Christian Faculty and Staff Network gathering - Zoom Room on 4/1!

I hope you have successfully reconstituted and settled into the remote working mode. 

We're making the time available to gather via Zoom Room to keep up the fellowship, process what's going on, and learn a bit more from Rosaria Butterfield-Kent, author of book, The Gospel Comes with a House Key: Practicing Radically Ordinary Hospitality in Our Post-Christian World by Rosaria Butterfield. It's linked to the abstract on Amazon. 

We'll start at noon on 4/1 for a 40-minute Zoom Room. The Zoom Room link is https://uasystem.zoom.us/j/380076342. Phone numbers, if needed for audio, are US: +1 312 626 6799  or +1 646 558 8656  or +1 346 248 7799  or +1 669 900 6833  or +1 253 215 8782  or +1 301 715 8592. I attached the Outlook calendar item.

Our colleague, Bill Keel, was kind enough to share an article he found. It was by Rosaria Butterfield, the author of our book for the term. Here are some quotations from the article to whet your appetite:

• "…the pandemic had displaced them [her neighbors] (some physically, some emotionally), and a single question filled the six feet between us: “How does this change things? What does radical, Christian hospitality look like under COVID-19?”
• "Practicing the Christian ethic of hospitality under COVID-19 demonstrates Christian brotherhood and good Samaritan care for those whose lives are upended and who need help."
• "Practicing the Christian ethic of hospitality under COVID-19 demonstrates our fear of God, not of men (and the virus they may carry). We are to live coram Deo—before the face of God."
• "Practicing the Christian ethic of hospitality under COVID-19 means soaking ourselves in the means of grace; it means feasting on Scripture, not CNN."
• "Practicing the Christian ethic of hospitality under COVID-19 means obeying the civil magistrate’s efforts to “flatten the curve” and honoring the sixth commandment."
• "COVID-19 is not going to overcome the world. Christ is." 

On 4/1, we'll use the time to process our experience in light of what we've been reading and discussing. How timely has this topic been? 

I'm working on having a couple of guests drop in our Zoom Rooms later in April to share their wisdom. They want to join us, so I just need to confirm their availability in light of the current situation. They are:

4/15	Dr. Christine Pohl, Associate Provost and Professor of Church and Society/Christian Ethics, Asbury Theological Seminary	She has researched and written on Christian hospitality and knows many Christian communities engaged in that practice
4/22	Reverend Dr. Stephen Ko, Senior Pastor at New York Chinese Alliance Church	He is an MDiv and MD, leading a primarily Chinese church in NYC. Pretty much the intersection of everything relevant to the current health crisis.

 On April 1:

• 1743 David Brainerd began his missionary work among the Housatonic tribe. Jonathan Edwards wrote about his life, which inspired others take up missionary work.
• 1860 Jonathan and Eliza Goble arrived in Japan to begin missionary work. After Eliza became sick, he designed a 2-wheeled cart so she could be transported around. We know it today as the rickshaw.