Move slow and repair things.
Call it a motto, a vision, … — it’s a direct rebuke of a particular philosophy, popular in Silicon Valley: “Move fast and break things.”
“Slow Church” may be another way to put it.
The resources below point to ways to move slow and go about repairing, mending, healing, “fixing” or “amending” (as in soil).
…
The Work of Local Culture — Wendell Berry. Spoiler: it takes a long time, like accumulating compost in a bucket. We’re committed to this pace.
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind — William Kamkwamba. William gathers parts from a junkyard and help from forgotten kids to bring life to neglected land.
Repair and Remain by Kurt Armstrong.
Filth Therapy by Alan Jacobs
Recycled Instruments Orchestra
Improvisation: The Drama of Christian Ethics by Sam Wells
Becoming Friends of Time: Disability, Timefullness, and Gentle Discipleship, by John Swinton
3 Mile Per Hour God, by Koyama Kosuke. Go slow enough to catch up to God. God moves at about 3 mph.
Art and Faith by Makoto Fujimura
…
[Resources below from a foggy past, i.e., Covid.]
Peregrine Page
“Trained imaginations are what we need most at a time like this. That is what will enable us to reach across cultures and understand each other, to think of new models and modes of organization that might work better, and to wage peace, because the love of beauty is deeply related to the love of peace.”—from Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies by Marilyn Chandler McEntyre
“Peregrine Page” started as a resource for folks during Covid. It’s an unorganized list of potentially helpful, enlightening, challenging, funny, provocative, and beautiful tools for us.
All of them seem to relate to moving slow and fixing things.
For our resources coming out of Peak, check out the Live the Questions page.
(Explanation of “Peregrine” at the bottom of the page.)
Interested in volunteering with Faith Family Hospitality? Click here to learn more and sign up.
Looking for past services? Click here for the YouTube live streams.
Celebrated writer Marilyn Nelson was interviewed by On Being, in which she describes her own contemplative practices and imagines what communal pondering might look like in a noisy world.
The Englewood Review of Books has launched a new web feature of daily poems to accompany lectionary readings.
Martin Luther King Jr’s letter from a Birmingham jail still speaks to us.
Jonathan Wilson Hartgrove — Reconstructing the Gospel: Finding Freedom from Slaveholder Religion Hartgrove worked for Strom Thurmond in the Capitol, a self described “soldier” of the Christian Right. He soon realized he was not fighting for Christian values, but rather the interests of powerful white men.
Willie Jennings Bryan — The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race Bryan traces the way Christians constructed the concept of whiteness as a way to subdue other cultures. He also shows us a way toward healing by way of a deeply Christian incarnational commitment to people and places.
Wendell Berry — The Hidden Wound Written in the ‘70s, Berry’s book is still pertinent. He writes from the south and describes racism destroys American identity, and it is not—and never should be—disconnected from our relationship to the land.
Emmanuel Katangole and Chris Rice — Reconciling All Things: A Christian Vision for Justice, Peace and Healing
Spencer Perkins and Chris Rice — More than Equals These two books point the way forward. What does reconciliation look like? Healing? What is required, and what practices ought Christians to take up to insure that conflict and enmity do not have a place among us.
In a sermon on 5/31/2020, local Fort Collins Pastor, Rev. David Williams, asks people with privilege to put reputations on the line to stop racism. (Begins at 26:00.)
Can we recover from racism? … Only when we are no longer evangelizing for the God of nationalism and patriotism, but the God of the whole created universe.
Lamentations 5 for 2020 by Soong-Chan Rah.
Remember, Lord, what happened to Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd;
look and see the disgraceful way their bodies were treated.
A set of practices for surviving stay-at-home orders.
The editor of Plough Magazine interviews Stanley Hauerwas on the virus. Hauerwas is a public theologian and ethicist. In 2001, Time Magazine named him “Best Theologian of the Year” (his response: “‘best’ is not a theological category”). Point being, he’s good at naming what can and ought to be named in times of unveiling (the literal meaning of the word apocalypse).
Summer evening public lectures from Regent College are now online.
A parish in London (St-Martin-in-the-Fields) has partnered with the British National Gallery to create an exploration of the Christian faith using paintings and the Biblical story as starting points
Image Journal has a great resource page called Redeeming the Time.
A way to celebrate Palm Sunday from home. I would add that another good way to celebrate Palm Sunday is to remember to wash your … palms!
A Christian response to the Coronavirus offers no answers, but there is a response.
Yo-Yo Ma is tweeting beautiful music.
Christianity Today asks whether the coronavirus is evil.
Scott Kelly spent a year in space and has tips for being cooped up.
Kelly advocates routine. Beginning your day (and ending) the same way is smart. Even better: begin with prayer and contemplation. An excellent resource is the Celtic Book of Prayer. The readings are online here.
Books to read! (E-mail Eddy if you have any to recommend.)
Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy, and “Women’s Work” by Kathleen Norris. Like Brother Lawrence and others, Norris encounters the holy in the mundane.
Death Comes to the Archbishop by Willa Cather. The title is misleading. It’s not mainly about death. My favorite thing about this book is the way I’m transported to the Southwest United States of 200 years ago—a welcome vacation right now. Strike that—I have a new favorite thing about it: the contrast between the two main characters.
A poem about what it means to care for sick people we love.
Another poem. This one by Franz Wright called “The Hawk”. It ends like this:
…
fellow monsters while we are still here, for one minute, think
about this: there is someone right now who is looking
to you, not Him, for whatever
love still exists.
——
What is Peregrine?
The most certain fact is that there is much we don’t know—a time of “maximum ignorance and minimal technology” … and maximum isolation.
What do we do now, as we drift?
Peregrine is Latin for pilgrim—we are all on a pilgrimage as we “row through the infinite storm this age”* — coronavirus, social distancing, stay-at-home orders, and quarantine being only the current waves bearing down on us.
This is indeed a pilgrimage—not a war, crusade, or quest. The wily, salty Celtic saints are our examples. These peregrinatio, as they were nicknamed, were alone or with only a few companions. They set out on little round boats without oars, rudders or sails into unknown waters, and learned what it meant to make in their hearts a place of home and peace.
The called that peace the place of their resurrection.
This is our task in our current pilgrimage—to anchor our souls no matter where we are driven by waves and wind, virus and executive order.
Below you’ll find a list of resources. You’ll also find periodic reflections over on the blog page, and relevant sermons on the sermon page.
To be connected to our community on Sundays, send an e-mail to admin@peakchurch.org or ehopkins@peakchurch.org
The last words Columba of Iona ever read were as follows: “Those that seek the Lord shall not want for anything that is good” (Ps. 34).
And the last words he spoke: "“Love one another unfeignedly.”
Peace and love,
Pastor Eddy
*Columba, Adiutor Laborantium