Column by Mary Lee Talbot
“As a Cherokee friend has said, ‘We are on a good road together,’ ” said the Rev. Suzanne Wenonah Duchesne at the 9:15 a.m. morning worship service Tuesday in the Amphitheater. Her sermon title was “Empty Cases,” and the scripture reading was Romans 8:18–25.
Duchesne also recalled some advice from a monk at Taizé. The monk said when people are walking together and one stumbles, that person needs to stop and catch their breath. Others should wait alongside until the person is ready to move on, because trying to carry the fallen one will exhaust both. “Wait until you both can continue, because each has work to do that Creator has given,” said Duchesne.
She invited the congregation to stand as they were able, feel the magnetic pull of the earth and ask the earth how she might want to be massaged by their feet. “Caress and thank her for her support,” she said. “Now breathe out, and feed the trees and plants with CO2, and give thanks for the oxygen they give back.” Then she led the congregation in prayer.
When Duchesne visited the Museum of Mississippi History, she noted that the curation began with the origin stories of the Choctaw and Chickasaw people. She moved into the next room of the museum and found a room full of empty display cases. There had been displays of bead work in the cases.
“I was sad to see the empty cases until I saw a sign that read, ‘Please excuse our empty cases. We are working with our tribal partners to better tell their story,’ ” Duchesne said. “That is a commitment to be in relationship with people — to show nothing rather than misrepresent their culture.”
She continued, “They were willing to let go and allow time to listen and learn. That may seem small, but if history is written by the winners, who believe that anything that is new to them can be named by the conquerors, it is better to have empty shelves.”
Duchesne urged the congregation to practice the hospitality of listening. That is where her journey began with Indigenous women. Her friendship with a United Methodist preacher with roots in the Kiowa nation, whose mother was a Methodist deaconess in the 1940s, led to Duchesne’s Doctor of Philosophy work on women in the Oklahoma Missionary Conference.
“Relationships take years; lots of trust has been lost. Those relationships come more easily when you are willing to listen,” Duchesne said. “It goes across many cultures. To let a different world view touch us requires deep listening. Active listening is only the beginning of deep listening.”
While active listening calls for respect and honor for all human beings, deep listening involves all of creation. Active listening focuses on the individual, she said, while community is part of deep listening. In active listening, both parties are equal partners. In deep listening, the dominant person or culture is quiet because there are protocols and guides required for non-Natives to enter into relationship.
With active listening, the individual can be changed if the listener is sensitive to what is said and asks questions like, “Did I hear you say…?”
“Deep listening requires vocal restraint,” Duchesne said. “When someone finishes speaking there should be quiet moments to indicate that you are pondering the importance of what was just shared.”
She continued, “The hospitality of listening is to hold space for the one who is speaking, to remain steadfast when things have been said that are hard (to hear) or harmful. We need courage to hear the other perspective. Deep listening can continue if we honor each other as beloved.”
Duchesne noted that some people don’t care if they hurt others with words. She gave an example of a recent comment on the social media platform X by Ann Coulter. On Sunday, the far-right pundit reposted a video of University of Minnesota professor and Navajo Nation member Melanie Yazzie discussing decolonization and climate change at a 2023 conference.
“We didn’t kill enough Indians,” Coulter wrote in the since-deleted post.
Duchesne asked the congregation, “Who is ‘we’? Which nation? There were 5 to 10 million Indigenous people here, and over 90% were killed. How much is enough? To talk about a scholar with a different point of view is one thing, but to advocate for the complete annihilation of people is another.”
She continued, “What narratives are we listening to? Sometimes we don’t realize what stream we are swimming in until we encounter another stream. We are shaped by our traditions and families. We have many narratives based on race and class that function to dismember and divide us from the contributions of First Nations.”
Paul, in the book of Romans, wrote that all creation was trembling for the revealing of the children of God, so that all creation will be set free from decay. The two-leggeds, the four-leggeds, the soil, the rocks are hoping for the moment when we learn from all creatures, Duchesne told the congregation.
Duchesne said her husband’s church was trying to decide whether or not to sell some property. She suggested that they listen to the land. As they walked the land, the bees followed them when they were among the flowers and then followed them in the fields. The church decided not to sell the property and kept it as it is.
Among the Iroquois people, the Great Peacemaker, Deganawida, is credited with the idea of an Iroquois Confederacy and the Great Law of Peace. He was aided by Hiawatha, an Onondaga orator, in taking the idea of a confederacy to the five nations of the Confederacy: Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca. (The Tuscarora tribe joined later.)
Deganawida planted the Great Tree of Peace, a large white pine, to shelter all who want peace. The tree sends out white roots of peace, and under its protection, “all are one and belong to one another,” said Duchesne. “This grounding is essential to the Indigenous understanding of the world. It is different from the normative view in the United States of manifest destiny and the American dream.”
Duchesne said, “To keep the cases in the museum empty is an invitation to wait in empathy. It shows a willingness to be vulnerable, to listen deeply, to wait until we do understand. The empty cases showed that the museum was unafraid to practice the hospitality of listening. Let us live into our belovedness as part of the beloved.”
The Rev. James Deprile, president of the Catholic Community of Chautauqua, presided. Welling Hall, long-time Chautauquan and member of the Motet Choir, read the scripture. The prelude was “Sonata V, II. Andante con moto,” by Felix Mendelssohn, played by Laura Smith, organ scholar, on the Massey Memorial Organ. The Motet Choir, under the direction of guest conductor James Bobb, sang “Listen, Sweet Dove,” music by Grayston Ives and text by George Herbert. Smith accompanied the choir on the Massey organ. Owen Reyda, organ scholar, played “Postlude in D,” by Healey Willan, for the postlude. Support for this week’s services and chaplaincy is provided by the Mr. and Mrs. William Uhler Follansbee Memorial Chaplaincy.
