Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto

Weaving the Web

June 21, 2009
Rev. Amy Zucker Morgenstern

At the Board retreat last week, as we went around the circle speaking of the mission of our church, both grief and gratitude were filling my heart to overflowing and spilling out of my eyes. I was about to lead the memorial service for Stu Whittelsey, a man I had come to care for deeply in the few months since he and his wife Carleen had joined UUCPA. Later that evening would be the service for Bart Dafoe, mourned both for himself and for the effect of his loss on our much-loved pianist Veronika and their daughter Miranda. And the previous day, I had helped Bob Raymakers and Bonnie Packer lay to rest their beloved daughter Sonya, as thousands of us within and beyond UUCPA reeled from that loss.

It is said, “Without vision, the people perish.” Did we as a church have that vision? I wondered. I knew what I thought our church was for, but I wasn’t sure that the congregation did, or that our leaders did. But by the time everyone had spoken, I knew we have a strong and united sense of our mission. Your Trustees spoke of a place where our ethical compass is affirmed; of changing the world; of being changed, ourselves, and being helped in that process of transformation by each other. And, all of us mindful of the sorrow within and around us that morning, we spoke of our mission of care for one another as we move, so fragile and loved, through this world.

Love in action. I saw it all week in the e-mails asking “How can I help?” and in the faces of people gathered simply to hold others in their dark time. I heard it from the people who made sure word of the memorial services got out and guest book pages were readied. Love in action lifted me as UUCPA people asked me if I needed a meal and if I was getting enough support, so that I could be there for these families. Love had gone into action two weeks earlier, when UUCPA faces filled the vigils responding to the upholding of Proposition 8. And here love was again, welling up when we needed it, and not content to be a feeling but moving through hands and voices to make a difference.

It has been a year of many losses. The more we love each other, the deeper we feel each one. (“Love and grief go hand in hand, ” the Jewish burial service says.) I am so grateful that we have this love to carry us through our days of sadness. We are blessed to be a community on a mission: to put love in action.

— Blessings,
Amy