Both Sides By Rev. Nina D. Grey October, 2002

Here we are - all of us - all upon this planet,
bound together in a common destiny,
living our lives between the briefness
Of the daylight and the dark.
Kindred in this, each lighted by the
same precarious, flickering flame of life,
how does it happen that we are not
kindred in all things else?
How strange and foolish are these walls of separation that divide us!

- A. Powell Davies

This month, as we face war or its possibility, I want to point to three parts of our life that can help us give expression to our desire to build beloved community in our world.

The first is our October 20 service, which combines the celebrations of United Nations Sunday and the birthday of the Chicago Children's Choir. After the Second World War, nations saw the wisdom of joining together in an international body that would seek peaceful ways to resolve conflict. The United Nations was formed. Some 46 years ago, Rev. Christopher Moore of our church gave shape to a vision. From this, the Chicago Children's Choir was born here at First Unitarian Church. It is fitting that the birth of the Choir coincides with United Nations Sunday, for both institutions share a common dream, that of building bridges and deepening understanding across differences. This impulse to transcend walls of separation needs all the nourishing we can give it. For these times threaten to deepen human and national divisions. With the threat and imminent reality of war, we will need to find ways to communicate our message of peace with justice. It is good that we will again celebrate the birth of the Children's Choir on United Nations Sunday, that we will again hear their musical embodiment of a world that treasures and delights in human diversity. The Choir's existence, its vision and its music, helps transcend barriers that divide.

Another indication of our commitment to build the beloved community is our new intent to create truly multigenerational worship on the First Sunday of every month. On each First Sunday, our children will be with us for the whole service. This means families with young and older children can worship together as families. It also means that worshippers of all ages can learn to experience ourselves more fully as one integrated whole community, one interdependent weaving of faith. We hope that people of all ages will begin to feel more and more that our sanctuary and our community is a spiritual home for all of us together. As we create this multigenerational worship each month, we will learn more and more about ways to make the worship responsive to our wide variety of needs. We hope to learn more and more about how to be together as a community of all ages.

Our congregation's commitment to beloved community in our world is seen in the passionate witness for peace and justice of our Social Justice ministry. The Social Justice Council, Racial Justice Task Force, Criminal Justice Task Force, and 9/ll Study group, are finding ways to express their deepest concerns about the dangers of war and their most profound desires that our nation, in its policies, decision, and action, respect the principles of the United Nations. They want to communicate how crucial it is that we choose peace. In their witness against racial profiling, they insist that our nation must reflect respect for the dignity and worth of all people. They want our nation to build bridges rather than create walls that separate. They invite you to join with others to express your belief that we are, indeed, "upon this planet, bound together in a common destiny." Our other Social Justice efforts, the emerging Environmental Task Force and the Way Cool Sunday School focus on Social Justice on Third Sundays and Winter Intersession Empty Bowls Project are further indications of our desire to become a more healing presence for our world

It is my prayer that each of us will seek and find ways to recognize, celebrate and nourish our kinship, with one another, with all the people and with all the beings on this precious earth.

With love, in faith,

Nina