Pastor Carol, Natalie Hokanson, and I are attending the St. Paul Synod Assembly, the weekend of Friday, May 30 and Saturday, May 31. I plan on posting thoughts and observations about this exciting experience. I intend to post these over the next week or so. Let me know what you think, and if you have questions.
Paul Hardt, Voting Member from Pilgrim to Synod Assembly
Welcome to the “Pilgrims for Just Peace” discussion area.
This is the area, where peace and justice issues will be discussed. Our Pilgrims for Just Peace group is discussing the questions “What is a Peace Church?” and “Should Pilgrim join the Every Church a Peace Church organization?” Discussion questions will be posted here periodically. The discussion is open to anyone from Pilgrim to post ideas and thoughts. Watch for the first discussion question to be posted soon.
Paul Hardt, Editor/Administrator
Deacon, Mission and Social Concerns
Here’s a link to an article which appeared in The Lutheran about Pilgrim Church
This is a discussion, designed to give you a chance to ask the editor of this web journal any questions you have about:
How to write a blog entry.
Other church blogs.
The purpose of this blog.
The relation of the blog to the Pilgrim Lutheran Church website.
and any other questions you might have.
Click the “Comments” link, and you’ll see a submission window. Type your question there, and click “submit.”
You won’t see your question right away, but we’ll post it, as soon as we review it, and give you an answer to your question.
Welcome to Pilgrim Lutheran Church’s new Web Journal!
We hope you find this web journal helpful, interesting, challenging, and, above all, welcoming. Feel free to browse around. We’re just getting started, so watch for more content over the next several months.
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Your Editor
From 1998 to 2001, I taught English in China where the Christians drove me crazy. Not because of what they said to me, but because of what they said about me. They told my friend, a convert from Islam, that I was not a Christian. “How do they know?” I demanded. “They’re never asked me; we’ve never discussed religion.”
“They say because you don’t go to church,” she explained. “They know everyone who goes to church and you don’t go.”
It was China, a place of few churches; they would know.
My friend, the convert, explained, “They told me don’t be your friend, you’re not a Christian. They say I need Christian friends now I am a Christian. I told them you go to church as a little girl and you pray, but they say you’re not a Christian if you don’t go to church.”
Their assertion angered me. Who were they to decide? I was raised Lutheran and confirmed Lutheran. Even if I was a prodigal daughter, Jesus taught I belonged. I was appalled at their arrogance.
I admit that I, myself, was not sure if I was a Christian. However, this was an identity between me and God and I was secure in that relationship. Certainly, I was a cultural Christian, but I couldn’t say beyond that what Christianity meant to me. I was sure that God was too big for containment in one religion.
Not only was I upset that the missionaries presumed to know something about me and my relationship with God that I did not know. Also, I was furious with the missionaries for spreading a narrow-minded exclusionary interpretation of Christianity among the Chinese people who had already been harmed by a narrow-minded totalitarian government.
I came back from China to a new presidency that combined government and religion and defined Christianity in the narrowest form. I came back from immersion in another culture in search of my own people. I came back needing to understand my roots.
I found Pilgrim Lutheran of St. Paul when I attended a Scandinavian evening service on a Sunday. There is nothing like listening to Ruth MacKenzie improvise herding calls to feel called back to home. The following Sunday, I attended a morning service at Pilgrim Lutheran. I liked the service, so I stayed for a new member meeting.
Whereas God cannot be contained, I can be contained, but I don’t like it. When I was asked to introduce myself, I announced I was a member of a Buddhist meditation center and I planned to continue that membership. The pastor nodded. She had heard me; she was not going to limit me. I had found my church home.
Reva Rasmussen
