Between Sundays

by Admin | Jan 24, 2020 | Between Sundays

Rev. Dana
Dear Ones,
Though I was only 16, I remember well the impeachment hearings that led to President Nixon’s resignation in 1974. My mother, a born and bred and devoted Republican, was glued to the television and radio. She was utterly appalled at the testimony she heard and the serious abuses of power of the Nixon administration – appalled, disappointed, and in favor of impeaching a president she had voted for.

Our congregational theme this month is Integrity – a word that makes me think of both my mother and father who were living examples of it.

My mother communicated very clearly that this was an historic moment in American history, and that our nation is built on the rule of law and on high ideals. Ideals we don’t always reach, though ideals that should not be so blatantly and brazenly violated.

So, I find myself so disappointed that I can barely listen to the Senate impeachment proceedings. I flipped the radio right off when it started on Tuesday morning, and I’ve only been able to dip in and out over the last few days. The violations of our ideals, principles, and laws by the current administration are horrifying to me. And I find the language all are using to talk about it too painful to listen to.

Yet this is another historic time in our history, and I wish I could follow it more closely.

I tell you all of this, to simply say that you should all take care of yourselves through this process. If you are following every twist and turn and argument, thank you. And if you can’t bear a word of it, that is just fine, too.

These are hard times to be a people of conscience and integrity. Do whatever works best for you; whatever keeps you sane and relatively happy and kind to your family and friends. Take care of your big hearts, thoughtful souls, and discerning minds.

I do believe our greatest hope still lies in local action, working for positive change in our community, helping the people in need who are right in front of us. Events on the national stage are beyond our control, so let us stay in the mix in the ways we can make a difference.

And whatever happens, we’re in this together.

With love,
Rev. Dana

Between Sundays

by Admin | Jan 16, 2020 | Between Sundays

Dear People,
This past Tuesday Supervisor Steve Bennett invited me to give the Moment of Inspiration at the Ventura County Board of Supervisors. It was an honor, and better still that he acknowledged our congregation and especially our dear Harold Cartlidge for work with and for our homeless neighbors. Here is a link to the video of the meeting. https://ventura.granicus.com/player/clip/5367?view_id=67

Start watching at 01:30, I speak for about 6 minutes and then Steve says lovely things about us and Harold afterward. He also adjourned the whole meeting in Harold’s honor. It was a lovely affirmation. You’ll find the text of my words below. I have also been invited to give the Invocation at the MLK Celebration in Oxnard this Monday. It would be lovely to see folks from church there, too. There is a march from Plaza Park to the Oxnard PAL Gym starting at 8 am. The program begins at 9 and the gym at 350 S. K St. in Oxnard.
In faith,
Rev. Dana

First, I thank for your public service.
It takes courage and commitment, passion and compassion to serve your communities in this way. Perhaps more than ever in these fraught times.

I am Rev. Dana Worsnop, minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Ventura, a congregation that’s been serving this community for more than 60 years. UUs are guided by two over-arching principles: We affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person with a profound awareness of the interdependent web of all creation of which we are a part. This guides our personal spiritual paths, and carries our faith out into the community.

Every human is worthy of respect and dignity. And deep down each of us is connected to each other and to all of creation. We need each other and we affect each other and the earth whether we fully realize it or not. I do thank you for your service in these times that are so complicated, divided, and sometimes rancorous. I think that governance on the local level may be our greatest hope in finding our way through.

We are living at a critical time in human and even earth’s history. A Buddhist teacher of mine has said that we are alive at what might be the Great Turning, a shift in our understanding of humanity and life on this precious planet toward an interdependence cooperation. Or it might be the Great Unraveling in which things fall apart.

We need to do all we can to support a turning toward one another, toward a sense of how all the issues we face are ultimately connected. I suspect that you know of my congregation’s devotion to serving people in our community who are without homes or shelter. In this we are guided by the dictum in so many faiths that we must care for the most vulnerable, what the great teacher Jesus called the least among us.

Yet that call also carries us to be equally committed to creating a sustainable environment, to work for the rights of immigrants to our land, and for greater income equality. Everything is so interconnected. What we do to the earth, we do to ourselves and each other.

I thank you all for your part in helping create the shelters in both Ventura and Oxnard. It’s an on-going challenge. And we all well know that this is only part of a solution. We need more affordable and very affordable housing. Yet more housing means more people, who need water and transportation, even as we live in a climate emergency that requires us to conserve water and reduce the use of fossil fuels. We need resources to help people get off and stay off the streets at a time that families are feeling squeezed by incomes that aren’t keeping pace with expenses. And these are just a few of the intersections of the work before you.

It may require a whole new framework in which we operate. This needn’t be a zero sum game with winners and losers. I truly believe there are ways to address issues which will benefit us all. There will be changes, yes, and yet we can live richer, more meaningful and deeply connected lives. The decisions you are making at this powerful and local level will affect generations. Sometimes I don’t envy you, and sometimes I completely envy you. You are sitting in a place where your work can make a real difference in all our lives. And so I leave you with this prayer:

Holy One, Gracious God of many names and no name, Mystery beyond all naming, which dwells within and among and beyond us, this day and always, May these good women and men who have committed themselves to the service of a greater good – our common good –may they move with compassion, wisdom, and courage. May they listen carefully to the voices of the poorest among us, those poor in spirit and resources who often are not heard above the voices of those more powerful and privileged.

May they listen well to each other. May they lead from faith and not from fear, even in these perilous and anxious times. O tender, loving Presence, may you en-courage, indeed put courage into, these good men and women, reminding us all of how very much we need one another.

Amen       Blessed be       Namaste       Sala’am    Shalom     Peace     May it be so.