Welcome, Dana! I am delighted to announce that Dana Buhl has agreed to accept the position as our permanent Social Justice Director! When the final results of this year’s Annual Fund Drive were clear at the end of January, we were able to shape a permanent position at ¾ time and a fair compensation level. Financial realities did not allow a commitment to a full-time role. The position description drew heavily on work defining roles and responsibilities that the Social Justice Council completed last year. We determined that both lay and ordained persons would be welcome to apply. As Senior…

Yesterday (April 4) was the anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The day was marked by a march and rally where members of First Unitarian joined the leaders of the Albina Ministerial Alliance, the NAACP, Ecumenical Ministries in remembering Dr. King’s life and legacy. It was a time of rededication but also a time to reflect on the dream he articulated and the dream that our nation was able to hear and chose to embrace. The brief remarks I offered at the rally began with the words of Yolanda Renee King, Dr. King’s granddaughter, at the…

With the coming of spring, I somehow cannot resist seeing signs of hope. Last Saturday hundreds of First Unitarian folks joined the March for Our Lives, calling for a ban on assault weapons and other sane and sensible measures to reduce gun violence. By the end of church on Sunday, we turned in 425 of the needed 2000 signatures to start the process of putting these measures on the ballot. This witness against gun violence is one example of a movement that is renewing my spirit in this season. The spiritual discipline involved is “followership”. The young people from Florida…

We awoke on Tuesday to news of another school shooting, this time in Maryland. “Only” three children were critically wounded…this time. At First Unitarian, there seems to be near unanimous agreement that sensible gun safety measures are desperately needed and long overdue. Consensus around that seems broadly shared, at least based on what members of our community say to me. There also seems to be broad consensus that more rigorous control of access to guns, especially military weapons and military-sized ammunition and accessories is a priority. Like the vast majority of Americans and a substantial majority of gun owners, based…

What are you giving up for Lent? I remember that question from my youth. Although my family did not recognize this liturgical season, many of my childhood friends did. Spinach was a favorite response, as I remember it. Praying, Fasting, and Giving Alms are the three traditional disciplines of Lent, but what I remember most was giving things up … sacrifice. Lent is the 40 day period between Ash Wednesday and Easter, during which Christians prepare themselves for the promise of rebirth that Easter offers. Lent, which simply means “spring” or specifically “longer days,” is celebrated in most of the…

We are coming to accept and expect that there are more things to pay attention to than we can possibly hold in our hearts. This week is no exception. Today is International Women’s Day. Hollywood pushes forward on issues of equality for women, while a “porn star,” a sex worker, sues the President of the United States. A trade war is threatened. Florida enacts modest gun control measures. The Justice Department sues the State of California because of that state’s sanctuary commitments. Any of these could have been my subject for this blog. But today I am looking more toward…

The Berenstain Bears are not often recognized as theologians, but their children’s stories point to important religious questions. “Inside, Outside, Upside Down,” the story of the friendly family of bears dealing with a large cardboard box, tries to teach children the concepts of “within,” and “outside.” It is a story about boundaries, about personal identity and about opposites. The bear cub gets “inside” a large cardboard box, the kind you get from U-Haul, on moving day. The box is closed up and loaded, with him upside down, into an open truck and bounced along the dirt road leading from the…

Guest Blog by Dana Buhl, Acting Social Justice Director For When I Really Don’t Want to Learn This, by Reverend Elizabeth Nguyen   Spirit, I would really rather not learn this. Didn’t think I needed to. I thought someone else could do it. Thought a leader was coming to do it. Thought the young people could do it. Or the elders could do it. Or the professionals. Or I don’t want to learn it ‘cause it means letting go of something I hold dear. Letting go of being someone who knows the answers. Letting go of being someone who doesn’t know.…

Another tragedy, another disturbed young man with an assault rifle and plenty of bullets, another set of parents whose hearts will never heal. Valentine’s Day, 2018. The 18th school shooting this year. All of our children are growing up in a world where “active shooter” drills are normal. It does not matter whether the school is on the west side of Chicago or is “one of the safest schools in Florida.” Today it is affluent, suburban Florida. Tomorrow? That culture we have been inspecting at deeper and deeper levels in our religious community is a culture of fear. I encourage…

“You have to know your body as the home of God.” – Rebecca Parker At the close of our service on prayer last Sunday we sang, “I Need You to Survive.” It is a Hezekiah Walker song that has become closely associated with the Black Lives Matter movement. You might want to listen to Williams, himself, offering these lyrics and that melody. I remind you of that recent experience of singing not to compare First Unitarian to Hezekiah Walker. I also want to make a space to discuss the theology of “I Need You To Survive” and reflect on how…