Six New Things – Week of January 19, 2026

Three weeks ago, Sherrilyn Ifill wrote, ‘If you are not feeling something close to heartbreak this week, you are not paying attention…’

Witnessing repeated – orchestrated – trauma and tragedy is costly to our souls. Our hearts break.

Community is the balm we need.

ONE

Some people I love are still trying to distance themselves from the pain by asserting that ‘we’re not affected by that’ or ‘that’s not happening here’.

Flannery O’Connor said, ‘The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.’

Christ – and our basic humanity – calls us to be affected by what is happening to our neighbors.

Engagement helps to mend broken hearts. Being in community with those who suffer deeply is where we meet Christ, Healer and Companion, personally.

Here’s one way we have shown up together: 1400 people gathered to Sing Resistance. That’s powerful church.

Engage in the movement with singing circles, prayer gatherings, worship, and community groups.

• Song lists from Songs for the Movement include suggestions for ‘prayer, rest, protest, and resilience-building for times such as these’.
• The Twin Cities Singing Resistance Walking Song Vigil Music is music for the streets, for community-building, and for gathering together in grief.
• Here’s a particular piece of grace from local songwriter, Barbara McAfee: Next to You would be a beautiful closing to any prayer or singing circle.
• Folx at the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area put together this fantastic – and growing – resource list for Preaching & Praying after the Shooting of Reneé Good [and Alex Pretti].
• HOLDING MINNESOTA: A VIRTUAL PRAYER ROOM
  • Hosted by the Movement Chaplains.
  • Support is offered for:
    • Children and Youth
    • Families and Those Directly Affected
    • The Twin Cities Community
    • Those Offering Mutual Aid and Embodied Presence
  • Occasional live online communal prayer and silence is offered.
  • Share a prayer. Sit in prayer. Rest in spiritual support – here.

TWO

From Ash to Action: Even the Stones Cry Out Lenten Toolkit is now available.

This Toolkit supports congregations preparing for ISAIAH’s Palm Sunday Path (March 29) and/or the 2026 EcoFaith Summit of the Upper Midwest: From Fear to Fire: Igniting Community for a Planet in Peril (April 18).

These are two separate events but with several links, predominantly their focus on community organizing.

[And also that the powerful Rev. JaNaé Bates Imari, co-executive director of ISAIAH, will be speaking at the EcoFaith Summit!]

Develop your congregation’s skills in building up community and organizing to live into God’s preferred future as you journey toward Palm Sunday, Easter, and the EcoFaith Summit with intergenerational worship and discussions, spiritual practices, activities, and community-based action.

Learn more here.

Direct access to From Ash to Action: Even the Stones Cry Out is here.

If this is all really new and you’re not sure where to begin, please contact me at ministrylab@uccmn.org or 651.279.1677. I am here to support innovation – and these times call for a lot of it!

THREE

Sherrilyn Ifill concluded her post with:

‘We are near democratic collapse. It is past time to demand more from each of us. So I am asking every one of us to take responsibility for connecting the dots in your own mind. Understand that if they can keep you disconnecting the things that are of a piece, treating each injustice as its own separate and independent thing [and something, therefore, that does not affect you], they are winning. And you are wasting what precious little time we have, and missing the opportunity for deeper and more enduring alliances.’

Injustice anywhere is injustice that affects us all.

• Here’s a white guy, Keith Fitzgerald, explaining why we need a majority of us to stand up to fascism and authoritarianism.
• Here’s Billy Bragg singing about it in City of Heroes. Here are the lyrics. Good for talking with youth.
• Build alliances and networks and collaborative partnerships. See From Ash to Action for tips on building up community connectedness.

FOUR

Many serve in contexts where it is difficult to engage in what has been negatively labeled as ‘political’ dialogue or action.

• Find encouragement and wisdom in Dr. Jemar Tisby‘s Closing Sermon (01.25.26) from the Southern Lights Conference: Wisdom from the Edge, When the Center Cannot Hold.
  • The link is in Bass’s post at The Cottage.
  • Dr. Tisby breaks apart the old argument that ‘the Gospel’ is not ‘political’, that Jesus was ‘not political’, and that preachers should stick to ‘preaching the Gospel, not politics’. He does so with deep biblical integrity and faithful witness to Jesus’ life and ministry.
  • Thanks to Diana Butler Bass for sharing this incredible sermon freely.

FIVE

At-home activism is hugely important. Thanks to all who are engaged from home!!

Discover actions as they pop up – including phone banks and calls for calls – with ISAIAH’s Public Events + Rapid Response Actions We Are Taking list; updated regularly.

For folx who cannot be in the streets bringing groceries, blowing whistles, attending protests; for those who don’t live in the middle of the fear, knitting is a form of protest and solidarity. Really, it is.

Support a local, woman-owned and operated business and knit Melt the ICE caps for those outside. Distribute anywhere and everywhere.

Here’s the story and the pattern and the yarn, all in one spot.

If mutual aid is more your speed:

MUTUAL AID FOR MINNESOTANS IMPACTED BY ‘OPERATION METRO SURGE‘ is organized by Lyndale Congregational United Church of Christ.

‘When you make a contribution to the MN Together Fund, you pool your resources with Minnesotans across the state who are loving our neighbor in real time. MARCH, a multi faith alliance of communities working toward racial justice and collective liberation, is collaborating with leaders of affected communities to match these funds to trusted partners best positioned to meet the emerging needs of our neighbors…

This is a moment mutual aid was made for.’

Join in here.

SIX

Because it is my job to share books and the like, here are some important ones coming out – and a couple oldie-but-goodies referenced while I’ve been out and about. They all speak to how we got here, how to be present while we’re here, and/or where we could go from here:

• There Is No Other: The Way to Harmony (HarperOne)
  • ‘An essential balm for these tumultuous times’ inspiring us to ‘abandon the idea that there is an ‘other”.
• Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity’s Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism (North Atlantic Books)
  • Shared with caution: this is a heavy read.
  • ‘A thought-provoking guide to facing global pandemics, climate change, and other modern crises with maturity, humility, and integrity.’
• The Conspiracists: Women, Extremism, and the Lure of Belonging (Broadleaf)
  • ‘Draws us into the lives of conspiratorial women to explore how and why women are becoming radicalized… As misinformation spreads and extremism intensifies, [we must] understand it. Otherwise, we have no hope of countering its force.’
• Beyond the Stained Glass Ceiling: Women Clergy in a Still-Patriarchal Church (Chalice)
  • ‘How to foster… a community that operates from a place of abundance, values relationship over hierarchy, and ensures the next generation of leaders can flourish’.
• You Can Sit with Me (Feiwel & Friends)
  • ‘A soft-hearted picture book that shows how much a day can shift by one person simply reaching out a hand for someone to feel more welcome’.

SEVEN

Thanks, again to Diana Butler Bass, for sharing this. It is a gift – from Rev. Brian Baker.

~~~

The world is too dangerous

and too beautiful for anything but love.

May your eyes be so blessed you see God in everyone.

Your ears, so you hear the cry of the poor.

May your hands be so blessed

that everything you touch is a sacrament.

Your lips, so you speak nothing but the truth with love.

May your feet be so blessed you run

to those who need you.

And may your heart be so opened,

so set on fire, that your love,

your love, changes everything.

~A Black Rock Prayer Book, Rev. Brian Baker