Dear Friends,

This week’s writing is happening post-concert… post-WomEnchant and Singin’ Women concert, in celebration of International Women’s Day. I hadn’t planned to wait this late in the week, but in this moment I can say ‘best laid plans’ with gratitude rather than a sigh. The concert’s energy and conviction, passion and articulation have fueled me once more, and I write with the greater inspiration of so many beautiful voices.

All that said, the content of this week’s musings may not change much from this morning to late in the evening. In fact I’d decided from Tuesday that I wanted to draw your attention to the beautiful new pew cards, fresh in the sanctuary since early Monday. Some of you have heard and seen my delight several times over already, as I’ve shared this printed trio at meetings and studies, all but gushing at their coming together with the combined passion of many. These three small cards work together to make (what we hope will be) a big impact. There’s a printed way to welcome and connect, along with our ongoing news on Trinity’s life and work, plus an equally important prayer card to use with our Prayer Box. The Life and Work card in particular allows key changes to what we put in print each week/send out through Friday’s email, as our ‘standing’ announcements are now present in the pews (and matched on the website) – meant for all but particularly for those still getting to know this community. By design, the cards are there for the taking and the sharing, and perhaps the posting somewhere at home, but through it all they are there to communicate a little more clearly and consistently who we believe God is calling us to be.

Sitting in the pews for the concert gave me a birds-eye view of these cards and even more so on this sacred gathering space. Perched for a while (in the peanut gallery, no less) beside one of the Singin’ Women, I wondered again what it might be like to come into a sanctuary, a community for the first time. How heavy are the questions and wonderings? the misgivings and second-guessing? the past experiences of welcoming or not? I thought about the unknowns and the unanswerables, alongside the perhaps inexplicable need to be with those unafraid to proclaim that Love makes space for us all. And I wondered what it would be like to walk into a community that cannot address all of that in one magic swoop, but can try and try again to answer the call for God’s shalom.

That’s a whole lot of pressure for printed words, and so I’m quite glad it doesn’t rest on them. It rests on us, all together, carrying our voices and experiences as a collective; living out our beliefs in faith and action, and arms wide-open welcome. It rests on a promise of grace and mercy, in spite of all that the world has said differently. It rests on the wings of God’s great and wise Spirit, swooping in and through with the promise of freedom, for all.

With love to you all,
Heather

“We Christians don’t hide ourselves from the nightmare that the world often is.
We stare the nightmare squarely in the face and say, “God has another way.”
(Morgan Bell, in Why I Believe)