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The cost of doing business
Amy Shaw unleashes fury on Mike Pence, who is encouraging churches to re-open.
I want to ask how dare you expect me to betray the precious trust of the beloved people who have called me as their minister? How dare you ask me to open the church, calling some in my beloved community forward to infection and death when they could have remained safely at home?
We are the church, even when we are not in our building, and we need no public meetings to be the church in the world. We are united in one body, and we will not sacrifice so much as a finger to malignant falsehoods, foolish posturing, or naked greed. (Facebook, May 5)
Andrew Tripp writes that COVID is a thief, a robber of us all.
COVID is a thief. It stole the wool from our eyes about people’s compassion or goodness when it caused “leaders” to push for economics on the backs of a second wave with mass deaths.
If it takes me as a frontline healthcare employee don’t call me a hero, call it another thing it stole because we can’t be trusted to have nice things. (Facebook, May 11)
Adam Dyer reminds us that coronovirus is not the only danger religious communities face.
If by reopening, we are creating vectors for people to continue getting sick with a disease for which there is no cure or therapy, it does no one any good. And if the spiritual practices and traditions that we are trying to return to are equally toxic, we are only compounding the infection. (spirituwellness, May 13)
Lynn Ungar writes that a “progressive stand is not an abdication of responsibility.”
It is a recognition that while we are responsible *for* our own choices, we are responsible *to* others when we choose. Knowing that not everyone has the same choices available to them. Knowing that our gifts and abilities are different. Knowing that we all do better when each of us considers the whole. (Facebook, May 6)
Dan Harper cheers the UUA’s decision to urge congregations to plan for a long period without in-person services.
OK, let’s plan for a year of online programming. How can we unleash our creativity, serve the needs of our members and friends, and make Unitarian Universalism in Silicon Valley serve the goodness of humanity? (Yet Another Unitarian Universalist, May 14)
How can we keep from singing?
Adam and Matt Podd lead a virtual choir in singing together the hymn, “How Can I Keep from Singing?) (YouTube, May 9)
Jordinn Nelson Long reminds us that numbing is a common response to the shock of trauma.
[It] blunts pain and fear but also things like hope and happiness. . . .
[Being able to feel is] core to connecting with anyone you love. It's fundamental for sourcing meaning in your minutes. It's really important because your feelings are signal and solace and part of what makes you, you. They are part of what enables us to build and live well within communities. (Facebook, May 11)
Sara Goodman offers a prayer for parenting in a pandemic.
A prayer for the dirty laundry and piled up dishes,
A prayer for dance parties and cuddle puddles,
for long walks and improvised “science experiments,”
for screen time as education and distraction,This is a prayer for working parents zooming another meeting with a little face joining in
for new parents, waiting for new life without support
for the single parents, doing all this alone. (Facebook, May 10)
Joanna Fontaine Crawford writes a series of posts comparing COVID-19 to being shipwrecked on an island, and that the first step is assessing our resources.
One of your resources should be hope. The “rescue plane” will come, eventually. Life will never be the way it used to be, but we will be able to be physically together again. Extended families will once again gather for family reunions and holidays. Keep hope as one of your resources, and be sure to refill it when it’s getting low. (Boots and Blessings, May 12)
Catharine Clarenbach suggests we spend time on our star-watching rocks.
What I’m trying to say here is that for those of us of creative or mystical bents, contemplation, pure and intentional, is essential. And I suspect it’s good for all of us, whether we identify with those descriptions or not. Just watching, just listening, just being attentive to the world and especially to the immediate, to the place in which we live. And just being quiet. Quiet. (The Way of the River, May 8)