Making My Daily Bread (Recipe Included!)

Written by Rev. Jenny Phillips

Minister for Environmental Stewardship and Advocacy 

for the PNW Conference of the United Methodist Church 

Reblogged from PNWUMC

“Give us this day our daily bread…” this is the line in the Lord’s Prayer that I most take for granted. In my household, when there is a bread shortage, it is because someone forgot to pick it up at the grocery store. But despite my access to bread, I’m going to attempt to bake my own for the season of Lent.

It is easy to forget that the gift of daily bread is dependent on sustainable agriculture, abundant water, and healthy people. It takes an ecosystem to make bread. I trust that the sun will shine and the rain (and irrigation waters) will fall on the wheat fields that provide grain. I have unabiding faith in the industrial bakeries that produce thousands of loaves each day, and in the interstate highway and local road systems that ensure fresh bread as well as ingredients like flour, yeast, salt and oil will be delivered regularly to the grocery stores near my house. I expect to have the money I need to buy this staple. And I don’t have any of the allergies or medical conditions that can make wheat bread dangerous.

With all of this in mind, I’m taking up the practice of breadmaking for the next forty days. My intention is for the process of sourcing ingredients, kneading them together, trusting in the miracle of fermentation, and sharing the results to bring me closer to the Creator who breathes life into the earth that nourishes and sustains us.

Most days I expect I’ll make a basic recipe for whole wheat buns that requires a few minutes of kneading in the evening, a long rise overnight, and 20 minutes in the oven in the morning. Voila–breakfast! But I also plan to experiment with gluten-free breads, in the hopes of developing options for gluten-free communion bread that tastes good even to wheat-eaters.

I’m looking forward to this commitment. For me, kneading creates space for quiet reflection. It is a way to pray with my hands. But I’m also nervous. The idea of making this sort of Lenten commitment feels like a luxury I can hardly afford. My life (probably like yours) is generally busy and complicated. I worry that there will be times when I can’t pull this breadmaking off, but I still want to try. So I’m going to attempt to translate my worry into a deeper appreciation for the challenges of those for whom daily bread is not a given. I’m hoping that if I promise myself some grace at the front end of this season, that will make it easier for me to give grace to others in whatever situations I might face over the next six+ weeks.

I’m planning to post updates on my process along with some theological reflection every so often. If you’d like to bake along with me, let’s be in touch to encourage one another and to share recipes and insights. My starting recipe is below. I like this one because it is flexible–even if you don’t get it exactly right, it still usually turns out okay. Not a bad metaphor for life.

Basic Bread for Lent

• 1 cup warm water
• 1 tablespoon honey
• ¼-½ teaspoon active dry yeast (I use less if I can let the bread rise for 4 hours or more, and more if I only have an hour or two)
• 2 cups flour (I use a mix of King Arthur white bread flour and locally-grown wheat flour. All-purpose flour works too. This particular recipe works best with at least 50% white or white whole wheat flour)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt

In a mixing bowl, stir one cup warm water with one tablespoon honey. (If you have an instant-read thermometer, go for around 110-degrees. If you don’t have one, just go for warm.)

Sprinkle the yeast over the honey water.

While yeast becomes active, measure the flour.

Stir the olive oil, salt, and half the flour into the honey-yeast water.

Work in the remaining flour with a spoon, and later, with your hands.

Add more flour as needed. The dough should feel soft, springy, and not too sticky.

Knead for several minutes.

Allow the dough to rise in a bowl covered with a towel, at least one hour or up to 12 hours. The longer the rise, the better the flavor.

Punch down the dough. Form rolls or a loaf. Let it rise again while you preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Bake rolls for about 20 minutes, a loaf for about 45 minutes. The top will be brown and the internal temperature will be around 200 degrees (but you don’t have to check it unless you’re fussy like that.)

Eat warm with lots of butter. Share with someone who is hungry for food and/or love.

Why You Should Be an Activist (of Faith)

Written by Karin Frank

Outreach Coordinator for WAIPL

1. Make big change

Switching out our old school light bulbs for CFLs, biking or busing instead of driving, and eating less meat – individual lifestyle changes – are critical. But they only go so far. When we work together to change the systems we live in - switching out our old school coal fired power plants for renewable energy sources, investing in equitable and sustainable transportation systems, and creating food systems that encourage local, green growing and eating – we vastly magnify our impacts. And like changing light bulbs, all that is needed is for each of us to make our own small effort.

2. Activism is easy

 It can take just a five minute phone call to the Washington State legislative hotline (1.800.562.6000), or look for the toll free number in your own state, to tell your legislator that renewable energy is important to you or that you are concerned about toxic chemicals in household products. You don’t need to be an expert. You don’t need to know who your legislators are; you only need to give the hotline your address. You don’t even need to speak about a specific piece of legislation, although it can be helpful. You can spend a day in your state capitol for a literature drop or an advocacy day (such as Interfaith Advocacy Day in Olympia) with an organization that can guide you through the process. Make sure you are on the Earth Ministry/WAIPL mailing list and we can keep you informed of when opportunities come up.

People of faith meet with Rep. Brady Walkinshaw

at Interfaith Advocacy Day 2014

3. Lawmakers want to hear from you

They want to hear from the real, regular people that make up their constituency. Legislators tell us this every time we are in Olympia. They tell us when they’ve been getting phone calls and emails about a specific issue. They love visitors. Lawmakers are real, regular people themselves, especially at the local level. They don’t care if you are an expert on the issues, and chances are they aren’t either. They want to hear your story. They want to know what you care about and why you care about it.

4. Politics is about values

In a political system where too often the focus is the bottom line, our faiths tell stories of a world where people matter more than profits. When we bring our faith language to political action we bring a moral framework that can inspire and motivate citizens and political leaders. Our faiths provide language for us to tell stories about the type of world we want to live in and leave for our children and the type of society we want to be.

5. Faith unites people

…from all over the political spectrum, from across economic divides, regional divides, and racial divides. People who might otherwise see themselves as having very different interests can come together around shared stories and values to work together on issues we all care about.

6. People of faith represent wider communities

People of faith can lift their voices louder by speaking as a community. When you speak as a person of faith, you can act as a spokesperson for a larger community of people who share your values.

7. Your faith tells you to

Our faiths call us to live out our values in the world. They teach us that it is our responsibility to speak out against injustice and for care for all of creation. Our faiths tell us how to live our lives, both as individuals but in particular as communities and societies. Because the political process is how we live in our communities and structure our societies, our faiths demand our engagement.

8. It works

People often bemoan the corruption and inefficiency of the political system that at times listens more to money than to people. However broken it may be, our government is still run and elected by us, and our voices affect real changes every day. Recently, a lawmaker told me that he introduced amendments to a piece of legislation because a single constituent called him with some good suggestions. 

Governor Gregoire signing Senate Bill 5769 in 2011 - 

Earth Ministry's LeeAnne Beres is on the far right!

In 2011 Earth Ministry/WAIPL, in partnership with the other members of the Power Past Coal campaign, succeeded in passing legislation to close the single largest emitter of greenhouse gases in Washington State, the TransAlta Centralia coal-fired power plant, by 2025.

Just this fall, thousands of citizens testified at hearings opposing the Longview coal export terminal, citing health, environmental, and climate concerns and submitted more than 215,000 comments. The Washington Department of Ecology listened and recently announced that they will be protecting the people of the northwest by taking into account all of the impacts of the coal export process, including the impacts of greenhouse gases and global warming and looking at the entire export process from rail transportation to the burning of the coal abroad. There are thousands of victories, small and large, happening around the world every day because regular people decide to get involved.