I was “away” all of last week, first for two days with a gathering of 500 Unitarian Universalist ministers (Ministry Days), then for five days with a gathering of 5,000 Unitarian Universalists (General Assembly). Many of you joined the closing worship of General Assembly on Sunday, which took the place of our regular Sunday worship. Of course, nothing is “regular” these days. These gatherings that would have involved people physically together in a convention center became huge Zoom meetings instead.
 
On Sunday when the conferences ended, I found myself doubly sad. There was the normal tired feeling after an intense week of being with so many people…and there was the added sadness of realizing that I really wasn’t with the people. How much more satisfying it is to be together, sitting down for coffee with a friend or colleague; worshipping together; singing together. This pandemic continues to bring challenges that are hard to bear.
 
And…General Assembly was hugely inspiring and challenging. Some of the topics that I engaged with during the week included: a panel discussion about reparations for descendants of people who were enslaved; an environmental call to action; an overview of UU the Vote; and a panel of white anti-racist allies. I also attended sessions on creating family-inclusive worship services and on facilitating restorative justice circles. So much of what we did and talked about put Black, Indigenous, People of Color at the center: in worship, in workshops, in leadership, and in the resolutions we passed. We heard from the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, whose reservation lands are currently being threatened by the U.S. government. The resolution passed by the delegates at General Assembly calls on us to:

• Continue to gather in solidarity with the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, Standing Rock nation, and all Indigenous peoples struggling to preserve their lands, waters, peoples, sacred sites, and sovereignty;

           and to:

• Research, identify, and acknowledge the Indigenous peoples historically and/or currently connected with the land occupied by congregations, and find ways to act in solidarity with or even partner with those Indigenous peoples;

I found this to be a powerful statement of witness, and I was moved by the message of the Wampanoag elder who shared the perspective of her people and the current threat to their sovereignty by the Trump administration. Among the many powerful experiences I had at Ministry Days and General Assembly, this one stood out.

Finally, today marks the end of the 10-month contract I had initially signed with the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Central Michigan, and the beginning of the 12-month contract extension I have signed. The first 10 months working here have been tremendous, and I look forward to serving UUFCM for the coming year, growing together in love and community and working for greater justice.

Prayer:
Spirit of life and love, present in all the moments of our lives, may we see you now. May we feel your presence. The divine, the holy, is always here—we just need to open ourselves to awareness of the holy, of the compassion within, of the mystery beyond.
 
Great Mystery and Great Compassion, may we be in harmony with love wherever it moves through this life. May we be in harmony with the love moving in our families and among our friends; may we be in harmony with the love flowing among the members of this Fellowship; may we recognize that love takes the form of resistance to oppression in a society rife with injustice.
 
May love guide us and hold us.
 
Amen. Aho. Blessed Be.
 
Andrew Frantz
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This week I had a dream that I remembered vividly upon waking. In the dream, I was seeing many of my dear friends from high school – and greeting them with hugs. I woke up feeling in my bones how much I miss hugging friends as this coronavirus social distancing continues. And the feeling of connection and knowing that I was loved stayed with me after waking up.
 
A few days ago, the alumni of my seminary held a vespers service on Zoom. It is always a curious and wonderful thing to be in a worship service full of other ministers. When I’ve experienced that in person, I’ve noticed that UU ministers will say “preach” out loud in worship service more than most UU’s. In this Zoom service, they even found a way to do that virtually by using the chat box.
 
But the thing that was moving about the experience was the feeling of connecting with old friends. Like my high school classmates, my seminary classmates and I share a bond of connection through a formative period of life. At the worship service, my friend Monica greeted me and together we remembered an experience we had two years ago in a class together: as part of a class presentation, one day we were dancing and singing along to the song “Hell You Talmbout.” It’s a song about saying the names of victims of police violence. Awareness of racial injustice brought us together as seminary students, and it brought us together again this week for the vespers service.
 
We all need to know that we have people we belong to. I think that’s why a lot of people join and stay with a congregation. I had that feeling with my high school friends in my dream—separated by many years and even by consciousness. And I had that feeling with my seminary friends on a Zoom worship call—separated by a few years and by the miles between us. May we all know that we can find our people. May we all know that we are loved and not alone.
 
Prayer:
God of many names and no name, be with me now. Bless Craig and Mike, whom I was hugging in my dream; bless Monica and Bill whom I saw on the Zoom worship call.
 
May friendship and belonging bless all people. May we all know that distance and time do not separate us from the ones we love.
 
May those who seek friendship and belonging in this Fellowship find it here. We know when we have found our people, and it is a precious feeling.
 
May everyone find their family, their tribe, and know they are loved and welcome there. And may all of us know that we are part of the great tribe, the great family that includes all of humanity.
 
May it be so.

Andrew Frantz

This week has been filled with the protests around the country and here in Mount Pleasant. I realized slowly, late last week, how big the protests were getting. By Sunday morning I was planning to change the regular monthly Thursday evening service to focus on racial justice. This was thanks to someone from the congregation suggesting it. On Sunday morning, I learned that there was already a protest planned in Mount Pleasant that afternoon. This was also thanks to someone from the congregation alerting me to it.
 
I decided to attend that protest, taking the Black Lives Matter banner from where it hangs in my home to the corner of Bluefield Road and Mission. The organizer, a young woman from the UU church in Midland, greeted me. The speaker, a young man from Saginaw, addressed the crowd through a megaphone. I wore my mask and held my banner. I saw several members of our congregation there. Many were also at the larger Mount Pleasant protest the next day, where our social justice leader Norma Bailey spoke about voting rights.
 
The protest for racial justice, visible on the national news in cities across America, is here in central Michigan as well. For those who are not on the streets protesting, other ways to support racial justice include donating money to organizations, and working for political reform at the local, state, and national levels. Two of our congregants are part of a task force that has been meeting with the local police for the past few years about racial profiling and best practices for equitable policing right here.
 
At the national level, I am angered by President Trump using force to clear peaceful protestors in order to take a photograph in front of a church holding a Bible. Christian teaching does not support this president’s ideology and actions around race in general and around his response to this crisis in particular. I was moved to take a similar photo of myself in front of our fellowship’s sign. I believe that congregants and leaders of all faiths need to counter this president’s misappropriation of religious imagery with our own affirmation: our faith calls us to speak and act for love and justice. We support peaceful protest. We call for radical reform of government to promote racial justice and eliminate racialized violence. Our UU principles include Justice, equity and compassion in human relations and The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all.
 
Some of us are protesting on the streets. Some of us are being vocal on social media. And some of us are being reflective. How you are reacting to this crisis is not right or wrong. We each need to be true to ourselves. Doing the internal work of grappling with this crisis is important: we may be feeling anger, sadness, fear, and shame. As a loving community of faith, we need to support one another in this kind of work also. The special Service of Lament and Call to Action Thursday at 7:00 will be more along those lines.
 
This is a profound moment in American history. The world is watching. The U.S. president is acting boldly and showing where he stands. The people are marching in the streets. Our hearts are breaking with fear, sadness, anger, and shame. May this faith community sustain you and strengthen you and help you cope with this crisis, no matter what your coping looks like.
 
Prayer:
 
Spirit of Life and Love, you are the divine power within each of us. We see you as the spirit that animates the protestor on the street. Spirit of life and love, we see you at work in the Black protestor who proclaims that their child doesn’t deserve to be at risk of dying from their own police force. We feel you, spirit of life and love, in our own hearts as we grapple with the news and ache for a better world.
 
Hear our prayer.
 
May the protestors be safe. May they speak their truth and show their righteous anger.
 
May the officers across from the protestors be grounded in their sacred duty to protect and serve the public good. May they see the protestors as their fellow humans.
 
May all be engaged in this struggle, this dialogue, this messy moment of choice and change. A new world is coming and we are creating it today. May we create the new world in love and community.
 
May it be so.
 
Andrew Frantz