Dear friends,
On Sunday night I attended a program at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church on Faith and Democracy. It included a panel of four speakers, some of whom will be familiar to you. Diana Butler Bass, who has spoken at St. Dunstan’s several times, was one of the them. The others were Robert P Jones, the author of The End of White Christian America; Kristen Kobes Du Men, author of Jesus and John Wayne; and Jemar Tisby, author of The Spirit of Justice. In other words, it was a pretty high-powered panel. The topic was the state of our democracy, and the responsibilities we have as Christians to respond to what is going on around us. It was a thought-provoking evening, one that I am still thinking about.
Unfortunately, the acoustics at St. Luke’s are not great, and it was not easy to understand much of what was said. But fortunately, there is a podcast of the evening. The link is below. I encourage you to watch it. I am glad to have the chance to hear the panelists again. The recording is more than two hours long, but that includes music (which was very good). The music begins at 17:40 minutes. The panel begins at 60 minutes. More music follows the panel. Here is the link:
I spent a good portion of Monday on a series of Zoom calls for work I do for the diocese. While on the call I watched out the window as Bruce Lafitte and Elizabeth Wong Mark loaded 58 bags full of ingredients for Thanksgiving side dishes, and then delivered them to Emmaus House. The bags, along with turkeys, will be delivered to people’s homes next Monday, the 25th. Emmaus House can always use help in making those deliveries. They begin at 7 a.m. If you want to help, or need more information, please talk to Bruce.
Our outreach chair Suzanne Johnson has this update on all the good work going on by the congregation.
I am always inspired by the generosity of the people of St. Dunstan’s. In recent weeks we have—
• donated $15,000 and two vans full of items to hurricane victims in Western North Carolina
• donated $10,000 to hurricane relief efforts in Southwest Florida
• surpassed our goal of 50 bags for Emmaus House Thanksgiving at Home
• sponsored a family of 7 children through Solidarity Sandy Springs Christmas
• taken the first steps toward welcoming a refugee family to Atlanta sometime in JanuaryI want you to know more about those first steps and what you can do now.
We are partnering with the Atlanta office of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) to sponsor a refugee family for six months beginning mid-January. We know the family will include children, but we do not know how many are in the family, their names, ages or native land.
We do know they will arrive at the Atlanta airport with virtually no material goods. They must be coming with great courage to leave their home, with strong determination to seek safety and a more hopeful future for their children. As refugees, they were not able to choose what country they would be sent to; they must have fiercely believed that wherever it was, it would be better than where they were.
In early January, we will be collecting goods to equip their home with help from the IRC. Imagine arriving with nothing! Their needs will range from “big items” (beds, bureaus, lamps, kitchen table and chairs, living room furniture) to “small items” (a mop and bucket, clothes hangers, dishes, towels). They may need colder weather clothes.
I want you to know about these needs now in case you have some of these items and might otherwise give them away before January! Hold on to them, if you can. Or if you need to get rid of them before January, call the church or me to arrange for something sooner.
I also invite you to begin to hold these unnamed strangers in your heart. In the months ahead, we will come to know them as friends but for now we just know them as our brothers and sisters who must be scared and hopeful. I trust that our prayers for them will strengthen them on their journey to a new home.
Suzanne Johnson
There are a lot of good things going on at St. Dunstan’s!
With love,
Tricia