Summer is almost past and soon we will come together again as a Community. I am looking forward to the energy and enthusiasm I experience when we are all in attendance! The Social Justice Committee has been working hard over the Summer to provide actions, movies and events for folks to attend. We will be having our 2nd quarterly meeting on Tuesday, August 29th at 7:00 pm at UUCC. I hope you will join us as we discuss the programs we will be organizing in the coming year.
Our Unitarian leadership gives us important guidance (I am still remembering former UU President Peter Morales words from last Spring) “It doesn’t have to be like this, love must guide us, and it is up to us.” And, I believe other faith traditions have much to offer us as well. I want to share an article by Richard Rohr…a progressive and thoughtful Episcopal Minister whose words offer hope and encouragement for the times we find ourselves in.
In Peace and Justice, Judith Pedersen-Benn, Social Justice Chair
“The Praxis of Social Justice, Activism and Meditation/Contemplation,” by Richard Rohr
Contemplation or Meditation is the flowering of patience and steady perseverance. When we look at the world today, we may well ask whether it can be transformed on the global or even personal level. Our hope lies in the fact that an authentic inner life is going to change the society that we live in, just as we allow it to change us (Carl Jung’s Shadow Work).
I know the situation in the world can seem dark today. We are seeing regression into fundamentalist religions which believe all issues can be resolved by an appeal to authority (hierarchy or scripture) with no need for an inner life of contemplation/meditation. In the United States we have seen the rolling back of a compassionate economic system and the abandonment of our biblical responsibility for the poor, the sick, and refugees. Fear and anger seems to rule our politics and our churches. Today the negative forces are very strong and the development of consciousness and love sometimes feels very weak. But a “Great Turning” is also happening, as believed and described in many ways by such people as Teilhard de Chardin, Thomas Berry, Joanna Macy and David Korten. There is a deep relationship between the inner revolution of contemplation/meditation and the transformation of social structures and social consciousness.
The Apostle Paul had a marvelous line: “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” In many places today there are signs the Spirit is working at all levels of society. Much of this reform, enlightenment, compassion, and healing is now happening outside the bounds of organized religion. This Great Turning cannot be stopped. There are enough people going on solid inner journeys that I believe we already have the beginnings of a positive, nonviolent reformation from the foundational, bottom up level.