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Good afternoon everyone, and welcome to Cultivating Ideas. My name is Reverend Sean Watkins. I serve as associate Dean for lifelong learning here at Austin Seminary. Welcome to our final Cultivating Ideas for the academic year.

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And as always, we are going to end on a high note. She is one of our beloved faculty and the most viewed person for all of the webinars, for Cultivating Ideas. Probably for the third year in a row, the Urban Doctor Jim Lord,

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we've got a special treat. Today. She and her wonderful colleague will be talking about what's in your go bag, preparing ahead of time for worship, and preaching in times of crisis.

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And as we look at what's happening in the nation and around the world, there are a lot of competing and conflicting crises that are emerging. And it's a wonderful opportunity for us to represent what it means to be the people of God.

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So I'm going to stop right there and pass over to Doctor Lord. By all means, take it away. Thank you, Sean. All right, hello, everyone.

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Hello and those of you that will watch it later by recording greetings to you. So I am the Reverend Doctor Jennifer Lord, Jen Lord, and today I'm so excited that this is a Co presentation with Pastor Yadald Osorto. He is an alum of Austin Seminary.

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Some of you might have been classmates, some of you might have walked Camino with him. So, Yadald, thank you so much for being here. And I'll do a little bit more by way of introduction and not for me because you

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can, you can find me on my faculty web page at Austin Seminary or you have me right now for class and you know who I am. But I I do want to introduce Yetold. And here is a brief bio Pastor Yetold Osorto has a passion for stories hidden

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out of sight, which drives him to work collaborative, collaboratively and creatively to bring those stories to light. Since 20/21, he has served as the lead pastor of Saint Paul's San Pablo Lutheran Church, a bilingual majority immigrant

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Reconciling in Christ congregation in the heart of South Minneapolis. He's also active in his local communities, serving on multiple community boards including Banyan Community Center and Simila Center for Healing and the Arts. Prior to moving to Minneapolis, Pastor Osorto served at Ithaca College

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where he was nurtured, where he nurtured a vision of interfaith collaboration and inclusive community in two roles as Executive Director for Student Equity and Belonging and the founding Director of Religious and Spiritual Life.

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He is the child of Salvadoran refugees who holds degrees from Messiah College, Boston Presbyterian Theological Seminary, as well as a certificate in study in Theology and decolonization from Pontifical Catholic University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

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He and his husband, who is a Presbyterian minister, also one of our alums, then Masters, reside in the quirky Powderhorn neighborhood of South Minneapolis. I'm going to say it where they enjoy cinnamon rolls at Mayday Cafe,

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because there it is. It's written on the piece of paper. All right friends, this this opportunity for me to Co lead with Yetold is in part made possible through the Stanley Robertson Hall

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Memorial Fund. That's an endowed gift to Austin seminary from my predecessor in liturgical studies who died far too young. Stanley Hall, a reminder of those of you on campus or

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returning to campus can go into building McMillan, the liturgy lab, walk in that door, turn left and you see his photo leading a remembrance of baptism. That is our stand Hall Absolutely, absolutely.

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All right, friends, so let me jump in and give you a little bit of framing. Is that OK yet old or do you want to say do you want to like say hi, Let us hear your voice.

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Hi, hi. It's what a joy to be with you all. And I I do want to just mention this since Jen didn't introduce herself. I do know that Jen loves olives a lot.

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Just wanted to share that tidbit that you wouldn't find searching on the inner webs. No, no, not so not so much. Thank you. Thank you for that.

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All right, And I know some folks you need, you need to have your camera off or again, you're going to watch this recording later on. But I do want to say it's really, really fun to see the few faces that are live.

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So we see you and thank you for that. There is a chat going and we are going to get into this topic of preparing ahead of time for worship and preaching in times of crisis. I didn't put trauma in the title, but it's there.

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And if you would like to add a comment in the chat, I think we're going to have time for both comments and questions. And Sean is going to be the one to call through those. Yes, indeed, he's laughing.

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But yes, this is what he does on these. So it will help us if you put comment to start or question to start, and that'll help him delineate when he goes through. But you know, this is a way for us to learn from each

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other. I am going to pause. I'm extending time, but I see my new colleague Stephanie Budway on this call.

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So you will be arriving in June, officially starting in July as our new professor of sacred music. So yay. I'm really glad to see you.

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Thanks for taking the as much time as you can and on camera or not, but hi, glad to see you. Yeah, Great, great, great. All right, So this is how it goes.

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We've had this wonderful series of cultivating ideas. And at some point, Sean reaches out to faculty members and says, what would you like to talk about and when?

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Well, I said May, and this question came to us last July. Last July, All right, Austin, TX, Central Texas. Last July was following the floods. Can't Mystic.

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Yeah, I I don't need to say much more than that for all Texas centered adjacent people to know. That's why my mind went to this topic. What's in your go bag?

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That said, I could have reached out to so many of you to Co lead this with me. And so, you know, fair warning and warning to Sean. There might be a Part 2 and a Part 3 of this because you know,

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we can only cover so much in this in this hour time that we have. Let me say a few words before I turn to Yarold. So crisis right has become permanent. There's the word perma crisis.

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We live in a time of multi crises. We have the word Poly crises. We talk in terms of trauma. Crisis is usually understood as the precipitating event and then trauma is

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the woundedness inflicted by the crisis. And trauma is about how it's difficult for us to process or assimilate that event in into any of our preconceived frameworks of meaning and understanding. So it lives in us as a wound.

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I know that I have colleagues on this call that work deeply in theologies of trauma and operating out of that framework. So we can, we can share this, but that's, that's my little definition orientation to this time.

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I would add to that my own work in liminality studies absolutely interfaces with all of this. There is a way in which crisis is a precipitating event. Trauma, you know, keeps us in this in between time rather

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than a full passage as we move through the stages of liminality. I do want to mention that I know that my thinking about this is absolutely formed in many ways, but very much because I'm white. And so much of what I say could be towards congregations that are white

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because they're, they're, we could say that there have been ways where because of privileges, we've, we have not endured the level and amount of crises and, and continuing wounds. So that's, that's a dynamic here, right?

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That's a dynamic to name. So I think some of our contexts when there is a, that's my timer telling me to stop, but I'm going to keep going a little bit. So, you know, our, so for some of us, especially thinking about pastors in a

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congregation, in a white congregation, it, it might be more new for us to deal with things collectively, not brand new. But I'm just, I think that's a dynamic. I really do.

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So for instance, this coming fall, Stephanie, this is this is also for you. The students in the worship committee choose the fall preaching theme. And there was a discussion around for such a time as this and a word of grace. And when we talked about it, the the the the discussion around for

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such a time of this, not from a student was a we need to name everything that's so difficult that's going on right now. And a student who's a woman of color said, some of us are so weary. Can we hear a word of grace?

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OK, So the the theme is grace for such a time as this or a word of grace for such a time as this. Yeah. So you can see, I mean that and you know, foreshadowing this feeds into how we talk

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about preaching in times of crisis because where, where do we lean? You know, do we lean too much towards a happy easy answer of grace? We don't want that.

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Do we stay too much in the trauma and the crisis? Well, homoliticians will say that, yeah, we need to do a little bit more of that. And it's really difficult to live in that tension. So it's interesting that I would say our students on the worship committee this

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year for next fall picked a theme that's trying to keep that tension. Yeah. So for both of those, anyway, that's a way of talking about race and other markers are, are part of this.

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So we'll see where we get. But I am, you know, I'm, I'm a liturgical theologian. And so everything is, you know, related to liturgy for me. And how can all of you that are preachers and pastoral leaders think about what you

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already have in place for Sunday worship, for other for other worship services that can be a container for times of crisis? Can you do kind of a diagnosis of what's there? Can you begin to add practices that might be helpful to have in place ahead of time?

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And then how can you be thinking about what you already have in place with, with that attention so that when crisis comes again, you can start to connect those dots in your preaching and in your worship leadership?

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So I reached out for this webinar. I reached out to my friend and colleague, yaddled Assorto, and asked him to participate. Let me see if I get this story right.

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Yaddled this past June, June 3rd I think it was. I think it was a parishioner that came running to find you at your church and say, pastor, there are military tanks that have entered the neighborhood.

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Yeah. And. And in hours afterward, I received a video recording ATF ICE Minneapolis police on the scene.

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Yet Old and one of his other Lutheran pastor colleagues were there with the sheriff or someone. Yeah, trying to talk. So that stayed in my mind.

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I reached out to Yetold. I said, would you do this webinar with me? He's a Lutheran. He's an ELCA Lutheran.

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He does Word and Sacrament every Sunday. What? What does that mean in times of crisis? I know that he prepared special services during these months.

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What does that mean in times of crisis? And I know that he's been working closely with an area rabbi for interfaith services. And what was what was his thinking and process behind that?

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So for all these reasons and even more, I, I, I welcome you to speak and look forward to your, your heart and your wisdom and your sharing. Thank you, Gerald.

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No, Jen, thank you. Thank you for this invitation. And what A to be back in space with Austin Seminary, a special space for me that has truly shaped who I am in my ministry.

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So grateful for this opportunity. When Jen invited me to be a part of this, I said yes right away because when Jen asks something of me, I usually quickly say yes. And I found myself wanting to frame our time with story instead of just going

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through the theoretical because in this community, the community that I deserve don't stop. What was that? It was my timer, but I said don't stop.

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So I when I thought about what goes in my go bag, three things are what frame this time with you today. One is context, the second is courage, and the third is yes. And I'll share snippets as to why those are my go TOS in preparing both ahead of

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time and during crises. Which as someone that is situated in Minneapolis in the heart of an area of the city that where there was constant, constant force from the federal government during several months, we, our lives were shifting quickly and our

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lives are now very different in terms of how we move in our communities. So I'll start with contexts and through that move into courage and then yes. And then in between, I think both those movements, Jen, you can ask me questions so that it's not just me speaking for 20 minutes.

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So as you heard, I started in 2021 to serve here in Minneapolis as pastor of San Pablo Saint Paul's Lutheran Church, a community that has been here for 139 years. And this church has stood as a steadfast anchor in the Midtown Phillips

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neighborhood, which is one of the most diverse ZIP codes in the city of Minneapolis. Our congregation is situated between two map mosques within blocks from one another.

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And there are over 20 some languages that are spoken in this zip code. We were founded by Swedish immigrants, so that through line of having an identity of immigrant and an identity of people that are in a different place and now are calling this place home has been a constant through line for who we are.

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We've always been a community that has danced between 2 languages. First it was Swedish, English, then English, sometimes Swedish, now it's Spanish and English. And our stories over those 139 years weave together language, migration,

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and the bittersweet feeling of holding 2 homelands, the one that we left behind and the one that we are invited to embrace here in Minneapolis. And that context is really important for how we then think about the ways that we

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gather as a community here at San Pablo today, our community is led by a majority Latin immigrant population. Our building, our space is this vibrant hub that serves as an anchor in the Midtown neighborhood.

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You'll find and some days the creative energy of Mayday puppeteers. Mayday is a day long festival that celebrates the beginning of spring, but also celebrates life and the possibility that rises. And we just celebrated our Mayday Parade this past Sunday.

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And for that gathering, we actually didn't have a formal serve Sunday service. We sang a song, and then we adapted. And our marching in the parade was our worship.

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For many years, I had tried to adapt worship to fit Mayday, but to also fit sort of the bounds of what I thought we needed to do, right? We needed to gather for 45 minutes for it to count.

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And this is the first year after five years of being here where I was like, let's try something else. But there was trust in our community that allowed for that pivot to happen. And then there was a connection that the community had,

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having seen the Mayday puppeteers throughout the building during the week. Had that not happened, I'm not sure how easily we could have made that pivot into the parade. We also host a Spanish speaking a a group and of free clinic that is completely run

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by volunteers from the University of Minnesota. And we're also the host for the Semia Center for Healing and the hearts, a very flourishing space for creativity and restoration. So in 2025, June 3rd happened.

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The community started prior to that, actually June 2020 or January of 2025, started having conversations of how do we anticipate what we see is coming, particularly as an immigrant community, given what we were hearing around sanctuary and the ways that the federal government might not or would not respect

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sensitive locations, including hospitals and schools. And so we were really clear that in spite of what the government might say and how they saw sanctuary, that we were going to remain committed to being sanctuary, whether or not it was respected.

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And so for our community, sanctuary meant being a place of healing, a place where anyone that comes through our building, whether that's during the week or on Sunday, can feel safety and a sense of belonging.

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And so we set up contingency plans. And that spring, we started this monthly well-being session led by Spanish speaking practitioners using acupuncture and Reiki and cupping.

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And then we expanded that and offered chiropractors and nurse practitioners and neighbors enthusiastic about complementary medicine. And these things all happened within our worship space. And that I say that because that framing for our community meant that we had a

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container to hold these other aspects of people's lives that they were navigating and wanting to get a sense of healing and connection. And so the Wellness sessions followed, the grocery deliveries that we then had to pivot to, to providing mutual aid, to supporting with legal assistance and

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all of these for us, and you see it and all of our leaders, it really showed the role that we play in participating in God's dream for wholeness in a fragmented world. And so how then that worship life is impacted means that for us,

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the maintaining of the Ordo and the liturgy as it stands was sufficient. And in actuality, for our community, during Operation Metro Search, which is the term that we have been using in Minnesota to talk about the first couple of months of the year where we saw thousands and thousands of federal agents

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in our city, the community insisted on worshipping together. And for many around the world and around the country, communities like ours were seen as communities that were living in fear and

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hiding. And in this community, our numbers remain consistently the same or even higher for worship on Sunday morning. And that was no easy feat to do.

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It required a number of coordinated transportation efforts. And people found themselves saying it's worth the risk to worship together because by gathering together it is our way of resisting. And that resistance was enough to then hold us when we gathered on Sunday

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morning. And so the primary impulsive, maintaining the ordo rather than altering it or adding things to it, really was due to impart to all the work that our context was in and doing over the last couple of years.

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Had we not had that work ahead of time, I think it would have been much more difficult to navigate worship because you would have not had the spaces for your community to process what they were experiencing, to sit through the grief and the crises that they were living.

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But because of that context, worship took on a very powerful form by remaining the same. And that sounds, when I say that out loud, may sound controversial, but I think it's also the context of a community that is predominantly Latina,

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an immigrant, right? They're longing for communion. They want communion every Sunday. And if there's no communion, they're like, we didn't have church, right?

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So, and they're getting to a place where preaching is just as important. But if you notice the trajectory of when they arrive on Sunday morning, they seem to time it just in time to be there for the moment of the great

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Thanksgiving. But we're working through it. So our our first priority should be the community that one serves, allowing the community to guide inside the shaping of Camino life.

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And while we might urge quickly to adapt on a Sunday, it's important in my mind to remain faithful to the fullness of the Ordo and to which it already encompasses. And Jen and I spoke about this a few weeks ago, maybe last week.

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It already encompasses both death and life, suffering and lament, as well as joy and hope in the promise of resurrection. And so I've seen that lived out in this community in really powerful ways. And so I stand by our decision to keep most of the things that we did on Sunday

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the same without adding to it. So I'll pause there and see if, Jen, there's anything that comes to mind in terms of a question or curiosity. And then I'll transition to the second item in my go bag.

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OK, Thank you. Thank you. That was wonderful. Thank you.

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I I, I was imagining this time and I was thinking, oh, it'll be, I think so many people will want to hear the story of the streets, right? The story of what was happening.

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And here I am asking to keep it. I mean, it's it, it's never self-contained. We know that. But you just did a beautiful job of giving us inside, outside,

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inside of the quote building. So thank you for that. I do have a a couple questions. Some of the some of the books that talk about preaching and trauma and preaching

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in times of crisis will position the preacher to address beyond their community or, or think that way. So it, it, you caught me at the end when you were underscoring again preaching for the community.

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And I just I wondered if you could reflect on that. And for everybody on the call, I should let you know that that for for months and months yet old has been interviewed, has had his photo taken. He's in religious news services, he's in the New York Times,

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He goes before the council, the government council in Minneapolis. He doesn't necessarily try to do all this, but he keeps getting tapped for it because as you can see, he's very articulate. And and so you but, but I'm mentioning all of that because

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you you have been put into the spotlight at a very public large, you know, out there way. And yet here you just talk to us about the focus on your community. Can you just say a little bit more about how you parsed all of that in your

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preacher's heart? Parse out the focus on my community and my preacher's heart? I mean, they are my guiding light. I'm not preaching for the the media clips or I'm not preaching for the politician.

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I'm preaching for the community that I've been called by to serve. And that does frame how I approach Sunday it. It's a bilingual community. It's a bilingual community that when we talk, I mean,

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a lot of what we're hearing nationally around Christian nationalism and fascism, all of those pieces impact us, but they don't translate in the same way. And so for me as the preacher to go into this community using that as a frame of reference and using language that I may see much more visibly in progressive

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white churches, it won't land, right. People here want to hear the good news that speaks to their daily lives, right? The lives that they are navigating as parents, as siblings, as neighbor, as Co worker.

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And if I lose sight of that, then I'm just preaching to the wall and maybe to my ego. And so in in my work, I'm listening to the stories that I hear throughout the week.

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Those moments of pastoral care, the the laments that people are carrying the grief, but also try to find those joyful moments. And this is a community that has been defiantly, defiantly joyful and has insisted in joy as a frame of reference to for how we

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live together as one. And so that's, that's, that's my guiding light. And they called me to be their pastor. And that's why I'm the reverend, because of that call.

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Thank you. Well, I could go on, but I won't because I want to move on to your to your second. So let's do it a little bit around courage.

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And this, this is a well, I'll just share and then kind of go weave in a few things in and out. So the Sunday after Renee Macklin Goode was killed, we did do one thing that may not have been part of a Sunday gathering.

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And the reason I did that was I knew that our community was holding a lot in those short days that had started coming up, both visibly. They were seeing just thousands of officers. They saw a life murdered, taken.

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And I wanted us to feel anchored in our neighborhood. I wanted us to remember that we have neighbors here that have been here for quite some time that are committed to making sure that we as a community are safe.

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And so I invited a friend, Jose Luis, who just offered a few words, a few words. And the words that he offered, which is the mantra that has stayed with me, is I am brave because we are brave. I am brave because we are brave.

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And I could have said that in other ways. I could have used songs to express that. But I noticed how having someone from outside of the daily, the Sunday worshipping community, come in and remind us of that bravery was

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what was needed. And it didn't shift how we moved through the service on that Sunday, but it became our mantra. And it became our mantra because it, for me personally,

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it helped me pay attention to the ways that we as a community incited hope in each other and how our hope revealed our heart. And so I am brave because we are brave. You know, we witness convoys throughout the city.

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We heard the shriek of whistles right outside of our church constantly cut through the air that provoked us to join signal groups. If you you don't know signal you will, I'm sure to patrolling the streets. And for me, the willingness of this community to show

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up for each other to show up and worship to be there together. While many in our community were not able to actually be out in the streets in the same way that we witnessed as a country their their ways of moving quietly was just as powerful, right.

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And that's what helped me continue to feel courageous, Courageous on Sunday morning, courageous during the week. There's this one moment in our time where every year we have bosavas where we gather and worship with each other.

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And I'll say this for many folks looking into our community, we did encounter many times where people questioned our choice to gather, where people questioned our choice to maintain worship life as as it has been right to maintain the moments in our liturgical calendar that are meaningful

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to our community. But we did. And so we gathered and throughout the posadas, we process throughout our neighborhood on cold December nights,

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and it gets cold here in Minnesota. And we could have chosen to not have done one of our largest posadas in this tradition that reenacts the Holy Family search for shelter in Bethlehem. But the community said no, we would not be silenced.

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And their courage inspired hundreds of people from many of our other partner congregations to show up and to be in our neighborhood and to join in that last procession right before Christmas. And for us to be able to do that, we didn't change anything.

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We just insisted on doing what is important for this community and what anchors this community. I also think about the ways that mutual aid impacts the way we gather on Sunday. Why?

00:32:39.480 - 00:32:54.250

Because when we talk about what it means to serve neighbor, when we talk about standing alongside others, when we talk about justice, how was that then lived out? And so for our community, retelling the stories of how we've

00:32:54.250 - 00:33:06.360

actually lived out, what we hear in the good news on Sunday morning has been really important. There's this really powerful story that was done about our community's efforts with a 12 year old child.

00:33:06.360 - 00:33:27.320

I think, Jen, you may have read that on NPR and the Child, we used just the letter E, And she had her first period in January at the height of the surge and during a time where many, many were home. Her and her siblings had not been going to school out of fear of ice.

00:33:27.360 - 00:33:45.280

And so there was a phone call from her dad that then went to our community and it activated this whole network of people, five people to be exact, who coordinated delivering menstrual pads to E in her apartment for her first period.

00:33:45.920 - 00:34:00.440

And one of our leaders later remarked, we are made of strong material. Even if we are drowning, we will find a way to stay afloat and get to the shore. So I am brave because we are brave.

00:34:00.760 - 00:34:22.250

So hope reveals our hearts, but courage calls us to be who God made us to be. And so that framing for us on Sunday morning for worship and preaching is what then allows us to maintain the order and not move away or try to add more because

00:34:22.250 - 00:34:40.680

we realize we're doing so much so, so very much. And so that was a helpful reminder for me and our community. And so the yes that we risk with going to worship on Sundays, the yes that we say when we do things for each other, that was really important.

00:34:40.680 - 00:34:50.960

And they took courage. It took that bravery of this community to be able to do that. So that was item number 2, Courage. Thank you.

00:34:51.600 - 00:35:19.540

All right, Well, goodness, the word courage isn't always used explicitly in a prayer and not always in a song or a hymn. So what's what's happening liturgically that might form people to be courageous? There is a there is a prayer of good courage that is a a staple at a Holden

00:35:19.540 - 00:35:37.660

village that we all know very well. So there's one. So for for a long time, this community was very passive in how they engage in worship, meaning their Catholic upbringing shaped

00:35:37.660 - 00:35:58.360

how they then perceived my role and perceive the role of the altar. And so the Sunday after Renee was murdered, we for the first time had a prayer station and offered candles for people to light, which actually for many was very familiar.

00:35:59.040 - 00:36:18.680

But often times whenever there's an invitation for people to move in the sanctuary to come up, there's there's a lot of hesitation. So I would say that the courage that we invited people into was the courage to light a candle, to say a prayer out loud, because it's not their usual.

00:36:19.040 - 00:36:38.750

And so there are songs that we may not have found in a hymnal that are also songs about courage that people bring from their own tradition in Latin America. And so that was attempted. But the other thing that this moment did for us in Minnesota is we had singing

00:36:38.750 - 00:36:50.460

resistance, right where large groups of people walked through the streets, walked through neighborhoods, singing songs. And we actually, in fact, this building hosted the first singing

00:36:50.460 - 00:37:06.160

resistance gathering where we had over 200 plus people in this space training and then walking through the neighborhood and singing. What we did was we started paying attention, like, is there a song that people are now hearing on the streets that could be a

00:37:06.160 - 00:37:19.680

song that we then sing as part of our worship gathering? And so we did, which I'll talk about in the third part because it comes up with this interfaith piece that we did. Well, well, thank you.

00:37:19.760 - 00:37:34.000

I, I should, I should say for everyone on the call, I was, I was leaning into that because as a, as a liturgy person, I am very interested in how what we do in worship forms our actions in everyday life.

00:37:34.280 - 00:37:51.160

So that was me a little bit tongue in cheek saying, well, gosh, we don't always have this, you know, courage explicitly. How might how might worship, how might Sunday worship be supporting and forming people courageously.

00:37:51.160 - 00:38:06.480

So yes, there are some absolutely. The Holden, Holden village prayer for courage and explicit example of that and songs and hymns. But thank you for expanding on that because you you knew what I was.

00:38:07.360 - 00:38:11.720

Yeah. That that flow, that flow back and forth. What? Yeah.

00:38:11.720 - 00:38:25.000

What we're what those of us that have oversight for preparing, creating worship materials, making selections, whether solo or with a partner or with a committee. You know, these are powerful things, right?

00:38:25.000 - 00:38:34.960

That that shape people. So I was asking that question to get at that. All right, let's hear your your number three. You're affirming our bold yes or joy.

00:38:35.720 - 00:38:52.780

So I'll, I'll start with sort of I've said I've retold the story so many Times Now, it feels like it happened many, many years ago, but it really only happened this year. And so Jen mentioned Mayday Cafe, which is a long standing worker owned

00:38:52.780 - 00:39:14.700

Co-op coffee shop in the South Minneapolis neighborhood about a half a mile from where Renee Goode was murdered. And I happen to have been at Mayday that morning that Renee was killed. And that was the morning that Rabbi Adeel and I were exploring the possibilities of

00:39:14.700 - 00:39:28.160

both Chertikva and San Pablo to get to know one another. That was the basis of our conversation and our curiosity. And we asked her question, what if we brought our communities together for song and prayer?

00:39:28.960 - 00:39:45.960

That was that was the underlying question and our dreaming. It wasn't driven by our commitment to interfaith understanding. Actually, we were both in that conversation saying we we don't want to water down our traditions and we don't want to feel that

00:39:45.960 - 00:40:03.910

we have to be apologetic about who we are and how we're rooted in who we are and in our sacred texts. But we had this mutual feeling that this moment was calling for us to have more imagination, more connection, and more fierce creativity and as Rabbi

00:40:03.910 - 00:40:17.840

Abdi Al Husse and more chutzpah. So we needed to practice how to get from here to there, making our way through together. And what emerged was this idea to remix 2 minor holidays in our traditions.

00:40:18.240 - 00:40:33.460

Tubus Tubusvat. And Candle Mass or Candelaria as we talk about it here in our community, bringing our people together for song, ritual and feasting. And just in case that you're curious about this,

00:40:33.460 - 00:40:46.640

there is nothing obvious that would bring these two holidays together besides their proximity in the calendar. One this year was on February 1st. The Laria is on the evening of the first, the 2nd of February.

00:40:46.960 - 00:41:02.640

And so because we both turned to our traditions to ask them to reveal new treasure for us in terrible, terrible times, and because we had been excited about more opportunities for our communities to come together, we decided to lean in and be surprised.

00:41:03.360 - 00:41:20.140

And be surprised was truly this was a surprise. But we trusted our communities to travel with us again, the context of where we found ourselves in. So what the weekend of our ritual remix is the term that we've been using 25

00:41:20.140 - 00:41:32.170

members of San Pablo. So remember the context. 25 members, mostly Latin immigrant folks living through a really terrible time in the city of Minneapolis,

00:41:32.170 - 00:41:45.360

join Shiratikva for Shabbat services. And so for several people, I think for most of them, it was their first time worshipping in a synagogue. They had never, They were like, what?

00:41:45.680 - 00:41:55.000

And then in Hebrew here in Hebrew sun. I mean, it was, it was a really powerful experience, but I think for some it was a little jolting to be there and be like, what am I doing?

00:41:55.480 - 00:42:07.940

And so, but they let the Hebrew chants of the Shabbat service just wash over them. And when it was time to sing Cambia, Tolo Cambia, which is our anchor song that I would say for that weekend,

00:42:07.940 - 00:42:24.080

they joined the congregation with strong voices. And it's a song that it's in Spanish. It was popularized in Latin America, meaning change, everything changes. And Tolo Cambia, as I said, sustained many in Latin America.

00:42:24.920 - 00:42:41.280

And like the song of the sea, it's not a song of a rival, but a song of becoming, reminding us that liberation of unfolds in motion and that we are shaped by the journey itself. And so that was really beautiful to start witnessing that change.

00:42:41.480 - 00:42:55.720

That was asking something profound of us to stay awake, to stay connected, and to keep singing together as the world was transforming around us. And then on Sunday, so we had that experience, powerful experience.

00:42:56.120 - 00:43:12.960

Sunday, February 1st, the sanctuary at San Pablo filled with neighbors, over 100 some neighbors and worshippers gathered and from both congregations. And that evening we proclaim there is wisdom in sharing with each other and

00:43:12.960 - 00:43:30.290

showing up with each other that will carry us through. And we have within us a spark that will transform this spoken moment. And sharing that spark with each other, the strength of that light grows. So moving through the Tubershot Seder, inspired by the figure of Simeon in at

00:43:30.290 - 00:43:48.780

the heart of the Candelaria Gospel, which is the story that we read, we watch together as that spark catch flame and dance in the candles that people held in an act of solidarity and blessing. And I'll make a note, the candles were all donated by our local

00:43:48.780 - 00:44:03.960

store, Inger Britain's, which has been around for over 100 years. So there were Swedish candles, we had over 150 of them donated for this particular service. A good way to maintain partnerships with your local neighbors.

00:44:03.960 - 00:44:23.770

And it was my attempt to get Ingerbertson's hooked and interested in our community because it's one of my favorite places to go to go and visit throughout the week. I was going to go in another direction, but you can no sorry,

00:44:23.770 - 00:44:45.880

I lost my train of thought because I talked about Inger Britson's Anyway there I I also I'll I know what direction I wanted to go because I the the fact that we were able to do this gathering together as a community informed then what it would happen a few months later, not a few months later.

00:44:45.920 - 00:45:02.720

Actually, everything feels longer than it is. Our community found itself under the looming threat of surveillance during our Ash Wednesday service. So for contacts a few days before we were starting to see a heightened presence of

00:45:02.720 - 00:45:25.840

surveillance occurring around our property. I had to transition to having a security detail that's for another day, in terms of a conversation where for 22 days I did not drive or walk alone. And for a brief moment it dawned on me perhaps we might have to cancel our Ash

00:45:25.840 - 00:45:42.510

Wednesday service. I'd never thought that I would consider that, but I did, just given everything that was happening, crises that was happening around us. But had we not done some of the work prior to that Ash Wednesday,

00:45:42.510 - 00:45:58.000

including being in relationship with this community, I don't know that I would have seen it as possible to gather together. But our leaders, they had witnessed what it was to be connected and be joined in solidarity by others.

00:45:58.000 - 00:46:11.480

And so they said, no, we're going to gather and we're going to be here on Ash Wednesday. And so throughout the day, that day leading up to our Ash Wednesday service, I had colleagues, different Lutheran colleagues,

00:46:11.480 - 00:46:27.910

they would wrote, they rotated and they would work from my office so that there were other people in the building that could continue to help us feel safe. And then Rabbi Ariel organized a group of local neighbors to serve as observers

00:46:27.910 - 00:46:43.640

around the congregation and then also reached out 30 reached out earlier in the day. And 30 minutes before the service, this large group from Singing Resistance showed up to lead songs outside of the sanctuary as another layer of solidarity

00:46:43.640 - 00:47:02.350

and protection. And that day, Ash Wednesday, it was snowing, it was cold. And while that was happening, though, it the kind of support that a community showed us anchored once again this community of San Pablo in understanding

00:47:02.350 - 00:47:15.960

the importance of gathering for worship. And so we weren't being protected by armed people. We were protected by song. And for 30 minutes, people entered the sanctuary and we had

00:47:15.960 - 00:47:30.400

our Ash Wednesday service. And all in part, I would say, because of some of the work that we had started to do to be in relationship with Shritikva and others in the community that then allowed us to do what we were able to do on Ash Wednesday.

00:47:30.400 - 00:47:44.520

And actually, Rabbi Ariel and a few other members of Shratikvah showed up on on that Ash Wednesday because they had never been to an Ash Wednesday service. They did leave right before the imposition of ashes.

00:47:44.840 - 00:47:57.360

They didn't want to take a chance. And that that for me still stands as a really powerful moment in these last couple of months. I'll close that past.

00:47:58.520 - 00:48:11.160

Rabbi Adiel delivered our Easter sermon here at San Pablo. And that was only possible because of some of this other work that I've spoken about. So that's what our interfaith work has looked like.

00:48:11.880 - 00:48:27.840

And it's, it's truly a gift to be able to play together and to continue to think about ways that we can be community together and stay true to our particular traditions while we're at it. Oh my goodness, thank you, thank you, thank you.

00:48:28.360 - 00:48:43.660

And I am selfishly so glad that we have this recorded. Thank you, Yerald, I know, I know you, you made selections of which parts of of the story and, and the experiences to tell. But thank you, thank you in all that you do for all that

00:48:43.660 - 00:48:51.760

you do and for bringing all that here right now. And I, I wanted to give you the abundance of time. So, So thank you.

00:48:53.560 - 00:48:56.480

Yeah. So, yeah. So here I'll just. Yeah.

00:48:56.680 - 00:49:14.320

I mean, we're, we're holding this and Yarold and I, when we were talking, I was reminding you about the preacher, Nora Tubbs Tisdale and her and her her preaching book, Preaching as local theology and folk art.

00:49:14.680 - 00:49:30.660

And somewhere in that book, she's quoting someone who I think says something pithy and helpful that that all the time preachers were thinking about these three dynamics. And, and absolutely in times of crisis and

00:49:30.660 - 00:49:51.730

trauma, that that everyone is like everyone else and some people are like some other people and everyone is unique. And all three of those are going on all the time at the same time. So there's a way in which you, you just brought to us your, your context,

00:49:51.730 - 00:50:10.720

which a lot of us watched unfold, social media news feeds, being in touch with, with loved ones there on the ground. And, and, and there's a way in which even on this webinar, we're relating to it in those in those

00:50:10.720 - 00:50:24.320

you know, well, well, we're people. So we might be able to imagine into and yet we're not all there as part of San Pablo and we're all individual. That's that's all going on for us.

00:50:24.320 - 00:50:44.150

And that goes on with the larger the larger way that we talk about preaching and worship in times of of crisis trauma. So thank you for bringing us this particularity. And I think what I'm trying to say is let this particularity also teach us beyond

00:50:44.150 - 00:51:05.920

its particularity. Yeah, yeah, because they're absolutely, absolutely we can. We can grow and yeah, be instructed and know that we too are are in community and learn with your community.

00:51:05.920 - 00:51:11.400

So thank you. Thank you. I made a handout. Sean can share it.

00:51:11.720 - 00:51:26.670

We're not gonna there's there's not time to go through it. But you've got my little blips and thoughts there. Those of you that know me well, you'll you'll recognize things. It's it's, it's, you know, it's me talking about come on,

00:51:26.670 - 00:51:41.280

stand strong in Word and sacrament and and let it be Paschal mystery, which is always going to hold death and life. And we live in a time that is episodic and fragmented. And how do we keep setting out?

00:51:41.720 - 00:51:58.330

We have an alpha, we have an Omega. Not in a way that shuts down because one of the things that crisis and trauma does is is upend us and we have trouble making those connections. So we don't want to we don't want to impose in a way that shuts down,

00:51:58.330 - 00:52:14.420

but in a way that, you know, if if we we keep setting this out in in worship and on our preaching yet old and I using that word of container that can hold and we can ebb and flow as we need from that. So, so you've got my words and you've got

00:52:14.420 - 00:52:31.770

some book suggestions and, and you all know that you can reach out to me by, by I'm fashioned by e-mail and, and follow up with questions. So there's that. But but I think, Sean, that we should probably turn to a time of,

00:52:31.770 - 00:52:44.160

of questions conversation and I'll share by e-mail in the chat. If folks have questions or whatever, reach out. Happy to that would be wonderful. Thank you all both so very much.

00:52:44.200 - 00:52:57.200

I think for a wonderful conversation, interactions and especially, yeah, I think as Jen mentioned with the realities of what happened with Can't Mystic here in Austin or in Texas rather. And then the same thing that's happening in Minneapolis.

00:52:57.200 - 00:53:07.640

Just as sisters and brothers and friends and siblings both locally and nationwide think you'll be able to hear the work that God is doing, the protection that's in place, but also the painful things that are happening as well.

00:53:07.640 - 00:53:18.720

Thank you for allowing us to entrance that space and really have a fishbowl experience just to listen and observe. We have got 5 minutes left. I'm going to say probably 4 minutes and 30 seconds.

00:53:18.720 - 00:53:30.480

So if you've got a burning question, would love to be able to have you drop that in the chat. If you are feeling courageous and can be brief and amazing, then I would ask you to come off mute and ask your question.

00:53:30.800 - 00:53:40.720

If not, go ahead and drop it in the chat. If you wouldn't mind if you've got a little time for Q& A before we are done? I think, Pastor, I probably want to ask a question just to

00:53:40.720 - 00:53:51.480

kind of get us started. One thing that has been Seminole for me is both for my own soul and for my parishioners is to be able to tell them that history doesn't repeat, but it does rhyme.

00:53:51.840 - 00:54:04.640

And so as you kind of seen these traumas that are happening nationwide and globally, to be able to say, how do we look back and see how different generations have responded in times of crises that we're not approaching any of these conversations with a blank slate.

00:54:04.640 - 00:54:17.670

And there's been trauma that's happened in all of our communities and all of our contexts across time, sexual orientations, etcetera. Talk to us about that. Have there been any practices either from Indigenous or Latin X or Asian or white

00:54:17.670 - 00:54:29.510

communities or Black communities, any type of communities that have practiced both? I think liberation lament, but also courageous leadership in times of crisis like this that have been helpful for your influential or resources

00:54:29.510 - 00:54:38.000

that we can point for point people to as they're having to pass to their Congress aggregations during this time. And if you've got a question, drop that in the chat, please. Sure.

00:54:42.120 - 00:55:01.880

You know, for for many in our community, they have lived what we've lived here in Minnesota prior to being in Minnesota. And so that in itself has informed how they move through this moment. The shocking part of it though, is that it wasn't expected, right?

00:55:01.880 - 00:55:17.620

It wasn't expected to happen here too. And so when I, when I think about what are the things that draw our community in into their fullness, is this clarity that they have that they're not going to be leading from

00:55:17.620 - 00:55:36.240

their place of vulnerability or trauma or fear actually that they're going to be leading from the wisdom of their antipasados or their ancestors. And so that that is as simple as their grandmother's wisdom that has been passed on to them that they then pass on to their children.

00:55:36.920 - 00:55:51.020

And you might not find that in a book, but you do find that in the stories that they share with one another. And so I've seen a lot of that retelling of the wisdom of their grandmother's present, especially during these last couple of

00:55:51.020 - 00:55:57.560

months. Yeah, that's an excellent point. There's an old Navajo proverb that says we trust our memory more than your history.

00:55:57.640 - 00:56:10.870

And it is that complete understanding of it's an oral recounting from ancestors and that generational wisdom that's been passed down that's not written but definitely can be oral. And it's some ways we're finding out now because of psychologists in the body Keep

00:56:10.870 - 00:56:16.560

score. Some of those things are in our genes as well, too. There's some instincts that we can draw from. That's an excellent point.

00:56:16.880 - 00:56:31.350

Any questions from anyone before we get ready to write? Oh, go forward, please. I was just going to offer if folks have not read bio Akumolafe, A Nigerian intellectual, there's a a small book of collect of a

00:56:31.350 - 00:56:48.400

collection of his writings called Salah. It's a really powerful read and one that I have leaned into during this time. And so I would I can put it in the chat too, so that people have it. That would be wonderful.

00:56:48.400 - 00:56:56.120

That would be wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. I'll, I'll reach back and add also because I,

00:56:56.120 - 00:57:15.520

I forgot to add this to my list, but one, one practice speaking, speaking to a lot of Protestants where this has dropped out is to reinvigorate a practice of reading the lives of the Saints and martyrs. And there are so many different publications.

00:57:15.520 - 00:57:24.360

You, you, you know, you can pick up ones that are like the ones that are officially in the Roman Catholic Church or in the Eastern Orthodox Church. And you can go beyond that.

00:57:25.160 - 00:57:44.160

But but I know people that have a daily practice of not only their their own prayers of petition and reading the Psalms, but also reading a St. or martyr of the day, because that gets us that that's also a trans historical right and and global.

00:57:46.280 - 00:57:57.400

Yeah, and yeah, we're we're we're not the ones just in this moment or in this nation or yeah that have endured. That is outstanding. That's outstanding.

00:57:57.400 - 00:58:07.560

We are right at time. So don't my laugh, my words to be the final words. I'd love to be able to give it back to both of our speakers. If there's a parting Pearl of wisdom you want to be able to give as we wrap up our

00:58:07.560 - 00:58:21.280

time and conclude this last cultivating ideas for the academic year. So anything that you want to say, Gerald? Practice joy. Practice joy to prepare for crises.

00:58:21.720 - 00:58:26.080

Yes, go ahead. No, you there, you there. You did it. OK.

00:58:26.120 - 00:58:33.480

OK. Well, yeah, because you said that. And so, you know, you all know this year I've been again, keeping time with the Eastern Orthodox.

00:58:33.760 - 00:58:52.080

And so technically yesterday is called Mid Feast. So it's, it's the 25th day into the 50 days of the Pasch and, and in their lectionary system, it's the Samaritan woman at the well. So today or yesterday's the big blessing of gardens with water that's blessed.

00:58:52.360 - 00:59:06.300

And so this explosion of joy that recognizes God made everything for dignity and beauty and harmony. And yeah. And so the blessing of gardens and the and the blessing of plants and flowers

00:59:06.300 - 00:59:24.960

and the blessing of each one of us and Christ as as the the living water fill and bless each one of us. God shelter us and strengthen us, giving us what we need with each other in community to walk on, to journey on.

00:59:25.160 - 00:59:34.320

God make it so. Amen, Amen. What a wonderful closing benediction both to this lecture and to this lecture series for this academic year.

00:59:34.320 - 00:59:43.800

Thank you all so much for joining us. Thank you Doctor Lord, and to pastor year old for being able to come and to share your experience, strength and hope with us. We hope it's been a joy and a privilege both.

00:59:43.800 - 00:59:54.520

Now for those who are here present with us in real time and those that will be watching this down the road, thank you all so very much. Take care of God bless, and we will see you next semester in the fall for cultivating ideas.