This month we are reflecting on creation and creativity as a way into our spiritual theme of the 2022-2023 year: Rooted in Relationship. From the origins of our earth up until this day, we can see that everything and everyone and every action ripples out and is related in some way.
We exist because of those who came before us, and our actions bear an impact on those who will come after us. An awareness of this truth is one of the many reasons that we are so committed to environmental justice with a generational ethic.
All of us alive today also interdepend on one another to achieve communal wellbeing and peace. An awareness of the need for mutual care and commitment is one of the many reasons we are committed to our 8th principle and dismantling racism and other oppressions in our churches, cities, nation, and world.
Whether we are learning about the Big Bang theory of our universe or one of the religious myths about how life on earth began, both bring us to a place of awe and wonder. Whether we are staring at the night sky or at the glimmer of an eye, there is a recognition of beauty that can take your breath away. We are called to care for creation and for the myriad relationships found in nature, including the human community. This calling and the quality of care it requires is something we can continue to cultivate over a lifetime.
This month I had the chance to visit with our Kindergarten/1st Grade Class. Let me share a glimpse into one way our children are using their creativity to nurture human community. Throughout this month, they are building a village of cardboard homes where they can learn about what it means to dwell together in community. This month many parents are helpers joining the class in the creative, complex project of raising a cardboard village. It is quite fantastic and fun! There are houses, a hideaway, a planetarium, an apartment building, a castle, and more. Through their imagination and efforts, they are constructing something beautiful, innovative, practical, and lasting. (I do hear many of these cardboard dwellings last for months or even years.)
Perhaps, the best part of this village is that if you get the chance to visit, what washes over you is the welcome of hospitality, the warmth of a community where every person is tended to, and where everyone has access to shelter overhead. You will be able to visit their village when it is complete during social hour on February 5th. I want to share a special shout out to their teachers and mentors in building community, Evie Zaic, Sharon Dawson, Kris Soske, and Anna Thorn. These four volunteers are helping to bring our values to life in the hearts and hands of our young ones and their families – thank you!
May 2023 be a year in which all of us grow in our capacity to reflect the beauty of creation in how we relate to our fellow travelers on earth – our companions of all ages at church and beyond.
In faith,
Rev. Alison
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Rev. Alison Miller (she/her/hers)
Senior Minister, First Unitarian Church of Portland
1034 SW 13th Ave., Portland, OR, 97205
503-228-6389
amiller@firstunitarianportland.org
www.firstunitarianportland.org
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