Dear Rocky Mountain Conference,
The day before Thanksgiving, the series Stranger Things dropped the first four episodes of its fifth and final season. I don’t know if this is your kind of show—one could probably question my parenting decisions for letting my 13-year-old daughter watch it with one of her best friends—but it’s been all the rage in my household. They were so excited about it they had a Stranger Things party and spent two days of their holiday break decorating in preparation. Knowing Abby was this excited, I spent the fall rewatching the first four seasons just to be able to join in the chatter. And I have to say, I kind of get why this sci-fi, horror, gore, 80’s teenage-drama-comedy mishmash about a group of kids saving the world from monsters has struck a chord.
The monsters want them to believe they are weak. That they are easily breakable. That they have no power in the face of evil. As it turns out, this oddly matched group of misfits discovers that their friendship gives them strength they didn’t know they had. Their connection to one another proves to be more powerful than they could have imagined.
The powers and principalities in our world want us to believe the same thing. They want us to be paralyzed by fear, to retreat in isolation, to be divided by our differences, to believe we have no power.
As I was writing this article, I got an email from Tracy Hughes, who sent me the latest newsletter from the Minnesota Conference, in which their new Conference Minister, Rev. Dr. Tonya Sadagopan, writes: “The MN Conference UCC denounces the use of and threat to use federal agents—including ICE personnel—to harass, detain, attack, or malign our Somali neighbors, friends, ministry partners, and new residents. The 35th General Synod of the UCC, in an emergency resolution passed this year, calls on us as the church to stand firm in our commitment to love our neighbors, welcome immigrants in our communities, and protect and advocate for them against this current threat from within. Further, we must have the courage to stand in our faith and our baptism to call this present evil what it is: domestic terrorism.”
I find courage and strength in the witness of our siblings in the Minnesota Conference.
And I find courage and strength in so many of you.
Each week, I hear another story of how RMC congregations are living out their baptismal vows—following in the way of our Savior, resisting oppression and evil, showing love and justice, and witnessing to the work and word of Jesus as best they are able.
Whether it is giving out gun safes at the Veteran’s Day Parade,
or piloting a Recovery Café to support addiction and mental-health recovery,
or preaching eight weeks on the Book of Amos to unpack the devastation in which we find ourselves,
or giving away hundreds of turkeys to families on Thanksgiving,
or opening your church as a warming center,
or providing land for affordable housing,
or hosting a Friendsgiving at your church for 30 people from six different countries,
or collaborating with partners to host a Repair Café to help keep items out of landfills,
or welcoming the spiritually curious into worship—
I could go on.
However small the action, however powerless we may feel, there is strength to be found in our connection and covenant with one another.
In a world that insists we are weak and divided, our shared witness reminds me again and again that love, practiced together, is the greatest power we have to best that which seems impossible to overcome.
Rev. Erin Gilmore, Transitional Conference Minister, Rocky Mountain Conference
