On December 21, a group of gunmen believed to be part of the Somalia-based militant group al-Shabaab attacked a bus near Mandera, in northern Kenya.  They demanded the separation of Muslims from Christians.  To have followed their orders would likely have saved the lives of the Muslim passengers and almost certainly resulted in the deaths of the Christian passengers.  But Muslim schoolteacher Salah Farah and other Muslims on the bus refused, telling the militants that they would have to kill all sixty-two persons aboard or else leave.

An argument ensued.  The gunmen did leave, but first they shot Salah Farah in the arm and hip.  Two other passengers were also wounded, and two more killed.

Salah Farah was taken to a hospital for treatment.  There, he told journalists, “I do not know what got into me, but I knew these were bad people and had to be stopped.”  In an interview with Voice of America, he said, “We are brothers. It’s only the religion that is the difference, so I ask my brother Muslims to take care of the Christians, so that the Christians also take care of us… And let us help one another and let us live together peacefully.”

On January 17, Salah Farah’s recovery took a sudden turn, and the next day he died of his injuries.  He leaves behind a family with five children, for whom he was the sole breadwinner.

Salah Farah’s family, Kenyan church representatives, Muslim leaders, and government officials have all honored him as a hero and a martyr, and called upon Kenyans and the international community to heed his words and example.

The cost to most of us on most days is so much less, to speak up for right, to stand by those who are persecuted, to seek to live as one with those of different faiths or race or income or life experiences, to show respect and enact compassion and create justice.  How will your life honor Salah Farah this day?

“Greater love has no one than this, that they lay down their life for their friend.” – John 15:13

During the season of Lent (from Ash Wednesday, February 10, through the day before Easter,  Saturday March 16), Pilgrim Congregational Church UCC is offering a study of Rabbi Evan Moffic’s new book, What Every Christian Needs to Know about the Jewishness of Jesus.

Moffic offers Christians a deeper understanding of how Jesus lived as a Jew in the first century B.C.E.  Seen through Jewish traditions and multi-layered interpretations of Jewish scripture, Jesus’ life takes on rich meanings that most Christians never learn about.  Yet we cannot really understand Jesus, his life, his message, and who he is to us as Christians, without understanding his Jewish context.

The book, published by Abingdon Press, is available through cokesbury.com, local bookstores, or other online bookstores, and can be purchase as an electronic download.

Discussion groups meet Sundays, February 14 – March 13, at both 9:00 a.m. and 11:20 a.m.  If you’d like to join in a discussion group, call the office for more information or just come a little early to find the meeting spaces and meet the leaders.  A reading schedule is available.

Joining in an initiative of the Minnesota Council of Churches to see at least one service every week for a full year, Pilgrim Congregational Church UCC is hosting a Prayer Service for Mother Emanuel AME, where nine members lost their lives last June to a white gunman.

The service will be held on Thursday, February 18, at 7:00 p.m. at Pilgrim Congregational Church UCC.  We will honor the victims and the courage of their congregation with a ceremony of naming, candle-lighting and bell-ringing.  We will pray for them, and pray also for the suspect, remembering the example of survivors who strove to offer forgiveness.  We will also reflect upon the incident as it indicts us once again as a society mired in racism and violence.  And we will be motivated to ACT, for prayer and action, faith and works, are not separate but belong together!  Information will be shared about an upcoming interfaith summit on gun violence and a weekend workshop on dismantling racism’s internal structures.

We are honored to have the Rev. Richard Coleman, pastor of St. Mark’s AME in Duluth and Executive Director of Hope United Community Development Corporation in Minneapolis, speak in the service.  The Rev. David Tryggestad, recently retired pastor who served both Concordia Lutheran and First Lutheran (Minister of Music) in Duluth, will be guest organist / pianist.  A love offering will be accepted, to be split between St. Mark AME and the “Living into the Difficult” anti-racism event March 11-12 at Peace UCC.

ALL are invited to “Take a Stand — On Your Knees” in this event.  If your conscience dictates that you not join in worship and prayer that does not represent your religious or philosophical stance, simple come to be present in solidarity with compassion and justice.