L’Arche Greater Washington, D.C.’s work is more important than ever in this place and at this time.

We know all too well the anguish and frustration that comes from unmet hopes and expectations, from plans that change without our input. We see firsthand and live in the consequences of further marginalization and exclusion.

We at L’Arche are people who vote, can’t vote, or vote one colour or animal different from people we love dearly. We know how to talk and listen across differences and live and flourish in those relationships. 

This work continues to underline the values of our charter and L’Arche’s work to build and maintain mutually transforming relationships across differences.

As we met this morning, we began by sharing what was life-giving in our mornings. In true L’Arche spirit, it was a mix of the mundane and extraordinary.

This small community accomplishes many outsize things. It vindicates the ideal of human dignity, which does not depend on normal measures of human accomplishment. It lays bare the illusion that ability means superiority. It displays the lavishness of grace, which, in Christian theology, is needed by and granted to us all. And it shows — amazingly, inspiringly, accusingly — that the beloved community might be created on any suburban street. Michael Gerson Washington Post 2014

This quote describes not just any L’Arche community. It describes our community. I am proud and grateful for what we are building and how we are doing that together. 

In light of the election, I hope and invite each of us to be gentle with ourselves, our feelings, and our neighbours. We should remember that we, as a community and too often individually, experience the impacts of othering.

As expressed in our mission in our daily lives, let us continue to engage in our diversity of culture, opinions, and beliefs, working together toward a more human society—it is, as every day, needed more and more.

In peace and prayer,

Luke