ATTENTION PLEASE! We are in the process of updating all A SACReD Journey online resources. While most resources match the updated curriculum, there are some misalignments across the modules. We apologize for any frustration or complication this adds to your facilitation of the ASJ Curriculum. We aim to have all modules updated by early April. If you have questions please reach out to Kentina Washington-Leapheart: [email protected]. Thank you for being with us on this journey! 

Our opening reading is from Steve Biko, a South African activist against apartheid. In the midst of that incredible struggle for human dignity and equality, he wrote:

We regard our living together
not as an unfortunate mishap
warranting endless competition among us
but as a deliberate act of God to make us a community…

jointly involved in the quest
for a composite answer
to the varied problems of life.

Steven Biko, I Write What I Like, edited by Aelred Stubbs (Bowderdean Press, 1978) 43.

Reflection Prompt: Thinking about where you are on your journey and what you know we are going to cover in this course, what is a hope you have? It can be a hope specific to this course experience, or a broader hope about your journey related to sexuality and religion.

Prayer

God who is known by many names,
Spirit of Life and Love,
We are grateful for this unique opportunity to be together,
To share honestly about our lives and our struggles, our principles and our hopes.

Be with us on this journey:
Towards the goal of individual and collective healing.
Towards the goal of individual and collective liberation.

Amen.

Sacred Wind, Come Blow on Us

Sacred Wind, Come Blow on Us
Claudio Carvalhaes, Liturgies from Below: Praying with People at the End of the World (Abingdon Press, 2020), p. 33.

Closing 

On what would have been the 50th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion, Reproductive Justice leaders met to envision a new future for Reproductive Justice. SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective convened this summit. We will use a portion of the SisterSong Visioning New Futures statement as a responsive reading for our closing. You can read it in unison, responsively, or have each person read a line.

“Visioning New Futures for Reproductive Justice – Declaration 2023,” SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, accessed August 11, 2025.

Practicing Lament
Original contribution, text written by SACReD.

Invite several participants to read each paragraph aloud (1 reader per paragraph).

Our healing begins with lament.

Lament for the sins of violence and oppression against
women, sexual minorities, children, and all those who
have been and continue to have their bodies, their
dignity, and their humanity damaged and violated.

Lament for the complicity of religion and our theologies that have contributed to
misogyny and rigid gender roles that have and continue to harm God’s people.

Lament for clergy and others in positions of leadership who have misused and
exploited their power and authority to sexually abuse those in their care.

Lament for our inability as spiritual people to listen in ways that allow us to hear one
another’s pain.

Lament for the dis-ordered world that is the result of our ineptitude in dealing with
human sexuality, and a lament for how these sins have damaged lives, communities,
trust, and the health and well-being of our community.

May the God of our understanding hear all these laments, spoken and written on
our heart.

Amen, Ameen, Amein, Aho, Axé oooo, and so it is.

Transforming Faith for Reproductive Justice: SACReD’s Foundational Affirmation

SACReD’s Foundational Affirmation:
Grounded in the justice principles that are at the heart
of our religious traditions, we are committed to equity,
dignity, and holistic well-being for all people.

We recognize that reproductive issues are integral to
social justice and cannot be exiled from our sphere of
moral concern if we are to fully live out our commitment to
human flourishing.

Similarly, as reproductive concerns are inherently tied to intersecting systems
of oppression, particularly those of patriarchy, racism, and poverty, we know we
cannot isolate a narrow reproductive interest from a broader justice agenda.
We acknowledge that, as religious communities, we have a particular responsibility
to promote healing, bring new understanding, and make changes as religion
has contributed to trauma, faith alienation, and mental health afflictions related
to reproduction.

May it be so.

Visio Divina is Latin for divine seeing. It allows us to encounter the divine through images.
Today, we will begin by using an image for contemplation, reflection, and meditation. The
goal of this practice is to view an image slowly and carefully, allowing space for inspiration
to come from a piece of visual art. Multiple rounds of reflection questions reveal different
layers of meaning for ourselves and our communities. We will have 4 rounds of reflection
with a different focus at each step. See the Resource Page for more information on visio
divina and to access the image.

We will use the image of the Mothers of Gynecology Monument created by
Michelle Browder.

Anarcha, Lucy, and Betsey were enslaved women in and around Montgomery, Alabama.
They endured exploitation through dozens of nonconsensual experimental surgeries by
Dr. J. Marion Sims in the 1840s. He became known as the Father of Gynecology, while
others who knew the nature of his experiments call him “Father Butcher.” In contrast,
Anarcha, Lucy, and Betsey were largely forgotten in history until recent efforts to share
their stories.

In 2021, Michelle Browder created the Mothers of Gynecology monument. It stands 15 feet tall on the More Up Campus in Montgomery, Alabama, not far from where the medical experimentation happened.

Choose an Image

Choose one of the images from this page of the monument’s website

OR 

Video (Watch without Sound, Time 2:10-5:20)

Reflection Prompts (if using video, please adjust these accordingly)

1. Look at the image and let your eyes stay with the first thing you see. Focus your attention on the part of the image that first catches your eye. Try to keep your eyes from wandering to other parts of the picture. Breathe deeply and let yourself gaze at that part of the image for a minute or so.
2. Let your eyes now gaze at the whole image. Take your time and look at every part of the photograph. See it all. Reflect on the image for a minute or so.
3. Consider the following questions:
   • What emotions does this image evoke in you?
   • What does the image stir up or bring forth in you?
   • Does this image lead you into an attitude of prayer or meditation? If so, let these prayers take form in you. You can write them down if you wish.
4. Take a final moment of silence in prayer or set an intention based on what the image brought up for you

Please make yourself comfortable, close your eyes, and listen to these words from poet,
Lucille Clifton.

Lucille Clifton, “blessing the boats” from How to Carry Water: Selected Poems of Lucille Clifton. Copyright ©1991 by Lucille Clifton. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC on behalf of BOA Editions Ltd., https://www.boaeditions.org.

Facilitators read:

I invite you to close your eyes or turn them gently downward. Sit comfortably in a chair. Tune into your breath and to your body. Let’s say this breath prayer together, adapted from the work of Cole Arthur Riley. (Cole Arthur Riley, “Black Liturgies,” colearthurriley.com, accessed July 31, 2025, https://colearthurriley.com/writing/project-one-64g3t.)

Let’s end with another breath prayer as we reflect on our learning today. Once again, close your eyes or turn them gently downward. Sit comfortably in a chair. Tune into your breath and to your body.

Affirmations

Invite participants to hold their hands over their hearts or abdomens as they recite these words in unison:

•  My body is a sacred gift.
•  My sexuality is a sacred gift.
•  My reproductive agency is a gift.
•  I am not alone on my sacred journey.

Invite participants to turn to someone next to them and recite these words:

•  I affirm your body is a sacred gift.
•  I affirm your sexuality is a sacred gift.
•  I affirm your reproductive agency is a gift.
•  I affirm you are not alone on your sacred journey.

As we speak these truths, we affirm and celebrate the beautiful diversity of sacred bodies, sexualities, and reproductive journeys in this space and around the world.

As we speak these truths, we affirm that all people, no matter the circumstances of their lives, deserve to be honored in their bodies, sexualities and reproductive journeys.

Read the full spell

adrienne maree brown, “Radical Gratitude,” Pleasure Activism (Chico, CA: AK Press, 2019), p. 401-402.

A Prayer of Connected Commitments

Facilitation Note: Bring the ball of yarn to the circle

Today’s content invited us to reflect on our personal transformation and where we are being invited into new or different actions in order to deepen our commitment to Reproductive Justice.

As you join the circle, identify one concrete commitment that you will share with the whole group. Once gathered, each person will be asked to share your commitment, and then pass a ball of yarn. One of you will start with the ball of yarn, share your commitment, and then invite someone else to share by saying their name and passing or tossing the ball of yarn to them.

MAKE SURE TO HOLD THE STRING BEFORE YOU PASS IT.

We’re making a web. Each person continues this pattern, holding onto a piece of the string as the ball is passed around the room. If the ball is passed back and forth across the circle, your group will have an interconnected web of commitments. Before releasing the yarn, invite a few final reflections from the group. Ask: How does it feel to see all of our commitments connected like this?

Finally, invite folks to cut the yarn they are holding in their hands so each person can take a piece as a reminder of their commitment.

Option 1:

Watch the video “Free Yourself, A Teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh,” which commends the Buddhist practice of mindfulness as a way to regain groundedness in one’s self and agency amidst overwhelm and suffering. 

Encourage participants to make themselves comfortable, assuming a restful position.

Video: Plum Village App “Free Yourself | Teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh” [5:08]

Option 2: Prayer

In Emergent Strategy, adrienee maree brown offers the practice of the next best step. (adrienne maree brown, Emergent Strategy (Chico, CA: AK Press, 2017), p. 220.)

Often we cannot see the full plan, or we need to pivot or shift gears. At times like these we

can turn to the question: What is our next best step to help maintain momentum? This question can be used over and over again, always being helpful.

Sharing Prompt:

Considering the areas of focus that we just named for our community. What is your next best step to help your local community deepen their commitments to Reproductive Justice?

Reading:

• Round 1: Listen to the reading of the text. Note any words or phrases that catch your attention. 
• Round 2: Pay attention to the words or phrases that caught your attention. Consider what those words or phrases mean to you. 
• Round 3: Think about how the words or phrases are calling you to act. 

SACReD Principles 

We affirm the following SACReD guiding principles: 

• All creation is good and includes a beautiful diversity of sacred bodies, sexualities, and reproductive journeys.
• The dignity of sacred bodies and the moral agency of all people deserve respect, including the bodily autonomy and agency of women, queer people, gender diverse people, people with disabilities, immigrants, Indigenous populations, and people of color who have often been denied this respect. 
• Pregnancy can be unintentional, but parenting is a sacred journey that requires intentional discernment. Prayerful decisions to have children, to not have children, or to end a pregnancy are equally moral.

1. What are valuable learnings and/or experiences you have had during this course?
2. Do you feel better prepared to commit to Reproductive Justice, including ongoing assessment and self-reflection? How so? (or why/why not?)
3. Where are you most excited to deepen your practice of your commitments?

Make a circle in the room. We are going to go around the circle and voice two things. 

1. One word or sound that describes how you feel leaving this space
2. For what and/or whom are you grateful, specifically related to this learning journey?

Read “It Is Our Turn to Carry the World”

bell hooks – “Rarely, if ever, are any of us healed in isolation.”

Let us give thanks for all those who have come before acting on the behalf of Reproductive Justice. Have participants name people for whom they do this work, or people who inspired them to do this work. With each name spoken, pour a small portion of water into the plant. 

Materials needed: a live plant, pitcher of water. 

Bring an image or piece of visual art into the space for contemplation. Visio Divina means divine seeing. It allows us to encounter the divine through images. Invite participants into multiple rounds of reflection with a different focus on each step.

1. Look at the image and let your eyes stay with the first thing you see. Focus your attention on the part of the image that first catches your eye. Try to keep your eyes from wandering to other parts of the picture. Breathe deeply and let yourself gaze at that part of the image for a minute or so.
2. Let your eyes now gaze at the whole image. Take your time and look at every part of the photograph. See it all. Reflect on the image for a minute or so
3. Consider the following questions:
   1. What emotions does this image evoke in you?
   2. What does the image stir up or bring forth in you?
   3. Does this image lead you into an attitude of prayer or meditation? If so, let these prayers take form in you. You can write them down if you wish.
4. Take a final moment of silence in prayer or set an intention based on what the image brought up for you.

• How is it with your soul?
• How are you loving God? 
• How are you loving your neighbor?

“Here,” she said, “in this here place, we flesh; flesh that weeps, laughs; flesh that dances on bare feet in grass. Love it. Love it hard. Yonder they do not love your flesh. They despise it. They don’t love your eyes; they’d just a soon pick em out. No more do they love the skin on your back. Yonder they flay it. And O my people they do not love your hands. Those they only use, tie, bind, chop off and leave empty. Love your hands! Love them. Raise them up and kiss them. Touch others with them, pat them together, stroke them on your face ’cause they don’t love that either. You got to love it, you! And no, they ain’t in love with your mouth. Yonder, out there, they will see it broken and break it again. What you say out of it they will not heed. What you scream from it they will snatch away and give you leavins instead. No, they don’t love your mouth. You got to love it. This is flesh I’m talking about here. Flesh that needs to be loved. Feet that need to rest and to dance; backs that need support; shoulders that need arms, strong arms I’m telling you. And O my people, out yonder, hear me, they do not love your neck unnoosed and straight. So love your neck; put a hand on it, grace it, stroke it and hold it up. And all your inside parts that they’d just as soon slop for hogs, you got to love them. The dark, dark liver––love it, love it, and the beat and beating heart, love that too. More than eyes or feet. More than lungs that have yet to draw free air. More than your life-holding womb and your life-giving private parts, hear me now, love your heart. For this is the prize.” (88-89)

This blessing is typically attributed as “A Franciscan blessing” or occasionally ““Four-Fold Benedictine Blessing” but actually Benedictine nun Sister Ruth Marlene Fox wrote it for a student group in 1985.

May God* bless you with discomfort,
At easy answers, half-truths,
And superficial relationships
So that you may live
Deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger
At injustice, oppression,
And exploitation of people,
So that you may work for
Justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears,
To shed for those who suffer pain,
Rejection, hunger and war,
So that you may reach out your hand
To comfort them and
To turn their pain to joy

*You may adjust the first line of each stanza to “May you be blessed with…” if your community does not ascribe blessings to God.

This is primarily for those in biblical traditions, but aspects could be adapted to others, eg. dhikr (repetition of Arabic names of God) Islamic nasheeds (music) or congregational salah (prayer). You can use this in full or one piece that resonates with you and your group.

Invite several participants to read each paragraph aloud (1 reader per paragraph)  

From the earliest days of human history, we have records of human practices of grief and mourning. From the rending or tearing of one’s garments to wearing sackcloth and ashes to weeping and wailing – the bible offers us plenty of examples of rituals of mourning that were common in the ancient near east.

To lament is to cry out against something that is regretted or something or someone who has been lost. The ritual act of lamentation is a lost art that can provide an important role in the grief and healing process. The Book of Lamentations is a book of poetry grieving over the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE when the Babylonians conquered the Israelites and sent them into exile.

Lament is not only a form of regret and grieving; it is also a form of memory. Too often in our world we seek forgiveness, healing, and reconciliation without having properly grieved and repented. Reconciliation is impossible without recognition of the harm that has been done and grieving over the damage of sins committed.

Our healing begins with lament.

Lament for the sins of violence and oppression against women, sexual minorities, children and all those who have been and continue to have their bodies, their dignity, and their humanity damaged and violated.

Lament for the complicity of the church and our theologies that have contributed to misogyny and rigid gender roles that have and continue to harm God’s people. 

Lament for ministers and others in position of leadership who have misused and exploited their power and authority to sexually abuse those in their care. 

Lament for our inability as spiritual people to listen in ways that allow us to hear one another’s pain.

Lament for the dis-ordered world that is the result of our sin and our ineptitude in dealing with human sexuality, and a lament for how these sins have damaged lives, communities, trust, and the health and well-being of our communion.

Think over our day together. The stories you have told. The stories you have heard. In preparing ourselves to “bear one another in love” – what do you wish to cry out against that might help to prepare you for the task of “bearing” one another? Write down your lament on a piece of paper.   

Invite people to tear up their papers and to place them into a bowl to be put on the table.   

Prayer
To be led by you or participant(s)   

(read in unison)

We suffer because of the pain, brokenness, oppression and loss of meaning that too many experience about their sexuality.

We yearn for our spiritual community to celebrate the goodness of creation, our bodies and our sexualities.

We suffer when this sacred gift is abused or exploited.

We affirm that sexually-just relationships express love, justice, mutuality, commitment, consent, and pleasure.

We suffer because of discrimination against people because of sex, gender, color, age, bodily condition, marital status or sexual orientation.

We long for a world that reflects God’s love for all of creation.

We suffer because of violence against women, children and sexual minorities. 

We ache for theologies that help us heal the world instead of causing harm. 

We know that sexuality is God’s life-giving and life-fulfilling gift. 

We desire healing that will help us bear one another in love as we learn together how to celebrate God’s gift of sexuality with holiness and integrity. 

Go now in peace, go now in peace, 
May the love of God* surround you, 
Everywhere, everywhere, you may go. 

*or All

Spirit of Life, Dear God that is known by many names,  
Enable us to use the days ahead
not in bitterness or in despair, fear or hatred, but in love.
May the words of our hearts flow freely
to the hearts of those beside us.
Let no walls of silence be erected between us
lest we be alone when together.

We who have shared so much of life
still have the opportunity to create
even more precious memories.
As we speak of life’s eternal meaning
let us sense the tenderness
in the clasp of our hands, a hug, a healing touch,
and in the wordless message of the glimpse of our eyes.

Grant us, O God, the strength
that comes with acceptance of self and others.
Help us to gain wisdom, courage, and resilience,
that we may liberate ourselves and others.
Help us to remember that we are beautiful, we are powerful, and we are loved.  

Blessed Be/Amen/Language of your choosing.  

(Suggested closing for Modules 6, 7, 8)

Leader: For a world where bigotry and oppression prevent so many people from living joyfully and openly:

Response: Let us create loving, justice-seeking faith communities where shame, judgment, and stigma have no place. 

Leader: For a world where God and theology have so often been used as weapons of harm:  

Response: Let us create loving, justice-seeking faith communities where shame, judgment, and stigma have no place. Leader: 

For all the people and communities in need of healing and wholeness,          

Everyone: Let us create loving, justice-seeking faith communities where shame, judgment, and stigma have no place. 

Words: Professor Ruth Duck  
Music: Old 100th (Protestant Doxology)  

Pray for a world where ev’ry child
Finds welcome in a sheltered place,
Where love is tender, undefiled,
And firmness intertwines with grace.  

Pray for a world where passion’s fire
Burns not in force or careless lust.
Where God’s good gift of deep desire 
Is safe in arms of faith and trust. 

Pray for a nation that is fair
And seeks the welfare of us all,
Where leaders guide with prudent care
To nurture life both great and small.  

Pray for a world where all have voice
And none will batter, rape, abuse;  
Till then, may all have rightful choice
And shame-free wisdom as they choose.

written by Rev. Dr. Debra W. Haffner, 2022

All: You are welcome here.

One: If you are gay, lesbian, bisexual, demisexual, pansexual, asexual, resist labels completely, or if you are straight,

All: You are welcome here.

One: If you are transgender, nonbinary, genderqueer, intersex, or cisgender,

All: You are welcome here.

One: If you are confused about your sexuality, have questions, struggle in an intimate relationship or struggle because you aren’t in one,

All: You are welcome here.

One: If you have had an abortion or an unplanned pregnancy, relinquished a child for adoption, had a miscarriage, live with AIDS or HIV, struggle with infertility, or have experience with the foster care system,

All: You are welcome here.

One: If you have been the victim of sexual abuse, sexual harassment, or sexual assault,

All: You are welcome here.

One: If you have made sexual decisions or engaged in behaviors that you regret,

All: You are welcome here, and we will help you offer restorative justice and healing.

One: Your sexuality is holy and sacred and an integral part of who you are.

All: You are welcome here.

As people of faith, we will side with you, love you, and fight for your rights.

We seek to create a world where sexuality and sexual diversity is celebrated with holiness and integrity.