Beloved, there is only love. In you, only love. Around you, only love. Not a touchy-feely, pop song kind of love. But a love that knows every secret corner of your fragile, fabulous being and says, “Yes!” “Yes!” to your difference. “Yes!” to your diversity. “Yes!” to your desire. Whoever you are, whatever beautiful spirit God created you to be, shine fearlessly and courageously. We need you and the divine light within you to sparkle through the prism of your body and brighten the world with a glorious rainbow. Never forget you are loved. Fiercely and forever.

“God is the one who loves us into freedom and frees us to love.” What a beautiful summation of our story of faith. These words by the Reverend Dr. Christopher Morse, a retired United Methodist Elder and professor emeritus at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. “God is the one who loves us into freedom and frees us to love.” We are set free by divine love. We are not held captive by hate — even in a world that spews hate. We are liberated by the love of God; we are loved. And we love one another. What a blessed gift it is for the people of God to gather together at the start of June — a month of Pride and Freedom. Together we offer this “Litany of Becoming,” as penned by the Rev. M Jade Kaiser, a trans, nonbinary clergyperson and co-curator of enfleshed.com, a collection of resources for spiritual nourishment for collective liberation. During this Year of Belonging at Union, at the start of Pride month, let share in this responsive reading together. The leader will end, “And the people say.” And the people will respond: This is loving and being loved. To become is a life long process. Nothing is constant, not even the self. We evolve in the midst of narratives meant only for some and ways of being made narrow by fear and power. We must, then, have the courage to listen to the truth of our own lives, to the wisdom that comes from within - responding without resistance or need to control, but with welcome and curiosity. This is what ensures our becoming is an unfolding of our truest self. This lifelong labor cannot be carried out alone. It requires help from friends, and lovers, family, and creaturely companions who bear witness to what makes us come alive. Who speak to us, “Listen. Look. Feel. Pay attention to that.” And the people say: PEOPLE: This is loving and being loved. Telling the stories. Sharing in the memories. Giving thanks for the relationships, understandings, and experiences past that have shaped us to this day. And the people say: Many: This is loving and being loved. Celebrating new beginnings that excite. Holding risks together. Leaning into unknowns with the promises of support and companionship. And the people say: Many: This is loving and being loved. Listening to the future calling uniquely to each of us in the midst of all of life’s noise. Helping one another find our place in the shared labor of collective life. Supporting each other in what it is the world’s ache is asking from us. And the people say: Many: This is loving and being loved. To say, for the first time, “This is who I am. This is the truth of my body. This is what I know about myself. This is my name and this is where my path is leading me.” And to have it heard. Have it received. Have it affirmed. And then, to say it again, and again, as we change and as the world changes, and to have each proclamation greeted with an open-armed embrace: And the people say: Many: This is loving and being loved. There is no me without you. We shape one another. The Sacred that birthed us weaves our lives together so that we can only find ourselves through shared becoming. For my journey and all its winding ways. For yours. For all the saints who labored for what is, all the kin whose lives made ours possible. For all those yet to come for whom living our truths today will mean breaking possibilities open for them tomorrow: We pause. We give thanks. We acknowledge. And the people say: Many: This is loving and being loved.