Dear GNUUC folks,

Here’s the poem I shared on the video:

“This is the time to be slow,
Lie low to the wall
Until the bitter weather passes.

Try, as best you can, not to let
The wire brush of doubt
Scrape from your heart
All sense of yourself
And your hesitant light.

If you remain generous,
Time will come good;
And you will find your feet
Again on fresh pastures of promise,
Where the air will be kind
And blushed with beginning.”

― John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

In a Zoom meeting with about 14 Nashville religious leaders and a few professors, I listened as clergy, Jewish, Baptist and Methodist, shared from the heart about how they find faith in the time of travail. I wasn’t surprised, because I’ve long done Interfaith work (that’s how I met Dan Rosemergy almost 20 years ago), that most did not have absolute certainty about where or what God is, nor did they have answers to the deep and pressing questions of humanity. One pastor spoke about how he saw God in evolution and that he had in trust in humanity continuing to evolve and learn. Another shared that he was growing tired of the platitudes and aphorisms he was seeing on social media touting literal faith, getting likes for God or expressing certainty that if everyone prays at a certain time, the pandemic will be gone.

Another spoke about history, and was reflecting upon times of war (he’d been a chaplain in two wars) and suggested that the Army teaches soldiers to care about their fellow service people as much as about themselves. A fourth mentioned that some of the most fear-based responses he saw were coming from Christians.

I decided not to speak today, but if I’d shared, I would have said that even theistic UUs tend not to worship Jesus or to claim a personal God. However, I’d have told them, we have faith in humanity; we believe there is at least as much potential for good as for evil, and that we trust in reason, tolerance and freedom. We’re not people of the Book but we are people of all the books.

I’ve been percolating on some meaningful ways we at GNUUC can get together outside Sunday mornings and Zoom meetings. If I were to offer a Zoom discussion on some short stories and maybe later a novel, would you like to join in? We’d be discussing these works as literature but also our response to them as UUs.

If you’re interested let me know via email cyncain@gnuuc.org or text at 859 221 3034.

For now these will be GNUUC members only.

I miss you all greatly and look forward to being with you again!

With Love,

Cynthia

April 1, 2020: Minister Notes & Check-In