Dear Friends,
Let me encourage you to attend the online annual General Assembly of UU Congregations, with programming from Wednesday, June 24, through Sunday Worship Service, June 28. For free, you may attend all the online general meetings and Sunday Worship Service at uua.org/ga. To participate in all GA programs (special speakers, panels, forums, etc.) you register at uua.org/ga for $150.
We know that 2020 is a transformative year. Ironically, despite the year’s name, this does not seem like a time of clear vision – or perhaps the challenge is a bifocal vision, with some seeing only what is immediate to them, with others trying to look over the horizon.
I don’t believe, as some do, that things all works out for the best. Unnecessary and unjustified injury and suffering seems to me to be all for the worst at that moment, even if we learn from it. But it does seem true, that experiencing what you don’t want can clarify what you do. I expect GA will help.
GA’s theme is “In a Time of Great Challenge and Heartbreak, What Does Our Faith Ask of Us?” But that makes me wonder: Other than the necessity of temporary separation, what’s different in our time than any other time in American or world history? Not the joys, not the suffering, not the challenges, not the possibilities.
As to what our faith asks, I don’t think there is just one UU set of beliefs that dictate our answers to the great human questions of what to believe about Reality, Morality and Authority. Our faith agreement seems to be solely (soully?) about a moral imperative of searching for truth (beliefs) and meaning (actions) freely and responsibly.
Maybe it is our individual and societal understandings about life and our individual and societal caring for life that are what need to be different if life is to change for the better for earthkind.
Well, I suppose that’s stating the obvious these days. But maybe GA, including the Sunday Service, will shed some light on how we do it. Let’s schedule a time for that afternoon, after the GA Sunday service, to discuss what we hear and learn about what “our faith asks of us” and also what we need to start asking about our varied faiths. That could make some differences.
Missing you all a lot. Stay caring, stay well, stay in touch.
Blessings,
Pastor Jack