Rev. Dr. Susie Beil and Deanna Gemmer on how to engage critical conversations around current events

Links: Connect with Rev. Dr. Susie Beil and Deanna Gemmer at Summit Ave Presbyterian Church. 

You can read Seattle Presbytery's  Rev. Eliana Maxim and their statement about the co-opting of Christian symbol's in Wednesday's attempted coup.

PSUSA's Statement.

National Council of Church's call for Trump's Removal.

“Happy New Year!” is said with fear and trepidation according to Rev. Dr. Susie Beil.

Danielle acknowledges that we knew 2021 wouldn’t come with bells and whistles, all sparkly and shiny…

Susie jokes there’s a meme circulating around saying, “I’d like to cancel my subscription to 2021. I tried the seven day trial and I’m not interested.”

Maggie asks Susie and Deanna what it has been like as church leaders, watching and witnessing the events of Wednesday Jan 6th and how the local church has responded (or not) to the civil unrest.

Susie said they’ve been asking those questions themselves. In the age of online church, their church had already planned their service for Sunday Jan 10th by Tuesday the 5th and on Wednesday the 6th they were in the process of recording and editing. By Thursday at noon it was “in the can and ready to go” but as she kept checking news feeds and began to feel paralyzed and nauseous. She began checking in with their office manager, their worship leader and Deanna… Feeling numb.

“And we were all in shock. Like, ‘is this really happening?’” Deanna adds. Wednesday was Epiphany, a Christian holiday celebrating the kings/magi visit to baby Jesus, and she had posted on her social media asking what gifts we might bring to the newborn, reflecting on epiphany and what it means,,. And within 20 minutes she felt, “oh my gosh, that feels so not important any more.” She said she couldn’t look away as she watched the events unfold, wondering what was going to happen. “The numbness lingered for a few days.”

Susie said she and her husband watched the Senate debates later that evening. They felt sober and called their teenage boys to watch these historic moments with them. “We were glued to it. And I just felt like it was this moment where everything was on hold and there was nothing more important than paying attention to what was going on.” She said the first day was a rollercoaster of emotions; sorrow and nausea interspersed with moments of hope and inspiration spoken by a few senators and congress men and women.

Danielle gets a sense that as we attempt to talk about and process what has happened, that this is a national, collective and personal trauma. She says one of the first things that happens in a traumatic event is that we lose our ability to speak—there’s a sense of wordlessness and an inability to describe what has happened. We are still figuring out what happened to our bodies and to us as community even a week later.

Susie had a zoom meeting scheduled for 1/13 with local and national faith leaders on racial justice and as she was working with Karen Vargess, an African American Community organizer to help plan this event on 1/6. They just kept checking in with each other as the news unfolded, saying how shaken they felt. Within hours, Karen had been receiving calls from members of the Black community in Kitsap saying they were afraid and asking how they can keep their families safe.

Deanna says “it doesn’t feel like the trauma is over.” She says she hasn’t been able "let down" and doesn’t know when she’ll be able to let down. “I feel on high alert. I don’t believe this insurrection is over… and so I still feel very much on edge.” While in some ways they have begun to process just those few days but the larger themes are hard to process.

Maggie asked what happened as they knew going into Sunday the 10th  that they had a pre-recorded message and still somehow it didn’t feel honoring to play it without acknowledging what had happened?  What it was like for them as a church to offer space for their congregants to process.

Susie woke up Saturday morning with a sense of urgency in her spirit that they had to do something—they had to somehow gather people. She’d been receiving texts from church members and elders with anxiety and worry. “We need a space" she decided. After connecting with Deanna, she called an emergency “session” of the church elders to meet that night online. They wrestled with the discomfort that some people felt