Matthew’s Memo
July 22, 2025
 
I am writing to you from Seattle, Washington, today, where I am visiting my family.  We’ve had many meals, spent time hanging out, and catching up. I also preached at my home church, Eastshore Unitarian Universalist Church.  I preach there every few years when the schedule aligns, and it’s always fun for me. My peers from the youth group are rarely there, but their parents often are. 

I preached the same sermon that I preached at the UU Fellowship in Oberlin, OH, just before church camp a few weeks ago.  It’s a sermon I first preached at the installation of Omega Burckhart in Pasadena, California, in January of 2024, and have preached at Rockford too – “Let Our Freak Flag Fly.”  The sermon is focused on how even in this secular world – especially for young liberals – there are still some who search for “more than this” and that we, liberal religious seekers, need to embrace our counter-cultural weirdness and welcome those fellow misfits and seekers who long for deeper meaning. 

I quoted the poem The Unknown Citizen by W.H. Auden – “was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd.”  I’m struck by how this quest for more has always been countercultural against the capitalist/industrial/feudal systems we have lived in for thousands of years. We lift our eyes and souls from the day-to-day and wonder about the existential, the ultimate, and the meaning of these things.  This is who and what we are about – at least we should be. 
 
I am part of our faith because I want more than shallow conversations about the news, more than buy-buy-buy, more than another day. I want to talk about the feelings of connection, wonder, despair, hope, awe, and amazement that we often have. I want those experiences to be lifted up and reflected. Don’t you?
 
The more we are focused on these deeper questions and search for meaning, and the less we get distracted by everything else, the healthier our congregations and faith will be. 
 
In faith,
Matthew

NVC Practice Group meets this Wednesday, July 23, from 6:00 – 7:30 pm in the church library.

Commentary on the book Waste Wars: The Wild Afterlife Of Your Trash by Alexander Clapp

The author states: “Electronic waste is currently the world’s fastest-growing type of garbage. According to the Global E-Waste Monitor, an annual United Nations report on the state of electronics disposal, nearly 50 million metric tons of old cell phones and computers and televisions enter disposal streams every year, the equivalent of 125,000 jumbo jets of materials that require–though scarcely ever receive–careful handling.
That amount is expected to double by 2050, by which time the production of electronics will be responsible for nearly 15 percent of all global carbon emissions.”

He goes on in Chapter 16 to say that the world is on the verge of a dramatic restructuring of the mining industry as societies embrace the “Green Energy Transition”. Extraction of Petroleum will be replaced by extraction of minerals required to produce the batteries and other devices and that initially will result in yet more carbon being released into the atmosphere than ever before. As he puts it a new topography of “electric states” as opposed to the current Petro States will emerge. In order to meet the requirements of the Paris Agreement, intended to achieve a net zero carbon emissions level by the year 2100, 40% more copper, 70% more cobalt and nearly 90% more lithium will have to come out of the ground. This is more minerals in two decades than humanity has extracted in all previous history.

I’ve received several comments on the quotes and remarks for which I thank you.

Submitted by Gaen McClendon

Sunday Morning Meditation
1st and 3rd Sundays 
9:15 in the Library

The next session is August 3rd. 

We meet to meditate together and center ourselves for the day. Please join us for Sunday Morning Meditation. 

• Our deep roots connect us to a wealth of resources that nourish our growth as a beacon for justice, inclusion, and liberation, especially anti-racism and gender and sexuality justice. 
• Our listening cultivates diverse and multicultural relationships that bridge divisions, strengthen our communities, heal hearts, and foster safety for all. 
• Our awareness of our interdependence inspires us to protect the shared environment and natural world in which we live.

The Unitarian Universalist Church, Rockford, IL  |   4848 Turner St., Rockford, IL 61107   |   815-398-6322    |   uurockford.org  |