Coming of Age Social Justice Retreat
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.