One More Step

I was really delighted to see in my email inbox a message from Rev. Lindi Ramsden, Executive Director of the Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry, giving an update as to the efforts of our volunteers who have been working in various areas around the state, asking folks to refrain from signing petitions to place on the November ballot an amendment to the constitution to prohibit marriage between same sex couples.

Lindi reported that the paid signature gatherers had never seen such organized resistance. (At the time of my writing they only have half of a week left to gather over 50,000 signatures; here’s hoping our activism continues.) What added to my joy was the fact that I was meeting with a member when I saw this email, and as I shared the good news with her, she told me that she was one of the volunteers from our congregation that traveled up to Sacramento to do this important work, to take one more step to witness to her religious values by actually spending a Saturday to stand on the side of love.

She told me that she participated in a one-hour training and then, with a small group, was stationed outside a discount department store where the paid signature gatherers were asking folks to have this initiative put on the ballot. There were so many Unitarian Universalists in the volunteer ranks that other folks who were there that day decided that they had better start attending a UU church if this was the wonderful kind of people they attracted.

Our member also shared with me how easy it was to simply ask folks if they really wanted to place an amendment to the constitution on the November ballot. Many of them realized they did not. We often hear requests in church to stand up for our values and our beliefs, and sometimes we think wearily, “one more thing” or “does it really matter?” What our Legislative Ministry is finding out is, yes, indeed, it does really matter.

We can take one more step putting our faith into action and find in the doing the spiritual growth we had been seeking. We sometimes find ourselves surprised in the folks who are willing to join with us, and we can see that our deeds really do spell out our creed.

In this month where we say thank you to all our wonderful volunteers, I want to say a special thank you to those who went to Sacramento. They include Regina Fassano (Marriage Equality coordinator), Dirk Dino, Crystal Carroll, Karen Yearout and Nancy Harrison. Thank you to any names I may have overlooked; please tell me about your experience.

And remember: please join us for ONE service only at 10 A.M. on 18 May, where we thank all of our volunteers, who are utterly essential for the warmth and life of this congregation.

Blessings to you all!

Love Katie