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