WWUUD stream

๐Ÿ”’
โŒ About FreshRSS
There are new articles available, click to refresh the page.
โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

"Ancient History of Universalism" is ready

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

Later: I’ve already made one fix to a note, and created a pretty hacky PDF of the book — ignore the title page and how the chapters are numbered at the top — by request. Again, better asthetics later.

Download the PDF at http://universalistchristian.org/books/ancient-history/ancient-history.pdf.

I’ve also created an ePub — to download at http://universalistchristian.org/books/ancient-history/ancient-history.epub — and I’d appreciate feedback on its readability.


Two days ago, I mentioned how I was processing the Ancient History of Universalism for the web. I’ve gotten to a good stopping place and would like to share the work with you.

It’s on the site I use for my Universalist Christian Initiative, at http://universalistchristian.org/books/ancient-history/.

A fascinating read, but a slow start so you may want to jump into the middle. Chapter nine is a story of intrigue with a vivid mental picture of what is now the West Bank. I imagine it would have been thrilling to those who would have had no other way to “see” it.

And be sure to dig into the footnotes, which in several places show the progress of scholarship in the generations after Hosea Ballou, II, particularly this note on whether Theodoret was a Universalist and whether Universalism was condemned at the Fifth Ecumenical Council. Other notes, apologies from Ballou, for works he could not afford to buy or borrow to consult leave a twinge, particularly since they can be looked up online in scanned reproduction today.

Like this … A Latin and Greek text condemning Origenism. (extract)

As you may note, it’s a very basic design; the whole book with notes and index (no internal links, I’m afraid) is a mere 162 kb. My goal is to make bulky resources like these easy to download on the fly, with aesthetic improvements later. If you see typos — I couldn’t have gotten them all — send me a note and I’ll make periodic fixes.

Some process notes. I got the messy text from https://archive.org/details/ancienthistoryof1872ball, I edited the text with the Atom editor, in Markdown, and processed it with pandoc. (If you’re comfortable with the command line.)

pandoc -s -S --toc -c basic.css inputtext.md -o output.html

I was inspired by a set of very vulgarly-named and written websites promoting simple web design, the names of which are outside the standards of this blog. Search for the most vulgar words you know, plus “website” and you’ll surely find one, but there’s a competition of imitators. I also consulted Practical Typography’s section on websites for confirmation.

I’ve worked up the outline of a style guide for this book, which I learned years ago helps maintain consistancy and easy for modern readers. I really should type that up.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Preparing an online version of "Ancient History of Universalism"

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

I’ve been writing a blog since 2003, and this is post #4,000. I saw this coming and thought it deserved a little something extra.

Earlier this week I was speaking with a friend and colleague about Universalism and Eastern Orthodoxy, and recalled to him Hosea Ballou II’s 1828 Ancient History of Universalism, which traced the doctrine from the period from the end of the writing of the New Testament to thhe Fifth Ecumenical Council, particularly in the East. Among other things, the work positions Universalism within the entirety of Christian history and not as an innovation then a scant two or three generations old. And given the role Hosea Ballou II played within the denomination, his influence would have been important in his lifetime. I thought to read it, and knowing from my early (1990s) transcription projects that the best way to read one of these old works — and retain any memory of it — is to edit it for web publication, and that’s what I am doing to celebrate post #4,000.

It’s not the first edition nor the second, but the 1872 edition, with added notes. I’m about half-way through, and will post it online as a web page and intend to create an epub edition, suitable for most book readers. (If you want a print reproduction copy of the first edition, get one here.)

And what value is it today? Among other things, to see how a leading and influential Universalist saw his faith and contrasted with others (allegory is silly; reason, good) and to have handy access to those texts (including biblical texts) that early Universalists used to support the faith. And perhaps past both of these, to enjoy a grand piece of period scholarship and to inspire new studies; I’ve since ordered a modern history of Origen to take me where HB2 couldn’t.

I’ll post afresh when and where the files go up.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Hiram, Maine Universalist church disbands

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

No sooner did I beg off following news from the UUA Board than a couple of people kindly noted news in the Board packet for the meeting this weekend. There was — with a gigantic and startling packet of recent Board correpondence — the news, that the First Universalist Society, Hiram, Maine had “dissolved.” (I prefer the term “disbands” as it seems less like it was dropped in a barrel of acid.)

The Hiram church was not large. In my copy of the 2001 UUA directory, it reported four members. Even in 1878 (a quick look at the registers online) only show 28 families in the parish. The inland town has also never been large, and while in a beautiful setting that doesn’t mean that any church could keep residents, or attract ministers. Its existance, in any form, was its accomplishment.

It was listed as federated. I don’t know what it’s federation partners were, but if they continue I hope they have long years of ministry ahead. (Perhaps this community church, converted last year to a cultural center?) If not, I hope the people of Hiram find and create ministry where they can.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

What church is that in the header?

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

A friend asked if the church in the header was Universalist. Indeed it is, or was. That is Universalist Meeting House, Hingham, Massachusetts. The image, now in the public domain, was extracted and hosted a Flickr.

This is the original source, The History of the Town of Hingham, Massachusetts.

Phoebe Hanaford was one of its pastors. The church disbanded in 1929 — so many disbanded in that decade — and the building, which still stands, has been converted to a private house.  Its papers are in the Unitarian Universalist archive at Harvard-Andover Library.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

How I'll approach the Unitarian Universalist Association

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

A couple of centuries ago, had I been a General Baptist — a group later folded with the Unitarians — I might be at the annual conference, held in London each Easter Monday. This Easter Monday I want to revisit my relationship with the Unitarian Universalist Association. You may see your experience in my words.

First, I’m not storming off in a huff, but hasn’t this last week been a challenge? Or is that the last year? Last decade? But there is this malaise, and it’s only improved by not thinking about the UUA.

In fact, not being in a pastorate since 2003, I’ve had little functional connection to the central institutions of the UUA, but had thought it better to stay as engaged as possible. I felt that was my responsibility. Even now I have some forms on my desk to fill out. So I follow the programs, read the Board minutes, stay informed and attend General Assembly when possible. But even though there aren’t fewer words, there’s less to read. Theological conversations? Engaging with counterparts overseas? A new hymnal? (New churches for that matter?) I look at the work of the UUA that appealed to me twenty years ago, and see less every year. Much of what continues has been sourced outside the UUA (or dropped), and with unseating of the independent affiliates (and the undermining of the Commission on Appraisal) that “outside” is also sidelined. GA workshops, save the UUCF communion service, are worthless to me. (Lunch is always an option.)  If I seem farther away from the center, maybe it’s because the scope of the UUA has shrunk, and I’ve spoken to others who feel the same way.

Instead, so much of the work of the UUA seems invested in maintaining the UUA itself. And the language of “your UUA” and “our saving faith” (definition forthcoming) seems to replace program with identity. But as Universalist Christian, that’s a non-starter. I could use programs, but the majority identity, itself under stress from demographic changes that all the old mainline churches face, actually makes it harder to make a claim a place in a theological federation.

So, what’s left that mostly works? Ministerial credentialing, the retirement plan, and (for those in search) settlement. I read the UUWorld, and I really like Elaine McArdle‘s writing. If everything else magically vanished, I might notice, but might not care. (Others will have other lists, of course.)  If the other work is meaningful, it would find a new home anyway.

There are, of course, friends and colleagues who do good work, and I want to support them; I can do this directly. There’s a vacuum (vacUUm?) that will needed to be filled. But there’s no reason I should examine UUA membership data if it’s clear from the outset that the outcome is “smaller.” If the UUA does not make communal religious life easier and richer, then others will find a way to do it better. Maybe the next president — I have no opinion about who that should be — will improve things, and if that happens I hope someone will tell me. In the meantime, I will focus on the innovators, the activity at the fringes, co-workers in the ecumenical world and my personal friends. I don’t have time to worry about the UUA, and so that’ll be the last I have to say on the subject.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Easter Sunday, 1954

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

A couple of weeks ago, I found the online archive of the Unitarian Universalist Church, in Muncie, Indiana, and found the summary order of service from April 18, 1954: Easter Sunday.

Here it is:

April 18, 1954 service

This was First Universalist Church, as it was know then, and just renamed from St. John’s Universalist Church. Let’s decode the service.

The “tell” is from the first line. The service is the Easter service from Services of Religion, prepended to the “red hymnal,” The Hymns of the Spirit.

This makes the hymns (483) “Fairest Lord Jesus” and (192) Charles Wesley’s famous “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today.” The doxology (500) begins “Praise God the love we all may share.”

Responsive Reading 72, entitled “Easter,” is mainly drawn from the third and fourth chapter apocryphal Wisdom of Solomon (the citations in the index should read verses 1-9, not verse 19; it’s a mix of KJV and RV, with some heavy edits) and reads:

The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God,
And there shall no torment touch them.

In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die,
And their departure is taken for misery,
And their going from us to be utter destruction:

But they are in peace: and their hope full of immortality.
And having borne a little chastening, they shall receive great good:

For God proved them, and found them worthy for himself.

And in the time of their visitation they shall shine forth,
And the Lord shall reign over them for ever.

The faithful shall abide with him in love:
Because grace and mercy are to his chosen.

For in the memory of virtue is immortality:
Because it is recognized both before God and before men.

When it is present men take example at it:
And when it is gone they desire it:
And throughout all time it marcheth crowned in triumph,
Victorious in the strife for the prizes that are undefiled.

But a righteous man, though he die before his time, shall be at rest.

For honorable old age is not that which standeth in length of time,
Nor is its measure given by length of years:

But understanding is gray hairs unto men,
And an unspotted life is ripe old age.

Being made perfect in a little while,
he fulfilled long years;
For his soul was pleasing unto the Lord:

And they that be wise shall shine
As the brightness of the firmament,

And they that turn many to righteousness
As the stars for ever and ever.

For the path of the just is as a shining light
That shineth more and more unto the perfect day.


It’s interesting that the anthems proceed thematically from Thursday to Sunday. I tried to track down the organ music and anthems, but none of the titles are distinct enough to shake anything useful out of Google.

And the preacher? The Rev. Sidney Esten (1892-1965) was not the church’s pastor. (That was the famous Russell Lockwood, would be installed that fall; perhaps he hadn’t arrived yet?) After studying at St. Lawrence, Esten was ordained and served at the long-gone Anderson, Indiana Universalist church; he also taught school. Money was tight, and — per his obituary from the Indiana Academy of Science (PDF) — it seems Anderson was his only pastorate. But he married people and supplies pulpits for years. (Sounds familiar.) He later got a graduate degree and taught science in an Indianapolis high school. He was a  “noted authority on birds” — indeed, feeding birds when he died suddenly.

I would have been happy to have been there. Can you image the flowers? Happy Easter to you, when it comes!

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Muncie, Indiana Universalist records online

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

The Unitarian Universalist church in Muncie, Indiana has a Universalist foundation, and so I was happy to find a digitized archive online today while I was casting around for citations for today’s Universalist Christian Initiative newsletter.

Haven’t dug much into it. Enjoy!

http://libx.bsu.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/UUCRec

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Ordo de Diservo fixed

By: Scott Wells โ€”

Thanks to Richard Hurst for noting that encoding rot made the “Ordo de Diservo” — Order of Worship — unreadable, even for those who do read Esperanto.

Should be all fixed, here and at RevScottWells.com, where I write slighly more frequently.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Swastikas on Fourth Universalist doors

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

Seen now on Twitter, that swastikas were scratched on the doors of Fourth Universalist, in the Upper West Side of NewYork.

Here are some of the tweets that speak about it.

2 swastikas were scratched into the wooden doors of the Unitarian Universalist Church on Central Park west#1010wins pic.twitter.com/Bz1enTxHmp

— Carol D'Auria (@CarolDAuria) March 1, 2017

A hate crime being investigated at a Universalist congregation on the UWS. Why the reverend believes they were… https://t.co/pgaMuwozZ4

— Alice Gainer (@GainerTV) March 1, 2017

UWS Universalist Church Vandalized With Swastikas https://t.co/jdYm8IO3OP via @Gothamist

— Nulla dies sine line (@moodylonerphile) March 1, 2017

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Painting of the Universalist Church in Gloucester

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

Over the years, troves of images have been released into the public domain or under liberal licences. The most recent release is from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. (Search page)

Here is “The Church at Gloucester“by Childe Hassam (1918) and now in the public domain. The church is, of course, the Universalist church — the first in the Americas.  John Murray was its pastor; Judith Murray, a founder, was an author and leading figure in Gloucester.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

#73 Will Her Methodist Faith Help HRC Make a Comeback?

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”
In a rare glimpse of mettle since she conceded the race to Donald Trump last November, Hillary Clinton showed up …<p>Continue reading → In a rare glimpse of mettle since she conceded the race to Donald Trump last November, Hillary Clinton showed up …<p>Continue reading →
โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Twenty Seventeen theme it is

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

A small blog administration note. I like this theme, but that header image needs to change. And I’ll try out the extra features.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

UUA Board packet for January is up

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

The UUA Board packet went online on January 20 for the meeting this week. (I must have been occupied by something else then.)

See https://www.uua.org/uuagovernance/board/packets/board-packet-january-2017

Skimming through, so far:

  • Two new covenanting communities, a name change, and “The Hattiesburg Fellowship (Hattiesburg, MS) has dissolved.”
  • GA Planning committe recommends Providence for GA 2020.
โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

The New Normal?

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

  

            As we’ve aged, whether we are single twenty- or thirty-somethings,  middle-aged parents or single folks, Baby Boomers, or truly elderly and feeling it, we experience changes in our lives that turn out to be permanent rather than temporary.

            It may be a chronic illness or an improvement in health due to changed behaviors; it may be the end or start of a love relationship; it may be a move from a beloved home to unfamiliar surroundings.

            Many times these are temporary, but when they become permanent, we begin to realize that “normal” isn’t what it used to be.  The “new normal” is often something we need to come to terms with because it is life-changing and not always pleasant.

            I’ve had my ideas of “normal” changed a few times in my life,  just as you have, no doubt.  My vision went from mildly nearsighted to cluttered by cataracts, to damaged by retinal detachments---and that is my “new normal” vision.  My heart went from a slight murmur to the diagnosis of a birth defect which needed repair, and then on to conditions that required a pacemaker and medications that have now become another “new normal” for me.

            We learn to cope with the “new normal”, recognizing that our ability to adapt is on the line here.  Losses in health or in relationships or in living conditions are major events in our life journeys and can strike at the very foundations of our sense of well-being.

            Our nation’s health and relationships and living conditions are currently on the line these days, as we contemplate how we will cope with a Yuuge change in our national leadership. But more on that later!

            This morning I want to review for us our journey as members and friends of the Pacific UU Fellowship, because we have done a lot of changing in the past two years and it’s a good time to reflect on our “new normal”.

            Two years ago, January of 2015, we had about 30 pledging members, members who had taken the UU 101 course, had signed the membership book, and had made a financial pledge to the congregation.  This year we have 49 pledging members and are expecting to welcome a few more in the coming months.  We are growing strongly as opposed to many mainline religious traditions.

            Two years ago we were renting space in the small, lovely little green Congregational church on the South Slope and feeling frustrated by our situation---crowded during social hour and other events with little room to grow.

            We were facing several challenges besides the fact that we were outgrowing our rented space.  We also hated to leave a sanctuary that was so familiar with its beautiful views and a mostly-positive relationship with our hosts, the Congregationalists.

            But there were concerns about maintenance of the structure and an awareness that our hosts were financially unable to fix the structural damage, particularly after the incident during a March storm last year that damaged the beautiful window overlooking Saddle Mountain and Youngs Bay.  We weren’t sure we could afford to help out financially.

            A facilities committee had been formed earlier to sort through the possible solutions to our situation and we began to think whether to find new space or to stay put.  But that blue-tarp-covered window in the sanctuary after the storm was a real dose of reality as we realized that the damage was likely irreparable under those current circumstances.

            The facilities committee took on the responsibility of researching possible new homes, listing the pros and cons of each, as well as the pros and cons of staying; the committee visited different possible locations, talking with potential landlords, and also staying in communication with our hosts, the Congregationalists.

            After many months of work and meetings and endless emails back and forth----by the way, Michael counted up 900+ emails about the search for space during 2016—we got ready to make a recommendation to the Fellowship.

            We had had some challenges---many churches in our area are quite conservative and they did not seem like a good match with our liberal theology and values, so we decided not to consider them.  We were actually told “No” by one mainline congregation, uneasy about theological differences.

            In the end, it boiled down to becoming a Partner of the Performing Arts Center or staying put at the little green church.  The vote last summer was decisive to move to the PAC, and we did so in September,  five months ago.

            Our transition team got to work, planning and packing and lugging and moving in.  We learned what keys went to what doors.  We stored our stuff.  We bought things:  a pulpit, a few tables, the kids’ furniture from the UCC church and we made the all-important coffee decisions. 
            People donated things:  a rocking chair for RE, this great rug from Christine, which the kids adore,  tablecloths, a cabinet for the hymnals, storage bins, and many odds and ends.  And then it was time to have our first service here, Sept. 18.

            There have been experiments and goof-ups and more than one deafening screech from the sound system, during the past months of learning how to use this space.  Protocols for social hour and set-up/take-down had to be put in place.  Volunteers had lots of opportunity to be involved and create those protocols. 

Becky and Larry Thormahlen devised the backdrop of drapes and banner---which, by the way, is a major place we need some help, so that they can share that set-up with others and not have to do it themselves every single week.

            We learned we had to be very careful with our chalice flame and got a dispensation from the Astoria fire chief so that we didn’t have to go totally LED!  (Now if we can just help people get the hang of turning on the little bitty switches on the joys and concerns candles!)  There were so many new rules and adjustments to be made.  Other Partners’ schedules had to be observed and worked around.
            Every week it seemed like there was some new challenge to figure out!  At one point, I observed to someone that it reminded me of the first apartment of my own---when I’d moved out of my parents’ home and faced that shaky moment when I realized just how complicated it was to be an adult and run my own life! 

            On top of all of this, our national political scene has been both exciting and scarily chaotic.  We have been challenged repeatedly by potential upheavals and reversals of hard-won human rights and basic respect for human dignity.

            However as we face the year 2017, with its uncertainties, there are strengths within this Fellowship, its membership, and its values that we will build upon, continuing to use our seven principles and the ideals that they represent to resist efforts to turn back the clock to an older more repressive time.

            We have new members with leadership abilities and high eagerness.  We are set firmly upon a solid foundation laid by longterm members and leaders.  We have volunteers, both longtimers and newer folks, who are establishing new processes for hospitality, for Sunday services, social justice, religious education, greeting and membership, all designed for this new home and ready to meet the Yuuuge challenges which may face our nation.

            We have volunteers stepping up to the place with ideas and energy.  We have new activities---circle suppers and post-service discussion times.  Our board is made up of longtimers and newer folks—a promising combination for stability and creativity.

            As we continue to experiment with how to use our new home effectively, we’ll be trying some new elements in the Sunday service occasionally and in other parts of our life together.

            Changes in our size bring changes in our relationships with one another, so some of our new activities will help us stay connected and more aware of what each of us bring to the life of the Fellowship.  We will want to monitor how things are going and bring concerns or suggestions to our leadership.

            Because we have been gaining new members regularly, there may come times when we look around and say to ourselves “I no longer know every person here!”  We’ll want to find ways to help ourselves and each other feel at home here.

            We often think of “growth” as measured primarily in numbers or size.  I mean, how did our parents measure our growth?  By marks on the door jamb, with a book on our heads, right?  By our weight on the pediatrician’s scale, by the sizes of shoes we outgrew!

            In a religious community, there’s more than one kind of growth to consider, however.  Numbers, yes, because we report our numbers to the Unitarian Universalist Association and pay a fee to that organization in return for their support.  Size, yes, because it feels so great to see this sanctuary start to fill up on Sunday mornings!

            But we here at PUUF are also creating growth in our infrastructure, meaning the ways we keep things running smoothly---in our finances, in our processes for creating community, in our leaders’ competence, and in our interactions with the community---both the community of the PAC and of the Columbia/Pacific geographical area.

            We are in the early stages of creating a Finance committee to oversee our accounts and give more assistance to our treasurer.  We are creating a Religious Education advisory group to assist our RE staff.  We have created a hospitality process to make our social hour smooth-running and enjoyable. And we have a membership committee to assist me in welcoming new visitors and members.

            Another important growth area is maturity of understanding.  Our Sunday Services committee strives to create Sunday services that feature speakers  and ideas that bring new information into our awareness.  Speakers from local social service agencies increase our understanding of the social justice needs of our area.  And speakers from other religious traditions and those who challenge us to think philosophically (like Seth Tichenor next Sunday!) help us learn to understand others’ world views.

            One more area of growth for a religious community is in spiritual understanding, opening ourselves to a deeper awareness of what it means to be a human being, in this world, a human being who knows they will die.

            Part of that awareness is recognizing our deepest values---for ourselves and for each other---and finding within ourselves the awe aroused by the world and its creatures and the commitment to offer ourselves and our resources to the world’s protection and improvement.
            Our social justice activities and projects can help us find that sense of connection which invites awe and wonder into our lives.  Spirituality is both inward and outward---inward when we are touched by love or wonderment and savor it quietly.  Outward when we invest our insights and sense of wonder into making lives better with our own actions.

            As we face the prospect of a presidential administration which seems bent on destruction of justice, respect, and compassion, we must work together and within our larger community to resist injustice and teach our values of inherent worth and dignity to others.

            I invite you to open your hymnals now to the page at the very front of the book which lists our Unitarian Universalist principles.  These are the foundation of our faith.  They are the values which inform our religious life and give us direction as we respond to attacks on justice, equity, truth, and all that we are committed to as UUs.

            Let’s read them together.  (read)

            As we move forward, into this difficult time, let us support those leaders who share our values, resist and challenge those who would trample others in their race for riches, and may we find the courage to speak our minds for love and justice in this chaotic time.  Let us do all we can to maintain what we have gained from progressive action and band together for strength.

Let’s pause for a time of silent reflection and prayer.

Our closing hymn is #311, Let it Be a Dance.

            As Michael extinguishes the chalice, I’d like to read you something by Carter Heywood for our benediction.  
Christmas Beatitudes 2016

By Carter Heyward

Blessed are those who are kind, especially when it’s hard

Blessed are those angry for justice in situations of unfairness and oppression,

Blessed are the compassionate in times of hatred,

Blessed are those who speak honestly when pummeled by lies — and who seek truth when confronted by fake news,

Blessed are those who keep their courage in the face of belligerent bullies,

Blessed are women who stand up to abusive men — and men who stand with, not on, women,

Blessed are the queer who do not walk straight and narrow paths,

Blessed are black lives — and white lives who know that black lives matter,

Blessed are the earth and animals among those indifferent to their well-being,

Blessed are non-violent resisters whose enemies hope you will pick up guns,

Blessed are you when people shake their heads because you refuse to accept authoritarian rulers as “normal,”

Blessed are you peacemakers who refuse cheap grace,

You are daughters and sons of the Sacred,

brothers and sisters of Jesus, (and Mohammed and the Buddha and all women and men)

friends of the Spirit,

-->
Salaam. Shalom. Peace.

-->
โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

The Parson's Handbook found online

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

From time to time, I consult Percy Dearmer‘s The Parson’s Handbook to test the standards of liturgical norms. I don’t always agree with him — little wonder as we come from very different places within Christianity — but you can’t fault him for his thoroughness and style. (To tell you the truth, I read it for pleasure, as I do travel guides and cookbooks.)

The book went through twelve editions in his lifetime, with a thirteenth (heavily altered, I gather) thereafter. Some are in the public domain, and I’m making a list below as a directory.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Ten non-resolutions for 2017

By: Scott Wells โ€”

So, it’s 2017 now. I’m in that group of people who wants to make New Year’s resolutions, but doesn’t keep them well. I’ve made ill-fated resolutions about losing weight so many times that I’ve given up on them. I’ll try these ten non-resolutions instead:

  1. Try to keep my sodium intake down. That should help with my blood pressure.
  2. Find and use a tailor to make my clothing fit. Easier than trying to tailor myself.
  3. Try to walk a bit more. It’s the most exercise I get, so I might as well get more.
  4. Move my diet closer to vegan (I’m already a vegetarian) particularly by restricting egg consumption. I don’t really like them anyway, and it’s a good way to lose some more saturated fat.
  5. Work on core strength. Do those exercises I learned in physical therapy. A concrete step to overcoming back pain.
  6. Settle on a good haircut, with a reliable barber. I wasn’t going to lose skull weight anyway, so a good haircut would help my head look better. Ditto the beard.
  7. Cut back on white bread. I like it, but it sits on me like lead.
  8. Try to take outings that don’t focus on getting food or eating.
  9. Take the stairs more and see if that helps strengthen my knees, or see an orthopedist if it doesn’t.
  10. Learn to stretch my back to help relieve back pain.

So I won’t make a resolution to lose weight, but will endeavor to change those behaviors that will get me closer to having those health and appearance improvements that I attribute to weight loss. After all, it’s not the particular number of pounds that I want.

We’ll see if that works, or at least if I can keep up with it.

 

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

A new, favorite minister's binder

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

So, ministers: how many of you, particularly in the free traditions, have your own “book” — often a three-ring binder — where you keep sermon and service texts, and perhaps a calendar and other flat items? (I keep Geneva bands in mine.)

I’ve written about this subject before and have bought several of these books myself but they tend to be utilitarian and covered in vinyl, and the best-looking of these are perversely the ones that fall apart the fastest.

Cloth-covered board and glazed paper covers are sometimes available. There’s one book I’ve had for years, with a textured surface looking more like leather, but made of paper; it’s falling apart, and no longer for public use.

A few weeks ago I found this binder from the Martha Stewart collection. I got it on Amazon for $6 and the red color seem suitably ecclesiastic. (There is also a teal version.)

The description wasn’t clear but it’s the same kind of pebbled paper that my old standby has and seems sturdy, if a bit stiff. I think it’s going to be a favorite.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

New WordPress theme might be good for churches

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

There’s been a flood of new Bootstrap-y sites for churches made over the last couple of years, and I’m sure that’s the kind of thing that some other churches would want and cannot afford.

I’m looking at the new default business-minded WordPress theme — Twenty Seventeen — and it pushes some of the same buttons that those other sites push. Cutting edge design? Hardly? But it might what a church needs to refresh its look, and it has features that should make it easy to manage by non-pros.

For a week or so, I’ll have the default Twenty Seventeen theme up. (I’m not selling plants now.)

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Christmas sermon, 2016

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

This is (almost) what I preached today at Universalist National Memorial Church, Washington, D.C. from the lessons from Titus and Luke.


I’d like to think Pastor Dave Gatton for inviting me back into the pulpit this morning.

Merry Christmas to you all.

The Christmas story, as accounted in the Gospel of Luke, is so familiar that we might not hear the words. Even if you were not brought up in a church and are, say, under 50 years of age, there’s a good chance you learned this passage from Luke off television, from A Charlie Brown Christmas, in Linus’s staggering but guileless spotlight speech.

Mary and Joseph on to Bethlehem. No room in the inn. The manger. The angels and the shepherds: these are familiar and friendly.

But this year, it’s hard not to hear the words with renewed meaning, starting at the beginning of the passage from Luke:

In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered.

This was no simple census. It was a foreign intrusion and assertion of power from Rome. Resented, sparking the political movement of Zealots we would meet later, in Jesus’ ministry. Judea, his home, was then administered from Syria, the eastern reach of the Roman Empire, and later united with it. The holy family were vulnerable, and then threatened under Herod’s murderous rage.

The name Syria leaps up from this passage. Aleppo, an ancient city, existed then under another name, so with our new focus on Aleppo, it’s possible to imagine how it was for Jesus’ family in those days, or others like them. The terror and the dying. The wanderings and hunger. Living just beyond the reach of help, but shaped by powerful forces.

That was a time in Judea of religious and political radicalization which ultimately led within a matter of decades to the end of the temple, a radical transformation of Judaism and the end of an independent Israel until living memory. I need not tell you the state of the world today In this telling, the gospel crashes into today.

But, apart from a historical curiosity, what does that show us? That there is suffering always? Are we stuck with endless violence and suffering. If so, what joy is there in Christmas then? Or, put another way, apart from the celebrating, what gospel is there in Christmas.

First, it’s worth owning that we have a lot invested in Christmas, perhaps too much, which has little to do with that first Christmas. Christmas today is a magical, mysterious, otherworldly, amazing, terrifying, bewildering and perplexing time of the year. Its power is palpable and recognizable. I can’t think of another religious holiday in the United States that is so easily made emotionally and socially available to all whatever their religious beliefs. In some ways it is an all-purpose celebration of goodness and hope and that should be available to everybody.

This, on its own, has religious value. As Christians, we should look towards that time that in both now and not-yet, when will we be whole and God will be all-in-all. As with the Lord’s Supper, we share our feasting and happiness in thanksgiving and preparation for that Heavenly Feast before us.

But Christmas is the foundation of an even greater hope, if we can move past the conventions of the telling — the peppermint and snow-flecked trimmings — we see the world around us is not what it seems. The Gospel of Christmas is the direction, pointing us on the way we should go.

We already know in our hearts that the world is not as it should be, as it must be. The soul craves a world refreshed and transformed, and we must bear witness to it. This is the source of true and lasting gladness.

In the passage from Paul’s letter to Titus, we learn to grow in confidence, knowing that our relationship to God is not from what we can provide God, but because of the relationship that God has initiated with us and which is manifested through Jesus’s life which we celebrate today, “we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

We have to remember that the Christmas story is not about one child who managed to attract God’s love and attention but as one child who leads us all back to God’s care. It’s also important how this happens.

The story itself is a story of a “reversal of Fortune”: a reversal of what is important.

Did God’s approved leader appear with strength and might, from a position of power, in a center of power to conquer? None of these happened.

Jesus was born to the Jewish nation, itself very small, and not in Rome, but far from the centers of power. And the promised savior appeared not as a political or military leader but as a newborn infant.

The hope of the ages is knowing that in our smallness, and our powerlessness, and our short lives, and that we might live richly and fully and yet without hurting or dominating one another.

(If you wonder why we gather in prayer the rest of the year, it’s to learn how.)

And yet we are not left alone. God dwells with us, another girt of Christmas. And so we live in hope, and with promises from God reflected in scripture and confirmed buy an inner voice of Truth.

If we are sad or distressed or perplexed or harassed, if we are troubled or menaced or persecuted or embarrassed remember that you are a child of the Living God and that God came to Earth to lead us through a child. And so we grow as children to adulthood with earnestness curiosity joyfulness and loving kindness.

So we celebrate Christmas, even if not in the conventional way. It’s not a prize for being good, but an orientation to how life should be, particularly when everything is going wrong.

The future does not belong to us. But it is before us. Let us approach it with a Christmas spirit: with kindness, love and boldness.

 

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

A "what I'd like" for order of service design

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

It’s not the most important thing in the world, but churches could do a better job with printed orders of service, which is keenly felt on Christmas Eve, when churches often get their largest congregations all year.

I’ve written about this over the years, and I’m far from convinced that that the two- or three-column theatrical program style is the best option, even when every last blessed word is printed out. (Such is the irony in too many Episcopal parishes, with an ignored prayerbook in the pew, and a veritable book published for each service.)  And there’s unlikely to be one solution that works everywhere. And, as before, it’s not the most pressing problem…

But, in any case, I’m always glad to see others join in.  Like David Schwartz, senior co-minister at First Unitarian, Chicago, a church with a long history of liturgical standard-raising, who presents the beginnings of order of service style guide. Good on him!

Read it on his own Tumblr blog. (Memory and Hope)

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Need a Christmas hymn for your order of service? A song book?

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

Time again to point out the Open Hymnal Project, which has a special PDF booklet of public domain Christmas hymns, (direct link) and a ZIP (archive) file GIF (image) files of individual files that should make it easier for you to put individual hymns in an order of service, downloadable from the main page.

See this page for an index of available hymns, Christmas or not, from which you can download related files, including single PDFs and GIFs.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Preaching Christmas morning at Universalist National Memorial

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

If you are in Washington, D.C. on Christmas morning — it’s a Sunday this year — join me at the Universalist National Memorial Church, at 1810 Sixteenth Street, N.W. at 11 a.m. I’ll be preaching,using the second Revised Common Lectionary texts for Christmas, if you’re following along.

You’ll get a warm welcome, even if it’s cold outside.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Publisher of universalist works has a sale

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

Wipf and Stock publishes more theological works that deal with issues of universal salvation (if not institutional Universalism) than anyone else — and probably on a scale unrivaled since the heyday of the Universalist Publishing House. (They have a wide-ranging catalog.)

So when I learned that they are having a sale — 30% off list and free media mail shipping — I said “yes, thank you.” I got The Renewal of All Things: An Alternative Missiology by Waldron Byron Scott, and All Set Free: How God is Revealed in Jesus and Why That is Really Good News by Matthew J. Distefano.

Looking forward to Christmas reading.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

If your church needs a banner/

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

Counter to the prevailing opinion, I’m not a fan of church banners that highlight social or political issues — they seem to soak up the energy and capital that might be applied directly to the need — but if you do put one up, make it big and out of reach.

BLM banner on Church of the PilgrimsIn my neighborhood, at the Church of the Pilgrims (Presbyterian), Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C. It just went up.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

The passage Hillary Clinton quoted

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

If you saw Hillary Clinton’s concession speech today, you may have been touched by her quotation from scripture.

Let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.

It drawn from Galatians 6:9, in case you wondered. It’s not a translation I know — perhaps “arranged” as one says in worship, but here’s the verse from King James Version: “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”

 

 

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Where the discussion about BLUU financial commitment?

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

Earlier this week, the UUWorld reported (Elaine McArdle, October 17) that the Unitarian Universalist Association Board of Trustees awarded a $300,000 grant to the Black Lives of Unitarian Universalists (BLUU), with a commitment to raise another $5 million, “guarantee[d] against the endowment.”

I have so many questions, not the least of which “why has there been no public commentary — apart from the immediate parties, and not much there — about this extraordinary step?”

And will there be room for an examination of what happened, or what this will mean to the Unitarian Universalist Association? There should be room; I’m not sure there will be.

Another story from the UUWorld is coming next week; perhaps then?

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Universalist work in Korea, 1937 report

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

The story of the Universalist Korean mission is little discussed, surely because the Japan mission, on which it was institutionally dependent, is also little discussed and because there is no evidence that has come to light that it survived the Second World War. I’m hoping to add to the record, and follow up on the article I posted two years ago.

I was at the Library of Congress yesterday and scanned minutes and reports from the 1937 General Convention. This is from the section called International Church Extension. I’ve added links to outside resources for context.

Universalist General Convention. Universalist biennial reports and directory. Boston, Mass. : Universalist General Convention. (1938), p. 83-86.

Korea

Under the leadership of Mr. [Ryonki] Jio [or, Cho in the financial reports], graduate of Doshisha Theological Seminary, work was begun in Korea in 1929. Mr. Jio with another student from the seminary had done summer evangelistic work the two previous years. As he traveled all over the country he investigated possible centers for his future work. His final decision was in favor of Taikyu (Daigu—Korean pronunciation), a city the size of Rochester, New York.

In April, 1929, after his graduation from Doshisha, Mr. Jio rented a house and began his work. It was thought at first that no Sunday school could be conducted in such narrow quarters but on April 7th some 57 children came and three men and four women volunteered to help in teaching. What has come to be a very significant work was thus humbly begun.

Taikyu

There is a church building, and a pastor’s house on a small plot of land down a narrow alley building leading from one of the many wide streets in Taikyu. The buildings and land are being bought on the installment plan, with payments each month for something over two more years. The “church building” is an adapted ex-wrestling hall, now in quite bad condition, with uprights weakening and sinking to such an extent that the windows, which open horizontally, are immovable now, with the exception of one half of one window. A new building—one could almost say, a building—is needed badly, but the group is attempting this year a complete renovation with the limited resources these poverty-stricken people can manage to scrape together.

Here are all the usual meetings and some unusual ones —not only Church and Sunday School—but many other meetings throughout the week.

Mr. Jio has lived through some hard experiences since the start of 1929—experiences that would have embittered most men—but he has had his dream and has worked towards its realization steadily. To tabulate such activities as frequent preaching, Sunday School direction, prayer meetings, boys’ club work, Bible classes, does not begin to give one an idea of the work done. Mr. Jiu is fast becoming one of the best-known citizens of Taikyu.

In August of 1936, several months after his graduation from the Taikyu Government Medical School, Dr. Pak, who had for several years served as Sunday School superintendent, in cooperation with Mr. Jio and in the name of the church opened a medical-services-at-cost enterprise in a makeshift “attic” section of the “church building,” divided into a small laboratory, a small waiting room, and a somewhat larger consultation and treatment room, the whole comprising a space of about ten by fifteen feet. (Their original plan to build up the enterprise on a cooperative “shares” basis was prohibited by the police authorities.) For over a year Dr. Pak worked without salary patiently building the work. In August of ‘37, however, he resigned to take up a private practice in Manchukuo among Koreans there. Another young doctor was procured on a salary basis, and the work is going forward with steadily increasing numbers of patients daily and an ever-widening scope of influence in the city. In some months the average number of patients served has been as high as 40 to 50 daily. Last autumn, in answer to the need of an in-patient department for slight operation cases such as for trachoma, which is very wide-spread in Korea. Mr. Jio turned his house over to this work and took up a rented dwelling some twenty minutes’ walk from the “church.”

Handicapped by extremely limited equipment this “church and hospital” enterprise goes forward steadily.

Mrs. Onjun Pak, the first Korean to be trained at the Blackmer Home, has started a Sewing School for Women and Girls in connection with Mr. Jio’s work. Very little equipment was available, but it is hoped that interested groups in America may be able to contribute towards the purchase of a few machines and some necessary supplies. Until that time Mrs. Pak is carrying on with what is at hand and is making a real contribution to the people she serves. A portion of the International Friendship Offering received in Universalist Church Schools in November, 1937, has been a sign for this work of Mrs. Pak.

Wulchon

A church was soon started at Wulchon, some six miles from Taikyu, but owing to the persecution by another sect, it had to be suspended. But this misfortune has not followed another enterprise in Wulchon.

Some years ago people in the immediate vicinity of this small town faced a desperate unemployment situation. Mr. Jio resolved to do something about it. With his church group as a nucleus and on borrowed money, he purchased materials and begin a fibre-slipper manufacture, his own special service being the finding of markets for the goods manufactured goods during the long cold season when the ground cannot be worked. Today the Guild thus started has spread beyond this first group, gives employment to over eighteen hundred and manufactures over two hundred thousand pairs of slippers a year, selling some as far afield as Chicago and points farther east. This industry has become second in importance—after silk—in the district which Taikyu is the center.

Kumpo

A dozen miles beyond Wulchon is Kumpo, a small rural village of two hundred or more. Here, after some evangelistic meetings, a church of thirty odd members was formed. But it as was the case in Wulchon, was forced to suspend activities due to persecution from another sect.

Sendung

After Dr. Cary’s address of the Buffalo convention in 1931, Rev. G. H. Leining and Rev. Ellsworth C. Reamon conducted a swift impromptu campaign for funds which resulted in enough to purchase a farm of some one hundred and sixteen thousand tsubo (a tsubo is 36 square feet) or over 98 acres—a very large farm for the Orient. Upwards of fifty families rent and work this farm, which has extensive rice cultivation possibilities as well as being in a good position for fruit. In the summer of ‘34 a great flood swept down and buried large portions of the farm under six feet of water, but it was reconditioned—at considerable expense (with money borrowed of the government on very easy terms). What was necessary was done and the slow process of making the land valuable by annually putting all returns back from it back into it was taken up again. More fruit trees are planted, more poplars about the edges to hold off sand and future floods. In August of 1936 an even worst flood came, wrecking property throughout the southern part of Korea. Once again the work of reconditioning was taken up but it was too expensive to do it as completely as was desirable. Nevertheless, more planting of fruit trees and protective poplars, which are pruned short, was done. A goodly number of the thousands of trees planted before the ‘36 flood, lived through it.

In the nearby town, Mr. Jio holds occasional meetings whenever an opportunity presents itself.

Other interests

Mr. Jio maintains a constant communication with liberal groups of Koreans in Japan proper, especially among theological students to keep him exceedingly busy every time he visits Tokyo and Kyoto, where his alma mater, Doshisha, is.

He sees great opportunity for influence through a liberal magazine, but is compelled for lack of funds to postpone any independent action of this nature, submitting articles for publication in other magazines whenever opportunity permits.

Mr. Jio and the work he and his people undertake is financially aided by the General Convention and in constant affiliation with the General Convention representatives and the Japan Council.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

If you have to pick one universalist Twitter account/

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

…no, not one of mine. Read @EOrthodoxy (and the associated blog, Eclectic Orthodoxy.)

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

In tough times, it's important to remember we live in God's time

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

I asked a group of friends to review my newsletter post for the Universalist Christian Initiative and they asked me to share it generally, and so I oblige. If you would like to sign up for the twice-monthly newsletter, click here.

Fifteen years ago tomorrow, “the world changed” for many people, and through a particular lens, many people’s understanding of the United States and its position in the world changed, too. The hijackings that lead to the thousands of deaths in New York, suburban Washington, D.C. and in rural Pennsylvania were devastating, and even as I write this remembered how I felt that day. Such a low, grim day. I was the pastor of the Universalist National Memorial Church, in Washington, D.C. then. My apartment was on a hill and I could see a plume of dark smoke rising from the Pentagon. Living within walking distance of the church, I went down to open up the doors and try to support anyone who was confused, lost or upset. But the bewilderment was only planted that day.

While it is tempting to repeat the saying that the world changed on September 11, 2001, it is more correct to say that a large number of Americans began to know better the fear and uncertainty that others know before and since: that violence takes the innocent, that life is fragile and fleeting, and that it is far easier to destroy than construct. We would want the world to change and, in fact, on that day it didn’t. But that’s not to say that we are doomed to a past, present and future of violence and cruelty, whether “senseless” or “sensible,” by which I mean violence and cruelty we would be prone to defend or forget because it serves a stated national interest.

As Universalist Christians, we trust that God sees this and knows us apart from time and away from our biases and prescriptions. Where there is hurt and loss, we trust God is present to heal. And when we give ourselves over in ministry to this healing — “the ministry of reconciliation” as St. Paul put it — we must necessarily surrender ourselves to that part of God’s vision we can see, and do what God would have us do. We cannot, for one, weigh the lives of compatriots higher than other people. Not that everyone is equally little, but rather that each of us is equally great; that is, in the words of a Universalist profession also adopted in Washington, D.C., the “supreme worth of every human personality.” But this new way of living is not for us to build, but create with God’s direction and in God’s time. This last stricture is the more painful, but so much harm has come from those who have presumed to know more that they do, and act in ways that later prove harmful. It is enough to do good where can can, and to cultivate the ability to do more good than we thought possible. That is, we should step back from the a statement later in the Washington Declaration that we could “progressively establish the Kingdom of God.” The greatness in our lives does not extend that far. The change comes not by our own design, but from a force unseen. It will bloom when and where it will; let us be ready for it. Let us show this readiness in our love for one another.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Sources of prayers: Theistic Prayer Book

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

A single prayer in the services before Hymns of the Spirit beginning “Almighty God grant that the words” comes from a book identified in the index as the Theistic Prayer Book. What is this and where did it come from?

Mw114797_charles_voyseyIt comes from the Theistic Church in London, that lasts from 1870 or 1871 until shortly after the 1912 death of its founder and minister, Charles Vorsey, who was driven out of the Church of England. (He’s the father of the famous architech of the same name, if your mind goes to the Arts and Crafts.) At the church, the book was known as The Revised Prayer Book, and ran through three (1871, 1875, 1892) editions.

In both Hymns of the Spirit (p. 146) and The Revised Prayer Book, the prayer appears in a section for additional prayers (in the third edition); it appears, slightly re-arranged as prayer for the “close of worship” in Hymns of the Spirit.

Cross-posted at Hymns of the Spirit.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Sources of prayers: an English book from 1903

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

The services before the Hymns of the Spirit include prayers and litanies from various sources, including the 1903 Devotional Services for Public Worship, by John Hunter. He was the minister of King’s Weigh House Church, then a Congregational church, in Mayfair, London.

You can read it at Archives.org.

I’ll see if there’s any commonalities, and if so I’ll note them below.

Crossposted at HymnsoftheSpirit.org.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Tilden lectures on the ministry online

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

There’s a shortage of historic works — Unitarian or Universalist — on the preparation and exercise of the ministry. So — while researching — I was happy to see a printed set of lectures by William Phillip Tilden (1811-1890) to the Meadville Theological School, in June 1889. So we can consider these the mature words of a respected pastor.

I’ve not read this, but will put them on the list. Thought you might like to read it, too.

The Work of the Ministry: Lectures Given to the Meadville Theological School

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

HymnsoftheSpirit.org is back

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

I had some site problems this last week. My old main blog, BoyintheBands.com, was badly hacked and in the process of hardening the other sites against attack, I ruined the WordPress install for my homage site to the 1937 “red hymnal” HymnsoftheSpirit.org.

I had to trash the old system and completely reinstalled it. Easy, but I misplaced the theme (no great loss) in the process. So the site is there, if plain.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Unitarianchurch.info for sale

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

I have the domain Unitarianchurch.info for sale. Please send me a note if you’re interested in buying it.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

@jpclyons Jim Lyons ????? ??

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

@SaucySisTah Moment of Silence today - 11:55 AM to 12:00 PM. @SideofLove @AttorneyCrump #BlackLivesMatterpic.twitter.com/vBeWo8G0SS

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Sunday-only calendar for 2017

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

Back in 2008, I knocked together a Sunday-only calendar as a planning tool for church worship leaders. It has been evergreen at by old blog, Boy in the Bands. And so when I got a request to update it, I couldn’t do other than bring it up to date.

And so I’m crossposting it here. Enjoy.

You can also edit the OSD file in LibreOffice and (so it seems) newer versions of Microsoft Office. I included December 2016 and January 2018.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Esperantists find "parallel" path to regional gatherings

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

So, on August 20, swarms of Esperantists all over North America will meet for day-long gatherings “enjoying each other’s company while taking part in a celebration of the international language.” (suggested press release language)

It’s called Paralela Universo, which even to non-Esperantists should easily read as “parallel universe.” Parallel to what? Diffrerent places at the same time, sure. But also keep in mind that Esperanto events (especially in Europe) are days-long affairs, bolstered no doubt by long vacations, short travel distances and a critical mass of Esperantists to organize such things. North American Esperantists have none of these; surely an alternative is called for, and so much better if it calls to mind the endless possibilities of science fiction, which I bet appeals to (other) Esperantists.

So far, there are twenty sites, and counting. And what’s noteworthy is that there is no central organizing body, and no tickets. You pay for your transportation to and from the gathering, and your meals. It’s an idea, a format and coordination by Facebook and a Google group. That’s all.

Mi okazos la Paralelan Universon ĉi tie.

Let this be an inspiration for other groups who could benefit by low-effort, low-cost ad-hoc gatherings.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

A moment with St. Margaret of Antioch

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

I know today is the feast of St. Mary Magdalene, equal-to-the-apostles, but you’ll forgive me if Iook back two days to St. Margaret of Antioch, a fourth century virgin-martyr who is reputed to have been disengorged by Satan, in the form of a dragon, or said to have beaten a devil (lye can variety) with hammer.

A hammer.

Nothing says "feast day of St Margaret of Antioch" quite like fighting a demon with a hammer. #stop #hammertime pic.twitter.com/izIshAJ1iW

— All About History (@AboutHistoryMag) July 20, 2016

I hadn’t known much about her until I saw a number of tweets, and was too distracted by the fortieth anniversary of the Viking landing on Mars to make anything of then.

To repeat. Disengorged by a Satan-dragon. Beat a demon with a hammer. And people have problems with women being Ghostbusters.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Join with the Universalist Christian Initiative

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

I’m so excited about the soft launch of the Universalist Christian Initiative, and if you’re interested and haven’t yet signed up for the newsletter please follow this link.

I publish an update twice a month, and promise not to spam you. And I would appreciate you spreading the word to interested.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Book give-away

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

I’m spending part of my summer clearing out books. Duplicates. Those I’ll never read, or never read again. Those that hae a marginal interest to me but might mean more to others.

If you read this blog, and live in the U.S., drop me a note through the contact form stating that you’d like to browse the list of books I’m offering, once it’s done. Note if you’re a seminarian (and where) — I’ll give you first dibs.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

The unboxing

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

Phone, still boxedMy mobile phone of three years showed signs of instability after General Assembly, so rather than waiting for it to fail, I decided to get a new one. It arrived today.

There’s a custom of photographing the unwrapping — “unboxing” — esteemed electronics and then sharing the photos and thus the experience. This is considered normal behavior among Apple goods owners (I am not one) but it still strikes me as a bit precious, even ostentatious.  After all, what does it show, other than the ability to buy things?

Phone and gear in open boxI suppose it shows this: how lovely the thing is in itself, and more, how lovely it comes to the new owner. It is worth having, and cherishing. Since, I’ve seen beautifully packaged clothes, snack foods and charitable solicitation appeals that have the same attention to presentation. And, to be honest, they do seem better than the alternative, and so make me feel better about myself. I look forward to the moment of acquiring something, and not just the having (and so take pains to not shop for this thrill, but that another story.)

Phone in handSo, we turn to churches. In this culture where even a knockoff laptop battery (bought before GA) is carefully wrapped, how do we change how we prepare our churches for worship? Or present certificates and awards (when we do so) or arrange candles or implements of worship? Or share refreshments, or post signs?

Or any of a thousand ways we can say, “this house of worship is special, and beautiful, and you are welcome” — or not.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

"They aren't victims, you know. Once, I was beat up by a bunch of black kids coming home and I...

By: Scott Wells โ€”

“They aren’t victims, you know. Once, I was beat up by a bunch of black kids coming home and I wasn’t doing anything to them. I almost died. People have to be held responsible for their actions. Black people are responsible for what happened to me!”

“Yes, I whole heartedly agree. Each race must be held responsible for their crimes. I want whites to be held responsible for every lynching and for the entire Ku Klux Klan. Would you join me in being a responsible and accountable white person for the crimes we’ve committed? All the people of color we’ve killed?”

The man, now in his 60′s and nursing a childhood wound that justified his prejudice for his entire life gave pause. He could no longer meet my eyes. He looked down and drifted away into another room. I don’t know how long the moment of cognitive dissonance lasted. I do know that he only felt emboldened to reveal his pain because I was another white person.

It should be obvious yet it is grim to think about: people will vote based on their hate and against their own self-interest. Racists are good organizers, and racism brings people out. Especially in an atmosphere that validates those who aren’t afraid to “tell it like it is” and be openly racist. It is more difficult to get people who are exploited to the polls and engage in a democracy that could function for all of us. And the system isn’t broken, it was designed this way.

I graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science in Political Science six years ago. My master’s thesis theorized that racist politicians, who organized on overt and covert racism, would have shorter careers. I thought that hate, while exciting, would wear people down after a while once they realized policies based on bigotry do not serve the community.

Statistically, the theory was wrong. Politicians who campaigned based on racism and intolerance, as identified by the Southern Law Poverty Center, had long, successful careers spanning thirty years or more. They did slightly better than other politicians in the same area with roughly the same demographics. (I didn’t publish because I didn’t think my standard of defining who is a hateful politician by the Southern Law Poverty Law Center was objective enough.)

It is past time for us to confront our system that benefits racism, that allows marginalized whites to hook onto racism instead of holding those in power accountable. We have to act as though our lives depend it. We can’t assume that people who suffer and find their bitterness soothed by the snake oil of racism will realize they’ve been duped and act in their own self-interest. People sacrifice for ideals, and most whites don’t know that the ideal of racism comforts many more people than you’d think. The movement needs you to root out false promises that benefit the few and find true comfort in a society in which we are all free.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Archived pages fixed

By: Scott Wells โ€”

Now that this blog supports interests aside from those feature on my main blog, RevScottWells.com, I don’t write for it so much. And at some point, the individual pages links became corrupt. You could see posts on the front page, but couldn’t click through.

I’ve now fixed this and regret the disruption to would-be readers.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Vegetarian ham in Columbus

By: Scott Wells โ€”

2016-06-26 15.29.04

So, any blogging after the UUA General Assembly will be at my other blog, RevScottWells.com, but I couldn’t help but share a picture of this bahn mi (Vietnamese sandwich) made with vegetarian ham, from a stall at the North Market, a source of many delicious lacto-vegetarian meals and treats.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Universalist Christian Initiative at #uuaga

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

I’m soft-launching my new project, the Universalist Christian Initiative at the Unitarian Universalist Association General Assembly, which begins today in Columbus, Ohio.

It’s mainly about creating resources and finding direction for Universalist Christians, and at this point I’m looking for people interested in this work.

Please join the newsletter list here, and follow our Twitter account (@universalistci) here.

If you’ll be at GA, meet me at the UU Christian Fellowship booth (#115 in the exhibit hall)

  • Thursday, Jun 23 from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
  • Friday, June 24 from 11 a.m. to 12 noon

… or send a direct message to the @universalistci Twitter account if you’d like to talk.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Comfort, Orlando

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

CkxADPqW0AAeKip.jpg:largeIn Dupont Circle, on this hard day.

I hope it gets better. But no false sweetness right now.

(My husband Jonathan Padget took this photo.)

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Thinking about church style

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

This is a first thought, because it will make my next blog post — about communion ware — make more sense.

When we think about what it means to be “churchy” we’re often — but not exclusively — talking about tastes and norms set by “the Ecclesiologists,” meaning that medieval-focused, Romantic movement that overwhelmed the Church of England in the nineteenth century. For them, there was one correct style appropriate for Christian churches — in a word, Gothic — whether that meant fully expressed in stonework, or vernacularized into the carpenter style. Think of pointed stained-glass windows. Why did this style cross the Atlantic and denominational lines? The prevailing taste, keeping-up-with-the-Joneses and the perhaps nothing so pedestrian as who the church architects and suppiers were. (This isn’t an original thought, and I’ve seen it in a few places, most recently in chapter two, “Capital Ideas: Building American Churches, 1750-1860.” of James Hudnut-Beumler’s In the Pursuit of the Almighty’s Dollar.)

There are noteworthy examples of Gothic Unitarian and Universalist church buildings, but so as not to lose the point: the creation of a common vocabularly of taste that’s hard to buck, save with variations, like the engrossed domestic style the Universalists seemed to favor, or the (later favored) colonial revival the Unitarians of Boston imposed on the Western churches who wanted financial support. And the less said about the post-war community centers hiding in their own private parksor forests — the  newer UU norm — the better.

This clip, from a 1922 issue of the Universalist Leader, shows that advertizers thought we might buy stained glass.
This clip, from a 1922 issue of the Universalist Leader, shows that advertizers thought we might buy stained glass.

Of course, those days may be declining: not a particular style or fashion, but the ability of churches to chose the shape of their buildings at all. I can all to easily imagine borrowed, rented or shared spaces being a part of the survival strategies of Unitarian Universalist (and other) churches in the all-too-soon future. Consider how many newer congregations meet in office parks or retail space.

Is short, design will have to be expressed in ways other than the building, and without the influence of an eccumenical community of tastemakers. It will be interesting what we come up with, and if we appeal to older and more humble models.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Environmental Ethics from a Religiously Pluralistic Perspective by Jason Heap, the National Coordinator for the United Coalition of Reason

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”


The psalmist said in 118:24 “This is the day the LORD has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it.” And yet, even though we human beings see ourselves as the most intelligent life form on earth, our choices and ethical decisions regarding the Earth—the only home planet we know at the moment where we can live, we are responsible for almost all the damage done to the planet. Using the science series called Cosmos, if we were to picture that the earth is aged about 45 or 46 years old, all the damage that we have done to it has taken place only in the last minute of the earth’s life.
The relationship between humans and our home planet is becoming more complex and also exceptionally urgent. Read the internet and the news, and you’ll find stories and reports about pollution, animals becoming near-extent, and other issues such as global warming. Religions have responses to these issues, and today I want to help you understand more about what various sincerely-held views—including Humanism—have to say about environment ethics. It’s my hope that after today, you’ll understand how to relate to people of differing beliefs and that you’ll appeal to new friends in these communities, and to act in unity and solidarity with each other to address these pressing needs.

Sikhism
Our Sikh friends are very concerned with the relationship between humanity and the environment. Sikhs believe that Waheguru created the world as a place where every type of plant and animal could live so that everything could have the chance to prove that it was good enough to achieve mukti, which is the word for liberation from the cycle of birth and death, reincarnation.
Guru Nanak, the first of the Sikh human gurus, taught and is written in the Sikh holy text, the Guru Granth Sahib:
Nature we see, Nature we hear, Nature we observe with awe, wonder and joy. Nature in the nether regions, Nature in the skies, Nature in the whole creation…Nature in species, kinds, colours. Nature in life forms. Nature in good deeds. Nature in pride and in ego. Nature in air, water and fire. Nature in the soil of the earth. All nature is yours, O powerful CreatorYou command it, observe it and pervade within it.
If you were to read the lives of the human Gurus, they are filled with beautiful and inspiring stories about their love for nature.  Did you know that our Sikh friends are forbidden to kill animals just for the sake of killing or to eat to excess, which they consider to be an unnecessary death for an edible creature? In Sikh hymns found in the Guru Granth Sahib, Waheguru is said to provide all of all life, and that in Waheguru’s eyes, there is no difference between the world of humans and the world of nature. Humans and nature are of equal importance to Waheguru, and Sikhs are taught that all life must be treated with respect. The human Gurus made Sikhs aware of our responsibility towards this earth. Within the Guru Granth Sahib, it is written that Sikhs believe that the environment can only be preserved if the balance created by Waheguru is maintained.
The Assisi Declarations on Nature, 1986
In 1986, His Royal Highness Prince Philip (the husband of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II), was, at the time, the President of the WWF International. Prince Philip invited five leaders of five of the world’s major religions to meet with each other to discuss how their faiths, their teachings, ethics and global communities could help save the natural world.
This meeting poignantly took place in Assisi in Italy, as it was the birth place of St Francis, the Roman Catholic patron saint of animals and the natural environment. From this meeting, key statements and commitments were voiced by each of the five faiths, as they outlined their own distinctive traditions and approaches to the care for nature.
In the Assisi Declarations on Nature, the official Sikh statement was:
           Since the beginning of the Sikh religion in the late fifteenth century, the faith has been built upon the message of the ‘oneness of Creation’. Sikhism believes an almighty God created the universe. He himself is the creator and master of all forms of the universe, responsible for all modes of nature and all elements of the world. Sikhism firmly believes God to be the source of the birth, life and death of all things.
           Sikhism teaches that the natural environment and the survival of all life forms are closely linked in the rhythm of nature. The history of the Gurus is full of stories of their love and special relationship with the natural environment-, with animals, birds, vegetation, earth, rivers, mountains and the sky. There is also a very strong vegetation tradition.
           It is for this reason that in Sikhism those who kill for lust of hunting, eating or to make sacrifices are condemned. In Sikh hymns God is often referred to as the provider for all life which God loves and is loved by. God as both father and mother guarantees equality to man and woman in faith and compassion towards all beings and nature.
Christianity

The Bible is the central point of reference for Christian teaching about caring for the environment. For instance, Genesis 1:26 and 28 reads, “Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.'… God blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.'”
Some of our Christian friends have interpreted this story as giving people the right to exploit the environment, and plunder it, we have! However, most Christians that I know view themselves as not having power or dominion over the world that they believe was created by God, but that they are to be responsible and accountable to God with regards to the decisions and consequences in life that they made. 
The Bible has very little to say, specifically, about the environment, but it explains the principles of stewardship, another word for responsibility, for God’s creation:
In the Old Testament the Jews were told to rest the land once every 50 years so that it would produce more in the future (Leviticus 25:8-11). They were also ordered not to destroy trees when they were attacking a city:
When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it to capture it, do not destroy its trees by putting an axe to them, because you can eat their fruit. Do not cut them down. Are the trees of the field people, that you should besiege them? (Deuteronomy 20:19)
Our Christian friends believe that the earth clearly belongs only to God, and not to human beings:
It is clear that the earth still belongs to God not to humans:
The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. Psalm 24:1

In the Christian New Testament, Jesus is reported to have emphasized God’s concern for life, and the pleasure that it brings:
Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. Luke 12:27-28
The Christian church has recently become more concerned about the environment. The Roman Catholic church made a statement about it in 1988:
The earth and all life on it is a gift from God given us to share and develop, not to dominate and exploit. Our actions have consequences for the rights of others and for the resources of the earth. The goods of the earth and the beauties of nature are to be enjoyed and celebrated as well as consumed. We have the responsibility to create a balanced policy between consumption and conservation. We must consider the welfare of future generations in our planning for and utilization of the earth’s resources.

Even as recently as last year, high-profile Christian leaders have highlighted the importance of taking care of our world. In his encyclical titled, “Laudato Si,” His Holiness, Pope Francis boldly stated, “The Earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth. In many parts of the planet, the elderly lament that once beautiful landscapes are now covered with rubbish."
The World Council of Churches have said: The dignity of nature as creation needs to be bound up with our responsibility for the preservation of life, and in the Declaration on Nature, Assisi, (1986) said: Christians repudiate all ill-considered exploitation of nature which threatens to destroy it and, in turn, to make man the victim of degradation.

Hinduism

Our Hindu friends are very concerned with the relationship between humans and the environment. According to the teachings of karma, resources in the world become scarce because people use them for their own ends rather than with responsibility. People should use the world unselfishly in order to maintain the natural balance and to repay God for the gifts he has given. The Bhagavad Gita says, “For, so sustained by sacrifice, the gods will give you the food of your desire. Whoso enjoys their gift, yet gives nothing, is a thief, no more nor less.”
I remember when we visited India 2 years ago, Hindus treat trees with great respect because it is the most important type of plant life and, like all living things, they believe that trees have an atman, which means a soul. If there is but one tree of flowers and fruit within a village, that place is worthy of your respect.

In the Sanskrit epic from the 9th century CE, the Mahabharata, the god Lord Krishna compares the entirety of the world with the banyan tree because it is large and provides a home for many different creatures. Furthermore, the Hindu concept of ahimsa (non-violence and respect for life) prevents our Hindu friends from causing harm to any creature, and for this reason, many devout Hindus are vegetarian.
For our Hindu friends, the universe is the divine creation, and must be honored in all its parts. Animals and plants, mountains and rivers, everything forms part of earth, and as such, many things are worshiped and revered for the noble qualities they possess. For example, cows are so highly revered that it is banned to kill a cow, and for those that are no longer able to produce milk, they are retired, and not slaughtered. Special sanctuaries called “goshallas” have been created for these animals.
In the Assisi Declarations on Nature of 1986 the Hindu statement was:
           The human role is not separate from nature. All objects in the universe, beings and non-beings, are pervaded by the same spiritual power.
           The human race, though at the top of the evolutionary pyramid at present, is not seen as something apart from earth and its many forms. People did not spring fully formed to dominate lesser life, but evolved out of these forms and are integrally linked with them.
           Nature is sacred and the divine is expressed through all its forms. Reverence for life is an essential principle, as is ahimsa (non-violence).
           Nature cannot be destroyed without humanity destroying itself.
           The divine is not exterior to creation, but expresses itself through natural phenomena.

Islamic belief about the environment

The Holy Qur’an says that Allah (Subhanhu Wataala) is the sole creator of the world. Allah (Subhanhu Wataala) saw fit to appoint humans in the world to serve as his trustees or “viceregents,” as Muslims believe that people are told and commanded to look after the world for Allah (Subhanhu Wutaala) and for the future:
The Holy Qur’an described the earth is green and beautiful. The whole earth has been created a place of worship, pure and clean. Whoever plants a tree and diligently looks after it until it matures and bears fruit is rewarded. If a Muslim plants a tree or sows a field and humans and beasts and birds eat from it, all of it is love on his part.
In the Holy Qur’an, Muslims are instructed to look after the environment and not to damage it. For instance, Surah 30:30 says, “Devote yourself single-mindedly to the Faith, and thus follow the nature designed by Allah, the nature according to which He has fashioned mankind. Do not alter Allah’s creation.”
Muslims have to look after the earth because it is all Allah’s creation and it is part of a human’s duty to Allah. As Surah 13:3—4 says, “Allah is He Who raised up the heavens without any pillars that you can see. Then He settled Himself on the Throne, and constrained the sun and the moon to serve you; each planet pursues its course during an appointed term. He regulates it all and expounds the Signs, that you may have firm belief in the meeting with your Lord. He it is Who spread out the earth and made therein firmly fixed mountains and rivers, and of fruits of every kind He has made pairs. He causes the night to cover the day. In all this, verily, are signs doer a people who reflect.
This passage from Holy Qur’an leads our Muslim friends and neighbors to understand that they are responsible for the world which has been created for them, and that they have to make their own decisions and be responsible for these decisions, with regards to how they treat what they understand is the gift of our planet. 
If you read the Assisi Declarations on Nature, the Muslim statement was:
           The central concept of Islam is Tawhid or the Unity of God. Allah is Unity; and His Unity is also reflected in the unity of mankind, and the unity of man and nature. His trustees are responsible for maintaining the unity of His creation, the integrity of the Earth, its flora and fauna, its wildlife and natural environment. Unity cannot be had by discord, by setting one need against another or letting one end predominate over another; it is maintained by balance and harmony. There Muslims say that Islam is the middle path and we will be answerable for how we have walked this path, how we have maintained balance and harmony in the whole of creation around us.
           So unity, trusteeship and accountability, that is Tawhid, Khalifah and Akhirah, the three central concepts of Islam, are also the pillars of the environmental ethics of Islam. They constitute the basic values taught by the Qur’an. It is these values which led Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, to say: ‘Whoever plants a tree and diligently looks after it until it matures and bears fruit is rewarded.'
           For all these reasons Muslims see themselves as having a responsibility towards the world and the environment, all of which are the creations of Allah.
           Unlike many other religions, Muslims do not have any specific festivals in which they give thanks for the harvest or the world. Instead they give thanks to Allah regularly for his creation.
           In order to separate Islam from other religions, the Islamic year is only 354 days, this means that the months and festivals happen at a different time each year and so there is no particular festival which falls during a period of harvest.

Judaism

Most of our Jewish friends believe that the one G-d whom they worship created everything and all life within the six days of creation, as it is written in Sefer Bereshit, or “Genesis.” Jewish teaching about caring for the environment comes from the TaNaKh (the 24 canonical books in the Hebrew Bible), especially the Torah:
Then G-d said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.' … G-d blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.' Genesis 1:26 and 28. Most Jews revere this passage as it informs them of their responsibility for the world, understanding that G-d made it for them and has trusted them with their ability to ensure it is kept clean and holy.
The Jewish Scriptures do not have a lot to say about the environment. In the Torah, the ancient Hebrew people were commanded to allow their land to rest and recuperate once every 50 years, to ensure that it would remain fertile and arable for them in the future (Leviticus 25:8-11). They were also ordered not to destroy trees when they were attacking a city:
When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it to capture it, do not destroy its trees by putting an axe to them, because you can eat their fruit. Do not cut them down. Are the trees of the field people that you should besiege them? Deuteronomy 20:19
In the annual festival of Tu B’Shevat (New Year for Trees), Jews demonstrate their respect for trees on the fifteenth day of the Jewish month of Shevat. This has been particularly important since the founding of the State of Israel in 1948 as Israelis have tried to reclaim the desert by planting trees.
Every year, at Rosh Hashanah, or the Jewish New Year, our Jewish neighbors offer thanks to G-d for the creation of the world. Although humanity has the role of steward, the TeNaKh is clear that the earth is still G-d’s possession:
The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. Psalm 24:1
Jews should also show respect to animals:
You shall not muzzle an ox in its threshing. Deuteronomy 25:4
The righteous one knows [the needs of] his animal’s soul. Proverbs 12:10
In the Assisi Declarations of1986, Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg said that:
When the whole world is in peril, when the environment is in danger of being poisoned and various species, both plant and animal are becoming extinct... it is our Jewish responsibility to put the defence of the whole of nature at the very center of our concern… The encounter of G-d and man in nature is thus conceived in Judaism as a seamless web with man as the leader and custodian of the natural world.
 
Humanism

For myself as a Humanist, I am proud to recognize the seriousness with which theistic communities have given time, money, intellect and passion to addressing the needs of our natural world. Although not all Humanists quote from the Humanist Manifesto, its words inspire me and I agree to the ideals and ethics that are written:

“Humans are an integral part of nature, the result of unguided evolutionary change. Humanists recognize nature as self-existing. We accept our life as all and enough, distinguishing things as they are from things as we might wish or imagine them to be. We welcome the challenges of the future, and are drawn to and undaunted by the yet to be known.
Ethical values are derived from human need and interest as tested by experience. Humanists ground values in human welfare shaped by human circumstances, interests, and concerns and extended to the global ecosystem and beyond. We are committed to treating each person as having inherent worth and dignity, and to making informed choices in a context of freedom consonant with responsibility.”
As a Humanist, and as a person who values the sincerely-held belief of all, I would invite and encourage each of you to find a project, or some other outreach and relief effort that brings justice and restores love and peace to our natural world. As you’ve heard today, the world’s religions teach similar ethics about how we are to treat our environment and ecosystem. Although the religions might not agree with each other about things such as sin, salvation, eternal rewards/punishments, or the authority that certain special texts hold in people’s lives, the religions have shown that all of their followers can work with others to ensure that we leave our planet in better conditions than we have found it…because of our corporate irresponsible behavior and choices. Do not be afraid to work with others because they are different. We are interconnected and need each other to survive on this home called Earth that all living things. May today be the first step in ensuring that we, as a collective humanity, bring justice and love to our neighbors in the trees, fields, rivers, oceans, and skies, who have their own ways of asking for our respect and consideration.
โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Ministry and money: my new read

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

So, I saw a reference tos James Hudnut-Beumler’s In Pursuit of the Almighty’s Dollar: A History of Money and American Protestantism (2007, University of North Carolina Press)  and was interested, so ordered a copy. It arrived yesterday, and began reading. The reasons that interested me might apply to you, too.

  1. The money we raise and spend on churches is really important, but we don’t give it due consideration. (But it’s much better than it was a generation ago.)
  2. The eighteenth- and nineteenth-century transition to the voluntary support of the church affected Unitarians and Universalists, but in very different ways.
  3. Traces of what we expect from a church persist from those days.
  4. And because our funding models do change, it’s a reminder not to apply sacred weight to something like the offering.

I look forward to the read.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

I'll be at General Assembly in Columbus; want to meet?

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

The title says it all. If you are attending the Unitarian Universalist Association General Assembly in Columbus, Ohio and would like to meet and speak with me — say, about approaches to Universalism or church devolopment — I’d be happy to set aside some time.

Be sure to contact me through this page, or follow me on Twitter @bitb.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Examples of a dependent-mission church structure

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

It didn’t take a lot to start a Universalist society in the early days; that is, even as late as 1866, and perhaps a bit later. There aren’t many accounts of how they got started, but reading between the lines, you can tell they organized around a core, perhaps an individual, who discovered the faint by reading, and organized to “have preaching” from a minister, often on a large circuit.

They rose up, and many failed. In time, those that survived built buildings and established ministries, but the ministerial shortage was chronic and — given that so many of those volunteer churches organized in remote rural areas — unsolvable. Financially vulnerable, most of them perished by the end of the Great Depression, though rural depopulation would have surely accomplished much the same.

But it’s easy to be romantic about this easy-going start-up culture. At least they organized churches — the papers had constant announcements — and that’s not what we have today.

It’s possible to do better — since we’re essentially starting missions from scratch — with an estabished model; that is, dependent missions, that I think get lumped in with the current rave, multi-site ministry. The model is old (think: minster) but I keep running into it, particularly among traditions that are only a generation or two old in the United States.

In each case, the dependent community receives services — paricularly worship and ceremonial leadership from clergy — from an established parish, rather than from a more central body. They are geographically clustered. I’ve runinto two lately.

  1. Most of the Christian Communities (the North American branch of the Christengemeinschaft) have “affiliate communities”

    Affiliate Communities do not have a priest working full time, however the sacraments are celebrated at a somewhat regular interval by a priest visiting from one of the established communites. The link is to the community from whence the priest visits.

  2. The Coptic Orthodox Church has had a church presence in the United States only about fifty years, but Diocese (one of three) of the Southern States has thirty-eight churches and twenty-eight communities.
โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

The Democratic convention at the Universalist Church

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

I know there’s the joke about the Unitarian Universalists being the Democratic party at prayer, but I just learned that there was an actual Democratic convention held at the (now extinct) Universalist church in Baltimore, in 1848. The convention that nominated Lewis Cass for president. Yeah, there are a couple of reasons there I didn’t know this until now…

For details, see this page from Reminiscences of Baltimore

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Universalist Conventions and Creeds, republished

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

Years ago, I learned that the best way for me to read an obscure bit of Universalist theology or history was to transcribe it for the web, thus my twenty years of creating web sites. Following on my last post, about Universalist distinctives, I decided to revisit Richard Eddy’s landmark series “Universalist Conventions and Creeds“, an institutional history of early American Universalism. Though I first found parts of it (on microfilm) in the 1990s, I had never found (thus never read) all of it.

Recently, too, I wrote a page that posted the locations of all know copies of the journal Universalist Quarterly and General Review in which Eddy had published this work. Since then, I discovered this index that is complete. Ignore my list.

Now I can read all of “Universalist Conventions and Creeds” — which means I’ll transcribe it. Full circle. I’m about two-thirds the way of an initial clean up, but the extensive footnotes make a challenge for web publishing. So, I’ll probably make a PDF too. I’ll be over a hundred pages long…

But one more thing. In Google-ing around about the Philadelphia Convention (1790-c.1809), I discovered no only that the documents that Eddy quotes still exist, but that they are at Harvard, but that they too have been digitized and may be read online. I nearly swooned.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Examining the Universalist theory of worship

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

So, what makes Universalist worship Universalist? What keys do we have, if we want to build on a tradition?

It turns out that it’s harder to say than in other denominational traditions, including the Unitarian. The problem may date to the beginning, by which I mean the 1790 Philadelphia Convention, where the assembled delegates claimed, “as we have no rules laid down in the word of God to direct us in our choice of a mode or form of public worship, it is recommended to each Church to use such modes and forms of prayer, and to sing such psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, as to them shall appear most agreeable to the word of God, or best suited to promote order, and spiritual edification.” Not a sense shared by many of their contemporaries! Whether this was an act of liberality, or a politic act of evasion, I will leave for you to decide.

Universalism was made up of different streams, united by a common hope in a common salvation. Other doctrines were a matter of liberty — one reason theological unitarianism had a place — and so much for liturgy, too. As such, the various hymnals and worship books had denominational sponsorship and could be widely adopted and still be entirely optional.

After the Civil War, institutional Universalism congealed around a common program and denominational governance. The theologial schools and denomintational press were growing in influence, and yet there was little discussion about how this new structure applied to worship. Prayerbooks could go out without a preface; liturgists, like Charles Hall Leonard, could write the works, but scarcely say what they intended.

So, where to look for clues? Private papers? Articles in the weekly papers, as yet little digitized? But it may be as subtle as examining the more popular texts themselves, and see what was used, discern what the source documents were — the Episcopal Church’s Book of Common Prayer and the prayerbooks of James Martineau, surely — and see what they thought to change…

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

What I kinda want for church. Sometimes.

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

So, I was talking with some friends about what I to see in a Christian church conference, and opined, I’d like to see it

  • coffee
  • morning prayer and communion with sermon
  • a good lecture [with a home-grown lecturer]
  • a (re-)introduction to unconference meetings (people will need to be prep-ed ahead of time)
  • one workshop session
  • lunch
  • two more sessions
  • evening prayer
  • dinner out

And after a moment’s thought added.

If I got that kind of day twice a year, with a cheery Christmas and Easter service, I’d be set.

OK, perhaps add a the odd social event and a good, encouraging and informational monthly or biweekly email and I’d be set. Most of the time. It may not be church as we’ve known it, and indeed it might not even be governed as a church as we’ve had it — but I bet a religious option like this would appeal to people not currently served, and with fewer resources thanit takes to run a church.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

UniversalistChristian domain updates

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

I have two closely-named domains that I’m trying to make better use of. Here’s an update.

  1. UniversalistChristian.net started out as a mirror of the historical documents I kept at UniversalistChurch.net — I’ve been having problem with that domain; to be fixed — and thus is the clearest continuation of the websites I started in 1996. I’ve made it a bit cleaner, and, in time, want to give it a better typographical presence as outlined by Matthew Butterick. I’ll also be cleaning up typos in the worship section and adding new content.
  2. UniversalistChristian.org was most recently (and until yesterday) a sandbox for the new UU WordPress theme. But that’s a waste of the domain, so I’ve taken it down and am reserving it for a companion project to UniversalistChristian.net, and in so doing, will give them proper names.
โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

What I'm reading: history and theory of liturgy

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

I’m working on some Universalist liturgy projects and have been keenly feeling both the generations of lost ecumenical interchange, and the lost reasoning that lead to the texts we do have. So I decided to read some older works to fill in the missing pieces with the goal of working towards the present.

I happened across “The Reform of Liturgical Worship Perspectives and Prospects” (The Bohlen Lectures 1959) by Massey Hamilton Shepherd, Jr.

This gave me a sense of the development of American Episcopalian liturgical development from the Ritualists to his own time, halfway between the prayer book revisions of 1928 and 1979.

And it it, I found a reference to the 1867 The Book of Common Prayer: as amended by the Westminster Divines, A.D. 1661, also known as the Presbyterian Book of Common Prayer by Charles W. Shields, but particularly the appended essay Liturgia Expurgata which fills in for that work a lineage that I wished the contemporary (1866) Universalist A Book of Prayer for the Church and the Home had. Indeed, I wonder if it was on the desks of those Universalists, especially Charles Hall Leonard, who developed the longer-lasting tradition of Universalist prayer books that ran in successive editions and abridgments through the 1950s.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Another easy-to-use census data tool

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

I do love census data. I’m no geographer, but it helps me understand something of a place, when I look its demographics. A few days ago, I mentioned one tool, and tweeted about it.

@bitb @jalbertbowdenii related project that I worked on: https://t.co/jP5f4Dwafw

— Ian Dees (@iandees) April 12, 2016

That led a participant in another not altogether different project point out his: Census Reporter. Which is funny, because I had run across it at Day Job before, and really liked it then. So thanks to Ian for reminding me, and now I’m sharing it with you.

And (fun fact) you can embed it’s charts. Here, for example, is commuting data — a proxy for how and how far people will go to get to church — for Ocean County, New Jersey, where Universalist pioneer John Murray landed in the New World.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Volunteer time is valuable

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

There are lots of reasons named for why churches are changing, such a more secular culture, wider social options and the rise of the Internet. But reasons related to resources make the most sense to me. Is this thing — an organized religious life — worth money to me? And time… is it worth my time? Increasingly, the answer is no.

Time to attend services — and commute to them. That’s a problem for Unitarian Universalists outside Massachusetts, who are usually organized at the municipal or multi-country level. And it means that the volunteer time we ask of people should be valued very highly. Perhaps so highly that some labor-intensive activities need to vanish.

They can be retired, left to starve from disinterest or (worse) be resented for the precious labor they demand. Volunteers deserve to be treated as scarce and valuable resource; if not, others will do a better job tending to them and the churches will really be strapped.

Value of Volunteer Time Up 49 Cents in 2015” (Philanthropy News Digest)

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Mapping demographics: an online tool

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

Remember those expensive demographic surveys — Precept, Proscript, something — that the districts provided for church planting, say, 15 years ago.

OK: perhaps not. After all, they were expensive.

Well, I learned today that ESRI — and no particular endorsement for ESRI, by the way — has a map-based zip code look-up tool. Not the same thing, but it does suggest where you might want to target in-person (or postal ?) outreach activity, and what the people who live in that zip code likely value.

Oh, I’m sure it’s a gateway to more refined data, at a cost, I’m sure. But we’re hardly ready for that kind of granular data (for new churches, anyway) yet —

In the meantime, here is a link to the demographic profiles and segmentation overview.

 

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

The one Hosea Ballou hymn in current use/

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

Did you know there’s a Hosea Ballou hymn still in current use? Of course, not among us. It’s kept alive by shape-note singers.

Come, let us raise our voices high,
And form a sacred song,
To Him who rules the earth and sky,
And does our days prolong.
Who through the night gave us to rest,
This morning cheered our eyes;
And with the thousands of the blest,
In health made us to rise.

Early to God we’ll send our prayer,
Make haste to pray and praise,
That He may make our good His care,
And guide us all our days.
And when the night of death comes on,
And we shall end our days;
May His rich grace the theme prolong
Of His eternal praise.

Here’s a video, from a singing convention in Ireland.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

A new church applying to the UUA, but/

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

The Board of Trustees of the Unitarian Universalist Association posted the packet for its forthcoming (April 15-16) meeting — and the April meeting is always the best. Why? It’s when you’re most likely to see applications for membership, and the most applications — and this is no exception. [Fixed typos.]

So I will presumptively congratulate the forty-two members of the (PDF link) Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Benton County, Bentonville, Arkansas, and wish them well and many years of prosperity and ministry.

But the summary memo (PDF) that announced the Bentonville congregation application also noted that two other churches — All Souls Church (Belgrade and Oakland, Maine) and the Hattiesburg (Miss.) Unitarian Universalist Fellowship — had disbanded, and that the Redding, California congregation has applied to re-classed as a “covenenting community” which by definition  (PDF) is not a member congregation. So not all good news.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

He Is Risen!

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

Christ is risen!
Khristós anésti!
Kristo leviĝis!

I would love it if we adopted the Paschal troparion, but we can, of course, hear it in another voice…

And sing, chant or recite an anthem found in our traditionEaster.

Rom. vi. 9, and 1 Cor. xv. 20.

Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth no more : death hath no more dominion over him.

For in that he died, he died unto sin once : but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.

Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin : but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Christ is risen from the dead: and become the first-fruits of them that slept.

For since by man came death : by man came also the resurrection of the dead.

For as in Adam all die: even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

Now unto the God of grace : for the might of his Spirit and the love of Christ;

Be glory in the Church throughout all ages: worid without end. Amen.

Happy Easter!
Alleluia!

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Key to Universalist Quarterly and General Review online

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

I was reading a part of Ann Lee Bressler’s The Universalist Movement in America, 1770-1880, when I ran across this:

Until it ceased publication in 1891, the Universalist Quarterly supplied a forum for those thinkers who, like the neo-orthodox theologians several decades later, objected to the increasingly pervasive theme of continuity between the present world and the divine, “the major positive principle of the liberal mind.” (p. 144)

I have long read the Universalist Quarterly and General Review, first for background for my never-written master’s thesis, and later for Richard Eddy’s multi-part “Universalist Conventions and Creeds.” But you don’t have to read them on microfilm any more. Several volumes have been scanned and may be read online or downloaded. It’s a good read, and is a counter to the oft-repeated trope that Universalists were unsophisticated.

Note: some of these are misnumbered. This is not the scanner’s fault, but the original publisher’s.

Alsos, not all volumes are online, but I’ll keep looking and filling in missing volumes.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Low-cost way to launch into church archives

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

So, can you count the ways you use a smart phone? Here’s another for you: as the working end of an inexpensive DIY image “scanner” for religious texts. This setup, depicted with a workflow, at the Open Siddur Project, might be just the thing for recording church archives or other documents that shouldn’t be lain on a flatbed scanner.

Text Imaging” (Open Siddur Project)

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

The Palm Sunday window at Universalist National Memorial Church

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

2016-03-20_unmc-palm-sunday-windowI thought I’d share this picture of the Palm Sunday window at Universalist National Memorial Church, Washington, D.C.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Unfamiliar tools for shared church work

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

I really was thinking about unfamiliar tools for shared church work; that is, tools where people can work collaboratively without having to all be in the same place. This is normal and increasingly common in business, but well all know that church is slow to change and underfunded. Or slow to change because it is underfunded.

About the time I had this thought, the news cane out the Metro will be shutting down at midnight tonight and all through Wednesday until Thursday morning. I’m just grateful my workplace has some systems — developed before blizzards — to cope, and most of my officemates will work from home. Of course, we will use Google Docs and Dropbox, and I bet many my readers do too.

But can you imagine the possible uses of something like Github, a software development tool used to manage the versions of documents. For churches, perhaps reports and resources, and to keep repositories of documents and graphics files? And webpages (Github Pages) easily stood up to share and promote those products. The humanities has a small presence of Github, but the Open Siddur Project (on Github) is objectively religious and liturgical, and makes me wonder about other possibilities. My sleepy Github account is here.

The other tool I want to point out now is Overleaf, an easy-to-use frontend for the very-powerful LaTeX typesetting software that’s widely used in academia, especially mathematics. Indeed, Overleaf’s market seems to be universitites, and if I were writing a thesis now, I’d be all over it. And if I were to get some people together to make a book or serious journal, I’d start there.

Are there unlikely tools you use that might be used in collaborative church work?

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

"Universalist Register" copies found online

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

A handy set of links for those researching Universalists.

The Universalist register and almanac

The Universalist Companion, with Almanac and Register

The Universalist Companion, with an Almanac and Register

The Universalist Register

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Unitarian Universalist church planting, a document review

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

Several years ago, I wrote about a then-new resource called EmergingUU.org, and was hopeful it might spark new churches. That page has since vanished as a free-standing resource, but re-appeared as a page within the UUA Mid America Region site. But new church planting is as low as I’ve ever seen it.

There used to be quite a bit of church starting literature, both historically and within “career lifetime memory” but about the time I was coming on the scene in the 1980s, it was already drying up. Perhaps in repudiation of the Fellowship Movement model? The new model was to create a highly developed, programmatic church with high-commitment donors. This has worked in a couple of places, though I wonder if there has been any net gain in those areas. In any case, this is not the kind of church start that you leave new start publications out for. There’s not a new model that’s yet emerged, and it would be helpful for the appropriate authorities within the UUA to produce some, particularly as the “primary purpose” (as in “Principles and Purposes”) of the UUA is “to serve the needs of its member congregations, organize new congregations, extend and strengthen Unitarian Universalist institutions and implement its principles.” (By-Laws C-2.2.)

Scanning the web this morning, I found:

The thing that first hits you is that the most important goal of a congregation is to affiliate with the UUA, without much of a case of why a congregation would want to do so. Oddly enough, there’s almost nothing said about what a congregation is, and while the site mentions some things (faith development, social justice, environmental concerns, for instance) it doesn’t go further to say why these are important. Administration trumps ecclesiology. It’s hard, without a huge amount of commitment and training, to come up with pathway for starting a new church without help, and it seems to me that the UUA ought to be generous this way. What better way could it earn its reason for being? Who better to lead this important work? Keep this in mind as the new congregations are welcomed at General Assembly. If any are welcomed at General Assembly.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

I will attend Columbus GA

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

Well, the housing block for General Assembly opened this week, and althought there was a false start that allowed some people to register on February 29, I can’t complain because I got a room!

I will attend Columbus, Ohio General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association this year.

It’s long been my opinion that you can get a lot done at General Assembly — so long as you don’t rely on the formal agenda. I treat the experience as an opportunity: the people who are likely to help you get something done are more likely to be in that one place, so here’s an easy way to build the relationships and dream big. I intend to meet a lot of people for coffee and lunch and beer.

But the area around the convention center doesn’t look great for easy dining, so I’ll review by notes from the Disciple of Christ, who had their General Assemly there last year. Posts and maps forthcoming.

And if you’re interested in taking to me at GA, please get in touch.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

The UUMA Guidelines and the limits to criticism

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

It’s funny — I am, quite deliberately, not a member of the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association, but its Guidelines continually affect me, and all Unitarian Universalists. In particular, there is a troubling culture that has grown up around one of the expectations of conduct:

I will not speak scornfully or in derogation of any colleague in public. In any private conversation concerning a colleague, I will speak responsibly and temperately. I will not solicit or encourage negative comments about a colleague or their ministry.

These Expectations of Conduct apply to all forms of public or private media including electronic and internet communications.

Which is fine, as written, and a bit embarrassing that it needs to be spelled out.

But the rule, as applied, has grown legs and can run. Too often, it claims the power of “covenant,” which so far as I can tell means “because I said so” and which really comes from our Unitarian and New England-ish approach to interpersonal power.

That power gave us strength — in the past. The kind of principled, theological debate that once marked our traditions is long gone. So, there’s a decided chill to not only not “speak scornfully or in derogation” but to not speak negatively about another minister, his or her thoughts or behavior or conduct in the ministry. Or really say anything that could be read negatively. I’ve spoken to several ministers over the years who have decided to self-censor and not criticize or challenge bad ideas for fear of being hauled up on charges of unprofessional conduct. There’s no reason someone’s reputation should be menaced by a fragile personality, yet our system allows it.

And we are the more bland, insular and stupid for it.

We are at the beginning of an over-long campaign for the presidency of the Unitarian Universalist Association, a position that (for the life of me) I can’t imagine anyone wanting. Two ministers were nominated, one has since dropped out. Another candidate, almost certainly a minister, will be presented by the same nominating committee to be run though an ersatz grassroots nomination by petition. I suspect others will see the opportunity and run. The process is in tatters, but where is the analysis? Ministers are candidates, nominators, campaign supporters, whips, funders and voters. What, in our subdued culture, is right to say?  I suspect we can demand little from ministers, and get less. How is that leadership? What can we demand of the candidates in public, however nominated?

I add in public because when there’s a pressure not to speak candidly, back-channels and coded language takes its place, in this election and in all our business.

So, first, let’s look at this rule and not over-function. To “speak scornfully or in derogation” assumes the application of emotion over reason, and presumably to speak against the person — ad hominem — and not the ideas, prospect, record or plans. It means to use the rhetorical skills associated with the ministry carefully, and the care means asking those tough questions — in public — among the ministerial college.  Apply the rule as written.

Our heritage, dignity and reputation demand nothing less.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Tools to scrape data from a website

By: Scott Wells โ€”

This is another one of those notes-to-self for later, and perhaps to inspire others to try. Putting the log back into blog. While I’d love to learn enough Python or what-have-you to scrape the data from a website, the following tools got the job done.

  • Import.io to do the heavy lifting of scraping. The best option I found in an exhaustive half hour of searching and testing.
  • Open Refine to split columns where I wanted, though that’s only a part of its power
  • Using a spreadsheet as a crowbar to make sure the data was in the right columns. Open Refine probably is the right tool, but good ol’ LibreOffice Calc got the job done.

And pen and index cards, to note what I did so before I try and scrape data from another site, I’ll do a better job.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Deeply bad news for the UUA

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

I don’t have time to write about it now, but Sue Phillips announced this morning that she is withdrawing from the race for the presidency of the Unitarian Universalist Association. This is bad news for her and for the UUA, and it sets up a crisis for the new and untested process for selecting a new president.

It also creates an unequal power relationship for any candidate that may now come forward, and privileges established power centers that might want to put forward a candidate.

I’ll be writing more on this subject later, and as the news develops.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

I will not mourn Scalia (and he has work to do)

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

So, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has died, and I’ve seen how careful ministers have been to keep a neutral, even upbeat tone. Variations on this theme are calls to “stay classy” or “remember that he was a child of God” or that he had “inherent worth and dignity,” the last quoting the Principles and Purposes of the Unitarian Universalist Association. Note the forms of these admonitions; I certainly did. I’d call the tone “policing.”

Let’s review. Scalia had a lifetime appointment to one of the world’s most powerful institutions, and in his time made decisions with the majority that were harmful to the nation, and others, had he been in the majority, would have harmed more. Like many other gay people, I recall with disgust his minority opinion on Lawrence v. Texas, made just days before my church wedding with my husband. This is not ancient history. Had he retired from the bench, I probably would not care so much, but had he continue to live, he could have continued to act. Remember that at the next billionaire-bought election, if indeed you’ll be able to vote. His death is both the end of his life, and the end of this work.

Still, I am worried about the actions of the living to minimize over Scalia’s record, and emphasize the private man. This looks like an attempt to play nice and minimize conflict, and that’s dishonest. The people he hurt have to pay for this dishonest accounting of his life’s work. How is that fair?

Since I write theologically, I’d like to focus on ministers and their responses. I’ve seen not one “well, thank God, that’s over” though that’s arguably a biblical response. Or even a “the less said, the better” which is reasonably diplomatic. There have been, I note, plenty of comments about his colleague and opera buddy Ruth Bader Ginsburg, like their friendship is supposed to make it all OK. Or his intellect, like smart or charming people can’t be rogues. Or in consideration of his family, like the rest of us don’t have them, but indeed, thanks to the Windsor decision (again Scalia going out of his way in his dissent) my family is safer.

When ministers defend the powerful in death — particularly those who were equally repulsed by the decedent — it tells me a lot about what side they’re on. It’s the side of authority itself, and telegraphs the power of authority over justice, the power of niceness over goodness. Perhaps it’s a fear of stirring up trouble in the church, and so again those who are hurt stay hurt. Some people will praise you for your temperate words, but others will remember that your judgment cannot be trusted when it matters. And that our behavior, the behavior of everyday people, must be managed because someone more powerful than we has died. Genteel coverups happen — though I hope it happens less — when misconducting ministers die, for instance.

“But Scott, you’re a Universalist. Isn’t God’s nature love?” You bet. Love, but not everything-goes, and I stand in our tradition here. There are two main streams of Universalist thought, but in mature (post-Civil War) Universalism, the restorationist stream was by far the stronger and, I think, the more compelling. That is, through our acts, including repentance, we are restored to God. The process may be slow and faltering, and (this is where Universalists differ from other Christians) does not end with death. God’s salvation will be complete, but surely not immediate. There’s no need to re-write Scalia into a fictional, better man before he’s cremated. God won’t be fooled; there’s no need to try and fool ourselves, either.

As a Universalist, I believe in a continuity between this life and the next. Death does not seal one’s fate. Death is not more powerful than God’s care. But it does break human relationships. Dead people cannot heal the harm they cause, and they cannot further harm the living. That’s good news to anyone who’s been hurt by someone who has since died. Nor should you be pressured into a hasty forgiveness. The work of reconciliation is between the dead and God, to be resolved and cured in time. Death doesn’t seal one’s fate, and doesn’t make them good either.

I would caution people to not forgive Scalia because it’s the nice thing to do, or expected of them. He did not repent of his action, nor seek your forgiveness. Quite the opposite. It is the way of the powerful to expect rules to apply to you and not to them. Do not comply. You are not the unreconciled party. And now that he’s gone, Scalia will have to manage with God’s docket; you do not have to plead to him, or for him.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

I would love to see Universalist posters

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

Five Principles poster
Over the years, I’ve run across smallish, say 8×10 posters, with the Universalist “Five Principles” (click the link to download a copy) on them, clearly intended for domestic use and personal inspiration. And I know the Universalists were not opposed to the use of religious art in the home, and particularly with children, and particularly if the art was was sufficient quality. But more that this, apart from t-shirts, we lack the elements of material culture — the stuff — that develop a sense of belonging.

But this was an expensive endeavor, and I can imagine a publications manager, some decades ago, having masses of unsold, faded and dog-eared prints hauled to the landfill. Inspirational poster art has withered away among the Unitarian Universalists, probably everywhere else, too. But there’s no excuse for it.
NASA Mars "travel" poster

Anyone on Facebook knows there’s a market for it, it’s never been cheaper or easier to create the images, and print it. Or, for the first time, practically ask people to have it printed locally.

NASA just released a set of imaginative retro-futurist travel posters which could act as a model for a revived poster project. Or at least as an inspiration…

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Installing the SnapScan 1300 on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

By: Scott Wells โ€”

This is one of those blog posts that act as a note-to-self. and, I hope help others in the same boat. If you have a SnapScan 1300 portable and want to use it on Ubuntu Linux 14.04 LTS, follow these directions. They worked for me. (I found that from this page, so thanks all around.)

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

UU congregations: three more days to certify

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

Wednesday, February 3. The deadline was pushed back, so today is the last day to certify, if you’re in one of the 148 remaining congregations!

I’m fond of certification time for the UUA. It’s when I get new data to analyze. But for congregations, it’s an important annual task. Without it, no voting representation at General Assembly. And I’ve noticed that churches that don’t tend to register are often not long for this world. Don’t tempt fate; certify.

All congregations must have filed for certification by 5 p.m. PST on February 1, 2016, in order to be certified for GA. Only certified congregations may send voting delegates to the 2016 General Assembly.

There are 383 uncertified congregations right now. I know many will certify over the weekend. Don’t let yours be left out.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Pondering the new House of Studies

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

So, an interesting bit of news: that a Unitarian Universalist House of Studies is opening at the Methodist Theological School in Ohio “early in 2016.” This was announced yesterday.

No, at first I thought this an audacious move. There are two Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)-related houses of study, respectively affiliated at Vanderbilt and the University of Chicago. These have buildings, including student housing, a developed program and formal denominational recognition. Likewise, the “General Convention” Swedenborgians transformed its freestanding seminary, taking from a small Cambridge, Massachusetts institution and embedded itself into Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley. These are seminaries in miniature, and the UU program at MTSO isn’t that. And that’s worth noting in case it’s written off as a pale imitation.

But Duke Divinity School has two “houses of study” (for Baptists and Episcopalians/Anglicans respectively) that’s more of a student nexus with an academic track. Something more programmatic than institutional, and that may be the model Dean Lisa Withrow and Susan Ritchie, the house of studies director, who the announcement describes as the minister of her church and “immediate past trustee and secretary on the national board of the Unitarian Universalist Association.” Nothing about her role at the Starr King School for the Ministry, which is itself strange and noticeable. But as a program with in a school, rather than alongside a school is quite reasonable.

In this light, perhaps this house of studies will be seen as a rival of Starr King, or even the much closer Meadville Lombard. But aren’t all schools that aren’t one of these — I didn’t go to either for what it’s worth — and the house of studies still functionally in the experimental phase. I am concerned that MTSO is one of the smaller contributors to the Unitarian Universalist ministerial college. If I were to develop one strategically, perhaps Boston University or Wesley here in D.C., where there are a significant number of congregations for field education. (There are only five UU congregations within 50 miles of MTSO, and only one has more than a 150 members. Field education needs field supervision.)

Which brings me to my point: this looks less like an alternative to Starr King or Meadville Lombard than an alternative to the fading option of Andover Newton. And its role in forming Unitarian Universalist ministers will be hard to replace, so good luck to the UU house of studies. It’ll be interesting to see how it develops.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Vegan ham #3: Lam Sheng Kee Vegetarian Ham (Bacon Flavor)

By: Scott Wells โ€”

best-vegan-hamThe first two installments (1, 2) of this review series makes the third very easy — and satisfying. Until we have a chance to sample more vegan hams, Lam Sheng Kee Vegetarian Ham (Bacon Flavor) will be the one we will buy for hot and cold ham eating.

But to be clear, I mean “ham lunch meat” substitute, not country ham or honey-spiral-thingy. It’s not as sweet as the chicken flavored ham, but not as smoky as breakfast bacon either. Just think ham lunch meat. It’s chewy without being gummy, flavorful but not cloying and — in one hot preparation — made a delicious fried rice. Fine, as long as you don’t oversell it. $10 for the kilogram log.

If you find it (or the chicken flavor ham) please note it in the comments.

Please excuse the bit of plastic wrapper
Please excuse the bit of plastic wrapper.
โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Vegan ham #2: Lam Sheng Kee Vegetarian Ham (Chicken Flavor)

By: Scott Wells โ€”

The vegetarian chicken ham Let me start by saying I really like this product. Even if it has about two too many words in its name. I think “vegetarian ham” is easier to understand than a “chicken ham.” After all, a vegetarian analog is like the meaty original, but made without animals. But is a vegetarian chicken ham a now-meat-free version of a ham, but originally made with bird flesh? Or pork, made like bird, but now made with soy?

It’s none of these, I gather. It’s light, savory, lightly spiced vegetarian product that I’d call “imitation chicken lunch meat”– which I think gets the point across, even if that might not pass regulatory muster, and again suffers for having two too many words in it. And to be clear, it’s like a processed chicken product, like the inner part of a chicken nugget, so don’t expect long fibers of imitation meat.

A confession. I don’t think I ate this one hot, but ia slice of the vegetarian chicken hamt has probably enough flavor to stand up in a soup. Indeed, next time I hope to make a pot pie with it. But it’s so delicious cold that this is how we plowed through it. Often in strips on a plate with other food, or sandwiches. I think this is the same product that my go-to Vietnamese Buddhist restaurant serves in slivers in a cold lotus root salad (Gỏi ngó sen). Both the restaurant and the supermarket where we got the Lam Sheng Kee Vegetarian Ham (Chicken Flavor) is at the Eden Center, in Falls Church, in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. It comes frozen, in a 1 kilogram log for about $10 at the Good Fortune Supermarket.

My mother used to make a perfect-to-spread “blender chicken salad” and I think this product would be ideal for it. Other ingredients to buy would be the vegan Just Mayo (at Target) and vegan Worcestershire sauce. This used to be easy to find: just get the cheapest brand. But now they all have anchovies. The same supermarket has large, cheap bottles of vegan Worcestershire sauce, from Taiwan, with the soy sauce — a bit thinner than I like, but it’s not that you use much, right?

In any case, this vegan ham is a winner, and I’ll buy it again. But what if you wanted ham ham? That’s for next time.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Vegan ham #1: Chef Bowl Frozen Soy Protein Food

By: Scott Wells โ€”

vegan ham #1At the risk of dissuading all of you from trying a vegan ham, Hubby and I started on the one we had never seen before and which — to be fair — didn’t even describe itself as ham or any kind of meat.

Introducing the Chef Bowl Frz. Soy Protein Food.

It weighs 1050 grams, so slightly larger than the others to be reviewed, which are 1000 grams. All cost pennies less than $10, and we bought them at the Good Fortune Supermarket, at the Eden Center in Falls Church, Virginia. 2015-12-31 20.23.57

It’s slightly chewy, slightly spongy and eraser pink all the way through and so a better comparable might be cheap bologna (though not so fatty) than ham. Like bologna, it didn’t have much flavor and what flavor it did have wasn’t quite what you’d call ham-like. It was insipid in black-eyed peas. vegan hame #1 slice

The two things that it has going for it is that you can buy a half-sized log and that if it’s your only option it is better than nothing. I might bake it to warm through and serve it with a sweet-sour condiment like fried apples or pineapple, or cube it for fried rice. But we have better options and so I’ll buy those — and later review them — instead. It also had fewer ingredients than other vegan hams, but given its other failings, I’ll not call that a plus.

Nutritional info from My Fitness Pal

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Vegan ham reviews

By: Scott Wells โ€”

Nothing seems to attract so much derision in a vegetarian diet as the prospect of a vegetarian ham.

Some, more serious vegetarians object to mock meats, and I’ve heard enough non-vegetarians dismiss the idea with disgust. “Why not eat the real thing?” But nobody looks at a sausage and asks, “why don’t you eat real snake?”

The fact is I liked ham before, and just because I don’t eat animals, it doesn’t mean I don’t tidbits of something chewy, smoky and savory in a hot or cold dish. That’s good enough to call it ham. Or even Spam. I liked it fried, in sandwiches, after all. If I can have that in a format I’m willing to eat, I will.

And they exist, in several different brands. But they’re almost all imported from Taiwan frozen, in one kilogram logs so large they can be fairly mistaken as a weapon. They’re not particulary easy to get, and a kilogram is a lot if you don’t like it. But I’ve never seen reviews (in English anyway, and the only other language I read is Esperanto.)

I want to help other would-be vegetarian ham eaters. My husband Jonathan and I bought three of these frozen ham logs — all vegan; be warned, some exist with egg white — over the Christmas holiday. As we eat them, I’ll review them.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Holy days after Christmas, lessons and propers

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

Continuing the long-dormant transcription project of lessons and propers from A Free Church Book of Common Prayer (1929). The Universalist A book of prayer for the church and the home (1866) does not have these occasions.

Saint Stephen.

December 26th.

Collect.

GRANT, O Lord, that, in all our suffering here upon the earth for the testimony of the truth, we make steadfastly look up to heaven, and by faith behold the glory that shall be revealed; and, being filled with the Holy Ghost, may learn to love and bless our persecutors by the example of thy first martyr Saint Stephen, who prayed for his murderers, O blessed Jesus, standest at the right hand of God to succour all those that suffer for thee, our only Mediator and Advocate. Amen.

¶ One or more of the collects for Christmas Day maybe may also be said.

For Epistle: Acts vii, 55-60 (end).
Gospel: Matt. xxiii, 34-39 (end).

Saint John the Evangelist

December 27th.

Collect.

MERCIFUL LORD, we beseech thee to cast thy bright beams of light upon thy Church, that it being enlightened by the doctrine of thy blessed apostle and evangelist Saint John may so walk in the light of thy truth, that it may at length attain to the light of the everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

¶ One or more of the collects for Christmas Day maybe may also be said.

Epistle: 1 John i, 1-10 (end), or, Ecclus, xv, 1-6.
Gospel: John xxi, 20-25 (end).

The Holy Innocents.

December 28th.

Collect.

O ALMIGHTY GOD, who out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast ordained strength, and madest infants to glorify thee by their deaths; mortify and kill all the vices in us, and so strengthen us by thy grace, that by the innocency of our lives, and constancy of our faith even after death, we make glorify thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

¶ One or more of the collects for Christmas Day maybe may also be said.

For Epistle: Rev. xiv, 1-5.
Gospel: Matt. ii, 13-21.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Restored link to readings and propers page

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

About three years ago, I started a project where I compared the one-year lectionaries, with accompanying collects (prayers), of a nineteenth-century Universalist prayerbook and an English twentieth-century work that tried to restore liturgial worship to historic dissenter churches, project that reminds me of the work of James Martineau.

And here’s a direct link to that.

It is largely complete, but I realized that in moving the content from Boy in the Bands to this domain, I let the links to this and other liturgical resources vanish. I’ve fixed that, and this week will fill in the missing propers for the days after Christmas.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

The Christmas service at different sizes

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

I’ve been thinking about Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services, as one does at Christmas.

I’ve long thought that a model 40-minute long service could be a helpful resource for churches to have, and have thought about what it might include, but haven’t made the case out loud of why 40 minutes. After all, it made a lot of sense to me but I wasn’t trying to convince anyone of it.

But if 40 minutes, then why not 20 or 10? Well, those could make sense too, but for different reasons, and that made me think of use cases. So before working out what those services might include, I wanted to think of adequate occasions for having them.

The 40-minute service might make sense:

  • For Christmas Day in a congregation wanting to develop a custom, but with few resources or committed attendees.
  • For an additional Christmas eve service: perhaps one more lean and more subdued for an adult audience who does want to be left out of the season, but doesn’t want the full blowout. Or doesn’t want to be left out of dinner reservations!
  • For a smaller church that shares a minister with another congregation, and needs to keep the liturgy short. Or uses borrowed or rented meeting space and can’t run long.

If the 40-minute service is to make the most of the available options, a 20-minute service might be needed when there are no other options.

  • An opt-in service at a workplace where the staff cannot attend a service at a church. In the breakroom, with people eating a meal as it goes on?
  • Before a group sets out on a trip or service project.
  • In very remote places, or in places where the language of worship is a minority language in the community, under the heading “it’s better than nothing at all.”

To those used to “the worship hour” this may seen lean, but morning or evening prayer can certainly be said within 20 minutes, and I attended a minor saint’s day communion service once many years ago that I timed to exactly 17 minutes.

It’s easier to imagine these led by a trained or experienced lay person.

A 10-minute service make sense for the benefit of one person, or a small group of people. Someone sick or near the end of life, for whom not only is there no option of going to church, but may only have a limited capacity to participate. The service may be at bedside; communion comes to mind. This suggests a less casual approach and pastoral direction, or at least pastoral support, and may be some other time than December 24 or 25.

So, dear readers, do these seem like approximately correct use cases?

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Sermon notes: "Joy May Follow"

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

Chancel mosaic
Chancel mosaic
I had the pleasure of preaching at Universalist National Memorial Church today, and by request am posting my notes. Be warned, these notes have as much in common with what I said today as grapes have with vinegar, but most of the points are there. The readings and benediction follow.


Thanks for returning to the pulpit

My thanks to UNMC pastors Crystal Lewis and Dave Gatton for having me return to the pulpit this morning, and thanks to you as we mark this third Sunday in Advent.

"Sing praises"

As we heard a few minutes ago, Isaiah said:

"Sing praises to the LORD, for he has done gloriously; let this be known in all the earth. Shout aloud and sing for joy, O royal Zion, for great in your midst, is the Holy One of Israel." (Isaiah 12:5-6)

Let this be known in all the earth…

But how, friends, shall we sing praises, among ourselves, much less all the earth?

Since the last time I was in this pulpit, the world — if anything — seems dimmer. Not only are there more people desperate to flee violence in the Middle East, South Asia, the Horn of Africa and elsewhere, but the violence in Paris and San Bernardino makes it seem that the most vulnerable people are the first to be blamed. Indeed, we have one presidential candidate who has gone farther to stir up viscousness that I thought possible — so far that xenophobic politicians can use him for cover.

And this says nothing about the older wounds fading from the news cycle, or the private hurts. The losses, the slights, the could-have-beens and what-never-will-bes at home, at work and in the wider world.

In short, there doesn’t seem to be very much to be happy about. And yet I feel a lot of expectation to be happy, with Christmas coming, and everything.

How can we look at our world and and hope that joy will follow?

We tend to chose the wrong frame

But I’m not ready for Christmas

I’ve not bought a single present for Christmas. I’ve not decided on what cards to send, or if we’re even sending cards from home. I’ve not even bought stamps.

Perhaps it’s the warm weather. It doesn’t feel like Christmas yet. And that’s not even taking into account how sad and miserable Christmas can be. Like when someone you love has died and won’t be here this Christmas. Or when you have to disappoint someone because the girt is wrong or the travel is too difficult. In those cases, it doesn’t feel like it’s time for joy.

But it’s not just Christmas. We are fixed to our calendars

We mark our whole lives with calendars. Even before we are born, our development is marked and measured in weeks. As children, our lives our tied to school calendars, and often, as adults, to quarterly reports and fiscal years.

This time of the year, we are particularly aware of our calendars. So much ends with December, and if you work in a nonprofit, for instance, you know that this is the time to bring donations in. And time to buy a new calendar for 2016. The predictability of calendars is part of the appeal, I suppose.

Calendars aren’t appropriate

But I think calendars, by simply existing can mislead us — mislead us into thinking that God’s desire for us can also be measured and scheduled.

If you can measure or schedule something — like joy — you risk acting like you have more control over than you really do. And I don’t mean a pink candle, a cross-country flight or a doctor’s appointment, as much as compartmentalizing our lives. Deferring everyday pleasures in hope of really enjoying something, somehow, sometime in the future.

But life is too short and too uncertain to be compartmentalized.

And I believe that we were made for happiness. And that we can and we should live our lives accordingly.

Joy, in particular, cannot be scheduled. It can be found or cultivated, but it cannot be scheduled.

So how can we find or cultivate it? We have some unlikely resources. Consider John the Baptist.

John the Baptist

According to the passage we heard this morning,

John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

This is not what I associate with joy, you? But then again, John’s an unlikely character. But he’s certainly not someone who was likely to compartmentalize his life. What you see is what you get.

Usually depicted as a liminal, almost wild figure. He was probably acetic, certainly an apocalyptic, and given his diet of locusts and wild honey — he was definitely Paleo.

His camel hair suit sounds scratchy (Matthew 3:4) and I suspect he smelled less than fresh.

But John was the forerunner, anticipating Jesus. When Mary spoke to Elizabeth, John — still in utero — John lept for joy. We’re supposed to see him as a part of God’s greater purpose, and that’s not a tragic role.

Joy is more than getting what you want and when you want it. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that John wasjolly, but he know what he was, know what he had to do, and saw it faithfully to the end.

How many of us can say that of our own lives? And what we do to know ourselves so deeply, to know what we must to fully, and saw it through completely? And if the outcome was goodness, in what was would that not be joy?

The Winchester Profession

Each week we recite the freewill declaration of faith that this church adopted in 2008. Before that, we recited the officially adopted declaration of faith that Universalists adopted in 1899.

But that was itself an interpretation — and not a replacement — for the cornerstone document of Universalist faith. It was adopted in 1803 in Winchester, New Hampshire, and so is commonly called the Winchester Profession. Its three articles are short enough to be printed on an index card. Here’s the whole thing:

  1. We believe that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament contain a revelation of the character of God, and of the duty, interest and final destination of mankind.

  2. We believe that there is one God, whose nature is Love, revealed in one Lord Jesus Christ, by one Holy Spirit of Grace, who will finally restore the whole family of mankind to holiness and happiness.

  3. We believe that holiness and true happiness are inseparably connected, and that believers ought to be careful to maintain order and practice good works; for these things are good and profitable unto men.

There’s a lot going on there.

The Winchester Profession isn’t just focused on the nature of God or human destiny, but on how we should live our faith, and not simply think about it.

First, while we as Universalists speak about a lot about "the final destination" of the human family, our heritage puts equal weight on discerning our "duty" from scripture. A duty that isn’t spelled out.

Second, that this final destination has a character derived not from chance or fortune or luck, but from God’s own nature, and that this nature is love. Universalists would quibble that it’s wrong to say we will be restored, as there was no factual Garden of Eden. Our common past might be mythic, but they agreed on the source of our hope for a common future.

Third, and this is the kicker…

Say, do you have a phrase that you go back to in times of stress. A quiet mantra that helps you frame difficult problem?

After the Lord’s Prayer, my go-to phrase comes from the Winchester Profession.

"Holiness and true happiness are inseparably connected."

This little phrase reminds me of something early Universalists wanted to remind themselves and others. Just because God is loving, and will save all — it doesn’t mean that you can do just what you want.

What is holiness?

For one thing, we have to face the idea of holiness, and that’s going to be hard. For many of us, holiness is tied up from childhood with an expectation that God has prepared a list of dos and don’ts. If that was the case, correct living is a simple as doing certain things and not doing others. Mostly the don’ts.

We saw this dynamic vividly this year in Kentucky. We remember Rowan County clerk Kim Davis, who famously defied federal court orders to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. News coverage focused on the how, and less on the why.

But when I heard that she was a member of a Oneness Pentecostal church, it all made sense. Those churches practice what’s called outward holiness. Some unkind commentators pointed out her unfashionable clothes, unmade-up face and uncoiffed hair. But looking plain is as much as part of her Christian witness as her refusal to issue the marriage licenses. Presumably, she also avoids movie theaters and doesn’t wear jewelry, possibly not even a wedding ring. It’s a kind of rule-based separation from the world that at the same time identifies the believer with God and — here’s the problem — sets the believer over other people.

Kim Davis may not think so, but it’s not hard to see her setting herself over other people. Wearing her faith on her sleeve and lording her authority over others.

I can respect her response to discipleship, but not its form or its effect.

At its heart, it seems based in fear, and taking it beyond Kim Davis — because she’s hardly alone in this — that this kind of holiness is holiness in name only.

So, what should she — or we — do?

Holiness is…

Our Universalist tradition offers hints to a mode of holiness that is at the same time more life-affirming and more resonant with the Gospel.

The implication is that holiness is a way of life where we grow into closeness with God. Thus, there’s no checklist.

The result of this closeness is not fear, but joy.

This closeness opens us up to be new people, unafraid of the moment’s hardships.

This closeness slowly transforms us to see other people and the world around us a God would see it.

To grow closer to God is to hope that joy may follow.

Joy may, but not necessarily, follow

I don’t want to mislead you. A life of increasing holiness and happiness takes work, and some people never know it in this life.

This isn’t the kind of thing you receive in a flash, or that gets better over a fifteen minute sermon.

Not just personal holiness

And it’s not limited to personal self-cultivation.

There is not one mode of happiness

You will never be happy — truly happy — living through someone else’s dream. Just as a you are a particular person with likes and dislikes, your vocation in God — one that will lead you to happiness and holiness — cannot be copied in full from one person to another.

Tools for finding happiness

John, for all his wild manners, did not focus on doom and punishment, but in repentance; that is, for people to find to change their lives and to live in harmony with God.

This church is a school and hospital for people who want to grow into something new.

And here Joy may follow.

Readings

Isaiah 12:2-6

Surely God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid, for the LORD GOD is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation.

With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

And you will say in that day: Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known his deeds among the nations; proclaim that his name is exalted.

Sing praises to the LORD, for he has done gloriously; let this be known in all the earth.

Shout aloud and sing for joy, O royal Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.

Luke 3:7-18

John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.

Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire."

And the crowds asked him, "What then should we do?"

In reply he said to them, "Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise."

Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, "Teacher, what should we do?"

He said to them, "Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you."

Soldiers also asked him, "And we, what should we do?" He said to them, "Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages."

As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah,

John answered all of them by saying, "I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."

So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.

Benediction

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.

Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:4-7

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

"Away in a Manger" in a Universalist paper

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

Derek McAuley, the Chief Officer of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, in Great Britain, cites an article in the current
Evening Standard

Is it true that "Away in a Manger" was first published in a Universalist hymnbook in #Boston as in tonight's ES #UU https://t.co/zdepzXBlJw

— Derek McAuley (@Derekunit) December 11, 2015

I replied:

@Derekunit Not a hymnal, but a #Universalist children's paper. The Myrtle, May 3, 1884, p. 6. pic.twitter.com/O05OKG9QDW

— Scott Wells ن (@bitb) December 11, 2015

I had never heard that connection before, and I thought I’d heard them all. I got the citation from the associated Wikipedia article, and here’s a link to that volume of The Myrtle.

So, it would be interesting to see if there is any earlier citation. It would also be interesting if the poetry of the carol compares with one of the known Univeralist poets in The Myrtle

Selection_192

That said, the temperance songs on the next page are fun, if not so evergreen. Here’s the first three (of nine) stanzas of one.

Selection_191

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

The end of church supply stores

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

I have a day off today and wanted to visit a church supply store, like I used to do. If I could only find one. There are a couple left in the inner metro D.C. area: dusty, shabby affairs featuring dubious Bible translations and sateen choir robes. That’s worse than nothing.

I thought about what’s been lost. Whittemore’s up near Boston — the grand go-to shop used by Unitarian and Universalists — has been closed for years. So too the home of a mix of practical goods (like clericals) and tcotchkes catering to Catholics up in suburban Wheaton. At some point, Ikon and Book Service, a great supplier of Eastern Christian goods near Catholic University vanished, taking my source of icons, candles, incense, even my butterlamb mold.

Not that I bought so much at any of these. But I did shop at Cokesbury at Wesley and Virginia Theological Seminary — until Cokesbury closed all of their retail stores. That hurt. And then, recently visiting the Episcopal cathedral’s once-fine bookshop (not even a supply store, per se) to discover it was little more than a souvenir stall… that was too much. There was, literally, more fudge for sale than prayer books. Make of that what you will.

This contraction predates the rise of internet bookselling — indeed, Washington, D.C. doesn’t have a single remaining mass-market bookstore left, either — and that can’t help, but I’m sure the lessening influence of churches are a problem, too. (There is the Potter House for Christian books, if not church supplies in D.C., I’ll try that tomorrow.)

So, what’s the solution? More exhibit and sales halls at church meetings? Discussion about repurposing or making church goods out of “secular” wares? Candid, independent reviews of online retailers? Asking vendors, who supply other religions’ needs, to expand their lines? (I’ve seen this in a Vietnamese shop.)

Perhaps all of these. But there’s something lost when you don’t have easy access to the material culture with which you “do” religion. Perhaps the focus on selling to the “pros” is an issue; after all, yarn and bead stores stay open, even it high-rent D.C., and those are hardly less niche.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

The how-to for sampling Unitarian Universalist culture today

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

I’m taking some time off work next week, and one of the things I’ll do is review the 100 data points I’m collecting. That is, 100 Sunday services for the four weeks of October 2015 from 25 congregations, five each from the five new UUA regions, distributed by size. This is my method.

I downloaded this year’s certification numbers. Now, this rules out the 41 congregations that did not certify, but since these tend to be overseas congregations (and not in any region anyway) and I’ve noticed before that non-registration is sometimes an early tell for congregations disbanding… well I think the certification list is a suitable list to take a sample from. The Church of the Larger Fellowship, also in no region, is an outlier and reasonably excluded.

So, I filtered by region, sorted by size, numbered the congregations and calculated how many congregation would be in the smallest 40%, the next larger 40% and the largest 20%. Then I generated a list of random numbers (YouTube video) from those three ranges. Looked up the congregations by the assigned number. Checked its website or Facebook page to see if I could find the Sunday services in October. No? Then I moved to the next on the list. Once I got two from the first group, two from the second group and one from the third group, I would move to the next region.

I collected as much information as was practical, including whether the congregation had its own minister and if the minister led the service, or a guest or affiliated minister, or a lay speaker or speaker. Plus the title or theme of the service, of course, and if there was a theme for the month.

So that’s the collection method. I’m almost done. Next, putting some numbers on the framework.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

How to test for what's Unitarian Universalism today

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

When one — say, me — complains about the failings of Unitarian Universalism, it’s easy to get hung up on national-level ministries. And that’s a problem.

For one, it’s a single point of attention, which can skew perceptions. Also, the national ministries attract participation, and that work also concentrates good and bad behavior; that might misrepresent effort. Plus, it’s in the nature of national organizanions to represent their interests as the interests of its participants, even if the participants in the provinces are in fact ignoring the national office. Lastly, if one did want to change the focus, it seems unfair to highlight the work of a particular congregation, because that means also pointing out its faults; that can be hurtful, which is itself unfair and counterproductive.

But Unitarian Universalism is (or ought to be) more than the work, though and opinion of the UUA, UUMA, the two recognized seminaries and a handful of other organizations that may or may not be functional.

I think an interesting test would be to see what people are hearing in Sunday services.

So I propose to find twenty-five congregations: five from each of the new regions, and distributed in size, chosen as randomly as possible. I will look at their October services and see what themes emerge, if any. I’ll also see how wany services are led by professional staff and what is led by visiting ministers or lay people. This might give us a clue about how congregations staff. October is good because it’s not the summer (when programs often become more informal), not “starting up the new church year” and not near Christmas or the other December holidays.

It’s the kind of survey that might take some time, and certainly one that will reveal failures in sampling part the way through. But this is informal, and still might be useful.

Is there anything you would like me to keep an eye on?

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

A podcast before podcasts on hymnology

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

I took a course in hymnology during my Master of Divinity program at Brite Divinity School around 1996, when the Hymn Society will still housed on campus. The textbooks were written by esteemed hymnologist and minister Erik Routley (1917-1982) with the lectures supplemented by recorded lectures by Routley, helpful because hymns need to be heard and sung, and he was prone to sing fragments.

I loved that class, but I hadn’t heard the recordings again until a couple of days ago, when I discovered his Christian Hymnody series — originally issued on tape — playable online.

It covers the history of Christian hymnody though the end of the nineteenth century, and if you don’t have a background in hymnology it’ll probably help deeply. A bit of a caveat there, as I’ve not replayed it all: it runs about three hours.

Link to episode one

Later notes: It runs in a conversational style,like having dinner with a very knowledgeable person who dominates the conversation. But don’t expect to learn anything about the Eastern church. Or is it six hours? A tape has two sides, you know.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Interceding for Fulgence Ndagijimana

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

10410969_658368174261373_3555270019891380793_nI imagine that many readers were horrified to see the news of Burundian Unitarian minister Fulgence Ndagijimana being arrested and held by police. (UUA International blog) The #ReleaseRevFulgence hashtag is laudable, but I have a bit more faith in interceding with God and the Burundian ambassador.

Here’s the letter I’m sending; you’re welcome to crib from it. And quickly.

His Excellency Ernest Ndabashinvze
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Burundi
2233 Wisconsin Avenue N.W., Suite 408
Washington, D.C. 20007

Your Excellency:

I learned today that a brother minister, the Rev. Fulgence Ndagijimana, of the Unitarian Church of Burundi (Eglise unitarienne du Burundi) in Bujumbura was taken into police custody around November 17, and also that members of his church are being harassed by police.

I was horrified to hear this news, and generally about the unrest in your country. Ours is a peace-loving religion, resting on a deep foundation of mutual respect. So, I respectfully ask that you do whatever you can to have the Rev. Fulgence Ndagijimana released from prison, and to have the police stop intimidating or harassing the Unitarians of Burundi.

I join hundreds of thousands of fellow believers around the word in petitioning you to help.

Sincerely yours,
(The Rev.) Scott Wells

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Quick link to UUA Board packets

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

http://www.uua.org/uuagovernance/board/packets

As much for me as for the readership. It takes me a little too long to drill down to this each time I want to see what’s in the UUA Board packet.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Importing old articles from LowPlastic.com

By: Scott Wells โ€”

It has been three years since I’ve added anything to my plastic-use reduction blog, LowPlastic.com, and the domain expires today. I’ve woved the old content to here and will tagging it — if I can — “low plastic.”

If I write anything else on the subject, it will be there.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Church shopping: wire plate holders

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

Cleaning up on a Sunday afternoon. I found one of a number of coated wire plate holders that I bought years ago at an icon shop, now gone. And while they are not a religious good per se, they are terribly useful in doing church. bitb_wire-stand_20151108

The GH marks on the hinge identifies it as a Gibson Holders product, and they are still in business.

They’re good for displaying icons, framed pictures, books and the like. Think: special services, funeral. And they’re inexpensive. And they fold up nicely for easy storage.

Put a few of these on your shopping list.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

Test site for the new UUA WordPress template

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

So, in order to try out the new UUA WordPress theme, I installed it onto one of the domains I’m not currently using. I’m sticking to defaults mainly, because that (to my mind) is one of the benefits of a template.

I’ll critique the experience of installing and configuring it later, and UU minister and blogger Cynthia Landrum (Rev. Cyn) has already reviewed the features.

But so far, I’m not sold and suspect the value of the theme will be the lessons shared in the theme’s documentation; that really sets it apart.

โ˜ โ˜† โœ‡ WWUUD?

A tale of two travel agents

By: Rev. Scott Wells โ€”

Perhaps it’s because Daylight Saving Time has ended, and the local businesses have their lights on as I come home, but for some reason, I noticed the travel agency in the ground floor retail space in my apartment building this evening.

And why wouldn’t I notice it other days? Because the business is confined to a small office at the back the retail space it formerly occupied alone. Most of that space is a dry cleaner, a shirt laundry, and an alterer. It’s what has the lit signs. When Hubby and I moved to our building, it was a quiet, somewhat old-fashioned neighborhood amenity — quiet, and a little sad. Even in an internet age, there’s a place for travel agents, especially in a city like Washington with such a large and varied international community. But surely, one or two desk’s worth of specialized travel agent is enough.

There’s another former travel agency near church — no, former isn’t fair. Again, there’s a desk in the back of the retail space, and it specializes in Japanese travel. The owners, reading the writing on the wall, contracted the one business and filled in the rest of the space with a Japanese grocery. So most Sundays after services, I’ll get bean sprouts, tofu, packaged curry, mochi and the like. I had never gone by when it was just a travel agency.

The stories are quite alike, so why “a tale of two travel agents”? Shouldn’t these be different, contrasting stories? Sure, but I can’t find another travel agent around here to compare or contrast…

I’m thinking of churches, of course. And I’m not sure churches are the travel agencies yielding space to stay in (smaller) business, or are the new enterprises making the most of the new situation. Perhaps both. But it’s easy to look at a church contracting in its space, or “rooming” with another entity and see it as regression. But it might just be the future, and future worth having.

โŒ