The Long View

We have heard again and again about the need for spiritual sustenance in this work. We are grateful to be offering some more resources in the coming weeks and months as part of Love Resists and new episodes of Fortification, in partnership with Auburn Seminary will be out soon!

We are also trying out a new thing! Every other week you’ll be hearing from us with a prayer, an ancestor and a song speaking to our spirits and what we need in order to be, courageously, steadily, humbly, on the side of love. So here it goes!

One ancestor to lean on, one prayer for our messy lives, and one song to strengthen and soothe.

ANCESTOR

"All we ask for is justice — not mercy or palliation — simply justice.” - Florida Ruffin Ridley.

Florida Ruffin Ridley (January 29, 1861 – February 25, 1943) was an African-American civil rights activist, suffragist, teacher, writer, and editor from Boston, Massachusetts. She was one of the first black public schoolteachers in Boston, and edited the Woman's Era, the country's first newspaper published by and for African-American women. Learn more about Florida’s life.

Like Florida Ruffin Ridley may we be unabashedly intersectional and willing to give the gifts of writing, teaching and history to ourselves and to our people. May we honor her wisdom and be worthy of her legacy.

PRAYER

For when you want to give up - Rev. Elizabeth Nguyen

For when you want to write the resignation letter,
Want to skip town
Give up on this campaign, this job, this congregation, this community, this family.
Start a new life slinging brunch. On a beach. Definitely on a beach. Specializing in sunny side up eggs on buttered toast and mango smoothies.
Never think about justice, covenant, love, heartbreak. Just about all the yellows of sun and egg and mango.
Spirit, give us the long view.
We are only here because someone refused to give up on this campaign, this job, this congregation, this community, this family.
Give us perspective, humor, a break.
Give us teammates who we can tell the truth to.
Give us faith, honesty, mangoes. 
May we dig down past the giving up,
Find the grit to get through.

SONG

As each thing before us is an opportunity for resistance and for love, we are meditating on how we engage, how we take care of ourselves and each other, and how we continue on. We have put on Diaspoura’s Consume/Resume to remind us about the cycles that have come before and will follow.

With love,

Elizabeth and Nora

Rev. Elizabeth Nguyen,  Ministry Associate for Youth and Young Adults of Color and Spiritual Sustenance Advisor, Standing on the Side of Love

Nora Rasman, Campaign Coordinator, Standing on the Side of Love