Along with the nation, I have been absorbed in the news from the supreme court this week. Although I was expecting it, the leaked draft of the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade has been deeply disturbing. As a 54 year-old, the legal right to abortion has been a fact of life ever since I can remember. To imagine a United States where that’s no longer true is shocking—then again, one only need to look at Texas today, where women are forced to travel out of state for abortion care. If Roe v. Wade is overturned and the Michigan law from the 1930’s kicks in—a likely scenario—then Michigan would become like Texas but worse, and women would be forced to travel to Illinois for abortion care. A petition drive is currently underway that would allow Michigan voters to affirm abortion rights through a constitutional amendment.
 
Unitarian Universalists have been very clear in their stance on this issue as a moral one for women’s autonomy. Our principles and values hold that the decision to carry a pregnancy to full term should be made by a woman with her own health and best interests in mind, and should not be dictated by others. This position has been affirmed overwhelmingly at our General Assembly.
 
Listening to the outpouring of public opinion about this topic in the past few days, I am dismayed by the anti-abortion viewpoint. If people don’t want women to get an abortion, they should be pouring more energy into supporting pregnancy care and childcare. I’m not outraged that some women choose to end a pregnancy in their own bodies. I’m outraged that Black women in Michigan are 4.5 times more likely to suffer pregnancy-related deaths than white women. (This was reported by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services in 2018.) On Mother’s Day, that’s the kind of thing that we should be protesting about, and the kind of thing that policy makers should be addressing.
 
PRAYER:
Goddess of Mothers everywhere, Goddess of women and men and trans people and children, hear my prayer.
 
May pregnant women be affirmed in their full humanity. May those who carry these pregnancies be blessed, and may those who choose to end these pregnancies be blessed. May each woman make this sacred choice with her full mind and spirit, and may all those who love her support her in her choice.
 
Blessed be.
 
Rev. Andrew Frantz
May 5, 2022

Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Central Michigan
Minister’s Column
 
I get regular emails from colleagues whose job is to minister to fellow ministers. At the UU Ministers Association, for example, the executive team takes turns sending out reflections to the membership. A recent message from Rev. Melissa Carvill Ziemer gave me a sense of hope and support, and here I pass that along to you.
 
Rev. Melissa noted the sense of overwhelm that can be present when confronted with the news of the world and the nation, and she offers the words that she speaks to herself to combat the hopelessness:
 
After reading the news of more hateful, dangerous legislation, or the terrors of violence in so many places: “remember, everywhere there are people resisting, so join them and do what you can. Make a phone call, send an email, click on the link to donate.”
 
This is relevant for me, and maybe it is for you as well. This week I have felt that sense of overwhelming helplessness when hearing the news of more undemocratic gerrymandering of voting districts; and the news of more bombing and loss of life in Ukraine. Remember, everywhere there are people resisting, so join them and do what you can. Join them and do what you can. Remember that you are not alone—that many people of good will are paying attention to injustice and responding as they are able.
 
I will quote one more passage from Rev. Melissa’s reflection:
 
When I’m consumed in noticing all that is wrong: “remember, always there is something right. Take a break and notice what is good. Love is abundant and reliable, freedom fighters are everywhere, beauty is an inexhaustible gift of the universe.”
 
She follows this with examples of beauty in her world, in her yard, in her neighborhood. We can all find beauty in our surroundings. I love this affirmation that beauty is an inexhaustible gift of the universe.  And I love the tone of Rev. Melissa’s writing--especially the tone of the voice in quotation marks that is surely the voice of the writer speaking to herself, reassuring herself, comforting herself, urging herself to go on. May we all find that voice within ourselves.
 
I am blessed to be part of a UU ministers’ network that is intentional about supporting one another. I am blessed to receive the words and counsel of Melissa Carvill Zeimer, giving me tools and energy to continue working for peace and justice in a dangerous world. She reminds me that it is a beautiful, hopeful world also—and I remind you of the same. I extend this circle of love and care to all who read this message: you are loved. Love is abundant and reliable. In the face of life’s challenges, may you remember to pause and find your strength through a calming breath; through noticing trees, birds, sky outside your window; through connecting to the ones who are with you on this journey. You are not alone.
 
PRAYER:
May you find the voice within you that counsels hope, that advises you to care for yourself, that reminds you that love is present. Some call this voice the Loving God Within; others call it the Inner Teacher or the Ideal Parent. May each of us find that voice, and be blessed by the wisdom and love that we hear when we listen to it.

May it be so.
 
Rev. Andrew Frantz
April 28, 2022

The national Teacher of the Year award was announced this week: Kurt Russell, History Teacher at Oberlin High School in Ohio. I was thrilled to hear the news because I know this teacher. I was his colleague for two years when I served as full-time substitute teacher at that school; my kids both had Mr. Russell as a teacher; and I worked with his wife Donna for seven years at Oberlin College. My son tells me that “Welcome to Oberlin, home of national Teacher of the Year Kurt Russell” yard signs are going up around town. Here is a link to Mr. Russell being interviewed on the CBS morning show:
 
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/kurt-russell-announced-as-the-2022-national-teacher-of-the-year/
 
He really is a great teacher. I’ve been in his classroom and seen first-hand his engaging style with his History students. Another time I observed Mr. Russell leading basketball practice after school. There I saw students that I knew to be uncomfortable in the classroom, yet here on the basketball court with Coach Russell mentoring them, they were engaged and in their element. He is inspiring and worthy of this award.
 
For me, this brings back my memories of teaching. I taught in five schools in three states during a 14-year career, prior to being called to ministry. During that time, I adopted a personal mission statement: My mission as a teacher is to share the life-changing wonder, joy and power of ideas with all students. I often reflected that it was impossible to know if my teaching made a difference when students left my classroom. A very few former students contacted me later to say that they appreciated my influence on their lives. For the rest, I considered it an act of faith: teachers do the best they can, pouring heart and soul into their jobs, trusting that their efforts will have a positive effect on their students. I know so many teachers who are doing this every day, and each of them deserves to be honored.
 
PRAYER:
Spirit of Life and Love, you gave us the wisdom to have schools for our children; you instilled in some of us the passion to teach.
 
May God bless Mr. Kurt Russell. May God bless his family and his loved ones, his colleagues and his students past, present and future.
 
May the benevolent spirit of humanity bless our parents, our communities, our school boards and our elected leaders to support students and to support the heroic teachers who serve them every day.
 
May love, wisdom, kindness and curiosity bless every student and every teacher. Amen.
 
Rev. Andrew Frantz
April 21, 2022

Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Central Michigan
Minister’s Column
 
There was a profound change in the weather this week, which felt like a new season: the sun finally came out after weeks of clouds and rain; the temperature rose above the 40’s into the 60’s; the first flowers are poking out of the ground. Officially, the first day of spring was March 21, the spring equinox, a day the Pagans call Ostara. It has felt more like winter, however, for the first month of spring—or like a spring version of winter. Coming soon is the Pagan holiday of Beltane on May 1st (May Day). This change in the weather feels more like a promise of May, and so I think of the season as shifting – from “early spring” (the Ostara season) to “spring” (the Beltane season).
 
In fact, I extend this concept to all 8 of the Pagan holidays: each one represents a season (or sub-season, if you like). In my understanding of these sub-seasons, each of the 8 Pagan holidays is in the center, not the beginning. Here’s my new concept of 8 seasons, as I name them and as I experience them in the place and climate where I live:
 
-Yule, the Winter Holiday season, from December 1st to mid-January; the Yule holiday is December 21.
-Imbolc, the Deep Winter season, from mid-January to the end of February; the Imbolc holiday is February 1.
-Ostara, the Early Spring season, from March 1st to mid-April; the Ostara holiday is March 21.
-Beltane, the Spring season, from mid-April to the end of May; the Beltane holiday is May 1.
-Litha, the Summer season, from June 1st to mid-July; the Litha holiday is June 21.
-Lammas, the Late Summer season, from mid-July to the end of August; the Lammas holiday is August 1.
-Mabon, the Autumn season, from September 1st to mid-October; the Mabon holiday is September 21.
-Samhain, the Harvest season, from mid-Ocotober to the end of November; the Samhain holiday is November 1.

To me it’s fun and interesting to think about the cycle of the year this way, and to re-name the seasons. And there’s a deeper level: I am more attuned to nature and to seasons, to light and dark, to warm and cold, to the life around me than I have been before. I will be 54 next week (speaking of yearly cycles of the Earth around the Sun) and this awareness has been growing in me just in the last few years.
 
Happy season of Beltane to you. Happy spring. Happy warming weather. Happy flowers poking out of the ground. May you embrace the changing season and be attuned to it in the way that feels right for you, however you may name it.
 
PRAYER:
Unknowable force that spins the Earth and flings the planets around the Sun, energy of the Sun warming the Earth, hear my prayer. May I be in tune with the flow of energy and light that define this life, this planet; the energy of time by which all that we know is measured.
 
Cosmic life force, may I be aware of the flow of energy and life this day and every day.
Blessed be.
 
Rev. Andrew Frantz
April 14, 2022

As part of my agreement with the congregation, I usually get one Sunday per month off from leading worship. Often I use this time for personal renewal and connection with loved ones. Sometimes I feel called to participate in a worship service where I can receive the benefit of a communal spiritual experience without being responsible for providing it. This yearning led me last Sunday to the First Church of Christ in Mount Pleasant, where I was greeted warmly by the congregants as well as by the lead pastor. I was especially uplifted by the music in the service. There was a lot of singing, and one of the lines we sang that moved me was, “my sins they are many; His mercy is more.”
 
I don’t use the language of “sin” generally in my religion, nor do I refer to the divine as “Him.” In the context of a Christian worship service, of course, this language and this theology were not surprising. I translate that Christian message into my own belief system: I am broken and wounded and aware of my flaws (my sins they are many); yet I know that I am also whole and worthy of love and that the Divine lives within me and through me (His mercy is more). I thanked the lead pastor after the service and gave him my business card. Since then, we have met for coffee and found great common ground in our calling and our pastoral work—commonality far outweighing the theological differences we may have.
 
Separately this week I, participated in a panel discussion alongside three local Christian clergy members. The panel was hosted by the Central Michigan University LGBTQ office, and the topic was faith and sexuality. The Christian clergy, of course, were primarily discussing questions of sexuality from a Biblical perspective; and as liberal Christians they emphasized the love of Jesus and said that the problematic passages from the Bible that seem to damn homosexuals should not be interpreted that way. As a non-Christian Unitarian Universalist, what the Bible says or doesn’t say about sexuality is not of primary importance to me. My religious conviction that LGBTQ people are divine comes from my Unitarian Universalist faith as expressed in our principles and not from the Bible.
 
And, during the whole panel discussion and afterwards, I felt a great sense of common purpose with the three Christian clergy sitting beside me. They are expressing love and acceptance through the lens of their religion; I express it through mine.
 
Sometimes being a Unitarian Universalist in a religious landscape dominated by Christians is difficult. In conversation with Christians (and others), I frequently have to explain my religion to people who have never heard of it. This comes with being a Unitarian Universalist…along with the practice of translating other people’s religious language into concepts that fit with my beliefs. In spite of these challenges, it’s nice to realize that I have a lot in common with Christians: spreading love, finding meaning, welcoming others, and creating community.
 
PRAYER:
May blessing come to the First Church of Christ. May St. John’s Episcopal Church and the Wesley Center and Immanuel Lutheran be blessed, their congregations and their leaders. May this blessing come from Jesus, God, the Holy Spirit—from whomever and whatever these churches understand to be their Holy, their Divine. And may this blessing come from me and from other humans: the simple human wish that other humans may prosper and be happy.
 
May love, in human form and in divine form, bless every congregation where people gather for community and meaning. May love bless that whole world with no exceptions.
 
Rev. Andrew Frantz
April 7, 2022

Last weekend I went to my first Pow wow: the 33rd Annual  Celebrating Life Pow wow at Central Michigan University. The main impression I got was a mixture of reverence and joy. I had a strong feeling of witnessing a different culture, one that I had heard about but not been part of in person.
 
I arrived in time for the Grand Entry. Five groups of drummers encircled the arena, and each group consisted of 8 or 9 men around a single drum. The different groups took turns offering songs, which consisted of unison singing and all the drummers beating the drum together. For the Grand Entry, a community elder led the procession. As he danced along, the flags and staffs of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, the United States, Canada, US Army, US Navy and more were carried in honor. Then came dancers in ceremonial dress and many more dancers—and all moved behind the elder at his speed, dancing steadily along. In my culture, I can’t think of a time when we give an elder the place of honor like that.
 
After the Grand Entry, I witnessed many dance competitions in categories by age and type of dance: Women’s Traditional; Women’s Jingle Dress Dance; Men’s Grass Dance; Men’s Fancy and more.  I was amazed at the energy and footwork of the dancers and at their regalia. I can only guess at the hours of time put into each outfit and the spiritual meanings of the feathers, symbols and colors that adorn them. According to the program, for instance, “The women’s jingle dress dancers wear cloth dresses that contain 365 small metal cones, a prayer for each day,” and there is an Ojibwe legend that connects the dress to healing a village of sickness.
 
Intertribal dances were interspersed throughout the Pow wow also, when anyone and everyone was invited to dance, and people came out with babies and children, dressed in everyday clothes or intricate traditional garb.
 
I am still processing everything that I saw and felt at this Pow wow. The piercing ring of the songs is in my head, and the drum beats that make everyone want to move. I am still reflecting on an ancient culture passed down and alive today in this form, a culture indigenous to this place where I now make my home, and where my people are relative newcomers. I know that I want to come again, to experience again the reverence and the joy and to keep learning about native culture. I already have July 29-31 marked on my calendar, when the next Pow wow will be held in Mount Pleasant.
 
PRAYER:
Great Spirit, spirit of the dancers and the drummers, spirit of those who attend the Pow wow as spectators and those who live and breathe it, send your blessing. Bless the dancers and the drummers, bless the vendors and the announcers, bless the elders and the children.
 
May this Pow wow, and the next one, and the next, be a vehicle for living tradition, a place of reverence for the past, an embodiment of joy and of the fierce spirit of survival.
 
May it be so.
 
Rev. Andrew Frantz
March 24, 2022

​I will be away next week for spring break. Look for the next Minister's Column on Thursday April 7.

Today I recycled my Christmas tree. Yes, I know--it’s St. Patrick’s Day. I took the ornaments off the tree around Valentine’s Day, and by then the city’s time for collecting Christmas trees at curbside had long since passed. I chopped it into little pieces and put them in plastic trash barrels. Today, the first warm spring-like day, I took those barrels to the dump and got rid of the tree in the “brush” pile for a fee of $1 per barrel.
 
Today at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship building, two large trees on the Wisconsin Street curb lawn were cut down by the city. If you have been to the building recently, you may have noticed the pink “X” spray painted on each of them. This is part of the city’s management of trees on curb lawns within the city limits…and it makes me sad. Unlike my Christmas tree, which was younger than my kids, the trees next to the Fellowship were older than my parents. Each one had a trunk bigger than I could get my arms around. Tonight these trunks lie in enormous heavy pieces on the grass.
 
I take for granted a life where I can go to the dump on a warm spring day and where the loss of familiar trees is a significant event to mourn. It is in this context that I read the news about Ukraine today—families fleeing to Poland with no possessions; children wounded and killed by bombs and missiles. I see the pictures that go with the news story, but I have not touched the human bodies suffering in this war as I have touched the trees I said goodbye to today. I know that those people love their trees too. I know that some trees will be destroyed in the devastation of this war, while others will survive, silent witness to the human lives that share the same soil and breathe the same air.
 
PRAYER:
One God of all humans, all nations, all armies, all children, all refugees, all soldiers--
One God of all trees, of tree huggers and tree cutters, and of those of us who do both--
Hear my prayer.
May we always be reverent of Life. Each life is precious. Each contributes its spark, its energy to the great energy that flows through all. Let each life be celebrated in its living, and let each life be mourned in its ending—some timely, some tragic.
May peace bless the city streets of Mount Pleasant. May peace grow like the spring time in Poland and in Ukraine.
Blessed be.
 
Rev. Andrew Frantz
March 17, 2022

Last weekend I visited my step-father. He’s 93 and about to make the significant move from independent living to assisted living. On Sunday, we made time to sit down with the minister of his church to talk about the transition and his next steps in life. During this conversation I said to him, “I encourage you to lean into this church community. I can see that you have connections here, and my sense is that there is more love and support for you that you haven’t tapped into yet.”
 
I guess that’s what you get when your step-son is a minister himself.
 
I may have been out of line in promising love and support from a community that I’m not even part of (I live in a different state from my step-father), but I felt pretty secure in doing so. What I know about congregations, and other loving communities, is that they don’t run out of love. It’s not a scarce resource, it’s an abundant one. Love multiplies and grows the more it is shared.
 
I would say the same thing, to anyone reading this column, about the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Central Michigan: there is more love and support here that you haven’t tapped into yet. If you’re already part of this religious community, or if you are thinking of joining us, we have love and support for you. And heaven knows we need it these days. The daily news from the Ukraine is draining and demoralizing. The state and national news reveals alarming attacks on our democracy, on transgender kids and their families, and on public school teachers. We need one another in these difficult times.
 
May love grow and multiply as we offer love and support to one another.
 
PRAYER:
Mother Father God, as the good people of United Church of Christ call you…
Spirit of Life and Love, as we Unitarian Universalists like to say…
Allah, Jesus Christ, Brahman…
Divine Energy of many names and no name at all…Hear our prayer:
May the elders find their way forward into old age with dignity and with the support of family, friends, and community.
May the people of Ukraine be relieved of the horrors of the war they did not choose and do not deserve.
May divine grace shield transgender youth and their families from the atrocious legal attacks that state legislatures are levelling against them.
May the sacred right of voting be upheld and strengthened.
May school teachers be honored for their work, not scrutinized for the political correctness of their lesson plans.
In the name of all that is holy we pray.
Amen.
 
Rev. Andrew Frantz
March 10, 2022

This week the war in Ukraine has occupied my mental and spiritual energy. Some of my friends and colleagues have pointed out that this conflict is getting more attention and sympathy than similar conflicts that involved black or brown people. I think it also has a greater significance to Americans because it involves a foe that has been cast as our enemy for generations: Russia. In any case, I find myself glued to the news and I noticed something disturbing going on in my head. I want Ukraine to win so much that I imagine bombing the Russian convoy, shooting the Russian soldiers. I picture myself in this war. I can’t remember feeling that way before.
 
Anger is what’s at work here. I’m angry at Putin for invading, and in my anger I want to lash out. I need to let go of that anger in a healthy way, because it is not serving me. As I call myself back to my best self, a more appropriate feeling emerges: sadness. Sadness for the civilians being harmed; for the refugees; and for the soldiers on both sides fighting and dying.
 
Last Saturday we had a vigil for Ukraine at the Fellowship building, and the number of people who turned out was moving—familiar faces and total strangers, called to come out for a moment and witness the sadness, injustice, the human tragedy that is war.
 
My step-mother shared this blog post with me this week, written by a Unitarian Universalist peace activist. She reflects on being a young woman and asking her mom what she could do to counteract the war in Viet Nam. The answer surprised her:
 
I was to knit. Yep, knit. Explicitly, I was to knit baby blankets. Baby blankets for infants of Viet Cong mothers who were in hiding. Baby blankets that were to be knit of wool which would not ignite and cling to the skin of tiny babies like synthetic fibers; baby blankets that had to be knitted of the non-baby colors, the jungle colors, of black, gray, dark green, dark brown so they would be baby  camouflage. I knit a lot of tears and prayers and hope into those blankets.  
Ellen Dionna / www.susquehannamysteryschool.org
 
This is a reminder that we can all do something, even in the face of an unspeakable human catastrophe far away, such as this war. May we channel our energies toward doing what we can do, and be ready to contribute what we can in the way of healing and hope and refuge when we are called to do it.
 
PRAYER:
Great Spirit, Energy that was here before humans and will endure to the end of time as we know it, look on us with your benevolent mercy. Help the human race to see the folly of war, help us to break the cycle of anger and retaliation. Bring peace and gentleness and generosity into our hearts.
 
May it be so.
 
Rev. Andrew Frantz
March 3, 2022