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"A Polymath Nun and Why She Matters on this Mothers' Day"
Sunday, May 12, 10:50 am, 2024
Reflections on Hildegard von Bingen: The Patron Saint of Late Bloomers. She founded her own abbey, created her own language, and wrote one of the first musical plays. She was a wonderful composer who set her own lushly poetic texts. Hildegard was 42 before she started writing anything down, and she was also someone who didnβt accept her place in the world. In a male-dominated church, she went on preaching tours at a time when women were not supposed to preach, especially in public. She refused to behave in a certain way. She wrote at a time when, if the church authorities had not thought she was divinely inspired, she could easily have been put to death as a heretic. Let's witness how else she might inspire.
Dolores Perez Heilbron; Louise Diskerud; Judith Stoddard; Kathleen McClung; Nancy Munn; Maggie McGrann, Worship Participants; Carmen Barsody, Worship Associate; Reiko Oda Lane, Organist; UUSF Choir led by Mark Sumner, Music Director; Yuhi Aizawa Combatti, Guest Soprano soloist, Nancy Munn, AkanΓ© Ota, Soloists; Wm. GarcΓa Ganz, Pianist
Shulee Ong, Camera; Jackson Munn, Camera; Jonathan Silk, Communications Director; Thomas Brown, Jose Matias Pineda, Francisco Castellanos, Sextons; Judy Payne, Flowers; Linda Messner, Head Usher
I mean the historical Unitarian churches in Romania, in Hungary, in Brazil ( by that I mean the analogous minded Kardec-line Spiritists, which do not derive from the same tradition per se, but seem at present the most like minded group in Brazil at least. Their liturgical services are at least closer to yours than any other I can think of, and that includes the Bahai.
And even in the closest church body I can think of, that is, the UK congregations of Unitarians and non-subscribing Presbyterian seem to be more conservative still, despite the faster spread of secular humanism, Wicca and the New Age spiritual movement there. On the whole it would seem a lot less probable that they would be less open to change.
Why do you think that is?
I want to express that I think the gardening metaphor that UU ministers, UUA staff, and other leaders have been using lately is beautiful. There are many ways I have seen it riffed on and I have also been inspired in my own layperson ministry and philosophizing. However, I want to express a concern. People are not weeds. Let's not use the gardening metaphor to treat anyone like an unwanted thing to be tossed aside. There are many philosophies around gardening. There are beautiful, wild, and even healing plants that might not pair well with an aggressively farmed monocrop system. With a deep ecological view, every plant and every person has a place where they might best thrive. All have an inherent dignity worth preserving and protecting, even the disruptive ones. It's important to keep healthy and respectful boundaries with other people in our own lives and within our congregations, but Iβm not sure how to communicate that well within the gardening metaphor. How would all of you communicate this within the gardening metaphor?
Renee Ruchotzke
:
An estimated 321,566 children in the United States lost a parent to drug overdose from 2011 to 2021, according to a new study. The rate of children who experienced this loss more than doubled during this period, from approximately 27 to 63 children per 100,000. The highest number of affected children were those with non-Hispanic white parents, but communities of color and tribal communities were disproportionately affected.
From Science Daily 05/08/24
As I haveΒ become more familiar with the key term, ACE, adverse childhood experience, the above fact jumped out at me this morning. Having a parent with a substance abuse problem is an ACE in and of itself, but to lose a parent to their addiction takes the trauma to another level.
The question was raised on the list last week about how to help families deal with grief from the loss of a family member. How does a therapist help a family deal with the loss of a parent to an overdose? How much of the grief becomes disenfranchised and unattended due to the shame, guilt, and ambiguity of such an event?
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