Welcome | Kerry A. Maloney, Chaplain and Director of Religious and Spiritual Life

Seasons of Light is hosted by Harvard Divinity School's Office of Religious and Spiritual Life under the direction of Christopher Hossfeld, Director of Music and Ritual, and Kerry A. Maloney, Chaplain and Director of Religious and Spiritual Life. The full video recording of Seasons of Light 2020 can be found on the HDS YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVuYb9d7tCc&t=587s Transcript: Good evening and welcome to this year’s Seasons of Light celebration at Harvard Divinity School. My name is Kerry Maloney, and I am the Chaplain and Director of Religious and Spiritual Life here at HDS. Seasons of Light is our campus’ annual ritual to honor the unity of holy darkness and holy light in the world’s religious traditions that are represented on our campus. While we usually enjoy the deep intimacy of one another’s presence for this event, jammed into our largest sacred space on campus to share music, prayers, chants, and texts, this year, of course, due to the pandemic, we are scattered across the United States and around the globe. Nevertheless, we believe the power of our spiritual traditions enables us to transcend time and space to be truly together for this holy occasion—in a year when our unity and interdependence may never have mattered more. As we begin tonight, I invite you, if you haven’t yet had the chance to do so and if you are able, to dim the lights in the room from which you are joining us, perhaps lighting a candle or two to help you see. Also, please have near you if you can one unlit candle and the means by which to light it later in our ritual. Closed captioning is available throughout our gathering tonight. Please turn it on at the bottom of your screen if you would like to use it. I’m joining you tonight from Eastern Massachusetts, not far from the Harvard campus, where we are on the homelands of the Mashpee Wampanoag, Aquinnah Wampanoag, Nipmuc, and Massachusett tribal nations. The Massachusetts Center for Native American Awareness believes that land acknowledgment is a “meaningful step toward honoring the truth, making the invisible visible, and correcting the American stories that erase indigenous people’s tribal history and culture. Land Acknowledgements demonstrate a commitment to counter the Doctrine of Discovery and to undo the ongoing legacy of settler colonialism.” We acknowledge the painful history of genocide, stolen land, and forced removal; and we honor and stand in solidarity with the diverse indigenous communities who continue to have a connection with this land. Friends, we have gathered tonight in the midst of a harrowing year—political treachery and chaos, a long-overdue racial reckoning, a global pandemic that has stolen the lives of hundreds of thousands and shattered the security, hopes, and well-being of countless more. It is important that we are together tonight to pray and to meditate; to make beautiful music and to hear sacred texts; to rest in the deep, holy darkness; to kindle flames of hope and resistance; and to act together in solidarity with the marginalized. As we begin now, look around this digital room at your companions, your spiritual siblings far and near, and know you are not alone. Take a deep breath, and then another, and bless your capacity to breathe in a world where that ability cannot be taken for granted, not even one breath, especially by those who are black and brown. And center yourself in stillness for our brief time together. Let us feast on the darkness. Let us rejoice in the light.