Sunrise

No narrative today. Only impressions of the sunrise on the longest day of the summer.

Cool this morning, and still so wet after days of humidity and rain.

Grass so green, so lush, but such a swamp!

Heavy dew on deck chairs and table, mango uneaten yesterday left out to the elements. Ah breakfast!

Birds waking, calling.

Sun just peeking through unkempt cedar hedge.

Michigan radio inside, some BBC guy chatting. I don't listen.

Cool and substantial tiles in the kitchen, and funny marks in the grout as it sets. Hmm.

Opened can of flat carbonated water. Tasty over ice.

Ice made of water not boiled. Whoops.

Leftovers for breakfast, with memories of Jack and our day together.

Memories of Memorial Day.

Heart swelling.

Sad recollection of Flint. Sweet recollections.

Wonder about Gyllnehem (my house) and its new occupants (oops. soon not my house).

I hope.

Father's Day, and I miss my dad.

Sun is caught in the sycamore. Broad shadows.

Still chill air. Time for a shower.

Good morning.

Ambivalence

It is hard to put into words the internal conflicts I feel these days. I am looking forward to the fall when I will become Minister of First Unitarian Church of Baltimore (Universalist & Unitarian). This is a larger challenge, I think, than any I have faced. But it is a place where excellent professional ministry has been performed for over a decade, and there is a strong sense of what it means that the congregation made a decision, some thirty five years ago, to continue to be a vital presence in downtown Baltimore. This sense of collective vocation, dearly recited to me by dozens of people in the past six months, excites me, as it matches my own sense of vocation to the city with all its challenges. I love being in a place that seeks to build community in ways that transcend class and gender, ethnicity and sexuality, that incorporate faith in the past and hope for the future. I am clearly looking forward to the opportunities and challenges of the Charm City.

But Vehicle City is my home, now, and my vocation as Minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Flint is one that I do not resign easily. Flint is a strong community that has been struggling with its essential identity for over a generation. The birthplace of General Motors, of course it is; but my friend Jack reminds me that it is more fully the birthplace of the American automobile industry. Ford was head of Cadillac before he built his own company, and Chrysler was the head of Buick at the time of the General Motors consolidation. Flint was transformed from being Carriage Town to Vehicle City, and stayed so until the Reagan years.

Now General Motors has nearly abandoned Flint, save all that money left in the coffers of the Mott family foundations. And Flint is seeking its new identity.

My great dream is that Flint will emerge from a culture of dependency (on GM, on the autoworker unions, on the Mott family) and begin to chart its own destiny in ways that are power-distributed and more egalitarian, more grassroots and, frankly, more fun. And I think my Unitarian Universalist Church of Flint is one of the centers that may model a new way of being for a new Flint.

But, alas, I will no longer be at the helm. In the next two and a half months, I need to be as fully present as I can to the congregation, while taking no role in setting a future direction for the church. They get to set the budget that they feel best reflects their capacity and their dreams for the next year. (They did that last week.) They need to decide about professional ministry for the interim year before they call a new settled minister (if they decide they will). And they are working on that. And I am available to assist, to give resource, but not to lead.

I have a lot of "me" invested in the success of planting Flint Area Congregations Together in the congregation, and believing that there are congregational leaders there who will keep our church in the leadership of FACT, a position we clearly take now. And as I add my own thoughts to the planing of a forum in July with mayoral candidates in Flint, I find that I give my advice and then let go of it. Some one else needs to carry the torch.

I hope I can learn everything I need to learn in these next weeks about ways I can lead without controlling. I think these lessons will be useful in Baltimore (and in so many areas of my life). I want to stay open, let go of that which I cannot control, and take charge of my own work and my own feelings as I take leave of a group of passionate and dear people in this place. And as I look forward to the Charm City, I hope I will continue to hold Vehicle City in my heart.

Good morning.

Proud

Last night, Roman Catholics and Baptists and Episcopalians of the Anglican and African Methodist type saluted our Unitarian Universalist congregation and its leadership in the city of Flint. I don’t know how to share with you the pride I felt when members of FACT congregations began to tell the story of our education initiative and said that it all began with one UU family: Lucy Mercier and Linda Campbell, and their children Robert and Andre. With a simple narrative, they told the story of our unfolding efforts to be in deep conversation throughout the city and county regarding the state of the Flint Community Schools and the profound need for significant change to turn our schools around.

Rayna Bick expertly shared with the 125 people present at Christ the King Parish the scope of our initiative and invited more people to be included in future fact-finding visits to other parts of the country. She shared her passion for our children and their care, and spoke as the mother of children who had received excellent education in the Flint Community Schools of an earlier generation.

Testimonies were given by some of the people who will participate in our first national site visit to California. Sue Kirby began with a passionate presentation about what it means to be a person of power and privilege who has seen her children receive excellent education in spite of the recent patterns of teacher lay-offs and building closures, and asked what it means that not every child in Flint has the power and privilege to choose the exact program they will encounter in Flint. She wondered if we could use our collective power to ensure that every child will have a chance to receive the kind of education that Emma and Sam have.

And Robert Mercier, the youngest person who will travel to California, spoke about his life; the decision of his parents to move from Birch Run to Flint, the good education he received at Doyle-Ryder, the promise of his admission to the International Baccalaureate program housed at Whittier, and the changes wrought as that program was moved to Central High this past year, and which will move again in the fall. Robert symbolized the students we hope to provide a good education to. His testimony brought people to a sense of urgency and promise.

Rev. Ira G. Edwards, Jr., minister of Damascus Holy Life Baptist Church and co-chair of Flint Area Congregations Together, saluted the whole evening in his closing remarks. He noted that FACT is “all mixed up,” Methodists and Unitarians, Baptists and Catholics, Episcopalians and Church of God in Christ, “We’re a kind of Heinz 57,” all the varieties of faith working together.

For my part, I finally felt that the “Together” part of FACT was, indeed, coming together. We are beginning to be recognized as a serious group of people who are trying to create new relationships across the city based in the good will we express for one another. The City Administrator came on the early side, and he called the Acting Mayor, who showed up before we began. One of the mayoral candidates came. The Chamber of Commerce said that they’d be present, and they were. Channel 12 came and did a good story on the 11 o’clock news. Principals and teachers, parents and students were present, as were a few members of the clergy.

A real organization is birthing, with the beginnings of public trust being constructed among us as we risk some things together. There is nothing I could more wish for; and for the work of the whole Local Organizing Ministry team at UU Flint, I will be forever thankful.