Rev. Leslie Takahashi and Dr. Mark Hicks
As you step into this next embodiment of your ministry, we have a few wishes for you.
We hope that these gifts will help you to step boldly into new places and spaces.
First we want you to know you have company as you walk.
For you can ground yourself in the abiding truths of the faith we all serve, feel the witness of those who have walked before us.
Oh—and shift your point of view
Because some of the abiding truths may need new wisdoms in the world emerged.
So we invite you to embrace the wild dance of complexity,
To know that every exchange is a multicultural one, that multiple perspectives inhabit every truth,
And reframe that too!
To recognize the elegance of simplicity in a time when all is multifaceted and to remember your call to spread the mission of our faith.
And always, and ever, to reframe that as well
Cover it with gratitude. Spice it with curiosity. Inhabit it with a radical trust in the goodness of one another.
Be flexible. Know your resilience Be open to change while holding onto the timeless truths. Bring your whole heart to this ministry upon-the-shifting sands. Be shape shifters Be lovers of all that is life-renewing. Be unifiers who speak in many languages. Be true to yourself and to our faith.
Class of 2015, its time to believe again. It is time to be bold. Offer your beauty to the world and offer the world the lens that says that all are saved, and that all are united and touched by the spark of the divine.
Sow the seeds of joy.
[Together] And water with love
Meadville Lombard Theological School 