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Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman
For Unitarian Universalists, September is a time of homecoming. It’s a time of coming home to church and renewing ourselves and our faith commitments. That means engaging questions of faith and reconsidering what is being asked of us, individually and collectively. It means “[asking] yourself what makes you come alive. And then [going] and [doing] that.”
What will make you come alive? What will refresh your body and heal your spirit? What ethical, religious commitments are asking to be renewed or re-imagined in you, by you? Is your energy and passion moving you to more fully honor human worth and dignity, engage the democratic process, respect our interconnectedness, and/or renew the search for truth and meaning? How is our newest principle, the 8th Principle, coming alive in you and inspiring you to act in order to “accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions”?
This month, I hope you will each reflect on areas of your faith life that are being renewed in you and bringing you to life.
Yours in faithful renewal,
Rev. Dr. Sandra Fees
This month we’re focusing on what does it mean to be a people of renewal. What does it mean to renew? to begin again? For some of us that might mean to return to school or to begin an art project again after a time away. Beginning again can feel scary – especially when we don’t know what the new beginning will be like.
A few months ago we began an new project, a facebook page for members and friends who commit to raising or helping to raise thriving, spiritually grounded kids and teens. In some ways this was a new project – we’ve never had a group hosted like this. In some other ways this is a group that is as old as our church built in 1832 and probably older than that even.
Each day in the group we ask questions of each other. In everyone’s answers and questions there is laughter, there is sadness, there is wonder. For a prompt from last month our Religious Education Assistant, Erin Connolly, asked folx on the page to fill in the prompt …”I’m so glad…”. It renewed my spirit to hear so many of your moments of gladness large and small.
May we continue to renew each other this church year.
nadine j. smet-weiss
when
your
heart
breaks
and everything
goes
dark
for a moment
that feels like
forever
and you wonder
whether this
is the end
or the beginning
trust the beginning
let your heart
remain open
let life touch you
more deeply
let love flow
more fully
let the unnameable mystery
renew you
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