Multigenerational Service Promotes Love, Courage and Wisdom.
Love. Courage. Wisdom. This was the focus of our 2016 Ingathering Service -- to be a people that promotes these characteristics. To be a congregation that loves, that thinks and that is brave to seek a more fair and just world.
We all bring these passions to UUCY. What do we do with them?
Listen to a snippet of UUCY Ingathering Service or read part of it below.
We all bring these passions to UUCY. What do we do with them?
Listen to a snippet of UUCY Ingathering Service or read part of it below.
Here's Part of the Sermon
Fierce Love.
That’s all the woman said to me before turning away. I had just arrived at a meeting to discuss the ending of racism and white privilege at a small working group of Quaker church members.
I was also a minority- that is to say, one of the few white people in the room.
This small group proposed sweeping changes that would investigate white privilege and discern a way forward in a body that governed 100 churches. Six hours later, their proposal would be rejected at a business meeting for needing more “seasoning.”
But for now, I sat in the room, careful to listen and not to talk. Many white people often governed the talking in larger business meetings, as the majority, privileged voice. The woman who got my attention with the words “fierce love” went on to tell new people in the group that this would be painful work for us, and the group would be careful “to work around the wound, and not to touch the wound itself.”
As I learned more about white privilege and how I benefitted from it, and did a personal moral inventory as well, I appreciated this group’s Fierce Love. I walk with them in support for the work that needs to be done. I would call it a moral imperative. I was humbled and chagrined. I was not in Kansas anymore. I was transformed.
Ian Lawton’s Soulseeds blog has this to say about Fierce love- “It is risky business. It is an act of faith. But the greater the risk, the more powerful the growth and adventure. Without the comfort of security, fierce love achieves something far more powerful; honest engagement with reality.” Fierce love is tenacious. It grabs you, and holds on tight.
The tin man may have been made of metal, but he does a lot of crying. He feels fierce love. He feels love deeply for others, and is sensitive about the state of the world and those in it.
He is brave, and he ACTS.
Who will you travel with this year, with your fierce love?
What ministry sets you on fire? What do you have fierce love for, despite the risks? You may see improvements and goals, but more likely, it’s relationships built and unexpected goals achieved.
Do you have fierce love for our environment?
For food justice? Immigration rights?
Racial justice?
Helping our children and youth understand all the facets of UU?
Could you have fierce love for those seeking support in wage equality?
Do you have fierce love about making This Special Place radically welcoming?
UUCY champions fierce love.
We understand that we are also transformed by it.
-- Erika Juran
That’s all the woman said to me before turning away. I had just arrived at a meeting to discuss the ending of racism and white privilege at a small working group of Quaker church members.
I was also a minority- that is to say, one of the few white people in the room.
This small group proposed sweeping changes that would investigate white privilege and discern a way forward in a body that governed 100 churches. Six hours later, their proposal would be rejected at a business meeting for needing more “seasoning.”
But for now, I sat in the room, careful to listen and not to talk. Many white people often governed the talking in larger business meetings, as the majority, privileged voice. The woman who got my attention with the words “fierce love” went on to tell new people in the group that this would be painful work for us, and the group would be careful “to work around the wound, and not to touch the wound itself.”
As I learned more about white privilege and how I benefitted from it, and did a personal moral inventory as well, I appreciated this group’s Fierce Love. I walk with them in support for the work that needs to be done. I would call it a moral imperative. I was humbled and chagrined. I was not in Kansas anymore. I was transformed.
Ian Lawton’s Soulseeds blog has this to say about Fierce love- “It is risky business. It is an act of faith. But the greater the risk, the more powerful the growth and adventure. Without the comfort of security, fierce love achieves something far more powerful; honest engagement with reality.” Fierce love is tenacious. It grabs you, and holds on tight.
The tin man may have been made of metal, but he does a lot of crying. He feels fierce love. He feels love deeply for others, and is sensitive about the state of the world and those in it.
He is brave, and he ACTS.
Who will you travel with this year, with your fierce love?
What ministry sets you on fire? What do you have fierce love for, despite the risks? You may see improvements and goals, but more likely, it’s relationships built and unexpected goals achieved.
Do you have fierce love for our environment?
For food justice? Immigration rights?
Racial justice?
Helping our children and youth understand all the facets of UU?
Could you have fierce love for those seeking support in wage equality?
Do you have fierce love about making This Special Place radically welcoming?
UUCY champions fierce love.
We understand that we are also transformed by it.
-- Erika Juran