Liana Rowe receives "Living the Dream" Award
January 18, 2011
The Southwest Conference and Shadow Rock UCC are proud to announce that the Rev. Liana Rowe was honored by the city of Phoenix with their “Living the Dream” award. At the breakfast commemorating the 25th anniversary of the city of Phoenix’s historic decision to become the first city in America to vote to honor Dr. King with a Holiday, Rev. Rowe was the recipient of this prestigious award.
We congratulate her, and share with her our pride in her clear commitments to justice and equality. Here are the words she shared with those in attendance:
Remarks on receiving the MLK Living the Dream Award today
by Liana Rowe
Friday, January 14
Two things run through my soul in this moment.
First, Today I receive an unconditionally generous gift and that makes me think about moments in which I could have been more generous. I'm deeply grateful for the generosity of the many, many hearts and spirits by whom I am surrounded. Many of the lives with whose I intersect, I've never even met.
I'm grateful most especially for my precious husband and children. Their generous spirits share me with the community, the needs of which are so deep. And my church family, Shadow Rock United Church of Christ, which inspires me to stay in the struggle.
Today's generous nod from the Human Relations Commission and the Celebration Committee is affirmation of the role of prophetic witness in the ongoing struggle for human wholeness, which is especially meaningful to me as Christian clergy.
Second is the struggle itself. As Dr King said in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail: “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”
This is a moment – raw as it is - in which we must embrace our mutuality in order to move toward our destiny. We must draw a moral line in the sand against ANY notion that it is possible, even reasonable for us to justify such things as effecting fear-based and divisive policies in our communities or withholding food from children or withholding health care from the dying because if we don't draw that moral line, if we placidly sit by in the face of such immoral acts, then we surely have sold our souls.
Thank you to everyone here who believes in a just and moral path in the struggle for human wholeness, not a single one of us can get there on our own.
