A message from Pastor Matthias –
During a workshop this spring, we were asked to picture the
world as we hope it to be seven generations from now (drawing
on the principle from the Iroquois Confederacy that all decisions
by chiefs should consider the sustainability of the decision seven
generations down the line). I found this exercise extremely
challenging and struggled to come up with ideas. I got hung up on all the unknowns
that would impact whether my vision was realistic or achievable.
I am amused with myself in hindsight, because the prompt was not meant to get hung
up on what is most likely or what could be, but what we hope the world will be like and
how we hope the world will be transformed for the better. The exercise was not to
devise a plan to make it happen, but simply to picture it.
It is good to stretch our imaginations that far into the future, a time far beyond our
lifetimes, to envision the world as we hope it will be. Whether our wildest hopes will
come to fruition or not, we cannot say. However, if we do not even try to envision a
better world, there is definitely no chance it will come to be.
This is the gift of prophetic imagination. It is the gift of science fiction writers. It is the
gift of dreamers across the world. To dream such a world is the first step toward such a
world.
At the Presbyterian General Assembly this year (the national gathering of the
denomination) a resolution was passed that the PCUSA divest from the five largest
fossil fuel companies. This uncoupling of our denominational financial resources from
fossil fuel companies would not have occurred without many previous saints believing
it could be so. Keep practicing prophetic hope.
Yours on the way,
Pastor Matthias