UUFSMA: “Prayers for the Stolen”

Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Online Service

“Prayers for the Stolen”
Speaker: Jennifer Clement

Sunday, March 20, 2022
10:30 am

Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/414604040

Password: 294513

By Joseph Plummer
UUFSMA Board Secretary

For the second UUFSMA Sunday Service to commemorate this year’s International Women’s Month, this weekend’s Guest Speaker Jennifer Clement will discuss her celebrated novel “Prayers for the Stolen” for a combined audience of Ser Mujer and the UUFSMA.

Jennifer Clement is an author and activist who addresses contemporary issues through the lens of fiction. Building books, as she says, on an “iceberg of research,” Clement breathes breathtaking realism into her stories. A haunting story of love and survival, “Prayers for the Stolen” offers an illuminating portrait of women in rural Mexico, where drug lords are kings and daughters face constant danger. The Irish Times named “Prayers for the Stolen” its 2014 Book of the Year. It also became a finalist for the PEN/Faulker Prize and was released in 2021 as an award-winning movie now available on Netflix.

The first female to be named president of PEN International, Clement created a revolutionary PEN International Women’s Manifesto adopted by publishers and free-speech advocates and organizations worldwide. Endorsing six principles of freedom, the manifesto’s second paragraph says, “For women to have free speech, the right to read, the right to write, they need to have the right to roam physically, socially and intellectually.”

As president of PEN Mexico from 2009 to 2012, Clement investigated the disappearance and murders of journalists. With her sister Barbara Sibley, she is co-founder and director of San Miguel Poetry Week. She studied English literature and anthropology at New York University and French literature in Paris. She has an MFA in fiction from the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast MFA program. Clement was the 2020 Sidney Harman Writer-In-Residence at Baruch College in New York City.  She currently lives in San Miguel de Allende.

Ser Mujer, a coalition of Mexican, American, and Canadian women, has for seven years promoted women’s issues across cultures. On March 8 its Red Dress Day in San Miguel reminded the public that an average of five women go missing in Mexico every day.

To participate in our online Sunday Service, visit www.uufsma.org and click on the home page Zoom-Service button. If requested, enter password: 294513. Sign-in anywhere Sunday mornings between 10:15-10:25 am CST. Participants online in Canada and the United States should be aware that Mexico remains on Standard Time until April 3, shifting the start of the Sunday service in North America to 12:30 PM EDT, 11:30 CDT, 10:30 MDT, and 9:30 PDT.

UUFSMA donates at least fifty percent of its income to support underserved communities in the San Miguel region. Support this work by clicking on the home page Donate button.

In addition to continuing live Zoom services, UUFSMA has returned to limited in-person Sunday services. Attend in-person services at the Hotel Aldea by contacting Diana Amaya (info.uufsma@gmail.com) for safety guidelines. When seats remain on Sunday morning, walk-in guests with a vaccination card can join the service. Enjoy previous services at https://www.youtube.com/. Enter UUFSMA in the search box.