Dear Friends,

Several of you asked about this quotation from Hans Krebs, Nobel biochemist and father of the Krebs Cycle. I used it in the sermon on November 6: “I saw them argue without quarreling, quarrel without suspecting, suspect without abusing, criticize without vilifying or ridiculing, and praise without flattering.” He was speaking of fellow scientists at Cambridge in 1933. And Krebs’s description of civil discourse is a model so many of us long for in this time of overheated discourse.

But let us not mistake calm for a lack of passion. Let us not make civility the enemy of righteous rage and righteous indignation. “We are a gentle, angry people” at times, and that speaks to the commitment we make to advance our values of compassion, community, and justice within our Fellowship and in the larger world. Let us not demonize each other because we have differences, though let us not tolerate demonizing when others do it. And above all, let us move with the most vulnerable as they raise their voices for legal rights and for liberation.

May you speak with bravest fire the values of your heart and mind, as you remember also that you are loved, you are worthy, you are welcome, and you are needed. May you feel it so, and may it be so.

Blessings and warm wishes, Rev. Rita