November 2020

Rarely, if ever, are any of us healed in isolation. Healing is an act of communion.

bell hooks

The month of November is marked by the confluence of holy times devoted to death: All Saints Day, All Souls Day, Samhain, Halloween, and Dia de Los Muertos. These holidays honor death and those who have died, and make space for us to heal our losses. What’s particularly healing about these times is that they are occasions that bring families and communities together. Healing indeed becomes an act of communion, as bells hooks calls it.

This month we will have other opportunities to gather to heal. A post-election vespers service as well as a post-election Sunday morning service are opportunities for us to come together after a contentious election. The divisions in our nation, our communities, and for many of us, in our circles of family and friendship have left us angry, bewildered, frustrated, exhausted, hurt, and/or wounded. We need places where we can gather to begin to do the work of healing and to imagine what healing might even look like.

This month I encourage you to consider how you will lean into healing. How might you embrace the pain of loss and the pain of our national divisions in a way that can create more space, more connection, more communion? I look forward to exploring these questions together.

Yours in courage and hope,

Rev. Dr. Sandra Fees