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Dear People of St. Michael’s,
Ed Chambers, an organizer with the Industrial Areas Foundation, said that the conversation “is the most radical thing the IAF teaches.” The IAF is a network of organizations, including churches like ours, that work to build relationships strong enough to act together for justice in our communities. At the heart of that work is the simple practice of sitting down, listening, and telling the truth about our lives. In a world that pulls us apart, conversation draws us together. Relationships give us power.
That is not only an organizing insight. It is a Christian one. We are people shaped by relationship. We gather around tables. We show up for one another. We listen and share our lives.
This summer, we are making space for that kind of connection in two directions. Some conversations will happen within our parish, helping us know one another more deeply and learn about the ministries we share. If you sign up using the button below or in the entryway on Sunday, you will be paired with three or four other people and invited to have three or four conversations over the course of the summer, getting to know people you likely do not know well. This is a chance to build stronger community across a large congregation shaped by three services and many ministries.
With the New Mexico IAF project, we are also invited into a set of conversations that will send us outward to meet our neighbors, leaders, and institutions across Albuquerque as we seek to work for justice together. A small team has begun gathering to organize this work at the parish level. On Sunday, June 14, I will offer an introduction to how organizers think about conversations and relationship building.
In the church we know both directions matter. Our common life grows when we deepen relationships inside the church and build new ones beyond it.
I hope you will join us.
Blessings,
Mike+
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