“Faith Matters” blog

Aug. 6, 2018. By Lay Minister for Worship & Arts Susan Bennett. As they sometimes do, an experience in worship at UUCF has stayed with me. The Sanctuaries DC was leading worship last month and, in his opening words, Rev. Erik Martínez Resly asked how many of us thought of ourselves as artists? He was visibly pleased by the many hands that went up, remarking that usually only a few hands were raised and then he explained that creativity was the birthright of all. Whether we label ourselves artists or not, we all possess inherent creativity. Whether we create what we think of as art with a capital A, use it to find new solutions to tricky problems at work or find unique ways to parent a challenging child, we bring our creativity to every aspect of our lives. As the service proceeded and different people shared creative reflections, sharing themselves through musical and spoken art, I reflected on how UUCF has been a nurturing place for me to explore my creativity in a safe and welcoming community. I realized that 15 years ago I would not have raised my hand when asked that artist question. Over my time at UUCF, I’ve come to view creativity as an integral part of my spiritual practice and my identity. I’ve had many opportunities here to take chances, create and collaborate with others in plays, Vespers, storytelling for the children on Sunday mornings and creating many Wheel of the Year rituals with the Women’s Ritual Council. I’ve grown as a spiritual person and as an artistic being in part because of my engagement at UUCF. I’ve found that what works to expand my creativity is to be intentional about setting aside time for creative pursuits. Just showing up at the writer’s desk or the easel is the first step. Exposing yourself to different types of art and music and new ideas helps too. Taking a class to learn a new technique can jumpstart your creativity. Being willing to be not so good at something is a good beginning as well. I’ve learned you have to write a lot of bad poetry before you write a pretty good poem and that it’s not my job to judge the work, it’s just my job to create it. So even if you wouldn’t raise your hand if asked “are you an artist?” consider how your life could be enriched and enlivened by some creative engagement. UUCF has many ways you are invited to participate in the arts. Our music program has opportunities for engagement at all skill levels. You could lead (or co-lead) a Vespers, try out the Poetry Club or the Memoirs Writing Group or submit a work of art for display in our ARTspeaks space. I hope as activities resume this fall you’ll consider trying something new, taking a risk in this safe and nurturing community. Who knows where it might lead!

Jul. 16, 2018. By Lay Minister for Adult Spiritual Development Cheryl Sadowski. High summer. Time seems to slow down; the morning air is light and dewy, the late afternoons are thick and stormy. Children’s laughter bubbles across the water of community pools, and friends and neighbors come together for barbecues and concerts on the green. When I was young, I loved summer for its long, languid days. I would run among the houses of my neighborhood to visit friends or curl up for hours on the back porch with a library book. Summer was sweet because it was time-bound; it ended with the beginning of a new school year, which brought with it new challenges, people and places. I found this theme to carry on through college and well into adulthood. Even now, as a working professional in my 50s, there is a natural close to the summer dynamics of the office and an anticipatory feeling in the air when fall begins. I’ve always equated autumn with education and the opportunity to learn. Poring over my community catalog, arts bulletin and, in more recent years, our own UUCF schedule of classes, I find myself more than ready for the rigor of experiencing new things. On various occasions, I’ve made the decision to teach or lead a class or small group at UUCF - one time on activist writing and another time, facilitation of a covenant group. On both occasions I learned much more than what I was able to “teach,” which is precisely the point. When you gather with other people to talk and act on topics of mutual interest, “ah-ha” moments abound, while deeper insight and meaning creep up on you weeks later as you’re pouring a cup of coffee or taking a shower. Gradually, you synthesize the experience and come away with a vital new perspective or greater cultivated compassion. Most of all, you grow and change. The wisdom of experience has shown me that not only what but how I learn has broader applicability in the world and the times we live in. Whether you teach or co-teach a class of your own making or borrow one of the Unitarian Universalist Association’s well-planned and generous curricula, whether you offer to facilitate a small group or co-lead a workshop with a friend or colleague, the experience of sharing and accepting knowledge will benefit you in ways that you won’t know from the outset. Whether teaching or participating, I hope you will consider benefiting from one or both of these paths. UUCF is building its fall class catalog now, and the Adult Programs Committee is accepting online proposals and ideas from all with an interest in developing their human and spiritual selves. Submit here today and be changed!

Jun. 11, 2018. By Senior Minister Rev. David A. Miller. NOTE: The following is the sermon Rev. David Miller delivered at last week’s James Madison High School baccalaureate. I have to say that I am a little worried for you. And I think it’s possible that some of you are a little worried too. We are living in crazy times. I have been alive almost 59 years and I have never seen anything like what is going on in this country. We all have been buffeted by the endless flow of tweets, pundits and news coming from just up the road in DC. I don’t feel a need to repeat it; it has been disturbing. I have seen news stories and plenty of social media commentaries, including my own, about how we are fighting for the soul of America. I worry about those who profess to follow their religious traditions and yet find no meaning in their own religious texts about loving all of our neighbors - the stranger, the marginalized and the poor - not just those who look like them. So, where does that leave us when we talk about the current state of the country and the future that you will now help to create? I am on the liberal side of politics and religion, and although I disagree with many who have a more conservative agenda, I didn’t grow up hating anyone. There were plenty of folks in my community who had much more conservative views on social and economic policy, but in my youngest years, I didn’t see them as evil and they weren’t the enemy. There have been plenty of times in the history of this country that we have found ourselves on extreme sides of specific issues. Polarity has been an unfortunate part of our American religious and political history and now we find ourselves in another time where we will have to make some choices - especially you - about what kind of community, country and world we want to live in and what you will leave for your children and your children’s children. I’m not saying that anyone should wake up tomorrow and vote the same way, or worship in the same tradition. What I am saying is that we need to have a revolution of values in this country that will break cycles of polarization and create a different future. This future could be anchored in the core messages of all the great religious traditions: The love of neighbor, kindness for strangers, healing the world together, service, humility and sacrifice. Values no different from those that lie in the best intentions of this country’s founders. There were plenty of flaws at the time of the creation of this incredible country, but there are values that live in the ideals and words written by those mostly rich white men that rise above the imperfections of their own lives to inspire us all. Because of the welcoming words of our founders, this country took in refugees from the despots of other lands. Because of those ideals, this country spread the hopes of democracy and freedom in the post-World War II world. Because of those ideals, this country has historically helped other countries in times of natural disaster, regardless of religion or political party. Because of those ideals, high school students have risen up all over this country and started a movement to ensure their safety and their future. Those words and ideals have often not been matched in practice. We have been challenged at various times in our history by fear, nationalism and policies of otherness. But one thing that has helped us live up to those original ideals is our ability eventually to call out behavior of intolerance in order to work together on supporting a more perfect union. Our ability to change has helped us weather many storms of political upheaval. My dear graduates, we may differ on significant issues of policy or religion, but I am here to call on all of you to move forward in your young lives to support all of us together. To try to live and hold the rest of us accountable to be our best selves. To break through the corruption of ego. To break down the politics of otherness and fear. To break the interpretations of religion that tear us apart rather than bind us together. Let us strive for fair, equal, respectful and just debates while understanding that we all have to find a way to live together. We wait at the same bus stops. We hold the door open for each other as we enter the local supermarket. We all have friends or family who have lost someone serving this country - the ultimate sacrifice. We try to feed each other when hunger plagues our children. So it is time for us all - and especially all of you - to rise up for the sake of goodness, for the sake of who we can be together, for the sake of our common soul. I am not asking you to agree with me on any issues, I am asking you to support the ideals that formed our nation – the ones we are struggling to live up to. If there has ever been a time for us to come together, it is now. For the sake of communities, for country and for this world, join together and help lead us forward. The saying goes that we are the ones we have been waiting for. We are. And you are more powerful than you can ever imagine. Amen, and may that be so.

May 14, 2018. By Assistant Minister Rev. Sarah Caine. I’m no longer a civilian. Yesterday I was commissioned as a U.S. Army chaplain. Part of me thought this day would never come. I’ve spent 5 years re-submitting forms to the Army and amid that had a brief stint submitting forms to the Navy to see if they would get me in faster. I started applying for the Chaplain Candidate Program in 2013, shortly after I entered seminary. This program would have offered me training and pay without the obligations of serving after I finished school, though service would have been highly encouraged. In preparation for writing this blog, I looked back at a blog I wrote those many years ago. Reading my 2013 words, I can feel the enthusiasm and hope that I would be able to have a smooth process through the Chaplain Candidate Program and eventually into the Chaplain Corps. It wasn’t meant to be, despite my trip down to Garden Grove, CA, to visit Chaplain David Pyle during a battle assembly - even after submitting numerous signatures, scanned personal information and doctors’ notes. No, my commissioning and accessioning would only happen after I was ordained and forced to make a longer and more impactful commitment than I’d ever had to make in my young adult life. Those 5 years of feeling that I would never be acceptable to the military, that I was not “good enough” despite the fact that I was in the best physical, emotional and spiritual shape of my life - those years were important for me to fully understand what I was signing up for. From a sermon I gave on this topic 2 years ago: I reflect on this call regularly, debating with myself as a Unitarian Universalist who believes life is sacred, to make sure I’m headed where I need to go. I was called to ministry because I was looking for hope in action. I’m a minister-in-formation who would love for the very same institutions I pray will one day employ me to be unnecessary, that I will be required due to an overwhelming peace in the world to serve elsewhere. Yet, I don’t see that happening and I do see a real need within the institution. I continue to scribble my signature on the line, check boxes and email my recruiter. I have been surprised by the positive responses from colleagues and friends as I slowly but continually push for this calling to become reality. I expected more argument. More protest. Overwhelmingly, the response has been “We need you in there.” “I’m proud of you for pursuing this.” And very meaningfully, from the spiritually grounded, action heroes with a sense of humor who currently make up the UU Military Chaplain crew, the affirming: “You belong here.” … Our faith demands that we seek responsibly and accountably. Pacifism is absolutely part of this. Military chaplains are a part of this. People who believe that the military perpetuates problems should have a place in the conversation and community as should service members and the people who love them. Our faith proclaims a desire to stretch out beyond borders, to be inclusive, to not be monolithic. Our Universalist forebear John Murray was commissioned by George Washington during the Revolutionary War to chaplain the troops - even with his scandalous views of universal salvation. I find the argument of continuing a tradition simply because it is tradition weak and lacking. It’s important to me that we explore modern issues and context when continuing a tradition. It is because of our own values, not simply our history, that Unitarian Universalist chaplains belong in the military - are necessary there - because of (and not in spite of) our values. Unitarian Universalism is a faith of conscience, of personal wrestling with what is true and meaningful. We come together in community on Sundays and throughout the week to connect. Not having a creed, but gathering in the mystery of the hour. Gathering in our one, strong body of accountable searching. Gathering in our belief that every person is linked with something beyond themselves - be it human capacity or God or other. I know this call will not be an easy one. I know my faith will be tested in ways I never imagined. For now, I am grateful to be able to explore where it will lead me.

Apr. 23, 2018. By Senior Minister Rev. David A. Miller. When you think about UUCF, I’m hoping what comes to mind first are things like love, community, spiritual nourishment, compassion, growth, family, justice and service. I’m also hoping when we think of UUCF we have a growing understanding of what it takes to keep this place running, the incredible work of the staff, the voice of love, hope and justice that we have always valued so deeply, but especially in this last year. When considering all of this, although it can be hard, the hope is we avoid thinking of money equaling votes for or against particular aspects of congregational life. As we make our pledges to the Annual Giving Campaign, have you thought, “I love this program, or minister, or group of friends, or RE class, so I think I’ll give my money this year”? Or, have you thought of your pledge as nourishment - a way of feeding this institution to sustain it? My hope is that we are all giving for the long-term sustainability of our values, our presence and our voice in this community. Our pledges aren’t votes. Our money isn’t about our current state of comfort or discomfort. It is about the 63 years behind us and the 100 years in our future. It is about the children in our RE program growing up in an era with media images of our country's leaders bending ethics and furthering oppression. It is about the people who visit every week searching for a community of love and inclusion in an increasingly lonely world. We will never be all things to all people, but we must be here and strong for the increasing moments of need for ourselves, each other and our community. As our 2018 Annual Giving Campaign comes to a close, please support the past, present and future of this congregation - your fellow members, our children and members yet to come - by getting your pledges in as soon as possible. And please consider a 10% increase over last year if you are a continuing pledger or a generous pledge if this is your first time. We are in a time of great spiritual need, and UUCF has been, is and can be here to address that need for years to come.

Apr. 2, 2018. By UUCF member Stacey Casey. While sitting in the bright UUCF Sanctuary on recent Sunday mornings, I have loved hearing the personal faith stories from UUCF members. This experience has made me re-examine my own reasons for attending UUCF, and led me to start defining my own spiritual journey. Many of these member stories share a common theme: the connection between Covenant Groups and building a stronger connection to UUCF. To date, Covenant Groups have been long-term small groups that get together in a shared experience of listening, reflecting and exploring issues together. In each story I've heard, the UUCF members describe their Covenant Groups as giving them support and fellowship. I always immediately relate to that feeling, since I've also belonged to a Covenant Group since 2015. It's a group that was created especially for brand-new UUCF members to help us connect and get to know each other. Speaking for myself, I would say that goal was achieved. This group has validated my observations, helped me hear more firsthand Unitarian Universalist experiences and given me a few more friendly faces at coffee hour, when so many in the room seem to already know each other. Now, UUCF wants to broaden the Covenant Group experience for even more members. The Covenant Group leadership team, led by Rev. Sarah Caine, will be expanding Covenant Groups this fall. To make the Covenant Group experience accessible for new participants, we will be offering a 1-year program for people to gather with new groups each fall. These groups will get to know each other throughout the year, wrap up their experience in May/June and then new groups will form the following fall. This model of small group ministry has three goals: Encourage a larger number of members, including newer members who haven't been in Covenant Groups before, to participate. Keep the time commitment to 1 year, recognizing that membership in a longer-term group can be intimidating. Interconnect a wider group of people to promote relationships and belonging. What about the existing Covenant Groups? These groups, which offer so much support and fellowship to their current members, will continue as they are now. The Covenant Group leadership team recognizes that these groups are cherished by their members and provide a source of comfort and friendship. If joining an existing group is more your style, there are spaces open in some of these longer-standing groups. Please contact Rev. Sarah for more information. Meanwhile, the Covenant Group leadership team will be promoting the "new style" of groups at two special events. At the first on May 27, there will be a pizza lunch following the second worship service. We'll talk about Covenant Groups, what it takes to be a group facilitator, how a typical meeting runs and what materials we use. At this first meeting, each table will get a chance to experience the deeper discussion of a topic related to our May theme of Creativity. Our second event will be in the fall, followed by the start of the 2018-19 Covenant Group meetings in September. There will be a chance to sign up for updates on Covenant Groups during these trial sessions. If you’re interested in being trained to facilitate one of these new groups, please contact Rev. Sarah.

Mar. 12, 2018. By Assistant Minister Rev. Sarah Caine. My first blog as Rev. Sarah Caine! It’s still sinking in that I have made it to this honorific. Thank you all for making it possible. The power to grant this title rests with the congregation, and you inspire and humble me with your votes of confidence. I hope I serve you and this calling well. Part of the training to become a UU minister is doing at least one unit of clinical pastoral education (CPE). This means 3 months usually working in a hospital (there are some programs in hospice or working with marginalized communities) as a chaplain. There is a lot of trial and error, reflecting in a group of other similarly situated people, reflecting with a trained supervisor, feeling many emotions at once and decompressing with trusted seminary friends. Two of the most valuable lessons during my five units of CPE were the ministry of absence and the idea that ministry is a job of “being” not “doing.” The United States, and much of the industrialized world, values completion of tasks and business. To be sure, there are many tasks that need to be done for our modern world to continue, but it is so easy to get caught up in doing tasks and checking items off our to-do lists that we neglect the rich and nourishing act of being. Ministry is one of the oddest jobs I have experienced. To be good at ministry, I need to take time for stillness, silence and prayer. If I am to be there as a support for the many people I serve, I need to make sure my own spiritual and emotional wells are replenished. This is counterintuitive after decades of training to always be working toward some accomplishment or goal. It means breaking the addictive habit of nonstop screen time and information input - not having a podcast on in the background of my Facebook scrolling means I have to be present with myself and the sea of emotions and physical demands of living in this human body. Pastoral care is a ministry of being present while not always doing anything. During CPE, we are trained to turn off the response to offer solutions or suggestions. Chaplains and ministers decondition the normative responses so we can be witnesses and companions for people on this beautiful and tumultuous life journey. And, we are told that it is a ministry to give people space to be present with themselves without our being in the room. We are encouraged to allow our caregiving to empower patients and congregants to practice being rather than doing by a ministry of absence. This can be frustrating and healing all at once, for ministers and congregants. Since striking out on my own as a minister and leaving the official designation of “student,” I have had to wrestle with the absence of the many seminary professors who were models of the dynamic act of balancing life in the being and the doing. I am now the person charged with modeling a harmonious life and supporting you all as you live yours. Encouraging you to take some time for internal stillness and unplugging from the information overload. To generate your own presence, as Thich Nhat Hanh says. May you take a break from “doing” in order to “be,” reconnecting your mind and body to the present moment and living deeply.

Feb. 19, 2018. By Intern Minister Pippin Whitaker. Since beginning my internship in September, I have been inspired by our Young Adult Fellowship group. With a little organizing on my part, this group for 18- to 35-year-olds gathers regularly and in healthy numbers. Despite busy schedules from school, parenting young children and new careers, the young adults take part in monthly social time, show up for social justice activities, organize community service projects and delve into spiritual renewal. On top of all that, they also lead and serve on committees and task forces throughout the congregation. This group format is a new phenomenon at UUCF. In the early decades of the congregation, there was little mention of young adults specifically, let alone a young adult group (according to our archives at least). Around the late 1990s or early 2000s, a social gathering for young adults emerged. There was also some effort to develop a campus ministry at George Mason University that faded. Efforts to form a young adult group with a mission beyond social connection ebbed and flowed, but in 2015 renewed interest and a coordinator on staff (our ministerial intern!) inspired the formation of our current group. Although our young adult group is new, Unitarian Universalism has a long history of dynamic young adult groups. Both the Unitarian and the Universalist denominations (our religious ancestors before the 1961 merger) had groups for youth and young adults since the mid- to late-1800s. These groups for teens to 25-year-olds merged in the mid-1950s to form Liberal Religious Youth (LRY). Since the 1961 merger, there have consistently been young adult groups organizing nationally. The groups, however, also struggled at times with funding support from the denomination and maintaining active participation. Today, young adults are supported through the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministries and can participate nationally in the Continental UU Young Adult Network (established in 1988) and the Young Adult Caucus at the annual UUA General Assembly. What this history means is that young adult ministries are important, enlivening and vital to our denomination and our congregations. It also means they need our collective and ongoing support. Just as the young adult gatherings ebbed and flowed here, there have been similar fluctuations nationally. Due to life stage and economic realities, many young adults have inflexible schedules, competing demands on time and limited financial resources. This phenomenon is increasing and young adults today tend to be more economically precarious than previous generations. What has kept this group going since 2015? The ministerial interns since that time have committed to supporting the organizing of the fellowship. Also, the congregation's budget committed $500 to support young adult activities. These may seem like small efforts, but it is just enough to provide the connecting foundation the young adults need to coordinate enthusiastic fellowship amid busy lives. A thriving young adult ministry is critical to creating multi-generational community. Connected and supported young adults weave their skills and perspectives into the congregation, which helps the congregation adapt and respond to changes holistically. This ability to adapt to challenges is increasingly needed in our world today. Beyond challenges, healthy multi-generational communities can grow and learn in ways that create new opportunities, from governance strategies, to hospitality to new and meaningful relationships. Can we keep our inspiring Young Adult Fellowship thriving here at UUCF? I believe we can, by ensuring staff can continue to support the group and by supporting the congregational budget that has been funding it. Young adults have many demands on their time, and they need their congregation to be ready to hold onto their momentum in the natural ebbs and flows of life. I personally pledge to continue supporting the young adult group as long as I am here. I hope you will join me.

Jan. 29, 2018. By Interim Director of Religious Exploration Diana Tycer. I remember the first time I heard about the Our Whole Lives (OWL) sexuality education program offered by UUCF. It was at the Fall Adult Retreat when I was mingling in the dining room after dinner, chatting with a longtime UUCF member. Upon learning that I had an adolescent son, she asked if I was going to enroll him in OWL. My response, no doubt like many new to UUCF, was a blank look and the question, “What’s OWL?” And as I listened to the response, I was both excited and surprised that such a course was offered to the youth here. But still, I couldn’t really comprehend how a sexuality education class fit into a church RE curriculum. But today, 10 years later, it makes perfect sense. We live in a world where the widespread lack of comprehensive sexuality education has led to the kind of headlines we are reading daily. The lid is off Pandora’s box and we must confront the pervasiveness of sexual harassment, sexual assault, homophobia, human trafficking, child pornography and sexual predation that reaches every level of society. Sexuality in our culture has been damaged by violence, exploitation, dishonesty, objectification and abuse of power. The best way to protect our children, and ourselves, is to provide accurate, age-appropriate information about sex and to help people develop a better understanding of healthy sexual behavior. The Our Whole Lives program teaches sexuality within the context of our UU faith, and fosters meaningful dialogue about sexuality among peers, partners, families and friends. The OWL curriculum was developed through a collaboration between the Unitarian Universalist Association and the United Church of Christ and is periodically updated. It is a lifespan education program that includes workshops for Kindergarten-1st Grade, 4th-6th Grade, 7th-9th Grade, high school and adults. The curriculum is rooted in our first UU principle that every person has inherent worth and dignity. It teaches that all persons are sexual and that sexuality is a good part of the human experience. Throughout the program, participants learn to clarify their values and build interpersonal skills. The ultimate goal is to empower participants to make informed and responsible decisions about their sexual health and behavior. While providing honest, age-appropriate answers to participants’ questions, the curriculum does promote the view that it is healthier for adolescents to postpone sexual intercourse. Here at UUCF, our 8th Grade OWL class runs for 26 weeks during the regular RE program year. The programs for 1st and 5th Grades are shorter sessions held in the spring. These classes are currently forming, and if you are a parent of a child at one of these grade levels and want them included, the required orientation sessions will be held on Sun., Feb. 4, 3-5 p.m. in the Program Building. Grade 6 students who did not take OWL last year are welcome to participate in this year’s 5th Grade OWL class. We are planning to offer high school OWL next year. While we have found that our high schoolers (almost all 8th Grade OWL graduates) are reluctant to do the program, the fact that many will be involved in sexual relationships by the end of high school and during college makes it imperative that we offer them the opportunity to review issues of consent, sexual exploitation and harassment, contraception and sexual health. To my knowledge, we have not held any adult OWL classes here. However, repeatedly parents of students remark that they wish they had taken OWL when they were younger. It makes sense to me to offer OWL classes for adults at UUCF. To some extent we have all been damaged by the distorted ideas about sexuality in our culture. An adult OWL class can help us improve our understanding of healthy sexual relationships, be better advocates for diversity, better affirm our own sexuality and help us to be more comfortable discussing sexuality with our children, partners and friends. I urge you to contact me if you would like to help develop adult OWL classes for the congregation. Also, let me know if you are interested in becoming a trained OWL facilitator. We need a minimum of 14 facilitators each year to teach our current course offerings. I welcome your questions, thoughts and participation in the wonderful Our Whole Lives classes here at UUCF.

Dec. 18, 2017. By Lay Minister for Membership and Outreach Shannon Williams. UUCF rang in seven new members at the exuberant ritual following the Joy Service earlier this month. This gives us one more reason to celebrate in a season already packed with celebration. It also gives me a chance to reflect on our congregation’s many members and friends, and the variety of ways we experience our faith journeys this time of year. The days grow shorter still. All around, twinkling lights frame homes and shops, even our own glittering Sanctuary. December radiates holiday cheer, but not all of us feel warmed by the light. Some of us may instead feel the chill of absent loved ones, uncertain finances, national political turmoil and minute-by-minute news of mounting global crises. The festive glow surrounding us can make things even gloomier as it illuminates the distance between ourselves and the holiday spirit. And because our hearts already feel two sizes too small, we may just keep these troubles to ourselves. Yes, threats to our precious world press in from all sides. So much more complicated than any single issue, they loom, eclipsing what little light we find in taking positive steps. One response to despair is to put together a plan of action. UUCF is a fertile place for such an approach, as our congregation moves forward some of the most critical work in our community and world. Our work draws on the traditions and histories of justice movements, from India’s independence to abolitionism to same-sex marriage. We know that in energized movements, dynamic leaders map out plans for political and social change. They motivate many thousands of people to carry out those plans. Yet all revolutionary work also relies on a constellation of connections thrumming behind the scenes. Social action sustains itself on the involvement of faith communities. On people building relationships around the world and around the neighborhood. In the face of setbacks, violence and the everyday obligations of life, movements sustain their slow and steady progress by both drawing on and cultivating these dense webs of relationships. By sharing songs. Making art. Inviting stories and sermons and places to gather together. So many of us want to heal the world, yet we flourish neither individually nor collectively when we charge past the tender places and straight to action. Every aspiration must involve nourishing the spirit. Every movement needs people connecting with each other. UUCF is one place where we can kindle these vital connections. Some of us may not feel we have much left to give this time of year. But when we’re in a dark room, all that’s needed to fill it is one wick and one match. When we show up at UUCF, in the Sanctuary or through the online live stream or other small group ministries, we are taking action. When we offer a hug or accept one, we are doing important work. This is true when we listen with a generous ear, when we sing or pray, when we simply carry ourselves into proximity with others. Of course, we all know that holiday cheer doesn’t really live in votives, bells and dreidels. Instead, we grow it in the welcome we offer our neighbors when they come seeking a place of hope and warmth. We channel the spirit of the season - the spirit of life - when we open up space in our own small circle of light and invite others into its warmth.

Nov. 27, 2017. By Senior Minister Rev. David A. Miller. Rumi says, “When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.” Overlooking the possible debate on the meaning of the word soul, just for the purposes of this blog, let’s say the soul is the deepest place of connection in you to your absolute best and most-grounded self. Can you imagine what it would be like to be connected to your most loving, most forgiving, most open and most compassionate self? Can you envision what joy there would be in the world if we all came from a deep connection to the soul, a soul that saw us move through the world always answering the question, “What is the most loving thing I can do right now,” and actually always doing that most loving thing? That is not easy, and even more challenging in a world with so many experiencing sorrow and craving, crying and yearning for this joyful connection. As is our practice now the first Sunday in December, we will hold the Joy Service. And this is not just fun and silliness. It’s also an intentional reminder of our need and ability to face our sorrow and experience joy in community. This time of joy during worship is an opportunity to practice communal joy, connecting to a place of deep soul, a place where we live when feeling a sense of love, laughter and connection. It is a time for us to do this work of the soul, an opportunity to feel that deep sense of joy. A joy that comes from saying, “I really did something today where I intentionally resisted the forces of sorrow.” These times are calling for us to connect to our souls and let the river of joy come forth. There will be sorrow, some are feeling much sorrow in these times. Others will be going through times of sorrow as a natural part of the ebb and flow of life. But Rumi also said, “Sorrow prepares you for joy. It violently sweeps everything out of your house, so that new joy can find space to enter. It shakes the yellow leaves from the bough of your heart, so that fresh, green leaves can grow in their place. It pulls up the rotten roots, so that new roots hidden beneath have room to grow. Whatever sorrow shakes from your heart, far better things will take their place.” This Sunday, let us shake sorrow from our hearts and collectively join together in joy. Just as a footnote, you are invited to do this in costume if you wish and there might be some Stars Wars themes in the service. Remember, when you feel joy, the force will be with you, always.  

by Diana Tycer, Interim Director of Religious Exploration. Many people conceptualize their lives as a linear continuum, a collection of their experiences along an established timeline. I have long conceptualized my life as a three-dimensional spiral, continually returning to the same place only on another plane, having gained greater wisdom through my experiences. When I was offered this opportunity to serve UUCF as the interim Director of Religious Exploration (DRE), I was conscious that I was coming back around to the mission most dear to my heart, but with a toolbox full of new skills to offer. I grew up Catholic, but had a branch of my family who were UUs (the cool relatives) and started early on my personal spiritual path. By the time I was in graduate school at George Mason, I had explored the major Protestant faith traditions and felt most at home with Unitarian Universalism. I was an occasional visitor to UUCF during that time, although studying or sleeping were usually my priorities on Sunday mornings. I was in no rush to join a faith community and get bogged down in additional responsibilities. But a chance conversation about religion over lunch changed that. I was dining with graduate friends, one who had grown up in a UU congregation but was no longer affiliated with it, when another friend at the table asked her what UUs believe. The friend from the UU congregation had no answer. She had grown up attending Religious Exploration programs, but could not articulate the UU Seven Principles. She could not explain that a creedless church could hold a shared vision for living a life in service to humanity, and our world, while its members followed their own spiritual journeys. The irony was that this person was living her life in concert with the Seven Principles. She was a kind, compassionate and respectful person. She supported environmental causes, she had married a person of color and was raising two wonderful bi-racial children, she was working in a career in social change. However, at the time of our conversation she did not belong to any congregation and she was not raising her children as UUs. I left lunch that day grieving. How had a UU congregation shaped such a wonderful person, and then set her adrift with no understanding of her own faith formation? How had that congregation failed to embrace its own youth and help them progress on to full membership within the community? That was the day I promised myself that eventually I would be a member here, and that my mission would be to serve the children and youth in RE so that every one of our children would be able to answer that lunch table question. For the past 10 years I have been in the Program Building doing just that. There I found a cadré of caring adults and staff who shared a vision for strong faith formation. I can attest that during those years I have seen the RE program here transformed. The Tapestry of Faith curriculum fully integrates the Seven Principles into interesting classes that span the elementary grades. Our Coming of Age program for 7th grade provides a solid grounding in Unitarian Universalism while connecting the youth to adult mentors to learn about the expansive work of our congregation. We now offer Our Whole Lives (OWL) sexuality education to 1st and 5th graders as well as high school students, and our exemplary 8th grade OWL program now draws students from outside the congregation who pay to attend. And throughout all our grades, our teachers display a commitment to full inclusion of all children, no matter their differences or learning challenges, which is the embodiment of our first and second principles. As your interim DRE, I will spend the next 8 months supporting our wonderful teachers, delightful children and fantastic programs until I can pass them safely into the hands of our new DRE. So I have come around full circle, only on an additional plane. The mission that brought me to this congregation - service to improving religious exploration, now finds me as steward of our excellent programs. I look forward to serving you in the months ahead.    

by Senior Minister Rev. David A. Miller. I am so proud and honored to be a Unitarian Universalist. With very little exception, I believe that we so badly want to build a beloved community where humans are loved and seen for who they are and that compassion, respect and equality are primary values. It is also true that we may not always agree on the strategy or tactics to achieve this goal. As we do the long, hard work of dismantling oppression and systems of white supremacy, it can be frustrating when we see there is no one right way, no outline, no clear path. We as a faith tradition, a congregation and as individuals have and will continue to try many things. Our hope is that each will lead to some measure of progress. One area of balance is our shared desire to speak our values boldly in the world and remain open to engaging with those who may not share them. After much discussion, one path for sharing these values was chosen - hanging the Love is Love banner in front of the congregation. In our efforts to live our values and stay open and grounded in love, it is helpful to bring voices of wisdom and experience into our midst to help us chart our course. This weekend we will hear two of those wise voices as we take action to put our values out into the world. [caption id="attachment_34980" align="alignleft" width="175"] Rev. Dr. Hope Johnson[/caption] [caption id="attachment_34984" align="alignleft" width="171"] Dr. Janice Marie Johnson[/caption] The Rev. Dr. Hope Johnson and Dr. Janice Marie Johnson will lead our two services this Sunday. These UU sisters have worked tirelessly for decades within the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) and our congregations to end systems of oppression and create Beloved Community. Hope is the minister for the UU Congregation of Central Nassau on Long Island. She is also a congregational life consultant to the UUA’s Central East Region. Hope is actively engaged in multi-faith ministry, cross-cultural engagement and justice-making. She describes this as a “Sankofa” moment in time when we need to understand the past to be able to deal with the present as we live into the future. Janice Marie leads Multicultural Ministries at the UUA. She guides strategic initiatives to expand congregational and individual capacity to be welcoming and inclusive. Janice says she is guided by her maxim, "Masakhane." This rich and resonant word comes from the Nguni family of languages of South Africa. Loosely translated into English it means, "Let us build together." Please join us on Sunday as Hope and Janice Marie lead the congregation through a moving program of sermons, reflections, actions and learning. 9:15 a.m. service - Harboring Each Other This service of bolstering and grounding ourselves in UU values will include a ritual of blessing the new banner that we will hang along Hunter Mill Road during the 11:15 a.m. service. 11:15 a.m. service - Let Us Go, Together! This is a service of stating our values clearly in the community. During this service the congregation will move from the Sanctuary to the frontage along Hunter Mill Road and hang our new banner. 12:30 p.m. workshop - Moving Forward in Challenging Times (in the Sanctuary). Drop-in child care available. Join us as we collectively consider how best to engage in diverse ways, small and large, to build and strengthen Beloved Community. No registration required. Let us join together and ground ourselves in love, hope and compassion for the work of justice we will do together.    

by Intern Minister Pippin Whitaker. Greetings new community! I am your new intern minister, and I will be with you half-time for the next 2 years, September through May. I am also a seminary student at Meadville Lombard Theological School, which is one of two Unitarian Universalist seminaries in the country. I live in Vienna with my spouse, Steve, and our three children, who range in age from 4 to 9. Yes, all this keeps me busy, but what a joyful busy it is! And what a joy it is to be an intern at UUCF. I have been a Unitarian Universalist by label since I was a pre-teen, but the values and principles of Unitarian Universalism were already part of me before I met a single Unitarian Universalist. I was a young person who loved to ponder the meaning of life and how we should treat one another, and I felt a call to ministry when I was still elementary school-aged. I put it aside because, growing up in Mississippi, with Protestant and Catholic friends and family, I didn't see a place for me in ministry. I actually thought about being a nun, but I also really wanted kids so that seemed to be a bit of a conflict. I was so glad when we found our first Unitarian Universalist congregation in the ’90s because it gave us the opportunity to live out and develop our faith and hopes for the world in a community of folks who would strive with us. But by that time, I assumed all Unitarian Universalist ministers were men and sans children. Still I was hooked on Unitarian Universalism from the beginning. Although, I was an infrequent visitor to congregations for several years in college! In graduate school, I rejoined a congregation and began to think deeply about my sense of calling to ministry and what that would look like for me. I first chose the practical application of our principles through social work. (As an aside: it is no coincidence that social work values and ethics are so close to Unitarian Universalist principles. Ask me about that some time!). After getting my master’s and Ph.D. in social work at Florida State University, I joined the faculty of the University of South Carolina for a few years. There I taught classes and contributed to knowledge about how community and social systems perpetuate - or can impede! - violence against people experiencing oppression. Then finally a light went off in my heart. We do need people developing more knowledge in social work, yes, but my work there was done. I was ready to move on because there is a place where my talents and frailties meet my hopes and fears for this turbulent ball of life we call earth. It is a place where we co-create our deepest longings for this world. And right now that place is here with you. Once I harnessed my call, I set off to seminary at Meadville Lombard in 2014. I have now completed almost all of my course work. I completed a unit of clinical pastoral education in a combination hospital and congregational setting. Last year, I earned a certificate in congregation-based spiritual direction. I am a candidate for ministry, which is an early part of the process to be a minister in fellowship with the Unitarian Universalist Association. And ... all of this preparation feels like painting primer on a canvas. Now, here we go! By being you, you will teach me volumes so that I might bless future congregations with your wisdom. By being me, I hope I bring you at least some piece of the joy I am filled with in this moment. If not that, perhaps some fun-loving amusement along the way! Either way, I am sure that we will create something beautiful together over these next 2 years. Thank you in advance for being you and for inviting me to be with you!  

One of the Reach Campaign projects we’ve been planning for some time is finally going to happen the last two weeks of August. As part of our improvement of the UUCF grounds, we will be installing a water catchment infiltration trench and retaining wall at the base of the hill below the traffic circle, which will retain the water that currently flows across the yard in front of the Program Building, causing erosion and creating a muddy mess, especially in the winter. This has been a problem for a long time. Perhaps you’ve noticed the exposed tree roots from the erosion or the mud after a rain. The wall and infiltration trench will capture the water from most storms and allow it to soak into the ground instead of running off. For really big storms, there will be an overflow pipe running from the wall to the drain that takes excess storm water off the property. This will keep running water off the grassy area in front of the Program Building. The soil in that area will improved and sod will be laid to replace the dirt and weeds that are currently there. The area in front of the retaining wall will also be regraded to make it flatter for the picnic table gathering area. This project not only resolves a long-standing problem, it is also good for the environment, significantly reducing storm water runoff from the property, so much so that the Fairfax County Conservation Assistance Program approved a $15,000 grant to help pay for the project. However, as is the case with most change, there are a couple of less-than-desirable consequences. First, the sod will not be laid until the last week of August to avoid the hottest summer weather. This means the area will be off-limits for the month of September to allow the grass to get established. We will have to manage around the disruption for our Sep. 10 Ingathering picnic and there will no doubt be other inconveniences as well. We also will be removing the two very tall old pine trees in that area as part of the project. To create the run-off infiltration trench (the size and depth of the trench is based on calculations provided by our advisors at the Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District), it is unavoidable that those trees’ root systems will be damaged. And they are already past their normal lifespan and showing signs of decay. An arborist we consulted pointed out that the excessive pinecone production of one of the trees is a sign that the tree is nearing the end of its life. Given the root disruption, the arborist’s opinion is that neither pine tree is likely to survive and would become a safety hazard. The project plan includes planting new trees that are more appropriate for providing shade to that area. Lay Minister for Property Stewardship Suzy Foster is leading that effort. The poplar and beech trees between the pines and the north sidewalk to the Program Building will remain and disturbance to their root systems will be avoided. The Property Stewardship Council has reviewed and endorsed this project. Special thanks to Jim Allen for doing the major project design work and to Suzy Foster for her landscaping and conservation design expertise. The Coordinating Team Rev. David A. Miller, Rich Sider, Kathy Smerke Hochberg, Pete Krone

by Associate Minister Rev. Laura Horton-Ludwig. Thank you so much for the warm and wonderful send-off you offered me on Sunday. How good it was to be together and share so many hugs and good wishes. And the presents you gave me are so beautiful - the stunning glass singing bowl and the scrapbook with so many loving, thoughtful notes - I’m deeply grateful to have these treasures to remember you by. I am excited about the next chapter in my ministry, but, dear people, you are very hard to leave! Many of you have asked about staying in touch. With a heart full of love for you all, I need to let you know that I won’t be able to stay connected with you by email, phone or social media. The covenant I share with all my colleagues in ministry calls me to step way, way back for the sake of the relationship you will form with the new minister who will join you this fall. This is one of the toughest things in ministry - having to say goodbye and really mean it. But it’s for such a good reason. For the next ministry to flourish as we all hope and wish for, ministers who are leaving really need to leave. That said, if you should find yourself in Williamsburg on a Sunday, I would be delighted to see you in church. You are welcome there too. And I won’t say no to a hug and a smile, either. Though our relationship must change, I will carry you in my heart always. Dear people of UUCF, farewell and bless you.

by Intern Minister McKinley Sims. My partner has a hard time saying goodbye. I’ve often had to drag her out of parties or she would presumably never leave. She thrives on interaction and engagement, and I always say the only thing she’s afraid of is missing out on the party. She’s a great balance for me, because I don’t have a hard time saying goodbye. It’s not that I don’t get sad or that I don’t cherish the memories and experiences I’ve had here at UUCF, or at any of the other congregations I’ve served, or in the hospitals where I’ve worked, or in seminary, or in the schools I taught at, or in college, or high school, or any of that. On the contrary, I don’t look forward to leaving and moving on and having to start over at a new place. That kind of itinerant lifestyle sucks, but I’ve had plenty of experience at it by now. No, it’s not fun to say goodbye all the time, especially when I feel like I was just really getting started here. But as my mother has long advised: “Them’s the breaks, kid.” My next ministry adventure will be as mental health chaplain at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in DC, where I will serve for a year. After that ... who knows? KP and I are lucky and blessed and privileged enough to be able to make these kinds of decisions. Not everyone is in that same boat. For as long as I can, I’ll exercise that privilege to try and make the world within the 3 feet around me a better place through acts of spirit, love and justice. I hope you’ll join me in that spiritual exercise, even as we part ways and communication for at the least the Unitarian Universalist Association-mandated 12 months. After that, I’ll be back in touch! So here we are, and I have to say goodbye. I’m pretty good at this by now, so please don’t take it personally. And just so you know, it has been a joyous and affirming experience to be among you this past year. I will forever be proud to be associated with this congregation. I’m proud of the steps we have taken to grow in spiritual maturity, activism and courage through the ups and downs of one of the most tumultuous years in recent American memory. I know that it seems like not enough progress has been made within our walls for some people, and it seems like too much progress for others. That’s the nature of living in messy, loving, interconnected community. Them’s the breaks. Let us remember that the covenantal nature of our faith demands spiritual bravery. The writer Paul Tillich talks about religion giving you the courage to exist as a person of faith in the face of all sorts of existential anxieties from the political, social and economic worlds that can threaten to break you down and pull you apart. Our faith gives us the resources to allow our souls to venture out of our comfort zones and encounter the new, the unknown, the uncomfortable, and to return to us stronger and glowing more fiercely with love. That’s the promise of Unitarian Universalism, a faith I am proud to claim and act on, even when it’s messy and complicated and people disagree. In a free, liberal faith with the power to change lives and the world, them’s the breaks. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart and soul, for letting me walk alongside you in faith and love.

by Director of Religious Exploration Linnea Nelson. It all began with looking for volunteer opportunities for our youth. Ann Wood and Kerry Fraser had deep connections with Beacon House, a nonprofit, community-based organization that provides tutoring, mentoring, cultural, athletic, recreation and nutrition programs to at-risk, low-income children, ages 5-18, who reside in and around the Edgewood Commons community in Ward 5 of Washington, DC. So we asked if we could send some youth to help Beacon House out. But they didn't want our "help." Instead, they wanted partnership. Beacon House Director of Engagement and Development Lisa Taber and Athletic and Mentoring Programs Director Rodney Cephas met with Kerry, Ann and me last summer to vision what a partnership might look like. We settled on an opportunity to have youth get together, first at Beacon House and then at UUCF over several months to talk with each other about race. With the help of a generous grant from the UUCF Endowment Fund, we were able to hire a professional counseling group, Luceo, to lead the discussions with the youth. Luceo created opportunities for the youth to share their experiences with race and how it affects their lives. The workshop, "Conversations About Race and Equity With Teens," was designed to create a safe space to spark conversation about race and equity with youth of different racial backgrounds. Twenty-five middle school students participated in the program, about half from Beacon House and half from UUCF. They talked about stereotypes and expectations around race. They explored privilege and friendship. They discussed why color blindness will not solve race relations issues. They looked at implicit bias and talked to each other about what they were learning. Yes, it was awkward, especially the first session. Imagine being 12- or 13-years old and talking about race with people you have never met before! Thank goodness for icebreakers and snacks to create a more comfortable atmosphere! The youth learned how to interact with one another, listen to one another and have fun together. And as one of the Luceo counselors, Monica Lozano Caldera, commented, “They were learning how to love one another." Tim Cottman, another counselor, reminded us that, "We are inundated with messages of people who are different from us. I appreciated being with the kids as they learned about each other, and hopefully about themselves and to meet people that they don't meet on a regular basis." On the last day, UUCF artist Shari MacFarlane joined the group and led them to create individually crafted puzzle pieces, each as unique as each of them. These pieces fit together to create a colorful mosaic. Watch for more art from this group during UUCF’s October ARTspeaks installation. We also had the opportunity for two parent sessions. One session was just UUCF parents exploring issues surrounding race that our teens experience. The second was a conversation about how each of us first encountered difference in our early lives. We were lucky to have a parent from Beacon House join us for this discussion. Our goal is to continue in partnership with Beacon House and to nurture these budding friendships. As one of our youth shared after hugging her new friend good-bye, "It was just fun talking to someone who is different from me."

by Deborah Kennedy. What do you believe? At our UU congregation, it should be a common enough question. We throw big questions at our kids in Religious Exploration all the time: challenge the slogans, mess with the easy perceptions. But as adults, I think we tend to self-select our “big questions” in the same way we choose our news or tend toward a musical status quo: Let’s talk about the beliefs we know. When we opened ARTspeaks in January, I thought we had pretty substantial goals – to increase the number of artistic voices on campus, support local artists and art organizations, and use the space as outreach - a neutral space for discussion of complex themes. I think we’re doing well just 4 months in, but it’s increasingly clear that we have to expect more from the space, from our mission and from our members to succeed. If we are just pretty pictures on a wall, we have failed. Art speaks. The simple act of putting work on the wall gives it importance, underscores whatever language it uses. Further, we ask our artists to help us understand their work, their intent. We have an extraordinary opportunity to reach out, to ask for views, perspectives, experiences and beliefs other than our own. What could we hear and learn if we searched for art that spoke to our beliefs in uncomfortable ways? What might we all of a sudden not know? Here’s the heresy: We need to find voices to challenge us in multiple directions. Yes, we need to find voices to challenge us to be more inclusive, to understand privilege and marginalization, to lean into our core beliefs with intent. But ARTspeaks is also an opportunity to understand more conservative views, to stop and feel, not just think, what drove people to their political choices over the past year. Millions of people have reasons for believing differently from many of us. Why? Let’s find out. ARTspeaks isn’t a room or a program. It’s a statement: Art has a place in the discussion of who we are. It can reach into communities and to individuals we would never know otherwise - people we are desperate to know. And, it’s a dare. Art speaks. May we have the courage to listen, to hear, to shake off our complacency and take action. We’re way past pretty pictures on the wall. [caption id="attachment_33745" align="alignleft" width="175"] UUCF and Beacon House youth recently got together to create art for a future ARTSpeaks exhibition. Thanks to UUCFer and artist Shari MacFarlane for leading the art activity. The event was part of the UUCF Racial Justice Steering Committee’s Second Principle Project.[/caption]  

by Intern Minister McKinley Sims. So … Easter. The most important holiday in the Christian church year, usually corresponding to the Jewish festival week of Pesach/Passover, celebrates the story of Jesus of Nazareth’s miraculous resurrection three days after a horrific public execution. The words of the Christian Scriptures illustrate how a group of women went to the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea to care for the body of their dead rabbi, only to find that the tomb was empty and the body was gone. Later, Jesus’ disciples claimed to have seen a resurrected Jesus, walking and talking, even eating food! If that’s not transformation, I don’t know what is. So … what are we to make of this? Is it a myth, a story, a historical event? People don’t commonly die for three days and then come back to life as if it’s no big deal. This whole escapade strains credulity. It can’t be true, right? We humans don’t usually undergo that kind of transformation. Perhaps, however, the transformative resurrection is what Unitarian Theodore Parker spoke of when he wrote about details in religion that are transient and the broader truths that are permanent. Perhaps, resurrection is one of those truths. Here’s what I mean: When I read this story, I don’t question the logistics. I’m over it, it’s not interesting to debate the hows and the whens and the wheres. What’s more interesting is to look at the broader picture, the bigger truth, like why does the Scripture insist on a bodily resurrection of human being? Why is Easter morning accompanied by the lines: “He said to them, ‘Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.’” The Jesus of Easter morning is not a ghost, not a spirit, not an alien. He hasn’t been transformed into something else entirely. He goes through every measure to assure people that he has flesh and bones, organs and skin. To the witnesses, he says, “Look, touch, feel, experience. The body you see is a body, it has hands and feet, it has scars.” In short, it’s human. What I find most interesting in Easter’s truth is that it’s a fundamental affirmation of the goodness and importance of being a human being. Its truth is how miraculous the human body is, and how resurrection can happen in a variety of ways. Just as the flowers that spring forth in this season annually reaffirm life’s beauty and wonder, so does the Easter message remind us how good it is to be alive and to have a body that breathes, ticks, loves, cries, heals and lives. In this Easter season, the insistence of the goodness of the body is a call to us to practice a little resurrection of our own, and engage in some transformative work. We don’t seek to become something totally alien, but we seek to heal, to renew, to be resurrected from long nights and scary newscasts. We seek to become more authentically human, shaking off the wintry dust and re-emerging into the sunlight of transformation that can occur when we open our souls up to the hope of a brighter future. So, with Easter’s miracle still fresh in our minds, as the blooms of the flowering trees open to greet their transformed neighbors, may we practice resurrection in small ways and embrace the feeling in the air: How good it is to be human.

by Director of Religious Exploration Linnea Nelson. My favorite part of the week is checking in with each class on Sunday morning. Every class is so different, created by the team of teachers and the personalities and interests of each group of children. I love the variety of ways our children explore ideas. Although each team has a printed curriculum, I know that they bring their own creativity to the class. I see the children deepening their friendships and understanding how to approach the world with wonder, awe, compassion and love. To give you a peek into our classrooms, I decided to ask a few teachers about how they see teaching RE. James Cardona teaches Preschool and shares, “Working with the Preschool RE class is a wonderful experience. It is so rewarding to teach lessons that expose children to UU principles in a fun and creative way. Their excitement and energy is contagious; you can't keep yourself from smiling at the beginning of class doing circle time and singing ‘Willaby Wallaby.’ My son, Russell, helps out in the class sometimes, and afterward he always talks about how much fun the kids are. It's great to see a typically reserved teenager running around and having fun doing silly things.” Leah Stanton, who teaches elementary grades, shares, “We have three generations involved in RE - my children, my husband and me, and my mother. I love this because it makes us all connected to RE - to nurturing not only our two children, but all the children. In addition to witnessing what our children are experiencing, we get to shape it and share it with them. We are also modeling for our kids how much we value RE because we all devote time and care to it. Personally, I consider teaching RE one of the most important parts of my own spiritual practice. The curriculum is rich with what I value and hold true - respect, justice, love, compassion and fun. Through creating and teaching RE lessons, I have the opportunity to examine and clarify my own beliefs, so that I can then speak clearly and passionately to my class.” H.J. Cummins, Leah’s mom, tells us, “Teaching RE is one way to share my grandchildren's connection to the congregation and to help all the children learn the values that UUs live by ... it's so nice to see them help one another and to ask ever-more-perceptive questions involving the lessons. I feel that the ties forming over these early years will long be precious to them.” Laureen Branting has stayed with the same class for years and tells us that her model was Jackie Vergin, who “taught RE for all of [Laureen’s son] Conor's classes up through 7th grade. He considered her an aunt, and I was always impressed with the gift she gave him. I wanted to give that same gift to another set of kids.” Laureen also confides, “I'd miss the kids too much to quit ... and I do so enjoy watching them grow up to be young adults.” Darryl Branting teaches Grade 8 OWL and although he says, “I teach OWL because I believe it is the most worthwhile thing I do - enabling these young kids to take control of their own sexuality and act on our UU values.” He also admits, “It’s just plain fun.” Thank you to all of the teachers having “just plain fun” teaching in our RE program!

by Senior Minister Rev. David A. Miller. With huge excitement and anticipation, I have the privilege of announcing the recipient of UUCF’s Innovation Fund grant. Last Tuesday night, after a 9-month review process, the UUCF Board of Directors approved a proposal for a UUCF-sponsored, off-campus effort targeted to young adults (20s and 30s). The mission would be to help Northern Virginia young adults explore and live UU values in an intentional community. The proposal is a joint effort by Betsy Bicknell and Wendy Astell. [caption id="attachment_33119" align="alignleft" width="146"] Betsy Bicknell[/caption] [caption id="attachment_33120" align="alignleft" width="139"] Wendy Astell[/caption] In a generous bequest, the late Stan Richards provided seed financing for innovative projects that expand UUCF’s outreach to those not now engaged in our congregation and/or Unitarian Universalism. Last summer, the Innovation Fund Committee asked the congregation for big ideas … dramatic new thoughts … high-risk, high-payoff experiments … approaches that might open up new ways of thinking about outreach and growing Unitarian Universalism. Many wonderful proposals were received and from two finalists, this proposal was chosen. Focused in a deliberately non-church-like storefront space easily accessed by walkers and public transit and coordinated by a young adult UU minister, this project will support development of deep community through arts, conversation, learning and working together for social justice. It would also support people moving through life transitions by offering classes and workshops on topics of interest, support groups, spiritual counseling and rites of passage to those who may have no other religious home. Although studies are showing that many young people are not interested in traditional organized religion, they are interested in community, finding purpose, accountability, observing rites of passage and working for social justice – providing opportunities to share our UU values. The approved proposal includes more than a year of planning and outreach to evaluate interest and the best location, hiring of a part-time UU minister to serve as project manager, followed by a yearlong pilot of the concept in a leased storefront-type space providing a small office and meeting space. If the pilot does not meet the attendance, revenue and other goals established during the planning process, the project would stop at the end of the 1-year lease. If the pilot is successful, other sources of revenue may be required until it becomes self-sustaining. Stan Richards’ bequest also allows for the high possibility of failure in undertaking innovative ideas. In that event, lessons learned will be written up and shared as widely as possible for the benefit of others interested in this concept. The first steps of the project are forming a committee of five to eight volunteers to provide vision and oversight. Committee members will include several UUs, at least one with background in local retail and/or hospitality business and two or more in the target age group who are active in local community groups that serve their peers. The committee will manage the market research process and develop detailed business and ministerial hiring plans. If you are interested in serving on this committee, please contact Betsy Bicknell or Wendy Astell. In a month when we have focused on Risk, it seems particularly fitting to acknowledge the risk Wendy and Betsy took in proposing this highly innovative concept. They are committed to growing Unitarian Universalism and to filling a need in our community. We’re grateful they took the risk and grateful for the generous funding that Stan’s bequest makes possible.

by Associate Minister Rev. Laura Horton-Ludwig. Today my niece turns 13. She is so excited to be a teenager at last! She’s been a tween for a long time, and she is no stranger to middle school drama. But for a couple of years now, Grace and I have been practicing how to handle the drama as we bond over a funny-serious card game called “Awkward Moment.” The game, designed for middle schoolers, is simple. There are two sets of cards: the “Moments” deck and the “Reactions” deck. Each player gets a bunch of “Reactions” cards to play. We turn over the “Moments” cards one at a time, and each of us has to play one of our Reactions cards in response. Some of the Moments are pretty goofy, like: “Your dog actually eats your homework. What do you do?” And the Reactions cards can be pretty silly too: “Yell, ‘Bummer!’” or “Bust a move.” But the game gets into serious ethical issues too, like in this scenario: “One of the boys in your class says girls are bad at math.” Or this: “Someone is picking on one of the kids at school. What do you do?” In those moments, it’s pretty awesome to be able to slap down a Reaction card like this: “Say, ‘That’s ridiculous!’” Or this: “Tell them to knock it off!” Sure, it’s just a game. But it’s also good practice for life. And in this month of exploring Risk, I wonder how we adults could benefit from practicing to take risks too. Are there moments in your life when you wish you’d spoken up? Done something differently? What would it be like to practice what you’ll do next time? I can think of so many moments in my own life where someone said something callous or careless and I’ve had to choose on the spot how to respond. Sometimes I’ve managed to find one of those awesome responses. Other times, I’ve been tongue-tied and had to resolve to act more bravely and clearly next time. At work, at school, in our families, out and about – the chances to practice keep on coming. What risks will you take to speak your truth? P.S. Stay safe in the snow, everyone! If you're planning to come to campus for a meeting or event tomorrow, please check uucf.org for the latest updates on possible closures.

by Director of Religious Exploration Linnea Nelson. Last summer as I looked through our RE cupboards of toys for young children, I wondered if we might be able to create a model of our beautiful Sanctuary for our 4- and 5-year-olds. Their curriculum introduces them to our community members, ministers, grounds and buildings that make up our UU home. Having a child-sized Sanctuary seemed like a stretch, but maybe I could find someone to make a simple model. I mentioned the idea to Ron Giusti,* who I knew crafted beautiful birdhouses, and he said he’d think about it. Two months later, he presented the class with an amazing 3-foot by 3-foot replica of our Sanctuary! His model included miniature hardwood floors, carefully crafted rafters and our ramp, and he even created the round windows in our Sanctuary by taping photographs of what we actually see out each window to create a realistic view. When he first showed me a photograph of his project, I thought he was showing me our actual Sanctuary, but he encouraged me to look closer and see that this was indeed a photograph of the model. Take a look at these photos and see if you can tell the difference! This is love - for our community, our children and our beautiful spaces. Ron’s gift to our children reminded me of how wonderful our space is. I feel such gratitude for the well-stocked classrooms and RE supply room, the comfy sofas and outdoor furniture that allow for informal small-group gatherings, our beautiful Sanctuary furniture and our art spaces, naturally lighted Commons and space for our Nursery. As we look around, hopefully we realize how this campus is a collective sacred space for all of us to use. If, like me, you also appreciate our space, may I call on each of us to take a moment at the end of each of our meetings or evening classes to return pens, chalices and other supplies to the RE cabinets, return any items such as lamps, remotes or chairs to their homes, turn off lights and remove or discard paper, food or other items? So many people use our spaces and with the addition of electronics, the remotes go missing and cords get tangled. Let’s show our love for our magnificent meeting spaces and commit to creating a welcoming space for each other and our guests. Ron shared his love for our community in a magnificent way and he's reminded me to commit to taking good care of all our UUCF spaces. Thank you, Ron! *Ron Giusti and his wife, Marsha, have been UUCF members for 13 years. They raised their son, David, in our community, and Ron taught kindergarten in our RE program for many years.

by Senior Minister Rev. David A. Miller. As we all try to navigate the road ahead, we will continue to have different opinions and feelings about the best course of action. As we process our feelings and thoughts, as I have said before, it is totally understandable that we will need different things at different times and be faced with decisions about our level of involvement. Involvement can challenge our comfort and lead us each to existential questions of deep meaning. For me in this past week, those questions are about risk and sacrifice. What am I willing to lay down for my fellow humans? What level of discomfort can I bear for the health and safety of others? How can I best use my position and privilege to actively support the work that is quickly becoming not only vital but literally life- and democracy-saving? These are questions I ask myself. These are questions I cannot avoid. While it’s important to ask these questions, we cannot let them overwhelm us and we can't all do everything. Find what you can do, do what you can do and maximize every tool you have to the best of your ability. And please don't forget, we will all need each other during this time, so please help me when I need it - which I will and do - and I will do the utmost to do the same for you. As I said yesterday, there is no one perfect way, and we are all doing the best we can to deal with an extraordinary time in our history. Please be kind to each other and open yourselves up to support others in need and to be supported when need arises in you. We are here to be here for each other in these times. May that truly be so.  

by Director of Music & Arts Laura Weiss. I am 7 years old and I can hear my mother in the kitchen. She is chopping vegetables for, no doubt, one of her delicious soups and I can smell the aroma waft into the living room. The smell is the only thing that brings me into the present. Otherwise, I am swept away into the delicious and grueling world of dedicated practice. I am inside of the music at the piano. Then the inevitable happens as it does most days: I hit a wrong note. “Woah! That’s wrong!” she says, continuing her chopping. I felt enormous pressure to perform well when I was little. I would work until my arms ached, my heart rate quickened and my eyes blurred. Yet, despite my mother’s firm belief that her feedback would one day be credited as the primary source of my success, my drive was self-induced. As far back as I can remember, I have wanted to be the best at things. Without any encouragement, I thrived on creating systems and strategies to attain success. This applied to anything I tried: math, dance, diving, music. Try two measures of music, Laura. Mistake. Try one measure. Same mistake. Slow down. New mistake. Good grief. Sit. Reflect. Analyze the rhythms and count out loud. Play it again. Mistake. It isn’t the rhythm! I know the rhythm. Feel the finger pattern like a shape. Visualize the shape and trust your fingers. OK, better! Now try two measures. Mistake. Yup, you went too far. Play one measure slowly with the finger pattern. Feel it. Yes. Repeat three times. Now put it back inside of the phrase. And so on. Every day. For years. Even today. This morning, I talked to a friend who made an ambitious list of New Year’s resolutions, and I thought about my own: Be aware. Be mindful of your body and what it wants. Rest when you need to. Then I heard my mother’s voice in my head: “Practice makes perfect!” Maybe this voice was on to something. Why has it been so easy to apply this method to concrete things like schoolwork and sports and music lessons but not in areas like New Year’s resolutions, diets, life goals, relationships? Isn’t talking myself out of eating a slice of cake just another pattern like a difficult measure of music? Isn’t making a statement about how I will be similar to playing a piece and expecting to just get it without the work? What if I only focus on the perfect part of my mom’s cliché when it comes to things that elude me? Instead of deciding to wake up on Jan. 2 and be fully aware, seek justice, speak kindly and join revolutions, what if I just practiced it? What might that look like? Practice in music means breaking down your patterns to their smallest and playing those passages over and over until you not only understand them, you can express them and make them a fluid sonorous symphony comprised of your voice and the brilliant composition itself. What if we did that with life? What if we looked at our patterns and broke them down into smaller fragments? What if we trusted that we would reach our goals with practice just like when we learn a new skill? We know that the lengthier process is worth it then, don’t we? What if we made our goals so specific that we could analyze them from different perspectives, sit with them, find the challenges within them and make the finite movements that we are actually capable of grasping? Wouldn’t practice inevitably help? Feel the pattern take shape, then repeat. Repeat. Repeat. One measure, then two. Thanks mom. I guess you get the credit this time.

by Intern Minister McKinley Sims. Advent reminds me of a high school basketball tournament back home. I can still feel the excitement in the air. I can smell the expectation. I can taste the adrenaline-fueled energy of the inside of the basketball stadium as the electric heat amplified by each and every member of the 30,000+ people jammed into a single building. I’m sitting next to my brother, and we are as close to heaven as you can get. Two boys with nothing on our to-do lists except to watch basketball, talk to girls and eat fried food. We are surrounded by others, each one just as joyous and giddy as we are. There are two sets of fans in the stadium for this tournament. There are the players’ families, friends and neighbors (sometimes entire towns leave their homes and travel to watch the boys play). Then there are the rest of us who sit in our seats and cheer when something neat happens ... until a game is tied with less than a minute remaining. One side takes a shot, misses or turns it over, and the ball changes hands. Now the team with the ball can win the game and the championship. It all comes down to this. Someone is going to make a play. Someone is going to make it happen. In that moment, as if by invisible command, the crowd collectively rises to its feet, accompanied by a jumbo-jet-like roar of expectant energy. We are one in that moment. Nerves stretch taught, vocal chords thrum incessantly, hands smash together in a never-ending symphony of pregnant emotion. Amid all this action, though, we are waiting. Waiting expectantly. Waiting for someone to make a play. Waiting for something to happen - the advent of what we came to see. So what can our UU congregation take away from the Christian season of Advent? It’s more than just a reason to open up secret boxes of candy for 25 straight days, right? What does a season of waiting and expectation amid the busyness mean for us? Whether or not you celebrate Christmas, I think that we can all understand the feeling of wading through the electricity in the air as holidays approach. For some it brings stress, for others joy. For many, though, it’s a season focused on the turn of the year and the view to come in 2017. We are waiting for something to happen, full of expectant energy bottled up from a long year of disappointment and falling short of our goals and hopes. The payoff of Advent in the Christian tradition is the birth of Jesus, symbol of light and hope to downtrodden peoples. UUs can celebrate his birth as a prime example of life lived by the Seven Principles, or simply rejoice in the seasonal songs and carols of peace and goodwill toward humankind. We can focus on the turning of the solstice from darkening nights to strengthening of days, or the eight nights of Hanukkah reminding us of the importance of keeping a light burning amid times of trouble. We can burn Yule logs for our dearest wishes or read poetry on Yalda Night, the Persian festival of triumph of light over the darkness. All our traditions reflect this desire for a promise to be fulfilled and a new beginning for humanity. My spiritual desire is for the light to stay in our lives and for us to celebrate when it returns. I cheer the Nativity story, sing “Auld Lang Syne” at New Year’s and hope fervently for a 2017 of grace and peace. So the question is what are you waiting for and what will you do when it arrives? Whether it’s Christmas Day, the longer days, the new year, a new job or a fresh start, we’re all waiting expectantly, for this is what we bought a ticket to see. My hope for you is that when whatever you’re waiting for finally arrives, you’ll respond as the angels do in the Scriptures: joyous singing, shouts of love to all around and proclamations of the return of the light to our darkened world. Happy Advent and Merry Everything!

by Rev. David A. Miller. As we enter the uncharted waters of this post-election world – with so many uncertainties that can lead to stress and anxiety - I feel it’s important for us to be gentle with each other. Frustration with the status of the world may lead to frustration in our personal or communal lives that may not look like a reaction, but could have its roots in deeper fear and anxiety. It is also an especially important time for us to be loving and welcoming at UUCF. We are a people of many preferences and opinions. There is no way for everyone to have things exactly as they wish they could be. There will be people attending UUCF in the coming weeks and months with vastly different perspectives and feelings about all kinds of issues and the invitation must be how we live into the love that resides at the core of this faith tradition. One thought that has always been a part of the 5th Principle for me is how do we stay in community and covenant when we don’t get our way? This is a question facing us right now in so many areas of life. As we face these questions, fears and struggles, one of the benefits of being part of this community is the opportunity for grounding during difficult times. Let me invite us to consider how that might look in this holiday season. There will be much music and meaning to be found at UUCF this holiday season. Aside from the beautiful music in each service, there will be a special music service on Dec. 11. On Dec. 18, Peter Mayer will be here with a special holiday concert to share across all of our generations. We continue to have educational opportunities, meetings of our small groups and plenty of service opportunities including the 4th Annual Action of Witness for Gun Safety in front of the NRA on Dec. 14, 10-11 a.m. As we navigate the emotional waters of family, shopping, events, our religious past, present and future, and the state of our nation, let us reflect on what we hope for in the world. If things are not currently feeling like they are moving in the direction we hope, they certainly will not if we do not model them with our thoughts and actions. How we model our actions and how we work to create the world for which we dream has deep ramifications for the future. So, for this holiday season, I offer a prayer that I wrote 11 years ago and have shared every year - with a few little tweaks this year: Let us wish for true peace for the world, a peace built on mutual need to create a sustainable earth for generations to come. Let us wish for open hearts toward those in pain, for we are all one, and in this interconnected world, what happens to one truly does happen to all. Let us wish for the blossoming of compassion, for all faiths have a compassionate core and all lives crave the kindness of others. Let us wish for our lives, our homes, our congregations and our communities to be places where neighbor loves neighbor and we engage each other with open minds and open spirits. Let us wish for love that “stands” firm in opposition to fear and othering and calls us all to our best selves. Finally, I wish for you, your families, friends and loved ones, the gentleness of spirit that lies at the heart of the songs and rituals of the holidays. May that spread out beyond to touch us all. This year, as every year before, I believe it takes more than wishing, now, let us begin.

by Rev. David A. Miller. Nov. 9, 2015. As we prepare to embark on a search for a new Director of Music & Arts, I want to acknowledge that last year was a difficult time in UUCF’s history. But through all the challenges, the congregation’s music ministry continues to bring joy, meaning and connection to all those who benefit from the sharing and receiving of their time and wonderful talents. As the parish minister, I would like to thank all those who contributed to supporting the music program as UUCF transitioned. We are about to begin our search for a new director. Search team The CT will appoint a search team from applications received to assure a broad perspective in the process. The makeup of the team will be: Three members who participate in UUCF’s music program. Interested members will submit applications, with final applicants chosen by the CT. Two members who do not participate in the music program. Interested members will submit applications, with final applicants chosen by the CT. One member from the Youth program, chosen by the CT. One member of the Board of Directors, chosen by the board. Rev. Laura Horton-Ludwig Rev. David A. Miller The deadline for music director search team applications is Nov. 30. Search process The search team will meet regularly. The first task will be to review the current job description and create a revised description and announcement for posting. The search team will then generate a list of about 10 key criteria for the position. The position will be posted locally and nationally in places used for national UU congregation music director searches. These postings have been effective for us in past searches. Two members of the search team will do the initial screenings to organize and categorize the applicants by experience and alignment with the job description. The Search Team will develop interview questions. A subset of the team, including the two ministers and the two initial sorters, will meet to decide which applicants meet all the criteria and should be passed on to the full committee. (There were more than 60 applicants for the last search.) The team will meet more frequently over a month or so to review and discuss applicants. Each committee member will read all the applications in relation to the position criteria established by the search team. Applicants will be evaluated on those criteria with each individual search team member assigning scores that will be compiled for a group (team) score. The last search utilized this method and, although it took some time, about a half-dozen candidates rose to the surface. The search team will conduct Skype interviews with the top candidates. After the Skype interviews, the pool will be narrowed to three finalists. Each finalist will meet with and conduct the Chorale, meet key staff and do a final round of interviews with the search team. The team and I will choose the final candidate to recommend to the board. Again, we thank all those who have stepped up to keep our music program running so smoothly over the last 10 months. Please let the CT know if you have any questions or would like to share any thoughts.

by Intern Minister McKinley Sims. I didn’t know I was racist. That was the big revelation. The piano falling on my head. Notice, I didn’t say that I didn’t know I was a racist. It’s not a noun, where I was a guy yelling slurs and making crude jokes and refusing to serve black and brown people. Plenty of people in my family have done that, I’m sure, along with people I grew up with, but I was different. I was an enlightened, liberal, voter for Kinky Friedman and Barack Obama! No way was I a racist! I have black friends, and I want to be a minister, and I never use the n-word, and I treat all people equally. I don’t see color. No, I was a good, liberal, non-racist white person. People made too big a deal about race, anyway. We just need to move on together! Can’t we get past the past and work to make things better? And then, someone showed me how racism has evolved from the 1950s to today. Racism didn’t go away. It adapted. A better definition is Howard Winant’s: “the routinized outcome of practices that create or reproduce hierarchical, social structures based on essentialized racial categories.” I read that again and again, and I had to relabel my definition of racism. This is systemic racism, where most everyone polled would say that they are definitely not a racist and that they don’t see color, but where black, brown and native peoples are disproportionately represented in the prison system, the lowest economic brackets and the access points to quality education. And then I had a black classmate tell me, “You can say that you don’t see color, because you can afford not to. I can never take off my blackness, and this country will always see me as black, no matter how rich or successful I become.” Crash. Piano. Racist. My emotions spike just typing that word, because I am not a racist. That doesn’t mean that systemic racism is not a deadly real power in the world, and that I am not an unwitting participant. I benefit from being a white, straight, Christian male in so many invisible and obvious ways. I read all these things and I resisted. I didn’t want to be uncomfortable. I didn’t want to learn about racism. I wanted to feed the hungry and give to the poor. I wanted hope and joy and light and for the world to get better on its own. I wanted the resurrection, but I didn’t want to go through the crucifixion. But I had to. I had to encounter and embrace my discomfort. I was part of a racist system, simply by being born into it. I was racist, even when I didn’t know it. That sucks. That’s not fair. But neither is oppression of any kind. I had to take a hard look at myself and recognize my role in being silent to the oppression of my neighbors, just because I didn’t want to see color. Our criminal justice system sees color. Our drug laws see color. Our implicit biases (that every single one of us has, regardless of skin tone) see color. In refusing to see color, I was a participant in racism. In refusing to engage the discomfort, I was perpetuating the very attitude that allows systemic racism to thrive. That’s the insidiousness of it. I am guilty by association, but I’m not to blame for its construction. I am racist. How could I not be? I was born and raised in the culture, breathed it in with every moment, unrealizing. But I realize now. I can’t unsee now that I see. I embrace the discomfort, because it’s helping me to be more human. It’s helping me to live out the Second Principle: justice, equity and compassion in my human relations. It wasn’t easy. I had to struggle, wrestle, be vulnerable and be open to uncomfortable truths. I’m so glad I did.

by Laura Weiss. We have all experienced some type of music and art that moved us; that external and cathartic experience that can change us for a lifetime. It transforms us, calms us, reminds us, captivates our soul. Our body chemistry actually changes. Our emotions well up. We feel the ecstasy of loss of control, of handing ourselves over. To the music and the poetry. To the experience. And, we give it the profound permission to change us. What an almost childlike thing to do; a courageous and completely natural thing to give ourselves over to the power of music and art. But, we’re grown-ups right? Why do we let this happen? I don’t know. It is so easy to get lost in a song, yet, we resist giving in when we are deep in the throes of a debate. We’ve all been there. “But, I’m right!” I say to my husband. Or we say to ourselves, “They have no idea what they are talking about.” I think our resistance to backing down comes from our lack of acceptance and openness to who we truly are. Music is the tool that allows John Legend to leave us in a pile of tears or with ridiculously giddy grins plastered on our faces. I mean, this is some kind of crazy power, right? So what would the world look like if we took the same approach to depth of self? Music transforms by not being stationary. It is moving. It doesn’t need to be right or perfect or solid. It is changing, amorphous and elegant. Music holds the expanse of all human experience as best we can express it within its beautiful palm, and it is still always shifting. And we find ourselves in it again and again like the challenges of life that confront us; yet it is never the same song twice. And we are OK with that! We do not expect how we hear the “Sounds of Silence” today will ever be exactly the same again. Now is the moment and we do not take that for granted. Music demands that we find beauty in the loss of control - the enjoyment at the edges of our comfort. Each of us is hearing the music differently and if we acknowledge this shared humanity, we will find ourselves eternally at the edges of our neighbor’s front yard. If I am frustrated with someone, I remember that we are still listening to the same song. We are just hearing it differently. Maybe more importantly, we are afraid of the song changing us so we point blame instead. We avoid our “selves.” It is time to start feeling. We need to heal ourselves first, no matter what the song asks of us, and experience the fall-on-our-knees, cry-like-a-baby feelings that define us. Only then can we start to see that the other we are blaming is just as wounded as we are and that their pain drives actions of anger and fear that frustrate us. And only when we see our own broken and holy hearts can we empathize in a debate and be the first one to step back. To hold a hand. To see that our power rests just as much in quiet love and respect. So for this moment today, I relish that my sweet brokenness is just as perfect as everyone else’s. So I put on some Joni Mitchell’s “Sire of Sorrow,” open a box of chocolates and just … feel. Because I know if we all did this, good change wouldn’t take so long.

by Senior Minister Rev. David A. Miller and UUCF Generosity Team Co-Chair Deborah Boehm-Davis Four years ago this congregation looked boldly ahead. Our Board of Directors and other leaders envisioned a UUCF for the future. A UUCF that welcomed people with a beautiful, safe and accessible campus. A UUCF with technology and an infrastructure that could present our transformational messages to each other and to the broader community. A UUCF that is financially stable. A UUCF that is environmentally responsible. A UUCF able to bring its social justice mission to fruition. Our leaders laid out a campaign to move UUCF forward into that vision. That campaign was called Reach. Unlike most capital campaigns centered around building facilities, Reach was focused on strengthening our foundations – strengthening our financial position by retiring some of our debt; building a new, welcoming, safe and eco-friendly parking lot; installing new audio-visual technologies for the Sanctuary and connectivity to other buildings; replacing the furniture and carpets in the Program Building; connecting to public sewer and retiring our aging septic fields; and setting aside 10% of the funds collected for social justice projects. [gallery size="large" ids="31526,31525,31522"] The campaign goal was $3.2 million. The congregation generously pledged $2.6 million over 5 years. With the funds that have come in so far, we’ve been able to build our beautiful parking lot, refurnish the Program Building and upgrade our technology. [caption id="attachment_31521" align="alignleft" width="280"] Connecting to public sewer and freeing up the property above our aging septic fields is still a goal.[/caption] However, some goals still remain, including paying off half our mortgage to reduce debt, connecting to public sewer, reducing our campus’ carbon footprint and allocating funds to a large social justice project. The most pressing goal in the short-term is retiring some of our debt. In fact, by this December, we hope to raise $100,000 to add to the $550,000 we have in the bank to make part of a balloon payment on our mortgage this December. Reducing this mortgage debt will lower our operating expenses by nearly $55,000 per year, increasing our financial stability and freeing up funds in the future for other congregational priorities. We believe this goal is within reach. We are so close, in fact, that we are announcing the Within Reach mini-campaign for this fall. Here’s how the campaign will work: We are asking those of you who gave to the original Reach Campaign to consider accelerating your pledges by giving what you can by Dec. 15, 2016. For those who were here in 2012, and for whatever reason didn’t feel called or weren’t able to contribute to the campaign, we ask you to consider making a pledge now. And for all of you who weren’t here in 2012, we’re asking you to add your support to the foundational future of this congregation. In the coming weeks you will learn much more about this campaign and how close we actually are to some of these important goals. The Within Reach team - led by Terry Goplerud, and including David Addis, Nancy Rooney, Rich Sider and the two of us - is in place, and you will be receiving more information about the remaining projects, goals and requests. The vision of this congregation has always been firmly fixed on the horizon and this Within Reach campaign is no different. With the many accomplishments already under our belts, this congregation is Within Reach of helping to create a stable and exciting future. Please consider your generosity to this campaign and thank you so much for everything you have done and do to support UUCF being a place that helps transform ourselves, our community and the world through acts of love and justice.

by Rev. David A. Miller. It is late on Sunday night and about 24 UUCF folks have just returned from the Moral Revival at Pennsylvania Avenue Baptist Church in Washington, DC. Rev. Dr. William Barber II is the central figure in this effort and he is leading an organization called Repairers of the Breach. This is the description from the website: “Repairers of the Breach, Inc. is a nonpartisan and ecumenical organization that seeks to build a progressive agenda rooted in a moral framework to counter the ultra-conservative constructs that try to dominate the public square. Repairers will help frame public policies [that] are not constrained or confined by the narrow tenets of neo-conservatism. Repairers will bring together clergy and lay people from different faith traditions, with people without a spiritual practice but who share the moral principles at the heart of the great moral teachings. Repairers will expand a ‘school of prophets’ who can broadly spread the vision of a nation that is just and loving.” I have now seen Rev. Barber speak five times. And tonight, like every time I have heard him, he speaks directly to my heart about the lack of love in our public life and how we must be called to hope. I was recently reviewing some Facebook posts since 2010 and realized I have been writing about our challenging political environment and our need for love and hope for a long time. And this is what I’ve come to realize: Whether through a central figure like Rev. Barber, through our congregations or from anywhere else, we must find the inspiration to speak and act to repair what Rev. Barber calls “a heart problem” in this country. That is what we are trying to do with the Finding Common Ground gun violence event, with the Racial Justice Steering Committee, with our social justice efforts, with our Religious Exploration, with our worship, with all the programs of this congregation … We are trying to repair the heart problem, the sense of separation, the current suffering that comes from the loss of the moral connection between public policies and people. It was hot in the church tonight, but Rev. Barber reminded us that it is much hotter for those not making a living wage. I don’t believe he did that to raise guilt or shame, he did it to lift up to our consciousness that the time has come for a moral revolution of values, of what is important, of what seems to be forgotten or maybe never really was there. Rev. Barber was inspired to call for this revolution by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. Near the end of his life, in his speech Beyond Vietnam, Dr. King famously said, “I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin ... the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered. A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies.” It is always a good night to be together with those wanting to bring more love into the world. Tonight was especially good because it is another step in helping us believe it still might really be possible.

by Linnea Nelson, Director of Religious Exploration. I love August! It's hot and sunny and the Olympics have added a true bonus to the month. I was also lucky enough to spend the first week of August at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, NY, which for me became a place of spiritual renewal through the arts and spoken word. The week’s theme at Chautauqua was cities, but the underlying message was the importance of equity in thinking about oneness and wholeness. During the televised opening of the 2016 Olympic Summer Games, a phone ad (of all things) mimicked my summer spiritual learning. I heard Maya Angelou's unmistakable velvety voice reading her poem "Human Family" as photos of people from all walks of life flashed across the screen. Angelou repeatedly noted the surface differences among people, even between twins, while ending with the words, "We are more alike, my friends, than unalike." This theme of seeking oneness played out in numerous ways at Chautauqua. One of the interfaith lecturers, Dr. Diana Butler Bass, shared her message of oneness by tying our very being to the cosmos. She pointed out that every one of us - our very essence - came from the same stardust, and that each of us now lives in the same changing climate. She tied the new term cosmopolitanism to its root, cosmos, and suggested that thinking about our world in this way helps us live in harmony. In contrast, globalization suggests a sense of "taking over" rather than seeking oneness. She shared her view that by using globalization rather than cosmopolitanism, people are seeking to create empires rather than to coexist. Bass called us to live in a new kind of global, holy citizenship that brings out each of our unique "gifts of compassion, wonder, hospitality and gratitude." She reminded us that we don't make these gifts, rather we add to the cosmos when we use them. Angelou's words that "we are more alike, my friends, than unalike" also suggest that our unique gifts add to the cosmos and help us seek a more peaceful coexistence. Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, who spoke at this year’s Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) General Assembly and the Democratic National Convention, also gave an interfaith lecture at Chautauqua. He reminded attendees that the coded language in today's political rhetoric strives to separate us and view our differences as greater than our similarities. He provides a historical review of this idea in his book “The Third Reconstruction,” the newly selected 2016-17 UUA Common Read. I will be reading this book, co-authored by Jonathan Wilson-Hargrove, carefully and looking forward to discussing it with you. Barber also noted that history has shown that, "People vote against their own self-interest when they are told blacks are going to get something for free." This rhetoric mirrors the signs our nation is showing that too many people are afraid of our differences. We have trouble sharing space with people who do not share our opinions. Too often we are not seeing how our uniqueness can add layers of love and compassion to the cosmos. Instead, we are seeing how one group takes from another in order to get ahead. This is the power differential at work in so many places in the world today. Another Chautauquan and renowned peace proponent, Rev. John Philip Newell, gave a sermon on oneness, sharing the importance of being present with one another so that we can pay attention to sacredness, while remaining aware of the world’s deep brokenness. He asked, "Shall we be partners in this sacred dance, this wholeness of holiness?" I love the metaphor of dance, joining together joyfully to embrace our life in the cosmos. Many thanks to the poets, speakers and ministers who provided rich metaphors and profound images that help keep me engaged in loving and showing compassion to my neighbor while working toward a cosmos of undying peace. That's the world I want to live in with each of you.

by Rev. David A. Miller. There are members and friends of this congregation from all living generations. There are people in this congregation who suffered from the violence of war, the violence of racism, the violence of political upheaval, the violence of terrorism and many other forms of violence. They are all heartbreaking. It seems we are going through a period of time where violence is finding new ways to harm hearts, minds and bodies. And perhaps the biggest threat is its potential to give rise to the fear, reaction and othering that tear at the fabric of human relationships. In this congregation we have members, friends and family who are police officers. In this congregation we have members, friends and family who identify as people of color. In this congregation we have members, friends and families who have differing views on the politics of the day. It is not the job of this congregation to be all things to all people, but to love equally and support the furthering of human compassion, engagement, kindness, civility and love. Our mission, direct from the “About Us” section of our website is, “to transform ourselves, our community and the world through acts of love and justice.” Not everyone will agree on what acts of love and justice look like, so it is a time to increase our communication, to become more engaged, to open our ears, eyes and hearts ever wider. In a time when it seems we don’t have space to grieve one terrible event before another confronts humanity’s balance, we enter a period of increased need for each other, for love to be lived more boldly in this world and for our UUCF community to be there as a place of safety and spiritual grounding. I am back in the office tomorrow. Rev. Laura will be back soon and our new intern will be starting in mid-August. Along with the Pastoral Care Team, Worship Team and other leaders of the congregation, we will be there to provide meaningful worship, deep listening and opportunities for us all to be held in the embrace of this community of love. We are all human; it won’t always be easy, but I continue to believe it is important for us to model here the world for which we hope and pray. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with all those suffering through these terrible events. The hope for our actions is the transformation that comes through acts of love and justice - with a lot of emphasis on love. Much love, David

by John Kun, Lay Minister for Membership and Outreach. I was recently driving my spiffy, red Ford Focus from Edinboro, PA, along bucolic Interstate 79, heading back to Virginia after a long weekend with my wife, Paula, when she selected a Marc Maron podcast for our listening pleasure. These revelatory interviews with iconic personalities, conducted from Maron's garage (!), are well-known. They typically run 75-90 minutes and offer a diversion while making a long, 6-hour road trip seem much shorter. This time, Paula chose a Maron interview with Brian Grazer, with whom I was unfamiliar. Grazer, author of “A Curious Mind,” is one of the most successful film producers in Hollywood. I found him energetic, spirited and alive ... and his conversation with Maron, about meeting and engaging people, intriguing. As soon as I arrived home, I bought his book. Grazer is a proponent of using curiosity to connect with people. He uses a technique called “curiosity conversations” to meet, engage with and learn from complete strangers. In asking to meet and sit down with unfamiliar people, he is being innovative and disruptive in the process of meeting people, while learning and sharing information with them. We UUs are, by and large, fairly curious. Many of us would not have become UUs if we weren’t somewhat curious about religion and spirituality. But maybe we should take curiosity a step further in our membership and outreach by incorporating curiosity conversations for newcomers, potential newcomers and possibly even new members. Think of the reaction we would receive from “strangers” we’ve invited to discuss important issues in their faith and in their lives, so that we can learn from them. What would they think of UUism and UUCF following a 30-minute session? I believe it would be favorable. And, my gosh, what would they say to others? If anything, I hope this “personal promotion” would help dispel notions I have encountered that UUs “don't believe in anything” or that our faith is “not a religion” or that what we offer is “religion lite.” We are committed to our values and principles, a point we need to communicate more effectively during the membership and outreach process. My 4-year tenure as your Lay Minister for Membership and Outreach will end in a few days. I have thoroughly enjoyed aiding those in search of a new spiritual home. I hope I have had a positive impact. Whatever I have given to UUCF during this time, I have personally reaped so much more. My personal faith in Unitarian Universalism has never been stronger. I am a better person. I have learned much … including the importance of consistently and creatively reaching out to people in the community whether through online communications, or at a large area festival, or even at a visitors reception or an anniversary dinner at UUCF. These activities are significant because they nurture fellowship, an ingredient vital to membership and member retention. Also important to this process are our committee members, staff and ministers, with whom I have served, who are dedicated, informative and welcoming to those in search of a liberal faith. We have all served well during “the best of times and the worst of times,” a possibly apt way to describe the last 4 years. So my “take-away” is that curiosity and radical, disruptive engagement can be a tool used in membership and outreach. Sometimes people need to be shocked to truly take notice of who we are, what we believe in and what we do at UUCF. Yes, over 4 years, I have tried to make our community a better place … with the realization that it’s our faith that is at stake.

by Rev. Laura Horton-Ludwig. I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures. Simple in actions and in thoughts, you return to the source of being. Patient with both friends and enemies, you accord with the way things are. Compassionate toward yourself, you reconcile all beings in the world. - Lao-Tzu Two years ago I traveled to the Kanuga retreat center in North Carolina for my first spiritual direction training intensive at the Haden Institute. There, I met my small group for the first time – a peer group of trainees who would go through the training together. At our first meeting, I wasn’t sure I’d fit in very well. Almost everyone but me was Christian; almost everyone was from the South. And here I was, a non-Christian Unitarian Universalist who had never felt like such a Northerner in all my life! I wasn’t sure they would accept me. I wasn’t sure I would understand them and their lives. But by the end of that first intensive, we had wholeheartedly claimed each other as friends. What made it possible was listening and speaking our truth, each in turn. One at a time, we shared our stories with the group – the journeys of our lives so far, what was happening in our spiritual lives, what we were hoping and yearning for as the program began. And as each person spoke, the rest of us listened. Just listened. No need to do anything else. No need to give advice or even affirmation. Just listen deeply. We held that space for each other over several days of sharing. When the last person had finished speaking, we looked around the circle and realized that we were soul friends now, because we had listened to each other’s stories and made a space in our hearts for each other’s truth. To hear others speak, for me, was often to be brought to tears as I glimpsed the common humanity, deep struggles and profound joy in the life of another human being. And to be heard – truly heard and accepted without judgment – this was a powerful gift to my spirit. I found my voice emerging in new ways, truths I didn’t know I possessed beginning to rise to the surface. I found I could begin to forgive myself for past mistakes I was still dragging around. I felt free, and loved. Over the past two years, those bonds of friendship deepened as we continued to “hear each other into speech,” as theologian Nelle Morton puts it. Though we’ve graduated now, and the days of formal gathering and learning together have ended, I will cherish each one of my group mates as spiritual friends for life. This is what listening to one another can do – just listening. It may not sound like much; it isn’t flashy; but it is powerful and it transforms lives. In this cultural and political moment of name-calling, suspicion, hostility and prejudice, many in our society are desperate for another way of being with one another. What if we could bring this kind of listening not just to our friends, but to those with whom we have profound disagreements? What if we listened not to prove someone else wrong, but to connect with the humanity we share? And what if our listening stance could actually make it easier for others to hear our truth too? In this moment, each of us is seeking to restore to our society the “compassion and civility” that Rev. David so beautifully called us to and modeled for us yesterday. Listening deeply is one of our best tools in this work. And when it becomes not just a tool but a way of being, it can transform the world. May it be so.

The May 1 installation service between Rev. David Miller and the UUCF congregation was equal parts joy and inspiration, with moving and funny messages from local and national clergy, including the sermon by Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) President Rev. Peter Morales. For those unable to attend, enjoy this photo gallery. More photos with descriptions on our Facebook page. Watch excerpts from the service on our YouTube channel. [gallery ids="30363,30370,30367,30361,30360,30388,30387,30357,30386,30356,30355,30354,30353,30352,30382,30381,30359,30350,30349,30380,30348,30345,30344,30343,30379,30378,30377,30376,30374,30372,30373"]  

by Don Reagan, UUCF Generosity Team Vice Chair. “If generosity can be considered a spiritual discipline, then my belief in, and practice of, that discipline will move me into an ever-expanding feeling of abundance.” Last fall, the UUCF Board of Directors announced the creation of the Generosity Team. This team is tasked with creating a more comprehensive and strategic approach to financial planning and stewardship at UUCF. Our team is now working on that task. One important element of our work is promoting the practice of generosity as a spiritual discipline. This is especially significant during our Annual Giving Campaign, as each of us attempts to discern our level of commitment to helping finance UUCF’s operating budget. Do you and I think of generosity, and more specifically the financial giving form of generosity, as a spiritual discipline? I’ve been giving this some thought. My own mindset around the Annual Giving Campaign often boils down to responsibility and obligation. This is certainly important to consider when filling out a financial pledge form, but it can feel heavy and burdensome. That likely is not the best mindset for practicing generosity. While doing a little personal research on generosity as a spiritual practice, I came across this quote by Buddhist teacher Sharon Salzberg from her book “Lovingkindness”: “The Buddha said that no true spiritual life is possible without a generous heart. … Generosity allies itself with an inner feeling of abundance - the feeling that we have enough to share.” I like this quote, and it made me wonder what comes first - a generous heart or the act of generosity? Here is my own answer to that question: If generosity can be considered a spiritual discipline, then my belief in, and practice of, that discipline will move me into an ever-expanding feeling of abundance. It seems to me that this is a clear pathway from burden to joy. Now, more than ever, may we find that joy.

by Courtney Firth. It’s March. That means I have been working at UUCF for almost 6 months. Many of you have seen me; many more of you I have yet to meet. Either way, I’m sure you have felt the impact of the youth I am privileged to serve as youth ministry coordinator. My job here is fairly simple: Make sure the youth in grades 7-12 have a great time learning about being UUs as well as their sexuality, finding their spiritual paths and living healthy, open and loving relationships with each other and with the UUCF community. Wow! That really doesn’t sound simple, does it? Except it is, because if you spend an hour with any of these youth, you learn how they do all these things naturally and generally need only guidance and unconditional support for their endeavors. As an example, I’d like to bring you into one of our 11:15 a.m. high school classes last fall. The youth, being keenly aware of the current political climate, have their own opinions about who should, or should not, be the next president. Since the youth on the Youth Adult Committee choose and lead most class topics, they chose that day to talk about politics; but not politics for politics’ sake. They chose, rather, how to have meaningful and compassionate discussions about politics, with full knowledge that their opinions differed from each other's. In other words, they wanted to make sure that everyone in the class felt able to express their opinions in a loving and safe space. And they did. The discussion, as always involving the “talking donkey,” (the youth version of a talking stick), was meaningful and honest. There were some hurt feelings and opportunities for growth, but just as I have learned how resilient youth can be, I also saw how kindhearted and generous they can be when it comes to their peers’ feelings. This day they worked through the hurt feelings, “ouches” and “oopses” in a way that I think every presidential candidate should envy. I have worked with youth and children for many years. At my home congregation, Bull Run Unitarian Universalists, I am amazed by the youth every day, including my own teenage stepdaughter. Whether you work directly with youth, are part of a family with youth or reminisce about your own days as a youth, you are affected by their presence. The impacts they have on the community are only as big as the community allows. You already have youth worship leaders, youth chaplains, youth who take care of your children and youth who have the creativity and tenacity to come up with designs for presidential candidate cookies at a recent cookie decorating party. (There were globs and globs of yellow frosting!) So it seems my job isn’t so much helping them find their way, but rather supporting them with love and compassion in following the paths they have already found. In so doing, I believe the impacts we could have as a whole community would have the capacity to effect real transformation.

by Linnea Nelson. In August 2015, my heart was heavy. It had been a very long year since Ferguson, MO, held up a mirror to my white soul. So, this past summer, I immersed myself in reading to better understand institutional racism and my role in it. It has been sobering and heart-wrenching. Here we are - more than 150 years since the Emancipation Proclamation, more than 100 years since African-Americans were "given" the right to vote (at least in name) and 50 years since Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., shared his dream that all children would grow up to "not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." Now, as then, I am called to be adamant and persistent, relentlessly opposed to "othering" - the idea that it is because of others that we are in this state of injustice and up to others to fix it - and willing to take action while partnering with others. This is our calling as UUs: To live out our principles while righting oppressive structures of history. As a part of the planning team for UUCF's "Thirty Days of Love: A Call to Action for Faith, Race and Justice," which is modeled on the Unitarian Universalist Association's Standing on the Side of Love campaign, I am drawing on much of the inner work that I have done over the past few years as your director of religious exploration. My first lesson was to actually see my own reflection clearly, which at times was quite a brutal assessment. My inability to see a reflection of how I was part of structural racism was my blind spot. Although I personally had multiple warm relationships - including extended family and in the African-American, Latino/Latina-American and Asian-American communities - and I felt that friendship and love were central to our relationships, I had not made the connection between structural racism and my role in it. I realize now that I could not have understood their perspective fully, and that our relationships always carried the burden of racism. [caption id="attachment_29236" align="alignleft" width="175"] Our Youth making Thanksgiving pies for the Community for Creative Non-Violence.[/caption] I have just now begun to see the intricacies of how the hundreds of years of invasions, conquests and educational and economic barriers have affected all of us. The violence families have witnessed, experienced and engaged in - often without a viable alternative - is mind-boggling. When I look inward, I see that I must do so much work (alongside other allies) to reflect, deepen my understanding and be able to stand with others in the name of faith, race and justice. [caption id="attachment_29238" align="alignright" width="175"] The Hochberg family at a November Black Lives Matter gathering.[/caption] I pledge to continue to learn the deeper meaning of terms such as racism, elitism, white benefits, economic power, surplus power, bias, intersectionality, structural/institutional racism, microaggression, pluralism and privilege. I pledge to take action, beginning with sharing stories with our children in Chapel and Together Time to help them understand the wounds of racism and role of allies. I will also lead a "Coming of Age" class about institutional racism and white privilege. I am on this journey with all of you, and no matter how challenging, messy and mistake-filled our words and actions are, I hope that each of you will commit to this journey as well.

by Interim Music Coordinator Sarah Jebian. For as long as memory serves, movies have played a major role in my family’s holiday tradition. When I was very young, I remember watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” with my siblings. We’d squish ourselves onto the couch in our basement, the white, artificial Christmas tree glowing in the corner and journey through the story of George Bailey’s wonderful life. Even today, I ring the little bell ornament on my own tree and imagine some angel getting his or her wings. In my early teens, the holidays didn’t officially begin until we’d all watched “A Christmas Story.” Who can forget that awful lamp and the scariest mall Santa ever? Of course, there were cartoons too: “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “Frosty the Snowman” and so on. A lifetime of holidays can be charted using these classic films and perhaps no other film is as classic as “White Christmas.” For many of you, “White Christmas” conjures the same warm memories of family and eggnog, fires and festive lights as “It’s a Wonderful Life” does for me. Now, I have a confession to make. Until recently, I had never actually seen “White Christmas.” For some reason, the movie never made it into the rotation of films we’d dust off and watch year after year, which is strange because it’s one of the only holiday-themed movie-musicals out there … and I come from a family of musicians. But I’d programmed “White Christmas” as the first of three community movie sing-a-longs at UUCF this year so I figured the time had come for me to join the ranks of “White Christmas” fans. A few weeks ago, my family and I crammed ourselves onto the couch in the basement (the soft glow of our green, artificial tree casting stained glass shadows on the walls) and watched “White Christmas” for the first time. As soon as Bing Crosby started singing the title song, I smiled. What a beautiful performance! And then Danny Kaye, in all his comic brilliance, stole the spotlight (and never really gave it back!). I adored listening to Rosemary Clooney’s velvet voice and Vera-Ellen’s dancing left me breathless at times. I knew some of the songs but was unfamiliar with others. And then, I had quite a shock when we got to the “minstrel show” scene. For those of you who are unaware, minstrel shows were an American form of entertainment developed in the mid-19th Century, lasting until the early part of the 20th Century when vaudeville surpassed minstrelsy as the primary entertainment the masses could afford. Minstrel shows were nearly always performed by white men in blackface and tended to lampoon or generalize black people into unflattering categories (the mammy, the “old darky,” the sexy mulatto wench, the black soldier, etc.). When the placard announcing that scene appeared in the movie, my husband and I literally gasped and I sat there wondering if Bing and Danny were suddenly going to appear on the screen in blackface. Thank goodness they did not. But still, the scene bothered me. Not long ago, Linnea Nelson, Rev. David Miller and I attended a “Beloved Conversations” workshop, intended to give us tools and ideas to bring back to our congregation so that we might deepen our understanding of race relations in America and work toward a more equal and just nation. It was a powerful experience. One thing that really stuck with me was the facilitator saying, “It’s going to be messy. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Don’t be afraid of the mess.” Viewing “White Christmas” through the lens of my “white privileged, historically Christian, Christmas-based holiday traditions,” I can honestly say I enjoyed the movie for what it was - an old fashioned movie-musical, naïve in the extreme but simple and lovely in its message of helping those we care about. However, I also can’t help but view the movie through the “1954 segregation, not a black face to be seen in the entire film, minstrel shows held up as legitimate entertainment to be honored” lens and I think … oh boy. Can I really present this movie as a community event, knowing as I do, the pain that the lack of racial diversity and specifically the minstrel reference might cause for some? I believe that annual family traditions such as watching “White Christmas” or “It’s a Wonderful Life” or any other movies that shape our holidays are important. I also believe that we must be mindful of our shared history and acknowledge those among us to whom these films represent not joy but oppression. Therefore, after the movie on Dec. 18, we will invite anyone who would like to enter a deeper conversation about the racial implications of this film (and others like it) to meet with Rev. David in the far corner of the Sanctuary Commons. UUCF is committed to racial justice, including those hard, messy conversations. We are also committed to creating community this holiday season by inviting everyone (strangers included) to come in, squish down next to us on the couch and sing along with Bing Crosby. “May your days be merry and bright …” Happy holidays to you and I hope to see you at the movies!

by Barb Brehm, Endowment Committee Chair. Endowments for churches and non-profits that are fortunate enough to be well funded have the happy mission of putting funds back into those organizations to make them stronger. UUCF’s Endowment Fund is no different. In 2011, UUCF’s fund reached the $250,000 threshold that allowed our Endowment Fund Committee to make annual disbursements to the congregation. UUCF’s Endowment Fund Committee voted to distribute those funds in the form of grants to worthy congregational programs. The idea was to make a broad, meaningful impact by providing financial nourishment to a variety of UUCF programs doing good in the world. This is the third year that the Endowment Fund has provided grants in this way. This year's grant recipients are: Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions (FACS) - This is the second consecutive year that FACS, an interfaith group founded at UUCF, has received a grant to support its work protecting our climate. This year's grant will support the group’s expanded website and Facebook presence, allowing it to reach more area congregations. Rebuilding Together (RT) - Each April for the last 8 years a team of about 70 UUCFers has supported Rebuilding Together by rehabbing an area home in need. RT has a new initiative - Rebuilding Together Express - which handles much smaller projects year-round and especially works to improve the energy efficiency of older homes. The grant will provide the materials, checklists and training to help the RT teams make these energy-efficiency upgrades. Middle School youth trip to Boston - For many years, our RE Committee has wanted to reinstitute the annual middle school trip to Boston - home to the Unitarian Universalist Association - so our youth can learn about their liberal heritage and UU identity. This grant covers some of the costs of the trip so that our youth can make this trip. Upgrading UUCF’s information technology infrastructure - It is time to identify UUCF IT systems that can be upgraded to provide greater reliability and capability. Our great staff needs quality tools to do its best supporting our community life, and this grant will help improve UUCF’s IT infrastructure. Holocaust Memorial Service - For the last couple of years, UUCF has held a memorial service around Holocaust Remembrance Day. This grant provides funds to bring in survivors of genocide to tell their stories and create a meaningful and compassionate service. Gun Violence Prevention - Our Gun Violence Prevention group continues to educate individuals on issues relating to gun violence. This grant will help provide transportation for UUCFers to travel to Richmond to speak to legislators on ways to prevent gun violence. This grant will also support local awareness and Internet outreach. Science, Reason & Religion (SR&R) Sunday Forum - SR&R has been a UUCF success story from its start, bringing in quality speakers on a vast array of topics. This grant will support expenses for out-of-town speakers and help the group create an archive of taped presentations that can be viewed online. We are truly thankful for our members and friends who are tackling these great challenges every day and that UUCF has an Endowment Fund to help with their compassionate and community-building work. We also deeply appreciate the generosity of all donors to the Endowment Fund who make these grants possible.

by Rev. David A. Miller. Many of you told me yesterday’s pastoral prayer resonated with you, so I'm sharing it with you again today: “As we gather together this morning we cannot help but wonder how many tragic events we can fit into our lives? As we travel our spiritual paths looking for answers to questions of meaning, we cannot help but question how many tragedies have to happen before we just become numb? As we use our reason to come to some kind of understanding of Paris, Beirut, Baghdad, Syria and other places of conflict, loss and crisis, we cannot help but ponder: What is the difference between resilience and self-preserving disassociation? “Terror and tragedy seem to come in concentric circles. The closer to us or the more personal it is, the deeper the grief, shock or horror. Terror can also come in the larger circles of geopolitical struggle or centuries-old religious disagreements, out there in the outer rings. Some of it rises to our awareness, some doesn’t. When it does, where the places are familiar, the coverage more intense or we see ourselves in the other, the circles seem so much closer. But it all adds up no matter how close or how far away. “Every single time there is a tear in the fabric of humanity, every single time we deny the precious nature of the gift of human life, every single time our web of inescapable mutuality is broken, we lose something that must be mended, overcome or reestablished. “That is what we do here every week. That is what we are called to do as Unitarian Universalists. That is what we must vow to do as human beings living in the 21st Century. For each of us is a thread that holds the web together; each is a weaver who must repair the fabric; each of us must give testimony to the precious gift of life. This is what we are called to do - hard enough in times of peace and so much harder when we feel anger rising from within or our personal and collective grief feels deep, constant or overwhelming. “So let us take the time we need to reestablish our connection with our own spirit. Let us take the time we need to hold each other in care and compassion and let us take the time we need to find our way back to love. For each time the world brings the pain of violence and drops it before us, it is a sacred task to meet it with increased resolve, which will take deep strength. The pain of violence must be defied with mutual support, which means finding ways through the fog to band together. And it must be driven back by our reinforced hearts, which takes courage and risk. “For if not us, who, and if not now, when? "Amen."

Sep. 14, 2015. by Director of Religious Exploration Linnea Nelson. On Saturday more than 100 UU religious exploration (RE) teachers from Northern Virginia gathered at UUCF to learn together, inspire one another and share ideas for the spiritual growth and development of our collective UU children. What an affirming, respectful and joyful group these RE teachers are - with over half the presenters and participants coming from UUCF! RE Committee Chair Suzanne Leonard and committee member Maria Cox-Leow led us through engaging activities that explored how we need to be in covenant with one another as we work through both the joys and challenges of teaching RE. At the training, teachers were asked to grapple with situations such as when a child asks, “Who or what is god?” Or when you find yourself being asked to explain the concept of heaven through a UU lens to a 5-year-old … or a 12-year-old. Or when terms like sin, grace, heaven and hell enter into the conversation with a UU child. Suzanne, Maria and I created role plays using phrases such as, “This is a good place to ask that question. Some people believe ...” Depending on the age and context this might be followed by, “I tend to think about it this way ... What do you think?” “You will probably keep thinking about this for a long time, and your ideas about it might change over time. Even though there is not one answer for everyone, these are very interesting things to talk about, especially with our families and here at RE.” Throughout the rest of the day, we continued to explore how to be in religious community with one another when the answers to these questions vary from family to family. We know that our families come from unique spiritual and religious backgrounds, including those who are finding UUCF as their very first religious home. Thus our focus on a covenant for classrooms was an important part of our day. Our teachers covenanted with one another as they thought about how they could best work together to bring a sense of wonder and joy to our children in the classroom. This year, we will be asking parents and guardians to covenant with classroom teachers to help us all be in right relationship and to share how we want to be with one another. As a first step in this process, the RE Committee is suggesting the following covenant, which we will invite parents, guardians and teachers to sign at an open house that begins a half-hour before RE on Sep. 20. This inaugural covenant will be in each classroom and reads: Communicate both joys and concerns. Assume good intent; we’re all here for the children. Practice our Seven Principles. May this be the start of another wonderful year of children, youth and adults working together to deepen and practice our Unitarian Universalist faith in our beloved community.

We mourn the loss of our beloved Pawel Jura, Director of Music and Arts, who died unexpectedly on Tuesday night. In the short time since Pawel arrived at UUCF in August 2014, he wove loving bonds of collaboration, compelling music and love for the arts. In the days to come, may we keep before us his warm smile and beautiful spirit. I offer you this prayer in gratitude and sorrow. Jennifer "Prayer for the UUCF Community" Life passes so quickly, and loss can be so unexpected. As we gather in community at this moment of sorrow, may we support and comfort one another. May we cherish the beautiful moments we have together. In our grief, may we feel more strongly our connections to one another. In our loss, may we treasure more deeply those we love. In our consciousness of absence, may we be fully present to one another. Let it be. Click here to share memories and photos of Pawel.

by John Monroe, Acting Minister for Social Justice. Visibility is an important part of social justice work. That’s because we all have a tendency to take our cues from other people. If we see other people getting behind a cause, we are more inclined to get behind it ourselves. It’s just human nature That’s why last week’s Climate March in New York City was so significant. More than 300,000 showed up for the rally, including an impressive number of Unitarian Universalists, many wearing their bright yellow “Standing on the Side of Love” regalia. Will the great media coverage translate immediately into sound climate policy? Perhaps not, but the event made it clear that a growing number of people do care about climate issues and that they want to see some change. The same principle applies to the vigil held each month at the National Rifle Association’s headquarters in Fairfax. The vigil, which always features a strong contingent from UUCF, is held on the 14th day of each month to mark the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, on Dec. 14, 2012. Each month, this group serves as a visible reminder that despite the formidable opposition, people concerned about gun violence are not going away. Visibility is clearly a key goal of the upcoming Complete the Circle, the fourth annual food drive and community event, which will be held on Nov. 9 at Fairfax High School. The highlight of this event each year is when the participants, wearing colored T-shirts, are organized into a living painting, which will be photographed from above by artist Daniel Dancer. It’s a fun, family-friendly event, but its intent is serious: To remind us that there are some people in our community whose basic needs are not being met – and that we should not look the other way. To be part of the team from UUCF, register for the event in the Commons after services on Sun., Oct. 5. For more information, contact Barb Brehm or check out the Our Daily Bread website. Visibility matters. When we gather in the public square to take a stand on an issue, we are sharing our vision for a better world. We are saying, “This is what our faith looks like.” That is good social justice work.

This weekend was just plain inspiring. On Saturday, members of UUCF and 12 other congregations gathered for a conference on "Welcoming LGBTs in Your Faith Community." It was a wonderful day of learning and sharing - of inspiration. There were many panels aimed at helping our congregations be truly welcoming. I went to one called "It Gets Better" where we heard the personal stories of a lesbian woman, a son of lesbian moms and a transgendered woman, and we talked about how important it is that our children feel safe in this world, no matter their orientations or identities. At Saturday's phenomenal interfaith worship we heard from Rev. Michael Piazza about what it means to be welcoming and how important it is that we as people of faith be in conversation with the world about these matters. Later in the evening, Zach Wahls, the author of "My Two Moms," delivered a wonderful talk about his life as the son of lesbian moms and his work as an advocate for marriage for all people. Sunday found our congregation back in our seats for a discussion of the plans the Board has for the future of a UUCF that is welcoming, expansive, technologically innovative and reaching as far as we can to change this world. Mary Katherine and Board President David Addis spoke about visions of UUCF as a vital force of liberal religion in the coming decades. Finally, Sunday afternoon I loaded Ethan into his carrier (we looked like a couple of marsupials - one of my favorite ways to carry him, by the way) and traipsed across a field at George Mason University to Our Daily Bread's Complete the Circle event. There, we watched hundreds of people use their bodies, adorned in different colored t-shirts, to create an image of bountiful giving that was photographed from on high. More than 60 people from UUCF crouched over in their red t-shirts to be the apple in the center of the image, looking for all the world like a heart. I was inspired. I thought about what Mary Katherine said yesterday at services as my dad sang Ethan to sleep on my couch and I turned my mind to today's blog. Why did we do everything we did this weekend? Why will we do even more as we pursue a bold vision? It's all about love - love that shows itself in small ways and large. We believe in love. But it's not belief alone that causes us to want to be welcoming or makes us advocate for equal marriage rites or protection under the law for all, it is our love for all. We want to welcome our LGBT friends because we love them. We want to work toward a Fairfax County in which none of our neighbors is hungry because we love our neighbors. We want to build a UUCF for the future because we love our congregation and those congregants who will come after us. We want to strengthen our UU movement because we love our faith. This weekend was so busy, I think it would have been easy to overlook the reason behind all the running around. And really that can happen to us any day - we can fail to see the forest for the trees. We can become so focused on tasks that we forget what they mean. I'm sure this week will be exciting too - they all seem to be these days - but I'm determined, more than ever, to see the forest, to see the love, and more than that to acknowledge it and to speak my gratitude for it. And so I'll start with you all. Thank you, for the love you've shown Ethan and me. Thank you for the love you show each other every weekend, every day. Thank you for the love you show this world. It is an inspiration. In gratitude, Sarah Lenzi

To commemorate Earth Day 2014, UUCF is launching EarthCircles Rising this weekend as the first Earth Circles initiative at UUCF. To speak of EarthCircles Rising is to share the spiritual ideas of a couple hundred people I have met since coming to UUCF in 1994. These people hold the seventh principle in high religious priority: "Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part." EarthCircles Rising incorporates the ideas and intent expressed by scores of UUCF members heard by three of us who have served in recent years as Lay Ministers for Social Justice (Martha Ades, Steve Myles and I). The goal is for all of us at UUCF to think consciously as individuals and groups about our footprint on the earth's living and physical systems. EarthCircles Rising enables everyone from children to senior citizens to easily participate as individuals, families or other collective units. First think about possible actions to reduce your environmental footprint and then report what you selected and accomplished. We offer a suggested actions list or you can include your own actions. You and the other participants are the driving force in adding new actions and refining the quality of the actions. EarthCircles Rising tracks your progression as you evolve through levels (fern, cactus, flower, butterfly, frog, sea turtle, shorebird, wolf and whale) based on the number of carbon reductions or environmental actions you or your family complete toward reducing impacts on ecological systems. More important, we in the Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions group have found that working with the EarthCircles Rising activities has changed our thinking and improved our ability to act in community - and this is what is really important. Just how important might be best expressed by the analogy of Andrea Grosse - a driving Earth Circles voice in our congregation: "The Web of Life is much, MUCH thinner than it was before the industrial revolution, or even 20 years ago. Our biosphere - the whole living system of which we are a part - is osteoporotic. The structures that hold it all together have been weakened, like a body with osteoporosis. With each year that passes, it will become easier for one of those thin bones to break. Each broken bone will be a disaster, not just for members of other species, or for poor people in developing countries, but for us right here. We will feel it more and more acutely each time a bone breaks." EarthCircles Rising calls each UUCF member to help transform the UUCF culture into one of doers who challenge the myriad of climate, environmental, ecological, human ecology and other problems. As a congregation, we must learn to live and act as if our seventh principle more correctly reads, "Do right for the web of all existence of which we are a part." Edwin Butterworth Note: Want to see how well you are caring for the Earth? Click here, check off all the Earth-friendly actions you are taking and find out lots more ways to be kind our planet. You may be a butterfly today, but a whale could be in your future!

by Interim Parish Minister Rev. Jennifer Brooks. Labor Day is more than a national holiday honoring workers. It’s a milestone that marks summer’s end. As the final day of a three-day weekend, it’s the last slow inhale-exhale of vacation, relaxation and summer sun. After today, life changes (again). After today, school gears up and summer travels become nostalgic memories. Ingathering. It’s the word UU congregations use to describe the first worship services after Labor Day, when the summer is behind us and members, returned from their travels, reunite as a faith community. This year it means something else - the launch of a year of transition. So much is new. I’m new - the Interim Parish Minister. Pawel Jura is the new Director of Music and Arts. Rev. Julie Price is the new Ministerial Intern. There’s new furniture in the Program Building and new carpet in the Social Hall. There’s a new parking lot (or most of it, anyway). So much newness. So much change. But still there is Ingathering. Because, despite these changes, what’s important about UUCF is the community you’ve created together. This community gathers in newness and welcomes it. Each new strand, woven into the fabric of this community, becomes part of a pattern gleaming with light and warmth. But the obvious newness is not the only newness. Visitors bring their unique history and perspectives. Classes for children and adults offer new opportunities for insight and personal growth. Each returning member, after a summer of experiences, brings a slightly changed human being. It’s said that no one can step into the same river twice. The water is always moving, the riverbed always shifting, so it’s never the same from one year to the next, or even from one moment to the next. This beloved community is a river; it’s never the same, not just this moment but every moment. Nonetheless, the UU Congregation of Fairfax is and always will be a source of the waters of life. It’s deep when we need it to be deep. It’s lively and frolicsome when that’s what we need. It’s cool and invigorating when we’re tired and need to be refreshed. It’s gentle and warm when we need to be held. And despite change, visible and invisible, it remains a wellspring of love and purpose that helps all of us shape our lives with meaning. Ingathering. As we gather next weekend, look around at the people who make up this beloved community. See the faces: happy, thoughtful, grieving, yearning. Each may reckon differently the loss or gain from changes that flow through life. Each, after all, steps into a different river. Yet here, always, there is a profound, life-giving current that lifts all boats.

by Rev. Jennifer Brooks. Sometimes people ask me why I refer to a UU congregation as a “faith community.” Though many UUs are theist (or, while non-theist, say that their religious outlook involves faith), others are both explicitly atheist and expressly uncomfortable with the word “faith.” Thus the reasonable question: Can a UU congregation be a “faith community?" To live our UU principles in all our relationships takes faith. The leading UU humanist theologian and one of my mentors is the Rev. Dr. William R. Murry. In his chapter titled “Faith,” in Becoming More Fully Human (2011), Murry identifies faith as an important humanist virtue. Murry quotes the iconic humanist, Eustace Haydon, professor of comparative religion at the University of Chicago and a signer of the 1933 Humanist Manifesto. Haydon said that there is an urgent need for “faith that a human being can give love, justice, peace, and all beloved moral values embodiment in human relations.” So here are two non-theist humanists who urge “faith” as a central attribute in the mature human being. Their perspective dovetails with mine; I think it takes an enormous amount of faith to keep working away at our UU project to “embody” beloved moral values in human relationships. And I say “non-theist humanists” to distinguish them from “theist humanists.” Yes, there are theist humanists. My mother, a theist humanist, is a devout Trinitarian Christian. Sometimes she despairs of the human effort to create a just and compassionate world. We both smile when I remind her to “have faith.” A humanist has faith that human efforts can make a positive difference in the world. In my mother’s humanist-Christian theology, it’s a human responsibility to do “God’s work,” the myriad tasks that help build the “beloved community.” In my mentor Bill Murry’s non-theist humanism, it’s a human responsibility to do the work that builds the “beloved community.” Both Mom and Bill “fit” in a UU congregation. That’s what I cherish about our UU “faith community.” People with diverse theological perspectives unite to encourage one another to “spiritual growth” (in each person’s unique understanding of the term) as we work together to change the world. In a nutshell, UU “faith” is Gandhi’s: We are people who aspire to “be the change we wish to see in the world.” Together we are a unique faith community, striving to listen, learn, grow and change - faithfully working to transform ourselves as we change the world. Grow, connect, serve.

by Rev. Laura Horton-Ludwig. “Whoo hoo!” Carol called out Monday morning. The rest of us in the office gathered round and heard the wonderful, shocking news: marriage equality in Virginia was here! We could hardly believe it, but there it was, all over Facebook, confirmed in email blasts and right there on the “Washington Post” website. After the hugs and happy tears, we asked ourselves: What do we do now? Thanks to the example of congregations and ministers in other states that have already welcomed marriage equality, we had something of a plan prepared: basically, get on down to the courthouse and be ready to marry people! And luckily, I was available. The texts and phone calls started to fly: Rev. Julie quick-emailed me the simple marriage service she’d been keeping in her back pocket just in case. I grabbed my robe and stole and went. Mary Lareau met me at the Fairfax County Courthouse, camera in hand. There, we ran into Yvonne and Melodie, a couple who had been together for many years. They came right to the courthouse when they heard the news. One of them was facing a serious health issue and they wanted to make sure the other wouldn’t be shut out of any medical decisions that needed to be made. They were ready to get married, right then, right there. So, along with a nice reporter from the “Washington Post,” two United Church of Christ clergy and a couple of friendly bystanders who came just to support couples, we made our way out to the courthouse atrium. And there, I had the joy of officiating at their wedding, witnessing their vows and blessing the rings they had already worn for nearly 20 years. Friends, there were only a few of us there to witness their marriage, but I felt your presence so strongly. So many of you have been working for this day for such a long time. I feel so blessed to be part of this loving, justice-seeking community. I leave you with a last word from one of our UUCF kids – a drawing, done Monday night, of “two ladies who can get married.” Hooray and blessed be! In celebration, Rev. Laura

by Rev. Jennifer Brooks. UUCF is a vibrant faith community that resonates with commitment and hope: Commitment to UU values. Hope for the future. And now is the time to step up so that UUCF can step forward. In June this congregation adopted a budget with a $48,000 deficit. Yes, a deficit. Uncertainty in the wake of a beloved minister’s departure, on the heels of a wonderful music director’s departure, put a crimp in the Annual Giving Campaign. Pledges didn’t quite match up with aspirations. Yet the adoption of a deficit budget was an act of faith - a vote of confidence in UUCF and its future. An overwhelming majority approved the budget based on deep-in-the-bones experience with this community’s vitality and strength. Now it’s time to step up. In a week we’ll launch “Step Up, Step Forward.” It’s not merely a campaign for one-time, additional contributions to make up the budget shortfall, though that’s an essential component. After all, in a few weeks candidates for parish minister will be looking at UUCF’s submission to the Unitarian Universalist Association’s (UUA) Transitions Office. Among other things, they’ll be checking to see whether UUCF is on a sound financial footing. So there’s an immediate and urgent need for additional contributions that will allow the Parish Minister Search Team (PMST) to present a balanced budget. But there’s more. Step Up, Step Forward is also the theme for our one-year transition. Over the remaining 10 months, it’s crucial that members commit themselves visibly and energetically to the future of this congregation. A balanced budget is important - let’s put our best foot forward - but members must also empower themselves to partner effectively with a new parish minister. At the start of a transition, people worry whether the unknown incoming parish minister will be OK. But UUCF has a great PMST who will sift through a pool of some of the most talented ministers in the UUA. The real risk facing UUCF is not that it won’t attract a terrific new minister. The real risk is that the minister-congregation partnership won’t thrive. So, how does UUCF prepare for success? Under these circumstances, the single most important determinant of the success of the minister-congregation partnership is the work the congregation does during the transition. So as UUCF launches Step Up, Step Forward, we need full congregational participation in the transition tasks ahead. First up is the history project: use the online form, write on the timeline in the Sanctuary, attend the Nov. 1 neighborhood dinner (RSVP here) and keep an eye out for follow-up. This and other transition projects will carry UUCF successfully into its future. Step up. Step forward.

by Rev. Julie Price. The voice on the other end of the phone was low, soft and hesitant. The caller ID read "caller blocked" so I wasn't able to identify where the call came from. It was only late in the conversation that the caller shared his name, and then later shared her name. What started as an inquiry about officiating a wedding turned into a conversation about the caller's transgender identity. As we slowly established trust, one question at a time, we began to talk about UUCF. The caller, whom I'll refer to as "Fiona," asked me, "Would I be welcome at your church? I mean, would I be welcome at your church if I came dressed as a woman?" Our gender-inclusive restroom signs, our participation in Pride events and Standing on the Side of Love ran quickly through my mind. Without hesitation I replied, "Yes. You would be very welcome here." But after I got off the phone, I felt a little worried. I knew that UUCF would extend a warm welcome to anyone who came to our congregation but I wondered if a restroom sign, a rainbow flag and a warm handshake would be enough to make Fiona, whose identity makes her feel so vulnerable that she needs to block her phone number, truly feel welcome in our congregation. How many more questions would need to be answered in her mind before she would ever risk walking through our doors? I sensed that the first step in becoming more welcoming was to educate myself and so I set out to learn more about transgender identity. Through the UUA's Transgender 101 resources I watched an excellent webinar recording in which I learned, among other things, the difference between gender identity (your sense of yourself) and gender expression (how you outwardly manifest your identity). I was introduced to the Genderbread Person by Sam Killermann, which I encourage you to check out for a quick visual explanation of gender identity. This little cookie has significantly broadened my understanding of not just transgender individuals but of myself and everyone I know as well! And I was reminded that being welcoming is all about being committed to ongoing, transformational work and being open to being changed. The webinar also taught me about the disproportionate discrimination and victimization experienced by transgender individuals. The statistics are deeply troubling: 63% of transgender folks have experienced a serious act of discrimination and 23% have experienced a catastrophic level of discrimination. Transgender people of color are even more at risk, accounting for 44% of all LGBTQ hate violence victims and 70% of LGBTQ hate murder victims. Is it any wonder Fiona was so very cautious about revealing her identity to me? I don't know if we'll ever have the opportunity to welcome Fiona at UUCF, but we will have the opportunity to welcome many other folks from the transgender community to our congregation in less than two weeks. On Thu., Nov. 20, at 7:30 p.m., UUCF will host an interfaith worship service in commemoration of Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR). Every year on Nov. 20, people gather all around the world to remember those who have been murdered because of their transgender identity and bring attention to the violence continually endured by the transgender community. The Metropolitan Community Church of Northern Virginia is coordinating this community interfaith service and UUCF will be the host. I hope you will come out that evening and stand side by side with people of all gender identities and expressions in mourning those who have died for just being themselves and envisioning a day when everyone is safe to express who they are without fear. If you would like to be a hospitality volunteer, email Paula Prettyman. If you aren’t familiar with transgender identity or justice issues and want to educate yourself before you come, click on any of the links in the blog or read "Ten Things Every Ally Should Know About TDOR."  But really all that is needed is to come with an open mind and a loving heart, ready to offer a warm welcome to all who honor us by walking through our doors.

by Carol Jensen. Nov. 27, 2014. Do you remember your first visit to our congregation? Were you warmly welcomed or barely noticed? How did that make you feel? Recently, I had feedback from a visiting couple who felt they were overlooked despite using green visitors’ mugs. I notice many Saturdays and Sundays we’re tending our visitors and it makes me proud to be part of this congregation. But it is important to be vigilant and not get so caught up with business or greeting friends that we ignore our guests. If you see someone standing alone, with or without a green mug, why not go and introduce yourself? If someone with a guest nametag sits next to you in the service, take a minute to start a conversation when the service ends. At our November Newcomers Orientation class one of the 18 participants said she was not looking for a “like-minded” community, but a “like-hearted” one. Please remember that many people are looking for what we have to offer here, and with just a little extra effort on everyone’s part we can be a Welcoming Congregation in all ways.

by Rev. Laura Horton-Ludwig. How shall we sing our love’s song now In this strange land where all are born to die? These lines by Madeleine L’Engle have been echoing in my heart this week. The holiday season is here - “The most wonderful time of the year,” as the popular song has it. And yet the news has been so heavy. In just the last few days we have been challenged to absorb a great deal: The Senate report on CIA torture practices, confirming what many of us had long suspected and calling us to somber reflection on who we are as a nation. The struggle to respond to global violence including that perpetrated by ISIS and other extremist groups. Controversies over sexual assault on college campuses and in Hollywood, leaving victims both wary and hopeful of change. Continuing vigils and protests against police brutality toward people of color, in which several UUCF members participated this weekend. Yesterday, the second anniversary of the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School, marked here by a moving vigil organized by our gun violence prevention group. And beyond all this, the intimate sorrows of many in the community facing illness, loss and grief. All this is a heavy burden. Almost too much for us, perhaps, to keep believing in the possibility of peace on earth. Yet we would not need the Christmas story, that blessed, ancient promise of peace on earth, if we lived in a world without this pain. And, after all, our world is not so very different from the world of 2,000 years ago that gave us the Christmas story. The little baby Jesus and his parents were no strangers to violence. Matthew’s Gospel tells us they were political refugees, fleeing across national borders to escape the wrath of King Herod. And that is a piece of their story. But it is not the heart of it. Their story invites us to wonder at a bright star, at wise people crossing the desert, shepherds visited by angels - promises of joy and transformation and hope in the very midst of the hard facts of the world. Whether you believe in the literal truth of the story hardly matters. Still and always, the Christmas story invites us to believe in a much greater truth: That violence and grief will not have the last word; that love and hope and peace will always be stronger. How shall we sing our love’s song now? Dear ones, let us sing, this season, for all the goodness in human hearts that calls us to rise up and do our best, again and again. To stand vigil on the sidewalks, witnessing for a dreamed-of world without needless violence. To comfort a friend in need. To reach out where estrangement has ruled and offer a heart open to healing. To love one another, to love our neighbor and those we have never met. To practice peace on earth, goodwill to all. Thus we create the very blessings we crave.

by Rev. Jennifer Brooks. I saw "Selma," the film honoring the 50th anniversary of the Selma-to-Montgomery, AL, civil rights march. The story is riveting. Powerful. Inspirational. I laughed and I wept. I wept for the courage and incredible dignity of people who put their lives on the line, their physical bodies at risk, for the rights to which they were entitled as American citizens. I wept because the movie made it all too clear how far we still have to go. So here are some thoughts about how we get beyond Selma. Despite legal and social changes over the last 50 years, in 2015 there are many ways that diversity is a challenge for even the most well-intentioned people. Truly embracing the diversity of our society opens up many opportunities to grow and learn and see the world through someone else's lens. When we're curious about someone who is different, we have a chance to understand the world in a different way. We have a chance to open our eyes and hearts to someone else's life. The barrier is that often we don't actually see the differences that exist around us. We simply assume that everyone is like us. Sometimes I hear people say that they're "colorblind." I think they mean - and usually these are white people talking - that they aspire to treat everyone alike. In my own experience as a white person who is the mother of two children of color, I understand this well-intentioned aspiration. But I've learned that I'm caught in the systemic biases of my own white privilege. Okay; I'll stop using words like privilege and systemic biases. What I mean is that until someone is truly visible to me as a person, with all that has shaped and formed their personality, I really cannot know their inner truth. To do that I have to actually see the individual person. I can't make assumptions about them or project my own world view upon them and hope to know their inner truth. Instead I have to see them as they are. To do that I have to stop assuming. How can I do that? How can anyone not make assumptions? We always make assumptions and the thing about assumptions is that we don't know that we're making them. I'm unusually fortunate. Raising children of color has helped me see what the world looks like from inside a darker skin. The assumptions that were true for me and my childhood aren't true for my children and their childhood. We Unitarian Universalists sincerely try to live our principles. We try to celebrate our diversity (in all its various forms). We try to learn from others. But if we aren't open to learning someone's whole story, what are we celebrating? To get beyond Selma, we have to begin to see one another. We have to know one another as people who find common ground despite our differences and indeed because of them. But first we have to see them. We can't let people be invisible by assuming they're just like us. Over the next two months, UUCF is sponsoring "Exploring Diversity" dinners - a series of four, four-person dinners (4x4). People who participate will have a chance to explore the diversity around the table. Those who participate will have the opportunity to see the world through a different lens. America has a long way to go before we're truly beyond Selma. But we begin here, at UUCF, with curiosity, love and open hearts.

by Rev. Jennifer Brooks. We are poised in a unique moment. Despite deep divisions in the world today, many people have become aware that those divisions are artificial. They are artificial because they’re the product of difference turned to exclusion instead of to creativity and insight. Here at UUCF, we’re working on creative ways to recognize difference and treat it respectfully. At the “Exploring Diversity” Dinners, for example, we have a chance to deepen our connections with one another as we practice this skill. Here’s the thing. We have to see one another. We have to be open. We have to be willing to accept another person’s understanding of themselves and their reality. That can happen only if we set aside argument long enough to be fully present with one another. Martin Luther King might have called it love. Yesterday during the Weekend of Service projects, a local group of Muslims joined a group of mostly non-Muslim UUCF members to make blankets for Syrian refugees. The project required that people work together cooperatively on a shared task in aid of people desperately in need. Children played. Adults smiled. Blankets piled up. It’s possible to reach across the artificial divisions, but only if we drop below the level of rhetoric and persuasion. We have to set aside reaction to difference long enough to share experiences with one another; long enough to share our stories with one another. This is true both within UUCF and beyond our walls. But the work of reaching across difference to see another’s inner truth isn’t possible without a centered spirit. Thus one of the three proposed UUCF goals for the next few years is spiritual deepening. The word “spiritual” refers broadly to all the connections and practices that ground us and keep us whole. Beginning this weekend, UUCF will be in conversation about this proposed goal and two others: reaching beyond our walls and creating justice. These three goals resonate as parts of a whole. We cannot create justice without reaching beyond our walls. We cannot open our hearts to others either within or beyond our walls unless we are calm and centered. One last thought. The world needs us, but not if we are people who fan the fires of division. The world needs us, but only if we are open, loving, centered people who constantly look for the inner truth of each person we meet. People who look. People who see.

by Rev. Jennifer Brooks. When we recall the people who have been most influential in our lives, we often remember the mentors who helped us become who we are. It may have been a teacher or a coach or a camp counselor. Sometimes we emerge from our chrysalis because of someone who knows that we can. In congregational life, a minister may inspire, comfort, encourage, support or empower. Yet a congregation is more than the minister. A congregation is more than the sum of its individual members. A congregation is the beloved community that helps us become who we are. This beloved community empowers us to live our values, to discover our yearnings, to find our direction - at any age. Direct acts of empowerment may happen through a teacher, a youth advisor, a lay leader or a minister. Yet that person is merely the visible expression of community. Like the tree that offers its branch to support a chrysalis, UUCF holds and nurtures us. Like the breeze that signals the arrival of spring, UUCF calls us to emerge and soar. This empowering community doesn’t happen by accident. It is the consequence of vision and intention. It results from a conscious decision to make UUCF a place of love, inspiration and support. To sustain this empowering community, that conscious decision must occur again and again over time and must involve the commitment and imagination of the entire membership. In the next few weeks, UUCF members once more have the opportunity to participate in conversations about the kind of place UUCF is to be. Beyond the jargon about “proposed strategic plan goals,” let us share a vision of the chrysalis and the beloved community that empowers us to emerge. This empowering community comes into being not just for people here today, but for those who arrive tomorrow and the next day and every day after that. UUCF is here not just for today’s children but for tomorrow’s children. The work of the existing UUCF congregation is to sustain an empowering community that thrives both now and long into the future. In these chrysalis conversations over the next few weeks, we again engage with one another to imagine what we mean by community. By this mutual engagement, we sustain a UU congregation that builds hope, that clarifies direction, that saves lives. Today all of us are the mentors, the teachers, the coaches, the ministers who call into being this empowering community.

by Rev. Jennifer Brooks. We almost canceled the concert. But the musicians, in their grief, said that if they had to choose between playing music together or staying home alone, they would play music together. One of them said, “It’s what we do.” So on Saturday night, just a few days after the heart-wrenching death of our beloved Pawel Jura, Director of Music and Arts, musicians of “UUCF Banding Together” rocked the Sanctuary. It was an epic tribute to their inspirational teacher, mentor, friend. It wasn’t only the musicians who came, but the whole community: people of all ages. Children danced with their teddy bears. Teens danced in a circle of friends (and allowed their parents to dance). Elders defied aging joints and danced. Everyone sang along whether we knew the words or not. Together we found joy in the midst of grief. We’re a community. It’s what we do.We grieve but we don’t grieve alone. Community doesn’t let anyone grieve alone. Our UU community holds us, supports us, gives us courage to carry on, shows us love, helps us find joy. A death like this one is so hard to understand. Pawel was vibrant, smiling, alive. He encouraged us to try new things, to stretch beyond our comfort zones. He made us laugh. We only knew him for seven months, but he gave so much in that short time. He gave unstintingly to our youth, mentoring them and bringing them into our worship services where they glowed with promise. The Virginia Medical Examiner has confirmed that this beautiful spirit took his own life. His passing was peaceful, but what a loss. How can we create meaning from this sadness? Let us start with understanding. Depression is an insidious illness that can lock its sufferers in silence, wrongly convincing them that there is no help. It warps reality. It filters out the positive messages. Without access to the very real help that is available, life seems impossibly painful. (Click here for resources on suicide prevention and depression.) Yet despite all this, despite his struggles, Pawel touched us. He shone in our lives like a light. He talked occasionally about discovering Unitarian Universalism. It was when he first began working at the UU Society: East in Manchester, CT, where he was music director before moving to Virginia and UUCF. Before that he hadn’t heard of Unitarian Universalism. Then he found a place filled with love and acceptance. “It saved my life,” he said seriously to me one day. We all long for love and acceptance. We long for community - authentic community that accepts us and holds us and helps us grow in our own unique way. Unitarian Universalism offers us that. It’s up to us here and now to offer Unitarian Universalism to everyone who needs it; to all whose lives might be saved. Pawel’s life, filled with love and fire, was saved long enough to give us the gift of knowing him for a short while. Too short a time, but long enough to change us. Now his life invites us to make a light of our own lives. His love for UUs and what we offer the world invites us to make UUCF a light. Perhaps that’s the meaning we can carry forward from this sorrow - the meaning we will create so that Pawel’s presence among us is not lost. It’s what we do. NOTE: Memorial services for Pawel Jura are planned both here at UUCF and at the UU Society: East. We will share details when they are available.

by Rev. Jennifer Brooks. One weekend not too long ago I asked in each of our worship services how many people, when they visited a Unitarian Universalist congregation for the first time, felt as if they’d come home. At least 75% raised their hands. And then I asked, “Do you think there are other people out there who long for what we have, and deserve to find us? The response was unanimous: Yes. UUCF welcomes people as they are, encourages growth and provides opportunities to help others and serve the cause of justice. We teach children how to live their values in the world. We help adults stretch spiritually and intellectually. We work for a more just and humane society. We care for our beautiful planet. How can we help people who need us find us? That’s one question. Very shortly UUCF is about to welcome the search team’s candidate for parish minister. How can members here effectively welcome that prospective new leader? That’s another question. And we’ve also just launched the Annual Giving Campaign. With everything else going on, and with many of us still shaken after the unexpected death of our music director, how can we have a wildly successful giving campaign (which is what we need)? Yet another question. But the real question, the fundamental underlying essential question, is: How can we do anything other than do all of these things, and do them well, even though they’re happening at the same time? I’ve seen the depth and strength of this community. I’ve seen how much this community matters, especially to people who yearned (sometimes for years) to find a place like UUCF. So my answer to all of these questions, and especially the big question, is - Shine. Commit to making UUCF shine. Commit to being present for the April 18-26 candidating week. Commit to making a pledge for the first time or increasing your existing pledge. Shine. Show up. Be fully present, in every way, each one of you. Shine as individuals and UUCF will shine as a congregation. You hold the flame. Let it shine.

by Acting Minister for Social Justice John Monroe. Someday, we hope, Earth Day will not be necessary. Someday, each of us will recognize that our well-being is wholly interwoven with the well-being of the rest of this planet. Someday, each of us will understand that humanity is not apart from or above nature but part and parcel of it And someday, this realization will be reflected in the laws and policies of our communities, our nation and world. Someday, but not today. Today, we need Earth Day to awaken us to the amazing web of life of which we are a part - and to inspire us, to mobilize us, to take whatever steps are necessary to sustain and protect that web of life. That is why we celebrate Earth Day. This coming weekend, ahead of Earth Day on Apr. 22, Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions (FACS) has put together an amazing program that touches on the many dimensions of our current environmental concerns. Events kick off on Fri., Apr. 17, at 7:30 p.m. at Unity of Fairfax, with a screening of the Academy Award-winning film “Beasts of the Southern Wild.” The film sheds light on the intersection between climate justice and racial justice. Jacqui Patterson, director of NAACP’s Environment and Climate Justice program, will moderate a discussion after the film. On Sat. Apr. 18, from 1-4:30 p.m., Unity of Fairfax will host the Earth Day Symposium. This event will feature a thought-provoking address by Dr. Thomas Lovejoy, a senior fellow at the United Nations Foundation and a professor in the Environmental Science and Policy department at George Mason University, followed by a panel of religious and community leaders and eight breakout sessions. Please RSVP for this event here. The day will conclude with a Climate Jam benefit concert in the UUCF Sanctuary. The concert, starting at 7:30 p.m., will feature Craig Phillips, Debu Nayak and Soumya Chakraverty (Indian classical), SongRise (progressive a capella), Kofi Dennis (African percussion) and the UUCF Earth Band (green rock). $10 suggested donation, children are free (child care provided). Email by Apr. 15 to reserve child care. Many thanks to FACS for putting together a program that offers many different ways to explore, learn and celebrate our place in this sacred web of life.

by Rev. Laura Horton-Ludwig. How can I help? How can I understand what’s really going on? What is needed right now? These are just a few of the questions that swirled in my mind as I learned of the events in Baltimore last Monday night. I was with colleagues at a retreat, learning about personal resilience and the gifts of resilience for the whole community. Timely. Surreal. One of my colleagues lives in Baltimore. She kept the rest of us updated with texts from her husband about what was happening, even as she wondered aloud whether she would even be able to make it home at the end of the retreat because of all the road closures in her neighborhood. I believe what happened to Freddie Gray was wrong. Police officers must be held accountable. And still, it was scary and sad to hear the initial reports of rioting and looting. I felt agitated, discouraged, demoralized. Then I began to see the Facebook posts offering a different story: the media coverage focused incessantly on the tiny minority of people who turned to violence, but 10,000 protesters had marched that day, demonstrating peacefully - 10,000 people! The vast majority were committed to peaceful protest and worked hard to keep it that way. But for those of us outside Baltimore to see and know that, we had to work hard to seek out alternative sources of information. At our retreat on resilience, UU minister and clergy coach Larry Peers urged us to unpack the negative, damaging stories we tell ourselves about our world and ourselves – to experiment with different stories that offer greater freedom and hope. What are the stories we’re telling ourselves about Baltimore and the “Black Lives Matter” movement? If all we can see is violence, distress, hate and sorrow, we may feel shut down and powerless. But what if we look for exceptions to those negative stories and images? Check out these images of inspiring leaders in Baltimore. These are real human beings, working peacefully and powerfully for justice in their communities. And just last Friday, we heard the news that six police officers would be indicted for their roles in Freddie Gray’s death. Knowing all this, I feel hope. I pledge to do my part in the work of justice, here and now. Rev. Jennifer, Rev. Julie, John, Linnea and I want to share with you some concrete ways that you can help too, as you are moved. The resource list below comes to us from Baltimore-area UUs. Thank you for reading this far. Peace to you and to all our neighbors. UUs respond to the Baltimore uprising The situation in the Baltimore is fluid, with many groups participating in many ways. With the indictments announced on May 1, the community is focusing its energy on a few mass demonstrations and many direct service opportunities. Visit Baltimore United for Change – a broad coalition including communities of faith, CASA de Maryland and many others - for updates and opportunities to help. Contributions UU congregations in Baltimore have shared links to these non-profits with their congregants. Ferguson Legal Defense Committee/Baltimore - contributions for legal defense for Baltimore protesters. Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle - contributions for cleaning up in the community. Operation Help or Hush - contributions for food for children and protesters.

by Rev. Laura Horton-Ludwig. If you were at UUCF last Saturday, you might have seen some of us roaming the grounds, looking at flowers, finding blooming things and wondering what they might have to say to us. On this retreat day inspired by UUCF’s May theme of Bloom, the flowers were our teachers. I watched the bees and bugs come and go from these purple flowers next to the Program Building. How beautiful, it seemed to me that day, that the flowers don’t have to work hard to contribute to the well-being of the whole. They don’t have to chase after the bees or formulate goals. They just grow and offer their gifts to the world, freely and simply. Of course, in human life there is always a balance to be found. Most of us would not be happy without our work, our efforts, our goal-directed achievements. But in the midst of all your activity, do you know that you are beautiful and worthy just as you are, no matter what? Do you really know it? If you need a reminder, will you read this poem? “Camas Lilies” by the Rev. Lynn Ungar Consider the lilies of the field, the blue banks of camas opening into acres of sky along the road. Would the longing to lie down and be washed by that beauty abate if you knew their usefulness, how the natives ground their bulbs for flour, how the settlers’ hogs uprooted them, grunting in gleeful oblivion as the flowers fell? And you - what of your rushed and useful life? Imagine setting it all down - papers, plans, appointments, everything - leaving only a note: “Gone to the fields to be lovely. Be back when I’m through with blooming.” Even now, unneeded and uneaten, the camas lilies gaze out above the grass from their tender blue eyes. Even in sleep your life will shine. Make no mistake. Of course your work will always matter. Yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. *** Peace, dear ones. Have a beautiful day.

by Rev. Julie Price. “If the world is to be healed through human efforts, I am convinced that it will be by ordinary people … people whose love for this life is even greater than their fear.” - Joanna Macy I first encountered Joanna Macy through the “Spiritual Ecology” class at UUCF last fall. One of the assigned readings was Macy’s book, “Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We’re in Without Going Crazy,” co-written with Chris Johnstone. That title was all I needed. I was hooked. How do we face the mess we’re in without going crazy? This feels like one of the big existential questions we ask of life these days. It hangs in the background with every news report about global warming, war, famine, genocide and gun violence. We care about others. We care about our planet. But it is so hard to know how to respond, how to care without falling into despair, how to hope. Macy writes, “Passive hope is about waiting for external agencies to bring about what we desire. Active Hope is about becoming active participants in bringing about what we hope for. Active Hope is a practice.” This summer, we will practice hope together. Last year, Summer Minister Eve Stevens led us through a wonderful series of worship services about the history of UUCF. It was a time of looking back to better understand who we are today. With our new Parish Minister Rev. David Miller arriving in August, we will finish up our transition year by looking forward together in hope. As your summer minister, I will lead four worship services exploring some of the work around hope from Joanna Macy and her colleagues. Each of the four Sundays from Jul. 19-Aug. 9, we will explore one of the four movements in the “Spiral of the Work that Reconnects.” Macy writes that the spiral “maps out an empowerment process that journeys through four successive movements, or stations, described as Gratitude, Honoring our Pain for the World, Seeing with New Eyes and Going Forth.” Intersecting these movements will be the four elements of water, fire, air and earth as we invite the natural world to inspire us along this journey. But before I begin the summer ministry, I still need to finish up my last week as your intern minister! My final day in that role is this Sunday as we celebrate LGBTQ Pride Weekend together and focus on the gifts of the transgender community to our world. I am so pleased that my final Sunday will be one of celebration because we have so much to celebrate together. This year has called on us to reach deep within ourselves, to reach for one another and to reach out in love to the world. We have experienced joy in the midst of sorrow, growth in the midst of change and strength in the midst of vulnerability. Let’s celebrate this Sunday and then in mid-July I will return to explore “Active Hope” with you. Thank you for the extraordinary privilege of serving as your intern minister this past year. We have experienced together that our love is greater than our fear and this is the kind of power that can transform the world. May it be so. In love and hope, Julie

by Rev. Jennifer Brooks. What a week it has been. I’ve been at the Unitarian Universalist Association General Assembly (GA) in Portland, OR, since last Monday. The 5,000 UUs at GA gathered in energizing worship, learned stimulating new ideas in an array of workshops and stood in solidarity with the Lummi people to support their resistance to the taking of their sacred lands for use as a coal loading port. Dr. Cornel West electrified the assembly in his Ware Lecture. On Thursday, when the U.S. Supreme Court released its decision affirming marriage equality, we gathered in an impromptu service of celebration. We also held a healing circle to support the trans and gender-nonconforming folk who continue to face discrimination without the protection of the law - people who still need allies to stand with them. Delegates at General Assembly passed three Actions of Immediate Witness: one asking to end immigrant child and family detention, a second supporting a strong, compassionate global climate agreement in the Paris climate talks in December (our own Bill Repsher spoke convincingly in favor) and a third supporting the “Black Lives Matter” movement. Also during the last week, in response to the soul-searing tragedy in Charleston, SC, Rev. Laura Horton-Ludwig and I sent a letter of condolence to Emanuel AME Church. The shooting there of nine black members and ministers, who had talked and prayed with their killer for an hour before he pulled out his gun, resonated over and through the events of General Assembly and deeply in my own heart. This young white man, Dylann Roof, has set out his racist manifesto for all to see. His actions at Emanuel Church were part of his mission to eradicate black Americans. Many of you know that my son, Kevin, is black. I have learned over the last 22 years of being his parent that having black or brown skin in America invites racial hatred. When my son was only 7 years old, one of his classmates (apparently not registering that he was describing Kevin) said casually, “All blacks should be killed.” The child didn’t hate my son. But what he heard at home shaped his unexamined opinions. All people of color in America, and parents of black and brown-skinned American children, are constantly aware that their race is an invitation to acts of hatred and harm. Dylann Roof says in his manifesto, “I was not raised in a racist home.” But he was raised in a culture that shaped his racist understanding - a culture in which jokes about blacks are viewed as nothing more than humor and people of color are readily regarded as less than human. His conclusion? “All blacks should be killed.” Black lives matter. At General Assembly, the resolution to support the “Black Lives Matter” movement passed overwhelmingly. Yet when white delegates sought to override some of the language offered by delegates of color, the discussion became painful and frustrating. Despite a desire to stand in solidarity with people of color, white UUs can unconsciously assume the superiority of their own understanding over that of the people whose lives are actually at stake. People inevitably see the world through the lens of their own experience. Experience is a powerful teacher; after years of adulthood we often are sure we know the best course of action. But white Americans do not inhabit the same world as black Americans. To be allies with people of color, white UUs might begin by listening attentively, accepting that we don’t know the reality of life in a dark skin. We might check our certainty at the door. We might, instead, heed the wisdom of people who experience “living while black” as high-risk - and sometimes a crime punishable by death.

by Rev. Julie Price. “The original instructions direct that we who walk about on the Earth are to express a great respect, an affection and a gratitude toward all the spirits which create and support Life. We give a greeting and thanksgiving to the many supporters of our own lives - the corn, beans, squash, the winds, the sun. When people cease to respect and express gratitude for these many things, then all life will be destroyed and human life on this planet will come to an end." - from the Haudenosaunee "Basic Call to Consciousness” delivered in 1977 at a U.N. conference in Switzerland Gratitude and respect for the interdependent web of life is not a casual sentiment to the Haudenosaunee Native Americans, also known as the Iroquois Confederacy. They believe that gratitude and respect for all that creates and supports life is essential to our survival. These prophetic words from almost 40 years ago resonate as deep truth to me today. Yesterday we explored gratitude as the first practice in a four-stage cycle aimed at helping us develop the inner resources necessary for the work of healing our world. Gratitude centers and strengthens us. It helps us see our place in the web of life and enjoy the gifts that life offers us. I invite us all into the practice of gratitude this week. If you are looking for a resource, I recommend the “Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address” that precedes each of their council meetings. Joanna Macy and her colleagues explore this address in their “Active Hope” workshops, encouraging people to read it and pause between sections to share what they love and appreciate about each of the gifts the Thanksgiving address describes. You might do the same as a family or individual as a gratitude practice. Here is an excerpt from the address: “Today we have gathered and we see that the cycles of life continue. We have been given the duty to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living things. So now, we bring our minds together as one as we give greetings and thanks to each other as People.” I give thanks for each of you, for the community that together we create. I appreciate and respect the gifts you bring to our life together and to the work of healing our world. I am thankful for the generosity and kindness that I experience every day here at UUCF. In deepest gratitude and joy, Julie

by Rev. Julie Price. “Joy and woe are woven fine …” This is the first line of a William Blake poem that I discovered as I was preparing last December for a memorial service I led for someone from the wider community. It was my first UU memorial service. I was struggling to find words to share in the service that would be meaningful to the loved ones who were both grieving a painful loss and celebrating a remarkable woman whose life had touched so many. These words by Blake resonated with me and have taken up residence deep within me. Like the threads of a garment, joy and woe are finely woven together into the fabric of our lives. Love is woven into grief; happiness into sorrow; beginnings into endings. I am in a place this week of being keenly aware of this paradox of life. This coming Sunday, our annual Animal Blessing service, will be my last at UUCF after over a year of ministry. It began last summer as I served as summer director of religious exploration, then 10 months as ministerial intern, and finally five weeks as summer minister. It has been a year where joy and woe have been woven fine. I remember with such fondness the Together Times with the children in worship last summer at Oakton Elementary when Summer Minister Eve Steven’s series about the history of UUCF inspired an interactive UU family tree and a march with protest signs through the auditorium. I find myself smiling and chuckling at the memory of the Ingathering service last September, as Rev. Jennifer Brooks, Rev. Laura Horton-Ludwig, John Monroe, Pawel Jura, Linnea Nelson and I simulated rivers, lakes and oceans with billowing blue fabric, told a story with fish puppets and a huge stuffed bear and read from little fish sticky notes the gifts that each person at UUCF brings to this congregation. We have laughed and danced (remember that worship service?) and celebrated this past year! Oh but we have also known the heavy weight of grief this past year. We have lost dearly beloved members of our congregation and many have experienced the loss of friends and family members. One of the most painful losses this past year for many of us was the suicide of our Director of Music and Arts Pawel Jura - someone we had grown to really admire and care about. I don’t think any of us knew how deeply woven pain was into the fabric of Pawel’s life. And with his death, I feel as if I have been left with a little wound within me that contains a mixture of grief for all of us who loved and miss him, gratitude for his life, sadness for his pain and a sweet tenderness for the special memories that I will always carry with me. “Joy and woe are woven fine.” And now, as I come to the end of this full, challenging, beautiful year, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for all the ways you have supported and encouraged me to learn and grow both as a minister and as a human being. I now head off into a new adventure and won’t be able to be in touch with folks at UUCF for the next year but I want you to know that you will be with me in my heart the whole way. I am really excited and looking forward to the work ahead for me - chaplaincy at the Hebrew Home in Rockville, MD, and studying for my credentialing interview in 2016. I am really excited for you too and all that is ahead for UUCF this coming year of new beginnings. I will miss you and I look forward to next year when I can come back and reconnect, sharing the stories of joy and woe that have shaped and deepened our spirits over the previous year. In gratitude and love, Julie

by Linnea Nelson. Sometimes our busy lives keep us feeling as though we are skimming the surface of life. Does your life sometimes feel like an never-ending to-do list of appointments, sports practices, exercise classes ... breathe ... musical events, school events, writing emails, answering emails ... breathe ... grocery shopping, errand running ... breathe? We find ourselves taking quick gulps of air and moving on to the next event without a moment to reflect on what we are doing and why. If you have recently said to yourself, “My life is just too crazy busy!” and you feel as though you aren’t diving deeply into your life, there is hope! You will find more meaning, more joy in our transformational, magical, life-affirming Religious Exploration (RE) classes! Exploring with children what it means to be a Unitarian Universalist will provide you with "aha" moments right alongside the children. Did you know that you only need to teach a couple of times a month? Switching between worship services and being with children will create space for you to dive a little deeper into what makes life meaningful for you. If you've been thinking about some of the big questions in life, our “Riddle and Mystery” class explores "What or who is God?" and "What do you believe?" Wouldn’t it be fascinating to hear how children would answer these questions? If you are looking for adventure as a way to deepen your spiritual practice, you might want to join our “Treasure Hunting” kindergarten class to find the heart and soul of Unitarian Universalism. We even have classes called "Toolbox of Faith" and "Love Will Guide Us" to discover nuances about our sources and principles. And who could resist finding UU treasures in a wonder box each week with 4- and 5-year-olds? The RE Committee and I want you to have a meaningful and relaxed experience in RE. We provide materials and supplies, curriculum, teacher training and lots of support along the way. We also partner newer teachers with those who are more experienced. We hope you’ll consider joining a teaching team today! We have a special introductory session for new teachers on Wed., Aug. 26, at 7 p.m. (Child care is available if requested by this Sun., Aug. 23. Email childcare@uucf.org with the names and ages of your children) to help give you the nuts and bolts of teaching. You’ll be able to focus on the joys of teaching and assisting in the classroom while you take a moment from your busy life to "breathe.” You just might find the wonder in life you enjoyed as a child. Sign up today or let Linnea or Melissa know what your interests are and we will find you a great place to dive deep to explore the wonders beneath the surface!

by Rev. Laura Horton-Ludwig. After yesterday’s service and sermon on the spirituality of play, it was delightful to hear from so many of you about how you like to play and what brings you joy. Thank you for the inspiration! This morning I got to play with my dog, Taylor. I like to take her out and throw sticks for her - the way she runs full-on to get the stick and comes back with her laughing, happy dog face is just the best! And for me, it’s especially great because she is completely accepting of my not-that-great stick-throwing talents. I’ve never been much of an athlete. I’m in awe of people who can throw with accuracy and power. Not me. But I can toss a stick for my dog and it goes somewhere, even if not always exactly where I expected, and Taylor is good with whatever happens - she’s just happy to be out running and playing together. And it’s fun! We both come home with smiles on our faces. For many of us, life is dominated by the need to be competent, to do our jobs well, to be excellent. Competence and excellence are wonderful things. But the pressure to embody them at all times can be a heavy burden. I recall my college days at a competitive university. Everyone worked so hard and worried about how they were stacking up. That pressure created a subtle, unspoken message all around us: “If you’re not already good at something when you get here, it’s too late to learn: you’ll never catch up.” What a harmful message for young people to absorb! I’ve had to work pretty hard to unlearn it, and it’s still a work in progress. That’s why playing with my dog is such a gift for me. Every day, she’s happy to play with me and just receive whatever I can give with total acceptance and delight. How about you? Are there people in your life like that? Little kids, maybe? They are pretty awesome at that. As we get older, it’s harder for us to practice that kind of acceptance and delight in one another … and it’s one of the great gifts of religious community at its best. Don’t get me wrong: Competence is great. We need it in church too! But when we are embodying the community we really want to be, we practice accepting one another and we get to feel that wonderful acceptance in return. We do our best because we care, not because we’re scared of judgment. We can relax and give what we have, in a spirit of love, appreciation and delight. Thank goodness. And you? How will you play today? How will you practice acceptance and appreciation - of yourself, of others? Good luck and enjoy! P.S. In case you missed it, check out the videos we showed in the service: babies laughing at funny dogs (I dare you not to laugh!) and “The Fellowship of the Rings,” about young adults whose spiritual practice is swinging on gymnastic rings at Santa Monica’s Muscle Beach - beautiful!

by Rev. Laura Horton-Ludwig. Have you heard? This year, UUCF is partnering with more than 100 other Unitarian Universalist congregations around the continent to develop shared monthly congregational themes. This month we’ve been exploring this question: “What does it mean to be a people of Invitation?” As part of the UU “Soul Matters Sharing Circle,” each month we pool our best ideas about the theme and come up with a shared packet full of inspiring readings, provocative questions and “spiritual exercises” to help you really dig into what each theme means to you. In this month of Invitation, I found myself drawn to one exercise in particular. Here’s what the packet says: Is This a “UU Invitation Song?” Watch and listen to this video. On the surface of things, the answer is simple: This is NOT a UU invitation song. But are you sure? Your exercise, if you are willing to do it, is to listen to it over and over until you find, not only you, but us in it. … What invitation is it offering that you want us to hear? Will you give it a listen today? What do you think? OK, I’ll admit I kind of like Christian praise music even if the theology isn’t always an easy fit. I love the open-heartedness of it, the earnestness and willingness to be touched and changed by spiritual experience. Of course, most UUs will need to do some rapid “translating” of others’ religious language to our own. But actually, that kind of translating is something I’ve grown to enjoy. I’ve discovered I love the process of putting myself in someone else’s shoes and trying to feel myself into the heart of what they’re saying, looking for that place of shared humanity where I can connect to the feelings and experiences, whether or not I share the ideas. And I must say, when I listened to this song with the expectation that there would be something in it for us, it moved me. “We hear you knocking/Make this house your home.” You don’t have to hear God in it, though you’re welcome to and certainly the musicians do. What if the “you” in the song is a very human other? A neighbor, a refugee, a friend? Who do you wish you could invite more fully into your life and the life of this community? Whose spirit needs to “come and fill this place?” Is there one thing you could do today to live more fully into a spirit of welcome and invitation? We hear you knocking, We hear you knocking Make this house your home, make this house your home We are the temple of your spirit Make this house your home, make this house your home We prepare a place, eagerly we wait, we wait Come in, come in, the door is open; Spirit come and fill this place Come in, come in, our hearts are open; we’re inviting you to stay Stay here with us

by Rev. David A. Miller. Often we look at the landscape of needs in the world and it is easy to feel overwhelmed. Unitarian Universalists find themselves drawn in many directions, fueled by individual passion and desire to ease suffering and support justice. As we travel our path together, as times and events dictate, various issues can rise to the surface based on what is happening in the world. With that said, it appears as if the issue of gun violence is with us and will unfortunately be around for some time to come. Other issues that UUCF members and friends work on include hunger and affordable housing, environmental sustainability and interfaith relations. This January, the Unitarian Universalist Association national campaign, Standing on the Side of Love, will focus its 30 Days of Love initiative on racial justice. This is another issue that calls to us and has been swirling around UU congregations this year, focused specifically on the Black Lives Matter campaign. A UUCF group met last week to begin planning for the 30 Days of Love and will continue through the fall. Engaging in this work is not easy in part because it is not only about striving for justice, but is also about personal reflection and understanding our place in the systems of power, privilege and oppression. This is deeply spiritual work and will take mutual love and support, as well as the ability to stay grounded in our Unitarian Universalist tradition of love and justice. We live in rapidly changing times centered on timeless themes like the need for human dignity and the calling of communities of faith in supporting progressive change. As we head into the holiday season, let us come together modeling beloved community, finding joy in togetherness and gathering strength and sustenance from the history and traditions of our loving community.

by Rev. Laura Horton-Ludwig. Now and then I wonder what it would have been like to be born into a nomadic society, material possessions at a minimum, a way of life constructed so that you could literally carry your home on your back. It’s appealing, especially on those days when I look around my home and ask myself, “Where did all this stuff come from?” Don’t get me wrong. I love my home. It is not particularly large for our area. And I love many of the material things that surround me. I’ve spent my life in houses full of things, and those things have given me much comfort and beauty. It’s just that, sometimes, it all seems like so much. Too much, maybe. Have you ever seen the book “Material World: A Global Family Portrait”? It’s an incredible read. Photographer Peter Menzel and his team took pictures of “statistically average” families from 30 different countries with all their worldly possessions spread out in front of them. The first time I read it, I felt such an odd envy of those families who managed to live richly with far fewer possessions. I don’t want to glamorize the unwilling poverty of so many people on this earth, including too many of our own neighbors. I don’t want to argue with anyone who loves having many things around them. I only want to name and acknowledge my own ambivalent wish to have less. In these last few days of our congregational month of “Letting Go,” I feel called to do some letting go myself. I think there are some books on my shelf that will find new homes, or maybe even be released into the stream of recycled paper. Also some odd kitchen gadgets, like the crème brûlée torch I’ve only used once in 10 years. (Email me if you want it, OK?) I know I’m not the only one around here contemplating downsizing, and I know I’m lucky to have a choice in the matter. I’ve talked with many of you in recent weeks who are going through this process, or just coming through it, and I know it’s not easy, especially when it’s driven by necessity. I was touched by the poignant words of one of our Unitarian Universalist neighbors to the north, Claudia Everest of our congregation in Milford, NH: “For those of us getting older, with attics filled to the brim with things we "thought we might need," or for those who have lost a spouse and are faced with cleaning out items with even more poignancy, "Letting Go" is the first step in facing the end years of our lives. Keeping up a positive front while "downsizing" our cherished family homes and gardens is not done flippantly.” So let me offer a prayer for all who are in the midst of this difficult and potentially liberating process of downsizing. I honor your courage and strength as you do the work of letting go. And may that letting go bring its own blessings.

by Rev. David A. Miller. It is an unusual thing to have time off knowing that almost everyone else also has time off and there really isn’t that much to be done about it. That was the way it felt sitting at home for the past couple of days. The world doesn’t stop, but it does seem that the part of the world I live in was relegated to social media, due to the 4-5 foot snowdrifts in my driveway. On most days however, the demands of the world are hard to ignore, especially at UUCF, a congregation that prides itself on active participation in the world. Here are some of the things that come through the office on any given day: Support Syrian refugee families Put up a Black Lives Matter banner Actively support Planned Parenthood and reproductive justice Feed the hungry Support affordable housing Work more on gun violence prevention Work more on racial justice Work more on behalf of the environment Work more on our own privilege Protest Islamophobia more visibly Support the trans members of our community more actively Keep up the needed work on LGBTQ issues Coordinate more closely with our area UU congregations and the Unitarian Universalist Association Protest against political hate speech Send more letters to the editor Attend to the spiritual needs of a world that is increasingly faced with despair Figure out how to appeal to the spiritual and non-religious Grow membership Meet the pastoral needs of the congregation Create meaningful and creative worship Build a young adult program Support good self-care for the staff Wisely use our resources to meet the strategic goals, mission and vision of the congregation Do more interfaith work Then, of course, there are all those little things we all try to stay ahead of: Spend more time with family Spend more time planning and thinking and less time reacting Read more Keep our desks clean Get the next degree (the doctor of ministry I always wanted) Plan better for retirement Eat better Exercise more I am sure everyone could make their own list, for we live in a world that always seems to demand more, that models busyness as success and can leave us tired and physically, emotionally and spiritually drained. None of us can do it all, and it doesn’t take a snowstorm to teach us that. We must work together, share resources, care for each other, renew, recharge, brainstorm, focus and repeat. Very few challenges are solvable in our lifetime. That is why we do what we can to contribute to the betterment of the world while we are here. In part, that is the mission of this or any congregation - and each of us as individuals - to move us further down the road to those solutions. To quote Rev. Olympia Brown (1835-1926), the first woman Unitarian or Universalist ordained minister: “Dear Friends, stand by this faith. Work for it and sacrifice for it. There is nothing in all the world so important to you as to be loyal to this faith which has placed before you the loftiest ideals, which has comforted you in sorrow, strengthened you for noble duty and made the world beautiful for you. Do not demand immediate results but rejoice that you are worthy to be entrusted with this great message and that you are strong enough to work for a great true principle without counting the cost. Go on finding ever new applications of these truths and new enjoyments in their contemplation.” Yes there is much to do, and it will be there after we dig out from the snow and the next day and the next. We will be here too, working together on the path to beloved community.

by Rev. David A. Miller. Thirty days isn’t a long time in the course of human history. Although a wonderful place, UUCF probably isn’t going to be able to change centuries of racial justice issues built into the culture and the systems of this country and the world. However, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. Remember, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens …” I wish there were a clear road map for how to take what we have experienced and learned together during these past 30 days and move forward as a congregation to continue the work of racial justice. Unfortunately, there is not. Just like everything else in life, we have to weigh our ability, our time, our resources, our shared vision and desire, then make choices about what we want to do and what we can do. Clearly, we must do something. As we have traveled this month through the history of UUCF, as we look at the state of politics in this election cycle, as we understand the need for voices of progressive faith to be heard in the public arena and as we stand witness to the systems of oppression that have changed and evolved (but not gone away), our Unitarian Universalist faith calls us to get involved in supporting change, dismantling systems of oppression and doing whatever we can to help heal the deep wounds and divides we face. On Feb. 27, we will come together to discern our next steps. It was always part of the plan for this “Thirty Days of Love” campaign to call us together to work on what comes next. So if at all possible, please try to attend “Justice Works: Engaging All Ages in UUCF’s Racial Justice Work,” 9 a.m.-noon, in the Sanctuary Commons. This is neither the beginning nor the end of this work. It started long before many of us were a part of the UUCF community and it will continue after many of us are gone. The hope is that we can make as much of a difference as possible while we are here.

by Linnea Nelson, Director of Religious Exploration. [caption id="attachment_30423" align="alignright" width="370"] One of the four panels of experts that addressed the youth on topics including dark money; the incarceration of young, black girls; climate change and the effects of all three on global equality.[/caption] The Unitarian Universalist United Nations Office (UU-UNO) intergenerational spring seminar is held annually in New York City, and each year focuses on a key global issue. The last time UUCF attended as a youth group we learned about LGBTQ issues around the world. Last month’s seminar, attended by seven high school youth and three chaperones, including me, featured four distinguished panels of four experts each (yes, 16 learned and passionate experts!) focusing on the costs of inequality. The panels drew from Ph.D. researchers and professors, social activists, UU-UNO staff, a Peace Corps volunteer and social justice poets and dramatists. Every speaker or panelist shared a passion for making this world a better place for everyone. Some of the key topics included: How climate change adversely affects the poor. Educational inequity around the world, including in the U.S. The importance of involving survivors or victims of economic injustice in finding solutions. How increases in violence are often related to issues of economic inequality. How underlying poverty magnifies the effects of disasters like Hurricane Katrina. How drug policies and privatization of our prison system have increased the numbers of young, black children and youth who are not only incarcerated, but held in solitary confinement. How dark money affects the poor. Gender economic disparities. How equity is different from equality. [caption id="attachment_30427" align="alignright" width="410"] Ready for our U.N. session ... and to get out of the wintry mix![/caption] In their own words, here’s how some of our youth responded to this intense experience: “Going on the UU-UNO trip allowed me to learn about the different types of inequality in our world, especially in the American prison system. Income inequality affects everyone, not just those who are poor.” SKR “Thanks to a series of amazing panelists I was able to learn so much about topics I had never really considered as major problems for our nation. The panelists were inspiring and encouraged me to find more information about major issues for the United States, and eventually take action in the future.” HF “I learned about the problems that humanity faces and how to combat them. More importantly, I was inspired by the speakers to take measures against the plagues and troubles of mankind.” TJP [caption id="attachment_30428" align="alignright" width="400"] Future ambassadors or U.N. reps?[/caption] And from our chaperones: “It filled me with hope to see our young adults so interested in such serious issues and enthusiastically engaging in discussions about how to address them. The workshop empowered them to take immediate action by developing a statement to submit to the U.N.” AP “I learned that we must pursue social activism, advocacy and acts of love and justice from a position of humility. We must not presume to know what a community may need. We should work with marginalized communities to empower them to effect the change they wish to see (and need) in their communities. Despite a plethora of experts detailing all manner of devastating global inequities, I came home from the seminar with hope because of the vibrant, creative and passionate youth I was able to spend time with this weekend.” CF

by Sarah Jebian. In July 2012, I was hospitalized with an 11-millimeter kidney stone that shut down my right kidney and made me very, very sick. My family was already struggling to manage my mother’s health issues and my falling ill was a real blow. We called on personal friends to help us care for our children and maybe provide some meals and housework but not one of them showed up. Do you know who did? You. The community of UUCF showed up again and again for weeks, helping us to keep our lives going. I didn’t even know some of the people who showed up. It blew my mind and it was the moment I fell in love with you. You saved me. In February 2015, when I got the call that Pawel Jura had died, one of my first coherent thoughts was, “What will happen to our music program for the rest of the year?” I spoke with Liz Carlson that very night and we decided we would do whatever we could to keep things going. We didn’t know how or what that would look like - we just knew that we’d somehow make it happen. We asked Mary Gaskins to help and the three of us jumped in. It never occurred to me that I would spend the next year and a half of my life in music ministry - an amazing, stressful, joyful, growth-filled year and a half. It’s flown by, hasn’t it? This wasn’t something I was looking for or ever thought I’d do but I am so incredibly grateful to have had this opportunity to serve UUCF. It’s helped me grow both personally and professionally. Personally, it’s opened my heart in a way I never expected. I learned that this job is about so much more than making sure there is music on Sunday mornings. It’s about caring for the heart and soul of this community through music. It’s about challenging people to dig deep and take risks. It’s about building community both from within and outside our doors. It’s about teaching and learning. Professionally, I’ve made some wonderful connections with colleagues from our area and beyond, and I’ve had the chance to stretch my musical skills and learn some new ones. My theme word for this year was brave. Just say yes and figure it out as you go along. Think outside the box. Be brave. So what’s next? For me … I’m thrilled to announce that I’m opening my own voice studio in September. I think of it as a continuation of my music ministry – to use my gifts to help others tap into theirs. I will also shift more of my focus to my performing career, which has necessarily taken a backseat to managing the music at UUCF. I’m excited to see what happens! You can learn more about my studio and keep up with my performances at sarahjebian.com. For you … so many good things await! Laura Weiss, our new Director of Music & Arts, is fantastic. I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know her over the past several weeks and I can tell you without reservation that she’s going to be an amazing asset to our community. Laura is brilliant, talented, compassionate, and she understands that this isn’t just “a gig” - this is a ministry. She will take excellent care of you and of our beloved music program. Again, I’m so excited to see what happens! There are two things I want you to know: First, UUCF has the best staff I’ve ever worked with, anywhere, in any capacity. They are individually wonderful people and as a unit, they are superstars. You should know that they put an incredible amount of love and care into creating meaningful worship for you (and so much more!). They constantly ask themselves hard questions and really do their best to meet your needs as often and as consistently as possible. You can never please all of the people all of the time but, boy, do they try. I will miss going to staff meetings. (Who says that???!!!). But, really, I will. Second, many people have thanked me for “saving” the music program this past year. It has been an honor and a privilege to serve you. But I want you to know that really, it’s you who saved me. Again. As many of you know, I was very close with Mark Vogel. It was incredibly painful to say goodbye to him. When Pawel came on board, I tried so hard not to let him get too close - but his beautiful heart was too much for me and I let him in. Our friendship was just beginning to blossom and when he died, it brought me to my knees. It was too much loss for me to bear. I felt completely shattered. Working at UUCF, caring for you in this time of grief, loss and transition made it possible for me to go on. Whatever I gave to you, you gave back to me threefold. I love you and I hope you know that. I want to thank all the singers and musicians at UUCF for your support, your patience, your generosity and your willingness to try new things. There wasn’t one moment this year when I didn’t feel held by you. You have my heart. I also want to thank the staff for welcoming me so warmly, encouraging me, smiling patiently as I learned, letting me organize to my heart’s content and allowing me to take risks. I’m in awe of you. And to you, my beloved community – thank you for being you. Looking out at your faces each week fills me with such joy. You are my home, my family, my friends and my safe haven. How can I ever thank you enough? Onward …

by Dick Van Duizend, UUCF Partner Church Circle. Imagine you are many time zones from home and way out of your comfort zone. You are in a poor farming village; most people only speak a language you do not know. You walk into an 800-year-old whitewashed stone church on a hill with a tall silver steeple or into a simple painted cement church with a flaming chalice on the roof peak. And you are immediately embraced and made welcome. You stay for the service sitting on a dark wooden pew or bench and although the words and liturgy are unfamiliar, you realize as you listen to the translation that the principles, values and issues presented are very much like those you hear when you’re sitting in UUCF’s blue chairs. Twenty-six years ago UUCF voted to become a partner with the Unitarian Church in the village of Szentgerice in the Transylvania region of Romania. Twelve years ago, the congregation again voted to enter a second partnership with the Unitarian Church of Puriang in the Khasi Hills of northeast India. Since then, nearly 160 UUCF adults and youth have visited one or both of our partners and our partner ministers plus a few other members of our partner congregations have visited us. My wife, Sharon, and I were on the 1992 trip to Transylvania with the UUCF Chorale. It was the first trip by a UU choir to a country just starting to emerge from more than 50 years of fascist and communist rule. We all were handed flowers when we arrived, and the bus was festooned with flowers when we departed a week later. When we sang in carefully learned Hungarian (Transylvanian Unitarians are ethnic Hungarian), the audience cried and quickly closed the windows so that the remnants of Ceausescu’s secret police would not hear. We returned seven years later for the dedication of the medical clinic built by the residents of Szentgerice with financial and material support from UUCF and the Dutch partner of the Reformed Church in the village – a project identified, planned and carried out by the people of the village. That clinic has been self-sustaining for 15 years. In subsequent visits, we were able to meet students who received UUCF Partner Church Circle scholarships and have gone on to successful academic and professional careers, marveled how the community has transformed and delighted in the shift in focus of our partner relationship from the provision of desperately needed material support to one of friendship, exchanges of ideas and opinions and ongoing discussion. Along with Emery Lazar and his late wife, Rita, we visited Puriang in 2005 to discuss the possibility of partnership and were challenged by the direct questions they asked about UUCF’s staying power and intentions (the frequent flyer miles generated by my constant work travel enabling this and other trips). We returned with Betsy Bicknell and others in 2008 for a participatory planning workshop, led by Khasi facilitators and supported by UUCF, in which over 200 residents of the village identified and prioritized a list of needs, identified potential resources and government programs and developed a detailed action plan. The plan energized the village council and facilitated creation of cooperative development boards that included members of the village’s religious communities. Most of the needs listed have been met, without financial support from UUCF, including a water system, a road from the village to the fields, a taxi service to take people to medical appointments and a market. We have also seen how the tuition-free school supported by the Puriang Unitarian Church and assisted through UUCF Partner Church Circle sponsorships has grown from an elementary school to pre-K through 12th grade, so that local students can receive their secondary school education without the expense and difficulty of going to the state capital or another city. That school is now rated the seventh best in the state and its headmaster, Ditol Mylliemngap, received a UNESCO Global Educator award in 2015. Through all of this, I have realized that Unitarian Universalism is not just a faith for well-off, well-educated Americans, but has meaning, strength and power for people in radically different cultures, with few material possessions and limited education and economic opportunity. The joy and pride of Khasi Unitarians in their indigenously created faith is infectious, and the reverence of Transylvanian Unitarians for their 450-year struggle to preserve a faith based on reason and choice is sobering. I have learned as well that true partnership on a mutual and equal basis is not easy. In working with our partners, we are forced to confront our economic and social privileges (our partners are members of marginalized minorities), address our own prejudices and those of our partners, improve our communication skills, practice humility and how to listen rather than be know-it-all Americans, and develop the ability to work together respectfully and appropriately. These are skills and practices that can serve us here as well as in distant lands. Come by the Partner Church Circle table in the Commons during this fall’s scholarship drive to learn more about our partners.