Prelude Melodia Africana I by Ludovico Einaudi
Opening Words by Andrew Usher
We have gathered in this Oasis of Peace from many places, with many thoughts. We pause together now, to allow ourselves to settle into this place at this time, letting the cares of the outside world relax their grip.
As we take the time to reflect on our presence here, let us give thanks for all the small moments which make our lives so special. May we recognise in those small moments that divine grace which is present at all times, if only we would be aware of it.
We acknowledge with regret the moments when we have been less than we would wish to be: the moments when we have forgotten the divinity within ourselves and within others: the moments when life is hard on us, when we cannot face the world, when our sorrows seem too much to bear.
May we have the strength and the courage to affirm that there is divinity in these moments too. May our hearts be turned, that we might see divine grace working wherever we look, and may that recognition lighten our burdens. And where we still cannot see that grace, may we be filled with the spirit to bring love, grace, compassion and hope ourselves to those places where it is needed.
May we find peace and renewal in this place, and may we take that peace with us, that it may fill the world.
Chalice Lighting (you may wish to light a candle in your own home at this point). (words by Jane Blackall)
May the light of this chalice be a reminder of the
shared values and principles around which we gather:
upholding the inherent worth and dignity of every person;
cherishing all those diverse creatures and habitats
with whom we share this Earth, our home;
seeking human liberation and flourishing;
serving the common good of all.
May this little light, and all it represents, make a home in our hearts;
where it will ever guide us back to our highest aspirations,
and help us be responsive, creative, just, and loving,
in this complex and ever-changing world.
Opening Prayer
Spirit of Life and Love,
be with us as we gather for worship,
each in our own place.
Help us to feel a sense of community,
even though we are physically apart.
Help us to care for each other,
in this world in which the clouds
of war, poverty, and climate change hover.
And help us to make a difference,
starting where we are, with what we have.
May we keep in touch however we can,
and help each other, however we may.
Help us to be grateful for the freedoms we have
and to respect the wishes of others.
May we hold in our hearts all those
who are grieving, lost, alone,
victims of violence and war,
suffering in any way,
Amen
Reading Standing on the Side of Love by Fred Small (excerpt)
I want to be standing on the side of love.
I’m talking about faith in action… I’m talking about intentionality. Understanding that our practice will be imperfect as each of us is imperfect, what is our purpose? What is our aspiration? What is our commitment?
To side with love…
When a child on a playground sticks up for another who is teased or bullied or left out because they’re different, that child is siding with love.
Siding with love affirms the full humanity of all people. It honours the inherent worth and dignity, the spark of the divine in each and every person.
Siding with love means treating each other well, whether ally or adversary. “Love is patient;” wrote the Apostle Paul, “love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.”
Siding with love means being more committed to being reconciled than to being right. Love “does not insist on its own way…. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
A religious person, Rabbi Abraham Heschel taught us, is one “whose greatest passion is compassion, whose greatest strength is love and defiance of despair.”
His friend Martin Luther King Jr. added, “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
So when someone asks us what Unitarian Universalists believe, or why we’re speaking out on gay rights or immigrant rights or disability rights or human rights, or why we bother to go to church on a Sunday morning, let’s tell ‘em: We are siding with love.
Alternative Lord’s Prayer
Spirit of Life and Love, here and everywhere,
may we be aware of your presence in our lives.
May our world be blessed.
May our daily needs be met,
and may our shortcomings be forgiven,
as we forgive those of others.
Give us the strength to resist wrong-doing,
the inspiration and guidance to do right,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
We are your hands in the world; help us to grow.
May we have compassion for all living beings,
and receive whatever life brings,
with courage and trust.
Amen
Reading from Justice, equity and compassion in human relations by Richard S. Gilbert, in With Purpose and Principle: Essays about the seven principles of Unitarian Universalism.
Justice, equity and compassion are lived values of a free faith, suggesting that the spiritual life must express itself ethically…. The very name Unitarian Universalist suggests a strong ethical component. ‘Unitarian’ implies the unity of all beings, binding us together in one human family. ‘Universalist’ suggests that our concerns are global in nature – no one is to be excluded. Affirming and promoting ‘justice, equity and compassion in human relations’ articulates that tradition. …
To refuse to act in life is to abdicate our role as spiritual and moral beings. There is a vacuum in religious life when we fail to act out our values. We are then incomplete people; our growth is stifled; our lives found wanting. The spiritual impulse, far from being a check on social action, should be a spur.
Prayer by Laura Horton-Ludwig
Spirit of Life and Love,
we are here because we believe what we do matters.
We are here because we believe how we live our life matters.
That with every act of kindness or meanness,
courage or fear,
love or hate,
we are weaving the fabric of the universe that holds us all.
We are here because we need encouragement.
Because we need strength.
Because so often, we get distracted.
We get in a rush,
we don’t think,
we choose the easy way
when the harder path is what our spirits truly long for.
We are here
because none of us is perfect,
but together we inspire one another.
To try again.
To take another step.
We are here because we have felt the stirrings of love and grace
in our hearts and hands and we crave more of that,
for ourselves and not only for ourselves: for everyone!
We are here because how we live matters.
May it be so, Amen
Reading I do not like the “I hate it” feeling by Albert F. Ciarcia
I do not like the “I hate it” feeling, but I have it.
I hate it that there are too many good people who allow the ways and works of violence to continue;
I hate it that too many people who know better simply talk and pray about justice and then believe that they have thus fulfilled the requirements of justice;
I hate it that the world seems to be top-heavy with people who seek to serve themselves with pleasure that demeans human nature, with activities that waste their potential;
I hate it that there are too few who strive to stay free from the pressure to conform, free from the mediocrity of compromise, free from the tyranny of approval.
I would be delivered from all this evasion and blindness, apathy and self-service.
Because I live in this world, it is my world, in my time. I must fully realize what that means to me and to the world as I touch it.
I will then let my hate for all that spoils the beauty of the earth, all that diminishes the life of the world, move me to thought and effort that celebrate and promote peace, that honour and serve justice.
Damned be conformity and compromise and approval I should not even begin to seek, hold, desire.
Yes, I do not like the “I hate it” feeling, but if I must have it, I will use it to move my mind and heart where they can do the most good.
Time of Stillness and Reflection Three Things by Jan Taddeo
The storm outside echoes the
storm raging within my soul.
So many people in need…
so much pain, so much grief.
Too many causes and campaigns
fill my mailboxes, sap my energy,
beg for my money.
Three things I must do…only three things?
You’ve got to be kidding—which three do I choose?
Books and letters, magnets and movies
implore me to dance as if no one is watching
learn seven habits and make four agreements
give generously, vote often, express myself!
Yet hundreds, thousands, millions live with hunger
and thirst, in poverty, enduring violence, and disease.
Did Mother Teresa, Martin and Gandhi cry out
with despair from the darkness of overwhelm?
What three things did they choose?
Three things. Three things we must do.
Is it to act in kindness, serve justice, love God and your
neighbour even as you love yourself.
But where do I start?
So much thoughtlessness,
hatred and fear.
Too little justice, too much selfishness.
Where is God? Who is my neighbour?
Three things…seven principles, ten commandments, twelve steps…
all number of things speak to us; and yet,
we must choose.
We must choose to do something, so three things
may be the right number…not too few, not too many.
But which three things shall I do? Will you do?
Here’s an adage I’ve always liked:
Don’t just do something, stand there.
Stand in the surf, or sit on a rock, or lay your
body across the earthy loam…and be quiet.
Very quiet. [silence]
Do you hear it? That still small voice, the
echo of your soul, reverberating with the call
to your own true self to emerge.
Then the calm within becomes the calm without.
The storm blows over, the sun recovers its position of strength,
And that glorious symbol of hope and unity emerges across the sky.
At the end of this rainbow, a treasure…
the three things you must do:
Go outside yourself and know the needs of the world.
Go within and discover your Life-given gifts.
Then arch yourself like a rainbow bridge between the two and
create a more beautiful world.
Musical Interlude I Due Fiumi by Ludovico Einaudi
Address Second Principle: Justice, Equity and Compassion
My bedroom at home is the upper storey of a 1970s extension to our house, which was built long before we lived there. And part of the fashion of the period was to have a flat roof.
On Thursday morning, I was woken up at about 4.15 by torrential rain beating on the roof and the bedroom window. It was very loud, and unrelenting. I snuggled down under my duvet and put in some earplugs.
The first thought that crossed my mind was “Thank goodness we went to Stowe Gardens yesterday, when the sun was shining, and the sky was a brilliant, vivid blue.” My husband and I are National Trust members, and we love visiting the Gardens at all seasons of the year. Yesterday, the colour of the leaves of the many, many trees were beginning to turn, bright berries dotted the bushes, and we heard a flock of raucous Canada geese having a fierce discussion about something or other. It was a gorgeous day, for which I am truly thankful.
Then I suddenly thought, Oh My God, what must it be like to be out in this? With no sound roof over my head, no warm, dry duvet to snuggle under… Then I recalled a childhood memory of having a small taste of what it must be like to be soaking wet and freezing cold. Admittedly from a very privileged perspective. When I was a child, my sister and I used to spend every weekend at the local riding stables, catching, caring for, and finally riding our ponies. Yes, we were privileged children.
But I can remember my feet feeling like lumps of ice inside my rubber boots, and my hands being so cold that they no longer belonged to me. Then, when we went home, the exquisite pleasure and acute discomfort of stepping into a warm bath… And leaping straight out again, convinced I had run it far too hot and it was burning me. Because the contrast between the temperature of the water and my frozen hands and feet was so great. Then, finally, immersing myself, slowly, carefully, and thawing out in a couple of ecstatic, painful minutes.
On Thursday morning, between sleeping and waking, I was caught in the dilemma that Richard S. Gilbert, author of our second reading, describes so well: “torn between the desire to save the world or to savour it – to serve life or to enjoy it; to savour the sweet taste of my own joy or to share the bitter cup of my neighbour; to celebrate life with exuberant step, or to struggle for the life of the heavily laden.”
The question I (we) are facing today is “How can we close the gap between what we affirm as our values, and how we act in the world?” Because if you’re anything like me, or like Jan Taddeo in our Time of Stillness and Reflection, you find it only too easy to drown in the multitude of pleas for help, for action, and end up doing… nothing.
Because it’s all too difficult to get our heads round. As Jan Taddeo says, so poignantly, “So many people in need… so much pain, so much grief. Too many causes and campaigns fill my mailboxes, sap my energy, beg for my money.” Particularly at this time of year perhaps, when it is cold and wet outside, and the contrast between our own privileged lives and those of the homeless are at their starkest.
The second Principle of the Unitarian Universalist Association reads, “We affirm and promote justice, equity and compassion in human relations.” Our own British Unitarian Object reads, “The Object of the Assembly is to promote a free and inquiring religion through the worship of God and the celebration of life; the service of humanity and respect for all creation; and the upholding of the liberal Christian tradition.” The service of humanity. Yes.
How do we serve humanity by affirming and promoting justice, equity and compassion in our human relations? This is not an abstract question; it is the same as asking “How do we live our faith?” The website of Northampton Unitarians, my home congregation, states clearly, “We affirm the universal values of love and compassion, peace, truth and justice.” But what are we, what are Unitarians doing to turn that affirmation into action? How are we demonstrating love, compassion, peace, truth and justice in the world? In our small part of the world?
In my village, the local Baptist Church provides a shining example of what may be done to turn your church building into a community hub. There are things going on at Carey Chapel most days of the week. Weekly events include a Soup and Roll Lunch on Monday lunchtimes; Just Sing!, a community choir on Monday evenings; a Get Up and Go Otago Fitness Class (to help improve balance and mobility) on Tuesday afternoons; a Bumps, Babies and Toddlers Group on Wednesday mornings; a Zumba class on Wednesday evenings; and Coffee@Carey on Monday to Wednesday mornings. Fortnightly events include a Social Prescribers Group (run by the local GP surgery); Coffee and Keys (live piano music); and a Craft Group. Monthly events include The Green Machine (an opportunity for eco-friendly shopping); a West Northants Council customer service drop in; a Repair Café (where you can bring broken items for volunteers to repair); and a reading group. There is also a parish Good Neighbour Scheme to offer free neighbourly support to those who may need a little help on an occasional or regular basis.
Individually, I am sure we are doing things. To give just one example, one member of the Northampton congregation used to volunteer at Elsie’s Café, giving her time freely to support those in our community who would not otherwise have access to cheap, nourishing food. Every week, Elsie’s Café picked up three tonnes of food which would otherwise be thrown away by supermarkets and restaurants, and turned it into wonderful meals. I think it was a splendid initiative, which sadly fizzled out during the Covid lockdown, although Fruitful Abundance, who ran it, still do an occasional event. And I’m sure there are similar things going on near all our congregations.
I think that the key word in the UUA’s second principle is compassion. Which Karen Armstrong writes about in her book, The Spiral Staircase, writing, “Compassion does not of course mean to feel pity or condescension, but to feel with. … It is not enough to understand other people’s beliefs, rituals and ethical practices intellectually. You have to feel them too and make an imaginative though disciplined identification.”
As you might know, she went on to set up the Charter for Compassion, which among other things, says, “Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creature, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.” It strikes me how similar these words are to the second UUA principle, which affirms and promotes “justice, equity and compassion in human relations.” Interesting, huh?
Following the publication of Armstrong’s book, Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life, in 2011. The last but one of these twelve steps reads, “recognising that suffering exists in the world (in this town) and resolving to do something concrete about some aspect of it.”
Our buildings are often hubs for a lot of community activities. I wonder whether they could also be a hub for promoting justice, equity and compassion in human relations? How can our congregations reach out into their communities, and make a difference to people’s lives?
I believe that we need to take Jan Taddeo’s advice and do three things: “Go outside ourselves and know the needs of the world. Go within and discover our Life-given gifts. Then arch ourselves like a rainbow bridge between the two and create a more beautiful world.”
Let’s not just talk about affirming and promoting justice, equity and compassion. Let’s do something about it. Let’s start now. Choose one cause and get behind it, support it, live our values. As Kingswood’s covenant says, “Love is the doctrine of this church… service is its prayer… to serve human need… thus do we covenant with each other and with God.”
I’d like to finish with some words by bell hooks, the American cultural critic and writer, who explains how important love should be in our lives:
“Individuals who choose to love can and do alter our lives in ways that honour the primacy of a love ethic. We do this by choosing to work with individuals we admire and respect; by committing to give our all to relationships; by embracing a global vision wherein we see our lives and our fate as intimately connected to those of everyone else on the planet.
Commitment to a love ethic transforms our lives by offering us a different set of values to live by. In large and small ways, we make choices based on a belief that honesty, openness, and personal integrity need to be expressed in public and private decisions…. Living by a love ethic we learn to value loyalty and a commitment to sustained bonds over material advancement. While careers and making money remain important agendas, they never take precedence over valuing and nurturing human life and well-being.”
May it be so, Amen
Closing Words
Spirit of Life and Love,
Our time together is drawing to a close.
May we do what we can, where we are,
to turn our congregations into hubs
of justice, equity, and compassion.
May we return to our everyday world refreshed,
may we share the love we feel,
may we look out for each other,
and may we keep up our hearts,
now and in the days to come.
Amen
Postlude Stella del Mattino by Ludovico Einaudi