Welcoming, a Spiritual Practice

Welcoming, a Spiritual Practice
Rev. Sean Dennison and I will be leading a workshop called Radical Hospitality in September at South Valley UU Society. One of our themes is “welcoming the stranger” into our midst. What does it mean to be truly welcoming to someone; what does it mean to be radically hospitable? “I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” (Matthew 25:35) Everyone was welcome at Jesus’ table, especially people that were considered outcasts of the society – marginalized people, those on the fringes, the untouchables. The practice of seeing divinity in every person we encounter, as Jesus was encouraging those around him to do, is one that involves our whole bodies. It takes me remembering that I am connected to someone even though they may appear very different than me or be seemingly making my life more difficult. It takes work and intention to truly embody our seventh principle of being part of an interdependent web of all existence. And what does this interdependence really require of me? To acknowledge that I am in relationship with everyone and everything around me, whether I want to be or not, and that this relationship requires my conscious involvement.
Many of our UU congregations today (including South Valley), are formally recognized as Welcoming Congregations and have gone through the training process to truly be a welcoming haven for people of all identities and sexual/affectional orientations. Our rainbow flag adorns the front of South Valley as a strong symbol that GLBT-identified people are specifically welcomed here. We are a “Hate-Free Zone”, a place where love is the prevailing force. I found a hospitality workshop called Welcoming the Stranger created by women from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, and found a series of questions that they offered to be thought provoking. “In our congregation, who would you consider a stranger? What are some assumptions you might make about this stranger? What does a hospitable congregation look like, and what do I look like in a congregation that is hospitable? What keeps you from being hospitable to the stranger?”

Candidate for UU ministry, Meghan Conrad preached a sermon this past July at All Soul’s Unitarian Universalist Church in Kansas City, Oklahoma titled “Radical Hospitality”, she said that “radical hospitality is more than giving guests a warm welcome. It is more than growth in membership. It is an ongoing spiritual practice…looking beneath the surface differences and engaging with the essence of holiness that is the foundation of every person.” May we nurture and witness that essence of holiness that is there in each of us through offering hearts and minds that are open and welcoming every time we greet each other.