Continuing Conversations with Rev Gordon: The Time is Now
October 2025
Beloved Community,
Our theme this month invites us to pause, to reflect, and to act. We find ourselves in a world where silencing dissent has become a political strategy, where xenophobia, transphobia, anti-Blackness, anti-Latino sentiment, and anti-immigrant rhetoric are on the rise. The interlocking systems of oppression are not abstract theories, they are lived realities pressing down on our neighbors, our congregants, and our own hearts.
And yet, hope lives. Resistance is alive. Courage is contagious. All around us, people are standing up, speaking out, and linking arms across divides. Organizations like Progressive Interfaith Alliance, JUUsticeLA, SURJ, CLUE, and LA Voice among so many remind us that faith is not passive – it is active, engaged, and rooted in love.
As Unitarian Universalists, our call is clear: to be the change this hurting world needs. To be a voice of solidarity speaking up for others who are being silenced. To be a sanctuary when others are under threat. To love more boldly and more widely than we ever have before.
The time is now
Our work is to come alive, to awaken our spirits, to deepen our faith, and to make love visible in acts of justice. Howard Thurman once reminded us: “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
Our own UU principles call us to affirm the inherent worth and dignity of every person, and to work toward the interdependent web of life, where no one is discarded and no one is forgotten. As the Rev. Rebecca Parker once said, “The choice to bless the world is more than an act of will. It is an act of recognition, a confession of surprise, a grateful acknowledgment that in the midst of a broken world, unbidden beauty, grace, and mystery abound.”
In this season of holy days across traditions, we look to our interfaith partners for courage:
- From the Qur’an: “Stand firmly for justice, as witnesses to God, even against yourselves, your parents, or your kin.” (Qur’an 4:135)
- From the Talmud: “Whoever saves a single life is considered by scripture to have saved the whole world.”
- From Jesus of Nazareth: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.”
Beloveds, let us not retreat in despair, nor hide from the weight of the world. Instead, let us rise together. Let us march, speak, sing, and love with such force that no wall, no ban, no weapon, no lie can extinguish the flame of our faith.
The time is now. Let us be the beloved community we dream about – today.
In peace and in bold love,
Rev Gordon
Rev Gordon Clay Bailey
Minister
Sepulveda UU Society
818-724-4260
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