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Chris Morling started coming to our church late this past winter. He had come one or two times when the New to UU class was being offered and he was quite interested in the church so he joined the class and decided to become a member after learning more about Unitarian Universalism and our church.

Chris was born in England and moved to Michigan with his parents for a year for a contract computer position at Kellogg’s cereal. After moving back to England for a year, his parents realized how much they wanted to be back in the States, so he moved back to Michigan permanently. Chris grew up there, and then moved to CT for Grad School at Yale. Chris’s undergrad was in math and he then received a Master’s degree in Physics.  

While he was doing his grad work he became active in the Labor Movement at Yale for the union of grad student workers. He helped organize a strike, walked picket lines, and even got arrested as part of labor actions. That was the 2003 strikes that were very successful for clerical and janitorial staff, though they were less successful for the grad student workers. After he graduated, his experience as a rank-and-file organizer led him to spend a year working for a union-affiliated social justice organization. He heard of Unitarian Universalism during that time.

Chris has been working since then as a systems analyst. In the wake of the Trump re-election, Chris was looking for a community who cared about social justice and found our church because of its proximity to where he lives in Cheshire. He started coming and it fit with his very strong commitment to political equality, self-determination, and the right of all people to be self-governed. He admired the work that our church was doing for the political and personal rights for trans people. He started with our online services and then came and found the people and the services to be quite lovely.

Chris is 44, and he lives with his wife, Sarah, who he met at Yale, and his three children: Roosevelt - 13; Ezra - 10; and Vera - 6.

I asked Chris about his oldest child’s name. He responded that while he’s not blind to the gap between America’s ideals and its actual behavior, “I’m an immigrant. I chose to be an American. There is a lot about America that I really love.” He added that he thinks of Theodore, Eleanor, and Franklin Roosevelt as heroic, despite their shortcomings. He and Sarah already liked Roosevelt as a first name, and then, “we were visiting the National Mall while Sarah was pregnant. We were moved by the Roosevelt monument and the statues of bread lines.” At that point, they knew they were definitely going to name their son Roosevelt. While Chris was telling this story his eyes got teary as he explained that he gets emotional about this topic. I said, “I find his passion inspiring and he is the kind of American I want to hang out with because of it.”

Fatherhood of course is Chris’s big priority at this time in his life. He loves it when his kids come to church with him. “I make them come sometimes. I make them do some things that are good for them but I try to let them make their own decisions,” even when he thinks they’re not the best choices.  

He feels the same way about hiking and playing board games, which he also does by himself but loves to do with his kids. Chris enjoys hiking, and he pointed out that the tallest waterfall in Connecticut is right near where he lives at Roaring Brook. He has been playing board games with a board game club that he found 25 years ago. He said, “People who play board games tend to be a bit white and a bit male, but if you’re careful you can find groups who are not.”

Chris is also into early 70s experimental progressive rock music. His favorite music includes early Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Yes, ELP, and 70’s-era Miles Davis.