Words of encouragement and support for those ministering "in the fields."

FROM YOUR CONFERENCE MINISTER
by Rev. Dr. Mary Susan Gast, Conference Minister, May 26, 2009

It’s not unusual for me to wake up with a song rambling through my brain. This morning, though, it wasn’t the usual fragment of a Gospel hymn, or snippet of reggae, or the odd phrase from Handel, that led me out of my dream state. For the first time ever it was a patriotic song. “My country ‘tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing; land where my parents died, land of the pilgrims’ pride, from every mountainside let freedom ring!” [Samuel F. Smith, student at Andover Newton Theological Seminary, 1831]

Waiting for the California Supreme Court’s decision on Proposition 8 to be made public at 10, I wondered whether I would be singing that song in today’s full light with joyful tears or with wistful longing.

Now option B is checked. Our Conference Council is preparing an action for Annual Meeting this Saturday.

Meanwhile the ring of freedom sounds a bit off-key, clanking against the realization that, in California, a simple majority vote on a referendum is enough to crumble the bulwark of equal protection under the law. A simple majority vote on a referendum is sufficient to restrict human rights.

  “Our parents’ God, to Thee, Author of Liberty, to Thee we sing;
    Soon may our land be bright with freedom’s holy light;
    Protect us by Thy might, Great God Living.”
                                       [Samuel Smith’s words adapted, 2009]