Lessons: Acts 8:26-39
Message: Serendipity Calling
I am so excited to welcome the Rev. Taj Smith into our pulpit and community this coming Sunday. Taj is ordained with the United Church of Christ and has answered the divine call to educate and advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community, particularly the transgender community. Taj identifies as transgender/male (He/Him) and has been working with congregations like ours educating around biblical inclusion, cultural exclusion, historical and current Christian exclusion, and the challenges our transgender, non-binary, and gender non-confirming neighbors and friends experience.
Taj will be preaching from the book of Acts text “Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch” where a Eunuch traveling from Ethiopia (different culture, religious practices, and look up what a “Eunuch” was) is confronted by the apostle Philip and together they consider text from the Prophet Isaiah. In the end, the Eunuch is baptized into The Way, which was the name of the early movement of Christians. It is a story that has been meaningful to the LGBTQIA+ community for decades in some ways proving their place in the Divine Beloved Community.
Join us this Sunday for worship and then stick around after church for a forum where Taj will answer questions and offer a more casual dialogue around the experience of trans, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming folks.
This service and following program is sponsored and hosted by UPA’s Open, Affirming and Reconciling (OAR) Committee!
See you Sunday!
Peace,
Cheryl
Music:
Prelude: “Sonatina in B-flat” G. F. Handel
Anthem: “Wake My Soul” Franz Joseph Haydn
Meditation: “Lord, Thou Hast Searched Me” Kentucky Harmony, 1816 Sung by Chihiro Asano, mezzo soprano
Postlude: “Augustine” Erik Routley