Guest Columnist the Rev. Bruce Southworth, Community Church New York City
From time to time, a UU colleague's newsletter column will strike me as being important for my congregation to read. This is one of those times. Here's how Bruce Southworth begins his 29th year with the CCNY congregation:
We begin again! We gather again for a new season to be that
•caring
•healing
•liberating
•counter-cultural
•religious/spiritual
community that makes a profound difference in personal and collective ways.
...It is an extraordinary adventure to build upon our strengths, to share our many gifts with one another, and to shape new dimensions of service and shared ministries.
The deep [human] hungers that call to different ones of us vary in so many ways by virtue of life experience, immediate circumstances, and even temperament. These yearnings for
•Community
•Meaning
•Justice
•Quiet joy
•Renewed courage
•Greater wisdom
•To be of service --
these, and so much more, shape the fabric of our congregational life. We affirm and share our particular gifts, and may even discover new ones. Our activities reflect our passions, needs, and goals, and what wonderful diversity we enjoy here.
Religious community is a curious commodity, and Kathleen Norris (Waiting for Dakota) reflects on this:
"My old friends were mystified when I would tell them how much I loved being back in church. They regarded religion as irrelevant and challenged me to prove that it could mean anything. As for myself, on the Sunday mornings when I found it difficult to leave a warm bed, or when my doubts were much stronger than my faith, I had to remind myself of why it was I needed to go. It's the one place I know where I am allowed to sing in public, no matter what my voice sounds like, and where I receive a blessing just for showing up. Even more important, it is a place set aside from the noise and relentless commerce of the world for giving thanks for all that is larger than myself.... for a loving and creative spirit at work in us, and in the whole creation. Like nothing else I know, it brings me to my senses."
For me too, and I hope for you as well. Being part of religious, spiritual community like ours "brings me to my senses" -- reminding me to give thanks and to honor creation and its gifts....
The blessings of this church are enormous. Unitarian poet May Sarton captures a large part of our life together:
"... friends, I come to you starved for all you have to give...
We talk of first things and last things....
No one comes to this house who is not changed.
I meet no one here who does not change me."
This is why we belong to a church; this is why we come to church -- to change and be changed. What an exciting journey!
See you in church!
Rev. Melanie
