 Beloveds,
It was a joy to see many of you at our Christmas Eve Candlelight service. After attempting to create a festive setting at my house, I knew where I needed to be. I headed over to the fellowship, hung gorgeous red fabric, draped the pulpit table with shimmery blue fabric, and made sure I had my candle all ready for candle lighting. At first I felt a little sad there all alone, but as we rehearsed the service with our dedicated worship team - Kathleen Moscato, Augustus Moscato, Holly Herring, Li-Anne and Michael Mufson, I settled in and my mood was one of joyful anticipation. And then, you came. We were in meeting mode and I watched as beloved faces filled the screens - ones I see each week, and the dear ones I see once a year. Li-Anne told the compelling story of that baby we anticipated, Holly led the service with beauty. Kathleen’s clear glorious voice, skillfully accompanied by our dear Augustus led us in singing. I sang so loud in the sanctuary. (I sound really good by myself!). I scrolled through the zoom pages and watched people sing along. I love telling the story of the prophet, our brother Jesus, and his radical story of defying empire and teaching us about radical love. And then came the candle lighting… I scrolled the pages again and looked at your faces as best I could - a soulful quilt... I could picture you there in the sanctuary - the lights low, the candles lighting your faces. We sang Silent Night and renewed our hope in the Spirit of love and peace. . Beloveds, it has been such a difficult year. Through it all we have crafted community across space and time, building Beloved Community and remembering we are not alone. My heart breaks for the thousands who have lost their lives to COVID-19 and for all who are struggling in loneliness, in poverty and oppression. We are relieved that a new administration will be in place, and still we know that there is so much to heal and repair, to transform and transcend. The pandemic will be with us a good while longer. I want you to hold on...to each other...to love that is holding you and all that you love. We will get through this time, beloveds - it will be a while and we will be changed. We should be. The deep bonds of humanity’s interconnectedness with one another and the rest of nature have been made clear. The deep fissures in our society have been made clear. As the new year approaches, let us breathe...see where love would have us be and what love would have us do. And let us follow love where it leads. Here is one of the special songs we shared on Christmas Eve. Your Peace Will Make Us One by Audrey Assad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCZk20ayFwI As a congregation we will continue follow love - Our congregational word for the year is: Intention I will be taking a week off December 27-January 5th. I’m looking forward to the weeks and months to come as we will explore what it means to live with intention! For any urgent issues, please contact our Administrator, Meg. I love you, rev beth
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  Beloveds, This is the time of Advent in the Christian tradition. It is a time of waiting - Christians wait for the birth of Jesus, a brown skin Palestinian Jew who taught love and justice for all and who defied empire. We light a candle each week, three purple ones and the last is pink. Perhaps you’ll join me in lighting candles each week. It is also a time of waiting in earth centered traditions. Waiting for the birth of the new sun. And, we are all waiting now, aren’t we? Waiting for the pandemic to slow and eventually to end. Waiting for a new administration to begin to undo the damage of the past four years. Waiting for justice and for healing - for way more than four years. I resonate with Advent on all these levels. So, I invite you to journey with me through Advent this year. Each week in my blog I will touch upon the themes of Advent -HOPE LOVE JOY PEACE. This coming Sunday marks the first Sunday of Advent The theme is HOPE Advent may be the season of waiting but it is not passive. Hope is not passive - it is not wishing or optimism. It is an existential condition, a disposition if you will. Now we are not all always disposed toward hope. Certainly our hope has been tested, but we live in hope toward an uncertain future. In fact, for me hope means I don’t know the future. Yet, there is that in life that lures us to creatively imagine possibilities for what might arise in us and around us. And that is the ground of our hope. This means that we remain present to the possibilities in each moment…we stay open in the process, even in incertitude.. Biologist and theologian Charles Birch wrote: “…In the business of living one must live not by certainties but by visions, risks and passion. Visions: to see the future in hope and expect change in people and situations. Risks: to venture forth in faith and not to count the cost. Passion: to feel with all one’s heart, to show emotions, to share one’s deepest experience. This is to be saved by hope.” Charles Birch This advent let us be saved by hope. Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul And sings the tune – without the words, And never stops at all, And sweetest in the gale is heard; And sore must be the storm That could abash the little bird That kept so many warm. I’ve heard it in the chillest land, And on the strangest sea; Yet, never in extremity, It asked a crumb of me. Emily Dickinson  LOVE Beloveds, We are approaching the second week of Advent in which the theme is Love. Really the order of the themes varies in case you know them a different way. I actually agonized over which order to use, but settled on this Back to love. I love love. I think about love, I feel love, I live in Love… My Universalist faith is grounded in love It is an inclusive love that says no one is excluded from God’s love Everybody in. Nobody out. It is a love that is indwelling and the outside of us. Just today in a meeting of colleagues, the Rev Tom Owen-Towle described love as “the Sustainer, Nurturer, Nudger.” That spoke so deeply to me. It is the love that will not let us go, will not let us down, will not let us off. ~~~~ Love, the Sustainer This is the love that will not let us go. I do not believe that we can be separated from love. This is the love that is the beginning and the end, that is found in and through the cosmos and creation and you and me. In my most difficult times of tragedy and loss, it was the love that I felt for the beloved one who died, the compassion of friends, and the felt experience of being held in love and mystery that sustained me. How do you feel love? How has love sustained you? ~~~~ Love, the Nurturer This is the love that will not let us down. I think at times we can not feel love, not see it, feel separated from it, but it is the reality within which we are held. Sometimes I have to trust that this love is holding me. Sometimes I have to be still and silent to remember, and for me, all I have to do is look around. At the rest of nature - how it provides us with everything that we need, including beauty that feeds our soul. I remember... “There is a love holding me… There is a Love by Rebecca Parker Love, the Nudger This is the love that will not let us off. In my first church we held a conversation about right relations – an intentional decision to act in respectful and open ways toward one another. A member of the group, Hal, made the comment that even when it is not evident, even when it is difficult “love is looking in all the windows.” This was it! With that simple statement Hal captured my imagination and verbalized the sense of the ever-present, pervasiveness of love in and through reality. Whether we know it or not, love is present to us as a possibility in each and every moment. Love is looking in all the windows, knocking on all the doors – is seeking entry into our hearts at each and every moment. Love is looking in all the windows. A theologian Daniel Day Williams helps us understand this risk. “Love,” he says, “does not put everything at rest; it puts everything in motion. Love does not end all risk, it accepts every risk which is necessary for its work. Love does not resolve every conflict; it accepts conflict as the arena in which the work of love is to be done.” In the world as it is, love is nudging us to do justice, love mercy, and live love’s call and claim on our lives. Beloveds, in this time of Advent - let us wait on love, let us live in love, let us testify to the love that will not let us go, will not let us down and will not let us off. For as long as I live, I will testify to love Testify to Love  JOY - DECEMBER11, 2020 There is a brokenness Out of which comes the unbroken, A shatteredness out Of which blooms the unshatterable. There is sorrow Beyond all grief which leads to joy And a fragility Out of whose depths emerges strength There is a hollow space Too vast for words Through which we pass with each loss, Out of whose darkness We are sanctioned into being. There is a cry deeper than all sound Whose serrated edges cut the heart as we Break open to the place inside which is Unbreakable and whole, While learning to sing. Rashani Beloveds, We are approaching the third week of Advent - the time of active waiting and preparing. The theme for the third week of Advent is JOY. I think a lot about joy. I think about and I experience it - so the thinking about it is really me theorizing my experience. One could ask, “Why analyze joy? Doesn’t that take the, well, joy, out of it?” In these times, in all times I think, we need joy and it can seem elusive, or even perverse to claim it. How can I be joyful when there is so much suffering, so much evil? In this time of pandemics and chaos how can there be joy? Am I out of touch? What I’ve come to is distinguishing between “joy as happiness” and “joy as wholeness.” Similar to hope, joy as wholeness is a state of being that is not dependent upon external circumstances. And we can’t think our way into it - it is a disposition, much like hope. It arises. My mentor, philosopher David Ray Griffin, wrote of a spirituality that lifts up the power of connection for those who practice it. “[t]hey feel at home in the world, and feel a sense of kinship with other species, which are viewed as having their own experiences, values, and purposes. Through this sense of at-homeness and kinship, the modern desire to master and possess is replaced in postmodern spirituality with a joy in communion and a desire for letting-be.” This is the sixteenth anniversary of the death of my dearest beloved soulmate, Lil. An eight pound orange tabby through whom I learned “joy in communion.” When she died I was shattered. New to our congregation I hadn’t yet fully disclosed my connection and commitment to other animals. I grieved deeply, privately - a disenfranchised grief they call it. I couldn’t imagine life without her, and yet...life went on all around me. So many of you have experienced this kind of loss and grief...maybe right now. How dare I posit joy? The poet William Blake wrote a truth echoed through the ages: “Joy and woe are woven fine…” To hold both joy and sorrow does not diminish the sorrow, but provides a container for it. In joy-as-wholeness we recognize that in the depths of our sorrow there is joy – not joy promised or to come, but a joy that is deep and abiding – ever-present… In joy-as-wholeness we recognize that in the depths of our brokenness, our shatteredness, our fragility there is joy, a song that emerges from the cry of our depths …there is a sense in which no matter what the circumstances there is place – a deep well from which we draw and which sustains us. In joy-as-wholeness we are living from our connectedness with all of life. The poet Rumi wrote, “When you do things from your soul you feel a river of joy moving through you.” I see this joy as wholeness is about living authentically as who we are and apprehending our oneness with all that is. A while back I came across the phrase, “uncaused joy.” Uncaused joy…the joy that is not dependent upon external circumstances. This joy as wholeness is about authenticity in our connectedness. In joy-as-wholeness we recognize that in the depths of our sorrow there is joy – not joy promised or to come, but a joy that is deep and abiding – ever-present… In joy-as-wholeness we recognize that in the depths of our brokenness, our shatteredness, our fragility there is joy, a song that emerges from the cry of our depths …there is a sense in which no matter what the circumstances there is place – a deep well from which we draw and which sustains us...from which we sing… In joy-as-wholeness we are living from our connectedness with all of life. The poet Rumi wrote, “When you do things from your soul you feel a river of joy moving through you.” I see this joy as wholeness is about living authentically as who you are and apprehending our oneness with all that is. A while back I came across the phrase, “uncaused joy.” Uncaused joy…the joy that is not dependent upon external circumstances. This joy as wholeness is about authenticity in our connectedness. When we live our connection with all that is we find our call to act on behalf of others deepens this abiding joy… This is the joy that struggles for justice, that works for peace, that raises in us an endless song… How Can I Keep From Singing?  PEACE 12/18/20
Beloveds, The fourth Sunday of Advent is upon us. We have been actively waiting, preparing for the coming of Love into the world. Of course, I believe that Love, the Holy, is always present, but in these times we hope for a unique and powerful reminder of Love’s presence in, through and around us. The theme for this week is Peace. It just so happens that my inspiration word for the year is peace. So, I’ve been praying about, meditating on, and exploring peace for this year. It is not a new endeavor for me. My earliest activism was as a peace activist, so it has preoccupied me for a very long time. We all also long for inner peace...that sometimes elusive, but oh so welcome, state where we feel a settledness, a centered groundedness, even while all around there may be chaos and struggle. We are not all always in that state, but we know there are practices that can bring it in closer. Prayer. Meditation. Music. Animals. You have a list of your own I’m sure. In these times, when peace seems remote beyond what we experience in our inner lives, we know that living from peace can contribute to peace in the world - it is good and worthy to bring that forth in our lives. And, peace also needs to be actively sought and brought about. With the violence perpetrated upon black, brown, indigenous and people of color in this country, we assert “No Justice! No Peace!” There can be no peace until worth and dignity is granted to all. There can be no peace as long as there is a worldwide culture of dominance and control. This is why we work for peace. What I call an active peace. Mahatma Gandhi said, “Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with it.” Rev Dr Martin Luther King said, “True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.” Nelson Mandela - “Peace is not just the absence of conflict; peace is the creation of an environment where all can flourish regardless of race, color, creed, religion, gender, class, caste or any other social markers of difference.”So it is that we anticipate peace and the coming of Love to guide us. In times of war and unrest poets have written of hope and peace. One of my favorites is “Christmas Bells.” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), a Unitarian and Transcendentalist, wrote the poem, “Christmas Bells,” on December 25th 1864. which was set to music and became the hymn "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" on December 25th 1864. Two years earlier Longfellow had lost his wife of 18 years in a tragic accidental fire. Then during the American Civil War, Longfellow's oldest son Charles Appleton Longfellow joined the Union army as a soldier without his father's knowledge. Longfellow was informed by a letter dated March 14, 1863, after Charles had left. "I have tried hard to resist the temptation of going without your leave but I cannot any longer," he wrote. "I feel it to be my first duty to do what I can for my country and I would willingly lay down my life for it if it would be of any good". Charles soon got an appointment as a lieutenant but, in November, he was severely wounded and it was thought that he would be paralyzed for life, but he recovered more than expected. While the civil war raged, deep in grief, Longfellow was inspired to write "Christmas Bells". It was set to music and became the beloved hymn "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day." Beloveds, in this season, amidst violence and hate and pandemics, we anticipate the birth of Love and Light into the world, and we anticipate the birth of our brother, Jesus, who subverted norms, defied empire, and calls us to free the prisoner, care for the sick and the poor, the widow, and the oppressed. Let us now and always work for peace with justice. I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day Join us for our Christmas Eve Candlelight service at 8pm We will sing carols, hear the story, and light candles of Hope, Love, Joy and Peace Beloveds,
We are moving into holiday time and I know that we are longing to be with friends and loved ones just as COVID-19 cases are on the rise. For some it has always been a lonely time. I know it’s hard, but I want you to hang in and hang on. We’ve got a way to go before we can return to seeing people outside of our bubble, but waiting is an act of care for ourselves, our loved ones and our communities. Let’s think about things that we can do to stay grounded and connected in an intentional way. One of the things that I’ve done is naming daily gratitudes. Mostly they are simple. Just being aware of whatever is around. The way the light shimmers on the leaves of the trees. Two new kinds of birds in my yard. My kitties. A gorgeous crescent moon. Connecting with family and friends by phone, social media Zoom Yes. I am grateful for zoom during this time so that WE can be connected. I know that technology is a challenge for some of us. We want to help with that! What are your gratitudes? What keeps you centered? I’d love to know! Next week I’ll let you know the ways that we connect together over the upcoming holiday. Speaking of Thanksgiving, I have a lot of ambivalence about it for several reasons, one of which is the false stories about the “Pilgrims” and the indigenous people of our land. And it has also been associated with gratitude - so this is about living in the tension. Join us for a very special worship service this Sunday! Read about it in the Saturday worship email!  Beloveds,
I’m writing this blog while sitting at my dining room table. My kitty, Ms B, has been sitting on the floor next to me and tapping me on the leg with her paw. I stop whenever she does it and pet her as she looks up at me, her round face tilted to the side. “Notice me.” “Attend to me,” she seems to be saying. And so I do, and then I turn back to my work and the paw reaches out again tapping - “Are you there?” “Can you see me?” “Will you love me?” I think I should linger longer, seeing her, reassuring her, and in turn receiving the gift of her love. It makes me think about all the beings and beauty and loves that are tapping us saying “Notice Me!” “Attend to me!” “Love Me!” So much is clamoring for our attention - so much busyness. The news and social media, the next scary thing. Yes we made it through the election and now what? I wonder if in the midst of all the uncertainty and busyness and life in a pandemic if we are missing the love reaching out, tapping us saying “Here I am! Notice me!” I wonder, too, if we can feel as emboldened as Ms B to ask for what we need of love? Breathe with me… What beauty, what love, what wonder, is tapping you on the leg or the shoulder or the heart, saying, “Stop. Look. There is beauty all around. There is a love waiting for you to see it.” Look! Love is reaching out right now.  Beloveds,
How is it with your spirit? I hope that during this time you are doing things that nurture you. Taking time outside, talking to loved ones, creating art, oh! and minding your altar and focusing your intent for this time. Last week I mentioned our fellowship inspiration word for the year was “Light.” I decided to pull a word for us for the coming week and I picked “Openness.” To be honest, I didn’t appreciate it. What are we supposed to open to? What if things are not going well? But...but… I was thinking we needed a word like “grace” or “power” or “freedom.” So, well...I put it back. And I got “acceptance.” As you who have been picking words know, you can reject the word, but the next word you pick will simply reinforce the first one. So - OPENNESS it is. As I thought about openness in the context of where we are right now. What can openness teach us? The first thing that came to mind is being open to where you are at at this moment. What feelings are you experiencing? What might happen if you are open to experiencing everything? This is what it means to be embodied. It doesn’t mean if there are difficult feelings that we push them down, nor does it mean that we hang on to them. We can just be open. Openness also brought up for me being open to life’s gifts - Where do you find beauty? Where do you experience grace and goodness and love? Openness to what is happening in this political moment may mean seeing what is before us with clarity, insight and eyes wide open hope. What about being open to the Moreness?To Love? To God? Openness to the love and mystery holding us all? Beloveds, Let us be open to the realities and possibilities before us Together… Here are some times for connection in the coming days: See you this Sunday for worship at 10am! Breathe - Push Join me along with the Poor People’s Campaign for these events https://www.facebook.com/anewppc
Election Day Live from National City Christian Church: Morning Session Beginning Tuesday, November 3rd at 5:00amPT/8:00am ET we will be broadcasting our prayerful action live from National City Christian Church in Washington, DC until 5:00pmPT/8:00pm ET. Join this witness insisting that voting is free of harassment and intimidation, and that every vote is counted. Live From National City Christian Church: Evening Session Starting at 6:00pmPT/9:00pm ET on election day, our prayerful action will continue as Washington, DC faith leaders and voices from around the country lead us in a program of prayer, prophecy, and witness for a just democracy now. The broadcast will last until 8:30pmPT/11:30pm ET.  For those who may be new to our fellowship, let me explain. Each year at the Winter Solstice we have a ritual in the service of each person picking an inspiration word to guide them through the year. The president of the congregation picks a word for the fellowship. This past Winter Solstice Leona Wolf chose “Light.”
Now, we couldn’t have known that in a few short months we would in a pandemic. We couldn’t have known the hardest of times that were coming. So we rejoiced to see “light” because we were so aware that we were living in the difficult time of a heartless and cruel administration and its enablers, and we want to be a light in the world. We want to let our lights shine. And so we shall. The pandemic hit and so many have been struggling. It feels for some that the light has dimmed or even gone out. In the midst of pandemic and the fascistic threats to our democracy we see that the light has been shown on the deep disparities in our economic system, the pervasiveness of white supremacy and the threats to the most vulnerable. The light has shown what is and has been. But know this - in each of us there is a spark of light - in these times, hold fast to the truth of love and power of resistance. Hold fast to the light of truth, the fire of commitment, and the warmth of community that sustains us in the work of building the Beloved Community. We will let our lights shine, shine, shine! Earlier this week, in my capacity as a leader in the CA Poor People’s Campaign, I was asked by my friend, Clovis Honore, the social justice editor of Indian Times, to write a short paragraph on why we should fight for our democracy.
This is what I wrote: “The so-called United States was founded in the genocide, built by enslaved people, and drenched in blood. The nascent democracy was not meant for everyone - this we know. But in the beginning there was a promise - a promise as yet unfulfilled. In the beginning, and throughout history, those denied the promise nevertheless could imagine its fulfillment in a more just, a more perfect, union. This promise is at the heart and soul of our democracy. Our imperfect democracy is worth fighting for because in so doing we are fighting for the soul of this nation. While there have always been those who would thwart that promise, there have always been those who have fought for it - who have struggled and died for this promise. We are called to be faithful to their memories, faithful to the struggle and faithful to our deepest moral values - uplifting the worth and dignity of all people and justice, equity, and compassion. In fighting for our democracy, we call for an end to systemic racism; poverty; the war economy and the militarization of our communities and borders; ecological devastation and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism. In fighting for our democracy we are fulfilling the promise.” I could have said more but I had a 200 word limit - only went over by two. But here it is - we are, indeed, fighting for the soul of our nation. It is the call of our time. It’s not surprising to me that we are in the place we are at this time - there have been forces moving us to this place for decades. We have only to look at the way the religious right, right wing ideologues, and moneyed interests have merged into a symbiotic relationship to advance an agenda that concentrates power into the hands of a few. Religious nationalism is a tool of those interests. I fight for our democracy because Love calls me into the struggle. Love sustains me in the struggle. My Universalist faith says no one is left behind. Everybody’s got a right to live. Everybody’s got a right to thrive. I fight for our democracy because I am indebted to those who have gone before who have fought and died for it. I fight for our democracy because in my cis-gendered white woman privilege I have benefitted from its rewards in ways that my black, indigenous, people of color, and lgbtqia+ siblings have not. I fight for our democracy because I do see the possibilities of dismantling systems of oppression and ushering in a just, equitable, and inclusive world. One of the places where I most fully live that call is in the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. And right now we are being asked to participate in a MORE Faithful Month of actions. I see what so many of you are doing to be faithful - those pictures you sent in of yourselves doing what you can to fight for our democracy through making sure everybody can vote. In times of uncertainty, humans look for stability, for surety, an authoritarian leader who promises security…”law and order.” This is where we are right now as you know. There is, of course, no guarantee, but there is no other choice. As with Esther in the Hebrew scripture, I ask “who is to say we were not called for just such a time as this?” Let us go forth with radical love, fierce compassion, and eyes-wide open hope. And while we’re at it, let’s sing: Everybody's Got a Right to Live In solidarity, faith, and love, rev beth Join me on Sunday October 18th at 2pm for this special event: A California Statewide Webinar: Voting is Power Unleashed! Rev. Dr William J Barber II Sunday, Oct. 18 at 2-4PM PT. Please register at: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_lLrUzuApRQOAxfhCeUdr2w. For more info contact: contact:[email protected]  Beloveds,
Will you breathe with me? How are you? Really? Take a moment if you can - take a breath and know you are loved. So much has gone on in our country that it is dizzying. So if you feel afraid, disoriented, depressed, it is understandable and reasonable. Our community exists to be a place of love, support, and resources for our lives – our individual lives, our collective congregational life, and the wider community of life. I know that many of you are in school, caring for families, working or worrying about work. I am here for you. Our various programs and groups are here for you. With all that you are doing I also want you to rest. We are going into what will likely continue to be a chaotic time in our country. I do not think I need to recount the ways it has been, nor what we might expect. However, the instability of the president and the inability or unwillingness of this enablers in the administration and beyond demands that we do all we can to protect our neighbors, our communities and our democracy. I know many of you are working to get out the vote with locally, with UU the Vote, the Poor People’s Campaign. Let’s keep that up. In the next week, I’ll be developing a plan for Election Day – offering times that I will open my zoom room for drop ins – to breathe, ground and center, pray, rest. In the meantime, join us for worship this Sunday. We’ll be delving into the theme – “What Does it Mean to be a People of Deep Listening?” I want you to join us at 10am and let’s explore together. All love, rev beth Hello beloved ones,
How are you? Really? Want to take a breath with me right now? Okay…you could do that again… At our Ingathering Sunday we talked about creating home altars and Kathleen, our Director of Children and Family Ministry, created an altar at the fellowship. We saw this as an opportunity to practice our faith at home and connect us in faith across space and time. Did you create an altar yet? Or you might be wondering, “What is an altar?” And” why would I want one?” Altars aren’t only located in churches or temples. Think of altars as a dedicated space to focus on when you want to feel centered, to ground, to focus your intention, to be and breathe. Some people will put prayers or intentions on their altars. Some will see them as rest stops of beauty. Some put art or cards or poems on their altars. You can create one outside or inside on a bookshelf, a desk or a table, in a corner of the room. We have moved into the autumn season - it is the time of lessening light, a time of harvest and a time of release. What objects might you put on your altar that signify autumn? Maybe acorns, gourds, pomegranates, leaves. I have candles in browns and reds and orange...I have stones that represent the rich harvest of experiences in the past months. I have objects that represent the directions and pictures of beloved ones Find things that uplift your spirit. Feed your soul. In these times we need respite and release. Also, stop by the Fellowship and contribute to our altar on the patio! All love, rev beth |