As we begin our fourth year as your ministers, we are reflecting on July and preparing for the fall, even as we are striving to stay fully present in this strange time. Our July didn’t turn out quite as we had imagined… and we are guessing the same is true for many of you. Earlier in the year, we imagined a possible trip to Oregon. Then, when Covid-19 became a reality, we imagined some time at home, checking in on our neighbors, volunteering for voting rights and the Nov. election, tending to our garden, catching up on a stack of reading and enjoying some time in physically distanced places.

We planned to unplug from email and social media, and to re-fuel for the coming year. This is a hard thing to do-to unplug from the vocation to which we have been called. You see, we think about you, the ones we serve, much of the time. We love you, and we care about your well-being. We worry about the folks we know are having a hard time. We worry about those we haven’t heard from or seen onscreen in a while. We worry about how this pandemic is impacting each of you, with so many different situations and needs. It can be hard to lean back. And, we had told our staff team and many lay-leaders that we all need to support one another for the long haul, and take turns having much needed breaks.

Following the murder of George Floyd and other instances of police brutality, including locally, things shifted. The mission of this congregation includes compassion and justice, which are also central to our calls to ministry. We could not just be home chilling while the world was rising up against state sanctioned violence.  The All of Us Organizing Group invited members of Schenectady Clergy Against Hate (SCAH) to show up, when possible, for their various actions, demonstrations, and protests to be a peaceful presence. So we showed up. Many times in different locations. (You can see some of the footage on Wendy’s facebook page)We encouraged several of you through facebook to contact the Mayor and ask about responding to the 13 demands. Many of you called, sent emails. We participated in a conversation between representatives of SCAH, the Mayor, and the Chief of Police. And we were invited to be present for conversations between local Black activists connected with All of Us, the Mayor and Chief of Police.  Several of you have attended demonstrations and were willing to participate in civil disobedience.  Many UUs attended the Kendi online event. More of you are reading Dr. Kendi’s books. Several of you are striving to raise anti-racist kids and to bring a sense of anti-racism to your work. Many of you are leaning into having hard conversations with family members and friends.

This work is ongoing, and is hard. So much is at stake. Conflict is often difficult, and is made even more so by the need for social physical distancing. The Annual Focus of Ministry that was chosen by the Board of Trustees last year is to boldly live our UU principles to transform ourselves and the world, so we showed up over and over again and were so glad to see other folks showing up at some of these things too! We, as a congregation, will need to continue to do our anti-racism work and to be willing to sit with complexity, and to recognize there are multiple perspectives and experiences. We will need to be faithful to our Unitarian Universalist principles in some active and reflective ways. There is a place for everyone in this work to support the movement for Black lives! Transforming our own hearts and minds is a great place to start.

And because this is going to take a long haul, sustained effort to bring about real change, it is also important to take a break. We are incredibly and profoundly grateful for a week in the Adirondacks, to kayak on a quiet lake, to hear the melancholic call of the loons, to see the neowise comet sinking beneath ‘the great Big Dipper’ in an incredibly starlit sky.

It wasn’t the month that we imagined. And, it is the month that happened. Reflecting on the past few months, preparing for the months to come, and being fully present in this moment.

There is a Love holding all. Let’s rest in this Love,

Rev. Lynn and Rev. Wendy