Spirit On The Margins

Above left: Lutheran Church of the Reformation church council 

Center: Carol Cushman, City House volunteer spiritual companion

Above right: Violet Johnson, City House participant

Lutheran Church of the Reformation (in St Louis Park) http://www.reformationslp.org/  is exploring ways in which they might do outreach into the community. They asked City House to attend their recent council meeting to talk about a possible partnership.  The church council was very welcoming and hospitable and we were grateful for the opportunity.

Violet wanted the church council to know that the clothes she was wearing were all donated to her - that she had nothing when she came out of prison. She described how difficult it is to find a job with a felony on your record. She said, “If you looked just at my criminal record you wouldn’t understand that there was a lot more to my story.” Violet’s voice cracked with emotion at times as she described the life circumstances that led up to her time in prison. She made it clear that she was accepting responsibility for her actions that landed her there, but it wasn’t hard for me to understand some of her life choices as I listened to her.

Violet was incredibly courageous to make herself so vulnerable in front of a group of strangers. She talked with passion about the role that God has played in her life. She expressed appreciation for the 2 City House volunteer spiritual companions that visit with her, Carol Cushman and Cathy McDonald. Violet beemed with pride when she talked about the job that she now has at a local church and all the ways she now gives back to her community.

 Carol described how uncomfortable it was when she first served at a halfway house for women coming out of prison - because of the perceived differences between herself and the women there. Carol went on to say that now when she enters that site, she fully turns it over to God, and how blessed she feels whenever she leaves after an evening with these women.

Carol described a recent inner cities pilgrimage she had been on,  sponsored by City House and Christos Center for Spiritual Formation.  

http://www.christoscenter.org/ 

She heard a story told by one of the persons on that pilgrimage that sounded a lot like the experiences of some of the women she serves at the halfway house. Having been on that pilgrimage myself, I remembered that I too was struck by the fact that we can’t always tell the story of a person just by looking at them or making assumptions about them based on their current station in life. She said, “At the moment I suddenly knew that we are all the same.”

Carol happens to be a member at Lutheran Church of the Reformation.  Pastor Tom Mundahl has been serving there for only 3 months. Carol is an introvert and tends to be quiet. Pastor Tom expressed to her his surprise that she was in their midst, a person of such strong faith, doing this kind of work, and that he had not yet heard about it. I have a feeling that Carol will be telling her story to the congregation real soon.

City House described several ways in which we could possibly support the congregation in their outreach efforts: Helping them better understand the culture of poverty; Leading them in a discernment process about whether and how they might want to reach out to the community; Training members in how to support the spirituality of the people who are poor; Supporting church members in understanding and articulating how they are being transformed spiritually in their work with persons on the margins. All of these activities might include inner city pilgrimages, reading and reflection, workshops, and more.

I left the evening feeling amazed and awed by the stories told by Violet and Carol, being keenly aware at how active God is in this ministry, and grateful for the opportunity and hospitality of Reformation Lutheran Church.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 21st, 2007 at 3:21 pm and is filed under Congregations, The Poor Transformed, Transformed by the poor. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.