First Unitarian Church

My goals for this year included—serving as the lead minister for pastoral care in the congregation—providing pastoral counseling and outreach to our members and friends in collaboration and consultation with Rev. Nancy, pastoral associates and caring hands volunteers in the congregation.

In the life of a religious community, how we care for each other is a sacred practice. In the affirmation that we recite each Sunday we proclaim, “Love is the doctrine of this church.” In all that we do, love is our foundation. From this place of love we reach out to one another offering our support and resources. To me this is my highest calling—to make love manifest in our relations with one another. It is a sacred privilege and honor to be invited into people’s lives when they are healing from illness, when they are in turmoil and when they want to celebrate the successes and joys that life brings. Each month the pastoral associates meet at my home to discuss those that need our care. This is shared ministry at its best. Even the nuts and bolts of arranging rides, meals, and visits can be a spiritual practice for the caregiver when what we do makes a difference in people’s lives. Rev. Donna Lenahan leads the Pastoral Associates and our monthly meetings with her quiet grace and thoughtful stewardship. She also cares for caregivers by encouraging us to think about ourselves too. Pastoral Associates, Dena Dickinson, Debra Fenzel-Alexander, Carol Greene, Barb Zoellin-Malm and Joyce Miller multiply our caring presence in the congregation tenfold. Our love is real; it is practical and it is healing. I am grateful to be involved in a congregation that understands that this is our most important work.

Another of my goals for the year was working with the Religious Education Council to prioritize the Lifespan Religious Education Visions generated from feedback sessions in April and May of last year and to develop an operational plan—so that we might bring our collective vision to life!

On Saturday, May 30, 2009 we will be moving to the next phase in bringing our program in line with the needs of today’s families and broadening our scope so that we are truly learning and developing relationships as a lifespan community. Professional educators from the congregation will join together in helping craft a 21st century educational model. We want to understand how we can best serve our families both at church and home. What part can we play in creating strong and healthy families? And how can we ensure that the elders of our congregation as well as children and youth among us continue to have their spirits nourished and intellects fed? To be a transformational force in people’s lives and in our communities, we must deepen our relationships among all ages in worship, social justice, spiritual practice and fellowship. I am excited in this 200th anniversary year of Unitarian Charles Darwin’s birth that our religious educating community is evolving to serve the cause of life—abundant and meaningful.

We are blessed with many talented members who give of themselves so that this community may grow and flourish. Religious Education Council Members include: Patricia O’Hanian-Coffey, Tamara Payne-Alex, Jan Theiss-Guffey and Kasthuri Veeraraghavan.

Let us thank them for how they keep “the trains running on time” and our program moving all year long! And let us thank them for imagining how we might all grow into the harmony with the divine as our affirmation so professes

My third goal for the year has been facilitating a deeper spiritual grounding and Unitarian Universalist identity through intergenerational community building experiences in worship, social justice and fellowship activities—and through my work on the Church Board and Program & Operations Committee promoting the full participation of our children and youth in the life of our church and faith.

Every other year we offer a rite of passage program for youth in 8th-10th grades called
Coming of Age. It is a yearlong program where youth have a relationship with an adult mentor from the congregation. They may have not known each other before the program or had only a causal familiarity with each other. Coming of Age requires them to go deeper. Through monthly meetings, service projects and retreats throughout the year Coming of Age is a model of intergenerational community building. One of the highlights of the year is the Social Justice Retreat in San Francisco with the Faithful Fools Street Ministry (http://www.faithfulfools.org/). Youth and adults walk the streets of the Tenderloin section of San Francisco confronting first hand the realities of poverty and homelessness. They get to understand that reality on a personal level when they stand in line for an hour waiting for a meal with everyone else on the streets. These are the experiences that transform people’s lives towards the arc of justice. And if this Coming of Age Year is successful it will be in no small part due to the work of the members of the Coming of Age Taskforce: Carrie Doolittle, Nancy Johnson and Rick Merritt.

This year we are participating in an intergenerational worship experience once a month in our sanctuary. We have sung and danced together and engaged in rituals with all ages. Worship is the heart of our congregational life. It is the wheel from which the spokes of our community activities branch off from and find inspiration. Where else in our society do all ages come together to embrace the sacredness of life? We all need peers to share the struggles and joys of life at our own age. But we also need the cross-fertilization and creative interchange that happens when all ages come together to celebrate, mourn and ask the big questions about what life is all about.

And we must laugh and have a good time too, as we did when we celebrated everyone’s birthday in January of this year. What a great gift we have with the presence of children, youth and adults sharing their lives together. It is easy to forget the preciousness of our community life when we go back into our work-a-day lives and schools that separate us. Here we can bridge those boundaries and enrich our lives as we mentor, teach, work and play side by side with all ages.

My last stated goal articulated in August 2008 was to integrate seekers and new members into the life of the church by offering classes on Unitarian Universalism—and through my work with Wisdom University’s certificate program in spiritual direction create an adult study group for spiritual growth.

Beginning in March 2009 I will be offering a Unitarian Universalist Association Tapestry of Faith program called Spirit in Practice. Spirit in Practice is a 10-workshop model suitable for the newcomer to our congregation and the seasoned member.

“Spirit in Practice was created to help Unitarian Universalists develop regular disciplines, or practices, of the spirit—practices that help them connect with the sacred ground of their being, however they understand it. Spirit in Practice affirms religious diversity while seeking unity in our communal quest for meaning and wholeness. Whether participants follow a path they identify as Humanist, Jewish, Christian, Pagan, Theist, Atheist, Agnostic, Mystic, and/or any of the other paths we follow in our diverse congregations, the Spirit in Practice workshops offer a forum for learning, sharing, and growth that can enrich their faith journeys.”

Workshops will be offered once a month at the church and a person can attend one or all. Topics include: Toward a Rich and Meaningful Unitarian Universalist Spirituality; Personal Spiritual Practices; Body Practices; Justice Practices…

Like so many of our congregants and people in the community I have had to pare back my work with Wisdom University because of financial restraints. I am nevertheless committed to pursuing a certificate in Spiritual Direction because I believe it will enhance my ministry and pastoral care.

This year Rev. Nancy and I decided to move our monthly new member ingathering ceremony to the second Sunday of the month. Since we began this invitation to membership we have had new members every month join with our Unitarian Universalist principles and values. As a minister of the church I meet with prospective new members to discuss if our church and faith are the right match for them.

The Membership Committee holds monthly tours of the church and a discussion on Unitarian Universalism to newcomers. To complement the Membership Committee’s work I plan to offer in depth classes on Unitarian Universalism and spiritual growth such as the Spirit in Practice program. I plan in the future to hold regular Meet the Minister Sundays after services to talk about San José Unitarian Church, Unitarian Universalism and membership—perhaps on the second Sunday when new members are ingathered and interest is stimulated.

As I enter my 15th year of serving this congregation and the 20th anniversary as a minister in our tradition I am grateful to be both a staff person and member of this beloved community. And though we are living in uncertain times there is one thing I am quite certain about— this is a community of justice and transformation. We continually strive to improve ourselves and the effectiveness of our ministries. We can see it in our new governance structure of the board and program and operations committee. We can see it in our work for justice in working to defeat Proposition 8 and make civil marriage a civil right for all people regardless of sexual orientation. And we can see it in the way we care for those in our midst whose lives are turned upside down due to misfortune or illness. Love is truly the doctrine of this church. The quest of truth is our sacrament. And service is our prayer.

I want to express my deep appreciation for my esteemed colleague, the Reverend Nancy Palmer Jones. Ours is a team ministry. We are called to serve you and the cause of Unitarian Universalism. I know my ministry is more effective because of our collaboration and shared commitment to build the multicultural community that is our vision and mission.

Respectfully submitted,
Rev. Geoff Rimositis

On January 23-25 sixty-three youth and adults from seven congregations came together at the Unitarian Universalist Church of San Francisco for the Pacific Central District’s Coming of Age Social Justice Retreat. John Chung on Friday evening led us in an experience of Theatre of the Oppressed that was both fun— engaging with theatre games and deep as we explored together the causes and our experiences of homelessness. The heart of the weekend was working with the Faithful Fools Street Ministry who prepared us for a Saturday retreat walking the streets of the Tenderloin and witnessing first hand life on the streets and what it is like to be on the receiving end of care as we waited for an hour in lines at Glide Memorial or St. Anthony’s for lunch.

I shadowed two youth for the day and they decided to eat at Glide. We were sitting at a table when a hard living man asked one of the youth if he was going to eat his lunch since he wasn’t eating with the same vigor that the man was. The youth gave over his entire lunch to the man who gave a wide tooth-gaped smile that he was going to have enough food to satisfy him. The youth who was still hungry and had not eaten was given a tray by a girl who didn’t want her food. The cycle of care and compassion was moving right before my eyes. What comes around surely goes around and it is extra special when it comes from the heart.

We also had evening worship circles on Friday and Saturday night. We pressed our painted hands onto a banner—symbolizing how we reach out our hands in friendship to each other and to those we were going to meet on the streets the next day. On Saturday evening our own Meg Trask led the group in an affirmation circle where we went around and placed our hands on the shoulders of closed eye participants as we responded to prompts such as: affirm someone who made the retreat fun or affirm someone who you learned something from. I have to admit it felt really good when those hands were laid on my shoulders.

We also attended the Sunday service in the sanctuary with members of the church. With Obama’s inauguration less that a week ago the service was about the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. realized in the election of our first African American president. One of the staff of the church sang MLK Jr’s favorite hymn, My Precious Lord, from up in the balcony and it sent goose bumps running up and down my spine. It was the prefect Sunday service for our social justice retreat.

And of course youth being youth there were the Saturday night games of tag and sleeping bag bumper cars, mask making, clay work and just hanging out getting to know each other more fully and deeply.

Many thanks go to Deanna LaTorre and Genie Bernardini who drove up from San Jose not once but twice as they had to have their own street retreat in the Tenderloin before they could shadow youth on their own at our retreat.

Staff from our church included: Bruce Halen, V Kingsley and Rick Morris. Meg Trask served as a graduate assistant. She had completed the program two years ago.

The Coming of Age experience is of course different for each person but we can say with some degree of certainty that we created community together. We were real with each other—sharing from the heart about the difficult reality of poverty and homelessness. We experienced Unitarian Universalism as a lived faith—living out our covenant to promote peace, liberty and justice for all and to honor the inherent worth and dignity of every person. And most importantly we made friends—many of whom continue to grow stronger with time (and text messaging).

Blessed Be. Amen. Shalom. Salaam.

I was fortunate to have had the chance to celebrate the New Year with friends in Albuquerque. During our time there we took a ride on the largest tram in the world to the top of the Sandia Mountains at eleven thousand feet. There was about three feet of snow at the summit and we took a walk on the ridgeline enjoying impressive views of the valley below. On our return trip as we docked into the platform we watched the next riders pressed up against the large plate glass window. I noticed a young girl who was all decked out in a pink jacket, pink hat, pink scarf and pink gloves. I pointed out to my spouse Patty how cute she was. Then I saw another older girl looking through the window and I remarked how much she looked like our next-door neighbor’s daughter, Riley. And then I saw their mother, father and other sister and I realized that they were indeed our next door neighbors. I was flabbergasted! What were the chances of us meeting so far from San Jose—at that exact time and place so that we ran into each other? It made me stop and reflect. What was the universe trying to tell me? I asked myself: “Have I been a good neighbor?” “Perhaps it was time to invite them over for that long delayed meal.”

And then it hit me how close we are to each other. You know—just six degrees of separation from anyone anywhere. Our lines of connection are drawn to each other stronger and clearer then anyone could imagine. That’s why it makes a difference to us what is happening in Gaza. It is more than disturbing news we quickly change, because we don’t want to take in all that sorrow, pain and destruction when we think there is nothing we can do about it. We may be separated by an ocean but as human beings we are not that far apart. And if we tease out the thread you know that we would be astounded to find someone we know who has a connection to that war plagued land when we thought we were so far removed from it.

Then again it might even be closer to home. How could we not feel hurt and injustice over the death of 21-year-old Oscar Grant, who was shot in the back and killed on New Year’s day by a Bart police officer. It didn’t take much imagination to understand what Oakland and Gaza have in common as people watched helplessly while Oakland erupted in violence with the pent-up frustration of a community that once again sees delayed justice for another young African American man.

And how many of us have lost money in our retirement accounts due to the likes of Bernie Madoff—who made off with many people’s futures. It is unbelievable that we gave billions of dollars to the financial institutions that have depleted our savings—without so much as an accountant keeping the books. Who is accountable? We cry to the high heavens. Who will take responsibility? Where does the buck stop?

Accountability seems like a hot potato no one wants to hold onto for too long less they get burned. But accountability is how we live. It is how we function as a society. It keeps the water flowing in our pipes. It picks up the trash from our streets each week. It keeps our children safe at school. It demands that crimes should be punished—reparations made—reconciliation attempted. We cannot escape accountability. Our very health depends on how we care for ourselves. What medicines we must take. How often we see our doctors.

As Unitarian Universalists we are morally accountable to life—the life that is beating in our breasts, in our cantankerous neighbors across the street, in the rock throwing Palestinian youth in Gaza, and in the starving polar bears in the Arctic—because we are connected to each other in a grand web of interdependence. As Martin Luther King Jr. said “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”

On this Martin Luther King Jr. weekend and on the eve of the inauguration of our first African American President it is a good time to ask ourselves: to what have we dedicated our lives? How deeply do we carry this dedication? And is it time to rededicate ourselves?

I have dedicated as of this year 20 years to the Unitarian Universalist ministry. As those who have been with me for the past 15 of them here at the First Unitarian Church of San Jose can testify I have gotten a lot more wrinkled and white haired than that young sprout that you can still see on the donor wall downstairs inside The Third Street Community Center entrance. I have done much good work for this community and Unitarian Universalism. And I have made my share of blunders over the years but I hope I have learned from my mistakes. I have been blessed with a congregation that has nurtured and guided me in my ministry. You have told it to me straight and you have encouraged me to put my whole self into our common work. I came back from sabbatical last July and rededicated myself to helping our congregation to be a healthy and effective institution for all of us—children and adults alike.

Where do you need to put your heart? What will make you come alive? What is your sacred intention that will bring the light of love into the world?

As Unitarian Universalists we are blessed with many options to find and make meaning as is so beautifully displayed in the gold tablets arrayed behind me. The one that I would like to raise up today is the last gold tablet to your left that signifies the wisdom of the world’s religions. One of the symbols depicted on that tablet is a lotus flower representing Buddhism.

Mary in today’s reading from Jack Kornfield said that if someone wants to become a follower of Buddhism all that person has to do is recite, “I take refuge in the Buddha, I take refuge in the dharma [the teachings], I take refuge in the sangha [the community of practioners.] There is nothing to join, nothing to become—simply this turning of the heart.” There is of course culture, tradition and ritual that has been layered over these simple vows through the eons but Buddhism at its core is a practice more than it is a religion. And that is why Unitarian Universalists find so much inspiration in Buddhism.

I believe that there are great parallels between Buddhism and Unitarian Universalism.
We too take refuge.

A Sufi story in Jack Kornfield’s book illustrates a refuge Unitarian Universalists take.

“ A man who had studied much in the schools of wisdom finally died in the fullness of time and found himself at the Gates of Eternity. An angel of light approached him and said, ‘Go no further, o mortal, until you have proven to me your worthiness to enter into Paradise! But the man answered, ‘Just a minute now—first of all, can you prove to me this is the real Heaven and not just the wishful fantasy of my disordered mind undergoing death?’ Before the angel could reply, a voice from inside the gates shouted, ‘Let him in—he is one of us!’”

As Unitarian Universalists we take refuge in our heretical history—which exemplifies the wisdom of great questioning. We agree with Socrates that an unexamined life is not worth living. We want to be fully engaged with our lives and not accept something simply because an authority says it is so. Of course it has gotten many of our forbears into trouble when they stood up for their beliefs. It cost them their reputations and even their lives. But our ancestors also asked themselves: how can society be better? How can the marginalized be served? How can the unrepresented get their fair share? We carry forth their legacy today in the way we honor each person’s journey of faith and how we take an active role in the betterment of our communities by not shying away from asking the hard questions no matter how unpopular they may be.

Our Coming of Age Youth will hopefully be experiencing that lived history next weekend at the Unitarian Universalist Church of San Francisco when they join with seven bay area congregations for a Social Justice Retreat. The heart of the weekend experience will be a daylong retreat into the Tenderloin section of the city with the Faithful Fools Street Ministry. Our youth will see homeless people on the streets who find refuge in each other’s company and in the daily meals at St. Anthony’s and Glide Memorial Churches. They will see hard living people who find refuge in drugs and alcohol to deaden the pain and misery of a life of daily survival. It will be difficult to view such suffering but if they look closely enough they will also see hope and community. For often the most generous and caring people are those who have nothing or next to nothing. The Tenderloin is a place where our youth will see the human drama played out in all its agony and ecstasy. We hope that the experience will open them up to discover the places of their own refuge and what it means to live a justice filled life. We hope that they will see people’s humanity and not define them by their circumstances or their addictions.

May I take this moment to praise our Coming of Age youth, their mentors and this congregation for the over one thousand dollars we raised for Second Harvest Food Bank at last year’s Empty Bowls Luncheon in November. You know that money is going to make a difference to the many people in our valley who are having a difficult time even finding enough food to eat.

Unitarian Universalists along with our Buddhist brothers and sisters also take refuge in the sangha, the community. Simply put, we need each other. We need each other when we mourn. We need each other when we celebrate. We need each other to help our children grow and learn. We need each other when we are alone and in need of care. We need each other to marshal our resources and energy to do the good work of our lives. Desmond Tutu puts it simply, “In Africa when you ask someone ‘How are you?’ the reply you get is in the plural even when you are speaking to one person. A man would say, ‘We are well’ or ‘We are not well.’ He himself may be quite well, but his grandmother is not well and so he is not well either…The solitary isolated human being is really a contradiction in terms.”

Where are the places you find refuge from the weary storms of life? Who and what gives you the strength to carry on in your life?

Buddhism’s and Unitarian Universalism’s last refuge is the dharma (the teachings, the truth). 2009 is the 150th anniversary of the publication of Unitarian Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species and the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth . Unitarian Universalists and people around the world will be making a re-commitment to the scientific veracity of evolution.

Our faith is also evolving and dynamic because it is the nature of life. We must test our hypotheses. Call into question our assumptions. Do they hold up to the facts? Is what we believe true? During my sabbatical last year I confronted my own belief in God by asking myself “is this belief true?” Of course based on empirical evidence I would say it is not. I rested in that place of doubt for a long time until I had a personal experience of Spirit. Was it God? I don’t know but I filled in that blank gold tablet up there with my own experience of the transcending mystery and wonder of creation that it represents. I believe in a Spirit that moves in our lives and in the world.

As Unitarian Universalists we take refuge in the truth as we come to understand it. This truth is not fixed—for we live in a reality of constant change. I once again draw from Jack Kornfield’s wonderful book on Buddhist Psychology, The Wise Heart to illustrate that point. He tells of his favorite cartoon—a Bedouin family travelling across the vast desert landscape. The father is first, on the largest camel, followed next by the mother and then the three children, each on slightly smaller camels. The father has turned his head to respond to the smallest child: Stop asking if we’re almost there yet. We’re nomads for crying out loud!” And so are we Unitarian Universalists. We are nomads, pilgrims, in search of truth that will guide our lives and make our communities justice filled. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “I still believe that standing up for unarmed truth is the greatest thing in the world.”

The dharma, the truth, that I take refuge in, is the fact that I am a white man of privilege who is accountable to people of color, and marginalized communities. I am called to speak up against racism and discrimination in whatever forms they rear their ugly heads. I must reach out from by bubble of false security, the obliviousness of privilege that keeps the reality and the story of people’s lives away from my consciousness so I don’t have to deal with it. The Dean of Students and Community Life at Andover Theological School in her Baccalaureate sermon last May related a story when she attended a small Christian college in the middle of Indiana and had an African American roommate named Rhonda.

“Rhonda was the first African American person I ever got to know well. As we grew closer she shared with me that each year every new African American student at the school received a letter from the Indiana Ku Klux Klan letting them know that the Klan knew who they were and where they lived.”

I vow not to be oblivious any more. I vow to educate myself about racism in all its forms, including the racist enculturation that still influences me today.

It never dawned on me that the term minority would be offensive until I read Keenan Freeman’s essay on the election of Barack Obama. It makes perfect sense, doesn’t it? If we call someone a minority we are classifying him or her as the “other.” I never thought of myself as the other because I have rested comfortably in the majority—but with demographic changes happening in this country that will not be true for long.

So we can say that as Unitarian Universalists we take refuge in our heretical history—which exemplifies the wisdom of great questioning through the ages. Our questions lead us to solutions for the betterment of our lives and society’s welfare.

We take refuge in the sangha, in the community. We need each other to be all that we can be in the fullness of our humanity.

And we take refuge in the dharma, the truth. We find it in our principles; in the sources of wisdom we draw from and most importantly from each other when we open our hearts in fellowship and friendship.
As Unitarian Universalists we are morally accountable to life—the life that is beating in our breasts, in our cantankerous neighbors across the street, in the rock throwing Palestinian youth in Gaza, and in the starving polar bears in the Arctic—because we are connected to each other in a grand web of interdependence. As Martin Luther King Jr. said “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”

Like E. B. White we might find ourselves caught between the tendency to savor or save life. Do we need to chose? No. We need to do both. We need to go to the wild places and see the kingfishers, folding up their wings, and making spectacular dives into Bodega Bay to catch their dinner. We need to go the sanctuaries and see the Great Blue Herons standing in trees near their nests—looking so majestic and awkward with their tall lanky bodies.

We need to stand with our eyes closed and feel the warm sunlight on our faces until our whole body smiles in contentment.

We need to love one another even when it is messy and inconvenient. Because when we put ourselves out there just beyond our comfort zones we find the true refuge of an open and compassionate heart—and we receive in the bargain a most wonderful gift—we feel good about ourselves.

Amen
Blessed Be
Shalom
Salaam