Issuu

In a way, they are right. We are ﬁnite, and our lives are mere specks in the grand scheme of the universe. Yet, the Incarnation tells us that we are so much more to the Creator than just dust. We are loved. We are desired. We are unique. We are valued. So much so that the Word, stooped to our level, put on this dust, and became one of us. God loves us so much that God joined this mess. It’s absurd.

But, what is even more absurd is that when the Great Mystery has so much love and care for us, we have allowed human beings to proclaim a different message about the most vulnerable people in our midst. This event with Repairers of the Breach was a call for faith leaders to do our work, to speak out against the harm happening around us, to proclaim the gospel. As faith leaders,

"[w}e know the people of this country. We have blessed their babies, listened to their confessions, buried their dead, and celebrated the values they hold dear. Our political leaders have bowed in fear to…tyranny…[B]y doing so, they have ceased to represent us."

The gospel is good news to the poor, release to the prisoners, recovery of sight to those blinded with hatred, and liberation to the oppressed. Therefore, the gospel is also alarming to the rich, troublesome to the captor, and toppling to the tyrant. As faith leaders, it is our calling, our duty, our sacred oath to proclaim this message. So, it is my prayer that in the coming days, months, and years we willed be empowered by the Spirit to use our voices with courage and conviction because God has called each of us for such a time as this. Your voice matters.

Open Letter: National Call for Repentance and Truth Telling,” Bishop William J. Barber II, Repairers of the Breach, https://breachrepairers.org/get-involved/news/open-letter-national-call-for-repentance-and-truth-telling/.

“I WANT TO BE AMONG THE COALITION OF THE FAITHFUL. I WANT TO BE AMONG THOSE WORKING FOR THE CHANGE WE NEED NOW. THAT’S THE DECISION WITH WHICH I NEED TO ALIGN MY LIFE EVERY DAY.”

Mariann Edgar Budde , How We

Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith

Art by Scott Erickson

By Cayla Hailwood

On Wednesday November 6, 2024, Sarah McBride became the ﬁrst transgender person elected to serve in Congress as a representative of Delaware. Only 3 weeks had passed since the election results when some House reps made it their mission to harass McBride and her presence in Congress. Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina has made it a point to produce an anti-trans bathroom bill which seeks to limit the use of single-sex bathrooms to match one’s biological sex. At a time where many Americans are struggling ﬁnancially to put food on the table for

their families, it seems ridiculous that Congress' attention would be ﬁxated on where someone should release their bowels.

However, the unfortunate reality is that many mainstream Christian Americans are deeply concerned by the existence of gender non-conforming persons and the transgender community. Some Christians believe the Bible is clear that God created man and woman and designed them to marry, have children, and model a life after Jesus together. Following their logic, if we break this model based on reproductive organs, then we are prone to live a life of sin, which in turn could cause chaos. Many Americans feel our country is experiencing such chaos, but the reason for it differs depending on a person’s context and beliefs. Conservative politicians have used the transgender community as a scapegoat which has appealed to conservative Christians.

Art by Scott Erickson

POETIC REFLECTIONS

Bailey Blumenstock is a poet originally from Ocean City, NJ, though she considers Washington, DC her home. She received her B.A. in Creative Writing and English from The George Washington University, and her MFA in Creative Writing from American University. She is currently in the M.A. program at Wesley. Her ﬁrst book, Leaving the Religion of Self-Harm, was published in March 2025 by Cathexis Northwest Press.

Where We Came Forth

We are talking at Allison’s birthday dinner about the technology apocalypse, talking over a little platter of rusty champagne grapes and hard gold cheese. “I am not so sure what is divine anymore,” someone says. There are so many of us around the table that I am dizzy with knowing. My mouth is moving, trying to explain the picture of the International Space Station that is overexposed to the point of halogen. “It looks like a seraphim,” I am saying, holding up the image on my phone to show the table. “See the wings?” The conversation turns to AI which was not my intention, to milky, photo-realistic images of God and his thrones, and then someone reminds us that the aurora borealis has come to the District tonight. “But you can only see it through your phone’s camera, kind of like the solar eclipse.” There is silence, for a second, as we realize the untouchable poignance of this. Then candles are lit, like little stars, and after cake, Allison takes us to the roof where, phones aloft, we peer through Dantean apertures to the ﬂush of pink on the night’s cheeks. “Is that it?” someone asks softly, and no one dares answer.

The

Mill

Rembrandt van Rijn, 1645

National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, AD 2025

From across the room, see Golgotha. There, the illuminated cross; There, the creeping cruciﬁxion darkness. Then see Mary, who betrays the painting: see how the mother leads her child by the hand away from the skull’s crest? Look where they are looking, at a boy’s clandestine memory of a girl he loved, kneeling in the wake of a boat drifting lazily towards oblivion. See, now, the mill. See how it blooms towards the light, the closing wound.

Creatures

In the winter, someone would come and load the floating docks into the parking lot, where they’d lie there, upside-down dead, from November to April. After school, we would play there. The dried barnacles would slip off easily once you pried them with a fingernail. Sometimes the little creature inside would still be wet. And then there were the mussel shells, stinking, and seaweed that became dust in our fingers. If we were feeling brave, we’d stand on top of the fixed buoys and jump from dock to dock, sometimes landing, sometimes barely catching ourselves, sometimes falling, feet first into the world.

a prayer

May God give you strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow as you walk the long road of righteousness.