Yesterday, we opened our Eliot sanctuary - a place of refuge, a place to refuel our weary spirits, and a place to cultivate responses to the happenings of the world that are centered in love. Here are the words I shared:In many ways, I feel wordless today. There are no words that will wipe away the grief, the frustration, the anger, the bewilderment that so many of us are feeling at this moment.On Sunday, we read a poem by Jane Hirshfield called “Metempsychosis.” There are a couple of lines from it I want to reread now: “Yet even today, to…

I remember when I first signed the membership book and made an annual pledge. It was the October break of my freshman year in college, and another time when reproductive health, rights, and justice were on the ballot. The election season put into clear focus that the values that guided both my vote and my life came from being Unitarian Universalist. Since I had graduated from our children’s religious education program, I understood that religious community is a lifelong pursuit of making meaning and making a difference. I was ready to fully commit to the church as an adult. Here…

Members and Friends, In case you missed the announcement on Sunday, here it is: The Music Ministry Transition Team has reviewed resumes, conducted Zoom interviews, then in-person interviews, and rehearsals with a group of choir members with our final candidates. We are thrilled to announce we have completed the search for our new Interim Director of Music Ministries, and Garrett Bond officially started in this role today!He will begin leading the choir rehearsals this evening, Thursday, October 24th. If you’ve been thinking about singing in our church, this could be a wonderful time to check it out. For now, we…

I am reflecting on one of the spiritual, emotional, and moral challenges of our time, which can be summed up by the word Stephen Colbert made up 19 years ago today: truthiness. Colbert was trying to get at the challenge that faces us in a society where statements that are true and verified are increasingly put on par with statements which simply feel true.We are witnessing the phenomenon and impact of the rise of ‘truthiness’ unfold right now in the presidential and vice-presidential debates, through the sharing of posts on social media, and through reports on what purports to be…

As we explore the journey of trust this month, I am reflecting on the adage: change moves at the speed of trust. That is one reason that changes in a church community happen more slowly than in other spaces you may move. Our church is not a building, it is a web of relationships.These relationships are between and among congregants of all ages, between and among staff and congregants, between and among staff members, and between and among the various committees, programs, and teams. The health of these relationships and their ability to move things forward has everything to do…

Bryan Stevenson, a widely acclaimed public interest lawyer has dedicated his career to helping the poor, the incarcerated, and the condemned. He urges us to “get proximate” in order to change ourselves and change our systems. In a TED Talk, he says: When we situate ourselves next to people who are excluded and marginalized and disfavored and left out, at a very minimum we can find collective and institutional and meaningful ways to embrace these communities. And sometimes, it is that witness that can be transformative. When you attend First Unitarian, you have no doubt noticed the tents around our…

Last Sunday as we kicked-off the new year and our annual spiritual theme, “Join the Journey!” At the end of the sermon, we introduced the metaphor of the baskets filled with nourishment that we carry with us as we travel the peaks and valleys of the journey of life and faith together. (You can view the whole sermon here)  When we see baskets, we see evidence of culture and art and identity, the weaving techniques passed down from one generation to the next over thousands of years. The oldest woven artifact from Oregon is a strand of braided sagebrush from…

Welcome to a new year at First Unitarian Portland! We are so looking forward to hosting you in person and online for Homecoming, including a community breakfast (pancakes served from 9am – 10am), multigenerational worship at 10:15am, and our Learning Community Open House following the service. Here is a prayer I wrote for us for this season of re-opening: Spirit of Life,May we feel the blessings of our spiritual ancestorsWho opened the doors to our current location 100 years ago.May their stories ground us and lift us up –We are the inheritors of the people who built our Eliot Sanctuary…

Occasionally, we’ll get a phone call or an email asking if we’re open in the summer. Yes, not only are we open every Sunday in the year, but the summer is also a special time for the work of reflection, percolating, and imagination.I think the idea of closing comes from a historic custom amongst some Unitarian Universalist congregations who did take a break from services in July and August. These UU churches followed the academic calendar closely. However, we forget that even as there may have been lulls in the schedule at some churches, other Unitarian Universalist congregations experienced a…

We are in a time of healing from conflict as well as a hopeful time of renewal in our staff and in our music ministry, and these dynamics ripple out into the wider community. Our whole congregation is touched by these important groups and by relationships with the people in them. A congregation is a relational system, so when one part is struggling or succeeding, we all feel the impact.One of the important steps we have taken towards healing is finding the clarity and courage to name that there have been ongoing conflicts in these two areas that go back…