Yes, I'm a minister. No, I don't have a church.

This is the sixth blog post for the  Companions on the Inner Way  summer retreat. The featured speaker is  Enuma Okoro . You can find the other blog posts here: Blogging for Companions on the Inner Way: It’s Not About Me.  Seeking Home: Where Do We Come From?  Who Have We Become? UnBelonging Exile and Belonging At the second-to-the-last Lectio Divina group, the passage was I Peter 2:10 . My word was “mercy.”  Well. I’m so good with mercy as a policy (people who have served time for the felony for which they were convicted should get the right to vote in all 50 states!). But when it comes to myself or others with whom I’m in relationship? Not so much. Sometimes I’m so wrapped up in all the stuff that I miss the whimsy and delight and mercy around me. Here’s a reminder of the mercy I have received and the mercy I might consider extending to everyone, especially the people I know.  Usually, and maybe this is because I’m a pas...

Questions for the reader are in  a different font . This is the fifth blog post for the  Companions on the Inner Way  summer retreat. The featured speaker is  Enuma Okoro . You can find the other blog posts here: Blogging for Companions on the Inner Way: It’s Not About Me.  Seeking Home: Where Do We Come From?  Who Have We Become? UnBelonging Beloved After our break yesterday, we had our Lectio group. The Scripture passage was John 15:18-21 . I am not particularly fond of the Gospel of John. And this is a particularly uncomfortable passage. The phrase that stood out to me was “on account of my name.” What the heck is that about? I wondered. I went to the art room (at least I’m persistent, eh?) and started with oil pastels. I wanted to draw the vortex that can be the national church. I’m not saying this because I don’t love my work, or where I work, or my colleagues. It is a natural hazard of being national staff that it can become a vorte...

Questions for the reader are in a different font . This is the fourth blog post for the Companions on the Inner Way summer retreat. The featured speaker is Enuma Okoro . You can find the other blog posts here: Blogging for Companions on the Inner Way: It’s Not About Me.  Seeking Home: Where Do We Come From?  Who Have We Become? Exile and Belonging Beloved Yesterday’s afternoon worship involved no internet access, so I didn’t tweet the sermon, delivered by Roché Vermaak. He preached as Joseph. He had several great lines, like “my brothers hated me for my Technicolor dream coat” and “we had a slightly dysfunctional family.” He also said that he (as Joseph) had made Egypt into his home, but after the reconciliation with his brothers, home was with his family in Egypt. Letting go of past resentments helped make a new home. Letting go is not the same as forgetting. We have to deal with the past in order to live in the future. (As a side-note, I have to say that t...

Questions for the reader are in a different font , and resources are listed at the bottom This is the third blog post for the Companions on the Inner Way summer retreat.  You can find the first here: Blogging for Companions on the Inner Way: It’s Not About Me.   And the second here: Seeking Home: Where Do We Come From?  The fourth blog is here: UnBelonging Here is the fifth: Exile and Belonging And the sixth:  Beloved Here is an afternoon Lake Tahoe photo for you. We left off yesterday during the afternoon break, the only time I can realistically write a blog post. After time to pray, relax, enjoy Lake Tahoe, or work (me), we reconvened with worship. The preacher was Jenna Meyers, on staff at Seventh Avenue Presbyterian Church , which houses Companions. She preached about Elijah. As Jenna says, stories help us peek below the surface of what is ordinary. Elijah’s encounter with the angel who feeds him after he prepares himself for death is full ...

This is the second blog post for the Companions on the Inner Way summer retreat. You can find the first here: Blogging for Companions on the Inner Way: It’s Not About Me . And here is the third: Who Have We Become? The fourth is here: UnBelonging Here is the fifth: Exile and Belonging Here is the sixth: Beloved Questions for the reader are in a different font , and resources are listed at the bottom. The conversation last night and this morning introduced us to the topic for the week. The speaker, Enuma Okoro has been considering the topic of home and belonging, and is sharing that with the participants at this week’s Companions retreat. What is home, and where do we belong? She asked us to consider how we incarnate home and belonging in our own diverse lives. We began with stories. Stories, as Enuma says, shape us. They are sacred, and form the unique spaces we come from. Today was a chance to honor where we come from. This question of where we come from is a bit...