www.clfuu.org
Our Place in the Web REV. DR. MICHAEL TINO Lead Ministry Team, Church of the Larger Fellowship Interdependence has been a central concept to our Unitarian Universalist faith since our current principles were adopted in 1985, and yet, too often Unitarian Universalists have focused on the implications this has for our relationship with the natural world around us, without understanding that we, too, are part of that web. What does it mean to acknowledge our place in the web of all existence? Our Universalist ancestors taught us that we all end up in the same place when we die. Centuries ago, they meant that all souls would be in heaven, but I like to expand this theology and filter it through my scientific brain. I am regularly stopped in my tracks by the unfathomable beauty of this notion that we are inextricably bound to one another. All of our being ends up in the very same place when we die—the same place it came from in the first place, the same pool of atoms and energy that has created all life since the formation of our Earth, the same protons and neutrons that will create all life for the duration of our planet’s existence. We are one with the stars. With
the planets. With the oceans and mountains and ice caps. With the forests and the deserts and the fauna running through them. We are also one with one another. This unity of existence has profound implications for how we live. We need to learn together to make decisions that consider the other beings with whom we share our fragile planet. The theological notion of interdependence exists in relationship with other parts of who we are, and the most important has yet to be inserted into our principles. The most important concept that interdependence relies upon is accountability. When we are accountable to someone or something, we hold ourselves responsible to them. When we are accountable, we allow others to measure our success. In justice work, we talk about accountability to those who are most vulnerable, those who are oppressed, those who are the targets of discrimination and hatred. When we practice accountability in justice work, we take instructions from those who are most effected by the work we are doing. When we practice accountability, we learn to live the tenets of interdependence. We understand that climate change is changing our oceans. Carbon dioxide Our Place in the Web, cont. on page 4
Vol. LXXVIII, No 2
2024
“All have their worth and each contributes to the worth of the others.” j . r . r . tolkien
in this issue OUR PLACE IN THE WEB Rev. Michael Tino INTERDEPENDENCE Multiple authors SISSY MUST SUCCEED Nambi Pambi THOUGHTS ON LOVE & COMPASSION Tia GENERAL ASSEMBLY 2024 CLF DELEGATE INFORMATION
connect. deepen. act.
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INTERDEPENDENCE How do you relate to and honor interdependence?
PHOTO BY ALTINAY DINÇ ON UNSPLASH
DAVID CLF member, incarcerated in AR I find this concept to be new and exciting. Throughout my life I’ve been taught to depend on God and family only when I need help through hard times and to help those in need, but with the undertone of looking down on them, because they didn’t have
family like I did to support them. In prison, my family is not here to help me, so I must make a place in my heart for my fellow prisoners, and accept their help as I also help them. Through sharing this newsletter and talking about what I learn through the CLF, I have found people I can create a community with, and be
interdependent with. We lean on each other by learning together through this church and community in written letters. We devour our mail from the CLF as soon as we get it, and can’t wait to get a pen pal (hopefully one from Boston, since the Red Sox and the Patriots are my two favorite teams!). ¢
CLF Quest Monthly Interdependence
Connectedness JOSEPH CLF Member, incarcerated in TX “Every man and every woman is a star.” Those words, from Aleister Crowley’s Liber AL vel Legis, illustrates both the simplicity and complexity of the human condition. We are all special and unique, and are part of the larger cosmic dynamic set in place at creation. While special and unique, humanity must remember that they are not the center of everything, that the energy of others is necessary for vital existence. Animism states that everything is alive and interconnected. This is true in the objective and subjective sense, in the microcosm as well as the macrocosm. We do not think twice about swatting a mosquito that bites or annoys us, but even those creatures play their part in the world. One may wonder how he/ she/they are connected to the planet
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Jupiter, for example, as that planet is so far away from us on Earth. However, the universe is ordered. Jupiter is a sort of shield for Earth, taking hits from meteors that would end life on Earth. What benefit Jupiter receives from Earth is, as far as I know, unknown. However, because the universe is ordered, and reciprocity is one of the highest laws, one can rest assured that Jupiter also benefits. The connectedness of humans comes through largely on the sociological scale. “People need people,” as the saying goes. However, the exchange goes far deeper than mere sociological “obligations.” People need people because nothing happens in a vacuum. We need each other to work out ideas, create the next generation, and bring about progress. These things all sound sociological, but in reality, they are the building blocks which enabled society in the first place. We not only need each other personally, we need each other professionally.
Remember, everything is alive and interconnected. As the form of creation with the highest ability to reason (as far as we know), humans are charged with recognizing our connectedness to the rest of creation, and being good stewards. Show me any religion, and I will show you the mandate for humanity’s stewardship. However, we must start with ourselves. If we cannot recognize and utilize our connectedness with each other as humans, the rest of creation will suffer. Every human deserves the respect of every other human, and until the day this truth becomes manifest, our interdependence will remain a shadow of what it could be. Crowley’s formula, based in the Greek word Thelemn, stated: love is the law. Love under will. How strong is your will? Strong enough to hold the basic law of love? Reconcile your head and your heart, and you will find true connectedness with the rest of humanity, the world, and the universe. ¢
PHOTO BY NASA ON UNSPLASH
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Our Place in the Web, cont. from page 1
is acidifying them, hotter temperatures are melting ice and causing sea level rise. We understand that we are interdependent with the beings of the ocean, and that our fate as humanity requires that we address their fate. What does it mean to be accountable to them, though? What does it mean to be accountable to the people of Kiribati, whose island nation is disappearing under the sea? How do we live understanding that our actions might determine whether or not they have a home in a decade? We understand that modern agricultural systems are wreaking havoc on our planet, on its soil, on its beings, on pollinators and birds and animals.
We feel our interdependence with the earth when we eat. What does it mean to be accountable to this knowledge? How do we change our behaviors to take into account the needs of those most vulnerable to this change? At CLF, we also understand that the addiction of dominant U.S. culture to mass incarceration is a direct descendant of the systems of oppression that founded this country. The United States began with slavery and genocide and continued into an era of terrorism at the hands of private individuals, and now it is the government itself practicing that violence. We ask ourselves often what it means to be accountable to our incarcerated siblings, who are the targets of this violence. We ask ourselves often what it means to be accountable to
Black and brown communities torn apart by systems of injustice. And now we are asking how our larger faith movement might be accountable to the voices of our incarcerated UU members. It changes the way we do things to practice that accountability. I have heard some recently say that accountability is something they fear—because accountability requires those of us with power in this world to exercise that power as power-with, and not as power-over. It requires us to take directions, to listen, to understand relationship. Instead of being something to fear, however, I invite us to think about accountability as the way in which we live our commitment to interdependence. ¢
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Sissy Must Succeed NAMBI PAMBI CLF member, based in TX
A girl with a curl and a ton of sass Went to class. Killed in (and by) NYC, She quit the act To teach the facts In Chi - Shy town. Having no idea that even though the earth was round, A person without a net could still fall off. Sissy pushed And pushed The stone up the hill of affiliation by achievement. And then, She thrashed, and She crashed, and Her fragile health fell into a million pieces of relationships, Broken by unavoidable need, ugly crying, and underutilized potential. Oversharing, overcompensating, and Overwhelming disability took care of the rest. With characteristic persistence she fought to file down the jagged edges,
to pivot on the axes of former privilege until they were smooth again, And all her, Again. To no avail. “If you have your health”... they say. But what do they say next? Now she says, some day, you’ll all understand. Some day you will all need more than an occasional hand. What a world we live in; The definition of a support system, or its politicization or vilification or our procrastination because we are all so busy resisting.
Everyone has a battle to fight, a bullet to bite, a goal, in sight. But nonetheless, She is going blind. Who will be her eyes.
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Thoughts on Love and Compassion TIA CLF member, incarcerated in KY Love is the wish for all human beings to have happiness. Compassion is the wish for all human beings to be free of suffering and what causes suffering. Prejudice and being judgmental alienates us from each other. A quote from Mother Theresa captures this well: “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” The monk and theologian Thomas Merton also spoke to this, saying, “the whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all living beings, which are all part of one another and all involved in one another.” Spiritual practices like meditation and prayer can be used as tools to calm our mind, make us more peaceful, eliminate worry, develop concentration and understanding, as well as control our anger and jealousies, and rid us of negative actions and guilt. It is a tool of transformation; by taking the time to reflect on ourselves and our faults, we can change them. How you treat someone is dependent on you, and you are only responsible for your actions, not everyone else’s. You can choose to change or transform anything you don’t like about yourself. You choose who you are and also who you associate with. Many of us were reminded of the central role of community and chosen
family in our lives by the articles by Aisha Hauser and Christina Rivera in the most recent issue of the Worthy Now Newsletter. I was forced to create my own chosen family starting in 1990, when I was disowned by my family of origin for coming our as LGBTQ. I’m male to female transgender, and I’m not a devout Catholic, which didn’t earn me any familial credits. Since then, I’ve seen no one, and not been invited to any family functions, or been notified of any births, weddings, or deaths. Looking back at this time, my one regret is not finding the Church of the Larger Fellowship or Unitarian Universalism earlier — though I know I may not have been ready to join the community at that time, given the long spiritual journey I’ve been on and the religions and philosophies I’ve studied in the time past 30 years. Prayer now helps me to center myself in love and compassion. I’d like to offer a prayer that may also speak to you: Prayer for World Peace Peace be spread throughout the Earth! May the orient express peace, May peace come from the East and go West, May peace come from the North and go South, And circle the world around! May the garments of the Earth, Be in the place to magnify the Divine. In this day and hour of this night, May the world abide in an aura of Divine Peace. ¢
PHOTO BY JAVARDH ON UNSPLASH
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Would you like to represent the Church of the Larger Fellowship at General Assembly? General Assembly (GA) is the annual gathering of UUs from churches across the country to worship together, learn together and make decisions about how we run the association of congregations, and what we stand for as an association of congregations. GA 2024 will be held fully online from June 20-23, 2024 and will include worship, speakers, access to on-demand workshops, and sessions for association business (called General Sessions) that this year will include discussion and voting on the new proposed Article II of the UUA bylaws.
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While anyone can attend GA, only congregational delegates can vote on association business. The CLF is entitled to 22 GA delegates. GA General Sessions will be held on 6/20 from 1–2pm and 5–6pm ET, on 6/21 and 6/22 from 2:30–5pm ET, and on 6/23 from 3–5pm ET. Delegates should be able to be online to attend the majority of these General Sessions live. CLF delegates vote their conscience on matters related to the denomination of Unitarian Universalism, and are responsible for their own expenses. There is no registration fee for delegates who are attending business portion of GA (General Sessions) only and not the worship and programs. If you’d like to participate in GA 2024 as a CLF delegate, please fill out the online application at clfuu.org/delegate-application. Rev. Michael will be leading a training for CLF GA delegates later in the spring. For more information about General Assembly, visit www.uua.org/ga.
IMPORTANT NOTICE Due to recent budget constraints, including reduction in contributions and rising print/mailing costs, we’ve had to reassess the printing and mailing of Quest issues. We’ve made the difficult decision not to print/mail the March 2024 Quest issue. Instead, these issues will only be available online at clfuu.org/quest. We know many CLF members are not able to access Quest online. For our incarcerated members, we have chosen the March issue because this is a month you will receive other CLF mailings such as the spring Worthy Now newsletter. For free-world CLF members we recommend using your local library, or if you cannot access the internet at all please contact us at the address below. We hope to return to print/mailing Quest every month in the future, as contributions increase and our budget allows. If you have any questions, concerns, or comments about this change, please use the back of this page to write to us at CLF UU, 24 Farnsworth St., Boston MA 02210 or clf@clfuu.org. Aisha Hauser, msw, cre-ml, Christina Rivera, Rev. Dr. Michael Tino, and the CLFUU Board of Directors
Angus MacLean Church of the Larger Fellowship, UU 24 Farnsworth Street Boston, Massachusetts 02210-1409 USA
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You can read back issues of Quest Monthly or get electronic versions of the text to share with friends (and much more) at questformeaning.org
Quest Monthly Editorial Team: Aisha Hauser, lead ministry team, Rose Gallogly, publications coordinator, Lori Stone, director of technology, JeKaren Olaoya, copyeditor CLF Staff: Aisha Hauser, Christina Rivera, Michael Tino, lead ministry team; Jody Malloy, executive director; Lori Stone, director of technology; Beth Murray, prison ministry administrator, Judy DiCristofaro, fiscal administrator; Rose Gallogly, publications coordinator, Cir L’Bert, Jr, prison ministry manager, David Pynchon, data services coordinator Learning Fellows: Jess Hunt, JeKaren Olaoya
Websites: clfuu.org, dailycompass.org, worthynow.org Phone: 617-948-6150 or 617-948-4267 Email: clf@clfuu.org, worthynow@clfuu.org CLF Jewelry at inSpirit, the UUA Book & Gift Shop, 800-215-9076 CLF Unitarian Universalist, 24 Farnsworth Street, Boston, MA 02210-1409 USA Copyright 2024 Church of the Larger Fellowship. Generally, permission to reproduce items from Quest Monthly is granted, provided credit is given to the author and the CLF. ISSN 1070-244X