God, we see in sacred story women suffering silent pain, Living at the whim and mercy of the ones who troubled them. What does history know of Dinah? Was she bold and smart and strong? We just know her as the victim of a most horrendous wrong.

But no one knows me no one ever will if I don’t say something, if I just lie still Would I be that monster, scare them all away If I let the-em hear what I have to say I can’t keep quiet, no oh oh oh oh oh oh

The ‘Sacred’ has so many names By which we do adore The mys’try of the universe, The ever puzz’ling ‘More’.

Moving further into the Inspired by Hollywood series, we went to see the movie Selma. What a powerful film and so timely. That black men are still twenty-one times more likely to be killed by police than white men* in America is staggering and the media’s attention, drawn to this truth by the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, has drawn our attention, too. Watching Selma brought home the shameful truth that in far too many places, racism still rules the streets.

Hopeless to help in this violence, this crisis, here in the focus of bloodshed and fear, common humanity binds us together, love at the centre, not hatred's veneer.

Repaying force with counter-force, Can this deliver peace? Revenge for death, revenge for loss Is this how wars will cease?

A sacred community, if it is to be an authentic representation of the life and teachings of Jesus for today, needs to express its concerned opposition in both words, worship and actions, to injustice, violence and corruption – just as Jesus did. There is truth in the statement that “Jesus confronts more than he comforts.” When sacred communities look to the needs of its members in preference to the needs of non- members something is not quite right. The church is one of those organisations which exists for people who do not belong to it. As Jesus was a man for others, so the church is to be there for others.

Welcome! One thing is for certain. We are all welcome. This is the Jesus way. He called people to him; he asked people to come to him; he welcomed them; he got cranky with his disciples when they tried to prevent anyone, anyone at all coming to him. He ate with outcasts, those despised; he befriended tax collectors, those regarded as thieves; he encouraged children, usually ignored in adult community, to sit on his knees; he had meals with the elite and the riffraff; he conversed publicly with women although that was taboo; unlike the religious leaders of his day, he sought the company of all kinds and types of people, to affirm them, to challenge them, to call them to an abundant way of life. So we are all welcome. This is the Jesus way.

As the old year passes we look back, reflect: times of joy and promise, times we’d best forget.

Fourteen artists have joined Bread for the World Institute and Women of Faith for the1,000 Days Movement to educate communities and advocate for policy change in the United States to end hunger at home and abroad and give every child the chance to thrive.

World religions foster justice, Teach of wisdom to pursue; Why then is there so much malice In what some believers do?

Inclusive Hymns for Liberating Christians.