"We are here at the threshold.
We are here,
We who have crossed many thresholds already
To arrive at this space and time,
Coming out from identities and locations that
didn't embrace the fullness of who we are;
Coming across distances, boundaries,
discoveries that have beckoned us to deeper life
and challenged us to change;
Coming with our loves, our partners, our children,
our memories, our knowledge,
our wisdom, and our willingness;
Coming to our senses, our awareness
of the critical issues that threaten the well-being
of earth's creatures, communities, and cultures;
Coming again to decisions, commitments, hopes,
determinations that we know matter.
We are here at this threshold,
the threshold of a house of study,
where minds and hearts are on fire;
the threshold of a house of spirit
where prayer and contemplation
take us deeper;
the threshold of a house of hope
for greater justice and compassion in the world;
the threshold of a house of history
that can inform our present lives
and link us to a communion that
crosses the boundary of death;
the threshold of a house of preparation
for the thresholds we will lead others to cross,
for the thresholds yet to come,
for the thresholds the world stands on
poised, now, as always
between the possibilities of violence
and the possibilities of peace.
Come, let us cross this threshold
together."
A House for Hope The Promise of Progressive Religion for the Twenty-first Century
John A. Buehrens and Rebecca Ann Parker on celebrating progressive religious communities of commitment, hope, and renewal.