Dear Beloveds,

If we are going to start the New Year right, why not with liberating love?

This month’s Soul Matters theme is liberating love.  We can all think of various kinds of love – romantic love, familial love, love for your community, love for your sports team or favorite hobby, even.

During the month of December, we often find ourselves turned inward to our close friends and family.  Naturally, we are drawn to those we are most comfortable with – families, friends, and those familiar celebrations of food and candle lighting.

But liberatory love is a different love all together – it prompts us to look outward and to those people outside our circle who need our help.

At the start of the year, I don’t make resolutions.  But a good way to consider the work of liberatory love is to pick one issue that you care about – one issue that you will educate yourself about, one thing you will donate your time or money to, that you think will help create more freedom, justice, and joy in this world.  You may be concerned with environmental racism, or immigration reform.  Perhaps you are curious about the effects of mass-incarceration.  Starting on a path of education in depth is one way of beginning a journey of liberation.  And when you do, share what you learned – in a worship service, or with our Social Action Committee so that we can have a sense of what might be done about the issue in our local community.  Liberatory love is liberatory because it redraws the boundaries of our care and concern and makes our interdependence real.

I hope to see you this January.  Please check our calendars and look in your inbox for all our upcoming events.

As always, if you wish to make an appointment with me, please contact our office phone or email me at [email protected]

Regards,

Rev. Valerie Freseman