Allen Junek

I hate it here.

With what’s unfolding in MN, no music, and fewer people bc of the winter storm this AM was a rather somber occasion! Until a voice started to sing during Holy Communion…and others joined in.

I didn’t know I needed to sing with other people this morning, but it helped. Maybe it helps you, too.

A man in cassock and surplice with a red stole stands in a snowy downtown plaza, arms raised, holding a hand-lettered sign that quotes Genesis 4:10: “The voice of your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground.”

It's 6º but more than 200 Oshkoshians still showed up to stand up for freedom.

Fellow Americans, Things are impossibly hard in [MN] right now. We are a state that feels under siege, and the people of this place are doing everything possible to resist. The campaign of reckless brutality being waged by the federal goverment has been well documented, including today's killing of a citizen who was restrained and immobilized. The clear evidence of what's happening exposes cartoonish lies from federal agencies that echo the most cynical propaganda machines in human history. The images are clear, and we are told, don't believe what you see. But there is also something much more powerful, and not as widely reported, happening. We are mobilizing for revolutionary love. Vast networks of care, compassion, and solidarity, organized by churches to deliver food and supplies to those who cannot leave their homes. People are documenting the violence being used against us in a way that puts their own lives at risk. People are standing guard outside schools and daycares, and at bus stops to protect our children from real risks of harm. Others are taking turns watching each others' kids stuck in online learning because some schools aren't safe. Health care workers are bravely caring for people in hospitals that also are no longer safe, and risking being targets of arrest and detention for protecting the patients. A rich web of underground care and hidden love is taking deep root, and it's amazing to think what fruit that might bear when this occupation ends. Minnesotans cannot do more than we are doing. Here are a few ways you can help. 1) Please flood your US senators with appeals to not to further fund ICE, by rejecting a bill the US House has already passed. Please flood all your members of congress with calls for deescalation in [MN]; for ICE, [CBP], and other federal agents to leave [MN] now; and to write and pass legislation that requires proper and extensive training for all those working for the federal government in our states and local communities.

2) Organize peaceful demonstrations in your cities and communities. We live in a very big country, and it's possible what's happening in Minnesota feels removed. What is happening to us here is happening to all of America, and it is eroding the last remaining threads of our democracy. Minneapolis and Minnesota have been a model for the entire country over these past two weeks, with tens of thousands standing together in deep cold to peacefully protest the violence being used against us. 3) You can help nurture the Diocese of Minnesota's primary engine of underground care and subversive love by donating to Casa Maria, which is providing much-needed food, supplies, and community to those rightfully afraid to go about their daily lives amidst the violence. Some of Casa Maria's leaders are also working with a diocesan team to help families locate and access members who have been taken by ICE. Donations do real and immediate work to help people in Minnesota that are in real need of help. The greatest danger we face right now is not the very real threat to our safety. It's not even the erosion of democracy. The greatest threat we face as a nation is the assault being waged on hope. We must not give in to despair. We must not be consumed by the very justified anger we feel. The only way hatred can be effectively resisted is doubling down on love. The only way darkness can be defeated is light. The only way the forces of death can be overcome is by embracing, every moment of every day, God's unstoppable life.

Important words from the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota, where I served as a priest before moving to Texas. ⚓️

Thousands march in Minnesota and hundreds of businesses close to protest ICE Some Minnesotans boycotted work, school and shopping Friday to signal their opposition to the Trump administration’s deployment of ICE agents.

“100 clergy were arrested at a protest in Minnesota.”

www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2026/...

As you watch this, remember that it has been below zero degrees Fahrenheit in Minneapolis for the entire day.

The first Minnesota murder, they refused to let a medical professional help the woman they shot. The second Minnesota murder, they simply shot the medical professional.

℣: Blessed Jonathan Myrick Daniels
℟: Pray for us

The guys who kidnap preschoolers, shoot nurses in the street, and cart priests away in handcuffs are never the good guys.

‘She was an amazing human being:’ Mother identifies woman shot, killed by ICE agent Renee Nicole Good, 37, lived in the Twin Cities with her partner.

Eternal rest and light perpetual.

The federal government murdered a woman in the streets of Minneapolis today and our president is openly and maliciously lying about it.

I reject those who worship death.

Today I started a new job from a new house in a new city…

But I found the same Church, the same home. Deo gratias 🌿

I’m a geriatric millennial, which means I have home ibuprofen and car ibuprofen.

06.13.25 💍

Plenty of guests at @amjunek.bsky.social’s wedding had to get back in time to preach the mysterious grace of the Three-in-One and One-in-Three. Most of them weren’t traveling from Texas to Seattle

For a little context here: Christ Church put forward a zoning request to open a shelter for unhoused people - I think it was like 12 beds. The local government of Toms River is responding by trying to eminent domain the church and turn it into a pickleball court

But chiefly are we bound to praise you for the glorious resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ⚓

Truly he is risen.

Glory marred with whips, thorns and nails.

“So they ate and were well filled, *
for he gave them what they craved.
But they did not stop their craving, *
though the food was still in their mouths.”

A psalm of our times ⚓️

We praise thee, O God; we acknowledge thee to be the Lord.

WIN

A letter from the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas.

“I never thought I would live in a time when the United States government would censure a bishop, jeopardize religious free speech, or threaten to take people while they attend worship.” ⚓️

W!!

Nearly 50 new faces at church this morning!

One of the co-sponsors of the House bill condemning Budde's sermon, listed below, is Rep. Beth Van Duyne, an Episcopalian.

I reached out to the Rt. Rev. C Andrew Doyle of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas, which appears to be her diocese.

He told me he was concerned about govt "policing our sermons."