[Magdalen] whose theology is this?

[sally.davies at gmail.com]

Beloved Ginga

It has oft been the fate of prophets to find themselves sitting in a cold,
damp place while the parade they tried to rain on, continues merrily on.
For now.

But you spoke truth; the trauma, I am guessing, comes from the former
experience of speaking it to real, dangerous Power. This time, maybe not so
much but the pulpit is a place of power and if you over-reacted a little it
was only a little...

I went to our neighbouring church and heard a sermon on confronting giants.
Interested, as this is the Lenten theme in our own parish. Father Eddie
named five giants: scepticism ("We've tried this before and it doesn't
work"), busyness (too many irons in the fire makes them all cold),
smallness ("we are only one small church, what can we do"), unfamiliarity
("We've always done it like this and don't want to change"), and lastly
faithlessness.

It sounds as though this guy was attempting to steal the golden eggs from
Giant no 2 and instead ended up with a loud message of support for Giant no
3.

As an inhabitant of the global village who has been deeply and recently
touched by ministry from my friends far away, I'm with you.

Sally D
On Mon, 02 Mar 2015 at 04:12 Ginga Wilder <gingawilder at gmail.com> wrote:

> As small as Good Shepherd is, we give checks and other gifts of substance
> to two local charities.  One80place offers housing to homeless/battered
> women and children.  And, we also give similar support to HELP of
> Summerville, which gives one time assistance to people who need food or
> assistance with electric bills, etc.  We also take offerings for
> Summerville Meals on Wheels.  Several of our parishioners serve on the
> board and/or drive meals to recipients.  And, yes, we give to ERD.
>
> The think about who is our neighbor is that our neighbor lives everywhere.
>
> Ginga
>
> On Sun, Mar 1, 2015 at 9:01 PM, Scott Knitter <scottknitter at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > On Sun, Mar 1, 2015 at 5:59 PM, Jo Craddock <jocraddock at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > > A poorly delivered message, surely, but one that may need to be put in
> > the
> > > parish collective memory to prevent temptations to only naval gaze
> about
> > the
> > > political arena, or to "just write a check."
> >
> > I understand the problem with "just writing a check," but I also
> > believe there are many who do so as a real sacrifice and ministry,
> > which takes the "just" away from the phrase. Checks should be written
> > and do help. Doing so because it's cleaner and neater is not a good
> > reason, but there are some ministries like the Greater Chicago Food
> > Depository that do great amounts of direct help to people, fueled by
> > monetary contributions. Yes, they need volunteers, too, but helping
> > their operation with a check is real help. I think they'd rather get a
> > check than a single case of canned soup...the food they distribute is
> > on a massive scale. Hands-on food ministry is in individual churches
> > and that's where the helping hands are most needed.
> >
> >
> > --
> > Scott R. Knitter
> > Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois USA
> >
>