The theme for April is Joy

In the introduction to his book Inciting Joy, Ross Gay writes:

What incites joy?

My hunch is that joy is an ember for or precursor to wild and unpredictable and transgressive and unboundaried solidarity. And that that solidarity might incite further joy. Which might incite further solidarity… 

My hunch is that joy, emerging from our common sorrow… might draw us together. It might de-polarize and de-atomize us enough that we can consider what, in common, we love. And though attending to what we hate in common is too often all the rage, noticing what we love in common, and studying that, might help us survive. It’s why I think of joy, which gets us to love, as being a practice of survival.

 

We will celebrate the earth with Jim’s original songs and readings along with his personal reflections on Mother Earth or “Gaia” being one living organism.  Our “spiritual response” in word and action is so timely now, as “the spirit of life on earth is in crisis.”  Jim’s uplifting songs provide the balance to the wake up call, leaving us a vision and inspiration to take the healing into our own hands.

From his work with the Paul Winter Consort, where he was co-composer of their celebrated “Missa Gaia/Earth Mass” Jim has long been an activist for peace and the earth with his music.  Former Co Chair of the UU Ministry for the Earth, Jim helped create the “Green Sanctuary” program.  His songs of earth have educated and inspired audiences across the US and the world and his “Earth and Spirit Songbook,” supported by a grant from the Fund for Unitarian Universalism, has been widely acclaimed by UU congregations.