March 2025
Since the fellowship’s October annual meeting, I have been reflecting on how best to work toward implementing our new mission statement — how our team and committee structures might be updated and our staffing and programming be adjusted.

However, given the urgency — the speed, depth, and breadth — of the Trump administration’s illegal and immoral policies and actions at the federal level, I now find myself wondering if this mission work might rightly be superseded (at least partially) by the call to love that lies at the center of our Unitarian Universalist movement. Specifically, how might we help one another survive the looming chaos and empower ourselves to help rescue our nation’s democratic principles and institutions?

This alternative work might involve connecting with pro-democracy resources and organizations, or even our fellowship formally partnering with such, and/or making public position statements as a congregation. To what extent these activities might put our 501(c)(3) status at risk is unclear to me, but I also wonder if that risk might prove irrelevant under the circumstances. (Might we wish to make our communications more secure, regardless?)

The timeline — how soon we might decide or respond — also is unclear to me. Democratic senators have characterized the timeframe for acting as a matter of weeks. Others have suggested that we are in the first days of what will be a marathon. 

Local political and civic organizations already are acting. I have seen no clear direction from the UUA or UUMA, other than this: the Central East Region of the UUA has scheduled a series of inter-congregational connection and skill-building conversations, to which we all are invited. And this: an email with links to a toolkit and monthly gatherings.

These are just some initial thoughts. Our two sets of priorities may not be mutually exclusive. It might be possible to work toward fulfilling our new mission statement and toward preserving democracy at the same time.

What is love asking of us, and what is our work to do? I invite us all to consider, discuss, and act on these issues.

With you in the struggle,
Rev. Eric Severson