The new year turned a few weeks ago, but yesterday felt more like a beginning. At noon, Elmwood Park in Roanoke, Va. was thronged with people arriving for the city’s Women’s March – approximately 4,500 of them, joining millions more around the globe.

The 2017 #WomensMarch may have been born in anger and in fear, in response to dark and violent rhetoric and proposed legislation whose targets include those who have historically struggled to have an audible and equal voice (women; racial, ethnic and religious minorities; refugees and immigrants; the LGBTQ community; the disabled, the impoverished, the homeless, the marginalized and the disenfranchised), but the manifestation of that was a joyous, determined day of peaceful protest, envisioned, inspired and organized by women.

Roanoke’s march was more than a gathering of loud, politically and theologically motivated voices. It was also a celebration, a family reunion, a counter act to the loud and fearful messages we are hearing, increasingly, every day. I heard so many thanks directed toward the police officers who protected the path of the march, and toward the protestors themselves, and honks and cheers from the cars that passed. Women and men, babies in strollers, grandparents and toddlers, clergy in collars; those of Muslim, Christian and Jewish faiths and I am sure beyond, all marched. There were very few counter-protesters. There was no sense of fear or hint of violence.

There is power in voice, power in words, power in community. In the weeks leading up to this Saturday, part of me had wished to be in D.C. for the women’s march there, but yesterday I was so glad to be in Roanoke, with friends and strangers, saying loud and clear – THIS is what we value: love, peace, justice for all; compassionate and questioning faith that respects all living things; art, literature and spoken word that deepen our souls.

THIS is what we value: investing in good public education; universal access to health care; scientific research that preserves our earth and expands our understanding. This is what we value: our mountains and valleys, our oceans and our forests; this fragile earth our island home (Episcopal Book of Common Prayer). This is what we value: freedom of speech – including the freedom to speak our conscience; the freedom of an independent press, and a respect for educated and trained journalists seeking the truth.

This is what we value: our daughters, our granddaughters, our sisters and mothers – and sons and grandsons, brothers and fathers; our friends and families, close to home and far away, across borders geographic and ideological, no matter where our differences lie.