This is the time
This is the place
This is the land.
This is the land of the
Massachusett
Pawtucket
and their neighbours
the Wampanoag
and Nipmuc Peoples.
This city of Boston.
This city which takes pride in its historical place as the cradle of the American Revolution:
The first successful uprising of colonised peoples against the British Empire.
And this cathedral church of St. Paul is built circular in reaction to the spiky Gothic rectangles of the colonial power.
This cathedral with its magnificent Greek columns built as a temple to reason and free thought.
These beautiful and harmonious Greek style pillars made from sandstone quarried in Virginia rather than Connecticut because that way they were $8 a ton cheaper.
$8 a ton cheaper because they were dug out of the quarries by enslaved people.
And I’m grateful to the Cathedral for so diligently researching and revealing this fact so it can be the cornerstone of their efforts to achieve healing and restoration…
… Just as I’m grateful to them for appointing as one of their Bishops a member of the Cherokee tribe
Because it matters so much that together we find a way to heal these terrible wounds
These wounds on our hearts and on the hearts of our Mother the Earth
These wounds and the wounds of the unhoused people who gather on the cathedral steps
Often taking refuge from their trauma in alcohol and hard drugs
And the dealers who gather like vultures to profit from their addiction.
And the Cathedral offers a sanctuary they call Many Angels Needed Now and Always
Because Manna is also needed by all of us, always…
And the Cathedral also offers these people a place to write and to tell their stories, stories which need to be heard but very often are neither told or listened to
And they call it The Black Seed.
And then they have a Chinese Mission for Chinese Communities, and they offer a space for Muslim communities to perform the Friday prayers
And they offer a space for people maybe hurt by past experiences in repressive churches, and/or activists seeking social change
A place to craft and create new forms of collective sacred expression
A place they call The Crossing.
And that so resonates with me because long ago I was trying to co-create a dance/text piece with that title
At a time when it had become utterly clear to me that I could no longer go on living as a man
And was in such deep anguish because I didn’t know what to do.
Just as we all, I think, right now are in such deep fear and anguish because we know things can’t go on like this
We know they have to change and we don’t really know how
And the question someone asks Queen Jesus
“Mistress, how should I live?”
Hangs so pregnantly in the air
As the hesitant steps we are trying to make forward
Are so consistently blocked by ruthless men who care for nothing but to hold onto their power
And in the end have nothing to offer but their hatred.
And all this in my mind somehow
As I try to channel the words of Queen Jesus
Standing in the centre of the labyrinth so beautifully inlaid in the marble of the cathedral floor
Aware of holding a weight of suffering and trouble
In the audience who are sharing the space with me
All of us in this together
All of us here to love and to be loved.
All of us trying to find a way forward
Into this uncertain and fearful darkness
And I want to say:
Look, there is light
Light in this darkness that the darkness cannot destroy
And there is a light inside us that will help us find it
As we stumble forward together over the face of our Mother the Earth.
But we are not alone, and so thank you, Boston Cathedral of St. Paul,
Thank you for trying to be a house of prayer for all people
Thank you for being with us as we try to find a way forward towards a better world.
This is truly wonderful.
Thank you for shedding light on all our lives
What an amazing space. Inspiring! Look forward to hearing more when you’re back. X