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Call to Worship
Sunshine Cathedral is a different kind of church where the past is past and the future has infinite possibilities!
This is the day our God has made.
Let us rejoice and be glad in it!
Opening Prayer
CLICK HERE for Audio of the Opening Prayer
God full of mercy, bless the souls of all who are in our hearts on this Transgender Day of Remembrance. We call to mind today young and old, of every race, faith, and gender experience, who have died by violence. We remember those who have died because they would not hide, or did not pass, or did pass, or stood too proud. Today we name them: the reluctant activist; the fiery hurler of heels; the warrior for quiet truth; the one whom no one really knew.
As many as we can name, there are thousands more whom we cannot, and for whom no Kaddish may have been said. We mourn their senseless deaths, and give thanks for their lives, for their teaching, and for the brief glow of each holy flame. We pray for the strength to carry on their legacy of vision, bravery, and love.
And as we remember them, we remember with them the thousands more who have taken their own lives. We pray for resolve to root out the injustice, ignorance, and cruelty that grow despair. And we pray, God, that all those who perpetrate hate and violence will speedily come to understand that Your creation has many faces, many genders, many holy expressions.
Blessed are they, who have allowed their divine image to shine in the world. Blessed is God, in Whom no light is extinguished. Amen.
(Prayer by Rabbi Reuben Zellman - https://www.keshetonline.org/resources/prayer-for-transgender-day-of-remembrance)
The Lessons
From the Wisdom of Robert Louis Stevenson
You cannot run away from weakness; you must some time fight it out or perish; and if that be so, why not now, and where you stand?
From the Book of Esther, Chapter 4
14…[Mordecai said, I]f you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance … will arise from another place, but you and your … family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”
15 Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: 16… I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”
Reflection by Rev. Dr. BK Hipsher
CLICK HERE for Audio of Reflection "For Such a Time as This"
November 20 is International Transgender day of Remembrance. And this being the Sunday closest to that day is the Sunday we recall this important day. This is the day each year when we remember and memorialize those children of God who have been murdered in the past year as a result of the hatred we call transphobia. This day of memorial was founded in 1999 by a small group of people to memorialize the murder of Rita Hester in Allston, Massachusetts… just a few miles from where I live.
Rita Hester was a transgender African American woman who was murdered on November 28, 1998. And the grief and anger of her murder inspired people in the Boston area to examine the intersectionality of Rita Hester’s multiple points of marginalization… she was African American, she was transgender, she was a woman. The conscience of a community was jolted to recognition of bigotry upon bigotry that culminated in her death.
The idea of memorializing those murdered as a result of transphobia was born from one murder in 1999 and by 2010, Transgender Day of Remembrance was observed in 185 cities in 20 countries. And each year the names of those murdered in the past year are read aloud as we will do for our dead again this year. Did those who organized that first memorial in 1999 have known that their actions would lead to a worldwide memorial observance that would raise awareness of transphobia 20 years later?
It seems that human beings are hardwired to marginalize other human beings. In our story from the book of Esther this morning Queen Esther is challenged to risk her own life to save those of her fellow Jewish people who were about to be exterminated by the evil Haman. Now Haman’s hatred of the Jewish people was a direct result of the refusal of one Jewish man to bow down to him as he walked in and out of the gates of palace. That Jewish man’s name was Mordecai, the uncle of Queen Esther.
Esther did not take on this cause to save her people. She did not set out to save her ancestral family living in the realm of King Xerxes in Persia. His palace was in what is modern day Iran near the border with Iraq, far away from the ancestral home of her people in what is known as Israel today. She was not an activist. But she found herself in a position to speak truth to power, to tell her husband, King Xerxes, the plans of Haman to exterminate her people.
But in order to speak to him she had to risk coming into his presence without an invitation. And if he was displeased with her intrusion she would have been executed. She was asked by her uncle Mordecai to go in to the king. She was hesitant. But her uncle asked her an important and poignant question, “And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”
This is where we find ourselves today. Who knows but that we have come to our position of privilege for such a time as this. Even as gay men and lesbians we enjoy the protections of the law and the privileges of tolerance if not acceptance. This is not so for our transgender siblings. We are duty bound to use that privilege to work for justice on their behalf, to use our voices to speak truth to power on behalf of those who are voiceless.
In the United States 2021 has been the deadliest year on record for transgender, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming Americans at 46. The Transrespect versus Transphobia Worldwide research project released an update of Trans Murder Monitoring showing 2021 to be the deadliest year for trans and gender-diverse people since the began collecting data, with 375 registered murders in the past year.And we know this number to be far, far larger.
And so today we remember some of the names of people murdered for simply being themselves. Names of people who are loved by friends and family, people whose contribution to the wellbeing of human kind is now lost to history. They were sent to their graves with all of the potential of their lives, the art, the literature, the music, the engineering, the mathematics, physics, and other scientific knowledge that might have changed the course of history. These names serve to remind us to remember them all by name. These are but of few of those we lost to violence born of hate and bigotry.
Tyianna “Davarea” Alexander
Samuel Edmund Damián Valentín
Bianca “Muffin” Bankz
Dominique Jackson
Fifty Bandz
Alexus Braxton
Chyna Carrillo
Jeffery “JJ” Bright
Jenna Franks
Aidelen Evans
Diamond Kyree Sanders
Rayanna Pardo
Jaida Peterson
Dominque Lucious
Remy Fennell
Tiara Banks
Jahaira DeAlto Balenciaga
Natalia Smüt
Iris Santos
Tiffany Thomas
Keri Washington
Thomas Hardin
Whispering Wind Bear Spirit
Sophie Vásquez
Danny Henson
Serenity Hollis
Poe Delwyn Black
Oliver “Ollie” Taylor
Tierramarie Lewis
EJ Boykin
Taya Ashton
Shai Vanderpump
Miss CoCo
Pooh Johnson
Zoella Martinez
Disaya Monaee
Brianna Ulmer
Kièr Solomon
Mel Groves
Royal Poetical Starz
Jessi Hart
Jo Acker
Rikkey Outumuro
Jenny De Leon
Marquiisha Lawrence
For these all those unnamed in this and all generations we remember their lives. We remember those who loved them and miss them. We mourn for them and for all humanity who are the worse for their loss.
“Let us pray.
Speak to us this day, O God,
and humble us to hear your word.
Make us still enough to notice your presence,
Quiet enough to hear your voice,
Brave enough to speak your good news,
and wise enough to follow your spirit.
So often we pray to you for life:
to preserve life, to prolong life,
to guard life, to begin life.
Today we pray for something else.
We pray for courage to lose our life for your sake,
and we pray for the wisdom to find it.
As Mordecai challenged Esther to be faithful at all costs,
make us hear the voices of people oppressed,
whose stories challenge our way of life.
We pray for your children everywhere:
For your people who are suffering,
Discriminated against because of their race, gender identity,
sexuality, or religion.
For your people who are fearful,
Faced with losing their access to healthcare or treatment.
For your people who are isolated,
Living in the shackles of addiction or abuse
Holy comforter, challenger, redeemer,
We know that you are in our midst.
Help us recognize your spirit on the move,
and empower us to join your work.
Help us be your church, reformed and still being reformed.
Help us be your people, formed and still being formed.
Help us boldly share the news of your love,
For such a time as this.
Amen.”
https://andalsowithyou.blog/2017/07/27/prayers-from-matthew-and-esther-for-such-a-time-as-this/
For a list of music suggested to meditate on for this service click the link below: