Welcome to Together in Spirit from Hamline Church! This Sunday, April 19 we will be celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day! Join us for worship Sunday at 10am.

A little bit about Hamline Church Earthkeepers: As part of Hamline Church’s social justice ministry and mission to be sanctuary for the city, the Hamline Church Earthkeepers seek to live out our sacred responsibility to God’s creation by providing meaningful opportunities for our church and community to engage with, learn from, and care for God’s creation. As Christians and as Methodists, we firmly believe that we are called to deeply love and mindfully steward all of God’s creation.

Today the Earthkeepers are sharing these poems/reflections:

“May the deep blessings of earth be with us.
May the fathomless soundings of seas surge in our soul.
May boundless stretches of the universe echo in our depths
to open us to wonder
to strengthen us for love
to humble us with gratitude
that we may find ourselves in one another
that we may lose ourselves in gladness
that we give ourselves to peace.”
-John Philip Newell, from Praying With the Earth (Eerdmans: Michigan) 44.

LOCKDOWN
Yes there is fear. Yes there is isolation.
Yes there is panic buying. Yes there is sickness.
Yes there is even death.

But, they say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise
You can hear the birds again.
They say that after just a few weeks of quiet
The sky is no longer thick with fumes
But blue and grey and clear.

They say that in the streets of Assisi
People are singing to each other
across the empty squares,
keeping their windows open
so that those who are alone
may hear the sounds of family around them.

They say that a hotel in the West of Ireland
Is offering free meals and delivery to the housebound.
Today a young woman I know is busy spreading fliers with her number
through the neighborhood so that the elders may have someone to call on.
Today Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and Temples
are preparing to welcome
and shelter the homeless, the sick, the weary.

All over the world people are slowing down and reflecting.
All over the world people are looking at their neighbors in a new way.
All over the world people are waking up to a new reality.

To how big we really are.
To how little control we really have.
To what really matters. To Love.

So we pray and we remember that
Yes there is fear. But there does not have to be hate.
Yes there is isolation. But there does not have to be loneliness.
Yes there is panic buying. But there does not have to be meanness.
Yes there is sickness. But there does not have to be disease of the soul
Yes there is even death. But there can always be a rebirth of love.
Wake to the choices you make as to how to live now.

Today, breathe.
Listen, behind the factory noises of your panic.
The birds are singing again. The sky is clearing,
Spring is coming, And we are always encompassed by Love.

Open the windows of your soul
And though you may not be able
to touch across the empty square,
Sing.
–Fr. Richard Hendrick, OFM (a friar in Ireland), March 13, 2020

Join the Virtual Earth Day March!
MNIPL is having a livestream event from 1-3pm on Wednesday, April 22 (Earth Day).  One way you can help make this Earth Day livestream powerful is to take a photo of yourself with a sign answering this question: Why do you stand for climate justice? Create your sign “For love of ____, I stand for climate justice” and include it in your photo.  You can be creative or use the  this template for your sign.  Then, email your photo to charissa@mnipl.org. If you’re on social media we encourage you to share on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter with the hashtag #MNEarthDay the week of April 20.  MNIPL will be sharing this visual mosaic on the Earth Day livestream and with candidates and decision-makers throughout the year. Here is an example from Susan Mullin:

A special edition of Together in Spirit from Hamline Church!
Today marks the final day of Lent, and our amazing organist, Eileen Miller, has a beautiful organ piece to share today. Enjoy!

Good Friday morning! Thanks again for being here with us for our daily dose of hope and encouragement to our community and beyond as a reminder of God’s love and grace at work in the world. For Good Friday we are sharing another way to get baking, this time Gil Young is sharing the secrets behind his famous Hot Cross Buns! Watch his video and get ready for Easter morning treats!

Don’t forget to join us for our Good Friday worship at Noon and 7pm streaming on our Facebook page or our website: hamlinechurch.org/worship/live-stream

About the Hot Cross Buns Tradition
from Gil Young
Growing up, my mother always made hot cross buns for Easter. My parents never told us about the Easter bunny, or Santa Claus for that matter, so we didn’t ever get Easter baskets. That made warm, tasty buns on Easter morning so much more enjoyable. Then when we built the Hamline bread oven, I volunteered to make the hot cross buns one Easter. And as it always seems to go, if you volunteer once, that suddenly becomes your job, and I’ve continued to make buns every year. As it happens, making hot cross buns has been the only volunteer activity that we’ve done at Hamline as a family, with Janet and Martha helping out every year. We each volunteer separately for other activities at Hamline, but this is the only family affair. I hope this video inspires you to make hot cross buns this Easter, and I hope it brings a smile and a chuckle during these dark times.

Maundy Thursday Baking
by Mark Ireland

This Lenten season we’ve been learning about the lost art of keeping the Sabbath in our busy lives. In other words, taking time to center ourselves, be fully present, and find holy in our every day.  One of Hamline Church’s small groups has focused on “baking bread” as part of this Sabbath practice and reading the book “Becoming Bread” by Gunilla Norris.

In this video, we invite you to bake bread for Maundy Thursday and demonstrate some of the mindfulness practices described by Norris in her book. Here are some suggestions by Gunilla Norris to provide a deeper meaning for this Maundy Thursday bake rather than it being just a chore that you need to squeeze into your life:

First, set aside a long morning or an afternoon. Turn off the radio and your cell phone. Give yourself the fit of some silence and some uninterrupted hours.

Second, dedicate this activity to something you care about. Examples may be: “I bake this bread for the healing of my family” or “I bake this bread in remembrance of the hungry in the world.” When we pause to dedicate our activities in this way, we bring awareness to a wider dimension; we can sense that we are connected with all of life.

Third, as you collect the ingredients, allow the idea that you are also collecting yourself and bringing yourself to this particular time and place to be fully present. Perhaps you’d like to assign each ingredient a value or associate it with a particular memory related to an important person in your life.  For example, “This water represents my feelings that I fully want to realize and recognize,” or “This water represents my baptism” or “This water brings forward my earliest memory of swimming in the lake with my sisters and my parents.”

Fourth, while you are waiting for the dough to rise or it is baking in the oven, use that time for reflection and prayer.

Finally, the use of the bread for Holy Communion is a natural time for praise, thanks, and closure.

Random Thoughts about the No Knead Bread Recipe
View the No Knead Bread recipe (PDF)

This is what I and others call, “Elemental Bread.”  It is bread that is simple and unadorned: flour, water, salt, and yeast. It is the bread that people have been making and baking for thousands of years. It is a connection to our past, and it is also fuel to carry us forward. Bread is the staff of life

If you are not using a bread pan, there is a high likelihood that the dough will resemble flat bread rather than the round boule that you see at the bakery or on the grocery store shelf.  This does not mean you failed, it’s okay. That flatbread will still taste delicious and it is probably more authentic to what is and was eaten in the Holy Land thousands of years ago, so celebrate your historic Lentiness.

The bread is done when the internal temperature reaches 200 degrees. Although it is tempting to immediately slice it open, you should wait for it to cool. As it cools, the bread will continue to bake. If you cut into it right away, the inside will likely be a little gummy.

If you really want a boule, I suggest adding a little more flour after it’s long 12-18 hour rise. Flour is fuel for the yeast, and so by adding flour and kneading in flour after the long rise, you are giving it more fuel. Then, I’d fold and shape the dough. Here is a link to a video on how to do this, if you want to go down that path….just remember, you’re not entering a baking competition. You are baking bread as a Sabbath practice, which, I think, means letting go preconceived expectations of success or failure.  https://youtu.be/bIb8fC9BdWs.

Good morning! Thanks again for being here with us for our daily dose of hope and encouragement to our community and beyond as a reminder of God’s love and grace at work in the world.

Today we are sharing a video invite from Pastor Mariah to Holy Week — watch below!