Bearing Witness is a Blessing
AISHA HAUSER, msw, cre-ml
Lead Ministry Team, Church of the Larger Fellowship
Growing up in an Egyptian Arabic speaking home, we never just said, “hello” to greet each other. We would say “Ahlan wa sahlan” which translates to “easy family.” You are part of our family and it is easy to be together is how I would explain this. An affirmation of connection.
I learned that the Zulu greeting is “Sawubona” which means “I see you, I acknowledge you, I recognize you as a person.” What a powerful and life affirming greeting.
I acknowledge you.
I recognize you as a person.
This month’s theme is witnessing, and the greetings I describe above are a way of witnessing who we are to each other in community. As humanity has become more transient in the last few hundred years, many of us travel and live in many places throughout our lives. This means our friendships and connections are fluid. Before the internet, I would maybe receive a handwritten letter from a friend I met after they or I moved to a new town. This was a rare occurrence.
Now that social media is a pervasive part of our lives, I have found that I am able to remain connected to people that I got to know and care about during a moment in time when we lived in geographic proximity to each other. I can follow people as they acknowledge milestones in their and their loved one’s lives.
Through TikTok, I have learned more about non-famous people all over the world and here in the United States than I ever would have on any other platform. People who are interested in transforming our hurting world into a more healing and equitable place.
We all are continuing to bear witness to the genocide in Gaza, the Congo, Haiti, Sudan among other places, thanks to social media. Awareness has been brought to our phones. We can never again claim, “we didn’t know.”
We do know. What we do with that knowledge is part of choosing how we move forward as a collective.
The Church of the Larger Fellowship would never have the reach it does at this moment in history if it wasn’t for the internet and social media. We as the CLF are able to bear witness to the lives of our members all over the world, including our beloved incarcerated UU community.
Bearing witness is part of the ways we share stories of our lives and the lives of those we care about. Humans have been sharing these witness stories for as long as we have could communicate. It is a blessed thing to be able to bear witness to the joys, sorrows, horrors, celebrations and all that it means to be human. We will support and love each other through it all..
- Bearing Witness is a Blessing - February 27, 2025
- Authentic Leadership - January 15, 2025
- In an Ancient Forest - October 17, 2024
