The Peoples Church of Chicago

941 W. Lawrence Avenue, Chicago, 60640...  West of Lake Shore Drive;  East of red line el at Lawrence stop

P.O. Box 408319                     Telephone: 773-784-6633                   Email:  admin@PeoplesChurchChicago.org

"A Spiritual Home for People of Conscience"

 

 

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~ latestblog ~

October 5th, 2008    another Uptown shelter closing...

We just found out that one of REST's two men's shelters is being closed by the church that has housed it for over a decade.  The Sun-Times calls it a dispute over heating costs.  We don't really know the reason, but it is another blow to the homeless people who live on the North side.  We've heard that the city wants homeless people in our neighborhood to move to shelters on the West side or downtown.  But people - even if they have no address - feel a connection to their neighborhood.  You wouldn't normally ask a Southsider to move to the West side - can you expect people who are currently homeless to feel any different?  

I wonder if this decision comes in part out of the tension between old and new residents in Uptown?  We are planning to hold a gathering to consider how to build more community feeling and maintain the diverse character of the neighborhood. 

What makes you feel connected to your community?  Send me your thoughts - I'll post some of them here.  minister@PeoplesChurchChicago.org

peace, Jean

September 30, 2008

Last Sunday we watched part of a June speech by Van Jones, the dynamite and oh, so "articulate" young man from Oakland who is bridging the divide between environmental and racial justice.  A Yale law school graduate, he mentioned testifying before Congress to help get the Green Jobs Act passed in 2007, and having members of Congress come up to him and tell him how "articulate" he was - and yet, wasn't this an awfully expensive program?  Each person from the 'hood would cost $15,000 to train, where if they trained "job ready" people it would only cost $3000.  How could he justify this "waste" of money?  Van had to bite his tongue.

Van Jones is working for a society with no "waste," like the factory that has zero pollutants:  a society that doesn't leave anyone out, where all people are considered valuable potential participants.  "If you don't invest in these youngsters," he said, "If you don't spend this $15,000 and give them some hope and some skills, then you're going to be spending $50, $60, $70 thousand locking them up, forever!"

After the service, we had lunch - a great potluck - and talked about what Van had said, and our responses to it.  People mentioned hope, and the power of not leaving anyone out, and how moving it was to hear him talk about the indigenous peoples of the world, and how much we need their wisdom about caring for the Earth.   

It was moving for me to be part of this sacred conversation.  We are just learning how to be with one another around difficult subjects, and to be honest and respectful and true to ourselves.  It is sacred because it touches our hearts so deeply, because to talk about things that have been hidden away is to shine a healing light on them.

In the gospel of Thomas Jesus says, "If you bring forth what is within you, what you have will save you.  If you do not have that within you, what you do not have within you [will] kill you." G.Th. 70 (Patterson and Meyer trans.)

I like to think this saying means that we shouldn't keep things bottled up inside - it's poison!

If you want to watch the whole speech by Van Jones, it's on the UUA website:  http://www.uua.org/events/generalassembly/2008/112314.shtml

Don't miss the next Sacred Conversation, October 26th, when Keith Scott, organizer and former zoo educator, talks about the intersection between the criminal justice system and race.

peace, Jean

 

September 19, 2008

I read an amazing little essay by Deepak Chopra, talking about our national psyche and how it is being played out in the Presidential election... dovetails with what I was talking about last week, about the wicked witch and how she expresses our darkest desires for revenge, even while we can disclaim her.

This Sunday, we'll celebrate the Fall Equinox - the moment of equal light and dark, the change from summer to fall, the anticipation of winter.  And how light and dark play out in our lives.

peace, Jean

September 11, 2008

 

Seven years after the horrific events of September 11, 2001, we seem to be caught in a time-warp, as the Bush administration wages a "war against terrorism" that they are now calling "generational" - that is, they expect it to drag on for at least a generation.  I wish the mainstream media were more willing to question the assumptions Washington is operating under - if alternatives to war were presented seriously, people would have something to think about, be able to make an informed choice.

 

I heard a powerful interview on NPR (Terry Gross) with Andrew Bacevich, military man turned history professor, author of a number of books, most recently, The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism, in which he stresses the destructiveness of belligerence as foreign policy and the value of openness - not secrecy - in how our government ought to operate.  I hope everyone gets a chance to hear Bacevich when he comes to Chicago on his book tour, October 12-14.

 

We are still digesting the events of 9/11 - we can find some meaning in that senseless destruction, through hearing the stories of survivors - how we as human beings dealt with the unthinkable.  Would we also have been the ones in the cafeteria saying, "But what about my eggs?" as the manager tried to get her employees to shut down the cooking line and evacuate the building?  No knowing, of course - but how human!

 

Many of us yearn for the feeling of safety we used to feel before that day in September seven years ago.  I hope we can realize collectively that security is a false wish - living in a bunker is not what I would call living.  We are safer - more resilient as a people - if we can come together to live life fully in a community that offers the most in freedom and shared responsibility, to make sense of whatever happens - to share the stories. 

 

peace,

Jean

for earlier musings, see the Newsletter