Dear friends,

Our Soul Matters theme for worship this month is “Commitment.” The Rev. Galen Guengrich, co-minister at the Unitarian Church of All Souls in New York City, wrote these words: “Faith is a commitment to live as if certain things are true, and thereby help to make them so. Faith is a commitment to live as if life is a wondrous mystery, as if life is good, as if love is divine, as if we are responsible for the well-being of those around us.” If we live in faith that life is a wonderous mystery that is good and holy, when we commitment to making that faith real in the lives of all. And what is mystery? What is good? What is holy? These theological words can be off-putting for some of us, but it need not be so. We can describe biological, chemical, and physical mechanisms, yet why they switched on the Universe became we do not know. We can feel the value of our own individual lives as something we want to continue within, and we also know, both explicitly and somehow implicitly, that we are connected to that which is larger than ourselves, and we yearn for that relationship. A good life for me, of any of us, remains both mysterious and more.

Our Unitarian Universalist principles and values call us to thriving life—life which is fair, equitable, and just for all. Not only for the wealthy few. Not only for the socially and culturally privileged. Not even only for humans, but also for Earth and the systems that support our lives as well as all life. If we live as if we are each called to that which sustains thriving life, then we must be committed to not simply exist on the interdependent web of all existence. We must be committed to create the web, woven of many colors of history and experience. We weave not only for ourselves but because life is a good mystery, full of profound learning and passionate connection. We live to make the dream we dream a reality, because we belong to each other and we are responsible for each other. May this you feel, 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 (she/hers)