UUFSMA: “Our Lady of Guadalupe Updated”

Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Online Service
“Our Lady of Guadalupe Updated”

Speaker: Reverend Tania Yadira Martínez Tadeo

Sunday, December 12, 2021
10:30 am

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

Password: 294513

By Joseph Plummer

UUFSMA Board Secretary

With its compelling synthesis of Aztecan aesthetics and sixteenth-century Spanish-Catholic missionary zeal, the painted figure of the Virgin of Guadelupe remains the oldest, most iconic totem of Mexico’s unique form of Catholicism. For nearly 500 years, the faith of the conquistadores has evolved here within the legend of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe’s appearance to the converted Aztec Juan Diego fewer than two decades after Hernando Cortez arrived in Mexico. The Reverend Tania Yadira Martínez Tadeo, Guest Minister for this Sunday’s UUFSMA Sunday Service, knows the story well and will reflect upon her own reencounter with Our Lady of Guadalupe as a Unitarian Universalist minister.

“It is said that while a Mexican may not be Catholic, he or she is definitely a Guadalupano,” Rev. Tania says. “I’ve often denied that truism. However, I’ve come to new conclusions about the influence of the storied apparition of the virgin to Juan Diego and want to update that message with newer insight about the meaning of this religious symbol.”

Rev. Tania currently serves as Resident Chaplain at a San Diego hospital. She is a spiritual care educator for the project “Trauma-Responsive Congregations” with the University of Boston’s School of Theology. She previously served as Assistant Minister of the First UU Church of San Diego. She graduated from Meadville Lombard Theological School and has a background in Latin American Literature. Reverend Tania is both an immigrant and a fronteriza and these parts of her identity greatly influence her ministry and her way of seeing the world.

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 beauty 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 www.uufsma.org and click on the Zoom Service button on the home page. If requested, enter password: 294513. Sign-in from anywhere Sunday mornings between 10:15-10:25 am CST.

UUFSMA donates at least fifty percent of its income 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 the website home page Donate button. Now more than ever, your support is essential.

UUFSMA has returned to limited in-person Sunday services. Pre-registered members may attend in-person services at the Hotel Aldea by contacting Diana Amaya for the important safety guidelines which must be followed: info.uufsma@gmail.com. The UU Fellowship welcomes people of all ages, races, religions, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Previous online services can be found at https://www.youtube.com/. Enter UUFSMA in the search box.