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Name: Marja
Country: United States
State: Pennsylvania
Metro: Harrisburg
Gender: Female
Interests: An open and affirming, just peace, multiracial multicultural, acessible to all Protestant denomination which finds its expression in dozens of unique local congregations.
Expertise: As Conference Minister, I am a "jill of all trades." I counsel and supervise, prepare budgets and reports. But most importantly, I try to listen to our local churches and Associations and reflect back to them how we can all join hands to bring God's vision of love and peace to fruit in our world.
Message: message meEmail: email me
Member Since:
5/11/2005
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| I'm on sabbatical, but I wanted to post a new entry because I have just discovered that one of our churches has chosen to link to my blog. I'm chagrined that I didn't keep my promise to blog from Synod, but I intend to see if I can post some pictures from Synod. And perhaps knowing that someone is watching will keep my blogposts more regular. It is my hope that, this fall, when I return from sabbatical, we as a Conference will begin to give time and energy to the subject of generosity. That may sound strange in the middle of this econmic disaster that we call a recession, but I think it's the ideal time to begin some new conversations. A magazine article I read recently suggested that we have gotten too caught up with "having" instead of "being" and "doing". I think I agree. I have just finisehd reading a very strange little novel called The Clothes Tehy Stood Up in, by British playwright Alan Bennett [I'm involved in two different summer reading programs this year]. It's about a proper middle-aged Bristish couple who return home from the opera one night to discover that everything in their apartment has been stolen---right down to the garbage cans and toilet paper. In the midst of this, they are given an opportunity to reassess their lives, which she begins to do, but he has no interest in. Well, I won't tell yu the ending, but I do think it's time to think about new opportunities that present themselves to us even in the midst of difficult and uncomfortable circumstances. What opportuity has the recession give you? I'd like to hear. You can respond to this post just by going to the bottom and look for the words "write a comment." Blessings, Marja | | |
| Greetings from Grand Rapids where we arrived yesterday. Grand Rapids appears to me a city with a lot going for it. There are four museums within walking distance of the hotel where our delegates are staying. I'm glad to be here a day early because I know that as soon as Synod and it's pre-meetings begin, there will be little time for anything else. Brenda will be writing a daily blog from Synod. I will write as often as I can. Find us both through www.pccucc.org. Until later, many blessings, Marja | | |
| Greetings from Grand Rapids where we arrived yesterday. Grand Rapids appears to me a city with a lot going for it. There are four museums within walking distance of the hotel where our delegates are staying. I'm glad to be here a day early because I know that as soon as Synod and it's pre-meetings begin, there will be little time for anything else. Brenda will be writing a daily blog from Synod. I will write as often as I can. Find us both through www.pccucc.org. Until later, many blessings, Marja | | |
| I used this quote from Bonhoeffer's Life Together in a sermon this morning and wanted to share it with you. It think it's very powerful. “Innumerable times a whole Christian community has broken down because it had sprung from a wish dream. The serious Christian, set down for the very time in a Christian community, is likely to bring with him a very definite idea of what Christian life together should be and to try to realize it. But God’s grace speedily shatters such dreams. Just as surely as God desires to lead us to a knowledge of genuine Christian fellowship, so surely must we be overwhelmed by a great disillusionment with others, with Christians in general, and, if we are fortunate, with ourselves. By sheer grace, God will not permit us to live even for a brief period in a dream world.” I invite you to think about what this means to you in regard to our culture and community and our understanding of what it means to be Christ's disciple. Lenten Blessings, Marja | | |
| For Lent this year, I have undertaken to read Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book, Living Together. I'm only a few pages into it, but already he has raised an interesting point that I think is worth considering. Boiling it down, I think what Bonhoeffer is saying is that if we understood what it is like to be a prisoner, to be in exile [voluntarily or not voluntarily] or to be isolated by illness, then we would never again take for granted the community that is afforded us. And who would know about this better than Bonhoeffer, whose life ended in a concentration camp. Perhaps then, the first discipline of Lent for me this year will be to reflect on the preciousness of the community of the Church. Working with congregations day in and day out, expecially when they are in trouble or in crisis, tends to make me forget how precious these communities are. They are trying to be disciples of Christ by their best lights. They fail, of course. I fail. We all fail at being the disciples that Christ would have us be. But Bonhoeffer's reminder is that, for the exile, the simple appearance and briefest prayer of a brother or sister is enough to work a small miracle of hope in one's life. I am not in exile, but I can choose to live as though every single Christian brother or sister is a gift from God. It won't be easy. But then what discipline is? So I lift you up, because if you are reading this you are part of my community. Be blessed this Lenten season by your community. And be a blessing to someone else as well. Peace and grace, Marja | | |
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