UUFSMA: Cats, Birds & Souls

Sunday, February 10, 10:30am 
Cats, Birds & Souls
Rev. Andrea Abbott

At this week’s Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Service, The Rev. Andrea Abbott, minister of The First Universalist Society of Central Square, takes a look at the practical difficulties of living on a small planet through a reflection on an incident with a neighbor in her small rural town in New York.

Rev. Abbott uses the incident as the basis to explore the variety of ways we all compete for resources as we seek to have our needs met. Whether the resources are physical, such as food or water, or emotional, such as are our need to be wanted, loved, and validated, it seems hard to get our needs filled without impinging on the needs of others.

It is easy to find ourselves being good neighbors to those we don’t know while we grapple with the problems of living next door to each other. It may well be easier to maintain our highest principles, the seven principles that Unitarian-Universalists have agreed to honor, when we do so on an abstract plane. However, in seeking to find a compromise with a neighbor, Rev. Abbott found her principles more difficult to maintain than they were when they were abstract idea.

This is the story of the interaction of principles with mundane life, the place where real growth and change take place. In one small backyard, the drama of life and death plays out and presents us with small-scale contradictions and ambiguities. How do we balance the worth and dignity of every person with a finite earth and competing visions? Can we arrive at solutions for every problem. or are there some that remain beyond our efforts at compromise and peace?

This is the Rev. Abbott’s fifth year to speak in San Miguel de Allende. She is the minister of The First Universalist Society of Central Square, located in a rural area of upstate New York north of Syracuse. She has served the congregation for more than ten years, first as student minister and then as minister. A graduate of Colgate Rochester Crozer Seminary, Andrea came to the ministry late in life, having previously had careers in human services, teaching, and librarianship. Prior to becoming a minister, she served for twenty years as librarian at Auburn Correctional Facility, a men’s maximum-security prison in Central New York.
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For more information about the UUFSMA, including our Children’s Religious Education program, Social Action outreach, weekly discussion groups, social activities and Care Team, join us any Sunday at 10:30 AM at the Hotel Lla Aldea or check out our website at uufsma.org.

Our fellowship was born in 1987 when a small group of expatriate religious liberals came together to meet as Unitarian Universalists in San Miguel de Allende. The fellowship has been active and thriving ever since. Every UU church has it’s own flavor, and we are no exception. We are a combination of expats and visitors, each actively engaged and contributing to this wonderful Mexican community we love. Because there is a coming, going, and returning aspect, our spiritual community is extremely fluid.  There is a magic in San Miguel which draws us in and binds us together—both as members of the church and of the larger community. Our programming is led by visiting ministers, community leaders, and church members, so the variety is lively. We have opportunities to meet as UU’s each week at discussion groups, breakfasts, luncheons, and in various other ways. Depending on the season, attendance fluctuates between 40 and 140. Our primary focus is on funding social action within the surrounding community. We love good music, good discussion, good food, and having visitors. We invite you to join us any Sunday morning.

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