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From Our Co-MinistersApril 2006 You, dear community, are like a fresh-out-of-the-oven, warm, golden crusted loaf of delicious, nourishing, hearty grain bread! Hebrew Scriptures tell of the bread-like manna in the wilderness, gifts that sustain you through hard times. Matzoh, the unleavened bread, of Passover, is the bread made in haste to feed you at a time of change, with the promise of new life. New Testament stories tell of bread broken and shared together as a meal transforming people into community. Buddhists teach that as you stay present eating bread, it nourishes your body, mind and spirit. Islamic Sufi poet Rumi sings that the hunger for bread is like the hunger for seeing the friend in the stranger. Around the world, bread shared is a blessing. Universally, grain, gift of the earth, water, air and fire becomes bread, the fruit of the labor of many beings and creatures. Bread nourishes us that we may nourish life. Community is bread-like and life-giving. In community we embrace the whole of life: births and deaths, sickness, loss, joy. The children who come regularly to church sign supercards for members who are sick or whose partner or child has died or for families blessed with a new child. These children have some sense of the human life cycle and the support of community. Sometimes the three of us ministers are called on to minister to a family who have been members but who haven’t been attending much anymore. We minister as well as we can, but we know how much more effective the support is when we know people, when children have a sense of religious community, when children and adults feel a sense of belonging. If you are physically unable to attend much anymore, be sure we know. One of the Caring Companions can make visits to you. If you think UUCB is not meeting your needs anymore, is there something you and we can do to improve the relationship? Or is it time for you to find another religious community? If it is the latter, please connect to a community. Don’t let UUCB be “the congregation we used to belong to” without finding a new home. We care about you, whether you are here or not. But effective ministry by ministers and by a congregation takes a decision to be involved, and to become known. You have to share in community for community to feed and sustain you. Religious community is where we give the gift of sustenance in hard times and in times of life transitions, satisfy our hunger for finding friends in strangers, share meals that feed body, mind, and spirit, and, through the work of many beings, grow strong nourishing one another and nourishing the world. Religious community is the bread of life, dear ones. Give and receive, partake of this food for the body and food for the soul!
Barbara and Bill
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