Each season a collection of our Parish leaders get together to talk about worship. We evaluate how worship has been going and review the themes we have chosen to see how they have landed in our community. We then think about the upcoming seasons of worship and what themes we think people in our parish might find the most helpful as we live into our Why statement of We believe everyone needs a safe space to be loved for who they are already.
We have just finished up the celebration of Jesus’ birth, told the story of the wisemen and remembered our baptism. There are 6 weeks before we begin the season of Lent, a time of preparation and self denial as we ready our selves for Good Friday and the triumph of Easter. Our worship team decided to use this time for a series on Social Justice and Racial Equity in the scriptures. We are taking this work on partially because of the call our bishop has given us to dismantle racism. The deeper reason, however comes from this desire we have as a parish to live out our faith in all aspects of our life. The church is the place to do the hard work of discernment, of confronting the inequality of not only society, but of ourselves. My friend Rev Katie Ladd describes the church like this, “A covenant community with great promise where flawed and longing people find community they otherwise would never find – where love and joy and wonder are visited regularly – where justice is sought and charity is practiced. And yet, despite all of this wonder, there is institutional fear and there are bigoted practices and beliefs that need to be faced head on with truth-telling and love and even some some grace.” So that is the work we continue with this series. We’ll be hearing from a variety of voices as we contemplate what the scriptures say about racial equity and social justice.
Our goal as people of faith is to face head on the hard stuff together and to try our best to learn and grow and faithfully follow God. May these 6 weeks of hearing from Gaye, Leroy, Zaida, Todd, & me be full of grace and challenge, learning and love.
-Eilidh
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