Blog Archives: May 2021

We've been issuing an open invitation for more voices in worship. On May 23, Eli Krych took us up on that and read an original poem as our First Reading for the day. Stay Strong Some say you are weak. But no, you are powerful, you are strong, stay that way. Sometimes it is scary, stay strong. We are with you, your family is with you, God is with you. You are strong. You have courage. You can rise from the darkness because you are strong and powerful. Your courage brings light so you can end the dark and we will be there ...

If you go out into your yard, or a place where people have not sprayed chemicals on the grass, you might find tiny, beautiful, purple violets. If you pick some of these, you can make some super-cool, color-changing violet syrup. Here is a short video that will show you how to do this by Alexis Nicole (AKA the “Black Forager” - she’s also on Instagram) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLGdRoTuYLs   In this picture, Sarah and Sonja Noonan-Ngwane have been “foraging” - collecting violets and dandelions. (You can ...

As we marked the 51st celebration of Earth Day last month, and as we move ever-closer to irreversible climate catastrophe that disproportionately impacts low-income and communities of color, Joy Bergey, the Director of our Environmental Justice Center, co-authored a piece in the Chestnut Hill Local about a bold initiative that would make a difference. You can read the piece at https://chestnuthilllocal.com/stories/take-on-our-biggest-crises-with-30-million-solar-homes,17138. To learn more about the 30 Million Solar Homes Stimulus Package, ...

During lockdown last spring I began to take stock of my relationship with alcohol. Like an increasing number of Gen Xers, I was “sober curious” and had been flirting with the idea of going alcohol-free for some time. I was an occasional, social drinker in my 20s and 30s. My heavier drinking started when I hit middle age and became a parent. Motherhood transpired for me at the same time that I moved to the U.S. from the U.K., leaving behind a career and a lifestyle that I loved. Suburban stay-at-home parenting left (and still leaves) me ...

(I am large, I contain multitudes). - Walt Whitman Don’t worry; I’m not going to make you go find a copy of Leaves of Grass so you can puzzle your way through “Song of Myself.” If you feel motivated, you are perfectly free to send me a brief essay laying out your case for Whitman’s choice of punctuation here. Why parenthesis? The declaration seems bolder than a parenthetical comment. Do they represent the container of the multitudinous self? Does the ephemeral nature of parenthesis suggest the porousness of the self? Assignments are due on ...