Let us remember that we are not alone until we light this flame next time.

Building relationships requires the risk of being open and curious.

What happens when you don’t agree?

I learned that love and support can be expressed in many different ways by different people.

We are one, a diverse group of proudly kindred spirits, here not by coincidence but because we choose to journey together.

We gather because we need community to do all of this holy work.

Can you imagine what it was like to be inside of that house, afraid that it might fall all apart from the destructive force of the wind and the rain, from the whole storm?

Over the years, I’ve built up an impressive array of tools for meetings: I-statements, being assertive, and all of that stuff. What I could improve on, though, is knowing when to switch tools.

Come. Gather. Not into a common space— sharing a physical closeness we long for, precluded by wise choice. But come, gather into this common time and a common space. We need to be together. We yearn for connection....

Years ago, I did one of those mud run obstacle races. There were eight physical obstacles on the course, but my biggest learning was that we all had a ninth obstacle.

In this community, we hold hope close. We don’t always know what comes next, but that cannot dissuade us. We don’t always know just what to do, but that will not mean that we are lost in the wilderness. We rely on the certainty beneath, the foundation of our values and ethics. —Rev. Theresa I.

In her 1975 theological treatise Suffering, German liberation theologian Dorothee Söelle* examines the ways that suffering can knit humans beings closer together, and can draw us more fully into the process of loving. She uses the term apatheia, “the inability to suffer,” to describe the...

We don’t always know what comes next, but that cannot dissuade us.

If justice is to be realized, our voices must speak loudly—even boisterously—of love.

What could you accomplish this week if you knew you had a ground team wishing you well? Who are the other explorers around you, needing a word of encouragement that would mean so much coming from you?

Despite being warmly welcomed over and over by the greeters, by the family sitting behind me, and by the lead pastor, I couldn’t shake that “guest” feeling.

Spirit of Life On this night, may we bear witness to the guiding lights: the lights in the sky That call us to gather, and to give of ourselves To celebrate new life....

It is our work, shared with each other in covenant, That creates and sustains this beloved community. We extinguish this chalice, but its light lives on in the directions we have chosen today. The light of this faith lives on in us, together, in our hearts, minds, bodies and spirits. Amen and...

May all our hours together be blessed as this one has been: by open-hearted sharing, learning from one another, and making beautiful harmonies together. And may we greet everyone we encounter with the same acceptance and grateful kinship, until we meet again. Blessed be.

For all the mothers and mother figures The grandmothers, aunts, and extended family members who mother The soon-to-be mothers, the wish-they-were mothers, the never-wanted-to-be mothers, the “it’s complicated” mothers The birth mothers, foster mothers, adoptive mothers, stepmothers The “used...