First Parish Unitarian UniversalistThe Many Shapes of Change
A sermon preached by the Reverend Diane Teichert
First Parish Unitarian Universalist - Canton, MA
June 3, 2007
Reading and Activity
In A Chosen Faith, the book he wrote with Forrest Church, John Buehrens says that there are at least four kinds of social justice work in our UU congregations. Any of you who have taken my Introduction to Unitarian Universalism class may remember this, and the activity that goes with it. Which we are going to do in a moment, for anyone who is willing to get up out of their pew briefly.
The first kind of is through concrete acts of service, hands-on caring, and programs where we roll up our sleeves to help others in some kind of need or the earth, making a direct, concrete difference. Such efforts, he says, are “sometimes disparaged by activists as not enough, not directed at the root of things, just band-aid solutions. In a way they are right, for we also need to learn about why people are in need or why a river is polluted and whether the causes can be addressed.”
So, the second kind of social justice work is education and moral reflection. UUs often sponsor local public forums for the discussion of social issue in a broad religious, ethical and information context. At their best, Buehrens says, these occasions promote deeper moral dialogue and religious understanding. But, unless action steps follow, such education doesn’t often lead to much change.
The third, I’ll call advocacy, when individual parishioners feel called to “make their witness” on an issue of conscience, nurtured by the congregation even if everyone does not agree, or understand. Methods and issues vary over time: a sit-in to desegregate public restaurants, a protest at a nuclear testing site, weekly peace vigils, letter-writing to elected officials to support gay marriage. The point is that it’s done by individuals, even if they are orchestrated during Coffee Hour.
The fourth kind of social justice work is collective action: when the congregation uses its “power in numbers” or its moral status in the community to advocate for some change about which it feels strongly. If this kind of public witness is to be more than just symbolic, it must emerge via a democratic process with a sizable majority, and be built upon a foundation of prior service, education and advocacy. A good example of this, I hope, will happen on Tuesday night at our Annual Meeting, when we will consider endorsing the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry’s resolution in support of equal marriage (the resolution and its current 10000 clergy and congregational signers are posted in the Parish Hall today).
So, to review the four kinds of social justice work: we have service, education and moral reflection, advocacy, and collective action.
Sometimes, they lead from one to another. For example, we supply the Canton Food Pantry a few times a year. We could go the next step and offer a weekly free meal in our Parish Hall or join the Interfaith Hospitality Network of congregations that host homeless families in their buildings. That would be service. When we got to know the regulars, we’d learn about why they were unable to make ends meet. Maybe the high cost of housing in our area is a factor. We could offer a forum on affordable housing, and bring in some experts. That would be education and moral reflection. Meanwhile, perhaps the whole congregation has become concerned about the new upscale housing development going up nearby on the property between Randolph and Washington Streets and supports several parishioners in their advocacy efforts to get the developers to give Habitat for Humanity some plots. When these fail, the members of First Parish vote to join with other Canton congregations in a protest march and some of the marchers are going to lie-down in front of the bulldozers clearing the land. Those would be collective actions.
Each of us may be drawn to different modes of social action in different parts of our lives. I remember being involved in a protest of US military involvement in Central America in the 1980’s, but having small children at home, I didn’t want to risk being jailed as a result of the civil disobedience planned (or so I said, but I was also afraid). So, the retirees in our group got arrested, and I was at home near the phone to receive their phone calls from jail and do what could only be done from the outside.
Some of us do advocacy all our lives. Others do service. Some go from education to collective action on a series of issues over time. It varies. All important. Where are you at, at this time? To what kind of social justice work do you feel most drawn?
So, now for the activity. Let’s picture that each of the four corners of the sanctuary represents one of the four kinds of social justice work. Service is in the front near the piano, education is at the back end of that aisle. Advocacy is at the back end of the other aisle and collective action is in the front, near these side pews.
Give some thought to what kind of social justice work you feel most drawn to and then get up and put your body there. Service is in the front near the piano, education is at the back end of that aisle. Advocacy is at the back end of the other aisle and collective action is in the front, near these side pews and the extra pulpit.
You don’t have to choose a corner, though. If you feel you’re between service and education, go halfway back in that aisle. If you’ve just gotten yourself educated on an issue and you’re so outraged you’re moving toward collective action on it—maybe attending a rally, for example—then you could slide down one of pews mid-way back and sit down near the center divider, to be between the education and collective action corners.
Now, of course, it might depend on the issue. Maybe you’re hot on the problem of the homeless and you’d join a big camp-out of UU’s in the Boston Common to show it, but in regard to the War in Iraq you feel hopeless and, so, the only response you can muster is to send care packages, but service is a good thing too. Or, maybe you’re enraged about Iraq and hopeless about homelessness.
But, in general, what’s your mood these days, what kind of social justice work are you drawn to? I invite you to get up and put your body there.
Homily: “The Many Shapes of Change”
We had quite a rectangle here a few moments ago, putting ourselves in the various corners of the sanctuary representing the kinds of social justice work we are drawn to. I hope you noticed that I didn’t ask you what kind of social justice work you think we “should do.’ I asked what are you “drawn to” ?
It’s not about “shoulds” and “oughts” it’s about what we feel called to do, what we want in our bones to do, what we feel compelled to do. It’s a bodily kind of thing.
I remember when I was first getting involved as a layperson in my first UU congregation and someone asked me during Coffee Hour what I did for a living. When I told her I was an organizer, her immediate response was “maybe you would like to join our Social Action Committee.”
My body said NO WAY! I remember well its reaction at that moment: it stiffened up, I got all uptight, I felt oppressed inside my skin. My body was telling me NO! NO! NO! (It’s great when your body tells you clearly what’s up with it!)
I hope I wasn’t rude.
I hope I told her something like what I’ve heard a few of you say: I come here to get charged up for what I’m already doing, to get energy and inspiration, and to be with like-minded people. NOOOOO! I can’t DO anything more. I’m coming here so I can keep doing what I’m already doing! If you want me to do something more, unless it’s something my children can do too, I’m out of here! Unless it’s something we can do as a family, I just can’t take another thing on!
On the other hand, I’ve also heard a few of you say that you’re too busy with daily life to pay much attention to community or world affairs, nevermind DO anything about them, so you rely on First Parish to remind you of them and to provide you with fairly easy avenues to express your moral values in concert with others.
And, though I haven’t heard it said, I’m sure that many of you are giving First Parish itself-- through its committees, task forces, and teaching our children--what little spare time you have. So, as long as it takes as many volunteer-hours to keep this place going as it does, you’ll not have much time for service beyond these walls, education, advocacy or collective action! I understand!
Nevertheless, over the years, this congregation has done all four kinds of social justice work, despite being small, before (from what I’ve heard from the long-timers) and during my time here.I was going to recount a smattering of activities from each of the four kinds, but in the interest of time, I won’t. All tolled, it’s impressive, yet we always seem to feel we’re not doing enough.
Why is that? It’s because:
- there is so much to be done and fewer hours in which to do it, with more adults employed and each working longer hours,
- it’s also because we do a lot of our social justice work as individuals, some of us for our paid employment and some in major volunteer capacities, and perhaps too many of us don’t know what the others are already doing. If we did, maybe it would feel like enough!
- Finally, I think we feel like we’re not doing enough because too few other people out there know what we’re doing. How could we get the credit we deserve for what we are already doing? Are there ways for us to acknowledge First Parish and Unitarian Universalism as the sources of energy and inspiration for what we as individuals do? When we act as a congregation—whether in service, education, advocacy or collective action—how could it to be more widely known by the public?
It may be as simple as wearing First Parish t-shirts, as one of you recently suggested we could have done at the Canton Earthday Fair. And as simple as submitting photographs of us doing our “good works” to the local papers more often. And, always, sending out press releases for anything we do or offer that is open to the public.
But, beyond these realities and simple methods, I think we feel that we’re not doing enough also because what we do is not well-orchestrated. It’s scattered. Too dependent on individual initiative, not collectively planned. And so, it doesn’t feel like much.
But the fact that we feel we’re not doing enough is good, whatever the reasons!
It means we’re ready to take it our social justice work to a new level.
And that’s one thing our Strategic Plan proposes. As you may know, we have been working on the strategic planning process all year and will vote on its product this Tuesday night at the Annual Meeting (you all are invited whether you are Voting Members or not).
The Strategic Plan will take our social justice work to a new level. It spells out a way for us to get there. It says let’s
“Identify the passions for social justice work that already exist within our congregation.” and
“Obtain outside guidance (possibly from the UUA) to better understand the essential elements of an effective social justice program and how to best implement them.”
Then, it says let’s
- Develop a plan for how to implement a social justice program that incorporates these essential elements and builds on our passions.
- Select a manageable number of social action issues to focus on and implement service-related activities that engage adults and youth of our congregation.
- Partner with neighboring UU congregations to increase program reach and effectiveness.
- Reflect on the effectiveness of emerging programs, as we plan for future programs.
See how the process it describes unfolds and then circles back around? More like a spiral than a circle: a spiral circles but it also has a trajectory, it goes somewhere. The Plan moves us forward but also has us going back to reflect on where we’ve just been, to learn from it and then move forward some more.
This is just one example, by the way, of how smart our Strategic Plan is. I’m so excited that we’ve come this far in developing a plan for where we’re headed.
Author and minister Frederick Buechner says that for each of us, life calls us or, if you will, God calls us, to the place where our deep passion meets the world’s great hunger. Our life’s greatest work is where our deepest passion meets the world’s greatest need.
That means there is a way in which the world needs your light, your particular light. Your job, your opportunity, in life is to find out what the world needs that you can give. And, then, to let your light shine!
(That, by the way, is what I told the 2002 Canton High School Graduating Class in my commencement invocation.)
And our job, our opportunity, together as a congregation, is to celebrate those individual shining lights of service, education, advocacy and action. To lift them up, to spotlight them, and to enhance them with each other’s encouragement and cooperation.
And, might it not be also true, of us as a congregation collectively: that our greatest work as a congregation is where our deepest passions meet the world’s greatest hungers?
And so, in this next period, if we move forward with our Plan, we may discover that among our individual passions is a shared passion that will meet one of the world’s greatest hungers. Or, it’s possible you will decide to just do a better job making our individual passions for social justice more visible among us and to the community.
If we go for a collective passion, will it be Peace? Global Warming? Racial Justice? Affordable housing? Or?
If we do, we will no doubt take whatever it is as seriously as we did the Welcoming Congregation process. It began with our hunger for justice for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender people, a hunger that meets one of the world’s greatest needs. Which led us to several years of self-education and moral reflection, at the end of which the members voted in January 2004 by a landslide majority to become an official UUA Welcoming Congregation. Soon thereafter, we were actively engaged in educational forums and advocacy for equal marriage—a large sign proclaiming it was set out on the lawn, a delegation met with State Rep Bill Galvin to ask for his support, petitions were signed and sent, and we held a special worship service and wedding party on the Sunday before gay marriage was legal. Then, that June, the members voted to hang a rainbow flag out front, a visible statement of our collective action.
So you see, our Welcoming Congregation process included all four kinds of social justice work—education, advocacy, collective action and, service, if you include as “service” the union ceremonies performed in our sanctuary by my predecessors and me before gay marriage was legal, and since May 2004, the legal marriage ceremonies I’ve performed here and in other locations.
If we go for a collective passion, I hope that we will be as thorough in our exploration and as visible in our proclamation of our next passion as with the previous. In fact, I think it’s time to take on something new, to learn about and advocate for a new cause about which we are passionate, for which the whole world hungers, and to add something new to our image as a gay-friendly Welcoming Congregation, hopefully represented visually outdoors where people can see. I’m drawn to Peace or Global Warming, but it’s not just up to me! What about a banner that says Imagine Peace or solar panels on our roof?
I called this homily “The Many Shapes of Change” as a metaphor for the four kinds of social justice work laid out in a rectangle, and the spiral-like process of moving forward and looking back to reflect. So, we’ve already seen rectangles and spirals. And now we end with circles.
Circles: in as many as possible of our deliberations as a community of faith, we sit in a circle, the shape that best allows us to read each other’s body language, see each other’s faces, and meet each other’s eyes. In the circle, hands may be held, shoulders grasped. For unity, for solidarity, for love.
And so, our closing hymn we will sing of circles: “Circle round for freedom, circle round for peace, for all of us imprisoned, circle for release. Circle for the planet, circle for each soul, for the children or our children, keep the circle whole.”
It’s Hymn #155 in the gray hymnal. The choir will sing it once for us in unison and then once in parts. Then we will join in to sing it twice. You can choose to sing the melody line which is in the middle, or either of the harmony lines, high or low. At the end, I’ll invite you to take each other’s hands.
Benediction by Erika Hewitt
The hand in yours belongs to a person
whose heart is sometimes tender,
whose skin is sometimes thin,
whose eyes sometimes fill with tears,
whose laughter is a beautiful sound.
The hand that you hold belongs to a person who is seeking wholeness,
and knows that you are doing the same.
As you leave this sanctuary,
may your hearts remain open
may your voices stay strong
and may your hands remained outstretched.