[Dialogue] Happy Holidays

Sat Dec 23 15:03:03 EST 2006

The Montgomery's

2544 Landington Way

Duluth, Georgia 30096

December 2006 (or Chinese New Year 2007, whichever comes first!)   

Dear Friends, Family and Colleagues:

Many of you know that for our family much of this season has been shaped by
the illness and consequent death of my father's spouse, LaVera
Jones-Montgomery. Jack and Vera were married five years ago in January. They
had a creative and active partnership maintaining a social calendar that
would tire out most younger folks. Almost like love-struck teenagers (no
offense intended), they shared a deep affection and a contagious sense of
joy for living. I am personally grateful for the chance to "be family" with
Vera these several years. I am particularly thankful for all the thoughts
and prayers raised on behalf of our family during these three weeks.

It's hard to believe that another year has come and gone! Our family is
reasonable healthy, sufficiently happy, unduly busy, and looking forward to
the holidays. Looks like we will spend some time with each other toward the
end of the month.

Tim continues to live in Tallahassee. He still runs California Chicken Grill
and does some construction work on the side. This coming New Year, he turns
25 - it is truly hard to believe!

It's hard to believe that Matt is spending his fourth year at LaGrange
College. As an Art and Design major, he is working in painting and drawing
as well as ceramic sculpture. This past August, he turned 21! The terror is
settling in about next year's plans. When we have a better sense of what he
will be doing and where he will be doing it, we will keep you informed. His
"Senior Show" will be in April 2007. You will get an invitation. Until then,
you can check out some of his art work at his website listed below.

It is equally hard to believe that I have now served as part of the
fundraising team at the Atlanta Community Food Bank for five years. The Food
Bank is a great place to work and a great set of people with which to
associate. Working in 38 counties in metro Atlanta and North Georgia with
more than 800 partner agencies is a daunting task, but community is being
built, people are being fed, and an amazing network of compassionate souls
have been catalyzed into action.

While I often recommend a variety of books for study and reflection, I
seldom find myself saying that you should not "pass go" until you have in
your hands my suggestion for this year. Professor Amy-Jill Levine, a
self-styled "Yankee Jewish feminist - with a commitment to exposing and
expunging anti-Jewish, sexist and heterosexist theologies," is an Orthodox
Jew teaching New Testament at Vanderbilt University. She has written what
may be the most provocative yet insightful book to emerge in the religious
publishing market for some time.

Levine's book, The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the
Jewish Jesus, is a carefully crafted, insightful mix of wry humor and severe
criticism. It is a challenging discourse on the problem of latent Christian
anti-Judaism and concrete suggestions about what to do about it. This is not
about blatant bigotry and religious prejudice, but a scathing critique of
well-meaning progressive gestures such as Sunday worship readings from "the
Hebrew Scriptures" and celebrating Christian Seders. Not since Rosemary
Ruether published her watershed study, Faith and Fratricide: The Theological
Roots of Anti-Semitism, in 1974 have these issues been examined so
carefully. This is a book written for lay people. While it is about
theology, more importantly, it is about how we live our faith in a world
where not only the globe is a village, but the village is the globe.

It is hard to believe that I am spending two whole paragraphs in a family
holiday letter to plug a book!

After talking about it for the last few years, it is hard to believe that I
have finally launched my on-line journal and blog, Notes from the Balcony.
The website address is listed below. Please check it out, remembering that
it is still a "work under construction."               

Our family wishes you the best in this very holy season of the year. We hope
that these times become days for the deepening of the special bonds that tie
us together as families, friends and communities. We wish you peace, even
though it is hard to believe that it is possible. We wish you healing from
the trials of the journey. We wish you renewed hope in the future. 

Grace and Peace,   

John, Timothy and Matthew   

Family Contact Information   

John:   Phone - 678.468.4913

           Website - www.johncmontgomery.net
<http://www.johncmontgomery.net/> 

           Blog - www.monkeyltd.blogspot.com
<http://www.monkeyltd.blogspot.com/> 

           E-mail - monkeyltd at comcast.net

Matt:   Phone - 678.468.4914

           Website - www.mattmontgomery.net <http://www.mattmontgomery.net/>

           E-mail - asian.accent at comcast.net

Tim:    Phone - 850.339.1849    

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