Liturgy is where we publicly explore the multi-faceted and creative faith expressions of worship within the PAAC community. Here, we will have everything from theological musings and visual/mixed-media artist reflections, to poetry and fiction stories to ponder, dream, and reimagine how we can communally respond to the world around us.
Lent Week 2: Queer Communion: A Liturgy
The Word of God Celebrant: Blessed be God: Parent, Caregiver, Child, Friend, Holy Spirit of Wisdom; multiple identities, yet one person. People: And blessed be their kin-dom, as we look to the future, but most importantly,...
Lent Week 1: Have mercy on me, a sinner.
Confession time. When the movie “Crazy Rich Asians” was released in theaters, I wasn’t really excited. I waited nearly a year from its release to watch it on my laptop, and when I did, I didn’t last long. I closed the laptop screen when I finally saw my kind of Asian...
Lent Week 1: To Crucify Our Flesh
Source: Unsplash Reading: Galatians 5:13-26 In his sermon for the first Sunday of Lent, Augustine of Hippo preached, “It seems fitting that we, who are about to honor the Passion of our crucified Lord in the very near future, should fashion for ourselves a cross of...
Ash Wednesday: Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
Remembering is a radical act when colonialism depends on our communities forgetting our history and our shared humanity. Remembering is a radical act when imperialism makes us forget that our bodies are more than commodities, are made for more than production or...
From Revelation to Revolution: Lent 2020
Liberation is a praxis: the action and reflection of [people] upon their world in order to transform it.- Paulo Freire My faith changed the moment I learned that Jesus’ purpose on earth was to overturn systems of oppression. There was no way around this revolutionary...
Behold, darkness
Today, we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany. While we remember the visit of the Magi, I am struck by the very end of our Gospel reading: “And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.” The Magi have an encounter with God Incarnate—and then leave. I wonder what encountering the divine means for those of us who cannot leave our circumstances. I think of my family in Hong Kong who have been living in a state of heightened social unrest for the past seven months.
Advent 2019 – Day 25 – Merry Mary Christmas!
Christmas is the celebration of a birth. But a Christmas Jesus is a clean baby wrapped up in cloths, not a sticky one emerging from Mary’s body. Why is that? Is it our discomfort with our bodies, and in particular, women’s bodies (trans or cis)? The strangeness of the incarnation, this mixing of divine and human, that we don’t want to recognize? I’m not entirely sure. But I know that this Christmas, I want to see birth. I want to see a woman’s body intermingled with the divine. I want to see a record of the pain that comes before the joy.
Advent 2019 – Day 24 – A Longing for Peace
Today's Reading: Isaiah 9:2-7 The meeting started with a video. A teenage girl dressed all in black, with a black mask covering her entire face, stood quietly waiting for questions. The interviewer, a woman with a gentle and reassuring voice, started asking...
Advent 2019 – Day 23 – Behold: God with us, in the mess
“Dear God, just give me a sign!”
It’s a common cry, in the popular imagination: an exasperated plea for a clear indication of God’s presence, assurance, favor, and guidance. Who wouldn’t want a sign from the Divine? Particularly during the Christmas season!
Advent 2019 – Day 22 – Like Incense
Watercolor and pencil, 2019 1 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock!You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth2 before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh.Stir up your...
