Both Sides By Rev. Nina D. Grey March, 2001

Some religious traditions suggest that the material world is illusory and encourage spiritual practices of meditation or contemplation to get in touch with what is real. And yet there is also the Buddhist idea of the boddhisatva, the one who is enlightened and then returns to ordinary life to teach. Evelyn Underhill, Thomas Merton, and other mystical writers made clear the profound connection between spiritual understanding and a commitment to improvement of the human condition. Unitarian Universalism embraces this idea that the sacred and the mundane are inextricably related. We live our faith in the real world. We live it by the way that we treat ourselves, each other, strangers, and other living beings. We encounter choices every day that are opportunities to embody our faith.

I like the word embody because it means we live our faith with our bodies, with our minds, hearts, and hands. We live our faith by the ways in which we use and nurture physical reality, the ground we walk on, the air we breath, the water we drink, the houses we live in, the sanctuary we worship in, the places we work in, the people we love. It may be good to quiet our minds, to take time to remove ourselves from the busyness of every day life, to gain deeper perspectives, to find a center of peace from which to live. Yet we also must return, to live, to teach, and to take care of ourselves, people, animals, plants, places. The whole flow of life is faith's embodiment.

I want to thank everyone who embodies our UU faith in and for our church. In a time of administrative transition, some folks have given so much of themselves to the strengthening of our church. It takes a village to raise a child, and it also takes a village to nurture church life. Our office is in a time of staff transition, and we are blessed by the volunteer commitment of Dotty and Bill Baron, Polly McCoo, Marge Saphir, Patti Stark, Madeiria Myrieckes, Evelyn Bomer, and Harold Moody. Over the past several years, in a ministry of love's labor, Julie Neuman has offered us much time and energy, more than a church treasurer could ever be expected to do, and it has increased even more during this time. Thank you, thank you, Julie. And thank you to Richard Blough, who has taken on some of the financial responsibility.

There are so many volunteers caring for our children, educating our adults, helping us discover ways to act for social justice, helping us create ties that bind us together, caring for our building, evoking vision, strengthening our worship, doing the small embodied acts that sustain congregational life. Thank you to each and every one.

Thanks to our staff, who meet regularly, sometimes shaping vision, and sometimes focusing on the details of our ministries, ministries of worship, pastoring, teaching, social justice, community, music, administration, or care of property.

This month we begin our annual canvass. It is a time for thinking about purpose and vision, and also a time to remember that our faith is an embodied faith. We live it not in thin air but on the ground, in the sanctuary, classrooms, offices, and outside of church, in our homes, workplaces, the community. Living our faith takes vision, takes time, takes commitment, takes financial support, takes the work of our minds, hearts, and hands. We are all needed.

In faith, with love,

Nina