Dear friends,
A couple of weeks ago, I was chatting with the editor of the Gainesville Sun in front of the courthouse before the rally organized by Gainesville Immigrant Neighbor Initiative (GINI). I told him about the church I had recently been called to. With delight, he shared that he had “broken bread” with the UCG community on the east side of town.
I don’t remember all the details of his story, but I remember the spirit of it: his experience of our predominantly white community stepping into a predominantly Black community with ease, comfort, and genuine delight for everyone. I replied to his lovely story with, “Yep, that is how it feels.”
UCG has been such a comfortable space for me to step into this past month. I have said, even in the midst of all the overwhelm, “It’s all good”—because it is good, and it is life-giving.
Beginning this Sunday, October 4, we enter a month of exploring the intersections of the news, our political realities, and our personal faith lives, asking how all of these things converge with our understanding of what is hopeful and holy. Take a look at the October poster below, and please share it with friends and neighbors on Instagram @ucglife and Facebook.
Together, we’ll engage in everything from Pride and Banned Books Week to voting as a sacred practice. And then we’ll turn toward our Enlistment Campaign (aka stewarding our resources). These are the practices that help form us as a people committed to good news, safety, and comfort, a people who seek to make those things real not only within our walls, but in the wider world.
I’m so glad to be on this journey with you all.
With gratitude, Rev. Dr. Marta Fioriti, Minister of Justice & Development
