Words for Koinonia

Jack R. Harris-Bonham

When Bren Dubay, Executive Director of Koinonia, was our guest speaker at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin this past December the 3rd I knew nothing about her at all. Mary MacGregor, a member of our Seniors Group, had approached me about having Bren come and speak. Mary and I had viewed the film, Briars in the Cotton Patch, together and having a soft spot for elderly women I decided that just to please Mary I would invite this person from Koinonia.

The Sunday mentioned above came, and I was a bit late getting to the church. Bren and I had touched base on the phone several times, and she seemed nice enough. I had said she could use my office while at the church, but I had a new rescue (my wife rescues dogs off the street) in my office, so I opened the senior pastor’s office (he’s on sabbatical) and let her in there. Everyone needs private time before they face the multitudes.

The Therapy Sisters were playing that Sunday and their music is funny and a little irreverent. Bren seemed to like it, so I wasn’t worried. There was a bunch of things happening that Sunday and I felt like a traffic cop. When it came time for the message I was ready to sit down for a bit and relax. Well, I did sit down, but what I experienced was not relaxation.

Bren Dubay surprised the hell out of me. Her pulpit manner seemed studied and polished. The way she ingratiated herself to the congregation (and they’re UU’s not the easiest people to ingratiate oneself to) made me almost jealous. Five minutes into the sermon and they were eating out of her hand.

I personally felt as if the message had been sculpted just for me. Like Bren had been reading my mail, and my emails. She talked about not being embarrassed by being Christian, she talked about what’s in a name, and living up to the power inherent in names.

Even though I am the Interim Preacher here at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin I am not an ordained minister. I still have 9 hours left at Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas. I was this church’s Intern last year and they had planned badly for the senior minister’s sabbatical, and half way through my Intern year they asked me to stay on for another year and take Dr. Davidson Loehr’s place.

My discernment during the past year and a half has been crucial to my understanding of my calling as a minister. I had felt uncomfortable in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and had come down to Austin to try my hand at Unitarianism, and Universalism. But the fit just wasn’t quite right. What I missed was Jesus.

Bren had no idea that I had been talking to the local pastor, Rev. Tom VandeStadt, of the Congregational Church of Austin, or that I was contemplating switching to the United Church of Christ. And even though she had no idea her sermon spoke right to my heart, right to the center of my being, right to the center of my Jesus, and before she was through – way before – I was in tears and could hear the rustle in the congregation for Kleenex and handkerchiefs.

If Bren Dubay has anything to do with it Koinonia Farms will have a rebirth that will carry it well within the 21st century. She spoke to a group of unlikely suspects – UU’s and she sold them – everyone! I wish you could have been in that line after both services. The interest was so intense that Bren and I both walked in late to the second service and those services are 45 minutes apart.

I’m so sold that this August I will drive Mary MacGregor down to Americus, Georgia and we will spend two weeks with Koinonia and its partners. My thoughts were turning to intentional communities, but now, much to my own surprise, they are turning toward intentional Christian communities.

God bless Bren Dubay, and God Bless a community of folks who are partnering with the eternal in an effort to bridge the gap between that heavenly Jerusalem, and the human model of it here on earth.

Paz,

Jack R. Harris-Bonham
Interim Preacher
First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin