Church Proud #2

It was a good day at the Progressive Brethren Gathering. Dr. Sharon Welch presented on non-violent direct action and how it relates to the Occupy Movement and what has happened within the progressive movement of the Church of the Brethren. It was good and was helpful.

Then we moved into people sharing ideas for action. Chris presented the paper that was adopted at the October 16 Church Council at the La Verne CoB. Josih, along with four others, shared about Feast of Love's progress. I shared from the BMC Board about our hope to see Supportive Communities Network expand. I was church proud again.

Our meetings are at the Highland Ave. CoB. I took a picture of their welcoming bench by their front entrance. It made me want to make more of a witness on our building.

Saturday night we took a tour of the Elgin Offices. Here is Mary Kay in the BVS office.

Then we ate dinner at the offices, did some strategizing and ended the day with a worship. Here are our rocks of grief and lament. (My rock is actually my dream for the church.) Then we anointed our hands for the work of justice. It was a long day.....

Church Proud

I am at the Progressive Brethren Gathering in Elgin, Illinois. There are four of us here from the La Verne Church of the Brethren. Mary Kay, Chris and I flew in together and landed at Midway Airport. We knew we were in Chicago when we saw all the Blues Brothers memorabilia.

After fighting the heavy Friday night traffic we arrived at Highland Ave. Church of the Brethren in time to grab a very quick bite before evening worship. The service was built around the scripture of the woman who anointed Jesus. Three people gave testimony to radical acts of faith. Two of them were from the La Verne Church of the Brethren. Josih spoke of Romaine Patterson and the Laramie Project. Mary Kay spoke of the radical act of showing up, standing up and speaking out. They were both excellent. Can a Brethren be church proud? You bet!

Tomorrow is strategy day.