|
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Sunnyvale, California
Comments, Essays, and Sermons (Collection 2) |
Back to index |
|---|
2007-12 Minister’s Musings
by the Rev. Vicky Combs
UUFS Interim Minister
These six weeks between Samhain and Winter Solstice darkness reigns supreme. Reading the news I sense it is as much a darkness of our national soul as an absence of day light.
The problems which beset us are legion: the oil spill in the bay is merely symptomatic of a far wider climate crisis; we're mired in a war we lack the political will to end; the gap between rich and poor grows so wide as to threaten the very stability of our democracy and the so called “war on terror” has so eroded our civil liberties as to make the loss of democracy through economic instability a matter of been there, done that.
So here we are, at the end of the first quarter of our interim time together working to discern where the unique gifts, talents and skills of UUFS intersect with the world's great need . How do YOU answer that question? By the time you receive this newsletter we will already have gathered some of your answers at our Death by Chocolate listening desserts. Some of you will have already had the chance to share with others who/what UUFS is now and to envision together who/what you want it to be in the future. What will UUFS be known for in the surrounding community?
All thriving houses of worship are known for something. The 4000+ member Village Presbyterian Church back in K.C. has a singles group that is so large and so well known it earned Village Pres the nick name the “marriage mill.” But that church is also known as the one whose former pastor, Robert Meneilly, helped found the Mainstream Coalition, a group of liberal churches countering the radical Christian right's contention that they speak for “religious” folk, that they and they alone represent the “values voters” (a claim that the mainstream media helps perpetuate). After all, are not concern for peace, poverty and environmental collapse values issues?
So I ask again, for what will UUFS be known? Dynamic Sunday worship? The friendliest place in town? Inspiring financial generosity in support of good causes? Adult programming that has a little something for everyone? A Green Sanctuary Program so inspired that it fosters cradle to grave training in sustainable living not just for members but for the wider Sunnyvale community? Home of the ____________ [you fill in the blank]?
As in any successful search for a mate (or a settled minister), the degree of success is in direct proportion to the depth of one's own self-awareness. At the oracle at Delphi pilgrims were taught, “Know thyself and you shall know the Universe,” (words later inscribed above the temple to Apollo). If we were to paraphrase that for UUFS it might be “know thyself and you shall know which minister you seek.” Soon the darkness of this season will reach its zenith and slowly give way to the light. Let us adopt that seasonal reality as the metaphor for UUFS's search for its mission, vision, and identity in this interim time.
Blessings,
Vicky
|
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Sunnyvale, California
Comments, Essays, and Sermons (Collection 2) |
Back to index |
|---|