“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.”

~Shunryu Suzuki Roshi~

It may be an unexpected benefit that most of us may have no idea what we’re doing or why. In the realm of religion, this can provoke a crisis, but here at UUYO we take a different approach to this. Last month we found the hidden benefit of being wanderers and searchers, without any fixed port or place to rest our hat. In the same vein, this month we’ll explore the simplest and most transformative reality in the entire world: the power to begin again.

On a tangible level, we will begin by going back up to our sanctuary on September 13th to celebrate Homecoming with Water Communion and the warm welcome of our newest members into this church community. We begin with celebration! I always look forward to this transition because at first most of us have forgotten how to exist in a space that for most of us had come to be familiar. And once we make the transition we are faced with a delicious dilemma once again: Do we wish to find our way back to some way of being we once had there, or perhaps foster a different kind of relationship to where we are and who we are? I find for myself it’s often not a dramatic shift. Sometimes it’s just the thought of perhaps I can allow myself to be more comfortable here.

As the Fall starts, we have many wonderful opportunities coming up for community deepening and celebration, including the Fall Equinox with a fire, and a one day meditation retreat which is open to every community member exploring the same theme of “Beginnings.” Our dynamic worship team has helped inspire services which touch on themes of resistance, queering what we think we know, and appreciating the ways that presence can open us up to what is beginning for us.

As I write this, colleagues of mine are bearing witness in Springfield, Ohio at the invitation of the Haitian community who are afraid and under siege right now by ICE. A beloved pastor, Gilbert Joubert Adrien was recently detained by ICE, and many Haitian members of the Springfield community are afraid to go to the grocery store, to school, to church. There is the presence of fear and intimidation in the state we live in. This is the kind of situation where a church community like UUYO really shines as a beacon of what it can look like to foster new beginnings both for ourselves and for our neighbors by living a different ethic of love and solidarity. I am so proud of the legacy of this congregation which predates my time, with a focus on how our values translate to tangible social justice for all our community members, including the Haitian community in Springfield.

We have a role to play both locally and in our country as a whole right now. The inner transformation we often speak to and practice is part of the greater transformation we live into when we share and embody these values in tough situations. We offer a new beginning through our presence and consistency, resisting what is unjust, and promoting health and prosperity for each other. We do this in public and in private ways, and both ways speak loud throughout the universe. May we foster this kind of trust that the ways we show up in public for the greater good may transform our hearts and minds, and may the wish to encourage statewide and national beginnings begin with us now in our own life.

 In Faith,

Rev. Joseph