From Your Minister

Dear Ones,

Last night I attended Johnson County Interfaith Coalition’s annual fundraiser, which UUS hosted. As you may remember, UUS is JCIC’s fiscal sponsor and I am one of the co-presidents, along with Pastor Fred Newell of the Purpose Place.

The event was fun, energizing, creative, inspiring, and a wonderful opportunity to foster deeper connections. We ate delicious food together, listened to spoken word artist Christopher Goodwin, got to experience a performance of the Purpose Place’s Inspire dance group, painted kindness rocks to distribute around the community, and heard from JCIC’s grant recipients. And woven through, we experienced the ways that we’re actively working to build Beloved Community through the transformative power of collaboration, deep listening, and relationship.

For me, after the challenging month we’ve experienced and with more challenges to come, it was also a reminder of the importance and power of the Practice of Presence, which is our December Soul Matters theme at UUS.

Presence includes how we individually and collectively show up, who and what we show up for, and who we show up with. It’s about how we’re present with our feelings and thoughts, as well as with what’s happening around us. It’s about getting present with ourselves as part of the world. It’s about how we’re present with difference and diversity, how we hold space, appreciate, relate, include, and seek to understand. And it’s about how we show up for ourselves and others.

Our presence is part of how we create Beloved Communities. Because Beloved Community isn’t just some distant destination, it’s a process that we’re part of right now. What’s more, one of the wonderful things about Beloved Community is that there isn’t just one: there are many.

That means that we can be experiencing and developing Beloved Community as a process even while we’re helping create Beloved Communities right here, right now. Even as we’re working to create even wider and deeper Beloved Communities in more of the world. Even as there is so much pain, fear, and conflict in our world.

And so, I am curious: As we move into December, how are you experiencing and understanding the practice of presence and Beloved Community? How are you cultivating these in your lives and in communities?

I hope you’ll join us as we explore these ideas this month in worship services, regular lifelong learning opportunities, and special events. In doing so, may we experience the hope, peace, joy, and love that we all need.

Love and Blessings,
Rev. Diana