Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto

Weaving the Web

December 2, 2005
Rev. Amy Zucker Morgenstern

What a year it has been. It began with the tsunami that killed tens of thousands of people and left thousands more living in the jungle without a home or a job. It ends with the Himalayan winter falling on those who still have not been reached after the earthquake that devastated their homes in Pakistan and India. In between, Hurricane Katrina struck our shores and revealed the truth of the bumper-sticker wisdom, “Poverty is violence,” for it was poverty that trapped so many in the drowning city. The pain in Darfur spread like unchecked cancer. The US government continued to torture prisoners, fighting in court to keep us from seeing what happened at Al Ghraib prison.

Each time I learn about one of these stories, I want to do something, but even to do something as simple as organizing a collection, raising my voice against each injustice, is exhausting — they come so fast and with such fury. As I open the newspaper to yet more sadness, the words of the poet Adrienne Rich come to me: “My heart is moved by all I cannot save.” So much destruction, so much suffering … how are we to keep ourselves from despair?

Rich’s next words offer a way out, a climbing toward light and hope:

“My heart is moved by all I cannot save: so much has been destroyed
I have to cast my lot with those who age after age, perversely,
with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world.”

Who are these people who are reconstituting the world? Where can we find them? How can we join them?

We have them right here in our own UU neighborhood: the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee. For each of these devastations, the UUSC has been there to reconstitute the world, with such energetic efforts as its STOP Torture Campaign and tsunami relief.

When we want to do something, anything, to help, but we don’t know even where to send money, the UUSC has been there to collect it and guide it where it will truly make a difference. As one would expect from a Unitarian Universalist organization, UUSC does not only do relief work, but also addresses the underlying causes of disaster: the marginalization that causes some people to drown when they ought to have been evacuated, the invisibility of prisoners that allows even a democratic government to torture them. When we don’t know where to start, our Service Committee directs its aid where it is most desperately needed: to those communities that are neglected by the majority or actively oppressed by their governments. And it works through partnerships with local organizations, who know best what local people need and how to reach them. You can read much more at UUSC’s website and in the information in your orders of service and at the Social Justice Table during this season. Have a look, and your despair will lift.

Our world is besieged and broken, and UUSC rebuilds the world life by life, home by home, act by act: acts of courage and cooperation. Renewing my commitment to UUSC each year restores my hope, and the more UUs who join, the more hopeful I feel. Imagine what our Service Committee could accomplish if every one of us gave just $75 each year, the amount that triggers a matching grant. If your heart is moved by all you cannot save, please join me in casting our lot with UUSC, and together we will heal the world.

— Blessings,
Amy