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…]

STEWARDSHIP SUNDAY
“Living Generously”
March 6, 2011
by Rev. Emma Chattin

First Reading ~ Matthew 6: 37-38

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given unto you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured unto you.”

Second Reading
“Looking For Mt. Monadnock” by Robert Siegel

We see the sign, “Monadnock State Park”
as it flashes by, after a mile or two
decide to go back, “We can’t pass by Mondnock
without seeing it,” I say, turning around.
We head down the side road – “Monadnock Realty,”
“Monadnock Pottery,” “Monadnock Designs,”
but no Mt. Monadnock. Then the signs fall away –
nothing but trees and the darkening afternoon.
We don’t speak, pass a clearing, and you say,

“I think I saw it, or part of it – a bald rock?”
Miles and miles more. Finally, I pull over
and we consult a map. “Monadnock’s right there.”
“Or just back a bit there.” “But we should see it –
we’re practically on top of it.” And driving back
we look – trees, a flash of clearing, purple rock –
but we are, it seems, too close to see it:

It is here. We are on it. It is under us.

Good Morning!
[Read more…]

by Michael Quayle
February 6, 2011

For many of us the term theology holds a lot of negative baggage.  There is a tendency to associate theology with a specific approach or doctrine.   If we have rejected certain religious beliefs or teachings, there is a tendency to reject theology.

Within the Unitarian-Universalist tradition there are as many Religious or spiritual beliefs as there are people in this room. Some of us have suffered oppression and even violence in the name of Judeo-Christian practice and theology to the point that we reject all theology as limited or at best, not useful.

I come from a traditional or some would say orthodox Christian background.  My pastoral ministry was in the United Methodist church and my time as a lay-person has been in the Episcopal church.  In these traditions, theology tends to be linked with doctrine,   very specific doctrines.  Theology is viewed as a way of defending and preserving those doctrines and excluding beliefs which would weaken or destroy church teaching.

Yet, I find myself growing more and more connected to the Unitarian-Universalist way.   In some ways I thought I had invented Unitarian-Universalism.   Imagine my surprise when I found it was already there.  My study of Unitarian-Universalism has again and again affirmed the spiritual journey of my life, and has allowed a spiritual sigh of relief in discovering there exists a community of people who share my journey, my struggles, and my passion for social justice and a world view that makes sense to me. [Read more…]

Harvey Yoder has been a resident of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia since 1946 when his family moved from Kansas by train. Harvey is an ordained Mennonite minister and now have a seminary degree and a master’s degree in counseling and since 1988 have been a marriage and family counselor and pastor of a local house church. Harvey has spoken here at HUU on a number of occasions.

On Sunday, January 23rd, he presented a sermon Justice Gone Awry. The first part is presented below:

A judge I spoke with recently told me that without the use of plea bargaining, where a deal is reached in which a defendant receives  a lesser sentence in exchange for a guilty plea, the courts would be hopelessly backed up with more cases than they could handle.

When a defendant is actually guilty, I can see such an arrangement saving time and court costs and perhaps living up to its name as a “bargain.”  But when a defendant is not guilty, should he or she, while under oath to tell “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth,”  feel coerced into giving up their right to due process that might exonerate them, simply because of the risk of receiving a dreadfully long prison sentence?

You can read Justice Gone Awry on Harvey’s blog.

Presented by Merle Wenger
Sunday January 2, 2011

Chalice Lighting:  “We Dreamers”

We dreamers–
architects of the soul
take a lifetime,
to meditate,
sketch,
create,
like Corbusier or I M Pei;
then choose
the bricks and stones,
to build a self
that suits us well
and makes others
cock their heads
and notice. [Read more…]