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Minister on Vacation

12/30/2020

 
From December 28 through January 3, Guy Newland will be the contact person in lieu of Drew: (newla1gm@cmich.edu, 989.944.0534). There will be no Minister’s Column on December 31.

Minister’s Column

12/23/2020

 
I am drinking coffee out of my special Christmas mug, unpacked at this time of year and put back in storage after a few weeks—along with lights, ornaments, wrapping paper and other Christmas things. These connect me to the traditions of Christmas that have been part of my life since childhood: gathering with family, taking time off work and school for games and meals and giving presents.
 
I call myself a secular Christian or a cultural Christian because I was raised with Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny: traditions coinciding with the religious holidays of Christianity, but whose meaning was all about family togetherness and very little about religious belief.
 
At some point I rejected the mainstream religious notion that Jesus died and was born again, and the notion of being saved somehow by or through Jesus. However, I later embraced the figure of Jesus as a teacher and a healer, as a prophet who preached radical love. In honor of Christmas, I uplift the message of that Jesus that I believe in: that everyone is worthy, rich or poor; outcast or noble; that we should love one another.
 
Merry Christmas. If this is a holiday with meaning for you – deep religious meaning or the equally important meaning of family tradition – I hope you enjoy it. If Christmas is completely outside of your religious identity, I hope you enjoy the quiet of a day when almost everything is closed. And may we all be blessed by the message of love and hope that is at the core of  the Christmas story: a baby born in difficult times giving hope to his family and to others.
 
Prayer
May every child born be blessed and honored as special, as the child of God, as a holy being sent to bring hope, love and peace. May each of us see ourselves in that child, represented in the Christian tradition by the baby Jesus.
 
May we be wise enough to see universal wisdom and truth in the stories and holidays of many religious traditions – those we were born into, and those we learn about later in life.
 
May Christmas be a day of peace, love and joy for the whole world with no exceptions.
 
Amen.
 
Rev. Andrew Frantz

Minister’s Column

12/16/2020

 
In our worship service last Sunday, the focus was on stillness as a spiritual practice. Stillness is the theme for the month of December; akin to stillness is the dark and cold that are part of this month, and akin to stillness is silence.
 
I shared a poem on Sunday by Rev. Mark Belletini called “Ode to Silence.” I am moved here to share another of his poems that also talks about silence, and this one is called “Via Negativa.”
 
Via Negativa
Mark Belletini
 
Not the silence of a child finally asleep in a crib--
not the silence of pear blossoms falling--
not the silence of singers after the song--
not the silence of embarrassed strangers--
not the silence of streets when gunshot stops--
not the silence of rage--
not the red-faced silence of frustration--
not the silence of the exhausted--
not the silence of the gardener gardening alone--
but this:
the silence of those who have been together
and do not need to hide their aloneness with words,
the silence of lovers
who have come to a place of quiet comfort,
the silence of a newborn at breast,
the silence of an overflowing human heart
under the stars at night,
the silence of friends holding still
 in a long and tender embrace.
 
(from the collection Sonata for Voice and Silence by Mark Belletini, published in 2008 by Skinner House Books in Boston)
 
I love this poem for its images and for its celebration of silence – the right kinds of silence. Yes, there is awkward silence and angry silence, but there is loving silence and sacred silence. Sometimes we are uncomfortable with silence, and I think we need to take the time to figure out if the silence is a good silence or a negative silence.
 
As a classroom teacher, I learned that there were good and bad silences in the classroom also. There is the productive silence when everyone is working individually. After the teacher asks a question, the silence can be the negative silence of boredom or of being afraid to speak; or the productive silence of students thinking about the question before anyone offers an answer. This is the silence that a good teacher cultivates and values.
 
In this time of growing darkness and coldness, in this time of continued isolation from loved ones and fear of sickness, we might experience a silence of emptiness, lifelessness, despair. May that negative silence be countered by music, or by a phone call to a loved one. And we might experience a silence of introspection, of prayer, of peacefulness. May this sacred silence hold us and give us room to grow.
 
Prayer
Divine spirit of light and of darkness, of noise and of silence, be with us now.
 
May we be present in this time of Hanukkah, of Winter Solstice and Yule, of quiet and dark, to the generative silence. May we embrace sacred silence and find wisdom and peace within.
 
Shalom. A salaam alaikem.
 
Rev. Andrew Frantz

Minister’s Column

12/9/2020

 
One of the most moving things I heard this week was the news report of the first COVID vaccination being delivered in England. On the radio broadcast, we hear the voice of the nurse saying, “All done!” and then the applause of a small group of people in the elder care facility where it took place. I had tears of joy in my eyes.
 
This is the sign of hope that we’ve been waiting for, the concrete step that shows this pandemic is finally going to end. It’s a light at the end of the tunnel. In some months, enough of us will be vaccinated that we can see each other again: in families, groups of friends, and gatherings of our congregation.
 
And, it’s going to be a long tunnel.
 
Experts say that it will be not spring but summer before enough people are vaccinated that we can really control the virus. They say that wearing masks may be advisable in some circumstances even after that. I don’t know how successful the government and the public health system will be in the huge effort to vaccinate millions of people. Certainly, some will resist getting the vaccine, and there will be struggles (both political and social)l over this disease for many months to come. In the short term, the spike is higher than ever and hospital beds are filling up. Social gatherings for Christmas, cold winter weather, and seasonal flu may all contribute to a worsening health crisis in the next few months.
 
In light of all this, the Fellowship’s virus task force met this week and decided to take a step back in our stance toward COVID: we were allowing a few small groups to gather in the Fellowship Hall but that is cancelled; everyone who enters the building for any reason is reminded to wear a mask at all times. The board of trustees had already voted to have Sunday worship online only through May. General Assembly in June has recently been moved to online only as well.
 
I feel a strange mixture of optimism and dread at this moment in the pandemic. I feel like we all need to hunker down and survive the winter, hoping for better things in the months that follow. As we do, we will need each other for support more than ever.
 
PRAYER
Spirit of Life and Love, may the health care workers be safe and well. May they find the rest they need at the end of their long hospital shifts.
 
May the elders find hope as they take their place in the front of the vaccine line. May those in the middle and the back of the line find patience as they wait their turn.
 
Loving and merciful God, may we all find strength to endure this winter. May we find the compassion and the will to reach out to one another in kindness; may we be creative in forming community and connection while staying safe.
 
May it be so.
 
Rev. Andrew Frantz

Minister’s Column

12/2/2020

 
“When I move from struggle and control to observation and wonder, I begin to learn.”
 
I found these words in one of the wisdom books that I turn to for inspiration and grounding: “Native Wisdom for White Minds” by Anne Wilson Schaef. The author frames this concept around nature and gardening: she tells about fighting a fast-growing “weed” on her property, only to realize that it was serving a useful function.
 
Where am I experiencing struggle? What am I trying to control in my life? How might I re-frame these things through the lens of observation and wonder? I would invite all of us to consider these questions.
 
For me, two things come up that I am trying to control—and feeling the struggle of doing so. Both are negative: systemic racism and the global pandemic. Really big things! Can observation and wonder contribute to my anti-racist work? Yes, if I seek to notice racism and white supremacy: in myself, in my close circle, my wider community, and society at large. Noticing means opening my eyes to the racist attitudes and behaviors that are the water I’m swimming in. And then, I can begin to learn.
 
I am struggling with this pandemic also, and wishing I had some control. I suppose that an attitude of wonder might mean leaning into this moment. This is an unprecedented moment of confronting a common natural enemy, which affords the opportunity to come together in common purpose, common action, and common compassion. I am optimistic that new federal leadership and the promise of a vaccine in 2021 will allow us to pull together for a difficult winter of isolation. It will take all of our spiritual discipline and all of the loving community we can muster to succeed. And we will learn a lot in doing so.
 
In thinking about these things and my attitude towards them, another piece of wisdom comes to mind: the Serenity Prayer.
 
Prayer:
May we have the serenity to accept the things we cannot change,
the courage to change the things we can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
 
May it be so.
 
Rev. Andrew Frantz
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    Rev. Andrew Frantz

    UUFCM Minister

    Office hours:
    In-person and via Zoom:
    Tuesday 10-noon
    Wednesday 1-3 & 8-9pm
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    Outside of Office Hours, Drew is reachable at any time via text, phone, or email. 


    Day off: Monday
    Contact for emergencies only

    minister@uufcm.org 
    Phone/text: 440-935-0129
    Pastoral Care Concerns
    For support with life's challenges, please contact Drew during his office hours or make an appointment with him.

    For specific needs such as rides to medical appointments or meals for people recovering from illness or surgery, please contact the Arms Around team via Gisela Moffit at gbmoffit@gmail.com or 989-772-1602. Every effort will be made to lessen the burden on the individual or family who is dealing with a difficult circumstance.

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