… and while most of the bulbs in my yard are still buried under snow things are popping up all over the place at FUUSE!
What is happening:
FUUSE members have enthusiastically embraced the Unitarian Universalist Association’s (UUA) invitation for the month preceding Earth Day to be honored as Climate Justice month. It was easy because last spring we chose the theme of environment for the month of April. So there are lots of events happening throughout April to connect our minds, hearts, and hands to the climate justice. I am especially excited that Coleen O’Connell is coming to offer her workshop on The Work that Reconnects. She is doing a workshop all day Saturday the 18th that moves through the four steps of the work and then an additional portion of the workshop on the 19th after the worship service. She will be joining us for the worship service also. This workshop offers us all tools for living our daily lives as well as encountering the big issues of this moment. It provides spiritual practices and a way to create an action plan.
I am trying to weave into our community opportunities for the four deep purposes:
The first one being the goal of having everyone have a spiritual practice. To that end, one mindfulness class was offered this past Sunday and another is being scheduled. Will anyone help me find someone to teach yoga or tai chi here?
The second deep purpose: talk about anything. In the fall a series of workshops about direct, respectful communication. Again I want each of these things to be of use in your daily living, in our community life, and in our work on larger issues. One of the issues that is up in our community I will talk more about below, but it sure looks like we will be scheduling conversations about what we want for Religious Education for our children and our adults.
Third is collective action. There are many opportunities for this coming up with the Climate Justice month, and we are putting together a Mother’s Day March for Peace on Mother’s Day, shortly after the service. Come, carry a huge flower or carry a sign with the name of a young person who has been lost to gun violence. We are hoping to put together a workshop for parents to help them talk with their children about gun violence.
And fourth, Ultimate Hope. I mean a hope that is bigger than we are, bigger than the actions we can take, bigger than our lives. There is something profound in the Work that Reconnects that can kindle hope in everyone, reconnecting with our own souls, with each other, and with the world kindles possibilities that are bigger than our imaginings.
And here is something that Mary Ann Cappiello talked about eloquently in the service ([wpfilebase tag=fileurl id=384 linktext=’her piece can be downloaded separately’ /]). She described some of the learning and thinking about Multigenerational Faith Formation. It’s something we are talking about but no decisions have been made about action on it.
The only thing that is decided about Multigenerational Faith Formation is that it is a very interesting idea. One of my favorite people said, “It is more important that an idea be interesting than that it be right.” So, let’s spend the next year talking and learning about what this multigenerational faith formation might look like. It interests me because I think it addresses several of the needs expressed in our community in recent years – the longing for relationships between the generations, places to explore our spiritual depths and commitments, flexible offerings for learning and exploring what it means to be UU in 2015, a wide diversity of interests. April is full to the brim, so look for a community conversation coming up a little later in the church year for some conversation about what Multigenerational Faith Formation looks like and what we still want to know about it.
Spring is a beautiful and enlivening time. And it’s a messy and sometimes disconcerting time (snow on the flowers). And so much is about to bloom, put on your galoshes and wade on in!
Reverend Kendra Ford