November 2018

Leaving Church

(all souls day)

The living church remembered

Now in the season

Hallowtide

We can recall who’s gone ahead

Who maybe holds a door

For the rest

Whatever our next jobs might be

I’ve lost too many

Witnesses

Pillars

Walking prayers for me

While mostly they were they

More than an idea of a person

Or a symbol

Or an inspiration

Beyond living day to day

Flawed

Moody

Qualifying me for our companionship

Until one gone

And then another

C L Couch

By Klearchos Kapoutsis from Santorini, Greece – Zaduszki, uploaded by Yarl, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25289705

The Catholic church celebrates Zaduszki (“All Souls Day”) one day after the All Saints Day. Photo from the Polish cemetery of Osobowice in Wroclaw.

Living Church

(all saints day)

I sing a song of the saints of God

Small s people

Some of the names we know

Many, many, many

We will not

But this is their day

Your day

A day for living in the church

For the church

The kirke

The iglesia

Is people, translated

And without translation

Who could know?

Another song mentions a spark

But really it takes a fire

A fire on the inside

Enflaming eyes and ears

The touch, the taste, the word

Senses made alive

We burn together

Heritage and prophecy

Say so

It is the living church in irony,

For fire consumes

It can be used in punishment

Or condemnation

It makes a pillar for a promised people

Its clouds guiding by night

Set fire in the only safe and saving way

The saints of God are led

And leading

Keep us going

Take us there

C L Couch

Isabella Thomas (right) and Starla Williams-Neeley chat while serving the annual Thanksgiving dinner at Mount Zion Baptist Church in Milwaukee. Lynnda Guyton (center) organized this year’s meal. Also serving were (from left) Mary Banks and Denzel and Jasmine Tidmore. Credit: Kristyna Wentz-Graff

Free Meals Make Thanksgiving for Many in Milwaukee

http://archive.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/free-meals-make-thanksgiving-for-many-in-milwaukee-v036kfj-134474133.html

November 24, 2011

Don Behm reporting