Mother's Day THEN an Upcoming Rector's Forum
For those of you who celebrate Mother's Day, there will be a fun photo booth available for you to take photos, especially if you don't often get to attend church with your family. As there is no Sunday School, we will have a craft in the parish hall for families to enjoy during the education hour or after the 10 am service.
I hope that you will all join me on May 19 for a Rector's Forum that will be held in the parish hall after the 10am service. Mona Morales Recalde will be with us, speaking to us as a leader of the Gabrieleno/Tongva San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians. Mona is also an elder at La Verne Heights Presbyterian Church. She is a highly sought after speaker in the LA region and beyond. I am very excited to welcome her to St. Cross.
Part of our faith journey is reaching out to our local community and finding places of connection, and hearing one another's story. The Tongva are the native peoples who lived, and continue to live, in the community and on the land where our city and our church is located. It is important for us as a congregation to know the history of where we are located and I wonder what we can learn from Ms. Recalde about our area. Additionally, after doing Sacred Ground,* a group of parishioners has been exploring what it would mean for St. Cross to have a land acknowledgment. Having been rector for a LONG time here, I know some of you will be thrilled about this, and others of you not. That is what makes us St. Cross. Ms. Recalde can speak to why this is meaningful (and when it is not) to the members of the Tongva tribe. This Rector's Forum is NOT to discuss us approving or having a land acknowledgment. This Rector's Forum is for us to engage and learn from a highly sought after faith and community leader.
See you on May 19.
Rev. Rachel
*Sacred Ground is a sensitive, prayerful resource that creates space for difficult but respectful and transformative dialogue on race and racism.
