From Our Co-Ministers

May 2007

So much. There’s tragedy on a campus, the streets of Oakland, in Iraq. One among us dies suddenly. Grief is strong. And the skies are blue, the flowers wide open and sweet, eyes sparkle, voices sing, babies are born. All this. Life holds pain and loss, beauty and joy.

At the April 17 memorial convocation for the lives lost in the campus shootings, poet and Virginia Tech professor Nikki Giovanni cried out—We are sad and we will be sad. We are embracing our mourning. We are strong enough to stand tall and brave enough to bend to cry, sad enough to know we must laugh again. We do not understand. No one deserves this. A child in Africa with AIDS doesn’t deserve this either. Neither do children captured in the night by armies. Neither does a Mexican child looking for fresh water…

We are strong and brave, Giovanni said. We are better than we think and not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imagination and the possible. We will continue to invent the future through blood and tears, through all this sadness.

There is so much in life, and this religious community is a place of connection, of strength, where people can be sad, laugh, imagine, invent the future, tip the odds toward kindness, respect, love.

More people want what this community offers. What is here is deep and sweet and dear. Here we are growing to see, to acknowledge each person for who they are and to encourage who we are becoming. This can be a place of mutual respect, connection, life. Individually and collectively, as the poet says, we are better than we think and not quite what we want to be.

How do we reach the people who long for this kind of community? How do we serve the people who haven’t yet arrived? How do we prepare a place for them? Can people already here continue to find what they cherish and can we offer Unitarian Universalism and this community to more people?

As you know, we’ve been exploring a second Sunday morning service. Some people are clear they don’t want a second service. Others have given lots of great ideas and suggestions for Sunday mornings with two services and religious education. Thank you to all who have shared preferences, completed surveys, and participated in small group discussions. The ideas you have offered have lay leaders, music staff, and ministers continuing to imagine the possibilities.

Easter Sunday 538 people attended the two services. Energy on Sundays is high and many people and lots of families are visiting. The Bay Area will have a first ever Unitarian Universalist media campaign this fall. Already $213,951.64 has been raised and 115 of UUCB members have contributed. This is a time of possibility, an opportunity to grow.

Talk about growth of families: Christopher Craethnenn and Lauren Smith will marry in May and are expecting a baby in early September. Wow! Congratulations and all good wishes to them!

Chris will have paternity leave in the fall. We would like to try a second Sunday service and see if both services can be vital. We don’t want to miss the opportunity of the fall media campaign, but we wonder if a trial second service might need to begin after Chris. return. A second Sunday service in the fall would need dedicated lay leadership and support. Is there support?

Help us envision both how to keep the best of what we have and something new to serve those yet to come. Balancing everyone’s concerns and reaching out to the people who long for what this community offers is hard work.

We are glad and grateful to be alive to imagine the possible with you.

Love,

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