Dear Union Community, Friends and Supporters,
As we continue to navigate some challenging times, I hope all of you find time to rest and recharge with loved ones at Thanksgiving this year. This Thanksgiving, I continue to be grateful to be in community with all of you.
While Thanksgiving is a time when some of us traditionally gather with our families to give thanks, I also want us to remember that it is National Day of Mourning for some Indigenous communities for whom Thanksgiving Day is a reminder of the massacre of millions of Native people, the theft of Native lands and the erasure of Native cultures. On National Day of Mourning, these communities honor Indigenous ancestors and Native resilience. Like previous years, Union joins them on this day of remembrance and spiritual connection, as well as in the protest against the racism and oppression that Indigenous people continue to experience worldwide. Thanksgiving is a particularly difficult time for the Wampanoag people on whom the generally told story of Thanksgiving is based. You can learn more about them here.
Over the last few years, at Union, we have been starting all our events with a land acknowledgment that we crafted in collaboration with Union alums from Indigenous communities, the Center for Earth Ethics, and Ramapough Munsee Lenape people affiliated with the Sweetwater Cultural Center. Here once again is Union’s land acknowledgment which can also be found in the stairwell entrance to James Chapel:
Union Theological Seminary acknowledges and honors the land on which this building stands as the homeland and territory of the Lenape People as well as the habitat and dwelling place of the many beings they have been in relationship with. We give thanks to all of the spirits of Nature. We pay respect to Lenape peoples past, present, and future and express support for the flourishing of Indigenous peoples and lifeways within this place and everywhere.
Onward in peace and love,
Rev. Dr. Serene Jones
President of Union Theological Seminary
and Johnston Family Professor for Religion & Democracy