Celebrate a Principled Life ~

Celebrate a Principled Life ~ Help Ordain Suzi Spangenberg

The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples will ordain Suzi Spangenberg on August 30th at 2 pm. This historic church, co-founded by Rev. Dr.  Howard Thurman in 1944 in San Francisco "to create a religious fellowship that transcended artificial barriers of race, nation, culture, gender, and social distinctions," is currently led by Rev. Dr. Dorsey Odell Blake.  I know Suzi feels blessed and honored by this invitation to ordination. Dr. Blake and Dr. Thurman were formative in her journey toward ordained ministry, as was her deep experience with social activism inside and beyond Unitarian Universalism.  

The final chapters of Suzi's  experiences with the leadership of Starr King School for the Ministry left Suzi with substantial legal debt. It also was a source of profound disappointment as it highlighted the gap between the UU values we espouse and our responses when our UU institutions are themselves unjust. (For those unfamiliar with the story, see http://www.uuworld.org/ articles/really-happened- starr-king )

SKSM only released Suzi's diploma after a time consuming and costly legal battle. SKSM's legal fees were presumably paid by the school's donors; ironically, Suzi Spangenberg had been one of these. Suzi is currently selling her possessions to raise $5,000 -- her portion of the legal fees that remain. I have her permission to invite others to help with the expenses for her ordination. The Fellowship of All Peoples doesn't have a budget for ordination -- and it seems fitting and proper that her friends and colleagues contribute to ordain Suzi, to the laud the principled civil rights stand that has cost her so dearly, and to celebrate the historic, current, and future ministries of the Fellowship of All Peoples. 

Your generous contribution will provide refreshements for the event, pay for orders of service, and help subsidize speaker travel.  Some of the ordination participants are able to donate their travel and lodging expenses but others are not able to so. Anything extra we raise will help Suzi keep more of her stuff off Craig's list and garage sale tables!

Please consider donations and also sending along blessings & affirmations to be shared as part of the celebration on August 30.

Appreciatively,

Rev. Wendy von Courter
(The photo of Suzi was after she was pepper-sprayed at a peaceful Occupy Oakland event).