Beloved:

            I had a great trip and am so glad to be home.  Emily is settled and back in class.  My two-day retreat in the Georgia mountains was both restful and productive.  The New Baptist Covenant Summit in Atlanta was an amazing experience of worship, conversation, and deep focus on the calling upon pastors like me and church people like you to do the justice work necessary for racial reconciliation in our time.  Economic and wealth inequality was my learning point, and while I’ve much more to learn I am already realizing it is the linchpin of most every other issue of human injustice – race, gender, immigration, everything. 

            I capped my week by attending worship at 2nd Baptist Church here in Bloomington.  It turned out to be a special week for them, as they were celebrating the 13th anniversary of their pastor’s tenure.  The worship service lasted exactly two hours and I loved every minute.  Their deacons have the first 15 minutes with scripture, music, and prayer.  The pastor comes in with his wife followed by the choir who sing and dance their way in, slowly, sort of like the Temptations.  All their choir music is memorized.  Their ushers are more like waiters, watching to see who needs a tissue or a fan.  Children and babies do not color or play.  They sit quietly for two hours.  What we call “Announcements,” they call “Noteworthy News.”  I loved that at their family time prayer they all hold hands.  It seemed so much more familial, and I felt so included when someone took my hand too. 

            Since they have visitors “stand and introduce yourself and tell us what brings you to 2nd Baptist today” and since I’d told about my recent trip to Atlanta and my hope to be part of real racial reconciliation, I didn’t feel free to refuse their enthusiastic invitations to stay for potluck dinner.  At dinner I was seated across from a lady in a beautiful hat, with the drummer – a white boy from Murfreesboro, Tennessee – on one side and on the other two retired gentlemen who talked mostly about football, the Indianapolis Colts, and the BHSS Panthers.  One of the men has lived in Bloomington for 78 years.  The food was amazing, of course.  I had wonderful conversations with lots of people.  I was severely underdressed (though overdressed for UBC) but nobody but me seemed to notice, and I realized it’s good for me to see church from a visitor’s point of view now and then. 

            I’ve also received glowing emails from Brother Chris and Elder Wanda about their time at UBC, about your generosity, hospitality, and sweet spirit toward them.  Of course I am not at all surprised.  You are a most trustworthy flock to leave.  That said, I am very glad to be home and among you once more.  We’ve much to talk about if we mean to be useful in the work of justice in these days, beginning always with our prayers.  You have mine and I pray to have yours too. 
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~ peace & prayers,
pastor annette

While Pastor Annette is attending the New Baptist Covenant Summit on Racial Reconciliation, her Tuesday morning devotional is a repeat of an archived devotional from December 15, 2014, which can be accessed using the link in the Archive list to the right.

Beloved:

    I woke before 4:30 this morning and took a while going back to sleep.  In the meantime I thought about how comfortable our bed is, how quiet our house.  I thought about all my neighbors asleep in their comfortable beds in their warm, safe houses too.  I wondered if any neighbors were up rocking fussy babies.  The newest baby in the neighborhood is named Magnolia, which I think is just the best baby name ever.  Then I wondered if God ever feels like an exhausted parent who finally has all the children down to sleep and decided, “Probably not,” since somebody somewhere is wide awake and causing trouble, which means that dozens of other people are also wide awake defending themselves and their kids against said trouble.  I suppose since there’s no rest for the wicked there can be no rest for the wickeds’  neighbors either.  These thoughts went on for a while but my quilt is really, really cozy, so I finally drifted off and woke to daylight in a furry pile of dog love and the realization that even my sleep qualifies as privileged.

    I’m packing for a ten-day trip – first to Savannah to deliver Emily to her sophomore year in college, then to a Georgia state park for three days of study retreat, followed by another three days in Atlanta for the New Baptist Covenant Summit on Racial Reconciliation.  Jimmy Carter called this meeting last spring and I am excited to attend and to report back to you about it.  In my place for the next two Sundays you’ll hear preachers from the Ministers-In-Training program at Bethel AME church here in Bloomington.  I am counting on you to be your most welcoming, enthusiastic self as you receive and support these young ministers.  You will be in my prayers until I return.  Please keep me in yours.  
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peace & prayers,
pastor annette