The Space Between

My tattered bumper sticker reminds me each day: Change is inevitable. Growth is optional. Below is a reflection about change and growth that I delivered on June 3^rd at the coffee house to bid farewell to Rev. Joanne Giannino, interim minister, Unitarian Universalist Church of Urbana-Champaign (UUCUC).

The backstory:

Change has felt very present recently—in my personal life, in our national life, and in the life of my spiritual home, UUCUC. At our UU church, after our minister of nineteen years moved to the west coast—his new church is about a mile from the Pacific Ocean--I served on the Transition Team of our first interim minister, Rev. Janet Newman, for a year and then, after careful thought, I accepted a nomination to a seven-member search committee, which worked for thirteen months and put in hundreds of hours to find our next settled minister. That committee became like a family to me, and I am sure I exchanged more emails with them than I have with anyone else in a one-year span. During our search process and this second year of transition and self-examination, our church was guided by our second interim minister, Rev. Joanne Giannino, whom we will say goodbye to at the end of this month.

Here is the piece I delivered at the coffee house:

Recently in an article in Lion’s Roar magazine, I learned about the Buddhist concept of “bardo”—spelled B A R D O—and it made me think of the past two years at our church. Our church has experienced many moments of “bardo” recently—maybe we have even been in one, long bardo. “Bardo,” the article tells us, “is the Tibetan term for the intermediate state or gap we experience between death and our next rebirth…. More generally, the word bardo refers to the gap or space we experience between any two states.” The article goes on to say, “We actually experience bardos throughout our day”—for instance, when I finish reading this piece to you and before the next one begins, there will be a moment of bardo—“a tiny gap following the end of one activity and preceding the start of another. If you notice them, these bardos of everyday life are places of potential transformation.”

            The article adds, “Bardos are spaces of potential creativity and innovation, because they create breaks in our familiar routines and patterns. In that momentary space of freedom, the fresh perspective of something new and awake may suddenly arise.”

            A break in our familiar routines and patterns, new spaces of creativity and innovation, the fresh perspective of something new and awake—all of these describe our two years of transition as a church and especially our interim year under the gentle, steady, clear guidance offered by Joanne.  She has nudged us when needed, comforted us often—especially in the difficult weeks after November 8—and accompanied us as we have taken action, including at the women’s marches and in our work for racial justice.

As one of the members of your Ministerial Search Committee looking for a settled minister to lead us into the future, I knew we faced a tough task because I heard very often, “I wish Joanne could stay on,” “I’ll miss Joanne so much,” or “How will we find someone as wonderful as Joanne?” (FYI: UUA guidelines do not allow the interim minister to continue on as the settled minister). When our committee shared these comments with Joanne, her advice was characteristic of her: she put our needs as a congregation first—it wasn’t about her. She said, “What do you think they are responding to when they say that? You can use that as a guide in your search.”

            We followed Joanne’s advice and found someone wonderful in her own way. The unanimous vote on May 7 suggests you all approve of our choice. But there is only one Rev. Joanne Giannino, and I feel very fortunate and grateful to have had you, Joanne, to lead us in this bardo, this time of potential transformation.

            I’ll end with a poem by Alberto Rios, a poem about giving and receiving and about how those actions change us. We have received much from you this past year, Joanne, and have been transformed by it.

“When Giving isAll We Have” by Alberto Rios [Please click the title for text of the poem I read at the coffee house; you will also find a recording of Rios reading the poem.]

Thank you, Joanne, for all you have given us and for what we have made together.