Happy April, all Starrs! I hope you were in some way enlarged by the season of Easter and Passover which just concluded. I enjoy Spring as an experience of renewal, whether in regard to the traditions of Easter, resurgence of new plant life or in new personal growth. I was raised Unitarian Universalist and I don’t recall the Easter of my childhood as having a strong religious association. Easter meant new clothes, pastel colors, egg-dying, jelly beans and Easter baskets with pretty cellophane grass (which reappeared ubiquitously in carpets until around the Fourth of July).
“So if it’s raining, have no regrets, because it isn’t raining rain, you know.
(It’s raining violets!)”
But I was fascinated as a young child by the life and being of Jesus. At four years old, I cross-examined strangers, “Do you know about Jesus, who they nailed to the Cross?” I asked my mother for Jesus stories and was entranced imagining this VERY important baby. (The fact that Jesus was a grown man at the time Easter celebrates rather eluded me in those years.) As my parents weren’t Christian particularly, I wonder what made Jesus so resonant for me. Perhaps I understood in a small way that, even for those who do not believe in his godhood, Jesus symbolizes human traits critical to a Beloved Community: compassion; justice-seeking; forgiveness; sacrifice; innocence; rebirth.
Passover too is resonant with our human condition, giving us a template for considering oppression by the powerful, slavery, suffering and delivery from suffering. Passover reminds us of today’s organic connection to all of history. Its observance demonstrates that the nourishment of our community demands we retell the lives of the peoples who came before us, teach and learn from that history, cherish the value of keeping these human stories alive.
We’re just finishing up our final 2013-14 Annual Budget, which will come to the Board of Trustees for final approval at its April 4th meeting, then come to you the congregation for adoption at our Annual Meeting on Sunday, May 19th. What has your own faithfulness to our Starr King community and financial sacrifice done to secure our renewal in the coming year? We are profoundly grateful for your financial support, which continues to lift the voice of liberal religion in our hearts and our region. We depend on you to keep our doors open and our programs and worship vibrant, for those needing and leading our vision in the year to come. Thank you!
Warmly,
