by Admin | Jun 11, 2020 | Between Sundays
Dear People of UUVentura,
And the curve balls keep coming.
In the midst of a pandemic, we are now also in the midst of a new wave of the Civil Rights Movement. The world watched George Floyd die slowly in front of our eyes, under the knee of an impassive police officer. The outrage and the protests were swift and keep growing. I hear outrage, despair, and helplessness. Yet I also see hope, energy, and passion. People who are even glad to be alive at this amazing turning point. We might even be able to change enough and make a real difference at last.
I’ve been reminding myself and others that the pandemic will be a marathon, not a sprint. The same is true of this “new” Movement for Racial justice. We need to be in this for the Long Haul. Remember:
The Freedom Rides lasted 7 months.
The Greensboro sit-ins lasted 6 months.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott lasted 381 days – that’s 1 year, 2 weeks, and 2 days.
The protests arose so quickly, with people of so many backgrounds and races. My spirit leaps, especially when I see the engagement, the power, the commitment of young people. A change is coming with urgency. Yet a few days and weeks will not dismantle the structures of oppression that keep Black, Indigenous, People of Color – in America and around the world – under the knee of white supremacy and systemic racism.
It is our faith that every person is born with inherent worth and dignity. Yet as a predominantly white congregation and denomination, our work of dismantling oppression needs to be engaged on many levels simultaneously. Those of us who are white need to examine our own hearts, to see the ways that we have benefitted from – and even participated in – practices that keep BIPOC oppressed. We need to follow the lead of BIPOC who tell us what they need. We need to listen to the narratives of their lived reality – and believe them.
We have the chance to truly live the mission of our church in ways that actually can make a difference. We have longed for change for decades and centuries. Sometimes we have been part of it. Yet the work of dismantling oppressive systems is far from done, and we get to carry it forward. I, too, am excited and overwhelmed and outraged and committed and despairing and so glad to be alive – on this planet, in this time, with you good people.
Let us examine our hearts, be accountable to our values and each other. I hope that your spirit leaps at the possibility of being part of the changes we long for. And it will also be often-uncomfortable and hard work. Yet I know we are up for it and up to it.
In the next month, I will be forming a book group to discuss issues of racial justice, especially the work that white people need to do to dismantle racism in our hearts and in the culture. If you wish to join that, or be part of a group envisioning how the church join the struggle, please let me know.
Below are some resources for ways that we can begin this work of justice. There are lots, though these are local and a good place for us to start.
Let’s get to it, and keep going.
With love,
Rev. Dana
by Admin | May 17, 2020 | Between Sundays
Dear People of UUVentura,
The latest word from Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray, president of the Unitarian Universalist Association is the recommendation that we start addressing the reality that we may well not be able to gather in person for worship for a full year.
She writes: “Over the past several weeks, the UUA has consulted with multiple public health officials in order to update the guidance we provided on March 12 recommending congregations stop gathering in person. Based on advice from experts, we continue to recommend that congregations not gather in person. We also recommend that congregations begin planning for virtual operations for the next year (through May 2021). Take a moment to breathe. I know this is significant.”
Though this is stark and hard news, my first reactions to her missive were gratitude and relief. Gratitude for real leadership that consults experts and faces reality. Relief for clear guidance that we can begin to make plans around. For the last two months, it has seemed that the ground has been shifting by the hour, the day, maybe the week. Though it is a long time to consider, we can move ahead now with plans and goals.
This may yet be hard to wrap our heads around. Cities, counties, and the state are beginning (hopefully very slowly and deliberatively) to open up. Yet gathering in large groups in enclosed spaces will be the last to reopen.
Alas, as Rev. Frederick-Gray says: “Religious gatherings are highly contagious events. Singing together, the familiarity of people across households, the multigenerational community of children, youth, adults, and seniors—the things that make our congregations so special—also create more risk for spreading the virus.”
We have been utterly amazing over the last two months in worship and in so much beyond. The importance of this spiritual community of kindred spirits and shared value has become clearer. We are finding ways to strengthen the ties that bind us together. Our ministries together never stopped being essential.
Now we get to take a deep breath, and take a moment to take it all in (once more).
Let the sense of disappointment, even heartbreak wash over you. There is the particular loss of not being able to sing together felt acutely by the choir and our church musicians.
Then we get to ourselves up and take up the creative, long-term planning that will continue to carry us through. We will still be able to be flexible to changing conditions. We may well be able to gather in small groups – observing all the recommended safety protocols – before May 2021.
I am grateful to be a part of a religious tradition that reveres science, human community, and justice. Quoting Rev. Frederick-Gray again: “This pandemic teaches us that our actions directly impact the health and well-being of our neighbors, and so it is imperative that we make choices that keep our congregations and the larger community safer. As COVID-19 disproportionately impacts people with disabilities, Black people, Indigenous communities, Latinx people, the elderly and essential workers, a majority of who are women and women of color, religious communities have a moral responsibility to do all we can to reduce risks for those already at such high risk.”
So, let’s all take a moment to breathe.
I leave you with something to look forward to next week. Our speaker May 24 will be Tanner Linden, a young man who has grown up in the church and who this community has helped form into a fine young man. Many know the amazing things Tanner has done in church, in denomination, and beyond. He has also worked at the Santa Barbara Zoo for several years. His topic for Sunday, May 24? It’s a Zoo Out There. It promises to be a thoughtful and delightful Sunday.
Our mission as a church may be more vital than ever in these times. A large part of that mission is to nurture our children and youth a they grow into kind, compassionate, and thoughtful people. Next Sunday, we’ll get to see an example of doing that.
With love and gratitude,
Rev. Dana
by Admin | Mar 5, 2020 | Between Sundays
Will This Be an Actual Pandemic?
It’s hard to know if we are over- or under-reacting to the coronavirus CoVid-19.
For years, the World Health Organization and other public health organizations have worried about the possibility that a new, highly-contagious, and deadly disease could spread quickly through our closely connected world. And it keeps not quite happening. First there was SARS and then MERS and then H1N1, none of which managed to be the worst combination possible. (Actually, first there was AIDS, which was utterly lethal though not air born contagious. Ebola was frightening and yet containable.)
Scientists call CoVid-19 a novel corona virus, as in new enough that humans have no immunity to it, and a vaccine is a year or more away. It is also contagious, perhaps as much or more than the flu. It is currently not clear what the death rate is or will be.
- There are good reasons that the WHO and others are very concerned about it and taking extreme measures to contain it.
- How bad will it be? Will it mean closure of public spaces – like schools and churches? Will there be quarantine orders?
- We can’t know, though this one seems serious enough to make plans for us to respond.
To that end, we have created a Coronavirus Response Team, including Jessie Austin, Melissa Ruiz, and Janice Frank who are all in the medical profession and represent the Safety Committee and Religious Education. Others on the team are Yukio Okano, Board member and Pastoral Associate; Worship Associate Sue Brinkmeyer, and Kitty Merrill from the Publicity Team.
For now, we are looking into ways for the church to be as safe as possible and considering how we will respond if there are closures and/or quarantines.
Even if this does not turn out to be “the Big One,” so to speak, it’s a good idea to be proactive. So, follow the suggestions below, and we’ll let you know plans as they develop. A good link for local information is http://www.vcemergency.com.
As always, we will be in this together, and we’ll find our way through together.
With love and caution,
Rev. Dana
Coronavirus and UU Ventura
As new cases of the coronavirus (CoVid-19) are reported in the United States and around the world, the congregation is called to education and caution.
Here are a few basic guidelines. We ask that you follow these precautions even if you yourself are not at risk, as many members of our community are at a high risk:
- Wash your hands frequently — use soap and water and scrub for at least 20 seconds. Humming the tune of Come, Come Whoever You Are takes about 20 seconds.
- Sneeze or cough into the crook of your elbow or a tissue, not your hand. Wash immediately after coughing, sneezing, or blowing your nose.
- Avoid touching your face, especially your mouth or nose or eyes, with unwashed hands.
- Regularly disinfect frequently touched surfaces, including keyboards, phones, elevator buttons, door knobs and light switches.
- Use hand sanitizer or hand wipes.
- Avoid close contact with individuals who are sick.
- Stay home if you are sick.
- Greet others in non-physical or low-contact ways, especially during coffee hour.
UU Ventura will follow best practices as recommended by health authorities. Sections of our service may be changed to reduce the spread of germs. Hygiene practices in our kids’ programs are being increased. If the suspension of large gatherings is recommended, we may suspend services and other programming, or they may be live-streamed.
by Admin | Feb 27, 2020 | Between Sundays
There is a new team on the block at church – the Generosity Team. Its formation was inspired by the mission statement of a similar group from the First Unitarian Church of San Diego.
“Our mission is to develop financial and spiritual resources for the current and future needs of First Church with integrity and with an awareness of the joy inherent in cultivating generosity as a spiritual virtue.”
Our new team read this, thought it works perfectly, and they didn’t need reinvent the wheel, and so adopted it as their own mission statement. So how do we cultivate generosity as a spiritual virtue? Many of us relate to money with a sense of scarcity because it can feel like there is never quite enough of it – in our lives or in the church. Yet being generous – as individuals and as a church – can be joyful. Generosity is indeed a spiritual value that can make us feel abundant, not just with enough, but overflowing with gratitude and, yes, joy.
So how do we cultivate and nurture a sense of generosity as a part of our spiritual lives and our connection to UU Ventura? This is the very question that our new Generosity Team will be asking us all.
Our first opportunity to answer will be on March 22 at Celebration Sunday.
It will be a grand day at church. Rev. Julia Hamilton from our church in Santa Barbara will be preaching. (I’ve been dying to bring Julia to our pulpit, and am looking forward to leading worship with her.) We’ll have wonderful music from the Marsh Brothers, coming off a wonderful showing at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee.
We’ll make our pledges in the services and then retire to Berg Hall for a luncheon to celebrate our individual and collective generosity. This is intentionally not a pot luck because it is meant as a great big Thank You. For some, just sitting and being fed can be a bit awkward. Yet we want everyone to feel thanked and appreciated for all the ways you are generous – with some lunch and perhaps a little bubbly. This particular Sunday is about the giving of our financial resources, though we can’t create the fullness of community without hearts that are generous in many ways.
So, between now and March 22, I invite you to consider what this church community means to you and how you will contribute of your financial resources for 2020-2021. Consider how you find joy in generosity as a spiritual value.
Rev. Dana
by Admin | Feb 20, 2020 | Between Sundays
TWO LENSES…
All the work we do in the church should be viewed through (at least) two lenses: How do we promote anti-racist and anti-oppression values? How do we live sustainably on our “Blue Boat Home” in the face of a growing climate crisis.
Both of these questions address the deepest theological work we are called to as Unitarian Universalists in our times. My sense of this grew more and more clear while working with the 545 Force and church leaders to create our next Five-Year Plan. The plan that is nearing its final draft, and which the congregation will vote at the Annual Meeting in June.
We are in a third or fourth wave of a Civil Rights movement. Great work was done in the 1950s and 60s, though the work was not finished. People of color knew that all along, and are asking all in our culture to deepen the work and get farther down the path, keeping our “eyes still on the prize.” Using this lens on all we do will help keep that prize in focus.
The climate crisis is lurching toward catastrophe. This is an existential crisis for us all. We face a sense of the mortality of our very species and much of the life on Earth. This lens will help us focus on our actions lead us in positive, earth-healing directions.
We have groups in the church directly addressing these issues: the Seventh Principle Environmental Action Team, the Action Team for Immigrant Rights, the Social Action Coordinating Committee. Classes and workshops help deepen our understanding – our second round of Beloved Conversations about racism, the class Coming Back to Life about being hopeful and active in the midst of environmental crisis.
Yet we also need to look through these lenses in all we do. How do auction events deepen this work? What does our worship look like through these lenses? How do we welcome people into the church? What goals should the Board of Trustees set? How do we bring this awareness to our children and youth? The lenses can guide choices of books for book groups and movies we watch together, topics for the UUniques, women’s and men’s groups.
These lenses are not our only focus, of course. The church is always about caring for one another; building community through fun and music and food; weaving a tapestry of love that holds us in joy and sorrow; deepening our sense of spiritual connection; strengthening us for our work in the world. Still, these lenses can lead us to questions that help us make decisions and choices. They may give us direction in creating an embracing, inclusive, spiritual community that transforms lives and transforms the world.
May it be so,
Rev. Dana
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
