If you’re a Gen Xer like me you might also find yourself surprised by the recent successes in labor organizing – something I didn’t see in my earlier adulthood. This past fall, United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain made an attention-getting statement on the eve of their successful strike against the Big Three car manufacturers. Fain said, “It's time to decide what kind of world we want to live in and it's time to decide what we are willing to do to get it.”
It's time to decide what kind of world we want to live in and it’s time to decide what we are willing to do to get it.
I know I want to live in a world where everyone in our affluent country can afford to live good lives. I’m delighted to see that it’s time to make that real.
Within our congregations, we’ve also seen you, our faithful, decide what kind of way you want your congregations to be, and what you’re willing and unwilling to do to make it happen.
- Unclear committee structures are out; working groups with understood parameters are in.
- Staff stretched to the limit is out; new staffing structures of shared ministry are in.
- Keeping white folks’ cultural requirements is out; opening up to inclusive ways of relating and working is in.
- Just showing up to church as a habit is out; choosing to show up to church because it really matters, to you or to the world, is in.
- Tolerating ongoing conflict is out; learning how to address it, and doing so, is in.
I could go on and on. (Regional staff are here to help.)
I think one reason why our congregations are shuffling so is because they know the power they have to affect the greater culture. When we start to choose what kind of world we want to live in, it helps to start in religious communities. It helps to make our religious communities be the way we want to live – places of care, respect and community flourishing. The social need of our time is to replace an outdated and ineffective set of previous norms and the chaos their crumbling has left with a necessary and joyful new way of living.
A new world for us to live in. A new world for us to choose. It is time to make that real.
It's a joy to witness the ways in which you are choosing a world of value and purpose, and how committed you are to doing what it takes to create it. May 2024 be a year of continued choosing and inspired construction of the better world that is always longing to be.
Join CER staff Thursday, February 1 for our Skill Up for Leaders in Changing Time: Practices of Intergenerational Connection. Please contact your Primary Contact or cer@uua.org for the zoom line.
Megan
Rev. Dr. Megan Foley, Regional Lead