Cody⁺

Yay! You’ll love Meg!

(How was Sunday???)

Honorary assistants, parish life coordinator, and yours truly.

My patrilineal kin are all from Scotland and Ireland. I have enormous respect for Highland culture and a very loose grasp on gender, but I’m wearing a kilt and kilt hose for the first time right now and I’ll be darned if I don’t look like an overgrown Catholic school girl.

Chris, where can I find this list posted?

He was horrendous when he ran for governor all those years ago and he’s horrendous now.

(Amen.)

Magnified sounds better in my mind. Verified seems too clinical.

I saw on Facebook yesterday that the Minister of the High Kirk in Edinburgh preached at a mass for SCKM at which the Primus of the SEC was celebrant! Wild times!

Did I mention that large portions of MN’s population are in hiding right now? Kids are missing school. Adults can’t go out to work. People aren’t able to buy food or pay rent, and mutual aid is all keeping everyone going. We keep us safe, on our own, and people are being shot in the street for it

We’re all stressed out, being kept up all night by helicopters, watching our neighbors get abducted while working our asses off trying to stop it from happening, and trying to parent and do our jobs while under siege. Please give your friends and colleagues in MN some grace right now. It’s a lot.

I sent a message to my mostly 65+ group of volunteers asking them to make cards and pack food for Casa Maria. They replied that they had already thought of that, purchased all the materials, and have plans to assemble everything on Sunday after mass! ❤️😭🥰

For everyone who guessed this about how things are going down in MN, it’s actually true. From a Lutheran pastor’s FB post: “Armies of Lutheran grandmothers are coordinating complex systems of financial support, clothing drives, and meal preparation.”

This calm courage and determination is so powerful. So thankful to have her as a rep.

The whole lot of them belong at the Hague! Every last one of them.

More ICE activity today-leaving minors unaccompanied and smoke bombing a preschool, among others.

We’re tired in MN, y’all. It’s worse than what you hear.

But we’re used to living in freezing weather for half of the year. We’re tough and creative. Keep rooting for us. We need you.

#mn #ice

One day, all these new followers are going to be surprised at what I usually talk about

Minneapolis' "playbook" is not the Viet Cong's; it's the organizational skills you develop as an active Lutheran.

The people of Minnesota have executed one of the most impressive civil resistance campaigns I can remember:

- Organized a city wide general strike
- Maintained nonviolent discipline amidst violence
- Mobilized 10,000s in subzero temps to protest and watch ICE
- Flipped public opinion against ICE

A screenshot of a. Text that says “Take a real day off. F’real. We need our spiritual leaders rested and strong. This is going to be a long slog, not a sprint. You know I’m right.

The kind of parishioner a priest dreams of having. Really and truly I’ve been almost overwhelmed by the support my parishioners have shown me lately as we all try to figure out this occupation together. 🕯️

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. ⚓️

me: I give up
mpls: we are going to flood our frozen city with candlelight

A group of clergy stand behind a table with lit candles in an episcopal church. The room is packed.

Same but from the vantage of the altar

We had close to 250 people at our interfaith vigil which is about 100 more than we can comfortably fit. Folks were packed into pews, standing in the narthex, listening on in the parish hall, and sitting on folded chairs in the aisles. It was beautiful, but I’m still so upset we had need to gather. 🕯️

Screenshot that says a vigil of Song and light in a time of violence Saturday, January 24, 2026 7 PM to 8 PM come and go as you’re able All Saints Episcopal Church 419 Washington St., Northfield, MN sponsored by Northfield Faith communities

A murder in Minneapolis and an abduction here in Northfield. It seem to never end.

We’ll gather in sorrow and light candles and recommit ourselves to fighting fascism.

Minneapolis’s emergency manager compares ICE’s invasion to what she saw in Yemen, Haiti, Iraq, and Syria.

Yet again the video footage is so clear. The government is lying to its people.

Another legal observer murdered by ICE in Minneapolis about 15 minutes ago. God damn this country.*

———
* I fully mean this in the technical and theological sense.

Also I’m so sore. Omg.

I’ll have more to say later, but for now, I just want to say that I’m actually feeling hopeful for the first time in…a long time. It may dissipate, but for now it’s mine and I’m so grateful for it.

Minnesota, we did good today. And we do well today. ❤️

Thank you, Marguerite! It was amazing. Just absolutely amazing. The corporal works of mercy on full display for all the see. As the evensong hymn says, all of ‘earth’s vain empires pass away’ and this one will too.