From the Pastor’s Desk

“We who believe in Freedom cannot rest until it comes” Sweet Honey in the Rock

The month of June is filled with events and celebrations that both cry out and give thanks for liberation and freedom. June is Pride month, and all month we celebrate pride of who we are as LGBTQIA persons and allies. Last Sunday we celebrated Juneteenth, the time period that enslaved Africans in Texas learned that the emancipation proclamation that had been signed 2.5 years prior meant that they were free. Throughout the month, we commemorate those who fought for freedom as we continue efforts to maintain the liberties that should be granted to all.

This month, we also had a devastating blow to our notion of freedom. On Friday, the Supreme Court overturned the Roe v Wade case, which in 1973 determined that the Constitution of the United States generally protects a pregnant woman’s liberty to choose to have an abortion. This new ruling sends the decision about abortion related laws back to the states. Some states are already position to change their laws to disfavor women’s choices over their own bodies. Friday’s ruling takes away women’s agency over our own bodies and takes us back more than fifty years in our fight for women’s rights to choose. 

As we close out the month of June we can still celebrate, but we must continue to stand for freedom. Stand for freedom at the polls, in phone calls to your legislatures, in conversations with those that you mentor, and in all of the ways that you can. We cannot stop fighting for justice and freedom, even when instances Friday’s decision highlight how temporal freedom granted through our highest courts can be.

Today’s epistle reading reminds us that “it is for freedom’s sake that we are free” (Galatians 5:1), and as Sweet Honey in the Rock reminded us, “We who believe in Freedom cannot rest until it comes.”

Rev. Elder D. Parrish-Harris, Pastor

Unity Fellowship Church of Columbia, MD