Greetings to you from the Burgh on this crisp clear fall day. We hope you're well and thankful!  Like so many folks, we're trying to get our act together and to do a good job preparing for winter. The steam boiler has been flushed and tested, we're cleaning gutters and downspouts and raking leaves with the help of folks like Uncle Kyle who said "I just want to give back" when we answered the door this morning. Imagine what the world would be like if we all gave something back . . . We're also looking forward to hosting Don Bisson on November 2 when he leads a compassion workshop here at Hope. You can learn more and register by checking out the note over there to the left. Below you'll find a couple of photos and comments about two events that happened over the weekend that remind us of why we love the Burgh so much . . . Also, you'll find Steve's musing on next Sunday's gospel lesson. Enjoy! |
 Two joys of Newburgh
 It's the incredibly delicious diversity that makes Newburgh, well, Newburgh.
Yesterday afternoon, Peruvian members of St. Patrick's Church were on the streets with a procession honoring Senor de los Milagros (Our Lord of Miracles). More than a dozen men carried a large float halfway around the block accompanied by a band and family and friends. As you can see from the photo, the centerpiece of the float is the image of a dark skinned Christ which was painted by an Angolan slave. You can click here or on the link above to learn more.
Two days earlier and three blocks away, the African-American community celebrated when a two-block section of Liberty Street became officially known as Rev. Sylvester McClearn Way in memory of a man of great passion and dedication to his community. It seems as though you could fill a book with all the things Rev. McClearn did to make Newburgh a better place in which to live (many of them are listed here). Pastor of First United Methodist Church (in the background of the photo at right), Rev. McClearn was a civil rights leader, mentor, and the driving force behind Newburgh Interfaith Emergency Housing, an organization which Steve currently serves as president. NIEH developed and for the past 20 years has operated Project LIFE, a facility with 16 apartments of transitional housing for homeless families.
In a town where we find much pain, we also find much joy . . . and Hope.
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John Bradford
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John Bradford was a Sixteenth Century Protestant Reformer. It wasn't a particularly good thing to be, especially when Catholics were running things. So, it comes as no surprise that Bradford was arrested in 1553 not long after Mary Tudor, a Catholic, became Queen of England.
Bradford peered out the window to see a group of prisoners being led to the gallows. As the story goes, that's when he said, "There, but for the grace of God, goes I." The irony is that, two years later, it was him. Bradford and a man named John Leaf were burned at the stake as heretics.
Bradford came to mind when I read next Sunday's gospel lesson - Luke 18:9-14. It's a parable about two men who went to the Temple to pray. One man was a tax collector, the scum of the earth, who begged for God's mercy. The other was a Pharisee who peered over at the tax collector and gave his own version of Bradford's line.
I'm not suggesting that Bradford was a stuffed shirt or full of himself like the Pharisee. What I guess I am suggesting is that we are called to look upon others with compassion including John Bradford and the Pharisee. Neither could see what was coming, neither could see that we are interdependent beings, that our fates are entwined. Neither seemed to see that there's plenty of grace to go around.
I'm thankful for that reminder.
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