Claudia Oviedo Tsiaousopoulos is a member of a United Methodist church in the NC Conference with a large immigrant population. She shares her experiences being a member of this community and urges us to stand in solidarity with them in their time of need. Visit the Immigration Resources page for more information.
Stories
A Gun Violence Reflection from Kennedy
Rev. Kennedy Gray shares how gun violence has affected him and his church community.
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A Gun Violence Reflection from John
John Kelso, a long-serving member of the FBI, tells about the impact of gun violence on his life and work. John serves as a member of the Bishop’s Gun Violence Prevention Task Force.
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An Encouragement for February
The Center for Leadership Excellence, in partnership with COSROW, is pleased to lift up the voices of women in ministry encouraging fellow women in ministry. Please enjoy this month’s Encouragement from Monica Beacham, pastor of Cedar Grove UMC in Cedar Grove.
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Although you’re reading this in February, I am writing to you on what feels like the 53rd of January, when I should be working on my statistical tables. The past few weeks are a blur of trying to begin the administrative year and care for my congregation, while preaching and living amid the fears and uncertainties of our current political situation and flurry of executive orders from our new/old President. I’ve always identified with Jonah, but rarely have I identified more with the Jonah of Jonah, chapter 4:
Read Jonah 4:1-4 (NRSVUE):
But this [God not punishing Nineveh] was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. He prayed to the LORD and said, “O LORD! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning, for I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from punishment. And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” And the LORD said, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
I’ve been lucky enough to sit in on a class lately with Dr. Kate Bowler, a short class about American religious history, especially as it influences our modern and misguided “everything happens for a reason” theology. In the class we’ve been talking a lot about Americans’ love for “mental magic,” our dogged belief that our mindset and attitude can change the outcome of our circumstances. In generations past, this might have been known as “the power of positive thinking,” as Norman Vincent Peale opined. Now Gen Z might call it “manifesting”— getting what you want by imagining it into being. As American Christians we tend to believe that in order to do anything, we first need the right mindset, and that our mindset can affect the outcome.
As women in ministry, this belief is especially pernicious. We are expected, perhaps more so than our male colleagues, not only to do our work but to do it with a smile on our faces. If we are having a hard time, and especially if we are angry, we are expected to disguise it. If we are discouraged, we may not admit it. We may even go so far as to feel guilty when we’re not feeling cheerful every day about our calling, because of the mistaken belief that our attitude will somehow change the outcome. And yet there is Jonah, who clearly didn’t have the right attitude about going to Nineveh, who tried to get out of going altogether, and who God worked through to save the Ninevites in spite of his bad attitude.
I’m not saying that a bad attitude is what we’re striving for, or that we should be like John Lithgow’s character “Rev. Dwight Henderson: World’s Meanest Methodist minister” from SNL. But maybe, just maybe, the outcomes of our work have more to do with the power of our redeeming God, and less to do with our attitude on any given day. I’m certainly counting on it.
How are you really doing right now? When have you had to work or endure in spite of tough emotions or situations? Do you put a lot of pressure on yourself or others to “stay positive?” When, like Jonah, has being honest about your feelings led to their transformation?
In partnership,
Center for Leadership Excellence and the Commission on the Status and Role of Women
Gun Violence Prevention Lenten Study: Jude’s Story
Hear Jude’s story about the impact of gun violence on youth.
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Week of Prayer for Christian Unity – Day 8
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity takes place this year from January 18-25. The theme is “Do You Believe?” and is based on Jesus’ conversation with Martha in John 11: “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
The theme was chosen in recognition of the 1700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea (325), at which the words “I believe” were chosen to anchor the Creed as an instrument of universal Christian unity. For each day during this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, the members of the Christian Unity and Interreligious Relationships (CUIR) committee will share a series of devotions based on the statements in the Nicene Creed.
You can now view all eight of these devotionals on our website.
Day 8: We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
Praying the final verse of the Nicene Creed, we confess our true belief in the unity to which Christ calls us as he prayed his priestly prayer of John 17: that indeed, “they will be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. I pray that they also will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me” (John 17:21 CEB).
Nevertheless, we live in such a divided and divisive world. While the world embraces an “us vs. them” mentality, it so often seems the Church does, too. We see this in our own denomination as we timidly emerge from schism, a time in which members from both the United Methodist Church and the Global Methodist Church have both felt and dealt hurt and harm through words and actions against those with whom we theologically disagree. This is not a unique story in Christian history. And yet, throughout the ages, our traditions continue confessing the “oneness” of the Church which Christ has founded while choosing to go our separate ways.
It was Archbishop of Uppsala Nathan Söderblom who famously declared, “the world is too strong for a divided Church.” His statement rings just as true in today’s landscape as it did at the Life and Work Conference of 1925. When we confess the Church as ‘catholic,’ we affirm that it is universal, transcending borders, cultures, and confessional divides. What shared witness do Christians make to the world when we do not live in Christian love within our own ecclesial identities?
Christian unity is a gift from God; it is not something we have to create, but rather we have to acknowledge we have departed from such unity, working and serving to bring it about once again. This unity in Christ is grounded in our common baptism.
When we enter into the sacrament of baptism, we are no longer who we were before. Indeed, “baptism is the sign of new life through Jesus Christ. It unites the one baptized with Christ and with his people” (Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry, II.2). Through baptism, our old life passes away and we are created anew. When we affirm our common baptism, we acknowledge the collective nature of the Church. Baptism is not baptism into a denomination; rather, through the sacrament we are initiated into Christ’s holy Church and incorporated into God’s mighty acts of salvation. Through God’s abundant grace, the congregation shares in remembrance of our own baptisms, celebrating with the newly baptized that indeed, “we are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Just as all Christians are initiated through the sacrament of baptism, so too do all Christians join together in the hope of the Christological refrain: “He is Risen! He is Risen, Indeed!” As Christians, we are Easter people, living in the abundant hope of resurrection even in the midst of a world so often full of death and decay.
To each of these creedal affirmations, we conclude by joining in a collective “amen.” Indeed, “truly,” this is what we believe; these are the essentials of our faith. Church traditions and denominations will always have differences of opinions – from liturgical practices to theological debates. In the creed, however, we confess our essential reality; that which binds us together to those whom we might otherwise disagree. In confessing the creed, we confess our unity, not that which divides us.
As we conclude this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, in reflecting on the Nicene Creed, it is my hope that you will be challenged to lean further into Christian unity and reflect more fully on the Nicene Creed. The creed is not simply another part of the liturgy, but rather a confession with profound implications for each of our lives and the collective life of the Church. As we seek for Christian unity, let us focus on what joins us together, not that which separates us.
Miles Baker Hunt is a member of CUIR and a provisional elder in the North Carolina Conference. He is currently completing post-graduate studies with the World Council of Churches in Geneva, Switzerland.
Photo by Albin Hillert, 4 October 2019, Geneva, Switzerland: Ecumenical Centre, Geneva.