Letter from Lindy Sept 5

Hello Pilgrims,

I have made my way back to Durham. 18 hours on the road in 5 days has left parts of me (unnamed parts) stiff and sore. Still working out the kinks two days later. Coming home to my first sermon in three months. Not only does my body need stretching, so too does my mind. If you are gentle, you can let me know how much theological nimbleness I have lost over the summer ;)

I come back to prepare my home to receive parts of my NOLA family who evacuated pre-Ida, as they live in the lower 9th ward. On the anniversary of Katrina, they didn’t need to be told twice. The NOLA contingent met up with the Baton Rouge contingent to ride out the storm in Panama City. Who goes to Florida to escape hurricanes in the middle of hurricane season? It was one of the safer places to be, go figure.

From what we read, and what both families are being told, they are both safe and stranded. Don’t come back unless you absolutely must. Power is estimated to be out for weeks and those who can stay away are being encouraged to do so, to help create bandwidth for those left behind and emergency personnel. So from Panama City they will come to Pittsboro and Durham where there is family who can open their homes. Not only were the Southern parts of my family affected by Ida’s sweep, but so too my New Jersey contingent, whose city has experienced wide-spread flooding as well. Thank goodness, they fled to Vermont. And now they too are safe and stranded at the moment. The God glimmer in this upheaval is that my mom will now be surrounded by more members of her family on her 85th birthday (Tuesday 9/7), including her great-granddaughter. Depending upon timing, the family may yet be in Durham to mark the one year anniversary of my nephew’s death. How fitting, my sister remarked, because it was here, amidst pandemic, that we celebrated his legacy and mourned the loss of his life.

I share these stories/prayers with you in writing because that is precisely how we will be living into the prayers of the people when we return to in-person, in-sanctuary worship on the 12th. To help to create the safest, and most inclusively accessible, worship possible, we will only receive prayers in writing. Whether you fill out a prayer card just prior to worship, send me an email a few days earlier, or drop a prayer in the zoom chat to have it messaged to my phone, your prayers will be held in our embrace. Same too with announcements. We will not line up in the first pew to stand before the microphone, rather, we invite you to send any announcement you would like shared on Sunday to Franklin by Thursday COB, so that he add it to the bulletin and can create an announcement sheet for the lead deacon.

I know we will just want to go back to the way things were, but we cannot if we are truly committed to living into our Pilgrim refrain of “whoever you are, wherever you are, you are welcome here.” Our endeavor will always be to err on the side of the most vulnerable and imagine standing in their shoes.
grace and peace,
Pastor Lindy (she/her)whypronouns matter

Living and working on occupied Shakori land.
If you'd like to learn more about the Indigenous people whose land you occupy,
the information is just a text message away. Clickhereto learn more.