Category: Uncategorized
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Leaving a church as a kind of immigration
I was chatting with a friend recently who likened the idea of leaving a church as a kind of “immigration.” This idea intrigued me. Because one of the first questions I hear people ask when anyone leaves a church, “Are they still Christian?” and similar questions that I believe are very shame inducing. I don’t…
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Advent Week Two: Peace
“What does peace mean to you in this season?” I paused, unsure how to answer this question. Surely I feel the strife and tension in the world; those answers come quickly: wars cease, no more violence, mutual understanding, etc. But what would make everything right in myself? Some of the things I think will make…
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Advent Week One: Hope
There are certainly conflicts in the world seeking resolution that overlap with Advent longing. Palestine/Israel. Hamas. Hostages. Genocide. Ceasing ceasefires. It’s tragic. I suspect that, like the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, it’s duration will test and stretch my capacity to hope. Yet while I don’t think I can properly speak to the complexity of the…
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Ella Baker, the Anti-celebrity
My kids attend The Ella Baker School, a progressive un-zoned public school in midtown Manhattan. For all the years we’ve been in this school community, I’ve only had a vague understanding of the school’s namesake. At one point, someone had described her as the wise grandmotherly figure behind much of the Civil Rights Movement, and…
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Hurry outside ourselves
“How have you been doing?” –“That’s a difficult question to answer” –“I’ve been as good as I can be with all that’s happened.” –“I don’t know how to answer that question right now.” For the past few weeks, I’ve been trying to tune into my soul and how I’ve been working through the loss of…
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Rest and watch. Don’t be in a hurry.
It’s been almost 2 months since I wasn’t allowed to stay at my former church of almost 11 years. It’s been difficult. I’ve been writing about it since early October but I don’t know when I’ll finish. So taking a break from writing my story so that I could let other ideas out while that…