Reflection from your Co-Pastors
September 15, 2020
Today, in the church, we remember Our Lady of Sorrows, our Sorrowful Mother. The Lectionary opening prayer leads us: O Compassionate God, as Jesus was raised on the Cross, his mother Mary stood by him, sharing his suffering. May we, your Church, be united with Christ in his suffering and death, and with Mary, our holy mother.
Truly a passion: Mary and her family were of the lowest class. Their nationality and ethnicity meant that they were the poorest of the poor, immigrants across generations, voiceless, ignored, jeered, trampled, hounded, jailed, tormented, tortured, killed, crucified for all to see. I can’t help but think of our efforts to keep visible these gross injustices within our society. I’m thinking of our Social Justice efforts and our memorable at the beginning of our Sunday services of those Black Americans who are being killed outright, for all to witness. One way to enter into this communal suffering is through the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary. How each of those meditations looks, sounds, and feels is similar to the experience of mothers of color. Sorrowful Mothers -- broken hearts, broken, breathless, some the walking dead, and others, resilient. How repetitive of the sorrows of Mary!
There are countless brown people who have died as the result of an encounter with U.S. border agents, who will remain forever nameless. Many more have been brutalized, in some cases causing life-altering or fatal injuries. They all have mothers. Do we even know the numbers of children, adolescents, and adults held in our internment camps? Each individual has a mother!
Mapping Police Violence shows that “Black Americans were killed at three times the rate of white Americans from 2013 to 2019, when adjusted for population. In some cities, like Oklahoma City and Phoenix, the occurrence of police violence against any race of victim doesn’t correlate with crime rates. And Black victims of police killings are more likely to be unarmed during the encounters.”(1) They all have mothers!
Many Black mothers have become activists, their anger moving them to positive action. How any mother can remain alive with such trauma is baffling to me. Where do we go from here? I offer that we continue our support because, just like the nomadic and maligned Israelites and other communities who only survive through communal effort, data shows the social support increases resilience.
One study showed the positive effect of social support (2) giving us good reason to continue to bring attention and support. Although much attention has been granted to the perpetrators and victims of gun violence, limitations exist in our understanding of the psychological well-being of parents grieving children lost to gun violence. The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating effects of social support, cognitive appraisal, and quality health care on the relationship between traumatic stress and resilience among Black mothers bereaving children to gun violence. Social support and positive appraisal were found to be protective factors of resilience for study participants. The traumatic stress experienced by the sample decreased
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with increased social support, leading to an increase of their resilience. With positive appraisal of the loss, the stress levels of study participants decreased, leading to increased resilience. Quality health care showed a significant positive relationship with the resilience of the women but did not mediate the relationship between their stress and resilience. For Black mothers who experience loss of a child to gun violence, policy and social change efforts should focus on strengthening their access to formal and informal supports and improving their abilities to find meaning in their loss. (2)Pray with me the Magnificat, a prayer of courage by Mary, a brown-skinned teenager bringing a baby boy into a desperate world, filled with inequality and abuse of power. She believes deep down in her bones that her Creator is a God of holy subversion, a God who is still at work bringing hope and peace. She is filled with divine hope and embodies a prophetic peace. For all the traumatized mothers (3)
My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things,and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made
to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.
Amen
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https://www.vox.com/2020/6/30/21306843/black-police-killings.
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“The mediating role of social support, cognitive appraisal, and quality health care in black mothers' stress-resilience process following loss to gun violence” by Annette Bailey , Manoj Sharma, and Michelle Jubin (PMID: 23763109 Violence Vic: 2013;28(2):233-47. doi: 10.1891/0886-6708.11-0015
- Rachel Held Evans, “Mary, the Magnificat, and an Unsentimental Advent.” Can be accessed at https://rachelheldevans.com/blog/unsentimental-advent
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Strengthening our Future - Join Bishop Francis in conversation - LAST TWO SESSIONS
September 17 - Youth Engagement 6:00 PM MDT
September 21 - All 3 topics discussed in Spanish 7:00 PM MDT,
Registration required - Click HERE to register and to add any questions you would like addressed during the calls. (Registration will close 24 hours prior to each session.)
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Schedule - Sunday Services
Sept 20- Father Teri; 5:00 pm ZOOM
Sept 27 - Pastor Jane; Outdoor Service at 11:00 am
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If inclement weather, we will host a Zoom service at 11:00 am. No 5:00 pm service
Oct 4 - Father Teri; 5:00 pm ZOOM
Oct 11 - Deacon Rosean; 5:00 p ZOOM
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Read the summer 2020 edition of 'The Journey Shared'
A quarterly newsletter from the Rocky Mountain Region of the ECC. Click HERE to read
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Participate in Social Justice Efforts Benefiting our Local Community
Read about all the current opportunities to participate in Social Justice efforts posted in Friday's announcements |
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Community Prayer Requests
For Lauren Roob entering into new cancer treatment- friend of Rosanna Bateman.
Healing prayers for Dianna Padilla, sister of Lisa Jones, who underwent surgery for cancer. For Liz and Ken Zornes and family, friends of Sandra and Dick Life, whose daughter is struggling with addiction.
For Courtney, daughter of Jean and Tom Christen. Michael Keefe, son of member Yvonne Keefe.
For the continued recovery of Linda Joyce. For Dona Bosse - community member and Rosemary - Fr Michael's mother.
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For Dani - Niece of the Cloyds and Mary Crosby – parishioner. For Chris Bachman, friend of Lisa Jones and Ruth Parker, sister of Dori Carroll. And Leo Six – father of Michael Six, Mike Gudim, Margie Weitz, Suzanne King, Robert Browell.
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For peaceful repose for the souls of those who've passed and comfort for the families.
Bob - Husband of Joyce Dehaven,
friend of Cathy Engels
David Heyman - member
Teri Kent - member
Pat DeMuth -sister of Jim DeMuth, member
Bill McClellan - Father of Jennifer Pfeister, member
Father of Julie Shoenbauer, member
Edwin White - brother in law of Pastor Jane
Bill, Greg, and Calvin -
friends of Deacon Rosean
And for Ted Boltz and comfort for Fr. Frank Quintana and family - an ECC Pastor of St. Oscar Romero, ECC in Albuquerque.
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Discovery and Perspective
An open discussion of scripture
Join in conversation and connection weekly with Pastor Jane
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Our Service Recordings and More
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#BLACKLIVESMATTER
Sunday we remembered Philando Castile, a 34 year old killed by police in 2016. After informing police he had a registered gun on his person he was shot.
Castile’s case highlights the injustice and racial prejudice in traffic stops for Black Americans. According to an NPR analysis, Castile had been stopped a total of 46 times — almost all of which were related to fairly minor traffic violations. His case also highlights the injustice in gun ownership laws for Black Americans. Gun owners are obligated to inform police that they have a weapon, yet Black owners are more often shot upon revealing this information. Today we pray for Philando and his loved ones. May he rest in power. Black lives matter.
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Newsletters of Trinity Lutheran Church and the St. Paul's Episcopal
What are our partners in ministry here up to? Go here for the Trinity Lutheran Church monthly newsletter, "Tidings". And here is St Paul's weekly bulletin
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For all bulletins, reflections, Sunday recordings during our hiatus from celebrating together, visit our webpage. Please contact us with questions, concerns and ideas for better connection
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