Invitation to Lenten practices
This year, we are inviting folks to consider their Lenten practices in light of immigration.
Fasting
Anything you choose to fast from: meals, alcohol, lattes, meat, or whatever— we invite you to do it in the spirit of identifying with those who may not have a choice to enjoy those items. Further, whatever financial cost is associated with that fast, we invite you to set that money aside and bring it on Sunday mornings, where we will collect it to help offset the cost of a drop-in visit for an immigrant family or individual to obtain necessary legal and support services at Lighthouse Immigrant Advocates. One of these visits costs $30, so every $30 we collect will help cover another family.
Reading
We also invite you to do some reading yourself, with a friend or with your family on the subject of immigration. Here is our reading list: Immigration Reading List.
Education and Awareness
We will be showing the documentary: “Documented: A film by an undocumented American” on immigration at 7pm on Friday, March 16 at the Holland Area Arts Council, 150 E. 8th Street. Watch the Trailer.
We will also be taking moments on Sunday mornings during worship to address immigration. Listen to a recent message for an example.
Advocacy
On Sunday, March 11 we will be having a letter-writing party after worship, along with a potluck. We will be addressing our lawmakers on a number of issues, including and especially immigration. We will also have food connected to some of the heritages of area immigrants.
Interfaith Freedom Seder for the Earth
On Thursday, March 29, we will celebrate a Maundy Thursday Seder gathering. We will be using the Haggadah (seder narrative) from the Interfaith Freedom Seder held on the third night of Passover, April 4, 1969, the first anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King, in the basement of a Black church in Washington DC. About 800 people took part, half of them Jews, the rest Black and white Christians. This Seder gathering soon became the model and stimulus for many Seders affirming the liberation of its celebrants —with feminist, environmentalist, antiwar, vegetarian, and pro-labor themes, among others.
This is a family-friendly event and there are opportunities for children to be involved in the telling of the people of Israel being freed from slavery in Egypt. Four glasses of wine (or juice) and a number of food items are used as part of the telling of the story. It is an opportunity to consider what are the plagues and Pharaohs of our day, and how we might be invited to participate in God’s work of healing and liberation.