Mary Magdalene Refugee Calls us to the Discipleship of Nonviolence and Love of Enemies

Dear Friends,

How are you?

I checked to see if my passport was current yesterday as I watched some of the Republican Convention and reports of the attempted assassination of a candidate for president, Donald Trump. Dictatorships can come forth in countries overnight. Yesterday I imagined packing my toothbrush and lap top computer in a small backpack and driving north to the Canadian border and walking across the border at night. My husband thinks this is bad idea. The dangers in our world are escalating fast and Walt and I have committed to creating a local community of resistance in Oregon.

If people are rounded up for deportation, well, it will not be safe for any of us. I am trying to practice love and forgiveness to the many imperfect, annoying, often hurtful and violent people in my life, both people I know and our human family. I am ashamed how often I fail and am a lot like them. I do not want to become like my enemies. I find this very difficult which is why I need the teachings of Jesus now more than ever before.

Mary Magdalene was a refugee that became a spiritual teacher. She gives me courage and inspiration. Mary witnessed Jesus being tortured and murdered, escaped and became a refugee in France. Many good scholars agree on this new story based on newly found gnostic gospels. She stayed true to her north star of love - even love of her enemies. The story of Jesus and Mary Magdlene has resurrected after thousands of years after being hidden and left out. Come hear their love story as we celebrate her Feast Day this Sunday. Jesus and Mary Magdalene taught us to love one another. Love is always a partnership, never about domination. Millions are refugees today because of systems of domination and war that are producing violence, genocide, ecologic catastrophes, fire, floods, famine and sooner than anyone predicted. Let's not vilify any one person during our earth crisis. We have a spiritual crisis as a human family. God calls us to stay true to our spiritual practice in any of the ancient wisdom traditions. Many of us have given up on traditional Christianity but continue to be disciples of the teachings of Jesus.

We are experiencing the decay of our American corporate culture, addicted to violence and war that has "vomited up Trump" as Chris Hedges says. I am committed to living nonviolently and in radical love as we work to end what Walter Wink calls the Domination System. "It is the way God has chosen to overthrow evil in the world. And the same God who calls us to nonviolence gives us the power to carry it out." (Walter Wink, The Powers That Be: Theology for a New Millennium) Reading Wink gives me hope and courage and a way to live during this historic time.

Jesus and Mary Magdelene love story is about love that is stronger than any suffering and even death. We will have an anointing ritual and ask for God's blessing on a discipleship of radical love, nonviolence and even love of our enemies. I feel confident Mary Magdalene did not waste time vilifying Pontius Pilot as the person responsible for the evils of the Roman Empire. We stand with Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Walter Wink and other saints who taught us that the real enemy is myths of redemptive violence and the domination systems. There are no just wars, no just rape, no just child abuse. "Christians do not live nonviolently in order to be saved, or in order to live up to an absolute ethical norm, but because we want to end the Domination System. We eschew violence because we do not wish to extend by even one day the reign of violence in the world. Nonviolence is not a matter of legalism but of discipleship." (Walter Wink, The Powers That Be: Theology for a New Millennium) 

Etty Hillesum was a Dutch Jew anticipating her deportation to a “work camp” that proved to be a death chamber. Her prayer is my prayer for all of us.

Dear God, "I shall try to help You, God, to stop my strength ebbing away, though I cannot vouch for it in advance. But one thing is becoming increasingly clear to me: that You cannot help us, that we must help You to help ourselves. And that is all we can manage these days and also all that really matters: that we safeguard that little piece of You, God, in ourselves. And perhaps in others as well. Alas, there doesn’t seem to be much You Yourself can do about our circumstances, about our lives. Neither do I hold You responsible. You cannot help us but we must help You and defend Your dwelling place inside us to the last." Amen, May it be so and Blessed Be.

Zoom Link Church for Our Common Home worship 4 pm pst

We will sing the love song, I Come to the Garden Alone by C. Michael Hawn (adapted by Bonnie)

 I come to the garden alone while the dew is still on the roses, and the voice I hear, falling on my ear is Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

 (Chorus) And THEY walk with me, And THEY talk with me. And THEY tell me I am THEIR own. And the joy we share as we tarry there. None other has ever known.

From my heart to your heart in love, Rev. Bonnie TarwaterMinister Church for Our Common Home 15435 Strong Road Dallas, Oregon 97338 Zoom ID 3025719458(858) 248-5123, revtarwater@yahoo.com www.churchforourcommonhome.com

P. S. Earth Crisis Support Group Potluck Party after church every Sunday in Dallas Oregon, 5-7 pm. Co-sponsored by Our Common Home Counseling Center www.ourcommonhomecounselingcenter.org and the Living Earth Movement, www.livingearthmovenet.eco..

Love Songs and Stories for Our Enemies with Wink Summer Program

Dear Friends,

Come sing love songs, hear love stories, write love letters, study love scriptures and pray prayers about your heart being filled with love this summer -- love for all God's creatures and especially for our enemies. Come dance in celebration with us as we study the teachings of Jesus that transformed my life and millions of us in history: "Love your enemies and pray for your persecutors."

Why share love stories about our enemies this summer? Because if we do not learn to love our enemies, we are doomed to become them. God loves those who are good and bad. God calls us to do the same.

During worship we will explore the love stories that Walter Wink shares in The Powers That Be: Theology for a New Millenium. Madeleine L'Engle wrote, "Walter Wink's The Powers That Be is a brilliant book, and an important book. We need to take seriously his understanding that violence is never redemptive. Walter Wink is indeed giving us a new theology for a new millennium and if we are to make it for another thousand years, we need to understand this. This is not a book of doom, but of wonderous hope."

Please check out this book about hope at your library, or if you prefer digital Kindle books, you can begin reading it in on your phone in the next few minutes with this link:

Amazon.com : the powers that be walter wink.

Or call me at (858) 248-5123 and I will buy you a copy!

Wink's love stories gift us with hope, just in the nick of time, as we experience increasing planetary catastrophes. If you are awake, you are witnessing the US providing support and bombs for genocide in Gaza, and escalating ecocide of the natural world and our habitat. As a result, we have multiple fires and temperatures are rising, rising, rising. As if that was not enough, we learn world news of elections ushering in fascist leaders at an alarming rate. We need to submerse ourselves in this most profound teaching of Jesus, to practice love of enemies and nonviolence. We have a spiritual problem in our human family, and it demands our focus on our practice of a loving spiritual response.

Thank you to Edie Jessup for the beautiful photo above and everyone who played music, walked and prayed for the natural world in our Interfaith Secret Prayer Garden, planted two Oak Trees of Friendship for the US and China, and enjoyed a dinner in the rose garden and shared deeply in an Earth Crisis Support Group. Thank you to our beloved Chinese friends, Dr. Zhihe Wang and Dr. Mei Fan, for bringing over twenty Chinese ecological scholars to visit the John Cobb Eco Farm a few weeks ago, after your yearly conference in southern California, Institute for the Postmodern Development of China. We look forward to working with our Chinese friends and are committed to creating programs of citizen diplomacy with our shared vision of an ecological civilization. Thank you, Dr. John Cobb, for giving us this vision and for your teaching us about love of enemies. Our country is on a suicidal course as it escalates its rhetoric wanting to make China our enemy. This past week our government allocated more money for suicidal weapons--not only for the genocide in Gaza--but now for sending weapons to Taiwan.

This Sunday we will begin to stay in the light of love by submersing ourselves in heart filled and heroic tales of love, love that is stronger than any suffering and death. We begin sharing a love story about a man who did not give up on his religious faith as a Muslim during impossibly horrific circumstances. At a Juneteenth celebration this past week, I heard the inspired love story about Omar Ibn Said, a Muslim scholar who was kidnapped in Africa and taken into American slavery during our country's history of the torturous sins of slavery. Omar wrote an autobiography in Arabic so we now can learn about his remarkable life. While in prison he wrote passages from the Koran on his prison walls. Rhiannon Giddens, the Pulitzer Prize winning artist extraordinaire, created an opera about Omar Ibn Said. Please click to learn more: News story about Omar the Opera

Omar's story is not a story of a man who became his enemy. His enemies inflicted unspeakable injustice and suffering on him and millions of others, but he is now a part of a cloud of witnesses of a God of love. What would you write on a prison wall if you were kidnapped and became a slave? Join us this summer as we submerge ourselves in new and old love stories. Stories about love of God, stories about love for all God's creatures in the natural world, and even love for our enemies who are destroying the natural world, our shared habitat, our beloved Mother Earth. This is not a superficial kind of love. This is love that is never codependent, never lies or condones injustice and suffering. A love that never, ever lies down to become a doormat to our enemies.

I want my life to be a love story and that means I must always find a third way of noncompliance with my enemies. A life where I make a decision to love them. Not like them - love them. This is not rational. We will do the spiritual work to become resolved to remain faithful, for God loves us and makes it possible for us to love others. Thank you, Walter Wink, for sharing your fascinating life story with people around the world coming together to learn nonviolence and love of enemies.

I keep imagining being in prison myself and writing this on a prison wall. "I am loving you my prison guards and enemies. What you did to me is wrong, but I will not become like you. I will love you instead. I am praying for you." This mental movie of watching myself actually writing these words and mediating on them on a prison wall, helps me somehow. Let's write love letters to our enemies on prison walls figuratively together this summer. Let's sing them love songs and dance in celebration together for the miracle that is love.

This summer, every Sunday from 4-5pm PST, Church for Our Common Home is now like a kind of rehearsal studio for love practices in painful times: Love of God, chickens, rabbits, flowers, the breeze, our friends, church community and family, and even love for our enemies. Come be inspired by Walter Wink's remarkable love stories.

Zoom Link Church for Our Common Home worship 4 pm pst

Please join us the last two weeks in July to learn an ecologic way of building that is sculptural. We will make a work of art that will also be the compost toilet for our Dream Incubation Guest House. Make your reservations now.

John Cobb and Bonnie Easter Sunday March 31 4 pm pst and on Zoom

Dear Friends, Easter is a holy day when we tell a story of hope and resurrection; love is stronger than death, suffering and even torture. We will explore new images, stories and encounters with the Holy this Sunday during Easter worship service. Dr. John Cobb will respond to a The Mother Tree, A New Easter Story at 4 pm pst. Don't miss this opportunity to be with John Cobb, 99 years young, a holy man who continues to bless and inspire us. Church for Our Common Home presents our new "Holy Ghost Spirit Band" that will play with special guest local fiddle icon, Truman Price. Come sing John Denver's beautiful song, Annie's Song (You fill up my senses like a night in the forest.........) and dance to violin Celtic music, The Butterfly. Join us after worship for a potluck dinner and Earth Crisis Support Group. After our dinner we will celebrate Walt Rutherford's 47 years of AA sobriety and I will give him a Bunny Cake! Easter Worship in person in the barn or on Zoom 4-5 pm pst Zoom Link Easter worship with Dr. Cobb 4 pm pst In stories revealed from feminist biblical scholarship and newly found gnostic gospels, Mary Magdalene is a religious teacher. In The Gospel of the Beloved Companion, the Complete Gospel of Mary Magdalene, translated by Jehanne De Quillan, we encounter a tree. “42...there is a great tree within you that does not change, summer or winter, and its leaves do not fall. Whosever listens to my words and ascends to its crown will not taste death but know the truth of eternal life. Then Jesus showed me a vision in which I saw a great tree that seemed to reach unto the heavens; and as I saw these things, he said, ‘the roots of this tree are in the earth, which is your body. The trunk extends upward through the five regions of humanity …..42:13 and I felt my soul and all that I could see dissolve and vanish in a brilliant light in a likeness unto the sun. And in the light, I beheld a woman of extraordinary beauty, clothed in garments of brilliant white. The figure extended its arms, and I felt my soul drawn into its embrace, and in that moment, I was freed from the world, and I realized that the fetter of forgetfulness was temporary.” This encounter with a beautiful woman as we climb a tree and is brilliantly lit up by the sun, reminds us of the encounter Juan Diego had with Our Lady of Guadelupe, the Black Madonna of the Americas in Mexico almost five hundred years ago.

Church for Our Common Home relocated four years ago to a small farm in Oregon. Many of us "encounter" Spirit as we care for, talk, listen, sing, pray and love the animals, flowers, vegetables, trees here in the natural world. Our encounters with the sacred in the trees as we pray with the trees in the Interfaith Secret Prayer Garden and worship with the animals in the barn.Plans are underway to paint a second facing of our barn with a mural of Our Lady of Guadalupe intertwined with the story of the beautiful woman at the top of the tree in the vision Jesus offers to Mary Magdalene. Come visit and help us paint this new story of the Divine Feminine rising out of the trees. S/he is the Mother Tree, the largest loving source in the forest, the one who is interconnected with all life forms, who feeds us all, even if she is dying. Living in the Pacific Northwest many of us commune with Nature Spirits, angels, called by many names, the communion of saints and the Spirits of our ancestors told in all the ancient wisdom traditions.

Join us as we plan a Pilgrimage for Peace and walk together in the beauty of the forest as we sing and pray with and for the trees and all human and nonhuman life. We are called to make a public witness at this historic time and say NO to genocide in Gaza, endless suicidal wars of the American Empire and the destruction of our habitat. Please join our dream incubation before you go to sleep during Holy Week.What should Church for Our Common Home do for Peace and for our Survival?God loves you and there is nothing you can do about it!

From my heart to your heart in love,

Rev. Bonnie Tarwater Minister Church for Our Common Home

15435 Strong Road Dallas, Oregon 97338 Zoom ID 3025719458 (858) 248-5123, revtarwater@yahoo.com www.churchforourcommonhome.com

P. S. Earth Crisis Support Group Potluck Party after church every Sunday in Dallas Oregon, 5-7 pm. New groups forming here in Oregon and on the east coast. Co-sponsored by Our CommonHome Counseling Center www.ourcommonhomecounselingcenter.org and the Living Earth Movement, www.livingearthmovenet.eco..

Pilgrimage to the Black Madonna with Chris Hedges 6 weeks Sundays 4 pm pst zoom

A pilgrimage is a journey to an unknown place. We embark to learn what we don't know about the world and ourselves. We will learn the news about what is happening in the Holy Land and the world. We will visit pilgrimage sites virtually to pray and learn about God and the Black Madonna. It is our job as people of faith to see, bear witness and learn the truth, to pray and listen to God's call. As pilgrims we long to experince the Sacred in order to wake up to difficult truths, to learn and see in order to live life's of purpose and love. We pray for a conversion experince. God, called by many names, S/he is witness to the truth, the Black Madonna, holds and calls us to radical love, even love of our enemies. God calls us to live in radical love.

Church for Our Common Home invites you to a virtual Lenten Pilgrimage to face the news of genocide in the Holy Land, Gaza, Palestine, Israel. We will also visit many different pilgrimage sites of the Black Madonna. This will not be in person but virtually viewing weekly PowerPoint presentations of holy sites with photos of art and icons. As we virtually travel to the Holy Land we learn news of unimaginable suffering. We cannot handle this alone but both Jesus and Mother Mary are with us. This program is during weekly Sunday worship, for six Sundays. Feb. 18 - March 31, 4-5 pm pst in person or on Zoom. Click here of find the Zoom link also found on our church website.

Lenten Pilgrimage to the Holy Land with the Black Madonna

We will read and discuss what is happening in the Holy Land with Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and Presbyterian Christian minister, Chris Hedges. Please click here to sign up for

The Chris Hedges Report

As people of faith we are called to see the truth of the suffering here on our common home Mother Earth. There are escalating wars, famines, eco system collapse and the suffering is growing. God calls us as Americans this Lent to wake up from our sleepwalking. How? We follow Jesus in the Holy Land and like him we give up materialism, power over habits of domination and idolatry. We are called to go to the Holy Land this year with Jesus and the Black Madonna to face evil within and in the collective of American Empire. Our country is complicit in genocide and endless suicidal wars, materialism and idolatry. We will use this six-week program and pilgrimage to learn the news and to pray and strengthen our relationship with God. We have never needed God more than now. As people of faith, we dedicate our lives to seeing the truth and working for justice and peace.

The arts are a way God and the spiritual worlds contact us. We will study, contemplate and pray with artwork of the Black Madonna. We will offer a weekly PowerPoint of images of icons as we study and pray.

The Black Madonna has a stern and haunting look about her. She has both experienced and has witnessed suffering. She reminds us that God is filled with feelings just like you and me. God is not a woman but God is like a woman like the Black Madonna. S/he will never leave or be separate from her baby Jesus, The Christ or anyone who suffers. S/He is Compassion, Presence and Love. S/he has suffered yet she nourishes and loves us. We are in awe and give thanks.

Sunday Feb. 18 Reading and Scriptures

Excerpt of letter Chris Hedges wrote to the children of Gaza

Dear child,

It is past midnight. I am flying at hundreds of miles an hour in the darkness, thousands of feet over the Atlantic Ocean. I am traveling to Egypt. I will go to the border of Gaza at Rafah. I go because of you.

You have never been in a plane. You have never left Gaza. You know only the densely packed streets and alleys. The concrete hovels. You know only the security barriers and fences patrolled by soldiers that surround Gaza. Planes, for you, are terrifying. Fighter jets. Attack helicopters. Drones. They circle above you. They drop missiles and bombs. Deafening explosions. The ground shakes. Buildings fall. The dead. The screams. The muffled calls for help from beneath the rubble. It does not stop. Night and day. Trapped under the piles of smashed concrete. Your playmates. Your schoolmates. Your neighbors. Gone in seconds. You see the chalky faces and limp bodies when they are dug out. I am a reporter. It is my job to see this. You are a child. You should never see this......." (emphasis from me)

Psalm 91 Those who dwell in the shelter of Infinite Light, and who abide in the wings of Infinite Love and pass the night in the shadow of El Shaddai, Will raise their voices in praise: "My refuge and my strength; In You alone will I trust." For you deliver me from the webs of fear and illusion, from all that separates and divides; You protect me as an eagle shields its young, Your faithfulness is sure, like an arrow set upon the mark, I will not fear the shadow of the night, not the confusion that comes by day, Nor the dreams that awaken me from sleep, not the daily changes that life brings. Though a thousand may deride this radical trust, the thousand laugh as I seek to do your Will, Yet will I surrender myself to You, abandoning myself into your Hands without reserve. For you have sent your angels to watch over me, to guide me in all my ways. On their hands, they will bear me up, lest I dash my foot against a stone. Though I walk among those who roar like a lion, or are stealthy as the adder snake, in your strength will I endure.

"Because you cleave to Me in love, I will deliver you; I will protect you, who call upon my Name. When you call to Me, I will answer you; I will be with you in times of trouble, I will rescue you so that you will know my Peace, All through the years, will I dwell in your heart, as Loving Compassion, Presence, forever."

Gospel of Luke 13: 34b. "How often have I wanted to gather your children together as a mother bird collects her babies under her wings—yet you refuse me!" The Inclusive Bible: The First Egalitarian Translation

Her mother instinct for survival is massive, primal. S/he is the dark of precreation, S/he is the Earth, the Cosmos, the night, the bringer of dreams and art. S/he is God called by many names, the I am what I will be, Spirit, Allah, Shekina, Sophia, El Shaddai a Hebrew word for God meaning large breasted one like the mountains.

This Lent as we give up literalism and lies. Our soul's hunger for communion with God, the truth and radical love. We will talk about what is happening in the world, study scripture, go on a virtual round the world tour of her pilgrimage sites with photos of artwork, and learn about the Black Madonna. We do not go to on this pilgrimage to escape but to wake up, not to hide from the reality of our historic time or the ways we are tempted by lies and the powers and principalities but to listen to God's call and respond courageously in love. We follow in the footsteps of Jesus, the Black Madonna and people of faith alive today like Chris Hedges. He writes, "....I am a reporter. It is my job to see this." As people of faith, it is our job to see and bear witness to the suffering of "the least of these" (Matthew 25:45) and this is only possible for many of us because God has promised to love us always.

Each week we will pray with images and photos of artwork of icons of the Black Madonna from many different continents including the Black Madonna of the Americas, Our Lady of Guadalupe. We will wrap ourselves in God's love during our planetary crisis and the escalating horrors. It is a God who is like a loving mother, who embraces us with unconditional merciful nourishing love. This is the God too often left out of patriarchal religions. This is not the white bread Mother Mary, but the mother of God with a huge diversity of skin tones with an awesomely strong mother instinct to survive and protect her children. This is the Mary who witnessed the torture of her son and calls us to devote our lives to love our enemy anyway. Thankfully we have modern saints like Martin Luther King and Ghandi who lived this way. Our Lenten pilgrimage will strengthen and protect us from the challenge of being alive today. The Black Madonna reminds us that truth is sometimes painful, but we are never alone. God always loves us and the "truth will set up free." (John 8:31-32) We invite you to also read Stephanie Georgieff's book, The Black Madonna: Mysterious Soul Companion available on Amazon.

Weekly scripture reading for the following Sunday are offered during our weekly Lectio Divina and Centering Prayer Group, every Tuesdays 9-10 am pst, available on Zoom.

We dedicate this Lenten pilgrimage to over 26,000 people killed in the genocide in the Holy Land, 70% who are women and children as well as all those in war torn countries in Israel, the Sudan, the Congo, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Russia, Yemen, Syria, those at the US borders, millions of refugees worldwide, millions suffering from famine......... We pray for Mothers. Fathers and Children of all species who are suffering from injustice and violence.

Lenten Program Schedule

Sunday, Feb.18 I Need to Get Another Mother; Visions of the Black Madonna in the Holy Land Sunday , 4-5 pm pst on Zoom or locally in Dallas OR. Please read or listen to Chris Hedges The Christ Hedges Report and The Black Madonna: Mysterious Soul Companion. Preface, Forward and Chapter 1-3 p. 1-18. Scripture Psalm 91 translation by Nan C. Merrill (see above) and the Gospel of Luke 13:34b Virtually we will visit the Holy Land and photos The Black Madonna of Czestochowa in Poland.

Sunday, Feb. 25 Black Madonna Pilgrimage for Survival Sunday 4-5 pm pst The Black Madonna Chapter 4-6 p.21-46 Scripture announced the Tuesday before on website and during Lectio Divina and the Chris Hedges current news story announced on Tuesday for the following Sunday.

Sunday, March 3 Taize Chanting and Icons Sunday 4-5 pm pst The Black Madonna Chapter 7-11 p51-73 other readings and scriptures TBA

 Sunday, March 10 God communicates in Dreams and Art, 4-5 pm pst The Black Madonna Chapter 12-15 p.77-91 other readings and scriptures TBA

Sunday March 17 Pilgrimage and Walks for Peace , 4-5 pm pst The Black Madonna Chapter 16-18 p.99-122 other readings and scriptures TBA

Sunday, March 24 The Earth and Our Lady of Guadalupe Sunday , 4-5 pm pst The Black Madonna Chapter 19-21 p.129-146 other readings and scriptures TBA

Easter Sunday March 31The Black Madonna, Mary Magdalene Jesus and the Partnership Way , 4-5 pm pst

Many of us are still partially brainwashed (often we are unaware of how we have been brainwashed) by our materialist dominant over world view which largely contributes to our feelings of alienation from God and the Holy. Millions of people of faith go on pilgrimages and use icons in prayer and devotion regularly. We have much to learn from these ancient religious practices. As you ready for A Pilgrimage with The Black Madonna and Chris Hedges, please pack your computer to join us Sundays at 4 pm pst on Zoom if you are unable to join us in person, a pencil and paper as well as colored crayons or pencils of some kind will suffice. Please plan to spend a little time each day in prayer, study, writing or art making, dream incubation and honoring.

Our own Church for Our Common Home icon is seen above. S/he is The Black Madonna of Czestochowa that I have altered giving The Black Madonna an Earth in her hands as well as an earth halo for her and her baby Jesus the Christ Child. I will share my first experience with the Black Madonna underground in the Dormition Abbey in Jerusalem when I was seven years old. The photo below is recent and please note that the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Black Madonna of the America's is now hanging on the wall. I will share several synchronistic events, pilgrimages, dreams, visions and artwork that have contributed to the founding of Church for Our Common Home, a God centered and guided church with close ties to the Black Madonna. We ask for prayers for this Lenten program and all those who participate. May God bless us all.

From my heart to your heart and in love, Rev. Bonnie Tarwater

Minister Church for Our Common Home

15435 Strong Road Dallas, Oregon 97338 Zoom ID 3025719458

(858) 248-5123, revtarwater@yahoo.com www.ourcommonhomecounselingcenter.org

Letter to President and First Lady Biden about Genocide of One Million Palestinian Children

October 20, 2023

Dear President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden,

How is it possible that both of you and other western governments and their leaders have not tried to stop and have been silent and therefore in collusion with the genocide, mass expulsion and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people in Gaza and Israel? Yes, we all spoke out and denounced the horrific terrorist attack by Hamas in Israel. Many of us are deeply disturbed however that you have not spoken out against the genocide in Gaza and that our country has given and is escalating our funding of Israel’s military.  We call for a ceasefire against Palestinians, almost one million who are CHILDREN, Mr. President and First Lady. As people of faith, we are called to tell the truth and never give up working for peace and justice even when there seems to be no way. You surely both know that our American silence about Palestinian suffering is creating massive instability in the Middle East and beyond.

I am writing to thank you President Biden for all your work behind the scenes to work for peace that we know nothing about.  I am also writing to remind myself and both of you that we are called by God to love one another.   Jesus commands us as his disciples to love our enemies, and Mr. President, it feels as if the United States has become the world’s worst enemy. I will love you and pray for you and our country not because I condone our behavior, but because it is a decision we make to live in love that prevents us from becoming our enemy.  We are all sacred children of God and can be redeemed. 

 Are you able to sleep at night Mr. President and First Lady?  I am having trouble sleeping for as a Christian minister, I know God is calling me to speak out against American lies in the media, genocide and escalating war. But who do I speak to and what shall I say? Like you, I am a parent and grandparent. We know instinctually we must care for the suffering of any child before us and one million Palestinian children in Gaza are before us now, crying out or are silent from disassociation from unspeakable trauma.

 How is it possible that you want our country to give military support to Israel when they are bombing 2.3 million people in the most densely populated area in the world? Gaza, is an open-air prison, a concentration camp of years of apartheid, only five miles wide by twenty-five miles long.  Now Isarel denies them water, food, medicine, fuel and is demanding a mass evacuation, but there is nowhere for them to go! How is this possible?

How is it possible that the United States vetoed against the United Nations call for a humanitarian ceasefire?

How is it possible you addressed the American people from your Oval Office asking for 100 billion dollars for more military support for Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan and to militarize the Mexican Border?

No, Mr. President and First Lady, this is too horrific for any person of faith to be silent. We hope and pray you will begin to speak out against our planetary catastrophe immediately.   

Please know I will come to the White House and talk with you and others about changing our world view that justifies American Empire and how to begin working in collaboration with other countries like China for the sake of survival of the human species and all of God’s creation.  Shall people of faith surround the White House and pray for your conversion and peace in the Holy Land? Or perhaps we should gather thousands of clergies and people for all faiths for massive civil disobedience and march to the White House, get on our knees and beg you to work for a ceasefire, the abolition of nuclear bombs and a change of course away from suicidal wars?  What might people of faith do to support and work with you for world peace? We pray currently for you to say no to the United States supporting genocide and urge you to work for an immediate ceasefire, diplomacy, humanitarian aid and peace talks in the Holy Land and in the Ukraine. Wars in the Holy Land are of course emotional for Jews, Christians and Moslems. Every crisis is an invitation for spiritual growth and could this be the emotional crisis that brings people of faith in the world together in unity? How can people of faith best work with you and leaders in Washington, in our state capitols and local communities for peace in the Holy Land and around the world?

I pray for you both and our country for Jesus teaches us to pray for our persecutors. The American Empire, the most powerful military force and richest country in the history of the world is supporting a suicidal path for our human family and has become the world’s worst persecutor.

Scientists tell us that the doomsday clock is one minute before doomsday and midnight. It is not time to go to sleep, Mr. President and First Lady for God is calling you to wake up, speak the truth and work for a conversion of our country. I invite you and our fellow Americans to pray together.

Dear God,

Help President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden during this nightmare of human history. Help the United States and western governments who are supporting the genocide of one million Palestinian children and the 2.3 people living in Gaza. Help us raise our voices so they will hear us and have a change of heart. Help the world’s leaders listen to our cries for justice and peace.

God, please open the eyes of many Americans who are refusing to see the truth of American aggression and crimes historically and presently.   

We pray for the people of Israel for they are mourning and in shock after a horrific terrorist’s attack. God help us. Hear our prayer. 

Open our ears to hear the cries of one million Palestinian children with no food or water. God help us. Hear our prayer.

These children cannot sleep because of constant bombing. God help us. Hear our prayer.  

They have no medical care and cry out in pain. God help us. Hear our prayer.

There is no doctor or medicine for them. God help us. Hear our prayer.

They are orphans for many of their parents are dead and dying. God help us. Hear our prayer.

Let all with ears hear the cries of all the world’s suffering children and  may we respond instinctually in love and care and begin to work to leave them a livable planet. God help us. Hear our prayer.  

May Catholics like President Joe Biden and Christians everywhere be reminded that Jesus taught us to love our enemies and pray for our persecutors. God help us. Hear our prayer.

We have lost our moral soul as a nation. God Help us. Hear our prayer.  

 Give us courage to break out of denial, inertia and silence and give us a voice to speak the truth.  God help us. Hear our prayer.

Help us to know who we should speak to and how to tell the truth in love. God help us. Hear our prayer.

We confess that we have lived in denial and fear and not cared for the world’s children who are the least of these. (Matthew 25:40) We ask for forgiveness.

We give you thanks God of mercy and love for creation and every breath we take. Thank you for our instinct to care for children that humanizes us. Guide us to serve you and do your will to care for the human family and your creation during these dangerous times.  Amen

 Respectfully and with love,

 

Rev. Bonnie Tarwater Minister Church for Our Common Home

15435 Strong Road Dallas, Oregon 97338

Grandmother of 7 year old Laina, 5 year old Jacob, 3 year old Nora and a baby soon to be born.(858) 248-5123, revtarwater@yahoo.com www.churchforurcommonhome.com

Please share your thoughts and feelings about this letter and join us in person or on Zoom to one of our four weekly programs to give and receive support and love. Let me know if would like to work with me to write a letter for multipole signatures. For ideas for civil disobedience please go to the website for The Global Nonviolent Action Database, Home | Global Nonviolent Action Database (swarthmore.edu)) provides free access to information about hundreds of cases of nonviolent action, from all continents and most countries, for learning and for citizen action. The database is a project of Swarthmore College…The database supports searches by country, by issue, by action method used, and even by year -- there is a case from ancient Egypt, 12th century BCE! Some cases are part of a “wave” of campaigns, such as the “Arab Awakening” of 2011.” 

Prayer Service for Israel and Palestine

Dear Freinds,

Please join Church for Our Common Home this Sunday for a special prayer service for Israel and Palestine with Hebrew, Arabic and musical prayers.

We offer the vision and practice of loving our enemy and praying for our persecutors. We pray to find the Third Way of nonviolence, never responding to violence with more violence and never giving up. Disciples of Jesus are needed to host interfaith prayer services and partner with other organizations with the vision of an interfaith global peace movement. We as Americans are called to show leadership. Join us tomorrow, Sunday October 15, 4 pm PST on Zoom

Zoom link Church for Our Common Home Prayer Service

We will also meet in small Zoom group rooms in order to share, without cross talk or back and forth dialogue, how we are feeling about this past week. All people are invited to share and will be honored. Our community invites everyone to God's table of peace and justice, love and prayer.

After Jesus was crucified, our story is not that his followers went out filled with trauma and rage and began revengeful behaviors of an eye for an eye. They did not set up more torture chambers. No, as disciples of Jesus we are called to do the most radical and counter cultural activity of all time. We are called to love our enemy and pray for our persecutors. We are called to hold the truth of history with our minds and hearts. We are in an existential crisis as a human family, a moral crisis worse than ever before in our human history with the risk of escalating global wars and ecologic destruction. Join us as we gather in Zoom virtual community to pray. We mourn together and explore together where we can be the most useful. We make all of God's creatures welcome at God's table. No one left out, no matter how lame, sick, heartbroken, depressed, hungry, thirsty, traumatized, angry, smart or incoherent, confused or messed up. Our Zoom church is a virtual refugee camp of welcome for all broken-hearted planetary citizens, human and non-human, those in this physical realm and in the subtle realms. Don't isolate. Join us. We will proclaim the Good News of the Gospel that God's loves is stronger than any suffering and even death.

Below is a link from The Guardian with an article by Rev. William Barber.

We must say an emphatic ‘no’ to Hamas a thousand times | Reverend William Barber | The GuardianWe are fortunate here in Oregon to be able to attend a Peace Lecture next Wednesday, October 18 with Rev. Barbers partner, Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharris at Willamette University in Salem. Please join us.

Wisdom Will Workshop Saturday August 19 11-4 pm

WISDOM WILL WORKSHOP in the Barn! Come share your life story as we invite you to create a Wisdom Will for future generations. We will begin with a historical overview of ethical or wisdom wills in the Bible as well as an overview of modern resources, books and websites.  Writing prompts and small group sharing promise an experiential workshop of depth, meaning and intimacy. What are the most meaningful stories, experiences and wisdom of your life you want to share with future generations? Exploring the benefits of written wills versus video wills, we will also offer support and future gatherings to assure your completion of your own Wisdom Will. Great for Christmas gifts for your children, grandchildren, friends and future generations.  Suggested reading, Dr. Ranger’s Wisdom Will, Audacity to Live, Memories of a ‘Why-Not’ Woman, available on Amazon.

We prepare for our death affirming our sacred life as we sing and break bread together. Vegetarian lunch in the rose garden with quiche made form our beloved chickens who gift us with eggs and salad from our biodynamic vegetable garden.

Come for the great honor to meet Dr. Ranger who has her doctorate in Hebrew Scriptures and did her research on the Wisdom Literature of the Bible. Since the Bible is the primary document of the Faith for Jews and Christians, it is important to her that people read this document with reverence and with a readiness to explore through its imagery and metaphors “the language of God’s Love for all persons.” Her friends and family members celebrated in many different churches: Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist, Buddhist, to name a few. High school and college friends represented diverse religions and cultures: Native American, Black, Asian, Thai, and Indian. Sharing in beliefs, spiritual practices, worship services, family rituals, and meals were enriching experiences for her. She went on to study Scriptures of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and other world religions–as well as their Systematic, Liturgical, and Spiritual Theologies. She has traveled in all but seven States, and in Canada, Italy, Greece, Ireland, Turkey, France, England, Peru, Caribbean, Mexico, and Vietnam–experiences that have taught her to honor diversity in Religious Traditions, rituals, cultures, educational backgrounds, professions, gender, age, sexual orientation, economic status, etc. She is convinced that people can reach out to learn about the richness of Traditions other than their own–only to know and love their own Traditions more fully. She is a cradle Catholic and has a great love for the Church and all of us pilgrim people who cherish and live zealously our “universal call to Holiness.” Her passion is Interfaith Dialogue. She has been honored by Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, and has completed a first draft of the History of Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon.

She has taught Scripture Studies, Theological Studies, Liturgy, and Spirituality to high school students, lay congregants, and B.A., M.A., M.Div., and D. Min. students at Marylhurst University, Mt. Angel Seminary, George Fox University, St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore, San Francisco Theological Seminary, and Clark Community College. 

Suggested donation $ 25-100 or whatever you can afford.

Reservations needed with limited retreat stays available for the Wisdom Will Workshop at the Secret Garden Retreat Center. Camping also available.

Please bring your family and friends and join us for music, wisdom, food, and friendship this summer to all three special events!

With love from the hearts and spirits of all us creatures here at the John Cobb Eco Farm and Secret Garden Retreat Center,

Rev. Bonnie Tarwater

P.S. Tours of the Interfaith Secret Prayer Garden inviting prayers for the Earth available by appointment.