Starlings murmurate together, a distinct relational pattern that enables them to keep warm at night, to exchange information, to find good feeding places, to stay safe and whole. A flock of individual birds can act in concert by orienting their own movements to that of six other individuals. Single birds become one strong body, ensuring that the whole will endure from the center to the edges. I invite you to watch an example of murmuration. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRNqhi2ka9k

 

On any Sunday morning, “we grapple with life’s most profound matters: justice, death, the nature of humanity, even the existence or non-existence of God. Still, the subject of money rarely comes up. In many churches, it is easier to talk about sex than finances.”* But it is pledge drive season, and the Fellowship must raise money if it is to thrive and grow as we all hope (and we want more, don’t we, a Choir Director and a paid Accompanist in our sights). What percentage can you give that will feel good to your spirit? An inevitable stewardship question, but one that enables the Fellowship to hold together, as it has these last 70 years and may for 70 and 70 more, at least.

 

Yet there must be a reason to give, so here is another question: Will you continue to murmurate, as do the starlings? Will each of you individuals continue to look to the outer edges of current reality, as well as to your individual companions, and continue to shape a joyful and exuberant alternative imagination—for this religious community and for the larger world?

 

May your giving sustain you and sustain the Fellowship, as you remember, today and every day, you are loved, you are worthy, you are welcome, and you are needed. May your feel it so, and may it be so.

Blessings and warm wishes, Rev. Rita

 

*The words of the Rev. Cecelia Kingman Miller from “The Land of Enough.” You can read more about murmuration and this metaphor for generosity in the Fellowship at 1 22 23 Reflections and Ritual Finding Our Center Together