Reflecting on what it takes to build community

In what ways do we experience God? In my theology, the best evidences for divinity are found in the power and beauty of creation, in the human conscience which calls us to justice, and in the innate creativity of human beings. As a species, we live in communities where we find protection and support. There we experience the range of human emotion and we grow in our capacity to care for each other, to sacrifice for the ones we love and perpetuate systems of ethical living that balance the needs of the individual and the needs of the community. The congregation is a place where we build a commonwealth among a few hundreds of people that presages what might be possible in the larger and more pluralistic world.

      Religious education, in my thinking, always addresses the communal dimension of religious practice. I have been fortunate to work with some of the finest religious educators in the Unitarian Universalist Association, and have attended religious education and other community building conferences at Ferry Beach, Star Island and SUUSI. I was the Theme Speaker of the centennial Lifespan Religious Education Conference on Star Island, presenting theme talks specifically about congregation-based community organizing and its capacity to build community by stressing the religious learning that happens in justice making and the justice learning that happens in religious education.

     I have a long history of using retreats and small group ministry as a way to build community that contains spaces for experiences of the Intimate and the Ultimate, such balance necessary for human progress as individuals and in community.