Did You Know…
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That you can contribute to the CLF while your do your shopping on Amazon? With the Amazon Smile program, part of the proceeds of any purchases you make will be given to the CLF at no additional cost to you. Be sure to designate the “Church of the Larger Fellowship” as the organization you are supporting. Using this link will do this!
Hope
December 2015
“Hope is patience with the lamp lit.” —Tertullian
Articles
At the Intersection of Despair and Love
My connection with the Unitarian Universalist Trauma Response Ministry began September 26, 2001. It was just fifteen days after the perilous events in New York City, Washington, DC, and western Pennsylvania. Read more »
The Hope of Our Ancestors
My heart is aching for answers, for a way this makes sense, for a way to understand a 12-year old child shot, a way to understand Eric Garner, a father of six, choked to death in broad daylight with his murderers caught on camera—no medical attention, left to die in the street just like Michael ...Read more »
Hope Has Human Hands (Excerpt)
In the late 1940s and early 50s, there was a song which, when it came on the radio, would make my dad groan and move as if to turn it off, muttering “That darn song, it’s so sticky!” and my mother and I would cry out, “No, we want to hear it!” Read more »
From Your Minister
For years, one of my favorite hymns of hope has been Carolyn McDade’s “We’ll Build a Land.” It opens with: “We’ll build a land where we bind up the broken; we’ll build a land where the captives go free…” Read more »
REsources for Living
Christmas is a season of hope. If you’re a kid, it’s probably a season of hoping for presents. There are lists you give to parents and letters you send to Santa and lots of waiting and hoping for the very best of loot. Read more »
A Time of Stillness and Cold
For many, the month of December is a time of stillness and cold, and it can be lonely. So we warm it up by welcoming love back, ushering in the return of light, and celebrating the resilience of our communities. Read more »
Hope
Hope wakes up in her green-lit room, stretches, tugs at her flannel nightie, opens her limbs to the morning. Read more »
A Black Lives Matter Sermon
This sermon was delivered at the Michael Servetus Unitarian Society in Fridley, Minn. on Sunday morning, the 15th of November 2015, as Jamar Clark lay in hospital fighting for his life, shot by Minneapolis police. It was written in the wake of the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris, France; in Beirut, Lebanon; and Baghdad, Iraq. We share it with you the day after Lena spent most of the night at the camp at the 4th Precinct in Minneapolis dealing with the aftermath of a terrorist attack launched by white supremacists on the people participating in the occupation and calling for justice in the shooting death of Jamar Clark.
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URGENT: Release Rev. Fulgence Ndagijimana and other Unitarians Suffering Persecution in Burundi
We stand with Unitarian Universalists across the globe calling for the immediate release of the Rev. Fulgence Ndagijimana of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Burundi.
“On November 16th, the minister of the church, the Rev. Fulgence Ndagijimana, was arrested from the church at gunpoint, taken into police custody and interrogated severely, regarding the activities of his church. He was threatened with physical harm and death. At the moment he remains in custody, with other members of the church also being questioned.”
—International Council of Unitarian Universalists (ICUU)
[VIDEO] In the Ruins
A man sits on the rubble—
not just in the rubble, but on the pile
of what remains. No people
in the bombed-out houses.
No dogs. No birds. Just ragged hunks
of concrete and loss. And on his perch
he is playing an instrument constructed
of what is left—an olive oil can, a broom handle,
a bowed stick and strings. It sounds
exactly as it is supposed to sound.
The instrument cries, but the man sings.
Because sometimes loss is deeper than tears.
Because sometimes grief is resistance.
Because, somewhere down the very long road,
music is stronger than bombs.
Dedicated to S.K.
https://www.facebook.com/xendanweb/videos/10153270204871795/
VIDEO: “ت ناوازەیە” by Xendan
PHOTO: “Rubble litters the street in the main souk or market area of Maraat al-Numan, Syria” by Freedom House is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Jumping Mouse
Adapted from a Native American legend, and told by Rev. Dr. Lynn Ungar.
On Setting Out and Coming Home
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Matsuo Bashō, the late 17th century Japanese poet, speaks of a strong desire to wander, as if it’s the essence of who he is. In the opening lines of his travel sketch, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, he says: “The gods seemed to have possessed my soul and turned it inside out, and roadside images seemed to invite me from every corner, so that it was impossible for me to stay idle at home.” Read more →
CLF Nominating Committee Seeks Leaders
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The Church of the Larger Fellowship’s Nominating Committee seeks CLF members to run for positions on the Board of Directors beginning June 2016: Read more →
Trail Blazers and Covenant Keepers
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As a little girl I ran away from home at least twice every summer, hurling myself out of the house with outrage at childhood oppressions like being left out by my brother and his friends or facing bad sportsmanship during a T-ball game. Read more →
Here is a blessing to offer anyone who is heading out on a journey–even if that journey is just as far as school.
May you go out in peace and may you come back in joy. On the road in between, may you find what fills your heart, feeds your mind and inspires your imagination.
Artist: Alice Popkorn