A United Methodist Insight Column
Happy Eastertide! As we embark upon the great fifty days from now until Pentecost, we rejoice in Christ’s Resurrection and the promise of new life it brings for all. We need a great infusion of hope as we face the ongoing crises of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic coupled with the struggle for racial justice and economic recovery in the United States.
Considering how we as Christians can respond to today’s unending crises, it may be helpful to remember that after Christ’s Resurrection the disciples faced the same challenges as they did while Jesus was alive on earth. Chief among them was the oppressive rule of the Roman Empire in collusion with religious authorities of the day to keep the “Pax Romana,” or Roman Peace, that benefited the wealthy and powerful at the expense of society’s most vulnerable. Easter’s hope and challenge are summed up in this prayer distributed April 5 by Discipleship Ministries in its ongoing series “Praying for Change: Daily Prayers for Anti-Racism”:
Oh, God of death and life,
We await your resurrection.
There are so many dead places,
Where despair and destruction reign,
We are divided by race, color, creed, tribe, gender, and sexual orientation.
We have not heeded your call to be a people of resurrection and hope.
In the Easter season, let new life come.
May we see you in the spring, in every branch of every tree,
In the sounds of the birds, in the whispers of spring win
Bring us together to see you as a new creation.
We pray in your name. Amen.
Petero A.N. Sabune, from Race and Prayer: Collected Voices Many Dreams edited by Malcolm Boyd and Chester L. Talton (Morehouse Publishing, 2003), 115.
Opportunities for prayerful action
Two opportunities to act on our collective prayers for healing, wholeness and justice are available this month:
First, Bill Mefford of Fig Tree Revolution recommends a class in Subversive Prayer led by Mark Van Steenwyk, director of the Center for Prophetic Imagination, scheduled Tuesdays in April from 7-8:30 pm ET. The class synopsis reads: “In this class, we will explore the relationship between spiritual practice and transformative social action. Too often, we put prayer and action into separate categories, adding to the disconnection between personal spirituality and prophetic witness. Contemplation is a quiet activity. Social justice is loud. But such a disconnection is foreign to the Gospel of Jesus. The prophetic tradition shows us that our relationship with God cannot and must not be divorced from our responsibility to our neighbor.” Sign up here: Join us Tuesdays from 7-8:30 PM ET in April!
Second, the virtual Ecumenical Advocacy Days conference takes place April 18-21. This year's theme is "Imagine! God's Earth and People Restored." According to its newsletter, the ecumenical group Creation Justice Ministries will host two workshops:
- The Church's Role in Environmental Justice (April 20 at 2:30 p.m. EDT). This workshop will take up the question: “In the midst of intersecting crises of climate change, race, and the pandemic, how can the church do more than 'rearrange furniture on the Titanic?' The work to be done is huge, and the will to do it is equally demanding. We know being paralyzed into inaction is not an option, and for people of faith, we have not only a unique, but a compelling moral obligation to care deeply about this creation and its inhabitants. So what can we and our congregations do to be allies, activists and actors who are open to solutions and living into this call? How can our churches be arks of resilience, supporting communities through the spiritual and physical storms of the climate crisis?”
- Healthy Watersheds, Healthy People (April 20 at 7 p.m. EDT). The event will feature Bitahnii Wayne Wilson, a mutual aid relief provider on Navajo land, and will consider questions such as: Why is clean drinkable water not available to everyone? How do industry and human behavior impact the water we drink? How does access to water impact a community's overall health?
Register for Ecumenical Advocacy Days
EarthKeepers Training Poster
Image Courtesy of Global Ministries
Finally, if you're ready for a deeper commitment, consider signing up for the next EarthKeepers training of the General Board of Global Ministries beginning later this month. See the accompanying poster for details.
Food for thought on the climate crisis
As we’re praying and working on creation care, here’s a sobering note from Columbia Journalism Review’s Media Watch column:
“A team of reporters at the Houston Chronicle found that nearly two hundred Texans died as a result of the winter storm and mass blackouts in the state in February—nearly double the preliminary official count. ‘This is almost double the death toll from Hurricane Harvey,’ Rafael Anchía, a Democratic state lawmaker, told the Chronicle. ‘There was no live footage of flooded homes, or roofs being blown off, or tidal surges, but this was more deadly and devastating than anything we’ve experienced in modern state history.’”
We notice this episode because it happened in the United States, but what about similar climate disasters that are killing people around the world, yet get little attention? One way to expand your consciousness on the climate crisis is to subscribe to newsletters from movements such as UMC Creation Justice and national publications that feature climate coverage.
Media Mentions as of April 5, 2021
Religion / 'Allergic reaction to US religious right' fueling loss of faith, experts say – The Guardian
This Easter, Grandview welcomes other like-minded congregations as they strive to be 'a more ... – Fly Magazine
Churches grow faith, defy national trends – The Villages Daily Sun
How White evangelicals’ vaccine refusal could prolong the pandemic – The New York Times *Why ‘the pathway to ending the pandemic runs through the evangelical church’ – CBS NewsA Georgia church, kicked out of the SBC for allowing gay members, wants to make sure ‘everybody’s welcome’ – USA Today
At second Easter under pandemic rules, Christians glimpse church’s future – Religion News ServicePandemic has strengthened faith for some – NPR
Dallas, Uber, Project Unity Partner to Provide Free Rides to COVID-19 Vaccinations – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth
Hymns through masks: Christians mark another pandemic Easter – The Associated Press
The unsettling power of Easter – The New York Times *
President Biden: ‘Let us recommit ourselves to the lessons of Easter’ – Religion News ServiceThis Easter, rising religious persecution demands Biden’s action – The Hill
'Sewing seeds of kindness': Columbus woman sends gifts to female Methodist pastors – The Columbus Dispatch
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Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011.