DanceLessons

Called to Purpose and Meaning

It has been months since I've posted. 2007 was a difficult year for me and my family - too many life events that wore away spiritually, emotionally and physically.  I'm working on regaining my footing and more importantly, finding my calling or vocation at this time in my life.  At sixty years, one would think I would know what I should do when I grow-up; but no.  Now it is what should I be as I grow older. This, for me, has required a cycle of regrets, gratitudes, what could have beens, surprises of grace, lost dreams and new hopes.  And in a physical setting, I still find a bit foreign - rural, Southern, small town, beachy, and remote. 

Not many handbooks or guidelines for this,for someone overeducated in UU theology, history, church organization and human dynamics. I heard Gini Courter say in a meeting last summer, that our best lay leaders go to seminary and then we ruin them. (assuming they don't graduate).  I don't agree with that but I can see where she is coming from.  Is it a little knowledge is a dangerous thing?  Or ministers look much more human after taking courses with them?  Or we lay folk lose our patience for being spoon-fed a dumbed-down theology with no where to turn for challenging interchange or collegial spirit?  I'm still not sure, but food for thought.

I'm seeking my vocation or calling in other ways..  One thing about small communities, it is easier to get closer to community outreach and calls for social justice.  So taking matters into my own hands, feeling a calling, I'm stretching out to bring my computer and internet skills to local outreach programs with E-newsletters, blogsites and webmistressing. 

The hate and fear of illegal - and legal - Latinos in my state (some call it Juan Crow laws), has resulted in a blog, http://america-united.blogspot.com/.   The lack of networking of social justice and community outreach programs (you have to read three papers to get all the news), has resulted in  weekly CommonGood Enews.  I've published for three weeks now and hope to continue. See http://commongood-nc.blogspot.com/ to see some of the articles.   And then there is the League of Women Voters of my county, the home of good ol' boys.  The League is procedure and precedent bound which I personally find stifling but perhaps I can manage my way through without ruffling too many feathers.

After being totally useless in my district role as growth chair, I'm hoping that 2008 will bring far better things than 2007.  We will be having FOUR Growth Summits in our District this year.  And I will shortly launch a district blog called 'Growth Matters'. 

So I'm still dancing. Which brings me back to where I first started today, reading article by George M. Hillman, Jr., Called to Purpose and Meaning, published in the Alban News weekly. I quote:

Slowing Down to Dance

Some people think a call from God can only come through some type of cataclysmic emotional experience. In reality, most people recognize aspects of God’s leadings as gradual in nature as they experience life. The key to learning the dance steps of discernment is prayer along with sound biblical study. You discern the leadings of God in the dancing relationship. You must remain in close communication with God to have any chance of discerning well. Instead of focusing your prayers on God revealing God’s will, focus on God creating godly character and wisdom in you. When your actions, thoughts, and desires reflect God’s priorities, then you are in a better place to discern well.

The problem with discernment is that many of us are so busy doing our own thing—moving too fast to dance the slow dance of discernment with God. You can only hear the heartbeat of God in your life when you slow down, quiet yourself, and invite God to dance with you. To slow down and listen takes a concerted and countercultural effort. The lights and sounds of society distract us if we are not careful. With so much vying for our attention, we must be intentional about disconnecting and taking time to hear what God is saying.

I love that one sentence "You can only hear the heartbeat of God in your life when you slow down, quiet yourself, and invite God to dance with you." 

In dancing and enduring faith,

Nancy

Hungry for Words

I finally figured out how to download podcasts on my Rhapsody MP3 player - and spent the better part of two hours driving around listening to six sermons from UU Berkeley.  UU Berkeley where you don't have to do it alone.   It means living life. And the invitation to be part of a faith community - whether it is your time for 'doing' or your time for 'being'.   The advantage of large congregations.  In my little church, a dozen of us stretch ourselves thin bringing the UU word to the Outer Banks.  Sometimes it is hard to remember that one can just 'be'.

N

End of Faith

I’ve just finished reading Sam Harris’ End of Faith. I live at the end of the road at the Eastern end of North Carolina. I can’t find anyone to talk about this book. The standard reply from fellow UU's when I quote Harris’ concern about Islamic literalism is a fuzzy answer about moderate Moslems. And jihad is really a spiritual war. I start feel like I'm sounding like Franklin Graham.

Harris argues that moderate leaders who say the Koran is the literal word of god lend justification to the suicide bombers who believe it is right to kill the enemies of the faith. Which reminds me of Mountain Meadows Massacre in 1857, always a controversial event in Mormon history. Brigham Young had harsh words for the enemies of the church. Granted that some of the refuges in Utah had fled from places in the east where they were terrorized and threatened. Perhaps literal interpretation of Brigham's words justified in their minds the killing of 120 emigrants who were passing through southern Utah on their way to California .

Just last month, t he LDS Church formally issued a statement: The truth, as we have come to know it, saddens us deeply. The gospel of Jesus Christ that we espouse, abhors the cold-blooded killing of men, women, and children. Indeed, it advocates peace and forgiveness. What was done here long ago by members of our Church represents a terrible and inexcusable departure from Christian teaching and conduct. We cannot change what happened, but we can remember and honor those who were killed here. We express profound regret for the massacre carried out in this valley 150 years ago today and for the undue and untold suffering experienced by the victims then and by their relatives to the present time. A separate expression of regret is owed to the Paiute people who have unjustly borne for too long the principal blame for what occurred during the massacre. Although the extent of their involvement is disputed, it is believed they would not have participated without the direction and stimulus provided by local Church leaders and members.

According to studies, Brigham Young attempted to stop or halt the massacre. See Religion in American History at http://usreligion.blogspot.com/2007/09/mountain-meadows-massacre-from-new.html.

Polity - not so uncommon denomination

While we take great pride in our uniqueness of congregational polity, we have much in common with other denomination organizational issues. We may not be as uncommon as we would like think.  “Organizing Religious Work for the Twenty-first Century: Exploring Denominationalism”, which began in 1997.   

Roozen and his colleague James Nieman edited, Church Identity and Change, and it contains historical introductions, sociological case studies, theological essays and theological reflections on six mainline US denominations as they confront unsettled times of postmodernity, technology and growth in diversity.  It shows that many denominations today are experiencing “defacto congregationalism.’     In denominations [and in Unitarian Universalism] congregationalism results in a national staff that “can no longer assume any … simple set of congregational models… it becomes much more difficult for anyone in the system to be aware of the needs and aspirations of congregations across the multiple contexts, much less develop the necessary diversity of resources for them.”

It is unrealistic to expect the UUA to be aware of the needs and aspirations of our very diverse UU congregations. I hope the new format at GA called Open Technology will provide a place for dialogue.  Although it may be more like a group monologue. See the pdf file Open Technology .   But it is a step in the right direction.

Nancy

Googling, Abebooks, and 1946

I've been writing a paper on congregational polity and growth/identity initiatives by the UUA.  As usual I've spent way,way too much time researching and now have difficulty summarizing it on paper.   

I'm a googler at heart and once I start down a trail I have a hard time say whoa - wrong direction.  This was made worse when I discovered  'Abebooks' online - So now my bookshelves contain such thrillers as the 1993 "Church and Denominational Growth" by Roozen and Hadaway; 1990 Holding Fast/Pressing On: Religion in America in the 1980's' and 2000 Metaphors in Mind: Transformation through Symbolic Modelling'.

I'm a week behind and it is time to pull it together.  It is physically painful.  My 60 year old eyes don't proof like they use to.  I search for distractions.  Actually I don't have to search - it is natural.  Which is what this post is.  I just discovered the childhood roots of by google obsession.  I grew up in a house with few books.  But of the two or three we had, my very favorite was a 1946 hard-bound book by George Stipson: A Book About a Thousand Things,. written in a question-answer format. I loved that book. I read it constantly, over and over again.  All I would have to do is open a page find learn the most amazing things. Page 312-313 answers the following questions: What is the Bronx? How is Leigh Hunt's first name pronounced? What countries comprise the Near East? How do birds locate earthworms in the ground? and Why do wild geese fly in a V-shaped formation?

I'm now the proud owner of this very worn, somewhat musty book.  No one else in my family was interested when my parents were clearing things out.  But I love it still.

What more could an eight-year old girl in Boise, Idaho, want to know?

Nancy

ps. Book About a Thousand Things is available for only $1.00 at Abe's

UUA out of touch with Congregations??

Is the UUA out of touch with our congregations; many would say yes.   The gulf that exists between the UUA and congregations. Roozen’s lens provides us with a different perspective. Local congregations are “in practice predominantly communal organizations –dominant inducement are things such as socializing, congeniality, and a sense of group identification --- they are predominantly oriented toward harmony, not towards issues and causes” P 596  While I rarely think of UU congregations as bastions of harmony, the need to be in community does require a way of being and relating.  Changes must be made in consideration that one co-exists with members and friends in a spiritual home. “These communal constrains of local congregations make them appear to denominational executives as overly passive, if not downright resistant to the denomination’s purposeful goals”.   

Roozen describes headquarters as “purposive”; their major incentive is the purposes of the denomination.  Denominational staff not only gives priority to the purposive, but work in settings unfettered by community constraints that give them the freedom to do so. … This can make them appear as excessively “independent”.   

Congregational Polity - durable for 400 years

Congregational polity is not the most efficient style of governance.  But it does provide the ability to adapt, something needed still today. Conrad Wright, reminds us:  So it is a fact of no small consequence that Unitarian Universalists stand in a traditionof congregational polity that is almost four centuries old;… , their congregationalism has proved to be more durable and adaptable [my emphasis]  to changing times than any of the doctrinal formulations— whether of God, or human nature, or human destiny—that dominate accounts of the history of liberal religion.[i]  Interestingly, Roozen’s research confirms that such structures that optimize “the participatory and relational work of working across diversity are more adaptive than structures that optimize efficiency and control”  [ii]    So perhaps the very disorganization and inefficiency experience in our congregations and at our national headquarters makes us healthier and more adaptive.

---

[i] Wright, Conrad Congregational Polity A Historical Survey of

Unitarian and Universalist Practice Skinner Books Congregational Polity

A Historical Survey of

Unitarian and Universalist Practice

Conrad Wright

[ii] Roozen , p 610

Guardians of Unitarian Universalism

From my reading:

Director, Hartford Institute for Religion Research, research director, David Roozen, makes the following point:   clergy will increasingly become the guardians of denominationalism because the religious identity of laity is increasingly local and personal.   One could reframe this to read: Professional ministry will increasingly become the guardians of Unitarian Universalism because the religious identity of laity is increasingly focused on the local congregation and on personal issues or identities. (Social justice, ethnic identity, or spiritual practices)

Hmmm -- where is our laity voice?

Barth for the Laity

I just discovered Joseph Barth.  His words in ‘Faith and Practice in Unitarian Universalist Churches’ almost prophetic in my personal struggle as educated lay person practicing Unitarian Universalism far from the heady atmosphere of

Boston

.   

The dogma of the Free Church is no less tough than the authoritarian, though in one way it is significantly different. The inescapable either-or of it is this: "believe with your life in the testing way of the liberal church or when tested in it you will get out!" In the dogma of the liberal church excommunication is self-imposed

Those who in principle live angrily among us as "silent" or "stay at home," or those who insist on their way, walk out or "resign" from us, have lost the shared faith in the Free Church as instrument for discovering the truths of faith and the sought better way.

What we need to understand is that, if we sacrifice a winnowing of truths for the sake of peace and order in the short run, then, in the long run, we will find we have deserted our trust in discussion and the free church as a way of winnowing specific truths out of falsehood

Becoming an iconoclast in response to the idolatrous interpretations of established faiths may be a necessary stage of development in the growth of an examined faith. If it be the last stage then faith is not grace but an angry emptiness

When the religious institution waters down the life-giving elements of any or all religious faith to the point that faith is defined in a few high-order abstractions like truth, goodness, beauty, reason, freedom and love, etc., those who try to live by such peace-making generalizations are, usually without knowing it, on a starvation diet of faith. At best these are the weak broth of grace

Barth’s words have renewed my hope in a disciplined, religious life in the outposts of Unitarian Universalism. 

Nancy

Code Pink Revisited

As I decide whether to take the trip to Washington to march for peace, I am drawn back to another time. March 3, 2003.

Four years since I stood with other Unitarian Universalist Women in front of the White House. 

March 3, 2003

At the time I didn't know if I would ever hold a grandbaby in my arms.  But 14 months later, I was blessed with a precious, pink baby girl. 

My granddaughter is blessed with peaceful days. Days when all she is concerned about is riding her trike, reading dozens of books and dancing to the Wiggles. And we who care for her have our worries. I worry about her looking right and left for cars coming. And her mother feeds her soul and nourishes her body with organic food and no sugar.  And her father protects her from monster alligators behind the couch. 

So I'm in tears when I think of the words I spoke on that cold blusterly

day on our Code Pink vigil four years ago.

Looking at a New Grandson written by Teresa Anderson

He is three weeks old

his ears are pink shells

his fingers the buds of lilies.

I am acutely aware

of the motion of his little lungs.

He makes snuffling sounds

and wriggles his face

in search of his mother's breast.

Born into a world in turmoil

he may not always know peaceful days

though his mother is a warrior protector

and his father holds him against his chest

away from these bitter winter winds.

As long as I don't think of

a grandmother in Baghdad

as long as I don't picture her

gazing with this same adoration

at her new grandson

as long as I don't envision

the coming firestorm

as long as I don't picture

the immolation of his tiny body

I can get through the day

without howling against the wind

without weeping until my body

turns to dust.

but my sister has not slept

since her son shipped out

for the U.S.airfields in Bahrain

and warlords gather once again

to plan purification by fire.