In the wake of the terrible events in Tucson, Diana Butler Bass has offered a remarkable blog.

Amidst the predictable blaming of each side by the other within a bitterly polarized America, she asks, “Who will speak for the soul?”

As she says, “Right now, we need some sustained spiritual reflection on how badly we have behaved in recent years --how much we've allowed fear to motivate our politics, how cruel we've allowed our discourse to become, how little we've listened, how much we've dehumanized public servants, how much we hate. She ends her posting with this statement: “If we don't speak for the soul, our silence will surely aid evil.”

As people of faith, we do speak for the soul, even when the soul is beyond adequate description. Daring to describe it, though, is what we do – some say it is ‘divine spark within’, or ‘inner teacher.’ Each of us knows at least something about our own soul and the scripture, music, poetry and events that speaks to it; joy and tragedy which speak the soul’s language.

As church members we are responsible for the tending of our souls through regular spiritual practices such as prayer, study and communal worship. This is how we deepen our relationship with God through Christ. And as United Church people we know that our hearts and minds must be well nourished if we are to act with integrity for God’s peace and justice in the world.