Bulletin for Sunday, February 27, 2011

8th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Friends,

Do you remember that book, "Everything I Need to Know I Learned in
Kindergarten" by Robert Fulghum? He said,  "When you go out into the world,
hold hands, and stick together." I thought of that last night, visiting Mary
Magdalene Church to hear Bill Welch sing at a coffeehouse. Mary Magdalene is
a community that gives me hope! I love their by-laws that talk about
transparency, participation, empowerment and accountability. I love the way
they are working together to build the church they dream of. Our two
fledgling communities are indeed holding hands and sticking together,
offering moral support and encouragement that goes both ways. I think it's
wonderful that there are these little churches springing up ­ here, and
around the country. The larger church is like a great big garden with all
kinds of flowers in it ­ big ones, little ones ­ all beautiful. In the
garden of the church I think we're the forget-me-nots!

On Ash Wednesday, March 8, I will celebrate Mass at Mary Magdalene Church,
401 Main St in East Rochester at 7 pm. You are welcome to come and receive
ashes with our sister community.

Our reading this Sunday is what has been called "the Gospel in a nutshell":
"Seek first the kingdom of God and Go's justice, and everything else will be
given to you besides."
That seems to me not so much a challenge, as simply the truth. We've lived
that. In my thirty years at Corpus/Spiritus Christi and St Joe's, we've seen
over and over the truth in the words of Jesus: don't be afraid. Put God
first, love each other, love the poor and all the people on the outside,
make sure everybody is included ­ you won't do it perfectly but IT DOESN'T
MATTER just keep doing it. And all is well.

And now, I hear that as a call to us at St Romero's. Don't worry about
numbers, or money, or even having a church to celebrate Mass in. Just do the
work of the church: nurture the spiritual growth of the people of God, and
work to build the world God dreams of, where everyone has what they need for
life and growth, and you will have whatever you need to get that done.

We ask your prayers for our friend and brother, Joseph Tamba Moore. He has
been trying for many years to get his asylum petition granted, has been
turned down and is facing deportation to Liberia. There is a slim hope of
appeal, but it is very expensive. In addition, Joseph is grieving the death
of his brother, Fayiah, in Africa. In his seven years with us, Joseph has
become our brother. He was the best man at Sarah and Kevin's wedding in
2004, and in 2010 he was one of the people who laid hands on me in blessing
at my ordination. He has worked so hard ­ recovering from a stroke as well
as years on the street. He has gone to school, worked as a greeter at
Wal-Mart, made many friends. There was a glad day about two years ago when
he got his driver's license. We are so proud of him, and now, we fear we
will be saying farewell. Please pray for our Joe.

We invite you to come and hear Kathy Kelly speak at the UR Interfaith Chapel
this coming Sunday night, February 27, at 7 pm, as part of the Gandhi
Center's Season for Non-Violence. I heard Kathy speak at Corpus Christi
years ago, and she was wonderful. She has been a part of the Christian
Peacemaker Teams movement, people willing to put their bodies in the way, to
stand with those being victimized by war. A group of us will leave from St
Joe's at 6:30 on Sunday, and you are welcome to join us.

Some folks are planning on a Peace Walk to Syracuse during Holy Week to
protest the drones that are based at Hancock Air Field, there. People will
be walking from around New York State, converging in Syracuse on Good
Friday. The need right now is for someone who can take on organizing places
for the Rochester walkers to eat and stay each night. If you would be
interested in helping with that task, or in walking, please contact Peg
Gefell at Peg.Fink.Gefell@gmail.com

For more info on drones, here are two websites:
http://www.peacecouncil.net/drones/index.htm
http://www.nevadadesertexperience.org/issues/uavs.htm


Blessings and love to all,
Chava


Save the date: Thursday, March 24, 5:30 pot-luck, 7pm Mass in honor of the
31st anniversary of the martyrdom of Monseñor Romero. A filmmaker in Mexico
has made a new documentary about him called"El Cielo Abierto" (The Open
Sky). Here is a link to the trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIOkVwyMMEc
It's in Spanish but you can hear Msgr Romero preaching!

Our Wednesday morning Spanish-practice breakfasts will be on hiatus for two
weeks, and will start up again on March 16.

Have a blessed week, and come visit us some Sunday!
_______________________________________________________________

Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14603

The Sacrament of Self-Doubt

Three days after Christmas I went with friends in El Salvador to one of the most painful places to visit there, the village of El Mozote. In 1981, soldiers came into town and rounded up all the villagers, and methodically massacred nearly a thousand people, almost half of them, children. One woman lived to tell the story. Her name was Rufina Amaya, and eventually she was able to get an international team to come in and examine the site. Among the bodies they found, among the remains of children and mothers and fathers, they found bullet casings that were stamped with markings identifying them as having been made for the United States Government at Lake City, Missouri. US military advisors had trained the battalion that committed the massacre.
Sometimes I find it difficult to walk around in my North American skin in El Salvador. My country has done a lot of damage, there.
That same day, we went to the Museo de la Revolucion in the town of Perquon. Museum displays in El Salvador might break your heart, not just for what is displayed but for the poverty of the presentation. Old photos and posters were lovingly swathed in thin plastic wrap and hung on the wall, with hand-typed captions in Spanish and English. Over and over again in El Salvador I am bowled over by how much people can do with almost nothing, like those houses made out of sticks and bits of plastic. Here was a museum made of old posters and baggies. And it knocked me over.
After the first room, with its pictures and posters of Monsenor Romero and other, less recognizable, martyrs and heroes of El Salvador, we came to a room of posters from around the world, supporting the Salvadoran people during their years of struggle. I remembered my first big anti-war march in Washington in 1981, shouting "US out of El Salvador!" Somehow, driving all night to a protest march, a very big deal at the time, now felt like a tiny drop in a hole-y bucket. We protested the war," I told my friends. But we didn't stop it.
The next room was even more uncomfortable, and for a different reason. Here were proudly displayed guns and other armaments. Out back was a downed, captured chopper, and we heard the story from our guide. This pacifist Catholic Worker was not at peace. Vulnerable, oppressed people fought a well-supplied army for twelve years using bombs made out of old pipes and handkerchiefs, digging holes in the ground to bury their wounded alive until it was safe to retrieve them, living in tents made of bark out in the jungle. And made enough of a difference to get some dignity in the peace accords, becoming a recognized political party that is now in power both nationally and in Santa Ana. I walked around the room, looking at the displays, my pacifism struggling with my respect for people who did what they believed they had to do. What do I do with this?
My friend Ruth is a Baptist pastor in Santa Ana. It was a comfort to find her struggling in the same way that I was. How does one respond? How did the priests respond when the fighting people wanted to use their churches as a safe place to hide? Where does one stand in such a moment? How do you be true to yourself, and respond in love to the people around you? Are we only on the side of the oppressed as long as they are victims? Do they lose our support when they begin to fight back? It's a pastoral question that all idealists have to confront: what happens when our ideals come up against what someone else perceives as their necessity?
There is violence in a self-righteous perfectionism that says, "I'm following the way of Jesus," while my sisters and brothers suffer. I don't think so. That just can't be as perfect as it appears. I think perfection gets its hands dirty and makes mistakes and learns and suffers and bleeds.
I don't know where I would have stood in the midst of that conflict. My own heart insists on non-violence  - and also on honoring the struggle of those who see violence as the only way out. Especially, we must not equate the responsive violence of those breaking out of deeply entrenched oppression with the violence of powerful governments and armies.
Our guide on the second part of our tour was a man who was once a guerilla. From the age of 16 to 28, he fought, he told us, and he believed in what they were doing. But now, at 47, he wonders. "On both sides," he said, "Rich people got richer, selling arms, while the poor killed each other. Poor people were both soldiers and guerillas, but the soldiers got paid. And for the poor, nothing has really changed." 
War is not a solution. I have no doubt about that. I believe there is another way, a third way, as Walter Wink says, *neither acquiescing in oppression, nor responding with violence. That, I think, is the great challenge for the church to find that non-violent response that lays bare the injustice, to absorb suffering and transform it. We need to be very clear that we are never telling oppressed people to just take it, or to cooperate in their own oppression. And for me, as a North American woman among people my own government helped to repress, I think I need to remain in awe, to listen, to learn. I need to stand with broken heart and ask, each moment, what it means to love.

Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14603
 

________________________________________________________________
(to learn more about the El Mozote Massacre, see the UN Truth Commission Report at * HYPERLINK "http://dagmar.lunarpages.com/~parasc2/articles/0197/el_moz05.htm" **http://dagmar.lunarpages.com/~parasc2/articles/0197/el_moz05.htm*)
I am indebted to Walter Wink for the light his ideas have shed on this struggle: Walter Wink, Jesus and Non-Violence: A Third Way (Fortress Press 2003)

Rev. Chava Redonnet
* I am indebted to Walter Wink for the light his ideas have shed on this struggle: Walter Wink, Jesus and Non-Violence: A Third Way (Fortress Press 2003)