Greater Nashville UU News Update
June 4, 2025
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Minister’s Note
“No summer ever came back, and no two summers were ever alike.
Times change, and people change;
and if our hearts do not change as readily,
so much the worse for us.”
~Nathaniel Hawthorne
Beloveds,
Recently, I had to tell a colleague that I could not finish a project by the agreed upon deadline. I received this lovely, gracious reply: “Life is very extra these days, solidarity with your version of it.”
Indeed, life is just extra … extra these days, and I am amazed to discover that somehow (fortunately, because it seems we have no choice) we manage to hold it all, or at least enough of it. Even more than usual, Hawthorne’s words seem apt as this summer–so very different, so very extra, as compared to last summer–is about to begin not in the middle of a campaign season (we’ve done campaign seasons before), but with creeping (or perhaps sauntering) autocracy and very real threats to the democracy we’ve mostly been able to assume is baked (however imperfectly) into our governmental systems and communal lives.
Times change, and leaders change, and this summer seems to be calling us to change, as well. I find myself called into more public action than I’ve done in the past. I’m learning and studying up on things I’ve left to others in the past, stepping out of my comfort zone because it feels urgently necessary not to simply go along with government authorities. It seems more urgent than ever that we each attend to our hearts, in service to each other and to the hopes of freedom and democracy we hold dear.
How is your heart, dear one? What new fears and hopes and yearnings are sprouting in this new summer? Our Soul Matters theme this month is “the Practice of Freedom.” How can we support each other in following our hearts to meet this particular summer by faithfully practicing freedom? I look forward to talking with you!
Yours in the extra that weighs on our hearts and the solidarity that bears us up,
Rev. Denise
RevDenise@gnuuc.org
P.S. Because I don't want you to miss some special Sundays this month, please consider noting in your calendars the following changes from our usual time and/or location later in June:
-June 15: We are joining our friends at First UU Nashville (on Woodmont Blvd.) for Music Sunday! Rev. Diane and I will be co-leading worship, and a few GNUUC folk will be joining the FUUN choir for the occasion. The service at FUUN starts at 10 am.
-June 22: We will be streaming the Sunday morning service from the General Assembly of the UUA (Unitarian Universalist Association) in our own sanctuary, starting at 10 am. We'll share a potluck meal afterwards, as usual, just a little earlier.
-Back to normal time (11 am) in our sanctuary on June 29.
