Remembering Richard Twiss

I'm grateful for having known Richard.  Very few people have shaped me so significantly - especially in such a short amount of time.   While he was in Washington DC for the National Prayer Breakfast he got to visit the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) building where he and a bunch of other activists from AIM (American Indian Movement) had taken over the building a few decades before.  After suffering a major heart attack Richard went on to the other side on February 9th.



It had been only a few weeks since we had hung out.  He and I stopped by my house to meet my family and my favorite local spots - Leotah's Place, Pizza Brain, and our space on Frankford Ave.  We had plans to be together the week after he died at and around the Justice Conference as well as in April and June this year.

After spending a week on the Rosebud Lakota Sioux Reservation together last summer, (if you want to check out the class I took for this year it's still happening!) Richard invited me to spend about a week at his house before bringing me along to the annual Mni Wiconi Wacipi Family Camp and Pow-wow where he introduced me to many inspiring people and deepening worship experiences.  If you didn't get to hear him speak in person, fortunately a lot of people made Youtube videos of his speeches and songs - here are some short ones.   Wiconi International, the ministry that he began with Katherine will continue and needs to despite severe financial hardship without Richard.  Here is more about what people around the world are trying to mobilize for the Twiss family.

Though many of us loved him and recognized his gifts in both the prophetic and in leadership globally and in the Portland area, Richard faced harsh critics from Christians (native and non-native) as well as other first nations people for his incarnational approach and teachings of the gospel taking root, growing, and flourishing  in people and cultures outside of European worldviews and paradigms.

Last weekend I participated in several mini memorials to Richard with a rich community of learners, leaders, relatives, and friends including the big one which lasted for about four hours or so.  I wept through the entire thing.  Thanks to my folks on the West Coast for your hospitality and for some on the east coast who made it possible for me to go.  Before we were all invited to join in the final dance (the snake dance aka transformation dance) two of our mutual friends ceremonially retired Richard's regalia.  A sense of finality washed over me.  In my grief, I moved towards the front to do what RT would have done - to go kick up some dust.

-from his obituary..."In the Lakota tradition, there is no word for goodbye. Instead, we say,
'Toksa ake (We’ll see you again), son, husband, father, grandfather, brother, and friend!'"