When I first arrived back in August 2018, I found myself in the middle of a conversation about the name of the Fellowship, specifically about the word “fellowship.” “Fellowship” is a word carrying your history, a reminder of humanist roots and earlier, provisional professional ministry. “Fellowship” gives a good MPR-PBS ring to our initials UUFM. “Fellowship” reminds some of us of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and all the adventure and companionship therein. “Church,” on the other hand, well, it seems too church-y, too religious, too ecclesiastical. It seems to draw us close to the organizations and beliefs that wounded some of us and which some of us simply choose to leave behind.
Since I arrived, I have made a point of reminding and reiterating that our Fellowship is, indeed, a religious community, that Unitarian Universalism is a religion, that shared spiritual practice is a desirable and a vital aspect of our journeys together. I had a life and career before Unitarian Universalist ministry, before knowing that a spiritual dimension would be so necessary, meaningful, life giving, lifesaving, and life sustaining. But it wasn’t only a building and a ritual bringing me to a place more whole and wholesome than I had before experienced. It was the friendship. It was the companionship. It was the compassionate community that helped me to go deeper spiritually, without fear of the new ideas and feelings I discovered in the process. It was the sharing of the work of building the church. It was the fellowship.
Fellowship means companionship. Fellowship means community, and there is no community without the work of building it. Our last two presidential elections demonstrated starkly that democracy doesn’t maintain itself. Our life in pandemic times shows us that community is needed to quell disease and the fear accompanying it, that the significance of the pandemic is not merely a given. Rather, work is needed if we are all to claim our roles in protecting each other’s health and well-being, to show we accept and relish our place within an interconnected and interdependent community.
Our program year (our church year, as I like to say) begins anew this September. All are needed to make fellowship real, not just a word in a name. Please click here to record the ways that you are willing and able to build our community. May we build together in committed fellowship, as you remember today and every day 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, Rev. Rita