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Names and notables Nov. 12, 2018

✇ WWUUD?
12 November 2018 at 14:48
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Mankato has received the Minnesota Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Alliance's 2018 Beacon of Justice ...

@UUChurchMuncie Heads up, link in your profile isn't working.

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12 November 2018 at 14:18
By: (@uuplanet)

@UUChurchMuncie Heads up, link in your profile isn’t working.

Feeding Our Community

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12 November 2018 at 14:16
Join us for an all ages service exploring what it takes to feed our community. After a shortened service, we'll be packing bags of food for End 68 Hours ...

What good is silence?

✇ WWUUD?
12 November 2018 at 14:04

In Industrial Psychology they call it "sink time."
Sink time is time to sit in silence, to let the data settle, to let the smoke clear off.

How do we digest all that we have taken in when we scurry from one thing to another?

We need time to reflect, to digest, to just relax.

Unitarian Univeralists tend to be busy people.
UUs think a lot and want to fix things.
UUs are searching and trying to rectify injustice and make the world a better place.

Are UUs nothing but Social Workers and Activists?
UUs value their covenant which affirms and promotes seven principles.
Affirmation and promotion takes perspective and deliberate and purposeful action.
To be purposeful and deliberate, one must be thoughtful.
To be thoughtful, one must be quiet.


Are you interested in being our next Music Director?

✇ WWUUD?
12 November 2018 at 13:24
At UU Schenectady we recognize that music is a powerful way for people to get involved in the congregation, to build community, and to engage in spiritual development. This congregation cherishes opportunities to intentionally experience music from a wide variety of genres and styles, ... read more .

Fundraising

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12 November 2018 at 13:13
Upcoming Events. Party for Robinah Gibela (Kitchen, Gallery, Sanctuary) - 01/12/2019 - 4:00 pm - 10:00 pm. Past Events. 2nd Sunday Lunch Nov.

Cultivating leaders

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12 November 2018 at 13:00
A person standing in a congregation and speaking into a microphone. people paying attention

Michael Hart

Embracing an innovative shared leadership model has created a happier, more vital congregation in Athens, Georgia.

community

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12 November 2018 at 12:10
Upcoming Events. Newcomer Potluck Dinner - Saturday, December 1 - 6:00pm-9:00pm; Special Holiday Concert: "Wintery Songs in Eleventy Part ...

How was church this week? November 12, 2018

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12 November 2018 at 12:07
By: /u/AutoModerator

Tell us about it!

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Ask Alexa - Do Unitarian Universalists believe in God?

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12 November 2018 at 12:00
Alexa: Do Unitarian Universalists believe in God? Unitarian Univeralists believe in the free and responsible search for truth and meaning that leads some UUs to a belief in some sort of High Power and others to none.

First Principle Study Group - Class #2 - The Fall/Redemption theological model and the Creation Spirituality theological model

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12 November 2018 at 11:59
            The first principle states that we affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Many of us raised in the Christian tradition were taught that we are born with our souls contaminated by the Original Sin and to be acceptable to God we have to be baptized to remove the stain. In other words, there is a meta narrative promulgated that people are inherently inadequate and defective.             Father Matthew Fox one of the founders of what is called Creation Spirituality took an opposite position on the issue and maintains that we are born with the Original Blessing not in Original Sin. We are creations of God and in the Genesis story God, at the end of the six days of creation surveys all t...

Reporters' Notebook: Nov. 12, 2018

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12 November 2018 at 11:32
... case homicide detective who helped solve the Bike Path Rapist case, speaks at 11:30 a.m. Thursday in the Unitarian Universalist Church of Buffalo, ...

Board Meetings

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12 November 2018 at 11:06
The UUCJ Board of Trustees holds regular meetings at 12:30 pm on the second Sunday of each month. In addition, the Board of Trustees holds ...

Rooted

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12 November 2018 at 11:00
“When we respect our blood ancestors and our spiritual ancestors, we feel rooted.” ―Thich Nhat Hanh Who is a spiritual ancestor who helps to root you? The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the … Continue reading →

Seasonal Jazz Standards by Vocalist Sara Jones and Trio

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12 November 2018 at 10:15
Arts in the Woods concert series presents jazz vocalist Sara Jones and her trio for "Winter's Greeting: A Seasonal Collection of Jazz Standards" to ...

Rocky River Chamber Music Society Concert

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12 November 2018 at 08:25
West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church;Mon 19 Nov at 19:30; Rocky River Chamber Music Society Concert; Dvořák, Brahms;James Feddeck, ...

Unitarian Universalist Association Accepting Grants for Social Responsibility Fund

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12 November 2018 at 07:12
The Unitarian Universalist Association is accepting applications for the Spring 2018 Cycle of its Fund for UU Social Responsibility. As part of the ...

Tree of Life presents check to Pioneer Center for PADS

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12 November 2018 at 07:07
The Social Justice Team at Tree of Life Unitarian Universalist Congregation in McHenry recently donated $781 to Pioneer Center for McHenry County ...

Taking Back Wagner Park: A candlelight vigil against hate

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12 November 2018 at 03:11
Dr. Peter D. Boehringer of Gethsemane Lutheran Church, Rabbi Beth ... Patrick McLaughlin of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Manchester, and ...

Time, the Fourth Dimension (11/11/2018) - The UU Montclair Podcast

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12 November 2018 at 02:30
By: Various (aggregated by Player FM)

25:13– Selections from our Sunday Morning Worship Service at The Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair by Rev. Anya Sammler-Michael.

Download File
(Right-click or Ctrl+click to save)

SERMON
“Time, the Fourth Dimension”
by Rev. Anya Sammler-Michael

Please note: All sermons are copyrighted by the author.

For more information about The Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair, please visit us at uumontclair.org.

Attached media: https://archive.org/download/UUCMService20181111TimeTheFourthDimension/UUCM Service 2018-11-11 - Time, The Fourth Dimension.mp3

The Kantian Rationale for Voting

✇ WWUUD?
12 November 2018 at 02:30
By: Meredith Garmon
Why We Vote and Why We Don't , part 2 As discussed in part 1, from a consequentialist point of view, the rationale for voting is very weak. We turn now to the other major school of ethical theory: deontology, most notably the ethical thought of Immanuel Kant. It boils down to: Ask yourself, what if everybody did that? If you wouldn’t like the result of everyone doing that sort of action, then you shouldn’t do it. You wouldn’t want to live in a world in which everyone lied, cheated, or stole, so you shouldn’t lie, cheat, or steal. The way Kant put it was: “So act that the maxim of your action can be willed a universal law for all.”A Kantian rationale for voting might look attractive: we ask, what if everyone did that? What if ...

Parents of Young Children Potluck & Discussion

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12 November 2018 at 00:53
Date 11/18/2018. Are you the parent of a young child? Do you wonder how you'll help your child live your values in a contradicting world? Come ...

Gratitude - Our Spiritual Currency/

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11 November 2018 at 23:27
Why is it so important that we, as a people, give with a generous heart? Why is it important that we lift up one another instead of put one another down ...

A week of events in Cambridge, Somerville: Sundae feast, post-punk covers, 'Mr. Burns'

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11 November 2018 at 23:26
Jonathan Franzen reads at 7 p.m. at First Parish Cambridge Unitarian Universalist, 3 Church St./1446 Massachusetts Ave., Harvard Square. Tickets ...

Museum District Choir Practice

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11 November 2018 at 22:48
Events. Museum District Beginner's Yoga. Monday, Nov 12, 2018; Houston. Museum District Tai Chi. Tuesday, Nov 13, 2018; Houston.

Where Do We Go From Here?

✇ WWUUD?
11 November 2018 at 22:45

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?  The experience of political trauma

Nov. 11, 2018, Rev. Kit Ketcham PUUF


            Now that the recent election is mostly behind us and we are experiencing the backwash of controversies and accusations about the election process, let’s take a look at the effects of the past two years and ask this question:


What has been happening to us as individuals and as a nation these past two years?  And the reason I ask this question is this:

We have endured and continue to endure physical, moral, and psychological trauma, daily, from the ongoing assault on our sense of decency and standards of humane behavior by a ruthless, self-serving, authoritarian man whose power over us and our fellow citizens has reeked of corruption, cruelty, and coarseness of manner.
It may be that PTSD  (post-traumatic stress disorder) is too strong a label for our condition, but the spectacle of what has been happening to our country, as this man has sought revenge over his political enemies, has had its effect, whether we personally are affected by his daily behavior or whether we foresee the terrible consequences of his behaviors on all of us.

We are certainly damaged, as a nation, as communities, and as individuals by the actual or projected consequences of those behaviors, whether we are empathetic observers of others’ pain or directly affected by the cruelty of his deliberate decisions to withdraw protections from vulnerable citizens & refugees.

We have experienced terrible violence because of the recklessness of his pronouncements and decisions.  It has been like watching a dreadful train wreck with thousands, even millions of casualties. 

And there has been no end in sight to the ongoing debacle, our only hopes resting in the votes of our fellow citizens and in the hands of a criminal investigation which we hope will give definition to the exact nature of his wrongs, with consequences coming to bear on him.

What have you and I done to protect ourselves and others from the consequences of his behavior?  How have we released our anger, and fear, ---- and our shame?  (cong. Resp)

As we think about our lives during these past two years, we know why we have been angry.  We know why we have been afraid.  We ourselves may have endured abuse during our past life experience; but our national experience of abuse has also left scars.  In both situations we have felt anger, we have felt fear.  And very likely we also have felt the shame that accompanies traumatic stress experiences.

When a child has grown up in an abusive home, that child is often so angry that they act out their anger in violence against others.  When a girl or a woman or boy or man has been sexually assaulted, she is often so fearful that her future relationships are in jeopardy. 

Why do many victims feel shame after experiencing a traumatic event?   It’s generally the sense that we haven’t done enough to prevent the trauma.  We may think that our efforts were  too feeble, we didn’t speak up, we didn’t fight back hard enough, we didn’t talk to others about our concerns. 

Trauma can invite a sense of shame because we may perceive ourselves as having invited the assault or were too confident in the 2016 election.  And so we take it out on ourselves, even though we did the best we knew how under the circumstances.

            How have I kept from going crazy?  How have I expressed my anger and fear?  I often succumbed to the urge to hate him.  It scares me a lot to express this feeling of hate.  I’ve been schooled to express love and understanding since I was old enough to talk.  I remember my mother’s correction, when I came home from a neighbor child’s home one day saying enthusiastically “Goddamn you Goddamn you”.

            “Honey,” she said with a sharp tone in her voice, “It’s better to say God Bless you, God bless you.  You don’t want your friend to go to hell and that’s what “damn” means.”  And even though I don’t believe in hell any more, hateful  speech is anathema to me. And yet I’ve succumbed. 

I’ve ranted to friends, put up resistance literature and exposes of his behavior on websites and Facebook, I’ve supported progressive candidates, written postcards, gone to rallies and demonstrations, and have donated.  It has helped release the anger and combat the fear.  But I still feel shame that I haven’t done as much as others have done.

Now imagine the effect of this trauma on the most endangered of our fellow citizens:  the disabled, the elderly, the children, our veterans, the entire Q community, persons of color, women, the poor.  Nobody is left out, but certain groups are even more threatened than others.

I hope you’re seeing the parallel here, between the survivors of personal domestic cruelty and abuse and the survivors of national, even global, cruelty and abuse.  We Americans have experienced, on a national and global scale, trauma from an authority figure who has no conscience, no empathy, no care for the damage he has done to our nation’s citizens, to our nation as an entity, and to democracy as an ideal.

Survivors of abuse are often encouraged to seek therapeutic help to deal with the scars and open wounds of an abusive experience.  Because, left unhealed, left open and painful, the wounds of abuse linger unless we take steps to heal them. 

This can be a hard process, taking time, painful in its own way, as we consciously work to mend the invisible bruises and learn how to prevent new ones by seeking wisdom, healthy relationships, and understanding of our own needs.

I’ve mentioned that one of the typical responses to abuse is anger, a desire to retaliate, to take out our pain on others; we see this commonly in bullying behavior with children, resulting in a vicious cycle of anger and possible violence. 

Another typical response to abuse is fear, the dread of triggering future abuse, a withdrawal from healthy life experiences which add to the joys of partnerships, family life, and community involvement.  We see this commonly in victims of sexual assault. 

There’s a predictable outcome of the relentless, ongoing abuse which produces anger and fear in human beings.   That outcome is Hate, hate for the perceived abuser and anyone who sides with that person.  We see it happening in our nation today, as the divide between political alliances widens.

As I’ve revealed about myself, I have struggled with the urge to hate this man and his cronies.  That hate is a product of the anger and fear I have felt over the past two years, following my deep disappointment and shame that we were too confident that a better candidate would win the presidency.  I have blamed, silently and not so silently, family members who blindly voted for him, for the change he might bring.  And I struggle to stay in relationship with them.

Dr. Gabor Mate’ has done important work on the addictive qualities of the hate that follows abusive behavior toward a victim.  Here’s what he says: 

"The more inequality in a society:   the more hate, the more dysfunction, the more mental illness, the more physical illness." It should come as no surprise, then, that we see more addiction and more mass shootings since "the inequality is rising all the time." Violence against racial, ethnic, or religious groups "is a manifestation of a society that foments division amongst people and sets people against each other.”

“Both hate and addiction are a manifestation of a society that is ill, disconnected, and traumatized. It is an indictment of American culture and society that anyone finds relief by picking up a rifle and driving to a synagogue. To fight hate, we need to change our culture and society.”

Now that the election is past and we are dealing with its outcomes, both its positives and its negatives, we have new choices to make.  If we have lost significantly, we can lick our wounds and withdraw or we can buckle down to continue the Resistance.  If we have won significantly, we can celebrate the wins and continue to hate the losers.  I think there is a better path.

I try to go to hear Seth Tichenor and Gad Perez’s  Philosofarian presentations every month.  October’s gathering was about the pros and cons of Tolerance.  I learned a lot that night and I believe that as we examine the precepts of Tolerance, what this philosophy entails, its strengths and its drawbacks, we can learn something useful in the aftermath of a traumatic two years, with an unclear path ahead of us.

Tolerance gets a bad rap at times, with much misunderstanding of the concept as a wishy-washy way of getting along with people we don’t agree with:  the old “agree to disagree” tactic.  The question “should we tolerate intolerance?” causes us to examine the limits of tolerance and question its effectiveness.

When this administration came into power, after the inauguration in 2017, many of us perhaps thought maybe we could just agree to disagree with those who had voted for him.  It turns out that this became impossible as the actions and policy decisions of this administration became more than disagreeable; they were clearly immoral and inhumane, with little regard for consequences to our nation. 

We realized that we were unable to tolerate intolerance, that we had to change the direction of our nation using the Rule of Law and figuring out our most effective strategies.

Some observations about Tolerance, from Seth’s presentation:

Tolerance makes democracy possible, but it’s hard.

Tolerance is personally demanding, requiring a person not to reject someone or something objectionable voluntarily.

The expectations of what is “tolerable” are always changing.

It’s easy to make mistakes.

It is a morally ambiguous condition, a paradox with shifting limits.

And what is Tolerance?  It is an ability to respond with acceptance to beliefs and ideas that are not our own.  But tolerance in practice has levels of intensity.

Its lowest level is the act of granting permission for some behavior, with the grantor of permission having more power than the grantee, such as the Roman Empire allowing other religions to exist as long as they did not disrupt the Empire.

The next level is Co-existence, as where in a family group one person is very conservative and another is very liberal.  This level requires a lot of compromise and is difficult to sustain.

The next level up is Respect, which is based on legitimate rules of behavior and an understanding of the common good, as in a family or friendship setting where one person is gay/lesbian/bisexual/ transgender or other rainbow designation and other family members are generally accepting, if not completely comfortable.

The highest level of Tolerance is Esteem, in which norms of behavior are appreciated and valued, as in feeling the freedom to express public affection between same sex partners and/or a welcoming approach to members of a different culture.

How do we decide whether Tolerance, in a given situation, is appropriate? 

1.     We understand situations by degrees; familiarity gives us the benefit of new information as we observe the development of a relationship or unfamiliar culture.

2.     When people are generous, helpful to others, and lenient in judgment, a reciprocity of relationship is created.

3.     We ask ourselves “what are the moral issues here?” and think about what our own moral standards require of ourselves.

4.     We learn to recognize that tolerance is a moving target, that our own standards are often flexible, but that there may be common ground.

5.     We do not tolerate intolerance.

So how do we approach this upcoming season of adjustment and further resistance to inhumane treatment by an immoral, perhaps criminal, federal administration?

Short answer for me:  I am tired of being angry and fearful and instead of cultivating hate in my heart for anyone, whether it’s a president or congress or a family member, I pledge to conquer any impulse to hate by substituting Love, by giving love everywhere possible and letting the hate float away, as the love abides.  That is a gift I have to give to my community and my family, and that love can affect our traumatized nation.

In closing, I offer this reflection from Rebecca Parker:


Choose to Bless the World, by Rebecca Parker


Your gifts—whatever you discover them to be—

can be used to bless or curse the world.


The mind's power,

The strength of the hands,

The reaches of the heart,

The gift of speaking, listening, imagining, seeing, waiting


Any of these can serve to feed the hungry,

Bind up wounds,

Welcome the stranger,

Praise what is sacred,

Do the work of justice

Or offer love.


Any of these can draw down the prison door,

Hoard bread,

Abandon the poor,

Obscure what is holy,

Comply with injustice

Or withhold love.


You must answer this question:

What will you do with your gifts?


Choose to bless the world.


The choice to bless the world is more than an act of will,

A moving forward into the world

With the intention to do good.


It is an act of recognition,

a confession of surprise,

a grateful acknowledgment

That in the midst of a broken world

Unspeakable beauty, grace and mystery abide.



There is an embrace of kindness that encompasses all life, even yours.

And while there is injustice, anesthetization, or evil

There moves

A holy disturbance,

A benevolent rage,

A revolutionary love,


Protesting, urging, insisting

That which is sacred will not be defiled.


Those who bless the world live their life as a gesture of thanks

For this beauty

And this rage.


The choice to bless the world can take you into solitude

To search for the sources of power and grace;

Native wisdom, healing, and liberation.


More, the choice will draw you into community,

The endeavor shared,

The heritage passed on,

The companionship of struggle,

The importance of keeping faith,

The life of ritual and praise,

The comfort of human friendship,

The company of earth

The chorus of life welcoming you.


None of us alone can save the world.

Together—that is another possibility waiting.


CLOSING HYMN # 349 “Gather the Spirit”

EXTINGUISHING THE CHALICE

BENEDICTION: Our worship service, our time of shaping worth together, is ended, but our service to the world begins again as we leave this place.  Let us go in peace with love in our hearts casting out hate and may we remember that every little kindness changes the world.  Amen, Shalom, Salaam, and Blessed Be.

CLOSING CIRCLE


MHTV program schedule: Nov. 12-18

✇ WWUUD?
11 November 2018 at 22:41
7:30 p.m.: Unitarian Universalist Church of Marblehead: “Why Indigenous People Day?” 9 p.m.: 'Headliner: News of Marblehead. 9:30 p.m.: Veterans' ...

Unreliable Truth, presented by Rev. Wendy Williams, Senior Minister, Sunday, November 11, 2018

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11 November 2018 at 22:38
Saturday Service: In this month of memory, we bring to mind those who have gone before, in a service of remembrances of the past and hopes for the ...

Transgender Day of Remembrance Sunday

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11 November 2018 at 22:18
The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Durango and the 4 Corners Support for Transgender people, Allies and Relatives will host a Transgender ...

11/11 at 11:00

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11 November 2018 at 21:56
Singer/activist Tom Neilson will perform along with Lynn Waldron at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Bennington on Sunday, November 18th at ...

Sermon: "Never Conquered"

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11 November 2018 at 21:20
I preached this sermon at Universalist National Memorial Church, on November 11, 2018 with the lectionary texts from Ruth and Hebrews. About six and a half years ago, on February 4, 2012, Florence Green died at the age of 110 years, 350 days. She was the last surviving veteran of the First World War, surviving … Continue reading "Sermon: “Never Conquered”"

Pledging at Mill Creek FAQ, Part III

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11 November 2018 at 20:59
Why should I pledge in addition to other donations I make? Pledging allows Mill Creek to have a constant and predictable source of income. This is ...

In Honor of Veterans Day [sermon]

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11 November 2018 at 19:25
Sunday, 11 November 2018. Sermon written & delivered by Larry & Leann Whitley. Share this: Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) · Click to ...

MeToo Healing / Tiamat Rising

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11 November 2018 at 19:17
Unitarian Universalist Church. 21 Fairground ... Polish church service and coffee hour. Sun, Oct 28, 2018. Oct 28. The history of Unitarian Universalism.

'AMPLIFYING GRATITUDE' - A sermon by Carlton D. Pearson (Contemporary Service) - All Souls Unitarian Church

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11 November 2018 at 17:30
By: Various (aggregated by Player FM)
The sermon was delivered on Sunday, November 11, 2018, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Carlton D. Pearson, Affiliate Minister. DESCRIPTION “Reflect upon your present blessings—of which every man (person) has many—not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.” — Charles Dickens Gratefulness is the easiest and most common commodity intrinsic to the human experience. All Souls joins millions of Americans this month saying, showing and sharing gratefulness for blessings counted and even those that are uncountable. We’re amplifying and celebrating the good fortune in us and around us—individually and collectively. The energy and vibrations will be high! SUBSCRIBE TO AUDIO PODCAST: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/all-souls-unitarian-church/id193096943 WATCH THIS SERMON ON YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/dh_oTLuAI0o SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=allsoulsunitarian GIVE A DONATION TO HELP US SPREAD THIS LOVE BEYOND BELIEF: http://www.allsoulschurch.org/GIVE or text LOVEBB to 73256 LET'S CONNECT: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/allsoulstulsa Twitter: https://twitter.com/AllSoulsTulsa All Souls Church Website: http://www.allsoulschurch.org  

Attached media: https://web.archive.org/web/20211109044755/https://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/b/b/8/bb8911caef205989/2018-11-11-CPearson--Amplifying-Gratitude--Contemporary.mp3?c_id=25818401&cs_id=25818401&destination_id=16949&expiration=1636435473&hwt=12c19cae57285af056d65c659ec29aec

Happy Veterans Day!

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11 November 2018 at 17:20
By: /u/AlbertMendez44
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The Story of Us - West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church

✇ WWUUD?
11 November 2018 at 16:58
By: Various (aggregated by Player FM)

by Intern Minister Michelle Ma and

Gerry Meader

Worship Associate

Who are we? What are we doing? Where are we going? These are questions the Search Committee has been wrestling with, and though we may not have the answers, we know that we’re all in this together.

Also, a nice tribute to veterans by Gerry Meader

_

Attached media: https://web.archive.org/web/20211109044712/https://s122.podbean.com/pb/1f96b7e84ac3b02b1e8f175e81f95cf9/6189fd50/data2/fs137/341223/uploads/20181111TheStoryOfUs_EXCERPTS.mp3?pbss=5a9d16eb-e16b-5245-8788-1a6a3359ff54

Follow Fate by Coincidence or Solve Global Problems

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11 November 2018 at 16:30
By: Kathy Gursky

This is the second forum in the “Second–Sunday” Forum Series about Different Natural Sciences Help Solve Global Problems. Stephen Ledoux’s talk introduces a 100–year–old but little known science that fills the many calls — from the past decades — for a natural science of human nature/human behavior. These calls occur because human behavior contributes to global problems, and the solutions require changes in human behavior, so a natural science of human behavior is needed and, as usual, everyone needs to know something about all the basic sciences including this one.

Interfaith Prayer Service at Temple Beth Shalom November 18

✇ WWUUD?
11 November 2018 at 16:06
Join us for an open, community-wide Interfaith Prayer service and vigil for the Pittsburgh kedoshim and solidarity on Sunday, November 18 at 6:30 pm.

A cadence of peace might balance its weight on that different fulcrum - Remembrance Sunday 2018

✇ WWUUD?
11 November 2018 at 16:06
By: Andrew J Brown
READINGS:

Making Peace by Denise Levertov

A voice from the dark called out,
             ‘The poets must give us
imagination of peace, to oust the intense, familiar
imagination of disaster. Peace, not only
the absence of war.’
                                   But peace, like a poem,
is not there ahead of itself,
can’t be imagined before it is made,
can’t be known except
in the words of its making,
grammar of justice,
syntax of mutual aid.
                                       A feeling towards it,
dimly sensing a rhythm, is all we have
until we begin to utter its metaphors,
learning them as we speak.
                                              A line of peace might appear
if we restructured the sentence our lives are making,
revoked its reaffirmation of profit and power,
questioned our needs, allowed
long pauses . . .
                        A cadence of peace might balance its weight
on that different fulcrum; peace, a presence,
an energy field more intense than war,
might pulse then,
stanza by stanza into the world,
each act of living
one of its words, each word
a vibration of light—facets
of the forming crystal.

(From Breathing the Water, New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1987)

Remembrance Sunday by Malcolm Guite
November pierces with its bleak remembrance
Of all the bitterness and waste of war;
Our silence tries but fails to make a semblance
Of that lost peace they thought worth fighting for,
Our silence seethes instead with wraiths and whispers
And all the restless rumour of new wars,
For shells are falling all around our vespers,
No moment is unscarred, there is no pause.
In every instant bloodied innocence
Falls to the weary earth, and whilst we stand
Quiescence ends again in acquiescence,
And Abel’s blood still cries from every land.
One silence only might redeem that blood;
Only the silence of a dying God.

(From Sounding the Seasons, seventy sonnets for the Christian year, Canterbury Press 2012)

—o0o—

For the Unknown Enemy by William Stafford

This monument is for the unknown
good in our enemies. Like a picture
their life began to appear: they
gathered at home in the evening
and sang. Above their fields they saw
a new sky. A holiday came
and they carried the baby to the park
for a party. Sunlight surrounded them.

Here we glimpse what our minds long turned
away from. The great mutual
blindness darkened that sunlight in the park,
and the sky that was new, and the holidays.
This monument says that one afternoon
we stood here letting a part of our minds
escape. They came back, but different.
Enemy: one day we glimpsed your life.

This monument is for you.

—o0o—

ADDRESS
A cadence of peace might balance its weight on that different fulcrum
Remembrance Sunday 2018

Autumn leaves outside the church on Emmauel Road this morning
Today we mark the one-hundredth anniversary of the ending of the First World War which was supposed by some to be “the war to end all wars.” As we know, it was not and it appears that even during the First World War itself it was a phrase which was far from being believed. Indeed, the Prime Minister of the time, David Lloyd George, is even reputed to have said, “This war, like the next war, is a war to end war.”

Given the continuing failure of war as a way to end to wars I imagine that there will be no one here who thinks that wars will ever succeed in ending war and that, therefore, peace must, in some fashion, be the answer. But, in affirming this very general notion, we must be careful not to be idealistic or naïve about peace because it is clear that, so far, neither has peace succeeded in ending war.

The truth of this was powerfully illustrated in 1919 at the Paris Peace Conference and its highly punitive Treaty of Versailles which simply sowed the seeds for the rise of the Nazis and the beginning of the next war to end war, the Second World War. As Archibald Wavell, a future field-marshal and viceroy of India, said on seeing what was going on in Paris, “After the ‘war to end war’, they seem to have been in Paris making the ‘Peace to end Peace’.”

This thought has haunted me for a long, long time now because although it is completely clear to me that war will never end war Wavell’s words have often made me wonder about the rôle our understanding of in what consists peace has on the seemingly endless continuation of war.

Put plainly, one hundred years on from the ending of the First World War, it seems to me that there is as much of a problem with our conceptions of peace as with our tendencies to war.

To help tease this thought out a bit it’s perhaps helpful to do something similar to that which I did a couple of weeks ago in connection with our ideas about “The Future” and make today a distinction between “Peace” with a capital “P” and scare quotes and peace with a lowercase “p” and no scare quotes.

By “Peace” with a capital “P” and scare quotes I’m referring to any kind of idealised utopian and absolute understanding of “Peace”, a “Peace” all the qualities and parameters of which you somehow know about long before you get there. For a culture such as our own, inexorably shaped by the Judaeo-Christian tradition, most capital “P” Peaces can be traced back to Isaiah 11 in which the author presents us with a vision of what has become known as the “Peaceable Kingdom” (6-9):

The wolf shall live with the lamb,
   the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
   and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze,
   their young shall lie down together;
   and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
   and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.
They will not hurt or destroy
   on all my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
   as the waters cover the sea.


This passage inspired the famous Quaker artist, Edward Hicks (1780–1849), to paint sixty, quite extraordinary versions of this utopian Peaceable Kingdom, one of which I have reproduced in your order of service (see picture on right). The problem is, of course, that such an utopian Peaceable Kingdom simply does not, nor can exist because, being the kind of beings they are in the kind of world this is, humans, wolves, leopards and lions simply do not live peaceably with lambs, kids and calves and it’s always insane ever to let your child play near the hole of an asp or an adder’s den. We may not like it, but hurt and destruction of all kinds — moral and natural, deliberate and accidental — is woven through the very fabric of our world. But, despite this, visions of capital “P” total “Peace” similar to those imagined by Isaiah continue to hold captive huge swaths of humanity who feel strongly that nature should, somehow, not be as it is and that, therefore, nature must either be changed or, given that it doesn’t exist on earth, their utopian vision must exist in some other, supernatural realm such as the kingdom of God. 

But, as someone who thinks we should always be following some strong precautionary principles and proceeding with the greatest of caution when considering changing any aspect of nature’s present way of naturing and who also can no longer believe in the existence of supernatural deities and their perfect, utopian other-worldly kingdoms, I take it as given that all such capital “P” “Peaces” are an illusion and that believing in them and trying to make them real only serves to take our eyes off the possibility of creating much more modest but, ultimately, genuine and realistic examples of lowercase “p” peace in this our natural world.

For me no one has better or more succinctly indicated what is required to create such a modest lower case “p” peace than the Anglo-American poet Denise Levertov (1923–1997).

She is completely clear that, just like a poem, “peace . . . is not there ahead of itself”  — it is not some pre-existent, ideal capital “P” thing towards which we hope, even believe, we are moving — rather it is always and only a possibility embedded the present that needs constantly to be evoked and gently brought into being like a poem.

To help you grasp what I am trying to say a little bit more firmly let me say the same thing about friendship. I am absolutely convinced that capital “F” friendship does not exist; but what assuredly does exist are acts of lowercase “f” friendship. Friendship needs to be evoked and gently evoked into being again and again otherwise it is non-existent. As with friendship, so with peace — they really only **are** where there are found living and ongoing acts of friendship and peace.

We may desire that the poets — and also philosophers, theologians, politicians and diplomats, too — should give us finished visions or “imaginations” of some future, capital P “Peace” to oust “to oust the intense, familiar imagination of disaster” but this has never truly been possible because, as Levertov knows, peace “can’t be imagined before it is made, can’t be known except in the words of its making [with its] grammar of justice [and] syntax of mutual aid.”

The most we can hope for, beforehand, is that we can begin to learn to evoke and gently nurture “A feeling towards [peace], dimly sensing a rhythm”, and it is only when we have begun deeply to internalise this movement that that we can then hope to “begin to utter its metaphors, learning them as we speak.”

As I have said at other times in other contexts, it seems to me that before we even think about making new policies (including peace policies) we need new metaphors — not least of all because the old metaphors of capital “P” Peace have failed to bring real, ongoing, lower case “p” peace. We need a “re-story-ation” of peace.

Any meaningful “re-tory-ated” metaphors for such a peace must be very different from that employed by Isaiah and Hicks. They were imagining a finally finished, perfect state but Levertov imagines it as an ever unfolding sentence in which “A line of peace might appear / if we restructured the sentence our lives are making, revoked its reaffirmation of profit and power, / questioned our needs, allowed / long pauses . . .”.

If we could do this then she says, perhaps, just perhaps “A cadence of peace might balance its weight / on that different fulcrum”.

But what does Levertov mean when she says a “different fulcrum”? Different to what? Well, from where I stand, the “cadence of peace” I see and hear performed year after year in nearly all the official, big public, political remembrances is one which leads us, not from war to peace, but always from peace to war. This is because the official public, polical cadence (no matter how moving it can be) is designed subtly to reinforce the basic idea that, actually, wars do create peace and this, in turn, means that the putative peaces we create in public are still balanced on a fulcrum of war.

To illustrate the truth of this I need say nothing more than to note that as our world’s state officials have gathered together in various places this week solemnly to remember the ending of “the war to end all wars” the fulcrum upon which their power balances (the military/industrial complex) continues to allow people and companies knowingly and willingly to sell billions of pounds worth of missiles and bombs to countries like Saudi Arabia for use in places like the Yemen.

This fact alone — repeated every generation so far — surely helps us see more clearly that we need a cadence of peace which balances not on a fulcrum of war but on a fulcrum of peace and our old-school nation-state orientated businesses and politics will never be able to provide us with this.

According to Levertov the fulcrum of peace we both need and seek is “a presence, / an energy field more intense than war” and it is one which can only come into being amongst people who, for whatever reason, have become committed both to restructuring the sentence their lives are making and who are also prepared to allow long pauses  out of which can come (re-story-ative) new metaphors and poems.

Is not Levertov suggesting here that real, lowercase “p” peace, like any word in a sentence or poem is the one properly required only for this sentence and poem, not for the next, and that, like acts of friendship, for evermore and until the end of time we are daily called upon to be writing new poems of peace, letting the rhythm of peace enter into us and vibrate every atom of our body and soul?

The war to end all wars has never, nor will ever come except, perhaps, through a war that destroys the whole world. But the same seems true of all our capital “P” “Peaces” and that they, too, will never end war.

But were we able to live as poets we might still have a chance to bring into being a more modest, lowercase “p” peace, that can energise us and might just “pulse then, / stanza by stanza into the world, / [with] each act of living / one of its words, each word a vibration of light—facets / of the forming crystal.”

I realise that for some this might sound wildly impractical but consider this, what is more likey: that the world could ever come to look like the capital “P” Peaceable Kingdom as depicted by Isaiah and Edward Hicks or that the world could, word by word, stanza by stanza each act of living by act of living, could re-story-ate our world and bring about real, modest, but still powerful lowercase “p” peaces that are much, much more than merely the absence of war.

Fall down 7, Get up 8 - First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin

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11 November 2018 at 16:00
By: Various (aggregated by Player FM)
Rev. Meg Barnhouse's sermon delivered on November 11, 2018. Persistence, endurance, resilience, grit - is it a mistake to be goal-oriented? Is there a better way to think about forward movement?

Attached media: https://web.archive.org/web/20211109044607/http://www.austinuuav.org/audio/2018-11-11_Fall_down_Get_up.mp3

'DEAR AMERICA' - A sermon by Rev. Barbara Prose (Traditional Service) - All Souls Unitarian Church

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11 November 2018 at 16:00
By: Various (aggregated by Player FM)
The sermon was delivered on Sunday, November 11, 2018, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Rev. Barbara Prose, Executive Director of Ministry. DESCRIPTION If you could write a letter to America, what would you say? As I write this, the election looms ahead of us. When we gather on Sunday, November 11, the election will be behind us. One hundred years after Armistice Day, which ended World War I—“the war to end all wars”—Marlin and I will share our concerns for and our faith and the people of this country. One hundred and sixty years ago Abraham Lincoln said, “If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it,” in his speech, A House Divided. On Sunday, we will honor our veterans, our history and the power of a people filled and fueled by our free-faith. SUBSCRIBE TO AUDIO PODCAST: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/all-souls-unitarian-church/id193096943 WATCH THIS SERMON ON YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/Hm9XTqnSCCU SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=allsoulsunitarian GIVE A DONATION TO HELP US SPREAD THIS LOVE BEYOND BELIEF: http://www.allsoulschurch.org/GIVE or text LOVEBB to 73256 LET'S CONNECT: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/allsoulstulsa Twitter: https://twitter.com/AllSoulsTulsa All Souls Church Website: http://www.allsoulschurch.org  

Attached media: https://web.archive.org/web/20211109044546/https://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/b/8/7/b877506df86ce4ee/2018-11-11-BProse--Dear-America--Traditional.mp3?c_id=25812956&cs_id=25812956&destination_id=16949&expiration=1636435589&hwt=76634299fbb0cff8ffee93e187366246

UUFSD Annual Thanksgiving Dinner

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11 November 2018 at 15:43
Location Founders' Hall | UUFSD. Categories No Categories. The meaning of Thanksgiving has undergone numerous transitions — an expression of ...

Come Closer: A Few Words to a Zen Priest Being Installed as a Unitarian Universalist Minister

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11 November 2018 at 15:42
But, and I hope that's also clear, I am also an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister. And actually I earned my keep for a quarter of a century serving ...

Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Lafayette

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11 November 2018 at 15:34
We are a small lay-led religious community of diverse individuals. We offer reverent services, stimulating learning, social concerns, and a welcoming ...

Cancelled until January 1, 2018: Free Gentle Yoga Class

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11 November 2018 at 15:22
All Events. Cancelled until January 1, 2018: Free Gentle Yoga Class. December 16, 2019 @ 6:00 pm - 7:15 pm. |Recurring Event (See all). An event ...

War and Peace Tickets - First Unitarian Universalist Church of Richmond, Jan 20, 2019

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11 November 2018 at 15:06
Tickets and RSVP information for War and Peace's upcoming concert at First Unitarian Universalist Church of Richmond in Richmond on Nov 11, ...

Social Justice Committee seeks new members 

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11 November 2018 at 14:59
By: Sheri DiGiovanna
FUUN Social Justice Committee seeks new members to join them in their efforts into the new year. If you have a love for Social Justice and want to make a difference, they would love to have you. Stop by their table Read More ...

My 6th/7th grade RE group made 'travel chalices' out of Altoid boxes last week. It was fun.

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11 November 2018 at 14:53
By: (@awgonnerman)

My 6th/7th grade RE group made 'travel chalices' out of Altoid boxes last week. It was fun.

First Church Goes Solar

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11 November 2018 at 14:51
A state-of-the-art photovoltaic solar system rated at 23.8kW power went into operation on August 17 on the roof of First Church. The system is expected ...

How is bliss made possible?

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11 November 2018 at 14:05


Before things come down they must go up.
Before things fail there must have been success.
Before people become weak they have been strong.
Before things are received they must have been given.

We stand back, gain perspective, and see the complementarity of reality on the ego plane.

Why get upset because things will come full circle often after great suffering and anguish.
And then there will be joy and celebration for a while until the cylce continues on its way.

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning and this search often takes them up and down, over and back, to good times and bad, and with frustration and despair, and relaxation and hope.

Beyond the search for truth and meaning Unitarian Univeralists are aware of and affirm and promote a respect and a love for the interdependent web of existence of which they, and all things, are a part. It is in the awareness of the interdependent web of all existence that bliss is made possible.


Communications Meeting

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11 November 2018 at 13:17
All committees have been asked to have a representative at this meeting to review how to get information to the website, the newsletter and the weekly ...

Joe and Joan Moore Award Nominations - Due Jan. 4

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11 November 2018 at 13:00
By: DirCommunications
—–=========The Joe and Joan Moore Award was established a number of years ago to recognize volunteers who have displayed long-term service at three levels: to the church to the community in the name of the church, and to the Unitarian Read More ...

Ask Alexa - What do Unitarian Univeralists believe in?

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11 November 2018 at 12:00
Alexa: What do Unitarian Univeralists believe in? They believe in covenanting together to affirm and promote their seven mutually agreed upon principles.

UU A Way Of Life ministries index - What percentage of Americans eat fast food or pizza on any given day?

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11 November 2018 at 11:59
Percentage of Americans who eat fast food  or pizza on any given day = 37% Percentage of 20 - 39 year olds in America who east fast food or pizza any given day = 45% Percentage of 40 - 59 year olds = 38% Percentage of people over 60 years old = 24%

"The Language of the Unheard" - Unitarian Universalist Church of Charlotte

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11 November 2018 at 11:15
By: Various (aggregated by Player FM)
Our services on Sunday, November 11, invited us to reflect now that the mid-term elections are over and remind ourselves of the possibilities and limitations of voting and politics.

Attached media: https://web.archive.org/web/20211109044503/https://www.uuccharlotte.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/11.11.18_Language_of_the_Unheard.mp3

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