Autumn Labbe-Renault, Worship Associate.
This month, we explore reverence as a practice and holiness as a quality of attention, asking what it means to live as though some things genuinely matter more than others.
What We Carry
Rev. Angeline C. Jackson · November 1, 2026 · Monthly theme: Reverence and Holiness
On the Sunday we built our altar together, Rev. Angeline shared the story of her Uncle Anthony, who died nine years ago, and the Jamaican tradition of Nine Night (Dead Yaad), a wake with roots in West African ancestral practice. Family from both sides gathered in the community square with food, fast and joyful singing with drums and tambourines, and stories late into the night, where crying and laughing traded places. The story her family still tells is of an uncle’s Corolla carrying what seemed like eleven people: ridiculous, but true to the night. Being together mattered more than being comfortable or sensible.
November’s theme asks: what do you treat as holy — not what you think you should? Believing the holy is everywhere is easy; treating it that way is harder. Rev. Angeline pointed to grief research (Continuing Bonds in Bereavement, 2018, ed. Dennis Klass and Edith Maria Steffen) that affirms what grieving people have long known: staying connected to those who have died is normal and often healthy. These practices remember people in particular — this person’s song, this person’s food. Uncle Anthony modeled that kind of attention: when he learned that she and her sisters didn’t eat much seafood beyond fish, he brought them lobster.
Drawing on Jenny Odell’s How to Do Nothing (2019), she noted that much of our technology is built to harvest our attention, so where we place it carries moral weight. She invited us to imagine the altar someone who loved us might build from the evidence of our ordinary days — and reminded us that this is information, not judgment. Our altars are still being built.
This week’s invitation: Think of one person you have lost and one thing they truly loved. This week, do that one thing with your whole attention. Young people can ask a grown-up about someone they miss and do that thing together. The altar will remain up through November as our altar of remembrance.
Watch the service: https://youtu.be/SaFxAkMN4CU?