A message from The Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt, tenth president of the Unitarian Universalist Association
to protect the most vulnerable and in our continued commitment to community building,
even amid the anxiety-inducing chaos intentionally created to rob us of our hope
and demoralize us with fear — Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt
Faithful dissent is our theological inheritance. Today’s Unitarian Universalism emerges from a heritage of dissenting churches that is hundreds of years old, a tradition of faithful people who grounded their religious living in how best to be of service to one another. We have a long history of holding our values collectively and living them in community.
Today, many of the institutions and ideals that our Unitarian, Universalist, and Unitarian Universalist forbearers worked for across our long history are under attack – including public schools, children’s access to learning supports, protections for individual rights, and the value of diversity and pluralism in society at large.
In such times, communal care matters perhaps more than ever. Communal care is the living promise of faith communities; it encompasses all that we offer to each other and all that might come into being because of our choices. Communal care is also how we work for justice; how we teach one another and learn together.
Communal care calls us to become good ancestors, to provide a foundation of love and justice that will sustain those who are yet to come. And so, we must continue our theological tradition of dissent – as it emerges in our legal strategy to protect the most vulnerable and in our continued commitment to community building even amid the anxiety-inducing chaos intentionally created to rob us of our hope and demoralize us with fear.
Let us rise on the efforts of our ancestors and heed the call of generations yet to come. There is much faithful work to do today in our Unitarian Universalist congregations and communities. Find resources for this time at the link below: