Six New Things – Week of March 09, 2026

It’s Lent. Destruction and death are all around. Spring – and New Life – can’t come soon enough. We gather to tend, nurse, and wait. We are in a liminal space: harm and loss linger, but love is sparking visions of a brighter tomorrow.

ONE

Triduum resources for those utilizing our From Ash to Action: Even the Stones Cry Out Lenten Toolkit are available.

The Toolkit is free and accessible to all and provides organizing skill-building for congregations walking ISAIAH’s Palm Sunday Path (March 29) and/or participating in the 2026 EcoFaith Summit – From Fear to Fire: Igniting Community for a Planet in Peril (April 18).

TWO

Rebecca Solnit’s new book, The Beginning Comes After the End: Notes on a World of Change (Haymarket) may be inspirational for Easter as Solnit affirms that, ‘Despite the forces seeking to turn back the clock on history, change is not a possibility; it is an inevitability.’ And ‘this new world embraces antiracism, feminism, a more expansive understanding of gender, environmental thinking, scientific breakthroughs, and Indigenous and non-Western ideas, pointing toward a more interconnected, relational world.’

Her blog post, Visions of Life / Agents of Death: On Love Thy Neighbor and Love Thy Nature (Meditations in an Emergency) is a primer for the book, articulating a sharp critique of Christian nationalism and the ego-driven, extractive and acquisitive mentality behind authoritarian regimes here and abroad. Her clarity of the interconnectedness of diverse justice streams will support deep congregational conversations.

THREE

Similarly, Rev. Cameron Trimble’s The Work Beneath the Surface (Piloting Faith) draws parallels between the slow underground growth of bamboo forests and the deep relational work of community building, while What the Chickens Are Teaching Me (Piloting Faith) reveals ‘what we have created in the name of efficiency and abundance’ and ‘that this is [not] the world God dreamed of for us’.

In a balanced overview, she ponders Sacred Accountability in the Age of AI. But as with many writing on the topic, she skirts the major issue of data warehouses.

All three are well worth a read – and include beautiful poetry, discussion questions, and spiritual practices.

FOUR

Both Solnit and Trimble reference the interconnections of injustices. Beyond the Stained Glass Ceiling: Women Clergy in a Still-Patriarchal Church (Chalice) offers multilateral antidotes by inviting us into ‘a community that operates from a place of abundance, blues relationship over hierarchy, and ensures the next generation of leaders can flourish’.

FIVE

In the struggle against authoritarianism, according to Valarie Kauer (The Revolutionary Love Project), We Must Keep Our Eyes on Minnesota because Minnesota Is a Blueprint of Love. Probably, because we’re More Than ‘Peaceful Protests’: The Power of Nonviolence in Minnesota (Our Moral Moment w/ Bishop William Barber & Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove)

We therefore might be ahead of the game, but for those who could use a boost, show up As Yourself: The Sacred Work of Embodying Grace (Upper Room), an exploration of what Jesus meant ‘when he said to love others as yourself’.

SIX

If you’re ready to share from your experience of the past several months, you might contribute to – or glean from – the Repair and Restore: Daily Lenten Devotions by Minnesota Christian Clergy. Here’s where they’re posted; here’s where you can sign up to write one.

AND/OR

Join the call for Christians to ‘repent, resist injustice, defend the vulnerable, and renew our allegiance to Jesus Christ above every earthly power’. Add your name to the Call to Christian Clergy in a Crisis of Faith and Democracy Sign-on Letter