Today was another piece of liturgy to remember Juneteenth. We began with a Juneteenth litany adapted from Lift Every Vice and Sing. In her Children's Time Shirley read from Opal Lee and What It Means to Be Free: The True Story of the Grandmother of Juneteenth. A special service in our Ordinary season in the church year.
Pastor Emilie's mother, Velarie, attended worship today. Emillie's younger brother, Jojo, is in San Francisco with the SE Portland Youth Collective on their trip.
Our June remembrances have been meaningful to the congregation so far. A very different feeling from last week and yet there is a connection that was there as well.
Making the anniversary of an event a federal
holiday is important, and not just for symbolic reasons. It means that
on this one day we stop to think about something, recognizing its
significance in the life of our country.
Juneteenth marks the end of slavery, an institution of unspeakable evil
that had lasted in America for almost 250 years. To really think about
slavery - to allow your heart and mind to take in what it meant in terms
of sheer human cruelty, suffering and hopelessness - is to bear a
profound emotional weight. An appropriate weight. For this was the world
as it existed at that time.
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