Mid-week Message
from our Developmental Lead Minister
June 1, 2021
Friends,
How are you? I mean, really—how the heck are you? How are you as you emerge or contemplate emerging from your pandemic state of mind and way of being? Are you excited or frightened or some combination of both? Are you ready to jump back into pre-pandemic life with both feet or are you feeling more cautious? Are you the wait-and-see kind of person or the I’ve-had-enough-of-this-let’s-
I have good news. However you answered these questions, you are normal, whatever the heck normal is these days.
For me, I’m feeling grateful, and some other things, but mostly grateful. Grateful to have survived. Grateful that FUUN has survived. Grateful to be part of a community that welcomes people wherever they may be on their journey, a community that welcomes diversity in thought, belief, sexuality, gender identity, and ethnicity, a community that welcomes doubt and honest questions, a community willing to sit in its own uncomfortableness—the uncomfortableness that comes during times of emergence.
Much as I’m feeling grateful, I’m also feeling uncertain. And sad. And angry. And, truth be told, afraid. No one of us alive today has ever been through a time such as this. We are trailblazers and pathfinders moving into uncharted territory. We keep moving because we have a vision for a world that can be, a world filled with compassion and grace, love and commitment, justice and hope. All the uncomfortable feelings are fuel for the journey, the energy to keep moving forward toward a promised land where people are free and united as one.
I am grateful to be emerging from a week of paid leave, granted to me and your whole staff at FUUN. It’s been one heck of a year, hasn’t it? I’m grateful for a dedicated staff and congregation who hold the principles of Unitarian Universalism close to the heart, allowing the time and space for the rest and restoration needed to affirm and promote human wholeness in each and every one of us.
The title for this coming Sunday’s sermon is “Emergence: Rethinking Community.” In worship, we will take up the topic of emergence and how we might think differently about spiritual community in this time, feeling our way into the future together.
Yours in shared ministry,
Rev. Diane
leadminister@firstuunash.org