I'm excited about the upcoming March 14 Service which will feature two things that I love:
The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee
and
Rev. Mary Katherine Morn
Mary Katherine was my minister in the late 1990s when she was serving the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashville, TN. She officiated at LoraKim's and my wedding. Now she has moved on from Nashville, and has been the President and CEO of the UUSC since 2018.
If you don't mind, I'd like to suggest a little prep for you before Sunday's service. Less that 5 minutes -- and then you'll be in primed to more fully appreciate the service. It's two videos:
First, Laura Randall's "Time for All Ages" has been submitted. It's titled, "How the UUSC Began." We'll be including this 3-minute video in the service, but I'd like to suggest that you also watch it beforehand -- and let the message be reinforced by seeing it again on Sunday morning. Families with kids, in particular, may want to to watch this beforehand and have a conversation about it. Click on the image:
Second, get the 90-second briefing from Rev. Mary Katherine Morn:
And have a great Sunday!
Covid Watch
In the US, for the week of Mar 5-11, there were fewer new cases than in any 7-day period since Oct 10-16 -- and the number of new cases now (Mar 5-11) is down 78 percent from the Jan 5-11 seven-day peak -- and it's down 11 percent from the week before (Feb 27-Mar 4).
Covid deaths per week in the US peaked during Jan 19-26. This last week (Mar 5-11), deaths were down 60 percent from that peak -- and down 25 percent from the week before (Feb 27-Mar 4). Still, the current 7-day average of deaths per day is over 1,400.
Two weeks ago, I reported we were seeing some slight increases in both new cases and deaths. Last week, we saw numbers decreasing rather than increasing, but decreasing quite slowly. This week, thankfully, the rate of decline has increased a bit. Still, at 1,400 deaths per day, we are tragically losing 2.7 times the number of people per day to Covid-19 that we were just last early July.
So be careful!
Yours in the faith we share,
Meredith
Practice of the Week
Our Spiritual Practice idea this week is from Scott Alexander’s collection, Everyday Spiritual Practices. The article by Art McDonald, Deborah Holder, and Stephen Furrer is on the spiritual practice of Social Justice.
It’s an embodied spiritual practice, immersed in the world, enlisting all of our spiritual power in the service of social, cultural, and political transformation. Justice-making and spiritual wholeness go hand-in-hand, two sides of the same coin.
Recognizing the systemic dimensions of oppression in modern life, religious life must begin in solidarity with the oppressed and must result in community. Justice building brings “sacred encounters" with other human beings. It’s not just about service but also change: both societal, institutional change and the personal, psychological, spiritual change. Today’s dominant commercialized and hypermobile monoculture increasingly celebrates manic individualism and overconsumption. Collective action and reflection provides a healing corrective and a powerful model of a justice-seeking community of resistance.
We are not always effective or successful. We are not called to be successful, but to be faithful. Perseverance is a key part of our practice. Social justice as spiritual practice heals and rebuilds the community, and reconnects with the whole. Ultimately, this is a hopeful spiritual practice, filled with imagination and energy.
For the full post, see: "Social Justice as Spiritual Practice."
See also our SPIRITUAL PRACTICE DIRECTORY
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