Archive for category: Minister Message

Aloha kākou, beloveds in this time of heavy rains,

Many of us are dealing with flooding, damage, power loss, and disruption, and one family, the Cranfords, has had to leave their flooded home. Our hearts are with everyone impacted, and we’re grateful that all appear to be safe and that so much care is being shared within and beyond our congregation. This Sunday, our Share the Plate will go to our Emergency Fund; please give as you are able so we can respond where help is needed.

Because of dangerous conditions, we postponed Friday’s Hope for Us session, but thanks to Sof Ma’arav canceling their Saturday service, we were able to gather earlier and make good use of the time. Revs. Samantha and Sarah led a powerful exploration of our 73-year history, our roots, and the patterns that have shaped us, with early memories shared by Molly Rowland. Others who have been here since our second and third ministers shared their recollections. I will schedule a Zoom to share more with those who signed up as SUPPORTERS; if you’d like to be included, please sign up and I will send you the invitation.

This work with our history has also deepened our appreciation for our Unitarian Universalist Association and the dedication of Rev. Sarah over seven years and Rev. Samantha since Hope for Us began here. I am now considering attending the UUA Pacific Western Region conference in Sacramento in two weeks. In these troubled times, our church is called both to care for our members and to reach out to protect people and preserve rights, and our wider world needs that same witness at regional and national levels. Our denomination is needed to stand up for our values nationally, and we know those values of justice, pluralism, interdependence, equity, generosity, and transformation, all centered in love, carry greater power when we stand together.

Mahalo for all you do,
Rev. Deborah

Aloha mai kakou!
Early tomorrow morning, I leave for a week in California for time with my family. Preparing for this brief trip, I am reflecting on all that First Unitarian Church of Honolulu members are doing to sustain and grow our church and to reach out and engage with our larger community!

We are active in the larger community!
On Tuesday, our new member, John-Paul Chaisson-Cardenas, the new Executive Director of HCAN (Hawai‘i Children’s Action Network), was introduced at a HE‘E (Hui for Excellence in Education) meeting to non-profit member groups. I was there to hear more of his impressive and wide-ranging background and to see the ways he will amplify our engagement with Hawai‘i needs and hopes.

From that meeting, I entered the monthly TIAH meetings (The Interfaith Alliance of Hawai‘i). We UU’s are more than represented on the board– Cynthia Lynch is the president, Marie Anne is the secretary, and Tom Lynch and I are board members! A major focus now is – how can we (FUCH and TIAH) actively engage in the No Dictators march and demonstration on 3/28? Share your ideas, and please join us in the interfaith march starting at 9:30 am. Please let Marie or me know if you will participate in sign-making, marching, and/or demonstrating.

Within our church, it is also bustling!
More Hope convenes Friday 3/19 and we are working to prepare.
More Hope is a path to a deepening experience of each other and the church, expanding our capacity for peaceful, fruitful community. You can still join “More Hope” at this “Invitation to Restorative History Circle” link – but you need to be swift, registration is closing soon!

Here are some notes on what is happening with just a few elements of our church:

Membership – Theresa Mooleghan, Leanne MacIntire, and I are working on membership growth, and we are delighted by a 14% increase over the past few months. More to come! :)
Worship Team– Our music team has been delivering a wide variety of beautiful music, including the interfaith hymns of last month, and working on choral pieces for the upcoming month. Beth Beyers will be leaving for her beloved Bellingham at the end of the month- her generosity and skill are much appreciated and will be missed until she returns.
Pledge Dinner – Irina Martikainen, Mary MacKay, Catherine Graham, Sue Yamane-Carpenter, and I have been abuzz with ideas and deliverables. Irina is an event-planning pro and has devoted her genius to creating this event. Mary’s critical eye and mind make sure all is cooking up a wonderful, fun evening, complete with a UU Magician (scroll down to read more). Catherine is, of course, a planning maestro showing how it will all work and how folks will be fed! Sue and I are along for the ride, LOL.

May you have a marvelous week. I look forward to seeing you after my return March 19th!

Aloha,
Rev. Deborah

Aloha members and friends!

Growing up, my mother told us, “The one true evil is divisiveness.”

Already a good questioning 12-year-old Unitarian (this was before we merged with Universalism), I questioned- how could divisiveness be the ONE true evil?  There are so many evils! But then, like a good 13-year-old Unitarian, I thought about it.

Every evil I could see, once more deeply considered,  boiled down to divisiveness.

And we merged with the Universalists. And this further strengthened the goodness and truth of our unity in faith. We are one.

Now here we are, with divisiveness rampant, it is ever more important that we be united in our love, our empathy, our compassion, and our kuleana for a safe and healthy community.

This morning, the InterFaith Alliance national office reached out to ask me to endorse this statement called the “Love Notice”:  “ICE cruelty is threatening our religious calling to love our neighbors — in our houses of worship and in our communities. As faithful Americans, as an expression of our values, we demand that the federal government stop the attacks on our neighbors and we call on our political and religious leaders to stand in solidarity against their cruelty.”

You can click here to join me and people of faith across the country as we stand for the dignity and worth of each person.

“ICE cruelty is threatening our religious calling to love our neighbors — in our houses of worship and in our communities. As faithful Americans, as an expression of our values, we demand that the federal government stop the attacks on our neighbors, and we call on our political and religious leaders to stand in solidarity against their cruelty.”

Now a question– are you a friend who wishes to join us as a member?

Or, are you a member who has not yet been welcomed in an InGathering?

If so, please email me minister@unitariansofhi.org so we may “gather you in” formally, in celebration, even if long after joining.

Mahalo to each of you for all you do!

Rev. Deborah

Our Social Justice Growth
Our incredible, indefatigable, stalwart team of Marie Anne and Francine Less welcomes four new members to support our justice work in our larger community. We are thrilled to welcome Zach Fraser, Keif Ariola, Sorcha McCarrey, and Paul Davis to our expanded Social Justice team. 

Help for Us – Year 2
This windy week brought Rev. Dr. Samantha Wilson, a wonderful Taizé experience Friday night designed and led by Beth Beyers, with Catherine Graham and Karen Fothergill readings. Saturday, our core year 1 (First Hope) and core year 2 (More Hope) teams met at my house to confer and plan.  Rev. Sam is leading our beloved community with love and skill as we take our next steps in deep listening, integrating our history, and freeing our loving energy. The Sunday service was well-received, and our TalkStory in the study was rich. See Rev. Sam’s message for details and to consider how you may engage in the enriching work. 

Our Beautiful Church
While some of us met for spiritual, soulful relational work to support our church, others tackled the tough physical stuff– floors, storage areas, the kitchen, moving the piano (!), and cleaning the windows –  oh my!! Juliet Begley and her friend have cleared our views from the sanctuary and gallery. We are looking better and better!

Our Friend Thomas
Our choir director, Thomas DeLaine, has worked with our choir and pianist to deliver beautiful music, supporting our Sunday services and delighting us. He has accomplished this while suffering from serious neurological issues. We are deeply saddened and concerned to report that Thomas is still suffering through these problems. He has just resigned to focus on his health. We are sad to lose his support of our music program, but we are hopeful that his health will improve. Thomas, Abby, and Benji are beloved in our congregation, and we hope they will stay close.

Please Join Us as a Member!
This Sunday, directly after church, friends who wish to become members will meet with me in the study for an orientation. Grab some refreshments and join us so we may begin soon after 11 am, aiming to conclude by noon. After this orientation session, new members may sign the membership book and make a contribution, and we will induct them as new members during the church service on March 1st.  We will offer optional workshops for new members and any others interested in the next weeks, including  “UU History and Theology” and “How our Church Works.” 

InterFaith Retreat and Sunday Service in Honor of InterFaith Harmony Month
I am writing to you from The InterFaith Hawai‘i retreat in Kona, including two representatives of the International InterFaith Alliance, clergy, religious leaders and activists from diverse faiths across the state. The retreat is produced by the TIAH board members, including our Marie Anne (Secretary) and friends Cynthia (President) and Tom Lynch (Board Member). The presentations and conversations have been stellar. This has been a wonderful opportunity for me to network and to learn – especially as our Sunday worship service is: “Intersecting Faith: InterFaith Harmony Month.”

Mahalo for all you do,
Deborah

Rev. Deborah Bond-Upson, Minister
First Unitarian Church of Honolulu
808-367-0710
2500 Pali Highway, Honolulu, 96817
office hours: Tuesday 10am-2pm, Wednesday 2pm-6pm

UU in our Larger Community Today (well, last night in particular)

I hope you will join us on Sunday for “UU Heroes Then & Now.”

Some of our own members and leaders were heroes in my book for bringing the ACLU Resistance Training to our sanctuary last night. It was full with over 100 attending! And it was abuzz with people earnestly seeking to learn how to protect the safety and rights of those at risk, including ourselves.

Board member Juliet Begley made the commitment long ago, and last night our members and leaders snapped to attention to make the crowd welcome – from Marie Anne and Jaron on opening and set up, Catherine on parking, Sue overseeing everything, and many of us in the assembled.

I felt that many of the smart, caring activists gathered would be wonderful new members! I saw this as a marvelous opportunity to reach out to a network of folks from various organizations, and for them to see the congenial, free, and supportive community we are here at UUHonolulu. (I wished I had business cards, but found other ways to connect with some.)

I was eager to learn how best to advance protections as our government grows more authoritarian. The tactics were much like we learned in civil rights and peace marches and Quaker draft counseling in the early 70’s. I was not the only one who was having flashbacks. But the times feel yet more complex now, with some of our human rights norms seeming to erode.

The assembled welcomed the updates and coaching. Here is a digest of our main presenter, senior staff attorney Emily Hills’s “own opinion” on what is required in an effective movement to preserve our democracy:

1. Unifying and focused vision that transcends party lines.
2. Sustained widespread participation.
3. Protection of voting rights to enable mass participation in the next election.
4. Effective means of combatting disinformation and propaganda.
5. Judges committed to judicial independence.
6. Open lines of communication with security forces (local police, military, ICE, National Guard, etc.)

What do you think of these suggestions for human rights protections?

Please join us for the Sunday service and bring your thoughts for TalkStory after!

Mahalo for all you do!
Rev. Deborah

In a Flash

After worship on Sunday, I did my normal routine: dropped Blake to get a sandwich by where we live and headed home. As I turned the corner to my circle by the University, I saw two police officers waving people away. I figured it was getting a little full from people parking for a sporting event, so I tried to explain that I lived locally but the officers just kept waving me away. They had a more serious look than I’m used to here.

So I parked in walking distance where I could, got out of the car, and headed to my house. The moment I opened the door, I smelled it. The school where I went to kindergarten suffered a fire the summer before I started there and the acrid smell permeated every fiber of the building. I smelled it right away. My pace quickened with my heart as I approached my circle. I saw one fire engine, the another, then three more, then more police, and then I turned the fateful corner, and saw it at last.

My neighbor’s house was completely charred and half the neighborhood was scattered in the street.

I got in touch with my neighbor’s best friend right away and said he should come over. When all of the people in all of the units were accounted for, we all breathed a sigh of relief. But as each resident arrived to see what had happened, they were met with the outstretched arms of other residents, other neighbors, other friends. Around the nucleus of those most pointedly affected swirled the neighbors who wondered, waiting to know what to do.

The rest of the day was spent dealing with the practical nature of this huge upheaval–making sketches of the apartments for the fire fighters, etc.–and the new arrival of friends and family to help and comfort those impacted most directly.

There is an old saying: When your house is on fire you don’t argue about where the water’s coming from.  As many of us learned this week and in the coming months, many of us fear what the institution of the Supreme Court will be doing to a nation that feels at turns on fire. As people of good will work together to rally around those groups being impacted most directly, may we all seek the help, seek the healing waters of compassion for those right in our midst.

Over and over, my friend gazing at his home kept saying, “I don’t care about things, just that everyone is safe.” His priorities were clear. At times, tears can do that. Through them we see some things more clearly, especially when our lives change in a flash.

May it ever be so,
Rev. T. J.

Mahalo to You All

Aloha Friends,

First and foremost, I love you all so much. I would not be the person I am without the unparalleled gifts this congregation offers the world.

You have given me the incredible gift of inspiration, partnership and aloha for five years. Together we have been through a worldwide pandemic in ways that were very hard, but brought meaning to many seeking it in a time of great pain. We have transformed the church building in new and creative ways to be sustaining and nurturing for families of all kinds and generations to come. We have answered the call of justice ceaselessly together, working for fair access to voting, standing up for the rights of those who are suffering, and seeking out justice to heal a hurting world where it is needed. We have become one of the first places in these lands people think of when they think of the liberal religious tradition in which we boldly stand. We have done a tremendous amount of work to build together the Beloved Community. For this, and simply for who you are, I love you very much.

It is clear that people in places around our shared world are suffering horribly and needlessly and somewhat suddenly. I know it may not seem fair right now, but as a response to recent rises in hostility in parts of the country, the people at a UU church suffering a great deal sought me out to help them face the tremendous weight of a surrounding world that seems set against them. My call has always been to guard and protect the principles of our faith as readily as I guard and protect the people of this shared world. I searched my heart for an answer to give our sibling church, and the answer that came was that I need to answer their call for help.

I will begin serving that church on September 1. I will be able to share more about that community in the coming weeks, but professional ethics and protocol prevent me from discussing that in detail right now.

Please pause. Please breathe. All will be well. You are going to be absolutely fine, I know it.

I am still here with you. Your Board, your leaders, and all of you have everything you need to enter this time of change and growth together. Together we will assure a smooth process of transition over the coming months. There is no need to be worried. Dr. Michele will be with us in June. Rev. Mykal Slack will be with us in July and August. They were already planning to be here during my sabbatical. There are many resources available to our community to help us through this, and the most important resource any of us has is each other.

I know that part of living in the Beloved Community is working together, mourning together, healing together, and understanding together. We will find a way forward together to continue the vital, transformative ministry that this church so generously offers the world.

Many blessings. I love you all.

In faith and hope and aloha,
Rev. T. J.

Someday

When I was very young, my aunt and uncle lived with three of my cousins in Virginia. I was living in Connecticut then. We took a lot trips south down the highway to see my cousins, and it was a lot of fun. I learned a lot about obeying other peoples’ rules when you’re in their home. I learned a lot about sharing. And I learned a lot about Colonial Williamsburg…because it was nearby.

We also took time as a family to explore that part of the country. I remember late nights of traffic on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, which might still be one of the longest bridges in the country. I remember the Blue Ridge Parkway, the scenic meandering roadway through ancient mountains, once taller than the Rocky Mountains, laid lower but stouter by time. I also remember horses.

On one trip to one of the surrounding areas—an island, I think—we traveled a two-lane road across a marshy field. The grass was tall on all sides of the lone road. As we drove we were stopped by a group of wild horses. They didn’t flag us down for directions. They were just there, out in the middle of the road, enjoying one another’s company. Honestly, even as I type this, I wonder if it was a dream, or if it was actually on a trip to a rural part of Texas, but where (or even if) it was doesn’t matter that much. We stopped.

There wasn’t anything more we could do. There was no way our sedan would make in through the grass to go around. No one in my family wanted to bother wild horses in the road, and besides, they were beautiful. Yes, they were majestic. Yes, their sinew and muscle was a wonder to behold. But it was their patience, their absolutely unflappable calm in the middle of the road that I remember the best, even if it was a dream.

Wendell Berry speaks of the peace of wild things in a famous poem. In the poem he reflects on the way that wild, untamable, unknowable things bring him some measure of calm. It’s a fine poem. My mustangs are different, though. They are not fixed above like stars, or floating on still waters like a bird. They are the wild that we can touch, that we wonder if we can shoo away so our sedan can keep journeying on its way.

I always wonder at what we call wild. Sometimes the word we are looking for is unpredictable. Sometimes we want to control or possess it. The apprehension in the moment before we try to change what is wild, though, holds something deep and old in our bones. I think it is a respect for the freedom in wild things. Two-lane highways, high grasses, and sedans cannot tell wild things where to go. Instead, the steeds swatting flies away, lolling in the sun warming the marshy land, speak with their silence. And we can almost hear them: “join us.” Maybe someday we will.