“Living hopefully is not devoid of pain. Living hopefully means residing squarely inside of pain, naming it as real and still saying to it ‘You’re not the only story to tell’.”
We are now officially 377 years old as a congregation. There are not too many institutions that have lasted that long in our country. Congrats to us!
On Sunday at the end of the sermon I said, “For 377 years, 19,604 weeks, people have been joining this congregation. For those of you who have been here a while and those of you thinking of joining: thank you! Just by its very existence, this Meeting House and this congregation offers this witness: We can choose to be led by conspiracy theories or by reason, and we choose reason. We can choose to see around us witches or neighbors, and we choose neighbors. We can choose to chant “Off with his head!” or to quote Rev. King who said “Stick with love!”, and we choose to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
This Sunday will be our annual All Souls service and I’m looking forward to hearing the stories of our four speakers who will share lessons from their ancestors. We will also remember our loved ones who’ve died, especially in the past year or two. Children are invited to wear Halloween costumes and you are invited to bring canned goods for the children’s food collection. You’re also invited to bring photographs of ancestors or those who’ve died over the past few years for the windowsills. There will be a special memorial candle lighting prior to our regular joys and sorrows. Our lives carry so many stories. This week we’ll remember a few of them.
Yours in anticipation of candles and glowing jack o’lanterns,
Rev. Lee