MORGAN'S MOMENT...
Sometimes I get embarrassed…
     as I was one Martin Luther King Day
     marching with a group to celebrate.
Our town like so many have done
     dedicated a park to his memory
     with an annual remembrance time.
So we walked from downtown
     across the river bridge
     and on down to the park.
My grandchildren went with me
     when they were younger
     trying to keep the memory alive.
I was walking with the speaker…
     one of King's now aging friends
     imported from Georgia for the day.
We would plant another tree
     on the nearly hidden spot
     just over the bridge.
I was embarrassed for our town
     creating such an invisible park
     for such a visible man.
One more thing embarrassed me…
     that the park floods in winter rain
     so no one can get there.
We won't be marching this year…
     it doesn't matter why…
     King's park is under water.
— Art Morgan 

BOOK CORNER
Among numerous imprinted “back pages” is one titled, “Bono, Gates and Jesus.” It is based on the January 1, 2006 Time Magazine feature on Bill and Melinda Gates and Bono as “Persons of the Year.” If you got to the bottom of the last blue sheet you saw reference to it.
It's not a book, but it's a long article. It's a remarkable story of a passion for causes most of us don't do much about. It's a story of people of wealth who aren't hiding their millions or billions in off-shore tax-shelters. I was impressed with the Gates sensitizing them- selves by being present in homes of poverty and wards of sickness. And I was impressed with Bono, fearlessly pleading his cause without regard to politics or party. It's too good not to read. See what you think.
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MOMENT MINISTRIES
Jan. 15, 2006
home address:  25921 SW Airport Ave.
Corvallis, OR 97333   541-753-3942
email at a-morgan@peak.org
DOING ANOTHER YEAR OF ‘MOMENT’
We're incorporated, so we have to have a meeting. One a year. Two items of business. One is a clergy-related motion declaring that income Paul and I may receive from our church Pension Plan be declared “Parsonage Allowance.” An odd IRS arrangement that's nice to clergy. The second item elects corporation officers and directors. This group hasn't met in 28 years, but has legal authority to do so. I think it good for clergy to have to be accountable to somebody besides God.
So here is the official announcement of the annual meeting to be held on THURSDAY, JANUARY 19 at the usual time and place on Airport Avenue. Potluck, of course. Gathering time at 6 for talk and libations. Eat at 6:30 with business and music and all to follow. It's time for our Annual Martin Luther King remembering. Music from “New Wine” to lift the spirit and challenge our faith.
CELL PHONE!
Our grandchildren all have cell phones as do too many others. We've always felt connected, but they don't think so. We see some safety values since we travel a lot. I still don't see that it's worth it, but we'll see. The first thing I wanted to learn was how to turn it off so I don't have to get calls all the time. If I get it figured out maybe I’ll put out my number. The sales lady told me to ask my grandchildren to teach me how it works!
GOD AT AN ART OPENING
It happens when you are known to be a “reverend.” For instance, I was introduced to an Art Director as a “roving minister.”  Hmmm.
A sculptor, whose annual religious service is our Christmas Eve at the Deli and Pub, cornered me to talk about his faith in God. He said he was sure his idea of God was not the same as mine, but it was the same God. How does he know what I think? The Christian Century has a quote to think about by Novelist and naturalist David Duncan who argues that the “God” is a word that needs to be undefined, not defined. He says:
God is Unlimited. Thought and language are limited. God is the fathomless but beautiful Mystery Who creates the Universe, and you and me, and sustains it and us every instant, and always shall. The instant we define this fathomless Mystery It is no longer fathomless. To define is to limit. The greater a person's confidence in their definition of God, the more sure I feel that their worship of ‘Him’ has become the worship of their own definition. (Christian Century 1/10/2006, p. 7)
 
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A RAINY DAY IN OREGON

There's an old song we sing sometimes called “I Am the Light of the World.” You can tell “old” songs because they have not been upgraded and degenderized. I’ll show you what I mean in a minute. The song starts out:
        When the song of the angels is stilled When the star in the sky is gone
        When the kings and the shepherds have found their way home
        The work of Christmas is begun.
For most people the “work of Christmas” begins after the gifts are unwrapped and everyone has gone home leaving the dishes and wrappings and Christmas tree and decorations and angels and kings to be put back in the box until next year.
For those of us who happen to be afflicted with some bit of Christian conscience, something of the spirit lingers to respond to needs and situations that inevitably present themselves. There is always need for the presence of care. I can tell you that from Christmas day on there have been nudges to make response.
I won't go through my list lest you add yours. I expect that everyone has openings for a response to a human need.
But on this rainy day there is one situation that calls to me. You have probably heard of my annual trips to Pocatello to visit a lady who is confined behind the walls and fences of the Idaho Women's Correction Facility at Pocatello. She has been recommended for parole and refused so many times that I wonder how she keeps up hope. I have all her letters from those years and they still remain hopeful.
An email from her daughter came the first of this week. On Thursday of this week, which is tomorrow as I write, at 8:30 a.m., there will be yet another hearing. Again the possibility and hope is that she will be granted release.
There will be letters presented, including mine as her pastor. Her husband and son and daughter and a number of friends will also be there. It is a dicey situation, since Parole Boards are often led by politics rather than the advice of doctors and supervisors. She has been turned away before when all indications were that she should have been released.
What her daughter wanted, besides a letter from me, was the support of people who cared to take a special moment early Thursday morning to be silent in thought and prayer for her mother. Hers is not one of those narrow-minded appeals for a special exception from whatever Spirit rules the universe there may be. Listen to this, which calls us to the “work of Christmas.”
        In my heart the focus of this attention holds more than just my mom's release and the true justice
        that it will embody. I plan on focusing my prayer on not only her coming home, but also on the
        greater field of awareness of the treatment of the mentally ill in our nation. Idaho is not the only
        problem─we warehouse those with mental illness more than anyone would ever like to know in
        this country…To this day nothing proactive has been done to address the special treatment and
        care of these people. They are not provided any different conditions under the law if they are
        unfortunate enough to become entangled in the judicial system. One simple, gross, day-to-day
        fact is that my mother is crammed into a 10 x 12 room with three other inmates.
        So I ask again of those of you able to take a moment at 8:20 MST to do so and in the field of our
        hearts and spirits we all connect to create a unity of intangible by incredible strength on behalf
        of not only my mother but also for the change that will happen as the system opens its eyes to
        the truth.
By the time this is in the mail there should be a decision. I’ll be sure to report. Prayers, of course, won't do it. God only know there have been enough prayers for her to have worked many miracles. The miracle we need is for humans who will care enough to apply concern. The song speaks of just one part of “the work of Christmas.” It is based on the passage in which Jesus describes his mission. The song goes:
        To free the prisoner from his (her) chains, to make the powerful care
        To rebuild the nations with strength of good will
        To call a man your brother every where! * (Excuse “man” and “brother”!)
“To make the powerful care.” Such a hard thing to accomplish. But one thing to remember, the powerful won't care until we care. It's a rainy day in Oregon. I pray for sun through the clouds in Idaho.
                                ─ Art Morgan January 11, 2006
*”I Am the Light of the World” Jim Strathdee from poem by Howard Thurman