Ordination Sermon
When I decided I believed in God again, but couldn't figure out where God was, I would say only one prayer at night: let me be a part of what brings things together, not what pulls apart.
I don't think there's any way to maintain our initial sphere of wholeness, not if we plan to truly participate in the world. Hearts break, the future breaks into days so we can walk through them, stories break into words, light into color, sound into notes.
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Reaching Out: America, a community social action project, took root from my Chaplaincy Institute practicum. Here at Reaching Out: America, we are committed to the idea that a child's rights are human rights. We are working toward a world where children everywhere can enjoy their fundamental rights, free and secure from all forms of abuse—whether its name is sexual, violence, or cruelty by withholding food, clothing, shelter, or the possibility of education.
Individuals and society can change through the transformative and healing power of art. Reaching Out: America raises awareness of the adversity that those victimized by child abuse have survived, as well as validating their heroic resilience to the abuse they suffered. This is a human rights issue that needs addressing by changing minds, changing laws and changing the way we deal with survivors in the aftermath of the crime that they have experienced.
We are collecting handprints as a collective visualization of how we want the world to be for children. People from Africa, London, the Caribbean, Canada and the United States have responded.
A comment from a participant in the Child Abuse Survivor Monument Project:
“The workshops reaffirmed the power of every survivor (through) courage, creativity, compassion and friendship... The monument and all it stands for is a healing place—a place to rework personal trauma into a totally hopeful outcome.”
I am having installations with all of the handprints in different art spaces, to inspire people to respond. Over the next couple of years the handprints will ultimately find their home inside of a memorial to survivors of abuse.
Would you like to participate? Here's how: simply place your hand on a piece of paper, draw an outline of your hand, then on or around the hand write a message of how you want the world to be for kids. Include color, details as you wish.
Mail your handprint to:
Reaching Out America
37 Bay Park Terrace
Alameda, CA 94502
We can break and stay broken in our separate pieces, or we can break into greater complexity and relationship. This is the "how" of grace.
I encourage people to see their fractures as a gift—for that is where the light shines through.
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Please go to www.reachingoutamerica.com for more information about the Reaching Out: America project.