<html><body><span style="font-family:Verdana; color:#000000; font-size:10pt;"><div>And we heard our "priest in charge", retired Dean from Helena, Montana cathedral, at our Grace Episcopal Church give sermon on the scriptures of the day : Micah 6:1-8 and Matthew 5:1-12 (Sermon on the Mount). He wove the 2 together, reminded us of that old show Law and Order and asked the question of the congregation if we were on trial as Christians, and had to plead our case before God, would we be declared guilty as Christians, not guilty or dismissed due to lack of evidence to prove that we'd cared for the poor, fed the hungry, visited the sick or imprisoned, or welcomed the stranger, etc. What would we say, and what would witnesses say about us? </div>
<div>Powerful message. </div>
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<div>Then he asked a woman from our congregation (who teaches at the university here and had posted her story on Facebook earlier in the week) to come forward to recount 2 encounters she'd had within 5 minutes of each other on campus this week. It was a very windy and blustery cold day, and she explained that before she left her car to walk to her morning meeting, she bundled up with her warm jacket and scarf. As she started walking down the street, a car stopped and she noticed that the occupants (a man and woman) seemed to be sizing her up carefully, and as they finally approached they smiled and waved at her; within minutes a man passed her on the sidewalk and kept looking at her, mumbling and scowling. She was a little mystified by these encounters and it was not until later that she realized (and in the telling of the story at this point, she pulled up the long black scarf she'd had around her shoulders to cover her head and neck with it) that both the smiling couple and the scowling man had pegged her as Muslim (the first car's female rider had been wearing a hajab). She related it as a moment of "Grace" for her. She also said she'd wished she'd thought of it at the time, to ask the 2nd man what he'd actually said and what had disturbed him. </div>
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<div>After watching a little bit of news, and before church, I remarked to Luigi, that it had occurred to me that maybe I/we women should start wearing a hajab and pretending to be Muslim in solidarity with the many who are being singled out, isolated and bullied. Perhaps this is the next March we will be having -- and BTW, we'd just returned home from our trip to Spain the night before (having gone thru 2 of the airports now filled with protesters a week later), so we did not attend the Women's March held here in St. George, UT, on 1/21. Several of our friends did (I'm including them on this email). Per news reports, they'd expected 100 people, and close to 1500 showed up. </div>
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<div>Now I'm riled up.... sparked to action, at least to writing, by the stories of the day and poems Jim sent. </div>
<div>(see below)</div>
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<div>Blessings to all, Jill</div>
<div> </div>
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<DIV id=wmQuoteWrapper>-------- Original Message --------<BR>Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Some poems<BR>From: John C via OE <<a href="mailto:oe@lists.wedgeblade.net">oe@lists.wedgeblade.net</a>><BR>Date: Sun, January 29, 2017 9:37 am<BR>To: James Wiegel <<a href="mailto:jfwiegel@yahoo.com">jfwiegel@yahoo.com</a>>, Order Ecumenical Community<BR><<a href="mailto:oe@lists.wedgeblade.net">oe@lists.wedgeblade.net</a>><BR><BR>
<DIV>Powerful poems. Thanks, Jim. </DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Just got out of 9:45 worship, and the female minister for thirty-eight years put her prepared sermon aside and preached about Jesus telling the disciples how to love and take care of their [our] seemingly impossible situation … without mentioning the first week of the new reign of the Trump and Bannon show. But most everyone knew whereof she spoke and probably meditated more seriously about our </DIV>
<DIV>responsibility in the awesome times we’re a part of. </DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>These are the times … We are the people.</DIV>
<DIV>John Cock</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN id=OLK_SRC_BODY_SECTION>Thanks Jim, Very powerful poems. On the mark for today’s anxieties.</DIV>
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<DIV style='FONT-SIZE: small; TEXT-DECORATION: none; FONT-FAMILY: "Calibri"; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; COLOR: #000000; FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline'><B>From:</B> <A title=oe@lists.wedgeblade.net target=_blank>James Wiegel via OE</A></DIV>
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<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, January 29, 2017 7:05 AM</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=dialogue@wedgeblade.net target=_blank>Colleague Dialogue</A> ; <A title=oe@lists.wedgeblade.net target=_blank>Order Ecumenical Community</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> [Oe List ...] Some poems</DIV></DIV></DIV>
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<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>"TWO POEMS FROM THIS MORNING</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature> </DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>A Ritual to Read to Each Other" </DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>by William Stafford</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature> </DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>If you don't know the kind of person I am </DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>and I don't know the kind of person you are </DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>a pattern that others made may prevail in the</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature> world </DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>and following the wrong god home we may miss</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature> our star.</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature> </DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>For there is many a small betrayal in the mind, </DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>a shrug that lets the fragile sequence break </DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>sending with shouts the horrible errors of</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature> childhood </DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>storming out to play through the broken dike.</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature> </DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>And as elephants parade holding each</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature> elephant's tail, </DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>but if one wanders the circus won't find the</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature> park, </DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>I call it cruel and maybe the root of all cruelty </DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>to know what occurs but not recognize the fact.</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature> </DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>And so I appeal to a voice, to something</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature> shadowy, </DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>a remote important region in all who talk: </DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>though we could fool each other, we should</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature> consider—</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>lest the parade of our mutual life get lost in the</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>dark.</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature> </DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>For it is important that awake people be awake,</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>or a breaking line may discourage them back to</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature> sleep; </DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>the signals we give — yes or no, or maybe —</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature> </DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature> </DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>Deeply grateful to Helen Gerhardt for this: ............................ </DIV>
<DIV>I know, I know</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>If you could go back you</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>would walk with Jesus</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>You would march with King</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>Maybe assassinate Hitler</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>At least hide Jews in your basement</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>It would all be clear to you</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>But people then, just like you</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>were baffled, had bills</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>to pay and children they didn’t</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>understand and they too</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>were so desperate for normalcy</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>they made anything normal</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>Even turning everything inside out</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>Even killing, and killing, and it’s easy</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>for turning the other cheek</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>to be looking the other way, for walking</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>to be talking, and they hid</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>in their houses</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>and watched it on television, when they had television,</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>and wrung their hands</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>or didn’t, and your hands</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>are just like theirs. Lined, permeable,</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>small, and you</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>would follow Caesar, and quote McCarthy, and Hoover, and you would want</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>to make Germany great again</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>Because you are afraid, and your</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>parents are sick, and your</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>job pays s@$t and where’s your</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>dignity? Just a little dignity and those kids sitting down in the highway,</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>and chaining themselves to</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>buildings, what’s their f@*#king</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>problem? And that kid</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>That’s King. And this is Selma. And Berlin. And Jerusalem. And now</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>is when they need you to be brave.</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>Now</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>is when we need you to go back</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>and forget everything you know</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>and give up the things you’re chained to</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>and make it look so easy in your</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>grandkids’ history books (they should still have them, kinehora)</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>Now</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>is when it will all be clear to them.</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>~Danny Bryck</DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature> </DIV>
<DIV id=AppleMailSignature>Jim Wiegel</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>"<SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 13pt">We are no longer living in an era of change. We are living in a change of era." Francis</SPAN></DIV>
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