2021
Looking for joy
Mar. 4, 2021— A monthly reflection from Emilie M. Townes, Vanderbilt Divinity School dean. Our family has been dealing with the deaths of three of our elders over a five-month period in the last months of 2020. Their passing would have been hard without a pandemic raging around us, but the pandemic made it more so because...
A blessing for the imposition of ashes
Feb. 17, 2021—Maker of all things, In a season when we long for touch, presence, connection, we remember our place in the vastness of creation. As we enter a season of 40 days of spiritual preparation, we confess the habits of oppression often come more easily than the practices of sharing resources and challenging bigotry. We seek...
The end and the beginning
Feb. 17, 2021—Read a blessing for the imposition of ashes >> An Ash Wednesday reflection by the Rev. Laura M. Cheifetz Maybe I am just familiar with the ways white supremacy works Maybe my familiar reminds me to always call a thing exactly what it is… – J Mase III Some say the only constant is change. Others say...
We the people
Feb. 1, 2021—Dean’s message from the January 2021 Spire e-newsletter It begins with a country being formed by taking the land of others because darker-skinned people were (and are still) judged as less than lighter-skinned people. This founding kernel of our country has grown over the years and has emerged at various times with supremacist values on...