Equality UUCF

The first priority of Equality UUCF is to promote a safe and welcoming environment for LGBTQ members of the congregation through a variety of activities including social gatherings, groups and educational offerings like the “Living the Welcoming Congregation” curriculum.

The second priority is to propagate and support outreach to the LGBTQ community as a whole, focusing on raising awareness of and advocacy for important legislative issues that directly affect the social standing of the LGBTQ community.

Equality UUCF may interact outside the UUCF community with other recognized religious and secular organizations that promote LGBTQ equality and foster understanding. These organizations may include other UU congregations, UUs for Social Justice, People of Faith for Equality in Virginia, Equality Virginia, and PFLAG.

In 1994, UUCF became a Unitarian Universalist Welcoming Congregation to support the inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning/queer (LGBTQ) people in the life of the congregation.

Equality UUCF events

UUCF: A source of the waters of life

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

Day to Serve: Demonstrating the power of interfaith work

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.

EarthCircles Rising: Will you be a fern or a whale?

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!

Stepping into the river

by Rev. Jennifer Brooks. Transition. Last weekend’s Ingathering services welcomed UUCF members and friends back into this gathered community. We poured water symbolizing rivers, lakes and oceans. Each water source evokes a different emotional response and signifies a different experience of growth. But whether summer was frolicsome or challenging, whether life now offers smooth sailing or turbulent waters, every person here has companions on the journey. We do not journey alone. That is the central notion of community. In the transitional year ahead, the UUCF community will continue to feel the loss of beloved leaders and must cope with the unexpected differences new leaders inevitably bring. It’s difficult, when feeling loss, to adjust to something new. Yet even if this new crop of leaders tries to avoid doing things differently, we can’t help it. We are different. We’re the product of different experiences, geographical regions and families of origin. But despite these differences, the UUCF community is able to hold and connect every one of us - newcomers and long-term members alike. That sense of connection, of belonging, helps congregations shine through transition. And one thing is very clear: UUCF is good at creating connections that strengthen community. This year, beginning immediately, it’s especially important for UUCF members to notice and reinforce our experience of beloved community. Our Ingathering services and Saturday’s picnic helped. Soon our Oct. 11 and Nov. 1 “neighborhood” gatherings (at UUCF, organized by ZIP code) will further enhance our connections. Those connections, and the resilience of this community, will grow more robust with every event, activity, covenant group and UUCF-sponsored act of service or justice-making in which we participate. Think of stepping into a river, trying to remain standing through the roiling current. Alone, even the strongest person can be swept away. Now think of a chain of people, holding hands, with others bracing along both sides. With the presence and support of community, all who step in the river are safe. That’s the congregation’s work during this year of transition. Join hands. Strengthen connections. Don’t let anyone be swept away. Create a community that keeps everyone safe even as we step into a river of challenge and change. The world needs every one of us.

A UU "faith" community

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.

Spiritual direction: making space to hear your spirit

by Rev. Laura Horton-Ludwig. Once a month I drive to Maryland, to the quiet neighborhood where my spiritual director lives and works. For an hour, I sit on the comfortable old couch in her basement office while she faces me in her chair, a candle lit on the table between us. And we talk. Actually, most times we start with silence, breathing deeply, settling down. When it feels right, I start to tell her about what’s happening in my life … where I feel challenged, confused, joyful, sad, curious. … My spiritual director is there, receiving my words and my silence … mostly listening, sometimes asking a question or two, but mostly listening. In this quiet space, I can hear myself think. I can slow down enough, sometimes, to hear the promptings of my spirit. Spiritual direction is an ancient practice but it’s not fancy. Mostly it’s listening and being present with another person, helping them hear themselves. I love this description: Spiritual direction is an ongoing relationship between a person who desires to be more attentive to the movement of spirit in their life - however they understand or name it - and a spiritual director who supports that desire. And this one: Spiritual direction is for anyone who is hungry for deeper meaning, who feels there must be more to life than they are experiencing now, all those who find themselves touched deeply by the events of their personal lives or the events of their world, all those who have lots of questions and few answers. It’s about paying attention, making room, letting go of expectations and listening to what is actually present. I’ve been on the receiving end of spiritual direction for many years now. It has been a gift, that hour each month. One of my great joys this year is that I’ve been able to start learning how to serve as a spiritual director myself. Last week I traveled to North Carolina for the first of six intensive workshops at the Haden Institute. Over the next two years, I’ll be reading, writing, listening and practicing and, I hope, learning to offer the kind of spiritual support to others that has made such a wonderful difference in my life. If you feel drawn to explore the possibility of working with a spiritual director, you might start by checking out the list of referrals on the UUCF website. Or I’d be happy to talk with you personally - just ask me. Regardless, for every single one of you, I wish you quiet space when you need it and friends who can help you hear the voice of your soul. Peace to you, Rev. Laura

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Equality UUCF

Equality UUCF events

UUCF: A source of the waters of life

Day to Serve: Demonstrating the power of interfaith work

EarthCircles Rising: Will you be a fern or a whale?

Stepping into the river

A UU "faith" community

Spiritual direction: making space to hear your spirit

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