Rev. Lori on Gathering Together In Community ~ An Act of Resistance & Resilience
A version of this reflection was originally published in the previous week’s Friday Flyer.
Hello Good People,
It was an honor to share our worship space with 5 other faith communities yesterday for an Interfaith Vigil for Peace and Compassion. Scott from First parish, Dave from Trinity Episcopal, Paula from Union Church, Lynne from Congregation Etz Chaim, and myself were privileged to join together to offer prayers. Rev Niki played our hymns on the piano and Rev Myra provided a wonderful sound bath for a meditation. With little notice or guidance even, Ryun stepped up and supported us beautifully with sound and treating. Delilah Poupoure shared music with words written specifically for this occasion. It was magical! We all offered our gifts in service of peace and compassion. We made the space holy with our presence. We resisted despair by joining others. Building community outside of our four walls, singing and praying together! It was a gift to hear about all the good work each community is doing to take care of one another and the larger community. It was also an honor to hear the struggles too. We are all in this together!
We live in such a time. It is a time that has me questioning what I choose to do every single day when there is so much to be done! How do I resist, persist, comfort, support and not get swallowed up whole in the middle of it all? The answer of course…is all of you. My constant shadow has always been thinking I had to do it all. Then I came here and found that so many do so much and it never falls to one. That lesson is extremely important right now in our church, our communities, and in our families. We aren’t all meant to do all things.
Resistance does not wear a single face. Sometimes it marches in the streets, loud and unignorable. Sometimes it whispers in a steady refusal to give up one’s values. There is resistance that confronts power directly, and resistance that quietly builds alternatives—feeding people soup, telling the truth, protecting the vulnerable, loving when cynicism would be easier, supporting when it would be easier to give up on somebody. Some resist by disrupting unjust systems; others by sustaining hope so those systems do not have the last word. Some take care of those disrupting in tangible or spiritual ways. What matters is not that we all resist in the same way, but that we recognize resistance in one another, honor its many forms, and remember that together these different ways create a force strong enough to bend the arc toward justice. Consistently reminding us to turn towards the light. Recognizing all the things we do to not despair, or give up, or HATE is so important right now! Creating and living fully into beloved community is the absolutely apex of resistance.
As it is said every Sunday, "When we gather together as a community, we bring the gifts of ourselves, our hearts and spirits, our time and energy, our talents and skills, to support the work of this church here within our walls and out in the larger community." By our very nature we gather together in community and give of ourselves. This weekend is about recognizing all of you who do in the many ways that you have. It is also about opening the circle to our new friends and members to help them find their way of folding their hearts and spirits and skills and energy in with the wonderful work we do to nurture this community! With soup and sweets and fellowship and fund we will celebrate each other and the get ready for the wonderful work that lies ahead!
Rev Lori Whittemore
(she, her, hers)
Unitarian Universalist Church of Saco Biddeford