Dear Broadway Family,
The recent natural disasters have been heavy on my heart this week- typhoon in Laos and Philippines, flooding in Honduras, Nigeria, South Africa and Pakistan, Hurricane Fiona in Puerto Rico and Canada, and Ian in the Carolinas and Florida, and all the surrounding areas that are also affected by those conditions.
And while these conditions are beyond our control, there are other calamities that are caused because of our human choices- besides the damage we have caused to the earth and all of creation, we have the civil war in Myanmar, tension between Belarus and Russia, Ethiopia and Sudan, DRC and Rwanda, and the recent Russian war against Ukraine.
As a country we continue to struggle with the ills of racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, and gender biases. We continue to see federal and state funds declining to resource public services in our communities- which means more housing instability, mental health concerns, poverty and food insecurity. And we all know that none of these lists are exhaustive. I have only named what came to mind immediately. We all know there is much than that all around us!
I think all of this is on my mind because of a recent experience we had as a church. A member of our community found a small safe corner in our parking lot for them to be. I knew about it, and we have allowed this to happen on our property. Over time, however, things seemed to get out of hand and neighbors started to complain. We had to make the difficult decision to ask them to leave and they complied very respectfully. But, it hurt my heart!
