Covenant
When I arrived as your Interim Minister in August of 2023, I was surprised by the congregation’s repeating of our mission and covenant each week. Honestly, I wondered if repeating something like that weekly might diminish its message. Of note, I came from a congregation that did not repeat its mission or covenant each week, so it was an adjustment. However, when I began to meet individually with members of FirstULou last year (I ended up meeting with eighty-plus of you, beloveds), one of the questions I asked was what ritual is important to you in terms of the life of this congregation? Many of you referred to the recitation of the mission and covenant as sacred….holy… the part of the worship service that reminds you why you are there.During the Dec. 8th worship service, I talked about the importance of covenant to us Unitarian Universalists. Y’know, I said, that the word “Covenant” is big-time theological talk, right? For Unitarian Universalists, it is key to our theological identity. I went on to quote the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Tapestry of Faith, Adult Faith Formation Curriculum, Faith like a River: Themes from Unitarian Universalist History, where we learn that
The free church tradition of which we are a part does not offer up a creed, a certain set of beliefs, that everyone must accept in order to belong to the community. Instead, the boundaries of our community are determined by commitment and participation. Our central question is not “What do we believe?” but rather “What values will we uphold and how will we do this together?” Our covenant, the promises we make to each other regarding how we will be a community of faith, is at the heart of what it means to be Unitarian Universalist.
How do we care for each other along the way? Now when we repeat the covenant and mission each week, I treasure it too. And I treasure you all who have reminded me of the sacredness of repetition in our liturgical lives. Liturgical, y’know, churchy worshipy stuff.
Love is the spirit of this church, and service is its law.
This is our great covenant:
to dwell together in peace,
to seek the truth in love,
and to help one another.
Little Drummer Circle
Stay tuned. We might have a little drumming circle at 5 p.m. on Saturday, December 21st, in honor of the Winter Solstice, pa rum pum pum pum.
Franklin and Charlie Brown
Thanks to Ethan McCollum and all of you church attendees on Sunday who gathered together, in person and via Zoom, to honor another round of theological lessons based on the friendship of Franklin Armstrong and Charlie Brown. Earlier today, I told one of the staff members that I was having a grouchy Lucy morning, and she knew exactly what I meant. The admission, itself, brought a smile to my face. We then laughed ourselves
through our morning meeting. Poetry in motion.
Naomi Shihab Nye
Thank you for Kindness.
Danusha Lameris
The poet Danusha Lameris is also an essayist, and teacher. She won the Autumn House Press poetry prize, selected by Naomi Shihab Nye. The following poem from Lameris comes from Healing the Divide: Poems of Kindness and Connection (Green Writers Press, 2019). I first heard this poem last Friday. My friend Nancy and I were having breakfast and she read this poem to me as we were waiting for our food to arrive.
This evening, I was watching PBS and learned that the Merriam-Webster Word of the Year is: Polarization. Ooof! Polarization is defined as, “a state in which the opinions, beliefs, or interests of a group or society no longer range along a continuum but become concentrated at opposing extremes.”
Deep breath. Kindness is a choice. Deep breath.
Y’know, I think I will buy Danusha Lameris’s book of poems Healing the Divide: Poems of Kindness and Connection. I choose poetry over polarization!
Small Kindness
by Danusha LamerisI’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk
down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs
to let you by. Or how strangers still say “bless you”
when someone sneezes, a leftover
from the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying.
And sometimes, when you spill lemons
from your grocery bag, someone else will help you
pick them up. Mostly, we don’t want to harm each other.
We want to be handed our cup of coffee hot,
and to say thank you to the person handing it. To smile
at them and for them to smile back. For the waitress
to call us honey when she sets down the bowl of clam chowder,
and for the driver in the red pick-up truck to let us pass.
We have so little of each other, now. So far
from tribe and fire. Only these brief moments of exchange.
What if they are the true dwelling of the holy, these
fleeting temples we make together when we say, “Here,
have my seat,” “Go ahead—you first,” “I like your hat.”
Love is the Spirit.
Welcome to a gaggle of New Members who signed the book on Sunday!MAM
Reverend Mary Ann Macklin
PS On December 1st, we sang. On December 8th, we danced. Reckon we might be enchanted by story and enjoying some silence in the Sundays ahead.
Note: The picture at the top is called “Hope Extends.”
Reverend Mary Ann Macklin, Interim Minister Click here to contact Reverend MAM
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