While we remain keenly aware of many troubling events and circumstances in our community and world, I hope we can gain courage from gatherings such as the Poor People’s Campaign virtual march held on Saturday (if you missed it, you can see it here) and from the following poem by the Rev. Victoria Safford. What we see, what others see, we cannot ignore any longer. In this email, you will read of opportunities to learn, take action, and be in conversations of growth and transformation. I look forward to gathering with you in worship this week.
Blessings,
by Victoria Safford
Our mission is to plant ourselves at the gates of Hope—
Not the prudent gates of Optimism,
Which are somewhat narrower.
Not the stalwart, boring gates of Common Sense;
Nor the strident gates of Self-Righteousness,
Which creak on shrill and angry hinges
(People cannot hear us there; they cannot pass through)
Nor the cheerful, flimsy garden gate of
“Everything is gonna’ be all right.”
But a different, sometimes lonely place,
The place of truth-telling,
About your own soul first of all and its condition.
The place of resistance and defiance,
The piece of ground from which you see the world
Both as it is and as it could be
As it will be;
The place from which you glimpse not only struggle,
But the joy of the struggle.
And we stand there, beckoning and calling,
Telling people what we are seeing
Asking people what they see.