Dear Friends,
The season of Advent gifts us with the Christmas story, a story about a young Mary, pregnant, poor, unwed, as well as prophetic giant who inspires us to listen to God's call. She proclaims, and rejoices about her love for God and God's love for her. No other women in the New Testament speaks with such passion and visionary power. Mary's spirit invites us this Advent to say yes to God's magnificent plan for us together to work and for justice and peace.
The women from Central America who have arrived at the US border many with their children, recognize their own situation as similar to Mary of Nazareth and they recognize that Mary is one of us. Like her they are poor and the poverty and terror they are experiencing is a result of structural injustices. Like Mary they have been traumatized by the double and triple threat of the nightmare of male dominance and violence on top of poverty and corruption.
“The Magnificat's message is so subversive that for a period during the 1980s the government of Guatemala banned its public recitation, seeing the central point of this song to be the assertion of the holiness of God. Peruvian theologian Gustave Gutierrez argues that any reading is fruitless that "attempts to tone down what Mary's song tells us about the preferential love of God for the lowly and the abused, and about the transformation of history that God's loving will implies."' Elizabeth Johnson, US Catholic Faith and Reality Life, Dec. 20013
Mary's confidence in God is contagious. Listen to her in the Gospel of Luke's Magnificat 1:46-55. "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his handmaid. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed, for the One who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.And his mercy is from generation to generation on those who fear him. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts; he has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of low degree; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his posterity forever.
Mary, pregnant with new life invites us to be in solidarity with the asylum seekers today at the border here in San Diego and assures us God will be with us. She proclaims and assures us that God is with the lowly and will cast down the mighty from their thrones. God is calling the people in the caravan at the border to seek a better life and God is called us this week to stand in solidarity, support and love with them.
Please join me and Church for Our Common Home as we participate in a civil disobedience organized by the American Friends Service Committee, US Border Mexico Program with a three mile walk to the border on Monday, Dec. 10th.
We call on the U.S. government to respect the human right to migrate and seek asylum. People fleeing violence in Central America should be able to present themselves to immigration authorities to express their fears, not illegally turned away or criminalized for entering between ports of entry to seek asylum.
We call for an end to border militarization. Deploying additional law enforcement, immigration enforcement agencies, or military personnel to the southern border endangers the rights of migrants and residents of border communities, wastes taxpayer dollars, and does nothing to make us safer.
We call for an immediate end to the detention and deportation of immigrants and oppose any actions to hold immigrants in inhumane detention indefinitely. We call for defunding ICE and CBP. It is crucial to instead protect those seeking refuge, and to provide services and direct assistance to migrating people.
Please join us for our regular second Sunday worship service on Dec. 9 th from 5 -6 pm, at Torrey Pines State Park Beach, for a candlelight service for during winter that time of night is now dark. It will be cold so please dress warmly. You are also invited to join us for an interfaith worship service immediately following our beach worship also on Sunday Dec. 9th at 6:30 pm at the Christian University Church 3900 Cleveland Ave, San Diego, CA 92103 San Diego. We will drive together after our beach worship.
Please join us the first Sunday of Advent, Dec. 2nd for our monthly Taize Chanting worship and we will sing the words of Mary in the Magnificat. We will pray for those at the border and those suffering from oppression everywhere. With Mary we will imagine a world where the mighty are cast from their thrones and the lowly and poor are fed with good things and follow in Mary's faithfulness to God always. We will have a discussion at our weekly potluck after church about the border humanitarian crisis and will collect warm clothing to take to the shelters.
Sending love always,
Bonnie
The artist of the painting above of Mary's Magnificat is Jen Norten
Upcoming invitations:
New live stream worship on church web site, some Sunday’s 5 pm (PST) Churchforourcommonhome.com
Book group, Jesus Abba, by Dr. John B. Cobb Jr. at 3-4:30 pm before worship Sunday of the month and last class Dec. 9th.
Our Lady of Guadalupe worship on Dec. 16th as a part of our Prayer and Healing third Sunday worship.
Sunday before Christmas, December 23rd at 5 pm Christmas Carol worship and potluck feast.
New Year’s Eve Jan 31 6-9 pm alcohol free, dream sharing, dream incubation, guided mediation, fire ritual, walking the snake labyrinth, with music and candle light.
Lectio Divina and Centering Prayer Contemplation of scriptures for Sunday and Centering Prayer, an ancient Christian contemplative prayer practice, every Wednesday 10 am.
Monthly Taize Chanting service first Sunday of every month
Beach candle light worship every second Sunday at Torrey Pines State Park at 5 pm. It gets cold and dark so please dress warmly.
Healing Service third Sunday worship at 5 pm.
Dream Circle every first and third Sunday before worship 3-5 pm.
Committee on Ministry meeting every third Sunday evening after church and pot luck.
Webinar with Environmental Justice Practitioners Network co-sponsored by First UU Church and Church for Our Common Home, once a month call Jamie Long (619) 436-9435.
MLK All People’s Breakfast January 21th, 9-12 noon $75 join Walt and Bonnie buy tickets www.alliancesd.org/all-peoples-celebration-sponsorship
More info call (858) 248-5123
www.churchforourcommonhome.com
Our Common Home Counseling Center’s services: Addiction Issues, PTSD, Individual and Group Therapy, Spiritual Direction, Pastoral Counseling, Dream Honoring, Creative Art Therapies etc.