"Elizaveta Iurievna Kuzmina-Karavaeva Skobtsova, later known as Mother Maria, was a Russian Orthodox religious thinker, poet and artist. Her multi-faceted legacy includes articles, poems, art, and drama. In the 1910s she was part of the literary milieu of St. Petersburg and was a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. She fled Russia soon after the Bolsheviks' takeover and lived in Paris, where she became a nun. In 1935, she participated in organizing the so-called Orthodox Action, which was designed to help Russian immigrants in France. She and her fellow-workers from Orthodox Action opened a house for homeless and sick immigrants in Paris. During the Nazi occupation of the city, the house was transformed into a refuge for Jews and displaced persons. Mother Maria and her son were arrested by the Gestapo in 1943 and died in the Ravensbruck camp in Germany. Mother Maria's selfless devotion to people and her death as a martyr will never be forgotten. In 2004, the Holy Synod confirmed the glorification of Mother Maria." - from Columbia University Libraries Special Collection link

What has the Church Become

Tonight I listened to two kids who are becoming adults.  Both of them have been failed by the Church.  The one has a father who is a clergyman that has not been allowed to spend time with his son because of the ridiculous demands of what we have allowed to eat the Church alive.  Demands that are not a part of the kingdom.  The other is a kid who has been involved in the Church for years and know one has had the balls to enter into his pain and help him sort out his life.

The Church is meant to be a place of healing and has turned into a place that feeds peoples' psychosis and delusions.  When do we stand up and demand that we forget about the properties and the mortgage payments, and the thousand and one paper pushing meetings and we sit with hurting people and cry.

When will the people of God wake up and withhold  their tithes and gifts until the machine of the Church starts cranking out people who understand human pain and suffering and enter into it.  I fast from the machine of Church.  I grieve the monstrous beast we have become, so concerned with moral and ethical issues and so afraid of going into places of suffering and pain.

Sure cast out the gays, the people who have had abortions and affairs,the lepers and everyone who has something in them we don't like - yeah thats the Church.  I am sorry - THAT IS NOT THE CHURCH!!!  The Church is people recognizing they are broken and hurting and that others are as well.  We all long for wholeness.  When will we demand true action, true belief, and true intention and stop hiding behind divisive platitudes that tear people apart.

The Church is masquerading and it is a shame.  People are all broken and just want someone to hold their hand.  That doesn't seem so hard.

tjm+

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