Our Christmas Letter 2022

Christmas Letter 2022

 

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior…

He has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty….

~Luke 1:46-56

We send you best wishes for a blessed Christmas and New Year. This Advent we’ve been inspired anew by the drama of God coming to earth as a baby, with a young visionary mother who proclaimed the kind of mercy and justice we long for…radical words that centuries later were barred from public readings in India, Guatemala, and Argentina, as our pastor pointed out last week.

We have much to celebrate in 2022:

• our successful efforts to rezone religious land for affordable housing in Pasadena and Sierra Madre, and Lord willing in 2023 statewide with SB 4—we have been working with Senator Scott Weiner on this for the past two years
• the decisive victory of the local rent control campaign
• our joyful annual MHCH (Making Housing and Community Happen) celebration that attracted over 130 people and two dozen local affordable housing and homeless service organizations as together we “united for housing justice” –this year’s theme.

Some highlights of our year:

1.       Our “great pumpkin patch” was a delightful surprise. We threw some “knucklehead” pumpkin seeds from last year’s pumpkin into our compost heap, and they went wild, producing vines 30 feet long and over a dozen huge pumpkins, some of which lodged on branches in our fig tree. We made over a dozen pies and gave them and pumpkins to friends and family members (with their names etched in them scabbed over). In between zoom meetings Jill would run out to watch them grow!

2.       We continue to thank God for our garden and prolific “orchard”—avocadoes, oranges, grapefruit, peaches, plums, pluots, tangerines, loquats, kumquats, persimmon, sapote, pomegranate, passion fruit, Peruvian gooseberries, and grapes. Plus, tomatoes, lettuce, sugar snap peas, & more! God’s creation is so bountiful!

3.       We went on a road trip to the Northwest where we visited friends, attended the celebration of life for Jill’s mentor Dr. Ray Bakke, visited Jill’s sister Jana and her husband Dwight and some of their eight children (including Peter and Kendra’s adorable baby Raffaella) and enjoyed the splendors of nature—the Sequoias and the Olympic rainforest.

4.       Jill traveled to San Antonio, TX, for a symposium about “Gone for Good” a book for which our Congregational Land Committee contributed a chapter along with authors across the US. With 4,000 US congregations closing their doors each year—will churches be gone forever? Or gone for something good? We are amazed that over 70 congregations in So CA have approached us for technical support on how to have affordable housing on their campus. Our nonprofit, MHCH, also has three other teams: Safe Parking for people living in their vehicles, N. Fair Oaks Empowerment- seeking to revitalize an historically Black disenfranchised corner of Pasadena, and ASHA—Affordable Supportive Housing Advocates.

5.       Jill also gave a workshop with Andre White at the Christian Community Development Association in Charlotte, North Carolina and she also spent some time on Hilton Head Island with Andre’s family learning about the Gullah people by going on Gullah tours, visiting story tellers and more. The land injustices against these native islanders broke Jill’s heart.

6.       Anthony traveled to DC for the FCNL, a Quaker lobby conference and advocated for the Environmental Justice Act. He also stopped by Philadelphia and Princeton, NJ, to visit his sister and his niece and nephew. They went to the Philadelphia Art Museum and ate Conte’s pizza—the best pizza on the planet!

7.       We’ve have enjoyed being part of the First United Methodist Church, which Anthony joined in June. Anthony continues to be part of the Quaker community as well as being a Methodist. God is bigger than any denomination and we feel blessed to be part of both communities.

8.       Anthony had an article and poem published in Friends Journal, a national Quaker publication. He wrote about racial justice and Anthony McClain, the young black man shot and killed by Pasadena police.

9.       Two of our favorite films this year: “Kiss the Ground” (an inspiring documentary about regenerative farming) and “The Chosen” (a fascinating series about Jesus and his disciples—which we are watching in our home with a delightful group of Methodists and others).

10.    We continue to visit Jill’s mom Donna Shook every week, at a lovely board and care that has an abundance of flowers, paintings, and love. Donna is bed-ridden, in hospice, with late stage Alzheimer’s and has lost much of her cognitive abilities but is still fun to be with. She loves to flirt, laugh and listen to old familiar jazz and bossa nova. We also look forward to our weekly Bible study and check-in with Mark who lives with us.

Please pray for Jill and her heath. Her doctor is concerned about her blood work, a growing cyst, and diverticulitis. She sees her oncologist on Dec. 30^th.  

Our concerns and prayers are also with the people of Ukraine and Yemen who are suffering from the horrors war. We are asking for a ceasefire and for a negotiated settlement to these senseless and bloody conflicts.  Even though we feel so grateful that we have had the joy of helping to approve 135 housing units for our unhoused neighbors that will become available in Pasadena in 2023, we have heavy hearts that about the 300+ unhoused neighbors are currently living on the street with few if any shelter options. The goal of MHCH is to end chronic homelessness and housing insecurity in our city (and beyond)!

We are so grateful to you, our friends and family!  

 

Love, Anthony and Jill