Rainblue Christmas Reflections
With conversation about the weather in our cities and the weather swirling in us and around us, more than 30 people gathered virtually for the first annual Rainblue Christmas.
How would you describe your mood or spirit using a weather reference? What is clouding this holiday season for you?
No matter the weather swirling in us and around us, we affirm the gift of community.
An Affirmation of Community
Words: Mary Farrell Bednarowski
Adaptation: AllianceQ and First Congregational Church of Christ, Memphis, Tennessee
We will be together.
We will stand as siblings given life by one God.
We will be together.
We will watch out for one another.
We will listen to what needs to be said in a spirit of compassion.
We will respect the power of silence.
We will wait for the slowest.
We will sooner or later catch up with the fastest.
We will dry the tears of those who are weeping and know that they will dry ours when the time comes.
We will let ourselves begin to feel at least a little of the pain of those we have considered our enemies.
We will entrust our stories to each other.
We will not be skeptical that hope, peace, joy, and love will come.
Reflections
Four speakers offered reflections that concluded with a call + response and a holy pause during which we were invited to write/draw/move/wonder/engage…
On Hope
On Peace
On Joy
On Love
A Blessing
“Queerly beloveds, receive this blessing of the Holy’s sheltering arc of hope, peace, joy, and love. Go forth and love the Holy, your neighbor, and yourself in all that you do. Live into the fullness of sibling Spirit’s shalom so that every day is an act of both healing and resistance. Bear witness to the love of our sibling Jesus so that those divinely beloveds who do not know that love will find [love] in each one of us most treasured and generous friends. Amen.”