Minister’s Column

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