Unitarian Universalist Rev. Victoria Safford recently attended a gathering of UU ministers where each participant was asked to share a microscopic sermon, to express in one or two short sentences what they hope their congregants receive at their Sunday services, or what for them is the essence of their faith.<\/p>\n
When her turn came, Rev. Safford spoke spontaneously, saying essentially these words: \u201cYou are beloved of God.\u00a0 Our calling on this earth is to remember and remind each other,\u00a0in everything we do, without ceasing,\u00a0who we are and what we are,\u00a0which is beloved.\u201d<\/p>\n
She most deeply wants her congregants, whether they \u201cbelieve in God\u201d or not, to know themselves and each other as beloved, which is to say, worthy, with a place, as the poet says, \u201cin the family of things,\u201d a place \u201cno more and no less exalted than anyone else\u2019s place, or the place of the grasses, the trees, the birds of the air and the fish of the sea, a holy, wholly undisputed, rightful place on this, our common ground.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moreover, she wants them to know that \u201cnow and here, in this unlikely, un-replicated, gorgeous world, this shimmering, sorrowing world, we exist, together.\u00a0 We are here now,\u00a0and we all belong.\u201d<\/p>\n
Therefore, Rev. Safford finds that \u201cher work and her joy, however imperfect, is to strive to act accordingly in every person\u2019s presence (whoever they are, wherever on this earth they are)\u00a0to feel\u00a0that she is in the presence of the holy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Unitarian Universalist Rev. Victoria Safford recently attended a gathering of UU ministers where each participant was asked to share a microscopic sermon, to express in one or two short sentences what they hope their congregants receive at their Sunday services, or what for them is the essence of their faith. When her turn came, Rev. … Continue reading UUs and Being Beloved (#142)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8757"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9023,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8757\/revisions\/9023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}