Dear Fremont Family:

I hope you have had a moment to begin to appreciate our newest piece of art now hanging in the Sanctuary as part of our Great 50 Days of Easter Worship Series entitled, “Another World is Possible.” When our Easter season comes to an end on Pentecost Sunday, May 24, we will return this beautiful collaborative rainbow spiral to the Narthex for your closer inspection and reflection.

For those who may not know, we made this incredible piece of art together. Upon my return in February, we worked with Rev. Karen Shimer, our consultant in the art of Soul Pages, to take fragments of what we have learned about ourselves and our call to participation in the life of Fremont and write these things onto painted pieces of paper. She, then, received what we had written and magnificently incorporated them into this extraordinary piece of art. Every word, prayer, inspiration and vocational call that we shared is included in this holy spiral. I hope you will take the time over the next few months to “find yourself” included in this whole. If you can remember what you wrote (!), locate those words and know that your wisdom has an important place among us.

As I have been gazing at this colorful spiral, I have started to ponder first the single words written on fragments. These single words seem like seeds for our future growth or like stars that make up the constellation of who we are becoming. They seem like glimpses of a future vision of the “different” world that Jesus’s resurrection seemed to inaugurate so many centuries ago. I want to include some of those words here and invite you to read through them almost like a kind of lectio divina. Read them prayerfully, carefully, slowly and begin to imagine a world where these things are not only possible, they are already beginning to shape our new human reality: honesty, kindness, friendship, encouragement, support, vulnerability, harmony, availability, curiosity, courage, playfulness, authentic, reconnected, inclusion, love.

Can you imagine a world where these values are not just found within any one specific faith community but are present across the world? And, these single words are just the beginning of God’s renewed vision for us.

Thank you for your willingness to walk with me through my sabbatical leave and to pick up with me, upon my return, not so much where we left off, but rather somewhere new as we spiral toward a shared life together even more beautiful than before.

Grace and peace,

Erin