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Rev. Vicky's Message June 20, 2024
As noted in our eblast headline, we will be celebrating Pride Sunday this week at Unity of Monterey Bay, where we are unapologetically inclusive and affirming (as we do weekly) that “ALL people are expressions of God and God’s Love.”
Celebrating Pride Sunday, in church particularly, is a way of responding to and seeking to help heal the hurtful and hateful messages so many in the LGBTQ+ community have received from religion and churches over time…based on prejudiced and erroneous interpretations of the Bible.
It is similar to supporting the “Black Lives Matter” movement, and honoring Juneteenth – as an acknowledgement of and response to our nation’s history, that includes both slavery and, sadly, ongoing systemic racism.
JUNETEENTH (Wednesday, June 19), also known as Emancipation Day, symbolizes the end of slavery and commemorates the reading of President Abraham's Lincoln’s General Order #3, announcing the freeing of slaves in Texas, on June 19th, 1865 (sadly, 2 ½ years after Lincoln had signed it). It became an official national holiday in 2021 when President Biden signed the measure into law.
Both of these observances/practices (as well as many others) offer us opportunities to more fully “love ourselves into wholeness” as we open our hearts and minds to reveal and release any conditioned beliefs and attitudes we may hold that are contrary to our true identity as expressions of God’s infinite and unconditional love.
As our June 19th Daily Word (in part) proclaims:
“I am a channel of God’s freeing love.”
As a member of the human family, I feel a responsibility to help care for others. Each person deserves happiness and freedom. If I see someone in need, I do what I can to lend a helping hand. If I become aware of injustice, I feel moved to service. Through divine love and courage expressing as me, I can speak up for those who have no voice.
God’s love is as close as prayer and as natural as any act of giving. It is a force for good in the world. I commit to caring. By doing so, the world will be a freer, more loving place.
Do Justice…Love Kindness…Walk Humbly…with God
Namasté,
Rev. Vicky
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