Finding unity, through our difference, by Pastor Otis Moss
Meditative Story
WaitWhat
4.6 • 3.2K Ratings
🗓️ 5 November 2024
⏱️ 40 minutes
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Summary
As Senior Pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Otis Moss carries the torch for generations of church and civil rights leaders, including his own father, a regional director in the SCLC, and a friend of Dr. Martin Luther King. But it is his late sister Daphne whose influence most impacts his ministry and social advocacy. A brilliant young woman who struggled with schizophrenia, Daphne introduced a young Otis to what he calls “the continuum” – a spirituality born of poetry, literature and jazz that has woven its way through our history. Drawing as much from the beats of J Dilla as from the speeches of Dr. King; from the politics of Public Enemy as from the poetry of Langston Hughes; from John Coltrane and Miles Davis as from Reinhold Niebuhr and Abraham Joshua Heschel, Pastor Moss shares a timely, deeply personal story about the American jazz narrative — how a disparate and diverse people who are not supposed to make music together do — and do so beautifully.
Music by Ryan Holladay and Jonathan Mouton. Follow Jonathan on Instagram: @entertainer4lyfe
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, it's Rowan. |
| 0:02.2 | So we know that life doesn't come with an instruction manual. |
| 0:06.7 | But the next best thing I found is a podcast called LifeKit from NPR. |
| 0:12.7 | The LifeKit podcast can help you tackle life-altering questions, or just your everyday pickles. |
| 0:19.7 | Each episode offers deeply human solutions to deeply human problems. |
| 0:24.8 | I think you'll find it really valuable. |
| 0:27.4 | So check out LifeKit, wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:34.4 | Throughout history, nations have called upon their poets in times of great need. |
| 0:59.4 | That's what the prophets were. |
| 1:02.7 | Poets. |
| 1:04.8 | And right now this church, indeed, the nation is in trouble. |
| 1:11.0 | I draw from deep within to address the congregation, from the narrative, Daphne helped me construct. |
| 1:20.6 | From the Gospels, jazz, poetry, film, and hip-hop. |
| 1:34.6 | Otis Moshe III is senior pastor of Chicago's iconic Trinity United Church. |
| 1:41.0 | He has spent the last two decades practicing and preaching a black theology that unapologetically |
| 1:46.3 | calls attention to the problems of systemic racism in America. |
| 1:51.2 | In this deeply personal, meditative story, Pastor Moshe articulates a spirituality that |
| 1:56.6 | has been weaving its way through American history, and in particular, American jazz, about |
| 2:02.1 | disparate and diverse people who are not supposed to make beautiful music together, but who |
| 2:06.8 | do. |
| 2:08.6 | It's been a very difficult time in recent weeks, and we hope that Pastor Moshe's meditative |
| 2:13.8 | story can breathe a bit of renewal in your day, and offer a new way of seeing the times |
... |
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