MAKING MEANINGS

MAKING MEANINGS
Wed 6 Jan 2010 12:00am

I wonder what it was like. I know it happened in 1640. Was it winter? Were they
inside someone’s home? I’m confident that the minister they’d called, the Rev. Mr.
Edmund Brown, was there and probably Peter Noyes – but who else? Was the
whole assembly of recent immigrants there?

Wherever “there” was, I know why they were there. They were Calvinist Christians.
They had immigrated for many reasons, among them the promise that, here, they
might worship freely as they chose. They gathered to formalize their covenant as
this worshipping community: First Parish of Sudbury.

I wonder what they would think about our ministry? Would they be surprised that
worshipping communities in Wayland, Sudbury, and Framingham are their direct
descendants? Some might be shocked to learn that we contemporary Unitarian
Universalists do not necessarily profess to be Christian. We hold multiple theologies
and philosophies and yet we still gather together in a covenanted community; our
covenant is a list of principles and values we share. I like to think though, that they
would see that, however different we may seem, at the core there is still the
commitment among us that we may worship freely as we choose.

I’d love to talk to Linus Shaw about what it was like to minister to this congregation
during the Civil War. I imagine a conversation where I tell him that we have an
African American president and that I feel we’re still fighting that war. We’re also in
the midst of a new, undeclared and (un)civil war of ideologies that challenge every
principle of our democratic process.

I’d like to assure Ida Hultin that, though it took 82 years, she laid the foundation for
more ordained women to be called to serve this congregation: the Rev. Dr. Deborah
Pope-Lance, the Rev. Dr. Doris Hunter, and me. I’d also like to speak to Sarah Pratt
and some of the other women who formed an Alliance when financial challenges
threatened the very existence of First Parish of Sudbury; they put their heads
together, tied their apron strings, picked up their needles and thread and sewed and
baked to keep the doors open and call a new minister.

I’d like to sit down with those ladies and countless others over 370 years who were
stewards of this congregation’s ministry we hold so dear. I’d like to tell them about
today’s ministry… and today’s financial challenges. I want to tell them that, like
them, we are bold enough to “think outside the box” to keep our ministry vibrant; we
are prudent enough to strive to be fiscally responsible; and that, we are committed to
handing off a healthy, engaged, contemporary ministry to the generations who follow
us. I’d have to admit, though, we’re worried. The financial challenges are serious.

I think they’d sit us down and say: Be bold. Be creative. Be prudent yes, but not
fearful. Our ministry and this beloved community — gathered for the purpose of
worshipping freely and serving others — is far too precious to be staggered or
stopped. Get together. Get busy. You can do it!

Katie Lee

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