{"id":9493,"date":"2016-05-07T08:00:39","date_gmt":"2016-05-07T08:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/?p=9493"},"modified":"2017-01-25T19:22:53","modified_gmt":"2017-01-25T19:22:53","slug":"the-pathway-to-presence-a-mothers-day-reflection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/2016\/05\/the-pathway-to-presence-a-mothers-day-reflection\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pathway to Presence: A Mother’s Day Reflection"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"1454710970397\"<\/a>Over the next 12 months, the Forum for Theological Exploration<\/a>\u00a0is spotlighting 12 leaders, their stories, and how their passion and call to shape a more hopeful future through Christian ministry guides the impact they are making in their communities, institutions and universities. \u00a0You can find the full series, here<\/a>.<\/i>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

By Rev. Jennifer Bailey, Founder and Director of Faith Matters Network<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am writing this reflection at the foot of my mother\u2019s hospital bed as she lay\u00a0sleeping. At 28 years old, the sight of my mother immobilized by illness is not new to\u00a0me. I first learned about her cancer on my 14 th birthday. That morning, my parents\u00a0explained that my mama would be going into the hospital for a procedure called a\u00a0lumpectomy to remove a tumor in her right breast. I was confused and embarrassed\u00a0because, truth be told, I had no idea that she was sick.<\/p>\n

That summer, goodbyes to the places and people that had defined my childhood\u00a0occupied my teenage brain. A week after my mother\u2019s surgery, I would leave the\u00a0bucolic beauty of my small town to start high school under the heat of Chicago\u2019s\u00a0bright lights.<\/p>\n

Prior to my mother\u2019s diagnosis, the decision for me to leave was an easy one for my\u00a0parents. For all of its charms, my hometown was not an easy place for a little black\u00a0girl to grow up. It is a place that often resists change in the name of tradition.\u00a0Unfortunately, in a community that is 90 percent white those traditions rarely left\u00a0space for people like me. Yet for every racist taunt I endured on the playground and\u00a0hostile classroom environment, there were places and people of solace. None was\u00a0more meaningful to me than Bethel African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church.<\/p>\n

Sunday mornings were the only time in my young life that I felt free to be fully\u00a0embodied. From Reverend Pendleton, I learned that my blackness was not the\u00a0source of shame, as my playground tormentors implied, but a source of great pride. I\u00a0learned about Richard Allen, whose protest against racial injustice led to the\u00a0founding our denomination. I heard stories about Jarena Lee, the first woman Allen\u00a0authorized to preach, who travelled 2,325 miles by foot preaching the gospel. As I\u00a0grew, my story became enmeshed with theirs, until the rivers that separated us\u00a0became one fluid ocean moving across space and time.<\/p>\n

It is not a surprise to me then, that the faces that became so familiar to me in the\u00a0pews those Sunday mornings are the same ones flowing in and out of my mother\u2019s\u00a0hospital room today. Sister Connie stopped by the room. So did Reverend Hailey.\u00a0Over the years, while I became a sojourner, my mom stayed in my hometown. A\u00a0complex mix of health insurance, job security, and family mess each contributed\u00a0their part to the cement that fastened her here. Yet the cancer was the binding agent.\u00a0For fourteen years it traveled through her body attaching itself to new locations\u00a0along the way.<\/p>\n

As a bratty adolescent, I did not understand the sacrifice my mother made by\u00a0allowing me to stay in Chicago while she underwent treatment. She knew that I was\u00a0receiving a higher quality education than anything my hometown offered. Yet, that\u00a0meant missing out on the daily routines and mundanities that work together to form\u00a0the joys of parenthood. Yet even in the middle of rigorous chemotherapy regimens,\u00a0she always found a way to show up at orchestra concerts and homecoming dances.\u00a0In doing so, she taught me the value of presence.<\/p>\n

I have been an ordained minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ for 2 years, 4 months\u00a0and 10 days. In my short career as a clergywoman, I have found that the lessons of\u00a0presence from my mother have taught me more than any text I read in seminary. So\u00a0often as clergy we focus on the results of what we do. Did I nail that sermon? Did the\u00a0liturgy flow just right?<\/p>\n

Within the social justice circles that I am part of, we ask different questions but with\u00a0a similar orientation. Did the direct action we just did put enough pressure on that\u00a0elected official? Did my speech at that rally demonstrate just how \u201cwoke\u201d I really am?\u00a0If we are to actualize the world we wish to see, it is clear that our actions and the\u00a0results they produce are important. Yet, we must also remember that some of life\u2019s\u00a0most precious and valuable lessons are gleaned when we take the time to pay\u00a0attention to our experiences as we are living them.<\/p>\n

That is why I must conclude this piece. My mother is awake now and it is time to\u00a0return to her the gifts she so selflessly gave to me: her time, her attention and her\u00a0presence.<\/p>\n

Rev. Jennifer Bailey is an alum of Forum for Theological Exploration<\/a>. Named one of 15\u00a0Faith Leaders to Watch\u00a0by the Center for American Progress,\u00a0she is an ordained minister,\u00a0public theologian, and emerging national leader in multi-faith movement for justice.\u00a0Jennifer is the Founding Executive Director of the Faith Matters Network, a new\u00a0interfaith community equipping faith leaders to challenge structural inequality in their\u00a0communities. Rev. Bailey comes to this work with nearly a decade of experience at\u00a0nonprofits combatting intergenerational poverty.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

A Truman Scholar and Nathan Cummings Foundation Fellow, Rev. Bailey earned\u00a0degrees from Tufts University and Vanderbilt University Divinity School, where she was\u00a0awarded the Wilbur F. Tillett Prize for accomplishments in the study of theology.\u00a0She\u00a0writes regularly for a number of publications including Sojourners and the Huffington\u00a0Post. Her first book, tentatively titled Confessions of a #Millennial #Minister\u00a0is currently\u00a0under contract with Chalice Press. Rev. Bailey is an ordained itinerant elder in the\u00a0African Methodist Episcopal Church.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the next 12 months, the Forum for Theological Exploration\u00a0is spotlighting 12 leaders, their stories, and how their passion and call to shape a more hopeful future through Christian ministry guides the impact they are making in their communities, institutions and universities. \u00a0You can find the full series, here. By Rev. Jennifer Bailey, Founder and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1431,1291],"tags":[1340,628,1097,443],"class_list":["post-9493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leading-differently","category-social-justice","tag-forum-for-theological-exploraion","tag-ministry","tag-mothers-day","tag-social-justice"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Pathway to Presence: A Mother's Day Reflection<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Over the next 12 months, the Forum for Theological Exploration\u00a0is spotlighting 12 leaders, their stories, and how their passion and call to shape a more\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Pathway to 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