kar0ling

Do you have nightmares about not knowing what to do? Is the thought of not knowing when to stand or sit paralyzing? Are you uncomfortable when you don’t know what to say? Usually, I’d say yes to all of those, but when it comes to spiritual tourism, I’m reasonable blasé about the whole thing. It’s not my tradition. I’m there to experience the service and to worship alongside as well as I can. That’s enough for me. But I was struck at the difference it makes without a bulletin/program. The prolific paper output required for their multi-page handout at the Anglican churches I frequent is always slightly disturbing from an environmental point of view, but I greatly appreciate being able to follow along with the above variables. However, at the cathedral tonight, there was no program. So I just stood quietly when the mass mumbling arose (except for the Lord’s Prayer where I’m always thrown that Catholics stop before “for thine is the kingdom....”). The song numbers were listed on a...

“All my relations.” It is a key phrase for indigenous people. It could be a key that opens Mennonite hearts to warm to Indigenous stories, for Mennonites love their genealogies. (“The Mennonite Game” is what we call it when we spend the first few minutes with a new acquaintance figuring out how we’re related to each other.) “Treaty is so much more than $5 a year,” said Niigaan Sinclair at CMU’s Face 2 Face event on the Mennonite Privilegium and Indigenous land in Manitoba. “It’s about how we share space together.” It’s about bonding ourselves together as family – meaning unhookable – not merely friends. We ought to know that too, as Mennonites. We ought to understand the sense of covenant from our reading of the Bible, and the importance of relationships with each other from our theology of community. But perhaps it has been too eroded by capitalism and the market economy. Mennonite historical land settlement patterns were done in a communal way, said Hans Werner. One reas...

Please stop using refugees as an excuse to offload the old and buy new. I shudder slightly at how easy it is to collect used stuff for poor people. Everyone is happy to help (themselves) by getting rid of old/worn-out/uncool/low-tech/dowdy objects so they can replace them with something newer and better. And how convenient for these “needy” people to make the whole transaction guilt free because it was for charity! It’s not that it’s so wrong to do this, but I daresay it IS wrong to call it virtue rather than convenience. If you really want to be generous, keep the old thing for yourself and donate the new one instead.  Please stop repainting that church in Mexico. It is waning, but I still hear of church groups going on the classic “mission trip” to Mexico where they have great fun painting a church, usually getting as much paint on each other as the building. They have such a great time and the people were so grateful . Except the people are polite is what they ar...