Radical Community Care
Aisha Hauser, MSW
Lead Ministry Team, Church of the Larger Fellowship
What does radical community care look like, in what ways can we be the ones to offer the welcome hand to hold and the compassion that bonds us together?
Within systems of oppression, we can find examples of radical community care, the kind of care that exists in spite of efforts to subjugate entire communities.
One example of radical community care in the form of community organizing happened in the spring of 2020 in Los Angeles when a landlord sent an email to 300 tenants informing them they must pay their rent, the landlord did not blind copy the tenants thus sharing the contact information of all the renters with each other. One of the recipients hit reply all and suggested a rent strike. The renters joined the Los Angeles Tenant Union’s effort launched amid the pandemic called Food Not Rent in an effort to build their network of renters who do not want to have to choose between having a meal and having shelter.
This is an example of creative and radical community care.
Another example are the many urban farms that have been cultivated across the country. Urban farms are crucial to communities that have been impacted by food deserts, areas where access to fresh and affordable food is nonexistent.
Growing and sharing food is one of the most fundamental ways to offer community care. In 2012 NFL player Jason Brown at age 29 walked away from professional football and multi-million dollar offers to live on a farm and grow food to give away.
Brown knew nothing about farming and in fact learned how to plant sweet potatoes and cucumbers by watching YouTube videos. He recalls a conversation he had with his agent:
“My agent told me, ‘You’re making the biggest mistake of your life,” Brown recalled to CBS Sports in 2016. “And I looked right back at him and said, ‘No, I am not.’”
To date, Brown has given away over 100,000 pounds of sweet potatoes and 10,000 pounds of cucumbers to food banks all over his home state of North Carolina.
Brown, having been born and raised in North Carolina, felt a commitment to return to his roots and give back to the community and state that raised him.
What all of these examples have in common is people building on relationships. We cannot exist in community without relationship.
The invitation to all of us is to remember that nothing is inevitable, we can engage in and create the radical community care needed to transform our hurting world.
Imagination as Spiritual Tool
Katherine Hofmann
Learning Fellow, Church of the Larger Fellowship
Our dreams and imagination fuel childhood. The world encourages children to use their imagination through words and actions. We often hear an adult tell a child to use their imagination. This behaviour is encouraged through educational shows, playground structures (rocket ships anyone?), and toys. But then adults are told to “put away your childish things (C.S. Lewis),” as if becoming grownup precludes any need to use our imaginations.
Yet, if we want to experience life fully, we have to be able to imagine what we want our life to look like. How can anyone figure out their ultimate desires if they can’t imagine them? All the goal-setting gurus tell us to envision our futures and act as if it is already true. In other words, to use our imaginations to create our reality. I believe that our spiritual reality is drawn from imagination as well.
Our Unitarian Universalist faith encourages us to explore our own beliefs and to draw from a wide range of spiritual traditions and experiences. Because being a UU is about openness and freedom in spiritual practice, imagination plays an important role in how individuals connect with their faith. Rather than seeing imagination as something separate from spiritual life, UUs embrace it as a tool for deepening our spiritual journeys, building connections, and inspiring positive change. Using our imagination to develop our spiritual practice empowers us to envision new possibilities for ourselves, others, and even the world.
One of the core beliefs of Unitarian Universalism is the idea that everyone has worth and dignity and that everyone’s spiritual path is unique. This makes it a perfect place for imagination to thrive. Using your imagination allows you to engage with your beliefs in creative, personal ways. Whether through prayer, meditation, or everyday life, imagination helps open new doors to explore the divine, connect with the world, and grow spiritually.
Perhaps the most important way imagination is currently used in Unitarian Universalism is in the area of social justice. As UUs, we are committed to making the world a better place, and imagination helps fuel that work. By imagining a world where people are treated fairly, where the environment is cared for, and where peace prevails, we are inspired to take action and create positive change.
Ultimately, within our Unitarian Universalist congregations, imagination is a creative gift and a profoundly spiritual tool. It encourages personal growth, enhances communal worship, and inspires justice-driven action, making it an essential part of the UU spiritual experience. Unitarian Universalists can use imagination to connect to the divine, engage with each other, and work toward a better world. And that’s a dream that I hope we can all imagine.
Authentically and with a heart full of love, grace and a determination to do what I can to bring about liberation in all I do.
Quest May 2023
May 2023
Wonder is the beginning of wisdom. —Socrates
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Quest April 2023
April 2023
Without leaps of imagination or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning. —Gloria Steinem
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Creative Imagination
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When I was in college, a professor began the term by assigning a novel set in a dystopian future, where everything was grim and hope was absent. Read more →