Hannah Ordaglia

Written in the first week of June 2024 to the Executive Team and Board of Trustees.

In case you don’t know who I am, my name is Hannah (or Han) Ordaglia, my pronouns are she/her/hers, and I currently sing Alto in the Spirit choir and am an alternate for Parker Bells. I’ve been a UU since childhood and a member of this congregation for the past seven years since moving to Portland. My ties to church have always been through music ministry and I was thrilled to be accepted into Radiance at First U for the 2018-2019 season.

In the immediate wake of DeReau’s sudden and confusing departure earlier this week, I have been reflecting on what my continued involvement with this church community will look like. We've been told we don't know The Facts, so I'm not here to argue about what is occurring now, but to give a testimony on a personal experience at this church.

In 2019 I experienced a non consensual interaction with another choir member. I do not share this to divulge any further details about the incident but to speak to DeReau’s response.

I arranged a meeting with DeReau before our regular weekly Radiance rehearsal intending to ask for a few additional excused absences. But DeReau handled every step with respect, professionalism, and grace. He showed concern for my well-being, listened to me, validated my thoughts and feelings, and did the right thing for the good of the community.

I’m bringing this painful moment out of the past now to illustrate a time I witnessed DeReau live into the values he preaches and why that matters. I saw him place community above individualism like this time and again. This is the leadership that builds a true and safe beloved community that I want to be a part of. I don’t know yet how to reconcile this truth with the dark implications we’ve been fed surrounding DeReau’s resignation.

Stories have many sides. I’m uncomfortable not just with the lack of transparency but the insistence that any countering truths are lies. This does not align with the values I was taught in UU classrooms. I believe in the inherent worth and dignity of every person and the interconnected web of all living things. Some values these beliefs appear as in our physical world are fair and equal wages and accountability of power.

While it has bruised my soul to learn that this system of Unitarian Universalism I trusted does not operate with these values at the forefront, it is not about me — not even a little bit. In our deaths, the communities we chose to enhance will continue to reverberate for generations. My heart is broken, not for me, but for the beautiful people we have lost and will continue to lose, and how that will impact your children.

Let me remind you of the words we speak to dedicate a child into our congregation:

We, the members and friends of First Unitarian Church, welcome and affirm this child into our midst. We will help these parents prepare their children to be independent and interdependent adults. We will help them to be aware of the world as it is and as it ought to be, to be aware of the power of community to change its course, and to be aware of the power of love to overcome tragedy and injustice.

Let it be so.