“This is the day we have been given. Let us rejoice in even this day…” When I offered the benediction last Sunday I changed my usual words to acknowledge the simple truth that it is probably harder for most of us to get to gratitude this year than normal. Harder for us to get to gratitude but more necessary for us to get to church. Our attendance last Sunday was at an all time high. Thirty new children and youth joined our Learning Community classes. More than 50 visitors took the time to fill out our visitor questionnaire. But for…

What now? The results of Tuesday’s election surprised all the progressive pundits and liberal pollsters. Not all of us, but most of us were stunned, unprepared and fearful about what may be in store. How could so many of us been so wrong? I was prepared to celebrate the first female US President and move into faithful but critical support of a new administration that would need pushing toward the progressive. I was not ready for “this.” Some of us gathered for Vespers in Eliot Chapel Tuesday evening. We were reminded of difficult times in our national past that we…

We are busy preparing the church for Celebration Sunday. The images of the steeple of Eliot Chapel on which we wrote about the importance of First Unitarian in our lives are being hung in the sanctuary. The choirs are ready to lift our spirits. Tables in Fuller Hall will be ready to receive the goodies for our brunch, and the baskets will be ready to receive our pledges. It is a time of real change at the church and the stress of change can obscure the value and importance of what we find in this community. The conclusion of our…

Last Sunday, we celebrated Kate Lore’s ministry and released Kate from her ministerial call at First Unitarian. The service was powerful as Kate offered her “heartfelt farewell” and we remembered some of the high points of our justice ministry. Kate leaves a social justice program that is large and vibrant, a model to which many UU congregations aspire. Many people have asked about the plans to support our justice ministry into the future. I understand the question and the concern. Social Justice and prophetic witness are central to our identity and our mission as a liberal religious community. How will…

I am writing from Washington, DC where I am taking part in a board meeting of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC). It is good to be part of this national religious effort to support reproductive health, choice and justice. It is a blessing for me to be a male ally in this way. My sermon, last Sunday, wrestled with questions of how we navigate these divisive times. I described the current assault on women’s lives, so flagrant in our politics, as not only a moral but also a public health crisis that must be stopped. I am confident…

The campers who were making our block their home have moved on. To be more specific, they were “moved on.” The city finally began enforcing the ordinance that prevents camping within 1000 feet of any school. There are many schools in our immediate vicinity, including our long time tenant, North West Academy. We worked hard to be good neighbors to the campers and my own reaction to their leaving is mixed. Thankfulness at not having to navigate their belongings on the sidewalk. Relief that the many individuals who use our facility (congregants, students and community groups), will not have to…

The news is filled with the impending landfall of Hurricane Matthew on the Florida coast. Living in Oregon, it is easy to feel insulated from those troubles a continent away. It is far more difficult to avoid the danger and divisiveness of this election season. We are only 33 days, and counting, from Nov. 8. The election 8 years ago, when so many of us felt so much hope, seems worlds away. At the national level, the media spectacles we call “debates” have thrown civility to the wind. We don’t blink an eye when candidates interrupt, talk over one another,…

Our spiritual theme for October is forgiveness. It is a religious concept that invites us to learn more each time we engage with it. We think of the Biblical story of the prodigal son and the forgiveness every family I’ve known well has had to muster to sustain their love and commitment. We think of the difficulty of forgiving people who commit the most evil deeds, the truly deplorables. We think of Mother Teresa and of “turning the other cheek.” But why would we use an image of the breaking of a chain to symbolize forgiveness this season? Harold Kushner…

Two more highly publicized police shootings of black men. Shall we just begin calling them murders? Are these the unfortunate actions of a tiny, misguided minority of our police? Will anti-bias training and body cameras stop the killings? Or serve to justify them? As I write, the heavy equipment of the National Guard is pulling onto the streets of Charlotte, NC. The police chief there has decided not to make public the video of the shooting. The debris from the peaceful vigil that turned into violence last night is being swept up. It looks for all the world like they…

Mark your calendars. Next Tuesday, September 20 at 9 PM, PBS will broadcast Ken Burns’ new film, the story of Rev. Waitstill and Martha Sharp, Unitarians who travelled to Europe in early 1939 as the drum beat of war intensified and the Nazis began, in earnest, their “final solution.” The Sharps helped hundreds of Jews escape Nazi Europe, including dozens of Jewish children given into the Sharps’ care by their parents, most of whom did not survive. The story begins when Everett Baker, Vice President of the American Unitarian Association(AUA), called Waitstill Sharp, the Associate Minister at the Wellesly Hills,…