From Paul Turley

Your superannuation fund is supposed to invest for the financial benefit of its members. A corporation is supposed to operate to maximize shareholder returns. A government is supposed to act in the best interest of its citizens. If governments, corporations, or superannuation funds do not take into account the short and long-term effects of climate change, they are in breach of their legal obligations.

This is the thinking behind climate litigators around the world who are taking their governments to court, suing their superannuation funds, and buying shares in corporations and calling them to account at shareholder meetings.

Roger Cox, lawyer for the Urgenda Foundation, a Dutch NGO, sued the Dutch government in what has become the most well-known and important case in climate litigation. Urgenda and Cox argued that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports required the government to act to safeguard the lives of it citizens by reducing national CO2 emissions. In 2019, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands agreed. The Dutch government is now required to reduce its CO2 emission by at least 25% below 1990 levels by the end of this year.

In Australia, in late July this year, Katta O’Donnell, a 23-year-old student, filed a civil action lawsuit in a Federal Court of Australia lawsuit against her government for failing to make clear climate-change-related risks to investors in government bonds. “Australia is materially exposed and susceptible” to climate change risks, according to the statement filed with the court. It alleges that the country’s economy and the national reputation in international financial markets will be significantly affected by the Australian government’s response to climate change. The case is thought to be the first of its kind in the world.

Also in Australia, a young ecologist has taken his superannuation fund to court, claiming the financial loss associated with climate change was not factored into his retirement investment.

“The law is clear – super fund trustees have an explicit duty to pursue the best financial interests of members. So, to the extent that climate change poses financial risks, the duty is already there. The problem is one of priority. Unfortunately, not all trustees see action on climate risk as a priority, at least not for their fund,” says the University of New South Wales Associate Professor Scott Donald, Director of The Centre for Law, Markets and Regulations.

ShareAction, a UK-based NGO, organizes and resources shareholders in corporations (and purchases shares itself) to allow the asking of questions and the introduction of resolutions at shareholder meetings seeking to force action on climate change. While corporations are rarely bound by these resolutions and can do little in response to climate questions, they do force companies to provide information, which keeps the issues on their agenda, and frequently shareholder activism can influence large intuitional investors to ask similar questions. In the UK this year, ShareAction was able to enlist the nation’s largest pension provider in questioning the activities of Tesco, the largest supermarket retailer in the UK.

While wins in these areas have been small to date, notice is being served to superannuation funds, governments, and corporations that citizens, members, and shareholders are watching and expecting change.

Explore…Acts 17:22–28

How does your denomination and your local faith community live out the idea that, “From one ancestor God made all nations to inhabit the whole earth”?
How can your faith community express its profound connection as a part of all that God has made?
What do you know of your denomination’s relationship to ethical and environmentally aware investing? How can this inform your local faith community responses to the same issues?

Prayer…
God, creator and sustainer of all that is, we give you thanks for the glories of the world in which we live. May we know ourselves as an integral part of your wonderful creation, understand our responsibilities in creation, and live in humble awe. Amen.

Learn more...

From Paul Turley

In our story from Exodus this week, Moses has a unique encounter with the very essence and originating energy of the universe that we call God. He took from that encounter an experience of God active in and on human history and understood and trusted that he had a part to play in that action. It changed his life and the life of the Hebrew people.

In our story this week, all of humanity is having a unique encounter with the COVID-19 virus. While many of us are understanding our part in this story to be caring for others by doing all the things that health authorities are advising in order to keep ourselves and others as safe and healthy as we can, not everyone is taking the same message from our encounter.

According to the Pew Research Center, at least a quarter of adults in the United States believe that, “powerful people intentionally planned the COVID-19 outbreak,” with 5% saying it is definitely true and 20% saying it is probably true. For Americans with a high school diploma or less education, almost half believe the theory is probably or definitely true.

Many surveys mark a steep decline in trust in traditional institutions from the time of Watergate and, in the last decade, in the United States at least, the percentage of Americans who say they “can trust the government always or most of the time” has been below 30% for at least a decade. For millennials, those between the ages of 18 to 29, only the military and scientists received majority support on the question of whom they trust to do the right thing most of the time.

While online speculation about whether Bill Gates created the virus so that he could implant a tracking device into everyone who receives the vaccine (that he has already developed and will profit from) or that the virus is a product of big pharma that will allow them to make millions from the vaccine that they will release when humanity is desperate enough to pay whatever they ask might seem like the harmless pursuit of people with too much imagination and time, these conspiracy theories could have deadly consequences.

A recent YouGov survey in Britain found that one in six UK respondents indicated that they “definitely” or “probably would not” get vaccinated if a coronavirus vaccine became available. A further sixth of respondents to the survey were unsure what they would do. This means up to a third of UK people could turn down a coronavirus vaccine when it becomes available. If this figure is the same or similar in other Western nations where anti-vax conspiracies circulate widely, the hoped-for vaccine may not spell the end of our COVID nightmare…

Explore…Exodus 3:1–15

In our text, Moses says, “I must turn aside and look…” What would it mean for you and your faith community to turn aside and look at what God is doing at this moment?
If you were to rewrite this encounter into contemporary language, who would replace Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob for your faith community?

Prayer…
God of great hope, help us discern truth from lies and give us the courage to live in truth. This is our prayer for ourselves and for all the world. Amen.

Learn more...

From Paul Turley

The plight of the Uighur people of China has been in the news again recently. It is not that their plight has been lessened that has kept them out of the headlines, but only that other news, most particularly the global pandemic, has muscled their story to the back pages.

Recently, however, the Associated Press and other outlets have been reporting widespread and systematic measures by the Chinese government to enforce birth control among the Uighur and other minority populations. According to the reports, the state regularly subjects minority women to pregnancy checks, and forces intrauterine devices, sterilization, and even abortion on hundreds of thousands. While the use of IUDs and sterilization has fallen nationwide, it is rising sharply in those areas populated by minorities like the Uighur.

According the Associated Press, “The population control measures are backed by mass detention both as a threat and as a punishment for failure to comply. Having too many children is a major reason people are sent to detention camps, with the parents of three or more ripped away from their families unless they can pay huge fines.”

It is estimated that there are more than a million Uighur in interment or, as the Chinese government refers to them, re-education camps in Xinjiang – the Uyghur Autonomous Region in the northwest of China. While Xinjiang is, on paper, an area in which the Uighur are supposed to be able to govern themselves to some degree, this is far from the reality of daily life. Xinjiang is one of the most heavily surveilled parts of China, a nation that already leads the world in the surveillance of its citizens.

This snapshot of what Uighur people must endure going about their normal lives gives us some insight into the control the Chines government has in the region.

Imagine that this is your daily life: While on your way to work or on an errand, every 100 meters you pass a police blockhouse. Video cameras on street corners and lamp posts recognize your face and track your movements. At multiple checkpoints, police officers scan your ID card, your irises and the contents of your phone. At the supermarket or the bank, you are scanned again, your bags are X-rayed and an officer runs a wand over your body – at least if you are from the wrong ethnic group. Members of the main group are usually waved through.

You have had to complete a survey about your ethnicity, your religious practices and your “cultural level”; about whether you have a passport, relatives or acquaintances abroad, and whether you know anyone who has ever been arrested or is a member of what the state calls a “special population.”

This personal information, along with your biometric data, resides in a database tied to your ID number. The system crunches all of this into a composite score that ranks you as “safe,” “normal” or “unsafe.” Based on those categories, you may or may not be allowed to visit a museum, pass through certain neighbourhoods, go to the mall, check into a hotel, rent an apartment, apply for a job or buy a train ticket. Or you may be detained to undergo re-education, like many thousands of other people.

A science-fiction dystopia? No. This is life in northwestern China today if you are Uighur.”

While the World Uyghur Congress, the Uyghur Human Rights Project’s and other diaspora groups do their best to champion the Uyghur cause around the world, they face tremendous pressure from the Chines government to stay silent.

According to recent reports by Amnesty International, “The result of these measures (threats made by the Chinese government against families back in Xinjiang if diaspora Uighur speak out) is that Uyghurs in diaspora communities often live in fear and refrain from speaking about the situation in Xinjiang, including sharing what they know about the detention camps; what they have learned about their relatives in Xinjiang; or even if they have lost contact with relatives back home.”

Explore…Exodus 1:8 — 2:10

Our text tells us that, “a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.” What does it mean for your faith community to know and explore its history? How do faith communities continue to learn from the past?
There are two kinds of power at work in this story: the power of oppression, and the hidden power of resistance. How do you see these powers playing out in your community? How can your faith community align itself with those powers for good?

Prayer…

God of the power of new growth, of renewal and regeneration, may we never be seduced by the power of oppression and of the quick fix. May we be your people of quiet, never-exhausted, powerful love. Amen.

Learn more…

From Sandra Rooney

Civil Rights leader, John Lewis, who died July 17, came to be known as the “Conscience of the Congress,” for his dedication to the highest ethical standards and moral principles throughout his life. From his first arrest at a lunch counter sit-in, through many subsequent arrests and beatings by state and federal officials and angry white mobs, he held fast to a belief in non-violence and reconciliation. And he never shrank from speaking out against injustice.

After serving on the Atlanta City Council, in 1986 Lewis was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he represented Georgia’s 5th District for 17 terms. Monday, July 27, Lewis’ coffin was carried into the U.S. Capitol, to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda. That evening his coffin was moved outside to the Capitol steps, where the public lined up to pay their respects.

Lewis dedicated his life to ensuring that with freedom came equality. More than that, he was firmly committed to the way of non-violence, forgiveness, and reconciliation. Never becoming bitter or vindictive, he said, “We were taught not to hate, not to become bitter, but to believe in the philosophy and discipline of non-violence, in the way of peace, in the way of love, the way of forgiveness and reconciliation.”

While in prison, Lewis built relationships with his guards, treating them as fellow human beings, even when they abused him. In his memoir Walking with the Wind, he wrote that the essence of the non- violent life, “is the capacity to forgive and to understand that your attacker is as much a victim as you are.” Lewis says there were many occasions when people who had wronged him would come to him to apologize and ask forgiveness. He not only forgave them but invited them to create a new set of relationships. He firmly believed in the power of forgiveness, for the one who forgives and the one forgiven.

Congressman Lewis had many encounters with people who had wronged him. One example dates back to 2009. The son of a man who had attacked Lewis at the bus station in Atlanta in 1961 had been encouraging his father to seek out the people he had wronged during that period. Father and son came to Lewis’ office after all those years to apologize and ask for forgiveness. Lewis recalled that the father looked to be a little older than he was, which meant he was about 24 in 1961; Lewis only 21. On that day in 1961, Lewis and his seatmate had been badly beaten and left lying in a pool of blood at the Greyhound bus station. Lewis said to the man, “Yes I forgive you; I accept your apology.” At this point, he recalled that the man’s son started crying, then man himself started to cry, as did Lewis. Then they hugged one another. Lewis recalled that they started calling one another “brother.” That man and his son were to visit Lewis several times after that.

Such was the man to whom Democrats and Republicans alike paid tribute and bid farewell at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Thursday, July 30. In an essay written just before he died, Lewis wrote, “In my life I have done all I can to demonstrate that the way of peace, the way of love and nonviolence is the more excellent way. Now it is your turn to let freedom ring.”

Explore…Genesis 45:1–15

What parallels do you see between this passage of scripture and events in our world today?
When have you witnessed the way of forgiveness leading to change?
Where do you see a need for forgiveness today?

Prayer…
Merciful and forgiving God, we know what is required of us, to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with you. You challenge us to love our neighbours as ourselves. Walk with us as we seek to so live. Amen.

Learn more…

From Sandra Rooney

With increased interest in genealogy in recent years, some people have been utilizing DNA testing in an effort to learn more about their family history, especially where they might have family roots. Unfortunately, the results of such testing are much more complicated that most of us would have thought. In a short YouTube presentation, Prosanta Chakrabarty explains and illustrates this. The first thing that stands out is that 99% of all human genomes are identical, only 1% carry differences. With that in mind, we can readily see how we are, in fact, all part of one human family. Can we perhaps also begin to understand how, in many ways, that human family is like a dysfunctional nuclear family, with parental favoritism, sibling rivalries, deep-seated anger, mistrust, generational hostilities, and more.

Three weeks ago, John Robert Lewis died. His life might serve to demonstrate some of those family characteristics. Tributes to Lewis have appeared almost daily as have the details of his life. Born February 21, 1940, he was the son of sharecroppers and lived on a farm owned by a white man. He suffered all the humiliations that were common in segregated rural Alabama at the time. Third of ten children, Lewis had to work hard even as a boy, leaving school at harvest time to pick cotton, peanuts, and corn. The family lived in a house without indoor plumbing or electricity. In the outhouse, they lived the cliche of using pages from an old Sears catalog as toilet paper.

At an early age, Lewis exhibited the gifts of a preacher, and he often recalled preaching to the chickens he cared for. Drawing inspiration from listening to the young Martin Luther King on the radio, Lewis himself seemed destined to become a minister. He worked his way through seminary (at American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville) as a janitor and dishwasher. In Nashville, he met and joined with many civil rights activists. Lewis’ first arrest came in February 1960, when he and other students participated in a sit-in at a white-only lunch counter in Nashville. His family, like many of their generation, were ashamed of their son’s arrest and they discouraged his participation in such activities. But that first experience proved to be just the beginning of Lewis’ life-long struggle, what he called “a holy crusade,” and he was to say later that getting arrested had been “a badge of honor.”

Lewis’ firm commitment to nonviolence, combined with his unflinching determination to bring about change in the way people of colour were treated, demanding dignity and respect, would lead to more than just arrests. He shared King’s dream that all who lived in the United States have equal opportunities to live the American dream. This brought the full extent of the segregationists’ ire upon him and other activists. He was arrested 40 times from 1960 to 1966, and severely beaten by Southern policemen and white mobs. During the Freedom Rides in 1961, Lewis was left unconscious and bloody outside the Greyhound Bus Terminal in Montgomery, Alabama, where he and others were attacked by hundreds of angry white people carrying all kinds of makeshift weapons, shouting, screaming and striking the demonstrators with fury and intensity.

History has marked the events of March 1965, when hundreds of people, black and white, were protesting black killings and demonstrating for voting rights. Sunday, March 7, started as a peaceful march from Selma to Montgomery, the state capital. It became known as “Bloody Sunday,” to commemorate the vicious attack on marchers by Alabama state troopers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, which left Lewis with a fractured skull and 57 others treated for injuries at the hospital. But that wasn’t the end of Lewis’ story.

Explore…Genesis 37:1–4, 12–28

How do you react to the notion that we truly are all part of one global family?
Where do you see what might be considered sibling rivalries and jealousy affecting the course of events?
Where do you see yourself or your community in the struggle for human rights today?

Prayer links…
Eternal Spirit, as we face the isolation of the corona virus, may we also see ourselves reflected in the protests around the world. May we each look deeply into our own history, understand the struggles it represents, and be encouraged to continue to dream and work for a better tomorrow. Amen.

Learn more…

From Fraser Macnaughton

For most Westerners, it is a weird notion indeed these days to meet someone face to face when both people have to cover half their faces with a mask! In many Asian countries, however, wearing a face covering in public has been the norm for many years. For many Muslim women, too, covering all or part of the face in public has long been part of Islamic culture.

So it may be it that many are bemused at the furor in some Western nations about the efficacy or desirability of having mandatory face coverings imposed in order to stem the infection rates of Covid-19. In England, the U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been criticized for “confusing” public health messaging on the issue. Public health experts and business leaders in the retail sector have been urging the government to look again at making face masks mandatory to encourage people back to the high street and to stop the spread of coronavirus. When he was asked specifically whether face coverings would be made mandatory in shops in England, as they already are on public transport, the prime minister said the government was considering what “tools of enforcement” would be used to increase compliance. But as recently as April, Health Secretary Matt Hancock was actively discouraging the wearing of masks, suggesting that they were ineffective and that public uptake of the practice would create shortages for NHS workers.

However, it appears that scientific advice seems to be changing as medics increase their understanding of the virus and then alter their views accordingly, prompting Mr. Johnson to remark, “The scientific evidence of face coverings, and the importance of stopping aerosol droplets; that’s been growing so I do think that in shops it is very important to wear a face covering.”

Like President Trump, Prime Minister Johnson was seen in public recently wearing a face mask for the first time. But some influential right-wingers close to the governing Conservative party have complained about proposed mandatory mask-wearing and other lockdown measures. Some unionist Tories view the move as a win for Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland. They see this as one of a handful of times the U.K. government has followed the Scottish government, causing some to worry that this indirectly implies that Sturgeon is the more competent leader.

Explore…Genesis 32:22–31

To what extent do you feel the mandatory wearing of face masks de-humanizes us?
Can you think of ways in which the expression “face to face”’ can be meaningful when it is not a physical reality?
What experiences of online worship (not face-to-face) do you think can evolve into the future?
How might your faith community interact more closely with those with whom you have been at a distance?

Prayer…

The old story tells us that Jacob got really close up and personal with God. In these times of physical distancing, when all we want is to be face to face with each other, may we delve deep into our souls and discover again what Jesus meant when he said, “The realm of God is within you.”

Learn more…

Boris Johnson says face masks should be worn in shops

From Sandra Rooney

In these turbulent times of the Corona virus pandemic, political unrest, and the Black Lives Matter movement – with, it seems, everyone speaking out, especially with the many vehicles offered by social media – the notion of “subversive silence” may seem almost irresponsible. But is it? There are those who are going about their business without fanfare, with an eye on the future.

Take Lonnie G. Bunch III. In 2005, he was named the director of a museum that didn’t even exist, the National Museum of African American History and Culture. He had seemingly nothing to work with, no collection, no funding, no site. Ten years later, the museum opened on the National Mall in Washington, to rave reviews. Last year, Mr. Bunch became the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, which includes not only the museum he founded, but many other museums and libraries and even the National Zoo.

Then came the pandemic, effectively shutting down all of those institutions. However, under Bunch’s leadership the Smithsonian is quietly developing digital tools intended to encourage dialogue about race, including the question of the removal of controversial statues and monuments.

In an interview with David Gelles for the New York Times, Bunch talked about the careful planning being done to prepare for the safe opening of the museums, but much more than that. “Cultural institutions,” he said, “regardless of the subject matter, have to be as much about today and tomorrow as they are about yesterday.” As for the Museum of African American History, this means he has people out collecting during the protests, sending in videos. And, with the creation of that museum, “It’s an opportunity,” he says, “to help stimulate local conversations about race.”

Bunch is hopeful that the current situation will lead to real change, but he also worries about the direction response might take. He suggests that in some ways “Americans want to romanticize history”; they want “selective history.” An alternative would be to see African American history as a corrective, “to help people understand the fullness, the complexity, the nuance of their history.” Americans tend to want simple answers to complex questions, he says, adding that, “History often teaches us to embrace ambiguity, to understand there aren’t simple answers to complex questions.”

Bunch also says he strongly believes that museums have a social justice role to play. They have an opportunity to help their community grapple with the changes they face, to use history, science, and education to give the public tools to grapple with the issues of the day. “I want museums to be a place that gives the public not just what it wants, but what it needs.” In the end, he says, “I would rather the museum be a place that takes a little risk to make the country better than a place where history and science go to die.” So Bunch is quietly working to prepare for the day when the museums, and the Museum of African American History in particular, can open again.

Explore…Genesis 29:15–28

Describe how the women in today’s scripture passage were preparing for the future.
Where do you see people or institutions quietly going about their work to make their communities better places?
When have you had to just bide your time waiting for the right moment to make a decision, take an action, or speak up about something?

Prayer…

Spirit of our yesterdays, today, and tomorrow, guide us as we seek to respond to the many challenges that fill our lives and our world. Comfort us in our despair and open our eyes to new possibilities for building a world of peace and justice. Amen.

Learn more…

Smithsonian’s leader says “Museums have a social justice role to play”

From Sandra Rooney

Some dreams come to us when we’re sleeping, others live in our minds when we’re awake. Sometimes we think we understand what our dreams are saying to us, sometimes not. Arshay Cooper, now an accomplished chef in New York, had an unexpected circumstance change his life, and out of that experience a dream grew – a dream to help young black men escape the gang lives that might otherwise have trapped them, to help them develop their potential and live the lives they dreamed of living.

Cooper grew up on the west side of Chicago, a place he said they called “holy city” because the gangs were vice lords. Every day his challenge was to get to the bus, get to school, and get home again in the afternoon without running into the gangs. Home was a challenge, too. His mother was a drug addict and his brothers were in gangs. There was no “dad” in his life.

One day in the lunchroom, he saw a boat and wondered what that was all about. A lady asked him if he wanted to join crew. He had no idea what that was, but it didn’t sound good. She took him behind the boat and there, on a TV monitor, he saw the Olympic Games. But what he also saw were white guys rowing. He told her no way, “We don’t even swim.” The next day, the boat was still there and a notice read, “Sign up and get free pizza.” Well, then everybody was signing up.

They sat on the floor with their pizza and heard a guy talk about the power of rowing and the power of the water to change your life; rowing could give you an opportunity to go to college, to travel and to build a bond. That guy was coach Ken Alpart. He said there wouldn’t be a “Michael Jordan” in this sport, that it was the ultimate team sport. Alpart had a vision, a dream of changing young people’s lives, and some those boys caught his vision.

Cooper says just getting out of the neighbourhood for a while felt good. He found being on the boat was calm, peaceful, and quiet. He said, “You hear the sound of the blade hitting the water and it’s rhythmic, and it’s meditation.” That was how it was for him every day for a couple of hours. He said it calmed the storm in him, his anger, and gave him a sense of peace.

At first the boys didn’t get along. They were from different neighbourhoods, different gangs. That changed when they went to a regatta where everyone else was white. They realized they had no choice, they had to pull together and they learned to count on each other. They realized they were strong and tough. They were trained by their coach to be great humans first and to be contributors to their community. Then it was about winning. “We didn’t win gold,” Cooper said, but we got into water and overcame everything that life threw our way. “We won in life,” he said.

To this day, Cooper and his teammates keep in touch. “We’re brothers,” he said. None went on to be Olympic or college rowers, but 90% of them are entrepreneurs. They hire people in their communities and they give back. That was always the goal, Cooper said: “to use the sport of rowing, to be leaders and to learn and to contribute.” And that’s what they do.

Explore…Genesis 28:10–19a

What parallels do you see between today’s scripture and this story?
When have you experienced a sense that God was directing your life?
What in today’s challenges feels like it might be a call to you?

Prayer links…

Eternal Spirit, in these days of many dreams, we pray that we may sense your presence, not only in our dreams but in the dreams of others, as we seek to build a better tomorrow for all your human family. Amen.

Learn more…

A Most Beautiful Thing tells of the first U.S. all-black high school rowing team

From Sandra Rooney

After the May 25 killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, The Black Lives Matter movement gained new momentum. Immediately there were peaceful demonstrations protesting his death and calling for justice. There were also some violent incidents, property damage and looting. The demonstrations and call for racial justice echoed around the world.

Statues of Confederate generals were torn down. A British monument to the 17th-century slave Trader Edward Coston was toppled by protesters and tossed into the harbour in Bristol. In Antwerp, it was the statue of Leopold II, and 78,000 signatures were added to a petition to remove all monuments to the King of Belgium, whose reign saw the murder and mutilation of at least 10 million Africans in Congo. By now dozens of statues of historical figures associated with colonialism and slavery have been pulled down. It seems, at last, citizens of all our countries are beginning to acknowledge the dark side of our histories and to realize how the burden of what we have called progress, our growing power and wealth, was carried on the backs slaves.

Some of the offensive statues are being torn down by demonstrators, others are being removed by local officials. Around some there seems to be consensus, but for others the issue is still contentious. Beyond public monuments, the broader issue of visual representation in the U.S. includes the display of the Confederate flag, military academies named for Confederate generals, and imagery used on popular brand items such as Aunt Jemima’s Pancake Mix. The issue goes deep into our history, not all of which is commonly known, and much more of which has simply been unacknowledged until now.

Questions arise: What happens to the statues? How is honest history remembered and portrayed? Who is to be honoured, how is history to be taught? Beyond that, there are questions of redress, policies to be put in place to insure equal justice before the law, and equal access to employment opportunities, housing, education, and health care. In the U.S., can all share in living the American dream?

Explore…Genesis 25:19–34

What do you notice about the characters in this passage?
What do the scope and nature of the stories in Genesis tell us about history?
What guidance do they give us as we deal with today’s racial issues?
What are the stories in your family, your faith community or where you live that are hard to tell? Why?
How is your community reflected in the story above?
Where do you find God in all of this?

Prayer…

God of history, open our eyes to the ways in which we have benefited from and participated in the practices of discrimination. Give us the courage to examine and confront our own implicit biases, which shape our attitudes and actions. Be with us as we seek to move out of our comfort zone into new ways of living. Amen.

Learn more…

From Ray McGinnis

On June 15, the United States Supreme Court, in a 6-3 ruling, decided that a person cannot be fired from their job in America simply because they are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender. The decision was a surprise given the conservative majority on the bench.

While the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that anyone, regardless of gender, could marry another person, the decision this June is seen as more wide-sweeping in its ramifications. Not everyone wishes to get married. But everyone does need gainful employment in order to pay for shelter, food, transportation and other basic necessities.

Karen Dolan writing in the Institute For Policy Studies Other Words journal stated, “in short, it codifies that people are people and deserve human and civil rights.”

Prior to the June decision, laws in a significant minority of states allowed employers to discriminate against applicants for employment, and against those already hired, if it was learned the person in question had a sexual orientation or gender identify the employer was opposed to.

The decision is viewed as having spillover implications for future rulings in the areas of “housing, education, health care, and even in the occupying of public spaces…”

National Public Radio (NPR) emphasized that the court had expanded the 1964 Civil Rights Act definition of who must be free from discrimination.

One of three cases that was sent to the high court involved Gerald Bostock. He had won awards for his professional service as a child welfare coordinator for Clayton County, Georgia. However, he was subsequently fired when it was learned that he became a member of a gay softball league. He told NPR, “Within months, I was fired for being gay. I lost my livelihood. I lost my medical insurance, and I was recovering from prostate cancer at the time. It was devastating.”

The decision was viewed as a rebuke to the Trump administration who had backed the employers in the case.

Explore…Genesis 24:34–38, 42–49, 58–67

What kind of relationship do Rebekah and Isaac have?
What signs did Isaac look for to be certain that Rebekah was to be his betrothed?
What faith did Rebekah show in committing to a life together with Isaac?
What difference does it make that the United States Supreme Court has ruled that anyone in America, regardless of their sexual status or orientation, can seek employment without fear of discrimination?
What kind of future does this ruling make possible?
Of the people you have chosen to include in your life, have there been any that have been a catalyst for faith, inspiration, hospitality? Love?

Prayer…

Oh God who gives us signs, help us to discern the next thing you are doing to make our lives catalysts for hospitality, faith, and love. Help us to see how those you have placed in front of us may be God-given, and how we can become part of stories to encourage others on the way. In Christ we pray. Amen.

Read More…

From Ray McGinnis

Cuba has had a universal health care system in place since the Cuban Revolution in 1959. The country boasts three times more doctors per capita than the United States. And life expectancy is higher in Cuba than in America.

In the early 1960s, Cuba began to send teams of doctors to other countries on medical missions. Mark Keller, a spokesperson for the Economist newspaper in London, noted that “For smaller African or Caribbean countries, who can’t necessarily afford to pay for doctors,” these teams provide needed medical help where medical expertise has been scarce.

Cuban medics have been praised for their response to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, and in response to the 2014 Ebola crisis in West Africa. Currently, Cuban doctors have been welcomed by Peru, Brazil, and other South American nations. On June 3 of this year, 85 doctors from Cuba arrived in Peru to help the nation attend to those stricken with COVID-19. Cuba is paid for sending its medical professionals abroad.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has been trying to pressure countries that are involved in trading cash for Cuban doctors to stop the practice. Since the United States embargo against tourism to Cuba, sending doctors abroad had become the number one source of revenue for the cash-strapped nation.

Regardless of the diplomatic pressure from President Trump, underserved countries have largely ignored his call, and have continued to cooperate with Cuban doctors, who are lending medical assistance in the face of the current pandemic. American allies in Qatar, Kuwait, South Africa, Italy, Honduras, Brazil, and Peru are among the nations accepting Cuban doctors.

The Trump administration has threatened to put Cuba on its U.S. State Sponsors of Terrorism list, which mandates further trade restrictions. Yet an article in an independent news centre based in Portland, Maine, pointed out that the United States harbored Luis Posada Carriles, “the mastermind of the bombing of a Cuban civilian airplane in 1976 that killed 73 people.” Cubana Flight 455 was on route from Barbados to Trinidad on October 6, 1976, before two bombs exploded and the plane crashed in the sea.

Carriles, a Cuban exile to America after the 1959 revolution, was involved in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba by America in 1961. Trained as a CIA agent, he said in a 1998 interview in the New York Daily News “the CIA taught us everything…explosives, how to kill, bomb, trained us in acts of sabotage.” He was later was involved with Oliver North in the Iran-Contra scandal, working with death squads in El Salvador, and was responsible for 41 bombings in Honduras. A 2014 article in the Los Angeles Times accused the United States of “hypocrisy.” Posada Carriles died in Miami in 2018, regarded by hardline elements of the anti-Castro exile community as “a heroic figure” and “Fidel Castro’s most persistent would-be assassin.”

In the face of Trump administration pressure to vilify Cuban medical teams, American actor Danny Glover and others have spearheaded a drive to nominate Cuban Doctors for a Nobel Peace Prize. Former Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa said in support of the nomination, “When humanity needed help at a time when the great powers were in hiding, Cuban doctors began to arrive.” American author Alice Walker added her voice commenting that “the selflessness, courage and solidarity of the Cuban doctors fighting COVID-19 is unparalleled and deserving of the world’s most prestigious peace prize.” As of June 2020, there are 28 countries with Cuban medical personnel caring for their sick, including Mexico.

Explore…Matthew 10: 40–42

What shift in perception might occur if we really trusted Jesus’ words, “anyone who welcomes you welcomes me?”
What does it mean to recognize someone for who they really are?
Why does Jesus care about the act of giving a cup of cold water to children, “these little ones?” Why are Cuban doctors being invited by several dozen nations to offer medical assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic? Should they be welcomed?
What shift in perception would need to happen for the Trump administration to support the efforts of Cuban doctors?
What “cup of cold water” have you offered to those in need?

Prayer…
Oh God who invites us to welcome those who welcome us,
help us to discern when something is done to improve the wellbeing of others.
When people need our support in order to be well,
help us respond as Christ would respond.
In Christ we pray. Amen.

From Ray McGinnis

On May 25, 2020, a 46-year-old African-American named George Floyd was arrested by four Minneapolis police officers for allegedly using counterfeit 20-dollar bill to purchase cigarettes. Floyd had been laid off as a bouncer at a club due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Once he was arrested, Floyd was forced to the pavement and white police officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on his neck and back for eight minutes and 46 seconds. During this time George Floyd repeatedly told the officer who he addressed as “sir,” “I can’t breathe.” Two other officers were also involved in restraining Floyd, while a fourth prevented onlookers from assisting the handcuffed man.
For the final three minutes that Chauvin had his knee on Floyd’s neck, Floyd lay motionless and had no pulse. Nonetheless, the four officers did not undertake any measures to revive George. A second autopsy by the Floyd family found the cause of death was due to the compression of the neck which prevented the necessary flow of blood to Floyd’s brain. A video of the police arrest of Floyd, including the duration of the officer putting his knee on Floyds’ neck went viral. Protests erupted across more than 750 cities across the United States. And marches in solidarity with Black Lives Matter spread around the world to over 60 nations. Murals were drawn by artists. In Naples, street artist Jorit Agoch drew George Floyd along with Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, American Civil Rights leaders Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, and Black Panther Party activist Angela Davis. Floyd and the four others each weep blood like saints depicted in southern Italian churches.

On June 3, Derek Chauvin was charged by the State of Minnesota with second-degree murder, and the other three officers at the scene were charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder. Subsequently, on June 5, the State of Minnesota banned police from using choke holds and neck restraints during an arrest.

Explore…Matthew 10:24–39

What does Jesus teaching, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul,” mean for us today?
When Jesus says, “Do not think I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword,” what meaning does this have for his followers today?
How is seeking solidarity and justice in our world today likely to disrupt relationships with those in power, or who are close to us?
What difference do you think the story of the death of George Floyd is making in the world?
Considering the murals being drawn around the world, what artistic response might you/your community make?

Prayer…
Oh God who counts the hairs on each of our heads, who values our lives as sacred, help us to speak in the light what you tell us in the dark.
May stories of injustice not defeat us but embolden us to take up the cross and follow you as you embrace people of all races and nations.
In Christ we pray. Amen.

From Paul Turley

Jesus’s call to his disciples to join him in his healing and exorcism ministry meant, for those young men, a profound break with the lives they had known previously.

For all of us, in this time, in the midst of the pandemic, there is a break with the lives we have known. For some of us this is significant and, for some, completely life-changing.

Where I live in southern Australia, it seems, at least for now, that the worst is behind us and our governments are slowly reopening public life. However, this does not necessarily mean going “back to normal.” Not only will we continue to have to deal with on-going restrictions on how we operate in public, we also have to manage our own experience of a slow “opening up.”

Two recent conversations that I have had give hints about how complex this is. A person in their 80s told me that spending so much time at home alone has given him a sense that he has “lost confidence” in his ability to negotiate the world.

A young 19-year-old woman told me that she is “deeply questioning” her pre-pandemic life of parties and clubs every weekend. “What is the point of it?” she asked, “but, what else will I do, and what about my friends?”

These concerns about a post-lockdown life is referred to by psychologists as reverse culture shock, or re-entry syndrome.

Maree Riley, an Australian Antarctic Division psychologist who is in charge of helping returned Antarctic expeditioners reintegrate, says that in relation to our post-COVID lockdown lives, "There are similarities that we can draw from these (expeditioners) experiences. People often talk about noise and crowds or little details like having to pay for things again and having to lock your door. You can be overwhelmed by choices.”

“The data we have on expeditioners,” Riley says, “shows it takes up to 12 months for them to truly adapt back to life in Australia.”

Applied to the proposed easing of COVID restrictions, she predicts much the same. “Everyone is holding out for restrictions to be eased,” she said. “There’s a widespread assumption that everything will be good, everything will be wonderful, everyone will be happy.”

But it will not be as easy as we might imagine.

Dr. Kimberley Norris, a clinical psychologist suggests, “People might be feeling they’ve got to make up for lost time, that’s the worst thing we can be doing.” Instead, she advises that we slowly reconnect with friends and family.

Our lives have changed; we need time to understand that and time to give each other and ourselves opportunities to adjust.

Explore… Matthew 9:35 — 10:8, (9–23)

It is easy to forget how young Jesus’s disciples might well have been. (It’s possible that they were teenagers.) The call to discipleship must have contained the thrill of adventure and a dose of “imposter syndrome” (when you are sure you are so ill-equipped for a task that everyone will see it immediately). How do these two possible responses to the call of Christ resonate with you?
For what are you longing in the next few months? How do you imagine you will cope if those longings don’t materialize? How do you imagine you will cope if those longings do materialise?
Jesus gives very clear instructions and guidance to his disciples, instructions and guidance specific to that time and place. If Jesus were speaking to you personally now, how do you think he might instruct and guide you in your call?

Prayer…
God of presence, we know you are with us, around us and in us always. May this truth be real for us, strong in us, and animate us in whatever you are calling us to do. Amen.

From Paul Turley

“Elon Musk’s 42,000 StarLink satellites could just save the world.” This headline from Forbes magazine of a few months ago refers to Elon Musk’s plan to launch a world-wide, satellite-based internet service that he says will, when completed, cover the entire globe.

Currently less than half the world’s population has internet access and for many, particularly in rural areas and developing countries, what access they do have is very slow.

In the last month, StarLink has successfully launched its seventh batch of satellites, which means it now has 420 satellites in orbit. The company says it needed 400 satellites ready to go in order to provide “minor” internet service coverage and testing. Musk says that a limited service in the United State and Canada will be available before the end of 2020.

Musk says that for consumers StarLink will be easy to use and, of the equipment needed at the consumer’s end he says, “Starlink Terminal has motors to self-adjust optimal angle to view sky. Instructions are simply: plug in socket, point at sky. These instructions work in either order. No training required.”

What will it mean if StarLink is successful and high-speed internet is available anywhere on the globe? Could it mean the end of what is being called ‘splinternet,’ the tendency for governments and corporations to “shape” internet experience to either censor information or “guide” consumers to particular brands and sites? Could it mean that with simple and relatively cheap equipment, millions more people will be able to bypass censorship by authoritarian regimes? Could it mean a more connected world?

We don’t know. What we do know is that this initiative, if it is successful, is quite likely to change the world, just like the internet itself.

Explore…Genesis 1:1 — 2:4a

Our text repeatedly has God making the cosmos and seeing that it is good. What do you think the word good means here?
What does it mean to you that God sees God’s creation as good?
How does your faith community express its nature as a part of all of God’s creation?

Prayer...
God of the vast cosmos, you give attention to all that you have made and you constantly invite us to be like you in celebrating the goodness of creation and the wonder of life. May today be a moment of glorious, surprising goodness. Amen.

Read more...
SpaceX’s Starlink satellite megaconstellation launches in photos
Elon Musk’s 42,000 StarLink satellites could just save the world
Starlink.com

From Paul Turley

Whatever else our text from Acts 2 is about – and it is a deeply mysterious text – it is full of abundance and joy. Not only was the Good News proclaimed, it was done so in multiple languages and by people so exuberant that onlookers thought they were drunk. And all of this was happening in a city under lockdown by Roman forces worried about revolutionary currents in the population – currents that were always swirling and especially at the yearly celebration of the Passover.

In our time of lockdown we could do with some joy and abundance.

The Bin Isolation Outing Facebook group is one little sign that even in this strange and worrying time joy and abundance are breaking through. Danielle Askew from Hervey Bay in Queensland, Australia, began the Facebook page. In lockdown, she found that taking her rubbish bins/trash cans to the curb was becoming the highlight of her week. She dared a friend to get dressed up to do the weekly chore. Her friend did and challenged Danielle back. That’s how Danielle started the Facebook group, and Bin Isolation Outing went viral.

As I write this, the latest posting is from Charlie, from Auckland, New Zealand, who is missing her fifth birthday party, but is taking out the bins dressed like a princess and receiving happy birthday messages from the more than one million members of Bin Isolation Outing.

Danni Roberts, from Bridgetown in the south-west of Western Australia, dressed as the grim reaper for her outing. “In normal times, when we weren’t going through such a crazy experience, it probably wouldn’t be quite as funny,” she said. “But because we are, and things are the way they are at the moment, it’s just really hilarious.”

It’s not much is it? But even on some of our darkest days, things like the Bin Isolation Outing group can open us up and lighten us just a little. And even the smallest opening can let in the light of joy and the possibility that we will be open to the pouring out of God’s “Spirit upon all flesh.”

Explore…Acts 2:1–21

What does it mean to you that the people listening to the disciples in Acts, “heard them speaking in the native language of each”?
How does the symbolism of the “sound like the rush of a violent wind” and,“divided tongues, as of fire” effect your understanding of the presence of God in your life and in the world?

Prayer…
God of all people and all places, you are present in us and with us in this and in every moment.
Help us to be people who welcome your joy and abundance, and who receive and share it with grace and gratitude.
Amen.

From Sandra Rooney

All forms of media are telling the stories of those affected by the coronavirus, from health care workers to gig workers, from those who have lost their jobs and those who carry on essential services. A New York Times op-ed May 6, highlights some of the issues.

March 27: When Sujatha Gidla heard that a co-worker with the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) had died from Covid-19, he thought, “It’s starting.” More deaths followed in quick succession. The MTA quickly became the epicenter of the city’s virus, with a mortality rate substantially higher than that of first responders. The reasons are easy to understand – close contact with passengers, ventilation limitations, lack of facilities for regular hand washing, absence of protective gear.

Gidla soon become ill, was hospitalized briefly and discharged. He stayed isolated for 14 days, then felt better. A coworker told him about a place where he could get tested. On April 15, testing positive meant further quarantine. His direct-deposit statement showed $692, less than half his wages for the first pay period and nothing after that. On April 30 Gidla tested negative and went back to work.

Since March 27, at least 98 New York transit workers have died of Covid-19, and these figures don’t reflect more recent deaths. Think about all those services we consider essential to meet our needs. There are grocery stores and their whole supply line, especially meatpacking plants, and truckers. Think of factories producing protective supplies, delivery workers, sanitation workers. The list goes on and on. As Gidla’s coworkers say, “We’re not essential, we’re sacrificial.” When some have said “We’re all in the same boat,” others respond, “No, not the same boat, the same storm.”

Explore…John 17:1–11

What do you think Jesus meant when he prayed with his disciples, “that they may be one”?
What might that prayer mean for us, his followers, today?
In what ways are we not “all in this together”?
What questions do we need to ask ourselves as we figure out how we move forward after this experience with COVID-19?

Prayer…
Eternal Spirit, yesterday is gone and the future is unknown, more unknown than ever before. Live in us. Help us to see how we are connected with all of life. May we see beyond our differences of race or clan, lives or livelihoods, our privileges or deprivations. May we know that in your eyes we are one, and may we value one another as members of the whole human family. Amen.

From Sandra Rooney

These are challenging days, when knowing what’s right isn’t easy. Leaders – political and religious, local and national, as well as global – often present conflicting guidelines for our living. Sometimes we may feel ourselves called to act in ways that go counter to what is expected or considered acceptable.

U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the democratic socialist from the Bronx, has found herself in such situations since her upset victory, beating her 10-term opponent in 2018. Today, Ocasio-Cortez, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, has the grim distinction of representing the nation’s most devastated hot zone in the coronavirus outbreak. Her district, which includes working-class immigrant clusters in the Bronx and Queens, has had more coronavirus cases, as of April 30, than all of Manhattan, despite having almost a million fewer people. Ocasio-Cortez knows personally many of those who have died, as well as others who have become sick or have been left without jobs and are hungry. When she visits her district, you may well find her in her campaign headquarters surrounded by bags of donated food she is preparing to deliver to families in her district.

Ocasio-Cortez has seen how this crisis has brought existing problems such as inadequate health care and income inequality into stark relief. It’s not creating new problems but is like “pouring gasoline on our existing ones,” she said. In response, she found herself the only Democrat to vote against the $484 billion package that Congress recent passed overwhelmingly. She said she had many problems with the measure, in particular the fact that it was far too generous to corporations and not to local governments, small businesses, and people struggling to buy food or pay rent.

While some of her colleagues indicated they shared her reservations, when push came to shove, she was the lone negative vote. “Our brains are just designed to experience a lot of excruciating pain at the idea of being alone,” she said. “When you cast those lonely votes, you feel like your colleagues respect you less, and that you are choosing to marginalize yourself.” She feels they are judging her without really getting to know her.

For the most part, Ocasio-Cortez’ colleagues are father removed from the virus’s daily toll, which has heightened the sense of alienation she has felt since arriving on Capitol Hill last year. Nearly everyone in her district has some personal connection to someone lost to the virus. It is not the same for many other members of Congress, who have not seen the overrun emergency rooms and refrigerator trucks doubling as makeshift morgues that are only a few miles from her home. She is called to live out her convictions, but at a high cost.

Explore…John 14:15-21

What does it mean to obey Jesus’ commandant? What are the marks of living that way?
When have you felt yourself swimming upstream against the current of society’s expectations?
Where do you find strength in such situations?
What are the challenges of today’s unique circumstances? What might you or your faith community do?

Prayer…
Spirit of love, compassion, and justice,
be with us as we face the challenges of these days.
Draw us into the circle of those
who share the desire to live as Jesus taught.
Strengthen our resolve
and embolden us to speak truth to power.
Amen.

Learn more…
For A.O.C., “Existential Crisis” as her district becomes coronavirus epicenter

From Fraser Macnaughton

As the coronavirus pandemic unfolds, one of the developing themes is where political ideology clashes with scientific and social orthodoxy. How do we navigate through claim and counterclaim that “my group’s” way of doing things is not only the best way, but the only way?

Governments in many countries have been keen to stress that they are “following the science” in their response. “The science,” like the virus, is not restricted by national borders, or political ideologies, or systems of government, so it would logically follow that the science should transcend all varieties of human society. But logic and common sense in a time of panic and fear are not all that common.

For example, in South Dakota, the state governor, Kristi Noem, has refused to order a lockdown to combat COVID-19, despite a serious outbreak in Sioux Falls. The Republican mayor of Sioux Falls, Paul TenHaken called on the governor to close schools and parks and to discourage public gatherings, including church services. The governor refused mainly because, thus far, there have been relatively fewer cases in this lightly populated state. Public opinion in South Dakota seems to back her stance, which is based on her statement, “I believe in our freedoms and liberties. What I’ve seen across the country is so many people give up their liberties for just a little bit of security, and they don’t have to do that.”

Professor John Schaff, a political scientist at Northern State University noted, “There is a governing ideology that says that people are free to make their own choices, and if people want to engage in some behaviours that in other parts of the country would be restricted, they’re not restricted here.”

Only time will tell whether the science or political ideology wins out.

Explore…Acts 7:55–60
Can you think of other instances where the tenets of faith clash with social norms?
To what extent do you think the Christian message is at odds with the way we live our lives, but we somehow accommodate the two?
What other aspects of contemporary culture does your faith community feel it needs to take a stand against?
Some say the worst thing that happened to the church was when Christianity became the established religion of the Roman Empire. How do you view that statement?

Prayer…
Jesus asked his followers to be in the world but not of the world. May we take up this daily challenge, reflect upon it, and together find ways of living out the gospel in our communities in radical ways that are in the spirit of Jesus teachings. Amen.

From Fraser Macnaughton

The introductory paragraph on this week’s biblical background page mentions how “we may begin to wonder who are the ‘wolves in sheep’s clothing’ trying to steal the sheep in our churches, communities, and lives.” In many communities, perhaps no groups are more outwardly scary than bikers. Films (think Marlon Brando in The Wild One) and rock-and-roll artists and albums have all glorified the bad boy (and sometimes bad girl) image of bikers, not always unfairly. Older people may remember the days of the Mods and Rockers, gangs of youths who roamed around on a variety of two wheelers causing mayhem, especially at seaside resorts on the coast of the U.K.

So perhaps it is something of a surprise to read of one group of latter-day bikers who don’t fit the traditional stereotype, and who are doing their bit to help less fortunate people live in abundance as far as they able during the COVID-19 pandemic. But that is indeed what is happening in the Cornish town of Bodmin in the far southwest of the U.K.

The bikers, led by army reservist Kye Smith, are turning their passion into positivity by helping the elderly and vulnerable during the coronavirus outbreak. The operation, which started off with three friends who set to work doing what they could to help, has turned into a mini-network of 18 people, ranging in age from 16 to 67. Grateful residents have turned to social media to praise the team and the help they’ve given them. The group have proved themselves worth their weight in gold and are now running an average of a dozen drops every day. As well as the usual essentials, basic foodstuffs, and medicines, some of the requests have been more unusual – such as homemade birthday cakes, Easter eggs, and even an order of frozen mice from a pet shop for a pet snake.

As one of the team said, all bikers ever want to do is ride, which falls foul of current government guidelines about staying at home. But these mercy rides provide a greater good and strict hygiene guidelines are adhered to. No wonder the bikers received a standing ovation from one community.

Explore…Acts 2:42–47

Can you think of other examples of where our common humanity has trumped all obstacles?
To what extent do you think the current pandemic is showing us what really matters in our lives?
In what ways does the current situation give us an opportunity to reassess what life in abundance really could mean?
How might your faith community encourage others to look forward positively?

Prayer…
Jesus’ life and teachings were all about life-affirming matters. So often, faith communities have been more about life-denying things. May we, at the present time, with so much of what we take for granted stripped away, use this time to reset our faith compass and to reaffirm Jesus’ offer of life in abundance. Amen.

From Fraser Macnaughton

In these surreal times across the globe, one of the things people in the developed world seem to be re-discovering is baking one’s own bread. Something, of course, which comes as second nature to most of the developing world, as it has done for millennia and in almost as many different forms.

Whether this is a primordial reaction to the possibility of a shortage of staples (there isn’t) or a deep need to provide for close family, is hard to tell. However, reports keep coming in of shelves empty of bread-making flour. Home baking is making a comeback during the lockdown and the key ingredient is flour – if you can find any. (Yeast is also very difficult to find in many regions.) According to consumer analysts Kantar, in the U.K., grocery sales of flour were up 92% in the four weeks prior to March 22, compared to the same period last year.

Flourmills are operating at maximum capacity, producing, packaging, and delivering products as fast as they can. “Working round the clock,” milling flour 24 hours a day, seven days a week to double production – but the industry is still struggling to meet demand. One mill in Oxfordshire had up to 15% of it’s staff self-isolating, so put out an appeal to other local furloughed workers, including builders and chefs, to replenish its workforce. And it seems the population is turning to home baking. At the Oxfordshire mill, the co-owner says they have been overwhelmed by members of the public ringing up trying to source flour for recipes.

Supermarkets confirmed baking products are popular, with huge volumes of flour and yeast going out the door. Most are limiting customers to two packets of flour at a time. And people are becoming ever more inventive (as humans tend to do in times of crisis). Some people have worked out that slow cookers can be used to bake bread, with one describing her recipe baked thus as “the best bread ever.” On a new Facebook group she noted. “I’ve wanted a bread machine for years but couldn’t justify the extra counter space and another appliance in the kitchen. This works perfect and tastes so good – one less thing to buy on my weekly shop!”

Explore…24:13–35

In what ways does your faith community appreciate the simplicity of having enough bread to eat?
How might your faith community be encouraged to bake their own bread for your Eucharist/communion services in future?
How might such an activity be planned and what impact might it have spiritually?

Prayer links…
May we feel the presence of the Bread of Life in these difficult times. May we look forward to a time when once again we can share bread with one another and be more mindful of those who have to go without even the most basic foodstuffs. Amen.

Read more…
Ready, set, dough…

ACCESS YOUR WEB RESOURCES

Lection Connection

Past Lection Connections-Spirit Sightings (The Archives)

From Paul Turley

From Fraser Macnaughton

From Sandra Rooney

From Sandra Rooney

From Sandra Rooney

From Ray McGinnis

From Ray McGinnis

From Ray McGinnis