Sunday Services

This month’s theme centers around the topic of courage. Rev. Rod Richard’s sermon titled “Where Seldom is Heard…” shares his views of courage and the 3rd principle. Please join us Sunday morning!

The monthly worship theme of Courage intersects this week with national Coming Out Day. In both a personal and a political/social justice context, coming out as a queer person in today’s America takes tremendous courage. Those of us who strive to be allies to the LGBTQ+ community also need to summon our courage as we support our queer loved ones.

As the documentary film “Bad River” depicts, native American tribes have a fierce dedication to protecting their land and water. The story of the Bad River tribe’s struggle with Enbridge over the line 5 pipeline is both sobering and inspiring–and it has greater implications about the spirituality of our connection to the land and about our obligations to the seventh generation to someday follow us.

Courage has meaning only in relation to fear: therefore to explore and to access our courage, we must name our fear. We demonstrate personal courage when we dare to be visible as LGBTQ people and allies; we demonstrate group courage when we work together to defend our rights; and as a society we show courage when we resist authoritarianism. Recognizing that fear is a core tool of authoritarianism allows us to name that fear and overcome it.