Minister's Message: Everything is Holy Now

When I lead a pilgrimage trip, as I did earlier this month with the congregation from the Unitarian church in Annapolis, MD, there is an arc to our spiritual journey. On our first day of walking, as we enter the liminal space of the pilgrim, I invite participants to pick up a small stone to carry with them. Mid-week, I invite them to lay the stone down as a representation of something they want to let go of on the trip. Then, I ask them not to rush to fill the space. Rather, I invite them to enjoy walking the rest of this road a little lighter, with more space in their hearts and spirits to receive the gifts and lessons that are theirs to carry homeward. Then, on our last evening together, we share those gifts and lessons.

Rev. John Crestwell, the senior minister of Annapolis church who was journeying with his congregation, shared his answer in song. He played Peter Meyer’s “Holy Now” for the group. The lyrics include:

This morning outside I stood
I saw a little red-winged bird
Shining like a burning bush
And singing like a scripture verse

It made me want to bow my head
I remember when church let out
How things have changed since then
Everything is holy now

It used to be a world half there
Heaven's second rate hand-me-down
But I walk it with a reverent air
'Cause everything is holy now

When I talk to people who have left behind the religious traditions of their childhood, there is often a sense of relief and freedom, but also often deep grief. There is a sense of loss for the miracles and visions of heaven that had once been a comfort. But one of the great gifts of our UU faith is how, over time, it can help us see the miracles that are all around us in this present moment. Our expansive theology, appreciation for curiosity, and reverence for the earth and all who inhabit it, help us to see how everything is holy. Unitarian ancestor Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “Heaven walks among us ordinarily muffled in such triple or tenfold disguises that the wisest are deceived and no one suspects the days to be gods.”

After that last pilgrim gathering, I took time by myself to walk around the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, listening to the Peter Meyer song. It felt magical. Everything I saw—the sparrows, seals, and roe deer, the sunset peaking through the rain clouds, the receding tide, the fellow pilgrims walking with reverence—felt imbued with the holy.

That feeling lasted as I made my way back to Edinburgh to fly home. I peaked inside an Episcopal church while I was there to see the stained glass, and felt myself moved by the children’s corner in the back of the sanctuary. The books and crafts and advertisement for midweek children’s worship told me on Sundays this was a place that welcomed families and that viewed people of all ages as sacred.

That is what I’m bringing home with me from my pilgrimage: a renewed vision of the holy all around me, not least of all, here at church. I am noticing the holy in the creative artistry of our stained class, the playfulness and precociousness of our children, the love and care in a homemade treat placed on the fellowship table on a Sunday morning, the care when a member of community is in need, the tender prayer requests, the eager Sunday morning announcements, and even the curiosity of tourists poking their heads through our front doors.

Our community is so full of ordinary miracles when we make space to notice them. That’s the spirit with which I’m approaching the end of this church year. I hope to see you Sunday for RE Sunday and our End of Year Picnic. What a blessing to be able to journey through this beautiful bewildering world together.

In faith,
Rev. Danielle

Minister's Message: Sign Up to Be a Tour Volunteer!

Recently, a local colleague stopped by church to pick up something from me and say a quick hello. Theo and I were chatting in my office when she got here with her toddler son in tow and we were happy to welcome them in and show them around. As a preacher’s kid, the three year old is no stranger to sanctuaries, but ours had a few things going for it that afternoon: 1. A facade that looks like, “a big castle,” 2. A fun RE director with no other kids around competing for her attention, and most importantly, 3. Stray, candy-filled Easter Eggs that remained leftover from our rained-out indoor egg hunt. Needless to say, First Church quickly became a favorite Salem landmark. 

I know that the storied history of this beloved congregation played no part in the toddler’s delight at being able to run around an empty sanctuary looking for candy. But I still left that day feeling full of warmth, joy, and pride after getting to show the place off a bit. It was special to welcome in people that I care about, share a little history with my friend and colleague, and get to experience the building as a central gathering place for our Salem community in a different way than I do on Sunday mornings. 

I don’t think I’ll ever tire of welcoming in new people, watching their faces as they take in the beauty of the stained glass, and inviting them to feel the powerful stories that live in the bones of this place. It always feels like a great gift to share our space with others.

That’s one reason why I’ve signed up for some First Church tour volunteer shifts this summer and fall. Of course I’m happy to support this important fundraising effort for the church, but I wouldn’t do it if money was the only motivating factor. It is truly great FUN and spiritually meaningful to meet new people, share our history with visitors, and learn from and laugh with the other First Church volunteers. Volunteering a few times last summer helped me feel a real sense of community and grounding in my new home here in Salem. If you’re looking for a way to feel a deeper sense of connection to this place, I can’t recommend it enough. 

All you really need to be qualified to volunteer is time and willingness (although an open-heart and sense of humor doesn’t hurt), but I know so many of you have even more gifts to offer; a welcoming presence, a love of history, a knack for hospitality, a deep well of knowledge about Salem and First Church, good conversational skills, curiosity about people you meet, fabulous costumes you don’t get to wear often enough, or undiscovered carnival barker skills. The tours are already wonderful, but think of how much more wonderful they could be if you brought all of those gifts to the table!

So are you convinced? Good! Then go sign up here!  Tours are weekends in August, September, and October. No experience or training is necessary. Contact Alicia Diozzi with questions. Thanks to everyone who has already signed up and the dedicated volunteers working hard to ensure we have another successful tour year.

In faith,
Rev. Danielle 

First Church Tours - Webpage (public-facing)

First Church Tours - Volunteer Sign-up Genius

Minister's Message: Happy May Day!

Happy May Day everyone!

This Sunday, we will gather together to mark Beltane, a holiday rooted in ancient Gaelic and Celtic traditions that celebrate renewal, abundance, and the coming of summer. It is one of the eight festivals on the Wheel of The Year, observed by modern Pagans who look to the earth’s seasons and cycles for meaning and ritual. Sunday will be a joyful celebration of community—full of music, flowers, reflections, poetry and dancing.

May 1st is also International Workers Day, another day rooted in the solidarity of community and the hope for an abundant life for all. It is a day that honors the efforts of the labor movement and celebrates workers around the world. May 1st was chosen to commemorate the beginning of the 1886 general strike for an eight-hour work day (which led to the pivotal Haymarket affair in Chicago).

We don’t talk about work in church very often. Many of us see Sunday as a day for rest, community, and contemplation where we can leave our work concerns behind at the office. In reality though, our understanding of labor is deeply tied to our religious values. The very existence of a day for rest is tied to both religious practices and the advocacy of the labor movement! Just as there are well-developed theologies of rest (as I explained last week), there are also theologies of labor. Our faith tradition calls us to engage with matters of economic justice and fair labor practices.

As Unitarian Universalists, we hold a set of shared values, including equity, generosity, and interdependence. The language associated with equity reads, “we declare that every person is inherently worthy and has the right to flourish with dignity, love, and compassion.” This calls us to work for economic policies where all labor is dignified and paid fairly, and where all people have a chance to flourish. We also proclaim respect for the interdependent web of all existence. This value calls us to name the ways that greed and love-of-profit lead to working conditions that harm both our fellow humans and the planet we inhabit. These are just a few of the reasons why the Unitarian Universalist Association is a partner of May Day Strong, a campaign of worker solidarity calling on our leaders to center the needs of the working class rather than the needs of the wealthiest few. 

And we are not alone. Many faith traditions have long been engaged in the struggle for economic justice and workers’ rights. In the Catholic Church, May 1st is the Feast Day of St. Joseph the Worker. It is also the anniversary of the founding of the Catholic Worker Movement, the newspaper and network of communities founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin in 1933 focused on care for the poor and the rights of workers. Dorothy Day wrote, "By fighting for better conditions, by crying out unceasingly for the rights of the workers, the poor, of the destitute... we can, to a certain extent, change the world."

Modern practitioners of engaged Buddhism interpret the Buddhist precept, “Do not steal,” to have broader connotations, related to economic systems and social conditions. Mushim Ikeda-Nash, of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship’s International Advisory Council, writes, “we may not be robbing banks, or breaking and entering other people’s homes, but are we supporting exploitation of workers through the clothing, shoes, and food we buy?” Thich Nhat Hanh interprets the precept this way, “Aware of the suffering caused by exploitation, social injustice, stealing, and oppression, I vow to cultivate loving kindness and learn ways to work for the well-being of people, animals, plants, and minerals.”

And Jewish traditions often tie their commitments to workers’ rights to the Exodus story. This narrative from the Hebrew Bible, recounting how God helped the Israelites escape slavery in Egypt, shows God rejecting systems that exploit labor and choosing to side with the poor and oppressed in their struggles for liberation.

So this May Day, in addition to joining us for our Beltane service, I invite you to live out your faith by finding one small way to promote workers rights and economic justice. Maybe it’s participating in a UU Side with Love action, learning more about the intersection between faith and labor, advocating for a more equitable policy at your workplace, or trying out a sabbath practice that reminds you our worth isn’t tied to our productivity. This weekend, may you find moments of community, solidarity, and abundance.

In faith,
Rev. Danielle

Minister's Message: Rest for our Souls

It’s hard to believe that we are approaching the end of the church year! As I begin planning for spring rituals and preparing reports ahead of our annual meeting, I find myself reflecting on how hard you all have been working. I arrived on the heels of three busy years of interim work and yet you did not hesitate to hit the ground running with me. The activities you have engaged in with thoughtfulness and commitment are numerous—from the new Right Relations team and Committee on Ministry, to a wildly successful stewardship drive, a lay-lead revival of our social justice activities and an engaged mission and vision process. Meanwhile, you kept important day-to-day church functions, like our beloved fellowship hour and pastoral care team, going strong. This is good and vital work you all have been doing. I am proud, grateful, and blessed.

I am also compelled to remind you that rest and play are holy! Yes, it takes work to keep church running, but I think we are also called to make church a place that values respite, creativity, delight and imagination. In fact, I think this is a unique and especially sacred calling for a church community. In a world that values productivity, urgency, and profit, we can provide a different kind of space—one that recognizes the inherent worth and dignity of each person beyond any utilitarian purpose. We can make space to marvel at the mystery and miracle of our existence and assert that meaning is found beyond what can be measured or accomplished.

And it’s not just me saying that! There are well-developed theologies that point us towards rest and play as divine callings. The practice of keeping the Sabbath is the most obvious. God rested and invites us to rest too. In his excellent book, Sabbath as Resistance: Saying No to a Culture of Now, theologian Walter Bruggemann writes, “The Sabbath rest of God is the acknowledgment that God and God’s people in the world are not commodities to be dispatched for endless production.” Bruggeman ties Sabbath practices not only to love of God and care of self, but also to love of neighbor. He asserts that the Sabbath invites us to refrain from demanding labor from those around us and rather make space for deep and relational connection.

In the movie Bull Durham, Susan Sarandon’s character Annie Savoy famously says, “I believe in the church of baseball.” While we might not all treat our hobbies with this level of religious fervor, an appreciation for play is an idea with deep spiritual roots. Jewish and Christian thinkers point to God’s delight in the act of creation as evidence that time spent in play and creativity are divine. Christian theologians turn to the stories of Jesus’s friendships, playful storytelling, love of dinner parties, and willingness to turn water into wine to develop their theology of play. Hinduism has the concept of “Lila,” which asserts creation is an outcome of divine playfulness. Theologian Brian Edgar goes so far as to write that, “play is the essential and ultimate form of relationship with God.” Embracing fun, pleasure, and play is one way of honoring the divine spark within each of us and recognizing we are made in the image of a loving, resting, playful creator.

Rest and play are central to our identities as humans and children of God. They are our birthright and we do not need to do anything to earn them. But if we did, I promise that you have. So, I hope this spring, you will make time to engage in rest and play. I also hope that you will see First Church as a place where you are invited into these holy activities. Together we can make space for ease, quiet, laughter, imagination, creativity, connection, joy, and even a little mischief.

One of the scripture verses above our pulpit is from Matthew 11: 28-30 and reads “Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” May ours be a sanctuary, where all who are weary can find rest for their souls.

In faith,
Rev. Danielle

Minister's Message: We Who Look To the Stars

I’m not really a “space person.” I don’t own a telescope or have the Sky Guide app on my phone. I didn’t dream about being an Astronaut as a kid. Sure, I count The Sparrow, Mary Doria Russell’s novel about a Jesuit-led mission to make contact with life on another planet, as one of my very favorite books, but that has more to do with the theological themes than the space travel plot. So I have been surprised to find myself so moved by the Artemis II mission. I cried watching the launch and have been crying a little every day since. I cried when mission Commander Reid Wiseman said, “We have a beautiful moonrise. We’re headed right at it,” and when the astronauts asked to name a newly discovered crater on the moon after the commander’s late wife, and when they reestablished communications with NASA after travelling behind the moon and asserted, “we will always choose earth.”

In a world where recent news of technological advancement has centered on Artificial Intelligence, it is profoundly moving to witness the very present humanity of this feat of science and engineering. These astronauts are not merely sending back data and synthesizing observations. They are bearing witness. They are communicating using the language of science yes, but also of religion and of poetry. They are sharing joy and grief. They are even having plumbing issues (can you think of anything more human)! They are connecting this mission to those who came before them, including female pioneers and civil rights leaders. And they are clear that they want their legacy to be not this mission itself, but the exploration that comes after.

It is all so deeply human while still being utterly extraordinary. That paradox reminds me of one of the most defining features of our humanity—the capacity to and for wonder. We are people of boundless curiosity who experience the great and mystical gift of awe. Twentieth century Rabbi and Jewish philosopher Abraham Joshua Heschel’s says that “Knowledge is fostered by curiosity; wisdom is fostered by awe…awe is the root of faith”

I am grateful for the ways in which we are increasing in knowledge, wisdom, and faith as a result of Artemis II’s journey. I wish them Godspeed on their return to earth.

In honor of our human capacity to and for wonder, here is a poem by Ada Limon.

In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa

In faith and with wonder,

Rev. Danielle

Minister's Message for Good Friday

In years past, I’ve leaned into the ways the Lenten and Easter season mirror seasonal cycles of death and rebirth. After all, Lent usually starts in the cold of winter and Easter comes when new flowers are beginning to bloom. Sometimes I’ve used Lent and Holy Week as a metaphorical framework for my own spiritual life. What do I need to let go of, what do I need to let die so that something new can be reborn or resurrected within me?

But this year, I’m not feeling especially metaphorical. We are living through a time when there is so much at stake and where there are so many very real, very nonmetaphorical threats to the people and ideals we hold dear. 

This Holy week, I’ve been leaning into everything that is unique and particular about this story. And it is a unique story—painful and beautiful and strange and perhaps not natural at all. Christian theologians refer to this as the “scandal of particularity,” meaning the preposterous idea that the infinite became specific—revealing itself in a particular person, in a particular place, in a particular time. You don’t have to believe that it actually happened, or that it’s the only “true” religious story (I don’t) to see the lessons in this religious idea. Richard Rohr writes, “You can’t really love universals. It’s hard to love concepts, forces, or ideas. Ideology is just the ego wrapping itself around such abstractions. Love—God incarnate—always begins with particulars.”

So on Good Friday, I’m taking a break from thinking about metaphorical death, and am thinking about particular deaths, about modern accounts of unjust crucifixion: Our Unitarian ancestor James Reeb killed in Selma Alabama for following Dr. KIng’s call, Renee Good and Alex Pretti killed by Ice officer, our trans siblings killed for living as their truest selves, or the deaths of our unhoused neighbors because of our failures to protect human dignity and feed, house and clothe the poor.

Jesus did not die of natural causes at an old age and peacefully return to the dust of the earth. Jesus suffered a violent death at the hands of the Empire. On Good Friday, Jesus was nailed to a cross and executed by the state because his revolutionary message of love was good news for the poor and captive but a threat to those in power. He was abandoned by his friends, felt abandoned by his God and left thirsty and suffering. Good Friday tells a story of betrayal and grief, state sanctioned violence, and complacency and complicity from those who could have protested against it,

Not inevitable. Not natural, but certainly, painfully, familiar. I’ve often quoted German Theologian Dorothee Soelle who says that, “The cross is no theological invention, but the world’s answer given a thousand times over to attempts at liberation.” And we have no shortage of examples of this in our own time and place in history,

We know though, that Good Friday was not the end of the story. We know that Easter comes eventually. But here’s the thing about Easter. Just like crucifixion is not an inevitable death or part of the natural cycle of life, the resurrection was not a natural or expected act of rebirth, like a perennial flower blooming again in the spring. The  resurrection was a shocking and scandalous act and a triumphantly defiant one. It was Jesus’s followers laughing in the face of imperial forces, saying that life is more powerful and abundant than the state’s tools of death. It was hopeful and powerful, but not inevitable. Proclaiming resurrection takes its own kind of work and courage. It requires a commitment to love and liberation that is so fierce it counteracts the fear and power of death. That, my friends, is not easy. Easter doesn’t let us off to the hook for doing the work to bring it about.  

But today is still Good Friday. While we can live with what Henry David Thoreau called, “an infinite expectation of the dawn,” we still have to spend some time in the dark. History has shown us that cross is the world’s answer a thousand times over to attempts at liberation. I believe we can dream a different answer for the future, but we can only do that when we truly understand the reality we face. So on Good Friday, we need to look at suffering and violence straight on and not turn away. We need to understand the pain and death that result from a culture of individualism, scarcity, fear, and greed. We need to understand our own role in perpetuating that culture and discern our calling to courageously work against it.

Only then, when we really confront this pain, when we truly see the violent reality of crucifixion and understand it as something we can and must work against, will we have the passion and unwavering commitment of Easter people—of people who embrace the revolutionary idea that love is more powerful than the empire’s tools of death. So let us bare witness and lament today, so that come Sunday, we can do the defiant joyful work of proclaiming resurrection.

In faith,
Rev. Danielle 

© Rev. Danielle Garrett, 2026

Minister's Message: Passover Lessons

Passover Lessons: Celebrating Freedom From and Freedom For

Did any of you ever try to run away from home when you were a kid? I mean the kind of unserious attempts we make when we mostly have stable home lives but are mad about being grounded or not being able to eat a second cookie and are generally learning how to navigate this tricky business of being thinking, feeling individuals. We pack barbies and hot wheels and some mismatched socks into a school backpack and walk down to the end of the driveway trying to escape the confines of childhood.

Often, when these attempts at childhood rebellion are discovered, an adult will ask, “where were you planning on going anyway?” Some kids may have elaborate plans in mind, but often that part is an afterthought. Our child brains and tender child hearts are mostly focused on what we want to get away from—chores and rules and curfews.

Our early attempts at something like liberation are often about freedom from. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s an important step, but then we’re left standing, literally or metaphorically, at the end of the driveway or cul de sac, wondering which direction to turn next.

This coming Wednesday marks the beginning of Passover, the Jewish observance that celebrates the Israelites liberation from slavery in Egypt. What I love about this story from the Hebrew Bible is that it reminds us that freedom from is only one step on the road to true liberation. The book of Exodus doesn’t end with the miraculous and climactic parting of the Red Sea, like some blockbuster movie. It asks us to grapple with the difficult, messy questions of what comes after. Where are the Israelites going, how do they get there, and how do they stay faithful during the journey?

The story tells us the Jewish people aren’t doing a particularly good job of answering these questions, at least at first. They are worshipping idols and treating one another poorly and struggling to figure out how to navigate this newfound freedom. That’s when God gives them the Ten Commandments—not as a punishment but as a gift. The Ten Commandments are a covenant, a shared expression of how the Israelites want to behave in order to be faithful to their God and to one another. Because it turns out true freedom is actually pretty hard in practice. Maintaining freedom and flourishing for all, not just for some, requires an ethic of communal care; and an ethic of communal care requires some ground rules about how to treat one another and some mechanism of accountability when we fall short. The book of exodus reminds us that none of us are free until all of us are free, and that’s not possible as long as we’re harming and killing and coveting. 

The Exodus story isn’t only a story of freedom from, but also freedom for—freedom for relationships, freedom for community, freedom for mutual flourishing. True liberation requires attention to both.

During our own era of economic inequality, war, and oppression, I know it can be difficult to imagine that next step. But if we don’t, if we stay focused only on freedom from, we run the risk of turning around at the end of the driveway and sulking back to our rooms with our backpacks. We run the risk of not actually experiencing liberation at all. We need to know what it is we’re running towards, not just what we’re running away from. So my invitation this Passover, is to ask what comes next after the Exodus.  What is possible when we break free from barriers, from unjust social structures, from harmful ways of thinking or constraints placed on our hearts and imaginations?  What do you want to be free to do? How do you want to be free to be? Who do you want there alongside you? What work needs to happen to make that a reality? What covenants and accountability structures need to be in place to help us all get there together? 

May part of our liberatory work involve formulating an answer to that gently chastising, parental question “where exactly were you planning on going anyway?”

Chag Sameach to all of the Jewish members of our community celebrating this coming week!

In faith,
Rev. Danielle 

© Rev. Danielle Garrett, 2026

Minister's Message: Planning Ahead for Easter

Planning Ahead for Easter (or A Case for Coming to Church on Holy Week)

We are still a few weeks away from Easter, but I know how quickly schedules fill up in the spring. I wanted to share our plans for Holy Week with enough notice for you to mark your calendars and decide how you’d like to honor this sacred time in the liturgical year. I also wanted to share what this week means to me and encourage you to think about attending services and inviting friends or family to join you. 

We long to be an Easter people—people who believe that the forces of life will always overcome the forces of death, people who believe a humble message of love is powerful enough to defy the violence of empire. We are the faithful descendants of Unitarian minister Theodore Parker who declared,”I do not pretend to understand the moral universe. The arc is a long one…from what I see I am sure it bends toward justice.” And yet, it is often hard to believe that is the case when we bear witness to so much hatred, violence, and injustice in our own times—as we watch schoolgirls in Iran killed by US bombs or fight to protect our own neighbors from inhumane immigration policies. It is demoralizing, and perhaps even dishonest, to hold onto such a faith without making room for struggle and lament; without wrestling with and atoning for our own complicity with violence and injustice; without making space to name and grieve the painful realities of our current moment. We know from experience that resurrection does not come easily or cheaply. We don’t get Easter until we confront the truth of Good Friday.

Holy Week provides us a chance to sit with the whole story and to move through each motion with attention, reverence, and open hearts. We begin with the defiant, anti-imperial “counter-protest” of Palm Sunday’s procession into Jerusalem. The story then invites us into a more intimate, tender, embodied expression of care and community with the shared meal and foot washing of Maundy Thursday. We see our own fragile, imperfect humanity reflected in the disciples' inability to stay awake and be present to their friend’s suffering, in Judas’s betrayal, and in Peter’s denial. On Good Friday, we sit with the painful reality of state-sanctioned violence. We remember theologian Dorothee Soelle’s assertion that,“The cross is no theological invention, but the world’s answer given a thousand times over to attempts at liberation.”We understand why those who have faced violence at the hands of the state identify with Jesus’s story, like black American theologian James Cone who compared the cross to the lynching tree. On Holy Saturday, we wait. We sit in the quiet, mournful, hopeful space between suffering and rejoicing where we spend so much of our lives.

And then, Easter arrives. We affirm our stubborn belief that “joy cometh in the morning.” We sing “Hallelujah!”, celebrate the triumph of life over death, and declare that a new way is not only possible, but already here. We say, “The Kingdom of Heaven is already present among us” and then we recommit to living our lives in a way that won’t make liars out of all of us. 

It is a beautiful and powerful story, but one that needs to be told in its completeness. I hope you’ll join us in remembering it—all of it—together. 

In faith,
Rev. Danielle

Minister's Message: Here for Times Like These

Last Sunday, I was absolutely delighted to share the pulpit with Jonathan Streff to honor the anniversary of Leslie’s Retreat. And this Sunday I will be equally delighted to turn the pulpit over to Marlene Warner and some of our sixth graders to mark the beginning of women’s history month. I can’t think of a better way to launch our Stewardship campaign than with two collaborative services that so perfectly capture our past, present, and future, and celebrate the many ways our community members contribute to the life of this historic congregation. 

Leslie’s Retreat Sunday reminded us that our church has a long, fascinating past that shapes and informs our present. We know what it’s like to be witness to pivotal moments in our nation’s history and we have experience discerning how we respond to moments that demand clarity of conscience. The service reminded me of our shared responsibility to be good stewards of that history and to carry that legacy into the future. We are at another pivotal moment in our nation’s history and we desperately need spaces of belonging, respite, spiritual nourishment, discernment, prophetic voice, and faithful resistance. Working with Jonathan also reminded me of the full meaning of church "stewardship," which is about so much more than just money. What a blessing to have someone willing to share this history in such a meaningful and engaging way. We have such deep wisdom, talents, and passion present in this congregation and such a generosity of spirit for sharing those gifts. 

This coming Sunday, we will officially kick off the stewardship campaign following a multi-generational lead service. Some of the participants in this service are the same youth who installed the gum-ball machine at church as their contribution to our fundraising efforts—the same group of kids who told me so confidently on my first Sunday here, “You should know we do a lot for this church!” They remind me that stewardship of this congregation isn’t limited by income or age. I love that our congregation embraces that idea with an enthusiasm that is pretty rare, in my experience. Our children and youth know that they are both recipients of the gifts others share and stewards of this congregation in their own right. They also remind me our faith has such a bright, energetic, creative future. 

I actually get choked up thinking about the story these two services tell about who First Church has been, who we are, and who we can become. I hope you feel proud when you reflect on this community’s rich history and bright future. You should. And I hope you’ll make that pride, love, and hope concrete by engaging in this year’s stewardship campaign. 

The stewardship team has set a visionary financial goal that will put us on a healthy financial trajectory, fund a sustainable staffing structure, support programming for justice and spiritual growth, and help maintain our historic building so we can welcome folks in for years to come. Over the month of March, we will be asking you to take time to think about what the church means to you and how you can contribute financially to its future. But we will also take this time to reflect on stewardship in the fullest sense of the word. This stewardship season is an opportunity to come together and dream big about how our church can show up at this critical moment in history and discuss what unique gifts we have that we can share with one another and our community to make that vision possible. 

I hope you’ll join in these conversations beginning this Sunday, March 1st at the Stewardship luncheon in Wilson Hall following service and then at small group potlucks throughout the month. You’ll be able to sign up for those potlucks starting Sunday and I’m going to attend as many of them as possible so I can hear firsthand about your vision for the future of this community.

I am so grateful to the dedicated and enthusiastic stewardship team, Anna Brandenburg, Mike Giauque, Charlie Hildebrand, John Wathne, and John Wendelken. It is, always, a blessing and a privilege to be on this journey with you all. I’m looking forward to this month of creativity, community, and commitment with great joy and anticipation.

In faith,
Danielle

Minister's Message: Love Notes for Valentine’s Day

Happy Valentine’s Day weekend, First Church Community!

This seems like a good time to remember that “love” is not a feeling reserved only for romantic partners or a saccharine sentiment used to sell Hallmark cards and candy hearts. Love can be a radical and active force in the world—holding us in our most despairing moments, calling us back to our sacred centers when we feel lost, and driving the work of justice and liberation.

Love, in fact, is the central tenant of our faith. It is at the heart of our theology and the origin of our historical heresies. The new articulation of our Unitarian Universalist shared values, place “love” at the center of six interconnected values that encircle it (justice, equity, pluralism, interdependence, generosity, and transformation). The language reads,  “Love is the power that holds us together and is at the center of our shared values. We are accountable to one another for doing the work of living our shared values through the spiritual discipline of Love.” In a reflection on love as our central tenant, Rev. Dr. Sheri Prud’homme reminds us that is not just our present commitment but our theological inheritance, writing, “The great Universalist heresy—the one that so threatened evangelical and Calvinist groups in New England in the late 18th and early 19th century that they vehemently opposed it, denying Universalist preachers access to their pulpits and to positions of public power—was that the nature of God is Love.” Our ancestors believed in a love so powerful it was deemed heretical. That’s not exactly the stuff of hallmark cards!

We can know this intellectually. We can memorize the language of our values and parrot them back in conversation. But it is a different matter altogether to know the radical power of love in our hearts and in our bodies—to practice it and live it and organize our life around it. Love as a theological concept always feels squishy and undefined until we witness it in practice. 

Nevertheless, there are a number of thinkers who have helped me understand more deeply what love looks like. I share a few of them with you this Valentine’s Day and invite you to choose one or two of these quotes to spend some time with. Perhaps journal about one that moves or perplexes you. Repeat one yourself on a walk as a form of moving meditation. Or choose one to discuss this weekend with a person you hold dear. And if you have favorites that aren’t included here, please share them with me!

• “At the center of nonviolence stands the principle of love. When we rise to love on the agape level, we love men not because we like them, not because their attitudes and ways appeal to us, but we love them because God loves them. Here we rise to the position of loving the person who does the evil deed while hating the deed that the person does” - Martin Luther King Jr. 

• If love is really the active practice — Buddhist, Christian, or Islamic mysticism — it requires the notion of being a lover, of being in love with the universe… To commit to love is fundamentally to commit to a life beyond dualism. That’s why love is so sacred in a culture of domination, because it simply begins to erode your dualisms: dualisms of black and white, male and female, right and wrong.”- belle hooks

• "Justice is what love looks like in public" - Dr. Cornel West

• “What else do we all want, each one of us, except to love and be loved, in our families, in our work, in all our relationships. God is Love. Love casts out fear. Even the most ardent revolutionist, seeking to change the world, to overturn the tables of the money changers, is trying to make a world where it is easier for people to love, to stand in that relationship to each other.” - Dorothy Day

• “The beginning of this love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves, the resolution not to twist them to fit our own image.  If in loving them we do not love what they are, but only their potential likeness to ourselves, then we do not love them: we only love the reflection of ourselves we find in them.” - Thomas Merton

• “Love is the motive, but justice is the instrument.”-Reinhold Niebuhr

• “We’ve made it private, contained it in family, when its audacity is in its potential to cross tribal lines. We’ve fetishized it as romance, when its true measure is a quality of sustained, practical care. We’ve lived it as a feeling, when it is a way of being.” - Krista Tippett

• “Is it strange to say love is a language / Few practice, but all, or near all speak?” - Tracy K. Smith

• “When we were sitting in, it was love in action. When we went on the freedom ride, it was love in action. The march from Selma to Montgomery was love in action. We do it not simply because it’s the right thing to do, but it’s love in action. That we love our country, we love a democratic society, and so we have to move our feet.” - John Lewis

In faith and love,
Rev. Danielle