First Friday of Epiphany: The Power of One
Why "uncommon communion?" + A logo! + Heard of the "New Apostolic Reformation?"
I’m making it a habit to pray before I sit to write these posts. A bit ago, I spoke and sat with these words from the first text I read each morning with my breakfast:
God of all who worry and wander, draw me home to your hearth.
When the universe appears cold, my heart tells me there is a living warmth called love.
In prayer, I wish to feel your heart blazing with a heat that holds everything together while fears seek to crack me apart.
In and through Jesus Christ, fire of my heart, fusion of loving fellowship, help of humankind.
Haas, Peter Traben. Centering Prayers: A One-Year Daily Companion for Going Deeper into the Love of God (pp. 9-10).
I dig the dual meanings of “wonder.” Paired as it is with “worry,” does it underscore the worry as uncertainty regarding God? Or, does it contrast anxiety with the meaning of “awe and wonder?” Could it hold both meanings - depending on the one who prays the words?
A paid subscribing reader (thank you, Phil!) asked a great question: What is uncommon communion?
I got so caught up in starting this back in November and then writing each day throughout Advent and Christmastide, that I’d neglected to share why I’ve named this space as I have.
I was thinking about this today while I was entertaining the desire to create a logo to identify this place. Here’s what I (and a great little app) came up with:
I seek to present multiple meanings by using “uncommon communion” - to represent my faith journey thus far and to create a space where unexpected, unlikely, and even unusual connections are discovered among readers.
I will share more about the unpredictable journey I’ve made through organized religions. In order, across my five and a half decades thus far, I’ve been received as a member of these denominations:
Catholic
Episcopalian
Lutheran
Methodist
Catholic (again)
Planetary Pilgrim on the Way of Christ
I have a Masters in Religious Education from Boston College - which permitted me to teach Religion/Religious Studies/Theology in Catholic high schools, in three states (CA, TX, OH) for eighteen school years.
I have two-thirds of a Masters in Divinity from Methodist Theological School in Ohio as I was in formation to be ordained as a United Methodist Elder.
The through line across these liturgical denominations is the centrality of the Eucharist or Communion. In my faith experience, the Incarnation is the heart of creation - and a key way we are able to participate in this is by receiving the Body of Christ - which nourishes us in becoming the Body of Christ.
Furthermore, my spirituality, especially as I read Sr. Ilia Dellio and John D. Caputo, is expanding in the realization of how the Creator/Sustainer of All, or as I like to indicate this - The MORE - is within the inter-connectedness, the communion among all.
This is what drew me to the element of the water and the wave in the logo I created. Water is the connective tissue of all life. Waves, be they light, sound, or in the water are the fundamental method of movement - and God is Movement!
And do you kind of see the “U” and the “C” in logo?
I truly want this to be a community for communication and thus communion. So, please use the comment feature to share your thoughts on the logo, my introduction to the meaning of the name, or whatever is on your mind, heart or spirit!
I’d planned to share about only one article today. Yet, one of my top five publications I read - The Atlantic - posted a story today which illuminates an influential, growing and I believe dangerous - cult within today’s “Christianity”
Since I want to get to the other article, I’ll just offer a couple of quotes from this excellent reporting by Stephanie McCrummen:
At this point, tens of millions of believers - about 40 percent of American Christians, including Catholics, according to a recent Denison University survey - are embracing an alluring, charismatic movement that has little use for religious pluralism, individual rights, or constitutional democracy.
It is mystical, emotional, and, in its own ways, wildly utopian.
It is transnational, multiracial, and unapologetically political.
Early leaders called it the New Apostolic Reformation or NAR…
And the connection between NAR and the return of T-Rump?
The NAR movement was a major source of the “low propensity voters” who backed Trump.
Frederick Clarkson, a senior research analyst with Political Research Associates, which tracks anti-democratic movements, has been documenting the rise of the NAR for years, and warning about its theocratic goals.
He believes that a certain condescension, and perhaps failure of imagination, has kept outsiders from understanding what he has come to see as the most significant religious movement of the 21st century, and one that poses a profound threat to democracy. [emphasis is mine]
Please read the article as there’s much more to this, as they say, “developing story.”
In my last post, I reflected on how determined groups of people can non-violently oppose unjust actions:
First Wednesday of Epiphany: Power as Determination and Provocation
Whole Heart Tuesdays - sponsored by Saint Matthew’s aka the Pray, Think, Love church, returned last evening. It was good to gather again after the two week hiatus (as the last two Tuesdays were the double December “eves”)
What can happen when one person takes it upon herself or himself to stand up?
According to the Wikipedia page on “Tank Man”:
There is no reliable information about the identity or fate of Tank Man; the story of what happened to the tank crew is also unknown. At least one witness has stated that Tank Man was not the only person to have blocked the tanks during the protest.
And yet (also from the Wikipedia page:)
In April 1998, Time included the "Unknown Rebel" in a feature titled "Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century". In November 2016, Time included the photograph by Jeff Widener in "Time 100: The Most Influential Images of All Time".
Although the images of the Tank Man are regarded as iconic symbols of the 20th century, due to the Chinese government prohibiting the circulation of related images on the Internet, most young people in China do not recognize the photograph.
From outstanding and vital reporting by ProPublica.org on January 4, 2025:
[From https://www.propublica.org/article/ap3-oath-keepers-militia-mole ]
I HIGHLY recommend that you take the time to read and/or listen to this important article. What this brave, self-driven “informer” has verified through his precise documentation of his movement as a “mole” in multiple militia groups is deeply disturbing - and highly relevent as T-Rump returns to power.
What I find fascinating about the story of “John Williams” is what motivated him to upend and then risk his life. In the words of the journalist, Joshua Kaplan:
He’d been galvanized by the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the Capitol, Williams told me, when militias like the Oath Keepers conspired to violently overturn the 2020 presidential election.
He believed democracy was under siege from groups the FBI has said pose a major domestic terrorism threat. So he infiltrated the militia movement on spec, as a freelance vigilante.
He did not tell the police or the FBI. A loner, he did not tell his family or friends.
We witnessed this week how the MAGA’ites have no desire to further look at the roots of the violence of January 6, 2021:
So, perhaps the power of this one - John Williams - will shine light on what an entire political party wants to keep in the darkness - especially as Williams is still “undercover!”
I’d thought Williams was considering a return to a quiet life. Our two intense years together had been a strain sometimes even for me. But in the hotel room, he explained his plans for future operations against militias: “Until they kill me, this is what I’m doing.” He hopes to inspire others to follow in his footsteps and even start his own vigilante collective, running his own “agents” inside the far right…
Every time militia members make a phone call, attend a meeting or go to a gun range together, he wants them “to be thinking, in the back of their heads, ‘This guy will betray me.’”
(insert mic-drop here.)
I wrap up with a song for the on-going playlist which I believe is both truthful about the connection, the communion among all - as well as aspirational - for why we pray that we have the courage of Tank Man or John Williams to stand up (when our time to do so arrives)
Blessings + Good. Be well. Rick