UNITED THANK

OFFERING

GO WITH GRATITUDE: A REFLECTION GUIDE FOR

THE GOSPEL OF JOHNThe United Thank Offering and

The Good Book Club Epiphany 2020

Weekly Reflections and Discussion Questions for Use by Individuals or Groups

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WELCOMEThe Rev. Canon Heather L. Melton, Staff Officer, the United Thank Offering

It is hard to believe that we are now in the third installment of the Good Book Club and overwhelming to think about how many Episcopalians are gathering together during Epiphany to read the Bible, reflect and discuss the text at church or at home. This year, we are spending the season of Epiphany looking at the Gospel of John. As a teenager, I was a part of a Bible quiz team for a year and our focus was on the Gospel of John, so it is a text that at one point in my life, I had almost memorized. Many people struggle with John. It was the last Gospel written and while it clearly borrows from the other Gospel writers, it also adds a poetic flare and holds text that is foundational to our theology as Christians. The Gospel of John is a glimpse into the struggles of the early Jewish Christ-followers. We know that the text was written at a time when the Christ-followers were being removed from synagogues and beginning to strike out on their own. We can hear that tension and hurt in the Gospel of John in ways that the other Gospels do not. (Some of which is about audience and some is about when it was written.) As we begin our study of John, I hope you’ll listen with me for the struggles of a community of faith forming and those foundational verses that ring throughout our Prayer Book and our theological writings

For those of you that are joining UTO on this journey for the first time, please note that these materials can be used by individuals or a group. Each week you’ll find one reflection for the readings along with discussion or journal questions. The reflections are written by UTO grant recipients

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from 2019, where their work focuses on “Go: Crossing boundaries created by race, culture, and economics to create communities that listen deeply and learn to live like Jesus.” We think this is a great foundation for reflecting on the Gospel of John. They’ll also share a little bit about themselves and their ministry along with ways for you to find out more if you’re interested.

A RECOMMENDATION AS YOU PREPARE TO DIVE INTO THE GOOD BOOK CLUB

Many of us have heard bits and pieces from Romans read in church many times. It’s easy to start skimming when the text feels familiar. We recommend using a translation of the Bible that is new to you, or reading along with a commentary. One text that I have found useful is Paul: A Novel by the Rev. Walter Wangerin, Jr. Wangerin is a Lutheran pastor who wanted to make the Bible more approachable, so he turned it into a novel. Personally, as a young adult, I found reading Paul while I was doing Education for Ministry incredibly helpful, as long as I took it with a grain of salt, since Wangerin does add stories about Paul’s personal life that are fictionalized because, in general, information about Paul’s life is challenging to find. You might want to utilize this resource or The Message, which other folks find helpful.

My favorite commentary (they are inexpensive and widely recognized scholarship) is the New Collegeville Bible Commentary. I have relied on books such as these while creating my meditations. I like that you can purchase (or borrow from the library) a slim version for the specific book you are reading. The scripture is at the top of each page and the commentary is at the bottom. The books include some photos of the different places being talked about. The Collegeville group is also responsible for the creation of The Saint John’s Bible, a wonderful hand-illuminated text. Reproductions are now available for purchase (and some libraries have copies to borrow), and it is another wonderful way to read biblical text anew.

Whatever text you choose to use, we are grateful to journey along with you!

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WEEK 1: JANUARY 6-12, 2020 Julieann Sewell. Gifts Officer The Princess Basma Centre, Jerusalem (Companion Grant with Olympia)

READ: JOHN 1-2:25

REFLECT:The Mother’s Empowerment Program at the Jerusalem Princess Basma Centre lights a candle in the dark for mothers of Palestinian children with disabilities. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and without Him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in Him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” John 1: 1-5 It is a Sunday morning at the Jerusalem Princess Basma Centre and Ayathas travelled from the West Bank here with her youngest child who has Down Syndrome. It has not been easy to secure an access permit to travel to organise care for her other 2 young daughters or to get permission for absence from the school where she teaches. Ayatis part of the ‘Mother’s Empowerment Program’, which enables her to stay in residence for 2/3 weeks at the centre whilst her child receives a comprehensive program of therapy and intervention. She will follow her son’s progress with care so that she can continue the exercises and rehabilitation when she returns home. She will also be encouraged to share her story with other mothers who may have experienced the same isolation and stigma that having a child with disabilities can bring within her community. In the Gospel of John we read, “What has come into being in Him was life and the life was the light of all people.” The light of Christ is given for us all, whether we are welcomed or shunned by society. The abundant, gracious love of God can enfold us all and in the Gospels, time after time, we see how Christ draws into his care and Kingdom the most vulnerable and marginalized. The Jerusalem Princess Basma Centre, situated on the top of the Mount of Olives, and an Institution of the Diocese of Jerusalem is witness to this understanding. It is indeed a beacon of Christ’s light offering

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Palestinian families, of all faiths, the medical care needed to enable their child to thrive and reach their potential. Back at the centre, the mothers talk together. One mother, on her seventh admission explains, “When I first learned about the disability of my child I didn’t leave home or speak to others for nearly a year, I was living in complete denial and I didn’t accept the fact that my child has a disability.” She describes how she now acts as an advocate for her son back home in her community; how she has found hope hearing the stories of other mothers and watching the progress of her child and of all children on the program. “I feel more confident about myself and in the future of my son. Princess Basma Centre lights a candle in the dark for us as mothers and for our children.”

Prayer: Lord Christ, we remember how you brought light into our world and how you walked and prayed with your disciples on the Mount of Olives. Let us thank God for the staff, the therapists and doctors at the Jerusalem Princess Basma Centre who provide care and rehabilitation for those children who may have been pushed to the fringes of society. Help us, also to carry a light of hope into the dark corners of our world, in the knowledge and faith that, “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.”

DIG DEEPER:

1. When have you seen unexpected light in your life?

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2. When have you had to be braver then you thought possible?

3. Where are you bringing light into the world?

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About the Author and The Jerusalem Princess Basma Centre:Julieann Sewell is the Gifts Officer for the Princess Basma Centre.

The Jerusalem Princess Basma Centre is a charitable organisation entrusted under the Anglican Episcopal Church within the Diocese of Jerusalem. It works for the integration and empowerment of Palestinian children with disabilities and their families through comprehensive rehabilitation, inclusive education, the development and dissemination of best practice and advocating for supportive policy and legislation.

To learn more about the Princess Basma Centre please visit: http://www.basma-centre.org

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GRATITUDE JOURNALTHIS WEEK I AM THANKFUL FOR:

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WEEK 2: JANUARY 13-19, 2020

The Rev. Pamela Long, Latino Ministry, Diocese of Alabama

READ: JOHN 3-5:18

REFLECT:“… the people kept coming and being baptized.” – John 3:23

In this passage, water was abundant. The Spirit of God was present in abundance. The people were present in abundance. Both Jesus and John were baptizing joyfully and abundantly.

Sometimes our Standard Operating Procedures get in the way of building the Kingdom of God. But notice what Jesus and John do. Instead of creating an orderly, habitual process with a long-range plan and a strategic vision, they jumped into the waters and baptized all those who came to them.

For the past four years, Latino families have been bringing their children in unprecedented numbers to our Episcopal churches in Montgomery for baptism, sensing a joy in the liturgy of new life that flows from our congregations out into the world. Since September 2015, we have baptized about 200 children and youth into new life in Christ, and initiated them into the sacraments of Christ’s Body and Blood. Most of our families come from a small town in the Mexican state of Guerrero, where they had suffered unimaginable hunger, drought, flooding, violence, government corruption, crop failure, unemployment, lack of education and ethnic marginalization. Some of the adults are functionally illiterate; some speak only their indigenous language, Mixteco, and only understand rudiments of Spanish. The children are speaking Mixteco at home and learning English at school.

Worshipping together on Sundays means that the Gospel is read in all three languages, while the songs, the prayers and the sermon are in a mix of English and Spanish.

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The United Thank Offering is partnering with All Saints’/Todos Santos parish to serve this community by offering multilingual services, and table fellowship with the English-speaking community. The grant will allow us to update our children’s area to make it safe and functional, to purchase instruments and sound equipment to enliven our service with contemporary Spanish-language praise music, and icons to enrich the visual worship experience. In the same way that Jesus and John seized the elements at hand as they found them, and waded into the waters of baptism to bring forth new life in God’s Kingdom, so All Saints’/Todos Santos together with the UTO are diving into the Living Waters bringing forth new believers for the Kingdom.

DIG DEEPER:1. When have you experienced the abundance of God’s love?

2. How have you met with gratitude the experience of abundance?

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3. How do we resolve the conflict between “in God’s time” and “in our time” when doing mission work?

About the Author and Grant Site:The Rev. Pamela Long is a transitional deacon (ordination 2 Nov 2019), vicar to the Latino community at All Saints'/Todos Santos in Montgomery. She is a native of Montgomery, also a professor of Spanish and International Studies at Auburn University Montgomery, where she is the coordinator of

the world language program. She has two grown sons, two daughters-in-law and three beautiful and brilliant granddaughters, not to mention a retired racing greyhound as a roommate. She has a BA and MA from Auburn University, and a PhD from Tulane University.

Todos Santos is the Latino community within All Saints', having worshiped together since 2006 at The Church of the Ascension in Montgomery, and moving to All Saints' in January 2019. We have about 250 members and we have baptized 33 so far in 2019.

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GRATITUDE JOURNALTHIS WEEK I AM THANKFUL FOR:

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WEEK 3: JANUARY 20-26, 2020

Isaac M., Member of the Youth Group at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church,

Marfa, Texas

READ: JOHN 5:19-JOHN 7:24

REFLECT:Being just 16 years old myself, I can relate my own experience with Jesus to that of the youth carrying the 5 loaves and 2 fishes. Just last year I heard about Jesus through our area’s Young Life youth ministry and accepted Him as my savior. Ever since I have been growing in my relationship with Him. This same youth ministry also gave me the amazing opportunity to go serve God at a big Christian outreach camp in Colorado. There I definitely felt like the boy in the story in John 6. Here I was up in the Rocky Mountains, just a kid from an isolated town near the Mexican border, and my job was to serve food to 500 people a week and also share my testimony with all of them. It was a daunting task! I felt like I had only a little to offer. I remember everyday seeing the huge amount of people and thinking, “How are we going to feed all these people?” and “Can my story really make a difference?” Well, just like in the passage, everyone got fed. And even though I felt like I didn’t have much to offer, God used my story to minister to a lot of people. After I had shared, many said that God spoke to them through my testimony and some even asked me questions about my faith afterwards! I feel in that situation, I was the youth in the story, and I’m so amazed and humbled by how Jesus works and who He chooses to work through. The fact is that Jesus chooses to use us - to shine through the person who might often be overlooked. I am also thankful that the Diocese of the Rio Grande and St. Paul's Episcopal church in Marfa received this grant from the UTO so that more kids from the borderlands like me will have the opportunity to be like the boy in John 6:1-13 – to encounter Jesus and be used mightily by Him.

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DIG DEEPER:1. When have you encountered Jesus in your life?

2. When have you felt like what you had to share was so small and then realized it was small but powerful?

3. If you could share why your faith is important to you, what would you say?

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About the Author and Grant Site:Isaac M., 16, Youth Group participant. My life before Christ was full of loneliness, insecurity and anger. I found him at the height of it all while at a Younglife camp. After the experience and feeling God’s love for the first time I knew I had found what I had been looking for all along.

Diocese of the Rio Grande, Bilingual Borderlands Youth Ministry:St. Paul’s Episcopal Church and Young Life Big Bend are prayerfully obeying God’s call to reach every un-churched and spiritually disinterested young person presiding in the West Texas borderlands with the Gospel of Christ. Our start up ministry will serve, love, and minister to youth and families on both sides of the US/Mexico border. This encompasses the cities of Marfa, Alpine and Presidio, Texas and Ojinaga, Mexico.

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GRATITUDE JOURNALTHIS WEEK I AM THANKFUL FOR:

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WEEK 4: JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 2, 2020

Abigail Livingood, Diocese of Iowa

READ: JOHN 7:25-9:41

REFLECT:Our reading this week begins with the crowd trying to figure out who Jesus is and where his authority comes from, some translations even have the question: “Who are you?”. This always seem to be a great but loaded question when it appears in the Bible. Not so much because of what Jesus says in answer to this but because of how Jesus responds to the person asking. Jesus answers what the person or persons ask from deep within. In this case the Pharisees are asking from their fear. Their prop of self-importance is shaken and they are hoping to challenge Jesus into submission and silence. It does not work. What Jesus does here is model for us engaging with thorny situations and people not walking away from them. This is inspiring because I would/most of us would not stay this present this long where “the other” (situation or person) was so unpleasant.

It is with overwhelming gratitude that we partner with the Diocese of Nzara; specifically lifting up the workers and work in their Prenatal and Birthing Clinic. For years the Birthing Assistants and the Midwives have been present to their communities with little more than their God-filled hearts and their trained hands. In them we recognize Jesus’ voice in answer to every mother and baby’s question ‘Who are you? I am a child of God, come here to be with you.’ Who are we, in the Diocese of Iowa? Well, Jesus says, ‘We are children of God, come here to be with you through the clinic.’

Why the picture of women and bicycles? These are the Birthing Assistants and Midwives with bikes, one of the funded items, so that they can take medical care to expectant mothers, recent mothers, and new babies in their villages as well as get to the clinic for labor and deliveries in less time than on foot.

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DIG DEEPER:1. Who are you?

2. Who does Jesus see when he looks at you?

3. What does it mean to be a child of God in your community?

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About the Author and Grant Site:Abigail Livingood is a life-long Episcopalian and a member of St. Timothy’s Church in West Des Moines, Iowa. She currently works in Middle School Ministry-Formation there. She is an artist and always looks for ways to connect the visual arts to ministry and discipleship.

About the Grant Site: While visiting Nzara, South Sudan, in February 2019 to work with the Mothers

Union and their sewing project we saw that the current conditions at the Good Samaritan Health Clinic were cramped and unsanitary, lacked lighting and protection from the elements, and provided no physical comfort for the women and children served. The grant money will cover clinic renovation creating larger examination and birthing rooms protected from the weather and well lit. It includes medical equipment: birthing beds, fetal Doppler’s, measuring tapes, scales, stethoscopes, blood pressure cuffs, bedding and plastic coverings, buckets for clean water and soiled linens, emergency lighting, bicycles and travel kits for home visits. The Nzara Diocese is ten years old and the Midwife Program they started already reaches some 500 clients each month. Thanks to this grant they will be able to provide a much more medically sound quality of care.

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GRATITUDE JOURNALTHIS WEEK I AM THANKFUL FOR:

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WEEK 5: FEBRUARY 3-9, 2020

Leigh Ann Hirschman, Diocese of Indianapolis

READ: JOHN 10-12:43

REFLECT:

In this passage, Jesus offers a concise, vivid description of leadership. A leader, like a good shepherd, is caring, persistent, and above all, courageous. The reading offers a negative definition as well: A good leader is someone who doesn’t run when the wolves appear. Implicit in this passage is a challenge. Can we cultivate the qualities of the good shepherd in our own lives?

I am particularly interested in the challenge to become courageous. None of us likes to believe that we’ll run or hide when the wolves are at the gate. We like to think we’ll make a heroic stand to save our flock. But real wolves are actually really scary. If I tried to defend a flock of sheep against one, I would almost certainly die—which means that I’d probably end up running far, far away. And metaphorical wolves can be pretty frightening, too. What happens when we’re asked to make a courageous stand—but at the cost of something we hold dear, such as stability or friendships or peace of mind? When our courage runs away from us, how do we locate it?

I think it helps to recognize that although people are lauded for their courage after the fact, it doesn’t always feel so great in real time. In the early days of planning Trinity Haven, our organization encountered significant challenges, including secretly organized opposition. We learned that acting with courage can bring on fear, sleeplessness, self-doubt, and even nausea. When we’re asked to be courageous, we can worry that we’re going to make a mistake or be hurt. Our hearts can pound as if we are facing literal wolves. Our human instinct is to run away, to seek psychological safety. Safety feels better. Much better. Experiencing the flight-or-flight aspects of practicing courage can give us compassion for the hired hands in this passage from John, because we realize that it’s only human to falter in our duties. But this passage can also strengthen us and remind us that as Christians, we are asked to do better. We’re called to

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enter by the gate—and we are also called to stand with shaking legs and racing hearts. Our faith helps us. Our friends in our faith communities can bolster us as well. My prayer is that all of us are supported as we cultivate our courage, and that may we support those who are engaged in courageous acts.

DIG DEEPER:1. Brené Brown writes: “In one of its earliest forms, the word courage

meant "To speak one's mind by telling all one's heart." Over time, this definition has changed, and today, we typically associate courage with heroic and brave deeds.” When have practiced courage by telling what was on your heart? What was that like for you? How was it received??

2. How has your faith helped you to be more courageous in your life?

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About the Author:Leigh Ann Hirschman is is a member of Trinity Episcopal Church and the founding board chair of Trinity Haven.

About Trinity Haven: In the city of Indianapolis, an estimated 72 young people who identify as LGBTQ are homeless every night. Yet there is not a single organization in the state that competently meets the needs of these

young people. That’s why Trinity Episcopal Church decided to incubate Trinity Haven. When Trinity Haven opens its doors in early 2020, it will be Indiana’s first and only residence for LGBTQ youth at risk for homelessness. The United Thank Offering has generously granted Trinity Haven $63,500 to purchase furnishings and equipment for our home. Because of the UTO, our young residents will be welcomed into a home that is safe, comforting, and healing.

You can learn more about Trinity Haven at www.trinityhavenindy.org .

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WEEK 6: FEBRUARY 10-16, 2020

The Rev. Canon Heather L. Melton,

Staff Officer for the United Thank Offering

READ: JOHN 12:44-15:27

REFLECTION:This week we read the familiar Maundy Thursday text. In seminary, my Liturgics professor, Dr. Louis Weil, encouraged us to stay present in each moment and lesson from Holy Week as it unfolded, don’t rush ahead in your mind to Easter, simply stay put in what it felt like when they arrested Jesus, when Jesus is crucified, when Jesus is teaching. This is what we are given the opportunity to do this week. Listen to it as if you don’t know what is coming next. What do you hear? For me, when I stay focused on what Jesus is saying without hearing it through the lens of the resurrection, I hear a profound call to community, to the ways in which we are to treat one another. I hear my Baptismal Covenant. I also hear a profound understanding on Jesus’ part, of how hard all of this is to do. He prepares us that it will be difficult to abide in his love, but that he will send us the Holy Spirit to help us.

All of this makes me think of my five-year-old daughter, Lucy, who has a profound love of Jesus. One Sunday in church, my husband was preaching about Jesus being cranky. Lucy looked up from her coloring incredibly concerned and said, “Jesus isn’t cranky. Jesus is happy, Jesus is love, Jesus wants us to not be cranky. Jesus is good.” I explained to her that yes, Jesus is all of those things, but Jesus is also human, and humans get cranky. She suggested he might need a snack. There is something profound about the faith of a child and her belief in the goodness of Jesus. Sometimes, it is hard for me to remember the pureness of faith that she exhibits. She has experienced pain and suffering in her short time on this earth (she’ll tell you all about our cat who died and is with Jesus, and has had her feelings hurt as well as all of the required bumps and bruises of childhood play) but it hasn’t yet stopped her from believing that she is profoundly lovable

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and that so is everyone else because Jesus is love. Time can wear us out and wear our faith down. I have a feeling that the disciples were feeling worn out when they were sitting at dinner and needed to hear Jesus remind them of the call to love one another and to love God and that through that love, when we feel alone or afraid, or are in need, we will have ways to reach out to one another through that love and in hope.

The United Thank Offering, in many ways, is a beacon of that hope that is the foundation of the love that Jesus is compelling us to abide in. For me, it is a reminder of the simplicity of our faith that I often see in my children. UTO is a reminder that all of us are gifts from God, all of us are blessings and all of us are blessed. It is simply our job to give thanks for all of those blessings. UTO asks every Episcopalian to adopt a personal spiritual discipline of gratitude to notice daily the ways that God is blessing us through the love of Jesus and community, and to then make a thank offering to go on to bless others. UTO is a reminder that even when we feel cranky and perhaps need a snack, there is someone out there who loves us and believes we are happy and full of love because we are all a part of humanity which is tied up in the love of God. (And sometimes we need to give thanks for the brave soul who offers us a snack in the midst of our hanger.) So, this week, as we sit weary at dinner with Jesus and listen to him tell us that we are about to be abandoned into a world that is difficult and be signs of love in that world, we give thanks, that Jesus also told us we don’t have to go out into that world alone. We get to go with the Holy Spirit, who always believes we are worthy of goodness, love and blessings, who looks at us with the eyes of childhood love and delight and we get to go with our community…hopefully with someone who packs a snack for when we are cranky…but we never have to go alone and we always get to come back to rest in the love of Jesus and give thanks for the blessing of each new day.

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DIG DEEPER:1. Think of a time that someone reminded you that you were loved when

you were felling cranky, sad, lonely or angry. What was that experience like? Did you tell them what it meant to you?

2. What things are you thankful for today that you might otherwise not

have noticed if we didn’t ask you?

3. Try keeping a gratitude journal this week. Each night we invite you to

share one person you are thankful for and why, one experience you had during the day that you want to give thanks for and one sight, smell or taste you are grateful for. When you’ve done this for seven days, what do you notice is different having done this for a week?

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About the Author and Grant Site:Heather Melton gratefully supports the work of the United Thank Offering Board from her home office in New Mexico. Heather is the proud mom of twin five-year-olds and is thankful for her spouse, JK, who is willing to see shenanigans as adventures. Heather loves practicing gratitude more then she loves running but is committed to doing both as often as she’s able.

The United Thank Offering (UTO) invites all Episcopalians to participate in a personal spiritual discipline of gratitude and giving. For more than 128 years, UTO has distributed small Blue Boxes to Episcopalians asking them to place a coin in the box for each good thing that happens in their life. These boxes are collected annually in parishes and dioceses and then throughout the whole Church. All of the thank offerings are then distributed as grants to support innovative mission and ministry in The Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion. Please note that all donations to UTO are given away the following year, and each year UTO receives more requests for grants than it can fund. We hope that hearing the stories of some of UTO grants will inspire you to participate more fully in UTO so that we can increase our thank offerings and support more innovative ministry projects like the ones you will learn about each week.

To learn more about UTO, please visit www.unitedthankoffering.org or www.episcopalchurch.org/uto

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GRATITUDE JOURNALTHIS WEEK I AM THANKFUL FOR:

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WEEK 7: FEBRUARY 17-23, 2020The Rev. Dr. Michael Hoffman, Rector of Christ Church Parish in

Pensacola, Florida

READ: JOHN 16-19:42

REFLECT:I was present for the birth of my two children, and I have walked away from those experiences with two truths. First, my wife is considerably tougher than I am. And second, I was amazed with how quickly the pain and fatigue of childbirth faded from my wife when they placed her new child in her arms. In a split second, she went from pain to joy.

Jesus uses the metaphor of childbirth to illustrate the eschatological hope found in the love of God, and as is true with all eschatological hope, it speaks to some distant future and our present reality. God is at work in the world transforming tears into rejoicing, pain into wholeness, and death into life. And God has invited us to join with Him in this redeeming work.

Over the last year, God has been at work here in Pensacola, FL. People of faith (Jew, Muslim, and Christian) have been coming together to talk about justice, the way that God wants the world to be. We are now up to 20 congregations representing an average worship attendance of 4,176 people of all races, ages, and backgrounds. The Catholics and the Baptists and the Jews and many other communities of faith joining together to talk about what God is doing to transform the suffering of His children into joy. We have formed an organization called JUSTPensacola (Justice, United, Seeking Transformation), and thanks in part to the generous grant we received from UTO, we have hired our first organizer. Our hope is that our combined voices, our people power, can bring about real change. JUSTPensacola seeks to address the causes of suffering, not the symptoms. Our process starts with a listening process where we learn about cause of people’s sorrow (lack of affordable housing, access to good education, etc.) and then use research and action to transform that pain into joy.

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God is at work bringing life into this world and His resurrecting love is transforming sorrow into joy. We are called to join in this work and change this broken world into the Kingdom of God.

DIG DEEPER:1. When is a time that sorrow was transformed into joy in your life?

2. How can you be a part of God’s transforming work in the world?

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About the Authors and Grant Site:Michael Hoffman, Rector of Christ Church Parish in Pensacola, FL.Michael has been an Episcopal priest for 14 years serving in Texas (Seguin, Mission, then McKinney) before moving with his wife and two kids to Pensacola, Fl. He has three degrees from the University of the South in Sewanee, TN, and God has recently led him to

play tennis to teach him humility.

The Pensacola Area Interfaith Justice Ministry is an ecumenical ministry that will bring together 10 faith traditions to tackle community problems such as affordable housing, failing schools and the criminalization of childhood. The UTO grant provides salary for a lead organizer. The lead organizer will help train members of the 20 member congregations to become effective at living out what God requires of us: the biblical mandate of Micah 6:8 “to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.” JUST (Justice United Seeking Transformation) Pensacola will provide a way for congregations in the Pensacola area to come together and witness to the love, justice, and truth of God, successfully transforming unjust structures as part of God’s healing and reconciling mission.

To learn more visit: http://thedartcenter.org/about/location/florida/pensacola-area-interfaith-justice-ministry/

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WEEK 8: FEBRUARY 24-25, 2020Fr. Bobby Smith, Dean, President and CEO of Saint Francis Ministries

READ: JOHN 20-21:25

REFLECT:

A fundamental truth any of us that work in or support migration ministries comes to understand, either through a gospel inspired lens, or simply by being with people starting a new life in the United States, is that every day, in the lives of those served and in the lives of those honored to support new life, resurrection happens all around us.

The reflection today, taken from John’s gospel account of Jesus’ resurrection strikes a deep chord. Those of that work in and support migrant ministries know too well the reality of men, women, children, families that are torn from the fabric of community. Lives that flee and leave behind friends and family who, like Mary upon finding Christ’s tomb empty, seek to know where their loved ones have gone.

Those of us on this side of migration efforts often meet brothers and sisters decades after their journeys have begun. They come to us, modern day disciples of love, not unlike Jesus came to his friends. They come humbly and vulnerable expressing peace, gratitude, and an unquenchable desire to build community anew. They appear to us as friends and neighbors and together we reach out to one another to begin building a resurrected world.

Every time I meet one of the hundreds of people served by Saint Francis Migration Ministries, I am reminded that in all human contact, I am offered the sacred opportunity to see the face of God. Mary Magdalene proclaimed her vision of the living Christ in a small, upper room in Jerusalem more than two thousand years ago. Today, you and I have the opportunity to proclaim the same truth every time we see the faces of those who have fled their homes in search of peace. May God continue to bless these lives and the sacred work of migration ministries.

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DIG DEEPER:1. Share a time when you have had the opportunity to proclaim the type of

truth that Mary Magdalene shared?

2. When have you reached out to your community to participate in building a resurrected world?

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About the Author and Grant Site:Fr. Bobby Smith, Dean, President and CEO of Saint Francis Ministries leads the largest social welfare ministry founded in the Episcopal tradition. Founded by Bishop Robert Mize, Jr. in 1945, today Saint Francis Ministries works to provide services to more than 30,000 children and families in Kansas, Mississippi,

Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Illinois, and Central America through a broad range of programs, services, and advocacy efforts.

Refugees as Advocates My program is designed to build refugees’ skills to advocate for their rights and advance their standing in and understanding of the community. This grant creates an opportunity for clients to improve their skills-building and empower ownership of their experience. It will also assist them in raising awareness and access to community partners.

To learn more about this ministry, visit: saintfrancisministries.orgstrengthening ties with The Episcopal Church and this branch of our Anglican Communion.

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GRATITUDE JOURNALTHIS WEEK I AM THANKFUL FOR:

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NEXT STEPSNow that you’ve completed the journey through Romans and are on the eve of Ash Wednesday, we want to invite you to continue on the journey with us through Lent to Easter. UTO has created a Lenten Calendar that shares the story of the 2018 UTO Grants and invites you to consider the blessings of your life each day. You can download the Lenten Calendar from episcopalchurch.org/uto.

If the Good Book Club was your first experience with UTO, we want to invite you to learn more about the ministry and work of UTO by visiting episcopalchurch.org/uto where you will find resources to develop your own personal spiritual discipline of gratitude or to help others in your congregation learn about the importance of gratitude. Each year, UTO collects thank offerings from around The Episcopal Church and gives every penny away to support innovative mission and ministry in The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion through two grant cycles (the first Friday of August through the first Friday of November for Young Adults and Seminarian Grants, and the first Friday of December through the first Friday of March for our Annual Grants). If you want to learn more about UTO, please contact the Rev. Canon Heather Melton at hmelton@episcopalchurch.org.

Thank you for being on the journey with us this Epiphany. We hope you enjoyed reading Romans and the reflections in this booklet and spending time wrestling with Paul.

We wish you a holy and blessed Lent.

The UTO Board and Staff

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UNITED THANK

OFFERINGUnited Thank Offering

The Episcopal Church Center

815 Second Avenue

New York, New York 10017