From the Minister, Sun Apr 26

This pandemic will lift. Maybe sooner, maybe later, it will lift. Yet the post-pandemic world will not be like the pre-pandemic world. How it be different is up to us. The pandemic provides a unique opportunity to re-shape our relationship with each other and the Earth. Indian novelist Arundhati Roy writes:

“What is this thing that has happened to us? It’s a virus, yes. In and of itself it holds no moral brief. But it is definitely more than a virus. Coronavirus has made the mighty kneel and brought the world to a halt like nothing else could. Our minds are still racing back and forth, longing for a return to ‘normality,’ trying to stitch our future to our past and refusing to acknowledge the rupture. But the rupture exists. And in the midst of this terrible despair, it offers us a chance to rethink the doomsday machine we have built for ourselves. Nothing could be worse than a return to normality.

Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.”

Arundhati Roy's full essay is HERE.

Yours in faith,
Meredith

The Liberal Pulpit

Recent past services:
Apr 5: "Taking Care, Giving Care." TEXT. VIDEO.
Apr 12: "Traditions of Liberation." TEXT. VIDEO.
Apr 19: "What's Your Great Vow?" TEXT. VIDEO.

Find videos of these and many past services at our Youtube channel: HERE

Adult/Youth Religious Education

Sundays, 4:00 - 5:15, in zoom room ending 7899.
Click here:
https://www.zoom.us/j/2898507899

Or telephone: 646-876-9923, and use meeting ID: 289 850 7899

Sun Apr 26: Exploring the Practice of the Week, "Don't Be So Predictable". Read the post about this practice HERE. Questions: How predictable is life for you these days? What habit-patterns or automatic reactions are part of your personality? Can you imagine dropping those patterns? What would it be like? "Imagine being yourself for the love of discovering every day who you are in relation to others: loving them, and yourself in the process of loving them" -- does this sound attractive? What would it take to get there?

The UUA Common Read

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States and the adaptation for young people.
Get ready for our upcoming Zoom class: Four sessions, led by Rev. Meredith Garmon and Jeff Tomlinson
May 3, 10, 17, and 24 -- 4:00-5:15.
Order your copy from uuabookstore.org (or any major online bookseller), and start reading now!

More info about the UUA Common Read at uua.org/read

Practice of the Week: Balance

Paying attention means using all of our senses in being in the world and in the moment. Stop a moment. Feel the chair in which you are sitting. Notice the temperature around you. Listen for the sounds of your background symphony. Breathe. Appreciate the colors of your clothes, your skin, the sky, or the ceiling. This practice only takes a few moments and is not bound by place or time or ritual. READ MORE

Moment of Zen: Vast Indeed

Porcupine came to see Raven after the talk that night and said, "The Blue Planet is immensely vast, isn't it!" Raven said, "It doesn't stop there." Porcupine wept. Raven said, "Vast indeed. Vast indeed." READ MORE

Zen at CUUC News