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Rainblue Christmas Reflections

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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

“I can have hope knowing that every day, my breath (that was almost taken from me in my darkness) is an act of healing. Every day that I choose to live and function is an act of resistance to the darkness that can so easily confine us.” – Charles Stanley (he/him)

On Peace

“We are called to ‘seek peace and pursue it’ (Psalm 34:14). A powerful way we do that is in community. Together we work for the justice that brings peace. Together we find the love and grace that grows peace in us. Together we find magic in the work that we do. That way we seek peace and pursue it.” -Rev. Cheryl Breiner (she/her)

On Joy

“I hope he [my son in foster care] is doing well in his new placement. I have peace knowing he knew love in this home. And I fight to hold onto the joyful moments we had, because they are the rope line to pull through the storms of regret and self-doubt and grief.” -Ashley Quinn (he/him)

On Love

“Recently, love has looked and felt and tasted like permission. Permission to be my messy, honest, authentic, sometimes put together, sometimes not put together self. Permission is a precious gift. Permission to show up without all the answers or any answers. To show up needing each other. Permission to cry into our chicken dinner. Permission to share our stories… I have permission, you have permission…” -Rev. Melissa Guthrie (she/her)

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.”