I am back at work after a beautiful three months of bonding with my second child, Olive, who was born back in March. I'm grateful to my colleagues, Beth and Melody, who kept PT going in my absence with some really wonderful pieces on what healing and repair can look like.
It's a timely topic for me, on a personal level, because my time away was also about healing physically from surgery and delivery and emotionally from some unexpected and really difficult things about Olive's birth. In my journey to having children, I experienced multiple pregnancy losses and two very different births that were each challenging in their own ways. All of these things required healing. And what I've learned is that healing can (and must) look a lot of different ways depending on context. And it happens on a lot of different levels. It takes time and intentionality, some courage, and -- perhaps most importantly -- some support.
There are so many people in need of healing in the world today, so many places and communities and relationships yearning for healing and repair. At its worst, sometimes the church is what people need healing from. But at its best, the church can be an epicenter of repair and healing, a place where new life blossoms and beauty grows in the cracks of what has been broken.
The latest pieces up on the blog offer some such stories and hope for the church. I hope you'll take the time to read them.
Layton Williams Berkes Managing Editor, Presbyterians Today
Welcoming the Stranger
by Arelis M. Figueroa
“More than any other nation on Earth, America has constantly drawn strength and spirit from wave after wave of immigrants. In each generation, they have proved to be the most restless, the most adventurous, the most innovative, the most industrious people.” - Former President Bill Clinton
The immigrant community is a community in need of healing and reparation. Immigrants have played a crucial role in the building and flourishing of this nation through their hard labor, resiliency, and dedication. Despite the repeated mantra that the USA is a nation of immigrants, people seem to forget or ignore this fact. We are a country of immigrants built on stolen land by enslaved hands. Despite this heavy reality, immigrants tend to be treated like second-class citizens. These impoverished black and brown immigrants are also portrayed as a threat to society.
Collaborative Healing with Victims of Sex Trafficking
by Rev. Katie Kinnison
For the past 12 years I have been a pastor who offers support and presence to women who have been sex-trafficked. It started when Presbyterian Women from a church I was serving took me to Human Trafficking Awareness Day at our statehouse. I have built relationships with women who have lived a particular kind of hell, advocating for them and learning about addiction and trauma and so much more. Walking alongside these survivors as they come back to life has changed me and opened up my theology.
These women are my heroes. Being with them as they come alive again has brought healing to my deep places. I have recognized our mutual brokenness and healing as the heart of community that is beloved and that glorifies our Creator.
“The nature of Divine Love is to go as low as possible to serve the beloved.” - Mechthild of Magdeburg
This powerful understanding of God propensity toward helping and healing the least of these comes from the story of the beguine Mechthild of Magdeburg. A movement of laywomen that arose in the 13th century, the beguines were contemplatives, mystics and healers. Mechthild posited that “God is never closer than in the longing emptiness of the night.” From that emptiness, she received and shared “prophetic critiques of the religious leaders of her day for their lack of holiness and their hostility toward passionate spirituality.”
Spreading the Vision of Matthew 25 across the Church
The PC(USA) believes that we are called to serve Jesus by contributing to the well-being of the most vulnerable in all societies – rural and urban, small and large, young and not-so-young. From affordable housing to community gardens to equitable educational and employment opportunities to healing from addiction and mental illness to enacting policy change – there is not just one way to be a part of the Matthew 25 movement.
