Sunny California

I write today sitting in sunny California. I have the privilege of attending the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress every year for work. It's a wonderful event, capitalizing on the immense diversity and energy of God's people.



I arrived Thursday evening and am waiting for my shuttle back to LAX. I've found the culture and people here extremely hospitable, warm and friendly, and incredibly diverse. One can't help but sense the residue of a vibrant Latino/a culture, in-culturating itself in the American landscape as rich tradition and promising future. The colors, dancing, Spanish language, and the like have left me feeling a new appreciation for global church, one that stems from and takes root in the local integrity of the faithful. The universal church's hegemony can sometimes dominate a faith so needing local energy, perspective, culture - and even theology - that Church becomes structure and institution, an ideal existing beyond human reach. I say it's the opposite: Church as a community of communities, as a manifestation and incarnation of God in the here and now. The people I witnessed, the conversations I engaged, the culture I saw, the energy I felt all pointed to a Church not so much lost in distant decrees and formal leadership but in the everyday, ordinary life of those gathered around the table of plenty. As I often insist, and as this trip confirmed - God is good, all the time!