Dear Members and Friends,
A great joy of parenting children is watching them play with other children. In our home, hide-n-seek has been highly popular over the years. There’s a moment when one person is named “it” and all the others scatter about the house to seek invisibility. And then there comes that moment when the “it” person yells, “Ready or Not, here I come!” And the game is on!
Yesterday morning, I flew into White Plains. It was a beautiful and glorious day! I rarely am in a window seat, but yesterday it was a blessing to leave Chicago and approach White Plains in the clearest of skies. Even though I was here the two Sundays prior to Labor Day, this trip felt so much more exciting. In the rush of the day, I completely forgot to write my reflection I had intended to write. And so this morning, with Homecoming just four days away, there’s no better way to describe the feeling of this moment: “Ready or Not, here Homecoming comes!”
I encourage you all to find your way to UUWestport this Sunday for our Homecoming reunion service. I trust there will be moments of discovery for us all as we gather together for the launch of this new year. After the service, a celebratory lunch will be provided by our Coffee and Conversation Team treating us to vegan hot dogs and burgers!
It is a new year, and there are a couple changes I want to make. First, this will be a fun and engaging multi-generational service where the children will stay with us (except the Coming of Age class that is preparing their worship service on November 3.) Second, I want to move the Necrology to the Memorial Garden prior to the service.
I had never encountered the word “Necrology” before coming to UUWestport. It means “the reading of the names of those who have died” or “a list of deaths.” It has been a tradition to include the Necrology in the Homecoming service. A few years ago, the tradition was changed to read only the names of those who had died in the past five years. I was struck by how many people were disappointed that their loved ones had “fallen off” the list. And so, this Sunday, at 9:30am, I invite you to join me in the Memorial Garden to read the names of all members who have died.
Every time I visit, I walk up to the Memorial Garden for some time of contemplation of the many people who have given themselves to this Congregation. I am always reminded of how this Congregation is a journey through time. And how lucky we are to give of ourselves to this Congregation that pledges to support one another and make the wider community a better place.
Ready or not, Homecoming arrives this Sunday!
I so look forward to joining you in the Memorial Garden at 9:30am and then outside the Congregation at 10am for the blessing of the congregation, and finally a celebratory lunch following the service.
Warmly,
Alan
PS Here are three favorite readings, including a poem:
“We are much involved, all of us, with questions about things that matter a good deal today but will be forgotten by this time tomorrow—the immediate wheres and whens and hows that face us daily at home and at work—but at the same time we tend to lose track of the questions about things that matter always, life-and-death questions about meaning, purpose, and value. To lose track of such deep questions as these is to risk losing track of who we really are in our own depths and where we are really going.” — Frederick Buechner
“Self-Portrait” by David Whyte
It doesn’t interest me if there is one God
Or many gods.
I want to know if you belong — or feel abandoned;
If you know despair
Or can see it in others.
I want to know
If you are prepared to live in the world
With its harsh need to change you;
If you can look back with firm eyes
Saying “this is where I stand.”
I want to know if you know how to melt
Into that fierce heat of living
Falling toward the center of your longing.
I want to know if you are willing
To live day by day
With the consequence of love
And the bitter unwanted passion
Of your sure defeat.
I have been told
In that fierce embrace
Even the gods
Speak of God.
“But how are we to love when we are stiff and numb and disinterested? How are we to transform ourselves into limber and soft organisms lying open to the world at the quick? By what process and what agency do we perform the Great Work, transforming lowly materials into gold? Love, like its counterpart Death, is a yielding at the center. Not in the sentiment. Nor in the genitals. Look deep into my eyes and see the love-light. Figured forth in intelligent cooperation, sensitive congeniality, physical warmth. At the center the love must live… Love is not a doctrine, Peace is not an international agreement. Love and peace are beings who live as possibilities in us.” — Mary Caroline Richards
