Thursday, March 31, 2022
For Ramadan...
And if you're Muslim or not Muslim, this is an opportunity to learn something:
Looking to learn about the Islamic month of Ramadan? ING provides great resources for your educational needs:•Learn: ING’s Ramadan PowerPoint, with scripts and accompanying notes, provides an overview of Ramadan and fasting, including the purpose and goals of fasting, a look at a typical day of a fasting person, and challenges for fasting students and workers and how best to accommodate them. It concludes with a presentation on Eid ul-Fitr, the holiday that celebrates the end of the fast: http://www.ing.org/ramadan
•Ask: ING’s Frequently Asked Questions equip you with answers to top questions about Muslims and their faith:
About Islam and Muslims:http://www.ing.org/faq
A Closer Look at Sharia in the United States: http://www.ing.org/sharia
•Present: If you would like to schedule a Muslim speaker to discuss Ramadan or on other topics related to Muslims and Islam, you can contact ING’s Islamic Speaker's Bureau: http://www.ing.org/presentation
Aim to = intend to: another great and short video from The Blind Pig & The Acorn
I am hoping that everyone is Celebrating Appalachia by supporting The Blind Pig & The Acorn blog!
Wednesday, March 30, 2022
A Splendid Lenten Reflection By Grace Okerson
It was a joy for me to read this brief Lenten Devotional written by Grace Okerson and sent on by the Methodist Federation for Social Action.
2022 Lent Devotional: Week 5
By Grace Okerson
“Without community, there is no liberation...but community must not mean a shedding of our differences, nor the pathetic pretense that these differences do not exist.” – Audre Lorde
This quote by Audre Lorde always reminds me that liberation is intricately connected to the company we keep; we are all connected---for better or for worse.
So much of my personal and professional work over the past five years has been centered around being connected to those around me, especially those on the margins. I served as a missionary through the General Board of Global Ministries for two years in Detroit, MI with the NOAH Project tackling issues around homelessness. It was there that I developed a deep passion for social justice and mission. It was that work in Detroit and the glaring intersection between homelessness and mass incarceration that fed my passion and interest of prison abolition and led me to seminary which has informed my advocacy and work in ways I could not have imagined. Those that I worked alongside were different than I was, but it was those differences that fueled a beautiful relationship full of awe and wonder. It was those differences that made it clear that there was work to be done together if the liberation of all God’s people was to be achieved.
As Christians, we need to focus on liberation. Liberation and freedom are a part of God’s intention for humanity. When looking at creation and the imago Dei, we can see that God’s intention for humanity was mutuality, respect, and valuing of one another. God’s intention was for all humans to have dignity and worth. God created us to be bound up with one another. Adam and Eve were “bone of bone and flesh of flesh,” intricately connected to one another for better or for worse. Humanity was created to be free. Although we are radically free, there is responsibility in said freedom. The freedom we have is for something. It is for creation, for God, and for others. Freedom for is not power over something or someone. It is freedom that is oriented toward the flourishing of the earth, of one another, and for receiving God within our lives. To be made in the image of God is to participate in God’s freedom within what is given to us. The freedom for one another causes us to be dependent upon one another.
As a queer, Black woman, belonging is something that I have always craved. I have always strived to be “enough” and have tried to contort myself to fit into the boxes that society has made for me. Rather than try to find a box that can encompass my identity, I have found that I need to get rid of the boxes entirely. I was not created to fit into a box or conform to societal standards. I was fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God tasked to bring Christ’s kin-dom here on earth. I am different. And my difference matters, and makes me unique. I am a person who values community above all else and strives to create inclusive and affirming communities where individual flourishing can be realized. When thinking about freedom and liberation, I often love to ask others the following question: “Who would you be if you were allowed to flourish in all the desires of your heart?”
The answer to that question is at the heart of liberation. The answer to that question is the gateway to figuring out how we all can become radically free. Let’s get free together.
You make our collective work possible by your witness for justice every day in your church, community, and Annual Conference. MFSA does not receive any financial support from the United Methodist Church's giving channels. 100% of our budget is funded through your membership dues and your generosity in giving.
A Florida native, Grace Okerson is a first year Master of Divinity Student studying at Candler School of Theology @ Emory in Atlanta, Georgia. She is pursuing a concentration in Chaplaincy with the hope of going into hospital and/or hospice chaplaincy. She wants to journey with people through their grief and in their points of crisis, putting her own gifts, talents, and lived experience of grief to use.
Equipped with a Master of Arts in Public Ministry from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Grace’s passions surround dismantling white supremacy and prison abolition. Grace graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Social Science with minors in Diversity and Social Inequality, Women and Gender Studies, and Journalism Studies from the University of Central Florida.
From 2017-2019, Grace then served as Global Mission Fellow with the General Board of Global Ministries as the Lunch & Volunteer Coordinator at the NOAH Project, an agency tackling issues around homeless in downtown Detroit, MI.
Grace currently works with McCormick Theological Seminary’s Solidarity Building Initiative as the Special Projects Coordinator & Content Curator. Through a praxis of curious- learning, innovative-action, and active-reflection, Grace has imagined into existence life-giving solutions and collaborative partnerships towards justice-making and solidarity-building with those who have been marginalized by hyper incarceration.
Grace is a certified candidate for ordained ministry in the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church and plans to continue her ministry as a deacon. When she is not working or in school, you can find Grace exploring the city and traveling the globe. Grace enjoys walks, reading, writing, and taking naps on the beach.
From Farm Worker Ministry Northwest: TULIP FARM WORKER UPDATE Cautious Hope: Washington Bulb respects their workers and bargains in good faith
Please see National Farm Worker Ministry for more details.
Good news from our partner, Community to Community:
March 26th, 2022
On Thursday March 24th, an overwhelming majority of tulip harvesters at RoozenGaarde Tulips voted to join Familias Unidas por la Justicia farm worker labor union and asked them to represent them in the first negotiations meeting Friday, March 25.
After three days of strikes, the majority of the farm workers at Roozengaarde have agreed to pause their strike in good faith to meet with management at the company’s main headquarters. The workers also voted to unionize with Familias Unidas por la Justicia (Families United for Justice) with 93 workers voting to join the union. WA State Representative Debra Lekanoff conducted a count of the signed union membership cards as a neutral party.
Please call Washington Bulb/RoozenGarde and thank them for respecting their workers and bargaining in good faith.
(360) 424-5533
“We are optimistic that we can reach an agreement that will give us a voice to create just working conditions and address the demands we presented to management through good faith negotiations,” said Alfredo Juarez, a RoozenGaarde worker and strike leader.
The workers initially walked out on Tuesday, March 22 after an angry exchange with a supervisor about an irregularity in their pay. They called the union Familias Unidas por la Justicia to demand changes on a host of other grievances including low pay, unfair firings and treatment, lack of adequate PPE for working with harsh chemicals, lack of breaks and more.
Some of the workers have been planting bulbs, cutting the stemmed blossoms and harvesting the bulbs for over 10 years at Washington Bulb to help make the Tulip Festival successful. They shared stories of working long hours in the deep mud in cold and wet winter conditions to make the beautiful spring tulip bloom possible. “We want to be treated with respect for our work and recognized as human beings with families that should be earning a wage where we can live with dignity,” said Juarez. “The Tulip Festival should not be just about the flowers,” he added.
With the famous Skagit Tulip Festival less than a week away the workers are hopeful that they can reach a fair agreement with management and the public can have confidence that the workers who create the beautiful tulip vistas they come to enjoy have just working conditions and fair wages.
On Friday, March 25 the elected Committee and their Union Representatives, Ramon Torres and Edgar Franks met with Washington Bulb management and began discussions on the list of demands.
The Committee reported that there was good progress made because of the good faith Washington Bulb Management brought to the table. Discussions will continue Monday, March 28 and the strike remains suspended.
Familias Unidas por la Justicia and the elected committee at Washington Bulb’s Roozengaarde would like to thank all the community support received from supporters state wide and even from other states. “This is a good beginning,” Said Ramon Torres, President of Familias Unidas por la Justicia, “We will keep our supporters updated on our Facebook page.”
Tuesday, March 29, 2022
Monday, March 28, 2022
commence = to start or begin---I do miss this
Another great language lesson from the Blind Pig & The Acorn blog
Beyond fasting: 10 tips for a more meaningful Lent By Joe Iovino
I'm lifting this article by Joe Iovino from the United Methodist Now webpage, a great resource for Methodists and the Methodist-curious. You can sign up for an e-mail newsletter and other ways of connecting there---highly recommended!
Lent is a time for self-reflection and deepening one's relationship with God in Jesus Christ. For many this season leading up to Easter will be weeks of giving up something they enjoy. Others will spend extra time in devotions and prayer, while a few more will carry a cross or nail in their pocket as a reminder of the sacrifice Jesus made for them and the whole world.
If those practices work for you, wonderful! Others may want to find another way of observing this holy season. Consider adopting one or more of the following creative uses of the days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday.
1. Apologize to someone
Lent is a season of repentance. Most often we think of asking God for forgiveness from our sin, but that is only half of the story. Most sins include hurting others, which mattered to Jesus. He taught that if during worship if you "remember that your brother or sister has something against you... First make things right with your brother or sister and then come back and offer your gift." (Matthew 5:23-24 CEB). Lent is a great time to seek forgiveness from those we have harmed.
2. Perform random acts of kindness
Express your love for Jesus by loving others. Pay for the order of the person behind you in the drive-through. Give an extravagant tip. Carry gift cards to give away. Ask others how they are doing, then stop and listen to their responses. Share the love of Jesus in any way you can think of each day during Lent.
3. Delve into a book of the Bible
Enhance your devotions by getting to know a book of the Bible well. Read it repeatedly, at least once in a single sitting. Find articles about it. Meditate on it with a commentary. Memorize portions of it. Pray through it. Google sermons about it. Find hymns based upon it. In the six weeks of Lent, you could develop a deep understanding of a book of the Bible about which you have always been curious.
4. Serve people in need
Identify an organization with which you would like to participate. Find out what is required to become a volunteer, then sign up to serve throughout the season of Lent. When Jesus washed his disciples' feet at the Last Supper, he taught that we are called not to be served, but to serve (John 13:1-17).
5. Visit the lonely
Jesus also taught his disciples to treat others as we would treat him. This included visiting those who are sick and in prison (Matthew 25:31-36). Talk to local nursing homes, children’s hospitals, prisons, senior centers or any other place where people need some human contact. Although Covid protocols may prevent in-person contact, you can send a card, make a phone call or seek another way to let someone know you care. If a facility allows for in-person visits, find out how you may visit (observing all procedures to keep everyone safe). When together, play games, look at photos albums, tell stories and enjoy those about whom Jesus said, "When you have done it for [them], you have done it for me."
6. Read Wesley's sermons about the Sermon on the Mount
These 13 sermons (see Matthew) are central to the message of John Wesley. They make up a little more than one-quarter of the fifty "Standard Sermons" he gave to his Methodist lay preachers to teach them "the essentials of true religion" ("The Sermons of John Wesley – An Introduction"). Reading these sermons will have you focused on Jesus' Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) and give you a sense of what it means to be a United Methodist in the tradition of John Wesley.
7. Tell others you love them
Some of us struggle to say those three little words. Maybe we assume others already know how we feel. Maybe we think we show our love and don't need to say it. Or maybe we are concerned it won't be reciprocated. Fight the fear and say "I love you" to friends, family members, and everyone else you love at least once during the season.
8. Throw a party for everyone
Jesus often used the image of a party to describe the Kingdom of God. He talked about wedding receptions and banquet feasts, and participated in several large group celebrations. Host your own Kingdom party! You may choose to keep your gathering limited to family members or those with whom you regularly socialize during our pandemic era. You may choose to cook for the neighborhood or office colleagues, preparing to go containers and invite others to stop by for a take home meal. Keep this act of love festive with fun napkins and other decorations.
9. Serve in worship
Your church needs you. For those meeting in person, sing in the choir, usher, serve as a reader, work with the tech team or find some other way to serve your church. For those meeting remotely, ask your church staff how you might be able to help, including sending out cards or making phone calls to people on the church prayer list. Don't wait for someone to ask you to use your God-given gifts. Offer yourself in service to your church for the season.
10. Say "thank you"
Parents, family members, mentors, coaches, teachers, authors, pastors, Sunday school teachers, and others have shaped you into the person you are. Each week during Lent, send a note of gratitude to one of them. Tell them how much they meant to you and how they inspired you. Consider including a small gift. Even if you do not know that author or speaker personally, draft an email of thanks.
There are many ways to be observant during Lent. Be original. Find yours.
Joe Iovino works for UMC.org at United Methodist Communications. He may be reached at jiovino@umcom.org. Please share with him your creative ideas for observing Lent.
This story was originally posted on February 23, 2015, and updated March 21, 2022.
Lent is a time for self-reflection and deepening one's relationship with God in Jesus Christ. For many this season leading up to Easter will be weeks of giving up something they enjoy. Others will spend extra time in devotions and prayer, while a few more will carry a cross or nail in their pocket as a reminder of the sacrifice Jesus made for them and the whole world.
If those practices work for you, wonderful! Others may want to find another way of observing this holy season. Consider adopting one or more of the following creative uses of the days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday.
1. Apologize to someone
Lent is a season of repentance. Most often we think of asking God for forgiveness from our sin, but that is only half of the story. Most sins include hurting others, which mattered to Jesus. He taught that if during worship if you "remember that your brother or sister has something against you... First make things right with your brother or sister and then come back and offer your gift." (Matthew 5:23-24 CEB). Lent is a great time to seek forgiveness from those we have harmed.
2. Perform random acts of kindness
Express your love for Jesus by loving others. Pay for the order of the person behind you in the drive-through. Give an extravagant tip. Carry gift cards to give away. Ask others how they are doing, then stop and listen to their responses. Share the love of Jesus in any way you can think of each day during Lent.
3. Delve into a book of the Bible
Enhance your devotions by getting to know a book of the Bible well. Read it repeatedly, at least once in a single sitting. Find articles about it. Meditate on it with a commentary. Memorize portions of it. Pray through it. Google sermons about it. Find hymns based upon it. In the six weeks of Lent, you could develop a deep understanding of a book of the Bible about which you have always been curious.
4. Serve people in need
Identify an organization with which you would like to participate. Find out what is required to become a volunteer, then sign up to serve throughout the season of Lent. When Jesus washed his disciples' feet at the Last Supper, he taught that we are called not to be served, but to serve (John 13:1-17).
5. Visit the lonely
Jesus also taught his disciples to treat others as we would treat him. This included visiting those who are sick and in prison (Matthew 25:31-36). Talk to local nursing homes, children’s hospitals, prisons, senior centers or any other place where people need some human contact. Although Covid protocols may prevent in-person contact, you can send a card, make a phone call or seek another way to let someone know you care. If a facility allows for in-person visits, find out how you may visit (observing all procedures to keep everyone safe). When together, play games, look at photos albums, tell stories and enjoy those about whom Jesus said, "When you have done it for [them], you have done it for me."
6. Read Wesley's sermons about the Sermon on the Mount
These 13 sermons (see Matthew) are central to the message of John Wesley. They make up a little more than one-quarter of the fifty "Standard Sermons" he gave to his Methodist lay preachers to teach them "the essentials of true religion" ("The Sermons of John Wesley – An Introduction"). Reading these sermons will have you focused on Jesus' Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) and give you a sense of what it means to be a United Methodist in the tradition of John Wesley.
7. Tell others you love them
Some of us struggle to say those three little words. Maybe we assume others already know how we feel. Maybe we think we show our love and don't need to say it. Or maybe we are concerned it won't be reciprocated. Fight the fear and say "I love you" to friends, family members, and everyone else you love at least once during the season.
8. Throw a party for everyone
Jesus often used the image of a party to describe the Kingdom of God. He talked about wedding receptions and banquet feasts, and participated in several large group celebrations. Host your own Kingdom party! You may choose to keep your gathering limited to family members or those with whom you regularly socialize during our pandemic era. You may choose to cook for the neighborhood or office colleagues, preparing to go containers and invite others to stop by for a take home meal. Keep this act of love festive with fun napkins and other decorations.
9. Serve in worship
Your church needs you. For those meeting in person, sing in the choir, usher, serve as a reader, work with the tech team or find some other way to serve your church. For those meeting remotely, ask your church staff how you might be able to help, including sending out cards or making phone calls to people on the church prayer list. Don't wait for someone to ask you to use your God-given gifts. Offer yourself in service to your church for the season.
10. Say "thank you"
Parents, family members, mentors, coaches, teachers, authors, pastors, Sunday school teachers, and others have shaped you into the person you are. Each week during Lent, send a note of gratitude to one of them. Tell them how much they meant to you and how they inspired you. Consider including a small gift. Even if you do not know that author or speaker personally, draft an email of thanks.
There are many ways to be observant during Lent. Be original. Find yours.
Joe Iovino works for UMC.org at United Methodist Communications. He may be reached at jiovino@umcom.org. Please share with him your creative ideas for observing Lent.
This story was originally posted on February 23, 2015, and updated March 21, 2022.
Sunday, March 27, 2022
Saturday, March 26, 2022
Friday, March 25, 2022
Who helps you? How do you mend? How do we mend each other?
“When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.”
Henri Nouwen
''Life damages us, every one. But now, I am also learning this: We can be mended. We mend each other.''
Veronica Roth
Farmworker Awareness Week---March 25-31
From the Catholic Labor Network:
March 25-31 marks Farmworker Awareness Week – a week that culminates on March 31, Cesar Chavez Day. The backbreaking work of planting and harvesting our food is largely performed by immigrants from Latin America for low pay under difficult working conditions.
Like domestic workers, during the New Deal reforms farmworkers were excluded from the protection of critical labor laws such as the National Labor Relations Act (which protects workers who want to form a union) and the Fair Labor Standards Act (which sets the federal minimum wage and dictates that other workers earn overtime when working more than 40 hours per week). This means that farmworkers have had to work state by state to secure these rights, a process that remains largely incomplete. Only a few states such as California and New York have passed laws protecting farmworkers’ right to organize and form labor unions. And this year Oregon joined a handful of states that have passed overtime pay laws covering farmworkers.
The Catholic Church played a critical role in the great farmworker organizing campaigns of the 1960s and 1970s, especially in California, where Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers (UFW) organized grape harvesters. The UFW sought leverage through a national boycott of table grapes. Chavez, himself deeply committed to his Catholic faith, relied on allies in the Church and the wider community to promote the boycott and secure basic rights for workers in the fields.
The Catholic Labor Network is part of the National Farm Worker Ministry (NFWM), an interfaith coalition standing in solidarity with farmworker organizations such as the UFW, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). Today the UFW is seeking reforms in California’s Agricultural Labor Relations Act to make it easier for farmworkers to form unions; the FLOC is campaigning for RJ Reynolds to clean up abuses in its tobacco supply chain; and the CIW is calling on Wendy’s to source its tomatoes from growers committed to fair labor practices. The CLN and the NFWM continue to support farmworkers in all of these initiatives.
March 25-31 marks Farmworker Awareness Week – a week that culminates on March 31, Cesar Chavez Day. The backbreaking work of planting and harvesting our food is largely performed by immigrants from Latin America for low pay under difficult working conditions.
Like domestic workers, during the New Deal reforms farmworkers were excluded from the protection of critical labor laws such as the National Labor Relations Act (which protects workers who want to form a union) and the Fair Labor Standards Act (which sets the federal minimum wage and dictates that other workers earn overtime when working more than 40 hours per week). This means that farmworkers have had to work state by state to secure these rights, a process that remains largely incomplete. Only a few states such as California and New York have passed laws protecting farmworkers’ right to organize and form labor unions. And this year Oregon joined a handful of states that have passed overtime pay laws covering farmworkers.
The Catholic Church played a critical role in the great farmworker organizing campaigns of the 1960s and 1970s, especially in California, where Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers (UFW) organized grape harvesters. The UFW sought leverage through a national boycott of table grapes. Chavez, himself deeply committed to his Catholic faith, relied on allies in the Church and the wider community to promote the boycott and secure basic rights for workers in the fields.
The Catholic Labor Network is part of the National Farm Worker Ministry (NFWM), an interfaith coalition standing in solidarity with farmworker organizations such as the UFW, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). Today the UFW is seeking reforms in California’s Agricultural Labor Relations Act to make it easier for farmworkers to form unions; the FLOC is campaigning for RJ Reynolds to clean up abuses in its tobacco supply chain; and the CIW is calling on Wendy’s to source its tomatoes from growers committed to fair labor practices. The CLN and the NFWM continue to support farmworkers in all of these initiatives.
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