Dear Friends,

I spent this morning with my dad and mom at the elementary school that 3 of our grandchild attend. It was a special Memorial Day Celebration complete with seemingly hundreds of smiling, wiggling children singing their hearts out about the beauty of our country and their "thank you's" to the Veterans who were the guests of honor. My dad is a WWII Veteran, and the recipient of 2 Purple Hearts. It was, indeed, a very proud moment to watch as his great grandchildren came forward and presented him with a large floppy paper poppy (and some shy hugs) as an expression of their pride and gratitude.

I witnessed this moment with a heart full of gratitude, for our precious grandchildren but as a daughter, for my father who survived despite 2 life threatening wounds, and has lived to this moment in his and our lives. In the midst of my pride is the awareness that the war held terrible consequences for him, and as my hospice ministry over many years has revealed, for many who have seen combat. The toll that war takes cannot always be counted in casualties.

While hardly a proponent of war, I am grateful that my father and other men and women like him, were willing to "lay down their lives" for our freedom and the freedom of those who were victims of an unjust regime that took the lives of millions of Jews and other innocent people, and threatened to destroy the heart and soul of humanity.

And, so, as we remember those who have given their lives in defense of freedom, I invite us to remember the blessings that we live with in this country. The freedom to disagree and even to demonstrate that disagreement publicly, to practice our faith as we feel called to do (even in the face of 'excommunication'), the freedom to teach our children about goodness and kindness and the value of living a life of justice and peace. And, as we remember our blessings let us continue to pray for an end to war in Iraq, where to date, 4,299 US military and 45,160 civilians have died.

In our Gospel this Sunday, Jesus prays that "all may be one" just as Jesus is one with the One who sent him. What better prayer could we offer as we observe Memorial Day... May we "all be one". We invite you to enjoy this re-envisioning of the song "America the Beautiful" by Miriam Therese Winter, which dreams of us truly being one and living in harmony, May this dream become reality in our lives and world.


If you are seeking a "community of believers" to journey with you in a deeper way; one where every voice is heard, and women and men are unafraid to acknowledge the equality of women and men; and to embrace feminine as well as masculine... and beyond... images of God, we invite you to join us at Spirit of Life. As a community, we try wholeheartedly to "be Christ" to one another, to tend to the needs of one another, and to those in need in our world. Together, we celebrate our belief that we are being transformed by God's grace as we gather together in prayer. We warmly invite you to come and gather with us at our Table, and join in our experience of the "kin-dom" of God. We are an inclusive, open, affirming and interactive community, deeply committed to being a people of "justice and joy."

With dreams of a world where peace reigns,

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