Photo: Bishops on contemplative retreat with Br. James Dowd (center) in Schuyler, Debraska, at the St. Benedict Center.
“When you still the body, you become aware of what hurts.”
Brother James Dowd, speaking on retreat in Schuyler, Nebraska
I have just returned from a few days of contemplative retreat with fifteen fellow Episcopal bishops in Schuyler, Nebraska. Brother James Dowd of Incarnation Monastery in Omaha was our retreat leader. He taught on the topic of stillness in the spiritual life and how it leads to stability in Christ.
On our first day together, Brother James noted how stillness leads us to awareness of pain and brokenness, both in our own bodies and in our communities. While we were on retreat, the news of the shooting and killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis reached us. Included in our retreat group was Bishop Craig Loya of the Diocese of Minnesota. The pain in his community was also in the room with us.
People of good will can differ on immigration policy. As Christians, however, we believe Christ is present in all persons. In the Episcopal Church, at baptisms we promise to strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being. Immigration enforcement that seeks to demean, dehumanize, and escalate violent confrontation fails the more perfect union we seek in this country. It damages everyone.
This country has a long, costly history of nonviolent witness, often led and sustained by people of faith. The civil rights movement was strengthened by the friendship and shared labor of figures such as The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, and Thich Nhat Hanh. Fannie Lou Hamer placed her own body in harm’s way so that others might stand in the voting booth. We are not innocent of violence in this land—but neither are we without a tradition of disciplined, nonviolent resistance.
In this season of Epiphany, when we remember that the light of Christ drew people from every land toward Him, I invite you into a season of sustained prayer for peace—for every community in this country, especially those carrying present and pointed grief. And I invite you, as you are able, to consider concrete acts of nonviolent witness that call for an end to immigration practices that demean and dehumanize, and that heighten the risk of violence.
There is another way. Renee Good should be alive today.
Bishop Brian Cole