I write this newsletter a few weeks before you read it. I began this week on a train. An Amtrak train took my cabinet colleagues and me to Savannah, Georgia. In Savannah, we boarded a church bus and drove to St. Simons Island, Georgia, for an SEJ Cabinet Consultation. Powerful questions allowed us to think together about what might be available to us to create a healthier church. I shared one of those questions during our district clergy meeting on January 27. As I was experiencing the relative freedom of riding a train (don’t have to focus on driving!), I was simultaneously reading about the Buddhist monks walking over 2,000 miles for peace. They are walking across our state as I type this; they receive hospitality along the way, and are, by now, I can imagine, pretty weary. I thought of those who still make the Camino pilgrimage today, or who perhaps walk the Cumbrian Way across the North of England, or even the Appalachian Trail. Those pilgrimages are often painful physically, depleting physically and emotionally, and yet also spiritually transformational. As I turned my thoughts to what I might share with you that could be useful in Lent planning, I found myself on a trusty website, The Work of the People, where the first offering is a Lenten film series called “Marching from Pain to Possibility.” The reflections from James Finley, Walter Brueggemann, Jennifer Bailey, and others offer a way to think about the connection of pain and suffering to possibility and transformation. I commend it to you. Perhaps it could be a small-group curriculum, a way to connect with your covenant group, or a personal meditation.

Why is this one resonating with me? I think it’s because of the moment we’re in. I’m aware of your hard work and heavy lifts during this season. I’m aware of how often I sing “Your labor is not in vain” as your faces and places of ministry are recalled in my mind. I’m aware of your own pains (those you share with me) and aware that some of you are suffering in silence. I’m aware of the cultural and national moment that calls for our very best shepherding and prophetic witness. Those two parts of our work are not antithetical, of course – our availability to the one suggests and makes possible our availability to the other.

I’m FOR you. I see you. I value you. Even better – Christ is FOR you! And sees you. And values you. And I am praying for you that as you lead others through Lent and towards Resurrection, your own journey may hold the mystery of transformation.

Grace and peace,
Claire