This is not the column I thought I’d be greeting you with, but as I tucked in my 10 year old daughter Thursday night, after a day filled with catching bits and pieces of the Supreme Court confirmation hearings that featured testimony from Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh, I couldn’t imagine sending the breezy column about vision and sanctuary I’d written a few weeks ago.
After catching parts of today’s hearings, my heart is heavy, and I know many of yours are too. If you were watching or listening to today’s hearings, I suspect that like me, you were moved; perhaps to anger, perhaps to tears, perhaps to a cold fury, perhaps to a place of despair, but I suspect you were moved. And if you are a survivor of sexual assault or abuse, I cannot know what this has been like for you, though when I see all the women coming forward to express their grief and their outrage, when I hear that the national sexual assault hotline saw a 147% increase in calls on Thursday, I can’t help but think that this may be bringing up old pain and retraumatizing you.
As Unitarian Universalists, we did not see our values reflected in today’s Supreme Court hearings, or in the words and deeds of many of our national leaders.
Thankfully, after a challenging day, I got to go to church. As I sat with members of the Transition Team and as we checked in, sharing the state of our hearts and spirits, I remembered that church can be a place of sanctuary and support. I was reminded again that none of us is alone, and that when we share the burdens of our heart and spirit, it all becomes just a bit easier to carry. As we go through our days today, and tomorrow, and in the days after, let us remember that as we find sanctuary in the church, in our relationships with each other, we can also be sanctuary for others. Sanctuary for survivors of abuse and assault, sanctuary for those on whom the current political climate weighs most heavily, sanctuary for those under greatest threat of violence.
—Arif
UUCM Happenings 