I returned to my home congregation this past weekend to lead worship as a guest minister. It was a homecoming that reminded me of the joy, care, and welcome that Unitarian Universalism represents.
 
I joined the Oberlin Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (OUUF) in 2002. I was a member there, served on committees, occasionally led worship, taught children’s religious education classes and adult workshops; sang in the choir and even directed it for a brief time. My kids went there from the time they were in preschool and kindergarten. After 15 years as a lay member of this Fellowship, I discerned the call to ministry and went to seminary; two summers ago they ordained me, along with the UU Fellowship of Central Michigan, to become a minister. This was the first time I have been back to lead worship since my ordination.
 
This UU space is a community of care: I spent time catching up with old friends, sharing hugs and news of kids and grandkids, hearing about health challenges and other updates on life. I see this caring and compassion in every UU space I have ever been in.
 
This UU space is a community of deep welcome: I met people who are newer to the congregation who are finding a welcome here that they haven’t found elsewhere, due to identity and/or their theology. This is one of the hallmarks of Unitarian Universalism: we welcome people of any belief or non-belief; we welcome people of any gender or sexual identity.
 
Finally, in this UU space I witnessed spontaneous joy. The postlude to the worship service was a lively piece of recorded music that invited everyone around the world to dance. Soon a few people in the front row were standing up and dancing, leading a train of dancers that wove through the sanctuary. The music ended and there was a shout of joy. UU spaces can be places that allow and cultivate joy.
 
May all of our UU communities be places of care for one another; places of radical welcome; and places where joy thrives.
 
PRAYER:
Spirit of Life and Love, bless the congregation of the Oberlin UU Fellowship. Bless the frail elders and the new members, the lay leaders and the children and the visitors.
 
May every Unitarian Universalist space be a place where old friends hug and share news of the journey of life; may every UU space be the place where the pagan, the non-binary person, the lonely seeker of any identity finds a welcome. May every UU space be a place where joyful dance breaks out unexpectedly, because life is short and loving community is precious.
 
Blessed be.
 
Rev. Andrew Frantz

I didn’t want to spend my Valentine’s Day like this, reaching out to friends in Lansing and to college students here to see if they are OK; listening to the news for more details on the deadly shooting. It is Valentine’s Day, and so far this calendar year there have been 68 mass shootings in the United States of America. The number of guns per capita in the U.S. – 120 guns for every 100 citizens – is more than double that of Yemen, the country second on the list. I learned that from watching the news reports. I also watched the police chief give his briefing, the governor at this side; from the same podium I watched the doctor break down in tears trying to describe the all-night efforts of surgeons to save the lives of college students whose bodies were pierced by bullets.
 
My first contacts reaching out today were to the college students in our UUFCM community. The victims in East Lansing are their peers. The mass shootings in public places, as we all know, include K-12 schools as well as colleges and universities. We all feel vulnerable in this society awash with guns and gun violence, and students have a special vulnerability. My first contact that I received today was from a UU minister from another state, a lament for the violence and a prayer of solidarity to the UU ministers of Michigan as we cope with the aftermath.
 
Unitarian Universalists can and do work for legislation to curb gun violence. We must continue to do this work. And our congregations are communities dedicated explicitly to love and compassion and healing. We especially must continue to do this work. It is the work of welcoming the stranger; the work of connecting with the people we spend Sunday mornings with at other times during the week. Our work is the life-saving, world-changing work of creating a loving community within our walls, connecting that community with Unitarian Universalists everywhere, and extending love, compassion, equity and justice beyond our walls. On this day we extend love and compassion to our neighbors and families, and especially to that branch of our human family at Michigan State. We must do whatever we can, through political action, through prayer, and through human compassion to heal from this tragedy and to prevent the next one.
 
PRAYER:
Abiding Spirit of Love, may your presence be felt by the people of East Lansing. May the students, faculty and staff of Michigan State University feel that they are not alone. May our human prayers and compassion reach to that community, devastated by violence; may the more-than-human power of love, of goodness in the universe, of comfort from Mother Earth, reach them also.
 
May peace prevail. May we have the strength and courage to make it so.
 
Amen.
 
Rev. Andrew (Drew) Frantz

The first sound check went fine. On the second sound check, everything went sideways.
 
Every Sunday, the people with speaking parts in the worship service rehearse almost two hours before the service, to practice cues and slides, to check microphones and internet connections. This past Sunday was more complicated because we were doing a joint Zoom service with the UU Fellowship of Midland, our closest UU neighbors. So I included a second sound check, to double check everything before we started. That’s when a persistent, metallic, squawky feedback started sounding through our speakers. We tried everything we could think of to fix it, as the starting time for the service came and went.
 
We ended up starting 10 minutes late, doing the best we could and still having some glitches throughout the service.
 
And still, I was able to hear the spoken joys and sorrows from the Midland sanctuary 30 miles away. And still, the two congregations lit the chalice in each of our sanctuaries in recognition of shared UU values and traditions. And still, I was able to connect with those in the Mount Pleasant sanctuary and those on Zoom with a message of hope. During the service, with the chaotic technology glitches, I felt like our determination to connect with one another and the love we show in doing so is stronger than the challenges we face.
 
For almost three years we have been forced into a new place where we rely on technology to connect us in the congregation (and elsewhere in life). The majority of times, the technology works as expected. We can and should seek to constantly make the technology the best it can be. It will never be perfect, there will always be mistakes--and the connections between people are what matters. Let us commit to creating and strengthening those connections, in person and on Zoom and any other way that we can.
 
PRAYER:
May love unite us, in our families and friendships and congregations. May love unite all Unitarian Universalists in our homes and in our sanctuaries.
 
May we use the tools that humans have created: the written word, the telephone, email, text and video conferencing—to enhance our connections; to understand one another better; to connect in love and hope; and to bring yet more love and hope to the world.
 
May it be so.
 
Rev. Andrew Frantz
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