Sermon Inspired by a Potter's Field Memorial Service

Crystal Hall, a UTS second-year MDiv and Poverty Initiative field education intern, attended a potter's field memorial service on September 16th.  The memorial service was organized by Picture the Homeless, with the intent to honor the homeless buried there.  Conducted every other month on Hart's Island, these memorial services were organized after the discovery that one of PTH's co-founders, Lewis Haggins, was buried there in 2005 as a John Doe.  According to the Department of Correction, which oversees the potter's field, 1200-1300 individuals are buried on Hart's Island every year in mass graves, many of them having died homeless.

Crystal recently gave this sermon for her Preaching and Worship class.  The assigned text was Jeremiah 32:1-15. Download sermon (61k PDF).