Dearest Good Troublemakers of Sacred Action,
As I announced recently after service, there is an opportunity coming up for you to participate in a special Ash Wednesday ritual this year at Stonewall on 2/18, in particular solidarity with Queer and Trans folks under attack -- I hope you can make it!
Together with faith leaders, congregants, organizers, and allies across the city, please join us for a morning ritual followed by the imposition of glitter-infused-ashes, which we will then take with us to our workplaces and into our days, carrying an embodied invitation to engagement with the ancient and persistent story of empire's persecution of those who refuse to bow to it.
GLITTER + ASH @ Stonewall, February 18
7:45 am, service 8 am, imposing of ashes following, until 10 am (TBD per availability)
If you know you want to join, in particular if you want to participate, or invite members from other groups or communities, PLEASE RSVP TO elae@faithinharmreduction.org!
You are welcome (if you represent another org or group) to co-sponsor, if you are called or comfortable to impose ashes, or simply show up -- and, you are encouraged to share this with your community. A post will go up on Instagram to share out soon, as well.
A BIT MORE ABOUT THIS RITUAL
As some of you know, Glitter + Ash was originated by Rev. Liz Edman, who—while unable to lead this year due to stepping into her new position at St. Peter's (yay!)—has offered her blessing for our taking up the charge to plan this year’s iteration and hopes to rejoin in future years. (Also, Micah will also be out of town on Ash Wednesday and sadly unable to join us this year...but many from the Judson community, as well as the Faith in Harm Reduction Ministry Fellowship I facilitate, have already indicated interest and involvement, and we will soon announce co sponsors / other faith spaces and orgs.)
Why Glitter + Ash now
Will you answer this call to hold sacred ritual alongside, with, and in reverence of your queer and trans siblings—especially youth, but also adults—facing increased violence, loss of health care, dwindling rights, and the countless rippling impacts through our communities?
What does it look like to take the GLITTER + ASH ritual into our streets and shared spaces this year:
to place a mark on ourselves and one another as testament to courage and life in the face of persecution;
to hold solemn remembrance of the legacies of empire violence within the most sacred of texts and stories—Christian and otherwise?
As Rev. Liz recently noted to me, the Glitter + Ash ritual has been “designed both to be observed by anyone who feels called to do so and also to be tailored to those folks’ needs and desires.” In that same spirit, I’m calling in people of faith—within and beyond the Christian tradition—who feel drawn to this powerful ritual of marking empire’s treatment of the historical Jesus, and his deeply queer call to love and action in the face of that violence.
A bit more about the broader context for this call
At this moment, while tensions and fascist violence flares across the country, and so much of our attention is appropriately fixed on Minneapolis and other sites of ICE's abuse, I know many of us are acutely aware of the news that genocide experts are warning that the US has moved into the early stages of genocide against Trans Americans like myself and some of you on this list. Perhaps you've been following as SCOTUS heard arguments around state transgender athlete bans this week, and/or tracking the voluminous anti-trans bills, or the alarming rise in anti-trans and queer violence. And, the hateful anti-LGBTQ vitriol spouted at multiple queer activists, pastors, and detainees by ICE agents -- including Renee Good -- is in fact part of well documented targeted widespread abuse of queer and trans asylum seekers and others in detention over the past few years.
Just as it is a critical moment for people of faith to step up against ICE (and against the ways that in particular white Christian nationalism is fueling that agenda), it remains critical for queer and trans faith leaders and our allies to offer visible, celebratory, and amplifying sacred space for in particular youth but also adults suffering under this brutal regime.
Please contact Elæ Moss Benedetto at elae@faithinharmreduction.org with questions, thoughts, folks to send or simply your interest! And please share with your people!