Story: Silence & Song
JCC 120819 – Silence and Song from architect on Vimeo.
Reflections on songs of justice and resilience: themes for Advent 1 from Mary’s Magnificat (song) in Luke 1.
PLAY LISTS: Justice Songs (some lists)
- Social justice songs: link
- Songs about class and poverty: link
- Songs to listen to while fighting for social justice: link
- Civil rights songs that promote freedom and justice: link
Questions to consider (Luke 1):
- What songs of justice are on your play list?
- When have you stood and sung for justice, or in resistance to injustice? What was at stake?
- Who still needs songs of justice in this world?
- When you sing for justice, do you sing solo or as part of a group or community? When and how would you choose either role?
One Song — Rumi
Every war and every conflict between human beings
has happened because of some disagreement about names.
It is such an unnecessary foolishness,
because just beyond the arguing
there is a long table of companionship
set and waiting for us to sit down.
What is praised is one, so the praise is one too,
many jugs being poured into a huge basin.
All religions, all this singing, one song.
The differences are just illusion and vanity.
Sunlight looks a little different on this wall
than it does on that wall
and a lot different on this other one,
but it is still one light.
We have borrowed these clothes,
these time-and-space personalities,
from a light, and when we praise,
we are pouring them back in.
Of Songs and Music: Love Beyond Language
Then the singing enveloped me. It was furry and resonant, coming from everyone’s very heart. There was no sense of performance or judgment, only that the music was breath and food. ― Anne Lamott
You are the music while the music lasts. — T.S. Eliot
Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination …— Plato
Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything. Plato
Words make you think. Music makes you feel. A song makes you feel a thought. ― E.Y. Harburg
Thus, though music be a universal language, it is spoken with all sorts of accents. — George Bernard Shaw
There is as much music in the world as virtue. In a world of peace and love music would be the universal language … All things obey music as they obey virtue. It is the herald of virtue. It is God’s voice. — Henry David Thoreau
Music is a language that doesn’t speak in particular words. It speaks in emotions, and if it’s in the bones, it’s in the bones. — Keith Richards
If music be the food of love, play on. — William Shakespeare
If I cannot fly, let me sing. – Stephen Sondheim
Without music, life would be a mistake. – Friedrich Nietzsche
The only thing better than singing is more singing. – Ella Fitzgerald
The greatest respect an artist can pay to music is to give it life. – Pablo Casals
Love, I find, is like singing. ― Zora Neale Hurston
She sang, as requested. There was much about love in the ballad: faithful love that refused to abandon its object; love that disaster could not shake; love that, in calamity, waxed fonder, in poverty clung closer. The words were set to a fine old air — in themselves they were simple and sweet: perhaps, when read, they wanted force; when well sung, they wanted nothing. Shirley sang them well: she breathed into the feeling, softness, she poured round the passion, force … ― Charlotte Brontë, Shirley
Songs as Justice & Resistance
Singing in the midst of evil is what it means to be disciples. … To sing to God amidst sorrow is to defiantly proclaim … that death is not the final word. To defiantly say, once again, that a light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot, will not, shall not overcome it. And so, evil be damned, because even as we go to the grave, we still make our song alleluia. Alleluia. Alleluia. ― Nadia Bolz-Weber,Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint
Do it. Hell, get the song taken down if you want. But you’ll never silence me. I got too goddamn much to say. ― Angie Thomas, On the Come Up
Music doesn’t lie. If there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music. Jimi Hendrix
Music doesn’t lie. If there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music. Jimi Hendrix
Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness. — Maya Angelou
Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent. — Victor Hugo
Music doesn’t lie. If there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music. — Jimi Hendrix
Sirens everywhere, singing that street song. Violence everywhere, barely holding on… — Alicia Keyes
Turnin nothin into somethin, is God work, And you get nothin without struggle and hard work— Nas
Writing, painting, singing- it cannot stop everything. Cannot halt death in its tracks. But perhaps it can make the pause between death’s footsteps sound and look and feel beautiful, can make the space of waiting a place where you can linger without as much fear. For we are all walking each other to our deaths, and the journey there between footsteps makes up our lives. ― Ally Condie, Reached
Story: Root & Branch
Themes of peace, Veterans Day, racial justice and white privilege through the lens of the olive tree and the olive branch. Taste & See worship series
JCC 111019 – Root & Branch from architect on Vimeo.
Children & youth opportunities in June!
- Community Event: TRILLIUM SUMMIT
8:30am-12:30pm • Whitney Community Center
Initiative to enrich and empower the lives of girls and women in Mt Washington Valley. Keynote by Riley Parkhurst. Includes interactive games, crafts, discussions, presentations
and demonstrations. Girls and women will explore their own strengths, learn new skills, become better communicators and learn how to form healthy relationships with others. More info or to register for this program. - UCC Event: HORTON CENTER OPEN HOUSE
All Day • Horton Center, Pine Mountain
11am worship @ Castle Rock followed by BBQ, tours & games! All day! All are welcome to our Open House! Please call or email to register. No charge.
FAMILY CAMP
Horton Center, Pine Mountain
(Off Rte 16 between Jackson and Gorham)
June 21-23
Rev Gail & Chris Doktor – Deans
- Register for a weekend of outdoor adventures, family getaway, and faith engagement.
PEACE & EMPOWERMENT CAMP
8:30am-12:30pm • Mon-Fri, June 24-28
Jackson Community Church
- Open K-6 plus CIT (counselor-in-training) positions for 7th-grade-and-older students.
- Based (in part) on peace curriculum used at from Horton Center (led by Deans Chris and Gail Doktor June 21-23)
- Focuses on peace and community activism
- Contemplative practices
- Music and arts
- Development of spiritual practices to support this goal, draws on resources from Christian, Buddhist and other traditions
- Register via eventbrite.
- Free; donations accepted.
Reflections on freedom, peace and remembrance: themes of John 14 and Memorial Day
Peace is liberty in tranquility. — Marcus Tullius Cicero
The soldier above all others prays for peace, for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war. — Douglas MacArthur
Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love. — Francis of Assisi
We never know how high we are
Till we are called to rise;
And then, if we are true to plan,
Our statures touch the skies.
— Emily Dickinson
Memorial Day Reflections
Without memory, there would be no civilization, no society, no future. – Elie Wiesel
On Memorial Day, I don’t want to only remember the combatants. There were also those who came out of the trenches as writers and poets, who started preaching peace, men and women who have made this world a kinder place to live. — Eric Burdon
As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter the words, but to live by them. — John F. Kennedy
Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die. — G.K. Chesterton
Patriotism is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime. — Adlai Stevenson II
Memorial Day isn’t just about honoring veterans, its honoring those who lost their lives. Veterans had the fortune of coming home. For us, that’s a reminder of when we come home we still have a responsibility to serve. It’s a continuation of service that honors our country and those who fell defending it. — Pete Hegseth
A man’s country is not a certain area of land, of mountains, rivers, and woods, but it is a principle and patriotism is loyalty to that principle. — George William Curtis
It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God such men lived. — George S. Patton
Freedom of Thought, Speech & Action
Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind. — Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own
One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it. But
to sacrifice what you are and to live without belief, that is a fate
more terrible than dying. — Jeanne d’Arc
Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love. ― Mother Teresa
You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom. — Malcolm X
IYou rarely have time for everything you want in this life, so you need
to make choices. And hopefully your choices can come from a deep sense
of who you are. — Fred Rodgers
To be blessed with visions is not enough…we must live them! — High Eagle
… it is not enough to love the earth, though that is a crucial first step. We also have to act on its behalf. — Ken Stone
I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness; I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too. I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility will return once more. — Anne Frank
I speak not for myself but for those without voice… those who have fought for their rights… their right to live in peace, their right to be treated with dignity, their right to equality of opportunity, their right to be educated. — Malala Yousafzai
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same. — Ronald Reagan
Every human has four endowments – self awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom… The power to choose, to respond, to change. — Stephen Covey
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. — Abraham Lincoln
There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires. — Nelson Mandela
I believe in Liberty for all men: the space to stretch their arms and their souls, the right to breathe and the right to vote, the freedom to choose their friends, enjoy the sunshine, and ride on the railroads, uncursed by color; thinking, dreaming, working as they will in a kingdom of beauty and love. — W. E. B. Du Bois
Struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation. — Coretta Scott King
The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of created beings capable of law, where there is no law, there is no freedom. — John Locke
Inner Peace
Peace is the result of retraining your mind to process life as it is, rather than as you think it should be. —Wayne W. Dyer
Peace is always beautiful. — Walt Whitman
Nobody can bring you peace but yourself. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Love and peace of mind do protect us. They allow us to overcome the
problems that life hands us. They teach us to survive… to live now… to
have the courage to confront each day. —Bernie Siegel
You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who you are at the deepest level. —Eckhart Tolle
We don’t realize that, somewhere within us all, there does exist a supreme self who is eternally at peace. —Elizabeth Gilbert
If you cannot find peace within yourself, you will never find it anywhere else. —Marvin Gaye
Every breath we take, every step we make, can be filled with peace, joy and serenity. — Thich Nhat Hanh
Success isn’t measured by money or power or social rank. Success is measured by your discipline and inner peace. — Mike Ditka
Social Peace
Peace is its own reward. —Mahatma Gandhi
Peace is the beauty of life. It is
sunshine. It is the smile of a child, the love of a mother, the joy of a
father, the togetherness of a family. It is the advancement of man, the
victory of a just cause, the triumph of truth. Menachem Begin
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/peace
Peace
is the beauty of life. It is sunshine. It is the smile of a child, the
love of a mother, the joy of a father, the togetherness of a family. It
is the advancement of man, the victory of a just cause, the triumph of
truth. Menachem Begin
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/peace
Did I offer peace today? Did I bring a smile to someone’s face? Did I
say words of healing? Did I let go of my anger and resentment? Did I
forgive? Did I love? These are the real questions. I must trust that the
little bit of love that I sow now will bear many fruits, here in this
world and the life to come. — Henri Nouwen
A hero is any person really intent on making this a better place for all people. — Maya Angelou
Peace is the beauty of life. It is sunshine. It is the smile of a child,
the love of a mother, the joy of a father, the togetherness of a
family. It is the advancement of man, the victory of a just cause, the
triumph of truth. — Menachem Begin
To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one’s family, to bring
peace to all, one must first discipline and control one’s own mind. If a
man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all
wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him. — Buddha
I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the
starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace
and brotherhood can never become a reality… I believe that unarmed
truth and unconditional love will have the final word. — Martin Luther King, Jr.
f you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner. — Nelson Mandela
Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing
opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures. —John F. Kennedy
It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it. — Eleanor Roosevelt
If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human
relationships – the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live
together, in the same world at peace. — Franklin D. Roosevelt