Clergy Corner – February 2026

by Rev. Dr. Donna Schaper

As we turn the corner on the last part of my time with you,* I remember most fondly the moments of meaning. Like when Molly Baskette preached and gave us new insight to the terrible first shooting in Minneapolis or when Cameron Trimble told us to focus on awe and transcendence in these times of poly crisis. Or when everybody said they were attendees or participants in the Flying Pig Parade. Or the choir sang Lessons and Carols and the readers read the Christmas story with élan, releasing new revelation about the story of the creche with the baby IN it. Then following that service up with the fairy march.

I just had breakfast at a place called Anecdota in Mexico City, after Warren and I delivered an infant to his family, following a deportation in Gainesville. Yes, this is intentionally cryptic. To be a pastor trusted by a local community organization to take “accompaniment” to a new level may be more meaning than I can handle.

Cody Sanders, the speaker at the UCC clergy conference in Tampa, which Molly and I attended, and from which I recruited candidates for our beautiful search, said that in times of poly crisis, three things matter.

Transcendence and belonging to God.
Togetherness, belonging to each other.
Tethering, belonging to the web of life, all of it, stars, trees, caterpillars, and more.

The meaning we have made together is what matters to me. The trust we have with each other and from our community matters to me.

That being said, I may change my pen name from the Dolly Mama to Polly Crisis. Why? Dolly Mama is happier than I am right now. Who have we become? The National Catholic Reporter said we’ve gone from being people of outrage to people of explanation. We have become efficient at absorbing what must disturb us and wake us up. We must strengthen what remains. I also know that the early Christians really believed they were at the end of time. Many scholars argue that you can’t understand the New Testament unless you see that they really thought they were at the end of time.

I don’t think we’re going to return to normal. And there is surely some good in that, but I need some time to grieve out loud about what’s going on.

I keep going back to the movie, Hamnet, and the beauty of the way it imagines loss. Chloe Zhao directs the film about Shakespeare’s wife, Agnes and the death of their son Hamnet, and how it turned Shakespeare into who he was. There is a very moving quote from Emily Watson, in the role of Mary Shakespeare (Will’s mother): “What is given may be taken away at any time. The trick is in never to let down your guard. Never think you are safe. Never take for granted that your children’s hearts beat, that they suck milk, that they draw a breath, that they walk and speak and smile and argue and play. Never for a moment forget that may be gone, snatched from you in the blink of an eye, torn away from their breakfast.” The fact that a person can be here one day and simply gone in the next scrambles sanity.

“Catastrophic personal loss is not required…what is required is to acknowledge fragility.” – Sarah Wildman, New York Times, Tuesday, December 30, 2025.

By the way, love is always the next thing to do.

*Interim contract expires October 31, 2026, or before or later, depending on multiple factors.

UPCOMING and IMPORTANT AT UCG. What might you need to know?

About 20 members of UCG are working hard right now to come up with a monetary gift to ourselves for our 60th anniversary. These include the 60th Anniversary Committee, its small capital campaign group, the Executive Council Committee (also referred to as “Council Exec”), the Board of Endowment, the Buildings and Grounds committee and the Lively Arts Committee. It ain’t easy. We all think about the high standards of our parish for transparency, if we don’t do it right. Transparency is important, getting the message right is important. Securing our future is important – ESPECIALLY for our new pastoral team. My interim will be successful with you if the new pastor has no unnecessary obstacles in their way, like a surprise expense or an unresolved conflict.

Lauren Poe and the Greater Gainesville International Center (GGIC) are sharing an office with us in the children’s wing. They use it during the week, Shay Smith uses it on Sundays. This refugee organization lost funding so we took them in. Shay and Lauren share Shay’s office. Who is Shay? She is the Director of Children’s Ministries. They also have known each other for a long time.

Why was there the presence of security at the Jewish/Christian Service here on Martin Luther King Sunday? Jewish organizations ALWAYS have security when they do things. This one was donated, via friendship.

Was the training about accompaniment and rapid response stellar or up to UCG expectations? Maybe not. But many of us are still driving people – or flying them – to more safety than is available in Florida right now. These communications in these times are very difficult. Thus, my bluntness.

My ask: Someone who speaks good enough Spanish to train us in how to talk to neighbors. I’ll work with you as I have modest Spanish. We’re not talking about fluency so much as adequacy so that we can volunteer driving and accompaniment and care with greater ease. I picture a conversation group on a morning in which we learn some essential vocabularies. And perhaps an ongoing training in what the current needs are and how we can meet them.

“Of a sane man there is only one safe definition: he is a man who can have tragedy in his heart and comedy in his head.” – G.K. Chesterton, Tremendous Trifles, 1909.