Something to Say

A service titled ‘Something to Say’, led by Rev. Dr. Jane Blackall, with readings given by David Brewerton, Patricia Brewerton, and Jasmine Cooray, and music from Tara McCarthy, Caitlin Mannion, and Kathy Walton.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Our opening words this morning have a simple refrain which I invite you to join in speaking. At the end of each verse, you might join in the words We speak the language of love. We come together this morning from many different experiences and backgrounds. All of us share this in common. We speak the language of love. In the moments before worship begins, and again when we return to the service of life We greet one another with kind words. We chat about the days behind us and the days to come. And we speak the language of love. We lift our voices in song, not to sing perfectly or even in tune, but to hear and feel our true voices form a life-giving sound. And we speak the language of love. We form a web of compassionate listening when individuals among us embodying vulnerability name the fears that grip their hearts. The joys that buoy their spirits. We speak the language of love. At times our voices clash, we disagree. Tension sometimes enters our voices as we make room for our differing perspectives. Through it all it's our intention that we speak the language of love. In this congregation, we welcome a multiplicity of voices and invite them all to speak out loud and prophesy, summoning the age when justice and peace will be evident all around us, and we speak the language of love. So let us worship together, making room for one another as whole beings, tender hearts, hungry spirits, and curious minds. With our actions and our words, let us speak the language of love. These words from Erica Hewitt. Welcome all who have gathered this morning for our Sunday service. Welcome those of you who have brave the heat to be here in person. Welcome to everyone who is joining us via Zoom or indeed tuning in on YouTube at a later date. For anyone who doesn't know me, my name is Jane Blackall and I am minister with Kensington Unitarians. This morning our service is tangentially inspired by the fact that in the Christian tradition this is Pentecost Sunday. In the story of Pentecost from the Book of Acts, it said that the Holy Spirit comes down on Jesus' followers and enables them to speak such that they can be understood by all kinds of people. But I've called our service Something to Say. We'll be reflecting on the importance of finding our own voice, using it to speak up and speak out, and discerning how, where, and when to do so in order that we might be heard and understood. It's a simple ritual that connects us with Unitarians and Unitarian Universists the world over, and it reminds us of that proudly progressive religious tradition of which this gathering is part. But we come together in one faith. If you're joining on Zoom, the words will be up on screen. We haven't got Benji to help us today, so let us do our best. Perhaps there's a posture that helps you to feel more centred and prayerful. Whatever helps you get into the right state of body and mind for us to pray together now and be fully present with ourselves, with each other, and with that which lies within us and beyond us. We turn our full attention to you, the light within and without, as we tune into the depths of this life, and the greater wisdom to which and through which we are all intimately connected.

SPEAKER_04 13:05

Be with us now as we allow ourselves to drop into the silence and the stillness at the very centre of our being.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

Let us speak plainly and from the heart in prayer, tuning into our true feelings this morning as best we can, and laying them honestly before the one who listens with endless compassion.

SPEAKER_04 13:32

There is no need for us to hold back or be restrained or put on a brave face before God.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

Some of us are feeling weary right now, worn down and depleted by world events, or by the trials of our personal lives.

SPEAKER_04 13:54

Perhaps we've been carrying too much for too long. Some of us face the sickness and suffering of our loved ones or ourselves. Some face money worries. Some are lonely and troubled. Some overwhelmed and confused. Some frustrated and angry. And still we are mindful of all those who are struggling in even tougher circumstances the world over.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

Neighbours and strangers. Simply looking out for one another and weaving the fabric of community.

SPEAKER_04 15:55

For all those courageous campaigners and activists who act and speak out to bring about a better world. For learning and for laughter.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

And for all the new possibilities emerging, the new ways of seeing and being, the ever-present hope of change.

SPEAKER_06 18:05

When the day of Pentecost came, all the believers were gathered together in one place. Suddenly there was a noise from the sky which sounded like a strong wind blowing, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then they saw what looked like tongues of fire which spread out and touched each person there. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to talk in other languages, as the Spirit enabled them to speak. There were Jews living in Jerusalem, religious people who had come from every country in the world. When they heard the noise, a large crowd gathered, and all excited because all of them heard the believers talking in their home languages. In amazement and wonder they explained, These people who are talking like this are Galileans. How is it then that all of us hear them speaking in our own native languages? We are from Parthia, Medea, and Heland, Mesopotamia and Judea, Cappadocia, from Pontus and Asia, from Phrygia and Pamphylia, from Egypt, and the regions of Libya near Cyrene. Some of us are from Rome, both Jews and Gentiles, converted to Judaism. And some of us are from Crete and Arabia. Yet all of us hear them speaking in our own languages about the great things that God has done. Amazed and confused, they kept asking each other, what does this mean? But others made fun of the believers saying, These people are drunk.

SPEAKER_01 20:12

Thanks, David. More on that later. But we've got another hymn now, and the second hymn today is on your hymn sheet. The simplest of words. It's another new one. It's a reasonably familiar tune, but still Andrew will play it through for us. The simplest of words.

SPEAKER_00 22:23

The Power of Speaking Up by Viviane Valiente. Have you ever felt the power of your own voice? It can be both beautiful and terrifying, really. Once you realize how much your influence your words can have over another? I, for one, had difficulty in speaking my own mind in countless situations. And more often than not, I still do. What if I say something wrong or stupid? What if someone thinks I'm unreasonable and disagrees with what I say? These feelings of fear and anxiety over what other people think constantly cloud my mind. And in my perspective, staying silent always seemed like the wiser choice, the easier option. However, if there's one thing I've learned in this present time, there is power in being able to speak up even when it's difficult. Here's why. Speak up because it allows you to grow as an individual. It takes a lot to speak with vulnerability. Sometimes we fear judgment and disapproval from others. And as a result, we tweak our own truths and expressions in order to feel connected and a sense of belonging. However, being able to be true to yourself and stand up for what you believe in is a liberating expression that shows you are your own person. You have your own views on certain matters in life. These build your own character as an individual. And sharing these views with the world will not only allow you to embrace authenticity, but also allows you to attract like-minded people as well. Speak up because your voice can speak for the voiceless. We live in a world where in a lot of acts of social injustice are being committed every single day. Racism, oppression, and disregard for democracy and human rights are some of the issues we currently face. Most of these issues are considered sensitive and often they are uncomfortable to talk about. However, we must challenge ourselves to speak up against injustice and initiate conversations that could inform and educate others. That said, being able to use our voice for good goes hand in hand with the crucial responsibility to be informed and educated by others as well, whether in person or on social media, we have various platforms to voice our own opinions. By speaking out we amplify awareness of such issues, and we can lift up the voices of those who are oppressed so that they might be heard. If you don't speak you won't be heard. No one has exactly the same thoughts, ideas and passions as you, which is why your words ultimately have power and why your voice matters. Speak up.

SPEAKER_01 26:10

Thanks, Patricia. So we're moving into a time of meditation now, and to take us into the stillness, I'm going to share a poem which brings us back to the story of Pentecost. It's a blessing, really, by Jan Richardson. To set it up, she quotes one of her seminary professors, Dr. Bill Mallard, who said, The miracle of Pentecost was not a miracle of speaking, it was a miracle of hearing and understanding. Following the poem, we'll hold a few minutes of shared silence, which will end with the sound of a bell, and then we'll hear some more music from our trio. So again, let's do what we need to do to get comfortable. You might want to get your feet flat on the floor, you might want to close your eyes. Use this time to meditate in your own way. On the day when you are wearing your certainty like a cloak, and your sureness goes before you like a shield or a sword. May the sound of God's name spill from your lips as you have never heard it before. May your knowing be undone. May mystery confound your understanding. May the divine reign down in strange syllables, yet with an ancient familiarity a knowing born in the blood, the ear, the tongue. Bringing the clarity that comes not in stone or in steel but in fire in flame. May there come one searing word enough to bear you to the bone enough to set your heart ablaze Enough to make you whole again.

SPEAKER_02 36:02

That the speaking profits me beyond any other effect. In becoming aware of my mortality and of what I wished and wanted for my life, however short it might be, priorities and omissions became strongly etched in a merciless light. And what I most regretted were my silences. Of what had I ever been afraid? To question or to speak as I believed could have meant pain or death. But we all hurt in so many different ways all the time, and pain will either change or end. Death, on the other hand, is the final silence. My silences had not protected me. Your silence will not protect you. But for every real word spoken, for every attempt I had ever made to speak those truths which I am still seeking, I had made contact with others, while we examined the words to fit a world in which we all believed. You know, a lot to take in. To speak No, while we examined the words to fit a world in which we all believed. Bridging our differences. What are the words you do not yet have? What do you need to say? Of course I'm afraid because the transformation of silence into language and action is an act of self-revelation that always seems fraught with danger. But my daughter, when I told her of our topic and my difficulty with it, said, Tell them how you're never really a whole person if you remain silent. Because there's always that one little piece inside you that wants to be spoken out, and if you keep ignoring it, it gets angrier and angrier and hotter and hotter, and if you don't speak it out one day, it will just just up and punch you in the mouth from the inside. In the cause of silence, each of us draws the face of her own fear. Fear of contempt, of censure, of some judgment or recognition, of challenge, of annihilation. But most of all, I think we fear the visibility without which we cannot truly live. And that visibility which makes us most vulnerable is that which also is the source of our greatest strength. Because the machine will try to grind you into dust anyway, whether you speak or not. We can sit in our corners mute forever while our sisters and ourselves are wasted, while our children are distorted and destroyed, while our earth is poisoned, we can sit in our safe corners mute as bottles, and we will still be no less afraid. And we can learn to work and speak when we are afraid. We have been socialized to respect fear more than our own needs for language and definition. And while we wait in silence for that final luxury of fearlessness, the weight of that silence will choke us. The fact that we are here, and that I speak these words is an attempt to break that silence and bridge some of those differences between us. For it is not difference which immobilizes us, but silence. And there are so many silences to be broken.

SPEAKER_01 40:12

Thanks, Jasmine. I just want to apologise to the viewers at home. We had a technical glitch which meant you lost about the first 30 seconds of the music. Apologies for that. I hope it's fixed properly now. We've got a bonus hymn. This next hymn is number 146 in your purple books. And it's another new one. I think this is the most challenging, most challenging one on the on the agenda today, so let's do your best. Speaking Truth in Love, hymn 146. Let's hear it through. Many years ago I read a sermon by the UU minister Robert Hardy's, who makes a case that Pentecost is the creation myth of Unitarianism, because it describes a diverse group of people speaking about God in different languages, who come together with a faith that though we speak in many tongues, we will be understood and we will all understand. So the spirit is found in translation. That take really stuck with me, so I keep coming back to this Pentecost story, though I want to take a different angle on it today and use it as a jumping-off point to talk about speaking up and speaking out. The context of that passage we heard earlier from the Book of Acts, the Acts of the Apostles, is that Jesus had died, been resurrected, and ascended into heaven. His followers, now left to their own devices, were asking, Well, what now? They were still living in a hostile environment in an occupied territory under the Romans, wishing their lives were better, wishing the world was otherwise, wishing there would be justice and peace. Sound familiar? Together to pray and to support one another, to make decisions about what to do next now that their leader was gone, now that it was up to them to act in the world. And when they gather, the Spirit comes upon them like great winds and fiery flames. Some dramatic power seizes them and enables them to speak with passion. And crucially, it enables them to be heard, to be understood by all kinds of people. The apostles speak up and speak out with such zeal that the bystanders think they must be drunk. Even though, as Peter points out later in the chapter, it's only nine o'clock in the morning. This transformative moment sets them off on a journey of sharing their good news. They go around sharing teaching and prayers, sharing meals together, living in close fellowship, and noticeably sharing their wealth and resources in common to meet everybody's needs. Imagine that. And imagine being in that state, being fired up and empowered by the Spirit with a sense of purpose and clarity about your good news in the face of dreadful circumstances. After a devastating loss and in the midst of terrible, oppressive political conditions. It seems to me that these people were by definition followers, focused on Jesus, reliant on his guidance. They were not expecting to be left in charge, required to lead, required to speak in their own voice. I'm guessing that most of them would not have felt up to the task. I know that feeling. So how might that story speak to us in the here and now, individually and collectively as Unitarians? One question I often find myself asking is this what is our this worldly good news? Have we got something to say? Interestingly. However put it. I hadn't read The Inquirer when I when I wrote this sermon, but that's on the front page. What is our good news? You might want to pick up a copy from the FOIA. But have we got something to say that speaks to this troubled world we find ourselves in? Something important that the spirit is calling us to embody and express. And this time, when I asked myself this question, the words that came to me were it doesn't have to be like this. There is a better way for us to live together on this planet. If I've got something to say, something that I keep returning to, my one message, that's probably the heart of it. Now you might think, is that it? Or maybe that's okay as far as it goes. But of course, that short statement requires a lot of unpacking. It's a principle that plays out in every aspect of our individual and collective lives, and it must be translated into thousands of choices that we make each day. We still need to work out what that looks like in practice. But the core of that message, as I see it, is this that we must not submit to the oppressive and unjust forces that are crushing our humanity and ruining our planet. Destruction and cruelty is not inevitable. There is another better way to live, and we can discern that way together. And in these times, I think that's the good news that we need to keep speaking out loud. But I wonder what your particular message to the world might be. What is your good news? Something that will help to counter the voices of division and derision all around us. You've all got something to say, I am sure of that. Some unique message for the world. And what about us as Unitarians collectively? I put a little quote from the UU minister Krista Taves on the front of the Order Service today, and I'm going to share a slightly longer version. She says it is time for us to be clear about what we stand for, because if we don't, others will. If we continue to be quiet, we will be branded a religion that stands for nothing. We do stand for something. We stand for freedom, equality, and compassion. Unitarians have something to say and something to do, but the time for silence is over. We can't afford to sit on the sidelines quietly disapproving and letting those destructive messages go unchallenged. We must not let those who shout the loudest drown out the more compassionate voices. If we want to see a better world, we must be courageous and speak our truth to all of us. Another UU, the religious educator Janine Grossmeyer, said this, and this quote comes from a piece that was directed at children and young people, so she really gets to the point where the language is pleasingly direct. She says, We believe every person should stand up and speak out for what they think is right and true. We believe everyone should have a say about matters that concern them, and no one should be put in jail for speaking out. Those final words might strike us particularly sharply at the moment when people are being locked up in this country for speaking out in support of Palestine or speaking out against fossil fuels. We might fear being misunderstood, judged, or rejected by our peers, or dismissed and discredited just like the apostles who are accused of being drunk. We might simply be in that fear being that visible. So we must break that silence. We must face our fears and speak up anyway. Speak to connect, speak to bridge across differences. She writes of something that is often asked in the aftermath of terrible events. Why didn't anybody say anything? It's a question we hear much too often. There are risks involved in saying something. Often nobody said anything because nobody was secure enough to take that risk. But when fear prevails, trouble multiplies. There are alternatives, and one of them is learning to speak the truth in life. Many of us feel that if we say something, there will be retribution. We will find ourselves in more trouble. But we let fear rule us and we end up in the very trouble we were trying to avoid. We internalise the oppression that we fear may come from outside. So what does it look like for us to say something? Well, we don't have to use a megaphone, we don't have to address a demonstration or a rally, we don't even have to stand up here and preach from a pulpit. There are other ways and probably more effective ways for most of us to use our voice. Perhaps don't get drawn into bad faith arguments and debates on the internet if you can help it. We need to be aware that much of the media, and not just the social media, is a hostile environment engineered to waste people's time and energy, to distort and to demoralize, to reward hot takes, controversy, conflict, and rage. This all tends to have the effect of causing thoughtful and sensitive people to simply withdraw, and it drives nuanced speech out of public life. Where we take care with our speaking and our listening, where we try to give people enough time and space to think carefully about what it is they want to say. Let's do what we can to cultivate more spaces where we speak positively about those things that we care about, those values that guide us, and that vision of the better world that we want to help create. We have got something to say. And each one of us can speak up, not in shouting matches, but in conversation with friends and family, acquaintances and strangers, sharing that message of freedom, equality, and compassion, and spreading our good news. We never know what impact our words will have or what we might ultimately influence. And perhaps when we dare to speak in service of the good, we will know that the Spirit is with us, and we will be heard and understood, just like those apostles all those centuries ago. She said this leave safety behind. Put your body on the line. Stand before the people you fear and speak your mind, even if your voice shakes. When you least expect it, someone may actually listen to what you have to say. Amen. I know we're running long, but I think let's go for it and sing our last hymn, number 36 in your purple books. If you have to go, go with our blessing. But I think let's enjoy this last hymn, hymn number 36. And thanks to Andrew for accompanying our singing. Thanks to David, Patricia and Jasmine for doing our readings. Thanks to Patricia for greeting. And David's about to go and put the kettle on. If you're online, do stay for a chat with Charlotte if you can. If you're here in person, we've got peanut colada cake or plum, hazelnut, and chocolate. At one o'clock today, we're hosting a screening of the People's Emergency Briefing. That's a 50-minute film about the climate emergency. We're going to stream it so that you can watch it on Zoom too. If you stay online, we'll be putting it on the same link. There'll be an in-person conversation held after the screening. Unfortunately, we don't feel able to do a proper job of that hybridly, but I will leave the Zoom room open if you want to talk amongst yourselves after the film. But thanks to Jasmine for organising this screening and for hosting the conversation this afternoon. Tonight on Friday at 7, we've got Heart and Soul Contemplative Spiritual Gathering on Order and Chaos. Sign up with me for that if you want to come. We've decided to call off the walk that we were going to do on Tuesday because it's just too hot. So we'll skip it for this month, but there will be another walk in the diary in June. What else have we got? Sonia will be doing Near Dance on Friday. Just a couple more to go before the summer break, isn't it? Just there's not many more left. So go and dance with Sonia. Next Sunday, the Better World Book Club is talking about Is This Working by Charlie Connor? Remarkably, we've still got a couple of copies to lend out. You can definitely read enough to join in the next discussion if you'd like to do that before next Sunday. Next month we're going to read just about a co-pack, which is about mental health issues written by a London author. There's copies of both at the back for you to borrow. And we're going to run we're planning to run a six-part course online called How to Be a Unitarian. Some of you will have been along to that before. Please sign up soon if you want to come to that, because I have had precisely zero sign-ups from within the congregation and about 18 from Leeds. And I don't want to end up in a slightly odd situation where I'm running a course just for people in Leeds as much as I love the people of Leeds. And so please let me know soon if you want to be a part of that. All this information is on the back of your order of service and in the Friday email, take a newsletter and see you on the road. We've very much got a life beyond Sunday mornings as you've gathered, so do what you can to look out for each other and nurture those supportive connections. Just some closing words and closing music now. As we head out into another week in this turbulent and uncertain world, let us be planted firmly on the side of humanity and this planet that we share. May we pray for peace and justice. May we speak up and raise our voices. May we engage as we can in acts of resistance and loving disruption. And may we remember to take care of ourselves, each other, and all those precious souls we meet along the way. Maybe so for the greater good of all. Amen.