Perspectives for February 2025
From Rev. Susan
Compassion Isn’t Easy
When I consider compassion, I often have a “feeling” response, rather than a thinking one. The feelings it elicits in me are gentleness, love, care, openness. But, this is not all that compassion is or means. Compassion is a form of love that invites us to recognize the humanity and the dignity in every person, including ourselves. And sometimes, this can be really difficult.
How do we have compassion for those we deeply disagree with? How do we have compassion for people who have deeply disappointed us? How do we continue to have compassion for people who hurt us, and should we even try? How do we have compassion even as we also create boundaries for ourselves, particularly in situations where we might love an addict and need boundaries for our own wellbeing? How do we have compassion for ourselves when we have made mistakes or let ourselves or others down?
Compassion can feel like a simple, gentle thing - but it is actually life long work to cultivate compassion for all people (including ourselves) and for all living beings. And it matters. For love and compassion are forces that bring us together and are the seedbed for peace and justice.
Last Spring, the Unitarian Universalist Association (a member organization that we and over 1,000 other UU congregations are a part), adopted a new statement of core values and covenants to name, imperfectly, what we hold in common as UUs. Prior to this statement, our previous shared values and covenant language was stated as Seven Principles. We’ll explore some of this change and the new values this month. But, I also wanted to share my favorite of the Seven Principles. “We covenant to affirm and promote justice, equity and compassion in human relations.” I have always found this language profound - that the basis of human relationships ought to be justice, equity and compassion. This has been one of my touchstones within our faith and a commitment I have tried to live into even when it is hard.
This month we will explore the different ways that love and compassion are at the center of our religious tradition and how we actually live into their powerful call.
Education Matters
Compassion is essential. And compassion fatigue is real. This week, Beth Henkle passed along some advice from sociologist Jennifer Walter concerning how to engage with the world effectively while taking care of ourselves. Walter points out that the chaos we’re experiencing is intentional and “exemplifies Naomi Klein's ‘shock doctrine’ - using chaos and crisis to push through radical changes while people are too disoriented to effectively resist. This isn't just politics as usual - it's a strategic exploitation of cognitive limits.” The barrage of executive orders coming from the White House is designed to cause information overload, fragmenting public discourse and causing people to become passive and disengaged.
Walter offers these recommendations:
- Set boundaries: Pick 2-3 key issues you deeply care about and focus your attention there. You can't track everything - that's by design. Impact comes from sustained focus, not scattered awareness.
- Use aggregators & experts: Find trusted analysts who do the heavy lifting of synthesis. Look for those explaining patterns, not just events.
- Remember: Feeling overwhelmed is the point. When you recognize this, you regain some power. Take breaks. Process. This is a marathon.
- Practice going slow: Wait 48 hours before reacting to new policies. The urgent clouds the important. Initial reporting often misses context.
- Build community: Share the cognitive load. Different people track different issues. Network intelligence beats individual overload.
- Remember: They want you scattered. Your focus is resistance.
This all sounds like solid advice to me, and a number of us are working to figure out how to set up a structure in our congregation putting these ideas into practice. If you’d like to be involved, please contact the sjcoordinatingteam@uubloomington.org.
I will share one concern with you, though. I worry that with all this "shock and awe" our focus is constantly on the barrage of devastating news and how to respond to it -- while we neglect the care and maintenance of our community. It’s tempting to put off volunteering for the church in order to spend more time on the “front line.” But if we don't find ways to do the work that creates the community we cherish -- whether that's teaching, helping to feed people, serving on the Safety team, etc. -- then our community will not have the capacity to care for the people - including ourselves - who come here to find refuge from the chaos.
I am not advocating for people to ignore their feelings of overwhelm, or to push past them to find ways to give more to this community. Rather, I hope that we will work together to share the load – ALL of the load – so that we can maintain our loving, supportive community of hope and care, AND work together to build an efficient, effective, and sustainable resistance. Helping to maintain a thriving liberal religious community where all people are safe, welcomed, loved, and nurtured is an important act of resistance.
You can help in simple ways by showing up, reading our newsletters, staying informed, reaching out to people in the community, and continuing to learn and grow. These are all acts of resistance.
If you are able to commit one Sunday per month (or more) to helping with children’s religious education classes, please let me know. We need many more people on our Kids’ Club teams for both the 9:30 and 11:30 services. And there are still spaces available in our Spirit Play Training on Saturday, February 1, 1:00 - 3:15pm; please contact me if you’d like to attend (kimball@uubloomington.org).
If you are interested in working with middle or high school youth, or think you might be any time in the next few years, please plan to attend a special Youth Advisor Training on Saturday, March 1, 10am - 4pm. This will be a unique opportunity to learn skills and resources for building a youth-centered program, designed and led in partnership with Jennica Davis-Hockett and Nico Van Ostrand, youth specialists at the UUA. This will be a special day of learning and co-creating, but also a day for participants to be pampered and appreciated with good food and some surprises! Please register here.
Our children and youth, and their families, need our community now more than ever. And adults also need to be nurtured. This month I’ll be offering a class called Owning Your Religious Past, which is designed to help people come to terms with their religious experiences, in order to continue growing and moving forward on your spiritual journey. This class meets on 5 Wednesday evenings, 7- 9 pm: February 12, 19, 26. March 5 and 12. Please register here.
From the Director of Music
Sing With the Family Choir!
On February 16, we have a special, multi-generational band, and you can sing along on the Beatles hit, All You Need Is Love!
All you have to do is show up half an hour before (either) service to learn and rehearse the song with the choir and the band. (We only have 15 minutes, so don't be late!)
And if you (or your kid) would like to participate in the multi-generational band in the future, let Sue Swaney know.
From the Connections Coordinator
Compassion in Action
The UU values–transformation, equity, pluralism, generosity, justice, interdependence–all rooted in a value of love, resonate so deeply with what this country needs during this time of political struggle. UUCB’s theme of the month is compassion. To me, it is compassionate to take these UU values into account, to think deeply and act on them, especially in the face of the tremendous injustice to human rights, financial inequity, prolific hateful actions and dialogue, and normalized bribery and censorship we are seeing throughout society and among its leadership at this time. I have found myself in the days since the inauguration feeling a persistent dread in seeing these normalized behaviors and ways of thinking about what could be in store for us as a country and, for many of us, as people who are at the whims of political actions and rhetoric perpetuated by right wing members of government.
What can we do? I don’t have the answers. But, I recently met with a coach who emphasized the need to not just think, but to act. If we simply worry and worry (about anything, whether a personal conflict or the state of the country), we will be worse off by worrying if nothing ever gets done. However, we can instead see a problem, feel its impact, and then do something about it.
In thinking about this month’s theme of compassion, one thing that we can do in the face of tremendous worry and turmoil, is to recognize that so many people around us are experiencing similar impact. We can treat those around us with kindness and extend our compassion to them. For myself, I have felt tremendous frustration around the for-profit insurance systems governing where and for what costs I can get medical care (which varies depending on which provider I go to from among the very limited options I have in any given situation). For example, I have been trying to schedule an MRI for a month and a half with no success. This morning, while visiting my doctor’s office to check on the status of an order, I felt irritation at the convoluted nature of this system and worried that I might be met with anger. After talking with the office staff–one of whom had affixed a diversity pin to their lapel–I apologized for the hassle of requesting numerous orders sent to insurance and thanked them for their work. This level of action takes so little effort in actuality but has the capacity to change the heightened levels of stress and worry caused by our current societal realities. Though I don’t know how they internalized my compassion, it was surely better than greeting them with accusation and frustration. I think compassion and love are what keep so many of us afloat.
Communication is a big factor in all of this: in expressing compassion to others, in engaging in difficult conversations rather than worrying. I have felt the need recently to pause and reflect when I feel the impulse to speak from a place of frustration. The other day, my sibling reached out to inform me of some concerning news on mainstream social media’s support for the new president. My initial impulse was to be reactionary. A moment later, I paused and reminded myself that they were reaching out with compassion and genuine concern. We ended up extending care and having a meaningful conversation about our worries for the future of this country and elaborating on topics we had never bonded on before, such as my gender identity.
So, I hope to spread encouragement to come from a place of love and compassion, to embrace our UU values, and to act rather than worry, when meeting others in this precarious political moment. It can be so easy to become complacent and hopeless; yet it is more rewarding and energizing to do what we can and come together.
On this note, I want to briefly mention that our congregation is truly having an impact in the local community. As I write this, a new cohort of congregants is preparing to attend the membership class, Exploring UUCB, in the coming weeks. The registration list of 25 attendees (and growing) for this offering is twice as long as that for the class in the fall and more than double what it was a year ago. Similarly, our monthly New to UU orientation classes are significantly larger than they have been throughout the past few years, sometimes seeing groups too large to fit around the Library table. This is good news and speaks to our congregation’s welcoming and affirming presence in the broader community. I hope that we continue actively extending compassion, support, and welcome to those around us. Our community needs it.
From the Board of Directors
The Board had not experienced a Startup Weekend before January 10-11 and wasn’t sure just what to expect. Perhaps you felt the same way. Certainly no one expected the Friday evening potluck being converted to a Zoom meeting! No matter, it unfolded as it was intended: an up-close and personal opportunity on both Friday evening and Saturday morning for members of the congregation to explore their experiences in and feelings about our church life and to share those with Reverend Susan and each other. We all learned new things about the wide range of happenings that have made up our members’ UUCB life.
That new knowledge helped guide the meeting that the Board held with Reverend Susan on Saturday afternoon. MidAmerica Region UUA representatives Reverend David Pyle and Lauren Wyeth led us through a process that resulted in the Board with Reverend Susan clarifying our leadership goals for the next months.
Following up on our brief discussion at the mid-year congregational meeting, we will soon announce a process for exploring the desire within the congregation to change our name. Watch the Friday Updates in the coming weeks for information about that and how you might help.
Given the growth in size of our congregation, we also clearly recognize the extra challenges Reverend Susan has to meet her many responsibilities. She will need help in this. We will begin to explore what shape(s) this should take.
Revising the Board Ends Statements is another important goal. That will follow from a reassessment of our 2009 church vision and mission statement, which we expect to initiate next year.
These and other modifications in how we do things at UUCB will continue to be opportunities for you to help shape our congregation’s future. Please join in!
-Linda Pickle, Vice President of the Board
From the Reproductive Justice Task Force
It's Just a Cookie
On Sunday, Feb 9, the Reproductive Justice Task Force is holding our annual Bake Sale, “Siding with Love” between services.
Does selling one cookie even matter? It seems like a very small thing. Bake Sales are traditionally one way to raise funds for worthy causes. Our Task Force has been doing this each year as our major fundraiser.
How much does one cookie or one box of treats really help?
That dollar will go toward a package of diapers, period products, maternal mortality awareness, or funds for an abortion and travel. The Reproductive Justice Task Force also helps fund teacher training for OWL (Our Whole Lives) and this helps our youth navigate through their own journey into adulthood.
Does one dollar make a difference? I think so. I hope so. And so, we bake!
Valentine-themed decorated cookies, brownies, and fruit bars will be sold. Individual cookies sold by the piece or by the box. Also available, gluten free options and savory/nutty snacks.
Pay as you are able, using cash or credit card. Donations are also welcome!
Sincerely,
Pat Slabach
Member, Reproductive Justice Task Force
PS – fun fact! My family was in the bakery business in Hammond, Indiana. Here is an old photo of Solinas’ Bakery Shop.
Upcoming Services
Service Times: 9:30 and 11:30 a.m.
February 2, 2025
"Love is the Center”
Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray
In June 2024, the UUA adopted new language to articulate the shared values and covenant we hold as Unitarian Universalists. The new language says “Love is the power that holds us together and is at the center of our shared values.” What does it mean to understand Love at the center of our faith?
February 9, 2025
“When Compassion Isn’t Easy”
Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray
We all know times when being compassionate is not easy. How do we cultivate compassion even for those we are in conflict with? What does this even mean or look like and why would we even try?
February 16, 2025
“All Ages Valentine’s Day Service: Love and Resistance”
Dr. Stephanie Kimball and others
How do we love when our hearts are breaking? How can the spiritual practice of love improve our own lives and make the world a better place? This service will feature Family Choir and an all-ages band performing some favorite hits.
January 12, 2025
“Love and Compassion: A Path to Justice”
Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray
The great theologian Paul Tillich made clear that Love, Power, and Justice were all bound together. Too often we think of love and compassion as mere passive sentimentality. Yet, in truth - cultivating love and compassion is the foundation of a commitment to justice.
Attendance, Offering, and Membership Information
Attendance-
12/01/2024: 217
12/08/2024: 286
12/15/2024: 348
12/22/2024: 237
12/24/2024 at 4pm: 72
12/24/2024 at 7pm: 278
12/29/2024: 190
Offering Total for December 2024: $6,248.44
