AWAKE Weeks 1 through 6 (JC)

"This is the high point of my week."  "I make it a point to put this on my schedule."  "This is where personal growth meets church."  "The music is fantastic!"

These are just a few of the sentiments expressed about the UUCA's new AWAKE worship services, held on Tuesday evenings from 6:30-8:00pm.

AWAKE is an emotional literacy ministry dedicated to helping people make better life choices.  Some of the topics covered in weeks 1-6 include courage, dealing with fear, conscious listening, and being 100% responsible for your actions.

AWAKE's services include spirited music sung by the AWAKE Singers and Band, healing hands, candle lighting, prayer and an inspiring but brief message on spiritual and personal growth.  The newest addition to the service is the "Soul Spot" featuring the "Wheel of Wisdom".  This is a time when two people sit and discuss secular and religious topics ranging from success to God. 

AWAKE is our congregation's deliberate effort to reach out to underrepresented groups.  The service combines the emotive music from the African American tradition with the thoughtfulness and conscientiousness of traditional Unitarian Universalism.

 So far a spirited group of about 60 have been coming each week since our debut on March 12, 2013.  A significant number of those coming are people of color.

For me, AWAKE is fun!  It is  spiritual, soulful,and real.  I think it provides a model for what the future of Unitarian Universalism can be.  Come see the future of our faith!  Thank you for this opportunity, UUCA!

Love to you all,
Rev. John
www.awakeministries.us
www.facebook.com/awakecommunity
 

Conversations on the Road Home (DG)

People will either be surprised or annoyed to learn that I am a dyed-in-the-wool introvert. I have even taken several tests, (Myers-Briggs, Enneagram, grandmother etc.) that seem to firmly support what I already know to be true of myself. I have profound thoughts and deep emotions just below what is often a very calm and present, somewhat reserved exterior. Now, that is not to say that there isn’t calmness and presence on the inside as well, bouncing up against and flowing around the other thoughts and emotions.

So you might ask, “Why does an introvert choose a vocation (parish ministry) where they are around people, large noisy groups of them, and all the time?” I ask myself the same question, especially after a meeting runs too long on words and too short on content.

But, maybe, just maybe, if we all put the same question out there into the universe, one day I will get an answer.

Ok, so I am being a little cheeky about this blog entry, maybe a bit sarcastic, and here’s why: conversations are hard for introverts. (Or at least a “growing-edge” for introverts to use the most P.C. vernacular) Especially in a world that is filled to bursting with loud extroverts, talking all the time, using up our precious oxygen, deafening us with the sounds coming out of their mouths.

I am learning to do a better job of talking more, expressing all the things that need to be expressed, and most of all learning to share some of my vulnerabilities. It has been a practice. Sometimes I do better than others. Sometimes I am able to connect in ways I never thought possible as an introvert. Other times I miss the mark completely. (If only sticking your foot in your mouth meant you had been prevented from saying a foolish thing?) You see there is a kind protective shielding that happens with silence. You can’t say the wrong thing, if you don’t say nothing at all.

All of this to say (where’s the oxygen): I am learning to be with other people, and to enjoy them as much as I enjoy the book-ensconced solitude of my hermitage (i.e. Fahs House). It’s been tremendous, all of it, the talking, and most of all being in conversation.  

There is a difference (right?) between talking and conversation. The introvert in me still doesn’t want to talk, but I definitely want to be in conversation.  In conversation one expects to hear multiple voices, responses; perhaps, to gain insights, or simply to feel as though you have been heard by another person. In learning to be in conversation with others, I also feel as though I am also learning to be closer to the source of my being, the life that grounds me and contains all the rest. In fact I believe that G-d, among many other things, is what happens between “you and I” when we are in right relationship.

In Jewish and Christian scriptures we hear in one instance the psalmist wanting to turn their dwelling space into a “house of prayer” and in another instance Paul encourages his friends in Thessalonica to “pray without ceasing”. Prayer can be the ongoing, ceaseless conversation we have with each other in our house of prayer, the church. It can also be the conversation we have with life, by how we live in community, how we welcome the stranger—as a prayer. Talking is not prayer, real, meaningful conversation can be. Conversation, like prayer, when it is done right, reminds us of interconnectedness and interdependence of the web of life.

I’ve learned that to experience the benefits of conversation takes practice, lots of practice, not just for introverts, (like, a certain Intern Minister) but for all of us.

So here is a special invitation to enter a meaningful new conversation on our shared faithful journey. On Monday May 27, at 7:00 PM - Memorial Day - I am leading an interfaith worship service called the New Road Home right here at the church. It will be a unique gathering of veterans, civilians, active service members and their families. The aim of this service is for us to be in conversation in a way many don’t experience, but all of us desperately need. We will honor our connectedness, our commonalities and also our unique stories. We will reconnect with home, and our conversations across differences and generations will help to open the door.

I want to hear from you. I want to be in conversation. I want to pray with you. See you in church. Daniel.

A Silly Religion?

I was out of town when metro area Unitarian Universalist ministers began their online reaction to Lisa Miller’s March 22 “On Faith”column in The Washington Post.  The headline assigned to her piece would have stopped just about anyone turning the pages on that Saturday morning: “Many Unitarians Would Prefer That Their Polyamory Activists Keep Quiet.”  Whether you read her opinion or not - and especially if you were unfamiliar with Unitarian Universalism - your understanding of us might have been shaped in just the few seconds it took to absorb the announcement made by that ten word headline.  One of my colleagues and two UU members from area congregations had their letters to the editor published the following week (WaPo, 3/30), but common wisdom is that letters of this sort never leave much of an impression on readers.

      Besides being poorly written and researched and - in several places - simply wrong, I’ve been wondering what the point of the column was.  What was her goal?  Was there purpose to her shoddy journalism?  What was she trying to accomplish?  This was the kind of opinion writing I expect from a Rupert Murdoch publication, not The Washington Post with whom I don’t always agree but generally maintains a reputation for good journalism.  Yes, it was disappointing especially when there was so much more that could have been said about Unitarian Universalism that would have been accurate, provocative and stimulating!  As I said, I was out of town when the column appeared and when the call went out for a response.  But also, other things needed my attention.  If I had not been consumed in my ministry with you, I might have written about one sentence in particular with which I took exception:
      “The debate [over polyamory] makes the whole denomination look silly.”  Silly as in “foolish, stupid, unintelligent, idiotic, brainless, mindless, witless, imbecilic, doltish, irresponsible, mad,  erratic, unstable, childish, empty-headed, weak-minded, crazy, loopy, screwy ...” (Oxford Dictionary). You get the point.  Our faith is silly?  Here’s just one of the objections to her declaration: There is no debate, at least not one that I or any of my colleagues know about.  I know of no UU congregation that is debating the issues of which she speaks.  One of her sources is a six year old sermon given at the UU Fellowship in Chesterton, MD by someone I’ve never heard of.  That, and her other sources, fall far short of any reasonable measure of “the whole denomination” (besides, we’re not a denomination nor are we “Unitarian,” but Unitarian Universalist).  But as I’ve said, I had other things on my mind.

While The WaPo journalist was writing her misguided column about our alleged silly congregational life, many at UUCA were in shock over and mourning the tragic death of Marine Lance Corporal Taylor Wild whose memorial service saw 500+ standing shoulder to shoulder in our sanctuary.  That same week saw your ministers praying with  and sharing healing words of affirmation and courage with 25 people who came forward during the Tuesday AWAKE service.  On Thursday night, twenty UUCA members and friends concluded a four week conversation on “Life and Death,” in which the personal authenticity and vulnerability was moving beyond words.  On Saturday evening, UUCA opened its doors for our annual Passover Seder, the traditional meal shared while remembering the liberation and exodus of Jews from political and spiritual oppression.  This Saturday, we will host another memorial service for former church members whose fifty year old daughter succumbed to cancer after fighting it for several years.  So you see, it was hard for me - and others of the Ministry Team - to get too worked up about Lisa Miller’s column suggesting we were “silly.”  UUCA was deep into the ministry and meaning that shapes and sustains life.

       If you detect a slight edge to my words, you’re right.  I’ve grown quite tired of outsiders - and insiders, as in our own members and friends - whose misunderstanding of Unitarian Universalism leads them to conclusions and then utterances that are at best wrong and at worst offensive.  My hope and prayer is to see the day when we no longer must endure the silly ignorance of the uninformed.

            Take care and see you soon,

                        Fred