When I was in college, at a small state school in North Carolina, legislators in my home state were in the throes of waging a long campaign against voter participation, targeting students, among other groups. With Voter ID laws being passed and struck down in courts every few months, redistricting after redistricting, and unclear rules for absentee balloting, so many of my friends felt frustrated and out of touch with our electoral system. During the 2016 elections, it became a personal mission of mine to show up as a peer educator, and help as many people as I could to…

From Tom: The wrapping up of the church year has felt especially full this year with the calling of a new senior minister, Rev. Alison, and with saying goodbye and celebrating Rev. Bill this coming Sunday. And just around the corner is …. Summer. I’m pleased to let you know that Carter Smith, who has served us so ably this year as intern minister, will be staying on as summer minister in July and August. Carter will preach a number of the Sundays along with me and some guests. I’ll let her say more about that later in this blog.…

This will be my last “Staying Connected” blog as Senior Minister. For twelve years I have had the privilege of reflecting on events in the world and in the life of the church with you. Part of my role was to help us find both meaning and direction.  Now First Unitarian has selected a new Senior Minister who will have that privilege, and my role is simply to offer every blessing to her and to all of you as you move forward.  I find myself reflecting on the disciplines of life in religious community. We promise to be present to…

School children have been massacred.  Again. What are we called to do in response to the Texas shooting? I want to name, first, my own rage and frustration because I believe they are shared by many in our community. We seem willing to accept the regular and predictable massacre of innocent school children and grocery shoppers and movie goers and worship attenders. We now accept such massacres as normal in this “City on the Hill.” The pronouns are important here. I trust that “we,” those reading this message, are not willing to accept that death as unavoidable. But “we,” the…

We are about to embark on a covenantal relationship, which is grounded in trust and mutual support for the flourishing of our shared ministries at First Unitarian Portland. The very first step is getting to meet and to know each other.   The process of beginning to know you began with your thoughtful and dedicated Ministerial Search Team – Lia, Sarah, Chris, Ruth, David, Leslie, Saranna, and Mark. We first learned about each other in our online profiles and website, then we met on Zoom, and then finally in-person in March. We both owe them a debt of gratitude for…

“Things are not getting worse, they are being revealed…” -adrienne maree brown The leaked Supreme Court opinion promising to overturn Roe v Wade sent shock waves through our community and progressive communities across the nation. The concreteness and the aggressiveness of the language left little question about the outcome. Many of us feel this decision as a personal assault. For many it re-opens old wounds that we believed long healed. For most of us it raises fears of what will come next. I am holding especially those whose life experience is touched most directly by this decision or will be.…

You Can Never Lose a Thing, If It Belongs to You – Abbey Lincoln This is a liminal time at First Unitarian. The candidate for the minister who will follow me has been announced, but Alison is not here yet. At the same time, the finish line for my ministry grows closer so quickly but is still weeks away. It is a liminal time in the world as well as we stumble out of Covid-time into whatever the new normal will become. Liminal time. Time “between,” when the certainties and confidence of the past on which we have relied no…

As we look to the end of our church year, I’m very much aware of the endings as well as the beginnings in our community. Rev. Bill Sinkford just preached his last Easter sermon here. He’ll be in the pulpit just two more times before he retires in June. We’ve been talking about his retirement for quite a while now and still it seems to suddenly be all too near. Rev. Alison Miller arrives in a couple weeks for her Candidating Week to be the new Senior Minister. She will preach, meet and greet, and begin her ministry in this…

Before moving to Portland, I had been here only once. In the summer of 2015, I was an intern at the UUA Side With Love offices in Washington, DC, and we had business in Portland because our denomination’s General Assembly was here. As always, I appreciated the chance to be part of this big reunion of our faith community. It was here that we celebrated the nationwide legalization of same-sex marriage, something that so many of us had been fighting for so many years. I remember the tears of joy streaming down my face at that impromptu mid-morning party, as…

The Daffodils are starting to droop a bit. The flowering trees are giving up their spectacular colors to carpet the streets and paths near my house. The Camellias remain in riotous bloom but the signs of spring have been with us for some time. Still, the Sweet Gum tree outside my kitchen window waits. There are buds to be sure but no leaves yet. That tree has always been a late bloomer in this climate. I could be wrong, but it feels particularly late this year. Perhaps that is because the exuberant energy and openness of previous years seems hard…