Earthalujah! on Earth Day Weekend

 From New York City, Rev. Billy and 20-plus members of the Stop Shopping Choir will perform at the First Parish in Bedford on Earth Day weekend, Saturday, April 21, at 7:30pm.  Kurt Vonnegut once said, “The Rev and his choir enrapture large audiences with sermons to which Jesus himself would have said Amen.”

Rev. Billy’s high-energy presence is part theatre, part politics, and part religion.  His message is anti-consumerist, and he is deeply committed to environmental justice as well as immigrant rights.  “Earthalujah!” exclaims Rev. Billy.  “We find intersections among Human Justice and Earth Justice – in immigration rights, climate change, the women’s revolution….  There is humor, joy, music in all this, which is our job to remind.  We’re braver not to be just right-thinkers.”

“This will be Billy’s third time coming to Bedford,” says First Parish senior minister Rev. John Gibbons.  “On Saturday afternoon, prior to the evening performance, we will join in public protest to the ‘Billionaire’s Pipeline’ in Boston’s Back Bay.”  The next day, on Sunday morning, April 22 at 10:00am, Rev. Billy and the Choir will lead worship at First Parish, headliner to the church’s annual Spirit of Democracy sermon series.

$10 is the suggested donation for Saturday evening, though no one will be turned away.  The Bedford event will benefit First Parish’s status as a “sanctuary church,” providing safety to those who fear deportation.  “Rev. Billy,” says Gibbons, will “raise our spirits, raise the roof, and raise some money to do good work.”

First Parish is at 75 The Great Road on the Bedford Town Common.  All facilities are accessible.  For more information, call the church at 781-275-7994 or uubedford.org.