Dear Friends,
Happy New Year! If Bishop Tutu could imagine a South Africa without apartheid, you and I can imagine a world with China and the US working to save the human race from mass extinction! Let's do it together in 2022.
Ganbei!!! Cheers!!! Happy New Years! xīn nián kuài lè!
Please join me and Dr. John B. Cobb Jr. this Sunday, January 2nd, 4 pm PST on Zoom for a dialogue sermon to celebrate Dr. Cobb's vision of China and the US working together for peace on earth. Find the Zoom link on our church website.
Think about how impossible it must have seemed to Biship Tutu, who died at aged 90 this past week, when he was called by God and the new President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, to set up the Truth and Justice Commission to witness the stories of the victims of apartheid. They suffered torture, murder and unimaginable cruelty and injustice. Bishop Tutu and others in history have done the seemingly impossible and worked for justice, forgiveness and healing in the midst of despair. God is calling us to step up and do the same in 2022.
If you have not seen the movie Don't Look Up, please see it. Here is a link of the preview. Movie Preview Don't Look Up
This movie presents the truth of the urgency of our current planetary crisis! It is not a comet hurling toward earth that we currently face. It is climate catastrophe, the extinction of animals, plants and eco systems, more global pandemics, military complexes that will lead us toward nuclear war -- in a word -- suicide. We at Church for Our Common Home will study the teachings of Jesus and his radical teachings of love of enemies as well as prophets from many religions. We will take inspiration from non-violent movements begun by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Bishop Tutu and lesser known heroines like the Jewish midwives of 1350 B.C.E.
And this year another prophet in our midst calling us to imagine peace and justice with China and the US -- Dr. John Cobb.
The earliest recorded acts of civil disobedience come from women in 1350 B.C.E. when Jewish midwives refused to carry our Pharoh's order to kill Hebrew babies. We must become like our brave visionary ancestors. We call upon their spirits to give us courage! Do you know this history? Here is a small sampling:
1. Aristophanes in 388 BC who wrote the play, Lysistrata about women on both sides of a war who stop the war by withholding sex from their husband-soldiers until they quit the fight.
2. Jesus modeled and taught love of enemies and nonviolence and was crucified for it in 30 CE.
3.From 1181-1226 St. Francis and St Clare of Assisi Italy exemplify a nonviolent life of peace and justice in harmony with God's creation.
4.In 1780 Quakers start the first American antislavery society.
5. Labor movements in the 1900 largely non-violent strikes to secure economic justice.
6.In 1906 Gandhi in South Africa lays the foundation of non-violence on a national scale and later topples the English Empire from power in India
7.In1920 US women's suffrage movement secures constitutional amendments guaranteeing women the right to vote after a 75 year struggle.
8.1955-1968 The Montgomery bus boycott launches the US Civil rights movement. Rosa Parks refusal to go to the back of the bus sparked this move
9 .In 1986 a nonviolent revolution began in churches in the Phillipines which brought down the oppressive Marcos dictatorship.
.10 In 1976 Mairead Corrigan and Betty Willimas received the Nobelement.Peace Prize for their efforts at non-violent reconciliation in Northern Ireland.
11.In 2021 Dr. John B. Cobb Jr.’s writes a letter to President Xi and President Biden (letter in link) Dr. Cobb's letter to the Presidents to encourage leadership to change our self destructive direction as a human family. A small group of people gather and decide to mobilize a grassroots global movement to bring peace to our common home, Mother Earth, before it is too late!
Join us tonight, Friday on New Years Eve Dec. 31 at 5 pm PST on Zoom for a non alcohalic gathering for a dream incubation for 2022 and sharing of prophetic visions and dreams to prepare to respond to God's call for justice in the New Year.
Sending love,
Bonnie