Brandi Carlile's Chicago show last night was amazing! Tonight, I got to hear a professional choral ensemble and an advanced high school choir perform contemporary choral works, including one the high schoolers composed. The bar's pretty high for church music in the morning

I have just made the necessary switch from wearing contacts (mono vision) to progressive lenses in new glasses. My brain is resisting this with admirable stubbornness.

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Some people talk about love as something "out there," something lofty and ideal. But our love is often messy, we are often not at our best, and harm still happens. Still, that doesn't empty love of its power. In fact, our being human is the point.

I used @hannahnpbowman.com's preaching resources to introduce the concept of Migration with Dignity Sunday and to talk very plainly about repentance, welcome, and care. People were so grateful that I addresed the violence head on. (I'm sure some weren't, but they didn't tell me). Thanks, Hannah!

Important. Especially after the horrific detention ruling from the Fifth Circuit last night, which I’m still working to understand. Concentration camps for children and people claiming asylum and more.

I can’t overstate that nearly every good headline coming out of Minnesota has been followed up by retaliation by the Trump administration—which tends to get a lot less attention. This is infuriating and devastating.

⚓️In prep for our first Lent together, I've started a worship committee to help me make liturgical choices that fit with their particular pieties and parish history. I love this stuff!

The 158th Annual Meeting of Church of Our Saviour, Chicago is complete. This little guy was shaking with excitement when I got home, and it was all for this. Sunday afternoon snuggles are the best!⚓️

Finally picked up Eve Ewing's Original Sins for my morning reading, and my brain feels like it's playing in a forgotten corner of the playground for the first time in a while. What a teacher and writer she is!

DHS has a whole citizen detainment system set up in Minnesota. They snatch citizens off the street (often with proof they are citizens), detain them for a few hours, steal their phones, then release them into the cold. It ain’t about deporting citizens; it’s about terrorizing a whole population.

I've been mostly working from home for the past two weeks while I recovered from the MegaCold I had. Today, I got to work in the office all morning and preside at a committal service for a longtime parishioner. Seeing his varied communities come together was beautiful. I'm so grateful🙂⚓️

The prayer vigil was exactly what I needed tonight. It's a new congregation, I've only been here 9 months, so I'm still learning how they respond in times of anger and pain. We started early to check in, then prayed. When we were done, I asked, what now? They're going to start a group to explore

My cold has left me with a deep cough that starts whenever I speak more than a few sentences. Wearing a mask makes it all the worse. So I stayed home this morning, even though I so need to pray with people. This evening, I'm leading a prayer vigil online. I can mute when the coughing gets bad.⚓️

Listen: because I am hearing this a lot from folks who are in caregiving roles with disabled, sick, dying folks, elders, or children in their care: You are not unable to do anything or unable to take action. Care work IS justice work

⚓️We had our Celebration of New Ministry tonight and oh, it was so lovely. Even if I did have to wear a mask through the whole thing; I had a cold the last couple of days and wanted to keep any lingering germs to myself.

Chicagoland- Your compassion, rage, grief, and will to keep going inspire me. Indivisible Lincoln Park/Lakeview had a beautiful vigil today. Community stayed afterwards to sing, talk and grieve. We have a heart. @indivisiblechicago.bsky.social @indivisible.org @maddow.bsky.social @meidastouch.com

What a gift this was

I heard Amythyst Kiah in Evanston last night and it was my favorite concert in such a long time. Amazing music, a good crowd, and such a fun performer. I loved hearing the stories behind the songs.

They did this in Chicago multiple times including an elementary schools. They used Chemical weapons in a neighborhood right before the little kids were going to do a Halloween parade too. I'm unsurprised yet frustrated by how little people not in the impacted cities & not activists know.

Good morning. I'd like to invite anyone who is interested to make a small gesture of kindness today. It's up to you to decide what that can be. The key is for you to act on the idea. With so much out of our control, we can choose how to be with each other today and every day.

Took a class tonight in something I was convinced I'd be terrible at, and guess what! I'm no worse than any of the other complete beginners. Learning something from scratch is scary and exhilarating, all at the same time.

Super-grateful for lay preachers who use their unique role to speak hard truths and timely words of encouragement.

In case you're still waffling. I think Catlett's unmistakeable love for her subjects-- including women, children, workers, Black men targeted by state violence-- will probably capture your heart and make you feel for them. I know it did that to me.

If you're in #Chicago and can get to the Art Institute this week, you'll catch the Elizabeth Catlett exhibit. You're welcome!

Anyway the single best check on your espoused prescriptions for social change is whether you yourself are doing what you say others need to do. It's extremely clarifying and usually very humbling.

Thanks for sharing this document, @rweingarten.bsky.social. I read it, and I believe it's inexcusably inadequate and will not prepare teachers or schools to confront the very real dangers of the "A.i." products pushed by your partners, including OpenAI. A few thoughts for your consideration...

To be clear, I was not out of control. The kids, though, had been given little battery-powered tea lights and plenty of sugar. It was a fun time!

In a fun but almost out-of-control kids' homily, I heard myself say Mary and Joseph put their baby in a manger, "which is kinda like a food bowl." For the rest of the service, an image of the Holy Child resting on my dog's kibble floated in and out of my mind. I have got to believe God laughs....⚓️

I love having colleagues who take photos. In this gripping pic, I'm talking through my Christmas Eve sermon one last time.

⚓️Holidays, especially family-heavy ones, can be really lonely for us single clergy people. After church is over, we often go home to an empty house. If you have a spare seat at your table, please think about if you know any single adults who could use a spot to belong for a bit. Thanks!

Remember that this is an extremist ideology that goes against all the best science about what's good for kids. We need to be ready to push back hard.

I'm putting together my Longest Night Service bulletin to share this liturgy with a new congregation. It's a simple thing, offering candlelight, anointing for healing, simple prayers and scripture, and silence. But it holds space for a wide range of human longings and divine grace.(1/2)

People are going to die because of the pending insurance premium hikes. I know the terrain of discourse is inconsistent and goes through a tumble cycle every 24 hours, but I really think we need to hone in on this reality and drive it home for people.

You all, we're having real winter! I love this stuff so much!

Okay, this was such a beautiful way to spend Thanksgiving Eve. The homemade cherries jubilee pie-- still warm!-- went really well with a sliver of French silk pie, and Eucharist in the round was quietly powerful.

⚓️It's my first Pizza, Pew, and Pie tomorrow evening. I can't stop thinking of it as Pizza, pee-yew, and Pie, which is unfortunate.

I love this church and its long legacy of service and care. ⚓️

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Today's lay preacher told us about their Aunt M, who could certainly "say boo to a goose!" Who else says this? It was new to me and I really want to know the context in which it arose. I mean, it's gotta be fun to say, but I've never imagined saying anything at all to a goose.....⚓️

As of this morning, Starbucks workers across the country are officially ON STRIKE. And we're prepared for this to become the biggest and longest ULP strike in Starbucks history. Say #NoContractNoCoffee with us: DON'T BUY STARBUCKS for the duration of our open-ended ULP strike! $SBUX

This little guy loves poking that long snout into every single hole he can find in freshly fallen snow. So much for brisk winter walks!

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As a minister in Chicago, I give thanks for the varied ways people of faith are showing up. Since June, several clergy and lay people have gathered outside the Federal courthouse weekly for a prayer service. Most weeks, passersby join in. We can't all go to Broadview, but we all can pray and act.

In late September, my family and I lost our matriarch, my abuela. I've been a bit all over the place since. My abuela moved to our hometown in the 70s. She loved it even as one of the first Mexican families there. It's been targeted every day by ICE. I wrote about it. buttondown.com/camrodriguez...

this morning, ICE went into a Spanish language immersion daycare and took a teacher from the building in front of screaming and crying kids and parents at dropoff and the daycare had to shut down for the day (near Lane Tech, where they were yesterday). Really hoping today's "theme" is not "daycare."

These Chicago restaurants are offering free or discounted meals during SNAP pause: blockclubchi.co/47DM5Ys

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Today we had a 5 yo sibling putting their hand in the font while I blessed the water to baptize their baby sib. They stood in wide-eyed wonder at how ordinary and wet the water felt, even as the sacrament proclaimed the water holy and holy-making (in its way). My first baptism here was joyous.

#chicago This is sad and scary. The boys were certainly not older that 12, but old enough that their parents let them go by themselves.