January, 2005

Rev. Dr. Tess Baumberger
Minister, UU Congregation of Franklin

PREACHER FEATURE from "Spectacles" the newsletter of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Franklin

Do you know that feeling of having gone into an egg or cocoon stage, - a time of great transition in your life? Lately, it seems I've gone into another egg stage, this time around issues of my relationship to myself and others, and around my poetry. It feels like I'm building the skeleton of what will hatch, by organizing my poetry and by setting limits with people in my life. This is the structure that will support the new form when it arises.

It occurs to me that many in our country right now may also be in an egg stage, in the wake of the recent election. There was so much energy among both conservatives and progressives - people were energized for the election, hopeful, excited, engaged. After the election, those whose ideals and candidates won sat back and rode the tide. Those whose ideals and candidates lost, however, have grown quiet.

This might be the subdued tone of defeat, but it could also be just a seeming quiet, in which many things are taking place. An egg stage. It may well be time for the progressive movement to enter an egg stage. This seems like a good time for progressive people and organizations to regroup, restructure, to set vision and goals and work towards them. To build a skeleton or structure that we can flesh out in the coming years, and decades.

The Public Policy Committee of the New Hampshire Council of Churches is working on that skeleton. At a recent meeting we set three main goals for the coming months. First, we seek to build relationships with all our congregations. This includes hearing which issues you are interested in, so that we on the committee truly represent you, not just ourselves. It also includes training people in effective means of activism, developing or tapping into social action leadership in congregations, in order to establish a network that we can activate when issues that concern us come up in our state and our nation come up.

Second, we will be tracking legislation and public policy decisions, writing op-ed pieces for newspapers, and staging specific actions on specific issues. We will be sending out announcements of actions to take, alerting those leaders who are rising in our congregations. Third, we are working to build coalitions of religious and secular groups who will work together on specific issues.

Since I like bringing people together, this is where my energy is right now. As chair of the Public Policy Committee, I have been able to invite groups such as NH Peace Action, NH Citizen's Alliance, the Sierra Club, the Global Warming Coalition, and the Coalition to End Homelessness to our meetings. Others are working to make sure all ten denominations represented on the council will be there at our meetings.
The president of the State Employees Association, Gary Smith, already attends our meetings and says how pleased he is to find so much common ground with us. I recently met Anne Miller, the new director of NH Peace Action, and it looks like we'll be able to work effectively with their group as well.

This is wonderful, because the more people we can include, the stronger we'll become. I'm excited. This looks like this could be the beginning of something big, strong, and powerful. Eggs are deceptive. From the outside they look pretty inert, but inside there is all sorts of changes happening. If you wish to be part of our structuring, our fleshing-out, and our hatching, please contact me at poet_tess@verizon.net Who knows what will happen?