Harrisonburg UU We are a lay-led, religious community offering a unique spiritual and moral witness in the Shenandoah Valley.
We meet each Sunday in the historic Dale Enterprise School House. Most of our services have a community dialogue or "talk back" after the service. Each of our services is followed by coffee and refreshments in our "Community Cafe." Quite often the dialogue will carry over to the community cafe.
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A Talk By James J. Geary
Delivered before the Harrisonburg Unitarian Universalist Church
16 May 2010
Chalice Reading
The chalice is a symbol. We need symbols in our lives; we can’t do without them.
We utilize hundreds of symbols every day, including the words we use.
What does the chalice symbolize for you?
For me the chalice symbolizes itself — fire. Think about fire. Fire is energy. Fire is the essence of the universe. Fire is everything. Everything is from fire. Our sun, from which we come, from which we gain sustenance, is fire. The stars, from which we have come, are fire. We are fire, slow-burning, very complex fires. The stars are energy in action. Our sun is energy in action. And we, carrying within us the life force, are energy.
Like the Hindu god, Shiva, fire is the creator and destroyer of worlds. Fire is life, fire is death, fire is we, fire is the essence of the universe.
Talk 5%. A Very Long Spiritual Journey
Good morning.
Well, here we are — again. Oh, I know I said I was 95 per cent sure my last talk was really my last talk. That’s the meaning of the 5 % in the title of today’s talk.
I had a five percent chance of speaking again.
I have a piece of trivial news. Two days ago I turned 96. I don’t believe it!
I have a couple of readings:
The first is a short poem by the famous English novelist, Thomas hardy. The title
is: Waiting Both
A star looks down at me,
And says: “Here I and you
Stand each in our degree:
What do you mean to do, —
Mean to do?”I say: “For all I know,
Wait, and let Time go by,
Til my change come.” —
”Just so,” The star says: “So mean I: —
So mean I.”
The following reading is an excerpt from Pleasures, a poem by the California poet, Robinson Jeffers.
There is a higher pleasure;
To lie among cold stones my older bothers — God knows I am old enough,
But not like granite — to lie quietly embarnacled
Under the film of surf and look at the sky,
I strain the mind to imagine distances
That are not in man’s mind: the planets, the suns, the galaxies, the super galaxies, the incredible voids
And lofts of space: our mother the ape never suckled us
For such a forest: the vastness here, the horror, the mathematical unreason, the cold awful glory,
The inhuman face of our God: It is pleasant and beautiful.
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During the past 20 years, I have enjoyed some inspiring services from members of this fellowship, especially personal spiritual journeys. So I thought I’d try to interest you in mine..
In this talk I discuss the two principal intellectual loves of my life, philosophy and natural beauty.
I‘ll begin this talk with a mental picture, a picture of me crying when I was about 11 years old.. I had been promised I could visit with a family friend on his orchard estate for a few days. And then the promise had been withdrawn; and I was weeping. And my Uncle Leslie said something strange. He said the grief I was suffering was balanced by the joy I had felt when the promise was first made.
I couldn’t handle that. What he said certainly didn’t do anything to assuage my hurt feelings. But I remembered it. Little could I have imagined, however, that the philosophy or psychology that my uncle expressed would become one of the two sustaining pillars of my mature philosophy of life. Continue reading 5%. A Very Long Spiritual Journey
Sarah Vowell has attracted some fame with her wit, cleverly sending up the Puritans’ more bizarre aspects while reminding us of their virtues. She focuses on the Boston Puritans, not the smaller but more American-legendary Pilgrims of Plymouth. She reminds us that both groups were writers and intellectuals, very unlike today’s Bible Belt fundamentalists. She notes that Winthrop’s “City on a Hill” vision was about cooperation and interdependence, in contrast to the free-market ideological spin put on it by some politicians of our time. Only after these defenses does Vowell damningly indict the Puritan culture’s intolerance, misogyny and cruelty, including the horrendous massacre of 700 Pequot Indians at Mystic (now Connecticut). Vowell shares with us the American Indian side to her own heritage, though she neither romanticizes or demonizes any group. The wit and charm of this young writer belie a dark vision of our national roots and psyche.
(This opinion by Chris Edwards and Robin McNallie is in response to a request for members’ feedback from Bernie Mathes, our delegate to the Jefferson District meeting May 1):
If our UU district drops Thomas Jefferson’s name, we will put ourselves in the company of those on the Texas Board of Education who plan to downsize his place in that state’s school curriculum! Late-night comedians may have fun with that, but we think it’s a bad idea.
TJ was a complicated, flawed figure who shared in the evils of his time and place (owning slaves, though opposing slavery). History is filled with complicated and flawed people (like, maybe, all of us) — and that includes those who make outstanding contributions to humankind. Such as Jefferson.
If for nothing else, he deserves to be honored by UU’s for his authorship of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (for its text, see http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/jefferson_vsrf.html).
A post by the American Humanist Association reads, “The Virginia statute was nothing more or less than the statutory precursor to the guarantee of religious freedom contained in the First Amendment to our federal Constitution. Noted historian Henry Steele Commager called the Virginia statute “probably the most famous single document in the history of religious freedom in America.”
This freedom is enshrined in Unitarian Universalist principles and especially needs our support and promotion now, with the rise of theocracy movements in our country and the world.
In Texas, ironically, the NY Times reports that the education board plans “to cut Thomas Jefferson from a list of figures whose writings inspired revolutions in the late 18th century and 19th century, replacing him with St. Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin and William Blackstone. (Jefferson is not well liked among conservatives on the board because he coined the term ‘separation between church and state.’)”
Is this company we want to keep?
Better choices might include our District adopting a hyphenated name, pairing Jefferson with an inspiring leader of color. Or, how about considering approaches to reconciling our nation’s polarized communities? We could check out the “Coming to the Table” movement, which has brought together descendants of slaves and slave-owners, starting with the Jefferson and Hemings families, to promote understanding and dialogue (and has a base in Harrisonburg): see http://www.comingtothetable.org/about/history/. The UU community certainly needs to become more multicultural (as UU World articles have called for). Let’s look for positive, meaningful ways.
Chris and Robin
By Rev. Emma Chattin
March 14, 2010
First Reading
John 6:1-13
Feeding The Five Thousand
Some time later, Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee– also called Lake Tiberias –and a huge crowd followed him, because they saw the signs he gave by healing the sick. Jesus climbed the hillside and sat down there with his disciples. It was shortly before the Jewish feast of Passover. Looking up, Jesus saw the crowd approaching and said to Philip, ‘Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?’ Jesus knew what he was going to do, but asked this to learn Phillip’s response. Philip answered, ‘Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread to give each of them a little mouthful!’ One of the disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said, ‘There is a child here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?’ Jesus said, ‘Make the people sit down.’ Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; and as many as five thousand families sat down. Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who were seated; so also with the fish, giving out as much as they could eat. When the people had eaten their fill, Jesus told the disciples, ‘Gather up the leftover pieces, so that nothing gets wasted.’ So they picked them up, and filled twelve baskets with the scraps left over from the five barley loaves.
Second Reading
Adapted from~
Jesus and Buddha as Stories by Professor David Loy
…. Our minds need stories just as much as our bodies need food. ‘Story’ in this case means….all our mythologies, folktales, legends, epics, novels, philosophies, ideologies, including, of course, our religious beliefs. Just like food builds and rebuilds our bodies, stories build and rebuild our minds (or spirits, if you prefer) because it is through them that we learn what the world is, who we are, what is important in this world, and how we are to live in it. ….. If we look at religion-stories from this perspective, we can appreciate them in a different way. Continue reading What Feeds You?
Sunday service by Robin McNallie
3.28.2010
Readings:
1) “thy eyes look to me mild. Out of maize @ air/ your body’s made and moves. I summon, see,/ from the centuries it./I think you won’t stay. How do we/ linger, diminished, in our lovers’ air,/ implausibly visible, to whom, a year,/ years, over interims; or not;/ to a long stranger; or not; shimmer @ disappear.”
John Berryman, “Homage to Mistress Bradstreet”
2) “Sometimes the sun is only shadowed by a cloud that we cannot see his luster although we may walk by his light, but when he is set, we are in darkness till he arise again. So God doth sometime veil His face but for a moment that we cannot behold the light of His countenance as at some other time.”
Anne Bradstreet, “Meditation 50”
When I agreed to do this morning’s service, I was in the middle of reading Sarah Vowell’s well-received 2008 book on the 17th c. Massachusetts Bay Puritans, “The Wordy Shipmates.” I recommend it highly. Vowell, an audaciously cheeky commentator on that society, is also true to the historical record and shrewd in her judgments on it. She is essentially a stand-up comedian doing a sort of antic impression of Perry Miller, Harvard University’s pre-eminent authority on the New England Puritans and the later Transcendentalists. Although Vowell doesn’t seriously contradict H. L. Mencken’s oft recycled definition of Puritanism as “the sneaking suspicion that someone somewhere is having a good time,” she does suggest that there are, at least, a few redeeming qualities to Puritan society which should perhaps come as good news to UUs since our Unitarian branch is the evolved offspring of Puritan congregationalism; we won’t be harmed either from owning up to that dour and dyspeptic past or knowing it more fully. Since Vowell devotes considerable space to Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson, we can infer that a positive attribute she finds in the Massachusetts colony is the quality of the dissenters it produced—before banishing them to Rhode Island.
I would like, however, to direct my own remarks to another woman of that patriarchal world not covered by Vowell, the other Anne—Bradstreet. To students seeking to pass their masters exams in American Literature Anne Bradstreet is the answer to the question: “ What poet was the first in the English speaking New World colonies to have a volume of poetry published in London in the year 1650?” The title of that book, probably supplied by a market savvy publisher of the time, is “The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America.” Anne, incidentally, was peeved initially, because her brother-in-law had delivered the draft of it to London without her knowledge. The universal moral here: Keep your best china and all loose manuscripts hidden when having your in-laws over. Continue reading MISTRESS ANN BRADSTREET: GODLY AGNOSTIC
What is a pledge?
A pledge is an offer and a plan to contribute an amount of money you choose to your church over the course of the July-June financial year.
How is this different from putting money in the plate?
Your pledge is the money HUU counts on. The Sunday cash offering provides a small amount of additional income.
How many people pledge?
In 2009-10, 34 pledges; in 2010-11, 37 pledges. A pledge from a household is counted once, even if there are two members, so the number of pledges is normally fewer than the number of members.
How much should I pledge?
We hope you will give at a level that reflects your ability to contribute and your enthusiasm for HUU. Every household’s ability to give is different. The range of individual pledged amounts is very wide.
Every pledge raises our level of participation, and that encourages others to believe that HUU is worth their financial support. All pledges are valuable because they help the governing body of the church plan the budget that members vote on in May.
In other words, no pledge is too small. In recent years, the average pledge has been in the $1,350 – $1,550 range. As we propose bigger budgets, we hope for bigger pledges. Continue reading Questions and Answers about Pledging
Nourishing HUU Financially For Fiscal Year 2011
We have great goals for HUU and a big challenge to pay for them. Can we feed our appetite for a richer experience at HUU? The Finance Committee offers us this background information.
HUU Member/Friend Giving Statistics
62 members and 18 friends
FY09
29 pledges totaling $42,125
average pledge = $1,453
FY10, the year that is now in progress
34 pledges totaling $45,800
average pledge = $1,347
Prospects for FY11, the New Year
The preliminary income budget for FY11 (next year) uses an estimate of 38 pledges totaling $51,300 and an average pledge of $1,350
The preliminary expense budget – ordinary ongoing expenses and committee proposals for stronger programming and pay equity – is $8,400 more than the estimated income.
To fund the preliminary expense budget from current income, HUU would need 40 pledges for a total of $60,000 – an average pledge of $1,500.
HUU’s Average Expenditure Per Member
$757 (2008-09)
$894 (projected 2009-10)
$1,079 (goal for 2010-11): a 20% increase over the prior year yet 10% less than the UUA average of three years ago
Average Expenditure Per Member in All UU Congregations
$1,203 (2007-08)
163,789 UU members in 1,042 UU churches
Eric LaFreniere addressed HUU members and friends gathered for the Stewardship Sunday luncheon. His comments follow.
Greetings!
In case you don’t know, my name is Eric LaFreniere, and I’m chair of your HUU Membership Committee.
Recently I’ve had the opportunity to reflect on the idea of HUU membership as membership in a kind of extended family, with all the challenges, rewards – and food – that entails. Our HUU family encourages us to be our best selves: to adhere to core principles, to participate in and buuild community, to evolve through positive if sometimes difficult relationships with others, to seek and supply solace and support, and to quest for spiritual meaning together. Like a biological family, our HUU family is worthy of our attention, time and energy. It is both a value in the present moment and an investment in the future.
Speaking of which, on this Stewardship Sunday, as chair of your Membership Committee, I beseech you to pledge generously to your HUU family. Yes, these are troubling economic times – and Lord knows many of you have already given amply of your time and energy – but our HUU family is on the verge of expansion in terms of both membership and programs – just as a biological family might be about to be transformed by a birth or a marriage, or by sending someone off to college, or by the start of a business. All of those things take money, which is what I’m frankly asking of you, so that our HUU family can transform into a bigger, better vehicle for the realization of our principles, our relationships, and our spiritual journeys.
Thank you.
Back in November, the Sunday Services Committee asked for congregational feedback on services and heard from about a dozen people. We paid particular attention to comments about Joys & Concerns. Several members had spoken publicly about their dislike for this feature of our services. We wanted to know if this feeling was widespread. We did not find that this was the case.
HUUs don’t have a regular minister to turn to for immediate personal communication in a time of crisis. People are unsure how to connect to the caring resources of HUU, and Joys & Concerns is an obvious avenue for doing that. Listening to Joys & Concerns helps listeners learn important things about our fellows that might emerge in more private settings if HUU provided them.
UUs share many values but have a full range of human temperaments. Recent discussions showed that we don’t define appropriate public disclosure in the same ways. What some are eager to share, others would not; and what some are glad to learn, others find irrelevant and uncomfortable to know.
Moreover, some of us recall Sunday services in other houses of worship that create an atmosphere of calm, quiet, and order. Some treasure a certain formality and consistency of tone even as they distance themselves from the creeds and politics of their churches of origin. This worshipful dimension is not easy to recreate in the informal atmosphere of HUU, and Joys & Concerns create many of our most informal of moments.
What to do? The responses we received didn’t show any groundswell of desire to remove Joys & Concerns from Sunday mornings. People valued it even though it sometimes made them uncomfortable and irritated. Still, most respondents hoped that people would
- avoid strong and hostile political statements;
- be brief, focused and audible.
There was also a sense that some announcements of events belong in Joys & Concerns, while others do not, but there was no consensus on how we would define the difference.
The Sunday Services committee will continue to remind you of how your fellows hope you will use this precious Sunday morning time. If you will introduce yourself, it will help those who do not know you yet to make a connection with you and make Joys & Concerns a moment that includes both long-timers and newcomers.
We will encourage members who want to address the congregation at greater length to speak to the worship leader earlier in the week, so that his or her remarks can be part of the fabric of the morning. Memorial statements are an example of a kind of sharing that deserves its own moment. Standing at the podium and using the microphone system is another way to be sure that all your listeners are included.
Occasionally, we will use the time customarily devoted to Joys & Concerns to experiment with rituals that other UU churches use to acknowledge our commitment to mutual support. Spoken joys and concerns are powerful, but so are other rituals that may also open doors for people who do not resonate to joys and concerns.
Finally, we hope that emerging programs of small group ministry and adult religious education will meet more of the need to know about each other’s deepest concerns and support each other on our journeys.
Written by Judith Hollowood and Submitted to the congregation by the Sunday Services Committee: Bernie Mathes, Pat Geary, Judith Hollowood, Beryl Lawson, Barkley Rosser.
Encountering Divinity Through Community (Or…. Is It The Other Way Around?)
January 10, 2010
by Rev Emma Chattin
Words of the Mystics - Thoughts for Reflection
“The minute I heard my first love story I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They’re in each other all along.”
~ Jalal ad-Din Rumi (Persian Poet and Mystic, 1207-1273)~
“You are not a human being in search of a spiritual experience. You are a spiritual being immersed in a human experience.”
~ Teilhard de Chardin quotes (French Geologist, Priest, Philosopher and Mystic, 1881-1955) ~
“The trouble is that everyone talks about reforming others and no one thinks about reforming [themselves].”
~ Saint Peter of Alcantara quotes (Spanish Mystic and Founder of the Discalced (i.e. barefooted) Friars Minor. 1499-1562)~
Every natural fact is a symbol of some spiritual fact. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~
“Your task is not to seek love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” ~ Jalal ad-Din Rumi ~
“(said of God ): If this is the way you treat your friends, it’s no wonder you have so few!”
~ St. Teresa of Avila ~
Vocatus atque non vocatus, Deus aderit.
( Bidden or not, God is present. )
A statement that Carl Jung discovered among the Latin writings of Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536), who declared the statement had been an ancient Spartan proverb. Jung popularized it, having it inscribed over the doorway of his house, and upon his tomb.
The fault of others is easily perceived, but that of oneself is difficult to perceive. The faults of others, one lays open as much as possible, but one’s own faults one hides, as a cheat hides the bad dice from the gambler. ~ (Buddha, Dhammapada, vv. 252, 253) ~
Reading
~ from Nevada Barr in Seeking Enlightenment Hat by Hat: A Skeptics Guide to Religion
Church is for finding and adoring God in community: with others, through others, because of others, in spite of others. Only by finding this place of human interaction, focused around the need for the spiritual, was I able to recognize God in other people, and so in myself. Without community, how would I learn to share? Who would I help? How would I learn to accept help? … Community is God rubbing elbows and passing the tuna casserole, a place where we can snuggle down with the Divine. Though I’d never have suspected it when I began this spiritual journey, God is not separate from people. Sure we’re hypocrites, liars, boasters, blasphemers, and cheats, but we are God’s hypocrites, liars, boasters, blasphemers, and cheats. The spark is in each of us. When we work together for what we sincerely hope is good, worship together in the belief we will touch God, sing together in the hope (God) hears our praises, then the spark is fanned, and God becomes as visible in us as God is in new snow, or a sunrise, or in a mountain lake.
Sermon
Good Morning. And welcome on this very binary morning of 01 10 10.
My father would begin all of his Sunday morning services with “Welcome all who gather here today, this is God’s House”, and I learned at an early age exactly what that meant.
We were stationed at Mt Carmel Methodist church in Covington, VA, and whenever I heard that phrase, I always took some pride in it. After all, THIS was God’s house. Our place. Our little church was where God lived.
As I went to school, I had Jewish & Catholic friends, and while I knew some of the differences between us, I took a secret sanctimonious pride… that our little church was God’s place, God’s pad. This pride continued to swell in me, until one day, I blurted out to one of the church members that this was God’s house, Mt. Carmel was where God lived. The member, I can’t remember his real name, but everyone called him Chestnut, looked down at me with that bristly burry flattop haircut of his (which my have been the source of his nickname), and pointed to the front of the church. Behind the altar and pulpit, at the very forward part of the church, hung a HUGE burgundy velvet curtain as a backdrop. Chestnut told me that God lived behind that curtain. Continue reading Encountering Divinity Through Community
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