Between Us

This week I’m on my way to the biennial meeting of the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists, the ICUU. As many of you know, this network of the Unitarian and Unitarian Universalist organizations around the world has been part of my work for many years. As a member of the UUA Board of Trustees in 1995, I was one of the founders of the ICUU, and have been actively involved since the beginning.

The main focus of the ICUU is to help UUs around the world help each other, so that together we can increase the reach and impact of liberal religious values. It may surprise you to know how small our movement really is—there are only between 750,000 and 850,000 UUs in the whole world (compare that to 2.1 billion Christians, 1.5 billion Muslims, 14 million Jews). Therefore it is very important that we work together and help each other as much as possible!

Part of the role of the ICUU is to respond to and help new and emerging groups of UUs. This has been the bulk of our work in Africa for the past few years— and People’s Church has been actively involved by virtue of being a partner congregation for the Unitarians of Bujumbura, Burundi. There are emerging groups of UUs in South America, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, India, and Latin America as well.

My work has included designing and leading leadership training conferences, symposia, task-forces and Council meetings. Most recently I’ve been involved in a three-year project to increase access to ministerial training and education for UUs, given that there are official UU theological schools in only three countries, and that training at those schools is neither practical nor affordable for most people around the world. To do this work, it has always been most important to me to be grounded in the daily life of a UU congregation—People’s Church! For it is only with the knowledge and experience of this daily work that I can be of service to others who are striving to lead strong and healthy congregations. In return, I gain so much inspiration and perspective which feeds my daily work here, and this allows me to help you connect with broader perspectives as well.

The upcoming meeting is in the Philippines, where there is a large and active organization, the UU Church of the Philippines. This will be the first time a Council Meeting has been held in a country outside of the “white West,” as we strive to make real our understanding of the true diversity within UUism. I’ll be there for just over a week, returning on Feb. 14.

Meanwhile, the life and work of People’s Church continues to be rich! We are considering what our Jewish and Christian roots hold for us, we are working on projects for eco-justice, immigration, anti-racism, we are mentoring, studying, teaching, and wondering together. The building process has brought several challenges—weather, inspections, needing to move lots of stuff from place to place! The disrupted building has been FULL, of conferences and meetings and services. The parking lot is squeezed, so this is a really good time for all of us to think about how to carpool. We also need to step up and help our very time-limited cleaning staff keep the building clean through all this construction and activity. I hope many of you might be willing to take a turn once or twice a month, with some family members or friends, to spend a few hours helping with cleaning projects. Please sign up in the foyer or say “yes” when you are asked.

What does all this have to do with the religious and spiritual life? Everything, of course. For we practice in order to act—and every moment in every setting is an opportunity for right action and right relations. What a great year for all of us!

See you Sunday—
Jill