I was born inside the beltway, but only literally. I have no special political insight after the coup attempt and attack on the Capitol by white nationalists yesterday. Instead, I am heartsick.
Washington, D.C., is my hometown. I know that it doesn’t occur to most people outside of the district—and more than a few residing in it—that the city could be someone’s hometown. But it is to many of us, in all the ways that your hometown is yours. When I see the news photos and videos from yesterday, I think of the surrounding neighborhood, where I’ve shopped and danced, worked at one of my first jobs, sweated on bike rides and long walks, and met with a mentor for tea.
I left home 14 years ago and moved to Chicago. A source of grief for me is that I didn’t set foot in D.C. at all in 2020. But I made that sacrifice to help keep others safe. To see the safety and well-being of my loved ones and all D.C. residents jeopardized by right-wing attackers makes me, like German chancellor Angela Merkel, “angry and also sad.” (I sometimes debate whether to use sangry as a portmanteau like hangry, seeing as it’s my dominant state of being these days. But it’s also OK to feel more than one emotion at the same time.)
This morning I put on my 51st State T-shirt. While D.C. statehood is close to my heart, it’s also an issue of democracy. Hundreds of thousands of citizens—D.C. has a larger population than Vermont or Wyoming—lack voting representation in Congress. It is yet another manifestation of people in power suppressing the votes they do not like, especially from black and brown people. Let me assure you, any logistical concerns and questions have been worked out in decades of planning.
If you’d like to take a small action today to promote democracy in the U.S., I suggest encouraging your national legislators to support Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton’s bill to make D.C. a state. It passed the House last June and Holmes Norton reintroduced it earlier this week. If your member of Congress is on the list of 203 cosponsors, you can thank them. If they aren’t a cosponsor, you can give them an opportunity to change their ways and expand freedom and democracy by supporting H.R. 51, the Washington, D.C. Admission Act.
Gathered and Scattered book update
On Monday I officially began working half-time researching the life and death of the Community of Christ, an innovative ecumenical church in D.C. In articles from the early years, 1965–1970, the Community of Christ is called “an experiment with flexible servanthood” and “our thing in the city.” One part that stands out is the emphasis on disregard for self-preservation as an institution. “More basic than ‘how do we get members’ is, ‘what does it mean to be a member of the body of Christ,’” church planter and first pastor John Schramm writes. “More basic than ‘how do you get to meet people is, ‘what constitutes a valid witness.’”
Perhaps the most spot-on summary of the Community of Christ is in a quote by a nameless young woman:
What’s important about the Community is that here is a group of people, no matter how varied their theological interpretations or life styles, who are willing to bear the name of Christ—no matter how tenuous their commitment to the ideological content of Christianity, and to find the celebration of the Eucharist the pivotal point of their weekly life.
A part of my research next week will be on the history of D.C.’s Dupont Circle neighborhood, where the Community began in a row house basement.
Reading and listening
“New Spirits Rise in Old, Repurposed Churches,” by Amelia Nierenberg in the New York Times
This article ran a couple of months ago and I came across it reading a related article last week. It doesn’t go beyond what’s familiar to most of us in church leadership about congregations closing and becoming repurposed. (That’s what I hope to do!) But some of the stories are heartening, especially a social enterprise nonprofit in a building still owned by a Methodist church, including a cafe serving Appalachian comfort food, in South Charleston, West Virginia. One program called ReIntegr8 provides employment training to women in recovery. The article quotes the Rev. Cindy Briggs-Biondi, the church’s former pastor, as saying, “There’s sadness when a worshiping space changes, but this is a whole different kind of sanctuary.”
Another closed church, in the Treme neighborhood of New Orleans—a creative haven for musicians—has become a recording studio.
“Ave Maria,” sung by Stevie Wonder
Listening to an old Motown Christmas album on Spotify, I was captivated by Stevie Wonder’s familiar voice, singing in Latin. The signature harmonica break in the middle makes this recording even more delightful. Enjoy!
Thinking about repurposed church buildings you could note that the building the Community of Christ worshipped in is now a community-based health clinic.