News: January 17, 2025

Cover Jan. 19, 2025
Dear Members and Friends

Last month in this column I shared a letter from Sofia Betancourt, the president of the Unitarian Universalist Association.  She provided her wisdom in moving forward in such difficult times  In times when the rich are getting richer and the rest are hurting, when the money in politics is at a terrible high, when the societal support for parents and families is almost non-existent, when hatred and selfishness are a regular occurrence in public life we need guidance.  And there are the daily struggles of life which might include illness, overbooked schedules, prejudice, isolation and many social ills.  Her antidotes included one I want to talk about here….the Beloved Community.   It’s something Martin Luther King also talked about. 

Betancourt encourages us to cultivate community resilience.

“We find ourselves pulled both outward, to the actions we hope will make a difference, and inward, toward the relationships of communal care from which such actions must arise.    In challenging times like these, our faith calls us to find strength in each other.  As I have said in recent weeks, we are a sanctuary people; a people who aim to create safety for both body and soul within our communal spaces. We are also a faithful people – drawn to communal care not just by our ethics, but by our historic religious tradition. Our congregations and communities are rare places where people can be vulnerable enough to build trust and capacity for resistance. And this is why, as Unitarian Universalists, we are called to build and sustain community; it is the greatest tool we have for resilience.  History reminds us that people of faith and conscience have been essential to every movement safeguarding equity and human dignity.”
- Sofia Betancourt


In our communities we can build trust, we can grow to know each other, which allows us to rely on one another and to create a shared resolve.  Authoritarian leaders divide people and use propaganda to encourage feelings of powerlessness.  But when we take care to connect with one another, share and nurture, support those struggling and center those who are most impacted by oppression, we create our own strength.  We recognize that building relationships is an act of resistance and helps us build the coalitions and support we need going forward.

We are like water:


“I am but a drop of water.  Alone, I would disappear.  Dried up by the scorching sun or sucked up by the dry, thirsty earth.  But together, we can wear out stones, carve out the Grand Canyon, make streams and rivers and find our way to the sea.”
– Kok Heong McNaughton, UU


Martin Luther King had a vision of Beloved Community.
“The aftermath of nonviolence is the creation of beloved community, while the aftermath of violence is tragic bitterness.”
- MLK


In his advocacy of nonviolence strategies, he had a vision of a beloved community, a whole society where all people live in harmony, where people are valued equally and are motivated by compassion and kindness. He believed the beloved community could be achieved by treating everyone with dignity.  Inspired by Sofia Betancourt and Martin Luther King, let’s be together on Sundays and in small groups, building our relationships, our resilience and the Beloved Community.  

May it be so,

Carol Burrus

Director of Religious Community