Tables of Justice

Yesterday's service was led by the Social Justice Committee, Youth Group, and. Ed Hardy. Entitled “Who Gets Invited to Your Table?”, it was a close look at what it means to promote justice, and started a season of giving at First Parish.

For over thirty years “Guest At Your Table” has been organized by Unitarian Universalist Service Committee as a means to assist social justice projects all over the world. Just as we would share a cup of tea to the stranger at our door, during this season of thanksgiving we share our bounty with all.

During the service, we heard excerpts from the Ware Lecture presented by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Unitarian Universalist General Assembly in Hollywood Florida on May 18, 1966. Drawing on the story of Rip Van Winkle, Rev. King admonished the assembly: Don't Sleep Through the Revolution.

We also listened to the brief testimony of Dalia Ziada, a young Egyptian woman who is very much a living part of the revolutionary changes taking place in her country, in which an historic election was taking place as we met.

“True hospitality is marked by an open response to the dignity of each and every person. Henri Nouwen has described it as receiving the stranger on his own terms, and asserts that it can be offered only by those who 'have found the center of their lives in their own hearts'.” 

    ~~ Kathleen Norris, Dakota: A Spiritual Geography