During this past year clergy in our area read the book See No Stranger. One of the topics author Valerie Kaur addresses in the book is rage and how to express rage in community. During our reflection session after this chapter my colleagues wondered about how we might do this in our churches. So this week, as we explored lament through our Summer Reading book Be The Bridge ,we took on all the big feelings that we don’t share well as community.
I personally was really sad this week. It’s the first Father’s Day since my mom died and losing her has made the loss of my dad even stronger. While she was alive there was more of a link to him. And this week also begins annual conference, which was the last time I saw mom before the hospital. And I’m stressed and worried and still carrying anger from my time on school board. I know others are carrying a lot too.
So with all of these things swirling in us we took up drums from a variety of cultures, plus shakers, tambourines, and other percussion. And during the sermon we drummed and danced. We yelled and clapped. We had a video of Taiko drummers to accompany us as we expressed our rage at injustice, our grief at loss, our joy at being together, and more.
It was a cathartic and beautiful honoring of the emotions that we carry and gave us a chance to heal and to use the energy of our lives for the work of faithful following, which means we see no one as a stranger, and we work to be the bridge in places of separation and pain.
My spirit has been calmer and I have felt more at peace and more ready for the work of annual conference since we drummed together. Others shared that something shifted for them in the expression of their pent up feelings.
I’m grateful for this opportunity to incorporate the things we are learning and to incarnate and express the fullness of our humanity in community.
May we always rage together towards justice.
-Eilidh
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