In the oldest Gospel account of the death of Jesus, Mary, the mother of James, Mary Magdalene and Salome wait until the end of the Sabbath as they come to the tomb of Jesus to anoint his body with oils. They ask: Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?
They know it is big stone. When they arrive however, they find the stone has been moved aside and the tomb is empty. In this service we will honor the ancient feast of Easter, and it’s story of resurrection. Is there a heavy stone blocking our own path to a new life?
The pursuit of social justice has always been core to the Unitarian Universalist way. How is the current March for Our Lives movement impacting us individually and as a congregation? Our youth will be the focus of this intergenerational service as they share their thoughts and feelings about our trip to DC, what is happening in their schools, and what can be done to enact positive change.
April 15 (or thereabouts) is Tax Day in our nation, capping a season when we're all reflecting (some of us begrudgingly!) on what citizenry costs us. I want us to think together about all the ways we pay taxes and reap no benefits, in our personal, social, religious, and political lives. How can spirituality help us recalibrate—to know what we owe ourselves, each other, and our country—and demand the right kinds of returns
?
Pastor Naomi Leapheart is currently serving as the Faith Work Director for the National LGTBQ Taskforce. Prior to the task force she served as a suburban community organizer for POWER, a multi-faith, multi-racial network of congregations working to shift power, change public policy, and do justice for the most vulnerable in the Philadelphia Metro Area. As an anti-oppression consultant, Naomi delights in facilitating difficult and transformative conversations about race, gender, sexuality and faith. She is a member of the Philly Threshold Choir, a community whose mission is to sing for with those at the thresholds between life and death.
Poet Amy Lloyd asks us if we are willing to expose our wounds, old and new.
It must be done, she says, and calls it the broken road to healing
because it can be so very painful. Yet, it is a spiritual axiom in many traditions, including today’s 12 Step programs that we cannot move forward with life in a healthy way until we embrace the pain of recovery.
Prophetic voices from the margins of our contemporary society and our own Unitarian Universalist movement urgently call us to deepen our commitment to radical love and inclusion, to a vision of Beloved Community where violence, racism, economic oppression and gender based inequity no longer prevail. And yet, many among us vehemently resist change and seek to roll back progress. What is at stake for religious liberals and is Beloved Community an impossible dream?