Radical Community

From a sermon excerpt by Jolinda Stephens, the Director of Lifespan Religious Programming at the UU Church of the Monterey Peninsula:

Radical community...[is] one based not on liking people or thinking alike but on an act of will that opens us to joining with one another. In this type of community we don't merely help people during their times of trouble, but rather join with them to support the burden with them. We join in our joys and triumphs. We join with our community even when we don't agree, even when we are angry or hurt.

That deep community is...necessary if we are to speak with a strong, clear religious voice and stand up and work for social justice as one. Just the idea that people with a diversity of beliefs can live together in community is an incredible gift we bring to the world, if we are willing to do the hard work to make that kind of community a reality.

If we want a faith community that answers the longing of our hearts what we must do is hold on to each other, even when we're angry with one another, even when the vote doesn't go our way, even when we are bored or our feelings are hurt, even when we're embarrassed by something we've done. We hang on. And then we share with each other our beliefs and the assumptions they are based on, and we talk and we dialogue and we learn... and then we act in harmony because we know each other so well.

How radical is your faith community?