As we move into 2021, clear that we cannot return to “normal,” how will we actively “choose change,” re-imagine our lives, our purpose, the structure of our society, and the things we focus on?

The answer to these questions rests in choices both small and large. Change sometimes feels impossible, but we forget that change is dynamic, alive, lurking in every corner, and is happening all around us, all the time. Change can begin when we speak the truth, when we turn toward the feeling rising in us, rather than push it away, when we name what is real for us, and listen to what is real for others, and when we stop, and take a breath, before we respond.

In her book, Parable of the Sower, science fiction writer Octavia Butler writes, “All that you touch you change. All that you change changes you. The only lasting truth is change. God is change.” These words invite us to consider: What does it mean to choose change? To step fully into the “God flow,” the river of change, wide awake, and let it work on us, and us on it, as it shapes our relationships, spirit, and the course of our lives?

When it comes to choosing change, the poet John O’Donahue offers these questions to reflect on: “Where could I have exposed myself to the risk of something different? Where did I allow myself to receive love? What reached me today? How deep did it imprint? What did I avoid today?” 

This month, through message, song, prayer, and video, we will explore what it means to “choose change” and to embrace the lasting truth that is change.

This month, please join us for these Sunday services:

• Sunday, Jan. 3 with Rev. Justin Schroeder
• Sunday, Jan. 10, Remembrance Sunday, with Rev. Justin Schroeder and Rev. Arif Mamdani
• Sunday, Jan. 17, MLK Sunday, with Rev. Justin Schroeder
• Sunday, Jan. 24 with Rev. Jen Crow
• Sunday, Jan. 31 with Rev. Justin Schroeder

And these Wednesday services:

• Wednesday, Jan. 6 with Rev. Justin Schroeder
• Wednesday, Jan. 13 with Julica Hermann de la Fuente: Change, Part 1
• Wednesday, Jan. 20 with Julica Hermann de la Fuente: Change, Part 2
• Wednesday, Jan. 27 with Julica Hermann de la Fuente: Change, Part 3

Rev. Justin Schroeder, Rev. Arif Mamdani, Lauren Wyeth, and Julica Hermann de la Fuente gathered on Zoom in the early afternoon of Dec. 31, 2020, to share words of care with our congregation in the wake of the yesterday’s fatal police shooting in Minneapolis, not far from where George Floyd was murdered by police in May. Watch their video message here.

Our Black Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) congregants are invited to a BIPOC only group, meeting tonight at 5:30 p.m. on Zoom (see today’s Liberal newsletter for the link to join). Julica will lead BIPOC adults and high school youth in prayer and help hold community with and for each other as BIPOC people.

The entire congregation is invited to join us for worship this Sunday, as we hold our anger, grief, and commitment to continue to create a different and more racially just world than the one we currently know.

Read this week’s issue of our newsletter here: The Weekly Liberal Dec. 31.

Read this week’s Liberal here: The Weekly Liberal Dec. 24

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

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

One of the things I’ve noticed during the pandemic is that the facade of “everything is ok” has mostly fallen away. We’re much more likely to honestly share how we’re really doing. The veneer of “having it all together” has chipped and cracked and allowed many of us to name what’s true. This practice, particularly as we approach Christmas and the winter holidays, feels especially important. 

Let’s not kid ourselves: while we’re not all struggling this holiday season, a good many of us are. In addition to reimagining gatherings with family and friends, we know that this holiday season, we will not gather in the Sanctuary for our Christmas Pageant, or Winter Solstice Ritual, or Christmas Eve Candlelight service. Nonetheless, we will be offering these services of hope, memory, and tradition, but in ways that acknowledge the pandemic reality we’re living in and the very real limitations that has created.

This Sunday, Dec. 20, at 10 a.m, and on December 24 at 4 p.m., we will offer our Christmas Pageant live-streamed via Zoom (Dec. 20 only) and YouTube Live. After exploring a number of options and possibilities, seeking to capture via Zoom the power of the Solstice Ritual, we realized that this ritual would be exceedingly difficult to recreate on Zoom, and so we’ve created a beautiful “Do-It-Yourself” ritual and script to do in the convenience of your own home (more on that, below). On December 24, at 9:30 p.m., we’ll offer our Christmas Eve Candlelight service, blending readings, songs, and elements typically found in our Solstice Ritual along with some of the more traditional Christmas Eve readings and songs. 

We hope you will join us and participate in some or all of these rituals and services. And please know that your ministry team is here for you; if you are struggling, we want to be in the struggle with you, listening, supporting, and offering perspective and practices to find a way through this difficult time. We’re with you.

In faith,
Rev. Justin

Read this week’s newsletter here: The Weekly Liberal Nov. 12

Read this week’s newsletter here: The Weekly Liberal Nov. 5

Read the full issue of this week’s newsletter here: The Weekly Liberal Oct. 29

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

Every Sunday, when we gather for worship on Zoom and we move into the “Cycle of Life” time of prayer and reflection, so many of the comments that are shared in the chat box are related to our country, to the upcoming election, and to the anxiety and worry we carry as we think about the election. For many of us, it’s been hard to think about anything else. So many of us have written postcards, made financial contributions, phone banked, sent texts, and worked hard in countless other ways to get out the vote. It’s hard to believe, but regardless of who is elected, millions of people will feel certain the country is headed in the wrong direction. 

I have no doubt that election week will bring wave after wave of feeling to all of us; everything that humans can feel, I suspect we’ll feel during this week: fear, hope, worry, possibility, concern, anger, and so much more. 
During election week at First Universalist, we are committed to providing spiritual grounding and spiritual resources for our faith community, so that we can meet the moment, with clarity and compassion.

We will do this in the following ways:

On Sunday, Nov. 1, Rev. Ashley Horan will preach about democracy, hope, and trust, as we explore this current moment and what our faith offers and compels us to do in these times. She’ll be joined in the service by me and Julica Hermann de la Fuente.

On Tuesday, Nov. 3, we will hold three brief virtual services. These gatherings will focus on a spiritual practice or technique, designed to ground, center and anchor us as we move through the day. The ministers of the church will be leading these 20 minute services, which will be held at 10 a.m., 2 p.m., and 7 p.m. They can all be accessed here (webinar ID 883 3301 2657) at the scheduled times.

On Wednesday, Nov. 4, we’ll have ministers of the church in a Drop-In Zoom room, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., available to meet with anyone throughout the day. That evening, I will lead our Wednesday Worship at 7p.m.

On Sunday, Nov. 8, I will be sharing the message, “What Now?” and the service will include voices of congregants about how we meet this moment and the days to come. 

So much feels unknown, as I write this in the days before the election. But what is known is this: we will care for one another. We will care for our community. And no matter what happens on November 3, we will gather during the week and on Sunday, Nov. 8 to affirm our values and our core commitments, and to promise to help build the United States that have yet to be. 

In faith,
Rev. Justin

Read the full issue of this week’s newsletter here: The Weekly Liberal Oct. 22

Subscribe here.

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

I am full of gratitude as I prepare to head out on sabbatical beginning November 1. I’m grateful to have found and followed a calling into ministry that offers me a life of purpose and meaning. I’m grateful for the gift of sabbatical time that allows ministers to move away from church work for a limited time to make room for deep rest, renewal, and projects related to their calling that cannot be completed while holding their usual church responsibilities. This time away from November 1 through January 15 will allow me to deepen my daily spiritual practice, lean into my communities of support, spend critical time with my family as we (like so many of you) adapt to learning at home and the pressures of being a family that includes an essential hospital worker, and enjoy some extra time with my father who is living with cancer. In the midst of all this, I also look forward to devoting time and energy to another aspect of my calling, as a writer. 

This winter, I will submit the first draft of my book, Take What You Need, that will be published with Broadleaf Books. What began as an essay about my family’s experience surviving a house fire has turned into a spiritual memoir exploring the ways we can look back through our life and learn more, or learn again, from a new perspective – taking what we need from our life experiences and leaving the rest. I look forward to sharing my writing with all of you, and to celebrating the book launch together. If you want to read the essay that started it all, you can find it here.

In the meantime, my heart will be with you, and your ministers and staff will be right here – leading worship, stewarding the institution, caring for you and helping you care for each other. We have a strong team on staff and a strong team of lay leaders. While I am gone and into the future, Arif Mamdani will oversee our Pastoral Care Ministry, and all of your ministers and staff will be available for support. Staff and volunteers are temporarily taking on my other responsibilities while I am away and I am so grateful for their support. 

Here’s what I know: you know how to do church – how to show up with generous hearts, sharing your vulnerability and strength, supporting and challenging yourselves and each other as we build the Beloved Community we dream about right here, right now. You’ve got this, and you’ve got each other. I can’t wait to see you, to hear your stories, and to share mine when return. 

In gratitude,
Rev. Jen

Read the full issue of this week’s newsletter here: The Weekly Liberal Oct. 15

Subscribe here.

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

It’s been years since I’ve read the comic section of the newspaper. But for the past month or so, I’ve been regularly stopping there. I don’t know if it’s a combination of distracting myself from the real news, or if it’s because I trust that comedians, comic writers, tricksters, and jokesters offer – through humor – an honest and hilarious look at our real condition. Often, comics allow the painful truth to land in a new way. 

This morning, the comic strip “Pearls Before Swine” featured Rat and Pig climbing a hilltop to visit the “Wise a** on the hill” (a donkey). When they arrive, Pig asks, “Oh, wise a** on the hill, tell us all…when will things get better?” And the wise a** responds: “When you decide they get better.” Pig asks, “What does that mean?” And the wise a** responds: “That you can’t control events, but you can control your reaction to those events.” At the bottom of the hill, Pig turns to Rat and says, “I was hoping he’d just say Tuesday.” 

This is the predicament we find ourselves in. When will things get better? After the election? In the new year? Next spring, after we’ve made it through the winter? Next summer, when a vaccine may or may not be widely available, and the pandemic over, or not? When will things get better? 

I wish there was a concrete, technical answer to this question. But this is a question of the spirit, of paying attention, of opening the heart to what is, and noticing how we are reacting and responding and taking things in. Beneath the question, are these questions: “Even in the anxiety and grief, is there room for gratitude? Even as winter approaches, do we notice moments of joy and delight? Even as we struggle, can we notice where we are making it through, step by step, day by day?”

I wish we had a simple answer to the question: “When will things get better?” But there is no simple answer. Our spiritual practices, our leaning into (mostly virtual) community and connection, our honest truth telling about what we are experiencing right now – these are the tools that will bring us into the next moment, and the next; and in each moment, we can notice what has shifted and changed. We can notice what is better, what is harder, and then, with a breath, move to the next moment. 

These are challenging times. Be gentle and loving with yourself. Reach out for support. We are here for you, and for one another. 

With love and care,
Rev. Justin