Dearly Beloved,
What a beautiful Holy Week we had! I especially want to thank Nicoletta Glantz, our music minister, for all her work preparing our choir for the Good Friday worship and our Easter cantata and to all of our musicians, readers, Easter sunrise hosts, and other volunteers who made possible our shared journey through Holy Week.
This coming Sunday, we will be worshiping with First Christian Church at their building (2000 N Lincoln Ave). Please be sure to arrive early so that you can enjoy fellowship and Panera (fellowship time will be from 9-10 am before the service). Our very own Diane Levy will be sharing about how she has witnessed God at work in the world.
Yesterday, I had the privilege of attending the Loveland City Council meeting at which two proclamations were read. The first was for Arbor Day. Did you know that for 9 years (I think I'm remembering that correctly), Loveland has been named a USA Tree City? That's certainly something to take pride in.
The second proclamation was to mark May as a month to raise awareness about murdered and missing Indigenous people. I hadn't realized that the murder rate for indigenous women is 10 times higher that of the general population. Or that the rate at which indigenous women experience sexual assault/violence is 3 times that of the general population of women. Often, indigenous women are not recognized as such, mis-identified as white or Latine, and so the statistics end up skewed and missing information.
For me, this is heartbreaking. It is a continuation of the erasure of our indigenous siblings that began with my colonizer ancestors (I can trace my family back to the 1400s here in the United States, so these truly are my ancestors). Our Church Board, leadership teams and we as a congregation continue to discern who needs the good news of God's extravagant welcome, the places in our own communities where harm and erasure happen. I was grateful for the young indigenous man who participated in the City Council meeting and shared two Native American songs: one of grief, and one of gratitude. I was grateful for the centering of his voice. I was grateful for the gift of holding grief and gratitude together, looking together towards hope for a better tomorrow, calling ourselves and each other accountable to cultivating that tomorrow together.
And so, as we remember our missing and murdered indigenous siblings, I also want to share this land acknowledgment from Rocky Mountain Equality, an organization that works to uplift the LGBTQ+ community here on the Front Range of Colorado:
We acknowledge and respect that the land on which we stand is the unneeded territory of the Hinono'ei (Arapaho), Nuuttsiu (Ute) and Tsitsistas (Cheyenne) Nations and is hope to many Native Peoples today. We also recognize the 48 contemporary tribal nations that are historically tied to the lands that make up the state of Colorado.
May we as a congregation continue to discern how to draw the circle wide and wider still. May we open our minds, hearts and community to those around us "who have known the sorrow of exclusion, discrimination, and marginalization by society and the church. [And may] we seek to promote Christ’s compassion, healing, and fullness of life for all people" (excerpt from our Open and Affirming Welcome Statement).
In gratitude, love and hope,
Thandiwe
