slouchingthomas

[slouchingthomas]

"We're all equal in death."

Happy pride.

[slouchingthomas]

The Season of Creation at All Souls

The Season of Creation is a relatively new addition to the liturgical calendar that focuses on the gift of creation itself. It is observed by many churches and across denominations, including Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican/Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, Reformed, and Unitarian communities, as well as ecumenical groups.

All Souls Prayer for Creation

Spirit of Life, we thank You for earth, sky, and sea, for creatures great and small, for the breath of life we share.

Forgive us where we have caused harm. Guide us to live gently, to protect what is fragile, and to cherish this good creation.

Amen.

2025 Dates

Monday, September 1st, World Day of Prayer for Creation

Sunday, September 7th, Worship: Water Communion

Sunday, September 14th, Worship: Listening to Creation

Sunday, September 21st, Worship: The Sky Above

Sunday, September 28th, Worship: The Earth Below

Saturday, October 4th, St. Francis' Day Pet Blessing

Purpose

To celebrate God’s gift of creation.

To lament environmental destruction.

To call us to ecological conversion, advocacy, and action.

To renew our sense of belonging in the web of life and our vocation as stewards.

Source: The Season of Creation at All Souls

[slouchingthomas]

my depiction of genesis 1:3

[slouchingthomas]

It has always been a dream of mine to have a big, lush, beautiful Marian garden. But my living situation doesn’t allow gardens or most planting, but it does allow pots! So I’ve started a mini Marian herb garden:

rosemary is an herb associated with fidelity and faith, traits of Our Lady. There are two legends surrounding it— one that Our Lady lost her cloak on a bush of it running from Herod into Egypt, dying the flowers blue, and another that a rosemary bush grow upwards for only 33 years, stopping at the height Christ was on his final day on earth.

thyme is for Our Lady’s humility. also called ‘Mary’s bedstraw’; legend has it that the manger in Bethlehem and Mary’s birthing bed was lined with thyme

parsley is called Our Lady’s Little Vine, as well as being one of the herbs used in the Passover Seder. It is dipped in salt water as a reminder of the tears of the Israelites under bondage, which greatly reminds me of Our Lady of Sorrows

[slouchingthomas]

destroy the idea that angels are blonde and blue eyed and fair skinned !!! destroy the idea of holy imagery consisting only of white people !!!

[slouchingthomas]

Remember that we can always find power, solidarity, and hope in the labor movement. [Artwork by @ricardolevinsmorales]

[slouchingthomas]

quick drawing to put into my final haha

[slouchingthomas]

praying for your mutuals is honestly so freaking funny

[slouchingthomas]

I came to this way later than I should have as a supposedly engaged Friend, but holy shit Britain Yearly Meeting's response to the transphobes is fucking incredible.

this is the most profound "fuck you and your shitass underhanded tactics" i have ever seen from an official Quaker source. do you know how badly you have to fuck up for the clerks to outline five different ways you're out of right ordering?

and they have, as one would expect of Quaker bureaucracy, brought the goddamn receipts.

nyah nyah yah boo sucks

like i am just. I'm not surprised but it's still always good to see it acknowledged that Quakers are disproportionately trans and non-binary (literally four times higher percentage of us in Britain Yearly Meeting than in Britain as a whole) and also as a disabled Somewhat Trans the original message leaning so heavily on "but think of the poor disabled people!" pissed me off so fucking much. so. another W here.

yes i know this is just the stuff trans activists have been saying the whole time but this is the stuff we've been saying the whole time and it's laid out just. so fucking succinctly and obviously that it just feels like a sick burn, you know?

HOOTIN AND A-HOLLERIN again, i know this, but having it in official terms as A Fact Of The Situation is just like. ugh. my heart is healing.

it is a very quaker "shut the fuck up" move to repeat "discerned" twice in one paragraph just so you know for damn sure it was done under the quaker process and is divinely/spiritually/bureaucratically solid, and i know because i have done this exact thing while clerking

fellas is it possible to do a pacifist murder

SCREAMING CRYING THROWING UP again like. if you are not used to quaker spaces i need you to know that it is SUPER uncommon for modern quakers to straight-up say "this is offensive and wrong" to each other. like. it is frankly one of the real problems in the Society, our tendency to be conflict-avoidant and try to find a middle road and be polite.

so i need you to know that being this unequivocal on a contentious issue, in a published communication from BYM, is a fucking nuke in Quaker terms. this is gloves-off bare-knuckle quaker convincement. fucking get 'em.

and finishing out on one final "no YOU'RE out of order!" which, again. as someone who clerks on an area meeting level and has wanted to say this kind of thing to people a lot, this is additionally satisfying in ways that aren't even about the trans rights of it all.

although also

including pronouns in the sign-off is also, i think, standard practice for the Clerks now, but god it's satisfying in this context

WHOOOOOOO i am FIRED UP this has MADE MY MONTH

[slouchingthomas]

[slouchingthomas]

if meeting people and engaging in community in several different religious spaces has taught me things, one of them is that maintaining a black-and-white child's view of religion is not tenable or righteous. there isn't an us and them. there is us and us. or just us. and my growing conviction is that life is too complicated to divide into life that deserves to be safe and nurtured and life that doesn't. in the end, all we have is to walk gently on the earth. in the end, we have each other and we have this beautiful universe. what are we going to do with that?

[slouchingthomas]

From All Creation Sings, a supplemental hymnal of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

[slouchingthomas]

which saint do you think i should pray to when im doing voice training and the masculinization exercises keep making my throat sore? saint of sounding masc cha cha real smooth

This is exactly the kind of ask I was hoping for

So I have a few thoughts

First off, Saint Sebastian, unofficial patron saint of the queers esp queer men. Self explanatory. As a patron of queer men he’d definitely be a good option to turn to for gender affirming stuff.

If you’re of the belief that Saint Joan of Arc was trans, that’s another option, though that depends on your belief there.

Getting creative though:

- The Virgin Mary. Who do we go to when we’re experiencing puberty, when we’re having physical ailments, when we’re experiencing growth pains? Our mother.

- Saint Joseph. In a similar vein as above, also he’s generally a common patron saint of men and masculinity.

- Saint Andrew is commonly petitioned for goiter, which is a throat issue, so maybe soreness from voice training overlaps. He’s also commonly petitioned for chronic pain and pain in general and speech impediments, so it wouldn’t be a stretch to say this case also applies to his patronage.

[slouchingthomas]

Mary: Star of the Sea by Kelly Latimore

From the artist:

Our Lady, Star of the Sea is an ancient title for Mary, the mother of Jesus. The words “Star of the Sea” are a translation of the Latin title ‘Stella Maris’. This title has often been used as a spiritual allegory. However, I wanted to depict it in a slightly different way.

In this icon I have Mary, who is also called “The protectress of the oppressed,” guiding a rescue boat to a large group of migrants out at sea. Refugees and migrants are continuing to make these voyages out at sea to find a better life for their families. However, the migrant sea routes have become some of the most dangerous. According to the Migration Data Portal, since 2014, more than 4,000 fatalities have been recorded annually on migratory routes worldwide. 2024 marked the deadliest year with more than 9,000 deaths recorded. As the U.S. administration has now openly rejected refugees and is incarcerating innocent migrants, many countries have begun to refuse aid to refugee and migrant boats attempting to come ashore. Many boats are not able to make the journeys at all or can become lost and quickly carried out into the open ocean. Thankfully there are many organizations that now patrol the various sea routes that migrants are taking and when they find boats are able to bring everyone aboard and safely to various refugee camps ashore.

The people making these journeys are sacred. It's my hope that this icon isn’t a version of Mary just up in the clouds but also down in the water with the lowly and oppressed peoples of the earth.

“Merciful God and Father of all, wake us from the slumber of indifference, open our eyes to their suffering, and free us from the insensitivity born of worldly comfort and self-centeredness. Inspire us, as nations, communities and individuals, to see that those who come to our shores are our brothers and sisters.” -Pope Francis

Prints available: kellylatimoreicons.com

[slouchingthomas]

[slouchingthomas]

Little me never thought I would be veiling at pride and dancing with a drag queen but God brings us beautifully gifts.

[slouchingthomas]

Impressed by the bravery of a middle-aged woman working a gas station at an exit in rural Virginia next to a Pentecostal church with a tent out front that had a pride flag on her cap