by Rev Mike Quayle
June 5, 2011

Some of us may seen today’s sermon title felt a little pain or apprehension.  We may carry baggage from our days in other churches or from a bad experience with someone trying to shove their religion down our throats.

One of the struggles being identified by many leaders in the UUA is this: UU’s are very good at saying what they do not believe….   We have a knee-jerk reaction when we hear something that for us, is not truth.  We can spend a great deal of time talking about what is wrong with other theologies and churches,  but perhaps, too little time talking about what makes UU’s different, distinctive, and needed in our world today.

I am going to ask you this morning to set aside the baggage, bad experiences, and the stereotypes.  I am asking for open minds and hearts to hear what I believe is a vital message for UU’s today.

Let’s start with the word EVANGELISM.  The word comes from Greek.  The root of the word is EVANGEL– One who tells good news. Evangelism is the act of telling good news. Nothing more, nothing less.  Let’s not confuse the meaning of the word with the abuses we have seen.

That leads to the next question;  Do we as UU’s in 2011 have any GOOD NEWS to tell ? If we do, what is that Good News ?

Our theologies are as varied as the number of people in this room.  We draw truth from many sources;  We speak of the 6 sources of UUism, but there are in reality, many more than 6.  Let’s sum it all up by saying we approach this thing called life in many different ways. That’s a good thing !

We may not be able to agree on what we consider to be Good News.  But, you are here, in this room, gathered with others on a journey of discovery.  So is it safe to assume that none of us came here to make ourselves miserable.

Maybe it is the open minds, lack of creeds, freedom to find our own way, being part of a community of people, mutual support, the strength of uniting with others to promote issues we consider important….  We all have a reason for being here and I doubt that it is to punish ourselves by enduring these weekly sessions where we see nothing good ! [Read more…]

Sermon for HUU’s 20^th Anniversary
Rev. Wade Wheelock and Rev. Anne Marsh

May 15, 2011

Wade: We are honored to have been asked to participate in this very special service of the Harrisonburg Unitarian Universalists.  We’re so glad Kirk, Emma, and Mike are here this morning, along with many of the lay leaders who have been instrumental in bringing HUU to this day of celebration.  We offer our congratulations for what you have accomplished already and our best wishes for the future you will build together.

On this day of looking back at our history, I am reminded that some religions have the practice of actually preserving the bodies of important figures from their past, especially their founders.  In our readings and travels, we’ve seen examples among Catholics in the American Southwest and in Quebec, and also in Buddhist and Daoist groups in China and Japan.  These embalmed saints or heroes are usually kept in a gilded case on a side altar, but on special occasions are brought forward for a more public display.

Today seems a little like such an occasion.  Anne and I don’t need chemical preservation — yet — but we are ghosts of a sort, specters from the earliest days of the HUU community.  In a way, we represent your pre-history, for we were already in seminary in Chicago when you had your official Charter Sunday, whose 20^th anniversary we mark today.  But we were here at the very first gathering of this group and throughout the first year and a half of its evolution.

Anne; In my mind’s eye, I can still see the 20 or so folks who sat on folding chairs in Deb and Randy Mitchells’ back yard in the summer of 1989.  Some were strangers to each other; none knew whether they could form a congregation and if so, what shape it might take.  I was an outlier from Charlottesville, preparing to go to theological school in a year, but asked in the meantime to join District Executive Roger Comstock in assisting the formation of the Harrisonburg Unitarian Universalists.  Those gathered in the circle on that sunny afternoon brought different life stories, different hopes, different ideas — but all were drawn by a desire for religious community.

That in itself is somewhat unusual, for after all, not everyone feels a need to be part of a religious community.  How many times have you heard: “If I went to any church, it would be UU, but I’m just not into organized religion”?  Of course, it’s often said that Unitarian Universalism is a disorganized religion, but still — despite the fact that each of us can think about life’s Big Questions on our own, people came to that first meeting.  Many of them stayed to help grow this church.  And this morning you are here, instead of home reading the paper or out hiking or running errands.  Why?

UU minister Mark Belletini says, “A free thinker alone out in the woods is not a Unitarian Universalist.  He or she is a free thinker alone out in the woods.”  Spirituality involves a sense of belonging to something larger than self, an awareness of deep connections to other people, to nature, to the sacred.  Out in the woods — or in solitary meditation — we may indeed catch glimpses of our connection with the cosmos.  But only in community do we learn how to celebrate and practice this interconnectedness.

And that is what we gather to do — to celebrate and practice our inter-connectedness, and thereby to grow our souls.  Alone, none of us has the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.  Spiritual growth occurs most creatively in a community whose members share their ideas and experiences, and respect and support each other.  Our free faith is not just faith in ourselves as individuals, but also faith in our ability as a community to find meaning and value. [Read more…]

May 1, 2011

Four members of our congregations shared from their hearts “Why it Matters to Me That Harrisonburg UU Becomes A Welcoming Congregation.”

Singing for Our Lives – David Lane

I want to tell a story this morning, a story that took place in Salt Lake City in the summer of 1999 at my first Unitarian-Universalist General Assembly.

The first night we were there, I entered the convention center (amusingly named the Salt Palace for its towering entrance shaped like a salt shaker) – I entered for what was called the Opening Celebration (part business meeting, part worship service, part trooping of the colors as it turned out).  But never having attended a GA, I had no real idea what to expect. [Read more…]

EASTER APRIL 24, 2011
Rev. Kirk Ballin

Readings

RESPONSIVE READING #530  “Out of the Stars”

“Out of the stars in their flight, out of the dust of eternity, here have we come, stardust and sunlight, mingling through time and through space. Out of the stars have we come, up from time; Out of the stars have we come. Time out of time before time in the vastness of space, earth spun to orbit the sun, Earth with the thunder of mountains newborn, the boiling of seas. Earth warmed by the sun, lit by sunlight: This is our home; Out of the stars have we come. Mystery hidden in mystery, back through all time; Mystery rising from rocks in the storm and the sea. Out of the stars, rising from rocks and the sea, kindled by sunlight on Earth, arose life. Ponder this thing in your heart; ponder with awe: Out of the sea to the land, out of the shallows came ferns. Out of the sea to the land, up from darkness to light, rising to walk and to fly, out of the sea trembled life. Ponder this thing in your heart, life up from the sea: Eyes to behold, throats to sing, mates to love. Life from the sea, warmed by sun, washed by rain, life from within, giving birth, rose to love. This is the wonder of time; this is the marvel of space; out of the stars swung the Earth; life upon Earth rose to love. This is the marvel of life, rising to see and to know; Out of your heart, cry wonder: sing that we live!”  – Robert Weston

“ Now,after the Sabbath, toward dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the sepulcher. And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone, and sat upon it. His appearance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow. And for fear of him, the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead…So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and graet joy, and ran to tell his disciples.” – New Testament, Matthew 28: 1-8

“The essence of Life is fleeting. Life might be over in the next instant! Remembering impermanence can teach you a lot about how to cheer up. It’s OK to let it scare you. Seeing your fear can heighten the sense of gratitude for the preciousness of human birth and the opportunity to [live and] to practice. – Pema Chodren, Comfortable With Uncertainty

Meet this transient world
with neither grasping nor fear,
trust the unfolding of life,
and you will attain true serenity. ~Bhagavad Gita

Thoughts which came to me during a particularly challenging time, a couple of weeks ago:
“I regret the things I cannot change in my past; I accept the limitations of my present; I am emboldened, empowered by the impermanence of my future.” [Read more…]

Put your dictionaries away folks, it’s not that kind of service.

Come Closer

Come closer she mimes; if I am to be yours

And you are to be mine

Come closer she says if all you see is differences

Come closer to see the goddess in me

If he is too queer to draw him near

Come closer dear friend where all can mend

There is always a boy inside of a man

All you need to do is come closer if you can.

At 15 I joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints – The Mormons

I was welcomed and loved and valued. Well, until I decided I would like to pursue a romantic relationship with a woman.  The acceptance I once felt did not extend that far.  I had crossed the boundaries. I was granted excommunication.

Tikkun Olam

I loved that religion, there was a comfort there. I searched for a spiritual replacement. I even went to a “Gay” church. I wanted to belong somewhere. So since I ran full speed and did a cannon ball into the lesbian pool, I thought “how about that gay church.”  I went but did not feel comfortable. I thought they were playing church, the way children play house. It seemed as though they were pretending and they were fake. Fake church members, and fake families. After all, real families

Are a mom a dad a kid and a dog.

Not a mom, mom, kid and a bird.

Or dad, dad, kid and cat.

Tikkun Olam

So I searched….

Finally, my boots ended up at the Unitarian Church of Harrisburg.

Prior to becoming a member of the Unitarian Church of Harrisburg, I was a big mean cop in the capital city. Now…after the gentle caresses of the Unitarian church, I’m not as mean. [Read more…]

Experiencing the Divine Through Every Day Life By Lisa Ellison

HUU Spiritual Journey’s Service March 27, 2011

Spiritual journeys are often long and winding roads. There are often forks in these roads and blind curves to navigate, but I believe we all possess an internal compass that shows us the way. I grew up in a Lutheran, Catholic, Buddhist family. Needless to say I was offered many different entry points on my spiritual journey; yet, all of these thresholds contained preset roadmaps. Fortunately my parents let me explore and choose my own way as I grew up. I can’t say that everyone was always happy with my choices, but I can say they were always mine to make. I think that people have aha moments in their lives when they hear things that speak to their inner truth. These experiences of truth originate deep in the gut unsullied by rational thought. Sometimes people mistake them for indigestion. But these moments offer important information that can expand our world view and show us something different. However, the messages we receive do not always coincide with what others may expect of us.

I spent a lot of time contemplating these three religious traditions as a young child. I liked the holidays and the sense of ritual I found in my grandmother’s Catholicism even though I wasn’t big on the idea of wearing frilly white dresses. Plus the whole idea of bread into flesh and wine into blood scared the crap out of me. In the beginning Lutheranism meant cookies, juice, and crafts. This was really enticing. I loved glue. But, when I was around seven years old I was told that I had to go to the big church service upstairs. My heart sank. Adult church was long and boring. They did not serve cookies and juice. Most of the time I sat quietly and contemplated the huge wooden cross suspended in the air above the pulpit. I wondered where the wood came from, how strong the wires were, what would happen if I tried to climb it. Wondering about all of the possibilities hidden in that huge cross gave me the patience to sit still while the preacher delivered his sermon. Everyone was very nice at this church, but somehow the practice did not speak to me. I had a real problem with original sin and needing somebody to forgive me for things I hadn’t done. [Read more…]

International Women’s Day (8 March) is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future. In some places like China, Russia, Vietnam and Bulgaria, International Women’s Day is a national holiday.

Dorothea Dix

by Judith Hollowood

I speak this morning to celebrate the relentless work of Dorothea Lynde Dix, a Unitarian reformer-heroine of pre-civil war America.

For many years, Miss Dix, a lifelong Unitarian Christian, did not have a purpose in life large enough for her conscience. By her early 20s, she was caught in cycles of depression and illness that so often dragged down unconventional women of her time – women who could not or would not find their whole purpose in marriage, family, and friendship.

But when more than half her life was passed – at the age of 43 – she found a purpose – improving the care of the mentally ill, who were for the most part housed with prison populations, uncared for and unable to care for themselves.

She was not, as simple accounts suggest, the first or only person concerned with better care for the insane. Massachusetts had built a model public mental institution, and several progressive private institutions existed. Many people, including some in her own circle, were already invested in this issue. Two well-placed social reformers, Horace Mann and Samuel Gridley Howe, had shown that overwhelming evidence could move cautious legislatures to action. But the movement for the insane lacked someone who could invest him or herself in it wholeheartedly. [Read more…]