From Our Co-Ministers

November 2006

When two people, not romantically involved, recently gave birth, a big fuss was made. A talk radio show host raised a ruckus as did the people reacting to him, and it all made the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle. The two people are choosing and committing to raising a child together. Children need to be cared for and loved. Having two people guiding and supporting you is good and having a whole community is even better.

Many Sundays we begin our worship together celebrating that we are young and old, male and female, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, questioning, and straight, all kinds of people, all kinds of families. For what brings people together in honest, caring relationship, we give thanks.

We are a wide variety of beautiful families. We are single people who are raising children, biological parents who are no longer married who are committed to sharing the upbringing of our children. We are loving lesbian moms; biological mothers and fathers. We are gay couples and straight couples who became pregnant through egg donors, sperm donors, in vitro magical, medical, ethical miracles. We are blended families, step families, adopted families, chosen families. We are multigenerational households. We are mixed race families, mixed religious families, intermixed, co-mixed, remixed and picked families. We are creating our own myths, forging new paths, finding our depths, proclaiming our truth, trusting in our faith.

No family has to do this by themselves. We are a community, wanting each child to grow strong in who he or she is, supported by the love of family. We strive for all of us to welcome each child with open arms, minds and hearts. We want to support parents and share in the responsibility of raising our children.

To this couple in the news and their child, we offer our blessing and we wish them well as a family. No one or two people can give a child all the care he or she needs. May this family find a religious community to celebrate them and support them, and may this community celebrate and support you.

Here’s a way to celebrate and support the human family. Last year we donated almost 5,000 pounds of food and over $5,000 to the Richmond Emergency Food Bank! Some church families weigh themselves, add the figures to get a family total weight, and head off together to the grocery store. Armed with a calculator, the kids and adults fill several carts with canned and packaged goods (peanut butter, dried beans, canned tuna, canned vegetables.) and then bring their weight in food on Sunday morning.

Make this your Thanksgiving ritual: Bring your weight in food or the dollar amount of your weight (or an amount you can give) to the Sunday Service on November 19! Checks can be written to UUCB with the notation on the memo line of “food bank.” All sizes of gifts make a difference and our combined gifts are glorious!

Together let us grow, create loving community, live with integrity, joy, and justice!

Barbara and Bill
Revs. Barbara and Bill Hamilton-Holway, Co-Ministers