Invocation for Orlando City Council
April 22, 2013
Rev. Kathy Schmitz, First Unitarian Church of Orlando

Mr. Mayor, Commissioners, Guests,

I invite you to join me in a spirit of prayer and reflection.

Spirit of Life & Love, Spirit of Peace & Justice,

As we gather today at the beginning of a new week, we look back on the week now past,
a week that has been challenging for many, if not all, of us.

We review the constellation of emotions that have weighed on our hearts
and been expressed by our lips… horror and outrage, grief and bewilderment.

The explosion of bombs at the Boston Marathon made us look at many things in new ways.

Those who serve and lead in any city, asked ourselves, “what if,”
… and we allowed our hearts to break open with compassion.

We are reminded once again of how very much we need one another.

We saw the courage of first responders… the commitment and skill of law enforcement and of medical staff …  We saw the strength of a community. We saw a city, and commonwealth, a country, and a world, look for, and find, the best in each other.

And we were reminded once again of how very tender and yet powerful is the human spirit.

May we remember this well as we move into the days and weeks ahead.
… a time of healing and new understanding.

May we resist the urge to imagine that we know more than we really do.
May we keep our hearts and our minds open.
May we remember that across our city and around our world,
there are people of peace, justice, and good will to be found in every faith tradition.

And on this Earth Day, especially, may we remember
that we are one human community on this beautiful blue-green planet that we share.

Let us look into the eyes of our family and friends, our coworkers and neighbors
… those who we know well and those who are still strangers to us. May we know our common humanity.

And with this knowing,
may our service to this community helps us always to be better citizens of the world
and may we, and the city we serve, be a gift to residents and guests alike and a blessing to the world.

Let us pause now in silence so that each may add the prayers of their hearts in accordance with their own custom.

(Silence)

Spirit of Life & Love, Spirit of Peace & Justice,
Be with us in all we do.
Blessed Be, Namaste, Asalam Alaikum, Ashe, Shalom, Amen

Brahma-Vihara is Pali (original language of the Buddha) meaning “heavenly abode” or “best home.” The Buddha taught that practicing these four qualities leads to the “liberation of the heart which is love.” The Brahma-Viharas are:

Metta (lovingkindness) translates both as friendship and also gentle, as in a gentle rain that falls indiscriminately upon everything. Metta practice is a steady, unconditional sense of connection that touches all beings without exception, including ourselves. The Buddha first taught it as an antidote to fear.

Compassion is our caring human response to suffering.  A compassionate heart is non-judgmental and recognizes all suffering—our own and that of others—as deserving of tenderness.

Sympathetic Joy is the realization that others’ happiness is inseparable from our own. We rejoice in the joy of others and are not threatened by another’s success.

Equanimity is the spacious stillness of mind that provides the ground for the boundless nature of the other three qualities. This radiant calm enables us to ride the waves of our experience without getting lost in our reactions.

The service was on this year’s theme of “Who is our Neighbor?” and focused on this month’s Unitarian Universalist Association Principle that says that we affirm and promote acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations.

This week’s audio recording includes the 3 reflections that made up the service, as well as the meditation on equanimity between reflections 1 & 2. The 3 reflections are Equanimity,  Just as You Are (on acceptance), and Not Done Yet (on encouragement to spiritual growth.) You can listen to the recording by clicking on the March 3 entry (Reflections on Equanimity) here.

I wish you well in your practice of these 4 lovely qualities!

First Unitarian Church of Orlando (1U) joined the Standing on the Side of Love campaign in the celebration of 30 Days of Love  from Martin Luther King Day to Valentine’s Day (though our calendar ran a little longer than just 30 days!) A number of 1U and community events highlighted our commitment to standing on the side of love, justice, and full equality. Here’s what happened!

The Love Tree

The children in the religious education program created a Love Tree with hanging heart tags. Each tag listed an item that could be purchased and returned to the tree for later delivery to the New Image Youth Center.

City of Orlando’s MLK Vigil and Interfaith Service

A strong contingent from 1U joined the “candlelight” vigil and march from City Hall to First United Methodist Church where we celebrated the life and legacy of The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. in a service coordinated by the Interfaith Council of Central Florida and the Mayor’s MLK Commission.  A highlight was seeing 3 of our 1U children sing in the interfaith children’s choir called “Everyone’s Children.”

Weekend of Service

1U members headed out into the community for a weekend of service at Community Food & Outreach Center. It was great to learn about the good work of this organization and to put our hands to work on their behalf.

Spaghetti Dinner  & MLK Day Concert  at 1U

Yummy, delightful, and inspiring… words that describe our evening with UU singer/song writer David Roth. We look forward to bringing other such talent to our community.

Rock n’ Roe: Planned Parenthood Benefit Concert

A vibrant crowd including 1U members and friends, celebrated the 40th anniversary (01-22-73) of Roe v. Wade with keynote speaker, Honorable Patricia Schroeder. Joyce Hamilton Henry, ALCU Mid-FL Director and Rev. Kathy also addressed the group which gathered at The Venue and was entertained by three local bands.

Interfaith Action & CIW Workshop at 1U

Our workshop at 1U gave us and our community partners a chance to learn more about the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and their fair Food Campaign. The day culminated with farm workers from Immokalee joining us at the downtown Publix for a vibrant public witness event. Picket lines of 30 people each circulated on either side of Central Blvd as a delegation asked Publix managers to become partners in the Fair Food Program. Foot traffic from Lake Eola gave us many opportunities to share information about this cause with the curious folks passing by. Participants committed to supporting the CIW on their upcoming March for Right, Respect, and Fair Food. For details see here.

Human Heart 

The 5th annual “Human Heart: An OUTright Love-in” on Valentine’s Day left the rain-drenched park and headed to the site of the after party, “The Venue,” and there we created our human heart. We celebrated the progress made toward equal rights in the past year and committed ourselves to the on-going work!

Healing Our World and Ourselves Conference

at 1U but co-Sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Church of Brevard, Florida and the Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry of Florida. With Unitarian Universalists from around the state, we had a chance to consider the intersection of several contemporary issues: democracy, environmentalism, and addiction.

Yuuth on the Side of Love Concert

A fabulous evening of magic, comedy, improv, music, and theater by our teens wrapped up our 30 Days and benefited the Standing on the Side of Love campaign. The talent and enthusiasm was enjoyed by an appreciative crowd.

Feeling the energy build throughout the 30 Days, it was awesome to realize the growing potential the congregation has to be a force for Love every day of the year.

I’ll be there with other 1U members and Unitarian Universalists from around the state, as well as folks from other faith and community groups. Hope you can join us!

Background:

The CIW and allies will march 150 miles to Lakeland, FL in a two-week March for Rights, Respect, and Fair Food! The march, which begins in Ft Myers, FL on Sunday, March 3, will end at the Publix headquarters in Lakeland on Sunday, March 17.

Recently, UUs from several central Florida congregations gathered with community partners to learn more about the CIW’s Fair Food program.  The day culminated with a picket at the Publix in downtown Orlando where they were joined by farm workers and their families. A delegation from the group met with store managers to encourage Publix to sign on to the program which increases wages and improves working conditions for tomato pickers. To read about the day, click here. (Scroll down to find links to news stories at the bottom of the report.)

Participants committed to helping to swell the ranks of the upcoming march as it approaches the Publix headquarters on March 17. Volunteers from First Unitarian Church of Orlando are working closely with the CIW and Interfaith Action to be able to provide UUs statewide with logistical information for involvement for that day.

From the Orlando area: A caravan will transport marchers from 1U to Lakeland following the second worship service on March 17. So that we have space for everyone, please sign up to participate by completing our CIW March Registration Form or contact CIWeventinfo@orlandouu.org for more information.

Life can so easily become overcomplicated. As we take time to express our gratitude this year, I hope that we will look beyond the noise and clutter, the commercialism and hype, that too often crowd our days. I hope that we will remember that many of the things that matter most are really quite simple.

Many of us wrestle daily with life’s challenges such as health, finances, or relationship concerns. Whether these are issues in our own lives or in the lives of those we care about, they can dampen our spirits and make it hard to get in touch with joy and gratitude. And yet, getting in touch with joy and gratitude may be just what we need to lighten our spirits and to give us the hope and courage to go on.

In spite of tendencies toward sentimentality, a national holiday of giving thanks is a good reminder to count our blessings. At its best, its effects will not last for just one day, but rather will serve as a sort of reset to our spirits, calling us back again to the practice of gratitude. My wish would be that we would each make touching joy and gratitude a daily practice, as important to our well-being as eating and sleeping.

However you celebrate, and wherever, and with whomever, may your hearts be lifted by an awareness of life’s simplest and more enduring gifts.

Much Love,

Rev. Kathy

Was it a ‘spiritual experience?’ This is what many people want to know about my six week journey to India. After all, I’m a religious professional and India is full of religions.

It was a spiritual experience, but not in the way people are usually thinking when they ask the question. They want to know if I studied with a guru, meditated at an ashram, or made a certain pilgrimage. I did not.  

I went as a tourist. I went to see India – all of India – or at least as much as I could soak up in my meager visit. I needed the overview, the broad strokes, the highs and the lows, the everyday flow of life in this subcontinent nation of over a billion people.

And so I saw the things that one must see – The Taj Mahal, The River Ganges. I walked through crowded cities and rode camels through beautiful countryside. I visited natural parks and technology museums. I slept on trains and talked with children. I wandered the foothills of the Himalayas and floated on the backwaters of the tropical coast.

I argued with rickshaw drivers and wondered at street sweepers. I choked on the filthy air and shook my head at the piles of garbage. Still, breathtaking views of the natural world stopped me in my tracks and the grandeur of the achievements of humankind throughout millennium stretched my imagination to its edges.

And you want t to know if it was a spiritual experience?

All I can tell you is that the invisible threads that connect the world became more visible – not just visible – but shiny and clear in an intricate pattern beyond my understanding. My world is richer, deeper, more complicated and more connected.

Though its meaning continues to swirl through my being and has yet to take shape, and though the words to express it escape me – it is no less real. That my heart is filled with awe and wonder – I would call that a spiritual experience.

In accepting the invitation to be part of the panel, I felt the need to represent not just my own perspective but that of Unitarian Universalism. This made me very appreciative to have a Statement of Conscience (SOC) from our Unitarian Universalism Association (UUA) for reference. You can read the Statement of Conscience titled Creating Peace here.

My appreciation for the Statement of Conscience made me more committed to the process by which it was derived. That process uses Congregational Study/Action Issues (CSAI) to engage Unitarian Universalists on contemporary issues. The process not only produces Statements of Conscience, but also encourages congregations and individual Unitarian Universalists to be more intentional about their actions and their participation in public dialog.

I described the process in a sermon about reproductive justice last Sunday.

First Unitarian Church of Orlando is a member congregation of the Unitarian Universalist Association or the UUA. The UUA is an association of congregations, run democratically. One of the manifestations of that democracy is the annual gathering of delegates from the member congregations, known as General Assembly, or GA.

While at General Assembly, the delegates do a lot of business on our behalf. Among the things that they do is to pick issues for congregations to study and act on (thus the name Congregational Study/Action Issue or CSAI). Every other year, delegates choose a new topic. Those congregations that choose to, study the topic. They engage in actions. They reflect on those actions. They report back to the next General Assembly on their experiences. For each topic, this happens three times and then, if possible, delegates adopt a Statement of Conscience that is a statement that summarizes the views of Unitarian Universalists on the subject at hand.

In recent year, delegates have adopted Statements of Conscience on Creating Peace and on Ethical Eating. We are several years into a Congregational Study/Action Issue on Immigration as a Moral Issue. Last June, delegates adopted a new Congregational Study/Action Issue titled — Reproductive Justice: Expanding Our Social Justice Calling.

It can be very meaningful to engage these issues with a local congregation and then to be part of the larger conversation with other congregations. Personally, I find my perspective on the issues is clearer and deeper for the experience. Additionally, I appreciate the process itself. The process celebrates our commitment to the democratic process. It also gives us practice at engaging our differences. This was especially true with the Creating Peace Statement of Conscience.

After three years of study and action, a proposed Statement of Conscience on peace was presented to the delegates at General Assembly. Delegates concluded that it did not effectively capture the depth and breadth of sentiment with our Unitarian Universalist tradition. Of particular note for me was the reality that in our tradition “Many of us believe force is sometimes necessary as a last resort, while others of us believe in the consistent practice of nonviolence.”

The delegates, in their wisdom, sent the statement back for another year of study and action. The result was a much stronger statement that more accurately reflected our movement. It was that statement that I had to draw on as I prepared for the panel last week.

Finding our unity, while being honest about our differences, is the great challenge of collaboration with others. This is true at every level, whether in our congregations, our association, our community partnerships, or our interfaith coalitions.

In spite of the challenges, this work is important. It is through this discovery of unity and honesty difference, that together we may demonstrate the integrity needed to lead and to heal our fractured world.

The Congregational Study/Actions Issue and Statement of Conscience process is overseen by the UUA’s Commission on Social Witness (CSW). You can find more information on the commission and the process here.

Today’s press conference included Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant voices in addition to mine. I’ll have more to say about this over the next six weeks but my remarks today focused on the need for public policy to be broadly inclusive in our diverse society. Here is what I said:

I speak to you as a Unitarian Universalist minister serving a congregation in Florida.

One of the great gifts of American society is our rich diversity. This diversity means that people — including people of faith—will have different opinions on many issues.  Among those issues are parenting, pregnancy, and abortion.  Our diversity of opinions is OK.

Thankfully, we live in a country that respects each person’s right to their own beliefs. Freedom of thought and speech are core principles of our American democracy, firmly protected by our Constitution. Those freedoms are critical to our ability to live together in peace and prosperity in a land with so many perspectives.  Our diversity of opinions is OK.

What’s not OK is when one group tries to impose their views on everyone else.

What’s not OK is when one group among us seeks to limit the freedom of individuals from other groups – particularly the critical freedom to make choices according to their own faith and conscience.

What’s not OK is when one group tries to make their views the law of the land.

Amendment 6 would do just that: it would write one particular religious perspective into the Florida Constitution, interfering with a woman’s ability to get the healthcare that is right for her.

While people of faith will have different perspectives on important issues such as parenting, pregnancy, and abortion, we are agreed that these are important issues.  They are deeply important and deeply personal issues that need to be made with counsel from family and health providers and according to ones’ faith. 

Our public policy must ensure that, when these important decisions made, women have safe and legal access to all the health care choices needed.  Only then will true freedom of conscience exist.  Only then can we live fully into the promise of our democracy.

Thank you for helping to defeat Florida Amendment 6.

Thank you for helping to preserve women’s rights and health, as well as religious freedom, in Florida.

Recently, the First Unitarian (1U) Board of Trustees considered a recommendation to think about our campus differently. As a result, they have decided to adopt a name change for one of the buildings on our campus. You might think about it as a thought experiment. I’d like to invite the rest of the congregation to join the leadership in this adventure. Here is how things unfolded.

Last May, the Board invited a Stewardship Consultant from the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) to do an assessment of the congregation. The purpose was to assess the general health of the congregation as it prepares to make plans for the future.

One of the recommendations made in the report by UUA Consultant, Bill Clontz, was:

Make the mental shift to stop thinking of the RE (Religious Education) Building as such. Think of it as something that more accurately describes its multifunctional role in the congregation. Just about every aspect of 1U life has some connection to this building – everyone should be interested in what happens with it.

The Board (of which I am a non-voting member) had a summer planning retreat, which was largely focused on deciding how to move forward with the various recommendations in the UUA Consultant’s report. (1U members can log into the 1U website and read the entire 18-page report or the president’s 3-page summary here.)

During the Board’s conversations about the report, we felt it would be helpful to give the “RE Complex” a new name. Since this is mostly for the purpose of shaking up our thinking, especially as we consider the future of the campus, we didn’t want to get bogged down in a long discernment process. Therefore, after a quick little discernment process led by our facilitator, we decided to float a possible new name by a few folks, most notably the Children’s Religious Education (CRE) Committee.

The plan was that if no concerns emerged, then the Board would adopt the name at the September Board meeting and it would be used in official communications from that time forward. We would not force people to use the new name (fun as it might be to imagine how we could possibly do that!).

Announcement of the new name would be accompanied by an explanation of the reason for the change and an invitation to help us as we try to think differently.  (This blog entry, by the way, is part of that explanation and invitation.)

The name chosen was “Enrichment Center” and the Board did indeed vote to adopt it at its September meeting earlier this week. However, along the way, there were some interesting conversations and questions. I thought it would be helpful to share some of those with folks who weren’t part of this process.

Some wondered if we could keep the word religion in the name (i.e. Religious Enrichment) so that we could still call it RE. However, since the specific recommendation is to stop thinking of it as “RE” that would not be very effective.

Some wondered if we left the word religionout because some people don’t like it. Not at all! Since we are trying to think of the campus as a whole – and the whole IS a church – it simply seemed implied that what we are enriching is religion.

Some wondered if we could do something to make the name more kid-oriented. Again, if we look at the recommendation, we are trying to highlight the fact that it is more than “the kids’ building,” so we specifically don’t want to do that.

While the name is an interim name as we figure out what is next for 1U, these thoughtful wonderings are very valuable. They help us be clear about our thinking.

In the broader context of what the Board was tackling (which involved a wall full of newsprint), we have a LOT of work to do this year. Some of this was shared with the congregation last Sunday at the potluck following the Water Communion. The year will involve many conversations and many decisions. The Board has a process that it hopes will engage the whole congregation. By June, we hope to have a decision on the future of the Enrichment Center, the building formerly known as the RE Complex. (More information on the process will be available in the newsletter and weekly email update.)

I encourage all members and friends to join us in this thought experiment and to take full advantage of upcoming opportunities to be involved in the work of planning our future together.