For Labor Day Sunday, September 1, I will be offering a message entitled “Solidarity: A Source of Social Salvation.” I’ll be reflecting on the new book Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea by Leah Hunt-Hendrix and Astra Taylor. They see two kinds of power in solidarity: cohesion and transformation. One is a natural source of identity based on commonalities. The other has a power to transform the conditions of our shared reality through organized people who see their common self-interest and agree to focus on that rather than their differences.
My thesis for the day is this: Transformational Solidarity (that we work at) can help overcome the divisions in our society. Whether we’re thinking about building Beloved Community at USR, or building a sustainable, thriving multiracial democracy, this sort of solidarity illuminates a path forward. We may even call it “A Source of Social Salvation.”
Ron Levy is still assembling the music, but he tells me he’s thinking of a piece called “Solidarity,” from an internet animation series, and “Unity,” by Alan Walker. He will also play “September,” from Tchaikovsky’s Seasons, and an “African Village Dance” (as in ‘it takes a village”). The hymns we’re looking at are “The Commonwealth of Toil” (a song from the 1918 edition of the International Workers of the World Songbook), #392 “Hineh Ma Tov” [הִנֵּה מַה טוֹב], and #318 “We Would Be One” [Finlandia].
There will be a guided meditation on solidarity, using the “Earthrise” photo as focus. This photograph of Earth was taken from lunar orbit by astronaut William Anders on December 24, 1968, during the Apollo 8 mission. Nature photographer Galen Rowell described it as “the most influential environmental photograph ever taken.”
The service includes a Responsive Reading from the new Article II, Section C-2.4. On Inclusion, and excerpts from “Poor Organizing” by Rev. Liz Theoharris, co-chair with the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II of the Poor People’s Campaign – A National Call for Moral Revival.
I’ll be home again in New Jersey, and hoping to see many of you in our gathering space at 113 Cottage Place!
–Jack Lohr, volunteer lay-leader
