First Unitarian Universalist Society of Albany

"Public Ministry"

Rev. Samuel A. Trumbore  November 11, 2001

SERMON

Many people today are suffering from the disease of privacy.  They suffer from the delusion that by separating themselves from society in a private enclave they can create a happy and satisfying life.  They suffer under the illusion that if they can just control enough variables in their lives, all that is unpleasant can be removed and that which is pleasant can be cultivated and preserved.  These ideas are deeply imbedded in our Western culture of private property and individual rights protections.  The result is a growing sense of isolation and disconnection in our society.

We have created a society that permits people to isolate themselves from community life and withdraw from it to read, to watch television, play electronic games and interact with a computer screen rather than warm blooded human beings.  Social as I am I can feel forces at work that push me this direction.  I commute to work alone in my car.  I shop and pay bills electronically.  Since my bank started charging me $2 to see a teller, now I do all my banking with an automated teller.  Computers have changed the culture of work.  People don’t gather at the water cooler and chat so much any more.  They spend much of their day information processing without talking or listening to anyone.

How many of us know our neighbors, particularly in transient neighborhoods in Albany with lots of renters and students?  And if we do know one or two neighbors, how about those who live on the next block?  And what about your elected representatives?  How many of us are on a first name basis with our County Council person or the representative for our neighborhood in local government?  How about your local party worker for the Democrats or the Republicans or the Greens or the Working Family party?  My father was one of those people advocating for neighborhood concerns in his precinct.

I’m appreciative that there are a number of people in our congregation who could stand up and say yes to these questions.  And those who could say yes would also know how small a minority they are in.  Something like 35% of the eligible voters turned out to vote this past Tuesday.  A number of races were determined by tiny vote totals.

Unfortunately, a sermon like the one I’m giving this morning, all too often turns into a guilt tripping rant about people’s lack of participation in public life.  This is particularly tempting as we observe Veterans Day today celebrating those who have served our country.  We all know that democracy only works if there is a broad base of participation.  We know we have a responsibility to vote and express ourselves on issues that matter to our nation.

And we also all lead busy lives full of work, school, children, projects, FUUSA activities, full to the point that adding one more thing feels like it will bring the camel to his knees if not break his sagging back.  We all must make choices and set our priorities to manage all we do.

My goal this morning is to persuade you to make enough room in your life to attend one public meeting and stand with 100 members of our congregation who want to see revitalization in the Capital Region.  My hope is that by taking that one small step from private life to public life, you will be inspired by what you hear and be influenced to recognize the value and potential of what ARISE can do for our congregation and for our community.

For those who are new, ARISE is a religiously based community organizing project with the goal of revitalizing the Capital Region.  Our congregation is one of the 38 member organizations representing over 12,000 people spread over Rensselaer, Albany, Schenectady and Saratoga counties.  Our organizations include Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Quaker, and Unitarian Universalist congregations, neighborhood organizations, and interfaith organizations like the Capital District Labor and Religion Coalition and the Interfaith Alliance.  I was elected President of this organization in April and have been working hard ever since to bring the membership together and advance our work focused on Tuesday, November 13^th as our first major public event.

When I began my ministry in this congregation, I felt a hunger for greater community involvement in our membership.  The enthusiasm for building our Habitat for Humanity house two summers ago suggested to me how much energy and desire we have for making a positive contribution to our community.  We have a strong congregational history of public involvement with the Committee for Progressive Legislation in the early 70's which helped change the abortion laws and our work during the sanctuary movement to help people get to Canada.  We’ve been involved in and led all sorts of social causes over the years.

I think the reason our congregation is oriented toward public ministry is because of the number of our members working in civil service.  We have many members who have a strong commitment to public service and experience frustration doing the public’s business.  The narrow confines of their jobs often do not permit them to effect the change their hearts move them to initiate.

So when I started investigating ARISE in the Spring of 2000, I got very excited about its possibilities for members of our congregation as a path into greater and more effective public life.  Greg Galluzzo, the Executive Director of the Gamaliel Foundation who consults with ARISE to help us learn how to organize effectively, gave a training last February that helped me see this potential.  In the training he advocated for the value of public life and the satisfaction of public relationships.

One of the reasons ARISE is made up of congregations  is because, for many people, congregational life was their first step into public life.  The relationships we develop here as we work on committees and projects together are public relationships.  I have great enjoyment of these relationships I’ve developed through congregational and community involvement.  The people who do this work are mostly doing it because they are caring people with big hearts who want to make the world a better place.  This has been especially true of my involvement in the leadership of Unitarian Universalism, our ministry and the leadership of ARISE.  I’m amazed at the amount to time and energy people are willing to put in to make what we do happen.  And when the day is done, I find an enduring satisfaction in what people can do when they work together.

Developing relationships is central to the work of community organizing.  These public relationships are based on developing common self-interest rather than developing hierarchical dependency.  Instead of looking for someone to rescue while holding them at arm’s length, ARISE seeks to develop relationships that are based on mutuality and working together for common goods.

One of the important desires, self-interests if you will, most of us bring into this congregation is moral and spiritual growth and development.  Many come looking for a moral foundation for their children.  Some come because they have experienced a life crisis that has increased the importance of meaning for them.  Some are here because they seek a community in which to explore their religious identity, driven by an inner hunger that isn’t satisfied in their secular, private lives.  I know that inner drive in me comes from tastes of the meaning and satisfaction people can create when they gather on Sunday morning, in small groups, in classes, and in social action.

I’ve enjoyed watching the growth and development of my son in this regard.  When he was a pre-schooler, his awareness of others was pretty limited.  His world revolved around his desires and interests.  He had little concern for others except for his immediate gratification.  Now that he is in fourth grade, Philomena and I are seeing the expansion of his awareness.  He loves watching the History Channel and has learned a great deal of 20^th Century history.  He has an awareness of our nation being in conflict with other nations.  We talk about the conflicts that divide people and ways to find solutions.

I think for most of us there is a natural growth of awareness, concern, and compassion that happens as we mature, marry, start a family and want to see our children enter a world where they will have opportunities for their fulfillment and happiness.  I know being a father has greatly shaped my motivation to pay attention to local politics and school board referendums.  The educational, social and developmental climate for Andy is very important to Philomena and me.  Our self-interest drives our attention toward insuring Andy has a good community in which to grow up.

This motivation brings many people to our doors and into our religious education program.  But our educational program can only do so much.  There are so many other influences in children’s lives that we parents cannot control.  And most of us have far more control and many more opportunities than parents who live just a few blocks away from this building.  Parents who don’t have after-school programs for their children and may not be able to help their children with their homework because they are working two jobs.  The ARISE’s Youth Task Force has heard stories from their children that break your heart to hear.   We see the end result of their deprivation reading the newspaper and seeing their mug shots.  It doesn’t have to be that way.

The three primary areas ARISE has chosen to begin advocacy work are Youth, Education and Employment.  Youth issues are our number one priority.  We want better after-school programs for the inner cities.  We want to see the Albany Boys and Girls club expand their facility so they can serve three times as many children.  We want to see a regional gang prevention program put in place to protect our youth.

The events of September 11^th haven’t made ARISE’s job easy.  Much of the available funds for these programs have been drying up.  We will be working closely with lawmakers to seek creative ways to fund these important programs.  And while we do this, we’ll be developing relationships built on mutual self-interest with community leaders that will advance both our agendas.

What I like about the ARISE model of social activism is that it allows for many levels of participation.  At the lowest level, participation can mean just showing up at a few large meetings each year.  A person who’d like to get a little more involved might write a few letters or make a few phone calls to legislators.  A person can serve on a task force and get a chance to shape decisions and directions for ARISE based on our ongoing conversations with community leaders.  That involvement can move up or down depending time and energy.  Next year our congregation will be forming a core team in our congregation so we can follow and influence what is going on in ARISE as a congregation. 

ARISE is a power organization.  For us, power is not a dirty word.  We are not expending all this energy without the expectation of results.  In fact this organizing model has an excellent track record of getting results fairly quickly.  The whole design is to seek the will of the people at the grass roots and effectively bring their voice and their concerns to the table where decisions that effect their lives are made.  I’ve seen the growth of that power in the short time I’ve been involved.  Leaders in the community are already impressed with us and asking us to come to the table where public decisions are made.  We are already having influence on the wheels of government.

Now, I know this might be a little intimidating for some present this morning.  I know because I’ve sat where you are sitting this morning and heard my minister trying to get me from rest into motion.  I’ve sat with a beer in one hand and chips in the other watching the parade of horrors on the evening news and saying, “Ain’t it awful.”  I know the feeling of emptiness and hopelessness of reading about social decay in our society and not having any answers.  ARISE doesn’t start with answers, it starts with caring people coming together to make a difference.  We are directed by our common concerns bringing them into the public arena and looking for opportunities for action.  This process seems to be very effective at finding solutions ripe for action right now.  I also know the excitement and encouragement that I feel thinking I can be part of making a difference for kids at risk once school lets out.  I sleep a whole lot easier knowing I’m doing what I can do to solve these social problems.  You will too if you are willing to give just one evening of your life to support these kids and their interests.

This Tuesday we have the opportunity to direct the power of this congregation in an effective way that will make a positive difference.  As I am President of ARISE, I can assure you that the leadership of the organization operates from the highest goals and aspirations.  ARISE has brought together a strong team of committed people who care deeply about our Capital Region and have put an enormous amount of effort into launching ARISE and our first public meeting November 13^th.  We stand on the shoulders of those veterans who have given their lives that we might have a free society where such public advocacy is possible.  Please sign up and come out Tuesday night to support this project.  You'll be glad you did.