This coming Sunday will be the first time that I won’t be at the Fellowship for the Sunday morning service. While the congregation gathers in Mount Pleasant, I will be at a different sacred gathering–at a campground in Fayette, Ohio. My gathering will consist of about 100 men: 80 of us staffing an intense weekend-long initiation ceremony for 20 new men. The weekend is an initiation into sacred manhood.

Along with the Unitarian Universalist religion, this men’s movement (called ManKind Project) is the other place that I feel spiritually at home, deeply understood, free to be truly myself, and part of a movement that is transforming the world. In the case of the ManKind Project, we are aiming to heal the planet by healing men and awakening them into emotionally mature, compassionate, authentic and powerful versions of themselves. This organization has changed my life. If you can imagine a circle of 80 men communicating with deep emotion, intense honesty, and fierce love for one another, then you will have a glimpse of what I’ll be experiencing.

Everyone deserves to have a place where they can be truly and fully themselves, a group where people support and accept one another and encourage one another to be their best.

Some people find this in a family, some with friends, some with organizations, and some with religious congregations. I hope that the UU Fellowship of Central Michigan can be exactly that for its members: radically welcoming and affirming, while calling us to be our best. The third principle of our denomination speaks to this: Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations.

I look forward to returning to the Fellowship next week, recharged by my connection with my men’s group brothers, and ready to continue the sacred work of creating a safe place that people can call their spiritual home.

Prayer
May all people find their spiritual home, be it a support group, social group, family group, working group, religious group, or identity group.
May we all know the place where we can shed our masks and speak our truth.
May we know the love in the bright eyes of the ones who receive us there, the embrace of kindness and acceptance.
From this place of belonging, may each of us grow stronger in love and use our power to create a more loving, joyful, harmonious world.

Andrew Frantz
October 22, 2019

Today is October 1st —though the weather feels more like August—and this marks exactly one month since I started my journey of ministry with the Fellowship. After seven dinners with small groups of the membership, and five Sunday morning worship services in your sanctuary, I feel like I am beginning to get to know you. If you missed the series of dinners, let’s make a time to have lunch or coffee together so that I can get to know you better.

As I write this week, I’m in Selma, Indiana at a retreat center with other UU ministers from Michigan, Indiana, and Kentucky. In addition to Mount Pleasant, congregations from Michigan represented here include Midland, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Kalamazoo, and Troy. New ministers, established ministers, and retired ministers are here; ministers from small and large and mid-sized congregations are here.

We are here to wrestle with challenging things in our denomination and in our world: how to be in healthy covenantal relationships; how to do the work of being anti-racist, anti-oppression, and multicultural. Our fellow Unitarian Universalists across the state and the region have the same goals that we do, the same values, and the same struggles. Being at this retreat with my colleagues reminds me that we can learn from one another, we can support one another, and that we are stronger together.

One of our conversations here has been about the essays distributed at General Assembly in June by the minister of the UU church in Spokane, Washington. Guy Newland talked about this in his sermon last Sunday. These controversial essays unfortunately contained a lot of misinformation and a lot of statements hurtful to people of color and transgender people. The arguments in the writings are similar to what’s found in the rhetoric of white supremacist groups…and this was written by a UU minister. As I wrestle with this, I’m thinking a lot about people in UU congregations who feel threatened or uneasy about the profound changes happening within Unitarian Universalism around race and gender especially, but also around ability and disability. We are doing deep work to examine our current practices and try to be more inclusive and less oppressive towards people of color, transgender people, and disabled people—and it’s not surprising that there is some push-back. My hope is that the push-back leads to dialogue and understanding, not to name-calling and excluding. I’m thankful to Guy for his excellent, nuanced sermon on Sunday that allows us to continue these conversations.

On Wednesday I’ll be back in Mount Pleasant, refreshed and inspired by my amazing ministerial colleagues, eager to continue the work of love and justice within our congregation and in the wider community. I’m happy to be on this journey with you and with Unitarian Universalists everywhere.

Prayer:
May we find time to refresh and renew ourselves in order to better do the work that lies ahead. May we be blessed with friends who challenge, inspire, and support us. May we know that there are many, many people--known and unknown, near and far—who share our passion for peace and justice, and who will work with us for a better world for ourselves and for the children of tomorrow.

Yours in faith and service,
​
Andrew (Drew) Frantz
October 1, 2019