Do you remember the first time you joined this congregation in worship? Remember the feeling of hearing words that sparked inspiration or deliberation? Remember the person sitting next to you who laughed at the same time or simply said hello? Do you remember what it felt like to read a comment you agreed with or one that invited you to ask what if? Remember? Remember the time you felt welcomed? I remember every time I felt truly welcomed into a community of people. It might not have happened in the first moments of meeting, but I remember every time I have felt welcomed into a community. There was always an invitation or a conversation or a comment that made me know there would be a space made for me and suddenly I knew I could belong.
Being able to extend ourselves in welcome is an important part of being a religious community- one that people here at the Unitarian Church of Evanston do with great care and style. The word religion is thought by some to have its root source (etymology) from the Latin religare – to bind fast by acknowledging the bonds of humans to something greater than ourselves. For Unitarian Universalists that something greater may be termed many things including humankind, the great ground of all being, or even G-d. Whatever term is used to describe, this binding only happens if someone is first welcomed into our midst. Today I wonder what does binding into our midst mean when there is no midst to bind within.
As we find ourselves in this new place of welcoming one another through words on a screen and two-dimensional electronic waves, I am reminded that we are still welcoming and creating space for each other in all our actions. Everyone wants to be seen and reminded that there is a place. Everyone wants their post responded to, their thoughts acknowledged, their smile seen. It can seem overwhelming to try to see everyone in this fashion. While it remains a task for all of us to welcome and build a community of care, there may be specific roles that some of us can take on that will help. What is the virtual equivalent of offering a hymnal or letting someone know where their name tag lives? Together we will explore what welcome might look like in this time of COVID-19.
We are still here, as a church, to be bound with those who would join in nurturing the human spirit to make the world whole; with those who seek to create a world filled with justice and mercy for all. We are here to remember the commitments of our seven principles – including acknowledging the worth and dignity of every person and our participation in an interdependent web of being. In living out those ideals, with style and generosity. We are each made the richer by the things we share with one another.
-Rev. Karen Mooney, Director of Congregational Life