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?

Our Revolution Must Dance

The reading for the May "People So Bold" class is Robert Hardies, "Dancing in the Streets" in A People So Bold, pp. 57-62.

Emma Goldman (1869 - 1940), the great radical firebrand and anarchist, supposedly said, "If can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution."

It's not clear that she ever said that, exactly. She came close to saying it in her 1931 memoir, Living My Life:

At the dances I was one of the most untiring and gayest. One evening a cousin of Sasha, a young boy, took me aside. With a grave face, as if he were about to announce the death of a dear comrade, he whispered to me that it did not behoove an agitator to dance. Certainly not with such reckless abandon, anyway. It was undignified for one who was on the way to become a force in the anarchist movement. My frivolity would only hurt the Cause. I grew furious at the impudent interference of the boy. I told him to mind his own business. I was tired of having the Cause constantly thrown into my face. I did not believe that a Cause which stood for a beautiful ideal, for anarchism, for release and freedom from convention and prejudice, should demand the denial of life and joy. I insisted that our Cause could not expect me to become a nun and that the movement would not be turned into a cloister. If it meant that, I did not want it. "I want freedom, the right to self-expression, everybody's right to beautiful, radiant things." Anarchism meant that to me, and I would live it in spite of the whole world — prisons, persecution, everything. Yes, even in spite of the condemnation of my own closest comrades I would live my beautiful ideal. (56)

Our movement, cause, and faith -- Unitarian Universalism -- also needs dance. Even as we work to bring about "the revolution," we must also take time to celebrate, to model here and now what the post-revolution world will be like.

There is, for us, the hard work of social change. But if we are always deadly serious about the world's injustice,  if we are joyless, we won't help the world move toward joy. Our revolution needs to dance!

David Hardies' chapter talks about the response of the D.C. All Souls congregation to the 1968 riots:

In response to that moment, the members of All Souls Church did an extraordinary thing. They led.They hired David Eaton to serve as their first African-American senior minister. Under David's leadership, All Souls grew into a truly multiracial congregation and became one of the few places in the entire city where black folks and white folks could come together to talk and begin rebuilding the community. The church became a center of peace and of opposition to the Vietnam War. . . . All Souls was one of the first developers on that ravaged strip, building four hundred units of affordable housing that stand to this day. The church responded to its moment in history and became a leader.

If you have a chance, take a look at Robert Hardies contribution to the Minns Lecture series (an excerpt was in the last issue of the UUWorld): click here.

There are an infinite number of ways to phrase questions. More important than the precise question is that we gather together to talk -- and maybe laugh or even dance -- about the Fellowship we love. Tonight we'll share our perspectives on Hardies' writing.

1. What is our dance at UUFG? What's the most celebratory time you've ever experienced at UUFG.
2. What is our "revolution"? When has your involvement with UUFG most felt like we were really doing "what is ours to do"?

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.

The Question

What are we here for? Why do we gather at UUFG and contribute our resources to its support?

We are here, I believe, to be transformed, to become other than we are, to do the work of deepening, of growing, of living out love.

So how do we do that? To what shall each of us commit, as members of UUFG? Who do you hope to be? Who is the person you hope UUFG will help you become? What is the work that will produce that transformation? What kind of work -- inner and outer -- are you ready to do, and that UUFG can help you with?

It's not that you need "fixing." It's just that your perfection, just as you are, is not static. Bringing intentionality to the further unfolding of your perfection is helpful.

Assuming that you are here to develop, deepen, grow, and learn, then in what ways do you hope to develop, deepen, grow, and learn?

In other words: How would you complete the following sentence? "I would like my connection with UUFG to help, guide, provoke, and facilitate my transformation toward being a person who ___________________."

Here’s a sampling of the answers I’ve gotten from UUFG members so far:

• better understands God.
• is more spiritually developed.
• has stronger relationships in the Fellowship and a deeper feeling of community.
• more wisely discusses and processes interactions with the Other.
• has better learned how to be radically hospitable.
• has been pushed beyond my comfort zone enough to expand my comfort zone.
• really is as tolerant, open-minded, and accepting as I sometimes assume I am.
• embodies compassionate wisdom and equanimity; constantly and continuously at every moment serves justice, peace, and the needs of sentient beings. 
• performs more -- and more effective -- service to others.
• is a better parent for my child.
• is a better person.
• spends more time serving the community and expresses love more deeply through that service.
• develops and uses my skills for helping the Fellowship and the community.
• is filled full with the charge of the spirit.
• knows more about myself, and about social issues, and knows how to put that knowledge to good use.
• has more balance in my life.
• is a more reflective and deep-thinking person, knowledgeable about more different ideas, and strengthened and deepened in my understanding of some of my present ideas.
• is more of an environmental activist, spending more time in clean-up projects and protecting water supply and air quality.
• has deepened my personal spiritual connect to Self, our UUFG community, and the wider community.
• has learned with our congregation how to be a truly loving, community, welcoming of diversity; feels this love emanating through and from our congregation into the wider community.
• has deeper spiritual connections; has learned better ways to deal with my feelings around conflicts; shows, and helps others show, more love and trust.
• is continually challenged and made uncomfortable and is thereby learning how to step back from judgmentalism.
• has built the habit of reflecting; has really deep acceptance and appreciation of others, especially those I see as different from me.
• has discovered my gift; has joined with other UUs on a project to enhance UUFG's profile in the community; attends a support group for my spiritual practice; has friends; promotes UU.

If you haven't given your answer, please do. I'd like to get every member's answer on this list.

The question, again, is this: How do complete the following sentence? "I would like my connection with UUFG to help, guide, provoke, and facilitate my transformation toward being a person who ___________________."

Why am I seeking answers to this question? If we can encapsulate most of the answers into about three or four overall phrases, we can put those into a mission statement that will direct UUFG in creating programs and policies that will more effectively realize those intentions.

Email your answer to me (minister@uufg.org), or use the comment box below to register your answer (don't see the comment box? Click on the word "comment" immediately below this post).

Don't feel you have to be original. If one or a few of the answers listed above particularly resonate with you, feel free to copy those answers and send them in as yours. (None of the answers are copyrighted!)

Thank you, and blessings upon your, and our, spiritual journeys,
-Meredith

What Will We Be and For Whom?

Tuesday April 10, 6:00pm
"A People So Bold" Class

What are we here for? I can always put together an answer to what I'm here for. A number of my sermons touch on one aspect or another of what I love about Unitarian Universalism, or how the work of our congregations seems to me to represent the best hope for human flourishing. I can tell you what I'm here for. But I don't know what we're here for. That is, what shared understanding of purpose motivates us to continue attending, supporting, and doing the work of UUFG? What are we here for?

Here's our current official mission statement:

Honor the inherent worth and dignity of all people of the world in which we live
Respect and encourage the many different approaches to spiritual fulfillment
Support each other in life's passages and struggles
Work compassionately for peace, liberty and justice
Celebrate our connection to the sacredness of life and protect life's sustaining systems.

And here's our vision statement:

To be a diverse religious community committed to lifelong compassionate service to each other, our community, and the earth.

There's something crucial that neither of these statements accomplish. They do not indicate to each individual -- our long-time members and our first time visitors -- what we expect of them. The statements assert that the congregation as a whole aims in certain directions -- but they don't impart the individual responsibility to make it happen.

Contrast this with a couple other mission statements from UU congregations:

UU Church of Columbus, Ohio:

"We are here to: Learn and practice true hospitality,
Revere the reasoning mind and the generous heart,
Claim our diversity as a source of our strength, and
Relinquish the safety of our unexamined privilege for the freedom to engage in transforming justice."

First Unitarian Church of Rochester, NY:

“Healing spiritual disconnection by helping each other
Listen to our deepest selves,
Open to life’s gifts, and
Serve needs greater than our own.”

One feature of these mission statements is brevity. These are shorter than ours. The Columbus mission is only marginally shorter -- it’s 41 words compared to the 54 words of UUFG’s mission. The Rochester mission is 23 words. We should probably look for something that’s 25 words or less.

Besides overall brevity, an extremely short and easily remembered mnemonic version is tremendously valuable. At Rochester, their “short form” mission is: “Listen. Open. Serve.” Anyone can remember just three words. And these three words help people remember at least the gist of the 23-word version. Listen. Listen to what? Almost everyone will be able to come up with something very close to “listen to our deepest selves.” Open to what? Almost everyone can reconstruct something similar to “open to life’s gifts.” Serve what? It’s easy to remember that what the mission says is something like “serve needs greater than our own.”

Listen, open, serve.

Cool.

At Columbus, the “short form” takes a bit more work – and the key concepts don’t come across as verbs: Hospitality, Reason, Generosity, Diversity, Transforming Justice.

Even more crucial than brevity and memorability – as important as those are if we are to have a mission statement that truly expresses a shared understanding that guides what we do -- is that the mission identifies what each individual – not the nebulous “congregation as a whole” – commits to.

To think about mission in this way means getting out of the mindset of thinking about what we want to “get out” of UUFG. That’s a consumerist mindset. It’s not about what you get. It’s about what you are here to do, it’s about what we commit to in being a part of UUFG, it's about the person we seek to become. If we’re clear on our commitment, the rewards will take care of themselves. But if all we’re thinking about is what rewards we want or expect, then we won’t have either commitment or rewards.

Here's the video of the first part of a workshop that changed my thinking about mission. Give it a look. You won't be able to make out the powerpoint point slides in the video -- you can view those slides in a separate PDF here:
http://www.sld.uua.org/pdfs/2011/GA_pathways.pdf



The question, then, is what do UUFG members commit to? Last fall I asked a number of our members. At first, my question was: "What do you want your UUFG experience to help you work on?" I wanted to know what kind of work -- inner and outer -- we're ready to commit to. Later, I switched to this wording::

I truly believe that none of us are broken, and we don't need fixing. As I often say, you (and we) are perfect just the way you (and we) are. Realizing that perfection is not static, that your perfect being in the world includes the ways that you continue to unfold in it -- and that bringing intentionality to that unfolding is often helpful -- let me ask: in what ways do you hope to develop, deepen, grow, and learn through your membership in UUFG?
The reason we're asking is that your answers will help us decide what programs and policies -- and sermons, classes, and workshops -- can best help our perfect people unfold in the ways that they most want to. If three or four answers emerge around which we have broad consensus, then it can become UUFG's mission to be a place where we help each other develop, deepen, grow, and learn in those specified ways.

Here’s a sampling of the answers I’ve gotten. You’ll notice that a number of respondents had a difficult time shedding the “what’s in it for me?” mindset. They talked about what they wanted to get out of, or from, UUFG rather than what transformative work they were prepared to engage. Nevertheless, many spoke touchingly of the commitments they long to bring to a community that will share those commitments.

“I want my UUFG experience, my UU experience, to help me understand God.”

“Spiritual development. Relationship-building and feeling in community. Stronger connectedness within the membership.”

“I would like the opportunity to discuss and process interactions with the Other in the context of my life in the UUFG community. The Other encompasses everyone and everything from Dove outreach to homeless guests to fellow UUs with whom I disagree on something basic. In other words, anyone or anything that pushes me outside my comfort zone. . . . UUs in general (including myself) are less tolerant/open minded than we assume ourselves to be.”

“There is nothing that I want UUFG to help me ‘work on.’ I am there for the friendships only. UUFG is my club of likeminded friends.”

“Let what comes at me soak in. UUFG can help me have: More doing (less just thinking about it) -- an outward orientation. UUFG can help me be a better parent for [my son].”

“I want to give my skills in ways that will help the Fellowship and the community. I want to receive inspiration or motivation to be of service (including to the wider world). I also want to receive the comfort of being in a community, and some intellectual stimulation from sermons.”

“I'm beginning to feel a bit like a magnet that attracts tasks to be done, in part because I have a hard time saying no because of my strong family-like feelings for UUFG. Just now I could deepen my religious explorations with more balance in my life. I need to be able to disentangle myself from my tasks and do other activities for a while.”

“I want my UUFG time to be one of reflection. I want it to be a sanctuary where I can listen to new ideas, new philosophies. I want my vision of the world to be gently challenged or affirmed. Dealing w/ teen angst every day is tiring and I find that I have little time to think deeply. So what I want is a place to hear ideas and use the time to simply think.” [Note: I sought to re-direct this respondent away from the consumer’s orientation – away from what they want to get and toward what they want to be. I replied: “From what you say, maybe you'd like to become a more reflective and deep-thinking person, aware of more different ideas, and strengthened/deepened in your understanding of some of your present ideas. Is that right about the person you hope to become through your UUFG membership?” The respondent replied: “Exacly!”]

“I would like to be more of an environmentalist, involved in: clean-up projects and protecting our water supply and air quality. . . . I feel I have grown spiritually. If I want to grow more, I can get more involved and I can read more insightful books.”

“I see myself changing through my experience at UUFG by deepening my personal spiritual connection to Self, our UUFG community, and the wider community. Through these deepening spiritual connections, I hope to grow and learn with our congregation how to be a truly loving, diverse, community. I hope to feel this love emanating through and from our congregation into the wider community.”

“I hope by deepening my spiritual connections I can develop or learn a better approach to dealing with my personal feelings about the conflicts that occur within our congregation. I hope to see myself and others learning to show more love and trust.”

“Discomfort is exactly what I need from the Fellowship and my experience as a Unitarian. Sure, I'm enjoying and appreciating the community - the friendships, camaraderie, & the spiritual exploration. But mostly it's the personal challenges of being a Unitarian that I need and loathe the most. I'm not sure there's been a single month since I joined that being a member hasn't made me deeply uncomfortable at some level. Whether it was trying to coordinate a team on a tight schedule, sing halfway decently, find a way to step back from judgmentalism and embrace other members who've deeply pissed me off for their public behavior around difficult budget issues, or overcoming my outright dread of public speaking in front of the Fellowship - it's all been hugely useful in growing personally. I'm deeply grateful.”

“I think learning and building the habit of reflecting is one of the ways I would like to grow. Another way I would like to grow is in really deep acceptance and appreciation of others, especially those I see as different from me. It is difficult for me to understand some things people do and I tend to focus on interacting with those people I do understand and who seem to have similar values. There are so many of those people and these interactions are usually so positive and productive that that works pretty well. However, I know there are others that I'm missing the chance to learn and grow from. I would not be interested in trying to make myself interact equally with everyone; there are some differences that just are that way and will stay that way. I would like to learn to make that decision more meaningfully.”

“1) I would like to discover my gift. 2) I would like to select ONE community project or issue that is very meaningful to me, and join with (many) other UU's to enhance UUFG's profile in the community. 3) I would like a support group for my spiritual practice. 4) I would like friends. 5) I would like to promote (and advertise) UUism 6) I need someone to direct my education about UUism.”

So gather on Tuesday to talk about what we're here for -- what we commit to and what work, growth, learning, developing, and deepening we expect to do in and through UUFG.

We'll also talk about Kat Liu's chapter in A People So Bold" -- pp. 51 - 55. Kat, too, is asking, "What Will We Be and For Whom?"

Kat Liu mentions what a turn-off she found it to be when people said that Unitarian Universalism is a religion "where you can believe anything you want." Do people at UUFG say -- or think -- that UU is about believing "anything you want?" How able are most of our members to articulate why we aren't a religion where "you can believe anything you want"?

It is crucial for the future of liberal religion that we balance individual autonomy and communal accountability. Is UUFG balanced? Or do we lean a bit toward one end or the other?

A few UUFG members mentioned connecting with the other -- getting outside our cultural comfort zone. Kat Liu specifically urges us to open up to greater multicultural and multiethnic diversity. She concludes:

If we want to be a religion of the race and class privileged, then we need not change, and we can watch society pass us by. If it is our desire to be prophetic leaders in building a multiethnic, multicultural community, we must step outside our culture-bound viewpoints, recognize that other equally valid viewpoints exist, and intentionally work to see through the eyes of others. Those among us who live on various margins have already had to learn to do this. May we lead, not lag. May we reclaim the voice of our prophetic faith.

What do you make of this?

Justice and Youth

Around the UUWorld Brown Bag Lunch Discussion

Wednesday April 11

The Wednesday "Around the UUWorld" Brown Bag Lunch on April 11 will discuss two articles from the 2012 Spring issue of UUWorld. To read the articles, click the titles:

1. "Congregations Study, Plan for Justice GA"
2. "If We Don't Invest in Our Youth, Others Will"

1. "All across the country, congregations and Districts are organizing for General Assembly."

David Petras of North UU Congregation in Lewis Center, Ohio (one of four UU congregations in the Columbus metropolitan area; North UU has 143 members), travels across the state preaching at Ohio congregations about immigration issues the importance to the Justice GA in Phoenix.

Congregations in Southern California have teamed up to create a "Southern California UU Justice Team" (SCUUJT) with a paid (quarter-time) justice coordinator. The SCUUJT hopes that soon it will have raised enough funds to hire a second justice coordinator, so one can focus on Los Angeles and the other on San Diego.

Gini Courter, the UUA Moderator is out talking up Justice GA -- especially with our youth.

Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray, minister of the UU Congregation of Phoenix and head of Arizona Immigration Ministry, is urging all UUs to learn about immigration and work for immigration justice in their communities.

The Mt. Diablo UU Church (Walnut Creek, CA, membership 440) hosted an immigration conference.

Rev. Carlton Ellis of the UU Church of Arlington, VA (membership 845) , organized a weekly audio forum. (Check it out here.) His congregation plans on doubling its regular GA attendance.

Youth at the UU Church of Minnetonka (Wayzata, MM, membership 181) have a goal of $12,000 in fundraising to support their trip to GA.

QUESTION:

What can UUFG do to prepare for the 2012 GA (Jun 20-24) -- the first ever "Justice GA"?

2. "If We Don't Invest In our Youth, Others Will"

"Totalitarians put their resources into building youth programs. Pluralists don't."

The Unitarian Universalist Association selects a book each year as its "Common Read" for all Unitarian Universalists to read.
The UUA Common Read for 2010-11 was Margaret Regan, The Death of Josseline.
The UUA Common Read for 2011-12 is Eboo Patel, Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Sturggle for the Soul of a Generation.
(Both books are available at our book cart. If you don't have a copy, get one! If you haven't read them, do!)

The second article for this week, is adapted from Eboo Patel's book.

Supplementary material -- raising the point from a humorous angle: "Young people think they can change the world -- and they have the energy to do it," says humorist Al Madrigal in this clip (about 3-and-a-half minutes) from the 2012 March 12 Daily Show. Click this link:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-march-12-2012/my-little-kony---youth-activism

Young people can get energized for wonderful causes. They can also be recruited for extremist purposes. Patel notes, "Religious extremists saw a fire in young people that others were missing. They were stoking that fire and turning it into targeted assassinations and mass murder."

Why is this happening? Patel says, "Religious totalitarians have put enormous effort into two institutions where young people spend a great deal of time: schools and websites."

Young people yearn to be a part of something larger than themselves. If we don't provide young folks with a deep and rich context of deep meaning in which to engage their energies, then young people will turn elsewhere for a context of deep meaning.

The UUWorld's adapted excerpt from Patel concludes:
Every time we read about a young person who kills in the name of God, we should recognize that an institution painstakingly recruited and trained that young person. And that institution is doing the same for thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of others like him. In other words, those religious extremists have invested in their youth programs. If we pluralists had invested in our youth programs, could we have gotten to those young people first?"

QUESTION:

What is UUFG's commitment to youth programming, and what should it be?

The first and the second article are connected: Getting our youth involved in Justice GA would provide them with an important and formative experience for their future -- as well as the future of immigration in the US. So, friends . . . what are we doing?

- - - - - -
Can't make the Wednesday discussion? Click the word "comments" below to leave your reflection on the issue.

Partners in Justice

Around the UUWorld Brown Bag Lunch Discussion

Wednesday April 4

For the UUWorld article, "Partners in Justice" (2012 Spring) -- click here.
For the UUWorld article, "Report Catalogs Abuse of Immigrants at Mexican Border" (2012 Spring), click here.

These two articles are the topic of our discussion at the Wednesday "Around the UUWorld" Brown Bag Lunch Discussion on April 4.

Before and during General Assembly 2012 in Phoenix, AZ, Unitarian Universalists are partnering with a number of organizations for immigrant justice in Arizona, including:

- "Somos America" includes several groups with varying foci: organizers of marches; organizers of citizenship fairs and voter-registration drives; business community members decrying the effect of Arizona's law on the economy; advocates for the DREAM act; watchdogs looking at Sheriff Arpaio and the Arizona prisons.

- "Puente Arizona" is a grassroots migrant-rights organization. Puente works "to document police and detention abuses, and empowering migrants in their communities with health classes, community gardens, computer trainings, know-your-rights classes, and workshops on creating defense plans."

- "The Florence Project" "provides free legal services to people detained by ICE in Arizona and works alongside Puente and the ACLU."

- "Stand for Children" does grassroots children's advocacy.

- "Mi Familia Vota" aims "at promoting citizenship, registering eligible voters, and then getting them out to vote."

- "Arizona Immigration Ministry," headed by UU minister, Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray, does immigration justice work with a faith perspective.

- "No More Deaths" is a ministry of the UU Church of Tucson, AZ. "Many members of the Tucson congregation volunteer with it, as do many other UUs and other people of faith across the country."


Questions:

1. What stands out for you about these articles?

2. What can we learn about the immigration situation in Arizona and along the Mexican border that will help us address the migrant labor situation in Florida?

3. What do you think UUs in Phoenix will be able to accomplish?

For Love and Justice

This Wednesday (March 14), at the Wednesday Brown Bag Lunch we're discussing the article in the latest UUWorld (2012 Spring): "For Love and Justice" by Kimberly French. To read the article,click here.

Judy and Raul Cardenas

What did you feel as you read the story of Raul Cardenas' deportation?

How does the Cardenas' story matter to you? 

Does it matter to you that Judy and Raul Cardenas and their three kids were active UUs?

If the Cardenas had been as active and as long-time members of UUFG as they were of 1st Universalist, Denver, when Raul was deported, how do you think our congregation would have responded?

A 1996 law made it much harder -- essentially impossible -- for foreign-born spouses to obtain legal status. Did you know about that law?

Linked Issues?

Priscilla Ledbury (member of First Universalist Church of Denver) is quoted:

Injustice against immigrants and gay people are "linked oppressions, no doubt about it,” she says: The struggles for immigrant rights and LGBT rights both come out of laws that deal unfairly with people who are different, forcing them to live in secrecy and fear. Both require creating an understanding that these people, too, are part of our community, often people we already know, work with, and love.

Do you see immigrant and LGBT issues as linked? These are the two issues at the center of our "Standing on the Side of Love" campaign (see here). Do they seem to you to belong together?

Other Voices

Not all UUs are agreed on this issue. Rocilla Dilger (member of 1st Universalist, Denver) is quoted:

“I don’t understand why we’re supporting people who have broken the law. We can’t let everyone come across to our country. To me, it’s clear. They’ve broken the law. They should go back.”

How would you respond? (It might be worth recalling that the Unitarian Service Committee (now the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee -- see here) had its beginnings in the creation -- in some cases, "forging" might have been the word -- of documents to help people get out of Nazi-occupied territories.)

Language

The UUA, along with immigrant organizations, advocates the term “undocumented” over “illegal” immigrant.

Does language matter?

Why This Issue Now?

The article asks:

Why this issue? Why now? What about the economy, our hollow democracy, Wall Street greed—and the very connected problems of joblessness, homelessness, and hunger? What about environmental justice and the climate crisis? Is immigration justice the best place to invest our energy at this moment?

How would you answer?

UUA President Peter Morales is quoted:

How this country treats immigrants is an urgent moral issue of our day. It’s an appalling violation of our First Principle — respect for the inherent worth and dignity of each person — on a massive scale that is largely hidden from most Americans.

Is he right?

Know the numbers

Estimated number of undocumented people now in the US: about 11 million

Proportion of all undocumented people who entered the country legally: About half.

Percentage increase in the number of undocumented immigrants since NAFTA was signed in 1994: 300.

Percent of the undocumented immigrants since 1994 who are from Mexico: 57

Decline in corn prices in Mexico as a result of subsidized US corn flooding the Mexican market: 70 percent.

Number of Mexican farmers driven off their land as a result: 2 million

The U.S. Brought This On Itself?

The stats above suggest the US role -- in pushing through NAFTA, and in our corn subsidies -- in creating the current immigration situation. Miguel De La Torre, professor of social ethics at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, is quoted:

When a nation enters into another nation to build roads to access their natural resources and their cheap labor, we should not be surprised when those same people take those same roads following everything that’s been stolen from them. We have an immigration problem because for over 100 years we have had a foreign policy that has stolen from these countries.

Is this a true? Is it important?

What Is Ours To Do?

Hundreds of immigrants die each year—by drowning, heat exhaustion, injuries, and excessive force by border patrol—trying to cross the Sonoran Desert and Rio Grande.

What is ours to do?

Poor working families who have lived in the United States for years and committed no crime are separated when wage earners who can’t provide on-the-spot documentation are whisked off to ICE detention, moved from place to place, and denied outside contact. About half those detained are deported. In the first six months of 2011, the U.S. government deported moWhre than 46,000 parents, like Raúl, of U.S.-citizen children, many of whom then entered foster care.

What is ours to do?

Fearful parents refuse basic services like free lunch programs, choosing that their children go hungry rather than providing information that might risk separation.

What is ours to do?

The current system forces families into some horrible choices: What laws will they ignore, what risks will they take, in order to stay together? Is it better to live in fear, in a foreign and often hostile culture, in order to feed their families, keep them safe from worse violence, and give them hope for the future?

What is ours to do?

Further reading: See UUA President Peter Morales' essay, "We Are One." Click here.

Can't make the lunch? Leave a comment here. (In the comment box, or click the word "comment" in the next line.

We Must Cultivate Spiritual Depth: Ken Belden's Minns Lecture

Rev. Ken Belden's Minns Lecture is the topic of our "Around the UUWorld Brown Bag Lunch" at noon on Wednesday March 7, in the Common Room. Read the lecture: click here.

Rev. Ken Belden is the minister of the Wellsprings Congregation in Chester Springs, Pennsylvania (about 35 miles west-by-northwest from the center of Philadelphia). They have 185 members and rent worship space in a school auditorium (so they don't have building up-keep to worry about).

Wellsprings is a new congregation. They had their first worship service in 2007 January, nearly two years after Rev. Belden, hired by the Joseph Priestly District to lead this start-up effort, began working with focus groups of interested people. To fund this start-up almost $700,000 was given by the UUA, the Joseph Priestly District, and Main Line UU Congregation in Devon, PA. From these focus groups, a "Planting Team" of 12 committed people emerged which met weekly for seven months. The Planting Team meetings focused on their personal spiritual development and building community with each other. Out of these meetings -- and information gathered from interviews with people in the area, the Planting Team articulated the "Core Values and Beliefs" for the congregation-to-come.

With the "Core Values and Beliefs" identified and clarified, they then formed a number of small groups which met covenant-group-style for 10 sessions. These sessions aimed at providing people a chance to share fellowship, grow in their understanding of faith life, offer service to the community, and share in the vision of Wellsprings.

They were then able to hire a Director of Leadership and Spiritual Development and an Office Administrator (still several months before their first worship service!)

The Wellsprings slogan is "A Community Charged Full with the Charge of the Soul" (language swiped from Walt Whitman) -- and they emphasize and repeatedly invoke this slogan. Everything they do is oriented being charged with "the charge of the soul."

You might also be interested to take a look at the Wellsprings Congregation's web site: click here.

And you might want to see Rev. Belden's blog: click here.

Ken Belden was one of the speakers in the "Powerful Pathways to Growth" workshop at General Assembly 2011 in Charlotte. You can see the video of that workship on Youtube: click here or watch part 1:

From Rev. Belden's Minns lecture:

"UU’s often lack explicit modeling about how we live every day for, and in, our faith."

QUESTIONS

• How are UUFG's members doing at living our faith -- living for, and in, our faith -- day by day?
• What would help?

Belden's Wellsprings worship includes a rock band, and an informally dressed preacher. That's one of the branches of our UU future, but not the only one. Actually, taking up the idea of "ancient faith for a postmodern world," we can draw on our 19th-century ancestors for some key themes to emphasize.

Our Unitarian and Universalist forebears in the 19th-century understood "that each day is a chance to grow, shape and form our spiritual character through practices both inner and outer directed." This should still be our emphasis today.

The specific form of the spiritual practice doesn't matter so much -- as long as it truly is a spiritual practice. Belden says:

Dr. Newberg takes MRI’s, images of people’s brains who have well-developed spiritual practices. In one of his experiments, he compares the brain scans of Carmelite nuns in their theistic Centering Prayer practice with Buddhist monks and their non-theistic mindfulness meditation. Different traditions, different names for the experience of the Holy. But the brains of these Buddhist and Catholic practitioners appeared the same in the imaging.  The parts of the mind that were associated with empathy, compassion, peace and self-transcendence all showed greater engagement.   Activity in the parts of the brain associated with fear, anxiety, aggression, the “reptile brain,” diminished.

QUESTIONS

• Is spiritual development -- that is, the work that rewires our brains toward empathy, compassion, equanimity, and self-transcendence -- what UU congregations should be all about? 
• How is UUFG when it comes to encouraging and facilitating this sort of development?

"Intellectual Knowledge" and "Spiritual Wisdom"

Belden refers to an incident at a Florida UU congregation (it was the Clearwater UU congregation: In 2007 December, a man shot dead his ex-wife, the couple's two small children, the ex-wife's female partner, and then himself. All five were members of Clearwater UU). One member of the Clearwater congregation was quoted in the press as saying he didn't understand how someone so well-educated could do such a thing. This remark is testament to the UU proclivity to subsume all virtues under "well-educated" and "intellectual knowledge." (In this particular case, it seems the issue has to do with mental/emotional health more than with either cognitive fitness or spiritual fitness. See my blog series on this subject over on Lake Chalice: click here for the first entry, then follow the "Next" links at the bottom of each post.)

QUESTIONS

• Does UUFG (in the shared understandings of its members or in its overall "institutional personality") make the mistake of confusing intellectual knowledge and spiritual wisdom with each other? 
• Or, if UUFG doesn't regard them as exactly identical, does UUFG regard spiritual wisdom as a subset of, or subsidiary to, intellectual knowledge? 
• How do you understand the difference between intellectual knowledge and spiritual wisdom? 
• How widespread would you guess your understanding of that difference is among UUFG members?

Not Static

Belden says,

Rejecting both the doctrine of original sin and the notion that our inherent worth and dignity are some static entity, instead we affirm that we are inherently invested by the Universe with the capacity to develop our lives.

QUESTIONS

• How is it that worth and dignity can be inherent yet not static? 
• In what ways have we sometimes seemed to assume that inherent worth and dignity are static?

"Of" and "About"

To distinguish themselves from more mainstream or conservative Christian faiths, Unitarians have sometimes characterized themselves as adhering to "the religion of Jesus, not the religion about Jesus."

QUESTIONS

• Have we become the religion about Ralph Waldo Emerson, Clara Barton, Susan B Anthony, and Bronson and Louisa May Alcott rather than the religion of these figures? 
• They were serious about the practices to cultivate the spiritual virtues in themselves. Are we?

Praying Together

Beldon says:

We don't all share a common understanding or experience of God, but what comes from praying aloud with and for each other is the unearthing of what we do hold in common: our aspirations for our community, our individual and collective losses, sorrows, hopes and gratitude.  It is time together that we treasure. It’s like that old Ragu commercial, we find “it’s all in there” in each of us: the need for contemplation, restoration, lamentation, thanksgiving.

QUESTIONS

• Do you resonate with this approach to prayer?
• What is the appropriate place for prayer in the life of UUFG and its members?

More Important Than Ever?

Unitarians and Universalists are drawn to fill a need in society. We tend to put relatively less emphasis on the areas that our culture is pretty much taking care of. We focus on the areas that wider culture neglects. For example. we teach sex ed -- our "Our Whole Lives" curriculum -- and we probably wouldn't if the schools were doing an adequate job of it.

Our culture appears to be reaching a point where it is neglecting the spiritual more than it has ever done before in the last 300 hundred years of North American history. Belden writes:

There’s a recent study by the University of Michigan about the levels of empathy exhibited by incoming college students. It finds that current students are the least empathetic, most narcissistic cohort in the more than two decades since they’ve been conducting the study. The study paints a picture of a generational slice of young people who have been raised to be overstimulated, overexcited, overexposed and over-competitive.  These are the exact opposite attributes from what daily spiritual practice can help us aspire to be.

We might also note that 93 percent of US drivers identify themselves as above-average drivers. Ninety-four percent of college professors believe they have above-average teaching skills.

"In the 1950s, 12 percent of high school seniors said they were a 'very important person.' By the '90s, 80 percent said they believed that they were" (David Brooks, citing Jean M. Twenge, New York Times, 2011 Mar 11. Click here.)

And it's no wonder, the New York Times columnist continues: our young people, more than any previous generation, have been "bathed in messages telling them how special they are."

Belddn cites sociologist Avner Offer:

“Affluence breeds impatience and impatience undermines well-being.” 

QUESTIONS

• Has the sustained and growing wealth of the US over the last 50 years made us feel less wealthy and less happy? 
• Has it undermined our well-being? 
• Has it functioned to undermine our spirituality?
• Is the US now at the most arrogant and narcissistic point of its history?
• Is spiritual discipline -- the serious discipline of adopting and maintaining daily spiritual practice to cultivate patience, equanimity, humility, awareness, and deep satisfaction in just being alive -- now more neglected than ever in US culture? 
• Is it, then, the calling of UU congregations to compensate for this lack?

Sounding the Retreat

Belden says:

At WellSprings we have a Spiritual Retreat team.  Although we’re still young we’ve had seven spiritual retreats in the last few years. The joy is that we get to do this work together, in  community.  We get to follow up with each other, grow small groups from our retreats, and hold each other accountable for our aspirations.

QUESTIONS

• How does this sound to you? 
• Is this what UUFG needs?

I look forward to your thoughts! See you Wednesday, March 7.
Can't make it? Post your reflection as a "Comment" (if you don't see a Comment Box below, click on the word "comments" in the next line down).

Our Multicultural Challenge: Robert Hardies' Minns Lecture

Robert Hardies' Minns Lecture of 2011 (click here), begins with a "postcard from the future of Unitarian Universalism." He describes a worship service:

...the minister—arms outstretched—stands before the faithful. The keyboardist sounds a contemplative chord and the minister begins his prayer of invocation, asking that God’s spirit be upon this place, these people. As he prays, his congregants—some with eyes lifted to heaven, others with heads bent—echo his prayer with whispered “Amens.” “Yes, God.” When the prayer is over, the minister says: “Greet your neighbor. Show them a sign of God’s love.” And what follows is a “passing of the peace” that is anything but peaceful. The room is filled with loud greetings and big bear hugs and laughter.....From amidst this holy cacophony, the band begins. First just some noodling on the electric organ, then a plaintive human voice, then a driving beat on the bass and drum set....Some sit and sing, with their hands in the air. Others stand and sway. Still others clap in rhythmic accompaniment.

Then we get to the preaching. The minister:

delivers a 40-minute sermon that feels like it’s over in five. He begins slowly, in a learned and philosophical mode, examining passages from Scripture that speak of the worth and dignity of every person. Which, the preacher reminds his congregation, “means each and every one of you gathered here today.” Hungry for that reassurance, the congregation responds with grateful calls of “and “Thank you, God!” And the preacher rides this wave of energy, taking the sermon—and his—to a new level. Now his words are stirring and powerful. Now his stories have folks laughing and crying as he builds to the Good News. The Good News that God, despite everything that they’ve been told, God loves all souls, not some. “So go from this place,” he says, “and share that message, share that love with a world that so deeply needs it.” And with that, the congregation propels itself out into the world on another wave of song.

Hardies acknowledges that some UUs would find this vision appalling, some would find it appealing, some would find it intriguing.

What's your reaction to the picture Hardies paints? Would that sort of worship work for UUFG?

In 1992, our denomination began its "Journey Toward Wholeness" initiative to make our congregations ARAOMC (Anti-Racist, Anti-Oppression, Multi-Cultural). UUFG, like most UU congregations, has a fairly high level of theological diversity (we have Christians, Pagans, Buddhists, Humanists, Etc., All of the Above, and None of the Above). We do not have much diversity of class, ethnicity, or race. UUFG, like many UU congregations, has participated in various "Journey Toward Wholeness" anti-racism workshops over the years. There are three questions here:

1. Resisting race-based oppression in the world: What is ours to do? I.e., what role is UUFG called to play in moving toward a world with reduced race-based oppression? Are we doing it?

2. Eliminating race-based oppression from our congregation: Have we?

3. Becoming a more racially, ethnically diverse congregation: Does this matter? How much? How could it happen?

And running through all these questions is: How do we -- how can we -- change ourselves to become a congregation with better answers to #1, #2, and #3? Robert Hardies says that the "Journey Toward Wholeness" initiative got us started. Are we, in the words of our beloved hymn, Bring Many Names, "willing to be changed by what we've started"?

Hardies suggests:

1. Put the vision [of multicultural diversity] at the center and measure your progress. Use a detailed demographic survey of your members to keep track of diversity progress.

2. Require that all congregational social justice initiatives draw us into relationship with communities of color.

3. Build a multiracial staff.

4. Include nonwhite speakers at every Sunday worship service.

5. Include stories and readings in every worship service that represent nonwhite cultures and wisdom traditions.

(Hardies also seems to be suggesting that a successfully multi-cultural means moving toward the sort of worship style described at the beginning of this post.)

Carlton Pearson was once "the most famous black televangelist in the country." He became convinced that God's love meant Universal salvation. He was rejected by his church, and taken in by the UU church of Tulsa, OK, where he leads services. (Review the Wikipedia entry on Carlton Pearson: click here). Pearson believes that Universalism will be to the 21st century what evangelical Christianity was to the 20th. Pearson says: “You’ve got the theology. It’s the vision you don’t have. You can’t imagine Unitarian Universalism as anything but a movement of white New Englanders.”

Is Carlton Pearson right? If he is, what should we be doing? (And if he isn't, what should we be doing?)

Please post your comments -- and join us for discussion of this at the "Around the UUWorld Brown Bag Lunch" on Wed Feb 29 (Common Room, Noon).