Ministry

by Reverend Carol Strecker

Ministry in Unitarian Universalist congregations is about growing people. It is about providing people with the resources they need to discern and act on their beliefs. In Unitarian Universalist congregations, we provide many of these resources for one another. Through our worship, work and play together, we grow each other and ourselves. In this sense, we are all ministers. We help each other grow so we can live out our beliefs in our congregations and in the world.

Ministry is about getting to the heart of the matter. It is the desire and the ability to look honestly, see deeply and drink fully from the well of life. For me, what lies at the heart of the matter is relationship; our relationship with ourselves, with other human beings and with the planet. I believe that the divine lives and moves and has its being in our relationships. When we affirm, nurture and sustain our connections with each other we affirm the nature of existence. When we deny those connections, we separate ourselves from the stream of life. Disconnection; the denial of our basic interconnectedness, is what makes exploitation possible. We live in a culture that feeds on the exploitation of others by maintaining the illusion of our separateness. Living this lie hurts all of us. We feel cut off from each other and ourselves. It is hard to see to the heart of the matter in a culture that must hide the truth of our interconnectedness to maintain the status quo. To really help each other grow in our congregations we must work together to look at life honestly; the good and the bad, celebrating what is good, comforting each other through the bad times and working together to promote equity, justice and compassion in the face of evil.

To engage this daunting task, I believe that we can begin by learning to connect at a deeper level with those closest to us, slowly but surely learning to invite others into our circle. Unitarian Universalist congregations are good places to practice promoting connection. It is what we need to do to be who we want to be. It is what we need to teach our kids to help them be the kind of self-aware and compassionate people we want them to be. Unitarian Universalist congregations should be places where we strive to really know and be known by others. We can learn to listen and speak from a place deep within ourselves by seeking sanctuary and support in a sacred place where the din of the outside world is held at bay for a while - a place where we can connect with ourselves and those closest to us. In Unitarian Universalist congregations we rely on one another to "speak the truth in love" balancing care and support with a little prodding now and again as we walk the path of religious freedom and responsibility together.

Balance is a tricky business. We need so much in the right measure to keep growing. As the spiritual leader of a congregation, I believe it is the ordained minister's responsibility to guard this sacred balance in all areas of church life. The ordained minister is always responsible for bringing the growth of the people through the promotion of connection to the table - in worship, in religious education, in administration - the ordained minister insures that the voice of connection, the voice of the divine is always heard. Growing in community is about connecting with something larger than ourselves. In Unitarian Universalist congregations we all share the freedom and the responsibility of promoting growth through connection in our congregations and in the world.

During the fall of 1998, I facilitated an adult religious education class based on the curriculum developed by the Reverend Richard S. Gilbert entitled, "Building Your Own Theology." We met every week for ten weeks of thoughtful group discussion with the goal of writing our own statement of beliefs.

Things that I believe:

I believe that all life is grounded in a divine source; the source of all being. This source enlivens us and connects us to all other living things. It is this source from which we come and to which we will return. It is as intimate as each breath we take yet beyond imagining.

This source is the font of creation, the miracle of birth, physical and spiritual, the seat of great ideas and great compassion in humankind. Its good is enhanced when we reach out to affirm life through connection and it is thwarted when we renounce our connected-ness with other living beings. There have been great healers who have sought to reconcile neighbor with neighbor and there have been great destroyers who have broken bodies and souls by making idols of themselves. Let us remember that good and evil in human history represent complex human equations that seldom rest solely in the hands of the famous. We all have the capacity for good or evil, contributing in ways both small and great to the balance.

We each have a responsibility to explore the ways in which our beliefs and our actions affirm and deny life. We have the responsibility to nurture our connectedness with all life, the divine within ourselves, our neighbor, our human community, the natural world, even the cosmos. We have the responsibility to talk about our beliefs with one another, challenging one another to transcend the limitations of the partial view we hold as individuals.

Finally, we have the responsibility to act on what we believe - for me that means actively seeking connection, working to heal the broken places and fighting for justice for the oppressed.

I believe that Jesus was a human exemplar of love. I find that I am still grounded in the tradition of the Hebrew prophets and Jesus' ethical teachings, especially in my work for social justice. I do not find the image of a personal God helpful but I am open to calling the process, a creative force that lives and moves and has its being in and among all living beings, God.

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