The following message was sent to the GLIDE Congregation on July 29, 2021.

Beloved Glide Memorial Church Community,

Our co-founder, poet, feminist, mother, sister, radical friend, Janice Mirikitani, passed away early this morning.

We are all saddened by the news of her passing. Yet we stand ready to lead out the legacy she created. We stand in the gaps between the church and all of the women, families, and people of color she touched. We stand in the gaps between the church and the formerly incarcerated. We stand in the gaps between the church and the abused and addicted. We stand in the gaps between the church and the LGBTQIA+ community. And as Glide Memorial Church, we stand strongly in the gaps, where the poets and prophets live, our guides and ancestors, pushing us, further, further, toward a liberation of bodies, voices and spirits from all that oppress.

“Janice, in one form, has passed. But her spirit, her stories, her love, her legacy, her heart, still beat strong. Can you feel it? It beats through the streets of San Francisco, on the curbside of the Tenderloin, through the words of all poets everywhere, in the history of Japanese-Americans, of women who’ve overcome against all odds. It beats through the halls of GLIDE’s programs. Most of all, her heart is the proud and unending lifeline of the free and radical love between us all.

Janice became our ancestor today. How lucky we are to have been born through the imagination of such a woman. Glide Memorial Church is Janice’s ultimate poem. Can you feel it? Can you feel her?

For now, send your love and prayers virtually to Cecil and to Janice’s family. And know that you are in our hearts and minds as we make plans for celebrating Janice Mirikitani’s life and legacy.

As Always, We Love You Always,

Marvin K. White
Minister of Celebration