Ukraine and Mennonites, war and peace

In the late 1700s the Russian leader Catherine the Great issued a decree inviting Europeans to come settle the newly conquered lands of the Russian Empire in present day Ukraine.  German speaking Mennonites answered the call.  They had previously fled persecution in the Netherlands and viewed this as an opportunity to build a self-sufficient community.  As pacifists they were also drawn by promised military exemption. 

Mennonite colonies in Ukraine were built among the Nogais, semi-nomadic pastoralists who trace their lineage back to Genghis Khan.  It was a tense relationship at times and by 1860 the Nogais had either emigrated away or been deported.  Despite a wave of immigration to North America in the late 19^th century, by 1914 Mennonites had established over 40 colonies in Ukraine and numbered 100,000 (Mennonite Church USA currently has around 62,000 members).

World War 1 and the Russian Revolution that followed devastated these communities through land confiscation, disease, and famine.  North American Mennonites formed an organization in the 1920s called Mennonite Central Committee to bring aid to the starving Ukrainian Mennonites.  As the situation stabilized, more were able to immigrate to North America, although a small population remains there today.

Now it appears the current Russian President desires an all-out war in Ukraine.  It could be devastating. 

Even though few of us at Columbus Mennonite trace our family history through this particular trajectory (I don’t), I wonder if it might serve us in one of the most basic acts of peacemaking – to count as kin a people and geography that might otherwise be Other and distant.    

This story invites us to look inward at ways we have and continue to benefit from violence and dispossession of native peoples.  It also invites us to respond out of the best and bravest of our tradition.  Mennonite Central Committee continues to partner with peacemakers around the world and invest in conditions that promote justice and form bonds of peace.

Each day abounds with opportunities to plant seeds of peace. 

One way to keep this in front of us could be to extend our practice of the peace candle into household meals.  If you would like to do this and wish to use some or all of the words of our updated Peace Candle liturgy as a prayer, here is the language:

As we gather today (Or, As we eat this meal), we light a Peace Candle and lament all forms of violence. We remember that we live and worship on land where Miami, Shawnee, those known as the Hopewell, and other Indigenous peoples have lived and labored, fought and loved.  We join our hearts with one another, with our sister church in Armenia, Colombia, and all those who yearn for peace with justice.  We commit our hands to this good work. (Pause to mention out loud people and regions for whom you pray)  May the flame be a sign of this bright hope: Peace within us, among us, to the ends of the earth. 

Joel

More on Mennonites and Ukraine can be read HERE in Anabaptist World magazine and HERE in Wikipedia.

Sanctuary updates: Edith, Pilar, pictures

Tomorrow, February 18, is the one-year anniversary of Edith leaving sanctuary.  She lived in our church building for 40 months to avoid deportation.  She has been living with her family in Columbus and now has a work permit.    

Last week a group of us accompanied Edith to an ICE check in (Immigration and Customs Enforcement).  She is under an order of supervision which includes sending ICE a monthly GPS-tagged picture through an app, and coming in person every four months.  It’s a common arrangement for folks without a secure status.  Edith was nervous because her ICE officer had not responded to her messages when Edith communicated she needed to go to Chicago to visit her mother who has stage 4 cancer.  As we learned, the officer has been on maternity leave and there was nothing amiss. Edith was relieved.

She, her husband Manuel, and son Brandow, continue to work with their attorney to get a more permanent status.  After hearing it described I still don’t quite understand the ins and outs.  It’s not a system designed to be effective for the current needs of millions of undocumented folks.

Despite this, it was a good day, with Edith leaving the ICE office and heading back to her home.

Here’s a picture of us in the ICE parking lot.  Edith is to the left talking with press. 

This week also included an unexpected revisiting of CMC’s first sanctuary experience.  Back in the 80s Neil Avenue Mennonite Church (as CMC was then named) participated in the sanctuary movement welcoming Central American asylum seekers fleeing US-backed death squads, a very hot region and time in the Cold War.  The congregation formed a supportive relationship with a Salvadoran woman named Maria del Pilar Flores, helping her find housing and resources within Columbus.  This is not a story I know well but was a significant part of the congregation’s ministry nearly 40 years ago.

The conversation this week was initiated by Martha McFerran who hosted Pilar in her home for one of those years.  She wanted our congregation to be aware that Pilar is doing well and is opening her own tailor shop at Easton – a lifelong dream.  I called Pilar to congratulate her and she expressed her gratitude to the church for its support many years ago.  Here is a picture of her by her new shop, used with her permission.

Anniversaries (like Edith’s one year out-of-sanctuary) are good times to give thanks for the present and remember that the present is rooted in the past in ways beyond our awareness.

Joel

Seeing with love

A lot of us spend a good amount of time and energy trying to change the world we see for the better.  A recent collection of photos by Columbus photographer Ben Willis called The Home We Know is a good reminder that changing how we see is also vital.  The Washington Post refers to his work as “a love letter to Columbus, Ohio.” 

The photos were taken over a four-year period and capture faces and places around the city.  Many of the people are looking directly at the camera.  Of the ones shown in the article there is an everyday dignity given to the subjects. 

Willis writes: “My work is a labor of love, and the work much like life is held together by that kind of love and admiration for one another but also one’s self. When you walk around and interact in the city you’ve got to remember what you’re looking at is also you.”

It sounds like a version of “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

I like thinking of seeing with eyes of love as a spiritual discipline.  It’s a different kind of energy than fixing a problem or advocating for policy change. 

It reminds me of a favorite quote from Father Gregory Boyl: “Our choice always is the same: save the world or savor it. And I vote for savoring it. And, just because everything is about something else, if you savor the world, somehow — go figure — it’s getting saved.” 

Unfortunately it looks like The Home We Know has already sold out of its 250 original printings.  It is good to know that this way of seeing is in high demand.

Joel