May Gathering

For our last session, we listened to Something Large and Wild from the podcast This is Love. We discussed the many ways in which we bring forth tenderness, groundedness, and vulnerability into our daily lives, much like swimmer Lynne embodies when she meets baby whale Grayson. Though our main focus was on our shared value of Love, we noted how both interdependence and the interconnected web of existence featured heavily in this story and reminds us of all we can learn from other animals.

Our “extra credit” episodes this month were:

• Power Pivot with Leela Sinha, “love who, now?”
  • Part II “love the ones you know”
• JUUst Breathe with Joy Berry and Eric Bliss “Mental Health and First Aid”

We have enjoyed gathering with you all year! Here is the covenant we created together.

April Gathering

Our April discussion was inspired by an episode of Struggle Care: Making the Outdoors Inclusive with Parker Bushman.

We discussed how pluralism takes shape within our congregations. Using Parker Bushman’s spectrum of collaboration/engagement (informing, consulting, involving, collaborating, empowering), we reflected on the different ways we build community within and beyond our congregational walls. Ideas included discernment about how the congregational budget is a moral document that reflects commitment to the local community; experimenting with new kinds of worship music results in more diverse and robust choir membership; etc. We also discussed the ways in which access to the outdoors has been gatekept for people with certain identities only (i.e. thin, white folks) and unearthed the racist roots of the conservation movement. Heather also shared with us about the often untold history of Walden Pond being a haven for Black folks to live freely before Henry David Thoreau ever set foot there. We also recognized that there is more to learn and explore in regards to people with physical disabilities accessing the outdoors in an inclusive and meaningful way. The outdoors is for everyone; how do we make this more of a reality in our parks and preserves?

Our closing words resonated with many. They are by Anand Giridharadas: “When they try to consume you night and day, you reserve time for your garden or cooking or the feeling of your kid’s breath on your cheek as you cuddle. They want all of all of us, and they want to saturate our beings only for them and their purposes — as fodder for their machines. They want politics to eat your dreams.

And so living well, and living in community, and living with others, and taking care of your people, and even not your people, is not just self-care in order to keep fighting. That was the 2016 idea. It is actually inseparable from resisting their big project.

Because having, and nurturing, in your life a sphere for joy and connection and community and love and food and music and human difference and living and letting live is everything they are not and is everything they are trying to take away.

Be what scares them. Live lives in colors their eyes can’t even see. Cook food they want to deport. Test the fire code with your parties. Form a scene that meets every Wednesday. Call someone you haven’t in a while. Fight with a smile. Fail and come back. Be weird. Be welcoming. Kiss converts. Refuse despair. Be disobedient. Laugh loudly. Hide someone. Call out. Root down.

They are waging a war on living. The more fully you live, the harder their job will be.”

March Gathering

In March, we explored our shared value of Equity using the episode,“Glorifying Obesity” and Other Myths About Fat People from theMaintenance Phase podcast. Together, we discussed biases we have held and strategized how to counter them using relationship and love as tools. We shared about ways in which we could foster more belonging of fat folks in our congregations through different seating options and modeling new ways of doing things so others feel empowered to ask for what they need. Rev. Dr. Anastasia Kidd and Rev. Dr. Cynthia Landrum were lifted up as religious professional fat activists who call us to imagine the ways fat liberation forwards the cause of other forms of liberation as well.

For a more in-depth (though still slightly problematic) debunking of fatphobia, check out this piece byMaintenance Phase co-host Michael Hobbes.

Please consider attending the virtual feedback session on Fat Liberation as one of this year’s three proposed Congregational Study/Action Issues (CSAI). These items all received the required “yes” votes in the Congregational Poll to be admitted to the agenda for UUA General Assembly 2025 (where one will be selected for three years of study, reflection, and action). Registration is free and required at the link below.Learn more about CSAIs, the social witness process, and the Commission on Social Witness.

• Thursday, April 17 at 8:00pm ET: Fat Liberation: Building Justice and Inclusion for Larger Bodies Feedback Session

February Gathering

Amid all the social and political turmoil around us, we met to reflect on generosity, illustrated by James Rhee’s childhood experience of receiving the gift of a toy, a red helicopter, from a friend’s father for performing a simple act of kindness. Using Rhee’s framing, our conversation explored the question “What if human ‘goodwill’ were part of all our human interactions, including in the business world?” This idea offered us a lesson for our times, the power of being more “curious than furious,” potentially collapsing our divisions through affirming our shared humanity. Drawing from Rhee’s experiences, consider what it would be like “to see the world through the eyes of a five-year-old child.”

This “podcast” episode was actually a TedTalk by James Rhee.

For a longer conversation with James Rhee, you can listen to the “extra credit” podcast episode, an extended interview of James Rhee by Brene Brown.

January Gathering

During our time together in January we explored the value of Transformation through Phoebe Judge’s interview of Dan Stevenson for the Criminal podcast.

We discussed how complicated the decision is to call the police or not and the implications and dangerous risks of doing so. We reflected on the ways in which we have witnessed transformation of spaces into places for spiritual connection. Someone shared that Lynda’s Phones is a non-profit that funds the design, construction, installation and maintenance of Wind Phones in the USA. These phones are installed for people to communicate with ancestors and loved ones who have passed on and have become a community resource. We also discussed ideas for how we want to transform spaces and relationships in our lives moving forward, such as establishing or contributing to little free libraries, painting stones, creating small spiritual altars, and more.

• The 50th episode of Criminal features Dan Stevenson returning for a snippet (beginning at 7 minutes in)
• Extra credit episode: not a podcast but you may enjoy this short documentary on YouTube,“Buddha of Oakland”

December Gathering

In December we explored the shared value of Justice — We work to be diverse multicultural Beloved Communities where all thrive. We covenant to dismantle racism and all forms of systemic oppression. We support the use of inclusive democratic processes to make decisions within our congregations, our Association and society at large.

Our “text” was from the podcast What is Owed? by WGBH, focusing on the first episode: When a City Tries to Heal Itself.

Content note: this episode includes audio from the recording of the murder of George Floyd.

In our conversation, participants referenced these resources:

• A book, How the Word is Passed

• Part of the Widening the Circle of Concern report regarding reparations

• A blog entry regarding the work of UUs and their congregations to explore reparations in their context

• The third episode of What is Owed? by WGBH; it includes an interview with reparations advocate, Unitarian Universalist, and UUA staff member Woullard Lett

November Gathering

In our second session, we focused on our shared value of Interdependence. The podcast episode we listened to was Krista Tippett’s interview of adrienne maree brown: On Radical Imagination and Moving Towards Life through On Being. Together, we wrestled with questions such as:

• What transformation have you experienced in your relationships? Have you had an experience like amb’s with her grandfather? Connecting across differences via common roots (Love, Christianity, spirituality)? How can we bring these lessons forward with us?
• Do you practice democracy and/or liberation in your daily life? In your congregation? Where/how could you do so?
• In what ways are you, your congregation, and/or our faith shaping change? How might we move differently in order to do this more effectively?
• “Homework” for further consideration: How are you practicing pleasure? What new pleasure will you bring to yourself as you move forward into 2025?

Our Chalice Extinguishing words were All is Not Lost by UUA Chaplains Victoria Safford and JJ Flag.

October Gathering

In this introductory session we built a covenant and listened to an excerpt from the first episode of The Cracked Cup podcast by Liz James and Anne Barker [content note: episode contains some low-level swearing language]. We considered the questions: How do we create brave space together? What does it mean to care for one another, and how might we do so with humility and grace? We will continue these explorations throughout our time together.