Letter to President and First Lady Biden about Genocide of One Million Palestinian Children

October 20, 2023

Dear President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden,

How is it possible that both of you and other western governments and their leaders have not tried to stop and have been silent and therefore in collusion with the genocide, mass expulsion and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people in Gaza and Israel? Yes, we all spoke out and denounced the horrific terrorist attack by Hamas in Israel. Many of us are deeply disturbed however that you have not spoken out against the genocide in Gaza and that our country has given and is escalating our funding of Israel’s military.  We call for a ceasefire against Palestinians, almost one million who are CHILDREN, Mr. President and First Lady. As people of faith, we are called to tell the truth and never give up working for peace and justice even when there seems to be no way. You surely both know that our American silence about Palestinian suffering is creating massive instability in the Middle East and beyond.

I am writing to thank you President Biden for all your work behind the scenes to work for peace that we know nothing about.  I am also writing to remind myself and both of you that we are called by God to love one another.   Jesus commands us as his disciples to love our enemies, and Mr. President, it feels as if the United States has become the world’s worst enemy. I will love you and pray for you and our country not because I condone our behavior, but because it is a decision we make to live in love that prevents us from becoming our enemy.  We are all sacred children of God and can be redeemed. 

 Are you able to sleep at night Mr. President and First Lady?  I am having trouble sleeping for as a Christian minister, I know God is calling me to speak out against American lies in the media, genocide and escalating war. But who do I speak to and what shall I say? Like you, I am a parent and grandparent. We know instinctually we must care for the suffering of any child before us and one million Palestinian children in Gaza are before us now, crying out or are silent from disassociation from unspeakable trauma.

 How is it possible that you want our country to give military support to Israel when they are bombing 2.3 million people in the most densely populated area in the world? Gaza, is an open-air prison, a concentration camp of years of apartheid, only five miles wide by twenty-five miles long.  Now Isarel denies them water, food, medicine, fuel and is demanding a mass evacuation, but there is nowhere for them to go! How is this possible?

How is it possible that the United States vetoed against the United Nations call for a humanitarian ceasefire?

How is it possible you addressed the American people from your Oval Office asking for 100 billion dollars for more military support for Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan and to militarize the Mexican Border?

No, Mr. President and First Lady, this is too horrific for any person of faith to be silent. We hope and pray you will begin to speak out against our planetary catastrophe immediately.   

Please know I will come to the White House and talk with you and others about changing our world view that justifies American Empire and how to begin working in collaboration with other countries like China for the sake of survival of the human species and all of God’s creation.  Shall people of faith surround the White House and pray for your conversion and peace in the Holy Land? Or perhaps we should gather thousands of clergies and people for all faiths for massive civil disobedience and march to the White House, get on our knees and beg you to work for a ceasefire, the abolition of nuclear bombs and a change of course away from suicidal wars?  What might people of faith do to support and work with you for world peace? We pray currently for you to say no to the United States supporting genocide and urge you to work for an immediate ceasefire, diplomacy, humanitarian aid and peace talks in the Holy Land and in the Ukraine. Wars in the Holy Land are of course emotional for Jews, Christians and Moslems. Every crisis is an invitation for spiritual growth and could this be the emotional crisis that brings people of faith in the world together in unity? How can people of faith best work with you and leaders in Washington, in our state capitols and local communities for peace in the Holy Land and around the world?

I pray for you both and our country for Jesus teaches us to pray for our persecutors. The American Empire, the most powerful military force and richest country in the history of the world is supporting a suicidal path for our human family and has become the world’s worst persecutor.

Scientists tell us that the doomsday clock is one minute before doomsday and midnight. It is not time to go to sleep, Mr. President and First Lady for God is calling you to wake up, speak the truth and work for a conversion of our country. I invite you and our fellow Americans to pray together.

Dear God,

Help President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden during this nightmare of human history. Help the United States and western governments who are supporting the genocide of one million Palestinian children and the 2.3 people living in Gaza. Help us raise our voices so they will hear us and have a change of heart. Help the world’s leaders listen to our cries for justice and peace.

God, please open the eyes of many Americans who are refusing to see the truth of American aggression and crimes historically and presently.   

We pray for the people of Israel for they are mourning and in shock after a horrific terrorist’s attack. God help us. Hear our prayer. 

Open our ears to hear the cries of one million Palestinian children with no food or water. God help us. Hear our prayer.

These children cannot sleep because of constant bombing. God help us. Hear our prayer.  

They have no medical care and cry out in pain. God help us. Hear our prayer.

There is no doctor or medicine for them. God help us. Hear our prayer.

They are orphans for many of their parents are dead and dying. God help us. Hear our prayer.

Let all with ears hear the cries of all the world’s suffering children and  may we respond instinctually in love and care and begin to work to leave them a livable planet. God help us. Hear our prayer.  

May Catholics like President Joe Biden and Christians everywhere be reminded that Jesus taught us to love our enemies and pray for our persecutors. God help us. Hear our prayer.

We have lost our moral soul as a nation. God Help us. Hear our prayer.  

 Give us courage to break out of denial, inertia and silence and give us a voice to speak the truth.  God help us. Hear our prayer.

Help us to know who we should speak to and how to tell the truth in love. God help us. Hear our prayer.

We confess that we have lived in denial and fear and not cared for the world’s children who are the least of these. (Matthew 25:40) We ask for forgiveness.

We give you thanks God of mercy and love for creation and every breath we take. Thank you for our instinct to care for children that humanizes us. Guide us to serve you and do your will to care for the human family and your creation during these dangerous times.  Amen

 Respectfully and with love,

Rev. Bonnie Tarwater Minister Church for Our Common Home

15435 Strong Road Dallas, Oregon 97338

Grandmother of 7 year old Laina, 5 year old Jacob, 3 year old Nora and a baby soon to be born.(858) 248-5123, revtarwater@yahoo.com www.churchforurcommonhome.com

Please share your thoughts and feelings about this letter and join us in person or on Zoom to one of our four weekly programs to give and receive support and love. Let me know if would like to work with me to write a letter for multipole signatures. For ideas for civil disobedience please go to the website for The Global Nonviolent Action Database, Home | Global Nonviolent Action Database (swarthmore.edu)) provides free access to information about hundreds of cases of nonviolent action, from all continents and most countries, for learning and for citizen action. The database is a project of Swarthmore College…The database supports searches by country, by issue, by action method used, and even by year -- there is a case from ancient Egypt, 12th century BCE! Some cases are part of a “wave” of campaigns, such as the “Arab Awakening” of 2011.” 

Prayer Service for Israel and Palestine

Dear Freinds,

Please join Church for Our Common Home this Sunday for a special prayer service for Israel and Palestine with Hebrew, Arabic and musical prayers.

We offer the vision and practice of loving our enemy and praying for our persecutors. We pray to find the Third Way of nonviolence, never responding to violence with more violence and never giving up. Disciples of Jesus are needed to host interfaith prayer services and partner with other organizations with the vision of an interfaith global peace movement. We as Americans are called to show leadership. Join us tomorrow, Sunday October 15, 4 pm PST on Zoom

Zoom link Church for Our Common Home Prayer Service

We will also meet in small Zoom group rooms in order to share, without cross talk or back and forth dialogue, how we are feeling about this past week. All people are invited to share and will be honored. Our community invites everyone to God's table of peace and justice, love and prayer.

After Jesus was crucified, our story is not that his followers went out filled with trauma and rage and began revengeful behaviors of an eye for an eye. They did not set up more torture chambers. No, as disciples of Jesus we are called to do the most radical and counter cultural activity of all time. We are called to love our enemy and pray for our persecutors. We are called to hold the truth of history with our minds and hearts. We are in an existential crisis as a human family, a moral crisis worse than ever before in our human history with the risk of escalating global wars and ecologic destruction. Join us as we gather in Zoom virtual community to pray. We mourn together and explore together where we can be the most useful. We make all of God's creatures welcome at God's table. No one left out, no matter how lame, sick, heartbroken, depressed, hungry, thirsty, traumatized, angry, smart or incoherent, confused or messed up. Our Zoom church is a virtual refugee camp of welcome for all broken-hearted planetary citizens, human and non-human, those in this physical realm and in the subtle realms. Don't isolate. Join us. We will proclaim the Good News of the Gospel that God's loves is stronger than any suffering and even death.

Below is a link from The Guardian with an article by Rev. William Barber.

We must say an emphatic ‘no’ to Hamas a thousand times | Reverend William Barber | The GuardianWe are fortunate here in Oregon to be able to attend a Peace Lecture next Wednesday, October 18 with Rev. Barbers partner, Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharris at Willamette University in Salem. Please join us.

Wisdom Will Workshop Saturday August 19 11-4 pm

WISDOM WILL WORKSHOP in the Barn! Come share your life story as we invite you to create a Wisdom Will for future generations. We will begin with a historical overview of ethical or wisdom wills in the Bible as well as an overview of modern resources, books and websites.  Writing prompts and small group sharing promise an experiential workshop of depth, meaning and intimacy. What are the most meaningful stories, experiences and wisdom of your life you want to share with future generations? Exploring the benefits of written wills versus video wills, we will also offer support and future gatherings to assure your completion of your own Wisdom Will. Great for Christmas gifts for your children, grandchildren, friends and future generations.  Suggested reading, Dr. Ranger’s Wisdom Will, Audacity to Live, Memories of a ‘Why-Not’ Woman, available on Amazon.

We prepare for our death affirming our sacred life as we sing and break bread together. Vegetarian lunch in the rose garden with quiche made form our beloved chickens who gift us with eggs and salad from our biodynamic vegetable garden.

Come for the great honor to meet Dr. Ranger who has her doctorate in Hebrew Scriptures and did her research on the Wisdom Literature of the Bible. Since the Bible is the primary document of the Faith for Jews and Christians, it is important to her that people read this document with reverence and with a readiness to explore through its imagery and metaphors “the language of God’s Love for all persons.” Her friends and family members celebrated in many different churches: Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist, Buddhist, to name a few. High school and college friends represented diverse religions and cultures: Native American, Black, Asian, Thai, and Indian. Sharing in beliefs, spiritual practices, worship services, family rituals, and meals were enriching experiences for her. She went on to study Scriptures of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and other world religions–as well as their Systematic, Liturgical, and Spiritual Theologies. She has traveled in all but seven States, and in Canada, Italy, Greece, Ireland, Turkey, France, England, Peru, Caribbean, Mexico, and Vietnam–experiences that have taught her to honor diversity in Religious Traditions, rituals, cultures, educational backgrounds, professions, gender, age, sexual orientation, economic status, etc. She is convinced that people can reach out to learn about the richness of Traditions other than their own–only to know and love their own Traditions more fully. She is a cradle Catholic and has a great love for the Church and all of us pilgrim people who cherish and live zealously our “universal call to Holiness.” Her passion is Interfaith Dialogue. She has been honored by Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, and has completed a first draft of the History of Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon.

She has taught Scripture Studies, Theological Studies, Liturgy, and Spirituality to high school students, lay congregants, and B.A., M.A., M.Div., and D. Min. students at Marylhurst University, Mt. Angel Seminary, George Fox University, St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore, San Francisco Theological Seminary, and Clark Community College. 

Suggested donation $ 25-100 or whatever you can afford.

Reservations needed with limited retreat stays available for the Wisdom Will Workshop at the Secret Garden Retreat Center. Camping also available.

Please bring your family and friends and join us for music, wisdom, food, and friendship this summer to all three special events!

With love from the hearts and spirits of all us creatures here at the John Cobb Eco Farm and Secret Garden Retreat Center,

Rev. Bonnie Tarwater

P.S. Tours of the Interfaith Secret Prayer Garden inviting prayers for the Earth available by appointment.

Jim Scott concert July 17 Thursday 7 pm in the barn Church for Our Common Home

Dear Earthlings,

Please join us for A Multimedia Experience by Jim Scott www.jimscott.org in the barn here in Dallas, Oregon a short drive from Salem and Corvallis Oregon and just over an hour from Portland. Please let us know if you would like to stay the night or camp overnight or for the weekend.

Special thanks to good friends of Church for Our Common Home, Rev. and Mrs. Bryan and Edie Jessup for inviting their colleague and dear friend Jim Scott to come to Church for Our Common Home for our first concert in the barn! This musical program is a mixing of powerful songs and beautiful projected images, “The Year to Save the Earth” takes us from celebration to grieving, protest to positive vision for the planet. Jim Scott’s lyrical melodies and outspoken poetry celebrate what’s beautiful, amazing, and fragile about our Earth. As well as hard reality, the program’s message is one of optimism with many invitations to join in the singing. Facing the urgency of the environmental crisis, the musical and visual experience challenges us to feel, to learn and to act. Prolific composer, guitarist Jim Scott brings warmth and humor in his jazz and world music influenced songs as well as outspoken messages of peace, justice, and the Earth. Jim’s played at more than 700 UU churches over four decades of travels. Formerly a member of the Paul Winter Consort, Jim was composer of their celebrated Missa Gaia/Earth Mass and sang their anthem song Common Ground. He has toured the world, recorded nine CDs of original music and published a growing line of choral works. One of the originators of the Unitarian Universalist Church “Green Sanctuary” program, Jim also compiled the Earth and Spirit Songbook, an anthology of 110 songs of Earth by many contemporary composers.

Please bring your family and friends and join us for this special summer concert!

With love from our heart to yours,

Rev. Bonnie Tarwater Minister Church for Our Common Home 15435 Strong Road, Dallas, OR 97338 (858) 248-5123, revtarwater@yahoo.com churchforourcommonhome.com

Tree Prayer Stations a Story of torture, murder and the regeneration of Mother Earth

Dear Earthlings,

Please join us as we gather for worship, prayer, music and dancing in the barn with the animals today, July 10th, 4 pm pst either in person or on Zoom. Walt's triple bypass surgery went well and his recovery is miraculous. Thank you for your love and prayers and for understanding about my taking the past six weeks for a leave of absence to care for Walt. It will be a joy to be together again as we enjoy a Taize worship that offers a message of HOPE. We will also be resuming our Zoom programming with Centering Prayer and Lectio Divina on Tuesday' mornings 9-10 am pst and Dream Group on Thursdays at 5 pm pst this next week. Go to church website to find Zoom links.

Next Sunday we will celebrate Mary Magdalene in an anointing and healing worship in honor of her Feast Day July 22.

From my heart to your heart in love,

Rev. Bonnie

P. S. We welcome two male bunnies, Al and Steve seen in the photo. Like the other animals who have come to live with us, we did not seek them out, but they seem to have found us. They will be joining us in the barn this afternoon in praise and thanksgiving of God's beautiful creation!

Please pray for Walt's beautiful heart

Dear Earthlings,

Please pray for our beloved Walt Rutherford who is having heart by pass surgery tomorrow Saturday, May 21st. We are confident in Walt's doctors and their extraordinary genius and ask for prayers for the excellent medical team at the Salem Hospital. Walt is in good spirits and his beautiful heart calls out for your love and healing prayers. I am taking a six week leave of absence from my commitments with Church for Our Common Home to care for him and will resume work with the church the week of July 5th. Sunday worship at Church for Our Common Home will begin again on July 10th, 4 pm pst in person in the barn and on Zoom. Please contact me with any questions and thank you for your prayers and understanding about my leave of absence

Matthew the goat is seen here in the photo admiring Nancy Mahoney's beautiful painting she graciously gifted us for the Fourth Tree Prayer Station. Here we call upon the Spirits of Celtic Spirituality, St. Brigit, the triple Goddesses of pre Christianity, as we honor the women healers of Europe murdered in genocide as "witches." May they be with us as we pray for our common home, Mother Earth,

The Secret Prayer Garden is our Living Rosary and like the Catholic tradition of the Stations of the Cross we of tell the story of the crucifixion and resurrection of Mother Earth with our visions of ecological civilization as the new resurrection story. Each Tree Prayer Station asks for prayers for life forms here on our common home, water, soil, animals, plants etc. wrapped in prayers of gratitude and love. This station invites prayers for the miracle of WATER! Located next to a creek and a water well, it sits in a pasture often muddy and saturated with water. The miracle that is water makes up 40-75 percent of our own bodies and about 70 percent of Mother Earth. While praying for water we experince our interconnected web of life within and everywhere here on our common home. We nurse our Holy Mama who breasts feeds us for LIFE as we drink and commune with her daily! We pray to develop the Fruit of the Spirit of Patience at this Tree Prayer Station.

The Living Earth Movement (LEM) invites you to our fourth Thursday of every month meeting next week, May 26th, 1 pm pst on Zoom with a talk from David Korten, www.davidkorten.org an author best know for his brilliant book, When Corporations Rule the World. A former professor at Harvard he serves on our LEM board ns he and Rev. Jeff Wells will share conversation and we look forward to also sharing conversation with you. Please sign up to receive the LEM mailings and Zoom links or go to the LEM web site and scroll down on home page for Zoom links.

Also please join a new small group of LEM, Earthful Faith a support group that takes time for brainstorm ideas about how to best engage religious people in the global LEM. We call the worlds religious people to step up in leadership with Dr. John Cobb who has written a brilliant new Christian curriculum. The Earthful Faith Group is developing a plan to involve American Christians and people around the world to join us. Please find a draft of this proufound latest book by Dr. Cobb on the Church for Our Common Home website, www.churchforourcommonhome.com. Sharing our feelings about the ecologic crisis, coupled with brainstorming and exploring ideas and sharing resources we are responding to our crisis in creative and radically love new ways, in beloved community. Please join this exciting new religion that has grown out of the LEM. You are invited Thursdays, June 2nd and 30th, 3 pm pst on Zoom. There will be a Zoom link on the Living Earth Movement website or contact me for more information.

From my heart to your heart in love,

Rev. Bonnie

www.livingearthmovement.eco

P. S. We welcome the three Mother sheep and their four baby lambs who have come to live with us here at the John Cobb Eco Farm.

John Cobb preaching The Resurrection of Humanity and the Resurrection of Humanity

Dear Earthlings,

Dr. John B. Cobb Jr. will be preaching on Easter Sunday, The Resurrection of Humanity and the Resurrection of Nature, 4 pm PST at Church for Our Common Home on Zoom and live in the barn. Please join our combined Earth Day and Easter celebration, April 17th, here at the John Cobb Eco Farm in Oregon, where we worship with the animals and mothers and children of all species. Zoom below. Special guest musician Truman Price will play the fiddle for our dance at the Mary Magdalene Cafe after worship.

Click here to join worship every Sunday 4 pm pst Sunday

From my heart to your heart in love, Rev. Bonnie Tarwater

April 10th, Palm Sunday, Mary Magdalene Anoints Jesus, please bring oil or water for anointing ritual, 4 pm PST.

April 24th Rev. Bonnie will be the guest preacher at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Salem, Earthful Faith and the Living Earth Movement, for Earth Day, April 24th at 10:30 am PST.

Please join us for weekly meetings with Earthful Faith, a newly forming group of people from EL Salvador, Bolivia, India, Korea, the Philippines and across the U.S. as we explore engaging religious communities into our work with the Living Earth Movement, every Thursday at 3 pm PST on Zoom. Please contact Rev. Bonnie with any questions.

Also join our Living Earth Movement monthly meetings the fourth Thursday of every month at 1 pm PST April 28th. livingearthmovement.eco

Church for Our Common Home Rev. Bonnie Tarwater Sunday worship 4 pm PST The Secret Prayer Garden a living rosary to pray for the Earth with altars on 12 Tree Stations at the John Cobb Eco Farm. Tuesday Centering Prayer and Lectio Divina 9 am PST Thursday Dream Group 5 pm PST 15435 Strong Road, Dallas, Oregon 97338, revtarwater@yahoo.com(858) 248-5123 churchforourcommonhome.com

Dear Earthlings,

"This is not a book about how we can save the tress. This is a book about how the tress might save us.................The old trees were the mothers of the forest. The hubs were Mother Trees. Well, mother and father trees, since each Douglas fir tree has male and female pollen cones and female seed cones. But....it felt like mothering to me. With the elders tending to the young. Yes, that's it. Mother Trees. Mother Trees connect the forest." Finding the Mother Tree, Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest, by Suzanne Simard

Dear Earthlings,

Please join us the month of February as we celebrate Dr. John Cobb and his 97th birthday AND the launching of the Living Earth Movement. Church for Our Common Home offer a Taize worship this Sunday as we explore Mother Trees and the forests that give us clean air and water. We will reflect on how trees cooperate and care for their young and the interconnected intimate forest community. Like a Mother Father Tree of Life, John Cobb has been our spiritual mother and father to many of us. He gifted us with the vision of an ecologic civilization and our hearts are filled with gratitude. Yes, he is a genius but more importantly to me, he has loved and cared for us. Like a Mother Tree he has cared for the young, his students. His passion has been like a contagion that has catapulted many of us into new ministries and radical new ways of thinking and living. Church for Our Common Home invites all humans, trees and animals to worship with John Cobb in the barn or on Zoom, Sunday's at 4 pm PST at the Secret Prayer Garden at the John Cobb Eco Farm!

On Friday, February 25, 4 pm PST, 7 pm EST the newest of Dr. Cobb's organizations, the Living Earth Movement, will host a Zoom 97th birthday party for Dr. Cobb as well as being a launching party for the Living Earth Movement. Our mission is to inspire global cooperation for the sake of all life on our planet, beginning with the United States and China. Our second and equally important priority is to promote the foundations for an ecological civilization, in which humans will learn to value and cooperate with the rest of the ecosphere. Please join us, bring your friends and plese let me know if you can help invite people and are able to help with this historic event.

Dr. Cobb you have inspired me to follow my heart and to love the Mother Trees, Mother Earth and the Mothers and children of all species! Ganbei! I toast you and give you thanks for all that you have taught me. Thank you for all of your support.

Rev. Jeff Wells, the pastor of Church of the Village and I are the co-convenors of The Living Earth Movement. Jeff and I also look forward to collaboration between our two "process" church communities. www.churchofthevillage.org

The Cobb Institute will also have a birthday celebration on Tuesday, February 8, 10-11:30am PT / 12-1:30pm CT / 1-2:30pm ET, to honor John. Rev. Rebecca Parker will interview him asking "What Have You Learned by Getting Old?"

The Institute for Postmodern Development of China will also host a birthday party on Zoom on Wednesday, February 9, 6-8pm PST, 9-11pm EST for "The Eco-Saint of Our Times." Join with students and friends from Korea, Malaysia, Hungary, Indonesia, and China. Translation will be provided.

Please check out a dialogue sermon I did with Dr. Cobb and a second sermon that I preached about the Living Earth Movement at the UU COngregation of Salem. Special thanks to Rev. Rick Davis for warm welcome of me and I look forward to collaborating with the UU Congregation of Salem . May we care for one another like the trees! www.uusalem.org

Ganbei!To Love and Caring for one another like the forest!