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I've been thinking and talking a lot lately about how we as individuals stand up for and live out our values. It involves being in touch with the source and ground of our being. It involves being leaders in our own lives, even when others disagree with us. It involves listening for the call of the truth and following it.
As a church community, we are called to this same work. We seek opportunities to live out our values as a church. We strive to follow our mission and achieve our goals in all we do. From staffing to church programs to how we treat each other, we are always striving in loving fellowship to honor the sacred, connect with each other and serve justice.
I can think of three opportunities we have in the coming weeks to live out our values.
First, I am inviting you to a meeting on Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday, February 15, following our service, to discuss how we can live out our values in our community. We have two goals as a church that speak to our commitment to justice and our community. We have said that we will "Build relationships with diverse mission partners in Worcester" and that we will "expand and deepen opportunities for charity, service and justice." On this day set aside by our nation to honor anti-racism and civil rights, it is right that we come together to think about what we can do to achieve these goals. All ideas and all creativity are welcome at this brainstorming and priority-setting meeting.
Secondly, I want to thank you for your pledges to support our the operating budget of First Unitarian Church in the coming year. One thing generous pledges will allow us to do is to hire a Connections Coordinator. This person will help us connect to each other. They will help us get involved in the church in the ways that are most important to each of us. They will share our welcoming and inviting spirit with the newcomers and visitors we see every week. They will help us all learn how to be more welcoming. They will help reach out to all those people in the Worcester area who might love our church but don't know it yet! This part-time staff person will help us live out our mission of welcome and connection.
Finally, we are called to live our mission in this church community by showing kindness and respect to one another. This may seem like the easiest or simplest thing to do. Those first two-they involve going to a meeting, sharing ideas, and raising money. This task is "just" simple kindness. Yet simple kindness can mean the most and is the sometimes the hardest to do. It means staying in relationship with people even when we disagree. It means listening to other people without feeling that we must make them just like us. It means believing that we ourselves are lovable and deserve respect and kindness.
We will not all agree in this church community or in any community. This is one of the great gifts of community life, that we have the opportunity to practice kindness, respect, and even love in the midst of our diversity. We practice it here and then we carry our practice with us into the world at large, which desperately needs people who are kind, respectful and loving.
In faith,
Rev. Sarah Stewart
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