Fermata 8 Jul 2022: Notes of Rest Amidst Gun Violence
Free virtual retreats, "Under Fire" released from The JuJu Exchange
Fermata is the weekly newsletter of Notes of Rest, my contemplative-musical retreat. (I also sometimes include updates about The JuJu Exchange, my jazz-electronic fusion band.)
Upcoming Appearances:
Hi everyone,
The events of July 4th weekend in Chicagoland underscored just how bereft the US is of societal rest. 68 were shot across Chicago over the course of the weekend, and 7 were killed in the Highland Park parade attack on Monday. The restlessness surrounding the US’ relationship to the gun is so enduring, one that stretches back to before the first July 4th (as discussed in An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States).
As the funerals start today for the victims in Highland Park, God’s Spirit reminds me that rest is one of the key ways we need to respond to this excess death. Funerals permit us to pause and reflect on the lives (wrongly) ended, and what it means for us to keep on living with loss. Retreats offer that introspective space too.
To that end, I’m holding two free, virtual Notes of Rest Retreats for anyone to attend. They will be on Monday, July 18th, 7p central, and July 23rd, 2p central. Though it is free to attend, I encourage you to donate to Everytown for Gun Safety as a way of supporting efforts to disrupt the ongoing gun violence in the US.
During this hour-long retreat, we’ll spend time in a passage of Scripture about violence and then sit with questions I pose about violence and rest. I’ll be playing for you throughout this hour to help you reflect on what God is saying to you about the restlessness in and around you pertaining to the US gun culture. I pray that this retreat will help you find some solace in communal rest.
Given the frictions surrounding guns in the country right now, my band The JuJu Exchange created an atmospheric tune called Under Fire to respond to the moment. I hope this can also be a balm. The Instagram post is here, the full song is here.
abundantly,
Julian
Cover Photo by Jose Alonso on Unsplash