What is it about picking up a pair of binoculars, lifting your eyes up to a far-off fluttering, or attuning your ears to a familiar chirp, that transports so many of us to spaces of peace? Whether you’re in the woods with a friend, on the seashore with family, or looking out the window of your apartment, join Cassandra Montenegro, student at Harvard Divinity School, on Sunday, October 16, 2022, for a journey into how birding and birdwatching can restore connection in our communities, and renewed courage and confidence .

Video Link to the sermon

Cassandra “Cassie” Montenegro is a third year Master of Divinity student at Harvard Divinity School on the Unitarian Universalist ordination track and studying Religion and Literature. While at Harvard, Cassie has served as a Teaching Assistant at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health class on Personal Mastery, as well as a Chaplain Intern for the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life at Harvard Divinity School leading Contemplative Bird Walks. She is a member of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Miami and the First Parish in Cambridge People of Color Caucus. Cassie is a past recipient of the Marjorie Bowens-Wheatley Scholarship from the Unitarian Universalist Women’s Federation, is a former Harvard Divinity School Billings Preaching Prize Finalist, and a 2021 Convocation Reader. Cassie is actively engaged in scholarship that raises questions about anti-blackness, ancestral spiritualities, and belonging in her Cuban American diasporic community. You can find more of Cassie’s writings in the Skinner House publication Shelter in this Place.