I am constantly inspired by the many ways that our congregants love our church. Sharing their time, talent, treasure, feedback, and insights shows me not only the commitment of so many, but also the fact that the origin of this commitment is love! 

In January our Faith Exploration teachers came together to share their experiences teaching during the Fall. I asked the teachers to share what they were most proud of so far in the year. Their responses varied from being proud of keeping kids engaged in lessons to enjoying working with their team to celebrating the creation of curriculum that truly suits our youth. The common denominator in all of the teacher points of pride was that they love our JUC kids and they love teaching them.  

Love also abounded in January at the Family Ministry Team mini-retreat. A thoughtful and enthusiastic group of moms and dads shared their ideas to increase a sense of belonging at our church and shared their hopes and dreams for what Family Ministry could be here at JUC. Many themes emerged including providing opportunities for multi-generational fun, for making sure new families feel welcome and providing specific support for parents in the various stages of parenthood. The Family Ministry Team is excited to meet again on Thursday, February 16 from 6:30-8 pm. All are welcome!  

Our children and youth will have a chance to show their love for our church in many ways during the upcoming months. Our 2nd-5th graders will help support the tables at the Social Justice Fair on Sunday, February 26 and our High School Youth Group will have a table of their own. Our high schoolers are also busy planning the youth-led service that will be held on Sunday, April 2 (Note that this is a change from the date we published on the Family Info card last fall). Look for information coming soon on a new Children’s Choir project to prepare for the Children’s Music Service on Sunday, April 23.  

As Rev. Wendy likes to say, “Love is a verb.” I am excited about all the ways that we will put love into action this month and in the months to come at JUC. 

As we enter February and I start to consider the path of love, I’m left with a question: What on earth do I write about love in a few paragraphs? What do I say about a word that means so many things to so many people, and in so many contexts? I turned to the dictionary for help, but what I found was disappointing. “To hold dear; cherish” doesn’t begin to express the depth of feeling that most of us are trying to describe when we use the word. But more to the point, it doesn’t speak to the way we use “love” here at JUC, in the context of community. It doesn’t speak to the centrality that most UUs give love in our hearts and in our theology. If you heard Rev. Wendy’s January 22 sermon, you’ll know that the latest draft of the UUA’s Article II Study Commission has even placed love literally at the center of our values as an association of UU congregations. (It’s on page 20 if you want to have a look.)

So instead, I looked to a source I’ve found to be a bit more theologically reliable. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said “Love is not emotional bash; it is not empty sentimentalism. It is the active outpouring of one’s whole being into the being of another.”

Now that’s more like it. You may have heard that Dr. King and Coretta Scott King attended a Unitarian church when they lived in Boston. In fact, Mrs. King said that the couple gave a lot of thought to becoming Unitarian at one time, but both realized they could never build a mass movement of Black people if they were Unitarian. I’m going to leave the topic of why that is for another article, as it’s important for us to consider at JUC as we continue living into our values and ends. 

But still, something about Unitarian theology resonated with the Kings. Maybe it was this idea that Unitarian minister Ralph Waldo Emerson expressed nearly 200 years ago as the “Over-soul.” Emerson said, “We live in succession, in division, in parts, in particles. Meantime within man is the soul of the whole; the wise silence; the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally related; the eternal ONE.” Emerson, like King, experienced love as the interconnectedness of all of us, each one of us an expression of the divine Whole. When one truly experiences oneself and others in this way, the “active outpouring of one’s whole being into the being of another” that King talks about becomes a natural way of being together. In this sense, love means you and me being integral parts of the same whole. Love means connection. Love means recognizing separation and individualism as illusions. This, friends, is how you build a movement.  

And so this month, we’ll be exploring what it truly means to pour ourselves into one another - both here at JUC and further afield: to embrace the truth of interconnectedness, and to live that interconnectedness here at JUC and out in the wider world.

As part of that exploration, I invite you to join us on Sunday, February 26 for a special look at how our community is doing this in the world. Our service will look a little different, and it will go just a bit (20 minutes or so) longer than normal, so please plan accordingly. The kids are even getting involved, so you won’t want to miss it. See you there!

Love and Music

At Jefferson Unitarian Church, our hymnals are filled with songs about love - in Singing the Living Tradition, there is an entire “Love and compassion” section. You may know some of these:

#123 Spirit of life

#124 Be that guide

#125 From the crush of wealth and power

#126 Come, thou fount of every blessing

#127 Can I see another’s woe?

#128 For all that is our life

#129 Let love continue long

#130 O liberating rose

#131 Love will guide us

#132 Bright those jewels

#133 One world

#134 Our world is one world

#135 How happy are they

#136 Where gentle tides go rolling by

#137 We utter our cry

Lots of hymns in this section about love and compassion! 

One hymn about love that is located at a different place in Singing the living tradition is #10 Immortal love, with words by John Greenleaf Whittier:

Immortal love, forever full, forever flowing free,

Forever shared, forever whole, a never-ending sea!

Our outward lips confess the name all other names above;

But love alone knows whence it came and comprehendeth love.

Blow, winds of love, awake and blow the mists of hate away;

Sing out, O Truth divine, and tell how wide and far we stray.

The letter fails, the systems fall, and every symbol wanes;

The Spirit overseeing all, Eternal Love, remains.

Our society and our church are in an era of reexamining, of connecting with the winds of love, of blowing away the mists of hate, and understanding how some systems need to fall so that Eternal Love may be more evident. Composer Elizabeth Alexander says the following about these love lyrics:

"The lyrics...remind me that our present challenges and suffering are nothing new. Disorienting, yes. And for many, exhausting and terrifying and lonely and agonizingly painful. But regardless of what one believes about the divine, it’s clear there’s something – call it a spirit or a thread or a bridge or a twisty tie -- that links us together through miles and centuries. We don’t have to fathom it to feel it. This mystery is at the very heart of Whittier's “Immortal Love”...first published in 1856, five years before the Civil War would upend every semblance of normalcy and civilization: “The letter fails, the systems fall, and every symbol wanes. The Spirit overseeing all, Eternal Love, remains.”

In the years that I have known this text, I have come more and more to know and appreciate the depth of this poetry. In a way, it is becoming ever more relevant in my life and the life that we inhabit at Jefferson Unitarian Church. As this church community learns to wrestle with our goals - our “ends” - what symbols need to be let go of to accountable dismantle racism, what systems need to fall for us to be in right relationship with the earth?

Words tied with melodies can often help open the heart. As you consider what needs to fall away in your life and in our community’s life, for love to more fully shine through, you are welcome to listen to the Jefferson Unitarian Church Choir singing this song at the Washington National Cathedral in 2005.

UU the Vote

Jessy Hennesy

I take great pride in voting Every. Single. Year. Sometimes more than once (primaries). But when I heard in 2019 that there were spring elections for the Arvada Fire Protection District, I was completely confused. Why had I never heard the fire district had elections? I’d lived in the same place since 2015. 

Even after I learned there were elections, I had to figure out how to vote, and for whom. I eventually found a form on a website (I had to print it out, then mail or it fax in) to get on an absentee ballot list. There was no handy website to check if my registration was current or accurate. Eventually I received a ballot (it didn’t look very official), but I still could find no information on the people running. I’m pretty sure in both 2019 and 2021 I just gave up and didn’t turn my ballots in. 

I’m not alone. West Metro Fire Protection District, which covers much of Wheat Ridge, Lakewood, Morrison, Golden, Edgewater, Littleton and some of unincorporated surrounding areas (almost 300,000 people), had about 300 people vote in its most recent election. 

That’s no way to run organizations that claim to be democratically elected and serve their constituents. 

Join UU the Vote and Jeffco League of Women Voters for an opportunity to learn more about these and other Special Districts on Monday, March 6 at 6 pm.

CUUPS Aun Year Update

Piper Perry

This year the JUC branch of CUUPs (Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans) is offering an Aun Year series of community building and dismantling white supremacy rituals, as part of a wider pagan conversation about fighting against fascism and fighting for equity and justice. 

We are creating healing rituals using the Unitarian Universalist themes of the month to help people reconnect to themselves, each other and the Earth. We work with the goal to widen our circle to our BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, disabled, elder and other marginalized groups. 

The Aun Year began January 6. Our lens for the ritual and the rest of January was finding our center, and we used that lens to look at what our individual stories are. We asked participants to delve into the story of their lives, and find the values that they hold dear. 

We’ve been meeting weekly online for further conversations and what people are bringing to the table is both gratifying and precious. The stories of hope and resistance are wonderful and I appreciate each and every one. 

This month’s Aun Year ritual will be on Sunday, February 5. Our lens for the ritual and the rest of February and into March will be LOVE. We will be discussing ‘how does love change your story?’ Sign Up

Great News!

We are planning a trip to Guatemala!

UUSC Task Force

The UUSC Task Force is planning a trip to the village of Rabinal in Guatemala for the first time since the pandemic. Dates for the trip are October 3-12, 2023. Our Guatemalan Scholarship partners always provide a meaningful experience; as we meet the scholarship students, visit local historical sites, and learn about the Mayan culture and daily lives of the students and their families. This is a wonderful opportunity for sharing between our communities.

JUC has developed a true partnership with ADIVIMA, the grassroots organization in Rabinal that administers the scholarship program, and we currently support 60 students who would not be able to continue their education without our support. There will be more information available about the trip in the coming weeks. If you have an interest or want more information, contact Gretchen May, or June LeCrone.

Reflections from Time with Our Neighbors Experiencing Homelessness

Judy Douglass, Marige Robinson, and Mindy Mohr

Much of the work of JUC's Community Action Network (JUC CAN) focuses on the problem of homelessness in our community. As members of JUC CAN, we each volunteer regularly to help those without stable housing. We have included some reflections below about our time working with community members experiencing homelessness in our community.

For more information on efforts in Jefferson County to reduce homelessness, we urge you to visit the Heading Home website. JUC CAN and the Jeffco League of Women Voters are hosting a Webinar “Navigating the Unhoused” on Tuesday, February 28, 6-7:30 pm. This panel discussion focuses on the unhoused and what is happening/needs to happen in Jefferson County. The panel includes Wheat Ridge Mayor Bud Starker, County Commissioner Tracy Kraft-Tharp, Jeffco Regional Homelessness Coordinator Kelli Barker, service providers, and a person with lived experience being unhoused. There will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please mark your calendars – registration information to come in the Weekly Connection.

Judy: 

The annual Point in Time count is a Housing and Urban Development project which counts the number of people who are homeless and gathers data on their circumstances. I always volunteer but then feel anxious the day before. Homelessness comes with lots of unknowns and trillions of stereotypes. Amazingly I always get through the day with ease and a heart wondering why I go home to a warm bed and ample food. But “why me?” is not what the unhoused speak back to me. They say matter-of-factly, this is who I am. I was ill, I want to be alone, A, B or C happened, and this is where life brought me. 

As I sat with folks who slept outside in 15-degree weather the previous night, I see only their strength. They shoulder the elements, they pull together amazing resources to survive – flannel shirts and tattered but heavy coats. They cram oranges and day-old pastry into their backpacks. They just do it and I tend to think I could not – but could we all if that is what we had to do? 

Their individual stories are private and always compelling. There are a few who desire no human contact, but the majority are delighted to find someone who only wants to listen. It is my gift to not have an agenda. Every story makes me guess what went wrong but I’ve learned that the fix in my mind’s eye is rejection or just wrong for him or her. 

I remember stories from past years that still break my heart. A young man less than 25 who was so pleasant but who saw other people around him with projected biases. His reality was not mine. As he was leaving I asked if he could spend the night in a shelter. “I never go there – that’s crazy. When it’s this cold I sleep under a car. I get some shelter and I’m safe – hidden away.” I shudder when I think of a car taking off suddenly in the middle of the night.

A Native American grandmother was living with her 6-year-old son in a motel on Colfax paid for by the VOA. She had just returned from work and was headed to the lobby where hot food was being passed out on paper plates. There wasn’t a TV or a microwave in their room. The child had no toys and spent his time playing games on his grandmother’s cell phone. This woman worked an 8 hour day, six days a week; she is strong in mind and values. How can this even happen?

They don’t know how to solve this. One fact remains. Almost all of these folks if given a studio apartment would have moved in that afternoon. I think it’s the only way to begin.

Margie: 

I chose the Rescue Mission for my first ever Point in Time volunteering because there were slots for 12 volunteers. I was a little afraid and thought there would be safety in numbers. In past years, as I drove by the Rescue Mission, I had seen several men staggering about or passed out on the sidewalk in front. I imagined this was an indication of what would be inside.

In reality, what I experienced was quite calm and organized. We volunteers were assigned to survey the men lining up in an open courtyard, while they waited to board buses to two overflow shelters. They were orderly and patient, seeming to know the ropes well. We were instructed to ask people if they were willing to be surveyed, and to give them a free RTD bus pass whether they agreed or not. These bus passes, according to the staff are valued like gold.

Most of the men were quite willing to answer the mostly yes/no questions about the extent of their homelessness, and the challenges that led to their current situation. Many read the survey along with me, pointing out the items that pertained to them. They were respectful (including the ones who didn’t want to talk). The vast majority of my interviewees had been homeless for over 3 months, and cited the inability to pay rent as one of the causes along with parents dying, and relationship break ups. A few cited employment problems. Many said they had substance abuse or mental health issues. Only one person said he chose to be homeless. But all seemed resigned to it.  

I, personally, was torn between wanting to spend time talking to each man, hearing his story, feeling his humanity, but also wanting to make sure everyone was surveyed before they boarded the busses. When at last I got in my car and started home, I was overwhelmed by a feeling of sadness, by an awareness that I was returning to the comfort of my home and husband. These men were not going home to anyone. Most of them had no one at all. Anywhere. And of course, none of them had a home. Nor did they talk about a future.

Mindy:

I have spent several years helping at the front desk at The Rising Homeless Ministry, which nominally means checking in clients but really involves triage for people as they come in. They may have been out in the cold all night, in tents or vehicles, and now need to eat, get warm, get their mail, and look for help in getting IDs, a shower or laundry, obtaining social, legal, or medical services, and employment. And some who have been helped into permanent housing also come back…just for the companionship. They all come here because they know they will not be judged.

One regular is a year older than me. Articulate and witty, she has a MS in Divinity, and also did office work for many years. Due to bad luck, health issues, and a dispute with her son, she (and her cat) ended up living in her car for the last few years. A caring local resident (and former JUC member) allowed her to park at their home, and after a hip replacement another Rising volunteer provided her a place to stay for the months during recovery. She now is living in affordable housing in Arvada, but returns to the Rising day shelter on occasion to visit the community of friends she has made over the years. Her story could very well be mine.