Lenten Blessings...

Dear IPMN Friends,

These days we are hearing the voices of fear, and words of false hope, the trauma of isolation and the call for community. With Corvid-19, we are in the midst of something we cannot fully understand, nor an outcome we can yet imagine.

We started our Lenten journey with ashes, a reminder of where we began and to where we are going. We normally consider this ancient ritual purely as metaphorical. However, these days, the fragility of our lives seem to be in the balance. The new rituals of distancing, quarantine and washing bring new urgency to our ashen life.

As Presbyterians we often quote Romans; “in life and in death, we belong to God.” These words take on new relevance. We know this fragility is a constant among our sisters and brothers in Palestine, now walled off, cut off, and even imprisoned by an Israeli government that would prefer they simply die from a virus than offer aid or the freedom to protect themselves - another tool of ethnic cleansing. 

We find ourselves in challenging times, yet our Palestinian siblings continue to call out. We hear and seek to be faithful in our response. Thank you for your continuing support of them and your activism which holds accountable the powers of this world.

In life and in death we all belong to God. This is a time, as we prepare for the unexpected life-gift of Jesus, who transformed death into life, who wrestled the dark powers and was, and is victorious.

Again, we acknowledge our vulnerability and need for Jesus, God present in power and might, who calls us to claim that power, through our defiance of dark powers and who is our declaration of truth to those powers.

John Anderson
Pauline Coffman
Co-Moderators