By Lola Warren
Adapted from a “From the Heart” talk at the March 17, 2019 worship service.
Occasionally you’ve seen me in front of the congregation calling a meeting to order or making an announcement, seen me around and about our campus or maybe you’ve seen reports I’ve submitted on work that’s been done. Today I am here to tell you why have I done and continue to do such things.
It is because of all that was displayed in the Gathering Hall and Little Sanctuary during our recent Activities Fair. I’m in awe — and excited to be a part of this amazing community. Each of those displays told what we are about –welcoming, worshiping, witnessing – and caring. We’re a vibrant, excited, thinking, creative, serious and fun family. You will be able to see the posters from those twenty-two displays as they are hung in the Gathering Hall alcove throughout the year.
WUU is where I want to be. In the past six and a half months just under two hundred people have provided Sunday morning hospitality. What a change from last year and the years before when a few loyal folks were responsible for it all, week after week, finally burning out.
About eighty-five children are registered for Religious Education.
We provide not just Sunday morning hospitality and RE for the kids, we have adult classes, worship and meditation opportunities, ways to get out into the world to make it better and to bring the world into our community. We care for each other.
WUU means that I am able to be me. Here I have the freedom to continue to grow my theological and other liberal views. As a minister’s wife, and in other Christian settings, I was not fully able to do that.
Being here means I hear high school seniors, in their Bridging ceremonies, tell of their own views on being part of WUU and Unitarian Universalism, not saying what they think we old folks want to hear or parroting what their relatives believe.
It means cheering for each other, such as the time a same-sex couple returned from having been married legally in California a few years ago.
It means hearing and absorbing unpredictable sermons and readings, not primarily based on just one book’s writings.
It means being part of a choir that sings in Swahili, Hebrew, Latin, and more. It means listening to a prelude of a wide variety of music: hit tunes of my era, classical, improv, or hearing younger musicians offering music for which I often don’t understand the lyrics, but I know it’s sending a good message to those who do.
It means being proud of who we are and all that we do here, as I tell non-WUUs about our starting each service by saying to each other “whomever you love, whatever your vision of the holy, you are welcome here” and that we “stand on the side of love.”
— as I see the gay pride flags and the Black Lives Matter banner out front
– as people say to me, in a positive tone of voice – “oh, yours is that church with the …..(fill in the blanks)”
It means I can put my talents to use and complement those of others as we make this place special.
It means working with so many of you very special people addressing unique situations and decisions in the life of WUU, such as building the new addition, deciding what to do with the houses, working through the many staff changes of recent years, becoming a Green Sanctuary, celebrating our 25th anniversary. Being an introvert at heart, I am happiest being behind the scenes planning, organizing and thinking outside the box. I really like doing that. I learned from an early age that things must be done “decently and in order.” I grew up in a home where it was expected that if you joined a group, you participated.
And so I have tried here. Thank you for letting me work at that – in many ways.
Now that I’m full into my senior years, I’m trying to learn how to say, ‘No” when a project needs an organizer, but it’s not easy. I like to spring into action, even if the brain and more often the body say “Quit.” I might need some help on that.
Thank you, all, for opening your hearts and hands to me, and letting me serve alongside you as I’ve been able in these past years.
I’m in good hands with WUU – the best place to be.