Counting on Community

I remember when I first signed the membership book and made an annual pledge. It was the October break of my freshman year in college, and another time when reproductive health, rights, and justice were on the ballot. The election season put into clear focus that the values that guided both my vote and my life came from being Unitarian Universalist. Since I had graduated from our children’s religious education program, I understood that religious community is a lifelong pursuit of making meaning and making a difference. I was ready to fully commit to the church as an adult.

Here we are at the juncture of another historic election where people’s dignity and rights are on the ballot, and it happens to coincide with the time we ask one another to consider a pledge for the 2025 year that is generous for our circumstances. Our focus is rightfully on the local and national elections, but let it not divert our attention completely away from this community which nourishes our spirit and our capacity to build right relations with our fellow human beings and the planet. Our Unitarian Universalist faith and its covenanting communities are places where our faith becomes a reality, which helps us strengthen our ability to make a difference in a hurting world.

Our learning community led by Rev. Leah Ongiri, Ashley Lookenhouse, and our compassionate and wise teachers is doing the work of raising the conscience of the rising generation. The children and youth are also doing the work of raising the conscience of the elders.

Our social justice efforts led by Dana Buhl and the collaborative leadership of our justice teams are facilitating our ideals into advocacy and actions that move us towards liberation. I hope you’ll check out opportunities to engage with our Shower Project, Community for Earth, Caring and Action for Reproductive Dignity, Committee on Hunger and Homelessness, Immigrant Justice Action Group, Advancing Racial Justice Action Group, Economic Justice Action Group, UUs for Justice in the Middle East, and Peace Action Group.

Our worship life is led by our ministers, Rev. Alison Miller, Rev. Tom Disrud, and Danielle Garrett, as well as Garrett Bond, Joe O’Donnell, our Audio-Visual Team, and our worship associates, choirs, ushers, greeters, flower arrangers, and our Vespers Team. We gather in times of sorrow and elation, in times of peace and war, in times of hope and hardship to find meaning and to turn our hearts towards love.

Our networks of care and concern are led by ordained ministers and lay ministers. They offer the balm of compassionate listening when we are moving through a season of struggle. Truly, there are others we count on in this effort – the Alliance, the whole staff team, the warm hospitality of Jen Thomas, and all our welcoming volunteers. Each of us takes turns giving and receiving presence, meals, rides, and a listening ear over time. (I know my family was grateful for the help we received last year when my spouse was recovering from surgery and later when I was recovering from a concussion when our car was rear ended.)

All the programs above are supported by our communications, finance, facilities, and administrative staff and volunteers capably led by Kathryn Estey, Erin Tafuri, Isabella Utrecht, John Rosette, Jason Chapman, Joey Mohler, and our team of sextons: Kamal Sunuwar, Michael Two Feathers Ray, Mathias Reeves, Jhonnattan Claxton-Garcia, Garrett Moon-Chapman, Galen Allan-Cole, and Raven Schmidt.

Our community is something we can count on whoever wins the election and whatever is happening in our lives. May each of us be blessed to be able to give and receive in this life and in this place we call our spiritual home.

As you return your pledge cards, I hope you will be inspired to give an amount that is generous and that feels good. We receive one another’s annual financial gifts with deep gratitude. Our collective offerings shape what we will be and do together in the year ahead. May our offerings be a blessing.

In faith,

Rev. Alison