The Wednesday Brown Bag Oct 3

Bring your brown bag lunch to the Common Room at noon, Wednesday Oct 3.
It's a chance to discuss, really, anything that's on your mind.
Our "default" topic for Oct 3 will be some short pieces in the UUWorld, Fall 2012, pp. 14-19.

The articles are:
"A Different Church,"
"Sitting and Writing,"
"Voices from the Margins,"
"Stitching It Together."

A Different Church

Our Rev. Gail Geisenhainer recounts a version of her story that she also told in the worship that she led at General Assembly 2006 in St. Louis. It was a powerful sermon -- and you can see it here. (Geisenhainer's portion begins at 49 minutes into the video.) She says:

"I expected the gray-haired ladies in the foyer to step back in fear. That would have been familiar. Instead, they stepped forward, offered me a bulletin, and a newsletter, and invited me to stay for coffee. It was so . . . odd! They never even flinched."

UU faces many challenges. We have a lot of work to do and changes to make. Yet here we have the essence of what we do well and can be proud of: unflinching acceptance. We don't always have unflinching acceptance of everyone -- but we do usually have unflinching acceptance of people that often have not been very well accepted elsewhere.

Geisenhainer goes on to mention the challenge that arose a few weeks later when a women spoke

"during Joys and Concerns that all homosexuals had AIDS; all homosexuals were deviants who could not be trusted with children, public health, or civil society. All homosexuals should be quarantined, packed off to work camps to provide useful labor of society and keep their filthy lifestyle and deadly diseases to themselves."

Geisenhainer then describes how the congregation engaged that crossroad -- not that week, but the next week. How did they engage their crossroad, and how is UUFG doing at engaging its?

Sitting and Writing

The article gives a brief description of two "Contemplation Practices" and two "Writing Practices."

Have you tried these? Will you try any of them?

If you have done these practices -- or practices similar to them -- why do you do so? What does it do?

If you have not tried practices like these, what do you imagine these practices do for those who do practice them?

Voices from the Margins

There are three short readings:

"I too am beautiful" by Kristen Harper
"Faith and belief" by Jackie Clement
"The Stars are dancing," by Om Prakash

In what ways do these speak to you?

Stitching It Together

Rev Jory Agate uses the metaphor of a quilt to describe Unitarian Universalism.

How does our individual quilting go? How does our collective quilting go?

The Wednesday Brown Bag Sep 26

Bring your brown bag lunch to the Common Room at noon, Wednesday Sep 26.
It's a chance to discuss, really, anything that's on your mind.
Our "default" topic for Sep 26 will be some short pieces in the UUWorld, Fall 2012, pp. 5-11.

The articles are:
"Learning to Trust,"
"Souls Bold Enough to Experiment,"
"Steps Toward a Nuclear-Free World," and
"A Spiritual Oasis."

LEARNING TO TRUST

UUA President Peter Morales reflects:

"It is a lot easier to love another person than it is to trust that person. . . . Love is wonderful,"

but it's not enough.

"Love has to act. To act, to create deep and enduring relationships in a family, a congregation, or a religious movement, our love must develop into mutual trust."

If UUs trusted each other more, then,

"We would discuss less and do more."

What does it take to develop trust?

"I can only trust you if I am willing to let go of some control. I can only trust you if I stop insisting on doing everything my way. We can only earn each other's trust if we take time to know one another."

Can we do it?

SOULS BOLD ENOUGH TO EXPERIMENT

See photos of the All Souls New London congregation.
See the All Souls New London website.
The UUA web site shows the New London, CT congregation as having 214 members. The article says they have 255 members. Their new space was once a car dealership.

What do you think of these ideas from what the New London, CT congregation does or has done?

- An "energy break" in the worship service, led by the youth, involving "hoisting a volleyball net and heaving a rainbow-colored beach ball to the seated congregation."

- "The congregation installed showers in their new building so that the homeless guests could bathe."

- Taking seriously the congregation's name, "All Souls New London," the people refer to themselves as "souls." "At the end of the service, the entire congregation stands and joins hands, and [Rev. Carolyn] Patierno leads a call and response: 'Who are we?' 'All Souls!' 'We are!' 'All Souls!'"

- A dozen years ago: "At annual meetings, we used to quibble over $50, $100 expenditures . . . Nobody trusted enough of the leader so we could do bold things." However:  "Over the past decade the congregation has developed a tradition of 'deep listening' and respect for their minister, their leadership, and each other."

- "All Souls adopted new, higher expectations for members. 'Members have to pledge, participate, and show up. You don't just come when you want to; you come.'"

STEPS TOWARD A NUCLEAR-FREE WORLD

In 1987, the Allen Ave UU Church, Portland, ME, declared itself a Nuclear Free Zone. For 25 years they've been working for a world free of nuclear weapons.

The Social Action Committee works with other organizations:
Peace Action Maine
Friends Committee on National Legislation
Physicians for Social Responsibility

The congregation has hosted regional meetings, has joined a teleconference with their US Senator, and formed teams that met with both their Senators, has letter-writing campaigns.

We mind find allies in the area using resources here:
Campaign for a Nuclear Free World.

What does this example tell us about how we can do Social Justice at UUFG?

A SPIRITUAL OASIS

What do you think of the look of the UU Congregation of Phoenix, AZ? (425 members).

The Wednesday Brown Bag Sep 19

Bring your brown bag lunch to the Common Room at noon, Wednesday Sep 19.
It's a chance to discuss, really, anything that's on your mind.
Our "default" topic for Sep 19 will be the articles on General Assembly in the UUWorld, Fall 2012, pp. 28-35, 12.

The articles are:
"Hold Up Those Lights" (read it online: click here)
"Road to a Different Future" (read it online: click here)
"Impressions of Justice General Assembly" (read it online: click here)

I posted my reflection on Justice GA 2012 on Lake Chalice: click here.

"Hold Up Those Lights"

The signal event of GA was the vigil at "Tent City" on the outskirts of Phoenix where nearly half a million have served time at one time or another over the last 19 years.

What thoughts and feelings came to you as you read the UUWorld's descriptions of Tent City?


Please view the PBS "Frontline" episode, "Lost in Detention": click here.


Speaking at the Tent City vigil on the night before the last day of GA, UUA President Peter Morales:

"echoes his own words from the opening night celebration, when he said that Justice GA was just one chapter in the struggle for migrants' rights. The 'true test,' he said, will be what UUs are doing three months from now and five years from now in their congregations and communities. Will they keep their candles lit back home?"

It's now been three months since Justice GA. Is the candle lit in Gainesville?

"Road to a Different Future" 

by Donald Skinner.

As you read this article, what are thoughts on the concept of "Justice GA"?

In addition to a "Justice GA", the Phoenix GA turned out to also be a "Youth GA." "There were twice as many youth -- 301 -- as at recent GAs." When we work on our Justice, we do attract Youth!

"Impressions of Justice General Assembly"

Which of these impressions impressed you? What do these insights into the ways people experienced GA 2012 tell us about how to "do church" here in Gainesville?

The Wednesday Brown Bag Sep 12

Bring your brown bag lunch to the Common Room at noon, Wednesday Sep 12.
It's a chance to disuss, really, anything that's on your mind.
Our "default" topic for Sep 12 is the the article:
James Ford, "The Taste of Awakening," UUWorld, Fall 2012, pp. 26-27.

Read the article online here.

Ford describes an experience eating soup, looking into the bowl:

"As I looked, a cabbage leaf floated up to the surface. I was ecstatic, absolutely ecstatic. Then something magical happened. As I watched, I had this amazing sense of gratitude for that cabbage leaf. And I felt gratitude for my companions in this strange project to which I’d committed myself. Then I was aware of our neighbors in the city and of the city itself. I felt gratitude for them and the people of the state and the country and the globe. I felt a sense of joy wash through the cosmos itself."

Have you ever had an experience like that? What do you suppose happened?

Ford calls this sort of experience "awakening." He says:

"Awakening comes to us in the most unexpected ways, in the most unexpected times. It is a gift. It is always a gift. And it comes to us like being hit by a bus. There are many, many practices out there that claim to help. And here’s a little secret: too many of them do nothing. The Unitarian Universalist theologian James Luther Adams once wryly noted that “nothing sells like egoism wrapped in idealism.” Much of what passes for spiritual practice is just puffing up the ego, reinforcing and guarding it against any and all assault. And -- have no doubt in this matter -- a real spiritual practice plays rough with the ego."

What do you make of this?

Do you have experience with something that you would now say "passed for spiritual practice" but was really only protecting the ego?

What does he mean when he says, "a real spiritual practice plays rough with the ego"?

Ford goes on to offer advice to those beginning on the Zen path. "Diligence is important. . . . Just sitting once a week is not Zen practice." He cautions against the "distinct possibility of a dilettante practice, growing something with no roots and little chance of fruition." Yet he always encourages us to be forgiving with ourselves. When you find you aren't practicing enough, "just pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start again." Don't make resolutions far beyond what you can keep -- but, rather, make resolutions just slightly beyond what is comfortable. Stretch yourself -- but not too much at once, for starters.

What does this article make you think of Zen practice?

Would you say that Ford's advice about beginning the Zen path applies to any real spiritual practice (as opposed to the impostor spiritual practices that only puff up, reinforce, and guard the ego)? Does it apply to yours?

The Wednesday Brown Bag Sept 5

Bring your brown bag lunch to the Common Room at noon, Wednesday Sep 5.
It's a chance to disuss, really, anything that's on your mind.
Our "default" topic for Sep 5 is the the article:
Thandeka, "Obama's Relious Roots," UUWorld, Fall 2012, pp. 20-25.

Read the article online here, and the sidebar here.

The author is Rev. Thandeka: an African American woman, Unitarian Universalist theologian and congregational consultant. Formerly on the faculty at the UU seminary, Meadville Lombard, in Chicago, she leads the "We Love Beyond Belief" project.

"The project We Love Beyond Belief is designed to increase financial income and worship service attendance in your congregation through the enhanced use of music and words as a liturgical practice." Read more.

In "Obama's Religious Roots," Thandeka uses the case of the Barack Obama to discuss what happens to so many UU youth. Obama attended -- sporadically, apparently -- UU RE while he was growing up. What he got was "sampling":

"The story of Back Obama's childhood Unitarian Universalism appears to be a tale about religious sampling, little more."

Thus, in adulthood, Obama went the way that so many UU youth go:

"Nine out of ten of our young people leave us,...We're much better at attracting converts than we are at providing a lifelong home: Only 12 percent of th 161,500 members of our congregations say they were raised as Unitarian Universalists. In mainline Protestant denominations, by contrast, half the current members grew up within the tradition."

Why? "Emotional distance," says Thandeka, citing our Honolulu minister, Rev. Mike Young, who speaks of the

"uneasiness of really getting people involved across the age lines -- the demographic lines. The middle-aged folks are uneasy when dealing with the young adults and the young adults are uneasy when dealing with the kids....UU adults tend to be reserved, emotionally cautious, wary of 'spirituality.' Young people, however, are seeking emotional connections and a strong sense of identity with a group."

Solving the problem, says Thandeka, will require that UU adults:

• "feel this missing part of our life together"

and

• "be transformed by the experience."

Obama's path took him to congregation-based organizing work in Chicago. He was working with people of faith, yet as a religious "sampler" himself, he seemd aloof and removed. Obama became a Christian and a member of a UCC church because he saw/felt a need for "an unequivocal commitment to a particular community of faith." (Note: NOT a need for a specific BELIEF.)
With a commitment to a particular community of faith came:

"feelings of loyalty, family, love, embrace, care, nurture, endurance, and also heightened experiences of salvation while still on earth....Religious communities, he [Obama] now realized, are not just sources of wisdom for moral ideas; they are also healing vessels for the regeneration of broken emotional souls. 'The gospel songs, the happy feet, and the tears and shouts all spoke of a release, an acknowledgment and finally a channeling of those emotions.' Obama became a Christian because his emotional life was not only touched, but also transformed."

Unitarian Universalists, on the other hand,

"keep our individual spiritual needs at arms length from the collective needs of our congregational life."

We UUs are proud of our critical thinking and our engagement with social justice. These virtues, however, do not require emotional distance. Indeed, Obama found that the emotional transformation of his UCC religious experience -- in Obama's own words:

"did not require me to suspend critical thinking, disengage from the battle for economic and social justice, or otherwise retreat from the world that I knew and loved."

We don't need to dampen our mind to open our heart.
Thandeka tells the story of being at a Youth Con:

"One by one the teens stood up and talked about their feelings. They disclosed stories of abuse, of being racially profiled at school, about being the unwanted child, stories about not feeling loved, appreciated, or adored by the people who were supposed to love them. Some of the teens cried as they spoke. The teens held and comforted one another. And at the end of each story, we said together, 'We hear you and hold you in our hearts.'"

Does UUFG provide enough opportunity for emotional connection and transformation?

The Wednesday Brown Bag Aug 29

Bring your brown bag lunch to the Common Room at noon, Wednesday Aug 29. It's a chance to disuss, really, anything that's on your mind. Our "default" topics for Aug 29 are two short articles from the Summer 2012 issue of the UUWorld (pp. 20-21 and 50-51).

Next week (Sep 5), the "default" topic will start in on the new, Fall 2012, issue. (We'll start with the "Obama's Odyssey" feature article.)

For this week (Aug 29), the first article is "Sermon Bingo" by Cheryl Gardner (see here).

Gardner asks us:

If you could fill a bingo card with likely words for a Unitarian Universalist sermon, what might they be? This question is important to me, because I’ve been in churches where the words I heard were not meaningful to me and did not move me. Here are words I would put on my bingo card if we were playing “sermon bingo” in a UU church on a Sunday morning: justice, equality, acceptance, gay, straight, spirit, compassion, celebrate, life, death, wonder, question, welcome, dignity, mystery, diversity.

On the one hand, Gardner acknowledges, treating worship as a bingo game is problematic:
"It’s rude to the speaker, it draws attention away from what is actually being said, and it is an in-joke shared by a few listeners."

However, she suggests that the exercise would help us become "aware of language and its functions in a new way."

You might make up a bingo card and fill it with the words commonly heard during worship which, for you, have become trite, powerless, and fail to move you. Then "worship bingo" would be an exercise in cynicism and separation.

You might, alternatively, make up a bingo card filled with words that do resonate with you, that touch your heart, that move you. What would those words be? In such a case, Gardner suggests,

"Maybe the filled card, when you read it aloud, sounds a lot like prayer."

What Gardner is ultimately getting at are these questions:

Are the key words we hear in the discourse we listen to meaningless or meaningful to us? Do we hear the same language again and again until the words lose their ability to reach us? Are the words simply catchphrases meant to mark us as belonging to a group?

As you reflect on the religious discourses of which you are a part -- including the sermons you hear at UUFG, and the ways you and others around you express your faith -- what is your answer to these questions?

One UU minister, Rev. Scott Prinster, commented on Gardner's article:

Are we seriously encouraging people to listen to worship services in this way? Our pathological irreverence is not charming or attractive -- it treats our worship life like a product offered by a service provider that we consume if it pleases us, and mock if it doesn't. This does not encourage me to put my heart out there on Sunday mornings, folks.

On the other hand, another UU minister, Rev. Diane Miller, commented:

The cards can be generated on line with free programs. For our intergenerational Fathers Day service I made cards for the children based on what I planned to say in my sermon. Adults joined in. It was lots of fun. I should have highlighted the words in my sermon text because I tend to extemporize, and left out some key words. But several people called out Bingo toward the end of the sermon.

What are your reactions to these comments?

* * *
The second article is "Weighty Lessons," by Ellen Brenner (see here).

Brenner discusses anti-fat bias and our reaction to the "obesity epidemic." She notes that:

"As for the concept that a person could in fact be healthy and fit while still carrying enough weight to qualify as “fat” by popular measures, the reaction I get is usually one of disbelief—even though there are studies to support that assertion."

Qualifying as "fat" might be unhealthy -- and it might not be. Our reactivity against fat can be deadlier than obesity -- as illustrated by deaths from lap-band surgery. ("Lap-band surgery" puts a laparoscopic inflatable silicone gastric band around the top portion of the stomach to treat obesity by reducing the amount of food consumed. See picture.)

Brenner finds that:

- We cling to BMI (Body-mass index) as a measure health. However, the BMI "has been largely discredited as a reliable indicator of healthy weight."

- Difficulty in keeping off weight is biochemical. In a recent study:

"The researchers tracked levels of weight-regulating hormones in a group of test-subject dieters. They discovered that dieting caused these hormones to shoot up to levels evidently evolved to pack on and hold onto calories in the event of famine. Worse, these hormones stayed at those levels for over a year after the diet’s end. In other words, that irrational, eat-everything-not-nailed-down hunger that would wipe out even my proudest weight loss achievements isn’t in my head. It’s totally biochemical."

Relatedly, I happened to see this graphic on Facebook this morning. The pictures show us what various percentages of body fat can look like -- but they tell us nothing about health. The women in the last two pictures may well be considerably healthier than the women in the first five.


How should Unitarian Universalist faith respond to the issue of prejudice against people seen as "fat"?

The Wednesday Brown Bag Jul 18

We're reading and discussing the latest issue of UUWorld (2012 Summer).

For the July 18 "Around the UUWorld Wednesday Brown Bag Lunch" we'll be discussing the article, "We Know Why We're Here": p. 26, or read it online here.

The article is about UU Church of Ogden, Utah.

UUCO doesn't have children's RE during the worship service. Children stay in the service every Sunday -- and the RE time is after the worship service. UUCO made this switch several years ago -- at least in part because "we couldn't get teachers because they all wanted to attend the services."

UUFG also has a challenging time getting teachers for our during-the-service RE. Should we try what UUCO is doing?

At UUCO, children's participation includes:

- lighting the chalice (UUFG does that)

- four children pass the baskets during the offertory

- two older youth light the candles of joy and sorrow

- some kids sing in the choir with adults

Additionally, the minister's sermons adapt to the presence of kids: "I may include a reference to the start of school or some other event they can relate to. I try to use simpler words or a parenthetical phrase when I am talking about something complex....I use a lot of story and humor."

Would these steps be sufficient to keep a worship service engaging for all, or most of, the kids for the whole 75 minutes? Or for a 60 minute service?

One of the UUCO parents said: "Our hope is that enough of what happens in worship will in [for our kids] and they will remain UUs when they become young adults." Does being in the service and hearing more sermons increase the chances that a UU kid will become a UU adult?

During the kids RE time after the service, UUCO also offers adult RE during that hour after the service. UUFG offers its 9:30 Sunday discussion before our service. Would after be better? Are there adult RE UU curricula that you'd like to see offered during that time?

UUCO has 102 members. Is their smaller size relevant to the success of the model that's working for them?

Other features of UUCO:

Eight years ago they founded a drop-in center for LGBT youth.

UUCO members lobbied for a nondiscrimination ordinance in Ogden.

Members have been active in immigration and antiwar issues, UUCO hosted the Occupy Ogden encampment for 3 months, and maintains a food pantry.

Musically, UUCO draws from a strong jazz and blues scene.

Apart from ideas from UUCO that UUFG might consider, there are factors that are nothing like UUFG's situation:
- being in a town that's half Mormon, and
- having a congregation in which 40% of the members are former Mormons.

How does it make you feel to be a supporting part of a denomination that has this sort of presence in Utah? Things we could never do in Gainesville, we are indirectly supporting. Our faith is manifesting in other places -- and it is manifesting differently.

Around the UUWorld BBL: Primal Reverence

At our Wednesday "Around the UUWorld" Brown Bag Lunch (BBL) for Jun 6, we'll be starting into the new issue of the UUWorld, just out. We'll take two weeks each on each of the issue's 3 feature articles.

For Jun 6: part 1 of our discussion of Kendyl Gibbons, "Primal Reverence." Read the article online: click here.

Gibbons describes three sources/objects of revernce:
1. Nature
2. Heroically compassionate people
3. "The exiled self's return."

1. Nature. Gibbons says, "Somewhere this planet has a show-stopper for you that takes your breath away." For her, it is waterfalls.

"It makes me want to weep, want to dance, want to fall on my knees and be one with whatever that is, in everlasting praise."

Q: What does that for you?

2. Heroically compassionate people. Gibbons mentions "Paul Russesabagina, the Rwandan hotelkeeper who risked his life to shelter his countrymen from genocide at the hands of their neighbors." She mentions Harriet Tubman, Gandhi, Aung San Suu Kyi, Nelson Mandela, Michael Servetus, Jesus, and "every mother who has ever gone hungry so that her children might eat," and "every soldier who has ever died so that his comrades might live," and "every rescue worker who ran up the stairs of the World Trade Center on that awful day." Gibbons then tells us:

"Somewhere there is a hero -- living or dead, close or distant, historical or mythologized -- a hero of conscience or mercy, of generosity or duty, whose story whispers to your secret heart."

Q: Who is the the spiritual hero that whispers to your heart?

3. "The exiled self's return." Gibbons is talking about:

"The realization of the open secret, that there is no goal, no test to take, no one keeping score; that that which is not broken is always present, whether we have a name for it, whether we are paying attention; and the final recognition you are -- that each of us is, that unshakable truth -- and that you have been here all along, waiting for the exiled self's return."

With this realization comes:

"that sense of tender, compassionate self-awareness and rock-bottom peace; that return to a wholeness that cannot be achieved, but is there all along, no matter what."

The question here is the one Gibbons herself asks:

Q: "How do you become that person, the one who rises intuitively to the demands of the good, who lives in the heaven of the present, who is fed by the beauty of creation?"

Spiritual health, then, is the growing ability to access and process these three areas of "primal reverence."

"Just as we grow and mature physically, and keep ourselves healthy with regular exercise; just as we grown and mature mentally, and develop our minds through learning; jsut as we grown and mature emotionally, and deepen our relationships by sharing ourselves with other; just as we grown and mature ethically, and build moral character from the values to which we are loyal; so I am persuaded that we also grow and mature spiritually."

I have also blogged on this idea that spiritual fitness is something we can develop just as we can develop physical fitness, intellectual fitness, and social-emotional fitness. See my blog series: click here for the first entry, and click "next" at the bottom of each post to continue.

Q: What does "grow and mature spiritually" mean to you? Does UUFG facilitate your spiritual growth and maturation? How?

Q: Gibbons sprinkles the article with references to skepticism, and "the skeptic's path." What exactly is it that she's skeptical of?

Wednesday Around the UUWorld BBL

For the May 16 "Around the UUWorld" BBL (Brown-Bag Lunch)

The four short articles for May 16 chat-n-chew are:
1. "NASA Fellowship named for UU Astronomer"
2. "Wandering in the Wilderness"
3. "Nautilus"
4. "Community Minister Helps 'One Child at a Time'"

1.

The first article is about Dr. Nancy Grace Roman, b. 1925. She's a longtime member of the River Road Unitarian Universalist Congregation  in Bethesda, MD. She has been NASA's chief astronomer, and is known as "the mother of the Hubble telescope."

Nancy's minister said, "her recent honor from NASA seems like an honor for all of us. She has opened our eyes and our minds to the beauty and mystery of space and to the remarkable vitality and wisdom of a tiny-grey-hared woman who every day lives out her Unitarian Universalist values and faith."

What does it mean to you that this great astronomer is UU? (Clyde Tombaugh, the discoverer of Pluto, was also Unitarian.) Do you, as her minister does, feel some pride in this UU astronomer's accomplishment? What, if anything, does it say about our faith -- or about astronomy -- that some great astronomers have been UU? Does it matter?

2.

The second article, "Wandering in the Wilderness" is about the experience of "wilderness" in our spiritual path. Author Leaf Seligman writes:

It helped immensely to view myself in relation to a larger story of ancient people wandering in an unfamiliar land not knowing why or what was to come.

How was it helpful to view himself in relation to that larger story?

Has your life included times of "wandering in the wilderness" -- and, if so, did you learn

"the usefulness of time in the wilderness,; the way it tests us, . . . so that we refasten ourselves to what matters, reconnect ourselves to what sustains us, and re-member ourselves to the universe that always holds us"?

3.

The third article is a note from the UU art world. "Nautilus" relates UU artist Nancy Norton's adventure with stained glass and, in particular, the work that depicts a seashell in a way that shows the mathematical ratios of the seashell spiral. The spiral winds outward through a series of "golden rectangles".

A "golden rectangle" is a rectangle with proportions such that, if you cut off a square, then the rectangle that remains has the same proportions as the original rectangle. In other words, if the short side of a rectangle is "a", and the long side is "a + b", then the rectangle is a "golden rectangle" if the ratio of "a" to "a + b" is equal to the ratio of "b" to "a". The "golden ratio" turns out to be, like pi, an irrational number. If the the short side is 1, then the long side of a golden rectangle is 1.618....

In "Nautilus" mathematics and nature and art are brought together. What does this do for you?

4.

The last article for this week profiles UU minister Rev. Donald Robinson, who founded Beacon house 20 years ago to help children.

Does Gainesville need a Beacon house? What would it take for us to create one?

Wednesday Around the UUWorld BBL

For the Wednesday "Around the UUWorld" BBL (Brown Bag Lunch) on Wednesday May 2:
These articles from the UUWorld:
"Service is Our Prayer"
"Occupy Paradise", and
"Bay Area Clergy Arrested at Occupy Oakland"

1.

In "Acts of Service," Molly Howes reports that her congregation in MA has been sending groups to New Orleans since Katrina. They do hands-on home construction and rebuilding.

They see: "horrifying conditions and decades of deprivation." Howes characterizes this as a "tremendous shadow," and also as "a gift as important as the work itself."

Q: Have you ever felt grateful about being horrified? What's going on when that happens?

2.

In "Occupy Paradise," Marcus Liefert describes his feelings on the night of Nov 15 when he was among the 33 UUs arrested for refusing to vacate the Occupy Oakland encampment when police came to clear it out. He says he did it because "it was the chance to be part of something beautiful." Being with those people in that way at that time "was the best way I knew how to participate in paradise, here and now."

What was paradisal about the Occupy Movement? Liefert says: "finding more creative ways to be in community, to have inclusive decision-making processes, to take care of those in need, and to discover who we are."

Q: What are the prospects for community, inclusive decision-making, care for the needy, and self-discovery these days? Is the Occupy Movement the answer?

3.

In "Bay Area Clergy Arrested at Occupy Oakland," Michelle Bates Deakin reports on UU clergy arrests at Occupy Oakland last November. One of those arrested, Rev. Jeremy Nickel, minister of the UU Congregation in Fremont, CA, "said the Occupy movement is distinctly different from any form of protest he has seen, and he believes it’s important to be involved in it." Nickel said:

“There is this idea that Occupy is really disorganized, and that’s not true. There were UUs involved from the beginning of the movement who helped shape this participatory democracy, and it’s the most beautiful thing you have ever seen. People are learning to talk to each other. This is a place where you really do not have to think alike to love alike.”

Q: It's now been 5 months since that arrest. From what you have gathered of developments since then, how would you now regard Nickel's assessment of the Occupy Movement?

* * * * *
For a brief look at where the Occupy movement now stands, see this Christian Science Monitor article: click here.