MLK and Community Service

“Community service is nice, but as you count up your hours this MLK weekend, remember this: Dr. King and the thousands of people he worked alongside did not change America through community service. They did it through strategic analysis, radical community, and direct action. Dr. King did not live and die for community service, he lived and died for justice and freedom. Serve your community, but seek these things actively, justice and freedom, so that we can actually continue his Dream. (Cuz’ it ain’t here yet.) Read his books and sermons, and don’t stop at celebrating how far we’ve come. Do that, and then turn towards how far we have to go.” – Darria Janey Hudson

The Magnificat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior;
For he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.

From this day on, all generations will call me blessed:
For the mighty one has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.

His mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
He has scattered the proud in their conceit.

He has cast down the mighty from their thrones
and has exalted the lowly.

He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent empty away.

He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children forever.”

- Mary (Luke 1:46-55)

Buy Nothing, Make Something!

This year, Amos House is endorsing “Buy Nothing Day” on Black Friday, November 25th. We invite everyone to participate with us! On this day, Occupy Nashville will be hosting flash mobs at stores and malls around Nashville that are fun, creative, and thought-provoking.

The first wave of flash-mobbers will meet at Legislative Plaza at 10:00am to carpool to various stores. This group will be out until around 2:00pm. The second wave of flash-mobbers will meet at the Plaza at 3:00pm and will be out until around 6:00pm.

Our consumer culture is increasingly interfering with holidays that should be encouraging love, fellowship, sharing, and hospitality. We lament this loss. We lament the fact that people are so gluttonous for more and more that they will trample other human beings just for a deal. We lament that many of the items we buy and consume were made in sweat shops and factories in third world countries where the workers are abused, exploited, and face severe health and safety hazards. So this year, let’s take back our holidays. Let’s wean ourselves off of mega corporations, put our money back into the local independent economy, and live for a different kind of future.

After celebrating “Buy Nothing Day,” we’ll celebrate “Make Something + Shop Small and Local Day” on Saturday, November 26^th. From 12:00-1:00pm and 3:00-5:00pm, Occupy Nashville will host workshops and teach-ins on how to make your own gifts at Legislative Plaza. We’ll also encourage our community to support local business owners and shop small and local!

Saturday’s workshop schedule (more details to come):

12:00-1:00pm, Crochet 101 where participants will learn the basics. We’ll work with yarn and plarn and learn how to make water-bottle holders, pot holders, scarves, and wash cloths.

12:00-12:45pm, Candy Gifts. We’ll make novelty candy gifts that are perfect as stocking stuffers or teacher gifts. On the menu: Snowman Soup, Reindeer Poop, and Candy Cane Puzzles.    

3:00-4:00pm, Crochet 101 where participants will learn the basics. We’ll work with yarn and plarn and learn how to make water-bottle holders, pot holders, scarves, and wash cloths.

3:00-4:00pm, Make Your Own Notepads. We’ll make personalized notepads using recycled paper. These notepads are easy and fun to make and are the perfect small gift to give to a friend or keep for yourself!

Please come join us!

Dangerous justice: On being silenced at church

(posted by Lindsey)

“If I give food to the poor they call me a saint. If I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.” – Dom Hélder Câmara

A couple of weeks ago, a friend asked if I would speak at a church service tonight. He asked if I would speak on my involvement with Occupy Nashville because a number of people at the church had questions about the movement and were curious about what was going on. Interestingly, one of the scripture readings for this week was the parable of the talents (or bags of gold) in Matthew 25:14-30. My friend asked if I could use this text as a springboard for my talk which is what guest speakers typically do. I was excited and started working on my homily/mini-sermon (copied below).

This afternoon, as I was finishing the homily, I received an email. The church had failed to include my name as a speaker in their bulletin. Then I got an email from my friend. A church leader had requested that he let them read over the handout we were going to use for one of the prayer stations. Something didn’t feel right so around 4:30 p.m., I called my friend to see what was going on. He said there were “concerns” from three church leaders who thought that perhaps I shouldn’t speak in the service tonight. My friend informed them through an email that my “prepared thoughts [are] no different than what we’ve asked any other speaker to do, which is be faithful to the scriptures assigned.”

The church leaders continued to express their concerns. I emailed my friend a copy of my homily and he sent it to the leaders so that they could read over it. I offered to meet them in the middle and take off the last two paragraphs which mention the Occupy movements until we could have more dialogue. Around 6 p.m., they told my friend that I could not speak; that I should wait until they could organize some sort of panel; that even though I had agreed not to mention Occupy Nashville/Occupy Wall Street, I still could not give the homily I had been asked to give. My friend said that one of the leaders would personally give me a call to talk about this, but I never received a call.

Now from what I understand, this particular Wednesday night service has never been asked to hold off on a speaker and they have had Rabbis, Buddhists, prostitutes, and un-housed individuals as guest speakers. In fact, I have spoken there before on numerous occasions about why my faith compels me to spend my life working and journeying with the homeless community in Nashville. Apparently, when speakers talk about feeding, clothing, and sheltering the poor, they are patted on the back. But as soon as they start a discussion about why so many people need food, clothing, and shelter, they are silenced.  

I felt hurt and shut down. I went to the service and wore duct tape over my mouth. I stayed for an hour and a half after the service talking to others who were upset about the decisions that were made by the church leaders. My homily is posted below… I am saddened that I wasn’t able to share what I prepared, but perhaps some important dialogue will emerge from all of this.

One thing I have realized is that when a church becomes a propertied institution, its overriding priorities often become self preservation and self perpetuation—priorities that can be directly opposed to the self emptying, self sacrificing message of the gospel.

This immediately made me think of the way in which many of the white churches responded to the Civil Rights movement. “You’re going too fast,” white church leaders wrote to Martin Luther King, Jr. These churches would gladly talk about “loving their neighbors” in their services, but when the conversation came to desegregating the schools, buses, lunch counters, restrooms, etc., they had crossed the line. Conversation that upset the status quo was off-limits. In other words, charity was good but justice was dangerous. 

There is a Civil Rights song called “Eyes on the Prize” that we taught to occupiers at Legislative Plaza after the first two nights of arrests. It goes like this:

The first thing that we did right
was the day we started to fight.
Keep your eyes on the prize,  
hold on, hold on.

The only thing that we did wrong
was the day we waited too long.
Keep your eyes on the prize,
hold on, hold on.  

You can’t tell oppressed people that they should wait until those of us who perpetuate the status quo have a change of heart before they speak out against the oppression. So what if a few toes are stepped on? I can guarantee that a bruised toe heals faster than a body that has been bent and broken for years upon years by oppression.

My homily: Re-interpreting the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30)

The parable of the talents in Matthew 25 is intriguing to me. To give you a little context, Jesus tells this parable to a group of his disciples while sitting on the Mount of Olives. The disciples had asked Jesus to tell them when the end of times would come and what signs would be given to help them predict the end. After a lot of talk about keeping watch and how the “day and hour of the end are unknown,” Jesus tells a string of parables about the kingdom of God. This is where the parable of the talents fits in.

In this parable, the master gives three servants different amounts of money before setting off on a journey. The first servant receives five talents (which would be worth a lot of money today), the second receives two talents, and the third receives one talent. While the master is gone, the servant with five talents and the servant with two talents both put their money to work and double the master’s talents. The servant with one talent, on the other hand, hides his money in the ground.

When the master returns, he praises the first two servants, gives them a promotion, and invites them to “share in his happiness.” When the master comes to the third servant, the servant explains why he hid the money. He says that he knew the master was a “hard man, harvesting where he did not sow and gathering where he did not scatter seed,” and because he was fearful of this, he simply preserved and returned the one talent. In response, the master lambasts him and states that the servant should have at least put his money on deposit with the bankers so it would have gained interest. The master takes away the talent from the third servant and throws him outside into the darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. The master ends with these words: “For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.”

Jesus, of course, doesn’t tell us who the master in this story represents and what the parable means. He leaves its meaning up to our discernment and interpretation. Most of us have always heard that the master in the parable represents God and that the meaning of the parable boils down to being gainful and industrious stewards of what property, possessions, and wealth we have so that we will be entrusted with more. If we follow in this interpretation of the parable, it is expected that we should take what we have and do whatever we need to do to increase it. If getting more and more is what pleases the master, then by all means, no money-making venture is off limits. Invest it in stock markets, in banks, and in other lucrative projects. Join companies and corporations where making a profit is the bottom line. Double your money and the master will be proud. Triple it and you’ll get the promotion of a lifetime. If you fail to take advantage of systems that “harvest where they have not sown,” you should be fearful because there is no place for you in this master’s house.

If this interpretation of the parable is the correct interpretation, then many of us can rest easy. After all, we like the idea of “stewardship” and we’re good at manipulating the markets. We’re good at being shrewd with our finances and investments. We don’t fear the economic and financial systems that are currently in place because we know them intimately and know how to get the biggest bang for our buck.

Now, one of the main problems I have with this interpretation of the parable is that I think this master looks more like Caesar than the God who preaches good news to the poor and sets the oppressed free. Indeed, the master of this parable looks and sounds very different from the Jesus who overturns the tables of the money-changers, who tells the rich young ruler to sell all he has and give it to the poor, and who chooses the path of a suffering servant only to be arrested and condemned to death in the 26^th chapter of Matthew.

As my dear friend Scott Owings has suggested, what if instead of understanding the master in the parable as God, we see him as the epitome of the rulers of this world who encourage us to devote ourselves to consuming and attaining more and more. Thus, when the master says, “Come and share in my happiness,” he is drawing us into the lie that more money, more promotions, and more things have the power to bring happiness. This, my friends, is in direct opposition to the gospel. Let us not forget what Jesus says in the parable of the rich fool who wanted to build bigger barns to hoard his grain: “Watch out! Be on your guard against all forms of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15).

So what if Jesus is indeed telling this parable to show his disciples what society will look like in the end of times? What if the true hero of the story is the servant who hid the master’s money in the ground? After all, this servant seemed to have a healthy fear of masters who reap what they don’t sow, who profit from the work of others, and who benefit from oppressive systems. Rather than buying into such a paradigm, this servant makes the deliberate decision to keep the talent safe, but also to refuse to play a role in unjust and unethical practices. Not only does this third servant not let the love of money and promotions control him, but he also stands up to the master about why he did what he did. Perhaps in a world such as ours where corruption, greed, and inequality plague our economic, political, and financial systems, we would do well to follow in the critical and even subversive footsteps of the third servant. After all, he was forcibly removed from the master’s house just as Jesus, in his crucifixion, was forcibly removed from the Roman Empire.

It is interesting to me that directly following the parable of the talents is the story of the sheep and goats. Most of us know this story well and have been deeply impacted by it. In this story, Jesus says that when we feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the sick, and visit the prisoner, we are really doing these things for him and that we will receive our inheritance which is the kingdom of God.

I think we can all agree that it is essential for people of faith to be doing these charitable and benevolent acts. But, if we feed the hungry and shelter the homeless without also addressing the systems that oppress them, then we are complicit in their suffering. You see, the theme of justice runs throughout the Old and New Testaments like the threads connecting a beautiful quilt. This thread of justice is particularly visible when we come to prophets like Isaiah and Amos. You see, they realized that the people of God were well versed at carrying out spiritual acts of worship and even charity, but that these things did not translate into the way they lived and organized their society. Consider, for example, Isaiah 58 where God criticizes the Israelites for continuing to perpetuate oppressive systems even while they fasted. God demands a more holistic sacrifice where one’s personal spirituality directly correlates to the way one lives out his or her public life.  

So I haven’t said this directly yet, but some of you may know that part of the reason I was asked to speak tonight is so I could share why I’ve been involved with the Occupy Nashville and Occupy Wall Street movements for the last six weeks. So why have I been involved? The short answer is because I believe the people there are doing the work of the prophets and the church. They, like Isaiah and Amos, are speaking out against greed, corruption, and systems that benefit a few while disenfranchising the masses. They, like the third servant in the parable, are refusing to go along with masters and systems that make a profit from “reaping what they did not sow.” Yes, I have slept out on Legislative Plaza. Yes, I have been arrested. Yes I stand in solidarity with these movements. It is my faith that compels me to do these things.

I know that many of you have questions and concerns about these movements, and I would love to talk to you about those after this service. What I can tell you in a nutshell is that these movements are non-violent, non-partisan, and leaderless and that the two platforms that unite us are ending corporate personhood and getting corporate money out of politics. (We can talk more about the specifics later.) I hope this is a conversation that we will all continue to engage in and wrestle with as we seek to follow in the footsteps of a radically loving, radically troubling, and radically transformative Christ.

An invitation to our brothers and sisters in Christ from members of the Nashville Christian faith community who are participating in Occupy Nashville

Because we believe that all of the Law and the Prophets hang on the two greatest commandments to love God with our whole heart, soul, and mind, and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves;

Because we believe that we are called to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, visit the imprisoned, shelter the homeless, visit the sick, and bury the dead;

Because we believe that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is good news to the poor, freedom for the prisoners, sight for the blind and release for the oppressed;

Because we believe that no one can serve two masters, and therefore, we cannot serve both God and money;

Because we believe that in the beloved community that there is no longer Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female;

Because we believe that we are called to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us;

Because we believe that faith without works is dead;

We have made the decision to celebrate the good news of Jesus Christ by participating in Occupy Nashville. As followers of Jesus, we can no longer sit idly by while millions of our sisters and brothers, children made in the image of God, suffer needlessly due to greed.

When the top 1% of households in this country controls 38.1% of the total wealth, we do not love our neighbors as ourselves.

When the top 10% of households in this country controls over 70% of the total wealth, we do not love our neighbors as ourselves.

When the bottom 40% of households in this country controls only 0.2% of the total wealth, we do not love our neighbors as ourselves.

When the false doctrine of corporate personhood is perpetrated in a manner that allows corporate control of the political process, we do not love our neighbors as ourselves.

When over 46 million Americans are living in poverty, we do not love our neighbors as ourselves.

When at least 1 in 6 Americans is without health insurance, we do not love our neighbors as ourselves.

When we fail to love our neighbors as ourselves, we do not love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Therefore, we invite all Christian leaders and followers of Jesus the Christ to join us in Legislative Plaza, or to join with us in spirit by signing this statement of faith and support.  We do this because we believe another world is possible. We believe the Kingdom of God is among us.

*We are asking congregations to sign onto this letter of solidarity and support of the Occupy Nashville movement. Please take this to your faith communities and email Jeannie at downwardmobility@gmail.com if your congregation would like to add their name to our list!

An Urgent Request for Solidarity with Occupy Nashville

Friends in Nashville,
 
This is an urgent request for everyone to go to Legislative Plaza today. As most of you already know the police have given Occupy Nashville until 8pm tonight to vacate the plaza or they will face arrest. Yesterday, some representatives from the Nashville Peace and Justice Center met with the police. They were told that the police wanted to shut down Occupy Nashville last night on the grounds of public safety because they could no longer ensure the safety and security of occupiers. The NPJC representatives negotiated for them to push back the eviction until tonight at 8pm.

At last night’s General Assembly, we voted to peaceably stand our ground tonight, we had non-violence trainings, and those of us who plan to possibly get arrested filled out legal paperwork. We’re not sure when the cops will be there, but it could be anytime before or after 8pm tonight. We need EVERYONE who is willing to get arrested, support those who are getting arrested, and provide accountability (through taking photos/video) to ensure that there is no police brutality.
 
In the last week, police response to issues at the plaza has been very discouraging (and, at times, non-existent). Some have called it “indirect police brutality.” For example, a couple of us broke up a fight Sunday night where one guy was beaten so badly he was hospitalized and 10 minutes after the police arrested the attacker, they released him back to the plaza. The police are saying that we can get a permit to stay at the plaza from 9-4, but Legislative Plaza is our officially designated place to exercise our 1st Amendment rights to free speech and to “peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” As tax paying citizens in a public area, occupiers should be protected by the police, if and when it is necessary.
 
Please join us today/tonight… We need all of you to bear witness to what is going on!
 
with peace,
Lindsey and Amos House

P.S. And check out Shane Claiborne’s “A Devotion for Wall Street”

“If someone asks where the church is, then we ought to be able to answer; there, where people are emptying themselves, making themselves as nothing. There where people serve, not just a little, but in total service…And there, where the solidarity with the fellow man [and woman] is not merely preached, but is actually demonstrated.” – Hoekendijk

A Holy Occupation: On Occupying Wall Street/Nashville

October 4^th marked the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi—the celebration of a “holy fool” who believed with every fiber of his being that following Christ meant denouncing wealth (and even private property) and embracing a life lived in community and voluntary poverty. For St. Francis, it was a sin to hold tightly onto one’s money and possessions while living among those in need.

St. Basil of Caesarea, an early predecessor of St. Francis, once wrote, “When someone steals a person’s clothes, we call him a thief. Should we not give the same name to one who could clothe the naked and does not? The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry; the coat hanging unused in your closet belongs to those who need it; the shoes rotting in your closet to the one who has no shoes. The money which you hoard up belongs to the poor.” Pretty fiery words for a “preacher,” don’t you think?

St. Francis and St. Basil were not socialists or communists, but they definitely weren’t capitalists, either. Just like the Jesus they followed, they didn’t fit into such paradigms and were often criticized (and even feared) by the powerful.

October 6^th marked the first “Occupy Nashville” protest, an off-shot of the Occupy Wall Street protests that have been going on for the last several weeks. There were a number of “holy fools” (in the best sense of the phrase) present at the Occupy Nashville protest. The group that gathered seemed to echo St. Basil: “The money which you [corporations and the wealthy] hoard up belongs to the poor.” Protesters denounced greed, militarism, corporate personhood, and a society where the bottom line is monetary gain rather than the well-being of its people. They mourned the loss of a representative democracy and decried the reality that in the U.S., money, lobbyists, and corporations now yield more political power than the people.

Some Christians may consider these protests “too political,” but the message of Jesus is nothing if not political. The message of Jesus is far from safe and its implications cannot be confined merely to the personal or private spheres of life. For far too long, Christians have domesticated the gospel. If Jesus wasn’t perceived to be politically subversive, he would not have been crucified by the Roman Empire. While it certainly isn’t the case that in order to be a Christian, one must attend the Occupy Wall Street/Nashville protests, perhaps we have something to learn from those who are standing up to the “powers that be” and calling for a re-evaluation of our country’s values. Perhaps we may even see in them something of the Jesus we worship–the one who stood up to the false powers of the empire by standing alongside those who were pushed to the margins of that society.

Consider the words of Jim Wallis:

“We will likely see images and hear things from Occupy Wall Street demonstrators that will offend us and some that will inspire. We’ll hear demands that we agree with and some that we don’t. And that’s OK… There is a lot of speculation as to who the ‘Occupiers’ are and what they might accomplish. There is much I still don’t know about the movement, but undeniably it has caught the imagination of a generation — and that matters. Here are a few things I do know about the Occupy Wall Street protesters:
When they stand with the poor, they stand with Jesus.
When they stand with the hungry, they stand with Jesus.
When they stand for those without a job or a home, they stand with Jesus.
When they are peaceful, nonviolent, and love their neighbors (even the ones they don’t agree with and who don’t agree with them), they are walking as Jesus walked.
When they talk about holding banks and corporations accountable, they sound like Jesus and the biblical prophets before him, who all spoke about holding the wealthy and powerful accountable.”

And yes, if we’re more offended by the slogans and signs we see and hear at these protests, perhaps we should consider the words of the apostle James: “Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.” (James 5:1-6)

If you’re interested in learning more about the Occupy Nashville protests or the national movement, you can visit these sites:
www.occupywallst.org
www.occupynashville.org
The Tennessean article covering the protest on Oct. 6^th
Also, www.blog.sojo.net has some helpful articles, videos, and resources posted on their site.

As Oscar Romero, the archbishop of El Salvador who was assassinated because he stood with the poor, once said, “A church that does not provoke any crisis, preach a gospel that does not unsettle, proclaim a word of God that does not get under anyone’s skin or a word of God that does not touch the real sin of the society in which it is being proclaimed: what kind of gospel is that?”

Let us be people who do not conform to the destructive patterns of our society.

Let us have eyes to see and ears to hear.

And let us heed the words of St. Francis: “While proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart.”

posted by Lindsey

Celebration of Labor

This year, Amos House is co-sponsoring a “Celebration of Labor” with Vanderbilt Divinity School’s Economic Empowerment Coalition (EEC) and a number of other organizations including Worker’s Dignity Project, LIUNA, Vanderbilt Students for Nonviolence, and Open Table Nashville.  This Labor Day celebration will be held on Monday, September 5th from 3-7 pm at the Vanderbilt Divinity School Courtyard/Reading Room (across the street from SATCO and Ben & Jerry’s on 21st Ave.).

Come meet workers, organizers, students, clergy, and community members at this second annual event to celebrate the work of our fellow Nashvillians with a picnic dinner, poetry, and music. If you can’t come for the whole time, feel free to drop in whenever you can. Join us as we build a vibrant faith-labor movement in Nashville!

New monastic communities in The Tennessean

The Tennessean published an article by Bob Smietana today on “new monastics” in Nashville, including Amos House, Castanea, the Edgehill community, and others. We’re grateful to be able to share a common spark and spirit with these and other sisters and brothers across the city and the world–both today and throughout the history of the Christian movement. What a tremendous cloud of witnesses.

Head here to read the story: “New monastics value meaning over money”

Or here to learn more about other new monastic communities and resources: New Monasticism

Ken Goslin, 1963-2011

Our dear friend and brother Ken Goslin passed away Wednesday night. He was greatly loved and will be greatly missed.

We met Ken last summer at the library park when he wheeled up to us in a wheelchair and held out a piece of paper on which he had scribbled one word: HELP. When we met Ken, he couldn’t walk and couldn’t talk, but he could wheel his chair anywhere in the city and he always made us laugh with his wit and humor. In December, Ken was admitted to Vanderbilt Hospital where we were told that the tumor that had taken away his ability to talk would also take his life. Shortly thereafter, he lost his ability to swallow and was given a feeding tube. In January, he was moved to Bordeaux Long-Term Care Facility and in February, we were able to move him to The Drake Motel and get him into Guardian Hospice. His insurance covered hospice care, and a portion of his disability check combined with our Mercy Fund covered his stay at The Drake.

Since February, Ken has been a guest “speaker” at Otter Creek’s Vespers service, he was featured on the front page of The Tennessean’s Easter Sunday paper, he has ridden in a hot air balloon, taken a road trip to Kentucky with our friend Brett, gone to see the new Harry Potter movie, and has shamelessly pumped his beloved coffee into his feeding tube in some of the nicest Starbucks in town!

Ken was born in San Francisco in 1963 to a 17-year-old mother who gave him up to foster care. He cycled in and out of foster homes and was physically, sexually, and emotionally abused until he set out on his own at the age of 14. Though he has felt alone and unloved for most of his life, he died a peaceful, dignified death surrounded by a loving community. It was humbling to sit with Ken in his last days as his worn body began to shut down. It was sacred to hold his warm and weathered hands, to wipe his feverish head with a cool rag, to smooth lotion over his rough feet, and to see his bright blue eyes open as he recognized the voice of a friend.

Ken’s funeral will be held this Monday at 9:00am at Woodlawn. To celebrate his life, we are asking everyone to wear tie dye shirts. We’ll post more details as they become available.

On behalf of Ken, we’d like to thank the following people and groups for your love, support, and presence in his life: Open Table Nashville, our sister community, for surrounding Ken with friendship, love, and dignity in his last year of life; David Schenck who met Ken at Vanderbilt hospital in December and was with Ken when he passed; Guardian Hospice (especially Lauren, Scott, Kim, and Sharon) who cared for Ken from February to August and whose staff became an extended family for him; Alive Hospice who cared for Ken in his last week and provided a peaceful environment so the he could have a dignified and comfortable death; Bob Smietana who helped us get Ken’s story out to the broader Nashville community; The Tennessean reader who wishes to remain anonymous who donated a beautiful plot (valued at $4,000) at Woodlawn where Ken will be buried; Woodlawn Funeral Home for generously waiving the $1,700 cost of having the burial plot opened and closed; Nashville Funeral and Cremation Service who are helping to give Ken a dignified burial; and God who first loved Ken and caused his path to cross with ours, thus transforming all of our lives.

To see Bob’s article commemorating Ken’s life and death in The Tennessean, click here.