2020
Read November’s The Lighthouse
The November issue of The Lighthouse has all of the news and information about happenings at St. John’s. Read this month’s edition by clicking on the image below.
2020
Join the Racial Justice Study Group
The social justice book group that started meeting this summer, reading works by Ibram X. Kendi and others, has evolved into a Madeline Island-wide Racial Justice Study Group. The group will meet at 5 p.m. on the first Wednesday of the month (Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86741340213).
The focus for November and December will be racial justice vis-à-vis Native Americans. Subsequent months will include films and readings by James Baldwin, Ava DuVernay, Michelle Alexander and Isabel Wilkerson. The full reading list (including supplementary recommendations) is listed below.
Nov. 4
- Mark Charles Ted Talk, “The truth behind ‘We the People,’” the three most misunderstood words in U.S. history, https://www.ted.com/talks/mark_charles_the_truth_behind_we_the_people_the_three_most_misunderstood_words_in_us_history
- Wisconsin PBS, “Tribal Histories,” https://www.pbs.org/show/tribal-histories/ (complete episode list on Wisconsin PBS, https://pbswisconsin.org/watch/tribal-histories/)
- Tommy Orange book, “There There”
Dec. 2
- Podcast, “How Are Contemporary Native Americans Thriving?” with Dr. Elizabeth Rule from “Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness” on Apple Podcasts, https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-are-contemporary-native-americans-thriving-dr-elizabeth/id1068563276?i=1000494674841
- Podcast, “Everything You Learned About Thanksgiving Is Wrong,” https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/21/us/thanksgiving-myths-fact-check.html?referringSource=articleShare
- Podcast, serial and the New York Times, “Nice White Parents,” https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/podcasts/nice-white-parents-serial.html
Jan. 6
- James Baldwin, “I Am Not Your Negro,” available for streaming on Amazon Prime and Netflix
- James Baldwin book, “The Fire Next Time”
Feb. 3
- Ava DuVernay, “Thirteenth,” available for streaming from Netflix
- Michelle Alexander book, “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness”
March 3
- Isabel Wilkerson book, “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents”
Sources for books
Retail book vendors such as Apostle Island Booksellers or Honest Dog Books in Bayfield or www.bookshop.org for online orders (orders through this site benefit independent booksellers). Local public library for both hard copy and ebook versions. Bookfinder.com to source used copies.
Other items to be discussed:
Ta-Nahisi Coates
- “Between The World and Me”
- “The Case for Reparations,” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case…/361631/
- “Five Books to Make You Less Stupid About the Civil War,” The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2017/11/five-books-to…/544628/
Books by David Truer
- “Little: A Novel”
- “Native American Fiction: A User’s Manual”
- “Prudence”
- “Rez Life: An Indian’s Journey Through Reservation Life”
- “The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present”
- “The Hiawatha: A Novel”
- “The Translation of Dr Apelles: A Love Story”
History books by Dee Brown
- “Andrew Jackson and the Battle of New Orleans”
- “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee”
- “Fighting Indians of the West”
- “Great Documents in American Indian History”
- “Grierson’s Raid”
- “Hear That Lonesome Whistle Blow”
- “Morgan’s Raiders”
- “Settlers’ West”
- “Showdown at Little Big Horn”
- “The American West”
- “The Fetterman Massacre”
- “The Galvanized Yankees”
- “The Gentle Tamers: Women of the Old Wild West”
- “The Westerners”
- “The Year of the Century: 1876”
- “Trail Driving Days”
- “Wondrous Times on the Frontier”
2020
Explore the mystery of the labyrinth
Many know that St. John’s has its own labyrinth garden. But how much do you know about labyrinths and the role they can play in our spiritual life?
Join us at 9:30 a.m. (Central) Saturday (Oct. 24) on Zoom for an online workshop, “Wisdom Path: An Embodied Journey on the Labyrinth.” Certified labyrinth facilitator Barrie Carter Gibby will lead the session, which St. John’s is sponsoring.
Here is a description of the event: “This live on-line workshop offers an opportunity to experience the mystery of the archetype of the labyrinth. Through poetry, music, gentle movement and imagery, we will explore how this ancient tool can be a resource for spiritual practice as we seek to live open-heartedly during these unsettling times.”
2020
Lighthouse News
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Click on a date below to see previous issues of the 2020 Lighthouse newsletters.
2020
Back from the Brink
Rev. Rachel and Joe Scarry traveled to Milwaukee last year to attend the 2019 national convention of the United Church of Christ. Joe, a social justice activist, was one of the presenters of a resolution that the assembly passed, supporting a nuclear disarmament campaign called “Back From the Brink.”
As we remember the first use of atomic weapons against people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki 75 years ago, we hear two readings during worship on August 8. The first is the story of Jesus calling people to help him change the world. The second is a letter from peace workers in Hiroshima (reprinted below) to all of us in the UCC who are supporting the effort to pull “back from the brink” of nuclear war, here and now. Joe is providing the August 8 sermon, entitled, “Hearing the Call, Daring to Hope.”