From Our Minister Archive
From Our Minister: Play
In rare moments of deep play, we can lay aside our sense of self, shed time’s continuum, ignore pain, and sit quietly in the absolute present, watching the world’s ordinary miracles. No mind or heart hobbles. No analyzing or explaining. No questing for logic. No promises. No goals. No relationships. No worry. One is completely open…
— Diane Ackerman
Happy Pride Month! June brings us the bright rainbow flags of community, resistance, and struggle, the honoring of Juneteenth (June 19) which celebrates emancipation in the US, and the turning of the star-wheel at the Summer Solstice (June 20). In church, this is also the final month of the church year before we transition to the liminal summer months.
Our Annual Congregational Meeting will follow the special UUA General Assembly Worship Service online on Sunday, June 27, as it did last year. Beginning at 12:00 pm, the Annual Meeting will include a new awards program to celebrate leadership and service to our community, so please plan to join us! More details will be provided later in the month.
Then, our staff and groups throughout the church are encouraged to take a break and restore themselves after one of the most demanding years of our lives. I know I am beyond ready to travel to visit family and friends in Ohio and San Francisco who I haven’t seen in nearly two years! I will also find some time to rest and play to renew myself for the new church year in September.
We anticipate returning to our sanctuary in September after we go on the GLAM (Greater Los Angeles Ministry) Summer Virtual Road Trip. On Sundays at 10:30 am in July and August, we will gather with Unitarian Universalists for online worship with our local sibling congregations. This will be a wonderful opportunity to experience the many forms of liberal religious worship, to build the larger Beloved Community, and it will give our dedicated but exhausted worship leaders a much needed break. The move to GLAM in July will also allow us to plan, design, and install new audiovisual capability in the sanctuary so we can continue to serve the online community that has joined us for worship over the past year.
Our spiritual theme for congregational exploration this month is Play. Theme-based ministry invites the entire congregation to reflect upon universal themes of religious life in creative ways each month. Play can be broadly defined as activity that is engaged in for the purpose of enjoyment. Many of us are probably in need of some recreation, leisure time, and play after the stresses, fears, and isolation of the past year. You’re invited to reflect on this theme to prepare for a summer of societal reopening and the many celebrations, events, and vacations that await.
Our friends at Soul Matters suggest a few questions to deepen your engagement with this reflection: What makes something “play” for you? When you feel free from the burden of producing an outcome? When creativity is involved? When you lose time? When you can just be yourself? All of the above? Something else? Can worship be play? Can play lead to transcendence? Can play be a form of political resistance? When has play saved or healed you? Who keeps you playful?
Although I will be away in the month of July and for part of August, our Pastoral Care Ministry will be available to provide support, presence, and companionship while I am away. Chaplain Michael Eselun and the Rev. Kikanza Nuri-Robins will provide adjunct professional support while I am away, and I am so grateful for their collegial leadership and stewardship of our beloved community. You can request pastoral care by email at pastoralcare@uusm.org. Your requests are shared with the pastoral leadership and are confidential. You can also submit joys, sorrows, and milestones to be shared on Sunday mornings with this email address. May we make some time for play in the weeks and months ahead! Let us offer praise that we’ve made it this far with love as our companion and guide. With love and gratitude, Jeremiah Rev. Jeremiah Lal Shahbaz Kalendae Developmental Minister ">pastoralcare@uusm.org. Your requests are shared with the pastoral leadership and are confidential. You can also submit joys, sorrows, and milestones to be shared on Sunday mornings with this email address.
May we make some time for play in the weeks and months ahead! Let us offer praise that we’ve made it this far with love as our companion and guide.
With love and gratitude,
Jeremiah
Rev. Jeremiah Lal Shahbaz Kalendae
Developmental Minister
Developmental Minister
From Our Minister: Story
Storytelling is dangerous to those who profit from the way things are because it has the power to show that the way things are is not permanent, not universal, not necessary…The storyteller is the truth-teller… We will not know our own injustice if we cannot imagine justice. We will not be free if we do not imagine freedom. We cannot demand that anyone try to attain justice and freedom who has not had a chance to imagine them as attainable.
-- Ursula K. Le Guin
How is your spirit these days? Is the springtime birthing new energy and creativity? Are the struggles of pandemic life still oppressing your spirit? What stories will you tell about living through this past year? Has our future been dramatically altered? One of our board members recently commented that she believed that we’ve all been transformed by this period and we’re going to emerge from it with great empathy for each other and with a bold new hope for our future. She assured us that dramatic progressive change is on the horizon. I was inspired by her perspective. How can humanity not be changed for the better by all that we’ve been through? When else in all of history has the population of the entire planet had to endure something like this together?
Together, we’ve all experienced a rare event that could be the foundation of so much progressive change in our world. The inadequacies of our healthcare system, neglect and exploitation of the working classes, the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color) communities, and the need for a scientifically literate society all became apparent to everyone this past year. We learned that the government has a critical role to play in ensuring the welfare of society and that global interdependence is required in our modern world. How will these experiences inform how we emerge from the pandemic? In the months before us, what future will we write for ourselves and our community?
Our spiritual theme for congregational exploration this month is Story. Each month, theme-based ministry invites the entire congregation to reflect upon universal themes of religious life in creative ways. Story can be broadly defined as an account of real or fictitious persons and events. Stories are how we make meaning of existence and pass that meaning on to others.
We all have stories that we tell ourselves–some that are real and some that we imagine to be real–about ourselves, our families, our relationships, our church community, our society, and even our place in the universe. Becoming conscious of our stories can help us free ourselves from stories that have outlived their usefulness or which were never useful in the first place! When we are aware of the stories that permeate our lives, we can better fashion the narratives of our futures.
I hope that you might take some time this month to reflect on this theme in church group meetings–theme-based questions make great check-in questions–or through other activities and events in the life of the congregation. Our partners at Soul Matters suggest a few questions to help deepen our reflections: What story did you first fall in love with? When did you first feel like you understood your plot line? What story about yourself have you outgrown, but others are still telling about you? What genre is your current life’s story?
Please remember that you’re not alone. Although these times are difficult for all of us, you have a community that cares about you and is here if you need spiritual support. Our Pastoral Associates and Care Ring members are available to provide short-term spiritual companionship or other forms of support if you are in need. You can confidentially request pastoral support — or submit any joys, sorrows, or milestones for inclusion in community news and our Sunday worship services — by emailing our pastoral team leaders at pastoralcare@uusm.org.
Let’s continue to care for each other and grow beloved community in these final months of the pandemic and let’s dream together of a bright future for all!
With love and gratitude,
Jeremiah
Rev. Jeremiah Lal Shahbaz Kalendae
Developmental Minister
From Our Minister: Becoming
And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud
was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
-Anais Nin
Easter, Passover, Ramazan, and Earth Day all grace April along with our annual stewardship campaign to raise the funds to support our beloved community and our service to the larger world. In a conversation with an elder of the church the other day, they remarked, “I am so impressed by how the church leaders invented an entirely new way of being a church together online while also weathering the stress and life changes brought on by the pandemic.” I am paraphrasing their remarks but I appreciated the recognition and affirmation of the extraordinary achievements of this church over the past year. I am sometimes overwhelmed with gratitude and amazement when I consider how our Board of Directors, staff members, congregational leaders, and the devoted members of this community stepped up to meet incredible challenges and forever changed how we minister together. Our stewardship campaign is a time to reflect upon and celebrate the accomplishments of this year as we also prepare for the future.
Reflecting upon how we became a church that successfully navigated the past year of this pandemic, I am reminded of how we strengthened the bonds of our beloved community by creating our new Chalice Circle small group ministries, responded to our soul’s longings for injustices to be righted by forming our Intersectional Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression Commission, and launched the popular Beloved Conversations program. I am reminded of how we continued the work of developmental ministry by providing for financial stability, expanding how we offer pastoral care, supporting visitors and newcomers through our Faith Forward program, and began the process of refreshing our bylaws to affirm transparency, interdependence, and trust. We moved our worship services online and now regularly include more than 500 people in our congregation’s dynamic worship life! Though the past year sometimes feels like a year lost to many of us, our congregation blossomed in the midst of so many challenges. I hope that you will continue to support our flourishing with your generous giving. If all of this was possible in the pandemic, what wonders does the future hold for our beloved community?
Our spiritual theme for community exploration this month is Becoming. Theme-based ministry invites the entire congregation to reflect upon universal themes of religious life in creative ways each month. Becoming can be broadly defined as a “process of change” or as a change in which potentialities are actualized to ever greater degrees. Becoming invites us to shed what no longer serves our highest aspirations for ourselves and to embrace a future that is new and sometimes fraught with anxieties and fears. Strengthening our capacities for self-transcendence through spiritual practices like meditation, prayer, and practicing vulnerability in small group ministries can enhance our abilities to change and grow in new circumstances. I hope you will reflect upon this theme in greater depth in group meetings and activities this month. Some of the questions that our theme-based ministry partner Soul Matters provides for us to consider this month include: When was the day you first welcomed in the person you would become? Is it possible that you have actually become what your 6-year-old self imagined you be, perhaps in a totally unexpected form? What if becoming first requires us to unbecome who we are not? Is it possible that you need to unravel before you can unfold?
Pastoral Care is available if you are lonely, questioning, or struggling and would like a non-judgmental and compassionate spiritual companion. You can confidentially request pastoral support — or submit any joys, sorrows, or milestones for inclusion in community news and our Sunday worship services — by emailing our pastoral team leaders at pastoralcare@uusm.org.
With love and faith,
Jeremiah
Rev. Jeremiah Lal Shahbaz Kalendae
Developmental Minister
From Our Minister: Commitment
Inevitably in our lives we commit ourselves to something, whether worthy or not. The direction and intensity of our loyalties give shape and meaning to our lives. Loyalties, commitments, covenants, the promises we make to one another: These are the things [that] tell us to what we belong. By doing so they tell us who we are.Henry Nelson Wieman
Spring is in the air! Our church is filled with so much good news and positive energy at the start of this month, I’d like to share some of those blessings with you. Cleo Anderson, our Director of Religious Education, has received a UUA grant to support an innovative new skateboard ministry for our young people. Nurit Gordon, our Church Administrator, has secured additional financial grants and resources to support our congregation through this final stretch of the pandemic. Saunder Choi, our Director of Music, has received some exciting news which we will soon be able to share with all of us.
Our new Beloved Conversations anti-racism program is launching with almost twenty members of our beloved community participating in this first semester of the program. We are a community blessed by many successes and new opportunities to energize and refresh our spirits! Congratulations to our many leaders who are making a difference in our congregation and in the larger world. I am hopeful the energies of springtime will continue to propel us all away from the long months of disease, fear, and conflict and into a brighter future of health, creativity, and renewal.
Our congregational theme for March is “commitment,” which can be defined as dedicating oneself to a cause or course of action. Fidelity, devotion, and loyalty are all important concepts related to commitment. We make a variety of allegiances throughout the course of our lives and those loyalties shape our lives and help us to derive meaning from life. We may commit to being a parent, a partner, a volunteer, an agent of change, or the member of a particular group or religious tradition. Each commitment we make gives shape to our identities and our futures. Reflecting on our commitments can help us reconnect to the very essence of our lives. Our Soul Matters partners offer a few guiding questions to focus our reflections this month: What commitment has shaped you the most? What commitment most deeply defines you? What are the covenants/commitments you were born into? When we commit to one path, we leave some other path behind. Is there a “path not chosen” that still haunts you? Are you keeping a commitment that is limiting your growth?
Pastoral Care is available if you are struggling and would like a non-judgemental and compassionate companion. You can request pastoral support or submit any joys, sorrows, or milestones for inclusion in community news and our Sunday services by emailing our pastoral leaders at pastoralcare@uusm.org.
With love and commitment,
Jeremiah
Rev. Jeremiah Lal Shahbaz Kalendae
Developmental Minister
Developmental Minister
From Our Minister: Beloved Community
Beloved community is formed not by the eradication of difference but by its affirmation, by each of us claiming the identities and cultural legacies that shape who we are and how we live in the world.
-bell hooks, Killing Rage: Ending Racism
Our church continues to sail through the stormy seas of the new year with determination, fortitude, and grace. We are undeterred by the unprecedented events of recent weeks. We know that our commitment to the liberal church and ministry stretches back almost a century and it will reach far into the future. We will continue to celebrate the thresholds of life together, to make justice in our world, and to grow in affection for each other and our neighbors.
We are launching new initiatives as a community as we are also mindful of how worn down many of us are in this last stretch of the pandemic. The white supremacist and far right wing insurrection last month was particularly traumatizing for the members of our community whose identities have long been the targets of far right wing ideologies. We must be strong in affirming our commitments to a multicultural, multiracial, and multi-religious world and congregational home. As we practice sustainability and creating spaciousness as a congregation, it is important that we recognize just how many pressures many of us and our church have been under this past year. We must do what we can to release some of the stresses in our life and in our community. This is a particularly good time to practice our caring for each other, being sensitive to the needs of others, and not adding more stress to our collective life.
Our congregational theme for February is “Beloved Community.” We’ve been talking a lot about what it means to be a beloved community over the past year. Beloved Community was popularized by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as the antidote to a racist society and as an aspiration to a community that was based on mutual affections and treating all people as our siblings. Unitarian Universalism adopted this aspiration as we moved beyond the idea of “the Kingdom of G*d on Earth” and towards promoting a “world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all”–our 6th UU Principle. Black History Month reminds us of just how far we’ve come and also how much further we have to go to realize a society of equity and a world where love reigns supreme. I hope you’ll explore the theme of Beloved Community in greater depth in the many church group gatherings this month.
Our Soul Matters partners offer a few guiding questions to focus our reflections this month: What was your first experience of Beloved Community? What is your first response when you hear the call to “Love your enemy”? Ibram X. Kendi writes: “One either allows racial inequities to persevere, as a racist, or confronts racial inequities, as an anti-racist. There is no in-between safe space of “not racist.” Looking back, how were you first taught that the space of “not racist” was real? It’s said that Beloved Community requires us to “get proximate to the marginalized.” What are you learning about the “right” and “wrong” way of doing that?
As always, if you are having a difficult time or would appreciate spiritual companionship, you can access our pastoral care team at pastoralcare@uusm.org. You may also submit joys, sorrows, and milestones to this address for inclusion in our community news and/or Sunday services.
With hope, faith, and love,
Jeremiah
Rev. Jeremiah Lal Shahbaz Kalendae
Developmental Minister
From Our Minister: Imagination
CREATING REALITIES BEYOND OUR SENSES
We tend to consider imagination too lightly, forgetting that the life we make, for ourselves individually and for the world as a whole, is shaped and limited only by the perimeters of our imagination. Things are as we imagine them to be, as we imagine them into existence.
-Thomas Moore, The Re-enchantment of Everyday Life
Happy New Year! A new year arrives and with it new hope and new possibilities. Each passing day feels as though it brings us closer to a brighter future. I don’t imagine many of us will miss 2020 though new life was born, anniversaries were celebrated, traditions were honored, memories were made, and unprecedented challenges were met with innovation, resilience, grace, connection, and the strength of community.
I would like to celebrate the many leaders of our community who stepped forward to shepherd us through this long dark night and kept the vigil through each new challenge and uncertainty. Our Board of Directors, worship leaders, musicians, pastoral caregivers, small group ministry facilitators, staff members, and many committees and groups of the church all demonstrated exemplary leadership and are deserving of our praise and gratitude for what we achieved together as a congregation in the past year. Though we were physically separated for most of the year, many connections grew stronger, and our sense of our church as a beloved community was emboldened by facing a common threat together. We had to put aside conflict and differences to truly care for one another and center what is most important in our lives. Though, we are still in the midst of the pandemic and a volatile social, cultural, and political landscape, we are also turning the page of history and preparing for what might be born of this rupture in our lives.
“Imagination” is our theme for community reflection in the month of January. Each month, we engage with a universal spiritual theme throughout the life of our church to build community as we deepen our spiritual lives. Our themes are derived from the Soul Matters Sharing Circle which is a theme-based ministry utilized by hundreds of Unitarian Universalist congregations. I am heartened to think that as we struggle with these themes each month we are doing so with churches all around the country and creating a discourse that extends far beyond the confines of this beloved community. Imagination can be broadly defined as creating realities beyond those of the senses.
Liberal religion has had a unique relationship with the role of imagination in religion as we’ve often dreamed of the future that may be rather than romanticizing the past or demanding conformity with what has been. Religion is very much an exercise of imagination that invites us to consider realities beyond the concrete world of our senses. As I have shared before, I’ve always approached religion and spiritually as a form of art for this very reason. How has your imagination shaped your sense of religion or your spiritual life? What might it mean for you to approach our common spiritual life as an artist? What will you contribute to the canvas of 2021?
Let us enter this new year with the appropriate degree of caution and also with a creative optimism for the future. As the Rev. Dr. Rebecca Parker reminds us in Choose to Bless the World: None of us alone can save the world. Together–that is another possibility waiting.
As always, if you are having a difficult time or would appreciate spiritual companionship, you can access our pastoral care team at pastoralcare@uusm.org. Please reach out to your beloved community if you are in need. We care about you and we love you.
Yours in ministry,
Jeremiah
Rev. Jeremiah Lal Shahbaz Kalendae
Developmental Minister
Developmental Minister
From our Minister: Holiday Blessings
Happy Holidays!
“With mounds of greenery, the brightest ornaments, we bring high summer to our rooms, as if to spite the somberness of winter come. In time of want, when life is boarding up against the next uncertain spring, we celebrate and give of what we have away.”-Margaret Starkey
We have much to celebrate this season of lights. I love that in our liberal religious home we cherish the many holidays of this month. Like the banners that surround our sanctuary with the symbols of the great religions and humanistic philosophies of the world, the month of December embraces us with many opportunities to find the light and warmth and soothing darkness found in the religious wisdom of the world. Paganism reminds us that the cold and long nights are meant to draw us inward to rest and restore ourselves with the rhythms of nature. Judaism holds up a light to humanity that burns despite all odds. Christanity tells the story of the birth of a child who will save humankind from its destructive ways. Kwanzaa celebrates the richness of African American culture and the principles of unity, self-determination, collective work of responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith. Our Unitarian Universalist faith honors all of these wonderful traditions as we also cherish our liberal religious ancestors bringing many of the traditions of Christmas–such as the Christmas Tree and “A Christmas Carol”–to our larger culture. I hope you will find some hope, joy, and peace in the holidays this year.
Stillness is our spiritual theme for community contemplation this month. Each month, we reflect upon a theme in our worship life, group activities, and publications to build connections across the life of our congregation and to provide opportunities for spiritual deepening together. Stillness is broadly defined as the absence of motion and sound. In religious terms, stillness often means to dwell within oneself or to encounter the divine. It is a prerequisite for many forms of spiritual practice, creativity, and more mundane activities.
I often think of stillness in terms of absorption in being itself–the antidote to always being in a hurry or too focused on becoming. Stillness invites us to be with ourselves and to accept ourselves as enough. It invites us to live with greater patience and acceptance of what is. It helps us to rest and restore ourselves for the time when we cannot be still. I hope you will reflect more deeply on this important spiritual theme in your homes and through our church activities this month.
In addition to being a time of celebration for many, the holidays can also remind us of the loss of loved ones and may amplify feelings of isolation and sadness. We will again be hosting a Holiday Community Dialogue Circle this year to provide some time for support from beloved community on Wednesday, December 16th, from 7:00pm to 8:30pm. The zoom information will be published in our private online group.
Our Pastoral Care Associates are also available to provide companionship and a listening ear if some additional support would be helpful. They can be reached by email at pastoralcare@uusm.org or by calling the church office. Lastly, this is a great time to reach out to friends and family members, our elders, those who may be isolated, and others who are struggling in this difficult year. Lets support each other this holiday season and keep the spirit of our liberal faith burning bright.
Holiday Blessings!
Jeremiah
From our Minister: Hope is on the Horizon
“A cheerful heart is good medicine…”
— Proverbs 17:22
— Proverbs 17:22
Dear Ones,
There is much to be cheerful about in this season of giving thanks. The Lakers won their 17th NBA Championship. The turbulent election season came to a conclusion. History was made with California Senator Kamala Harris–the first female, Black, and Asian American–being elected to the White House. The Dodgers won the World Series. Multiple highly effective COVID-19 vaccines appear to be on the horizon. The light at the end of the tunnel seems to draw nearer with each passing day.
After months of a seemingly unending pandemic that completely transformed life as we know it, dramatic outbreaks of civil unrest, and heated displays of political animosity in this nation, it seems “the storm is passing over,” and there is much to be hopeful about in our world. Despite the many things we have to celebrate, we are likely headed into the worst months of the pandemic, and this isn’t a time for relaxing our guard or not taking appropriate precautions–like wearing masks and avoiding unnecessary travel or gatherings–to keep ourselves and others safe and healthy.
Our ministry theme for contemplation this month is healing. At its origin, healing denotes “returning to wholeness” or restoring balance. We’ve been exploring this theme on Sunday mornings and in the many meetings and activities in the life of the church. It is a fitting topic for contemplation in this time of so much illness, death, and division in our culture. Developmental ministry is also a period of healing that invites us to practice living by our liberal religious faith and moving from a place of woundedness to greater health as a congregation. Our community has made great strides in that regard, and the journey of healing continues. My experience is that the pandemic has brought our community closer together and has helped us to set aside many of the differences and divisions as we face a common threat and prioritize what really matters in a beloved community.
Our congregation is moving forward with many of our plans for the year as we continue to adapt to learning how to minister to each other and our world in this unique time. We’ve established our Intersectional Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression Commission, launched our Chalice Circles small group ministries, are forming a Bylaws Refresh Committee, and are continuing to build out a more comprehensive model of pastoral care, in addition to a multitude of other congregational initiatives. We practice what we call shared ministry because we understand that ministry is the work of the whole congregation. We need your involvement and commitment to be as successful as possible this year. There are three important upcoming opportunities for service I’d like to highlight this month:
Reimagining Religious Education Together
Sunday, December 6th, Noon-3pm
Help us Reimagine Religious Education with this lively and interactive workshop, where Cleo, Rev. Jeremiah, and religious exploration leaders and volunteers will join together to engage the congregation’s mission to set a path forward for religious education and family support at UUSM. We will explore how, in these unprecedented times, we can draw on our abilities for deep care, abounding creativity, and a shared commitment to community in our religious education. This is a wonderful opportunity to meet our new UUA regional partner, Dr. Messlia James, who will help to facilitate this program. Please email Cleo if you would like to participate or have questions.
UUSM Fundraising Committee
Thank you for your generous financial support of our beloved community. These are particularly challenging times as we are losing significant regular income due to our inability to serve the larger community as a rentals center or to host our major annual fundraiser, Dining for Dollars. If you’re able to provide some additional financial support beyond annual pledges, we truly appreciate it. We’ve already had to make some significant changes to our staffing to offset our losses and adapt to changes in our staffing needs during this pandemic. We are in the process of organizing a Fundraising Committee to develop creative ways for us to raise funds in safe ways to support our community in this challenging year. If you have experience in fundraising or are inspired to explore serving the congregation in this way, I invite you to contact me about possibly joining this group of committed community leaders.
Hunger Task Force
From Lois Hutchinson and Jacki Weber
Are you seeing hunger all around you, but you don’t know what to do? Join a newly re-forming Hunger Task Force and put your values into action, helping families and others who don’t have enough to eat. UUSM Members have been working independently to support needy households, but there’s so much more that could be done. And we could have more fun in service together (at a safe social distance, of course). You can offer food, time, or money and make a real difference. To learn more, please email hunger@uusm.org today.
As always, if you or a loved one is in need of pastoral support, please contact our Pastoral Care Team at pastoralcare@uusm.org.
Hope is on the horizon.
Yours in ministry,
Jeremiah
Jeremiah
Rev. Jeremiah Kalendae
Developmental Minister
Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica
From Our Minister: Deep Listening
RENEWAL
“At a certain point, you say to the woods, to the sea, to the mountains, the world,
Now I am ready. Now I will stop and be wholly attentive. You empty yourself and wait, listening.”
–Annie Dillard (1945 – )
Dear Ones,
Our congregation is alive with so much activity at the beginning of the new church year. We celebrated our annual Ingathering Water Communion and honored the High Holidays and are preparing ourselves for annual Blessing of the Animals and the autumnal season of remembering our beloved dead. Our Board of Directors is busy attending to the mission and developmental priorities of our congregation. Our worship leaders are creating dynamic online worship services as we continue to learn new technologies and explore how to offer a variety of our cherished services in a virtual environment. Our UU the Vote activities are in full swing as we affirm “the use of the democratic process…in society at large” by helping to ensure the integrity of our elections by countering voter suppression with efforts to encourage voting across the country. We are discerning an Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression Commission to advise our Board as to how best to widen our circle of concern and inclusion throughout the life of our congregation. Our new Chalice Circles small group ministries are preparing to weave a stronger sense of community in this time of physical separation through ministries of listening and presence. Our pastoral caregivers are reaching out to those in our congregation who are in need of support. These are just a few of the many things we’re doing to tend the bright flame of our liberal faith even as we live through a bleak period in our lives.
Our congregational theme for October is “deep listening.” Each month, we explore a different spiritual theme as a community through worship, publications, small group ministries, religious education, and group meetings. Deep listening invites us to dive beneath the noise of pundits and politicians, 24-hour news cycles on television, and doom scrolling on social media, to listen more deeply to the sacred within our lives and in the world. I often lament that our society seems to be designed to keep us distracted and to keep us from being in a deeper relationship with each other and our world. Arundhati Roy writes:
“Another world is not only only possible, she is on her way.
On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”
Where would we begin if we were to create another world? I imagine it might begin with a lot of deep listening. Are we willing to listen deeply to all of our BIPOC, Queer, Transgender, and other marginalized siblings to create a world of fairness and justice? Are we willing to listen deeply to each other to witness to life’s struggles and triumphs together? Are we willing to listen deeply to what we hold sacred? Are we willing to listen to spirit or the still small voice within or our cherished humanistic values that give our lives direction and purpose? Are we listening for the ancestors who speak to us in this time of so much loss? Does nature herself call to us through this crisis we are facing together? I hope you will join me this month in practicing listening deeply to each other, to all that we hold to be sacred, and to our badly hurting world.
Let us not try to walk on water in this perilous time when we are confronting so many challenges and adapting to many changes. Walking on the beautiful Earth will do. We do not need miracles right now. Encouraging each other to practice self-care and community-care, fostering sustainability and regenerativity in our lives through adjusting expectations and routines, and creating plenty of time and spaciousness for rest, play, and joy can fuel our spirits for the long haul. Let us encourage hope and resilience and do good in the ways we are able. Let us find comfort in our breathing, in the beating of our hearts, and in the spirit of beloved community. Let us listen, as Arundhati Roy encourages us, for the possibility of another world on her way.
Yours in ministry,
Jeremiah
Rev. Jeremiah Lal Shahbaz Kalendae
Developmental Minister
Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica
October 2, 2020
“Eight Commands in Times of Uncertainty”
By the Rev. Molly Housh Gordon, Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbia, Missouri
Read by the Rev. Jeremiah Kalendae for “Yamim Nora’im: The Days of Awe” Service Reading on September 27, 2020.
What would Yom Kippur — the Day of Judgement — be without a few commandments? Now this is a Unitarian Universalist service and not a Jewish temple service so instead of the 613 commandments of Torah, I share with you the important and helpful wisdom of eight commandments from my colleague, the Rev. Molly Housh Gordon, for navigating through these times of uncertainty:
1. Quadruple down on your spiritual practices. The things that keep you tethered to the earth, even as it shifts. The things that keep you living the life you are living in this moment, not some other life or moment. The things that allow your spirit to settle from the flurry and sink back into your body. These practices need not be a lofty hour of meditation, as long as you are present to them. A walk with the dog will do. Or a moment with a poem. Nursing the baby. Making a meal. Just do the thing with your whole self and the intention to practice and it is a spiritual practice.
2. Put some pleasurable thing on your calendar that will be reliable no matter what is unfolding around you. Make a date and keep it. On Friday I am going to make chocolate mousse. On Tuesday I am going to call my best friend. On September 23 a new movie about Sherlock Holmes’ younger sister drops on Netflix and I will watch it with hot milky tea and scones in hand.
3. Find something to give thanks for every day. Not as a tool of spiritual bypass demanding that you somehow re-frame or breeze by your suffering. But as a reminder that the world is beautiful and terrible and we can’t forget about the beauty if we are to survive the terror.
4. When you are surrounded by way too many questions and options, drill down to the smallest bit. Small is all. Just do the next right thing. And then the next. And then the next. Suddenly, you’re somewhere different than where you started and new options open before you.
5. And when you feel totally robbed of options, be so intentional about the decisions that you are able to make. Here are two revelatory, and deceptively simple questions to ask yourself, depending on the situation: “What do I prefer?” and “What does love look like right now?”
6. Turn off the news y’all. Or log off the doom-scrolling. You cannot information your way through this, and most of our sources are intentionally calibrated to keep our bodies on high alert so we always want more. Opt out. Curate your social media feed to be mostly funny cat pics and babies.
And for God’s sake turn off the cable news. Switch to the classical station with the five minute news update on the hour. It is enough.
7. Rigorously pursue soothing and comfort for your body, which is constantly being activated into stress response right now. Start by noticing several times a day that you have a body. What’s going on below your neck? Continue by asking yourself how you can be 5% more comfortable. Maybe you need a cushion. Maybe you need a heavy blanket. Maybe you need a walk. Maybe you need to drink some water. You probably need to drink some water.
8. Finally, for now… Remember that you are not alone. Reach out to the people who can support you and rely on them. Reach out to your church if nothing else. Ask for what you need. Be reliable to your people, in return.
Stay soft, my dear ones, and we will make it through this stumbling.
From our Minister: The Path Is Beautiful
RENEWAL
“The path is beautiful and pleasant and joyful and familiar.”
-Meister Eckhart (c. 1260 – c. 1328)
-Meister Eckhart (c. 1260 – c. 1328)
Dear Ones,
I hope everyone had a restorative summer and is excited about the new church year! I missed church and each of you this summer. You were in my heart as I practiced taking a rejuvenating break from the many demands of ministry.
Being away from church meant I had more time for family and friends. It also meant having time to swim each day, meditate, and I even started painting! I pray these activities continue. A highlight of my time away was a rafting trip in the SF Bay Area. I also reconnected with the Ashk Chishti Dergahs — my sufi “fire of love” community — and attended a summer course series on the teaching of the great sufi master Hz. Najm ad-Dīn Kubrà. I can’t wait to share some of what I learned with you in worship this year.
Our worship and ministry theme this month is “renewal.” It can be broadly defined as “to make new again” or “to refresh.” I know it is something we’ve had to cultivate for ourselves and with community in these challenging months. We will explore renewal in our annual Ingathering Water Communion Service next week, through our many social justice commitments, and by relying on our community for the support and love that has the power to “make all things new.”
I’d like to highlight a few of our upcoming events, activities, programs, and some new ways for you to be involved with this important work in the weeks before us:
Ingathering Water Communion
We will celebrate the arrival of the new church year with our Ingathering Water Communion from the safety of our homes on Sunday, September 13th, at 10 am. We are hoping you might be willing to record a short video of yourself or your family pouring a libation of water into a larger bowl of water with a few inspiring words to include in the service. Please be sure to record in a quiet and well-lit space and with at least a 720p HD resolution camera (such as on most phones), if possible. Saunder (music@uusm) needs the videos by Tuesday evening (September 8) so please email them to him. If you are unable to record a video, you can email me (minister@uusm.org) a sentence of a wish, memory, hope, or blessing for the new church year by Wednesday evening (September 9) and I will try to include them in the ceremony.
The Call to Racial Justice
We are responding to the call for racial justice on Sunday mornings, through our many Faith in Action activities, with new religious exploration curricula for our young people, through deep Chalice Circle conversations, and by forming a new church commission that will help to assess and catalyze intersectional anti-racism and anti-oppression work throughout the life of the congregation. If you have expertise in these fields and are interested in applying to serve in this new leadership body of the congregation, please email me so I know you’re interested in being involved.
UU the Vote
We are committed to doing all we can to fulfill the UUA’s #VoteLove pledge and to defend our sacred UU values of freedom, democracy, and justice. Help us with this work by joining the Santa Monica UU the Vote Team today! Also, please plan to join us as we mobilize as a community on Sunday, September 13th after service at 11:30 a.m! RSVP here.
Chalice Circles – New Small Group Ministries!
Chalice Circles, our new small group ministry program, are small lay-led groups of 8 to 10 people that will meet together over time to deepen and expand the ministry of the church. By meeting together over time, being willing to share deeply from the heart and the soul, and by listening with an open heart we deepen our awareness of our own lives and hold with care the lives of others.
The focus of the groups is on meaning and significance rather than on details, information, and outcome. We are offering a variety of groups this year, starting in October. Examples are Spirit in Practice, Poetry as a Spiritual Practice, Transitions and Passages, and Anti-racism: Telling Our Stories Toward a Beloved Community.
For information about Chalice Circles email ChaliceCircles@uusm.org and someone will get back to you.
A Word of Thankfulness
Thank you to everyone who helped to create an inspiring and restorative summer at UUSM. A special thanks to Kikanza Nuri-Robins, Dorothy Steinicke, Saunder Choi, Worship Associates, choir, musicians, and our special guest worship leaders for the excellent services this summer! Also a special thanks to our pastoral care leadership for tending to the hearts and souls of our congregation these past summer months. Let us remember those who we lost this summer and celebrate all of the new life in our midst. Together, we have empowered our beloved community to continue to fulfill our mission and live out our liberal religious principles in the world.
Yours in ministry,
Jeremiah
Jeremiah
Rev. Jeremiah Lal Shahbaz Kalendae
Developmental Minister
Developmental Minister
Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica
September 4, 2020
From our Minister: Summer Break
STUDY, REST, PLAY, AND PREPARE
Dear Ones,
I hope this finds you enjoying this beautiful summer day! I write this on my last day in the office before summer break. Like many of you, my plans for the summer have been upended by the pandemic and I’ve had to find new ways to rejuvenate and restore that are low-risk. It is my hope to drive to San Francisco to visit with old friends and also to find some much needed time in nature—I think a few days at the beach and a rafting trip may be in order, insha’allah! I also have a pile of books next to me waiting to be read—everything from a two volume set on the history of Unitarian Universalism, to classics by Howard Thurman, and multiple books of poetry ranging from our own Theresa Soto to new translations of Kabir Das. I am excited to have some time away to study, rest, play, and prepare for the new church year.
While I am away this summer, I hope we can encourage resiliency, sustainability, and regenerativity throughout the life of our congregation. Many of our leaders and staff are beyond tired after months of having to respond to the pandemic. Our leaders and staff had to give of themselves like never before so please take a moment to thank them for all they do this summer. I am sure they will consider it a blessing if you give them a break to center and restore too. May this be a summer of expressing our gratitude and creating spaciousness in our lives and for each other.
Our community is led by our outstanding Board of Directors, talented professional staff, and many networks of vital congregational leaders. I will not be able to respond to emails, calls, or messages while I am away but there are others who will be available to help. Please refer to the following directory if you have any questions, concerns, or need assistance:
Worship Life – Kikanza Nuri-Robins & Dorothy Steinicke, Worship Associate Co-Chairs
Pastoral Care – Bettye Barclay & Linda Van Ligten (pastoralcare@uusm.org), Pastoral Care Executive Team
Religious Exploration – Cleo Anderson, Director of Religious Exploration
Administration – Nurit Gordon, Church Administrator
Governance – Beth Brownlie, President of the Congregation
If you contact the church office at office@uusm.org or (310) 829-5436, staff will be able to help you and/or direct you to the appropriate parties.
Wishing you and yours a happy and rejuvenating summertime!
With love,
Jeremiah
Rev. Jeremiah Lal Shahbaz Kalendae
Rev. Jeremiah Lal Shahbaz Kalendae
Developmental Minister