Dear friends,
A few weeks ago we had a Saturday retreat at which about a third of our regular congregants and leaders spent the day with local organizer Rev. Terri Echelbarger. Terri led us in a series of exercises that led us closer to articulating statements of our shared mission, visions and values. We couldn’t quite agree on a single statement, though we got closer and all of the conversations were valuable.
Just this morning I remembered a chant I first learned in Boston that we often used at protests and marches nearly 50 years ago. Here are the words: “Building bridges between our divisions, I reach out to you as you reach out to me. All of our voices and all of our visions, sisters and brothers, we can make sweet harmony.” Here’s how a version of it sounds. This Sunday a trio will sing another song about community that I really love, and I know you will too when you hear Meggie Hoffman, Mary Beth Gray and Audrey Boyd singing One Voice by the Walin’ Jennys:
“This is the sound of one voice, one spirit, one voice. The sound of one who makes a choice. This is the sound of one voice. This is the sound of voices two, the sound of me singing with you. Helping each other to make it through, this is the sound of voices two. This is the sound of voices three, singing together in harmony. Surrendering to the mystery, this is the sound of voices three. This is the sound of all of us, singing with love and the will to trust. Leave the rest behind; it will turn to dust. This is the sound of all of us.”
Once I started looking and listening for it, everywhere I looked and all the music I heard in my body and spirit started evoking for me a phrase that surfaced at our retreat, and on which everyone present did agree. Our church is “a community of communities.” I experienced it in a series of shared meals, three days in a row. First at the church picnic with the other UCC churches on Sunday afternoon at Huddart Park. Then at the Peninsula Multifaith Coalition potluck which we hosted in our dining hall on Monday night, and again on Tuesday at the Good Hope Luncheon which we all shared this month in the CCP dining room. Come this Sunday when I speak on the theme of “A Community of Communities” and be open to hearing, seeing, tasting, feeling “A Community of Communities.”
With hope,
Pastor Jim