The culture wars continue—today controversial Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito was sworn in on the Supreme Court. For those who were paying attention, the fight was rather bitter and polarizing. The final vote in the Senate was the most partisan in modern history. An article I read said that this was the crowning moment of conservative jurists in their twenty-year fight to take back the Court from liberal activist judges. Can you blame me for preferring to read about the Oscar nominations?

Sometimes it looks like what happens in government is all about money and power—who has power, who doesn’t have power, who feels threatened by their impending loss of power. And what about the rest of us? Who cares about the “least of these” when you’re trying to maintain or regain power? Where is the “love your neighbor as yourself” in all this self-aggrandizement? Is anyone surprised that so many young people are no longer invested in the democratic process?

Yet those same young people, with all their reputation of apathy, may just be the saving grace of the whole thing yet. NNPCW member Beth Shaw-Meadow, from Texas, just sent me a letter based on her experiences at a Presbyterian Disaster Assistance work camp in Louisiana helping with the Hurricane Katrina cleanup. Here’s what she said about her experience working with people who had lost everything:

“You would think in the wake of such devastation everyone would be hugely dejected and perhaps just give up. Just the opposite has occurred. In the past month I met some of the most hopeful, positive and uplifting folks I have ever met in my life. When you can watch a group of twenty people carry your most beloved possessions out of your home, throw them in a trash heap, and then rip the house that in some cases you built yourself down to the bare bones, and then shrug your shoulders and say “oh well, I guess we’ll just start over”, that to me is courage, and that is strength. Because in the end, it really is just all stuff. You also might think that after witnessing such widespread hurt and destruction we would feel down and depressed about our world. Again, just the opposite. I think I feel more hopeful and optimistic about the future and what we as people have the capacity to do to make it a better place than I have in years. A friend once told me that it doesn’t matter how big a problem is or how unsolvable it seems. If you’re doing something about it, no matter how small, the problems suddenly don’t seem so big after all.”

During my Pentecostal days, I remember hearing a lot about storing up “treasures in heaven.” Contrasting these two things—divide-and-conquer Washington politics with the courage and strength of those who have lost everything—I see that parable afresh. There is the quest for power, for possessions, for status, that leads nowhere. And there is the quest for God’s realm on earth, one where people come together as a community to help and encourage one another in love. For people pursuing such treasures, even a storm that washes away everything they have cannot rock their true foundation.

And God is among them, accompanying them on the path that leads to life.

“Do not story up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” --Matthew 6:8

Kelsey

I heard on the radio coming into work this morning that some liquor company is holding a “Why I Hate Valentine’s Day” contest. Apparently they claim that their liquor is some sort of aphrodisiac, and so they want people to love one another all year and not just on Valentine’s Day. The grand prize for the best explanation of why one hates Valentine’s Day? A lovely trip to Chicago, Illinois, where the winner and her or his guest will visit the site of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Now that’s a happy Valentine’s Day.

This got me to thinking about all the years in which I was an avowed hater of Valentine’s Day myself. Of course, my virulence toward the holiday has abated somewhat, but I still reflexively sneer at the piles of Valentine’s Day candy that the stores put out, starting on January 2. Why in the world do we need to start buying Valentine’s Day candy as soon as the Christmas candy is cleared off the shelf anyway? So we can all gorge ourselves and then feel even more unattractive and miserable as the holiday approaches?

During my long years of singlehood, I found various ways of coping with this particular occasion. In high school, I just felt bad about myself as all the other kids around me got those roses that their boyfriends had bought at the Key Club fundraiser. Apparently the slew of adolescent secret admirers that were undoubtedly lusting after me preferred to remain secret.

In my first year of college, I declared all out war against the holiday. I spearheaded a movement to wear black on February 14, one joined by several of my equally intelligent, beautiful, and unattached friends. But I wouldn’t wear just any black. No, I pulled out my calf-high black boots, put on that black skirt, and marched through the school cafeteria with my head held high. I wasn’t going to let my dateless status affect my hotness!

By the time I was a resident assistant in the dorms, I had moderated a bit in my approach. For my students that year, I made two kinds of cards for February 14—for those happily in a relationship, the card was a little “Happy Valentine’s Day” pink heart. For everyone else, it was a black circle that said, “Happy Singles Awareness Day.”

In 2003, expecting to celebrate yet another Singles Awareness Day, the Coordinating Committee and I felt it would be particularly appropriate to have our spring meeting fall on the weekend of February 14. We decided to play into the stereotypes and be bitter and man-hating for the day (IMPORTANT NOTE: on the other 364 days of the year, members of NNPCW’s Coordinating Committee are NOT bitter man-haters and never have been. Pay no attention to that garbage can of flaming bras in the corner).

Actually, the truth is that we all brought our prettiest dresses and Lucy made us a special Puerto Rican dinner. But we did watch some of The Vagina Monologues, too.

Of course, that was the year I met David, aka The Bogdan. I still have the bootleg Spoon album he gave me for our first Valentine’s Day together, during that fateful CoCo meeting… where Lucy burned the rice and Kelsey and The Bogdan shared their first kiss in the parking lot of Camp Kavanaugh. Not exactly what I imagined for romance—actually, it was better.

So here’s to Valentine’s Day, Singles Awareness Day, whatever you’d like to call it. And here’s a little contest of our own, for the blog—to the person who can most convincingly state why they hate Valentine’s Day on this forum, I will personally call you and serenade you on the big day with the song of your choice (if I have your phone number, that is). Some folks say that I do a mean “Baby Got Back.”

“Jesus answered, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” --Mark 12:29-31

Kelsey

I’ve been twenty-five for a week now, and I must say that it hasn’t been too bad. Yeah, besides the random aches in my back that my mom says I’d better get used to, 25 has treated me well thus far. But what I’ve really decided I need for my birthday (which continues until I finish eating the birthday cake in my fridge) is black trouser socks. The fashion world dictates that we can’t wear white athletic socks with our black slacks. But why not?! It isn’t like black and white are horrendously clashing colors. And lamentably for someone who has to dress professionally for work every day, I have far more pairs of white socks than I do black trouser socks.

Because I ran out of black socks a couple of days ago, I had to wear my dress boots to work this morning to cover up my athletic socks. Of course, these boots have a three-inch heel, which makes me about six inches taller than everyone else. A colleague at the Presbyterian Women Racial Ethnic Dialogue today said, “I didn’t know you were so tall!” And of course, I’m not.

I spent about three hours at said dialogue, sharing how NNPCW’s work relates to women of color and listening to their comments about how racial ethnic concerns could be more fully integrated into our work. What interested me, though, was the group’s level of concern about young women in the church. Everywhere I go, Presbyterians seem united in their desire to incorporate young people into their work. Yet we somehow seem elusive.

Ageism is an often-neglected but powerful force at work in our church. Even in an incredibly diverse room of women today, women from a spectrum of cultural backgrounds in the church (including African American, Brazilian, Hispanic, Latina, African, Asian American, Middle Eastern, and European American), I only saw one member of the dialogue who looked under age 30. In fact, I would be willing to put down money that I was the youngest person in the room. But especially since I became an associate, I’ve become used to being a youngling.

And I’ll confess that it has impacted me, perhaps more than I even realize. I’ve always been a very confident public speaker—since high school, when I competed in oratory competitions, I’ve never run into problems finding words to express my ideas. Yet sitting in that room today, with all these older folks around me, I felt almost downright nervous (although that also had to do with the fact that I’d walked into the meeting two minutes late and had to crawl under the table in front of everyone to get to my seat).

Even in the supportive environment of staff meetings, though, surrounded by the wisdom and experience of some of the most amazing women in the church, I sometimes find it difficult to add anything. In a way I hadn’t known until I came here, I’ve almost become pigeonholed into the “young adult box.” I can speak authoritatively on what it means to be a young adult, since I am one, but I hesitate a bit when speaking about anything else. It’s not that others are silencing me… it’s just that realization of my own ignorance about so many things.

Really, it boils down to a confidence issue for me, a need to reclaim my own voice. At the same time, perhaps it is a confidence issue that many of us face throughout the church. We’d like to get more involved in the larger arena, but there’s that persistent feeling that we just don’t know enough to contribute. So we segregate ourselves into young adult groups or we drop the church altogether.

I’m excited about the Leadership Event this summer because we’re proposing a dialogue across those age lines. Perhaps then we can really shed some light on one of those major issues in our church that everyone is hinting at but no one is talking about—ageism.

“Let no one despise your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.” --1 Timothy 4:12

Kelsey

I’ve lately been following the case of a group of mainline Protestant pastors in Ohio who have asked the IRS to check out the tax-exempt status of their evangelical brethren after some incidents promoting a Republican Ohio gubernatorial candidate. I heard a similar story of a church in California being investigated for an anti-Iraq War sermon preached shortly before the 2004 election. With the rise in political power of the religious right, it seems that the battlegrounds of religion and politics have become even more fractious.

Now, I can understand the frustration on all sides. I must confess that even I have had angry moments of my own—the Sunday before the 2004 presidential election, my mom attended a church that literally announced from the pulpit that it would be holding a prayer vigil on Monday for a particular candidate’s victory. Now, if that doesn’t warrant revoking a church’s tax-exempt status… grrr.

As I was reading the latest article in this Ohio case, though, 1 Corinthians 6:1-8 popped into my head. It is the passage headed, “Lawsuits Among Believers” in the NRSV, and in it Paul says:

“If you have ordinary cases, then, do you appoint as judges those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to decide between one believer and another, but a believer goes to court against a believer—and before unbelievers at that?” --1 Corinthians 6:4-6

The Corinthian church that Paul was talking to the in first century had its own similar problems on contentiousness and dispute. A commentary I read remarked that it was traditional in Jewish communities and other Greek-speaking groups to settle disputes within the community, without taking legal recourse. Paul was horrified about the Corinthians’ lawsuits not only because such proceedings aired the dirty laundry to the world, but also because they ran contrary to the way that Christians are called to treat one another. Paul goes on:

“In fact, to have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?” --1 Corinthians 6:7

This Ohio case is about more than just whether particular churches broke the law—this case is part of the ongoing culture wars that seem to be ripping our church and our nation apart. And rather than modeling a new way, a transformative way, of settling disputes, the Christian community in this country—all of us—is showing the world that we are as bitter and contentious as everyone else.

Part of embodying the peace we seek in the world, bringing the light of God into darkness, is being able to speak to one another in a spirit of love. Because love is at the heart of the Gospel and Scriptures—not wishy-washy Valentine’s Day love, either, but the love that cares enough to stick it out with one another through the tough times. If we Christians can’t deal with our disputes in love, then how can any of us claim that we know God?

Do we have that kind of deep love in the Church universal? The jury is still out. But our increasingly vocal, increasingly public Christian infighting on all levels doesn’t bode well for the verdict.

“If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” --1 Corinthians 13:1-3

Kelsey

You all should check out the fascinating theological conversation taking place on the comment posts from Amy Robinson’s blog on December 16. Amy and Viola, one of our frequent commenters, have a great dialogue going on about the nature of the Trinity. Thanks to both of you for continuing the discussion—I’ve learned a lot from reading it.

Today marks the year anniversary of Network Notes. Hooray! It amazes me that it has gone this long and enjoyed modest success. In fact, it is downright weird sometimes. Not only has this blog been featured on the PC(USA) homepage, but a modified blog post has even shown up in Presbyterians Today (where I heard that a letter to the editor wanted to know if I had anything better to do with my time than bash Martha Stewart. My answer? Nope, not really). We have even appeared in news reports of the larger ecumenical Christian community—click here to read an article about Network Notes published in The Christian Post back in October.

When I started writing this blog, I really wasn’t sure what it would morph into. I kind of had the idea of some sort of regular article rhythm—on Mondays I would write about spiritual disciplines, Tuesday would lift up a women’s concern, etc. As I went along, though, the structure became much more fluid than that. Friends started e-mailing me compelling articles for blog topics. Holidays would come up, and I would realize that neither you nor I really had a clue about their Christian origins. I would have a run-in with the River City Parking Authority that I just had to share. And some days, I was sad and lonely and only wrote to seek God’s presence in it all.

So what started out as an attempt to create a well-ordered and edifying miscellany of Christian topics ended up as a jambalaya stew, daily dished out of the murkiness of my own life and our collective social angst. It has been consistent in one sense, though, from start to finish—the ultimate goal has been to prompt questions. I know that not everything that has appeared here would gain general acclaim. In fact, some of you have been very much in opposition to things said. But I’ve never claimed to be nor wanted to be the authority on all subjects. Rather, we’ve all striven to live up to the best of the Reformed tradition, seeking God’s will together in this loose cyber-community.

As for the haphazard way in which the blog has come into its own this year, I think there’s been something of the Holy Spirit behind it. I watched a video a week or two ago called Leadership and the New Science. It talked about Chaos Theory, the scientific theory that a certain natural order always emerges from chaos. Perhaps that is how Network Notes has evolved into its present form. Out of the chaos comes order. Out of suffering comes love. Out of the darkness comes the Light of the World.

And out of some crazy idea comes this little corner of cyberspace. I hope you’ve enjoyed the ride. I sure know that I have.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” --John 1:1

Kelsey

Last week, I basically groveled at all of you to give money to the NNPCW Scholarship Fund. I have heard one story of someone who responded to the blog post by giving for my birthday, but I don’t know about the rest of you… giving doesn’t have to be limited to my birthday, you know. Carrie Weisbard from CoCo was 21 yesterday, and so you’re also welcome to donate $21 in honor of her big 2-1. Or my cousin Carrie will be 24 tomorrow, so we’ll take $24 for Carrie.

Some people did give me real live gifts for my birthday, too. My mom is supposedly sending me a journal that has not yet materialized in the mail (hint, hint), I got money from my grandparents and David’s parents, and Brianne gave both Bridgett and me (yes, Bridgett was 27 on January 22—$27 is nice….) some funky woman business card holders. David sent me a dozen beautiful red roses. But NNPCW alumna Amy Robinson gave me one of the most unique gifts—Auto Repair for Dummies.

I must confess that when I saw Auto Repair for Dummies in the gift bag, I was a bit befuddled. After all, I’ve never shown any mechanical tendencies, never took wood shop or metal shop in high school. And despite my love for my ‘Stang, cars aren’t particularly my thing.

Only after reading the intro did it dawn on me that Amy is a genius. This book isn’t for the car-savvy, like my Grandpa Bruce. Auto Repair for Dummies really and truly is for dummies—the first chapter gives an in-depth explanation of how to pump gas and open your hood. But from there, you learn all about the internal combustion system of your car, how to perform basic maintenance tasks, what tools to buy, and how to interpret those funny noises your car makes.

Of course, Amy knows me well enough to know that I find cars a great source of disempowerment and fear. Every little noise that comes out of the ‘Stang scares me to death. Every time I take the car into the shop, I’m afraid that the mechanic will rip me off because I’m a woman who doesn’t know any better.

This book, on the other hand, is written by a woman who understands that feeling. Unlike most books you would probably pick up on auto repair, Deanna Sclar actually assumes that women will be working on the car. Her safety tips include pulling back long hair so that it doesn’t get caught in the fan belt. At one point she explains how to build a ramp that will allow you to change your own flat tire if you don’t have the upper body strength to lift it.

I’m not writing this as a huge endorsement for Auto Repair for Dummies, per se. But we women do need to learn about our cars. “Why?,” you say, “when I have my dad to work on it? Or I can pay an auto mechanic to do that?” Because you may not always live near your father, or your brother, or have a husband or boyfriend to check out your car for you. You may be driving home alone from a friend’s house at night when your tire goes flat, and there is no one to call. Or you may feel that having to ask a man to check your oil for you only plays into “damsel in distress” cultural stereotypes and just plain makes you feel stupid.

Yes, my friends, you can not only check your oil, but change it, too. You can paint that wall or balance that checkbook. And men, you can bake some great cookies, too. My dad sure did—and he worked at a very “masculine” job as a crane operator. He even made an entire batch of strawberry jam one year, just because he felt like it!

God calls us to live a life of love, not one of fear and ignorance. And if we’re to fully live into what God calls us to be, it is time to take responsibility for basic life skills. Even if that means learning to pop open the hood of your car.

“She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard. She girds herself with strength, and makes her arms strong.” --Proverbs 31:16-17

Kelsey

We’re thinking a lot these days in PresbyLand about a new vision for the life and ministry of the church, and after receiving an e-mail this morning, I know who should take the lead. Did you know that “Britney Spears” is an anagram for “Presbyterians”? Perhaps this is a sign from God that we should solve our financial woes and membership problems by signing an endorsement contract with the pop princess. If she can sell Pepsi, why not Jesus and John Calvin?

Two separate meetings I attended today highlighted why we might need some help from Britney. First, I was called to a meeting with the Presbyterian Leadership Search Effort, or PLSE. Apparently, there is great consternation that only 334 people were ordained to ministry of Word and Sacrament in 2004, despite the fact that right now we have 2840 inquirers or candidates for ministry (sorry about the incomprehensible Presbyterian jargon, folks). So to translate that into everybody language—even though 2840 people are interested in being pastors, in 2004 only 334 actually signed up to do it. Plus, something like one-third of congregations don’t have pastors. So we need more pastors.

Or maybe not. The average debt of someone who graduated from seminary in 2005 was nearly $33,000. Now, it should be said that many of the congregations who don’t have pastors are small, and can’t afford even the average maximum salary of a beginning solo pastor—a little less than $30,000 per year. I don’t know about you, but if I were $33,000 in debt and was offered something like $30,000 per year for my graduate-level professional training, I’d be thinking about a slightly different career track, too.

Still, PLSE is here to help us develop leaders for the denomination, in part to rescue us from our membership crisis. After chatting with them for a while, I went on to hear about proposed changes in PresbyLand that will affect many of us.

One of our main governing groups, the General Assembly Council, has busily been at work reshuffling and rearranging itself to reflect the church of the 21st century. The council wants to equip and empower ministry at the congregational level through focusing everything on four goal areas: Evangelism and Witness, Justice and Compassion, Spirituality and Discipleship, and Leadership and Vocation. Within those, there are a set of eight particular foci, like poverty, families, and small churches.

One of the depressing things about being one of the cogs in this giant wheel known as the Presbyterian Center, though, is knowing that if your work doesn’t fit into one of these categories, well, chop-chop.

Not to say that I don’t think the general idea of restructure isn’t a good one, if it is done well. It is obvious to everyone that the church needs to follow the movement of the Spirit in renewal if we’re going to maintain our relevance in contemporary times.

In fact, in a moment of channeling Ann Crews Melton’s anarchist spirit, I thought, “Why not just throw out the whole hierarchy and decentralize?” And then it occurred to me that this is what the Presbyterian Church is doing, in some sense. I see it in campus ministry all the time—individual churches develop large and powerful collegiate ministries while the denominationally-supported ones grow old and die.

This decentralization tendency might not be all bad… that is, if a renewed spirit of cooperation and trust between churches accompanies it. I read something a while ago that suggested that smaller churches could have full-time pastors if large, wealthy congregations were willing to help out in footing the bill. If only isolationism and self-interest drive the dissolution of our national Presbyterian hierarchy, then it won’t be good for any of us. If decentralization means a renewed emphasis on partnerships and cooperation at the local and regional level, with resources from those of us here in PresbyLand, then perhaps our “connectional church” will actually thrive through change.

Or, as an alternative, the General Assembly Council could hire Britney Spears as their spokeswoman, reap oodles of money from her benefit concerts, and hire a bunch of pastors with the interest accrued (oh yeah, and not cut our programs, either). I think the Southern Baptists would let us have her.

“O give thanks to the Lord, for God is good, for God’s steadfast love endures forever.” --Psalm 136:1

Kelsey

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me… 25 years ago today Ronald Reagan was inaugurated president, the Iran hostages were released, and I was born. A very auspicious day for a history major to be born on, I must say.

Now some of you might e-mail me to say happy birthday, and others might post comments on this blog about it. I say, do neither. There’s a better way that you can wish me a happy birthday—make a contribution to the NNPCW Scholarship Fund for me, one dollar for every year of my life (I almost said day, and at a dollar for every day of my life you’d be donating $9125. A welcome contribution, but perhaps not realistic).

What is the NNPCW Scholarship Fund, you ask? Well, we’ll start almost a year ago, when I was roaming the plains of Texas on the World Tour. In one better example of my versatility as a speaker, I was giving a presentation to high school students on how to get college financial aid (a topic on which I have no formal training, but believe me—after four years of funding Whitworth, I’ve done a lot of research). After the presentation, two young women from Brazil approached. Their father was a Presbyterian pastor of a church in the Dallas area, and they wanted to finish their educations in the States. They asked if the PC(USA) offered financial aid for them.

After checking with our Office of Financial Aid for Studies, I discovered that all PC(USA) scholarships require that you be a citizen or permanent resident of the United States to receive funds. The Brazilian women were actually here on a religious visa, so they didn’t qualify.

I ran into the problem again when I visited a Kenyan new immigrant fellowship of the Presbyterian Church that April. The young women I met there had not yet achieved permanent residency status, and thus had no access to PC(USA) funding. What struck me about it, though, was that many new immigrants and refugees are the ones with the least access to traditional sources of financial aid. Many have great need, but their residency status may prevent them from receiving any funding.

There are many other members of NNPCW, too, who are struggling to make it through school as they juggle academics, jobs, and campus ministry or church activities. These are the women, newcomers to this country and women involved with NNPCW, who inspired this project. NNPCW will offer two $1000 scholarships for the 2006-2007 academic year to fund educational studies here in the United States. One scholarship will be for young women who care about NNPCW’s commitments to faith and women, and the other for new immigrant women to the United States (including those who have not yet achieved permanent residency status). And while the new immigrant scholarship is on a limited trial run this year, we are hoping that the other scholarship application will be available online February 1.

You know what I particularly like about these two scholarships? The people who are setting up the criteria, designing the applications, and selecting applicants aren’t older folks in charge of a trust fund somewhere. Like everything else in NNPCW, young women are doing it. I’ve been working with members of the Scholarship Committee all month—two members of CoCo and an alumna of the Network—to create the application that will appear in February. The same three women will review your applications and select scholarship recipients. And as women who know well the challenges of funding a college education, they’re trying to make this as painless as possible for you, the applicant.

This particular outreach is consistent with the leadership development goals that NNPCW has promoted all along. You have young women designing the scholarship with the needs of their peers in mind. Those young women are giving scholarships to other young women to help them make better lives for themselves and their communities. And we hope that the scholarships will be funded by the faithful giving of other young (and older) women (and men, too).

That’s where you come in. We hope to raise $20,000 for this scholarship ministry, funding that would ensure the survival of these two scholarships for the next ten years. And we’re looking to the women who have been most impacted by NNPCW’s ministry to come through on this one—current college students and alumnae of the Network.

Now, I really have no clue how many people actually read this blog. Generally I can count on my mom, David, David’s parents, a couple of NNPCW alumnae, a few devoted CoCo members, and Viola. But for all I know, there are a hundred of you who are reading this post. If each one of you gave $25 today online for my birthday, and there were a hundred of you, together you could fund two and a half scholarships for young women! Believe me when I say that this would be a far better birthday present than any Blue Mountain greeting card.

I’ll make it easy for you—click here to be taken to our ECO account where you can donate. Or send a donation for E049991 at:

NNPCW Scholarship Fund
100 Witherspoon St
Louisville, KY 40202-1396

Checks made out to the Presbyterian Church (USA), E049991.

Thank you for your help as NNPCW continues to reach out to young women in the church. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

“And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’” --Matthew 25:40

Kelsey

Guess what time it is?! It’s World Tour time! That’s right, no sooner have I recovered from locking myself out of just about everything in Kansas and Missouri but I’m on my way to a new locale. In February, my wandering will take me to the mid-Atlantic for a few weeks, from February 11 to 23. I’ve got pockets of busyness bookending a big blank spot on my calendar. So if you’re interested in having me come visit you, drop me a line or comment to this post.

So far I plan on making an appearance at National Capital Presbytery’s Presbyterian Women Prayer Breakfast on February 11. I will get a minute to speak, and then will sit and listen to a band called “Mystic Origins” play for a while. But hey, as long as the breakfast is good, I don’t mind! I will then visit Western Presbyterian Church’s campus ministry at George Washington University, as well as the United Campus Ministries of Northern Virginia in Washington, DC.

Fast forward to Valentine’s Day, which I will not be spending with the longsuffering David. No, I will enjoy chocolate hearts and Cupids with the Presbyterian campus group at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. I might be at other Virginia schools, too, if people respond to my letters and phone calls.

Unfortunately, that’s where the big black hole is. I’m in talks with Randolph-Macon College in Virginia and the University of Delaware for the 13th through 17th. If I can’t get more set up, I may just go back to DC and explore some of the various social justice agencies that NNPCW could partner with. NNPCW alumna Jenny Lin has hookups with both Sojourners magazine and Bread for the World, so that might fill my time if the schools cruelly reject me.

But things will pick up again the 21st and 22nd when I go to the University of Pennsylvania, Lafayette College, and Wilson College before returning to Louisville. The chaplain at Wilson is NNPCW alumna Kate Smanik-Moyes, so I’m excited to finally meet her.

And if you are an alumna of the Network, we have a special opportunity for you. Alumna Rebecca Morrison has offered to host a get-together with me at her house in the DC metro area. Check out her post on the NNPCW Network Café to get hooked in. I don’t know what we’ll do, but I can guarantee that it will be lots of fun.

So that’s my plug for the World Tour. Please, please, please—if you’re in one of the above areas and you want me to come visit your women’s group, let me know. Because the World Tour is always an adventure!!

“Whoever belittles another lacks sense, but an intelligent person remains silent.” --Proverbs 11:12

Kelsey

We in Louisville were afflicted with an inch of snow last night. Despite there being no apparent accumulation on the roadways, this was enough to delay or shut down several local schools. Of course, that never translates into a day off from work for us. My motto? If we have to go to work, then you kids have to go to school!!

Now some of you have never experienced the misfortune of living in a wintry climate. This may be your first wintry winter for others. Perhaps you are a first year at a college somewhere in New York, and you come from Florida. You have my condolences. I’ve been in New York in the winter, and you probably won’t see the sun again until April. You might want to consider transferring—I’ve heard that Pepperdine in Malibu, California provides great educational opportunities.

But for those of you who have decided to stick it out, let me give you some words of wisdom. I come from a place where, this last Monday, it snowed not one, but ten inches overnight. And after 13 years in that school district, I can safely say that they didn’t have a snow day yesterday. This means that I’ve had some experience with winters.

The first thing you should know—it will take you a little bit longer to get from point A to point B, whether you’re walking or driving. If you are driving, you’ll want to get up about 10 minutes earlier on a snow day to give yourself time to scrape off the car. Then you won’t be late to work or school, as I was this morning. Ooops.

And that leads into a very important tidbit. If you are driving, DO NOT become one of those obnoxious people who only scrapes off two little holes with which to see out of the car. I don’t understand this—do they like driving around as though they were in an igloo? The poor people who follow such a driver onto the interstate will inevitably get a little mini-blizzard of their own as snow whirls off the top of the offending car. Even if you clear off the sides, as long as there is snow on the roof this phenomenon will still occur. Plus, then your car will look like an adolescent boy with a bad buzz cut. So please clean your car thoroughly.

If you plan on walking at all in such weather, I would advise that you have proper attire. I am still amazed by the time one NNPCW member came to Louisville for a meeting in December with only a denim jacket and some flip-flops. In her defense, though, she’s from Florida and attends school in Louisiana.

I, on the other hand, left my apartment this morning wearing my brand-new pair of long underwear I got for Christmas (click here for more stories on that), my skiing gloves, a lightweight but durable rain jacket with hood, a hat, and a scarf. This creates an almost-impenetrable shield between myself and the evil forces of coldness. You may feel like the Pillsbury Doughboy waddling down the street, but at least you won’t be cold!

And if the snow is heavy, I always have a pair of insulated snow boots, wool socks, and waterproof snow pants I can pull out of the closet. These come in very useful for those times that you may be forced to dig yourself out of your dorm room or parking space.

One more thing, this time serious—when you are out, do be careful. Sidewalks are slippery and black ice on roadways can be deadly. My dad always told me to drive only as fast in poor conditions as you feel comfortable. Who cares if the Ford F150 passes you on the right going 60 mph? At least you’ll get there!

Here’s to a speedy winter and a long, warm, beautiful spring!

“Long ago you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you endure; they will all wear out like a garment.” --Psalm 102:25-26a

Kelsey

I think the Tuesdays following a three day weekend are harder than just coming into work on Monday. There’s part of you that still wants to play. I had a very nice MLK weekend in Boston with David, primarily spent watching football, touring the art museum, and eating foods that were altogether unhealthy for us (I’m convinced that I gained at least 3 pounds over the course of the weekend). But that special slice of birthday cheesecake at Mike’s Pastry Shop on the North End was definitely worth the extra 3 pounds. I would highly recommend it, even though the people behind the counter are kind of cranky.

Yesterday we celebrated the birthday of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I read an article once, on a previous MLK day, talking about the problems of holding a national holiday to commemorate King’s memory. While on the one hand it enshrines King and the civil rights movement into our collective national memory, on the other hand it can sanitize and water-down King’s message.

For example, as children celebrating MLK day in school, we learn that Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream that everyone in this country can be equal. It is a dream, we are taught, closely aligned with the American dream stated by our nation’s founders two centuries earlier. People worked very hard and endured great suffering so that this dream might be achieved. We remember and honor their work during this holiday.

The problem with this, in mainstream America anyway, is that we are tempted to think that the struggle against racism is finished—why else would we have a national holiday to commemorate it? We also can fall prey to forgetting the more challenging aspects of King’s message. Shortly before his death, for instance, King had become a rather pointed critic of the Vietnam War and larger issues of global poverty.

Take this for example, from a sermon King delivered in 1967 in New York City about Vietnam:

“I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin [applause], we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

What was amazing to me in reading this sermon was its expansive vision. In it, King talks about the destruction that violence causes, whether perpetrated by gangs on the street or by a government. He talks about the rampant materialism of our society, and how our excesses have left so many others in extreme want. He’s talking about the same issues we are talking about today, but he’s taking it on nearly 40 years before our own present circumstances.

King’s vision, you see, extended far beyond race relations between black and white in the United States. King really was talking about a new world, one rooted solidly in what God calls us to be and what God wills for humanity. This isn’t something you’ll necessarily get from reading your second grade textbook.

So I’ll leave you today with a few more words from Dr. King, in 1967, about who we can be and what God still calls us to be.

“We must not engage in a negative anticommunism, but rather in a positive thrust for democracy [applause], realizing that our greatest defense against communism is to take offensive action in behalf of justice. We must with positive action seek to remove those conditions of poverty, insecurity, and injustice, which are the fertile soil in which the seed of communism grows and develops.

…Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism. With this powerful commitment we shall boldly challenge the status quo and unjust mores, and thereby speed the day when ‘every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low [Audience:] (Yes); the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain.’”

Kelsey

First of all, if you didn’t check out NNPCW alumna Mary Rose Linker’s reply to Wednesday’s post, you should. I’m glad you replied, and I pray that your loved ones make it out of Iraq safely. Thanks for the response.

I’m a bit in the mood for a media circus today. Exhibit A that sexism is still rampant in our world—Sweden announced on Wednesday that it would develop the world’s first female crash test dummy. Apparently, all current crash test dummies only measure how men react to accidents. Now, it is pretty obvious that my body isn’t the same as a man’s body. Not surprising, then, that women have twice as high a risk for whiplash than men in fender-benders. Hmm….

My other interesting media bit comes from The Presbyterian Outlook, the independent weekly Presbyterian magazine. Apparently, the burgeoning Christian commodities market is looking to target niche consumers, so it has put out two versions of the New Testament that might be just what you’re looking for. If you’re a 20-something black male, for instance, Nelson Bibles just published Real: The Complete New Testament for you. This magazine format (sounds a lot like that Revolve version for teenage girls) includes hip-hop photos, rap versions of the Crucifixion, and a “Bible 411” about heaven and hell.

(Okay, I have to stop here and mention that when I was a child in Children’s Church, I was quite famous for my ability to rap “Jesus Loves Me.” My career moved into the secular arena in high school, when friends often crowded around me and begged me to rap “Hit ‘Em High” from the Space Jam soundtrack. I’m pretty much in retirement now, except for one recent karaoke episode with “Baby Got Back.” Um, yeah.)

Anyway, if you’re really into skiing, hiking, rock climbing, basically anything outdoors, then The Outdoor Bible would be perfect for you. You can take this New Testament anywhere, because it is printed on water- and tear-resistant plastic sheets that you can fold up like a road map. If you have a favorite Bible book, individual “maps” are available for only $9.95.

Do you ever feel like the old white guys are just trying too hard?? Marketing does make a difference, I guess, but this whole “it’s cool to like Jesus” thing has never struck a chord with me. Maybe I feel like someone is trying to manipulate me, just like when I see Coke ads and popcorn floating across the screen before the movie starts at the theater. My faith is one of the few things left in this world that no one can box up and try to sell me for $9.95. I kind of have this knee-jerk reaction with what I see as attempts to change that.

Yet we Presbyterians are “Reformed and always being reformed, according to the Word of God.” So maybe it is perfectly reasonable, and perfectly consistent with our theology, to have a Bible that gives you the 411 on Jesus. There is a point, too, at which cultural diversity should be considered. Quite a few of the products I’ve seen in Christian bookstores seem to be marketed toward suburban white males. At least somebody seems to be getting the point that this doesn’t speak to everyone, and is trying to do something about it. Part of Scripture’s staying power is its ability to speak to unique contexts in different historical eras. Maybe this proliferation of new versions of the Bible is part of that adaptability.

But there’s still something about the whole thing that makes me a bit uneasy, and I can’t put my finger on it. Maybe I’m worried that there’s something reductionist in this approach, that something deeper and more powerful will get lost as we try to fit every page of the Bible into our own specific circumstances. Perhaps there’s something sad about sitting on top of the mountain you just climbed, alone by the campfire, pulling out your Bible map as you look out over the lonely forest.

Food for thought. But I’d really like to see that rap song on the Crucifixion.

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” --Ecclesiastes 3:1

Kelsey

I’ve decided to declare today “Love Your Body Day” here in my little realm (which extends about as far as the door to my office). “Why today?” you ask? Well, I’m feeling good because a) the sun is shining and temps will get all the way up to 60 degrees today b) I’m going to Boston to see David tomorrow, and c) I’m wearing a hot outfit. I’m going to a random work dinner at which the higher-ups in PresbyLand are supposed to make an appearance, and I preferred not to look like a total scrub. So I put on my new camel-colored wool blazer and my dress shirt. I also wore my three-inch-heel boots today, but that had more to do with the fact that I’m completely out of black trouser socks than anything else.

I remember going on some sort of women’s retreat at college where the speaker said that she got up every morning, looked at her naked body in the mirror, and said, “Dang, sister, you look good!!” Now, this woman did not have the perfect body, I can assure you. But she didn’t care. Maybe it was because she had other things to occupy her time—a great job serving college students, hobbies and interests, friends who cared about her. She could wake up in the mirror, see herself in her totality, and be thankful for God’s gifts.

How empty are our lives when all we do is sit and obsess over how we look? Of course, I’m guilty of this all the time. For instance, I’ve had a particularly bad (okay, I’m just going to put it out there) zit breakout this week. I chalk it up to stress on a variety of levels. Every time I went to the bathroom yesterday, I would look in the mirror and see those zits that I had tried in vain to hide with layers of foundation and concealer. I totally missed all the parts of my body that I like, from my dark almond-shaped eyes to my long hands.

Traditional scriptural interpretation has often reinforced this negative way of looking at our bodies, and by extension, ourselves. From men who have associated Eve with sin and temptation, to the constant theological divide between the “flesh” and the “spirit” to describe sin and holiness, we’ve been taught that our bodies are bad. Perhaps that is why so many women take this masochistic view toward the way that they look. Maybe we believe that we’ll be better people by criticizing our appearance and denying what we like.

Of course, society doesn’t help with this problem. Take a look at any magazine today and you’ll see unrealistic expectations of women’s appearance, combined with the commodifying of our bodies. As NNPCW’s discussion resource puts it, “The mind is taken out of the woman, and her body is made into a sales pitch and an accessory” (57).

Yet God did create our bodies good. Why else do our two main Protestant sacraments, baptism and communion, both intricately involve the human body? Why do we teach that Christ was resurrected in the body? And why do we hold to the belief that our own bodies will one day be raised from the dead? If the body really is such a bad thing, such a thing to escape, then why is it so woven into Christian theology?

You know, I think Jesus was a “body” guy, anyway. When I say that, I mean that Jesus wasn’t some academic sitting around revising the religion from his ivory tower, or chilling safely in the synagogue with all his buddies. On the contrary, Jesus seemed to like getting a little dirty once in a while. There’s something significant in our belief that Jesus’ miracles physically happened—that the woman with the flow of blood really did stop bleeding, that the lepers did receive cleansing, that the blind did receive sight. It acknowledges that our bodies are good, beloved by God, and that our physical needs are of concern to God. What happens in the immediacy of this world, in our physical conditions and situations, is important.

There are some great study aids in the NNPCW discussion resource, if you’re interested in learning more. But today, on my self-declared “Love Your Body” day, stop seeing only the nasty zits in the mirror. Look at yourself and say, “Dang, sister, you look good!!” And remember that God created you and loves you, body and soul.

“So God created humankind in God’s image, in the image of God the Lord created them; male and female God created them.” --Genesis 1:27

Kelsey

Another difficult day getting out the door for Kelsey… not only did I burn the oatmeal again this morning, but I lost my keys, only to discover that I had left them in the outside lock all night long. Since I already get up, on average, every other night with my pointy umbrella in hand to check for burglars before I go to bed, you can imagine my horror at such a discovery. I’ll have to be more conscientious coming back from the gym.

Guess who’s coming to Louisville today? Apparently, President Bush himself will grace us with his presence this afternoon. According to the news reports I heard on the radio this morning, he will make a major speech on global terror to a sold out crowd at the Kentucky International Convention Center. As always, there will also be a large crowd outside protesting. This, of course, I did not hear on the news. I heard it through various folks on the Louisville Peace Action Committee.

Like Vietnam before it, the war in Iraq is becoming increasingly murky territory for most of us. A recent USA Today poll said that about half of Americans consider the war a mistake. More than 2200 soldiers have died there, in addition to the thousands of Iraqis who have also lost their lives. Millions more Iraqis live with the result of violence every day, even as our troops tow the line between humanitarian efforts and military operations. We are in a conflict of grey, not black and white, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to know what the best solution should be.

I remember once, after the initial burst of military operations ended, a friend telling me, “I didn’t want us to go in, but now that we’ve done it, we’d better make it right.” By this she meant that since American actions had overthrown the reigning government, we had a moral responsibility to reconstruct the country. People on all sides, in fact, have evoked the idea of moral responsibility to justify their responses to the war. Many believe that we had a moral obligation to overthrow a cruel dictator oppressing his people. Others morally believe that violence is never the answer, and that if we seek to bring peace to the world we must first model it ourselves.

What we have here, then, is basically a legitimate moral argument for every possible trajectory in this conflict, each wholeheartedly adopted by Christians in good faith. So what is the answer? I think of Presbyterian chaplains in Iraq, faithfully praying with and ministering to the needs of soldiers before they go into combat. I think of members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams, so committed to their peace witness that they are willing to give their very lives for it. Is Christ present in both?

Perhaps the only answer I can think of this morning comes from the last verse of the Gospel of Matthew: “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” God’s redemptive love is at work in all these places and scenarios, transcending us and our flawed, limited understanding of the world. God’s light will shine in the darkness—the darkness known to an Iraqi mother awakened in the night by an American raid on her home, the darkness for an American soldier staggering out of the bloody chaos of another suicide bomb. Today we see through the glass dimly. But one day, we shall see face to face.

And two things I think we can all agree on, as we Christians discern how we’re called to respond to this war—love and prayer. David and I have been talking about how sometimes Jesus’ call is so counterintuitive to common sense. Perhaps the most counterintuitive command of all is Matthew 5:44—“But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” We are called to love the people of Iraq as our sisters and brothers in the human family, even those who perpetrate violence we find abhorrent. Even if we don’t agree with the American military presence in Iraq, we’re called to love the young women and men who are serving there on our behalf.

And we’re called to pray for all of them, because prayer can be a powerful and transforming witness. I think of East German churches I visited in college. During the communist years, small congregations would meet together to pray for peace. They would then go out and witness to it. One pastor I met told a story about how a group of pastors had prevented the East German military from opening fire on an entire crowd of protesters in Berlin. And all I could think was, “Wow-- that's the Holy Spirit at work”

So love, pray, and be watching for God’s redemptive work of peace in the world. Regardless of our own human flaws and failings, our own incomplete answers, it is there.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” --Matthew 5:9

Kelsey

I got a new cell phone over the holidays and changed my phone number. This means that if you had my cell and were using it to call me about work stuff, you can’t do that anymore (hee hee!). I thought that the ringer I chose this time around was particularly appropriate, given my current profession—“When the Saints Go Marching In.”

I guess I’m having a bit of blogger’s block today. Not because there aren’t tons of compelling religious topics to write about—black Muslims vandalizing liquor stores owned by Middle Eastern Muslims in Oakland, CA, the religious state of Europe, a request from an alumna of the Network to write about the Iraq War… you can go on Yahoo! News and read about all of this and more. But they just all seem sort of depressing on this day when the clouds are rolling in over Louisville, when I overslept by half an hour and burnt my oatmeal. This is why I hate winter.

One thing I can look forward to, though, and the only reason I really like the month of January—birthdays!!! I’ve found that January is a particularly good month for good people to be born. Indeed, two of my dear first cousins were born in January (shout out to Liz, who will be 25 tomorrow), as well as CoCo member Carrie Weisbard and David’s father. And of course, the best of all is that my birthday is in January. I will be 25 years old next week.

Now those of you who have read Network Notes for any length of time know that I have a bit of an obsession with birthdays. I’m not sure why, since most people stop caring between the ages of 21 and 40 or so. Perhaps I was traumatized when everyone forgot about my 11th birthday back in 1992. You’d think that I would let go of it after nearly fourteen years. Okay, maybe I haven’t grown up that much.

Honestly, though, I find that birthdays provide an opportunity to celebrate all that God has given each one of us. When you’re a kid, it is all about the gifts. But when we get older, we crave different sorts of gifts—love and community. In a world quick to point out our flaws and failings, we sometimes need friends to remind us of the nature of Christ within us. We need to celebrate God’s good gift of life, and question how we’re going to use it. A bit of cake don’t hurt in this process.

Here in PresbyLand, we get a total of 13 annual holidays. Pretty generous, too. In medieval Europe, I’ve heard that a full third of the year was devoted to various feast days and holy days. Especially in the darkness of winter, shouldn’t we take every excuse we can to bring joy and light into our lives?

So here’s to a happy birthday for all of you. And some cake, too.

“The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.” --John 1:9

Kelsey

It seems that non-profits have finally discovered what those of us in the MTV generation have known all along—television can shape culture as well as reflecting it. Amy forwarded me an article this morning from the Christian Science Monitor about a new television show in Nigeria meant to promote peace and conflict resolution. According to the article, Nigerians can be, shall we say… aggressive. Not surprising, really, from a country divided along religious and ethnic lines, one that has been under military rule for 25 of its 45 years of independence.

The Station, backed by American-based Search for Common Ground, features fictional news reporters covering a variety of plot twists. It is the largest television drama project in Africa, but the goal is to address Nigerian social issues of powerlessness and national identity rather than pure ratings.

It reminds me of another project I heard of while I was at the AWID conference in Thailand—Sexto Sentido, a show intended to infuse values of equality into deeply patriarchal and traditional Nicaragua. Sexto Sentido is (stay with me here)… a feminist soap opera. That isn’t its claim to fame in Nicaragua, of course—in a country where most soaps are Mexican imports, this show is the first soap opera indigenous to Nicaragua. If I remember correctly, it gets about 70% of TV viewership in the country.

In the case of Sexto Sentido, plotlines deal with the lives of a group of young people and the complex social issues they face. This includes storylines about violence against women, sexuality, and self-identity. The theme song starts out, “I want to have control of my life….” Some episodes end with a number to call if, for instance, you’re a victim of domestic violence and want out.

People wonder whether such efforts have any hope of creating a more just and caring world. When I e-mailed this morning’s article to David, he replied pragmatically, “But will it make a difference?” Will many Nigerians, with constant examples of oppressive and violent social structures, learn peace from a half-hour TV show? Will Nicaraguan men stop abusing their wives because of what they saw on Sexto Sentido?

David is right when he contends that we won’t see the change we hope for overnight. We already have deeply ingrained messages relating to violence, gender, race, and other issues. American kids play video games like Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, where male characters can engage in raunchy sex with a half-dressed woman and then kill her with a golf club. But if television, music and video games can influence us toward violence and sexism, why can’t they also help turn us away from it?

In fact, shows driven by peace and equality are already making an impact. Nicaraguan schoolchildren interviewed after watching Sexto Sentido say it taught them that it wasn’t okay for their father to hit their mother. Actors in The Station describe how they’ve managed to come together across ethnic divisions to create the show.

Jesus tells us that God’s realm is like yeast that a woman mixes into the dough until it is leavened, like the mustard seed that grows into a large bush. Scripture also tells us to avoid the bad yeast of malice and evil, the Pharisee teachings of hatred. So what are we watching, anyway?

It may take a while for the yeast of peace to work into the dough of the world. It may take some time for the seeds of equality and respect to grow. Then again, we’re still talking about the work of that small group of folks hanging out in some Roman backwater 2000 years ago.

“And again he said, ‘To what should I compare the kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’” --Luke 13:20-21

Kelsey

Today was the staff meeting I spend all the other staff meetings dreading—NNPCW’s turn to lead the devotion. It was an Epiphany-themed reflection from the Presbyterian Women Bible study, and I had planned on lighting a candle and putting out a Nativity Scene for the occasion. Well, I knew things were going downhill when my friend Essie, ten minutes after the meeting started, not-so-conspicuously crept in with the Nativity Scene—a cardboard standup that featured, besides the usual Magi and Holy Family, assorted deer, squirrels, and bunny rabbits wandering through the Palestinian palm-tree forest near Jesus’ manger. Perhaps first-century Palestine featured a plethora of squirrels frolicking about, but my Google search indicates that such a species no longer exists in the Holy Land.

So today is Epiphany, and our liturgical calendar marks the Baptism of the Lord on Sunday. Now if you’re certified liturgically illiterate, as I am, first you need to get the Presbyterian Women Bible study (which is all about the liturgical year). But since I already led a haphazard study devotion on it, I will generously share my knowledge with you.

Epiphany is the end of the twelve days of Christmas on the church calendar. The word originally referred to the birth or visit of royalty, tying it in nicely with both Jesus’ birth and the visit of the Magi. For that is exactly what Epiphany marks on the calendar—the visit the wise men make to the infant Jesus (Matthew 2). Records indicate that our Christian forbearers have celebrated this day as early as 215 CE. Early Orthodox Christians, however, used the same date to mark Jesus’ baptism (Matthew 3, Mark 1, Luke 3, and John 1). Today we sort of awkwardly blend the two together.

Yet both mark moments of profound change. Our culture defines an epiphany as an appearance, something that radically alters the way we see our world. Likewise, Christian baptism has always signaled a life changed by the power of the risen Christ. These two events together point us to awakenings, to new beginnings, to being open to the gifts of transformation in our lives. What is waiting for us in Bethlehem this year?

Are you being called, like the Magi, to silently resist when asked to participate in evil? Is God asking you to speak out as Jesus did at his baptism, proclaiming the arrival of God’s realm of love? Are you approaching the threshold of change in your life? And are you responding to that change in fear, as Herod did, or with the peace of Mary?

We find it all too easy to look at the future with the fear of a Herod. In this new year, may you embrace transformation as Jesus did, saying, “Let it be so now.”

“John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.’” --Matthew 3:14-15

Kelsey

We just updated NNPCW’s online mother ship, our main website, yesterday! Hooray! There are lots of reasons you should check it out, too, particularly if you’re interested in scholarships….

Yes, NNPCW is launching two new endeavors to serve you, undergraduate college women, better. After many years of requests, we are planning to offer a $1000 scholarship to an undergraduate college woman for the 2006-2007 academic year. This could be you! Your fellow college women on the Scholarship Committee are hard at work right now creating the applications, and you can expect those to be available online by the beginning of February. We’re looking at a deadline in late March or early April, so keep that in your heads as you apply.

Of course, the flip side to that coin is that we need money in order to give out a scholarship. That’s what the Fundraising Committee is up to right now—contacting you and asking you to give! Please consider contributing to our ECO to make scholarships a permanent part of NNPCW’s ministry to college women. Any amount will help, even if it is only $1! Click here to donate.

And I won’t let you forget about the NNPCW Leadership Event! The registration brochure is now available for download, which means that you can sign up today! You should really check it out, if for no other reason than to see the awesome logo for this year’s event that Brianne designed.

One last project that you should be thinking about… February 26 appears on our handy-dandy Presbyterian Planning Calendar as Celebrate the Gifts of Women Sunday. As part of this day, NNPCW members around the country will be educating their congregations about who we are and the importance of this ministry to their lives. I invite you to join us! Our main page has a downloadable flyer that you can simply ask your minister to insert in the program. You can also ask for time during the service or during your campus ministry meeting to talk about NNPCW—how you’re involved, the resources we provide for young women, this summer’s Leadership Event (hint, hint). Or, for the truly ambitious, offer to plan and organize your church’s Celebrate the Gifts of Women service and make NNPCW a part of it. Click here to pick up more information on that.

You don’t have to talk about NNPCW at church to get involved in NNPCW Outreach Day, though. Post copies of the flyer on your campus bathroom stalls or distribute it at a coffeehouse performance. Talk to your local PW group at their next meeting. Make an announcement at V-Day activities on your campus. There are so many ways that you can do it—all we ask is that you share with your faith and/or women’s communities about NNPCW.

And you just know you want to see if you’re one of the folks we feature in the flyer sticking Oreo Cookies on their heads.

“That your way may be known upon earth, your saving power among all nations.” --Psalm 67:2

Kelsey

Well, folks, I am slowly but surely on the mend from my cold, as evidenced by the fact that I’m blowing my nose all the time now. I should buy my own box of tissues and stop stealing Bridgett’s, but a) I’m too frugal (toilet paper works fine for me), and b) I haven’t made it to the store since I got back from Washington. Of course, I have to go very soon—two apples and a handful of green onions in the fridge aren’t going to sustain me much longer, and the one little light bulb in my bedroom just went out. For the past two nights I’ve about broken my leg stumbling over three huge suitcases and a bunch of pillows as I’ve climbed into bed. Yeah, I know, I’m a bum... but cut me some slack. I’ve been sick!!!

The new issue of Horizons: The Magazine for Presbyterian Women is out, with an article by yours truly. Perhaps that’s why I actually spent some time reading it this month (okay, this is not to imply that Horizons is not worth reading—in fact, I would say that it is one of the best magazines the denomination puts out. I’m just usually too busy to give it more than a passing look-see when it comes across my desk). This issue focuses on women in ministry. If you’re interested in getting a copy, click here. There are some great articles about the powerful work being done by women in our congregations, from Marian McClure’s description of traveling around the world as a “woman priest” to Cheri Harper’s article about why we need women’s organizations. Plus, that article features a photo from last summer’s leadership event.

What particularly caught my eye this morning, however, was Amy Starr Redwine’s “Finding Balance.” The first thing I noticed was that the feature interviewed one of my former World Tour hosts, Rev. Cynthia O’Brien of Portland, Oregon. But what I found most encouraging was how so many women in these articles described a new paradigm for work-life balance. These were successful ministers, even heads of staff in various churches, who had managed to do something that we, as young women, are being increasingly told is impossible—have significant family lives and still hold meaningful professional careers. How do they do it?

The one common trait that stuck out to me in reading these women’s stories was that they all had supportive faith communities behind them, communities committed to their call and willing to function as extended families for their children. One pastor talked about the older women in the congregation who offer to babysit her newly adopted daughter. Cynthia mentioned how her congregation gave her maternity leave at full salary, and had the church secretary visit her at home once a week to sign important papers.

Some might ask why a church should feel obligated to do this? Why should a church give special consideration to a mother? For the perspective that this life experience brings to their ministry, for one—the empathy, the concern for education and spiritual development, the way it draws ministers closer to the experiences of their parishioners. I found it interesting, for instance, that a couple of pastors said their example as single, full-time ministers and mothers tended to draw other single parents into their churches.

Moreover, making such compromises can make better ministers of us all. When a congregation grants maternity leave to fathers and mothers, offers to babysit, watches out for restless teens sitting in the back, it draws closer together as a community of faith. We begin to “bear one another’s burdens” and become active participants in all aspects of the life and ministry of the church. We stop looking to the pastor to shoulder all the responsibilities of ministry, and start joining together to meet one another’s needs.

Working parents are beginning to direct us to a paradigm that should be universal in the workplace for both women and men—the valuing of our private roles as spouses and parents alongside our public roles. And how can we get to that paradigm? When, as a church community and as a society, we begin to see our children as our collective responsibility.

“Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” --Galatians 6:2

Kelsey

Happy New Year!!! After a rather long two-week hiatus from blogging, I’m back. I must confess that the total break was good—I felt like I’d been getting too long-winded, too stale there toward the end with the posts. Frankly, I was usually too busy to blog during my vacation. But I will maintain a Sphinx-like silence on my holiday activities, except to say that I kept the fine Rice tradition of a rather dull New Year’s Eve. I did see "Chronicles of Narnia" that night, though. Fun movie.

I’m having a rather Job-ish day today, to tell you the truth… I procured a nasty little cold while I was home, a cold of the ilk that should have kept me in bed today. I didn’t get home from Seattle until about 12:30 am, and then once I managed to overcome the coughing and congestion, I fell asleep at about 2. But since I’ve been gone now for more than two weeks, I felt bad calling in sick on my first day back. So here I am, armed with my Crestwood IGA wonder drug cold medication and some herbal tea. I’m hoping Mary Elva doesn’t catch me and send me home. I also have a cold sore on the back of my tongue that makes eating a bit painful. Ah, woe is me.

I think I needed a break from the world this vacation. I didn’t spend nearly as much time while I was home on e-mail, didn’t watch TV much, didn’t talk on my cell phone a whole lot (perhaps because I got to see most of the people I usually talk to on the phone). It was actually a very good restful space, because I had been a bit overwhelmed up to that point.

Of course, just because I took a break from the world doesn’t mean that the world went anywhere. No, it was waiting for me yesterday, in all its obnoxious glory, in the form of CNN. Regardless of where I went in the airport, all I heard were TV screens blaring about the 13 trapped miners in West Virginia. Wolf Blitzer reported on it during his show “Situation Room,” followed immediately by Paula Zahn on her show. I think Anderson Cooper 360 was due to highlight it next. If I’d been glued to my screen, I would have learned all about the mining industry in the United States while hearing back from several viewers about why they would never work in such a job. Really, this news media oversaturation just depresses me—that’s why I avoid watching.

Prompted by such nonstop coverage, during my parting breakfast conversation yesterday morning with David and my Japanese friend Maho I asked, “Do you think the world is scarier today than it used to be?” A lady walking through the hotel lobby who overheard my philosophical musing immediately replied, “Oh, yes. You used to be able to travel anywhere and not be worried at all.”

But I disagree, really, because the question depends on your point of view. For instance, I turned to Maho and asked if her grandparents had lived through World War II. She replied that yes, they had. And I wondered how frightening the world had seemed to them, especially following the dawn of the nuclear age on their soil. How terrifying is it for others to live under totalitarian regimes? How scary to be in the middle of ethnic cleansing conflicts?

Contrary to most doomsayers, I don’t think our fallen creation is that much worse than it ever was. Unlike previous eras of history, though, we have a much broader perspective than our own city or even our own nation. We get a full picture of how crazy things really are, how much all humans resemble one another in their tendency to fail. CNN’s 24-hour coverage is both a blessing and a curse.

Perhaps this information oversaturation can actually provide us with some opportunities in 2006—to actually see our common human condition, and to come together as one to begin something else anew. May 2006 be the year of new things, one in which God's realm manifests itself through peace and healing.

“I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.” --Isaiah 43:19

Kelsey