Over the course of this year, I am getting the chance to meet with a number of different groups in our community, including our Social Justice Action Groups. Last week, I met with members of Committee on Hunger and Homelessness (COHHO), who are engaged in some of the most pressing matters for our city. It was an engaging dialogue and a reminder of how we are both a Spiritual Community for Unitarian Universalists and religious liberals AND a Community Center that serves the wider world.
This twin role of our congregation is something I have always taken to heart for my role as a minister. My calling is to serve you – the members, friends, children, and youth who belong to the First Unitarian Church of Portland. My calling is also to serve the neighborhood, city, and wider area of which we are a part – this includes Unitarian Universalists and our interfaith and secular neighbors. One title for my role that now sounds a little old-fashioned but gets at the heart of it is Parish Minister. The word “parish” is associated both with the house of worship and the neighboring district that surrounds it.
This is a shared calling. WE are called to be here for each other, here for our children and youth, and here for the world beyond our physical and virtual front doors.
One way we engage in service to the wider world is through our social justice ministries. I am delighted to be working in a congregation of people who give of their treasure, so we can fund a Social Justice Director – the very capable and compassionate Dana Buhl. You also give of your time and talent by volunteering for our social justice groups, which are engaged in alleviating hunger and houselessness, environmental justice, immigrant justice, peacebuilding, reproductive justice, anti-racism, economic justice and more.
Another way we serve the wider world is by sharing our precious space. We use our facilities for our congregational community, worship, spiritual growth, learning, caring, and community-building activities. We also offer our space as an asset that serves the wider world. We hosted an interfaith gathering for Trans Day of Remembrance in Portland. We hosted an interfaith ritual and exhibit commemorating Roe v. Wade and the continuing need to expand access to abortion care and other reproductive health services. We hosted the Emanuel Displaced Persons Association 2 (EDPA2) gathering of descendants and survivors who shared stories of the vibrant Black community that was displaced in the name of developing our city. We hosted the Leaven Land and Housing Coalition’s Mass Assembly with well over 400 people in attendance. (You can read about these last two events in this week’s Front Steps.)
Our faith calls us to put our values into action in our lives and the public square. There is a slogan for a campaign the Unitarian Universalist Association used to describe our twin calling – Nurture Your Spirit. Help Heal Our World. It remains ever true. It is also a source of resilience and transformation. We come here to receive the nourishment of spiritual growth, love, and a healing community. Then, in turn, we seek to engage in the world with a spirit and an ethic of love and healing. We work for the changes that will bring about the beloved community within and beyond our walls. May we grow in our capacity to co-create nourishing spaces in the heart, in the home, in the congregation, in our city, and in our country.
In faith,
Rev. Alison
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Rev. Alison Miller (she/her/hers)
Senior Minister, First Unitarian Church of Portland
1034 SW 13th Ave., Portland, OR, 97205
503-228-6389
amiller@firstunitarianportland.org
www.firstunitarianportland.org
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