Communal Tragedy

As individuals, we all know pain and loss. It is the rare person who escapes sorrow. But when one of us hurts, others are there to offer comfort. Communal tragedy is different. When something bad happens to us as a community—whether that is a school, a town, a people, or a country—we struggle to figure out how to tend to our own wounds while taking care of each other. Drawing on compassion, empathy, justice, and love, we can bring out the best in each other, and perhaps, find a theology of hope in the midst of despair.

Latest Rituals

“Four and a half years have passed / Much of the world seems to have / forgotten / But we never will”
dandelion fluff blowing in the wind
“May we remember that there is no future for any of us without all of us.”
view from above of the mediterranean coast at Jaffa
“When the time comes, grant us wisdom, fortitude and stamina.”
a woman in a ponytail silhouetted against a white wall
“On the land / we were forbidden to light / candles, they now burn / under rocket-fire”
close up of five hanukkah candles burning in the dark
“Teach us to spin apart the light in this dark.”
person holding lit tea light candle near rows of other lit tea lights
“In a field of lilies trampled by warriors / the Shekhinah weeps”
close up of light yellow-white lilies with black background
“The voice of lamentation echoes across the land”
Against Gun Violence
Ritual to acknowledge loss of abortion access
After Roe: A Havdalah Ritual for Losing Abortion Access
“I am tired of praying to a silent God”
Unprayer for Uvalde

The Reconstructionist Network

Learning to Say "We": Writing Identity

In this immersion, we will reflect and expand on our personal experiences of identity, using writing exercises and in-depth discussions to think about, challenge, discover, explore, and experiment with different ways to identify ourselves, to consider how those ways connect us to and separate us from others, and how they represent and misrepresent aspects of who we are.

Four sessions, starting June 15th

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