Charlotte Johnson

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Some people talk about love as something "out there," something lofty and ideal. But our love is often messy, we are often not at our best, and harm still happens. Still, that doesn't empty love of its power. In fact, our being human is the point.

I do hope you write that someday!

Same.

It was such a gift

I had a pretty good sermon from three years ago, but Hannah's commentary helped me get more precise in my current-day call to repentance.

I used @hannahnpbowman.com's preaching resources to introduce the concept of Migration with Dignity Sunday and to talk very plainly about repentance, welcome, and care. People were so grateful that I addresed the violence head on. (I'm sure some weren't, but they didn't tell me).

Thanks, Hannah!

Important. Especially after the horrific detention ruling from the Fifth Circuit last night, which I’m still working to understand. Concentration camps for children and people claiming asylum and more.

I can’t overstate that nearly every good headline coming out of Minnesota has been followed up by retaliation by the Trump administration—which tends to get a lot less attention.

This is infuriating and devastating.

This is my first rector call after several interim cures, so I have seen a wide variety of practices. With all that's new here, I'm not about to shake everything up just to be different. I want to know what signals Lent to them.

We are discerning how to be church together. It's fun

⚓️In prep for our first Lent together, I've started a worship committee to help me make liturgical choices that fit with their particular pieties and parish history.

I love this stuff!

I'm so glad you were able to put together something that worked well. Well-written, even simple liturgy can provide exactly what we need for emotion-laden times when Spirit "arrives."

A small brown dog with floppy ears is lying on a blanket on a person's legs.

The 158th Annual Meeting of Church of Our Saviour, Chicago is complete.

This little guy was shaking with excitement when I got home, and it was all for this. Sunday afternoon snuggles are the best!⚓️

Yes, I do the same.

Why this (pretty solid) letter instead of something from the church as a whole? Is it tactical, or quicker, or does it suggest dissension? (Not thinking anyone here really knows, but I wonder)

Finally picked up Eve Ewing's Original Sins for my morning reading, and my brain feels like it's playing in a forgotten corner of the playground for the first time in a while. What a teacher and writer she is!

DHS has a whole citizen detainment system set up in Minnesota. They snatch citizens off the street (often with proof they are citizens), detain them for a few hours, steal their phones, then release them into the cold.

It ain’t about deporting citizens; it’s about terrorizing a whole population.

I've been mostly working from home for the past two weeks while I recovered from the MegaCold I had. Today, I got to work in the office all morning and preside at a committal service for a longtime parishioner. Seeing his varied communities come together was beautiful.
I'm so grateful🙂⚓️

To be clear, they want to do things to support our most vulnerable neighbors (or help an org already doing that work), have accompaniment trainings, other actions. And they want regular prayer for our country, too.

How the parish can respond. And they want to start a regular prayer service "for our nation."

Once again, I feel so blessed to get to do this work!

The prayer vigil was exactly what I needed tonight. It's a new congregation, I've only been here 9 months, so I'm still learning how they respond in times of anger and pain.
We started early to check in, then prayed. When we were done, I asked, what now? They're going to start a group to explore

My cold has left me with a deep cough that starts whenever I speak more than a few sentences. Wearing a mask makes it all the worse. So I stayed home this morning, even though I so need to pray with people.
This evening, I'm leading a prayer vigil online. I can mute when the coughing gets bad.⚓️

This is such a gift you've created. Thank you for helping us connect with each other💜

Listen: because I am hearing this a lot from folks who are in caregiving roles with disabled, sick, dying folks, elders, or children in their care:

You are not unable to do anything or unable to take action.

Care work IS justice work

The hungry poor shall weep no more,
for the food they can never earn;
These are tables spread, ev'ry mouth be fed,
for the world is about to turn.

Canticle of the Turning was balm for my soul:

From the halls of power to the fortress tower,
not a stone will be left on stone.
Let the king beware for your justice tears
every tyrant from his throne.

⚓️We had our Celebration of New Ministry tonight and oh, it was so lovely. Even if I did have to wear a mask through the whole thing; I had a cold the last couple of days and wanted to keep any lingering germs to myself.

Good for you!

I hope it went well today.

Actually, I used the rite of the same name from Enriching our Worship 2