Read the full issue of this week’s newsletter here: The Weekly Liberal Oct. 31

In this week’s issue, Rev. Justin writes:

I can hardly believe I’ve served First Universalist Church for ten years. It feels like it was just yesterday that I was finding my way around the building. The years have flown by and I am grateful to serve a congregation that supports its ministers with sabbatical time, time designed for renewal, rejuvenation, and reflection. For full-time ministers, after each year of service at the church, we accrue a month of sabbatical time, with a maximum accrual of 6 months. Over a year ago, the Board of Trustees approved a six-month sabbatical beginning in January 2020. During this sabbatical time, I will be away from church, focusing on personal development, spiritual growth, time with my children and wife, and time listening to where love is calling me next in my ministry with you. During sabbatical, through work with a spiritual director and others, I am excited to explore what the 2nd chapter of my ministry might look like with our beloved First Universalist community. 

Rev. Jen Crow and I have been working closely together to ensure a smooth transition into this sabbatical time. Staff and church leaders are stepping forward to hold pieces of my work while I am away. Ministry, like many professions, is both wonderful and demanding. As much as I will miss you, and the day-to-day moments of ministry that I love, I am grateful for this time of renewal and reconnection with my family and my calling. I wish that every job offered sabbatical, this time of stepping back, taking stock, and then returning, recharged and rejuvenated. I know that my ministry will be enriched and deepened by this time away, and that this will benefit my ministry, our congregation, and our broader community. 

I’ll see you in church,
Justin

Read this week’s issue of The Weekly Liberal here: The Weekly Liberal October 24

In this week’s newsletter, Rev. Jen Crow writes:

Love is an act of resistance. This is the phrase that anchors me as our country careens along a course that frustrates, angers, frightens and harms me and the people I love. Love is an act of resistance. 

We start with ourselves. Caring for ourselves, the great guide, Audre Lorde, taught us, is “not self-indulgence, it is self preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” If we are to create change in this world, we must survive, keeping alive the wisdom and creativity that lives in each of our souls.

We start with each other. Revolutions, the great writer Toni Cade Bambara taught, come from relationships, not rhetoric. Revolutionary relationships cross boundaries and borders, they focus on an ethic of care and deep listening. In revolutionary relationships, we acknowledge our limitations, we take responsibility for harms done, and we begin again in love. Revolutionary relationships, not rhetoric, fuel revolutions. 

We start with the world. Love, bell hooks thankfully continues to teach us, is not a feeling, but an action. How do we bring love to life in the world through our words and our deeds? Love in action will be the foundation of the world of equality and justice, wisdom, creativity and care we long for. 
So in a time when the rhetoric of our country’s leaders is often vile and hurtful, let us lean in to love as an act of resistance. Love for ourselves, love for each other, and love for the world we dream about that sometimes is and still can be. 

How will you practice love this week?

Let me know.

Love,
Rev. Jen

Read the full issue of this week’s newsletter here: The Weekly Liberal October 17

In this week’s newsletter, Rev. Justin writes:

Our faith invites us to live a life of humility, courage, and bravery, as we act to create a more just world. This looks like attending Immigration Court, to be moral witnesses to what is unfolding, sharing information about the proceedings with Advocates for Human Rights. This looks like building houses with Habitat for Humanity. This looks like fundraising and giving a $750 stipend to immigrant families impacted by detention or deportation. And this looks like being a part of the Congregational Asylum Sponsorship and Support Team of First Universalist (CASST).

This team, with church support, has been sponsoring an asylum seeker since the spring of 2019. Without a sponsor, many asylum seekers are imprisoned/detained for the duration of their case, and often deported. Sponsorship can literally save someone’s life. Church members are currently serving as hosts, opening their home to the asylum seeker; members and friends are offering legal, financial, language, emotional, spiritual, and psychological support as the asylum case moves forward. Members of the CASST shared reflections on this effort in a July service.This ministry has profoundly impacted me. In the face of the injustices and inhumanity at our Southern Border, sponsorship is something concrete and meaningful that we can do.

From the beginning, the vision was always bigger than just sponsoring one asylum seeker; the vision was to have this ministry take root in the congregation, for others to listen deeply to where love was calling them next, and have a second team emerge, in order to sponsor a second asylum seeker. A second team is forming, and you’re invited to be a part of this work, supporting either team. We need you! We need your kindness, your “yes,” your commitment to be in this life-changing, heartbreaking, heartmending work. We believe we have the capacity for the church to support two asylees, but we need to grow our teams. Are you feeling called to host an asylee? Be a back up host? Do you speak Spanish? Can you give rides? Take someone shopping? All of this and so much more is needed. And if you can’t give time, please consider a financial donation to support these efforts.

If you’re interested in learning more and joining the team, please reach out to church member, Laura Schlatter, CASST Coordinator, at firstucasst [at] gmail.com or contact me at justin [at] firstuniv.org . 

Together, with humility, courage, and bravery, we can create a more just world. 

I’ll see you in church,
Justin

Read the full issue of this week’s newsletter here: The Weekly Liberal Oct. 10.

In this week’s Liberal, Rev. Jen Crow writes:

This week, the Supreme Court considered whether discrimination based on sexual orientation should continue to be legal in our land, and again, members of the GLBTQ community circled around each other, reflecting back the humanity that is always there, reminding each other of their worth and dignity. Tonight, the president of the United States is making his way to our city, hoping to fire up his supporters with hateful words and intentions so far from the ideals we hold dear as Universalists. Many of us will be there, pushing back on this hurtful rhetoric and destructive leadership. Many of us will be working in other ways today and every day, to keep faith with the larger web of life, creating an unbroken circle where all are loved, where all are seen and known as the whole and holy and worthy people that they are. The words of James Baldwin are sustaining me today – and I hope they might inspire you, too, to keep faith with one another, holding on tightly in the storm of this moment. 

For nothing is fixed
Forever, forever, forever,
It is not fixed;
The earth is always shifting,
The light is always changing,
The sea does not cease to grind down rock.
Generations do not cease to be born,
And we are responsible to them
Because we are the only witnesses they have.
The sea rises, the light fails,
Lovers cling to each other,
And children cling to us.
The moment we cease to hold each other,
The moment we break faith with one another,
The sea engulfs us and the light goes out. 
– James Baldwin

Let’s keep the light on for each other and those we do not yet know. Let’s keep on holding each other. Let’s keep faith with the demands of our Universalist heritage – a circle wide enough to welcome and love us all. 

In faith,
Rev. Jen

Read this week’s newsletter here: The Weekly Liberal October 3

Rev. Justin Schroeder shares: I’m delighted to announce the creation and the first edition of the First Universalist Racial Justice Newsletter! Included in this newsletter is a story about and a link to an interactive timeline of the racial justice work we’ve been doing at First Universalist for the past seven years. Whether you’ve been a part of this journey since the beginning, or joined the church three years ago, or just started attending, this timeline and newsletter are meant to orient you to our racial justice history, to the spiritual imperative of this work, to what we’ve done over the years, including concrete policies and programs that have changed as a result of our work.

Our goal is to honestly share what we’ve learned, to highlight the institutional teams and groups supporting our racial justice efforts (in addition to the staff and Board of Trustees), to communicate with the whole congregation in a meaningful way, and to help you find your place in our racial justice ministry. 

I invite you to read the Fall 2019 Racial Justice Newsletter and check out the First Universalist Racial Justice Timeline!

In the exhibit If You Only Knew, fine art photographer and author Barb Kellogg has created an authentic and powerful collection of interviews and photographs that relay the humanity of mental illness…and subtly reveal the importance of being seen and heard. She encourages you to see beyond the illness by sharing stories of validation, encouragement, perseverance (and sometimes heartbreak), and by viewing inspired photography that encourages you to feel. The exhibit creates a bridge of understanding between those living with and without mental illness, decreases discrimination, increases awareness about the experience of mental illness, and ultimately, humanizes it.

Barb’s work will be on display in the Social Hall at First Universalist Church Oct. 6 – Nov. 17. She will be available to talk about her work on Sunday, Oct. 20 after both services.

Barb Kellogg, an award-winning fine art nature photographer, became an accidental author when she pursued the creation of the photo essay If You Only Knew. An example of life coming full circle, her current passion for photography merged with her past education in psychology and human development. Her artistic journey has evolved to create photographic imagery that is about something, not of something, often asking herself “what do I want this image to feel like?” Photography gives her the freedom to express emotions, much like an actor in a play, finding it liberating and therapeutic to create images that span the emotional spectrum. Barb and her husband live in Avon, Minnesota. To experience more of Barb Kellogg’s photography, visit www.barbkelloggphotography.com. The book If You Only Knew expands on this exhibit, featuring more interviews and photographs. It is scheduled to publish in December 2019.

Read the full issue of this week’s newsletter: The Weekly Liberal Sept. 26

Rev. Jen Crow writes:

This past year has been spent in deep discernment about the possibility of co-locating with Shir Tikvah at 3400 Dupont. It’s been a year of inspiration, as we considered a bold move toward deep interfaith partnership, mutual congregational support in a challenging time for spiritual progressives, and greater environmental stewardship. Dozens of lay leaders and staff offered their expertise and time to research examples of successful co-location efforts, develop legal and financial models, facilitate congregation-wide communication and feedback opportunities, collaborate with our architects on building plans, and explore parking options. 

This summer, we commissioned a co-location study from the architecture firm, Miller Dunwiddie, to establish our building’s capacity, condition, re-use and program possibilities. We also asked the architects to provide us with firmer, contractor-estimated costs. We split the cost of this contract with Shir Tikvah, each paying $33,250 toward the $66,500 total. 
At the end of the summer, it was clear that several challenges existed with co-location. Our congregation had expressed significant concern about co-location drawing us away from our mission, especially our racial justice efforts. Many were concerned about the complexity of two growing congregations sharing a building. We worried about the impact on the neighborhood and more difficulty with parking. Some worried that co-location was an idea being pushed through by our clergy without enough congregational input. A risk of congregational division was beginning to emerge.

When the architects completed their feasibility study at the end of the summer, another clear challenge emerged. The cost of creating the building we had dreamed about with Shir Tikvah came back much higher than either congregation anticipated. The design that did fall within our joint budget did not provide either congregation with enough of what they needed to proceed. With all of these challenges clearly laid out before us, the leadership of both congregations unanimously concluded that it was time to end the discernment period around co-location and proceed independently.

Throughout this process, we have learned a tremendous amount about our congregation, our leadership, and our building – all of which will be invaluable as we proceed with our own building project. Here are just a few of the things we learned:

• This congregation values a bold vision. Living into our vision of a racially just world matters to us and guides our decision-making. 
• It takes courage to pause, to explore, and to make clear decisions.
• We yearn for deep relationships, and want to be allies and accomplices of those who are experiencing persecution and oppression.
• There is only one really good solution to our parking issues – and that is ride sharing. 
• However rich our spiritual lives may be, we have real financial constraints. 

We have learned and continue to learn so much from this co-location exploration effort. Thank you for engaging thoughtfully in this discernment with us – for showing up at congregational meetings and information sessions, for sharing your time and expertise, for making your voices heard as we came to this decision, together. 

Going forward, we have great confidence in our ability to work with our architects, within our budget, to make changes to our building that fulfill the original promises of our capital campaign – Not for Ourselves Alone: Building an Inclusive Future  – focused on greater accessibility and hospitality, improved worship and religious education experiences, and tending to deferred maintenance. 

Yours in gratitude,
Rev. Jen

Read this week’s newsletter here: The Weekly Liberal Sept. 19

Read the full issue of this week’s newsletter here: The Weekly Liberal Sept. 12.

In this week’s issue, Rev. Jen Crow writes:

This community is always surprising me, always renewing my faith in the capacity of human beings to strive for the good, to open their hearts despite the sure pain it can bring right next to the joy, to take on the spiritual challenge of enacting their deepest values in their lives. 

Yesterday, I stepped into Room 200 of the State Office Building in St. Paul, ready to show my support for the end of life options bill that was finally getting a hearing in the legislature. The end of life options bill would allow a terminally ill person with less than six months to live to obtain a prescription from their doctor that would allow them to legally and peacefully end their own life. I’d been brought to that hearing room by Rev. Harlan Limpert, a long-time member of our congregation, who also leads the Interfaith Clergy for End of Life Options group. To put it simply, this group, and all of us gathered there in support of the bill yesterday, believe that each human being can and should make their own decisions about how to live and how to die. No one religious perspective should legislate reality for all of us. 

For those who live with terminal illness and really all of us, death is inevitable. With this bill, the degree of suffering each individual faces could be optional – with each terminally ill person deciding for themselves what makes life worth living, and what amount of pain makes life worth ending on their own terms.

When I stepped into Room 200, I expected to see a dozen or so members of our congregation there to support Harlan and this bill. What I saw instead floored me. There were at least three rows of us on one side of the room and by the time the hearing got started, members of First Universalist and other Unitarian Universalists from around the metro area had packed the room, standing in the back and filling in the seats in the overflow room. This issue mattered to many of us, and we were willing to show up and be counted, doing our best to make our voices heard and our values come alive in the world. 

This is who we are, and this is the work of the church. We may not all agree on exactly what laws should be enacted all the time. We do agree that each voice matters. We believe, together, that our faith is best known by our actions – or as our early founders said, Unitarian Universalists are known by our deeds, not our creeds. May we continue to surprise and inspire one another with our willingness to align our actions with our values, taking the risks that are right for each of us as we try to right this world. 

In gratitude,
Rev. Jen