A Message From Rev Gordon C Bailey

1 Sep 2025

Beloved SepulvedaUU Community,

I return to you renewed and inspired – fresh from our UUA General Assembly, a month of retreat on the farm, and a period of study leave. These experiences have filled me with clarity and hope for the year ahead. I carry back with me not only new learnings but also a deeper grounding in what it means to be us; a covenantal people, committed to right relationship, vision, and mission.

We do not live in a vacuum. The world presses upon us: a nation struggling under the weight of division, a Supreme Court reshaping the very fabric of justice, ongoing wars and conflicts abroad, ICE raids in our communities, and the climate crisis threatening the balance of life on earth. Here in our own Valley of Los Angeles, these realities take root in the lives of our neighbors and in our own hearts.

Unitarian Universalist theologian James Luther Adams once wrote, “An unexamined faith is not worth having, for it can be quickly shaken or distorted when the winds of crisis blow.” Our faith must not shrink back in these times, it must step forward with courage.

President Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt reminds us today: “Our Unitarian Universalist faith calls us to widen the circle of care, to proclaim the power of love, and to practice radical interdependence with one another and the earth.”

And Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a beacon for our movement, proclaimed: “Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice.”

These voices call us to action, to love, to hope.

This coming congregational year is pivotal in our history. We are standing at a threshold:

Shall we grow and thrive as a beacon of Unitarian Universalism here in the Valley?
Shall we explore merger and partnership, daring to imagine a new vision of what our congregation could become?
Shall we create something never before seen in the UU context, rooted in our values, yet expansive enough to meet the needs of today and tomorrow?

At the heart of our covenant lies the call to honor the inherent worth and dignity of every person, to build and sustain right relationships, and to center the Unitarian Universalist value of Love. Love is not simply a feeling. it is our ethic, our discipline, our act of resistance and hope.

As we return for our Homecoming Service, we will gather to begin a new year of living more fully into our mission and vision – of practicing deep hospitality, of nurturing spiritual growth, strengthening our covenant with one another, and reaching outward in service to the world.

We must find the courage, the energy, the hope, and the love to act. We are not bystanders in this great play of life – we are players, partners, and builders of the Beloved Community.

I cannot wait to get started! Join me on the journey. Come ready to fully engage with an an openness to change in profound and beautiful ways.

In peace and love,

Rev Gordon
Rev Gordon Clay Bailey
Minister
Sepulveda UU Society
818-724-4260

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