Desert Notes December 12, 2024

This month as we have been practicing presence, I have been thinking about the IHELP program and how much I have enjoyed being here as we serve meals and set up for our guests each week.  I’ve joined our guests a couple of times at the dinner table, and have enjoyed learning a little about them and seeing what a difference it makes for folks to have a safe place, a good meal, and to be treated with dignity and respect.  I take these aspects of my life for granted often, which is why advocating for affordable housing is so important to me.  This week I spent more time than usual doing this, attending a press conference outside Chandler City Hall and a County Board of Supervisors meeting as well.  Valley Interfaith Project has been working to support a wide range of strategies to increase affordable housing options in the the Phoenix metro and this work has been an important part of our shared ministry at Valley UU as well.  Today I will also join VIP as we talk to local law enforcement about the impacts of Proposition 314 on immigrant communities and how we can make local decisions to cushion that impact.  Presence is about being present, about being prepared and and responding; it’s about seeing how others are impacted by a situation. Sometimes folks may feel like this work is “too political.”  My gentle response is that it is personal for someone, and when we care for that person’s situation we are doing justice work also pastoral care work.  Everything that seems “political” is personal to someone.  Asking ourselves who it is personal to and why, and whether we can play a part in addressing a need or an injustice is a cornerstone of being a faith community.  Blessings this season!  May you be fully present to those who need you most.  

-Rev. Sarah Oglesby-Dunegan

This is the prayer I gave to the City of Chandler Monday Night:

Today I want to offer a prayer of Presence.

Not presents.

Presence.

I ask that instead of bowing your head to retreat to an inner spiritual world you allow yourself to be present to spirit as spirit moves in this room.  Let yourself, your eyes and ears, see and hear each other with respect and care. 

We may pray using different language to name the holy.  But we are given the capacity to see, hear and experience the holy in each other and in the world we have inherited to steward and to protect. So, as we pray to a God of many names and no name at all, to the spirit of love and life, I pray that we may find the strength to resist the messages that allow us to dehumanize each other and the courage to name our fears and face them; for the capacity to collaborate and to be honest; for the wisdom to see beyond our own needs and to work for the common good.  May our values of fairness, compassion, and accessibility be undiminished by our desire to be effective and efficient.  May we begin and end as neighbors who care about each other.  May our smiles convey the prayer we carry for each other’s wellbeing.  

For this, In your many names we pray, oh holy one; amen, blessed be.