{Content note for discussion of suicide, and dysphoria}

“One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice–though the whole house began to tremble and you felt the old tug at your ankles. ‘Mend my life!’ each voice cried. But you didn’t stop. You knew what you had to do, though the wind pried with its stiff fingers at the very foundations, though their melancholy was terrible. It was already late enough, and a wild night, and the road full of fallen branches and stones. But little by little, as you left their voices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds, and there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own, that kept you company as you strode deeper and deeper into the world, determined to do the only thing you could do–determined to save the only life you could save.” ~ The Journey, Mary Oliver

“Say remember when we were driving, driving in your car
Speed so fast it felt like I was drunk
City lights lay out before us
And your arm felt nice wrapped ’round my shoulder
And I had a feeling that I belonged
I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone.” ~ Fast Car, Tracy Chapman

As a child, do you remember the first time you realized adults are not invincible? Do you remember the moment you discovered your parents could experience fear? And did you ever have a moment when you realized you might be one of the things they’re afraid of?

For most queer folks who grew up in conservative families, that’s not too uncommon. I never knew if my parents policed my behavior, clothing, and hair because they were afraid for me or afraid of me. Growing up queer in a small Southern town meant being denied access to so many things–the least of all being clothing that felt like me. It’s interesting how clothing and hair are policed within these types of communities. By interesting I mean fucked up.

When I was ten years old, I fantasized about getting my hair cut short “like a boy.” And it wasn’t that I wanted to “be a boy.” I just wanted to look like one. My sister and I went to get our hair cut and came home. Our father flipped out and said we looked “butch.”

I remember the first time my mom told me I needed to dress more feminine and when I was told I couldn’t get away with not wearing a bra anymore. Playing with the boys suddenly wasn’t as cool but I could get away with playing with action figures with my male cousin Sam for a few years longer.

It was a miracle to get out of that town alive. Honestly, some days I’m not sure I would have survived much longer if I stayed. The word that keeps coming back is access. Especially access to education, clothing, a way out.

Today we celebrate the Obergefell v. Hodges victory for marriage equality and all I can think about is how far we’ve come and how far we have to go. Black trans women are still being murdered in the streets 50 years after the Stonewall uprising. And queer folx are still denied access to a way out of rural communities that seek to hold them hostage there.

They still want us to be in “drag.” They still want us to pretend to be like them. The “they” of course are the white cisgender, heterosexual people who rule the world we live in. Sometimes drag isn’t just drag–it’s real for us. Some of us aren’t just wanting to play dress up for your entertainment. When we “dress up,” we feel like ourselves.

In my closet, most of the clothes I own these days are anything but feminine. Also, in my closet, I have three dresses.

Even though I’ve not worn a dress in about three or four years, I’ve held on to these dresses in particular because I picked them out for myself. They’re comfy and I liked how I felt when I wore them. The one on the far left I chose for myself to wear for my college graduation. There was a “dress code,” so I went with my friends and it’s honestly one of my favorite dresses.

Shopping with friends was so unusual for me. My mom, sisters, and I would go shopping together and get our hair cut together. It was communal and I hated it. We always were in the women’s section and it was hard for me to like most of the clothes there. The floral prints, the skirts, the lace–none of it appealed to me.

I would look longingly at the men’s section with the suits and button down shirts, bowties and neckties.

Flashback again to three years ago…when I wore a men’s dress shirt and bowtie for the first time. It was for Halloween for my Doctor Who costume. Except for me, it wasn’t a costume and I felt free. For perhaps the first time ever, I felt free in the clothes I was wearing instead of trapped in someone else’s outfit and body.

Lately, my gender dysphoria has been heightened. I long to find peace in my body and am waiting to figure out insurance and money for top surgery. Mostly it’s so tiring being misgendered at work all day long as I get called “miss” or “ma’am.” I get a little excited if someone accidentally calls me “sir” even though I don’t identify as male.

Yesterday, it came to light that JK Rowling is anti-trans and has suggested that perhaps trans women/trans people aren’t real. Which sounds like a bunch of bullshit for someone who created a magical world where queer folk could actually escape reality for a bit. She gave me a gift–someone who struggled to read found her books and I found myself in her stories. Of Luna Lovegood who didn’t fit in and was teased. Of Neville Longbottom, who also didn’t fit in, was sensitive, and ended up saving so many in the battle of Hogwarts. My church said I couldn’t read her books as a kid and I did anyway. She can’t take that from me.

My mother sent me an email today asking what I wanted for my birthday next weekend. Her favorite thing to do for my birthday is take me shopping. HER favorite thing. Is to take me shopping for clothes. Every year for my birthday for as long as I remember–at least starting in middle school, she has asked me “What can I do for your birthday?” And every year for as long as I can remember, my answer was never respected.

All I ever wanted was love and acceptance for who I was. But you can’t wrap that up in a present. Maybe what I want is 25 years of my life back where I wasn’t allowed to be myself. I long for a day where I can have a relationship with my mother that is more than clothes and hair. She always manages to make my life about herself.

What do I want for my birthday? Just time spent with my wife–who I know accepts me fully as I am. And to spend time with folx who love and care about each other.

What I want was always denied. Education and a degree I was never supposed to have. Clothing, haircuts, a life that was my own. That was the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden and you’re damned if you take it and damned if you don’t. For now, I choose the forbidden if that means life.

For my mother: There isn’t a tangible gift you can give me that covers over suicide attempts. There isn’t a gift you can bring me other than to set me free. Because access has long been denied us queer people and if we want it, we have to take it by force.  Sometimes the world you want is the world you have to create for yourself. I won’t dress in drag for you any longer. We’re bringing our full selves, with our clothes, our hair, and refusing to “fit in.”

Blessed are the powerless for they shall have power to change the structures that deny them justice.

Blessed are the trans for they shall be called by their names and pronouns.

Blessed are the queer for they shall be accepted and loved as they are

Blessed are the children in cages, for they shall be set free.

Blessed are the refugees at our borders and immigrants within our borders for they shall find a home where they belong.

Blessed are the unarmed black boys, for they shall be protected from harm.

Blessed are the suicidal for they shall be brought back to life

Blessed are the protesters with their fits high in the air, and the rioters who throw bricks at inns for they shall see justice flowing like a river.

“At seventeen, I started to starve myself. I thought that love was a kind of emptiness. And at least I understood then the hunger I felt and I didn’t have to call it loneliness…” ~ Hunger, Florence + the Machine

“In those heavy days in June when love became an act of defiance. Hold onto each other, hold onto each other…” ~ June, Florence + the Machine

Sometimes, it takes someone giving us permission before we feel we can be who we are. So, for my first post for Pride Month (which I swear, I’ll try to keep consistent this time), I want to talk about living your life in a way that gives others permission to be who they are. Mostly, I want to share an experience I had going to a Florence + the Machine concert this week that may have been life changing.

I’ve been a fan of Florence since undergrad but I feel I’ve grown with Florence Welch just as she said she has “grown up with” her fans.

They opened with the songs June and Hunger from the newest album High as Hope and I didn’t expect to be wiping tears from my eyes or to be as enraptured as I was.

As I watched the band play and listened to Florence sing and twirl across the stage, I wondered what this world would be like if we didn’t have to be afraid to be ourselves. What if I felt free enough to twirl and dance. My wife was watching me as I watched Florence and I think the expression on my face communicates more than words. What you don’t see is how much I cried during this concert because I was stunned by how beautiful the music was.

Listening to Florence sing is like the feeling you get when you close your eyes and smile when the sun gently touches your cheek. She is Anne of Green Gables incarnate…a fairy in human form. An angel without wings–well, I’m not convinced she doesn’t have wings actually. There’s something about listening to someone sing whilst being fully who they are and sharing that with others that can’t quite be put into words. I’ve been trying to do so all week.

There’s something about a crowd of people all singing along with music that’s changed your life that can’t be put into words.

And then there’s this line.

“It’s Friday night and it’s kicking in. I can’t dress; they’re gonna crucify me…” 

For someone who dresses in flowing dresses and pantsuits with capes, Florence seems to be a free spirit–her soul is free in her body the way I long to be free in mine. Longing to be free in one’s own body, free to express gender that’s outside of cultural norms…afraid that “they’re gonna crucify me…” if I seek to change my body in ways that make me feel more me.

And yet she told the audience, “I’m shy…I am shy and extra. It is ok to be both.”

Maybe she’s an apparition with a secret to tell, or as the song Only for a Night from Ceremonials goes, “And I heard your voice as clear as day. And you told me I should concentrate. It was all so strange and so surreal that a ghost should be so practical. Only if for a night.”

I’ve been trying to finish this almost a week now. And it’s still not quite what I want it to be. But maybe that’s because there truly are not words to describe an indescribable experience. So, I’m just going to end it with linking perhaps my favorite song from this experience:

I accidentally wrote something more poetic for a theological reflection paper for my Life of Prayer class. I decided to share it because this reflection surprised me in many ways. Thankful for a seminary that helps me process in this way.

As a small child, I understood God to be like a seed planted in fertile soil. As I grew in my understanding of the Divine, so the Divine’s presence in my life grew up like a flower reaching to the sky for sunlight. Maybe God is a flower.

As a young adult in college, I understood God to be an overbearing, abusive parent, always telling me what to do and where to go, and if I did not do something right, I would be punished. Sometimes, bad things would happen just because God willed those things to happen and humanity simply had to deal with it. Maybe god is an ogre waiting to smite me?

One but not both of these perspectives can be true, I think, depending on how one chooses to experience the Divine, with a God that looks like the worst of humanity or a God that looks like the best in humanity—and maybe even in all living things we interact with each day. Through prayer over the course of these ten weeks, maybe I have caught a glimpse of the God who is a seed, the God who is alive and active in this world in all iterations and religions. We may all have a different understanding of how to approach this living, breathing Being, but so many come to the Divine expecting something. Perhaps I came expecting that the seed that grew into a flower as I grew up would remain so and that it would not become the Divine as an ogre my Church had promised me they would be.

Maybe that is a fairytale to hope that. But maybe, as I prayed the daily offices and recited prayers to the Divine, maybe the Divine presence can grow alongside my spirit once again. Maybe I cannot see the forest for the trees as the saying goes, but I think I have caught a glimpse of the Divine in each classmate spending time in prayer with me. Maybe I have caught a glimpse of the Divine in myself. If the Apostle Paul who once quoted some poets in Acts can say: “For ‘In him we live and move and have our being,’” (Acts 18:28) I think I can say that too.

Maybe God is a seed, a seed that once watered, grows with me as I grow into my calling, my sense of belonging in this world and with other people. Maybe God is a seed, a seed that grows into a tree that reaches its branches towards the sky. Maybe God is a seed. Or maybe God is a flower. Maybe, God is a tree.

And if God is a tree, with roots reaching deep into the earth, with branches growing out over the ground, roots spreading out as far as they can, maybe God does not have to be a fairytale of a world I hope to see. Maybe if God is a tree, this world I hope to see can be one I create. Not in isolation with God but in connection with community as we all seek the Divine in our lives and within ourselves.

Is God a seed? Or a flower? Or maybe God is an ogre waiting to smite me. Maybe God is a tree waiting to grow up to the heavens with me. I cannot say for certain what God is like but I can say what I have experienced of God and prayer. Perhaps God is many things to many people in many places throughout all time. If we are willing to look closely enough, that may surprise us and change us for the better. If God is a tree, a living, growing, breathing thing I can engage with, then maybe God can help me create a world where we are all connected to this Divine being regardless of where we come from.

Maybe, just maybe God is all of these things and more and refuses to be pinned down by our conceptions of Them. Maybe God is waiting for us to arrive at a place where we can see God in all that is around us and if we can see God in all of these things, we can dream of a world where all people and creatures are cherished and loved and cared for. Maybe God is waiting for us to arrive. And once we are there, we can share in a world where there is Love. Maybe, just maybe God is love.

(content note for mention of suicide and sexual abuse)

“Make my messes matter. Make this chaos count. Let every little fracture in me shatter out loud.” ~ Jupiter, Sleeping at Last

“Things we say now…” ~ from Wine Country

“It’s ok to want things. To give myself that permission…” ~ a thing I said in therapy this week

Grief is a weird thing. Especially when grieving multiple deaths. What brings me here today is the death of Rachel Held Evans less than two weeks ago. That feels surreal. She helped shape who I am now and so many others who have left toxic churches.

Grief is a weird thing. Sometimes you catch yourself crying in the middle of Target because not only did one of your favorite authors die, she was someone with whom you had hoped to become friends with, event hough you only met her that one time.

Grief is a weird thing. It is non-linear. You can be experiencing the stage of grief called denial after you’ve already accepted this is real. And none of us knows what to do with that.

Grief is a weird thing. When you’re accepting the death of what once was–your faith, your family, your life that you had to walk away from because it was not life-giving.

I sat with Mary Magdalene for a bit. She’s sitting outside the tomb of all she knew for three years, following a guy named Jesus who performed miracles and loved those on the margins.

And then I realized I wasn’t just grieving Rachel’s death. But a death of things I once knew. I never sat with that. Growing up realizing you are captive to others’ beliefs and actions and cannot choose things for yourself. Growing up with abuse and realizing…now you can choose.

You can choose to see an empty tomb and new life. But not before you grieve, because something is lost. Something is lost that never was. But now something can be gained.

You see, an abusive father and an emotionally manipulative mother do not have to be the end of the story. Homophobia that separates families doesn’t have to be the end of the story. Systemic oppression and taking away reproductive rights doesn’t have to be the end of the story. Because maybe there’s some fight left in us still.

This doesn’t have to end at a grave. It didn’t have to end when I tried to drown myself in the bathtub at age 12 after being shamed for talking about a girl in my youth group too much. Or all the other times after that when I remembered sexual abuse from my father and neighbor.

Maybe this doesn’t have to end in death. Maybe there can be new life.

How does a house become a home?

I wish these were things my mother taught me. She did teach me how to grow a garden.

How does a garden grow? It needs to survive but not just live. It needs to thrive, it needs attention, kindness, care, love. And maybe that’s close enough and good enough for now. I am grateful for the life she gave me. I wouldn’t be here without her obviously but I didn’t have a choice in the matter.

Grief is a weird thing. Sometimes what you are grieving is not over someone who died but over death to who you used to be.  I keep thinking about how grief is a non-linear process. Like, you can be in denial and anger. And move past that and then come back to the denial stage. I don’t know how to reconcile that. I don’t think we’re supposed to.

“Jesus was afraid” ~ Rachel Virginia Hester, (Please go read her blog, because she’s amazing: https://thegenerouspine.com/ )

“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” ~ June Jordan, Poem for South African Women (from Passion 1980)

“Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter, and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him…

Then the disciples returned to their homes…

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb…

Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he said these things to her.” ~ John 20:1-2, 10-11, 18

I didn’t have a Good Friday sermon. I’m not even sure I have a good Friday prayer. Sometimes it’s just “My god, my god, why have you forsaken me?” I don’t know what to do with Easter in our post-resurrection church calendar. I only know how to sit in the ashes and grieve most days because trauma is a bitch and this world has so much pain…I don’t know what I need.

But I do know I need a fucking resurrection. As a seminary student, I’m sure I’m supposed to feel something during Holy Week. This year, I felt more of a Holy Saturday than an Easter Sunday but I’m so longing for a resurrection. Yet, I keep coming back to post-resurrection Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

I keep thinking about Jesus as someone who had fresh wounds that hadn’t healed yet. Jesus shows up in front of the disciples with wounds NOT YET SCARS, fresh out of the grave (give or take a few days). And some of them don’t even believe him (re: Thomas, though he’s my favorite disciple).

So, he shows up to Mary Magdalene first. She gets to see his bloody scars first and the disciples don’t fucking believe her. There’s this saying I grew up hearing, “Preach from your scars, not your wounds.” I’m in seminary as a queer person who wants to do pastoral care. But how the hell can you heal if you’re constantly being wounded and re-traumatized by a church that doesn’t believe you. How do you do this thing called pastoral care working with churches and people who have also been wounded by churches? Of course, Brene Brown had a response for my questions: “How can you let yourself be loved if you won’t let yourself be seen?” (from Call to Courage a talk now on Netflix) The best advice comes in the form of a question sometimes.

This next part I call the queering of Mary Magdalene. Let’s do some midrash. Mary Magdalene is a bit of a mystery and yet she is mentioned BY NAME in all four gospels. John places her at the crucifixion of Jesus–she witnesses Jesus be brutally murdered. When others leave or question her words or her place in Jesus’ story, Mary stays. Mary doesn’t question. She soaks it all in and runs to tell the disciples about the resurrection even when they don’t believe her. A woman preached and men didn’t believe her. What else is new?

Why was Mary so special that she’s a common thread in every gospel? Why is she important? Luke just tells us she had seven demons cast out of her and she’s always described as “Mary of Magdalene” identifying her name and where she came from. John thinks she’s so important that he records a dialogue between Mary and Jesus that the other women who were there don’t get.

Based off James Carroll’s article in the Smithsonian Magazine (June 2006) on “Who was Mary Magdalene,” he notes: “What we are getting is not history but memory.” And whoever wrote John’s Gospel…I love his memory. Because the picture he paints is of a woman who’s seen some shit and gets to see Jesus first. Mary gets a speaking part that’s passed on to us.

Mary Magdalene amazes me and I feel connected to her through time. It may be a one way mirror but Mary Magdalene’s story seems queer as hell. Mary doesn’t just visit the tomb, see he’s not there, and go on her merry way. She runs to tell everyone else, and GOES BACK to the tomb. The disciples (well, Peter and John) see the empty tomb and go back home.

Mary sticks around. She sticks around to see what happens next because she loves Jesus that much. She needs a fucking resurrection too. She’s been through too much to give up yet. She watches Jesus be murdered by the State and religious leaders who can’t handle his challenge to power and radical love of neighbor. Talk about some trauma.

So yeah, when Jesus shows up again, she’s ready…

She’s in shock and she’s grieving, not recognizing him at first. But she’s ready. And yet we still don’t believe her. She is scandalized and known as the woman who had seven demons cast out of her. History remembers her as a prostitute–she’s thought of as a slut even though there’s no real evidence of this. Mary, they still don’t believe me either. Girl, I get you.

Thomas, bless his heart, says “Let me see this bloody mess for myself–then I will believe.” And no one calls him a slut for it. The worst he gets is “doubting Thomas.”

They tell me I don’t belong and that my faith and message aren’t worthy. So why do we stay? The question perhaps isn’t why Mary. I think the question is why Jesus?

Why believe at all when we will be wounded for it? Why do we stick around when no one else does.

When churches decide to kick us out, when churches are doing the wounding, and we go back in anyway.

Mary, you were wounded and you kept helping, kept healing. You had to heal yourself first and kept being wounded. But you showed up anyway.

Dr. Julie Todd, one of my professors gave a moving poem as a speech for Honors Convocation at my school recently. She says from her poem When Spires Fall, “Standing in the empty tombs, what can we imagine. Let’s not even call it resurrection. Resist the urge to fall back into old habits and old concepts. Let’s call it creativity. Let’s call it joy. Let’s call it the threat of possibility.” 

People ask queer folks, why keep showing up? Why keep showing up in spaces that have pushed you out, told you that you don’t belong, have imposed life-limiting theologies on you instead of that which was life-giving… (this concept comes from Carrie Doehring in The Practice of Pastoral Care) 

Why keep showing up?

Because at some point, we decided Jesus was worth it.

Because Jesus had wounds and so do we. 

Because “Jesus was afraid” and so are we.

Because we can heal.

Because we don’t want any more people to be wounded and need healing like we did.

Because healing is worth sticking around for.

Because of the “threat of possibility…”

Because “we are the ones we’ve been waiting for…” 

Todd continues in this movement,

“The rich and powerful fear nothing more than the empty space of pure possibility filled with the sounds of the pounding of thousands of pairs of feet of the ones who inspire no donations whose march began with whispers and dreams and not spires but raised fists and ferocious self-affirmations pointing upward lifting songs & doing drag shows the highest amplitude of loving the highest altitude of non-conformity sparking an uncontrollable heat that yes, will cause fires when spires fall, who are we?”

We are here being healed and reclaiming sacred spaces. Like holding drag shows in chapels, wearing binders on bodies, bowties and make up, glitter and rainbows. Pride flags and fists raised, our voices lifted up. These are a few of my favorite queers. We are bending the ears of those who refuse to hear us so that we cannot be ignored.

Let us heal our wounds and help others heal theirs too. Heal and be healed.

Blessed are the ones who are wounded for they shall be healed.

Blessed be the scars that marked our journeys here to healing. Amen.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

Sources used and referenced:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/who-was-mary-magdalene-119565482/

When Spires Fall, by Julie Todd, for Honors Convocation at Iliff School of Theology, 4/24/19

The Practice of Pastoral Care: A Postmodern Approach by Carrie Doehring

The Call to Courage, Brene Brown, now on Netflix

Rachel Virginia Hester, from a thread on Twitter and conversations we have often

“If you’re lost and you’re lonely, go and figure out why. Take a trip to the dark side. Go and have a good cry. ‘Cause we’re all lonely. We’re all lonely together.

Leave what’s heavy, what’s heavy behind. Leave what’s heavy, what’s heavy behind.” ~ Heavy, Birdtalker

“To love ourselves and support each other in the process of becoming real is perhaps the greatest single act of daring greatly.” ~ Brene Brown, Daring Greatly

“‘Real isn’t how you are made,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘It’s the thing that happens to you…’ ‘Does it hurt?’ asked the Rabbit. ‘Sometimes, said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. ‘When you are Real, you don’t mind being hurt.'” ~ from The Velveteen Rabbit: Or How Toys Become Real

It is time to step out into the light and let it reveal the Real Me. It’s time to give my body a chance to become My Body–one I can feel me in. One I can feel safe in. I love this body but it doesn’t fully feel like me yet. It feels like living in a fixer upper and there needs to be some updates to make this body temple more functional.

It’s time to make some changes around here. Not immediately, but in the next few months at least. It started with finding an identity that fit the ever growing understanding of my gender. Then, we changed the pronouns. Now I’m working on a new name and seeking top surgery consultation in the next couple of months.

Life is too short not to live it fully as yourself.

A dear friend of mine told me that they dreamed I had my surgery, and they came to visit me. And I said: “I am in pain but I feel real.” So, I’m hanging my hat on that mantra right now. It sort of sums up the experience of being trans/non binary.

I am in pain but I feel real. Surely, if dream me can do it, I can do this. With all the support of my wonderful wife and a community of friends who are my chosen family.

This past weekend I was so stressed out and couldn’t figure out why. Finally, after talking it out with my wife, I realized it was because so many good changes were happening all at once. And that I needed to move forward with the next step. It’s good to know that I am not alone on the journey…but it feels suddenly so much more personal–so much more…real.

It feels like becoming myself. And that thought is terrifying. Constantly writing myself into existence like I’m writing a novel that I’m living out every day. We all do this in our own way, I suppose. Whether we’re physically writing it down or just out there living life to the fullest. Whatever your method, don’t forget this novel of your life is yours to live out. You shouldn’t let anything hold you back from becoming yourself.

Ironically, I’m processing this here in this space on Ash Wednesday–the day Christians around the world reflect on the brevity of life and how death is inevitable. Death is inevitable but don’t let this hold you back. Just keep it in perspective. Death is inevitable but you don’t have to be afraid. Changes are inevitable. But the risk of living is worth it to be real. 

Brene Brown in particular has a lot to say about being vulnerable and combatting shame. But this one line may have saved me: “If you own this story you get to write the ending…” (from Daring Greatly)

“We’re all stories in the end. Let’s make it a good one eh?” ~ The Doctor, Doctor Who, Season 6, Episode 4

For the LGBTQ people at the UMC General Conference this weekend…You are so brave, beloveds. Thank you for being so strong.

My beloved queer siblings in Christ:

You are holy, holy, holy

Like a chorus of rainbow hallelujahs

Your voices cannot be silenced, cannot be ignored, cannot be mistaken for anything other than stunning bravery in the face of gross injustice.

You are holy, holy, holy

Like a chorus of rainbow hallelujahs

Your voices cry to the heavens, your voices reach beyond the stars, your voices are the echo of God’s heart of mercy.

You are holy, holy, holy

Like a chorus of rainbow hallelujahs

You are warriors of peace, messengers of love, children of God embraced by the Creator and Sustainer of your faith.

You are holy, holy, holy

Like a chorus of rainbow hallelujahs

You are holy, holy, holy