News: January 31, 2025

Dear Members and Friends

These are difficult times. The chaos of the last weeks has left many shocked, dispirited, and confused. The new administration has made it clear that it plans to target human rights and human beings of many kinds in the coming months. Executive overreach has been rife. Some religious leaders--particularly the brave Bishop Mariann Budde--have been publicly targeted for speaking truth to power. Others have been lauded for pedaling sycophantic praise and labeling empathy as a sin.

At such a moment the import of our community as a dissenting religious community is clear. We dissent from stifling tyranny by declaring that love has no borders. We dissent from the rise of authoritarianism by reminding each other that the truth is powerful, that no lie is forever, that it matters what we believe, what we do, and how we live. We dissent from fear by lifting up legacies of resistance and rooting ourselves in the core values of our community: that each person has inherent worth and dignity, that it is always possible to bring more beauty into the world, and the light of reason can never truly be extinguished.

In this spirit of dissent, when programs celebrating the full range of human diversity under assault, I am excited for First Unitarian Universalist’s offerings during Black History month. On February 2nd Dr. Rocke will be leading a service titled “Marian Anderson as Religious Guide: ‘She Shattered Glass Ceilings So We Can Soar.” Then on February 8th Tex Allen and the Sunshine Friends will be recording a live album in our sanctuary. Tex is a well known jazz musician whose family was one of the first African American families to join the congregation in the 1950s. His performance will be followed by three more special events: an arts forum on February 9th with Rice University professor and prominent Black humanist Dr. Anthony Pinn; a service on February 16th led by friend of the congregation Dr. Mtangulizi Sanyika; and an oral history on February 23rd with Tex about his family’s relationship with the congregation.

Throughout the month we will also be exploring life after death as part of our “Future Visions, Future Selves” program. In the minister’s book group we will be reading the groundbreaking Black queer poet Danez Smith’s brilliant poetry Don’t Call Us Dead. Then in worship we will be probing life after death on the 9th. On the 23rd I will close out the month with a service devoted to the topic of religious dissent. I will ask us consider what we can do, as individuals and as a community, to nurture our spirituality and sense of religious commitment during times like these.
love,

Colin