by Reverend Dan Lillie | Nov 29, 2018 | Minister Blog
December Newsletter
As we move into December, into the darkness, we find ourselves confronted with a tension or a contradiction between ways of being. Society – the human world – seems to beckon and draw us to ever more busyness, being with ever more people, and ever greater commercialism. At the same time, the natural world is inviting us to come into the darkness with it. It’s inviting us to times of quiet and meditation. To times where we move more deeply into our own spirits and explore our relationship with Mystery.
Sometimes, feeling the pull of these two, we feel caught between them, not knowing which one to move toward, where to deepen, where to build relationships, where our spirits will be nourished. Sometimes we need the quiet dark, the stillness, to deepen our relationship with Mystery and with ourselves. And sometimes we need companionship and community to find new ways of experiencing Mystery and learning ourselves.
As we move into December, into the darkness, may we hold these two poles in delicate and creative tension. May you, may we find ways of being together that help us deepen and connect even as we allow ourselves to be nourished by the quiet darkness. May we deepen in our relationship with mystery as the darkness grows. May we find in the deep stillness what our spirits need, individually and as a community.
by Reverend Dan Lillie | Oct 31, 2018 | Minister Blog
I’m writing this to you at the end of a painful week, knowing that as November unfolds there will be even more happening in our country and the world. Depending on when you’re reading this, you may be remembering the events of the past week, when we learned of federal administration efforts to erase transgender identities and there was a horrific attack on the Tree of Life synagogue, as well as other hate crimes. In the past few days the administration’s stance towards migrants and refugees has taken on new dimensions. I know these times are scary and many folx with marginalized identities are worried about what the future holds. Let me be clear: You are whole and beautiful people and this Unitarian Universalist faith will continue to affirm this, regardless of any oppressive laws or policies that may be passed. You will always be welcome here.
Sometimes the pace of all that’s happening and how it impacts the lives of so many people we care about – including many people in this congregation – takes our breath away. I hear many people speak of how it can be a struggle to simply keep going, to take it all in, and to really honor the events and their impacts. There’s a vast amount of anxiety in our world and in our country, which can’t help but affect and infect us. The pressure we feel comes out in many different ways.
As all of this happens, our communities and our individual and collective faith journeys become even more important. Sometimes when we’re feeling so much pressure it’s tempting to turn inward and disengage from our communities and our spiritual practices. We may not feel the connection we felt before, we may not be receiving the same nourishment. But often this is when we need those practices the most.
In times such as this, we need to continue engaging with and in our spiritual and community practices. Sometimes we simply have to continue with faith that, over time, continuing will help us once again find the peace and joy and sustenance we seek. In the faith that, as impossible as it sometimes seems, we truly are a faith made for such a time as this.
For we know that we must have love, joy, and compassion to sustain us. And we know that it’s by continuing to engage in our practices and with each other that we build it ever more fully. In fact, it’s often in the dark times and through continuing with our practices through the times that they seem lost that we grow more deeply in our individual and collective spiritual journeys.
This month, as we engage together in your interim work as a congregation and as you participate in listening circles, may we continue to engage in our individual and collective spiritual practices and thereby build our community and live out what Love means in the world.
May we do this work as our prayer.
Love and blessings,
Rev. Diana
by Reverend Dan Lillie | Oct 31, 2018 | Minister Blog
Greetings Dear Ones,
As the calendar pages turn to November we’re encountering the theme of Memory. Memory, with all its warmth, wonder, pain, and complexity.
Memory has been important to me for much of my life. I’ve wanted to know and remember where I come from and how I’m connected to so many people who went before me. And I’ve been curious about the memories I can’t hear with words: the memory of the land, which I see in hills, riverbeds, and mountains. There are even the forgotten memories I’ve encountered and treasured while gardening: a lost and long-forgotten key, a child’s toy, even a small memory box placed there long ago and returned to the earth after I found it.
Memory creates us and often, even when we can’t remember the exact things we know we once knew, glimpses of stories come back to us and we laugh and laugh or we cry or we just have to share the few threads we do know. The lines of memory and the emotions it evokes are written on our hearts even long after exact memories fade.
Often times we want and need to hold onto memories, to build them up over time, to pass them on, to share them, to celebrate them.
Sometimes we want and need some memories to fade, and sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t.
As we reflect together this month, what’s your relationship to memory? What do you want from it?
And so I’ll leave you with “Wanting Memories” by Sweet Honey In the Rock. Give it a listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW2TpW4gCt8 In this beautiful piece they sing again and again:
“I am sitting here wanting memories to teach me
To see the beauty in the world
Through my own eyes.”
As we move into November, may we treat memory as the precious and fragile thing it is. May we remember the gifts of memory and allow our memories to re-member us, even when we can’t get all the details.
Love and Blessings,
Rev. Diana
by Reverend Dan Lillie | Sep 27, 2018 | Minister Blog
As we enter Autumn, the shape of our work together is developing. On Sept. 16 I was delighted to lead the Congregation-Wide Leader Meeting. Over 30 folks gathered to discuss how WUUC’s committee chairs’ and ministry leads’ work comes together to carry out the congregation’s mission. It was great learning what so many people do to make WUUC the warm, vibrant place it is, and to talk with folks about what interim ministry is, learn about people’s understandings of and relationships to this congregation, and talk about the processes of change and transition.
This meeting and other conversations have helped me develop a better understanding of how we can move into grappling with your heritage and understanding your organizational systems and leadership. During October, I’ll be developing more of the structure of sessions for sharing your stories about WUUC and developing your history timeline so that we can do your heritage work together as fall and winter unfold.
Another piece that has been emerging for me out of this meeting and other work I’ve been doing with the congregation is the idea of experiments, or planned changes that we try on to see how they fit and what they tell us. As you may have noticed, changes have been continuing at WUUC. Some of the changes and experiments are ones that you might expect and some are probably unexpected.
Some of these changes are intentional, like the ones that the Worship Team and I have been experimenting with in worship. Our worship experiments are developing over a period of weeks as we try different tweaks to help the flow of the beginning parts of worship.
Some changes have come about simply because I’m a different person and minister than Rev Lo and I’m learning about WUUC’s culture and systems. And some changes are a result of other staffing changes as WUUC has gotten a new choir director and we’re using creative solutions for running the religious education program as we work on hiring a new Director of Lifelong Learning.
Some changes are the result of having a new Board of Trustees and the flow of congregational life as members move away and join. Other changes are a result of things that are happening in the outside world.
And some of the changes are part of the interim ministry process, as I ask questions and work with the congregation on understanding your heritage, how your organizational systems and leadership work, and your mission.
Whether any of these changes are expected or not, you might find yourself having emotional reactions that you didn’t expect. While this may be unsettling, it’s also a normal part of change. At the Sept. 16 meeting I talked with congregational leaders about the roller coaster of change. The roller coaster helps us think about the emotional process that we go through during change.
One thing I like to ask myself when I notice that I’m on the roller coaster of change is: What is what I’m feeling telling me about where I am in processing this change, what I value, and who I want myself or this group to be?
And this is part of the value of change and experiments. They let us try out different things and, as we do that, learn about who we are and where we’re going.
I’m looking forward to talking about the roller coaster of change and basic plans for WUUC’s interim period at the congregational town hall on Oct. 14. At the town hall the Board will also be sharing a budget update and other updates. I hope you’ll join us!
In Faith,
Rev. Diana
by Reverend Dan Lillie | Sep 27, 2018 | Minister Blog
Greetings, Dear Ones.
Our theme for the month of October is sanctuary. Sanctuaries are places of refuge or retreat, particularly in troubled times. We create sanctuary for each other and for ourselves in many different ways. Sanctuaries can be our own bodies, spaces in the natural world, built or created spaces, relationships, and communities.
But what makes something feel like a sanctuary to each of us? How are the things that make a sanctuary for me similar to or different from what makes a sanctuary for you?
A thesaurus I looked at said that two of the synonyms for “sanctuary” are “hideout” or “hideaway.” And I thought, “Hmm. Yes, and…” What’s the relationship between a sanctuary and the outside world?
In a sanctuary we’re protected from trouble, but are we shutting the world out? Are we hiding?
Or is a sanctuary a place where we are protected so that we can heal, recharge, or be physically safe even while we remain aware of and work on or work with external forces that are making us unsafe?
Or is a sanctuary a place where we have different relationships with the outside world depending on our needs?
If sometimes a sanctuary is one thing and sometimes the other, how do we know the difference? Where is the line between being safe, and shutting the world out?
And how does each of our visions of sanctuary reflect not just our relationship to the outside natural world, but to the human community who can find sanctuary within them?
None of these questions have easy answers, and our answers to them might change over time, with our personal situation, and with our identity. But I believe that how we grapple with them and how we answer them has much to do with our individual and collective spiritual journeys.
During October, we’ll explore the idea of sanctuary in our services as we honor Indigenous Peoples day and All Souls Day, as Cora Goss-Grubbs reflects on her unexpected spiritual journey while taking a class on Social Work with African American Families, and as I join with you to reflect on our questions about sanctuary. I hope to see you in worship!
Love and Blessings,
Rev. Diana
