News: November 8, 2024
Dear Members and Friends,
On Wednesday, after the election, more than ninety of us gathered together. Some came for coffee and fellowship in the morning. Others came for post-election vigil in the evening. A few came to both.
All, I suspect, showed up because we need each other as we face fear and devastation. In this time, our community becomes a refuge. We are a sanctuary for all who imagine a world in which the circle of love is drawn ever wider rather than one constricted by hate.
Wednesday evening I shared with you some words adapted from the President of our Unitarian Universalist Association, the Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt. Here they are, in part:
On Wednesday, after the election, more than ninety of us gathered together. Some came for coffee and fellowship in the morning. Others came for post-election vigil in the evening. A few came to both.
All, I suspect, showed up because we need each other as we face fear and devastation. In this time, our community becomes a refuge. We are a sanctuary for all who imagine a world in which the circle of love is drawn ever wider rather than one constricted by hate.
Wednesday evening I shared with you some words adapted from the President of our Unitarian Universalist Association, the Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt. Here they are, in part:
We gather on the evening after, in a time of great fear and devastation and very real risk to ourselves and ... [our loved ones]. There is so much that we cannot yet know. Even if we know the shape and fear the character of our next governmental administration, we cannot fully know what is yet to come.
What I do know, beyond any reasonable doubt, is that we are a sanctuary people. ... From the powerful efforts of our elders in the middle of the twentieth century through to our congregations and communities offering shelter to migrants today. Whether harbor or pink haven, our homes, sanctuaries, and even our national headquarters model what it means to offer solidarity, shelter, and asylum in the face of what many of us cannot begin to imagine. These are times that will be defined by the continued and increased need for organizing, and a faithful commitment to mutual aid.
I want to invite us all back to what we learned in our earliest understandings of what humanity itself means. We draw our purpose from the call to honor and uphold the non-negotiable sacredness of each and every person, of Earth, and of all beings, bound up together in an abiding love that rests in the call to justice.
So many of us are afraid today. Fearful for the safety of our loved ones, and overwhelmed by the public plans to deny our basic human rights. I invite us to feel the reality of that concern, and to hold one another in our grief. I also want us to remember how very many others in our communities and across the nation share our values and prepared all the way through this election for what might be asked of us through the remainder of this month and beyond. Draw on all you have learned through get out the vote and other opportunities to work for electoral justice. Know that you are never alone.
Together, we will rest in the strength of our covenants and bring that love, generosity, sacred witness, and values driven interdependence to bear as we continue to work toward a future where our liberation is collective and all of our people can count themselves whole.
We can love the Hell out of this world and hold the most holy together.
love,
Colin
