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[00:00:00] We come together from many places, pasts and communities, carrying all the stories of where we've been, the messiness of our current struggles, our hopes and dreams for the future, whether they seem tenuous or tenacious, come into this time of connection, bringing who you truly are. Our presence together makes this space sacred.[00:00:30] We gather in this place to remember and grieve. May we find moments of stillness and peace. We gather to be challenged to change and grow. May our hearts and minds be open to what we hear and feel. We come together to renew our commitment to justice. May we find new energy and inspiration for the work ahead. [00:01:00] Be seated. A warm welcome to everyone, and a special welcome to those who are visiting us today. Um, [00:01:30] and especially my Glamourphones Choir whānau, thank you so much for joining us again. Um, we've got a few visitors from other communities as well, some people who usually go to St Peter's. So, really lovely to have you with us, and um, thank you for joining us today. Uh, We usually have one of the children come up and light the rainbow candle at this point. I see there's a little person there. Um, would they like to come and light a candle for us? Yeah? [00:02:00] Jakob. Welcome Jakob. So we have a little candle here and this is our candle that symbolises our inclusive community and the special place of children in our community. And maybe you two can, do you want to hold it together? Take this one over to that one, yeah. Eternal Spirit, life giver, pain bearer, love maker, source of all that [00:02:30] is and that shall be, Father and Mother of us all, loving God in whom is heaven, the hallowing of your name echo through the universe. The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world. Your heavenly will be done by all created beings. Your commonwealth of peace and freedom, sustain our hope and come on earth. With the [00:03:00] bread we need for today, feed us. In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us. In times of temptation and test, strengthen us. From trials too great to endure, spare us. From the grip of all that is evil, free us. For you reign in the glory of the power that is love now and forever. Amen.[00:03:30] The reading from the Hebrew Bible is a retelling of Psalm 31. In you, O God, I seek refuge. Do not let me be worn down by the shame put upon me. Listen to the whispers of my heart. I trust in [00:04:00] you, the solid ground I can return to. A safe place where I can regather my strength. Divine wisdom, guide me through the obstacles all around. When people try to entrap me in rigid ways of being, I will let my spirit expand into the space you hold for me. [00:04:30] On this journey, I have been hurt again and again. There are groups who seek to erase me and those I love. We are taunted by strangers. And even people we once called friends now see us as broken. There are times when distress overwhelms me. I have [00:05:00] wept until I'm exhausted. My body and soul ache with grief. You have heard me crying out to you. Let your shine, let your light shine upon me. Be near me when the world feels unsafe. Friends, don't wait idly. [00:05:30] Let your hearts take courage in the knowledge God's love is boundless. God's path leads us toward justice. And we look towards the day. When the divine vision of radical inclusion comes into fullness. And the New Testament reading is from Luke, [00:06:00] chapter 10, verses 25 to 37. The parable of the Good Samaritan. An expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. As teacher, he said, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus replied, What is written in the law? What do you read there? And he answered, You shall love the Lord your God with all your [00:06:30] heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus said, You have given the right answer. Do this to And you will live. But wanting to vindicate himself, he asked Jesus, And who is my neighbor? Jesus replied, A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho [00:07:00] and fell into the hands of robbers who stripped him, beat him, and took off, leaving him half dead. Now by chance, a priest was going down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, he passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, while traveling, came upon him, and when he saw him, [00:07:30] he was moved with compassion. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, treating them with oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, Took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, Take care of him, and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend. Which [00:08:00] of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers, Jesus asked. And the expert in law said, The one who showed mercy, and Jesus said, Go and do likewise. And the contemporary reading is a quote from an interview with Alok Vaid-Mano, a trans South Asian writer, [00:08:30] performance artist, and activist. This is Alec's response to a question about how they practice joy during a time when there's a lot of fear and grief. The first is learning history, because we have this deep need to pretend as if everything is unprecedented, and it's just not true. There have been so many people before us who have felt the same sense of despair, and [00:09:00] I'm deeply curious about what they did with their despair, and how they navigated lives and societies that told them that they shouldn't exist. I take so much hope, especially during Pride. From the legacy of my trans ancestors. Imagine knowing that you'd be arrested for going outside, and going outsides anyways. Imagine being [00:09:30] arrested 20 to 40 times, and still going outside. Imagine the kinds of everyday brutality, and yet, the self knowledge it took. to continue to go outside as my transistors did. And so I tell myself, okay, why did they do it? The only probable reason that they could do it [00:10:00] is because they loved me, because they wanted to create a world where no one had to suffer like they did, and they birthed that possibility for me. So I have to do it for the next gen. I have to really fight to make sure that no one else has to experience this pain. That's what gives me hope. History [00:10:30] informs my future. For the word in scripture, for the word among us, for the word within us. We give thanks.[00:14:00] The transgender day of remembrance was started by transgender advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith, who said, The Transgender Day of Remembrance seeks to highlight the losses we face due to anti transgender bigotry and violence. I am no stranger to the need for our rights [00:14:30] and the right to simply exist as first and foremost, with so many seeking to erase transgender people, sometimes in the most brutal ways possible. It is vitally important that we are remembered, and we, those we lose are remembered, and we continue to fight for justice. So today we light a candle in the memory of the 320 trans and gender diverse people who have been reported as [00:15:00] murdered in the year just passed. God of peace, we give thanks for each precious life. For the divine light they shone upon in the world, and we mourn their senseless deaths. May all those who grieve find comfort and support. We acknowledge that these reported deaths only represent a fraction of the loss of life. [00:15:30] We light a candle for those whose deaths were not reported, and whose identities are erased as a last act of violence. God of justice, you know their names. Enfold them in your love. We pray for resolve to root out the injustice, ignorance and cruelty. And we pray that all those who perpetuate hate and violence will be led to [00:16:00] restorative justice. We light a candle for all the trans and gender diverse people. We light a candle for all those who have died because society did not ensure they had shelter, safe and accessible health care, and adequate income to survive. God of liberation, strengthen and guide us in the work that is needed to bring about a world where all can live with dignity and thrive.[00:16:30] We light a candle for all those who did not receive the love, support and acceptance they needed. Who internalized the violence of the world and took their own lives. Our hearts break for those who were only children and could no longer continue in the struggle just to exist. God of love, help us to embody your radical inclusion and to propagate [00:17:00] the seeds of acceptance throughout our families, churches and societies. On this day, we stand together against hate, and we renew our commitment to work for justice. In this way, we not only honor those we lost, we affirm the lives of the living, being allies, activists, and advocates as we affirm the truth that all life is precious. We light a [00:17:30] candle for the future we yearn for. God of all time. You kindle the flames of hope. We will never let them die away. Amen.[00:19:30] In our contemporary reading today, we had words from Alok Vaid-Mano, elsewhere in the same podcast. They speak about the weaponization of biology, and how the arguments about biology determining the possibilities of who we can be, and what we can do with our lives, have been used in the past to ban women from [00:20:00] education and voting, and to vilify people with diverse sexualities. They explain how these arguments, now being turned on trans people, are deeply entangled with the history of eugenics. White Protestants in Europe developed a theory of race suicide, which was based on their fear of non white, non Christian immigrants outnumbering them, and gaining power and rights. In this context, queer people [00:20:30] experienced torturous medical and psychological interventions to fix them, so that they could continue reproducing the white race. Fast forward to today in the USA where hundreds of pieces of anti trans and anti abortion legislation have been introduced or are being drafted. These issues are coinciding because they both undermine the idea that women equals mother equals vessel for reproduction. [00:21:00] When trans people expand the possibilities of gender and what we imagine femininity and masculinity to be, This threatens the system in the same way that women taking on leadership roles or work outside the home, or having autonomy over their reproductive organs, threaten the system. The threat is both to physical reproduction, but also to the ongoing production of the social and political structures that keep men, specifically white, cis, heterosexual men, holding [00:21:30] power. The response to this threat is violence. But our response must be healing, compassion, and love. Alok articulates it a lot better than I'll be able to, so you should go away and listen to some of their work or read it. But for now I want to give you one more quote from them. Stop framing this as a minority issue, and reframe this as a universal attack on self determination. Every [00:22:00] one of us should be able to determine our own gender. No one else should be able to tell us what we look like, how we should act, and what we should do with our bodies. So we need you to show up in this moment, not just as acts of allyship, but out of an insistence in your own dignity, your own capacity to transform, your own love of self. And trans people are blowing the whistle and we're trying to let you know, if they're targeting [00:22:30] us, it's not a question of if, it's a question of when. This is endangering the fabric of our democracy. End quote. Here in Aotearoa, the Disinformation Project published a research report on the concerning ways that far right ideologies are being normalised and spread here, and threatening our democracy. Professor Mark Wilson from the School of Psychology at Te Hiringa Waka University, responding to the report, [00:23:00] asks, How do we get from individuals making decisions about their gender, or what even gender means, to battles for the soul and the future of humanity? The report suggests that events such as those surrounding the recent Posey Parker controversy are framed in terms of issues around gender, but also serve as an entry point into an otherwise hidden world dominated by neo Nazi ideology. And that doesn't stop at demonising people on the basis of gender. Come for the gender [00:23:30] wars, in the hope you'll stick around for the racism and misogyny. Professor Joanna Kidman, sociologist also at Te Herenga Waka. Describes this as a swarm of hate that gathers and spreads across diverse groups of followers. Eventually, the swarm moves on, but it leaves a lasting imprint, and that's risky for targeted groups. I'm sharing these ideas not because I feel like, not because I think that you need to feel personally [00:24:00] threatened to be motivated to take action. I think we're gathered in this community because we know how important it is to stand with those who are marginalized. But I also think it's important to see the whole swarm. To notice how it's gathering and growing because we need to find ways to disrupt it. I also believe as a congregation established by white colonial settlers, however ethical we may believe those particular settlers to have been, it's important for [00:24:30] us to reflect on how we may be part of maintaining structures of power and privilege. We also need to be aware of how white supremacy, patriarchy, and the gender binary harm us all so that we can take responsibility for our own healing. Which brings me to what I hope you will take away as an overall theme from this service. The healing and transformative power of radical love. [00:25:00] Earlier in the readings we heard from a look about how they experience the bravery of their ancestors as an act of love. They have also spoken of how the love they experienced within their family, and from their aunt in particular, felt so real and true to them that they knew that the hatred expressed to them online and on the streets couldn't be the truth. There is plenty of research that shows that the mental health and suicide disparities for queer people evaporate when we [00:25:30] exist in spaces that accept us. When we have people in our schools, churches and families who make us feel their unconditional love, who make love real in their words and actions, it's less of a struggle for us to survive. Having somewhere or someone who makes us feel we belong makes such a difference. We're going to have a poem in a few minutes by Jennifer Espinoza. And I was tossing up two different [00:26:00] possibilities from her poems. The one that we're not going to have the whole poem has these lines. One day I will finally be alive. I can feel it. I know I will be alive. Because life is beautiful, and I am beautiful, and I belong in it. I belong in life. I may not belong in this life, but I belong in life. That [00:26:30] line's just been breaking my heart as I've been thinking about this. Preparing for this service. Earlier the glamophones sang, There's nothing I wouldn't do to make you feel my love. And I was thinking about the young people in my family, and all my hopes for them. I want them to always know they're cherished, and never to question whether they belong in this life. My love for them, and my dreams for their future, [00:27:00] motivate me to be open and take action on my own gender transition. Even though that's painful and feels risky in our current context. I already know from being a queer person in the church that it's harder to hate us when we're no longer abstract. When we turn out to be your child or sibling or someone you sit next to at a church meeting. I also know that I've only been able to learn more about myself because others have been open about who they are and I've seen reflections of myself. [00:27:30] There's a line in the next song that the choir will sing about the words that don't come out. And I think any queer person, and maybe any human, will be able to relate to that experience of having a big complicated mess that's all in your head, in your heart. Maybe you only held it in for a short time, or maybe it was years. For me, it was months, because I'm exhausted. I don't want to do another hard thing right now. I want to sit at camp for a while, catch my breath. [00:28:00] But then there's that call from deep inside me and far beyond me, urging me on this journey. And reminding me of the promise in Isaiah which says, I will be there with you, even when things are overwhelming, I'm right there with you. And so sometimes we need to be the ones to show that love and solidarity to others who are struggling and overwhelmed. For those of us who are part of the church, how can we make the unconditional [00:28:30] love of God real to those who are still being traumatized and who feel that love can't reach them? Now, I promised you a poem, it's coming in a moment. I just found out that the Paris Review has this, um, advice column, a poetry prescription where you can write in about whatever hard stuff is going on and whatever difficult emotions you're going through and you'll get recommended a poem, which I just think is a brilliant idea. And someone wrote in saying, I'm a trans [00:29:00] guy with religious parents who are unsupportive when they acknowledge my transness, and they really acknowledge it at all. I mainly feel that I do not belong or fit in with my family. And Sarah, who chose this poem, says, Jennifer's poem is about her body and her body's story. And it isn't the same as yours, but I do want you to know that you, too, are solid matter. I cannot see your shoulders from here, but I care about what they carry. I hope you find kinship with people [00:29:30] who recognize and celebrate you choosing a courageous, honest life. And that is my prayer too. It's a poem about resilience and connection. And the need for connection. And after that we'll have another song from the choir that also speaks to those themes. While we sing I invite you to think about who in your family, community, or further away needs to feel love. The love of God, or the love of kinship and connection and community. What lines are you [00:30:00] willing to cross to make them know that they are loved? The poem is called My Trans Body by Jennifer Espinoza. I pick up the phone and send you some words about my trans body. They float across America and are careful not to touch anything between, between us or worry about who sees them. They just crackle and spin and soar through the air, [00:30:30] observing scenes of everyday events. Many birds moving like a single animal. Trees swaying in place. Men being men to everything's detriment. When you hear my words it reminds me I'm solid matter. In some sense I am the daydream of an alternative universe. In another sense I'm far too present here. I say, look at my shoulders. Look at all that I carry.[00:31:00] But all anyone sees is their shape. No one hears what my legs do or remembers how I built them from nothing. How I trudged through the dull grey shit of a gendered life until I could no longer take it. They make movies about us being sad and dying, but they never talk about what it is for us to be alive. To love life so much, we choose this brokenness just to have the smallest taste of it. I'm not trying to play with [00:31:30] your emotions. I don't want to be your inspirational object. I'm saying I am here now. Embrace me. Or get out of my way. I have big plans. They involve staying alive. They involve claiming my space and never being quiet again.[00:35:30] Yes, it's true. The prayers of the people, love maker, life giver and pain bearer. We pray for healing and hope [00:36:00] for those who have witnessed or endured violence. May they be surrounded by support and love. We pray for healing for those who have turned their own pain into violence against others. May they come to see another way is possible. We pray for the wisdom, courage and unity. Needed to help us attack the roots of violence and genocide. The hatred, [00:36:30] intolerance and misinformation that dehumanises whole groups of people. Stripping away their rights and dignity. And eliminating whole communities. The lies that divide us into the false binaries of us and them. Friend and enemy. Good and evil. We pray that we may have the strength to overcome any fear or apathy that might hinder us from speaking up or taking action. [00:37:00] We pray that advocates and peacemakers will have the resources they need and have their work and words amplified and that governments and organizations will heed their calls. We pray these prayers in the name of the one who is beyond all norm. And in the book today, we pray for peace in all conflicted regions around the world. We pray for the desperately needed humanitarian aid to get to the people of [00:37:30] Gaza, and for the Israeli hostages to be freed. In the circle of prayer today, we think today of the people of Croatia and Slovenia, and the organizations working for reconciliation in Croatia and Slovenia. We hold all refugees in our hearts. and pray in particular for those who are still detained in Australia. We give thanks for recent progress, and pray that their calls for justice might yet be answered with compassion. [00:38:00] In New Zealand we remember those in Parliament, and today we name Ricardo Menendez March, list, and Honourable Mark Mitchell Whangaparaoa. Here in the Central Presbytery we pray for the leaders and people of Balblock, Leperton, Co operating Church and New Plymouth. We bring all our prayers together in the prayer for St. Andrews. If you are visiting with us this morning, I invite you, if you wish, to use this prayer for your place as well as for ours.[00:38:30] Bless your people, God, and renew our life in this place. Refresh us with a spirit of love and respect for all who follow the Jesus way. For those whose pathways differ from our own. and for care of the earth and its creatures. Bless the cities in which we live, that they may be places where honest dealing, good government, the desire for [00:39:00] beauty, and the care for others flourish. Bless this church, that what we know of your will may become what we do, and what we believe, the strong impulse of our worship and work. May we find ways to contribute to bringing about transformation of hearts and the transition of our world from grief to celebration, from shame [00:39:30] to pride, from ignorance and misinformation to understanding, from othering to connection and love, from complacency and helplessness to hope. And may we know hope to be an ongoing, unfurling action we support each other to continue. Amen.
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