Postage
MissioDei
Following Jesus’ way of hospitality, simplicity, prayer, peace, and resistance 2717 S. 8th St. Minneapolis, MN 55454 info@missio-dei.com
“The deceitfulness of riches is the confusion between what we have and what we are.” –Ernesto Cardenal Visit us at www.missio-dei.com
About Us Founded in 2003, Missio Dei is an urban intentional community with two community/ hospitality houses. We are also a church that welcomes visitors of all backgrounds to our regular gatherings and meals. We are committed to following Jesus’ way of simplicity (seeking a sustainable life with a healthy relationship to possessions), hospitality (inviting friends and strangers to share our life together), prayer (being rooted in life-giving rhythms), peacemaking (breaking our addiction to power as we get in the way of violence and injustice), and resistance (naming and challenging oppression wherever we find it as we seek to embody an alternative). We are rooted in the West Bank and surrounding area of Minneapolis, committed to Anabaptist beliefs , and seek to embody the radical love of Christ in the Shadow of Empire.
Needs
Human Needs • • • • •
Prayers New Friends (See “Upcoming” for times to visit) Volunteer to help with gardens Help renovating the attic at Clare Help painting
Material Needs • • • •
Toilet paper Herbs and vegetable plants for garden Food donations Monetary donations (see “Fundraising Update”)
Simplicity is a tricky thing, because we are often developing more complex and advanced systems in order to “simplify” our lives. We inevitably need to continue developing these systems because any space they create is quickly filled up with more things we need to juggle. They create new problems or we feel compelled to accomplish more things. Simplicity is about being willing to accept limits. Being willing to accept the idea that we shouldn’t be building towers of Babel, that it is ok to have a Sabbath, or that eating less than ideal food and wearing less than ideal clothes is preferable to the insanity involved with “keeping up.” It’s valuing the present moment, the quiet moments and the beings that can share those things with us. Accepting limits is hard though, which makes simplicity an ironically difficult thing to pursue. S.L.A.
Missio Dei
N E W S L E T T E R Volume 1, Spring 2012
time Lapse
Upcoming
• June 15- Spirituality in the Empire: Join us for
S/he must have seen it spring like a storm leaping spasmodically across grassy meadows. Leaving in its wake hideous clusters: cement and smoking stacks polluting the sky’s dignity with viscid smog. Billions of incessant lights blinking through every darkness and the awful rumbling of machines that never sleep… the chatter of a million animals that know not quite how to be still.
•
I imagine we looked something like time lapsed. On film: A single ethereal flower withered, bowing low: a long sigh. Never lifting a delicate head again. Observed in one quick flash: an easy death.
dinner and a Roundtable discussion on Friday, June 15th from 6:30pm to 8:30pm. We’ll be meeting at Sattler House (3312 31st Ave South) to explore the questions: What does discipleship look like in the Empire? How do we nurture a spirituality that resists? June 16- Coming out of Empire: In this day-long Rootworks* workshop, we’ll be joined by Wes Howard-Brook and Sue Ferguson Johnson. Wes will draw from his insights as a biblical scholar (his recent book, Come Out, My People! –a remarkable work of anti-imperial biblical scholarship). Sue will draw from her experience as a spiritual director. Together, they will facilitate a conversation that weaves together biblical insights, spiritual practice, and radical action.
Weekly Rhythm •
Air wreaks of chemical vapor. Fruit is sour with poison. Night glows demonic Bird songs drowned: an ocean of senseless static. I don’t feel anything. I’m afraid for my health. I don’t want an easy death! I don’t need a convenience or for many things to bear my name.
• •
I need the peace of simplicity: the gentle flow of the river at the fisher’s knees the quiet mind of the gardener, hands deep in soil. A life rooted where dark is just dark and the light rests under the blessed golden sun. Rewound. B.T.
Sundays at 5pm—gathering at Clare House (2717 8th st. S in Minneapolis). The evening starts with an Agape Feast (the early church celebrated Eucharist with an entire meal). After the meal we continue in our Oratory (the space for prayer and worship above the garage at Clare House) with a time of singing, prayer, reflection, and silence. Wednesdays at 6:30pm—open meal at Sattler House (3312 31st ave. S in Minneapolis). This is a large meal, and all are welcome to join. Mon, Tues, Thurs—community meals at varying times and locations. All are welcome, but please inquire via email on Mondays and at (612)875-0913 if you desire to come Tuesday or Thursday, so you don’t end up arriving at an empty house.
Fundraising Update Join us in creating Simone Weil House and the Gene Stoltzfus Center for Creative Peacemaking. Missio Dei is currently raising funds for the purchase of a hospitality house to provide food, shelter, and healing that comes from belonging to community. Our goal is to raise $100,000 in 2012. We are hoping to find a fixer-upper large enough to provide 7+ bedrooms for members and guests. We are currently 1/4 of the way to our goal, still with 9 months to go! This puts us right on track. The Simone Weil House will provide additional space to continue to live into our value of Hospitality—hosting open rooms for short and long term guests, as well as weekly open meals. The house will open up space for Missio Dei to continue and expand her work in community outreach. In addition to hospitality rooms, and public meals, the building will house the Gene Stolzfus Center for Creative Peacemaking—a community resource center geared towards the broadening of the peace witness of the Twin Cities faith community, and will include a drop in center, lending library of radical Christian literature, and host regular educational programming that focuses on embodying the radical implications of following Jesus.
Illustration by (g)Emma
Nato Feeds War Community Feeds People: A weekend without Capitalism in Chicago The weekend before NATO descended on the city of Chicago, accompanied by hundreds of extra cops and secret service agents, I packed my bag and rode the bus into the belly of the beast to pray and act in conscience with Catholic Workers. The annual Catholic Worker Faith and Resistance retreat is a time for communities to gather and witness to a way of life that follows the Gospel and is therefore radically different from the U.S. agenda of using military force to feed a society hooked on consumption. As a group, we sought to follow Peter Maurin’s mandate to “create a new society in the shell of the old” by trying to live without capitalism for the weekend. Strategies for kicking the habit of capitalism include simple living and the economy of sharing. The White Rose Catholic Worker shared food they had grown on their farm and many folks found other food to share from local dumpsters. Instead of going out on the town for entertainment, folks pulled out banjos, harmonicas, buckets, keyboards, and some spectacular dance moves. We practiced the “gift economy” by offering hand-crafts and other items to give away, and like loaves and fishes, the pile of gifts never ran out. Most pivotally during the weekend, we shared ideas. Kathy Kelly with Voices for Creative Nonviolence opened the retreat by speaking to us about the current situation in Afghanistan. Kathy has led Voices delegations to meet with young people in Afghanistan working for peace. Since the average life expectancy in Afghanistan is only around 42, teenagers represent the “middle-aged” and have taken on the task of communicating to the world the atrocities that continue to be committed in Afghanistan by U.S. and NATO troops. Kathy also explained that although Obama claims to be pulling troops out of Afghanistan by 2014, the U.S. has signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement that will extend the occupation through at least 2024. Kathy maintained that although the U.S. has tried to spin the occupation of Afghanistan as a “humanitarian war,” none of NATO’s ventures have been life-giving. After existing close to 65 years, it is time for NATO to retire. We began to discern together how to convey this message in the week leading up to the NATO summit. Ken Butigan of Pace e Bene prepared us to use our bodies as a powerful nonviolent force. He shared an image of the two hands of nonviolence: one stretched out firmly saying, “Stop! I refuse to cooperate with this injustice,” and the other held palm up, saying, “I am open to you as a human being.” During two days of visioning, we decided to walk together to Obama’s reelection campaign headquarters to publicly invite him and other NATO leaders to break bread with us and open a dialogue about truly withdrawing from Afghanistan. After a long night of painting banners and styrofoam vegetables (“Potato! Tomato! No More NATO!”), we gathered at 6:30 am Monday morning to pray for transformation and a future without war and capitalism. As we gathered, the high school ROTC from across the street marched by with their wooden weapons, so we serenaded them with a rendition of “ain’t gonna study war no more” and set off on the three mile walk to the Prudential Building. When we arrived, three security guards told us we could keep a moving picket on the sidewalk, so we sang, danced, and passed out fliers and croissants to passersby. Then, we gathered for a moment of silence to remember all those who have died in Afghanistan, and proceeded to enter the building in order to deliver our message. Security guards blocked the main revolving doors, but left a side door open, so all 100 of us danced into the atrium, some reaching the secondfloor balcony, along with the banquet table. Since we were unwelcome to take the elevators up to the floor housing the campaign headquarters, we joined our voices in reading aloud the statement explaining our protest against the capitalism and militarism of NATO and G8. For me, this was the most powerful moment of the action, as my voice and heart resonated with the declaration that “as people of faith and conscience, we advocate relationships and economics rooted in love…refusing to participate in the political and economic structures that oppress our sisters and brothers, harm our communities, and destroy our environment.” About 25 police and the building manager all listened to our words before asking us to leave the building. A wall of cops on bicycles waited for us outside.
Eight people, led by their conscience and a dedication to Gospel Obedience, remained rooted in the building, faithful to delivering the message. As they were arrested one by one and led into the police van, we continued to lift up songs, and the officer driving the van joined in singing “No more NATO over me.” One of the journalists present commented that it seemed like Monday morning church, and this was exactly the spirit of our collective action. Our faith is what lifts our feet to walk this path together. It is what requires us to resist structures that promote greed, exploitation, violence, and destruction. It is what leads us to live in a new way together, lifting up and celebrating God’s kin-dom, where all are welcomed to come and eat on equal ground. K.S.
Megan and Henry of the DesMoines Catholic Worker reject the war economy and put life first. Photo by Aaron Jorgensen-Briggs of the DesMoines Worker
Simplicity Fulfilled Through Generosity
Once I heard about an old man who had lived an impoverished lifestyle. He lived in a shack, ate at the local charity, and always had dirty, torn clothes. But upon his death it was found that he was actually a millionaire. Urban legend? Perhaps. But this story, real or no, illustrates the point that someone can live a very simple life without anyone reaping the benefit of it. Many of us are good at avoiding over-consumption, but this can be motivated by greed. It becomes easy to balk at the wastefulness of those around us when perhaps we should be balking at the way we hoard all of the things we have done such a good job of saving. Unless simplicity is coupled with generosity, it is not really a fulfilled version of itself. Conserving can sometimes also be rooted in fear. Fear that there will not be enough, fear that if we don’t hold back we won’t receive our share. We practice simplicity to what end? To have more for ourselves, or to give to others? It is hard to see through the constant message of our culture that we don’t have enough. If Capitalism didn’t send this message, it would collapse. But the ironic reality is that while we sit in dread of not having enough to make ends meet, we forget to differentiate between want and need. Continuing to live simply by refusing to over-consume, while not feeling reluctance to be generous, is no doubt a high and difficult calling. I would like to confront the miser in my own heart by finding a way for conservation and simplicity to become a path to generosity, a cause and effect of sorts: because I save, I have an abundance left over to give. J.S.
K eeping the Faith Green: Seward Sustainability Fair
In March, three churches put “creation care” into action by organizing a neighborhood Sustainability Fair. Missio Dei-ers Jared and Charlie joined Faith Mennonite Church and the Community of St. Martin to plan a daylong event that brought folks in the Seward neighborhood together to swap clothes, exchange seeds for planting gardens, recycle electronics, and weave fabric scraps into a collective art project. Lunch was served out of a big blue school bus by Sister’s Camelot, a group that salvages organic produce. Volunteers distribute the free fruits and vegetables at surprise drop-off points throughout Minneapolis, and cook up the rest into delicious vegan meals to share at community events. Many other organizations were present to offer resources for living sustainably, including urban farms and CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture), a new neighborhood space called the Seward Bike-Walk Center, groups promoting solar energy, and an organization called Fruits of the City that will glean food this growing season from fruit trees and household gardens in the area. Missio Dei was well-represented throughout the day by the seven lovely ladies stationed outside Faith Mennonite Church, cackling about laying eggs in the backyard. Dumpy the Rooster crowed a constant invitation for people walking by to stop in and look around. Meanwhile, Jared and Charlie kept the gears turning at the bike-repair station, tuning up a steady flow of petroleumfree vehicles.
neighbors participate. I love that: trying to think about not how I can shelter my life more so I can live in my own little world, but to try to get our neighbors involved and do what we can with them. K: What are some good starting points for people who want to start participating more in the cycle? C: There are a lot of current movements. Composting is fairly socially acceptable now. Growing something, even if it’s just a couple plants in your house. Try to do an organic garden. Instead of buying all your stuff, try to find it or make do without it, to stop consuming unnecessary things. If you’re going to buy something, think about buying it with a group of people. If you have a bunch of tools, share them with other people. Sharing and being neighborly can be a starting point. Another idea is to get a smaller trash receptacle and see if you can produce less garbage. That’s going to make you really aware of how much you’re consuming. At this point, I think the production of “stuff ” is one of today’s main evils—it removes us from the cycle. If you can, make it yourself. Be aware of what you throw away, and try to reduce that. If you’re throwing away a bunch of plastic bags, try to just get one and use it over and over again. Bicycling is another big thing: getting around without using petroleum. K: So this sounds like simple living to me. C: I think it connects really strongly with simplicity. To me it’s all integral. The five tenets of Missio Dei are all connected. We’re doing hospitality as our main thing, but we can’t do hospitality without strong prayer, and you don’t really have justice without simplicity, and you can’t do that either without peacemaking. Sustainability to me is just another term for simplicity. When you think of a monk, their lives are already pretty sustainable. In an impoverished community, it’s similar. They’re living simple lives mostly because they don’t have an option. The American Dream sort of taints everything… “Oh, we can buy this, so we should. It’s how I show that I’m successful.”
Sharing the Cycle: an interview with Charlie Thompson
K: When were you first drawn to sustainability? C: It didn’t come from learning, “Oh, I want to be more sustainable.” I spent a lot of my young adult life just out in nature…seeing that nature has a way and a cycle…and that humans have removed themselves from it. For example, our waste is supposed to return to the cycle: nature has a way to take care of that. We think that we’re the top and we can do whatever we want, and that’s not the way of Life on the earth, it’s the way of death. Excessive use of something is going to make it more limited resources for everybody. When that happens, there’s going to be more death involved. K: So do you see reducing consumption and sharing resources as part of your spirituality? C: Yeah, I feel like everything is really integral. In general I’ve wanted to pursue Life, and things that support life and growth—emotional growth, sustainable growth. K: What are some of the nitty gritty practical ways of pursuing Life? C: I think sharing is a huge one. The most important part of sharing is sharing your life with other people, because then you understand the needs of more than just yourself. It’s even better if you can share your life with other living things. Knowing that we’re part of a cycle is key to sustainability. K: Are there ways you are trying to participate more in that cycle? C: At this point, I feel like I’m straddling industrial society and that [natural] cycle. In industrial cycles, you just throw things away, and it’s a line, not a circle. I like to dig deep into getting to the root of things. You realize it’s all right here anyway. If I wanted to, I could save all my excrement and use it to fertilize my garden - to grow food - to eat - to make more excrement. But that cycle doesn’t translate to the city very well. K: What obstacles are there to practicing sustainable cycles in the city? C: Limited space. But with that comes more people to interact with, to help you, to get ideas from, and to influence. Most people are living their lives the way they are not because they’ve chosen it, but because that’s the way that’s been presented to them. The only way you can get away with having a humanure compost, for instance, is if your neighbors are aware, or to have your
K: What do you think about the way that “sustainability” has been used as a buzz word and plugged into consumerism— “Buy this and then you’ll be more sustainable!” C: I think that’s BS. It’s alright because it removes taboos from certain things. What I don’t like is that it’s the same thing as “buying salvation.” Like thinking, “I’m a part of this church, and I’m saved, so I don’t really have to do a whole lot.” K: So it’s actually about changing the way that you’re living. C: Yeah. You can’t just go and buy a Prius, and then you’re saved. The industrial process for making Priuses has a huge impact on our ecological system. A Prius is not sustainable. Can you make it yourself? No. Can you fix it yourself? No. What do you do with it when it breaks down? What do you do with the battery? Are you going to put it in your garden? Probably not. There’s a whole list of questions you can ask yourself. That’s a good sustainability checklist. I like that more people are talking about sustainability because it opens a window for me to challenge people to get deeper. Often people feel guilty. You don’t have to feel guilty, you can just do something about it. Start small.