Charlotte Johnson

All the way "from zero"!🙄

With a large funeral yesterday and a baptism today, we had the last of five weekends with something "extra" happening. Our lay preacher used the baptismal covenant as a frame to talk about stewardship, evangelism, and the "now what" of being back in our building. There's a spirit of joy these days!

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As a minister in Chicago, I give thanks for the varied ways people of faith are showing up. Since June, several clergy and lay people have gathered outside the Federal courthouse weekly for a prayer service. Most weeks, passersby join in. We can't all go to Broadview, but we all can pray and act.

11/5/25: On repacking your unpacked funeral clothes an obituary I couldn’t bring myself to volunteer to write; a walk through Chicano history; thoughts about grief and the government; photos from reporting trips.

In late September, my family and I lost our matriarch, my abuela. I've been a bit all over the place since. My abuela moved to our hometown in the 70s. She loved it even as one of the first Mexican families there.

It's been targeted every day by ICE. I wrote about it.
buttondown.com/camrodriguez...

Why are you posting a video without the victim's face blurred out?

this morning, ICE went into a Spanish language immersion daycare and took a teacher from the building in front of screaming and crying kids and parents at dropoff and the daycare had to shut down for the day (near Lane Tech, where they were yesterday). Really hoping today's "theme" is not "daycare."

These Chicago restaurants are offering free or discounted meals during SNAP pause: blockclubchi.co/47DM5Ys

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(No photos here for the sake of privacy)

Today we had a 5 yo sibling putting their hand in the font while I blessed the water to baptize their baby sib. They stood in wide-eyed wonder at how ordinary and wet the water felt, even as the sacrament proclaimed the water holy and holy-making (in its way). My first baptism here was joyous.

I assume you're talking about at the cuff? If so, I turn the sock inside out and weave the tail through purl bumps straight down the cuff for a short ways, then back up another set of purl bumps. The main concern is to make sure you change direction at least once.

Never had a problem with stretch

#chicago
This is sad and scary. The boys were certainly not older that 12, but old enough that their parents let them go by themselves.

In my Chicago neighborhood where ICE and other agents are grabbing people off park benches, front lawns, and from cars, the kids are trick-or-treating.

Three school-aged white boys were wearing black hoodies with hoods up, gray or black face masks/gaiters, and red maga caps.

These were costumes.

A deacon, bishop, and priest, all in white and gold vestments, stand in front of the chancel of a church.

Well, it didn't yet! But here's Bishop Paula Clark's visitation last Sunday!

⚓️For our 4th Sunday back in the church, we'll celebrate All Saints with a baptism. And then, we'll bless the new Columbarium directly after the postlude.

It's the first of three Sundays of baptisms in November, making up for almost two years of church in a restaurant banquet hall.

Our third Sunday back in the church after almost 2years out, and we had our bishop's visitation today. The church was full, three people were received into TEC, and the bishop rededicated our (old) baptismal font. Oh, and most people wore costumes for Spooktacular Sunday. Lots of joy and dreaming

We Have to Move "There are living, breathing people all around you who need your sense of decency to be made material. Don’t give up on them, or on you."

My latest. "Do not allow your values to be captured and contained behind a screen in a cycle of inactive reaction. Jailbreak your cynicism and isolation, and escape your devices. Bring your hope, rage, and potential into the world."

Donate to immigrant advocacy groups 1) Illinois coalition for immigrant and refugee rights (ICIRR) 2) organized communities against deportation (ocad) 3) national immigrant justice center 4) the resurrection project 5) Midwest immigrant bond fund 6) legal aid Chicago 7) palenque lsna

Some orgs to donate to compiled by @ meganquitefrankly on IG

A Litany for Survival BY AUDRE LORDE For those of us who live at the shoreline standing upon the constant edges of decision crucial and alone for those of us who cannot indulge the passing dreams of choice who love in doorways coming and going in the hours between dawns looking inward and outward at once before and after seeking a now that can breed futures like bread in our children's mouths so their dreams will not reflect the death of ours; For those of us who were imprinted with fear like a faint line in the center of our foreheads learning to be afraid with our mother's milk for by this weapon this illusion of some safety to be found the heavy-footed hoped to silence us For all of us this instant and this triumph We were never meant to survive. And when the sun rises we are afraid it might not remain when the sun sets we are afraid it might not rise in the morning when our stomachs are full we are afraid of indigestion when our stomachs are empty we are afraid we may never eat again when we are loved we are afraid love will vanish when we are alone we are afraid love will never return and when we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard nor welcomed but when we are silent we are still afraid So it is better to speak remembering we were never meant to survive.

I facilitated an emotional support & grief space tonight for Chicago folks impacted by ICE violence and/or supporting resistance efforts. We ended with Audre Lorde’s poem A Litany For Survival, so I wanted to share it here too.

“So it is better to speak
remembering
we were never meant to survive.”

Thank you for doing that work, and thanks for posting the poem

If you were at #NoKings #NoKingsChicago yesterday & are looking to get more connected to ongoing efforts, I’m gonna share a few things that I frequently recommend to people. The first is obvious & timely, given the state of our city.

(I’ve learned I need to put 🧵 lol yay I’m learning the Internet)

My heart is so hungry for strong words of conviction, hope, commitment and solidarity. Bp Craig Loya's writing keeps nourishing me; this quote from Bp Austin Rios is tonight's comfort and call.

“As we absorb the news that federal agents have arrived in the Bay Area to carry out a major immigration action, I want to speak directly to our community. When fear moves through our streets, the Church must move with something stronger. We stand with the vulnerable because it is the way of Jesus”⚓️

Threads post from julieceye At my local Home Depot today in Evanston, IL. They abducted 5 people in my immediate area.

For folks asking if they've made it *inside* a Home Depot yet as the business has clearly just continued letting agents do whatever they want in their lots, the answer is yes. This is from yesterday in Evanston.

After clergy arrests, religious pushback to ICE expands in Chicago (RNS) — More than 210 mostly Chicago-area clergy, representing a range of liberal and conservative traditions, have signed a letter criticizing ICE titled ‘Jesus is Being Tear Gassed at Broadview.’

The letter is signed by an unusually broad array of Christian clergy, progressive and conservative, including the Right Reverend Paula Clark, Episcopal Bishop of Chicago. ⚓️

religionnews.com/2025/10/21/a...

Also special: the nonprofit org actually grew up out of COS's feeding ministry. I heard stories last night of many couples in which the "churchy" spouse would be part of COS, the "not-churchy" one would volunteer in the feeding ministry.

I love a community with many pathways to participation.

I met longtime and former members of the church that came back to celebrate with us. A person who'd been gone for nearly 10 yrs wanted to see what Church of Our Saviour is like now. They said they'd be back in the morning. It was lovely.
Grace abounds, even now.

⚓️One reason I felt called here is our history of providing practical care, all the way back to caring for victims of the Chicago Fire in 1871.
Today, we celebrated the new Parish Commons building. One level houses a nonprofit that offers food, clothing, medical care and more to people in need.

NEW: Spoke w/Rev. Hannah Kardon, the UMC pastor arrested in this clip (she confirmed she was, in fact, arrested).

At ~18 seconds in, you can see an State Police officer using a club like a battering ram on someone in the crowd.

"That was my leg," Kardon told me, adding she already has a bruise.