Hope is like a refuge, Bishop Dan Schwerin said in his episcopal address on June 15. He was not, however, talking about escape but the biological idea of refugia, a pocket of safety that allow species or populations to survive hostile conditions on their way to their next phase.

Drawing on Debra Rienstra’s book Refugia Faith, he envisioned for Northern Illinois Conference a hope that cares for the marginalized and expects a future.

“When Psalm 91 maintains that ‘under God’s wing you will find refuge,’ it affirms a God who cares for the powerless in a hostile environment for a moment until moving until the next phase,” he said.

Psalm 46:1—“God is our refuge and strength, a help always near in times of trouble”—goes further, he said, expressing a refugia that is external and internal.

“External refuge and internal strength allow us to survive hostile conditions and discern for the next phase,” he noted. “It could be said that refugia is a practice of hope. Refugia is a living hope.”

Rienstra says that through refugia, those places where species find protection, “the earth teaches that extreme disturbance can be survived—and can even bring renewal—and one way this happens is through refugia.”

God teaches the power of refugia through what seems small and inconsequential, he observed.

“In the time of Jesus, God opposes the Roman empire not with an impressive army and not with toxic power, but the hidden in plain sight work of Mary and Elizabeth—enter stage left the nonviolent power of a baby, one that survives the empire’s slaughter of the innocents, life in an occupied land, who with a small band of women and men cast for us a mustard-seed gospel vision for the flourishing dream of God,” he said. “God uses the remnant, the refugia, as a third way to create a minority presence to live toward becoming a kin-dom of mutual flourishing. God uses the refugia season to practice hope.”

He called it an opportunity “for letting go of Christendom as domineering and dominating, with its colonialism, Christian nationalism, and coziness with toxic power, sucking up to empire—only to get ghosted by the oligarchs—that we may be healed by Jesus.”

“God, help us there to clearly stand with the marginalized, the disenfranchised, so that this journey creates pilgrims who are unequivocal about standing with the vulnerable,” he prayed.

He spelled out some plans for refugia practices of hope in the coming months.

The Northern Illinois Conference has 12 cohorts to help groups of laity and clergy learn the work of anti-racism and how to support cross-racial appointments. Dr. Rolf Nolasco at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary and Dr. Richard Guzman, professor emeritus at North Central College, the General Commission on Religion and Race are assisting these groups. There is a cohort just for clergy women of color, clergy of European descent, and Hispanic/Latinx people with their sets of questions and learning.

The bishop is inviting stakeholders to meet in each conference to examine financial health and create systems that will serve the church’s mission even while health and property insurance rates are skyrocketing.

Camping ministry in both Northern Illinois and Wisconsin has transformed people’s lives. In Northern Illinois, a task force is looking at elements of the ministry that has suffered with deferred attention and naming this as a time of discernment and conversation about what is effective and sustainable.

A school for leadership for both conferences is scheduled for the fall in Green Lake, Wis. Rev. Dr. Kenda Creasy Dean will guide participants in creating a culture of innovation and learning for clergy, then build it out with laity. There will be follow-up work with cohorts.

"I believe hoarding will not save us because all flourishing is mutual,” he said in conclusion. “I believe we share for the good of the whole. I believe the journey creates the pilgrim. I believe refugia is a practice of hope.”