"Our screens and phones fume with righteousness.

Our  superheroes have forsaken us and

our fictions pale against our headlines. 

Social media taunts have poisoned our political discourse and

disfigured our reality. 

We have become an angry, fractious lot, a "Game of Thrones"

for a digitized and unsettled century." 

- Los Angeles Times, July 15, 2006

Friends - 

Why are we doing this series on forgiveness right now?  Is this some backward looking attempt?

Quite the contrary, beloveds.  As we move into June, the Annual Meeting, the end of our program year and (hopefully) a lovely Summer, more than ever we need to be leaders in being counter-cultural.  Where the pervasive popular culture and much of media revel and wallow in negativity, it is our sacred task to call ourselves, our congregation, our community, our families, to something higher:  a culture of gratitude and the ability to be less brittle when people make mistakes or don't live up to our ideals.

We are called to this because we are living in a broader culture awash with anger and false apologies - as UUs we are called to do better than that.  Forgiveness is a skill, a process, not an event.  

With each of these Sunday services we look at a slightly different angle of the process of forgiveness.  In this way, we build a congregation that is more resilient in dealing with our imperfections and each other's, but also we influence all the places we interact, from home to community, as agents of peace.  

Join us this Sunday as we explore why it is better to be like a rubber band than a crystal goblet on the topic of forgiveness. 

In blessing - 

Rabbi Chava