REFLECTION: Flourishing Together

Our congregational theme for the month of June is Flourishing Together. A good place to start considering this theme is to understand what flourishing means. I like this definition a lot:

"To flourish means to grow, thrive, and achieve success in a healthy and vigorous way, usually because you are in an environment that supports your growth. Rooted in the Latin word for flower or bloom, it can apply to living things, ideas, and even communities." [emphasis added]

I cannot think of a better place to flourish together than right here, in our own UU San Mateo community. What are the qualities that enable us to flourish?

One of the main qualities is our commitment to pluralism. Pluralism recognizes we are all sacred beings, diverse in culture, experience, and theology. There is not just one path to the sacred, but many – plural. The new UUA pamphlet describing our newly-revised set of shared values says, "When we can let go of the idea that any one belief system is 100-percent 'right,' we can allow authenticity and commitment to flourish in the spaces between us."

Offering supportive hope to each other is another quality that enables us to flourish together. According to Paul J. Wadell, Professor Emeritus of Theology and Religious Studies at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin, "We are called to be persons who embody hope for one another." When a member of our community is feeling down, hope is the way we support each other so we can get through life's challenges.

Bringing a sense of belonging is also important to our community. "[I]f we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other – that man, that woman, that child is my brother or my sister," wrote Mother Teresa. "If everyone could see the image of God in his neighbor, do you think we would still need tanks and generals?"

The interdependence we experience helps us flourish. Playwright George Bernard Shaw called independence "middle-class blasphemy." "We are all dependent upon one another," he wrote, "every soul of us on earth."

Creating community is also critical to our flourishing. Transforming ourselves and the world isn't something anyone can or should do alone. "Community means strength that joins our strength to do the work that needs to be done," writes Starhawk, noted American feminist and writer. "Arms to hold us when we falter…A circle of healing…A circle of friends" are the qualities she raises up as defining community.

The word relationship comes to mind when we describe how our community flourishes. "There is no identity outside of relationship," writes UU Minister Victoria Safford. "You can't be a person by yourself. … Who needs you? Who loves you? … Whose life is altered by your choices?"

We encourage freedom and offer empowerment to each other. "People who think they must bear life alone are too fearful to take the risks of selfhood," says Parker Palmer, a writer, speaker, activist, and founder of the Center for Courage and Renewal. "[P]eople who know that they are embedded in an eternal community are both freed and empowered to become who they were born to be."

Justice-seeking contributes to our flourishing, not just within our own community but also in the wider world beyond our walls. We work together to bring about more justice in the world because our ability to flourish together is incomplete unless and until it includes everyone. "Nobody's free until everybody's free," said famed civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer. Ella Baker, another prominent civil-rights activist, wrote specifically about what justice requires: "Until the killing of Black men, Black mothers' sons, becomes as important…as the killing of a white mother's son – we who believe in freedom cannot rest."

(Ella Baker's words became the basis for Ella's Song, which Indivisible San Mateo's Freedom Strummers sing every Saturday afternoon at our street-corner democracy rallies, because…

"We who believe in freedom cannot rest!")

When we consider all these qualities that UU San Mateo exemplifies, it's easy to understand how working together in community is what enables us to flourish, both individually and collectively. For these reasons and more, I continue to remain committed – after nearly three decades – to this beloved congregation.

Seeking a deeper dive into FLOURISHING TOGETHER?

• Check out the one-page FLOURISHING TOGETHER Overview.

• The complete FLOURISHING TOGETHER ministry packet is available to UUSM members and friends; to obtain the link, contact Sheila Sandow.