I have a strong relationship with the Divine of my own understanding, who I know as the Great Mother Goddess. I also continue to believe a simple but powerful teaching from my childhood Christian Sunday school days: God is Love. For me, that Love demands active engagement with justice making.
Although I love the Goddess, I do believe that the Divine is beyond gender, really, containing all things, male and female, both and neither, and everything in between. In Their wholeness, God is non-binary, though in Their multiplicity, They have aspects that are male and female, the Gods, Goddesses and Divinities of all the world’s traditions. Growing up, though, all I was offered was male God, and I needed something more. I needed to see the female face of God to be able to find my relationship with Her. When I say that for me, the Earth is the body of the Great Mother Goddess, I don’t say it because I necessarily think anyone else should believe the same thing, but rather because there may be someone who hears me say it who has never met another person who loves the Goddess, no one has ever told them that they could see a woman’s face when they look to God, and they need to know that it’s possible because their heart aches for Her, as mine did.
I also recognize that none of us humans can truly know the nature of the Divine, and I support everyone in encountering the Divine of their own understanding, even if that means they do not encounter the Divine at all. I appreciate the glimpses of wisdom we receive from sources as diverse as ancient wisdom tales, scientific inquiry, arts and literature, contemporary and historical religious scholarship, Unitarian, Universalist and UU ancestors, and more, and I bring these sources to the people I serve. By offering multiple sources of wisdom to the community, folks have the opportunity to dive deeper and explore those that are meaningful to them, and I love to be a resource in that exploration. Given my explicitly multi-religious seminary education at Starr King, I can provide additional background for those who are interested in exploring a particular source of inspiration more deeply. My own thealogy will show up in my sermons, but so will other theologies, and I will eagerly share the pulpit with others the congregations and communities I serve who bring their own diverse theologies that support or can be supported by UU values.