an outbreak of cases of the virus.
And then there are the parents and grandparents trying to figure out how to make at-home learning happen if school doesn’t open in person.
As a former teacher, I know how hard it is to teach in the best of times, but if you are a parent, not planning on home schooling your kids, this is a lot to take on while trying to manage your own work either at home or at the office.
So what can we do besides feel frustrated or overwhelmed?
Just typing this makes me stress out on behalf of parents, teachers and students!
So that means it is time to pray!
SIT DOWN AT YOUR DESK…
Open your computer… consider all the people you know who are sitting in front of computers, laptops, iPads or even using their phones to learn or to teach.
Picture friends that you know who are students, friends who are teachers, friends who are parents.
Pray for them as they come to mind.
Make a list of their names to keep on your desk. Ask God to inspire them as they begin the new school year and to keep them safe and healthy if they are going back to school in person. Keep that list of friends on your desk or some where you will see it regularly to remind you to pray for them.
NOW CUP YOUR HANDS… FEEL THE WEIGHT OF….
The Frustration and uncertainty of starting school in the midst of a pandemic.
The Skill it takes to get students to look at screen beyond video games and Netflix.
The Patience it takes to wear a mask all day and try to keep students engaged.
The Intensity of Preparing lessons that are interesting when not in the same room.
The Desire students have to be with their friends and away from their families.
The Loss of ritual and routine.
The Frustration parents are feeling juggling work and teaching.
The Desire of everyone to have things run as normal.
The Loss of normalcy, sports, activities etc.
What else comes up as you consider the things teachers, students, faculty, staff, and parents are all feeling as school begins again?
NOW reach your hands across your desk and put all of these heavy things into the hands of Jesus.
LET JESUS HOLD ALL THE HEAVINESS OF TEACHERS, STUDENTS, PARENTS, PASTORS and ADMINISTRATORS and any thing else you are carrying around regarding the beginning of the school year in your area.
ACTION :
What can you do as a church community to help parents?
What can you do as an individual or small group even if you don’t have kids?
Some ideas:
Pay attention to the news in your area about how schools are restarting so you can pray about and even provide what people might need. Pray through the headlines as you read or listen to the news.
Cook a meal or order carry out/take away for a family or single parent
Open your bubble to include a family who needs back up for their students and help them with school work or provide a place to study online while parents are away at work or even at home working.
I know of Churches that are stepping up and becoming study halls for virtual learning as students need safe places to learn and need access to wifi while parents need to be at their jobs. Could your church do something like this?
Provide teachers in your church community and/or neighborhood with a meal, a care package, a note of encouragement as they teach online, or go back to the classroom under strained circumstances.
BRING JOY:
Imagine the positive. We will get through this. We will go on vacations. We will see better days. Maybe not this year but eventually, our lives will gather a rhythm that will feel much closer to normal than we do now.
Create a mental picture for this for yourself and ask others in your world to do the same. Create a collage, cut out words or phrases, pictures out of magazines to create a vision board type collage of favorites and things that bring you joy.
What do you need the most? Sunshine, A Walk in Nature? Are you dreaming of snow, a fireplace, Fall weather or Spring flowers? depending upon where you live. Do you need a long, social distancing walk with a friend? A Bubble Bath or a Nap? Make time for some of this.
And if something that you’ve been dreaming of or planning cannot happen now, remember that this is temporary and that we will get through this one day at a time.
Create groups, even if it’s on Zoom to both mourn, and to believe for the future with friends. Make sure to re-connect with friends you may have missed in all the stress and problems.
Stop attacking those who you think are doing it wrong. They may be wrong. But this is a long haul problem, and lasso-ing your mind to focus on the good, and on joy, will save you days of pain.
KEEP IT GOING:
Keep an apple on your Desk or near your kitchen sink, or somewhere you will see it often, to use as a reminder to continue to pray for teachers, students, and parents/grandparents, staff and administrators as school begins. And keep creating joy in the midst of everything, one day at a time.
Keep an apple near to remind you to pray for teachers, parents, grandparents and students
CLOSING PRAYER
Lord! Give us grace today to love as you love. Help us to love with extravagance. Give us hope today for ourselves and others. Heal our hurts and our hearts today, So we can serve and help those around us. Help us to know that you are enough. And help us live today and everyday in thankfulness.
For all you’ve done, and for all you bless us with. In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. AMEN.
When we can all meet again, check out the Back to School Prayer Experience where all the prayer stations are based on school supplies.
©lillylewin and freerangeworship@gmail.com
As an Amazon Associate, I receive a small amount for purchases made through appropriate links.
Thank you for supporting Godspace in this way.
When referencing or quoting Godspace Light, please be sure to include the Author (Christine Sine unless otherwise noted), the Title of the article or resource, the Source link where appropriate, and ©Godspacelight.com. Thank you!