A letter from me and Queen Jesus in America

(with deep thanks to First Churches, Northampton MA)

Surely a good angel guided me to this place.

Guided me and Queen Jesus.

Here, to begin our tour of America.

This place of such history and beauty and love and kindness and hospitality.

This place which I need to acknowledge  was once within the ancestral homelands of the Nanotuck peoples.

And where I need to acknowledge the Nipmuc and the Wanapoag to the east,

The Mohegan and the Pequot to the west,

And the Abenaki to the north.

I also need to acknowledge the ancestors who, not so long ago, were brought across the ocean by force.

Driven from their homeland and compelled to work in this country with whips and chains.

Slavery and colonial expropriation are deep deep wounds in all our hearts and on the face of our Mother the Earth.

Yet they are also the foundations of the riches and the prosperity of this country and of mine; and all of us need to acknowledge them as we engage in the task of building a better, juster, and more sustainable world.

It is my responsibility as an artist to do what I can to heal these wounds; and I want to dedicate the work I do in this church, and in all the churches I will visit in this amazing, creative, and beautiful country.

And especially here, First Churches Northampton, such an important stopping place in the Underground Railroad where enslaved African Americans could escape their bondage; and such an important place for the great Sojourner Truth as she pursued her struggle to bring slavery to an end.

It matters, too, that this church, along with others in this town, was a place that recently offered safe refuge to refugees fleeing oppression in their own countries and that right now offers refuge to trans people and their families fleeing oppression in their own US States.

I feel so honoured to be here to be part of this work and part of the work we all need to be involved in to resist the reactionary forces seeking to gain power in this country, and so many countries in Europe, at this crucial time.

Because this is the time,

And this is the place,

Where we meet each other.

At this time, and in this place, where the old order is dying,

Slowly and painfully but also inescapably,

giving way to the birth of a new world.

“Bless you,” to quote Queen Jesus again,

“If they persecute you for being who you are

Because it means you are bringing about change.

And bless those who persecute you too,

For hatred is the only thing they have,

And it doesn’t amount to much,

And they will lose it in the end.

For no matter what they say and what they do

They cannot stop the change that is coming

And one day we will all be free.”