Greetings Church Family!
I pray that each of you are well and have what you need these days.
These past weeks have felt like a fast-moving flood, haven’t they? We find ourselves, once again, doing our best to make quick decisions and adjustments in all areas of life. Cancelled plans, delayed school starts, empty restaurants, and a return to virtual church is eerily familiar and not the direction we all thought we were heading. More questions than answers abound and, if you are like me, there are days where I would very much like to go to sleep and be woken up when it’s over. These are not easy days to live through.
Back in the spring of 2020 I served as the Island Minister on Star Island and was a part of every executive meeting that found us all painfully wrestling with the decision to shut down for the summer. Our CEO and faithful leader, Joe Watts, reminded us, week after week, to never lose hope. That no matter how many summers that might need to be cancelled, to never lose hope. He wrote a letter that was circulated amongst thousands of people announcing closure for 2020, reminding us all that the island would survive this in the same way it did the closure in 1918 and 1919 because of the Great Influenza pandemic, and the closure during WWII where for five years the island was uninhabited. If this island and community could survive that, Joe wrote, we can survive this. I was so grateful for his ministry, for that was what it was.
This church is a surviving church as well. One need only consider what it was to move out of the old church building at the corner of Summer and Church Street, and then boldly demolish it so that this parish could take new shape and live on, to know this is true. During candidating week, one of you told me that it was at this time that they knew “we were a brave people.” It’s in the bones of our church story, and we can take heart and find courage in it these days.
We need brave survivor stories right now. For Dear Ones, hope and tenacity and good news abound. They far outweigh the despairing news. We need only look for it. It exists in the beauty of this Earth. It exists in our children’s faces. It exists in the countless daily acts of human resilience and kindness which thrum around us. It exists in our ancestors’ stories. It exists in poetry, music and art. It exists in you. May this month be a month of searching for it and naming it–let us make this our intention. And most importantly, let us not be brittle in spirit. Let us not turn towards cynicism or fuel the fires of fear and hopelessness. As my most loved professor Dr. Cornel West says, let us rather be prisoners of hope.
In this and for this I pray, every day. I hope you will join me in this.
As always, reach out if you need to. Stay connected. And know that in this place, in this brave church, you are loved, and you are not alone.
In faith,
Rev. Sophia
Reverend Sophia Lyons
Rev. Sophia is committed to radical welcome and spreading the good news that is our bold Unitarian Universalist faith. Some of her areas of interest include interfaith partnerships, addictions ministry, spiritual direction, and working towards collective liberation for all. Rev. Sophia aspires to live her life and fulfill her ministry guided by spiritual seeking, big love, and the seven principles of Unitarian Universalism.