About The Barb. (Atlanta, Ga.) 197?-197? | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 1975)
THE BARB- 12 SOMETHING BIGGER THAN SELF By Rev. Freda Smith “Scripture tells us, in the twenty ninth chapter of Proverbs, “Without a vision, the people will perish...” It is night. Tomorrow I will leave California for a trip to the East Coast to touch my ~ sisters and brothers, to share the vision of what it can mean to be gay, a feminist, and a Christian. Later, God will touch my life with the energy I have learned to expect, the energy which supplies the power to move mountains, not only the California-type moun tains which say “Be quiet, be discreet, don’t make waves, just fit in’; but even the Pocatello, Idaho type mountains, which shadow ed my growing up years with their stern admoni tion: “Do not Exist,” ; Tonight, I am sitting by the hospital beside of my lover as she fitfully sleeps her way out of the trauma of her second major sur gery in less than a month. The exhaustion of dragging the reluctant time forward ...second by second., through the seven hours spent waiting for her to be returned numbed me. I look at her face...still in delibly beautiful..and in credibly healthy - looking, despite it all. I often say of this face, it need only appear on a Billboard urg ing; “Everybody Needs Milk”, to start a milk- stampede in this country. Her finely-chiseled modth (which should never ap pear on a Billboard for a similar reason, a stam pede toward their uni versal and unwholsome consumption), is slightly open to more freely drink in the unanethesized air. She is, as the Song of Solo mon puts it, “...altogether lovely...”. “Behold thou art fair, my love, behold thou art fair...”. I am touched by God in her..and this touch “re stores my soul”, I can turn away from her now, I can act now, I can go to work now. Abraham Maslow, the great Humanist psycholo gist, warns that if there is a dichotomy, a split, be tween your work and your pleasure, your life is not as full as. the lives of those few who are fully actualizing their life ex perience. Socrates put it more broadly, “The un- examined life is not worth living” Jesus, who preached the “abundant life”, told us:“The truth shall set you free”, and Janis Joplin a few years back handed us the key: “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.”. Somewhere in the The Rev. Elder Freda Smith warp and the woof of these truths is woven all the reasons why I can if I must, and this time I must,_ rise up and leave this woman I love, and for. the sake of love, travel 10,000 miles from California, to Atlanta, to Tampa, to New York, to Philadelphia, be fore I can again return to this hospital, to this be side. And somewhere in there also is the reason she would have me to go. Somewhere there too, is the mystery of why a new spirit is being poured out over the whole earth. And why a Church, which 1 not only never was, but al so was never before dreamed, has been raised up to call out Truth and Love to a world which has legislated but has little known these. These truths must be self evident: That no-one is Free until everyone is free...and freedom is not changing the identity of the person on top (not his/her color, sex, age, sexual preference, or class), but rather touching onto that concept of love as Christ would have us to love. Our neighbors as ourselves. But ourselves first . As worthy, healthy, complete creations, of a Creator who makes no mistakes. A Creator of love which has reasons that reason does not know. “Know thyself.” The beginning of truth (which sets us free) is honesty. And honesty takes place in ourselves. It is experiential.. which means it is something we our selves must find We do not seek it in the Uni versities and Seminaries, nor the libraries, nor the courts. We find it in our selves. When we are honest...we find truth..and when we live truth then we find freedom. First for ourselves, but then as a vision of a world where everyone lives in freedom and in truth. This is our vision. It is energy-creat ing and energy-motivating First Annual / Miss We Three Pageant March 7, 1975 Mdcon 9 Ga Phone: 746-9193 0 Where The Crowd Meets £ •Discount On Advance Sale Tickets It is contagious. Everytime one of us is infected with this vision, we share it and it becomes stronger. As it grows stronger it spreads, not only the the cities and the large towns...but into the small towns and the villages. A vision can change the world “Without a vision, the people will perish...” OfTYOUR KOCH'S NOW lor Uueiy natural thing” Benefit Show MCC ATLANTA february 21st llllllllllllllltlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllltllllllllHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIItiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiH P. O. Box 370963 Miami, Florida 33127 Telephone (305) 758-7190 DISTRICT COORDINATOR: The Rev. Keith D. Davis ASST. DISTRICT COORDINATOR: The Rev. A. Evan St. Ives DISTRICT SEC’Y/TREAS.: Mr. H. Ernest Richardson SUPPORT OUR ADVERTISERS ► SOUTHEAST DISTRICT OF THE UNIVERSAL FELLOWSHIP ** OF METROPOLITAN COMMUNITY CHURCHES # & & * * * # & & & * # & & # * £ CHURCHES g Atlanta, Georgia T? Metropolitan Community Church 800 N. Highland Ave., N.E. Atlanta, Georgia, 30306 The Rev. Elder John Gill, Pastor g The Rev. Jim Snow, Asst. Pastor The Rev. Arthur Cazault, Asst. Pastor (404) 872-2246 Church & Ft. Lauderdale, Florida 7T CHURCH OF THE HOLY SPIRIT-MCC Tr 1127 S. W. Second Court Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., 33512 The Rev. Peter Wilson, Pastor ^ (305) 524-0004 Church Jacksonville, Florida Metropolitan Community Church & P. O. Box 291 Jacksonville. Fla., 32201 S ** Mr. Woody Slappey, Worship Coordinator (904) 757-5044 Church «S£ Miami (Beach), Florida xl CHRIST CHURCH-MCC 7T P. O. Box 370963 Miami, Florida, 33137 ^ The Rev. Keith D. Davis, Pastor District Coordinator & (305) 758-7190 ^ Tampa, Florida Metropolitan Community Church t O 2904 Concordia Avenue Tampa, Florida, 33609 2* The Rev. Elder John H. Hose, Pastor The Rev. A. Evan St. Ives, Asst. Pastor Asst. District Coordinator STUDY GROUPS Ft. Myers, Florida % the Ft. Lauderdale Church Nashville, Tennessee MCC-Study Group c/o S. E. Dist. Pinnellas County, Fla. c/o Tampa MCC Columbia, South Carolina MCC-Study Group P. O. Box 11181 Columbia, S. E., 29211 (803) 252-1250 Orlando, Florida MCC-Study Group Orlando, Florida, 32814 The Southeastern District churches of g the UFMCC welcome you to their wor- ship and social services and activities. There are now over 75 Study-Groups, «&> Missions and Churches in the U: S. A., Canada, London, Scotland, Denmark, £ Belgium, Africa and Australia. The Rev. TT TROY D. PERRY is Founder and Moder- ^ ator of the Universal Fellowship. For further information please contact the ,c>, church or study group in your area or ^ contact the District Coordinator, the Rev. TT KEITH D. DAVIS in Miami.
