Your generosity and gratitude expressed privately and collectively at the June 11 Sunday service touched Sam and me. We are grateful our paths crossed while in southern Oregon. Our memories and the meaning we gained will be with us for a long time. Thank you.
Today I’m in New Orleans for the 56th General Assembly and last night the four RVUUF delegates with Rev. Cat Cox and her husband Jonathan sat with me during the Service of the Living Tradition, where I publicly retired in the midst of thousands of UU’s. If you were streaming it live you may have recognized my photo taken by Michal Shaffer.
The week began with a storm of rain and winds, typical of New Orleans this time of year. I attended Ministry Days, which is the annual meeting of the UU Ministers Association. We were challenged and inspired by hearing the keynote speaker Colette Pichon Battle, who spoke powerfully about her passion around the understanding that our lives are connected as human beings, and when we talk about the rights of each identity group, whether gay rights or black lives matters, they are all human rights. She also made clear how the structures of white supremacy have been in place long before this country was formed and that really, race is not real and it shifts over time. Remember when Italians and Jews were not considered “white” and now they are?
Retired UU minister Rev. Jay Atkinson will be speaking to you in July about these issues. I hope you will lean in to what he has learned.
We ministers also heard from the three Interim Presidents of the UUA and asked what do they see as the most important thing they’ve experienced during their 11 weeks in those positions? The repeated answer was, they have been pastoral in their presence and listening very deeply to the pain, struggle, disappointment, and questions for the future among the leadership of the UUA, and reminding us there is a way that we all will have to work at figuring out how to be together. Sound familiar, RVUUFians? I ask that you keep your UUA leadership in your thoughts and prayers this week and beyond as we journey together in a foreign land that’s offering us hope.
On Wednesday, General Assembly began and it has been inspiring. I’ve witnessed people leaning into learning about how white supremacy exists in the UUA and how people are longing for change and transformation.
It has been affirmed over and over again that the world is watching UU’s at this time of struggle because there is great need for our liberating faith but only if we can journey together in ways that manifest our covenant to each other and to the larger faith of Unitarian Universalism with the values and principles we hold so dear. The call is to not only hold UU principles; it’s also to live out our principles in ways that are explicit for all to see and experience.
RVUUF is included in that call from the world, specifically in the Rogue Valley of Oregon. My hope and prayer is that you will not lose sight or sound of that call in the months ahead. As my friend and former Moderator of the UUA said to RVUUFians back in September of 2015, “Live bodacious UU lives.”
Next week is my last week at RVUUF. In next week’s “Nan’s News,” I will give you some reminders and support people to call on if needed while you await the arrival of your new Developmental Minister. May it be so.
Rev. Nan L. White
RVUUF Developmental Minister (2014-2017)