Whoever you are,
Wherever you are from,
Whomever you love,
Whatever it is you have done,
You are welcome here.
You are welcome to this time, this space, this moment
that we carve out of often busy and chaotic weeks.
You are welcome to this time for collective breaths,
for words, for music,
for lighting candles,
and for us to simply exist here, together.
And you are invited into worship this morning with these words from Ta-Nehisi Coates*:
“I believed, and still do, that our bodies are our selves, that my soul is the voltage conducted through neurons and nerves, and that my spirit is my flesh.”
Our bodies are our selves.
My soul is the voltage conducted through neurons and nerves.
My spirit is my flesh.
Wow, okay, yes. Yes to all of that.
The essence that is you—that spark of life,
is in your body;
is of your body;
and it is—you are—divine.
In other words, you contain the holy within you right now.
And now, I invite you to take a breath as we enter into this time of worship in body, mind, and spirit.
*From his book Between the World and Me, p. 79