OUR CARING COMMUNITY: I hope you’ll look for our new monthly Care column, Our Caring Community, in the April 2018 Bellringer. Every month we’ll include the Joys and Concerns you give us permission to share. It will take us a few months to create the process, so please be patient and help us.
I’d like you to know why we’re doing this. There are five reasons, theological, practical, and spiritual: (1) UU THEOLOGY: For all of us, being part of a caring spiritual community is central to building a living faith, keeping faith with life, living from the joy of our own true nature: however we experience and express our shared UU religious path. And (2) PRACTICAL: Caring community needs us to know what’s going on in each other’s lives. That sounds so obvious and easy. But when something happens and we feel vulnerable, instead of reaching out for help, we tend to withdraw. Which brings us to our third reason: (3) SPIRITUAL GROWTH & TRANSFORMATION: We hope to nudge ourselves and our culture toward deeper openness and emotional resilience. (4) We hope we all get more skillful at asking for help and receiving help. (5): When we allow ourselves to be held in the heart of spiritual community, we know we’re part of something larger than ourselves. We experience the fact, power and gift of interconnection. Our hearts open. And we naturally reach out to others – in need and also in joy. Welcome to Our Caring Community!
