Author: Michael Caldwell

Anna’s Letter to America

~ Michael Caldwell ~ Leave a comment

The Prophetess Anna’s Letter to America / July, 2026

Stowe (VT) Community Church

Lewis (NY) Congregational Church

Isaiah 55.10-11 “Seed to the Sower” / Matthew 13.1-9, 18-23 Parable of the Sower

Practical Prophecy

Friends, the Bible is full of prophecy –

like this oracle in Isaiah comparing the word of God to a seed,

and yes, even like Christ’s parables,

comparing the sower’s seed to God’s word….

Parables are little prophecies.

Prophecy? Isn’t that passe’? Old fashioned? Archaic?

No! (LOL) God’s prophetic word is more urgent than ever! What a gift!

Prophecy, simply: human stabs at divine intention… so, today:

the words of a biblical prophetess without a prophecy – until today… Anna!

I retired from settled ministry feeling a call to prophetic writing.

Sounds grandiose, I know. You decide. I’m making it practical…

I’ve followed the call with the help of a spiritual guide

who challenges me to follow my dreams.

Out of this spiritual practice for me has come a closer relationship to the Holy

through a feminine figure I call Anna… Anna? Why Anna?

My first vague dream of her came just after Christmas,

in the annual reading in the lectionary from Luke 2 where Simeon and Anna appear

in the Jerusalem temple, receiving the Christ child with Mary and Joseph…remember?

And there was something in that text that hit me hard!

Luke calls Anna a prophetess but doesn’t quote her prophecy as he does Simeon’s!

And she began appearing in my dreams, in images, comforting and challenging.

I felt a call to listen to her, hear her, interpret her, understand her.

Her prophecies seem to come in letters. Today I’m reading her fifth letter – this time

a letter addressed to America! – on the occasion of our 250th birthday.

Anna wants to be known, hopes to be heard; she has a lot to say,

and has a pretty good sense of humor as well, as you will see… (LOL)

She seems to know the Bible, know our American history, and the history of the Church,

which confounds her. Try now to listen with open ears, open hearts…

Letter from Anna

Dear America!

Grace and peace of our God to you and yours!

Our faith in Christ brings joy and meaning to our lives

and I feel that joy to be with you in Spirit to share the gospel.

At the same time, I feel a sadness and anxiety in your country –

a grief I recognize because I felt it when I lived my mortal life 2000 years ago,

when Simeon and I greeted Mary and Joseph and their shining child in the Temple.

We were there in the temple praying for change, praying for the messiah to come

to save us from the oppression of our people at the hands of the Roman occupiers.

And wouldn’t you know it, out of our grief for the state of the world

came God’s clear anointing of this child! The child shined in their arms!

We somehow knew, out of our prayer practice – Simeon and I – that this was the one –

the one God sent to save us, to answer our prayer for a new world,

to give us God’s realm on earth as in heaven, as he would teach us to pray.

Now, fast forward two thousand years… I know that’s a stretch, but try me! (LOL)

Thanks to the gift of heaven, I’m still with the Christ child’s community –

you, here, today, in Spirit,and I have to tell you:

I’m feeling pretty concerned about your brave new world.

I’ll focus on America at your 250 th, and imagine what God sees,

for yes, I’m bold to speak for God! Somebody needs to! (PAUSE)

First of all, congratulations! You made it a quarter millennia – peanuts in God’s time

but a lot of governments die fast like the seeds in Christ’s parable which fell on rocks, got eaten by birds, or were choked by thorns.

Clearly the seed of God’s Word fell on good soil with your founders!

What an amazing harvest of democracy!

But that soil seems to be depleted. Your harvest is threatened. There’s grief in the air.

Here’s my sadness at what I see; here’s the grief of God: (PAUSE)

There seem to be two factions now in your American experiment –

a secularist faction and a fundamentalist faction.

I’ll be encouraging you to challenge them both with love, to hit the faithful center.

So, on the one hand the secular humanist community has seen the sins of religion

and rejects it all, can’t see the blessing of spiritual sight,

seems as blind to Love as to God, for God is Love…

Some in this secular community even consider empathy a weakness,

see no transcendent light as if from that shining city on the hill in your history.

These are the folks, my friends, that I see in your midst, who try to remove

all vestiges of God that they can from our common life –

whether in in the Pledge of Allegiance or in our national motto: “In God We Trust.”

In their defense, I can see that it’s due to the trauma these folks felt

from an arrogant church, from “religious” people who condemn to hell

those who don’t follow their particular sectarianism, their vice grip on Truth,

their rigid reading of the Bible… which brings me to the fundamentalist faction:

Here’s what I see: (PAUSE)

I see people of faith who are afraid of change, though change is at the heart

of the Lord’s Prayer when we pray for God’s new realm to come on earth,

such as, for example, the abolition of slavery that even your great founders

stumbled over, missed because of their own resistance to change.

I see a tendency for arrogant preachers to claim Truth on only their terms,

consigning to hell those who disagree with their narrow vision.

I see angry bigots claiming the American flag as theirs alone,

claiming white Christian identity for America as an entirely “Christian” nation,

interpreting the founders as somehow having that intention.

Well, yes, the founders were people of faith – a very diverse faith:

Presbyterians from NJ, Quakers from PA, Congregationalists from NE,

Baptists from RI, Catholics from MD, Anglicans from VA, and yes,

though he’s dressed in Christian clothes, even a De-ist like Jefferson

who said “I am a sect myself” and who fought hard for an ecumenical gospel,

a gospel that had room for hearty disagreement and new populations

like, eventually, Jewish, Muslim, and Buddhist communities, for example,

all of which practice – except for extremists – a divine kind of love

that our Christ gave his life for, showed us how to practice in hard conflict.

Friends in Christ, may I first say as humbly as I can that these irreconcilable factions

will tear you apart if you don’t challenge them both with careful compassion.

I understand that you are a “community church” which seeks the center of the gospel,

and, with other people of faith, believe in our one God for one world

with one word of compassion, justice, and peace for all,

not just for some, not just for those who toe the line of theologies of intolerance and fear

but for all! … as in your beautiful pledge of allegiance to “liberty and justice for all.”

So, please challenge with loving compassion your neighbor fundamentalist.

On the other hand – and it’s just as hard, I grant you that! –

challenge with love the atheist / secularist community to imagine how

“God” can be the transcendent, tenacious, force of Love and Justice that Christ intended.

Engage and connect with atheist and secular neighbors who may be as curious about you

as you are about them.

And what ever you do, don’t be tied to the idolatrous scourge of manipulative media

which floods the airwaves with prejudice that ignores our common humanity,

drives wedges between the factions, doesn’t accept that conflict is natural,

doesn’t seem to know that listening ears always trump deaf ears,

like the fertilizer of compassion comes now with my visit

to enrich the depleted soil so masterfully planted with the seeds

of God’s transcendent word of shalom – peace, love, justice.

In this fresh fertilization of the soil of your Declaration and your Constitution,

comes a softening of hardshell demonization

and a hardening of a soft gospel that doesn’t confront with love

those who diminish or ignore the love that is at the heart of Christ’s gospel…

Ah, friends, I fear I’ve gone on too long!

As you’ve been kind to welcome me, I’ll be kind to stop! (LOL)

Please just remember: the seed of God’s word of love

grows well in good soil that, when depleted, is fertilized

by your tenacious, diverse, and compassionate faith.

Grace and peace be with you! Amen.

Rev Dr Michael Caldwell is a member of the international ecumenical Iona CommunityThe Prophetess Anna’s Letter to America / July, 2026

Stowe (VT) Community Church

Lewis (NY) Congregational Church

Chesuncook (ME) Village Church

Isaiah 55.10-11 “Seed to the Sower” / Matthew 13.1-9, 18-23 Parable of the Sower

Practical Prophecy

Friends, the Bible is full of prophecy –

like this oracle in Isaiah comparing the word of God to a seed,

and yes, even like Christ’s parables,

comparing the sower’s seed to God’s word….

Parables are little prophecies.

Prophecy? Isn’t that passe’? Old fashioned? Archaic?

No! (LOL) God’s prophetic word is more urgent than ever! What a gift!

Prophecy, simply: human stabs at divine intention… so, today:

the words of a biblical prophetess without a prophecy – until today… Anna!

I retired from settled ministry feeling a call to prophetic writing.

Sounds grandiose, I know. You decide. I’m making it practical…

I’ve followed the call with the help of a spiritual guide

who challenges me to follow my dreams.

Out of this spiritual practice for me has come a closer relationship to the Holy

through a feminine figure I call Anna… Anna? Why Anna?

My first vague dream of her came just after Christmas,

in the annual reading in the lectionary from Luke 2 where Simeon and Anna appear

in the Jerusalem temple, receiving the Christ child with Mary and Joseph…remember?

And there was something in that text that hit me hard!

Luke calls Anna a prophetess but doesn’t quote her prophecy as he does Simeon’s!

And she began appearing in my dreams, in images, comforting and challenging.

I felt a call to listen to her, hear her, interpret her, understand her.

Her prophecies seem to come in letters. Today I’m reading her fifth letter – this time

a letter addressed to America! – on the occasion of our 250th birthday.

Anna wants to be known, hopes to be heard; she has a lot to say,

and has a pretty good sense of humor as well, as you will see… (LOL)

She seems to know the Bible, know our American history, and the history of the Church,

which confounds her. Try now to listen with open ears, open hearts…

Letter from Anna

Dear America!

Grace and peace of our God to you and yours!

Our faith in Christ brings joy and meaning to our lives

and I feel that joy to be with you in Spirit to share the gospel.

At the same time, I feel a sadness and anxiety in your country –

a grief I recognize because I felt it when I lived my mortal life 2000 years ago,

when Simeon and I greeted Mary and Joseph and their shining child in the Temple.

We were there in the temple praying for change, praying for the messiah to come

to save us from the oppression of our people at the hands of the Roman occupiers.

And wouldn’t you know it, out of our grief for the state of the world

came God’s clear anointing of this child! The child shined in their arms!

We somehow knew, out of our prayer practice – Simeon and I – that this was the one –

the one God sent to save us, to answer our prayer for a new world,

to give us God’s realm on earth as in heaven, as he would teach us to pray.

Now, fast forward two thousand years… I know that’s a stretch, but try me! (LOL)

Thanks to the gift of heaven, I’m still with the Christ child’s community –

you, here, today, in Spirit,and I have to tell you:

I’m feeling pretty concerned about your brave new world.

I’ll focus on America at your 250 th, and imagine what God sees,

for yes, I’m bold to speak for God! Somebody needs to! (PAUSE)

First of all, congratulations! You made it a quarter millennia – peanuts in God’s time

but a lot of governments die fast like the seeds in Christ’s parable which fell on rocks, got eaten by birds, or were choked by thorns.

Clearly the seed of God’s Word fell on good soil with your founders!

What an amazing harvest of democracy!

But that soil seems to be depleted. Your harvest is threatened. There’s grief in the air.

Here’s my sadness at what I see; here’s the grief of God: (PAUSE)

There seem to be two factions now in your American experiment –

a secularist faction and a fundamentalist faction.

I’ll be encouraging you to challenge them both with love, to hit the faithful center.

So, on the one hand the secular humanist community has seen the sins of religion

and rejects it all, can’t see the blessing of spiritual sight,

seems as blind to Love as to God, for God is Love…

Some in this secular community even consider empathy a weakness,

see no transcendent light as if from that shining city on the hill in your history.

These are the folks, my friends, that I see in your midst, who try to remove

all vestiges of God that they can from our common life –

whether in in the Pledge of Allegiance or in our national motto: “In God We Trust.”

In their defense, I can see that it’s due to the trauma these folks felt

from an arrogant church, from “religious” people who condemn to hell

those who don’t follow their particular sectarianism, their vice grip on Truth,

their rigid reading of the Bible… which brings me to the fundamentalist faction:

Here’s what I see: (PAUSE)

I see people of faith who are afraid of change, though change is at the heart

of the Lord’s Prayer when we pray for God’s new realm to come on earth,

such as, for example, the abolition of slavery that even your great founders

stumbled over, missed because of their own resistance to change.

I see a tendency for arrogant preachers to claim Truth on only their terms,

consigning to hell those who disagree with their narrow vision.

I see angry bigots claiming the American flag as theirs alone,

claiming white Christian identity for America as an entirely “Christian” nation,

interpreting the founders as somehow having that intention.

Well, yes, the founders were people of faith – a very diverse faith:

Presbyterians from NJ, Quakers from PA, Congregationalists from NE,

Baptists from RI, Catholics from MD, Anglicans from VA, and yes,

though he’s dressed in Christian clothes, even a De-ist like Jefferson

who said “I am a sect myself” and who fought hard for an ecumenical gospel,

a gospel that had room for hearty disagreement and new populations

like, eventually, Jewish, Muslim, and Buddhist communities, for example,

all of which practice – except for extremists – a divine kind of love

that our Christ gave his life for, showed us how to practice in hard conflict.

Friends in Christ, may I first say as humbly as I can that these irreconcilable factions

will tear you apart if you don’t challenge them both with careful compassion.

I understand that you are a “community church” which seeks the center of the gospel,

and, with other people of faith, believe in our one God for one world

with one word of compassion, justice, and peace for all,

not just for some, not just for those who toe the line of theologies of intolerance and fear

but for all! … as in your beautiful pledge of allegiance to “liberty and justice for all.”

So, please challenge with loving compassion your neighbor fundamentalist.

On the other hand – and it’s just as hard, I grant you that! –

challenge with love the atheist / secularist community to imagine how

“God” can be the transcendent, tenacious, force of Love and Justice that Christ intended.

Engage and connect with atheist and secular neighbors who may be as curious about you

as you are about them.

And what ever you do, don’t be tied to the idolatrous scourge of manipulative media

which floods the airwaves with prejudice that ignores our common humanity,

drives wedges between the factions, doesn’t accept that conflict is natural,

doesn’t seem to know that listening ears always trump deaf ears,

like the fertilizer of compassion comes now with my visit

to enrich the depleted soil so masterfully planted with the seeds

of God’s transcendent word of shalom – peace, love, justice.

In this fresh fertilization of the soil of your Declaration and your Constitution,

comes a softening of hardshell demonization

and a hardening of a soft gospel that doesn’t confront with love

those who diminish or ignore the love that is at the heart of Christ’s gospel…

Ah, friends, I fear I’ve gone on too long!

As you’ve been kind to welcome me, I’ll be kind to stop! (LOL)

Please just remember: the seed of God’s word of love

grows well in good soil that, when depleted, is fertilized

by your tenacious, diverse, and compassionate faith.

Grace and peace be with you! Amen.

Rev Dr Michael Caldwell is a member of the international ecumenical Iona CommunityThe Prophetess Anna’s Letter to America / July, 2026

Stowe (VT) Community Church

Lewis (NY) Congregational Church

Chesuncook (ME) Village Church

Isaiah 55.10-11 “Seed to the Sower” / Matthew 13.1-9, 18-23 Parable of the Sower

Practical Prophecy

Friends, the Bible is full of prophecy –

like this oracle in Isaiah comparing the word of God to a seed,

and yes, even like Christ’s parables,

comparing the sower’s seed to God’s word….

Parables are little prophecies.

Prophecy? Isn’t that passe’? Old fashioned? Archaic?

No! (LOL) God’s prophetic word is more urgent than ever! What a gift!

Prophecy, simply: human stabs at divine intention… so, today:

the words of a biblical prophetess without a prophecy – until today… Anna!

I retired from settled ministry feeling a call to prophetic writing.

Sounds grandiose, I know. You decide. I’m making it practical…

I’ve followed the call with the help of a spiritual guide

who challenges me to follow my dreams.

Out of this spiritual practice for me has come a closer relationship to the Holy

through a feminine figure I call Anna… Anna? Why Anna?

My first vague dream of her came just after Christmas,

in the annual reading in the lectionary from Luke 2 where Simeon and Anna appear

in the Jerusalem temple, receiving the Christ child with Mary and Joseph…remember?

And there was something in that text that hit me hard!

Luke calls Anna a prophetess but doesn’t quote her prophecy as he does Simeon’s!

And she began appearing in my dreams, in images, comforting and challenging.

I felt a call to listen to her, hear her, interpret her, understand her.

Her prophecies seem to come in letters. Today I’m reading her fifth letter – this time

a letter addressed to America! – on the occasion of our 250th birthday.

Anna wants to be known, hopes to be heard; she has a lot to say,

and has a pretty good sense of humor as well, as you will see… (LOL)

She seems to know the Bible, know our American history, and the history of the Church,

which confounds her. Try now to listen with open ears, open hearts…

Letter from Anna

Dear America!

Grace and peace of our God to you and yours!

Our faith in Christ brings joy and meaning to our lives

and I feel that joy to be with you in Spirit to share the gospel.

At the same time, I feel a sadness and anxiety in your country –

a grief I recognize because I felt it when I lived my mortal life 2000 years ago,

when Simeon and I greeted Mary and Joseph and their shining child in the Temple.

We were there in the temple praying for change, praying for the messiah to come

to save us from the oppression of our people at the hands of the Roman occupiers.

And wouldn’t you know it, out of our grief for the state of the world

came God’s clear anointing of this child! The child shined in their arms!

We somehow knew, out of our prayer practice – Simeon and I – that this was the one –

the one God sent to save us, to answer our prayer for a new world,

to give us God’s realm on earth as in heaven, as he would teach us to pray.

Now, fast forward two thousand years… I know that’s a stretch, but try me! (LOL)

Thanks to the gift of heaven, I’m still with the Christ child’s community –

you, here, today, in Spirit,and I have to tell you:

I’m feeling pretty concerned about your brave new world.

I’ll focus on America at your 250 th, and imagine what God sees,

for yes, I’m bold to speak for God! Somebody needs to! (PAUSE)

First of all, congratulations! You made it a quarter millennia – peanuts in God’s time

but a lot of governments die fast like the seeds in Christ’s parable which fell on rocks, got eaten by birds, or were choked by thorns.

Clearly the seed of God’s Word fell on good soil with your founders!

What an amazing harvest of democracy!

But that soil seems to be depleted. Your harvest is threatened. There’s grief in the air.

Here’s my sadness at what I see; here’s the grief of God: (PAUSE)

There seem to be two factions now in your American experiment –

a secularist faction and a fundamentalist faction.

I’ll be encouraging you to challenge them both with love, to hit the faithful center.

So, on the one hand the secular humanist community has seen the sins of religion

and rejects it all, can’t see the blessing of spiritual sight,

seems as blind to Love as to God, for God is Love…

Some in this secular community even consider empathy a weakness,

see no transcendent light as if from that shining city on the hill in your history.

These are the folks, my friends, that I see in your midst, who try to remove

all vestiges of God that they can from our common life –

whether in in the Pledge of Allegiance or in our national motto: “In God We Trust.”

In their defense, I can see that it’s due to the trauma these folks felt

from an arrogant church, from “religious” people who condemn to hell

those who don’t follow their particular sectarianism, their vice grip on Truth,

their rigid reading of the Bible… which brings me to the fundamentalist faction:

Here’s what I see: (PAUSE)

I see people of faith who are afraid of change, though change is at the heart

of the Lord’s Prayer when we pray for God’s new realm to come on earth,

such as, for example, the abolition of slavery that even your great founders

stumbled over, missed because of their own resistance to change.

I see a tendency for arrogant preachers to claim Truth on only their terms,

consigning to hell those who disagree with their narrow vision.

I see angry bigots claiming the American flag as theirs alone,

claiming white Christian identity for America as an entirely “Christian” nation,

interpreting the founders as somehow having that intention.

Well, yes, the founders were people of faith – a very diverse faith:

Presbyterians from NJ, Quakers from PA, Congregationalists from NE,

Baptists from RI, Catholics from MD, Anglicans from VA, and yes,

though he’s dressed in Christian clothes, even a De-ist like Jefferson

who said “I am a sect myself” and who fought hard for an ecumenical gospel,

a gospel that had room for hearty disagreement and new populations

like, eventually, Jewish, Muslim, and Buddhist communities, for example,

all of which practice – except for extremists – a divine kind of love

that our Christ gave his life for, showed us how to practice in hard conflict.

Friends in Christ, may I first say as humbly as I can that these irreconcilable factions

will tear you apart if you don’t challenge them both with careful compassion.

I understand that you are a “community church” which seeks the center of the gospel,

and, with other people of faith, believe in our one God for one world

with one word of compassion, justice, and peace for all,

not just for some, not just for those who toe the line of theologies of intolerance and fear

but for all! … as in your beautiful pledge of allegiance to “liberty and justice for all.”

So, please challenge with loving compassion your neighbor fundamentalist.

On the other hand – and it’s just as hard, I grant you that! –

challenge with love the atheist / secularist community to imagine how

“God” can be the transcendent, tenacious, force of Love and Justice that Christ intended.

Engage and connect with atheist and secular neighbors who may be as curious about you

as you are about them.

And what ever you do, don’t be tied to the idolatrous scourge of manipulative media

which floods the airwaves with prejudice that ignores our common humanity,

drives wedges between the factions, doesn’t accept that conflict is natural,

doesn’t seem to know that listening ears always trump deaf ears,

like the fertilizer of compassion comes now with my visit

to enrich the depleted soil so masterfully planted with the seeds

of God’s transcendent word of shalom – peace, love, justice.

In this fresh fertilization of the soil of your Declaration and your Constitution,

comes a softening of hardshell demonization

and a hardening of a soft gospel that doesn’t confront with love

those who diminish or ignore the love that is at the heart of Christ’s gospel…

Ah, friends, I fear I’ve gone on too long!

As you’ve been kind to welcome me, I’ll be kind to stop! (LOL)

Please just remember: the seed of God’s word of love

grows well in good soil that, when depleted, is fertilized

by your tenacious, diverse, and compassionate faith.

Grace and peace be with you! Amen.

Rev Dr Michael Caldwell is a member of the international ecumenical Iona CommunityThe Prophetess Anna’s Letter to America / July, 2026

Stowe (VT) Community Church

Lewis (NY) Congregational Church

Chesuncook (ME) Village Church

Isaiah 55.10-11 “Seed to the Sower” / Matthew 13.1-9, 18-23 Parable of the Sower

Practical Prophecy

Friends, the Bible is full of prophecy –

like this oracle in Isaiah comparing the word of God to a seed,

and yes, even like Christ’s parables,

comparing the sower’s seed to God’s word….

Parables are little prophecies.

Prophecy? Isn’t that passe’? Old fashioned? Archaic?

No! (LOL) God’s prophetic word is more urgent than ever! What a gift!

Prophecy, simply: human stabs at divine intention… so, today:

the words of a biblical prophetess without a prophecy – until today… Anna!

I retired from settled ministry feeling a call to prophetic writing.

Sounds grandiose, I know. You decide. I’m making it practical…

I’ve followed the call with the help of a spiritual guide

who challenges me to follow my dreams.

Out of this spiritual practice for me has come a closer relationship to the Holy

through a feminine figure I call Anna… Anna? Why Anna?

My first vague dream of her came just after Christmas,

in the annual reading in the lectionary from Luke 2 where Simeon and Anna appear

in the Jerusalem temple, receiving the Christ child with Mary and Joseph…remember?

And there was something in that text that hit me hard!

Luke calls Anna a prophetess but doesn’t quote her prophecy as he does Simeon’s!

And she began appearing in my dreams, in images, comforting and challenging.

I felt a call to listen to her, hear her, interpret her, understand her.

Her prophecies seem to come in letters. Today I’m reading her fifth letter – this time

a letter addressed to America! – on the occasion of our 250th birthday.

Anna wants to be known, hopes to be heard; she has a lot to say,

and has a pretty good sense of humor as well, as you will see… (LOL)

She seems to know the Bible, know our American history, and the history of the Church,

which confounds her. Try now to listen with open ears, open hearts…

Letter from Anna

Dear America!

Grace and peace of our God to you and yours!

Our faith in Christ brings joy and meaning to our lives

and I feel that joy to be with you in Spirit to share the gospel.

At the same time, I feel a sadness and anxiety in your country –

a grief I recognize because I felt it when I lived my mortal life 2000 years ago,

when Simeon and I greeted Mary and Joseph and their shining child in the Temple.

We were there in the temple praying for change, praying for the messiah to come

to save us from the oppression of our people at the hands of the Roman occupiers.

And wouldn’t you know it, out of our grief for the state of the world

came God’s clear anointing of this child! The child shined in their arms!

We somehow knew, out of our prayer practice – Simeon and I – that this was the one –

the one God sent to save us, to answer our prayer for a new world,

to give us God’s realm on earth as in heaven, as he would teach us to pray.

Now, fast forward two thousand years… I know that’s a stretch, but try me! (LOL)

Thanks to the gift of heaven, I’m still with the Christ child’s community –

you, here, today, in Spirit,and I have to tell you:

I’m feeling pretty concerned about your brave new world.

I’ll focus on America at your 250 th, and imagine what God sees,

for yes, I’m bold to speak for God! Somebody needs to! (PAUSE)

First of all, congratulations! You made it a quarter millennia – peanuts in God’s time

but a lot of governments die fast like the seeds in Christ’s parable which fell on rocks, got eaten by birds, or were choked by thorns.

Clearly the seed of God’s Word fell on good soil with your founders!

What an amazing harvest of democracy!

But that soil seems to be depleted. Your harvest is threatened. There’s grief in the air.

Here’s my sadness at what I see; here’s the grief of God: (PAUSE)

There seem to be two factions now in your American experiment –

a secularist faction and a fundamentalist faction.

I’ll be encouraging you to challenge them both with love, to hit the faithful center.

So, on the one hand the secular humanist community has seen the sins of religion

and rejects it all, can’t see the blessing of spiritual sight,

seems as blind to Love as to God, for God is Love…

Some in this secular community even consider empathy a weakness,

see no transcendent light as if from that shining city on the hill in your history.

These are the folks, my friends, that I see in your midst, who try to remove

all vestiges of God that they can from our common life –

whether in in the Pledge of Allegiance or in our national motto: “In God We Trust.”

In their defense, I can see that it’s due to the trauma these folks felt

from an arrogant church, from “religious” people who condemn to hell

those who don’t follow their particular sectarianism, their vice grip on Truth,

their rigid reading of the Bible… which brings me to the fundamentalist faction:

Here’s what I see: (PAUSE)

I see people of faith who are afraid of change, though change is at the heart

of the Lord’s Prayer when we pray for God’s new realm to come on earth,

such as, for example, the abolition of slavery that even your great founders

stumbled over, missed because of their own resistance to change.

I see a tendency for arrogant preachers to claim Truth on only their terms,

consigning to hell those who disagree with their narrow vision.

I see angry bigots claiming the American flag as theirs alone,

claiming white Christian identity for America as an entirely “Christian” nation,

interpreting the founders as somehow having that intention.

Well, yes, the founders were people of faith – a very diverse faith:

Presbyterians from NJ, Quakers from PA, Congregationalists from NE,

Baptists from RI, Catholics from MD, Anglicans from VA, and yes,

though he’s dressed in Christian clothes, even a De-ist like Jefferson

who said “I am a sect myself” and who fought hard for an ecumenical gospel,

a gospel that had room for hearty disagreement and new populations

like, eventually, Jewish, Muslim, and Buddhist communities, for example,

all of which practice – except for extremists – a divine kind of love

that our Christ gave his life for, showed us how to practice in hard conflict.

Friends in Christ, may I first say as humbly as I can that these irreconcilable factions

will tear you apart if you don’t challenge them both with careful compassion.

I understand that you are a “community church” which seeks the center of the gospel,

and, with other people of faith, believe in our one God for one world

with one word of compassion, justice, and peace for all,

not just for some, not just for those who toe the line of theologies of intolerance and fear

but for all! … as in your beautiful pledge of allegiance to “liberty and justice for all.”

So, please challenge with loving compassion your neighbor fundamentalist.

On the other hand – and it’s just as hard, I grant you that! –

challenge with love the atheist / secularist community to imagine how

“God” can be the transcendent, tenacious, force of Love and Justice that Christ intended.

Engage and connect with atheist and secular neighbors who may be as curious about you

as you are about them.

And what ever you do, don’t be tied to the idolatrous scourge of manipulative media

which floods the airwaves with prejudice that ignores our common humanity,

drives wedges between the factions, doesn’t accept that conflict is natural,

doesn’t seem to know that listening ears always trump deaf ears,

like the fertilizer of compassion comes now with my visit

to enrich the depleted soil so masterfully planted with the seeds

of God’s transcendent word of shalom – peace, love, justice.

In this fresh fertilization of the soil of your Declaration and your Constitution,

comes a softening of hardshell demonization

and a hardening of a soft gospel that doesn’t confront with love

those who diminish or ignore the love that is at the heart of Christ’s gospel…

Ah, friends, I fear I’ve gone on too long!

As you’ve been kind to welcome me, I’ll be kind to stop! (LOL)

Please just remember: the seed of God’s word of love

grows well in good soil that, when depleted, is fertilized

by your tenacious, diverse, and compassionate faith.

Grace and peace be with you! Amen.

Rev Dr Michael Caldwell is a member of the international ecumenical Iona CommunityThe Prophetess Anna’s Letter to America / July, 2026

Stowe (VT) Community Church

Lewis (NY) Congregational Church

Chesuncook (ME) Village Church

Isaiah 55.10-11 “Seed to the Sower” / Matthew 13.1-9, 18-23 Parable of the Sower

Practical Prophecy

Friends, the Bible is full of prophecy –

like this oracle in Isaiah comparing the word of God to a seed,

and yes, even like Christ’s parables,

comparing the sower’s seed to God’s word….

Parables are little prophecies.

Prophecy? Isn’t that passe’? Old fashioned? Archaic?

No! (LOL) God’s prophetic word is more urgent than ever! What a gift!

Prophecy, simply: human stabs at divine intention… so, today:

the words of a biblical prophetess without a prophecy – until today… Anna!

I retired from settled ministry feeling a call to prophetic writing.

Sounds grandiose, I know. You decide. I’m making it practical…

I’ve followed the call with the help of a spiritual guide

who challenges me to follow my dreams.

Out of this spiritual practice for me has come a closer relationship to the Holy

through a feminine figure I call Anna… Anna? Why Anna?

My first vague dream of her came just after Christmas,

in the annual reading in the lectionary from Luke 2 where Simeon and Anna appear

in the Jerusalem temple, receiving the Christ child with Mary and Joseph…remember?

And there was something in that text that hit me hard!

Luke calls Anna a prophetess but doesn’t quote her prophecy as he does Simeon’s!

And she began appearing in my dreams, in images, comforting and challenging.

I felt a call to listen to her, hear her, interpret her, understand her.

Her prophecies seem to come in letters. Today I’m reading her fifth letter – this time

a letter addressed to America! – on the occasion of our 250th birthday.

Anna wants to be known, hopes to be heard; she has a lot to say,

and has a pretty good sense of humor as well, as you will see… (LOL)

She seems to know the Bible, know our American history, and the history of the Church,

which confounds her. Try now to listen with open ears, open hearts…

Letter from Anna

Dear America!

Grace and peace of our God to you and yours!

Our faith in Christ brings joy and meaning to our lives

and I feel that joy to be with you in Spirit to share the gospel.

At the same time, I feel a sadness and anxiety in your country –

a grief I recognize because I felt it when I lived my mortal life 2000 years ago,

when Simeon and I greeted Mary and Joseph and their shining child in the Temple.

We were there in the temple praying for change, praying for the messiah to come

to save us from the oppression of our people at the hands of the Roman occupiers.

And wouldn’t you know it, out of our grief for the state of the world

came God’s clear anointing of this child! The child shined in their arms!

We somehow knew, out of our prayer practice – Simeon and I – that this was the one –

the one God sent to save us, to answer our prayer for a new world,

to give us God’s realm on earth as in heaven, as he would teach us to pray.

Now, fast forward two thousand years… I know that’s a stretch, but try me! (LOL)

Thanks to the gift of heaven, I’m still with the Christ child’s community –

you, here, today, in Spirit,and I have to tell you:

I’m feeling pretty concerned about your brave new world.

I’ll focus on America at your 250 th, and imagine what God sees,

for yes, I’m bold to speak for God! Somebody needs to! (PAUSE)

First of all, congratulations! You made it a quarter millennia – peanuts in God’s time

but a lot of governments die fast like the seeds in Christ’s parable which fell on rocks, got eaten by birds, or were choked by thorns.

Clearly the seed of God’s Word fell on good soil with your founders!

What an amazing harvest of democracy!

But that soil seems to be depleted. Your harvest is threatened. There’s grief in the air.

Here’s my sadness at what I see; here’s the grief of God: (PAUSE)

There seem to be two factions now in your American experiment –

a secularist faction and a fundamentalist faction.

I’ll be encouraging you to challenge them both with love, to hit the faithful center.

So, on the one hand the secular humanist community has seen the sins of religion

and rejects it all, can’t see the blessing of spiritual sight,

seems as blind to Love as to God, for God is Love…

Some in this secular community even consider empathy a weakness,

see no transcendent light as if from that shining city on the hill in your history.

These are the folks, my friends, that I see in your midst, who try to remove

all vestiges of God that they can from our common life –

whether in in the Pledge of Allegiance or in our national motto: “In God We Trust.”

In their defense, I can see that it’s due to the trauma these folks felt

from an arrogant church, from “religious” people who condemn to hell

those who don’t follow their particular sectarianism, their vice grip on Truth,

their rigid reading of the Bible… which brings me to the fundamentalist faction:

Here’s what I see: (PAUSE)

I see people of faith who are afraid of change, though change is at the heart

of the Lord’s Prayer when we pray for God’s new realm to come on earth,

such as, for example, the abolition of slavery that even your great founders

stumbled over, missed because of their own resistance to change.

I see a tendency for arrogant preachers to claim Truth on only their terms,

consigning to hell those who disagree with their narrow vision.

I see angry bigots claiming the American flag as theirs alone,

claiming white Christian identity for America as an entirely “Christian” nation,

interpreting the founders as somehow having that intention.

Well, yes, the founders were people of faith – a very diverse faith:

Presbyterians from NJ, Quakers from PA, Congregationalists from NE,

Baptists from RI, Catholics from MD, Anglicans from VA, and yes,

though he’s dressed in Christian clothes, even a De-ist like Jefferson

who said “I am a sect myself” and who fought hard for an ecumenical gospel,

a gospel that had room for hearty disagreement and new populations

like, eventually, Jewish, Muslim, and Buddhist communities, for example,

all of which practice – except for extremists – a divine kind of love

that our Christ gave his life for, showed us how to practice in hard conflict.

Friends in Christ, may I first say as humbly as I can that these irreconcilable factions

will tear you apart if you don’t challenge them both with careful compassion.

I understand that you are a “community church” which seeks the center of the gospel,

and, with other people of faith, believe in our one God for one world

with one word of compassion, justice, and peace for all,

not just for some, not just for those who toe the line of theologies of intolerance and fear

but for all! … as in your beautiful pledge of allegiance to “liberty and justice for all.”

So, please challenge with loving compassion your neighbor fundamentalist.

On the other hand – and it’s just as hard, I grant you that! –

challenge with love the atheist / secularist community to imagine how

“God” can be the transcendent, tenacious, force of Love and Justice that Christ intended.

Engage and connect with atheist and secular neighbors who may be as curious about you

as you are about them.

And what ever you do, don’t be tied to the idolatrous scourge of manipulative media

which floods the airwaves with prejudice that ignores our common humanity,

drives wedges between the factions, doesn’t accept that conflict is natural,

doesn’t seem to know that listening ears always trump deaf ears,

like the fertilizer of compassion comes now with my visit

to enrich the depleted soil so masterfully planted with the seeds

of God’s transcendent word of shalom – peace, love, justice.

In this fresh fertilization of the soil of your Declaration and your Constitution,

comes a softening of hardshell demonization

and a hardening of a soft gospel that doesn’t confront with love

those who diminish or ignore the love that is at the heart of Christ’s gospel…

Ah, friends, I fear I’ve gone on too long!

As you’ve been kind to welcome me, I’ll be kind to stop! (LOL)

Please just remember: the seed of God’s word of love

grows well in good soil that, when depleted, is fertilized

by your tenacious, diverse, and compassionate faith.

Grace and peace be with you! Amen.

Rev Dr Michael Caldwell is a member of the international ecumenical Iona CommunityThe Prophetess Anna’s Letter to America / July, 2026

Stowe (VT) Community Church

Lewis (NY) Congregational Church

Chesuncook (ME) Village Church

Isaiah 55.10-11 “Seed to the Sower” / Matthew 13.1-9, 18-23 Parable of the Sower

Practical Prophecy

Friends, the Bible is full of prophecy –

like this oracle in Isaiah comparing the word of God to a seed,

and yes, even like Christ’s parables,

comparing the sower’s seed to God’s word….

Parables are little prophecies.

Prophecy? Isn’t that passe’? Old fashioned? Archaic?

No! (LOL) God’s prophetic word is more urgent than ever! What a gift!

Prophecy, simply: human stabs at divine intention… so, today:

the words of a biblical prophetess without a prophecy – until today… Anna!

I retired from settled ministry feeling a call to prophetic writing.

Sounds grandiose, I know. You decide. I’m making it practical…

I’ve followed the call with the help of a spiritual guide

who challenges me to follow my dreams.

Out of this spiritual practice for me has come a closer relationship to the Holy

through a feminine figure I call Anna… Anna? Why Anna?

My first vague dream of her came just after Christmas,

in the annual reading in the lectionary from Luke 2 where Simeon and Anna appear

in the Jerusalem temple, receiving the Christ child with Mary and Joseph…remember?

And there was something in that text that hit me hard!

Luke calls Anna a prophetess but doesn’t quote her prophecy as he does Simeon’s!

And she began appearing in my dreams, in images, comforting and challenging.

I felt a call to listen to her, hear her, interpret her, understand her.

Her prophecies seem to come in letters. Today I’m reading her fifth letter – this time

a letter addressed to America! – on the occasion of our 250th birthday.

Anna wants to be known, hopes to be heard; she has a lot to say,

and has a pretty good sense of humor as well, as you will see… (LOL)

She seems to know the Bible, know our American history, and the history of the Church,

which confounds her. Try now to listen with open ears, open hearts…

Letter from Anna

Dear America!

Grace and peace of our God to you and yours!

Our faith in Christ brings joy and meaning to our lives

and I feel that joy to be with you in Spirit to share the gospel.

At the same time, I feel a sadness and anxiety in your country –

a grief I recognize because I felt it when I lived my mortal life 2000 years ago,

when Simeon and I greeted Mary and Joseph and their shining child in the Temple.

We were there in the temple praying for change, praying for the messiah to come

to save us from the oppression of our people at the hands of the Roman occupiers.

And wouldn’t you know it, out of our grief for the state of the world

came God’s clear anointing of this child! The child shined in their arms!

We somehow knew, out of our prayer practice – Simeon and I – that this was the one –

the one God sent to save us, to answer our prayer for a new world,

to give us God’s realm on earth as in heaven, as he would teach us to pray.

Now, fast forward two thousand years… I know that’s a stretch, but try me! (LOL)

Thanks to the gift of heaven, I’m still with the Christ child’s community –

you, here, today, in Spirit,and I have to tell you:

I’m feeling pretty concerned about your brave new world.

I’ll focus on America at your 250 th, and imagine what God sees,

for yes, I’m bold to speak for God! Somebody needs to! (PAUSE)

First of all, congratulations! You made it a quarter millennia – peanuts in God’s time

but a lot of governments die fast like the seeds in Christ’s parable which fell on rocks, got eaten by birds, or were choked by thorns.

Clearly the seed of God’s Word fell on good soil with your founders!

What an amazing harvest of democracy!

But that soil seems to be depleted. Your harvest is threatened. There’s grief in the air.

Here’s my sadness at what I see; here’s the grief of God: (PAUSE)

There seem to be two factions now in your American experiment –

a secularist faction and a fundamentalist faction.

I’ll be encouraging you to challenge them both with love, to hit the faithful center.

So, on the one hand the secular humanist community has seen the sins of religion

and rejects it all, can’t see the blessing of spiritual sight,

seems as blind to Love as to God, for God is Love…

Some in this secular community even consider empathy a weakness,

see no transcendent light as if from that shining city on the hill in your history.

These are the folks, my friends, that I see in your midst, who try to remove

all vestiges of God that they can from our common life –

whether in in the Pledge of Allegiance or in our national motto: “In God We Trust.”

In their defense, I can see that it’s due to the trauma these folks felt

from an arrogant church, from “religious” people who condemn to hell

those who don’t follow their particular sectarianism, their vice grip on Truth,

their rigid reading of the Bible… which brings me to the fundamentalist faction:

Here’s what I see: (PAUSE)

I see people of faith who are afraid of change, though change is at the heart

of the Lord’s Prayer when we pray for God’s new realm to come on earth,

such as, for example, the abolition of slavery that even your great founders

stumbled over, missed because of their own resistance to change.

I see a tendency for arrogant preachers to claim Truth on only their terms,

consigning to hell those who disagree with their narrow vision.

I see angry bigots claiming the American flag as theirs alone,

claiming white Christian identity for America as an entirely “Christian” nation,

interpreting the founders as somehow having that intention.

Well, yes, the founders were people of faith – a very diverse faith:

Presbyterians from NJ, Quakers from PA, Congregationalists from NE,

Baptists from RI, Catholics from MD, Anglicans from VA, and yes,

though he’s dressed in Christian clothes, even a De-ist like Jefferson

who said “I am a sect myself” and who fought hard for an ecumenical gospel,

a gospel that had room for hearty disagreement and new populations

like, eventually, Jewish, Muslim, and Buddhist communities, for example,

all of which practice – except for extremists – a divine kind of love

that our Christ gave his life for, showed us how to practice in hard conflict.

Friends in Christ, may I first say as humbly as I can that these irreconcilable factions

will tear you apart if you don’t challenge them both with careful compassion.

I understand that you are a “community church” which seeks the center of the gospel,

and, with other people of faith, believe in our one God for one world

with one word of compassion, justice, and peace for all,

not just for some, not just for those who toe the line of theologies of intolerance and fear

but for all! … as in your beautiful pledge of allegiance to “liberty and justice for all.”

So, please challenge with loving compassion your neighbor fundamentalist.

On the other hand – and it’s just as hard, I grant you that! –

challenge with love the atheist / secularist community to imagine how

“God” can be the transcendent, tenacious, force of Love and Justice that Christ intended.

Engage and connect with atheist and secular neighbors who may be as curious about you

as you are about them.

And what ever you do, don’t be tied to the idolatrous scourge of manipulative media

which floods the airwaves with prejudice that ignores our common humanity,

drives wedges between the factions, doesn’t accept that conflict is natural,

doesn’t seem to know that listening ears always trump deaf ears,

like the fertilizer of compassion comes now with my visit

to enrich the depleted soil so masterfully planted with the seeds

of God’s transcendent word of shalom – peace, love, justice.

In this fresh fertilization of the soil of your Declaration and your Constitution,

comes a softening of hardshell demonization

and a hardening of a soft gospel that doesn’t confront with love

those who diminish or ignore the love that is at the heart of Christ’s gospel…

Ah, friends, I fear I’ve gone on too long!

As you’ve been kind to welcome me, I’ll be kind to stop! (LOL)

Please just remember: the seed of God’s word of love

grows well in good soil that, when depleted, is fertilized

by your tenacious, diverse, and compassionate faith.

Grace and peace be with you! Amen.

Rev Dr Michael Caldwell is a member of the international ecumenical Iona CommunityThe Prophetess Anna’s Letter to America / July, 2026

Stowe (VT) Community Church

Lewis (NY) Congregational Church

Chesuncook (ME) Village Church

Isaiah 55.10-11 “Seed to the Sower” / Matthew 13.1-9, 18-23 Parable of the Sower

Practical Prophecy

Friends, the Bible is full of prophecy –

like this oracle in Isaiah comparing the word of God to a seed,

and yes, even like Christ’s parables,

comparing the sower’s seed to God’s word….

Parables are little prophecies.

Prophecy? Isn’t that passe’? Old fashioned? Archaic?

No! (LOL) God’s prophetic word is more urgent than ever! What a gift!

Prophecy, simply: human stabs at divine intention… so, today:

the words of a biblical prophetess without a prophecy – until today… Anna!

I retired from settled ministry feeling a call to prophetic writing.

Sounds grandiose, I know. You decide. I’m making it practical…

I’ve followed the call with the help of a spiritual guide

who challenges me to follow my dreams.

Out of this spiritual practice for me has come a closer relationship to the Holy

through a feminine figure I call Anna… Anna? Why Anna?

My first vague dream of her came just after Christmas,

in the annual reading in the lectionary from Luke 2 where Simeon and Anna appear

in the Jerusalem temple, receiving the Christ child with Mary and Joseph…remember?

And there was something in that text that hit me hard!

Luke calls Anna a prophetess but doesn’t quote her prophecy as he does Simeon’s!

And she began appearing in my dreams, in images, comforting and challenging.

I felt a call to listen to her, hear her, interpret her, understand her.

Her prophecies seem to come in letters. Today I’m reading her fifth letter – this time

a letter addressed to America! – on the occasion of our 250th birthday.

Anna wants to be known, hopes to be heard; she has a lot to say,

and has a pretty good sense of humor as well, as you will see… (LOL)

She seems to know the Bible, know our American history, and the history of the Church,

which confounds her. Try now to listen with open ears, open hearts…

Letter from Anna

Dear America!

Grace and peace of our God to you and yours!

Our faith in Christ brings joy and meaning to our lives

and I feel that joy to be with you in Spirit to share the gospel.

At the same time, I feel a sadness and anxiety in your country –

a grief I recognize because I felt it when I lived my mortal life 2000 years ago,

when Simeon and I greeted Mary and Joseph and their shining child in the Temple.

We were there in the temple praying for change, praying for the messiah to come

to save us from the oppression of our people at the hands of the Roman occupiers.

And wouldn’t you know it, out of our grief for the state of the world

came God’s clear anointing of this child! The child shined in their arms!

We somehow knew, out of our prayer practice – Simeon and I – that this was the one –

the one God sent to save us, to answer our prayer for a new world,

to give us God’s realm on earth as in heaven, as he would teach us to pray.

Now, fast forward two thousand years… I know that’s a stretch, but try me! (LOL)

Thanks to the gift of heaven, I’m still with the Christ child’s community –

you, here, today, in Spirit,and I have to tell you:

I’m feeling pretty concerned about your brave new world.

I’ll focus on America at your 250 th, and imagine what God sees,

for yes, I’m bold to speak for God! Somebody needs to! (PAUSE)

First of all, congratulations! You made it a quarter millennia – peanuts in God’s time

but a lot of governments die fast like the seeds in Christ’s parable which fell on rocks, got eaten by birds, or were choked by thorns.

Clearly the seed of God’s Word fell on good soil with your founders!

What an amazing harvest of democracy!

But that soil seems to be depleted. Your harvest is threatened. There’s grief in the air.

Here’s my sadness at what I see; here’s the grief of God: (PAUSE)

There seem to be two factions now in your American experiment –

a secularist faction and a fundamentalist faction.

I’ll be encouraging you to challenge them both with love, to hit the faithful center.

So, on the one hand the secular humanist community has seen the sins of religion

and rejects it all, can’t see the blessing of spiritual sight,

seems as blind to Love as to God, for God is Love…

Some in this secular community even consider empathy a weakness,

see no transcendent light as if from that shining city on the hill in your history.

These are the folks, my friends, that I see in your midst, who try to remove

all vestiges of God that they can from our common life –

whether in in the Pledge of Allegiance or in our national motto: “In God We Trust.”

In their defense, I can see that it’s due to the trauma these folks felt

from an arrogant church, from “religious” people who condemn to hell

those who don’t follow their particular sectarianism, their vice grip on Truth,

their rigid reading of the Bible… which brings me to the fundamentalist faction:

Here’s what I see: (PAUSE)

I see people of faith who are afraid of change, though change is at the heart

of the Lord’s Prayer when we pray for God’s new realm to come on earth,

such as, for example, the abolition of slavery that even your great founders

stumbled over, missed because of their own resistance to change.

I see a tendency for arrogant preachers to claim Truth on only their terms,

consigning to hell those who disagree with their narrow vision.

I see angry bigots claiming the American flag as theirs alone,

claiming white Christian identity for America as an entirely “Christian” nation,

interpreting the founders as somehow having that intention.

Well, yes, the founders were people of faith – a very diverse faith:

Presbyterians from NJ, Quakers from PA, Congregationalists from NE,

Baptists from RI, Catholics from MD, Anglicans from VA, and yes,

though he’s dressed in Christian clothes, even a De-ist like Jefferson

who said “I am a sect myself” and who fought hard for an ecumenical gospel,

a gospel that had room for hearty disagreement and new populations

like, eventually, Jewish, Muslim, and Buddhist communities, for example,

all of which practice – except for extremists – a divine kind of love

that our Christ gave his life for, showed us how to practice in hard conflict.

Friends in Christ, may I first say as humbly as I can that these irreconcilable factions

will tear you apart if you don’t challenge them both with careful compassion.

I understand that you are a “community church” which seeks the center of the gospel,

and, with other people of faith, believe in our one God for one world

with one word of compassion, justice, and peace for all,

not just for some, not just for those who toe the line of theologies of intolerance and fear

but for all! … as in your beautiful pledge of allegiance to “liberty and justice for all.”

So, please challenge with loving compassion your neighbor fundamentalist.

On the other hand – and it’s just as hard, I grant you that! –

challenge with love the atheist / secularist community to imagine how

“God” can be the transcendent, tenacious, force of Love and Justice that Christ intended.

Engage and connect with atheist and secular neighbors who may be as curious about you

as you are about them.

And what ever you do, don’t be tied to the idolatrous scourge of manipulative media

which floods the airwaves with prejudice that ignores our common humanity,

drives wedges between the factions, doesn’t accept that conflict is natural,

doesn’t seem to know that listening ears always trump deaf ears,

like the fertilizer of compassion comes now with my visit

to enrich the depleted soil so masterfully planted with the seeds

of God’s transcendent word of shalom – peace, love, justice.

In this fresh fertilization of the soil of your Declaration and your Constitution,

comes a softening of hardshell demonization

and a hardening of a soft gospel that doesn’t confront with love

those who diminish or ignore the love that is at the heart of Christ’s gospel…

Ah, friends, I fear I’ve gone on too long!

As you’ve been kind to welcome me, I’ll be kind to stop! (LOL)

Please just remember: the seed of God’s word of love

grows well in good soil that, when depleted, is fertilized

by your tenacious, diverse, and compassionate faith.

Grace and peace be with you! Amen.

Rev Dr Michael Caldwell is a member of the international ecumenical Iona Community

Anna’s Letter To The Corinthians

~ Michael Caldwell ~ Leave a comment

Anna’s Letter to the Corinthians / East Corinth Congregational UCC / Pentecost 5/24/26

Numbers 11.24-30 / Psalm 146 / Acts 2.1-21

Friends… since retiring eleven years ago, our world seems harder than ever to negotiate

and not just because of aging!

Patience and I feel an urgency to our discipleship and spiritual practice

due to the state of the world as well as because of our age! (PAUSE)

I retired from here eleven years ago to take up the ministry of writing.

One of the ways I’ve blended spiritual practice with writing is with active imagination –

writing with the voice of, for example today, a biblical prophetess without a prophecy – Anna, who, in Luke 2.36 greets Mary and Joseph and the Christ child in the temple

and who “spoke of the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.”

That’s it; that’s all we know about her. The clue is in that sentence:

She knows somehow that this child messiah will have a lot to do

with not only saving the Hebrew people from their oppression and corruption,

but saving humanity… and her vision is in the IHS on the cross:

in Latin, in hominum salvator (POINT TO CROSS)

She also seems to know the ambiguous history of his Church up to now,

and isn’t honestly very pleased about it!

This prophetess Anna comes to me in dreams and active imagination;

she has a lot to say after 2000 years!

In a dream I saw her: she looked like a serene queen with a silver sheen in her hair…

an elderly crone with a fine sense of humor.

She says to me what the woman prophet of Luke 2 might say to us now.

I’ve put what I hear her saying in the form of a letter… a rather passionate letter…

listen to her – the prophetess Anna… (PAUSE)

Dear friends across the millennia today in Corinth, Vermont:

Grace and peace to you! I have a lot to say but I’ll try to be brief!

I had a long life, as Luke reports – time enough to study the scripture of my people enough to know, somehow, that the child of Mary and Joseph presented,

as is our custom, in the temple, would be the one to fulfill my peoples’ longing

for a messiah, though not the way people thought.

First of all, he’d need no steed to enter Jerusalem like a warrior messiah.

Rather, he chose a donkey to ride; and he cried with grief for his own demise.

Even more, he grieved the corrupt condition of Israel,

as the people blessed him, waving palms.

He’d be the healer, dealer of fierce peace, dealing the corrupt moneychangers

and the temple elite a shock when he turned over their tables

and chased them out with a whip of cords.

And as the tables were turned, the authorities turned heads toward revenge.

But no eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth for him.

He’d already told them how the “Kindom” comes –

it only comes with uncompromising nonviolence;

“Put that sword away!” he tells Peter.

But somehow the world didn’t get it that Love’s Kindom comes even, maybe especially,

when integrity is murdered, when Love sacrifices itself, divides itself

into multiplying resurrected cells… death, life, death, life.

You know how a cell dies in order to become two cells, then four, then eight –

that’s how the Kindom should come!

One way to understand Love’s resurrection, and ours.

There, you see, I can be longwinded! But I have so much to say!

You may be thinking “we only have an hour max; get to the point!”

So, okay, here’s my best shot:

Tomorrow is your Memorial Day – a day you remember your nation’s fallen soldiers who’ve died in war.

All right, here I go… fasten your seatbelts!

These fallen often fell, unfortunately, unnecessarily.

Used to be, maybe, that they fell for a reason,

like in WW 2, your Civil War, your War of Independence.

Now? Not so much; how many fell in Vietnam unnecessarily? Iraq? Afghanistan? Iran?

Can you imagine the hell for surviving families?

Can you imagine their pain, their infuriation, their grief?

Imagine, too, that the grief of Memorial Day

relates to how the Kindom hasn’t come, sadly;

if it did, we’d not waste lives and resources

better spent for the widows, orphans, and sojourners –

read elderly, children, and refugees in the language of your day, reflecting Psalm 146 you read today.

I write to you with a two thousand year view of history.

It was bad enough in my day with the brutal carnage of Christ’s awful death

and the dreadful deaths of so many who died at the hands of domination systems

in conflict with each other because of the pathological narcissism of egotistical tyrants.

Today, so long after Christ’s sacrificial vision of his Love Kindom come on earth,

you are so far off track that the damage and the darkness are even worse than you think,

and many who call themselves Christians can’t see it.

Your job, your role, your joy! – it seems to me –

is to proudly show that Love’s Kindom isn’t lost!

It may be buried by a clueless or fancy church, but can be recovered,

as if with an archeological-theological dig

to recover the essence of Christ’s message and vision.

Ah, my friends, forgive me again! It’s Pentecost – what we called the Feast of Weeks.

Two thousand years ago it changed the world forever as 3000 new followers of Christ

took Matthew’s commission to “go into all the world to make disciples”

of Love’s Kindom and made it into a manifesto for the Beloved Community

which your Martin King manifested in a profound new way,

crossing new boundaries, but then the dominators killed him, too,

and the vision got lost again for a time, to be recovered, to be rediscovered, to be lived.

(PENSIVELY): You know… I know you come to worship with personal needs

beyond all the social needs I’m bringing up. You have to be well personally

in order to serve “the kindom come.”

Remember, Christ said “the kindom is within you,” too,

So as the winds of Pentecost blow on earth, they blow within you too,

to comfort you, heal you, inspire you – and those you are concerned about.

All right, in conclusion, I’ll follow my best shot with my last shot!

Pentecost hasn’t come to all yet; Christ’s Love Kindom hasn’t come,

because of a lack of prophets!

“Would that all the all the Lord’s people were prophets!” exclaims Moses,

supporting Eldad and Medad in Numbers 11 who felt the Spirit so strongly

that they prophesied God’s love and attention and comfort in the camp

without asking permission!

Moses’ point: don’t just rely on the charismatics to bring Love’s Kindom!

Be anointed, all of you, with the Spirit so that you, too, can annoy the couch potatoes!

Be anointed, all of you, with the Spirit, that you too can live out the hard love of Christ!

Be anointed, all of you, with the Spirit so that you too can find practical ways

to forgive someone who hurts you, probably because of their own woundedness,

to look for the good in someone who causes chaos, usually out of blindness,

to not hold a grudge; it only hoards bad blood instead of finding Christ’s good blood.

Be anointed, all of you, with the Spirit so that you can believe that you too

have the potential and power to prophesy –

literally meaning simply to speak for the Spirit to those around you,

and in your activism for actions bringing the kindom “on earth as in heaven.”

Friends! Prophesy with your lives like me! Even beyond death, prophecies live,

just like I live in the creative imagination of your old pastor…

God bless you for your faithfulness. As I leave, I hold you in my heart,

and in the heart of God. Bye for now, my friends! Amen.

Holy Weeks

~ Michael Caldwell ~ Leave a comment

            As churches this Holy Week celebrate Jesus’ passage from crucifixion to resurrection, from Good Friday to Easter Sunday, Lamoille Restorative Center celebrates dying and rising every week of the year.

            The spiritual life of every religious tradition involves personal transformation in this life from ongoing spiritual deaths we die, to some kind of new life. Think of the death of an addiction and resultant downshift to a new non-addicted, non-attached life. Think of the death of a relationship that precedes new partnering. Think of a thief repenting of conscious denial, adapting to a new persona, through process with a reparative board at the Restorative Center. Can we talk about death-resurrection as an archetype of all life, something we come to accept as an inevitable part of life, something we’d be remiss not to do as regular spiritual practice?

            There’s a radical center to be found here between secular humanism and religion.

            When I finally quit tobacco it was because I wanted to quit for myself, not for anyone else. After decades of trying to quit, quitting, relapsing, quitting, relapsing, I realized it wasn’t working because I was encumbered by guilt trips by loved ones and a “should” complex. I had to fully want to quit, combined with an inner vision of a new life without tobacco, a positive vision of my life that wasn’t dependent on nicotine. I’d lost my ability to enjoy life without a smoke. Two brothers and a close aunt had died in quick succession from nicotine addiction. The time had come to choose life or choose slow suicide.

            In that new context, I could see myself rising above my need to smoke. I could die to my dependency. I could resurrect. And after three days of withdrawal hell, I climbed out of my tomb. I light a candle to remind myself of the rising, not just every Easter, but every day. Washing dishes after meals substitutes well for not picking up a pipe. Practical contemplative practices like breathing consciously seal the deal.

            A young man, full of his father’s abusive rage, picks a fight over a parking spot at his condominium village. Charged with disturbing the peace, he is referred by the court to a reparative board at the Restorative Center. As a volunteer, I sit with other volunteers and a staff facilitator to work with this man to bring the harm to light, ask how amends can be made, and, yes, address the anger management issues that contributed to the offense.

            An older woman has gradually lost control of her drinking. She drives intoxicated, crashes her car into another car at a busy intersection. Fortunately, no one is killed. At the Restorative Center, with the patient help of the reparative board, she names the harm, owns her responsibility, and works on repairing what damage she can. Resurrection, in this case, equals addiction recovery.

            These examples are apocryphal composites, illustrative of countless cases of people amending their lives that make up the hidden legacy of restorative programs in every county in Vermont, in most states, and on every continent. Like leaven in the loaf of an archaic punitive criminal justice system, restorative process brings a redemptive, yeasty, orientation not only to correcting behavior, but also, more widely, repairing lives which have been damaged, in many cases, by crucifying trauma.

            The Holy Week mystery is a mystery visible every week of the year. The sabbath day of each week (no matter the day it is celebrated) is our opportunity to recognize the latest identifiable resurrection. In this sense we find another kind of radical center: a center within us that defies death by willingly entering into it, expecting, accepting frequent spiritual deaths as prelude to a perennial freshening of life.

            On yet another level, at the Restorative Center we hit the radical center every time we balance holding offenders accountable with supporting their conscious intentions that preview a new life, a new start. We hit the radical center when we focus on accountability and making amends instead of ineffective retributive punishment. Persons and communities rise again every time we hit the center – a center that makes every week Holy Week.

Michael Caldwell lives in North Wolcott

A Christmas Gift from McClaughry

~ Michael Caldwell ~ Leave a comment

Guest Perspective / Published in News and Citizen (Lamoille County, Vermont) 12/24/20

            John McClaughry’s refreshing Guest Perspective (“…Combat Welfare for the Rich” – Dec. 3) gives us timely hope for finding common ground between conservatives and progressives at a key moment. As we celebrate tomorrow the birth of “the Prince of Peace,” dare we imagine the gift of collaboration of Right and Left toward removing inappropriate government subsidization of corporations? One thing we can all peaceably agree on?

            McClaughry, through his Ethan Allen Institute in Kirby, keeps liberal Vermont honest. His acerbic sarcastic commentaries aren’t quite as good from the Right as Jim Hightower’s are from the Left (“The Hightower Lowdown”), but his writing is often entertaining and informative. With Bill Sayre of Bristol and neighbor Bruce Shields here in South East Eden off the Garfield Road, we are blessed with conservative voices to keep us on our liberal or moderate toes.

            The two books he cites reminded me of an earlier gem from 1996 – Take the Rich Off Welfare by Zepezauer and Naiman. These works from Left and Right authors affirm that the federal government has a history of being used for ends not in keeping with the appropriate use of taxpayer funds, whether the outrageous history of sugar subsidies (which gave us the ethanol that fouls our small engines and the high fructose corn syrup that aids and abets obesity) or “never-ending bank bailouts” (McClaughry).

            To craft a new coalition of the willing would take heroic effort and humble deference, to be sure, but politics has always made for strange bedfellows, and the time is ripe for stranger bedfellows, indeed, given the confounding polarization of the country before and since the presidential election. Key to the success of such an effort, clearly, is exiting old comfort zones and entering new conversations with at least an ear to listen if not an interest in learning.

            McClaughry might start with an examination of his snarky contempt for Senator Sanders. He analogizes criticism of bloated corporate executive salaries by the libertarian authors of the new Welfare for the Rich to a “Bernie Sanders envy outburst.” Conservatives like McClaughry who make that kind of naïve, uninformed error about democratic socialism – that it’s about envy – need to walk a mile in the shoes of neighbors here who work hard as self-employed people all their lives and lose half their teeth due to the insufficiency of dental insurance for the common man. Walk a mile, John, Bill, and Bruce, in the shoes of my neighbor who lost her entire savings to a medical diagnosis with an inadequate, high deductible health insurance policy. How about more subsidies for working people? Their politics are much more informed by a thirst for fairness and justice than by envy.

            Vermont Democrats might start with a humble examination their snarky contempt for Republicans, as with the not uncommonly heard “friends don’t let friends vote Republican,” as if it were some kind of disease. Phil Scott has rather courageously shown us a returning remnant of Republican integrity.

            A Christmas gift is embedded in McClaughry’s commentary if we can mine it and refine it. And add a mammoth dose of the humility that comes from a new awareness of the fact that the Prince of Peace had an extremely humble birth in a barn because the innkeeper’s Inn claimed it had no room for peasants like Mary and Joseph.