By Rev. Kirk Ballin
March 5, 2023

Readings

1. “Sustained shortfalls in emotional intelligence are, sadly, no minor matter. There are few catastrophes, in our own lives or in those of nations, that do not ultimately have their origins in emotional ignorance…Soberingly, despite all our advances in technology and material resources, we are not much more advanced in the art of delivering emotionally healthy childhoods than generations before us. The number of breakdowns, inauthentic lives, and broken souls shows no marked signs of decline We are failing to offer one another tolerable childhoods not because we are sinful or indifferent, but because we still have so far to go before we know how to master that improbably complicated subject: Love. – from The School of Life: An Emotional Education, Alain de Botton, author, philosopher, psychologist (co-founder).
2. “Cherish your doubts… Doubt is to the wise as a staff to the blind… For doubt is the attendant of truth.” From Cherish Your Doubts #650, Robert T. Weston. UUA, Singing the Living Tradition
3. “…train wholeheartedly… to be warriors of nonaggression who hear the cries of the world…If we find ourselves in doubt that we are up to being warriors-in-training, we can contemplate this question: Do I prefer to grow up  and relate to life directly, or do I choose to live and die in fear?”  – from Comfortable with Uncertainty, Pema Chodron.
4. “If we understand the direction of evolution—toward balance, or evenness—we will also realize that this is the purpose of everything that happens: to lead us toward balance. Because there is a clear direction to evolution, and reality is not yet there, nature keeps pushing toward increasing balance. As a result, the only thing that is guaranteed in reality is that yesterday is not as today, and today will not be as tomorrow. Change is the only certainty. – Michael Laitman. founder and president of Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education & Research Institute THE TIMES OF ISRAEL

Sermon

If you were here the last time I was with you, you might recall that I spoke about my bifurcated mind and the experience I had back in 1971, when, while high on pot, I had an existential crisis that engulfed me; that I had this split-mind-experience of trying to be present in an everyday, normal conversation while simultaneously feeling like I was nothing; that I was psychologically naked;  that I was in an extreme state of vulnerability.  I mentioned that that moment of deep chaos, fear, and uncertainty could have driven me to a complete emotional breakdown, even suicide. It was by inhabiting that realm of stark vulnerability, being at risk as I stood before that open psychic window peering into the inherent reality of Creation, that standing face to face with Chaos, which would either break me down or ignite profound change.

So, it did the latter. It dramatically, and at first, traumatically, redirected my understanding of my being human;  it made me profoundly aware of the need to redefine my relationship with being alive; a redefinition that greatly determined the trajectory of my life and, eventually, my decision to become a Unitarian Universalist Minister.  The symbiotic relationship of Vulnerability feeding on itself could have destroyed me or recreated me. I chose the latter.

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By Linda A. Dove
February 19, 2023

I ended my last talk at the point when, in 1961,  Unitarians and Universalists finally united to form one religious community. Today, in a brief overview, I select a handful of the significant issues the UUA and UUism have faced over the last, challenging 63 years. But, later, the main focus is our own Harrisonburg UU and its evolution since its founding. David Lane and Cathy Gardner will share their perspectives on HUU.

Initially, the UU Association took a directive, clerical stance towards the many UU districts even while it gave congregations financial support, including newly forming fellowships. Today, it primarily performs an educational and advisory role for our five, recently consolidated, regions. It focuses particularly on congregational governance and UU faith. Earlier, Virginia was in the Thomas Jefferson district along with Charlottesville but is now the northern-most state in the Southern Region that stretches to Alabama in the deep south.

A few years ago, pushed by vigorous grassroots protest, UUA diversified its all-white, mostly male, leadership to attract and include UUs marginalized by race, ethnicity, gender, and so on, and to abolish unconscious bias. And Beacon Press Books too has made its publications much more reflective of diversity.

UUA’s website, uua.org, has developed over the years. I do urge you to take time to dive into its well, clicking on surface links to discover many deeper pools. The quarterly UUWorld magazine is also free to UU members. The latest edition headlines Facing the Climate Crisis. The UUA was late taking on this existential issue but has divested its funds from polluting companies and speaks out to such companies’ boards to get them to change their harmful practices.

What are some other significant UU organizations you can find out about on the website? One I admire is the UU Service Committee. Its recent Annual Report recognizes HUU for our donation. In 22 countries, large and small, volunteers work in social justice programs. Poor countries initially invite UUs in rich countries to be equal development partners with them, not to act like big brother donors.

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By Tom Hook
February 5, 2023

I appreciate being with you this morning to share some thoughts on the path of love in our lives.

Most of you know that HUU subscribes to a UUA spiritual resource called “Soul Matters”.  Each month there is a new resource for communities to reflect on during that month.  Hopefully, you have noticed that this theme is featured in the  Enews each week with pertinent reflections. 

I do hope you enjoy the Enews.  I try to keep it informative and relevant to all HUU members and friends.  The Worship Committee also strives to incorporate the Soul Matters theme in the speaker’s message either the first or second Sunday of the month.

To that end, I was invited to speak on February’s Theme “The Path of Love”.

My talk is entitled, “The Primacy of Love”.  The first part of my talk looks at love as “The very physical structure of the Universe” as a “Cosmic Force” in play since the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago.

The second part will give some examples of how we can love more and reflect on how well we are proceeding in our quest to love.

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January 29, 2023
By Linda A Dove

Lighting the Chalice: Reading 

 “Life is protected and saved by those who embody presence, wisdom, resistance, gratitude, humility. These are the gifts people can bring to one another and can foster through long participation and practice as members of religious communities devoted to saving and protecting life, rooted in rituals of praise and thanksgiving.” Rebecca Parker

SLT Hymn No. 113 Where is Our Holy Church?, verses 1, 2, 5.

Way back last November, I traced how the Unitarian and Universalist movements grew in fits and starts during the 17th. and 18th.centuries and how, in my view, their theological disputes held them back from becoming mainstream denominations in the Christian tradition. (You can read my two earlier messages on our HUU website, HUUweb.org). In the mid-19th century, exhausted and leaderless, both branches were weak and dispirited. Today, I’ll trace how they gradually came to define themselves in the USA through the next 150 years until they became a unified UUism in 1961.

As the story unfolds, see if you can discern which of our Principles became prominent. Also, see if you can detect where UUs followed or led religious trends emerging in the wider society, and how today we still deal with similar issues.

To get us in the right frame of mind, let’s stand, if we are able, and Dee will lead us in Singing the Living Tradition Hymn:No. 389, Gathered Here. We’ll sing it twice.

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January 22, 2023
By Bill Faw

My outline is quite simple: An emotional episode begins as we make snap, gut-feeling or rational judgments that a person, thing, or situation is threatening or rewarding in some way. Our emotions then change as our judgments change. Our judgments change when the external situation changes, or when we clarify an ambiguous situation, or when we place the current situation into the context of past experiences, present concepts, or future expectations. As we look at some of these ways that we do this in our daily life, notice how several familiar proverbs are designed to moderate emotional responses.

First: Changing or Leaving a Situation Changes our Judgments, which Changes our Emotions

We are constantly changing situations to make them better and to decrease our negative emotional responses: everything from cleaning the house, to trying new work procedures, to apologizing for our thoughtless comments.

Of course, many changes are out of our control: especially the death of a loved one, which brings dramatic changes to our mood and emotional responses. In ‘grief work’ we change back our mood a bit, by reminding ourselves of pleasant and humorous episodes involving the loved one, by finding new activities, and by establishing new relationships which somewhat replace the loss.

In addition, adopting Tennyson’s perspective that, “’Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all” can temper our grief by the consolation that we grieve so deeply – why? — because we loved deeply, and that deep love and grief somehow give meaning to life and  deepen our character.        

More generally, being able to affirm that “what I have gone through has made me who I am”places our sorrows, disappointments, and guilts within a wider ‘judgment’ which mellows the emotional pain of those sorrows, disappointments, and guilts.

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By Linda A. Dove
November 13, 2022

Last time, I traced our UU origin story through the long centuries of the Holy Roman Empire with leaders like Athanasius, Arius, Scotus, Wycliff, Servetus, Ference, and the Socinuses. Their efforts planted the seed of UUism’s tree within Christianity. In the 1500s and 1600s, many Protestant sects, fleeing persecution, migrated back and forth between the Netherlands and England. I ended by noting how UUs, among others, fled to America, again largely to avoid persecution by other Protestants as well as Catholics. You’ll find both talks on HUU’S website.

Today, I trace how the UU tree evolved first in England and then North America through the 17th. and 18th.^. centuries, a period when the age of faith faded a little and the age of science and reason unfolded. Then, in the first half of the 19th. century, theological disputes weakened both the Unitarians and the Universalists while some entertained secularism. Our Principles and Sources today reflect both the religious and the secular influences.

Last time I covered about 1,500 years. This time I cover only 300 but those years cover a complicated UU story. Again, I hope I don’t mischaracterize it or lose you by summarizing so much in so few minutes.

In the late-1600s, the Dutch William III of Orange took over as the British king and Parliament passed the Toleration Act of 1689. This ended 150 years of persecution from when Henry VIII broke away from Rome and established the Church of England (CofE) into those turbulent Tudor and Stuart decades when successive monarchs, depending on whether they were Catholic or Protestant, brutally persecuted dissidents. UUism evolved in part through its opposition to the rigid domination of the CofE and its sibling in America, Episcopalianism and Anglicanism.

In the mid-1600s, among other dissenters, the Englishman, the Reverend John Biddle and the Irishman, the Reverend Thomas Emlyn stand out notable. Both wrote books that inspired the Unitarian cause. In A Two-fold Catechism, Biddle argued against the CofE catechism, claimed there was only one God, not Three-in-One, and, outrageously, like Calvin and Wycliff before him, urged people to read the scriptures for themselves. Puritan Cromwell banished him to the remote Scilly Isles. Emlyn, ordained as a Presbyterian, wrote A Humble Inquiry, arguing for one God. He was imprisoned for blasphemy.

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September 25, 2022
by Linda A. Dove

In my talk today, we’ll discover some roots of our many-branched Unitarian-Universalist tree, mainly in Europe. Later, we’ll climb some of our younger branches reaching into the western world. This way, I hope all of us will come to share an appreciation of how our roots and branches spread, and how we must now stand tall as a mature, life-sustaining tree. I hope this will help fertilize seedlings for the future of HUU.

UU-ism has a history of over 2,000 years and here I can only condense rich details into broad summary for the first 1,500 years, centered on Europe. I’ll emphasize events which proved turning points on our ancestors’ path and how those events point to themes relevant for us today.

I came to live here in 2009. If anything, I was spiritual agnostic/humanist. My only knowledge of UUs was from a visit to the Arlington, Virginia congregation. I found that uncomfortable; the congregation was too large for me, the worship too formal and uninspiring, and no one welcomed me, even in coffee time. Of course, it wasn’t fair to make judgements in a single visit; but I did so out of spiritual longing. After I settled here, I discovered HUU. All I remember is loving the old school-house, observing how the congregational personality was outspoken, and then, in the potluck, being wooed by the membership chair. Though protesting I was not a joiner, I came back and became a member before too long. I felt comfortable with you friendly folk also traveling your various spiritual paths. And, importantly, my soul resonates with our Principles. As I talk, you can refer to them, just after the preface in “Singing the Living Tradition.”

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