!Excerpts from my priest's reply --- agk's diary 24 March 2022 --- written on Pinebook Pro at Kitchen table --- Dear Anna, Grace to you and peace in Jesus Christ our Lord! ...thank you for writing to me on the subject of the prayer for peace that begins each meeting of our parish during the season of Lent. I am honored by your thoughtfulness and the rich well of experience that you draw from.... I join you in the spirit of love and spaciousness with which you wrote to me.... [I misrepresented his sermon illustration. He corr- ected me -Anna] My story was that I let her go to the vigil because, as she cleverly pointed out to me, she had *already been* to an Ash Wednesday ser- vice at her Roman Catholic school.... I, like you, feel strongly that our efforts for peace need to be grounded in something other than simple, subjective bias.... The Ash Wednesday service may well be the perfect prelude to a peace rally in as much as it might keep us grounded and humble---"remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return." [I wrote the parish "escalated" to a small group on Ukraine and playing its national anthem] ...Our theologian-in-residence regularly offers two week reflections on current events.... He has a particular perspective on this conflict as a religious war. I... support him presenting his ideas for dialogue. I know that he would be quite happy and interested to have your voice in the conversation.... Our organist told me that she felt saddened by the violence and asked if she could play the anthem. I said, Let's look at the composer and the text.... The music as you may know was composed by a Christ- ian priest who set the words of a patriotic poem to song. The lyrics are pretty standard patriotic fare. Images of freedom and the cost of it.... I can see how playing the anthem can be seen as taking sides. I accept that criticism.... I also feel moved to share with you what I have very intentionally said in our prayer for peace each time I have offered it. I call the Russians and Ukrainians our *siblings* and Vladimir Putin our *brother*.... Those are two very important words to use and are an expression of our belief that all people, no except- ions, are beloved children of God.... I can understand fairly easily how brother Putin feels provoked. I can easily accept that his world- view is that this is a military operation to defend the rights, well-being, and land of his country. As a follower of Jesus my deep hope is for the violence and killing to stop. Period. That is my prayer. All the things that you wrote about our country being a self-interested provocateur seem on point to me. I don't much like it but self-interest is the drive shaft of the modern stage of development out of which our country and all modern nation states were born. A piece of the gift side of the modern epoch is democracy, and the disastrous shadow side is violence and the degradation of the planet. ...I pray that brother Putin stops attacking Ukraine. If Ukraine was attacking Russia I would pray that they would stop too. I hear you saying that Ukraine has waged violence on Russia in the past. Fair enough. I join you in praying for "universal demilit- arization." I also join you in the reality that global balance of powers is incredibly complex and nuanced. It's a tricky thing (and quite an adventure too!) to pray in public knee-deep in the context of current events. Every moment of life carries such marvelous complexity, subtlety, and nuance. One little turn of the prism reveals a totally different perspective. When George Floyd was murdered I got some pushback on my sermons and prayers for him from folks who pointed to his past as an excuse for his treatment by police. I prayed for George and the police offic- ers too. No matter who the aggressor is, my prayer is that the aggressive, killing actions will stop. In the moral framework of the Sermon on the Mount provocation and past misdeeds are not acceptable reasons to wage violence. I try to always pray for peace. What you are point- ing out helpfully is that sometimes it will look like I/we am taking sides.... I get my words wrong a lot. I can misunderstand and be misunderstood... but at the end of the day I stand with you for peace in the face of violence, compassion in the face of suffering, and understanding and patience in the face of complexity. ...if all life, every leaf and lizard, every moment and molecule, every body is precious and a part of the beloved creation of God, then no matter what the provocation I am against killing.... We should say that to brother Biden, brother Bush, sister Clinton, sister Albright, brother Obama, and anyone else who seeks to wage war. I do think a reasonable self- defense is called for in many cases, but even that must be wrestled with in my view. Your letter helped me in two concrete ways. One, I read it several times in order to try to digest and learn from the geo-political and historical details you presented. I learned from you, and...spent some time seeking out diverse perspectives on the con- flict/war.... My heart and mind have grown larger as a result. The second thing your letter helped remind me of is very personal.... I recently had a very strong reac- tion to something someone in my life said. When I got your letter and found that you misheard my story I was humbled to realize that it was very possible that I had misheard the person to whom I was react- ing.... I pray that we continue to engage in conversations like these.... Much love and many blessings, [my Priest]