Open up the doors . . .

Open up all that you are

Heighten and deepen your connections to the world around you

Broaden your definition of neighbor

Grow into the largest target for grace that you can muster

And pray to become a gateway for even greater love and compassion

Open up the doors, my friends,

Lest we keep the stranger out

And condemn ourselves to prisons of our own making

(Read the full poem by UU Rev. Lindasusan Ulrich: Open Up the Doors)

 

I’ve been enthralled with this poem since Robyn Rathweg read it at a recent Building Committee meeting.  What a beautiful image for OUR building project!  For isn’t our vision of a ‘center for spiritual exploration and justice-making’ actually ‘a gateway for even greater love and compassion?’  And this bruised and fractured world is so in need of our mix of joy and justice.

This is the time — this month — when we will figure out how the vision for our building matches our fundraising capacity.  It’s a nail-biting moment in this project, one in which I hope everyone is considering what their own most generous and responsible gift to the capital campaign might be. Responsible to your financial situation, as well as responsible to ‘making room for our future’. Our almost 300 member congregation is busting out of the seams here, limiting our possibilities in ways we can’t even imagine.  It’s a legacy-building time, and one I expect we’ll be able to look back upon with pride.  Make a gift you can feel good about.

And while we are imagining a new spiritual home, there’s internal capacity-building going on as well.  We are entering into a third year of Interim work in our School of the Spirit religious education program.  This month there will be two after service workshops – May 6th and May 20th at 12:30 (with snacks!) — to gather input for what we want to see in our lifespan faith formation programming moving forward.  What’s working in our programming?  What kind of programming can you imagine? Join the Search Transition Team for dynamic time of exploring our future.

Finally, last Sunday I quoted Krista Tippett:  “Great leaps, however exhilarating, are hard on mortal creatures.” We are definitely in an exhilarating time of great change.  As spring and summer awaken the earth, let us remember to play a little more together, and celebrate the many ways this Fellowship brings joy to our lives and justice to the world.

 

It continues to be my honor to serve as your minister,

 

Rev. Lydia