This week marks the completion of the first six months of my ministry at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Central Michigan. I moved here in the heat of late August and started at UUFCM on September 1st. My contract has been extended through June of 2021, so I will serve this Fellowship as minister for at least another 16 months.
 
This is an important moment in the life of this Fellowship, and I am glad to be part of it. It was only about a year ago that Dawn Daniels, your former minister, ended her ministry. You had a congregation-wide discussion about what you wanted next, and moved to hire a full-time minister. This decision increases the budget substantially, and right now the congregation is being asked to make financial pledges for the coming year to support the new budget.
 
Looking ahead, then, I think the questions for this Fellowship are: What do you get from having a full-time minister that you didn’t have with a part-time minister? What are the priorities for this Fellowship going forward—social justice? religious education for children and youth? adult religious education programs? increased membership?
 
I look forward to having these conversations with you about going forward. As I look back on the past six months, here are some of the highlights for me:
 
As a religious community, we grieve our dead together. I saw this in our Day of the Dead service in November when we added leaves to the Tree of Life monument in the building, honoring members who died during the past year. I saw this when we had a memorial service for Bob McBride earlier this month.
 
This Fellowship supports one another. Again and again during joys and sorrows on Sunday mornings I see heartfelt testimonials about all of life’s challenges: physical illness, mental illness, family struggles, job and money struggles. I see love and support every time.
 
This Fellowship cares about social justice. People are drawn to our fellowship by the Black Lives Matter banner and the rainbow flag. In January we had a retreat to prioritize two other social justice issues: the environment and voting rights. In November we held a Transgender Day of Remembrance ceremony that brought in diverse members of the community.
 
We welcome people just as they are. I have heard many people say that they feel at home and safe in the UUFCM community in a way that they don’t feel welcomed or safe any other place in their lives. That is the powerful magic that keeps me coming back to Unitarian Universalism and to this Fellowship. That is the life-saving, life-changing magic that I want to keep nourishing.
 
I feel blessed and grateful to serve this Fellowship as minister. The first six months have been wonderful and I look forward to our time ahead: challenges, joys, and all.
 
Prayer:
 
Spirit of Life and Love,
 
May this Fellowship thrive in the months and years to come. May all who associate with this Fellowship, as visitors, friends, or members, be blessed and strengthened by being here. May all feel welcome here.
 
May this Fellowship continue to be a place where people question and challenge and grow. Where people feel safe enough to be vulnerable and accept care and love from one another. where people feel welcome and safe, just as they are, no matter who they are.
 
Amen. Aho. Blessed Be.
 
Andrew Frantz

Last weekend I travelled to Ohio and went to Sunday morning worship service at the Oberlin Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (OUUF). This is the Fellowship I was part of for 18 years living in Oberlin, Ohio and of which I am still a member. It’s the Fellowship where I was a lay worship leader, a committee member, religious education teacher, and choir member over the years. I was part of that Fellowship through four ministers (one of whom left under circumstances of major conflict); I was part of the Green Sanctuary process and the Welcoming Congregation process there (for deepening our commitment to environmentalism and LGBTQ rights, respectively). My kids grew up there, involved from preschool through high school. And during my time at OUUF I realized that I enjoyed being a lay leader so much, and it fit with my gifts so well, and I believed so much in the mission of Unitarian Universalism, that I decided to enter in the ministry. Since that decision, my studies and training for ministry have taken me away from OUUF.
 
OUUF is a slightly smaller fellowship than the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Central Michigan (UUFCM). They have never had a full-time minister, so lay leadership has always been important there. Two elders in the church, Barbara Fuchsman and Lisette Burwasser, were especially important as role models for me during my years there. Both continue to lead services and do committee work for the Fellowship; Barbara is especially involved in social justice work and Lisette is a pagan leader at OUUF. They both sing in the choir.
 
When I walked in on Sunday morning, I took my seat next to Barbara and Lisette. As we stood to sing the first hymn (it was We’ll Build a Land), it struck me that this hymn is familiar and beloved to me because of my years at OUUF. Whenever I sing that song – and many others from our gray hymnal – I hear in my mind the voices of Barbara and Lisette, especially Barbara:
 
We’ll build a land where we bind up the broken
We’ll build a land where the captives go free
 
OUUF is different from UUFCM in some ways: they are a little smaller (about 30 people were at Sunday worship), they have a part-time minister instead of full-time. And they are very similar: they are in a Midwest college town, their history includes years of meeting in homes and other places before getting a building of their own—and most importantly, they share our UU values.
 
There are more than 1,000 Unitarian Universalist churches and fellowships across the country. I’ve preached in more than a dozen and visited many more for worship or other events. Each one has its flavor and personality, and each one is connected by our shared UU values. I feel a sense of home in any UU space, and a special sense of home at the Oberlin Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. It’s good to be connected, to be grounded, to belong, and to believe in something. May we all find our place of belonging.
 
Prayer:
Spirit of Life and Love:
Allah:
Yahweh:
Mother Earth:
God Above:
Voice of Wisdom and Love Within:
 
This is my prayer for myself;  for everyone who has found a spiritual home in a UU congregation or another faith community; and for everyone who does not have a faith community they call home.
 
May we find our way home. May we know that home is where we feel safe, trusted, listened to, where we are seen. May we find our place where we know others and they know us, where we feel the connection of love and acceptance flowing between and among us. This feeling of home may be in a family, in a classroom, in a house of worship, in a campground, in a meeting. We know it when we find it. We all want it and need it to be fully human and alive.
 
May every person, with no exceptions, know the joy and love of feeling at  home.
 
Amen.
Aho.
Blessed Be.
 
Andrew Frantz

Today I am thinking about this poem by Mark Belletini. Mark is a retired minister who served the Unitarian Universalist church in Columbus, Ohio for many years. I’ll never forget the day that I met him. I was in Columbus for a weekend event. It was Friday night, I had just arrived and was being shown around the church. In the kitchen I met a man wearing blue jeans and a paper name tag that just said Mark. I said hello and I was thinking maybe this is an employee or volunteer who does cleaning and maintenance at the church. It turns out it was the Rev. Mark Belletini, senior minister of the Columbus church, the biggest UU church in Ohio.
 
The lesson for me was one of humility and not taking yourself too seriously. As UU’s, some of us (including myself) could use a reminder of being humble and not thinking that we are special or elevated in any way. Here is Rev. Mark’s poem:
 
Reading for the Day
Mark Belletini
 
Let the sky above me unroll like a scroll,
and let me read upon it today’s text for my life:
            “You are alive, here and now.
            Love boldly and always tell the truth.”
 
Let the wind arrange the naked branches
of the maples and aspens and oaks
into letters which proclaim this sacred text:
            “Your heart beats now,
            not tomorrow or yesterday.
            Love the gift of your life and do no harm.”
 
Let the eyes and hands and faces
of all men and women and children
with whom I share this earth
be chapter and verse in this great scripture text:
            “Life is struggle and loss, and also
            tenderness and joy.
            Live all of your life, not just part of it.”
 
And now let all the poems and scriptures and novels
and films and songs and cries and lullabies and
prayers and anthems open up before our free hearts.
Let them open like a torah, like a psalm, like a gospel,
like an apocalypse
and let them proclaim:
“Do not think you can take away
each other’s troubles,
but try to be with each other in them.
Remember that you are part, not all,
great, but not by far the greatest,
small precious brief breaths
in the great whirlwind of creation.”
 
And remember that every single human word is
finally and divinely cradled in the strong and secure
arms of Silence.
 
(from the collection Sonata for Voice and Silence by Mark Belletini, published in 2008 by Skinner House Books in Boston.)
 
I love the whole poem, but especially I love the parts in quotation marks: “You are alive, here and now. / Love boldly and always tell the truth.” This is my call to breathe into my body and not be in my head, worrying about the past or the future.   
 
“Life is struggle and loss, and also / tenderness and joy. / Live all of your life, not just part of it.” This is my reminder to accept the sadness that is part of life. To love is to know that we will lose the things and the people we love. This is especially poignant this week as members of our Fellowship grapple with the death of a loved one. The pain of loss is acute. Leaning into the sadness can help us to live through it. Sadness shows where joy and love were.
 
Two people last Sunday morning spoke of the death of a family member during our Joys and Sorrows time. In a Fellowship like ours, we hear each other’s truth—even hard and sad truths—and we support each other as we can. As Mark Belletini says, “Do not think you can take away / each other’s troubles, / but try to be with each other in them.” May it be so for our Fellowship, because we all have troubles in this life.
 
 
Prayer:
Spirit of life and love, bless the words of Rev. Mark Belletini and his long service to Unitarian Universalism.
 
Bless the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Central Michigan with love. May the love between us be shown in times of trouble and pain and grief. May each of us remember to breathe, to be in the present moment, to love boldly and always tell the truth. May we love ourselves, one another, and the whole world with no exceptions.
 
Amen. Aho. Blessed be.
 
Andrew Frantz
​

Recently I asked my home congregation, the Oberlin Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, to ordain me. They said Yes. This is a big deal for me and for them as a Fellowship. It’s a big deal for any UU congregation, because of how we do things in this quirky and beautiful religion we call Unitarian Universalism.
 
Unlike some religious institutions, where the power to ordain their priests/ministers/rabbis/religious leaders might reside in a central authority, we do things differently in Unitarian Universalism. The power to ordain a person into the Unitarian Universalist ministry lies solely with the congregation. This Fellowship, the UU Fellowship of Central Michigan, could decide (by congregational vote) to ordain any person you choose. Separately, there is a process of approval, in our UU tradition, of people wanting to be ministers—they are approved by the national office called the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA). Approval by the UUA means you are a minister in good standing; whereas being ordained by a UU congregation means you are an ordained minister.
 
In my case, I passed the requirements of the UUA this fall. (The requirements are: a Master of Divinity degree, 10 weeks of training as a hospital chaplain, a psychological assessment, and an interview with a committee in Boston.) This means that I’m now a “UU minister in preliminary fellowship.” UUFCM hired me even before that was true, because the congregation can hire whomever they want to serve as minister. Now that I have the UUA approval, I’m simply a minister with more credentials. In our tradition, however, I’m still not referred to as “Reverend,” and according to the protocol followed by most UU ministers, I do not wear a stole—not until I’m ordained.
 
I chose to wait until I was approved by the UUA to ask my home congregation in Ohio to ordain me. I am going through the official process all the way, first the UUA approval and now the congregational ordination--although not every UU minister chooses to do that. In the history of UUFCM, you have had ministers with different levels of institutional blessing from the UUA. And you have exercised the congregational power to ordain a minister at least once, as I understand: with Bob Franke.
 
I could have asked UUFCM to ordain me. It would have been meaningful to have that ceremony here, in the first congregation I have served as a full-time minister. But I chose instead to ask my home congregation to ordain me, wanting to be with more of my family and friends in Ohio for this important milestone.
 
On the afternoon of Saturday, April 25, in Oberlin, Ohio, I will take the final step of my ministerial formation, celebrating my ordination with the small Fellowship I’ve been part of for 19 years. A few UUFCM members have said they might drive to Ohio for the event. This represents my commitment to the cause of love and justice through our common Unitarian Universalist faith. May that faith strengthen and sustain all of us.
 
Prayer:
Spirit of Life and Love, may all who are called to ministry be blessed. Bless those whose ministry is playing the piano and singing in the choir. Bless those whose ministry is leading services on Sunday morning, or visiting friends when they are sick and grieving. Bless those whose ministry is making coffee, and greeting newcomers on Sunday morning, and those whose ministry is setting up the microphones in the sanctuary before the service. Bless those whose ministry is committee meetings for Fellowship business and for social justice. May all of us be blessed, those who are called reverend or minister, and those who just do the work—the sacred work of love and justice and community.
 
Aho. Blessed be.
 
Andrew Frantz