TFW: You Flopped!

by Jillian Shannon

It’s 5:55pm. Class starts at 6pm. You pace the room waiting for people -anyone!- to arrive. A part of you hopes no one shows so you can call the whole thing off. (You’re not as prepared as you would like.) You play scenarios in your head: I would rather nobody show up than just ONE person. Imagine teaching a class to just one person?! How awkward! 

Jillian Shannon is the pastoral assistant at TCL and a spiritual entrepreneur. She is the owner of Neotopia, a non-profit bookstore in San Antonio, TX that holds classes and events surrounding subjects of theology, philosophy and culture.

At 6pm on the dot, two people arrive simultaneously. You begin the class, but you’re already in your head. You float above your body and watch yourself speak, and judgmentally tally the amount of times you end a sentence with “right?” - your nervous tick. You wonder what the students are thinking as they watch you with blank stares. Are they into this? Are they bored? Did she just look at her phone?\

It’s 6:25 and you’re out of material. Class is supposed to end at 6:50. Usually you leave space at the end of class for questions and comments, but this group is particularly quiet. 

Luckily the students pull through and ask some interesting questions! Maybe they enjoyed the subject matter after all. Still--you know this wasn’t your best. And you will beat yourself up for it for the rest of the night. Maybe tomorrow too.

The above scenario happened to me a few weeks ago. I wonder if any of you can relate? As a newbie in the spiritual entrepreneurship world, a recent graduate and sudden “authority” on complex subjects, I so often live beyond my comfort zone. Most of the time, the uncomfortability pays off. Then there are times when you feel like you failed and you are tempted to question what you’re doing. 

As the name “The Church Lab” suggests, spiritual entrepreneurship involves experiments, and not all experiments go according to plan. But failures (or perceived failures) are an important part of the process. Here are some of the take-aways from my reflection on this night:

1. It would help to establish my personal rules and boundaries. What is my minimum number of participants? i.e. if only one person shows up to a class, do I cancel? Reschedule? Adjust the style of the class and continue as a one-on-one? 

2. My personal style (this may be different from person to person) is to overly prepare. I thought I knew the subject well enough to swing it in the moment, but when the circumstances threw me off balance, I became insecure with the material. If I had a solid lecture prepared, it would have helped a lot. 

3. The irony of this particular situation is that the topic of that class was Thomas Merton’s false self/True Self. The false self is our superficial identity, our preferences, our appearance, or, as we call it in the West, our “personality.” The false self worries about gaining the approval of others. Our “True Self”, or our “essence” as they call it in the East, is our incorruptible spiritual nature. The True Self is attentive to a different vibration in the room. In that particular class, I worried how I was being received and that worry interfered with my role as a vessel for information and connection. 

Pastors, teachers, leaders and speakers of any kind dealing with spiritual matters must face this issue a lot. We know that the reason we feel called to speak is to connect other people to something greater than ourselves and to access that sacred space beyond the superficial realities to which we’re accustomed. Yet, we occasionally collapse into the smallness of the moment, concerned for our own image and the reputation of our work.

Spiritual entrepreneurship requires us to put our egos and personal agendas to the side and act as a vessel for whatever mission we are trying to accomplish. This leads us to accept failures as a part of the learning process. Perhaps, then, we can more easily laugh off the flops and find more joy in our vocational process.

Spotlight Organization: Neotopia!

Hello TCL readers! Jillian here, your pastoral assistant from over the summer! I am absolutely thrilled to be back to work with Carrie and The Church Lab.

As you know, The Church Lab loves to empower innovative ministry initiatives. One of the ways TCL plans to empower fellow ministries is by spotlighting them on the blog. We’ll be kicking off this new tradition with my own company, Neotopia!

Neotopia began as an instagram page deconstructing our preconditioned notions about God, and reconstructing to promote human and cosmological flourishing. This is done by looking at God and religion through a lens that merges—rather than rejects—science, and through biblical interpretations that are usually only learned by going to seminary. The goal is to bring theological education to the everyday person who wouldn’t ordinarily seek a seminary degree, but is still interested in the subjects.

Last year, the Neotopia instagram came off the pages and into the flesh with a bookstore (Neotopia Books) in San Antonio, TX. This bookstore sells books in the realm of theology, philosophy and culture, and holds classes on subjects like biblical interpretation, science & theology, and mystical contemplation. 

Most recently, Neotopia became established as a 501c3 organization so that we may obtain the necessary funding to keep up this work. The classes and events have proved to be fulfilling to the community, and Neotopia serves as a sanctuary for seekers and skeptics (of any or no religion) who may not otherwise have a spiritual community with which to express their deeper questions about God. 

To follow along with what we’re up to over in San Antonio, follow the instagram or check out the website for a curated selection of books to sink your teeth into!

Thank you for welcoming me back into this community. I look forward to the meaningful work ahead!

TCL's 2024 Peacebuilding Tips and Peptalk!

photo credit: ASAP Pang

Most people I have been asking about peace in 2024 respond with similar words: 

overwhelmed, angry, hopeless, scared. 

I noticed a handful of years ago that rhetoric in my circles began to elevate peacebuilding as a concept, though not always as a committed practice in their lives. This is understandable; it is hard, slow work! Just because a problem has urgency does not mean the solution is quick. Quite the opposite here. If peacebuilding is a priority in your life, I do not recommend leaning on sound bites or social media to help you or the world out in making a difference for the better.

Yet more recently, I have ceased to hear even much talk about the importance or timeliness of dialogue. I less frequently hear an elevation of peacebuilding as an idea. Instead I hear rhetoric like, "It's time to stand up for what is right." "I'm tired of listening. I'm tired of talking." I get that, totally. So many of us are weary and exhausted, confused or grieved. Some of us, at this stage, are just plain shutdown. Done with the whole conversation about any given news-related concept in particular. In many cases, folks are just trying to care for their mental health and survive in the individualized difficulties around us, much less the political and systemic ones.

It is clear that HOPE -even just conceptually- has taken a nosedive in the realm of nurturing peace against the backdrop of our political election and international wars and strife, suffering and injustices.

Hope is key for being fully alive. In all regards. Let's talk about Hope.

The Church Lab (TCL) is committed in 2024 as a witness to Hope that cannot be snuffed out, regardless of how broken the circumstances are. 

TCL is distinct by its primarily spiritual pursuit of dialogue. We exist for the future of faith practice. We believe anyone, with any entrypoint into a conversation around spirituality and beliefs, can both have their journey dignified while also actively supporting others' spiritual growth, even as we exist in various traditions and on different paths. 

Most importantly, we believe that our work hinges on that which is Greater than ourselves. We believe that there is something beyond ego, beyond the individual, that acts to draw us to our concept of God and/or common humanity, which deeply connects us one to another. It is slow, beautiful work. It does not hesitate in the face of hopelessness.

We don't have to manufacture hope in the dialogue community; we simply bear witness to its movement, again and again. 

TCL wishes to invite you into this experiential work of Hope this year by welcoming you to our dialogues, to our hangouts, to our theology nerd nights, to trainings or workshops which may pique your interest. If you're not ready to join, you are always welcome to observe and not participate. If you're not ready to observe, we hope you'll subscribe to our mailchimp (at the bottom of any page of our website) to be updated on blogs like this, as well as our activity, as a source of inspiration to you.

We are excited to get to work this year, bearing witness to the Hope we witness in and among our dialogue work and our various spiritual journeys. 

And who knows where Hope might show up otherwise. 

Let's get to work in keeping our eyes, minds and hearts open to goodness that may rise up despite our finite individual lenses' odds. May our collective lenses, offered to one another, offer our communities something greater than ourselves. May it allow us to notice Hope rising that much more.

Regardless of what you feel ready for with or without TCL, please allow us to share these tips for peacebuilding in your own world in 2024. May it offer even a seed of help and Hope as we begin our 2024 together.

=================

11 Tips to Get Started on Reflecting Hope for Peacebuilding in 2024:

1. Expect yourself and others to be fully human. This is not a synonym for making mistakes. Being human presumes mistakes; move beyond this to consider richly what we will do with that presumption. What is the role of forgiveness and grace in your life, of empathy or repair, for yourself and for others? How does an awe of human resilience factor into your daily life? How can this ongoing consideration affect your life for the better? Forgiveness and grace breed resilience, safety, vulnerability, which breed mutual transformation.

2. MULTI-PARTIALITY, a concept I picked up from an excellent organization called BuildUp (howtobuildup.org), is a great 2024 lens. It is a commitment to default to any given viewpoint's legitimacy in that people's journey has brought them to that viewpoint for good reasons worth having curiosity about. We can be better peacebuilders when we give dignity to our journeys, and engage with unloaded question asking for our own learning and understanding purposes, rather than for the primary purpose of tearing down the viewpoint itself. Gaining a more textured understanding of viewpoints gives humans more texture. It is the opposite of dehumanizing. It is foundational to peacebuilding. It is a refusal to dehumanize by leaning into -perhaps counterintuitively, initially- the presumption that there is a path to understand how someone got somewhere. This does not mean we have to no longer own our own paths and opinions and stances; they can both be held simultaneously.

3. Seek to understand before being understood (from the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi). This is a muscle which our culture does not often ask us to exercise, if ever. What does it mean to see if all involved in a particular conversation, whether 1:1 or in a group, are game to mutually agree to practice understanding everyone else in the conversation, not as a means of gaining your own defense against their viewpoint, but as if you were about to be commissioned to live in this world according to that other person's viewpoint. A full dedication to it. What is incredible about this process is that if everyone puts forth a good faith effort into this, the result more often achieves what actors individually "defending" themselves does not: all are heard, all have a voice. Learning commences. Change within each of ourselves is born.

4. This is exercise. This is ongoing work to be integrated into life more and more deeply over the span of our lives. This is not a one-time effort. This is just like any other muscle: it needs practice, and it gets stronger and more deeply solidified with ongoing practice.

5. Become self-aware of stereotypes, whether they feel acceptable to you or not. Do you have stereotypes about people who vote differently than you? Who make particular social media statements or noticeably abstain from them? Who live in areas with which you're not familiar, or areas you associate with past harms to you? Do you have stereotypes about people being particularly uneducated, or ignorant, out of touch, or impractical, or heretical? Whether you are in a place to shift those assumptions, it's good to develop an awareness of all the stereotypes we carry around with us, and to register that it does impact how we engage with ideas and the world.

6. Be wary of the use of "they" to refer to people or institutions doing something you aren't in favor of or that hurts you or someone you love, or even the opposite. Boycotting "they" as a group plural in such situations can help speaker and listener(s) alike to develop a more precise sense of who is doing what, how or why we came to believe that. It keeps us from catastrophizing or creating empty conspiracies that fuzzier narratives tend to breed in and among us. Instead of using "they" in this context, try using specific names or organizations, a person or people. Try to be precise about numbers; is it really "everyone" that "always" or "never" does something? That is rare indeed. Is it actually 500 people or 50 or 5 or 1? The often invisible "army of they" can escalate not only conflicts, but our own emotions about it, whether or not it's a real army.

7. Pause when feeling hate or spite or other negative emotions toward someone. Get curious. We can ask ourselves: "Where is this coming from? What are my beliefs about this person and what they are saying? How is it connected to previous experiences I've had that may make my feelings -including fear or anger- even stronger? Is there a power dynamic at play? Do these feelings exist because I feel threatened or tired, because this person may try to exert some kind of authority or power over me?" Understanding where negative feelings toward others come, and getting curious about them, can often soften them or direct them in more constructive ways. It often takes the oxygen out of a negative -or potentially harmful- feeling around someone or something that can otherwise snowball very easily.

8. Take dehumanization seriously, particularly with jokes, as they can serve as a signal that it's ok in your social circle to dehumanize. I know, that sounds like such a strong claim! It can seem like being a party pooper to refuse to joke or make fun of someone or a group of people, but data shows that being willing to crack jokes about a group of people in an insulting way (even if it seems harmless) is an entry point into normalizing dehumanization. This is where it starts, friends. If we make jokes about groups of people with whom we have serious issues, we can pause and ask yourselves to what extent it's a positive coping mechanism, or if there are other jokes we could make that are not implying an entire people group has less value, voice or dignity than ourselves. We don't have to lose our sense of humor; it's just about being more intentional. Harmless-seeming humor has been shown to play an active role in taking increasing amounts of dignity away from people, including groups of which you may be a part. We can make minor shifts in what we crack jokes about in order to make a major shift in humanizing all those around us.

9. Be aware of what you stand for. You can stand for particular opinions and policies and still carry a high -or even highest- value of giving dignity to all humans, to letting people be people. You can have conviction on various issues and exercise a conviction of compassion, kindness…not only to those who agree with you but in general. As a muscle which begs for practice day in and day out. Peacemaking itself IS a stance. A tough one, and a worthy one. It is one Jesus modeled and stood for again and again. 

10. Be in your own world. Individual relationships -the time they take, the intention, the understanding, even the laughing together- have a spiderweb effect that ripples out into bigger systems. Quick change is often empty; it dissipates. Be a worldchanging peacemaker by changing your own world: Find a friend in your vicinity who you know is different from yourself. Don't begin by jumping into the deep end and talking about all the ways you're different. Begin by learning about one another's lives, enjoying common ground, building one another up as people as much as possible. Once y'all have become people you deeply care for and trust, and vice versa, move to trickier ground only then. I highly recommend getting practice and training from The Church Lab or other dialogue practice ground, whether religious or not, while pursuing this. 

11. People will tell you -you may even tell yourself- that peacemaking is impractical, illogical, impossible. It is made that way when it is a low value in our lives and the lives around us. Practicing peacebuilding, the slow and good work of it, not only breeds Peace; as its possibility unfolds as a reality in your own life, it builds up Hope for others who may move from wishing for a better world to participating in one. It is not illogical; it is vital. The more of us who practice bridge building, the more practical is becomes.

Please join us for our own dialogue muscle practice! Subscribe to TCL's mailchimp at the bottom of any page on our website to keep up with upcoming events and to access RSVP links! Or email Rev. Carrie Graham at carrie@thechurchlab.org with questions or thoughts on how we might be able to be a resource and support to you in your own peacemaking endeavors.

Advent Conspiracy 2023!

credit: Robert Thiemann

On Dec 3, we gathered to have a beautiful conversation and represent TCL's community as we gave away the remainder of our operational budget tithe (10%). 

We focused on local, state, national and international causes. We contributed to both systemic and personal aid causes. We kept a keen eye out for causes that are maybe overlooked, as TCL is committed to creatively meet needs that may fall through the cracks. We still had to narrow it down from there! There are SO many incredible orgs doing vital work. Check out the organizations our TCL community supported. Let us know if you end up partnering with one of these orgs, so we can share about your experience!

• Pending in January:

We have partners doing international peacebuilding work who have offered to recommend local, grassroots organizations doing peacebuilding work in the Middle East. We have reserved funds as we await their recommendations in coming weeks. We are excited to lift up those doing incredible, high stakes, thoughtful peacebuilding work in areas where some may have lost hope for precisely that.

• Casa Marianella:

Casa Marianella welcomes displaced immigrants and promotes self-sufficiency by providing shelter and support services.

• Fellowship Southwest’s border and immigration work:

Migrants on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border are blessed to be served by an incredible network of pastors who Fellowship Southwest is proud to support.

• Seedling Mentor Program:

Seedling’s mission is to mitigate the impact of parental incarceration on children in Central Texas through school-based mentoring.

• Truth Be Told:

Truth Be Told is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit service organization located in Austin, Texas providing trauma-responsive programming for justice-involved women, disrupting cycles of incarceration.

• Freedom to Read Foundation:

The Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF) is a non-profit legal and educational organization affiliated with the American Library Association.  FTRF protects and defends the First Amendment to the Constitution and supports the right of libraries to collect - and individuals to access - information.

TCL's Annual Report 2023!

Check out our latest annual report by clicking here!

Pastor Carrie's TCL 10th Anniversary Reflections!

What does one say to commemorate 10 years of ministry with TCL? It must be thank you. 

Many years ago, my late mentor encouraged me to take a blank piece of paper and write anything that came to heart and mind about my call. He said it might take a few seconds or many months, but once I had it down on paper, I was to ask how this need was already being met. Are there churches or non-profits doing this work? How can I join in? How can I support and serve alongside? He said that if I found this need not being met, only then consider if I am being called to start something new. Great advice all around.

At this point I had been a pastor for a spell, I had facilitated interfaith dialogues for some years. This work had begun to blur together on its own, creating some important questions about spiritual life in the U.S. In doing this blank paper exercise, I eventually came to know something new was on the horizon.

The Church Lab’s mission is to explore innovative paths of spiritual growth for all, discovering the Church’s future and the future of faith practice. No biggie. 

Ten years ago, most of us didn’t know each other. Now when I get to see each of your faces, countless cherished memories spring into my mind’s eye.

Now here we are. God making something out of nothing. Among us, inside of us even. I could not have conjured this up. TCL’s community has defined and shaped what our mission means, what it looks like, how it happens, by being who you are, together. 

You have collectively defined who The Church Lab is through hundreds of dialogues, 3 pastors’ cohorts, Reimagining Service lay leader cohorts, churches with whom we’ve consulted, folks who join our workshops and trainings, folks who hang out for pastoral care and spiritual support, folks who care for each other among you during highlights and hard moments, our upcoming seminarian cohort for spiritual entrepreneurship, our board, our Advisory Council, our leadership support, my personal support system, all of our prayers, heartfelt donations and generous pledges that make this a concrete reality and more. Thanks be to God.

My own work with TCL has been harder than I could have imagined. For me, as for many faith leaders, pastoral work can bring a sense of isolation, often recovering from discrimination, implied and explicit messages of why and how The Church Lab cannot be done. It’s uphill and not ever meant to be downhill. The risks taken change but they are always high stakes. The uncertainty is certain.  It can be soul crushing labor. It has involved sacrifices I did not understand I was agreeing to when I signed up for this, said yes to this call. I’m guessing at minimum other pastors reading this know exactly what I’m talking about. But God uses these challenges to form me into the kind of person and pastor I aspire to be: one always learning to love more like Jesus. This work is always changing. The lessons are always evolving. So I am so delighted and grateful for our TCL experiment not just being about the content of our ministry but also its operations. How can the future of faith practice be a wholehearted and sustainable endeavor for not just me but all vocational ministers in this season of great change for faith practice? The theologically sharp and giant hearted Ollie Jarvis has been vital in defining this when forming Team TCL. Thank you immensely. To Andrea, Natalie, Jane, Carlos, Ashlyn, Julia, Marianne, Dash, Jenelle, Laura, Stephen, and of course our board and Advisory Council…anyone who has done formal work as part of Team TCL, I am beyond grateful to you.

But my part in TCL’s story is not centrally about my own daily grind. It’s about the honor of cheering you on, in walking with you, in bearing witness to your lives. I understand my pastoral role to be like Barnabas from the New Testament of the Christian Bible: I aspire to be a daughter of encouragement. The miracle is in your allowing me to do so, knowing you were volunteering to be changed. This is beyond human; to me, this willingness alone is God’s work in and among us.  

I get to see in this broken world how you exercise your faith, persevere in your lives with hope, and sometimes hope against hope. I get to see the love you extend to one another with no safety net. This is The Church Lab. You have each made it what it is by vulnerably and fully being the way God has made you to be, and seeing what happens when you do so together. You have come together to create a faith community representing any tradition and none at all. Who does that? How is that a thing? But somehow it is, by God’s grace!

You individually and collectively represent kindness, heart and depth in a world which rewards none of it. It is powerful to be around. Standing in the gap that says building bridges is not possible; we exist as proof that bridges are absolutely possible. We come together to laugh and giggle, to throw our hearts and our guts on the table, whether you left religion or dedicated your life to it, and you dare to trust that this will grow you spiritually, grow you as a person and us as a people. The bravery this takes as people who live in a very messy, divided world in a very messy time, and in a very transitional-messy moment for faith practice, is outstanding. Getting to walk with y’all in these moments again and again…that’s what has built and rebuilt my own heart again and again. 

This is hard work we all engage from each of our angles. But it’s not the blood, sweat and tears that make TCL TCL. For me, it’s the letting go. It’s receiving God’s gifts for us, which we encounter in each other. It’s the surprises we didn’t expect to be changed by. It’s the conflicts we resolve, or learn to live with in care, and come out stronger through. It’s the hopelessness which encounters the hope that we hold for each other. It’s hope encountered. Faith discovered. Love-in-action, shared. It IS the embodiment of the way perfect love drives out all fear, as 1 John references.

I love discovering the future of faith practice with you, through our experiments together. I can think of no other pursuit so worthwhile and fun. And none of us know what that’ll look like for sure. 

What I do know is that it has been and is an indescribable honor to dedicate my life’s work to supporting the lives y’all are committed to living. Truly, look what God has done in and among us. It cannot be described in words sufficiently. Though we have done an excellent job of hitting the highlights tonight.

I hope the following may speak to all of us, whether as a mantra or blessing or prayer. This is the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, which represents to me who we are and who we’ve defined TCL to be:

Lord, make us an instrument of your peace: where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. O divine Master, grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Thank you. Thanks be to God for y’all. May God bless each of you and our community in The Church Lab.

My cup runneth over with Joy; may this be true for all of us as we continue life together. Amen.

Meet TCL's New Pastoral Assistant, Jillian!

Hi all! Jillian here 👋 I’m the new pastoral assistant for The Church Lab. I live in San Antonio, TX, and I look forward to connecting with the TCL community very soon! 

Some things about me:

I recently graduated with my Masters in Theology from Perkins School of Theology. My narrower field of interest is “process theology.” It is my strong belief that religion should be compatible with—rather than siloed from—science. Therefore my specific passions lie in the convergence of theology with other sciences (cosmology, astronomy, psychology, and so on). This type of study ultimately promotes progressive ethical stances and healthy interreligious dialogue. 

Before my journey in divinity school, I lived in New York City for 14 years. I went to college for acting and continued in the arts world for a while after school. My community in New York was religiously diverse—in fact, I was the only self-identifying Christian in the group. That experience made me more sensitive to the ways Christianity is viewed from an outside perspective, and it strengthened my desire share alternative ways of looking at Christianity. It also gave me the opportunity to learn from different faith backgrounds and make interreligious connections.

When I’m not working with TCL, I’ll be hanging out with my husband, Chris, and 5-year-old son, River. My husband runs a vintage clothing store and my son loves painting, skateboarding and swimming. I can usually be found sitting outside reading a book and watching River do his thing. Oh, and I have another boy on the way in September. 😀

I love music (especially indie and R&B) and artsy films. My guilty pleasure is reality TV (namely BravoTV and shows about finding love). I run a theology and culture instagram account called Neotopia that incorporates all of the above interests when relevant. 

I so looking forward to getting involved in all the great things TCL is doing! Here’s to more innovative practices and open dialogues that BREAK barriers rather than cater to them!

xo, Jillian Shannon

What 2023 Holds

photo credit: Cristian Escobar

Happy New Year, everybody!

This year TCL is leaning into growth. Not numeric growth, but the growth inherent to our mission. We hope to lift up and support the spiritual growth of anyone who has anything to do with us. 

This is what we mainly focus on doing already; how will we emphasize it in a special way in 2023?

First, we have focused on caring for each other as an already-existing dialogue community the last few years, getting us through the pandemic and emergence from lockdown. Now we will move toward bringing in yet more fresh perspectives, working toward readiness for nuanced topics again, and connecting in person when possible.

We will embody these values in our own operations, as the way we run will lean into sensing where God leads and being faithful to that unfolding direction, day by day. This is challenging and exciting spiritual work! We will seek to prioritize people over business, purpose over outcome.

We will work to connect through and celebrate our stories of spiritual growth and connection across difference, and of what it means to offer a spiritual home for both the devoutly religious and those who hang their spiritual-home-hat primarily in TCL's explorative sphere. We will share our stories with others who might be inspired, encouraged or helped by them! This includes the book projects Carrie will continue to work on. 

We all continue to emerge from our post-pandemic malaise and define new norms for ourselves and for our systems. For those who are not religious and find themselves emerging with new existential and spiritual questions, we seek to be a home for exploration and growth in a way that suits the needs of this moment in history. 

Through all this and more, TCL begins 2023 with a commitment to open-hearted work which gives dignity and hope to the spiritual growth for anyone seeking it. Come as you are. <3

TCL Advent Conspiracy 411!

On Dec 4, we gathered to have a beautiful conversation and represent TCL's community as we gave away the remainder of our operational budget tithe (10%). This is part of TCL’s annual Advent Conspiracy event!

Want to learn what Advent Conspiracy is? Watch this short video!

We focused on local, state, national and international causes. We contributed to both systemic and personal aid causes. We kept a keen eye out for causes that are maybe overlooked, as TCL is committed to creatively meet needs that may fall through the cracks. We still had to narrow it down from there! There are SO many incredible orgs doing vital work.

It is important to us to make sure that the whole of TCL's community can support the direction of our giving decisions. We made sure that where some of these causes might relate to issues with varying religious perspectives, the causes to which we contributed focused on the mental and physical well-being of particularly young people, rather than advocacy for a particular issue itself.

Please do let Pastor Carrie know if you have any questions about any of these causes!

There are many ways to support these amazing organization. If you are interested in volunteering or finding other ways to get involved, we encourage you to check out the links. Let us know if you end up partnering with one of these orgs, so we can share about your experience!

With gratitude,

Rev. Carrie

Donations were sent to:

a) Iranian Diaspora Collective

b) Casa Marianella

c) Freedom to Read Foundation: Judith F. Krug Memorial Fund

d) KIND health clinic

e) Transgender Education Network of Texas

f) Fellowship Southwest: Knox Fund for Immigrant Relief

g) Disability Rights Texas: The Texas Protection and Advocacy Agency

TOTAL: $4,634.90

Orgs we think we hope you will learn about, give to and/or volunteer with:

• Arab America Foundation

• Seedling Foundation: mentor programs for children with incarcerated parents

• Donors Choose: help teachers effectively education students

• UNHCR:Ukraine: help making preparations for Ukraine's winter

• Black Leaders' Collective: Austin

• OutYouth: safety for LGBTQ youth

Thanks for participating in a community who is committed to giving to our communities!

A Special Note About Spring 2023 Events!

image credit: Mortiz Knoringer

The Spring 2023 Calendar is here!

Coming up soon, we have some new events, some classic events; all worthwhile events! 

Please check out our spring lineup and join us!!

Click HERE to find events. Save the dates in your 2023 calendars!

Some important things to know about TCL's spring dialogue work:

The last few years, during pandemic lockdown and initial emergence from it, we have emphasized nurturing our existing dialogue community. We have tackled nuanced topics, to be sure, with emphasis on lifting up our common spirit most often. It has been a special season for us as dialoguers.

Going into the spring of 2023, we are sensing it is time to seek evolving our experiments in a couple of key ways:

1. We seek to be more invitational to new dialoguers once again. If you haven't been to dialogue in a while, or you have thought about it but never tried, this spring is a GREAT time to come observe or try participating!! Email carrie@thechurchlab.org for more info.

2. We seek to stretch ourselves into dialogues of both a common spirit and in exploring loving our neighbor in distinctions. Both are important aspects to building bridges and wholeheartedly loving our neighbors. Especially as our culture loses hope in the possibility of fruitful bridge building in scenarios of difference, we are here to engage the work that can provide that much-needed hope, not to mention a unique form of spiritual growth for all involved. 

In order to do these two things, we are

1. keeping all dialogues open to digital access and in-person access alike, yet with 3 dialogues in the spring asking those who are within driving distance to come on over for an in-person session if at all possible. This will help give us a space to invite newcomers to connect with us IRL, as we find ourselves in a season where few people are looking to join new efforts which call for more Zoom meetings. It also helps us engage more sensitive dialoguers, or more relationally-enriching dialogues, that are trickier when 100% digital. That said, those of us who zoom in from other locales are already doing above-and-beyond work to be fully present, and we are honored for their presence in any and every dialogue.

2. keeping a couple of session topics open until we get closer to the day, so we can discern as a group if there is a dialogue we have not been able to pursue in recent years that we might collectively be interested in and ready for when that given spring session arrives. This allows us to grow and stretch in the ways our group deems fitting for the moment, rather than creating a pressurized situation to be engaged with a topic that we may not desire or be ready for quite yet. We can feel that out as we move forward together.
   

   What will stay the same? Because of the wonderful people involved, this will continue to be fun. This will continue to be enriching and enlightening. This process will continue to connect us deeply. I am so looking forward to dialogues with you all!

I hope you will check out calendar today, save the dates of dialogues and all other events which pique your interest.!

Here's to learning and growing together as we kick off TCL's 10th year of service in 2023!

With heaps of gratitude,

Rev. Carrie Graham

founding pastor, The Church Lab

Random Acts of Kindness Ideas From the TCL Community!

We tend to think about generosity, thankfulness, and the kind things we can do for others a bit more as seasons change and we head toward the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. But, while many of us have a heart for changing big, systemic things, we also love to hear about things we can easily do in our corners of the universe. So, The Church Lab community is sharing random acts of kindness they like to do or have received! Let us know if you're inspired to try a few of these ideas or some of your own!

Special shout out to TCL community members Joanna Drake, Megan Kees, & Andrea Carroll for contributing some fabulous ideas!

The Church Lab's 2022 Annual Report has arrived!

Please click here to read a digital copy!

TCL Interfaith Dialoguer, Cam Shares in Part 1 of TCL Series: Faith in Times of Tragedy & Struggle

Cam (Qamar) lives in North Austin with his wife and two daughters. Cam works in the Industrial Automation space. He belongs to Ahmadiyya Muslim Community which is a denomination of Muslims who believe in the Messiah Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian, India. Ahmadiyya Muslims stand to promote inter-faith, inter-ethnicity and international harmony and dialogue in the spirit of "Love for All, Hatred for None".

When it comes to tragedy and suffering, Islam takes a pragmatic approach. It acknowledges that trials and adversity are part of life (Quran 1 chap 2 verse 156: We will surely try you with somewhat of fear and hunger, and loss of wealth and lives and fruits; then give glad tidings to the steadfast) and turns one’s attention towards the Almighty (Quran 1 chap 2 verse 153: Seek Allah's help with steadfastness and Prayer, surely Allah is with the steadfast) and prescribes patience and steadfastness for dealing with such times. One should remember that throughout a person’s life, God Almighty manifests thousands of matters in accord with the wishes of a person and bestows numberless bounties upon him. It would therefore be inequitable on his part that on such occasions when God calls upon him to submit to His will, he should turn away, not pleased with the will of God, and should be critical, or lose faith or go astray 2.

As far as helping others and relieving their suffering, Muslims are spurred to do their part: both in providing temporary assistance & comfort and also in making an effort to change the status quo by removing the underlying causes.

The alms are only for the poor and the needy, and for those employed in connection therewith, and for those whose hearts are to be reconciled, and for the freeing of slaves, and for those in debt, and for the cause of Allah, and for the wayfarer—an ordinance from Allah. And Allah is All-Knowing, Wise.

Quran1 chap 9, verse 60

And give you to the kinsman his due, and to the poor and the wayfarer, and squander not your wealth extravagantly

Quran1 chap 17, verse 27

And in their wealth was a share for one who asked for help and for one who could not.

Quran1 chap 51, verse 20

Quran ties the attainment of righteousness with sacrificing oneself for the sake of others, thus:

Never shall you attain to righteousness unless you spend out of that which you love; 

Quran1 chap 3, verse 93

Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has a sister charity organization Humanity First which serves to help humanity in the face of adversity and endeavors to improve living conditions without regard for nationality, race, religion and other qualifications. Its focus areas include:

1. Disaster relief

2. Gift of sight

3. Food security

4. Global health

5. Knowledge for life

6. Water for life

Humanity First’s workers come mainly from the Ahmadiyya community who volunteer their time on an incident-by-incident and also on a periodic basis. 

REFERENCES

1. Quran app

2. Page 78, “The Philosophy of the Teachings of Islam” English rendering by Sir Muhammad Zafrulla Khan of “Islami Usul Ki Philosophy” (Urdu) by Hadrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian. First Urdu edition published in 1905. First English edition published in 1979

TCL's Empowering Experiments Mini-Grant Recipients!

The Church Lab is proud to announce our inaugural mini-grant awards for our Empowering Experiments program! We had strong applicants whose calling, ideas and pursuits gave us reason to celebrate the great work and potential work for the future of faith practice out there. The following are the 2 leaders and the projects receiving this year's awards. We are excited to partner with them, connect them meaningfully with TCL's community, and lift up the great work they are doing!

If you applied and didn't get an award this year, we still hope to lift up your work and hope you will reach out so we can brainstorm just how to do that.

If you did not apply this year, but this sounds like a solid fit for you, we hope you'll apply next year!

Read on to learn about our rockstar mini-grant recipients and the fantastic work they're up to!

Roll for Spirituality: Spiritual Growth, Exploration, and Healing through Tabletop Role-playing Games

Grant Recipient: Ryan Cagle
Roll for Spirituality is an experiment that seeks to cultivate a space for self discovery and spiritual exploration outside the bounds of normative religious institutions and dogma. In this space individuals can safely explore new worlds, beliefs, ideas, face challenges, learn to solve problems, and explore deep truths about themselves, the world, and God through the medium of tabletop role playing games.

Anxiety about the church's future, faith practice, and spirituality abound in the US. However, Ryan Cagle doesn't believe the "death" of the church is a problem to be fixed but an invitation for us and our communities to dream new dreams and launch new experiments in cultivating space for self-discovery and spiritual exploration in our individual and communal lives. Ryan has spent the last decade working in church plants and ministry revitalization across various socioeconomic and political contexts within different church traditions. He has an intense passion for seeing people live into new ways of being and becoming beyond the boundaries of traditional religious institutions.

He found that role-playing games have the wonderful ability to help us explore theological ideas, worlds, and concepts that we may have never thought to explore or can't explore because we lack a safe and affirming environment to do so. "I believe that role-playing games, when done with intention, can leave us deeply transformed in the same way that prayer, meditation, participation in liturgy, and religious rituals can. Like these practices that help us on our journeys of spiritual growth, exploration, and healing, role-playing games can also be used to facilitate such outcomes."

Ryan notes that "quite often, we do not have supportive structures or safe spaces in our lives that allow us to explore our spirituality, beliefs, ideas, and life circumstances. It's difficult to wrestle with our doubts, questions, and curiosities when we feel alone, and this is the problem that Roll For Spirituality seeks to remedy. Regardless of the environment we find ourselves in, spiritual direction shows us that we do not have to go on this journey alone. By using role-playing games alongside the tools of spiritual direction, I hope to create an environment that enables individuals the freedom and safety to participate in deep reflective work and spiritual exploration in fresh ways." The Church Lab loves the creativity and experimental nature of Roll For Spirituality and we’re honored to play a role in supporting it!

Grant Recipient: Rev. Amy Meyer, Pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Elgin, Texas
Lane 8 Yoga combines yoga and swimming in a fun, team-like atmosphere. Participants will experience a mind-body-spirit approach to health and wellness as well as a creative mixture of cardiovascular exercise, deep stretching, mindfulness, and meditation.

After speaking with the principal of a local elementary school, Rev. Amy Meyer discovered an increasing need for mental health resources for children in the small Texas town of Elgin. Unfortunately, Elgin is limited in resources that are noticeable to the average person. While there are crisis numbers to call for mental health emergencies, there aren’t many options for families who need ongoing care or preventative tools and resources to practice a healthy lifestyle. Rev. Amy & her church believes that God desires for each of God’s children to live life to the full, and this includes access to programs that would benefit physical, spiritual, and mental health. While urgent care and emergency options are essential, it is equally important to offer teaching tools and practices that can help with long-term mental, physical, and spiritual needs.

First Presbyterian Church has incorporated mindfulness, meditation, and yoga into some of their Sunday morning church routines and has found it beneficial. They’re excited to experiment with incorporating similar practices with swimming and anticipate that it will be a successful combination for the participants physically, mentally, and spiritually. They wonder if some participants might be interested in learning more about First Presbyterian Church, the sponsoring church where the coach, Rev. Amy, happens to be the pastor. However, there won’t be any intentional evangelism. And if they find that participants aren’t curious about the church, they’re happy to keep their interactions limited to the pool. Rev. Amy Meyer and First Presbyterian feel this is an important experiment regardless of how it might affect their church.

Rev. Amy adds that “the combination of swimming, meditation, mindfulness, and yoga will be an especially interesting experiment, noting that while swimming, the brain’s blood flow increases. This can potentially enhance the usual benefits of mindfulness and meditation activities that are typically practiced on land.” In addition, Swim Yoga will provide a supportive team-like atmosphere with mindfulness and meditation practices that children can use at home and throughout the school year. It can even be helpful for those managing conditions such as depression and anxiety. The Church Lab is excited about this experiment and excited to help be the springboard for Swim Yoga becoming a yearly summer offering in Elgin!

Wendy Cooper, TCL’s New Board Chair, Shares Her Annual Board Retreat Experience

Wendy Cooper has been a member of the TCL community for many years. She joined the Board of Directors in 2020 and will serve as Board Chair for our 2022-23 year. Wendy lives in Houston and is a compliance and ethics advisor, championing ethical standards and practices in the energy industry.

Last month, The Church Lab Board of Directors met for their annual board retreat. For the first time in three years, many of the Board members were able to meet together in Austin, with others who were not able to be there in person joining online. There were the usual discussions of strategy, vision, budgets, and fundraising, but there were also the fun conversations that happen around dinner that many of us missed during the time of social distancing.

The Board Retreat began with a day of orientation for the new Board members followed by a special Thursday night dialogue. Because I am not able to attend dialogue on a regular basis, I look forward to this night every year when TCL’s dedicated dialoguers graciously agree to meet on a different night to allow the Board members to join. As always, the conversation was open and supportive, allowing everyone to share their thoughts and experiences.

Speaking of sharing, each year at the Retreat, Carrie asks the board members to share a personal story of how TCL’s purpose or practices have resonated in their lives. The story I shared reflected my experience with diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in the corporate world. Although always well-intentioned, these programs often fall short of their intended goal of creating environments that feel safe and open to all. Interestingly though, I accidentally discovered a diverse and inclusive community when I visited a Toastmasters meeting.

For those who are not familiar, Toastmasters is an organization that has been around for almost one hundred years where people can join to practice their public speaking skills. The meetings are very regimented with clearly defined roles and expectations. What I came to realize is that the inclusive nature of this group was created because there were no hidden agendas or unspoken rules. When everyone has the same set of instructions, everyone can participate.

Reflecting on this realization, I immediately drew a parallel to The Church Lab and the ground rules that are recited at the beginning of each dialogue. This simple exercise ensures that whether it is someone’s first dialogue or their fiftieth, everyone starts on the same page. And with this, TCL is able to create a level of inclusivity that is hard to find elsewhere.

The Church Lab’s unique way of creating open spaces while simultaneously bridging divides is what draws people not just from Austin, but other parts of Texas, California, and Washington DC to serve on its Board of Directors. Board members know how valuable TCL’s work is to individuals and faith communities of all kinds. We believe deeply in the mission of TCL and have set goals for ourselves and the organization that will keep it moving forward and growing into the future.

TCL Invites You to Apply for the Empowering Experiments Grant!

The Church Lab is delighted to introduce Empowered Experiments (EE), our granting program in which we seek to empower established or aspiring non-traditional faith leaders in a ministry project with which they wish to experiment!

Applications are open now! Application materials, which can be found below, should be sent to help@thechurchlab.org by or before August 31, 2022.

Please CLICK HERE to access application instructions. Thank you!

An Inter-Faith Friendly Prayer in Response to the Uvalde Shooting, from Pastor Carrie

photo credit: Eyasu Etsub

Kyrie Eleison.

God, we have no sufficient words.

Yet we lift up the community of Robb Elementary in Uvalde here in Texas. We lift up all the precious children, the brave teachers and the grandmother whose lives have been robbed, dear God. We mourn with broken hearts that which should not be. This should not be. We beg that you bring support to surround and envelop every family member, every parent, every Robb Elementary teacher and school employee and volunteer, every loved one of those who have passed, who are enduring a day beyond comprehension.

We pray fervently for the healing of those who are in the hospital right now, fighting for their lives in the aftermath of this tragedy.

God we cry out for the brokenness, we mourn the light that went out in the soul who found himself causing this destruction.

God, we ask that You would provide Peace which surpasses understanding, consistent comfort, to the children and staff who have lived through this day and who will forever be affected by this experience. We ask you for healing. For connection. For resilience. May we hold hope for them when they need it, both now and many years into the future.

God, we ask that You make Your presence known to the families, to the loved ones of those affected directly by this day. Usher them to a place of connection as a community. Bring evidence of Your care into their midst, as they both process their trauma around this event, and in turn care for others they love who have primary trauma as well.

We ask that You give the baseline necessary to emergency workers, to medical staff, to therapists, counselors, pastors and any helper who might be called to walk with those in suffering now and into the future in the Uvalde community. Give them the strength, the resolve, the energy, the opportunities for rest and resilience from which to pour into others.

In the midst of this, loving God, we ask that those who have faced all too many tragedies involving public violence, particularly in schools like Sandy Hook or Columbine, might be met by others with immense tenderness today.

And of course, dear God, we ask that you'd give us hearts of enduring compassion for those who have faced unspeakable suffering of this nature. Whether we feel like bystanders, or are veteran or aspiring activists, or find ourselves unsure of how to respond, I implore you would grant us resolve and a spirit of response in the best ways we might muster as a means of advocacy for our neighbors across our nation impacted by senseless violence.

Amen.

Rev. Carrie Offers a Prayer in the Wake of Continued Hate Crimes & Mass Shootings

photo by Jozsef Szabo

Loving God,

We pray for the loved ones of those who were unjustly and brutally murdered in Buffalo. We pray for their ability to sleep at night. We pray for their ability to experience peace, which in this case, must surpass all understanding. We pray for their grief process. May Your love cover them, protect them, comfort them without ceasing in days, weeks, months and years to come. These are children, grandchildren, spouses and siblings, best friends whose lives have been cut short by hate. May the lens of eternity provide hope to an unjustifiable, irreparable situation in our earthly midst.

We pray for the Black community of Buffalo, for their sense of safety and, I'm grieved to need to ask, also for their actual safety.

We lift up the communities of color across the nation, as we receive this news of a shooter in Buffalo targeting our Black neighbors, reaching an anniversary of the El Paso shootings which targeted our Hispanic neighbors and grieving a shooting of Taiwanese neighbors in a church in Laguna Woods, just on the heels of another anti-Asian shooting at a Korean-run hair salon in Dallas.

In the last 40 years, statistics show us that an easy, overwhelming majority of mass shooters are white neighbors. I'm so ashamed that this is true, especially in reflecting on how often mass shootings are clear hate crimes against people of U.S. minority races or ethnicities, if not some other distinguishing factor that is not an actual burden to anyone, and is actually instead a gift to the world!

May those who need convicting of racial hate crimes and mass shootings as a problem to deal with, by all means, be very convicted. May they seek very seriously the Lord's help in taking action to be part of a solution which upholds the safety of all of God's children, all of our neighbors, all of our sisters and brothers.

May my own convictions around this remain steadfast; may I stay true to this commitment myself, as I ask others to marry their actions and words to this cause, with God's help.
May my siblings of many faith traditions, those who dialogue with me at The Church Lab, unite in lifting up those so hurt and broken by this injustice, and may we be a space for both grief and conviction expressed in our conversations to then find its way into cooperative actions which seek justice, love mercy and help us walk humbly with our higher powers, as well as walk with all our neighbors, in tireless pursuit of jubilant equity and love.

Amen.

Meet TCL's New Pastoral Assistant!

Hi! I'm Andrea, TCL's new Pastoral Assistant. Just in case you haven't met me yet, here are a few things about me:

In 2017, I joined the TCL interfaith dialogue community and Chortle, the TCL discipleship group for various Christian-ish folks. I love Jesus, and I love people! I'm also super clumsy about it, there are nuances, and I'm figuring out my relationship with the Church as an institution. When self-identifying our traditions before dialogues, one of my fellow dialoguers & Chortle friends loves it when I get a little flustered and blurt out, "Uhh…I just kick it with Jesus," so Hi! My name is Andrea, and I kick it with Jesus!

I also nerd out about breaking stereotypes and learning about various people's perspectives & traditions, how they navigate life, and what is meaningful to them. The ripple effect of understanding and connection this creates is so incredible. It's something that I truly believe makes this world a better place where we aren't scared of our differences but acknowledge and sometimes even celebrate them, which helps us progress together in times of disagreement or when repair and healing are needed. So naturally, The Church Lab's experimental ministry of interfaith dialogue community felt like a good fit. I'm honored to participate in and belong to this community that has celebrated wins with me and supported me in deep times of need. I'm eternally grateful for them!

In addition to Chortle and dialogue, I've had opportunities to support TCL's mission through our annual giving event, hurricane relief efforts, volunteering with TCL at Community First! Village, and attending TCL's workshops and facilitator training. It feels extra special getting to participate in TCL events like our interfaith-friendly labyrinth walks, being invited to Iftar dinners during Ramadan with our Ahmadiyya Muslim friends, and meeting new friends at a variety of faith communities like the Sikh gurdwara and Buddhist temple.

Before getting more involved with TCL, I worked in the nonprofit field for years, and beginning in 2019, I was honored to join the TCL Board of Directors and serve as the Fundraising Chair. It generally involves being a big ol' fundraising cheerleader for the Board because, really, who likes fundraising (if you do and dig TCL, please talk to me, you beautiful unicorn!). Most recently, I filled in with logistics at TCL to help make Rev. Carrie's sabbatical possible. I'm now beginning to settle into my new role as TCL's Pastoral Assistant, which means I dream a little more about TCL's future with Rev. Carrie. I'm also learning TCL's bookkeeping system from the fabulous Natalie Traylor, whom I'm convinced is secretly Wonder Woman, as she's determined, diligent, and a nurturing guide in all things TCL bookkeeping.

When I'm not participating in TCL activities, you can find me in the professional music world and involved in various lanes of activism. I'm a multi-instrumentalist musician with decades of live performance, recording, and touring experience and a Bachelor of Science in Music Performance. I'm also passionate about voting and participating in democracy! I'm a Volunteer Deputy Registrar, a member of the League of Women Voters- Austin Area, and I volunteer with political campaigns and causes. You can also find me out and about supporting fellow musicians at live shows, geeking out about comic books and TV shows (including all things Star Trek, anything Jim Henson, and I'm currently excited about the upcoming season of Dr. Who). I like swimming, conversations (not small talk), am always up for a friendly game of pool or trivia, and have developed a bit of a plant collecting habit. If my apartment got just a bit more sunlight, I’d probably get so many plants it would look like a jungle! My most recent favorites are the Willie Nelson chia pet that my spouse gifted me and Queen LaTreefa, the Pachira Aquatica. To sum it up, I'm a plant hoarding, kinda nerdy, political, pro-musician that does a lot of nonprofit work, loves Jesus, loves people, and is excited to be a part of The Church Lab community! Nice to meet you!

TCL's Spring 2022 Recipe Stories!

Photo by Jason Jarrach

As we know, Spring holds some joyous occasions and sacred practices in our various traditions like: Ostara, Ramadan, Pesach, Holy week (Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday & Resurrection Sunday, the latter of which is also known as Easter), Ridván, Beltane and more. During these observances, families & faith communities may gather at some point and share a special meal. These meals enable us to stay connected to one another and our traditions, and oftentimes, there are traditional dishes or symbolic foods to be served during these special times that hold significance. We reached out to The Church Lab interfaith dialogue community to find out some of their favorite dishes for this time of year! Sharing some of our favorite foods lets us get a glimpse into people’s history and their culture, and allows us to connect in authentic ways. We’re excited to share some of these Spring favorites from the TCL community!

Easter Candy & Fatherly Love

Eileen is one of our Christian dialoguers in the TCL interfaith community and shares about a special treat that her father would lovingly share with his daughters around Easter. “My family does not have any special foods for Easter except for Whopper Eggs and Robin Eggs, haha! My dad would buy them every Easter and would share his stash with my sisters and I. We loved them and looked forward to them every year! Whopper and Robin Eggs only come around once a year so they are a special treat. The fact that my dad was generous with his sweets is also a fond memory.”

When asked about favorite traditions for this time of year in her worshiping community and corresponding sacred texts, Eileen shares, “I love going to church on Easter. I dress very nicely on Easter and sing joyful worship songs about Jesus rising from the dead and defeating death. I also love all the glorious flowers at church during Easter! At my planting church, we would have a BBQ right after church and everyone was invited. Easter is one of my most favorite days of the year because it is so glorious in what it symbolizes to me. If my mom is not working, we might go out to eat for lunch or have a nice meal at home. My grandparents just moved to the greater Austin area, so I am hoping we get to do some Easter traditions with them.”

Eileen also shared some of her favorite Bible Verses about Easter: Matthew 27: 50-54 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people. When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”

Isaiah 53:5 "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed."

Mark 16:6-7 “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’"

Ramaddan Iftar & Pakoras

Bushra Zafar, a beloved Ahmadiyya Muslim dialoguer in the TCL interfaith community shares her favorite go-to dish to break the fast during Ramadan!

Photo by Nagi on RecipeTinEats

If you wake up in the middle of the night and see a house all lit up don’t be alarmed, it’s probably a Muslim household up at pre-dawn to start their fast. The Muslim fast requires a pre-dawn meal and then the whole day to be spent in the remembrance of God Almighty and recitation of the Quran to increase our understanding of our purpose on this Earth. The fast is broken at sunset. This is a general guideline, but Islam being a religion of ease there are exceptions to the rules where applicable. For example, those who are sick or women who are pregnant or breastfeeding are exempted from the requirement to fast. Travelers are also exempted. However, if they are staying at a place for longer than a few days, and are able to fast then they should do so. If one misses the fast for any reason, they are supposed to compensate by feeding a person, and also completing the missed amount at another time in the year before next Ramadan. As much as people understand fasting as a ritual of starving and feeding, it is much more than just starving our bodies for a time and then filling it with copious amounts of fried stuff. It is also about community and charity and self-control not just on hunger, but also on anger. As I have grown older, I have come to associate this time with a chance to reset the record so to speak in your life. It is a time to come clean in front of God and His creation. Finding balance between the two because it is in that balance that life is worth living.

“O ye who believe! fasting is prescribed for you, as it was prescribed for those before you, so that you may become righteous.” (Quran 2-184)

The root word “Ramad” in the name “Ramadan” means burning. It alludes to the human condition during fasting in this month which causes heat and burning due to thirst; worship and devotion in this month burns away the traces of sin in man, thus producing in the heart of man the necessary warmth of love for his Creator and compassion for his fellow beings.

I remember as a child as we all sat around the table during morning “Sehr” time and how as soon as we’d hear the Muezzin start the call to prayer, we would hurriedly finish our meal and get the last drink of water just as the last words were uttered. Then at sunset again I would be tasked with standing outside (perhaps because I was a fast runner) so that as soon as I hear the Muezzin turn on his microphone and say Allahu Akbar (God is the Greatest) even if it was a faint voice coming from a distant mosque to run screaming, “break the fast! break the fast!” As a kid I was not supposed to fast so my mom seeing how much I also wanted to partake in this ritual would tell us that as kids you can keep 2 fasts in a day, and would feed us lunch in the middle; we called it “chirri roza” meaning small fast.

Breaking the fast or Iftar with a date was a practice of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him) and Muslims try to emulate his actions by doing the same. In South Asia another staple for Iftar time is what is known as “pakora” or a fried gram flour dumpling. In our own household any day pakoras are made is a day of much celebration. It is my go-to on days I find myself out of menu options or will to cook a more time-consuming dish. My recipe for pakoras is below, but there are many items that are optional and a simpler dumpling can be had if anyone so chooses.

Ingredients:

Gram flour 1cup (sifted)

Salt to taste (3/4 to 1 tsp)

Red pepper powder (1/2 tsp for mild 3/4 to 1 tsp for hot)

Cumin seeds (2 tsp)

Baking soda (1 or 2 pinch)

(This is all you need for a simple dumpling. Mix this in water to make smooth batter but not very runny and deep-frying small spoonful’s in oil pre-heated at medium heat)

Onion 1/2 finely chopped

Potatoes 1 or 2 depending on size, again cut in very fine fries shape

Spinach finely chopped 1 or 2 cups (Can use cilantro to add some green if out of spinach)

Green chilies 2 to 3 chopped (optional)

Dried pomegranate seeds 15 to 20 (optional)

Directions:

Mix the batter with just the dry ingredients and water before adding onions, potatoes and spinach.

Photo by Bushra Zafar

The thicker the batter the better, as onions and potatoes will bring moisture to it also.

Photo by Bushra Zafar

Once all of these ingredients are mixed up you will fry spoonful’s of this batter in preheated oil, turning over from time to time until golden brown all around. Don’t worry if each dumpling comes out looking differently, we love diversity :)