How welcoming can make you more deeply welcoming 

 By Rev. Rebecca Bryan

Last June, we voted as a congregation to become a Level 2 Sanctuary Congregation. This means that we covenant, or promise, to support the Main Street Congregational Church in Amesbury, which is a Level 1 Sanctuary Congregation, should it provide physical sanctuary to someone at risk of deportation. Our commitment as a Level 2 Sanctuary Congregation is to partner with other congregations and faith communities in ensuring that the Main Street Congregational Church is able to do all that is necessary while providing sanctuary to a guest.  

Many things go into providing sanctuary, including cooking meals, shopping for groceries shopping, driving to doctor’s appointments, providing translators, and visiting with the guest. Above all, there needs to be someone on site 24 hours a day in the event that law enforcement comes to the church. Though one church agrees to provide physical space for sanctuary, the actual offering of sanctuary requires hundreds of volunteers and many partners.  

We are not alone in our commitment to the sanctuary movement. There are hundreds of faith–based organizations which are uniting to continue the legacy of providing sanctuary, including Unitarian Universalist congregations.  

The Unitarian Universalist Association has a deep history of supporting immigrants and refugees. A resolution was passed in support of migratory workers at the first–ever General Assembly in 1961.1  

Sanctuary and comprehensive immigration reform have been supported at six subsequent General Assemblies between 1980 and 2007, including a focus to stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and deportations.2  

In 2013 our association of congregations called immigration a moral issue, and in 2015 we voted an Action of Immediate Witness to end immigrant child and family detention.3 

Jim Corbett, a Quaker and long-time advocate and supporter of Central American refugees, defines sanctuary as “protective community with people whose basic human rights are being violated by government officials…” He says that it “incorporates prophetic witness into protective community.”4  He goes on to describe sanctuary as “an identifying practice of a church that is a fully ecumenical and international community of the faith-formed peoples that assume responsibility for the nonviolent protection of human rights.”5 

The contemporary sanctuary movement has its origins in the refugee crisis of Central Americans in the 1980’s when an estimated one million people were fleeing their homelands of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua for safety. It was an interfaith movement involving Catholics, Presbyterians, Quakers, Jews, and Unitarian Universalists.  

Since 2000 the sanctuary movement has shifted largely from places of worship providing protection to refugees into those same places providing shelter to immigrants in danger of deportation. 

Today is a next step in this congregation’s commitment to Immigration Justice.  

We cannot talk about immigration justice without discussing the concept and importance of welcoming. What does it mean to be welcoming, truly welcoming? The best definition I have discovered comes from Lonni Collins Pratt’s book Radical Hospitality, Benedict’s Way of Love. I became familiar with this book several years ago while working with another congregation on their efforts to become more welcoming. We soon learned that welcoming is a way of being, not a project or a process. In her book Collins Pratt’s writes, “Real hospitality isn’t about what we do, it’s about who we are.”6 

A congregation, like any community, cannot judge their welcoming score based on numerical growth. Welcoming is demonstrated by inclusivity, where all people who are there feel they belong. A welcoming community is one with deep roots and a willingness to evolve and change.  

Collins Pratt’s uses the term “radical hospitality” to describe welcoming. She writes that “Radical Hospitality” means “activities and desires that inspire individuals and communities to welcome those who are unlike themselves.”7   She claims, and I believe, that our identity as people and communities of faith will be gained, not lost, in what it takes to become radically hospitable. 8  

Collins Pratt connects the word “radical” to its Latin derivation meaning “root.”  In this paradigm hospitality or welcome is understood to be our core, to run deep within us. As such, it gives sustenance to all people involved. It gives freely, and it receives freely in return.  

To be truly welcoming requires that we allow ourselves to live into the equality that we espouse as Unitarian Universalists. This means we must recognize our own biases and be willing to change. Hence the title of my sermon Whose Welcome? and, no, it isn’t misspelled.  

In other words, when we are radically hospitable, or welcoming, we are saying we are willing to be changed by those we welcome in.  

Without that willingness, it isn’t welcome. It is inviting, it may be generous, it is sometimes kind, but it isn’t welcoming.  

Welcome means: Come in, we are glad you’re here, what are you offering that we can all grow from and learn? How will we all be changed by this relationship?  

An invitation is more like: “Would you like to join us? You are welcome here, if you believe, think and act like we do.” 

Being generous includes the idea that “I have more, and I am willing to share.”  

Kindness may respect another person’s differences; however, it does not give space to be changed by those differences. And that is why kindness is a fine line that requires honesty and self-appraisal. 

A group can be diverse, but that does not guarantee it is inclusive, which is another word for welcoming. The question of power comes into play here and must be addressed. Who decides what is acceptable and not? Whose welcome is it that we are extending?  

Think of questions like this: What does it mean to be welcoming of people with all physical abilities? Are we welcoming to those who have differences in hearing, seeing, or mobility? I hope we are doing better with our sound system, hearing loop, accessible pew, and soon to be streaming of worship services. Yet I know I make mistakes all the time in this area. The movie “Aging in America“ that was shown here this past week said that ageism is more prominent that sexism or racism.  

Are we welcoming to young people who may make decisions differently from the way we do? Or to people from other cultures who show their affection or appreciation differently or who worship in different styles?  

How about our newest members? Are we welcoming them, truly? Are we getting to know their many gifts, talents, and ways of viewing the world? Are we changed by their involvement here, or are we expecting them to become just like us? 

Can we be welcoming as we host open houses here at the church during the city’s First Nights on Fridays, December 6th and 13th? Are we asking open–ended questions and seeking to learn from guests as much as we share?  

How about next week when we have our Minister Emeritus, Reverend Bert Steeves and his wife, Maxine, here with us? Can we welcome them as they are today, older than they were when he was minister? This includes Bert‘s being– hard–of–hearing and Maxine‘s having some memory changes. Can we change and realize that to welcome them is to know they may or may not come, depending on how they feel that day? Can we see that having a big hoopla and cake and asking them to talk are not welcoming or even kind?  

When we became a welcoming congregation to LGBTQ people, we changed. We had to. We became conscious of our language, no longer assuming mothers and fathers with children, as one small example. At first this probably felt very different, then it became more comfortable, and today it is normal. We changed.  

All of us like to be welcomed differently. These differences are part of what make us so wonderful. We are never as rich alone as we are together.  

We are all human, and we can appreciate that commonality even more when we allow ourselves to learn from and be changed by the differences between us. 

So how is it that you like to be welcomed? We want to know. I don’t want to assume. Our ministry theme this month is perspective. I want to be sure we take the time, listen to one another, and learn about each other’s perspective.  

How do you like to be welcomed?  You will find a sticky note on the inside of your Order of Service. I invite you to take a moment and write down the answer to that question. It can be a word or two, or longer. Volunteers will collect them as you leave the sanctuary today, and the notes will be hung on the bulletin board downstairs as you enter the outside doors into the Lower Meeting House. I invite you to take time this month to read them. I know I will!  

Bart and I are also trying something new this month, and throughout the rest of this church year. We are going to host a party each month on a Saturday evening in our home. This is an open invitation to 18 people, no special invitations. Each party will have a theme, like charades, or star gazing and campfires. Each party will also have one purpose: to get to know each other better, to welcome one another. There will be information coming about how you can sign up.  

Pratts Collins writes, “ . . . hospitality is both the answer to modern alienation and injustice and a path to a deeper spirituality.”9 For us to be truly welcoming in our immigration justice work, or in any of our justice work, we must be welcoming here, indeed we must be welcoming as well within ourselves. William Butler Yeats said, “There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven’t yet met.” Yea, that it may be so.  

Amen and blessed be.