Reverend Megan Lloyd Joiner
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Theology

There are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the ground... - Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī
PictureLove Embodied: Praying at the Ordination of the Rev. Kierstin Homblette
I am a Unitarian Universalist.

​I believe in the unity of the Divine witnessed in many manifestations, 
and I believe that all people are worthy of love.

My understanding of religion emerges from the space where life and death intertwine. Rev. Dr. Forrest Church defined religion as “our human response to the dual reality of being alive and knowing we must die.” I have learned that our moments of deepest despair call up in us the will and the power to survive and to thrive. 

Faith is that which transcends tragedy, conquers the restrictions of history, 
and lies within the person who continues to draw life-giving breath in the face of hardship and disappointment. In that breath, in that will, lies the very source of life, a powerful Love which I have come to call God. Whatever we name it, this Love is, I believe, the source of both personal strength and the prophetic power required to create justice in an unjust world.
I know the Sacred as a deep, resonant Love that is both within each of us and beyond us all.

PictureShared Wonder: With Arden in New Haven's East Rock Park
I find great solace in the natural world and have since I was a little girl. 
As a child at summer camp, I was introduced to Quaker spirituality through song and silence in a tiny open meetinghouse in the woods, deep in the mountains of North Carolina. Sunday mornings were filled with birdsong and human song and gentle light filtering through the trees. 
That place remains in my heart as one of the most sacred I have ever known. 

My spiritual practices still include silence and song, along with crochet, yoga, reading and writing poetry, and prayer. My home altar (pictured above) provides a sanctuary within our busy life, and I find mindful, reverent moments on walks with babies, chopping vegetables, and even folding laundry!

​There are truly "thousands of ways to kneel and kiss the ground."


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This website was designed and created by Megan Lloyd Joiner. Nearly all unmarked photos by Anthony Clark. © 2014 All Rights Reserved.