I just sent the following letter to our Congressman, Representative Patrick Kennedy, copying it to the Providence Journal. I would like to add, if you live in the greater Providence area and are looking for a church home, please feel free to investigate whether we might be that best place for you to grow deep and from which to engage the world with mercy and in quest of justice.
26 November 2009
The Reverend James Ishmael Ford
First Unitarian Church
Providence, Rhode Island
The Honorable Patrick Kennedy
United States Representative
1st District, Rhode Island
Dear Representative Kennedy,
I am under the impression you may be church shopping.
On behalf of the First Unitarian Church of Providence, I would like to invite you to consider visiting with us to see if this might not be your spiritual home.
I am a longtime admirer of the Roman Catholic Church, particularly its traditions of a profound spirituality and, by its best lights, a commitment to human dignity and justice.
Our liberal religious spirituality is based upon a profound respect for the individual while also knowing we are all woven out of each other and the world in a wondrous web of interdependence.
Based upon this insight we are also committed to human dignity and justice.
We share with the Catholic Church a commitment to racial justice and to the defense of immigrants, the homeless, the poor and others who suffer at the hands of the powerful and indifferent.
However, by our best lights, we have engaged some the great questions in somewhat different ways. We fiercely uphold the rights of women; in fact we have ordained women to our ministry since the middle of the nineteenth century. And even knowing there is a tragic element involved, as an Association we defend a woman’s right to choose whether or not to carry a fetus to term. Similarly, as an Association, we uphold the worth and dignity of bisexual, gay, lesbian and transgendered people, seeking full civil rights for BGLT people, including marriage equality.
The First Unitarian Church in Providence is the third oldest congregation in the city. It has a long history of seeking a spirituality grounded within our lived lives, and manifested through acts of mercy and justice.
We are located at the corner of Benefit and Benevolent streets. I’ve loved that since I came to serve among these good people and saw the signs. “Benefit” and “benevolent” speaks of what our hope to be is, and often of who we are.
We welcome you and your family to visit at anytime, and to see if we might not be your spiritual home.
Yours, standing on the side of Love,
James
The Reverend James Ishmael Ford
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