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?

Buddhist Meditation: A Management Skill?

Interesting NPR Story This Morning: "Buddhist Meditation: A Management Skill?"

September 13, 2012

"A handful of executive MBA programs around the country — from Harvard to Michigan's Ross School of Business — are teaching students Buddhist meditation techniques. It's not necessarily about teaching spirituality, but focus. There's no way to quantify whether learning how to be centered during a stressful business meeting is balancing the bottom lines at companies. But students say slowing down does help them be more effective."

Listen to the 4-minute story: click here.

The blurb says "it's not necessarily about teaching spirituality" -- OK, but is it contingently about teaching spirituality? That is, it might, in fact, be about teaching spirituality even if it isn't necessarily about teaching spirituality. In my view, if it's about focus and being centered, then it is about spirituality.

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?

Mission, Mission, Membership, and Mission

My friends, Unitarian Universalists, reflect with me, if you will, on the mission of our Fellowship.

I'd like to suggest that you begin by taking a look at my thoughts on the subject from a sermon delivered on 2012 June 3 and subsequently posted on Lake Chalice. If you missed that sermon, this will give you a basic orientation; if you heard it, this will be a useful refresher. For the blog, I broke the sermon into six parts. Start here for the first part, and at the bottom of each post there's a link to click to take you to the next part.

I am particulary inspired by the example of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Rochester. I heard about them at a workshop I attended at General Assembly 2011 in Charlotte. Fortunately, the presentations were videotaped, and you can watch them too! Here they are.

The Powerpoint slides the presenter used can be viewed separately here.

Here's the video, part 1:
"It's not about what our church offers or what our church does. It's about what we are inviting people to become."

The UU Rochester mission:

"Healing spiritual disconnection by helping each other:
listen to our deepest selves
open to life's gifts and
serve needs greater than our own."

Part 2:
Mary Jones describes the membership process, illustrating how the congregation's mission is essential to the integration of new members.



Part 3:



Part 4:
UU Rochester's Rev. Kaaren Anderson describes the path from "new member" to "leader" and how the congregation's mission is crucial to that path. Recommended book: Simple Church by Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger



Part 5:
Shifting now to the UU Congregation of Columbus, OH, Debra Boyd explains how the membership process begins with covenant -- which led them to their covenant-enabled mission:

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

Question: Is this mission as clear as the Rochester mission on what work is expected of each member?


Part 6:
UU Columbus' Rev. Eric Meter describes the Columbus membershipping process.



Part 7: The Q&A with the Audience.

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"?

Our Grief

Our congregation is grieving. The departure of Ruth Lewis -- who directed our congregational music for 37 years, the last decade or so of which as Minister of Music -- has been a blow to us all. Sadness, hurt, and anger are manifestations of our grief. We are -- all of us, I believe -- sad about Ruth's departure. We are -- all of of us, I believe -- sad that we have allowed conflict to make some of our Fellowship relationships tense or suspicious.

I grieve the loss of the treasure Ruth has been for our fellowship for so many years. Through so many years, as I wrote in a July email to Fellowship members, Ruth was a constant presence at the piano, leading the congregation in hymns, and leading the choir in performances often stunning and moving. She musically enriched the lives of hundreds of members of our adult, youth, and children's choirs. Many times more than that were uplifted and inspired from the beauty of our choir's music in worship.

Fellowship members have been and will continue to gather in various venues to process our feelings and discuss how to go forward from here. I have been and will continue to be at many of them. I don't know the answer to all the questions, and I'm not the one to make the decisions that are up to the Fellowship to make. I'm simply available to talk over your feelings, suggestions, questions (though I might not know the answers). Come talk to me.

Phone Cam in the church office to make an appointment or phone me directly at home. Let us heal together.

Yours Faithfully,
Meredith

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?

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).