“Sometimes what we know of love and justice pushes us in ways
we never expected. And sometimes the need to bear such love into the world is heartbreakingly large. It is in those moments that we most need one another, and most need beloved community.” 
~UUA President Sofía Betancourt, Love at the Center

Dear Ones,

I have a bit of heartening news to share this week: On Sunday morning, we will welcome several new members to our congregation! I hope as many of you as possible will be in attendance to celebrate their decisions to join GNUUC and joyfully witness the addition of their signatures to our membership book. 

GNUUC members (as well as many friends of the congregation) join in living out our congregational covenant. The covenant was written years ago by the congregation, and we recite it together at every Sunday service. Between now and June, the Worship Team plans to devote four Sundays (one a month) to exploring the four main parts of our covenant. This Sunday, our new member ceremony will serve as a jumping-off point to reflect on our commitment “to make a welcoming community” and what welcome and community has meant to us. I hope you’ll be there!

Yours in celebration and the heartbreakingly large need for love in our world,
Rev. Denise
RevDenise@gnuuc.org 

P.S. If you are eager to become a member of GNUUC and I haven’t yet talked with you about membership, please email me ASAP! (If you’re not sure or not ready yet, no worries; there will be future opportunities.)

Beloveds,

Today I am sharing with you a message from UUA Southern Region Team Leader Natalie Briscoe because it speaks so well to the realities of congregational life in this (and honesty, every) moment.

Yours in being our own version of a good small congregation,

Rev. Denise

RevDenise@gnuuc.org

“A Good One”

By Natalie Briscoe, Lead for the Southern Region

“Whatever you are, be a good one” - William Makepeace Thackeray

Every month, a great number of congregations reach out to Regional Staff to ask questions about growth. If you have experienced a decline in membership and/or attendance in the past three to five years, you are certainly not alone.

And I’m sure many of you have been surprised by how we conduct these conversations. The first question we always ask is, “Why do you want to grow?” Because our financial situation is dire. Because we can’t afford our minister. Because we have no children anymore. Because we can’t afford our mortgage. Because we’ve never had this few members. Very few folks say it is because there are people in their communities who are hurting and reaching out for love, and they have love to offer.

The next question is, “What do you believe is holding you back?” Our building. The parking lot. We don’t have enough space. We don’t have any children. No one offers programming. We don’t have any volunteers. We can’t even get a full board together. Our minister. We are lay-led. We can’t afford a religious educator. Very few folks say it is because they are not yet the beloved community that they envision.

Look, I’m going to give it to you straight: people want to go where it is fun to be. They don’t want to go where they are asked to serve right away. They don’t want to go where people don’t laugh, don’t celebrate, don’t love out loud. They don’t want to go to a space that is exactly the same as the harsh world they stepped in from. People want hope. They want beauty. They want joy. They want their spirits uplifted. There is no magic formula: people want to go where they can leave the world behind and make a better one.

You can do that at any size. You are fully equipped right now to offer everything the world needs so desperately right now. Whether there are eight or eight hundred of you, I am willing to bet you have untapped potential just waiting to blossom.

If you are a small congregation, be a good one. Your strength is in the way you know each other, the way you care for one another, the way you build strong multi-generational relationships. You are flexible and able to respond to member needs with swift agility. Your programs consist of phone calls, meals shared, and milestones celebrated. You have the ability to become rooted in local activism, seeking deep connections with other organizations working for justice. You create Beloved Community by welcoming folks into your homes and your hearts every time you gather. Give that away, and you will never be lost.

If you are a mid-sized congregation, …

If you are a large congregation, ...

Whatever you are, be a good one. Growth follows the Good.

P.S. from Rev. Denise: If you’d like to read about medium/large congregations, or perhaps the whole (very informative) newsletter from the Southern Region, this month’s edition is located here. (Be patient while it loads! Subscription link near the bottom of the page, if you’re interested in a monthly update.)

“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.” 
~Flannery O’Connor

“Take a moment to think about everyone who has loved you into being.”
~Mr. Rogers (at least in the movies!)

Beloveds,

There are so many indigestible goings-on in the world right now that I can barely bring myself to scan headlines, let alone read the news. There are a few things closer to home that I’d rather not swallow, as well. And yet… here we are; here I am: these things are part of our lives and, well, the truth does not change because we don’t like it.

AND the truth also includes Love, and I might add that the presence and power of love does not change according to my inability to see it in every instance! If I have been loved into being by others (many others, Mr. Rogers seems to suggest), and I think for today I will take a moment to practice thinking about everyone who has loved me into being. Perhaps I’ll expand my imaginings to include those who have loved into being the people for whom I care most. After some practice, maybe on a day when I’m feeling strong, I might even imagine the love that has called into being a few of those I’d rather not worry about! 

The truths of the world are not going to change to make us comfortable, but they always, always, include the reality of love as the glue that holds everything together. I’m not sure how to articulate so much of what I believe (ha! studying theology for years does not make this easier!) but this I know: There is love in this world, and it is vital (both necessary and sustaining) to all that is, and certainly part of my life and yours.

I hope you are cultivating ways to remain connected to your own deepest and most sustaining truths in these days of realities we did not wish for and cannot afford to ignore. (Maybe give Mr. Rogers’ suggestion a try? Or make an appointment with me to explore spiritual practices that might work for you?)

Yours in truth, love, and the search for peace amid it all,

Rev. Denise
RevDenise@gnuuc.org 

“Take courage … you are not alone.” 
~Wayne B. Arnason (UU minister)

Dear Ones,

Resistance is important, but it is neither enough to live on nor our only tool in response to injustice. Today, a poem for you about resilience: 

“Optimism” by Jane Hirshfield

More and more I have come to admire resilience.
Not the simple resistance of a pillow, whose foam
returns over and over to the same shape, but the sinuous
tenacity of a tree: finding the light newly blocked on one side,
it turns in another. A blind intelligence, true.
But out of such persistence arose turtles, rivers,
mitochondria, figs — all this resinous, unretractable earth.

(from Each Happiness Ringed by Lions: Selected Poems)

So resolve to make like a tree, my friends–when light is blocked, turn another way–the light is not gone. And surely between the trees and the turtles, the rivers and the figs–we are never alone.

Yours in resilience, love, and the strength of community,

Rev. Denise
RevDenise@gnuuc.org 

“It is important that this moment in history does not pass 
without outcry, without our resistance.”
~Emily Baird-Chrisohon, of TIRRC*

“Your focus is resistance.” 
~ friend of a Facebook poster

Friends,

I have just finished listening to a very informative session hosted by *TIRRC (TN Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition) for faith leaders. I learned so much about what some of our neighbors are facing right now, as well as ways we might educate ourselves and be on standby to respond as unjust situations unfold. 

To be honest, I don’t know that GNUUC will be in a position to help immigrants directly, but there are several ways we can be prepared: by understanding and being prepared to share information about immigrant rights, by learning about what sanctuary we can provide (really, that’s limited in practice to private spaces instead of our whole building), and by tracking legislation and communicating with our elected representatives. TIRRC has been a fabulous resource to the Nashville community for over 20 years; consider signing yourself up for their Rapid Response Network to get connected. 

I am also aware that there are many other issues and problems and people needing support and attention (or phone calls urging them to represent us better!) these days. So I was glad to read, in an email one of you recently sent to a church group, encouragement to cultivate focus as a form of resistance. 

There is so much that needs resisting right now–none of us can possibly track–or even notice in passing–all of it. I am trying to find my focus; I hope you are considering where you will choose to spend your time and energy; and I look forward to discerning together where GNUUC’s energy comes into focus in the days and months ahead. 

Yours in discernment, focus, and resistance,
Rev. Denise
RevDenise@gnuuc.org 

“Contentment is the antidote to optimization.” 
~ Kendra Adachi

Beloveds,

Recently, I’ve been in various rooms with people struggling to find responses to our world in this moment. We have such a culture of optimization and perfection and striving that it can seem impossible, or at best negligent, to rest or look for contentment. I’d like to suggest that rest and contentment might be spiritual practices deeply suited to this precise moment.

The wisdom arising lately from my colleagues and compatriots and companions is this: Yes, things are bad and will almost certainly get worse, AND each of us needs to tend to ourselves (our own wellbeing), to our communities (nurture connection!), and to the work we find doable right where we are. The possibilities for action are as endless as the problems we face and will face, and no one of us can pay attention to, let alone work with, all (or even a significant number) of those at once. 

For now, it is enough to do the one thing you can do, or wish most to do, or don’t mind doing. Keep yourself whole and healthy, look for pockets of contentment here and now (I believe they can be powerful fuel for the work of justice!), and love on the people closest to you, because plenty more “one things” will call us tomorrow and next week and next month. 

Yours in commitment to the work and resting in contentment,

Rev. Denise
RevDenise@gnuuc.org 

“Hope is not the absence of despair–it is the ability 
to come back to our purpose … again and again.” 
~ Alicia Garza

Dear Ones,

It’s been a challenging week for hope, and yet now is exactly the time we need to dig into whatever we can do to sustain and nourish hope, belonging, and resilience. We will need them all to come back over and over–as is and will be necessary–to who we are and the work that is ours to do. 

This Sunday, in between the worship service and lunch, we will have our bi-monthly Shared Ministries meeting. I’m hoping to take a little time to think about our congregation’s mission in the current moment, and also to engage in a bit of UUA business together.* 

One of the important ways we stay connected to our purpose is as an active member congregation of the UUA (Unitarian Universalist Association). Every year our General Assembly votes on proposed Congregational Study/Action Issues, for which the UUA will support four years of study and action in our congregations and the wider UU movement. 

In filling out our annual certification of UUA membership (which Kris & Kristin & I are working on now), we are invited to vote for, against, or abstain for each of three possible issues for 2025, which I will briefly introduce at the Shared Ministries meeting. If you want to learn more about the issues or the CSAI process, visit this link. 

I’m looking forward to being together and doing some of the important congregational business of staying connected, finding hope, and changing the world. Meanwhile, I hope you are staying warm and safe this very cold week!

Yours in hope and love,
Rev. Denise
RevDenise@gnuuc.org 

*If you have something to add to the Shared Ministries agenda, please email me.

“I know that we can be better than we are.” 
~ James Baldwin

Beloveds,

Heading toward Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend, thinking ahead to the upcoming presidential inauguration, and looking forward to connecting this weekend with UUs across Tennessee organizing to support each other in social justice work, I was reminded of this passage from The Gospel according to James Baldwin, by Greg Garrett, which I’ve been reading with a group of progressive clergy colleagues in town: 

“What Baldwin believes about faith, I would argue, is that belief and action badly applied make us more dangerous, more limited, more blinkered in our vision. A bad religious understanding may breed jealousy, greed, and hatred. ... But rightly applied, faith and hope make us bigger, better human beings, capable of seeing and loving the world and all those in it, capable of living in hope rather than in fear.” 

Baldwin’s assurance that we can be better strikes me less as a judgment about our failings than as a stubborn application of faith and hope to the human condition and its infinite variations. At the same time that I hold a certain (healthy?) skepticism about the idea that we will be better, I do want to be part of the club (which might be labeled “the faithful”) that believes we always, in every situation and permutation of humanness, carry within us the possibility of being better. 

The brief sentence of encouragement from Baldwin quoted at the top also opens some interesting questions, which I will leave for you to ponder:  

-Who is “we”? 
-What kinds of “better” might we cultivate right now?

There are no right/wrong answers, just yours–or ours! And I would suggest these are good questions to entertain in preparation for our next meeting of GNUUC’s Shared Ministries Council (which, you may remember, is a meeting of the congregation) at the end of our service on Sunday, January 26. 

Yours in faith, and the hope of applying it well,
Rev. Denise
RevDenise@gnuuc.org

“Vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, and creativity. 
It is the source of hope, empathy, accountability, and authenticity.” 
- Brené Brown

Dear Ones,

If  Brené says vulnerability leads to such good things, then vulnerability is what I wish most for all of us in this new year! 

And if that sounds scary (and it may well, at least a little), I’d like to point out that one of the best gifts of a congregation like ours is repeated opportunities to practice vulnerability together–which we do every Sunday in sharing Joys & Concerns, and which last Sunday’s New Year ritual with our magic burning bowl also invited, as we released the old and invited the new in our hearts and lives. Thank you all for participating so honestly and generously. (And if you didn’t get a chance to play with us, I have a few slips of that “magic” paper left over; come see me & we can burn something together!) 

I am told that my joy in lighting things on fire showed on my face Sunday morning; in fact, I feel a much longer-burning satisfaction in creating and recreating spaces and times for us to gather and practice being human together. I am grateful to have such good company!

Yours in vulnerability and joy and courage,
Rev. Denise
RevDenise@gnuuc.org