Skip to main content

A Community Ministry

A Community Ministry: Unitarian Universalist Style

My name is Linda Anderson and I am a Unitarian Universalist minister.  A few weeks ago the Reverend Margaret Allen introduced us to Unitarian Universalism, so I will not repeat that introduction here. If you haven’t read her blog, I recommend it to you. Within Unitarian Universalism we have different types of ministers. I am a Community Minister in affiliation with the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship at Stony Brook. What’s a community minister, you might be thinking. Or what does it mean to be in affiliation? In the Unitarian Universalist tradition, a community minister is one whose ministry takes place, not within a congregation, but in the larger community. For example, a community minister might serve as a hospital chaplain, or serve in a faith-based legislative ministry or as a spiritual director. We affiliate with Unitarian Universalist congregations in order to root ourselves in our own faith tradition, for our own well-being as well as the health of our ministries for most community ministers serve people of all faiths and no faith. 
My community ministry focuses upon bereavement services. Twice a year I facilitate eight week bereavement groups open to all people who have suffered the loss of a loved one. The groups meet weekly and participants receive support, comfort and education in an atmosphere respectful of different beliefs. I conduct funeral and memorial services, especially for those who might not have a religious home but want something that feels spiritual. I offer workshops on subjects in the death and dying field, from caring for the dying to having conversations with your family and friends about your wishes at the end of life to understanding health care proxies and living wills. 
About six times a year I run Death Cafes. If you have never heard of a Death Cafe, this might seem quite strange to you. But once you get used to the concept, they really are quite fun and freeing. A Death Cafe is an unstructured conversation about death. It is not a support group, therapy group or bereavement group. It is simply people coming together to talk about death. We always start with food, usually cake and tea, Then we talk about such topics as the meaning of a good death, our feelings about death, our experiences with it, wishes for our funeral, beliefs and questions about an afterlife and the like. Death Cafes give people a chance to talk about a subject that most of us would rather not talk about. And we do it in a respectful atmosphere, often with lots of laughter.   The Death Cafes are open to everyone.
Another part of my community ministry is serving Unitarian Universalists on Long Island and all over the country. I am a “circuit rider,” or someone who goes from congregation to congregation leading Sunday services. I have a regular preaching date with the North Fork Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Jamesport on the third Sunday of the month and on the other Sundays I might make a guest appearance in Unitarian Universalist congregations from Queens all the way to Southold. I get to meet a lot of people and enjoy the travel.  On a wider level, I serve on the Unitarian Universalist Trauma Response Ministry, which responds to critical incidents and traumatic events among Unitarian Universalists all over the United States. Responders receive special training in crisis management, both human-made and natural disasters.
As you can see, community ministry is quite broad. I enjoy it because it gives me an opportunity to serve a wide range of people and to extend ministry beyond the walls of any one particular congregation.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Make even these days count

One of the most popular features on a local newscast of a small TV station is something rather surprising. It is a feature called- “The Day of the Week”.  Today is…….. Monday!  The station put forth this as a kind of joke at first, but it was so popular that it became a regular daily addition to the morning newscast.  Apparently, so many of us have lost track of what day it is that we need a reminder. During this stay-at-home time, every day seems to blend into the next.  It is truly difficult to remember how many days we have all been quarantined at home, what the date is and what day of the week it is.  Many of us have a few markers that help- jobs that pause for the weekend, celebrations of Fridays, Saturdays or Sundays- special days of worship.  But even with these, the days seem to bleed into each other like a striped shirt washed in hot water. The period that we are in right now in the Jewish calendar is ironically, a time of counting. A time w...
Post a Comment
Read more

An Interfaith Dialogue on Guns in America

https://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/interfaith-guns-port-jefferson-1.17108637 LONG ISLAND SUFFOLK LI group urges interfaith unity to curb tide of gun violence Several speakers Sunday called for addressing mental health issues, and reducing violence in movies and video games Vivian Viloria Fisher, (from left) Jeff Keister, Marcey Wagner and Burt Benowitz discuss ways to curb gun violence Sunday in Port Jefferson Station. Photo Credit: Newsday / Thomas A. Ferrara  By Rachelle Blidner rachelle.blidner@newsday.com    @rachelleblidner  Updated March 4, 2018 9:13 PM An interfaith group of clergy members joined Sunday in Port Jefferson Station to call for more gun control measures after the recent Florida school shooting. Leaders of Muslim, Jewish, Universalist, and other congregations on Long Island urged people of all faiths to work together to reduce the frequency of mass shootings after 17 people were killed in Parkland, Florida, last month...
2 comments
Read more

Next steps?

At last night's community forum,  Belief and Truth from a Multifaith Perspective: Finding Unity in Diversity , many expressed a desire to continue these kinds of conversations and to take action together for building bridges in our community. These are some of the ideas that were shared for next steps: Find something concrete that we can work on together in our community Come out with a statement to the community about this gathering Have clergy visit other houses of worship for teaching and conversation  Invite people of other faiths or no faith traditions into our houses of worship Bring younger people into our interfaith programs Ask elected officials to talk about this kind of work Identify root causes of hatred and address them Encourage media coverage of our programs What other ideas do you have for next steps? Please share them in the comments.
2 comments
Read more