Something for the Journey
Melissa Carvill Ziemer, Director of Ministries and Programs
Somewhere we must come to see that human progress never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and the persistent work of dedicated individuals who are willing to be co-workers with God.
From Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution By Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Delivered at the National Cathedral, Washington, D.C., on 31 March 1968
Bless you colleagues. Bless your ministries. Bless your families. Bless your communities.  I’m imagining you now in all the places where you are – in the streets bearing witness, in the hospital rooms offering care, at your computer wrestling out the words, on Signal organizing to build power, at the meeting strengthening the relationships, in the prisons extending compassion, in your home considering what your place is now while you are in formation or in retirement or without a ministry, on your cushion meditating so you can be present to it all, in your chair praying for the courage and the strength and the skill to meet this moment. I’m imagining you colleagues and sending you love. I’m imagining you in all your places around the globe and praying for you.
If we had any doubts about progress not being inevitable, my guess is that those have faded away among us. The evidence of repression and the facts of oppression and crisis and pain are too much. But I take hope in the sure knowledge that our ministries won’t be bound by the evidence. However you name that source that called you, I take hope in the sure knowledge that our ministries are formed and sustained by a vision of the Holy that will never give up on love and liberation. We have our part and there are countless others in every place with theirs. I give thanks for you and all people everywhere doing their very best to be faithful co-workers with a loving and liberating God with so many names. May we feel the bonds between us and may they be part of our strength and our sustenance this day.
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