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Marci Scott-Weis, Magnolia UCC, saw spirit and compassion meet

Marci Scott-Weis, senior pastor of Magnolia UCC shared the following with her community with a mini sermon on Sunday, Jan. 26, on "Where Spirit and Compassion Meet."

PNC-UCC clergy on the sidewalk in Minneapolis.

Last week I was honored to respond to the call to go to Minneapolis with 11 representatives from the PNW conference as well as hundreds of clergy from across the country to bear witness, to learn, to offer peaceful and prayerful presence and to stand in solidarity with the folks on the ground in Minneapolis attempting to embody the work of loving their neighbor.

Here are observations that I shared on Sunday in person.

While in Minneapolis, we walked in the Immigrant neighborhoods where ICE has been most present with their patrols. In just a short amount of time, participants from our group witnessed a pregnant mom being detained in her minivan by 12 armed and masked ICE agents and a young Somali man detained by another group of ICE agents demanding paperwork demonstrating his citizenship. Both incidents were interrupted by community observers, witnesses who blew whistles, honked horns and recorded on their phones.

What they are learning in Minneapolis is that to love your neighbor, you have to be willing to stand on a street corner in 20-degree-below-zero weather and watch for ICE to appear and be willing to respond on behalf of your neighbor. They are learning that to love your neighbor, you have to be willing to work all day, care for your kids and also find time to drive patrols in neighborhoods, or deliver food, or breast milk to folks afraid to leave their homes. They are learning that to love your neighbor, you have to be willing to put your heart, your soul, every ounce of your courage and your actual body on the line to keep your neighbor safe. Renee Good did and now Alex Pretti has done that as well.

The folks who asked us to come there, asked us to think about why we came to Minnesota. I spent a lot of time thinking about that question. While I was there, I learned an enormous amount about resilience and courage, and I also witnessed incredible strength and hope. All of which fed my heart and my soul in unimaginable ways. I also bore witness to a radical understanding of love of neighbor that challenged everything I thought I knew about that concept.

 

 

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