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Carlton Smith and Leslie Butler MacFadyen join The VUU for a conversation about UUs and the Black Lives Matter movement. The VUU is hosted by Meg Riley and Joanna Fontaine Crawford and airs on Thursdays at 11 am ET. This episode originally aired on September 24, 2015.
A Prayer Beyond Binaries
By Lindasusan Ulrich
I call myself bisexual because I acknowledge that I have in myself the potential to be attracted – romantically and/or sexually – to people of more than one sex and/or gender, not necessarily at the same time, not necessarily in the same way, and not necessarily to the same degree. –Robyn Ochs
For those who choose “and” in a world that insists on “or”
For those who struggle against invisibility
Even when it means sprinkling your own head with ashes
For those who will not accept dismissal and diminishment of your pain
Instead naming it with precision as callous disregard
For those who bring your whole self to the work of liberation
Whether or not it fits conveniently into checkboxes
Or someone else’s definition
For those who relentlessly widen the circle for others
Including those who would shut you out
This is a prayer praising your beautiful spirit and your courage
This is a prayer honoring your fierceness and your heartache
You’ve carried the trauma for generations
Still too frequently on your own
But we’re building something new –
Something that can only be shaped in the liminal spaces
Where imagination cannot be fenced in
This is a prayer giving thanks for language broken open
Because the only duality you still hold on to
Is to love and to love some more
There’s a reason the collective noun for bisexuals is blessing
May this day of celebration seep joy into your bones
May this day of acknowledgment reflect back to you your worth
May this day of action illuminate your gifts
May this day, and every day, remind you that you are loved beyond all bounds
Simply because you exist.
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Rev. Eric Cherry joins The VUU to discuss organizing UU engagement with the global refugee crisis. The VUU is hosted by Meg Riley and Joanna Fontaine Crawford and airs on Thursdays at 11 am ET. This episode originally aired on September 10, 2015.
“We’re thinking about resistance more than resilience here in New Orleans.” -Rev De Vandiver, ten year anniversary of The Flood
Here’s to all who resist!
Resist assimilation
Resist cooptation
Resist oppression
Resist ignorance
Resist consumerism
Resist the certainty of others’ diagnoses
Resist complacency
Resist numbing out
Resist the same old same old
Resist being taken advantage of
Resist the hissed whisper to be quiet, settle down
Resist what is given, and instead create what is needed.
Here’s to all who create!
Create new stories, with new life springing forth
Create laughter and tears
Create gardens and delicious meals from them
Create music and its deep companionship
Create relationships that defy labels
Create deep rootsCreate beauty
Create courageous actions
Create what will carry us to a new day.
Here’s to the new day!
May it dawn bright for all, condemning none to nightmares
May it bring hope grounded in reason to hope
May it bring evidence for hearts to trust that love is real
May it bring joy and the simple abundance of enough.
Here’s to Labor Day, to the humble imperfect work of us all.
Seen and unseen, paid and unpaid, respected and unrespected.
Here’s to our real work together
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The VUU Team returns from summer vacation to talk with Quo Vadis Breaux and Deanna Vandiver of The Center for Ethical Living and Social Justice Renewal. The VUU is hosted by Meg Riley and Joanna Fontaine Crawford and airs on Thursdays at 11 am ET. This episode originally aired on September 3, 2015.
Rev. Rob Eller-Isaacs wrote a ritual of forgiveness for Unitarian Universalists, based on the Jewish Yom Kippur service. In this ritual, everyone repeats: “I forgive myself and I forgive you. We begin again in love.”
When someone hurts us, or we hurt others, the goal is not only that the person who was hurt forgives, we also need to forgive ourselves, and to start over in love. For those times when someone hurts you, or you hurt someone else, you might want to keep this in your pocket: “I forgive myself and I forgive you. We begin again in love.”
September 2015
“Forgiveness is the name of love practiced among people who love poorly. The hard truth is that all people love poorly.”―Henri J.M. Nouwen
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The Days of Awe—the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur—are considered the High Holy Days in the Jewish tradition—significant moments that even secular Jews may celebrate in some fashion. It’s the New Year, after all. Read more →
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I believe that our human survival depends on waking up to our connection with the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. Read more →
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Quest for Meaning is a program of the Church of the Larger Fellowship (CLF).
As a Unitarian Universalist congregation with no geographical boundary, the CLF creates global spiritual community, rooted in profound love, which cultivates wonder, imagination, and the courage to act.