We cultivate a spirit of gratitude and hope.

In a theological framework which understands that this world is the locus of the holy, that struggle and salvation are present here and now, and that all life is sacred and interconnected, generosity, gratitude, and hope are ways we honor these truths and the blessings of our lives. More than in any writings of theologians, we know this value as central to our theological heritage through the lives of Universalists, Unitarians, and Unitarian Universalists through the centuries.

Though I could choose from thousands of stories, here are a few: Unitarian poet, essayist, and novelist Frances Ellen Watkins Harper’s (1825-1911) tireless work for abolition, temperance, and civil rights for Black people, women, and children; Annie Bissell Jordan Willis’ (1893-1977) career in education - she was a teacher who carried on as the principal of the Universalist founded Suffolk Normal School in Virginia after the death of her father, the Universalist minister Joseph Fletcher Jordan, educating hundreds of Black children through decades when they were denied education in Virginia’s public schools; Unitarian minister Waitstill Sharp and his wife Martha’s efforts in 1939-1940, providing food and means of escape for thousands of Jews, intellectuals, and children in Prague, Lisbon, and southern France. Our tradition is brimming with stories of countless women, men, non-binary, and trans people of all cultural backgrounds who have given generously of themselves in service to others in large and small ways.

Given this orientation prevalent throughout our theological heritage, I will also name the paradox in current Unitarian Universalism that many among us are not as generous as we could be with our financial resources when it comes to our congregations, theological schools, and denominational bodies. Many of our institutions are struggling financially while demographically our members, on average, tend to be well-off. In an era when it is becoming clear that industrialized nations under a system of global corporation-controlled capitalism need to change quickly and dramatically for the benefit of all life, we will be called to experience generosity, gratitude, and hope in new ways.

In practicing generosity, gratitude, and active hope we experience our interconnectedness, the ways we are not isolated beings but held in a vast web of connections and field of life, blessed by gifts beyond our own making.