This Sunday, we had two different, wonderful services: a “question box” service answering any and all questions about anything at all, and our annual Music Sunday, led by our Choir Director Joanna Lovell and featuring the talents of our singers and musicians. This year we highlighted Celtic music and the Irish heritage and culture. We hope to have a recording to share with you up soon, but in the meantime here’s a few wonderful Irish blessings I mentioned in the service. All are anonymous, timeless bits of Irish wisdom:
“May you live as long as you want, And never want as long as you live.
May your home always be too small to hold all your friends.
And May you live to be a hundred years
With one extra year to repent.”
Space precludes me from sharing all the wonderful questions raised in the Question Box service, much less the answers. I always welcome your questions, however, so email them here and I’ll do my best to give them as full an answer as I can muster. OK, I’ll share one: “who’s better, Captain Kirk or Captain Picard?” I was a bit stumped on that one, answers welcome…
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This month, we’re disucssing the fift principle of Unitarian Universalism: “Congregations affirm and promote the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large. We talked about this in our service February 7th (you can read the sermon here: http://hunterdonuu.org/wpmu/sermons/) And this Thursday, February 18th, they’ll be a conversation about it in our Dodd Hall at 7 pm. You’re welcome to attend.
It’s interesting to note that our larger Association is currently also talking about democracy. Specifically, the Board of Trustees of the Unitarian Universalist Association empowered a “Fifth Principle Task Force” to look into how democratic our Association really is. All our leaders are elected by vote - surely that means we’re democratic?
Well, sort of. What the task force concluded was the way the vote is held is not truly democratic, for it happens at our General Assembly, an annual event that costs significant money in registration and travel fees. Because not everyone can afford to go, the same people attend General Assembly year after year. Consequently, the same people vote on all the issues facing the Association.
The Task Force recommended a biennual assembly (once every two years) that’s focussed on the business of the association. For that assembly, the UUA subsidizes the attendance of the elected delegates of each congregation, You can read the whole report here:
http://www.uua.org/documents/boardtrustees/5thprinciple/0912_report.pdf
I agree with these proposed changes. I do so as someone who attends General Assembly just about every year (minister’s professional funds help make this possible), and has a great time. Even though I enjoy our yearly gatherings, we always have to be thinking of who’s NOT able to be there - and because of the cost, many people aren’t there who should be, and our UU democracy suffers as a result. So although it would mean I’d have to get used to a serious change to something I love, this is a change for the better for the movement, I believe. Just think: hundreds, maybe thousands of people who could never afford to be a part of the decsion-making process, lay leaders in their congregations, will now help set the course for our movement. No, it won’t be the same lovely, dedicated people year after year - but instead, we’ll have a much larger base of lovely, dedicated people who have attended at least one GA, and have been transformed by the experience.
The recommendations of the Fifth Principle Task Force will be voted - where else - at General Assembly.
http://www.uua.org/documents/boardtrustees/5thprinciple/0912_report.pdf
Beloved readers, it’s been a long time since my last blog post. Clearly, the best plans of mice and ministers will often go astray. The main, happy reason for the hiatus has been the birth of my & Abbey’s son, Abe, in August. Between a busy congregational year and a busy life at home, something had to give, at that something was this blog.
I’m not sure the world has felt the lack of one more blog, but nevertheless I’d like to get back into writing. And what better way to begin, then with my February newsletter column, on absences and returning. Happy 2010, and thanks for reading!
Rev. Bob
When It’s All Too Much
For several years now I’ve wondered if the middle of winter isn’t a particularly lousy time to make New Year’s resolutions. I mean, just getting through the winter is hard enough, for most of us, and now we’re expected to lose 10 pounds, quit smoking, be more productive, and join a book group? Our cousins the bears and the squirrels are hunkering down, gathering food and moving as little as possible, and in the midst of winter I think they’re on to something. You won’t catch them trying to fit Pilates into their schedules, while vowing to become better mammals in all of their doings. They just make themselves a place for winter to happen – and preferably to happen as little as possible.
It’s with this in mind that I want to offer a message of mercy to anyone who might be going through a time of “it’s all too much.” We probably all get these times in our lives, times when it feels like we are running a marathon in a mud puddle. Sometimes the faster you try to run, the worse it gets.
As warm and supportive as we attempt to be, the congregation can sometimes contribute to this sense of being overburdened. A week doesn’t go by here when someone doesn’t express to me that they wish they could be more active in the congregation and attend more services and events. “I love what’s going on here,” you tell me, “and I would love to be more a part of it, but I’m just not able to make it happen right now. I hate to let everyone down.”
As you know, I’m an eager cheerleader for congregational contribution. I believe what we do together – I know what we do together – changes lives in powerful, affirming ways. To be a part of a fellowship that makes love real has enormous benefits, both for the doer and for the world. But at the same time I also feel that there has to be “February times” in our lives when we do less, and simply take care of ourselves. You have probably heard the Rumi poem we sing our children in: “Come, come, whoever you are.” The refrain to that poem is equally important: “though I’ve broken my vows a thousand times.” Anyone who’s ever made important vows knows the feeling of failing to live up to those vows. (C’mon: even if you’re in a happy marriage, have you really always been there for your partner in sickness and in health, for better or for worse? I mean, really been there, body and soul?) We all have our Februaries. That’s where grace and mercy come in, big time.
So with that in mind, I say into each of you:
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If you can only come to services once a year, you are welcomed, supported and affirmed, and a cherished part of this community.
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If you come to services but, for whatever reason, never make it into the building from the parking lot, you are welcomed, supported and affirmed, and a cherished part of this community.
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If you can’t make services, for whatever reason, but need this place to be there for you as a beacon in your heart, you are welcomed, supported and affirmed, and a cherished part of this community.
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If you attend services religiously – or attend them non-religiously and all the time! - you are welcomed, supported and affirmed, and a cherished part of this community.
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If you come to every event and would serve on every committee if you could, you are welcomed, supported and affirmed, and a cherished part of this community.
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If it feels like everybody in this community is smarter, more committed, more dedicated, more spiritually mature, more talented, than you are or will ever be, you are welcomed, supported and affirmed, and a cherished part of this community.
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If for ten years you don’t come to services, and then stroll through the door when you are ready again, you are welcomed, supported and affirmed, and a cherished part of this community.
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If life takes you another direction, away from FUUFHC, but you still want to honor this place as a part of your past, you are welcomed, supported and affirmed, and a cherished part of this community.
Come, come, whoever you are. And if you can’t come, for whatever reason, know that we love you, wherever life finds you right now. Blessed be,
Rev. Bob