“Come
into this place of peace and let its silence heal your spirit; come into this
place of memory and let its history warm your soul; come into this place of
prophecy and power and let its vision change your heart.” Reverend William
Schultz, whose quote this is, was the president of the Unitarian Universalist
Association in 1985. I had joined First
Jefferson Unitarian Universalist Church
in 1979, and by the time Bill will president I was deeply involved in
teaching all kinds of classes at my church—from Building Your Own Theology to
Newcomers Classes to High School Youth classes—all of them involving a fair
amount of UU History. In the 1980’s and
90’s, I loved this quote and felt greatly comforted by it. As I reflect on this quote today, there are
parts of it I understand in new ways.
But I get ahead of myself.
My story begins with the mental
preparation I went through before attending General Assembly this summer. White supremacy in our country—everything
that was happening in the initial post-Obama phase—I felt like I could see and
understand a lot of that, and I could continue to work against it, but the
accusation of white supremacy without our denomination caught me a little by
surprise. Then came the resignation of
the UUA president and other national leadership staff within our denomination
over the controversial hiring practices—the hiring mostly white male ministers
for leadership positions at all levels. This
was quickly followed by the arrest of one of our UU clergy, a man who had successfully
run a church that was missionally based, helping the poor and marginalized in a
small town in Oklahoma. This person who had been one of my mentors when I was
in seminary had child porn on his computer.
So, I got to Ministry Days, the
professional days held before General Assembly officially begins and caught up
with some old friends. They shared with me another issue that had recently come
to their awareness. Some of you may be
aware of one of the keynote events of Ministry Days, the Berry Street
Lecture. It’s given by one of our top
ministers—a highly esteemed, highly respected professional clergy person is
invited to speak before the assembly on issues facing UU ministers. I was astonished to learn that one of the
past Berry Street Lecture presenters, a woman, had had her lecture, which is
published on the UU Ministers Association website, redacted by a male
minister. He had brought a lawsuit
against the UU Ministers associated to have his name removed/redacted from the
Berry Street Lecture because the lecture pointed out his sexual transgressions
as a UU minister; she had been speaking about our need to be more vigilant in
dealing with sexual transgressions by our fellow clergy.
And then near the end of General Assembly, I,
along with many others, learned of the shockingly large
severance packages that were given to the president and leadership staff of the
UUA who had resigned, when they were the ones who quit of their own volition—hundreds
of thousands of dollars that could have supported any of several worthy causes
that we as a denomination say we hold dear.
It would be easy to say I was a
little down on Unitarian Universalism.
At Ministry Days, I knew we would spend time talking about all our
painful feelings over some of these hard knocks to our faith. I did not look forward to spending days
rehashing my feelings about these issues and the state of Unitarian
Universalism. In fact, you could say I
dreaded it. But you know what, after
some deeply moving discussions by my colleagues about these issues, colleagues
who were on the front line dealing with these problems, what I took away from
Ministry Days and from General Assembly was a sense of renewed hope for our
faith.
My friends, this is a message of challenge, and a it is a message of hope. The crowd assembled for our denomination’s annual meeting was electrified by this message. It’s the same message of hope that so many of you in this church live out in your lives as we do the work of anti-racism, restorative justice, and being a congregation that is radically welcoming to the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Gender Fluid and Gender Queer community. We are in process. We do not have to have everything right; we do not have to know everything right now; we can make mistakes and begin again in love. And we can grow.
Let me revisit the quote projected
to my right: “Come into this place of peace and let its silence heal your
spirit; come into this place of memory and let its history warm your soul; come
into this place of prophecy and power and let its vision change your
heart.” When I was new to Unitarian
Universalism, this quote comforted me, pacified me. Now almost 40 years later, it challenges me
and energizes me. Come into this place
of peace. Yes there are times when this
place is a peaceful, during meditations, prayers, and rituals and that is
important. But what you can achieve when
you work from a place of deep inner peace is also important. There are wounds we must heal together, and
when we apply the salve of understanding, when we tend our wounds cautiously,
we are renewed to do the hard work of co-creating a world that reflects the
peace we feel.
Come into this place of memory and
let its history warm your soul. Remember
the good—Universalism ordained the first woman minister in America to ministry,
Olympia Brown; Unitarian Ralph Waldo Emerson encouraged graduating Harvard
Divinity School students to look within themselves for inspiration, not at the
Bible or religious tradition—our denominational history is populated by a long line
of women and men who were not only great thinkers; they turned their visions of
a brighter future for all into reality.
Remember the good, but not at the expense of forgetting the bad. There are scars that mark our history, and
what is done cannot be undone. Learn our
history—all of it—and let’s work together, with slow precision, to repair the
wounds—not to cancel or deny them.
Come into this place of prophecy and
power and let its vision change your heart.
Prophecy is speaking truth to power.
And Unitarian Universalists have
done that – Henry David Thoreau and Theodore Parker writing and preaching about
the abolition of slavery. Many of our
ministers preaching against wars in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan. Albert Schweitzer speaking out against nuclear
weapons and working to stop their proliferation. But we have to be careful with power. Power corrupts. Power can lead us to thinking we are a
perfect or sophisticated Unitarian Universalism, stagnant and too full of
ourselves, too self-satisfied, too self-congratulatory to ever realize how we
are excluding, marginalizing, or minimizing others.
We have a vision of a world with
peace, equity, justice, compassion, respect.
This vision, and the work we do to bring this vision into reality,
rekindles my heart and renews my hope. Yes,
I will continue to speak truth to power, it is more critical today than it ever
has been. I will name injustice to
people in political power and I will continue to work for justice, for the
poor, the future of our planet, and for people of color. And I hope you do the same.
The SMILE project, a social justice project
still in its developmental stage here at this church, rekindles my heart and
renews my hope. We’re creating a program
of summer internship and mentoring for under privileged and discriminated
youth, so they can have a chance of success in this world. This
is a direct result of the multi-cultural outreach we’re engaging in with PTMAN,
the Proviso Township Ministerial Alliance Network, for the past couple of
years. When I see all of the individual
and group efforts of members of this church—letter writing, calling, and
emailing congressional representatives, marching in rallies, standing loud and
proud in support of Planned Parenthood—all of this rekindles my heart and
renews my hope.
I read in the prayer today:
What
is done cannot be undone.
What
is done next must now be done with care.
We
gather because we are hopeful,
Because
we have visions and dreams of a brighter future.
May
the strength of this time together help us to walk forward.
May
the wisdom of this experience help us to know our path.
May
we have courage to return, as often as necessary, until our way is clear.
May
we have perseverance, together, to see it through.
May
we cause it to be so.
We do have dreams and visions for a
brighter future, and we must work for that future with persistence, courage,
and caution. If we are mindful, we will
develop wisdom along the way. And we
will redefine and reimagine what Unitarian Universalism is as we adapt to
become responsive and effective in these difficult times. We are not static, either individually or
as a denomination. We’re under
construction. It’s time to add some new
rooms to our house of prophecy. Let’s
pick up our tools and build a new way forward.
Amen, Amen, Amen.
Nicely said, Tom.
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