THE GREAT VIGIL OF EASTER in many Christian traditions is the pinnacle of the worship year. Held between sunset on Holy Saturday and sunrise on Easter, it heralds the return of Christ’s light to those living in the shadows. Christians sing the ancient Exsultet on that night only; Sojourners asked Latin teacher Kate Seat to provide a fresh translation of a portion of that prayer (with its delightful praise of “the mother bee”).
Sojourners is moving offices again (true to our name). While boxing up the old to make way for the new, we see familiar things differently, as the features in this issue reveal. Georgia Coley thoughtfully reclaims transgender life from those who reduce it to a matter of medical technology, challenging billionaire tech-bro and transhumanism proponent Peter Thiel. Nashville-based photographer Emily April Allen’s portraits of Coley lift the heart and mind. Patty Krawec brings an anti-colonial and Indigenous lens to the biblical story of the Tower of Babel. Martha Park looks at gospel work in Lynchburg, Va., from the perspective of those not affiliated with Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University.
For Christ’s resurrection and for light in shadowy uncertainty, we lift—with you—our alleluia!
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