“Faith Matters” blog

Apr. 15, 2019. By Senior Minister Rev. David A. Miller. When I breathe in, I breathe in peace. When I breathe out, I breathe out love. Hymn #1009 “Meditation on Breathing.” Some days I sit in my office at UUCF and watch the emails stack up in my inbox and I think, just breathe David, just breathe. This continues if I go on Facebook, or look at the news or think about all the information going in and out of my head on a minute-by-minute basis. The rate of information in this world is dizzying and sometimes it is important for us just to stop and breathe in and breathe out. I was thinking about how different the flow of life and information must be from the early days of this congregation in the 1950s. There was no Thursday congregational email, no Facebook page, no website. There were no cell phones, texting or cable TV. Even copiers weren’t commercially available until the late 1950s. The rate of change and the flow of information about programs or activities were completely different both in pace and methods of delivery. As things are now - the rate of change, the flow of information and our capacity to hold it at any given point on any given day - can certainly be a challenge. There are lots of “experts” who will tell you a lot more than I can about how to cope with all of this, but here is one simple suggestion: Breathe. And yes, in some ways I mean that metaphorically and in other ways I mean it physically. In an article titled, “Relaxation Techniques: Breath Control Helps Quell Errant Stress Response,” folks from Harvard Medical School talk about the benefits of deep breathing: “Breath focus is a common feature of several techniques that evoke the relaxation response. The first step is learning to breathe deeply. Deep breathing also goes by the names of diaphragmatic breathing, abdominal breathing, belly breathing and paced respiration. When you breathe deeply, the air coming in through your nose fully fills your lungs, and the lower belly rises.” It goes on to say, “Deep abdominal breathing encourages full oxygen exchange - that is, the beneficial trade of incoming oxygen for outgoing carbon dioxide. Not surprisingly, it can slow the heartbeat and lower or stabilize blood pressure.” We all need to take a little time from the endless stream of data that gets input to our personal computers. Go for a walk, notice our surroundings, enjoy the newfound buds of spring. Read a poem. Sit quietly. Sip a nice cup of tea on a cool day. Yes, the pace of things has changed and is probably only going to increase as enabled by technology. Thankfully, in addition to breathing, there is one thing we can still control when it comes to all of our electronic gadgets: We still control the on/off switch.

Apr. 1, 2019. By Director of Music & Arts Laura Weiss. While working on my master’s degree, my professor and I met each week after he observed me directing the choir. He was beloved by his students, and his mentorship was invaluable to me. One week, he quietly asked me if I ever made audio recordings of my rehearsals. I expressed that I had and that I listened dutifully each week to the choir’s tone on the playback to assess how to improve the group’s sound. My professor leaned back and cautiously asked if I had ever listened to myself on the track. I was sure that I had, I replied. He asked me to record the rehearsals for the next few weeks and write about what I heard. At first, I didn’t understand. I didn’t hear anything especially interesting (though, oh my gosh, is it humbling to listen to yourself singing warm-ups!) so I returned to my mentor confused. He encouraged me to go back to the recording one last time and listen deeply. Later that week, I was driving in my car, listening to the same recording for about the fifth time, and my stomach dropped. In the car that afternoon, I heard a new voice: the voice of my father. Once I made this connection, it was as if I was hearing the recording for the first time. When I approached a topic or area that made me uncomfortable, I would puff up my voice. I would change my tone at the end of sentences to indicate that I was in the position of authority and I would make statements that implied that the learners should rise to my level of wisdom if they weren’t already there. I said things like, “You know what I mean” and “Right?” as if the choir members should already agree with me or understand. The number of condescending phrases far outweighed the humble ones and I realized my father had often used this tactic whenever he felt uncomfortable or out of his element. I was so embarrassed. Here I was attempting to teach them authenticity and my example was showing them the opposite. Even simple phrases have impact. The way our voices rise or fall can have lasting effects on the self-esteem or sense of self-worth in others. I was crestfallen to think of how many youngsters - or adults for that matter - had been wounded by my voice, and yet my professor reminded me that we can’t change where we have been. My new responsibility was to work to heal a deep wound that had most likely existed in my family for generations. I will never forget this lesson, and Pippin Whitaker’s Mar. 24 sermon reminded me of the importance of uncovering the wounds that live in our bodies. I have since pledged to work to have a voice of healing. I want to use the power of my voice to help others find theirs. I want to work to center those individuals who wouldn’t otherwise have a voice. What an amazing world it will be when we learn to use our collective talents to empower others, not to strip down or demean. This month, I couldn’t be more proud of the collective of empowering voices in this community. Whether the voice is through fingers on instruments, songs in a choir or testimony through the visual arts, our program is living this vision. On Apr. 7, we will center women’s artistic voices on Empowering Women and Creativity Day. That Sunday, we welcome women from all over the DMV to share how art has shaped their spiritual practices, and after both worship services, these women will participate in a large arts sale in the Commons. On Apr. 27, we center UUs of color for our “Voices” concert series, centering racial justice in part to fulfill our pledge for the Promise and the Practice of Our Faith campaign for Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism. And on May 4, we raise money for victims of school gun violence as we sing Gabriel Fauré's “Requiem” along with voices from All Souls, the Arlington UU choir and children from Temple Rodef Shalom. Lastly, we center LGBTQ voices for Reston Pride on Jun. 1. I am proud to be part of this community and to participate in this amazing work. How will you use your voice?

Mar. 18, 2019. By Terry Goplerud and Dave Wiemer, UUCF Generosity Team co-chairs. If you’ve been a member of UUCF for a while, you know that each March, everyone in the congregation is asked to renew their annual pledge. There is usually a theme, a brochure, a banner, posters, sometimes videos and many talks from the pulpit by various people imploring us to make or increase our pledge and to turn in our pledge cards. It involves lots of volunteer and staff time and usually culminates in further staff and volunteer time tracking down missing pledges. Not this year. This year marks the beginning of a new approach to pledging at UUCF. One that benefits the members of the congregation and improves congregational operations. We hope you’ll agree that this approach saves everyone time and money, is more efficient and just makes a lot of sense. Starting this year, the pledge you make will be considered an ongoing pledge. You will not be asked to renew your pledge or to sign a new pledge card every year. In fact, there will be NO pledge cards! (We’ll get to that in a minute.) Of course, you can always increase, decrease or stop your pledge any time you wish. But, unless direct action is taken, your pledge will be just that: your pledge - and it will keep on going. Also starting this year, pledges will be recorded online, through our website and through Realm, our member database. There’s NO pledge card to fill out. Instructions are included in your packet or on the website at uucf.org/agc. If you couldn’t pick up your packet at services yesterday, it will be mailed to you. When you make your pledge online, you will be asked to consider having your pledge increase automatically each year by any percent you choose. How easy is that?! With a consistent level of funding, the UUCF budgeting process will be easier and more predictable. Without the need for brochures, themes and pledge cards, staff and volunteer time will be freed. We members and pledging friends benefit by not spending so much worship time with the annual pledge drive. What a relief! More time can be spent on what we’re here to do: transform ourselves, our community and the world through acts of love and justice. Our pledges fund our mission and give us the foundation on which to grow. All our programs and activities rely on our commitment to this beloved community. This foundation needs to be strong enough to fund normal congregational operations, and also provide for long-overdue staff raises and to build a reserve for building maintenance. It’s naïve to think that this approach will eliminate all future requests for additional funds. But, we aim to target those appeals to specific causes, and only as necessary. For this to work, each of us needs to be as generous as we can. We are being trusted to provide a sustaining level of support that moves our UU mission forward. We ARE UUCF. We can ask ourselves: Am I doing all I can? Can I demonstrate my love and dedication for this faith community by making a generous, sustaining gift? We hope that you will take this trust seriously and make a generous pledge. In the end, it’s up to all of us to make this The Last Campaign.

Mar. 4, 2019. By Lay Minister for Worship & Arts Susan Bennett. In these increasingly anxious and troubling times, I find myself returning regularly to the need for grounding and self-nurturance. It’s important not just for me but also as a path to being of service to others. I first learned this lesson long ago when I was a mother of young children. As the spiral of life unfolds, I return again and again to this lesson. I simply am no good for others unless I take care of my own spiritual needs. And even though I know that to be true, it’s so easy to be overtaken by the great need that exists everywhere around me and suddenly find myself careening toward burnout. Perhaps it is the same for you. The recognition of this need for grounding and spiritual sustenance is always on the minds of the Worship Team as it aims to create meaningful and uplifting worship at UUCF. Team members consider the splendid diversity of our world and our UUCF community and it makes us acutely aware of the need for all of us to move beyond our comfort zones and seek ever-expanding ways of welcoming all into the circle of our community. What helps me stay spiritually grounded may not work for you and what feeds your spirit may not resonate with the person sitting next to you at a worship service. Our racial and ethnic identities are not the same, our cultural heritages differ and our gender identities no longer fit into an either/or box (if they ever did!). In response to this diverse landscape, members of the Worship Team (the ministers, the director of Religious Exploration, the director of Music & Arts and the lay worship associates) perpetually ask ourselves: How can we serve the community in a more expansive way? Our latest answer to this question is to experiment with a once-a-month Friday night worship experience. Our vision for this new offering is to provide an additional opportunity for worship where we can explore new ways of being together. We began in January with Bedtime Star-ies, where folks were invited to come in their jammies and enjoy an exploration of the stars through words, music and videos, preceded by a potluck dinner. In February, we collaborated with the Pastoral Care Team to offer the Healing Service. Our next Friday night service will be Mar. 15. More information on this service will be announced in the Thursday email. We will continue these services through the spring, take a break over the summer and restart in October. For now, you can expect each one to be different from the others. Some will have potlucks, some won’t. This will give us an opportunity to explore together what is possible when we expand our vision of worship as we seek to build community and offer welcome to all. I hope you will try out this new offering and find it helps you stay spiritually centered in these challenging times. As always, the Worship Team welcomes your thoughts, so feel free to contact me at any time!

Feb. 18, 2019. By Lay Minister for Membership & Outreach Shannon Williams. The night of “The Vagina Monologues,” the UUCF campus thrummed with energy. A full house, songs by the unstoppable Nikki Ames to get our engines going, then one voice after another telling the shared story. The show satisfied, troubled, expanded, inspired. We all could have walked out afterward fulfilled by the experience. But most of us didn’t walk out. We paused, lingering by the snack table and makeshift bar. I watched in awe as our Commons, packed with members, friends and neighbors, bloomed to life. The sight thrilled my heart. The space transformed from a room with folding tables to a swirling, buzzing, breathing body. Members of our congregation engaged in vibrant conversation with people who had just stepped into our Sanctuary for the first time. Performers with shining faces received hugs from friends and praise from audience members. Our congregational home became a living organism embodying celebration, art and welcome. While a good party livens things up, something more fundamental than a festive atmosphere is at work here. The essential, life-giving moment can take on different shapes. Last week, our campus embodied welcome in one of its other forms. The Hypothermia Prevention Program, coordinated by the unstoppable Jeff Snyder alongside FACETS and other area churches, sheltered guests from around Northern Virginia. The skies have been rough on our region lately, and the vulnerable in our community feel it most. Over 40 guests per night stayed in the Program Building. Although we hope every year will be the last we have to do this, it is good that UUCF is able to fill this need. Projects like “The Vagina Monologues” and Hypothermia Prevention are immense. They have a dizzying array of moving parts that require skilled oversight. Because of this, it’s easy for many of us to feel like a contribution of any significance is out of reach. Maybe we believe our part in it, so immeasurably tiny, doesn’t really matter. That we are interchangeable, replaceable. As motivation runs dry, we may tell ourselves that socializing feels tedious, small talk superficial and the volunteerism Sisyphean. We may convince ourselves that attending or streaming Sunday services is all of UUCF we can handle, and even that is a stretch. Of course, it is necessary to take time to rest and create comfort in these stretched lives. I hope you know that you are held and loved even when you need to draw the blankets around yourself and stay in. I also hope you’ll remember that you feed the spirit and fulfill UUCF’s mission simply by showing up. What has really struck me these past couple of weeks is that while the grand endeavors get top billing, the little gestures live at the heart of what we do. Volunteers that helped turn the post-performance Commons into a place of vibrant energy share spirit and heart with those who help shelter our homeless neighbors. When a UUCF congregant crosses the Commons to greet a new face, the spirit awakens. When a UUCFer warmly invites a hypothermia guest into the shelter store to track down a decent blazer for a job interview, the spirit grows stronger. This is all spiritual work. I am immensely grateful to my fellow congregants for every small act. For turning toward the person who looks uncertain, for helping sign in guests or making a tray of sandwiches or inviting a friend to join you for a special worship service. For using the Realm database to send a note to someone you haven’t seen in a while. For simply showing up. Each of these “small acts” helps transform UUCF into the place it is meant to be. You help us all grow and flourish. You expand our reach and clear the way for others who need this place, who need us and who need you. Please remember: To serve, you don’t need to know everything going on in our bustling congregation. In fact, you don’t need to know even a fraction of it. We have Spiritual Docents who are trained to help folks find their way. The docent program connects congregants with informal guidance around their spiritual journey, sense of belonging and service. You may come across people who are trying to articulate their questions and interests (or you may be seeking your next steps in the congregation!). Keep the Spiritual Docents in mind, and take the risk of opening toward connection even if you - like so many of us - still feel new here yourself. In the coming weeks, all kinds of activities populate the UUCF calendar. We have opportunities to invite neighbors from communities beyond our campus to connect and celebrate with us. LoveFEST on Sat., Feb. 23; the annual Auction on Sat., Mar. 2; and the ReelAbilities Film Festival on Wed., Mar. 13. (just to name a few). I encourage you to find a way to participate. This can mean volunteering, spreading the word to friends or bringing a neighbor with you. Or it can mean simply arriving, exactly as you are. In all the tiny and marvelous ways, let’s keep coming together. Let’s keep creating a faith community where welcome takes on many forms and the spirit grows bright among us.

Feb. 4, 2019. By Senior Minister Rev. David A. Miller. A week ago, we held a conference at UUCF that was motivated in part by the struggle Unitarian Universalist congregations have been having with the use of the words “white supremacy” in relation to the cultural systems in which we in the U.S. swim. It has been a difficult subject in our congregations and in the country, but it reflects the inherent privilege built into the culture of this country before and since the U.S. Constitution codified it in Article 1, Section 2: “Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States, which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.” Now we face one more in an endless series of examples of how this original sin of racism still infects us: the revelation of racist photos in the Virginia governor’s medical school yearbook. This is just another instance of white maleness being able to operate with impunity throughout most of history. Whether it’s racist pictures or the sexual assault of young women by young men from elite religious schools, systems of white supremacy that preference and excuse these behaviors are now finding their way into the public consciousness with some new hope of accountability and change. There is no quick-fix medicine for this illness, no pill we can take that will wipe the infection from our lives. This is a long-term struggle against an insidious disease. I still believe one of the more useful treatments for this disease can be the practice of the Unitarian Universalist faith - a faith that calls us into right relationship with what is in us, between us and beyond us. This is no easy task. It is difficult. We will fail. We will fall prey to the perils of anger and frustration. We will not always be our best selves. That is why it is a practice, and why this nation must also practice being its best self, called into relationships of mutual support and accountability. Each time a racist incident comes to light, there will be statements that reek of hypocrisy and political gamesmanship. If we practice what we preach, we will reflect on our reactions, live our faith to the best of our ability and do what we can to hold each other accountable as we work for relationships steeped in justice, equality, respect and dignity.

Jan. 21, 2019. By Young Adult Community Leader Tyler Coles. I will never forget the moment I was first asked, “What does liberation feel like?” It was a soggy, humid morning following a long night of dancing and laughing around a bonfire at the Highlander Center with other black and brown organizers from across the South. As many of us awoke late, missing breakfast, we slowly shuffled our way into the main hall with mugs of coffee and tea in hand to join others already assembled for the opening session. Like previous mornings we began with singing “I woke up this morning with my mind/Stayed on freedom,” followed by a few announcements and housekeeping items. And then it came: “What does liberation feel like?” As those around me entered into a moment of deep reflection I found myself completely stumped. I sat there, nervously fidgeting in one of the center’s rocking chairs as my eyes darted back and forth across the room in hopes of locating an answer. As I gazed over the faces of those who sat across from me, my eyes settled on a black and white image of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and others as they took part in a weekend training at the very same center where I found myself. In that moment, all the things I had read about King’s envisioning of the Beloved Community came rushing to my attention. In “Nonviolence: The Only Road to Freedom,” King wrote, “Our goal is to create a beloved community and this will require qualitative change in our souls as well as quantitative change in our lives.” In other words, if we want to get real about justice-making or cultivating the Beloved Community in the here and now, we must each make an external and internal change to do so. This not only requires us to identify the systemic and interpersonal things that prevent us from being free - and going about doing something different - it also invites us to dream into existence what it will be like to be free. And just not in some theoretical sense but in one that is fully embodied in a touch, taste, see, hear and smell kind of way. In the urgency of the now, this embodied sense of freedom serves as both a balm to our weary spirits and as a guide for our collective journey onward. An embodied sense of freedom, one in which we know the feeling of a welcomed embrace and the taste of sweet water, supports us along the collective journey when the going gets tough. In describing this aspect of King’s legacy and justice-making, Grace Lee Boggs wrote in “The Beloved Community of Martin Luther King,” “This is what true revolutions are about. They are about redefining our relationships with one another, to the Earth and to the world; about creating a new society in the places and spaces left vacant by the disintegration of the old; about hope, not despair; about saying yes to life and no to war; about finding the courage to love and care for the peoples of the world as we love and care for our own families. King's revolutionary vision is about each of us becoming the change we want to see in the world.” Ultimately, this embodied sense of freedom, in its fleshy ways, reminds us that the Beloved Community is both already at hand in what we are doing and soon to come in what we are collectively working toward. On this Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, I invite you to join me in this prayer: Spirit of Life, God of the In-breaking, Empower us to respond to the beckoning call of freedom in the here and now. May this freedom stir within us so we might know it in the fleshy ways of dancing around a bonfire, in the taste of sweet water, in the hearing of a beautiful song, and in feeling the welcomed embrace of a beloved. And in so doing, may we know this is the work we have been called to cultivate, because feeling free is a part of getting free. Ase, So Be It and Amen.

Jan. 7, 2019. By Senior Minister Rev. David A. Miller. It’s nice to have a little time off for reflection and this holiday season provided a little time. I often reflect about the role of UUCF in these times. What is our role? What is the best way for us to be an engaged community of faith? How can we provide spiritual and actual support for those in need? What is business as usual in these turbulent times? What shouldn’t be business as usual anymore? How do we use the resources of the congregation to meet the many competing needs, wants, preferences and desires? All of these questions are considered in different ways at UUCF, including by our leadership, both professional and lay, and it makes me think about what congregational leadership means in today’s world. Of course, leadership is an entire field of study, but for us leadership isn’t about party politics or serving some constituency, leadership has to be seen through the lens of what we are - a religious/spiritual organization. Why is leadership of our congregation a spiritual practice? In his book, “Serving with Grace,” Rev. Erik Walker Wikstrom says, “Church leadership is a spiritual practice because the church is a spiritual institution. Churches are not small businesses, no matter how much they resemble them in some respects. And while it may be useful to think about them in these ways at times, it is vitally important to remember that they are also not social service agencies, schools or theaters. Our congregations are spiritual communities. Therefore, they should maximize their opportunities to see with spiritual eyes. At their best, churches can be - perhaps should be - a kind of spiritual total immersion environment. And just as total immersion language programs make no distinction between classroom time and non-classroom time, so too, congregations can avoid distinguishing between spiritual and non-spiritual things. From the pastoral prayer to the passage of a policy it's all a school of the soul.” This is an important thing to remember as we head into what is bound to be another year filled with political turbulence, a shifting religious landscape and endless opportunities for personal and organizational transformation. We are adding additional opportunities for worship. We have increased the number of covenant groups. We are providing new ways to connect through music and the arts. We will continue to engage in acts of justice, witness, service and advocacy. We will continue to provide quality Religious Exploration. As challenging as it sometimes seems, I invite us all to view this congregation, above all, as a place of spiritual sustenance with many different ways for us to stay connected to what is in us, what is between us and what is beyond us.

Dec. 17, 2018. By Intern Minister Pippin Whitaker. I recently sat on a beach contemplating the sand. So many varied forms of life and earth - spectacular shells, sturdy bones, even mighty boulders transformed into fragments of sand. The sand is a unified form of these varied creatures and stones. It has beauty, yet each of its elements has a story, a unique and vital history that brought it there. The sand is symbolic of our shared fate. We all eventually return to the earth and the stars. If our fates are ultimately tied to unity, what's the rush? For me, the mystery, the wonder and the beauty of existence lies in what happens before the crush of unity. What does nature’s lesson have to do with our community? A couple weeks ago, I facilitated a documentary showing and discussion about the 1969 walkout and Black empowerment tragedy in Unitarian Universalism (watch the documentary free). In the middle of this tragedy sat the Black UU Caucus, which called for a space for Black UUs to have autonomy to develop their mission within Unitarian Universalism. So many of the arguments against this were about white UUs wanting to know what the Black Caucus was doing, and wanting control over it. This was also in an era of national emphasis on color-blindness – everyone being the same. But color-blindness and control are about a special kind of unity – one in which those with power choose what unity looks like. Those who don’t fit the ideal of unity are demoralized. Tragically, the movement for Black empowerment was dismantled by a lack of institutional support. Yet, despite this challenging history, here we are in 2018 with a vibrant opportunity through groups like Black Lives UU and people of color leading throughout the denomination. We are finally poised to live into our values around racial equity and diversity. Part of living into this means examining structures of white supremacy embedded in our lives and exploring our personal racial and ethnic identities. This is all about expanding differences - every one of us brings unique racial and cultural identities, histories and perspectives to our faith. As we grow into new ways of engaging around race, let us keep nature’s lesson in mind: Don’t rush to unity; there is wonder in difference. When you encounter a different history, a different cultural or racial perspective, I invite you not to rush to know all the details, not to break it all down into little bits of common human experience. Of course we share similarities - we are all human! Instead of rushing to unity, I invite you to witness difference with awe, and ask what is now possible because you are in relationship with someone who brings a different history or perspective. Perhaps they can grow, perhaps you can, perhaps we all will. Blessings on our shared journey and on our many different paths.

Nov. 12, 2018. By Intern Minister Pippin Whitaker. I write this blog in the wake of yet another mass shooting. I fear this will not be the last time I write such words. A colleague recently asked on a Facebook group, “When is it appropriate to gather in community and scream?” I'm thinking … "Now!" But how do we do this? What is the communal scream that I hope to express? It is not the angry cry for battle, nor the desperate cry for help. I cannot help but think of the sounds of labor. Before having my first child, I sat in a childbirth class and saw videos of how in the '50s (it may have been another decade), women had learned to go into childbirth smiling and never making a sound just so they could avoid being knocked out by harsh general anesthesia. You see, women's labor pains were interpreted as annoying - a call for help, a sign of weakness and a thing to be taken away from them. I am not saying women should go through labor pain to claim their power. Not at all. I am saying that there is a power in outcry that must never be silenced. In my own labor, I noticed that I could be quiet and act like it wasn't hurting. I could appear tough. But that took away a power inside me. I did not want my cry/scream/yell to be interpreted as a call for help. It was not. Nor was it anger or quite agony either. It was a call of pain that calls forth the other side of agony. A demand of the universe that there be life and beauty on the other side of this pain. A demand that my force of creation be held in this world in my arms. It was a uniting of my body, by breath, my sound, my mind, my heart with the singular act of defying the facts of the physical moment in order to create. The outcry then was simultaneously an expression of brutal fact (pain), a call to inner unity of intention and a call to everyone and anyone that announced my demands for creation. Childbirth is different from the moment we are in. And we have no way of knowing how many more shootings, hate crimes, violations of identity rights, denials of asylum and other pain we will have to bear. But labor's outcry is the closest thing I can imagine to the outcry I need right now. So, if you hear me uttering strong words that sound sad or angry, please know that it is an outcry that simultaneously expresses the brutal facts (anger, loss), that calls us to inner unity of intention and that announces to everyone and anyone the demand for a compassionate and just world. Let us not be silenced into polite pain. Let us cry out when we need to, calling on our deepest intentions with every fiber of our being and demanding a world that promotes love and justice for all.

Making Sanctuary for Future Generations. Oct. 29, 2018. By Assistant Minister Rev. Sarah Caine. The lens through which we interact with one another is the essence of UUCF. It is the Heart of Our Promise. Some of you may remember this phrase from Ingathering or the banners around campus. As October draws to a close and we end our theme of Sanctuary, it seems the perfect time to revisit this nebulous thing - this program that’s not quite a program but more of a way of thinking and being that we talked about at Ingathering. Hopefully, it will be useful as we reflect on the kind of legacy and blessing we want to offer our future people. The Heart of Our Promise is rooted in the offerings of our spiritual and familial ancestors - their struggle for our ability to be in this community with all our various thexlogies* and backgrounds. It’s the sanctuary we prepare to be, that we recognize through this place and our relationships, that which is beyond and within ourselves. The Heart of Our Promise is our offering to the generations to come. The foundations on which they will live in Beloved Community, and they will live in Beloved Community, Amen? The Heart of Our Promise aims to create Beloved Community where houses of worship are free of fear and filled with love. It creates and imagines a place and time where disagreement is a healthy part of life that builds strength and deeper understanding, and is not fuel for rancor or division. There is a question that gets asked of us repeatedly here when we first visit a congregation, when we share our stories in services or during the Annual Giving Campaign: Why do we come here? When we don’t feel it is necessary for our salvation to be in this building at this time, what draws us to be in sacred space anyway? There’s something different about the way we are here from how we are in any other place. We are in deep time here. Sure, we watch the clock if we have kids in RE or have an appointment to get to, but we are in deep time when we come to services. We are in relationship with our ancestors and our distant descendants while we touch into our faith together. That is deep time, not linear or isolated. It’s timey-wimey, wibbly-wobbly - interconnected and intentionally interactive with the entire arc of our existence. If you can notice that shift, be it in how you listen, how you feel in your body, how you lower the guard that can be required to move through this world of uncertainty. That shift is when you are living the Heart of Our Promise. It might be doing the dishes for a community that held you through a divorce or the death of a loved one. Or teaching children who have more freedom to imagine a world of peace and fantastic possibility. It’s not the same as hope, because we come here even when we feel hopeless and there’s no magic wand that can get us out of that hole sometimes, but it might include hope. The Heart of Our Promise calls us to take one more breath, to do the next right thing, to keep on moving forward even if we won’t see the fruits of our labor in this lifetime. This persistence in the face of the siren song of fear, isolation and hurried lives requires being present and aware of the preparation you make to be the sanctuary you are. This presence brings the ability to find a stillness or a righteous roar. It’s bigger than Sunday services. It goes through and beyond Covenant Groups or your mindfulness practice. These are tools and methods of reaching and perceiving that living, immortal Heart. The Promise that started with questions from the first ancestor. The Promise that continues into a time of liberation in a land where justice flows like water and peace like an everflowing stream. For trans folks, black folks, immigrating-across-arbitrary-borders folks. What legacy do you want to dream? What threads of this Heart, this Promise, do you want to weave into the tapestry of deep time? If you’d like to engage in the Heart of Our Promise but don’t know where to start, we have trained spiritual docents waiting to connect with you. Please email me and I will match you with a docent who can help. *Thex is the gender-neutral term for god in modern thexlogical circles.

Oct. 15, 2018. By Intern Minister Pippin Whitaker. As part of my final year of seminary work, I am launching an intergenerational community building project this year at UUCF. I call the project Youth-Adult Liquid Leadership, or Y’ALL for short. I grew up in Mississippi and am a fan of the plural “you,” so I love getting to use it a bunch this year. But I digress. The Y’ALL project is designed to promote even more intergenerational connection and collaboration in our community. The project includes support for congregational leaders on strategies for youth-adult-elder collaboration, exploring why our generations relate as they do, and intergenerational worship. The Y’ALL worship services are thoroughly intergenerational. They begin with an intergenerational team that meets weeks ahead of time to brainstorm the worship service and what the worship theme means to them. After planning the service, the team (and others) collaborate on a worship service, led by multiple generations, that expresses the perspectives and hopes of all these generations. The first of these innovative services was on Oct. 7 on the theme of Sanctuary. People from Grade 5 through adulthood co-led the service, with five different generations participating in and planning the service. Each of us shared something deeply meaningful to us about how we find or give sanctuary. Toward the end of the service, the congregation helped us create a symbol of how we create sanctuary together. We used plastic building bricks to symbolize this, and the picture here is of what we created in the second service. One thing we learned in creating this symbol in the first and second services was about what we gain by coordinating our efforts to build the future. In the first service, everyone came up to add to the construction on their own. What we made was a powerful symbol, but it was disjointed in a few places. It was also difficult for some people who hadn’t built with LEGOs recently to piece them together. But we learned from this! In the second service, we asked for volunteers with recent LEGO experience to take on our bricks. What resulted was a powerful metaphor of handing on our symbols of sanctuary to a new generation - a generation that lovingly honored what we brought and created an interconnected symbol of sanctuary! The Y’ALL worship team is deeply grateful for the powerful learning that we did as a community. How can we take this lesson forward into our lives? How can we take our gifts and hopes and entrust them to our future builders? We could not have realized the power of these questions without you. I wonder, what will we learn together in the next Y’ALL service on Nov. 25? Please join us to find out and help create our future. As we meet to plan the next Y’ALL service, the worship planning team welcomes your thoughtful feedback on how you experienced the Oct. 7 service. The planning team is especially interested in learning how the service may have allowed you to hear from people of different generations. If you have a moment to reflect on your experience, please email or call me at 703-281-4230 (I’m in on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but I’ll catch my email any day). UUCF already has many intergenerational strengths, which is why the Y’ALL project is such a good fit here. UUCF is poised to succeed in new ways in intergenerational community building. Thus, the Y’ALL project will continue exploring ways to enliven and enrich our community this year. The Y’ALL services are scheduled for Nov. 25, Feb. 17 and Apr. 14. I know some of these are holiday weekends, but I hope you can join us. This community needs you. Our future needs you!

Oct. 1, 2018. By Senior Minister Rev. David A. Miller. Human communities have their challenges. UUCF is no exception. Even with the best of intentions, we can and have found ourselves in situations where we become unwilling to engage in respectful, sustained and ultimately productive dialogue that would bring us into what we call right relations - into the beloved community we so cherish in this congregation. These situations range from small, one-on-one misunderstandings to larger, more-public confrontations. Occasionally they have included threats of leaving the congregation when members feel their individual needs are being disrespected or not being met. Most of these situations end up with ministerial involvement, where it is our role to listen, care, counsel and help resolve differences. Knowing that this is part of the dynamics of our human interactions, UUCF is working on a process or mechanism to help guide us from wariness, hurt feelings or brokenness, back into community, fellowship and healing. The goal is to create a covenant, something we can live by, something that will help us be who we want to be with each other. This past summer, we convened the Covenant of Right Relations Team*. We invited members and pledging friends - people from all stages and walks of life in this congregation. Over the past year, the team has been researching best practices from other congregations and is creating a process to help us get to a covenant that we, as a congregation, can live by. In talking with several congregations and faith communities, we asked how they went about their covenanting process. We found out what worked and what didn’t. Where is the covenant a living, thriving and instantly recognizable ethos? And why? Where is it a document collecting dust on a shelf, and why? What would they do again? What would they do better? And how would that work for us here at UUCF? In this research we discovered that the secret to a successful covenanting process was listening - with open hearts and open minds. More important, the answer is to listen to everyone - to those of all ages, races, ethnicities, abilities, genders, sexual orientations and spiritual expressions. To those who come every Sunday and those who don’t. To those who come and sit in front and those who sit quietly in the back and never say a word. To those who love and wholeheartedly embrace the full UUCF experience as well as those who struggle with it. So we came up with a process through which we would try to do that: Listening sessions: The Covenant of Right Relations Team will hold three listening sessions. The first one will be held at the Adult Retreat on Oct. 13. A second will be held on Oct. 28, and a third on Nov. 28. See our What’s happening page or the calendar for more information. Come to one, come to all, but please come. Each listening session will be moderated and recorded by members of the team so that we can gather your responses, input and feedback on what we want in a covenant to guide us for years to come. Covenant Team table in the Commons: Can’t make it to a listening session? We have you covered. In the Sanctuary Commons, for the duration of this process, we’ll have a Covenant of Right Relations Team table where you can ask questions and share feedback. Submit feedback online: Submit questions, comments, concerns or feedback to the Covenant of Right Relations Team through this Google Form. Congregational vote on the draft covenant: The team will gather information from the congregation with a goal of producing a draft to present to the congregation for a vote at the UUCF Annual Meeting on Jun. 2, 2019. After that vote, we will invite congregants to step up and help us all live the covenant when we need to be reminded of it. For now, I invite you to think about these questions: Who are we as a congregation? Who do we want to be? How do we want to be with one another? What do we want our hopes for one another and our promises to one another to be? Who should be in this conversation besides you? Who should always be in this conversation at UUCF, but is somehow always strangely missing? We look forward to engaging as many of you as possible in this covenanting process. *The Covenant of Right Relations Team is Sohini Baliga, Alexa Bilidas, Kaye Cook, Dave Howell, Sharon Johnson, Rev. David A. Miller, Ashley Rothermel and Pippin Whitaker.

Sep. 17, 2018. [caption id="attachment_30759" align="alignleft" width="150"] Anthony Salvi[/caption] [caption id="attachment_28730" align="alignright" width="150"] Rev. David A. Miller[/caption] By Senior Minister Rev. David A. Miller and Board of Directors President Anthony Salvi. Early in 2019, UUCF will embark on two key staff searches: assistant minister and director of religious exploration (DRE). Interim DRE Diana Tycer and Assistant Minister Rev. Sarah Caine both end their terms of service next summer. We are immensely grateful to Diana and Sarah for the gifts they have brought to UUCF’s community, ministry and programming. We are also thankful we will continue to benefit from their ministries for many more months. To hire their successors, UUCF will conduct simultaneous searches led by two different search teams. Each search team will be comprised of members appointed from various congregational roles as well as members selected by the Coordinating Team (CT) through an application process to ensure a broad perspective in the process. Click here for the Assistant Minister Search Team application and here for the DRE Search Team application. Applications are due Oct. 2. The makeup of the search teams and search processes are described below: Assistant Minister search team makeup: One lay member of the Coordinating Team (CT), appointed by the CT One member of the Board of Directors, appointed by the board One member of the People of Color Caucus (POCC), chosen by POCC participants One of the three lay ministers who will report to the assistant minister position, appointed by the CT Two congregation members selected by the CT based on submitted applications One staff member, appointed by the CT Rev. David Miller DRE search team makeup: Three members whose families participate in UUCF’s RE program, chosen by the CT based on submitted applications Two members whose families do not currently participate in the RE program, selected by the CT based on submitted applications One member of the Youth program appointed by the CT One member of the Board of Directors, appointed by the board One member of the RE Committee, chosen by the committee Rev. David Miller Search team process Both search teams will follow a similar process: Once a search team is constituted, the team will meet regularly. The team will review the current job description and create a revised description and announcement for posting. The team will 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 congregational searches. These postings have been effective for us in past searches. Designated members of the search team will conduct 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 minister(s) and initial sorters, will meet to decide which applicants meet all the criteria and should be passed on to the full committee. The team will meet more frequently over a month or so to review and discuss applicants. Each committee member will read and evaluate all the applications in relation to the position criteria established by the search team. 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 key staff and interview with the search team (the DRE candidates will also meet with the RE Committee). The team will choose the final candidate to recommend to the board. The board will announce the selected candidate. Please email the CT if you have any questions or would like to share any thoughts.

Aug. 27, 2018. By Assistant Minister Rev. Sarah Caine. It is nearly one year since I became the assistant minister for this beloved UUCF community. So much has happened in that time and I am grateful for it. I’ve been ordained, commissioned and had at least three different hair colors since then. We have amazing programming in the upcoming congregational year - classes and workshops, new and continuing Covenant Groups, new and continuing Wellspring groups and a new initiative to engage our spirits more intentionally and richly. This is a capable and kind group of folks and I’m excited to see what will take shape as our liturgical year unfolds. This congregational year will indeed be my final one at UUCF. My contract comes to an end in June, and the death of a friend this summer drove home the internal longings to be closer to those family and friends who have been there for me since before I recognized this call. I’m not sure where Spirit will put me exactly; I will continue my chaplaincy in the U.S. Army Reserve wherever I land on the West Coast and I hope to establish an entrepreneurial ministry rooted in embodied practices. I’m so excited for UUCF and the work we will do together while I’m still your assistant minister! This truly is a special place filled with amazing people. Let’s get to work!

Aug. 13, 2018. By Worship Coordinator and Director of Music & Arts Laura Weiss. Last week, Susan Bennett shared with us how creativity fills her. I was thrilled to hear how creative work has become part of her spiritual practice and she has done this through her involvement at UUCF. Her words reminded me of the experiences of many congregants but also of others who I heard at the Unitarian Universalist Association General Assembly in June. This year at GA, I heard the phrase “What our movement needs is creativity” repeated many times. Whether from a minister or inspiring speaker, we heard that new creative solutions are what is needed in our world. Yay! I agree. Yet, I found myself measuring this against current myths and archetypes that still permeate our society. Mainstream society likes to distance itself from the idea of being creative by categorizing artists as separate. I often hear the same things time and again: • Aren’t musicians starving artists? • Poets are dreamers. • Visual art is a lovely hobby. • Acting is for trust fund babies (sigh). • Have you thought about a real job? Well, these aren’t true. These and other sayings do not hold weight anymore and we see this happening in many areas. In business, job descriptions are evolving to require a more versatile, problem-solving and innovative staff. New curricula in schools are calling for idea-generating and collaborative projects (though they haven’t quite figured out how this also relates to arts and music funding … but I digress ...). The internet has launched a new era of creating and marketing, and now this year Unitarian Universalism is calling for new kinds of creative advocates and forward-thinking activists. It seems obvious to everyone that there is a need for deep creativity to bring about social change. But how do we start to become creative? Well, like Susan suggested, it is something we have to do ourselves in a deliberate act. I’m talking art, ya’ll. Each of us can do the work needed by beginning to make some kind of art in the world with the intention of understanding the creative process. As we do that, we will immediately recognize a need for spirituality to deepen that process in order to innovate and we will start to see ways in which this process can be mirrored to make social change. The world needs us now. The first thing creativity teaches us is that we do not create in a vacuum. We are the product of our history and the organic ways we have arrived in our present. This understanding determines whether the impact of our art will have the desired effect on others. If we aren’t fully aware of the limits of our present, we make things that are too far outside the scope of what others can experience. How many artists do you know who were underappreciated because they leapt so far beyond the limits of cultural understanding in the time in which they lived that people couldn’t appreciate their brilliance? We must consider what our history and present are asking of us when we create. What structures are in place that we need to understand? What narrative has already existed that we need to access? Once we know the building blocks we have inherited, with deep spiritual practice, we increase our awareness for tiny movements that combine the past with a future. Let’s consider music as an example. Take one of your favorite songs. If you listen to it, you will undoubtedly hear something similar to other songs - whether it’s written in a similar key or with a rock band - we recognize it. It feels familiar enough that we can relate to it and it has an emotional impact because of that. But why do we like it so much? What makes it really great is that despite its familiarity, you are still hearing something new, something that moves you because it hasn’t happened yet. The brilliance of the art is that musicians are making new songs but they aren’t actually that different from other songs. In fact, within them there are tiny variations from what we already know and that makes the impact incredible. For those who don’t see the building blocks in the medium, it feels revolutionary. But for those who understand the existing history and narratives - therein lies a different kind of brilliance that truly is innovative. An artist creates something from an understanding of the inherited history of the medium and this vulnerable and difficult process takes spiritual practice. It is really humbling. When artists deepen awareness through some spiritual practice, tiny movements can be recognized when they present themselves. Then we truly access our creative sides. If I am too distracted, composing is practically impossible. If I am too self-absorbed, I can’t see your truth, your history, how you are hearing and what you may need in your present. Art gives us a tool to reveal ourselves on our terms in an immediate and unimposing way, yet it demands recognizing the other in the past, present and future. It urgently and simultaneously reflects our fragility and our commonality. To those who love art, please keep loving it! Art will always need an audience or it isn’t ... well … art. And, yes, art is still a fantastic way to access your full self and your potential, to understand others and grow in our relationship to community. That can be a good reason to start too! But I want to encourage you to see a deeper process within it whether you are just starting or a seasoned vet. It also offers a desperately needed tool as a gateway to creativity that Unitarian Universalism needs. If we are the change we have been waiting for, and creativity is what we need to find a new way - what medium is waiting for you?

Jul. 30, 2018. By Senior Minister Rev. David A. Miller. Here we are mid-summer and there are so many things going on in the world. In the past and coming week, I have counted at least five requests to participate in vigils, protests, witness events or conferences based on the challenges and issues of the day. There will be more about some of these coming out in the announcements and look for something from me about the counterprotest against white supremacy on Aug. 12 in Washington, DC. With all that and more, I have been thinking about one of the aspects of covenant, one of the dynamics of congregational life and one of the most important characteristics of a functioning democracy: Trust. Trust issues are as old as relationships and have accompanied issues of power and privilege for millennia. And yet, it feels as if there is another assault on trust right now in the world. In a #MeToo/Trump administration/systems of white supremacy world, I can’t help but think there are ways we can support trust building to help address the many challenges we now face. Based on these thoughts, here are some questions to ponder: Do we care about our collective best interest and the interest of others rather than just ourselves or our tribe? How do we move past rhetoric to actions and agreements of mutual accountability? How do we build bonds of trust with one another with such anxiety, animosity and acrimony present in the world? It’s hard not to let all of what is happening sink in and breed distrust. Can we learn ways of direct and respectful communication that help us break through projections and assumptions? Which leads to … What are we experiencing that actually speaks to valid feelings of distrust and what are we projecting onto others, perhaps rightfully so, that raises our guard? Just because we are assuming that someone isn’t trustworthy doesn’t mean they aren’t. It is important to set clear and appropriate boundaries, and also to understand that not everyone is motivated by what we think they are motivated by. In a world where truth is painted so often as a relative interpretation, how can we find common understandings of truth? Such a hard question to answer. I believe evidence supports climate change being a factual truth. However, it is clear that my truths are not everyone’s. Though we may often claim our truths as truth, can we look for the nuance that calls for engagement, discussion and openness to growth? What challenges to our comfort might we experience to build trust where trust has been a struggle? Being comfortable feels good. We actually strive to be as comfortable as possible in our daily lives. However, in a world with so little compromise and so much division, I also wonder who is willing to blink first in order for real transformation to occur? These questions challenge me, and I hope they open up some dialogue in and between you all as well. Seeing this UUCF community as an experimental modeling space in trust building may not solve all the problems in the world, but it may help them move a little further along a healthier path. May it be so.

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. 25, 2018. By Outgoing Lay Minister for Caring & Wellness Linda Zack. I was raised Catholic and as such, I embraced many of the teachings I learned as a child and found truth in them. Yet, as I grew older, I felt more and more there was something missing. Was it really “wrong” if others didn’t believe as I did? What about people practicing other religions, or no religion at all? Were they forever damned? What about people not allowed to take communion in a Catholic Church? Why are they excluded from a vital part of the faith? I did have good spiritual experiences with the Catholic Church, and the first meditation I ever did was with a Catholic spiritual director. As I broadened my spiritual horizons and became more interested in meditation, a friend suggested we go on retreat to Yogaville (the Satchidananda Ashram) south of Charlottesville, VA. At the retreat, I visited their large interfaith shrine, which includes altars for major faiths, faiths less well-known and faiths not yet known. Swami Satchidananda says, “What is it that we should see if we really want a peaceful co-existence? We should see the one unifying factor, the Spirit. If we see the Spirit in us, we realize that we are all one. … Ultimately, we all aim for the same truth while walking on different paths. It is time to understand each other better and to live as one global family.” The reason I am a Unitarian Universalist today is because our faith is about inclusion. It encompasses atheists, agnostics, people who believe in God and people who are exploring the idea of a higher power. It encompasses people of all sexual orientations and gender identities. Our children are taught about different faith traditions and values, and then allowed to think for themselves. Our Coming of Age program (what other churches might call “confirmation”) is a time when we ask young people what they believe; we don’t tell them. Our inclusion is what creates our Beloved Community. We can share the truth about our beliefs and about our lives. We come together to support each other through experiences of loss, pain, joy and exploration. Over the past 5 years, working with our Pastoral Care Committee and Caring Network, I have had the privilege of witnessing how congregants care for each other in times of stress and need. Congregants are quick to sign up to bring a meal, provide a ride, lend a listening ear and let their fellow human beings know they are not alone. We UUs tend to be an independent lot and sometimes we don’t expect help in our times of need, or perhaps even feel entitled to it. Maybe we’re not sure if we even want help. The Caring ministry at UUCF provides a safety net in times of life’s challenges and includes phone calls, cards, practical care and home visits. Ministers are supplemented by a cadre of trained Pastoral Care Associates along with a Caring Network of volunteers who coordinate and provide meals, rides and respite care. In these trying times, when compassion is hard to find at the highest levels of our society, our Beloved Community is a way to connect deeply with others and experience true compassion for one another. May we support each other, and allow ourselves to be supported, in all that life brings.

May 28, 2018. By Senior Minister Rev. David A. Miller. For those of us who work in congregations, this time of the year is the home stretch before a little time off. I guess it isn’t that much different from those who work in schools or other businesses that are on a similar calendar. Including the 2 years of my internship, I am now completing my 12th year in parish ministry and each year has certain similarities and each year is incredibly unique. This year has been no different. Through the years, congregational life can’t help but be affected by life as we all live it. Whether joy or grief, celebration or anxiety, events in our lives and in the world do not stop at the door of 2709 Hunter Mill Rd. One way this year has been unique is the increased level of grief, frustration and general anxiety over the political and cultural issues of our day. It was impossible to live through this past year and not be affected by the constant barrage of news, tweets and strife. Congregational life can serve as a mirror for the world in which we live, but more often than not, it is designed to be a place of solace, comfort, grounding, reflection, inspiration and practicing, as best we can, the world for which we dream. This year has had all these things. Each new day brings an opportunity for us to engage in the spiritual deepening, grounding and practice of our Unitarian Universalist faith. One of my favorite Universalists theologians, Hosea Ballou, said, “If we agree in love, there is no disagreement that can do us any injury, but if we do not, no other agreement can do us any good. Let us endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit in the bonds of peace.” In this day and age, it almost seems silly and simplistic to say, “If we agree in love, there is no disagreement that can do us any injury.” We can so easily be drawn into the debates of the world or the frustration of the times, but this place, this faith tradition, our religious ancestors help us remember that this is a religious community where we come to practice the highest good, the call to our best selves and the work of how to agree together in love. It is the reason for the Joy Committee, the music and arts program, religious exploration, pledge campaign and any or all of the programs and efforts of this congregation. It is the reason we exist. It is the calling of our mission and vision. As we make our way together in these challenging times, I have been so heartened by your response to our latest Annual Giving Campaign. Each and every gift is valued and important and your generosity has made it possible to move beyond the steps we had to take last year to meet our budget. In the spirit of transparency, here are some of the numbers from the campaign (as of today). These numbers refer to pledge units: 197 increased their pledges (overall 19% increase in this group!) 101 stayed the same 46 decreased 11 (who are still counted as members) were not able to pledge 29 pledged for the first time In calculating our budget for the coming year, the pledging units who have not yet pledged were estimated to pledge at the same level as last year. These numbers represent a 3.3% overall increase in this year’s pledge campaign. As your minister, I am moved by these increases and this demonstrated commitment to the incredible need for this congregation’s presence in the community. It is unavoidable that the ways of the world will seep into everything, but here we are and here we will remain, strong, steady and centered, supporting goodness and hope in the world.

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. 30, 2018. By Lay Minister for Membership & Outreach Shannon Williams. Like many neighbors doing their part to urge in spring, my son and I transplant seedlings. Our task is to thin the herd. We approach this work with an unspoken awareness of the terrible, lovely power we possess. We get to decide which of these fragile things have their chance to carry on in larger containers, and which will return to beginnings. My son with his still unbroken optimism rejects this as a false choice. He scrounges around the kitchen for used water bottles then saws off the tops and drill holes in the bottoms. Bringing them into the dining room where garden debris litters the table and floor, he paws through the dirt for discarded seedlings. We move as many wisps of roots as we can to their more capacious, though still temporary, homes. The sunniest place in our house – the south-facing balcony door – lets in a small draft. That means the hodgepodge of pudding and yogurt cups that comprises our starter garden lives in my son’s bedroom next to the heat register. We wedge in around it two living room lamps with fluorescent bulbs that shine for 15 hours a day. Somehow, our makeshift arrangement suffices. The phenomenon of phototropism still inspires wonder as we watch our plants reach for the light. They follow it, they drink it, they thrive. Just two lightbulbs and an occasional spritz from a water bottle. How is it possible that it takes so little to make something grow? Of course, the effort only seems little when seen in isolation. The decision to start a container garden from seed on our tiny condo balcony began as a New Year’s resolution. From there, we took a series of steps: Rescue cups from the recycling. Study planting zone calendars. Cook up a batch of homemade starter mix. Buy seeds. Clear space. Turn lights on. Turn lights off. Spritz. Each task on its own barely registers on the balance sheet. Yet here we are with basil and chrysanthemums taking over the bedroom. What if it’s possible to grow a spiritual community with small steps like these? One thread that ran through the recent Annual Giving Campaign was the importance of UUCF’s open doors. We can see our congregation living out its commitment to this openness in the ways we organize our Sundays. Friendly faces staff the Sanctuary Welcome Table, online live streams run for both services, and Religious Exploration greeters make sure that new children and families can find their way around. These are critical parts of ensuring that someone arriving on our campus feels a sense of belonging. How then do we wrap our minds and hearts around the ones who have yet to arrive? What about neighbors who are dying to turn toward any hint of light but haven’t found their way through our doors? Many of us understand that we live at a place and time in which desperate isolation coexists with overwhelming demands on our energy, attention, calendars and finances. Unitarian Universalism’s messages of hope and connection are more important now than ever. Yet our neighbors will not magically appear in our Sanctuary any more than peppers will spontaneously materialize on my balcony this June. Will we commit to starting new growth from seed? From within UU’s Sixth and Seventh Principles we can hear the call to open outward. We must be willing to emerge from the comforting confines of our campus and share the vital principles and mission of our faith. To do this, we might have to rearrange things, to move our light into places that we haven’t taken it before. Several years back, Rev. Kim Wilson offered a list of 28 ways UUs can practice outward orientation. The suggestions are as relevant now as they were then, if not more so. Here is a selection: Put a UU decal on the window of your car or home. Write an article for a local newspaper about a congregational project in which you’re involved. Practice your response to the question, “What is Unitarian Universalism?” Host a party and invite both members and non-members. Tell a non-member about an adult program. Carry Seven Principles cards and give them to people when they ask about Unitarian Universalism. Taken separately, each of these small steps seems almost inconsequential. One hand-me-down lamp moved to a new corner, or one spindly root lifted to new ground. In the aggregate, though, our small acts have power beyond imagination. We grow the beloved community. It’s fitting that the Annual Giving Campaign wraps up right at the cusp of spring. Isn’t internal fundraising so much like all that wintertime work of starting a garden? Gathering resources, one pledge at a time, allows us to have on hand the right tools for the job. The ground is thawing. Are we ready to begin?

Apr. 16, 2018. By Interim Director of Religious Exploration Diana Tycer. We are in the midst of our Annual Giving pledge campaign, and we all know that to achieve the beloved community our congregation desires, money does matter. But so does the commitment of time and talent that a thriving Religious Exploration program requires. And we do have a thriving RE program. Just last Sunday, more than 200 children and youth, and more than 60 adults, participated in one of our RE programs (this includes those adventuring in DC with the Coming of Age 7th grade classes.) In fact, we have so many students attending RE that we had to move classes to the Chapel and the Library because rooms 1 and 2 are too small. But sustaining a program like this requires a sizable commitment from the adults of this congregation. Running our full slate of classes requires a minimum of 106 teachers each year because we group them on teaching teams that function more like small-group ministries than school classrooms. Every RE class has four teachers plus a liaison who provides support and guidance. Teachers write and follow a covenant among themselves and collaborate to establish the teaching schedule to ensure all sessions are covered, and that everyone enjoys many “free” Sundays to attend worship services. Every class also has a covenant, performs a chalice ritual and provides check-in time with students to share important events from their week. While our classes have content and activities that teach important concepts, a main goal of the RE program is to build relationships - among children, teachers, parents and families. In fact, some teams remain together teaching the same class for years because of the friendships, camaraderie and respect they develop for one another and for their students. Many of those most dear to me in this congregation are people I first met on an RE teaching team. I also receive much joy watching those children I have taught in the past mature into fine young adults in our community. Additionally, teaching RE gives adults a place to deepen their own spirituality and a space to model UU values in their interactions with others. In doing so, they guide our children toward a fuller understanding of community. A few weeks ago, I got to witness a perfect example of this process when I asked for help from our 6th graders to solve a space problem: We currently have 18 1st graders participating in Our Whole Lives sexuality education, and room 1 was too small for them. I appealed to the 6th graders across the hall in the combined rooms 3-4 if they would be willing to give the little ones that room and relocate their class to the Library in the basement of the Administration Building. It has limited natural light, smells musty, has two posts obstructing the open area, and has a perimeter lined with bookshelves piled high with archived files, books and stray items. In keeping with our Unitarian Universalist 5th Principle, I did not force the 6th graders to move. Rather, I made it clear that the choice belonged to the students themselves. Their teachers took a significant portion of one class session to take the 6th graders to the Library and lead them in a thorough discussion of the pros and cons of the move, followed by a vote. Our 6th graders voted 8:3 to relinquish their classroom for the benefit of the 1st graders. While I am proud that the students decided to make a sacrifice to help out the younger children, I am even more proud of their teachers who had the patience and commitment to do the process properly. Democratic processes are lengthy, and often messy. But they are essential for fairness and to affirm that every person is important, and everyone has a voice that deserves to be heard. Every Sunday in a myriad of ways, our RE teachers model our UU values. This is how, over years, we grow caring, responsible and committed youth - the next generation of UU leaders. This is important work, this is a ministry. And I hope it is one that you will be called to join, because teaching RE matters.

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. 19, 2018. By your UUCF worship leaders*. As we have traveled through the worship experience since last September, the Worship Team has considered the unprecedented and unique challenges facing our country, Unitarian Universalism and UUCF. We have experimented with modifications to worship with the hope of creating an experience that would be more inclusive, welcoming and spiritually nourishing to a wildly divergent group of members, friends and newcomers. This included differences in tone and music between the 9:15 and 11:15 a.m. services. We solicited and received copious amounts of feedback about all aspects of worship including music, tone, interactive elements and Religious Exploration scheduling. Some of you were incredibly pleased with the opportunity to choose the service you wanted to attend on any given Sunday, and others found the changes troubling. As we have incorporated your feedback and continued processing the important elements of worship in a changing and challenging landscape, we want to keep you informed of our progress. For now, and through the foreseeable future, the two services will not differ in tone or flow. To accommodate the abundant musical offerings of our congregation, musicians and music selections might not always be the same at both services, but the tone and energy level of the music will be consistent. As an example, the Community Chorale will usually not sing at both services on the same day. One week they will sing at only the first service and the next at the second. Other musicians will perform at the other service on those days. The intent of those planning worship is to offer meaningful worship at every service using the resources of the congregation and providing multiple opportunities for congregational participation in the music and worship programming. Our worship services, in a congregation of diverse spiritual beliefs, experiences and needs, must vary in tone, musical choices, theology and content. Our hope continues to be that on the weeks you may not feel specifically fed, that you trust that others are. Holding space for others is one way we can live our Third Principle: “Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations.” Thank you for the deep caring and feedback you continue to share with us. The Worship Team aspires to provide worship that challenges, inspires, calls for deep reflection and provides spiritual sustenance. Please contact us with any thoughts or questions. *Senior Minister Rev. David A. Miller, Assistant Minister Rev. Sarah Caine, Intern Minister Pippin Whitaker, Worship Coordinator and Director of Music and Arts Laura Weiss, Lay Minister for Worship and Arts Susan Bennett and Worship Team Chair David Addis

Mar. 5, 2018. By Senior Minister Rev. David A. Miller. In discussion with the leadership of the congregation, a decision was reached to extend an offer to both Diana Tycer and Rev. Sarah Caine to stay on staff for at least one more year in their roles as interim director of religious exploration (DRE) and assistant minister, respectively. Both are doing an excellent job and it was concluded that with the various transitions in the congregation, this would give us some time to breathe, appreciate their gifts and plan for what comes next. Our contract with Sarah is based on a mutual agreement to continue from year to year and she is excited about continuing with us for another year. Her dream of military reserve chaplaincy has finally also been approved and she will be moving forward with periodic training over the next year. Because of the unfolding understanding of what that will require from her, we will reassess her situation again in the middle of next year. Next year will be Diana’s final year as interim DRE, based on our revised timeline for a DRE search and her plans for her future. This extra year will give us plenty of time to implement a national search. For now and through next year, we will continue to be served by these two gifted and committed staff members. Once again, we are grateful for their professionalism, gifts and commitment to this congregation. And please don’t forget to attend Sarah’s ordination this coming Sunday, after which we will be able to call her reverend and chaplain. Please always feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

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.

Feb. 5, 2018. By UUCF Innovation Fund grant co-recipient Betsy Bicknell. 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. Wendy Astell and I responded to this challenge, and in March 2017, the UUCF Board of Directors approved our proposal for a UUCF-sponsored off-campus community targeted to young adults (20s and 30s). The mission of this project is to help Northern Virginia young adults explore and live UU values and principles. Our vision is to provide activities and services for young adults who are looking for a spiritual home outside of a traditional church setting. The group and its leader will help Northern Virginia’s young adults grow as individuals and as a community through spiritual practices, arts, service, play, rites of passage and caring for one another and the greater community. We hope these activities will help young adults deepen their appreciation of the gifts of life and love. Since March, Wendy and l recruited Jeanette Walton, Victoria Maldonado, Rita Roth and Jennifer McLaughlin to form an advisory committee to help move the project forward. The committee contacted people serving UU community ministries and the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Young Adult leaders to learn about their projects and to explore ideas on how to proceed. These contacts taught us that the first step for the project is to hire a dynamic professional leader who can reach out to Northern Virginia young adults to understand their needs. This leader will develop a network of interested young adults and will hold programs to start to build community. The programs will be held in spaces accessible by public transportation as well as by car. As community forms, a key next step will be formal training to help participants understand commitment to a covenanted community and develop leadership skills. The advisory committee has developed a job description (to be posted soon at uucf.org/jobs) for a Young Adult Community Leader with experience working with diverse groups of people and who authentically upholds Unitarian Universalist values. We want a candidate with pastoral care or social work training/experience and who has experience in community organizing or social justice work. On Jan. 17, the Coordinating Team gave us the go-ahead to begin recruiting a part-time professional who will report to Rev. David Miller. We are in the process of launching a nationwide search. Please contact me or Wendy Astell for more information.

Jan. 22, 2018. By Intern Minister Pippin Whitaker. These past few weeks, as I delved into UUCF’s history of racial justice for a class project, I kept hearing a dramatic story retold. A member famously stood up in a worship service and asked why we had done nothing about racial justice in 20 years. This was in the 90s. Listening to more stories of our history and combing through the archives, I began to wonder, is this a pattern? Are we stuck in some historical “repeat” where we take on racial justice work one year and then put it down? You will have to read on to find out. But first, I want to thank the members who gave their time and energy to help me with this project. I also want to thank Penny Jackson, among others who contributed, for our wonderful archive. It is rare treasure among congregations! Our story began in 1955, during the civil rights era. Inspired by Rev. A. Powell Davies of All Souls Church Unitarian in DC, we began meeting at Oakton Elementary School. But in 1960, Virginia law required segregated seating in leases. We refused to comply, and purchased land on Hunter Mill Road to construct a building. We struggled with this and lost a few members. Still we chose our aspirations. The physical structure of our first building (now the Administration Building) is a symbol of our conviction and hope in racial justice. Sitting in that building each day, I feel like the pillars and beams are holding up our principles. Through the 1960s, a few individuals led our racial justice efforts. Examples include sharing a list of segregating businesses to boycott, educating the congregation about race and tutoring Black children. We also hosted an integrated Brownie troop and sponsored an integrated day care. When the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., asked clergy to join him in Selma, AL, on Mar. 9, 1965, our Rev. Rudy Nemser responded immediately. And, at great personal sacrifice, our Director of Religious Education Jane Visco Boyajian left DC to lead the national mobilization of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference for the march from Selma to Montgomery. Our few committed racial justice leaders continued their work through the 60s. Then, in 1971, amid stark declines in our pledges and membership, we raised almost $800 in a special collection for the UU Black Affairs Council for Black empowerment work. This was more than 1% of our operating budget - at a time of great uncertainty and financial strain. To put that 1% in perspective, it would be equivalent to $12,000 today. But our early racial justice work lacked an infrastructure to sustain the work without passionate leaders. After Rev. Rudy Nemser left in 1973, racial justice work faded to the background. Two decades passed with little-to-no mention of racial justice work. Then, in early 1992 the Rodney King riots renewed our attention to racial injustice. That is when member Furman Riley stood up in a worship service to decry our lack of action for racial justice during the prior two decades. Within a few months, Furman Riley, Ann Wood and Judy Harrison had formed a Race Relations Task Force to “dismantle structures that sustain racism and other forms of social injustice.” The task force led a workshop and worship service on race, countered mortgage-lending discrimination, tutored minority children, educated the congregation and even spawned the Mosaic Harmony choir (they still sing today, find out more here). Yet, the task force leaders were soon pulled to other pressing social justice issues and the group dissolved after 1994. As a longtime member told me, support for racial justice has indeed waxed and waned here depending on dedicated leaders. Today, however, a new theme is emerging. And I am energized by differences between our past and present. In contrast to racial justice work of the past led by one or a handful of individuals, our 2-year-old Racial Justice Steering Committee has a healthy 18-person membership. The committee has ongoing funding and obtained an Endowment Fund grant to expand its work. The committee is taking a long-term view, is working to forge new relationships in the community and is seeking partnerships for sustained action to address racial injustice. And, the committee invites more members of all ages and backgrounds to support its growing work. In addition to the steering committee, we are incorporating racial justice into our community through the ministry team, religious education and a broad base of supportive members. Instead of being in competition with other pressing social justice concerns, social justice areas are beginning to work together with the understanding that this work is related to most of the social justice work we do; it is intersectional with many other concerns. Today, I see a new structure being built around us - a congregational justice structure that includes racial justice as a fundamental foundation of our work as a congregation. Like our first building, this new structure is holding up our principles and our aspirations. With continued attention and labor for what we are building together, I believe we will keep the promise we once made to “dismantle structures that sustain racism and other forms of social injustice.” May it be so.

Dec. 11, 2017. By Intern Minister Pippin Whitaker. Someone recently asked me how I stay hopeful about our society when it appears “things are tanking.” I believe we have the capacity to plant love, with every breath, even - and poignantly - amid heartache. I hope the love we plant will be enough to soften a clenched heart and make it weep. And ultimately, I hope because being hopeful is not a sentiment, it is a choice. I have hope because I chose to hold on to it. Sometimes it is defiant hope. Note, however, that hope is not the same as optimism. We humans are capable of heart-shattering depravity. And world-bending love. At the same time. Like my friend, I lack hope that we will become beings of untainted love. I am fairly certain becoming such beings would require evolution and extinction of what we are now. It may happen, but that is not my hope for humanity. I have hope because love is what binds us to life, and because of that, we will always have within us a sense of the presence and direction of love. This is a hope that goes beyond my inner cynic’s worst-case scenario. I get hope from knowing that love will come back from anything, and will always guide us onward in good times and bad. My hope comes tearfully, knowing that all lost children are wrapped in someone’s love. I remember reading about how a Polish town had turned on their Jewish neighbors prior to World War II. The non-Jewish townspeople locked and boarded the Jewish inhabitants - entire families of their neighbors and friends - in a synagogue and left them to starve. I wept and grieved for the people in that synagogue, for all the children of that town. I can do this because I am human. Because I know love and compassion, across space and time. I hold on fiercely to hope in love. No matter how depraved our society may become, humans instinctively know the way to love. Someone will hold us in love one day. But this type of thinking is the “worst-case-scenario” end of my source of defiant hope. If we grab the mane of hope amid the Holocaust, she will lurch us out of the mass grave and toward something more loving. If we hold on long enough, and master the fashioning and use of tools that bind our families and societies together in love and compassion, I believe a best-case scenario will eventually unfold. And that is what we do here in this community: We hold on to hope in love, we fashion the tools that bind our families and societies to love. We nurture a sense for justice, which helps us put those tools into practice. As we come to terms with the latest iteration of our destructive human potential, may we continually give each other adequate support to embody our highest ideals. This is hard work, especially when it appears that all that affirms love and justice are "tanking." But I am not hopeful because things look good. I am hopeful because I believe in our capacity to sense love, to turn toward justice, for distant hearts to weep. So, in the face of unfathomable greed, humanitarian atrocity and death, I am fiercely, defiantly hopeful. Hope is a wild beast, heart pounding ceaselessly into the next moment despite scrapes and scars. To be hopeful is to be committed to hold on for the ride. So, let’s hold on, let’s keep building Beloved Community no matter what, because it is our choice, our promise and our covenant with one another.

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 Rev. David A. Miller, Rev. Sarah Caine and Pippin Whitaker. More than 10 years ago, the Me Too campaign began with African American activist Tarana Burke. The recent wave of “Me too” posts on Facebook and Twitter were fueled by high-profile sexual harassment and assault cases starting with last year’s release of the “Access Hollywood” tape. All of these revelations reinforce how powerful men can get away with claiming the bodies of women as objects. The heartbreak, exhaustion, re-living of trauma and anger that accompanies any news of yet more violence disguised as sexuality is all too familiar. This violence is not distant from any of our lives. Although abuse and harassment can happen to any of us, the vast majority of this kind of personal invasion is targeted toward women and gender-non-conforming folks - whether through words, unwanted touching, threats or coerced sexual acts. This violence is usually committed by men known to the people experiencing these denials of personal autonomy. This leads many women, and others, to be constantly vigilant in the backs of their minds. How much freer and more joyous would we be if the background vigilance didn’t need to be there? This, too, is part of the task and the promise we undertake as creators and dreamers of Beloved Community. This is the sacred work of the UU Our Whole Lives sexuality education program, which teaches consent and bodily autonomy. There is more work yet to do. Although this problem can feel daunting, Unitarian Universalism has committed to ending sexual assault and harassment. In 1995, the Unitarian Universalist Association resolved the following: “We desire Unitarian Universalist congregations to be places safe from interpersonal violence or abuse; … we recognize that both laity and clergy need to accept active responsibility for the prevention of interpersonal violence and abuse within our congregations and for healing where such violence or abuse has occurred, or may occur, so that there is a restoration of community.” Our congregations, clergy and laity are culpable. We are not exceptions to the rule. People within our faith have experienced violence disguised as sexuality. People within our faith have fallen short of basic respect for others. And, we are charged to do better. To learn from our mistakes. UUCF should be a space where people are not required to be on guard. The ministers and the pastoral care team are always ready to listen and to intervene if someone experiences harassment or abuse or is concerned about possible abuse. You are not alone here. UUCF’s behavior policy for our community affirms that: “As Unitarian Universalists, we affirm the inherent worth and dignity of every person. We celebrate diversity and welcome all individuals. At the same time, the members of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fairfax affirm that our congregation must maintain a safe atmosphere in order for such openness to exist.” https://uucf.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Policy-Dealing-with-Incidents-061510-1.pdf Because many of us are saying “Me too” and at the same time we fully believe in the values of our faith, we have programs to prevent sexual harassment, intimidation and assault, as well as clear policies and procedures in place to respond. We aim to respond with dignity and respect for all parties, and expect the same of others. We believe that even though this is a daunting problem, we can one day transform hearts, minds and culture to truly affirm the worth and dignity of every person - including women and gender minorities. On the journey to that land, we are here with you and ready to listen.

Oct. 9, 2017. by Assistant Minister Rev. Sarah Caine. When I was a child trying to make sense of the destruction in and of the world, I was afraid and deeply sorrowful. This informed how I interacted with the world around me, cautiously but lovingly. With the personal growth I have experienced in my life so far I have gradually felt less panic and fear, but no less emotionally connected to the earth and its beings. I was able to discover the mission of my ministry - building resilient, strong, beautiful, affirming community where I can. That hope and cultivation of the Beloved Community is the saving message I found hiding behind the armor of fear. It’s found in “Choose to Bless the World” by Rev. Dr. Rebecca Parker: More, the choice will draw you into community, The endeavor shared, The heritage passed on, The companionship of struggle, The importance of keeping faith, The life of ritual and praise, The comfort of human friendship, The company of earth The chorus of life welcoming you. None of us alone can save the world. Together - that is another possibility waiting. I first heard Rev. Dr. Parker speak in Phoenix at the 2012 General Assembly graduation ceremony for the UU Justice Ministry of California’s yearlong Spiritual Activist Leadership Training program. Participants worked to incorporate spirituality and social justice as two pieces of a larger whole. Throughout most of this program, I was skeptical of the connection and resisted being involved with theological reflection and worship. It was during Rev. Dr. Parker’s talk that something clicked between my heart and mind. Ministry was a path requiring reflection; it was a connecting discipline that allowed the clergyperson to find experts and lift their work up as important but it didn’t require expertise in every single field. After the ceremony, I talked with the other participants and my informal mentors at General Assembly (Rev. David was one of these people). All the people I talked with affirmed that I belonged in seminary and eventually in ministry. So, I applied to Starr King. I now know I am a mystic, a theist and someone who sees no other way to live than to do justice, love mercy and journey humbly with God. The God I believe in is all-gendered, all-feeling, all-loving. This God is not a wish-granter or a judge but a companion and co-creator who celebrates life and love. This God believes in us and longs for us to answer the call of Love, as often as Love reaches out.

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 Senior Minister Rev. David A. Miller. “Church is a place where you get to practice what it means to be human.” - Rev. James Luther Adams What helps each of us stay whole and holy in these extremely challenging times? After week upon week of incivility and a seemingly endless flow of assaults on decency and kindness, how do we build up our reservoirs of hope, gratitude and compassion? Some of us crave spiritual grounding, nurturing and respite. Others may want to be moved to action - literally and metaphorically - through more lively interaction. While no one UUCF worship service can be all things to all people, we are working this year to differentiate our 9:15 and 11:15 services a bit to meet this congregation’s diverse spiritual needs. Starting this Sunday, those looking for a gentler, more contemplative experience may gravitate to our 9:15 service, where you’re more likely to find soothing music, easier transitions and space for quiet. Those choosing the 11:15 service will find livelier music - with more variation - and with greater emphasis on more animated inspiration. We understand that what we need to bolster and ground ourselves one week may be completely different the next. This reshaped approach will give us options for meeting those needs. Some of our annual services, like Ingathering, Easter and the Joy service, will be the same at both hours. But most weeks the two services will follow this new plan. We look forward to sharing this trial approach and hearing feedback as we move forward.

Aug. 21, 2017. by Senior Minister Rev. David A. Miller. It always seems like new congregational years, beginning with Ingathering in September, bring fresh starts and new possibilities. This year that is as true as ever. As I write this, it also feels like so much more. We are a country traveling through a tumultuous period. A time when our institutions, both for good and for bad, are journeying through significant transitions. UUCF once again is also experiencing transitions with the arrival of our new Assistant Minister Rev. Sarah Caine and Rich Sider announcing his retirement. In these times, it feels incredibly important to be aware of our own feelings, to promote self-care and strengthen UUCF to provide sustenance and grounding. Our call to grow, connect and serve is both internal and external. The need for spiritually fulfilling worship and programming, opportunities for joy, experiences of meaning and doing the work of striving toward an anti-oppressive beloved community, takes thought, commitment and intention. This community cannot serve these needs and provide the quality we seek without commitment, love and care from each one of us. That is why your participation is vital. As fun as our Ingathering picnic is, it needs volunteers to thrive. If you are willing to volunteer to support this traditional event, please sign up here. We are also looking for volunteers to support our shared worship on Sundays. Please sign up here for 9:15 and here for 11:15, if you are willing to help out. This year we will need to find a deeper place of kindness and understanding in our hearts, while also tapping into that deep well of resolve to do the work that needs to be done. Our shared time can help sustain us as we support each other while taking our steps into whatever this new congregational year will bring. It is so good to be together.

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 Senior Minister Rev. David A. Miller. This past week, Unitarian Universalists from all over the world came to a Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) General Assembly (GA) that seemed different. The anticipation of this GA, my 10th, was different from any I have ever experienced. What would it be like with three recently named co-presidents who were appointed to the office after the resignation of the elected president? What level of sadness would fill us based on the very recent death of Jim Key, the association’s beloved moderator - our chief lay leader and the one who presides over the governance of GA? How would the recent controversy over systems of white supremacy exhibit itself in the politics of the association? These were all unanswered questions as more than 25 of us from Fairfax made the journey to New Orleans. The week began for me with worship at the UU Ministers Association meeting on Monday. The worship was constructed to bring a wide variety of voices to the forefront to specifically name the events that had caused such challenge in our association and for personal perspectives to be shared. The perspectives shared weren’t political. They were human. They were expressions of pain and loss. They were honest, vulnerable, risky, intimate, loving and courageous. They set the tone for a week of truth-telling in the spirit of love and faith with an understanding of our imperfections, our need for forgiveness and the incredible opportunities for transformation that we now face. The week continued, led by lay leaders, staff, musicians, religious educators and clergy, coming together in deep caring for each other and this faith. The stories and discussions were difficult and beautiful. The space was sacred and holy. The music seemed to carry more meaning. The time together with friends seemed more needed and a little sweeter. And, on a personal note, after working for over a year on the campaign of my friend Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray to be the new president of the UUA, the emotions that I experienced with her victory and vision for our future were beyond what I had expected. Today I am meeting with UUCF’s Assistant Minister Search Committee to strive toward the selection of our new assistant minister. Then, I plan to take 3 weeks vacation. When I come back, I will engage with those who went to GA to share thoughts and solicit their perspectives on how the events at this gathering of our association of congregations might be infused into the life of our congregation. There was so much to process, but this I do know: The time has come for us all to engage in deeper conversation, not debate about our hopes and our fears. The time has come for us to spend more time experiencing joy together. The time has come for us to examine systems that no longer work and understand how we can continue to make a difference. The time has come to even more intentionally bring voices from the margins into the center. The time has come to reignite hope and focus on supporting ourselves, each other and our community. It was a unique, amazing and transformative week. It was a defining moment in the long and extraordinary history of Unitarian Universalism. Once again, it reinforced that we need each other and once again, it demonstrated that change is hard but possible, love is challenging but resilient and we are capable of moving through the difficult times and working together in building a new way.

by Leadership Development Team Chair Craig Bennett. Three years ago, former UUCF Associate Minister Rev. Laura Horton-Ludwig brought together a group of lay leaders at UUCF to consider how we, as a faith community, could inspire, support and nurture lay leaders in our congregation. We began by considering what makes a good leader, what tools and support a leader needs and how leading in a spiritual community differs from leading in business or government. We asked ourselves “what motivates and inspires people to take on leadership roles in a UU congregation?” We found many answers to that question, but one that kept coming up was that people step into leadership roles because they believe in the mission, love the congregation and see how their skills and passions can serve the congregation. Most of us can say yes to the first two pretty easily, but what about that last one? We decided to focus our attention on helping people see how they could contribute to the health and vitality of UUCF. Over the last few years we’ve done a number of things to that end. We realized people need to know how the congregation is organized in order to consider being leaders, so we developed a Leaders Guide. We reached out to leaders and volunteers at UUCF to ensure they were aware of opportunities for training and spiritual development offered by the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) and the UUA’s Central East Region, like the online UU Leadership Institute. We conducted in-person interviews with current leaders to ask them how UUCF could better support, train and prepare people for leadership roles, and we’ve begun to try and make that an integral part of the culture at UUCF. Leadership in a spiritual community provides tremendous opportunities for spiritual and personal growth. Contributing in some way to the health and vitality of the congregation offers the personal reward of knowing you have been of service to your community, but it also gives you countless opportunities to practice your values in a supportive environment. In a spiritual community we can take risks, be forgiven our mistakes and lead with love. Leadership can be a spiritual practice if we remember that how we lead in a spiritual community is at least as important, if not more important, than what we accomplish. This is a very different message than most of us receive in the rest of our lives where “the bottom line” is of the utmost importance. So what about you? Have you thought of getting more involved but aren’t sure how? Would you like to help develop your leadership skills in a supportive community? Do you have ideas about how to nurture a culture of spiritual service at UUCF? The Leadership Development Team will be continuing our work in the fall and hope to hear from 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 Board of Directors President Karen Wolf and Senior Minister Rev. David A. Miller. We wanted to give you an update on the next steps in the assistant minister search process. As we noted in an earlier communication, we have entered the search process fairly late, so we are trying to spread the word through the Unitarian Universalist Association as quickly as possible. We have received some interest in the last few days, less than a week after the announcement, and continue to spread the word. Based on the process in the UUCF Governance Manual, the Board of Directors and the senior minister consulted and have invited the following folks to participate on the search committee: A member of the Program Evaluation Committee (whose research and evaluation influenced the revised job description). A member of the board. A member of the People of Color Caucus. One of the three lay ministers who will report to the assistant minister position. The senior minister. As soon as we receive official acceptance from these members, we will communicate who they are. Once the committee is constituted, they will come together and communicate how things are progressing as soon as possible. We are looking for a minister who can fill the new position and bring gifts that support a healthy balance for the congregation, staff team and ministry. Once again, the offer for this position will be September 2017-July 2018, giving us some flexibility to retain the person based on mutual agreement, or giving us time to do a more complete search process. During this transition time, we have asked Rev. Julie Price to provide some coverage while Rev. David is on vacation. She has agreed to provide pastoral coverage from Jul. 1 through 23. Please let us know if you have any thoughts or questions.

by Rev. David A. Miller, Senior Minister, and Karen Wolf, President, Board of Directors. First, let us start by expressing our gratitude on behalf of the entire congregation for Rev. Laura Horton-Ludwig’s service to UUCF. She has seen UUCF through transitions both expected and tragic. Her steady and compassionate presence has provided an important and meaningful ministry to this community and she departs with our deep gratitude. We wish her blessings in her new ministry opportunities, and may her ministry continue to contribute to love and justice in this faith tradition and the world. With Rev. Laura’s departure, we will be shifting the second ministry position in response to the Program Evaluation Committee’s report to the congregation on the need to transform UUCF’s membership program to meet the evolving religious landscape of the 21st Century. The new position will be titled Assistant Minister for Congregational Engagement and Spiritual Enrichment. The following is the position summary: “The Assistant Minister for Congregational Engagement and Spiritual Enrichment is charged with supporting four primary functions in congregational life: membership development and engagement, leadership development, spiritual enrichment and pastoral care. This includes exploring and implementing innovative strategies and programs to engage UUCF congregants in the life of the congregation. The Assistant Minister is a member of the Coordinating Team and also actively participates in worship leadership and preaching.” As the budget documents and operating plan released later this week will explain, this position will take over the focus of work previously performed by Member Services Coordinator Carol Jensen, who is retiring at the end of June (more on our abiding gratitude for Carol in a later post). This week, the board and staff will determine how best to move quickly to fill the Assistant Minister for Congregational Engagement and Spiritual Enrichment position and meet our needs for the upcoming congregational year. We will share more information on the process as soon as the board approves it. We are working with Rev. Keith Kron from the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Transitions Office to identify possible candidates. It is late in this year’s placement process, but there are many ministers in search this year. We are confident that with an active and thriving congregation like UUCF, we will be an attractive potential home for ministers in search. Once again, we are so deeply grateful for the beautiful ministry Rev. Laura has given to UUCF. Please contact her directly if you wish to express your blessings and good wishes. Please contact us if you have any questions or comments about our next steps.

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 Wini Atlas, Lay Minister for Social Justice. To most of us at UUCF, the Sanctuary is where we hold worship services and other events. We also understand sanctuary as a place of refuge for humans and wildlife. Sanctuary is an old concept going back to a Saxon king in the 4th and 5th centuries BCE who promulgated laws of the right of asylum. Sanctuary had legal standing in England until the 17th Century, during which authorities were prevented from taking even criminals from churches. The process, though still recognized in modern times, no longer has the force of law. Yet, we are familiar with political asylum, which must be granted by a sovereign authority. Protection from deportation or extradition granted by an embassy or a nation still has the force of law. WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, continues to live in the Ecuadoran embassy in London, and Edward Snowden is still in Russia, protected from U.S. prosecution. Today, the concept of sanctuary still energizes many across our nation as efforts to deport those erroneously (in my humble opinion) called “illegal aliens.” Many feel that immigration is what made our melting pot of a nation what it is. The political climate in the U.S. is causing many communities of faith and cities to reconsider the use of sanctuary as a refuge. Our congregation recently sponsored a training by Sanctuary DMV representatives. Sanctuary DMV is an area-wide organization working to create a Northern Virginia chapter. The meeting was well attended by members from UUCF, several UU NOVA cluster congregations and other faith communities. We plan to be part of the local NOVA Sanctuary DMV coalition, and I am grateful to Jenna Kelly-Jones who stepped forward to chair a UUCF committee of about a dozen people. As lay minister for social justice, I’m excited and encouraged by the response to this new initiative. What can UUCF do? That’s still being decided, and we hope more people will join the effort, but the possibilities are many and much work needs to be done before we decide on a strategy. The Social Justice Council will evaluate the possibilities with the new committee to ensure our efforts align with UUCF’s strategic pillars of social justice. For more information about the SJC and the social justice pillars, click here. For more information on Sanctuary DMV, click here. If you are interested in joining the new committee, please email me at winiatlas@verizon.net.

Apr. 12, 2017. Dear UUCF, By now you may have heard about the ugly events of this past Tuesday: the Jewish Community Center and the Little River United Church of Christ, both in Annandale, were defaced with incredibly disturbing hate speech. This is part of an alarming increase in vandalism toward Jewish and other communities. We have been trying to understand if there are any lessons in this. What we have come to is that people are being targeted just for who they are and believing in a more loving, equal and just world. The Jewish community has been a specific target of hate groups for a very long time. The Little River UCC Church appears to have been targeted because of their public support for the LGBTQ community and their Muslim neighbors. There are lessons in this for Unitarian Universalists and what we support in our community. Is it possible that Unitarian Universalist congregations will be the targets of hate vandalism? The answer is yes. There have been a couple of incidents lately and the congregation Rev. David served near San Diego was a target of this kind of hate speech vandalism during his time as minister. When publicly living your values, it is always possible that others may attack you. We cannot give in to that kind of fear and intimidation. There is another lesson of this latest series of incidents in our own community. This action based on hate and fear must be met in larger portions with actions of love, kindness and coming together. These religious organizations are our siblings in this community, and we must use this opportunity to learn more, listen more and support each other more in this vital work of building the beloved community. There will be an interfaith service at the Little River UCC this Saturday at 7:30 p.m. All are invited to come and show their support for the congregation. There may be another vigil or service, and if there is, we will let you know. There will also be cards of good wishes for all to sign in the Commons this Sunday. We are going through some unsettling times. It will be natural for us to feel anxiety about the changes and challenges going on around us. There are a couple of ways we can react. Our hope is that we will extend some extra grace to each other, hold each other with an abundance of care and try, as much as possible, to be in relationship from a place of kindness and love. If you need to talk to any of us, please let us know. There is so much goodness in the world. Our calling is to bring it forth as much as we possibly can. Rev. David A. Miller Rev. Laura Horton-Ludwig McKinley Sims

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!

Mar. 30, 2017. by Intern Minister McKinley Sims. When my brother and I were little, he got a full-size trampoline for his birthday. It was an incredible day. We promptly spent the night on the trampoline, sleeping in denim blankets under the stars. We spent every day of that first summer (and most days of the summers to follow) bouncing and rolling on that trampoline. We came up with elaborate games and stories we’d act out, spray each other with Super Soakers, and work to understand the laws of physics that allowed us both to body-slam the trampoline at the same time, causing a certain Stretch Armstrong doll to fly onto the roof of the house. Force = Mass x Acceleration was pretty obvious after a week or two. It was a risky activity, and more than once, we were yelled at for being unsafe. Of course, we felt like daredevils defying death with every jump, but the reality is that neither of us could get hurt too badly. At first, just bouncing on the trampoline was exhilarating, but the honeymoon only lasted so long. Eventually, we got more comfortable just bouncing up and down, and the risk factor went way down. The next logical step was, of course, trying to do a backflip. I remember standing still, waiting, thinking, trying to decide how best to go about it. For the first time, I felt the reality of the risk. There was something like a paralysis that struck me, and I wasn’t prepared for it. I wasn’t used to being frozen in inaction. The first small step was a big step in this instance. I simply had to go for it. Fear would prevent me from fully committing to the jump, and that was infinitely more dangerous than jumping as high and as well as I could. To take the first step into my risk, I had to be willing to go all the way. I learned to be committed. My sister, on the other hand, was not committed to risking a backflip. For her, simply bouncing on the trampoline at all was risky. Jumping too high was way too risky. Falling off was too risky. For her, simply taking the first step to bounce at all was a bigger risk than she was ready for. We were each stepping out of our comfort zones, but at different levels of ability and into different levels of risk. Sometimes, that’s all you can ask. Not everyone is going to be able to commit to backflips, and that’s OK. Congregational life can be like that. Not everyone feels called to sing in the choir or to chair a committee. Sometimes, just going to a different service than the one you’re used to is a risk. It is good to take that step, though. That’s how we stretch and grow. May we all be willing to step into the risk with which we are comfortable, whether it’s jumping and flipping or simply getting up onto the edge of the trampoline. If we all commit to at least getting up on the same bouncy surface, take at least that amount of risk, then we can look up at the stars together.

by Director of Music and Arts Laura Weiss. What if someone were to film a documentary of your voice? Your voice would be the star of the show. What if a producer were to tell your story based on the life of that voice? I wonder what we might hear; what might we see? The film might begin with your first infant cry - then perhaps a close-up of your first words with mom or dad. Perhaps it might then pan out to your first sentences or first questions about the world. Were you to show the documentary to your friends, you’d be joyous remembering certain moments as you watched - the first speech you gave in class, the first time you told your partner you loved them, the moment you asked someone to marry you, the songs you sang at a loved-one’s wedding. And then there would be other scenes - times when your voice wounded another, demanded more and healed less, perhaps gossiped or lied. Perhaps you might empathize with characters and feel the heartache your voice caused. Oh, the power of our voices. Leave that power unmanaged and it becomes a weapon - clawing for power. But speech can also be an instrument for good - a music ministry in its own right. Your voice is an instrument of grace; not just a tool for healing, but love speaking through you. You have the responsibility to play it well. We are all ministering to one another all of the time. Your voice can reflect the sonorous connection to all humankind, spirit, God or the universe. It can serve as a tool through which the deepest parts of our emotions can be experienced. So how will you use your voice? What songs will it sing?

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 Pete Krone, Annual Giving Campaign Co-chair. Reimagining the possible. When seismic shifts occur in our lives, our community and our country, we are called on to look to our values and what matters most and then to re-imagine what can and must be done. Reimagine the hopes of a visitor walking through our doors – realizing that at one time we have all been a visitor. This year’s Annual Giving Campaign’s theme is just that – Reimagining the Possible - looking at what matters most and providing financial support for what must be done to ensure that UUCF is a vibrant, engaged and financially sound congregation. The annual campaign is the largest fundraising effort at UUCF, the proceeds of which account for 78.9% of our total operating funds. Our goal this year is $1,050,000, which is a 9.4% increase over last year's pledges and includes funding for: Regular annual contributions to capital and operating reserves. Staffing adjustments to strengthen member development and engagement and to provide more ministry support. A modest pay increase for our staff who received no increase last year. Training an intern minister as part of UUCF’s commitment to being a teaching congregation. Continued UUCF tradition of strong support for our denomination. Reimagine the possible if we exceed our goal. We have reimagined how the campaign will work this year. In past years, each individual or family has received a pledge packet, filled out the pledge card and returned it. This year we are going to have a Giving Communion, similar to flower and water communions. This is to be a celebration of generosity in community and here is how it will happen: On Sun., Mar. 12, pledge packets will be available for pick up after the 9:15 and 11:15 a.m. services. Packets not picked up will be mailed. The pledge packet will include financial and pledge information and a pledge card. Pledges may be made electronically. There will be a Q&A session held on Wed., Mar. 15, 7-8 p.m., in the Library, where the Annual Giving Committee will address your questions about UUCF finances or the Annual Giving Campaign. You will be asked to return your pledge card on Sun., Mar. 19, during the Giving Communion ceremony at each service. Electronic pledges may be submitted as well. The Giving Communion celebrates generosity and acknowledges that no one person is responsible for the financial support of UUCF - that we all make this support happen as a loving community and, accordingly, we all bear the responsibility. Reimagine what you will be called to do and with whom you will be called. I would like to acknowledge the contributions of Annual Giving Campaign Co-Chair Meg Harrelson as well as the rest of the committee – Barb Kenny and John Kun - and the dedicated staff who supported the committee - Rev. David A. Miller, Rich Sider and Mary Lareau. Many thanks for their efforts! Let’s reimagine the possible. See you on Mar. 12 and 19.

by Associate Minister Rev. Laura Horton-Ludwig. The myth of Cupid and Psyche has been much on my mind as we approach Valentine’s Day this year. Do you know it? The story goes like this: Psyche, daughter of a king, is so beautiful and kind that Cupid, the god of love himself, has fallen in love with her from afar. Because of the jealous intervention of other gods, Cupid is only able to court her with a very strange condition. He can only approach her in the full darkness of night, or a curse will strike and bring disaster. Cupid and Psyche meet and fall in love, all by night, and for a time all is well. Psyche, however, becomes consumed with curiosity. Why does her lover refuse to let her see him? What could he be hiding? Is he some sort of horrible monster? One night, after he is asleep, she strikes a match and looks on him, beholding the most beautiful young man she has ever seen. Yet in that very moment, the curse is fulfilled and Cupid is torn away from his beloved Psyche. And we? How often have we ourselves reached out for love and yet feared to let ourselves be fully seen? In this month of reflecting on our theme of Identity, it’s poignant to think of all the ways we hide ourselves from one another, even from those we love. For fear of conflict, maybe, worried that our differences will spark an argument we’re not prepared to handle. For fear of rejection, sometimes, worried that if we allow ourselves truly to be seen, warts and all, we could not possibly be loved. Sometimes we may suppress our true being so deeply, even we ourselves have lost sight of it. Yet, for love to deepen, we have to take the risk of letting ourselves be seen for real. It can be so hard, but let us take courage from the testimony of our religious ancestors that our true self, our true being is always loved and worthy of love. That’s the message of our Universalist forebears who felt and knew so deeply that all are loved, no one excluded - everyone worthy and precious, no exceptions. If we can truly let this message into our hearts, it will transform us. Psyche is devastated but refuses to despair. She travels to the home of the gods and begs for their mercy. They set her a series of ordeals, near-impossible tasks that she barely manages to accomplish. Finally, after a long and weary time of difficult work, the gods take pity on Psyche and she is reunited with her beloved Cupid. And so, in the beautiful words of Edith Hamilton, “Love and the Soul (for that is what Psyche means) had sought and, after sore trials, found each other; and that union could never be broken.” Our soul longs for love. We long to know and be known, to hold and be held. My prayer is that each of us will find an answer to that longing – in the love of friends and family, and in the beauty of the earth and in the mystery that our ancestors called Love itself. Peace and blessings to all.

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 Associate Minister Rev. Laura Horton-Ludwig. Friends, yesterday would have been Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, 88th birthday. He was taken from us too soon – nearly 50 years ago now. It breaks my heart to think of what might have been, the leadership he might have offered us even today, had things been different. But still, his message echoes. Each year on this day, I observe MLK Day by re-reading his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” It echoes in my mind and heart, this powerful call to white people of faith to throw off their passivity and complacency and join in the struggle for racial justice. As with so many great texts, each time I read it, it speaks in new ways to my spirit. Here is the passage that leapt out at me this year: [T]hough I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter, I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.” Was not Amos an extremist for justice: “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.”... And John Bunyan: “I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience.” And Abraham Lincoln: "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free." ... So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? Will we? In this moment, when violent extremism is on the rise in our world – when it is all too easy to find extremists for hate and injustice – who will we be? Will we be extremists for love? Will we love our enemies? Will we bless those who curse us, do good to those who hate us, pray for those who “despitefully use us and persecute us,” without exception? Can we be extremists for love and for justice, at the very same time? A dear relative of mine with different political views has encouraged and challenged me to pray for the incoming administration. Or, in other words, to be an extremist for love. Could we do that, at the very same time that we are extremists for the extension of justice? Even as we march and witness and protest, could we pray for those who, in moments of bitterness, we may be sorely tempted to label our enemies? Could we recall our common humanity? Could we hold fast to our first UU principle, so simple and so endlessly challenging, to honor the inherent worth and dignity of every person, without exception? Not to agree or submit to that which goes against our values, not to be silent in the face of oppression – for that would do violence to ourselves, and to our neighbors, and to the truth that has been given to us to see - but to love without exception. To be clear and loving. To infuse our words of witness and our acts of protest with compassion at all times, in all ways. To pray for those we call our enemies, even as we witness and act for justice. Will we be extremists for love?

by Senior Minister Rev. David A. Miller. As we turn the page on the year and look forward to the year to come, I again can’t help but think about what it was like for my parents when the icons of their lives started passing on - Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly and so many others - these icons whose artistic gifts I gratefully had the privilege of experiencing in my younger years and continue to enjoy and appreciate. Now, the older I get, I understand that when the people who have helped us benchmark our lives die, we grieve on a variety of levels. These deaths are at times both tragic and they also speak to their place in the context of our lives. I know most of the words to the songs from “Singing in the Rain.” I remember vividly the experience of seeing “Star Wars” for the first time and I also think about how and when these things entered my life and what it means now that these people are gone. This has been a year of extraordinary loss, along with the difficult and uncertain political situation we face. It feels like a great deal to incorporate into our lives and it all can't help but contribute to our disequilibrium. There are no magic words that change any of this overnight, and 2017 could easily be as difficult or more difficult than 2016. I guess the point is that we who are here need to love and support each other, need to be there for each other and need to help each other cope through loss, grief, trouble or change, whatever the cause. There will certainly be dark days - there always are - but there will also be days filled with love and beauty, joy and magic. We ended the year with so much public loss, and yet, I continue to see things that give me hope, fill my spirit and motivate me to do my best to love the hell out of this world. I say this with such hope that you and yours will have a Happy New Year, knowing there will be times when we will need each other. Let us live our lives this year with (as the sign in front of the congregation now says) “Courageous Love, Relentless Compassion and Radical Kindness.” May that be so.

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 Director of Religious Exploration Linnea Nelson. I was holding the hands of a 6-year-old in Chapel recently as we faced each other and recited a simple loving-kindness prayer: “May you be happy. May you be healthy. May you be peaceful.” We then continued “May I be happy. May I be healthy. May I be peaceful.” This was so reassuring and renewed my determination about the importance of taking care of each other as we tackle the problems in this world. If you are familiar with loving-kindness, then you’ll recognize what we did next. We thought of someone we disagreed with or someone with whom we don’t get along. We held hands, closed our eyes and held that person in our minds and hearts as we chanted softly, “May you be happy. May you be healthy. May you be peaceful.” And finally, “May everyone be happy. May everyone be healthy. May everyone be peaceful.” The energy in the room changed a bit as we held this sacred space for our friends - and our adversaries - in loving-kindness. This moment touched me, seeing the children holding hands and looking into their friends’ faces. It reminded me how important it is to have friends at UUCF, people who can look into our eyes and say they care about us. Here, it may be easier to find people who value many of the things that we find important and meaningful in life. Being together fortifies us for the work we do out in the world and helps us to be compassionate while doing the work of justice. I am blessed to spend my time here at UUCF with our beautiful families. I so appreciate being able to see and feel the love that grows week by week in the classes, with the teachers and the families. My hope for this holiday season is that we all take time to get to know one another a little better. It has been a joy to get to know so many of you. Whether you are at a worship service, a concert, coffee hour or picking up your children in RE, let’s take the time to introduce ourselves to each other, to find common ground and to make a connection. Our gift this holiday season can be loving-kindness - and the gift of new friendships - that will sustain and hold us in the years to come.

by Senior Minister Rev. David A. Miller. I am struggling as much as anyone to put into perspective the ramifications of the election and its aftermath. Last night, I took a moment to watch an old episode of “Band of Brothers,” the one where they discover the concentration camp. It is a heart-wrenching episode, and it made me think about some of the speculation around the ramifications of this election. I’m hearing everything from “give them a chance” to “this is the end of the world as we know it.” I know we will continue to process this. I also know that the world has seen and survived ideologies of fear and hate before. At times it is hard for us to remember the pain the world has seen, and sometimes in the darkness it is hard to see the way into the light. In the last few days, I am seeing discussions on the left side of the political spectrum that feel like judgments about the right and wrong ways to respond to extreme right-wing ideologies. As we are finding our collective way, I feel like there will be many ways - mostly imperfect and yet necessary. To me, this isn’t about just politics, it is a movement for the soul of a nation, an evolution of an idea that has never been realized, yet continues to call us forward. How we respond to this will help define us for perhaps generations to come. There will be calls for all sorts of dissent. There will be calls to protest. There will be anger, frustration and resentment. But people must also see a vision of the possible to know what they are called to do. We can’t just protest, we must be a voice, we must model, we must not demand some sort of ideological purity, we must help build, we must not only critique, but also offer an alternative vision of a collective future. As I watch TV, each new Cabinet appointment makes my despair and anger rise. This is where my faith must come into play. We must never be passive in building a better future. Our efforts are vital, and each of us will have to decide which route we will take and where our energies will go in order to build the world for which we dream. I am still working on that, and last night, as I watched this warning from the past, I felt certain that I will need to stay vigilant about how I use my energies to deal with the struggle that we face and how I will not give in to the forces of bitterness that could overtake me if I let them. Finding hope in such a hard time is difficult, but there is so much work to do. That work must be fueled by hope. Fueling anything with despair never lasts. So, look for that hope, find it, let it inspire you. It is there. We need each other and we have such enormous energy, love and creativity. That gives me hope and bolsters me for the struggle to come.

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.

Oct. 31, 2016. by Cheryl Sadowski, Lay Minister for Adult Spiritual Development. Do you remember the joy of kaleidoscopes? - the long tubes pointing to a tapestry of light and color that organizes and reorganizes itself into a new picture with each twist of your hand? When you twist a kaleidoscope all the way around, you occasionally return to the very image at which you began, though really it isn’t quite the same. After all, prisms reflect and channel light, and light changes from one moment to the next. My own spiritual experience feels much like a kaleidoscope, having wound my way from a ritualized, cultural Catholic upbringing through threads of Buddhism, Taoism and naturalism, and ultimately through the welcoming doors of Unitarian Universalism. It’s under the sturdy, generous umbrella of this liberal faith tradition where I am most inspired by the collective deep and abiding interest in the world. Each person’s search for truth and meaning is, by its nature, individual and wholly authentic. But what of responsibility in this search? I take that as respect for individuality amid accountability to the faith community and betterment of all - a necessary and productive tension if we are to at all effective in our work. It’s interesting how little need there is for orthodoxy or spiritual certainty in our dealings with one another, or out in the world; I’m not convinced these things matter, or that they help. In the human realm where planes need to fly, bridges must stand and diseases be cured, I regularly place my faith in the certainty of pilots, engineers and doctors. But in matters of the human heart and how I want to be in relationship to the world, it is uncertainty that often leads to more exciting and tectonic places, where real change and growth occur. In her Ware Lecture at the 2014 Unitarian Universalist Association General Assembly, Sister Simone Campbell of the “Nuns on the Bus” movement described uncertainty as a critical part of her spirituality: “I describe my spirituality as walking willing. Walking willing to wherever we are led.” Walking willing isn’t easy, it requires innate curiosity, wonder and trust: Curiosity for the world beyond your own experience; wonder at the visible, the invisible and for the vastness of human compassion and cruelty; and trust that you will in some way be favorably changed by your journey. Walking willing is a mantra for seekers. From the ancient time of Arius through Servetus and Socitus of the early Renaissance to the split from Puritan Congregationalism to visionary and subversive thinkers like Lucy Stone, William Ellery Channing and Ralph Waldo Emerson - Unitarian Universalists have always been seekers - walking willing to challenge systems, decry bigotry and injustice, amplify the voices of the poor and oppressed, and give voice to the natural world, which cries out loudly, though not in the language of man. We seek because we want to make this world, not another, a better place for all through acts of love and justice. Our Fairfax congregation offers so much rich fodder for your spiritual journey - adult education classes of every variety, small-group communities, retreats and opportunities to work alongside one another, sermons that inspire and activate. I hope you are taking advantage of a few or many of these opportunities to find your path. As Buddhists are apt to remind us, the picture in the kaleidoscope is always changing. No sooner do we redress some inequalities, injustices or environmental tragedies than do new ones arise. Yet we are always seeking, growing, wondrous at the promising new tapestries we are able to envision and create, as individuals and with one another. What a wonderful way to be in the world.

by Lay Minister for Social Justice Wini Atlas. Unitarian Universalists have worked to bend the arc of the universe toward justice throughout our history. In 1850, transcendentalist Unitarian minister Theodore Parker, a noted abolitionist, wrote: "I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice." When Parker wrote those words, the Unitarians and the Universalists were immersed in the abolition of slavery. One strategy our faith uses in social justice work is the Congregational Study/Action Issue (CSAI). The Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) website states: "The Congregational Study/Action Issue is an invitation for congregations and districts to take a topic of concern and engage it, reflect on it, learn about it, respond to it, comment on it, take action - each in their own way. A CSAI is NOT a statement - it is a question." UUs believe that we are stronger together. By combining our efforts, we can accomplish more. As Unitarian Universalists, we set priorities for our social justice efforts, namely those issues that exemplify our commitment to our Second Principle: justice, equity and compassion in human relations. One way we do this is through the CSAI process. As UUCF’s lay minister for social justice and a member of the UUCF Denominational Connections Committee, I'd like to tell you more about the three most recent CSAIs. The CSAI process takes 4 years. After the first 3 years of study, delegates to the UUA General Assembly (GA) can vote to approve the CSAI as a Statement of Conscience (SoC). At this year’s UUA GA, attendees voted on the 2015 SoC on reproductive justice. We are in the final year of discernment on the escalating inequality CSAI. Last year, a UUCF task force presented a series of monthly meetings exploring factors that contribute to escalating inequalilty. Now we are ready for the next step in the process. A draft SoC and a ballot to place this CSAI on the 2017 GA agenda will be included in the congregational poll that every UUA congregation fills out yearly. The poll will come out on Nov. 15 and comments are due by Feb. 1, 2017. The draft SoC will be posted on the UUCF website and your comments will be collected and transmitted to the UUA Committee on Social Witness that manages the CSAI process. We hope you will comment on the draft SoC, including your vote for or against it. Your votes will be included in UUCF's response to the poll. A quorum of 25% of congregations must be reached for the SoC to be placed on the 2017 GA ballot. Key dates and steps in the escalating inequality Statement of Conscience process can be found here. At the 2016 General Assembly, five new CSAI topics were presented for consideration by the attendees, which is how the process starts. Congregations are asked to submit proposals for new CSAIs and the Committee on Social Witness chooses as many as 10 for comment before choosing no more than five to present to GA delegates. The CSAI topic chosen this year was corruption of our democracy. Please comment on the draft SoC and think seriously about attending the 2017 GA in New Orleans. Please also consider being a UUCF delegate. Delegates vote on UUA business including whether to accept a Statement of Conscience or to create a new Congressional Study/Action Issue. The Denominational Connections Committee selects delegates with Coordinating Team approval before each GA. For information on being a delegate, click here and look for Upcoming Events.

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.

I watched the Ken Burns documentary "Defying the Nazis: The Sharps' War" on PBS Tuesday night. From the earliest age, growing up Jewish near Skokie, IL, a place with the highest population of Holocaust survivors anywhere besides Israel, I was aware of anti-immigrant prejudice and political fascism and recognized that some lives were valued more than others. I have come to believe that history doesn't repeat itself; we must continuously fight the forces in us and around us that threaten to overtake the world with the worst, instead of the best, of humanity. We are in another one of those times. The irony of watching this documentary is that now my connection is on the other side. As a Unitarian Universalist minister, how can I be inspired by the courage of the Sharps who helped some of "my people" a generation ago to stand up and do the right thing in the face of today's many challenges in the world? It is a hard time right now. There are forces rising. We have seen different manifestations of them before. Courage in action doesn't crave hope, it creates hope. Stay strong, love can win.

by Senior Minister Rev. David A. Miller. As we return to UUCF for the new congregational year, it has been a hot summer with so much going on in the world. I am looking forward to a wonderful year here at UUCF. I am so excited about having a year under our belts together and being the minister of a congregation with such an incredible history and filled with such amazing possibilities. Through July and August, much goes on behind the scenes to prepare for the start of the congregational year. There have been planning retreats with ministers, staff and lay leaders. Groups like the Social Justice Council, the Worship Committee and the Coordinating Team are all working on plans to deepen our connections and further fulfill UUCF’s mission. I am thrilled to welcome UUCF's new Intern Minister McKinley Sims and Director of Music & Arts Laura Weiss. There has also been a good deal of activity on the campus including floor waxing, carpet cleaning and further grounds beautifying. The list of events being planned for the year is growing, with events and activities through the holiday already looking full and exciting. One new social event of note is the Holiday Potluck and Party where we will join to hang the greens, share delicious food and sing together. Please save the evening of Dec. 3 for that one and check the announcements and the calendar for the many other opportunities where we can come together as a community to connect more deeply with each other. For me, this summer also provided educational and deeply transformational experiences through trips to the Unitarian Universalist Association General Assembly and a couple of Moral Monday-related trainings with the Rev. Dr. William Barber II. With the tumult in the world, it has been both helpful to me personally and hopefully important to our ministry together to have participated in these experiences. We start fresh again with so much need for our mission of transforming the world through acts of love and justice. With this year will come many challenges and it will also bring joy, connection, sustenance, deep meaning and love. For those of you who were gone, welcome back. For those who were here, I am so glad we will all be together again. Once again, I am so excited about our coming year and I look forward to taking this next step in our collective journey.

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 Rev. David A. Miller. As we are preparing to join together from whatever summer brought us, there are a few things that I have been thinking about and processing with colleagues and friends. It is inescapable to note the increase in worry, not only because of this summer’s tragic events, but also the current political campaign season and the endless stream of commentary in the news and social media. In observing the cultural phenomenon that is social media, it does seem to connect us in a myriad of ways never before seen in modern life. My concern is that although it does seem to help superficially increase our connection, the demands of modern life also leave our time and availability to connect in deeper and more meaningful ways lacking. With that said, I would like to suggest that we introduce an overarching theme this year, a year of Building Relationships/Deepening Connections. I am going to challenge us all - staff, worship leaders, small group ministry, adult and children’s education, social justice, music folks and all of the programs of this congregation - to think about how to help provide opportunities to deepen our connections to each other, the community and the planet. This is meant to put us, as often as possible, in the same physical location together, to share experiences together, to supporting each other in challenging our comfort to grow as we reach out in love to those isolated and hurting. Many people say the reason they attend this congregation is “community,” which in so many ways is an umbrella term for the desire to be seen and accepted, to love and be loved and to deepen our connections. There will be more about this as time progresses, but I would like to take note of two specific upcoming events designed to help with broader and deeper connections: The Revival: Time for a Moral Revolution of Values This coming Sunday, many of us from UUCF will join people of faith from all over the DC area for “The Revival: Time for a Moral Revolution of Values.” Led by Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes, Rev. Traci Blackmon and Sister Simone Campbell, this national tour aims to redefine morality in American politics and challenge leaders of faith and moral courage to be more vocally opposed to harmful policies that disproportionately affect the poor, people who are ill, children, immigrants, communities of color and religious minorities. If you wish to join me, please contact me at revd@uucf.org. Sun., Aug. 28, 2016, 5-7:30 p.m., Pennsylvania Ave Baptist Church, 3000 Pennsylvania Avenue Southeast Washington, DC, 2002. Finding Common Ground: A Reverse Town Hall to End Gun Violence This event is about finding a deeper connection between gun owners and non-gun owners in hopes of building relationships in order to find common ground. As a reminder, it is Sat., Sep. 17, 6-8:30 p.m., here at UUCF. You can register at uucf.org/finding-common-ground. This year I hope we are ready and willing to find the deeper path - the one that takes some risks and may feel a bit vulnerable - for we are at a time where finding points of human connection is important to building a more loving world. I look forward to this year’s shared journey.

by Wini Atlas. Social justice is one of my passions. It is a joy of my UUCF membership that many in the congregation share this passion. This community is so much more together than merely the sum of its parts. As I reflect on my first year as lay minister for social justice, I'm more aware of this than ever before. I started my tenure with joy, anticipation and a bit of trepidation. I was lucky to have the support and encouragement of Martha Ades, the outgoing lay minister for social justice. Rev. David A. Miller, at that time starting his ministry with us, made it clear that social justice was also important to him. I am grateful for his counsel over the past year. One of my goals for my tenure as lay minister was to start a conversation at UUCF about racial justice. UCCF has a long and strong history of racial justice work, and I was glad to find we were on the same wavelength when Rev. David told me about Standing on the Side of Love’s “Thirty Days of Love,” a racial justice education and advocacy program. Last fall, a group formed to plan the monthlong program and UUCF had an amazing and inspiring month of activities and services about racial justice beginning on Martin Luther King, Jr’s, birthday weekend and ending on Valentine's Day. I'm grateful that the planning group has grown into the Racial Justice Steering Committee – under the able leadership of Kaye Cook, Mary Frances Kordick and Milo Valenzuela – so that we can continue these conversations. I am lucky to have such dedicated members on the Social Justice Council (SJC). Judith Keith, Bob McCarthy, Sandy Myles, Rita Roth and Autumn Yates, along with youth member Sidney Roth, have generously contributed their unique perspectives to our work. We learned a lot about each other in the continual effort to fulfill the recommendations of the Program Evaluation Committee's (PEC) 2014 report on social justice by evaluating our charter, covenant and job descriptions to ensure they reflected the strategic thinking that the PEC felt would make the social justice program more vital. We reviewed the social justice mission, vision and goals and the new strategic goals of the congregation when they became available. Rev. David brought the Unitarian Universalist Association workbook “Inspired Faith, Effective Action” to our attention and it contained a good blueprint for our social justice groups to evaluate their work and help them understand the new strategic thrust of the SJC. This effort will continue with the UUCF Social Justice Summit on Oct. 1. Change isn't always easy but I've seen many examples of good will and beloved conversations as the work continues. All sorts of social justice work is happening at UUCF and I am amazed at the dedication of those involved. I've learned over the last year how important it is to give service but also to try to change policy so that someday the service may not be needed. I've also learned that help has many nuances. Our attitude toward service is changing. It is not enough to tell those we help what they need. It is better to try to discover with them how we can work together to meet their needs; to learn how we can be allies to those we help. This can be a hard lesson to learn; yet I realize, more than ever, that striving toward that goal is important spiritual work. As a new congregational year begins, those of us involved in social justice at UUCF look forward to many of our programs gearing up. Watch the UUCF announcements for information on many social justice efforts, many of them intergenerational, happening in 2016-17.

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 Rev. Laura Horton-Ludwig. Jul. 9, 2016. Dear UUCF family, What a difficult, sad week we have been witness to in the world. I know you join me in mourning the senseless deaths of Alton Sterling and Philandro Castile, gunned down this week by police officers. And then the news on Thursday night of five officers in Dallas, killed by a sniper during a peaceful Black Lives Matter event. So much sorrow. So much fear and vulnerability. So much trauma. We seek to hold it all in compassion, even as we continue to work for justice. Community is never more important than at times like these. If you need a place to gather with others, come to UUCF. Tomorrow (Sunday) morning, I will be leading a drop-in Circle of Listening and Song, 9-9:30 a.m., in the Chapel. We will sit in silence together, listening for the inner voice within us. We will speak, as we are moved, of what needs to be said right now. We will sing hymns, if that feels right in the moment. All are welcome. If you need childcare, please bring your children to the Music Room, where Sarah and Brian Jebian will be leading positive, upbeat songs for kids, 9-9:30 a.m. No RSVP required. Then, we'll transition to the hope and grace of our annual child-friendly animal blessing service at 10 a.m., where we will celebrate the gifts of friendship across all barriers. Tomorrow (Sunday) night, especially if you identify as white, you are invited to return to UUCF for an emergency meeting of SURJ NoVA (Showing up for Racial Justice - the local chapter of a national network organizing white people for racial justice) on responding to police violence, 7-9 p.m. at UUCF. Childcare will be provided; no RSVP required. In addition, please save the date for the 6th Summit for UUs and Humanists in our area who are working for liberation from racism: Sun., Jul. 24 at Paint Branch UU Church in Adelphi, MD, 2-6:30 p.m. Watch for more information in our weekly emails. I also want you to know that UUCF is one of many UU congregations that have responded to a call from Black Lives of UU this week to offer free meeting space to Black community organizers as needed. There is so much more to do. The work will go on. For now, I urge you to do what you can today and take good care of yourselves. Re-ground yourselves in your spiritual practice and everything that feeds your spirit. Seek out what helps you feel whole. When you've caught your breath, take one more action to educate yourself about what's going on, especially if you identify as white. Following Black Lives of UU on social media is a great place to start. Dear ones, let us move forward together in compassion and strength. Blessings to you and to all the brave leaders who call us to stretch our hearts. summon our courageand join in the struggle together. With love, Rev. Laura P.S. After this week, I'll be taking some time away from UUCF to prepare for next year's sermons and other big projects, then spending a couple of weeks on vacation. Rev. David will be back on Jul. 19 and you'll see me back on Aug. 21. Take good care and be well.

by John Cunningham, Coordinating Team Lay Member. Hi everyone. I'm finishing up 4 years of service on the UUCF Coordinating Team (CT), and I'd like to tell you a bit about that. One ethic of camping is “leave it better than you found it.” Of course you should haul your own trash out when you leave, but if people who were there before you left trash behind, haul that out too. If the fire ring needs to be rebuilt, do that. If tree branches have fallen down into the tent area, toss them back into the brush. I like to think of service on the CT in a similar vein. It has given me and others before me an opportunity to leave UUCF better than we found it. The CT is the operational arm of the congregation: the Board of Directors sets policy and the CT executes it. The CT is responsible for the day-to-day management of UUCF, strategic planning, assessment of programs and initial preparation of the congregation's annual operating budget. In addition, the CT has been charged with disbursement of Reach Campaign capital funds in a manner consistent with the priorities established by the board at the start of the Reach Campaign in January 2013. Our two ministers, David and Laura, are permanent members of the CT, and so is Rich Sider, UUCF’s Director of Administration. They are joined by two lay members of the congregation, who serve 2-year terms with an option to renew for another 2 years. I was privileged to serve with Kristin Moyer and then Kathy Smerke Hochberg. Because the CT is the keeper of UUCF’s purse, congregants who support a cause that would cost money to achieve must approach the CT for funding. That is one of the most difficult and challenging parts of life on the CT. I've served in various leadership positions since I went onto the board in 1999. One fact has been a constant: UUCF never has enough money to do all the things that its members want it to do. But after all, most people don't have enough money to do all the things they want to do, and the same is true of our social institutions. There are always going to be limits. The CT must be a good steward of UUCF’s resources, and it must say “no” or “not yet” when it has to. But there is also joy when money is available and it is possible to do great things. During my time on the CT, the parking lot has been transformed, the Sanctuary has a new pulpit and new chalice, the Program Building has new furniture, rooms have been brightened with new paint and new technology now supports our Sunday services and brings our UU message of tolerance and understanding out into the world. My own special responsibility on the CT has been to serve as the first chair of the Program Evaluation Committee (PEC). This is a subcommittee of the CT, which is charged with reviewing a particular UUCF program each year and, to the extent improvements need to be made, submitting appropriate recommendations. If the PEC report is approved by the CT, it goes to the board. Over 4 years, the PEC has examined fellowship, social justice, financial stewardship and, most recently, property stewardship. The PEC reports (you can access them at uucf.org/ct) were well received and have led to some major changes in how UUCF pursues its social justice ministry and how it conducts its fundraising. In doing this work, I was able to link arms with Jan Cooper, Hal Fuller, Meghan Crowley, Nancy Smith and Torie Gorges. Together, I'd like to think, we left UUCF “better than we found it.”

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.

by Michael Liggett, Janet Cushing and Rev. David Miller, Innovation Fund Committee. “My favorite words are possibilities, opportunities and curiosity. I think if you are curious, you create opportunities, and then if you open the doors, you create possibilities.”  - Mario Testino It is with great pleasure that we announce the opening of the UUCF Stan Richards Innovation Fund. This fund, established through a bequest from long-term UUCF member Stan Richards, grants funding for highly innovative seed projects that expand UUCF’s outreach to persons not now engaged. The goal is that those touched will become engaged with UU values, principles and connections, ultimately contributing to sustaining the initiative longer term for the growth of Unitarian Universalism. Any member of the congregation or staff may propose projects. Projects will be funded until we reach our budget limit of $250,000. Projects must include a clear business plan, objective measures of progress, funding schedule, review points, etc. It is understood that innovative projects will have a high failure rate from which UUCF will learn and move forward. Please go to UUCF.org/innovation-fund for details about the requirements and application process. The first step is to submit a project abstract of 500 words or fewer by Jun. 10. Please embrace your curiosity and let’s explore what doors we might open together.

by Rev. David A. Miller. It's hard to know what to write after being at a conference for 3 days that feels like it is dealing with the most urgent topics in a world so badly needing revolutionary love … but this is the way it feels this weekend in New York City. I write this at the closing of The Middle Project’s 2016 conference Revolutionary Love: Tools, Tactics and Truth-telling to Dismantle Racism. It was hard to listen to the stellar leaders, activists and strugglers in the work of human equality and dignity and not think that this is the central calling of our time - the struggle to dismantle our system of white supremacy that lives in us all, that pervades our institutions and that appears in our political process so obviously right now. It is a necessary challenge to our comfort, it is a call to move forward - however we can, whenever we can, wherever we can. What this conference has stressed, however, is the need to do this with revolutionary love, perhaps as defined by activist Valarie Kaur: What do we mean by love? A well-spring of care; an awakening to inherent dignity and beauty; a quieting of the ego; a way of moving through the world in relationship, asking: What is your story? What is at stake? What is my part in your flourishing? When is this kind of love “revolutionary?” When we work together to change culture and policy in love - love for others, our opponents and ourselves - we create the conditions for lasting political, social and moral transformation. I will return to you this week with this in my heart. I think about our pledge campaign in these terms: How can we fully fund this work of revolutionary love? I think about the upcoming installation as a call for the fierce urgency of revolutionary love. I think of our work on our strategic plan, vision and mission as our particular approach to birthing more revolutionary love in this world. This past weekend was both heartbreaking and hope-making. The path forward is uncertain and messy. Our shared understanding or agreement will not always be in sync. We are all moving forward from where we are. My hope is that we will all move forward. My inspiration can be found in these quotes from the conference: "The table is incomplete until all have arrived," and "How we make the change is as important as the change we make." This raises the question for me personally, for our congregation, for Unitarian Universalism and for us all: How revolutionary is our love and what risks are we willing to take to truly change the world? With love and hope.

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.

Mar. 14, 2016. by Peter Krone, chair, 2016 UUCF Annual Giving Campaign. I have been at UUCF for just over 30 years and have worked on many giving campaigns - pledge drives, canvasses, annual giving and capital fundraising efforts and I have been asked WHY - why take on the task of chairing this year’s campaign? I think the answer came to me in our deliberations about this year’s theme - “Now, more than ever, we are called”: We are called to be a presence in this community - to keep our doors open so that we may welcome the stranger, the visitor - remembering that at some time, we all have been visitors here. We are called to extend our greeting - “you are welcome here” - beyond our Sanctuary walls to those participating via live streaming, listening to podcasts, browsing our website and wherever the values of our faith may be welcome or needed. We are called to ensure the religious education of our children and youth, the continuing education of adults, the education of members of our larger community, education for UUs in India and Romania and to raise the next generation to do good. We are called to support our ministers and staff, upon whom we depend so much, with a fair and just income. We are called to social justice for working toward climate solutions, fighting for racial justice, preventing gun violence, working to end homelessness and hunger, supporting our immigrant neighbors and fighting for reproductive justice, just to mention a few. And, now more than ever, we are called to be an alternative, through what we say and what we do, to the fear, anger and hate that is becoming an everyday experience in our society. Now, more than ever, we are really called. This year’s campaign is UUCF’s largest and most significant fundraising effort, providing almost 80% of the funds needed to run our congregation. Our goal this year is more than $1 million - $1.072 million to be exact - and this goal is consistent with prior-year goals and is necessary to support our congregation for 2016-17. Last year, the actual giving amount was $100,000 short of the goal. We ended up at $970,000. It was a year of transition for us and because of a generous bequest from Stan Richards and some budget cuts, we were able to meet our financial obligations and avoid a staff furlough. This year, we need to make up that difference and the math is simple - $100,000 from a projected 500 pledging households is a $200 increase for each annual pledge. (That works out to an increase of about $17 per month.) Now I understand that this may not be possible for everyone, so meeting our goal is going to require each of us to give some serious thought about our giving levels. I encourage everyone to participate - 100% participation - and to consider the giving guidelines of 2% of gross income or at least a $200 increase in your pledge amount. Any and all pledges will be gratefully accepted. I believe it’s important to communicate expectations about UUCF’s financial goals and then work hard to achieve those goals. Talking about the congregation’s financial needs is not always an easy conversation, but it is a necessary one. I strongly encourage you, even if you are uncomfortable with financial matters, to study and understand UUCF’s finances - where our money comes from and how it is used - as you consider your pledge amount. Please ask if you have questions. I want to thank everyone who picked up their Annual Giving pledge packets yesterday. For those who were unable to do so, your packet will be mailed to you. Packets include a wonderful message from Rev. David Miller, a pledge card with pledging instructions, recommended giving levels and financial information about UUCF. Pledges may be mailed, entered online or delivered in person on Sunday mornings. Also, your pledge is confidential - no one on the Annual Giving Committee will know what you pledge. I also want to reiterate my thanks and appreciation for the Annual Giving Campaign committee, staff and volunteers who have worked on this campaign. The Annual Giving Committee - Terry Goplerud, David Saunders, Barbara Kenny and Darryl Branting and I - has been actively working on this campaign and we are supported by our staff, Rev. David, Director of Administration Rich Sider and Communications Director Mary Lareau. Now, more than ever … let’s make this happen.

by Rev. Laura Horton-Ludwig. You’re voting tomorrow, right? If you’re an eligible voter, I hope you’ll make it to the polls tomorrow for Virginia’s presidential primary. I don’t have to tell you there’s a lot at stake this year. I hope we all get out and vote according to our values. For some, it’s been a tough choice to figure out where to cast our votes this time around. And for some, personal relationships have been tested, even strained. One of my dearest friends has been very active in supporting a different candidate from the one I prefer. And it’s been a little challenging. We both feel passionate about our hopes for the future of our country, and though our visions are pretty close together, our opinions on the best way to get there are not. We’ve had to lean on our love for one another, nurtured over many years, to get through this time of tension, suspense, hope and anxiety. Luckily, the love we feel for one another is real, and strong enough to carry us through our differences of opinion. I do wonder, though, about how our neighborhoods and communities are going to fare as the election cycle moves forward. It can be such a nasty time. I remember back in 2008 when an extremely divisive anti-gay measure was on the ballot in California, where I was living. My UU congregation was on the front lines of the battle - and it did feel like a battle! - organizing rallies and protests, writing letters to the newspaper, distributing yard signs. Oh, the yard signs! Many of my congregants had their yard signs stolen or vandalized repeatedly. Others, including some of our LGBT members, reported how deeply disconcerting it was for them to watch their neighbors, with whom they had gotten along peacefully for years, put up their own yard signs against marriage equality. It was a rough time for our local community. Relationships were strained, a sense of community solidarity severely damaged. I don’t want our communities here to go through that kind of fractious, fracturing election season. And yet, I worry that that’s where we may be headed this year, with so much at stake and the choices between parties so stark. So I’ve been asking myself, what does our Unitarian Universalist faith have to offer at this critical time? First, the clarion call to live by our values. To vote, and if you are moved, to campaign for the candidate you think will best help our country live into a future of more justice, more love and more compassion for all. First and foremost, vote your values. But don’t forget what our faith teaches us about respect for every person. And about love that reaches across the divides of opinion and belief. This is what will hold our communities together, now and in every season. I come back again and again to these words of Hosea Ballou, the greatest Universalist theologian of the 19th Century: “If we agree in love, there is no disagreement that can do us any injury, but if we do not, no other agreement can do us any good.” If we agree in love - that is, if we as neighbors and friends agree that love is a priority for us and our communities; if we agree that we will love each other, come what may; if we stay faithful to the commitment we have made to practice love - then our disagreements cannot hurt the communities we have built together. In this election season especially, I challenge you to be agents of love in your neighborhoods. Vote your values, but love your neighbors, no matter who they are voting for. Vote your values and love your neighbors - this is how we build the world we seek.

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 Rev. Laura Horton-Ludwig. Ow! I woke up the other day with an unexpected pain in my foot. I’d been to see a podiatrist and received a cortisone shot the day before to deal with some minor-but-persistent chronic pain. I’d been thrilled that the cortisone shot was a good option for me. I’d had a cortisone shot once before, 10 years ago, when I had a bad case of plantar fasciitis, and I remember it worked like magic. After months of pain and struggling, I had felt instantly better and the problem never returned. And so, this time around, I was expecting total and instant relief. Instead, the pain in my foot got worse, not better! And worse than the physical pain was the anxiety I felt at this confounding of my expectations. What was wrong?! Had I just made a terrible mistake? Would it ever get better? Anxious Googler that I am, I looked up my symptoms and discovered that, indeed, some people do experience a temporary intensification of pain after a cortisone shot. I called my podiatrist and he confirmed that this reaction was not unexpected. So, OK. My foot still hurt, but I could recalibrate my expectations about what I was experiencing. And that made me feel better. Friends, this month our congregational theme is Expectation. When we first chose this theme, my imagination went immediately to the Christian tradition of Advent - a time of expectation and joyful, patient waiting for Christmas Day. At least, that’s the idea! The expectations of Advent are different from the expectations we bring to our own lives. Celebrating Advent invites us into a kind of expectation that is fundamentally joyful, because the wonderful outcome is already known. There is no doubt. We can count down the days to Jesus’s birth without fear, because what we celebrate on Christmas Day is not a hoped-for future event, but a mythical recurrence, a story that has woven itself into our collective consciousness over millennia, deeply connected to the seasons and cycles of the year. I had looked forward, this year, to savoring the sweet, fearless expectations of Advent. But the world has gotten in the way, more than usual. We have been so deeply challenged by events in the world - a flood of violence and prejudice in our own country … so many desperate refugees fleeing violence in their own homelands … so many needs crying out for our help and care. So much to do, so much that feels uncertain, so much at stake. It does not feel like a season of peaceful waiting. But still, I wonder - can this time of Advent still be an invitation to nurture our basic trust in the future? To do our best, and trust that that will be enough? To let go of our expectations about what is right and what should happen? I need that lesson too. In my own family, I have been deeply thrown by my mother’s recent cancer diagnosis. After my dad died last December, I hoped and expected that our family would have a break from struggle and grief. I literally did expect that. In my mind, I absolutely expected a few years of peace and well-being. It was an expectation that, in retrospect, was not logical or driven by anything but my own craving. And so, when my mom told us last month that she had cancer, I was shocked to my core. What had happened to those years off from struggle? Hadn’t I decided that nothing like this would happen for a while? But the universe did not consult my will. Again I was forced into a painful recalibration of my expectations for what the future would hold. And yet, I find that this season of Advent expectations has not abandoned me completely. Night after night I have lit candles and sat in silence for a few minutes. Remembering my Buddhist teachings around accepting what is. Remembering Christmases past, both joyful and poignant. Adjusting my expectations, looking for the beauty in this present moment. Asking myself, “How can I trust the darkness and embody light, right now?” And I know, not so much with my mind as with my heart, that love is present. Hope is here. Holiday blessings to you all, dear ones. May you dwell in the joy that comes your way, and move with grace through all that is difficult. And may the light and life of this season be with you always.

by Rev. David A. Miller. I have been watching the reaction to Donald Trump in the media and on Facebook and was thinking whether there was anything I could say that hasn't already been said. There have been all kinds of responses from horror to anger and everything in between. I have to say that I am not surprised and I am deeply saddened. I am sad that we have come to another dark time in the history of this country. I keep hoping these dark periods won't keep happening, and yet they do. I try to stay mindful of history. Reflecting on McCarthyism, President Harry S. Truman said, "[we are] going to continue to fight communism. Now I am going to tell you how we are not going to fight communism. We are not going to transform our fine FBI into a Gestapo secret police. That is what some people would like to do. We are not going to try to control what our people read and say and think. We are not going to turn the United States into a right-wing totalitarian country in order to deal with a left-wing totalitarian threat." There is additional wisdom from history in this quote from Edward R. Morrow: "No one man can terrorize a whole nation unless we are all his accomplices." We have faced Donald Trumps before. But how do we best stand up against these types - those who try to control with fear and hate, those who paint pictures of an America and the world with incredibly simplistic images of good and evil to gather power, favor or money? I don't know if there is an easy formula or just one way. It took years and vigilance to defeat the virus of McCarthyism and it will take time to extinguish the fires of hate being stoked by Trump, but we have the power to decide how we will respond and I for one do not intend to be his accomplice. I believe that there have to be millions of Republicans who find his message to be repugnant, just as I believe there are unknown numbers of gun owners who don't agree with the National Rifle Association party line and police officers who are disgusted with state-sanctioned violence. I also know that there are Israelis looking for peace with their neighbors, that most Christians don't want to blow up abortion clinics and most Muslims are loving, kind and compassionate human beings. If I had unlimited time and resources, I would mount campaigns to find all of them, engage them and funnel their time and energy as much as possible to support hope, to build common ground and to work together to find solutions to the issues that we all face. I am not nor will I ever suggest passivity, nor am I thinking that there aren't going to be differences that will threaten to drive us deeper apart. But we will never, not ever, ever, ever solve these problems by supporting "our" stereotypes of "them" or yelling at the top of our lungs as others yell at the top of theirs. I suggest a strategy of radical engagement and extraordinary invitation. Reach out without attacking. Find strength with others who will work with you to support your efforts. Break through the walls of public debate to get to know other humans. Nourish your spiritual needs. Navigate the barriers of culture and custom. Diffuse anxiety. De-escalate rhetoric. We must stand strong, firm and resolved, but how we do that, the actions that we take, the way we react and our path forward must not be in reaction to or dictated by the Donald Trumps of the world. Only we have the power to decide that no one man can terrorize a whole nation unless we all decide that we will be his accomplices.

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 and Lay Minister for Social Justice Wini Atlas. A couple of weeks ago we made Black Lives Matter buttons available for all of us to wear at Cox Farms when we gathered to support UUCF’s Cox-Leow family. We realized after the event that we hadn’t shared any information on what it might be like to wear the buttons – how it might feel and the conversations that could arise. If you’re going to start wearing your Black Lives Matter button regularly, remember that you may face questions, comments and possibly even criticisms. You may also become more aware of a range of feelings and opinions including the deep struggle around systemic racism surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement. This may be painful and you may want to back away from this experience, but we encourage you to stay present in the conversation, even when it gets hard. For change to happen, we must be engaged in the conversation. If you have difficult exchanges and want to process your experiences, Rev. David is available to talk. We also hope to have a good deal more conversation around these issues in our upcoming Thirty Days of Love focusing on racial justice beginning in mid-January. For those of you who are committing to wearing the buttons, UU ministers Revs. Gail Geisenhainer* and Barbara Hoag Gadon recommend approaching the experience with a healthy dose of mindfulness: Wear the button as consistently as possible. Have a relationship with your button. Notice when you choose to wear it and when you choose not to. Notice how it feels to have the privilege of choice. Don't say anything to call attention to the button. Wait to see who is interested and how they respond. Notice who responds and who doesn't. Notice the stories you make up in absence of dialogue! Practice what you will say if people ask. The opportunities for conversation and connection can come and go so quickly, it's easy to freeze. Notice your feelings, but do not dwell on them, particularly shame. A credo of racial activism that is helpful here: No shame; it's all data. You're doing it to practice and to learn. Do whatever helps you to be consistent in practicing your new awareness and activism. Keep an extra button with you if you tend to forget; it's also nice to be able to give them away when people ask. Do the exercise with other people. Learn and grow with each other and in community. Check in with them about your experiences via social media or face-to-face. * Gail Geisenhainer gave a guest minister sermon here some time ago in which she spoke about the need for advocates not affected by the issue to stand beside and support those struggling for their rights. It affected me profoundly.

  by Rev. David A. Miller.   “Messenger” by Mary Oliver. My work is loving the world. Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird - equal seekers of sweetness. Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums. Here the clam deep in the speckled sand. Are my boots old? Is my coat torn? Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect? Let me keep my mind on what matters, which is my work, which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished. The phoebe, the delphinium. The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture. Which is mostly rejoicing, since all the ingredients are here, which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart and these body-clothes, a mouth with which to give shouts of joy to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam, telling them all, over and over, how it is that we live forever. Autumn is a season of gratitude. It is the season where the sunlight wanes, there is a crispness in the air and the feeling of the coming holidays infuses us as we come together with family, whether family of origin or family of choice. I also love this time of year in the life of the congregation as we experience the celebrations of darkness and light, of birth and of the promise of each new year. As we begin this first holiday season together, I want to express my gratitude for being a part of the story of UUCF and I am so deeply grateful for the opportunity to experience this time of year with all of you. We will laugh, cry, celebrate, share in yearly rituals and be joyful together. In these challenging times, we are so fortunate to have each other. I also look forward to this coming weekend’s startup activities where I will learn more of the story of UUCF and of many of you. So, as we join together during this season of colors, gratitude and community, I will cherish the memories to be made, the joy to be shared and the deep gratitude I already feel from being your Parish Minister.

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.

by 47 Northern Virginia clergy and faith leaders.  Today, we rejoice in the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court upholding the federal right of same sex partners to legal marriage in the cases of Obergefell v. Hodges, Tanco v. Haslam, DeBoer v. Snyder, Bourke v. Beshear. We give thanks for the discernment shown by the Justices on this issue and their standing on the side of love. We give thanks that today, for the first time in our nation’s history, the marriages of same sex couples will be legally permitted and legally recognized in all fifty states. As people of faith, we stand together in the belief that all persons, regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity, deserve the civil and human rights recognizing their marriage covenant. We stand together in love and support for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) communities at this momentous time. However, we must also acknowledge that the struggle for full rights under the law for LGBTQ people is not over. While marriage is now legal for all, LGBTQ civil rights, property rights, and anti-discrimination protection especially for LGBT youth continue to be issues that deserve our attention and our prayers. We remain together, a diverse community of people of faith, working for the continued progress towards full justice for the LGBTQ communities. And we will remain committed to stand together until our goal is achieved, witnessing each in our own way as we honor our belief that our creator made us in love and created us to love and to be loved. Blessed be! Toda elohim! Namaste! Thanks be to God! Amen. Signatories: 47 Northern Virginia clergy and faith leaders Rabbi Joshua Ackerman, Arlington, VA Rev. Marty Anderson, Commonwealth Baptist Church, Alexandria, VA Rev. Robin Anderson, Commonwealth Baptist Church, Alexandria, VA Rev. Allie Rosner Bass, Arlington Temple United Methodist Church, Arlington, VA Rabbi Lia Bass, Arlington, VA Rev. Joan Bell-Haynes, United Christian Parish, Reston, VA The Rev. Jo J. Belser, Episcopal Church of the Resurrection, Alexandria, VA Rev. Jeanne Brenneis, Arlington, VA Rev. Jennifer Brooks, Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fairfax, Oakton, VA Rev. Susan Browning Rev. Madelyn Campbell, Arlington VA The Rev. Sharon K. Core, Arlington Presbyterian Church, Arlington, VA The Rev. David M. Crosby, Alexandria, VA Rev. Kristen Curlee, Bethel United Church of Christ, Arlington, VA Cynthia Dahlin, Seekers Church, Arlington VA Rev. Dr. David Ensign, Clarendon Presbyterian Church, Arlington, VA Rev. Henry E. “Hank” Fairman, Little River United Church of Christ, Annandale, VA The Rev. Nancy Fitzgerald, Arlington Church of the Brethren, Arlington, VA Elizabeth Fogarty, POFEV-Northern Virginia Network, Arlington, VA Rev. Dr. Jerrold L. Foltz, Wellspring United Church of Christ, Centreville, VA The Rev. Leslie J. Hague, Arlington, VA Rev Trish Hall, Center for Spiritual Living - Metro, Arlington, VA Rev. Russell Heiland, Unity of Fairfax, Oakton, VA Rev. Laura Horton-Ludwig, Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fairfax, Oakton, VA The Rev. Phyllis Hubbell, Loudoun County, VA Rev. Stephen Hyde, Ravensworth Baptist Church, Annandale, VA Cantor Jason Kaufman, Beth El Hebrew Congregation, Alexandria, VA Rev. Jeanette Leisk, Alexandria, VA Rev. Dr. David B. Lindsey, Little River United Church of Christ, Annandale, VA Rev. Janet Parsons Mackey, Annandale, VA The Rev. John Manwell, Loudoun County, VA Rev. Aaron McEmrys, Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington, VA Rev. Scott McNeill, Bull Run Unitarian Universalists, Manassas, VA Kim Moeller, POFEV-Northern Virginia Network, Leesburg, VA Rev. Amber Henry Neuroth, Hope United Church of Christ, Alexandria, VA Rev. Dr. Linda Olson Peebles, Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington, VA Rev. Ron Rising, Emmaus United Church of Christ, Vienna, VA Rev. Dr. Lisa Rzepka, John Calvin Presbyterian Church, Annandale, VA Rev. John Shellito, St. George's Episcopal Church, Arlington, VA Rev. Leslie Nunez Steffensen, Grace Episcopal Church, Alexandria, VA Rev. Dr. Danny Spears, MCC Northern Virginia, Fairfax, VA Rev. Mark J Suriano, Rock Spring Congregational United Church of Christ, Arlington VA Jason Thompson, Bethel United Church of Christ, Arlington, VA Shelly Thompson, Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington, VA The Rev. Heather VanDeventer, Alexandria VA Rev. Rob Vaughn, Herndon VA The Very Rev. Shearon Sykes Williams, Saint George's Episcopal Church, Arlington, VA

by Rev. Jennifer Brooks. We’ll be warm. Despite our best-laid human plans, Nature doesn’t always cooperate. Today is one of those days. The secondary roads are in poor condition and the parking lot is a sheet of ice. Even with diligence from road crews and our salt-scattering snowplow contractor, conditions remain unsafe this morning. Stay home and stay safe. We’re canceling all programs today except the Hypothermia Prevention program that begins at 5 p.m. today. Folks who planned to come in early to work on that, please do come in but be careful. To all the hypothermia volunteers, warm thoughts and much love. You prove we really are the shelter of each other. My personal regrets go out to Worship Associate Devon Yi, one of our youth who was the lead planner (with Bob Kaminski) of the service scheduled for today. This service, with reflections by UUCF members Karen Wolf, Craig Clark and Satori Greene, will likely be rescheduled for March. The youth program stakeholder meeting, so laboriously scheduled for today, will need to be rescheduled. Stay tuned. To the entire UUCF community, hold in your hearts the light of truth, the warmth of community and the fire of commitment. We will meet again.

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.

Feb. 17, 2014. I was a little girl in Virginia when it was so declared. That iconic slogan was introduced just two years after the Supreme Court ruled in Loving v. Virginia that Mildred Loving and her husband could be legally married. (And that their sentence to prison for their “crime” would not stand.) Last week Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen ruled for the defendants in the recent case challenging the constitutionality of Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriages. At the beginning of her ruling, Judge Wright Allen includes this from Mildred Loving: We made a commitment to each other in our love and lives, and now had the legal commitment, called marriage, to match. Isn't that what marriage is? ... I have lived long enough now to see big changes. The older generation's fears and prejudices have given way, and today's young people realize that if someone loves someone they have a right to marry. Surrounded as I am now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day goes by that I don't think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the ‘wrong kind of person’ for me to marry. I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry. Government has no business imposing some people's religious beliefs over others. ... I support the freedom to marry for all. That's what Loving, and loving, are all about.” - Mildred Loving, Loving for All Some of us have been on this road for a long time. My first action in support of marriage equality was informing the congregational board of the UU congregation I was serving in 1988 that I would be performing a same-sex wedding. They were a little surprised at first, but fully supported me. I could not have dreamed then of how quickly things would change. There are still legal hoops to jump through before I will be able to sign a Virginia license for a same-sex couple. But no one should doubt that this will happen. Last week when the ruling came down, I was leading the closing worship at a clergy retreat. We were honoring some retiring ministers and I was preaching on finding wholeness in the midst of brokenness. As we were singing, Rev. Jeanne Pupke from the First UU Church of Richmond took my hand and whispered in my ear that the judge had ruled for marriage equality. A little more wholeness in our world. Another step toward love and compassion. It does matter what we do. We can make a difference. As Paul Riddle said a few weeks ago in services (introducing the work of Equality Virginia to us), the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice - when we give it a push. We have put the weight of our convictions and our commitments into this work and it has mattered. Let us never forget this. Yours, Mary Katherine

The customer in the store suffered no harm, police said. Here I am again, with today’s newspaper, reading the details of tragic violence. It’s become a little too routine. Almost expected. This time, I was a little more alert. A dear friend of mine and her family live in Columbia. I learned shortly after the news broke that they were at a movie in the mall theatre when the shootings happened. They were held in place for some time before being allowed to leave. But, fortunately, according to the official reports, they suffered no harm. I was first struck by this notion of suffering no harm in reports of the shooting at the Navy Yard. One of the stories I read described one of the witnesses, a person in the room hiding under a desk when her co-worker was shot and killed. The news article attested that she suffered no harm. The article didn’t address the harm that might or might not have come to the person who was in the next room and heard the shots. Or the person arriving to work a little late, never making it into the building that day. Or the families of any of those people. Or the neighbors. Or the victims of previous attacks who were transported back to their own personal terror upon hearing of the shooting. Or the first responders. Or you. Or me. Whether we say it or not, whether we even know it or not, we suffer harm when such violence occurs. All of us. It changes us. And if we’re not careful, we can come to accept this as normal. As people of faith, it is my prayer that these tragic events will change us in another way. That we will be moved to make a personal commitment to non-violence. And that we will find ways to work for peace in our families, our communities and the world. There are countless ways we can work for peace: advocating for stricter gun laws; educating our children on alternatives to violence; working for economic justice; protecting the earth’s diminishing resources, to name just a few. May it begin with us. Yours, Mary Katherine

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 Pawel Jura Editor’s Note: Pawel Jura wrote this before he was to begin his role as UUCF's Director of Music & Arts on Aug. 11, 2014. Pawel passed away suddenly on Feb. 24, 2015. I am so pleased to be coming to the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fairfax this summer. From the moment I became aware that the position of Director of Music & Arts would be available, I suspected it would be a good fit for me. The more I found out about UUCF, the stronger that belief became, and now I’m looking forward to not only beginning my work with you, but also to getting to know all of you personally, as well. I grew up in Poland, but my family and I moved to the US when I was still quite young. I’ve loved music ever since I can remember, and even now I can hardly think of a kind of music that doesn’t interest and move me (I shared some of my guilty pleasures with the search committee, so I’ll invite you to share some of yours when we meet!). I have also loved working in theater and opera and I’m eager to use those skills to enhance worship and life at UUCF. After holding several church positions since I was 19, I came to the Unitarian Universalist Society: East in 2007, and it didn’t take long to understand that I could never serve any church other than a UU congregation. The love, openness, acceptance and sense of responsibility embodied in the Seven Principles are values I strongly identify with, but it certainly doesn’t end there. I also love working in an environment that allows for so much freedom and creativity in all elements of worship, but especially the music. One of the reasons I so enjoy my work is that the possibilities are practically limitless. Moving to Northern Virginia is going to be quite a change for me, but I am excited for the opportunity to live in such a thriving area. I have made many visits to the DC area in the past, and I have several friends who are nearby as well. I have a loving community of friends and family in the Northeast, and you’ll be seeing them at UUCF regularly. Moreover, I’m excited to see new connections grow for me and between those who are near and dear to me now and those who will become so. With a sense of appreciation and excitement, Pawel Jura

by John Monroe. When it comes to social justice, interfaith efforts can make a big difference. When more than one denomination or faith tradition is involved in a project, people are more likely to pay attention. For example, if a group of Unitarian Universalists attends a public hearing to speak out against a proposed rule that would undermine a vital social service, that’s great. If UUs are joined at the hearing by social justice leaders from Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities, it’s even better. This phenomena is something that social activists across the spectrum insist on. Simply put, such cooperation seems to give the work more credibility in the public eye. But why is that so? Psychologically speaking, I think people intuitively determine that if activists from different faith traditions can agree on the importance of a particular issue or project, then it must be important. I know this from my experience attending interfaith social justice meetings. There is something undeniably inspiring about seeing people from different faith traditions working side by side. One example is the Day to Serve initiative. Each September, faith communities from across the Washington, DC, area collaborate with others on social justice projects. The initiative, which was begun in 2012 by the governors of Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia and the mayor of the District, provides an open forum for loving and creative engagement across religious boundaries. For a second year, UUCF is working with our neighboring congregation, the Oakton Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Our two communities have organized a food drive to stock the shelves of a local food bank - Food for Others. Many thanks to UUCF’s Ron Giusti for spearheading our involvement in this project. The drive, to be held at the church next door, is scheduled for Sep. 20. People who would like to volunteer are invited to attend an orientation program on Sun., Sep. 7, 7-8 p.m., at the LDS church. The evening will include time for training and reflection. This program exemplifies another benefit of interfaith work: The more people who are involved, the more fun and productive a project can be. A food drive is a lot of work, both in terms of getting the word out and in collecting the food. By joining forces, our congregations can make a bigger difference and provide a wonderful opportunity for shared fellowship. To learn more, email Ron Giusti.

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 Alexandra Dixon. This summer we saw heartbreaking images of children crossing the border from Mexico into the US and heard stories of violence, poverty and despair. It is estimated that 70,000 children will cross the border this year. More generally, every year about a million people come to the US seeking a better life. I am proud to count myself among that number. My story started in Bogotá, Colombia, where, in 1982, I was born with a disability called spina bifida. My mom is Colombian and my dad was American. They met when mom was in graduate school at Columbia University in New York in the 1970s. They fell in love, married and moved back to Colombia where mom had good job opportunities. When I was born with this disability, doctors told my parents, “Look, we really don't know what we are doing here. We normally let these children die because they are so expensive to keep alive. We recommend that you take her to the States, where children with this disability are surviving into adulthood.” My parents said, “Okay, great! But where?” The doctors replied, “Chicago, New York, DC and a little town in Utah called Salt Lake City where they have a good pediatric program.” My Dad was from Salt Lake City so we moved there and I lived there until I was 4 years old. Then mom and I moved to the DC area and we have been ever since. My immigration story is similar to many people’s stories because we came to the US for a better life. I am fortunate that my dad was a US citizen so I was granted citizenship upon birth. And I am proud of my Colombian heritage. This country has provided me with many opportunities I know I wouldn't have had in Colombia. As part of a larger discussion on immigration UUCF will be a host site for the Greater Washington Immigration Film Festival, Oct. 24-26. We will show two films, “Amreeka” and “The Distance Between Us.” Both films will be shown in the Chapel at 7 p.m., Friday and Sunday evenings, respectively. I invite you to come watch these free films and afterward to discuss the many facets of immigration. Get your free tickets here.

by Rev. Jennifer Brooks. The outpouring of stories and music in response to my Oct. 18-19 sermon, “Life Songs,” has been phenomenal. Each person who shared their life songs with me has allowed me to see their beautiful spirits. Taken as a whole, these responses have given me a deep understanding of the people of UUCF, shaped with your resilience, your courage, your persistence. How could I feel anything other than love for you? This one week has changed me. I arrived with my standard level of professional responsibility. I arrived caring about your transition and planning to manage it well so you can have a successful search and an effective partnership with your next settled parish minister. But now I’m at a heightened level of attention. You matter to me in a personal way. Because you matter to me and I care about your future, here are three things I ask you to do this week: If you haven’t already completed the Parish Minister Search survey, which will tell my colleagues in ministry who you are, please locate your Oct. 23 email from the Search Team and respond. If you haven’t already made a “Step Up/Step Forward” contribution to close our current budget gap, please do it online now or bring a check in next weekend. If you haven’t already attended a Neighborhood Dinner, attend the one this Sat., Nov. 1 (RSVP to Carol Jensen) or at least add your bit of history to the UUCF Timeline by filling out the online form. The first two steps will help the Search Team create an accurate picture of UUCF. The survey, in particular, will document the diversity of theological perspectives here. The close-the-gap budget contributions will demonstrate this congregation’s resilience and self-empowerment. These are attributes important to the best of ministers. The third step, while less immediately useful to the search team, will help later in the process as the arc of transition continues. My heart goes out to you all. I know we are asking you for a lot of engagement in our transition process in these first months, especially when many of you are deeply affected by the loss of your beloved Rev. Mary Katherine Morn. Yet if you wish to honor her service and commitment, you must act now. Your engagement, difficult though it may be, is essential. It is within your power to give lasting meaning to the partnership you and Mary Katherine forged over the past nine years. That legacy is something I, too, long to see.

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 Rev. Julie Price. With Thanksgiving just a few days away it seems appropriate that I find my thoughts turning toward gratitude. This Sunday we were called into an experience of community through our worship services featuring the children’s and youth choirs, the youth houseband, the retelling of “Stone Soup” and tales of how our youth grew this summer through FUUSE (Fairfax Unitarian Universalist Summer Experience). Those engaging worship services were followed by the intellectually stimulating Science, Reason & Religion forum where Professor Richard America from Georgetown University spoke about racism and economic inequality. As if that wasn’t enough, this past weekend followed a week that for me included an energizing UU ministers' study retreat and a moving Transgender Day of Remembrance service. How grateful I am to have had all of these opportunities for spiritual and intellectual growth. But I’m not content to just leave it there. I have been inspired, moved and challenged this past week and for that I am deeply grateful. But the question that is left nagging at me is, “What am I going to do in response?” In his 2007 “UU World” article, “The heart of our faith,” UU minister Rev. Dr. Galen Guengerich writes, “In the same way that Judaism is defined by obedience, Christianity by love, and Islam by submission, I believe that Unitarian Universalism should be defined by gratitude. … The discipline of gratitude reminds us how utterly dependent we are on the people and world around us for everything that matters. From this flows an ethic of gratitude that … demands that we nurture the world that nurtures us in return.” Yes! From gratitude flows a challenge to “nurture the world that nurtures us in return.” Gratitude is somehow incomplete if we don’t do something with what we have been given. I hope that we all have many opportunities this week to experience moments of gratitude. I hope this week brings us experiences that remind us that our lives are dependent upon and gifted by the interconnected web of life. And then with our wells filled with gratitude, I look forward to all the ways that individually and together we will pour that gratitude back into our world. Maybe you will join with other UUCF folks this week to bake pies and cut up vegetables on Wednesday or bring prepared Thanksgiving dishes on Thursday morning to take to the Community for Creative Non-Violence shelter in DC for its annual Thanksgiving dinner for the homeless. Or maybe you have already marked your calendars for Jan. 17-19, 2015, when UUCF will offer its second annual Weekend of Service in honor of the Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday. During that weekend we will offer a variety of different service projects for all ages: from making blankets for the homeless to packing food for hungry families in our area; from putting together “night night” totes for homeless children to working outside to beautify the UUCF grounds. There will be service opportunities for preschoolers through adults so watch your email for more details in the coming weeks. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your loved ones. May gratitude fill our hearts and propel our feet into service of our beloved world. Very gratefully, Rev. Julie

by Rev. Jennifer Brooks. As we enter December, a month for celebration in many of the world’s religious traditions, our UU principles remind us of what we are: a religion where people with different beliefs worship together as one faith. So … how, exactly, does that work? Especially, in America, in a season when shopping seems to be the primary religious holiday? Unitarian Universalism is a faith that unites people with different theologies through shared universal values. As UUs, we covenant to affirm and promote seven principles that articulate those values. December is a wonderful time to reflect upon the third principle, “Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations.” As I make my way against the current of holiday shoppers and seek to center my spirit in the face of relentless advertising, I’m grateful for the gift of principle - that is, the gift of a way to live faithfully despite the repeated assaults of commercialism and the religious critique that always seems to accompany this time of year. The assaults of commercialism are easy enough to spot. The religious critique (as I experience it) requires a bit more explanation. First there’s the bizarre assertion that greeting someone during December with the phrase “Happy Holidays!” is somehow making war on Christmas. Honoring the birth of the prince of peace would seem an ideal time to be considerate and respectful of those who do not share one’s own beliefs. Spreading Christmas cheer with “Happy Holidays” is wholly consistent with the teachings of someone who urged people to love their enemies. Someone who, by the way, was Jewish. Next there’s the startling suggestion that honoring Christmas is inconsistent with our UU tradition of welcoming people from all religious positions (including various forms of non-theism). How inclusive can we be if we honor only the religious celebrations that reflect our own personal beliefs? The only way for a UU congregation to welcome everyone is if each of us sincerely respects and honors the traditions others celebrate, even if we don’t celebrate those traditions ourselves. As for Christmas, the birth of Jesus of Nazareth is mentioned in the holy scriptures of two major world religions, Christianity and Islam. We live our third principle when we accept and respect both traditions. At any time of the year, but especially this month, acceptance is a gift. It always feels good to be welcomed and accepted in a way that respects and honors our own religious beliefs. It also feels good when we’re able to welcome and accept people with beliefs unlike our own; think how different the world would be if everyone could do that. What a gift This season’s gift of principle is acceptance. Aspiring to create a community that truly accepts others is an act of faith. That’s why we call ourselves a “faith community.” Happy Holidays. Rev. Jen

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. Julie Price. In worship on Sunday, I preached about and Bob Carr sang Dar Williams’ song “The Christians and the Pagans.” It is such a rich and heart-warming story about a family who is able to connect across their differences over a Christmas Eve dinner. As the winter holidays come to a close and our thoughts turn to reflecting on the year that has passed, I offer this song to you as a gift of gratitude for what has been and a gift of hope for what the next year will bring. May we all find ways to reach across differences, learn “new ways from the old, make sense of history and draw warmth out of the cold.” Happy New Year everyone.

by John Monroe. Acting Minister for Social Justice. This coming weekend, UUCF holds its second annual Weekend of Service. Throughout the weekend (and a few days before), we are offering numerous service opportunities for people of all ages, both on campus and in the larger community. Once again, the Weekend of Service coincides with the holiday honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. This is no coincidence. Over the years, this holiday has evolved into a time for social action. What better way to pay tribute to MLK than to emulate, to whatever extent we can, his efforts to transform the world through service to others? “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” King wrote from a Birmingham jail in 1963. “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” Whenever we work for social justice, we honor the reality of that network of mutuality and we give flesh to King’s vision. Once again, the service offerings are incredibly varied. Things kick off Tuesday morning and Wednesday evening, when you can join the team of UUCFers teaching English to speakers of other languages. No special training or skills are required for this rewarding work. Like last year, on Saturday we are offering a food-packaging program. This year, we are working with the Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC), a non-profit that provides nutritious food to Arlington residents in need. We will be packaging fresh fruit and vegetables and other food items for distribution by AFAC. This is a family-friendly opportunity, and it is a lot of fun. We also provide several opportunities to make “no-sew” blankets. These fleece blankets will be distributed to UUCF Hypothermia guests when they are here in February, to Virginia Hospital Center, and to the National Medical Center's pediatric intensive care unit. No special skills are required, although this activity is best for people 10 years and older. You can join the fun on Saturday afternoon or Monday morning. In the same vein, on Monday morning, you can help make blankets and assemble tote bags for “Project Night Night,” which provides children who are homeless with some essential supplies. On Sunday, 1-3 p.m., we have organized a Children’s Service Workshop, with service opportunities for children of all ages as well as their parents. A good time is guaranteed for all! On Monday, you can take part in a UUCF grounds cleanup, followed by a lunch. Or you can board a bus for Richmond, where many people will be advocating for sensible gun laws. To sign up for any of these activities, just click here. The site also lists points of contact for each activity. In a pinch, feel free to contact me. Finally, throughout the weekend, we will be collecting supplies for several causes: Art for Humanity's shoes for children in Honduras (all styles and sizes welcome); supplies for our Hypothermia Shelter program; and non-perishable food items for a bagged meal program run by Cornerstones (deadline – Sun., Jan. 18, 11:15 a.m.). Let the spirit of MLK live on!

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. UUCF’s lively new Worship Café, launched two weeks ago, is soon to go viral in the real world. At 4:30 p.m. on Sat., Feb. 21, UUs from all over our district* will experience the Café as the closing worship of the Worship Arts Festival. Seeding the idea of worship in a café setting empowers Unitarian Universalism to reach beyond brick-and-mortar walls to the many people seeking a safe, authentic spiritual home - people who would never think to visit on a Sunday morning. This year’s festival theme is “overcoming barriers to spiritual community.” The festival’s obvious focus (reflecting the Unitarian Universalist Association’s (UUA) concern) is outreach to people who assume that a UU congregation is just another doctrinally limited church. But there’s another form of outreach, one that matters inside our walls as well. Here at UUCF and in every UU congregation there are members - loyal, long-term members - who sometimes feel they are not fully included in our Sunday morning worship service. And there are newcomers who, as much as they love UUCF’s theological freedom and commitment to justice-making, still experience barriers inevitably created by our standard style of worship. Like “thinking outside the box,” until we know we’re in a box, we don’t have any reason to think outside it. Thanks to collaborative idea-generation propelled by youth and young adults who make up half of UUCF’s Worship Committee, UUCF began experimenting with a Worship Café. Although each Saturday’s Café has the same theme as the next day’s Sunday service, there is no sermon. Instead there’s a brief introduction to the topic and a chance to discuss it with others seated around the small café tables. The conversation is embedded in music chosen by those who volunteer as musicians, readers drawn from those attending and a chance to check in (think joys and sorrows) around the table. And there are refreshments. To our youth and millennials, Worship Café is an interactive yet spiritual way to experience the worship theme and get to know more people. To Gen Xers, it’s a way to deepen connections while relaxing into spiritually centered conversation. To boomers and beyond, it’s a chance to hear the thoughts of other lay members in a setting that encourages relationship. The Worship Café brings to life the original meaning of the old English word worship, “weorscipe” - to consider what is worthy. Around small tables, we consider together what brings meaning and purpose to our lives; by our attention and intention, we acknowledge the inherent worth and dignity of every person. It’s with this attention and intention that we reach beyond our walls to all who need our Unitarian Universalist message of welcome, love and justice. *The Unitarian Universalist Association’s Joseph Priestley District.

by Rev. Jennifer Brooks. Yesterday and at Saturday’s Worship Café I described my first experience at a Unitarian Universalist Sunday service, and said it felt like coming home. I asked whether anyone else had felt that way. About three-quarters of the people raised their hands. It felt like coming home to a place we thought did not exist. A place where people with different beliefs worship together as one faith. A place where living our values is more important than the words we use to describe our beliefs. Think of all the people out there who feel a deep longing to be part of a faith community that accepts people as they authentically are: human beings with questions and theories, human beings who bring interesting differences. Each of those people has a unique way of being in the world and each longs for acceptance. I remember feeling that way. I’d never heard of Unitarian Universalism, yet I yearned to find an accepting and loving community like UUCF. Lifelong UUs may have always had a beloved community of love and support. It’s that community that urges us to grow and learn. It’s that community that inspires us to be authentically ourselves even as we empower our best selves. What a wonderful gift to be a child within these walls of acceptance and encouragement. For those of us who have been lost in the wilderness of no faith or restrictive faith, Unitarian Universalism is an especially precious glowing ember at the heart’s center. We are uniquely qualified to reach beyond our walls to other people who long for a community of free faith. We know what we have now. We know what it feels like to yearn for it and think it doesn’t exist. We know how long it took - how many years - before we learned about Unitarian Universalism. And now we hold the burning rhythm in our hearts. We know. What does it take to welcome in others, with their many differences, with their longing, into the heart of this faith community? Why should it be hard for UUCF to become visible? We hold the flame. NOTE: This video, with its soundtrack "Trip the Light" by Garry Schyman, is a metaphor for the way imagination, creativity and flexibility can allow us to reach out to others who are different. When we have a clear vision, we can share it with others, and they not only join in but also influence and shape what we create.

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. Laura Horton-Ludwig. How are you doing? How are you feeling these days? How are you taking care of yourself and letting others help care for you? These are questions many of us have been asking each other as we continue to take in the reality of our music director Pawel’s death. For me, it is getting a little easier, even as I and so many of us continue to hold deep sorrow. I don’t think we are “getting back to normal”; there is no going back to where we were. But I sense that as a community, we are finding ways to live with this new reality that hold more acceptance, more curiosity, more room for the whole range of emotions we experience. Smiles and laughter are coming a bit easier, even as they hold hands with tears and a poignancy that will not leave us any time soon. And for me, also, gratitude for such little things. The snowdrops blooming outside my window. A sunny day after so many weeks of gray. Did you know our congregational theme this month is the senses? Tasting, touching, hearing, seeing, smelling: the daily stuff of life. It’s taken me a couple of weeks to feel like embracing this theme, but in this moment it is beginning to feel deeply comforting. I’m reminded of an unexpected sensation that came over me in the very early days after my dad died. I was getting ready for work as I always do, brushing my teeth, and out of nowhere a thought popped into my head, “How wonderful that I have this toothbrush that cleans my teeth so well!” Huh. Nothing new or glamorous about a toothbrush, but there was the thought. I kept getting ready, I grabbed my tote bag, and there was another thought: “How wonderful that this bag holds all the stuff I need for the day!” And in the car: “It’s so amazing that I have this car that gets me wherever I need to go so quickly!” I was flooded with this sense of gratitude for the material things all around me. I so often take them for granted - my favorite pen, my water bottle, my shoes that keep my feet warm and dry - all these things that envelop me in so much unnoticed comfort and help me in so many ways, all the time, every day. All these things, thought of and created by some distant other, or many others I suppose, things that work with me and help me and support me without asking for any reward. They’re just there. The philosopher Elaine Scarry has written poignantly about the simple material objects that surround us. Consider a chair, she writes. Not a fancy chair, just a basic, simple chair, a place to sit. We have chairs because so many of us know the physical pain of having to stand up for longer than is comfortable. Our society has created chairs so that we don’t have to experience that pain - so that, instead, we can rest our weight and be comfortable in this simple, ordinary way. In each individual chair, she says, is encoded a sort of “objectified human compassion.” Someone, or many someones, produced this chair so that whoever encounters it might know comfort rather than pain. She writes, “[A]nonymous, mass-produced objects contain a collective and … extraordinary message: Whoever you are, and whether or not I personally like or even know you, in at least this small way, be well.” ("The Body in Pain," 1985, p. 292.) What a wonderful message for us all. What everyday miracles surround us, always.

by Rev. Jennifer Brooks. Moving beyond tolerance means not merely accepting difference but respecting it. Acceptance is a start. But if acceptance is all we bring to our diverse and multicultural religious community, we fall short. If acceptance is all we bring to our diverse and multicultural world, we fail. Strong world, fail. Yet it’s the right word. Unitarian Universalists seek to be the change we hope to see. We seek to model that it’s possible not merely to survive diversity but to thrive because of it. Our big tent shelters a wide range of religious points of view united by the values we share. Acceptance says, essentially, “OK, I see you over there; you’re different and that’s fine.” Respect says, “I see you and I see that you’re different. Awesome. I can learn something from you.” Think about the American civil rights movement of the mid-20th Century. In black-white relations, tolerance was a virtue. Tolerance said, “Sure, you can sit at that lunch counter, you can drink from that water fountain, you can vote.” The tolerance of the civil rights movement was broad-brush and focused on the most obvious difference (then called “race”). And tolerance was a virtue (still is) when compared to intolerance (which said, “can’t sit there, can’t drink there, can’t vote”). Yet tolerance, which is positive in many ways, falls short because it merely accepts the presence of difference. And mere acceptance allows room for separation, for superiority. For self-aggrandizing judgment of difference. It also stays broad-brush, because mere acceptance doesn’t engage. It doesn’t get close enough to engage. Engagement isn’t possible without respect. Moving beyond tolerance means respect for difference. When UUs affirm “encouragement of one another to spiritual growth” in the same breath that we affirm “respect for the inherent worth of every person,” these values have to mean not merely accepting difference but respecting it. We have to go beyond the passive “you can sit here” to the active, engaged “awesome, tell me more, because I want to learn from you.” This weekend we honor Passover in the Jewish tradition and Easter in the Christian tradition. Whether we celebrate these traditions ourselves is irrelevant. We honor them. Whatever our childhood traditions, whatever beliefs we hold now, we honor the traditions and beliefs of others. So UUCF’s Seder (at 4:30 p.m. Saturday) is something to attend not because of Jewish heritage but to honor this tradition with others, whether they celebrate it or honor it. Those who honor it are saying, essentially, “tell me more because I want to learn from you.” Within the UUCF community, we have multiple opportunities to respect difference and engage with it. Here’s a simple practice. At coffee hour, talk to someone you don’t know. Say: “I wonder how we’re different. I wonder what I might learn from you.” Then compare notes, respectfully, and maintaining at all times that curiosity and hope for new insight that is summarized in the one-word attitude, “Awesome!” Mere tolerance is all so 20th Century. This is the 21st Century. We’ve gone beyond modern to post-modern; it’s time to move beyond tolerance. Honor diversity. Don’t merely tolerate it. See. Respect. Engage.

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 Janet Cushing, UUCF Board President. Are you feeling the excitement? Yesterday we voted to call Rev. David Miller as our new parish minister. I wish you could have had the view I had standing at the lectern - seeing our beloved community with such big smiles as I announced the results of our vote; the Sanctuary was practically buzzing with joyful energy! Our future as a congregation is bright and I am so grateful to be on the journey with you all. Rev. David and his wife, Alice, look forward to joining us in August. As we prepare for this exciting new phase in our ministry as a congregation, I want to take this chance to thank all of you for your commitment to this congregation and to our transition process. We have truly shared both joys and sorrows this year and it is good to be together. [caption id="attachment_27367" align="alignleft" width="300"] Rev. Miller enters the Sanctuary after the congregation votes to call him as parish minister.[/caption] Next steps I know you share my hope that we will be able to kick off next year on a strong and healthy footing. This is the time of year when financial stewardship plays a critical role as we get close to finalizing our budget for next year. To all of you who have made your financial pledge already, I thank you. We are so grateful for your support. To all of you who have increased your pledge for the coming year, thank you so much. Your commitment to our shared future inspires me. And to all of you who have made a commitment to percentage-based giving: you have my deep gratitude. Your generosity is both powerful and needed. At UUCF, we challenge everyone who has the financial resources to reach for a leadership gift of between 3 and 5% of your income as an expression of your commitment to live your values in the world. If you are giving at this level, thank you so very much for your leadership. And if you haven’t yet stepped up to this level of giving, would you please consider doing so? Maybe move a little closer this year? Money isn’t everything and it’s definitely not the only way to contribute - but it is such a powerful tool to help us realize our mission: to transform ourselves, our community and the world through acts of love and justice. For those of you who have yet to submit your pledge, please do so by Thu., Apr. 30. The Coordinating Team relies on your pledges to develop an informed budget that will be presented to the congregation for a vote at our Annual Meeting for the coming congregational year. For all the ways you are part of this great mission – thank you! I can’t wait to see what new manifestations of love and justice we will live out together in the years to come.

by Acting Minister for Social Justice John Monroe. Imagine this: You show up at UUCF one Sunday and, instead of a typical service with hymns, readings and a sermon, you find yourself watching “Act Without Words,” a play by Samuel Beckett. A play with no dialogue, just a wordless performance with a recorded soundtrack of seemingly random sounds: screechings, scrapings and bits of Beethoven, jazz and news from Vietnam. That is what happened here, one Sunday in late 1966. Afterward, an article in the newsletter observed that “there were probably as many interpretations of the play as there were people in the audience,” but suggested that the play was about “the essential loneliness of the human condition.” As unusual as it was, that service reflected the experimental spirit of the Fairfax Unitarian Church (as the congregation was known at the time) and its minister, the Rev. Rudy Nemser. This spring, as part of a seminary class on UU history, I studied the evolution of worship services during the first decade or so of our congregation, which was founded in 1955. I came away from this project with a renewed appreciation for the many ways in which a faith community might explore humanity’s deepest questions and express its highest values. Without a doubt, Rev. Nemser was a catalyst for change. He arrived at Fairfax Unitarian in 1960, after its first minister, the Rev. Edward Ericson, left the congregation and the denomination to join the growing ethical movement, which had a much stronger humanist orientation than Unitarianism as a whole and Fairfax Unitarian in particular. In its first five years, before Rev. Nemser’s arrival, our worship services strongly reflected the denomination’s roots in the Judeo-Christian tradition, often using strongly theistic hymns and readings, alongside classic Unitarian sources, such as writings by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Theodore Parker. As soon as Rev. Nemser arrived, things began to change. First, the number of theistic hymns and readings dropped off dramatically, as did the use of classic Unitarian or philosophical resources. In their place, we find a growing number of contemporary literary voices. During a service on Sep. 11, 1960, for example, the congregation heard opening words from H.L. Mencken, the famed and controversial journalist; a meditation drawn from “On the Road,” by Jack Kerouac; and a poem by Marianne Moore, a noted modernist. Rev. Nemser apparently loved modern poetry, with services often featuring such writers as Richard Wilbur, Howard Nemerov, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Denise Levertov. As I went through those early orders of service, I wondered how the congregation responded. Did they feel as if these changes were being forced upon them by an ambitious minister? As I began reading the newsletters and annual reports, I discovered that was not the case. In a March 1963 newsletter, Rev. Nemser wrote, “… Suggestions have been made that we have a dramatic reading (with interpretation) for a service; that we have choral speaking; that we use a greater range of musical subject; that we utilize some sort of responsive or antiphonal reading. No one of us (least of all the clergy) can know all the forms of creative and meaningful expression. These must result from all of us working together. We of the ministry (the ministry of art, the ministry of the word) welcome any ideas which you might feel would offer new and significant worship experiences.” Later that same year, the congregation created a “worship workshop.” Unlike a traditional worship committee, which typically works with a minister to plan weekly services, this group’s primary purpose was to experiment, particularly with the use of the creative arts. Its first project, in December 1963, was a service titled “Where Is Joy?” that according to the Fairfax Unitarian Church annual report was “an attempt to use non-verbal as well as verbal symbols and to fully involve the congregation in the group’s experience of worship.” The congregation also experimented with different service formats as a way to dig deeper into philosophical and political concerns. In March 1962, Rev. Nemser preached a sermon titled “On Agnosticism,” followed by a polylogue in which congregants shared their thoughts. Evidently, the topic struck a nerve, because weeks later, in place of a traditional service, the congregation organized a panel, in which four congregants discussed key points Rev. Nemser had raised. They reprised the panel format in April when Rev. Nemser preached about nuclear testing. “The past year … has witnessed more than the erection of the buildings,” reads the 1962-63 annual report. “It has seen a certain expansion of the spirit of the church in which new meanings have been sought and new channels for expression found. The Sunday morning services have been a focus for much experimentation and development.” Political and philosophical debate. Modern poetry. Beckett, with screechings and scrapings. Clearly, this was a faith community in the process of discovering its voice. A unique confluence of factors that made it easy to embrace change: a relatively new congregation, which had little historical baggage to carry; a denomination that had a history of challenging tradition; and a broader cultural context very much in flux. Everything seems so much more settled now. But if you think about it, that’s not really the case. As we have gone through this transition to a new parish minister, we too have been experimenting. For example, one Sunday in December, instead of a traditional worship service, we presented “Remember the Dark: A Cantata for the Winter Solstice,” by David Glasgow. Also, since January, we have replaced our traditional Saturday services with the Worship Café format, which focuses on small group discussion. And during this last year we have increased the number of lay-led services. More changes are likely to come when our new minister arrives. In the months and years ahead, let us remember that experimentation and development are a part of our congregational heritage. If we embrace this time, we just might find that our community will be blessed by another expansion of the spirit. Editor's note: The UUCF Transition Team has prepared a UUCF history using information congregants shared earlier this year on a timeline posted in the Sanctuary. See the results on this history wiki. If you're interested in adding to or editing the wiki, click on "request access" near the top right corner of the page.

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. Jennifer Brooks. When I was a child and my family visited some special place, my father encouraged us each to find a beautiful stone to take home as a memento of the day. I found stones sparkling in wilderness riverbeds, stones tumbled on the beach, stones a glacier left behind as it carved a lake. Many of these stones are long since lost, just as the moments they represent are long gone. Yet a few have traveled with me all this way through time and space. Still, too, I retain the habit of choosing a few special stones when I find myself in a place I hope to remember. Most often these stones come to rest on a windowsill. I pass the kitchen window and notice there the smooth stones that once lay wet on a beach. In this light they don’t scintillate as they did glowing on the sand. The hues are not as bright. Yet as I run my finger across a stone’s dappled surface, I remember what I saw when the light was just right. It’s as if there’s a secret. These stones have little splendor in the ordinary light of day. Their splendor shows in the glistening morning light of a bright beach, water running over and around. But as I pass and glance at them - and if I try - I can see beyond the dull greys and browns that predominate. Then the stones shine again with flashing colors, the silver-green and gold of sunshine on the water. We too shine, and so does each person we meet on the street or in our homes or in the homes of strangers. We are each brilliant in the right light, glowing when seen from the right perspective, vibrant with Life and the splendor of Being. As I enter my final weeks at UUCF, I’m aware of the way you glow. There are so many moments, like small and gorgeous stones, that I’d like to tuck into my pocket and carry off with me. My father taught me well; it’s important to notice and commemorate the beautiful times in our lives. And though we always notice the difficult times, it’s essential that we also notice when we’ve come shining through. This year we’ve shared beautiful moments and difficult times. The stones on my windowsill from this year will include one or two that are rough and dark, but many others, smooth and bright, that glow with splendor when the eye of memory recalls their colors. In that collection, on that windowsill, I’m also there; one stone of many, our colors muted until love casts its brilliant light upon us. And so we shine.

by John Monroe, Acting Minister for Social Justice. I can’t deny it: When I began this job as acting minister for social justice, I had plenty of passion but not much practical knowledge. A year later, I cannot claim to be an expert, but I have learned a lot that I will carry into my ministry. Above all, I have learned the importance of learning from others. I began to grasp this lesson back in January, during the Weekend of Service. I had organized the food-packing service project, working with the Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC). On that Saturday morning, the AFAC trucks arrived with a mind-boggling amount of onions, potatoes and other produce. Workers dropped off the food and packing supplies but said little about how to get the job done before driving off. I was stumped. My enthusiasm for the work was a poor substitute for good logistics. Fortunately, a handful of people began organizing the supplies and putting people into teams. In no time, we were a smooth-running operation that not only got the work done but got it done early, much to the surprise of the AFAC representative. As I came to realize, this is frequently how social justice works. Often we get involved in causes that stir our hearts without a clear sense of how we can contribute. The first task, then, is to learn - to learn the limits of our knowledge and experience and to slowly expand them. To learn who might teach us, whether someone inside our community or in the community at large, and to open ourselves to learning with both passion and humility. As I also realized, the learning never ends, or at least it shouldn’t. The more we get involved in social justice work, the more our eyes are opened to injustices around us. For example, in Sunday’s service, Rev. Julie Price talked about how our congregation’s work on LGBTQ issues often has not focused on the T - transgender. She and I have both discovered how much we have to learn about being effective allies. And the more we learn, the more we discover there is to learn. Daunting? Perhaps. But also inspiring. During this last year, I have been fortunate to work side-by-side with so many people who were generous with their knowledge and encouragement. What a wonderful calling we all share: To learn from and support one another as we work together in community to make this world a more just and loving place. I am grateful to this community for teaching me such an important lesson.

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 Nikki Ames. On Jun. 14, I had the pleasure of singing for your congregation at the “Talking About the T” service. I didn't know the effect this event would have on me until a few days later, as I reviewed in my mind the very kind and generous praise you showered upon me. I believe I've reached a tipping point in my life. Until now, I have kept the Internet presence of Nikki Ames somewhat private. Only Facebook friends can view my profile or videos online. Nothing is completely public. Although my four siblings know I'm transgender, and a handful of cousins as well, my parents and extended family are unwitting. Their distance allows me to avoid raising this issue, but my heart tells me acceptance would prevail should I disclose. But down here in Virginia, I'm out. Now I've realized that hiding myself is actually cheating everyone out of a piece of me. The service, your congregation’s reaction to my singing and the general increase in transgender awareness have contributed to my decision to go public. Too many people have told me how wonderful my singing is. Too many people have asked if I have a YouTube channel, where I perform or whether I have a CD. While I hold no false hopes that this will lead to anything more than a few more smiles on some faces, that is enough for me. To hear more of my singing, as many wanted to do, click here. I've posted video from a performance in May at TransPride in which I sing some of my transgender parodies. This allows me to indulge my love of clever lyrics by combining them with popular tunes folks will recognize. They are fun, lighthearted and I know you will enjoy them. As for my family, I am not responsible for their reactions. I believe my more meta-physical friends would say that we manifest our future. And so I project that the only consequence of taking Nikki Ames out will be a surplus of laughter, joy and pride. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share my voice in service of our community.

by Rev. Julie Price. By my calculations, based on the Fairfax County Public Schools calendar, we are almost halfway through summer! I have so enjoyed hearing on Sundays about the trips, visits and recreational pursuits many of you have completed or are anticipating this season. More than a few of you have apologized to me for having to miss some of the worship services this summer to enjoy some summer fun. So first of all, consider yourself absolved of any guilt you may feel in missing worship this summer whether as a result of edifying or purely indulgent pursuits. Guilt is not one of our UU virtues! I am so enjoying seeing you all on Sundays and we are having some really great worship services, if I do say so myself. But what I most want to say to folks who confess their summer adventures to me is, "Go! Have fun! Eat an ice cream cone. Go to a movie. Swim in a pool or lake. Read a good book. Enjoy an epic party. Sleep in and read the newspaper. UUCF will be here when you come back and will welcome your refreshed and renewed spirit.” Or if you are away and really missing us, just turn on your computer at 10 a.m. on Sunday and join us for worship via live stream on our website - uucf.org/streaming. You might even enjoy the opportunity it gives you to sing at the top of your lungs or to worship from the comfort of a lounge chair with an iced tea! My summer fun with you is about halfway through too. I will lead the next three worship services as your summer minister and then I will be heading on to new ministry experiences. I will spend this coming year completing my required clinical pastoral education unit at the Hebrew Home of Greater Washington in Rockville, MD, as well as studying in preparation for my UU Ministerial Fellowship Committee appointment in December 2016. Once I leave on Aug. 16, I won’t be back at UUCF for a year. But since my family and I are members of UUCF, once that year is up, you’ll see me again, I promise. Oh, the fun is just beginning, wonderful UUCF friends. Rev. Laura Horton-Ludwig returns from vacation this Sunday and we welcome our new Parish Minister, Rev. David Miller, in the office next week. His first Sunday preaching will be Aug. 23. I am filled with such hope and joy for what I anticipate the future holds for UUCF. So rest up this summer. Take your trips and enjoy your free time. And then get ready to jump in with both feet as UUCF begins its seventh decade with renewed energy. It is going to be an exciting year and I can’t wait to come back next summer and hear all about it! With 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 Rev. David A. Miller. As I settle into the area and into this new ministry as your parish minister, I am spending time in meetings and discussions learning about the inner workings of UUCF. I have been meeting with the board, lay ministers, staff and various groups, individuals and committees to gather information, become oriented and engage in conversation about the past, present and future. As part of the process, one of the most important things that I am trying to digest is the strategic vision, plan and direction. I was drawn to Grow, Connect, Serve when I was in search and now I am trying to have a deeper understanding of its meaning, in part so we can share the common vision that guides our congregational life. These meetings have also given me time to talk with others about my calling in ministry. In a phrase - one that you may hear over and over again - I believe that as a minister I am called to facilitate, promote and model healing wholeness and transformation for ourselves, each other and the planet. In fact, I believe all Unitarian Universalists are called to do this. Not always easy, this is a spiritual practice that we will explore together as our shared journey unfolds. For now we will be in a period of exploration and learning; the honeymoon period if you will. As possible when engaging in this spiritual practice, we will find many areas of commonality and some of difference. But in a world so badly in need of healing, wholeness and transformation, I am counting on the spirit of love to guide us.  

by Nigel Astell. I'm deeply honored to serve as president of the UUCF Board of Directors this year. Before I joined the board 2 years ago I was aware of its existence but had almost no idea of its purpose or the nature of its work. I imagined the board was busy reviewing reports, voting on numerous issues and directing staff, but I have learned that in reality that’s a relatively small part of our work. What surprised me the most after I joined is how much of the board’s work I'd categorize as spiritual. Our starting point is the congregational mission to transform ourselves, our community and the world through acts of love and justice. The board sets an evolving strategy to challenge the congregation to live this mission. The draft strategic goals for 2015-18 are to promote spiritual growth among congregants, embrace and adapt to changes in contemporary culture, reach beyond our walls to bring Unitarian Universalism to others and live UU values through service and social justice work. Each year the board holds a retreat to think about the year ahead. This year’s retreat is this coming weekend. We aim to develop priorities for the next 12 months for the Coordinating Team, staff, lay ministers and entire congregation consistent with the strategic goals. I’ll be back in touch with you to tell you more about these priorities once we work them out. In the meantime, if you’d like to see what we’re up to in any given month, check out our meeting minutes at uucf.org/board. Plus, you can always contact us at board@uucf.org. I’m looking forward to a busy and rewarding year with our dynamic new Parish Minister Rev. David A. Miller and my talented and dedicated fellow board members – Vice President Jennifer Caires, Treasurer Steve Myles, Secretary Judy Gallimore, and at-large members Jan Cooper, Hal Fuller, Linda Hunt, Michael Liggett and Karen Wolf.

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 Kelly Schlageter. As I enter my third year as lay minister for caring and wellness, I have had some time to consider what is meant by “caring and wellness” and how the work of caring for one another is ministry. When I was considering becoming a lay minister, I was daunted by the “minister” part. To me, that meant years of seminary and lots of training. I felt unqualified. And I wasn’t clear on how it was possible to coordinate care for and consider the well-being of every person in a large congregation. So for a few weeks, I sat with it and watched. And here’s what I saw: UUCF is teeming with ministers. Just watch each other during coffee hour: “How are you doing?” “Congratulations! I heard the good news!” “How are you recovering?” “Is there anything I can do to help?” I was astounded at the depth of concern and caring we have for one another. And moved. And compelled to participate. This is a community of ministers, of people who care for one another and lighten each other’s loads. Like me, perhaps you hadn’t considered yourself a minister, but I think expanding our definition of what it means to minister to one another is the goal of shared ministry. And that caring for one another in times of joy and sorrow is what makes a congregation a place that feels like home. I encourage you to think about yourself in this wider context, and the ways in which you minister to others. Through our presence, our concern, our willingness to celebrate with each other and to share burdens, we create a community that is strong, vibrant and whole.

by Director of Religious Exploration Linnea Nelson. “The only thing we have to offer another human being ever is our own state of being.” - Ram Dass in "The Only Dance There Is" As parents, we bring our children to Religious Exploration (RE) classes on Sunday mornings to ensure they explore our Seven Principles, Unitarian Universalist identity, ethics, faith development, spiritual lives and the Six Sources of our living tradition. Wow, all that in 90 minutes a week! How are we guiding our children during the other 166.5 hours a week? Some of us have daily family rituals. We light a chalice before every meal while others share gratitude or prayer before bedtime. Some families attend food raisers and vigils; others meditate, garden, read inspiring stories about people and learn together what it means to be UUs. The ride home from RE can be especially reflective if you talk with your child or children about their experiences that morning. All of this takes intention. As parents, sometimes our lives seem overly filled with sports practice, homework review, nutritional and health concerns, as well as guiding children to good choices in friendships and life decisions. However, the wise Rev. Roberta Nelson, a former minister of religious education at UUCF, writes, “… parents can be excellent spiritual guides if they take some time to honor their own yearnings, wonderings and reflections and share them with their children and others.” (from the “Parents as Spiritual Guides” workshop) Hmmm … spend a little time on ourselves and our own spiritual yearnings? Rev. Nelson means that to honor our children’s spiritual journeys, we must first ponder our own spiritual questions. And once we do this, we need to find a way to share these musings with our children. This may sound daunting! But as you experience moments of transcendence, pause in wonder during a passage in a book or online article or see a hummingbird flutter by at a perfect moment in your life … take a moment to ask yourself the question this moment asks of you, be it, “How do I see my role in combatting some of the terrible events in the world today?” “How can I best welcome and notice the love in my life?” or “What do I believe?” How do you take that leap from your own spiritual introspection to sharing your reflections with your children? Here’s where family rituals become the conduit to explore the spiritual domain. When children begin to expect these rituals as a place for interesting questions, deep discussion and spiritual meanderings, even the youngest children will look forward to these opportunities. Your reflections can be the bridge to connect the more chaotic parts of 21st Century family life by walking together in a sense of wonder, awe and family connection. These words, adapted from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s “Generation to Generation” guide us to be intentional about spending precious family moments sharing what is important and meaningful in our lives. In a house which becomes a home one hands down and another takes up the heritage of mind and heart, laughter and tears, musings and deeds. Love, like a carefully loaded ship, crosses the gulf between the generations. Therefore, we do not neglect the ceremonies of our passage: when we wed, when we die, and when we are blessed with child; When we depart and when we return; When we plant and when we harvest. Let us bring up our children. It is not the place of some official to hand to them their heritage. If others impart to our children our knowledge and ideals, they will lose all of us that is wordless and full of wonder. Let us build memories in our children, lest they allow treasures to be lost because they have not been given the keys. We live, not by things, but by the meanings of things. It is needful to transmit the passwords from generation to generation.

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. David A. Miller and Rev. Laura Horton-Ludwig. Slogans, movements and campaigns can often be seen as larger-than-life efforts that take on broad meaning and lead to wide-ranging conversations about big concepts. Although the Black Lives Matter movement is about systemic oppression and “a world where Black lives are systematically and intentionally targeted for demise,” at its heart it is about the inherent worth and value of each and every Black human being. The Black Lives Matter movement has been in the news, has affected presidential politics and has prompted intense national discussion. What we can’t forget is that each one of these attempts to galvanize around these larger issues always has a human face at the core. The human face came very close to home this past week when two members of our congregation, their family and their family business became part of the movement. Aaron and Maria Cox-Leow, who live near the Cox family farm but not on the farm, placed a Black Lives Matter sign in their window only to have their meaning called into question by an off-duty police officer. Without recapping the entire event, the results were to draw them into a national debate and bring threats to them and their family. The Cox family farm brings a great deal of joy to many people in Northern Virginia, especially in autumn. When hearing about this, we contacted the family and asked if there was a way we could provide some support. Other progressive religious congregations in the Washington, DC, area have also asked that question and, with the family’s deep appreciation, we are supporting a Cox Farms day on Sat., Nov. 7. There is some fun programming on that day (some costs are involved). Please find the information at www.coxfarms.com. People are asked to wear their Black Lives Matter pins or Standing on the Side of Love T-shirts. The Cox family also posted a beautiful and heartfelt response to this event on the Cox Farms’ Facebook page. As the ministers of this congregation we would like to affirm that these congregants matter, love and justice matter, being informed and loving allies matters, rising in body or spirit to change systemic oppression matters and Black Lives Matter. We send our love and support to the Cox family and we thank you for all you do to stand with each other on the side of love.

by Rev. David A. Miller. Every day in November, I've posted a daily gratitude on Facebook: One quote about gratitude along with my own personal gratitude. Today, on this last day of November, I want to share my final post for the month. Daily Gratitude #30, final November edition - I opened my Facebook feed this morning and it is full of posts on terror, domestic terror, racism, accusations, counter accusations, talk of privilege, pain, frustrations, fear and anger. I often think to myself, how do we balance the need for being informed, aware, engaged and active, with the need for sustenance, spirit, hope and using our energy to lift up that which we would like to see and be. It is a difficult task in good times and even more difficult in times when the world seems to be coming apart at the seams. So here we are, in a season that contrasts the light and the dark, that highlights the intense cruelty that we can inflict on each other and incredible sacrifice for the good of all. We have before us, as we always do, the choice of how we interpret the stories that have been told for millennia and the stories that we hear every day. We have the ability to make decisions about how we feed the energy that wants to tear us apart, or the forces of life that can bring us together. Today, I give my gratitude to those who help me continue striving for peace and justice - not being naive or blind to the struggles. To those who bring sustenance for the work, those who bring forth love and hope, those who create, those who help me bolster my spirit on the darkest of days, those who see the arc of justice and know that it is a longer journey than we can see and yet keep moving. It seems like every day there is something that challenges all of this, and yet, every day offers something that finds its way into the category of amazing. Much love and gratitude to you all, and may we find life in this period of struggle between the light and the dark. May you find places of joy that feed you, for the road may be muddy and rough but we'll get there, heaven knows how we will get there, but I must continue to believe we will.

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 Linnea Nelson. Almost 50 people from UUCF and the greater community gathered on Saturday afternoon to learn how to talk to kids about race, and everybody was eager to learn. Moderator Cayce Utley, local director of Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), acknowledged that many of us may have come hoping for a guidebook to keep us from making mistakes or saying the wrong thing. In return, we shared our uncertainty about whether we should talk with our young children about race at all. The panelists began by sharing their own stories of microaggressions. One shared about curious grocery store customers asking her as a child where her family “got” her and “how much did she cost?” Another shared that her own family was unable to own that her skin was darker than the rest of the family’s. The panelists grew up as people of color who were not able to talk about race with their families. They shared how alone and misrepresented they felt as children. All three panelists shared that nowadays they talk about race often and with children of all ages. It was clear that families of color must talk about race today to guide their children through challenges every day. The panelists shared that in families of color, race must be addressed within the family. There is no opting out of these discussions. Schools and other well-meaning institutions avoid talking about race. Textbooks and media often characterize non-dominant cultures as either random heroes or people who have undergone trauma and made it in the mainstream United States. The other common depictions are of cultures in other countries. None of these depictions shows regular families experiencing typical daily life, which is what their own children are experiencing. Families of color must help their children process the confusing and often demeaning messages they take in at school, in their communities and in the media. Some of us have been taught that we have the option to be colorblind, to see everyone as the same. I’ve sometimes thought that we can misread our first principle, “inherent worth and dignity of every person,” to justify colorblindness. Without knowing this was on my mind, our panelists explained how demeaning and confusing it is when the dominant culture chooses colorblindness. One panelist explained how many of us don’t recognize that not everyone is treated equally or that we all have important and meaningful differences to contribute. Non-white people are shut out of their own cultures when all are seen as “the same.” This colorblindness appears inclusive on the surface, but requires people of color to assimilate in a way that diminishes the rich heritage that each person brings to a community. Our first principle calls us to honor those differences without making all of us “the same.” Families of color discuss race whether or not they are ready, willing or able to feel they have the “right answers.” Families of white privilege and culture need to understand the challenges, complexities and intersectionality of racism. The time is now for us to “not be quiet anymore.” As we begin to recognize that not all of us have the same resources, societal expectations, opportunities and history, we need to start the conversation that includes privilege, microaggressions, intersectionality and our own history as we open ourselves to conversations with our children. “Thirty Days of Love: A Call to Action for Faith, Race and Justice” has been a gift to the UUCF community, allowing each of us to learn and start a conversation about racism. We are now far more ready to take on the work of racial justice. I’m excited about the work we have done and the work that is to come. We will make mistakes. The panel encouraged all of us to reach out to our children, to encourage them to come to us to discuss what they observe, feel, experience and dream about regarding race. Our open hearts will allow them to bring questions to us without either a “What did you say??? We don’t say that in our house,” or a “I don’t think you’re ready yet to talk about that.” We need to respond with, “Tell me more,” “Let’s talk about this” and “I can see why this is confusing (hurtful, scary, uncomfortable).” But when would being UUs ever stop with just talking? Cayce Utley shared the importance of activism as a way to “talk to our children about race.” As we stand up against gun violence with our monthly protests, make signs against actions in our prison system through SURJ, ask our schools to represent diverse figures as everyday people (not just the occasional hero or traumatized person) or make food for the Hypothermia Prevention program, we are standing up in love for justice. Talking about race can begin with a conversation, and as we get a little noisy, we will be showing love to our children as we do the work of racial justice. Thank you to UUCF Board of Directors member Karen Wolf and Cayce Utley of Showing Up for Racial Justice for bringing this program to UUCF. Thanks also to panelists Holly Jackson and Nicole Callahan. We will be discussing followup sessions as a part of our Feb. 27 “Racial Justice: What’s Next?” 9 a.m.-noon, Sanctuary Commons, with Rev. David Miller and Rev. Laura Horton-Ludwig, Karen Lee Scrivo, ministerial intern for the UU Legislative Ministry of Maryland, and me, as we decide how UUCF can stay involved in the work of racial justice.

by Rev. Laura Horton-Ludwig. Dear UUCF family, I want to say thank you. Thank you for all the care and compassion you have shown me since my mom’s death earlier this month. I have been so touched by the many cards and notes you’ve sent, the way you have reached out to me in meetings and at coffee hour on Sundays, the many-faceted kindness that is woven deep into the DNA of this congregation. Many of you have asked how I’m doing. Of course I’m sad and I will always miss my mom. But I’m doing OK. I do feel sustained by so many blessings even in this tough time. And the emotions of grief go up and down. I know many of you will recognize this from seasons of grief in your own lives. I have also been reflecting on how this time of grief may be affecting my ministry with you all. It seems to me that there are both challenges and gifts. On the challenge side, we know that the symptoms of grief include finding it hard to focus and feeling more tired than usual. I’m trying to follow the advice I would give anyone else in this situation – get lots of sleep, be kind to yourself, write things down so that your brain doesn’t have to keep track of everything by itself. It’s a bit humbling to realize that I may not be at 100% peak productivity right now. But I am finding it’s also a good reminder that I am human, and part of being human is being subject to the ebbs and flows of vigor and weakness, depletion and regeneration. There are gifts along with the challenges, too. One of the things I loved about my mom is that she was profoundly helpful to many people, generous with advice and support, without being intrusive or forcing it on anyone. Since her death, I’ve been thinking a lot about how to embody that quality more deeply in my own life and ministry. Recently I caught a glimpse of my mom’s spirit in the words of another mentor of mine, Father Greg Boyle, SJ, the founder of Homeboy Industries. Listen to what he says: “You have to opt for delight. My ministry has become more simple over the years. More about just receiving people. My days of wanting to rescue, save, liberate, free - I’m not tempted by any of that anymore. If you can just receive who people are, then you can stay anchored in joy and peace … In my early years … I felt I could kind of turn on the light switch for people. But I discovered that I can’t, and no amount of me wanting that guy to have a life will ever be the same as him wanting to have one. [When] I realized that was the case, I have never been remotely close to burnout. It was life-changing ... It was liberating. I had a light grasp on results. I had a light grasp on whatever the heck success means … It was a really healthy insight. It underscored that people are the agents and architects of their own lives; and it’s a privilege to assist them in any way.” (Quoted in “Presence: An International Journal of Spiritual Direction,” March 2016) Looking back, I think this attitude of delight, respect and willingness to help when asked is exactly what sustained my mom in her decades-long career in social work. It’s my honor to pick up the torch as best I can. In the days to come, I’ll be asking myself, how can I opt for delight, receive people and assist as I can? Thank you for allowing me to share this stage of my journey and to serve with you. It is a great privilege. I love you all.

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 Linnea Nelson, Director of Religious Exploration. Last week’s 55th General Assembly (GA) of Unitarian Universalists in Columbus, OH, included people from around the world – 4,000 UUs gathered to hear the message that we must all love fiercely if we are to combat the hatred in this world. For the 30 of us from UUCF who attended GA, we were called to awaken and transform ourselves and our congregations to combat the rampant racism and white privilege plaguing our world ... and our congregations. To me, the message was clear that personal and congregational transformation must be at the heart of this work. Krista Tippett, the host of NPR’s “Interfaith Voices,” gave the Saturday night Ware Lecture exactly 50 years after Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke at GA. Back then, Dr. King called on our denomination to wake up to the revolution by: taking a world perspective, reaffirming the essential immorality of racial segregation and refuting the idea of superior and inferior races.  This year, Tippett told us to remember, especially in these challenging times, that words matter, we must listen deeply to one another and we must love our way through the trials and traumas we face every day. [caption id="attachment_30711" align="alignright" width="300"] Black Lives Matter demonstrators at the UUA General Assembly.[/caption] The revolution continues and we are called upon to marry Tippett's message with the problems Dr. King identified. Tippett and many of our UU leaders at GA seemed to be telling us that we need to look at ourselves first. We need to check our own levels of bias, uncover insidious acts of microaggression and recognize and eradicate our own use of privilege and power. None of us can afford to sleep through the revolution. As we all look within ourselves and at our own UUCF congregation, I hope we can use words to propel us forward, listen deeply to one another and love fiercely. To be a part of this necessary change in our currently white privileged order, we will need to continue to do the work begun this past winter during UUCF’s 30 Days of Love: Racial Justice campaign. Since that campaign, the UUCF Racial Justice Steering Committee has been working to organize in a way that will offer our congregation a strong foundation from which to move forward with opportunities for personal and congregational transformation. The goal is for all of us to be able to make the most permanent and lasting changes. Both at UUCF and in the world. So let's continue to march, organize and do good works to change this world, while reserving considerable energy to transform ourselves and our congregation to live up to Dr. King's call to action. We have a lot of work to do in this ongoing revolution. Let us move together in love.

What's Next? from Paul Atelsek, President, UUCF Board of Directors, and Senior Minister Rev. David A. Miller. [caption id="attachment_34307" align="alignleft" width="175"] Paul Atelsek[/caption] [caption id="attachment_28730" align="alignleft" width="175"] Rev. David A. Miller[/caption] Earlier today, UUCF’s Director of Administration Rich Sider announced his retirement. Rich has been an incredibly important member of the staff team and has devoted endless time and energy to sustaining UUCF and helping it thrive. For 9 years, Rich has supported events, fundraising and the general administration of the congregation in ways that have allowed us to continue the important work of our mission to each other and our community. Plans for our congregational expression of gratitude will be announced in the near future. The intention is to have a replacement hired by January. Rich will be working to create a smooth handoff to our next director. We wish him a full and enjoyable retirement as we express our gratitude for his devotion. He will be deeply missed. Based on Rich’s announcement, The UUCF Board of Directors met on Tue., Aug. 8, and approved the formation of a search team to fill the director of administration position. The makeup of the team will include: Two congregation members selected by the Board based on applications to serve on the team. Click here for a link to the application. A member of the board who sits on the Financial Oversight Committee, which works closely with the director or administration. A member of the Property Stewardship Committee, which works closely with the director. A member of the Coordinating Team, on which the director serves. A UUCF staff member. A member of the UUCF People of Color Caucus, because the congregation’s strategic plan aims to fill open positions, whenever possible, with qualified candidates of color. Senior Minister Rev. David A. Miller, the position’s supervisor. The deadline for search team applications from the congregation is Sun., Sep. 3. Each of the above groups will select its representative to serve on the search team. Search process As soon as it is constituted, the search team will meet regularly with a goal of filling the position before the end of December. The plan is for the new director to start after the first of the year and have a training period with Rich. 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 key criteria for the position. The position will be posted locally and nationally in places used for national UU congregation searches. These postings have been effective for us in past searches. The search team will screen and categorize the applicants by experience and alignment with the job description. The team will develop interview questions. A subset of the team – selected by the team - will meet to decide which applicants meet all the criteria and should be passed on to the full team. Each team member will read all the selected applications in relation to the position criteria established by the search team. The team will evaluate applicants on those criteria; with each individual search team member assigning scores that will be compiled for a group (team) score. The search team will conduct live video interviews with the top candidates. After those interviews, the team will meet and narrow the pool to three finalists. Each finalist will meet with staff and lay leaders relevant to the search process and do a final round of interviews with the search team. The team will choose the final candidate to recommend to the board. Again, we are deeply grateful to Rich for his incredible service to UUCF. We will let you know later in the fall how we will be honoring him before his departure.

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.