UUFSMA: “On Sacred Ground”

Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Online Service
“On Sacred Ground”

Speaker: Reverend Tania Yadira Márquez

Sunday, May 16, 2021
10:30 am

Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/414604040 

Password: 294513

By Joseph Plummer

UUF Secretary

What happens when our hearts and minds connect with the mystery of life?

Exploring a central belief of her ministry, the Reverend Tania Márquez, Guest Speaker for this weekend’s online UUFSMA Sunday Service, describes this connection as La Belleza, the beauty found everywhere in everyday life, not just in exceptional places. Offering this message, she invites others to discover a deeper connection with the land.

“My first assignment in seminary was to walk around my neighborhood, collect objects found during my walk, and take pictures,” she says. “I have incorporated this practice into my life. I call it wandering in beauty.”

In her experience, wandering implies curiosity and openness that the word “walking” does not convey. Wherever she goes she explores her connection with the land and the environment. Rev. Márquez says the way to know a place is to explore it with full attention while opening oneself to what the land offers to share.

The Rev. Márquez is a fronteriza, living close to the border in the United States for over 25 years, where she experienced life as a Xicana, a Mexican American pressured to assimilate to Anglo culture. Originally from Jalisco, México, she grew up in Tijuana and then migrated to the United States after high school. The complexity of the border region and its liminal space between two cultures informs her ministry.

She currently serves as Assistant Minister of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego and leads its South Bay bilingual, multicultural campus. She believes in the healing power of community, ritual, and embodied spiritual practices. Her ministry incorporates cultural elements of her Mexican background as well as Latin American literature and education. She also discovers La Belleza in international cinema, good books, her teenage daughters, ocean vistas, and her many opportunities to inspire an awareness of community.

To participate in our online Sunday Service, visit the Fellowship’s website at www.uufsma.org and click on the Zoom Service button displayed on the home page. If requested, enter password: 294513. Sign-in from anywhere Sunday mornings between 10:15-10:25 am CST.

Through grants and awards, UUFSMA donates at least fifty percent of its budget to support nonprofit organizations that provide health, educational, and environmental services for underserved communities in the San Miguel region. Please support this work by clicking on our website home page Donate button. Now more than ever, your support is essential.

Due to the coronavirus, UUFSMA suspended in-person Sunday services and gatherings. A growing collection of previous online services can be found on the UUFSMA’s YouTube channel. Go to https://www.youtube.com/ and enter UUFSMA in the search box. The UU Fellowship welcomes people of all ages, races, religions, sexual orientation, and gender identity.