Communion

Our interim minister has suggested that perhaps our congregation should offer a communion service once a month either before or after the main service. It is an interesting suggestion to me because the lack of a communion service is one of the reasons my husband would not feel comfortable joining our congregation; not the only one, but one of them. The fact that our congregation calls itself a church at all makes some of our members who did not grow up as Christians and some who are atheists or agnostics very uncomfortable. I have a feeling that offering communion once a month would not be a welcome change for them, even if it is not part of the main service.

Having grown up in a Christian church but no longer considering myself a Christian, I can understand the strong feelings people have about communion. Most Unitarian Universalist congregations celebrate flower communion or water communion, and while I enjoy these worship experiences, they just do not fill the void that was once filled by Christian communion. I would welcome a meaningful communion service that is centered on the teachings and life of Jesus. While I reject most of the Christian doctrine, I cannot reject Jesus or what his life and teachings have meant to my life. Communion is a powerful way of remembering his sacrifice, not to save me from my sins, but to reach out in love to people unconditionally and completely, even to reach out in love to those who greeted him with hate, fear, ignorance, bigotry, torture and death. I don’t believe he rose bodily from the grave, but I do believe this spirit of love is eternal. Communion is a way to remember this powerful example of love in our world, love that can help us overcome all the ways we hurt ourselves and each other, love that allows us to forgive others and most of all to forgive ourselves and start anew. For me, communion is about celebrating the power of love as shown through the life and teachings of Jesus. It is about rededicating myself to reaching out in love to those around me, even when I do not feel it in return. It is about connecting with my many Christian ancestors, family members and friends who have blessed me with the spirit of unconditional love that they found through following the example and teachings of Jesus.

I understand that for others communion reflects everything they have rejected in Christianity; the sacrifice of Jesus for forgiveness of sins, the one and only one true way to heaven, the concept of hell and the need to have an intermediary save them from it, etc.
I don’t like those associations with communion either. I once went to a Brethren communion service that included feet washing. For me, this was one of the most meaningful services I have ever attended. It wasn’t about a sacrifice made to save us from an eternal hell, but about the unconditional love that can transform the world as shown to us through the example of Jesus.

Revising our Constructs

Our congregation is undergoing some change right now. Our minister of the past fifteen years has left, and last Sunday we welcomed our new interim minister. This change has been upsetting to some, unsettling to most, and welcomed by a few. I think that is pretty much par for the course with any big change, some of us loath it, most of us approach it warily, and a few always think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence until we get there and are looking over the next fence. A recent post by Jamie at Trivium has caused me to look at my own perception of change and my view of worship.

One good thing about change is that it causes us to question our constructs and revise them. I am a fan of George Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory. Kelly viewed the individual as a scientist who continually creates constructs that facilitate anticipation of events. The constructs allow us to form hypotheses that are then tested in our world. The results of these “experiments” often cause us to revise our constructs. Constructs have poles or opposites allowing that which we observe to be placed somewhere on the continuum between them. For example, one may have the construct of hot and cold. We only have this construct of temperature because of the variability. If everything around us and within us was a constant 98.6, we wouldn’t notice temperature at all. It is only our need to anticipate events that causes us to create the construct. Ice cubes and snow are cold. The stove is hot. If I touch the stove burner, I anticipate pain. If I put ice on the burn, I anticipate soothing relief. Winter is cold, summer is hot and spring and fall are somewhere in between. Using this construct, I can anticipate needing a warm coat in winter and shorts in summer, planting flowers in spring and skiing in winter. If I move to the equator, these constructs and their relationship may need to be revised because they will no longer be relevant to the events I need to anticipate. Kelly saw most of our psychological problems as a failure of our construct system. Problems result when we fail to adjust our constructs to the results of our experiments. They may also be caused by a construct system that doesn’t have enough constructs to allow us to make accurate predictions. That is a really short and inadequate summary of what it took Kelly two big volumes to explain.

Applying Kelly’s theory to the congregation’s current situation, the change is upsetting because it challenges our constructs. So what are the constructs I have with regard to our worship service?

Obviously one of the constructs Jamie has is sacred. I guess I have a sacred construct too, and if I do, it has to have another pole. (constructs are personal remember) What is the opposite of sacred for me? I guess for me it is unloving. Love is sacred and being unloving, unloved or withholding love is the opposite. When I am in a sacred space I feel loved and feel loving. I come to our service to get that feeling back when I have lost it and to magnify it when it has dimmed. Being in nature is sacred space for me because I feel loved by and at one with the universal force, the Great Spirit, the Tao.

Challenging is another construct I have and comforting is probably its opposite. I like a service that challenges me to grow as opposed encouraging me to remain in my comfort zone. I like to have my constructs challenged by the sermons and readings even though it is a bit unnerving at times. That doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy a service that gives me some validation for my constructs on occasion, but I don’t want so much support that I grow stuck in my ways. Being the age I am, there is enough push in that direction already.

Emotional is also a construct that is important for me in worship. On the Myers Briggs Type Indicator I come out as a T, thinking as opposed to F feeling. I am rational to a fault. So, emotional vs. rational is another construct I have. I come to worship to find and free my emotional self, that part of me that I often keep hidden even from myself. I need a place where I can be vulnerable and open myself up to that. That includes the full range of emotions from a good belly laugh to a good cry and everything in between. That doesn’t mean that I need to express them during worship (though sometimes that’s a good thing), but I need to allow myself to feel them and deal with them. A good worship experience has often helped me do that.

Connected is another construct that is important to me. I want to feel connected with others instead of separate. I am looking for unity instead of division. That doesn’t mean that I want to ignore or minimize our differences. I am looking for a way to celebrate them instead of allowing them to divide us. I want to draw a circle big enough to include everyone, a beautiful rainbow circle that allows us to empathize with each other’s need for different worship experiences. I hope we will work together to help everyone in our congregation get what they need from our worship as well as getting our own needs met.

Those are some of the constructs I seem to have regarding worship. I wonder what constructs others in our congregation may use when anticipating worship.

Sex Education for Five Year Olds

I just had to laugh at the conversation between Bill O'Rielly and Rev. Haffner. I remembered my conversations with our son at age five when I was pregnant with his sister. We had explained of course that his sibling was growing in mommy's tummy and let him feel the baby kick. I should have used the word uterus because the conversation went like this:

Jon: How's the baby gonna get out? Are you gonna puke it up?
Mom: The doctor's going to take it out in the hospital.
Jon: Oh ...
Jon: So how did it get in there? Did you swallow it?
Mom: It's really hard to explain ummm. Maybe your dad can explain it better.

This bought me some time. It was a couple of days before he started asking the questions again when his dad was home. By this time we were better prepared. A really curious five year old has a lot of questions, and you can't put them off forever. I guess O'Rielly hasn't been around many curious five year olds interested in how things work. I had gotten pretty good at answering questions by the time our daughter started asking them and her older brother was more than happy to give her the benefit of all he had learned about the process. Guess the five year olds in O'Rielly's life didn't have older siblings and playmates willing to share information and misinformation about sex with his kids. Some of the misinformation and information they got from their friends and brought home was truly amazing.

Does it Change Your Life?

We recently had a congregational meeting where we discussed the growth or lack of growth of our congregation. One of the exercises we did was to examine the congregation’s history. It was hard to believe that the Universalist Church of Akron once had 800 members and played a major role in Akron’s history. So what has caused our decline and the stagnant or declining growth of other more liberal denominations while more fundamentalist Christian churches, especially the mega churches seem to be attracting more and more people?

After thinking about this, I’ve come to the conclusion that there is one major difference between these growing and stagnant churches; the growing congregations promote the life changing nature of religion. I’ve heard a lot of Christians over the years talk about how God changed their lives, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard a Unitarian Universalist talk about how their religious belief has changed their life. I do believe that following my own spiritual journey and the support I’ve gotten from my congregation has been life changing for me, but it isn’t something that UU’s talk about to others even within the congregation let alone to potential members. So here is my question to my fellow UU’s: Has your religion changed your life? Would you be living the same way if you were not a member of your congregation? I'd like to pose that question to people of other religious denominations and faiths as well.

Freedom = Responsibility

My daughter, a young teacher, called me the other day upset because some of the students in her school had misbehaved on a field trip. It was a trip that involved the whole school, and the students’ behavior was an embarrassment to everyone involved. She had been instrumental in setting up the trip. She had helped convince the PTA to pay for it. She had looked forward giving the students this experience, but their behavior during lunch had disappointed and angered her. She was also a bit upset because other adults on the trip had given the students in their groups too much freedom. As a young teacher, she didn’t think she needed to tell veteran teachers not to let the students out of their sight in a strip mall. She called me for some motherly empathy and for some advice on what to say to the students the next day.

I told her to trot out my old “Freedom = Responsibility Lecture”. She had certainly heard it often enough during her childhood. It was one of my favorite parental lectures for my own children and for students that I taught. As a society, I think we need to talk more often about this equation. My lecture goes something like this.

Everyone loves freedom, but there can be no freedom unless everyone takes responsibility for maintaining it. The amount of freedom an individual gets is usually proportionate to the amount of responsibility she or he can handle. If someone shows that they cannot handle the responsibility to use their freedom wisely, someone else will step in and take that freedom away. It doesn’t happen only to children; it happens all the time in the adult world. Your freedom ends when you deprive someone else of their freedom or harm others by your behavior. In the case of students, it also ends when you bring harm to yourself because adults have a duty to protect you from making a mess out of your life before it gets started.

This was the first part of the lecture. Then I usually asked some questions about freedoms and responsibilities. What freedoms do you have? What responsibility did you take on when you got that freedom? For young children it might be “The freedom to walk to school by myself. I took on the responsibility to watch for cars, and to get there on time.” For older children, it might be “The freedom to spend time with a friend downtown without an adult. I took on the responsibility to behave appropriately in public so we didn’t deprive others of their freedom to shop in peace and safety. I obey the laws, so the police don’t arrest me for taking some else’s property or vandalism.” My lecture usually ended with depriving the child or students of rights until they could show that they were more responsible. The amount of freedom you have depends your willingness and ability to be responsible.

For adults it is no different. We have the freedom to drive and the responsibility to do so safely. If we fail to be a safe driver, the state (our fellow citizens) will take away our freedom to drive. A free society depends upon responsible people. As people take on more responsibility, there is less need for restrictive laws that spell out unacceptable behavior and punishments that restrict freedoms. I think that previous generations of Americans put more emphasis on responsibility than we do today. The adults of my childhood talked often about my responsibility and very little about my rights and freedoms. They often encouraged me to put myself in someone else's place to determine the effects of my behavior on others. That was my responsibility, to think about how my behavior would affect others. When I talk to students who are misbehaving today, they often demand their rights and freedoms, but are loath to accept the responsibility that goes along with those rights and freedoms. I see that in the adults I talk with as well. The imbalance in this equation seemed to take place somewhere in the late '60's, perhaps an outgrowth of the protests during the civil rights and Vietnam era. Conservative Christians suggest that the change in our culture is the result of taking prayer and Bible reading out of the public school, but I view the change as a result of placing too much emphasis on rights and freedoms and too little on responsibility, not only in our schools, but in society as a whole.

We each need to take responsibility for protecting the rights and freedoms of others along with our own. That is the foundation of a free society.

Some examples:

Parental rights come with the responsibility to care for the physical, educational and socialization needs of the child.

Property rights come with the responsibility to maintain and care for property so that it isn’t a health hazard and an eyesore for others who want to enjoy the property nearby.

Freedom of speech comes with the responsibility to speak the truth, not to endanger the community by inducing panic, and to use one’s speech for good, not for exploiting others.

Free enterprise comes with the responsibility to be fair in trading with others. It comes with the responsibility to maintain the community that supports it and provides the labor and raw materials for business.

Freedom to vote comes with the responsibility to carefully examine the issues and the candidates before voting.

A free society demands that each individual takes responsibility for creating the community and maintaining it. Today we are increasingly shifting the responsibility to “government”. There are many examples of people doing whatever they can get by with until stopped by law enforcement. Certainly laws can be made by “government” to regulate the behavior of people in any society, but by demanding laws to protect us instead of expecting responsible behavior from ourselves and our fellow citizens we are giving up our freedom, and we will cease to be a free society.

RESPECT

The Imus statement about the Rutgers basketball team was racist, misogynistic and totally unacceptable, but what really bothers me most about the statement is that we are so accustomed to the lack of respect for people in this society that Imus even thought for a moment that his listeners might find it funny.

While there seems to be a greater awareness of political correctness these days, I contend that it is not accompanied by an increase in respect for the inherent worth and dignity of every person. While most of us would loudly condemn the Imus remark, we are not above laughing at disrespectful humor or contributing to the biting and demeaning remarks that permeate our society. We are not above watching and thereby supporting, TV shows, movies, and news reports that fail to respect the inherent worth and dignity of people. Take the caustic comments of Simon on American Idol or the intrusion on privacy of the news media as they seek out the most intimate details about the life of anyone unfortunate enough to be of interest to the rest of us. It is so omnipresent that we don’t even see it, a bit like getting so used to the smog in a big city that you don’t realize there is such a thing as clean air. The only time we really notice the smog is when it gets so thick we can hardly breathe at all or we go to the countryside and view the sky without it for a change. That is what happened with the Imus remark, it was so disrespectful that it caused us all to gasp, but it certainly wasn’t alone in polluting our society with verbal disrespect.

A good way to get some perspective is to watch an adult movie from the ‘40s or ‘50’s back to back with a modern PG-13 or R rated movie from today or watch a situation comedy from the late ‘50’s or early ‘60’s before watching a current one. Even better yet, watch the most popular stand up comics from the late ‘50’s and early 60’s and compare them to the most popular comics of today. Even if, like me, you barely flinch at the “F” word anymore, you may notice the way the people show disrespect for each other. Much of the humor is at the expense of someone, not laughing at the paradoxes and foibles of our shared humanness.

When I decided to write a post about this topic, I looked for a definition of respect. What I found was the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on the topic. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/respect/ It did not give a simple definition of the word, but a full discussion of the topic complete with many of the philosophical questions people have had about respect throughout the ages. I found it very interesting. The concluding remarks are worth a direct quote here,

“Everyday discourse and practices insist that respect and self-respect are personally, socially, politically, and morally important, and philosophical discussions of the concepts bear this out. Their roles in our lives as individuals, as people living in complex relations with other people and surrounded by a plethora of other beings and things on which our attitudes and actions have tremendous effects, cannot, as these discussions reveal, be taken lightly. “

This is a warning going unheeded in this society, and it is having dire repercussions. Don Imus, Mel Gibson, Michael Richards, are only the public face of a society that fails to respect people in far more ways than bigoted language and disparaging remarks.

So, what if Imus hadn’t said that on the air? What if he had just remained quietly misogynistic and racist? What if we managed to legislate or humiliate all the bigots and racists into keeping their mouths shut? It might keep the rest of us from gasping, but it wouldn’t end the pollution of disrespect that permeates our communal atmosphere. It is time for a new dialog on respect and a deeper understanding of what it means “to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person”. This is the first of our Unitarian Universalist principles, and an essential principle for any society to follow if it is to be healthy. Respect for our shared humanity comes from an understanding that people are not to be treated as objects, not objects to get a laugh, not objects to get us the material things we want, not objects to satisfy our curiousity or make us feel good in comparing ourselves to others. All religions teach us that we need to give others the respect we would wish for ourselves.

Experienceing Easter

A blog post by Jamie Goodwin about struggling with his feelings at this time of year, a discussion started by Jill Miller Zimon about the chocolate Jesus and her feelings about Passover has caused me to reflect more about my own experience during this time of year.

The Easter/ Passover/Spring Equinox time period has always been important for me though my feelings about it have certainly undergone many transformations. As a child growing up in a very Christian family, it was a time to reflect upon the death and resurrection of Jesus. I took the last super and the death on the cross very seriously, especially during the celebration of communion. The thought of Jesus, someone who was so pure and compassionate, suffering such a horrible death moved me to tears, and the idea that he died for my sins filled me with guilt.

I loved Easter morning when everyone got up early, looked for the hidden Easter baskets and enjoyed the hot cross buns my father always got from the local bakery in our neighborhood. I can still smell the scent of his shaving cream and aftershave as he got ready for the service and dressed up in his Sunday best. We always got something new to wear for this day, and I was very proud of how we looked as a family as we walked the couple blocks to our church. I loved the songs of triumph we sang and the Easter lilies in the sanctuary while the spring sun streamed through the beautiful stained glass windows. Then there was the walk home together and a special dinner my mother made. My brother and I each had our jobs to do in helping to get the meal on the table. When it was ready, we held hands and my father said the blessing. Easter was always fun for my mother, and she carried on the traditions for her grandchildren, buying them new outfits, hiding candy and eggs around the house, and always having a dinner complete with Easter decorations on the table. I miss my parents. I miss celebrating Easter this way.

Later as I began to think about religion in my own way, I tried to identify with Jesus by fasting from Thursday evening until Easter morning. It was my effort to feel his pain and share his burden in some small way. Remember the guilt I had growing up believing that he died to save me. Sunday morning took on a new feeling of resurrection after fasting for two days! Hot cross buns and jelly beans never tasted so good. The fast, my own personal remembrance of the Easter story, became more to me as I studied various religions, history, and grew more aware of events happening around the world. This story of Jesus suffering and dying to save humanity soon developed into an appreciation for all those who have had compassion and died in the cause of love, justice, peace and freedom. My feeling of hunger during my fast helped me remember that for many people around the world hunger wasn’t a choice, it was a constant. The death and resurrection of Jesus became symbolic, the victory of compassion, love, and forgiveness over greed, fear, hate and revenge. They could kill leaders like Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., but they could not defeat the voices of love and justice that echo throughout history. “Up from the grave He arose, With a mighty triumph o'er His foes, He arose a Victor from the dark domain, And He lives forever, with His saints to reign. He arose!” We will rise up- against hate, against war, against fear and slavery. I sang this song with new understanding and more feeling. It was no longer a physical resurrection, but a spiritual one.

Then came the desert of my unbelief. My father's Alzheimer's disease, and 9/11, contributed to my spiritual crisis. I joined the Unitarian Universalist Church looking for something, I wasn't sure what.

In 2003 and 2004, I was hiking on the Appalachian Trail, walking with spring, watching new life develop from what appeared to be cold and dead. There was a part of myself that was resurrected on my trek north. I was mourning the death of both of my parents in 2001, I’d just retired from my job and I was trying to understand just what I believed about God, life, death, humanity. My 2003 journal records the Easter meal, “Today is Easter. Our dinner consisted of the following ingredients all mixed together: chicken chunks, dried veggies, gravy mix, dehydrated milk, and stove top stuffing mix. Believe it or not, that doesn't taste too bad. Gary and I shared the pot of yummy stuff."

In 2004, we were in PA, “We got packed up about 9:30, just before the snow, or maybe we should call it sleet, came, not heavy, at first. Then it changed to flakes, then to drizzle. It is cold, not while hiking but when we stop, brrr. It wasn’t hard to get almost 13 miles in today because we really just wanted to keep going to stay warm. Today is Easter. Our dinner was tuna, noodles, and cheese spread on a taco shell.” Those two Easter Sundays were about as far removed from the memories of my youth as I could get except for the fasting part. Food takes on a whole new meaning when one is hiking on the AT. There is an appreciation for it that many Americans have never experienced.

Though the journal entries for these Easter Sundays do not give evidence of much reflection, my experience on the trail resurrected my belief in God, not the old man with the white beard, but my belief that God is in all of us and in everything if we only listen to our hearts and reach out with compassion to the world. Death is not an end but a new beginning. Life is not a line, but a circle. As I watched the white flowers poke through the brown leaves of the forests and looked from the mountain tops at clouds and stars, I felt so much a part of it all and at the same time so personally insignificant. I think this is the first time I celebrated the Spring Equinox as a spiritual event.

I spent last Easter and the one before in Columbus at a Methodist service where my daughter was singing in the choir. There were Easter lilies and stained glass windows. We sang, “Up from the grave He arose” , but in my heart, I wasn’t singing just about Jesus. I was singing that song of triumph for all of humanity, for the entire world. I was singing about flowers poking their heads out of dark cold earth, birds building nests and laying eggs with new life in them. I was singing about compassion arising from the ashes of our failed relationships with each other, and about people overcoming the slavery of addictions, prejudice, and hate as well physical slavery. This is the time of year to remember suffering people everywhere, not just the suffering of one man, and it is also the time to celebrate the victory we are capable of through the spirit of love we have within and among us.

Sex Education

Do you remember how you learned about sex? I remember my mother sending away for some booklets. She told me to read them and said that after I read them she would answer any questions I had. I had lots of questions! My mother did not have all the answers, but I was better off than most of my friends. They got their information from their friends. One thing she impressed upon me was not to have sex because it would be simply awful to become pregnant and not be married. It would ruin my life and my and my family's reputation. It was the worst sin ever!- Abstinence education.

I learned about condoms from some boys in my class. My friend and I were baby sitting my little brother. My friend had told her boyfriend that we would be there without my parents. The boyfriend brought his buddy, and the two of them asked to come in. When I said no, and the door was locked. They filled up condoms with our water hose, held them up at the window and laughed a lot before smashing them on our porch. I thought they were balloons, but my friend explained that they were rubbers and if you wanted to have sex but not get pregnant that is what the boy had to wear. "Does it work?" I asked. " I guess so", she said "Or else he can just pull it out before he comes." Following that advice got a lot of my friends pregnant before we graduated from high school, but back in 1964 most of them managed to quickly tie the knot with the baby's father before the blessed event. Most had been given the same abstinence talk by their mothers, " Don't have sex before you get married. It's a sin and it will ruin your life and your reputation." I guess my mother was just scarier than theirs because I managed to get accurate birth control information before I had sex.

The reason for recounting this story is to support the need for comprehensive sex education in our schools. Students are going to learn about contraception even if we don't teach them about it in school. Shouldn't we give them accurate information? Fear isn't enough to protect them from STD's and pregnancy before they are ready to be parents.

Join the UUA and the UCC in urging Congress to pass the Responsible Education About Life (REAL) Act. States should not be forced to turn away federal funds because they refuse to teach abstinence only. Our children deserve to have all the facts when they are making some of the most important decisions in their lives.

There is an excellent article written byCynthia Kuhn in UU World about the OWL(Our Whole Lives) Program, the curriculum developed by the UUA and UCC.

Justice Sunday- UUSC

This Sunday is Justice Sunday, and Unitarian Universalist Congregations nationwide will celebrate and support the work of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee. One current issue is chosen each year as the focus of our attention; this year it is the Genocide in Darfur.

As my congregation's UUSC representative I am going to talk about this organization during our service, so I thought I would post what I am going to say here and urge everyone to go to the UUSC website and their Hot Wire Human Rights Weblog to learn more about this organization and the important work it does.

I am probably the least likely person to be your UUSC representative. It was fall of 2001 when I started coming to this congregation. At one of the first services I attended, a few of the young people dressed up as people from different parts of the world and told about their need for help. Guest at Your Table boxes were passed out and there was an insert in the order of service about UUSC. Not being very good about reading everything thoroughly, I just concluded that UUSC must be the Unitarian Universalist mission organization. Growing up Christian, I was used to missions where schools, hospitals and churches were built and supported to help people and to spread the word. The thought that UU’s did not have a doctrine that they were trying to spread, did not cross my mind, even though I knew that my new congregation did not believe in proselytizing.

After joining this congregation and getting involved with the Social Action Committee, I began to learn more about the UUSC. There were no missions, hospitals and churches that my contributions supported. Instead, the UUSC worked with grassroots organizations in our own country and around the world to deliver aid in time of crisis, support needed projects for relief, but more importantly to advocate for political and economic changes that would empower people to take control of their lives.

Through advocacy, education and partnerships with grassroots organizations, UUSC supports programs and policies that empower women, defend the rights of children and support the struggles of indigenous people and oppressed racial and ethnic groups

Some of the current initiatives are:

Fighting for workers rights and a living wage

Stopping torture

Promoting environmental justice-especially the right to clean water

Protecting human rights and giving aid during humanitarian crises, especially for groups often left behind or excluded by government aid or mainstream NGOs.

Each year, Unitarian Universalists celebrate justice Sunday to recognize and promote the efforts of the UUSC. Emphasis is placed on an issue that demands our attention, and this year it is the crisis in Darfur.

Unlike the missions I supported in my Christian churches, the UUSC is not a function of the denomination, it is an associate member of the Unitarian Universalist Association. It receives no general financial support from the UUA. Funding for UUSC comes from its members and donations.

The organization began in response to Hitler’s persecution of Jews and other minorities before WWII. One of the most interesting things I found about the UUSC is that they were responsible for our UUA symbol, the flaming chalice. This symbol was created in 1941 by Austrian artist, Hans Deutsch. Deutsch had fled France as the Nazis invaded because he had drawn critical cartoons of Hitler. The symbol was created for Unitarian Service Committee papers to make their papers look official when rescuing refugees from Nazi occupied countries.

The symbol that we use in worship and the UUSC came to us through our response to the horror of genocide. Sadly, the need for the UU’s to speak out against human rights violations and genocide is still there. Over 300,000 men, women and children have been killed in Darfur, and many more have been horribly injured, raped and tortured. 2.5 million have fled their country stressing the resources of neighboring nations especially Chad. The ribbons we are wearing remind us that we cannot be silent as people suffer; we must be the voice of those unable to speak for themselves.

Please continue to support this organization with your advocacy, your donations and your prayers.

Christian Peace Delegation

I wonder how much press coverage this meeting will get? I wonder if the mass media can pull themselves away from covering Anna Nicole Smith, a soon to be released movie about a supposed tomb of Jesus and the divisions this may cause between those who believe in the divinity of Jesus and those who don't, the questionable effects of garlic on our cholesterol, etc. to cover it.

I see this as the true role of faith in today's world. We are called by faith to build bridges and bring peace. While the media focuses on the divisive rhetoric and magnifies the influence of the so called, "religious right", they ignore the actions and beliefs of the majority of people of faith in this country and around the world.

Wouldn't it be great to have members of the group interviewed on Larry King and the O'Reilly Factor? Maybe Rush would like to have him on his show.

I support this group's call for our government to:

• Immediately engage in direct face-to-face talks
• Cease using language that defines the other using “enemy” images
• Promote more people to people exchanges including religious leaders, members of Parliament/Congress, and civil society

Here are some links and below is a statement they made:

NCC Interfaith Relations

Coverage from Lancaster Online

US RELIGIOUS DELEGATION FINDS HOPE IN IRAN

As Christian leaders from the United States, we went to Iran at this time of increased tension believing that it is possible to build bridges of understanding between our two countries. We believe military action is not the answer, and that God calls us to just and peaceful relationships within the global community.

We were a diverse group of Christian leaders that included United Methodist, Episcopal, Catholic, Baptist, Evangelical, Quaker, and Mennonites who have 17 years of on the ground experience in Iran. We were warmly welcomed by the Iranian people, and our time in Iran convinced us that religious leaders from both countries can help pave the way for mutual respect and peaceful relations between our nations.

During our visit we met with Muslim and Christian leaders, government officials, and other Iranian people. Our final day included a meeting with former President Khatami and current President Ahmadinejad. The meeting with President Ahmadinejad was the first time an American delegation had met with a sitting Iranian President in Iran since the Islamic revolution in 1979. The meeting lasted 2.5 hours and covered a range of topics including the role of religion in transforming conflict, Iraq, nuclear proliferation, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

What the delegation found most encouraging from the meeting with President Ahmadinejad was a clear declaration from him of no intention to acquire or use nuclear weapons, as well as a statement that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can only be solved through political not military means. Finally, he said, “I have no reservation about conducting talks with American officials if we see some good will.”

We believe it is possible for further dialogue and that there can be a new day in U.S. – Iranian relations. The Iranian government has already built a bridge toward the American people by inviting our delegation to come to Iran. We ask the U.S. government to welcome a similar delegation of Iranian religious leaders to the United States.

As additional steps in building bridges between our nations, we call upon both the United States and Iranian governments to:

• Immediately engage in direct face-to-face talks
• Cease using language that defines the other using “enemy” images
• Promote more people to people exchanges including religious leaders, members of Parliament/Congress, and civil society

As people of faith, we are committed to working towards these and other confidence building measures, which we hope will move our two nations from the precipice of war towards a more just and peaceful settlement.

For more information contact:
Dan Webster

Director of Media Relations
National Council of Churches, USA

475 Riverside Drive Suite 880
New York, NY 10115
Phone: 212 870-2252
Fax 212 870-2030

email: dwebster@ncccusa.org

Picture from Lancaster Online

Prophetic Atheism

Peacebang is hosting the UU Carnival this month. Here is my take on the quote below. Check out the other entries via links on her website.

A good deal of so-called atheism is itself, from my point of view, theologically significant. It is the working of God in history, and judgment upon the pious. An authentic prophet can be a radical critic of spurious piety, of sham spirituality.”

-James Luther Adams

To me, true spirituality is living in balance and harmony with the great force of the universe. The Taoists call it the Way or the Tao; others have called it God, the Goddess, the Great Spirit, Brahma, etc. The Tao Te Ching says,

1

“The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.

The unnameable is the eternally real.”

Throughout history, humans have formed religions that attribute human characteristics to the divine mystery. Instead of trying to understand and live in harmony with the eternal mysterious force, we imagine gods that serve us and conform to our limited view of reality.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “A person will worship something-have no doubt about that. We may think our tribute is paid in secret in the dark recesses of our hearts-but it will out. That which dominates our imaginations and our thoughts will determine our lives, and our character. Therefore it behooves us to be careful what we worship, for what we worship, we are becoming.”

Jesus said, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you dressed as sheep, but inside they are devouring wolves. You will fully recognize them by their fruits. You will fully know them by their fruits“ Matthew 7:15

The sad state of the society we are creating for ourselves and our posterity is certainly an indication of what dominates our collective imaginations and thoughts today. It is violent, disrespectful of our natural world, focused on material possessions, self-centered, self-indulgent and empty. Many religious leaders who claim to be modern prophets or speak for the prophets of old bring fruits of intolerance, war, poverty, disrespect of human rights and disease. They bring us a vision of Armageddon instead of a hopeful vision of humans living in harmony with each other and the creative force of the universe.

True prophets hold a mirror before us that challenges us to knock our false Gods from their pedestals and to search again for unity with the spirit of the universe that is far beyond our understanding and our naming. True prophets encourage us to listen for divine direction; false prophets and religious leaders tell us they alone know how god wants us to live. The rules they offer and the consequences in store for us when we fail to follow them have a distinctly human ring to them. They focus on our attachment to our existence as separate beings full of selfish desires. The god they describe can be named and humanized. This god can be bribed with sacrifices or rituals to do our bidding and brings vengeance upon enemies. The false god damns those who don’t accept a limited view of divinity, has favorites among humans and gives humans control over the rest of creation. The history of religion is plagued with false prophets who hijack humanity’s honest attempts to communicate with the divine spirit. True prophets are often branded as heretics because they do not bow down before the god of the false prophets of their day. Providing a vision that puts humans and human gods in their proper place in the universe has often cost prophets their lives. Many so-called atheists have been among them.

Morning Meditation

My study window overlooks a ravine in my backyard with some naked trees standing tall like quiet sentinels watching over the house. In summer one can barely see the hospital parking lot for all of the vegetation, but today the lot with its cars and bundled employees walking hurriedly toward the rear entrance are clearly visible. The sun brings out the reddish brick of the building and the contrast of shadow and morning sunlight accentuates the edges. It’s almost like looking out from a tree house because my window is just below eyelevel with the top of the tree closest to the house where the woodpeckers have carved big holes in the dead top. Someday it may fall on the house, but I am reluctant to have it cut because my redheaded friends would lose their home and the rest of the tree still lives. As I look out the window, I am happy and content. A Bible verse from my childhood comes to my mind, “This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

At the right side of the window is a picture painted by a member of our congregation. In the upper right corner is a small innocent looking child, and in the bottom left is the half face of an adult. The colors the artist used are bright green, gold and black. The adult side of the painting is dark except for some bright gold at the top; the green is on the child’s side. There is a flaming chalice below the child that unites the figures in the picture with a black circle that extends from its base and forms the central focal point of the picture, bringing the child and adult together.

So, why am I writing this? Because a few days ago I asked a student who told me she was bored at school, “What excites you makes you feel alive?” She told me that there was nothing. Maybe I am just getting too old and remembering the good old days as better than they were, but it seems to me that our society is suffering from an epidemic of depression that is especially disconcerting when it seems to be increasing in our young people. As I look at the picture, I wonder if the pressure we are placing on our children to grow up quickly is robbing them of their connection with their inner child full of wonder and excitement. I look at the chalice that forms the center of the picture. How many young people are missing a spiritual center that brings meaning to their lives and gives them light in the dark times?

Seeking Jesus in a U. U. Church

Posts by Joel at CUUMBAYA and Jamie at Trivum have encouraged me to write this post because I agree with them that there is a certain prejudice against belief in a living God and talking about Jesus in Unitarian Universalist Churches even though we profess to support

“Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations; and “" A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;”

Our 7^th and 8^th grade Sunday school class recently took a poll of the Congregation to discover what the adults believed about God. Although it was not a very scientific study, I think it pretty accurately reflected the diversity in the congregation. It didn’t surprise me that all of the 48 respondents agreed with the statement, “There are probably as many ideas about God as there are people.”, or that 43 out of 48 agreed with the statement, “There is a spark of divinity in each of us.” What surprised me was that only 8 members out of the 48 responding to the survey agreed with the statement, “My beliefs about Jesus make me feel closer to God.” Only the statement, “There is no such thing as God, and even the word is meaningless,” got fewer checks with 5 members agreeing. That surprised me because I'm guessing the majority of the members in our church grew up in a Christian congregation. As one of them, I cannot imagine coming to the place I am at in my spiritual journey without Jesus. I have resisted joining with the U.U. Christians in my congregation because the Jesus I seek to understand and know is more encompassing than modern Christianity. The term Christian in its modern context has come to mean exclusion and restriction of belief to me that fly in the face of Jesus’ direction to, “Seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened.” I am a Unitarian Universalist and the life and teachings of Jesus have helped bring me to the spiritual understanding that gives me comfort and guides my life today.

So, what do I believe about Jesus? John 1 says, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” It goes on to talk about the Word as the light that enlightens every human and that through the word we become the children of God. I believe that God speaks to us through the life and words of Jesus. I don’t believe that Jesus was the only incarnation of God’s word, but I do believe that Jesus was the divine word speaking to us in human form. Even though other religious and secular texts give me guidance and the lives of others inspire me, I still find myself constantly asking, “What would Jesus do in this situation?” “How did Jesus tell us to respond to this?” The fact that I also read the Tao Te Ching and Buddhist koans to guide my life or that I view Buddha and Lao Tzu as other incarnations of the divine word, doesn’t lessen the impact that Jesus has on my life. I am a true believer that God, the Tao, the Goddess or whatever name we choose to call divinity, is still speaking to us today if only we have ears to listen. I’m seeking the Word in my UU Church and I’m still finding it in the message and life of Jesus.