Index of Rev. Grey's Columns

We're gonna sit at the Welcome Table,
We're gonna sit at the Welcome Table, one of these days, Hallelujah,
We're gonna sit at the Welcome Table,
Gonna sit at the Welcome Table, one of these days.

Our Membership Committee and our church are devoted to a vision of radical hospitality that warmly welcomes all to the Welcome Table of our Beloved Community, makes room for all our diversity, and fosters a life of spiritual and ethical growth for members and friends of all ages. As part of that we want to honor and embody multicultural and spiritual diversity throughout the year, including, but not limited to, this month, February, which is our nation's annual Black History Month.

Making room for a diversity of ideas, cultures, and spiritualities, too, is an important idea with many implications. It is a spacious and generous “both/and” response to the "other" in a time when a more fundamentalist “either/or” approach that is exclusivist gains sway in our nation's life and in the world. To incarnate pluralism is a witness and an act of resistance. It is one important way to be a beacon of liberal religion in the world.

I've just completed my thesis residency at McCormick Theological School. My thesis proposal was approved, so we can now move forward with the thesis project, which is The One and the Many: Embracing Spiritual Pluralism in the Life of the Church. Embracing spiritual pluralism is another way to embody hospitality.

Making room for the different ways we have of nurturing our spirits and our ethical sensibilities, is, I believe, a significant part of what it means to be a free faith. This is our vision, for as our mission and vision statements remind us, we are a "diverse, intentionally inclusive" community that wants to celebrate our religious and cultural pluralism and encourage shared and personal spiritual and intellectual growth.

This month the Membership Committee begins an after-church eight week orientation series for newcomers (and members and friends) who wish to learn more about our faith. This is radical hospitality too, providing a welcome that includes learning about the seven principles of Unitarian Universalism that bind us together in the midst of our pluralism, as well as the history and life of our faith and church. Join us for this and worship throughout the month, and on the last February Sunday, we'll reflect on the meaning of spiritual pluralism for a free and hospitable faith.

With love, in faith,

Nina