OUR CHURCH HAS A MONTHLY NEWSLETTER THAT USUALLY BEGINS WITH A MESSAGE FROM OUR PASTOR.  

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT JOHN HERE.

 

Things I heard, things I remembered in the days following the new dawn of Wednesday November 5th:

 

“When I saw that family walk out on the stage in Grants Park in Chicago I knew I would never look on my children the same. Finally! They are the same shade as my children.”  -Amy Ricard. Then she quoted:

 

“Rosa sat so Martin could walk.

Martin walked so Barrack could run.

Barrack ran so my children could fly”   - A 19-year old single mother from McKeesport

 

“I wish Tupac had lived to see this” –Teresa Perez

 

“I'm still so tired I can't hardly believe it. I slept most of Wednesday and more yesterday. Restful sleep has been so elusive of late.” –Ann Euston, my friend and sister in Albuquerque who knocked on 398 doors in one week for Obama

 

“…[S]eeing you deliver the torch so many others before you carried, year after year, decade after decade, century after century, only to be struck down before igniting the flame of justice and of law, is almost more than the heart can bear. And yet, this observation is not intended to burden you, for you are of a different time, and, indeed, because of all the relay runners before you, North America is a different place. It is really only to say: Well done. We knew, through all the generations, that you were with us, in us, the best of the spirit of Africa and of the Americas. Knowing this, that you would actually appear, someday, was part of our strength. Seeing you take your rightful place, based solely on your wisdom, stamina and character, is a balm for the weary warriors of hope, previously only sung about…We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” 

-From Alice Walker’s open letter to Obama

 

“On Sunday, November 2nd, we celebrated Communion of the Saints, as we have for the past several years, by gathering around our Dia De Los Muertos altar in our Sanctuary. The altar built on the communion table was festooned with the traditional artifacts and pictures of loved ones past including Rosa Parks, Sojourner Truth, Martin Luther King Jr, Cesar Chavez, Oscar Romero, Frida Kahlo, May Wong, Lorna Logan, Randy Santisteban, Eleanor Newcomb, Dorothy Primo, Franz and Lois Wichman. Their knowing smiles were felt Tuesday as the awesome torch was passed, not just to Barrack Hussein Obama, but to the rest of us. We should revel but for awhile. But I cannot forget the somber look on the President elect's face in Grants Park Tuesday. He knows on whose shoulders he stands and we cannot let him stand alone. God bless Michelle, Barrack, as well the saints who have brought us so far.”  –John’s response to the friend who sent Alice Walker’s letter

 

“Yes we can. Yes we can! Yes we can!”   -Millions of redeemed people around the world

 

“And it was in the midst of shouts rolling against the terrace wall in massive waves that waxed in volume and duration, while cataracts of colored fire fell thicker through the darkness, that Dr. Bieux resolved to compile this chronicle, so that some memorial of the injustice and outrage done them might endure; and to state quite simply what we learn in time of pestilence: that there are more things to admire in men than to despise. Nonetheless, he knew that the tale he had to tell could not be one of final victory. It could be only the record of what had had to be done, and what assuredly would have to be done again in the never ending fight against terror and its relentless onslaughts, despite their personal afflictions, by all who, while unable to be saints but refusing to bow down to pestilences, strive their utmost to be healers. And, indeed, as he listened to the cries of joy rising from the town, Rieux remembered that such joy is always imperiled. He knew what those jubilant crowds did not know but could have learned from books: that it can lie dormant for years in bedrooms, cellars, trunks, and bookshelves; and that perhaps the day would come when, for the bane and the enlightening of men, it would rouse up its rats again and send them forth to die in a happy city.” –The last lines in Albert Camus’ The Plague”

 

 

“Hunters get your guns. There’s a n@#$er in the White House.”  Placed on My Space by a University of Texas football player

 

“The religious bigotry of these people, attacking the Mormon and Catholic Church; why don’t the go after the seventy percent of Black people who voted for prop 8.”  -Tony Perkins, spokesman for “yes on 8” attempting to deflect criticisms from “no on 8” demonstrators after the devastating results of his religiously based hate campaign.

 

“How do I love my neighbor” –Three preachers at breakfast pondering the central role “religious people” played in the ugliest aspects of the “yes on 8” campaign

 

“What do we do when they take away our civil rights?

Fight! Fight! Fight!

Yes we can! Yes we can!”   –Twenty five thousand marchers on Market Street, Friday night following the confirmation that prop (H)8 had passed.

 

“Out of the church and into the streets”  -John Wichman, one of the twenty five thousand marchers

 

“Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known, that our ancestors have told us. We will not hide them from their children; we will tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of God, God’s might, and the wonders that God has done…God has commanded to our ancestors to teach to their children; that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and rise up and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God, and not forget…”              - From Psalm 78- Lectionary reading for Sunday, November 9th.