A common thread in all religious traditions is the concept of being awake as exemplified in the Buddhist notion of mindfulness. When my eyes and mind are open, I am aware of a great variety of experiences offered me by my senses.

Colors, sounds, tastes and smells abound allowing me to enjoy the fullness of creation. Our deepest emotions must connect with our deepest reality, as Robert Nostick implores us to do in his book The Examined Life. All of my experiences, pleasant or not, are necessary ingredients for the stew that becomes my deepest reality.

I know people who prefer to keep various parts of their lives separate. They see work, family and church as different aspects of their lives. Some want their Sunday spiritual experience to be free of what they see as the ‘pressures of pretense and conformity’ and consequently prefer to be around people like themselves, both culturally and racially, so that they can relax and be themselves.

They feel accepted and understood just as they accept and understand their fellow congregants. Because I want my spirituality to be rooted at the core of my being, I want my worship experience to reflect the reality of my being.

Some of the folks I work with also count as my dearest friends and the bond to my immediate family is the prototype for human connection. Both types of relationships give substance to the phrase: ‘the interconnected web of human existence.’

Since I want my worship experience and the people I share it with to connect with my deepest reality, people such as those I work and play with must be a part of my ‘Holy Space’ because they are a part my daily (wholly) life.

Such a congregation is diverse simply because it mirrors my reality as a member of the undivided human family.

—Amassa Fauntleroy, Chairperson
All Souls Church, UU Organizing Committee, 1996-99