A Month of Remembering.
From Yom Hashoah in mid-April to Memorial Day in late-May, this seems to be the month of remembering. We remember those who died in the Shoah (the Holocaust) – the 6 million Jews and the 5 to 11 million others who died tragically in and on the way to the concentration camps of the Nazis. We remember the soldiers and civilians who died in this country’s many wars. And we remember our own...
Since my arrival in Petersham just nine months ago, three members of this congregation have died: Ledlie Woolsey, Rev. Arthur Perkins, and Doris Coolidge. Each was integral to the life of this congregation in their time. Others have died, too – your sisters, in-laws, cousins, friends, so many good people, and so much loss.
We find ourselves in the midst of spring, in the midst of so much abundant life. And yet, we grieve. We grieve for our loved ones, we grieve for the tragedies of the world, we grieve for our less than perfect history; we grieve for the absence of peace in the world and in ourselves.
Now is the time for us to come together. We know that we need one another – we sing these lines or some like it in our hymns every Sunday. We have a need to be together – this is not just some kind of sentiment or never-actualized ideal – this is the reality of our congregational life, this is the reality of our communal life.
For some of us, these deaths may still feel like they just happened yesterday. For others, they feel like they happened weeks, months, or even years ago. Time moves differently for each of us. Let us hold each other in our grief, wherever we each may be. Let us speak the names of our loved ones aloud, sharing our memories without fear. Let us laugh if we feel like laughing and let us cry if we feel like crying. Let us be together in all of our grief. Let us be together in all of our remembering.
In faith and love,
Rev. Michelle.
