Dear Disciples: September 5, 2022

Rev. Terri Hord Owens: Hello Disciples, this is your General Minister and President Terri Hord Owens. I’m so glad to be speaking with you today it’s been a couple of weeks since we’ve had one of these little chats and I want to thank all of you for your texts, your posts, for your cards of concern for my husband and me following our witnessing of the assassination attempt on Salman Rushdie at the Chautauqua Institution.

It was a glorious and wonderful week, very inspiring week for me to serve as the chaplain for the morning worship each morning on the main amphitheater stage. The same stage Mr. Rushdie was about to share on. My husband and I were seated with my college roommate and her husband who were there for the week to spend time with us as well. Such an idyllic place Chautauqua, the ability to hear from brilliant minds from around the world to worship together, to hear beautiful music and participate in other arts related events conversations over meals sharing time with Disciples at Disciples House enjoying the beauty of God’s creation along Chautauqua Lake.

As my husband wrote in a recent social media post ‘what happens when evil finds you?’ It’s hard to fully describe the feeling of being almost in a place of paralysis as we watched this young man run quickly upon the stage. We saw him pull out a knife. We saw the knife. We saw him attack and stab Mr. Rushdie. We saw the first responders rushing to the stage. We saw the folks who were able to detain the attacker. We prayed with a group of folks as we were leaving the amphitheater just outside its awnings. Praying for Mr. Rushdie’s safety praying for the Chautauqua community confessing that it was difficult to even think about praying for that attacker and yet praying that somehow the evil that invaded his soul might be redeemed. 

We are an interfaith partner and ecumenical partner, I’m not here to evaluate um the various theological differences that may have led to this attack. Whe are witnesses in our United States context even within Christians of the incentivizing of brutal violence that is happening here in the U.S. against those who disagree politically or theologically. And we simply must say that to disagree does not mean that you have the right to destroy me verbally or physically.

We Disciples have chosen a way that says unity is a gift from God and even when I believe you are dead wrong and I assure you that if you and I were to sit down there would probably be a lot of things that you and I would disagree about there are many of you who disagree vehemently about the things that I might say or the positions that I take or even the broader positions that the church takes. But we are called to love not necessarily to like but we are called to honor all those whom God has created.

We are called to remember that they are each a reflection of God’s glory. We are called to understand that God has made each and every one of us in such a way that we are called to reflect God’s own limitless love for us as revealed through Jesus Christ. 

And so we continue to pray for Mr. Rushdie we pray for the divisions within the Muslim community that likely led to this attack. We pray for the divisions within the United States and the divisions within Christianity itself the divisions in our society wherever they exist and we pray that we might be strong that we might be vigilant in ensuring that our divisions do not destroy each other. 

Chautauqua is an idyllic place. Its sense of security has been shattered it will emerge with new security protocols bubbles are not impenetrable in the real world descended upon Chautauqua. I want to remind you that our God is yet an awesome God that even when evil is present the power of light over darkness is what we must hold on to. And so I invite you to remember that God’s limitless love is something that we must all hold on to no matter what the differences are no matter what we see that traumatizes us let us remember that God is yet God and that there is still confidence that we have in God. That the work that God has begun will be completed thank you for listening to me today. 

Pray for me as I head to the World Council of Churches the 11th assembly in Karlsruhe, Germany. I’m proud to represent the Disciples of Christ on the Central Committee and I will be active in committee work there we will be active in discussing a lot of important issues that face our world and as this global Christian ecumenical movement seeking to discuss how we take a stand and how we bear witness to God’s limitless love literally from our doorsteps to the ends of the earth pray for me and all the Disciples who will attend including our moderator Belva Brown Jordan and 18 other Disciples pray for us we’ll be praying for you.

Remember that God’s love is limitless and even in the midst of disagreement we do not have the right to destroy one another. We are called to honor all that God has created. Continue to pray with me and continue to pray for our church as we seek to be the church we say we are a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world God bless you all take care remember that God loves you and so do I.