“The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence,” wrote Trappist monk and peace activist Thomas Merton. “The frenzy of our activism neutralizes our work for peace…. It destroys the fruitfulness of our own work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.” As we work together for social and environmental justice, how do we remain grounded in a peaceful spirit? What can we learn from trees?
Today we welcome as our guest worship leader and preacher the Reverend Fred Small.
Cited by Bill McKibben as “one of the key figures in the religious environmental surge,” Rev. Fred Small is Minister for Climate Justice at Arlington Street Church, Boston.
A Unitarian Universalist parish minister for nearly two decades, Fred is also a singer-songwriter and environmental lawyer. In 2015 he left parish ministry to devote his energies to organizing for environmental, racial, and social justice.
Pete Seeger called Fred “one of America’s best songwriters.” In 2023, Nosy Crow published a children’s picture book adaptation of Fred’s iconic lullaby of inclusion and unconditional love, “Everything Possible.” “Everything Possible” is also included as a hymn in the UU hymnal, Singing the Journey.
Topics: Interdependence, Nature, Peace