A Word from the editor

Changing Colors, Crossing Borders

Tracy L. Barnett

This month is a time of renewal: for the Earth, a renewal of life; and for Protestants and Catholics alike, a time for a renewal of faith.
This spirit of renewal was especially notable on Palm Sunday, when more than 150 congregants gathered in Columbia to welcome with green palm fronds the message of rebirth from a red-robed Padre Rafael Rentería. But no more so than in the enthusiastic congregation of the guitar-playing Rev. Elpidio Sandoval of the Church of the Nazarene in Mexico, Mo., or the Baptist basketball ministry of the dynamic Rev. Heber Mena of Jefferson City.
The spirit is everywhere, and its expression is as multifaceted as the face of America at this moment of rebirth.
It’s a time to embrace the cambio de colores that surrounds us, beyond the monochrome tones of winter to an explosion of multicolored life. There are those who will fight to maintain a narrow and limited view of the world, the same ones who rage against the change as they seek to tighten their grip on an illusory past that has already left them behind. Those are the ones who plant their bombs in radio airwaves and in airplanes and in train stations in a desperate attempt to hold to the interminable winter of the past. Their anger is only the death rattle of a dying dinosaur.
Whether you’re brown on the outside or brown on the inside, in the words of Sylvia Lazos, it’s time to join the ranks of those who are reaching out to cross the invisible but powerful lines that separate us as a people. Time to follow the lead of an Elvera Satterwhite of Sedalia or a Sister Peggy Bonnot of Jefferson City — two women who followed their faith to push aside the fear, to teach their fellows by example to act instead on love. Time to reach out, too, like Roxana Huaman and Elía Sandoval, who fought the isolation of a new immigrant to make Missouri their home — and who now draw on their experiences to help smooth the path for others who are making their new homes here. And time to follow the lead of the 300 people of good will who joined in St. Louis to celebrate a changing Missouri, and to find creative and positive solutions to the challenges that face us all.
Spring is here. Change is good. Let’s celebrate the sun in each other’s eyes.