Week 21: Sunday Service Announcements

God's got a blessing for you with your name on it, all you have to do is receive it.

Have you ever looked up in the sky and wondered how good life could be? This question used to haunt me the most in those moments that felt like the only designed path for me was one filled with struggle.

Like a fallen angel, it feels like the purpose of life is to set yourself free from the imprisonment we place ourselves under. To stand tall, ten toes down, rooted in your belief in yourself and your greatness.

There is power within you ready to take the stage, what’s holding you back from standing front stage?

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Greetings From the Ursher Board

ShaVaughn Elle

Disclaimer: When I speak about God, I don’t assign a gender because, to me, it feels restrictive. However, for this piece, I’ll use the pronouns she/her when referring to God and adjacent feminine language. 

When we walk into a church, we enter the House of the Lord; however, when I think of a home, it’s usually the woman who creates the invitation, curates the energy, adorns it with decor, and establishes its comfort. 

Could it be God’s House is the home of a mother?

Food for thought.

As we walk across the threshold of this spiritual domicile, it is common for a woman to greet us with an offering of a blessed service. In the Black church, they are called ushers or urshers—a collective of spiritual servants who bring and maintain the order of God’s House. 

It is the ursher's face who is the first we see and the last when we leave. The one who finds us a good seat and tempers our ego when what we want isn’t available. And when the Holy Spirit hits the congregation, the urshers and nurses bring aid and support as the essence of God’s flame ignites and touches us all. 

It’s been a while since I’ve been in somebody’s church. 

Years ago, I walked away from the institution that became “the church," but I never left God. I just found a new way to maintain our relationship.

During my glory days of communing in those sanctified four walls, it was through the ursher board. 

I always wanted to be an ursher.

There was something about the women and some men who carried themselves with grace and ensured the order of service ran smoothly. I considered what it would feel like to carry out these duties, and it filled me.

I was dedicated. 

When I went away to college, I returned home and joined again to become the only young adult among the elders to maintain their commitment. Urshering has always been my ministry, and most people have no clue of the nuances it takes to serve and walk this path—because hospitality is indeed a path. 

In my early days of urshering, we’d have training twice per month, and the commitment as a teenager to attend church on a Saturday and stay for eight hours was... admirable. We were in an intensive masterclass, if you will, to become efficient as the keepers of the service. 

The hand signals to minimize distraction, time management when relieving your fellow ursher from the floor, and standing tall and unmoved in your all-white or adorned with a solid colored blazer. Doubling as a crew of showrunners to ensure the program stays on task and managing the sanctuary's entrances and exits during prayers, songs, and sermons. 

Baby, the production of it all. 

Efforts are taken to keep the calm and manage guests.

Having to "make change" early to avoid any hold-ups with the collection plate or basket.

Leading folk ‘round the church for a specialty collection that supports all the funds that keep the church afloat. 

Urshers aren’t always acknowledged for what they do, but what I learned during my time of service is without the greeting as a representative of the mother's house, the voice of belonging in this space, it poses a challenge for any longstanding member or guest, to accept and receive each Sunday's blessing. 

The intentionally placed soldiers that cover every point of the sanctuary and its outer parts are not there for show. Honestly, there would be no show without the ursher. 

Next time you enter the House of the Lady, smile back at the urshers who greet you. Take a beat on going back and forth when they seat you strategically. Have your change ready to refrain from creating extra work. Find ease in them gathering the fussy afternoon baby from you to enjoy the service. 

Be patient as they grab your fan or program to ensure your comfort throughout the day. And if brave enough, show up for them on their anniversary date and rejoice as they march and celebrate with pride. 

Blessed be the ursher as hierophants of the church, who provide an intricately divine white glove service for eloquent and effortless praise.

With love from a former—but always will be—ursher.

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Pay Me, Period.

Tabitha Blair

We carry creation in our wombs.

Our vaginas are portals to the spiritual realm to give access for beings to take physical form. 

Sexual intercourse is a SEANCE.

Our eggs are priceless vessels of immortality from the ANCESTORS.

When we BLEED — we must say a prayer. 

The bible taught us our PERIODS made us UNCLEAN.

That we should not be touched and be kept from society until the last drop has fallen.

Backwards as always — but not completely wrong.

Our menstrual cycles are powerful spiritual rituals filled with alchemical sacral magic.

Anything dealing with bodily fluid secretion is — really and truly.

Our bodies prime themselves each month to house another child from the spiritual realm in a battle of dominion in this plane.

Depending on who you choose to SEANCE with will determine what type of entity you will house with ancestral eggs passed down by your mothers.

It is the HONOUR and GREAT RESPONSIBILITY of us as NATURAL LIFE BEARERS to be discerning and protectors of who we let pass into this world.

Yes, men have the SEED of LIFE but they cannot plant and bear FRUIT without the EARTH.

So when we BLEED we are honouring our mission to sacrifice precious life-bearing eggs till a righteous seed of INTENTION proves its worth for our DIMENSION.

It’s a time for restoration, deep contemplation, and celebration.

It’s a time to HONOUR and LISTEN to our bodies and MANIFEST in the NEW MOON of our alchemical cycle.

And we should be muddascuntin PAID for the time we need to bleed out as compensation and a maintenance fee for continuing to provide this world with LIFE-BEARING WET ASS PUSSY.

We already do more in one day than most men get done in a week (I love you men but multitasking is not your God-given wheelhouse) — three to four days off in a month won’t hinder productivity or profits.

In fact, a happily honoured and appropriately appreciated woman will increase her productivity. 

We need to band together and get that put on the next bill you seek to pass in government.

File that one under: “My religion as an EARTH WOMB BEARER dictates I don’t work during my bleeding phase and I’m to be compensated for the time I must take to pray at the altar of myself.”

There is POWER in the BLOOD.

Rejoice and stay reverent in it.

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Prayer Hotline

I pray you wake up living your wildest dream.

I pray you take center stage as the main character.

I pray you join hands with your full potential.

I pray you see the beauty you hold inside and out.

I pray you see the sunlight in the midst of the storm.

I pray you feel supported in community.

I pray you redefine the bylaws you live by.

I pray you see your way out.

I pray you stay focused on your path.

I pray you never look outside of yourself for validation.

I pray you find forgiveness in your heart.

I pray you keep your heart open to love.

I pray you love yourself back to life.

I pray you are inspired to keep going.

I pray you keep going.

I pray you love yourself more than you did before.

I pray you look up and realize how amazing your life truly is.

Amen.

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Community Announcements

Thank you to everyone who submitted their work to be featured in the print magazine officially launching on February 1st. The magazine was an idea that has now turned into something much bigger than me. November has been a rollercoaster ride, taking me high into the sky to see a perspective I haven’t been able to see before. I am grateful for what we are curating together.

While I am working on curating the magazine to be sent for print in a month, now is a good time to launch the preorders for the magazine. Preordered copies will be mailed out in mid-January, and if you signed a waiver as a contributing writer please be on the lookout for an email from me this week with information on how to secure your complimentary copy.

Paid subscribers and founding members per your subscription, you are to receive free shipping, so be on the lookout for that email communication if you did not sign a Release waiver to have your work featured.

Magazine preorders are live now and will run until December 20th.

Preorder Magazine: https://www.theblackstack.org/magazine

Writers Circle is next Sunday, December 1st, to take inventory of manifestations that came to life this year. It’s giving a reflection board party to prep us for a vision board party for January’s Writers Circle.

Registration Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUpcu2trD4sHd0SAo0lL12dDytrYIHePgWl

Thanks again family I couldn’t do this without y’all!

Jacquie Verbal