Pilgrims on Cedar Lane’s recent Border Witness Trip shared a profound experience that uncovered the legal, cultural, and spiritual complexities of injustices perpetrated at the border – and here at home. This Sunday, fresh from celebrating the abundance of Thanksgiving, we’ll share our stories from the border, lift up the strength and resilience of those who cross the desert, and consider the borders that we might cross in our own lives, and in our communities.

French historian Alexis de Tocqueville described gratitude as a “habit of the heart”. Recent studies suggest that even when our lives go unexpectedly well, gratitude is not our default response. If we are grateful people it is because we learn to be grateful and continue to choose gratitude, to make the ongoing choice to respond gratefully in tragedy and triumph, risking that our response might reshape us and become habitual.

Today's Bio:

Last Spring, Cedar Lane joined 682 UU congregations to hold a White Supremacy Teach-In to look critically at the ties our hiring processes, cultural assumptions, and habits have to racism, patriarchy, and white supremacy. In late August, we joined over 700 interfaith and activists partners from the DMV region to say NO to all systems of white supremacy and to say YES to Love Over Hate.

We begin our November Worship with a time of remembrance in “Love. Loss and That Thing Called Abundance.” This year’s Service of Remembrance will include a ritual where the congregation will create an altar to remember loved ones who have passed, so please bring an item that reminds you of someone you have lost with you to the service. You can also expect the hear the names of Cedar Laners who have passed this year, and the wonderful music you have come to love each year on this holy day.

Liberal religion is always a work in process, given shape in response to the needs of the day. Tradition can inform but not direct us. Even who we mean when we say "we" is shifting. What is certain is our commitment to resist hate and proclaim the power of love.We need our congregations to hold us as we search for wholeness and stubbornly reject despair.

Rev. Eric Cherry, Director, UUA International Office & Rev. Abhi Janamanchi