This past weekend I had the chance to do one of my favorite things. Presiding over friends’ weddings is a great perk of the ministry gig. This was a beautiful wedding, joining two families from very different backgrounds. Guests came from Milwaukee and Mumbai, wore brightly colored saris and sundresses, suits and cortas,On the dance floor, Bollywood mingled with Madonna and midwest polkas. And everyone ate and drank and danced as the skies opened and poured blessings on the barn roof.

At one point in the evening, I found myself standing in a doorway overlooking the dance floor. I took it in: the bride and groom surrounded by family and friends from all over the world, everyone moving, arms and legs and bodies, mouths open in delight, music echoing, laughter filling the air.

My daughter was asleep on my chest, wrapped tight against me in her sling. I held her close as I watched the joyous scene before us. I thought of how people have danced at weddings for thousands of years and still do — every day, everywhere, even as bombs fall and disease spreads, even as we mourn devastating losses, cradle our broken hearts and lift our heads high, even as we fear what might be and hold fast to hope for what could be. For all of human history people of every hue, every tongue, every nation have danced at weddings with joy and fear and pain and hope and love.

Love brought us all to the barn on a September evening. A gentle, kind-hearted, soul-rich, giving kind of love that is contagious in the best kind of way.

The bride and groom chose a poem from the 14th century Sufi poet, Hafiz, to preface their vows. I offer it here as a prayer that love might continue to do its work in our broken, hurting world.

Congratulations K&K.

˜

It happens all the time in heaven,
And some day

It will begin to happen
Again on earth –

That men and women who are married,
And men and men who are
Lovers,

And women and women
Who give each other
Light,

Often will get down on their knees

And while so tenderly
Holding their lover’s hand,

With tears in their eyes,
Will sincerely speak, saying,

My dear,
How can I be more loving to you;

How can I be more kind?

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Rev. Megan Lloyd Joiner

Senior Minister at Unitarian Society of New Haven, Connecticut

Rev. Megan Lloyd Joiner the senior minister at the Unitarian Society of New Haven (USNH) and brings to her ministry a passion for worship and theology that is relevant to people’s lives. A life-long Unitarian Universalist raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, Megan received her B.A. in Religious Studies at Wesleyan University in 2001. From 2003-2005, she worked in the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Washington Office for Advocacy and was privileged to connect with Unitarian Universalist congregations doing social justice at the local, state and national levels. Megan graduated from Union Theological Seminary in New York City in 2009 and subsequently worked as a pediatric chaplain at New York Presbyterian Hospital.
Megan returned to Connecticut in 2011 where she completed her internship at The Universalist Church in West Hartford. She was ordained by that congregation in collaboration with her home congregation, First Unitarian Church of Cincinnati, in 2012. Megan served the The Universalist Church as Associate Minister from 2012-2013 and then the Shoreline Unitarian Universalist Society in Madison, CT as consulting minister shortly after the birth of her daughter. She returns each summer to Spring Green, Wisconsin, home of her Unitarian ancestors where she preaches in the historic Unity Chapel. Megan was called to USNH in 2015 and lives in New Haven with her husband, Anthony Clark, her two-year old daughter, Arden and two cats.

Latest posts by Rev. Megan Lloyd Joiner (see all)

• The Realm of Possibility - November 1, 2020
• Thus Do We Covenant… - March 1, 2017
• Be Still - November 3, 2014