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2015-10-11-Hands-That-Shaped-This-Land_11_15-2.mp3

Welcome to sunday sermons and other recordings from the unitarian universalist church of davis california please visit our website at w.w. org for further information. I want to welcome you to the unitarian universalist church of davis we just a place and caring and compassionate to keep playing it might make the greeting and welcome even more interesting. And what am i not seeing around me. Scene. We come together to create a very unique community for this one hour. An innocent place we send her our cells and come to know again. Once again every week we hear again that we are not alone we might have a burden but. When we come here. We can share it and that burden becomes light this is columbus day weekend of america in a very different way we're asking who is it that shaped this land there will be others who will be featured in the years to come but this year we are recognizing the chinese and how they settled this state pacifically. Bread of the divine light a flame of reflection in all that we do breath of creation light a flame of connection and our circle of care breath of wonder light of flame of inspiration to cultivate participation breath of fear light of flame of courage to be who we are sentient vulnerable and verse of this moment light of flame of celebration. For our future and fold the covenant of this day. And that is written by janet vickers from the canadian ontarian council. This poem who can resist chinatown as written by leann chow who is a canadian a chinese canadian walking down spadena to dundas who can resist the temptation of chinatown the smell of honey barbecue pork. Mix with ginger onion chicken and orange stuff floating in the air roasted piglets hanging from their feet. Golden squid dark red sausages. Decorating take out windows colorful fruits and fresh vegetables of all seasons of asian origin pileup on the sidewalk table tops. Chinatown like my mother's kitchen working my taste buds into a memory. Into a chain reaction of childhood desires who can resist chinatown coming up the college. Silver dollar room scott mission tip-top on the other side of the street carrying shanghai green cabbages and a shopping bag. Tofu and a tin can and live crabs in a paper bag i heard someone yell at me. Who are chinks. I ask the angry man. Chinx go back to china. He shouted back obscenely do you live in chinatown. Professor of english asked me one day what makes you think i live in chinatown just a guess he answered quietly with his drug he going to ask if i could cats or dogs to the truth is i don't understand a word in cantonese i confess to a white friend and a sunday dim sum brunch but then how did you mean caton chinatown he asked curiously his chopstick suspended in the air. Just like you i answered smiling putting a juicy plump shrimp dumpling inside my mouth ok first-line please this is a definition of assimilation i assimilated cuz i am more american than chinese what about me is chinese what is identity anyways. She looked so elegant i have few chinese clothes i have no chinese dress which is called it shown some my parents turned their backs on their culture my mom took me to see margot fonteyn and rudolf nureyev and played classical music constantly we never observe chinese holidays i don't remember what we ate my most vivid memory is of the fried chicken and gravy our housekeeper laura garnett used to make every thursday oh my was so so good i also remember inviting a european to our house for dinner and being embarrassed when i mom served water rice which is rice cooked with lots of water and bean sprouts 90% african-american. So we travel to a city with a much higher chinese population the next step was to become a part of that population upon my mom's encouragement i joined a girls youth group at cameron house in chinatown for some reason i could never fit in it seemed that most of the girls in the group had known each other for years many of them spoke chinese and went to school together they just didn't make an effort to get to know me either next wide as i worked as a volunteer tutor in chinatown my fellow tutors were all chinese college students interested in giving back to their community this was a group that accepted and valued me. Before a western and culture and language that's the price people like me pay for assimilating we are neither chinese northwestern. Abigail washburn blond hair sister from the southeastern part of the united states. Say chinese. I just a question i would leave with you i don't think that abigail's music does that but but it opens the question i stand before you here today is someone who is grown in awareness some of you know that this started and its preparation in july and in truth it started way before that. Exploitation disguised as trade and proselytizing masked as religious curiosity the western merchants saw an opportunity for wealth and it's as simple as that the chinese came to the american continent because things that happened simultaneously shortage and the california gold rush san francisco are carved into the wind and pasted waved for more than 20 days wrote one new arrival angel island. Of the immigrants station for strangers from a different shore these immigrants would always be identified as difference because of their appearance as asian racism that is why one is known more than the other. Racism. Emergence standing on the dock in san francisco harbor said for two hours we watched as a river of men poor off the shirts off the ships all wearing dark blue shirts their belongings hang in bundles from bamboo poles resting on their shoulders. There are armies that sound but this was not an army. They didn't come. For some came hoping to return quickly to their homes in china with money to help their struggling families remember if they're coming at a time of famine in china but often they arrived in america owing money for their passage options for gaining well others by the naturalization law passed earlier in american history in 1790. Vissla restricted naturalized citizenship to those who were wait uu minister sherry prudhomme research the chinese who settled in northern california she describes our state in this way. Shadowed ground. Sacred traces of suffering and hope that should give you a clue that this is not one of those feel-good sermon. Ronald takaki road one would imagine from how american history is written that this country had been built by europeans pioneers merchants politicians too often the contributions of asian people especially the chinese are ignored by the two cultures intersected only one was acknowledged the dominant culture of northern european americans. California officially became a state in 1850 to grow its economy california needed cheap labor and american policy maker called for an importation of chinese workers and importation of chinese workers get labor first erode and the capital will follow. When the gold rush started in 1848. 325 chinese immigrated to the united states in 1850 13 years later over 2,700 came to this country. 1852 one year later more than 20,000 immigrated by 18 70 63000 chinese people almost all men had come to america and 77% of them were living in california san francisco had the highest population of chinese in this state followed by sacramento and then stockton rule of thumb when businessman. The chinese were welcomed and when there was an economic downturn. Fear fuel prejudice and oppressive legislation against the chinese could that possibly apply to anything that you hear about today. When they were hired to mine for gold coarsegold for other people do this for other people that was fine but when they started to mine for themselves. The foreign miners attacks with establishing of course this was right at the time when there was a very large influx of chinese people and it was written that you could see the blueshirts dotting dotting the hillsides and the rivers of course was tremendous fear that the wealth would be taken the chinese miners paid 5 million dollars. They created wealth for the state and port others but financial gain was denied them and. They helped the north win the war with their money. Where do you think that money came from we are complicated our history is complicated they were the primary laborers who cleared the land and lay the tracks for the central pacific railroad 1,500 people gathered at promontory point for the final stage for the transcontinental railroad. Waze gentleman and business dress pose for the photo op what is not seen are the thousands of chinese gathered around they were made invisible they are not invisible. At lake chabot there's a new installation of panels describing is history and the installation says records of chinese laborers is scanned the chinese workers use shovels pickaxes and dynamite to tunnel through rug the length of 4 football fields until recently those who toiled as well as those who died in the effort were not recognized one of those panels that talks about how 1979. Before their virtues how they supported this emerging state was not seeing not recognized because of resentment because of racism in 1850s. Chinatown with a haven for new immigrants with stores selling familiar food chinese medicine shop tea shop saloons opium stores. Venetian denied them the benefits of democracy but chinatown gave them the psychological and social safety of. A familiar culture. It was friendship protection and rules for their commerce. It was a society within a society. Chinese american leaders disagreed about many things. But they are of one mind about the value of chinatown he served as a haven for themselves and for future immigrants and they quickly became aware that it was a source of income even when it was just a few groceries and the money that they would spend on what they understood to be exotic. When chinese were pushed out of their jobs due to economics wings racism and scapegoating there was chinatown when jobs in the minds of railroad the farm became difficult or disappeared work could be found in wraps opening a laundry that they didn't woodland and other places but also. But where are the records in support of the humanity of the chinese. Recently reverend sherry prudhomme research the unitarian response to what is known and what was known as the chinese problem where the chinese question she found almost nothing in the oakland church archives and she combed for mention of this and other resources and libraries and text. For unitarians the chinese were not worthy of mention. Despite the great deal of conflict in the united states about their presence as a matter of fact in california you had to register your opinion for or against inclusion. But our clergy. Never. Mentioned. Their opinion. This may be the reason why all combined unitarian universalist history books only mention chinese americans a few times. There is one very large text its into volume this big on universalism. And only seminary students are going for their oral exams read this but it has two sentences. About the chinese in all of those pages. The silence is absolutely deafening. One exception is reverend ames who served in the bay area for a total of 6 years. He served in the unitarian church in san francisco and santa cruz and also as i found out last night in sacramento. He returned to a ministry in the eastern part of the united states and at that time when he was far away heroes about his experience. He referred to the specific legislation from the 1870s that restricted the entrance of the chinese to america as. A full cup. Ab dishonor. Pressed the lips of the nation. Powerful words. It is riding he reminded people that more than half of the voters in san francisco are themselves foreign birth. He went on to say that is not the character of the chinese that keeps them from being in schools or participating in government or the larger society. He pointed to. The laws and the prejudices. A california. He was certain that the exclusion laws would enshrine discrimination in our national policy. He wrote if congress is to undertake the business of keeping unwelcome persons out of the country who can say that the power may not sometime be used against all who are in the way of a ruling party. An anonymous reply to reverend ames and i want you to think about his piece of writing as a blog and that maybe there would be responses that you might find responses to a blog and you know how those responses off and go. You don't really want to read them unless you want to get riled up about something and so it goes. This anonymous reply to reverend ames demanded that no more chinese be allowed to enter the country. A lot of people felt that way actually. But then the writer goes on. And demands that the rest of the weltering mass of ignorance. Barbarism and animalism which is now blindly grasping at the pillars of the temple of freedom. Be educated and converted. This was the attitude of california it really was. Most of california. A congress pass the chinese exclusion act. Of 1882 the first federal law to discriminate against people based on nationality or race. This law paved the way for future segregation laws in our country that came along decades later. In the centuries that followed some lot open the gates for chinese to enter and others bar them. These days they're in visibility is less likely to happen with china as one of the leading world. Powers in the. Economic. World and yet chinatown the place that continues to be a safe haven for new immigrants. Chinatown the lucrative tourism resource. Couldn't become the hollow reed community. If you remember that term from. When alex was speaking. Instead of the label of flying to a person it could describe a place that appears chinese. Please let your name for its own culture. Chinatown faces identity crisis was the july headline in the san francisco chronicle. And we probably all know that san francisco is experiencing enormous growth and technology jobs and. Property prices were off the charts before but now they are even more so in rent are prohibitive. Entrepreneurs are eyeing chinatown for its central location for the amazing view of the bay and its own controlled rent. They looking for offices places for new kinds of entertainment and housing. The question is whether the zoning laws will stand up to the lure of commerce and it's more than the lure of commerce if the pressure. Of commerce. Will the present of the new businesses. Be exploitation disguised as new vibrancy. Will it be gentrification mast. Every spectral. Upgrades of sacred and historic alleys. Will this be like the ships at the ports of asian countries in the mid-nineteenth century will this birthplace of chinese america become a hollow reed. And someday not be able to identify itself. As deeply. And truly chinese. Last week and pr featured the story of a chinese young adult and his father. The father never learn to speak english and the young man had been encouraged to not learn chinese much the same way we heard from alex. Throughout all their years together and i want you to imagine this they had gestured greetings and exchanged very brief polite phrases if the father did know in english. But nothing else. And when the father returned to china to work at the family business because it had started to thrive and needed his attention he left a letter for his son. He was translated for this youth to read and for the first time is teen understood the depth of his father's feelings and the wisdom of his thoughts. Young man wept. As he discovered his father's dreams. As father and son. The depth of who they were. With barely visible to each other. Here we are. Talking about invisibility. Again. Even with laws and attitudes and keeping the chinese out keeping them invisible and bow down. Chinese immigrants have sustained their culture. And build our state. And released this country. But it's not so simple. It's not easy to maintain one's identity. When emotional and physical survival demands assimilation. Putting one difference of side trying to blend in. Go to ask for acid do this. And then succeed. They give up what is precious in their lives that cannot be measured. Their heritage. All praises to the ways they honor their culture. Learn history. And live with pride. So my questions to you are these. What else are whom does our dominant culture make invisible. How does each one of a participate. How can we see what has been conveniently on scene. How can we bear witness. To their dignity their legacy. Their enduring contributions. How. 9 by 2 into a time of prayer, meditation. And think think about who needs harboring who needs harboring in this world and who needs to be seen. Mandarin do a time of silence for you can. Get in touch with that still small voice within. Holding our hearts. Noah mills. Who will be seen fully. For those who worshipped at the salam mosque in sacramento. Who sent a request to us to be held in prayer. Wishing to be known. To be visible. To all. When there is a threat of violence. Angela herrera right don't leave your broken heart at the door. Bring it to the altar of life. Don't leave your anger behind. And high standard and the world needs vision. Bring them with you. And your joy and your passion. Bring your loving and your courage and your conviction. Bring your need for healing and your power to heal. There's work to do. Will you harbor me. Will i harbor you. Cooney's harboring in our care in this world. I open this time for you to bring their names into this space space. So they can be held by this community. Let your voices fill the air. Muhammad. You're invited to stand as you are able and to take hand because this work we do is learning we do takes everyone takes everyone may we be open to hear each other's story because this is where the sacred is found this is where the secret is done at this gathering say amen.

uudavispodcast_org

2013-01-06_Worship_Justice-For-How-Many_ED_11-15.mp3

Welcome to sunday sermons and other recordings from unitarian universalist church of davis california at www.dav.org for further information. I'm john ashby welcome here this morning with our guest pianist and composer bill scalp today i'm mr but banks is not with us today she is with our unitarian universalist legislative. Water justice road trip in the sacramento-san joaquin valley. Estuary. Justice and equity issues around water or extreme as the equitable distribution of this precious resources literally life-and-death question. Probably most of you know that mark twain. Had some desoul about water in the wax is not for drinking it's quote for fighting over. And we do have a gift of water today although it's going to be tapering off by lunchtime. Is it broken you here to our unitarian universalist church of davis that's warm and safe. Haven of liberal faith. What we come to celebrate the end of woven web of our existence to grow in friendship and wisdom sharing our joys are sorrows. Building our beloved community in this place and enlarging our circle of caring to the world beyond we all welcoming congregation that celebrates diversity. Differences of sexual orientation ethnicities different ways of naming that which we find sacred. Here we value differences as parts of what makes you unique. And you're welcome here. Justice is a theme for the month of january in today we're going to be taking a look at a piece of economic justice. How is the shed. The pie be divided. What's this have to do with justice point. A wise and knowledgeable resource to begin this discussion and so of course i start. With monty python. There was a robinhood skip that they did many many years ago. Begins with john cleese playing the part of robin hood. Any stealing from the really really rich and giving to the wretched poor. And it's kind of goes on and on time after time he keeps going back to the redskin back to the porto. At the rich again and he's ready to steal from but they got nothing to give. So now he goes over to the rich and poor nothing. everything. And i'm mad at him for not bringing anything else. John cleese venn looks out at the camera and he says. Bring you this way distribution of wealth things quicker than it looks. Not only is it trickier than it looks. But it's pretty fair to say that this has probably always been a problem. And still is. I may have found one example of a huge magnificent accomplishment in ancient history. Let me get example of this or maybe that we just don't know yet. Forgive my pronunciation. The place called the blanket chepe in southeastern turkey. It's currently regarded as the wolves. Oldest temple. It's huge it's massive it's really it's incredible. Newest built 11,000 years ago. This temple is dated as having come before. The so-called neolithic societies also before the first societies where the nazis were hunter-gatherers at this point there wasn't a society yet. 11000 years ago no stone tools. 6000 years before stonehenge. Handwriting. Relatively recently discovered in about the past 10 or 15 years. An interesting lee all of the excavations. Or showing that this was not a place that the elite lived in there's nothing to indicate. Any injustice here nothing to indicate that anyone lived here at all just that they used it not completely clear. Used for what. Hard to say was 3000. 4000 years maybe till writing came along. Does nothing but pictures but interesting lee there are no indications yet. Of any violence required to coerce the builders to build. Why the elite get the benefits. At least for now this great temple on the hill might be an example. Maybe. Once. We solve this redistribution problem. So where are we now. Now we're at him number. 1028. The fire of commitment. Directions to readings here. The first is a writing by gregory mobley. The old testament prophet amos. An understanding historical context around the book of amos. Minnesota sets the stage. Instead of just reading amos 5:24 which we won't heard a lot we're going to hear amos chapter 5 was going to take his from verse 16 through verse 24. Rameses telling the israelites. What day will god is saying to them. And there were god is not happy at all. Who's gregory mobley. Book of amos is a compilation of sayings attributed to the prophet amos. Image. israel of territorial expansion and national prosperity never again. But never again reached. Primetime. Inequities between urban lead singapore. Population of breton credit wealthy landowners and asked capital in the states at the expense of small farmers. The smallest but so does the film end of a wedge that lenders could use. The subway farmers from their patrimonial thumbs. And personal liberty. Anonymous chapter 5. 16 through 24 most of the book of amos is anus. Telling people what god is saying. So you'll feel that all the squares there shall be wailing and in all the streets they shall say alas alas. Bonus to morning and those skilled in lamentation to wearing you know the vineyards just she'll be willing so i will pass through the wood stove yourself in the lord. Arrest for you who desire the day of the lord why do you work the day of the lord in his darkness not right. Is if someone's dead from the lion was met by a bear. When do the house listed a hand against the drone was bitten by a snake is not the day of the lord darkness not light and glue with no brightness in it i hate i despise your festivals and i take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you wanted me to bring offerings and green offerings i will not accept them and the well-being of your started animals i will not look upon take away from me than noise of your songs i will not listen to the melody of your parts but let justice roll down like waters and righteousness. Like an ever-flowing stream. What's going on in the book of amos. Is a fundamental change in the way the bible interpreted religion god what did god do for you what you have to do for your god. Before amos. The purpose of god. That's despite your enemies to benefit you. A very different from that in that reading and it was making clear that the is really god is going to smite the israelis. Because it's changing issues no longer what club you belong what what sub you belong to the determines what benefits you get. But rather it is your behavior that determines what benefits are punishments you received. You know god might smite you. Essentially it's filling up there is a right and a wrong. Individual record a goddess upset about. Is the super namek injustice. If it was real lights in which case are causing he cannot make justice. Confirm and send her how the wealth is distributed becomes a religious and ethical value. What's the movie describing the economic situation in israel when is 3000 years ago of debt and credit wealthy landowners amassed capital and estate at the expense of small farmers. And one additional word to that phrase. Might bring the story forward little bit. Little bit closer to our time. Relation of debt and credit. And taxes. What's what's look at the issue with how the pie is split up. In the us right now. Am i reference to this i'm using the economist magazine the economist magazine is generally not considered a liberal left us magazine that you can't trust at all because it's those west coast. Tree-hugging liberals running it that's not the way it is more is it a far right-wing. He's definitely right-of-center general leaning more towards the direction of flea markets llc equal. Runnings distribution of wealth issue in the us the economist says this. Including capital gains the share of national income going to the richest 1% of americans. Has doubled since 1980. Turn 10% to 20%. Russell bird was a century ago. Even more striking you should still the economist words. Even more striking the shore going to the top 0.01%. The 16,000 families with an average income of 24 million dollars each has quadrupled. I'm just over 1%. Almost 5%. This is a bigger slice of the national pie than the top 21% received 100 years ago. This is an extraordinary development again. The economist words not mine. Another middle staff droid that can soda put the change. That is occurred recently kind of trenton central little more directly in the 70s. A used tuition at a public university cost on average 4% of the average family income. And a private university cost 20%. I'm an average hamilton, it's 10% for a public university and i think it's a calculated that this year instead of. And 45%. This is a huge. Change. This is the change from. A few years ago. Make a dinosaur. pretty much work your way maybe even through. A private university. Now it's getting hard to do it even with a public university it's a whole lot harder. For some groups to get that education something she wasn't right so what do we do. Well it's a little bit worse because the finances of our government. They just not in good shape resources are not unlimited. They never. As far as we know they never are there actually is all those. Archaeologists excavating the brecci in southeast turkey. They're actually thinking. But there was more food than everybody needed at the time that that the time that temple was built again we don't have enough proof but. To my mind it's kind of fun to see an example. Weather wants may have been enough. Elementary in the monty python redistribution of wealth solution of taking everything that doesn't solve anything and at the same crime. Icon. I'm investors and. Capital markets warren buffett. He's frankly thinks it's absurd that he pays such a low percentage of his income tax for is. Amiibo brown. Even a decision on tax rates. Isn't justice issues federal spending is a justice issue that the budget is not balanced and cannot spend unlimited amounts of money. It has to be careful about what it spends but in the face of this unlimited money. We have an awful lot about how this can be cotton that can be cotton i suspect this probably. More than a few with you. Know what i'm about to tell you but none of the things we hear we can just cut his let's just cut the farm bill. The whole lot of money. What does a subsidized corn that becomes ethanol. That we don't need. Duck subsidizing big tymers. Well. Actually more than two-thirds of the farm bill. Is food stamps. The farm bureau. You're cutting food stamps now there may be a better program that one could think of. Then food stamps i'm open to listening to it. But if you take away. The farm gallon take away the food stamps what happens. Lots of people go hungrier. Then they are right now. There may be a better answer. The paper store come quickly. Exactly what the optimal taxing and spending decisions would be. Why don't know. This redistribution of wealth and yes tricking. I'm starving it perfectly. Maybe. So while they're in that preview lifx society but other than that we haven't solved it yet but i think we can do better. Then we're doing now this is. Not where we should be. I for one don't want amos mad at me. One point i don't want me mad at me. I have to think that i helped steer the ship in a better direction. And i plead guilty i'm little bit impatient person that doesn't make me feel any better at all that i just tried i want to see some results. Got to see some. Improvement. Whenever unitarian universalist principles. Bother me it's always confused me but there was something about it that i just wasn't sure why it was. Making me. Just feel unsettled as principal. Justice equity and compassion in human relations. Boys found it interesting. And thinking about the service made me finally understand. What was bothering me about this. And it was i wasn't understanding it because i was thinking. Compassion. I don't look at it that way anyways. justice and there's equity and there's compassion equity. And compassion in human relations. This words of a different justice and equity. Nouns for something. But you can achieve in a way it's something you can measure. Compassion is a verb and that's probably some english teachers out there i know compassion isn't over but it's a word. That's. Helping us to act. You know everytime i have to make a decision about something. I can't go and find an economist magazine where a half-a-dozen brilliant people have spent five weeks calculating the number so that i have the answer i've got to have another. Way to act. And generally when i'm coming to the conclusion of the more compassion there is in my actions. The brothers ar. Doesn't mean compassion has to be stupid. Actually looking into the word compassion. It's kind of fun and that might be it that might be a different a different. Sermon. The compassion i think it's working help us make decisions. Tucci's play-doh justice. And greater equity. Justice equity. And compassion. Compassion. Is the king. Joining the spirit of prayer meditation. Rihanna justice. We hope to receive it. We strive to provide it. Tell creative world. Left float the suffering pain and injustice worlds where perhaps justice can blow down like waters and righteousness like an everlasting stream. No it's up to us to create this better world. We have to find the strength to this work. Sometimes we can find the strength within ourselves. Sometimes others give it to us. Sometimes it's time to rely on others. As we were asked to be strong again. We may welcome each and oil. Cultivating the spirit. Serving others in our quest for justice. Each of us in this sanctuary is a part of an intricate web of relationships when one of us celebrates. We all have reason for joy and the joy grows when one of us grieves a loss. The web of life moves to a new shape we share the loss. We are part of the turn of the earth. The shift of the stars the pull of the sea. And oil change. Justice equity and compassion. What's a congregation take cans. Justice equity and compassion and cuban relations. Compassion is the key to let the congregation say amen.

uudavispodcast_org

2015-09-20_Stranger-in-a-Strange-Land_11_15-4.mp3

Welcome to sunday sermons and other recordings from unitarian universalist church of davis california please visit our website at w.w. org for further information. Play welcome on this sunday when we're honoring the days of all the days between rosh hashanah and yom kippur the time of deep reflection for looking within their personal ideal no matter what. And i need to say here diverse kinds of cars because last week there was a photo taken in our parking lot of 10 priuses parts in a room that made it on facebook and it went living earth. Good morning my name is diana landis and i am happy to announce that i am this year's campus ministry president going to be great year 2 years ago i surely walked into the belfry for the unitarian campus ministry meeting and i did not realize this was going to change my entire college experience i was greeted by the friendly's faces and given the most welcoming hospitality home away from home. I want to thank the congregation for making this possible you play a large role by providing our group with the wholesome meals that we are more than grateful to receive. Food is the universal language that brings people of all backgrounds culture's beliefs and majors of study together to build a stronger community either through school or through the church. And making meals is an excellent opportunity for our group and for you and i for all of us to get to know each other on a more personal level so and also a great bonus for if you create if you make meals for group is that at the end of the year we have this wonderful big time barbecue or we can come together and reflect and rejoice of all the wonderful things that have happened. Get excited and. If you have questions and if you are interested please come to the back at the end of the service scott and i will be there if you have any questions he will be wearing this very chic fabulous chef's hat so you will totally be able to spot them but will be very grateful if you guys consider making meals for us and we look forward to. The chalice. As a symbol of our religion. We lighted this morning to honor the importance of inner peace love & faith. Also to light up our intention. To be welcoming to those we meet as we journey through our lives. This morning this congregation will commission will covenant with laura thompson as campus minister and ministerial intern for the 2015 16 truetear. I told laura come on up be visible we are open to equally offering our knowledge and learning from others we will learn from laura as well this morning we honor our teaching role for our internet campus minister and the students in their hair we are firm our commitment to a religious life that serves and learns and teaches we joined the ceremony with anticipation for what's a year will bring and join. What am i cool first jobs as a new member of the board everyone will have a part in this your note in your order of service at reading in response to the unitarian universalist church of davis speaks a word of truth in freedom and love minister to both our joys and sorrows and let the example of the principles of our faith speak even louder than your words are you ready to enter into this ministry. Will the representatives of the internship committee and campus ministry committee please rise so we may see you do you support this covenant in the spirit of community research and development of your ministries mindful of. They didn't know if we were strangers who would graciously received their hospitality or if we were strangers who would continue to be indifferent to them and i looked up the word hospitality and then word hostile have the same root word stranger or guest so they don't know. I'm smiling but then the smiling gave way to tears and they wept because they were overwhelmed that we had come so far to see them and they went because they dared to hope and pray that we would not forget them. The reading is from genesis chapter 18 abraham and his wife sarah were camped by the oak of mamre abraham was sitting at the opening of his 10 in the heat of the day he looked up and saw three men standing over it against him i'm seeing them he hurried from his front from his tent door to meet them. Set it all before them and they're under the tree waited on them himself this very ancient story is an image of hospitality in all the abrahamic traditions in preparing for this reflection i've asked myself what do i know about inviting in the other the stranger. Strangers maybe actual people encountered in one's life or they may be interim images of some aspects of ourselves well i remembered back to a dream that i had h585a pterodactyl is chasing me it's swooping down toward me and i am running away suddenly i become aware that i am dreaming and in this was siddity i stop and turn around. Bracelet courage and say. Can't we be friends or lands looks at me with friendly eyes he invites me on who is bad and then flies me around for a glorious adventure how is that for inviting in the stranger she's a classical which figure with medusa like hair flowing black robes and she's carrying a broom again the dream becomes lucid and i managed to turn to face her. Stares at me with her beady eyes. And then snarls. That's what you think well i was terrified and woke up and this nightmare has always been a living kind of a living lesson to me such inner images do matter in our lives i pondered the witch figure and of interpreted her and receive message from her in many ways over the years it took over 30 years to realize that the encounter had much to do with arrogance. Especially my own it used to be that i had a lot of false self-esteem based on the fact. But i was much better than others due to being bright we bribe people all had measured were measured against all those many who are not so smart over the years my note my own ego has gradually lost its edge has recently the which is the which as i am now able to not taunt her but to invite her in is showing me something else and that is the unconscious arrogance of privilege for example i have a nephew who's wife betty skin on her facebook page last tuesday she wrote. Grinds my gears she says and then my daughter's sister-in-law who is also a dark-skinned and african-american tells me that since sandra bland death. She has begun to be afraid for her own safety last month she stopped her car in the street in order to wait while another car pulled out of a parking place a policeman pulled in behind her and asked her what she was doing why was she there well i do not i do not get followed around in stores. And i'm not afraid of the police but i know this privilege that i am afforded is based on how i am measured up against others and all the sorting that always happens my inner other the witch does not let me stay naive nor innocent she does help me to be more humble and kind and hopefully to bring grace and courtesy into my relationships. Abraham abraham is by the entrance to his abode to his home. He invites them to sit and then he brings a very best food that he has to offer the very best and offers them food and they are so quick they are so pleased with how welcoming he has been you have always wanted a son for they were three angels sent to speak to abraham and sarah. Song of a man who has come through with these lines what is that knocking knocking at the door at night someone to do us harm no no it is three strange angels admit them admit them. Shortly after the scriptural passage of abraham and sarah that donna red there is another in exodus you shall not oppress the stranger since you yourself know the feelings of a stranger for you were also strangers in the land of egypt how we treat those who aren't unknown who are different from us since before abraham historically scholarly detail. The best food is brought for them only then after the strangers are comfortable and brought into the heart of the home are they asked their name the reason for traveling and the ultimate destination i normally this would be enough for you to know about posting good behavior and you might go home and change your ways but i'm compelled to describe more responsibilities of the hose because these are unusual times across the world there is a migration of people from poverty and war torn areas the nations with more affluence and peace consider the people 7 million people traveling. Syria afghanistan and bangladesh i'm remembering the man from bangladesh. But i visited with the faithful friends program and we have members of this church who do this. Invite everyone to take hands-free sure you there's no one left out and hear these words by barry farber hamilton hallway go in peace deeply regard each other truly listened to each other speak what each must speak be ready and every moment to disarm your heart rejoice in this love you have begun let this gathering say amen remember to talk to steve burns if you want to be a part of helping those who have lost homes in the fire.

uudavispodcast_org

2013-09-22_Worship_Vocation_Worth-Risking-Failure_11_15.mp3

Welcome to sunday sermons and other recordings from unitarian universalist church of davis california please visit our website at www.sec.gov or further information. You are welcome here. They're certainties in your doubts. For your strength with your imperfections. We come to be together to know that we are a part of something larger than ourselves. To know that there is a place that we belong. Where we encourage to live out ideals. You are welcome here at all of your fullness. Your race and your culture your sexual orientation or gender identity your religious views your political party. Come to connect with this community and to honor the earth. Just claim your spirituality. And to build the world that we dream. We dream is possible. Before we move into the invitations to community i just want to mention that this month of september. Is. Has a theme of vocation vocation. And the latin root of that word is voice. And the original meaning of the word is synonymous with. The meaning of call to receive a call and a person's vocation is not to be confused with a modern use of like to have a job. That's. A different thing. It's something that aligns our lives with the sure knowledge that this way this is the way to your life. So when i talk about vacation that's what i'm talking about it's not. A person's job. Lesson is the fire that burns deep in the soul. It is the flame of the human spirit touched into being by the mystery of life. It is the fire of reason the fire of compassion the fire of community. The fire of justice the fire. A faith. It is the fire of love burning deep in the human heart. The divine glow in every life. Eric a heller wagner. One of my favorite childhood films the 1996 movie matilda. Begins. With these lines. Everyone is born. But not everyone is born the same. Some will grow to be butchers or bakers or candlestick makers. Some only be really good at making jello salad. One way or another though. Every human being is unique. For better. Or for worse. Each of us is unique each of us has our own gifts to bring in our own stories. Our own set of experiences that shape and inform us. Each of us as the potential for some particular transformative action in the world. One of my favorite things about moving to california. As that i'm rarely asked where i work. And frequently asked what i do. Seems like a small difference but it is huge. The people i mean here it seems are often less interested in how i pay my rent and more intrigued by the question of what i spend my energy on and what i care about. Californians seem to want to know about my uniqueness about my passions and commitments and vocation. It is exhilarating. Him it makes me wonder how we could carry this further. I am always curious to know not just what someone does for fun or to support themselves. But what they do with that holds meaning for them. Do they are using their uniqueness. To help build the world we dream about what fills them to the brim with joy and a sense of fulfillment. Not all of us could or should run nonprofits that serve underprivileged youth in the inner city. Or play the harp for brett patients and hospice care. Or do the science the protect our waterways from invasive species. As the reverend frederick buechner reminds us. The place god calls you to. Is the place where your deep gladness. And the world's deep hunger. Meet. It's raining is by norma cordell. She was a unitarian universalist minister in our district. And she was a first nations scottish person. They are the songs that come from the voices of the earth sometimes they come as murmurs that rise up. Through the ground into our feet and our heart. Come quickly. They whisper. Come quickly you. I am calling you. The time is now not later. You must remember me. Voices that are forever praying old ways new ways and in dreams both night and day. Prayers shuttering up through the trees becoming the breath of the wind. Which circles the earth 4 time round. They are the prayers of the stones and the bone making their way back home. You i have chosen you remember all your relations remember the prairies the canyons the mountains and the rivers. Remember the sweet grass. And the starry nights. Those who swim crawl slither and fly. Listen. To the call to come home. Cross your hearts. And your knowing. Awaken. Let us come home to the beginning and end of time. Plantar infinite kindness create. And restore. This family has ancient voices become our prayerful song and maybe sing it everyday for the rest of our lives listen. They are calling they are calling. You. There was once a time. Early in the creation of the jewish faith. When there was a growing disparity between the very poor and the wealthy. Can you imagine a time like that. The poor work for the rich in exchange for a roof over their heads. The eagles was given to them. They complained bitterly because they had no freedom and we're captives in a foreign land. If you can guess where we're going then you get a good grade you know about the man was central to the story his father-in-law is a priest his role in the family is to take care of a herd of sheep. Can be a businessman in town you can't be a spiritual director. Camping educator. Because you speak slowly. Have you stumbled on the simplest. Of words. It's easier to be away from everyone watching the herd moving them from one area to another on the edges of the wilderness and on this day he moves them near what is known as i guess it could be called spirit mountain or the mountain of god and if you don't know where i'm going with this story now then we will need to talk later because in the distance he sees. A fire. Anna bush. Some say it was a small fire but i imagine it's my imagination makes it as large as a house. The flames burn and the bushes a never-ending source of fuel its magical. And this is a time when magic. It's real. Moses is a curious man. He thinks i've never seen anything like this. Maybe i've been alone far too much and out on this god-forsaken land way too long. He leaves the sheep behind and walks closer to the bush and a voice sounds from the bush itself. And it calls out to him using his name imagine what that might be like. Moses. I got startled or frightened moses says. Here i am. I do know what happens next the voice says take off your shoes because this is holy ground. I am the god of abraham and isaac and jacob. And moses is rightfully afraid. And then god continues i've seen the pain of my people i've heard their grief i've come to free them and you will be my voice. As i've mentioned moses is a man who stumbles over the easiest words. But actually he does quite well with arguing with god for pages and pages in exodus in the bible. He dropped he tried a dozen ways to get out of this assignment. And the power of this story is the moment when moses hears. Moses moses. Come here. No. Closer. So you can feel the heat of my presents. Combat clothes moses. Take off your shoes. Come closer. Moses cannot refuse no matter how hard he tries. Can a bibles books about the hebrew prophets. Each one has a unique experience i i became curious and i leave to through each book and. Thought the voice. Jonah flees god's order to bring a warning to nineveh a faraway city and he ends up in the belly of the whale and i would prefer the burning bush over the belly of the whale any day after his ordeal joan is forced into accepting his call and micah. And hosea. I simply start speaking with another voice. Proclaiming and reviewing and threatening. There is no ignoring the call but but you can refuse it for a time you can put it off. But it will not go away. We have to choose to turn toward it. It is always there. The recognition of it may come like thunder overhead like the storms that came over our area in yesterday. Far is might be a gradual donning but no matter how it emerges for us. It. Is not satisfied. Until we answer. Yes. You heard the quote by frederick buechner. Theologian and writer. It ended our opening words with caitlin. The source of life life god. Calls you to the place where you are deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet this is a quote to that. Especially seminary student love this quote. I love this quote but so do many. So often it's our feeling of being lost when we have no sense of purpose it's that midlife crisis time. It's when we graduated from college and we're wondering. Okay. What's next. We're searching for this coming together. Of this deep sense. A gladness. And i need around us. And we're wondering. Where is the meaning in my life. That's the surge. For the call. And i have heard already this month and month is young and i've already heard i have no call from some people. But philosopher os guinness right that love. Is the fundamental vocation of every human being each of us as we live. I called be. A prophet of love. For me the call comes with a feeling it's as if i'm hooked somewhere behind the breastbone near the hard and i'm drawn. Drawn into relationship with whatever this is. And the draw is so compelling when we feel that that. We answer yes eventually even though there is a risk of failure. There's always a risk of failure. When i'm leading a wedding ceremony and come to the marriage vows. If we have done the wedding conversations well. The two lovers look into each other's eyes. And they're in their expressions i see love. Determination. And recognition of risk. So there's just a touch of fear. And their faces. The love call of choosing to be a parent. Comes with a risk of failure what new parent has it looked into the face of a sleeping child in his trunk a new with a frightening and remarkable responsibilities that they have accepted. Morris dees is the co-founder of the southern poverty law center and organization that runs innovative lawsuits to end hate groups. He tells a story about a people who answered a call. They answered it knowing that failure. Would mean giving up everything. And i'll explain later what everything means. At the end of the vietnam conflict half-a-million vietnamese who fought alongside americans were brought to the united states if they remained in vietnam they would be imprisoned or killed. When the refugees arrived arrived in the united states they took any kind of where possible they became laundry workers they picked fruit for fruit stand that doesn't matter what they did when they were in vietnam by their doctors or lawyer that does not matter they were starting over again. They also enrolled in community colleges. Purchase businesses and eventually bought land and i know this because they were my students. And i watched how they became a part of the fabric of this society. In texas some vietnamese immigrants decide to continue the work. They did and their former country. They buy old boats fix them up and get into the fishing and shrimping industry. Soon they start to out fish the longtime established fishermen along the texas coastline. Some of these fishermen go to the texas legislature and ask for laws to deny the vietnamese the right-to-work in their ocean territory. They say these are american fish for american fisherman to catch. Yes morris dees said he didn't know if the fish knew they were american their request is denied. And when our legal system fails them these fishermen look for different allies. Return to the texas branch of the klu klux klan. And the kkk terrorized the vietnamese flashing their paramilitary arms burning across near the fishing launch. Soon every small boat owned by the vietnamese as a small red and white for sale sign in plainview. They lived with terror before trust me they knew terror. But this was supposed to be the land of promise. They have no strength now. In his new circumstances two-face paramilitary weapons. In the hands of those. Who hate. As a lifestyle. A local attorney recommends that they get in touch with morris dees. Maurice meets with a representative of the vietnamese fishermen when venom. Any ass venom to let him use the laws that are intended to protect the minority when the majority breaks the law. Morris build the case and he knows it is convincing. He really believes he can win. Because ashley because as it turns out some american fishermen have also been threatened and they know about these threats to the vietnamese and they are ready to testify. Then one week just one week before the trial date when the shrimping season is ready to begin he receives a call. The threats have become too frightening and the vietnamese leaders decide to cancel the proceedings. The kkk have the fishing business that will do something else we're resourceful will find something else to do. Well they're two things about a call that kind of call that hooks you and pulled you along. That whether we respond or not. The feeling that we. Intend to do something that doesn't go away. I just stayed with you that's why the bigger than a job. Bigger than a job. It's right there every time you turn around but the second thing is that went to say yes the desire is so strong that even the possibility of failure. Won't stop you. So those two things i think i've been made clear. But one more quality of the call. Is the certainty that there are hardships on the journey end. They'll be challenges to your heart. Message challenges but but i want to really think is that your heart will be broken. I really think that that's a given. The hardships are a part of what makes the calls speak more loudly. So you're given another chance. To recommit yourself. We don't know what those heartaches and challenges will be until we begin the journey moses as you might remember leads cranky people into the wilderness they are just there not easy people and somehow he maintains a relationship with a mysterious force of sheer power that is so amazing. Did you look at it. You would die. The god is so huge. And he companions. With it being. He speaks truth and they're rejected and yet he stands firm. Morris asked to meet with the leaders of the vietnamese community. And so that sunday night in a small catholic church in what i think is interesting is it morris dees was referring to he said a small catholic church like this one was speaking in this immense methodist church in sacramento so i don't know what big looks like to him and he speaks through a translator the power of fear. If they give up their boats he tells them the clan will follow them into every business the kkk doesn't care about the shrimp business it doesn't care about fishing. Their full-time job is hate. The family's talked long into the night about the risks that they phase. If they continue this is the risk. That they may be killed. Not that they give up their business they may be killed. Their families may be hurt. That's big risk. Morrissey's tells the story and it would be easy he's a very high-profile person it would be easy to say that he is the example of the one who hears the call in this story. But mr. dees. And this is the truth will have the opportunity to represent. Another group. Anytime. There are hate groups all around this country. He could walk away from this. And if they sure you're right. Sell your boat it's okay. He could do that. But for me. It's a vietnamese fishermen and their families they are the ones. Car hoods. And responding. And transforming. Their lives. They decide that they will risk it all and i mean it all. They're going to trust a system that could fail them. They don't know. I've never experienced it before. In the morning morris dees receives a phone call from them. And they say proceed. Go ahead. Until we take the unethical fishermen and their clan companions to court and he wins. One morning not long after that very successful trial. A priest stands on a dock in texas. Ready to blast the vietnamese fishing fleet it's 5 a.m.. And the fog blankets the water. About 75 family members stand and the chili dawn first there's nothing and then one small boat sputters into view and the priest sprinkles holy water on its bal. 1 boat calms and then another. 20 in total. A chug up to the dock and then head out to see. Does the fog burns off the families on the dock see what is hidden. Through the thinning veil of the fog. Badges glisten on the shoulders of us marshals. Sent by the federal court to enforce the law. The faces of the families shine with pride. As they discover their place. At the american table. This is the gladness in these few families and the world's deep hunger. Meeting. Where is that place in you. We are deep gladness and the world hunger meet. Where does the love within you intersect with the love needed in this world. What message comes to you. Like thunder. Or in a whisper. Come quickly. You. I am calling you. The time is now not later. You must remember me. And to that i say. Amen. Invite you into a time of pastoral prayer. Leaving behind any struggles you may have had this weekend. Bringing a sense of peace to your life at this time. On this sunday of the. Autumn equinox we are aware of the circle of life. Even this morning can you smell the fresh scent. I've washed earth. Feel the turn of the season in the cool of the morning and the chill of night. The autumn equinox in this place. Is the return of life. And not the signal of its ending. Flowers may lose their brightness but. The castles on grasses turn. Beautiful. And the trees begin to turn to the colors of fire. Put the soft grass under our feet will quickly begin to green. The life of nature has purpose and direction that it cannot help but follow in this time of turning we pause in this moment to hear that voice within. Each of us is a part of an intricate web of relationships. This church this place is unusual and amazing i say that because i want you to know that when i tell you i am excited and honored to be here i'm not just being polite encountered such a spiritual. You are doing phenomenal things and i know that my time here will shape the course of my life will give new meaning to my sense of vocation. Each week we as a gathered body i have the chance to support this religious community and definite and tangible ways to contribute to the ongoing growth and development of this church and its programs and its committees and all that happens here when we put our money in the basket we are contributing to the religious education program enlivening the lives of so many. To the buick maintenance of these gorgeous grounds to the ministry the sustains and a bliss and challenges us every week. Whether you have loved this community for a long time or just came through our doors. I invite you to give generously to the work of this church to the cause of progressive religion in davis california. May we find cause for celebration and causes worth the challenged. Maybe you dive wholeheartedly into what calls us may we let our light shine and use our gifts of courage of compassion of jell-o salad to transform the world and together we say amen.

uudavispodcast_org

2012-11-25-Worship-09_15-ED.mp3?_=1

Welcome to sunday sermons another recording from unitarian universalist church of davis california www.dav.org for further information. Welcome we come to this sanctuary to celebrate the beauty of the earth. And to be in community with congregation comforts us when we know loss. And celebrates our best dreams. We bring our differences. Together we offer a fuller truth. An anyone point of view. This is a place of challenge and compassion. The holy is experienced here in many ways. And is giving many names. People of all sexual orientations gender identities are celebrated. We welcome all races all classes and physical abilities. We have much to learn from one another. This is a place of learning and of hope. Together we can accomplish more. Then we can alone. Weather because of the touch of a friend. The words or the music. Or moment of silence. Man this morning make you feel more alive. The flaming chalice. Is a symbol of unitarian universalism. Like i face. Can be interpreted in many different ways. Some see the flames represent strength and wisdom. Happy thanks love. These are attributes that we treasure. No relations with others. Particularly with our friends and families. Baby games sometime with the season. My family's share implicit confidence. Or unwritten agreement. I feel. Debbie's coming conserve to bond families together. What's an sob difficult to address when it hurtful. My sister has special needs. Whatever she wants something. She gets it. I used to be really hurt because. I felt ignored. Atropine bad for a long time. Ambulance station to my dad about how my sister's needs. Always come before mine. He's very nice. Help me understand where he was coming from. Even though her needs come first. I feel a lot better about it after having had the courage to broach the topic. A lot of my family's implicit covenants a great. Mike. How it's perfectly normal to find chocolate chip cookies by the laundry bin. Remind mom is hiding about herself but she won't gain weight. Oh no i forgot. I called the women end up doing dishes or men watch football. And soda really complicated like how my sister gets more family attention. But now. I realized i have a power to discuss the covenant. And change how i feel about them. Sometimes church before but like a family. A really big constantly-changing family. I thought you to join and see me about a house with community and its covenant. So i'd like to know invite liz leahy to share a life journey with us this morning. And share a piece of her religious journey. I grew up in a military family living all over the world. Glue that held our tightly-knit family together. Was the fundamentalist religion of my parents. Danielle dust it was understood that i was to be the role model and mentor for my four younger brothers. This imply that i was expected to adhere to our southern baptist ideals. I being the peacemaker in the family complied with many unspoken agreements of our faith to please my otherwise loving and well-meaning parents. Later my teen years however john f kennedy became my hero. Animals of the early sixties enticed me away from my fundamentalist upbringing. Sitting at home and commuting to the university of maryland during this period of upheaval. Stream my relationship with my parents. After graduating and moving to california i began my first year of teaching middle school in monterey county. Where i immediately met and fell in love with my husband and ex roman catholic jesuits. Remarried two months later in the episcopalian church raising our two children in this church did not fit my parents ideals and hopes for me they were disappointed that my husband was not a baptist. And i have left my church of his childhood. What are daughter and son left for college my husband and i made a lifelong dream come true and move to the sierra nevada. There i left organized religion and began studying other spiritual path. The buddhist philosophy and way of life especially resonated with me. As my parents aged and needed my assistance in companionship. I strictly adhered to an implicit covenant of silence on certain topics the touchy subject of religion was avoided at all cost i hated the confrontation that any discussion always brought the death of my father my mother and a year later my husband of over 40 years. Looking for the first time in my life at age 65 alone and accountable to no one. The implicit covenants with my parents had come to an end. I realized an incredible freedom along with a painful loneliness. My son and daughter and davis encouraged me to retire from my 40-year teaching career. Route to davis and enjoy my role of grandmother elder to my two young grandchildren. 3 months after my husband's death i visited uu church early one sunday morning with my daughter. Because after a winter storm with no power or heat a small group of us huddled together in the sanctuary. I thought the great peace and love that first morning. I had a feeling that this church one day maybe my new spiritual home. A year later i joined the church. My hope was that this would be a place where i could explore my own truce at last. And openness and honesty a place where i can begin making explicit covenants of service with community and grill on my spiritual journey. Are reading this morning is from a book for young adults and teens. But an interesting book for all ages. That was a uua common read last year so some of you may be familiar with it from that. It's the absolutely true diary of a part-time indian. And erica and i will be. Doing a scene from that book for you. I thought you were on suspension jerkface. He said. Which was rowdy's way of saying. I'm happy you're here. Kiss my butt. I said. I want to i want to tell him but he was my best friend. And i left him my crazy. I didn't say such things. otherwise. And nobody said such things to rowdy. Can i tell you a secret. I asked. It better not be girly he said. If not. Okay then. Tell me. I'm transferring to riordan. Rowdies eyes narrowed. His eyes always narrowed right before he beat the crap out of somebody. I started shaking. That's not funny he said. It's not supposed to be funny i said. I'm transferring to riordan. I want you to come with me. And when are you going on this imaginary journey. It's not imaginary. It's real. I'm transferring now. I start school tomorrow at wheaton. You better quit saying that he said you're getting me mad. I didn't want to get him mad. When daddy got mad it took him days to get on mad. Who's my best friend. And i wanted him to know the truth. I'm not trying to get you mad i said. Telling the truth. I'm leaving the baddest man. I want you to come with me. Come on. It would be the temperature. I don't even drive through that town he said what makes you think i want to go to school there. He got up. Academy hard in the eyes. And then spit on the floor. Arnold. The narrator in our story. Even a bad situation. He has violated a sacred agreement. And his best friend is furious. Nothing is. Arnold wasn't entirely aware that he had broken a promise. Disagreement. Was not written down anywhere. Nobody made him swear an oath. It was just understood. Indian. Don't leave the reservation. Go be with white people. But smart. Kid tired of going to a school where he has to use his mother's old textbooks. So. He decides to transfer to a school where they have shiny new textbooks. And lots of hope. And brody brody just like family to him. Cute around arnold's house so much he's just like an extra son to arnold's parents. He's just like a brother. So honored lunch ready to go with him. He wants him to understand. Rowdy on the other hand can't believe that someone just like a brother to him could do something so strange and traitorous. So clearly in violation of the unspoken agreement on the rez. It is precisely because they are so close. That they thought they could make certain assumptions about the relationship. And it is precisely because they are so close. But it hurts so much when those assumptions are wrong. That's often how it is with unspoken agreements. With implicit covenants. Now there are lots of groups when we have explicit covenant. When we go to work or school we sign on to documents with guidelines and regulations. We promise not to harass people. We promise to respect confidentiality. We make many explicit promises. But when we are in intimate group. When we are with our families. It's different. Families as we know. Are incredibly complicated. And this is true all the time. But. It's especially something we noticed that this time of year. With thanksgiving just behind us. Andy legitimate christmas season upon us. It is the season of tradition and family gathering. It is a time when we gather and all sorts of configurations around all kinds of tables with all manner of people. And it can be a lovely in joyous time. A time that reminds us of the intimate relationships that sustain us. When denise relationships are with friends. House-made relatives. Parents children or partners. But it can also be a painful and difficult time. It's a time when we noticed who's not at the table. Whether it's because they have died or because they are too far away to come. Because we have a conflict with that person. And also sometimes it's that time when we kind of wish we weren't going to that family gathering. Because we know it's going to be tense or awkward. Are downright uncomfortable. There are many reasons that family gatherings can be uncomfortable. That cousin who always makes an offensive joke. That aunt who always has too much to drink. Throbbing. Nobody says anything. It's the implied covenant. The implicit agreement that we avoid the conflict and the unpleasant topics of conversation. An implied agreement that we go along with things. For the sake of the peace. So maybe get the agreement not to talk about religion like liz shared with us this morning. Or maybe it's an agreement but one family members needs going to get priority. As erica shared. We know how complicated it can be to break these implied covenant. Because we're talking about our own parents and we know about their baptist upbringing and why they want us to be a part of that religion. Or because it's our own sister and we have empathy for her struggles. And want to respect her need. Even as we want our own needs to be respected. It's really complicated. And this sense of the complicated nessa families. Is one of the reasons that i found sarah schulman. To be a fascinating and frustrating author. I meant sarah showman. When she came to visit my lgbtq ethics class at union. And if you aren't up on your alphabet soup that's lesbian gay bisexual transgender queer epic. I had just read her book. Hybrid 9. Familial homophobia and its consequences. It's a harsh book. It's powerful. It was one of those books where i had a conversation with the author all over the margin. Sometimes agreeing emphatically. And sometimes getting angry. As a queer person and as an allied to gays and lesbians. I was thrilled that sherman had written so clearly and passionately. About the detrimental effects of familial homophobia. Including more subtle forms of homophobia. But can sometimes be hard to name. But i also found some parts frustrating. As a bisexual woman i was frustrated that she only wrote about gays and lesbians. And didn't acknowledge that other queer identified people might face similar issues. And as a religious person going into professional ministry. I resented her jobs that organized religion. Her flippant dismissal of theism. As if there were no churches no religious groups but stand on the side of love. Like we do. Yet when shaman came to our class. Those were not the issues are brought up. I didn't raise my hand. To question her gay-straight dichotomy. I didn't come to the defense of progressive religion. No. Instead i found myself. Pleading for compassion. For the homophobic family members she lambaste. In her book. Showman rightly calls out families on homophobic behavior. Even the more subtle things like. Calling the same gender romantic partner a friend. Or. Giving the wedding of a straight couple more attention and more resources than the wedding of a same-gender couple. She rightly called the families out on this behavior. And she is relentless and her critique. Going so far as to call homophobic family members evil. So i was sitting there in class thinking. Families are so complicated. And she paints it so black-and-white. I was thinking about my friend's dad. Who's from iran. And was so shocked and upset. When he found out that his only child was gay. But he didn't even speak to him for a few days. And i knew that was wrong. And i felt really bad for my friend. But. I also felt compassion for his dad. I mean he tried. He didn't kick his son out of the house. He didn't tell him he was going to hell. He just. Didn't know what to do. Then we have to help them know what to do. That was what shulman's response boil down to. Oh. I have to help them know what to do. Right. That's a tall order. It's hard. I don't want to do it. But she's absolutely right. Well i think some of my complaints about showman's book we're warranted. Part of my personal resistance was knowing that this book was asking me to be uncomfortable. Although her focus was on familial homophobia. I could see the implications went beyond that issue. Showman demands that family members break the implied covenant of silence. Because those covenant can cover up harmful behavior. So that demand includes me. Includes that time a relative made horribly racist comment at a family picnic. And i stood there frozen like a deer in the headlights. Caught between my values. And that implied covenant don't argue with your family members on holidays. And it includes that time on christmas eve when. There was a conflict and half the family was whispering in the kitchen and some people were crying in the bathroom and the rest of us just sat there eating our festive cookies. Pretending nothing is going on because of that implied covenant. Ignoring conflict will make it go away. It includes me. And it includes you. I don't know what the specific issues are for your families. But i know you have them. Because we all have them. So. What do we do. Well first of all. We break the implied covenant when they protect harmful behavior. We won't always succeed at this. Sometimes we will stand frozen like a deer in the headlights. And when that happens we can notice it. Amazon cd better next time. But the second thing. The even better thing is to replace the harmful implicit covenants. With explicit coming in spaced on our values. This can happen almost by accident. When we're doing step 1. Like the time one aunt who had married into the family. Using offense offensive racial slur. And another aunt simply stated. We don't use that word in this family. She simultaneously broke the implied covenant of silence. And faded a new covenant. We don't use that word in this family. It goes against our values. So. Sometimes it's simple like that. But sometimes it's not. When i was in seminary. I live in the same dorm room for 3 years. I live in a building called mcgiffert on the first floor. Biggest one i affectionately called it. The other people i lived with their we're like a family to me. We even had thanksgiving and christmas celebrations together. We shared a lot of space on that floor. The bathroom the common room the kitchen. And there were twenty of us living on that floor. And things could get messy. Things could get downright disgusting. You couldn't even use the things they were so full of dishes making a simple cup of tea became an exercise in extreme frustration. There's a lady that community meeting. All of us crammed in the common room. The student life assistant order pizza. And we go around the room venting and saying things like seriously people just clean up after yourself. Everyone hated those meetings. You know what they're like the blame in the self-righteousness. People remain on the immature spoiler poorly parented it was a terrible experience. We had an implied covenant alright the covenant was. Clean as much as i think is right and then i'll blame everybody else when the kitchen is dirty. I started thinking to myself. We should have a covenant. Like we do in the youth group i lead at the uu church up in white plains. So i can some other people about this idea. And the student life assistant liked it. So the summer before my final year of seminary. Let me guess one family medical unit. We wrote it down. It began. Members of this community. Covenant to provide hospitality. To each other. And to visitors in our communal spaces. We graciously host each other. Meaning we do not treat the space merely as our own. But recognize that it is shared collectively. We made explicit agreements like. We will not leave our dishes in the sink ever. We will wipe off the counters every single time we use them. And you know what. Mcgift one had never been so clean. It wasn't perfect. But it was significantly better. The mountains of dirty dishes piled in the murky water until they hit the faucet. That was a thing of the past. We treated our space. And one another differently. Because we were explicit. Because we promised. Within a few months we had convinced the people living on a second-floor mcgiffert to make down covenant for their community. The covenant and become contagious. We can do it. We can make new agreements. Sometimes it happens when you sit down with 20 people and you write it out. But. Sometimes it happens less formally. With just two people. Like it did. For arnold and rowdy. Their relationship changed drastically. Once arnold started going to school off the reservation. Their interactions were marked by competition insults. And physical violence. Until one day during the summer. Daddy shows up in arnold store. Claiming he was bored. They shoot some hoops. And then rowdy initiate the conversation. Arnold mary. So anyway. I was reading this book. About old-time indians. And it said we used to be nomadic. Yeah. I said. So i looked up nomadic in the dictionary. And it means people who move around. Who keep moving in search of food and water and grazing land. That sounds about right. Well the thing is. I don't think indians are nomadic anymore. Most indians anyway. Hardly anybody on this reza's nomatic. Except for you. You're the nomadic one. You're an all-time nomad rowdy fed. You're going to keep on going and moving all over the world in search of food and water and grazing land. That's pretty cool. I could barely talk. Thank you. I said. Yeah rowdy said. Just make sure you send me some postcards you jerk. From everywhere i said. They reached a new agreement. And they spoken it aloud. Arnold can still be an indian. And go to school off of the reservation. And they can still be friends as long as they stay in touch. This new agreement this new understanding. Does not fix everything. It does not heal all the hertz. They have both endured. But it allows them to come back into relationship with one another. This is the power. Ab explicit covenant. So as we move through this holiday season and beyond it. Let's remember the power of covenants. In our intimate group. In our families of all shapes and sizes and makeup. Weather unspoken coming in. That hurt ourselves or others. Let's do our best to replace them. With explicit covenant space in our unitarian universalist values. They will not fix everything. But promises based in our most deeply-held values. I one of the very best tools. For living life well. Message covenants be a force. For healing and wholeness. In your own lives and in your own family groups. Please join me in a spirit of quiet prayer and meditation. Source of all life. We pause ingratitude. We remember that everyday is a day to give thanks. We are grateful. For our connections to others. When the relationships that have sustained us. For laughter. And traditions and stories repeated a million times over. For all those people we have never met. Who have helps to grow our food who have helped to make the clothes we wear. Whose lives are bound to ours. We are grateful. What are connections to the earth. When the leaves that turn brilliant colors and fall to the ground. And for the leaves that grow greener with rain. When do plants and animals have become our food. And the resources that are made into all of our belongings. In this moment we are grateful. We also pause and longing. Remember that there are hertz and injustice has in our own lives and in our world we long for those we cannot be within this season. We long for more kindness and fairness. In our own minds and throughout the world. We long for an end to violent struggle that continue to claim so many lives. We long for wholeness and healing in our world for healthy bodies healthy relationship and a healthy planet. In this moment. We dare to hope. But some of these longings may become realities. Each of us is part of an intricate web of relationship when one of us celebrate the joy or grieve the loss.. The web of life moves to a new shape. We are part of the turn of the earth the shift of the stars. Apple embassy. And all change. Blessed be. Families. Families. Whether they related to us or not. An important part of our life. At this time of year. We have opportunities to reflect upon our families. How big can have an influence on us. Memphis and covenants who share their families. Can help us. Or heard us. One family that's important to many of us. Is the friends and connections we make at this church. History of the covenants as well. We try our best to make newcomers feel welcome. Workout for one another. Make sure the coffee pot is always filled. He's insisted cabins how to strengthen our community. And help us grow. This huge church family. Would not be around. Without the support. Evolve you. Ask now. You're able. Support the church. And now if you'll join hands for a closing words. May we go out into this day. Into this season. And into everyday. Having the capacity to love and serve and honor one another in waze. That help us to understand. May it be so.

uudavispodcast_org

2016-05-08-Honoring-Mothers-Day_The-Blue-Bowl_09_15.mp3?_=4

Welcome to sunday sermons and other recordings from the unitarian universalist church of davis california website at w.w. org for further information. So welcome and we come to the sanctuary to celebrate the beauty of the earth and to be and community together which is why you have the prime seats today this congregation names. People of all sexual orientations and gender identities are celebrated. We welcome all political parties races classes and physical abilities we have much to learn from each other. This is a place of speaking the truth as we understand it and listening. Weather because of the touch of a friend the words and music or moment of silence may you feel more alive. Ladenburg chalice this morning is louise buettner who is graciously filling in for us this morning in nancy's absence. We light our chalice this mother's day. With deep gratitude for everyone who has given us life. Who is nurtured and nourished us who has cared for us and loved us. Who is passed on their lights to us. There's a kind of love we cannot live without. It is never too late no matter our age or situation. We sing a song of gratitude for all the moments of being known being cherished being found. To those who have held us in that love we give thanks. So if you're on facebook you saw my posting. You would know that i said that this was a. Byoh bring your own hanky service because i asked to made it could be a for hanky service. We'll see. So this reading is by alice walker and it's an excerpt from blue bowl. Visitors to my house are often serve food soup potatoes rice. In a large blue stoneware bowl noticeably chipped at the rim. It is perhaps the most precious thing i own. It was given to me by my mother in her last healthy days. Sion little. Each time i visited her i marveled at the modesty of her desires. She appeared to have hardly any beyond authors for pepsi-cola or hunger for a piece of fried chicken or fish. On every visit i noticed that more and more of what i remembered of her possessions seem to be missing. One day i commented on this. Taking a deep breath. And following both with a big smile with lit up her face the room and my heart to said it's all going. I don't need it anymore. If there's anything you want. Take it when you leave. It might not be here when you come back. There was nothing there for me to want. One day however looking for a jar into which two for leftover iced tea. I found myself probing into the wilderness of the overstuffed airless pantry. Into the land of the old-fashioned the outmoded the outdated. Humble. And the obsolete. There was a smoothing iron. Adjourn. A buttercrest and two large bowl. One was cream and rose with blue stripes. And the other was a deep and vivid blue. May i have this bowl mama i asked. Looking at her and the blue bowl with delight. You can have both of them she said barely acknowledging them and continuing to put leftover food away. In giving me these gifts my mother had done a number of things in her typically offhand way she had taught me a lesson about letting go of possessions easily without emphasis or regret. And she had given me a symbol of what she represented in my life. For the blue bowl especially with a cauldron of memories. Walking through sleet and wind after school as a child. Thankful that our house was too far from the road to be seen clearly from the bus. I always felt a wave of embarrassment misery. But then i would open the door. And they're inside would be my mother's winter flowers. A glowing fire in the fireplace colorful handmade quilts on all our beds. Paintings and drawings of flowers and fruits and yes. Of jesus given to her by who knows home. And most of all. There in the center of the rough-hewn table. Started the big blue bowl. Full of whatever was the most tasty thing on earth. There was my mother herself. Glowing. Petite sparkling. Her eyes twinkling. As if she lived in a castle and her favorite princes and princesses had just drop by to visit. The blue bolster their seemingly full for ever no matter how deeply we dip as if it had no bottom. And she didn't have soup. Dipped up lima beans. Hip dips to. Forked out potatoes. Food out rice and peas and corn. I didn't the light and warmth that was her. We dying. I didn't know it at the time. Play started a new family tradition about four-and-a-half years ago. My oldest son jonathan was over 6 months old and not sleeping well. My wife and i were both tired. Stressed. And i began to feel that being a good or even adequate parent buzz in a possible jump. How can i give him the attention he needed. We're going to work and going to school. My stylist chair. Holding jonathan and feeling sorry for myself. When i thought of my mother. Now she raised my sister and me. My father left my mom. I'm just crying child i held in my arms. She became a single parent. Raising two children employed in the oil industry in 1980s houston not an ideal situation. On top of this. My sister was diagnosed with childhood leukemia. later. Despite what i tell my wife and my children i was not always a perfect there were the usual arguments over school. Over france and. Occasionally whether i had to go to church. I did. These disagreements sometimes included pointed comments. About how i had to buy one school and just because my mother didn't pack one for me. I had to take the bus home and. Sometimes cook tv dinners. Selling my friends who have a big fancy family dinners. As i wanted her to be. Or of course i realize now as much as she wanted to be. And i didn't always realize the steps that she took to ensure that we were cared for in love. It wasn't until i grew older. Give up to ensure that we had bountiful birthdays. Are also courses treasured memories of my childhood. Seeing her shimmering face in the hazy air over and grill around at a school picnic. Or making ham and scalloped potatoes on a chilly winter evening. These memories. This gift of love the realization of this love struck me that evening. Child. Her parenthood is not easy. Simply because she had to. She raised two relatively well-adjusted adult. Without asking for things to recognition. At that moment i knew the beautiful blond / 2. Through the fog and my fatigue and called her and said simply. Thank you i'm sorry. The tradition. Physicans for multiple phone calls. First trimester dropped off of our bed. Thank you and i'm sorry. Thank you and i'm sorry first time he broke one of our fancy dishes a call. I foresee will not end anytime soon and each time. I will recollect on the sacrifices she made. And the love that she gave. Thank you and i'm sorry. I could tell you some pretty awful stories about my mom i could recount the things that she said to me as a young child a team and even a couple of months ago while i tried on clothes or when she's trying to convince me how badly i'm screwing up my life. By the time i was recovering from a surgery gone horribly wrong and almost killed me. 2 weeks later. She said she was tired and she went back home leaving me with a seven-month-old that two-and-a-half-year-old while i was still unable to go to the bathroom unassisted. Why was the teenager my mom would say she knew she wasn't perfect but her goal was to do better than her own mother have been able to. It seemed like a load of old my wise mature team self i recently ran across a letter she sent me 6 years ago. But she stumbled upon. After she stumbled on some a letter that i've written her as a team. She apologized for not hearing me then for not listening and for her failures as a parent. Now i think about my own kids in the mistakes i've made. I wish i could do different and then i realized my goal is the same. Mistakes in my own mother and improve upon the job that she did. My mother is an amazing filter she brings my kids quotes every time she visits and i have an entire closet of quilts she's made for me i have bags and boxes of fabric she bought me. I worked in a bookshop in woodland for a while. One day she came in and asked for some help choosing some fabric for a quilt pattern of her own design. The coordinating some fabric she already had. Her fabrics were my thing but i helped her and we found things that worked. My birthday that year yeah you guessed it for 11 months who came with stories that could and did make seasoned professionals cry. I would get angry at her biological mother who could treat my niece that way who would put her in an environment of drug abuse some criminal neglect. I later learned unsurprisingly that her mother also had a terrific corporate a horrific not terrific childhood. Maybe she had in her own incremental ways improved on a childhood that she had had. My father needs the story taught me a lot about capacity and acceptance. My mom doesn't know me for me she loves me truly as her daughter. But isn't able to see who i am and what i need in a relationship. For longtime i resented that she kept making me quotes that are so unlike me so unfitting. About a year ago a good friend pointed out all the time and love. That goes into the quilts and each stitch is filled with good thoughts and wishes and prayers for me. Birthday quote is now one of my favorites my mom has worked tirelessly to be a good mother to improve on what she grew up knowing. I know for a fact that my childhood was happier and safer than her own. I know that she does her best and even if it doesn't match my ideal. I have come to appreciate the effort she makes. It's easy to look at ourselves and think we're permanently damaging our kids behind every great kid is a mother who's convinced she's screwing it all out a facebook me and tells me it's easy to look at other peoples pictures of the happy moments and perfectly stage things and think we should be doing better. It's easy to judge others behaviors and think they should be doing better. Teddy roosevelt do what you can with what you have where you are. I do the best i can with what i have. Everyday. And i hope i do a little better than those who went before me. I strive to learn from those mistakes and take those lessons to make the lives of those around me a little better. I'll make my own mistakes and my kids will talk about how horribly i screwed them up but i'm sure but through it all they know they were loved. And i hope one day after they're done being mature wise teams they realized i did the best i could and worked every day to make their childhood better than my own. My mother passed away. A little over eight years ago. And earlier this year she would have been 100 years old. Born in january 1916 in santa rosa california. My mother's house with challenging her entire life. She became gravely ill while a teenager. Enter parents being christian scientists thought prayer alone would heal her. They finally relented and took her to a doctor. She was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Children's surgery and had a half of one lung removed. She was also a breast cancer survivor. And during mastectomy in the 60s other injuries and maladies throughout her life affected her greatly yet she displayed an inner strength and swept them aside to offer care and love for her three sons. Traveling is a civil servant. My father was away for as long as three months at a time. Has a used you don't realize the stress that can place on the parent left behind to care for the children. Yes she still providing for us the best she could. I remember. The little league games. My mom sitting in the stands rooting for me. Or helping in the snapshot. She would soothe my dismay at the losses. And celebrate the victories. There was a time while visiting cousins in a remote section of northern california that we all took a day trip. My mom. Five little kids and a lunch. We drove narrow winding roads through thick forests in over shallow streams. Searching in the area. What we would have done. Crossword puzzles. And she would tease me incessantly when i work them in ink. Have my father used to do. She was addicted to soap operas and of course got me hooked on them if i missed a few episodes. She would always catch me up on who was doing what to whom. After 46 years of marriage first kissing. Drop my life she instilled in me a profound wonderful nature. I respect for all people. Essential responsibilities and an eagerness to lend a helping hand. I believe she would have found herself right at home. Here at the uu. After 46 years of marriage. My father's passing in 1988 hurt or extremely hard. His last words to me were robert allen. Make sure you take good care of your mother. As many of you probably know becoming a primary caregiver for parents can be a very challenging experience. For last year's worth struggle. As her health issues robbed her of any semblance of a normal life. I suffered as well as she slipped away mentally as well as physically. I recalled visiting her on the day before she passed away. After months of anger and hostility hostility directed towards me. She seemed to experience an epiphany and expressed her love and appreciation for my efforts and support. All in all we had a wonderful relationship. Not only mother to son but also his friends. She had a great sense of humor. And laugh and tease each other without offence. I miss your warm embrace. The sparkle in her eyes and the warmth of her smile. Her encouragement. And her love. Happy mother's day. And i'd you too. Send with your ungratefulness for the stories that have been shared. To join with me in the spirit of prayer. And meditation. When we listen to the voice that is so far within ourselves that it reaches out. We celebrate new mothers. Who called babies in the crook of an arm. And nurse them under soft. Cotton flannel thrown over a tiny head. And for the mothers who watch their children grow as if by magic. To use. The young adults. Do adults. Who still need the encouragement. I'm a mother. We celebrate those who adopt a child create a family and bring that child into their lives forever. We honor women who offered their child for adoption. For whatever reason. Answering the hope of another we celebrate the women who foster children out of the desire to give that child a new beginning and we gently celebrate the love of mothers who have lost their children to death to hunger to abortion miscarriage to the waste of war and to disease of mind and body and spirit. For them mother's day hold memories tied in grief. We offer support to mothers who love a child with special needs needs of mind and body they shift their dreams and hold a future lightly and they know the power of love for shannon snow and lori warren who are in the hospital with tanner today for the loss of peggy north of dawson. Matt's mother in pago. And this afternoon later this morning for a new mother who will bring her child here to be dedicated. We celebrate mother's because loving. Takes courage. Loving. Discourage each of us is a part of an intricate web of relationships. When one celebrates all have reason for joy when one of us grieves the loss the web of life moves to a new shape we are apart of the turn of the earth the shift of the stars the pool of the sea and all change amen. Making sure everyone is included. I feel encircled here in that lights we dined. Never wavering love and a shimmering face over the grill thank you i'm sorry. It's a never-ending thank you forever it seems. Screwing up my life and abandoning me. Do we learn from mistakes. Quilt piecing it together. Stitched with love and her best. Very best. An echo of the thank you for the stitching. The 100-year old survivor would be. Little league rooter-man nudist camp what to do if it was found. Puzzles of the soap operas. Taking care of her and missing missing that embraced and that love. The never. Neverending thank you. At this gathering say amen.

uudavispodcast_org

2017-01-22-Looking-for-Our-Prophet.mp3?_=2

Welcome to sunday sermons and other recordings from the unitarian universalist church of davis california please visit our website at w.w. org for further information. So this morning i just places yesterday. Community. And if i have a face that can move mountains. I am nothing we do in this life first we have to understand that many of you yesterday. She was one of those individuals. Anticipated yesterday in tomorrow. Nar opening words today come from quaker parker palmer who is considered by many you use the profits of your choice for your way of thinking and outrageous photos. Maybe a little different because you are going to be. The reading today is a poem called maybe by mary oliver sweet jesus talking in his melancholy. Embassy laying down silky and sorry so everybody was saved at night but you know how it is when something different. Jesus for a long time. Sorry. Relationship wisdom. Explain easy. Different force. Existence. Person who created. The prophetic imagination prophets lives primarily in the future. Display great danger. And organizing the demonstration with martin luther king. Would make of our society. Invited sanctuary of involvement. Fundraising 5k with muslim students. And the woman's march in sacramento and beyond and our services.

uudavispodcast_org

2017-10-01-The-Courage-to-be-Together.mp3?_=5

Welcome to sunday sermons and other recordings from unitarian universalist church of davis california please visit our website at w.w. do you david. org for further information. Our church community. The first to represent to represent our lives. I would like to invite leanne friedman who is currently the racial justice and she's a member of the phoenix. To light the chalice this morning for her commitment to social justice. I wanted to learn more about the internationally. I learned that the international uua post a monthly global. Including italian. A language that i am studying. I am feeling courageous this morning translation. The english translation will be on the monitor. Noisy. Cuesta college. Quest. Fricano's chendo in mysterio. Medina. Questa fiamma. S-209. Procedural ark. Sia. My name is danny lindstrom and i am the campus and intern minister here. Message this morning. I want to share with you a little bit about my favorite animal. Did you know different species of sharks. Some are with some like the whale shark next to him. Is the size of a whale and only eats plankton little tiny organisms in the water. One of my favorite ways to learn about nature shows. Lemon sharks can be as big as they live along the atlantic and pacific. During the show much like the one pictured. Away from the shark will eat you. And they kept swimming around discharge. Explained. But this particular shark have a special relationship. It's called a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship. How to clean the shark. Takes care of it gets off any parasites. The fish from other predators predators that might the fish. Relationship is for the other. People can have positive symbiotic relationships. Example when we are hurt and a friend listens to us or has something to celebrate. And we celebrate with them. It's a type of friendship for you trust each other. You always have each other's back. Each of you is a little better. Because you have each other. Relationships like the remora fish and the lemon shark. Our reading this morning. I am afraid and yet i am fearless. I am tired. I am lost jedi am here and present. I have breath. Even though i am breathless. I have spirit. Vandalize. Couple months ago i was having a dream in which i was trying to write a poem. As i slipped into wakefulness. So later that day i was eating my brain as to what the dream was about. The search for who i am. At this point in my life. As a member of the year. I feel that i can better reflect on who i am. Part of this congregation i have found new courage to examine where i am headed in the last third of my life. I am recently retired from a high-profile high-pressure professional position i have been married for almost 35 years. I have two grown children two grandsons two sisters. Mini cats. Answer the question. My question is deeper and cannot be explained. In august i spoke about what will be my legacy given significant impact on me. I am sure that i am not alone in this quest. Matters. I believe it is who we are based on how we are toward others. It is what we do for others. That makes us who we are. A child we raise the partners we love the student. Every single hat we wear and person. Makes us who we are. When i was small i was taught do unto others as you would have them do unto. And to this day i believe this timeless principal has influenced who i am. As a wife and mother sister manager friend and a member of the church. You may recall stephen covey's emotional bank account concept in his book 7 habits of highly effective leaders. Can essence make deposits. The goal is to keep a balance across all aspects of your life. Insure one. Another image that you may be familiar with is that a joke. 14 family 14 love 14 hell and so on. You don't want to drop any of them. That's life is complex. Sometimes get out of balance. What i believe in my heart is that it isn't this moment. This graph. Let it go. We can make changes in our lives. So that we feel a greater balance. As we juggle all of our relationships and responsibilities. Some changes take courage. Like walking away from a relationship. While others just take initiative like studying italian everyday. Easier with the support of others. And that is why i am a union today. Because you all help me be a better juggler. A better person. I know that you will be here to help me pick up the pieces. Fearless. Because i am not alone. I am tired but i feel. I am lost i am here and present because you are here for me. I have breath even though i am breathless. I have spirit here i am and alive. Because we are together i am who i am. It's the evening. You turn on the tv. Familiar. It says. There is a sixth dimension which is known to man. It is a dimension as well as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow lies between a pit of man's fears and the sunlight of his knowledge. This is the dimension of the imagination. It is an area that might be called. The twilight zone. 58 years ago tomorrow the first episode of the twilight zone aired on television. The creator of the show wasn't unitarian. This morning. The episode is entitled where is everybody. And it opens with a man in his 30s walking into a small diner. There's music playing there is. Food waiting in the window waiting to be taken to a table. But didn't see anyone. Customer. He gets frustrated. Why is no one answering. Where is everybody. Frustrated he leaves the diner and heads into town. He finds the town equally deserted. He doesn't know who he is. Where he is. He goes to the bank no one goes to the movie theater something is wrong he feels like he is being watched. He starts getting a crosswalk buttons over and over again repeating where is everybody. Someone please help me someone anyone help me. And the feeling of isolation can be just as real. There is much heartache stairs much concerned there is much fear and it can become isolating. The hurricanes that are devastating communities professional athletes in high school sports teams to bring attention to systemic racism only to be met with hatred and misunderstanding the uncertainty of the status of daca students and the spear around their future the list continues to grow moment-by-moment. Where is everybody. If we step back 58 years back into the twilight zone. We left him standing in the street begging for help. Immediately after the show goes dark for a moment and then opens on a general and several other. People in the room watching television screen. The audience finds out military had been testing whether or not. Survive alone on a trip. The medical team that text came out explains that. They can provide nutrients to support the body and exercise to keep the bodies. The medical examiner explains. We can't simulate. That's a pretty basic need man's hunger for companionship. The barrier of loneliness. Prelude this morning. Wheezing a list of actions resist we refuse. Till the end. The activists said me when i first heard this was a list of things we can do a list of things. We must resist we must refuse i fell for the power of the word commitment action. Doing these actions following the chant like a guide. I listened a few more times. We. Resist we rise up. Inspiring actions as a reminder. Then we can do this. The song we resist was written by mac miller. And was written to be sung at march's simple and words and strong in spirit. Repeated heat and dedicated to the activists malcolm x. There is a power when we are together. We can move from isolation into action. We cannot replicate the need for human companionship. Being together is hard. Being in relationships is hard people are complex and complicated. We might be too loud or too messy or too confrontational or to conflict avoidance. Stuck in binaries. The list continues on. I was reading this list i immediately when my icefall. Messi. I started to compare myself. List of potentially problematic. Attributes person. Comparing myself to. It reminded me of a story shared by reverend elizabeth macrae. One day some jewish scholars and rabbis were debating what happens after we die. About how we should live and what model to emulate. Who is elderly. Nearing the end of his life said. In the coming world. They will not ask me. Why were you not moses. They will ask me. Why were you. The story encourages. Encourages us to remember. Is that we are not perfect. Nor are we expected to be perfect. The story asks that we be true to who we are. Person. That person is. We cannot replicate the need for human companionship. And we are not perfect. In the message this morning i talked about the symbiotic relationship between sharks and remora fish. I use them as an example of a great relationship. They support one another help each other out. It's an example of a well-functioning relationship. And we all know. Human relationships. Are more complex. Is it mutually-beneficial always supportive. Sometimes being courageous in a relationship is. However if we have courage to be in this community. What does the ask about if our relationship becomes strained. To answer this question we pull from one of our sources the jewish tradition. We cannot replicate the need for human companionship. And sometimes we need to ask for forgiveness. Friday evening and ended yesterday evening it's the end of the jewish new year and it is called the day of atonement. Reverend elizabeth mcclain the discipline of forgiveness. This is the time of year her friends and her family and her acquaintances. Minister. Close to her and explain. Yom kippur. As to whether they deserve another year written. Forgiveness is required in order to be in good standing heart endor absolved of kilts. Forgiveness is not optional it is critical depends on it. She explains. Forgiveness does not exist in the realm of god or humans. Forgiveness rest of us the call she makes it every year at this time is that call. Forgiveness about is about entering into right relationship with one another. She asked what do we do when we believe that we hold each other's lives and futures in our hands to our ability to speak and grant forgiveness. It means a more meaningful life. It means a community is available. It means living with greater closeness and honor with those we love. She is taking accountability and our relationships with one another. Accountability it's holding each other better. Instantly not overnight. Not to be perfect. Asking forgiveness from those we have wronged. Granting forgiveness for those who seek it. Honestly. We cannot replicate the need for human companionship. And sometimes. We need to celebrate. October 4th to the 11th is a holiday sukkot. Is a time of great celebration and harvest while also a remembrance of a time when the jewish people alessi gypped and were wandering the desert wilderness. People celebrate suco by putting up a sukkah a temporary structure in honor of the structures built in a desert. Putting eyes up this week. And you're invited have meals together to celebrate relationships and to remember what's important to you. We cannot replicate the need for human companionship. Means to encourage each other to bring our whole self. Imperfections and all this community. To know that relationship easy to have courage to ask for forgiveness to celebrate and enjoy each other's company. It takes courage. And when we are together. We are able to resist we refuse we we're in this till the end. Where is everybody. We are sitting next to you. We are in choir with you together. Making plans together. We're right here. Right here when you need us. Probably when you don't. We're in this till the end. The barrier of loneliness the palpable desperate need of the human-animal to be with his fellow man up there up there in the vastness of space in the void that is sky up there there is an enemy known as isolation. It's there in the stars waiting. Waiting with the patience of eons. Forever waiting. The twilight zone. The world. Is too beautiful to be praised by only one voice the world is too broken to be healed. A sacred time on the issues of the world and at the same time step outside. Return to our lives renewed. Invite you into a time of quiet. Still your heart. Your breathing. Be at peace in your body. We are taking this time for reflection and. And we are so rarely given this time. Please join me for a moment to pray to meditate or to dream. The singing bowl will move us into quiet and call us to return. Spirit of life and love. God of many names. This morning with so much and in our hearts. Is everybody as he holds puerto rico in our hearts and we see the impact of climate change on our fellow americans is everybody testing racism with hatred we may wonder is everybody when our hearts are full of sorrow we may wonder where is everybody. When we have that needs to be shared. In those moments when the question seems loudest. Maybe remember. That we are all here. That we are part of this interconnected. We are a community that courageously cares for one another and our world. I have spirit. I am here and alive because we are together i am who i am. If you have dreams dreams. If you have. Let this congregation say amen.

uudavispodcast_org

2014-11-02-May-I-Approach.mp3

Welcome to sunday sermons another recordings from unitarian universalist church of davis california please visit our website at www.sec.gov org for further information. So welcome to everybody i think i sound really loud thank you for taking me down a little bit and a physical abilities we have much to learn from each other. Each person in this room has a piece of wisdom everyone of us if we look at each other carefully we can see what we share with others our smiles are different but with the same feeling of happiness are anger is different but with the same feeling of her our laugh is different but it comes from joy each person has a story to tell your story is not the same as mine i can hear your story and you can hear mine listen carefully and we'll find something we share when we are quiet together nature we hear the wind rustling grass and even the rocks and quiet we listen to what is in our hearts and remember the voices of people from our past come let us worship together. We have a lot of bread here that will reappear during the coffee hour so that you will continue to eat the dead the bread of the dead not the dead bread entirely different thing. Simone and i are going to read a poem it's from cool salsa bilingual poems about growing up latino in the us lori carter editor i remember tagging along chasing my abuela to sell paper flowers to make this town burton's bright. Invite you to join me in prayer. of life for all the love and the hurt that flows through this congregation and the world of which we are apart i offer a time of quiet for us to embrace what we rarely find imagine those who have passed in your life and what you would say to them imagine it in your mind at ruth telling that you never dared to say a p s the story that you never told and affirmation and then wait perhaps not for the answer but to listen to what happens in your own heart each of us is a part of an intricate web of relationships when one of us celebrate a joy or grieved a loss of life moves to a new shape we are apart of the turn of the earth the shift of the stars the pull of the sea and oil change.

uudavispodcast_org

2016-01-10-May-the-Source-Be-With-You_09_30.mp3

Welcome to sunday sermons and other recordings from unitarian universalist church of davis california please visit our website at w.w. org for further information. Good morning my name is laura thompson i'm the ministerial intern here in this is been days or he's our worship associate this morning. Welcome to the unitarian universalist church of davis a place of caring and compassion of encouragement and challenge. As unitarian universalist we are encouraged to search for our own answers. To the most important questions. Where do i find the sacred in the everyday. How can i make a difference to myself my family as well as a beautiful living on earth. We come together to create a unique community for this one hour. The issues that surround us are sometimes overwhelming but in this space we sent her ourselves and come to know again that we are not alone what might have been a burden becomes lights. We come here together. We come with our joys and our sorrows. Become young and old. Become weary and refreshed. Together we can be comfortable with one another. Learn from one another. And be supported by one another. We can come and reflect on what guides us in our lives. Who we are. Where we come from and where we're going. It's a joy to be here together today. We have a responsive reading this morning which is also going to be up on the monitors. In a moment. Curtis. I'm so i'll read the regular prince and if you could all read along in the italicized. The great inn in religious instruction is not to stamp upon the young. But to stir up their own. Not to give them a definite amount of knowledge but to inspire of severance love of truth. Not to bind them by ineradicable prejudices to our particular sect or peculiar notions. Not to burden the memory but to quicken and strengthen the power of thought. In a word the great end is to awaken the soul to excite and cherish spiritual lights. But your hearts but your concerns and gratitude into this sacred space. Spirit of life and source of love. Hold us. Chill. Renew us. Celebrate with us. We come together as individuals in need of community we seek the warmth of companionship and we seek understanding. Let this be a place where love is given and received. We, together with wounds seen and unseen we come with grief and challenges known and unknown. We seek healing and we seek justice we come together we reform our trials we may be frustrated with others or frustrated with ourselves we seek forgiveness and renewal. We come together and gratitude gratitude for all that sustains our bodies our minds and our spirits may our blessings inspire our generosity towards others in this time of grey midwinter we find the orange and lemon trees bursting forth with fruits maybe see them and taste them and be reminded that there is nourishment and sweetness to be found even in the coldest and darkest of times maybe so and amon. Today's reading. Called bread for the journey. By henry j m. Knowing. Mostly we think of people with great authority that's higher up. Far away. Hard-to-reach. But spiritual authority comes from compassion. And emerges from deep inner solidarity. With those who are subject. To authority. The ones who the one who is fully like us who understands our joys and pains. Or hopes and desires. And it was willing to speak. And walk with us. That is whom we gladly give authority. And whose subjects we are willing to be. It is the compassionate authority that empowers encourages and calls for. Holy hidden gifts and enables great things to happen. True spiritual authorities are located. In the point of an upside down triangle supporting and holding into the light. Everyone they offer their leadership to. So i'm sure something like this has happened too many if not all of you. Open the morning. Isn't any coffee around. Tired. Get in the car. Go into reverse. Bumped into a car. Yep this is scratch. Then the thoughts appear. Like the demon and the angel advising us on our shoulders one says. Come on no one is hurt no one.. And please look at their car so many scratches. You couldn't even tell. Any other voice comes. You know what the right thing to do is. Do it. Leave a note. The light side. The dockside i'm sure each voice has one out sometime or another for all of us. That day for me. The darkside one. Scratch the car. Just sort of left. Still i try to be a good person. And i'd like to believe i make a decent jedi. But today isn't about the consistency of my moral character or my fugitive status from. Minor traffic incidents. It's about the question of where does the good voice come from. Who or what guides are inner moral compass. By whose authority do you define right and wrong. When i first pondered this question one source instantly came to my mind. My dad. His words. Echo in my mind to this day. Set the right thing to do ben. It would often be said to incredibly mundane situations as a kid i'd be making a mess in a grocery store. Someone will have to clean that is that the right thing to do bad. At the team i parked sloppily taking up two spots. Is that the right thing to do ben. Overtime. I started to internalize this voice. In the principles he was trying to teach. Be generous be polite. Don't inconvenience others and treat people the way you'd like to be treated. But where else does that voice come from. I didn't grow up you you so i never specifically internalized the seven principles. And while i grew up in a secular house. Both my parents were raised christian. Didn't pass on their dogmas to me. But as i've grown older. It's been clear that the moral teachings that were ingrained in them have also become ingrained in me. Forgiveness. Kindness. Patience. Knowing that things would be a lot different if i was walking in another shoes. These teachings. Implicit or explicit from my parents and the cultural context of my upbringing. We're not comprehensive rather individual examples that supposed to larger principles. I've never read the bible. But i'm reasonably certain. Jesus never said. Thou shalt. Smile at your checkered in the grocery store. I bet if you asked him. You say. Yeah you should smile at people. The distance to the last source i found. Myself. The principles that was todd and agreed with became internalized. I allowed try them out in different situations and their grow more complex. And that that complexity and nuance would reflect the complexity of life. It being generous is good. My seven-year-old self thought that giving away my toy millennium falcon to my brother's friend would be good he loved it. But my parents were sad that i have parted with a gift that they had given me. Generosity it seemed was more complex in to just give everything away. In that way my moral sense developed into a more complete picture through my own experiment experience. So the next time you're in a moral struggle. Giving all the way in millennium falcon or otherwise i invite you to consider who's sitting on your shoulder. Ar. Famous month is authority. So i want to give you a visual. Demonstration of that for those of you that are visual learners this is. No authority. This is authority some of us needs a little help with it. But you've all come here today because of religious authority. Yes authority. By being here we assign authority to our common beliefs and principles. But still that word authority can be troubling. Listen to the word. Authority. What is your. Federal initial response to it. Authority. Does it strike a chord with you. Resonating harmoniously with your deepest place of knowing authority. Or a sortie does it strike a nerve. Raise the hairs on the back of your neck and somehow make you feel as though you're ready to come back something. I would say that many of us feel the ladder. And some of us might even pride ourselves on holding. Anti-authoritarian traits. The history of our faith tradition is widespread with many anti-authoritarian events and movements. Goes all the way back to our very beginning that i'm going to take us all the way back even before they said the word unitarian all the way back to the council of nicea in 325. This is very early in church history. And this time they were married many different competing understandings of christology that is the relationship of jesus awesome relationship with jesus to. Father god figure. Lots of other competing views about good and evil material world of the spirits world all these kinds of things are going on so they hold this council and they bring all these bishops and important people together so that they can come to a consensus and finally nail down once and for all what it is to be a christian. Sounds easy right. Now it's main accomplishments what there's main goal was to settle this this conflict of the christological nature of christ so who is the son of god and what is his relationship to god the father and there were two main arguments not that there weren't others but there were two main arguments that were being considered at the time. The first wellness person on order but one was that jesus no divine. Was created. By god and therefore. He was not without a beginning unlike god who is without a beginning and therefore he was not on equal standing with god the father. And this argument was led by a presbytery named darius. And the argument lessons the divinity of jesus as we see it today in christianity leaving god the father is the supreme god had we might call this again at aryan viewpoint but they didn't have that word then so they call the darien this was the aryan controversy. Now there's another argument. The other argument was that jesus was of the very same essence of god and that he like god had always existed with no beginning with no in this argument was led by athanasius who was a bishop in alexandria it concluded that the son and the father were one and the jesus was not created but was rather a part of god and he'll always been there and this is called homosapien. How long is greek for sam and lucia is greek for being so they are the same being of the same essence. Then we have the holy spirit in there and we've got ourselves a trinity. Now. Acacia not paying attention this is the argument that one. And so the trinity became church doctrine and this is a concept that i will not try to explain any further because it doesn't make sense to me so. As heretics and subject to punishment that included imprisonment. Torture and possibly even death. Needless to say exile was common for those who were condemned of heresy. Andarius spent most of the rest of his life living in and out of exile he wasn't condemned to death he did die a horrible death by the way i don't i don't. Suggest that you look it up but he lives in natural life. That'll be done with aries argument we could have had him or unitarian understanding of christianity thousands of years ago. But we lost the debate. And they also burned all of arrogant aries writings and so there would be no further discussion on the matter and it was considered a crime by the church. None of this however stopped others from bringing it up every once in awhile. So what time to michael servetus some 1,200 years later. A michael servetus was a brilliant man. And i think he probably had the ego of a brilliant man 2. He had many talents in the fields of medicine theology and law and he loves to boast and share those talents as widely as he could. His theology however was not aligned with the church doctrine. Which wasn't so unusual at that time weird in the 15:30 is now because we're talking about the reformation so there were some competing things going on and there were there were protestants were moving away from the catholic church but. So he was declared a heretic by both. His published works spoke against the existence of the trinity title did. On the errors of the trinity. I thought he was kind of bold and egotistical and trade was he was. Distance of the trinity and he spoke against the existence of a god that would condemn any person and both of these were considered a radical at the time and they did not sell sit well with catholics and they did not sit well with the protestant reformers especially john calvin. John calvin was a protestant reformer and he was in geneva. And the two of them argued regularly through correspondence. This time. In history cities and states all headed to claire religion for their citizens so it might be different from each region that you would go to but it would be declared what your religion would be if you were living there. The palvin resided and preached them geneva where his views held that only religious power but political power over the city-state. He and sarita sir. Corresponding. They're inklings that cerritos is going to come to geneva remember i said i think he's just got an ego. Calvin writes to his friends thinking that you might come. Serena sister sent me. Along volume of his ravings. If i can sense you will come here. But i will not give my word. For if he comes here. If my authority is worth anything. I will never permit him to depart alive. Surrealist indo to geneva in 1533. Where he was convicted of heresy. For denying the trinity. And for denying theology of infant baptism. K authority did prevail. Cerritos was sentenced. To be burned alive at the stake. And. He could. His head cut off i think if you recanted but he can do not recant and he was burned alive at the stake and 1533 and all of his published writings like areas were destroyed except for its rumored that john calvin did hold onto his copy of errors on the trinity. I don't want to pause for a minute to drop back to that time in history cuz it is important to note. The history of the states and religion holds all the authority and countries and stated this time or still under monarch local rule and they're still under empirical rule the roman church is huge. All of the authority is tied. Church and state. The ruling classes of the time or nobility and clergy. And everybody else was subject to them to either follow those rules or supper. Butts. Whatever celebrity they held over people's lives they did not hold over. Their thoughts and their hearts and servetus is convictions of consciousness theology and his willingness to take a stand with that died with him. His influence on ideology were held by others and it would not be long before those ideas began to take root in communities so now a counselor in italian anti trinitarian his name is fausto rozina. He was another free thinker of the time whose writings and beliefs were considered heretical by catholics and protestants alike. He and others like him began to flee. Backspace and take exile in poland in transylvania. Napolitan transylvania are far from the center of the roman empire and their kind of far from where these protestant reformers are as well. So is a safer and more tolerant space for the ideas of the radical reformers who were anti trinitarians by the way we were called the radical reformation which i think is pretty cool. Radical reformation unitarians. But there were other go at the illogical factors leading to poland and transylvania being more tolerant toward religious variance and that's its border with the ottoman empire. So the ottoman empire is right up against poland in transylvania and the ottoman empire is an islamic state. At that time but under their millet system they did allow jews and orthodox christians to practice their own religions. Granted they had to pay higher taxes and they were basically treated like second-class citizens but. They had us freedom that wasn't seen anywhere else at the time. I know this is a far cry from the religious freedom that we have today but i told so far cry from. The religious freedom that the roman empire and protestants didn't have. There was no death for them there was no imprisonment there was no torture. Now those living near the ottoman empire would have no doubt had some contact with them and trade and politics and in other systems of foreign exchange. And i can't help it to draw the conclusion that ideas of religious tolerance among these radical reformers were influenced by their witnessing an understanding of religious tolerance in the islamic ottoman empire. Sona indirect way. We have the islamic ottoman empire so thanks for some of our religious tolerance. Outside. Of the empire we see this first come into effect in 1568 when king sigismund of transylvania issues the following proclamation at the edict of torta. He says that in every place the preachers shall preach and explain the gospel according to his understanding of it and if the congregation like it. Well. If not. No one shall compel them for their souls would not be satisfied. This is the first proclamation of such religious tolerance in the christian world this is historic and things are changing. And it is also in this timeframe in this region that says nene finds a home and socinianism and the polish brethren begin to take fries and they celebrate their faith. And explore their faith and in doing so they reject the trinity they reject the pre-existence of jesus before his birthday reject infant baptism. They were exactly need for atonement they reject original sin. They propose that god's omniscience is limited. Because god could not know the outcome of everything because free will would be impossible under that premise. And. They were conscientious objectors. All these are all major departures from the authority that was going on in the roman empire. Another the mainline protestant reformers. Theologically these folks turned everything upside down. And our history goes on like this we got pilgrims and puritans and congregationalists who further dye ideas on religious freedom and change the way we think about church polity and covenants. We got the theist and the transcendentalist the humans who not only challenge our relationship with the divine but the very existence or need for existence of the divine. Voices of science and naturalist is way to speak to our spiritual understanding of the world to our physical relationship with it we learned that we are stardust that we are water. We learned that we are just as alike as we are different. Maybe more. Our understanding of ourselves and relationship to the universe changes again. And these are all sources of our religious authority. Our sources are broad and sweeping and they are often hard to claim in the form of a unified statement or proclamation. Although we do just that when we list are six sources but. Let me listen to locked and you can see how broad they are. Direct experience of transcending mystery and wonder is the first one. Words and deeds of prophetic persons who challenged us to confront powers and structures of evil. Second one next wisdom from world religions that inspire us in our ethical and spiritual life. Next we have jewish and christian teachings which call us to respond to god's love by loving our neighbors as ourselves and then we have humanist teachings which council has the heed the guidance of reason and the results of science. And warned us against idolatries of the mind and finally we got spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us live in harmony with the rhythms of nature. So basically. Are religious sources are. All religious and spiritual wisdom all scientific and national understandings of the world are prophetic voices and direct experience direct experience works pretty much anything you can name. This is a broad understanding. Between my sources of authority might be very different than your sources of authority. Things that are for my spirituality include jesus. The beatles star wars and some buddha. But that might be very different than one informs you. But it's important that we have these voices of authority. But we also have. Voices. A vampire authority. These are all sources as well. These sources come out of thousands of years of heresy. The saddest and discourse. So this is our heritage heresy the scent and discourse. And so we hold not just our sources of authority and search to find what they are. But we need to balance that with our sources of anti-authority because those are important things to us. Vampire authority. Source of us. Ennis is the one that. Makes things change and makes things happen. So maybe up to call. To find balance. Between are sources of authority. And our sources of anti-authority. Play some piano men. If here you have found freedom take it with you into the world. If you have found comfort going share with others. If you have dreams dreams help one another that they may come true. If you have known love give it back to a bruised and hurting world. Go in peace and let those gathered say amen.

uudavispodcast_org

2015-03-01_Forbidden_11_15.mp3

Welcome to sunday sermons and other recordings from unitarian universalist church of davis california website at w.w. davis. org for further information. Good morning welcome to the unitarian universalist church of davis our senior minister reverend best banks is on sabbatical and we are filling into the best of our ability my name is autumn with a renault i'm the worship associate today and we have a guest worship leader joshua cyril white and you're going to be hearing more from him later welcome. In this church we're raising a generation of you could really see what must be done i'm so proud of the kids in this church going to meet one of them here lighting our chalice today is jamie lynn hubert who participates in the middle school. This your favorite children's community in the british open community is the year of empowerment ideas mentioned that we have in his left leg and only one finger on his left hand. I just told a story about how she's an athlete who won dosoris participate in the olympics for creating a prosthetic leg for him. Now as it has everyday used and can run faster than most. I think she's with a speed and power road and howard hughes and other vide viewers that if you believe and don't give up. Events like this uucd helps empower used to do great things and not wait until we are adults to work on making this world a better place for everyone. Sounds of the kids walking off. Well if you know whether the theme of the worship services for this month here in davison. But this is romans chapter 17 paul says. Do not understand my own actions. For i do not do what i want. But i do the very thing i hate. No but if i do what i do not want will i agree though that the law is good. So then it's no longer it's sin that dwells within me. I know that nothing good dwells within me that is in my flesh. I can will. What is right. But i cannot do it. I do not do the good that i want. But the evil i do not want. Is what i do. And my commentary on that is. What's up with that. I want to thank you all for the the warm welcome that you've offered me not just this time i visited but other times too especially autumn for her coordination the service over the last several months and and laura who hosted sean and alan and me last night to dinner and rehearsal which was such a blessing to be welcomed with open arms. Thanks of course 2. Movies are there on the piano to about her not much of this would have happened to allen and sean sean collins over there is from ayo and te'o and i together since seventh grade when we are in the. Doesn't even live in the u.s. deeply influenced by the concept of sin and its ramifications and we're very confused about it i would argue. In specially confused about the relationship between. Good. And evil. And pleasure. And the body. So i'm going to talk a little bit about that and it's not surprising that we have that we were founded our society was founded by puritans who were both fascinated and obsessed with the pleasures of the flesh and very condemning the same time they were terrified and i think we've moved on from them. Conflict around at all and you can see this like an ad campaign to know they talk about things being so good they're sinful. What's up with that we have in fact i think it's the belief that if something is good enough it crosses the line people should not actually feel that good right so it's sinful. Judeo-christian heritage inherently wrong with us that's connected to our physicality comes to us naturally there's no escaping it and we have to spend our whole lives atoning for it in some way you know what time did the cleanse ourselves from. A reality for us. You know i don't understand my own actions for i do not do what i want. Can i do the very thing that i hate. I don't have anything like that in my life and i think that if you do you either saint. Or an alien or engrave denial. Presently i think food and sex right this is a totally pg-rated sermons could be fine.. Well it's terrible and we need to suppress it. But also isn't just saying so it's fantastic and we need to embrace it. I think it's a lot more that's possible. So that's what the theme is going to be in soap. Set unpack a little bit. But you feels like he will somebody can't quite make himself do what he wants in the second thing is just physically he has a problem with his body and its desires and its appetites right his mind is pure. He knows who knows what he wants and what he wants to do but his body doesn't cooperate new reminds me that. That old joke about the. Haunted house to photograph the ghost and the ghost show them i'm happy with dies and so the spirit was willing but the flesh was weak. But i still think paul has. A point in the sense that it is true that the senses are tricky. You know i mean obviously you know we have no problem with our sexual impulses we know that right paul knew that we all know that but even broader than that. We can get preoccupied. By our bodies. You know i mean there are ways in which you know you when something is happening to you it blinds you. Me too what else is going on i mean example you can see you i see something you know that somebody has and i really like it and i wanted well you know without the control. We do this all the time to each other right this is not very nice it's not really a way of being with each other this very humane i would say. Anger does the same thing you know you probably have that expense you get so wrapped up in the moment of anger that you can be really destructive no because you're just not thinking whatever else is happening around you or not seeing anybody else's perspective and like i said before. So it's not just that being a human being and being incarnated. Can take us away from the contemplation of god and some of the mystics might ask us to do it really is fit it i can lead us into temptation really can lead us to treat each other in ways that are really really not consistent with either. The law of the divine worth at least a law that we have created between ourselves. Acosta. Yet i don't think that preaching asceticism. Which is kind of a tradition in many stranded many religious traditions is really the answer. Trying to eradicate desires or just stomp on them or condemn them more. Nuanced approach. That we can take that actually might lead us to something new until the logical little bit. Let's think about. Dogs. About my dog abby. And abby is one of the most naturally beautiful and amazing creatures on the planet she's not particularly bright but she's very very cute. Tri-tip steak or chicken from that guy. I'm ready for this man and she will do every trick in the book she know that's what happened rather sometimes just to get that meat and if you then, do you suppose she savors it and loves it and treasures it it is gone in a less than a fraction of a second second. Right now we're just taking so much you're not even really tasting it you're not even enjoying it whether it's food or power or money or sex or whatever it is that we don't condemn dogs for that because their dog. Missing something there you know there's all this great stuff you have an opportunity to really savor nearest missing it and i think that level of. Sense experience. I wouldn't condemn it i don't think there's anything wrong with it but it doesn't really do much for us. Doesn't take us anywhere. The second level. Is the level of. Enjoying. The fact that we have senses. You know so something like. You're thirsty and you get a nice and has a cold and cold water or a beer if that's the way you go with it right now or you eat something it's really for you and you really enjoy this just tastes fantastic. Seeing a sunset. You know where or a beautiful painting or sculpture. Even somebody that you love me wow. That person is just so cool i love the way they're put together and we're on the way they look at just one of the great experience. This is a beautiful experience experience of being human. I don't think there's anything wrong with it at all it does have the temptation of course to slide into craving right like i ate a piece of chocolate i'm a big fan. I thought i ate a piece of chocolate. And then i want another piece of chocolate. Because it tastes really good and i want that tasting and even though i know i'm going to feel awful afterwards. Why do i know it's not good with people i have somebody who i kill others attraction for and. I don't want anybody else to have that experience i want more of it so i get controlling you know when i start to do all that you know how that works right. Level sense experience can lead you into trouble. Having senses having a body. I have a cool thing. It's a human thing. Then there's this other level that i've only been recently thinking about. Where is sensual experience. Actually beyond ourselves. And i was so i came up with this thing about this because i was having trouble sleeping at night and i was listening to a podcast by round us around oskaloosa. Why the long and complicated very interesting history and. And he he was talking it was late at night and i was not totally awake so i can't tell you all the music. Is this piece of music. This is experiencing music a statement about god. Or adulation of the senses. Now you see what he says god you can translate it if you are humanists into into language that makes sense statement about the incident. How far is it to kind of sensory experience important distinction to me and i was thinking about that. The difference between an experience it's really just confined to me. And one that is a doorway. Something else. I was walking. On the ocean. Thinking about that i was looking out at the ocean. What time in the morning and so there was a. Pretty blue sky and some clouds in the water was you know it was pretty, but with some ripples and i could see little bit of monterey on the other end of the day and it was appreciating the beauty of it's like really cool. And then. Something happened with my s*** in my frame shifted. Assembly. This feeling. Author. At the immensity of what i was in front of. This is amazing and huge and complex. It's just one tiny tiny tiny piece of what's happening here on the earth. And i felt this kind of grandeur and splendor that i was in front of and that i was. Even though i was a tiny insignificant. It was still a part of it. I was experiencing a relationship with the all and i thought i was talking about the internet. And i thought about an i've had i've had this experience all the time. I'm a big fan of food. You know all kinds of food really doesn't matter any kind of food. Having a particular by 2 something or sometimes like with a piece of fruit. That is amazing colors fruits to it you know you looking well. The piece of orange. Please get to be that color. Expensive not like that's a cool thing. Wow. What again.. How this came about but it's pretty amazing i get to have it i can to be with it this is great literally taken away by music once in my life. Recognize how weird this is the rest of you will not add a witnessing event. A mormon witnessing event where the speakers were the osmonds. Okay. all of them brother-sister together a barbershop song and accord rang. And i was transported. Something was there besides me besides them something was there i didn't conceptualize it the way they did cuz they're mormon run not but that was real something happened i had a relationship with something that was outside of me. And i felt. I wasn't alone. You want no matter what. That whatever it was was with me. Looks like i was taken out of my own self and yet not made. Inhuman. We still need and i was part of the internet. Yeah maybe this is possible with each other. You think about it people are. Probably the most amazing thing. In our known universe. You know there. There are other animals that are pretty interesting and there are sunsets and quasars and various other things that are interesting but i used to tell my students in psychology classes that you know. I can. I can't somebody can write an equation to tell you what'll happen to the universe and then billion years but. Nobody can write the equation that will say what you'll do when you walk out these doors. And i don't know whether it is evolution or creation that created a pretty. Amazing. And you can have that experience sometimes. But for me it's like. Do they like me. The right things. Dying to have my shirt tucked in ryan you know i'm weird if i say that what they want me to say right now. Yeah that's different because that you typically when you're looking at the baby you don't worry about how the baby is thinking about you. The difference between trying to take in a person and how to use them for our own uses and being able to hold them. Who they really are. He's really a magnificent creation. We are one church together you know we're coming here all kinds of reasons but there was a place to experience. The wonder. That is the transcended it was seems like it would be here. And we have the most perfect examples of that transcendence. Sitting in the seats next to us. My little totally non-threatening experiment. The idea here is to look at your hand and see it for what it is not so much about the stories you might have about your hand. Like you have judgments all my hand is too big or too small and my fingernail polish doesn't ride on my fingernails into none of that. See how it moves. Put together. Take me to take a moment. Just experienced it for what it is without any. Story. Trainee meaning nelly. When you can have a temptation to say this is really weird i want to do this. Okay now you got this kind of thing this in hand here is so amazing at work. You don't look at it in the same way you were looking at yours detached from a story. Detached from meaning. Just for what it is. We really. Pretty magnificent. You could do a whole meditation just on that. Then adventures of you. Take one finger. Let yourself be aware of the sensations of the end of that finger. And now. Find another finger somebody else's. And put your finger with that finger. Try not to worry so much about the story and the relationship in the warriors and the weirdness. Cheats for the moment you can just see what it's like. You can even close your eyes if that helps. A little. Connection. Between you. One of the most wondrous beings in the cosmos. And another. As most wondrous two beings in the cosmos. Feels like just in the tip of your finger. Social experiment. You can stop now if you want doing it if you want would be great. Pause i'm worried about okay. How do i deal with these impossible turns out of the er physicality i think. Can it's just like everything in life it's not about what happens it's what you do with what happens. I thought about how you use your experience about what your intent is it turns out that our bodies have the ability to take us. Atlanta scotch. The internet. Not necessarily saying that you should go through everyday. Doing this with every person you meet you know every tree you see every snow cone you eat you know. I would that be awesome i don't know that i know another definition of enlightenment. The net. Play what if you saw the immensity of the universe in everything that you experienced. That's what it is. The divine in every apple every minivan every brussel sprout you know what what if you could experience the person sitting next to you. Person who's been getting attached to someone else. If not just another fellow human traveler that's true and not just another beloved soul though that's true too. Even more as a statement. About god. Heaven would be looking down on us indeed. So maybe. And i'm in. Couldn't take a few moments in the spirit is meditation and prayer. Close your eyes you don't need to let the distractions if you were that way spirit of life we go through our time on earth can like paul sometimes loving what we do and sometimes hating what we do help us to remember that life is not about getting it right life is about loving and letting ourselves and beloved life is about offering blessings in life is about receiving them when they're offered life's about joy experiencing when it comes along and we knows that the times that people have it we all have there so hard we need help and we need assistance. You know that many of you here have heartache for which connection and love and openness would be like a bomb. Will be so helpful and needed so may we all offer that to each other and then we all accepted from the greater cosmos because it's always offered. I'm in recipe. All right so you're all here take hands if you would if you feel comfortable doing that if you don't feel comfortable is still a good idea. Because the thing is you know we can talk about prayer we can talk about love and we can talk about blessings we talked about joy but the fact is you are the only thing that embodies those you are the prayer you are the love you are the blessing. And it's how you take that blessing and that love and that joy and that prayer everywhere you go that's what's important. So may you know and feel and believe. And live the blessing that you are and receive it from each other this day and all days from here on forward. Go in peace return again in love i'm in.

uudavispodcast_org

2017-05-21-Coming-of-Age.mp3?_=2

Welcome to sunday sermons and other recordings from the unitarian universalist church of davis california please visit our website at w.w. org for further information. Kelly and i'm glad to be here with you this morning. Normally on sunday mornings i'm over in the bridge house. During the service. You are welcome here. Community that strives to be seekers listeners supporters and activists. We welcome to make a difference. Those who want to celebrate. We hope you can find what you need. This is your first time through our doors. We are church community are services at our programs. Care to give to you. Rich by your participation. Over my past two years working here i've had the pleasure to be in the bridge house almost every sunday. Children. Is the church of the open mind. Loving hearts. And it's always makes me happy every time. This is what church is all about. It's about people of different generations and different walks of life. Speaking together about the fabulous things that we could do. Experience this in another way this past year with our lovely coming-of-age youth and the advisors that help me run this coming-of-age program. Are you saint adult volunteers disappointer. We had many conversations and activities together. This is a team that helped run this program and helped work with these you this past year. Jealous they will share with you what they feel they gained through this process of working with these wonderful youth. Alice and the light of our advisers words and the words of our youth. Carry us through this hour. And lead us forward as our youth move towards becoming adults. Morning i'm kathy boyajian. Are you never fail to impress me with their ability to articulate their thoughts and beliefs and i just love it. Hi good morning my name is chris grismer through seven people in front of me. Houston energy and grassroots and change rely on on these guys to sort of carry the torch forward as we sort of step back and so really i'm here just to say thank you to you guys for continuing things and being the amazing people that you are. My name is. The first one. Aldi's from the other co-op. End. Bonded they had to do trust exercises i unfortunately didn't get to go to that retreat but i hear it is sisqo. What it means to have a safe warm place to go back to what it means to have a fresh change of clothes waiting for you when you come in from the rain and getting them process. Thinking about thinking about whatever is going on their head. But there are a lot of things going on i will just bring them with bug spray during that experience which was much needed and changed and can be silly and serious and continue to inspire me. This is the first time that i had the privilege of helping program and spoke to the kids. And fierce they all are and this service i'd like to also address the parents because these kids as brave and fierce as they are today. Headfirst into the world. Parents you inspire me to be a better parent you have projected onto these kids. Congratulations you guys you're all amazing amazing kids. When i was little i used to try to figure out how street lights work. Kind of the biggest mystery to me they always seem to have some sort of pattern between the mall really. I used to think of all kinds of possible ways for how they could work like everytime one. When would turn green delay up ahead of the next week return red or when it rain they take the day off or just simply when my parents were in a hurry they all turn red. Of course i eventually figured out how they work because going through this year has started to make me thinking that type of mindset again. This time for more spiritual things. Personally i take an agnostic you the world because even though something's are clearly caused by more human or scientific effects it does kind of feel like there's someone out there sitting back on their living room couch looking down and laughing at us. Wondering how things in the universe works. Is there truly a send it being out there why do teenagers act the way they do we may never know the answers to these questions but who knows we might be as simple as how street lights. Hi i'm cat. You probably don't know me as well as everyone else because i don't usually come to anything except. Anyways. I do not believe in an all-powerful knowing god or gods. School. What has all the answers. We should not force them on other people. Might be some higher power definitely not something all-powerful. Maybe they set off the big bang then one who creates the outcome. What i want to believe is that we are reincarnated. But i want to believe is that the universe is everlasting and we will never run out of matter. Even if you are reincarnated eventually the cycle will end but. Stop existing even if i know i will. Whether we are reincarnated or not. Things. I also know that. Is wrong as well. I am right no matter what i am right and you are wrong. Humans are the ultimate being. I do not think that anyone animals or anything on this planet was put here or created so we can command it. I do not believe that is our right to destroy the environment and destroy every other species chance. Other species may have. Eventually if other species out or have in the past but no other speed. As many life-forms as we have. Just because we are entitled. Even if something has a shorter life span than us a longer one. I don't think we should. Make it shorter. My name is marissa rob. Thank you for coming today to listen to. I am the kind of person who usually knows what they want. How they want it and when they want it. I like to be the leader of groups. This can be helpful because i can use my voice to make other part. I found myself asking questions like. How can i help my community. How can i make a positive impact on this world. How can i help people. Who do i want to be as a person. What do i believe in. What are my values. What do i stand for. I started to figure this out. Of course i can't answer all those questions and answers now maybe very different from five years from now. But here's what i have right now. I want to be someone who is kind loyal respectful. Welcome. Accepting empty school. I want to be part of a community like this community of davis. Since i was in kindergarten. It's always been a place that makes me smile. Now that i'm older it makes me smile because it's nice knowing that i can see part of a community that is so kind diverse and accepting. Continue to be part of this community because i believe in the value sets. I believe this community is what everyone needs and to have no life so if they get lost in life. Just a friend to talk to this community will be right alongside them. Four friends. I want a part of this community so someone can have. I want to help people and make their life better. I believe in sinus and generosity i believe in peace i believe in science and i believe in respecting others. I believe in reading a book first and then second. Not judging by its cover. Believe in god. A dust mite. And i do believe in some kind of higher power. Molina health. Everything is going wrong. We hope he answers our prayers. Just like we pray when everything is going wrong we hope it gets better. Baby god gives us the feeling of hope. Please join us now for the meditation on breathing hymnal. Please remain seated and we will be doing at 6. If you know additional parts you are welcome to stay.. I think that in order. It's a really big place is it all worth it. Over the course of my life had many experiences over. Does god exist. Popular choice with me. Why does it matter. Multiple gods or something. Just cuz the fact is always. Is across the other side. They don't need anything. Foundation of life. They helped everything and ask nothing in return. They only beat. Prayer meditation. Quiet. Or whatever works for you. Invite you to settle into your chair in the space that we share together. That is most comfortable for you. This man moss crossing or uncrossing something. Shifting your weight differently. Closing your eyes. When you came of age. Can you identify when this happened. Didn't feel like. This a challenging time in your life. Who is there to help you along the way. One person who you feel helped you become the person you are today. Was this person like. What characteristics did they embody. Helped you during your time of coming-of-age. Oldest person in your heart. Shared with the special person in your life. What they may have learned from you. Oldest person in your mind as we move through the rest of our service. As you think about the words are you start airing today. Think what you could learn from these youth. Send positive thoughts and energy. In your heart as you leave today. May all of our youth. And use of this world. At least one person in their life like this. And blessed be. Good morning. My name is john campea. What do i believe. I believe that everyone should be accepting of one another no matter their race sexuality belief or any other aspect. God or some higher life-form all is equal. Each person. I believe that everyone is unique in their own way. This uniqueness gives them a purpose in life that is essential to our ability to care for one another and the universe. We care for our friends and loved ones my sister does. Or some type of force like in star wars. Justice and liberty for all. This i believe that no one should be unseen. This is accomplished by listening acting. Did happen when my friends and i came of age. Thank you for listening. My name is benjamin kennel. And. Start with the beginning. I never really wanted to join koa i didn't really think it was necessary for someone in my situation. Both of my older sisters. I learned a lot from both of them and my mom about the world around me and how to function as part of the society. Waze program. Adidas a waste of time. Everything they wrote. However now that i've had to experience first-hand. I can say that i was not arizona. About half of the time. I felt like i was an hour. don't get me wrong. I did learn some things from coelho. From what i understood and experience. Consent. Teamwork. Understanding different opinions. Becoming an almost. Do i believe. What does god mean to me. I mean. I really can't say important to me. And as long as there's god doesn't pull any funny business. We're going to we're going to be alright. So as long as. Call my man and my own business. Similarly i don't know. However unlike the last question. Everyone's always going to find out eventually. Right now i do know that i don't want to find that out anytime soon. They're going to find out sooner or later whether you want to or not. Cla. I know that it offers a lot and is usually very helpful for young adults. Young adult. The people who eyewear with. We're pretty cool and they made it worthwhile. And i also the instructors divisors. Charlie 13 reasons why. It was not entirely lamp. Tylenol cold is a good thing i'm glad it did it. I hope i didn't. Set a timer to sisters. Is it pretty cool. Thank you for listening to my rambling. Smith congregation exploration. Wonderful amazing beings. Volunteers. They need the adults help them do that. In the social hall after the service today and if anything moved you or made you think a little bit. I like the 100% ben was talking about if you don't think it'd be 100-percent horrible question for you. Before we close our service. My hopes for them. As a move forward into the world after this program. I wish for you a troubled heart at times. As well as of world and friends come close to side. And keep you sleepless. I wish for you the thrill of knowing. Who you are. Where you stand and why. Especially why. Not prosperity but dreams i wish for you. Not riches but a sense of your own world. I wish for you. Not even a long way. However proud to have it be so. Is crammed with living. I wish for you. May you give it frequently. I wish for you solace in the midst of companionship. Remind me. With a quiet times. Maybe so. And abide. Play i to the extent of my power give all needful help to my friends and all who are in want. I never fail a friend may i respect myself. Always keep team. Custom myself. I know good people. And may the people say amen.

uudavispodcast_org

2017-06-11-Together-Our-Gifts-Can-Bless-the-World.mp3?_=3

Welcome to sunday sermons and other recordings from the unitarian universalist church of davis california website at w.w. org for further information. Because we really enjoy being in conversation together. You can find out what's happening in this church around the church in your printed bulletin. And you're going to have a part in making the right noises about this. Elizabeth departure party. Sunday service. This is no surprise as of this moment. Crowdsourcing app for undocumented. Yes. That we can do better than that. So every can receive up to a $500 scholarship. If they are in an emergency situation. So even if we were. If you haven't. But more important. Get in touch with who cares about. Ucd. The students are undocumented students immigration. And ask them personally. The website. Because the other reason why this is so important is that the students are checking that website everyday. Times in one day. Even now. So if your friends. We want names. Only their first names are listed. We come to worship in song and we are to worship by our chalice are planing chalice a symbol of unitarian universalism. Call keisha. To bring our light to the world and shows the power of our community to transform with love. Community thank you. To you our congregation always keep in mind what is best for the whole congregation and our staff we will listen and communicate.. So many ways that we come together so many ways we celebrate this community and bite you now into a time of prayer and reflection to hear these words from reverend rebecca parker minister and former president. Can draw down the prison door. You must answer this question. What will you do. This is the end. Community. The importance of keeping faith. The comfort of human friendship. The company of herb. The course of life welcoming you. Can save the world. Together another possibility. Can i get an amen.

uudavispodcast_org

2017-08-27-From-This-Center-I-Shape-My-Life.mp3?_=1

Welcome to sunday sermons another recording from the unitarian universalist church of davis california website at w.w. org for further information. We welcome you to the unitarian universalist we are congregation that strives to listen and support one another with compassion and you are all welcome here and all of your grace and brokenness if you are here seeking safety and protection of strength and reflection we welcome you we welcome all races religion and we encourage you to be your authentic self in our world. I think i should let all of you know if you don't that are worship associates are new most of them are new as of yesterday and so length of your ear and just hold them hold them in the light as a present things that they have thought about deeply and so for the chalice lighting kasia stepien to the universe and to each other. Meteor shower by clint smith meteor showers are almost always named after the constellation from which they originated it's funny i think how even the universe is telling us that we can never get too far from the place that created us how there was always a streak of our past trailing closely behind us like a smattering of abstinent memories even when we enter a new atmosphere become subsumed in flames turn to dust lose ourselves in the wind and scatter the surface of all that rests beneath us we bring a part of where we are from to every place that we go. I need this automobile renew between 3rd and 5th graders i was best friends with a girl named dolores that friendship ended abruptly one evening when two worlds collide it and what happened forever changed me my family had moved from new jersey to southern california just before my 8th birthday and start of third grade not only was i the new kid in school i wore glasses and was terminally shy i didn't dress like the other kids there were a lot of other kids at our school who look like her. My name is cassius stephen this is a time of searching in my life searching for purpose circling like a meteor i'm searching for good work with the gravity to pull me in five or six years ago i thought i was done searching. We always bring a streak of our past with us we can never get too far from what created us the constellation of our family the mannerisms of the one who called herself your mother something and how you listen with your head tipped just so imitating her last she is a part of you the body's response to ritual and some even in the new atmosphere of a new religion we respond many yearn for this streak of thread from the past we all come with memories of our past that inform our time right now that returns here. I invite you to take hands around the room as you are able and before we close i'd also like to acknowledge ted swift of rav team who's here today and helps us so much thank you ted and noah we for deep down there is another truth you are not alone let this congregation say amen.

uudavispodcast_org

2013-06-28_Celebration-of-Life_Herbert-Bauer.mp3

Welcome to sunday sermons another recording from unitarian universalist church of davis california website www.org for further information. Lighting the chalice is a ritual performed in american unitarian universalist. Congregations. Although i did nomination dates back to the reformation in the 1500s vitalis design comes from the second world war. It was created as a secret symbol to designate supplies. From the unitarians being smuggled into nazi occupied territory. Overtime two circles were placed around the chalice 14 unitarianism n14 universalism to separate face that were joined together in one. We like this chalice. In memory of herbert bauer. One circle for the inquiring intellect and reason exercised in unitarianism. And the other circle for the universalist love. It stretches the heart. Look around you. In this space. And see the many people. Who have been touched by herbert bauer. And there are many others who could not be here today. And each one of you. Have stories to tell. Truly in these recent years. A village has cared for her. I want to take this moment to thank. Anne murray. For your tender loving care of him. And for nancy and john keltner nancy could not be here today and for helen and cab thompson. For your love. For him. He cared for us with compassion and understanding and telling the truth with either gentle words or daring witt. Accepted me as his minister. Which never cease to amaze me. Given how suspicious he was of churches. And clergy. And anything that smacked of authority. So i came to davison 2008 hannah and herb and i. Jefferson first visit i went right home and i typed up everything i could remember in the conversation in. Seminary they call that a verbatim he said this she said that i responded this way that was saul i still have it. That whole conversation. And part of our conversation was about hannah's writing and herbert's admiration for her work. And we each have our own memories of her urban. Mine include his pride for hannah's poetry. After her first book of poetry was published he gave her the sculpture of a swan. And there it was. On the mantel over the fireplace. And hannah said to me. Touch it hold it run your hands over at this was a most unusual pastoral visit. So i did i was holding that swan. It was smooth and cool to the touch. A heavy stone that felt like silk. And when i looked up at the two of them it was as if they were remembering that moment when he had given it to her. And the tenderness between them. Was palpable. So i'll say it again he accepted me as his minister which never. Cease to amaze me. And i think it started in that visit. In that moment. The enterprise was not the only recipient of his quotes and quips. And much to my dismay others beyond me. Received his limericks and pros i thought i was the only one. He wrote limericks when he was feeling playful. And prose when the world was more serious and i received both. After falling into 2009a fall that required stitches he wrote. The second and more dramatic reason he'd already given me the first the second and more dramatic reason for my behavior colon i had not seen you not to speak nor talk with you for an inordinate time. So i felt something ought to be done to irritate you. I expect to see you at church. His favorite topic was evil and how it could grip a society something that he had obviously lived through. This life. His life was one of hope. And his belief. The piece was possible. I told laura sandidge and i will invite you to sing with us dona nobis patchen. I will sing it through will hear it once but will sing it through one time and unison. And then you're welcome to break into parts with us. Altogether. Helen. Thank you for coming here today to celebrate the remarkable life of dr. herbert bauer. Wouldn't he have enjoyed this crowd he did like a bit of attention and he could work a room like a pro. I meant herbert in august 1963 on my first trip to california. We came to yolo county on the advice of dr. henrich bloom. Who has been the dean of public health school at uc berkeley. He said we should visit the most progressive public health department in california and to meet its visionary leader dr. herbert power. Although it took two more years to legislate the california mental health act. Gather support symbol the funds. He persisted in his cross country and overseas recruitment account. I just knew then that we were returning to yolo county. Who could resist working for such a man. As i got to know him i realized he exemplified the characteristics the practices the ethics. I'm a true physician. He gave selflessly to the care of the sick the poor and the disadvantaged of our community. When circumstances by jets. Politics or policies changed. He did not give up but he redoubled his efforts. Initiated new strategies and he persevered. As a member of the chowder and marching society and informal group of leading medical experts in the 1950s and 60s herbert advised governor pat brown and healthcare matters. They was in seeking the reforms which are now just coming to pass with president obama's affordable care act. Herbert always said he got a twofer for me with me and kat putting me to work in the brodrick well-baby clinic and in the first-class for emotionally disturbed children as a volunteer so i wouldn't be bored he said with a wicked grin. Herbert had a rabbit kildrummy in 1966 in 2 hours surprise. Early in 1967 are deer morag was born. He took full credit for her and he probably followed her pediatric nursing career arrived in quick succession and he wondered aloud. If i had gone to the new planned parenthood clinic i told him told him then that they had called me to ask me if i would serve on their board. But when they found out i had three children in three years they didn't call me back in the ensuing years herbert became friends advisor mentor encouraging my foray into politics into the school board the board of soups the state assembly. He was a huge fan club all by himself. Letters to the editor phone calling farmers market booths wasn't it fun to get her over to the farmer's market to advance the cause and small checks for fundraising but best with his advice but only when asked for. Naughty policy issues were his specialty and sharing a problem with herbert ensure the solution with that quick creative mind of his. Should uc-davis plan for an xterra and establishing public health school. What level is nursing education should uc-davis provide. It was very excited about the founding of the nursing program at uc davis and always like to have a progress report. Enjoy talking about my mental health bill sunny in courage the possibilities he say try just try. And of course he likes those behind-the-scenes stories from the legislature the personalities the challenges the failures in the successes. Beloved. In the years after hannah's death we saw more of herbert providing transportation for medical meetings community events movies. Democratic activities and fundraisers and so much more. He had many holiday visits and dinner is with our family. Many of you have had that same relationship with herbert. Herbert especially enjoyed the crawdads seemingly strangely since he loved opera so much but he did tell me that he can folk songs. He liked the music. He especially liked it when they played at ludis as he was very fond of ludy's fish and chips. Several weeks after herbert's death and still feeling blue i had an opportunity to visit with doctor face fitzgerald. At the university of california davis medical center about him. They were longtime medical school colleagues and friends. She is a medical historian and a dramatic speaker as well as an internist and a wonderful medical student teacher. She said her but always stood up for the students and all faculty meetings and he was beloved by them. We talked about herbert's death. The loving and compassionate care he received at home. In about the many visitors coming to sing for him and play with him play music. Talk to him sit and hold his hand. I thought it most fitting that he died at home surrounded by compassion. Sharing in love. Because he was a true ahmad wagner. Ahmad wagner i said. Well al-ahmad bosnick is a term from the talmud she told me. For one of the 36 humble modest righteous ones of jewish mysticism. But the state of those 36 hidden saints god preserves the world. Their role is to justify the purpose of humankind in the eyes of god. Ahmad bob nick goes about doing good works in his own modest unheralded way. They are ordinary individuals who serve at the repository of god's compassion. Who work changes to the world through simple acts of kindness. Her story of the lamb and wagner is a comfort to me. Herbert certainly was one. Herbert send a christmas card several years ago which i saved along with all the letters and limericks and so on. It was published by the fellowship of reconciliation to support work for peace and nonviolent action. I'd like to end with its message. Strange denver christmas message on a hot day but maybe it'll cool us all off when the song of the angel is still. When the star in the sky is gone. 20 kings and princesses are home. When the shepherds are back with their flocks. The work of christmas begins. Define the lost. Healed broken. Feed the hungry. To release the prisoner. To build a nation. To bring peace among people. To make music in the heart. Make music in the heart. No thank you. Not all that many years ago with a lot of us who were in this room today were in this room. And we were remembering. Add my mother herbert's beloved wife hannah. And i dimly remember saying at that point that she was someone who particularly. But in her later years worked hard to a culture the appearance of being a very simple person but that it was tough to miss that. Immediately under the surface she was a wildly and sometimes inexplicably complicated person and someone being a wildly complicated person under the service was perhaps the most simple. And here is herbert's implicitly as a simplicity it as best as i know to sum it up. That he is someone who felt that there was no. Issue personal. Or social or political. That cannot be fully understood with a reasonable knowledge of classical mythology and at least a modest grasp of the game of chess. And he is someone who believed without any trace of irony or any sense of cynicism that there was no ill in the world that cannot be cured with the reasonable application of a little bit of peace and love and understanding. That was him. If he had any complication and i am. Hesitant to even use that term it was his forthright belief. That everyone could benefit. From personal extended introspection regarding one's life. As long as you were not him. Hey family grew up with a truly a handful of personal of family stories for 56 maybe at the most. And an almost mantra like repetition comment by herbert that the his life was such that his past deserve to be in the past and that's where it out of state. Since hannah's death as some of you know there have been a number of you who greatly appreciative had spent truly. H & h by his side scribing. In world history. A pervert. Now among the interesting things in those histories as you may notice if you have not already. That if you set them down side-by-side one against the other. There are remarkable differences in even the large facts and figures and even greater numbers of differences in the fine-tuning of those stories so telling moderately different stories different people. Perhaps to find him was his inability. To see the following thing. And that is that in spite of the fact that he has left us with probably more questions than answers. In my mind. Which is true to his spirit. I think that he created an unbelievable amount of peace. And love. And understanding. In the world. And herbert wherever you are as much as you knew and you knew an unbelievable amount. I think even you did not know how missed you will be by how many people. For how long and thank you for that and carry on please. Thank you. There's not much that i can tell you about cobra that you don't know. But i may be the one that has known him for longer. Than anyone else in this room. His mother and my father was siblings. 205. And. When i came in later years to. Talk with him i tried to pump him on time of the history and the phone that two ladies interested. A family of. Probity and depression. And made their world we in the world. Far away from that spirit. I did not look back. And always lived in the passing lanes and for the future. I was here before in this room some years ago when he was. In a dance rehearsal with some young people. The theme. Was. Clash between the generations ending in the reconciliation and a blessing that is one of the most beautiful things that i have. Ever seen. After that he took me outside and he showed me the stoneware and his name is inscribed. He pointed to the one next to him and he said well he had been shown that this one's for you. Uronic smile he said i said well i'm not that eager and. But as both of you probably know anybody was recently. He had no regrets he always look forward. Show me. He was a born boggle. The advice that he gave to me when i ask for it was calm and wise. And i was supposed to be his cousin. And all of us with the village to have known him. Herbert one said to me and his perfectly unique herbert voice which i often hear inside my head but which i could never possibly reproduce pamela no one should ever do any one job for more than 20 years after 20 years of person should find something new to do. And so i believe that is why herbert wants the county's first full-time public health officer became a psychiatrist in his sixties and why in his eighties he told me that he had decided to become a dancer some of my favorite memories are of herbert dancing as many dancers do he developed a favorite set of movements a lunch with an extended arm assist raised in victory delivered forcefully with will and determination but rather a place so the entire process. Herbert's words again to all of us as bob dunning's guest columnist writing of his own impending death months before it happened am i scared he wrote not the least bit to die is a perfectly normal thing to do whatever time remains don't rush it enjoy what is left with the help of friends music poetry if i could do just one more thing what would i do my in modest answer is not just one but three more things namely my own 3 commandments. Keep living. Keep loving keep laughing. I like to talk about. Pearl's roll. In the history of the church history of the word that would make. Purvis smile a bit. Actually i want to talk about. Herbst contribution to something. That's more intangible than history even more intangible in history. What you might call the feel. All of this congregation. Here you church of here university. The church of davis. By feel. I mean. In the early days and as far as it continues now as far as i can see. Feel means. How we saw ourselves. How we felt about the world and about life in general. A body shower. It's hard to put that kind of feeling into words as i remember it was a kind of. Group consensus on. I'm glad to be here i'm feeling something like that anyhow herb. Contributed a great deal to it. Of course her bahama where the founding members were among the founding members. Are the davis unitarian fellowship. And at that time there were a lot of unanswered questions. About just who we were. And what we want to. Herbst contribution. What's to say. I just about the right moment. Something worth listening to. And doing it almost casually. He had a talent for knowing what's important. The underlying. Facts of a situation. And make it very clear. Without checking himself or us to seriously. I want her blocked shopping during the front during a congregational meeting. You're expected to hear something very clearly thought-out. He could do that at a moment's notice. And also something that if necessary. Relieve the tension because there's you all as you all know i must well know. He had a deadpan which that popped up when you didn't really expect it. I wish i could remember more of the things that i heard from herb. But that was a long time ago. There's one example that turned up recently won the davis enterprise reprinted. One of herbes famous letters to the editor. I expect many of you have red nose. This one had to do with the place of women in the armed forces. That's the sort of issue that got his attention. Anyhow his water gave a carefully reasoned viewpoint on the subject. And finish with a flat statement. Women. Should be sent into combat. For men either. Quite often during. Church meetings we would hear from herb and usually with a couple of wry comments like that one. But one of his off-the-cuff pronouncements. What's different. And i will never forget it. This was during the vietnam war. Which was a painful time for this congregation and many others. The old-timers here will remember that some members of this church wanted us to become. Hey sanctuary. For young man avoiding the draft. Maybe i shouldn't say avoiding pleasing the draft. Others felt strongly that that would be wrong. And. Illegal. And during a very tense congregational meeting on that issue. Herb walked up to the front here. And change the subject. Didn't talk about what's legal or what's not illegal. What about the church. Or even about the congregational vote that was coming up. Passionately and quietly. He listed. The underlying. Evasions and falsehoods. Of the vietnam war. And he did it as usual. Simply no rhetorical flourishes he just said it. Better than i ever heard said before. And in my mind at least. That remains a highlight of this church's history. Our congregation has been shaped not only by all of us but i think by a few very special people. Like our first minister bob cintas. If you were here heard wouldn't claim to be one of those people. He just joking about the idea. But he was one of them. Austria's loss was our countries gain. What an amazing life. To have had herbert bauer at all we must think is quick-witted decision. To escape through the back window from the nazis were came knocking for him on the front door. Did just take it they just moved in from germany to austria in. And assumed power in 1838. His father was gone. He had to turn to classical latin and greek to support his mother and sister and to put himself through medical school. That's university of vienna for he was a liberal student leader. He was in his internal medicine residency. When he escaped. He travel first to milan italy. And then to london to tutor and sixteen-year-old hannah goldsmith. That together they found jobs for more than 200 other refugees is dishwasher ism etc. Helping them escape to. Hannah decided to study psychology at uc berkeley. So herb interned at french hospital in san francisco and then served as the only. Carroll county physicians at the san luis obispo hospital a drain wwii he was on call 24/7. Are you taking only a brief break to marry hannah in santa barbara only to return quickly to deliver a baby. After the war he attended uc berkeley school of public health charter class for his mph degree in 1948. How he was then the tuberculosis control officer in sacramento for a year or so before becoming the first full-time yolo county public health officer from 1952 to 1972. He was a hands-on doctor. Immunizing the population against polio. Holding popular well-child clinics. Known far and wide for their good sense parenting advice. He started family planning clinics to help people have as many or as few children is a waste. And he routinely ask patients if they had ever considered killing themselves. Can begin volunteer suicide prevention groups. He was an early supporter of community mental health. And recruited me to return from edinboro scotland to start the mental health program in 1965 which was an integral part of the health department. Herbert was an early supporter of dean john tapper and the new uc davis medical school. He became a popular clinical professor of preventive medicine in the department of community health. In 1972 at the age of 62. After 20 years is yolo county health officer he had heard a child psychiatry residency program and became a forensic child psychiatrist. He's limited his clinical practice to medical children and adults. He retired again at age 85 and then specialized in bioethics. Serving as chair of the bioethics committee both woodland memorial and sutter davis hospital as well as on the ethics committee of the medical society and the psychiatric association. He continued writing his quick. A razor-sharp letters to the editor of the. Davis enterprise. He has been president of the state health officers association. The state mental health directors the yolo county medical society. The california lung association. The yolo mental health association and the yolo county family service agency. His words are numerous but decided few he in hanover the colville citizens of the year in 1976. He receives the city of davis peace and justice award for his activities as a member of physicians for social responsibility and is president of the davis chapter of the united nations association. In 1996 the california medical association gave him the frederick pleasanr award as a physician who best exemplified the practice and ethics. Aurora practitioner. In 2002 sierra sacramento valley medical society recognize him as a golden stethoscope award as a physician who distinguished himself in service to his community and for upholding and demonstrating the highest standards of the medical profession. Herbert experience deprivation dislocation and nearly lethal pursuit. He practice medicine under difficult circumstances with no time left. Continuously on call for whatever might arrive. He have the wisdom and the forbearance to overcome challenges and rise to opportunities. He inspired us all. I found him to be a thoughtful and supportive boss i have the creed freedom to innovate and develop a wonderfully brought a robust county mental health program and the rise to leadership positions in metal health psychiatry in medicine. With his support and encouragement. We remained close friends until his death. I will miss her greatly as i know you will as well. Chris called me and asked if i could give a little bit of a viewpoint of a neighbor. And i just felt joy in that what a perfect way. To to associate with a person as a neighbor. And 48 years. And that's not even the half of it so with that. As we look together. Fitz. We started across the street. 831 on herbert side 840 on our side. And as we were moving in and you remember if you were just exhausted and here comes another dresser. But across the street comes herbert. Paddling with a newspaper under his arm figuring you need a little break. The other time. Is fit. Let me come back just a little bit. That how we associated this neighbor ship. Was recent move to ashland oregon. And how do you keep doing it well. The northbound trips to the bowers. We're obviously match by the south burn down trips of miller's and we really kept that going. But particularly in the last probably about 15 years. When travel became more difficult. We thought let's try. The cfa about once a quarter to go down. Just kind of move in the house. Share that friendship. And most of all shared debbie's cooking. And trying to put some quick thoughts together i find it at. And it would rattle on too long so i decided to make a collage of this giving just some of the highlights for us. As you put it together for yourself. And the first one for me is warm. Hardly anything else needs to be said to that. The other was generosity. At the end of that school things are a bit tumultuous you're trying to finish up your vet school where. You've got boards in various states to take care of. And you're looking for money you're trying to get a practice. And through all this the bower said you know when you're a northbound from california to oregon to washington why don't you go on up to bc to gabriola and stay at the cabin. And we continued after some 40 years. I don't need to say anything about the simple truths in the paper everybody's commented on that. One that has struck me some. Is herbert was a really stubborn guy. In the little bits of our collage classic music. History for us as he always was commenting about. Taking a trip. To vienna to the opera when he was 13 years old. Energy. Friday nights. Like it or not you got the opera. The other little tidbits punctuality oh my goodness whether it was a meeting. The news programs for dinner. Herbert was there. Another is thres. That man had no concept of stripes or checks and he didn't care. The other thing is he. You know he was always watching the news. You're always asked him what was up with the news. Nothing good. But he really wanted to be informed. The part that was dear dear to me. Is we walk the neighborhood. And that time together that one-on-one. Something that's dear to me. It was commented from death. Fit as we were with debbie around meals our tradition is always to say grace. And at first i was a little. Cautious. But no. That was. Participated in and expected by herbert. And it was a delight for us to share that feeling that way. And just a couple of little things for our kids. When amy was born. That year the public health yearbook. Was dedicated. To the children and the babies of yolo county and we knew which one it was and finish up. Our youngest daughter anne. Was had the wedding in ashland. And we found a way to get herbert up several days in advance. And yet you just hurt just would sit in the chair. And so we put him in charge of ups. Amazon those packages arrived that was herbert's job to receive them. Put them in the right place and they were accounted for. On the day of the wedding at the reception afterwards. Pamela you came forward in spades. Batman danced with every lady at that reception and it was sweets talk with others. The man that danced with me we finished up somewhere about 1 in the morning and i was just dragging home. But you know the next morning. We were kind of concerned is everybody that was in the neighborhood to get them their breakfast and on their way. 8 in the morning herbert was one of the first to show up. So as you take all this collage. The ad your pieces or make your own. But these memories are what we treasure. Of her bower. Herbert and hannah were my mentors my colleagues and friends for more than half my life and i count myself among those bob dunning described as the ten thousand in our community. Who those souls who loved her bird and who experienced his love and affection in return. And so i am privileged to be here to read a few of his letters at. Christmas request i believe those letters that were sent to the editor of the davis enterprise and where. The death penalty public health health issues. National politics in all things related to his wonderfully love davis. These letters endeared him to us. And became perhaps a large part of the basis for his being known as the conscience of davis. I just selected a few. I found as i read his words i heard his voice. Perhaps you may hear him too. The first letter i chose the timely letter even though it was written in october of 2008. He road. Supporters of proposition 8. Which seeks to bar same-sex marriage. Have every right to express their opinion. Who influenced our legislators to persuade other voters to share their belief. There is one thing however they do not have to write. They should not do any way to recite our pledge of allegiance. Which demands liberty and justice for all this appears to be against their conviction and therefore when reciting the pledge their heart is not the right place to put their right hand. And in a letter written in 2007 he wrote a letter expressing his view of both. A trillion dollars for the war. Absolutely that's the patriotic way2go. Millions or heavens forbid even some billions. To ensure and feed hungry children. Absolutely not that would be socialized medicine and worse it might inhale some life into our life was no child left behind program. Only a presidential veto can protect us from such an attack on our basic values. Survey after survey in our mailbox ask us what we think. Of our president's policies and of the congregational members who do not have the brain and the guts to vote against him. Obviously is not for me. To say what we feel about it. Yep the first word that comes to my own mind is contempt. When did martin was killed herbert did not. Take part in the celebration. He wrote the worldwide response to bin laden's death was overwhelming as expected. Most of us are grateful that this man can do no more harm and most of us admire the military skill with which the whole problem. Including bin laden himself was executed. There are two things that to me personally or painful. The joy over the killing as expressed in every sentence of every newspaper. And the triumph over having been the ones who did it. If killing is what we must do let's kill but let's don't have fun doing it. If that seems cowardly. Or insensitive or even unpatriotic so be it. All of us must sleep. With our own conscience. Praise and appreciation were part of herbert's writing as well and on january 23rd 2012 following the receipt of the many books given him for his 102nd birthday. I think there were 328. He wrote. Oh how i wish i could hug each of you and thank you for the words the letters stuff books. You gave me on my 102nd birthday. Yes since obviously i cannot expect to live long enough to thank all of you individually allow me to express my profound gratitude. With the three most powerful words in any human language. I love you. Re-read the letter that i had also chosen in his opposition to war so finally i will end with something that isn't a letter. But i want to share with you a quotation of an interview arising out of an interview at the time of his 90th birthday. Give me interview when he was referred to as the conscience of davis. Carpentry mart. The conscious with davis. That's flattering but it has nothing to do with reality. The community needs more conscience than i can contribute. One of the hazards if that being the last speaker is everybody else stole your material. I can relate to helen story with the. Planned parenthood i have six kids i think i'm on a dartboard at planned parenthood's headquarters. Spongebob tanning and i was the herb h paperboy. Actually i really was years ago urban as beloved hannah and their boys live just up the street and around the corner on the on ost drive. Tweety urban hannah walking around the neighborhood. Together so often that we kids we all thought that that was their full-time job as a catholic of course i had to i request special permission from the pope to even speak here today at the universe unitarian universalist church. My dad had just taught me about silent letters. We were looking at eleanor gordon it at and he said that's actually spelled h e r b but it's brown. Sewing dr. bauer introduced himself to me as herb i thought he had mispronounced his own name that every year about this time. I hold a contest asking members of the davis community to write my column for me. Pretty good deal they do the work i get a vacation paid vacation. Shuffle the last 15 years without exception. On the very day i announce the beginning of the contest. An entry arrives hand-delivered no stamp. Typed on an old-fashioned olivetti typewriter show you a couple of them. Texas. This is them. And i think we all know who the author was her bower. I generally are about 10 winners each year. I like to take long vacations. And every year her was one of the winners. The amazing thing was the variety of topics he chose. Some offbeat. Some off-the-wall. Some pack for the motion some just plain funny. But the one underlying threat to all of herbst columns. Plus i always had a message. Straight to the point. And just sharp enough to make you say ouch without actually breaking your skin. I called them her observes because they were tidbits for the mind something to savour and think about. His constant wins in my column writing contest got landed on the editors carpet one day. She said some of the other entrants are complaining. The herb h always wins and i looked at her i said that's because his stuff is 10 times better than anybody else's. Scitech to having my wife shelly read all of the entries to me. Sight unseen. Without me having any idea who had written them. Herb still one every time. Just letters the editors we just heard we're legendary. My all-time favorite thank god nobody read this one of my all-time favorite is titled solution to airline terror. Was written shortly after herbert's 100th birthday. Says editor flying used to be fun now it's a pain. Screening luggage bad food delay cancellation and all the rest. Yet there is an ultimate and logical solution for all those problems. For screening. All passengers should be completely undressed the right to decide if they want a male or female examiner regardless of their own sex. Happy careful examination each nude passenger should be suspected of indecent exposure and put on the no-fly list that would fix it once and for all herbert bauer davis herb stuff was always insightful. And sometimes insightful with a c to think about that for a minute the colony sent to me two years ago. Begin very poignantly. Just talking about what we talked about about austria. Says yes the window is still open. Not just any window. I mean the window through which i left europe in 1938 in vienna. Right after austria's occupation by nazi germany. I have never been there since yet recently i took a boat trip on the danube organized by uc-davis. Which stops for a few hours in vienna. And gave me a chance to see what it happened. During all those years since i left. A friend drove us around and we visited the house in which i was born where we had lived where i went to school. Finally where i'd left a shattered europe through a window which was quite low and much safer than it would have been to leave through the front door of a house in which i was known as a liberal. The most dangerous name you could be called. Last year my daughter maeve was here. You can wait. She was just 10 years old. She called herb. Call tyrone. Asked if she could interview him for an article she was writing for national scholastic magazine. Hareli agreed. So they met one afternoon just the two of them in her backyard. Imagine a man of 102. Negril just 10. Chatting as if they've been best friends forever. When she came home. They both under essay with these words. He was only 4 years old herb bauer served at a prison camp during the first world war. Like opening and closing doors for the prisoners. His pay. A chocolate chip cookie. But this is only a small snapshot. Suburbs life. And finally her bro this my very favorite calm. Panda the age of 102. Panda pantry can't see mention some of this. Socialist 8 months before his death. Set time is come again to replace the columnist. By submitting a description of a significant event. In our own life. What could that be. After thinking for a whole minute i thought my impending death might be significant enough at least in my own life to be classified as significant. No specific date has been or will be set. But by human standards it is obviously close. Am i scared not the least bit. Today is a perfectly normal thing to do just imagine what would happen if we didn't. Whatever time remains don't rush it. Overdoing it will only shorten it. Instead enjoy what is left with the help of friends. Music poetry. If i could do just one more thing what would i do my immodest answer. It's not one but three things namely my own three commandments keep living keep loving. Keep laughing. This will presumably be. The first year i won't have an entry from herb bauer. Then again herbert has his ways and i won't be surprised if one arrives in the mail one day soon hand typed. Will the heavenly return address. Someone remarked to me the other day. That was herbert's passing we have lost the conscience of davis. Nothing could be further from the truth. Like all great men and women. Herb has left us a long and full and incredibly detailed legacy. His words his actions just thoughts. Is overwhelming kindness and yes his conscience will live on in our hearts and our minds and our very souls. The conscience of davis herbert bauer will be with us always. Herb concluded his final column. At the very end. What i would like to say to you is what byron said to all of us. Fairly well and if forever. Still forever. Everlywell. Fairly well her power fairly well. Everyone should have received a card that looks like this when you came in. Exlines. And this tells you that you are going to be welcome to tell your individual stories and to read your limericks. And to read the pros. To read more enterprise articles. In a time of sharing. In august. For this time. We have invited specific people to speak. And i'm aware that we had some people fly in. From far away some family members and we weren't sure exactly the time of the printing of the service. How many there would be. So if you are a member of the family. And you would like to share at this time. I'd like to make. This pulpit available to you. And either. Okay. I'm not a family member. But i am friends with her butler. My name is charlene kunis. And i wanted to share a just. A lovely. Episode with herb. The last time that we talked. We talked about. Our national anthem. And herb and i agreed that it was unsinkable. And since i am a voice teacher. I certainly know that. And i said we need to change the national anthem. So we brainstormed. And we came up with two. Wonderful wonderful song that everyone can sing. 1 is. America the beautiful. Which has singable range. The other is. God bless america written by irving berlin who was also an immigrant from europe like her bower. So. I guess my life's work. Is to finish with her than i thought about doing. I hope that i can do it. Thank you. And are their friends who traveled from afar who will not be able to come to our next gathering. I invite you all back in august when we have an additional celebration of herbert. To tell all of your stories. And we will have. Well over an hour to share those. The closing words. I invite you to respond to what i say with we remember him. And this was written in the united nations association. Of the united states of america. The program. Are the united nations foundation a letter about herbert's death. And it is of jewish heritage. So your part is to say we remember him. In the rising of the sun and it's going down. In the blowing of the wind and the chill of the water. In the opening buzz and in the rebirth of spring. In the blueness of the sky and the warmest of the summer. In the rustling of the leaves in the beauty of autumn. In the beginning of the year and when it ends. When we are weary and in need of strength. When we are lost and are sick of heart. When we have joy we yearn to share. Yes we remember him so long as we live. Herbert to sheldon. For he is a part of all who have known him. There is a message from herbert that you will hear and invite the crawdads to come and get in your position at this point because you're going to be singing right after and as they're getting set up i will tell you that i sent an email to all the participants who would be. Speaking or dancing. Singing today and i said you know there'll be something that will happen in the course of his service that you will not expect. That will go wrong as it were. A mistake a grand mistake and just know that we're just going to keep going no matter what that is and that happened very early on. A time when you would not have known but i'm going to reveal all to you right now and that is at the bakery that was going to make the cookies for this event their ovens broke. But. Kaplan and got 400 cookies and helen. Not knowing the cat had gotten 450 went and bought 400 cookie so over that the we have as i understand it 900 cookies for our reception and you are all invited to eat as many cookies as your life. Coming back at you and you were invited to take cookies home with you as well and so. I'll fly away and may it be with cookies. Route to starbucks on you for just a minute keep laughing.

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2017-01-29-Relentless-Resistance-Revolutionary-Resilience.mp3?_=1

Welcome to sunday sermons another recording from unitarian universalist church of davis california please visit our website at w.w. org for further information. Chase morning our guest preacher. Is there. And sexual gender justice and other issues. Resource generation whose mission is to organize class privilege. Land and power she believes deeply in collective liberation and the idea that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere she believes that unit. Ashley. Universalist minister. Z. 16. And aspen. Working together in this way and it is worth it. I just want to say also that we. Turn on campus minister to the unitarian universalist church of davis place of caring and compassion of encouragement and challenge. My family as well as the beautiful living communities for this. The issues that surround us are overwhelming right now. We come to the sanctuary to center ourselves. That we are not. Might. Becomes lighter. The joys that we share our x. Is taylor. And health coordinator so many items including today so it was no surprise to me. The symbol of a childless was first used by the unitarian universalist service committee. It was a light too many during this time today. Ashley. City of used by marge piercy and old favorites.. Strokes. People. And heavy cart. Like water buffalo with massive. Parlor generals and field deserters. The world is common as mud. Doing well has a shape. This satisfies clean and evidence. Royal vases. That is real that is real. Propane tanks and bales of hay that are flooding in on trucks and cars and campers from around the globe. And follow the leadership of those indigenous elders people who have resistance and survival. Create the ability to unflinchingly face the wounds and the brokenness of this world. Warframe or just world is not only possible but she is on her way this week. Resistance revolutionary resilience. It does not imply that we created it is simply that we use it to it. We vote on whether or not to make the public statement or son's a partnership program. The folks who are going to be. Showing up and using our collective energy to ask. Churros. Covenants together for non-compliance. Looking for quiet reflection. The world outside and 40 minutes to live in that other world. We say no we're not coming. That's all the time they will leave. Tangible trending consequences we might. Is smeared in the media. We might. Do surveils or harassed by law enforcement. Our communities are used to having dealt with for years and generations for us. Many of us feel like a new thing that terrifies us are we willing to take on. How can we become resilient enough to sustain our resistance in the face of france. As if it were possible to radically transform the world happy birthday. But we are not powerless.. Without trembling under its weight. Resistance reinforcer. Clarity world. The sound of those. Hello road. It starts. It starts when you do it again they said no. And to build as we fight for the dignity of refugees and immigrants. Airports are caged in detention centers are organizing on college campuses. Borders are an ancient memory. Stout. Many hands make. Building the bridge between what is.

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2015-06-21_Flower-Communion_10_00.mp3

Welcome to sunday sermons another recordings from unitarian universalist church of davis california please visit our website at w.w. org for further information. Thanks and a senior minister for this congregation that serves a wide community sexual orientations and gender identities. We gather this hour if people are faced with joys and sorrows gifts and needs we light this beacon of hope sign of our quest for truth in meaning in celebration of this life we share together thank you so much. The flower celebration or communion service with created or norbert capek who along with his wife. In addition to flower communion today is another special celebration in the life of this specific sabbatical may remember the ritual we perform to remove the pastoral stole from her as we sent her on her way and today we perform a similar ritual to return the symbol of her pastor role and growth that you saw why we missed you as you were away we knew the time was purposeful and well-deserved we happily marquis return to your pastor role in the congregation we look forward to learn earning from your sabbatical experiences hoping that some of your renewal and growth will rub off on us and we excitedly anticipate the years of ministry to come. Kind of like a small free entry because i came back june 1st and has been listening to pretty much everyone and keep telling people that the first 15 minutes of every committee meeting it's one of those cartoons wear my hair is blown straight back with. Sabbatical for me it was all about being curious about everything. There was a time for reflection. Not my backyard and play going to the almond blossom festival which i always wanted to do but it happened on a sunday mostly in the morning and it was not what i expected i can't wait to be back with you when the almond festival happens next time. Playing the dulcimer. And then of course when you travel with you this at a different kind of church. With a different kind of wealth. And then it was italy. You are what you eat ali food and so. You are what you eat ali i traveled with a wonderful friend and we were great together because we say do you know it is no let seated. And going through the markets with everything beautiful from and i know we got to it she was in my life i want them i need them i love them. And you know. Wonderful place. Carrying wonderful music in venice at night. And taking. The water bus home and seeing the lights all along. There it is midnight in bath. Beautiful beautiful country. And there is are r-rated beautiful aren't amazing aren't everywhere so different if you see it in person than even on the slide. And dulcimers made from marble if you can imagine what that would be like to carry that around they said the sound wasn't so great but it was very beautiful. An art of the street artist whose creating are in the street with each other and teaching children so there you are in the midst of everything this evening and teaching. And then we went to a cooking class and that was great and we sad with people down in the basement they took us to the market and taught us everything everything about the food. Organic food that is everywhere they think we're kind of crazy to some of our foods organic and some of it is not but. And harley-davidsons were there harley-davidson. And there were 66 flights of stairs to get there. One of the views. I think it was at the top of the 66 plates harvesting. Olive same level as what we just saw. And the end of where we were going. The end. The end let's see what i do next. setting there we go. So i just want to say to you again that is just a bit of what happened in 5 months i can't resist a wonderful picture of but i like the chalice i'm so grateful to you for that time and i come back and i find you strong and doing wonderful things and with a strategic plan is sending us into the future and i'm so pleased to be there with you at the walk forward. What is move into a pastor all prayer and ruth will be joining name with the heart. Let us praise those fathers who have striven to balance the demands of work and marriage and children with an honest awareness of both joy and sacrifice. Cody would you come come on up here so you just get to stand here i'm afraid and look at it everybody know cody will be moving as you know to boston to where our denomination is headquartered. If you would join hands or wrap your arms around the shoulders of those next to you and hear this benediction go now blessed by the unique presence of each one in this room go now evolving to continue the journey together in our search for truth go now refusing to be / difference knowing that your practice of love and justice is redeeming the world comment.

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2013-12-29-_Experiencing-the-Divine_11_15.mp3

Welcome to sunday sermons another recordings from unitarian universalist church of davis california please visit our website at w.w. org for further information. Welcome we come to the sanctuary to celebrate the beauty of the earth and to be in community. This congregation comforts us when we know loss and celebrates our best dreams. We bring our differences together. We offer a fuller truth than anyone point-of-view. This is a place of challenge and compassion. The holy is experienced here in many ways and is given many names. People of all sexual orientations and gender expressions and identities are celebrated. We welcome all races and classes and physical abilities. We have much to learn from one another. This. Is a place of learning and hope. Weather because of the touch of a friend the words and music or a moment of silence. May you. Feel more alive. Riding a chalice today is medi and it's a regular part of our church is susie crew. Our child sledding today was written by eric a heller wagner. Blessed is the fire that burns deep in the soul. It is the flame of the human spirit touched into being by the mystery of life. It is the fire of reason a fire of compassion the fire of community. The fire of justice. The fire face. It is the fire of love burning deep in the human heart. The divine glow in every life. And i met for coffee to discuss this service on the 17th of this month. We laughed together at the realization that we had inadvertently agreed to meet on the anniversary of rooming staff. Sometimes known as his wedding day. The sufis mark each year as meth lana roomies return. Is reunions with a beloved divine. 2 years ago. I travel to turkey with a number of my classmates from starr king school for the ministry and are soupy soupy professor. Dr. ibrahim ferrer known affectionately as bobby ibrahim. It was an intense immersive experience and we saw and heard and tasted and felt many amazing things. We learned how to bow. We learned how to turn. We learned how to pray. By far the most memorable piece of our trip was the time we spent in the small city of konya. Where rumi live for most of his life. Sufism had been illegal in turkey for many years and susie worship has only recently been allowed to flourish once again. The annual celebration of rumi's reunions with the divine has grown and grown. And now on the 17th of december the town is full of twirling praying singing storytelling sufis. Key and dates are consumed everywhere and worshippers are drawn into dance and rhythmic chance in the practice known as sicker. That last all through the night. Even when i retreated up to the room i shared to rest the zicker resonated around me it was if we never quite stopped dancing stopped being present together. With the divine. We. Are not in turkey. And most of us are not susie. But we can celebrate rumi's spirit of love and acceptance and mystic wisdom. As we come together in this hour of worship. Call tom mobile.. Bashar. This is a precious moment. If you share with kidding light-heartedness and love. Enjoy for each other and then this moment. Bellhop in vaudeville. In the early morning hour just before dawn lover and beloved and take a drink of water she asked do you love me or yourself more really tell the absolute truth is nothing left of me. Please join me now in the spirit of prayer. In this last service this last church service of the year. For all that has given us joy. Filled our hearts with gladness and hope. May we give thanks. For all that has challenged us to grow. Preach opportunity we have had to be our best selves may we give thanks. For what wisdom or inside we have gained. What is stretched our understanding or broadened our horizons. Maybe give thanks. Spirit of life and love. A witness to our gratitude for all that has enriched our lives as you have borne witness to our grief and our struggles and this year we have mourned and we have celebrated we have pondered and we have wept and we have marked the milestones of lives well-lived each of us is a part of an intricate web of relationships when one of us celebrate the joy or grieve zalost the web of life moves to a new shape we are apart of the turn of the earth the shift of the tsar's the pull of the sea and all change we are apart of all and we are here together and this space with us and please join me in a moment of silence dance. Amen. In the words of abba on a ruby translation out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing there is a field i'll meet you there when the soul lies down in that grass the world is too full to talk about i'm in the shade and blessed be.

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2013-06-02_Worship_Worship_Wisdom-that-Bridges_10_00.mp3

Welcome to sunday sermons another recording from unitarian universalist church of davis california website www.org for further information. Show in the center section here are our graduating high school seniors and families and i don't know when we've ever had quite. So many people to turn our attention to. To turn our love to see want you to be beaming your love over here the choir i'm not the director of the clair batman to stay quiet please sing to these people because you know. There are guests are honoured people and i will just stain out of a unique group. Talk about imagination and challenged our congregation members to use their imagination. And so we took that very seriously. And this opening song laura thought really spoke to that. Can you find the music to wonder in. Your program. This morning you're accepted just as you are. Seniors to. And at the same time may you seek to be changed and know that. Some of the things that i'm going to stay right now come from the congregation. Perhaps that changes to live with more trust. Going to forgive others. To reach out to others we don't understand. And in this our maybe we will experience a flash of insight that will solve a problem that we have been struggling with to solve and suddenly life will be changed. That's what someone ask for this week. And maybe you want to make change happen in our beautiful and hurting world. Until may be a place of comfort for all ages and a place. For challenge for all of you. And the people in this room who are your companions. There's a diversity of beliefs and the way people understand what is sacred to them what many call god. And on this journey are people of different sexual orientations and gender identities those are different class and race and physical ability until i invite us all to come and his surge together to become our very best sells again. Which is a gift that we are given every day. To try again. And now and keeping with imagination before i go onto our invitations to community i need to ask you to do something i just need one thing. I need someone to give me. An object. Okay thank you very much. Passing out of here very quick and we have here is starbucks cups. And it this beautiful arrangement was made by gail selznick and i'm not going to put the starbucks coffee but i like starbucks coffee so i'm going to put it up here. Honey alter such as. No. Is it t. I wish it was coffee alright. And now i'm laying and time with you speak a little bit about the bridging ceremony so that we can know what it is that we are experiencing today before we walk into the service. When a child is born and introduced to the church we have a naming ceremony. Where they are presented with a rose with all the thorns removed. Symbolizing. As we as a congregation go to care for them. Will be careful too. Help protect them from the dangers of. Life that i had. When we do the bridging ceremony now. And send our young ones out of the world as. Nascent adults. We presenting with. Roses with thorns on them. Symbolizing that. We can't protect them from every danger that might be out there. However we don't send them unarmed they also get. Gloves. Usually a pair of them but we had a. Late edition today and i had only gotten five pairs of gloves 46 young ones. So we'll be using our imagination to try to figure out who gets wet but. Yeah that's the symbolism behind the roses and the gloves. And i invited lanie to add whatever i may have missed and maybe some words of our own. Tom did a great job and it's just going to be a time to recognize the transition that these young people are making and so you're going to see the youth and the young adults and watch them make the transition from one place to another before your very eyes. Eddie went to read more about that at the end of the order service you'll see that laney has written a wonderful description of the process for our youth. Now lauren mills. It's done. Who made again. American. The symbol of the flaming chalice. Came from someone's imagination. It came from the imagination of a man named hans deutsch. Archie and the unitarian service committee. We're faced with the holocaust. And they chose to envision. That they could save a few lives. And so the imagined a symbol. A symbol that can make their documents look more official. And help them to smuggle people into safer places in europe. And i had to use many kinds of wisdom. In this endeavor. They needed the practical wisdom to navigate systems and make documents and be able to do the procedures. I may need a sort of insightful wisdom. To help them to know what was too dangerous and who they could trust and how they could. Make this happen. But they also needed that. Imaginative wisdom. It helped them see possibility. Even in the midst of such horror. I'm going to need this kind of wisdom. Just as we staying in the ingathering song. Sometimes i have to confess this world is in. A terrible mess. And we who gather here. Have the wisdom to imagine that it could be otherwise. And when we dare to imagine. A different world. Then we have a drive to act. And we have a motivation to raise funds. Traveling to go be with navajo people in arizona to see. How we can learn and serve. And we have a motivation to move into adulthood out of childhood with intention. And to bring our values with us as we make that crossing. Underworld. Can be a scary place. And there are certainly thorns. On the roses as we can all attest to. And it can be easy. Christina thorne sometimes and even to analyze. Why they are there. But to imagine. Ways to deal with that. To imagine how things can be navigated how it could be otherwise. That takes faith. And it takes courage. And it takes wisdom. So as we move through this service and we honor those were going on the journey of the spirit and we honor. Our bridging youth were coming into adulthood. Let us all open our minds. To the deep wisdom. Of imagination. I want you to look around this room. And to realize that there are people out in the social hall 2. Greetings to you you we are one there's another song that. Tells us that we are one. But i want you to witness the support there is for our use. Are young adults. Our families and we are all families. The journey of the spirit social justice trip to the navajo nation in tuba city will be. Prime june 14th to the 26th. Penair 18 youth and adults will be in involved in the life of a navajo community eating and sleeping and working. And being open to learning all that they can. Those words were from. Kate raymond. And this group will be presenting a worship service on july 21st. And you are all invited to come back. And to hear what this experience. Was like. I would like to invite all those who will be traveling will be traveling to come forward in circles within circles so you can see each other's faces. So come forward. And stand in circles. So you can see each other's faces. Everyone is traveling on that trip this summer. Alright so here hear these words. For you the center of the center of the circle. May you work hard. Honest trip together we're card to listen to what is said and what is left unsaid. But it's as true as what is spoken. Open yourself to the history of the navajo people and their current lives. Open yourself to feeling both sadness and overwhelming joy and when you find that life is unjust. Remember your anger. May you know in a new way how we are connected to the world beyond our own community the power of giving what is truly needed and not what we think people need. Learning through listening and being with others. And discover what you have in your lives right now. I forgot. I've never noticed. And may you see some things that are missing in your life. Pitbull eyes of others in the navajo people model for you. May you be changed in ways that can be spoken. And ways that are felt and known but cannot be expressed in words but just through actions and wisdom. What is it that you will learn. What is it that you will give. We will be here. To hear your stories tell them to us. May this gathering say amen and blessed be. And so it is that we move into our service of bridging. So we are going to begin our bridging i would like to invite all of the youth to come stand at a high school-aged youth wherever you are everybody come up. You are bridger's and you are the well-wishers who will be telling them goodbye. Alright so this is some part of the youth group high school age youth group of this church. And today we will say goodbye to six of them very sad day for me and a very sad day for a lot of us. Just a little bit about each person when i say your name is set for its everybody knows who you are okay. I'm going to start with ricky. Ricky has only been with our group for a year because he only moved her this year but ricky is a master of showing up. Ricky is the best show rapper i have ever met chi and true spirit was the first one here this morning 15 minutes early ready to go he is never late and he is therefore everything that happens he is on time and ready to go. He has worked with full force at every single meal that we've created here everything he's been apart of he does with all of his energy he volunteers at the library and davis and he shows up there and works hard he's done some volunteering with community meals. And this next year he's going to be staying in town and going to sac city community college so we'll still get to benefit from his presence here. Map directions for you. Alright cali. Callie has been a part of this church for a very long time. And her mother suzanne was president the board this year so i'm sure she got to hear a lot about that get lots of input and advice. And callie is all about bringing the fun in until he's also all about spontaneity. My favorite thing about cop kelly has her spontaneity stories 1st is when we did a youth service not this year i think the beer before kelly signed on to sing. Who's the first time and she jumped up in front of the congregation and that's amazing. The other one was the coming-of-age service that we had last week when she did it years ago. She showed up with her speech ready to go her credo like everybody else and then when she was here she was like you know my beliefs are always changing i don't know if i believe this anymore this morning my main belief is that my voice keep changing. Okay adam king is basically an all-around rockstar that's pretty much gpa. She was in three varsity sports i believe captain of the football team is that right adam. And he basically is just master of everything that he does. So i we are very excited to hear that he's going to uc berkeley next year and he's very interested in business so. Adam. Austin lake. And austin is one of a special kind of youth that migrates into the youth group even though his parents don't go to this church. And i think that is really awesome i love to have those kids because that kind of dedication is just really touching to me so to me is this amazing balance of absolute seriousness and complete hilarity when there is fun to be had of making that happen but when we have serious conversations we had a high school our whole lives. Curriculum and awesome as part of that answer that talk about sexuality education stuff and he was always willing to ask the hard questions to be vulnerable to admit to not knowing things to move the conversation forward about stuff that's embarrassing and difficult. And i was just really pleased to have any part of that group and you know as soon as the funtime came. He was there making it happen and austin will be going to tufts next year and i hear was really tough to get in so. Kind of have to do together captain brand or kind of a two-headed monster of a storage so that's very sweet and it's wonderful to watch their relationship. Couple months ago or something. they're second degree black belt in taekwondo and anybody who thinks that that's like you kind of show up the classes and you get that that is not the case when i hear about what they have to do for this there is so much psychological pressure and physical pressure fake spierings pain and they keep going it's like a two-day herculean feat that they have to go through three day. Kathy is this awesome balance of. Compassion and sweetness but like this fierce determination and that's going to be perfect in her career in nursing she's going to go to sac state next year and study nursing so it's very excited so kathy and grants i think is my use that most loves learning she always is asking questions you always bring a new information and knowledge and is always trying to take his conversations to the next level what if what if what about. And i love that about grant and he's been a real inspiration in the youth group and making those interesting philosophical conversations happen. And he is going to be going to cal poly next year and setting history and psychology. So i would now like to invite any young adults in the congregation to come forward i think it's final time we don't have a lot of attendance of our of our young adults i see a couple peter your young adult come up here a couple years ago here. So our youth are going to be saying goodbye but our young adults are going to be welcoming to represent all of the friendly open-minded warm friends that you're going to make in your adult lives at the far corners of the earth. So in a minute. You're going to receive your flower and your glove from tom and then you're going to walk across at the problem is. We need a bunch. And there is nobody there right now so we're going to have to make one for ourselves. And we are going to do that by inviting first the parents of our bridgers to come forward parents and guardians of our bridgers to come forward. Covered bridge because i felt like literally only figuratively. Welcome to come forward and be involved. Yep perfect and the last group of people i would like to invite forward or anybody who has been a mentor or an re teacher any member of this church community that has worked in a nurturing way with these youth. To help them become the people they are today. All right so i know you can't see me anymore is much more interesting so we're all going to sing again. Building bridges and dear friends. And you're welcome to sing either part that you like. As the youth get the roses and garden gloves and. Process through. And with that. How are you sarnow young adults please welcome them as adult member star, and you may all take your seat. So. In-n-out. Twitter. The message after unique group really seriously. And i started this was not a time to preach you know. And besides i've got. Well a minute to preach anyway but i'm going to take a little more time than that to do what we're going to do. So as i said at the beginning of the service. Mini-crib give us this challenge at the very end of their. Service at the end of february to. I use. Our imagination. And i had this feeling that maybe they thought. That. Their chance. To use your imagination. Might be over. So i really wanted to respond to that. Their message was really provocative and i'm hoping our unique people are. Still here in the room. That'd be really good because this really this message really is for them for our graduates so they do need to. Be a part of the congregation right now so bring him on in from the kitchen or wherever they are. There's chocolate donuts in the kitchen just in case doing it. So. I have a friend named christina. And what i really appreciate about her is that. She always has something to really make me think. She always asks those really good questions. And one day i was. Spending some time with her and with some other friends. And being progressive religious people we were talking about religion and the world end. We were kind of taking everything apart and. Deconstructing some of the problems we had with some more traditional religious messages and. Analyzing what was going wrong in our world and. This was a fairly satisfying conversation and we were. Really doing some important work. And then my friend christina said. But what is it that we want instead. What is it that we're going toward what does this. Kingdom of god this paradise. This land of justice what is that like. We all stopped. And that was when we had to. Knew something more than just our ability to deconstruct. Which is a crucial ability. But we had to use our imagination and imagine what could. Be what. Could we live in two. And i think this is often the way it is in our lives. We do need that ability to take things apart and analyze and understand. And we need it when we're. Working on a project. And we have to understand how the. Old system function that we have to understand what about it wasn't working great. But then we need to imagine what it can be in order to make a new system or a new structure. We have to take apart old research and take the ideas and then build new theories. Or we have to take apart old bridges. That we're on our ground and we have to imagine. A new bridge that will be accessible to more people that will be safer for all children. These these are the ways. That we can use our imagination. Divider are graduating seniors to come back to their seats because what we did when we bridged you from over here to over here was when i said the kids could leave i wasn't thinking of you cuz i think of you is moving into adulthood. So i have this great imagination it's a little scary sometimes. Because i can create whole world. For myself. But it really isn't as much fun to do it alone. As it is to do it with. Someone else. So that's when i talk to an ass if you know annie. I'll be really fun to do with you and then we both decided that we really wanted to do it. With you. All of you. Because we all are in time for transition. Either we all have to imagine what comes next. So it applies to our seniors. And it applies to. Many people in this run. It's a little risky what we're going to be doing but then again. The imagination often asks that we. Two things that are risky. Once upon a time. And you know what happens when you say that once upon a time. There was a person. Who was that person. Give me a name. What was that name. It was lenny but it's not this lenny. So can i have a volunteer for someone who is going to be laney but not this lanie this is actually going to be difficult because we're creating an imaginary characters do you have to be a volunteer from laney. Laney would you please. Have a seat here. Your part is actually. To sit. And so. This. Is a train. And laney is on her way she's sitting very well she's on her way or somewhere somewhere where is where is she going. I heard new york and somewhere beautiful i think those are compatible so he is sitting on a train and eleni is are going to new york beautiful new york. I know she's looking out the window. Just start thinking about. So many things. What is she thinking about. Bands and her boyfriend anyting else. Broadway she's thinking about things that start with b she's thinking about bands the band that she hopes that she will listen to on this long train ride and and her boyfriend who she's leaving behind and in about broadway and how she's going to see great shows in new york she thought she was going to have the strength. Someone comes to sit next to her who is that someone what name. There's a ride right. Alright so ride it comes to sit next to her and that means we need a ride. Summer abroad. I said by lany on the train as she's thinking about bands and her boyfriend and broadway. Start the conversation and he says. Not. How's the weather. And i talked for some time you know about the weather i mean but i want to see have you ever experienced someone as they're talking away stocking talking talking. But when you're on a trip somewhere and it's a perfect stranger you're never going to see them again. And sometimes you share things with them. That you would never share with people you know that you're going to see them tomorrow. And what. Kind of. Daydreams. Do they start to share. They begin to discuss. Serious things like what happens after you die they begin to have this kind of conversation. And water-ski. Let me talk about waterskiing and how they they long for these kind of adventurous where they can just go and feel free and enjoy the outdoors. And baking and their passion for baking and. How wonderful is the smell cinnamon rolls in the oven. And how it makes them think of their grandmother's house from when they were young. They could have gone on and on like this for hours i mean this was a long train ride there they're heading from. From davis california all the way to beautiful new york city but all of a sudden something really troubling happened and it was. Then the lights went out on the train the power is just cut. And this is very troubling because they don't know what this means about their train ride what's going to happen next. And so then. What did happen next. Ben and then there were snakes on a train and it was dark and even though they had been sharing all these beautiful idea suddenly they were in this unpleasant situation and then. And whenever lady got really nervous she got the hiccups really bad hiccups and there's snakes and there's hiccup and it's dark. This is going to be an unpleasant ride to new york because davis california. Play feel the need to rescue sam and i know you do too. And how they resolved. Death. How they resolved it was. Help me. And then and then as luck would have it there came saint patrick ready to leave the snakes off of the train and the snakes just follow them right out the back door of the caboose but the lights were still on and so i ask that you include this in part of your solution. Ben. It was nice because rod offered laney some tea and and that really helped her to resolve her hiccups cuz when she drink the tea and made the hiccups subside and things work amor no snakes no hiccups things are getting better for laney and rod. But. There was another solution that they thought of. And it was. Basing this little light of mine and and that was another way to deal with her situation because when you sting you feel better. It helps with the diaphragm in your hiccups go away its it was a good solution to make the time pass and that dark he could be trained but they couldn't believe it because then they thought of a third solution and it was. Flashlight. They realize they had their technology with them they could make their own light. With an iphone flashlight they could see they could see to avoid the snakes and that really help the situation as well. And so. And so. In one of those three ways either with the help of saint patrick or with the use of some tea. Maybe it was singing this little light of mine or maybe it was shining there little light of mine on their ipad iphone. In one of these ways laney and rod made it to new york. And they had many more wonderful adventures once they reach their destination. Thank you to laney and broad and we just need to move our props out of the way. And that. Hisar sermon. The ability to work together. To use our imagination to create whole new world. I can do that. You can do that. And we do that with so much more joy together. Answer to our graduating seniors may it be yours. And to the families. May. This power of imagination be yours. As well. Please join with me. Join with me in prayer. And a musical reflection. And by the way you are all wonderful and. I do really sank. Laney and rod. For their willingness to step forward. Spirit of life and love. This is a simple act. To remember each other's lives. And name the milestones. We hold in love all those who are graduating from high school and college. Safe passage and adventure to you. I didn't have missed of the joy of his season of graduations and recognition. May we remember the teens who are struggling. The used-car sleeping in the park. Like the young man who sleeps in the park with his dog. Near my home. Let us remember that not all lives are open. To this particular life adventure of graduation. You take time to call to mind egg of parents. Hearts when their children. Are hurting. And we imagine the complex feelings and circumstances that put some of our youth. On the streets. Let us remember that life continues for some in this room with endings. And there are those among us who are changing. And the world does change. Sometimes becoming more elephant and we're embracing the arc does band toward justice. Boy scouts of america voted to open their membership to gay and straight boys alike. Each of us is a part of an intricate web of relationships. When one of us celebrates a joy grieves the loss the web of life moves to a new shape. We are apart of the turn of the earth. The shift of the stars and the pull of the sea and all change. Oil change. Inniswold. What does congregation say amen and please greet our bridges today and congratulate their parents as well.

uudavispodcast_org

2014-05-11-Mother-Where-Art-Thou_11_15.mp3

Welcome to sunday sermons and other recordings from unitarian universalist church of davis california please visit our website at w.w. org for further information. Welcome welcome to the space and this hour on this mother's day you are welcome here if you come bearing sorrow for a child or a mother who is gone for a broken relationship or a lost dream you are welcome here if you come in lit up with joy remembering those who have mothered you proud of those whom you have mothered you are welcome here if your feelings about this holiday are complicated or painful warm or ambivalent kiwi come here to care for each other to find challenge and comfort and perhaps transformation we come here with different genders and gender presentations sexual orientations different understandings of the divine different class and ethnic backgrounds come here seeking quiet or community inspiration or insight or the comfort of familiar rituals may you find in the sour something sacred and sustaining. We like this chalice in tribute to the mothers in each of us we light this chalice to celebrate those people who have taken on the task of raising a baby into childhood youth and adulthood to celebrate those who have nourished the light of truth and compassion in growing minds and hearts to celebrate those who have committed time and energy to the children of the world we light this chalice to celebrate and hold dear this flame of love adapted from claudine olivia my mom my mom and she put up with my tantrums when i was to me she was the one that told me it would be okay even what i thought it couldn't be true my mom and i fought that we didn't were great and there were many of them to my mom made mistakes like so many do after all there is no universal book on how to be a parent understanding. So this is meditation is adapted from a reflection on mother's day by kathleen role as i invite you all to take some time and reflect on your mother and your relationship with her while i speak we enter this time of silence and reflection with mixed emotions this is mother's day celebrated for one sense of motherhood our mothers normally gave us our lives they responsible for shaping our spirits played with us listen to us for those who have mother's ass. Children are often a big part of mother's day so i thought i would read you all a children's book this morning written by fellow uu jennifer castro and published really quite recently mommy my mommy is not a tissue or towel there's yours and my mommy is not a trash can years one and mommy is not a playground no climbing on mommy and she's definitely not a trampoline no jumping on mommy and my mommy is not a drum ratatat tat hurt and my finger painting but my mommy can be an airplane bored and my mommy can be a mountain so tall and a flower so pretty and a meadow so soft and best of all my mommy can be a blanket so warm i love my mommy the end. Thinking about mothering and especially about mother earth we turn to poet laureate nikki giovanni and her poem ego-tripping there may be a reason why i was born in the congo i walked to the fertile crescent and built the sphinx i designed a pyramid so tough that is star that only glows every 100 years falls into the center giving divine perfect light i am bad i sat on the throne drinking nectar with allah i got hot and sent a nice age to europe to cool my thirst my oldest daughter is nefertiti the tears from my birth pains created the nile a beautiful woman i gazed on the forest and burned out the sahara desert with a packet of goats meat and a change of clothes i crossed it in 2 hours i am a gazelle so swift so swift you can't catch me for a birthday present when he was three i gave my son hannibal an elephant he gave me rome for mother's day my strength flows ever on my son and noah built in newark and i stood proudly at the helm as we sailed on a soft summer day i turned myself into myself and was jesus men intone my loving name all praises all praises i am the one who would save in my backyard deliver uranium the filings from my fingernails are semi precious jewels and the earth as i went ahead and gold was laid across three continents i am so perfect so divine so is cereal so surreal i cannot be comprehended except by my permit i mean i can fly like a bird in the sky it was a favorite of my grandmother's and my father little by little weiner self this is the gist of what i have to say from an embryo whose nourishment comes in the blood move to an infant drinking milk to a child on solid food to a stretcher after wisdom to a hunter of more invisible game think it is the beauty of friends dancing at a wedding there is no other world i only know what i've experienced you must be hallucinating. Please remain standing and take a hand or shoulder someone near you for the benediction may we remember mothers everywhere seen and unseen presence and not in whatever form they may take to bless us always with their love and kindness adapted from susan helen cramer blessed be go now in peace.

uudavispodcast_org

2013-07-14_Worship_Standing-on-the-Side-of-Love_10_00.mp3

Good morning this morning you are accepted just as you are and at the same time may you come here seeking change perhaps that change is to live for with more trust. Portage forgive others. Order reach out to others we don't understand in this hour. Maybe we will experience a flash of insight that will solve a problem we've been struggling this all your life will be changed. Crafts you want to make change happen on our beautiful and hurting world may this be a place of comfort and challenge and the people around you be known as your companions on the journey on that journey are people with a diversity of beliefs or whatever it is in which you place altimate trust is different for each one of us. On this journey there are people of different sexual orientations and gender identities. Those of different class and race and physical ability come let us search together. And become our best selves. Once again every week one more opportunity to remember what is possible invite you to look at the other side of your order of service on your own and the fine opportunities there and instead invite us steve burns to come and share with us some news about the our pacific central district of the unitarian universalist association. Thanks jen morning everybody so about two weeks ago something important happened and it wasn't doma and it wasn't prop 8. But it was on july 1st we got a new district executive. In the minute you might be able to see him up there. Okay i can't see him. There's another monitor there. So our new district executive is named josh. 0 white he's a doctor. Of psychology. He was a full tenured professor at allegheny university and he was the department chair. And he decided that his life called him to a new direction. So instead of being top dog at a university on east coast. He's now at a small medium small district in the uua where he's now our new district executive and we're really excited to have him. So i'll just tell you a little bit more about him. He really impressed us as somebody who's committed to hearing people to connecting with people. And what he first wants to do is to see what's needed. So it's some point he's going to come out and visit us he's going to come to get to know us. I invite everybody to seek him out. There's a picture of him in one of those pictures in a rock band. That's the faculty rock band called credit no credit. Good name for a rock band of the university. So for those who maybe came through the door the first time or fairly new here a district is an association of congregations so in the pacific central district it's 38 congregations. From the data northern california and hawaii. And there's also bigger structure called regions. And this is a new structure the ua where they're combining districts together to make bigger structure so but simple way to think about that is the pacific western region is essentially the third. Western part of the united states. And we just recently had the first. Regional assembly in the us. Which was held back in april i think. And there were about twenty people from our congregation that went to that. So this is our exciting new district news and for those who knew the other district executive who was the interim robert lathan. He came here a number of times he gave some seminars some trainings. He worked with our board he went to the board retreat. So the district executive helps with transitions like with ministers retire or new ministers come. They help mediate conflicts. They help determine what the district needs are and allocate resources or. Connect them to resources in rossa trying to connect congregations to each other. So we're trying to get more cooperation between sacramento and our church. There's a north bay revival that comes next may that's been annual for about the last five years. So in the next north bay revival comes up we're going to try and get people from our church to come down. Vets in santa rosa area. And that's that's mostly it but just some of the things that the u.s. have done uua is not a very large denomination nationally. It's about 3. People out of every thousand are you used in the in the united states and that's the most generous estimate. But. In the civil rights era there about 500 people in the second selma-to-montgomery march. About 200 of those by some estimates were uua ministers or. Laypeople. And these tasks that they did including helping in the uu service committee helping did nazis out of germany during world war ii helping people escape the nazis in world war ii. These tests were not undertaken without risk in the selma march there was one minister who you who is killed and one late person who was shot but she recovered. So you use have always been at. Neal.fun of social justice working on change. Putting their lives on the line and their continued to do so the immigrant justice water justice. Crappie dolma. Through legislative ministry in sacramento so. Anyway when josh comes get to know and tell him your concerns welcome him and. That's our district news for today. We will light this chalice this morning to celebrate the inherent worth and dignity of every person. To reaffirm the historic pledge of liberal religion to seek that justice which transcends mere legality. And moves towards the resolution of true equality. And to share that love which is ultimately beyond even our cherished reason. That love which unites us. Marriage is not the only thing that unites us however it is the topic were exploring this morning. I know i have 32 years of. Expertise in this area are dear friends ran ellen coppock will be celebrating twice bath. This week. Ellen says that it used to be that 50 years was a real attainment. But now can hardly believe that it's been 64 years of marriage. Although she says the years have flown by. We know that. The commitment to marriage transcends mere legality. There is a shirley a union forged. In routine trials. Immeasurable joys. And conscious choices. It's a rare couple that can achieve 64 years. Ellen and ray congratulations and thank you for your inspiration. Mine was a traditional timeline. Of sorts. It started with a 5 a.m. bike ride. After an all-night party. He was the first man to carry a keg for me. Check moved in that day. And we sequestered ourselves for about a month before telling my brother. After all i was his sister and it was his best friend. Kirtan emotionally declared. Well we wondered where chuck had gone to. Okay i guess you're compatible. We had 24 months separation where i did a semester abroad and then a trial by a 1300 mile bike trip. And a couple of winter camping expeditions. And we bought a house and we finished school. Oh and somewhere in there we got married. After about three years and pretty much acing all our little challenges we agreed that. We should probably get married. After all he was the only boyfriend that my mom ever light. We believed we could probably do this forever thing. But of course one can't tell the future. Our intentions were good. But neither of us were willing to valve as long as we both shall live. So many uncertainties. But we found to face them together. We set a date a few months off. The autumnal equinox of 1981. But we didn't tell anyone. Neither of us was interested in ceremonies and a large one seemed ridiculous and a small one seemed complicated so we didn't tell anybody. It was kind of fun to have a secret. Besides it's just a contract after all. And not necessarily a binding one. In the final days things weren't looking great as the blood tests got complicated. It was the last month that wisconsin was requiring blood tests to marry and ours didn't go smoothly. Oh well. I just went to class and we deal with it later we could reschedule. And then i returned home from my. Human health and sexuality class and made a call and found out that the clinic did have our results after all so i finally judge jumped in the shower and with my hair still damp we found ourselves in the judge's chambers for a 6-minute ceremony. Should i wear the robes. Sure i guess. Did you bring witnesses oh okay i'll grab a couple detectives from the hall. No rings no. Oh wait did we decide about names. Jesus was with for months planning we have set up an equinox celebration at the local bar. We made it there and after the first year we told our friends why i was wearing a skirt. We had an impromptu reception at the vegetarian cafe and bakery that most of us worked at. And we invited folks back to our house after we all finish bagging a couple loaves of bread. Couple dozen loves the next day we went and told their parents. Thank god my mom said. Relieved that we did the sensible thing and kept her out of it. Why. You were getting the milk for free. Send chuck's charming father done over nobigdyl. And it wasn't until the last few years of political battles. Standing on the side of love did i realize how entirely i taken. The whole legality of marriage for granted. How easy it was for me. Do i took the steps mindfully. And with rational open eyes. It was just the next step a contract a clear statement of intent and commitment. I promise to do my best. Through the certainty of change and the uncertainty of everything else. Never did i view it as a privilege. Necessity for that matter. But surely something that would make building a family easier. Getting health insurance easier and being taken more seriously as a committed couple. How would i have felt if something. Like our genders. Erase. Arab blood test told us. Then we were not allowed to make a legal commitment. It never crossed my mind. It never crossed my mind. The following is a quote by the unitarian universalist ministers. Barbara and bill hamilton holloway. From our district. At the wedding of douglas nofin corey rothermel. Marriage. Is one of the most remarkable and most courageous of human acts. The promise of two human beings to share life. Together on all levels physical economic spiritual. A promise made in the face. Of the certainty of death. The certainty of change. And the uncertainty of everything else. There is nothing else quite like this at. Nothing so foolish. Nothing so profound. In the book of ruth. 1:16 ruth says. Entreat me not to leave you and to turn back from following you. Wherever you go. There i will go. Wherever you stay. There i will stay. Your people shall be my people. And your god shall be my god. I'm sure that many of you have heard those beautiful words of love and devotion before. They're included in the back of our dark-blue hymnals. Tanner from the hebrew bible. If you have heard these words before you probably remember them from a wedding. Perhaps your own wedding even. Weddings are the setting in which this passage from the book of ruth is most often used. But did you know these words of commitment and fidelity. I spoken from one woman to another from ruth. Denio me. I've always found it quite ironic that these other words used to bless so many legal marriages and conservative churches that the neither those benefits and blessings to same-sex couples. And even actively work against those couples receiving the legal rights and responsibilities of marriage in the secular world. I suppose i shouldn't be surprised by such inconsistency coming from those who claim opposition to same-sex marriage. Is based upon their defense of the biblical definition of marriage. Is mary tolbert dean of the pacific school of religion at berkeley explains the tradition of marriage actually found in the bible. The ones the bible does talk about. Spell little or no resemblance to what modern people understand marriage to do and be today. Marriage between one man and one woman as envisioned by people today was never the ideal relationship of the bible. Certainly in the hebrew bible. Polygamous marriage husband and many wives. What's the most common form of biblical marriage. Jacob. Moses. King david. Had multiple wives. According to the bible king solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines. Is that what conservative. Return to the new testament we find that early christians were at best lukewarm towards marriage for paul. Marriage and the complications of family that came with it could easily distract christians from their primary duty of living in christ the ball did feel it was better to marry than to burn with passion and according to tolbert. This first thousand years of the early christian church. Continue to reflect this ambivalence towards marriage. In fact marriage didn't even become a sacrament until the 12th century. And our puritan ancestors. Which are part of our religious heritage as unitarian universalist. Shared a similar perspective on marriage with the early christian church. Sing marriage as a secular. Holy secular institution. And one new england colony clergy were actually forbidden by law from performing marriage ceremonies. Marriage was left to the hands of the civil authorities. In the civil realm. Marriage creates what nancy caught author of public vows a history of marriage and the nation. Calls. The architecture of private life. It creates families and kinship networks and governs the handing down a property. Two large degree a civil marriage is a financial contract. Between the mary partners enforced by the state. For centuries marriage represented the creation of a cohesive labor unit and the consolidation of familial and personal assets that help the couple establish a sustainable life together. Image of the way middle-class parents have today. Help a child with college tuition and where the down payment on a house. Parents of moderate means and above in an earlier era provided a dowry or bride price. God helps that their child out on a successful course in life. Those in the working classes whose parents could not provide them with financial support for marriage. What's ben 10 or 15 years in hard labor. Earning enough money to eventually marry and start a household of their own. Those without property. Are there because they were poppers. Or because they were slaves and considered property themselves. Very rarely had marriage is recognized by the law. This way of life changed very little in the west for centuries. When young people shut off to make lives for themselves. They followed the same past as their parents. Working in the same towns. And more often than not in the same traits as their parents. The patient. Pace of. Social change. By our standards today. What's glacial. Since your life would likely be very much like your parents life and their parents life before them. It could be successfully navigated by tradition. Obedience to authority. And the traditions of the past. Where the keys to a successful life. Then as economist ej graph points out in her book what is marriage for. A monumental shift. Began to occur. The protestant reformation industrial capitalism. Republican revolutions. Early sixteenth century protestants insisted on each individual's moral responsibility to read and reflect upon the bible for themselves. Instead of simply relying upon the priest. And obeying their word. Encouraged each individual to develop an inner relationship with god and reveal their selves a shinto diligent work habits at the same time there was a boom going on and industrial investment and colonial exploration that radically changed people's understanding of their world. More and more people are moving to merchants run cities and the new seafaring trays soon as each a graph puts it. There was a yawning chasm between how the new middle class lived. Driving by individual and innovative effort. And the old philosophy of obedience. Both choice and personal responsibility became. Daily financial fax. As well as religious and political ideals. As people began to run their own economic and daily lives they began to write. Hymns of freedom. Rather than of duty. In describing the social shift. The nineteenth-century philosopher economist and earliest feminist thinker john stuart mill put it this way. Human beings are no longer born to but are free to employ their faculties. And such favorable chances as offer to achieve the lost which may appear to them most desirable. With this shift from a gregorian feudalism to urban capitalism. We no longer needed the investment or approval of our parents or the assignment of a spouse as essential work partner. And we shifted our understanding of the nature of marriage. A husband and wife were no longer interlocking parts required to make the. Economy function. As people moved into this new economic economic paradigm. Marriage for love. Once considered a bizarre refusal to see that one could love wherever duty lay and nearly a guarantee of economic destitution started to become the ideal. There was an explosion of novels like pride and prejudice which opposed which proposed the new middle-class belief that love should come before marriage. Along with these major economic changes and new marital aspirations there were other currents reshaping marriage as it had been previously known perhaps the most significant influence on marital laws nor understanding of marriage has been the changing role of women in society. Advances in the social and economic power of women. To the women's suffrage movement. Medical advances that increase the likelihood of women surviving childbirth. Birth control which gave women greater reproductive freedom. The second wave of feminism in the 20th century. Increase the social and economic power of women. Along with those advances in gender equality marital laws have grown to recognize and protect the property rights of women. I'd be more egalitarian. That isn't surprising. Are rules governing marriage have long been bound up with civil rights. In the u.s. each state has the authority regulate who can and cannot marry this regulation of our marital laws has been used throughout our history to make it clear who has the right to self agency and full citizenship within our society and who is not worthy of those rights. An early history of the united states slaves rarely have the legal right to marry. Denial of the right to marry is a way of. Firming that a whole class of people are less than fully human. Less deserving of the rights of other men and women. When slavery was abolished at the end of the civil war the laws that once covered slaves and white indentured servants changed and developed more pronounced racial overtones. Meanwhile legislators passed increasingly more stringent definitions of race. What time people have mixed race who would have legally ben white in the 19th century. Were considered black by the 20th century. Anti-miscegenation laws were enacted to shore up these fictional racial boundaries. Has racial equality grew more and more possible there was increasing intermarriage hysteria. My grandmother grew up in southern california a child of the 20's and 30's remember that when she was a little girl. Her neighbors a newly-married latino man and a white woman of european descent. Had a cross burned on their lawn by the kkk. It wasn't until 1948 the california supreme court struck down our state's miscegenation law. 1948 and 10 years later. In 1958. Richard loving. And mildred jetters drove to washington dc from their home in virginia. And they got married. I returned home. What state where they could not be legally married and within six weeks we rousted out of bed at 2 in the morning by the police. Taking to jail. And charged with a felony crime. Of legally marrying each other. Eventually they were released. And given the choice. I'm leaving the state for. And the family and their friends there for 25 years. I'm facing a year in jail. It took nine years for the. That case to reach the united states supreme court does that sound familiar. When it finally reached the supreme court 16 stay still had bans on interracial marriage. Supreme court overturn those bands in 1967. 1967. Shocking 72% of americans still disapproved of interracial marriage. And 48% believe interracial marriage should be criminalized. World is changing. Today's marriage equality movement for same-sex couples is simply the next step in our ongoing struggles for the recognition of full humanity of all people the struggles of women and people of color and the lgbtq community are inner woven. With each other. Born deformed a few months before the stonewall riots. In 1969. I have grown up with gay think it's a gay and lesbian civil rights movement now at the age of 44 after we have finally secured as permanently as we can in this uncertain world the right to civil marriage for same-sex couples at least in california. And federal recognition for those marriages i stand on the precipice of my own marriage. At the end of september. In a garden ceremony led by rev beth and witness fire friends and family i jennifer than richard. Mary lorene marie o'hanlon. I've been engaged to laureen for over a year now and the timing of the supreme court's decision has been fortuitous for us. When we set the date for a wedding over a year ago we knew we would likely have a decision one way or another from the supreme court before a wedding. Prior to the supreme court's recent decision well-intentioned friends would ask us anticipating our wedding day. Do you think it will be legal by then. I have to admit. I'm out now that the new version of that is aren't you so glad it's legal now. I have to admit that always. Maybe tents outside question. What do they mean by legal defensively think to myself as his two women pledging their love and fidelity in the presence of their family and friends and witnessed by their minister for god's sake was something in danger of being illegal. Response i always try to politely reply that we were planning to have a religious ceremony. Regardless of the outcome of the supreme court decision. But that we hope the court would rule the right way anyway. I sure wish i stress the religious aspects of the marriage because i know the struggle for religious affirmation for same-sex partners has also been a hard-fought for struggle and one that unfortunately continues in many denominations. Are the unitarian universalist i've been blessed to be part of a faith community that has been a vocal supporter of marriage equality for decades. Unitarian universalist have showed up across the country time and time again to be a religious presence and support of the marriage equality movement. In the face of so much hatred directed at gay and lesbian couples. And all. In god's name no less. The presence of unitarian universalist. Standing on the side of love. For the gay and lesbian community has been on. Measurable value. Are ministers and their clergy stoles and collars and their congregants and their golden standing on the side of love t-shirts i've been a transformative and healing presents for community that has suffered tremendous spiritual violence. Was struggling to assert the rights of full citizenship. And attempting to protect our families from harm. Well i'm sure the social support and affirmations of married life. Are important. Where i believe legal marriage matters most is in times of crisis and transition. What a partner is either temporarily or permanently disabled. Unable to make decisions for themselves. I want a long-term relationship comes to an end either through death or divorce. Status when the rights and responsibilities of marriage and the legal structures that hold marital partners accountable to each other mattermost. Far too many in the gay and lesbian community. Have experienced the profound powerlessness that comes during these times of crisis when they find the relationship no matter its length or depth of commitment. Is invisible in the eyes of the law. I've spent over 20 years. Working on marriage equality issues. I was first politicize. By immigration laws that would not recognize a bi-national relationship of great significance to me. Am i early twenties. Then in 2004 i found myself in sacramento working for california's first openly gay legislator. She was elected the same year that pete wilson was re-elected governor for a second time riding a tide of anti-immigrant backlash fueled by prop 187. Which attempted to deny state benefits such as health care and public education. The undocumented immigrants. Was also the first time in 25 years that republicans can control the lower house of the state legislature. That year. Ben assemblymember pete knight. Introduced legislation that was the predecessor for his 22. Which was the predecessor of prop 8. It was actually while gathering signatures on a letter in opposition tonight's first anti-marriage bill. That i first heard of unitarian-universalism from a colleague who was gathering signatures with me. It wasn't until a few years later that i finally developed enough courage to poke my head in to unitarian universalist church. I spent that first year in a uu congregation. Quietly sitting at the back of the sanctuary. Frequently moved to tears during worship. Because it felt so good to finally have a church home. After so many years of walking an exile from a faith community. The efforts of this congregation. And other progressive people of faith who have taken a stand on the side of love. Have helped to change our world. Our recent victories on prop 8 and doma have provided first of hope and momentum for a shared-world work a building more just communities. There's important and pressing work that remains for us to do in order to build a more just world. As yesterday's decision in the trayvon martin murder case makes abundantly clear. As unitarian universalist. We must continue our work and support of equality for all people. We still need to advocate for compassionate immigration reform. Environmental justice and to extend marriage quality in other states. But for now. I asked you to take a moment. Breathe deep. And two taken all that has been achieved through our combined efforts. And i know deep inside yourself. What is the hymn says. You can change the world with your love. I will leave you now. Contemplate these words. Abolitionist and unitarian universalist minister. Theodore parker. Look at the facts of the world. You see a continual and progressive triumph of the right. I do not pretend to understand the moral universe. The ark. Is a long one. My eye reaches but little ways. I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight. I can divine it by conscience. But from what i see. I am sure it bends towards justice. Now i invite you to join me in an attitude of prayer and reflection. Today when our hearts are full of so many things. We are filled with joy at the supreme court's recent decisions. In support of marriage equality and the full humanity of are gay lesbian bisexual and transgender brothers and sisters. We are filled with sorrow for the martin family who have lost their son to the prejudice and violence that have take that has taken so many of our african-american young men. And who have now lost the opportunity to find justice in our courts. We are filled with anger at a justice system that seems to see african-american youth as threatening. Simply because they exist. May our anger give us strength to take action to stand our ground the ground a compassion the ground of justice the ground of worth and dignity of every human being and we draw on the strength of those who've turned anger to love through the generations those who'd made a way out of no way those who have burned but not been consumed by this holy fire each of us is a part of an intricate web of relationships when one of us celebrate the loss the web of life moves to a new shape we are apart of the turn of the earth the shift of the stars the poll of the sea and all change. Now please join hands and repeat after me. May faith in the spirit of life. In the spirit of life and laws in the sacred and one another. And love and the sacred feather. Be ours now and in all the days to come. Recipe.

uudavispodcast_org

2017-11-19-The-Cornucopia-of-our-Dreams.mp3?_=2

Welcome to sunday sermons another recording from unitarian universalist church of davis california. org for further information. First place church of davis i'm reverend morgan mclain the assistant minister for congregational life. We are so glad that you're here this morning today danny lynch from our intern and campus minister is preaching at the napa uu church. I'm really roberts. As unitarian universalist we believe people are inherently worthy and dignified. You are welcome matter how you identify. For who. Or your personal circumstance. No matter if you are pulling the lever to. For life's big questions you are welcome into this community. If this is your first time here we are especially glad you're here and we hope you will stop by our welcome table so we can get to know you here you will find a community of caring and sharing. In your printed bulletin the greensheet this morning you will find more information about the programs of the church and we have a few invitations to community to highlight this week. I would like to advance invite nancy manor down to ally fatalis for us this morning. Satellite of the chalice that we ignite here today. Bring hope and abundance. Fortunate. Go seeking solace or support. Two difficult times out to them. We light this chalice as the symbol of unitarian universalism. Symbol remind us. Of those who are not here with us today. Share their resources. Or simply prayed with us in a time of need. Today and always. We're doing hair today. An abundance altar. If you are unitarian-universalist you would. You would know that the flower communion when we bring flowers from place in. Our life. Florist shop our own garden or the roadside and recreate. And alter here. Later in the service. Bring. Sometimes people are forgotten to bring phaser so happens that thanksgiving in the holidays are coming. They didn't read their bulletin. Can you imagine that they didn't read the journal. Didn't bring you think that's life. That's why if that's how it works sometimes. We. Don't give and yet we receive. It happens all the time. And sometimes it works the other way around 2. And we have given and given and yes we did not receive. But it does come around. If we live in community. At this time you're invited to bring the bounty that you did i just feel no guilt. Because you are a part of the story. If. Because you are a part of life. So you're invited. The reading today is called a garden of friends by reverend max poops. Let us give thanks for the bounty of people. A bounty of people. For children. Like weeds. And the wind blows them away. May they forgive us our cultivation. And fondly remember where their roots are. Give thanks. For generous friends with hearts and smiles as bright as their blossoms. For feisty friends. Art's apples. Continuous friends. Like scallions and cucumbers keep reminding us that we've had them. For crotchety friends sour is rhubarb. And this indestructible. Four handsome friends or as generous as eggplant. And as elegant as a row of corn. And the others. Explain is potatoes. And so good for you. 4 funny friends. Julius brussel sprouts. And it's amusing as jerusalem artichokes. And serious friends which i seem to have a lot of this morning as unpretentious as cabbages. As subtle as summer squash. As persistent as parsley. Delightful estill. And as endless as zucchini. Parsnips. Can be counted on to see you through the winter. And for old friends nodding like sunflowers in the evening time. And young friends coming up as fastest radishes. For loving friends. Wind around us like tendrils and hold us. Despite our flights and wilson withering. And finally for those friends now gone. Like gardens passed. Terrapin harvested. But who fed us in their times that we might have life thereafter. For all this weekend thanks. There have been many warm welcomes for those of us travel to tucson. And nogales last week. And i'll hold still later on this morning so you can read the back of my t-shirt and. Inhale is wearing her t-shirt i'm in blue she's in green same t-shirts. You can see. Messages. From where we are staying. Stories. They have a plan as you can imagine and i. The evaluation form. Yesterday and they said how do you hope. 2. Make sure that you will follow through on your goals. Actually that is not my concern. Everyone back. Not whether they will follow through. On there. Commitment. Quite the opposite. The matter fact when we were there they were already making new commitments it was kind of amazing. You can stop at the social hall out there at the get involved tables to see some of the photos and if enlarged and to read reflections. When is congregation blast the travelers. 10 days ago a couple weeks ago. You said go with open eyes. Cars that are softened. Mine's prepared for learning minds hard spirits ready to be troubled. Fuse. And in the midst of it all you asked that we find new friendships and new joy. Have you asked to return with stories and images and the courage to speak the truth of what we saw. And to bring back a sense of conviction to share. I sent your hopes and challenges. If any of those things happened for them. The leaders from the college of social justice and borderlinx. Chad and javi. Reflections everyday. It was always something. That it shaken us to the core. A walk into the desert. A story of someone who is denied asylum. Simultaneously giving up their rights. Protesting with veterans against the wall that wall that snakes along our southern border. The facilitators had conversations with me. About the dynamics of our group because they felt unique. They not seen a group like this before they said i've never we've never seen anything like it. Different time. Topix. Different opinion. Challenge when they're uncomfortable we don't usually that on a trip. We hope for it. We don't see it. There's usually a big crisis before people get to this level of risk of authenticity. Why do you think. They are so willing to be uncomfortable together. And you have been willing to risk. You've been willing to be uncomfortable. Maybe what you're going to say is not right. To know if you're going to hurt someone's feelings. You wonder if it will change your relationship in the future. Imagine a group like that. And i hope you've been in a group like that in your past. Does it take. And i'm really asking you. To share with a group in to risk a little bit. What does it take. Just feel that you're willing. To do that. Trusting the group. Freedom force battalion. Long-held relationships. Passion for the. Leaving so strongly that you have to say it. Heading bottles to show you that behaviors that you have the courage to do it too. So yeah. I mentioned how many of us had studied together. And had discussion starting in september. But not everyone had been. And i suggested that the participants had known each other before the trip. Centrue for number the people. Actually. From the same congregation. Our ages range from 27 to being an ra disease. And our interest for verydice etiologies were very different. And finally i simply said these people who came on this trip yes to all of that but they know about kindness. Encourage. That lives with kindness the place this place. Lives with kindness. They couldn't be the way they were unless they'd experienced that here. And not the kind of kindness that's sweet. Kindness. Is radical respect. Strength of character that kind of kindness. In the months ahead as their stories are told i hope you feel their experiences and not. Left out like you are separate because you are a part of why they could be the way they were. And that trip. Community has an abundance of that kind of kindness. And we reach for that idea when we are willing to be present for each other. When our lives are not easy. Difficult discussions are needed and someone was visiting the congregation. It's not the case. We live abundant kindness. When we welcome new people into our lives. When we live with peace ring handbells when we live with integrity. Integrity of joy a legacy of joy on his planet. Funny reach out to others to see them when we know they most needed. To know the kind of friends that matt koontz list. We need the kindness that can enjoy the beauty and the rough edges of life. An abundance. I hope we sharpen our skill a ceiling and living. Simply. With that rich and deep. Kindness. That builds the relationship that we need. Is the season of abundance. Kindness and goodness and friends we fill our tables with. Those things. Food we buy gifts with joyful anticipation for giving them. We make extra cookies and an extra pot of soup. In fact across the country donations to. Charities go up. 20%. In the last 2 months of the year. People are in the mood to give. What it shows me is that this is maybe just the time of year where we let our abundance show. I don't think we have necessarily more. To give in november and december. Hey boy just get practice. As the year goes through. That folk song. If you know it you have to sing it with me. How many ways. Fat people in this congregation give love away and see it coming back. Westmore. I have the privilege of spending a lot of time with our children and youth programs. I see our adult leaders and our high schoolers who are volunteering in the elementary school. Reading books. Listening to stories singing songs doing crafts. All of these volunteers. Then tell me about the reward of that time spent with our youngest unitarian universalist. Our religious exploration volunteers. Receive more than they give. They talked about the many lessons that they learn about joy and creativity. About exploration and self-expression that are just. In that age range. I'm wondering here today how many people are either currently volunteering with our young unitarian universalist or have in the past in which you stand. So much love to give away. And so much. The comeback. Thank you. Every year at this church also participates in the interfaith rotating winter shelter. Coming up again and end of january volunteers in this church will give their love away. To some of our most vulnerable community members. They get bride's and make meals and engage in conversation. In this space we create. Sacred space of care and safety for a population of people who. Don't get to take safety and care for granted. Speak of their time with the people experiencing homelessness as transformative. It's a time of being present to our wider community members. It's a very different needs. If you have volunteered or plan to volunteer this year with our interface rotating winter shelter would you stand. Something if you give it away. You end up having more. Highlight today that i've been really happy to see is that since july a work scheme from this church has gone to farm davis on the second saturday of each month. Davis is a small farm and west davis. Where the food is harvested and then donated to those in need it's run by a family whose property it's on and supported by many many volunteers. Our church members have. Planted. Tiny little seeds onions start this place little sprouts that you have to stick in the ground and sweep pick tomatoes and eggplant speeches and zucchini. Matilda soil and even built. Fences for horses rescued from the. Santa rosa fires. Intern that's harvested is in use by more of our church volunteers to make fresh healthy meals for davis community meals something that we do regularly to help those. Most in need in our local community. You have been to farm davis with us or she who have made meals for davis community meals would you stand. Is something if you give it away you end up having more. There is deception abundance of love to share with the world. Become. Polly ourselves. Three more connected with our community. And i think that maybe the lesson i learned every. Around this time is that the real secret of abundance. Giving yourselves a way of giving those gifts. Is that it's more fun to give. Send to receive. And the receiving end. Being a bonus. Because we have so much to give. And then so much to receive. Especially when we're in a community like this. Thank you for sharing your abundance. Sacred by our communal presence. Our intention for caring. Alter a time. For you to give the names of those we wish to bring to this circle of caring and remembrance for joy or sorrow. And you just speak their names into the space. Future. Deer spirit of abundance. Which connects mother earth to sky. And to some call god. Thank you. The air to breathe. Soil to kill. And shining light. Nurture our bodies and souls. For each life there is an abundance of blessings. Are some family and friends. Who celebrate toys. For chickasaw when we are down. What's parsnips in winter. For some it may be someone here today. Connect through. Smiles for listening and prayer. For every person. There are times of abundance. And times of want. Whether it be for love and laughter. Or hope for a better day. We pray for someone to be with us in our times of need. And we pray then in our times of plenty we will be there for others. Let us have courage to receive and to give. Is a part of an intricate web of relationships. One of us celebrate with joy. Or grieve the loss. The web of life moves to a new shape. We are part of the turn of the earth. The shift of the stars. Missy and all change. Amen. Signed by cd take hands around the room. Be ever grateful for the abundance that life has to offer. As we leave today think of how we might touch someone. With our hands. Be humble be courageous. Behold the spirit of receiving. And giving. Be the light that reflects but goodness in your heart. And share that with others that you meet this week unless his congregation say amen don't forget to stay for.

uudavispodcast_org

2014-01-26_Musical-Courage_11_15.mp3

Welcome to sunday sermons and other recordings from unitarian universalist church of davis california please visit our website at www.sec.gov or further information. Welcome to the unitarian universalist church of davis i'm here i'm john ashby. Rather than a tribute each part of the service to whether i wrote it or suzanne wrote it it's really simple the good part suzanne wrote the other parts are from me when we come here on sunday morning we bring the gifts and imperfections of who we are this is a community where we challenge each other encouraged each other and support each other you are welcome here and all your fullness your race and culture sexual orientation gender identity religious views political party come to connect with community come to honor the earth come to claim your spirituality come to build the world that we dream is possible, to transform your life. Now is the time to send her through music with our special musical guest reggie and renee. Our challenge was first developed in world war with the symbol for our unitarian 4runner to the unitarian universalist service committee that was secretly smuggling jews out of germany during world war ii. Dangerous work. The required immense courage the kind of courage that ignores the risks. Does the need is so great. Today as we celebrate. Our perhaps easier form of courage with singing and filling our sanctuary with different music with a definite adoptable flair i'm asking our guest in musical l y g g the lighter chalice. Reggie has graced our church several times in the past with music and has a choir leader. A few years ago. And i actually speaking with a few people last couple of weeks they were telling me how much fun it was to have reggie as acquire later they remember remember very well working with him and the. Clever almost. Nikki ways he had of getting everyone's attention regias today joined by percussionist renee paul renee is a professional percussionist who lives in sacramento. Was relatively recently a student of reggie graham and his improv class at sac city college of studied extensively including with carla and carl. Very highly respected cuban percussionist who lives in northern california reggie is an adjunct professor music professor at sacramento city college. And a colleague of our music director nancy lauer. He's also a composer and teaches piano by bentley it is music studio in sacramento. A longtime church musician having served as music director and pianist at several baptist churches in sacramento that's the title of a recent cd best describes his original work. Music with a gospel reality a jazz music holiday. And a praise mentality reggie will you light a chalice please. Many of us in the sanctuary or dedicated unitarian universalist. Working together with other faith is important to. Look at how the interfaith cooperation of the winter interfaith rotating shelter program brings many-faced together to provide what we could not provide separately. A safe place to sleep for some of the homeless in yolo county. Interfaith work is important. Interfaith work is challenging. There are some guidelines that help interfaith works exceed. Drake first guideline. Is it when entering into interface work you will suspend efforts to change. The other. To convert the other to your way of thinking. Seek to engage the differences not merely to be tolerant but much more to understand the other faith perspective investors you can not to preach to. What to deeply understand with. Descendants just focus on what we have in common especially the goals we have in common. And not where we differ. And that's there's so much we can agree upon so much room for us together to bring the world to a better place and together we can bring the world farther along than we can alone. Will unitarian-universalist or 160,000. Roughly that's it. The third guideline is you will invariably be encountering places where people of faith flip from these guidelines perhaps lighting a bit too preachy from their faith protect perspective i'm not saying i've ever done that and i can't say i've not either. What happened to me i just remembered that nobody can change or offend me. Without my permission so for the most part i just try to enjoy what i can sometimes let it slide. That don't become pretty comfortable with providing my own internal definitions of things people might say specially in these situations for the most part i find the people are coming from a good heart. And just flip. Sometimes a simple reminder. Does the job. We're not all coming from the same faith are we. The fourth guideline. The hardest. Just remember the first 3 just takes a bit of a it helps remember the other face are struggling to follow this path respect their efforts as well. These guidelines. Four-wheeler motherboard works for me for the enjoyment of this gospel music we receiving today reggie knows this is not my. For the most part not our faith perspective and reggie knows we're not pretending to this. But we can enjoy the music. Does interfaith experience we can attach our own personal interpretations as we wish with no disrespect intended making this as fun and a spiritually enriching as each of us wish we cannot think alike. May we not love alike. Enjoy the gift reggie and renee are giving to us. This service marks the beginning of our generosity campaign the generosity message today is by jesse chabot cheryl bar. Children's youth religious expiration council. And some of our youthful show how our church makes a difference in the lives of young people both in our congregation and in the world. Being generous to our church helps us to transform the world. Hello my name is justice aurora. And i'm from cyriac which is children's youth and religious exploration council with kate raymond we run the children's programs including all the sunday school so carnival the chris the christmas cookies this secret buddies and one thing we've done recently which was new is 2 raised to have a film project for girl rising of a film or less supported by intel which describes the lives of nine children true stories in various countries overcoming things like slavery and abandonment sexual abuse starvation etc and it's a very powerful and insightful film and i was thrilled to be able to be part of that film showing and not only that but for our mothers didn't do it it was the girls who let it that was what made it most beautiful of all i think. I let them speak for themselves this is their description of their experience doing this. Hi my name is grace and i was one of the organizers for the showing of girl rising took me to the first meeting i thought i wasn't going to be a big help but as the meetings went on i put a lot of my ideas out when the movie was over i was so proud to be a part of something this big. This experience has really changed my way of thinking i never knew how many girls can't get an education because for different reasons and i want to change that one day i would love to go to miramar and see how the girls there get up in the morning what their day is like. And when they get home if you want to see the movie i really hope you enjoyed it because we enjoyed giving it to you. Thank you. Hi i'm terrible disturbo her daughter and i'm overjoyed that i've had the pleasure to raise money and support girls in myanmar that the experience has really changed my thoughts on things in my life that have always taken for granted i really hope that someday have the chance to meet the kids anymore thank you. Hi i'm jamie lynn being a part of organizing the girl rising event was action-packed stressful fun and rewarding showing the community how important it is and how does the density to people all around the world means a lot to me. I have so much fun working with the other girls and i can't wait to do it again. Hi angela weber no helping to organize the girl rising event was so exciting i learned some valuable new skills about organizing events it was great to bring awareness to our community about the situation some girls are in the money we raised wentworth helping children in myanmar have a place to learn i look forward to continuing our work with the name our children's foundation and perhaps even visiting the umbaran 2015. I wanted to remember the are the mothers who backs the girls up. Hammer range. Are there autumn libere or no. And igg hubert. She's here yes. As well as susan steinbach and i don't know if he's not here so these are the people who backed up the girls and we're very proud to have done it these events to me where a virtuous circle one generosity created the next one it wasn't just a matter of dominoes it was each one had effort and. Inspiration behind it. We were the generosity of that you you which allowed the entire thing to go forward because they donated i should say we donated the social hall created funds to support the de film itself the members of the year did everything including putting 200. This great event for our girls and poured the girls in myanmar to. Thank you so much. Towards of suzanne i've been reflecting on the many different ways my friends and family have been showing this month's theme of courage. Accident vol stepping outside of themselves and into another's perspective or involve opening their homes to help others feel welcome. For taking steps to resolve issues and conflicts with others in their lives. Courage for me it's about compassion and love. Taking an opportunity to give or to receive. This poem by maya angelou speaks of how having the courage to be open to love. Is the only way. To really experience life. Touched by an angel. We. Accustomed unaccustomed to courage exiles from delight. Live coiled in shells of loneliness. Until long leaves at high holy temple and comes into our site to liberate us into life. Love arrives and it's trained come ecstasies old memories of pleasure ancient histories of pain yet if we are bold love strikes away the chains of fear from our souls we are weaned from our timidity in the flush of love's light we dare to be brave and suddenly we see. That love costs all we are and will ever be. Yet it is only love which sets us free. Good morning my pleasure to be here today to share with you and renee with me some music for you was going to tell you about the first b-side. Part of what i've learned from playing in a baptist church. Going back to. In the mid-seventies somewhere in there. So the first song. For god so loved the world it's not latin but i turned it into a. Latin kind of a jazz. I guess you would call it arrangement. And that was a first one. That i i did that. 2 +. At the church they were a little surprised when i played it. Remember. Someone said that was really good. And then someone else told me this is why some people don't like that reggie. Lancehead well. Who doesn't matter just keep doing whatever you do. And so i continued to. Evolve pieces to fit what i wanted it to sound like and. Play during offering and. How different time so. Out of that i eventually had a cd with a singers in everything but. Anyway i just to tell you a little bit more about them. The other one was all my sins which was a slow meditative piece. And again i turned it into my own instrumental of pacon. What was being sung so what you going to hear now is over happy day and oh happy days you may know came from. Maybe you don't know the hawkins singers. Sometime and i think. I think it was before i started playing piano when it came out. So when i came out it was new and fresh and a lot of. Gospel diehard people didn't like it because it had a contemporary sound now it sounds kind of traditional but. Back you have to hear it through years of 1960. That's like if you listen to beethoven. Sounds fine but that that time that music was very adventurous. So i'm going to play my mypay.con. Oh happy day. And then the other song is this song by dottie rambo was a songwriter. Very traditional. Very traditional in the words that i speak about the rock the rock is jesus and this is call i go to the rock. And that song there's a. Section of call and response which is a very strong staple of gospel music and it still exists today. Or the leader will have singh and acquire will answer and l will sing. And acquire will answer so. Thank you so much. Abraham. Celebration of abraham as an interfaith group composed of religions that are descendants of the abrahamic faith judaism islam christianity unitarian-universalism this group was founded after 9/11 with the knowledge that we have more in common in our faith that should be bringing us together then we have differences that drive us apart the celebration of abraham seeks to actively promote acceptance of one another space journeys different though they may be in to recognize into into action and into our lives what john wesley the founder of the methodist faith the mid-eighteenth-century said though we cannot think alike. May we not love like the celebration of abraham planning group has been working hard to bring this example of interfaith love and cooperation to life in our community the focus for this year's celebration is acts of loving-kindness and how loving kindness is a part of all of our faith and how we need more of it 3 p.m. afternoon at the st. james catholic church doors open at 2:30 it was standing room only last year so come early i don't like us to join in the spirit of prayer and meditation these words were tired by the ongoing life of our congregation in the world we honor each other as we experience pain and dorothea earlier and to act on his conscience refusing to defend the ban against federal law intended to ensure that virginia is on the right side of history and the right side of the law that it's becoming a different world almost walking already the bad news is my grandson almost walking is impossible to keep up with already and it just so proud of that something happened when one of us celebrates we all have reason for joy and the joy grows when one of us change. Everybody hold hands may the love which overcomes all differences which heals all wounds which puts the flight all fears who are separated be in us and among us now and always amen and blessed be.

uudavispodcast_org

2012-12-16-Worship-11_15-ED-Combined-2.mp3

Welcome to sunday sermons another recordings from unitarian universalist church of davis california please visit our website at w.w. org for further information. Today we light our chalice in honor of the family. In remembrance. Of the jewish andromeda's are the gypsy families. Crushed by the nazis in wwii. The chalice was actually developed during wwii is the symbol for the forerunner of our unitarian universalist service ufc. That was at that time helping smuggle some lucky families away from the nazis. We like the chalice for all families. But especially this weekend we like the chalice for the families in connecticut. The find themselves victims of this senseless tragedy. We light this chalice for families in war-torn regions where such tragedies are all too commonplace. For families facing sorrows for families just facing the next day. For families facing joy we honor today all family. In the christian tradition has a time of expectant waiting and preparation for celebrating jesus birth at christmas. Unitarian universalist advent can have a range of meanings. Beginning with the traditional christian meaning for those of us who follow more closely christian faith traditions. To the way we're presenting advent the season is a time to focus on some of our sacred values reflecting on the past and looking into the future. We light the first candle for peace wherever we can find it however we can create it. Candle for wisdom to guide us along these paths. We like the third candle. This week's scandal for freedom. Freedom from oppression and injustice and suffering freedom for the right to pursue our paths in life. Freedom to lavas our hearts lead us. Next week we'll light the fourth candle in advent. About 2 weeks ago on december 7th. How is in washington dc. Little jet lag had to get up early. Didn't see any news read anything. Walking all around the capital to me awhile to figure out why all the flags are at half-mast this was in honor of. Everyone lost in pearl harbor day. Visiting congressional and senate offices this was for work relating to an agriculture issue. And on that day i was walking down. Really crowded hall. One of the house buildings i didn't really know this but every two years complete chaos and. Pretty when i have to move. I'm walking down the hall. And i overhear somebody saying something as they're walking by and he says what looks like the supreme court's finally going to define the family. Not didn't think in. Right away. I said i didn't know what was going on to me a few minutes to find out. That the supreme court decided to hear prop 8 case. He said the supreme court is finally going to define the family. Wish i could have tracked him down because. He's wrong. No gray area. Supreme court's not defining the family regardless of what decision comes down the supreme court is not defining the family all the supreme court will be doing. Just deciding. Who they will recognize as possessing the legal contractual rights. Of the marriage contract they don't get to define the family. Henderson lee there is a fundamentally conservative argument on this issue that goes like this. The government has the legal right. Responsibility. The set limits. As to the age at which a person is competent to enter into a contract. But. Does not have the right to then dictate who gets to enter into that contract. Nevada state case closed case closed. Whatever happens. We know that there's more justice. When we stand on the side of love and we will continue to do so. Let's join in. In the spirit of prayer and meditation. Allowing ourselves to. He present to this moment in a way that we all send don't allow during the week. And breathe. Let us be together and gratefulness for the family we create. Who is the holy family. It is the couple who choose to remain childless. It is the couple. Whose children have long ago left the nest. Tendrils of family stretching across the country and the world. And the holy family. Is a mother and a father. A mother and a mother. Father and a father. There's children adopted children foster children and this list is only the beginning. Kohli. He's in our intentions. And our actions. And the care for love that grows over the years with all of its imperfections. With all the characters that we have in our family. With our missteps. And forgiveness whenever possible. Who is the holy family. It is the truth and loved ones we allow into our lives inviting them to know us. Their joys and our doubts. Is the friends we choose to bring clothes to us as if they were our lineage. And sometimes creating a sibling we wish were ours. You are like a brother to me. And the people who are around us the sibling the parents the grandparents they are here. In this room. Holy is in our intentions and our care for love love that grows over the years with imperfections characters. Miss dent. And forgiveness. There's a wealth of family when we open mind and heart. And on this day we send healing. The families of newtown. Each of us is a part of an intricate web of relationships when one of us celebrates a joy or grieve the loss the web of life moves to a new shape. We are apart of the turn of the earth the shift of the stars the pull of the sea. And i'll change. Sewing preparing for this service john and i work together. -9 tandem sort of like tag team name is wonderful and creative process. And this feels like a keeper it feels like a service that we need to do every year as we redefined what is family. Not just talk about it but to celebrate it and show it. Here in our sanctuary. As i spoke with people about the service i discovered. That some people are very happy and creative about how they understand family and others are very very tender-hearted. And making do with what they have and finding love where they possibly can. So to know that there are many tender hearts around us today in the sanctuary and they are tender and ways that they may not openly share. They're just carrying it very close. Holy is one of those words that we you use could have some difficulty with more than others myself i like to wrestle actually but these difficult words i prefer not to surrender. I like to find their value their strength. In ways that strengthen our. Liberal hear you approach the world to our family holy this is a big one. They cannot even before we attach it to family holy family. There are some who accept only. A limited edition of family. Much less. Holy family. There are others. And it is not just us unitarian universalist we're not alone. As those who understand the holy family is a wide universe of families. Five different types different ways we come together in love. And today we have three families courageously working with this challenging concept of the holy family. Examples bearing witness to the many ways. We stand on the side of love. Good morning. My name is megyn kelly and in my many slew of identities are included young adult campus ministry member. Preacher's kid pictures kid squared. And many many others. I have no siblings. So my immediate family growing up consisted of myself my mother and my father. Standard societal terms are not helpful when deciding defining the members of my family. Due to the general connotations and associations with saturn stepmother i don't use it. Ivory parents. I have my dad. My mommy and my wendy. My family is not created by title. It created by love and memories. My mom wendy and i have a lot of memories as a family. I love my unique and holy family i look forward to being home with my mom and wendy and spending time with them on holidays. For me one main thing that makes my family holy are the memories we create and share. Whether it's chopsticks becoming drumsticks after a meal. Curling up on the couch to watch gilmore girls are going for a hike. My family centers around the things we do together and your experiences we share. I've always felt this way but it was accentuated when i move from oregon to california. When i was in 4th grade my mom went back to school. To hopefully go to seminary eventually. The summer before my freshman year of high school we moved to the east bay when my mom was accepted to starr king school for the ministry in berkeley. When we did this my parents my mom and dad were the only people i knew in that area of california. I'm moving there made me closer to them. Especially my mom. My mom and dad got divorced when my dad eventually move back to oregon. We stay in contact and we both visit one or the other every year. My mom and randy white met in seminary and now serve as co ministers at the sierra foothills unitarian universalist congregation in auburn. When they got married in october of 2009 my family shifted. Wendy and i needed to talk about. Put energy into figuring out what our relationship was going to look like. She wasn't my stepmom the charm didn't work what would. What did wendy becoming my parent mean for us. Now we know we figured it out. And i just am repeatedly reminded of how blessed i am to have amazing parents that i do. All in all my family is holy because i think it is. My family is holy because it contains many talented people. My family is holy because i like it. My family is holy because i have fun with them. My family is holy because we rely on one another. My family is holy because no matter what if there is a common term used for all the people in it. Is brought together by love. I'm jane and this is my partner leslie and together we are the parents of maya who's 11 owen is 5 and declan's too. Well when we. Got asked to do this. We both took it. Pretty literally. And so we're thinking about the holy family and i said look look it up in the dictionary so we took the oxford dictionary and look up holy. And that meant of god and sacred. So we looked up sacred and that meant of god and protected by traditions. And so then we looked up god and that meant perfect. Omnipotence. And omniscient. So we have. Oh god. Traditional and perfect. We're digging ourselves into a false really seem to represent us so. We did what we usually do witches redefine that word holy and with regard to our families where we came up with is. H is for happy. So is for occasionally l is for love. Why was for yell. Which we never did occasionally. But then the next thing to do is to look up the word family and see what that meant and according to oxford dictionary means the set of relationships. And i thought about our family. And it occurred to me that our family just happened. It happens in the wee hours of the morning. When we're both jobs. Changing wet sheets because someone had an accident. It happens comforting. A baby who's crying. It happens in the wee hours of the morning when we sneak a midnight snack together. Or when we watched to crime after the kids go to bed it happens at the dinner table. Every night. It happens in the morning over coffee and cereal. It happens that while we share the tender moments of psychotic non-compliance of the two-year-old and the civil disobedience of the five-year-old and it can be seen. In the subtle eye-roll of between family happens. It's a set of relationships without regard for the law. It's not dictated by anyone's god. And it makes its own traditions. Protected by love. It's happy. Occasionally it's love always. It's yelling never really. But family has happened to us. We have billy who is 6 and april who is 3. We've been coming to uucd now for 8 years. I to lift up the word holy. In the dictionary and its states exalted or worthy of complete devotion as one perfect in goodness and righteousness. Kelly and i have been together for over 20 years and we've been married for ten of those years. We have created a family that is centered around our love and respect for one another and around our complete devotion to our children. We want her children to be the best individual that they can be and kelly and i were both work very hard every day to ensure that they feel loved and cared for. Their lives are the most sacred entity to us. We believe that the greatest gift that we can give our children is the gift of knowledge and compassion. Trust and stability. We are blessed to have our children grow up in a community where they are accepted and appreciated for who they are. I remind my eleven-year-old that there are some communities communities where they would be seen as outcasts. Are judged because of the love of their parents have for one another. Kelly and i never take for granted.. It wasn't that long ago that we would not be able to be together publicly. This fact is not something that we dwell on in fact we rarely talked about it because racial inequality quality is not a present. We feel in this community. We feel loved and accepted for who we are. We have a holy family but it is still not a whole family with just the five of us. At this time of the year we especially remember those who helped contribute to our holy family. Our parents are extended family. And our closest friends. These are the people that have helped mold who we are as people. And therefore have had some influence on our family as a whole. Without these without their words of wisdom and support you might find it difficult at times to fill in some of those gaps. So a holy family takes a whole family. A holy family. A holy family is a whole family that is dedicated compassionate and extremely supportive. It is the presence of many individuals who care and love each other our holy family goes much further than just this five-person unit. It is mine and kelly's devout dedication to each other and to our children but it is also all the pillars that then hold us up everyday. Our holy family is the love of our whole family. Thank you for allowing us to share our spiritual lives with you. Call husband. Matthew and john have mentioned and also a family is a big word. Families vary in size and color equation belief. Was i thinking about this and maybe wonder just a little bit. What's special about my family. My wife and i don't bite. Heterosexual. Motocross backgrounds. My son jonathan 42 on christmas. So far he's perfectly healthy. Recently become even more average we decided to have a second child. This all seems pretty normal to me. What alaska is my mother used to. Steele dossier. Yours is not to question why. It is to do. Hillary is another big word. I don't consider myself especially spiritual or religious. I'm so stupid of me to think about what's really about family. After some deliberation. I've decided that for me holiness. Consumer support a finding strength enjoy experiences. Example comes to mind. The last couple weeks have been a pretty stressful. for me. I'm in school and i just finished finals week. Before i had to presentations to write a paper to write. Crossword clue pakistan. Like many people. I had some trouble sleeping. I was getting more and more tired. One more grumpy. Few days ago in the middle of this.. Fidelis making enchiladas for dinner. Enchanted in the kitchen.. She saw her cutting up an onion. And ask for peace. Jonathan loves onion rings don't tell his doctor. Grandmothers. Joseline hernandez. I tried explaining to him that onions just aren't as tasty when they're raw. But he insisted. So are we getting small piece. She was disappointed. Faith ringgold. Absolutely. Mrbeast. We'll try not to laugh too much. Small onion lost it. For the child so optimistic so sure. Baptist rehabilitation one in spite of his recent negative experience. And that moment my stress and fatigue went away. Was a holy moment. What is this decimal write those days normalize. Family is coming to visit and yes. Family can distress also. Charlie plants to make. Presents approaches as we all deal with. But there are also these moments of joy and support. Sometimes it's my wife we will go to please pick up some coffee for pick me up for myself. Sometimes lately it's been jonathan sims 4 learning and wonder. Sometimes i'm the one who needs to go out and pick up some flowers or small treat. All of these moments. Call joy and love. Pancreatitis and make the family special. Thank you. When i was about five years old my brother's choose me because i still believe in santa claus. I think of more information. Show on christmas eve. Christmases. Because i've been different. The people of doing something different. I have many precious memories. Of christmases people. Especially that one with my mother. I realized. French. Wisdom. People who take care of animals. Welcome to dangerous as starshines. Miami. Holiness is celebrated. When i met my husband. I began to appreciate about relationships are. What is done with otters usually more successful. Relationships. Each time one of our three children was born. I felt that we as a family and. What's a sacred energy. Stop producers wildlife. Individuals groups. Realize its potential. To become home. Integrity. Musical i realized. The grinch. It was a good morning. One of my granddaughters was visiting us over thanksgiving from the scripps college. I need your brother want to talk show. And i got the steps tomorrow and i would. And i reach for the bottle. Beach. Stressthem. Extremities. Because she stood over me and she said. Now i find our children are parenting.. Many many younger people. Zion great-grandparents. We've come full circle. We are the ones being cared for. But our family is more than three children. American native american. That was a rain situation and. Shall we say creating. Al. Golden students from japan. The mask. A professor from germany. Adores anyone who comes. Funeral home. Just treated like family. Tyson to contact us amazon has to be. White people in this congregation. Picture. Is a part of his family. So i have to do all these years i've come to think. My brothers were short-sighted. Santa claus is more than reality. Shadowcraft. The christmas crash. The gathering in the humble station. In the same mythological way. Everyone who cares for him. Trailers for animals and the hillsides. Are shepherds. Everyone seeking knowledge. Does why is woman run down. Everyone is hard. Holy family. Everyone. Is a holy child. And the wondrous star. That shines brightest the first franklin. Reviews. In our whole lives. Kings county supreme court doesn't have a chance at telling us what a family is. The cans in wonder and wonder sometimes this world is a terrible mess but we are looking for that light. These are the most important words i can think to give you today. The only measure of your words and your deeds. Will be the love that you leave behind when you're done and let this gathering say amen.

uudavispodcast_org

2017-04-23-Gaia-Mother-Earth-The-Oneness-of-Everything.mp3?_=1

Welcome to sunday sermons and other recordings from the unitarian universalist church of davis california please visit our website at w.w. uu davis. org for further information. I think you can do that. Universalist church. Karen klusendorf your. Senior minister beth banks is out on medical leave other clergy are mandatory. Morning. And they'll be plenty of time for more clapping later because this is a very entertaining service. And you'll hear a little more about jim in the moments. I am going to ask you just to do the meet-and-greet after the service. You can hang out there and meet each other after the service. Morning. You're accepted here just you are. At the same time may you come seeking change. Perhaps that change with more trust. To forgive. To reach out to you may not understand. In this hour some among us. Wish to be changed. By the quiet time. The music. A time when you focus on your own spirit and how it connects to others. Perhaps you want to make change happen. And are beautiful and hurting world. May this be a place of comfort. And challenge. May the people around you be known as your companions on this journey. On that journey are people with. God or whatever it is in which you place your ultimate trust. For each of us. On this journey there are people of different sexual orientation gender identity. Class race physical abilities. Come let us search together. And become our best selves once again. Every week one more opportunity. To remember just what. I'd like to introduce jim. Guitarist. You'll really enjoy it. Several of his songs are in our books. And he's visited more than 700 uu churches. Jim helped create the green sanctuary program and went on to assemble the earth and spirits. Detailed as a great contribution to our worship in our e-resources. He was formerly a member of the paul winter consort. And co-composer of there. Missa gaia. Map. Jim has toured the world. Recorded a number of cds. And published a growing line of choral work. He won the you use solomon anthem contest for a song i am waiting. This morning. And virtually all the words in music. This morning are his. So we can thank him for coming not only by. Appreciating his music but. Maybe he's taking some music home with you. I am i think i hold the wreck. 702 more than 700 you youtube. I really didn't. John buren. President. Has he been to 585. And michael dowd and connie barlow into 600 some. If he's babe ruth on. Barry bonds. Mcdonald's. 700 you youtube. My sociological study. Something is on. You hear. It is acoustic. Okay. Well. There we go. I've been singing the song for more than three decades i got the sing the song when i first joined the paul winter consort it's been attributed to me but i didn't write it wrote wrote the melody. Call. Boise. Call. We gather again lighting are. Star symbol of our free. Cesar free search for faith we say. Are free. Put it and it is symbolic of a great many things on another sunday it'll have a whole different connotation. But. For me today. I read it as the earth. Is a being. The earth is a vessel. With a fire in its heart. The inside of the earth. It was on npr's. It is every bit as hot as the sun now it's that hot on the inside. Where are the flames on the outside. Aside from the occasional volcano. We must. We are. That energy force of earth burning. Oxidizing. Green blue and white. Down here on the ground fastening from the earth old spectrum of color. Providing this mysterious. Mystikal. Balance of peace and health and justice. That we might call.. I like this word. Try to sing along with this song. It's the song is in our. Delighted to say. Sitting in the tree. None of that is in the song. But sound. Maybe model the first verse and then you're welcome to try to sing along after that. Might be a new song to most of us. Barbie on the grass. We are gathered again. Imagine dangerous. The church. Threatened. Family values. The church that wants to undermine the authority of the father. Church that is had forgotten the creator. Those right-wing radio ministries i was listening to one this morning have warned us about. Does church of bleeding-heart liberalism. Politics. The homosexual propaganda. I like it here. The churchill insurance you you won't be going to hell no matter what you doing. The first is open for the diversity. We're open to it. The church of practicing witches. And the church that sings. Or in the next worship committee meeting. Celebrate. And abandoned churches. Jesus the savior son of god the father. Although something works might be missing out on some of their. It is that search. For ecstasy. Enlightenment. And other things. Including free coffee. Origins we don't question. Brings us together. This is my church and i'm a zealot. This is the church that says to everyone you're not only welcome. We need you. And your creative input. In arkansas. Diversity is a strength. A survival. We believe in. We face the challenge of our search for guidance. As well as the continuing. Creation. Of our own missile. It's not an easy job. And we come together and meetings like this. To offer each other. Ourselves. Even when i don't see a lot of people under. I like to put a kid's song. Kids songs. Supervalu. And not scare anybody cuz it's. Kids song. You can sing about sharing and no one calls you a communist. Like that. Feeling that. I could invite you to come up front where you are with your big people this morning because. And maybe we can get some. Grown ups. Going to be in second grade next year. I wrote this song with second graders and they're pretty smart and second grade they told me all about the rainforest. We know how that work. A little more exotic animals in the song and they told me about the four levels of the rainforest which i never heard that before. Some friends just yelled out on the back of a concert in columbia missouri. We were just in costa rica rainforest. I like to say that i think we've got thrown out of the garden of eden before dividing it into separate fields of study human. The four levels are in there then we see how they all together on the ground. I'm in the water. I like that cuz i'm a musician. Harmony of nature. Another word for peace. These things work together in peace and. In this. Natural cycles. The circle of life. We could say some less. Optimistic things about that. Later but. It turns out. Nature is really good for us. Anacortes weird concrete. Changing places. We are just one of the ways the water has evolved to move itself around. And we're constantly changing places with that water cycle. I don't want to put any ideas in people's heads while we still have a good deal with a service to go but you can think about that. Kids are going to stay with us today. Well we'll try to make it interesting. Some big words but just ignore those. Sometimes lose a joke. Sometimes. Not entirely seriously. Apologize for using this word. Minnesota. You know we all have our own interpretation. So i'll leave that to you. Summon. To win a football game. Win a war or something. That's an awfully. The god of the universe. Must be a big job. Oh god of the two black holes. A billion years ago. We just felt it. 175 million stars. Will be born today. And this little star. With eight or nine planets depending on who's counting. And god of this little planet. God of the elements water and air fire in earth. Hantavirus. And bacteria. Mdna. Photosynthesis and contagion. And immunity. Of gross and struggle. Suffering and survive. Of crimes and mistakes. And appealing. God of evolution diversity nature. And lately. Humanity. Of ideals and passion. Read dominance. Of civilization agriculture industries fossil fuels in plastic. God of science. Nonsense. God of truth and lies. God of war and oppression enslavement. Genocide. The refugee the dispossessed the law. The broken. Of hate and anger. And hiding right behind them. Papa men. And compassion. Of cooperation. Now this is important. Cooperate. Of memory. And stories. Unless. I'm sharing and understanding. Pavlov. Was love involved back there. The two black holes. This world. Are you the same god. For this little group. This little ball. That has brought us again the spring. The needs rest to seasons in the turning toward the sun. Awakening again that last for life. Adventure exploration. Ecstasy. Awareness. An aging. We're all our mistakes of the past. Become the campos. For the fertilizers for. Always met the news. Are you still there. God of the senses of beauty of sorrow in relation. And god for that one particular species with the power of language and learning. Dreams. To have created you in our image. It was released it was the best we could do with our small minds. Don't even know your name. We're working on. Matter and energy. A big bang expanding universe. And benign lack of oversight and trusted. Evolution of things. Would eating. And maybe the same. Lots of other planets. Around lots of other star. A trillion. Galaxy. Hundreds of billions of stars in each. One-in-six stars. Planets. The odds are pretty good god. Spring. At this very moment. Last year was challenged by a. A scientist to send an email out to musicians it circulated. Kidmed musicians either laugh. Or get cranky. He said. It where the songs for. Environmental movement. The likeness of any said like the civil rights movement. I wrote back this academic thing. Much more than a century of evolution of. You know from slavery through jim crows from the church songs to movement songs and. There are. About the climate and there are a lot of that you know we don't have the 30 marginalised networks anymore. So we're not likely to have another. Something like the great folks care of the 60s. Suddenly the media turn display on. Songs of working people in songs of different cultures. Lasted for a little while. Or even to you know televised the war they did the vietnam war. Giant corporations bought the networks in them. And now we got all these other. The fake news. It's all the songs are there. Maybe they don't get the same. The same treatment you know selling multi-millions. But. You just google some of that stuff. Collections. Project i took on a more than a decade ago. You said i made a big book called the earth and spirit songbook. Which i think will be more books. Barely scratches. Of this movement. So i wrote this song. You know he was challenging us to write a song and i went to. The. March for the earth on september 21st a year and some months ago. In new york city and they were marked is all over i'll bet there was probably one. Planet. They were marked as when the united nations was going to get together. Make some decisions on the unemployment. We were so optimistic. Well i almost chickened out but i did sing the song on the march. Standing on the side of love unitarian universalist marching behind me. Help me sing this song. And there was no network tv crew there to capture that moment. I took my iphone videos home and. And made of homemade thing you can find it on youtube. Find the song on you. But i will. I think we just have the chorus for you up here. But i'll show you how it works. Icing a couple of lines to set it up and then and then you'll see how you fit in we are and we speak. Now call the attack on america or no by its cryptic numerals. 911. My garden yielded up corn and beans and. Eggplant. Persistent and non-judgmental as a song that follows the storm. This orchard in garden is often my asylum. And i find routing in the soil. To be sitting response. In troubled times. Now seasons of bloom and fruit have come and gone against while the perpetrator. Has haunted our collective soul. Immersed in this. I find myself imagining the conversation i might have had. With osama bin laden. I picture you could have been a farmer. A rich one. If given the chance. He probably see my abundances the spoils of evil powers. Or maybe i just be a peasant. In the eyes of such. Ordinarily richmond. Turned international criminal. I dream. We could talk. About injustice. Struggle for equality. In the sanctuary of fashion by my own hands. As the dog runs circles in your yard nearby. I would speak for nonviolence. He would have to educate me as to the oppression of. And no doubt make the case. The revolution. Now some may take offense at my attempt. Even human eyes. Such a monster. The most disturbing part to reconcile. Saw himself. As a deeply religious man. I offer no defense for his action. World leaders have. Convinced of their justify. And some previously obscure muslim cult. Certainly holds no monopoly. Does policy. Perhaps it's not to the hardened criminal. I imagine listening to the anger. Of all those people he claims to represent. Here in my tranquil garden. Among apple peach and cherry trees would be enough beauty and serenity all about us. To keep us engaged. In the company of swelling pumpkin. Or savoring a fresh tomato. We might talk of the horrors of war. Amid roses and fragrant herbs. We might consider what he could possibly. To accomplish. For his people. 2setviolin. There is i suppose no real place for negotiation with the perpetrators of. Mister bin laden. Would argue there's no negotiating with the evil us. Morally corrupt western powers. Under the grape arbor we might argue and disagree. And yet. Still continue. Might not be enough magic. Enough. Aura. Harmony. To keep our arguments. Destructive. It's not a large enough sanctuary. The hold our dialogue and its energy. Easily run off in a fit of anger across the road past the picket fence fortresses the middle class. Out to the highway in the city where bastion of excess and consumption are monuments to a society. Dangerously out of balance. Friend of yours. It will take a bigger garden. A larger. And more inclusive. Sanctuary. What time is. Extended. Productive. Reflection. I pray for that garden of all the. We're all are included. Between. Quiet where one might speak and be heard. And the sustenance of fresh air and natural cyst. Busy in their harmony. Only then. Mine are dialog. It is not. Define. Rise. I am. Going to read you a little bit of extrapolate from this time not going to read the whole. Don't worry. Order of service. So i did it again i'm going to just have to. Exert some executive privilege a couple of things.. So i'll. Cut down on the talk. I'm a large white male looking. Very therapeutic to drive a long way and get people to pay attention. Another word for god just might be. Technology. You can humor me. Is it from the addams defying gravity. Got their names i wasn't paying attention. To all the way to the things. Wooden legs. Technology use the vehicle of living. Organisms living. To develop itself. Evolve. Transform. Was. Things work better if you cooperate. Tiniest avene. Irwin technological cooperation growing organisms more and more. So to take a leap now we humans. Evolve. Small mammals. Could hide. In the ground. And survive that winter when they. That the asteroid into the earth. Stores. Thousands of years. So it wasn't like boom. And sometimes tourists survived on an archipelago for quite a long time. But. Thousands of years ago. So 65 million years ago. Mammal. Could burrow in the ground. But we transformed herself. Mammal. We mammals. Bed stand on two legs into the most predatory. Vicious. Of tools. Weapons. And then our transformation. Homosapien culture. The branch to survive. Deities with language in artistic expression. When's the future. With agriculture. Agriculture. Products more abundant. And also bought us. Let's get physical. Too much of a good thing. Or shelter in closing of course. Fortran. Enabling weaker individuals amongst. Technology road the humans to the top. Of the. Use them. Humans evolve the digestive system outside of the body. And. Revolve. Of course. From medicine to healing the sick. Into now technology for upgrading the privilege. Cosmetics. Now we're walking computers at the end of an arm. I have a 13 year old's i understand house. Any 12 or 13 year olds. No. Your position on earth expand memory with pictures and recording. And talk to each other or rather. Text. You don't talk. And. Two people if they will never meet in their life. Other parts of the earth. As far as their. As far as my daughter's can. And don't interrupt us with your stories of your five-year-old prodigy that already knows all this i was just it was just a figment. So now the human body. The used to be a combination. Of dna and 10 billion living other separate beings on everybody. Bacteria and viruses. Now combined with computers and bionic limbs. The transcend. Human abilities. You might think we would have. Transformed. We would have we would have evolved. A greater consciousness as well. And we have. It's bear. All the knowledge is there i know how to live longer happier healthier. Why is that. We've also evolves. 9 nation-states. Put the capability to end human life on earth with a push of a button. Also evolve alarm. In every community. To give us a tater 10-minute warning when the bomb might be coming. To paraphrase einstein. Everything is been transformed. Except our ability to deal with it. Evolution that turns out works really well. For somebody. Natural selection and survival. Percent. Does that sound familiar. It works really well. But we stood what we also know. The tiniest little things. The cooperation. And some of us that are not. And the strongest enable to wesley wild beast. Outrun. Wild beasts or something. It turns out. That the weaker among us have a lot of things to off. Specialization. Comes with its own. Problems. But. It turns out. We know how to do this. We know how to work together and make. Life better for us. But then. The poem i read about. God of the two black holes. Came from talking to my great friend who is very pretty. We talked about god you know will god will. Help me. Really. And so. When god be. When i found myself thinking quotes. You know god made poison ivy. God made god made cancer. Minnesota is former soviet union. Gay bashing more than gay bashing. Hatred of. Give us. Is being fostered as a great. And very successful. Smokescreen. For the corruption. Combination. These sorts of things work really well create either a good war for a good hate campaign. The other. Is always there. Episode does god reveal his god on the side of. You know. Some of those. Tens of millions of things that are in my body that are going to kill me or. Is god on the side of the poison ivy is got on the side of you know. That is the mosquitoes. We have all this wisdom. Computer software with all information. You can google it and these days and whichever website you like 22. To know how to survive and live happier healthier. Longer. I know that stuff. My mother told me a lot of that stuff. I don't do it. I must be in there. I must be alien. I must be wounded. Can i have to fill that void any kind of immediate gratification. Mask. The pain with anger. In order. To stay at. Better job. Inside children's children's. To heal. The earth. In each other. It's really a low-tech and it's a rather easy thing to do. Will. And i don't want us to lose. I wondered if i should say this or. But i don't want us to lose their tax-exempt. But. 80% of one political party in. The congress. It runs america and. Are the leaders of the free world. Chauvinistic stuff we say. 80% of 1 political parties still thinks. That the climate change. The climate disruption. The cataclysmic events is a fiction. It's fake news. But they just know that. They will become wealthy. Immediately. Where are you now in the short-term. From fostering this for bit longer. The way. Cigarette companies could just. Put it off. 10 more years. The marketing wolverine. Just give us. Just get out of our way and make a lettuce make as much money. It's so easy for us. Didier meats. But i drove here with an internal combustion engine. Pacts with the devil all the time. But you know what i mean. Wealth. Wood stolen from us. Not only was it stolen from other people but it was stolen from me. That's what army. I realizing my little town the police are there to protect the rich again. And then. You can get mad at me for this. But. But i got to have my week here so that's my opinion. You can argue with me and i had coffee. Do we try to write that. Wrong do we try to do we try to make a balance. Eastern medicine. Eastern philosophy likes to say. That no prescription. Tourneau equation. It's only poetry. Give us a glimpse. What helps you know fully describe. Give us a description. Winning award. Or is it. Balance. Is that balance. They were about. I have to tell you that i know. I'm preaching to the convicted. Already. This is no news to any of us. But i just think it's important for us to get up and remind you to. So thank you for. For listening to that i know we're going a little bit long but if i can. Just kind of segway one someone song right into the neck. And we'll get the. Two songs and then we'll let you go. As we're celebrating today our life support system our mother earth. Gaia. The goddess. Mother-in-law. Mother nature. Let us take this moment also to celebrate. Contribute. Miss more immediately. The work of this church community. Which means. And as you are practicing detachment i will endeavor to teach you this song where you might. Sing with me about investing. Repetition. Everybody and may your life be. Striking young man. Another beautiful woman named love. I don't really know. Who was the woman. You can only send love. But i love you anyway. Why. Are they telling us. Some happy. In a funny sort of way. So it was in love with love.

uudavispodcast_org

2014-12-21_The-Wholly-Holy-Wonder-fully-Human-Family_11_15.mp3

Welcome to sunday sermons and other recordings from unitarian universalist church of davis california website at w.w. org for further information. You are welcome here if you are filled with joy or lost in the depths of your being you are welcome here if you have a message to share or need a quiet don't need to be quiet and listen you are welcome here in your fullness your race and culture sexual orientation and gender identity religious views or political party comes to connect with community come to honor the earth and come to claim your spirituality is possible come to transform your life. Africana backup to do the advent we realized the first candle for help. I noticed that that is definitely the cycle of seasons that we know here in california and it was written by mark vellutini when he was living in the bay area so that's why all those lyrics don't really speak about the snow in the winter he's got it right for us more than children and educator who believed in experiential learning which was really radical for her time and so they have been coming ever and each night a tiled is born is a holy night a time for singing the time for wandering and a time for worshiping and so it is for us winter snow. I think this is the fourth year that we've done this service and if it's really embody the idea you really live that idea that families come in all kinds of permutations and that norman rockwell picture of what family is we'll probably if you peel that back and told the story of everyone who would be in those pictures if it might be a surprising story not what we project on it we've had things as diverse as. Tumi family is a guiding light in the darkness let me start by providing a brief portrait of my family i'm a thirty-three-year-old father of a five-year-old daughter athena with my wife gina who is 7 years older than me which is how i have an eighteen-year-old step-son this is what my divorced parents as well as my younger sister. Each of us is a part of an intricate web of relationships. These words see if you can walk past this last hour perfect edges to smooth be someone for support that's gone family held us together space to heal symbol of a rolling pin here in this church for days after the fire relationships matter religion without spiritual walls one great organizer another who cries at lots of movies make a living i want to make a living helping people awesome mom kind of cool wind do into mike or grandfather trumpets blowing chickens hatching alright grants let this gathering say amen.

uudavispodcast_org

2015-01-18_MLK_An-Extremist-for-Love-Justice.mp3?_=1

Look up the sunday sermons and other recordings from unitarian universalist church of davis california at www.dav.org for further information. Good morning and welcome our service. The other thing i wanted to say it this morning when we stood to sing the song and the early service lift every voice and sing i realized there might be some contacts needed for this is nicknamed the black national anthem singing this song might be helpful to tell you this.. These words from martin luther king the truth is not without a bearing on our personal anxieties we are afraid of the superiority of other people of failure and of the scorn or disapproval of those who whose opinions we most value envy jealousy and lack of self-confidence a feeling of insecurity and a haunting sense of inferiority are all rooted in fear.

uudavispodcast_org

2017-08-13-Safety-In-Our-Midst.mp3?_=3

Welcome to sunday sermons and other recordings from the unitarian universalist church of davis california please visit our website at w.w. org for further information. Participated as part of the sanctuary discernment. As we enter the shared sacred space. May their home. Find renewed strength. This past week with questions. Continue responsible search for truth. Community. Beginning. Is lyft for sorrows in a ways our world is broken. And the second is of that is a part of our religious message. This is a community of caring. And when we celebrate joyce. Would you harbor mean. Would you harbor me. Would you harbor a christian. Would you harbor a runaway woman. A child. A prophet. A king. Would you harbor an exile. Person. They are people. September. Highest. Recipients of funds for face of phi. Ar. Witness assembly. In june. And be asked. Good morning good morning my name is daniela. I'm so speaks during a gestational virus. Uc-davis. Country or anywhere else. Meaning like weekly meetings where we all come together. Situations are going on in our community. Organization on campus like. Undocumented students on campus. Pretty much. Continue. 2. Any action that we want to take in order to help a community. Universities. We were given permission from some of our members. Goodnight believe six or seven. United states. And also we have. She is here now she just graduated in june. Cheats dancing lessons. Take into consideration undocumented. Please speak. He left his country so he's from mexico he left i think when he was 14 years old and two of his brothers. Going to school was going to be for him so he wanted to go into higher education like in june. Gmail. He was able to get his family to come from mexico to see him graduate. Apologize that he had to leave his country in order for him and just for him to pursue his career to me. We have the same stroller. Seeing him. Unfortunately. Availability are to be able to go so. So we really want to thank everyone for listening to us. Hi my name is liz king. Speaking together. There's no power greater than a community discovering what it cares about. What is possible what's wrong. Cheap. Notice what you care about. Assume your dreams. Be brave enough to start a conversation that matters. People you know to people you don't know. Differences. To be surprised. Treasure curiosity more than certainty. Acknowledge that everyone is an expert about something. Creative solutions come from new connections. Remember you don't fear people whose story you know. Real listening always brings people closer together. World. Rely on human goodness. A tender care. But this really speaks about and we are talking about. You're invited to stand in body or spirit. So kathy is in the process of writing another grant. That will connect our congregation the students. Thank you for sharing your stories. History. With us. Students and students at uc davis. We're not quite sure i'm in about 56. Lies and undocumented people. Some idea of the numbers we're working with i think it was. I heard that there were about 236 undocumented that they were aware of and it has grounds are increasing. We haven't talked about. Didn't know it's going to be focusing on you for part of his sermon. Our relationship with. Is one way we are fulfilling a public commitment. In june of this last year. Because our congregation is one. Answering the question what's in 2017. Since march of this year. And beyond the clergy. Annual june membership meeting this congregation voted to support of conscience. Remember that vote. The statement begins by recognizing that we live in stressful times. Is there anyone here who can deny that. I did covers many issues. Important. Including the need to support the environment. But today i will focus on the issues that support our relationship was. And beyond our uc davis campus. Sanctuary movement. The declaration recognizes. Immigrants. Muslim. People of color and the lgbtq community. It acknowledges that haste. Harassment and hate crimes are increasing. I didn't deface. Incivility in public discourse. And the clear bias. The current administration in washington. By supporting this statement. To affirm worth and dignity of every person. Just a couple of sentences. Any and all auctions. To deport. Register discriminate for despoil. As people of conscience we declare our commitment. To translate our values into action as. On this side of love. Among us. Students who are undocumented. Are strong. Creative. Tenacious in the best sense. Grateful for the ideals of this country. Freddy giving themselves to this society to make this country greater. Without them. My bias. Showing. The conversation started. Responsibility. I also believe he intended role of our government. And especially when they are not acting on that. It is the calling of the face community. To help make this a reality. Universalism sources. Inspiration come from scripture isaiah. We must learn to do good justice rescue the oppressed defend the orphan plead for the widow. And christian scripture. Neighbor as ourselves i think we have a sign to that effect in there maybe a couple last in the office if you want them. But you use a more modern phrase. Communities are supposed to afflict the comfortable. And comfort the afflicted. Or we could say. From our declaration. We will live our lives on the side of love. The most vulnerable. The scripture that speaks of misses the reality. What are integrated society. They are neighbors and students. So children in. They may be present. Among the members of his congregation or seated right next to you. The undocumented are of all nationalities and ages and professions. Christian jewish religion. And research this year showed that the largest number of people who are on. What is a fear of deportation in the shadows. They fear the loss of family and home. And all that deportation represent. Fellowship. Universal neighbor. No exceptions. T-shirt. It says that. Translate. The sanctuary discernment team are their gathering resources from our denomination we're not alone and doing this and they invite you. They are intentionally discernment team. That's the process. The first guided discussion. This service in this sanctuary of a word for the place we are right now. As a spiritual leader of this congregation. I believe that if we embrace our universe was tara tijd we will choose to become a sanctuary congregation. Having said that. I want to say also that the definition of sanctuary is continuously. This congregation chooses to offer safety or sanctuary in this larger community guide. So i hope you. And learn. At these opportunities for discussion. We can only succeed if. Each one of them. Work together as a community of congregations. Resources and inspiration across a multi-faith. Organization. People from central america were seeking asylum from their war-torn countries. Discussion. Many of them actually about becoming a sanctuary congregation and one of our members sent me an e-mail that said that at that time the decision was made not to someone. With this place of support. For their homes and transported. Immigrants in secrecy. Protecting those who thought. Safety. Put in 2017. To consider. Physical sanctuaries like what i was talking about. Or someone can be for citizenship. Are known as sensitive locations. And at this time. Our government honors the history. Four churches for congregation gentlemen's agreement but i am not sure that we have a gentleman at the helm of our country. I did not know. What the future would be. Agreement. That is not allah. Approximately 1,000 churches and synagogues. Officially declared themselves. Who is in danger of arrest because that person cannot be the space. Commitment from everyone. Perhaps. Who is restricted. Imagine all of your life that happens. And that would be tonight. Congregations have the facilities. Only about 12 people across our nation. Just kind of sanctuary. Few people feel that they would benefit from the kind of safety. Equates with house arrest. That. But that's the kind of conversation we would have. In those discussions. What happened between now and october. There is another kind of sanctuary known as private. This is similar to. I guess we could say the underground railroad. Apparently in 2017. And for those who are undocumented they arrived safely in specific provinces in canada. Where there are resources to welcome them. We don't know. We don't know. And like in the 1980s some who are undocumented find secret shelter in private homes. Because transporting undocumented people in harboring them participate. Not everything about this. Is on the surface. Is made public. There is a public. Sanctuary movement. And there is a private one. It is. The truth. With a million undocumented and the current administration stand on immigration issues. Under obama's administration either. New message. Creating sanctuary are needed and are being developed. Humanity is its most creative. In hard times. The sanctuary that has been explained by many who are undocumented. It's getting safe in their own homes on their way to work. When their children are attending school. Sympathetic american citizens. Offering something that is now being called sanctuary in the streets a very public very public kind of sanctuary. In their communities. American citizens to support them. If ice comes to a home where undocumented people are ready to respond. Someone is designated. There are assigned people are assigned to be the videographer there is a prayer vigil. The documents. That are coming with the official. In essence the person is not for the safety of sanctuary community. To the home. The person who is. Without documentation. Has it been successful. For now. Cuz i suppose not welcomed the publicity. Philadelphia and other cities of organized. Urban areas. And there is something else that we have been encouraged to consider. The sanctuary of accompaniment. Citizens. Matched with families and make a commitment to accompany those family members. Is now defined. Is what it means to be a sanctuary. This congregation was. In the uu service committee expanding sanctuary. Webinar. The reverend kathleen. And the students of speech. Is what was featured. As one example can be built to assist those affected by our country's immigration policies on relationships. With commitment. The small ways that we have helped the students on campus. I'm not alone. I remember these things. Must be careful what you say. When we're together. That declaration of conscience. And there were other ways to throughout the year. Offering the space of this time. The odyssey. This congregation. We're on the papers out here that what we were funding. Disney. In this area. Question. Are there more different kinds of resources available among us here in this congregation. Is there more that this congregation wishes to do. Together with other space communities and civic organizations. What will strengthen our community and make it safer for everyone. We will be asked to be collaborative. Flexible. Because there is not one way. And not be effective even in a few months from now. Maybe ask to be in relationship. Very little in common with them. To put aside our differences. I'd be curious. And to enter into relationship. With another girl in mind. As people of conscience. There are many ways we can translate. Translate. That declaration of conscience. So i invite you. Be a part of the conversation this coming season. Be a part of shaping the future of his congregation. Intouch the lies. People you know. You may never know. And to that i say. Prayer and meditation. This isn't there every day considering the time and silence. Listening for that still small voice within. Life is so busy. In this time. He was us. The silence together. Among us. Together. Conley and her family. For our prayers. And continues to welcome cards of love. And encouragement. As we search within ourselves to find peace. When the president of the united states. And the president of north korea challenge each other with language of aggression. Mayday listen to wise advisers. What's the juvenile immigrants from central america. Yolo county juvenile lockup. They were detained by ice in suffolk county new york and sent here without their parents. Attorneys. Being able to challenge such a move. Have dignity. And worse. Quickest time to bring healing to this world of ours. There are as many ways as there are stars in the sky. A crying child in that moment they are changing the world. Reassure a friend who is frightened and strengthen a relationship. Spiritual. Candy courageous and and stealing. What will we do with our gifts. Bless. The world. Spirit of life. Come here. Are the ending of it from rebecca justice barrett. The best laid plans. A revolutionary love. Protecting urging. Live their life as the gesture of things for the beat for this beauty and this range. Community. Endeavor shared. The heritage. The importance of keeping space. The life of ritual and praise. The comfort of human friendship. A company of earth. Alone can save the world. Together that is another possibility.

uudavispodcast_org

2015-07-05_God-Bless-Everyone_-No-Exceptions.mp3

Welcome to sunday sermons another recordings from unitarian universalist church of davis california please visit our website at www.sec.gov or further information. Welcome to our unitarian universalist church of davis wear today we're taking a slightly non-traditional look at the 4th of july and how independence whatever that may mean only began on july 4th and it's still something in the process of being created at least if we are to bless everyone with no exceptions. When we come here on sunday mornings. We bring the gifts and imperfections of who we are this is a community where we challenge each other encouraged each other support each other our work is to keep our site on the best that we can be in this place we are surrounded by a diversity of religious beliefs god or whatever it is each of us calls sacred is different for each of us and comes from our life experience we celebrate those of all sexual orientations and gender identities we welcome people of all races classes political parties and we will continue to work to build a world we dream about and cherish living earth as our sacred home. Every day brings struggle every day brings joy every day brings us the opportunity to ease the struggle of another to be the joy in another's life mazes flame remind us to carry our lie to each other and to the world and their father did not take them all of the times that he was scheduled to have them i worried about my oldest child the most because he seemed very affected he is one of the least prejudiced people i have ever known he challenges me everyday to fight for the rights of others my son. This reading is a prayer written by the reverend doctor martin luther king junior called toward the promised land. God grants that ministers and lay leaders and civic leaders and professional people all over the nation will rise up and use the talents and the finances that god has given them. And lead the people on toward the promised land of freedom with rational calm non-violent means. Our reliance is in our love for liberty our defense is in the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all peoples in all lands every where destroy the spirit and we have planted the seeds of despotism at our own doors those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves and cannot long retain it why should there not be confidence is there any better or equal hole in the world let us have faith that right makes might and that interface let us to the end loving kindness may i may i receive the loving-kindness that comes to me out of mystery may you be filled with loving kindness accepting the loving-kindness for you with loving kindness everyone. Congregation take hands let us have faith that right makes might and that interfaith let us to the end there to do our duty as we understand it amen unless it be.

uudavispodcast_org

2016-11-06-No-Were-Really-Not-Alike.mp3?_=4

Welcome to sunday sermons and other recordings from the unitarian universalist church of davis california website at w.w. org for further information. Church community. Unitarian universalism divine spark in ourselves in community and in our natural world. You are welcome here in the fullness of who you are. Community of seekers and supporters. This week especially know that none of us. Is defined by our politics next sunday. Thank you for being with us today. You're all invited. A big thanks to the austin volunteers participated. Forward and give us a little update on the auction. Number for you. Remember that way. Voices. To remember in making the world a better place. Physicist. Many different. Refugees from all over the world end this year. Universalist service committee. Focusing on refugees. The guests at your table boxes. The story. Tennessee. Last year our lives changed forever. One of my mom's friends. With the countries with high mountains where they could be safe. What is this place. Is it a safe place. Where is it. She showed us pictures it was very different. She said she didn't tell us exactly where it was. Anymore. We put everything we had in suitcases. Left at night. Everything. But not just. Go back to the wall. Tonight. Forest care.. Was never scared. Close our eyes. Finally fell asleep. Florist for us. Secretly. Yet. Across the sea. Into a ferry boat. And we were afraid if the way. As the sun rose for the first time in many days. Is this the place. Close. Set a reminder. How many borders. Find a new home. And we. Begin. Are the stories. Merciless kongregate. Remind us all of our interconnectedness and the support. You might know. In the top. Dollar store. This month of gratitude and celebration and sharing stories to remember that there are people in need. Support service committee and their good work. From now on the first sunday of december december 4th. That you put all of your pennies in here. And he's at home. So december 4th will come back together you can learn about these stories we have some brochures. And now i'd like to ask for a few helpers. Thank you thanks susan. Personal life. Cross-section of political opinions. Considering this current election. Weather for my gym my family or friends. Bernie supporters. A disservice. The opposition supporters. I seen a play autumn both sides. An individual speaking of the downsides of the other side rather than the benefits. To try and persuade someone from a deep belief. Satirist jonathan swift. Reason someone out of a position themselves into. Celebration dinner of my girlfriend company. Next setting engineer. He was born in the czech republic. I talked to him for some time. Well-educated man. Music and donald trump. She believed she could. She put down my candidate of choice. Saying that she wanted to make the country socialistic like canada. He said in his experience that was a mistake. Several people at the table. Them. Turn on conversations. Olive branch. You said and also met and most of the people at the table misguided ideology. Maybe she knew something. Carefree by aristotle. It's a measure of a mind to consider. He gave me an anecdote. Canadian healthcare. At the time he was with his friend was diagnosed with cancer. And wallace friend wouldn't have to pay. You would have to be on a waitlist for many months. His condition worsened and was unable to accelerate the process. In desperation came to the us and paid the premiums to get the treatment immediately. Unfortunately. Could have made it if he was died treated right after being diagnosed. At the table. And it wasn't the trump supporter who stop listening. Listen without trying to persuade him i heard many points that i disagreed with. But i also heard something that surprised me. And made me reconsider my views. But most importantly. Belly. Happy about my conversation in peace. This summer. With our keyboard. And his congregation. Boomers understanding with his concern for their religious identity. And this was the best part. And the character of the american people. This is august i was already. The americans. Right now it is questionable whether there is a unifying character of the people of this country. Tax exempt. What we are witnessing. A divided people. And this is where most of my pain. Earth creatures. The stars. She think about the universe and how it was made. You see if we are made of transcending. A star's maybe we can actually do it. 1960s and 70s. With a few days before the election. It's worth remembering it again. Recognition by the larger population of our country. We are now less influenced by northern european. And as a people we are speaking and having. The demonstration. Independent. When he writes about relationships relationship. Large-capacity for relationship kinds of relationships. And are we not there again. At a different turn of a spiral. And this time it is as complex as the clarity of the distance of time. What is the range and the depth of our love for life. As unitarian universalist. Do we stand and anger and righteousness. What is our capacity. Capability. Relationship consider sacred. I mean. Wrote. What is the volume. And still maintain. In the presence of opinions. I mean he continued in his writings does your spirit have the strength. To encourage. I shared moomers board and his congregation at the spiritual practice of developing this. Ultimately save our society. 2016 plymouth. For right this moment. Good people are divided by politics and religion. Is growing and curious young daughter. The conversation about her happened on facebook which is where we communicate. Good eyesight. The beginning. Facebook. And my family member was smiling so proudly with an nra his head. He was in france. I stared at the photo. Question. Is this you. Because i just couldn't respond. The cheerleader for this young man in his life. Just sent one word. And growing up. Small. And i realize if i presented. If i had a feeling. It would not matter. If i should present. If i sent article showing how refugees who are muslim. Terrorist. The divide between us was so wide. This is what was interesting to me. Set my mind couldn't accept that this person i cared about. Recognize is. The mind is an amazing thing. In a similar way anymore. What i asked. Research. Libertarian. His studies focused on the tension between i use of reason and emotion. Humanity has found this. The roman poet wrote desire end. In plato's dialogues. The creator god who created only perfect sings. Fill the universe with perfect. Perfect surfaces on the earth. To carry the perfect spheres. The problem has lived. Reason. The world. Physical vistaril. What looks like reason. It's a surge 2 support. He already existing emotional reactions. If we are committed. Of my family member. Processes. Our country is so polarized. That this is the situation in which we find ourselves. Inform any elections. Vines. It does not support our values and our conclusion. Just try reasoning. With someone who didn't arrive at their opinion. We if we are dedicated to. Dinner. Youtube challenges i accept. Not because i think it's easy. And not even assuming. Can really be. In a presentation of religious education. At the unitarian universalist church of berkeley california. I said that. Human civilization advances achieved greater freedoms. For minority groups. Better understand the dignity of the other. We create the need for adopting disciplines that are more complex. Requiring the human spirit. Agnone. Dentist in the 1980s. Uncertain. Do the challenges ahead of us. I can't write. At the numbers on the research i cannot. Write off half of this country who are on the other side of that chasm from me. I'm not totally satisfied. Personally i hope that reason is more powerful. Assistant. But the difference is separating us. I'm not indications that those with whom i disagree with our eva. Pace research. The republican convention. And in his article i found music gave me hope from my. Necessarily. Viewpoints. Do not represent how i would. Identify the morals. Fairness. Avoidance of harm. Respect for authority. Explain in our country. Avoidance of harm. Respect for authority. Purity and loyalty. I dedicated. He offered a sixth moral foundation. Play differently highly controversial. Before a liberal. Liberty is a word supporting the rights and freedoms of minority groups who deserves the care of the government. These next few days are uncertain. 16 election. Did answer. In this country. The founders of our country had a democracy. The country we live in today democracy for themselves. This country is at a tipping point. Chinese american former president bill clinton. He says it right now this election. Christian. It's time does messi anxiety. And difficult. And ultimately a stronger democracy than what. We have the opportunity to create. Democratic republic. With the strength and resiliency. Diversity. The black lives matter movement is so much that this congregation has worked. I would add to eric's comment that the population he described it is here. Yes there will be work to do. Beginning on wednesday. November 9th. Woodward. Research institutions. To build yours. Each one of us. With someone with just agree on the very same important. Friendly conversation. He said. A sense of aloneness. Desperate. Conversation. We need. Victoria safford. Optimistic hope not a common sense. Phone is dead. Sometimes lonely place a place of truth-telling about your own first of and its condition. Play set resistance and defiance. The piece of. Beckoning. Invite you now into a time of reflection a time. The time that we enter into to create a community of. We take time in this sacred space. Listening. For listening within. Listening to others. This moment. Going to take this moment to be thankful for this day for this things in the end unseen that have brought us here. Sacred space we seek renewal and strength in our lives. We hope for comfort and understanding and attend places. That bring us sorrow. Quest anxiety or we come into this space to be cared for. Others. Most people in our lives know our love is there for them may they know comfort and hope. Thanksgiving and support for the existence for the communities and places that enrich our lives. Knowing other people by appreciating other creatures and the earth. By recognizing our interdependence. Imagine a world. And understanding. Ar hopes for peace expand one hand. Set a time. Now let us sit in just a moment of silence. The song rosanna. Relationships. When one of us celebrate the joyous orgreave zalost the web of life. Amethyst.

uudavispodcast_org

2018-07-08-Infinite-Roads-Diverge-in-a-Narrow-Wood.mp3?_=1

Welcome to sunday sermons another recording from unitarian universalist church of davis california at www.dav.org for further information. The worship associate today is. Play die. Indignities you are welcome here. No matter how are you identify or who you love. For your political affiliation you are welcome no matter your understanding of god. Or your answers to life's big questions. Community of learners and compassionate listeners. If this is your first time here we hope he will stop by our welcome table so that we can get a chance to better. We like one pillar candle. For the sorrows of the world. For the moments that we have on our hearts. And we like one pillar candle for the choices for the moments of hope. Each sunday we like the chalice which represents. Teammate mission of our church and its morning. Quiet reflection for a pause in our lives. Breathing into our true selves. Flat-footed said to the dimensions of our lives in spiritual practices. We are strong together. In community. We share the experience of being human. But the warmth of the chalice lips during our time together connect us and carry us out into the world. 1916. Yellowwood. And sorry i could not travel both. As far as i could. Sweatbands in the undergrowth. And having perhaps the better claim because it was grass. Ask for that the passing there. About the same. And both that morning. It leaves no step had trodden black. Oh i kept the first for. Knowing. Adele. If i should ever come back. This song. I'm relieved. In my early forties i was living in los gatos. I knew. Unfortunately while we all have very good intentions and good heart. Which i inherited after my mother died was the right one after that. There're some first-timer. Robert was written in 1916. Things were different then. Really going as deeply in the process theology as his poem kensap. Responding in a way that she thought would be appropriate and. Giving the way i am. Altering his poem. Any system. And he literally says to me. I'm surprised i gave you such a good grades. Perfect. Infinite. What is a classic example of. Is. Destroyed. Bringing frost. A little more forward little more modern. Science ideas. The process theology. Open are taking a little umph in it. Ultimately indescribably complex. Our life. Can tend to be. Think i played with my kitten. Insight. Into something you can do much more meaning. What am i to make of my path. I'll be facing in the future. And unpredictability of where the path may lead. What am i how do i respond. Understanding of responding. We're going to take a momentary detour from robert. In the book of the old testament. And the sermon. Fixing dinner on a saturday. The second episode of. Have the big bad cattleman ranch house of the rifleman lucas mccain. Widower. Blaming god for rejecting them. This is the ancient and the current story. Bad things happen to good people. Mark's father the rifleman lucas mccain the famous actor chuck connors. About 10 minutes i mean 10 minutes on a tv show. Talking about the story. I'm really familiar. And it was a fabulous job. Play nsync imagine. And this lesson found its way to his young son marc. One thing about you and the sun. Joe doesn't destroy him. Control. The only thing maybe we have a chance of controlling. Is our response. Are waves and control in the. Remain faithful. Then the problems market lucas pays for pretty small in comparison problems. Principle of understanding. Control. But can control how far away is really best in a book called man's search for meaning by viktor frankl. Actually claire bradley our congregants. It was an extended family. Not everything was great. Understatement. But any idea. Were there. Simple reason. I was not. Was controlling. And i was trying to control my life. Coming to the understanding. Managing continuous. Rather than controlling the world. Coming to that understanding middle-of-the-night about 6 years ago. When i woke up and said out loud what i had never said. Before not out loud not quiet nothing else. With all this crap going on i will never be able to be a minister so just do it. Ever since. This was not. It was an instantaneous. Change. The outcome. That i don't control the outcome i mean it almost seems silly for me to think that i can't there but i'm talking in the grand scheme of things. Their way to me. And because now i am. Distrusting the path is so different. Me against the world. It's me with the world. Help leaf in the wind. It means that i'm working with. Instead of fighting against it. Everything i do. Maybe i can. It's not so much. And you understand what i mean by that there are some things that i would definitely. As for me being. The actual center of the universe. And i'm not giving up on that process theology version that's coming. Is that the entire universe is expanding. But no matter what you do everything is expanding from everything else this is what. Expanding universe memes. And that means everything from me. And the center. Are you babysitting now but actually that's the. But then when you think about it. This means that you are also the center of the universe. Inch of you. Epicenter of the ever-expanding universe. On this ride together. Inexorably separating from each other. It seems that separation. Is baked into the very nature of the universe. We all share.. I just think it's interesting. In a way that the only out. His kind of a mystical concept whether it's theological or. Scientific. Listen science there's booze. A connections amongst entanglement. Einstein. He called it at a distance. Unquote unbreakable laws that nothing can go faster than the speed of light. They can see one particle over there. And over here. Can you change that to instantaneously delay. And yet more and more and more. Instantly. And instantly is faster than the speed of light. Do you make sense of this when everything else we see says that nothing can go faster. I mean this phenomenon is happening so much now that it's getting close to being observable at visible size thanks. Light microscopes. What happens with many physicists and talk about this example of oneness. If there are not two particles. But if there's only. Particle. Send the speed of light problem goes away because the information isn't actually going from there. To hear. The information is already everywhere. Its existence is already one with the universe. Thinking about. His. Pretty easy to come to this idea. That there is just one big one. That's all that there is. And the prophets. Forever. Now leads to iowa. As much as i know anything. I don't know. I don't know exactly what i will do. I trust the path to reveal itself to me. Evenness my path leads me to iowa. We have lived much together. In many different activities. And many different. In many many different different different. Me and caleb. You perhaps entangled with me and what you may have. And love. For me. Disconcert. Has nothing to do with distance there is no iowa over there. And davis over here. Relationship. Less traveled by unquote. Still true and robert frost. At the end of the poem. Even if the fact was in fact. As far as explicitly acknowledges in the poem in that phrase of the poem is often overlooked vote as for that the passing there had one them really about the same. Adjusting quantum-mechanical. More than one option for any given situation hiding in there. Even talked about. Calling. Sometimes just. Open to the changes that might surprise us. Delight us sometimes. Raley's on two way. Has a bunch of that means are played with kittens past may not cross again. It also means that our paths may cross again. And always. Entangled. As we are. I shall be telling this with a song. Somewhere ages and ages hence. We took the path we traveled by. Join me now in the spirit of prayer. Meditation contemplation. People are born into original goodness. The world is inherently good. We are all people. Animals nature rocks. Xenoverse 1. The divine process theology conscience. Is there name for the sacred. It's good. We are not perfect. And need help we fall short from the perfection of the above but not because of original sin. And are willing to help. We can honor this creation. We find as we celebrate. Progress we make individually and together. We speak community that can help us see the beauty of creation. At that can help us to bring others closer to experiencing 21 nescafe to. Deserve. People who take pleasure. And wisdom from being on the path with people. Garcelle. Each other. And the world. Closer to the oneness of the above. Our community comforts us when we feel personal loss and courage of us. For failing to the world. Individuals to comfort others when they can benefit. Clutch community requires much from us and requires much and provides much for us. And both are cute or religious community. As we strive to better serve the world and bring ourselves to each other and the rest of the world closer to the oneness. First call. We are part of the turn of the earth to shift of the star. Pull up the sea in all change. Reflective. Andre will play some. Accompanying. Background music for us. For you to reflect on what has passed in your life this past week. Concerns and gratefulness for this life. I'm an investigator. And it comes time in our service to extinguish. Arkansas. The candles of sorrow and joy. But we carry the light with us until we meet again. Entangled as we are. Until we meet again. Amen.

uudavispodcast_org

2016-09-18-It-Matters-What-We-Love_11_15.mp3

Welcome to sunday sermons and other recordings from the unitarian universalist church of davis california please visit our website at w.w. org for further information. Wonderful. Will it be to work with someone else. And alison if you would just come up here at. I asked. With josh words. So this is my right hand and my left hand. And it is a joy to work together and come into my office. Music. And you will start to see that. A couple of weeks and so we have met with everywhere just looking at history for concepts and people. For our country. Allison. Rehearsals with me. Sometime. You are welcome in all of your fullness your race and culture sexual orientation or political party. Tom and honor the earth. And come to claim your spirituality. Dream is possible. These words are from the sufi mystic huskies. Great need we are all holding hands and climbing. Is letting go. Listen. The terrain around here is far too dangerous for that. Do not let go of each others. Because the train is to. Could be. Now. Is pastor why i went to see the leadership training. Gold medalist. Leadership. We started the day with singing and meditations. By the end of the week. The first day of the training it's a standard. The first covenant i can remember writing. At least. Sitting in a circle with the same use friday in the same words. I don't even know what i'm commenting to anymore. List of promise to myself and to my davis youth group. Connected. When i was asking. I wanted to say that the person deserves the punishment. Myself. I realized in that moment. Is northwest of rules or guidelines. Is who you are together. When i was surrounded by people. Keeping covenant allowed to speak freely. I could trust the people around me because as much as i. Felix 2016 2017. I was so excited to do it. And then i was severely disappointed when i was the only one with my little enthusiasm. Stage 4 lung cancer and was quite sick for almost 2 years. Between my sister and my grandparents and myself we were all able to take care of her 24 hours a day so that she could stay. During these days weeks and months that went by of taking care of her we hope that she would get better but my sister and i knew that she would not ever get better. There was a lot of time and opportunities to talk about expectations for the future future. We made exceptionally terrorist covenants to one another. Things that we specifically that she specifically asked me to do like help my children remember. To take care of my grandparents. They're also unspoken promises for the future that existed. Disneyland with my kids the tooth fairy easter bunny santa claus as much as hell as for as long as i can possibly muster with my kids. Writing my children in the mornings with songs and back scratches or articles. Most of all my silent covenant to her was that i would story. So that more people could be touched. My mother's birthday is in 11 days. And at this time of the year i remember all of the unspoken promises made. That she was sick. 766 this year. Our covenant that was spoken between us is something that i am today. I'm telling you about april. Who made everyone feel like they were the most important person. Her nature was innocent. Herself unconditionally without judgment. She was my confidant my best friends and my inspiration. I know that she would have been very proud of me today standing here in front of your sharing a part of her story. Covenant is a promise we make sometimes ourselves. It is a sacred promise with another person. These sacred promises are gifts. That we have chosen to. Very special gifts. Allison. It was the rose. Just a little bit. Universalist congregation. Every sunday. It is their congregations. Truth. Service. Peace. Freedom to explore foreknowledge. And harmony with what is known by each person as sacred. Maybe some. And this is. The full version. No edit. Church. The quest for truth is a sacrament. Service. Is it prayer. To speak. With each other. God. Through our service today. Becomes more and more important. David brooks. Arise when people with different cultures. Globalization which connects economic and environmental spades nations. The internet. Which gives us the opportunity. Across the globe. The forest major force in modern societies. Is self-reliance he had a slightly different word to it that really comes down to self-reliance the beliefs that we have the ability. And it seems to be celebrated and sought-after and makes us a better person. You are self-reliant. You are the best. Perceived. As providing. For many people not many people. Offers only. A deceptive temptation. The first migration globalization. It is for others freedom. It is the source of many of our crises and our problems. Better border instead of addressing the underlying reason why. It's the reason. In many countries. You see how did that use ever get. Involved in isis. It is why neighborhood. Isolated being isolated isolated country. And surely the state of our environment makes it clear that we are all on this earth. Together. David brooks uses sas. To whom do we belong and who belongs to us. You are irresponsible. And they are the questions that guide our sense of belonging and responsibilities. What you heard from allison this morning. He surprised me. Surprises like this. 100. Making local covenants. Answering questions. Is what will save us. Universal. Twenty years after those pilgrims landed. Starting at 16th. This part of our history is. It's not the complexity that brings us to this moment. Before i can see to the main story of the sermon historian. In the sanctuary starting at 1. Stan. Wrote that the european settlers. Our history books might. Us-2. Pakistan. Diversity of first nations people. Established. In the west. French spanish directions. The history of this country. Is the strongest example of the free church. 30 families. General court in britain. So i know how to say. Parcelsapp. And then they began to think about creating a specific society structure their lives. Neighborhood meeting together. But really excited. Because in england. Not condemning god. Want to create a loving society. There's no record of discussion. Because they were. Needed one. They already had. But they came to the same conclusion that i've heard many say in this congregation. They needed a place and a time set apart. From the rest. Remember and name the ideals that they love. Indian curry stew. The church was seen as the primary example of how to bring heaven to earth. It is the free church of membership. Affectionate with each other. Which is. Membership. Perhaps you understand. For the one who joins. As well as the community and to say thank you so much for being. Who was the member. Who is saying. It is a privilege to spitz with you. To do with you. Established church. Buffets. That was their choice. Membership and the result of learning. Passable on people's understanding. Please understand. Members. Set a line with others. And research this is the antithesis of the pattern today. And not desirable. Not want to become. Buy membership. They kept asking if you had. Speak. Forgot. Started as a relationship. Responsibility. And their covenant extended. They're doing whatever it is necessary to bring people. It is in our history. Today we receive a double mandate. From the beginning of the phrase church. Down just injustice. And using that healed person to me in the world. Membership. Here's what. Generous. Would be disciplined. People being punished but that didn't seem like it fit. The discipline. Could be really hard actually. Was two reasons. To discover the source of the destructive behavior. So other members of the church would sit with you and say. So what's going on. How did this come to be. And the dividend and worship. And i'm hoping that no one here has ever been this way. For lack of patience. Kindness. Or generosity. And what would it look like. Remember this is really radical. The founding members brought together. Young and old. The person who made. Man and women again very radical. Discussion. Everyone's voice was important. In that congregation. What are disagreements. The conflicted congregation refused to help. He just also apply to families so you can imagine your neighbor's deciding. You would resolve those problems. Unacceptable. You will find a way. How hard is that for us to accept the help of others. First universalist church of rochester. I was forewarned as i started. Never mess with a covenant. On sunday. That a word. I love them. Eyes closed. Speaking from the heart. I stumbled. First second. I loved every word completely. In the middle of the choir director was dismissed. Style aesthetic. Does the choir director. And the next sunday i saw him walking down. Sidewalk from my office. With choir member on each arm. Heading to the church. And so i called our attorney and said what should i do. Choir member on. In a prominent two. We could all see them. I know that. Had been betrayed. They had been betrayed. And the church experience. I was a supervisor at an ex-officio member of the board. Divided against each other because. Somewhere in the choir. Reserved for joys and sorrows in the middle of the service. Personal matters can't be discussed so no amount of pressure. Within a short time a petition was circulated. Bethel congregational meeting was scheduled for the worst. Not just a few choir members were upset but who knows. This was not a large congregation. Under special congregational meeting sunday social hall. Some of the most trusted members moderated the meeting. Everyone who wished to speak. How to turn. Many who signed the petition did so because they believe in the process. Congregation members being able to call for a congregational meeting because. And this was news. Pretty angry choir members who thought they had an army. With them. It was really impressive lesson for this year. Went to leave each other back to a relationship. That was. Their covenant. They listened. And they were thoughtful that have expressed their anger. For supporting the process of the bylaws. The board was affirmed for exercising. Pterosaur. Confidentiality. And those who were angered. They were not ashamed. For supporting someone they believed to have been wronged. The only people who didn't. Domestic agreement in the sense of betrayal were those who had stayed away. Because they were afraid of the conflict. They miss the opportunity to belong to such a resilient. And my ministry continue to be strong and even shield and the relationship between the board and the choir were repaired and slowly at first. They were safe with each other. We hired other choir directors and organist and eastman school of music was just. The choice to accept. Membership. Church. To name the ideals that you love. Which is why anyone who calls and says i think i'd like to be a member of your church. Not yet. You need to come to this place. And not listen to a podcast. Org website. You need to meet the people. And decide are these. Dares. In our membership. We are charged. To encourage. As well as ourselves. To live. The deepest love. To use this place as the primary example of has to bring heaven. Deborah heard from allison. Together. Ministry will be working with this congregation for a new. In the year to come. And as david brooks ted near times colonist. Conservative. Cheryl. We need each other. To survive. And i'm going to ask you to turn down my michael little bit. Okay. Thank you. Behind any pressures you may have in the world. They will find you later. Quiet for awhile. Preston. Into the silence that makes this one. Miss stevens. The future of our world seems to hang in the balance. Maybe find our innermost center. And remember. I know.. Solitary beings. Complicated. Imaginable. Needs you. What their faces. Before you. Do you need. Who loves you. Guidance. Answers to you. And sees you as their inspiration. Exchange. By your choices. Directions change. Relationships. The world. Relationships to the earth. And relationships with friends and family. Even without us knowing it. As a measure of kindness. Real strength look like. I sound like when you speak. How they act through us. Sometimes without realizing it looked at. May we find our strengths in a love that embraces all. Blessed day. I pray for you you pray for me i need you to survive and so it is for us all but this congregation say.

uudavispodcast_org

2015-02-15_All-Roads-That-Lead-To-Good.mp3

Welcome to sunday sermons another recordings from unitarian universalist church of davis california please visit our website at www.sec.gov or further information. Good morning and welcome to the service on prayer or specifically that worship associates reaction to their own personal feelings about prayer. Welcome to the unitarian universalist church of davis. Welcome and may this be a time of joy and beauty for you may this be a time of reflection and introspection. Can you find what you are seeking in this hour of worship. Whether that be a moment of quiet or fellowship. Or prayer. May you feel yourself apart at the sacred space and community. You are welcome here. Whatever your ethnic background for gender identity or sexual orientation or political party. We come together with many different understandings of the sacred and many perspectives on the divine together we can create the place of love and transformation that we dream about. Will you come down and later jealous today. Oh hitting life the vibrates in each atom hidden light that shines in each creature. Oh hitting love that embraces everything in unity. May all who feel you know that for this reason we are one. With all others. When i think of prayer i think of my childhood when i sent the children's prayers my mother taught me without understanding their meaning. I prayed for my family and others but never for myself. Did even as a child i felt the connection to jesus specifically one sprained to omit in an empty chapel of a nunnery while the way i can. But we were not a church-going family so for a long time after childhood i did not pray. Then when i became an adult i found myself reaching out in moments of pain and fear. Calling on whatever spirit that was out there to help me. I prayed mainly for me. For help. For guidance. But i really didn't fully believe or know if my prayers were heard. Send someone i loved got seriously sick. Larry had a stroke and was lying in a coma. At the age of 28 she was too young to die and yeah the doctor warned us that if he hung on much longer he would be in a vegetative state for the rest of his life and i knew larry would not have wanted that. We had discussed it before he had a stroke. Because he had been getting l 45 years. One night. During a stroke i could not sleep and i went downstairs and i lay on my couch looking out at the darkness. And i was filled with an overwhelming need to pray for larry. Harshest this might sound i did not pray for him to get better. I know that that was an impossible thing. So i prayed for him to die peacefully. To go quickly and without pain. What happened next with one of the defining moments of my life. While i was praying. I was filled with a feeling of bliss. Complete. An utter bliss. I knew. The my prayer was being heard i knew it. This feeling filled me with joy i was filled with love i felt connected to god. I have not experienced that feeling since. But in the midst of tragedy i was at peace. The next afternoon larry's father called me from the hospital to tell me that after seeing his last aunt would have flown in from texas. King quietly slipped away. I was changed that night. Ever since that night i believe in the transformative power of prayer. I believe that if you pray for something unselfish and worthy that god listens. I believe in the power of prayer to heal. I pray. And while i have not felt that blissful feeling again. I believe in prayer. I called this heart of prayer. At 9 ndile lest i should fall. The darkness soothes me and allows me to pray. In stillness and in peace. I pray for he's in the falling away of old wounds. For my children who are my greatest to get and the source of my greatest fear i pray. I pray for those i love stricken with the worries of their world. For those i know not well. Get their sorrows and tribulations haven't touched me i pray. I pray for my soul and my life straining to feel the presence of the one who would answer my prayer. In the stillness and the yearning i can feel the love surrounding me filling me with joy. Touching my heart bringing me home. For me prayer is a comforting spiritual practice i have learned about it in the al-anon program which i've been a member for the past seven years one of my favorite prayers is the serenity prayer. God grant me the serenity to accept the things i cannot change. The courage to change the things i can and the wisdom to know the difference. There is so much meaning in those 27 words it amazes me. Phillipians. God grant me the serenity. I am usually not uncomfortable with the word of god because i didn't grow up in any organized faith traditions i grew up a confucianist. Sometimes i like to substitute the word the words higher power because it is a non genderized word for me. And feels more in line with my uu values. To accept the things i cannot change. This brings to mind. My daughter's alcoholism which i cannot change. All of my kids are adults now. And i no longer have any legal responsibility for them. What i have done is set up a firm set of boundaries such as. Drug use is not permitted in my house. If you choose to do that you can choose to find another place to live everyone who lives in this house. Has to contribute in some way. Do chores. Do a job. And contributing financially to the household. Applying for food stamps. Or help going to help pick up donations of food and so on. Courage. To change the things i can. An al-anon we often use a visual image of a hulu. Reminder 7 how little we really do have control over nothing outside the who. It is taking a lot of courage to change my relationship with my adult case. In the past before the program i was a typical. Asian daughter wife mother. Not person always telling my parents my husband and my kid above myself i was there to do for them. That was my role. Right. As i work the 12 steps of the program with a sponsor. Biotin i identified a character flaw that i had it was a lack of self-confidence. This is a change tremendously. I feel that i am more my authentic self these days. And it feels amazing. So and the wisdom to know the difference. Curious what this means to me. My heart broke. When i told my daughter she couldn't live in our garage and drove her to a homeless shelter in woodland. Crying visit prayer all the way home. Yeah that no truly started her down a long road to recovery. Now one year later i did rescue her. When she was dropped off at the bus station at 12 midnight at county fair mall with a garbage bag full of her stuff. And no money. The next day she found housing at the loaves and fishes shelter. And this time not through me but through her own sponsor. Now she's a mom of us arriving baby girl. Happy wife. A college student and 6 years clean and sober. So as you can see these 27 words hold a lot of power. Importance. And comfort. Army. I suspect like many of you growing up i was required to recite a prayer that begin now i lay me down to sleep. In college i began praying again to the mother goddess whom identified as the earth i asked for comfort healing and wisdom it was a time of personal transformation and this religion was mostly solitary. In recent years of friends in my woman's circle has taught us to say meta the loving-kindness meditation. It's something that brings me comfort and the words are familiar now the call to action not just for me but for everything. May all beings be safe. May all beings be peaceful. May all beings be healthy may all beings live with ease. Becoming a uu and then a worship associate last year began for me and process of really synthesizing and tying this altogether invoking the spirit of life calling in support for justice for equality and for environmental sanity it somehow works for me. It's taken prayer out of the realm of the person the personal and made it about all of us i really need prayer to take into account the fact that we're all connected all part of the infinite web of life our sorrows shared our burdens have. A few months ago i helped with the blessing of the beasts a service in which reverend beth asked me to include on prayer with gestures that led the community to offer energy to the animals to the congregation around us and to the wider world. I really love that prayer and a lot of you did to buy what i heard afterwards because it let us move and it let us do something together as a group. It was both a personal and a community-focused so i've learned that prayer has this place in my life but in a certain context. May you be safe. May you be peaceful. May you be healthy. May you be at ease. Recipe. In my family we said prayers in church. Offered grace at meals and always made time for bedtime prayers. My parents usually my dad was sit on the edge of the bed and we would kneel on the floor cleaner elbows on the bed. Play sarah hands together. Early on here we go again the prayer was now i lay me down to sleep but there came a time when i woke up to what the words were die before i wait maybe we could say a different prayer. Well okay done and what would you like and i had an answer. Which is the following jesus tender shepherd hear me bless thy little lamb tonight. Through the darkness below near us. Keep us safe till morning light. So we recited this verse for the rest of my childhood we would add the blessings. Carlos daddy, this could go on for a while because we were a large family and we usually add other people to the list. As a teenager i grew into my insulin and outgrew the traditional beliefs most of us outgrow the spiritual reality of childhood. The mystical becomes maryland. I became rather a cynic. Kind of a nation existentialist from shakespeare really reverberated for me. Life a tale told by an idiot signifying nothing i know kind of a prayer prayer of declaration. I realize now there was no more jesus tender shepherd. In the 1970s i learned to send form of meditation in the 80s i was meditating regularly. You know you said in that space by yourself after while you become the emptiness. One day well deep into meditating a mystical experience visited me. The emptiness turned inside out and became fullness and there was a presence. Depressants appears a face through a mist. It could be jesus. It could be a woman. Suppressants smiles nas. In my mind i say oh but i gave you up so long ago. There is a reply. That doesn't matter i've always been here. Overtime this experience has become something like a prayer of communion. And the sense of loving connection remains. Nowadays my practice is very sometimes i meditate but not regularly to recall the prayer of communion. That night i frequently still do a version of the blessings. Today is reviewed. People are imaged and taken into sleep with me. None of this is too difficult usually i seem to live inside connection and i'm so grateful for this life that we all share. In this day of constant busyness it is easy for me to be detached from my fellow humans. With aaron's chores appointments forms and bodies demanding attention i am in a family of five going on with the people around me after all it takes time to have a conversation. It also takes an open heart and mind. I have been trying to slow down my life so that i have space for those talks that build understanding and empathy and therefore relationship and community every morning i have a prayer practice that helps to remind me that i am part of the interdependent web of all existence and which leads me has inherent worth and dignity. I call it my sunflower or gratitude prayer. If i start with the people in my life who are going through times of stress with a hell of a thing changes after asking god to hold them in her hands i focus on what each person is going through and how they may be feeling. When i take the time to reflect on each person's situation i feel more aware of everyone's inherent worth and dignity. Ivan moved to the rest of the people in my world like the pedals on a sunflower i name each individual asking god to guide them to wisdom courage. Kindness strength in lowe's. Then i name the people who are in their lives asking they be held. I go farther away from me and further into the community of each person asking for everyone to be held with love and care. By the time i have paid for each person in my immediate family i have covered everyone that touches their lives as well as their communities of support. When i am done praying i feel deeply the interconnected web of life. I also feel grateful to have so much support in my life. It is true that my well-being is dependent on the well-being of all. Since i have been praying every morning i feel my heart is lighter. My mind more open. Somehow i now have the time to talk with people. And listen to their stories. I recognized them is someone in my prayers. And that we are all connected on the street together. I believe in a force that i call god. I do not ever confuse that god was santa claus which is to say that i do not think of god as a person. Let alone one that wouldn't give me stuff if i ask nicely. I pray for two reasons to give thanks. Giving things keeps me humble and appreciative. No matter how hard i work for the things that i have. I am very lucky to have them. At any given moment a fire could take much of it away. Giving things out loud reminds me to appreciate what i have and when i give thanks in prayer it is always with the without the assumption that whoever i am thinking can hear me in fact. I often think people who are not present mixed in with the prayer i know they can't hear me but it doesn't change the fact that i'm thankful. S i asked for things. I don't ask for triviality s or things that i can do myself. I don't ask for terrain money or for michigan to beat ohio state although i might start soon. Mostly i ask for things that i have no control over. My cousin has cancer and i pray for her to get better. I pray for my children to be safe and healthy and tomato good decisions. Well i don't expect my prayers to be heard they are sometimes all that i can do sometimes things are important enough to humble yourself and ask for. Sometimes you have to do every last thing you can think of and even then it may not be enough and this is what i pray. Like a message in a bottle. Sometimes i get what i pay for and when i do i pray again. Thank you god. For the continued health and well-being of my family and those we love and please give my cousin mary the strength to keep up her fight asks me to say i will do so. I consider this to sort of resonate their face. More than you know more than my own. Please join me in a spirit of prayer and meditation. Spirit of life our stories today reflect our hopes and dreams and also our fears and wounds the world around us daily bring stories that are at our emotions and shakes are foundations our prayers for peace and for knowledge of where we may find it. We pause to give thanks for the many gifts of life that are ours gifts we find express and enhanced through this church. We are grateful for ministry and for all the forms it takes in our faith community in teaching and preaching and care for our children and care for seniors and reverence for building and grounds. And leadership ask both large and small. In the many ways we have formed a team to support reverend beth sabbatical. We give thanks for this moment to send her and to feel where we are in right relation and where we might be out of balance. May we cultivated have quiet time in our lives so that we continue to bring forward our gifts and our best selves. All things come and go and today's joys and sorrows will in time give way to those of tomorrow may we who have strength to share today do so and those hope cora need allow themselves to receive. Tomorrow those rolls might well be reversed. And for anyone here today and in our lives who has secrets too tender to share speak aloud we offer them our care as well each of us is a part of the intricate web of relationships when one of us celebrates a joy or grieves a lost the web of life moves to a new shape we are apart of the turn of the earth the shift of the stars the pull of the sea and all change we pause now in silence to witness these gifts we share and the gratitude we feel. Amen and blessed be. I invite you all to take hands may your prayers fill you with peace and may all that is noble and true abide with you forever lettuce gathering say amen.

uudavispodcast_org

2014-03-09_The-Joy-of-Solidarity_11_15.mp3

Welcome to sunday sermons and other recordings from unitarian universalist church of davis california please visit our website at w.w. org for further information. Welcome you are welcome here if you are filled with joy or lost in the depths of your being you are welcome here if you have a message to share or a need to be quiet and listen. You are welcome in all of your fullness your race and culture sexual orientation and gender identity religious views or political party come to connect with community come to honor the earth come to claim your spirituality. Come to build the world that we dream is possible come to transform your life. Preaching today is the reverend earl coating. She is the environmental justice minister with the uu ministry. Welcome earl. Every day brings joy and struggle. Everyday. Brings the opportunity. Bring the opportunity to ease the struggle of another or to be the joy in another's life. May this flame remind us to carry our light to each other and to the world. May the fire is this chalice lid in the midst of this welcome week of rain and sun burn in each of us as we come together on this glorious day. Good morning for those of you that i have not had an opportunity to meet over the last four years my name is angie door i am currently a phd candidate in the ecology graduate group at uc davis and her last me to speak today because my dissertation research focuses on the sustainable use of natural resources on community involvement and outreach unlike traditional conservation work. I really do focus not just on sustainability issue but on the youths issue as well. I've spent the last three years working in the bahamas. Very difficult work i work with fishermen with food processors with government officials with conservation ngos. And we're all working together in different ways and it different levels to really improve our understanding of both the natural and social systems involved with a spiny lobster fishery. This means i spend a lot of time in small communities on small islands. Chatting with fisherman with fish fires with consumers asking them about their views on the resource and how they think it should be protected. I get to hear first-hand their concerns their fears about regulation. But also how important the fishery is in them both in terms of economic sustainability but also in terms of sustenance. For me that's really what protecting our planet and our environment is all about. Not locking up these resources and nobody can use them or enjoy them but ensuring that all of these abundant resources are valued are cared for our protected. So they can be used intelligently both now and long into the future. Prior to attending uc-davis i spent eight years on active duty in the navy. An experience that has affected my research values as well as my personal ones. As a naval aviator i had aerial views of some of the most diverse habitats on the planet. Iphone over asia and the middle east. The indo-pacific in the mediterranean. Everywhere the human footprint is obviously growing larger. An unaltered ecosystems have almost ceased to exist. There is no doubt that we need to address that you can logical impacts of a constantly growing human population. But we must be willing and able to provide for the growth and development of the people at the same time. Our desire to consume is often at odds with our needs to protect. And so we consume locally and try to push our protection efforts out globally. Without thinking about the cost of these regulations on the affected populations. Social justice however requires that we think about the benefits and cost of our actions on all people. Not just on ourselves and our local communities. Protecting coral reefs or rainforest is vital work but intelligent solutions need to be created so that our conservation activities don't take away the livelihood of those local communities. Having an mba in addition to my bachelor's in now working on my pc and environmental science has convinced me that despite what often does occur. Social economic and ecological health can and should be complementary goals in any policy. There may not be solutions that are perfect for everyone but there's always a solution that provides the most amount of benefit with while causing the least amount of harm. I love my work. I love being able to go scuba diving and warm clear waters in the bahamas on a sunny day i love the different species i get to see the coral sea sponges the turtles the triggerfish. But at the end of the day i am so incredibly fulfilled to be able to return to the small island communities. To be able to work to reach out directly to the fishermen and to ensure that i'm considering their needs in developing conservation solutions. We are all part of the ecosystem and to ignore the human component. Is signor a beautiful an integral piece of the puzzle. Hi my name is tina biscotti and thank you trevor over invited me to come and speak with you all today and thank you for the opportunity to worship with you i am a policy organizer i work with an organization called the blue green alliance it is a coalition of labor and environmental organizations it was started in 2006 by the sierra club and the steelworkers which is sometimes surprising to folks a bit of an unusual alliance of groups so there's four national environmental organizations and natural resources defense council the union of concerned scientists the sierra club and the national wildlife federation working with 10 labor organizations steelworkers the service employees international union federation of teachers the plumbers and pipefitters utility workers and the effort is to mobilize these two groups and find common ground to no water what are the things that we agree on that we can work on together because has a lot of the folks are working in industries that have a real impact for climate steel workers were working in oil refineries are natural gas pipelines these are industries that need to change if we're going to address climate change and we need to work together there's no single group no single constituency that can tackle the problems of climate change on their own. My background is in sociology i did my graduate work at uc davis and i think sociologists study power we study social order and we study social change and i think one of the reasons that i wanted to work with the labor movement is because they're workin eyes they're really good at organizing and i believe a lot in the mission of of the labor movement which is about the dignity of work and powering workers for family-sustaining jobs sharing power in the workplace it's really important if workers were working in refinery can say hey we've got some really corrosive crude coming through the pipeline and a little bit later about the richmond refinery explosion and i've spoken with those workers who were problems way before the richmond fire happened and those workers need to be empowered and the labor movement is a way to concentrate instead having a single workers voice a group of workers coming together and saying we need to address the safety of our workplaces we live in the communities near these workplaces and we need to have change so my work with the labor movement really is about bringing together new groups the other night my journey into this work of advocacy was from the interfaith movement and i think it's really powerful. When groups that you don't necessarily expect come together and i guess i would encourage folks to throw ever interested the first time i ever went and lobbying in sacramento was with interfaith power & light 90 this congregation is a member of interfaith power & light and i walked in with you know a buddhist priest and a catholic priest and a lutheran pastor and a unitarian minister and we're all in there saying you know we care about solar panels on the roofs of disadvantaged communities so and and i get people's attention so just like coming in with steel workers who work in refinery saying we want to reduce the emissions from our transportation fuels it's powerful wedding group they wouldn't necessarily expect go in and then lobby for social change. When you came in here we go. Good morning. When you came in today i think you received a small flyer about the interface climate crisis conference is her second annual conference is on march 30th and i encourage you to take a look if you go to sign up you can actually look at more detail what it will entail and i'll also be having posters around that you can look at you can certainly talk to me about it more we have a featured speaker adrian olivarez who is the director for the all the western states for the union of concerned scientists so she'll be probably a wonderful speaker and six workshops one of them is actually a cooking demonstration and that same person as providing climate-friendly snacks for us was worth coming to snap samples of food. Last september my friends and i were making bike banners for a protest parade through davis to urge president obama to reject the keystone xl pipeline but we were feeling a little bit distant from the issues so we searched for a local connection that's when we discovered that railroad cars of crude oil were already passing through davis to bay area refineries. More disconcerting we discovered the davis can expect 70,000 barrels of crude oil per day. I'll translate that for you that's 110 cars or a little over a mile long train per day to pass through our town headed to the valero refinery in benicia if their proposal for a new rail terminal is approved by their planning commission. Much as my life since then has been about crude-by-rail transport. It's not really my favorite topic i'd rather garden i'd rather talk to you about lowering your carbon footprint but once it ended my life i couldn't turn my back on it. I've learned much more than i ever wanted to know about the inadequacies of dot-111 tank cars they were not built to hold flammable fluids at all about the flammability the hi-fi mobility of bakken crude oil which is what they now carry 90-2000 of them i read endless articles on train derailments and regulations or would-be regulations i've studied long natural resources defense council research documents. And the good part i've connected with amazingly committed people working to safeguard the health and safety of their communities near the 5 refineries in the bay area. I've been on npr marketplace something i never dreamed of as a local appraisal citizen speaking out. From the beginning i recognized that the folks living near the refineries faced a very difficult challenge actually from a you your perspective it's about social injustice lately all the refineries have announced plans to expand sometimes they call it modernized that threaten the health and safety of the nearby residents they often are people of color or people of lower-income the residents are at a disadvantage for example pittsburgh has confirmed that their air quality is the second-worst. In the entire country. The chevron refinery in richmond has been refining tar-sands crude for several years the high sulfur content of that sour crude is corrosive and probably contributed to the major fire in that plant on august 6th 2012 that sent to the hospital. Crude arriving by rail is just one more risk for the people there. I have come to admire these resilient people who are mobilizing out of necessity. The sharp increase in the transport of the bakken and the tar sands crude by rail in the last few years brings new hazards for both the refinery cities and the up rail communities like our own. We are linked now that we say some of the very same risks. Davis is on the union pacific line up real from the bay area with the glut of factorial from north dakota and also alberta canada oil industry has discovered the trail is a flexible efficient and as it turns out an affordable way to transport the crude oil around the country. While pipelines will never be used to cross the sierra nevada mountains. Trains can come through the donner pass. Don't ask me how this is possible then on to roseville sacramento across the trestle tracks of the causeway to davis through our downtown. And then on to dixon vacaville suisun marshes to benicia. Like it or not we are and up real community and the oil trains put us at serious risk. As i took sarah gardner of npr marketplace on tour we saw the yolo bypass wildlife area all 2nd street. Are downtown solano park apartments and the mondavi center she noted the vulnerability with carrie for an accident example in alabama last november a train derailed in a wetlands resulting in major explosions and an oil spill of 750,000 gallons of oil into the water it appears the trestle tracks collapsed under the weight of the oil train a disquieting thought even our own pretzel tracks. Here's another story. The area around casselton north dakota is completely flat just like davis but an oil train their hit another train 18 oriel cars derailed and exploded into a huge fireball 300 ft high that burns for more than a day just a half mile outside of town the mayor said they were blessed that day. In lac-megantic quebec they were not so blessed. And the derailment happened in side of town 47 people lost their lives there. We have to hope that will be on the blessed side especially where the trains that come to our town slow from the permitted 40 mph to a spot that requires 10 mph at a curve just where the truth two tracks that come into davis merge. Someone wrote a comment to my article in the vanguard saying. This is just another not-in-my-backyard kind of cos get over it but my friends and i took our concerns to our city's natural resources commission in january they listen to us and about fifty other residents who spoke about their fears the commission sent a recommendation to the city council the city staff contacted surrounding up real cities and counties to join davis they've contacted our elected officials and they are preparing to respond to the draft pir when it is released at the end of march that cir for the valero project. The city council members of ashley thank me for bringing this issue for words so i don't think they're seeing at it as a minor to be dismissed item. We don't know yet what impact we can have. The davis can join with other apperal communities and the refinery commit communities and we can put up a united front before crude-by-rail transit skyrockets in california as is predicted by the california energy commission. Together we can choose a healthier and safer path for our state we can leave the crude oil in the ground and pursue with equal vigor renewable energy sources. And avoid these risks of accidents and spills and intolerable intolerable greenhouse-gas emissions. And we you are all invited to continue this discussion in the same classroom at 12:30 we have some snacks and our local team will join us. Good morning. It's a real pleasure to come to davis you know many of the uu church is where i speak i've never even heard of environmental justice. And i come here and there are so many wonderful activists already a part of your community. So it makes it real pleasure. Dr. martin luther king road. One of the great liabilities of history is that all too many people fail to remain awake. Two great periods of social change. Every society has its protectors of the status quo and its fraternities of the indifferent. Who are notorious for sleeping through revolutions. Put today our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake. To adjust to new ideas. To remain vigilant. And to face the challenge of change. Austin when i go to the church there is a children's story. And being greatly fond of greek myth i have used cassandra on occasion and i have used other myths but one of my favorite stories is king midas don't have a way of telling it is different than probably the version you learned when you first heard it. In my version. Minus is not greedy he is a lover of beauty. Anything's goldie's really beautiful. No gold is not as beautiful as his daughter. He's not as beautiful as some other things that he sees. But it is beautiful and i still love her a beauty he wants more of it. Any praise for this golden touch do that everything he touches will turn to gold. Any wakes up in the morning and he touches his bedsheets and they turned to gold and he touches scene on everything he touches turns to gold and he's so excited that he runs out into his garden. Any touches the flowers. And they all turned to go. And then here's the screen behind him. Any turns around and he sees his daughter. And she's terrified. And very upset because she has the wisdom to know that the flowers so much more beautiful. As flowers that is gold. So any efforts to consult her he touches her. And she turns to gold as well. And now he's the one who's horrified and bereft. And he realizes how full of she's been. And so. He prays and he prays and he finally goes to the river to clean himself. Interview reborn. And when he's he wakes up the next morning he's lost the golden touch. And so he goes back and he pours water over his daughter and the flowers in the bed sheets and everything. To make them back the way they were. That story has. A special resonance for me as a boomer. And i think all boomers in free boomers. Because when i was in the process of. Making a living. Having a career. I had no intention of harming my children. But in fact that's what i've done. That's what we've all done. We're not all equally culpable and this is an important thing to remember. Those people who are of low-income those people who are in dire poverty are less culpable than we are. We are much less culpable. Then some oil company execs. And it's interesting someone gave me the the argument between the services then you know they all companies are just doing what we asked them to do their providing a service and i am in the process of doing the run into a lot of people who are you using work for oil companies. And indeed when they they they feel a little like some of my friends who work in tobacco companies. When they started their worth they did not realize how much damage they were doing. And now they're sort of stuck. And the part that most disturbs them is the outright lying and political manipulation. Nothing while companies are doing right now. Instead they're very disturbed by how the fossil fuel industry is not only perverting our economy but this officer for diverting our politics. No. Before i started star king. I'm there was an orientation week we went. And during the orientation week we were told that as a minister you're supposed to be a pastor. A prophet. A preacher. Scholar. Counselor. A theologian. A teacher. And an artist. That was so far beyond my capacity i must turned around went home and during this my first semester beth came and visited and talked about her wonderful music program and all her knowledge and once again i almost turned around and came home. The one that really frightened him was prophet. And i said easy one. It's easy one because no one expects you to be nostradamus. What a profit does he tells the truth about today. And what's likely to happen tomorrow. No. I have been head of planning for many years in government. And i got that job because i told the truth about what was happening today and what was likely to happen tomorrow and i did learn a lot of people off. They get upset with you. But i had no idea. What it would be like to do this work. Because we're talking about nothing less than a higher rethinking of our culture. We're talking about nothing less than a new economy and new political systems and we're talking about these things at the same time. As things are falling apart and falling apart in an accelerated manner. Robert fulghum much better known unitarian minister than i am. Said he learned everything he needed to know in kindergarten. Well i didn't pay much attention in kindergarten elementary school junior high for a long time tv commercials and that's where i learned what i needed to know. In the first one that was so valuable to me was the old maytag repairman commercial and that was about the loneliest guy in town. Because he was providing a service that nobody needed because maytags didn't need to be repaired. Well i learned that playing chicken little is not the way to win friends and influence people. In fact it reached a point where i would walk into a room even with unitarian ministers and see whether where the exit signs were really tired of hearing earl talk about. What was happening and what was likely to happen next. But then i remembered another commercial. And this one was for chiffon margarine. And the tagline to the for this one was it's not nice to fool mother nature. And in the four years i've been doing this work mother nature has been letting us all know she doesn't like to be fooled with. Sister sandy aka the superstorm has been so much more persuasive than anything i can say. And so. People no longer run for the exits. The third commercial i learned a lot from was fram oil filters. And that showtime mechanic. And he was holding up a fram oil filter and the tagline was pay me now or pay me later. You know by this relatively inexpensive filter let me install it. Or don't replace your filter and replace your engine because sooner or later you're going to ride out your engine if you don't do a good job of maintaining it. Unfortunately though. During this time where public attitudes have been changing. Where the message i have to give his become more and more well-received. And where the circumstances drive it are becoming more and more obvious. We continue to being. A little line one of them characters from the movie rebel without a cause. Know those of you who've seen american graffiti know that back in the 60s even if you weren't around then there was something called chicken and chicken was played by two cars speeding at 1 at one another as quickly as they could. And the first person to turn away. What's the chicken. But in rebel without a cause you was done differently. In that case there were two cars and they were running parallel. The past was to roll out of the car just before it went off the cliff. So the closer you could get into the cliff before you jumped out of the car. Are you aware. The only problem was that one of the drivers. this the hooker sleeve of his motorcycle jacket hooked on handle. Of the the car door and so therefore when the car went over. He went with it. No i'm in wondering as it's becoming more and more conspicuous that we're headed toward a cliff and the cliff is climb crumbling. It'll by the way this is just a metaphor there is more than one clip. There's a certification of the oceans there's the melting of the arctic there are all sorts of indicators out there. And why do we continue to accelerate. And the best answer i've come up with is it someone has cut the brakes. And there's this big bag of gold on the accelerator. And we have not have the political will to remove it. And so. When i was talking to another unitarian minister who's a longtime environmental activist. And i. Send him. Are you saying to me that you was upset that so many people think that environmental activism is putting solar on the roof. Or you know doing some other thing that is individually virtuous but his relatively insignificant. For the situation wherein. And i should let you know he's from massachusetts. The blur of is changing light bulbs are good changing senators are better. And so we're not going to solve what is essentially at this point. An economic and political power cultural problem by changing light bulbs. When i first started doing this work i built a brain trust. And i'm pretty sure it was applied this congregation as well but i must you you congregations you cannot swing a cat without hitting an engineer or a scientist. And when i swing a cat there was one of the first scientist and it took me awhile to understand the basic science behind. Because it we're at a point now where this is no longer so much about all about science yes there is a hard science issues to be resolved with the main battle right now is this all science. It's the economy it's the politics it's the behavioral economics it's the psychology it's the anthropology why are we continuing to do what we know is not in our best interest. No. I will sing and recommend highly. Emma and i. That you do not waste any time arguing with fools. I got so engaged in this then i started looking up examples. And i found three. When's from greg king. And it's well i'm that's my favorite celsius for last answer not a fool according to his folly least they'll also be like unto him. Mark twain with clear never argue with a fool on lookers not may not be able to tell the difference but greg king has my favorite don't argue with idiots because he will drag you down to their level and then beat you with their experience. So in order to avoid.. And find the joy in this because. You know the songs i chose. I chose because my message is very dire. We are headed down the path to redemption. And this is not a metaphorical position or one that occurs after the end of our lives this is one that's happening right here right now it's in front of us. But you don't have to argue with fools. You have to go if you're going to make a difference into the communities that are directly experiencing the problems. So i do a lot of work in richmond where the chevron plant is i do some work with the other communities that are frontline communities these are the people who are suffering today i learned the hard way. To mention another unitarian paul revere paul revere riding through town saying. The british are coming in 15 years. The british are coming in 20 years. So i don't talk that much about the far future i'm not being nostradamus. I'm saying go to the community should already suffering because they are your future. There is no not-in-my-backyard. My backyard is this planet. Some parts of it are suffering more than others and i asked angie here because i knew of her environmental work i had no idea she was a pilot as well in fact if i had to do this all over again i would have called this flying and diving but. Pay attention be there because there are opportunities and there are people willing to reach out to you. In way we haven't experienced since the 1960s. I feel like i'm living the second adolescence. I'm having a ball. Because there are so many great and wonderful people. Who are wink. You don't have to argue with fools. You have to reach out to people who want your assistance but also not doing it out of some sense of superiority but doing it out of. Concern for those people you love. And those people you will learn to love. As woody allen once said. His psychiatrist had plaque. Behind his word assign behind his desk. Who cheated stolen from a lottery. And the sign was you must be present to win. So i am so glad for the work lane is doing right here in your community but no for example next week there's going to be a giant demonstration against fracking in sacramento. Debut as lynn has been doing can make connections with down rail communities. Did you can see the solidarity because we all have people we love. And we all have people that we left we want to protect. And we can all learn from what is happening. Today. Blasphemy. So i am now to do a meditation. I. Where to put a song in between the two but if you could please put both feet on the floor. Take a nice deep breath and let it out slowly. Close your eyes if you are comfortable doing soon. Why is women and men throughout. History of time. Have acknowledged then outcomes are not always in our hats. We do not know. What will happen an hour from now. Much less tomorrow. But we can be devoted. And we can have reverence for life in all its forms. Find those who are doing what will make you feel alive. Enjoying them and blessing the world. A service ayatollah i want you all to know that i selected the song long before governor brown announced the drought emergency which has given me but not only because we want water. Just because we have to sometime soon to our own tears as we acknowledge what challenging times we face. Is part of why this means so much to me let us all remember to change the old chinese curse may you live in interesting time to a unitarian blessing may you live in interesting times blessed be.

uudavispodcast_org

2014-09_28_An-Irresistible-Sense-of-Mission_11_15.mp3

Welcome to sunday sermons and other recordings from unitarian universalist church of davis california please visit our website at w.w. org for further information. So welcome to this place welcome to this sanctuary to celebrate the beauty of this earth and to be together and community this congregation comforts us let me know lost and celebrate our very best dreams we bring our differences and together we offer a fuller truth in any one person could offer alone this is a place of challenged and it's a place of compassion. The holy is experienced here in many ways and is given many different names. And people of all sexual orientations and gender identities are celebrated. We welcome all races classes and physical abilities. We have so much to learn from each other. This is a place of learning that is a place of hope. And whether because of a touch of a friend the words and music or a moment of silence may you leave this time. Here feeling more alive. Kathleen mctigue. And i have been friends we figure for over 35 years it goes beyond that but i'm not really willing to reveal our ages that we met before seminary in spokane washington. And when i lived in south korea her mother came and visited me and stayed there for a nice long stay. And she was one of the most enjoyable visitors that i had their great photos of her mother standing by a great bonfire with a korean students out dancing at night. She was always ready for this kind of adventure. She is executive director of the unitarian universalist service committee. And yesterday she worked with members of three of our congregations in this region 3 unitarian universalist congregation and he was with us from 1 until 4:30 in the afternoon. It was a wonderful workshop and if by chance you did not hear about it and this is nina thinking. Why didn't i hear about that. What i'd like you to tell me about is how you like to receive information and what works for you because we received we realized we thought we had gotten lots of. Information out over and over again and some people said she i didn't know about it so no blame no shame we just want to figure out how do we get to people how do we help you know about things so they didn't let us know that would be fabulous. Throughout that workshop she talked about how we can be present for each other you'll hear more about that this morning with vlad curiosity. And hoping you can make a connection between what you here today and what you heard last week as well. Last night we also had a dinner here with some of the leaders she has been well-used. She will leave here knowing. That she has been heard by many and has shaken many many hands. Dag hammarskjold said each morning we must hold out the chalice of our being to receive to carry. And to give back. Those words about our chalice lighting and amethyst mckay is going to lighter talus in just a minute she attended the college of social justice the high school program this last summer. For you to wear learning about justice work. Edit an essay amethyst road about this experience she said the unitarian universalist college of social justice allowed me to develop my activists mind and become someone who is ready to carry on the fight for justice i can't imagine a future for myself that doesn't include social justice work would you lied arch alice this morning. These words by anne lamott from traveling mercies. Most of the people i know have what i want. Which is to say purpose. Heart. Balance. Gratitude. Joy. Are people with a deep sense of spirituality. They are people in community who practice their faith. They are buddhist. Choose. Christians. People banding together to work on themselves and for human rights. I saw something once. From the jewish theological seminary she rice that said. A human life. Is like a single letter of the alphabet. It can mean little. Or it can be a part of a great meaning. Invites you to set aside all that you carry with you in the week to come to this place. With great intentionality. Be here. Be with these people. And attach something deeper. Because you are together here. In this morning we hold in our hearts those who has asked us as a community. To remember them. All these on journeys that are sometimes within. And sometimes on our earth. And all need to hear that their lives are held by all of us together. What would life be like. If we would weigh with. Glad curiosity for each day. What if we started today.. And glad for it. When we open our eyes. Our hearts. The door to our home. And step into the world. With glad cherry ocity would really appreciate the adventure that starts the moment we step out of our nighttime dream. The bitter taste of coffee. Already amazing. The coolness of this autumn are maybe we'd never get further into our day than the doorstep. The buttery warrants of the seasons light. Ethan disappointment are hurt. Maybe we'd hold it out to sea. Looking for the qualities. Wondering about it. Glad curiosity the uniqueness of each person on the street which see the pace they walk. The shape of their eyes. The timbre of voice would move them to anger how they know what sacred the word they whisper when the time comes to name out what is mysterious and calls them fully to life. The pleasure to be with you this weekend and to be seeing some of you here today for the second time after seeing you yesterday. This reading is taken from a poet by the name of shooting the poem called perhaps and it's from this poem that i took my title to the sermon today. Perhaps these thoughts of ours will never find an audience. Perhaps the mistaken road. Will end in a mistake. Perhaps the lamps we light one at a time. Will be blown out. One at a time. Perhaps the candles of our lives will gutter out without lighting a fire to warm us. 4. Perhaps. When all the tears have been shed. The earth will be more fertile. Perhaps when we sing praises to the sun above the sun will praise us in return. Perhaps these heavy burdens. Will strengthen our philosophies. Perhaps when we we. For those in misery. We will be more silent about miseries of our own. Perhaps. Because of our irresistible sense of mission. We have no choice. During the course of my years as a parish minister which spans 25 years. Almost all of which were spent in one congregation in new haven connecticut realize. They didn't all of our congregations all across the continents there is actually a rather limited menu of seems that we lift up in our worship services. And which we revisit again and again. The sermons of course change in terms of their title and topic every week. But there is nevertheless a cluster of the same kinds of beings we revisit again and again because they're centered around the questions of meaning. What is it that makes a life. Most worth living. How is it that we make a difference in our world. Coup. Are we meant to be. And how do we live into our potential. We revisit these enormous questions again and again not because we are slow learners and not because we were fond of repetition and not even because they are enormous questions although surely they are that. We come back to these themes again and again because the answer is that we receive when we ask them. Are partial. And ephemeral. We never get a road map that lets us walk boldly forward and never have to ask again. Instead it's more as though we're walking on a path that winds through a very dense fog. We see a little distance ahead and then we have to pause and consider. And ask again. This is not how we have been taught to think about progress. We have been taught to think about progress as a very linear affair. You take spanish 101 and then you get to take spanish 102. But in the large arenas of our lives. Like spiritual growth. Becoming truly mature human beings. That linear map is not usually the one that gets followed. Instead moving forward in our lives is more like a spiral. And that's because in the big questions in the big arenas the ways forward these questions we have to ask to find a way forward received ephemeral responses. I have come to think that just is making. Is also one of these arenas in which we would do very well to reconsider. Our ideas of linear progress. This isn't because in the realm of justice making things are as ephemeral as they may feel in our spiritual lives we do after all try to make some very concrete changes in our world. End of war. Assure equal marriage rights. Crucial government into climate accords. It's by these very concrete things that we realize we're making progress or we measure the distance there is yet to travel. But if we shift our perspective just a little i think that even there we see that in the realm of social change in the realm of justice making it is almost always a spiral path not a linear one. And that's because the work of shifting our world toward more justice is never a matter of a single campaign or particular issue. In fact it doesn't altogether have with what we do. It has to do with how many many thousands of people choose to live. In that sense. Social change is never only about what we do. It is about who we are the cells that we bring forward into the work that we are trying to accomplish. It is it includes there for a kind of deep deep listening. Not only for what we are called to do but for who we are called to be so that our lives. Can be lived with deep meaning. And in order to do that. Some of the classic virtues are required of us. Virtues like patience. Courage. And perseverance. Some years ago i read an essay by a woman named sean sia monroe in which she recounted just a little snippet of her life a little slice of conversation that she had had with her children she was driving home from a movie theater and they had just seen one of those sort of captain marvel type movies so her kids were in the backseat arguing loudly with each other about which superpower would be the coolest to have. They argued about whether it would be better to be able to fly or to be invisible to have telepathy or x-ray vision. To be able to have. Super powers like harry potter or to be able to have a superpower more like captain marvel and so on and finally one of them sought to call to the front seat alright mom what do you think. The coolest superpower would be to have. And she thought about it for a minute and then to her own surprise she found herself saying. Perseverance. And of course her children who didn't said that's not a real superpower and then went back to ignoring her. But she found herself pondering that answer. And she realized she had come out of her because of how essential it is to making any of the changes we dream of. And how increasingly rare it seems to be. In this world of instant gratification and constant constant change. So if we agree the perseverance is one of the essential things that we need. Bring forward in our lives how do we cultivate it. If it is in fact a core religious value right up there with patience and compassion how can we begin to bring it forward in our lives. And i think it starts by recognizing that none of those virtues are things that we feel. They are things. We enact. The great jewish theologian abraham joshua heschel once rode the beginning of faith is not a feeling for the mystery of living or a sense of awe. The root of religion. Is the question what to do with these feelings. Religion begins with a consciousness that something is asked of us. Religion begins with a consciousness that something is asked of us. Not a new idea for unitarian universalist. We do after all make our home. In the place on that. Wide religious spectrum it is most thoroughly grounded in this world. In this one precious life. We are the descendants of religious ancestors who in the name of focusing on this precious life declared there was not in fact a hell waiting for us after death but god had created for us. Instead. They turned their attention to the hell right here on earth that we human beings create for one another. Their face call them to respond to that very real and present hell. Our face. The same face. Is calling to us still. At the heart of the unitarian-universalism that we proclaim today in our modern era is a marvelous image of that interdependent web of life easy to picture because we have always seen we ourselves have all seen those shining orb spider webs created an undamaged as yet in the early morning with the do shining on them a marvelous sight easy to pull up in our minds. But the interdependent web of our faith. Is not only a thing of shimmering beauty. Because it does not just connect us to the marvelous things in this world of ours. It links us as well. To such things as the fear and despair of those who are languishing. As immigrants lost in detention. It ties us to people in bangladesh and the philippines among many other places. To already feel the catastrophe of climate change. It binds us to the grotesque chasm. Between people who live in an excess of comfort. And those who are trapped in rank poverty. When we elevated the virtue of perseverance we remember the constancy of that web of connection. And the truth that the tug of its strands. Demands something of us as long as we breathe the air of this sweet earth. It compels us to look up and out from the lucky place we stand. To follow its tensile strands out. To all of the places where our brothers and sisters. Are imperiled. Our religion. Is not about a private feeling of happiness or well-being or even of gratitude and all but rather what we do with those feelings how they lead us to turn our gaze toward a fractured world and look for ways to put the weight of our lives on the side of its mending. Virginia college of social justice which i lead now as director was formed just two years ago in order to help us find new ways to live into that large mandate of our faith. It was jointly created by the usa and the uu service committee. Headed offers an entirely new level of collaboration between those two institutions. Its programs revolve around experiential learning. That is. The idea that the most powerful kind of learning the kind that can sometimes lead us to literally change our lives. Comes not generally. 2 books. Or lectures or movies or sermons. But rather to a direct face-to-face encounter. With the consequences of injustice. So we bring groups of people on short turn to short-term journeys which our pilgrimages of faith and solidarity it is one of those journeys to the borderlands of arizona and mexico on which beth will join us next month. We offer intensive justice training programs for high school use. Like the one that you heard about that amethyst joined us for in boston to help them manifest our faith through their growing awareness of themselves as young adults who have some power to act. We arranged summer-long internships for college-age young adults with justice partners in this country and abroad. And we are now beginning to create a matrix of connection for people who are in retirement who have skills and time to offer those same justice organizations who are in need of their skills and their time. All of these programs. Are grounded into core convictions. The first was one that was largely the focus of our exploration in the workshops that we had yesterday it is the conviction that our action in the world should be connected to spiritual practice. Contemplatively practices in all of their forms help center and quiet and sustainer. They remind us to turn ourselves regularly. Toward the great immensities and mysteries of life. Whether or not we ever choose to use the word god for those mister b's. They let us drink from the deep wells that sustain our work for the long haul. And they help us see our small efforts connected overtime to the efforts of hundreds of thousands of other people before us and those who will come after us. But there is another essential reasons why we lift up the need for contemplatively practice is part of social justice and that is because they invite us into a kind of deep looking. Through which we begin to notice our own shadows. Think for just a moment about the lyrics in that grand old him that we sang together god of grace and god of glory. So many of our social justice songs. Sound as though we are people marching forward with such confidence and ability and capacity and will one of my favorite song i'm sure you have it here as well in which among other things we sing we will build a land where we bind up the broken wheel build a land where the captives go free it's a marvelous him it's inspiring and i truly loved it. Listen to what a difference feeling is evoked by the lyrics we sang together today. Valley children's warring madness bend our pride. To buy control. Shame our wanton selfish gladness rich in things and poor in seoul. Try not to trip over the theology. And listen not to what those words say about god. But rather what they say about us. Cure our madness bend our pride. Shame our selfishness shield our wounds. And then grant us wisdom. Encourage. When our justice work is grounded in spirituality it helps us remember all of those things we can see so clearly that has to be changed out there. Also have seeds. In here. To which we must attend. Without the deep looking a spiritual practice. We can fall prey to the entrapments of egotism righteousness and the kind of us against them mentality. The continuing so easily toward violence. And the second quarter conviction grounding the college of social justice is that the interdependent web of our faith is itself with the poet named our irresistible sense of mission. The truth that that web proclaims is that we all rise and fall together. All beings that live. All beings that suffer. And therefore we must wake up from our delusions of separateness. And find ways both small and mighty. To step over the boundaries that permit us to think in terms of us. And them. We do this first by practicing here together. In our communities of faith. We practice this glad curiosity best named earlier. Which i find so much more helpful a term than tolerance. We practice not a spin and stingy tolerance. But a glad curiosity. Nzd listening. The kind that will loosen my halting tongue and allow me to be brave enough to speak my fragile face. Knowing that if i use words like god and holy and sanctify you my companions who may not. Therefore will translate into your own language because you are greeting me with glad curiosity and as we practice that together it empowers us to move out there into this hugely diverse world in which we live and to stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters. Who pray in the name of jesus christ in the name of allah in the name of god the father. And greet them too. With glad. Curiosity. In this way we become true allies. To those who are most vulnerable around us. In this way we find the deep power of solidarity. And in this way each gesture we make toward compassion. Generosity and justice. Bears witness to the world we hope to create. Latin american theologian gustavo gutierrez taught that the two most important questions that people of any face. And goodwill can ask themselves in one of the oldest books of the hebrew scriptures in the very first of all genesis. In that ancient story of the garden of eden. It is a part of the story when we're taught about the first act of human violence when cain slew his brother abel and then ran off in fear and confusion to hide god came looking for him and asked the two questions first. Where are you. And then. Where is your brother. Gutierrez start that those same two questions are always falling into our lives like invisible rain. And that is people of faith. We must learn to ask them together. Where are we. Where are our brothers. Our sisters. Where are we. What surrounds us in that steep and unfair pyramid of wealth and possessions. Material comfort or deprivation. Where are we in the tangled matrix of privilege and power. And then the second question where are our brothers and sisters. Where are these siblings of ours. The ones caught so often on the raw side of our country's wealth. Who among them is standing up against all odds and pushing on the walls that keep them out. Waiting for others like us to rise up and push that wall next to them. The work to which those two primary religious questions call us. Leads us not only to learn more about what we are called to do. But who we want to be. I do believe. That we want to be. People whose face speaks not only to us within these hallowed halls. But also out there in the broken world. With great power and purpose. We want to be those who will try to live within ourselves the changes we dream of making in the world. Those who will study our sometimes hostile hearts and make a choice to water their the seeds of compassion. Those who like gandhi will refuse to make our adversaries into our enemies. Most fundamentally we want to be people who make a difference in our world healing. When we come to the end of these fleeting lives of hours. We want to know as an lamott put it in the reading. That we used as our call to worship. We want to know. That these lives like a single letter of the alphabet. Have been part of spelling out a great. Meaning. May it be so. I'm in. We breathed the common wind of the earth no matter where we live who we love what language we speak we drink the common water of the earth no matter what our race. How long we live. The coverings we drape on our forms. We walk the common paths of the earth no matter how beliefs. How far we moved from home. The gold that we carry for its lack. May we live from these truths. Our hearts open to the holiness all around us. And our hands turned always. Toward the common good. But this congregation say amen and thank you to johnny and chris and nancy for ensemble.

uudavispodcast_org

2016-03-06-We-Who-Stand-for-Justice-09_30.mp3

Welcome to sunday sermons and other recordings from the unitarian universalist church of davis california website at w.w. org for further information. This morning you are accepted just as you are. And at the same time you may come here seeking change. Perhaps a change has to live with more trust or tuvok forgive others. To reach out to others. We don't understand. In this hour. Together we some among us wish to be changed by the quiet time. A time when they focus on their own spirit and how it connects to others. Perhaps you might want to make change happen in our beautiful and hurting world may this be a place of comfort and challenge and the people around you be known as the companions on your journey. On the journey are people with the diversity of beliefs god or whatever it is in which you place altimate trust. It's different for each of us. I'm a journey there are people of different sexual orientations gender identities. There are those of different political parties class race and physical ability. Let us be lettuce search together and become our best selves again. Eat every week one more effort to unity to remember what is possible. So i wanted to tell you that. You worship leaders today are members of uniting for racial justice. So the first slide. And this is from boulder colorado. I will begin with these words from the uua. Black lives matter is a movement and a stance. In response to this reality. The united states was built on a legacy of slavery. Racism and oppression. The continues to take new ever-changing forms. To say that black lives matter. Doesn't mean the black lives are more important than other lives. Or they're all lives don't matter. The systematic devaluing of black lives. Called us. To bear witness. Even as we acknowledge the depression takes many intersecting forms. K now. This slide is a member of eliot chapel in missouri holding vigil after mike brown was shot. To start i'd like to clear up some questions about this fanner. We ordered this banner. Before the vote which is next sunday at 12:30 that's a shameless plug. So everyone could see. Exactly what they were voting for. We did carry it in the city of davis and martin luther king celebration. As uniting for racial justice not. As the uu church of davis. It was quite popular. And many people wanted to take their pictures with it. Second people have asked me why hanging a black lives matter banner is important to me. Well. I read a story about an african-american mixed-race child 7 years old. Like several children that attend our church. Who had had a difficult week. He was getting picked on and bullied. But other kids at his school. When he arrived at his uu church on sunday he saw a black lives matter banner. He felt acknowledged. Lift it up. As if someone had said. Hey. We see you. And we know that you are important. And that you matter. Third as a unitarian universalist i feel called to do this. At this time there are 130 uu congregations across the us that this play black lives matter banners. I am proud to be standing up with them for justice. Recently you use have been stepping up with courage and conviction to support the black lives matter movement. As you can see in this light. Right now we as unitarian universalist are being called to act. By our ancestors. Who demanded an end to slavery. The fight for women's suffrage. 2-engine crow. And. To honor the black lives matter movement. Flashlight. As a person of color. Anna uu. I see that african-americans are suffering. And i am willing to stand up for them. I see michael brown as my brother. And sandra bland as my sister. I'm ready to stick my neck out and probably proclaim my faith. By displaying this banner. To be guided by our first principle. That enduring unfulfilled promise of the belief in the inherent worth and dignity of every person. To say to people who are marginalized. Hey. I see you. You are important. You matter. Well i think they selected that song for me i heard something about a black mom in there and that's me. My dear dear you you friends today i asked you to connect. With what's in my mind. And what's in my heart. I asked you to hear just how angry i am. Scared and devoured i feel. Comfort me. For example. At the 2016 super bowl beyonce song and dance. To the glory of black survival. Blacklivesmatter. And it was powerful. She did it in february. Black history month. Her dancers marched on that feel reminding me of our african march. Out of africa to populate the world. With afro hairstyles and black berets. They paid. Call mitch to the protective black panthers. Who are known for providing breakfast is 4000. Of low-income poor children. And it was on their 50th anniversary. The dancers forward mn. Baden axe in praise of malcolm x. Who saves so many human black lives. And gave light and pathway to so many young black men. And they punched the air with pride giving new life. To the right-handed black power salute. From the 1968. Olympics. Okay. I loved. Distribute. But some of my friends seriously objected to my joy. Our empathy was fracture. And we suffer together. Not knowing how to bridge the gap. Done by the loss of their empathy empathy. It added to the terror i carry inside for my sons and male relatives. Because of these recent murders of so many everyday black men. These violent acts by the police have gavel not galvanized. Mayuyu friends and mayuyu community. And your fightback efforts. They really have comfort. Including the service today. And it has motivated me to stand up. On behalf of the oppressed it is time for me to call. More a federal restorative civil rights law. This hopefully will be known as the third wave. Of the civil rights racial justice movement. The first wave. Was the constitutional abolition abolitionists slavery. The second wave ended the separate but equal law. And now this the third wave ins institutional racism. For example all please. Racially. Based murdered apps. R2 skip grand jury review. And are to be considered a crime against humanity and a threat to our democratic state. Thereby requiring one. A federal law mandating a federal jury jury trial for police. Who buy video. Or other physical evidence. Murder non-violent african americans and all nonviolent other american citizens. 2. A federal law which requires the wearing of a video camera by all police officers and the video. Biddle. Little wing. A police interventions. And thirdly. If convicted. Then both parties are to choose to engage in a process of truth. And forgiveness. Reconciliation. Or if one or both reject that option than they are required to accept their states traditional prison prison sentence. And i'm coming to the end now i think i've done my five minutes and i just want you to come comfort me by breathing with me. Breathing the support of our community. And breathe out. Breather way. Violin. You do that three times with. 1. 2. 3. As we end. My section. Hear the voice of francis david and unitarian from transylvania. Blizzard spiritual advisor ducane says said in 1568. You need not think alike. You need not think alike. The love i like. Epicenter of ruu faith is not belief. Butler. Love unites love thrives on diversity. Love heals suffering. Love rights policy and laws based on reconciliation truth and forgiveness. As bob morley sets. 1le. Thank you. As i grew up. I learned almost by osmosis that whiteness was supreme. Politicians business people and police were white. Almost all people i saw in the media wear white. And the acceptable ways of being when it really counted work sessions of whiteness. Even those pictures of the hot in jesus were white. I don't remember my parents ever explicitly challenging those ideas they probably didn't notice. They weren't bad or hateful people for it. Maya angelou said the plague of racism is insidious entering into our minds as smoothly and quietly and invisibly as floating airborne microbes enter our bodies. Mom and dad did their best. They taught me that god is love. I remember the messages of self-love gender equity and sister and brotherhood of all people in free to be you and me. If you grew up in the seventies you might know that my beloved sunshine happy family dolls challenge the normalization of whiteness. It was a progressive choice tube and barbies and give their daughter a family of black dolls whose accessories were a tandem bicycle and crafts store complete with pottery wheel in high school i gained a new circle of friends. Socioeconomic status was something we generally had in common. It was a relief to know that i wasn't the only one with memories of buying my school clothes at the thrift store or parents in the service industry. I became aware that there was another factor race which provided me with a very different life experience from this group of friends. That we live side-by-side it turned out that their world was far more dangerous than mine. Simply because they were black. After that reality check. I was fortunate to continue to find places and people who encourage my exploration of race. White privilege and how to find my place in working toward equality. Sacramento city college uc-davis. And unitarian-universalism were full of opportunities to discuss and address racism and white supremacy. My journey has been long has been and continues to be a long slow and winding path of mistakes learning pain. Healing and especially a greater awareness of how far i have yet to go. One thing i'm confident about is how much i still have to learn. But i will share some things that i figured out. 1 white people who believe in the interconnectedness of all life. As part of their spirituality. Must take the issue of racism and danger to black lives personally. Without connection we suffer a spiritual loss. You may have heard the quote from reverend martin luther king jr. we are all caught up in an inescapable network of mutuality. Tied in a single garment of destiny whatever affects one affects all indirectly. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. Marian anderson opera singer and diplomat put it another way. As long as you keep a person down some part of you has to be down there to hold him down so it means you cannot soar as you otherwise might. White people need number to white people need to show up. When called upon support listen and follow the lead of those who are oppressed and marginalized who are suffering dying grieving for children violently taken away from them because they were black. This is going to take some getting used to i'm certainly still struggling with it. This can also look like doing my own homework rather than asking a person of color to be responsible for educating me. If i have questions about black lives matter i can go to blacklivesmatter.com if i want to know how white people can contribute i can check out showing up for racial justice. org. I can educate myself about the true history of white supremacy. And how it affects allies with black people. I can read tanashi coats between the world and me howard zinn's a people's history of the united states. Douglas blackmon slavery by another name or michelle alexander the new jim crow. I can practice and get comfortable with such terms as white supremacy. Airing this often conjures images of white hoods and burning crosses. But such hatred is actually a byproduct of the supremacy and brightness. White supremacy doesn't mean having overtly negative thoughts or attitudes about people of color. It is a social structure which values whiteness as universal and normative. And white people have the privilege of thinking their races neutral and has nothing to do with their identities. Austin white identity can be vexing. Because of the connection with the oppressor class. Which brings me to number three. White people need to teach their children about white supremacy and white privilege. And practice naming the white conundrum. But parents cannot avoid trying to teach their children to navigate a world where their bodies are criminalized and endanger. But what conversations are white parents having with their children. In her article feeling white kids jennifer harvey rights. All the silences uncertainties fears ambivalence after thieves and other behaviors. We waited ultz manifest in the face of racism. Pass right on to the next generation. And mantras like we're all the same underneath our skin or we need to embrace all kinds of differences. How to scratch the surface of what's needed. Why parents must model meaningful clear and empowered anti-racist responses. The racism in our own lives. Harvey offers hope that we can nurture a generation prepared to help create and participate in a nation so transformed that anti-black hatred and violence. Can find no sanctuary and this be vanquished to oblivion. I bought the reverend tyler vogel. Emerson said that only so far as people are unsettled is there any hope for us. There's something sacred in this feeling uncomfortable. The unease serves isabelle of awareness. Ringing alarm of the world is not as it should be. Being spiritually resilient means staying strong. And letting ourselves stay in this in this discomfort. Even or especially when it leaves us to believe or act. An unpopular ways. In this congregation we believe in the worth and dignity of every human being we sing we believe in freedom cannot rest. Discomfort is no excuse. In lessons from suffering how social justice inform spirituality john a powell asserts that spirituality is animated by suffering. And therefore necessarily must respond to suffering. Leaders like jesus. Buddha. Gandhi. Muhammad. And martin luther king jr who were bold enough to prophetically clint proclaim. But they not only challenged secular and spiritual suffering they challenged the institutions that supported suffering. Can we in our connectedness respond to the alarm. And to those bold leaders. And challenged the institutions that support suffering. Black lives matter. My name is brandon buchanan. And i'm a black community member here in davis. I'm a grad student a fourth-year graduate student in sociology over at uc davis. And i'm an organizer for davis dance with ferguson. A. Organization which seeks to address anti-blackness. And police brutality right here. In davis. Statue central things that i'd like to talk about today the first of which. Is about these structures of anti-blackness the power of racism or large in the united states. But i'd also like to connect. List what's happening locally. To realize that saying black lives matter here in davis is powerful. Is radical. Can change the way that our community looks. And responds. Two black bodies in this face. Go to start out when you talk a little bit about what anti-blackness means we've talked about that a little bit in some of these other reflections but anti-blackness refers to. Systems and institutions. Which vilify. Criminalize. Add. Negative more weight to black bodies and black decisions. They rely on. Criminalizing black bodies. To maintain our sense of. Safety. Our sense of privilege. That we have. In everyday life. Show me talk about these things but we're talking about is not just interpersonal violence. We're not just talking about whether or not you individually like. Black people. We're talking about systems. We're talking about structures. We're talking about the everyday benefits of whiteness. He said we have to recognize that those benefits come at a cost. And they come at the cost of the lives of black boys. A black trans women. Of black women like sandra bland and other sisters who have been lost both the police. Ann's issues of environmental racism. Forced sterilization. And so one of the things that i encouraged would i n treat you to do and to recognize that black lives matter is about. Is to realize that you need to say. Black lives matter. But you need to take action because these things happen when good people say nothing. These structures require us to think beyond our individual actions. To the systems in which we live at the very act of doing things like getting food at the grocery store is a political act. But there are many. In our communities particularly those who are black. Don't have access to things like. Healthy food. Nutrition. To remember. That whiteness pervades all aspects of our daily lives. In the same way that blackness does. My blackness my experience with blackness. Is always. It is from the moment that i wake up to the moment that i fall asleep to the very dreams that i'm allowed to have. And the revolutionary way in which i reimagine the world. That goes. It goes to say. That this structural violence. Is broader than davis davis is only a microcosm. For these relationships of power. But i'd like to just briefly touch on some of the recent incidences that have happened in davis at demonstrate that our community certainly is not. Separate or different from. These larger. Perhaps more visible locations of anti blackness. On february 15th. At 3 in the morning. In west village. A young black woman was attacked. By three white men. Called racial epithets and chased to her home. She managed to call the police. And thankfully the police officers were able to apprehend. The assailants. But this is called for. But this is. Created a call. For greater awareness about the violence that faces. Black people here in davis. In late january we also had a number of black queer people who are attacked. Buy drunk. White assailants. From downtown. A week after the february 15th incident. We had a black man at the amtrak station ethiopian. Who is attacked. By a white man. Just this past week. We had someone. On the unitrans bus. Who was accosted. Call the n word. And while the person who was. Doing this assailing. Was another black person. Not a single person on that bus. Chose to intervene. To say anything. Because they found it. Uncomfortable. It wasn't their place. It's not necessary. To stand up for or intervene. In these moments. I'm just on the bus i just need to get where i need to go. What i'd like to entreat y'all today. It's a recognized that these hate crimes. That these incidences may not always hit the papers may not make it into your circles but they are happening. They are happening in davis. They are happening to black students they are happening to black community members. We are not safe in davis. And so. When we say black lives matter when we talk about these. The importance of this movement we're not talking just about baltimore. We're not talking just about oakland we're not talking. Just about ferguson what we're talkin about is davis. But we're talking about is our homes. Our family. In our community. Please join me in the spirit of meditation. Whatever burdens you have carried this week. Set them aside. We will follow this pair with. The ham comfort me. The words will appear on the monitors. This is prayer for the morning. By adele. Fulbright folsom. Did you rise this morning broken and hungover. With weariness and pain. And rage tattered from waving too long in a brutal wind. Get up child. Pull your bones upright. Gather your skin and muscle into a patch of sun. Draw breath deep into your lungs. You will need it. For another day calls to you i know you ate i know you wish the world were done and you with everyone you have ever loved or on a distant shore safe and unafraid. But remember this. Tired as you are you are not alone. Here. And here and here also there are others weeping and rising. And gathering their courage you belong to them and they to you and together we will break through and bend the arc of justice all the way down. Into our lives. Searching in her backpack. To tender. Too intimate. We who believe in freedom. Somebody's calling my name. The terror i carry inside. The third reconstruction. School clothes at the thrift store. White people need to show up. Relion criminalizing black bodies. Whiteness pervades all aspects of our lives the same as blackness. We are not safe. In davis. We who believe in freedom. Amin. Blessed be.

uudavispodcast_org

2013-09-15_Worship_Ducking-Weaving-Spiritual-but-Not-Religious_11_15.mp3

Welcome to sunday sermons another recording from unitarian universalist church of davis california please visit our website at www.ge.com for further information. So here's what i want to make a deal with you if you show that kind of energy at the beginning i want you to show it all the way through the service so you got to sing with that kind of enthusiasm and laugh okay good. So that having been said. You're welcome here. All your certainties and all your doubts. Your strength and your imperfections. We come to be together. To know that we are part of something larger. Then our self. To know that there's a place where we belong. And where we are encouraged to live our ideals. And you are welcome here and all of your fullness your raise. Your culture your sexual orientation or gender identity. Your religious views which are many. And your political party. Of which we have more than one. Come to connect with community here. Come to honor the earth and to claim your spirituality and to build the world that we do dream is possible. I didn't always need you. Or at least. I thought i didn't. I have always enjoyed being alone. And when i was a child i even wanted to be a nun. I must not have been aware permits then. I knew that nuns usually live together in a convent. But my sensible visions were of a strictly solitary life. Quiet hours in contemplation. Alone. Growing food in a lush shelter garden. Alone. Caring for those in need. I'm returning to my own personal thoughts. I was attracted to the idea of a spartan surroundings and a simple lifestyle. I try not to think about the living in community part of being a nun. As an only child i envisioned community living as messy. Impossibly hurtful. What if people disagreed. Or disliked each other. I took something that didn't belong to them. And then there was the whole a thor attarian hierarchical thing. I have seen the sound of music. Maria's exuberance and independence just did not fit the accepted mold. Being an introvert being drawn to my most comfortable space aloneness. I recognize now though i also need quiet to help me feel centered. In the awareness of the holy. Irony in all this is that as an adult my spiritual experiences happen in community. My spirits thrives in connections. The spark of life and each of us and between us is palpable when we are together singing. Touching. Offering prayers of gratitude. Well i need solitude to absorb the greatness of life. I need this church community. You. Can develop my spirituality. This religion offers me intentional living. Yes being in community can be messy. But being aware of the holiness of each of us helps me bridge divisions and misunderstandings with love. These words by hosea ballou are on my fridge so that my family is reminded daily that we are all in this together. If we agree in love. There is no disagreement that can do us any injury. But if we do not. No other agreement can do us any good. Let us endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit. In the bonds of peace. At their best. Families are wonderful and safe. Nurturing environment for children to learn how to be healthy adults in society. This is how i feel about this church. We are all adults here though. Sentences learning social graces in a wonderfully safe nurturing environment. We are learning grace. Normally the life journey happens at the 9:30 service and that services design said it's a little more one-on-one interaction. Speakers and the congregation. But because we're beginning the year. And kaitlynn carter is our new intern and campus minister can i hear it for our campus programs. I thought it would be really good for you to have a chance to hear a little bit about her life. And so caitlin is going to offer a life journey today. Going to try being a little less short. In north carolina deep in the nantahala national forest is a sacred place called. Simply. The mountain. A unitarian universalist retreat and learning center much like those all around our country the mountain is host to camps and conferences used cons and solstice rituals. Leadership meetings. And thanksgiving weekend. More than a simple gathering place the mountain is a spiritual home to hundreds of us who have walked its path. And eating together and it's dining hall. Some songs together. Gaze at the stars. And the vista of the appalachians. It is a place where community and connection. Happen in profound. And life-altering waze. I went to the mountain for the first time as a middle school kid. I'm sure of myself and my face. And i didn't quite know what to make of it. It was in high school that i first became involved in my youth group and started going to services all the time and began to talk about my growing understanding of what it meant to be unitarian universalist. This was not a simple thing and knoxville tennessee the buckle on the bible belt where to be anything other than a protestant christian was to be labeled. A heathen. And probably a sinner. I was different from my peers in a lot of ways. And school. Was not always a safe place. The mountain. Became a place where i met other kids who were different. We talked about our lives about our fears and our heart breaks and our hopes. We created worship together that brought us to tears and touched our hearts in unprecedented ways and ways we did never been touched before. I have felt seen and appreciated and loved. By that community. And the experiences i had their got me through some of the worst parts of being an adolescent. I became one of the youth leading those conferences and worship services and intense life-altering conversations. Became what they calls a peer advocate leader or pile. It was one of my first steps into leadership. I went back again after college back to the mountain this time as a mentor to the youth now serving as pals. And i was given the opportunity to serve as a young adult resident. I spent months living and working at the mountain and preparing myself for seminary. The day i moved to the mountain my supervisor for that program met me with a hug and the words. Welcome. Home. Welcome. Her name was shelley jackson denham. When is the great unitarian-universalist musicians and him writers of our time. She helps make the mountain a place of transformation and magic. And she died. 2 weeks ago. Next summer. I will be returning to the mountain to marry my beloved partner laugh. I am morning shelly as we plan our big day. As i prepare to return to that sacred space. To begin. The new stage of my life. I cannot know what the mountain will mean for me and years to come. But i know that one of the great tasks of my life. Is to expand the spirit of welcome and understanding and empowerment i found bear. So. As i join you now and singing from you i receive. Know that i am lifting up my things. To our great cloud of witnesses. Please stop boring me. 5 million daniel. On airplanes. I dread the conversation with the person who finds out. I'm the minister. And wants to use the flight time to explain to me that he is spiritual. But not religious. Such a person will always share this. Is this some kind of. Staring insight. Unique to him. Bold and it's rebellion. Against the religious status quo. Next thing you know he's telling me that he finds gods. God in the sunsets. These people always find god. In the sunset. Privately spiritual-but-not-religious. Just doesn't interest me. There's nothing challenging about having deep thoughts all by oneself. What is interesting is doing this work in community. Where other people might call you on stuff or heaven forbid. Disagree with you. Where life. With god gets rich and provocative is when you didn't deeply into a tradition. But you did not invent all for yourself. Being privately spiritual-but-not-religious has become the norm in american culture. And is even made its way into the culture of some of our churches. So. Well i can't stop these people from talking to me on the plane. Can i at least inform them that they are boring thank you for sharing spiritual-but-not-religious sunset person you are now comfortably in the norm for self-centered american culture. Find themselves uniquely fascinating. Can i spend my time talking to someone. Because when this flight gets choppy. That's who i want by my side holding my hand saying a prayer and simply putting up with me. Just like we try to do in church. When i am on an airplane. And the person who is shoulder-to-shoulder with me you know how small those seats have become. Turns and asked what do you do. I almost always pause. I love my vocation that to which i have been called. But inside i almost always think. Give me strength. I try to look as normal as possible whatever normal means. And then i tell them. I'm a minister. just like that i try to say it was more like. I'm a minister. Some of them inflight magazine. Infinitely interesting. A others are seats become a confessional booth. And you know if reese just have a short time to hear confessions but i might have a 2-hour flight. But often. Like the congregational minister lillian daniels. I hear a defensive or apologetic. I'm spiritual. But not religious. And if i could pull it off with a straight face i would say. Tell me about your favorite sunset tell me about the message you heard in the wrestling golden cornstalk or how the taste of a nectarine transported you. You see i'm also spiritual. And i do understand. What they're saying. I can describe when i have felt. Deeply connected to life beyond myself. Parasites. Sounds and smells and nature. Breakthroughs of learning. And powerful connections with those specific ones that you call your soulmates. You heard caitlin talk about that. And how that happened for her. At the mountain. My life is rich because of every one of these experiences. They are private experiences beautiful experiences with no entity between me and that feeling of transformation. Facebook surprised by joy c.s. lewis wrote that such direct experience of wonder. Those experiences are in a weakening of memory beyond this life and i love. His description. The scent of a flower that we have not found. The echo of a tune. Not heard. And a country whose landscape. We can see the shadows out but we have not visited. All these imaginary yet almost real experiences. Pointing towards something transcendent both in this world and beyond it. But the person in the airplane seat next to me doesn't just say i'm spiritual. And i could say me to. They have linked to concepts together. As if they're opposites. I am spiritual. But not religious. And this is where it gets interesting for me as a spiritual leader of a church. Have a religion there for. Experiences with strangers and those who are close to me. Once many years ago i sat through a dinner from soup to nuts listening to stories of spiritual-but-not-religious. Unitarian universalist. And they were highly critical of the institution of church the worship the leadership and ministers and it was a strange out-of-body experience as you can imagine sitting there as a minister with them. They spoke with me as if i was a companion in this radical anti-religious outlook. And they were people i knew who sang with great enthusiasm in the worship services. They were passionately engaged in the life of the church that came to a memorial services and weddings they made sure their children all attended. Religious education. Somewhere l i thought so who are they talking about. And it has been many years indeed but the memory is still with me of how uncomfortable that dinner was. Was it i was on an airplane seat belt in place but not with strangers. Did my own people. My own people. Lillian daniel spoke to hundreds of unitarian universalist clergy before this denominations national gathering of general assembly. With her we learned that in the united states only two religious groups are growing in membership. 1. The unitarian universalist. And the others are the amish. She showed us a tv clip in both groups were. Shown with glowing reports. And we were one of those religions that was succeeding. In these times of the sbnr the spiritual-but-not-religious. I would wish for more actually it was a wonderful tv show that it was maybe cbs. We are so quiet about our faith. We are so concerned that we will be misunderstood and we will be. Justice i am always. Misunderstood when i say. I'm a minister. She played out a quick. Then i'm going to do it both ways for you. The first way. She made some statements about. Religion and then she changed it ever-so-slightly and see if if what she says about religion is anything you might of heard. I hate religion. I was hurt by religion. There was abuse. And ministers got paid. They should do this because they love it. I think. No one. Should go to church. All of the terrorist. And the generals. They're involved in religion. And therefore church and religion they're responsible for war. And i'm offended that you would even talk to me. About religion. And then she changed it to be about schools because she has raised their hand yes we had all gone to school. And if i asked you you would raise your hand to. So here it is. I hate school. I was hurt by school. And i know there was abuse. And teachers. They get paid. And they should do it because they love it. I think no one should go to school. All the generals and the terrorist they went to school. And therefore school is responsible for war. I'm offended that you would even talk to me about school. And i thought oh we were all o. And we all laughed and we realized that we had all heard those phrases and then we heard it. Shifted a little bit on its side. So those in this room. Those beyond these walls. Who say they're spiritual-but-not-religious sbnr. I'm not. A select few radical renegades. They are large and growing population and research shows that one in five people use this term to describe themselves. The number of people in this category is rising quickly one-third of all adults under 30 are not affiliated with any religious organization and this is a 15% increase over the past 5 years. What author referred to a tsunami of secularization. And yet the research is confusing. For many of those who are not affiliated with any organized religion say that they pray regularly. It's not as if people are rejecting all religious ideas. And in the end. The research numbers show that we are at the society that values connection. Belonging. I know the feeling of at 1s with nature. And with whatever we might call that source of life. Has a population we are hungry for what we so often lack. Connection belonging and transcendence. The people who define themselves as spiritual use the word to express their focus on direct and immediate emotional feeling of awe and wonder and peace and. I include myself in that so i'm not just speaking about them. I love those things. Spiritual but not religious people believe that new truths are constantly being revealed as we live. To our relationships. Our understanding of history. And the discoveries of science. Does this sound like any dare i say religion. That you know. I'm hoping you can say yes. The word church and religion come to has such a bad reputation over this past decade decade-and-a-half. What does 911. Religion is increasingly seen as a source of instability causing people to be more volatile. The catholic church covering for priests who sexually abused children and congregation members showed the church as unethical. And the battle over sexual orientation and gender identity revealed a cruel institution. And the strength and power of the religious right. Demonstrated how religion. Could motivate. By fear. Those who are sbnr hold up these examples of religion as reasons to distrust church leadership. The church itself. And those who a dark and its doors and so that would be you. For the spn are. Religion is assumed to stagnate personal experience of wonder and awe and amazement. And yet. C.s. lewis spoke of this experience. And he was a man of deep faith and religious belonging. The yearning for the scent of a flower we have not found. The echo of a tune. Not hurt. A country whose landscape we can see. In the shadows. We have not visited. The word religious. Aligns with richard doctrine. And trivial. Ritual. An institution. That oppressed. And condemned. Who exercises. Judgment. Hypocrisy. Aggression. And greed. This is what is nsaid. Expressed. When sbnr say they are. Not religious. They're saying i choose to distance myself from these destructive and oppressive ways of living and who wouldn't want to do that. But this is not the church to which i belong. And is not the faith. That my family has belong to for generations. Certainly. Church is an imperfect body of people both as individuals and when we are together. But this imperfect body of people. Share a commitment to the message of human worth and dignity. And helping one another live out that message. At the community together we strive to honor the interdependent web of life. And we achieve it. At least. At least. As often as we fail. We return to that task again and again. More likely to succeed because we are doing it together. When i'm on an airplane or anywhere and i hear the response i'm spiritual but not religious. I want to show them. Some of the power and the beauty and the healing that can happen. When we come together. I2. Has such a strong yearning to be a part of something more than my own single life force. And i wanted so much. But i realize i can't do it alone. And this admission that i am vulnerable. Imperfect. And yet filled with promise. That. That is radical thinking in today's society. Sbnr is not radical. Rare. Or new. But what happens in religious community in these times candy. He can give us a new perspective on our struggles and our hopes. As human beings. I need a place. Where i can be called to be my best self. Place that i can return to again and again so that i can be in relationship. The demands accountability of everyone. I need others to witness on my behalf. And as an inspiration. Funny. Paul davies road i come to church and would whether i was the preacher or not. Because i fall below my own standards. I need to be constantly brought back to them. In this place. We are called to be courageous. Call to be open to changing so that we can meet our ideals a little more. Just a little more. Then the week before. And i need to be with people when i turn my energy to making a difference in the world because. None of us. Can do that alone. My own vision may be too large. And it will never happen without partnership. Or maybe two. Both. May not be bold enough and i may need to be challenged. Perhaps it is my turn to set my dreams aside. And let another person's dreams. Come to fruition. Big dreams never happen solo. Because of this momentous weekend. I do know it is the weekend. Of the bombing of a birmingham church. Before young girls were killed. Because of that weekend being our weekend now i mentioned martin luther king jr.. One of the great sources of strength for him was the church and it had disappointed him in the past you done quite a walkabout. Looking for just the right church for him to do his work and he did walkthrough unitarianism and walked back out and found the face. That would sustain him. He was a seeker. He wrote from the birmingham jail reflecting back on the puritans our ancestors. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion. It was the thermostat. That transformed the mores of society. There is so much to be healed in the world. And i want to be a part of a group of people who are known through time as agitators. And healers. King challenge the churches of his time and they responded and i want to feel the courage of those who challenged and mended what was broken in the world. Define my own courage i need. Defense that i stand in that same stream of life with them. Those who've gone before and those who are with me now. Be with them and principles of a religious. Tradition. But mostly i would tell the sbnr who is said i'm spiritual. But not religious. A story. Stories. I'm more powerful than anything. When i first came to davis the search committee gave me a tour of this church all of the grounds. And we walked into the library and they said. This is what happened in this room and. Gray copic. Weather part of that search committee and patmore pickett. Was to. And they told me about a woman who loved this place and she worked out on the grounds and. Her hands were always in the dirt. Helping the church to become the beautiful place it is today. She inspired others in a very quiet and a determined way and her name was dora hunt. And if you have been in this congregation for more than a decade and a half you knew her and i only know her story. Door was diagnosed with cancer and when the time came and it was clear that she would die soon. The church held a celebration of life with her. She said it was a shame that. It was at memorial services that people talked about how much they loved someone told these great stories and so why not share them with her while she was alive thank you very much. She wanted to hear about the love and the memories and she wants to share her own too. So she was enshrined cozily on a sofa as i hear it's in the library where a very alive and aware dora received a ceremony to honor her life. Each person approached her one-by-one and spoke with her. Dora and everyone there gave each other this incredible gift. Unintentional leave-taking. And i wonder if you would have the same courage. If you knew your time was coming you knew that date or somewhere near. To think i'd fully embraces accept this and i want to hear from others and speak to them. I wondered about that myself. That. Ritual would have been possible anywhere. But here is the place that she had given her life. And others were doing the same. And that is spiritual and. Religious. The merging of the best of both worlds. And only after telling this story of what happened in the building did my guys on the search committee say oh and this is the library. So it's a story about how i building. Are bad people. Not riches are filled. With the stories of healing and connection the scent of flowers we have not smelled. The tune that we have not heard a country whose landscape we have not walked. And the people we are not yet. But i becoming. And the dance of justice we can feel but have not stepped into yet. But we will. So why let others define what we do here. We are the spiritual. And. We are the religious. And to that i say. Amen. Go forward and make your bumper stickers and take us into the world. 9 by 2 into a time of prayer and meditation. Time where they will be silence and music and words. Be ready for the quiet. Here is a moment of rest. When we can look at our lives and the world around us. And find a larger view. C a higher road. Know that there is a greater love. A universalist. Love. Join in silence. To hear our own heart. Quiet breathing of a friend and stranger next to you. I just say this moment is like no other moment. We are here as one body together only for this tower. This is a week of remembering heartache. Within its fan of days with the anniversary of 9/11. Does the images and stories appear before us. We live it again. That's how the inner soul works. And this sunday. Is the anniversary of the birmingham church bombing. When for girl children dressed in white died because of hatred. The news tell that the story again. And some wonder how this kind of hatred ever existed but it lives on. Woven in relationships and emerges in violence. I don't know it was 50 years ago. The inner soul here's the stories. And shivers. These anniversaries of pain come around again. And we mark their arrival and their beginning. Remember that we are apart of a world that can do better. This weekend is the jewish high holy day of yom kippur. A holy day of atonement. Maybe choose to become a country. Who's landscape of justice weekend see if only imperfectly. And they remove and it dance of relationships that are flood. But becoming more loving. And one love. That is great. Each of us is a part of an intricate web of relationships. When one of us grieve a joy. Celebrate the joy of grieves the loss the web of life moves to a new shape. We are apart of the turn of the earth. The shift of the stars the pull of the sea. And oil change. Open my heart. Amen. And blessed be. U.s. pastor at taking hands and i am at walking your very swiftor says something wonderful about this community. When you come into your calling. How do you know people who do this. We become bells brawlers of others. Oh come. Into your calling and go tell the world about a place that is both spiritual and religious let this gathering say amen go make bumper stickers people.

uudavispodcast_org

2015-04-26_The-Ecological-Hopeful_11_156.mp3

Welcome to sunday sermons another recordings from unitarian universalist church of davis california please visit our website at w.w. org for further information. A senior minister reverend beth banks is on sabbatical for a little while longer so i'm joining you today for your service along with simon thanks especially to the music folks who took care of everything on that in for me the music council and av and even rubbed her ridgeway into putting together slideshow for me so you know i just takes all that all those hands and more we come to the sanctuary to celebrate the beauty of the earth. And to be in community this congregation comforts us when we know loss and celebrates our best dreams. We bring our differences together we offer fuller truth in any one point of view. This is a place of challenge and compassion the holy is experienced here in many ways and given many names people of all sexual orientations and gender identities are celebrated and we welcome all political parties races classes and physical abilities we have much to learn from one another from the diversity we bring. This is a place of learning and howe. Weather because of the touch of a hand. The words the music. For a moment of silence may feel more alive. We appreciate and share the beauty of our campus after the service perhaps you will sit on a bench with a friend and gaze at the beloved hedges grove or walk the labyrinth and solitude. Or you could roll down the hill by the bridge house invite you to get lost in the outrageously beautiful spring day that we have. Print out a camo meant to send her through music and the fields of your mind or the splendor out the window. Our church has been a green sanctuary since 2007 church in california to become so in order to undergo an extensive accreditation process part of which were developing 12 projects including religious education sustainability and ecojustice. We hasn't ruched unanimously accepted this statement. We understand that the action plan that we completed was just the beginning of our work to integrated environmental awareness sustainable practices and environmental justice. To our church community. Our personal lives and our wider community. Will continue to work on these issues into and plan to do so until the earth herself is once again a healthy sanctuary for all. The oversight of all of this and more falls under the domain of the green sanctuary oversight committee. Represented today by judy moore. Who is going to lead our chat last. As wind carries our prayers for earth and all life. They respect and love light our way. May our hearts be filled with compassion for others and ourselves. Maybe she's increase on earth. May begin with me. Environmentalism. The best of the ism's. However and it isn't it is. Soc attached to it. So stigmas attached to such words appliance some ways subconsciously to me. At least it did growing up. My mother was then and still is an environmentalist with a degree from hsu in forestry humboldt state university the mecca california environmentalism. My father of course also attended hsu but he was a p e major. Just not as much as football environmental unaware of my family's eco-friendly attitudes. My mother was not big on confrontation and is less than dictatorial when it comes to behaviors. She was environmentally-conscious for us. She hardly ever took us to fast-food not so much because the food was unhealthy but because of the styrofoam clamshells that all the food came in in the 1980s. We did not have plastic wrap in our house this included anything from too many toys plastic high chairs lawn chairs are disposable. Well really anything disposable. This very basic environmental frugality is something that i did not really notice or appreciate until i became an adult. Now i try and be environmentally conscious as a busy parent it's hard. Mx. Everything else hard. Washing my daughter's metal lenten everyday at 7:30 in the morning instead of using plastic bags walking back to the car. Together cloth grocery bags. But other things i do that my mom taught me when i was when i wasn't looking. I cringe every time i get a package in the mail filled with styrofoam. When we opened our daycare i gagged at all the plastic toys that moved into our house thinking great children thousands of generations can play with east. These are not my thoughts. These are my mother's thoughts. But here's the second part of what she taught me. Don't stress so much about it. We did like once a year eat at mcdonald's. Sometimes your coffee comes in a styrofoam cup it's not the immediate end of the world. Being perfect is too hard. If you try you will fail and in failing you will stop trying. Dowhatyoucan. And that will be enough keep the earth in mind and she will do the rest. There have been five mass extinctions. But life goes on. There are trees growing at chernobyl the titanic is an ecosystem unto itself. The earth has an amazing ability to heal not just us. What is so. So if you get discouraged in your own environmental efforts. Go out and sit in one of davis is amazing parks. And just enjoy the earth. You'll feel better. Trust me. And maybe pick up a few pieces of trash on your way out. The reading this morning comes from the reverend thomas starr king he did a sermon entitled lessons from the sierra nevada in 1863 zone or if we could be made to realize the distance of the earth from the sun the light of which travels every morning twelve millions of miles a minute to feed and bless us and which the force of gravitation pervades without intermission two-hole old are globe calmly and its orbit and on its voice and glory of nature. So i did not want to come up here and tell you how you can get involved in the environmental movement give you new ideas for recycling reusing reducing or give you statistics of how humans are ravaging our earthly home. Most of us have televisions and computers for that this week's birthday and the monthly theme of redemption did leave the door wide open for me to do some harping but i didn't want to research bad news. And anyhow i suspect you already know that consuming less has the fastest way to hico redemption. Then we can atone for our mistakes and those of others by picking up the trash. Using less water. And bringing our own cloth napkins to picnics. Redemption restitution reparation the act of making something better. Or more acceptable. But life is complex. Bad people don't always pay. Fear and bad news can hold us prisoner. But hope can set us free. Hope can set us free. Tick not han reminds us that activist first need to deal with their own anger and fears. Or else a endemic rejecting them on to those who they see it fault. Then we should not talk in terms of what we should do rather than should not do for the sake of the future. We need to touch hearts. Engage understanding and instill hope. To wake people up. To wake ourselves up. What did interest me in preparing for the service was how people are inspired. But we have to appreciate. About the earth sea air and all of its residents. After all this ecologically movement is really quite knew it started in most of our lifetimes. There's so much to celebrate to be hopeful about. Most of you know that we celebrated the 45th anniversary of birthday this week. And some of you know that we just finished auu wide-eyed climate justice month. Campaign. Gaylord nelson was the founder or something father of earth day in 1970 after six years of activism gaylord was. Wisconsin's governor a us senator wilderness society counselor and he was awarded the presidential medal of freedom. Wisconsin mandated. That's social and hard sciences must include. Environmental education in grades 1 through 12. Because gaylord nelson insisted on it. He recognized that environmental issues were kind of non issues in politics and he wanted to bring attention to preserving and healing our environment gaylord nelson tapped into the anti-war strategy seeing how well the grassroots activism work. His efforts hold an environment to hold an environmental teaching. Created a spontaneous response at the grassroots level. The ballooned into a day of 20 million demonstrators. 20 million demonstrators in thousands of schools in local communities participating. Not having governmental resources to mount this big event the first earth day basically organized itself. I was a youngster living in wisconsin at that time and my dad was definitely an environmentalist so i knew a bit about gaylord nelson. And my brother kurt and i did lots of hiking and camping and boating swimming anything outdoors. We had to tree farms in central wisconsin and we made regular visits to maintain the trees that my parents had planted before we were born. I knew the differences between the eastern white pine janet hein. Northern and red pines. Spruce sugar foxtail in lodgepole pines the pitch pine ponderosa pine. I knew which we're good for lumber or habitat or christmas trees. My brother and i could even earn a dollar a row for trimming the lumber. We love the work and kind of had to cuz the roads were pretty long in the trim holes were really high. But even more with loved. The campfire. The songs the sounds of the forest. My father loved him bellow church songs through the woods for the beauty of the earth. How great thou art. He also bello patriotic songs america the beautiful. Folk songs. This land is your land. My dad inspired me to love nature. Activities in nature. K-love smokey the bear the litterbug campaigns and he would needlepoint slogans like waste-not-want-not on little pillows for a volkswagen van we grew i grew to love what he loved. My brother was a naturalist as were most of our friends uw-stevens point was the wisconsin mecca for environmental studies. Forestry soil science biology tree science resource management my brother was a forestry major and i was the pe health education major but. I don't really like football we were inspired by gaylord nelson by john klusendorf. And rachel carson. And theodore roosevelt who came before. Rachel carson a marine biologist conservationist and writer is considered the founder of the contemporary environmental movement her book the silent spring although flawed ignited the environmental movement and challenged practices of agricultural scientists and governments for change in the way humankind view the natural world. She was inspired by the love of nature and living world that her mother bequeathed her. And she was inspired by the 26th president theodore roosevelt. In his presidential term theodore roosevelt launched programs that protected more than 230 million acres of us land. His love of the earth also extended to signing endangered species in pure food and drug acts. He kind of sounds macgyver ish when he's in his thinking when he wrote do what you can with what you have. Where you are. I was one of my pops favorite quotes to. And i found out that the teddy bear. Was coined when in 1902 theodore roosevelt refused to shoot a captured bear. He was a hunter not a killer. Teddy said great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind but great actions speak to mankind. He was indeed a man of action. And appreciation who also rode we have fallen heirs to the most glorious heritage of people ever received. And each one must do his part if we wish to show that the nation is worthy of such good fortune. I am hopeful. I am inspired. Take a moment yourself and consider who is it that brought you to love our earth. Are blue boat home. What was the turning moment in your life. When did you become aware of your part in being a worthy nation. We've heard poems from wendell berry this month inspiring. And we have others who fill us with hope and beauty. Just open a mary oliver book and you'll find much to celebrate in nature. Indeed hope can set us free. Take note han doesn't talk about echo logical redemption but of embracing the present moment. Healing ourselves first. Being mindful and looking beyond fear. Fearlessness is not only possible but the ultimate joy. When we're joyful our addiction to material goods and hectic lifestyle diseases. Tick not han insisted activist must first deal with their own anger and fears and he reminds us that when we are grateful we are happy. Perhaps our human neighbors who seem to have no regard for resources never truly learned to love our earth. Wendell berry seems to be on the same page when he espouses if using less energy. Consuming less traveling less burning less fuel is a good idea for the future. That's because it's a good idea. He encourages us not to think so much about the future we can't live there. We can be daily craig critics of history so as to prevent the evils of yesterday from infecting today but we must live in today in the present moment. We must appreciate this day itself. And all the good in this day. All we can do to prepare rightly for tomorrow is to do the right thing today. Perhaps we can give up saving the world and start to live saving lie in it. Using less energy is a good idea for the future because it's a good idea today. The movements that persevere are those which find a form of hope. Even in dark times. Is religious leaders we are not called to be optimistic. We are called to be faithful. To hell with love. As much as we need to fully recognize the harsh truth. Of the nature of our challenge we must fully affirm with gratitude the goodness. And the beauty that we love in this world. The time is now. It's what we have it's where we live. What can we commit to doing now. Because it's a good idea now. How can we be inspired and who can we inspire. Are religious communities are working together to provide inspiration leadership and faith. We can't all be activists but we can be active. We can app. Ethical and moral living is not just a good idea but it's our responsibility for tomorrow for today. Great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind but great actions speak to mankind. What are your actions saying to you and to others. Margaret thatcher said being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are you're probably not perhaps being an activist is like being a lady. I'm not talkin activism in the grand sense. But just simple actions like picking up someone else's litter. Even when no one is looking. Activism. Celebrate our joyful planet. Teacher appreciation by modeling. By appreciating. We automatically care for what we love. There's your redemption. For a pastoral prayer i'm reading it. Prayers sunday by richard gilbert. And at the end of the prayer will move right into repeating that the hymn number 1072. The channel that we learned earlier. So think of this site's the sounds of nature. Think of love and appreciation. Beatitudes for sunday. Blessed are the heavens for they declare the power of creation. Blessed is the earth our beloved home for she is at the planet of plenitude blessed are the waters there on for they give rise to living things blessed is the land for it is the source of life abundant blessed is the air we breathe fortifiers us to life and love lessiter the beasts of the field for they are glorious to behold blessed are the birds in the air for they carve graceful arcs in the sky lassiter the mountains and seas in the valleys for their variety makes rich are habitats blessed are the fields of grain the orchards of fruit for they give sustenance asking nothing in return blessed are the dwellers of the earth for they cherish the privilege of living upon in the earth and all her creatures from the plants of the field to the trees of the forest for their reward shall be harmony with a web of existence rejoice and be glad for the earth and her people are 14 the earth and her people are one you owe me.

uudavispodcast_org

2017-07-09-99-Counting.mp3?_=4

Welcome to sunday sermons and other recordings from unitarian universalist church of davis california please visit our website at w.w. you you david. org for further information. Congregation. Perspective. Games to this value. Whoever you are. Listeners. Those that want to celebrate. Our church community are services enter programs to give to you. Dissipation. Let us join together. Symbolizes sorrow. Dreams. Destruction candle. Disassemble. Joyce. New relationships achievements. Found in the world at large. Social. Scientific advancements. And the production of. Janikowski. She's considered him as incredibly gentle-hearted in tearing. Chocolate because. Inherent worth and dignity of every person. As unitarian universalist. Is the first. Is defined as the value something has. Is a state of being deserving of honor and respect. Is it foundation. For many virtuous ways of being in the other pencils. Equity. Dignity and worth. The principles however. Myself. Phrases actions. It's a statement about cremation. Are you sure. They have worth and dignity. Are you seeing in the parts of a person that are valuable. Deserving of honor. Deserving. Good morning friend. Amputated leg. Please display my rooting section. My father and my mother. Taipei 101. I'm sorry to mention. Who's obituary get my attention my longevity. I picked up my parents going to have never done smoking. Exercise. Family speaker and speer. Sometimes the preacher. Husband dad soldier. Call sarandon. Far away now. Like a dream. My flight to have no. Given the chance for another time around. Change parents. I'd lose out in any exchange. No it's only. First student. But i can recall. To hear that. Maybe not talk clean while i cancel life i have got. Taste. For me to give one summer sermon this will be my last. Thank you a good sermon on the word of the month. For the holiday of this season has to be on a topic having significant for me. Relationship. Personal experience. Probably run out of one more. About our first principal. Were they?. Every person. We are frequently revived. New congregation. Covenant to affirm temp remote. Today. And dignity of every person. No exceptions. Equity and compassion in human relations. For everyone and i support justice. Liberty prospect. I noticed no mention is made of honesty trust. Kindness. Perhaps these are considered. Summer 2014. Jose uu world magazine article by a man by his initial title i don't believe in this. Explain believe in them. What's a promoted. Course mr. m follow. Are the ten commandments. You're right that the principles are only visions of what we strive for. Exactly they are valuable. 4-hour conga. Is there a score. Cloud potential message. Helpful. It is hoped. Giving to others others to me. When there is much disparity of needs to receive. Incapacitated appreciation encouragement. Help. Selfish and gracious. And the receiving is warm and greenfield. Then the principles have served well. Only one direction's on each side. Hungry. Shelter provided for the poor. People. Glasses. Division of the principal. However. Traditions. All times in the past. Do not subscribe. 36i traveled with my father. Germany. Chemistry. Science. Be the manager of the american olympic ski team i was just there as his seventeen-year-old son playing cookie from up freshman semester. Uc berkeley. The atlantic by ship. Hamster boarding in new york. Skiers gathered along the rail. Colin kaepernick. Far above the small group of well-wishers on the.. Could come to see i saw. Spirited conversation. Between shipping. The emergency team was not quite 100%. Made in america. A mickelson. Grown up in norway on the dock yelled. Mickelson. Counselor. Down. Ski jump event. Was another norway norway. Very far. Canario wobble. Opening ceremony of the game is withheld outdoors. Front. Moving around. Call rana the big ski jump. My ck's need a good review. Adolf hitler. Crowded room. Composite. Carol mongering. Second-in-command of the german armed forces. Speaking german only my father understood. Welcome to see america to germany. Gary wants to be the chief. Americorps. Karina coming war. Superman. Generals of the nazi high command. Be responsible for the deaths. Military and civilian. Summoned for all participating countries have an estimated three million people. Including six million. Call together. 4 million more. Current population of california. Thunderbird car. From museums in that half a dozen. Country. Call art. Alone was confiscated. Has to be stealing. Because my army heat cree. Seniors helping mario. Imagining themselves to the connoisseurs. Define are. For hitler himself. Is the name in berlin. Goering had his own strain of boxcar to transport loot for his private collection. I have read that that one time. 45 boxcar. Towards the end of the war. Realized assembled about 35. Historian together known as the monuments men. Finding safeguarding returning to their rightful owners. Play more than a thousand paintings. Caches of jewels. Davis and tunnels. Cathedrals factories. Portrayed during. Pretentious. Pictures in pursuit of power. Aaron ward sent ignatiev every person. Quiet everybody. German soldiers were not inherently. You're better times i had and sung song. Recognize no worth. And no compassion. No vestige of acceptance. A personal level three and a half out of my life. Builder wounded 1/3 of the several thousand demand. In my division. Hitler shot his mistress. And himself. Believe in the alternative. Argentina. Top generals. Tried at nuremberg. International tribunal. Who were sentenced to prison. Including jewelry. Swallowing hidden capsule. Potassium cyanide. I do not favor capital punishment. Prince seems inconsistent to me. Chinchilla person for killing a person. 43 million. My reaction to the hanging in there was. Particularly poignant to me. Is the memory of a wartime atrocity. Coronavirus government reported by self. My divination spot. Turn on across the broad. Where we were. Claritin-d. German army in italy. Because i had packed in california's high sierra. One of my combat combat. Pastor. I supervise the youth. Mules. The supply of ammunition. Italian on terrain. Subaru vehicles. Garage. X-rays. Led by metallica. Rules only android. Under cover of darkness. Tillery shells kissing overhead directions. I scouted for creole. One day i came upon several remote housing. Are there. Otherwise long steep hillside. Prune in front of the houses. Are the remains of italian. The only person to venture out of the houses while i was there. Little ragamuffin little girl. Watching me from five yards away. Christopher. Temperature. Post. Around for that purpose. To prevent a card from slipping up or down. Co7 charred by fire. Aspires to incinerate. Dennis small tires. Karcher. Person has been killed. Call cracking. Perhaps they had refused. Operator of a radio transmitter. 80s. Compassion. No jaden. Pontiac gt. They're survivors and not bury their dead. However. It is probable that all of their tables body adults. Among those. Go ahead and north to germany to do forced labor in munitions factories. Pre-planned massacre required numerous. High-ranking officer. I asked myself what would i have done. Had a high been ordered to assist. I hope and believe that i would have refused to obey. And if i did not into it another soldier would. Even knowing that my resume to follow their porter. My results for my court-martial and. The last however i can be licked sure. Had i grown up in history. Nation. I would have been so righteous. Play melody of the german national anthem. 17. Composure. We're written later by someone else. Ironhide ironhide. Unity 10 freedom. Who is the first. Call. Crown thy good with brotherhood. Arrogant. Germany above all else in the world. What's the fanaticism. So different in kind from adams fans that a world cup. Soccer match. Torturers. Tubi. About the same attention as we had. Not anymore psychotherapy could i believe it. Erase the acquired position. Perhaps not worth the effort or even to try to stall them. Everyone would agree. Osama bin laden. Heinrich himmler. Hunting secret police. Pearson gestapo. Camera. What is the other nazi general. Swallowed a cyanide capsule. Contacts. Directions to mean. To learn and understand his point of view. Avoid antagonism. Call fercha consult. Compromise and yes. I was unable to love even a little bit. Power structure. For those who attended the gas chambers. Human-covenant. Scores. Trust. Experience. Confronted by violence. And harassment one cam. If not. If 110. So there are exceptions. Irritability of heart pressure. Pictures of cesar pilhede of their application. Man is a social animal. We are all on live together. We need each other. It is crucial that we respect. However has there are exceptions. Hanacure and adherence to. Our principles. Also there are entergram. Worth. Compassion are greater than values. Nothing. Application to the principal. Can also be graded. Minor to moderate infractions of law. Consideration fairness. Bad parenting. Handicap. Hardship. Prejudiced. Should prompt us to bake renewed effort. Teach by example. As best we can. By following ourselves. Principles. I really hadn't died. Rightful interactive conduct. Photos of german soldier. We caught transporting ammunition in an ambulance. Lamar crossing. To protect it from our fire. Not his fault. Conflate. Are the teenager who steals a gun cabinet. Text it to stool. Classmate. What is the man who returns to the glades. And shoot his former boss. Shortly but first it. Discussion. Give me aware of our aging. Death has overtaken several of us. We have discussed. Chapter by chapter book. Triumphs of experience. The findings of the. River grint. Customer service. Alicia recruited 268 man 20. Follow them to their nighties for to their death. Contrasting the core of men who are born into stable loving homes particularly holmes was warm caring mother. From a go-kart border it was evidence that the former. Correlates very significantly. More satisfying life. Reserve capacity for loving an intimate relationship. More friends. Happier marriages. 50% higher learning. What's 65 / 60. Let's do some drugs and alcohol. Hireright. Animals with military and workplace. Show returning to the school and workplace shooters. They had almost shirtless. Formative years. Unstable. Unloving. Are probably alcoholic homes. Migrate. Good luck sarah hancock. Are tragically. Asteroid. This is more explanation. Call children's environment. Coronavirus ireland. Shooters knew full well that directions were wrong. First consideration helps me to have some compassion. Towards them. Reasonable and practical to save their souls. How to love. Text michelle. Other. I am not competent to make decisions. In this difficult area. The challenge troubles me. Brought me to this sermon. Harbor grand. Call her some encouragement. People change over time. Individuals may overcome at least to some degree. Handicap river by jordan. Person loving caring. May's finally. Turn him or her around. Calculating accepting roommates. Mentor. Appreciative. Tell phil collins. Call mike krieger the awakening. I started with example. Perpetrators of hate. Mexico. Are great and value. Rarely. Small fraction. Unfortunate individuals. Virtually all the people we know you you or not. Our principles. Also nearly all the folks we don't know. Including those with limited funds. School rank. Homeless. Admonish myself. I noticed the good in others. Articulate. Quiet nature. Educational. Racial. Cultural or religious differences. Regardless as inherent worth. Each of us may have. Call need. Recognition appreciation and encouragement from others. Order to grow and prosper. Social being. Let us understand each other in this way. Depreciating others. Opportunity and responsibility. Rio to one another. But the congregation. Let the congregation. Leaving the principal. They're people that challenge. Everyone. Maybe the ones that use the most. Let it go. To recognize. Appreciate. Amen.

uudavispodcast_org

2016-10-09-And-Then-They-Were-Free_11_15.mp3?_=1

Welcome to sunday sermons and other recordings from the unitarian universalist church of davis california website at w.w. org for further information. Each week. To be uplifted. Meaning in our lives universalism is a face that celebrate individual tabs truth creating a sacred community. Discovery. You are welcome here. No matter who you love. October 12th. Is columbus day. Three weeks ago on september 24th 2016 in washington dc. He continued this national museum. Stories we have to tell you this morning. I hope they changed since then. Today. Before we start. Have the same dates for them. Sure most of the time before they were finally written down. Mary ellen pleasant memorial park. 14 to 1904. Mother of civil rights in california. Supported the. Society. Once upon a time. Until 1892. In the 1890 samsung. Became play stealers for the underground railroad in the east. Until. So she did. To san francisco. To hand over to the white abolitionist. More money. To support his cause if he succeeded. Unfortunately for the. San francisco. To blair. San francisco. Application application. Fortunately. And she was buried in a cemetery. A request for tombstone. List every voice and sing. In 1848. Washington. Heading to new orleans. Gamblers. With a slave master. Georgia. Washington. African american descent. Isn't. Records of the state. Resort. Many historians. Are real. German. I'll say that the plan for this service was. Chinese. This year a different population. The sacramento county historical society. Skeleton. Interact. People who are discovering the. The possibility. Especially. Frederick douglass. The prejudice in hardships in california. Frederick douglass. Price of $1,000. Dementia. They had an agreement. No money. He sold out. Many times. This isn't the end. Minister. San francisco. Pushed. Church. Oppressed are congregated. Right now. Supported slavery. Keep these stories. California convention. So now i'm taking you. California. Family connections. At this time. Strike it rich. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude. Territory. Must be free from the hordes of slaves. What is the support. This community. Mr. president. With these living labor machines. Pretending. What is the support. Private chinese school. Paris. Totally self-reliant. My 1850. The president. Successful. California came into the union. Americans. We never denied the right to live here. At this point. For citizenship. First meeting. The first was all that involvement in. The 2nd. Discrimination. Either in the legislator or on the screen. Referred. Was published in 1919 before that. The history of african-americans in. Oppression. They presented a history that is rarely told. This is america. The american. Sirens accomplishments. She's our work to bring history. Human. To make their lives known. Understand. And explain. Whatever it is. Can you allow yourself to say i need. I need some. To come by here and give me. Lorde. Spirit peace. Let's be together. 2 bc. Implore that which studies us. Gives strength to say what. There is hatred in our country. Is injustice the continue to cycle that we have known before. Alone. More. Nobody.

uudavispodcast_org

2014-03-02_Broken-Places_11_15.mp3

Welcome to sunday sermons and other recordings from unitarian universalist church of davis california please visit our website at www.sec.gov or further information. Welcome on this sunday morning when you begin the theme of brokenness for march it so each week you'll hear something about brokenness which is really about healing indeed as you will come to understand this is a community where we challenge each other and we encourage each other each other and our work is to celebrate this moment and live into who we believe that we can become when we are best self. In this place we're surrounded by a diversity of religious beliefs in god or whatever in which it is you placed your ultimate trust is different for each one of us income is from our life experience. We celebrate those of all sexual orientations and gender identities and we welcome people all races and classes and we continue to work to build the world that we dream about. And cherish our living earth as our secret home. I noticed when i go from the month to we celebrate what we can do together there is power in our presence and our voices when we do something to make another person's life better we live a life of polar every time we create something of beauty we bring love to the world the quilt we will blessed we were blessed today since love across the miles. When we feel joy right down to our toes who share it with others. I'm so ashamed ^ faith hope love and joy. Many of you knew my mother nancy case before she died of pancreatic cancer just two-and-a-half years ago at the time of her death my son a jane was just five months old and then we live in washington d.c. he was able to spend a good amount of time with my mother before she left us he is now a rambunctious healthy hilarious three-year-old a little bundle of wonderfulness that has filled our lives with joy my mother was the one who brought it into the church first me and then my husband hashim and for the short time that we all lived in davis together the church was a centerpiece of our community when mom was dying that community provided us with food counseling love and more when we learned that you the same community would be making a jana quilt in honor of his grandmother we felt jesse's connected to all of you as we did before we wish we could be with you today to bless the beautiful quilt that will warm our son for years to come thank you for everything and stay blessed. This is that quilt and the blessing will happen right now. The ritual of this quilt by saying is one that shows the bond we feel with annie hashem and i shane making davis and california to washington dc where they live now. Love is passed from one generation to another. And in the ceremony we recognize the strength. The ritual of the. Any and hashem wrote this about their son may i be a bridge between cultures and communities the rituals from nubian culture of the ama people celebrating the birth of a child through rituals that show generosity and create stronger bonds between people. We see you as a beacon of hope. A peace prosperity and liberty for people around the world. This quilt has many images sewn that show the experience about james family and friends with his grandmother nancy case. Damages cross the generations and include many memories. We will keep it in the front of the church so everyone can come up and read the stories of each square and admire its beauty and we have a handout that tells you the story of each and every square who did it and what the story is behind it so at this point forward and place a hand on this quilt. Manny and hashem tell isaiah in the stories that are shown on this quilt. And may those stories of his grandmother's lies be woven into his dreams as this quilt warms him in the night. Images of family in connection with friends meaningful work joy a place for family retreats which is carefully etched on one of these squares religious death. At her love a cat. They all tell a story about his grandmother nancy kay's. Play the hands that drew and cut and sewed no love in return. And as they created the images for this quilt they remembered their loved friend again and offered those stories to a new generation spirit of life and love move among them and all in this family but everyone say amen and you're invited to seeds and then kids are going to be invited to join me after we hear about the offering and help them feel more confident so i asked you as much as you are willing and able if you can please contribute to trotter it would be really great thank you so much. Since copernicus we have known better and to see the earth is the center of the universe since einstein we have learned that there is no center for alternatively. But any point. It is good as any other for observing the world. I take this to be roughly what medieval theologians met when they defined god as a circle whose circumference is nowhere whose center is everywhere. There are no privileged locations for finding the holy. Katie stayed put. Your place may become a holy center. Not because it gives you special access to the divine but because in your stillness. You hear what might be heard anywhere. All there is to see. Can be seen from anywhere in the universe. If you know how to look. And the influence of the entire universe converges on every spot. These words by scott russell sanders. Have you listened to the service this morning remember that the circumstances of our lives the circumstances that perhaps only we can know. Or small circle of our closest companions has the essence of the divine. That all families are partly broken and partly whole partly pained and partly joyful. And the influence of the entire universe converges on our lives. And in our families. When i worked in south korea. One of the most joyful experiences was flying back to the united states for a visit. It was all about the babies. On every pacific flight heading back to this country. The center-rose would be filled with plump cheeks black-eyed tiny korean babies. They were bundled and pastel blankets and strapped. Into an airplane seat doing the things with babies always do. Crying. Looking wide-eyed at everything around them. Things i will not mention. Sleeping. And charming. Their audience. It is easy and was easy to see hearts melt as the passengers filed past them to our assigned seats at as soon as we were at cruising level we reached out to these tiny now screaming bundles you know that the air-to-air change the air pressure change and we offered to hold them and by the time we reach san francisco we were covered with splotches of sour milk remember i was wearing a silk blouse wanting to impress my parents and we were very eager to relinquish them. These were korea's love children and embarrassment to the country. In south korean society. Both mother and child would suffer for a lifetime. Because even in the moment of greeting. Each other. You become known. By your family lineage. In essence the adopted child would have no identity. Knowing how the baby's life would have been in south korea i loved watching these airport seeing as he's weary babies. Regretted by their hopeful and joyful adoptive parents. People would get jobs transporting babies when they would get a free airfare. If they had six babies and they would go to each city and drop off one more baby. With one more adoptive parents. I want to be clear. In this german. So that you hear it. I would no doubt. Pet adoption does not equate with brokenness no aspect of broken of the adoption equates with brokenness. My mother would tell the story of listening at the top of the stairs as her mother and her older brother discussed the possibility of having younger siblings including her. Be adopted by those who could give them a more stable financial life and by that i mean to feed them. Somehow they gathered enough money i think my uncle dropped out of high school and worked. And i kept the family together but they would have chosen adoption as an option to show their love. They wanted my mother. Have life. Literally have life. But the broken is comes in when shame forces us to deceive those we love. When both parents are shamed. Windows were adopted are seen as carriers of shame. That is a. A heavy sorrow. Adam pertman executive director of an institute for research and policy on adoption wrote how the adoption revolution is changing our families. He estimates that there are 11 million adopted children and adults in the united states today and if we add birth parents adopted parents grandparents siblings uncles aunts nephews and nieces the number of children touched by adoption is in the tens of millions and given those numbers i know that a dodge and touches the lives of many of us in this sanctuary some of us have told our stories others choose to hold the information privately for many many reasons. A young man sits in my office. And shares his greatest joy and his greatest fear. When he was about 15. His mother and aunt were in the kitchen preparing for dinner and he was engrossed in reading a book in the alcove. He's been so quiet at his aunt didn't realize that he was there. His on quietly said to his mother ray is growing up. And raised attention shifted to the kitchen conversation the way it does when you hear your name mentioned. Do you ever think you're going to tell him that he is adopted. Adopted. He was adopted. He pretends to continue reading just in case they come around the corner and see him and in that moment when he hears those words. His life. Is changed. 10 years later. Races in his car outside a home he watches a young woman about his own age heading out on a date. Her hair's the same. Dark blond as his. Last time you stopped on the street actually walked in front of the house you talked to the boy who pushed his bike up the driveway his bike baskets crammed with bags and a well-used baseball mitt. He's parked outside the home of his birth father. And these are his half-siblings and he tells me that they look so much like him. He worries and have hopes that they will look at him and see their shared features. This day he sits in a car and watches the house and he imagines walking up to the front door ringing the bell. Adam and opens the door and ray looks into his face and he imagines saying. And that's when his dreams bathed and he can't find the words that. He would speak he just can't find them. He doesn't have the courage to risk protection and also there is this ethical issue. A caring for his father's right to privacy to. He's risking revealing capacities father may never have told his wife and children. How would they respond. The curiosity with betrayal. But he thinks wistfully what would it be like to have siblings. How would it be to know. My father. A couple of times a year he sits outside the house in his car and ways these questions it's only the boy or the young woman would say hey you look so much like me it's almost like you're one of us. And then he would tell them. He would. Ashley rae as a person doesn't really exist. He's a compositive several people i've met during my years as a minister. And all of the elements of his life. I true. Have been lived out by people i have known. I remember the pain and the sweetness of their stories when in december ohio's governor's find a new law. Allow people who are adopted to get their original birth records. Someone to know their parentage for medical reasons and others have a heart yearning a heart yearning to know their parents even though they may be in healthy and supportive relationships with their adoptive parents. Sometimes they want and receive. The wider extended family and they refer to it. At the human rights issue. The movie philomena. It's a story of a woman as small irish town and when she was about 20 she met a young man at a country fair and allowed him to do things she admits later that she knew must be sinful because they felt so wonderful within months she was under the care of a catholic home for unwed mothers. Deshawn ross abby. And heartbreaking series of flashbacks we see how her son anthony is taken from the abbey by a wealthy couple and they drive from the front gate with her son had another little girl. The only talisman that she has. Of anthony. Is one small photo flim to her by a sympathetic none. With a closed adoption and she signed an agreement saying that she would never try to find him. She keeps her his birth a secret from the family until his 50th. Birthdays of fifty years of secrecy when she shows her daughter the small picture of anthony the story pours out of her. The movie is about her church to find him. With the help of martin sixsmith. Unemployed bbc reporter who reluctantly agrees to do. Well a human interest story. He's used to reporting on political issues high up in the government. Filipinos story follows adam portman's research that shows 90% of birth parents desire some form of connection. Cartman writes that the changing public opinion and families of adoption. Is change so rapidly. Reunions are happening at a pace that would stagger most people sometimes assisted by laws that. Arby's are loosening the restrictions to information but the biggest change is the use of the internet. The search for filomena's son takes her to the united states and she worries about what she does find him. Perhaps he is obese. Americans eating such large portions she hears maybe he lives on the street. Maybe he won't want to know her. It's martin sixsmith ability with the internet that locates her son anthony was an aide to president reagan and george bush he was slender and handsome and. He was gay. Guess philomena said i always wondered because he was such a kind boy and he had died. From aids. 9 years prior to her finding him. Petty ever been curious about her she wonders. She and martin meet anthony sister they made anthony's work associate who pretended to be his girlfriend at republican political functions. Did he have friends philomena wants to know what was his handshake like. She's delighted a firm handshake he had a firm handshake and he was smart and he was respected. Did he ever ask about her ireland. She wants to meet his lover who cared for him if he died philomena wants to know that her child had a good life. Equity really really wants to know. So why is it suddenly acceptable to start to be found why the books in the movies. Impart. It's because the landscape of what it means to be a family has changed dramatically. An increasing number of people are choosing to remain single and see themselves as a family of one. Women with no committed partner proudly have babies and call themselves a family. Same-sex couples are considered legally married in increasing number of states across our country and sometimes legally or not. They choose to raise children. Sperm donors sometimes become a part of social events with the family they helped to create and much to the amazement of the adult. The children have no problem explaining this. Explain to their friends with no emotional badgett baggage but this is my other dad or if this is my sperm dad i keep hearing stories about this and the parents are kind of like and the kids then go on. In today's world adoption is one of many family options. Popular school assignment for children to research and draw their family tree. But because of the changing reality of the family adoption advocates ask teachers to request not a family tree but a family orchard. And i really love that it solves all the problems a family orchard philomena and martin find peters her son's lover. A firmly closes the door on them one of the most feared responses. In such a search. It's still a mina's emotional strength if to picture this 70-something year old women rapping on the door. The compels peter to open it. I didn't time peter and philomena and martin sit together and watch the adoptive family. Watch those movie clips from anthony's celebration of life his memorial service they watch toddler anthony walking down the airplane steps from ireland to scratch the film shows him riding his bike. In the arms of his lover. And later is an ill man walking unsteadily to the car. Identifiable seeing there he is. Ravaged by aids. Leaning on a cane. Actually at the entrance of the shaun ross. Abby. Convent. In ireland. The convent. Search the internet asked for stories and found the place of his birth. He was buried there. Hoping that his mother would find him. And she does. And she does. Maybe we have to risk great pain. Even the pain of rejection. Coquille. What is broken. And i asked you what is worth that risk. Whatever will bring the greatest holness. Is what is worth that risk. Weather holness includes the larger circle of family that i described where a smaller circle. Is only known by each person's heart. I invite you to join me in prayer. Any meditation. For all the ways are hard to pin broken. When our world has been shaken. When what we have counted on as secure. Is gone. When we wish we could be held and embrace wide enough to contain. All we love. For high school students who presented our worship last week and we're courageously authentic. Entrusted us to hear their ideas and opinions and respond with more than platitudes. Who are you to struggle to find themselves. And for one reason or another. Can't accept helping hand. For their parents. He would do anything. To give him help. Spirit that moves among us, our fears. The gentleness settle around us when we most needed our broken hearts. You can make whole who come. Come and carry us in your embrace. Each of us is a part of an intricate web of relationships when one of us celebrates a joy or grieve the loss the web of life moves to a new shape we are apart of the turn of the earth. The shift of the stars the pull of the sea and oil change. Invited to stand and he can around the room making sure that everyone is.

uudavispodcast_org

2016-08-07-Justice-Equity-Compassion-are-Verbs_10_00.mp3

Welcome to sunday sermons and other recordings from the unitarian universalist church of davis california website at www.sec.gov org-mode further information. Welcome to our unitarian universalist church of davis we're today we look at compassion a bit about both how and to whom compassion little easier said than done maybe we can make it a little bit easier i am john ashby or worship today is alex li zhou nestle gifts on the piano. When we come here on sunday morning we bring the gifts and imperfections of who we are this is a community where we challenge each other encouraged each other support each other our work is to keep our site on the best that we can be in this place we are surrounded by a diversity of religious beliefs god or whatever it is each of us call sacred is different for each of us and comes from our life experience we celebrate those of all sexual orientations and gender identities welcome people of all races classes political parties and we will continue to work to build the world we dream about. Do not be alone right now by karen solveig johnson do not be a long do not be alone right now gather together gathering together grows courage in ourselves and in others who see the numbers swelling it is a small thing but right now it is an important thing great sources of wisdom remind us just because you cannot stem the tide of all hate it is still right to do the thing you can do these things add up your one thing and my one thing his one thing and they're one thing and her one thing together it becomes one big thing do not be alone right now is collective my freedom is bound with yours and yours with mine and extra kabli towards justice by dennis mccarthy too often set apart from one another and heedless ways we seek to be compassionate but our vision may be clouded or distracted we too often go forward day-by-day and look without saying maybe reach out and honesty and love children one from another may we pure through the mists of deception which hide and deny violence miss and enclosing those who suffer shrink away to the voices of those who suffer maybe reach out in honesty and love mary see prejudice when we hear evil speaking when we witness the rough hand or the skating word laid upon the helpless for innocent maybe resolve to work towards unity and justice maybe reach out and honesty and love the choice i have made for 40 years is to engage with children as a teacher and as an eight-year member of an illinois group are mine that caused me to flex my compassionate muscle to move forward. Let the congregation take hands so that we can better bring compassion to the world let us begin with in everything do to yourself as you would have them do to you for this is the law let the congregation say amen.

uudavispodcast_org

2014-06-22-What-Can-You-Offer-to-Replace-my-Lost-Faith_10_00.mp3

Welcome to sunday sermons and other recordings from unitarian universalist church of davis california please visit our website at w.w. org for further information. And now i get to say welcome to the unitarian universalist church of davis and this multi-generational community we come to encourage each other to support each other and to challenge each other as we strive to be the best we can be. We honor the diversity of religious beliefs here recognizing that god or whatever it is in which we place our ultimate trust is different for each of us and that our differences in for all of us. We welcome those of all sexual orientations and gender identities those of all races and classes as we continue to work. As we continued the work of building a loving society and cherishing the earth. We recognize and honor changed here change forged in relationship with each other change that comes with years and the change brought by those who have just found us and those who have yet to walk through our doors. If you were here for the first time we hope you will come back to worship. When our minister death banks is in the pulpit. Methods in providence rhode island this week attending general assembly and annual convocation of unitarian universalist from around the country and she will be on vacation and study leaves throughout july she returns to our pulpit on august 3rd. Now it's hearing that our minister is away. Cause any of you to think og's leyland service let go of your disappointment right now for you to come on a very special sunday our speaker this morning is a founding member of this church and a well-seasoned pulpit guest of the history and future of the sacred community. With that in mind i ask you now to greet the people around you and share with those whose hands you take how long you have been coming to this church if someone tells you they have been coming more than 50 years. You may have found the founder. And if you take the hand of a recent guest or a new member. You may have touched the future the piano is going to strive to bring you back and if you don't want the service to be late you will obey. And now i would like to ask milton hildebrand to come in later chalice milton recently celebrated his 96th birthday and i'd like him to add this to the flame of our chalice to his collection of birthday candles milton is an accomplished and also on human sexuality we offer and receive it sanctuary hold out and are held in his arms and when we leave we do not leave alone the first time. Come let us worship together. Still makes me a call as ordinary men. I took cello lessons until my. Parents and teacher gave up on me and amazes me that elders can makes us. Beautiful music on the darn thing various hildebrandt's have played the piano from time to time but. Nancy place several orders of magnitude better than any hildebrand ever did my father. Occasionally play the flu but. Dim the sound like virginia at all. Appreciation and admiration that i thank. And thanks also laura and they. Wonderful choir which will entertain us a little later. When you sing. Many of us give you say. Silent signal that means that was very good thank you. But you don't see us because you never look for me too. Give a summer sherman with. Carlina at my elbow to make sure i do it right. Last year i also presented a. Versailles called on being 95. Another verse for you this morning and as it is at the same nature will call this one on being 96. I don't drive my car out of town anymore. I could but my children won't let me into the hildebrand clan. One of my sons comes to get me. The memory bank in my rusty old brain seldom grows now by new stuff accretion. Recalling my head slowly shrinks down instead as it undergoes old stuff deletion i have climbed the bear creek spire in the north palisade. Half dome mount shasta and sill. There isn't so much as i heal as i pause on my walk to look up. Bird. Squirrel. Cloud. Alright god. It's good that i have a cane in my hand to complete with my legs a tripod i've still pins in my hip cuz i fell from up high off a ladder while pruning a tree. Festering is now as high as i go no more gravity testing for me my weight has changed little in 70 years. All chests the same. Well i wouldn't say that. Watch list muscling back in my strapping youth. And on front more fat i don't jog anymore as i did hear this before from home to the campus and back to meniscus you see is not afraid in my knee if i ran it might get out of whack i've had cataracts taken from both of my eyes. Both hands have the putin's contracture i've hearing is now for both of my ears ribs elbow and foot have been fractured. But hey. No syphilis syphilis ricketts play scurvy or gout i've been retired years. Social security wishes me dead but i think that i am too spry to die so i just go to living instead. Pairs of arches. If there were no fishes in our early ancestry. Hello modification of an ancestral blueprint. One more example. How are embryonic hearts were at first. A straight tube. Along which 44 pulsating chambers. Inline. I bumped one stream of blood. Fish hardcore like that. Never mind the details. Just marvel at the outcome. The true force into an s-curve to reposition the chambers. Chamber to devise. Perform our right and left atria. Hand. That leaves an opening between them through which blood flows and chamber for divides before and the basis of a large arteries. Leaving the heart. That is the amphibians stage park evolution. And embryos of birds and mammals. Chamber one then divides. Steps to join sleep right atrium and an interpretation. Device chamber 3 into r2 ventricles. Having birth in response to changes in blood pressure the opening between the two atria is caused by a valve. Has the baby cries the lungs fill with air. And their large shunt. Bypass the fetal lungs. Constricts. Establishing two separate streams of blood through the heart. Wanda belongs and wonder the rest of the body. Wonder god used organic evolution to achieve all these complicated structural and functional changes from a horror early embryonic. Functioning. Patricia lockhart. 2 hour. Very different neonatal heart. Notice the tallest changes and enormous growth come about without missing a beat. You know temporary closures during construction no timeouts. About 3800000 beats. Career. Starting only four weeks after conception. Overall for me. 368 million contractions. So far. A miraculous oregon. Well-qualified sweetheart. Give me the seat of enduring love. When i was small showing that i still had much to learn. About both english. And life. I thought that word was sweet. Car see you see i've come a long way. In another course i teach analysis a vertebrate structure. Or in lay terms comparative anatomy of animals with backbones you would learn many more reasons to affirm with certainty. That life on earth evolved over hundreds of millions of years. The said about it a sedimentary rocks of the world constitute a huge filing cabinet. Are filed in the ancient most ancient rocks. Successively more advanced fossils are filed and successively younger deposits. Tulsa evolutionary changes are both preserved in sequence. Hand of david. Here are two examples. Again among very many. Evolutionary changes that are clearly recorded. By comparative anatomy. And paleontology. Most kind of fishes have bony covers. It protects and ventilate their gills. The covers are hinged from the skull. Buy a bone i'll call h. You don't need to know it's six syllable name for the final exam. Incipience evolved for fishes and no longer needed gill covers. Burton like fishes they did need a slender bone to transmit. Airborne sound waves. From the eardrum across the cavity of the middle ear. To the inner ear. Bone h was out of a job. So natural selection reduced its eyes. I moved it into the ears. To form the single are icicle. Event phibians and reptiles and birds. Also the hinge of the jaw and the ancestors of the mammals. What's that first between bones wheel car. Aaon exhaust and q on the sky. But later was replaced by a different condition between two other bones. Tell bones a & q the first kid we're also out of a job. And being nearby we're also remodeled. And moved into the ears to complete our three are ossicles i have been given new names. But it is a against the eardrum. You in the middle. At the little window into the internal here. The fossil records of these changes is complete. Evolution. My other example is for the digestive system mammals that eat plant roughage. Relion fermentation. To digest the fiber. This slow process requires that the fodder. He retained in the gut for several days. Cattle panels and hippos. In their huge stomachs. Rabbits rhinos and elephants among others sidetrack it for a time into an enormous blind pouch. The heineken. This palace called the cecum. And be up 24 ft long in the horse. With no thanks to the roughage eaters among our remote ancestors. Our legacy from the cecum there are worse than useless appendix. Hello regression of an oregon. No longer needed. Some creationist of asserted that the natural selection. Could not have produced. Complex organs. That would not function until complete. Play i has been their favorite example. Wrong. Some small worm shaped aquatic ancestors from near the bottom. All of our tree of life. Have no eyes. But do have light-sensitive cells. Scattered in the membrane lining the cavities of the brain. Did you know that your brain is hollow. Have you suspected system as much for certain other folks you know the membrane forms and no image but the creatures can distinguish up. Corelife. From down. All i need. Our embryos form bulges from the sides of the brain that grow out and fold bringing those ancestralite detecting cells. Interposition to form our retinas. Our eyes have been functional. Throughout their long evolution. So my first offering to replace your lost face is a window into the enormous reservoir. A consistent integrated. Irrefutable facts. Taken from paleontology. Comparative anatomy. Embryology and molecular biology. Confirm organic evolution. My second offering. Is a glimpse of the message. Cut establishes such facts. As contrasted with the traditional sources. Of christian doctrine. The leaders of our. Conservative denominations. Have historically proclaimed. What is stability mean believe. It has been heresy to question their divinely-inspired authority. Challenge of doctrine has been avoided as evidence of faltering faith. Contrary opinion has been forbidden. Dayton practices have been perpetuated. Press the astronomer galileo. Was tried and convicted by the inquisition for showing that it is the sun. Black vans god-given earth. It is at the center of the planetary orbits. The catholic church. His writing on the index of forbidden reading for 206 years. Scientist by contrast. Ask themselves challenging questions. Gather information and examine the data for correlations trends and cause and effect. Hypothesis or provisional interpretation is then drawn. Andis test it. My experiment and by its power to bank verifiable. Predictions. A hypothesis is finally accepted. Modified or discarded. Science is self-correcting. Science contributes to one's approach to life. Horn did not vote for the presidential candidate. Oh i started that global warming is a hoax. Nor does one support to 55%. Of a congressman and one political party. Who's still deny climate change. When one hears on a tv commercial. At a certain casino. Has been voted the best in nine western states when is audacious enough to wonder. If 100 or more randomly suggested patrons all of whom had the equal opportunity to evaluate all of the western casinos in uniform criteria had so voted by a significant. The third thing that i offered to you i might have told my student. Kisii understanding of science and religion each has his own domain. Within which it is supreme to the other. A domain of a scientist questions. About the material universe that are amenable. Observation experiment and analysis. Walking on water is in the domain of science. We know how certain insects doing. Why the human form cannot resurrection following three days of death. Is anna domain a science. Decomposition of the brain and other tissues would be advance. The flight of angels is in the domain of science for many anatomical an aerodynamic reasons take a dome or flat in the ostrich. Creationist eclair. Text evolution is just an unproven theory they are on the turf of sass. Organic evolution is a shooter as the alternation of day and night. I would like you to think my student has science has not destroyed such parts of your faith it is just showing the way to some corrections. Did roman religion is the world of spirituality morality. Post personal bonds. Emotion. Any compassion. Religion is responsible. To our need for relief from fear of death. Hor. Sickness. Poverty. Infusion failure. All out of bounds too cold in personal science. Please no dear student. Got nothing in my course. Has in any way diminished enrichment you had derived from those aspects of your face. Nothing within the proper domain of religion. Hazbin disparaged. Core correct. Hold to that part of your face. In some complex and difficult areas in endeavor. Such as the administration of justice and interracial conflict. Contributions to success can come from each domain. Working in concert conflict. One can tell what might work. The other package right. Has a you use scientist. I am comfortable in each domain. I moved i believe the same is true for all of you. He don't need to be a. Full-blown scientist. You believe my story about having three noteworthy fish head bones in your ears then by coming to this church you qualify. Good for us personal fulfillment of his incomplete. Honda ride from either domain alone. And now i would ask you to take a moment with me. To be together and decide on supper prayer. Or meditation or wonder a word that can draw us closer whether we are looking for fact or her face. Let us allow our minds to relax. Unlock the doors to gratitude and to allah we here today are unique group and it's a good to wonder who shares the hour with us who has walked through their doors for the first time who's the millier presence warms the room and who has gone missing and changed forever the fabric of our experience together we are a part of something larger than ourselves and then possible and continues to evolve this being has memory it holds hope aspires to a future as possible and aspirations are communal the heart the hands the sinew the spine the voice or the spirit wherever you are fit thank you for being a part of the wonder and blessed be. Please take hands around the room and know that whatever handsomest into yours is a gift and that your hand is a gift in return and i will give you these words from wendell berry we travelers walking to the sun can see ahead but looking back the very light that blinded us shows us the way we came along which blessings now appear risen as it from site listen to site and we buy blessing brightly-lit keep going toward that blessed light that is dark going piece.

uudavispodcast_org

2017-03-12-A-Lenten-Practice-of-Risk.mp3?_=3

Welcome to sunday sermons and other recordings from the unitarian universalist church of davis california website at w.w. org for further information. Unitarian universalist church of davis. We are congregation that strives to listen and support one another with compassion. Family strives to be seekers of knowledge and people. You are welcome. If you are serious. Or strength and reflection. We welcome you. Sexual orientations and gender identities. And we encourage you. Your authentic. Is a church of inclusion. Today's chalice will be lit. Robin had the honor of delivering and address in support of the resolution for yolo county. To be a safe and welcoming committee. Many ways that archers already helps durable populations education. Service and advocacy. We are now discerning are possible rolls in the new sanctuary movement. We are assessing the possible risks. Financial. We might take. They should be considered while not forgetting the spiritual and humanitarian games also on offer. People reduce risk. Being prepared and by working together. Robin is grateful for the opportunity to do with others in our own church and in their face communities. Azar written by helen keller and her book open door. Helen keller was a blind desk and someone that could not speak attempting young girl. A language that she could use to express herself. Is an inspiration to many worldwide. These are her words. Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature nor do the children of men and women as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Is either a daring adventure. The story of sex is the story of a woman in the first century ce e and asia minor. From the acts of paul. And into the stadium they threw mini wild animals. And now she's finished a great pit full of water and said. Now it is time for me to wash. I've seen this. Women. Throw yourself into the water. So that even the gardener. Because the sea lions were going to devour such a beauty. Threw herself into the water. In the name of jesus. But the lions. Which surface and died. And surrounding her was a cloud of fire so that neither the wild animals. Norco. This is another story. Gets up every morning. And wonders with the day will be. His morning routine is very rigid. First he goes to the breakfast. Always the same breakfast every single morning. To changes his clothes brushes his teeth and trying to go to school. Exactly the same routine morning. No deviation. Because he needs to be able to count on this rigidity. Be risking a great deal. The day is no longer as cut-and-dry. The day is full of twists and turns and very scary choices. He must contemplate how he will be able to form the right words in his head in order to express what he needs to say. Appropriate timing to try to put himself into conversations. So that she may be seen as one of them. And not. Weird or different. I desperately to decipher what it is that the teacher is trying to explain to him. Ways to fast. Because his brain does not process words and sentences as quickly as they are being spoken. His brain does not comprehend what is being. So he sits patiently waits for his helper to figure out that he did not understand what was being asked of him. Because he does not know how to ask for help. It is not part of who he is. At recess he is told to find someone that he thinks. Approach that person. Figure out in his head what to say before the words come out of his mouth. Person would like to play with him. Christine told me because he is not like the others. She is different. Screaming at him. Not to do it. But his helper is telling him he has to do it. And she is a complacent child. He will always do what he has been asked to do. So that he can get all the words right in his head in order. And the other boy says. This is a day in the life of my sleep. My son has autism. Everyday is a risk for him. Everyday. Key risk security and acceptance. Every day he risks self-confidence and assurance that he is doing it right. My son takes more risks every day than anyone i know. And these are not calculated risks. They are scary unknown outcome risks. Well i get the right answer risk. I understand risks. Please my teacher and parents risks. Like me. Billy is my daily inspiration. Can you remind me everyday. My wrists are small. Complain about. Because billy would never dream of complaining about his day. He is strong and determined to persevere. He has a sense of his own character and his confidence in that. He knows who he is. And she knows that he is loved. When i was a little girl. There was an enormous slide. Yard. Simple metals. See now that twist. I really wish that i could still play on those. It was a dark gray metal. Rickety. My mother's skillfully tied it to the maple tree that shadowed our porch. That kept the slide in place. And it didn't move. Can i could climb up the ladder and swing my feet around and i doubt it. I remember doing that. I remember the speed of this slide. My hair flying behind me. Playing on the slide huge that's something that you really need to remember this slide was enormous. Police system. Possibly bear. I'm so each time i climbed this enormous slide. I reached the top and i sat down. And i reached out my tiny two-year-old hand. For my mother's. And each time. She grasped my hand. As i went down the slide. Offering me security and comfort. Telling me she was present. And that i was safe. Sugar down that slide. Myself. I was steady on my feet. By myself with no problems whatsoever. Why was i afraid to risk. Going down slide. My mother likes to tell the story of the day that she asked me just that question. Why do you always want to hold my hand when you're going down the slide. And i told her. Very clearly. I can't see it in my mind. Years old. My own fully-formed understanding that needed to be able to rise. An accomplishment. Intuit. I guess i've never been much of a risk-taker. I told you this story to set up my relationship. Admiration. I know her. We've met. Alright ii waves from a distance trying to avoid too much direct. This is the stupidest thing that i always wished came easily. Not the type of risk-taking that comes with. I am happy to leave that sort of risk-taking to someone else. Thesaurus risk. Someone's story. Changing experience. I've tended to approach things carefully. Preparation. I like to know what i'm getting into. The courage to take risks has often eluded me. But i've surrounded myself with stories of risk takers. Maybe of a subconscious. And i'd find a way into. My admiration of risk. Is why i like the closest story so much. And why i wanted to share her story with you today. The acts of paul and thecla tells her story and was written around the same time as other texts of the new testament. Not included. And the pain in her story is the same that we signed the new testament of the bible. Teenager like so many others of her time. She lives at home with her parents. She had a fiance. Caring to be a wife. She would marry. She would raise a family. Heard telling the story of jesus. She knew that the life that was planned for her. This is not the life she dreamt for herself. Desperately yearned to follow paul. To learn more about this. Jesus sky he talks so highly of. Deep in her face. Through her learning and. Fireworks in the world. Encephalitic arrest. A pretty big risk actually she left her parents. Wildly on her nose. Was not something i young woman affectless time and locations did. Such a risk in a sentence. Multiple. Earlier. 4life. She was sentenced to a sentence. Just as that was supposed to happen. Best buy opened up. In the rains poured down. A story tells that the rain was so heavy that it flooded the lands. People's lives at risk. And she was saved. Was certain. It was her face. I'm so she continues her studying. And she was sentenced to death again. She was sentenced to fight wild animals in an arena and this is the first of two times she confronted animals in the arena. And as she waited. A lioness to the arena. And lay down at our feet. We might expect the house at 2. Cannot lioness protected her. Other animals. Sackler refused to give up her heart. She risked her life. The part of the story that tamara shared with us earlier. Important important over and over to baptize her. Andover andover. Just wait. Not yet. And so when she has risked deaths in front of the arena and survived yet again. She took matters into her own hands. She decided that she was going to baptize herself. A sea lion stay confident that she would be safe. And she survived. Risked her life. For her. Calling to follow paul and study him. Andrew story ends well. Her story ends with an old woman of ninety years. Living out her life's work as a healer. Offering her service to her community. Married. What we know is that she risked. Her dreams. I met those dreams. Came true. Checklist story is one that i've carried with me in the years since i first started. Her commitment to what she knows to be her calling in life. It's one that i want to cultivate in myself. I want to be a person so committed to my communities. Things i hold dear to the people i hold dear. My family. Church. Unitarian universalism. Chris. Beautiful. Life changing a possibility. Taking risks. Is really hard. Risking in ways that invite possibility. It's room for error. Her failure. Possibility of seeming incompetent one of my greatest fears. A matter how much i tell myself. And others. That i grow. Can i learn from my mistakes. How i respond to them. I believe that i really do. 6 offer a lot of potential from our name. What my head knows to be true. The rest. Doesn't. Monthly theme of risk came up for march. Of creating a practice of rest. Trinity. To do something. Good for me. Something i might not otherwise commit to. I've been observing lent since my first year of seminary. In christianity lent and compasses the 40 days leading up to easter. And for christians. It's a time of reflection. Prayer. Anna time to consider. Why didn't. To give up something of value. Lynch commemorates the story of the 40 days that jesus spent fasting in the desert prior to his execution. Common contemporary practice. Is to give up some sort of spiritual discipline. These are things that i think are really good for us human beings. Committing to a spiritual practice that will deepen our understanding. Our relationship with the sacred. End of the world. Values. Luxury however is best for you. In this fast-paced time of social media news cycle than amazon prime. When an entire computer fits in your pocket. Schedule. This offers a reminder to consider. What's truly important in our lives. To spend our time with. Observing lent. It offered me a chance to engage in a practice. My understanding of the world. The support of community. Many of their own lenten practices. And we supported one another. And discuss challenges reflect on our learning. In one of the sets of welcome words this year. Ultimate truth. Sacred community of discovery and love. Lent is like that. Individuals engage in meaningful practices of giving up. Searching for their own learning. Making meaning. Buoyed by the community around them. So i made a commitment to engage in a practice of red as my observation for lent this year. Practice and trusting myself. Interesting others. Interesting the world and the loving energy that i call god. To care for me it when my risks leave me most vulnerable. Genesis simple. Really small. Most of the risks that we take in life. They're still a challenge. Step outside of my comfort zone. And try something new. Smile to my run. Purchase a vegetable. He's with my former camp counselor who lives in berkeley woman i haven't seen in 20 years. Eaton restaurant. By myself. Just before the start of lent. The universe dropped a doozy of a rest. I have a large extended family. And like many families mine contains a wide variety of. Political and religious opinions. Surely the most. I hear some laughs. That most of my cousin my many cousins. Fall somewhere on in the middle of the spectrum both politically and religiously. And i think that's true for our broader communities. Probably ferrari unitarian universalist community. My cousin dawn. Finds herself. As far to the conservative side. As i find myself. Over the years. We've had a lot of conversations about our differing perspectives. Conversations that has helped me. Understand her a little bit better. To hear her story and know where she's coming from. Set the time now. We chat about mundane things on facebook. Passionate about. The same topics. Our differences topic. Conversations recognizing. Celebrating the achievements. Captain the safer conversations for us. Please talked about movies. Music. Surprised. Our last conversation. Started on a facebook thread about the academy awards. The casual response to something she'd shared. She responded publicly. Don't pay attention to elizabeth. I'm sorry for her participation. She's a cousin who is in a cult that supports terrorism. She went on to call me a month. I am going to hell because of my beliefs. That one hit me. Really. Honestly my first response with tears. I know that john and i have different understandings of the world. Turner family niceties generally dictates that we. Keep those sorts of things to ourselves. Instead. Found myself. Opportunity. Abreast. Normally. My response would be to ignore this hurtful interaction. To safely know that sense dawn isn't florida. Time in california. We won't see each other for quite some time. And even then. Will be surrounded by other family. No need to confront the hurt caused. I took a rest. I decided to act on what i believe. Understandings of the world. Don't get to use those. To cause hurt to others. I asked on my beliefs that i deserve to be treated well. And then i don't have to participate in a relationship. Which someone who targets their cruelty. I crafted a message to my cousin explaining. I focused on why it was particularly hurtful. To receive the words. From someone in my family. I'm someone who i love. And i told her why. For the time being. I am suffering communication with her. Really. Really difficult. Even when that lost is mine to initiate. I haven't heard back from her. So. It seems that for now at least. Our relationship is broken. Like all the others i will take in my lenten practice of risk. Triscuits florissant. Pinterest. Says that language and behavior that are used to cause harm. Welcome. Risk says that celebrate my large and diverse family. I don't accept. Call patricia. It's a risk that reminds me. The inherent worth. Every person. Does not mean. Compromising our own integrity. It's a risk that reminds me of the need for balance. In all the things i do for in life. Relaxation must accompany hard work. And the care for others. You are willing to care for yourself. There's some lost in dress. Loss is inevitable. In the fullness of the human experience. I'm sad to have lost connection with a cousin. And i worry a little about the eventual time we do see each other again. Whether this interaction will hang in the air in that space. Risk alongside losses. I took a chance. The world come crashing down around me. I showed myself. Express. Last week. Find a personal risk that you might. I've heard snippets story is or even just that folks have said yeah. I found that rest i took it. Whether or not lent is important for you spiritually we are engaged in a process of risk together. Side by side. Our individual risks. Experiences of the world. But we take them knowing that we return to this community. Prepare. Krista port. Knowing that someone. Or in the next town. Or maybe someone even in our own home. Is also taking risks in this time. May we move side-by-side. Teaching our risks. As solo trips. And taking them together in community. Settle into a time of prayer. Find that space in your body. Where you are most comfortable. Energy around you. What risks do you carry on your heart. Today. Perhaps you come from. Chickens. Offered you sweets rewards. You find. You can celebrate that risk. To share in your joy. Smile and laugh. Perhaps the rescue. Is one not yet taken. In the silent sanctuary of your heart. Caring for it. Nurturing it. Until that time when it's ready for the world. Perhaps you carry sadness in your heart today. Can you bring those into this community. Asking. Surround you with love. Compassion. May you find energy from others. Find it for yourself. Is a part of an intricate web of relationship. When one of us celebrated show a orgreave zalost. The web of life. The earth. The shift of the stars. B2 stare to contemplate. Risk. No one can say. To try again. To rest and then.

uudavispodcast_org

2017-03-05-The-Risk-of-Loving.mp3?_=4

Welcome to sunday sermons and other recordings from the unitarian universalist church of davis california by www.dav.org for further information. Is not intended to be about risk for a whole country or is that me and my life. Worship associate and enjoy what he has to offer. That's important. We are the unitarian universalist church of davis community that strives to. And serving others in our quest for justice. Who you are church this morning. Bring your best self. And you're struggling self. Bring your mistakes. And your triumph. Commitment. Open your heart. 2 troost. It is open to the presence of the holy. The peaceful way. Division and hatred that separates one from another we try and we will short but held in love again. We come together bringing our whole selves into this community. No matter who you love. How you name your gender. No matter what land your ancestors called home. Define the sacred. We come together this morning. Adventure. To settle our bodies in prayer. To raise our voices in song. To remember our promises. How to live by. Let us worship together. We know what that we all enter this sanctuary carrying the joys and sorrows. Our own lives. And of the larger world. And so this morning we light candles. Celebrating the joys of this world. Grateful for the energy they ignite within. The beauty they display. And we light one candle acknowledging the sorrows of this world. The individuals and communities impacted in love and care. We light this chalice this morning with words adapted from sarah lammert. The elements of fire represent fashion authenticity vitality. Is the chalice is the supporting structure of unitarian-universalism then we. We are the flame stand strong by our passion for freedom our yearning for truth-telling. Are daring to take risks. With one another. Vitality we sustained in our meeting together. We like this chalice. And the bravery of our intentions. Sign on the guide our days. I don't have my order of service in front of me so i believe now is the time to enter through music. Living in fear something dies. Put the song he sings. But you keep on moving anyway. Change anyway. You keep on moving anyway you keep on giving. Anyway. Sentimental. To reach out to another. Ideas and dreams. Risk. When i finally and reluctantly. With risk. And after this jobs in marriage became. The decision to risk became harder and the fear of failure greater. Training in a different field. Professional position. I guess i was a bit of a risk-taker when i started. And again but i left the position in california. Each time i fatter than i expected more mice.. Except my risk. Continued success and failure. Not. Tell you would be an embarrassment. Different careers. Hands-on mechanically minded people. 2nd. Risk. And the arts aren't bad enough. Management. Calculation. My life. Recently. Put the definition of houston towards chevrolet's out of past. Frisk. Adventures in odyssey. Creativity or self-sufficiency. Suspicion. Ice-t. Couldn't sleep. Mainland china in 1985. Andros. They opened can of fruit with my. Silently. And i wasn't sure. My waistband. To eat. I anticipated. Chinese graduate student from hong kong who is taking a vacation after completing his studies in the united states. A small mountain. In the area. I met him in a gathering of taurus drinking coffee. I said yes. Sorry he said. Could have. Risk. The phrases in chinese that i would need. Afternoon. People from countries around the world. Best friend. Became. He showed us. Finally. Amazing stories. To the top. The trail together. Hours. The difference. Together. I had fallen asleep. Very patient. Experience. Becky's. Later. Rely on a swiss army knife breakfast. Food under bridges. It's easy to speak about risk. No risk. Taylor road. There are stories of burning car. For others. Important. Change the direction of history. What about. There is. That never makes it into the history books. Particular. Was very simply the decision to us. To uncertainty. And to be open to things. Had never imagined. Having our former conclusion. Assumptions. Experiences. Yes. Opportunity. Energy of relationship. Evidence of the possibility to connect. Differences. Successful. And the fear i had yet. On that day. To say yes. Zillion. I asked you this question. That they could potentially lose. Truth. Cher. Clear. Is croup the risk. One of my voice teachers. To make your mistakes. It was really scary risk outloud. Know when you get it right. The small mistake. Doesn't help. Risk. Whatever you do this when i say. We are here essentially to risk. Hazard ourselves. For the right person. 44 ikea. We are here to risk ourselves in the world. We are meant to hazard ourselves. Competency. The result of scientific study. May help us to become more confident. But it doesn't. Our ability. Connections in the brain. Is a necessary ingredient. It should be in relationship. Is to live. We usually don't start with. This week i started experiment. Wisdom. Consistent. Example. Intentionally. Isn't it a great day. Conversation from yesterday. And there's a balance. Eager. What i might say as soon as i saw someone walking in. It's reading clear. It's a little scary might take this next. When the sermon is done. Several times this summer. Universalism. Process for the energy. A creativity. With honesty and integrity. Knowledge. Other person. You would wish to be supported. Yourself. In that connection. Person was able to accomplish this kind of relationship. Person created for themselves and for others. Bernice relationships kind of caring. With honesty and integrity. Manatees. Difficult. Overtime. Letters to my son. As a graduate student. And his friend. We're studying in the library. We had a disagreement last spring and we left on bad. He doesn't like me. I think he believes. Outside. He said he mustard is best. His professor was clearly surprised. The space between. A possible rejection. To make this wonderful discovery. Risk. Is the invitation for the staybridge. The possibility of. But so is the space. It diminishes. Is hands-free. As we hazard ourselves. I've made simply acknowledge that. Raped. Sing. Risking. For our lives. Did i say amen. Lyrics. It's perfectly acceptable. A reflection. When we move together. In the mud. Blessed are they again. Of failure. The secret. Two dreams. Listen. Houses for hope. Blessed are they who. In the gift of compassion. To stop for injured life. Strangers. Blessed are they. Brisket. And what is not. Dare to risk again. For the sake of friendship. Silence. The sound of a singing bowl.

uudavispodcast_org

2017-09-24-A-Religion-of-Welcome.mp3?_=1

Welcome to sunday sermons and other recordings from unitarian universalist church of davis california please visit our website at www.sec.gov org for further information. Bring a friend sunday. Is rich with experience. People are here. We are many races and come from many different cultures we have different gender identity. We may not share the same opinion. Truth and the others. Others here are truths to ask. Pillar candles. And sorrows in this world. The disasters of nature. And an individual human life. The second pillar and bring us home. And reason for celebration. Worship. And alice is carol browning the chair of our membership. The flame in the chalice calls us to a sacred community. Miss playing with words from anna slater. Exuberance and joyful hearts. Witness to others. Used ready to explore new troops. Experiences. We never knew before was home. Best place to worship. Our story today. Is important muslim a teacher and leader named gruden. The stories about him are usually spawning but have a serious lesson for people of every religion. In the story the town is celebrating the month of ramadan which honors when muhammad the first prophet of islam received the teachings of islam. Who are muslim do not eat from sunrise to sunset. After sunset people often get together and show gratefulness for their friendships. And they remember to be kind to others. We need some volunteers would like to be a. Could you help her get ready for her. That you don't see but it's really here and this is the home got it. I need three people. People. Well yes it is good. Looking good. Thank you for. And here begins our story. Staind. Because almost sundown. That evening for a huge feast. Death route. Catherine imagined delicious. Halsey. Trolls. Thank you. I wonder what the wealthy man was thinking or feeling. Anybody. What do you think. Didn't. Congregation participation section and disrespected right. Okay okay. Even though nasiruddin. Cancel route in waze no longer hungry. Nazareth. I came here earlier. Beautiful. Continue to feed and the people because of who they are. Because of what they possess. How they look. Houdini. Welcome. I can be listening to death. I think it was called fire of commitment. Reflection to begin. The one that got the most. A part of the universal spirit of life. One of my own core beliefs. Not always consciously. In my memory i'm 5 years old. I'm outside. As she talks to one of her sisters. The window is open and her voice comes to me clearly. She is criticizing us for something. Maybe the way she did or did not wash your kitchen floor. During this for some minutes i realized. And then i wonder. I am i so upset. Ponder this question with great intensity. Cancel message. We are. We are all. I don't know if i truly understood then what does. Relieved. Grandma is being mean to her sister. She's being mean to herself. Is this the same as we are all one. The truth that came to me didn't say anything about a universal we are in. To one another. And how we behave toward another person. Others. Today. We are all together. And that means we're not alone. I feel overwhelmed by too much news of the world whether it's hurricanes and earthquakes or political actions and decisions. I am not alone i am a part of something greater than myself. The community of this church. Is relationships with other churches. Inspiring for principals. And something greater than. Which i can feel. I can explain. We all together. We are not alone. We are not. We are not alone at our welcome table. Around our table banks invited us to explore the rich theological diversity found in this church. We learned that among us arceus and atheists mystics agnostics humanists and more. Together in open-hearted worship we are enriched by the many ways people make meaning in our church community. Is a covenant how to be together. Affirm our commitment to community actions based on respectful conversation. Receptive listening and open-hearted presence. Of course. Respectful conversation receptive listening and open-hearted presence doesn't just happen because we say so. Living in covenant means actively living up to our ideals. Respect listening. Sharing and caring. It's not just the table. But you deeper connection. In our pace tradition we are keenly aware that we did not exist alone rather we know that we lived. Within an interdependent web of creation. Family and friends with neighbors and strangers with creatures and trees living in a precious balance. Creation need one another to precious balance sacred. In this community we strive to find that balance respecting and celebrating our individuality and individual needs. Finding places of connection. And the balance of interconnectedness. Person he feels that they belong. Religious home. And that they are at peace with the larger world. We need each other to do this. And we come together during the week to share our lives to. There is something called the caring council. It's a group of volunteers who are committed to making connections with people in the church who need support. Isn't. Meals and extra support at those major life events. Caring is offering a listening ear anytime. Someone needs one. Another place place here is our small group ministry program work invited to dive deeply into a topic to share your reactions and to hear from other people to listen carefully. Persuasion. Just to share. Share our trues and to hear from others. Share the ministry of this church together. It's easy to look at the ministers and say okay. I'll just talk to them about. Important. But the important work doesn't. It belongs to. It belongs to the congregation. Sure the ministers are our conversations. We join you. We walked next but the social action work that is transforming this community is being done. The personal interactions that care and attention given to each other. Are you. Challenging behavior. Unhealthy patterns that's being done by you. We need to share the ministry that we might all open our hearts and minds to new ways of being. And then be able to take those ways out into the world so that others might find a place where they are cared for. We know that there are many moments of our lives. In this church lifelong learning and offer a variety of adult religious exploration opportunities on spiritual practices. Or maybe a workshop leadership skills or. Personal attitudes towards race class. We pledged i'm going search for truth. Celebrating each question that comes up. Because we know it will help us. Find deeper understanding. We ask questions. Does god exist. How could i respond differently. Do i take home from this. We explore these questions in community hearing perspectives from others and learning new ways of being. This creates a community where we can share our experiences and hope to grow from them. We don't offer any answers to these questions just like all of those children and youth programs it's not sunday school because we don't give. Answers. It's religious exploration because we encourage questions we encourage discovery. Worship on sunday morning is just one place. 4 accept discovery. We hope that here and worship hill offers. My offer some challenge or insight. It might move you. But that's a tall order week after week. Challenges to do something within the safe and comfortable walls of this. What about new faces. So many ways to try something new to build a community together. Focusing on our individual needs and our individual find unitarian universalist congregation is coming from a wedding or a memorial service or celebration of life service. We recognize that these rites of passage are about the uniqueness of the individual. Refocus. At a celebration of life service person thinks they are. And imagine them there instead of prescribing at destination. We honor beliefs we honor the questions that have been asked in the answers that have been found. Yet we can't only be focused on ourselves on our own gross on our own needs. Or even just our own at church community. Creating a community of welcome story. Bean welcome. Inviting the whole person. Not just their coat. Really mean it. We welcome you no matter the coat you wear. We just ask that you join us and actively living into our covenant with respectful conversation receptive listening and open-hearted present. Sometimes because we do make assumptions about the coats that people wear for the totes they were born with. Creating a religion of indeed. But it's something that we've always done it's part of our unitarian and universalist history. Jesus. The medicine miracle stories as metaphor. It was such power to the stories. Jesus can be gentle. And transformative. Can each of us. Universalist. God would welcome all. At the end. Regardless of religion or race or class or beliefs into an everlasting life of peace and comfort. Universalist wondered how they might make that kingdom of god a reality for life on earth. Abolition movement. And so much more opportunity to everyday living. Today we have continued these traditions network around the country and beyond association share an even larger. You'll find it printed in the front of your hymnal. It's a statement of our principles the ways that we agree to come together and be in the world. And also a statement of the sources of our theological diversity. The many ways that people find meaning. Being part of this church that you are part of something much larger. Unitarian universalist congregation in california. One of them has just nine members. We share our resources. We come together on saturday i'll drive to oakland to be with you use from all over the region to attend an all-day workshop on religious exploration. Keynote address will be given by union minister mark morrison and is entitled the ignore the naive and the innocent. Which will address different ways racism and white supremacy impact all of our children. The national conversation that unitarian universalist have been engaged. If you'd like to join me for that workshop. There's still space in the carpool. So we share these learning resources and program interior ideas across our congregations we extend our welcome. 2 / 1000 uu churches across the country. Respect and reverence. In a few weeks st louis to be with the unitarian universalist partner church council which is an organization that fosters relationships between north america. Our connections. Create welcome. Different. Different coats. Ar. Connections aren't just with other unitarian universalist must include us because that is the world we live in. Reverend beth has been working closely with the interfaith community in davis. Especially looking at the potential shared resources or providing sanctuary for those facing deportation. Friday a group of us will go to an open house at a sikh temple in west sacramento. There's also still stationed at carpool. Saturday. December will be at farm davis harvesting and planting food to give away. World war we are reminded of what it feels like. To be standing at the door. Come into the party. There is so much that we can do together. Unitarian universalist and he has shared his struggles. Being an african american nation. Has never given up on unitarian universalism and finds great inspiration in the ways that we create community. He has a reading in the back of the hymnal that i'd like to share with you. Essential tasks. Other religious community is to unveil the bonds that bind each to all. There is a connectedness relationship discovered amid the particulars of our own lives and the lives of others. It inspires us. It is the church that but as members of a larger community. The religious community is essential. For alone our vision is too narrow to see all that must be seen. And our strength limited to do all that must be done. Gather our strength. Is renewed. Together. Stretch hands wider more. Not just social injustice. Personal justice personal transformation. In these outstretched hands. Finding renewed strength. We are here. I will simply by repeating. What ellie said. We are not. Thank goodness. Join me now in spirit of reflection and prayer. Center yourself into this moment. Find your feet firmly on the ground. Together in the spirit of life and love. Community. Some of us here are filled with sorrow. Confusion. Guidance. As we struggle with. May we find understanding and release. And may we know compassion. Here are. Gratitude and celebration. Let us offer our thanks for those things today that give us joy. Maybe it's just of hope sustainus. May we share them with others. We must share. We must share our joy. And also a share our sorrows. We do not exist. There are people in our lives. Who need our love and we need. Today we send our hopes to our struggling. Resend. Hope for comfort to those who are weary. Showing at mary winger and her wife j haynes in sending healing energies and prayers to their fifteen-year-old nice lindsey. Who is in septic. Critical condition at children's hospital in utah. We send our strength. We know there are those among us who are struggling. Struggling with the passing of time and the questions of life. Be reminded of this community when we are in need we send our love our hope our strength. People around this world who. Security today lives affected by earthquakes in mexico this week and hurricanes in the caribbean. We send our prayers to those protesting in the streets of st louis and our support. We do not exist alone we exist in precious interconnectedness maybe always hold in our hearts gratitude for that connection for the things that bless us with their presence even including moments we know that each of us is part of an intricate web of relationships when one of us celebrates a july or grieves a lost the web of life moves to a new we are part of the. Mandy. Would you join hands with benediction. Go out into this world. And with a friend. One hand stretched out in welcome. We are not alone. Let the scattering say.

uudavispodcast_org

2018-04-08-That-Which-Colors-the-Mind.mp3?_=4

Sunday sermons from unitarian universalist church of davis california. org for further information. I'm a senior minister for this congregation and this sunday we've had a number of so i think it's important that we identify ourselves and. Morgan mclean is. In the social hall and will be heading for the bridge house today for a big day of. House. Painting that's exactly what's going to go on. No matter the color of your skin or your political affiliation. No matter your understanding of god. Or your answers to life's big questions. You are welcome into this community of curious planners and compassionate listeners and if this is your first time here we hope that you'll stop at our welcome table and get to know us a little bit more and stay for coffee as well which is one form of communion for us. Every week we like pillar candles. The first pillar candle. For the sorrows. That happened. In our community and in our world. That we bring with us here. The second pillar. Is wait for the joists. They're also a part of our lives. Delete everything that you hear. This morning will be a prayer. And so i invite you to come forward right you'll see in your orders. Last night i was sleeping from my old failures. The secret is in you. So you are telling them how you feel about this.. There's a spark of the secret of you. He will be playing there. But now matthew. Play some music. Distance from. I called tan for car. Indian. The meaning of. It was probably introduced by ravi shanker oliver conway back in the 60s. Remember. Is 2. So sorry. Is a melody. My teacher is the. It's called ron meg mahar. Monsoon or raini rodriguez. Here in california. Alders mossyrock 24 hours a day. California. The practice. Women kingdom melody. Composition for you. The powerful senate. It has all 12. Thank you sir matthew and joe. Morning as meditation. Extinguish one pillar candle. Honoring the stars. In the world. And also the joys. And extinguisher chalice. It's like stay with us. And the week ahead. And when closing. And i choose to stand in body or spirit. Take hands around the rim. Also just giving thanks. These words by andres project ariel. Mystery. He always turning up your whole boil with a ploughshare of self-examination. A little corner in your heart. Ready for any the wind may bring along. And reserve. Keep a place in your heart for the unexpected guest. And alter. Unknown god. What is patreon. But just gathering saying.

uudavispodcast_org

2018-06-24-A-Warriors-Practice.mp3?_=1

Welcome to sunday sermons another recording from unitarian universalist church of davis california at www.dav.org for further information. I'm karen klusendorf and i'm your worship leader for today general assembly in missouri. We light this chalice as a symbol of unitarian universalism. Simple reminder of our blessings great and small. Remember those who share their resources or simply. Let us be together in the light today and always. Sia blossom in your mind's eye allow it to spill the interior of your imagination imagination. Greater perfection of form in nature cannot be imagined. Within word gaze absorb wondrous fluted pedal. Slide down it's humid surface until you drop. As the do as the core. Immerse yourself. Such fragile beauty. Turn. Around and around and around and around. See it's many facets. Is the memory of all flowers flowers. Shimmer with expectation shimmer with expectations our own illumination illumination color color pulse pulse. And light. At once fragile and rooted. At once fragile and rooted. An ancient buddha said. Human hearts are fields of blessings for the world since this comes from. I was struck by the line. Immerse your senses in this chamber. With beelzebub lessor sorry. I can envision my heart as a safe chain burr with fields of blessings divided into four rooms. A delicate balance is required to maintain harmony. And keep me on the path to reason. The first room contains the blessings received from my ancestors. Good health intelligence. Empathy. The second room was empty at birth. Just waiting to be filled with things as i grew from a tiny infant to an adult. Blessings of nurturance. From the unconditional love of my grandfather to the teachers who saw potential in me. Third room is filled with the infinite possibility of blessings. A place where the energy of god or the spirit of life is within and among us. Eventually leading to harmonious interactions with family friends or even strangers. The fourth room in my chamber of blessings is where i receive the blessings for my generosity to others. Two weeks ago i flew home from europe. And as i always do i said a silent blessing. As the pilot prepared for takeoff. Please bring us home safely to our loved ones. If not bless them in our absence. Human hearts are fields of blessings for the world. Since this is where the path of reason comes from. Now i ask. Close your eyes and join me on my journey from paris to provence earlier this month. Envision the fields of blessings as wildflowers. Imagine glimpsing an infinite number of red poppies. As the train we are on passes a bright red field. Field of flowers so vast it seems to meet the horizon. You can almost smell. The perfect scent. Moist soil and fragrance. The black centers of the poppies take on a linear effect in your mind's eye. The glint of sunlight reflecting on the red petals. Open them up. Tiny angels seem to float to the clouds. Now. Immerse yourself says in this safe chamber. Let the blessings within your heart overflow. Creating harmony and providing a path to reason. The world. The world is generous and beautiful. Magic and blessings absolutely surround us. Blessings beauty and family and music. And on. There are ample opportunities to absorb blessings at any given time. We seem to have difficulty. How do i reach. How do we connect. With the unobstructed power. And energy of life. Is generous and beautiful. What is it that inhibit us from accessing this stunning living world. The wonders with our mind. Our emotions expectations preferences. Yes we do. We create a cocoon to protect ourselves from the challenge of living fully. Spontaneously joyfully. Distractions or self-absorption fear competition. Judgement expect us and risk. Safe from change. Do we really want safe. Society and technology combined to distract the rail and disturb us. Advertisement attention. Daily. The digital economy essentially is based on making sure that we're not in control of our own attention. In this country checks their email 74 times a day. And i'm assuming those are only waking hours although with the direction our society is going maybe we'll substitute sleep texting for sleepwalking the average person changes on their computer 566 times a day. We spend 120 minutes on our phone apps. You can bet others are picking up your slack. We can study the statistics all day but we all basically know these r-truth. Physical therapist are working full-time to shenanigans. And we are so busy photographing and posting our activities so we can hardly appreciate the activities themselves. A picture is worth a thousand words. Or not not anymore snapshots or a shortcut to sharing our experience and they may indeed be a shortcut to having an experience. For those facebook shots. Swipe. We post 30 photos when three well-chosen photos. Would tell a much more personal story. Don't get me wrong the world needs our photos and our updates and our posts. I want to see your grandchildren in your puppies and the things that excite you your inspirations and delights but perhaps. 3 well-chosen photos make a greater impact than 30. And there's another thing. When we were interrupted from a task that were focused on. By that buzz and vibration 23 minutes to get back to that same level of focus. Used to being interrupted that we have learned. To self interrupt every 3.5 minutes again kudos to those of you who have a longer attention span who can focus longer but rest assured. The rest of us are picking up your slack. And while i'm confessing because that is me please know that i am preaching to myself i have no doubt many of you are much more adept at concentration and relaxation than i am. He may well be more able to quiet your mind then i am. And i tend to teach. What i need to understand. So true. In this case. So true. But where does this leave me and you where does this leave us. Think about the difference between board. And daydreaming. Boredom is considered doing nothing. Where is daydreaming and wandering brings us beyond. Into the subconscious. Daydreaming is letting go without consequences. It includes shedding our cocoon. Boredom can ignite a default mode and that's when we turn to our solitaire games. Daydreaming. The creative state. Mindful moments everyday. A creative and mindful state is where the blessings come from. They flow in and this is sometimes called soft spot or first thought. We hear see smell feel we experience with an open heart. Beautiful experiences that magic. The magic in the world. There are hours. We can access the brilliance. When we practice first thought. First thought is the wonder that comes before our internal dialogue and sell. Doubt diminish the experience. Routine and expectations familiar. The cocoon muskrat. Open. For us to let experience in. You might think of the cocoon as a an attitude that prevents us from experience are wool world fully. And directly it's all that stuff. That stands between us and wonder. Us and the world. And our loved ones. Comfort and safety. Basic goodness. Goodness not. Bad and good. Basic goodness as the primordial all-pervasive energy of openness. Basic goodness vulnerability field of poppies. We discovered basic goodness by simply being on the spot. Presents. Mindful. The blessings are already here my friends. Notice the next time that you are in your field of poppies can you drop into the velvety core of a blossom. Or is it your first thought to pull out your phone and snap a photo of the moment. Just so you can look at a facsimile of it later share it. Again i understand and applaud the urge to share our experiences we want to be connected but might we keep us for ourselves. Unfiltered. And raw. Connecting to our emotions. I find it true in yoga class and true in life i cannot successfully be present. In the moment. When i am thinking. About the future. In both realities at once. Our world is generous and beautiful. We simply need to access it. All around. I had a profound experience. A couple of weeks ago. I was swimming. Okay i love. Ijump in. Adjust my goggles look at the water. And kickoff. And i can i stroke and i pull water through the cupcake pans and i remember that little s-curve and i just feel so good i pay attention to the. Get filtered through the water and the gurgling in the bustling in the swishing. This is such a beautiful sound. And i keep checking and i keep pulling. Kicking and pulling. Beach balls lined up perfectly against swimming. Turned in my first thought was to take a picture of that and then i remembered i'm preparing for the service. Well turn and i come back and then. And i realized. I'm doing it. I'm in the moment. Now i know that the breeze in the currents that. I have invoked magic. A snapshot would have taken that moment and broken my connection. And that's what i mean by soft spot. Capacity to have your own personal experience. First sodden unobstructed experience. First perception. It's a vulnerable place. It's a place where we open the chambers of our hearts. We let the experience in. In shambhala warrior training. Magic. Magical strength. And wisdom of the world. Revealed in nowness. The magical strength. And wisdom in the world. Revealed in mountainous drala. It is that unifying energy that a warrior uses to illuminate. Guide and heal. The first principle of. Is to be fearless toward yourself. A warrior's weapons are compassion and insight. Indeed. Compassion and insight. We can heal ourselves. And our world. Once the mind is open it becomes like the sun and its rays shine everywhere. Once the heart is open it becomes like the sun and its rays shine everywhere we are uplifted there is an intrinsic where awareness blooming in our hearts. For a moment just consider silently. When you are not in the group when you can't find that magic what is it that brings you back. To a moment you can fully experience. And what is it that keeps you in the groove in the magic in the moment. Cinderella. We might consider what is our cocoon made up of. That cocoon that shields you from a full immersive experience. Is homework for this month. I took off my fitbit. It was a distraction. Now i walked for joy instead of steps. I've also granted myself 1 hour in the morning before i look at my technology. Makes a big difference. Okay i checked my messages cuz sometimes schedule changes last minute. I stopped robin. I practice the medication of simply resting naturally in the ordinary mind. Basically. Basically i'm training to be myself. Practicing the natural state of being fully present. Fearless authentic presents. It's a discipline until it becomes habit. And that's what i'm going for habitual. Fearless authentic presence. This week try to give yourselves a break. Give yourself permission to let creativity our nature your family gets connection connect with it. Sheridan. I will be practicing with you. We don't have to look for blessings they are everywhere. I assure you. We can choose to crack open. Just stop and listen breaking our hearts open even further to find those present moments that's done us that shake us. That make us laugh. Or cry. Or make us laugh until we cry. Looking in our relationships to one another and to our environment. The blessings are there i assure you and authentic presents within this majestic life that we've been gifted. Throughout all of the time. That is allotted to us. To cultivate and display personal bravery based on gentleness and peace. Vulnerable still asleep toward hope. And light. At once fragile and rooted. It's what we need it's what the world needs. May it be so. And we offer a prayer. We offer prayer moment in community together our hopes are trials. We practice the shared meditation of resting naturally in our collective an ordinary minds. Prayer the intentional bomb of care. Concern celebration and hope. For the blessings of our ancestors we give thanks. For the blessings of nurturance and unconditional love. We give thanks. For the infinite possibilities granted us through relationship. We give thanks. And for the abundance of our own generosity. We just thanks. When we are lost. May we discover who we are by letting go of who we are not. When we find ourselves. May we risk sharing fully. May we shimmer with expectation. Excluding our own illumination. Color. Pulse. Incent. Let us venture our lives courageously toward hope. And light. At once fragile and rooted. At once. Fragile. And rooted. Allowing these prayers to sink in. Is andre helps us along. Amen. We extinguished pillar candle in honor of the joys and sorrows recognized here today. Or how deeply in our hearts. Even though the chalice is now extinguished we ask that you. Carry the flame of our spiritual community as you leave this sanctuary today. Bask in the harmony of the field of blessings that rests within the safe chamber of your hearts. Terry the infinite possibility of blessings into the week ahead. Share those blessings. But especially with those you have yet to meet. Each other. Email.

uudavispodcast_org

2016-11-20-The-Greatest-Gift_11_15.mp3?_=2

Welcome to sunday sermons another recording from unitarian universalist church of davis california please visit our website at w.w. org for further information. Community. Who you are or where the journey of life. Today. International rescue committee congregation during the service was founded in 1933 at the request of albert einstein delivers life-saving care to people fleeing conflict or disaster. It is known as highest-ranking nonprofit accountability transparent and efficient use of their contributions. Here are two new ways to make our sign-up sheets for both of these at the tables. Delivery specials on monday december for tuesday december 6th. We're looking for people who bring items for the grab-and-go snacks. Deliver the items to irc offices in sacramento. New roots farm. Committee has supported over one thousand refugees community countries are represented. Our congregation is coordinating the rescue committee. The schedule works located in east sacramento. Encourage you to stop by the table to pick up a list of needed gardening eu's tools for now we plan to coordinated collection in the future. Information on how a group from our church commitment. Direction of november workout. It was her who answered the phone. Terrible. Snooze. Scattered mom's women friends together to celebrate her 89th birthday there was cake and conversation and happy birthday i remember so clearly. Holidays to sit around table with people. Conversation is going to go with you. It was late the election results. President-elect. Sister. Is ever known this is his home and he is undocumented. Chris morning at uc davis. Six months so someone. His his eyes were wet with tears he said. This morning. But at the same time decidedly different she has so much more to gain or lose from the generosity that they offered to others and. His dangerous together. Program. Shortly after inauguration day it will disappear almost certainly. Very afraid. Very determined. Bistec. And to be ready to receive their ideas. Precious. This is not the time for someone to publicly out themselves. Here. I'm so grateful to be a part of this outrage from our congregation onto campus. Understand. At that center. The campus program is. It is about 13 cm. And it's getting stronger. Imperfectly. The way to achieve it. The students named themselves so often. Thinking it was safe. Again. Because sister students. Is before. Universal. Perfect political party. Is where we are very closely aligned. The challenge have been under attack. Robinson a columnist from the washington post. Wonderful reasons why the election went the way it did. Been having a successful. President. In the white house for 8 years. And then. Another first. A woman in the white house. Seminary. She's a senior fellow at the institute for studies. What does it mean. To work for social transformation. Sustained energy. Commitment. Succession of social and political crises. 24 years ago. She said the problems facing us are complex and mulch. Adjust homelessness toxic waste. Racism. And poverty. Have you listened to her word personal. We're in the past 20 years. Just in case either of those things for you. She working for justice generation after generation. Listed. The characteristics. They didn't have enough.. Resources. There was no crafted. Agreed-upon plan for success. Actually. Such a situation for an ethic of risk. In our lifetime. Is resisting. And she's talking about. Tessa death of a body. Despair was acceptable to feel. Acceptable. To be the basis of living precious. Testerman is appropriate. In a straight line. America to accept. Results. But even the largest is always gained even if it is to learn what is impossible or unwise. Testing success. Is it not alive. Is compare. Strengthens us for the. Impala marshalls. Mesmerizing. Dance. Silk ribbons. A bright colors that connect her to every person every person in that circle. The dancing the music. Same-sex couples. Parents. Process of fear. To protect their child to protect their family. Smith college. Don't let it. Despair. Give a donation. And they get a thank you card. Different with it. The most destructive results of this past election for people's house. Had extended before more time than we think we have to give. Services. Experience. People who. Princess connect. Get a sense of. And in december except from the salon. Learning. Listen. The undocumented students and that will come to you in the future. His present. We feel alone. But thank you for really really seeing us. Again the problem still existed they had not gone away. Who is the most. The greatest gift for others. Open app again. Did i say amen invite you and your time of prayer kind of meditation. Anna silence today. Behind. Standards. And your past bring your loving. Need for ceilings. Because house also ethics children.

uudavispodcast_org

2018-02-11-UUNIQUE-Youth-Group_TheStruggleIsReal.mp3?_=3

Sunday sermons from unitarian universalist church of davis california. org for further information. I'm alison quinn. And we are. High school youth group. As unitarian universalist. We believe all people have inherent worth and dignity. You are welcome here no matter how you identify or who you love. No matter what the color of your skin. No matter your political affiliation. No matter your understanding of god or life's big question. You are welcome into this community. Acknowledge all that is being held by the people in this room. We like one pillar candle for the sorrows of the world. We light one color candle for the joys of the world. Calibration. Now is the time when i asked for volunteers. We are going to be building something together. And i need your help. Raise your hand if you have a little bit of energy this morning and even if you don't. If you are this tall or shorter put your hand in the air for volunteering. Alright. All right come on down. I believe in you and if we start this activity and you start thinking i wish i was a part of that you can still join later. We are going to build something and we need your help. Because i know that if we have rules then we'll all be on the same page. Well i understand what's supposed to happen and we'll all be safe. The rules are very very important. Number one. Everyone has to sit down. Because we have to be very careful have a seat have a seat. You can only use your elbows. Elbows elbows. Awesome. Anniversary. Me and quinn are the only ones that can talk. Because if there is too much talking i won't know what to do and you won't know what to do. What we are building today. Is a fort. You can't talk. Because that's a rule but if you know of court is raise your hand. Alright good cuz we're going to build a fort now. Kaitlyn. Oh goodness. If you know what a sport is raise your hand. Okay great. It's very similar to a blanket structure it's like a building like this but made with mostly class. Like a tent but. Lester actually found. Elmo's only. There's one for you we passed them out. Alright. And oliver fabulous volunteers you are building your elbow for it. Ready. Okay. There seems to be some technical difficulties. Interesting. I say some confusion interesting. Pause the game. I thought you knew 24 it was. With these kids and these rules you can't make your fort. There's a lot of good questions alright. Restricted. It seems like this isn't working my goal to build a fort and my rules are not helping us. Are there any rule changes we might make. So you could ask for help. You could do anyting. That you could do anything what if we. Weather today. What if we do anything as long as we're sitting. You could do anything. Maybe more flexibility and what we can do with their hands. So maybe you could ask for help from people around you could also what else. I think we might be able to stand up and move around and. Maybe some chairs. I like it. Alright. With these new rule that we. We cannot put anything on the piano cuz that's not there for the piano but i did share a music stand. Alright let's try again you can use your hands you can stand you can ask for help you can use some of the furniture within reason. I love it. We did it we made it for now i think the first part when i made all the rules. Aol. But when you set your own rules in your own goals. Support you made. Was pretty amazing and actually you made up for it better than i would have imagined. With my ideas. And all your ideas about being able to ask for help from people. We didn't just build a fort. We build community thank you so much for your help and building out our fort and in building our community and i'm working together. Disassemble above and beyond and now we get to sing the children and youth to the bridge house. This is a reading. Nancy mcdonald. We gather in community every sunday in a state of conflict for a very souls. Estate expansively hopeful and descriptively confined. We are hopeful that we might rise to meet a new day for those who seek and to service.. Hopeful that each and every one of us might encounter the sacred within. And beyond every human soul. Counter. Might work through our age. And yet. We also gather as a people who are not yet free. A people confined. Country. Contains. We are confined unfree contained. Because in this culture of division built upon the pain of the people at the margins. Even the decent people hold our love too tightly. Putting it in boxes. With qualifications i will love you if. I will see you at. I will bear the truth of maisel alongside you if and only if. You agree with me. You look like me. You stand like me. You act like me. You seem like me. You wear your gender on your sleeve and produce adapt on demand. I will love you and will meet you in a sanctuary of our hearts. If only. Give me evidence of your good liberal virtues. If and only if you never fail to speak the language of the movement. And never weep upon a street corner out of grief for your sheer inadequacy and a bath of struggle that you cannot even name. We are imprisoned by these s. And he's only asked. We are confined by the smallness of our loving even as our schools remind us that we can only get free. If we all get free together. And so today as we intersect in our honest work. Conviction. Willingness to love beyond our expectations or experience breakdown our long-held barriers. Let our willingness to be honest about the hardest questions open us new troops. May there truly be more love. With no labels. And no binary process. Asians and no limit. Liberate us all. Maybe keep on and every day until we find it. And share it by precious bench with one another and the world. I'm caitlin and i am one of the designated adults. Youth group. We've been talking a lot about perseverance challenges i've asked the youth to reflect on perseverance a few times. As a youth group play games together i personally love board games and all kinds of games. Persevere through those challenges the challenges we choose like fun games with funrolls we can all agree to. When we choose to challenge ourselves through instruments and games learning new things. Choosing to build ford. Working through power outages. It can be really fun and really rewarding. I'm having requirements and golden rules thrust upon her already full lives. Sometimes this feels like too much extra work. I asked you to reflect on it. Somebody's going to be here today because they have other exciting obligations and their lives. But they did send us some video. That we're going to attempt to play for you. And the first. Person. Is carter luck. And i will. But you experienced this fun activity. Because i'm a pharmacist. Every year. Example last year. There are many occasions i wouldn't spend the time hiking sports. Browsing facebook. It's hard but i'm okay with it. Because i know it will make myself better. When i was young my parents wanted me to tell you before. Eventually i feel like at 4 and i don't want to do it anymore. Still wanted me to do something it always felt like an obligation. I do really like running around in the clothes for harm and comfortable and i felt like it just wasn't getting anything out of it. Decision. When i put the town her myself. I've made friends and i've learned valuable lessons that times menu. Now.. Many of our youth go to a school called davinci this is a charter academy in davis and a lot of us. Go here because all of the work that we do is in communities. And we all feel very passionately about being in this community and in our other various communities in front of groups and at the vinci we get to work as a group to achieve things that we honestly couldn't do by ourselves. We make movies we make songs that we give powerpoint presentations this is what we do instead of taking tests and about this is one person making a movie.. Because each individual has their own strengths and weakness weakness is but it's a lot easier to overcome a challenge this difficult when you have four or five people in a group. And so. And talking about challenges we've been talking a lot about. Challenges that are assigned to us or challenges that we pick for ourselves and davinci is a very interesting midpoint because we choose to go there to accept the challenges of making movies and making presentations and having to stand up in front of a class full of you know 30 people that have all kind of been doing something similar and you know maybe they feel like there's better or anxiety around that and. It just. It's really interesting. To look at how much easier it is to overcome a challenge like that when you have a group of people that you're working with. And. So. I have struggled for a while with anxiety and depression and both of these things are very very difficult to handle when you're on your own when you're sitting alone it is really hard to. Kind of either snap out of it or find a good coping mechanism but when you're able to reach out and exist in a community full of supportive and caring people like this church or like her school or like the district-wide youth events that i go to that are also you you run all of these are really good examples of supportive and caring circles like we have our our book in the back where people can reach out for support and that's a very good and so. Challenges. Are really hard and they're a lot easier when you put them on yourself but you don't always get that option and when you have the ability to not necessarily put that challenge on other people but ask for other people's help and facing that then it can definitely get substantially easier. Thank you. And now a reflection from. Another video reflection from ian jackson who also. Personally i have no problem telling you myself even if sometimes i don't always follow through the challenges i put myself up to like sleeping enough for finishing my work on time but whenever someone else calendars me think you are you don't know me. Okay i don't know i don't actually ever get that indent. But there are some times when someone putting me up for a challenge it's kind of annoying. So there's only really one example and that's my dad. Your life practice practice practice. My parents noticed my enthusiasm and i'm at this birthday they started paying for violin lessons for me i could finally be just like my older brother and sister but i got to work for it after a year i was getting tired of all the practicing and i wanted to stop. My dad encouraged me to keep going even about a little tired of it at that point. Has been going on like that till this day kind of still playing the violin. And by the time i finally hate myself enough to get motivated to practice my dad walks in and says. Get all my motivation i don't know why and yeah so long story short my dad's been challenging me daily for the past 10 years whether i liked it or not but as a result i was able to meet a lot of my friends could i have today who i don't think i would have had met otherwise and i can play. I'm working toward motivating myself more so that i can get better at playing the violin. I'm working toward motivating myself so that i can get better at playing the violin so that i can play more challenging songs invent more people. Oh yeah. We challenge ourselves. All the time. And blame our neighbors for their suffering. As they face the challenges of their own. In addition to our challenges we face oppression olympics. I will love you if and only if you give me evidence of your good liberal virtues. If and only if you never fail to speak the language of the movement. And only if you never weep upon a street corner out of grease for your steer and actor inadequacy. Eastbay we waved and rise. Face a new beginning. A new choice. We asked ourselves. Who are we going to be today. Are we going to look down upon others as they face their battles. We extend a hand and lift them up. Can we love someone even when they take your favorite seat in church. Will we love each other despite of what we post on twitter and instagram and facebook. Each other even when someone says that everything you care about is a social construct. Will be loved with no labels and no binary. Will we allow there to be more love. Each time i read the more love reading. That song goes. And there is more love somewhere. Keep on till you find it. Sing it with me one more time. There is so much love in this congregation and i am grateful for allison and quinn and. Carter and ian for bringing their messages and their energy and for caitlin and all the folks to work with the youth and 4. Curia for joining us today on the piano it is so great to come together and community and share in the ways that we do. I invite you now to join me in the spirit of reflection and prayer. You might find yourself. Firmly on your seat. On the ground. Close your eyes or soft in your gaze. Notice your breath as we enter into this time. That we create together. We gather here surrounded by the spirit of life and love. Thankful for a moment. Of silence. We are thankful for a moment. To be still. Community. We look inward today. Naming the parts and sears in our lives. Places where we know we are not our best selves. May our hurts and fears. Be lightened as we reach out for help. May our best selves be challenged and changed. As we strive for more love. Innespace we name our hopes and joys too. But they made stain us. That they may take us through one day at a time. As we hoped for more peace. And more joy within ourselves. And around us. Today we lift up those in our lives. Our friends are family our neighbors those people who we carry with us everyday. Those people who are. Struggling. Who are sick who are dying. Those people who need our love. And our hope. We find comfort and peace. May we remember that we are not alone. And so we turn our thoughts. Our hopes are prayers to all around the world. Who are struggling today. 4 communities that live in fear. Communities in people. Hungry. We seek peace and justice. We hope for comfort. We hope. Per security. May we imagine our hands reached out. Wyd in a web of caring. That we might together. Create a beautiful place. Each of us is part of an intricate web of relationships. When one of us celebrates a joy or grieves a lost the web of life moves to a new shape. We are part of the turn of the earth. The shift of the stars. And all change. We extinguish our chalice with the covenants of this church. That we might take it with us until we are together again. Refer more commitment to creating and living within a spiritual community. Respectful conversation receptive listening and open-hearted presents. We also extinguished our pencils are held by this community. Would you in this flu season grab a shoulder addiction from paul beatty may our lives be blessed according to the depth of our love. The persistence of our face. Willingness to forgive and be compassionate. And in proportion to our yearning to be free and may this congregation say amen.

uuprairie_org

Pr150308JohannaHatch-ed.mp3

Good morning and welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society. My name is aaron basch and i'm co-chair of the membership committee with heidi hughes. Prairie. Aspires to be both an open-hearted and open-minded congregation we welcome people up every ethnic. And religious background whatever your color sexual orientation. Or family structure. We welcome you in a matter what your age. Abilities or in abilities. Later in the service we will invite any. People hear for the first or second time to introduce themselves if they wish to we don't require it but we like it. On sunday mornings we provide a wide variety of services. They are presented either by a prairie member a member of the wider community or our part-time minister sandra ingham this morning it will be a member of our own communities. Johanna hatch. Why do not see her over there she is thank goodness i thought she. Now i welcome patty and mary to come and let the chalice for us. The light of life shines through the eyes of each and every person the light of truth shines through each life. May the light of this chalice remind us. That our search for truth and light is ongoing as an as enhance and nurtured by every person we meet. May we honor the light in each other. Reverend jill mcallister unitarian universalist association of congregations. This morning our presentation is by johanna hatch. I was not given any biotin traduced johanna so i hope she will tell us a little about yourself but i happen to know that before she came to prairie she was very much involved with. Getting women more equal treatment etcetera in the catholic church so i hope. Give us a little bio johanna thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak to the community again. Around this time last year i was able to speak. Kind of a reflection on. One year with pope francis as the leader of the roman catholic church and some of my reflections on that as a progressive anti-feminist and. Somebody was coming out of the catholic church so just a quick bio about myself like aaron mentioned. I am the past president of the board of directors for women's ordination conference which is the oldest and largest organization that advocates for women's equality in the catholic church. I stepped down from that position this past summer when i was about. 36 weeks pregnant with aurora because my life was just. Little to phone for that when i'm still kind of. Trying to figure out. What is a good relationship for me to have with the institution of the roman catholic church. Because there's a lot of stuff in there that i think it's really hurtful to a lot of people and i think they many folks in this community who have come out of that tradition and web come out of other religious traditions where women. Contributions and roles are very limited and they know the harm of that can cause. And. As i was preparing this presentation for you today. I just want. I want to dedicate this to a friend of mine whose name is maggie. I'm going to get a little emotional. She is a or was a sister of st. joseph carondelet in st paul. She was my friend she was my mentor she was. The definition of a wise woman. And once that i was visiting with her in her home. She had hanging up this. Bastille stole is it kind of like draped over a door and i asked her about it and her response to me was that. In the 80s short one of the first conferences on women's ordination sponsored by women's ordination conference. In the stroll in the catholic tradition is really the sign of the ordained priesthood. And she said. That has been hanging there. Since i was there and it will continue to hang there until my church recognizes my call to ministry. And if they don't before i die i want to be buried with it and. About two weeks ago i found out that she'd gone into hospice and she was too weak to receive visitors or even calls or card so i didn't get a chance to say goodbye to her. Passed away on february 28th. It really kind of open this up for me again in a new way because. I know that she was buried with that stole. Because. An institution that she committed her life to as a nun. Never recognized. The gifts that she had. To bring to her community. And i know that she suffered for it. So what is equal in faith that i just want taco little bit about this. People in faces. A global interface action that was started in 2013. That is really a call to action for gender equity both in religious communities and in society at large. It was inaugurated two years ago on this day international women's day. With representatives from the roman catholic tradition from the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints or the mormon tradition. On the lutheran church-missouri synod. As well as muslim women and women from from the jewish tradition. So they really wanted to intentionally be an interfaith. Movement to say that across our traditions. Did we believe that discrimination against women is wrong. The participants gathered to fast for a day and to pray together. For the religious communities to repent of the sin of sexism. Which is really most plainly illustrated by the exclusion of women from ordained ministry or four positions of leadership and places of prayer. Specifically the jewish women who were part of this movement are representatives of what's called women at the wall which is a movement that wants. The equal opportunity for jewish women's be able to pray out loud read from the torah and wear prayer shawls at the western wall of the temple in jerusalem. Women who attempt to do this are dragged away and arrested. So even even traditions that we see in the united states may have a strong example of women's equality women's leadership particularly in the reform jewish movement there are still parts of that tradition that really struggle with women's equality. And especially also from muslim women who tend to in their faces of prayer actually be physically separated from the men in the men get to be on the main floor to pray in the women are sometimes in the back behind the screen or the balcony so that he can't fully participate. And i think this is especially for a community like ours it's really like this is a really that should be really simple concept. 2015. We know that for many traditions still the implementation of women's equality is literally heretical. It is a heresy it is an excommunicated bull offense. Soffer folks heard my presentation around this time last year i talked a little bit about father roy boozgeois was a maryknoll priest or was a merry no priest. He is the founder of the school of the americas watch through the long tradition of working for social justice and equality and he was. Stripped of his ministry. Removed from his order lost at home lots of sorts of support because he doesn't really get a lot of income being an activist. Because he participated in the illicit ordination. And refuse to repent. That was really the kind of the crux of the excommunication is he said no i can't say that i don't believe him if he had just said i made a mistake i don't believe in it the church would have bought them come back. But because he said no. I believe women are equal and should be recognized as such in our church. That was worth stripping him of ministry. And since then within the past year this was in the news a little bit cake kelly who is the founder of a movement called ordain women in the mormon church. Has also been excommunicated for the same thing she refuses to recant of her belief that women should equally have the right to hold the priesthood. In the mormon tradition in their tradition pretty much any adult man in good standing for fills the role the priesthood for his family and he does things like that ties their children can provide blessings and prayers and sacraments. And because she said you know i truly believe that women should have that capacity within their families as well. The church of jesus christ of latter-day saints. Stop it excommunicate her which means she cannot. Participate in the prayer life of her community which has been a member of her entire life. So i just want us all to consider for a moment. Heretical and destructive. Gender equality has to be. If an institutions response is to remove someone who refuses to be quiet about it if that's the only appropriate response how disruptive and how transformative. Gender equality really is. One question i reflected on today as well as what is the value of such movement particularly for folks like us were in a progressive tradition fulton secular society. Why should we care. About. Women striving for equality in these institutions that really are not very responsive to that and i said it's really at its most basic this movement is about this movement matters because women matter and because women's lives matter and over on the 50th anniversary of martin luther king junior's march on selma. I know i recall his words and he famously said that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. If we truly believe that gender equality is a moral imperative and i do. Driving moral imperative. Did any institution that denies that very basic. Idea. Has to be challenged it doesn't matter if it's a religious organization if it's a governmental organization if it's a way of moving in the world we have to challenge that. And i think one of the really important functions of equal and faith is that it can serve to reach both people who are inside of those traditions that. Opposed women's equality and people who are outside of those traditions as well. And to raise awareness about the impact of religiously-based sexism on society at large. And the fact also i think it's also really important to highlight. The movement like this can bring to light that no religion however we may view it from the outside is monolithic. Just kind of referencing the last time i was able to present here yeah we have this image or the media has presented this image of pope francis as. Very progressive. And mule many commentators are convinced that rapid changes happening in the catholic church. But even within the last few months. Pope francis has compared gender studies theory or no more progressive ideas about gender he's compared it to the nazi you and i'm not even kidding about as well as accused people with progressive notions of gender of cultural colonialism and trying to. Change society's fort like in the movement for gender equality. I'm pretty soon after that he also declared that people who choose to not have children are selfish and don't think that i missed the irony on that coming from the pope. So expects ism is obviously still rampid. And i speak in the catholic tradition because like i said that's the tradition of my origin and that's really where i was engaged in a lot of my activism. So just right having most prescient examples. Do catholics and progressives are some of the few voices that are making sure that stories like this don't get lost in the shuffle of when we're talking about you. Say some nice things and do some nice things. But we can't give him a free pass. On this very obviously. Backwards frankly ideas about gender and women's equality. And i think these stories also really need to be told so that we can no longer write off. We can't write off everyone who claims the tradition as passively agreeing with sexist teachings. There are many dissenting voices in these communities. And by lifting up these dissenting voices it i think it serves to reduce the power that it institutions have over both their institute their individual members and their influence over society at large. Another question that i also reflected on now that i am a member of the unitarian universalist community and i no longer attend catholic churches and i don't receive communion out of a personal. Choice is he leave. I got asked that question a lot. When i was more visible activist in the progressive catholic community. And you know it's i think it's a good question and it's very true that in our pluralistic society we do have the option of walking away from a religious tradition. And i just let you know don't think that every catholic or mormon or whatever tradition feminist hasn't already considered this. Impossibly hasn't already attempted though. Women of these traditions really intimately know the power that these traditions have over the lives of women in their communities. And they understand the fear that silences many women who don't want to lose their connection to their heritage or to their families. Because we know that by speaking too loudly or to forcefully. You can be cut off. From a very for what many people is a very important part of. Of their lives. And at the same time there's also this tension because many including myself. Credit their religious tradition with being the very first thing that instilled in them the offense of justice. Amanda drive to work for justice and it's really difficult to. To divorce. Can a divorce those things go this is. Is why. Where i learned. About justice and equality. And. Why. Why isn't it happening here. To simply leave without without at least trying to change their tradition. Really can feel like abandon it can really feel like you know i haven't done everything i can do. For its other women in my community. And for my children. Another question that i i reflected on and i really want. 2. Spend some time on here is. So what. Why does it matter to a progressive community like like prairie. And i really believe that. The continued sub subjugation of women in religious communities. Touches far more than those individual women in those communities. Bill is patriarchal patriarchal beliefs about women. Really contribute to the creation of strict gender roles. Which i also believe is part of the root of homophobia and transphobia very strict ideas about what women and also what men can and can't do. I want these beliefs are held as religious truth. Those who feel morally compelled to enforce them not only for adherence to their own faith but they also feel compelled to bring those to society at large. Because you know this is the divine plan and this is truth why shouldn't it be universal. For instance when policymakers hold these values and our elected to positions of power. Still use those positions to try to further their visions of women sexuality in the family on to society at large. And i have often said this in the past that feminists and our allies ignore the roman catholic church to our peril. The us bishops have long been advocates for further restrictions on reproductive rights. And restrictions on legal protections for lgbt people and. I would argue that these positions stem directly. From their view of the role of women as shaped by their religious tradition. Additionally the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints along with the catholic church. Was one of the main funders of the successful proposition 8 campaign in california which for sometime revoked marriage equality in that state. So traditions that have these very strict views of women. Have no compunction about trying to enforce their beliefs about gender about sexuality and family on the rest of us who don't share those beliefs. Who would be perfectly happy to let them practice what they believe in their traditions you know what kind of live and let live. We don't receive. That same. Play. And we know that any institution that denies women equal access to decision-making. Whether it's religious or secular cannot adequately represent its females female members. But that in no way stops them from making some pretty serious decisions about women's lives. The catholic church's opposition to birth control is not just an archaic. Teaching that actually is ignored by the least the majority of its united states members it's something like ninety-eight percent of catholic women have used a non-church approved form of birth control at some point in their life. But i thought you mean it is it is it is being ignored. It is a policy that the catholic hierarchy holds as divinely inspired. And then it uses its influence. As an observer member of the united nations to insert itself into global human rights discussions that impact women's ability to access reproductive health care. In the. Have no problem aligning themselves with other religious states including iran. To impose that will on the bodies of women. And then they have the audacity to call the people of god. And like i said before you i just i use the catholic church as an example a lot because it's where i'm from it's what i know but i think it can give you a picture of. How religious institutions can really have a powerful impact on society at large. And why what happens in those institutions and the belief that they hold in the way that they treat women really can have a direct impact on the lives of women who are not part of those traditions. And. I also think the fact that that. Patriarchy and this drive to preserve patriarchy is such a common factor in many religious traditions. I think it speaks to something much larger than just those individual religious traditions. Pick up a larger problem that we have 22 address and i certainly don't have time today to smash the patriarchy in totality but. Religious institutions are one of the strongest hold out of this belief. And so because it's. So i think what i'm trying to say here is because it's not. Just religion. But it certainly is highlighted in religion. It has to be challenged. Anywhere and everywhere it arises and that includes. Other religious traditions. Which is something that can be really uncomfortable i think especially for people who believe in the good of a pluralistic society and their rights of people to new decide for themselves what they want to believe. Churches they want to belong to and and how they want to do that. So what is our responsibility as allies and i hope that. I do not overstepping my bounds by saying that i hope everyone here is an ally of. Feminism and an ally of a progressive movement within religion. And i think it one of the most important things we can do as a liberal religious community that values gender equality is really to make sure that in both our language and our action. We do not allow religion to be an excuse for the subjugation of women. Like i said i understand this can be a really difficult. Topix navigate. And we don't want to denigrate another person's religious faith. Or religious expression. But if we give sexism a free pass because it's done in the name of god or a god. We are kind of implicitly stating that there are certain situations in which it is perfectly fine to subjugate women. And that gender equality is not an absolute right. And if we are willing to budge on the dignity of women in some circumstances. What precludes us from from budgeting and other circumstances and i i understand this may seem like a rather dramatic way to put it but i really do believe that this attitude. Does contribute to gender equality being seen as a less important or less urgent. Movements. In our society. And it's also really important that we. We are able to lift up the voices of those who call for change in their own traditions. And i think it's a very appropriate thing to do. People in face is at least part of the vision of the board of directors of the women's ordination conference and i remember the meeting where we started to have this idea if you know. You're weird feminist we're kind of rooted in the catholic tradition book. There has to be other people in other traditions to feel this way about. Their churches and their communities. And. What if. What if we got together with them. How much more powerful could our voice be if across diverse religious traditions were able to say that. You say no to the subjugation of women. We also knew that other traditions. They offer potential roadmaps forward especially those traditions such as unitarian-universalism that have really embraced women's leadership. And we hoped that feminist. Who loved their own traditions. Would be willing to stand in solidarity with. Women in the catholic church in the mormon church. Lutheran church-missouri synod. To stand with women in those churches and say put an end to sexism. And discrimination. I really think one of the greatest strengths of unitarian universalism. Is that. We can offer this unconditional welcome. We hear every week here you're welcome no matter your. Age your ability your religious beliefs. Your spiritual journey. That hospitality has. You know played out in many different ways for women coming from traditions that do not value them. Sometimes in very quiet ways when we sneak in the back. Maybe hang out a couple weeks and see if this is a good home for us. But also dry concrete ways. But just being a hospitable place. Hold and alyssa coordination for people who are directly challenging the teachings of their church. Numerous unitarian universalist. Congregations have been the home to both. V. Women who are ordained illicitly in the catholic tradition as well as congregations that spring up in multiple traditions that wants to have equal leadership with men and women. And we've been really grateful of that. The leaders of the. Those congregations have been willing to stand up to the catholic bishops and their diocese who say well we are going to work with you anymore if you provide refuge for. These heretics and the unitarian universalist have time and again said well sorry that you know we're going to we're going to provide a space for these people because it's part of what we value. And that's a really really powerful it's a really powerful thing that we. As a community and as a larger. Untradition have to offer. And highlighted we also can really provide an alternative vision of the role of women in religion. And if you look back not too too far into our own tradition you can find the universalist minister olympia brown. Olympia has the distinction of being both the first woman in the united states to graduate from seminary as well as the first woman in the united states to be ordained to ministry in 1863. Actually not that long ago and because of her relentless drive for education and equalities who is also a suffragist. And the pursuit of her call to ministry we. Katrice a lineage that goes all the way from her to our own minister here. On the 100th anniversary of her ordination her alma mater the theological school at st. lawrence university which is now. I think her seminary there is actually defunct but they do still do theological studies there they place a flag at a church that she pastured in racine. With the inscription the flame of her spirit still burns today. Indeed that flame burns on and all women like my friend maggie. Refuse to accept the status quo in lake olympia. Who challenged the notion that because it always has been and always shall be so. Olympia's legacy is at the hopes and dreams of the people in faith campaign are not in vain. Indeed our tradition illustrates that religious institutions can and do change and evolve to meet the needs of the times and the places that they find themselves in. It is my hope that her example. Inspire the actions of the eagle in face campaigners as they struggled for division of gender justice for all and i hope that. She also inspires us. To the allies for those who struggle to change their traditions just like she did. Thank you. Questions and comments for johanna. I don't think there's a lot going on in madison unfortunately besides me talking parrots today. 4 equal to face specifically you can go to equal and faith.org. Good pretty easy to remember i know that in madison there are some progressive catholics that continue to work for change in the church. Like there's like all the action i would definitely happy to talk with you more afterwards about what you can find here in madison. I am a huge cynic about pope francis so process my words would that and i know also heard that about the lds church and i'm also not exactly sure what that's going to mean for lgbt people who identify with that faith community. But i will say for pope francis. I think that there is a huge. Hunger. For people who. Are both in the catholic church and people have left the catholic church to for progressive change. And a lot of people just are very excited till kind of latch on to any shred of what looks like good news and i also think pope francis is a really great pr move for the catholic church because he's very good at getting good. On. That's one lesson both and teachings of the catholic church. Cuz the pumpkin say a lot of things but that doesn't actually make any change happen on the way down so i'm not sure i'm not sure if it does create a loop of progressive change or if it's. Say this briefly about that that i i know it is tricky for many women of my generation younger women to call themselves feminists for whatever reason but i think part of it should actually be a credit to the women who have gone before us that they have made gender equality such an expectation that it's like fluoride is in our water we don't even know that it's there. So thank you to the generations that have made it possible for us to be so blase about it but i think that's also even more if it's just for me. 2. Do not put the flag down. Also great opportunity for me to plug if anybody's curious about non-canonical sisters we have one of the two non-canonical women's religious communities in the country here in madison benedictine women of madison they are. They are not part of the roman catholic church but they're still nothing. Very interesting if you're ever curious about that. But i think so with the jewish tradition airs really i think a lot of variance was like there is if you look at christianity a large like reform and reconstruction his movements have female rabbis very active in struggles for equality national council of jewish women is a very progressive organization they do a lot of work around however if you look at the orthodox tradition. Including white women they wear. How women and men may socialize together. That has led to violence. Especially stories out of israel as women being attacked for you no getting on the wrong bus. With men. For women and then like women at the wall is one of the founding organizations of the eagle and face movement when woman's try to read from the torah at the western wall they are literally dragged away i mean gained up on by groups of men and dragged away just for reading from the torah out loud so there's like like many like all of our religious traditions there's huge spectrum. I think i'll. All these struggles for women that just shows how pervasive woman's inequalities still is. Throughout our secular secular society and religious traditions and how is bentley tied rvs on women are kind of a prospect spectrum. You know like rosemary said. Women's rights are human rights. Nobody gets a free pass because they say it there god says it is okay to treat women that way. And you know how many different ways can we kind of attack that perspective to say that. You know. No you don't get to do that just because you say that that's part of your religious tradition like that that woman has the right to life and the right to liberty and the right to determine the course of her own life. Regardless of whether or not she identifies herself as muslim. Or non-religious. Thank you. Welcome johanna back for the closing words. Council. By marge piercy. We must sit down. And reason together. We must sit down. Men standing want to hold forth. They rained down upon faces lifted. We must sit down on the floor. On the earth. On stones and mats and blankets. There must be no front to the speaking. No platform. No rostrum. No stager table. We will not crane to see who is speaking. Perhaps we should sit in the dark. In the dark we could order our feelings. In the dark we could propose and describe and suggest. In the dark we could not see who speaks. And only the words would say what they say. The saying what we feel. What we want. What we fear for ourselves. And each other. Into the dark perhaps we could begin. Get to begin to listen. Perhaps we should talk in groups. Small enough for everyone to speak. Perhaps we should start by speaking softly. The women must learn to dare to speak. The men must bother to listen so women must learn to say. I think this is so. The men must learn to stop dancing solos on the ceiling. After each speaks. She or he. Will repeat our ritual phrase. It is not i who speaks but the wind. Wind blows through me. Long after me. Is the wind. Okay so we just. Now would like. 2. Suggest that you greet your neighbor and. Discuss some more and somebody needs to ask those people how johanna publicize this that they showed up this morning cuz we're just coming back.

uuprairie_org

Pr040425Martin-ed.mp3

It speaks to a paradigm shift.

uuprairie_org

Pr211219RevMattAspin-ed.mp3

Today's service. Is long night reflections by reverend matt aspen. It relates to our fourth principle free and responsible search. Retreated meaning. Taking away matt. Morning everyone it is wonderful as always to be with you here today. And it was really fun. Doing the volunteer work with the re-group yesterday and getting ready for the kids so if you haven't volunteered yet. I was in a meeting on zoom with a group recently like you do. And somebody casually throw the question. Hey what what's everybody's favorite holiday. We all thought for a quick moment. And blurted out what else was. Some folks chimed in with christmas music was obvious cuz it was coming up. Somerset thanksgiving. One person said i like the 4th of july. First moment that there was a pause in the responses. Myself in another participant that almost in unison. Winter solstice. Because it was clear that this part of the conversation was about over. Another participant said. White winter solstice. We both replied again in unison. Something like. Is it marks the return of the light. As long as i can remember. I have always anticipated the winter solstice with nearly the same level of excitement as a kid into space christmas. Bison trying to be outdoors. For much of the years you can tell from those pictures. Spend as much time as i can out side. Find me to just feed my soul. The bitter cold winter in northern climes where i lived. Doesn't keep me completely inside. But it's really not as easy to stay outside for long stretches and any level of comfort when the mercury falls. Any of those things that feed my soul. Tending to my garden. Biking swimming in a lake. Y'all just seem to feel better. Wrapped under the warmth of a glowing sun. So you have to get stabbed in the winter time. Just because it made it harder to be outside. I began to anticipate solstice. Just the very fact that the parts of the year that i loved. We're starting. In my mind on their way back. Learned over the years. To celebrate this date in the calendar. Not only for the. Metaphorical are over there real peace where each day is going to look at a little bit longer. Is learning to celebrate it for the benefit of the celebration itself just celebrating. Just celebrating in this time that is dark. It's so important. Because even though the light is technically will technically be can returning in a couple days. It's still a long way off. How about you. I can see this time of the year. And i realized solstice. And i know intuitively that this half of the earth will begin tilting back in the direction of the sun. Seems like fall was just last week. And here we are already halfway through. Wait a minute. There is still a lot of winter left. When the solstice comes. It's going to continue to be cold. For a long long time to come. The end of february it doesn't tend to feel. Like the halfway point was a couple of months ago. And so we have a celebratory season. Which is shared across many faith traditions and many peoples through history. Those of us to trace our ancestry from europe. How many of our traditions to the pagan communities that existed in europe and persian egypt in rome several thousand years ago. Resource from you you a website notes that. Nearly every earth-centered tradition honors the sanctity of nature as it manifests through the seasonal cycle of the year. Along with the four elements of earth air fire and water. Honoring the cycles through rituals. Haggens have the opportunity to participate in the sacredness of nature. Refer to the peoples whose traditions were assimilated. As pagans. Differentiate from the monotheistic beliefs of the abrahamic traditions the group who domination of the known world beginning several thousand years ago. I'm continuing in many ways to this very day. There's no single historical people's called the pagans. Hagen. Can be defined as any spirit tradition that worships nature. Although the first peoples of this land prefer not to be associated with this term. Is this is labeled it was often assigned to them. By the white invaders. Despite this. And with all due respect. It would certainly be reasonable to say that all modern societies. Have emerged from pagan roots. Nearly all early societies were fired a b m level. The reverence and awe for the cycle. Majestic power of nature. Accident that we tend to call the start of the calendar the holiday season. Humans from time immemorial have relied on traditions of celebration to help create movement and energy through the beginning of winter. Celebrating the bounty of the earth for the harvest that have been gathered during the longer days. Vital preparations are being made to endure the long cold winter. Seven principles. Unitarian universalist paper from 6 specific sources of wisdom. Longest community has a tendency to lean towards the fifth item on this democratically created list. Humanist teachings with council s2ki the guidance of reason and the results of science. And warrants against idolatries of mind and spirit. Very next source that is listed. And given equal merit. Is spiritual teachings of earth century traditions. Which celebrate the sacred circle of life. And instruct us to live in harmony. With the rhythms of nature. Buy the new paganism in the world today is connected to the sense of humanity has lost much of its connection to the life-giving realm of nature. Which we are just one small part. We have these winter celebrations. Because we are dependent on the natural life cycle of nature. There's little else we can do. That's a ride out the winter. And its peoples have always done. We just hope that the harvest that we bring into the season. Bountiful enough to carry us through the spring. Let's face it. Winter can be a hard season. Just to leave the house we risk slipping on ice. We have to become more isolated. It's cold. The air hurts our faces. It's sometimes hard to even travel to get to the right people or places we want to be. There's little evidence of life outside unless we really go looking for it. Ancestors reality. Is that they knew that they had to survive on the rashes that they had set aside. Not every year's harvest was is bountiful. Some years truth be told. But everyone would make it to the other side of winter. Earlier people's through celebrations. Celebrations of life. Relationships and generosity and all the things that help human beings to flourish. And it also to be a consistent spirit of gratitude. Giving spanx to the gods of luck and fortune that had smiled upon them. Even if they haven't completely. Success of your crops in the summertime is an actual life-or-death matter. You're likely to appeal to any and all possible sources to support your cause. So here we are today. The calendar tells us that we are just two days away from the longest night of the year. After which. The light will be janet slow return. We know that there's still a lot of winter left ahead. And let's be truthful. There's a lot of covid ahead to. I'm quite sure many of us. we'll be closer to denver this time. For many of us. It's beginning to feel as if covid is just a heavy blanket that's been thrown over it. Wings down. Testing a power on the things that used to bring us joy. Coming together singing celebrating with family and friends and community. You're all. All of us. Struggling with the impacts of this forced isolation. I know that for many. Feels like an especially dark time right now. Told you since the beginning that i'll never sugarcoat things. You're living in liminal times. And we all sense that there's a great deal. More potential dark in the horizon. We don't prepare ourselves now. To be ready for the spring. There's a natural tendency to want to hurry away from darkness. And all the scary things we'd rather not face lurking in the shadows. Older. Go to embrace the darkness more and more. Because i've learned. Long nights. Also invite assented quiet. Quiet darkness is often the path that we speaker wisdom. It is the place to do our inner work. Whether we are thinking about the isolation created by this winter. By the seemingly never-ending pandemic. You do well to reconsider our relationship with the darkness. Ccat work really hard to embrace it for what it is. It is a time for rest. Time for reflection. Isn't the time for telling our stories. It was a time for doing all that we can do to prepare for the inevitable spring. What is that look like in a community like this. Individuals. Many of us are busy preparing for the holiday christmas rush. I know some of you get together yesterday and went caroling around the neighborhood and i want to hear all about how that went. I do hope and provided some much-needed no nourishment for the weary souls. I know it's some in the community are hoping to be able to connect with loved ones. But for many covid travel restrictions and fears will continue to make this challenging. Isolation is hard. Everyone to recognize this we're all experiencing it. Honor those feelings and disappointments in grief and fear and anger that this forced isolation continues to create an all of us. Spiritual path. It's one of noticing all that emerges from with it. Being sit with what emerges to see what it can teach us. Our society teaches us to voice our feelings to push them down to keep a stiff upper lip. And they just keep pushing forward. While this may be one part of our survival strategy. It ends up separating us from the larger parts. Of the best. Parts of what it means to be human. The potential joy were able to feel. Can only go as high as the depths of the sorrows we are willing to endure. It has been said that the most courageous thing a human can do is to love fully. It's all things in nature eventually transform. If we have loved. And we will eventually have to let go of that which we have loved. One strategy to avoid having to deal with this pain is to hold parts of ourselves back. And to avoid loving fully. But this strategy end up taking much of the available joy out of life. Rather than running away from storrow. Numbing at the substances are staying so busy we don't have to face the hard things. Spiritual path invites us to welcome all that we sent arising within us. Urges us to welcome whatever discomfort we noticed a rising. Empty cradle it as tenderly as we would a newborn. So that it knows that it is safe. And it will stick around. Is hard emotions that come up. So much to teach us. But the lessons are only available if we are willing to sit with them. And to get to know them. At one point. I was struggling mightily the personal challenge. Was completely derailing my ability to focus in the long list of tasks on my list. And i decided to stop trying to push through the work i was trying to unsuccessfully complete for. Hours and days at a time. I finally took the long unheated advice. Instead just sit alone in my discomfort. The panama papers. Was during this time the only most important insights i needed to learn about myself. If i was to be an effective minister to this world finally emerged. When is cheer this experience with my spiritual director she said. You've engaged in one of the most courageous acts there is. Instead of running from your discomfort you turn towards it. Many traditions refer to what you've done in this moment. As the great turning. This is what i would encourage each of us to consider. If this is not already part of your practice. Commit to noticing what emotions come up for you in this time of darkness in separation. Are you sitting with sadness. Unexpected angler anger bubbling up and spilling over as you approach your day-to-day tasks of life. All of these emotions have the potential to teach as a great many lessons. If we are willing to just welcome them to sit. Spell. I tend to think of most of the bible stories the bible is metaphor. We come into this christmas season. I tend to focus on the part of the story that involves the innkeeper. The one that welcomed woman heavy with child. Shelter in a quiet stable. When you believe that jesus was the light of the world. At the light the world needs comes from within each of us. Both scenarios require a safe havens that late to be born. Do all this sounds well and good. But if you're finding yourself struggling with the darkness this season. Please don't hesitate to reach out to me. Or a member of your caring committee. These are hard times. Knowing this community. Needs to face our challenges alone. Springs me as it always does. Back to this community. I came away from our parish meeting a few weeks ago both energized and a little scared. This community has come together and make them hard financial decisions intended to prepare the grounds of this community for future growth. We can't hope to grow for grilled steak. There is no nourishment in that. This community. Ultimately hoping. To do is to share the nourishment available. If you are serious about wanting to expand the reach of this beloved community. I'm going to challenge each of us in the coming months to do a great deal of work to prepare the fields for this next season. Challenges challenging us to really think about what it is that makes this place special. So that we are prepared to tell our story when the world begins to open up again. Just as each flower evolved the unique beauty that attracts abused it needs to survive. Community needs to know what makes it truly unique and provides differentiation. So that speakers that are looking for what this place does best. Can know that we are what they are looking for. My short time here i think the foundation of what makes you unique. Is the active care that the members of this community provide for each other day in day out season after season year after year. The care that this community offers to the members of its that come here. It's so very nice in this world today. There is a hunger. And this. has the potential to nurse so many. We also have to prepare our systems to accept the growth that i know is coming. Again the winter is all that time of preparing the plows and sharpening the blades and and doing all the things that we need to do. Going to be encouraging all of us. The board the membership committee the program committee already committed. Each of us is needed to strengthen the structures that are already in place. Pair to welcome the bounty that i know is coming. There is much work to do. But i assure you my friends. When the spring does finally arrive. And i mean both the end of winter. And the eventual emergence from endemic. We're going to have some serious celebrating to do. Think of this next few months. It's preparing ourselves to sing a song to the world. Justice was described in the children's story this morning. Take the very best of what you have. The best of who you are. Take what you love. Think what you cherish the most. Take your joys and dreams and fondest hopes. And weave them all together in a cell. The darkness will eventually fall away. And we are going to be ready to welcome the light. We are going to you'll a beautiful song. A new seekers. And speakers that have fallen away. Are going to come knocking upon our door once again seeking refuge. And we are going to welcome them. And we will provide a safe space. All of us to refresh our spirits. Starlight's might shine ever more brightly for the benefit of this world. There is much work to be done as we enter the long season of preparation. As we wait for the light to slowly return. And i can't wait to share the joy of doing this work of preparation with each of you. Because i know. If this community. Holds all the gifts. Any of us really needs. Amen. Thank you. Thank you reverend matt.

uuprairie_org

Pr151129Ingham-ed.mp3

Good morning. And course welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society. I am. Have any visitors. But i think you all know who i am i am sandy ingham the minister here at prairie. Perry. Aspires to be both open-hearted and open-minded and course we welcome people of every. Ethnic and religious background whatever your color your sexual orientation. Your family structure your gender and i hope your political affiliation. We welcome you no matter what your age or your abilities or inability. On sunday mornings as i think everyone here almost everyone here knows. We provide a variety of programs sometimes i do the program often someone from within the congregation.. Program and sometimes we have outside. Speaker so we urge you to come. More than one. Bfan are the opening words and this morning i'm trying to mix a little whimsy into our. Thanksgiving. Celebration so these are this is kind of a little story not exactly opening words. Pilgrim winslow by. Jane zepka. Apparently pilgrim edward winslow. Wrote. The only eyewitness description of the first thanksgiving. In his brief letter to a friend. In england winslow described the joy the celebration and carousing. That follow the harvest of 1621. That first to do seems to have been like harvest town some of you may. Know what that was. Back in england in the 1600s. Harvest home. Cakes and ale and angela cost. Pilgrim winslow. Makes no mention of. Sad. We find out that the religious component of thanksgiving. And even the act of giving thanks later editions. Isn't that just the way. At any given time we're busy with our tanks and ariel and turkey feathers. It's only later. Looking back. That we understand the gravity of our harsh winters. The fragility of daily life. The preciousness of. Hopes for years to come. We get through it. We celebrate and then finally the thanksgiving. Mary would you like the chalice. Thank you. May the glory of the passing away of awesome. Lie about us fresh gold for a time. And when the dark comes. And the cold. May we remember how today we stand in glory how we walking bounty. Heaped upon earth. Dark. Carpet. How we move knee-deep in abundance long against nights winter curtain. We are thankful. For it's coming. And 4th path. Let it be. November. By mary oliver. The snow began slowly. A soft and easy sprinkling of flakes. Then clouds of flakes in the baskets of the wind. And the branches of the trees. Oh so pretty. We walked through the growing stillness. Has the flakes prickle the path. Then covered it. Bendy pens. As in curds and drifts. As the wind grew stronger. Shaping its work less delicately. Taking. Greater steps over the hills and through the trees until. Finally. Wework cold. And far from home. Return. And followed our longshadows back to the house. Stamp their feet. Went inside and shut the door. Through the window. We could see how. Far it was. To the gates of april. Let the fire now put on its red hat. And sing. Through the window. We could see how far away it was. To the gates of april. Wright's oliver. I am not a fan of winter. As many of you know. I am already anticipating those gates of april. Or at least thinking about them. Mainland terms of light. There's more light. But setting aside the obvious for just a minute that i should never ever. Wish time away. The years go by so quickly life is short and all of that. I know this intellectually. But i have a difficult time. Getting to a place where i can accept the fact that i am here. In this moment. At the end of november in wisconsin and that i can't control the weather. I'm going to remember there is a cure of sorts for this at least for me short of. Somehow figuring out how to spend my. Entire winters in the southwest. I return to meditation my tales about. My beginnings in the world of trying to meditate how when i was in seminary i took a semester i had a class with joanna macy. An amazing teacher well-known in buddhist circles and on the first day. She was not labeled this was not described as a buddhist introduction or anything about buddhism. On the very first day she said we're meditating now for 20 minutes. We just want a minute. In silent meditation prime get us 22. Okay. I fell asleep. I wasn't the only one who fell asleep. As she was not happy with us. Obviously you are not getting enough sleep. Eventually. I learn a lot about meditation i did take an introductory course. In buddhism trauma. Sri lankan monk. I didn't understand a great deal of it. But i did learn. About meditating and. I do know that i am much more focused i'm much calmer i have more energy if i just spend 15 to 20 minutes a day meditating but don't worry we're not going to spend the service. Meditating i know that just really scares some of you. It wasn't the song.. The dread. Of having to go through winter though that prompted my having a little talk with myself about the importance of. Meditation and wondering why i stopped because i do stop from time to time. I just i don't have enough discipline or something. I always wonder. That. When i go for these long periods of time without meditating why when we do. But anyway it wasn't about winter. It was about listening. And how laughing most of us are in listening. There are many reasons why we don't know how to listen. We don't get any training how many of you learn how to listen from kindergarten lineup. We don't learn this. We don't practice enough. We are too busy. Especially during the holidays we are too focused on ourselves there are too many distractions in our life the reasons that come to mine and there it was my title for today's reflections all i want for christmas is to be a better listener. That is to be more buddhist in my daily life. In her book. It's easier than you think. Buddhist teacher author psychologist leader of. Countless meditation retreats. Sylvia boorstein. Puts it this way. If i want to build big biceps i need to use every opportunity to practice lifting weights. If i want to live in a way that is loving. And generous and fearless. Then i need to practice overcoming any tendency to be angry or greedy. Or confused. Life is a terrific gym. Every situation is an opportunity to practice. Informal buddhist language. This is called the cultivation of non. Non-green. And nan. Delusion. One of the primary goals of mindfulness. Which is the point of meditation where meditation should take you. Is dookie. Help us to help us focus our minds on. This in again. Winston. Every single app we do has the. Potential. Of causing. Pain. And every single thing we do has consequences that echo way beyond what we can imagine. It doesn't mean we shouldn't act. It means we should app. Carefully. Everything matters. Meditation is one of the best ways that i know of to become a better listener fast becoming more mindful. And i want to be. Mindful. But often i seem to be mined less. Any of you who read the comic strips yes i still read the comic strip yes i still read a printed newspaper. I don't know how much longer this will be. Go on but there's a cartoon called pickles. And it's a couple of. People who are older than i am. Who are very funny they also the funny cats and funny dogs. So one day he walked into the living room and swipe sitting there. I practicing. Mindfulness. I'm living in the moment. I'm learning to contemplate and appreciate everything around me. You should try it pearl. She says to her. I am. Last frame he says i'm contemplating and appreciating this kleenex before blowing nose. He's not quite getting it next day. Their daughter is there. Mom's mad at. What's up with mom. She's practical her husband says she's practicing mindlessness. That means you just sit and think about sitting and thinking. Of course. His wife says it is not. Mindlessness. It's my solace. I can tell she's angry and then earl supposed to make you feel calm and serene. But i don't think it's worth. And then there was a sits cartoon from several years ago. Where is named jeremy. Septimus girlfriend my new philosophy is to live in the moment. What's the moment you know sucks then i live in some other. Girlfriend cigarettes. Works for me. Recently one of you asked me to stop using capital letters in my emails. It had not occurred to me. That capitalizing certain words and or phrases. Could be seen as folding. Or condescending. I do it to try to get the attention of the reader because. Well. How many of you read your emails carefully anymore. Haven't even read it to the end time. How many of you read our prairiefire newsletter every month to the end. I know you don't reading it because you asked me questions that are in there. Prairie. Prairie fire and emails are forms of listening. We had a discussion at last week's parish meeting that i think it was straight how badly we listen to each other. It was the last agenda item. People were tired. Ready to leave. The discussion was about whether or not to use our offering once a month for worthy causes. Rather than use that offering as a source of revenue for prairie. Or off. I have to admit. At first i wasn't paying much attention to the discussion. I too was tired and ready to leave. Eventually though i realize that there were at least two different conversations going on now please no. I don't want to have this discussion again this morning so i'm not taking any comments on this. I will after the service but not during congregational response time. The motion passed and we will at least try out the idea of having a special collection once a month and see what happens. One of the conversations during the discussion of the motion seem to be. About the purpose of even passing. The offering plate in our case baskets. Because many of you who pledged regularly. Yelp whitcher punches into the offering because you send it in separately or taken automatically out of your banking account or whatever. One consequence of this is that the plate can end up looking a little skimpy. By the time it gets to the back roads. Okay. There's another conversation occurring. That was more about the importance of giving. Above and beyond pledges. To support. Social. Social justice. Both conversations were valid. Though perhaps each missed the point. One seemed to be completely missing the point and the other seems unable to state that issue more clearly. And forcefully. Not sure that. We were listening. Carefully. To each other. I think that we were really trying to have a conversation about generosity. And also about privilege. Just my new favorite word. And i think that we were also rehashing a subject that is as old as unitarian-universalism. Because we are by and large people of privilege. How do we see the world. As it really is. How do we tap into the buddhist interpretation. Of the world's full of the underprivileged. And then how do we act accordingly live our lives to make a difference in that unequal equation how do we not feel guilty. That's all i'm saying. When i don't listen to you. Here. I fail to see your inherent worth. Indignant. When we don't listen carefully to each other we're in danger of being. Disrespect. Not to mention of hindering that free and responsible search for truth and meaning and the use of the democratic process within our congregation. What the discussion was good practice for calming the mind and practicing attentive listening. Being more buddhist means being or trying to be mindful everyday. All the time everywhere in all situations. Sylvia boorstein says that people often say to her. Surely you don't go around all day monitoring your breathing. Or reciting blessings how could you work how could you have a life. Her response is very zen buddhist. She says practicing 100% of the time. Does not require any time. I do not spend my life noticing my breath. Or reciting blessings i simply try to stay i'm confused. And when i am confused i try to do something about it and i know whether or not i am confused. Most readily by noticing by being mindful of my capacity for feeling caring. Concern. The lively impulse of caring. Is what counts. Practice practice. Practice mindfulness. Practice paying attention. Practice being grateful. Because gratitude is part of that practice. Gratitude for life for all that we have gratitude for everything but good and the bad the joy and the soro. Struggles. New victory. What's we get better at calming or mine. And that's becoming ever more mindful of what is and i have is an italic. How how to say italics. Forward what is. What does capital letters in my email. What emphasizes what really is. If we get better and better at being in the moment. Being here right now. Then we also will become. More accomplished listener. This will not happen overnight nor even in x number of years remember the taste of bansos sword. In the story. We could substitute the word listening for the word. Swordsmanship in the story because we can't put a time limit. On how long it takes to master the art of listening or the art of swordsmanship for the art of ballet for that matter. You have to be ready. To defend yourself from the unexpected thrust or whatever the equivalent is to learn how to listen better. Borstein tells a story about the time she was sitting at her computer writing when her close friend martha. Call to say that her brother jack's illness had just taken a turn for the much worse. Amman. She went back to her writing after she spoken to her friend trying to remember i saw that she had had when the phone rang. She couldn't recall it. She thought you were self. So inconvenient of jack to get worse just today. Then she thought. Where did that come from. She turned off the computer. She lit a candle and she sat for awhile and a favorite chair looking out the window. Of this experience she says. What my heart wants most to do. Is to console. Or appreciate. Or encourage. You better. In relationship. I imagine my heart always on the lookout for an object. A frightened france my own chagrin self the world around me. Addiction connect with. Am i love it that my heart reminds me. Turn off the computer. Light a can. Pay attention. Even when. Or perhaps especially when. I seem not to be listening. Remind forget what they know. Our minds easily get confused and forget that what we yearn for. Is caring connection. Meditation helps uncanny fuse. There are three steps in rescuing our minds from confusion one. Relax. 2. Breathe. + 3. Pay attention. To what happen. The point is to keep your mind steady no matter what is happening some of you will know the famous zen buddhist story about the samurai warrior who terrorized to town so that everybody left and then. Traditional the months left. And that's not really scary guy bad guy and there was only the abbot of the monastery left. He didn't flee. And the lawyer comes in brandish is his sore no doubt he was a master swordsman. Don't you know that i am the kind of man who can run you through with my sword without batting and i. Yeah but responds with a slight. Palms pressed together as a show of respect and says. And i sir and the kind of man who can be run through by a sword without batting an eye. The warrior. Becomes. A disciple. Of that zen master. What does this calling me now. Sometimes we use that word cohen. 2 min story. But. Dictionary definition is fascinate. Towing. Paradox. Used. In zen buddhism. As an instrument of meditation in training. Month. To despair. Oven ultimate dependence upon reason. And to force them into sudden intuitive enlightenment. Exactly unitarian. That's why i like. As you might imagine there are many interpretations of the culling i just told you. The one i especially like. Is that the story illustrates the fundamental truth that the buddha taught. The fact that suffering arises with his need we have this. Imperative in our in our mind. To have things be different. From what they are. I think it's a variation on that definition of insanity is when. Doing the same thing over and over hoping hoping that you'll. The reality. The story is of course a reminder that no matter what no matter how bad things are is important to keep our mind steady. And remember. What the mind and the heart want is connection. Caring. We are so easily distracted from this truth. Distractions in the buddhist literature are also known as. Disturbing energies. How to say this word because it's in paley. Kelly schs. Hindrances. I like that word because these distractions hinder. Our mind's ability to clearly see and grasp what's happening and we humans are very good at throwing up roadblocks of distractions and hindrances. Here's one of my favorite stories. That illustrates how good we are at distracting ourselves when we really is happening this is a true story. There's a group of there was a group of people who matt to meditate and. Try to. Have a fun hobby better meditators in san francisco not all that many years ago. And sylvia boorstein was. Meditation leader. Well one day. A woman came in to this group and said yesterday when i went out of my apartment building in san francisco to go to work i noticed that i seem to be inserting my key into my car door. At a lower level than usual. Now i noticed that all four tires have been stolen during the night and my car was sitting on his house. I got so upset she says. That i walk to the stonestown shopping mall. It's only three miles from where i live and i bought the pair of silk pajamas that i have seen several days ago in macy's window and have been coveting. Then i went home. I called the police. You did that. Alamat in the group stuff i would have gone back into the house. Found the superintendent and giving her a piece of my mind apart of my rent is supposed to go for security around the building. And then i would have gone to working probably have given everyone their bedtime. When i am mad i lose patience with everyone. Someone else said. I can't take that kind of stress i would have gone back into my apartment called work told him i was having a bad day and needed the day off. I have told him i'd be in tomorrow. Then maybe i would have called the police. Women who have been in the class for long-time laughingly said. Well i guess you can all imagine my response i would have fought. Play the tires for the car. My motto she said is when you aren't sure worried. Everyone laughed. Yet another person added i would have given myself a bad time for picking the neighborhood. I can just get my mind saying once again you chose stupidly. Maybe i might have some kind of genetic lack of confidence. Even though i am doing pretty well i obsess over making decisions and i blame myself. When things go wrong. Who buys this time everyone in the group was laughing. They recognize that each one had. A valid response may be a valid response but. Definitely. Responses to distract. Themselves. From what it really happened. Borstein says that we tell stories to ourselves over and over and over again we bewilder and frighten ourselves. Forgetting that the dismay and fear are always about one of two things. What might have been. Or. But what isn't happening. Now. Right now. We also forget that's what's happening now is not going to be happening for very long. To that i would add that it isn't about us. It's about all of us. Where's sign saw this sign in a store near her home. Be careful of the words you use. Keep them short. And sweet. You never know from day to day. Which ones you'll have to eat. That reminded her of the saying some of you will remember from the 1960s. Let it all hang out. Borstein says that she contemplated writing a book called holding it all in. In response to this because she was worried. But letting it all hang out ignored our vulnerability. Overlook. Powerball. Each of us is. She never wrote the book but she did revise the title not too long ago while in a whimsical mood. Holding it all in and tell we figured out how to say it in a useful way. The title of one of the essays and we're stine's book it's easier than you think is. Is what i am about to say. Any improvement. Over maintaining silence. The buddha believe in complete honesty. But he also taught that everything a person says. Should be truthful and. Help. Speaking is yet another form of listening. I tried very hard. To observe the 62nd. With email 24-hour. Minimum. Emergency. In hurt meditation classes borstein uses an exercise that goes like this. Anytime a person asks a question. The respondent needs to pause. 60. S. Before answering. Press the pause is obligatory. The likelihood is. That the answer will include reflection. Examination of intention and preview of. Home. All the things that make for a. Wise response. I wish we had practice fat during our discussion about giving at last week's parish meeting. Then maybe we would have ended up with one conversation. Instead of at least. One thing that we know for sure is what is happening right. Now. And for that. We give thanks. Another thing we know for sure is as i said earlier. Every single app we do has the potential of causing. It doesn't matter mean we shouldn't act. It means you should ask. Carefully. Everything matters. All i want for christmas is to be more buddhist. I want to be a better listener. I want us to act carefully always keeping in mind to things one. We don't know what the other person's point of view is. + 2. We do know that our hearts want connection. And right relationship with others. And one more reason i want my holiday gift to myself to be becoming or buddhist. What is the reality sets in buddhism teaches us. Is that we begin to see as we begin to see more clearly. We become more mindful of our interconnectedness to everything. And of our interdependence. With all other beings. In another of sylvia boorstein. Pay attention for goodness sake. She says this. S'pose people everywhere. Simultaneously stopped what they were doing. And paid attention for only as long as it took. To recognize their shared humanity. Shirley. The heartbreak of the world's pain. Visible to all. Would convert everyone. To kindness. What a gift that would be. This is my potential gift not only to myself. But also to you i know some of you are thinking. Preston's impossible. Pie-in-the-sky stuff especially when we live with a whole new brand. Terrorism and fear. Who believes this. Who takes us war. Compassion. Easy to do in here. But what's the alternative out there. The path that yumanity is on doesn't seem to be working real well. What's supposed to happen if and when we meditate. What's supposed to happen if we become more mindful. And pay attention to what is. Practice of mindfulness of really listening. To each other. Will let us see. Clearly. Will lead us to become. The compassionate people. That we were meant to be. Gratitude goes hand-in-hand with compassion. One more story during the longest why would have to see the most recent buddhist lifetime. There's one out there i'm unaware of it i mean one. He had many followers is a lot of you know. Many people who thought of him as. Their teacher men and women and women. As word of the wisdom of the buddhist teaching. The peacefulness of his demeanor and the depth of his. Compassion became widespread. People began to imagine him. Adidas. In one story a follower asked him are you a god. No. The buddha replied. Are you some other kind of celestial being. No. The buddha replied again. Are you than a plain man. No. The buddha replied for the third time. What are you. That. The person ask. The buddha said. I am awake. Is a postscript to the story borstein says that she wishes that one more question have been after the buddha. And it is this. What do you say. And i don't see. Now that you are awake. And then she imagines that the buddhist response might have been. Ic. How much suffering there is in the world. And i see. That is remedy is. Compassion. Speaking of religious figures who are sometimes mistaken for god. Pope francis. Has been in africa. Y'all talking about climate change go cope. Couple of days ago in kenya he had some forceful things to say about. Communication. And listening to each other he was in a meeting with kenyan christians. And. Muslim. Leaders of these communities. The pope said dialogue is not a luxury. It's not something extra. For optional. But. We must learn how to listen better how to listen to each other yes but also had to listen to what's coming out of our own now. I hope that we leave this precious place today with more compassion in our hearts than we had when we entered. Hand-in-hand with compassion goes gratitude. As sylvia boorstein i think would say you don't meditate i mean meditation isn't just sitting for awhile it's always ongoing in the sense of. Calming your mind and you can do that when you're standing in line at the grocery store. Calm your mind no matter what is going on around you. The closing words settle in. Society. Blessing if you will that my family has used for a very long time at thanksgiving. It's whimsical. Let us give thanks for the bounty of people. For children who are h s planting and do they grow like weeds. And the wind too soon blows them away. May they forgive us our cultivation. And fondly remember where their roots are. Let us give thanks. Or generous friends with hearts as big as hubbard's. And smiles as bright as their blossoms. For feisty friends. Estarque as apples. For continuous friends. Who like scallions. And cucumbers. Keep reminding us that we've had them. For crotchety friends as sour as rhubarb. And is indestructible. Four handsome friends. You are as gorgeous as eggplants and as elegant as a row of corn. And the others. As plain as potatoes. And that's good for you. 4 funny friends who are as silly as brussel sprouts. And as amazing as jerusalem artichokes. And serious friends. As complex as cauliflowers. And as intricate as onions. Four friends as unpretentious as cabbage. As subtle as summer squash. As persistent as parsley. As delightful as deal as endless as zucchini. And who like parsnips. Can be counted on to see you through the winter. For old friends nodding like sunflowers in the evening time. And young friends. Coming on as fast as radishes. For loving friends. Hawaiian about us like tendrils and hold us. Despite our blights. Wilts. And withering. And finally. For those friends now gone. Like gardens past that have been harvested. And who said us in their times. That we might have life. Thereafter. For all these. We. Give. Thanks. Go in peace. Be. Here. Now. Beat your neighbor.

uuprairie_org

Pr960218Balek-ed.mp3

Good morning welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society. American member of the unitarian universalist association. Coffee grinders. Karaoke nice program out for post that in the back for those who haven't seen it. This newsletter the fairy fired printed in the washington hotel. Many of you may have seen the rhythm section of the madison newspapers this week featured the washing hotel. And how is the is a place for. The gay members of our community to associated congregation of the safe. Haven for them. Perhaps not surprising these burns last night. So that way they're still fighting a fire as we speak and i thought it was. Not coincidental that that building existed for 90 years or whatever it did and it burn last night after. Under that kind of favorable response. In the news in newspaper self. Our speaker today will be speaking about issues that will relate i think very directly to. The climate in this country that may leave act like that let's hope it's an accident and. And that said that my suspicion is that. Coincidence. What time you start with a challenge biting and fran will be doing that. Quotes from john stuart mill. The only freedom which deserves the name is that a pursuing our own good in our own way. Salon if you do not attempt. To deprive others of their. And he began her personal investigation of the religious right in 1991 since that time leave it podcast on the subject retiree organization religious group. Oh my goodness so many familiar faces. And the subject for today. I'm here mainly by way of background for our resolution called challenging the radical right that some of you have copies of on your chairs to later on and i'm going to resent this morning a condensed version. Play the madison area retirees. Today to religious rights have club. Cloud me the power to influence and pressure government bodies to enact policies and passed legislation beneficials when individuals or groups or movement into. The religious right. About 1980. But since the recent midterm elections this cloud has sore. Because the religious right delivery on november 8th 1994. Just as carefully planned and predicted. It doesn't turn out election and the religious right powers knew that was low-turnout election. They had the organizational tools and techniques. To tip the balance to their chosen beneficiary which does happens to be the republican party. Conservatives no longer. Because the candidates they supported and helped so much. 211. Had one on the pollution's issues. Then he suggested that religious right activists would use this approach to the new legislator. I work for you. Now how can i help you to get our agenda accomplished. The christian coalition back then supported languages political manifesto the contract with america. With over $1000000 they raised in 1995 for this purpose. Only some of the christian coalition social agenda was in this contract. Hey there i was promised down the road. The legislative call the religious right back republican freshman class and its allies in the congress the last 12 months has been very strong and intractable for better or for worse depending upon your point of view. Awesome gaming tv news. Because me. Timbuktu the religious right getting returned the payback was supported by the republican party for the christian coalition self-styled. Contract with the american family. Much of which has been introduced into the house already. You may not have heard too much about individual contract with the american family issues because instead of introducing them into the house individually where they would be subject to public hearings and debates and media publicity. These issues have been sneaks into often completely unrelated appropriations bills. No wonder bill clinton has been wielding his veto town and no wonder republicans will not pass the line item veto while clinton is still in office. Unfairness. Sweeping legislation into appropriations bill does a time-honored technique of both parties. But instead of just plain old-fashioned pork. Many of the snakes items are very contentious one. Such as abortion-related issues. To summarize them for all practical purposes as we speak in february 1996. The social agenda of the republican party. In the federal government many state governments and many local governments. Is in the control of the religious right. Why. An enormous amount of grassroots work. Organizing organizing organizing. Using some evangelical churches and related groups as vehicles to discrimination the message. Their leaders and some pastors convey to these workers. The underlying invocation that god is on their side on all political and social issues on which the religious right takes the stand. Moreover anyone who disagrees with their positions on the issues is judged guilty of anti religious bigotry. Against people of faith. Those are two of the rail three very favorite. Who are the conservative political activist collectively known as the religious right and what is its agenda and how has it taken over until. One definition of the religious right is. And i quote. An array of politically conservative religious groups who are attempting to influence public policy. Based on a shared cultural philosophy that is a gymnastics floor ilysm. A church state separation. The movement consists mainly of protestants most of them evangelical or fundamentalist. A park mall or number of catholics and a smattering of orthodox jews. I'll elaborate later support groups and individuals who make up the religious right. But proved a reason a bit of recent history incidentally that quote was taken from the. Book put out by the anti-defamation league a couple years ago. And i forgotten what it's called but i'll look it up later. Religious rights involvement in modern american politics was preceded. By the development of barry goldwater southern strategy for the 1964 election. I remember that election very well a lot of you youngsters don't f*** the idea was. That republicans would win democratic voters. Biplane to backlash against the civil rights movement. And against the federal government action to end segregation. In 1968 richard nixon expanded this southern strategy by targeting not only the george wallace constituency in the south. But also northern wallace democrats in urban neighborhoods. We're cool and housing battles were being fought. In addition nixon targeted suburbanite so we had fled the city. Including blue collar democrat. Also the natural constituency of george wallace. Who had strong showing in the democratic primary. When george wallace was shot in 1972. Nixa not only inherited wallace's constituency. But according to recent wallace biographer dancy carter i quote. The whole current lytical majority. Built on symbolic politics of backlash. Among white. The alabama governor compounded racial fear. Anti-communism. Cultural nostalgia. And traditional right-wing economics. Into a movement that reshaped american politics. In the 1970s and 80s. Not only for wallace's democratic party. But appropriated by the republic. At the same time. Regenerated by the formidable phyllis schlafly a allies. Who proved to the republicans that being against the women's movement vote and money for their party. In my view this was the beginning of the modern republican backlash politics. That has expanded exponentially ever since. Using tactics of exploiting fear and hate as tools for winning votes. The strategy is to divide. So that people will vote against their own economic interests. Interests that i usually seen as the prime both gutters. In favor of backlash anxieties and loathing. There was no particular effort to recruit evangelical christians by the republicans while one of their own democrat evangelical christian jimmy carter was in the white house. Buckland carter's reelection looked vulnerable. Some republicans change tactics. In 1979. Paul wyrick. Richard aguirre and howard phillips leaders of american serve it to bueno the republican party known as the new right. Who considered nelson rockefeller a raging liberal. However they needed a religious leader to smooth the way. So they recruited jerry falwell. Not the other way around. Who was a few other evangelical preachers. Begay on the moral majority. The genesis of the organized mobilized religious rights. And it's alliance within the conservative wing of the republican party. Ronald reagan was the person they thought the answer to their prayers. When is president reagan did not support because religious rights social agenda to its satisfaction. Although he did supported a lot. The movement shifted tactics. By then the religious right organizations like multiplied greatly. And their collective efforts were redirected to local issues. In an effort to control the republican party. From the ground up. This they have done with great success in the past 7 years. The enormity of this success was manifested in the 1994 takeover of both houses of congress. Conventional wisdom is that in many states the three main issues exploited were. God guns & gaydos. And since 1994. Republican moderates have become an endangered species. With the politicians amongst them leaving in droves. One other phenomena contributed to the rise of the fortunes of the religious right should be mentioned here. Changing religious demographics in the united states. And 1960. Mainline church protestants. Made up 41% of the flight to that's it. Mainlining the liberal protestant churches such as united church of christ and. Avantika in america and methodists and episcopalians 04. Who made up 41% of the electorate. But. Between 1960 and 1992. The mainline protestant percentage. Of the electric declined. Come 41%. 22%. During the same time. there was a vast increase. Not only in the sheer numbers of evangelicals. But in the numbers of evangelicals who were persuaded to vote. Supporting republicans by an 82%. Advantage in 1992. Today the religious right. Comprised mainly of evangelical christians. Is the most reliable republican party base. And the religious right will be courted by the gop. No matter what the sentiments. A republican moderates. And politician. Who are the main players in this religious right ring win of the republican party. Aside from his scoreless videos attacking the clintons. Jerry falwell decorative declined quite a bit in recent years. Then who are the powerful players in the religious right movement and what are their issues. I'm going to list a few of the most important. American family association leader the rev donald wildman main issues cleaning up movies books and television. That television they continued a newspaper advertiser identification campaign against sponsors of violence. Softcore p*** ography and extreme profanity on tv. And they advertise in madison newspapers always think they are all great. They claimed a membership of a million-and-a-half family. Citizens for excellence in education. L robert l simon. Main issue attacking public education. Simons says the separation of church and state is a socialist myth. Concerned women for america theater beverly left hey. Main issues and public education anti secular humanism anti-semitism. She said that i post one of the most devastating enemies of the family is radical sex education in public school. Is far more descriptive than is necessary for the good of the child too much sex education too soon causes undue curiosity and obsession with sex. Beverly lahaye is married to the rev tim lahaye a co-founder of the moral majority. And of the institution for creation research. Which opposes evolution theory and promote creationism. He believed that. I quote the delete the land of the humanists for complete human rights is not just a campaign it's an obsession. Eagle for leader phyllis schlafly main issues a public education anti-homosexuality opposing the equal rights amendment anti-abortion. She is credited with the defeat of the era in 1982. Schlafly wields enormous influence. In the shaping of the social policy of the religious right and the republican party. She's very much underrated in her personal power. Family research council. This organization is a spin-off probably for tax purposes of james dobson focus on the family. Gary bauer a former reagan domestic policy adviser and under secretary of education is the family research council's head. The main issues are family concerns. Boulder criticized the clinton crime bill because it's family and community endeavor school program. Would bar any tax funding for religious worship or instruction. Boehner says. That religiously-motivated remains the best antidote. True crime. Call. Almost all the research when you boil it down has concluded the crime is kept under control by a combination of fear of punishment in this life and a fear of punishment in the next life. Flower is a strong advocate of using churches. Good minister welfare block grant program. Rutherford institute leader john whitehead man issues anti public schools anti separation of church and state. The rutherford institute provides legal services in many constitutional lawsuits for religious groups. Why do men suck. It is a little surprise then but the first amendment as well as the entire constitution. Promote a christian order. Traditional values coalition leader the reverend lewis chosen main issues anti-homosexuality and sex education. Jelly says. We christians were here first. You don't take over our shared common values and say they are bias and bigoted. We are the peepers of what is right and wrong. Show the news on wisconsin public radio recently advocating the encouragement of christian religious activities at the workplace. Both public and private. His very attractive daughter or granddaughter andrea k is a frequent guest on radio and television as an advocate of exclusively abstinence-only sex education programs in the public school. Heritage foundation free congress foundation and national empowerment television. Leader of all three groups. Paul wyrick. One of the early you right activist. His main issues are conservative economic issues and heavily into media including the new national empowerment tv used by most religious right organizations and conservative politicians. Why which was an active supporter of clarence thomas's supreme court nomination. He says. I quote we are talkin about christianizing america. Uncorked. And lastly the two largest organizations. Focus on the family. Leader james dobson phd a licensed psychologist. Budget as of a few years ago 78 million dollars a year. 1040a periodicals 5 radio programs on 2000 station. Issues. Pro school prayer anti-gay right. Pro-school choice anti-pornography. Dobson focus on the family is the number one evangelical ministry by income. The organization's mission is and i quote committed to the lordship of jesus christ and his principles for the success of the family unit. One of his board members is or was susan baker the wife of reagan secretary of state jim baker. Falcon takes no salary from work with on the focus on the family but he sells a lot of books. Including the bestseller. Dare to discipline. Which emphasizes the need for administering pain in child rearing. Babson help serial killer ted bundy to accept christ before his execution. Focus on the family help to energize and financially support the promise keepers men's movement. The field stadium across the united states with males and exhorts them to regain their primacy and control over their wives and phones. Focus on the family is one of over 70 evangelical christian organizations and companies. That have migrated to colorado springs colorado as a part of the nationwide who billion-dollar evangelical christian econo. Bumper sticker is around colorado say focus on your own damn family finally. A part of the pat robertson empire and i use the word empire advisedly. Pat robertson is undisputedly the major figure of the religious right in the 1990s. And as president of the most powerful political organization. Amongst religious right groups today. It's 90-94 irs return indicates a budget of over 21 million dollars. And the organization claims to have more than 1.7 million numbers. However the christian america magazine which goes to all coalition members who contribute $14 or more. Said in his political statement that it sent out 310,000 as of september 19th 95. Prior to this is circulation with $353,000 people. Indicating a drop. What breed is the christian coalition's brilliant young executive director. And is a former campaign staffer for newt gingrich. Building on the campaign organization and voter lists that robertson established in his 1988 run for the presidency. And organizing at the grassroots level using telemarketing direct mail and compiled and computerized list of voters guaranteed sympathetic to their cause. And ignoring all other borders. The christian coalition has been very successful not because they are anywhere near on majority but because of voter apathy. The christian coalition strategy is based on the premise that in high turnout elections. Are there decided by 15% of eligible voters because of those eligible to vote only about 60% are registered and 30% actually though. Therefore 15.1% of eligible voters determine the outcome and this isn't high turnout election. Enroll turnout elections as was in the case of 1990s in 1994 off-year election. The winning percentage. Dropped to 6 or 7% of eligible voters. To inform voters the christian coalition volunteers use the mechanism of the presumably nonpartisan voter guide and congressional scorecard. Aided and abetted by pulpit encouragement. When baking. Since the christian coalition is a 501 c for nonprofit tax-exempt roof. It can lobby but its primary purpose cannot be partisan political activate. The weather guys are half-page comparisons of the candidates stand on selected issues purported to be family values concern. With the wording and choice of these issues manipulated and staff. To conform to the christian coalition platform. Over 300 versions. Of the voter guide. I prepared. Toothpick pokal political situation. The congressional scorecards are similarly manipulated. Featuring carefully selected family values issues. Such as the balanced budget amendment. Did you know that was a family.. The 1996 congressional scorecard on a scale of 1 to 100 100 being most favorable to the christian coalition. Russell feingold score tim. Proposed ford 58 club. Scored 79. Prior to the 1994 off-year elections that delivered the republican congress. Christian coalition claims with delivered 35 million voter guide. 17 million congressional scorecard. And it says they phoned three million voters. The christian coalition is just a small part of pat robertson zephyr. Is 700 club programs broadcast twice a day and madison at 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. on the cable family channel. Which robertson personally. Watching this program over a short span of time they a few weeks. Can give anyone an education on the agenda of the religious right. The 700 club spin on the carefully selected news. During the first 15 to 20 minutes of the show. Illuminates robertson political views very well. His choice of guests as well as experts cuz they listening to conservative politicians ministers writers. And right-wing think-tank representatives. Robert conducive. But the minute you turn the document into the hands of non-christian people and atheistic people they can use it to destroy the very foundation of our society and that's what's been happening. Incidentally who are some of these non-christian people. Well just doesn't include this audience but anyone who has more methadone qualifies as he says and i quote. You say you're supposed to be nice to the episcopalians and the presbyterians and the methodists and this-that-and-the-other-thing. Nonsense. I don't have to be nice to the spirit of the antichrist i've been wrong people who hold falls opinions but i don't have to be nice today. I know this is painful for the ladies to hear but if you got married you have accepted the headship of a man your husband. Christ is the head of the household and the husband is the head of the wife and that's the way it is.. If we had a lot of time i would love to give you about 50 more robertson 12 but that's why he hired ralph reed who is much smoother. In 1990 robertson instituted the aclj which is located on the campus of robertson's regent university. To be the religious right answer to the american civil liberties union. Headed by keyport fournier and jay sekulow. The aclj uses staff and pro pro bono lawyers across the united states. To support their causes. Many of them pro school prayer and anti-abortion. Concentrating a lot on first amendment issues. By choosing his cases carefully the aclj has had a lot of success. And reportedly has an 8 million dollar budget. No i've listed just the most well-known religious right organizations there are plenty more from the local grassroots organizations up to the national level. Now we get to where i believe lies the most serious implications for the survival of our democratic institutions. There is a policy-making umbrella organization including many religious right organizations named the council for national policy. A cmp is a group of 500 plus members and it's very secretive. That combines the politicians and wealthy businessmen who support the religious right. With the religious right leaders themselves. The cmp was founded in 1981 by the reverend tim lahaye who i mentioned previously was the founder of the mormons jordy. For creation research and his wife. Along with. Wealthy businessman see colin davis and nelson bunker hunt. The gold organization is to make the members shared moral values dominant. In domestic and foreign policy. The council for national policies current president is reagan's attorney general. Add me. And former presidents include include. Pat robertson and amway's owner rich divorce. Pacific permanent committees of the siena pr family co-chaired by dobson focus on the family and phyllis schlafly legal form. Law & justice co-chaired by ed meese and a former texas appeals judge paul pressler. Economics chair by former omb director jim miller and reed larson head of the national right to work committee. Defense and foreign policy co-chaired by senator john kyle republican of arizona and howard phillips of the conservative caucus. And institutional reform co-chaired by former california state senator h l richardson and direct mail experts richard victory. And environment chaired by former secretary of the interior and secretary of energy don hold l. The council for national policy has some other familiar names on its roster. Elected, congressmen get army dan burton tom delay robert dornan ernest is took. Jesse helms on don nichols. Ball. Businessman. I won't name them all but a whole bunch of them including the coors family is very prominent. George gilder. Other council members are all those religious and political leaders i mentioned earlier in this presentation. Alan carlson president of the rockford institute. Lieutenant colonel oliver north. Tom jones the third president of fundamentalist bob jones university d james kennedy televangelism pastor. Talk show host and presidential candidate alan keyes. A name that's been in the news this week larry pratt. President of the gun owners of america. John sununu and more. Not taking the time to pick off all these names. To demonstrate that the obviously very well organized religious right. Is now so intertwined with the far right-wing of the republican party. And the conservative segments of the american business community. Difficult to separate the religious right support for republican political and economic issues. From it's distinctly social and religious issues. The culture wars issues if you will. What are some of the issues this alliance is promoting. Why you listen to press hard for a 1996 from the council for national policy was contained in one of their action alert which came out a couple weeks ago. 1 apremont hyde amendment anti-abortion. To limit k12 sex education funding to abstinence-only curricula. Promote education vouchers for religious schools for prohibit unmarried couples from adopting children. Buy prohibits government funding in any way for abortion. 6. 0 funding for the bulls 2000 program. Which is a national k-12 educational standards initiative. Selling a 40% reduction in funding for the national endowment for the arts. And eliminate the officers of a surgeon general. Other goals of the religious right on their allies for this congress car. Cut funding for the legal services corporation that provides legal representation to the poor. Dismantle bill clinton's national service program. Reject united nations convention on the rights of the child religious right. Clean but this treaty would you serve parental authority. Older bill clinton judicial nominees so they can't be confirmed before the 1996 elections. Deny employment discrimination protections to gays and lesbians repeal they don't ask don't tell policy and reinstate the ban against gays in the military amend the constitution to ban flag burning. Restrict free speech in cyberspace. Defender privatize the corporation for public broadcasting. About the national endowment for the arts and the humanities. Pass a parental rights bill. Which watchdog groups on ours on my side. They will give religious right parents a type of constitutional trump-card. To override any decision public schools made that they don't like. Dismantle the department of education. Government-sponsored school legislation. Reinstate the abortion gag rule defund planned parenthood defund title 10 which provides family spent planning services for the poor and many many more abortion restrictions. The council for national policy and its members and its member organization has taken credit for unknown barov recent conservative victories in congress included. The defeat of the clinton healthcare plan you should have heard pat robertson go on and on about the 700 club. Defeat of allowing gays in the military sidetracking the freedom of choice act preventing the passage of the fairness. A doctrine in broadcasting. Stopping beoc commission. From prohibiting religious. Harassment in the workplace that you repeat that. One of their successes was to stop the equal employment opportunity commission. From prohibiting. Religious harassment in the workplace. They want to be able to proselytise everywhere. And blocking. The lottery reform bill. Filled out their successes. Besides the activity of religious right organizations to spread and there are more than 2,000 radio stations and dozens of television stations. Delivering the religious right message. Accounting for more than 10% of us broadcast licenses. And the network of evangelical christian book stores now account. For one-third of total domestic. Book sale. I've gone on a great one covering some of the history in the players in the strategies and issues of the religious right movement in the united states. De 1996. Now what's next. Well we're in the middle of the republican presidential caucuses and primaries. And it's been. Very interesting to watch. Hiki normous influence of the religious right. The presidential candidates. Estimates are that the minimum of 20 republican state organizations are controlled by the religious right. And 12 or more or so more are strongly influenced by it. January christian coalition magazine in 1996 calendar are devoted to get out the boat information and exportation. Especially in the primer. Listening to all the republican presidential candidates except for maybe steve forbes. Invoking the religious right litany continues unabated. The christian coalition hopes to raise two and a half million dollars for its 1996 get-out-the-vote. Kristen boat project. And hopes to distribute a total of 40 million congressional scorecards and voter guide. In churches mailboxes and shopping centres across america. As we saw from their great success and shaping the social agenda of the house of representatives as payback for delivering the 1994 election. They're not about to give up. Their clout easily. Whatever your opinions about exploiting tires church workers would vance selected political and economic auntie so that they can get control of the social agenda. Those who disagree have to credit the religious right leaders with one whale of an organizational effort. Of course. Republican moderates. I'm pro-choice republican troll joyce voters. Are the sacrificial lamb. The american voter is not stupid. As any marketing major knows. Opinion camby. Shadyside repeated sound by saturation. This repetition of the old southern strategy litany of grievance and hate and fear. Can be manufactured and bought and paid for just like pepsi-cola. And transformed into a culture war. Combine the so-called culture war with a connection to personal religious. Promise of salvation. And you have a business. Government born-again religion connection that smacks of theocracy. At its worst. I was going to end with a comment. I'll buy some writers. Which would speak to gnr resolution. If i'd gone on longer than my lot of time so i will end their thank you very much. To answer any questions that you might have. That you want a sleeve. I have read a lot about the efforts to bring the conservative catholic. All the christian coalition apparently is playing up these efforts much more than actual numbers of conservative clap catholic. All would indicate. The national conference of bishops has gone on opposing on record opposing the christian coalition agenda only a couple of very conservative. Are supporting their efforts so this is been very much overblown. There are there is some. And there are several court cases in process right now he's very durable. To where you live with their opposing view. And by focusing on his shoes. The full family values his shoot like a balanced budget. And continued. Okay i have to dig out something here the beth watchdog organization in my view is called the american americans united for separation of church and state. The group headed up by barry lynn. And their monthly. They are located in washington dc and i think they information about them has been in the world magazine many many times. Their address is 1816. 1816 jefferson place northwest. Washington dc 20036. Bari lynn is a congregational minister who is by far the most articulate. Person according to the unitarian point-of-view that i have ever heard. People for the american way is marvelous.. But gary lynn's group is more focused on religious rights issue formula. American united. Or separation of church and state but just the first two words will get information.. Their monthly magazine called church and state is. The best. Condensation of all the issues that would be a pimp intro. Nationwide to the unitarian point-of-view that i have ever come across. There was also the interfaith alliance which is a spin-off. Americans united. Along with other groups that is trying to organize. To counter the religious right. Interfaith.. Thank you. Read every other see the challenge to the radical right solution that we have considered this month challenging the radical right and i want you to do we're not going to read through that but you can read it yourself and make comment if you feel that there's anything you would like to change on the sheet and leave it in the back room also last week when we did. On population and development we didn't have time to really get into this so i have been if only had one response on that one. So i have copies of it and the one on children. On the back table which i would please i would like for you to come in on 24 the resolution anyway i just want to give you a little background about puppy unitarians how they have been responding to this. The new religious plaid then 1981a you reported trustees resolution spoke out against such groups as moral majority of christian boy dui board of trustees name these groups the device support in society and called upon all religious bodies to avoid abusive language and dealing with those who disagree with them. Andrew firm the principles of freedom and tolerance. Andres united states was founded the radical religious right 1981 a business resolution and society and called upon to work together with group so she has people for the american way and the national council of churches to challenge this trip there has been 6 resolution pertaining directly to the separation of church and state speaking out against. Among them separation of church and state 1973 resolved to oppose religious neutrality in public education opposing all mandated prayers and devotional observances thank you.

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Pr991024Baldwin-ed.mp3

Our guest speaker this morning has another appointment so we want to get. Started and have her come up and see curly so i'll take i'm not going to give a long introduction. I'm very proud to have our congressional representative tammy baldwin with us this morning tammy's and native madisonian. She graduated from west high school in valedictorian of her class. When she was only 24 years old she was a county supervisor and by the age of 30 was serving in the state assembly as representative of the state of wisconsin. She has been elected to the united states house of representatives. And she's the first. Woman in wisconsin history to be in congress. In addition of which she's the first madison resident 2d in congress and something like 1919 i think it is so weird. And. One of the things we want to do and i hope. I hope that representative baldwin will be a role model for all of the young women in our congregation to show that maybe some of you will go to congress one of these days. That's representative baldwin was willing to to post for pictures because i think that's something that you can look back on years from now and say you had a chance to meet your congressional representative and maybe it'll make all of you go to the polls. Why you have to be a certain age to vote you don't have to be a certain age to volunteer in a campaign we actually had huge responsibilities taken on by middle school. What i wanted to first make reference to the the piece of paper that i found on my seat as i sat down i did not put it there but i started reading about the. The resolutions that. You have passed starting back in 1962 at the first general assembly and it could have been written today i just the first few. Paragraphs about the. Attacks that the un and. The mission of the unr under right now in politics and i figure somebody put it on the table because it is your enemy. Because it is so timely in that way. I wanted to cover a variety of topics which to start by telling you that. Experience so far in the us congress has been extraordinary for me i've been absolutely delighted and often filled with off about that responsibility you've given me and as you can imagine there were some topics that i came to congress. Knowing a fair amount about because i had had a chance in my public service prior to that time working on those issues but. Foreign affairs international relations and the united nations were impart new to me i had studied perhaps as any citizen mike. But not to the extent that we get a little bit more involved with it at the congressional level. As most of the people in this room probably know that the key focus of my campaign for congress. Was the issue of of healthcare. And healthcare reform here in the united states and when we here. Things like the announcement earlier this month from the us census bureau that 44 million americans lack health insurance. We obviously understand that there's some compelling things to do but we cannot. Ignore the fact that beyond the boundaries of this country. There are incredible challenges in meeting the healthcare needs of the people of the world and i'm going to spend a little bit of time talking about that this morning i also want to then touch a little bit about the universal declaration of human rights. By which we just recognized the 50th anniversary of very recently i think it was last year and finally i want to say a few remarks about the situation with the united nations dues and. On the debt that our country is. Building up in that regard before opening up for questions and. I know it has been said frequently of late great nations pay their debts and i think we are. Hoping that we will rise to the occasion and deserving of the label great nation. Let me start by talking a little bit about the health challenges facing our world and. It probably won't surprise anybody that the biggest threat to world health. As we speak right now is the. Hiv and aids pandemic. And since the epidemic started in the late 1970s it is obviously spread rapidly throughout the world. When you look at the. Statistics that can be very very depressing according to the unaids. World health organization report in december of last year. About 33.4 million adults and children living with hiv and aids in the world. All that about 5.8 million cases are considered newly infected. And the disease is spreading most. Rapidly and is most devastating in the continent of africa where there about. 22.5 million people infected with hiv or aids in sub-saharan africa today. A child born in haih ivy prevalent. Country. Can expect right now to live. 43 years. That is. A child without aids. For born in a country where there is not a high prevalence. Carenow in this world expected of 60 years. And since i started addressing you about 3 or 4 minutes ago. 16 new people in this world have. I contracted the hiv virus. Hiv-aids has a devastating impact on the economies of sub-saharan africa. Do the high infection rates it has been estimated that by the year 2005. Aids cost will represent more than half. Of kenya's government. Health spending in two-thirds of the house spending in zimbabwe. As a vice-president of the world bank in the africa region said. Hiv is now the single greatest threat to the future economic development of africa. Aids kills more adults in the prime of their working and parenting line. Decimates the workforce. Fractures and impoverished his family. Orphans million. And shreds the fabric. Our communities. The hiv aids problem is worse than africa but it is intensifying in asia as well in india now has 10 million infected people with the number doubling every 2 or 3 years. And other countries in asia are in danger of. Comprable infection rates. To the continent of africa. While these statistics are incredibly horrifying i guess i don't want to leave you without a sense of hope on this issue. The international community is beginning to respond to this pandemic. Efforts are underway to reduce the spread of. The disease. Since 1997 and you know this is pretty recent. The unaids program has implemented. A country-by-country level effort that has provided more strategic planning assistance. This is in more than 50 countries now in africa asia eastern europe latin america and the caribbean. With aids is the leading cause of death in africa unaids and its co-sponsors are organizing. A broad-based partnership with private-sector organizations. To support government and local civic groups. To combat the epidemic. And it is just recently that the pharmaceutical industry has begun to start. Doing a little bit of their share to. Glaxo welcome for example has donated drugs for the prevention of mother-to-child hiv transmission and bristol-myers squibb. Has launched a five-year research and training program in collaboration with government the unaids organization and academic institutions. In africa and in south america. Excuse me in africa to benefit the countries of south africa botswana. Namibia and swaziland. And this is important for step but these companies really need to do a lot more in their efforts. And i think that we really want to see a commitment from these pharmaceutical companies to. Be willing to. Provide. Drugs that help. In the fight against aids. Prices that might be you know the affordable inn in a continent like africa we already know we struggle with affordability in this country it would be absolute what we're looking at now in this country would be absolutely unaffordable in most others. Pleased to see that the unaids organization is working with the pharmaceuticals to start these new research trials. Because. If we are not there we're not going to be looking at local strains of the virus which have different demands and different treatments. Then what we're seeing here in the united states. The unaids organization the world health organization helped make possible uganda's first. Hib vaccine trials last february. And of course the challenge is now finding the resources necessary to fund hiv reduction program. Anaconda and thailand have been successful in reducing new hiv infections once they've sort of acknowledged the scope of the problem and initiated well-funded prevention type program. The secretary-general kofi annan recently said that in some parts of africa the name for aids translates as. Shane has fallen on the earth. And he said. My friend shane will indeed fall on the earth if we turn our backs on those affected by aids and cast them into the shadows. Shamu fallin all of us. If we do not wipe out every trace. Prejudice. And determination. Surrounding this disease. The world health community is working to meet the hiv-aids challenge. And i'm hopeful. That we will succeed. I base that hope on some of the previous. United nations and world health organization successes that i want to share with everyone and remind all of us about. All is not bleak and depressing in the struggle for a healthy world. Since its creation in 1948 the world health organization has been working hard. To prevent an eradicated diseases in the developing world. Perhaps the greatest success story of that organization's history is the ratification of smallpox. Probably many in this room like me are too young to remember the smallpox horror. But it was a very variant disease that. Killed up to 20% of those people who are infected and left the remainder. I often disfigured often blind. In 1967 it was epidemic in 31 countries. With 10 to 15 million people in this world contrasting it per year. In 10 years the world health organization was able to ensure that every person. On the planet. Was vaccinated for smallpox. In the last case was detected in somalia in 1977. But the disease that. Killed or disfigured. Millions of millions of people in this century was completely eliminated by world health organization africa. They also created a very successful effort to treat yazhai crippling and disfiguring disease that afflicted more than 50 million people before the discovery of long-acting penicillin. And in west africa the world health organization and other un agencies. Have dramatically reduce the incidence of river blindness. Throughout the world childhood vaccination vaccination programs are reducing the incidence of 6 childhood diseases. Diphtheria tetanus measles tuberculosis. A protest has and polio. And these efforts have reduced child mortality over the last 25 years from about 134. Deaths per 1,000 live births to about 80. And so infant mortality has literally dropped. 37% since 1970. So i'm optimistic about the future now and more the united nations. Is making the connection between development. Peace and security. Basic healthcare and education and employment. Are necessary for people to live in a world free from war. The conversely war destroys infrastructure. Scarce resources. Disrupt economic life. And undermine childhood education. To quote the secretary general of the un once again. Development has no worst enemy than war. If war is the worst enemy of development. Health. And balanced development. Is the best form of conflict. Prevention. The concept of promoting development to prevent war is not a new one. The founders of the united nations set out to create a comprehensive organization that would address both peace and security issues and development. The intellectual and moral basis for post-war internationalism has been eloquently expressed by many of our world leaders. Two americans stand out for their contributions to the united nations and internationalism. I don't want to over reach and claim that these two people are the only ones to stand out. But i can think of few other people in our world history who have made more of a difference. They just happened to be. Have been married to one another and i speak of course of franklin and eleanor roosevelt. On january 6th 1941 president roosevelt delivered his annual address to congress. But in that speech he laid out a vision for the world with four principles are commonly known as the four freedom. Let me set the time text europe at that time was it war the battle of britain was raging. And no one in america knew what was going to happen next. And franklin roosevelt had just been reelected americans were beginning to understand that the war in europe could spread. So there was a great deal of anxiety and fear. Roosevelt had led the nation through this. A great depression. The economy was still not terribly strong. And. The war wasn't helping. President roosevelt used this occasion to express his vision for the future. And let me quote his famous lines he said. In the future days which we seek to make more secure we will look forward to a world. Found it on 4. Essential human freedoms. Firsters. Freedom of speech and expression. Everywhere in the world. The second is. Freedom of every person to worship god in his or her own way. Everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want. Everywhere. In the world. And the fourth is. Freedom from fear. Anywhere. In the world. Roosevelt understood that we need a common set. A principles that all citizens of the world could share. To bring us together. And to regulate relations between nation. To reflect the most basic understandings of human liberty. Throughout the war roosevelt sight of these principles as he helped construct. A postwar world. A postwar world that could strive to prevent war promote development and decolonization. And establish a basic set of human rights. He never lived to see that postwar world or vision enact it. But his ideas and visions have lived on in both our our hearts. And the institutions he created. And the united nations is a testament in many ways to franklin roosevelt. Well he didn't live beyond wwii. Eleanor did. And i want to share with you her legacy and the many ways. That she has left an enduring mark. I certainly find eleanor roosevelt a hero of mine. Aside from her remarkable life fighting for civil and economic justice and. Her dedication and perseverance. Evidenced by a six-day-a-week column that she wrote for 20 years without ever missing a deadline except two times once when she was stuck in a. Snowstorm in siberia and the other was the day that franklin died. Can you imagine energy traveling all over fact-finding missions. 4 franklin. Eleanor roosevelt was largely responsible for the. Development of the adoption of the universal declaration of human rights. It is a truly remarkable document in a number of ways. Cuz for the first time. A common standard was created to discuss human rights. More than that it recognized the dignity of the human being in it for the first time disconnected. Human rights is a concept. Facebook. Forever changed the relationship between. States and individual. Before the universal declaration of human rights. People participating states for their rights. And now we view rights as belonging to individual. It's a real chef. States are charged now with the responsibilities and obligations. Protect those rights. The last year when the un celebrated the 50th anniversary. General assembly president. The deluxe the declaration remove the issue of human rights. Once and for all from the sphere of the domestic jurisdiction estate it has ceased to be of concern only to the individual holding those rights or to the society or state to which that individual belongs and has become by means of the declaration of value that transcends borders. Cultures. Societies and ideologies thank you so much. The human rights of every individual member of the human race. Ara matter. Of concern. To all its other number. Eleanor roosevelt understood the profound impact that the declaration would have. As a tireless advocate for civil and human rights she knew that individuals needed to be linked. Together as human beings. All one human race. Each with. His or her own human destiny and human dignity. Our struggles as a world community to address human rights issues today would never have been possible without. This transcendent vision. And it was a paradigm shift that now allows us to work. Toward a more unified sense of world. With a common vision. The declarations. The basics rights contained in the declaration include the following. The right to life liberty and security of person. Equal protection under law. Protection from arbitrary arrest. Detention or exile. Freedom of thought conscience and religion. Freedom to assemble. The right to participate in our government. Education. Equal pay for equal work the right to food clothing and housing and medical care. And this is considered a birthright. I am on by the foresight of eleanor roosevelt. And the many others who since. Have been champions for for this. It is remarkable that back then they had such a wonderful world view. And i have great hope for the future of our planet the future of our world. We have great challenges and clearly tremendous opportunities. We have. A vision and we have resources. We have a commitment we have energy. But i believe we have to have the will to act. I want to let you know as i closed it last week i had my first opportunity to meet and. Speak briefly with. The u.s. ambassador to the un richard holbrooke. Kid spent a couple of days. On capitol hill. Trying best he could. Figure. At 2. Move forward. Some initiative to get congress to commit. Paying it back to for the united nation. And i can tell you he appeared quite frustrated after his many many meetings he was meeting with about number of those of us in the freshman class in congress. And we had begged him to just come by for a few minutes to give us an update on his activities and. And number of the. Struggles in various locations in the world. But he. Seemed rather. Depressed about the series of meetings he had had. It appears. That there is. No. Specific plan right now before the end of this year or even the end of this session for the leadership to advance. Any type of. Legislative vehicle still went without allow us to d-link. This. Family planning an abortion issues from paying of art are deuce. They're using a number of different arguments and one of the things that i hadn't understood until i had that lading and went to a little bit more of the history. What how. Coincidental this linkage really was. I know that oftentimes the wrong villains are identified in this in this problem of linkage of the un dues. But that. Put on the election of a pro-choice president. There was a group. Who was eager to have a set of issues that they could hold hostage. For advancing and an anti-choice or or anti. Abortion agenda. And originally this group of people were given a series of issues it was the international monetary fund and the un. Or when the crisis in the currency became so great they decided not to continue to hold that issue hostage to their negotiations on various issues of impacting choice. And. Release that for full funding. But kept holding on to the united nations if you look at any of the amendment that actually come. Fourth when were debating the united nations funding. They don't even mention. Language to mention the united nations it is. Coincidentally link but it was because there's is process of holding this issue hostage. To these other negotiation. The arguments are using on the republican leadership right now and said both sides are are controlled by republicans are. 1. There has been a series of negotiations whereby. The us will pay its back dues but extract nipigon reformed. On. The united nations. In a thread as if they don't actually go forth into it this month this is again that argument being made to the current leadership. Is that if the control of either house changes you're probably going to get the back dues paid with no reform. If the other side control so you better do it now if you want those reforms. The second is that this will become so crisis. By the point that we elect the next president of the united states whoever that might be and those in the republican leadership for a hopeful that it might be george w bush. Are are. Pointing to the type of fiscal catastrophe he will inherit and the fact that he will have to. Begin. A new term buy as they say busting budgetary cap. And that that's not a position that they were going to want to put. A republican brand new president in if indeed. That's what happens in the next election until those are the type of point they're using to negotiate right now. But. Ambassador holbrook said in 10 different meetings with top leaders in both houses. There were 10 different answers on highway my. Emerge from this and how they might be able to bring this forward which. Left him feeling rather glum and rather. I'm just hardened about the prospects right now. We're all at is one of the things that. That i was. Talking about with my colleagues as this meeting. I concluded was the fact that i would be coming home and getting a chance to speak with a couple of audiences who are recognizing this important day. And what could i encourage. In terms of action and i guess i would say. Keep on writing and keep on communicating because even if your. Preaching to the saved as you are in my case. For me to be able to say that i got. A lot of communication on this issue and it is important to the people that i represent. I'm back feels icky provides more fuel for me to be effective in my persuasion. I'm on my colleague since i do encourage you to keep active and certainly let our us senators now. Of your concern in this regard i would that i want to wrap up. And. Find out what you have to share it where at.

uuprairie_org

Pr160327Ingham-EasterResurrection-ed.mp3

Good morning welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society i am sandy ingham i am very part-time minister. Prairie aspires to be. Both an open-hearted and an open-minded congregation which means we welcome you no matter what your ethnic or religious background is your color your sexual orientation gender family structure physical abilities in abilities color of hair color of eyes. And so on but anyway we do aspire to be open and welcoming and i think we generally manage that. I do encourage you with this is one of your first times here to come back. Because the services are different on sunday morning sometimes i obviously do the service sometimes people lay leaders from within our congregation do the service and sometimes. We have. People from outside our congregation do the service. The opening words. Are by. Unitarian universalist minister david miller. Getting ahead of myself. We need a celebration that speaks the spring inspired word about life and death. About us as we live and die. Through all the cycling seasons days and years. We need the sense of deity to crack our own hard brown december hawks. And porch life out of inner tubes and outer pain. Unless we move the seasons of the cell and spring can come for us. The winter. Will go on and on. An easter will remain a mess. And life will never come again. Despite the fact. Offspring. Mary would you like to chat. We like this palace as a symbol of our thankfulness. The chalice reminds us of the sun. The giver of life between occasionally see. The flame rises up like the power of growth and renewal in the springtime. We give thanks for the sun. Which lights and warms the earth. For the gross and renewal of nature arising from the earth. And for the earth. Itself. Breeding i would like to share with you now is. Buy unitarian universalist minister. Kathleen mctague. She titles at easter resurrection. And this is she begins her her little. Reading here with one version of the easter story. And her take on it. The easter story as told in the gospel of john. Revolves around. The experience of one person mary magdalene. It's mary who gets up before dawn. On the day before after the jewish sabbath. And goes alone to visit. The tomb. Her beloved teacher has died a horrible death. And it was only by the unexpected generosity of a wealthy man. That jesus was giving even the small late dignity. Of a real burial place instead of a pauper's grave. Because of the sabbath. His body had not been cleaned according to tradition. And mary set out early. With her herbs in order to do this last grieving. Service. When she got to the tomb. She found that the stone blocking its entrance had already been rolled away and his body was gone. It is a part to imagine her despair. An anger. I've been robbed of even this last farewell. She ran into some of jesus's other followers with the news and they came back with her to see for themselves. They probably stood there for a while. Arguing. About what to do. But there was nothing to be done. Who would you complain to. When you risk your life. Even admitting to the authorities. That you had known him. Filled with that bitter realization they finally left again. But mary stayed alone. Weeping. Maybe something to fire. Krypton. With her grief that made her brave enough to stay. That she caught a movement and out of the corner of your eye. And she turned to find someone standing there. Why are you crying. He asked. Who you looking for. Baking heat must be the gardener she said as. Carefully as she could. Sir it's if you have carried him away. Call me. Where you put him and i'll take care of it. I won't tell anyone. Adjust take his body and clean him up. So he can rest in peace. Then jesus because of course it was jesus standing there and she didn't recognize him jesus just called out her name. Mary. And then she knew. And she said back to him. Rabbi. For those of us who believe. The jesus was a human being like us. The idea of his literal resurrection from death is a leap of faith we can't quite make. We know that when our bodies die they die. We belong to the earth. And it is comforting and right to know that we dissolve again into that sweetness. We can't believe. In mary's resurrection. When mary heard her name called. Suddenly her eyes were open to a new reality. She was called out from the blindness of her grief and despair and from within herself. She found a new way to see and to understand what it happened to her. Mckaig says i take that easter story as truth. It points to the moments in every life when something within us is called out called forth. Call to a deeper understanding of our world. Easter raises the question. In this bright opening of the earth in this turning season when new life is pouring out all around us what will we bring forth from within ourselves. It's a time that calls us to open our eyes and a new way. To see not just what we expect to see. But perhaps some bright. And mysterious truth we could not fathom. Before. Something completely new. An unexpected. We are a troubled try. We human beings. The unfolding story of our time on earth is clouded with pain and cruelty with missed opportunities unsinkable heedlessness and indifference. It is also mark. By the brightness of decency kindness freedom and curry. Easter proclaim. That we each have a part to play and how the story unfold if. We are willing to wait. Op. We listen for what is calling to us and like mary. When we hear our name we answer. Rising a new to meet the life. That will not stop. Calling. Our names. Last weekend. I took part in a workshop at james reid. Unitarian universalist congregation other people from this congregation. I took part of this workshop where we talked. Among other things. About culture. Our personal culture. The culture of the country in which we live. The culture of our congregations. And the lenses through which we each view the world. Our ingrained perceptions of how the world is. We were shown a cartoon person lot of cartoon to help. Keep us awake. We were shown a cartoon of a rhinoceros. Standing at an easel painting a beautiful. Real life landscape. With other paintings that he or she. The rhinoceros had done scattered around crop tops on the ground. Every single painting. Had this. Beautiful rendering of whatever the landscape. If she had chosen. But in the middle of each frame of each painting with the rhinoceros horn. What the rhinoceros sees. Landscape. And then we did a lot of talking about our personal. Rhinoceros horn because we all have. We ended on saturday afternoon by considering how we could share with our congregations what we had learned and discuss when we are discussing the different cultures of the three we didn't i'm sorry. Unitarian universalist congregation in madison someone quipped. Actually someone from james reid. When i know quite well that first unitarian is no no no i don't really remember what she said i think being the big church probably. James reid is known for being very very welcoming. I'm siri. World. Prairie. She knows what i do for a living. And she was sitting beside me where is known for being opposed to anything spiritual. Everyone left. Including me. I did start her out. A sentence like we're trying. But i don't think this was an accurate description. Prairie at all surprised that we still have this reputation. Yeah that reputation 40 years ago when i first started going to. First unitarian. I'm getting to that. So you can see why it surprised me. Well it might not be a word everyone here is comfortable with i believe that. We are all spiritual. The spirituality is a common universal component. Of being human whether we are atheist humanist buddhist christians wilson's pagans agnostics and on him on. One of the routes which many of you probably know of the word spiritual is breath. Wind. To be spiritual is to be life-affirming. Interested not so much in the material world but more in. What is sacred mysterious awesome in the best sense of that word. Amazing in this world have you ever suffered loss. Evergreen. Ever been in despair depression. Then you are spiritual being. Ever felt joy delight amazement any role of these makes you a spiritual. Creature. Life is not about you. Even though we act that way. It is about something much bigger call it love call it god call it nature called the ground of being. The common good. Are you opposed to tribalism are you opposed to prejudices and stereotypes. Two religious boundaries. Then you are speer. Unitarian universalist minister lisa presley the leader of the workshop set something that i have believed for some time. By ignoring or even vehemently opposing anything. From the christian tradition. We lose a certain richness. That could serve us well. We too often deny an important part of our heritage by ignoring our christian roots so glad he's playing jason. Presley was talking about the richness of other faith traditions besides protestant christianity. Unitarian universalist tend to be more respectful of other faith traditions such as buddhism or the beliefs of native americans then we are christianity. This discussion in my thoughts about holy week with and still going through my head last sunday morning i didn't have any duties here last sunday morning. I i was in my hiking pants hiking boots you know. And i was making my way on foot. 2 prairie. My walking route takes me past queen of peace catholic church. And we called his presbyterians the manse. Call it that. Where the priests live. Ats it newman's didn't sound right. Refectory. Directory factory. Yes. It's right it's right by the parking lot. Queen of peace. 1010k. So i walked by and i was it wasn't my usual time is about 7:45 in the morning and wouldn't you know a priest was just leaving the rectory. Hello. Happy spring. Barry was. They said in my hiking. Shoes without my clerical collar. Really have one and it's the best i could do on this palm sunday. Was happy sprake. It seems so. He was pleasant. Said hello and proceeded on to the church i suppose for the 8 mass. Wait wait wait wait i wanted to say what we stopping mean i want to ask you about the richness of your tradition maybe i even want a moment of confession. We're we're sorely lacking in this area and my tradition. But i'm done stupid things. I've heard others i have hurt myself i have. I have made wrong decisions i forgotten that i'm part of the earth and i've mistreated the earth i need redemption i need to confess and no. That i am still. Love. Well i didn't. I i did manage to make myself laugh. And appreciate this moment of i suppose what could be construed as silliness. And yet. And yet. We are. In some areas where missing. An opportunity to be more fully human i think when we don't acknowledge easter and its importance to the essence of christianity. The faith tradition out of which. Both. Our traditions unitarianism and universalism. Develop. I believe that we're missing something by ignoring easter totally or by celebrating it only as the beginning of spring. Many unitarian universalist. Hands get past the idea of resurrection even if we mean it metaphorically and i suspect everyone in this room would mean it. Metaphorically that's okay if you don't. Why do we let fundamentalists and evangelicals co-op language piracy or certain words. Where's mike's in forgiveness redemption atonement. Resurrection are pretty powerful war. Max gabler name some of you may know. Who's on now management still alive. And it's mid-nineties minister emeritus at first unitarian society. An amazing man just so brilliant. And my my my uu minister my first you eunice. My mentor in anyway. He told a story like to tell this story around easter time. An empty plane that was his personal story but i don't know. He was in downtown chicago and many years ago and i'll man with you know the the signboard on the end is near the end is coming and it was easter time of the year and the man was carrying a sign that said repent repent. And he. Walking along and fealty. Guilty. He was saying two different people and he looked right at me and he said guilty. And i don't know what max may have done or not done but max.. How did he know. We all sin. That's a word that have to be. Reclaim icing. I don't like the dictionary definitions. They're okay. An action that is or is felt to be. Highly reprehensible. Officiated. Of human nature in which the self is estranged from god. But the best definition of sin i've ever heard is not in the dictionary price should be. Being out of right relationship. Being out of harmony being not in harmony with yourself with others with the earth. We all need forgiveness we all need to be redeemed and i think we all yearn for. And resurrect. Tommen is a hard word to define i think but it's simple if you just take it apart at 1. Harmony and balance. Take me to work on expanding our vocabulary and i think the easter and good friday every year give us this opportunity. To go through the process of recognizing our sins and acknowledging that we are out of race relationship that we need forgiveness on. I don't worry i'm not going to set up. You are forgiven you are forgiven by the love of the world you can come home. We need that tonight i know that those are strong words from human this minister. But i don't believe that my humanism is minnie's one bit. By using these words. By being aware that i need redemption. Interesting li the one the words under the. Definitions of atonement in the dictionary the one word that i could really blonde 2. Define it was is considered obsolete. And that word is reconciliation. I think the definition should be resurrected. Many unitarian universalist misunderstand christianity. And the importance of jesus and i think we could place the blame on the christians somewhat for misrepresenting jesus for hundreds and thousands of years but we're all grown-ups we can we can go to the web we can read about jesus some of you may know this name john shelby spong. Read. He's a retired episcopal priest and bishop he's quite controversial especially among the episcopal. Because he wants to redefine christianity. And i think one of his best books and i've drawn on it for 4 this morning is jesus for the non-religious. Nussbaum has spoken at our general assembly in it. Many. Unitarian universalist congregation. Throughout this country and we all tease him about being a closet you you. But she hasn't denied. Before i give you a little bit of bombs interpretation. The real. I'll remind you that jesus was killed. Murdered. Murder. By the state and the church. For the way he lived his life. That is for define both fade in church by associating with people from all walks of life by practicing. Radical hospitality what we now call open table fellowship. By breaking down traditional boundaries by preaching peace. Think about that think about how awful a death. That was. I think about the fact that we still kill people for these reefs. To move to a place in our collective unitarian-universalist thinking where we can perry. The wisdom and life of jesus. Requires a better understanding of that purse. Here we are in the 21st century and many of us still don't get it when it comes to. Reverend spong carefully unpacks. The easter story. He'll give you. Literally. Chapter and verse. But it's okay you skip those parts. Jesus for the non-religious. Those places points out those places many places many discrepancies in the. New testament. About what happened after the crucifixion. Spawn finds no evidence spawn in many many others. Of a literal rising. From. But dad. But that was never the point. The point. Of the easter and the good friday stories is that something. Remarkable happened. To the people who were there. Something and this is historically documented. Something amazing transform them. Definitely the disciples but the disciples consisted of more than the. Something transformed them from powers remember they. They betrayed jesus. They work hours. Something changed. When they became brave souls. Who went out into the world to preach the gospel not. What you make. To convert. And not to shove a new religion down their throats but to repeat and repeat and repeat what jesus said. Something about shopping anything down anybody's throat doing what jesus says. And to tell and retail the stories of how he lived his life. Easter was and still is. Time of transfer. Forming experience. A time of mystical experience as is the turning of winter into spring. There are some things that cannot be expressed. In words. This is where liturgy comes in to be. We're not going to get in till later to take. Other than that. Whatever it was that so astounded the people at that first easter they couldn't express it in words. Which is one of the main reasons we get so many versions of what happened in the gospels and paul's letters we didn't stop people from trying to explain it. Inwardly not how we claim things generally. For the last couple of thousand years theologians and biblical scholars and many many thoughtful people have tried to put the jesus story into words. And those words often include the words that we sometimes have trouble with. The words i keep referring to this morning. Don't literally easter to use fang. We do a great disservice to ourselves until humanity in general when we do this. It's not important. But jesus didn't live on in the flash. I feel like i couldn't say that. From the pulpit. Great many places. Not. Important that he didn't live on in the flesh the importance is. That what he preached and practice. Does live on and we're still struggling to be as fully human as he was phone calls jesus the most fully human being who ever lived. I forgot. We are still fighting to move the human race beyond tribalism beyond prejudiced beyond religious. Boundaries and this is scary territory look around. Beacon-news be aware how intense is the pushback. The pushback. To keep us from moving beyond those things. Everywhere. Consider the following. Breaking tribal boundaries. About the culture of the time in which jesus lived. The jewish. Culture. Then there were the chosen people. That would be the jews. And there was everyone else. Gentiles. The unchosen. Jews did not have dinner. Wichita. But jesus did. Jews were not supposed to even interact with gentile but jesus did. Spong ask this question which i believe is still relevant. How can one be fully human if one was busy rejecting. All those who are not jews. And you can substitute. As applicable the word jews for any number. Of other words. Jesus was the ultimate practitioner of open table fellowship that is everyone was welcome. Duty at that dinner table with jesus. I know that many of you were raised christian so many of you will recall someone. Prostitute cats licking everyone was welcome. Some tiles ferritin. Remember levi just went to remember levi the jewish tax collector who works for the gentiles which automatically made for levi unclean. Jesus invited him to be one of her. Consider breaking prejudices and stereotypes many of you are probably familiar with the parable of the good samaritan not only person out of three people who stopped to help someone in need other two. Priest and a levite work. Big deals higher-ups in the hierarchy of judaism. There in the first century. Those two saw only an unclean person. That day according to the rules of their religion were not to touch. So i couldn't stop and help. The samaritan responded only out of. Compassion. He saw only a human being. In need of help. You have to try to understand the contest. I was jesus told this. Parable. As van puts it. Samaritans were the unclean rejectable scum. Of the first-century. Jewish. World. And yet here was jesus making that's america the hero. Of the story. And finally consider religious. Boundaries and the breaking of. The jewish religion into which jesus was born supposedly taught him that moral rules are ultimate. In other words a religion should not jewish religion his upbringing was given jesus a pretty good dose of righteousness and taught him all about being judgemental. Well it didn't take. These teachings were lost on jesus. Some of you might recall the gospel story of the woman who committed adultery. And was taken to face the scribes in the pharisees of. The mucky mucks. These religious leaders knew what to do with her. Find her guilty. Sensor to death. Probably by stoning lot of stones around cheap and you just roll them over in the ground. No this still goes on. In an attempt to trip jesus up on as many. It's such a dim the authorities asked jesus. To sentence her. To do the sentence to say how she would be helped what you just said. Okay see you all the right to judge her how come. How come you get qualified are you and. That biblical story ends with a phrase many if you know let him who is without sin. Cast. Jesus broke religious boundaries many times. As van tells us jesus was always trying. To call people into a new. Fuller. Humanity. Anything that puts limits on humanity anything that teaches one to hate or to reject. Ultraviolet another cannot be bought of love. We're staying at slightly different cannot be sacred. Life-affirming. Spiritual. Was it any wonder that the religious leaders of jesus time were afraid of. Threaten their power. Jesus challenge people to live their lives beyond rules defense is tribal brown boundaries. Prejudices and even religion. To embrace abundant life. What we would maybe call now step out of those comfort zone big time. So that you might become. More fully human. This challenge is still relevant still out there waiting for us to accept it but first. We have to be humble enough. To admit that we send. That we need forgiveness. That we yearn for. Redemption. An atonement. We have to be resurrected. Then we can accept that. Here is one of my favorite resurrection story i've told it before you're not remembering. And some of you will not have heard it anyway. It is i'm a story of rebecca parker's. Another mentor of mine unitarian universalist minister and a methodist minister and president of starr king school for the ministry when i was there. And she has been called one of the outstanding theologians of the 20th and the 21st century. Rebecca begins the story of hers a true story. Pondering the deepest question that she believes and i believe to all religions must address. Am i willing. 2. Live. She goes on i asked that question one. It had been a year of grief. In a situation of unbroken of broken love i chose. To have an abortion. I felt it was the only thing i could do but i was haunted. By the loss of that surrendered child. My grief deepened as days passed. Time was not healing my sorrow and i spiraled into deeper and deeper. Despair. By day i would. Dutifully and to all appearances. Cheerfully perform on responsibilities as the minister of a small and vibrant congregation. At night i couldn't sleep. I drive past the empty halls of the parsonage and whale. My despair. And isolation came to a crisis one night. I was past living one day at a time or even. One hour at a time and i was down to the question of. Whether i would be willing to continue to live at all. In the depths of that sadness. I left my house. It was after midnight. I walked down the hill to lake union. She lived in seattle at this time. The city was quiet. My face was wet with tears as i set my course for the water's edge i was determined to walk into the lake cold darkness and find there the consolation that i could not find. Within myself. At the bottom of the hill the street and didn't and the lakeside park began. I walked across the wet grass and climb the last ride before the final descent to the water's edge. At the crest of the wrong guys. I discovered a line of dark objects between me and the shore. A barricade. I was going to have to cross to get to the water. I didn't remember this barricade being there before and was told our i couldn't tell what i was seeing. Butterfly edge closer. I discovered it was a line of human beings. Hunched over some strange looking spindly. Equipment. Telescopes. It was the seattle astronomy club. With her homemade chief telescopes. And their top-of-the-line sharper image telescopes dressed in their vortex backcountry gear. And tennis shoes. A hole. Of amateur scientists and alert in the middle of the night because i was clear and the planets were near. To make my way to my deaf. I had to get past. An enthusiastic in tennis shoes. He assumed i had time to look at the stars. Let me show you he said. And began to explain the star cluster his telescope was focused on. I had to brush the tears. For my eyes to look through his telescope. But there was. A red-orange spiral galaxy. Lenny focused it on jupiter. And i peered through to see that giant glowing. Planet. I could not bring myself to continue my journey. In a world where people get up. In the middle of the night. To look at the stars. I could not attend. My life. Chickens losing i know there is grace. Because my life was saved. By the seattle. Astronomy. Easter. Proclaims that we each have a part to play. And how the story unfolds. We are willing. To wake. We listen for what is calling us and like mary. When we hear our name. Mansur. Rising a new to me that life will not stop calling. Our names. We are resurrected. Over. Andover. Again. Maybe by the seattle. Astronomy club. Maybe as i was the other day i have test. Of handel's messiah. Handel's hallelujah. Horse. We are resurrected maybe by an image maybe by a picture. Maybe. Maybe by picture in the newspaper even as i was a few days ago. Picture in color of and i do not know how to say this is the hindu. Celebration of. H0li. I want to say oli holy. But it's not only a festival colors but it's. It's also marks the beginning of spring and celebrates the triumph of good over evil. We are resurrected daily. Buy a swath of color maybe catching your eye as you walk down the sidewalk and realize. You're looking at the first flowers of spring those snowdrops and the crocuses. How amazing. Resurrection is intertwined with connection. Connection to life easter is a gift. A gift that we are offered every year and i hope. That we are open. Free. Thinking. Enough infront off in that free-thinking. To accept. Closing words are those of unitarian universalist minister david blanchard. Two resurrections of our own fashioning. We rise rise to hope. Rise to love rise to he'll rise to forgive. Rise to curry rise even 2 foolish nurse. Rise to wisdom. Rise even to die. But most essentially. Rise to life. Not to die a hero but to live as one. May we rise to life. Go in peace but your neighbors coffee a few. Want to.

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Pr141116ChristinaKlock-ed.mp3

Good morning welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society. Excuse me here a moment while i find the script which i never use. I am the minister here. Sandy ingham and i will tell you this while i search for the script that i'm looking for. We have different. Sorts of services every sunday so if this is one of your first times or you're visiting we encourage you. To come back because the services are. Sometimes they're led by me the minister often they're led by members of the congregation with this morning christina will be leaving the service and. Presenting something very interesting i think. And sometimes they're led by people outside the congregation. Here is what i was not looking. I hope it's still here. I can come up with it. The script that i often don't use. But we had a new unitarian universalist orientation a week ago yesterday and several of the newer people said. This is one of the reasons they came and stayed and we're hooked on us. So here it is. Good morning. Prairie aspires to be. Both and open-hearted and open-minded congregation notice the words aspires to be. We welcome people. Of every ethnic and religious background. Whatever your color sexual orientation gender or family structure. We welcome you no matter what's your age or your ability or inability. Later in the service we won't invite visitors and guests. To introduce themselves if they wish to do so so that we might get to know you better. And i've already. Told you the last part of it about the wide variety of programs we present on sunday mornings. Before i do the announcements i would just add something for you to think about. Fat-free congregation in smart county they do something very similar to what i just read about whom they welcomed as they also add those of whatever. Political persuasion. You should think about that. Okay first of all. B8 grade. Through 12th grade class is. Still holding that vo2 assess this congregations beliefs about god. If you have it. Already voted please pick up the half sheet of paper on the table just outside this room. And you will find many possible options. So please choose one up to three actually. Which the 13 which most closely match your beliefs mark that put in the ballot box. Write any additional thoughts you have on the comment sheet by the voting station and thank you from rachel long one of their teachers in bar park. And from the students please. We're trusting you to not vote. This morning we are doing we've made a couple of changes in the. What are service 11 we didn't know we were making when we ask mary to do the prelude. But we also are not going to do joyson concerns this morning we anticipate having. A fair amount of discussion after christina speaks. But remember this is also a potluck. Sunday. Not potluck program lies. At the end and are very important fall annual parish meeting so you certainly made talk about your joys and concerns while you're. Standing in line waiting for food. But while you're eating. Please note that this is. Transgender awareness week. I hope that you all take a couple of moments and search the web or go to the library or ask me or. Anyone else for books about this subject. This is a really. Positive. Step forward the tiny step forward but just having something that we're calling transgender awareness week is. Pretty amazing. Are opening words today are by albert schweitzer who was a unitarian universalist and i'm going to take the liberty of changing some of his wording. Making a little bit more modern. The great falls of all epix hitherto. Has been that they believe themselves to have to be lonely with the relations of homosapien. In reality however. The question is. What is our attitude to the world and all life that comes within our reach. Until we expand the circle of our compassion to all living things. We will not ourselves. Find peace. Are chalice lighting today i will be at unison reading of ruu principals. And there should be a slip of paper and what's your program onto uses a guide and i would welcome our members to go ahead and join their voices with with h or read silently as you. If you so wish. We the members of prairie unitarian universalist society covenant to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person justice equity and compassion in human relations acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregation a free and responsible search for truth and meaning the right of conscious and the use of the democratic process within our congregation and in society at large the goal of rural community with peace liberty and justice for all. And respect for the interdependent of all existence of which we are apart. Okay i would really like to speak to you today about something that is brewing and unitarian-universalism called the first principle project project. Define so there are many definitions of tools but two of the most commonly used ones and science because they're simple and elegant is a tool as an object that can be that have been modified to fit a particular purpose or a tool as an object carried or maintained for future use. Go ahead now. You can go ahead and click. So i'm going to go through some examples of what we have found since that someone'll discovery in 1960 crows and their relatives have exceptional brains on corbin's or what they're they're called crows ravens and the light they're exceptionally adept at crafting twigs leaves and even their own feathers in the tool researchers have even discovered that crows have extraordinary problems. I'm going to call this guy doctor ask because i would mess up his name dr. f at northern arizona university. Studies prairie dogs and has provided compelling data that these wonderful rodents as well as many other animals do have language and they have a lot to say to one another in addition to chart the charming and highly verbal prairie dogs other animals including bees squid birdbath monkeys and whales among others possess languages complexity prairie dogs for example have different alarm calls for various predators who eat them and then short of a human being. Now doctor s correctly notes that is essential to study wild wild animals because quote laboratory experiment laboratory environments aren't necessarily conducive to animals expressing their full range of behaviors when you sit in a cage all day and then are taken out for an hour or two by someone in a white lab coat you might not choose the display any behavior rather than fear in a nutshell. I show that we already have the evidence to conclude that a number of animal species have semantic signals and that these signals are arranged according to rules of syntax and with different context doctor s also recognizes that the idea that animals have language is frightening to some people but also empowering to those animals when people find out that an animal species has a language they often look at that species in a more compassionate when he's right because more respect and dignity to rob animals of their cognitive and emotional capabilities. We are all related the work of biologist an ethologist continue to blur the distinction between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom. Our differences are a matter of degree out of time is a biological species designates membership in a morally privileged group. 2007 the balearic islands past the world's first legislation granting legal rights to all gray days 1992 switzerland to recognize animals as being and not things that is excellent i love that for teaching 2002 germany granted some rights to animals and amendment to the constitution and a 2013 just that you're banned the importation or they are in captivity and i love this next one very interesting case in new zealand just a couple years ago and agreement to grant legal personhood to the end i'm not going to pronounce this right between new zealand government and the maori of new zealand 5062 mushrooms 30,000 species of fish. God has an inordinate fondness for beetles. So although leupold is generally credited with describing the mechanism of a propane trophic cascade cascade as a way of describing the interrelationship of ecological communities and the wolves prey upon the very young and the very old. Difference on vegetation that the deer typically 8 started to become more abundant so there was an increase in all sorts of different kind of wildlife including bears wheat berries on and boxes who were like a mice that 8/10 of a smaller medication and insects live in was such that they didn't get down by the river as much anymore because that was a place that the wolves came so they want higher up in the altitude and all the ecosystem grew up around the river the river became more meandering it what is incredible i really have to see the video. So anyway i just wanted to put that plug-in okay so the first principle project the facilitator lasting no longer than 2 years. I'm going to figure out some way to get a better response from all of you on whether you want to go forward. What's kansui about at our spring parish meeting on this resolution so please think i'll be in touch somehow we'll see how thank you so much for your comments and for your attention this morning. Thank everyone for coming today it was fantastic to look at the big group who came here or closing words are from. Seattle. Very similar what blackhawk had to say. What is man without the beasts. If the beasts were gone man would die from a great loneliness of spirit. For whatever happens to the beast soon happens to man. All things are connected. Thank you very much please great your neighbor and have some coffee and the meeting at the potluck.

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Pr120923Ingham-ed.mp3

Welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society my name is christina perri aspires to be both an open-hearted and open-minded congregation we welcome people of every ethnic and religious background whatever your color sexual orientations gender or family structure we welcome you no matter what your age or your abilities or your inabilities later in the service we will invite visitors guests and returning friends to introduce yourself so that we might get to know you better on sunday morning sweet provide a wide variety of services they are presented either by a member of the community or minister and we're very excited today to have us as our. Are opening words today will be provided by reverend hangouts. Good morning it is joyanna officially are written by written by sophie alliance laws is rebecca in the room she will recognize the moment the wonder of being together so close yet so apart each hidden in a secret chamber each listening each trying to speak on fully understanding non fully understood we pause in reverence before all intangible thing things that i seen on nor ears can detect fling wide the windows. And we choose to hope we like this check. Hi my name is barber park for anybody who doesn't know me and i'm the president of this congregation and i wanted to take the opportunity to welcome reverend sandra ingham to our congregation on her the first time that she's officially speaking to us if she looks a little blue around the edges is because she left phoenix. Reading that i would like to share with you this morning is very short when it's actually in the back of my hymnal. She writes forgive us that often we forgive ourselves so easily and other so hardly. Forgive us that we expect perfection from those to whom we show none forgive us for repelling people. By the way we set a good example for give us the folly of trying to improve a friend forbid that we should use our little idea of goodness as a spear to wound those who are different forbid that we should feel superior to others. When we are only more shielded and may we encourage the secret struggle of every person. As some of the young people knew we are in the midst of the jewish high holidays. Rosh hashanah which marks the beginning of these high holidays begin at sundown last sunday. Yom kippur the last day of this sacred. begins at sundown on this coming tuesday the 10 days between rosh hashanah and yom kippur are often referred to as the days of all or the 10 days of repentance rosh hashanah the jewish new year but before the new year. People must look back upon the old year and think about how they acted what things were done that shouldn't have been done but things were not done that should have been what sins were committed how should forgiveness be sawed how will reconciliation be attained how can i be a better person i have long had a fascination for all things jewish it may have started and frank when i was old enough. I start using strange language. To forgive myself and others to ask the spirit of all that is the spirit of life the mystery of the universe to forgive me and grant me a clean slate for the next year i want to repent to learn for my mistake to be that better person. And now i invite you to reflect back on forgiveness. In his spin the book that i'm reading by desmond tutu and pick the title is no future without forgiveness he mentions not that atrocity. I would just briefly say that the importance of telling is. The closing words are attributed to saint francis of assisi where hate rules let us bring love where sorrow joy let us strive more to comfort others than to be comforted to understand others than to be understood to love others more than to be loved for it is in giving that we receive and in pardoning that we are parted blessed be happy so and now it's time for cake i understand. Say to greet your neighbor and have refreshments.

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Pr150426MillieMoffettMaryFrantz-ed.mp3

Good morning. Korea fires two balls and open-hearted and open-minded congregation and we welcome everyone make a long story short on sunday mornings we provide a wide variety of programming on including from our master. People from the wider community and from our own congregation and today we're going to have a wonderful program. Millie and mary and i want to do something a little bit more detail later on aging so i'm really looking forward to hearing what they have to say. Our opening for today will be provided by nelly ma. For age is opportunity no less than youth itself so in another dress evening twilight fades away the sky is filled with stars invisible by day henry wadsworth longfellow. Are chalice lighting this morning. Will be provided by faith and her granddaughter isabella. Life is a gift for what what we are grateful regathering community to celebrate the glory and the mysteries of this great gift. Now i have the pleasure of introducing our secrets for today. I'm going to start with millie. Kelly moffitt. Has a ba in sociology and education and m a n and an ma in early childhood development a move in her middle-aged years prompted her to look at her own aging when she returned to school at the university of iowa where she pursued an ma and aging study. Following the completion of the aging program she and a friend was a gerontology nurse designed a program to provide consultation and implementation of services. For the elderly who choose to live alone in their own homes. The business was sold when the lyrics. Mary from. Finished medical school in 1951 with two children by the time she graduated. Were you studying me. Dinner husband practice together in western colorado for a few years then move to the midwest. So they could be part of a group. Mary practice at the monroe clinic from 1956 until her retirement in 2010. She says she had a special interest in being a part of her parents lives over the entire adult life span. It was satisfying to grow old together. Of course she had many younger patients to even though she herself age. Early on she cared for children and even delivered babies but that was a long while ago. Now that mary is no longer in practice she is still very interested in how we accommodate the aging process living in a very active retirement community mary has many opportunities to engage with her fellow residents aged from their late 50s to over 100 years old please welcome to speak first. The gift of years i chose this title for a presentation this morning from the same title of a very favorite book of mine by joan chittister joan is a benedictine sister she co-chairs the un global peace initiative of women and is a strong advocate for disenfranchised including prisoners she is named as one of america's visionary spiritual voices in the gift of years sister joan offers a blessing at the close of each chapter that helps the reader embrace age and ageing i want to share one of these with you a gift of these years is to give another ho meaning to what it means to be alive to be ourselves to be full of life are only life and so now. My own aging seems to be taking the usual physical tolls which have actually been a surprise over the years i have recently walked to the overture with a friend for a for the forward theater i've gone to albrecht this past week to help of two and four year olds but i want to mention that these things that i do including some swimming and taking long walks with mary i enjoy them greatly but they are for a limited view i count myself highly privileged i'm not mentioning all these things to say look at me rather when your elderly regardless of your circumstance glorious. I didn't hear all milli speech before i'm just feeling so inspired by her last paragraph especially so i'm going to talk a little bit from my experience is getting to be a very old lady myself caring for people through their whole span of life. Well i could go on and on i just continue this lately but you get the general drift is one of my favorite poets and i think most people. Friend or enemy. I can look at my body as an old friend who needs my help or an enemy who frustrates me in every way with his frailty and inability to cope phone friend i shall try to be a comfort to you to the end i love this poem and this is attitude. She follows the beloved sports teams she's a real sports addict. My patient. Video of patience when i was 87. Point i'd make is one that millie also made financial security certainly is important and society certainly has a responsibility to make good medical care and good living situations possible for everyone it is shameful that in the richest country of the world this kind of life and these solutions not possible for everyone but that really is another subject very important. I do want to remind you of the literature that is on the back table and you're welcome to take any of it. It is from the dane county aging and disability agency. A burden of these years is the temptation to cling to the times and things behind us rather than move to the liberating moments ahead a blessing of these years is the invitation to go lightfoot it into the here and now. Because we spend far too much of life preparing for the future rather than enjoying the present joan chittister the gift of years. We know extinguisher extinguish this plane but not the light of truth the warmth of community or the fire of a commitment these we carry in our hearts until we are together again. Please write your neighbor and safe for a little socialization and coffee and thank you for coming today.

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Pr140803EmilyAuerbach-ed.mp3

Good morning everybody welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society i'm lynne pavelski a member of prairie. I need my notes who will be talking about the odyssey project at the university of wisconsin. This is from jackson brown jr. p.s. i love you 20 years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do then by the ones you did do so throw off the bowlines sail away from the safe harbor catch the trade winds in your sails explorer dream discover. Now we welcome ruth called enough. To read our tails. First in spanish invocamos la presencia de corazones. A proper gyro despues del mundo que nadie se sienta extrano in este circle oek totals saiyan bienvenidas lighting this chalice we invoke the presence of love in our hearts to share it today among us and then spread it to the world therefore let nobody feel a stranger in this circle and they all feel welcome. Time for a presentation today. I'd like to. Introduce emily emily auerbach is a professor professor of english at the uw-madison at the uw-madison and co-host of wisconsin public radio's university of the error she's received numerous teaching leadership broadcasting humanitarian to both official and non-traditional students. Now entering its 12th year the odyssey project provides a life-changing college humanities course free of charge to madison area adults near the poverty level since its inception the odyssey project has rolled over 32 semester course and it's helped many of them. Can you their passport college degrees and better lives like to welcome and emily and she will be welcoming some folks thank you very much and thank you for inviting us here today to talk about the odyssey project i was looking over the mission statement for prairie unitarian church and i got really excited because the values are so closely aligned with our belief in the odyssey project in particular the notion that every person has worth and dignity and value that we work together to find that common humanity and that you look for ways as an individual to make a difference in terms of social injustice. I think we all know that although madison which is where i grew out madison is home seems so progressive in many ways that we have terrible disparities are terrible achievement gaps and inequities right here among us and so i applied the emission of this group. And trying to address some of those issues and it being so welcoming to all people that that are here in in the madison community. I'm going to give a little bit of background about the odyssey project and then i have to graduates of the program that i'm going to ask up just to share. A little bit of what they wrote while in the course because one of the goals of the odyssey project is to help people find a voice and help them start using it to change the world. So i've the odyssey project which you mentioned in your introduction is heading into its 12th year this is the old banners celebrating but it grew out of a program that started in new york and my colleague at wisconsin public radio jean faraca had told me about a clemente course in the humanities that was attempting to help lift people out of desperate financial means by exposing them to great works of literature philosophy and history to see if it could bring about a transformation. And for the work that the founder of that group earlshire has had done he won the national humanities medal for his work. Jean had him as a guest on her radio program and then became convinced we should start something like it in madison. And approached me because i do outreach literature work of many different kinds. What you didn't know is that i would have a personal connection. To the idea of making the humanities or learning in general open. To those who have income barriers and other barriers that might get in their way of their participating. Let me just ask how many of you have heard of berea college in kentucky wow lots of people okay it's designed mostly for appalachian youth like my mother my mother was born 12 miles outside of knoxville with no running water and no one in her family had gone to college a teacher who saw that she was an avid reader and told her about next door kentucky and this this place called berea college where you didn't have to have any money to go to school. And she arrived there with a wardrobe consisting of one skirt and two. If somebody had said now by a textbook she would have had to go home. And i share that detail because sometimes. I think we underestimate the barriers the roadblocks that get put in the way of someone who is trying to break out of a cycle of generational poverty by going to college and it's just assumed you can pay application fees and printer cartridges and textbooks and all kinds of things. So. Aburiya is a christian school. But they also decided to import a few others for diversity. And my father is a holocaust survivor refugee from nazi germany so his story of poverty was at of the refugees fleeing from a life to one with with no means and so he attended berea that's where he met my mother. And so i grew up thinking berea was a normal place and that there were lots of such places. Elsa for me when wengie faraca told me about assertive great books program. I was excited but i didn't want just a class i wanted a full-blown educational journey that would take students. From the beginning where you get them excited about great work. And then take them all the way to degrees and better careers and lives for that not for themselves and their families. Because i think if somebody had given my mother a great books class and sent her home. It wouldn't have made the same kind of transformation. I can just tell you a few things about a few of our students we beat by the way in the south madison library on wednesday nights from september to may we have dinner together 30 students then work towards 6uw credits and then we have them keep going all the way to degrees. Necessarily degrees but the lives that they're looking for a student to raise so who was in our very first year and is looking puzzled when she try to reach hemingway she just received in may from the ywca on one of the women of distinction awards for her work as an activist in the latino community she also started a radio program in spanish i'm here in madison. 10 years earlier. But have no money and also didn't have the confidence that she could make it she was homeless at the time. Assoc didn't start she cleaned houses instead. And went after getting into the odyssey project which is like a jump-start where you can show what you can do she then went back to uw-madison and she is about to earn her bachelor's degree in another semester to attending school at the same time that her son is going to uw-madison. And she now not only has her bachelor's degree from uw-madison but is working toward her master's degree in social work. At uw with a goal of working with immigrant families like she once was. We have brochures that if you don't didn't get one when you came in i'll make sure that you get one on the on the way out but there are pictures of all kinds of other students like on the front of her brochure is pictured with three children when she came to madison. She just earned her master's in afro-american studies from uw-madison and wants to be a professor. I'm inside the brochure is a picture of. Tanisha scott who also was in her first year she's depicted as wearing an honor cord from when she got a degree at edgewood college and that honor corey cost $35. Again we used our odyssey funds. To help cover that and she now works as a social worker helping families at risk as she once was at herself as a child. And i think that is for me the the most exciting part of the odyssey project is watching transformations happen as one student put it. The odyssey project allowed me to rewrite the story of my life. Before i go further and also that before we take. Questions i want to have two graduates of our program. Come forward and share a little bit of what they wrote as part of the class first dude i'm going to ask to come forward you might have seen her if you get the madison magazine cuz it was like pretty big picture and sherry buster is. Was in the class of 2008 for the odyssey project went on to uw-madison and. Please welcome the one and only sherry bassador. My name is sherri bastard i escaped and now live outside a burst bubble of boldness and brilliant belief that i am unconquered. Odyssey help me break out of a clear glass transparent do invisible bubble of torment. Shielding me once. From the beauty the wonder. And the power of educational freedom in what that freedom greens. I'm a blessed love grateful wife. Of one wise sexy hard-working faithful husband. And mother of six of six beautiful creative healthy give to children. I'm a christian a prayer warrior a bible searcher a crybaby a dreamer a homemaker and artist a dancer a singer. An actor. Poet ass or a cook. A creator a teacher a learner a builder a family person a community person. A nation person a fighter a friend and a lover. At a peaceful a peacemaker who believes. Only love is what it's worth fighting for. I love to dance barefoot and freely before the glory of the lord. Last but not least i'm a grateful uw-madison odyssey student. A community. Leadership major a medicine graduate. A uw-madison graduate students now in the school of social work and i think honesty. And i'm hoping in our question time that cherian and add to somebody answer some of the questions here to next dude and then i'm going to call up as a graduate from a couple years ago who is now attending a madison college working on his liberal arts transfer degree and he is also going to be doing some reading for wisconsin public radio coming up as well but i'm going to have to share a few things that he wrote as part of our class and that he delivered at graduations. Odyssey graduate 2000. 13. And. In class we were asked to write a paragraph starting with two words. I love and this is what i wrote. I love my webster's dictionary. With a great passion and sense of dependency. Webster's has never stood me up. Let me down or let me astray. Never. It tells me secret that sometimes no one else can even imagine. One time i was walking through a path of words. And there were blank spots on that path out of nowhere webster's replace those blank spots with words. And i was able to continue my walk. I have never known webster's to be anything but perfect. Webster's has given me 230,000 reason. To be in love with it. I am in love with my webster. One taxi reading classes play-doh. Allegory of the cave. And here's what i wrote about that. In this cave alia from birth. Not even knowing i was living in the complete ignorance. I called this. Natural ignorance of life. Being unaware of the truth. And reality of this world. I've been mentally shackled to this form of living so long it has become all i know. 15 years i have been physically shackled because of my ignorance and asinine decision. And mistakes. I was lost. But found out road policy. My chance to turn this life around. And now it's running begins to empower me with higher education the ultimate source of power. Thanks to my odyssey professors classmates in the material we've read together i can truly say that have escape the cave of ignorance. Odyssey has led me to a never-ending journey of life. Any limits road to higher education. I will close with some words. Of dr. martin luther king that i shared in my odyssey. So i say to you my friend. Even though we must face the difficulties of today and tomorrow i still have a dream. It is a dream that is deeply rooted inside the american dream that one day this nation will rise up. Tell me about the true meaning of its creed. We hold these truths. Bb7 self-evident. Big homie not created equal. The freedom ring when we allow freedom to ring. When we let it ring from every village and every hamlet. From every state. Endeavor city. Will you be able to speed up that day when all god's children. White man. Black men. Jews gentiles protestants and catholics. Will be able to sing in the words of the old negro spiritual. Free at last. Free at last. Thank god almighty. We are free at last. Think that just woke up all the neighbors we need to wake up the neighbors. I hope that the two examples that i brought with me from r330 graduates of this program give you some sense of the eloquence the power the gifts. That's the come into the classroom that i work with i feel so honored and blessed to have that opportunity. One of those students in the class said the odyssey project help me unwrap my gifts. And that's how i see it is that the that do samba and sherry and the others that come into the class have tremendous gifts and often just need the opportunity the forum the encouragement to use those gifts one of the exciting things to is the family of fact that we see sherry has had two of her sons ago through the odyssey project after she went to berea college so did her younger sister who then went on to become a math teacher and that sister's children went to mount holyoke community. I didn't bring copies for everyone because it's it would be a lot to carry but i mean their copies of the brochure and of a bookmark but we also have selections of students writing and i'd be glad to send you one if you leave me your name they were prepared for our tenth anniversary and we have some extras and we also have a film. It's honor homepage but i also have dvd copies it has students talking about the program it is a very bittersweet film for me katie side produced it for the big ten network and it features both my parents talking about their backgrounds and my mother died just a week before it aired on national tv so it's a very bittersweet but i think give copies to anyone who wants to know more about the program. And after she read this essay that i roll she pointed me out to miss emily and i went there and interview with her and i even gave her a little taste of that king which i think was the ultimate pushover program but i honestly have been. The eye-opener for me it didn't unleash a lot of talents that i probably had instilled all my life and i'm on fire for higher education it is nothing now devil stop me. We have had by this point over 1,000 individuals help us as donors are volunteers. So we have had articles that go out in the newspapers or on tv or something so i've never lacked for students who find out in fact the very first time i offered it we had almost a hundred applicants for those 30 spots there is a hunger in this community for a free college jumpstart course. We do have community groups that help bring a meal on a wednesday night cuz we serve supper the first night the first year and i made them meals and that got old so whatever we have had people who hold a fundraiser at their house and invite all their neighbors and friends. So different ways. And i would that that i said emily reaches out to the madison. Metropolitan schools through family voices partnerships are for me and that has gone on for years and my children and my husband voice is so that's how odyssey reaches out to them. What it was it was. Really hurtful to hear her say that and not know who he was so. Along what i just did is speaking as martin luther king for anybody that work in the schools. I am willing to come into the schools and bring back the back these after american historian. About performing them. And the school. Ed assemblies or any kind of special occasions that they're having. So if you would like that you can get me your email and take mine and we can go from there. I mean transitions with food or with incomes changing you know like i said the developer students to everyday needs and through the drama of acting that just to think of a student doing that or read an appointment stuff i study about shakespeare that would encourage me mentally so i can just go on and on so many ways from emily to the staff to the students to uwm endless ways. When she got to accept it and graduate school with what we thought was a full fellowship without okay now we got it made but the first the fellowship check she was going to get was october one and you needed books so they're all kinds of unanticipated things we have and what standing between them and continuing his money. Lack of money will do everything in our power to help cuz it's so unfair. They have somebody have to stop simply because they don't have the funding to my first semester at matc without knowing anything and i got a lot of support through counseling through a different departments in the odyssey that help me with student advising because they're connected with matc now madisoncollege to where they help your transfer or they help you in your transition and i had it was it was not easy getting together but excited. I'm really looking forward to it was one of the two winners last spring i guess it was of the first wanda auerbach memorial scholarship to help is in my mother's name to help students keep going. I just want to add since since you brought up shalanda ashley sherry what you read what shalonda read at her graduation ceremony i was in a cave. Somewhat embarrassed to have white grandparents i love my grandparents to death but growing up it was hard for me to go out in public and have people stare and mumble at me. So to me it wasn't a good feeling at all i didn't like people judging me or questioning the fact that i had great. White grandparents. I'm now 24 and i feel like i have come to the light because i don't care what people have to say about it. Their opinions don't matter i'll go anywhere with my grandparents with my head held high. I don't care about people staring a monthly because i'm proud to be the granddaughter of a caucasian woman and a caucasian man. I'm in order to be in the program students need to be at least 18 and have a ged hsed or high school diploma the first year i didn't require that but i don't want to compete with the omega school cuz they do such a good job so we are requiring that that be able to read a newspaper in english be free on wednesday nights and what i look for when interviewing students for the program is that sense of hunger for learning and that feeling that the program could make a life-changing difference and sometimes i'll get goosebumps when i'm listening. One of the things that would cuz i agree with you sometimes you go to something and you get excited and then nothing comes of it and what would be really wonderful as if each of you went out this door and found ten people can give you a film or a good ways 24 minutes or we had one person who would actually come and helped us with meals she decided to do a fundraiser in june at her house she was a retired lawyer invited all the lawyer she could think of and neighbors and others think they had about 100 people took a couple of other students. To our gathering at their house. And more than that they spread the word so we have now people who have offered to give us pro bono legal help us help us with his writing tutors or helping to fill out college applications or fafsa forms we need help of all kinds and i think the best thing would be you know can but whatever. There are clemente courses in other states you know that are something like what we began as a modeling ourselves after but we now do have people and i was invited to stanford university and i'm going to middle tennessee state university year. Closing words are number 694 in the back and read them from frederick gillis may the love which overcomes all differences which heals all wounds to all fears.

uuprairie_org

Pr120729HeidiWegleiter-ed.mp3

Good morning welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society i'm dorothy crowsey on. Right now just remember which is kind of nice. . aspires to be both an open-hearted and an open-minded congregation we welcome people of every ethnic. And religious background whatever your color your sexual orientation gender. Four family structure. We welcome you no matter what's your age or your abilities or in abilities. Later in the service we will invite visitors guests and returning friends to introduce yourselves. But we might get to know you better. On sunday mornings we provide a wide variety of services presented either by a prairie member. A member of the wider community. Which will have today. Or buy. Our. In the very near future. New minister. Today heidi will be. Presenting a topic on homelessness. Are chalice lighting today is going to be by vera and gordon cunningham. There's much suffering in the world. Physical material mental. The suffering of some can be blamed on the greed of others. The material and physical suffering is suffering from hunger. From homelessness from all kinds of diseases. But the greatest. Come. But the greatest suffering is being lonely. Feeling unloved having no one. I have come more and more to realize. But it is being unwanted that is the worst disease that any human being can ever experience. That was from mother teresa. 1910 1998. I'm heidi white lightener and i'm really grateful for dorothy inviting me to come talk with y'all today about homelessness it's something i care a lot about it won't. Get into that too much now but i just want to thank my friend sophia daniel and cindy who have also joined me today and we really appreciate you welcoming us into. And caring about the tissue. It's a moron heidi. All she is an attorney at legal action of wisconsin. For the past six years she's been representing low-income tenants. An eviction cases and subsidized housing disputes. And organizing for housing justice as a member of the affordable housing action alliance. She serves on the board of. The public interest law section of the state board of wisconsin. Is on the steering committee of the emerson east neighborhood association. Is the housing task force chair of progressive dane. And co-chair of united legal workers. Heidi was recently elected to represent district to madison's north isthmus. On the dane county board of supervisors. She now serves on the dane county health and human needs committee. Human services board equal opportunities commission. And the long-term support commission. Committed. Heidi's first legislative initiative. Was to create a city-county homeless issues committee. Which has now been established and has started to meet to address the unmet needs of the homeless in dane county. And heidi will introduce the folks that she brought along so for now. Let's welcome heidi wegleitner. Well thanks again dorothy's another kind introduction and i'm 12 you and and i think you're. Interest in this issue. And the real-life experiences are folks and and. County is illustrated by that book that dorothy read. It's just so vital we need to wakeup more people to the struggle. Of homeless people in our community of kids. Elderly folks. Really that the faces of homelessness are really diverse. And lots of unmet needs out here so that's why i'm here today. We have homeless people who are falling through the cracks right now in our own community. And. A lot of times. This is invisible to us going about our regular day. It's what's invisible to me because my day job as a housing attorney. Most folks i represent are not. Actually home us all the way to represent some homeless people trying to get into housing but they're on the brink. They're about to be homeless they're facing eviction. Sometimes you know they're sleeping in their car actually the day i announce my candidacy. I. Had. Previously met with the client that same day. Cool. Her daughter and her were going to spend the night in their car. With our dog. And it was bitter cold end of november. And that's just mean their unfortunate there are many people in that situation. So why do we have this housing crisis going on in arm. What are the reasons is that housing is really expensive. If you work a minimum wage job if you're supporting yourself on you know ssi long term disability program you you just simply do not make enough money to support a housing pain. You have to work. 61 hours a week one-and-a-half jobs. To get an efficiency. Studio. I mean that it.. Alarm 53% of minimum wage is $11 an hour and that's what you would need to be able to. Be able to support a housing payment basically you need to work multiple jobs. Just to support yourself. We do not have enough low income housing in our community the federal government. Funding for section 8 program public housing it's just plummeted in the past 30 years. I grew up in section 8 project based housing when i was young from the baby till about the first five years and that's when the these types of low-income subsidized projects were funded at about. Triple the rate they are now. And what did that housing stability to provide my parents. Oh my parents had a few things going for them already they had you know to parents in the household so there were no two. People able-bodied people that could work to make ends meet. But it was early eighties and they were struggling there's a recession they couldn't find jobs or subs. Teaching but because they're in because the rent was based on their income they were able to provide a stable home for me my younger brother and eventually they didn't get job. They're able to finish their degrees getting education and able to save up enough money to move into to buy their own home. And you know. They can have that support they already had family support they had education they had so much more going for them than so many other people but they still having that government supported housing was really essential to them being able to give us a stable home and move on in in in become economically mobile really move up the economic ladder and so what we waiting list to get into public housing. We have section 8 rent assistance program the most popular government subsidized program or you take about your to a private landlord and potoo the federal housing department subsidizes it. You pay 30% of your income that waiting list for that program has been closed in the city of madison and dane county. Since 2007 there was a lottery i think a few years ago a lottery. Did you just get a spot on a waiting list. But this is what we're dealing with there's just not housing and then to the pile onto that you have 2% vacancy rate in r&r rental housing market right now even though we have empty foreclosed homes. That could be housing people the rental market is extremely tight so what do you have you have you know 10-15 people applying for everyone unit. And lamb is the landlord's market they get to be really really picky. Last year we saw the rent. Go up 18%. Because of its incredibly tight market. You're seeing seniors who've lived in their housing fur. Sometimes 10-15 years have to reapply. Go through additional application screening criteria be charged additional you know. Deposits and things like that so it's really a tough time and the federal government does not seem to be. Investing more in this we have congress that's passing these really draconian cuts to human services programs. And so what are we going to do and in and what we're seeing on a local level is you know people falling through the cracks or seeing people who can't even access shelter. You know the most basic sort of protection from the elements. Extreme heat this winter. Extreme cold i'm cold in the winter and we have people who are running up against lifetime limits. If you're a family annual limit. If you're a single man you have couples who can't stay in the shelter together because we don't have a couple shelter. And we have enough your families being turned away we have people have been banned from shelter. So if you're. If you're a guy trying to get into the men's shelter access one of the men's shelter services there's only one men's shelter provider and if you get banned that's it. There's no other option. There's no second chance shelter. So what does that say to people. The question was why would someone get banned from shelter and. Dan indicated that it could be a behavioral problem stealing i mean. Basically if if you do something wrong and that they don't like and it most likely hopefully it's something that's pretty serious. That could trigger your exclusion essentially from those services. There's no sort of independent process to make sure that's fair or not. So what happened we we saw. People who just weren't their needs weren't being met in our community. And last fall we had a groupon that sort of. What part of the occupy movement global occupy movement for economic justice and accountability among our financial institution. And there was this the protests that started and it moved around a few times and then it really evolve into welcoming a welcoming. Temporary living arrangements for homeless people. And so we saw. People who i'm all the sudden we're no longer invisible to us because they were part of a community that was right on east washington. Trying to figure out a way. Without hardly any government resources they could provide mutual support to one another. And find security within that community. And i'm really excited and grateful to have. Two members from occupied who had experience with that community here today sofia and daniel and i want to invite them up at this time just to talk a little bit about their personal experience with occupied and some of the work they've been trying to do since occupied was evicted from the site on east washington and then i'll wrap up with some of our initiatives at the at the county government level. I'm sophia do you want to. Hi my name is sophia martinez and i am from portugal originally i've been in the states. Since 95. I ended in occupied. Mostly because of my financial situation i got divorced. Ganz i used to own businesses so things didn't work out. My favorite. So i. Rescue my actually went to the shelter. And i got so afraid b. Of the situation over there. That i went by when i went back to the two occupied and at that time it was february was awfully cold outside you know we had snow. You know everybody was i felt so much more secure it occupies. Did then i do it's the shelter system because when i got there today. I did barely have anything they gave me a blankets they gave me foods to give me support when he when he came through. Feel you a little bit more self-motivated because you feel so beaten down from the system nowadays. And we all keep eyes what we try to do is we. Everybody was welcome. As long as you know there are certain rules and that's you know any dad should be you know stablished the three much everybody was welcomed in the in the occupied. In which way to help each other it was a system that you know some people will go to pantries to get food. Some people would bring. Clothing to the student suicide. But we never got pretty much no help from the government as whoever which pretty much. Individual people. That should help us out. Angela. When's occupied got to. Dismantled. Six of us kind of stick with each other and we went now we doing the campgrounds. And we stayed 14 days in a campground and then we have to leave for 2 days and then come back to the same campground. Well this campground is grown from 6 people. 218 right now. And. Because the support is fantastic we know and we rely on each other it's pretty much it you know we are relying on our friendship. Into what we can do for each other as little as this can be but at least uses. Self-esteem and some worrell you know he helps his. Go to work and feel a little bit more human because a lot of the doors have been closed to us. And i mean. Problem is not going to go away and i know and there's more and more people that are getting into situation in a logical. Why what you know can you. You working i'm like yes i work. Can you get an apartment and i said no not really i cannot afford an apartment. Right now first of all because. Of the ranch like. Heidi was saying second of all the landlords go to such a scrutiny to pick you up. By the time you know that. You don't have no chance but he wants to get a little edition apartments. With addison ranch because it's it's just not going to happen the days nowadays. With the with the late farm will be doing is. Pretty much everybody's welcome you know as long as you. Participates in walbridge wing kits. Make sure that there's ordering camp no disrespect towards other people no stealing you know none of this type of stuff and just bring food and bring self self-esteem and hug. I'm in the blankets whatever you needed pants. So it's been quite an experience for me to be honest with you because. The last persons i was that i was sort out with rely on are the ones that are being backing me up in o. Ignore the first the people that they don't have. We much nothing to offer. In all except. Love. Support. And she don't come become a lottery. And i think. This has been fantastic you know. It's been a fantastic experience. Hello my name is daniel callahan and i'm with occupy. And i want. I've been with occupied since about october last year. I was over at the don miller site. We got a big didn't that and. Yeah it was a community. We all. Pitch together. Did things for each other help their selves. Since being out of here like she says we've been going from campsite to campsite and we grew and. Now we've got rules that we. Go by. Lot of my working now. So everybody's trying to pitch in a little bit and i'll $2 a day.. Thanks going and. The two extremes to be working out. Not like they can give it right away some got to wait till their paycheck a nap so. But that's working out. But. The thing is when they close occupy. They left a lot of homeless people out there. We will accept the homeless. 1 people ran out of the shelter time and and. It was winter i couldn't see that. I was head of security over there with terry and tiny. And. We welcome. Now we couldn't turn our backs on. So. But when they just mailed it. People ended up going all over. Madison. Park's park benches. Upon castle. Nowhere to go. So that's when we decided it's time to. Open up occupy again poppy. We know where we made mistakes before and we're not about to make the same one. Main thing is we're going to make changes. That's why we got the security now we're homeless and. You still around. She's something better. We have a weekly meeting with everybody in the community now everybody hudson families and we discuss issues everything that needs to be done. You know. My experience with the shelters i've been homeless. For about a year-and-a-half off-and-on and and. Porchlight runs the shelter and their staff that runs it. Need to be more. Lenient little more. Helpful you know they did. They don't really care and all they do is. It's it's very disrespectful in the way they treat people. I mean just cuz you're homeless doesn't mean you should be treated. Disrespect. These people i'm. Porchlight we've had problems with professor pack. But. There's a lot of red tape. I mean they want to help people but. You going around the process. The house looks a lot. Lot of red tape. So. As dan mentioned in dorothy. What followed after the occupied eviction was the county decided to create a committee. To look at all these issues that occupied brought to the front page of our papers. All the challenges with the shelter system all the people falling through the cracks. And you know where. As i keep identified there are these gas. So so we decided while we went we need some people to work on that so we need a good group of folks from a wide variety of experiences to get together to address some of these unmet needs. There's some. Rather urgent. And there are all sorts of solutions and strategies that we need to consider because homelessness is a problem that affects people in different ways. And like i said before there many different faces of homelessness so we created a city county homeless issues committee and a sofia and anna both been appointed by the county executive to serve on that committee with me as well as three other county board supervisors to city of madison alder people. I'm the chief of police in madison and then one other person whose experience homelessness and three people who are. Shelter providers are homeless services providers so while we're trying to do is put some heads together to figure out. What can we do about this these are really basic. Life-sustaining sort of daily needs that aren't being mad. And i think it. It's really interesting when you think about what it would be like to essentially. Criminalize someone. Existence. And i think that's what has happened in a lot of ways in within the city of madison there is no place that's zoned for. Camping. And in fact you can be ticketed. In a park in a public space if you have a blanket with you. Sew-in you can be ticketed if you don't have a place to go to the bathroom and the public restrooms are closed and you need to go. There's all sorts of ways which people need to take care of basic things that we take for granted as how was people as people that have access to shelter. Clean water too hot water to cold water. An end into bathrooms and in a place to cook food and stuff like that. So. What we're good at what i would like to see as a jew with the city-county i'm homeless issues committee is not only think about you know the long-term permanent solutions which is. Creation of more. Housing affordable to very low-income people in low-income families that doesn't have extremely rigid screening criteria that. Is going to screen out anyone who poor because they don't have good credit. Go figure it's also. It's also dealing with these immediate needs and looking in examining our policies. 4. To think about you know france's danone den tokyo talked about. People camping right now in county campgrounds. So you know. Campgrounds are intended for recreational use our parks. Intended for recreational use. But when all other spaces are excluded from all of those faces i mean really the campground the dane county campground has been the only place where homeless folks can lawfully exist. Where they can get a shower where they can get bathroom where they can charge their phone. Where they can have community. And i think. We need to examine all these policies that are originally well-intentioned and well reason but when you apply them to homeless people. Who are actually using the space to carry out there. Everyday needs. It becomes owner ass. To make someone move. All the way across town to a different campground because you have a 14-day limit on a stay in that particular site. Especially when i groups now 80 people or talking about transportation you're talking about loading up all the coolers that have all the food in them all the ice. There's all these sort of. Little ways like little pieces of red tape like damn was saying that can make your life unnecessarily difficult. So we want to look at it can we. Relax some of these rules. Make it easier for folks to just exist. Is there an alternative site for occupied. We're not hearing about all this new money coming to create affordable housing or to create a new additional transitional housing so what are we going to do are we going to let people fall through the cracks or we going to find another site where they can continue to experiment with this idea of collective. You know temporary living arrangements and i think the quote for mother teresa today is really gets to the heart. Of what the occupy folks and brought to this discussion which is. You know. We are. We are people. And this community has given us so much more than just the sort of material gain of food. And shelter. Insecurities but it's that it's that that dignity and that self-esteem that sophia was talking about the idea that you know you're you bring something of value to this discussion. And that's why we're going to talk together until we can find a solution that works for all of us and so. One of the things that this new this resolution that dorothy and i helped past was to create the city-county homeless issues committee but also to have madison area urban ministries complete a report. About the unmet needs this occupy clothes and whether or not there are sites in our community where we could try this sort of temporary living arrangements again. Because what you see is. What happened to derek sure there were problems. But you didn't have a lot of public investment but you had all these different community people coming together with their own unique skills. Their own unique you know passion their ability to construct your food pause you know bring food over give people rides to jobs employment opportunities that kind of thing and it's really it's really amazing we're incredibly creative and resilient and we want to come together and work together but sometimes. It's. It's. Almost rendered impossible because of our lack of imagination and the lack of political will to allow that creative space to exist to allow people. Be together and figure out their own solution. To find that self-determination i'm 22. You know move move up in their world to find some stability so that's what mom was able to give us his great report of all these different sites within our community and i one of the things that we are looking at via faith communities might want to help with is. Car camping space you know we heard a story earlier about people sleeping in their cars. Their families that are doing that all over and that can be a scary unsafe you know things were people. I didn't also can be really difficult if you don't have an open restroom or a porta-potty nearby or running water in that kind of thing so so those. Car camping spaces one of the things that mom identified mom also identify the need to have access to showers. And restrooms and a centrally-located day center where people can go just to. Just to rest if they work 3rd shift. Just to charge their phone to get help setting up the voicemail on your phone to access the computer email have a post office box. Mailbox. Apply for benefits like food share or you know a subsidized housing get on one of those really long wait list. But we need a place like that right now there is not. A place like that downtown accessible to people accessible to everyone. Be able to just go to. Sort of. Figure out how to deal with a daily challenges of being homeless so one thing that the county is interested in doing is helping support a day center there's an article about it in the. In the paper this morning and the question is you know where's the funding to come from to operate at long-term. Clearly this identified need. But we need to be able to someone needs to be able to find money. . keep it going. Operating expenses are always more challenging. Band that the capital that the building purchase. Expensive so we're looking at right now on the day center examining how our policies criminalize homelessness and make it unnecessarily difficult for people to use campgrounds and other public spaces. And we're looking to see if there are existing public and private spaces. That can help us fill in some of these gaps. That. You know are really appearance. And and and are going to require real long-term solutions but in the interim we need some we need to deal with this. Emergency needs right now people need a place to go back and they need to shower they need a place to escape from the heat. And the rain and stuff like that so so i just want to give you an idea about where we're headed. Today this is going to be a long struggle. But certainly it's really important that people know that you know you care about the homeless in our community and that you know we should not in this you know. Relatively affluent county that we live in. We're really having a human rights crisis when it comes to not. Not having housing for people. People not having access to restrooms water shower these. Thanks again for your interest in the topic and i think we have time for a few more. Question. Well our first i would invite you to our first meeting is that. The appointments have been made but i'll keep you posted if there are vacancies but our first meeting is this tuesday at 5 p.m. in room 350 one of the city-county building will be talkin about the homeless day center and some of these other issues that the latest shower access restrooms and the campground so. I think that's an interesting question in a good point and i think we're going to have some of these discussions in this new committee. I think that one of the things that. We need to realize and maybe that's not as recognized in the homeless services provider network at this point in time is that. One solution doesn't work for everyone. And that people should have some choice some agencies some you know self-determination about how they're going to lift themselves up out of homelessness help survive you don't help survive on the streets or be a part of the community i think you know. There are a lot of challenges with providing. Shelter to folks that have some folks. You know. I have more challenges than others who have people with serious untreated mental illness you have addiction problems and you have situations that can be very stressful very intense. And you have a lot of responsibility for caring for these folks so i think sometimes. Are different personalities at play but you have maybe some. I don't know what the right word but harden or maybe a little bit more rigid attitude about the administration of certain services because it is it can be very. Taxing it the situations can be really intense and we're talkin about you know. Security for a lot of people so i would love to see more assertive democratic organization more homeless input into how the shelters are organized and ron. But i don't know that that's. Any easy thing is i think i heard someone say over here so i think until that time can we give people another option another choice. Especially considering some people just get kicked out with nowhere else to go so i'd like to see you know maybe future funding and shelters you know maybe we prioritize that funding to programs that give more input to the people who are being served. Just one sort of. Additional reaction to that comment is. I think sometimes. Because. The way. Social services in-home services are funded. Through the federal government. Pass through the county at the local level or the city. People are worried about numbers and and and how many people they are serving and people are sort of i think sometimes unfortunately and not intentionally necessarily treated as. A bundle of needs. Instead of a. The human being an agency and on some empathy it's like that. Need madness need not that we met and said you know what we would like to see more of a sort of a holistic. Surveying and more of a mutual learning process i guess 4 for both the provider and the person being served within the homeless services. So i'd love to see as evolve. Sommore. A participation in and i think you know haven't homeless people people experience homelessness on this committee will give a voice to that process. Good questions. Portside is oliver home services in dane county or purchased so they're one of the nonprofit providers of homeless services the only shelter provider for men. I'm so end end. I think we may have to look if we're going to operate a day center. For other sources i mean. Do general tax levy dollars i think because they just aren't enough right now. So. In terms of housing in rural areas. And in this i think also relates to your first question i believe housing is a right. And in counting city management recognize housing is a right. And we. One of the things that the housing is right resolution says is that we need to figure out a plan for meeting the housing needs whether it's accessible housing affordable housing culturally. Adequate housing in each community. Elgin county. You shouldn't have to move somewhere. Because there's no affordable housing where you are or where you grew up or where your family or your job is. I'm so one of the things about the housing is right resolution if you create a housing plan to meet the housing needs in every community we don't have good data on what the needs are right now we don't have a good data on what the our housing stock is so we're going to be trying to realize the human right to housing for folks. By starting to plan for it figuring out how we're going to meet these needs create more housing in each community i think having a public transportation that obviously connects people to the other services that they depend upon and the other opportunities. Is really vital to making. You know. Rural housing make sense for. Most folks. So. I guess that's. My answer. It's your question but i'm really excited about the the benchmarks that for us and our housing is right resolution we're trying to reduce the number of homeless kids like. Percent by september 1st 2015. Create additional hundred single room occupancy units for people who support themselves on w-2 or ssi so really trying to. Hit some concrete benchmarks to move this forward and make this more than just. A declaration on paper. Let me pass a resolution earlier in. In the summer it was funny cuz one of the persons testifying said. Well you know since this is part of the universal declaration of human rights that we signed in 1949 or whatever it was. Welcome to the mid-twentieth century. it's simple but if you don't have a place to put your head at night how are you going to figure out how to find a job or get connected or stabilizer or be a part of your community. Thank you. Are closing words today. By dennis kucinich. We have weapons of mass destruction we have to address here at home. Poverty is a weapon of mass destruction. Homelessness is a weapon of mass destruction. And unemployment is a weapon of mass destruction. Heidi will stay after to visit with folks for a little while.

uuprairie_org

Pr160626Urbanski-ed.mp3

So. Welcome welcome everyone to prairie unitarian universalist society. I'm rachel on i am a long-time member of prairie and i get to preside today. spires to be an open-hearted and open-minded congregation. And we welcome everyone no matter what your ethnic or religious background your sexual orientation or family structure. Your place of residence your abilities are in abilities we try to be welcoming to everyone. On sunday mornings we have a wide variety of services so if this is your first or second time we encourage you to return again in the future and try us out cuz it's a little bit different each week. Sometimes our services are presented by a prairie members sometimes someone from the wider community and sometimes by our consulting minister san diego. Today we have one of our own and our baskets going to be presenting to us. Are opening words today will be read by karen dean. The principle of the inheritance courts and dignity of every person is not about who deserves wurthmann diviney it isn't about anyone else it's about me. It's about a choice that i make everyday and how i choose to treat others. We can treat a person with respect and dignity while questioning challenging or even confronting their behavior. Yes doing so is difficult. I think ruu faith is about calling us to our better selves. And i don't think that's supposed to be easy. Papa john cooper. We have an unusual situation this morning where we actually had multiple volunteers for our reading so if you don't get called and you thought you were reading don't feel too surprised today. We like this chalice to celebrate the inherent worth and dignity of every person. To reaffirm the historic pledge of liberal religion. Deceit that justice which transcends mere legality. And moves towards the resolution of true equality. And to share that love which is ultimately beyond even our cherished reason. That love which unites us. Steven stock. Our presentation today. Which is entitled fear is the path to the dark side. The inherent worth and dignity of every person versus fear of the other. Is presented by an urbanski. Who is a long-time member here at prairie also secretary of our board. A long time. At least five years right member. Of pflag which is an organization that supports and advocates. And educates regarding lgbtq issues. But that's just one fragment of our talk today. So i was telling him this morning how timely i thought this cop it was this week. Please welcome and urbanski. How many people has to have a i have have asked. So i wrote a sermon. Are those okay. We'd member congregations of the unitarian universalist association covenant to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. The very first words of our denominations principles make it plain that unitarian-universalism is an aspirational religious movement. Our first principle. Commits us as individuals within this movement. To look for the good in every person. And as much as possible. To follow the golden rule in our relationships with family. Friends and strangers. Even those who disagree with us on religious political or social issues. According to uu minister in theologian reverend rebecca and parker. Initiative quote. Reverence and respect for human nature. Is at the core of you you face. We believe that all the dimensions of our being. Carry the potential to do good. We celebrate the gifts of being human. Our intelligence. And capacity for observation and reason. Our senses and ability to appreciate beauty. Our creativity. Our creativity are feelings and emotions. We cherish our bodies as well as our souls. We can use our gifts to offer love. To work for justice. To heal injury. To create pleasure for ourselves and others. The great 20th century rabbi abraham heschel road. Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy. Unitarian universalist affirmed inherent worth and dignity of each person as a given of faith. An unshakable conviction calling us to self-respect and respect for others. This is not a creedal statement. Unitarian universalism has no creed. No dog went to be memorize and recite it on demand. Instead we have principles. That ideally we internalize and live out in our daily lives. Do you use religion is not only about going to church on sunday. It's about doing and being. This is the aspirational aspect i spoke of. We aspire to be our best selves and much of that involves doing unto others as we would have them do unto us. Our aspirational movement is also idealistic. The seven principles do not describe the current state of society but rather. Team to represent goals to work toward in our relationships with our families our communities and within our nation. To me they are but desired state we could achieve with a lot of work. Not just from you use but from other like-minded people. Some might even say their utopian. When times are good and things seemed to be going well for us. Why should we treat others with respect and dignity. For those of us who are living decently balance lives. And his path hasn't been shaped by serious trama. Treating others with respect and decency are to be the simplest path. And yeah i guess we know many people relate to the world in a perpetual state of fear. And being fearful of the other. Abdul ones who are not like me. Makes it difficult to see another person's inherent worth and dignity. Is the great science fiction philosopher yoda and i won't try to do his voice send said in star wars episode 1 the phantom menace. Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. And gary gates we'll do our first reading. Human beings are capable of just about any good and any evil. At some level we are neither inherently good nor inherently evil. But have great capacity for both. All babies are born good. They're born that way. But they will develop the capacity for evil. Some of them some of us will act out that capacity. Someone that. I feel welcome great atrocities most will not. Some of us will suffer greatly. Some of us will see that suffering and simply pass by. In the end we are simply looking into a mirror. We are all made of the same stuff. No matter how great our flaws. There's always. Also. Contained within every human. The very essence of our humanity. Our inherent worth. And dignity which gives us our capacity to give and receive love. Is that capacity that finally reconciled all people in the end. To the holiest enter thesaurus. Of all of. Brother robert beth ellen cooper. In recent years probably since september 11th. I've thought a lot about the role that fearnow plays in american society. Perhaps this is why for the past six or eight years i've been really fascinated by dystopian fiction. Weather in books movies or specially television. I recently realized that most of the books and tv series i've been invested in the last few years have focused on post-apocalyptic dystopian scenarios. Some but not all of these include. The hunger games books and films which take place some years after an unspecified apocalypse probably in the late 21st and early 22nd century. The walking dead and his companion show fear the walking dead we are in ordinary people attempt to survive a zombie apocalypse and each other. The last ship would take place during a worldwide viral apocalypse. And falling skies would a show that ended last year. Which was set in during an alien invasion aka alien apocalypse. Most recently my husband and i have been i have to say this is one of the things that my husband and i share is this kind of stuff. Most recently my husband and i have been watching a show on netflix called jericho. Which lasted only two seasons on network television about 10 years ago. Jericho is a fictional small town in far north western kansas near the colorado state line. The main character jake green returns to his hometown after a five-year absence. Jake thirtysomething is apparently the black sheep of his family and he returns to his parents younger brother and friends varied stories on about where he has been. He leaves after a disagreement with his father but while he is driving on the highway and nuclear bomb explode just across the state line in denver. In the aftermath jake encounters a crashed bus and its occupants he saves the injured bus driver and a group of young children. A prison bus also crashes allowing the convicts inside to escape and kill the sheriff of jericho. The town citizens grow more worried when they learned of a second nuclear explosion in atlanta. In several months following nuclear blast and this is a small average ordinary kind of a farming town in the bin you know out in the middle of nowhere in in kansas. The residents of jericho have to deal with numerous things they not experienced before. Radioactive fallout arrives in the wind and rain storm forcing residents to hide in basements and other shelters. 1 strangers later found in pharmacy dying of radiation poisoning in burned which of course scares the people who find it. Gasoline starts to run low and his ration for primer used by the town small medical center. The electric grid becomes unstable causing a power spike but starts a major fire. The us government believe what they believe is left of it believing that the bombs to be the work of a foreign power. Launches. Intercontinental ballistic missiles from nearby air force base. And an electric potion icbm's fries all the electronic devices in the town. Whatever town is now effectively cut off from the outside world has no stable electrical supply and is running low on fuel and food. Electricity eventually becomes unavailable is there's no longer enough fuel to generate to run the generators except at the medical center. Holmes's homes and businesses are lit by candlelight. Local grocery store runs low on goods and people begin to barter with a store owner for food but some people aren't satisfied with bartering. And the grocer is eventually murdered by a local c. The local doctor has to barter with a different seat for medicine to treat them to mayer's illness. The employees of a private security firm called ravenwood. Which i think. Kind of black. Confront some townspeople. With a demand that they hand over their supplies to ravenwood for used by the us government. An armed group of jericho residence makes a stand-in blows up one of the bridges into the town to prevent ravenwood guntur mentoring. A man suspected of murdering the groceries caught. Jake's father is half has been there for 25 years but he loses his bid for re-election. And the new mayor wants to basically summarily execute the murder suspect without a try. But under pressure from jake's father he decides to exile demand instead. A group of several dozen refugees arrives in town after walking walking more than 150 miles from wichita where they're planted made an emergency landing the day of the blast. Jake andy and others in the town argue in favor of taking the men despite the strain it will place on people already struggling. To deal with food rationing. And lack the struggling to deal with food rationing lack of electricity and gasoline and so forth. And this is just the first half of season 1. So these people are going through a lot. Alright. By the end of the season the neighboring town is threatening to take over most of jericho's farmland food and other supplies by force. Resulting in a pitched battle outside and jericho with jake playing a leading role. What i like about this show is at the reactions of jericho's residents seem to run the gamut of how ordinary people might react when faced with such an extraordinary. And extraordinary stressful situation. Some like jake are able to rise to the challenge. Perhaps because they are basically decent people. For able to see the humanity in others. Even people they've never met. Others like the new mayor find a situation more than they can handle. Later in the season he's not only paranoid about all newcomers but also unable to make important decisions. Words to me by the ravenwood suggs who steal and harm people for business rates. It's just business. And the leaders of the nearby town who see everybody outside their media group is an existential threat. In life isn't fiction crises seem to bring out the best in some people and the worst in others. It seems to me that those were led by their fear of the other. People who are not like us or not from here. Have the most trouble with difficult times and uncertainty. They're the people i worry we'll end up on the path to the dark side. Which seems to be easy to slide toward if you're not making a conscious effort to see and value the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Just a few days ago we saw the united kingdom possibly take a step toward the dark side. With each about to leave the european union. A demographic breakdown of the brexit vote shows that most people who voted in favor of leaving the eu for more than 45 years old. And lived in england and. Wait. Did many of the leave voters were motivated by a dislike or fear of immigrants and refugees. On a radio show i listen to regularly. One of the host mentioned in exit polling interview with an elderly woman who voted to leave the eu. Well i just don't like the negroes. She said matter-of-factly. And i saw another little clip on tv the other day. It was an elderly man is sitting in the barbershop and he said. Immigrants and refugees get rid of all. Make him go. And now kathy converse will do our second grade. Jamaica first principle into a spiritual practice requires us to honestly knowledge. Then we've been programmed by a society to treasure and cherish certain kinds of people over others. And to see only a select few with bearing as much worth value indignity as we ourselves have. The rest we have been trained by many forces to regard as other. Or either afraid of that other. Or feel superior to that other. Almost as bad. We've learned to feel kind of privileged pity or charity toward those others. And please god spare us from that ladder perhaps most of all. It's not enough for unitarian-universalism or any other religious tradition to simply try to have the right virtuous thoughts and feelings. Something more is asked of us and the name for that something more is love. The enormous demanding divine idea that asked us not only to feel virtuous thing but to shape our actions around those feelings. Reverend victoria weinstein. Has john cooper stated in today's opening words. It's not up to us to decide who deserves where's indignity. Each of us everyday has to make a choice about how we treat other people. Even those who were vastly different from us. One of the hardest things for me for example. Is remembering that a certain candidate for leader of the free world. Has inherent worth and dignity. Somewhere. No matter what kind of things that person says or does. I can call him on those words and actions without using language that degrades that person is a human being. And that's hard and i have i have failed at that numerous times then i admit it. I also have trouble remembering that some members of our congress and have inherent worth and dignity even though through their words and their votes they often behave as though they don't respect the inherent worth and dignity of certain other people in our country. For example people who are poor. Or disabled. Or in the lgbt lgbtq community. This also applies to certain. Preachers. Whose words make me want to tear my hair out and throw things at them. Fortunately physical distance my desire not to get arrested and believe my belief in the first principle keep me from acting on those impulses. Hardest of all to me at least is remembering that somewhere deep in their souls. Mass murderers and serial killers had some shred of worth and dignity. Maybe it was only there when they were small children. And somehow it got stopped smaller than a pinhead. I will not mention the orlando shooters name. I'm sure everyone here has heard it. Too many times in the past 2 weeks. I will say though but i don't believe he was really an isis operative. Based on what has come out in the fbi's investigation so far. I think he was probably a deeply closeted gay man. Do it hurt all is life. Especially from his father. The being gay was evil. He internalized that hatred. And could no longer live with it. He had attempted to pick up man at the post nightclub sun circle x but apparently was always rejected. Had someone accepted his advances would that person have become an individual victim of this man's rage and self-loathing. I doubt it will ever know. But we do know that early on the morning of june 12th. He went to the post nightclub and started shooting everyone inside. The semi-automatic weapon designed for the purpose of killing many people quickly. He did what he could to wipe out a large group of people. Who represented the thing he could never dare to be. His real self. 49 lives lost in more than 50 wounded. Because shooter could not allow himself to see the inherent worth and dignity of happy lgbt folks and their allies. Having fun at a nightclub. What a 100 family shattered. By his need to see them is an unholy other. That is the somber reality of the aftermath of orlando and if so many other tragedies caused by someone going to the dark side. Is unitarian universalist. We can have several reaction. We can provide help to those directly affected. We can offer our time money or other age groups that support organizations. That help the victims as well as groups at work to prevent similar tragedies. On an individual level we can strive in our daily lives to let the first principle. Shape our behavior towards others. As noted in our opening words. We can treat people with respect and dignity while not questioning while questioning challenging or even confronting their behavior. Yes doing so is difficult i think are you faith is about calling us to our better selves. And i don't think that's supposed to be. I think it can be really hard to reach out to those people i think that. A lot of people are looking for what they considered to be easy. Answers and they're looking for somebody to tell them what to do. And how to sync. And there's some canada to new fall into that category and they're looking to those candidates to. Quote make everything better. And. And. You know it's. Our form of government is not an issue. It's it's. It's quite hard and it requires a lot of work for people and and. You know i think our best chance is to what is to reach out to people who are kind of on the edge. Who could serta fall either way. And and be good examples. You know of how to behave and this some the reason i mentioned jericho was spent so much time on it was that it. It was to me a scenario or something that could happen people have been worried about a nuclear apocalypse you know off and on the united states for 60 years you know more than 60 years and. You know it showed very ordinary people responding to extraordinary situations and jacob like i said has been considered the. The black sheep. He turned out to be a leader. You know when people would not have expected that out of him. And i think that there are. A lot of people that you don't expect to rise to the occasion and yet it given the opportunity and give him some encouragement they will. So. Like i said i have no. And i think that i think that you know there's some of the. The brexit vote i think there were. There were people who were voting because they thought that quote. Immigrants were taking their jobs and immigrants were not taking their job. Employers were. Giving jobs. It at lower pay to immigrants are people who are willing to work for lower pay which is not taking your job. You know it's really actually. It's really actually. You know taking advantage. A people who are not used to a higher standard of living. But you're you're. You're highlighting that we have some some very. Complicated problems. That. We're not dealing with very well to climate change being being one of the foremost. The refugee crisis is caused by ongoing ongoing war. That. We can't seem to find a solution to. Currently and you know i think that. Were we able to. Get some people. Together who could actually get that were stopped. You know that would provide some stability i mean the people from the syrian people who are leaving. Ashraf tired of being bombed you know they are just attempting to live. And fortunately this pushes pushes them into europe and other places where. People feel like there's no quote too many too many of them unquote coming you know coming over. And. Yeah i understand what you mean though about fear being again oh it's good to figure it's good to fear is good if it enables you to move in a positive direction. But if it only pushes you towards doing negative things then you know you hate you and you have to think about it you have to beat you have to really. Be able to think about what your reaction is and unfortunately a lot of people. Just kind of react blindly. When it comes to politics. I'm of the belief that facts don't matter. The most people that most people. For most people they vote based on their values and their values have to do with catamore with their limbic system. Then with anything else and if they are. If they tend to be organized tend to be oriented towards fear. And aggression and things like that they will vote one way and if they tend to be oriented towards. Kindness. And openness and willingness to to see many points of view say all folded different way. And so there are some people who we know who that candidate is won't mention that person's name but you know that person said i could shoot somebody in the middle of fifth avenue and not lose any votes and i believe that is probably true of the people who are committed to that person. That they don't care what that person does it doesn't matter that person could throw the pope off the roof of the few do the empire state building and they wouldn't care. So because that person. Talks about the things that they want to hear. In my work with people heck he knew i'd get around to that eventually one of the things that we do is education as well as support and i know a lot of people online who are allies to the lgbt community and. And we all have the kind of idea of each one teach one that you know a lot of people believe they don't know somebody who is you know lesbian or gay or bi or or tramps especially transgender. And. You know that the whole business with the bathroom bills that has gone on which is very dehumanizing for trans people. You know to be singled out that way. A lot of people believe they've never met a trans person so especially if they meet a transgender child you know who started talking when they were two years old of i'm not a boy i'm a girl. You know well obviously the parents didn't tell them to do that they didn't get that from the media but they i think it when people. Have the opportunity to meet somebody and talk with them and find out. Who they really are that it can change hearts. Well i know i think like you said before i think fear is frequently very natural reaction and. And. But as for people voting against their best interest. The same thing that i've heard is that everyone in america believes that that they're really they're not poor they're just to temporarily disadvantaged future millionaire. That's awesome there's a whole line of. Inquiry i guess and manage management area called risk assessment and. I. Have a friend does former coworker at dnr who did a lot of that in the 90s and he says he told me that you know people tend to worry about things that. Ar. But seem bigger than they are and it seems and that are close to them. You know that's why you have the not-in-my-backyard stuff to do with with different environmental things whereas something like climate change seems far away. You know seems like it's not going to have seems like it's not going to happen anytime soon. And let you know it's it's harder to it's hard to envision it's harder to put your hands around or whatever. Thank you a area. And are closing words. Are you doing those today rick i know we've this is one of those where we had more than one volunteer. We have a calling in this world. We're call to honor diversity to respect differences with dignity. And to challenge those. Who would forbid it. We are people of a wide path. Let us be wide and affection. And go our way in peace. Amen. Jeanrichard. Please greet your neighbor and join us for coffee and conversation and thank you so much for coming.

uuprairie_org

Pr191201Margulis-ed.mp3

Good morning and welcome. My name is renee and my pronouns are she her hers. I am on the program committee and i was retreat registrar with nancy. And my communications committee. We welcome people of every ethnic and religious background whatever your color sexual orientation family structure age or abilities. Later the service we want visitors and guests and returning friends. To introduce yourself that we might get to know you better. On sunday mornings we provide a wide variety of services they are presented either by a prairie member or a member of the wider community. Next up are our opening words. Star by david. Freda and kate lewis going to. Advent adventist means waiting. And the holiday season is nothing if not waiting. He got done the chores to find the right gift. Define time for quiet moments. To accept that our loved ones will not always be as we wish them to be. We will like the chalice this holiday season this time of waiting to remind ourselves to enjoy the moment. Then now. Of our lives. Yes much is coming and always we wait. But those things to come will also be now. Next up is. Are chalice lighting. And fancy one of those going to help me like the child i will read the words. This is by the same author actually david freedom. The first chalice lighting of advent reminds us to be patient in this holiday season maybe find the patience to forgive ourselves to forgive those who do not. Do as we wish and we find patients maybe find the wisdom to let be. Something. Alright are presenter today is rabbi bonnie. You know what i forgot to ask how you pronounce your last name. Miraculous. She is the founder of an executive director of wisconsin faith voices for justice and chair of the wisconsin religious coalition for reproductive choice. As well as a member of the board of the n-double-acp of dane county. And a founder and staff. For the dane county. Dane thinks record listen. She was a founding board member of we are many united against hate which we actually heard. Few weeks ago today is presentation the jewish and you you roots of social justice is linked with our second and sixth uu principle so. Good morning thank you so much for inviting me to be here this morning i really appreciate the opportunity to. Speak about a subject which is near and dear to my heart which is the imperative for. Faith communities to be involved in work of social justice. It's been my privilege to. Be an activist and a grassroots organizer in the. Jewish and interfaith communities for. Oh my for 30 plus years. Yes i'm old. And it's work that i love and it's work that i'm passionate about. And i work on a wide variety of different social justice issues and have for all these years. The part of the work that i do includes training others to do this work. To do social justice activism and to do organizing in an interfaith setting. And when i do this these trainings people ask me to show how do we get started where. Where do we go first when we want to reach out to different faith communities. And i always say we'll start with the low-hanging fruit. So the low-hanging fruit is always the jewish community and the unitarian community. Because wherever there's a cry for justice there are jews and they're unitarians in the lead in the forefront fighting for what's right. The roots of social justice in the uu's. Community lies within your fundamental principles of faith. They include the inherent worth and dignity. Of every individual. Justice equity and compassion. In human relations. Acceptance of one another. An encouragement to spiritual growth. For you your congregations. A free and responsible search for truth and meaning. The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process. Within uu congregations and in society at large. The goal of world community with peace. And liberty. And justice for all. And respect for the interdependent web. Of all existence of which we are all part. The 1st and 7th principles are the nexus of the unitarian universalist commitment to social justice. Promoting the inherent worth and dignity of every person. And honoring the interconnectedness of all existence. Along with the belief in universal love. All together these provide the basis for unitarian universalist commitment. To the work of social justice. For the jewish community. All of our beliefs all of our practices. All of our teachings and traditions. Always start with text. Store commitment to social justice is rooted in the stories of creation. And the exodus from slavery in egypt. The story of redemption. Slavery in egypt are foundational story. It's at the heart of everything that we do. Everything that we believe. We were cited in our daily and shabbat liturgy. It's the centerpiece of our yearly cycle of holidays. And it is this experience of liberation. A god's hand from slavery. Which culminated in the covenant of sinai. That solidifies us as united nation under one god. The story the exit is combined with the story of creation. Together together gives us the textual and theological underpinnings. Of our imperative to engage in tikkun olam. In the repair of the world. From the exodus story comes our commitment to ending slavery in all its forms. To feeding the hungry. And housing the homeless. And to ending oppression for all peoples. Repeatedly the torah the five books of moses and stresses. To treat the stranger among us. With justice and equality and with love. Because we remember. What it was like to be strangers in a strange land. From the story of creation. We're taught that we are all created in the image of god. The full application of exactly what that means for us for how we live in the world for how we live with each other. Is it really made clear. In the genesis story. It doesn't clear till the book of leviticus. Animal viticus 19. Which we know as the holiness code. That then we can find out. Most explicitly most clearly what it means to be made in the image of god. At the beginning of the holiness code and is a kind of a refrain throughout it says be holy for i the lord your god and holy. And then what comes after that is a whole list of different ways of being holy. Not meant to be an exhaustive list. It's meant to be. Here's some examples hear some ways of being holy and you're supposed to extrapolate from that. What it means in general to be holy. And you might expect that list. Be holy like god is holy. Mike focus on ritual. The cultic sacrifices that the israelites. Use their way of worship. Ahnald sorted the. Religious aspects of life. Are on our relationship with the divine. But that's not what it is. There's a couple of laws that focus on that but for the vast majority. Of the laws that are mentioned in the holiness code. They focus entirely. And what we would call access social justice. And they focus entirely on our relationship with each other. That's what it means to be holy. So they include a system for providing food for the poor. Laws for justice in our business dealings. Laws for justice in our court system. Laws for how to treat people with physical challenges. And laws for how we are to treat the stranger among us. Is commitment to bringing justice into the world is made more explicit in the words of our prophets. And some of our profits were concerned with making sure that the israelites followed the. Religious practices of the israelite cult. But for the most part the major concern of our prophets. Was that how we treat each other. And that we treat each other with social justice. And isaiah is the prime example this. Every year at yom kippur on the day of atonement the most solemn day in the jewish calendar. We read from isaiah 58. On yom kippur is a day of fasting. And the day that we spend in synagogue all day praying. Feeding our breasts reciting our sins asking god for forgiveness. But we read in isaiah that all the fasting and all the breastfeeding and all of the reciting of sins in the world. Don't mean anything to god. Unless they are accompanied with acts of social justice. Unless they are accompanied with looking out for the widow. For the orphan. For the enslaved. For the hungry. For the homeless. For the naked. If we don't engage in acts of social justice if we don't engage in partnership with god. In repairing this world. Then all the breastfeeding and fasting and praying in the world mean nothing. And beyond the text. The four thousand years of jewish history has taught us. The importance of speaking out. Wherever we find injustice. Our long history of oppression. Avena suspect minority. A forced conversion. Of expulsion. Of pogroms. Of the ultimate act of genocide the holocaust. These are ingrained in us the understanding that our safety lies in everyone's safety. The justice for something must mean justice for all. And that's remain silent in the face of injustice. Is be complicit in that injustice. It was that belief in the necessity of standing up and speaking out. But let's who are jewish community here in madison being involved. In the uprising. In 2011 the protest against at 10. Assault on workers rights. Turn on governor scott walker's first budget which splashed. Education healthcare spending public transportation. So many areas that were. Of help to the people in our society who most needed it. And so at that time it just really got together is that will what's our role. What are we doing this time.. And all the faith community is really were involved that you use were involved. The jewish community the methodist community. And all of us if you remember those record here at the time we aldi. Night night. And health officials of candlelight vigils at the capitol and for the jewish community was monday night. And so every monday night in the freezing cold my wonderful husband. Who's back there was. Leading services out on the front steps of the capitol and playing his accordion even though his fingers were freezing off. Because it was an imperative that we take part. And what was going on that we as people of faith raise our voices. So that time one of our colleagues rabbi lori zimmerman the rabbi at shara shomayim. She talked to my colleagues and i. And said you know. The six of us is six rabbis were in madison at the time we need to. Go and speak to governor walker he says he's a man of faith. So we need to really call him on that. And take here we are we're six rabbis we represented faith community and we want you to know. But what we see going on here is not something that the faith community supports. And it doesn't reflect the values and beliefs. Of the people wisconsin. And so while we are waiting to get this appointment with the governor we're going to go to the capitol each of us will take a monday afternoon. And we are going to study jewish text on worker justice and invite anybody passing by who wants to join us. To join in our text daddy. So we all said great and we each took a monday afternoon to do this. And i mean time i tried to get a meeting with the governor. I tried email i tried phone calls. There was no response. So was my monday to go and it must have been presidents weekend or something because my husband my son was off of school. He was thirteen at the time. Now. 22. For the time he was 13. And so we went with our little text study and we were actually right outside the governor's office so i said jessie let's go. We're right there we'll just walk into the office and will try and get a date. To meet with the governor will you can't actually do that. Because there's a desk that goes across 3/4 of the hallway in front of the governor's office and there's somebody there and they stop you. And then we're surrounded by state troopers were like. Call. And i'm about 5 wine and my son at the time was about 48 and what do you think that we're going to do. So we weren't allowed to go into the governor's office but somebody went in and came out with the schedulers business card and so i finally was able to get a meeting. Not with a governor. He wouldn't eat with us but with the governor's staff. And so i said to my rabbinic colleagues you know governor walker could not care less what six rabbis and madison think about anything. So we really need to make this broader. And so through my friends at madison area urban ministry and wisconsin council of churches. And then the interfaith coalition for worker justice which is no worker justice wisconsin. Instead let's just tell everybody we have this date who wants to come. So we ended up bringing about 28 different clergy and faith leaders from all different faith traditions and we met. The governor's staff about an hour. It was as you can imagine a very twilight zone conversation. Our worldviews were completely not in connection with each other at all. But after the meeting with some of us held back and we've debriefed and we decided to be really needed to. The educating our congregations. About what was going on and why this was something that the faith community needed to be involved in. Why the faith voice needed to be heard. And so we worked in a very odd hawk way for about a year. And after your governor being a gift that kept on giving. Every day there was a new outrage in the paper so we were not worried that we were losing momentum or that you know our passions were waning or anyting. After about a year we officially organized as wisconsin faith voices for justice. And i brought together a group of 100. 4045 people in a room and i just let them through an exercise of brainstorming. What are the issues that you most want to see us focus on. And my two basic principles were i don't want to reinvent the wheel and i don't want to duplicate effort. So if there's areas where the faith community is already working we don't need to do that. So wisdom does a fabulous job working on criminal justice reform we don't need to focus on that. Will support them. In their work will sign on to things will stand with them but we don't need to take the lead on that cuz i've got that covered. We don't need to be. In the forefront on lgbtq issues because fair wisconsin will not itself a faith-based organization. At the time had a very active faith outreach. Project and so we are be there to support them and sign on to things but we don't need to take the lead on that. Health care reform the affordable care act was just coming on. Coming into. Being implemented. Mental health care reform became one of our major court issues and still is to this day. And repairing the social safety nets have issues of hunger and food insecurity housing and homelessness. These are among our core issues. And as we delve into those issues we got more more involved in worker justice issues and economic justice issues. And started to hear from people that. We're all silo dinner different organizations we work on child care over there and they work on public transportation over there and they work on. Fight for 15 over here. And wouldn't it be great if our voices were combined and we could work together. It would be so much stronger and not doing anything about it. So i started calling around to all the organizations where i had connections and said if we formed a coalition and you actually could talk to people who work in areas other than your own. Would you be interested. And about 40 different organizations. So we formed the dignity at work coalition so dignity at work is faith communities. And some direct service organizations and some advocacy organizations and some labor. And we work together on issues that make for sustainable jobs that help us to sustain our family. So farepay. Living wage sustainable hours paid sick leave paid family leave affordable child care access to public transportation pension protection and affordable housing ending gender and racial discrimination. In employment in hiring practices and the right to organize. Are the issues that dignity at work works on in in. Coalition with each other. In 2016 in november of 2016 there was what some of us might have considered the cataclysmic events i'll let you've been back to the members 2015 to what that might have been. And. In the wake of the 2016 election we brought together a group of our clergy and activists then we said. Okay so. This has been probably one of the ugliest election years we've ever seen. The rhetoric. Around. Immigrants. Misogyny the homophobia the islamophobia the anti-semitism. Unprecedented. What is our rules of faith community in addressing this new reality that we find ourselves in. And so we kind of went around the room and we asked people to say what were they was passionate about. What were the most committed to. Were they most afraid of. And what did they want the faith community to speak out on. And we had invited both of them frontera the immigrant rights organization to milwaukee to send somebody to our meeting. And as we went around the room and we got to mario garcia sierra. He said. With the immigrant community one. From the faith community. Is sanctuary. And this is something that we had not had our radar at all we didn't know anything about we didn't know what it meant. But you asked the question you have to be prepared to hear the answer and respond. So we started educating ourselves and then we started going around to all the congregations including prairie uu. And said this is what sanctuary means. And this is why it's important for the faith community to stand up. And with our immigrant brothers and sisters. And for two and a half years ago we form the days sanctuary coalition of what you all are part. Door to the coalition has grown tremendously as i'm i hope you're all aware we're currently housing. A family not in sanctuary because they're not risk for deportation. But there are asylum-seekers and we've been having them at one of our sanctuary sites. Since the end of september and by next week we hope. Fingers crossed that they are preparing to move into stable housing. We also have a very active volunteer driver program so people need to get to milwaukee for their ice check-in so they need to get to chicago. Further immigration hearings and they don't have access to transportation. And the lawyers as much as they would love to can't always be taking a whole day to drive back and forth to chicago or to milwaukee. And so we will have volunteers who've been trained. Who will take somebody to milwaukee or chicago and it's not just giving them a ride. But you park and you go in with them and you help me find the right room and you stay with them through their proceedings and make sure that they're okay. And they have you there as that moral support and backup and we have heard over and over and over again. From the immigrant community and from the immigrant rights organizations and from the immigration lawyers. How incredibly valuable this service is and so i encourage all of you if you are interested. And being part of that project at 2 please let me know because we need. More drivers sometimes we have 24 hours notice. But somebody needs to get to chicago or to milwaukee and you. To drop what you're doing to go drive somebody so the bigger pool volunteers we had them or were able. To provide this service. I meant advocacy always as part of everything we do advocacy for immigrant rights. We also have a very active interfaith community building initiative every year we have an interfaith ramadan break the fast. Last couple years have been at edgewood college in their gymnasium. And we've outgrown it. Last mayoral active tar we had over 300 people. So muslims juice unitarians buddhist christians everybody people no faith. Come to re-gift are and then people tell us that they look forward to it every year so we're excited are nexus tires may 2nd of 2020 and we're looking for space. We also have a series of what we call sacred site visits the new project this year. Where we bring people to different congregations around dane county. We've been to the baha'i center we've been to the deer park buddhist center we've been to st. dunstan's episcopal church we've been to. Madison christian community we've been to the synagogues have been to a couple of different masks. We've gone all over i'm in gives people a chance to learn a little bit about other faith traditions and they go as a group so they also get to learn. About each other and to form friendships with people that they might. Not otherwise have had a chance to meet. Right now we're engaged in a project and i want to tell you about it because there was concern unitarian universalist state action network has just signed on as a partner to this project. It is it okay to organizing for civic engagement. So wisconsin safe voices for justice is partnering with wisconsin council of churches on this project. It is a 14-month long project right now or in the first phase which is outreach. So i'm reaching out. And what we're doing is we're organising and faith communities around the state. To get people involved in voter education voter registration get-out-the-vote activities. Particularly targeting minority and low voter turnout areas and doing everything that we can in partnership with. The league of women voters and n-double-acp and the you use and. Interfaith coalition for greater milwaukee. And we are many united against hate signed on as a partner. So we are trying to reach out to as many different organizations and faith communities around the state as possible. To do this organizing because as members of the faith community you are trusted sources of information. And people trust people of faith and trust clergy and lay leaders. I give him the right information and so going out to help register people to vote. Going out to do registration drive. Going out to do avg acacian candidate forums town hall meetings. I'm and then leading up to the election year 2020. As many get out the vote activities as possible whether he canvassing phone banking giving people rides to the polls arranging for for shared rides and carpools. Whatever we can do to get people out to vote around the state. It is a nonpartisan activity we don't care who you're voting for. We just want you to get out and vote. So this is some of the work that we are engaged in we are a small button but mighty organization and we really appreciate the support of the congregations that are. Part of our coalition part of the day in sanctuary coalition part of wisconsin faith voices for justice. And all of you to come out to help. With all of our programs and projects and activities and we really appreciate. Your membership in the dane sanctuary coalition. In the 2018 elections we created cards that were pledge cards at said i pledge to vote. And it's a really weird psychological thing that's been studied that if people fill out a pledge card that i pledge to vote. Even if i don't send it to anybody. They're more likely to vote. So we have punch cards i'm going to make me 144 2020. And they had for dane county they had information on how to get to union cab which provides. Free rides to the polls every year. And for the statewide i had a link to a statewide website that connected people. 22 carpooling. To the polls and then it had information on how to find your polling place. So yeah those kinds of informational things are really important thank you for doing that. I just came back from el paso. I'd love to come back another time because it's a whole nother thing. But i'd love to come back another time and tell you about my trip. It's not every 6 months everyday. Everyday there's something new it's impossible to keep up i mean immigration lawyers are having a hard time keeping up. Sanctuary i just give you like them. Thumbnail sketch of what century is and i would love to come to the cross and talk to your congregations about sanctuary and wise important about immigrant justice in general. Sanctuary is two things it is an act of hospitality. It is providing a safe space and kind of breathing room. For somebody who is imminent risk for deportation so they have a deportation order against them. We are not harboring we are not hiding we are not keeping them from pursuing their legal process. That would be illegal. We're not doing that. We are open and out-and-proud we are providing sanctuary for this person if we have somebody coming to sanctuary the first thing that we do is notify ice. This person is in sanctuary. Notify local law enforcement. And we hold a press conference because in addition to hospitality the other aspect of sanctuary. Is to shine a light. On the injustice is of our very broken immigration system. So the person is going into sanctuary is going to be somebody who's willing to have their story be made public. And tell people how. They are perhaps the primary caregiver for their family perhaps the primary breadwinner for their family and that they are being torn apart. From their family that depends on them and relies on them and loves them. And is our risk for deportation when they've been in our community when they are part and parcel of the fabric of our community. When they are our friends and our neighbors and business owners and students who sit next to our kids in class. And people who are working in the dairy industry and are working in the restaurant industry and they are part of our community and so we are going to give them that pause that safe space to be in sanctuary while they go through their process. I can talk about what's going on at the border for a really really really long time so i won't. But please do ask me back because i'm very eager to share what i what i saw there and it is. Horrendous. But i also want you all to know that as much as those terrible things going on at the border and the need is tremendous. And i love all the people from madison to have gone down to volunteer at annunciation house in at casa alita's indoor. Immigration attorneys who have gone down to volunteer. But there's a crying need right here in madison we have asylum-seeking families right here in madison some of them are homeless. They are all looking for legal representation they're all looking for employment or looking for stable housing. The need is tremendous and overwhelming. I'm so as you think about donating to places at the border think about also donating here. We have a fund called the immigrant immigrant assistance fund it is. House with madison madison community foundation. If you just google immigrant assistance funds you will get to their donate page it is administered by the. Immigration collective or collaborative which is seven organizations. Centro hispano. Literacy network. Sorry i can't remember off the top of my head those seven organizations that work. Together. And administer this fund and those funds go for the community immigration law center silk. To help pay for their immigration attorneys it goes for bail and bond to get people out of detention you know we have to detention centers in wisconsin right in racine and in dodge county. It goes for emergency food aid for asylum-seekers who are here who have. When you're an asylum-seeker. You're here because you have a sponsor so you're here legally with a piece of paper from icing i have a sponsor so i can be here legally. But you have no access to services you're not eligible for food stamps you're not eligible for badgercare you're not eligible for housing assistance do not ellsworth for anything. And you come basically. But the clothes on your back and if you're lucky maybe a backpack full of stuff. And that's it that's what you got. So there is a huge need here in madison so if you feel so moved please make a donation to the immigrant assistance fund a really really could use your support. Interfaith community building we have really good connections and relationships with the baha'i community with the sikh community we're trying to make better connections with the buddhist and hindu communities that's been kind of a struggle. We have. Amazing relationships with the muslim community. And. African-american community. I haven't really been surprised i mean there's some issues where. We can work better with some groups than with others. You will be surprised to learn that the dignity at work coalition has as its membership. Planned parenthood. And the wisconsin catholic conference doesn't. Officially belongs they don't join coalition's but they will sit at the table with planned parenthood and be very polite. But the clearly. So i'm in addition to being the side dresser wisconsin safeway's for justice i'm also the chair of wisconsin. Religious coalition for reproductive choice. When when we founded wisconsin faith horses for justice some of my favorite nuns in the world came to me and said. We love what you want to do we want to be part of it but not if you're going to be working on abortion. So i said okay well would concentrate forces for justice will never engage and reproductive justice work will never do anything anti-choice. But we done to reproductive justice work but i do it over here with wisconsin roads collision reproductive choice so i don't feel so bad. I bet you know wisconsin say forces dust and very strongly with the lgbtq community and i haven't heard from the nuns of a problem with that so who knows. It's a conditional principle of ours that we always take the lead from whatever community is most directly affected by whatever issue we're dressing at the time so both of their friends her and centro hispano are the two lead organizations the dane sanctuary coalition and we take our marching orders from them. So we can get your sights right because i asked us to. I'm we do it in the way that they told us is the best practices and what they want to see. When we engagement advocacy campaigns we do it because buses called us and said this is what we're working on right now what we want you to bring your folks out to. Does the driving program started because the lawyer started calling us and saying hey do you have anybody who can drive somebody. So all of our programs and all of the advocacy work that we do our directly led and and organized by. Those descendants intro. So we you know we tell that they tell us what to do and we do it. Outcomes of struggling with right now and the with the asylum taking family that were helping right now. One of the things that were working toward after they are settled into stable housing is doing kind of community-wide debrief. And trying to. Gather all the. Documentation and all of the experiences that the volunteers who work with the family have had. And trying to come up with lessons learned and best practices so that we can do this better next time. We did a very much an emergency basis. It was a little chaotic in person. It's a we got way more organized since then i think we'll be much better position the next. Time that we have either an asylum-seeking person who need shelter or somebody wants to go into sanctuary. And we will have somebody asking for sanctuary what i've had to turn down. 5 people in the last six weeks it's a horrible thing to do and they took up all of our. Volunteerism and. Finances and mental energy and emotional energy. A woman who wants to who need attention we had to say no to and she's now in sanctuary at ascension lutheran church in milwaukee and you know we're helping as much as we can to advise then we shared our dane sanctuary guidelines with them and. And i've offered to be there if they need our help or advice on anything. One of our immigration attorneys told me that he had somebody a client who thinks might need sanctuary soon. And i just keep saying check back with us because when. The family find stable housing we might be in a position to help. And then we've had. I'm three requests for people who are leaving detention in dodge county and had no place to go. And i don't know where they went. So i am absolutely sure that this family is settled that we will have other request so standby with your volunteer hours cuz we really will be needing it. Alright enter closing words will be read by patty stockdale. We affirm that love is our greatest purpose accepting one another is the truest form of faith living. The search for truth is our constant star. We pledge our hearts minds and hands. To challenge and justice with courage. To find hope and times of fear and to live out unitarian universalism. Universalist values everyday as a beloved community. That's we do. Bestway covenant with each other and with. That. With all that is sacred in life. Jay abernathy. Well thank you all for coming please extend a hand of friendship to those around you greet your neighbor then transfer coffee and conversation afterwards thank you everyone.

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Pr210822hopesfearsMattAspin-ed.mp3

Our presentation today is. Entitled hopes and fears by reverend madison and this presentation relates to r6. Principal. I welcome rubber mat. Good morning everyone it is truly truly good to be here with you this morning. Block slightly by masks but together nonetheless. 3 weeks from now. Our nation will be marking the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror of engineer york city. One of those moments in our shared history where it's safe to wager. That anyone that experienced the trauma of that day. I still recall quite clearly. This past week we also saw the taliban return to power in afghanistan. Resume that our government told us for the past 20 years between the prime incubators of the attack. The place that we needed to invest significant resources to ensure it never again became a harbor for terrorists. But seek to do us harm. According to the bbc in the past 20 years the united states has invested upwards of 978 billion dollars. We have lost over 2,300 of the 775,000 us soldiers that have been deployed. And another 20,000 have been injured. Russell estimated it over 64,000 afghan military and police have been killed. I don't know about you but none of that makes me feel very safe. Quite sure that the afghan citizens didn't watch the taliban speak back into their city so feel very safe today either. I was. I had very little personal experience with this type of violent overthrow of government. Was that all changed on january 6th of this year when i saw an angry mob. Led by an individual event on consolidating power for their own game. Inches away from doing just that. I've also now live through my first global pandemic although i can't say i've lived through it. Because despite our best efforts. A large swath of the folks in this country don't currently have enough faith in our government to adopt the solution that seems too many of us. Adidas safe and obvious choice to lead us out of this mess. All of this. Makes me long for the simpler days 20 years ago. When i used to do all i could do to warn folks about the future challenges of climate change if we didn't adjust our ways. Course these days. I wish my fellow activist tonight then a better job of selling those warnings. Because the future we predicted back then. Just got here. Thanks reverend matt this is just the ray of sunshine we hired you to bring into our lives and just a moment. But in this moment in history. As you and i begin our time together. I think i would like any shred of credibility if i didn't begin with an honest reminder of the challenges going on outside of the walls of this gathered society. Before i share my hopes for the future. And why i haven't chosen to invest this next portion of my one wild and precious life here with you. I am here. Because i believe that this small. But mighty society. May just contain the seeds of change needed to heal all of the ills that we can see so clearly infecting the larger world. Of which we are just a small part. My favorite definition of a leader. Quite simply. Someone that people choose to follow. Prairie. Is ale live community. I am choosing to follow you. Because i believe that your collective efforts. Are striving to lead the travelers that happened upon your caravan in the generally right direction. And may form the basis of an emerging bottle that needs to be replicated more and more across this land. If we are to ever change the trajectory that anyone taking an honest assessment nose. Is pointing us in kind of the wrong direction. You're hired me. 3 minutes. I believe that my job is to strengthen and provide additional support for each of you. For this community as a whole. As you collectively seek to embody the ideals and live out the mission that membership in this chosen society request. So you may ask yourself. Why on earth would you think that the solution to all those enormous problems you listen to beginning could possibly be fine here at prairie. That is a fair question. Am i hope you see it's based on the concept of fractals. You'll come to find overtime. Did i scribe together most of my ideas these days from authors and thought leaders that hold marginalized identities. I read and loved the ideas passed down from william ellery channing. And james luther adams in the transcendentalist. It all the other brilliant thought leaders found in the early history of the uu face tradition. What is pivotal in these thinkers have been helping us to create much of the best parts of who we are today. There must be something missing. Despite the monumental advances that have been made based on the framework that they created for it. It is clear that we still have some major gaps in our thinking. Because the shared outcomes we are seeing in the world are still falling short of their lost loftiest vision. You keep doing what you've been doing you'll keep getting what you've been getting. The billion author women's rights activists in black feminist adrienne maree brown wrote in her powerful book emergent strategies. Whatever future we have articulated that we want to create. We have to practice it in as many aspects of our current life and work is possible. This is what brings our vision to life. That again. Whatever future we have articulated that we want to create. We have to practice it and as many aspects of our current life and work is possible. This is what brings our vision to life. Brown consistently refers to the concept of fractals in her work. Offering a 3 minded that the larger world we experience. Is made up entirely of smaller parts that can take all the same patterns that we see. Ever-increasing scale. The world under the microscope looks the same as the heavens through the telescope. The river's on our planet with photograph from above contain the same patterns we find branching out to the veins on vans on a leaf or within the veins in our bodies the largest patterns in nature are never anything more than the smallest patterns of nature's amplified hillside note when i visited my friend mary franz the other day you carrying a copy of the latest edition of scientific american under her arm i noticed that they're focused. This is the source of strength that we need to cultivate. The survive whatever challenges this world ends up throwing us next whether it's another separation caused by an extension of this long-suffering pandemic or something worse that we can't even imagine yet i believe those of you who have built and maintained the society over the past 40 years have created an amazing foundation for the type of small stone big ripple society healing work that i'm describing here in a world that has been ruthlessly designed to separate us into more and more isolated pods you have become a model of what is possible when people turn towards each other you work together to play together you take responsibility. Fourth amendment process. You invest in creating nurturing spaces for the children of this community. One of the few remaining places in this world where they can feel safe and loved was supported in this struggle to make sense of the challenges inherent in coming of age in this world at this moment in history from your mission me the members of prairie wish to associate ourselves together in a religious community which affirms that we share a common humanity. That we need one another. And that our futures are inescapably found together. What's the temp in here from near the beginning of this place. You created something that inspires hope in this world. Commodity that is needed now perhaps more than ever. Those of you that have been here for shorter time. Blakely already begun to see what this collective can do when it comes together for a shared vision large larger than any one of us individually. You've worked together and sacrifice to complete a beautiful update on your shared home. Hide an amazing theory that is inspiring our children week after week. Navigate to the very real challenge of overcoming significant differences of opinion. Get to the point where you collectively decided to call this community's first full-time ministry and i thank you for that no one is perfect times change and needs change back to you are still here stronger than ever is testament to the fact that you have built the foundation that is both grounded in the power of relationship and flexible enough to continually adapt and change as the world random changes needed to make this place more and more hope to learn from you this year. I would love it if at the end of my contracted time with you that we both decide that our relationship should continue. And we can continue to widen the circle of this society to extend the positive ripples out to the wider madison community and beyond. But even if we don't decide at the end of this is the place that i should be know that my intention. Scooby-doo bring all of the lessons that you teach me by your example. To another part of the you use gypsum. And ultimately to the whole of our denomination. That is how good change happens in the world. One way or another. The most life-giving aspects of this small society and the efforts that you each contributes to its life will ripple through the rest of our shared world you are not alone we are here together we are not the only ones that maintain our hope of the six unitarian principal the goal of world community with peace liberty and justice for all i've seen encouraging movement towards this goal and some businesses definitely fights in the nonprofit space in the messages coming from community organizers and put the unitarian universalist association but it all begins here as adrienne maree brown reminds us. Smallest good small is all the largest simply reflection was the small piece perry is currently small for the seats continue to strive together in all that we do to be a model worthy of expanding to the all recipe in maybe so. Living i would i would add to that is that no single individual ever gets to that that focus of of a moment in history on their own martin luther king rosa parks all of them had groups of people behind them. Supporting them strengthening them charging them as individuals that that that make some of those moments it is the communities that support them the strength to do so typically.

uuprairie_org

Pr200126Long-ed.mp3

Good morning everyone. And welcome my name is rachel long i'm. Currently president of prairie unitarian universalist society my pronouns are she and hers. Prairie aspires to be both an open-hearted and an open-minded congregation. We welcome people of every ethnic and religious background whatever your color sexual orientation. Family structure age ability certain abilities. On sunday mornings we have a wide variety of services. They're presented either by a prairie member or a member of the wider community or when we have a minister by our minister. Our opening words will be read by katie kim. I am kathy gann and my pronouns are she her and hers. And the opening words are by daniel bud. Come come to this place whoever you are. Wanderer worshipper lover of learning. All seekers after what is true. All who seek. A community of compassion. And diversity. Come come to this place. Whoever you are. Though you're broken. Your vows. Thousand times. And you're too busy and don't have the time. Lovers of wisdom lovers of humanity. Lovers of beauty. Come to this place. Where a love we do not make. Surrounds us and lifts us and nurtures us. Come. Come to this place. Whoever you are. Our church is not a community of despair. But of hope. Not a place judging. But it's thanksgiving. Not a place of certainty. But searching. Come come to this place. Whoever you are. Come yet again. And the creed hatch family will be lighting our tell if this morning. The flaming chalice is the symbol of unitarian universalism. It is an everlasting flame for this community. It offers its warm to those who are cold. It provides light to those who would see. It purifies and transformed the sanctuary into sacred space. This congregation into sacred community. May its flame. Burn true and high and strong. Today's presentation by me. Is entitled why are we here. My thoughts today are not about the meaning of life. I am asking why are we here. A prairie unitarian universalist society. Whatever building we happened to be in at the time. Couple of months ago to muslim students. Visited our bigs are in class. That's the class with the middle and high school students. They were there to tell us about their faith. And they also asked us about our. And i had the opportunity to explain who i think you use are. I bet you have been in this position to and it isn't easy. When we explain our religion we can start with our origins. Early unitarians were christians were followers of jesus not worshippers of christ. They rejected the trinity and instead believed in the unity of god. The universalists believed in a loving god who would not condemn anyone to eternal damnation. The term universalist referred to universal salvation. An overtime the beliefs of these groups evolved and they merged to become our denomination in 1961. Almost 50 years ago. But who are we now. It is easier to say what we you use don't. And what we aren't. Then what we are. We don't have a leader who's in charge. We question authority and dogma and rules and traditions. That means we are doomed to discuss. And discuss. In order to make decisions or come to agreement on anything. Lots of non you use know us by jokes about us like. How many unitarian-universalist does it take to change a lightbulb. It's a very short talk so i do not have time for the answer which of course is not definitive but if you want to know my opinion words and actually have two different. We don't have a shared theology. In just our small congregation i have known you you buddhist. Christian. Muslims. Choose pagan. Atheist. Deist. Agnostics and apathy. Which in case you don't know is someone who thinks the question of whether there is a god is unimportant. What we do share is outlined in our 7 principles. Look for a moment. At the seven principles. It's on the back. In the gray box. From these principles one can deduce that what matters to unitarian universalist. Is that we treat each other with kindness and respect. That we work to create farrah societies. And that we take care of our planet. You use discuss what actions would get us these results. But there is actually no right answer. And it is up to each of us to decide and to act accordingly. A religion emphasizes that your actions matter. But it doesn't tell us what to do. Another thing that makes our religion challenging is that we humans are naturally tribal. We feel most comfortable safe and supported. In a group of people like us. It is much easier to care for those we perceive as our tribe. Then those we don't. Whether you are aware of it or not you. Are sexist. Aegis. Racist. I miss my list. You have to think about all the things you. The fact we're home turf. Is it on. How are you doing. All right we'll try that one again. All right whether you are aware of it or not. You are sexist. Ageist racist. Classist. You root for your school your political party your religion your town your state. Your ethnic clan. Or whatever. Yet unitarian universalist principles asked us to be auntie tribal. The inherent worth and dignity of every person. Justice and equity world community with liberty peace and justice for all. These are lofty goals. What does our religion ask of us as individuals and as a community to reach toward these goals. We have chosen a religion. That asked us to surround ourselves with people who believe differently than we do. About the essential nature of soul self. And the universe. And about how to live these principles that we share. Why should we do this when it is difficult and perhaps even unnatural to build community outside of our tribe. Because creating a diverse community is essential to learning what we need to know to take effective action. We have chosen a religion that asks us to investigate discuss consider and then act to make our community and our world more just. We are all bound by our biases formed by our experiences. And will make more informed judgments about the world as it really is. If we expose ourselves to ideas from people with a variety of background and biases of their own. But the experiential learning is just as important. Our religion asked us to work at being humble and kind in the presence of those not like us. To accept that our knowledge is flawed and that we don't have all the answers. Our religion asked us to stay open to be ready to change our opinions. To welcome people who feel strange and foreign. Enter practice radical hospitality. This is a challenging phase. But in these times of retreat to tribe. How refreshing. To be in a community that welcomes the challenge to each of us. To respect the inherent worth and dignity of every person. To treat each of us with respect and kindness. I will share with you what i told her muslim students. I said that unitarian-universalist choose to be in a community of people with different beliefs. To help us create the kind of community we are trying to create in the world. The beloved community. Is a lot of work all of that thinking discussing. Working against our own biases. Fighting our urges to be harsh and unkind. Challenging each other to be better while being humble and acknowledging our own limitations. Making decisions and then taking action. Why would someone choose. To be unitarian universalist. It's not easy to live these seven principles. It requires faith that isn't easy to come by these days. Faith in the ability of people to treat each other better. To learn and to change. Faith in our own ability to sustain our flawed attempts to be truly loving and kind. To keep pushing even when it feels like we are sliding back. We come together to share this uncertainty and discomfort. And to encourage each other to hope. To be reassured that there is meaning and purpose. To help each other to be better which is easier when you aren't doing it alone. We come here to try to create the beloved community that we envisioned. To purposely live in the tension of knowing others believe differently than we do and to find joy in that tension evil loved before on. Thank you for coming to our very short service today. Extend a hand of friendship to those around you grab a snack if needed. Before we start our paris meeting.

uuprairie_org

Pr150208Ingham-ed.mp3

Good morning. Welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society. I am sandy ingham the part-time minister here. Prairie tries to be. And. Open-hearted and open-minded congregation and we generally succeed. We welcome you no matter what your ethnic or religious background no matter your color your sexual orientation your gender preference or your family structure. Are we do orange you too, this is one of your first time here to try to come to more than one service because the services. Are different every sunday sometimes i do them obviously sometimes someone from the outside. Prairie does summon sometimes we have a speaker from within our prairie community. We do have a time when you will be invited if this sister knew or visitor. To introduce yourself if you want to we try not to really pressure you too much into doing that. That will happen later in the service. Bfan are the opening words. And they are the words of mother teresa. Love cannot remain by itself. It has no meaning. Love has to be put into action. And that action is service. Whatever form we are able or disabled rich or poor it is not how much we do. But how much love we put in the doing. A lifelong sharing. Pavlov. With others. We like our flaming chalice. To illuminate the world we seek. And hopefully not too. Flowers. Fire. In the search for truth may we be just. In the search for justice may we be loving. And in loving. May we find. Peace. Weekend before valentine's day i have a reading taken from. Unitarian universalist minister robert fulghum book. True love. Stories told to inbox. Robert fulghum. This one was told to him. When i was a junior in college this is a male. I took a course in the writing of dh lawrence. I know this sounds really stupid. But i thought this was about lawrence of arabia you know the eccentric british desert warrior guy i had seen the movie and i wanted to be him i was not fully alert in college. I went down to the local used bookstore to get everything they had. I was a little surprised by the titles. The rainbow. Women in law. Sons and lovers. And lady chatterley's lover. What's a side of lawrence of arabia i didn't know about the clerk explained. Bad news but i had registered for the course. And now i have the books. And i needed the credits. So i was stuck. I went home to read. Like a lot of college students i bought used books hoping someone else would have already underline the important stuff the lawrence books i bought were thoroughly underlined and when i flipped through and read some of the paragraph about making out i was blown away was really hot stuff. All the books i bought had the same female name in the front. I figured this girl must have taken the course and then sold the books. She really knew what time you're lying not just the juicy parts but the really beautiful passages. But we're about love not just sex. I looked her name up. In the telephone book to cervantes film. I figured i'd just call her up. And see what happened i was hoping for anything from a date. Two copies of the papers she had written college guys play all the angles. I called her up introduced myself and told her what i wanted. Again. He was not a girl but a retired. College professor of english literature books were extras she had sold when she moved to a smaller apartment. She laughed and said she would be glad to have a date with me and see what explain about lauren and tell me how to pass course. We liked each other right away she lived alone and our eyes were feeling. She said if i would drive her. To the grocery store once a week she would tutor me in lawrence. During that semester she woke me up about love and sexuality and women. I spent a lot of time with her. I'm a better man because of her. A long time later i told her she had been 20 instead of 71 of asked her to marry me she said she would have accepted. She's dead now. I still have her books. And her wisdom. And her kind of love. I got an a in the course. Recently tennis star serena williams set. I play for love of the game. And. Is with that love in mind and a new understanding of the true meaning of forgiveness that i will probably return to indian wells in 2015. Indian wells is a tennis tournament. In california. Which williams has boycotted for several years because last time she play there she got booed. I love tennis. I have spent many hours of my life on the tennis courts. I love bicycling. I especially love hiking in and out of grand canyon. I love climbing up and down those amazing rock formations in zion national park. I love door county. I love dark chocolate. And avocados on all kinds of nuts by the way i love that movie something about. The marigold hotel and there's going to be another one and i really loved many books including to-kill-a-mockingbird all in the movie too and. Oh it's going to be another to kill a mockingbird kind of because apparently harper lee did write another book and it's just been rediscovered. Toss around that word love. Don't worry. Surely i don't mean that i love chocolate and tennis and hiking in the same way that i love my children and my grandchildren and prairie. No. The problem with using the word love so freely into mean so many different things so many different levels of caring is that the word. Can become meaningless. Or does it become meaningless. If we pay attention. To how and when we use the word love. I think the word could serve. As an entry. Level word. Of sorts to lead us into reflecting on to other words empathy. And compassion. When i was in seminary. I took a class. An entire semester class. On the holocaust. The professor professor. Who usually taught it. And you always got rave reviews. For this class was on sabbatical. Wishmaster that i took the class. Perhaps i should have waited. Until he returned because i end up clashing with. Professor from him i took the class. He insisted. The professor i had. That the diary of anne frank. Serve absolutely no purpose whatsoever. For understanding the holocaust. I disagreed i said it could serve a purpose on at least two levels. It could be the first time someone learned about the holocaust. And that would be very important i think at least they would know about it. But it could also be an entry-level a beginning place a starting point into further complex. Further complexities. Apow. This could have happened. In the middle of the 20th century. Now i'm not sure that my experience. In that class is comprable to my saying that the word love. Cancer. As an entry-level word. On the road to better understanding her passion but i think that there are similarities. May start. With the mundane. But if you're paying attention. Will be very buddhist this morning. If you are paying attention. You will discover more. And more about love about human nature about humanity. Here is part of what i wrote for the february newsletter about this morning's service. Besides being the title of a song. With a tune that can cause an earworm. What's love. Okay there that's in the right what does that word love have to do with it. Our everyday lives. Use this word frequently and loosely but can it lead to bigger and better concepts. Such as a phantom passion i've touched on this. And some of my most recent reflection but i would like to attempt to go deeper. Into the subjective laws on this sunday before valentine's day. Mix february. We celebrate love in a strange sort of way. In this country. When valentine's day occurs. We can easily dismiss this day and many of us probably do. Sa hallmark card holiday. Something designed by not only the greeting card companies is probably keeping greeting cards in business. At mother's day father's day. But also design possibly buy floors. Jewelers manufacturers of candy. The list of those who benefit. Financially and orange tree imports. I don't usually give you an infomercial. The list of those who benefit financially from valentine's day is fairly long necessarily a bad thing. And it would probably have to include robert fulghum at least when his book true love was first published. Should mention however that habitat for humanity. all the network realty. From the sale of that book of his. I actually like valentine's day. I have always liked it. Even when i haven't had a particular valentine in mind. I like having fun with. As in discovering the stories in full book. Well then there's that chocolate aspect of valentine's day of course. Still made with i like to eat them they're awful but i like to read this long as they're hilarious. I like anything that helps me counter the winter laws. Anastasya graydaze for a while. This year though i decided that i would try to mark valentine's day by celebrating compassion. You may remember some of you that i did a service on compassion earlier this year. In mid-october i mean when i say this year i mean. Church year the school year semesters. September through may. I did that service it's titled conflicted about compassion. But on that sunday i barely scratched the surface. Of the complexity of compassion because there's just never enough. If i were doing a powerpoint presentation with my. Usually hate. Right now i would only use one graphic. Repeat the word love and an arrow the word apathy and arrow and then the word compassion. Love. At its best. Ham. Hopefully. L a c. Empathy at its best can then lead hopefully. To compassion. Empathy is compassion ratcheted up. In the story for all ages the villagers made it to apathy. When so many of them contributed to the making of that stone soup. And then again when everybody in the village that down together to eat the soup.. Did those villagers make it to compassion. In the process. Did they really understand each other and the fears that kept them apart. What is the things that i mentioned in those october reflections was that scientists are beginning to think. That compassion is an integral part of human nature. Am i also used this phrase. Compassion is the fulfillment. Of human nature. I told you that that statement came from karen armstrong in her book 12 steps to a compassionate life. Most of you are familiar with armstrong by now i think. Feel urgent author. Very contemporary. She says that compassion is part of human nature natural to human beings she didn't just arrive at this one day and i shouldn't have a. A moment when water somebody spoke to her. She did a lot of study to reach this conclusion. About that statement. Compassion is the fulfillment of human nature. That statement blows me away. When i used it in october and i'll have to give these remarks to rosemary lester because. There was some discussion in the congregation response time. About that statement and rosemarie. Said she did not believe it at all so i will get into the discussion again a little bit this morning. Do you believe that compassion. Is the fulfillment. Of human nature. And if you were here in october you might remember that i talked about the conflict. The tension between our old brain way of thinking. Which was necessary to survive. Most of human history. And the development of a new brain way of thinking which is now necessary if we're going to. Survive on this planet. How do we get to new brain. Which has everything to do with the interconnectedness of everything. Universal should be way ahead of the game here because the bedrock of what we believe. How do we get. The new brain before we destroy the planet. Because of a compassion you studying we intentionally put compassion into practice every day as often as we can. Well we humans are strange creatures aren't we. In a coffee shop a few days ago a young man. 45 years old. Walked by my table and foresees but the height of the table. And he informed me that quote. We are walking through muck. Tomori went on. We have to walk in the mop right now. What he was referring to eat out that mop. On the floor when we all tried sending out of places and the snow's melting in the salt in the sand and he was being literal as. Foreign five-year-olds tend to be. But we adults trudge through muck and murkiness everyday. Metaphorically speaking usually. One day last week on the same day i started to spanish class. Something i've been wanting to do forever. At madison area technical college around the room and said why you were there. It was fantastic it was like being in global village. There was someone who owned a landscaping business who was there so she could better converse with her employees. There was a man who works with. Kids at-risk kids and he seemed more and more. I'll let you know if people and he wants to be better able to communicate with him it was all about spanding who we are and. Practicing compassion. Later on that day. Movie. I went to american sniper. I don't know how many of you seen it but. It's. Not about the global village it's about the undoing of the global village i guess we could say but but you can. I could at least understand. Why the sniper was doing what he was doing but. Any chance. Two sundays ago the new york times had a story about an odd thing that is happening in africa and coastal area some of you may have seen it. Mosquito nets. Meant to be hungover beds of course cheetos out. Drastically cut the rate of malaria. Are now being used as. Fishing nets. The rate of malaria is going up and up. Sort of compassion run-amok. You might say. Here was a project. That started out with the best of intentions. And then became something else something that is causing problems as big as malaria it's not more so. For one thing those nets aren't meant to be put in water and says. Ben instructions do not. Rinse in rivers or streams because of. Treated with. So it's destroying. Fish population but the people are are are harvesting so many little fishes. That there's a great worry that there will be the destruction of. Different kinds of species. Air force. Some often turnaround drink that water that's full of the. Chemicals that were used to treat the net. So. You could say maybe it was a case of practicing a c while neglecting to practice. Compassion. Human spend a lot of time and energy walking through monk. Even when we are trying to walk down a clear path. And do the right thing. Before i share to stories about true compassion i want to emphasize. Two important components that i did not cover in october. First. Developing compassion starts with ourselves. I miss that moses meeting yesterday morning. Because i'm such a procrastinator. And i needed. I'm used to strike so i can start writing. But then i beat up on myself. That's counterproductive. Practicing compassion starts right. Here. Tick not han tulsa. Love is the capacity. To take. Hair. To protech. Coonery if you are not available of generating that kind of energy. Toward yourself. It is very difficult to take care of another person. In the buddhist teaching. It's clear that to love oneself is the foundation of the love of other people. And i would add to what took my han said. I believe that this foundation loving ourselves. Is also the necessary foundation. For responding to mental illness. Into addictions. The second necessary component in the development of compassion is this. We cannot be afraid to confront the suffering and pain. Within ourselves. Nor the suffering and pain in the world. Cultivating compassion requires that we be in touch with that we sit. With sorrow and sadness. Anguish. Over the state. Of the world. This is all part of the process. Recognizing what we often call the unfortunately the dark emotions. Helps us to tell a difference. Story about who we are as human beings. Dakota mann name. This work is not easy but embracing the sorrel. And the unfairness of life. Will. Take us to a true or understanding. Of compassion. Top 10 jim parker. Is the main translator for the dalai lama. He is right in the sake of the current conversation between western science and buddhism about the true nature of humans believe how how much is going on out there in this area and the studies that are happening. Gentile has developed a compassion training program at stanford university. The basic premise of this training is fairly simple he writes it is based on the premise. That compassion is an important part of our fundamental nature. By becoming more aware of and connecting with our inherent compassion we learn to relate to ourselves to others. To the world around us from that side of our nature. But. Lipton jim parcells it is difficult. For people in western cultures. To truly believe that compassion is a very important part of our nature because. We're conditioned to believe that the ultimate motivation driving all of our behavior is. Self. Interest. Please note developing compassion for ourselves is not the same thing as being motivated by self-interest. Dentist says that we're going against the grain we're going against the current when we talk about compassion in the west. If you see anything about compassion in the news lately. But if he puts it science is increasingly telling us. But while the pursuit of self-interest is a powerful drive. The instinct for nurturing. Caring and connection is equally. Powerful. Are we humans we complex creatures with both of those powerful drive. Now let's suppose that you were able to attend one of these 8-week sessions of. Stanford compassion training imagine after completing the training you and. Have an opportunity to have a one-on-one with governor walker. Or or the koch brothers. Well how would you do. Could you find common ground. Did you find common ground. I was raised republican and i'm quite pleased with that. In 1972. I worked on the mcgovern. Presidential campaign. I was hanging out with a bunch of democrats and they convinced me that it would look great have republicans for mcgovern. Is a very small town in northwestern pennsylvania kind of rural as probably only republican for mcgovern in town. Except. Back in those days you went door-to-door and people were home. Usually woman but everybody work. My son was. And he stood very clear memory of this we will go into people's homes and we would talk about. Policies. Politics. The breaking story of watergate. So i worked one more. In this town. Republican ward. It went for mcgovern. You have to find the common grounds. How do we communicate effectively. With those people with whom we disagree how do we go from having self-interest be the basis of our communicating do having compassion be the base out of which we operate. How do we interact with the interact with those who push our buttons. Too often seem to us to have no redeeming value. How do we relate to the other those people whom we can't stand. Let alone tolerate. Can we actually might hate. How do we interact with them to move the discussion from either or to both. Aunt. Bernie glass. The man. Who was an engineer and a mathematician working in the aerospace industry. Until. He trained to be a zen buddhist. You say that it changed his life would be. An understatement. Glassman now does many things to cultivate compassion including establishing. Profit-making companies. That put those profits back into trying to house the homeless. Until. Glassman for the last 20 years has been leaving what he calls bearing witness retreat. At a place these are his words that represent. The most terrible case. Of what we do to those outside our club. These. Retreats are held at auschwitz. The scene of the retreat she tells us is not the holic. The theme is how do we deal with each other. He's fat. With people come to these retreats. On those railroad tracks that took. People into ash b concentration camp. He sat with survivors he sat with people from. Who are younger from germany and from all over the world. Figuring out what true compassion is by is knology and respecting the anguish. And the soro. In the world. Glassman says. That if we are liberal we never listen to conservatives. Or read books. Buy them. Or invite them to pee. And if we're conservative vice versa. We all form our own clubs. The most common thing we do to people that don't fit our club. Is we avoid them. We also imprison them. Sometimes we beat them up. The south will you still itch them. Case we bash them. I would love to see us get to the place where we are not bashing anyone. Especially within these walls. Not even our governor. Are the koch brothers. Or any of those people ready republicans. You have to figure out. We humans have to figure out how to find common ground and equally important. How to get beyond our fears. Your place. Huge role in this. Would you fear another day. Remember hearing. Probably been years ago now. A piece of reporting on national public radio where women from opposite sides of the abortion debate were brought together. To try the purpose of bringing them together was to try to find common ground. What could they agree on. Remember that fascinating. I'mma tell you the answer. Here are two short stories about the art of compassion. Plead. My reflections with leaves. 1h fable but these two short stories were told by rebecca parker. Recently retired president of starting school for the ministry. Author theologis unitarian universalist and methodist minister. In these stories parker reminds us. That compassion is a means of restoring human beings to the music of life. First story. At the end of wwii lyle griffin meyer. Came home to iowa. His mother and sister waited for his return. The day he came home. The only veteran to return ally. To that town. Everyone came out to meet him. As the train pulled into the station the band played in the mayor was there to shake his hand. But as a sister later told me that man who climbed off the train was not the lively cheerful boy. Quit left for war. He was a ghost. He didn't come. Three didn't seem to recognize anyone. Not his mother sister or friends. In response to the crowds rousing welcome he stared mewtley. Why. His family took him home to the farm. Where he sat in the old rocking chair in the parlor. He did not speak or move. I could barely eat. He continued in this state for days spilled into weeks that flowed into months. No one. In this town knew about post-traumatic shock. They only knew that lyle soul was lost somewhere. Dial sister maxine decided to stay by him. Whenever she could she would come and sit with him and she would talk she telling about the church potluck and who was there. And she telling what is young woman wore she telling about some conversation she heard. Intown strolling about how the wind is blowing. The clean laundry in the tomato into the tomato. But when she ran out of things to say she would simply sit with him snapping beans mending sauce and he sat there silently. Like a stone. Rocking. One night while maxine was knitting quietly beside him. Lisle's eyes filled with tears. The tears spilled over and ran down his frozen face. Maxine went to her brother and put her arms around him. Held in his sister's embrace he began to cry.. Great. Songs of anguish bursting from deep. Inside him. He began to talk. Is it would not stop. Talk of the cold fear the noise the death of his bodies. Long marches and then the human beings in the camps. The mass graves. Smell. Talk all night. Until the dawn light began to creep across the fields. Maxine listen to everything while had to say. Then she went into the kitchen. And she cooked him breakfast. They ate together. And then lyle went out did the morning chores. Second story. In seattle in the early 1980s rights rebecca parker. I serve the wallingford united methodist church. At a time when anti-gay sentiment was heating up in our city. Our denomination when she was a methodist minister. Our denomination had just banned the ordination of lesbian and gay people. And the congregation decided to take a proactive stand. In supporting. Lesbian and gay people lots of denomination. We wanted to express her hospitality and welcome but we quickly discovered that those who have been kicked out of church weren't going to return. Just because we hung out a welcome sign. There was no basis for trust. That we met. What we had. How did people know that we weren't trying to lure them into the church so we could then pain victim of their sin. No one just tamed. They called first. Testing the waters they asked. Is this the church that says lesbian and gay people are welcome. At first we did not always know if the caller was a person looking for a church that was genuinely welcoming or someone who felt our stand was wrong. I wanted to make sure we knew exactly where he'll was. And how close we were to falling in. Nina our church administrator became highly adept at handling these calls. In response to the opening question she would carefully explain our church's stand. We accepted people of diverse sexual orientations we welcome people as they were and the fellowship of our church and its activities was fully open to all. She told me that eventually every color would come around to say. The real reason i'm calling is. One day the caller said. The real reason i'm calling is that i am a man. I like to dress up in women's clothes. What i want to know is if i come to church and address. Will i be welcome. Nina pondered for a second and said. Is it a really ugly dress sunday. Bacalar did come to church. Wearing a lovely red chanel suit. Complete with hat and gloves. She was warmly. This valentine's day i ordered you to read the charter for compassion. Charter for compassion. . org so that's your homework and then i also urge you to remember this bit of ancient whist. The wonderful little fable. See if i can do it. It's said that a pagan approach the great rabbi hillel. And promise to convert to judaism. If he could repeat hello. Could recite the entire torah. While he stood on one light. Salal replied. What is hateful to yourself do not. Do not to your fellow bacon. That is the whole of the torah. And the remainder is but commentary those studying. We would call that the golden rule. That story from long ago gives me hope. Ask me those current stories and reports about what is happening right now on planet earth to find our true nature. Compassion. And perhaps this valentine's day can remind us. Of the importance of loving ourselves first and then moving into cultivating compassion for the entire world. Practice what the buddhist traditions suggest. That you could actually make compassion your. Standpoint. The perspective from which you relate to the world. Compassion. Becomes part of your intention. A being in the world and in this way. You start making it real. Jim i think the. Not all at the same place. With compassion. Robin vos maybe as an evolve. Pending on so many things the way we grew up a subject for another day. Are unfortunately we are out of fun but this is one of those subjects ananda pac-man tedesco is either you i think we're gemline. Who asked for that when i did this in october. About. Starting a discussion group about compassionate my been gym. But it's there so many things we could have discussion groups about we don't have to confine ourselves to do sunday morning. The closing words are from alice walker. Love is not concerned with whom you pray. Or where you slept the night you ran away from home. Love. Is concerned that the beating of your heart. Should kill. No one. Treat your neighbor. Enjoy valentine's day fred compassion.

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Pr110821IanRiddell-ed.mp3

Good morning and welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society i'm mary mullen member of the program committee prairie aspires to be both an open-hearted and open-minded congregation and we welcome people of every ethnic and religious background whatever your color your sexual orientation or gender or your family structure and we welcome you no matter what your age or your abilities or probably more important your inability today or service or presentation will be given by riddle who is right here and who i know but. Well i'd like to introduce ian riddle as i said earlier he for some years was the music director at james reeb and did a wonderful job with that choir but he's gone on to become a minister working toward being one he just completed this year as a ministerial ensuring at the unitarian universalist church of the monterey peninsula in carmel california. And sad and really moving to watch this city. I'm over the last six months from afar and to watch you on the news and to be with you in spirit if not in person. Ungrateful tee back. I've been thinking a lot about work lately partly because of watching what's happened here in wis in madison and wisconsin and issues of labor but also dealing with friends who are unemployed with friends who are struggling to make ends meet to feed their families when they are fully employed and friends who are. Questioning their relationship to work and so i've been thinking a lot about work and how we work in our society and i want to share today with you some of my thoughts not all of them some of my thoughts on that theme. And i want to start with a poem by wendell berry. One of his sabbath poems from 1985. How long does it take to make the woods. As long as it takes to make the world. The wards is present as the world is the presence of all its past and all its time to come. It is always finished. It is always being made the act of its making forever crater. Semi-active its destruction. It is part of eternity. For its end and beginning belong to the beginning and end of all things. The beginning law in the end. And the end in the beginning. What is the way to the woods how do you go there. By climbing up through the six days field kept in all the bodies years. The body's sorrow. Weariness and joy. By passing through the narrow gate on the far side of that field for the pasture grass of the body's life gives way to the high original standing of the trees. By coming into the shadow the shadow of the grace of the straight ways ending. The shadow of the mercy of light. Why must the gate be narrow. Because you cannot pass beyond it burdens. To come into the woods you must leave behind the six days world all of it all of its plans and hopes you must come without weapon or tool. Alone. Expecting nothing. Remembering nothing. Into the eaves of sight. The brotherhood. Popeye. And leaf. I want to tell you a story of a couple of old friends of mine and and dan. Tell anna dan live in victoria british columbia and they were founding members of the very first congregation i served as music director they're my very first unitarian universalist home. Anna dan are both university professors in sociology and economics respectively. They have three grown children and have a deep loving relationship. Blast with intellectual stimulation schumer and deep companionship. In fact they were a real model for my partner mark and me as we were figuring out what the shape of our relationship. Plus to become. But when we first met adam dan cuz we got to know them better things weren't as great as they seemed. True they had a fabulous home and really exciting careers but they were coming to a point where they realize that their lies were becoming unwieldy and unhealthy. Teaching loads and commuting and side projects to pay the mortgage of a large house that was miles out of town now all the empty after their children went to college all this began to overwhelm them. Have they had less and less time for the deep meaningful conversations that were the core of their marriage. Have brought great joy to both of their lives. Began to resent the time but they had committed to giving to the life of their congregation. And health was becoming uncertain how they both began to feel like they come unmoored from their understanding of who they were and why they were doing the work that they once cherished so deeply. Now and if they are not alone in her book the overworked american juliet schor observes that sorry did everybody else turn the cell phone off. We live in a culture of overwork. Our dominant culture are dominant society is steeped in the understanding that our worth grows out of our work. At our identities are encompassed by our jobs. If you don't believe me watch what happens the first time you meet a new person. How quickly does the question what you do come out of your mouth. Think about what that says to a stranger your greeting i need to know what you do for a living so i can know who you are. Valuing the work of our hands the sweat of our brows the creations of our minds is not a bad thing of course our work brings us safety. It brings us survival. And it brings us comfort sometimes he can bring great satisfaction meaningful work can be a great joy in our lives. But just like chocolate. More caffeine or alcohol. Taken to an extreme to the neglect of all other importance. It can become an illness a danger. Addiction. And it's addiction. Benediction that we are quite often honestly celebrated for happy in our society. We know what problems and pain alcohol and drug dependence can cause for people in their families we know the damage that addiction to food or gambling can cause. We don't like to know these things but we do know though and we make it least some attempts to help those who are afflicted with these dependencies. We hope that our friends and our families will intervene if we stray down those paths. But addiction to work. Workaholics anonymous and yes there is such a thing out line to symptoms of work addiction as including deriving our identity and self-esteem from what we do. Keeping overly busy. Neglecting our health relationships and spiritual. Seeing everything as work-related. Having no desire to do anything. That would be work avoiding surfer and out procrastination postponing vacations and rest doing unnecessary work perfectionism avoiding intimacy and being controlling. As a culture many of us in north america north america often don't even recognize that there's a problem with the way that we approach and engage with our jobs. No we relish the fact that we work so hard. People are celebrated for their dedication and selfless to their work. We believe that hard work is a sign of an upright and proper character. In fact we get that notion from our calvinist forebears who lived with the idea that hard work was a sign that you were saved. It reflected yourself asian. Couldn't say what you were saying we're saved or not it wouldn't change that but it was a sign. Working hard method you showed the world that you were one of the elect. Not partly for that reason. Our majority culture in our unitarian universalist tradition as well. Partly for that reason. Our culture values action over reflection. Activity over passivity. Now we've rejected so many damaging and destructive part of that calvin is theology but this. We keep beef in our cultural center and so we dive in and we work. We work to overcome doubt. We worked overcome fear we work protect ourselves from chaos we work because we need the approval of the world we forget. That we are enough. That we are loved. Just as we are. We forget that first principle right there. About ourself. We're living in challenging and uncertain times i know and many of us are doing more and more with less and less certainly certainty that we're receiving enough to make it we're taking care of aging parents paying off mortgage some houses that are not worth what we owe on them worrying about how we're going to a 4-hour long retirements struggling to make ends meet in an economy that threatens us with governments that don't seem to pay attention to our needs afraid of what will happen to our family. All of these things drivers. Said it would be easy and clean to blame busyness and stress. On these trying economic times. But there are many ways into the mire and fractured miss of overworked. And loss of center many ways in which we day-by-day choice by choice allow herself to lose the anchor of ourselves in the storm of the world's needs. Allow ourselves to often lose sight of why we do any work in the first place. Many individual ways in. What was my past and will not be my neighbor's path for my enemies path. And there are of course. Many pads out again many pads to reassessing what we're doing and why we're doing it. What path is too honestly assess what we're receiving for the work that we do and the costs we pay to do that work cost in stress and commuting and necessary downtime. I watched my friends as they work 80-hour weeks because they have to pay for the house that they think they need for people to approve of them. In the 1990s vicki robin and joe dominguez published a book called your money or your life and in it they asked their readers to calculate the actual amount of money their job was bringing in for them for every hour of work and my actual they meant taking into account what it cost him time and money and stress to actually get to and from work each day what it cost address for work what it cost to pay for the vacations or the medicine for the therapy that doing that work made necessary all of that. And i have to share attention with you here as i worked on this sermon over the summer and spend some time with it i realized that. I'm talking in the story that i've chosen to tell you of an and dan this is story people who have the opportunity you have the option to think about these things who have the opportunity to make these choices to change your life is only a piece of the story and that there are people who do not have these options to choose. To downsize there are people who are fighting and struggling to keep any food on the table and i acknowledge that and i still think there's a piece in this story for them. Looking at these things is important. Balance true need effects of our choices around work but more central for me and more important i think to us as a religious community. Just understand how we often lose our connection. To our deepest needs and deepest meaning when we allow our lives to become dominated by the mode of doing. How we become fractured and scattering. And there are porseme pads back out again many pass back to the forgotten or neglected center of our being and these past form the core of most individual and collective spiritual practices prayer meditation chanting ritual dancing journaling. But i'm coming to understand that central to reclaiming balance and centeredness in our relation to our work. Whether we have abundance of work or were struggling to find it. Is the notion of sabbath. Navigate to work sabbath through an old english and old french word savant which comes from the latin sbabam which comes from the greek sabaton and which comes from the hebrew word shabbat. Which means deceased. To rest. In the jewish tradition no work is done on this day from sunset friday until the first star can be seen on saturday evening. No work is done at is stricter and more orthodox. Circles no cooking no driving. For many scholars rabbis and mystics though the practice of sabbath is richer and more important than merely resting it's not just vacation. Abraham joshua heschel. The great rabbi scholar and activist of the mid-twentieth century deeply revered this ritual of his family his community. Is formed by a rich rabbinical tradition he saw in it something deeper and more holy than simply rest. 4 heschel. The honoring and practicing of the sabbath shifted our orientation away from the domination of space. For work at action to a deeper residence and celebration of time. Which for him was the heart of existence. He says. The meaning of sabbath is to celebrate time rather than space. 6 days a week we live under the tyranny of things of space. On the sabbath. Retired to become attuned to the holiness in time. It is the day on which we are called to share in what is eternal in time to turn from the results of creation. To the mystery. A creation. From the world of creation to the creation. Of the world. 4 heschel the sabbath turns us from the production of the hands. To the contemplation and nurturing of the spirit. 6 days a week he says we wrestle with the world ringing profit from the earth. On the sabbath we especially care for the seed of eternity planted in the soul. The sabbath for heschel and others is to invoke harmony between the human and the divine to develop sympathy with a spirit in their words to unite the world with god it is the true happiness of the university says. No hassle of course grew up steeped in tradition thousands of years old a tradition in which the community observed a weekly sabbath. What you said for christians and muslims actor and alongside them this tradition was not one invented by human beings. For them it recalled and honors the actions of their creator god in the very first days of the life of the universe. The book of genesis says in the hebrew scriptures the heaven and the earth were finished. And all their array. And on the seventh day the creator finish the work that he had been doing and he ceased on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. And the creator blessed the seventh day and declared it holy because on it. He had ceased from all the work of creation that he had made. Now later tradition made rules and regulations concerning commemoration at this seventh day of rest these rules about work. And driving at cooking but it hard. It was seen as a gift to humanity. A reminder that our lives are not all work. In returning and rest you shall be saved the prophet isaiah said speaking for his dog. A quietness and trust shall be your strength. Taking the sabbath as a day to rest and reflect and weak locate themselves in time is a powerful ritual. But understand it's briefer practices or longer retreats also feed us. My friends and dan found that taking time together each day to walk with each other and share silence together restored the connection to each other but they felt slipping away even in the midst of all their work. And returned to her practice of taking a solo retreat now and again. These practices didn't make them better at doing their job or at their relationship but they help them be more grounded and centered in their own being. Their own connections to deeper reality in which they were held. So that when they came together. When they engaged in their work they were whole and free order to engage and brakes what came their way. The poet wendell berry over the past few decades has engaged in the practice of writing poems on the sabbath after church. Often written out of doors during or after a silent solitary walk. The poem she says are about moments when heart and mind. Are open and where. Depaul my shirt earlier today was written by barry and 1985. Sabbath poem about sabbath. A poem about doing about the necessity of doing the work of our six days. Doing the work of the world. Put in order to pass through the narrow gate. He says we must leave behind the six days world and its plans and hope leave them behind if only for a time. So that we can truly just see. You must come without weapon or tool alone expecting nothing. Remembering nothing into the ease of sight the brotherhood and i and leaf. And so i asked. I pray. That you. But we. Whether we have too much work. Or not enough. Whether we struggle to put food on the table each night for struggle to find time in our day to spend time with our family. That we will find a way to find the time to pause. To regularly leave behind that 6 days world and its plans and its hopes. Debris. If only for a moment. To answer with rabbi heschel that realm where the goal is not to have. But defeat. Not to own. But to gif. Got to control but share. Not to subdue. But to be in a cord. Where we can hear that still. Small voice. Or we can stop the bump bump bump of our head. Down the stairs just for a moment to see a different way perhaps. To feel depressed of the spirit moving through us to remember who it is you are and why you choose to do the things you do. so that you can do them better or more efficiently but so that you can thrive and engage them in be free. As you do the chosen work. Of your life. Baby song. I have a my roommate actually who who works in downtown chicago works elites home about 6 and gets home about 8 or 5 days a week and thankful he can break out a weekend but you know when we question him. Our work is alright that i mean our work becomes our identity and not having work but i have a close friend who was unemployed for as many of you probably do unemployed for a long time and it it distress he felt was not just about putting food on the table because he was lucky and able to do that but the stress he felt this will who am i.

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Pr110529DavidGiffey-ed.mp3

Good morning welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society my name is christina and i'm a member here at prairie and i will be your provider today. Curry aspires to be both and open-hearted and open-minded congregation. We welcome people of every ethnic and religious background whatever your color sexual orientation gender or family structure. We welcome you no matter what your age or your abilities or your inabilities. Today david giphy will be presenting a service and titled military service and religion should they coexist. And i shall be presenting david giphy in just a few minutes here. I before we do our opening words today i would like to introduce our speaker because david will actually be providing our opening words. I think giphy has decorated greek orthodox churches in the us and greasewood icon murals in the traditional eastern christian style. He also painted many murals permanently installed and community centers. Schools and other public buildings. A lifelong journalist as well for the past six years he has worked as editor of the home news weekly newspaper in spring green. Give a veteran of the vietnam war where he was combat journalist with the army. A founding member of chapter 25 veterans for peace. David and his artist wife nancy living rule iowa county. And now david will come and read our opening work. This is from a piece called a chance for peace delivered to the american society of newspaper editors on april 16th 1953. By president dwight david eisenhower. Every gun that is made. Every warship launched every rocket fired signifies in the final sense except. From those who hunger and are not fed those who are cold and are not closed this world in arms is not spending money alone it is spending the sweat of its laborers the genius of its test. The hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this. A modern brick school in more than 30 cities. What is to electric power plants. Each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is to find fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter with a half million bushels of wheat. We paid for a single destroyer with new homes that could have hoes. More than 8,000 people. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war. It is humanity. Hanging on a cross of iron. It is time for our presentations of presentation and singing. So that's something to look forward to. The title is military service and religion should they coexist. And we will rock welcome back david giphy. Thank you christina and dan and everybody who. Help corral. Corral me. For today at. That the official title on the program. Of my presentation and cannot be heard okay and religion subtitle should they coexist. There are further subtitles and i'm going to read those two more one is ken religious practitioners. Follow their beliefs. And participate in warfare in good conscience. And the second one is do the spheres of military service and religion intersect. And should they. I'm really delighted to be here i have a great deal of admiration for this community i was here one other time many years ago and i can't even remember what the topic was but i was talking to christina i i assumed it was approximately the same because they're always up for discussion. Of the. Intersection or not of many things including religion and the military. I will also say that this community really knows how to give difficult assignments to speakers. The topic today is one that begs for much more attention than it receives. So please bear with me. Cuz i tried to examine it from. From my perspective with what i. Hope at least hope is interesting if not informative i'm a veteran of the war in vietnam is because christina mentioned. I was there in 1965 and 66 after being drafted. I worked as a combat journalist and a photographer with the 1st infantry division. In retrospect my my title more accurately what should have been propagandist. Although i was raised in a roman catholic family by the time. I was deployed to vietnam i wasn't actively participating in any religion. During those years we heard a lot about then we still do this old cliche. There are no atheists in foxholes well that's nonsense maybe we weren't atheist. But. The experience of war to my knowledge never converted someone into a spiritual creature. I was only nominally christian at that time. Years later. After after what can only be described as a. Spiritual pilgrimage. Somewhat necessitated by my experience in war. Plus other. Dinner. Yearnings. Travel the world and spent time. Learning about and attempting even to practice eastern religions primarily hinduism. By then. Believe it or not by a hindu swami was introduced to eastern orthodox christianity. Because the people of the east. Commonly have a much more universal in broadmoor broad understanding of the world's religions and many things then do we in the west. And. It is not christianity from my first. Contact with it it really spoke to many of my spiritual longing and i have since been very closely allied with eastern christianity. Primarily in the greek orthodox church. Cousin artist. I subsequently studied the most traditional. Christian art forms that being iconography. And i spent decades decorating greek orthodox churches with icon murals in the united states and in greece. Simultaneously work does artist the writer and a photographer for most of the past 50 years. And for the past six years as was mentioned i've it been the editor of a newspaper which i haven't touched a paintbrush. In those six years except to paint an occasional protest sign. Regarding regarding religion in the military. I feel that our culture has fostered some very deep under misunderstandings. That have muddied our ability to distinguish between the two. One of those misunderstandings. Manifest itself in an american militaristic tradition. Which certainly affected my young life. My family like many others included generations of military veterans. My grandfather was a civil war veteran. Can the union army from fond du lac county. He was wounded and captured. And spent time as a prisoner of war his service began before he was legally eligible age-wise. When is mother received probably two or three hundred dollars from somebody who had been conscripted and at that end. Then paid his family as a substitute. Both of my older brothers were in the army one was during the occupation of japan. After wwii and the other was in the army during the. Cuban missile crisis. In my view the american military istic tradition and it's and it's twin. Buzzword. Patriotism have reached nearly religious status in our society. For a variety of reasons which are separate topic really from our topic today suffice it to say that the notion of patriotism. If it isn't really carefully examined and explained and understood. Which can an obelisk. But if it isn't it approaches cult status. As many of us will be able to observe tomorrow if we happen to find any of the memorial day. Celebrations aside from the one the veterans for peace is sponsoring at james madison park at 1 tomorrow afternoon matt rothschild will be our speaker. The editor of progressive magazine. We call it an alternative memorial day service. So my answer to the first question of our topic should military service and religion coexist as yes. I feel the same us but there isn't really a philosophical matter at all. It's simply practical in our world religion exist. And the military exist. Some sort of coexistence must occur. There seems to be no option. Best for the second question can religious practitioners follow their beliefs and participate in warfare in good conscience. My answer to that is no. It to explain i will refer to teachers and theologians in the eastern christian world. Which i realize maybe is somewhat limited kind of source but. It's important to understand something about eastern orthodox christianity before you leap to judgment about that eastern christianity while it is the original form of christianity practice continuously since there is not a fundamentalist evangelical religion as we know those those to be. The eastern christian church throughout its history. Has reached conclusions by consensus through ecumenical councils and so forth. And in bodies a living tradition which is equal to scripture. While it is certainly. Christian and its beliefs. The dogmatic doctrinaire attitudes commonly associated. With some parts of western christianity were invented by the west and when i say the west i don't mean los angeles i mean the church of rome. Martin luther didn't nail his treatises to the door of an eastern church but to a roman catholic church. In fact eastern christianity was untouched. By the protestant reformation. And it considers the roman catholic movement itself to be the first protestants mention of the just war theory right we've all heard of the just war theory and and if you haven't really thought about it much. But siri along with interpretations of how we can respond to controversial issues. Have been examined. Can i get about for centuries in eastern christianity. Is my great friends like you say wherever there are two greeks there three opinions. Even within the framework of the church. Father stanley herriges which is the name you would be well-advised to remember if you're interested in following through on research on this he's a distinguished theologian and an ethicist. And a contemporary writer who is examined the church's stand on those controversial issues including you know technology sex euthanasia. Politics war all those followers. Perpetually controversial issues. Doctor who's lifetime of research on the principles of war. Father harikas concluded that there is no just war theory contained within the teachings of eastern christianity. He wrote that he initially rejected pacifism. When he was young. Until he began to learn about reasons why the orthodox church laws canon law exempted the clergy from military activity. Prohibited. The clergy for military activity he said that the clergy was strictly prohibited even from entering military camps. And the reason why was it was an effort to maintain an ideal standard for the clergy that was not applied to the laity. Then he began to realize that none of the western ethical views. City beginning with saint augustine. We're part of the eastern church at all in other words the just war. Fun quotes. Concept was completely a western point of view based on western ethics. Not only did he fail to find anything about justin wars in his in his research. But even good war. We're absent. And things like crusades. Work out early impossible. So he came to feel. That war was taught in the eastern church. To be considered as a sometimes necessary evil. And it was very difficult to define or describe bianca. He kept studying go until he. He. Concluded that the teachings in the eastern church were actually pro-peace. Making them different from the responses to war in the west from there he concluded that the eastern church couldn't have theories about just wars because. Because. Just words don't exist. Unlike the west where war can be rationalized as just in the eastern church war remains a necessary evil nothing can be done to make war positive. And so no just war theory is valid. Cuz i said that place is all of us. Particularly those of us who are allied with the eastern church. As i mentioned it's not a doctrine but the requirement that we. Realized. Analyze every single aspect of the world around us and make choices based on what we know to be peaceful and just that's our mission. Had i been taught these ideas about christianity and wore earlier in life i would not have allowed myself to be sent to what i came to realize was an unjust invasion and occupation. In southeast asia. I often feel that had. A person whom i respected. Because i was relatively political aware i thought in the early 1960s when i got drafted if someone is really spoken to me about what was going on had we known of course it wasn't well-known then. I would have been eagerly on a bus to canada. So my answer to this final question would be yes the spheres of military service and religion intersect but no they should not. And where do these conclusions leave me. Since returning from the war in vietnam i have attempted to actively participate in peace and justice movements. That has led in many directions. And included working as a journalist. With the migrant farm worker labor movement. Does a teacher in artists in the african american community here in madison. As a counter recruiter. Attempting to represent alternatives to young and and vulnerable. Teenagers and minors in high schools. With veterans for peace i do that work. Does an artist exhibiting piece themed. Work and a writer and editor publications like longshadows veterans past two piece which i brought along today there's some copies out there available for sale if you're interested. In my church community assumption greek orthodox church here in madison. With mixed results admittedly. I advocate against war and i taught sunday school there for many years. Paying attention to spiritual things. In-n-out itself is sometimes incorrectly couched in terms of opposition to the secular democracy i'm sure you've heard that or maybe even felt that yourself this is a mistake i feel. Our personal spiritual longing do not breakdown the obvious need. For a separation between church and state. So rather than. Then quoting erik prince the guy that founded. Blackwater or. Or pat robertson or george bush as examples of people in religious groups. Peace activist. In churches. Refer to the the more lasting examples of teachers like dorothy day. Gandhi and the reverend dr. martin luther king. I've been involved with a group called the orthodox peace fellowship it was founded by a friend of mine gym for us to spend a year in federal prison in the 60s. After. The word was desecrating. Draft files in milwaukee. And he then. As i converted so-called to eastern christianity he now lives in in. Amsterdam and is the the international director of the orthodox peace fellowship which is a group that brings together writers and theologians from within the eastern church. Discussing issues of war and peace and justice. I've been involved with that group and and a few years ago i read an essay by a member of the orthodox. Peace fellowship that was very dismissive of the anti-war movement during the 1960s. And said they were invalid because of you know the usual stereotypes everybody it was all about sex drugs and rock and roll. And who said that the peace movement of that time was was actually responsible for the mistreatment of veterans and was end in polarized the country. 2. Two of the most easily. Overcome arguments from those of us who experienced both the war and this aftermath and the peace movement. Before renouncing participations in public demonstrations against war. I think it necessary to examine our motives. Is abba evagrius a virus was a fourth-century greek month. Panacea logan. As abba devargas said. Do you wish to know god. Learn first to know yourself. By participating the best of my ability in the peace movement. The demonstrations i am sometimes asked. To serve as a peacemaker wearing an armband and walking along the edge of the crowd. Where demonstrators are most likely to be attacked. It's an easy in a safe job only a couple times over the years if i stepped in front of people who seemed angry. They were always people who seemed like they might attack the demonstrators. Never the other way around. The quest for peace. Is an inner journey. But to deny participation in the outward manifestations of the peace movement. As. As unworthy or emperor. Seems to me a denial of our very humanity. I always pray when i'm marching for peace. I don't know if my colleagues are praying i can't judge that. I do know however. That they are conducting themselves peacefully and bringing attention to the constant need for peace. If we were bystanders along the paths of galilee. And we saw great crowds following jesus as described in matthew. Would we be creating division in society. If we followed the crowd. To the mountain. And listen to the speakers say blessed are the peacemakers. For they shall be called the sons of god. And even if society were divided. At that moment. Would we be forgiven. If we stood by like pontius pilate. And did nothing on behalf of peace. Thank you very much and i would be happy now to. Listen to a discussion or participate in it before we begin i just want to find out i brought to visual aids here. There's nothing more than that one is a photograph of which i designed some years ago which is located at the high ground. Veteran's memorial park in clark county it's of course based on and inspired by native american effigy mounds. It includes when it was built amazing things happened and it sits there today. Still it was built in 1989 by a group of. 2 or 300 volunteers. Setting includes samples of earth from all over the world including vietnam all the counties of wisconsin many other places. And it led to my return to vietnam in 1995. With a delegation led by mike bane. Of the. Friends madison friends committee. We we dedicated vietnamese-american peace park north of hanoi. Mound adult shaped person sculpture was. Play stan that park as well. This is simply a photograph that i took. During my time in vietnam one of many if it's as if. Photographs like that inspired a series of paintings that i've done and this shows of the akan prisoner-of-war being interrogated. But that time. It was common for prisoners of war to be. Turned over to south vietnamese military for summary execution absolutely contrary to the. Codes of international codes of warfare. And beyond that i am willing to answer questions or to. That's them. A thank-you that's perfect question. That's probably the second most difficult job i have in addition to speaking a year. I've taken it upon myself to two. 2. Try to gain access. Two high schools in my part of the state. So far been successful in about. 6 or 8 i would say. And it's a complicated history in the end to tell about what is really happening but. It goes something like this in in 2001 george bush signed what's called a no child left behind act. And there's 180 word section. Section 95. 28 i believe it is that gives the military carte blanche access to student data high school student data upon request so and and you can. Count on the fact that they take advantage of it. So the high school so the military writes a letter to the principal. And request the student data and they send it. That happened 4 years and years until we started to to push back basically calling that an invasion of privacy there have been federal court decisions historically from. 20 and 30 years ago that say that the military presence in schools the recruitment presence in school which would be shocking to you if you knew about it. Is. Is controversial. And therefore. Alternative points of view. Are legitimately and legally. Present it but boy tried doing it i mean in one of the problems is we have 424 school district in wisconsin. Every single one is different in regard to those kinds of issues they do have policies some of them have policies and it's the policies of come about because we have. Insisted on. Cultivating them policies about opting out this dissection i mentioned in the note child left behind act also says that the only the only way that the student data won't be turned over. Is if the family or the student. Chooses not to allow it. But you can imagine how difficult that is. Every single district is different if the school district i live in. Initially sent stuff off willy-nilly until i complain then they finally they did write a policy now they give the the students they send a letter to the parents saying. You have 30 days after school starts in the fall to opt-out otherwise your data is gone to the pentagon. That's not uncommon believe me i mean that some give less time some don't do it at all. Unless somebody. Requires them to do it i mean minute i've been in schools. Like reedsburg dodgeville richland center. Darlington. Boscobel wisconsin heights. The river valley which is spring green. And it's news to them now now that what we have to do and i've written a paper about it a little sheet and i. Probably didn't bring them but i could provide them in the future. At what i tried to do is describe how to counter recruit unfortunately forbetterorworse veterans are seen as legitimate. People to do that. I don't claim to have any special skill or knowledge or anything but. But if a paratroop even aura. 4-h club for somebody. Went to the principal and said we want a counter recruit and try to. Talk to young people about not doing in the military they would get laughed at. Veterans group we as a veterans group have that we also work with code pink we work with any peace groups and areas that are willing to help us we have table displays visual displays handouts of all types for the kids one of which looks just exactly like an army recruiting pamphlet and it says do you know enough to enlist. We have a book a wonderful book it's a graphic history of war it's called addicted to war howard zinn was involved in it so there are many. Pictures of literature the american friends service committee has since been incredibly helpful in this. But it is an uphill struggle some years ago there was the focus of the military recruitment was on minority groups in urban places. That has changed utterly it's the predominantly white rural school districts now that are just being bombarded. With military recruiters because. They get pretty good education's the graduation rate is astoundingly high like a hundred percent. And they don't have jobs. Been so they're the fairest of game for cannon fodder so so now we're focusing our attention on that but we have no resources the pentagon spends. Their budget last year for recruitment. Was 7 billion dollars for recruitment. It costs about on average 30 to $35,000. To get one kid to sign up. With all i mean they come into the school shops with humvees to prepare an obstacle courses in trailers and they give them t-shirts and make them do push-ups and stuff i mean it. To recruit our children so i sympathise out early with you i know that it's such a horrible sister that's why else would would i have gone in the military had it not been. Kind of. Genetic. You know it's unfortunately they're in our culture in and ferreting it out is is a if i can help in any way i will be happy to do that and i'll talk to anyone who wants that help afterwards but i have to go through all the hoops you know the superintendent in the principal office. If you can befriend them and occasionally there. Somewhat sympathetic. Then you can usually do. And has written books about. The conflict there and has spent a great deal of time there actually foster attempting to foster some kind of funeral unification or. Or. Amelioration of of the terrible circumstances there. Some years ago just before. Everything blew up and. So you know why since then i haven't. Great deal of time of even studying the area but veterans for peace also has has consistently. Opposed pants like the real mission of veterans for peace went through when we invite people to join we have a little application in it and the mission ends with. A statement about our goal is to bring about the abolition of war. So we don't discriminate about which wars we want to abolish. That's that's good point at i'll just make one very quick, to the intersection of military service and religion is really complicated now even within the orthodox church because there are so-called military chaplains. Who are kind of embedded in the military almost like journalist you know anna and in my view the moment the chaplain or so-called his duties are to to give spiritual solace and so forth to people on the battlefield the moment they put on a uniform. Validity. Does is in that role very similar to journalist who are embedded and you can't tell the journalist from the from the military that you can't tell who is who is who in and they're supposed to be writing about the people that they look like. The we're working i actually i'm in close contact with. The president of the building trades unions in south central wisconsin and we're now going to that's that's one of the keys because week it's not enough to go into schools to say don't join the military even though the reasons are perfectly valid. But we need substance and so the apprenticeships and things like that that are where people can learn and be paid while they're learning and get good job and replace the people are retiring and if they don't like their job they can quit without going to jail. Which is a true in the military. I know that there's a time is your i'd be so happy to speak to people afterwards. Thank you very much david. Are closing words today will be provided by david guetta. Lizard versus from the. The second book of isaiah. It shall come to pass in the latter days. That the mountain of the house of the lord shall be established. Is the highest of the mountains. And she'll be she'll be raised above the hills. And all the people shall come. He shall judge between the nations and she'll decide for many peoples. And they shall beat their swords into plowshares. And their spears into pruning hearts. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation. Neither shall they learn war any more.

uuprairie_org

Pr160214GaryGates-ed.mp3

Good morning welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society on this cold sunday morning. I'm rick wrecking a member of the society. Prairie aspires to be both an open-hearted and an open-minded congregation. We welcome people of every ethnic and religious background. Whatever your color. Sexual orientation or gender. Or family structure. We welcome you no matter your age or your abilities or in a bill. Welcome. Are opening words today will be read by donna murdoch. Cowardice. Ask question. Is it safe. Expediency asks the question. Is it politic. Vanity ask the question. Is it popular. But conscience ask the question. Is it right. And there comes a time when we must. Take a position. That is neither safe nor politic. Nor popular. One must take it. Because it is right. Martin luther king. I am. Selected donna to read the opening words today. Because i knew that she. Adopter of biracial child. And. The. Don't. Do this. Because it is safe. Norman cousins politics popular. You do it because it is right. Thank you john. + 2. Lidar chalice. Rachel long and martin aren't. We light this chalice. Symbol of all that we are. All that we have done together. And all that we will be. As our shared ministry encourages those within. And beyond our walls. Reverend erika a hewitt. Penny noted that i hadn't planned on doing this. Today. But actually had planned on doing it i just was stuck in march or april. So when she called and said come to do it this weekend. Describe elizabeth foot my words together. I hope that they. Camp together adequately. When i told her that what i want to talk about what's the preamble to the 7 principles. She said could you talk 20 minutes on that and i are sure that could. I also assured her that i didn't actually didn't know server but i knew. That it wouldn't need to i could just save talk me 5 minutes we can all take off the rest of time. The. Seven principles when we say them. We usually drop the preamble we don't included. Look at the size of the walls as we believe. Or preamble doesn't say we believe. Primo says. We the member congregations. Are the unitarian universalist association covenant to affirm and promote. The first thing you notice says nothing about the individual. It says a congregation. Shallowford and promote. Beam. It makes it clear that place to the congregation not to individual members. Now presumably if you join the unitarian universalist church you. Capri comfort with the seven principles. But you don't have to. Lidl in beckley. If you find that there are few people you have a hard time. Feeling that they have any inherent worth it still okay. The. But it's not an option for. a congregation. The. We are. Supposed to. Covenant. That is the second thing to note about the preamble it is a covenant. A covenant is a solemn vow i promise. To do something. Ansel. But then. A unitarian universalist congregation. As a whole we have promised to affirm and promote which is a third thing. Brief critical in the. Front of the seven principles. Doesn't just look at them so that's nice. Approve them and promote them. What does it mean to affirm and promote. The. Because something awful alex proselytizing. And proselytizing has gotten a dirty name. Predicted manuchehri universal. But i'll talk proselytizing means really is. To let people know what you believe. And let them have the opportunity. To join you in that belief. Unitarian universalist congregation has made that vow not just perry. But we are all need to try to remember. And to encourage. Others. To join us. Countries of the signs believing is not the issue. But it doesn't mean it's not a good idea to keep it in front of us there's always there worthwhile since we was there worthwhile ideas to strive for. Dumb. But we have to ask ourselves what is. We what do we want to do what are we doing. About affirming a boating the principal. I'm sure that can be many ideas about how to do it. From your own point of view. In from conversation to have with some others. I think they're basically two ways we can look at this. The first way is it look at the question how pretty is carrie with covenant is this a task is status quo just fine what more. Passport. Advocates of this approach to say we are involved in multiple actions that reflect the principles. In addition. Providing an enjoyable spiritual. People can come and feel good and refresh themselves. Is a. Way to affirmative the principles of yourselves. Just. Getting good refreshing. We provide a base from which an individual can go out and promote their own ideas in their own way. We don't have to do it as. The congregation is a hole. But nevertheless we do have. Some activities that we support. Did include providing a. At 1 week every 3 months. Some volunteers for the road home. Which mineral lutheranism. The host church for. We also one day each month provide volunteers for visa physicals. Homeless breakfast. Program. We help support the allied community to share some you offering collections chair over other colleges. We fret right and exit radius education program. To prepare our kids to be independent and formed. And caring citizens in the future. And we provide various social welfare organizations chance to make their case before the congregation. We participated moses. Watch everything else necessary. The second way. To look at the question how pretty is carrying out. It's. Count is coming. 2. Affirm a moat. Is that we are not releasing definitely involved. And any of the significations the day. Yeah because of this approach might note that. The coordinators for the road home and grace episcopal homeless breakfast. Afriqua scared scrambling at the last minute telling people to fill up the. Is not very clear that we are confident what we are constantly i like frankly i'm not sure at all. And most people i'm sure have no idea who i represent of is adele a. I don't. At this point i know who it was it one time it was my wife but she's not doing it anymore. Well we have initiated some changes. Dune insurance under autzen the offertory. A significant members don't like that idea. And it's not clear the changes will continue. The religious education program. This is really ain't however it taken care of ourselves and others. The presentations were outside charitable organizations. But once they leave that shooting case of out of sight out of mind. Well we are members of moses. Only a few of us certain meetings. And i'm keeping to myself not very often. Unlike the other to unitarian universalist congregation in madison. We don't have a significant number of attendees. And we are not leaders in moses for today are. I suspected me to remember can't even say what moses would he stand for or 11 by 15 or rock wisconsin which ip. Origin moses. Effort. I would like to know before someone accused me of ignoring some of the things we do. The display list may not be truly comprehensive. I feel however there is a pretty fair summary of our most significant outreach of activities. Prairie. Myself. Organize gear. Prairie as a congregation. Is not taking any significant action on global warming. Mass incarceration. Unjust treatment of black bear economic education police and judicial systems. Or any of the other major issue today. I'm going homeless and. Miss and poverty issues is. Strictly peripheral. I'm going to get raises under the few members showing at the parade. Enrollment global warming concerns has not existed. Especially my next resting risk in these areas. Last year. I gave permission to environment advocates visiting madison. Juicy perfume that's in our building. Discuss extra work and destruction of our normal activities. I was told it was not acceptable. People didn't like it. One of the reasons i felt the permit that position was okay. Was it the previous president and something similar. For the homeless went outside and there was not room enough in the shelters. She let them sleep. I only found out later that she was. Crusades. I have to admit that i do understand things we place too high a priority in our own security and comfort. I want to emphasize and i'm very impressed with the committee members. An individual in promoting environmental and social with her car colleges. I couldn't ask for. Better bunch of people associated with. I also want to emphasize that personally phone pray a very welcoming spiritual home. I love being part of the family. Maybe just providing a supportive spiritual. Is social home for people who are extend themselves in good causes it enough. I have previously talked and written about my desire for prairie. To pick a cause or causes commit itself to. Something we could organize activities around be known as we are. Do this whatever it is. I have not picked up. Any symptoms that this is something other than. We want to do. And it also is possible to being so small that we really don't have that ability. I have to recognize mean i'm being realistic. And that's basically what i wanted to say. I would like to know now how do you think four is doing. Meeting the covenant to affirm and promote the seven principles. Thank you again. I would like to make a few comments. At this point one is the thank all of you for living up to my expectations that i don't talk to her. The other is that i. Wood. Server mia culpa i look and i see what other people are doing.. No arguing in the congregation that something feel like i'm not doing enough. My point was simply that are we doing that but you as a congregation yet. And it's the attitude that people have. Suppose i think is a very is one that can very foul ebru today. We don't have to do it as a congregation as long as you. Pray the home for people who are doing it. I wouldn't know what that. Some. You have two years ago we had a service which related to the. 7 principles in little pieces of paper on the chair like this. 7 proof. After the service is collecting. Just put it away i took a lot of those pieces of paper. I carry around in my pocket. And i passed my route to three or four people shifts. Breakfast. I happen to be in charge of cleanup at breakfast. Answer i was going round taking stuff off the ground. That might be. Be bad stuff to do when you start talking like that there about. 5 minutes. Got in a subjective where are you going. What's that about. Bulldogs principled handler. It was an interesting. You don't have to. Someone who cleans up at breakfast. To do that. You say hey from. One last. Thing i want to say is i went to the general assembly. 2 years ago. And one of the things that came with nat journal 70 with was a survey and it had been done of unitarians. To find out how often they invite other people go to church with them. And the answer was once in every 28 years. It is not a time for the closing words and i'll ask them. You are not here merely to make a living you are here to enable the world to live more ampli. With greater vision. Give me the finest spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world. Can you impoverished yourself if you forget this aaron. It's by woodrow wilson i want to make a few more closing words. I chose this. These clothing words and pam to read them because she constantly. Captain before me. They would for favorite quotation of her father. Give me the anti-nuclear activist. Is mounted on the front of our refrigerator for many years. It only came off when she cut. Calligraphy. Copy of it. And you don't know what it's like to live with someone who when you feel like say i think i'll just take it easy. So. Thank you for coming. Please extend a hand of friendship to those around you and stay for conversation coffee. Thank you.

uuprairie_org

Pr160911Tedesco-ed.mp3

Good morning welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society. For our rally opening words this morning i'm going to steal words from. Live oak unitarian universalist church. Suburb about 30 miles from austin texas where the kind of church with freethinkers buddhist atheist christians pagans agnostics hindus babies. Old folks introverts. Everyone in between. Patriots anarchist's extroverts straight in lgbtq books. B b q fanatics vagins a pub karaoke game social justice activist musicians artists engineers accountants. A whole bunch of loving people. Committed to a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. And making the world better. You may be interested in knowing that their website has two different names when is. Of course why won't you you org. The other is. That kind of church.org. And gatesville radar opening words this morning. No real belief however trifling and fragmentary it may seem is ever truly insignificant it prepares us to receive more of its life. Confirmed those which resemble this before and weakens others and so gradually it lays a stealthy trained in our inmost thoughts which may someday explode into over to action and leave it stamped upon our character forever by w k clifford in the ethics of belief. We laid our chalice this morning the anniversary of a day painful to remember but impossible to forget. We remember all the heroes and heroines of those of that day the firefighters and emergency responders who demonstrated such courage in the midst of crisis. Remember the innocents who perished our friends and neighbors in the thousands of strangers who were victims of random violence. We remember knowing for a moment. That we were connected to each precious life. To the survivors and to those who died with a bond of shared humanity that the forces of hate could never break. Remember the voices that counseled peace even as their nation prepared for war. And we raise our voices still against fanaticism in all its forms against jahaad against military ism against racism and religious intolerance praying that the conflagration of that day. My even now cast amor gentle light leading to a future where all people can live in freedom. And without fear. Looking to that great-aunt of human wisdom. Wikipedia. A philosopher is someone who practice of philosophy which involves rational inquiry into areas that are outside of either theological dogma. Or science. The term philosopher comes from the ancient greek. Meaning lover of wisdom. Its origin has been ascribed to the three greek thinker. Pythagoras. In the classical sense of philosopher was someone who lived according to a certain way of life focusing on resolving existential questions. About the human condition. And not someone who discusses upon theories. Or comments upon authors we have a philosopher amongst has matt tedesco who is going to. Talk a little bit this morning about the free and responsible search for truth and meeting. Nra uu principles. Thank you for coming this morning. So you know mike mike mike mike mike mike my favorite definition of philosopher actually. Someone who answers questions that come naturally to children. With methods that come naturally to lawyers. Penny asked me a few months ago if i'd be interested in. You talking about this principle we got the series going on you know of sort of a regular series of. Talking about the different principles the seven principles of of you you and. I could resist i was looking back this is actually i think i get my first talk here back. 5. Two-and-a-half years i'm really worried over staying might my welcome as it were. As soon as as soon as she asked me i thought well there's just so much to say here of course i've got to say yes this will be fun and then i went home and thought about it. It strikes me there's at least four pieces and i say at least because i'm not going to talk about the process of searching in and of itself so that could be interesting. I suppose if you're really into articles i'm not in the car talk about words like but. That is how you could have think about the principal 2/2 you've got you know what we're searching for and there you've got to really really interested concepts truth and meaning. And then you've got. The piece about how we should be searching for them that is freely and responsibly have tag on their eta to read it probably. Free and responsible and so strikes me that. These are all really interesting pieces and in fact in fact i wouldn't do this. Then you i would overstay my welcome could be like a whole service in themselves in fact you could do a whole. Course today instead of i mean. Did you options were really good dive deep into one of these pieces or the kind of. Bounce along the surface a little bit and just say something i hope provocative and interesting about about all of them and to do in the way that that maybe will be interesting to you about maybe give us all something to talk about. I'm a preface maybe maybe a bit of an apology right and you want to go to stay will be somewhat quick about each of these and indigent the heck of a lot more to say about all the pieces. I'll also say it's whatever extent this is sort of an oddly-shaped powerpoint or that it stretched out in odd ways we had a devil of a time getting this technology to work i never use powerpoint. That's having too many parts. And i'm. First off where i guess when you think about those two main pieces what we're searching for and how we're searching for them. As i thought more about it i seem to me one way to organize my thinking about this principle anyhow. Is that each side of that equation involves. Something primarily about us. And something primarily about through the world around us and how we're engaging with it. And what i wanted suggest is. Or at least 10 what i say here is that in three of those four pieces the bars may be deceptively high both for what it means for us and how we're engaging with the world but also what asher of role is in the world. And as i move along. What were searching for according to this principle. I'm in back into how we're searching for it. This piece the piece of meat i mean the meaning peace we could say a lot about this is the one i'm going to probably the least about above all four of them. So first off and home organizing here i guess the idea i want to i want to suggest is that. In what were searching for these two pieces truth and meaning. This one says something primarily about us. Medicine how weeks to engage the world. And what we find meaning in. I take it. From person to person in this room and beyond. Refined. Different kinds of meaning in very different kinds of things. And that strikes me as entirely it's hardly appropriate that is right on the money right so that. The things people find meaning in can be very different kinds of things should have mentioned a couple of different fingers here that i find you know really impressive and important about this to meet me if you've heard of john rawls there there's a name that's somewhat familiar. And whose political philosophy he talks a lot about what he calls the conception of the good just the idea that for each person we have a notion of a good that shapes our lives a lot from person-to-person and in some cases it takes the form of. You know relationships often familia relationships but not just familiar relationships it takes the form of different kinds of careers or other projects that we serve invest ourselves and you think about the organizations that maybe you volunteer for the causes that you take to be centrally important. And here i think there's something to celebrate about the diversity of the kinds of things that we find meaning in. And. I feel that said move on and say something more complicated about the other pieces so. Bond hearing start to point out ways in which i think the bar can be high and thinking about what we're searching for and also how we're searching. And so. So the search for truth and meaning the other part of this being true. What i want to suggest is where isis meaning. This pizza but we're searching for say something primarily about. I think when we when we think about the concept of truth. We all have to think about it. Something about how we understand. The world around us. And what i want to suggest and i'm going to go through some examples as to illustrate this and so here's a place. Or he might push back in comments but i'm going to go with this. Here's a place where i want to suggest that i think the language that we often use around truth. Can sometimes mislead us into thinking that truth is. Primarily. Individual who use phrases like my truth your truth and i don't want to say those aren't meaningful in fact. I have an example where i think. I think it is but i think primarily. Irishman truth. Has to do with. Truth about the world. The has to do with. How we share the experience of the world. And so in that respect. I guess i want to suggest today that the bar is high here that we ought to hold ourselves to certain standards of how we engage the world and evaluated. I messaged you know i can't resist definition. Again we can talk a lot about this the most common understanding of the properties propositions. That is probably where you where a proposition now this is a little bit too much in the weeds a proposition answer the content of a sentence. Right so if i ever sentence in one language or another those are different sentences right but presumed a content to be the same. And so are we can ask about the content of propositions are they true or false. Let me just go through them and i want to say something brief about each of them although again there's potentially a lot. So. Big chocolate chip is the best flavor of ice cream. I take it if i were to believe that by the way i do black raspberry. Anyway. Thought about this too much. Hypothetically if i were to under this sentence chocolate chip is the best flavor of ice cream. I take it. In ordering this send this is one of those cases where i think that's highly relativize notion of truth is appropriate right that is right i would be saying that as something that is true for me. But then i wouldn't. I assume we're try to argue is true for you that is if you came along and you said you know no black raspberry is the best player ever right that i wouldn't try to convince you otherwise. And so i think that there are cases where that notion of truth is a relative ice. But if it is all kind of cases where it's not some of which matter a lot. Triangle have three sides along and i said drawings of four sides. You wouldn't think that's your truth my truth is that triangle have three sides right i take it you would think. Well it's activesync exceptionally i made a mistake. You might even not know where to begin right but simply misunderstood the concept. And so. Yeah and so i take it here is probably the most kind of straightforward case of of where truth is not relative is in fact i'd be wrong if i if i if i said that. False. Okay. But now there's a range of kinds of sentences that are more complicated so i take the second one. Human activities is significant cause of climate change. I take it that is a sentence that some people expect do did not write that they say you know i take this to be false now. If an empirical question. Fundament. Right that is a fact of the matter i take it about whether or not human activity is a significant cause of. You're not now. How we investigate and understand empirical question is generally is not always easy. Right but i do take it here's a case where a little bit loaded but i think you could possibly argue right that we have sufficiently investigated this interval question. I take it for many of you you were saying hold on a minute. You're wrong about that and let's talk about it we can maybe you're misunderstanding the evidence maybe you are maybe just not aware of the evidence something like that. Some form offered by someone that would take to be an expert having gather the evidence right to service a hold on a minute here there's more to say than just we disagree. Okay this one loaded topical. I recognized the idea that moral claims can be true or false is it is certainly a complicated one. But. At least. The face of it. I want to resist if you so that we can talk a whole lot more about i want to resist the idea that simply because someone's over tomorrow tomorrow claim that there's nothing nothing more to say about it. In fact. I think there's good reason to think. That when people make moral claims like if i were to deny the flying building. I thought i think. The same kind of discourse. That we would have engaged in if i deny this third one. Which probably. Impossible. That is. You'd want to understand why i thought that you would think that i have misunderstood some relevant reasons bearing on that claim. And that is something that you would think i've been closeted lee wrong about. And so. Controversial right because we're taking this kind of questions purely empirical this one is somewhat more conceptual. Right because we would have to understand something about the moral status of persons and when the killing of an innocent person could ever be morally justified. And those are very complicated question but i don't want to simply pass them off as things that we can't make progress in without. Meaningful discourse. I bet as a way of. Dividing up. The different kinds of claims we might assert as true or false. Here's a question you can ask about anything. Isn't the sort of clean. For which wound must have reasons. To wish you would hold other people accountable. And what i want to suggest today. For any claims yes. Then we ought to resist. The temptation to relativize at reclaim. Essentially true for you but not for me. That i think there's something fundamentally social. How we engage the world around us. Is captured. On that i think does raised the bar for how we think about what's true and what's false. I mean you go back to the ice cream example. Okay nothing more to say. But if i receive and say you know what actually example. You know i think it's perfectly fine to torture a kitten for fun. Right and you disable i disagree. You'd want to push me a little further write about. Why we could do kittens that way. Example of a place where. We don't think the truth is a meaningful thing that we can't find in a lot of. So that's right then i think the search for truth as opposed to search for meaning is not something that is highly relative i. I think we have some responsibilities there. Understand the world. I ways that we can talk meaningfully about respect to how we do or don't offer reasons for the claims that we for the things that we stake out but that's not reversal baby a lot more to stay here but in the promise i offered earlier of saying something moving on. I'm going to move on to the other side of the equation. Alright. Free responsible search for truth and reason for. Question of. Power surge. Free and responsible again imma take these in reverse order. What does it mean. I mean imagine if it were simply. A search for truth and meaning. I mean that's that's not that's not. Incoherent. But presumably we think something meaningful as added. By saying. That we're looking for a responsible search for. So. So what does that mean. Here then in this way at least in my mind it made sense to separate the pieces here. Empower searching. I want. I want to suggest. The adding this piece. Calling search. Responsible search. Says something primarily about the world around us. What we owe to others. And howard searching. And what i want a suggested by the way this is you know i so apologize to pan you got stuck with a mouthful of opening words today. But he has it paper and i say call the ethics of belief. That i find to be a very compelling read a particular argument makes and i find very compelling and i thought i would share briefly the main thrust of that essay today. How i fink. We ought to think about responsibility. Specifically. What i want to suggest. Is that. I think probably most of us can agree. That. There is more responsibility. How we act. I mean unless you're simply deny that the category of morality right that is that we have more responsibilities. Then i take it straightforwardly that lives in how we act for the others right so you know if i were to walk up to a stranger on the street and some hit them right that presumably right away you would say whatever else that was illegal or whatever. In the ways that affect other people. My. If you take morality to be a category at all i think that's. But but here's what is potentially more controversial than what i am. Nodding to clifford in arguing briefly today but i think we also have responsibilities in the beliefs that we. Hope. Even when. It's not obvious that you can draw a straight line. From any particular belief to any particular action. And so when i said your beliefs. A private affairs what i believe the poor purely personal matter that's what i take to be. Wrong or at least what i want to argue on behalf of clifford against. It's just a little bit. So. Obvious case i think right here. Where we can think about a belief. And see if directly tied to an action right so if i believe it. Are inferior to others. Now. Until you know pick any category category of work or religious belief or sexual preference or sexual orientation or religious. Writes imagine i believe that i don't know anyone anyone who. You know work set of college is inferior to other. I take it i take it right away you might be troubled by my holding of that belief. Right because you say well that's the kind of believe that is very likely to directly translate if you you treating you know the employees of colleges in ways that are serving fury to others so you shouldn't do that so you should hold that kind. And maybe that's controversial maybe it's not but i take it there's also a range of beliefs that i think we might ordinarily take to be purely privately. And so example that i sometimes like to use just cuz it sort of fun to think about. Imagine. Imagine for a moment that you you. Believe in what i will call the standard astronomical story of suns and stars right so that is you believe that when i look up at the sky and i see the sun that that is in fact an enormous ball of gas. I believe something different. I believe that when i look up at the sky and i see. The sun. The sun is a result. What are star dragon. Star dragons are beings in existence space. Dragons what do dragons do. Free fire right and so if you had enough. Eternal fire breathing dragons in space. Flying in a circle around each other. But would you like we did. Apollo flame. But now. And i want to say to you something like well you know look if i ever went to the sun i didn't find star dragons maybe i'm going with that. On the one hand you might think. You know it's kind of crazy but whatever. If you give me some happy that's great you know. That's the kind of believe i figured you might want us think is. Purely personal. So there's nothing to be said. The angle right with respect to responsibilities. What we owe to others in a belief like that you might say. But after clifford the the fellow who i offered the opening words from today. Clifford makes the following argument that i find compelling and again here's one we could spend again a lot of time i'll just offer the sort of the move he makes and then and then move along. According to clifford. No belief is purely private. Because. Even if you take a belief like the belief in star dragons. Write the belief that you might think it's purely personal something do that anyone else. That belief becomes a part and a sense hears a who may be a rough analogy for it. The part of my son of web of beliefs. It doesn't fall apart of that web of beliefs. But it says something it has an effect on the standards according to which i believe. Right to the idea is my willingness to believe in star trek. In the face of. The massive accumulated evidence for the standard astronomical story of what sons are and how they work. Has an impact on. How i believe. And other kinds of case. It makes me more likely. To believe things. That. You might find more directly objectionable. If i'm willing to. Stare down and ignore evidence in a case like that. It will make me more willing to stare down and ignore evidence in other cases. And so can i find plausible. Suggested. That we are so he'll be embedded with each other all the time interacting with each other. Standing for causes voting rights and insofar as that unavoidably true. That we have responsibilities to others. Not just what we do. Baden what we believe. And then i pulled it out for the sake of time a range of quotes from clifford clifford. Emotional too strong but he really gets quite passionate about the idea being that i've got no time. Straw. But i also think there's something compelling about it. And so to the extent that what we're talking about here is a search for truth of meaning i take it we find that to be something that is. Quite personal. I at least want to suggest that the notion of doing this responsibly. Make cut deeper than you think. That isn't me cut across all of the things that we're taking to be true and so believe it. Alright. One more. Freedom. Funny how memory works few minutes ago you could do a whole class on this. So some of what i will say though. October 1st off the general claim. Giving away i've been dividing things. And how we're searching i want to suggest this notion of. Does expectation of freedom. And it's it's about us. What about us and i think in a complicated way. It says something about what needs to be true of us. For the search to be. Ultimately a meaningful one. I think i'm not respect. It's connected. I want to avoid this way of saying it but i'm going to say it this way and then maybe you'll see what i mean and then and not be too much about it. By everybody else. I should have. How we organize ourselves and society we live. That's a b clean. Maybe i'll see what i'm getting at. Here's a very common view. Of what freedom involves. Right that is. 3 free is to be unbounded by constraints. That is when i'm constrained i'm not free. And so you might think in reverse right. When i left those constraints. Then i am free. And once. Common example you off and get here is example of right. Chris. Prisoners taken to be the quintessential example of someone who. Lack freedom. Because they're constrained in some significant way. And so therefore you might then think this is how we ought to analyze the concept of freedom generally. Having to do with lack of. Those dangerous to go with pop culture references. You don't know who's going to know them or not. Yeah so my wife knew this one good. I don't know how many people saw the movie the shawshank. But if yeah okay see some hands if not it's okay i'll talk about it. So brooks is one of them main characters or one of them are the characters in the movie and he is basically a prison life. Right that is he was imprisoned very very young and now as we enter the movie he's he's much older and much older and. Has it happened about to be freed from prison. Now boy, here i shouldn't give because it's such a great movie see the movie let's just say freedom brooks isn't all it's cracked up to. Right. That is. For brooks. He gets out of prison. And you might say wow in prison constrain. Black freedom. Now out of prison so free unconstrained. Brooks is lost. When he comes out of prison. Just. In a fundamental way not quit. Lives are functional flourishing way in seaside. I take it. I take it this kind of example. It's one that tells us something about freedom or general. 6 years of notion that i'm borrowing from a lot of people. Conte. Hegel isaiah berlin a bunch of others. Infestation between. This notion of positive and negative freedom a positive negative liberty that i can use. In the literature. Here's a distinction. Negative freedom. Is the kind of freedom i talked about two slides ago. Freedom as not being constrained. Right that is when i'm a prisoner in chains right i am i lack freedom. When i'm unchained and so-and-so. It'll free from those constraints i have a kind of freedom. Find freedom. Right in this is sort of the key towards what i'm trying to say about this principle. Negative. Negative freedom. Is a different kind of thing. From what is. In contrast called positive freedom. Where. Economy economy to be a really interesting word right. If you know the etymology of the word. I auto self nomos law. And i think that's a really interesting thing to think about this for a second. Think about law. One way of understanding laws is that the kind of constraint you think about for example. The future to minimize laws against everything from i don't know what you know jaywalking to drug distribution to whatever they're offering frame particularly by those of a more libertarian persuasion. Neither positive nor negative judgment of those right as a kind of way of freeing us from certain unjustified constraints. What is an interesting one. But there's a way which the idea of giving self. Giving yourself the law. Is it different than richard concept. Sushi rice a very generally what does it mean to give yourself. Allah. What does it mean to govern yourself. I think it has to do with something. Reflectively. Forming choosing being equipped to pursue a conception of the good. I think it is an ideal but i think it's a really foundational appeal suggest. That there's a way which is ideal. Is deeply connected to something that we can but many of us can relate to. Having children. As you speak about what it means to be a parent write a cat children are fairly young children examples of people who really aren't self-governed in a meaningful way. Write how to make choices over time. Right but the notion of raffle actively choosing. That is really. Quite a dent concept. And i take it one goal we often have his pants. Is to equip our children over time to become the sort of people who can do that. Birthday kit for the recognition there it's not automatic and in fact it's not easy. And in fact there's a whole lot of threat to autonomy. Children's example and i take it you know when you think about people of another may be too easy example. Types of people who for whatever reason and it's a complex psychological and sociological story to tell right but they lack. Write the kind of reflective choosing. That we take to be. Quintessential to meaningful self-government and here's an odd summer summer services are a little trickier to a service. John gibbons came from an organization that he runs the circle of support and if you weren't here it's an organization that works with. Recently rub people who recently released from prison. 2. Provide them with a kind of support network. Write that will put them in a position to. I think most fundamentally other maybe i'm twisted. I can make good choices part of what i think was so for me at least. So awesome about his organization was he could point to the house significantly recidivism rate to drop among those who didn't. Right and what i want to suggest today is this is deeply tied to this notion of positive freedom. That is. It takes a lot. Tubi free. And there are all kinds of threats to freedom. All kinds of them in the social structures operating in the way that laws work right in the pressures that we face from those around us. Any of those. Canario way. Think. Undermined freedom at dawn we talked about over here right free and responsible search for truth and meaning about freedom. I think it's only this is the highest of all the bars i'm talking about today because i really do think if we take this principle seriously. What it means is we ought to think and i think we do. Very often especially friendly in this group. But i think. We have a responsibility to think really seriously about what we can do to put others in a position to be free in this meaningful way of positive freedom. And the ways in which implicitly. Accidentally-on-purpose we sometimes support structures. That's threatened freedom. In a meaningful way that i think we care about we care about that from. So. And what were searching for. Like i said the meaning of primarily about us and i think here we shouldn't get a high bar for what people find meaning and we ought to embrace the very different kinds of things that people finding. But. I do think that the bar is hot here at least we ought to resist relativize in the too much. Respect responsibility. Again this is about what we owe to others and i gained here i want to suggest that the things we believe. Are connected with responsibility. Freedom. Bardstown here to stop now so we have enough time to talk for a little bit. We're closing words we love our. I didn't practice oh okay. We might over and above all this ad. So what man acquires in the civil state. Moral liberty. Which alone makes him truly master of himself. For the mere impulse of appetite is slavery. Follow. 12 hour which be prescribed to ourselves is liberty. Jean jackets results. So if you would. Extend the hand of friendship. Enjoy coffee. And notice that just bakery is here this morning.

uuprairie_org

Pr130825SERRV-ed.mp3

Good morning. Welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society. I am the reverend sandra lingam but it's fine to call me sandy please. Prairie unitarian universalist society aspires to be. Both and open-hearted. And and open-minded congregation and it generally lives up to that i am finding. We welcome people of every ethnic and religious background whatever your color sexual orientation gender or family structure we welcome you no matter what your age. Or your abilities or your inability. On sundays we provide a wide variety of services and they're presented either by a prairie member. Or by myself or by a member of the wider. Community and that's what will be happening today when we have megan. I would need some help arch. Ars becker asked you that before we became a formal here. Pls on up resenting and i'll give you a little information about her right before she speaks. Nfl start date. Okay. May we be reminded here of our highest aspirations and inspired to bring our gifts of love and service to the altar of humanity. May we know once again that we are not isolated beings but connected in mystery and miracle to the universe. To this community into each other anonymous. Oh light of life. Be kindled again in our hearts. As we meet together this morning to celebrate the joy of human community seeking a wholeness that extends beyond ourselves. Samuel a trim board. This. Book the story is set in like 1931. And what was happening in the united states in 1931 was bad stuff is emily think they know what it was. The great depression you are correct. And so this story is set in africa where there was. A man teaching from america. And so this is how the africans some people in an african village learned about the great depression with the great you know what the great depression is no jobs lots of people hungry it was it was a sad time was difficult in the united states. Now it's my pleasure to introduce megan our megan has been working with served for just over two years last week some of you wanted to know what serve stood for and. Meghan you can tell us that if you want to and although we did get most of us got an email from our director religious education explaining what the acronym was. Megan studied international studies. Here at the university of wisconsin-madison. And became affiliated with the serve store which i hope will hear bit about. On monroe street here in madison. And work there as assistant manager. For one and a half years at when she then transitioned into service corporate office. Working on development and fundraising. And she says she enjoys working at serve because of its global impact. And ability to change people's lives. Through sustainable. And empowering initiative. Well. Well good morning everyone thank you so much for having me i know service has been here in the past and hopefully we'll we'll talk about some new things today so you guys don't know about serpents. Hopefully i won't pass out of here i'll just do a brief introduction of serve for anyone who doesn't know and then we can talk more specifically about some of our development work particularly in bangladesh nepal and here now. Sister is a fairtrade non-profit company located here in madison and our mission is to eradicate poverty wherever it resides by offering opportunity employment marketing training skills development. To artisans and farmers throughout the developing world who are low-income and wouldn't otherwise have these kinds of opportunities. We've been practicing our core values for 64 years we've been around for a long time and we are actually one of the founding members of fairtrade here in the us and. Some of our core values well i should say serve used to stand for sales exchange refugee rehabilitation and vocation to can imagine was just marketing gold communities about 20 years and we just opened up on state street and so you can find her. products they are but we were partners and we really focus on improving their quality of life through social justice. Take skills that they already had skills and products authority developing and bring those. To the market here in the us we like to think that we're kind of. A reverse model we we follow adam and in the developing world to make products and have businesses and that just happens to fit with a market here in the us we're not developing these products to sell them to people we're bringing in these products to showcase our artisans and really offer them the employment and opportunities that they deserve. And we work very closely with all of our partners partnership and collaboration is one of our major core values and we're talking with our groups almost everyday whether it's our product development team or myself or our international development team we really do have a very close relationship based on trust and i think so many questions how do you really enforce fairtrade how do you really get into. We're also very focused on sustainable development initiatives using recycled materials using the lowest impact methods of shipping and things like that and all of the orange highlighted areas on this map are where our partner groups are in southeast asia sub-saharan africa and south america. Do something that a lot of people don't know about service. You know selling things and selling products is only half of what our business is we are very very much a development organization and that's what we do fundraising for and that's what we reinvest the income. So we have from our sales in our group and so we sort of have three tiers of development areas that we work on. Boosie tears of development work that we do the top-tier are kind of our major initiatives and we sponsor typically between five and seven of those every year which i'll talk about in a couple of minutes and then we have planned to see projects which are kind of the projects that put the tools of change and the tools of employment in people's hands. So that will be buying a new kiln for one of our groups in nepal or sending new tools to our jewelry groups in in. You know kenya things like that things that really give them the tools that they need to run those businesses and then the third-tier are all of the projects that are partner sponsor and their partner initiated projects. So one of the major reasons why we bring our new groups is because of their ability to affect change in the communities where they work and so we want to make sure they have well-established you know education programs or you know women's empowerment programs things like that and then they come to us regularly a new well and then we try and help them fund those projects. We really try and. Particularly with with our major development work is to offer our group's trainings and business training programs marketing training things like that that can help them grow their businesses we we work with people on all spectrums of the business scale from very small groups with you know 12 artisans in rural uganda. Two very large groups in india that has almost 10,000 artisan so we're kind of were all over the spectrum there and because we work so closely with them we can try and get a feel for where they are on that business spectrum until some groups are better suited for plant a seed projects were they needed you know new weaving mechanism or a new moon or something like that wears other groups they already have designers on staff to help them develop new products and we just need to help get them understanding the trends here in the us colors that work and offer them opportunities in that area so it really is a full-scale and varied approach that we try and take. So i will talk about three of our major projects and the first one which i think personally i am most passionate about this year is a design training that we're hosting in bangladesh i think after what happened this spring with factory collapses and fires and just seeing the destruction of people's lives because of mismanagement and. This you know also profit-seeking push for the lowest cost. System that we function and i think for me it's just heartbreaking to see that i know syrup is not a company that would ever put people in those kind of situation but sometimes you feel helpless like what can we do to make this better how can we get people out of the system and first serve the only thing that we can do in the labor system to come to this training. We also hope to see a lot of these other non serve partners attend so they can learn about what fair trade is if you're not already a fair trade organization they can learn about how offering artisans increase wages better opportunities can really change people's lives for the positive and prevent these kind of disasters from happening are groups in bangladesh keep telling us that. No we hope this is a wake-up call that people need that people see you know we are so affected by this like most of our groups are in. i would just wear the. Glasses weren't into things like that and so for them i mean they they were just they said they were glued to their tv they just they couldn't believe it the city just shut down there's so much devastation and. I think for them that was really the moment like we're doing what's right how can we get more people to come on and be like us so hopefully this program will be an opportunity for them to do that. We're seeing a huge demand for my partner's actually saying recycled materials i mean we can go and pick them up at the local garbage dump for really cheap you know what kind of products can we make and so one of our groups hopefully after this training will be working on recycled sorry you know fabric material. So we sell the stores actually only account for about 10% of our annual sales so most of our sales do come from our catalog and i did bring some of the new catalog which are sitting out right in the lobby for everyone to look at who we send out about a year around the us and so that's really the driver of our sales is people looking at the catalog buying through the catalog and find fair website. But we also do wholesale to other fair trade organizations out there he will see serve products at other little fair trade stores are gift shops all around the us we we are a member of this it's very new but it's called the artisan alliance. And it's based here in the us and it's a bunch of fair trade companies small artisan cooperative but also large companies like wal-mart is a member of the artisan alliance. And so we hope to start having discussions like that during our lions meetings about well you know we have resources we have. Been a member of the fair trade world for a long time you know is there anything we can help you with you know what what skills can we bring to you whether it would be consulting or creating special product line for these big companies because i think that's where specialization is in a week where are specialization is working so closely with artisan partners and bringing those skill sets to life and hopefully. By working more closely with larger companies like wal-mart and others maybe we can institute some change through something like that we'll see i don't know if we have enough cloud outside of the. So one of our other initiatives for this year is solar panels in nepal and so one of the things that is one of our long-term goals and one of our core values is increasing sustainability and for many of our groups in nepal as well as many other countries. Access to a regular electricity grid is just not a reality i mean they're located in rural areas they're experiencing power outages of 4 to 18 hours a day and it's making it really really hard for a courage to communicate with other buyers and other you know international organizations because they need that power for their computers and things like that in their operations facilities and so we're trying to do a almost like a. A test run in nepal and buying solar panels for one of our smaller groups there who works with about 450 artisan and trying to power 100 per-cent of their operations with solar panels and documenting the whole process to see if it's something that we can institute for more of our group's not just in nepal but elsewhere and so we hope to buy it somewhere between twenty and forty solar panels for their workshops for their weaving facilities there. Paper making facilities. As well as their offices and hopefully that we can institute this program elsewhere and really make it something that we were recognized for is offering alternative energy sources for a group so they can just skip you know that. But the nasty process of getting attached to a grid that's powered by you know fossil fuels and it's not helping the environment can we just skip over that and take them from having no power to having totally one-hundred-percent ecopower so that's another one of our projects for this year and then the last one. And so one of our other major initiatives like i said that's an annual event for us is hosting design camp here in madison and we actually paid to bring artisan partners here into the us and meet with our design team in our marketing team here in madison as well as design professionals from the art institute in chicago and people from ikea and kohler and things like that to offer them a week-long intensive training focused on who is the surf customer who are us customers how can you take. Products that you guys have an in modernize them maybe changing a color adding a stripe something really simple that can take their product from being kind of okay to be top seller and really offering them that intensive in country view of a poodle's customers are and what products are selling has proven a huge success oliver partners who participated in the past we've done it for 4 years for 25 people are other groups about the impact that design campus had on her and how she instituted the things that she learned that the first design camp in their organization and how they seen that happen really helping our groups learn from other groups. For design camp at our monroe street store on tuesday september 17th on the left side we have two participants the top two that you see there are from vietnam for my two groups in vietnam and juan is the woman in the white shirt who has participated in the past. They're really excited to have her back. And then i master who is designer from bulbulu is our first african participant we are very excited to have her here she works with. Jewelry artisans in in kenya in nairobi nairobi kenya who are physically or mentally handicapped and so these are people who have no opportunity for in kenya at all and she's one of the. Founding members of that group and we're very excited to see what she will bring to the table and and be able to institute in her organization and so he will be here as well they have a very large product line so he's got his work cut out for him and designing new jewelry and stone products and things like that and meet and greet. And then i have just another site here i don't know how much time i've got left but these are just some of our other. General social development programs that we do to work with our groups and like i said i mean we've got lots of amazing stories from all of our partners because that's. You know what fair trade is all about is building strong communities. Through. Employment and through you know the sales and marketing of products but also through the other opportunities that that can provide through training programs send another opportunity so. How can you help us obviously just spreading the word about service for us the best. Best method out there we're not. Loaded with money to spend on advertising and so doing speeches like this and letting people know about the work that we do and we find is continually the best way to get new people in our store and get new people involved in what we're doing. Ways that you can help specifically with our development program if you've ever been to our store when they ask you to round up all that money goes to our development programs and so we try and sponsor different one every month in the stores that people learn more about what we're doing but always make sure to round up even that extra $0.18 twenty-five cents. It all it all adds up. We don't have any groups technically in alaska i think that was probably just highlighted as part of us but we do have one of our groups is a native american group in north dakota that harbison and grows organic wild rice that we sell for them as well as i think maple syrup and a couple other food products. That's an ongoing discussion at sir because the catalog production is a high expense for us and i think that we hope to move in the direction of just finding organic web sales but after we send out a catalog we see like $100,000 spikes in our sales on our website and in our catalog and so for us it's still really a necessary part of our business i think we have kind of a few target and. The traditional serve customer has been religiously oriented spiritual people who have found out about surf through their churches things like that and host consignment sales and that's been a large portion of our of our customer base for a long time but i think is fair trade becomes more popular and serve frozen and people have more awareness and i think those are the people who develop. We used to be formally partnered with church of the brethren actually that's how we started. And so when we officially became a non-profit we. We broke we became a secular organization so we broke our ties technically with them but we still are warehouse in maryland is actually on a church of church of the brethren campus and we still work very closely with church of the brethren and attend their annual conference in. And. Yeah we recycle paper and we always try and recommend that people share the catalogs of people cuz we don't purchase list we don't sell eyelids who don't do anything like that so all the people that we get are just organic. People who find out about us and request a catalog or the friend told him about it or friend recommended that they get one earlier this year because we went through a big rebranding that was a huge change and we change your name from a greater gift. We are and we try and keep our fundraising expensive particularly as low as we can so that we can invest as much money as we can in our partner groups and. I guess you only impact. Stories that we have our kind of you know specific to each group in and how we can see the impact and perhaps than the increasing their purchases or the number of new artisans that they brought on i'm in trying to understand it like that but i think that that's one of the things that we need to improve on as we move forward with fundraising and there's a myriad of organizations that people can choose from i think. We have a very good reputation with our donors but for new donors that's something that they're going to ask is what is that impact like what is the numbers game behind all of this you know how can you see the impact of your investment on people in wherever the money is going to and i think. Hopefully we'll get there you know i think we we've been trying to send more staff members and volunteers to go and visit our groups and capture those stories about impact because during the recession we just didn't have. The money to do that in all honesty we just couldn't afford to send our our staff abroad we just didn't have that. In our budget and so now that we sort of pulled out of it at least enough to get our head above water we can go and collect those stories and those impact really trying to see those changes we've been trying to capture a lot of them on film and photo and then really get those faces behind the names and and the stories that you're hearing and seeing. We have a wedding registry as well as like a holiday gift registry on our website and in our store and so i don't know how much response we see from it but i think you're right i think it's a great idea and one of the things that a lot of. People do is they'll make a donation gift like you said in someone else's name and i think that that's what we see a lot of honor gift registry of people who want to make a difference rather than you know getting a toaster. Great thank you guys so much for having me. Goods produced under conditions which do not meet a rudimentary standard to decency. Should be regarded as contraband. And not allowed to pollute the channel of international commerce. Beat your neighbor and go in peace.

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Pr131027PatrickFarabaugh-ed.mp3

Paula if you would please do the opening one thank you we all drawn the well of our own experience and our approach to these issues i am a child of south africa i do not need to imagine what it is like to be treated as inferior it happened to me somewhere surprised when south africa under nelson mandela's leadership wrote into its post-apartheid constitution cast iron protection from discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation it happened because south africans understood that discrimination is unacceptable on any basis real equality admits no exceptions it was archbishop desmond tutu rainbow nation to describe a country that drawstring not suspicion from the differences among its people pride not fear from its diversity and perhaps that writ large is as fair a summary as any of the cause that has brought us here tonight the world we want really is rainbow colored it is a world of brilliant diversity where each one of us is free and equal and where everyone is treated with the same measure of respect and dignity that was a statement by navi pillay united nations high commissioner for human rights on the occasion of the international day against homophobia and transphobia the hague may 17th 2013. Two-face the world's shadows. A chalice of light. Two-face the world's coldness. A chalice of warm. Two-face the world's terrors. The chalice of courage. Two-face the world's turmoil. A chalice of peace. May its glow. Fill our spirits. Our hearts. And our lives. And not burn. The building.. Actually we have more freedom and he has graciously and creative director of seattle magazine to be hired by the conde nast. Publications when he went to work for 5 years at conde nast traveler. Patrick is a strong advocate for lgbt equality since arriving in wisconsin in 2005 he's founded the madison gay hockey association our lives magazine and co-founded the couch professional and executive network in 2010 named patrick and lgbtq living hero to our state that is my great pleasure to introduce patrick and to have him come up here. Norway iowa sweden the coquille indian tribe in oregon in vermont. Got added to the list in 2009 and one of the things that i wanted to bring up here that i found really fascinating again marriage equality is only one right like that that there's so many other areas in this populations vulnerable or the discrimination like legalized discrimination happens in sweden i don't know if they have fully finally stopped this practice or not but like transgender people before they could get access to gender reassignment surgeries had to be sterilized so and i believe one other area in mexico. and maryland were states that all had marriage equality initiative on the ballot that would grant marriage equality. So that's some of the better stuff. Some of the another really really fun thing to happen this year germany became the first country in the world to allow parents to designate a neutral third gender for their children when that when the child is born so on the birth certificate you don't have to indicate if the time if it's gender is male or female you can leave it as neutral for the child to decide later if so that i thought was incredible i did not see that one local news. So that group of some of the leaders i was trying to figure out if there were any specific ones of that that i thought were worth noting above others in sweden sweden like i said with sterilizing their trans population before they can do any sort of sex reassignment surgery it is definitely one of the worst things which is so and i think but one of the best cases to show how polarized. Yeah it in sweden in a lot of these places also worth noting and i want to move away from marriage equality pretty soon is marriage equality was not the kind of the first step the end it is a game but oftentimes it wasn't what was first awarded these nations the first thing that they. Something similar to marriage but not marriage in name. So civil unions and a lot of them like the scandinavian nation is denmark technically was the first nation to award any kind of legal protections and rights to its lgbt citizens when they did some relationship recognition through civil unions so and then the netherlands trump them by becoming the first nation to offer full marriage equality so. So. That's some of the good stuff some of the bad stuff on the other end like i said ron and ron i think is really a lot of other than middle eastern nations in one of the things that i think is really important to point out when you talk about kind of like the middle east and what their political position on gay rights it is their political position. Like i talked to many different friends who are muslim and they can't point anything in the quran that kind of shows a right to religious position to have this kind of like venomous hatred prisons population it is always so somehow surfaces through political channels just like how it has different. Trans people are pretty fairly welcome going to run so go figure there there's not too many restrictions on access to sex reassignment surgery is there trans women are welcomed into being identified and recognized as women fairly easily but when it comes to anything where the word sideways attached a lot of their laws and in what they perceive as criminal hinges on that word and if it can be attached to an act that they considered sodomy and then depending on how that act happened like i said where that considered the worst it would be put to death by execution generally hanging. Uganda was the hot-button last year so uganda i'm trying to figure out what they call it out so they outlaw homosexuality based on that they consider the active effects in homosexuality as carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature again generally hinges on what what they consider sodomy and they had different young prison was if you were lucky sew and the the goal there was to move the offense as well. Gables was huge now what's really fascinating there with both this bill and uganda and what's going on in russia our ties to america at very active consultants on both have been the national organization for marriage so people here know what is nom nom is basically the group that is on and really tried to push these constitutional amendments in each state has really tried to defend what they have messaged is traditional marriage on a national level they're probably one of the biggest anti-gay organizations in the world i would say but it's funny that we're exporting that now to nations like russia and uganda to awesome people who have that knowledge and it done that work in that bed historical data to to move forward whatever their agenda is. And that that's drawing a lot of attention to the civil rights violations that are the international civil rights violations are going on there right now trying to play that down quite a bit the international olympic committee atrocious at trying to protect anybody traveling to russia for the games whether it's a spectator whether it's somebody that's involved in the production of the games are they athletes themselves they're all at risk traveling there and there's not been a clean answer from the russian government on any level on if that law will be actively enforced or not in sochi during the games. Clever thing that they did when they chose their team uniform 13 uniforms are rainbows. hahaha and there's talk right now coca-cola because of the games so it's ways that the world can kind of try to exert some sort of influence and into russia you know based on that and then like i said before the the last piece of this. But that. I wish i honestly understood the new myself the so i think part of it is maybe they're too many unknown variables on how hormone therapy may affect like it it like a sample of transgender man there was a lot of news a few years ago route in oregon a transgender man became pregnant and within was going to have a baby that was that way for the couple's path enderwoman in the relationship that it was a sexual relationship where one partner was a transgender male and the other partner was a biological system under female so cisgender it is a term that's been lifted up by the trans community that means how you see yourself in perceive yourself matches your biological sex like i i think i could probably. I know president obama's getting a lot of pressure on russia right now because of how much world attention because of the olympics russia is getting to find ways to extend asylum to to gay russians but i have not seen any movement on that. A very kind of like little fun trivia fact the gay hockey league in madison is now the biggest hockey league in madison gala straight we have 120 players we make up 18 we we basically turn hartmeyer ice arena into a community center every sunday night. i'll be there later today because i didn't know how this world and as a result. I think we've run out of time so i'm sure patrick will be around for a few minutes afterward we can ask him questions. Thank you patrick and i do hope you can stay a few minutes. Enough time between now and hockey and our final words they are for maria gomez coordinator for international gay and lesbian human rights commission's regional program in latin america and the caribbean comments on the us supreme court's rulings on doma and proposition 8 in the context of advancing same-sex marriage and latin america and the caribbean the u.s. supreme court decision may impact legal strategies both for and against same-sex marriages in the region at a minimum it will be a source of legal debate for the meaning of notion of equality in those countries that have gained right through the courts importantly lgbtq rights are also progressing at a political level in countries like argentina and uruguay offering models of good practices from other countries in the americas including the united states. Meet your neighbor going peace talk to patrick if you. Have a chance see you next week.

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Pr200119Houtman-ed.mp3

Good morning on welcome all my name is lynn curry on my pronouns are she her hers and i'm a member here at prairie. Prairie aspires to be both an open-hearted and an open-minded congregation. Are we welcome people of every ethnic and religious background. Whatever your sexual said color sexual orientation family structure age or abilities. I'll later in the service we will invite visitors and guests and returning friends to introduce yourselves so we can get to know you a little bit better so we help you won't be shy if you haven't been here for a while or on you. On sunday mornings please if it's your first time come back again we provide a wide variety of services sometimes they're prevented presented by a prairie member on sometimes by a member of the wider community as is the case today. I'm and welcome market moses to share the opening words with us. Good morning. Marcus moses my pronouns are she her and hers. Today we celebrate a dream awakening today we worship with renewed hope in our hearts. Today we act on an audacity of hopes and dreams for the future. Today we begin the hard work for justice equity and compassion in all human relations. For today is the day like no other. And it is ours to shape with vision and action. Let us worship together and celebrate a dream awakening. I know i'd like to welcome up dan proud to like the chalice for us. Call real reason words. We are aligning our flaming chalice. To illuminate the world we seek. In the search for truth. May we be just. In the search for justice. May we be loving. And loving. May we find peace. Okay i'd love to introduce our speaker today sales presentation is about bare-breasted is here with us today one of the co-authors of the book. She is a freelance science writer and award-winning children's novelist having written the reinvention of edison thomas published in 2010. Troublemaker for justice the story of bayard rustin the man behind the march on washington i also got some inside information. The other day that she's also a really amazing zumba instructor the two of our members karen and jane enjoyed taking classes from so welcome please. Archer jacqueline. I think i'll stick with this microphone is not going to work. Can i give it to the side. Otherwise yeah. Set my timer so that i don't go over. So tomorrow we are going to celebrate the life and legend. Legacy of martin luther king but today i'm going to tell you about somebody else. Animal start with a passage from the book. On a hot august afternoon in 1963. Fire drustan stood on the steps of the lincoln memorial in washington dc. In front of him and see if people stretched all the way to the washington monument and along the reflecting pool in between. Summit even climb the trees that line the size of the reflecting pool to get a better view. Although most of the people in the crowd were african-american like fired. People of all races stood together some even holding hands there was no whites-only section in this crowd. Reverend martin luther king jr stood at the podium. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. They came by hertz turn he stepped out of the shadows to read the words he prepared. This was pirates moment but his name was not even printed on the official program of the march on washington for jobs and freedom. Everyone knows about the i have a dream speech but who knows what baillard had to say that day. Today martin luther king jr's a familiar name. But who remembers bayard rustin. Who remembers that he went to jail for opposing war. Who remembers that he was arrested for sitting in the whites-only section of a bus. 13 years before rosa parks refused to give up her seat to a white man. Who remembers all the work he did fighting bigotry segregation militarism in nuclear weapons. Who am i who are never said he organized the march on washington for jobs and freedom which had been the largest non-violent demonstration for civil rights in us history. Bayard rustin was one of the most influential civil rights leaders but very few people notice me. Sex. Ferguson was born in 1912 in west chester pennsylvania. He was raised by his grandparents. His grandfather jennifer was born into slavery. His grandmother julia was a quaker and it really member of the n-double-acp. She taught by her that that disputes should be settled on violently but she was passionate about struggle for justice. Quakers believe. Believe that there's a bit of the divine and everybody and then each human being is if unique worth. This is why quakers value all people equally and oppose anything that may harm or threaten them. Their testimonies include equality. That is treating everyone equally. Realizing everyone has gifts to share peace and non-violence. Integrity that is telling the truth and doing what we say we will do. And simplicity focusing on what is truly important and welding other things fall away. High school by art excelled in academics athletics public speaking writing and singing. And activism. He was arrested for sitting in the whites-only section of a local theater. Fired attended a few years of college where he became committed to pacifism and quaker faith. He also realizes he was gay. It was relatively open about it at a time when people could be arrested for holy hands with someone of the same gender. He said. My activism did not spring for my being gay or for that matter from being black. Rather it is rooted fundamentally in my quaker upbringing and the values that were instilled in me by my grandparents.. Those values are based on the concept of a single human family. And the belief that all members of that family are equal. He moved to new york where he sang at the apollo theater. He sang in a broadway musical. With paul robeson. In the 1930s he joined the young communist league to work for social justice and end segregation in the military. But quit when the focus of the group change to supporting the soviet union. That brief dalliance with communism begin a lifetime of surveillance by the fbi. He was hired by a pacifist organization called the fellowship. And traveled across the country teaching without peace. Nonviolence. And social justice. Hebrus gandhi's philosophy of nonviolent direct action called satyagraha. Translated as insistence on the truth. Bardis richard greg's book the power of non-violence to teach the philosophy of nonviolence into train young activists. Greg was a quaker lawyer who has lived in india for 44 years spending seven months in gandhi's ashram. The power of nonviolence comes. From what he calls moral jiu-jitsu. And here's how it works. If a protester is attacked and fights back the attacker feels justified in using more violence. But if a protester responds to physical violence calmly without fear or anger and without fighting back. It throws the attacker off balance. Detectorists surprised and confused not sure what to do. By not fighting back the violent protesters the nonviolent protesters shows that his belief in the causes strong. And that he respects the humanity of every person even his attacker. The attacker uses a lot of energy and starts to feel uncomfortable especially if there are witnesses. In 1942 is fire boarded a bus to louisville a young white boy reached out and grab bars thai. The mother hit her son and used a racial slur. Fired went to the back of the bus and set down. This passage from the book. Suddenly inspired by rose from his seat and move to the whites-only section. The driver told by her to move back. My friend by reply. I believe this is an unjust law. If i were sitting back i would be condoning injustice. The driver called the police but fired would not budge. Even when the police arrived he refused to move. The police beat him dragged him off the bus threw them on the ground and kicked him. Using is trading in non-violence by or didn't move but let them kick him again and again. Then he stood up and said there was no need to beat me i'm not resisting you. At the other bus passengers looked on the police put fired in the back of a police car and continue to kick him and call him names. Trying to make him fight back but by her stay calm. At the police station they pummeled him again even ripping his clothes as they tossed him back and forth to one another. Fire show no fear. At least on the outside. Bars lack of resistance before the police but i didn't spired one of the white bus drivers to visit the police station and seek by its release. Assistant district attorney question buyer for half an hour and decided not to press charges saying. You may go mr reston. After this incident was even more convinced of the power of non-violence to fight racial injustice. Given released. A white bus rider had come to help him. And the district attorney had addressed him as mr. ruston. White southerners never dressed african american men as mr.. That isn't it curtin 1942. 13 years before rosa parks refused to give up her seat. In montgomery. Here's a quote. I am a quaker and as everyone knows quakers for 300 years have unconscious ground been against participating in war. I was sentenced to three years in federal prison because i could not religiously and consciously except killing my fellow man. Even though it was granted can to punch into subjective status in world war ii. He believed that alternative service supported the war so he refused to report for his physical and serve two and a half years in federal prison. He continued his activism with efforts to deke's desegregate the prison. Another quote for fire. I'm an opponent of war and of war preparations and an opponent of universal military training and conscription. But entirely apart from that issue. I hope it's segregation in any part of the body politic is an act of slavery and an act of war. In 1947. Fire organized and participated in the journey of reconciliation. Which was a model for the little later freedom rides. I was surprised actually 14 years later. During the journey. Music eminem in the middle there with the bow tie and his friend george hauser who's the second from the right. Those two were the ones who organized it. Serenity was arrested. And he was sentenced to 30 days on a chain gang. I don't remember shut that slide in. Sure. Skip that one. So. He published an account of his experiences there which were pretty horrible actually. And it was published in two different newspapers and. As a result there was actually some prison reform in north carolina. Direction to the the horrible conditions that he. Publicized. So the said buyer was it was pretty open about his sexual orientation his friends and his colleagues knew about it. But it wasn't public. But that changed in 1953. When he was arrested. In pasadena california on a charge of lewd vagrancy. If i guilty to charge up the sex perversion. Which is what they called consensual homosexual activity. But his sexual orientation was now public. As a result of the arrest. He was forced to resign from the fellowship of the ring. Everwild. I became involved in the writing of the publication called speak truth to power a quaker search for an alternative to violence. It was a non-violent response to increasing militarism and the threat of nuclear war. He was a major contributor. And he's credited actually with coining the term. Speak truth to power. Which we use a lot these days. Excerpt from from that publication. We speak to power and 3 senses. To those who hold high places international life and bear the terrible responsibility of making decisions for war and peace. To the american people who are the final reservoir of power in this country. And his values and expectations set the limits for those who exercise authority. And to the idea of power itself. And its impact on twentieth-century life. R-truth. Is an ancient one. That love indoors and overcomes. And that hatred destroys. That what is obtained by love is retained but what is a pain by hatred proves a burden. This truth. Fundamental fundamental to the position which rejects reliance on the method of war is ultimately a religious perception. I believe that stands outside of history. So it was a major contributor to this publication. And when it was published there was a list of 13 authors. Bird wasn't one of them. He felt that. The arrest in pasadena would detract from the effectiveness of the. Of the publication and actually in 20. Well. The publication was reissued. The fires name included and with an apology. December 1955 rosa parks was arrested on a bus in montgomery alabama. And 26 year old martin luther king jr became the leader and spokes. For the african-americans boycotting the montgomery bus. In early 1956. Things began to get tents. The white citizens council threatened to boycott hers with death. Firebomb the homes of boycott leaders including dr. king. And response african american ministers and trained workers smuggled guns to montgomery activist. Armed guards. Patrol the area around the homes of king and other leaders. Bird went to montgomery to make sure that the protest remained on violin. When he arrived in february on february 21st 1956 he described the situation as like war. Although got the king of study john d in graduate school fire discovered dunn's in dr. king's house. He said that king had not been prepared for the job either technically strategically or in his understanding of non-violence. Survivor got to work. He attended strategy sections here and workshops on nonviolence he wrote protest song lyrics. He helped organize carpools hero press releases and publicity. And he made concrete suggestions. But acting in a gandhian manner. Burlington got along well and beyer became a mentor to. Helping them understand how important it was for the boycott leader to be nonviolent at all times. If a l house is bombed and he shoots back by art okay. And that is an encouragement for his followers to pick up then. King began to embrace pacifism as a way of life not just as a useful tactic for fighting segregation on buses. Remove accounts from his house disarm his bodyguards a all b boy fighters to become nonviolent. The boy that became known across the world as a peaceful protest and king developed a reputation as a non-violent leader. Meanwhile. Local police begin watching fire. A local newspaper spread a rumour that he was planning a violent uprising. Ab outside agitator new yorker. Communist. King umberto agree that we bested by a left montgomery before word got out of his 1953 arrest in pasadena. Back in new york fired stayed in close contact with. We can put this in the in the. In the book because i didn't have any confirmation of what the word is that he left montgomery in the trunk of the car. So back in new york he helped raise thousands of dollars for the boycott he makes speeches for king. He organized a huge new york city rally. Aftermarket responses rana created by a continue to be a mentor deductive. Between 1957 and 1959 fire helped organize 3 protest in washington dc with tens of thousands. The capital. In 1963. A group of civil rights leaders began planning the march on washington for jobs and freedom. It was clear that the only person capable of pulling it off. Was fired. Here's what bart accomplished in 8 weeks. Without computers or cell phones. Christopher ranch for 1,500 buses 21 trains and three planes to bring people to washington and leave on the same day. Every buses training plane had a captain. Who kept track of those in their care and make sure to have first aid kits. Fire drill press releases and detailed instruction manual for marchers bus captain's a drivers. Giant water tank supply 21 temporary water fountains. 200 volunteer nurses and doctors work at 25 first dates. He also ordered 240 toilets. Who's my favorite one. 300 volunteers in new york used five tons of american cheese to make 80,000 sandwiches 4799. It's a culture than actually making the sandwiches. But perhaps most importantly fired educated participants about the need for non-violence. Hundreds of african-american police officers were trained to be peacekeepers. They did not wear their uniforms and we're armed only with walkie talkies. They plan for a crowd of 10 hundred thousand but on august 28th 1963. 250,000 people the first peacefully on washington. Fired knew that. 14 was a powerful speaker. So he scheduled him last. He also knew that if anything went wrong. Accidents traffic jams or especially violence. But the event could have ended before king got to make his speech one of the most memorable in history. I've been talked about civil rights but. It was a lot more all through his life by for peace and social justice he was passionate about human rights for all he. It didn't matter who was being discriminated against. All discrimination was wrong. He was prevented from fully participating in the civil rights movement. He found another place to make a difference. He works the rights of workers and refugees. Fought against war and nuclear weapons. He worked for democracy and human rights all over the world from laos to haiti. The poland fizzing my boy. I'm seeing upper left corner that peace sign there. That. Picture was taken in aldermaston england at a nuclear martinez the first appearance of that. That particular symbol and buyer is credited with bringing it across the pond. In 1977 he met walter naegle. Studious partner for the rest of his life. Walter encourage buyer to work for gay rights which he did but he also said this. If you want to do away with the injustice two gays it will not be done because we get rid of injustice 2 gays. It will be done because we are forwarding the effort for the elimination of injustice 2 all. And we will win the rights for gays or blacks or hispanics or women. Within the context of whether we are fighting for all. Fire passed away in 1987. At his memorial service pirates friend and now congressman john lewis. Set this. Bayard rustin. Oh what a life. Why the life indeed fired was intelligent eloquent and charismatic. He was a strategic strategic thinker and organizer. He was an important figure in the civil rights movement yet few know his name today. That does not diminish his contributions. For every martin luther king and rosa parks there are thousands of people whose name will never appear in history book. But they made things happen. When i sleep the spook school groups about fired i get questions like i'm not martin luther king of rosa parks biography and what can i do. I told him. You can find your own gifts. You don't have to be as accomplished as buyer to make a difference. Fired was fired. You are you it is up to you to find your gifts and find your way. Barbara's very good at recognizing the gifts of others when he put rochelle horowitz in charge of transportation for the march on washington she was shocked. She didn't know how to drive. Fire replied. My dear. You are compulsive. You won't lose a bus. Fire knew she would be able to handle all the details and she did. So yes we need to remember martin luther king. Yes we need to remember. We also need to recognize that they didn't do it alone there were thousands millions of people. Working for justice. People who walk to work during the montgomery bus boycott. Orthocenter of carpool. The people who hand-cranked mineo machines to make flyers. The people who rode around in cars with megaphones publicized in the march and handing out buttons. And those 300 volunteers who assembled 80,000. Spider-man venom visible to any but his influence is everywhere. And so is the importance of the activist who came before him. And the activist to work with him and those who learn from him and those who followed in his footsteps. So i will leave you with these words that fired wrote while he was in high school. I asked if you know shining gold. Ic cannot epitaph thor theme. No money made of stone for me for men need never speak my name. But when my flesh tough waste away and cease from stately trees duplo. I pray that in my fertile clay. You gently let us mall. Grow. That seed i pray the evergreen. Didn't my dust mite always be that everlasting life enjoy you manifest. In that dream tree. Bard's work is not finished it's up to us to continue the fight. And one of the reasons that we wrote this book for younger readers. She was so that it would be engaging in. Accessible to younger m but we're finding that is also really appreciating the book because it's not that. Actually that was his grandparents his. His mother florence was about 17 when he was born and for the first nine years of his life he thought he was. Florence's brother. I eat onion. Jennifer died. Early. Julia still there letters that she wrote to him while he was in federal prison. She supported him and every. Nohea he attended. Elementary and high school in west chester pennsylvania. How many attended a few years of college at. Wilberforce and cheney state and then a couple classes at nyu. Tell the book. Started with with mike long mike long is associate professor at elizabethtown. College. And he edited a book of buyers letters he he edits and writes books about all kinds of social activist. Ps1 on them. Rogers. Jackie robinson. And in the process of writing that. he had a young son and he thought well you know my son should be able to. Read about fired as well so he started to write this book. And he had worked with her welfare nagel the book of letters because walter was fired. Partner for the last ten years of his life and he was awfully archivist of the estate so he is huge. Resources of photographs and documents. And mario tapes 2. Really. So they work together on that book. And they submitted it to quaker press. Fight with a biker. And they thought. Well. The content is great but. Really not written for younger people. And i had recently given a talk at the national. Gathering of quakers. About my novel. And so they knew that i was a quaker who knew how to write for children so they contacted me. And i can go on board at the third author. The closing words today by andrea hawkins camper will be shared by suzanne grant. May we see all as it is and made all be as we see it. Make we be the ones to make it as it should be for if not us who. If not now when. This is answering the cry of justice with the work of peace. This is redeeming the pain of history with the grace of wisdom. This is the work we are called to do and this is the call we answer now. To be the barrier. And the bridge. To be the living embodiment of our principals. To be about the work of building the beloved community. To be a people of intention in a people of conscience. Thanks everybody for coming today please be sure to extend the hand of friendship to those around you greet your neighbor. Coffee and and then also please help us tidy up by putting away. Facebook.

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Pr101114RevJaneEsbensen_Words-Words-Words-ed.mp3

Good morning. Welcome prairie unitarian universalist society i mary mullen not jane espenson dana's here and she'll be talking later price aspires to be both an open-minded and open-hearted congregation and we welcome people of every ethnic and religious background no matter what your color your sexual orientation or your family structure. And we welcome you no matter what your abilities. Are your inabilities. A little later in the service we invite visitors. Guest and returning friends to introduce yourself. So that we might get to know you better. And then on sunday mornings i want to say that we provide a wide variety of services. Representativa by a prairie member a member of the wider community. Or as today by a minister reverend james espensen who's right here. Reverend jane was interviewed for an article in the isthmus and it was in this week's issue how many saw it already. Opening words now. May we be reminded here of our highest aspirations and inspired to bring our gifts of love and service to the altar of humanity may we know once again that we are not isolated being but connected in mystery and miracle to the universe to this community and to one another. I now invite the children to come up and i have a little story i would like to read you're all invited to come up onto the carpeting for the rug here onto the steps the bad things about not working things out. And for this purpose he one day told them to bring him a bundle of sticks. And when they had done so he placed the bundle into the hands of each of them in succession. And he ordered them to break the bundle into pieces as a bundle. How to break the bundle. No no. Okay. Is it going to ruin the whole moral of the story there's a moral and. Back to the wise, who is he. He said see if you can break those. He said my son's and daughter's children of the world if you are of one mind and the nice list this each other you will be as strong as the bundle but if you insist upon doing things all by yourself and always alone you will break eventually the best thing is to always work with others to work together to come to the conclusions and how. Good morning my morning is words words words last year at the final church service of the year at lake country uuy i'm also a part-time minister i was a speaker for the flower communion service. And in that service at the beginning of my sermon before i got underway with the well-known and well-loved story of norbit topic i took a little side road and out of the thought. But there were certain words i had some difficulty with. And communion was one of them. And that before i can proceed with the flower communion service i needed to take apart the word communion. Discuss it. And then put it back together again so that we were all on the same page with all that word was being used in the context of that service. I did this and i continue the service with no broken bones. Horoscope knees that i noted but i was wrong. There were broken bones and scuffed knees. Injuries had been made by me. Innocently uttering some words. That one might take issue with in ruu congregations. What happened was this. When i had named the word communion as a word that i found challenging i also named the words minister. Church. And thurman as a few other words i had some issues with stating that please we're words for contemplation for another time and place and sermon and that i would therefore only focus for the moment on the word communion. Which is what i did well what happened unbeknownst to me was that there were a few people who are upset. That i had named the words i had named as being words i had problems with because they had no problems with these words and we're upset that i did and so these people went home feathers ruffled talked about what i had said amongst themselves and with others and then made the decision to not come back to hear any of my sunday sermons or whatever you want to call them in the future luckily i was told all of this opportunity so that i could hear directly from them what was so upsetting with what i had said. And to explain what i had meant by the statement. So that we could hear each other and understand each other and find a place of reconciliation and peace. Between us. Unfortunately that meeting has not happened yet but i remain optimistic and hopeful that it will occur at some point but the important thing about that event which is why i'm mentioning it here is that injury. Occurred by my innocent naming of those words as injury can often and does often happen to us and buy us. With no malice aforethought. But even more pointedly in this situation it was an ironic event. In that this injured feeling these people were feeling was exactly my point. In initially stating last june that there are words that one might take issue with. In our uu congregation. Even in naming some words as words of concern the very naming of that reality created a negative reaction to such a degree that people chose to boycott my services forevermore why would this be you ask. Well. It's actually quite understandable at some level. For you see you your congregations are primarily comprised of people who come from various face backgrounds. Which they have either left behind or still hold dear and within those varied faith traditions there are of course words that are specifically religious that are used which caused either a positive or a negative reaction within the believers or the former believers of those face. And when those believers come to you houses of worship. Those words they either hold dear or react negatively do also come inside those words are here. With us. In this room today. In this time of our gathering. Unspoken soon-to-be spoken worried that they might be spoken hoping that they will be spoken words words words surrounding us at the ready longingly leaping lee lovingly even languidly ready. Words words words. I remember my first weekend of a three-year program at the humanist institute in new york city where i was complimenting my seminary schooling with human is teaching i can hardly wait to get there to step away from the endless word that my christian seminary but what happened by the end of the first day at that institute was that i nearly found myself screaming for relief wanting to burst through the doors of the ethical culture society there on central park west to the airport to transport me quickly back into the safe sanctuary of the christian seminary that i had looked forward to taking a break from so what causes desire to flee it was because this particular group of passionately committed future human in the name of jesus christ and when that word was looked up in the holy book for humanist and you use. The dictionary over which dictionary used it was when it was published dad's probably even before there could be any sort of acceptance of the definition of the particular word parsing as our own peril samiria translators of jesus is often less than clear speeches had nothing on this group of people. So let us look at a few of the religious words which i have found can be can both attract and see track and ruu congregations. We can call up within us a sense of peace and love or which can shut us down inside and close our ears. Second make us feel welcome. Or make us feel shunned and silenced. That make us feel calm or can cause us to ride in our seats. Words that can say to us. This is the religious home i've been i have been looking for. For which can say to us. I will never come here again. Church what does that word say. It says it a particular building. Is a house of worship. But it also says that that house of worship is for those who are christian. And i'm including catholics when i say christian even though there are some christians who do not think catholics are christians although catholics themselves that they were the first christians but that's a theological discussion for yet another time so then church. A christian word. It is now. But does it appear in the christian bible no according to the early greek translations of jesus they say jesus use the word ecclesia. Meaning of gathering of people. To express jesus is intent of the holy spirit of throwing is flowing through the people. Not through a particular edifice. The word ecclesia then got translated into the word kitty off going. Which meant the lord's house. Which then became translated into the word church later on. By religious leaders. A concept of a place for worship was created first has a way of worshipping that spoke of a gathering of people. The place of worship the building overtime then became the central focus for the teachings of jesus by the clergy in order for the clergy to have some control. Both religiously and politically. Over the people who were there in told what to believe were told how to behave were told what they could and could not do. In the name of. None of this had anything to do with jesus's teachings where he simply spoke. Have a gathering of people. But regular folks didn't know this and so the word of god got handed down in this place of god. This church. When unitarianism and universalism was founded in the early years of our nation. They were both christian denominations. And so their places of worship. What call churches. Overtime unitarian-universalism move beyond christianity. To become a more broadly defined religion of the people for the people. Diverse and expansive wide-reaching an all-encompassing of the best aspects of the world's religions. And by fest it is our own interpretation of what that means. Neighborly focusing on peace and love. Justice and equality. Respect for diversity and a passion for social justice issues. This has meant that for many many many uu congregations. They no longer call their places of worship. A church. But use instead the word society. For fellowship. Not because church is no longer the right name to use but that's his thumb it felt like a word that was too limiting. But does this matter. What are gathering places are called. Does it make a difference to who feels welcome here and who doesn't. Does the name we choose to use open our doors to all or keep some people out. Here at prairie we call ourselves the society and yet when we speak to our friends families and neighbors we more than often talk about our church. Why. If it's not a church but as society. Why don't we just say that. It's just a simplify things. The intention is not to shut out people of other faiths traditions who might use other words for their places of worship. Nor do we use the word church to imply we are christians nomination. Since language is for communication purposes we are choosing language that conveys an accurate message the majority of people we are speaking to. It is of no matter. What we call this place. For what is in it. In the minds and the hearts of the people who gather incited. That is what matters. The next word. Sermon i recently had a usual minister get very angry at me because i was speaking with him about a recent okapi is that i had heard and i was telling him what i'd like to bout it but it made me think of and so on and so forth when all the sudden he interrupted me with a raised voice clearly agitated and he said don't ever use that word talk when you are speaking about my sermons again that's so disrespectful of you i was pretty surprised since i hadn't actually noticed but i could understand it if i had exactly because. Words. To me seem like neutral language to use not loaded with specifically religious connotations that may or may not have felt okay to that person. But it was just the opposite in the situation. By my using the word talk. And not using the word sermon. This minister felt that i was denigrating his well-formulated sunday morning message detracting from it from being something holy. Into just being a talk or being a lecture versus being a spiritual experience. It surprised me that it was a uu minister who reacted so strongly to my use of the word talk when that is a perfectly reasonable word to use for a sunday morning message in the majority of uu congregation talk and the word sermon or the word address or in 2 days. Order of service i couldn't find my tochterman or address and it was pointed out to me that it's called a presentation all of these are interchangeable words stations. But not for this minister. And i certainly respect that but it also open my eyes because it reminded me how loaded language is. Even non-religious language when used in a religious context. And how people react to language. What they expect from it why they use particular words or stand of heart from certain words and how that choice and words not only conveys their message. But it says a great deal about them as the users of the language. A wise friend of mine tools of mine told me recently that when he hears specific words in his uu church that he doesn't use himself. He doesn't react negatively negatively to them but he says. I just see this is something that gives me insight to who this person is. Is it a cringing at words that might be used by someone. High focus instead on learning who that person is. And how they think. So no matter what we call this time of speaking in our services the message we give or what matt or what it is what matters. Is the minds and the hearts of the people who gather inside of these walls. Word number three is spirituality. This is a word that has coming to great use in the past few years within unitarian-universalism and although it's bandied about with great panache and zealand seriousness and emotional utterance and quiet reverence. It is also greeted by many you use with a puzzled look at quiet shake of the head and a sigh of frustration. And why is that. Well mostly because you would try universalism has a love-hate relationship regarding overt or even obliquely religious words. Given the varied religious experiences both good and bad that many you use have and their hip pockets tucked up their sleeves carried in unbeknownst to them on the soles of their shoes as they come into our congregations. Experiences with either boy them off. Or waving down or worse. The word spirituality is one of those difficult words for many you use. Not only because of its overtly religious sound. But also because it's so nebulous. What does it actually mean and why did it come into being our most current war word du jour within unitarian universalism. First of all our holy book the dictionary tells us that the word spirit. Comes from a latin word city tooth. Which means brass. The spirit of a human being is dust the animating sensitive or vital principle in an individual a spirit that develops and grows as an integral aspect of a living being which can become synonymous with the concept of life with an interconnectedness with all things. The universal consciousness. When i asked one of my agnostic you you friends with she thought of the concept of spirituality she said that she likes the word a lot. Because i don't worship spirits like the holy ghost to the holy trinity and so the word spirituality for me can me and contemplation. A way to express myself without having to worship a deity. Sort of like a soul meeting another soul or a harmonious relationship with all sentient living beings. When the words and the music the sermon and even the silence of a service all come together and i find myself listening to that which is said. And even to that which is not said. I find that is a spiritual moment. And it brings me peace. And resolved. Now as to why the word spirituality suddenly started gaining a footing and uu congregations across the nation. It's because unitarian-universalism wasn't really growing a few years back and said there was concern about that and in order to tap into a body of people who might be you you but just haven't found us yet it was determined that starting to use overtly religious sounding line would like spirituality. And downplaying the humanistic core of language within unitarian-universalism that speaks of common sense ethics as grounding principles. Humanism being another word that is misunderstood by many it was hoped that this lovely religion larswood roll and indeed it has grown. But not completely. And not easily. Because there is some sense that we are milk toasty and to all-encompassing water down by the use of some of these words and that the solid bones of this religion are becoming draped in silk cloth covered in pomp and circumstance and therefore no longer bearing the weight of the social justice responsibilities inherent at its very core. But we parsed words at our own peril. For no matter what we call the inspiring moments in our services. The experience is felt here are as diverse as the minds and the hearts of the people who are gathered inside of these walls. And this richness. Is what feeds our souls. It behooves us one and all to be cognizant that not everyone uses the words we use or the words we are most comfortable with. But if we can look beyond the words. Define the meaning that are meant by the words. Define the meaning meant by the speakers and the writers and the singers of the words. To use new words that communicate the best. And the worst in life. And to use old words that remind us of our place in the world. I believe we will find ourselves so much better off than if we continue to stand where we have always stood. Religious language need not scare off grits and courage nor takeaway conscientious thoughts and applied good works. Nor does a rational mind means that there's no room for beauty and poetry and candlelight for music and for a motion for inspiration and resolve and love. There is room for all of this and more within these hallowed halls. So let us be wise. And thoughtful and kind. And open. So that we can be at peace with language that may seem nebulous to some. But highly grounding to others. Let us be willing to steep always. To come together under this one diverse and expansive tense of our faith so that all may find relevance and meaning by being here. And let us hope. That one day those people who have left. Or who are considering leaving are you do congregations because we might not be using the words that they would like to hear would instead stay and say to us i need to hear these words. And i want you to use my words. As well as my learning to use your words. So that we can become something together. For what other reason do we gather then that. Words words words. Let us hear let us hear let us hear. Before i say the oaks of the closing words i'm to remind people take their orders of service home with them because you can put them up on your refrigerator and has all sorts of announcements and things and things are happening here on the back so it's a very handy piece. My closing words are by theodore parker. B h a religion which like sunshine goes everywhere it's temple allspace it's shrine the good heart it's creed all truth it's ritual works of love if profession of faith divine living maybe so going piece.

uuprairie_org

Pr130224RProud-ed.mp3

Good morning and welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society i'm mary mullen remember the program committee prairie aspires to be both an open-minded and open-hearted congregation we welcome people of every ethnic background or your inability. Please welcome kate andrean appear to light a chalice of the universe that warmed our ancestral hearth agent of life and death symbol of truth and freedom we strive to understand ourselves and our earthly home. I'd like to know introduce our speaker robin proud she didn't give me a bio but we have most of us and i have known her for quite some time i can't remember how many years i've been coming here but many robin is a very good speaker she's been in toastmasters for many years and we always look forward to her presentations that usually about so. Good morning well i'm very glad to be here it's probably not the best idea to have scheduled this and then go away on a trip to texas all that was wonderful and texas returning last night and there was a chance at one point that i might have still been at in atlanta or perhaps i would be here but my speech was in the suitcase horace mann and got him interested in education and. We find that as long as the studies of children of both sexes continue the same the progress they make a sequel after the rudiments of knowledge have been obtained the boy goes on to continually increase his dock of information while the girl is probably confined to low pursuits her aspiring some knowledge are subdued and their end up before she is sensible of her powers they are checked in their growth and when the natural consequences that the abilities of women are far inferior to those of men that is when the girls had less opportunity for education then it was judge that of course they were not as intelligent and women like her who had the education were able to disprove them fortunately for harriet at age 15 she went to stay with. I wouldn't imagine 1835 margaret was 25 and harriet was eight years older margaret was writing articles and she hope she write a biography of goethe and so she was encouraged to meet this other woman who was supporting herself by her writing and they had similar educational background and unhappy childhood. But they are very different personalities margaret was romantic and spiritual harriet was practical and decisive. So what harriet went back to england and published two books about the united states in one of them she criticized the methods of the temple school now we've heard about this with some other folks bronson alcott open to school. And his belief was that. Children already possessed truth and morals and a teacher just needed to bring it out in some ways this was very good because he didn't believe in beating children and forcing them to memorize. So the peabody taught at this school at different times. I already did not agree with these methods and she said that this place she was mischief and would create falsehood and hypocrisy so after that book came out margaret fuller criticized and of habits of patient investigation and deployed the crude intemperate tirade you have been guilty of about mr. alcott and so they had this for sometime. got in the last word. The difference between us was that while she was living in moving in an ideal world talking in private and discoursing in public about the most fanciful and shallow conceits which a transcendentalist of boston took for philosophy upon person to acton instead of talking finally talking about mars and venus play-doh and the liberties of the republic. We tell you a bit about harriet's writings. Harriet's first essays were for the unitarian periodical. Monthly repository in fact she became its most frequent contributor. But this wasn't enough to support her family. Our family's poverty. created her career as a writer. Many options were close to her because of her illnesses which i'll tell you a bit about later. But writing is something she could do from her own home and in her own time the first time she earn money for writing was when she entered an essay contest the unitarian association actually sponsored three contests there were three different topics to write on. It was to prove how unitarianism was superior to judaism in the next how it was superior to catholicism and the third was how it was superior to islam. Are these what areas not well understood by the public and especially not written up by women. So because of her success she then became quite famous and internet. where she said she was lying eyes did london and got to meet all these famous people. Some of her other writings were after her tour of america she wrote two books based on her travels and in america well but she wasn't for an abolitionist more about that a little later she also wrote a book called. I have a few of her observations of america which are frightening lee relevant today it is hard to tell which is worst the why diffusion of things that are not true or the suppression of things that are true. The systematic abuse with which the newspapers of one aside a sale every candidate coming forward on the other. Is the cause of many honorable men who have a regard to their reputation being deterred from entering public life and of the people being dusty prize of some better service than any they have. The worship of opinion is that this day the established religion of the united states influence which is given on the side of money is usually against truth and a queen or a prime minister secretary may be shot at and probably some information or another but in america the evil is sadly common so this was in the 1840s over other works were about it later. Do some parts of this novel do seem a bit too pious and it's rather hard to believe that when hard times come the selfish young bride becomes thrifty steadfast loyal brave and all those other boy scout i have not done it for amusement or for money or for fame or for any reason but because i could not help it so i'll say a little bit about her illnesses and her life. From 1839 to 1844 she suffered from severe pain and we do not know exactly what this was she took opiates which didn't stop her from writing but then she underwent mesmerism which hypnotism new treatment and she was delighted to find her painted vanished she became a fervent advocate of this new advanced in medicine so we don't know whether her problem was psychosomatic whether she had some sort of humor or sister happened to move and reduce the pain but she she was headed to newfound enjoyment of life she traveled. I'll give you a little bit about her views on religion she grew up unitarian and her brother james martineau became a well-known unitarian minister her early writings were for the unitarian publications but as she aged she moved farther and farther from the church her trip to the holy land convinced her that religion has evolved through men's interpretations rather than being divinely revealed all at once she felt it as humanity developed it came to understand the divine more and more as an abstract concept so chic. Although they were liberal they friends and she said that they they didn't believe in the miracles but they still were much more traditionally christian and we would see today in a lot of our churches and so it was not was not accepted 22. Yes she did she did write for it for newspapers i am sorry i don't have that but i can can look that up to do what you want from this paper she wrote for his periodicals and in some of those were quotation from books princess ones on united states were from the two book she wrote about her travels but again because she was famous during her lifetime a lot of that can be found and some of the quotations and so on are available online. Quite a few images of her because she was famous from early on as opposed to some of our folks we were lucky to find one but so the one on your left is i believe it's from a painting might be a bit more flattering but the other one also was quite a bit later in life. But it just seemed that she was rather witty it's some of these things that she that she said sometimes they maybe it's you know i also might be humorous for us to hear some of these views about slavery for instance which of the time was of course very serious but just to see how how things have or haven't changed in the united states as a different viewpoints at that we have yeah i'm sure she was love.

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Pr121104Felker-ed.mp3

Welcome good morning welcome to the prairie universal society my name is peter anderson remember of the program committee i'm glad to see while the rest of the world is falling back people in prairie of springing forward and open-minded congregation we welcome people of every ethnic and religious background whatever your color sexual orientation gender or family structure we welcome you no matter what your age or your abilities or inabilities later in the service. Speak to me many of these people and we also wanted to see the park where we can do rachel and maggie and i me with speaking being able to say hello la gracia see. But tub to maggie's credit into she went with the following year i decided i would be a volunteer at the working boys center in quito.

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Pr160403Ingham-ed.mp3

Thank you choir. As i've already said to barb wonderful director. I'm happy to have you sing anytime but what you saying fits. Fits in with what i'm. Hoping to say today. Welcome good morning how does things. This is as i think most of you know prairie unitarian universalist society so if you're in the wrong place to stay you like it prairie. Attempts to be a welcome. Welcoming and open-minded place. We welcome you no matter where you are on the spiritual journey the sacred journey the journey of life. No matter your gender identification your ethnicity color of your skin. Your physical abilities or disabilities your family structure you are welcome here. If this is one of your first times i always encourage people to come more than once because. Our services can be very different sometimes i do though i am sandy ingham prairie. Consulting minister sometimes people from within the congregation do the service. And often we have people from outside. This particular. Community. I don't know if we have any guests or visitors or fairly new people but there will be a time later on. When you will be invited hopefully not coerce. At 2. Introduce yourself. Can this be possible there's only really one announcement. Because we are trying to incorporate the second announcement into. Part of our little welcoming speech and that is. To remind you that we are now giving part of our offering to various organizations. And this month of april we are sharing. Our offering with. The road home so i encourage you. To put. What's the money in that offering basket don't let it get to the back row empty it's embarrassing. The road home is described in your order of service. The opening words. How about unitarian universalist minister and pert. We come together to celebrate who we are. To share the insights that give meeting and hope. 4 lies. To learn from the wisdom of others. That's their truth may contribute to our understanding. We like our flaming chalice to illuminate. The world we seek. In the search for truth. May we meet josh. In the search for justice. May we be loving. And in loving. May we find. I course i have to tell you a short story. Before you joyce and concern. I got these. With my sister and my mother who was then. Probably are late 70s. My mother tap-dance almost kelly. Day she died she was a really good tap dancer. But as she has her short very short-term memory went. She found she was writing this. Southcenter trying to fight that she said to me the only problem was that i was always at least a half a beat behind because i had to read my hand. It's reading is from. A book called the glass cage by nicholas carr. Right. I was in a fix. I had by necessity not choice. Struck up an alliance with a demented grave robber named seth. Breyers. I don't eat i don't sleep i don't wash and i don't care. Staff heading for me. Not without a measure of. Pry. Shortly after we met in the cemetery beside coots chapel. He knew the whereabouts of certain individuals i was seeking. And in exchange for leading me to them. He had demanded that i help him. Cart a load of fresh. Corpses. Out past critchley's ranch. 28 dusty ghost town. Called tumbleweed. I drove seth horse-drawn wagon. Well he stayed in the back. Riesling the dead for valuables. The trip was. A trial. We made it through an ambush by highwaymen along the route with firearms i was more than handy. But when i tried to cross a rickety bridge near gap-tooth ridge. The weight of the body shifted. And i lost control of the horses. The wagon careened into a ravine and i died. In a volcanic screen coating eruption of blood. Khachanov. I came back to life after a couple of purgatorial s. Only to go through the ordeal again. After a half-dozen failed attempts i began to despair of ever completing the mission. The game i was playing. An exquisitely crafted. Goofily written open-world shooter called. Red dead redemption. Is set in the early years of the last century so the early. In a mythical southwestern border territory name new austin. Its plot is pure peckinpah recognize that name it's a composite. Movie director. Producer also maybe. When you start the game you assume the role of a stoic outlaw turned rancher named j-jon. Marston. Who's right cheek is riven by couple of long symbolically deep scars. Marston is being blackmailed into tracking down his old criminal associates by federal agents or holding his wife and young son hostage. To complete the game you have to buy the buns slinger through various feeds. Of skill and cunning. Each a little tougher than the one preceding it. After a few more tries i finally did make it over that bridge. Grizzly cargo in tow. In fact after many mayhem filled hours in front of my xbox connected flat-screen tv i managed to get through all of the games 50 on missions as my reward i got to watch myself john marston that is he gunned down by the very agents who had forced him into the quest. Gruesome ending aside i came away from the game with a feeling. Of accomplishment. Video games car says 10 to bi-lo's by people who have never played them. Play-doh video game. That's understandable given the gwar involved but it's a shame. Because among other things to get best games provide a model for the design of software. They show how applications can encourage the development of skills. Rather than their atrophy. And then he goes on to talk about how good you can feel after that least in a mental sense you certainly don't involve your whole self. In video game. But. Hey. Nicholas cars point. It's not really about video games. He is using his experience playing. This particular game. To illustrate how thinking and being challenged. Has evolved. Or schiftan. In the. Computer digital internet age. Shifter. From people needing to use their brains when interacting with computers. To giving over. A lot of our brain power. Two computers. I'm letting them. Do more and more. Of our thinking. Maybe there was a time. When we could make a case. That using computers to play video games. Could. He might even wood. Give you a sense of accomplishment. What car argue says the others argue that that is not the norm. For current computer technology. And i am glad to see some of our. Are people here today if i might hold on to the humane society. Current computer technology leads us to miss. Wanting. A false sense. Of what we want of what would make our life easier i consider this to be a front of form of brainwashing. We think that weak-kneed we must have. The latest electronic devices. To make our lives better and easier. But is that what they do. It's surely more automation. More apps. More devices with screens must be a good thing right. Wedding computers do more and more will at least theoretically give us humans more leisure time right. Then why is everyone so busy. And i'm not trying to get into what automation has done to. Skilled labor. And to do block. Car is also trying to make a larger point here and throughout his book the glass cage. How our computers are changing us. As he puts hours maybe a time of material comfort and technological wonder. It's also a time. Aimlessness. And gloom. Is there a connection here. 2 watt car calls our pursuit of a frictionless. Existence. If the ground are being is looking at screens. And being unchallenged. Whole. Pole beans. Unchallenged by anything else where does that put us. Us humans. Possibly in a baron. Blah. Even conforming. Place. A few days ago in a coffee shop as i was waiting to get the half-and-half and i have to have in my coffee. The woman in front of me seemed. Strip slow but i was practicing being patient. Until i realize that she was glued to her smartphone screen. She was. Texting. Well trying to doctor her coffee. And she continued to text well. Trying to stir that hot coffee. Poor little more sugar in it and maybe move out of the line. She was totally oblivious. To her surroundings and this was not a young woman we cannot blame this on the younger generation. I have bread. Fat people who design software. Have often been taught or advised to stay away from challenging humans. The way that they were challenged by early video games. And maybe i still maybe we still are challenged by video games cuz i know nothing about video game. A respected software design consultant. Someone named peter meerholz. Urges programmers to aim for. Frictionless nurse. And simplicity. When designing a product. That's all bad. But what does it mean really mean. Among other things it means that we depend less unless upon our own amazing complex brains. And that certain functions in these brains might be getting rusty. Even to the point of after. Metro. Fine. I don't say this word out loud i don't seeing. Petrification that a word. Anyway. We don't want the map. The last sunday in january i talked about what turned out to be part 1 on this subject. What effect. Will looking at screens have on humans in the long run. Now it's not quite that simple. I realize that i was talking about more than just looking at screens computer and television screens as well. As all. The newer devices with screens that we have and it take up what i believe is an inordinate amount of our time. It's not just the fact. I'm spending so much time staring at screens that concerns me. Automation scares me. Apps firme. Not because i don't have you. Yeah idea. Siri frightens me not the fat of siri. But the perceived need. For siri is what frightens me. I don't see the point. The necessity of having my questions answered instantly. Even my rhetorical. Or my wife being that automated. Although it's cookie monster comes with siri. I might consider purchasing the system by know what i'm talking about. Apparently i watch too much television. There is a wonderful your adversary featuring cookie monster. I don't care what cookie monster's doing he cracks me up. So i watch it watch it. What will happened to. Memory. Imagination. Creativity if everything is programmed for us. What will happen to human connection. To community to fellowship. To storytelling. To learning in a deep meaningful way about other cultures. Other ways of being. As we become more and more dependent on technology. To figure out everything for us. Will robots eventually take over now that used to sound like an odd or even a ridiculous question. But i think it's pretty relevant and critical that we ask this. As i questioned in january who will program the robot. Conscience assuming a robot with. Have. The robots manufacturer. Its owner software coders politicians government regulators philosophers insurance companies. Here to caveat before i continue caveat means. Explanation to prevent misinterpretation. Try to remember. One it is way too early to know what effect. All of this will have on our brains and the wiring of our brains in the lynn the long range in a long-term. Obviously not enough time has gone by yet to do. Long-range studies that would be meaningful. There are early findings though it from more than one source that indicate there might be a connection. Between using computers to think for us. An early onset alzheimer's. And my second caveat is. I'm biased. I guess too much screen time i am not objective about this. But you probably already figured that. Nevertheless my reflections this morning are not intended leaving not to be a rant against all technology. I'm not. A torbal technology in general or computers and electronic devices in particular. I'm not advocating a return to living in caves. Or giving up every modern convenience site i don't want to live without electricity. Especially when there's a blizzard 1 minute. Sunshine xanax. And i want some computer technology to be frictionless. And simple i don't need to know everything about the inner workings of my digital clock. If i want to set the alarm on that clock. There are two important questions to be asked as we contemplate all of this. First. We should always carefully consider this. To what end. Will new technology we use now obviously can't know. All. New technology. But that's one important question. The second question is what do these two words mean. Human. Being. What does it mean to be human. As journalist nicholas carr says technology is always challenge people to think about what's important in their lives. Ask themselves what human being means. But automation raises the stakes. To resist invention does not mean we reject invention. It's too humble. Invention. To bring progress down. To earth. Technology initially was not thought of as a bad thing in fact was supposed to be a force not only for the improvement of daily living. But also as a means of political reform. Right. But now we should ask this question to. Have we gotten to a place. Where we too often develop technology. For the sake of. Developing technology. In other words because we can. And there is the profit motive to. Who needs humans anyway. Why not just take us out of the picture completely. We need to let robots take over. Said kevin kelly a technology theorist. In a cover story and a 2013. Addition of wired. Consider a deviation why isn't father to have. A pilot there well if you were here when i did part one i gave you several examples of the value of having a real life person in the cockpit who might know how to fly and land. Applying. A person who's paying attention. That is and i mentioned them that i took fine. I took brown school i did quite well i know how to take off but i never learned how to land. We would all agree is important probably. But the one thing i really learned was really drummed into us and i'm braunfels. Was. The importance of redundancy. Cannot depend. On the airplane. Instruments to do everything. Talking about the pub the mess and i think it is a mess. Have the public schools in chicago. Someone said only partly in jest why not forget teachers. Any shoe all 400 4151 students and ipad or an android. And what about computerizing tasks in hospital. Some hospitals. .. Do you swap buddies computer for la posada muse computers to. I'm just for the dispensing of drugs but the breaking down of the drug inventory and everything. But what happens when the technology breaks down. What happens when whatever's wrong with you doesn't fit. Whatever's in that computer. If you want doctor algorithm or do you want doctor human. Ours is a world of interdependence. Networks. A group of physicists wrote in nature magazine in 2010 and they went on to note that our critical infrastructures in this country water transportation fuel power station are linked through electronic and other means which makes them extremely sensitive to random. Failure. A google executive named allen eagle said in 2011 we may technology is brain-dead easy-to-use as possible. In response nicholas car wonders. Where is human talent. In that kind of mindset. How. Mp. With what a google executive once. The prospect of saving time. And money. Making money. Raja paris butcher his name. Paris ramen a psychology professor at george mason university. And one of the world's leading authorities on. Automation. Was asked if he fought society was capable. Abusing automation more wisely in the future in an attempt to get a better balance between technology center automation and human-centered automation. Parcel rama's response was i'm not very optimistic. And that was. Couple of years ago. Ray kurzweil and inventor and a futurist and google's director of engineering in 2012. I don't know if he still is. Set in the context of talking about the evolution of google search engine. From something that the user. Actually participated in. To where that search engine. Process seems to be headed now a place where we won't have to put much mental effort into our searches. Who's wild says this about google's price. Progress in this area if indeed it is progress. I envision some years from now that the majority of search query. Will be answered. Without you actually asking. The company will just. No. Fat this is something you're going to want to see. Well i find that way of thinking. Aerie. I'm envisioning a lot of library in spinning in a lot of gray's. Car maintains that was social networks such as facebook. We no longer need to be concerned. With the time-consuming aspects. A personal relations. The messy process of figuring out. How to affiliate with others. Conscious effort of socializing it's all done for you it's all automated. Hi mark zuckerberg. He celebrates been quoted as celebrating all this facebook stuff is frictionless sharing of course he does. How much money has he made. And it's still making. Just with this sophisticated toy for communicating. But why would we want to. In cars words use. Bureaucratic ideals of speed productivity and standardization in our relationships with other people. Follow the money. Remember who said that. Popularized follow the money. Because the profit motive has a great deal to do. With automation. Getting to know others making friends is often not efficient or convenient not by market standards anyway. But which is more fulfilling. Car refers to what. Facebook and other places as. Meddlesome parents. Who demean and diminish our character qualities such as ingenuity drossett 3lcd independence. Perseverance. Darren. What life is messy. And i don't think that's a bad thing what kind of world would it be if everything were black and white. Which is what automation aims for. Take away the gray areas solve the world's problems with better and better more and more efficient software. Take the guesswork out of. We'll just about everything. Some of you will recognize the name david brooks pizza in new york times writer and he's off and on. Tibia. Shuffle wonderful story about falling in love with his gps. And on that voice that seductive voice and and how eventually he fell out of love. Because he realized he was using it for everything. I mean just to go not very far even to get to places i know how to get through. When is a place for gps and mapquest and things like that. But when it becomes your only way of getting around something is lost. And then there are numerous stories of of people in different professions like architecture. And photography. Who started out being really excited by. Computer used to do a lot of the work of. Architecture and. Photography and eventually. Stop at least they stopped using it in the architects case they stop using anything automated any software in the initial. Part of their trying to design things because it just it just limited them too much. Talk one of the photographers who was interviewed said. Stagger lee. i reserved really excited about about digital cameras and everything and i thought it was giving up my tripod in my and the use of film and all and then he realized it was. He was getting from the digitized versions was cold and. He didn't put enough time in it even though we could pick and choose you know from hundreds of different. Digitize photos. At the top of your order of service i would have poured into note to that the people. Then i just talked about david brooks photography an architect. These aren't people who hate computers. Not at all. We were practicing discernment. Just a minute but the quote at the top. Of your order of service. In the future. People will spend less time trying to get technology to work because it will just be seamless will just be there. The web will do everything and it will also. Be nothing. It will be like electricity. If we get this right i believe we can fix all the world's problems. Unfortunately i couldn't. Find out when this was fat. Well i would say the jury is still out. On that theory that the web the internet web. Computers. But the web especially can fix all the world's problems. I have many doubts about that. Without human in foot. Do without full use of humanity skills. And ideas however bumbling an ineffective they may seem to be without us. Technology can't fix anything. And after all. You know i'm not stating the obvious here who inputs the data. Who writes the software programs yeah. Humans. I believe that there is a keyword missing here it really gets put into this discussion it really gets. Put into the equation of what kind of automation will best serve humanity and that word is discernment. Synonyms are perception inside. Acumen. The word you don't hear very often. The power to see what is not evident to the average mind. But discernment recognizing what identifying what's separate what's distinct. Seeing and understanding differences. Well in the meantime that's we are practicing discernment those of us to ourselves freethinkers i think should be. Very afraid of a world where computer uses seamless. That is so ubiquitous so everywhere is that we don't even realize that it's there. And we should be hyper-vigilant very worried about automation. What will happen to the tap dancers. Of the world. To the poet. The sculptors the riders the drawers the artist. Who will bother in the words of william blake. And that's only saying earlier. Who will bother to see the world in a grain of sand. And i haven't in a wildflower. Hold infinity. In the palm of your hand. An eternity. In an hour. Who will have time to do that. We're so much of our time is used as screen time. How many roads less traveled will we bother to take. Will humans in the future even be aware that there are roads less traveled. To explore will the generations that come after us take the time and the effort to spend time outside in. Literally. Contemplate. Which path to travel. And just as important after having chosen literally and figuratively which road to take. Will our descendants take the time to tell the stories. About their choices. To tell them not via social media. But face-to-face. And in groups actual living groups. Without electronic devices. Willie managed to find a balance. Between automation and all that makes us human. Imagination. Curiosity. Tiffany. I am trying for the human race a few other reasons too. Bohrium concentrating on this one. Perhaps i should have called these reflections. Quick web. When i talked about the great web. I mean. The one that we refer to in our seventh principle the interdependent web of all existence of which we are apart. Which web. Is more important. The worldwide internet web. Or the interdependent web of all existence of which we are apart. I'm going to end my remarks with this poem by denise levertov. Titled. Intricate. An untraceable. Weaving and interweaving. Dark strand with light. Design beyond all spiderlily contrivance. To link. Not to entrap. Elation. Grief. Joy contrition entwined. Shaking changing forever forming. Transforming. All praise all praise. To the great. Take courage friends. The way is often hard. The path is never clear. And the stakes are very high. Cake. Courage for deep down there is another truth. You are not. Alone. The beat your neighbor. Bay coffee. Do the social justice committee meeting. For the human is screwed.

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Pr200719JakeKing-ed.mp3

What's today we're excited to have jake king. Who's going to present nami dane county our organization during covid-19. It's related to our second principle justice e equity and compassion in human relations. Jake is the program and outreach coordinator for nami which is the national alliance. On mental illness. For dane county. He oversees all the programming. Which consists of pure lead support groups. Educational classes and presentations. Jake also oversees the outreach. To promote these programs. And develop relationships. With the community. Welcome jake. Thank you. I'm super excited to be here with everyone and usually during covid still be asleep so it's i'm grateful for john and suzanne to get me out of. Bad to do something very productive and spend it. Zoomlion people. So. I'm very excited so i'll go ahead. And start the screen share. I'm trusting if anyone has any issues seeing at our hearing me i'll look for some sort of signal so i can stop. All right so can we all see the presentational right awesome and i'm assuming the volume in my sound you can hear. Awesome. So and i'm just going to set a timer so i can just be mindful of time. Alright. So nami dane county which if you're not familiar with the acronym it's the national alliance on mental illness ordained or in dane county is our affiliate the dane county one. And just interesting back story is that is the really think things that it started right here in dade county. So we it's an international organization but it found its roots right here in 1977. And there were three mothers and their sons were experiencing schizophrenia. In the system just wasn't working and the resources just went there and they just got tired of the system. Unfailing your children there wasn't really a sport and there's a lot of stigma worst labeling of crazy and broken. And all these other really you know difficult words that describe people and sometimes even now still are so they. Orange what was originally ami which army is friend french. And it was the alliance on mental illness and eventually became the national anthem. So this is just a confused so when i say where the affiliate level affiliates usually go by county. So we have a lot of different ones throughout wisconsin in different county. Eminent also in madison is mommy wisconsin. And that's the state that's the state affiliate. Install. We all have different responsibilities and what we do so essentially the affiliate on the local level will provide those local resources. And we don't provide any clinical resources boat services but we. Education about local resources and educating family members. And the individual experiencing a mental health issue and all that is for free and we also help them navigate the. So the state-level kind of overseas things on knows that state-level so the word with legislation they will make sure the affiliates have the support they need in their so really the kind of. Working to be on for the local. And then obviously there's national national just kind of overseas everything as you can imagine and they help. Design a lot of educational content that kind of filters down. I'm to the local affiliate. That's kind of just a structure called mommy works. Again nami wisconsin isn't madison but we are the ones that provide more of the support service. 4. If you've never been for office and probably could be a long time before anyone does. We are on the east side and the united way building. So. We have a lot of our support groups that run in the united way building usually we can have you know whether it's family members or consumers who just need supporter looking for. This is our happy staff before covid we're locking four houses in all the time. Animal fats are executive director lucy prizes are communications. As you can see we are really small staff of three there's just three people who are doing all this work. And i think sometimes people it gets confusing if i call you know sometimes when you see people is. you can interpret. It's switched. We're actually like very busy when do we get around apartments. It's really great because. Offer the services and support. So really. How things are kind of broken down in terms of know someone wants to come and get involved in what that looks like. And fundraising roles and of course there's always a first for advocacy for education. Essentially these are the services and things that we offer. Our programming is really about educating both. The family member and the. And that comes in the form of its courses that. Really put you in contact with other family members to develop also learning from people who actually have that lived experience and i can just really important to add that is that. All of our instructors are individuals who have gone through an army training and they've been screened and they have that. Experience. You're not being taught by someone who just doesn't understand but can't relate you're being taught by someone who's too kind of been there before and can really walk you through obviously both the written content but also just like experience. I think that's just really invaluable. We do a lot of presentations cuz one thing i really agree with with our executive director is the initiative to work with youth. I think it's kind of the mentality of how can we help. Use know if they're struggling severely with mental health issues and not let it escalate to the point of their adults. And their behavior is presenting and weighs where she's like no they need a lot of help but how can we help them when they're at their youngest. So we do ending the silence to talk about with youth about. Suicide prevention noticing suicide noticing mental health issues early in yourself. Here's where to go. You know we do what hearing voices presentation to show people what it's like and to develop more empathy. If you were working your coming into contact with someone who has auditory hallucinations. In a lot of these kinds of bases for is how can we break the stigma that people with a mental health issue. Are no crazy or broken but how can we take them or understand. And then. We also run for support groups. I'm connecting support bipolar depression woman's anxiety and depression in the nami family support group. So we really try to take care of a holistic approach and how can we help everyone and include everyone. With no supporting them through this journey of struggling with a mental health issue and what it looks like for every person. And then in just a little bit out explained you know these are white rated this presentation we were allowed in person and then i'll explain shortly. look like during covid. Look in the educational roles we really want anyone that has a live experience you'll become and share their stories. Amex actually know if it's worth. With working with you or working with you know maybe it's individuals who have it. We just want to make sure people at the store era. Honestly support is a huge thing so anyone that wants to get involved. Or call when you get a lot of support cause that's something we try to help. Especially now. That's really important during covid-19 people aren't going out as much or they're skeptical about going about going out as much. So we have our support line on that we offer to help individuals gathered were. Printing county. Animal courses people who'll volunteer. Walkman. Bikes with us. So i'm going to go ahead and navigate to what we're doing during the pandemic right now because that's really been a learning curve has been my responsibility. We offer what we usually offer in person for the family members in the individuals themselves. Just going through this and not having access to the same resources that we normally would. Coc here at least three columns the things that we've been doing online. Are we going to nami basics on demand and if you're not familiar with all of our programming. A lot of that tried to be intentional about how can we help. Parents abuse help everyone that we. Tsunami basics is a way that we try to educate. Resources. Therapy. We've been able to run that class and. You know i had a lot of bracelets.. As well as nami family-to-family which is one of our popular very popular programs of. Family members and friends loved ones to learn how to support their loved one with mental illness during this time. An interesting observation that i've observed is that. A lot of people have navigated to the support we offer but a lot of people have wanted to know about education and my best reasoning or something for this. During this time. Orders with a lot of people maybe have realized. Be able to spend diane and day out with their loved one experiencing mental health issue. So. A lot of them have really pursued the educational programming and it's been great to be able to have instructors especially like john and suzanne. You will be teaching a course offer that education on how to better support people even if it is the resume platform. I'm so she's been really encouraging to see that it's still effective it's not the same but it's still away to hell. Those who are struggling and looking for support and educate. And then specifically with john and susan will be teaching us not my family and friends will be doing a four-hour session standoff ramon. The offer those family members and friends. They don't really know a lot about mental illness next starting kind of from the building blocks. And you know we have a lot of volunteers instructors like don and suzanne bubble wealth of experience and knowledge. So it's been really encouraging to tap into those. Individuals who are trained and willing to offer that people who just still kind of starting out and don't know how to not only navigate. Living through this pandemic in this new wave. But their loved one who is just going through a lot. The state of our world. So. I know some presentations we've done obviously school's not in session right now so that hasn't been as common. But we've done some presentations here and there but a lot of these we try to offer through life recovery centers. No schools. But i think the next one is really important are the support groups that were offering on a continuous basis. So again i really just have to like. Dallas of compliments and all these things about our instructors and volunteers because if it wasn't for them we certainly wouldn't be having. Factoring covid but because they're so willing. So great. We've been offered we've been able to offer support groups that run regularly and it's all the same. Bipolar depression. No excetera excetera but what's even better is that even if you're not in dane county you can still attending. And they're facilitated by. Individuals themselves with live experience have gone to the naughty training. So can i just have to keep plugging and how great our volunteers are because they really healthcare organization in the programming. The really help individuals. Because i'm sure right now for people that usually go get their medication or usually go see the therapist or no relief in a group setting unfortunately that's just not really what we can do right now so a lot of people. She like how can i. No sustain my mental health recovery. You know especially if i really utilize nami resources. Really been able to make this come to fruition and sustained being able to help. Bend community. You know him in addition to that too. Our support line is always still running so our interns in myself always take calls and try to help. People who are needing resources and navigating it and then also we've been doing lifetime auction next series. Legislation issues or how do we offer telehealth services. We've been really trying to advocate for the extension of. Telehealth services. So yeah there's just quite a bit going on and you know again because of our volunteers we've been able to offer support and education. I'm to you. Two adults to their family members. So i really just have to kind of. Find myself cuz i ramble. I just want to be mine.. 2 minutes left but i was really kind of. The big things that i really want to stress his power off and support online right now. And it's just has really blowing my mind cuz i didn't think it would work but. It's just improving. Really successful in a lot of people having. With our content. Driving a different way i'm so if you have questions i just left my email but usually go through. Stop program. Some i think now is the q&a portion so i feel like i just vomited all this information on everyone so. If you have questions i'm certainly happy to take them and i've got plenty of time so. We do come across some individuals who they don't have the same capability. And they're not. It's not really something that they're going to adopt ernesto they want to and that's okay. If they're looking for support or resources usually the protocol is they will call there's no one in the office really. To take the cost of a voice message or do we have on our website where if you and i probably should have shown this during the presentation and i can go back to it but. If they want to send question or they swim explain their story that they can email me and strikes my email. Make an email where they can put the request in from the page. Explain that situation. And use that we can still provide them resources reference to a call or email. And set up a time to do that so we have still found what they said it to do more taking a course to zoomer going to and you can connect with us. We can help you find more what you're looking for if we. And i am real quick i am going to screen share just. For anyone whether it's yourself or you know someone that could benefit from this where to go to our website cuz we have a specific page for. What we're doing during covid-19. Just has a better outline. Still get him a website and i would say the most important thing is to go to the covid-19 impact. And if you just scroll down i mean for anyone wanting to attend the support group you can register if you want to know what we're doing right now i mean obviously what. Is up there open for registration. Image of family so essentially this explains everything we can offer you now. And then there are other places on our website you know you have you want to email us. In touch with us but. United try to refer people there to see what we're doing and how we can help during this time. Saj.. Probably help. You know we are a nonprofit in. You wanting a really a friend people is that. We offer everything for free i mean the manuals that we give to participants you know we have with a resource guide. That's really well design from our communications coordinator that helps you navigate. Little resources in wisconsin and and dane county. All that's provided for free and. Provided. Because we have donations and we have a lot of generosity that we appreciate them the community so. Mental health issues in helping individuals. Especially during this time for you or just something you're willing to consider we certainly appreciate any donation. Free. For anyone that needs it. So i wouldn't be able to answer accurately just as the executive director and involved. Whatever contractor agreement we have with shifted. But if they rightfully so placed a large priority on. Especially with you notes for races and defino different minority groups. And that's something we're working on. As well as how can we expected right now. But answered question i just probably could accurately and stop because that's also much more under another department. One thing i didn't mention or include is that. 100e s tracking my workout on our crisis intervention. Team trainings and then crisis intervention partner training. So if cit ncip is that we work with organizations or law enforcement departments. The host either these week-long or the our trainings or the 16-hour training. I'm not staying over 2 days. Really we bring in professionals. Like professionals from the medical background as well as law enforcement to be able to educate and help law enforcement better understand how to work with it. Mental health issue. Because you know. It's our stance and i believe that someone who we shouldn't criminalized. Of course they're things that know if we're breaking the law horse there are times when i don't think. The right path is to. No put them in the hands of law enforcement for you know a certain amount of time and sent. So and a huge part of that is also bringing individuals who have come into or had experiences with law enforcement and this is a really great thing i think that we offer is that we give. Those individuals who had those experienced the opportunity to share their story of what went well and what did not go well with law enforcement directly. Have a better understanding a direct number. So you know we have one we have one for sure coming up with some prairie police department and i know john and susan are going to be sharing their story with them. As well as some others. And we're also planning some with. Mount horeb and just other counties in dane county is actually barry. Very good at this winter supposed to have one but obviously. County sheriff. Answer question. Yeah that's a huge initiative ours is how can we. Derail the track of this person's having a mental health crisis. And you know we don't need to. Take me to take them to a treatment facility. Is that what that's going to happen more long-term effects that we. So specifically what we offer to the family members and friends of beterans. No. Is a quartile homefront. Equipping and help. The family members loved ones that surround. Work. And that's usually done in collaboration with the va. So you know if they if we want to run that or we are going to run that we work with them. File the list of that ceramic support he needs medication. And then we would do that is typically how it is so it's more like a massive effort to. So. There's not too much that we offer like that just ones in on specific and i would say the reason for that is because there are a lot of times where you can be experiencing bipolar and also be. Hernia and also be experiencing. Something else. I think we take more of a general quote like for example we're getting running ready to run peer-to-peer which is the class or like if you yourself experienced mental illness. You could do this better learn how to reach out to support but it takes more of a general approach. Even if you experience anxiety depression or schizophrenia it's still pretty good for you to have. Emergency plan. So there will be times within that general content build that we will specify like if you experience anxiety or depression. Symptoms. Find we don't usually just spend and focus on one. I think mary and patty have been raising her hand for a while. We started going or just person probably started going more remote and then quarantine like march and april and may reliacard. We really didn't do much with the school was going to happen because i think the school system then was trying to figure out what they're even going to do. You know so. I think teachers were more focused like how can we adopt. I'm either of course it's a priority like how our students going to be able to but i can. All this time. I know a lot of teachers from mmsd. Every style of life. What can we plan for the upcoming. Fall and spring semester. The kids return which i think. I heard through the grapevine i have to fact-check it like mmsd is going. But. There's such a need though that we're not bringing on someone to cut off handle. Programming. A lot of that is we will certainly now we can have someone who's more dedek. You. Doing all the ending silence and all that you throw me youth programming. We haven't really had a chance yet to integrate anything. For preparing for when we have two in the fall.

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Pr150104Ingham-ed.mp3

Good morning welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society i can't believe anybody's here and where is no such thing as a plow when i came in several hours ago. Don't know if we have any visitors or guests this morning. I think we do not surprising it still kind of a holiday. There's no space in the program committee and other places about. Whether we go through the the spiel every week. About. Being welcomed but. Most of us. Want to hear it i think. Movie of castor visitors are not so welcome no matter where you are on your spiritual journey no matter your sexual preference no matter your ethnicity. No matter who you are. As i said where you are on the journey of life we welcome you. And we want you to come back. Because our services are different every week. Be opening words are these. May we be reminded here of our highest aspirations. And inspired to bring our gifts of love and service to the altar of humanity. May we know once again that we are not isolated beings but connected. In mystery and miracle to the universe. To this community and to each other. Flame of fire. Spark of the universe that warmed our ancestral hearth. Agent of life and death. Symbol of truth and freedom. We strive. To understand ourselves. And our earthly home. For eyes. If you my reflections about addiction i have. A few things to read from a book titled clean. By david sheff which. From which i drew. A lot. For this morning. He writes. The view that drug use. Is a moral choice. Is pervasive. Pervasive pervasive. Pernicious. And wall. So are the corresponding beliefs about the addicted. That they're weak. Selfish and dissolute. If it work when they're excessive. Drug-taking and drinking began to harm them. Pitstop. The reality is far different. Using drugs or not isn't about willpower. Or character. Most problematic drug use is related to stress trauma genetic predisposition. Mild or serious mental illness. Use at an early age. Or some combination of those. Even in their relentless destruction and self-destruction the addicted aren't bad people. They're gravely ill affected with a chronic progressive and often terminal disease. People also believe that addicts can't be treated. At best they can muster their willpower and manage their compulsion for a short time. But while it's true. That addicts who seek treatment are seldom sheard. Their disease is treatable. When we reject. The pseudoscience moralizing and scare tactics. That characterize the current system. Be disease of addiction can be prevented. And when we treated the way we treat other diseases. Those in its thrall can be freed to live long. see lights. This stigma associated with drug use. The belief that. Bad kids use. Witches. Don't. And that those with full-blown addiction are weak degenerate and pathetic. This stigma has contributed to the escalation. Abuse. And has hampered. More. App has hampered treatment more than any single other factor. Mental illness divorce. Trauma poverty addiction in the family tree. Billions of people have these and other risk factors. And a combination exponentially. Increases the odds that a person will abuse drops. Add those to the many other reasons people use. The way drugs can at least temporarily. Treat physical pain. Unless than inhibitions. The way they can help people cope. With loneliness insecurity and stress. The cultural acceptance of drugs. And the messages in the media. Rather than being surprised that some people use drugs. We should be surprised. That's some. Don't. Effective drug use prevention involves parents schools and communities and it also involves acknowledging. Encountering a culture in which kids are deluged with positive. Depictions. Of drugs. Unless you've been there. You can't imagine what it's like. To watch helplessly. As someone you love descends into addiction. The transformation defies logic. Until you understand that your loved one is gravely ill. With a brain disease that's debilitating. Chronic progressive and. If left untreated. Fatal. Once and for all people must understand that addiction is a disease. It's critical if we're going to effectively prevent and treat addiction. Accepting that addiction is an illness will transform our approach to public policy. Research insurance and criminality. It will change how we feel about addicts. And. How they feel about themselves. What is another essential reason why we must understand that addiction is an illness and not just bad behavior. We punished. Bad behavior. Retreat. Illness. There are two ways people become addicted. Anyone who takes enough of a drug to cause severe structural and functional changes in the brain can become addicted. But this is the more common one. Those people who become addicted. Do so because their brains are different. Before. They use drugs. Not because. They use them. There's evidence that addicts brains are different. From birth. The main problems with america's addiction treatment system stem from its roots in the archaic notion that addiction is a choice not a disease. 1 common symptoms of the disease of addiction is relapse. Picking. An addict out of treatment for relapsing is like kicking a cancer patient out of treatment when a tumor metastasizes. The philosophy behind such treatments is that addicts are undisciplined. And morally bankrupt so they have to be. Punish. Former congressman patrick kennedy us about family. Who's been open about his addictions sundown summed up the problem with sad hard-won eloquent. I've made a very close personal analysis of treatment centers. I've gone to the best in the country myself. It's all based upon treating your weakness instead of your strength. Chef says i've never heard of any disease that responds to censor blame or denial of treatment. And finally this. For centuries we've treated addicts as immoral weak and pathetic we told them to just say no. But they didn't. We declared war on them and lock them up. But they kept using. We judge them vilified them and banished them. Yes i still took drugs. Our best efforts to stop them from using didn't work. Because we didn't understand the most important fact. Addiction. Is a disease with a neurologic basis. A mental illness. When we understand this we can finally put aside our prejudices and outrage and see that addicts aren't bad people immoral week or degenerate. Blame. Shame and anger can be replaced by. Compassion. Would that i had known that. 40 years ago. I would have traded some people are very close to me a whole lot differently. In the beginning. That is. At the beginning of our lives. If we are fortunate. The people present at our birth. And during those first days weeks months. Years of our lives. If we are fortunate. Those people wish and want and imagine nothing but good things for our lives. Who looks at a newborn and says. Maybe she or he will grow up to become an alcoholic. Florida drug act. Years ago a friend of mine. A biased. Incredibly racist friend. Who had not had an easy life lived in. At one point right before i matter what we've been called the slums of milwaukee. She fled with three very young children from an abusive husband. So i suppose that knowing this history of hers like cutter a lot of slack. Years ago she complain to me about all those parents as black parents. Who let their children become addicts. Parents whom she claimed. Turn their kids into app. What is the time. There happened to be a television commercial about raising children. And the importance of parental and community guidance. Guess what show the birth of a baby with a parent's imagining that baby ice skating. As they grew up or playing football. We're going to college or marrying having children of their own and then the ads. Would point out the obvious. No one picture that baby becoming a drug addict. Or an alcoholic. But when i pointed this out to my friend she really didn't have a comeback in fact. Chicopee wildered. I said she'd never thought of it that way. At this official beginning of a new year. Many of us have good intentions record regarding this. Upcoming brand new year. Some of us might even make resolutions. In which we pledged to make the new year a better one. For us for maybe the the world than the old year was. That's it says that the top of your order of service. Pooh and piglet had an interesting conversation about this. What day is it as poo it's today sweet piglets favorite thing. Everyday of course is a new beginning. Not just new year's day. Who has the right idea the right attitude. Today is the only day. That we can do anything about really. No matter how much planning we do. For those addicted to alcohol or drugs today. Is what treatment programs focus on. That is good effective. Treatment programs. They help addicts concentrate on right now. Now i realize that there are many kinds of addictions. We are probably all addicted. At least mildly to something. But this morning i'm talking specifically about alcohol and drug addictions as his chef in his book. But what i have to say and what chef rice are applicable to any addiction. As i'm sure you gathered. Because i kept repeating in the readings. One of the premises of david chefs book clean is. Bath. Addiction is not a choice. Addiction is a disease. But unfortunately we as a nation continue to ignore this. And you cling to the belief. That addiction is a moral problem. The old way of thinking clean. That people have a choice. And if they would simply. Stop using simply and quotes. Family addiction problem would be solved. In this way of thinking addicts are weak selfish spotless. Morally bankrupt central even. In need of redemption. But added. I just like those who are not. Addicted. People. Trying to cope with life. Trying to find a way through confusion darkness hopelessness emptiness. Ways of being that we all encounter in this journey. Addicts have a spiritual hunger that i maintain we all have. In fact i believe that addicts often have an even deeper craving for meaning. And those who aren't addicted. I have been thinking about doing a service on the subject of addictions for sometime but. Addiction is an extremely daunting complex. Subject post intellectually. And emotionally. I think that you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who has not been affected by addiction. Or who has no personal knowledge of it. In my family we had among others. Aunt barb my very favorite aunt. And her husband on colerain. But they only drank beer. The lots of it. So they couldn't be alcoholics. Cuz i. Ongoing conversation as i was growing up. Then there was my biological father whom i never knew until the very end of his life. Supposedly. And he died in his 80s. He was an alcoholic at least that's the family narrative. And when i was born he may or may not have been on a bender. But my mother divorced him i think she started the proceedings before i was even born. So. I found it interesting and almost amusing. But i plunged into reflecting writing reading about addiction not by examining my own relationship to alcohol. My my drug of choice alcohol. Nor by taking a close look at my family of origin. Are you sore non-use of drugs. No. I can't look at any of that initially i began with a dry spell early heavily research book. That i have been intending to read for several months clean. By david sheff. Shuffle clean. After another book of his was published. That book was titled. Beautiful boy. Have any of you read that book. I am not sure. Well when i was serving. The greenbay congregation someone there gave me beautiful boy this was in the. Early nas would have been about 2005 46. I am not sure why that person thought it might be something i should read outside made some allusion to alcoholism or her drug abuse and some surface. Beautiful boy is about david chefs son nick. Nick. Who suffered from bipolar disorder and depression. Probably as early as middle school. Nobody caught that. Despite good medical care we are talking about a normal happy. Family and affluent family here living in the san francisco bay area is the name david chef sounds familiar to you at all. He's a writer for the new yorker and rolling stone and slate and lots of other things. Nick. Thought perfect grades. Nick was a star athlete. Parents were in their first and only marriage but no trauma from divorce. But nick. Started using email because he was at a party and somebody offered him a jointing. Kids r kids and they try stuff. Nick was. On the streets eventually right after he was a senior in high school it did make it through couple years of college okay kind of okay. Eventually he call his dad to come and get him. Dad would try to get him into a rehab program rehab programs good ones are not cheap. Are very very expensive actually. But they have the money they put him in. Nick would try for a while nick would leave the rehab nick would relapse nick would be on the streets. Back to treatment. Relapse rehab. Endlessly repeated. Endlessly. Almost died he would disappear for weeks and even months. As far as i know he's still alive he i've been clean for at least 5 years. When clean was published. So he's been clean for seven or eight years it goes with his dad on. Lecture tours. I could not finish beautiful boy. Broke my heart. Is it too close to home too close to the bone for major alcohol-related things started mowing down so many of my close friends. But this was. After one of them have already been struck down. One of one of those close friends had a. Major stroke and has never recovered. And that answers mine. He was getting closer and closer. To the slow death by beers. That she had been engaged in for so many years. The difference for me. Was that i was becoming aware of what she was doing. Nick struggles remind me of eduardo's struggles. Eduardo when we met in today story for all ages. Didn't set out to be the horriblest boy in the whole wide world any more than nick chef did. Nor did he or presumably his parents consider at the beginning of his life that he might become the nicest boy in the whole wide world. I'm not sure i'd water had any parents. I don't seem to be present in the book. And i think you might have been a sociopath in the making but for our purposes today. I i think we'll assume as i said a few minutes ago that hardly anyone wakes up one day and says think i'll become an alcoholic. Or today i really want to work on getting addicted to drugs. I was lucky. And i grew up in an almost substance-free household. I mean. Addictive substances. My parents did not drink. Well except on new year's eve. What the heck each had one. Tom and jerry. I'm not sure why tom and jerry is this was a big deal. My mother got quite silly although it was kind of hard to tell sometimes because. Call my dad.. Not my biological father about the man who adopted me in. Maybe a little less serious. When he had his one tom and jerry. But he was really really adamantly opposed to drink it. Well course if we happen to be visiting that aunt and uncle of mine we. The drinks flowed and didn't have to be new year's eve. And there was a lot of talk as i said about whether they could be alcoholic because they only drink beer. But the tacos behind their backs. Nobody ever tried to talk to them about it to my knowledge. Another were the stories about my favorite grandfather. The person to whom i was the closest in my growing up years. Grandad. Apparently he was quite the entrepreneur during prohibition. There was a lot of bathtub gin making no i do not remember prohibition i was not around but i've heard all the stories of course. This grandfather had spent some time on the body build circuit. Just for 11. Does a great tap dancer. I remember one of his favorites gifts which he loves to perform. I told him tonight the bengals. What do. For some reason i. Associate this vaudeville humor with the making of that bathtub chance. Did that grandad drink. He must. But i never thought of this until fairly recently have been making the rotgut stuff and he was the father of a farm. I also remember being told that the local police. We're in on this manufacturing of an illegal substance. They probably were all drinkers to. And we know how prohibition turned out. About as well as the war on drugs. When my dad the fat person who am i. Call dad. Was in his 80s. And he and i had gone to europe three times for d-day remembrances i dad lost a leg in the battle of the ball. He told me why he was so opposed to drinking. Towards the end of the war when they took our troops were starting to take over some of the german towns and villages. Yeah we had so many casualties the people who started out here lilo we're rising in the ranks and my dad became a master sergeant. And he was in charge of this group of man and they secured that town. And they were say we go into the german houses and stay overnight. And use the beds and use the kitchen stuff. And someone will one died in a very very nice house a mansion almost. That the men under my dad's command got very drunk. My dad did not. Positive his parents did not drink. Drinking just wasn't you know who my dad's frame of reference. And in this. Drunkenness after they ate they threw all the. Play switch were very exquisite apparently out the window. It just threw my language. Really upset my dad. They were probably other reasons why he didn't drink. This kind of behavior went against everything that this man this man who raised me believed in apparently even in the midst of war. Which brings me to a word that cannot be ignored. When talking about his addictions and that word is. Spirituality. I've already gone there so to speak. I just didn't use the word spirituality few minutes ago when i talk. About how all of us all humans. Struggle. I don't care if you're an addict or not an attitude least not right now all people everyday are trying to cope with life. Trying to find a way forward through confusion darkness hopelessness emptiness. Ways of being that we all encounter. Minestrone. Well i thought i could give you a dynamite definition of either the word. Spiritual or spirituality this morning. Because i know that these can be words at unitarian universalist struggle with from time to time i also am very well aware of the fact. That aa. Alcoholics anonymous does not always work. Because of its use of what i will call loaded language. Words like hirepower sin redemption even the words moral inventory and forgiveness. And seemed like. Well. Trick words if not trick questions. Words that sometimes put people on the defensive and i understand. This packing away from seemingly loaded language especially if we. Colors of 80s or humanist. But there's still a spiritual component necessary when talking about addiction and how to live with it. But there's no dynamite definition. Dictionaries pretty vague about spirituality. And the only. Definition i could come close to relating to is this one. Relating to or consisting of spirit. Sacred soul holy of course i had to look up spirit. Oops. Spirit. The breast of. Life. Life itself. Not just the material physical you can see it part of what we call life. So here we are with these with these physical cells with our bodies. Neverall. That we are we also have this non-physical non-material part which is a very essence of who we are. Our spirit. Our unique energy our unique persona. Which has very little to do with our physical selves. What's your teenager. That broken spirit. That accompanies addiction. Probably precedes it actually that broken spirit. We all suffer from this. Has to be healed every bit as much. Has any broken parts of our physical selves that occur because of addiction. I do not think it is possible to live with addiction. Unless this aspect is address named work on whatever language you want to use if you are uncomfortable with using the word spiritual find another one. Maybe sacred maybe holy how about mysterious. Awesome in the best sense. But awesome and it's best hits best original spence. How about unknowable. However you describe this non-material non-physical part of who we are i do not believe that addiction can be confronted successfully or that any individual can successfully confront addiction. Without finding a way to fill. The emptiness. The emptiness in life. To counteract that abyss that we all stare into. From time to time. I need exactly though at this point in time when i use the word spirituality my first semester and seminary i took a class one entire semester title. Alcoholism and spirituality. I spent an inordinate amount of time this past week looking for a paper. That i wrote for that's why i did not find. I'll pray find it tomorrow. But i am quite sure that the perfect answer to the connection between alcoholism and spirituality is in that paper. But i'll give you some clues here in the next couple minutes. Shut didn't really get into spirituality in the book clean. At least not explicitly. A wise man or cowardly ban. Why couldn't avoid getting into the spirituality component of addictions when he wrote beautiful boy. Is chapter on aaa in his book please as close as he comes to using problematic words. I could do another whole morning on. How he dissects aaa. He's ambivalent about it. He thinks the second day needs to come out and should not be anonymous. By keeping an anonymous you just continue to bury the disease. Bearing and bearing it doesn't get any. Publicity at the squeaky wheel do some of you remember when. Maybe the big c. What happened what happened. Well the american cancer society was very instrumental in getting it out there out there out there in front of us. Research money started coming in. Did you know that the american cancer society was started in 1913. So this did not happen overnight. Remember 8. Still with us unfortunately but remember the think this was in the late 80s. Out. We act out protests and demonstrations. It's on the internet. Get out there get out there get it out there the squeaky wheel gets the grease. And i have some really good news about that. And in regards to addiction. I was going to talk take you through the. Chef's exclusive but i'm running out of time. What happened to me. There are so many stories like the personal stories i can tell you. That was pregnant and he cry. Don't know where to meet you. Last. A year ago may i got a phone call. That one of my dearest friends was in a hospital here. In madison and had a major stroke equator ordinary stroke. It wasn't heart-related. It was all a neuro stroke. And he had something called. Wernicke's encephalopathy. Aka wet brain. It's only cause. Bye. Abuse of alcohol. Spence in his eighties on a gun if you know him so. To give you a try to visit him he was. He taught me how to drink irish whiskey. Which i am bad to breathe. I won't touch it now. And then there was my friend. Also hear madison in the early 90s. There were four of us we were all in the choir at first unitarian. We got we were extremely close and that's how my connection with northern minnesota started some of you know i have that connection. Because one of those four women had gone up there's a child. We were all big drinkers. I am. Extremely fortunate that apparently i don't have the brain that was 24. I don't i don't do much anymore in that regard but i enjoyed my party years. Well. The other three of us decided we need to confront the one person. We thought was really really thinking way too much. We went to lunch which we often did country star kids together it was that time. when. When you make sometimes good friends because your kids are all the same. The four of us went out to lunch to confront her. Personally ordered one. Dial a fright. But you do have a major major stroke and now that when i look back on it sink was probably the same thing. The one that wanted peace encephalopathy. But i went to meet with this person's doctor. This is before hepa. And so much privacy stuff. And this doctor well-trained young. Sing on top of everything. She completely dismissed me not because i was reaching any confidentiality or privacy stuff. She told me that my friend was such an intelligent person she can never choose to drink too much. She knew about it she would know better than to drink too much. The nineties. And then there was emily. Who. What's my daughter's name. And like. She was the child of one of this. These four people. Do people not counting me yancy. Was like a daughter to me because all the kids were life and we were like moms to all those kids. We should have recognized the signs. When she was at west high. Such a good school right. What's a really good school for my kids by. Emily couldn't read. And none of us realize this place was like a senior. High school. I started tutoring her then a little bit was too late and there's so much stigma around bad and she just never felt. Right she never buy school is most of us. Beautiful girl brilliant girl. Emily died of an overdose. 2004 45. Your mother one of those for women. Including me. Mother is alive by has been drinking. Since her kids were little i mean ever picked up on it. The vodka in the coke. Happy news there is an the phone call i got. Thanksgiving weekend. I'm someone i've known for. If i was a minister in plattsburgh new york. And this person was in my congregation there. But his ties to this to madison and. He called to say that he. I just been kicked out by his wife. It is up to little kids because of his drinking and he invited to a rehab here in town. And could i help. And. Talk about being blindsided. I never would have guessed this i mean high functioning alcoholic. Kidney cancer. Sometimes. foods is another poop. Coulomb. Thought. Sometimes life is just one bother after another. Who said. And yes it is but there are signs of hope i am a seventh principle preacher you all know what seventh principle is right. But it was that we are all connected and sentence right on if you're new here it's on the inside. Right before the humans start i think. Of the hymnal for the beginning. Seventh principle is that we are all connected and then to repeat the. Some of the opening words may we know once again that we are not isolated beings but connected in mystery and miracle to the universe. To this community and to each other. Have each other. There's so many people right now working to better understand addictions all over the world mazing stuff coming out of china. And we now have something called the aafp american addiction society. Brand new. Model on the american cancer society david chef was not a founding member but he's on the board now. Did you know that there are. Whopping total of 2500 doctors in the united states 2500 who are addiction specialist do you know how many on colleges there are. 12500. Cardiologist. 20000. We have hope though and the knowledge that people can change. We have at least. Passion of course we always need to cultivate more compassion. You need more money. The fun research we need better frame doctors nurses physician's assistants minister therapist psychiatrist teachers on it we all need to be better trained. And we need to learn more about the american addiction society. We need to not be afraid of changing the way we think. The other day in the coffee shop todd you know who todd is he's our architect is the architect of ipod my run into each other all the time and freaks on monroe street in and i was kind of writing yesterday in the coffee shop and he. So what are you doing what's a subject and i told him we got talking about addictions and he said. He was in here the other day and this young man had on. Earphone. And i was talking to somebody on a sal what you know lots of times i think everybody raises their voice more than need to when they're talking on cell phones plus. It was obvious everybody sitting in the coffee shop that he was talking to his girlfriend. And it was something about heroin. So finally somebody went over to him and. Bluetooth earphones he had when he gets off and he said i'm so sore and so sore and i suppose you heard all that stuff about heroin i didn't want you to hear that was so terribly shouldn't hear that it's all he was embarrassed. I haven't changed enough. Society still thinks. Stigma. Now we can begin a discussion but we're nowhere. The way going to finish that i'm sure but maybe we can continue it at another time. Interventions normally don't. Don't work and i agree with that and he also is very clear about. Forget that old adage. That idiotic has to hit bottom. Intervene not in the sense of a formal intervention say something. Be cuttin in help him get help because bottom is off and death. Closing words are these. Take courage friends. The way is often hard. The path is never clear. And the stakes. Are very high. Take courage. 4 deep down there is another truth. You are not alone. Go in peace. But your neighbor eat cake. To know the visitors. Be careful out there.

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Pr140413SaraGoodman-ed.mp3

Good morning i'm sarah goodman i am the ministerial intern at the first unitarian society and i'm really excited to come back. And see you again i was here in july so. Good to see all your faces prairie aspires to be both an open-hearted and an open-minded congregation. We welcome people of every ethnic and religious background whatever your color sexual orientation gender or family structure. We welcome you no matter what your age. Or your abilities or in abilities. Later in the service will invite visitors guests and returning friends to introduce ourselves so that we may get to know you better. On sunday mornings we provide a wide variety of services and they're presented here usually by prairie member or the minister sandy ingram. Or member of the wider community like myself today i'll be presenting on vulnerable change. So the opening words this morning come from mark valentini and his poetry book. Sonatas for voice and silence let the sky above me on roll like a scroll. And let me read up on it today is text for my life. You are alive here and now. Love. Boldly and always tell the truth let the wind arrange the naked branches of the maples and aspens and oaks. Into sacred letters which proclaimed this sacred text. Your heart. Beats now. Not tomorrow or yesterday. Love the gift of your life and do no harm. Let the eyes and hands and faces of all the varieties of people with whom i share this earth. B chapter and verse. In this great scripture text. Life is struggle. And lost and also tenderness and joy. Live all of your life not just part of it. And now let all the poems and scriptures and novels and films and songs and cries. And lullabies and prayers. An anthem. Open up before our free hearts. Let them open like a tore up like a song like a gospel and like an apocalypse. And let them proclaim. Do not think you can take away each other's troubles. But try to be with each other in them. Remember you are parked. Not all. Great. But not greatest. Small. Precious. 3. Breath. In this great wind of creation. And remember that every single human word is finally and divinely cradled in the strong and secure arms. Of silence. A child's lighting words if you would join me the words are printed in the order of service thank you. We ignite the flame of love and keep it safe in the shower a symbol of our compassion holding it up for all to see so that all who dare can share in it. We send our light out not in a protective cover but open and vulnerable so that our life can change the world. The reading day is the power of vulnerability by emilie castro and it comes from the united kingdom's huffington post. In the culture section and it's actually a review for a photographer andrews ackerman's photographs of flowers. The purple that's her a flower looks dominant and beautiful and even a little menacing. Embarrassed to stand naked against a stark white void. It has no stem. Branch or leaf. Everything is exposed and nothing is hidden. We know that it's petals are momentary so delicate that merely touching them between two fingers. Will render them non-existent. Yet. The confidence which with the datura projects itself. In such an isolated pure state demonstrates a rare compelling power. This dynamic between the vulnerable and the powerful brings a relevancy to the image of the datura and other flowers by new york-based photographer andrews ackerman. Fedex the position of virginity and rigor and a fragile almost feminine form give us these images their distinctive beauty. Up until now sacrament explained most flowers have been portrayed as freely little things but to me the flowers that i've chosen to shoot. Are painted as incredibly strong forms almost architectural. Communicating are vulnerable vulnerability can also be read as a signal of our inner strength. Last month. Antoinette taft the school bookkeeper in georgia armed only with her vulnerability. Deployed it with. Extraordinarily. Good resourcefulness. Tough. Open. to michael brandon hill telling him about the breakup of her lungs standing marriage and the challenges of having a disabled son. She was able to convince tell who was brandishing an assault-style weapon. With 500 rounds of ammunition. To surrender. We've also become more willing to invite our friends and a broader public into emphasizing our every mood. Many of us have become blase about sharing every machination of our internal lives on twitter or facebook which today is actively encouraging us to post on how we are feeling. Immersed in a whirlpool of information about our friend psychological dramas. Have we become less quick to judge. Projecting vulnerability as a sign of strength is nothing new. It's a theme running deep through christian iconography and 20th century latin american literature and painting. The mexican painter frida kahlo. For example please her own suffering due to a horrific injury in a bus accident at the heart of her images. Projecting herself with a proud and defiant gays. Since i've had kids ackerman told i've become more interested in vulnerable and fragile subjects. And this is his process of capturing the peak moment of flowers life it also demands and then usual degree of care. From the moment when the flowers were cut too when i received them it felt like we were handling a faberge egg or a baby. Everything had to be calm and quiet on the shoot. Almost like a surgical operation. However by choosing to portray the flowers as powerful and strong. Zuckerman is also revealing a deeper truth. The vulnerable have power. In order to protect ray our vulnerability to others. We have to acknowledge it to ourselves and be brave enough to disregard the defenses we habitually use to protect ourselves. But in doing so we open ourselves up to deeper relationships. That can evoke. In others as well as in ourselves. A broader desire to protect. And nurture. There is the reading. So when i sat down to write the sermon it took me awhile to find my inspiration i wasn't really sure about the connection between vulnerability and change and i was kind of confused as to why i chose this topic in the first place vulnerability is important for making connections with other people and for asking for help and. Other things but i wasn't quite sure. What. Connection vulnerability had to making change in the world. But then i remembered the reason that i chose this. Title this title for the service because vulnerability is more than needing help. There's also a vulnerability in offering help. If we are to create change if we are to make this strange. Hard crazy world. Better for everyone. We have to be willing to see our own vulnerabilities. We have to be willing to face our fears. And to be open to change. Let's think for a minute about change there are two ways really to see change the first is. Point of view of someone who relies on stability. Their reaction is often i don't want to change i don't want the situation to change i am happy the way i am i'm happy with things the way they are. This viewpoint is often based on fear. If things change then i might be worse off than i was before or even than i am right now. Another way change is often viewed our experience is from someone who enjoys the excitement of new things. This reaction to change is often. Oh cool i wonder how this new change will save my life differently. People who react this way are often more resilient than people who react with fear. In one of my classes last year in seminary a visiting scholar came to speak to us about putting together a ritual while leaving portions of the. The. Ceremony open for improvisation. We began the class with an exercise that involved the group of fifteen of us. Reading a piece of scripture allowed but without any pre-assigned parts. Without any guidance as when to begin or when to end and when to start again. But we were to read it aloud. And allow what happened to happen. She explained that if 4 people read the same part at the same time or if there was a long time of silence. That was the way the scripture wanted to be read. Okay most of us were hesitant and confused and uncomfortable with this process in the beginning. But once it got going and suddenly three people spoke out at the same time and then someone decided to reread apart because they thought it was important. And then there was this long silence that ring out and it felt. It felt like a holy process. She taught us something about being open to change being open to the unknown. She taught us about letting go of anxiety. This lesson and particularly the next lesson she taught us. Really taught me something something i've carried with me ever since so here's a lesson. She asked us. What do you think the difference or the opposite of anxiety is. Opposite of anxiety. Throughout a variety of words like calm and accepting some things along that along that line and her response was. The opposite of anxiety is curiosity. Anxiety is ono what's going to happen and curiosity oh yeah what's going to happen. Anxiety is thinking about the outcome of events. In imagining the worst. And curiosity is thinking about the outcome events. And imagining the best. Reacting with curiosity is one. Outcome of resilience. And resilience the only comes when they're willing to be vulnerable to outcomes beyond our control. In order to embrace positive changed we need to be willing to let bad things happen it sounds. Terrifying doesn't it. Sounds like opening the front door to our house and inviting everyone in the strangers the people who want to hurt us who want to take our things. It sounds like publishing an ad in the newspaper even saying come to my house and steal all of my stuff i'll be gone from 6 to 6. You can be there. It feels like being helpless and scared and open to all the pain that were trying to avoid in life. But being vulnerable is not being helpless. Vulnerability is not being weak or worthless. We are all vulnerable whether we hide it behind a mask or show it to the world. We are all vulnerable. It's only those people who are willing to accept their vulnerability who are able to be resilient. Say you had a bad fall on the ice while you were skating when you were a kid and now that you're all grown up. Your friend takes you to an ice skating rink. And all you can think about. Is that you might fall down. You might land on the ice and hurt yourself again so what do you do you hold onto the side of the rink inching along moving slowly. That's not even ice skating you can enjoy yourself because you're too afraid that you're going to be hurt now assume that you've been working on this vulnerability stuff for awhile and realize. That your fear is getting in the way you have a couple of choices you could quit skating altogether leave your friend in the large you could ask for help ask your friend or someone else to take her hand and go with you around the eyes or you could accept the inevitability of falling and throw yourself down on the ice just to get it over with. If falling is the worst that could happen. Wouldn't intentionally falling make the fear a little less scary. Wouldn't you now be able to stay off that wasn't so bad. Pick yourself up with skating around the rink maybe having fun maybe even finding out that you're good at it. That's resilience. That is bouncing back from a fall. It's getting back on the horse. Brushing yourself off and saying. That was the worst that could happen no problem. We've been taught a lot of things. We've been taught to fear a lot of things in this life and there isn't enough to go around. We fear that there's not enough food or housing or not enough money especially not enough love for everyone and that if we aren't perfect that we're not worthy of connection and love we've been taught to fear that people will take advantage of us if they know that we have weaknesses and so we shore up our vulnerability by building walls and keeping secrets we all have our different ways of keeping people out. Maybe you act like you're always happy but you're really really down most of the time maybe. You don't reach out pretending like everything's okay when really you're hurting and sure these are helpful tools for some situations but the problem is that we can't hide who we are and connect in a real way with other people. If you only ever show people your mask you will never trust that people really love you. I was reminded recently of the johari window i bet men if you've heard of this. Exercise were experienced it yourself you're given a list of adjectives and you pick five or six that describe you and then other folks who know you pick five or six they think describe you and the results are divided into four quadrants so the top half are the words that other people choose for you and the left. Half. Is the word you used to describe yourself. And then the right is the word you didn't choose so two of these quadrants are the most interesting the top right quadrant which are the blind-spot and the bottom left quadrant just known as the hidden area in the blind-spot words. Are there that describe how others see you that you don't see in yourself and actually people are usually surprised how many good words end up in their blind spot so really easy to not think well of ourselves. The other quadrant that's important the hidden or facade quadrant is usually one that brought up when we're talking about one durability in this quadrant are the things that you say about yourself that other people don't see this is the quadrant with most room to grow. These things that we hide about ourselves are often are most vulnerable parts the things we don't want others to see so we create a facade a mask that we put on to cover our flaws and a wall that we put up to hide our pain but here's the rub shutting out hurt also shuts out happiness avoiding pain means avoiding joy we can't pick and choose the only way to experience real love is to be open to experiencing real hurt the only way to change is to face our fears vulnerability is coming out from behind your mask and feeling the power of your authentic city in his book. The barefoot doctors guide to the down a spiritual handbook for the urban warrior long title author stephen russell says vulnerability is the only authentic state being vulnerable means being open open for wounding but also for pleasure being open to the wounds of life means also being open to the bounty and the beauty don't mask. Or deny your vulnerability it is your greatest assets be vulnerable quake and shake in your boots with it the new goodness that is coming to you in the form of people of situations and things can only come to you when you are vulnerable. But we have been taught that showing vulnerability is weakness but really showing flammability is power power is more than building walls are wielding weapons power can be allowing someone else to understand who you are power is hearing who another person isn't connecting to them power is seeing the suffering of others and choosing to recognize that it could happen to you and moving forward anyway power is saying i have been hurt and i will be hurt again and i choose to remain open to what life brings me. Takes a lot of strength to live that way it takes a lot of courage and there's so much that can happen to us in this strange crazy hard world there is so much suffering so many disasters waiting for us around the corner. If we let our fear run the show we are likely to stick our head in the sand anytime we get a whiff of anything that might upset us this may be why so many people don't do anything about the environment or homelessness or any social justice thing at all it's too big it's too hard it's too scary to look at the suffering and imagined it could happen to me i don't want to face the people who remind me of the fact that i could lose everything and be destitute living on the street i don't want to face the fact that we as a country have effectively abandoned the poor we as a culture have come to be so fixated on scarcity that even when owning a home and having thousands of dollars in savings doesn't feel like enough to keep us safe how can we give money to anyone else if we don't feel like we have enough according to brene brown in her book daring greatly. Worrying about scarcity is our culture's version of post-traumatic stress it happens when we've been through too much and rather than coming together to heal which requires more ability we're angry and scared and at each other's throats we have abandoned vulnerability and each other to save ourselves. And the truth of the matter is we can't save ourselves we are all in this together so we have to stick together in order to make anything better we have to start with our own vulnerability you've got to be willing to see how vulnerable we are and be able to start to live from that vulnerability when we put up walls between ourselves and the people that we need to help we can't connect with them in a real way and we can't empathize with them and then we can't make real change antoinette tuff. The school administrator in georgia who talks the gunman out of shooting anyone at all is an example of this kind of strength. She stood strong not letting the man through any further into the school then her desk. And she showed courage when she shared her vulnerability with the man pointing a gun at her. She showed him that she was hurting to that she understood that life sucks and the only way we can make it through is together as a poet chris johnny says to share your weakness is to make yourself vulnerable and to make yourself vulnerable is to show your strength antoinette saved lives by showing her vulnerability and in her vulnerability she showed her strength we all have one abilities we all have inner strength and we can all make a difference in this world but if we really want to make change we've got to face our part in the problem. Facing your own fault is a huge scary active honorability looking at the ways that you've inadvertently played a part in a society that is broken can shake you down to the foundation but facing that vulnerability makes it possible to see a path forward not that long ago i was shaken by my experience taking a class on white privilege i sat in a room with many other people and realize that i make certain assumptions about the way the world works that don't ring true too many people of color i feel like the world is a generally safe place i know that i can find people who look like me and most places that i go i took these things for granted there was recently in the end of march a white privilege conference and their here in madison and it was moving for so many people and if you're still interested in learning more about white privilege and what that means there'll be a forum held jointly by first unitarian society and the cap times on the 24th of this month which is open to the public for free so you should come or listening on the radio the this is important work. I had to open myself up to the discomfort of admitting this to myself and i've had to open myself up to wonder bility to be able to admit this to you we have to start from her own vulnerability and tenderness and be willing to stretch our comfort zone in order to change so here i am standing in front of you sharing my vulnerability pushing the limits of my discomfort i hope you will choose to do the same i am still a work in progress. I still have to be open and vulnerable to finding out new things about myself and i am still looking for small ways to be rebellious and create change even if it's only in myself tomorrow i might find a way to create change in a little more rebellious way in a little more public way but tomorrow we together might be able to change the world may it be so. We now extinguisher chalice. Do we do that together. You read the words with me we'll do that okay we extinguish this lame but not the light of truth the warm-up community for the fire of commitment. Please we carry in our hearts until we are together again. And now before you head off to enjoy coffee h time to greet those around you and say hello.

uuprairie_org

Pr120930Ingham-ed.mp3

Good morning welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society i'm mary mullen member of the program committee pray aspires to be both an open-hearted and an open-minded congregation and we welcome people of every ethnic background every religious background whatever your color your sexual orientation or gender or your family structure and if we also welcome you in the matter what your age or your abilities or maybe even more important your inabilities and sunday mornings we provide a wide variety of services representative remember a member of the wider community or as today by our minister she will be presenting a reflection called last forever. Okay are opening words will be read by the opening words murray. These are the days that have been given to us let us rejoice and be glad in them. These are the days of our lives let us live them well in love and service these are the days of mystery and wonder let us cherish and celebrate them ingratitude together these are the days that have been given to us let us make of them. Stories worth telling to those who come after us. Mary if you would like to challenge. Mavis life kendall within us the warmth of compassion the glow of love the fire of commitment the light of truth. A story that other story that i would like to share with you this morning the story told by reverend kathleen big. Who was a longtime minister at them. New haven now she's at the. Kathleen titled this how to give a blessing. She writes. We're asked a dozen times a day how are you. Most of the time it's not a real question and doesn't invite a genuine answer it's more like an alternative hello and we're well trained in the ritual response fine thanks but every once in awhile. We are asked this question when things are really not fine at all. At those times when were walking around in a little bubble of anxiety or soro something inside us. Can suddenly ball at giving out the standard meaningless answer. We are too hungry for an authentic word 2raw to pretend that things are okay. The morning after my father died kathleen rights. Following three days and nights. Avana round-the-clock vigil with my siblings. I had to go to the grocery store. To buy a few things for dinner. When i arrived at the checkout counter. And the clerk distractedly said how are you. My brain went blank. I couldn't say fine. Or even. Okay i wasn't okay i wasn't even in my right mind. I was numb sleep-deprived and saturated mystery of our mortality that's the only explanation i have because to my horror i found myself blurting out a real and honest answer. Not so good i said my dad died last night. With his hands filled with. The apple. Chicken and bread the poor clerk turned red and started to stammer. You're invited now to respond. A blessing to me was to be able as the down syndrome young man was to put yourself so complete to feel so interconnected was in distress that you picked up their distress and did something that enabled them not to forget it or get over it and perhaps even to recognize. Theodore parker. Doctor appointment because he was so opposed to slavery and this was in boston that he would have but he had a gun well behind them are underneath the podium he kept the gun because sometimes there would be unruly mom's outside. Are you can still give thanks i like to give thanks to the all of the gazillion people. The closing words are those of theodore parker be ours a religion which like sunshine those everywhere it's temple allspace it's shrine the good heart it's creed all truth it's ritual works of love it's profession of faith divine living may it be so go in peace and drink coffee.

uuprairie_org

Pr120129Ferree-ed.mp3

Good morning time penny isla remember the program committee. For today is opening reading. The congregation will join me in the responsive reading of our usual opening statement. Current universalist society inspires to be. Both and open-hearted and open-minded congregation. We welcome people of every ethnic and religious background whatever your color sexual orientation or family structure. We welcome you no matter what your age. For your abilities for inability. Call unitarian food for the state to recognize that no one is a stranger. Inherent worth and dignity of every person. To support the use of justice for all people. Swappa. And if you're a visitor. Augusta returning friend. Later in the service will be an opportunity for you. 200 deuce your stairs so we may get to know you better. Parrot prairie sunday morning program is high like a box of chocolates. You just never know what you're going to get. A presentation by a remember. For a future minister. Today we are pleased to welcome a speaker from the wider community. Dr. myra. Marc's. Ferret. Please welcome mary and patty has a lighter challenge hatch which will have a moment of silent meditation. I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved. Br ambedkar. Today would like to welcome my remarks fairy she was born in 1949 and received her ba from bryn mawr college in 1971 and her phd from harvard university in 1976 she taught at the university of connecticut for 24 years where she became the director of the women's studies program before joining of wisconsin's department of sociology and 2002-2001 became a joint governance professor in the department of gender and women's studies in madison she is a director of the european union center of excellence and academic program on european affairs that is part of an elite international network of similar centers funded by the european union for career has emphasized socially engaged research on gender arrangements domino's powell and social justice in the united states in germany with significant forays into comparative studies of gender politics in other parts of the world varieties of feminism is being released in 2012 by stanford university press in the profession and the prize recognizes. Thank you very much i really appreciate your generosity and inviting me here it's really an honor to talk to you and it's been really quite interesting to me to hear and see the various kinds of ethical commands that experience and the other. In this book we attempt to reconstruct the history of global feminism from the perspective of those countries of less-affluent and privilege global south with our sisters elsewhere so let me begin by considering a few of the tools we need to have to be something more than a tourist or a missionary first of all i want to argue that if we look at the other. Is not a tourist or missionary we also have to be looking at ourselves. If we fail to think critically about our own relationships to what we are seeing then we're bracketing our position and perspective. And that's exactly what a tourist does. When were tourists. We see the other society or practice just as a spectacle for our education or. For entertainment we participate in the role of audience of warrior the tourist has the liberty to be moved by another suffering. React with horror or with admiration. But the feelings are those similar to those evoke fine especially compelling movie or play. We observe and we evaluate we use our own standards and perspectives as if they were universal and we do not observe or evaluate ourselves. If we don't want this taurus roll we need to be self-aware enough to realize that the women that we see are also watching us. And evaluating us according to their own perspectives to create a situation there for mutual regard we have to realize. That the other person. When they observe us may feel as much curiosity or just may we feel and watching them or admiration for that matter so the next step is to actively turn the lens around to see ourselves in this active looking to see ourselves as part of a system that is in fact no less surprising and in need of explanation as any other the burqa and the swimsuit. The process of intentionally making ourselves strange achieving distance from our own cultures taken-for-granted assumption is often much harder to do than looking at strangers inquisitively but it's just as essential as easy as it may be to see other people's lives as strange and other cultures as oppressive it's hard to see ourselves as doing things that are strange and culturally oppressive but the tourist mentality maybe no more and then. Women's dress. Let me give you another example clitoridectomy or as some would say female genital mutilation one of my most brilliant students lisa weight did her dissertation on the us perceptions of such cutting. Ashi points out this is not really one procedure it's really a wide range of possible surgeries from a small nick to a major cutting and sewing together of woman's genitals but as the term female genital mutilation or fgm is sometimes they said to us active abuse always or under islam newspaper and other media accounts stress medically primitive procedures the most extreme cases the harm's done. But this easy contrast between enlightened sexually emancipated western women and the oppressed women subjected to an exotic procedure troubles me. If one looks at genital surgery is only as something that happens to women who are other than us we become tourists for whom the problem is safely distant exotic and inexplicable. If we can put our own relationship to our bodies explicitly into the discussion our perspectives might change lisa wade also coined the term cultural clitoridectomy to talk about the excision of any mention of the clitoris from high school sex education materials in the united states had to turn our attention to the anxiety about women's actively seeking sexual pleasure that is expressed in both and some christian communities why and how african muslim others are worried about making their daughters marriageable and what they are willing to do to their daughters to make them more marriageable becomes a lot more comprehensible if it is related to how mothers worry about daughter sexuality and about being marriageable in this culture how girls in different parts of the world resist efforts to control them sexually and to deny their capacity for sexual pleasure would then become the focus of our discussion rather than. In the clitoris of somali immigrant girls to mark their coming-of-age. Arguing that the inherently barbaric and oppressive custom of fgm should never be imported into the united states they were actually uninterested in how medically safe female circumcision could be made the somali women who requested this procedure for their daughters as well as the doctors who consider their request reasonable were vilified in the press and eventually the hospital back down now don't misunderstand me again be legally prohibited in order to protect women if it is fine to get potentially dangerous breast implants liposuctions or labiaplasty is if you are a white american who can afford them what is the problem with making phim male genital cutting a minor medically safe procedure for immigrants to see that as part of their culture or conversely what is wrong. The predictability and last but not least for the privileges we have work spec to have from them some others among us like some of them are eager to seize these arrangements vanish in a puff of smoke but social change is not a matter of waving our hands and wishing we were somewhere else probably sweden we have to try to figure out how to get from where we are now to where we want to go. If we don't take this history of struggle seriously were likely to imagine that it would be easy to get from here to some better place. And this leads to the danger of blaming women or feminist for the problems in our political and social system. At the one in there are those who would blame some interest rather than the economy for making married women need and want to work at the other end of the political spectrum we find feminist being blamed for the absence of maternity leave or producing childcare somehow we haven't fought hard enough or cared enough about mother's if only we tried hard enough just freaking example sylvia and he'll it as well as some others enumerate all of the swedish social benefits for child rearing. It's justice non-productive hazard looking at chilean feminist and scolding them for not having the same access to divorce or contraception that american women have. Comparisons are useful if they create awareness of what you as an american do or don't have. But it's destructive of global feminism if the analysis stuff there. Implicitly the idea is that if you really wanted the social policy you would have it. And the power relationships vanish. We seem somehow to a failed as individuals or as a movement. We have not ended racism or transform the united states into an egalitarian society. Anna's audre lorde has argued this feeling of guilt is paralyzing. An action orientation to mansi where and how something can be done. Since social policies are not transferred as discrete blessings from above whether they should come from sweden to the us or be sent from the us to some other country. Realizing that all of these benefits are the outcomes of struggles in particular places and times it helps to free us from the myths that we have a calling to emancipate other women. Fiat in iraq or afghanistan or china. Our analysis has to go beyond the missionary like preaching of the virtues of some other heavenly state to begin to understand how gender race and class work together to shape our system so the example. As i was studying german feminism. I was very puzzled by the fact that german feminists don't seem to be bothered by making claims about women that strike me as very essentialist. For example one feminist demand that was seriously debated in the late eighties and early 1990s was it only women should be entitled to vote on abortion laws what makes women look like a single group especially as a special interest group that can be represented or be protected. Parking spot suggest that women might even be protected like the handicap this is a woman's parking place a spot near the streetlights where it would be safe to go after dark or near the cashier in a parking ramp in the 1980s german feminist succeeded as we in the us did not getting institutionalized women's affairs offices that would look out for women's interests in the city state or federal government and this was one of the policies that these women's affairs office has promoted. Now finding this approach strange i didn't want to stop at thinking that it was merely exotic or peculiar like a tourist so i asked what made this sort of group advocacy and group protection strategy so much more plausible in the german context than the american one. And what i found was that the cultural vocabulary of feminism in germany quite different than that of the united states american feminist think of gender is being somehow naturally like race. And german feminists endosee gender somehow naturally like class. American feminist thinking of gender is being like race means worrying about stereotypes and discrimination. Thinking about the individual is being harmed by being considered in terms of the group. In an american context it seems self-evident that there is a relationship between the kinds of exclusions and oppressions that are organized by the concept of race. And those are gender. And there are laws ranging from the civil rights act. To the present and strat and the lilly ledbetter equal pay act and strategies like the eeoc and social movements that are common to both race and gender struggles for equal rights. But unlike americans german feminist talk about gender in relationship to class. Gender seen through this lens of class is not so much about prejudice and discrimination. As it is about the lack of control over the means of production or the means of reproduction the most important remedy for an absence of control is to seek group representation in the political process as the socialist did for the working class and feminists didn't should do for women. Not only advocacy but also protection therefore makes sense for women as well as for working class people in general. A good state is one that will protect workers from exploitation by ensuring the rights to act collectively guaranteeing a living wage and protecting them from financial misfortune in the case of illness age or loss of a breadwinner which the german state has done since the 1880s. Chauffeur-driven feminist it's obvious that a good state will do what it can to protect women. From sexual assault to offer financial support to cushion the cost of child-rearing. And act responsibly to demands that women make us a group even if it's for a woman's parking place. This is not about essentialism in the american sense and it works in certain ways to get german and the same analysis also applies in sweden to get women family benefits much more expensive than american women hope to see. Since generous parental leave sounds like nirvana to americans the temptation to be a missionary can be great. If you talk to swedish and german feminist they don't think they're so well-off. They point instead to the fact that us women has the protection of the civil rights act. And that discrimination against women is clearly illegal even though still around. Sex discrimination well avert in german is is much more overton germinate where job applicants are routinely expected to provide not only their birthday but their marital status and even their photos with their job applications. Laws against sex discrimination any kind of law against sex discrimination is needed to germinate in just the past few years. End. They're still openly ignored this sign that was prominently displayed in the central berlin train station set basically says we want help wanted male. I guess a rate of pay. And this train station is two blocks from the federal parliament. German feminist which they had the strong broad anti-discrimination laws that the us does even if all they do is push. Discriminatory behavior underground. And they greatly envied our ability to bring class action suits to make anti-discrimination one forcible. Unfortunately that's a right that the supreme court is working on dismantling from walmart. We have a system or had a system deprioritized is allowing individual women who wish to make a typical choices the freedom to do so. Germany and sweden have a system that supports women who make the typical choice to have a child. Then however makes it almost impossible to combine that with a full-time job let alone a challenging career. Mothers and potential mothers get discriminated against because they are expected to take yours out of the labor force. So for example women make up 45% of the college and university faculty in the united states. But only 10% of the german faculty ranks. Chicken shortage system is a system. An american women can't be expected to see gender through the lens of class anymore than german women as a whole could be expected to see gender through the lens of right. Each country has its own history and its policy strengths and weaknesses reflect this history. Yeah that does not mean that i'm encouraging you to give up the struggle for paid maternity leave in united states anymore than i encourage german feminist to give up on trying to get stronger and more enforceable anti-discrimination laws. But i do think that we all have to begin from where we are. This is what i argue in more detail in my new book. Varieties of feminism and it's the final message that i want to leave you with that is to say when we look at comparative statistics we need to look at them not as tourists and see the exotic not as missionaries and see what we expect to bring or to have brought to us as manna from above but see the challenges of struggle that exist in the very particular thank you. I have nothing against people fighting and i'm not saying that i am for female genital mutilation i am simply saying that it's easy for us to make an alliance with those who are against it it's difficult and challenging for us to make an alliance for example with the less-educated somali immigrant women. Totally different but they go from a situation of a major surgery on their daughters to a 2-cm nick so that they can preserve the symbol of circumcision as a coming-of-age ritual and yet the approach to it is to say. And that's that's the only point that i wanted to make not that it shouldn't change and not that i don't applaud efforts to change it i also applied efforts in the united states to challenge and change some of the norms about women's bodies that we have here what i mean by essentialism is simply the idea that there is some essence of womanhood or femininity and masculinity that people express perhaps in different ways. And the problems that many of us have with essentialism is the idea that first of all. The group fitness of women is something that was laborious lee constructed and is constantly constructed because of course while we are women we are also many other things we are madisonian we are why we are of a certain age we are of a certain. Set of religious commitments we are richer or poorer or this or that or what have you and we pick out. From these various things that could describe us. Those things that we consider important for some reason and. There's been a lot of emphasis on the notion that a group called women in a group called man is not something that just essentially exist it's something that has to be produced politically by like speaking to women as women by speaking to people as feminist as concerned about. Issues of reproduction issues of freedom. And i just give you an example of this quote-unquote essentialism. In the united states there's a broad coalition against abortion rights which includes both women and men. And a broad coalition for abortion rights. Which includes both women and men. And the key issue that divides these two constituencies are ideas of choice and privacy. An abortion is seen as something that. Really has more to do with family privacy and the sacredness of the individual conscience. In germany there are huge differences in opinion between women and men. Abortion is seen as a woman's issue. Women are seen as the ones best able. To make decisions about it and even though it never went so far as saying only women could vote on this because women are all essentially concerned about abortion and men are essentially not. Idea. This is really a women's issue this is essential to women and it's. Irrelevant to man was reflected in all of the political parties even the christian conservative having basically only women in parliament only the women representatives in parliament speaking on the bill. Because for men to speak on it. It was like 85% women the men who spoke were like what are they doing talking about this this is none of their business. And we just don't see it that way we don't essential eyes women in men is to kind of. Basically different groups but we do construct some notion of women and men. Along with age along with ray so long with. Sexuality along with a lot of other things and we often refer to that within sociology and feminist studies in general is intersectionality. That is to say there's a lot of stuff going on and we're located at those intersections and what it means say to be a young poor. Divorced white woman with three kids is very different than what it means to be. Callista gingrich. Yes i think that's absolutely right and that's what i was trying to emphasize in saying that the that the issue here is one of struggle that struggle at is the commonality but you're struggling in a particular system. And the piece that i cut from this to be a little bit shorter because the part about basically trust the local. And there are a lot of good examples and global feminism of how things can go wrong if in a struggle you think that you come in and you really understand what it is that people need. And you don't trust the local so that's that's the next piece sucks. I don't disagree at night at the same time i think the issue of male circumcision brings home very. Carefully how much we need to think about the role of tradition and symbolism i mean after all jewish circumcision is extremely important to that culture and tradition and why would we say oh yes well there's an exception tradition we need to honor and respect. And there's this. Yes and no and people need to think this through for themselves. And we need to think through ourselves what are the the positions in these kinds of struggles and that's especially true when we start thinking about quote-unquote mayonnaise live what is. Gender. Transformation for men's perspective and is it the kind of thing that you're talkin about which. I would say is really looking very uncritically at a consumer culture and and not really turning the lens on ourselves and say what is it about our culture. That is impressive to women and potentially two men but really just saying oh the good thing about our culture is that we insist on a fundamental human equality which we do we're not women or men we say that at least we don't necessarily realize it and so many different talk about this. Women and men right we're not essentially different we're not essentially higher or lower we say the same thing about race. Unlike the germans we don't have quite as much problem with thinking about our society as a fundamentally multicultural one. Some of us more than others but i mean german this are really. Their heads are hurting at the idea of multiculturalism. And diversity. It's changing its changing but i mean it's a real struggle for them. In weather we was a struggle for many of us in the 1950s lettuce. And that's that's really want to think i just want to emphasize that we shouldn't overlook places where we have strong things in our tradition that we can call upon as advantages for ourselves in in our struggle. In other words not stand there and say oh yeah. What's the principle of outgoing discrimination at how come we haven't used that and push that and. Really made more of that. It's it's an attempt to do two things one is two. Guard women sexuality. But culturally got elaborated in some ways that work. Dangerous and bad women. As if we don't do some things to guard women sexuality that are. Bad for women. And the other is the coming-of-age part which is the part that the small he's really wanted to emphasize both boys and they said and girls should undergo a circumcision. At around age 13 it's the appropriate coming-of-age kind of ritual. And that's what. We americans stopped in seattle at harvard harborview hospital in more detail. It's in the the journal social problems. And if you have access to the university library. And i can support that you make about it being a mutual learning experiences the key. Is going to share the following words with all women's issues are to some degree men's issues and all men's issues are just hungry women's issues because when he is x-men's unilaterally both sexes use. Thank you for coming and please extend a hand of friendship to those around you and then join us for coffee conversation.

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Pr140427MattTedesco-ed.mp3

Well good morning welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society where everyone is welcome always no matter where you are on your religious spiritual sacred journey whichever adjectives you want to use you are welcome no matter your sexual orientation your ethnic your ethnicity and religious journey to life from whatever circumstances they may result buy it as evil. I have a note that kris hatch family will like the chalice perhaps it will just be a portion has a part to play a vision to uphold and a call that sounds from c2c to see if you are here this morning you are called to the ministry of all to all to make heaven here on earth now in this place on this planet for all people. Few things to say about that to the first is i mean that level recognized only people do right and so everything else only has value insofar as it's useful. Yeah look i said i think that's one of the one of the tricky questions that take up. Yeah right. Awesome question because it really presses on the question about value that i've been trying to raise right that is right if we do think right that it's fundamentally persons that have moral value then then absolutely whatever instrumental value these things have right if you think that the creatures. But if if the creatures or the land or whatever have intrinsic value than that's what blocks the trade-off that's where it says no matter how much good you can do for people. It's not the sort of thing you can use in that. I need certainly if you thought that you could poke holes in all the economic and aesthetic arguments for example recognize an argument that appeals to the value of these things or a set of terms is appealing to the instrumental value of these things right so they're valuable faucet for us or we appreciate. Yes i mean to think about that one is you know yeah it's so deeply sympathetic with the with the story-telling. Okay now about what kinds of things do we have similar kinds of confidence right well i don't know the mammalian kingdom generally right so there's other mammals. Kingdom phylum class i forget yai biology in 10th grade so. Trickier right now what about what i moved to like plants. Alright we have a plan to my house if i don't water it or if i stick in the closet for two weeks. It it shows signs of. Stress. Of. What is it is it only metaphorical to say the plant wants water or some i mean. I'm inclined to think so but there's just potentially a lot to say about that it's really good question yeah yeah yeah. Well let's try aldo leopold here this might not quite to work to do and we can do it there is as yet no epic dealing with man's people's relations to land and to the animals and plants which grow up on it land like odysseus's slave is still property the land relation is still strictly economic entailing privileges but not obligations go in peace and join an environmental group.

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Pr091108Pyle-ed.mp3

Today we are. Indeed appreciative and delighted to have david pyle. Who is. Chaplain and training first lieutenant in the united states army and a student at our. Seminary in chicago meadville. Lombard theological seminary and. Whatever. Way you perceive the way in which our universe moves and events happen. That was a terrible tragedy at fort wood. Texas this past week. And chaplains. Are going to be a part of that community's grieving process. For a long time. And david is going to be addressing some of those issues. That are going to be coming from that horrific event. I'd like to just. Acknowledge that. David represents. A long tradition. In our unitarian universalist. Movement. Just suffice to say that. General george washington. During the revolutionary war. Chose as his chief chaplain. John murray. Who was the. Our founder of the universalist tradition in america. And he did that. With great peril because universalism was not as it is still today not considered of the orthodox way of practicing your face so we have a long and honorable tradition of service in the military as unitarian universalist. Let us open. As a responsive reading. This morning. Words. Adapted from a quote by general omar bradley. General bradley was one of those generals who led the allied forces in europe during the second world war. I will begin with these words. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. Ours is a world that knows more about killing. Then we know. About livvy. The. Pass journey that david pyle her speaker this morning has taken. Is. Worth sharing a little bit and i found this in our uu world article that was printed. Few years back david was raised by a military family in tennessee and following the family tradition enrolled in rotc while he was in high school. Another element of. David's upbringing was his southern baptist. Religion. However that soon fell away. By his first year in the military david no longer identified himself as a quote christian and he soon found himself radically. Unchurched. A 1997 incident. While he was serving in bosnia. Instilled a new conviction in david. It was a deep opposition to. Religious hatred and intolerance. This resolution ultimately let him. 2. Find a home. End. Unitarian universalism. A religion whose pluralism inclusiveness. Tolerance. He. Valued. After five years of active duty and three in the reserves. David earned a college degree in 2001 and began working as a church administrator and student minister at the uu fellowship in galveston county. Galveston texas. When the united states invaded iraq in march of 2003. David faced a crisis. Deeply ambivalent about the invasion he remembers. A feeling of failure at seeing it happen. And then at the same time he felt guilty for not being with the young men and women he had trained with and with whom he himself has served. And that sense that he was somehow betraying those. Comrades. Fellow service members convinced david to re-enlist. Get over the next year-and-a-half through dialogue with the congregation in galveston. David realize that he could know. Longer return. As a combat. Soldier. He said. My personal faith had evolve to the point that i could no longer personally carry a weapon. In particular david felt that he couldn't actively in affirm the inherent worth. And dignity. Of every person while. Engaging. In. Combat. He said that that's not my view of how i want to be. I don't want to see myself as someone who would take someone else's life. And then as he was. Working. As an administrator with the congregation in galveston they. Began working on him. And they began to push him. Pushing. Up. And he began to. Reconsider. What. What's happening within him. And he responded. By acknowledging. The encouragement. Of the congregation. In galveston. And that is how many. Who have found themselves to choose to serve as ministers in our. Movement. Have answered a call. It's not something only within but it's usually from the community that you're apart of. That happened to me when i was a member of the towson unitarian universalist congregation. They were. Fairly insistent that i needed to. Go forward in. This role of minister. David responded. To the galveston congregation. Enrolled. Meadville lombard. Still a student there today. He served as. The. Student intern. At the evanston unitarian church where i met david and. After meeting him i said to myself. We got to get david to come to prairie and finally. We have him here. And how poignant. That he's here to address some of the. Concerns. And issues. Arising out of how we. Care for those. In the military. And the service. Requirement that we don't have to favor. War. But we need to. Extend our. Care. For those who serve. Not only the individual servicemembers but their families. And that is being energized today by the church of the larger fellowship. That has. Reinstituted there. Ministry. To those in uniform. And there's a whole lot. But you can learn about that on the church of the larger fellowship website so it's indeed a pleasure and an honor for me to introduce. David pyle. And we look now forward to your remarks. Thank you david for coming. Good morning. I was just telling ralph i don't know if i've ever heard anyone else say my call meredith before this a little that's new to me. I'd like to begin this morning with a reading. Some of you may be familiar with a poem entitled the charge of the light brigade. There was many of us had to read it in school for two minutes. no is that there is a part 2. Poem entitled the last of the light brigade. By richard kipling. There were 30 million english who talked of england's might. They were 20 broken troopers. Who lacked a bed for the night. They had neither food nor money they had neither service nor trade. They were only shiftless soldiers. The last. Of the light brigade. They salted life was fleeting. Bennu. Bedford park. Was not long. Whether they were dying of famine. They lived in deathless song. They asked for a little money to keep the wolf from the door and the 30 million english cent only 20 lb in four. They laid their heads together. They were scarred and lines and gray. Keen with a russian savers foot front was keener than they. An old troop sergeant muttered. Let's go to the man who rides. The things on baklava. The kitties at school recites. They went without bands or colors. A regiment tin foil strong. To look for the masters singer. Who crowned them all in his song. In waiting his servants order. By the garden gate they stayed. A desolate little cluster. The last. Of the light brigade. They strove to stand to attention. To straighten that will bounce back. They drilled on an empty stomach. The loose netfile stealth black. With stooping of weary soldiers in garmin standard and frayed. The shambles into his presence. Glass. Of the light brigade. Field trip sergeant with spokesman he said. Begging your pardon. Sir. You vote of the light brigade. Choose all that isn't dead. And it's all come true what your vote serve regarding the mouth of hell we're all night to the workhouse. Can we talk we call and tell. No thank you we don't want food sir. But could you taken write a sort of to be continued. And see the next page at the fight. We think that someone has blundered. And couldn't you tell him how. You wrote once we were heroes sir. Please write that we are starving now. Poor little army departed. Limping and lean and forlorn. In the heart of the master singer grew hot for the scorn of scorn. And he wrote for them wonderful versus. I swept the land like a flame till the fatted soles of the english for scourged when the thing called shame. Do 30 million english that babble of england's might. Behold. There are 20 heroes. To lock for their food tonight. Our children's children are listing to honor the charge they made. And we leave to the streets in the workhouse. The last. Of the light brigade. Two-and-a-half years ago. I have the honor and privilege. To attend the retirement ceremony of the senior military chaplain of our unitarian universalist faith. Chaplain colonel the reverend vernon chandler. After over 32 years is a military chaplain. What time in bosnia. Kosovo and in iraq. This man of peace chapel chandler was hanging up his uniform. And committing himself full-time to his work as a sexual assault crisis counselor and program director in germany. He's responsible for counseling those. Who are raped in iraq and afghanistan. Vernon chandler and i had met once before briefly when i was a young sergeant at fort bragg north carolina. In fact as far as i can remember he's the first person to ever say the words unitarian-universalism to me. It was an honor for me to be there at his retirement ceremony. To salute him and let him know that even in his absence. There will be others to carry the presents. And saving message of our liberal faith tradition. In the us army chaplaincy. As chaplain george tiger and i were standing in the hot self south carolina sun. We get the band began playing a traditional song. Who's lyrics said. Old soldiers never die. They just fade away. I'm a thinking god i hope not. Vernon has been a friend and mentor for me these last few years i hoping either dies nor fades away at least not anytime soon as i watched vernon walk with that senior officer on an inspection of the troops that were assembled. It struck me how much wishful thinking is built into that phrase it would be so convenient if those that we sent off to war returned home. And just faded away. To be so convenient if those recent off-the-wall returned home and easily re-entered society found nice productive jobs and were able to lock the war-torn experience of their lives neatly away. He would be so convenient. But absolutely nothing about 4 is ever convenient. Including how you come home from it. I believe that we have only begun to see the true cost of the wars in iraq and afghanistan cost not just in dollars for higher taxes a cost not justin lives lost a cost not just in the loss of american prestige and stature around-the-world across not just in families. Temporarily or even permanently separated. But of course that will be measured out for decades. The common the lives of our veterans and indeed in the lives of us all. No matter how convenient it might be for some if our veterans just faded away. They won't. Whether we supported the causes and campaigns that the politicians we elected sent our soldiers on. Are are our sailors on our airmen hannah marines on. Their service demands of all of us that we care for them and their families. As they recover from the trauma. There i said that he'll of war. I know that behind this idealized very hard thought from many of us who are unitarian universalist. It would be so easy for some of us to hold up our hands and say. Not my work. I didn't support it. I didn't vote for the politicians who sent them. Let those who did pay for the care of our veterans. It would be so easy. And it would be wrong. For no matter who issued the orders those soldiers. Thought they were sent to buy. We the people. And we. Are those people. Hit the heart thought i know. I live in a rather liberal area of chicago known as hyde park anybody familiar with it for those of you who have been there you know that it is the home neighborhood of the university of chicago. Of the oriental museum of our nation's top rated documentary theater. And we've got a pretty famous neighbor just down the street. In the president. It is an area where students attend lectures almost every night on global warming. On ending the war. On addressing poverty at home and abroad. Most of those who live in hyde park or students or professors or university staff. Many of them in their late teens and early 20s. Strikes me that that's the same age group that generally joins the military. Although not the same class. A few blocks north. A few blocks south there a few blocks west of highland park and you are deep into the southside of chicago. In the neighborhoods not as economically advantaged or racially integrated its hyde park happens to be. Hyde park is indeed an island of wealth and privilege surrounded by some of the worst urban poverty in the united states of america. Young women and men in those neighborhoods around hyde park often do join the military to escape. Or possibly to earn enough money to attend to state college. About two years ago i was asked by a fellow seminary student to preside over the ceremony b war him into the united states army. As a new chaplain candidate as lieutenant. The place of the ceremony are unitarian universalist seminary. What about five blocks from my apartment. The route it's a route that i've walked countless times as you can probably imagine. On this particular day however. I was walking that rude through the heart of the university of chicago in my us army dress uniform. As i walked across campus i noticed something amazing. People would look up. Fema uniform. With all the metals and airborne wings and shiny little buttons and devices what the reverend barbara peskin cause my tribal markings they would look up and they would see all those things on my uniform and then they would quickly avert their eyes. When i walk across campus in my civilian clothes people meet my gaze and sometimes even say hello it's the nice part of chicago. But not this day. He was almost painfully obvious otherwise would suddenly become locked on my uniform. And then they would suddenly and quickly become fascinated by the sidewalk or the grass or the clowns or whatever book they happened to be carrying at the time. If the compulsion is that strong to avert our eyes from a healthy soldier in uniform. How strong will that compulsion be when it is a veteran crossing campus in a wheelchair having lost an arm. And i. And two legs. How much stronger will our temptation be. To have the veteran. Just fade away. From our vision. Diverting our gaze. The veterans administration is currently reporting that approximately 30% of the soldiers sailors airmen and marines returning from the. Combat actions interesting renames the global war on terror. The 30% of them are reporting mental health problems. 30%. Now in a military culture in which suck it up and drive on is a mantra. I'm willing to bet that there are many more who are suffering from mental illness and spiritual crisis than are ever willing to report it to the va and have it end up on their military records. Because that affects your career. Emotions are affected by that. No one knows how many araki's and afghans have been killed but the number has to be has to be in the hundreds of thousands. If you include combat operations sectarian warfare and disease. 5275 american service members have been killed in the combat operations in iraq and afghanistan. Several of those killed have been my friends. Including captain travis patriquin. A native of lockport illinois. And my roommate. And military partner when we were both privates in the army. In the early 1990s. As disturbing as these numbers are. As deep as the need to care for these families is. These numbers pale in comparison. With another. It's a difficult figure to track. Put some reports have it that over 25,000 american service members have been wounded in iraq and afghanistan permanently. Subtract that number is above 75,000. Many of these have been injured seriously enough to require evacuation from iraq. But lost limbs are severe head trauma. It is wonderful. That due to the miracles of modern medicine. More service members are surviving combat wounds they never have before. But the miracle of their living means that we must care for them. After they have come home. Many of those who would have died. On the field of combat in vietnam are living today. And so many more of them are going to be with us. For the decades to come. I believe however that the crisis we are seeing and how we care for the physical needs of our veterans. Is the leicester. Of our problems. Sentimental and indeed spiritual crisis that we will see. In the lines of our veterans and their families and i believe in the life of this country over the coming decades will be much much more profound. The wars in iraq and afghanistan have brought about a new phenomena. In the in the cycle. Of military. Conflict in warfare. And that is the cycle of repeated deployments. Dr. jeanne douglas a psychologist who was the director of the veterans center in oak park illinois made this complication clear to me one day. Inquire wars when a service member came home. They were home. They were not likely to be sent back. This allowed the person to begin the spiritual work of recovering. From the horrific sights and sounds and smells of 4. They were able to begin the process of reintegrating with society. With their families of forgiving themselves. A forgiving others. And if beginning the long road to finding out what a new normal might feel like again. Today. When a service member comes home. There is no guarantee that they are going to be able to stay home. Far from it. For the first time in living memory service members are spending more time to ploid. Then they are at home. 20 service member returns to their home and family it is likely that around a year later they will be redeployed to a combat zone whether they are active duty national guard or reserve. There's a certain middle my mental mindset that someone needs to survive in combat. The military calls this mindset. Battle mind. It is a hypersensitivity. Inability to change emotional states very quickly. A kind of task oriented focus. It does not translate well. Into the civilian world. The kind of attention to authority that combat requires. Does not relate well to raising children. The kind of task-oriented relationship-building that combat choirs does not make for healthy marriages. The kind of constant awareness of threats that combat requires does not make 4safedrivers on local highways. The kind of swift brutally efficient reaction to threats. The combat requires does not have a place when someone pushes you in a crowded bar here in madison. Not being able to make that switch. From battlemind. Two civilian mind. Is more common and just as profound. As post-traumatic stress disorder. For me. Upon returning home from bosnia. It was about 12 months. Before i quit looking for landmines in the road. Quit yelling out the window at my fellow drivers. Quit driving like i was in nascar and quit getting into fights for no apparent reason. Now imagine. If when i came home. I knew i'd be heading back in 12 months. It took me that long to begin acting and thinking like a civilian again. And my experience of war was light compared to those that have seen the real combat and horus in iraq and afghanistan. Dr. douglas told me that it would be irresponsible for psychologist today to begin the real work of helping our service members to mentally come home. If in the middle of that work when they're at their most vulnerable. We ordered them to put their uniforms back on and send them back into combat. So what they are doing. Is to use a hospice term palliative. They're trying to hold them together. So they can go back. Not solve the problem and trauma is laid upon trauma is laid upon trauma. As traumatic as the effects of repeated deployments are on service members. Imagine the hell they create in the lives of families. In the upbringing of children. Families that barely survived one deployment. Only to have the service member come home and be unable to connect. Unable to break out of that battle mine to the point that they can reform relationships with their children with a partner but their spouse. Often those relationships do not survive the second deployment. The rate of divorce in the military is rising dramatically. In some units upwards of 90%. Along with the rates of suicide. Among service members and their families. I am painting this picture because i want you to understand what i mean when i say that i believe that the national spiritual crisis we're going to encounter in the next 10 years in the wake of these wars will be unlike anything we have ever seen. Whether you know it or not we are all connected by no more than one or two degrees of separation. From someone who has served in iraq. Stan. We see this anxiety in the increase of violent television shows. We see this anxiety in the increase of the wear of camouflage clothing by civilians. In the popularity of huge suvs even in light of gas prices. We are trying sometimes obviously. Sometimes unconsciously to find ways to feel safe. In increasingly unsettled feeling world. Even if we could turn her eyes away from the physically wounded veterans returning from iraq afghanistan and other places. And indeed around the world there is no way that the effects of the spiritually wounded veterans. And their families will just fade away. Effects of this war. I felt so far away. It's on the streets of madison. As well as paducah kentucky and bakersfield california in brownsville texas. And that anxiety has in some ways infect the rest of the world. It was that same anxiety and in some ways to guilt like went along with it. They caused all those students to look away from me. When they saw me crossing campus in my uniform. The only person who spoke to me. What's a construction worker. Who yelled at me. Kmol. I said i'm a chaplain she said sorry father. And even with all of this. I still. Believe there is hope. There is always hope because try as we might to ruin it. This world still abounds but compassion. This world still abounds with good people with good hearts who have learned to love. Not romantic love that happens. But the kind of love that is meant by the word agape. It still exists within the relationships that we build as human beings. It is the kind of love we speak of in our covenant. Has a spirit of the churches of liberal faith in this movement. It is that kind of love but calls us calls us not to look away. No matter what their relationship to you no matter what you might think of whatever war they fought in. To look in their eyes and say. Welcome home. Even if you can't say thank you. I have been on both sides of that kind of greeting. Both giving and receiving and involve my heart swelled and tears came to my eyes. Has two people connected on a level not as anxiety and fear. But of love and hope. It is the kind of love that lets them talk with their preconceptions down and let us listen with our preconceptions down and truly learn from each other's experience. Cuz we actually listen. To our veterans. Those who have been to war. Have so much to teach us about peace. I am also giving hope by the way that soldiers reacted. During the recent shooting over 40 servicemembers and military civilians at fort hood in texas last thursday. Would you not know why major nidal malik hasan chose to open the fire. Had a soldier readiness center but i suspect that years of listening to the stories of soldiers struggling with their own combat stress. Had something to do with it. Who am i hope comes from is how the soldiers responded in the aftermath of that shooting. They ripped off their uniforms and they began emergency medical treatment. Using their shirts and jackets to make bandages for the wounded. Others took the closing doors and securing the buildings around the shooting. Some even gave and i have can't think of a better example of an errant worth and dignity than this some even gave medical help and assistance to the shooter. And i saved his life as well. Now they are coming together as a community caring for one another supporting one another. Among those soldiers providing support to the fort hood community. Is chaplain captain the reverend george tiger. The fellow unitarian-universalist who is with me. Had chaplin vernon chandler's retirement ceremony. Directions of things that we. As a liberal faith can do. And that we should do. Prepare for this coming spiritual crisis. We are called to redefine once again our movement in light of our commitment to be welcoming. Our commitment to a kind of radical hospitality. Are we l movement has learned to be welcoming before. When we opened our movement and our ministry to those who are gay. Lesbian bisexual and transgender. Mini thought doing so was a dangerous idea because it meant that. What it meant to be a unitarian universalist at the time. Food change. And they were right. We did change. We are different movement today. Then we were when glbt ministers fought their way into our ministry. And when we joined to welcome. Gay lesbian bisexual and transgender persons into our congregations. And i believe the because they have joined us it has made us a deeper richer and better movement. Then we were before. In the coming spiritual crisis i believe that we unitarian-universalist must learn to be welcoming all over again. I believe that we must learn to listen to our veterans. Not just from iraq and afghanistan but from all wars. Because i guarantee you there are veterans in our churches. From fort worth from vietnam many of them silent. About that military passed. I believe we need to empower the veterans who have already fought their way into our congregations. To tell us their stories. So that we can learn from them. I believe we need to empower these you veterans to their own ministries of outreach. Among the veterans coming home from our current state of force and from the wars that are sure to come in the future though i pray they don't. 3 chance of them with our message. As liberal faith. A compassion. Of the inherent worth and dignity of every person. But also with listening ears. And open hearts. To listen without our own preconceptions about war. To those veterans tell allow their stories. Their wisdom. To teach us. How we can better create peace. Doing so. Will change us. As a religious movement. But without the kind of change that comes from adding new experiences to who we are. We cease to be a religious movement. Can we become a religious stagnant. The church where i served as the interim minister the unitarian church of evanston has already begun this kind of welcoming ministry and is i believe in example congregation to the rest of our religious movement. By supporting the great lakes military ministry project which is our outreach to the sailors of the great lakes naval station. They're helping young native roots know are saving message of hope. Of interconnection. Enough. Inherent human worth. At the beginning of their time in the military. Before they've gone to combat. To know that message i only found it after. Congregations in san diego and norfolk virginia have begun their own outreach programs to service members and veterans and the church of the larger fellowship is developing currently a workshop. To prepare congregations for this work of welcoming. The unitarian universalist church of birmingham alabama will be the first church to go through this program. Next weekend. Add to this that the ua will be publishing soon our first book of meditations. For service members since wwii. In the next few months. This has come about through donations from around the association. Of over $25,000 and ten thousand copies. Will be distributed free of charge to the military through our military chaplains. This congregation here. I believe has also. Began that path. But i challenge you. To think. How you can be more welcoming of military service members and families in the madison area. For as our congregations begin building these welcoming bridges. To physically and spiritually wounded veterans and their families. Our movements military chaplains will do the same work with service members before they leave the surface. Spreading a gospel of hope. Of universal love of human dignity. And most importantly. With the idea that we can all find personally transforming power. By being part of a beloved community. Somatic who you are. For what you have done. For what you carry. Our faith says that you still have inherent worth. You are still interconnected with all. And it's you can become more than you were before. If there's a better treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder i don't know what it is. Did we are all as chaplain george tiger has says hesed. We are all perfectly imperfect. It is my hope that when time comes for chaplain cynthia kane. Chaplain rebecca montgomery. Chaplain george tiger. Kaplan kalani casella. Chaplain candidates such as myself. Shannon holland and the other nine chaplain candidates of our denomination currently. Play when we. When the time comes for us to take off our uniforms. The religious movement of unitarian universalism will welcome us. Has veterans. Pamela waze to find healing and hope in this. Our beloved community. As our beloved community will have by then. Turn to do the same for all of the veterans. Who walk through our doors. So maybe. Blessed be. An amen. And david is going to. Do are closing words. Agatha christie one said that. One is left with the horrible feeling. Said war settles nothing. Set to win a war is that as disastrous. Has to lose one. I said to go forth from this place dedicated to the ideal of radical hospitality. An ideal not of seeking equality. Foot of a willingness to be humble enough to put aside your preconceptions. And truly meet others by being in service. To them. And with that ideal. Plus the world. Go forth in peace. Creating peace amen.

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Pr130310MaggieFelker-ed.mp3

Thank you marsha that was beautiful and open-minded congregation we welcome people of every ethnic and religious background whatever your color sexual orientation gender or family structure we welcome you no matter what your age or your abilities or inabilities later in the service we will invite visitors guests and returning friends to yourself if you like so we may get to know you better on sunday mornings we provide a wide variety of services. And now for the chalice lighting now the rain has gone to roost in the sky is turning gold and like the sky my soul is also turning turning from the past at last and all i've left behind. Today we have maggie felker to speak maggie and i both live on bittersweet place in the crestwood neighborhood and one of our neighbors name is tom berry two months ago found at the age of 52 found out he had spread to his brain and tom is a guy who is. It's so touching. When people care about what happens to other people. And to what's happening. With our. Adopted kids in ecuador. One thing that has one moment in one movie that i heard locked you know when probably in the 80s. Which one the movie gandhi and there was a moment in that movie when a man came up to gandhi and and said. My life is shattered the muslims have killed my only son how can i ever ever. Rebuild my life and auntie said there's only one way you have to find a muslim boy who's lost his parents and you have to raise that boy as a muslim and then you will find peace and at the time this was long before my son disappeared and. What what up what a bitter pill. How could that work but gandhi was right and that that little seed of a story has stayed with me. And it's true it's true the goodness of it works so briefly recapping our sun travel to ecuador exchange student in 2002. And at the end of his time there it has been his dream to travel alone and he had been a world traveler he had been with rotary and hungry and you've been with af-s in ghana and he really felt that he could do this and he was twenty and we had no idea the safety problems in in traveling not. In such a beautiful but such a mountainous and wild. Places some places in ecuador are so when he didn't get off the plane in august of 2002. I went there and i joined with the police and search for him we found his clothing or his his little bag that he traveled with but we never found him what we found what i found was a whole new world at one point i slept in the same bedroom as a fifteen-year-old made and she talked with me about her life and i talked with the police. And at that time we stayed in keto at this place that i've been told about by a friend and called the central them which i thought i had or the working voice center and my husband. God calling. At that time and he said we should go there and we should volunteer there. And. At that time he didn't speak spanish. And yours if it's a jesuit mission and so you're supposed to have a call from jesus in order to go there. And he's not a fierce. That's why i said why you don't speak spanish in. Do you think you have a cough and she said he was really. I never said anything again he was so crestfallen and you so wanted to do this and i thought and what he said to me as i have coughing david. And table sarsa. So i thought well i guess. I guess i'll. Get on. Coattails of this calling. Ankle. So we went in 2004 but i had a small stroke and we have to come home and in november. So i thought well that's that you know i've try. But my husband kept getting called back. So in the winter of 2005 he he went down and he had kept going back and forth and in the winter of 2005 he said well you know i'm going to go down this one time and then maybe this will maybe i can just kind of get closure and. Finish it except you know but you know that's that's good christmas time he called me. An aside. Something's happened. And i thought he had had. Once. With the student that he'd had in 2004 we had to leave the center because she become pregnant. And. Hee-hee i could just tell the electricity was over the phone. That. He knew that he need to stay there and support her and that he could really make a difference for her and that's our girl sofia. This is beautiful sofia. Who was 17 and pregnant in december of 2005. So she's still our girl she now has three tips at the age of 25 and she's a fighter. So sofia is really the young woman who threw home mike's s strong call came. And he said. You know we did we have to go back. Saw. You know we rented our house but the second time and we went back in 2007 and we stayed three years there at the center. It's a place that. You can visit if you want the working boys center in quito. Iso center which really has a beautiful beautiful model of lifting people out of poverty my husband fight this time was fluent in spanish. And he could he taught middle school math to the girls there. Almost there. Working boys center also has sisters. There's a lot of girls there and that's a family of families. So we taught us all that. And you know we live there and work there for 3 years. And as this. Time in ecuador as we spent this time in ecuador mike especially. Would notice and work with girl students because of the way that the boys in middle school at that time had to go out and work during the day and then they would go to school at night so during the day he mainly tot girls and he noticed how there was some girls who they would be on their way to harvard but because they were from where they were they were choosing either technical school they were choosing beauty school professional sewing or sales or bakery. Those with their choices and he just by working with individuals he first worked with gabriella he then went better annika one by one by one by kids who he could not. Leave. And he could not stop until they had opportunities. So gabriella in 2004 even though we were there for just three months. And. She came to him with the idea and her sisters gabriella has an older sister who's a nurse and i have a nurse it's so we had. I'm had that connection and. Her sister said to mike we have to find a way for gabriella to be able to go to college and. So that was like that was the see you know. That was sewn mike has some of his colic bikes are retired philosophy professor here. And so they each contributed $200 a year and gabriella got started in the university and from there we now have 10. Students and. So just last summer we got our nonprofit status working through shall stand prophet law which is a great group. Ever you want to start a nonprofit and so now we're 0fficial. And. Mike is coming home tomorrow he's been in ecuador since christmas they were both there at christmas time and i'm this is this is our family and these are the children were raised and it works and we had 49 children so it's our life and. I thought we would spend the rest of the time we have. It is my time keeper. I have in this little yogurt container the names of six of our students whose stories are so compelling so i thought i would let you guys pick a name and i'll tell a story and we'll see how many stories we get to in the time. Sophia. So we've already. Soldier sophia's picture she's an absolutely beautiful and charismatic and smart young woman but as i began her story she's the one. She's the one who. Throw home the second call came. And. So she was. Sophia at the age of. 13 just want to seven kids her family was a farming family outside of quito and her mother is a native keechelus speaker. An indigenous. Woman. And she got very ill i think she probably had a form of cancer. And they had to sell all their cows all their land. And move to quito. 2 in order for her to get treatments in order to pay for treatment. And she did recover. But the the expenses. Pretty much wiped the family out. Ansel sophia. Lived with. I think three or four of your brothers and sisters and her dad on the streets of quito. They. Babe kind of settled under. Awesome stairs. Somebody gave them a cooking. Igrill. And they said many people if you ever go to quito. Many people are begging on the streets. And begging in the buses or selling more selling little candies or selling. Bubbles. With a barney figure out if they're selling or ice cream or whatever they can sell they'll sell this there's a popsicle. Franchise. People sell popsicles for $0.04 profit of $0.04 so you can imagine how many popsicles you have to sell to get any money but that's what grown-ups do there. They sell so the kids sold everybody's tahoe and they tried to keep themselves together until they found the central the working voice center. Where are we work which is a fantastic group almost 50 years under the same jesuit priests and blessed virgin mary sister so it's quite the group. But they provide three meals a day and they provide free. And i do mean free education the public schools are are. Certainly. I'm in the public schools are the public schools but they and they don't charge tuition but you know you have to get a uniform and you have to get books again. And so. Really poor families can't afford to send their kids to public schools. So this school is like absolutely free and you get free meals. And it's a based on personal formation to so the parents have to and they have to take showers everyday. Which is a big. Revelation does it people so anyway. They told me that that central and sofia had lost a lot of time i'll just. Out of school so she was like 13 or 14 and. In 7th grade. When mike first met her in 2004 when he was there for a short time but then we when we kind of reconnected with her a seventeen-year-old who finds herself pregnant. You know there's a guy behind that and cute people. Who are. In the poverty that is in ecuador and keith thought he is a very very troubled man we met him and she tried to be with him and so she had little margery in 2006. And you know what she tried to keep her family intact and she had a civil marriage with rodrigo. And. You know in the end that may had little allison in 2008. But one day marjorie who was five and probably 4 years old. Came and told her grandmother blanca my daddy shut my mom. At her nose flat and it turns out that there was there was abuse going on there was physical abuse in there was also emotional abuse rodrigo with tell sophia you'll never amount to anything and and whatever support you get from maggie and mike they won't they won't stay with you there's no reason even for you to study anymore you'll never amount to anything so. Someday offer really good quality of life for her kids so we committed to having her go back to school and she had to go back to high school. She had to start over at the age of 22. App to. Find and there's plenty of. You know adult high school because there's plenty of people who need them. So. It was a big step for her at the age of 22 to go back to high school but she did cuz she really really wants at that time she really wanted to be a professional beautician. She is really wanted to do that. And she's got the personality that she could. Be anything because she's so adorable in spanish really takes people in. In order to go to the very best school she had to finish high school and that would take 3 years so she committed herself to doing that and lo and behold. A year ago. But eighteen months ago i was on the phone with her and mike was in keith's though cuz he spends half his time there. And she said i a margarita. I have i have something to tell you i haven't even told my. That's okay you know what is it. And lo and behold she was pregnant again. I'm by the same. One could say a ne'er-do-well. Person he is he is not supported the kids and. He continues to discourage her advancement in in anyway. He has a whole other story so i don't mean to be judging him because. People have such incredibly hard. Situations to cope with that it's hard for them to make that. Change and i i get that but. Wow your sister and she thought 103 kids but. A year ago in april on april 13th. Jonathan davis. West point. And so we have a little david now and of course we loved him and she has been so brave you know she she gave birth. And i think two days later she was expected to be back in class and to do a full-time practicum. So her grandma or her mom the baby is grandma you know took you in 11 more grandchild and they live with the with the grandparents she has a room for herself and her three kids in this. Pretty good houston. Her parents managed to to rent. Which has place for some crops out front and her mother is the grandma or the blancos happy as long as she can plant a few things since really really are a farmer at heart. So-so. By this time her kids are like mike and i are the godparents of her oldest child marjorie and rachel our daughter is the godmother of her second child. And. A good friend was also a volunteer at the center is the god father of her third child so this is like you do it there really. So special to us and we support her. I'm at a. Rate of $400 a month. Because we sent her kids to private school cuz we took. Want to do that built a little school.. Call pesos me amiga jesus by france and their event jellicles and it means the world to us and her to know that her kids are. Nurtured. The way we want them to be nurtured so we end we want her to be able to be the mother she can be she's a fantastic mother and now it's thinking about she's weighing she's actually going to graduate high school. How to triumph if you can imagine being in high school at age 22 to 25 and giving birth to a child and raising the two other children and being a good mother she is such a creative and loving mother to these kids. And one thing we've done is if we bought those kids books from the time march we was actually the oldest and when she was months old we started buying books and they love books and i love puzzles. And they really are. Confident little girls and loving little girls and that little boy they call him david a lot of times. Kids are often called by their second names in ecuador i think more often than here so so she is one of our little david's our daughter actually gave us a second little david. Bad sofia story she's going to graduate and she's thinking swinging and we are going to support her for two or three more years we wanted we have her established. And so she is. Working at. And weave. One of the things that's important for all our girls in the sophia really. Helps us to illustrate is that here in madison and column wrap around services. Social service agency this if they try to help someone. Realizing more and more that you can't just say okay here's money for your scholarship or hears this. You got to pay attention to the whole family if the end and two alternates because anything if you're a person in poverty anything can throw you off course. I'm if you have an illness if your child has an illness if you have a dental problem if you have a vision problem. If anybody in your family has any of his problem you might have to quit your schooling and work so we are we try to be attentive giving them giving everybody a supply of ibuprofen which is too expensive there so if anybody has aches or pains. Children's tylenol thermometers. Whatever it takes we threw davis educational opportunity fund are committed whatever it takes. And whatever family thing occurs we're going to address it so they can so they can become graduate. So she's just weighing between. Beauty getting a professional beauty license and maybe doing childcare i getting a childcare license cuz she is such a good mother and. Throughout i think through our messages. She actually knows that. So that's sofia story. Gabriella. This is our gabriella. And again at her story has been alluded to. She probably she is. Blast. With a really really good family. What are the things that to things about gabriella who is going to graduate in as an environmental engineer. This summer. Ye forgot her parents are wonderful her dad's. Date we have kept in touch with them cuz they own or they rent space and they owned a little restaurant for a while and we would go there like every saturday morning and eat with them cuz it was in walking distance. Of the center. And one of the stories about gabriella's mother. Which i think shows what a relief it is for this girl to be graduating. An environmental engineering her mother's a wonderful woman wonderful cook. And she had us over she knows that one of the things i like about ecuador is the dish called sleep bother. Which is. Pork dish. Prepared with certain spices. So she wanted to have a silver 401k and we come in there and it looks really good. She said yeah she said. Yesterday. I wish so much there was a man around cuz i had to kill the pig. They're watching. They were all gone so i got some neighbor lady. Emily kill the pig. You know i mean if you think of like even catching a pig. And then when you fix all the steps of like. Getting from a pig to frittata. But you said we did it. So that's the kind of skills. And perseverance and strength. That she inherits from her mother. Any other now there's many many sweet things memories of gabrielle i have but the other thing 11 times during the time we were down there. They wanted to celebrate my birthday. And so i came to the restaurant and only decorations were two blue balloons. And gabriella said. We have these two blue balloons. Because they reminded us of your blue. And blue eyes are pretty unusual and everybody would a lot of times comments on my blue eyes but they decorated with two blue balloons. So they're a family that really knows how to give. As well as how to graciously. Except. What we have. You know support at gabriella and she's a very very bright woman. The first. One of the first times i met her to mike she was a student of mike's in 2004 and then she came back she wanted to be tutored by him when she found out that he was. Back in 2007. She came every tuesday and thursday at like 7:30 in the morning so she could work with her math. With my cuz she loves math and she's very talented in it and the first time i spend any time with her and mike and she were talking about math. I thought wow when she talks about math it's like some other girl some other teenage girl might talk about their boyfriend. She loves math. And she lost talking about math. Add. I also went to the jungle with her sister who was sent way out after graduating nursing school her sister and everybody who graduates in nursing or dutch or medical school or dental school there's a one year of service expected of them and i went with her sister just for a few days to an outpost and tramp through the jungle on a vaccination. So now gabby i was graduating and she's really interested in wastewater management. And there is no wastewater management in ecuador except into. Cities so ketosis huge i mean it's millions no wastewater treatment so. The technology for wastewater treatment is. And delimitation send budget so where's i'm really excited about having a graduate in wastewater treatment. And she's becoming more and more interested in this going to read your thesis i believe. So what do you know. Well the birth control. Question is really an interesting one in ecuador. It's really not so much people say all you know the catholic church. Opera. Really ecuadorian society in general is a society with a lot of rules but nobody follows them so. So it's not like they're going to say all the catholic church says they'll sweep then we won't use birth control. But it's a very very there's a lot of munchies small a lot of machismo. And the indigenous not to bike blaming indigenous over the catholic church cuz i'm complicated but there's also an indigenous tran. A culture which really does expect the woman to be available to the man. There is there is slime in there is. You know there is that much that is part of the culture and i think most. Indigenous women and. Non-indigenous ecuadorians would say yes you know there's so much he's small. Yeah there's i mean it's. I certainly have some stories about that birth control. People have a lot of mixed feelings about birth control even like women themselves who had six children they usually it seems like there's a tendency to wait. Until you've had one more than you can and then go with a tubal ligation as far as rather than really planning this is very complicated issue and there's no one factor but. It but when we take new young people gabriela herself. Buffet she's a leader now. But you can't expect to be. Father or a mother and a student. So. That's an expectation. Veronica is our other. Resmed only another woman who surprised us with her pregnancy and unfortunately she was in early childhood education and she didn't miss a beat you know she she used her experiences of being a mother and she continued her education and is graduating in early childhood education. Veronica is graduating with a very propitious time in early childhood education because the laws of ecuador are are changing to require that preschools. Have professionally trained staff rather than just like. You know whoever applies for the job. And i've been very very lacks i think in that regard but now they're starting to require that people have credentials and so she's graduating with the right credentials at the time they're being required. And. You know that's what we think that she will really be very employable we have that expectation with. There's also a lot of environmental awareness in ecuador ecuador. Gorgeous country with no wastewater treatment you know. And. There's an a growing awareness that they have just. Incredible. Resources. And so we're hoping we'll see you know but she's graduating and and it's someone else already talked with her through her church actually. About being involved in a project for wastewater. So we're hopeful. Yeah it is a really complex issue and we're learning about it. Where. You could say 4 years or 5 years into this. I'm through the great. Variety. Authenticate higher education opportunities. Available. I would say none no college. In ecuador. Provide the quality of colleges here. We were just now beginning to deal with the public standard university is called the only betsy that's inside or central university. It's incredibly inexpensive it's like $35 a semester. But it's. Sheriff. Run. Our girl jenny. Here's johnny. She was born to be a veterinarian. And she's. It's just. Totally loves animals and adopts street animal. Of which there are a lot in keto. So she finally got through all the rigmarole that she needed to do to be accepted. And she's failed to of her courses because like. 90% of the kids in that anatomy course failed it. Because that's and it's very typical. They have large number of people fail because the requirements such as. Crazy she was graded on these. Cast where she have to run around 2:10 different stations in 10 minutes and identify muscles that were hardly even. Indicated. So and really it was. And only 5% of kids who start veterinary school graduate. So it's it's horribly they don't really seem to care whether you succeed or not i'm it's a very brutal system in this nfl the two of our girls bb ella and veronica have gone to the salesian university it's run by a group of. Italian they're not all the talion but the. The order of solutions is a catholic group originating in italy and their compassionate the courses aren't. I would say at the quality that you get in in a university here college here. But. You know they've not been horribly treated they've been pretty well treated and they they going sequence of courses that's going to result in their graduation. Yes. Still there so high dropout rate i think gabriella's beginning course had about 45 and it's down to 12. But people drop out for variety reasons pregnancies. Family situations they just can't afford the tuition anymore. I'm or they they fail the course is so. It's it's really. You know. It's it's not like. Of course you couldn't support 10 people going to college here unless you were. In a really really the miller family milwaukee or something. With the help of you know people who contribute we can support. 10 students at various levels you could never do that you know supporting people in american college so tuition now is up to about $1,000. Ennis elysian university. $1,000 a semester hovering around 700 but it's going up. So you know it's. That's doable and we've had good luck with the solution. And we have a boy now richard who's now going to the. The school that was only open actually for children of the military up until recently. I'm so he's going to a very prestigious school and its. It's very low-cost but again it's crazy run you know so. Thank you so much. Offer closing words. And in the end. The love you take. Is equal to. The love you make paul mccartney.

uuprairie_org

Pr040222Haq-ed.mp3

I programmed this morning will be by cindy hakan but help the women and children in afghanistan. And the money spent with a little bit of background and maybe a couple of questions as to why is this of interest to prairie i was thinking a little bit about the bond of union and the idea of interconnectedness and i think that there's nothing that for me illustrate the importance of interconnectedness more than situation in afghanistan and actually just a few years ago many americans would have said. Vadim calls me and says you want to go to kabul i said well i don't know you know what would this mean and of course i'd love to but i need to know more about what are the possibilities and basically about a year of phone calls and emails and kind of round-about happened in initially it was a request from the united states government to say there's a crisis in afghanistan united states and so we're looking for volunteers and donations and what might you send in perhaps the university could go through the library and find old books to send along and. And so. So when i got the call and i heard the government was trying to help starting health in and of course this is in the context of a war having having happened and the taliban being driven out of power i felt now there's really an opportunity to help and actually do something substantive that wasn't really what i was hearing from the government in terms of donating old library books. And so make a long story short that brought us to the point in which dr. doug lauby who's the chairman of obstetrics and gynecology and i went to washington last summer to meet with the director of health and human services because what was rising to the very top was it concerned by our government and the afghan interim government that maternal mortality that is women dying in childbirth in afghanistan is indeed higher now than has ever been recorded anywhere in history of the world and this crisis in terms of maternal mortality nearly one in 12 women dying in childbirth was considered a shame by the afghan government to see if something could be done. Around on what we've learned in terms of fertility and contraception is that. Families are more likely to have children when there's a high child mortality rate when they know a lot of children are dying they're more likely to want to have more children to replace those that are dying and if this is a very complex dynamic but simply making contraception available is not enough if contraception is linked to opportunities for education for employment for improved child survival of the children you already have then it's much more likely to be affected so looking at. Let me just say that islam does not prohibit contraception i think islam has been very much misunderstood and used as a tool of oppression but very much distorted and so that's not that's not the problem poppy is a big issue in fact 50% of the gnp of afghanistan is linked to poppy production and the folks at the ministry of education and economic state right now we we need the money and ashley what they have to do is find ways to develop alternatives to pop.

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Pr120610CJohnson-ed.mp3

Good morning and welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society i'm mary mullen member of the program committee. Prayers fires to be both an open-minded and open-hearted congregation and we welcome people of every ethnic and religious background whatever your color. Your sexual orientation or gender or family structure. And we welcome you no matter what your age is. Your abilities. Or your inability. Later in the service will invite visitors guests and returning friends to introduce yourself so that we might get to know you better. On sunday mornings we provide a large variety of services. They're presented either by a prairie member. A member of the wider community as his true today. Or when we get a minister will have some minister presentations as well and i understand that. That maybe we're in the interview stage now on that. Today. Chris johnson who was a colleague of mine when i was a teacher. I will be presenting a program call. A mediation. African bullying remediation. I'd like to introduce christine johnson to you formally. She was a teacher and a guidance counselor at brooklyn elementary school brooklyn wisconsin where i was a fourth-grade teacher for. 13 years. We figured out that she retired about four years or so before i did. She taught second grade for 15 years has she told the kids. Adventure return to school for a second master's degree in guidance and counseling and that's how i knew her because she was always a guidance counselor when i know her. And besides introducing the peer mediation program which is going to be talking about today. She visited classrooms monthly to teach guidance lessons and because she came to my classroom i got all those guidance lessons as well and they were always interesting and fun. And besides that she facilitated small support groups for students. In drug or alcoholic homes and on subjects such as anger management grieving. Self-esteem friendship. Divorce. Stretch sand add adhd. And then she did individual counseling as well. Anda. I can tell you of examples where kids would come i can just have to tell you this story how. I had a bunch of girls in fourth grade it was getting toward the end of the year and you know how girls get sometimes at that time they all want to be the best friend of one girl. And the best friend and then but sometimes they change to another best friend and you know this causes all kinds of problems and. A bunch of my girl students came in for the end-of-the-year from recess at noon they said. They'd all been fighting with each other we have to go see. Mrs. johnson about this so sometimes you know when these kids will keep doing this time after time i say. We can't have you gone from the classroom all the time that's because you want to fight at noon just come on in and do your work and if you want to see her another time you do during their recess go ahead and do so. Parenting classes. Antsy. Co-sponsors support group sessions for parents of kids with adhd. And then since retirement she's gone on to a different career political career and she's a supervisor on the oregon town board. So christine johnson. Very when i hear all that i was a busy woman. One thing i didn't mention that i would like to even mention before i start. Several years ago the school psychologist into special ed teachers and i co-authored a little booklet called reading and growing. And the whole point was when you have a child. Before you have a child born you have expectations what's a child's going to look like and what does child's going to do. And then this child is born with some special needs. And you have to adjust will stream. And are we attended a couple of conferences in chicago on night the name of the man. World-renowned i could lick escapes me right now but. Learned lots and lots of different techniques to help parents to adjust those dreams and. We published a little booklet and i use that within our district. And then in. I should think the late 80s early 90s. I was invited to go on a people-to-people convention. To spain. To do a presentation and on the reading and growing booklet. And after that i also ordered a an article for a counseling newsletter that happened to go to all the army bases all over the world and it was amazing how many counselors requested a copy of that booklet so. I'm really proud of that and i forgot to tell mary about that because that was really that was really something. Thank you for inviting me i have to admit i was a bit nervous and take him back when mary asked me. Been a long time since we've done for mediation. An interview that watch british television and watch pororo. The british little belgium detective no i had to use a few gray cells to do this today so she is she's a unique teacher and i found a lot in common with her. She not only took a lot of pride in her students achieving in their fourth grade curriculum but she also took a lot of pride and teaching life skills. And i found that was a common grounds for me and so that's how we entered into the land of peer mediation. I also enjoy writing i talk creative writing as a second grade teacher. For many summers at tata creative writing class during the summer. And about 3 years ago i joined a writing group. Which i am the youngest member. And so i thought for today my format could be one technique that uses helps writer sometimes and that's using these six words. Who. What. Where. Why. How. So that's how i'm going to do this today. Going to start with what. What means definition. First of all consulate. A conflict is a disagreement often times very strong feelings and opinions. And people receive their needs are being met. If you need their being that you really don't have a conflict. A diffusion is a person that's involved in it. Number three is a peer which we all know would be an equal and in our case it was his students of about the same age. The fourth one is a mediator or mediator is a person that facilitates the process of sitting down working through a conflict. Helping them to listen and work together to come to the solution. The mediation is the process for the ashley missy agreement in an ar cases a written contract at the end. Therefore remediation program is where mary and i were to train students to be mediators to help settle disputes between students. It's a very positive and it's a very powerful and peaceful way to resolve conflicts. Now to the why why you even bothered to do this. Was marilu to. The conflicts everywhere years in school and in life in general. I certainly know that now in wisconsin. At school conflicts occur in classrooms hall playground bus excetera can be bullying can be friendship issues it can be even siblings that bring their problems to school and buy tissues. Conflicts except affect your self-esteem. Affects your learning. Your social interaction. And your overall well-being. If you've ever had. Even an inner conflict you know how you reacted work you know how you act with your spouse you how you how you react with your partner's you know how you react with your children. It is difficult. At the dog trainers we thought we wanted to teach the children lifelong problem-solving skills. Appear mediation allow students to resolve conflict without an adult. Ormus already figures available. This was important because not always going to have someone jump in and solve the problem for him. As mary alluded to when they went like to come in and see me sometimes i would say alright let's sit down to see how you can work this out. Instead of saying this is what you need to do. That doesn't stick to anytime that doesn't teach any type of skills. I feel the process helps the students to take responsibility and ownership for their actions and as we go through the process i think you'll hear. But they have to actually verbally say. And take ownership to what they're part of the conflict was. The peer mediation awesome help him with the problems. he's done his skills as they mentioned but it also helped the mediator remember these are peers or these other three kids with the same age. I think you'll understand it more when i talk about the win. In 1993 the dpi give the oregon school district to grant. 2 train. Peer mediate to take adults taking a mediation training. In order to train students. Mary mullen is a fourth-grade teacher tom hanks was a fifth-grade teacher and i was in elementary counselor where the adults in the brooklyn elementary school that took the training. Now onto the food. The next step. What you have to sell the program. We had to inform and educate our teaching staff as to the peer mediation program. What to keep in mind this is very new typically if there's a playground problem my bus problem. And a dog does step in and take care of it this is going to be totally different this is going to be helping teachers to understand. Kids for going to do this. We asked the teachers in 4th and 5th grade to nominate three or four students and their size to be mediators. A mediator does not solve a problem. Keep that in mind. They facilitate the process so that the students can come up with an agreement to resolve it themself. The students that they recommended for good listeners. Students a cell could remain neutral. Do they sell that were willing and able to miss classroom instruction. Or recess or lunch hour time in order to mediate session. And then mary and tom and i took two days to substitute teachers in our classroom to train the students. Then we had to go into the fourth and fifth grade classroom so the teachers understood and the rest of the students don't understand how depressed i've worked. Is that a professional student had to fill out a mediation request form. And then the adult tom merrier i would set up a time and a place with mediation. These were usually done during recess or over the lease lunch hour. And it could either be in an empty classroom or in my classroom guidance area. This takes care of the where in the wynn. Part of our plan. Now if you want to refer to the peer mediation sheet i think you had on your seat. I think it would help you to understand the process. The first step is a mediator must first arrange the chairs. Now this might seem silly to you. But remember these two students are in a conflict they don't want to look at each other. So you arranged the chairs and a triangle with both of us being facing the mediator. The second step is you can see is the mediator for the introduce himself welcome the disputants to the session and ask them their names. Then the mediator has to explain their role. Remember they don't take size the artist judge they have to remain neutral and they don't give suggestion. Mediator is simply there to help them to talk together and try and solve the problem. Next to mediator goes over the ground rules. And these are red orally. Both dispute must agree to the ground rule or the session is over. I think you can understand why. If you don't both agree to the rules of the game you can play. The rules included that first of all they had to both agree to be there. If one of them simply decided okay i decided i don't want to do this just over with the can't be a mediation. They have to agree to actively listen to each other and i think you should see if we go through the sheetz that's quite a process. And i think mary and i and tom learned a lot about active listening as we went through our training that there is a certain way to listen actively. They had to agree tonight and rocked. They had to be honest and truthful about it. He couldn't use any foot down. And they had to work toward a solution. Is the mediation process is confidential they also had to agree that they wouldn't talk about it outside of that. They could tell people yes we solve the problem. But they were not too sure how. And if i remember correctly we may have allowed only a certain amount of time and this would keep his from rambling on and on and on. The mediator then asked the student that requested mediation to tell their side of the story. I know she that's number six the first person tells their point of view similar to what i did with the red hand this morning different point of view. Including feelings. Oh that's critical. If you think about a conflict you've had your feelings involved. You need to let the other person know how you felt. And in my classroom guidance and in my small group one thing i really after sizes using what we call imessages. I feel angry. Because you took my seat on the bus. Instead of saying you made me angry. I think you could see the difference i'm taking ownership to that i'm taking ownership to those feelings if i say you took my seat you made me angry when you took my seat in the bus. I'm putting blame on to you. Once again take ownership for it. Number seven repeat what the first day as a mediator you would repeat but the first person said and make sure it's correct including the feeling so as a meteor i would say. Johnny feels angry because you took his seat on the bus. Can you get the second person point of view that person's called the respondent. Once again the mediator repeat what that person said. Including the feelings which is very important. And then they asked the second disputant. Tell me what he said. I think you can see here they're hearing it over and over again. So that everybody's understanding exactly what the conflict is. What the feelings are involved. And hopefully what we're hoping through their minds is how can we fix this. It's important that the mediator keeping neutral. The mediator be neutral and keep them on task. Except 13. At number 11 after the first second person says that the first person says and it's understood they switch and do the same. And then step 13 the mediator has to summarize. So i think you can see that the life skills are was talking about in the active listening isn't just for the disputes the mediators very involved here. Mediator with summarizing issue and then has to diffuse to brainstorm ideas and how to resolve the conflict. Sometimes it came up with water solutions and sometimes didn't come up with any. Remembered as a mediator cannot suggest solutions however. What i found sometimes that they were able to assist i just reviewing some of the key points of the dispute. Sometimes the tearing again well this was he took the seat of the bus because of this and this and this sometimes that maybe generate some ideas what they could come up with a solution. Or a compromise. What is a mutually agreed-upon solution that's fair. And meets the needs of all people now that's really important because if i was coming into an erp remediation. And i walk out of there feeling like. I don't feel any better about this. He got all of whatever. I didn't get a thing out of this. It's not going to be resolved it has to be fair. Then a contract is written up. And signed. Now a contract is a piece of paper yes however. You and i know for the contract to be binding. For elementary students this was pretty important to them. And they would sign a contract with the agreement spelled out. And they were filed in the guidance office and oftentimes i would have a dispute in there to command and will look at it again. Just to make sure the other person holding up there and get the bargain. We would often have the mediators to greece with one of the adult we did this because we wanted to think and went to make sure the process is working. A number to the viable solution was found. Now you might want to ask what was the outcome of all this cuz we invested a lot of time and a lot of years into this. Well it was pretty successful for a while started in 1993. And ended 1998. Student mediators attended the conference in 1997 and i found a newspaper article that some that conference and if you bear with me i'd like to read a couple of quotes from there. These were made by our brooklyn student forgotten about this. Everyone went up to madison. Quote we all attended the opening session of the peer mediation conference with laura clark. She taught me and all of us about how and how not to judge people by the way they dress or the way they usually are. For example one of the character she portrayed was an a+ student. Everyone thought she was very sweet and shy. It came to the school talent show and she made a song with her sister. It was very loud and very rock and roll. Another student reported on attending the session on cooperation. We learned how to cooperate and communicate playing a partner playing with a partner tying a shoe. With one of each person's hand. You have to cooperate and communicate in order to solve conflicts if you didn't cooperate you didn't get anything done. And a quote. My personal feeling is that the program was successful for several reasons. The number one reason is i think we were able to teach many students over the years the life skills are some problem solving. East guilford to actively listen to each other. And to learn the art of compromise. The dedication to the three train to dallas i think also made the program is success. During the process we hit a change in administration. Administrative support is critical to any program. And as a support wayne. Program quietly went away. At the elementary counselor i picked up a lot of what the peer mediation program was doing. It wasn't the same however i can guarantee you is having an adult be the mediator as white as they have a. Have a involved was missing and it was not the same. In addition to mediating students. I offered offered various groups with mary mentioned to aid with conflicts that surface 2 tabouli and girl cat fight. And the like. They were the friendship skills anger management self-esteem stress management and support groups for add and adhd. I also did a parent group for parents of kids with add and adhd was really helpful. Classroom guidance lessons also supported the 10th of every person is a value. And as stated in the quote from the madison conference her not to judge people by the way they dress or the way they are. Bullying as we all know it's become a national concern. Bullying at school and cyberbullying is had tragic results in some cases. We're starting to have a national dialogue but i think needs more needs to be done. April 23rd edition of the wisconsin state journal heading article about the iowa sioux city iowa paper. The divided the entire front page. Of a sunday issue. About the anti-bullying act of 18th committed suicide. The opinion piece called in the community to be proactive and stopping and bullying and urged its citizens to learn more about the problem. Public education i think it's absolutely vital to addressing bullying and harassment in schools. School programs need to be developed. And staff be trained and be aware of how to assist students in learning how to problem-solve. And solved problems with current with acceptance compromise and tolerance. How many of us have heard of this past year even i went to a teacher i went to this person i went to this person and they didn't. That's not right. Recent npr program cited the schools that have anti-bullying programs have 50%. Life bullying issues. Especially those that involve roleplay. Now mary and i've done roleplay new may have done roleplay in different situations in your life. Until you actually act out the part of a person who doesn't become a part of you. And i'm going to use an example of something that i did in the classroom in a while. Some say the kids are just being kids unfortunately kids that are harassed and bullied stars for a lifetime. I often found it a bully is really a student with very low self-esteem. And the youth bullying is a technique to make themselves feel better. I even use the example one time with a student as a ladder. It's a bully feels this badly about themselves are going to climb on you to make themselves feel better. I'd like to share one example that i didn't the classroom lesson to demonstrate what it likes to feel what it feels like to be left out. I had a student that have been harassed every year school and was really a loner. Did come to read to me for some help and some strategies that he could use. We plan my classroom lesson together. So that we would be able to demonstrate what it felt like to be left out. It makes me smile every time i think about it. The situation was a game where the entire class participated in it. I don't remember the exact game but i do remember that if you answered the question correctly you got a piece of candy. We fixed the game so the two boys that eased him. And several others. We're not able to win and we're left out. Devious. Then we discuss what it felt like. Very interesting to hear their comments. First they were angry. Didn't get the candy. Then they talked about how it felt to be different. And it wasn't a very good feeling. A great class discussion evolved and the next day the boy stopped in. Doctor my office and told me. But not the two boys have been teasing him. The two others but actually invited him him. Play with them at recess. Something that he never happened before. Years later i saw him in a high school funk. And he still remember that classroom. Mediation is one way to solve conflicts that used today in the adult world. Again cited in the wisconsin state journal on april 30th there was an article title. Who's to blame for the linoleum stain. The homeowner was going to go to small claims court. Did you know what he did instead you went to the uw law mediation center. Clinic ashley. Is that down had a mediation problem-solve. By the way the same is called by a faulty faucet. Can bullying be stopped by. mediation is the question of the day. I think anytime we can get. sitting down and talking isn't a move in the right direction. Peer mediation is a program to get spears talking and help students learn lifelong problem-solving skills. The hopefully they'll carry into their adult life. I also feel that a sense of empathy and compassion develops during a mediation. I'm really proud that mary and i got to be a part of this program. I found several clippings from the oregon observer they're cheaper shared promark remediation program at brooklyn and i've mounted them over here on this board. If you'd like to take a look. Also in the upper left-hand corner i have a sample of the conflict resolution request. And on the right hand side is the opening statement. We had an average of 18 students each year participate in our program. You can also see how mary and i looked in the 90s cuz there's pictures. Other photo in the lower left-hand on the kind of turquoise paper below the star. I found was when we had a meeting at the which is now netherwood elementary school. We're all the district elementary cheerleaders got together and use you look at the picture we filed me fill the entire stage. So that was all three of our elementary school for doing the program at the same time. I want to thank you again for inviting me. I really had to use a little gray cells to come up with this but hopefully i've been helpful. I think mediation is a process that is very viable weather is for elementary students. We found we tried it with your graders and they were little bit. Immature 4th grade was really better for the timeout. Unfortunately it's not done any oregon district anymore i don't know if any of these are just cool. But i felt very proud to be part of the program and i was very proud to be able to work with mary and. . tom and i i think put in a lot of a lot of time and effort in i think we're all sad one. Program right away so. Thank you very much. I think it's a really good question you're absolutely right because brooklyn is pretty isolated and we were pretty frankly lily-white pretty-much. When i first started teaching. Second grade when we line up to leave at the end of the day. Two-thirds of my class for farm kids. That wine on buses to farm. Now they all live in subdivisions there may be a handful of kids that are farmer so even even within that. the time the socio-economic hitman in the vocational. Background of these kids team. I think the answer your question in in manson i think with the key would be. Who's the trainers are. Who the adults would be i think it would be really critical to have hurt a person that would be bought by the anglo or someone that would be all that works with kids that maybe are in special programs that happened to be indifferent at socio-economic areas or whatever because. A lot of wisconsinites are going to arise because of that. I think one thing that that might help and i don't know how this would work. Since i've been just in a smaller school system. Is to have more activities where you would. In a mango kids. Kiss me to learn more about each other. You know you live here and i live over here and. You know you don't share. Really what your license about. And maybe they need to walk in their shoes. Role playing in a classroom would be an extra. I think roleplay is x1. I wanted add something that i just saw in the newspaper. Something about how how do you prevent prejudice prejudice and bias and things like that. And. This was a non wisconsin witches the alumni magazine. And the researcher. Creative posters that showed people are all of one ethnic group or racial group. But. Who all different from each other than might be different ages different economic says dress differently and then there were captions under each one. And somewhere negative in somewhere positive and they found that after people looked at those posters. They were less. Prejudice and less likely to show bias and i think it was because they were forced to see people. That they had previously just seen as. One thing to see that they were all different. So that might be a way of doing it. I think in a mediation situation because it's really. Close type thing that may not work but i'd my groups i did do that type of thing. For example of my friendship group sometimes i would have. A teacher referred child that was a bully. That was very full of themselves. And. And i would call the parents and first they wouldn't necessarily agree with me but. But i ate was important to include that type of person in the group and i think i think having them in some of my some of my friendship groups. And also in some of my stress poop cuz i'm so kids. It comes from home you're full of themselves because they can do no wrong at home and then walk on water at home and sometimes that stress is too much fruit. The bully 2 so yeah. Good question. One thing i might add to what you just said it's interesting that you don't we all probably have some conflicts going on this week but. One thing that i think. And i have a very good friend from the dells the weekend even talk politics because my heart starts pounding my hands start sweating and we just agree to disagree but i think one thing that really helped is when you're talking to someone. Is the active listening repeat back what you heard. Because sometime. We're thinking about we're going to say next summer really not listening. And include the feeling. One thing one technique in counseling is i sense that you're angry because. Such-and-such happened and sometimes we do it no that's not what i meant. And sometimes the conflict can be resolved right there because you had a misunderstanding and not necessarily a conflict so i think active listening is nothing else but these kids got that out of it. But i appreciate your comments thank you. I wish i had a dollar for every referral i've made to psychologist. But i also wi-fi bewitcher if i had a dollar for every parent that hung up on me. Unfortunately and i'm a parent or grandparent and it's difficult to hear. That your child has done this or is it is a bully or is causing this. And that you were there first teacher you were for their first role model i was telling all the gal that left to work with the kids in the kitchen robin name is. I was telling her earlier i had one year that i had a student that was an extreme bully and it wasn't just in the hall that wasn't just at recess it was everywhere. And it was very obvious that this was a home situation and i called the parents and i finally asked him to command. Their father wasn't for feet inside my door and anyway. Mister bully right there. That's what he grew up with that's what he knew. So i think dance your question i think part of it is we need to get more into the homes and it makes me sad to hear and i know but it cuz counselors are going and social workers is two different things. And their job descriptions are different and their time is cut back and where do we where do we fill that gap. I talked to arrington classes and there's a lot of different theories about parenting classes the one i did. Wasn't a feel-good program you didn't raise your child because they sat still in the car seat i expected him to sit still on the car seat. So it was a little different than some other some other parenting programs that are out there but i think that's the key right there is it has to start at home. And in a counselor and a teacher calls you and says there's a problem you need to go in with an open mind. I had a tough time with that dad. And i can more than one parent walk out of my office and slam the door in. But i'm afraid that's what i am i riding is that way as the second grade teacher call spada space i mean. And what i did with them into family come. Okay thanks a lot. Are closing words ids. If it is language that makes us human. One half of language is to listen. Silas can exist without speech but speech cannot exist. Without silence. Listen to the speech of others. Listen even more. To thy silence. That's why jacob trap. And now it's time to greet your neighbor thank you everyone for coming please extend the hand of friendship to those around you. And then join us for coffee conversation thank you.

uuprairie_org

Pr141005JeffBurkhart-ed.mp3

Good morning everybody welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society. I'm lynne pavelski a member of prairie prairie aspires to be an open-hearted and open-minded congregation we welcome people of every ethnic and religious background whatever your color your sexual orientation gender or family structure we welcome you no matter what your age or your abilities or inabilities later in the service we invite everybody for home it's been awhile since we've seen you or if it's your first or second time to introduce yourself would love to get to know you a little bit better and say hi to you after the service on sunday morning to provide a wide variety of services remember a member of the wider community as in today or by sandringham our minister today jeff. Are opening words today will be provided by orange schroeder. The opening words today are taken from something that i wrote for a fundraiser for the literacy network about six or seven years ago when they used to do a redesign of a 24-hour redesign of borders and was honored to participate in a number of years and i admitted as a top 10 list the top 10 ways that reading and writing in which your life since learned that the literacy network does a lot of work with people learning how to read english specifically rather than being actually functionally illiterate so if you want to add the word in english to most of this because even if you read and write in spanish for instance most of the internet is in english i mean english has become the world language much to the distress of the french. Number 10 winners in wisconsin are long. A good book can carry you far away during the dark months expanding your horizons. Number nine. And honor my daughter to trina who's now dietitian you will probably lead a healthier lifestyle if you can read labels in the grocery store and explore new recipes in magazines and cookbooks number 8 reading maps and road signs gives you the freedom to go where you want to go independently. Number 7 your spiritual life will be enriched by reading religious or self-help books or poetry if that's your thing and articles and you can explore who you are where you've been and where you're going by writing about it. Never 6. Writing allows you to communicate via letters or email with those you care about no matter where in the world they may be. Number 5. Reading opens the world of the internet to you and allows you to explore websites on endless topics. Number for. Doing puzzles reading books another literary activities. Help keep your mind alert as you age whatsapp. Number 3 reading to your children will give them a great head start in school. A reading is essential to gain a better education. Number two. Reading motivates you to borrow books and magazines from the library. At no charge. Number one you need to read and write to get a job with higher pay and a brighter future. Please welcome paula pictures and carl wacker. The chalice words are from kofi annan. Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope. It is a tool for daily life in modern society. It is a bulwark against poverty in a building block of development. An essential complement to investments in road stands clinics and factories. Literacy is a platform from democratization. And a vehicle for the promotion of cultural and national identity. Especially for girls and women it is an agent of family health and nutrition. For everyone everywhere literacy is along with education in general a basic human right. Welcome patty stockdale up to introduce our guest speaker to work with her helper children and help her in her workplace in madison college for the teachers are teaching the english. Thank you very much for having me. And thanks to. Orange and to rock the paula who are friends of this organization thinks he'll to the patty lynn know a lot of people here this great so thanks for inviting me to come and speak about the organization. I'll tell you really briefly about how i. Became involved in literacy. When i was a college student i was the first generation to go to college for my family and i really struggled a lot with that study skills and i'm really finding my place as a student so that first year was kind of rough for me but i had a professor who was fantastic. And any hoosier sir. Claude cookman. Sorry i'll speak slowly. 1 hoosier. Oh i'm sorry. Professor. I would love to encourage you and i think you have a lot of potential. And really made me feel like i could. This challenge on. Play developed a lot better study skills at a lot of other professors who were really influential in that. And i graduated and did well. On the dean's list a few times throughout college but then when i graduated i thought and i would like to see what i can do to get back myself. So i volunteered as a tutor at the local literacy organization in bloomington indiana. And i work with a guy named juan who had three kids and three jobs and. Really struggle tremendously to find the time to meet with me but i could see the impact that it was having on him and in the way he thought about himself. The way he thought about his kids as well and in his ability to help them. And so i applied for an americorps position in durham north carolina. Right works for a couple of years and i've coordinated technology programs in gd classes and just really fell in love with that kind of work and have a student. Whose name was janie. Janie was. Chet had dyslexia she struggled a lot with the ged test that she was trying to pass high school equivalency. Add. She by the time i left she had passed three of her test then i work with her a lot to give her that confidence that she needed. And she was really proud that she had those three but then i left and she said you know what am i going to do i don't know if i can do this. Really tried to encourage her. A letter from her about four months after i moved here in 2000. And i was a three-page letter in an of itself pretty incredible but she wrote to me about how she had just passed her her final test and she said i would not have done it if you hadn't encouraged me into. Really i am reinforced with me every time we work together. That that i could do that. And she said i'm now applying to go to the technical college to be a cna and i want to be a nurse someday. And my daughters are doing really well she was also a survivor of domestic abuse. Until she was she a lot of confidence and self-esteem issues that. She needed to work through so. I was extremely proud of her in and since worked with hundreds of faults throughout the community. And it's just an amazing. Life-changing thing for so many people. And it's something that kind of flies under the radar as we talked about. Help poverty we talked about and of the achievement gap that we see in the schools talk about the race to equity report than that has come out in the last year. And underlying all of this i really strongly feel is literacy. That without the basic literacy skills that are necessary weather people are. Native english speakers are not. If they lack the skills. They're going to lack opportunity. Significant number of people in the prison system. That are illiterate. And when we provide. Literacy education 2. Prisoners once there. Released. There is a 16%. Chance that they will reoffend. We don't do that there's a 70%. The literacy does literally change live. Want to tell you a story actually i want to read you a story. That bears are wrote. With me this is verta. She is. One of our students and has been with us for a long time and. She visited my office just a couple of days ago. And. So i was lucky to just sit down with her and our. One of our staff members bath. 2. Have her tell me the story and so i transcribed the story that she. Something. This is america's real. Voice. Before i found literacy network. My life was empty lonely and scary. I was pregnant at 14 years old. My husband was an alcoholic. When i came to madison everything was different. My apartment building was confusing and sometimes i got lost. I was scared and shy and afraid to ask for help. I promised my children they were they would never be hungry again. One of my friends help me to apply for jobs sewing and after a few months. I got the job but i didn't speak any english. Then i found literacy network the people were friendly and help me to get started right away. They taught me how to say things in english. But i had one obstacle in my settings. My husband. My husband didn't want me to study. He wanted me to work. But i kept studying my husband was very angry when i went to school. Sometimes i told him i was going to go to work but i would go to school instead. When he went out to drink i went to school. Within a few months my life a change. I started to see things differently. I found friends here at literacy network like beth. She helped me build my strength. She told me that my life is first. My tutor dan johnson helps me to better understand english. Enter read and write. He helped me be happy. Sometimes he would play his ukulele and we would just sing when i felt sad. I thought better. I came to grow and learn and didn't have to pay for the education. Literacy network help me to start up and i never in my life have had what i have here. I have best friends. And people helped me and i find my way. I am a changed person. Because i have the confidence and strength to pursue my dreams. Now i'm separated from my husband now i am free. I'm continuing with my school. Now i'm not scared i can talk with people now. My dream is to learn more english to speak better. To improve my reading and writing. I want to be a volunteer translator. I encourage my friends and neighbors to come to literacy network. Once you start to see the words and you know how to go into that world. You never want to come out. It also helped me to be a better parent to my children. All of them are now married. And i am a g. Now i have a new job. I work at kfc and i'm training to be a supervisor. Literacy network helped me to get a start. And they gave me confidence in my skills. Security. They helped me to make bigger goals for my life. So that was said through a lot of tears for all the fast as you can imagine. I'm so that's great.. So we have these three kind of buckets of service that we like to talk about. Education employment and health. But roberto and for many of our students being packed all of them. And her ability to just navigate life in general. I'm going to tell you a story about her in her picture all pop up here pretty soon. So karin was also a student with us. And she said that not being able to converse in english was no good for me or my children. I thought i wouldn't be able to help them and she resolved. That. Press the right button sorry about that. She was all that day that she would find a way to improve her english. A few days later her family saw a sign as they were driving down park street and she said stop i want us i want to stop in this is what i need she saw the sign that said free english classes were over post to olin at park street. Separate enrolled in several classes with us. She had tutor. And she started with our english for health class. Where our students go actually to either st mary's hospital or ghc and they learn about the healthcare system. And. Sarah princess we went to saint mary's hospital. That was really interesting for me i thought i'd love to take care of people to be able to listen to talk with someone to help them with their health that seem like work work that would give me the happiest life. And then with the help of her tutor corrine applied for and then graduated from the cna program certified nursing assistant program at madison college. She soon after that got a job at attic angel society. And i'm she's been working there for the past couple of years. And she says that without the support of her tutor. She would not have even known about how to apply for the program without the english for health class. She most likely would not have even thought about herself as somebody who could work in healthcare. I'm so she got to know a lot of folks in the. In the hospital as a result. She said i'm still studying so that i can become a nurse. I'm so happy the people at literacy network introduced me to healthcare and she's holding an award actually probably can't really read it. But it's from wisconsin literacy which is a statewide organization. And it's the outstanding learner on a career pathway. We nominated her for that award and she gave a speech and appleton to about 600 people that thinks that her tutor and end the organization. For her work so. It's just a couple of the stories for rent is obviously a very exceptional person. I'm just six kids. She has. Can a lot of things going on in her life. And she also is very motivated. And she said you know just stick to your goals take it one at a time she always felt like. She would have a step back but she would. Continue to work hard. And she had that kind of natural inclination to do that. But a lot of our students. Have those dreams they have that that desire to really improve their lives and find better jobs. In a person like karin who speaks four languages. And then learned english. Now she she's from madagascar and she lived in france for a while so. I'm so she speaks a couple of different languages. And. The person like her can very easily pick up a new language because she already has that sort of road map. For language. But a lot of our students don't have that because they don't have very good education from their home countries such as baritone. Bearcat stop school when she became pregnant. I'm at 14 so a lot of our students experience that that kind of challenge. The literacy network. We understand that. One in seven adults. In dane county needs literacy help that's about 55,000 adults. So that's foxy were either. We're learning english. Or struggled in school. Some people even have graduated from high school but read it a second or third grade level. So we work with folks from a couple of different types of background. People from all over the world come to literacy network we work with 1158 people in 2013. And a lot of the work that we do is with volunteers. Patty mention. That he's been a loyal volunteer in our community literacy program at the dane county parent council. And that program. Has folks coming in every week volunteers that come in on to dedicate their time. And we have programs like that throughout madison. 20 different locations where we offer programs. And. We were so proud of the volunteer program. That we have. Actually waiting list for volunteers now. Just fantastic so people come to us. Wanting to volunteer and we say. Sorry you're going to have to wait till next semester. A couple reasons for that one is that we're doing a much better job now of retaining volunteer. So we had a 60% retention rate. For volunteers. And we did that because we really looked at the data and tried to figure out what we can do. To help keep more of our tutors visits. Time-consuming and expensive for us to train new people every year. So. We asked our tutors. What will help you to feel like you're doing a better job and stick with it. They said give us more training. And make sure that it's relevant to us. So we really invested a lot of time into creating a solid training program that this not only training upfront. But also training that's on an ongoing basis. So we have in services that we offer about six to seven times a year. And we also have started it adjust in time tutor training model which means. That people get an initial training of about. Free 24 hours. And then we matched. We'll match them with a learner. And they get to meet that purse. They get to think about what their goals are talked to them about this goal. And then. We get the more training. It's okay now you've met your learner. What do you think they're going to need. And we try and give them as much of that as as we can upfront before they really start digging into the lessons. Another thing that we've done to really. Retain volunteers. Is. We've made it easier for volunteers to spend their time so the program that patty is in. We have. Interns who help. We have staff who helped with the lessons as well. So the lessons when patty goes to to tutor. Blessing is prepared for her. And she sits down and works with the learner and then gives us feedback on what happened during that lesson. Mother was successful or not so the intern gets that feedback. They were able to really support the burners and the volunteers at the same time. As a result. So. We're headed back. In the united states we know that this is a major issue. Literacy effects 90 million adults. Throughout the country. Of the people who struggle with low literacy. Significant number are living in poverty. 42% this is the national staff. I really don't know what the stats are locally. Cuz nobody was done a study like this. In dane county. But if you were to read the racedeck woody report that came out from the wisconsin council on children and families. You'll see that a lot of the things that are talked about our job skills. And if we even go back further moiraine elementally. My belief is. Certainly it's. Reading and writing skills. That affect a lot of people. And i know this from personal experience. From working with people i've worked at the dane county job center for we had seven or eight hundred people in the w2 system. So wisconsin works welfare program. And a vast majority of those folks. Really struggle with the reading and writing skills that they need to apply for a job. To fill out a healthcare form. To do basic elemental things that you would need to do. To succeed in a workplace. So we know that this is a major issue in our community. This is our mission. Kind of a lengthy mission statement but we teach reading and writing reading writing and speaking skills to dane county adults. Three primary reasons. Help them to achieve. Financial independence good health and greater involvement in community life. These are the three primary areas of service. Employment education and health. In the employment area i mentioned to you about one in seven adults lacks the basic skills that they need to support their families. The education area we know that parents are a child's first teacher. We know that a child's educational success depends primarily on the literacy level of his or her mother. And then in the health area about 465 million dollars is lost each year because people don't understand directions that are being given to them by the healthcare system either from their doctor. Or in writing from the health insurance company. You're a lot of challenges that people face. We estimate that about 40,000 people in dane county alone. Struggle with low health literacy. We have basic computer classes that we offer these classes are full each week so we know that not only reading and writing skills but also computer skills are necessary for folks to move ahead. Our learners have the goals of improving their reading and writing skills so that they can. Do better at their job. Find citizenship. Help with their children's learning. And to improve their health. As i mentioned last year we had 1158 adult learners in our programs. Who studied more than 33,000 hours. Our programs are throughout dane county so you can see we have a few more outlying areas we have a program in verona. We have a program up there marshall. Is well and then a lot of programs in the central city as well so we have a few different outreach programs that we do. Throughout the year. This is catalina who is this a student with us. And is working on her job skills at la movida services. La movida is just a few blocks down from us on south park street. Catalina is basically as a customer service representative and she helps people who speak spanish. 2. Provide a lot of different services rather be sending money to their family figuring out how to pay a phone bill or utility bill it so she has to come and negotiate things in spanish and in english. So she's working really specific job skills with us. And sorry it looks like it might have cut off their so they come into that to her work to pay their bills. As what she says here. So she's helping them to negotiate that. Kubena. Is an entrepreneur. She makes dresses for quinceanera parties and she is raising four kids and she's studying for her ged and she's been working with her tutor john for the last 45 years. On improving her skills understanding how to invoice people understanding how to communicate with english-speaking customers as well. But she's a very hard worker and cheese. Very much like a lot of our students. I am that she. Works many hours and this is a family business so her husband is also involved in. And getting the materials that are necessary and then shipping the the dresses out. Guadalupe guadalupe has a tutu her actually comes to her home on a regular basis. And she said that she needs english for a lot of different reasons including at school when she's working with her kids teachers. They speaking english she needs to be able to communicate back to them in english. And when she goes to the hospital sometimes if she needs an interpreter and there's not one available so she knows that if she is improve english. She will be able to better communicate and understand your health better. And then kumba studies and works at a hotel studies at madison college. Been working with us for a long time she actually started a service group she is from senegal. So she's helping people who come from africa to sort of integrate and better understand american culture. And she also is said to us. At that when guests speak to her at the hotel she needs to be able to reply back to them. So that's how she uses her english on a regular basis so that she understands what they're talking about. Our volunteers in 2013 we had 897 trained volunteers who spent. About 32,000 hours working with us. Now our annual budget is if patty knows our treasury is about $640,000 from last year the value of our volunteers exceeds. The total financial. Contributions to the organization from last year. The weed more than double the impact with the volunteers that we have. Talk to you really briefly about what we're doing with health literacy. In dane county alone. 465 million dollars is lost. Due to low health literacy each year. How does that happen. One of the reasons is if somebody goes to the doctor and they didn't after visit summary. It's on paper. How many of you read that. How many you understand. I work with a doctor a couple years ago it was said you know i get an after visit summary as a patient. And i never read it. Because i can understand it. Doctors of said that so. It is complicated information awesome. I'm that we are we're giving to talk so if you have low literacy. It's going to cause even more problems. Many of our students have told us. But they saved up their own money. To go back to their home country once a year. And go to the doctor. And get all the medications that they would need so that they wouldn't have to go to the doctor here in the united states. Cuz it is so scary for them. And maybe it's less expensive. To see the doctor even if you include the health the the travel expenses. Other reasons are people would use the emergency room in appropriately. It's a lot of folks think that you can use the emergency room as your primary health care if you don't have health insurance and then you don't have to pay for it. Which is not necessarily true. It's a very expensive proposition for our healthcare system. Patients with low health literacy are less likely to understand written instructions. They're less likely to use preventive care they're less likely to be a part of their care to ask question. They're more likely to go to the emergency room and to be hospitalized. Wow. I'm so i'll tell you in just a bit about the the pro programs that we offer do we have a. A program to call english for health that's in st mary's hospital nghc. This program started. A real need from a student one of my students came to us and said i would like to be able to communicate with my doctor. And i don't have the ability to really do that and i'm really scared of going to the doctor. So our staff member bath created this program we have initially had it in a church basement over the catholic multicultural center. And we graded mock clinic where people had to call in and make an appointment and go through the whole clinic visit and we had a couple of volunteers from st mary's hospital. And. The student love the program. I thought it was really helpful to them and they ask beth if she could do it in a hospital instead of. In a basement. And i said. I don't know cuz i had worked in a hospital and i didn't think it was very likely that the hospital has welcomed us to do this. Is a 12-week class. But we talked to the folks at st mary's and they said we absolutely would love to do that and they made space for us and now five years later we have the program at st. mary's hospital and its ultimate ghc it's a it's an award-winning program received the county public health award this year accolades from the state of wisconsin and represented in in multiple different settings. I'm so the program is it's a unique program because it is in the hospital in the clinic and it is very helpful to our students. My students are learning about how to find a doctor how to use medications and how to navigate the healthcare system. They got a chance to practice their skills with real members of the healthcare community. We're seeing that almost all of our students have increased their healthcare knowledge their practices of good health. They are they're feeling much more comfortable in the environment of care as well and they're running about healthcare options. I wanna learn how to get her flu shot. She never thought that the flu shots were safe before but after going through english for health she and her family are now getting their flu shots regularly. I'm always one of the students who went to her home country regularly while she was in the class she became pregnant. And i'm too learned about. The importance of prenatal care. And she got a primary care physician as a result. And cheap dental a lot more comfortable because she had the support of the teacher in the class. And this is backpack again we saw earlier verta advocated for herself. She asked questions in english of a pharmacist and felt much more confident that she was getting what she needed. Because of the program. So as an organization. We are moving forward with increasing or student services support. Improving technology programs because we know that such an important thing. Deepening our partnerships with many different organizations as you saw we have 20 different locations but really helping to be more a part of of each of these different elements playing much more of a a strong role and him in the employment training area working very closely with the united way of dane county on some major initiatives and we're starting some innovative workplace education programs right now. We need to be doing more of this because we know that this is such a great need in our community. And. I just skipped over my last sigh. I would love to invite you to be a part of the the work that we're doing. I'm so. If you're interested in it at all and learning more i did hand out a sheet that get you some basic information. Are you can call me and i will be happy to speak with you afterwards as well we always do have volunteer opportunities even though for tutoring we have a waitlist right now there's a lot of different things that we have going on at the organization and it would love to talk to you about ways that you could get involved. I'll be sticking around and ask answering questions with your husband. The reading and writing skills and the ged test has gotten a lot harder. Just recently. And so we're really worried about folks who are interested in getting their ged just. Completely. Not going after. It is it has increased in in difficulty over the last year. Thank you all very much. And dance. Just a right up here to share our closing months literacy. Literacy is the road to human progress and the means through which every man woman and child can realize. His or her full potential. Thanks everybody for coming today please extend a hand of friendship stay for some coffee and introduce yourself to our guests and have a great day.

uuprairie_org

Pr141109EdZapala-ed.mp3

I'd like to welcome you to prairie unitarian universalist society this morning and as we found out yesterday at our orientation service that many of the people that first came into our society when they first came into the site society. Found these words to be very meaningful. Prairie aspires to be both an open-hearted and open-minded congregation. We welcome people of every ethnic and religious background. Whatever your color. Sexual orientation. Gender or family structure. We welcome you no matter your age or your abilities or. Inability. Later in the service for those of you that are new we will invite you to introduce yourself so that maybe we may get to know you better. On sunday mornings we present a wide variety of services. They're either presented by a prairie member. A member of the wider community as it is today or by our minister the reverend sandy ingham. Today i presentation is by edwards apollo. Are opening words are going to be read by barb chatterton. Are opening words for the sunday before veterans day are the prayer that eleanor roosevelt apparently carried around in her pocket during wwii highlight the sacred responsibility of sending others off to war. It's both profound and true. And here's what it said. Dear lord. Lest i continue my complacent way help me to remember somehow out there a man died for me today. As long as there be war then must ask and answer. Am i worth dying for. Arkhalis lighting this morning will be done by the hughes family. Here comes heidi. And the rest of the family is on okay well i'll take the car to take responsibility. We like this chalice. Symbolic of the warmest of community and the brightness that love brings to the world. Illuminating our search for justice and peace. Light. That force that nurtures all living things. Here in our midst in the flame. So tiny. And so significant. Now's the time for our presentation this morning. We have some setup to do well that's ongoing. Let me read the introduction here. Ed's apollo will be speaking to us today on veterans court. Ed is a justice. Outreach social worker for the rock county veterans court. He's also a social worker. In the homeless program at the william s middleton memorial veterans hospital in madison wisconsin where he's been since 2007. He has worked as the liaison between the hospital and it's grant and per diem transitional housing programs. Until 2009. He's been the veterans justice outreach coordinator for the facility ever since. In this capacity. He's helped establish veterans treatment court in rockford illinois and janesville wisconsin. As well as providing ongoing case management. The madison veterans law center in addition. Disturbing on his board. The northern illinois veterans justice task force. He's also its co-chair and regular outreach processes 24 county jail. And is a trained facilitator of moral. I think that's reconciliation therapy is that what it is or. Recognition recognition to word i didn't know i'm sorry. He's a trained facilitator of moral reconation therapy and is done presentations to over 1100 law enforcement and other staff on the veterans justice issues. I don't want to steal all this time but. It is also a graduate of smith college for social work in northampton massachusetts where you earn a master's degree in clinical social work. During his time there he had primary he had internships in primary care and outpatient mental health at the audie l murphy memorial veterans medical center in san antonio texas. In addition to interning at. Summit adolescent day treatment program in longmont, colorado. And is a licensed clinical social worker in the state of wisconsin let us all welcome and the paula thank you thank you thank you rick for the introduction and thanks a penny for a invited me where the penny going saw her earlier. I got to meet a few of you last week as i got my dates mixed up and came last week so i should be very prepared today i've no reason for for messing up at all. Set my agenda for today would be to first give you a bit of background on a problem that exists with with veterans right now. To talk about veterans justice outreach. Also then talk about veteran treatment courts with which will be kind of the meat of of what i'm going to be talking about. Other activities and i'm involved in. I want you you can do. And but also leave time at the end for questions but as i go if you have any questions please feel free to to shout them out. So to start with how does this relate to unitarian universalism. I should say first of all i'm a member actually a first unitarian society myself. So i think this is a pretty relevant topic. As far as the principal is that are behind you you. I think. With believing in a world community with peace liberty and justice for all think that will pertain. Also leaving in the inherent worth and dignity of every person think that principle will also be relevant. As well as believing in justice. Equity and compassion. So hopefully. They'll be more clear. As i go. First i want to introduce you to adam now i've changed some details here. Adam was a veteran that i had worked with. He was in his late twenties. An african american male. He was the army veteran of operation enduring freedom and operation iraqi freedom so. Taking part in the conflicts in iraq and afghanistan. And i got involved with him after he had multiple driving under the influence. I charge it. So i kind of go back to adam. As i go. First ascent for the problem that exists. About 10% of the adults arrested in the given year veterans. And so that adds up to over a million a year so you kind of see. With that. Trunk looks like. However i'll all all veterans good good question yeah. That's that 2008 data. However i was when a size this veterans you have lower rates of incarceration and non better. So i think that's something that people don't always appreciate. A recent study of veterans in prison. Found that 30% of them were homeless at some point. And in this is something i didn't appreciate before doing my job. Is if they weren't homeless beforehand. You coming incarcerated can really just drop things in that regard so either your job. You may not have a job when you get out of incarceration. I paying your rent that might not be happening while you're incarcerated as well. Iso. You know. Your housing is really. Made unstable by by arrest. The study found that 60% of veterans had some serious medical problem. And a little quiz for you all what what did you think was the most common psychiatric diagnosis. Found. So is it psychosis. So that would be some significant break from reality. I military-related ttsd i see some nodding. Immune disorders such as depression. Or an alcohol or other other drug use disorder any guesses. The last one. Allhiphop. All right any other guesses. Cemu disorder okind so we got wrecked quite a bit. A variety here. You are correct sir so. 45% had an alcohol use disorder 45% had another drug use disorder so really. Those are separate diagnosis so you're really talking the significant amount of substance use disorders. Military related ttsd. I'm y'all did pretty well on that cuz usually when i talk to people they really emphasize this and this is important but if you look. Four times at least four times more more common of a diagnosis. Then military-related ptsd. So. Some ptsd can really overlap quite a bit with psychosis there's some break and reality. But there's also serve distinct those are also distinct diagnosis as well so the psychosis would be more. You know seeing things that aren't there as far as you know individuals. I'm having really unusual beliefs. But yeah there's definitely an overlap with with ptsd there. I'm so. Another. Gas and other kind of quiz how many do you think said they were using what percentage said they were using drugs or alcohol at the date of everly arrest. Any guesses. 60% any other guesses. 70 80 90 okay. Anorak. I did pretty pretty good there i see you're a little higher than i was surprised so 50%. So. I was so surprised that that. 24% were arrested on a drug charge. So really in this is this is just one study but this is actually consistent with my experience. Substance use is a major part of of. Veterans getting arrest and it really i think individuals getting arrested as well. Otso. The same study how many do you think what percentage said they wanted on mental health help at the va so keep in mind. Nelly we talkin veterans people have been combat. Kind of not your normal mental health seeking population of stocking prisoners. Also not your normal at 2 my mind your menu of people seeking mental health help. How what percentage you think said they wanted this. 75. 3. That would be more where i would expect. Third-wave variety to 59% some more than half. I said they wanted that. Medical the medical i wanting medical help was even a higher person. So another study of a veterans in jail. Found that 74% would be eligible for va services. But just 35% were had been receiving va services. So really if you kind of take. Allwood i've just been talking about. There are significant numbers of eligible veterans. Wanting and needing care in the justice system. Pompadour not getting it. So that's sort of the i think the summary message. Adam fit into this so adam. Had a mild alcohol use disorder. He also did have military related ptsd. So as the as you said it back there man you know that i think there was some self-medication going on. I also had some short-term memory problems after traumatic brain injury. He kind of fit this pretty all his housing was pretty stable actually over. So this is sort of where where my job kind of comes in. This started about 2009 and. But it's called as the veterans justice outreach program and in the purpose. Of this program. Is to avoid the unnecessary criminalization. Of mental illness. And extended incarceration among veterans. Kind of a mouthful there. By ensuring that eligible veterans involved in the justice system. Have timely access to va health care services. As clinically indicated. And of course. You know after something needed outside the va a week we look for that as well. So what do we do so we. Do i reach assessment in case management. I forgot this involve veterans that's kind of the term. I am in local courts and jails and we also liaison with local justice system partners. So. I think the kind of summarize what we do we're a bit of a link. So there's the madison va hospital. And then there's the veterans early in the justice system and you can't smoke while you're in jail so that's that's not an accurate picture. Any i know we'll have time for questions in a minute here but any questions. Thus far out of their question. So the question is why are there so many that that want it but can't get it it i think there's a lot of reasons for that i've run across some veteran say i didn't know i was eligible for some of these services that's one thing and then some veterans that just you know don't want to take advantage you know i mean that's there's a bit of a stigma around mental illness and seeking help so those are a couple i think a couple possible reasons. So can they get services in in rock county or just come to madison that's a good question so there is a va hospital in in madison but there's also a va clinic in rock county there's a number of via clinics in the area rockford illinois also has a va clinic so. So some of the services you can get in janesville more inn in rockford. So what i want to do now is kind of go into the veteran treatment court section of the. Presentation this will. Involve my showing a video. Is in iraq and afghanistan get home some face tremendous challenges. Nbc's bob far has that story. This court is now in session. Just for veterans. These individuals. Sacrifice for us. They deserve an extra effort on our part to see what we can do. To get them healthy and stable. Veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder. Unable to cope homeless and jobless when they return. Didn't just write a song about veterans troubles. He lived them. How many alcohol and the drugs were keeping me happy in the road i was in i didn't think there's anything wrong because everybody i knew was. Drunk and high. Was different. I mean he did something that no other judge ever ass. Hey he look me in the eyes. And he said. How are you doing. What's going on in your life. What can i do to help what can this court do to help you. And i was like huh. It wasn't just a joke. A veteran. So you do have to break down some barriers and actually work with them and say listen. I came back from iraq you know these are the stomach blocks i hit this is what i did to make it better. Because of court gary pettingill. Vocational rehab program. He also retains custody of the children he almost lost after being busted for selling drugs. Sounds to me like before you fell between the cracks and these guys made sure that you. It's kind of waking everything together. Pain management. Along with my mental health along with my substance abuse making sure i go to my groups making sure i deposit that i needed. Leaving no one behind. So ever. Answer how often do you talk to you everyday. That's the right thing to do. And because this judge is invested in them. Feeling obligation to him. Cuz he cares that much about me. Yanni doesn't even know me. I want to make them proud i want i want to do the right thing. But if. For believing in me giving me and in strength to believe that that i'm a human being. United with society. Also believes it can be transformed i work a lot. Positive reinforcement. And i think it's important that people believe that they can achieve their goals confused troubled neglect. Not anymore. Any reactions to that. So yeah that was pretty self-explanatory so that was a first veterans court in in buffalo new york actually got a chance to come go and visit that court which is really. Really special experience. So in general. You know these kind of programs are our specialty or problem-solving court. And i in a nutshell i think what they do is they take the coercive and charismatic powers of the courts. Partnering with robust va services. The help that justice involved veterans. And keep communities safe. They include drug testing. Treatment mental health or substance use treatment case management volunteer mentor so you saw some of that other veterans that have been you know had some troubles themselves help the veterans through the process. And also regular court appearances. And locally at least after 123 successful years that this the veterans original criminal charges or either reduced or dismissed so that's part of that the carrot for that the process. Some more specifically one of the the courts that i work for is in the rock county regional veterans treatment court that's in janesville. Are we accept referrals from rock green walworth and jefferson counties and the presiding judge is james dailey so he's pictured here and for those paying attention and nudity is actually running for this state supreme court right now as well. So he is a retired general himself and he's actually been pretty open about his own difficulties after coming back from the military so that's remarkably powerful hearing somebody in his position being open about some of those kind of things. Another program that i work with is in winnebago county illinois rockford illinois more specifically and the presiding judge is the honorable janet holmgren was also pictured here as she is not a veteran herself but she's very familiar with these type of specialty courts. And this is actually the court program that adam was in so i done was going to this core program. I use going to aa he was also did a course of residential alcohol and drug treatment. And then did some outpatient at ptsd treatment as well i'll buy. All while being monitored by this program. And then lastly but most new is the dane county veterans treatment court and so the presiding judge there is david flanigan who actually was a better himself and this is brand-spanking-new since last month actually so pretty exciting i program there and you know i've pictured just the judges and their pictures to find but these are really team efforts you know we need that the prosecutor the defense attorney we need a law enforcement are part of the process sometimes it's really a much. Broader team than just the judges with the judges arky. Two veteran quarter one thing but other things are also happening involving some other things that i thought to be important to mention. So i do some training with law enforcement and other staff on veteran issues and how to refer veterans the treatments that arresting them sometimes for example i have to still at 8 that the more recognition therapy group that i referred to earlier that's a group psychotherapy that actually focuses on on justice involvement. Which has been a really rewarding experience. It had some involvement with the madison veterans law center they want her to the madison veterans law center i see some. It's okay excellent yeah they do great work so they provide a free legal advice and referrals for civil legal issues so. The veteran treatment courts are for the criminal legal issues the stuff you can go to jail for. The civil issues might be things like i divorced for example. That are also significant. Barriers at times they meet once a month at the porchlight building on on northbrook street and also once per month at the city-county building downtown. Another thing that i do is a jail outreach so i do regular outreach to the dane dodge rock and winnebago county jail so the winnebago county jail is pictured here doesn't look too scary does it have seen over at 280 individuals there at the all the different jails. When i looked at a sample about 63% of them would be new to the madison va. So this is kind of consistent but we saw earlier that they're significant folks that aren't aren't connected to services. So these are this is a great opportunity to get them connected to services they might. So what can you do. If you're an employee if your employer scuse me you can hire an individual with the criminal history you know that could be a big barrier at times. If you are a landlord or own some property. You know i consider maybe renting somebody with her profile criminal history as well. If you want observa session of the veterans treatment court or drug court fees are open to the public so i think it's a great experience you got a little bit of sense for it here. Is it better if the actress involved with with a quart. So it's it's quite an experience. You can mentor if you're a veteran are there any veterans in the room if you feel comfortable saying so thank you thank you sir. Thank you for your service. So you know that's that's been a pretty pretty big thing i mean i'm not a better myself but i think you guys would know better than me the veteran bond is african be a pretty strong bond. I'm so being a mentor can be. Can be huge. There is the interface that organization moses that is doing some work on to the justice system i know i think first unitarian we've become a member formerly of moses so they're doing some good work. Various okay well you beat me to the punch. Are there any attorneys in the room. Nnanet want to admit that me. It is okay. Okay well you know volunteering at the veterans law center you know could be a powerful thing to do. Preparing that and for what you're doing there guitars for vets i've heard some good things about that. Yeah right beside that first and then exactly. Absolutely so there's the post 9/11 gi bill that that some veterans have taken advantage of. Absolutely. Yeah that's that's give me a resource for individuals. So is far as family services so most of the services that i work with are kind of gear don the veteran themselves. While they're active duty so while they're active in the military understanding in the veterans can chime in if i'm getting this wrong this little bit more family supports i think the vet center offers some couples counseling that's a little broader than the with the va offers. At times but there is couples counseling. I'm in some family family services. Through the va hospital as well but not as much i'm not sure definitely the family i mean they'll comes that i can be very different if the person has a strong support system i've seen that firsthand. They've got nobody. Things are so much harder especially if you're in jail it's really hard to do anything while you're in jail but you got somebody on the outside. In advocating for you i think the outcomes are definitely better so that's. That's a great comment. So i have heard of this as well as of some veterans being taken advantage of. Regarding the gi bill and andy on post 9/11 gi bill as far as specific services to kind of counteract that to be honest i'm not sure. I believe a lot of the colleges have a rep that work specifically with the veteran so they might be assertive first point of contact. Yeah i'm mad and i'm not sure when the veterans law center if it's a civil legal issues the veteran you know wants to take some sort of you know legal action that might be a first step in chile. My understanding is that the last you know decade at least went when folks are are discharging for the military this little bit better efforts to provide some education on the services available sota kind of prevent problems happening whether every that catches every veteran item guessing it doesn't but i think that's something that's done. You know that to be honest it in my experience i'm not really seeing it now i'm just seeing you know my little sort of sliver of of veterans mental health services wise you know i just had a veteran. You know a week ago who's in jail just got out of jail and we got him an appointment within a week. To see a psychiatrist in the see a counselor you know i think less than a week actually so. That's not to say there are not some weights and in some some capacity i think one of the important things to do as well as to look sort of how are things compared what are you comparing it to as well and i think sometimes the private-sector definitely has some weight as well it definitely with the national issues coming up there clearly are some problems and clearly things that need to get it fixed. But yeah locally i'm not seeing a lot of it to be honest with you. I'm seeing some veterans have to wait to see ve to be honest cuz i've been kind of busy but i'm trying to figure out ways to you no make that less of an issue. Yeah so the question is how were these funded veterans treatment court. Kind of a hodgepodge has been my experience so the nice thing and into these veteran treatment courts have spread like wildfire so. Drug courts are very common model and veteran courts borrow quite a bit from drug court. There's a lot more research on drug courts. What i've read recently is veteran court of spreading at four times the rate of drug for. So i think a big part of why that is is there's a lot of services available for them so that the courts aren't having to write new grand you know to get staff. Exit leveraging already existing resources at the va and three other energy so. It's. You know it's a hodgepodge. So i just stopped at the va so i'm paid i'm a federal employee so i'm already kind of paid for. It's also can be a labor of love to some of the judges you know they they judge daily often says this is his favorite part of the week is doing veterans court. So and he's come in on his vacation. I so i think god yeah just give me a labor of love for individuals involved and now with our dea here in dane county he's a veteran himself so. That's her how i see it happen. Baby we were referring to this transitional housing programs for veterans. The transitional housing programs you know we've got one in matt's in janesville and rockford i used to work with those folks so it's for the va partnering with community entities to provide transitional housing. Not sure if that's what you're referring to but this can be a great programs for veterans has been my experience you know that sometimes you don't need an income to get in which is been great stable place to live. Connection other services. Well you know what's funny should have said so very accidental i will say this it was this was not i actually went to to social or school with a gentleman who wanted to work in the prison. And i thought he was crazy. I was just so dangerous and depressing why would you want to do that so it was purely accidental that i i started working where i am today but it's been it's been excellent excellent stuff so yeah totally an accident. That's a great question sir and i think the police that's the front end of the justice system so if obviously the ideals not even to go that far but. If the kind of avert an issue there i think is the ideal in the veteran has nothing on their criminal history potentially. The problem is averted very early on they don't lose their housing by going to jail. So i've been involved in efforts with folks from the wisconsin national guard we've got a police chief in horicon who's the veteran himself he's a tireless advocate on these issues so we've done many presentations with law enforcement. We're actually involved. I'm actually meeting with somebody from uw police department. I think in two weeks so he's going to try to provide information to his colleagues on on these issues so. I'll draw so doing something with the va police department's the va hospitals are federal property so they have their own police force. So we're doing something with the va police as well the kind of augment their skills on recognizing his issues and veteran. Then how did the escalate the vet. Yeah that's i think a very important piece of this work i think we're probably getting short on time are we all done. Cake can i add with one last thing here so adam adam successfully graduated the rockford veterans court. So doing that he's able to avoid some jail time. Last i talked to him doing very well in school also are doing very well at working as well so a real success story and hopefully. We can have many more atoms. And these are my contact information for the other. Thank you. And. Later the closing works. Are closing words are by actress melissa fitzgerald who some of you may know from the west wing she's currently the senior director of a group called justice for vets. We are at a critical moment in our nation's history. We have to decide as a nation. How we are going to care take care of our veterans. Will we will we make room for them in our hearts. Or will we make room for them in our prisons. Greet your neighbor thanks for coming. See you next week.

uuprairie_org

Pr121021Wilcox-ed.mp3

Good morning and welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society i mary mullen a member of the program committee and i want to let you know that prairie fires to be floatin open-hearted and an open-minded come congregation and that we welcome people of every ethnic background of her religious background whatever your color whatever your orientation sexual orientation or gender or your family structure and we welcome you also no matter what your age. Abilities or inability. Later in the service we're going to invite visitors guests and returning friends to introduce yourself so that we might get to know you better. And i just want to share that when i was a student and exchange student at spelman college in atlanta georgia the first sunday they took me to a church of a black church we called it negro back then. And i was shocked that they asked me to get up and and introduce myself but we do that here too. On sunday mornings we provide a large variety of services that are presented either by a prairie member a member of the wider community which is true today or by our minister who will be back with us soon she's moving here today. Sarah wilcox will be presenting service called serve and fair-trade providing opportunity and support to artisans and farmers worldwide. Well i'd like to introduce our speaker today sara wilcox she's been working with served since 2007 so that's about five years first she was a member of the product development team and now she's the store manager down there on monroe street that right there on monroe street. There's not a store there used to be 10 years ago there used to be a store on state street in that it is very tiny so we decided to move to monroe street beef to get a little bit more space as well as providing better parking for people who want it. I mean i think all those things that's what we're trying to contribute towards you know if you have all those things within your community if you're able to have a sustainable communities i think he knows your voice into the line of of being peaceful and able to be able to make that a priority you know i think it's so hard to define those things and to be able to save sustain ourselves where it's just it just. American principles you can find it on their website you can find it in the world fair trade organization website can find another piercing federation website and i haven't had enough coffee this morning.

uuprairie_org

Pr090705Esbensen-ed.mp3

I now get the pleasure of introducing referencing asbenson. She was ordained in 1996 in the uu denomination in menomonie wisconsin after spending five years studying at united church of christ or congregational seminary in minnesota. She served several congregations in minnesota and wisconsin. She's been a lifelong unitarian universalist and also always been a humanist. And she's going to be speaking on something that's very near and dear to my heart especially just lately. Which is on. Issues of reverence and love and how does working with humanism. I just many of you know that i just got back from general assembly. And i spent a lot of time mulling on. Audible language of reference thing so i'm really looking forward to your talk rev-up simpson. Good morning. Let me know i will try to project let me know if you cannot hear me by saying i can't hear you. I'm just going to move these things. Hide and get my reading glasses on. When pondering this address for the day. I realize that i had a million and one things to say on the subject of humanism. And as many angles from which to come at it. As a first-time speaker to your congregation and therefore not knowing what your history is a congregation is or what angles would be the most useful. I've chosen to percent this subject strictly from my own experiences. And the world's experiences of me. Even as a little girl i sent the calling to a religious life. The hogan family from the street across from us in duluth we're catholic. And when i was in grade school i would have sleepovers with kathy. We would use sleeping bags and sleep on the living room floor. Kathy would always fall asleep before i did and i would lie awake my eyes drawn to the quiet golden light. That's shown over the face of jesus. On the narrow wall to the side of the fireplace. But jesus the lord jesus was the lord's prayer. And i would read and read the words. Bringing them into my mind. And into my mouth. Our father who art in heaven. Hollywood be thy name. By kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Almond. I thought it was such a beautiful poem. And that it made such good sense. This is how i interpreted it in my mind. It was a prayer to god or to jesus or maybe it was really to marry beautiful beautiful mary i always thought the catholics had it right. Worshipping a mother. You have always focusing on the greatness of a man. This was a 1960s and my feminism was already greatly started. Live life on earth as you imagine it to be in heaven well that seemed like a good way to try to live life out. In a beautiful and positive way where everyone was nice to each other. Make sure that no one goes hungry. Well that seemed like a good thing to wish for 2. Give us this day our daily bread. Make sure there is no poverty. No hunger. Don't get upset if people walk on your property. And hope that other people would also be nice if i were to trespass on their property. Even if they did have a sign posted no trespassing just because i wanted some blueberries are wild strawberries or just wanted to roll over to that particular small island and have a picnic. What harm was there in that. Forgive me for this as i would certainly forgive you. I would completely understand if you were to do that. So yes that part in the prayer seems very important to me and made a lot of sense. I didn't know what temptation was but i did understand what evil looks like. Because i had seen enough scary movies. And i definitely wanted to be delivered from any of those kinds of things. So i thought it was a great thing to request of god. And i'm not last part. Resign is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever amen. Well that was just a great piece of rhythmic poetry and i love the saying it. Display was also sensible to me because i wanted to become a nun when i grew up. And even though my mother was jewish. And we didn't go to church. And no one in my family believed in god. I really felt drawn to becoming a nun. Particularly one in france. Since i love their soft grey nun outfits compared to the severe black ones i saw her around town and duluth. That's soft gray with so much friendlier looking. And i wanted to be in an order where they help the poor. And really made a difference in the world where they didn't just talk about doing things before they were really out doing something about the suffering of others. I wanted that. And i wanted to do it in a foreign language. That just added to its appeal. I remember watching movies about nuns or reading books about nuns or even about missionaries and i wanted to do all the things that they were doing it seemed like the very best way to live life out. To be a kind and caring person who helped others. I tried praying at night. But i just couldn't figure out who i was actually praying to. Since it seems to me it was just like wishing for something on your birthday when you blow out the candles. Oh how i wished i could grow up to be someone who did good things in the world and who cared about others and who could really try to end suffering. And then i would picture. Not god cuz i couldn't conjure that up. But me blowing out all the candles. And hoping that my wish might come true. I would then say ah men and climb into bed hopefully the message had been received. I was also very open. To having jesus sit on the edge of my bed. Like i heard he did so often for people in prison. Who had never believed in him before and then one night there he was and now they believed. So many of my friends were either catholic or some kind of christian that jesus was with us was with us in our conversations as much as any other topic when i was growing up. I felt it so it's a really worried jesus and if he really did exist still that. As much as i thought it might be pretty scary to actually wake up some night and see him sitting at the foot of my bed. I would be open to it anyway because if it was true if it was real. That i wanted that to happen. I wanted to see him like my friend said that they had. He never did appear. Not once. Nor did i ever hear the voice of god although i really really really really listen for it for years. I thought it was all such a beautiful concept. But then my brother died of cancer when he was 19. And my best friend told me that god had killed my brother because we were jewish and didn't believe in god. At the very moment she said this i stopped looking for god. Would god really have punished my brother with a suffering cancer because our family was jewish and didn't believe in god. What a small-minded and mean and terrible entity. How could anyone worship and adore. Somebody like that. How was that loving or kind or someone good to pray to. It made no sense to me. And i immediately became an atheist. I did however still have a very strong call toward a religious life for some reason. And i briefly pondered becoming a rabbi because i was half-jewish after all. But there was still that small issue about god. So i put my religious impulses on the back burner and decided that in seven years when i became 21 i would join the peace corps. And that i would then accomplish something good in that way. I never did go into the peace corps i lived a year abroad i went the university focus on literature and language i always liked languages even though i wasn't going to be that none in france. I got married and i had kids and a busy life began in earnest and 20 years passed by. Very quickly. And one day. A friend of mine invited me to go to a uu church. I'd never heard of unitarian universalism. But i was always open to going to church with my friends. So i looked forward to it. I had no idea but that they would change my life. Here i found a service where there was no bible being used. So we're reading from mark twain's letters from earth were red instead. Here there was no pipe organ but a small chamber orchestra playing some gorgeous piece of classical music. Hear the humans had words i could actually say. Rather than just focusing on the melody and not paying too much attention to the usual jesus and salvation and god language i was used to singing in the churches i visited. Hear the sermon was called in a dress. And it was about things that mattered to me. It was said in perfectly sensible. Relevant. Everyday language. And i got it. I was transfixed. After the service i gathered up every single solitary brochure there was in the lobby. What you you say about jesus what you say about the bible what you believe. And i went home. And i read and i read. Just like i had the lord's prayer. Years before. And i committed to memory. Those 7 purposes and principles. This was it. I had finally found my religious home. Him and i went back and told my parents about this my dad said whoa. Yes of course. This is how you've been raised. And like what. He's a we just don't like to belong to anything. So we never went but. Horseshoe unitarian. It all made sense to me. There were no longer any translations necessary. He was who i was. It was too high i had always been. The church that i had visited that day was looking for an assistant re person so i applied and was hired. And within days it became good friends with a student minister there. And she told me how she was in seminary in chicago. But that she was doing her internship in minneapolis. Where i was. Why was the mother of three young children at that time and so there was no way i could just pack up and go to chicago or to boston or to california. So i felt that once again here i had felt so close. To being able. To go and to start this religious life and once again it would be put on hold. And then this young minister told me about the ucc seminary united theological seminary on the outskirts of the twin cities. And since the unitarians. Used to be congregationalists. And they broke away from that she thought maybe if i contacted them. And if they didn't know their own history remind them of this part that they might actually allow me to be part of their seminary. So i did contact them. And i was accepted into seminary. Industrial i began my very long longer than i had imagined journey. Ford becoming an ordained uu minister. But it was not a path paved with jewels. My best friend and sister-in-law who was a born again christian. Upon hearing that i was going to study to become a uu minister told me that she could no longer be my friend. We had gotten pregnant together raised our children together we were inseparable. We had of course many theological discussions and she was always trying to guide me towards jesus and praying for me and seriously i have so many people praying for me i am a shoe-in to heaven. But nevertheless we loved each other we were the same person. So this sudden break was with her was and is one of the most painful parts of my life. That was twenty years ago and to this day she can still not be my friend. Because i went public. With my humanist thoughts. When i became a minister. It was one thing she told me to be privately thinking the way that i did. But to speak from a pulpit was now a dangerous thing by threat to christianity. And therefore a threat to the world. When i was a hospital chaplain which is a part of my seminary training i was often requested by patients or buy nursing staff to be the chaplain that they wish to have in their room or on their unit. My supervisor wrote a review of me wants to put in my file noting that i was requested more than any of the other chaplains and then he found this to be very disturbing. Because there is no way you are able to console and to come for these patients since you do not believe in god. No the reason you are requested is that these patients see your need to be loved. And they feel sorry for you. Imagines bad. People are dying or family is experience some immense tragedy in their life. And they're requesting me as their chaplain because i am needy for their love. Not because i can actually bring comfort or consolation empathy compassion and caring i mean how can i be that kind of a person i didn't believe in god. Does a person have to believe in god in order to be a decent kind caring compassionate empathetic person i asked my supervisor. The answer. Yes. For without god a human is unable to have a moral compass unable to determine an ethical path. When i counted my supervisor said that he but he must be mistaken about this since i actually was able to do those things without god. He leaned over his death. His face darkened and strained and he yelled so you think you are god. And i lean forward. And said. Yes. We are all the children of god created in god's image isn't this so isn't this what your religion says. If i am in god's image would i not be like god with his love and compassion and moral and ethical compass leading my heart in the right direction. Isn't this what we humans are to strive toward. He ordered me out of his office. And i was put on review. When i was the consulting minister for the river falls congregation still as a student. I was part of the ministerial association and as such was asked to participate in their annual ecumenical thanksgiving day service. He was to be held in the catholic church and i was to be the speaker for that service. The day before the service we had our usual ministerial association meeting and before the meeting came to a close the minister leading at day at this all the safe from it because he want to talk about something that it come up. Nothing that had come up was that some of the ministers have been telling their congregants to boycott the service. Because i would be taking away their christianity. I was stunned. But it was true. This was their fear. Because i didn't believe in god or believe that jesus was the son of god that whatever it was i was going to be speaking about which they hadn't even asked me to share. Would threaten the beliefs of the people listening. I spoke to their fear that they thought it would say anything that would be disrespectful to the beliefs of those we would come into that service i explained uuism to them and are drawing from world religions and our respect. For other ways of being in the world. Then i spoke to the fact that they themselves as ministers must be filled with such arrogance. With such a sense of power to think that it is the minister who gives and who can take away a person's belief. Rather than believing as you used to that each person come to their own way of believing themselves. The thanksgiving day service happened and the place was filled. And i spoke about dietrich bonhoeffer. And his courage to stand against the nazis. His courage to stand up for what he believed. Many people came up to me afterwards to where members of those other churches. And told me that they hadn't felt threatened it all by what i had said and that they actually felt it was quite a religious service even without the god language. And they would have never believed it to be possible if they hadn't been there themselves. And that may be having a huge certain time with okay i guess. You seem so christian. It was exhausting to me to be in a christian seminary surrounded by christian language all the time all the seminary was very liberal and i was treated very well there. It was exhausting to me. To be in these small towns with small-minded people who believe that being a christian was the only way to be in the world and it only christians were good people. Myhaven. Was my uu church. And mayuyu friends. Or so i thought. One day. I was meeting with the district executive for my regular check-in as a seminary student. And we were having some theological discussion or other when he told me very pointedly that i should never tell any congregation that i was a humanist. Why would never be hired as their minister. Nor should i ever agree to any talk back after a service because the congregation only wants to rip the minister's to shreds. The first the very first thing i hlne congregations is that i'm a humanist and i love talk back. So here i stand today in front of you. What i didn't understand then but thought quickly thereafter was that the feeling in the uu world was changing. Humanism was seen as a bad thing it was stated and always underscored with the words cold intellectual no heart. And the word spirituality was taking over in the uu churches as was god language in jesus language in bible passages they began to be used more and more as sermon father. What was happening. What was happening was at the ut way wanted unitarian-universalism to grow and pragmatically understanding that the u.s. is a predominantly christian country itself that reducing the human is element of uuism which about 80% of you use were at that point. And incorporating recognizable religious language. Is spirituality god jesus etcetera withdraw greater numbers of people in the churches would grow. And then what happened was that churches were encouraged to have ministers. Versus being layla.. And the many small human is congregations which were mostly lead we're not being supported any longer bother you you weigh will they weren't being told this overtly of course. They just weren't being recognized. The reason given was that the uu way simply didn't have the resources to support all the independent uu congregation they were told. Which was the code word for. Small. Humanist. And so if a congregation wanted to continue to be leylide well that was fine but it would not be provided with the same support and services as the middle-sized and join churches which had ministers. This made me furious. Because if this language god language spirituality language all that jargon he's stuff. Was going to be coming into the union churches on such an overt manner and inhuman as we're being pushed out. Why didn't the people who want that kind of a church just go and become ucc united church of christ. Congregational and as i was holding seminary. Jane you know what you cc stands for don't you. Unitarians considering christ. Exactly. They're very similar to us. They just have an overt christian overlay. But if people like me. Don't want to have that then we need to have a place to go which was the unitarian universalist religion. Humanism has had a long and important history within uuism beginning in the 1930s and they're becoming very strong around 1941 all the way up to the 1960s where it was at his peak. Women's rights and civil rights abortions rights environmental concerns were and are the result of strong humanist voices. I knew this i study this i was honored to be counted among those men and women who not only talked about how to live a good life and make changes to actually put their actions to words. And no right at the edge of my becoming an ordained minister i was fine as the whole tone of uuism was shifting and i and other humans were finding themselves marginalized so not only was at marginalized in my you use them in my ucc seminary i was now being marginalized even within unitarian-universalism. And not only that i was being labeled as being all head and no heart. One of the leading humanist. L u u l in the nation corner reason with my mentor for all those years. One of the largest. Unity are humanist congregations in the nation and he told me he was janie if i were going to the union ministry today i wouldn't. I am here to tell you that humanism is a new credibly compassionate way to exist in the world. We are empathetic. Generous and giving. Humanists are not out their proselytizing they're simply getting to the core of things and getting them done. Now it is true that humans can talk a lot. An awesome squabble about the nature of a word. And even when looking at the definition than arguing about which dictionary was use which edition it was. But. When there are important things that need doing in the world humanist are there and why because i humanist focus. Is on the good of humanity all humanity and with the care for humanity comes care for the entire world including the natural world for how can i not be environmental concerns at the good of humanity overarching consideration. Did humanist miss spirituality talk. Or god talk. No. And why because to be human is to be a spiritual being. Spirituality is being connected to all and to everything into care about all and everything. We respond to nature and to music into silence. We look deeply inside of ourselves into our hearts and into our mind looking for the right answers to life's difficult questions. And god talk. Most units are atheist. Or agnostic or as i say non-theistic. Meaning that god is a moot point. There either is god. Weather isn't god. I don't know. But what i do know is that we exist here and now until the call is for us to be the very best humans we can be for each other and to each other and four into every aspect of the world. We are not cold and heartless and purely intellectual as though that's even a bad thing. No. We are warm and compassionate loving and caring and empathetic. Our hopes and dreams are those which provide the best life for each and every person regardless of age and gender sexual orientation or belief. We have a strong voice in a strong heart. The offer the world and this you you face. Is the perfect place. Within which to get things done. Because a group of people a presence in the community a place of religion that is recognizable to the masses is the best jumping-off place for a real change to come about. With a new president in the usa who is amanda social conscience and social action a man who appears to be grounded solidly here on earth and not caught up with the vapid jargon of the recent you you passed. I feel that there are great days ahead where you you with some can make itself widely known because of what we stand for and who we are and what we do. And the strong human is core of this religion is i believe we're the true spirituality of uuism lies what do we need more than our own humanity when what lies within us is truly enough. Thank you.

uuprairie_org

Pr131006SAC-ed.mp3

Let's go. Good morning again and welcome. and universalist society. I'm remodeling a member of the program committee. Gray aspires to be both an open-hearted and an open-minded congregation and we welcome people of every ethnic background and every religious background and whatever your color is sexual orientation or gender or your family structure. And we welcome you no matter what your age. Are your ability or inability. On sunday mornings we provide a wide variety of programs and services. Prime number hitches true today. Are a member of the wider community or by minister sandra in them right there in the back of the white hair. Today is one of us there today service is presentation called moses and the incarceration nation and it's presented by prairie social equity. In the first ladies of molly plunkett pam gates and polipoli joyal. Well i'd like to introduce r3 speakers today who will be speaking about moses i'm sure they'll tell us what moses stands for and the incarceration nation that's us wisconsin and the united states they're all from prairie social action committee. I don't have an introduction for you but she's an attorney i know that. Pam gates has been active in social action for a long time not only in our church been in turkey she's been involved in before and paula doyle another attorney for informally before that we have formally joined. Service service. Overall i believe that incarcerating such a huge portion of our population 1 and 100 in the us just starts all the society robbed us of resources or health education jobs creates an atmosphere. Locally is the buddhist group sunflower boots. So these this is wisdom there are 17. 11 chapters in wisconsin. It's most of the major cities. In wisconsin are represented. They include i believe appleton. Green bay milwaukee. Madison waukesha. You can see they've all got a biblical name and unfortunately did not tie them. To the city. Ike i think halle and pam probably have more information about when it was formed. Wisdom is not only working on it is generally coordinating the statewide 11 by 15 project that is one project. Wisdom which is working on reducing prison population but it is worked on many other projects. Over the past couple of years which include. Working they've done a lot on immigration. La changes. They have makeup which is the milwaukee organization may be able to figure some of these that by the first letter which may corum's coincide with the city micah's milwaukee and they want a community benefits agreement ensuring jobs with living wages for local workers affordable housing and environment. Ric ric is racine at closed down dozens of drug house. And what they describe as disreputable taverns. Joshua which is green bay fought to ensure continued racial and economic integration in their schools and job jobe. Is the beloit janesville chapter delayed expensive jail expansion which would have just helped more prisoners obviously and they redirected the resources to alternatives to incarceration. Wisdom i think is also worked on trans. Issues and pam knows if anybody wants to ask her that there's recently been i think a big decision in the milwaukee area around the huge. Reconstruction that was going highway reconstruction that there has finally been 12 million dedicated to. Increasing or improving their transit system me milwaukee's problem it now is that their inner core does not have two jobs the jobs are in the suburbs in the. People who live in the inner cities mostly do not have cars you have not had any way to get to the jobs in the suburbs because of the metro transit system stops at the milwaukee borders. Major problem. What wisdom does is meet with local chapters and does training with the people from different congregations to help them build their own interfaith teams. And hold on current moses members were in there somewhere. Sanger. Holy wisdom monastery snowflower. So they come in meet with the representatives from these groups whenever they asked to develop team-building. And help you in a focus right now there is a focus on the 11 by 15 project but there may be future i mean this is not the only thing they're going to work on you will hear about that specific project but that's not there will always be that will be identified going forward. One more notch all of this i just wanted to point it out to you i've got to hand out if anybody's interested just what their purpose is wisdom's prophetic declaration in a people coming together in relationships. Within their community immediate faith community and then the larger community. To work for a act for justice to build power and to transform communities and i just think it's a pretty inspirational goal and exciting. For treatment alternatives and diversion for people who have had run-ins with the law in november 2012 there was a study that projected 3100 fewer prisoner the admissions 21,000 fewer jail admissions 1,000 fewer crimes over five years and up to 1,600 and a hugely disproportionate number of people of color 25% of the world's prisoners are imprisoned in the us 1 and 28 american kids has a parent in prison one in 9 african-american kids have a parent in prison and proportion of african americans incarcerated. Nowhere near what was requested but at least the co-chair of the most use it as a victory these are her reasons we've gained bipartisan support for this issue we convinced extreme conservatives of how important this issue is it was a significant increase over. And almost 1,000 people from wisdom. Came from all over the state and among other things we stood on the capitol steps steps in the cold and snow this year various face leaders voiced their support for 11 by 15 for changing the way we deal with our offenders. The other thing i want to mention is how prairie doing moses i made a brief presentation during the service and we voted to join and collected are required to hundred-dollar dues on the spot i was quite impressed their goal was to adopt a new structure with a focus on some specific issues that they could work on and out of that came came for statewide tactful task forces and each of the members of moses will each of us will go all the time are asked to join one of those task forces and either done that are about to each of those tasks and the way they're going to. That's one kind and that's sort of understandable how you might use that but the other kind is administrative administrative solitary and that can be where people spend huge chunks of their lives alone in a cell and that is what they're going to be focusing on obviously the first to try to get information from. Add that maybe these things look hopeless but at this conference that's probably mentioned on october 2nd i learned that the issue of expungement of criminal records once the person has completed their sentences. Out on the board in the lobby they're accepting donations there going to be a yearbook and things like that they can.

uuprairie_org

Pr131110GeorgePenn-ed.mp3

Molly plunkett i am a member of this congregation and share of the social action committee. Welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society. We are a congregation that welcomes people of every ethnic and religious background whatever color sexual orientation gender or family structure we welcome you no matter what your age or abilities are in abilities on sunday mornings we provide a wide variety of services they are prevent presented either by a member of our society a member of the community as we have today or by our consulting minister sandra ingram time today we have george pain from south central move to a man who will be telling us about that initiative. Do we have opening words today that are in honor of veterans day which is tomorrow i believe. And those will be read by peter anderson. The american people will pay dearly for this decision win more than ever their voices are drowned out. Buy corporate spending in our federal elections. Former wisconsin senator russell fingal. Today we have with us george penn who is the outreach coordinator for south central wisconsin move to amend move to amend formed locally and in response to the 2010 us supreme court decision citizens united which ruled that there could be no limit on political donations of corporations the group and is she has initiation initiated petition drives to get resolutions on the ballot in various municipalities throughout this part of the state that would abolish the concept of corporate personhood number these resolutions have been passed already starting in the spring of 2011 and they're continuing their work to expand to have local municipalities explain what their long-term goal is and feathers in his cap so i don't know. What's up. Okay. Alright in the back there with the red hat can you hear me. Alright good i'm going to challenge us i'm going to give a challenge here. Unless you get the answer right. I'm going to give you a quote. Align and you tell me where it comes from. We are all architects of the future living in the walls of time. Maybe know where that came from. The first lines of him. And agape kissed you. How fitting. When i saw those. We are all architects of the future living in the sands of time and we are in trouble time. I believe. Now explain to you why and i hope i didn't just go. Good. All right so how many people have not heard of citizens united. But be honest it's no it's it's a lot people having. All right so i'm going to talk about that as a framework. Other problems that we having this country. And how we going to get things improved he let me find my page down. All right again as. Oh what happened. Okay you keep yelling at me if that's something goes wrong. Because i'm looking over here and i should be looking here. So move to a man. South central wisconsin was i believe the first chapter of move two men started in. April of 2010. Citizens united let's quickly go that and then i'm going to have to go fast because 20 minutes is short but all i have to say. Since united supreme court case that opened the floodgates to money. So that we. We don't have it i believe we don't have a democracy anymore. Total just it's a supreme court case that's that culminated in the probably rather that was coming and we can talk about that move demand and other do a 5. Well there five let's see because right here talk about money and politics how did we get here here meaning i believe we have no democracy over headed to know democracy. I have the corporate power work with you you principles. Has a problem of corporate power. Juxtaposed to you principles and then what can we do about it. Alright this is really a good saying that we found here. How can politicians represent you. When they are giving millions. Literally millions to billions. To represent. Someone else. That is. Sentences that i think. Tell us what where we are in and it's probably have. We believe. The system is legalized bribery. By the way it's set up. And end up. In the end that. If they pay for campaigns. If i pay for your campaign and i'll give you a million dollars to run for senator. I have expectations. You don't deliver for me. I'm not going to help you next time you honey. That it's that simple it's legalized probably because they don't tell you how i'll give you some money. They don't even say. I want both of you you know it. You know i'm not going to give you money next time if you don't give me what i. So that's why it's late like 5 because it's really no bags of money being passed anyway. Isn't it it's a different role. I want talk about three-quarters aces. Citizens united being the third of it. That's. Cases of how we got where we are going to talk about three of them. One of them 1886 southern southern. The pacific court case. It's important what it was about what's important was. The gentleman whose faces are who was it was formerly president of a railroad company in new york. Was the court reporter in california for this case. And. In the headnotes not in the findings of the court. But in the heads-up knows he said. We believe that corporations are persons. No one of the dissenters answers and i we can talk about said. This is clearly. Legal meth because there was no legal precedent but it became a judicial present its is any lawyer hear anybody who knows about law it's so much based on presidents. So if you can get a live if you can get something in there and people start doing it becomes in the psyche. And that's what corporate personhood is. Is not real. So that was the start of. Do that. Let's go 90 years later 17 1976. Supreme the supreme court rules that political money is equivalent to speech. This expanded protection to find it is equivalent to speech. So now. We cannot limit. The speech of any person see you see the tie here. Subtle the clear. If i have you don't let your speech limited. You want to speak to women. We all agree. We don't want to speak to limited. We all agree that all persons should not have this peach limited. If your corporation your person to therefore. Do we treat the patient have their speech limited that's logic that works in the judicial system. I hope that's clear and finally we get to citizens united and we say that's opening the floodgates now we all know who find goal is we probably all know who. And most of us probably heard of mccain-feingold. With limited money in the 1990s. They said mccain-feingold is dead. And all limits to contributions are dead. And no government. Because corporations are persons having have free speech. No government any longer can limit. That speech. Would limits uncountable. I hope i'm getting logic 2 in this short and quick. Let's talk about it financially. Every other year. Is it for that presidential the one that's a little higher each time raise the presidential race because i have an x. Restaurant here so i got this cycle here. In 2008 that which was a presidential i got a big jump. A butt. End citizens united was in 2010 january 2010 that's november. It didn't go down shoot a gun down right. It didn't go down it went up so this is a non presidential rating 2010. That the money contributed. It's cold outside nuggets. Went to the campaigns in this particular graph there's a cycle that's been broken of it going down when it's not a presidential race. If that doesn't blow your blood. This is the same graph with one chart adding in 2012. Right. This is a this is a next. Presidential campaign. And it's gone. Triple b. So anybody who's i'm an engineer. I understand what exponential growth means. Anybody who doesn't it means not. If that's expensive goes. Leonard woolf. All right so that should tell you this is united impact. How much money is going into the presidential races you better today. This is a non-partisan issue. We got obrock obama and mitt romney both of them. Just for the presidential race almost 1 billion dollars a piece. What could social justice do with the billion-dollar. B. One billion. that's both of them this is not a partisan issue. And end as a group i live in madison so i'm surrounded by. Which i assume most of you are from some of the comments which is. I accept all political. We all accept. Poinsettias. We know this is not. One-party they both have the same rules and they both get the same money. The same decision. A lobbyist. Obviously that's when you go out of government and you start going back and telling them what you need. I hid from them because you got the money but intercourse the proper way so it becomes legal for every. Lobbyist and wealthy donors use campaign contributions illegal bribes. 2000 + 2000. We spend 6 billion dollars. I talked to that for paying for all the other elections. That's at least doubling of the previous. Cycle. In one cycle change on doubling. Anybody knows about exponential growth. Doubling one cycle change is quickly going to get you. No it's it's just just a phenomenal growth rate. I will see what happens here in 2014. Right here. 99.7 5% of persons who contributed. So if you contributed any money to a campaign you're part of that if you didn't contribute any you're not part of that so what you doing about people who contribute. 99.7 5% less than $200. And .26. Contributed more than $200 so if you contribute $201 you're in 2.3 6%. What is that house that come to funds. 2/3. City blue. That's a cool until that blue 2/3 of all the money. Came from went to 6% donuts. Where's your voice. If you gave $1,000 to somebody. Did i want to listen to you. I don't think so. I want to listen to 100000 to me. So. Did this is another boy wait talk to me money in cancel that small amount. Look at it another way. 232 biggest donors. Who contributed most. Put money foodie super pacs in his black money packs and everything you've heard about 313 million so the top 32. Defended 13. It took 3.7 million of us. Who write who didn't give a big money. To control that same amount. Which voice do they hear. Not the 3-point if you're one of the 3.7 million this is why you can hear my tone i'm very passionate about getting our country back there. Is there too much money in politics 87% of us say yes. So that means both parties. Of us millions of voting. Does this money. Expenditures is this better democracy. 87% yes it is. So we know we have a problem with our democracy. As people. Corporations using their rights right so it's not the corporate personhood is a small fraction. Of the problem. I'm sorry. Donations because of corporate personhood is a small fraction of problems they use this right. In many ways. That are not related to alexa. They refused to disclose what's in their products. Because they have privacy right to privacy right which amendment is that. Okay i'll look at that later products. You can't stop. If you can't stop them from ever ties in harmful products. So there are court cases and decisions behind these he's a general senses but they're actually court cases. That we could talk about in cuba naked asset if you want to you can tell they can't be inspected without appropriate lag time so there's all these reasons are corporate personhood is bad for the democracy outside of the money. If we stop the money. And we had corporate personhood we would not be stopping big problems so it's not just stopping that money. So this is a freshman orientation graph. Right given by the democratic party in 2012. Both parties complicit. Ou in office now. You better spend 40% of your time getting money for the next election. Are you going to be out. 40% of their time. They have to be going looking for money. And that's what they're suggesting is a probably have another graph that breaks it down by the hours of the day. But. So they know when i say we don't like it. They don't like raising the money they like that it keeps them in office. That they don't give you the one side of the sword. When they leave on average. This gentleman here was a senator. Phil. And you left me lobbyist. You would do it if your typical politician because you're going to get a raise from a piddly 200,000 to millions. To be a lobbyist to go back to talk to the new centers. I thought it said they raised so this lobbying problem is big within the this whole context. So move to men has some strategy to try to turn this around to nobody tell me how much time i have left. 30 minutes. And what time is it what time. 5280 move to men has some strategies suggested earlier we were one of the first. To pass if not the first i'm still trying to sort this out we weren't the first affiliates before but i think madison and dane county with a ugly possibly the first pass resolutions asking for constitutional amendment in november 2000. Like within a year they had a resolution passed who has solution. I remember voting on it but i need to know this group existed you might remember about you might not because when we see resolutions you can say yeah great.. But i was just yesterday collecting signatures in lake mills to get that community so that's one strategy focused on local resolutions in campaigns. I'ma tell me political campaigns right i'm getting signatures to put on the ballot a statement that says corporations are not people money is not free speech right build a truly grassroots movement. We believe. This is no less. Challenging. Then women's right to vote. Did the two failed equal rights amendment and its own. Or any other constitutional amendment this i've said this a hundred times everybody out here probably if they talk to me ever again. I hope to be alive when we get the amendment i will not be alive when we get our democracy back. This is that long. Lava challenge. I'm 62 if you give me idea 15 to 20 years ago i believe it's going along that is what i'm saying. Susan lobbying other approaches that we're going to be taken when we grow we have to grow and that's what my goal is here is to go. Alright weather next to the next page. Proposed ballot so what we trying to do what we haven't been in lake mills we have language that says two things that i set you up for right. Only human beings are corporations unions anybody else if you don't have flesh-and-blood you're not a human being we want that clarified in the constitution because it's been if i can use this word in a bastardized and money is not speak and therefore limiting political. Did limiting free speech so this is all the orwellian languaging that they conditioned. People to understand and so this is what the move to amend. Amendment is basically saying with all the legal stuff in there that i can read right apartment 23 communities. Denver working on right now. That's who i am today just hope out 500 communities to pass around the country. 16 states have asked for this amendment. Alright so we if we got it tomorrow we'd be the 17th state so we're not. States. Rachel zoe this isn't moving it's moving. Right and so we're building a democracy reform movements when not on a campaign. As i said. We will be doing this until until after i'm gone. Spectre doing it until hopefully my health holds up. So what are the seven you you guys know the 72 uu principles. Some of you know i'm greatly somebody might have to read them once in awhile you understand them. You're taking any equity and passion acceptance spiritual growth searchtruth conscience democratic. Since i'm going to run out of time possibly before i get through all seven them to talk see how late i bolted the words that i'm focusing on in the next 7 slide right this relates clearly two people with a conscience for the grandchildren in their country which you guys have. How do i in french upon dignity with a system that existed. I have sweatshops around the world to keep the price down so the cop of corporate profits can be as high as they are of people for minor offenses and fill prison so there is what's called the prison-industrial complex that might hurt about that is real that goes and makes laws like 3 strikes. Torture of terrorists segregation neighborhoods and the dignity of humans equity and compassion. Oh thank you. Unless 2 to 3 years. I think there's another point they'll just go out 95% of all. Profits have gone to 1% of the population the rest of us are struggling for a living wage. So. It we don't have any equity when we have that kind of an economic system. Opposition to minimum wage it just burns me when i hear people say well those people should work harder and i know people who work two or three jobs. Minimum wage. They can't work any harder they need to be getting a couple bucks more now or just the increasing gap in the incomes and net worth moral hazard we heard of that term with the banks. They won and it's going to happen again probably because they. Got away with it. Ultimately. So there's a whole bunch of reasons why. This is offensive to all of our sensibilities in anyways search for meaning and truth government provides provincial treatment the faith-based initiative. Don't lose because what they don't it. Your phone to me you're over here. That's what they do with those lines it's it is important that we get redistricting reform will not get redistricting form or a thousand other things i can tell you we need to get until we have power back. By getting this house to do some lemon. Is our pain. Is liberty and justice corporate pressure. Never the kyoto principal and all of those things that we refuse to sign when it gets me with the cambodian bomb like to get the ball as bombs in cambodia and we're the only country that has not signed. To have that band. Only major country. Who refuses to sign. The band landlines cuz we have so many corporations have producing so that that's going to give us world peace. Action of witnesses people most people know what that means it means this is what we want to do right so in june this year they pass this to amend the constitution corporations are person monday night speech they understand it therefore. If you seen this thing you notice about 10:30 or 4 so i got two or three there for the gaa influx all uua buu way to make their endorsement formal right so not just understand it but they made it formal. Alright alright that's a request member congregation that's you the password solutions to support the dorset constitution members that'll be seven corporations that money and their congregations traditions so. 114 kids is on food stamps and i bet you there's some people in here that are on food stamps because. If you only getting a minimum wage you're probably on food stamps. Our goal is to get the. Get our constitution back to we the people from with the corporations and we're looking to figure out how to do that. why do i know so much about the church because the guy in ohio is michael greenman who is taking it on himself to. Have anybody seen this on tv. We've been doing press conferences and things have anybody seen a press conference remove two men. They don't they either don't come literally or when they come they don't put it on the news it's busy. It's against their profits. That's very critical is another whole industry. Of media reform that i was. Before i join this movement. All right let's go over civics that i had to relearn two years ago. If you don't remember this don't feel bad. Unless you're in the 8th grade where the teaching get their attention okay. So i can get a constitutional amendment want us to waze top down bottom up. Top-down i get both houses to say i want amendment. They created the pass a law they send it back to the states 3/4 of the states. Have to ratify it. This is the state legislatures have to ratify. No no this is. The top down. Anonymous believe that's going to happen. This is however bernie sanders know something soon as i'm sorry mark pocan. And the guy named nolan have. This amendment. That they can't even get co-sponsors on. And. We have this amendment. Chris taylor and hanson. I have this amendment in our state is not going to go. Top down. Bottom up. We can go one. Technically the way constitution says that article 5 of the constitution is that. You can get. Two-thirds of the states. That be 34 states. I can say i want the resolution like 16 half so halfway to that in a sense. Then they have to have it call the continental congress. Lights. And they have to also. 16 states all have different language. That's that's human that's right that's and come up with a common language. And then they send it back to the states for 3/4 ratification again. So. That has two dimensions one scares people the other doesn't. One is to go that route. It's called runaway convention once you call for constitutional convention they can change. In the constitution so that scares people but. That's never happened. And the only time we even had a constitution to answer anybody know that who knows enough said. One time and i got. I got 10. Immensely. Alright that's only time we've had that. Every other time that we did. Taken. They choked. Night and they came from the. So once we got enough states. Except for the eclipse. Right. I twice once we got enough states. For the women's right to vote. We didn't have to have a constitution convention because they said. The people have spoken they choked and did it from the top is he still so you can do it. How are we impacting that. So we wanted to come next date. To have more states. And what if we do that we have to get our state. We cannot force our state to do it so we have to intimidate them. We have things we have to intimidate to my 223 approaches. The one we're doing here is getting more communities we have 23 working on tanning with your working on that 10-day shift and get. What we need is a what we need is a champion and a community. And then we help them that's our goal is to have all these communities are mostly knows i've been to lake delavan collecting signatures. We want to get. Not 23 but 230 communities. Number to make it. Big right and also we have a second thing which is called the movie coalition movie out voted in of which wisconsin i know you all know the league of women voters and 36 organizations in the state are part of the campaign. Of which we now we're going directly we got 25,000 people have signed a movie form. I'm going to courage that i can leave one with you and if you guys want everybody here sign it. And then we're going directly saying okay now we've got 3525 we're going to have 50 to get couple hundred thousand a million people to sign his form. And then as we grow because that's our goal we're going to grow into a movement or we're going to fail. As we grow then we also going to go and do. Approach where we. It went where they passing the community we're going to get those people to go directly and say hey we passing our communities around here we want you to vote on it. August taylor in hendersonville or whatever it is the next time around. That's better strategy thank you for let me clarify it. Okay well we all have our stories right whether we do something or not there's a story behind it. And you would love me to get personal and i thank you. So i was in the navy at the high school six years in the atlantic ocean nice and safe during what war. Vietnam war. I consider myself a vietnam. Era veteran alright. I would not use those two words vietnam veteran without the word era for respect for any of you who were in vietnam. Cuz i was not a trip. I was no hero. But i was aware of a war. What do we do in 2003 in this country that's notable in history books. Thank you. We went into iraq. Night. I took my head out of the sand. And i've been searching for an answer. Does part of the democracy former member of the independent party group in new york that's national. But none of those have a real action plan they just telling us about the problems. This came along last year august is when idling. I first heard about it. I've been looking for. 8 years for something. I voted on this in april 10th and i didn't know this group existed. Like we we need to market ourselves as well. That's why i'm here today. What is. I was triggered by something so. Individual. Night. I'm hoping one or two you will have your own individual triggers to see. And join us. But it is everybody's got a story. Thank you very much. The services is concluded and we thank you all for coming today please extend a hand of friendship to your neighbors and stay with us for coffee and conversation.

uuprairie_org

Pr150329RevIngham-ed.mp3

Good morning and welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society i am has probably almost everyone out there knows perry's part-time minister. But for those of you who are visiting or if this is one of your first-time woods just tell you that prairie aspires to be both an open-hearted and an open-minded congregation welcoming people of every. Ethnic and religious spiritual background whatever your color your sexual orientation or gender your family structure wherever you are in this. Journey of life that we are taking together we welcome you later in the service there will be a place for you to be introduced yourselves if you so desire we try not to force people to do that. We do have a wide range of services summer presented by me and some by others within from within this congregation and sometimes we have our speakers from outside the congregation. The opening words. Are these. It's a very brief. Enter this place. May we come. To share. To learn. To speak. To listen and to grow together in the spirit of peace and harmony and love. Marywood. A police like the chalice. Thank you. For every time. We are disappointed. Can we choose to help. We like this. Our chalice. I have a very short reading. I'd like to share with you is written by. Unitarian universalist minister david blanchard. Called looking for love. In all the wrong places. He writes most of us look for love and only the most obvious places. And as a result. Most of us come away. Disappointed. It's as if we are still grade school kids counting valentine's as a measure of what matters. The laws that matters. Is not typically. The subject of sonics. Would love songs. There can be love. In being told. We are wrong. There can be love. In sharing a regret. There can be love. And asking for help. There can be love. In communicating. Hurt. There can be love. In telling hard. Truth. Most of us find it painful to live at this level of love. But i can be there. Even in these most unlikely places. It isn't the kind of love we've been promised in the fairy tales. A princess. And fairy godmothers. But it is the kind experienced by frogs and dwarfs. It's the sort of love. That can bring us closer. To finding the missing pieces of ourselves. That we need. Do makeup. Whole. Blanchard says some of the most. Loving things i've ever experienced. I haven't been ready for. Wasn't looking for. And nearly didn't recognize. A few of them i didn't want. But all of them. Have changed me. Transform some part of me. Filled in a place that i didn't even know was empty. When the valentine has been tucked away in a drawer. The candy eating. The flowers faded and gone. There will be other legacies of love. That will last as long as we do. Because they have brought us to know an element of life. Heart feeling. Part idea. Part mystery. That wants to know. Is h. Cheap. Humankind. Be both. So said the bumper sticker. On the car in front of me. Clever. But i couldn't just leave it at that. I had to dissect it. Humans aren't always kind. I thought. In fact sometimes they are just me. Or i'm thinking. Or spotless the same thing. Or egocentric. Or simply. Behaving badly in unacceptable ways. Often we all stray pretty far. From our highest. Ideal. There are many kinds of betrayals. On many levels. I'm going to make some assumptions here about what we mean we talk about betrayal or at least what i mean and i talked about it. Betrayal and trust. Go hand-in-hand. You can't have one. Without the other. Acts of betrayal have very little impact if we. Do not first make ourselves. Vulnerable. So vulnerable leti is a component. A betrayal. Every single one of us. Has play two roles. In betrayal. The betrayer. And the betrayer. Computer keeps telling me is not a word. I should be. Betrayal is mundane. Happens. All the time. Hannah arendt wrote about the banality of evil. We could also talk about the banality of. Betrayal. Is commonplace so everyday. Betrayal is not a unique occurrence. The primary definition of betrayal is. To lead astray. To mislead. One opposite or antithesis of betrayal in some situations going to be talking about this morning is good leadership. There are the betrayals that we do to ourselves. We betray our bodies. He's precious. Precious. Bodies of ours the only ones we have. All the time. We don't get enough rest. We don't eat well. We don't use our bodies. Move around enough walk as we are able. Stretch as we are able. Dance. It's not literally. Figuratively at least moving a little. We walk around in our bubbles of anxiety. Putting way too much stress. On our bodies and failing to find ways to relieve or lessen our anxiety that's being kind to our hearts. Our beating living hearts. I was so impressed. With a young man named. Chris. Borland. When i learned about the extraordinary thing he did recently. Okay. loeser i hate football chris borland decided that having a healthy brain. Was more important. Then continuing to play. Football. He was a high school and college star i believe. And he saw i'm already taken a fair number of hits to the head. I believe he's a pretty decent professional player to is going to be the san francisco. Dodging. 49ers i wanted to say giants because after all baseball's only only a week. Tell opening day. Borland is very young mid-20s. He gave thousands. It's not millions. Of dollars. I mean if you can. Endorsements and everything. Because he does not want to betray his mine. We betray others all the time. This is certainly not new to human beings. This week for christians is holy week. Beginning with palm sunday which is today. Many of us in this room or raised in the christian tradition. Where we learned about the ultimate betrayal of jesus by his disciple judas. If we were paying attention in sunday school we also learned about peter's betrayal. I have always felt was much worse than judases. Because peter betrayed jesus. Not just one. What's 3 * in a very short period of time saying. Each time that he pierre. No idea that jesus. When i get on an airplane. I trust that the pilot will not betray that trust. By crashing the plane. Intentionally. Because of his or her. Personal. Problems. Core size exactly what happened. This past week. How many times. And in what ways has that pilot been betrayed. I'm talking about not only throughout his short lifetime but also during the last weeks and months of his life. And i'm not trying to excuse what he did. Only to show how all-encompassing and important betrayal is. In our daily life. Similarly when i get into my car. I trust that other drivers. Will be paying attention. To driving not texting or talking on a cellphone weather's and held or not or reading a map. Cena or preoccupied with children fighting in the backseat or trying to grab something from the floor or eating. Most of these i've always liked myself have done. After texting in the south. The list goes on and on and yet these things are happening in people's cars all the time while i am marilee going on my way. Frosting that no one will betray that trust. With poor driving habits. When a culture creates magnificent works of art. And architecture to try to explain how it interprets the world how it is trying to define what it means to be human and what is sacred to all of humankind that kulture trust. That succeeding generations will cherry. These works of art. But generations might even learn from them succeeding generations. If possible. But at least we have the option to learn from them and that succeeding generations might even maintains offerings to us. As needed but no society no culture makes this effort thinking that another culture in another time will destroy them. And yet it happens all the time. Is a betrayal of human trust. You may remember that in 2001 at the beginning of the twenty-first century and these so-called enlightened times the taliban destroyed the huge statues of buddha that were carved into the side of a cliff in bamiyan afghanistan. Is buddha's worth 1500 years old. And now we are learning that the islamic state has been destroying sculptures. In the mosul museum in iraq and that the islamic state destroy the winged bull. At an archeological archaeological site. Near mosel in the ancient city of nimrod. The capital of what was once known. As a kingdom of assyria. Batwing is bull dates back to the 7th century bce before the common era. I can't quite get my mind wrapped around this kind of destruction. And betrayal if you were fortunate. Enough to have had outstanding history teachers in your educational background is i did. You might have the urge to shield them from this information if any of them are still alive. This is unacceptable behavior. I want to weep. When i read about what is happening to these ancient cultural treasures. I'm filled with sadness. And sorrow. I don't trust anyone now i told my sister. About a year. Or so ago. I had been the beat rate ye. One too many times. Suffering through a series of betrayals between. The turn of the century the year 2000 and 2014. And now my sister had broken a truck. The seem like a sort of final. Straw to me. On a whim she had withheld an important piece of family information. And i was not happy. When i said that to her that i don't trust anybody. Anymore she replied. Well good. You shouldn't. My sister's pretty hard. So i lover gear. That was almost worse. Funny regional betrayal. I thought i don't live like that. I can't answer is not who i am and that is not what i think unitarian-universalism is all about. Betrayal. Is always. Always. About. Power. And control. Power and control. It is also about our egos. A perfect example is how we betrayed mother earth over and over and over again because we want to be in control. We think with our human egos that we are superior to nature. I'ma talk more about that in about three weeks. For now though i'm using our relationship to the earth. As a perfect example of. Power. Over. We think that we have power over. Both the earth and other living creatures because. We believe it we are superior to other living things. Which brings me to one more level of betrayal that i want to consider this morning. Betrayal in the institutions that we. Are a part of in our daily lives. Especially this one prairie. What do we do when we encounter betrayal at this level. The institutional level. Specifically at our institution. Well we could try making enemy pie no i did not plant. The audience for that. That could be a good start. Need to be aware of the fact that we fail each other when we don't speak up about lack of leadership. In an organization antabuse. Of power. Fail each other. When one person insist on always having their own way. That person does not grow. Or learn. Anyting. At the same time. The institution does not grow. Or learn anything. This is a no-win situation when growth of all kinds is forwarded cyme slow.. Members. Numbers that's your basic growth. Interpersonal my relationship with each of you and yours with mine that's another kind of growth and then of course. Personal growth. My own personal growth. All we're doing is muddling through if we don't have growth not realizing our potential. As a faith organization what we want is a win-win situation for possibilities challenges growth compassion everyone is complicit when bad behavior is not called out. Confronted. Talked about. Just re-read. A couple of those lines of david. Blanchard's. There can be loved and being told we are wrong there can be love and asking for help. There can be laws and communicating hurt. And there can be love. And telling hard. Love you might say. But also important. Power over. Too often results in abuse. Of power. There are many misconceptions about power power in and of itself is not a bad thing. We all have power. The goal is to use our power collectively. Demand the brokenness in the world. And this is. Power. With. Want power over. Nobody has to come out on top. It's not about winning. Power with is consensus-building and it's a huge part of what leadership. Entail. Power over is so old school. Power whip. Is the new way of thinking and trying to be. People in churches often run into problems around leadership and power. A church a fellowship of faith community whatever words you want to call our gathering together here let's don't get hung up on the words. I use the word church as a convenient shorthand for this. Place this gathering just. Beloved community that. Favor. Expression for what we are beloved community. Befall short. In these kinds of communities. In the area of addressing the abuse of power. There's several reasons why this happen. For one thing we are not in the work place where problems can be and are handled differently. Then they would be in an organization such as this one at church is not a workplace. Except for 4 bus. We cannot treat things the same way in a church. In fellowship in a society whatever this we're calling this weekend. Get treat things here. As we would in a work environment where person could be fired or at least reprimanded for unacceptable behavior. But we are also not exactly a family. Even though we like to think we are. We're not. So what might work in a family situation or there is unacceptable behavior won't necessarily work here with onemain big exception. Good parenting involves with parenting equals i think. Unconditional love. And making sure that children realize that no matter what behavioral changes are needed. They are still and always love. By the parents. That aspect. Have a family in a non-profit volunteer driven independent organization like ours that's useful. That's even necessary. To this discussion. Why is it so difficult to handle betrayal of trust. In the unique setting of a church. A fellowship. We don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. We are nice people. And things get even more complicated when the person engaged in the counterproductive bad behavior is a valued member of the organization because they've been part of it forever. And because it's done in numerable things wonderful things over the years. To support the organization and to keep it running. In other words how do we speak the truth in. And with love how do we be absolutely certain. That we reassure the betrayer the abuser of power. Who may not even know. On a conscious level what they are doing. How do we make certain that such a person is love. And cherished by us even when their behavior and their actions need to change. I need to change not only for their own say for the good of the individual you might say but perhaps more importantly for the good of the organization. Here is a story that i hope will illustrate for you what i mean by power with as opposed to power over. I've taken this story from a sermon by unitarian universalist minister maryland school. Who in turn adapted it from another source. A student of a martial art form called now they may have to help me with the pronunciation a tito. Aikido. Recounts his experience. On a tokyo subway. Some 20 years before the telling. Our car was comparatively empty he says. Matthew housewives with their kids in tow and some old folks. Then the doors opened and the afternoon quiet was shattered. By a man who staggered into a hour car bellowing purses. He wore the clothes of a laborer. And was big. Dirty. And drunk. Screaming he's swung at a woman holding a baby. An elderly couple scrambled toward the other end of the car as the drunk kicked at them. The train lurched ahead the passengers. Frozen with fear. I was young then he remembers and in pretty good shape i've been putting in a solid eight hours of aikido training nearly every day for three years. I thought i was tough. The trouble was. My skill was untested and actual combat. A student's of aikido. We were not allowed to fight. Aikido my teacher had said again and again. Is the art. Of reconciliation. Whoever has the mind to fight has broken his connection with the universe. If you try to dominate people. You are already defeated. In my heart however i wanted an absolutely legitimate opportunity to save the innocent by destroying the guilty. This is a knife on people are in danger i stood up i plan to take this turkey apart but he had to make the first move and blew him an insulin. Alright he hollered you're going to get a lesson. And he gathered himself for a rush at me. A fraction of a second before he could move someone shouted hey. I remember the joyous lilting quality of it. Both the drunk and i found ourselves staring down at the little old japanese man sitting there immaculate in his. Kimono. Keep being delightedly at the labor as though he had an important secret to share. A leo man said talk with me he waved his hand lightly the big man followed as if on a string. Why the hell should i talk to you you said. The drunk now have his back to me it's his elbow moved to even a millimeter i drop him in his fox. The old man continued to be my sole were you drinking. I've been drinking sake. Boy rebelled that's none of your business. Flex of spittle. Battered the old man. That's wonderful the old man said absolutely wonderful. What sake to. Every night my wife and i warm up a little bottle sake and take it out into the garden and we sit on an old wooden bench we watch the sun go down we look to see how our persimmon tree is doing great grandfather planted that tree and we worry about whether it will recover from the ice storms we had last winter. We'd like to watch our tree when we take our sake even when it rains. He hooked up with the laborers i signing with pleasure. The dog's face begin to soften. Foley unemployment. Yeah he said. I love persimmons to. His voice trailed off said the old man smiley sure you have a wonderful wife. No reply the labor my wife died. Very gently swang. What's the motion of the train that big man began to sob. I don't got no wife. I don't got no home. I got no job. So ashamed of myself. Tears rolled down his cheeks. A spasm of despair ripple through his body. That was my turn because the student. Standing there in my wells scrub youthful innocence my righteousness i suddenly felt dirtier than he was. The train arrived at my stop. As a doors open i heard the old man clock sympathetically. My my said. That is a difficult predicament. Tell me. All about it. I turn my head for one last look. The labor was sprawled on the seat. His head in the old man's lap. The old man was softly stroking the filthy matted. Hair. I had just seen a keto. Tried. In combat. Story was adapted from how can i help by ram dass and paul gorman. And it is about manifesting power. As human beings we will manifest power. There's no escaping that. No denying that. The only question is where that power is grounded. What is it. Betrayal can be if not defeated then minimized. Bye. Active listening to each other. Honesty with each other without judgement trying to avoid triangulation shouldn't know what that is talk to me later. Transparency in our relationships willingness. Willingness to approach the person causing difficulty with kindness gentleness and compassion and speak the truth at least the truth as you see it as you have observed over a. of time. Speak the truth to anyone who seems to be betraying the ideals of this community by abusing power i believe that we can do a better job here of living up to our highest ideals i believe it we can serve each other so much better. By gently and kindly pointing out to each other where some changes would be good change comes. And it is wrenching. Wright's unitarian universalist minister maryland soul in her sermon the hard work of resurrection. Change twist sauce into shapes and forms we don't recognize change often brings chaos we are thrown into a place we've never been and we don't know where to go for help or how to ask. This is scary territory. This is difficult territory. Agonized over these words for two weeks. I've lost sleep. What's my appetite a little bit. The scary difficult. Territory. In another sermon this one titled the seven deadly sins of unitarian-universalism reference tool says that we unitarian-universalist fail to recognize our interdependence as her 61. Now it doesn't mean this in the way we usually mean. Interdependence. She says we are willing to help others. But we don't. Ask. But don't ask us. To accept help. You're all great at helping us. But don't ask us to accept help. Have to work on this. It's an essential part of being a leader. Full says if we are a community then we have to admit that we need one another. Have to be willing to accept. As well as to give. Have to be willing to give each other honest valuable loving feedback. Once again i am filled with sadness and sorrow when i think about. The betrayals that occur when we are too afraid. Huh. Twitch other about our shortcomings. Too fearful to trust each other enough. To speak the truth when power is abused. When leadership is lacking. We can be better leaders. We can strive to share our power. Calling out and confronting each other when something is not right. Let me know moving forward here when any organization. Unless we're in right. Relationship. With each other. May it be so. You will notice that there is no congregational response time in today's service. No that is not a mistake. I do invite your responses but i would like us to ponder to contemplate for a bit before. We continue to discuss betrayal power control leadership all things that i hopefully will continue to talk about in the coming weeks and months. But i think that two off and having having these few minutes or even seconds. Between the end of my reflections and the time and what you're invited to respond is not nearly enough time to offer a thoughtful response. And if anyone wishes to say anything yet today. Come up to me after the service and say it to me now or make an appointment with me to talk at a later time. Before we join together and responsive reading for 68 i want to share one last. Shorts. Humorous. Reading with you. Because i believe that laughter is one of the foundations laughter is. Bedrock. For building and achieving both right relationship. And effective leadership. This is titled are you prayer for leaders. And it was written by william. Shoals how many of you recognize that name bill shoals he was president of the unitarian universalist association for many many years he was the unitarian universalist minister before that for many years. After he was president of the u.s.a. he was head of amnesty international for a long long time. Now then benny when he was head of the. I still is the unitarian universalist service committee. So you'll get letters from bill shoals all the time. Is what he writes in his prayer for leaders. Oh god. I am a leader.. Teach me. To practice patience and forbearance in the wake of every comment. No matter how we name. Sustain me in the face of hidden motives manipulation passive aggressiveness and aggressive passivity. Grace me with the knowledge that progress is halting and resistance is to be expected. Make me a person of integrity. And a long our collective vision with our organizational health. Remind me regularly of our long-term mission. And larger face. Help me to worry less about my legacy. And more about whether i make black the paths of those who journey with me. Insist that i laugh. Let me never forget that this too will pass. Grace me with gratitude. I am a leader of a god. Take courage friends. Way is often hard. The path is never clear. And the stakes are very high. Take. Courage. 4 deep down. There's another truth. You are not. Alone. Go in peace.

uuprairie_org

Pr151004Ingham-ed.mp3

Thank you amber. Good morning. Welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society. We aspire to be and almost always managed to be a welcoming and open-minded congregation you are welcome here no matter where you are on the spiritual journey the journey of life. No matter your ethnicity no matter. Your family situation no matter your gender no matter your orientation. Sexual orientation. Are we doing courage you to come more than once if this is your first time because our services can be very different on sunday morning sometimes they're done by me. Sandy ingham the minister here sometimes are done by someone within the congregation and often they're done by people outside the congregation. The opening words are these and they are from professor andrew norman who is professor of philosophy. At carnegie mellon university. He writes. Cry. In your humanism. Share it with confidence. We stand for nothing less than the world. In which pretend. Mattering. Has been rendered obsolete. Not just by evidence and logic. But by forms of life that afford well-being. Creative fulfillment. Honest to goodness. Macarons. For all. Penny. May the light around us guide our footsteps. And hold us back. To the best and most righteous. That we see. May the darkness around us nurture our dreams and give us rest so that we may give ourselves. To the work of the world. Let us seek to remember the wholeness of our lives. The weaving of light. And shadow in this great and astonishing dance in which we move. Last week. I talked a little bit about the humanist. Manifesto written in 1933. We're going to read it today if several people who graciously volunteered to read different parts of it. I will begin with this. Preamble and it's a humanist manifesto not humans. The time has come for widespread recognition of the radical changes in religious beliefs throughout the modern world. The time is past. 4 m revision of traditional attitude. Science and economic change of disrupted the old billy. Religions the world over are under the necessity of coming to terms with new conditions. Created by a vastly increased knowledge and experience. In every field of human activity the vital movement is now in the direction. Of a candid and explicitly humanism. In order that religious humanism may be better understood. We the undersigned. Designer to make certain affirmations which we believe the fat of our contemporary life. Demonstrate. There is great danger of a final. And we've at least fatal. Identification of the word religion. With doctrines and methods which have lost their significance. And which are powerless to solve the problems of human living in the twentieth century. Today. And i want to edit this language but i won't. Because it's sexist. Today man's larger understanding of the universe. His scientific achievements and his deeper appreciation of brotherhood have created a situation which requires a new statement. Of the means and purposes of religion we therefore affirm the following. Heidi. First. First. Religious humanist. Regard the universe at self-existing and not creative created s humanism believe that man is a part of nature and that he has emerged as a result of a continuous process. Third. Holding an organic view of life. Humanists find that the traditional dualism of mind and body must be rejected. Fourth. Humanism recognizes that man's religious culture and civilization as clearly depicted by anthropology and history. Are the product of a gradual development due to his interactions with his natural environment and with his social heritage. The individual born in. Particular culture. Is largely molding. By that. Humanism asserts that the nature of the universe depicted by modern science makes unacceptable any supernatural or cosmic guarantees of human values. Obviously humanism does not deny the possibility of realities as yet undiscovered. But it does insist that the way to determine the existence and value of any and all realities. Is by means of intelligent inquiry. And by the assessment of their relationship to relation to human needs. Religion must formulate its hopes and plans in the light of the scientific method spirit and method. 6. We are convinced that the time has passed for theism. Deism modernism and the several varieties of new thought. 7. 7th. Religion consists of those actions purposes and experiences. Which are humanly significant. Nothing human is alien to the religious. It includes labor art science philosophy love. Friendship recreation. All that is in its degree expressive. Of intelligently satisfying human living. The distinction between the sacred and the secular can no longer be maintained. Hey. Religious humanism considers. The complete realization of human personality to be the end of man's life. And seeks its development in fulfillment in the here and now. This is the explanation. Of the humanist. Social passion. Night in place of the old attitudes involved in worship and prayer. The human is finds his religious emotions express. In a heightened sense of personal life. Cooperative effort to promote social well-being. 10th it follows that there will be no uniquely religious emotions and attitude. Of the kind hitherto associated. With belief in the supernatural. 11. Man will learn to face the crisis of life in terms of his knowledge of their naturalness and probability. Reasonable. A manly attitudes will be fostered by education. And supported by custom. Resume the humanism will take the path of social and mental hygiene. And discourage sentimental and unreal hopes and wishful thinking. 12. Leaving that religion must work increasingly for joy and live in. Religious humanist same to foster the creative in man and encourage achievements that add to the satisfactions of life. 13th. Religious humanism maintains that all associations and institutions exist for the fulfillment of human life. The intelligent evaluation. Transformation control and direction of such associations and institutions. With a view to the enhancement of life. Human life. Is the purpose in program of humanism. Certainly religious institutions their ritualistic forms. Ecclesiastical methods and communal activities must be reconstituted as rapidly as experience allows. In order to function effectively in the modern world. 14. The humanists are firmly convinced that existing acquisitive and profit motivated society. Has shown itself to be inadequate. And that a radical change in methods controls and motives must be instituted. A socialized and cooperative economics order must be established to the end that the equitable. Distribution of the means of life be possible. The goal of humanism is a free and universal society in which people voluntarily and intelligently cooperate for the common good. Humanist. Demand a shared life in a shared world. 15th and last. We assert humanism will a affirm life rather than deny it and be. Seek to elicit the possibilities of life not flee from it. And see endeavor to establish the conditions of a satisfactory life for all not merely for the few. By this positive. Morale. And intention. Humanism will be guided and from this perspective and alignment the techniques and efforts of humanism will flow. Thank you there you have it. As the document says so stan the cc's of religious humanism. A lot of words. I remember this one was written in 1933. But i think you still i hope we're able to get the gist of this document. Spite all the words. Which was so radical for its time. Even within unitarianism and universalism. Andrew norman professor of philosophy is professor philosophy at carnegie mellon university. Says that manifestos are important for many reasons. Fake or sad something important to our culture then they give us a history i mean we call ourselves human food for us to know what exactly was in the humanist manifesto. But norman does go on to say this. Let's be candid. These manifestos are also unwieldy incomplete and too many a modernaire bingham. I would agree with that. Not to mention that language from 83 years ago. Can sound stilted. Never the last as i said last sunday. The first time i read a humanist manifesto i was in awe. I thought. This is what i believe. What's not to like. About those 15 statements. I don't know if if you caught the one about which i've course especially like. That humanists believe existing acquisitive and profit motivated society has shown itself to be inadequate. And radical changes needed a phrase in a little bit. And the point of life is the complete realization of human personality. Everett religion must work increasingly for joy in living. What is not to like in those. I think we got a little off topic last sunday during the congregational response time when we equated being a humanist with neglecting or ignoring the animal and plant world. That is ignoring everything on earth. Damping on that is not human. But being a humanist means. Among other things. Simply means that we believe that humans are in charge and then no one's going to suddenly appear. Would that we lived in hogwarts maybe but anyway to save us from ourselves. It means that we're in charge and entirely up to us. Demand. This broken world which after all we'd broke. Being a humanist in the best sense of the word definitely does not leave out the animal or plant world being a human this means that i have a responsibility to other living and nonliving. Can come up with too many non-living parts of earth. I thought of rocks and i thought of dirt but dirt isn't exactly nonliving. But we are responsible for the entire universe. Water tank. And. I've been fighting a cold. But we have a responsibility to do no harm and to live in harmony with the rest of creation. I often describe myself as a humanist pagan. To be a humanist means. To be open-minded realistic. Not totally. And not all the time. I'll get back to that in a minute minutes is to be a believer in the scientific method a rational thinker but not totally. I'm working up to an explanation. For humanists the point of life as we know it right now is to be all that we can be really hate that the army co-opted that phrase so long ago because it's so perfect. To be all that we can be. The point of life is to fulfill our potential. And to help others fulfill theirs. Elvis being a humanist involves imagination creativity openness to possibilities. A recognition that each one of us is beautiful and important doing all that we can to help others realize their. Full potential as the song said. How could anyone ever tell you. You are less than beautiful. As a humanist ipledge. To imagine the unimaginable. Justice beagle did in the story. What is unimaginable. An atheist elected president of the united states. A world without war. The world beyond. Shelter food clothing and jobs for all of those refugees fleeing syria and other parts of the mideast. And africa. Shelter food clothing for all of the homeless right here in madison and all over this country this supposed land of the free. Prison reform black lives matter and really battery. Transgender people respected and cherished by everyone. I don't know that anybody bought me her gill say. But if we could imagine it it's not unimaginable. puzzle you may get some strange questions from. Weather today. So i am a humanist i have to imagine the unimaginable and this for me is where the sacred the religious enters into the. Despite the ifs ands and buts and maybes of life i am a humanist who tries to look at. What. Is. And go from there because i am also a humanist. Who immediately leads to what if. And why not. Jamaica sleep requires a certain amount of faith. Inhumanity. Making this week also takes me out of the purely rational. So perhaps i am a humanist with. Not doubts. Exactly not reservations. But i humanist with an openness to possibility. Jack mendelson some of you may recognize that name. Longtime beloved unitarian when he started he was a unitarian minister. In the 40 but eventually course he was even sharing universalist minister he has something to say about this he writes in 1947 prior to becoming minister of the unitarian congregation of rockford illinois. I met with their ministerial search committee. Seated beside me was koozie fox a lifelong church member. Hers was the first question. Are you a humanist or cyst. My answer says mendelson was immediate and honest. So it was then he wrote and so it remains. Unfortunately cactus. Not physically with. Last week in iowa city when i have a mini reunions with a couple people i went to seminary with one of them made a remark about a well-known unitarian universalist minister a longtime humanist who once said he was committed to humanism always would be. But would probably also always have a soft spot in his heart for god. I don't know if that minister use the word. God with a capital g or a small letter. So if you weren't here last week you missed. Pretty much missed the history lesson some of you may get beside really fat that's unfortunately. But. I guess i'll have to postpone the quiz 2 and i was going to have today. Does anyone recognize the name paul curse which is possibly pronounce. Exterminate urtz. And one source. Said the pronunciation was kartz. Hearts. Forgive my. No. Yes it this one i'll get to that in a minute he's been called the father. Secular humanism. He was born in 1925 and he just died three years ago in october. Exactly three years ago in 2012 he was has been called a prominent american skeptic. As well as secular humanist. Among other things he was editor of the humanist magazine to magazine i highly recommend. He may have been responsible for this well-known phrase. No deity will save us. We must save ourselves. And he contributed to the writing of the humanist manifesto 2. Written in 1973. The second humanist manifesto begins with a statement that the excesses of nazism. And world wars had made the first manifesto seem too optimistic. And yeah they wrote another one in the second manifesto they opposed racism and weapons of mass destruction strong support for human rights. Yeah. How many 21 doesn't sound right to me but there were more than 15 that were in the original. Manifesto. Okay so we're you know those things aren't terribly controversial it was also something in it about. Technology can improve. Life and there was also a call for an international court which has happened. There were. There was a. One of the principal said that divorce and birth control should be legal. So maybe we've made a little. Progress. But it did reject religion completely which is still controversial and in one of their principles was the right to abortion which forces still. Very controversial. This document was circulated and ended up with thousands of signatures. The original. Human manifesto had no female signers. Human manifesto to before it was circulated had one. Betty ford. I'm in people from all over the world signed this. 3 years ago when i began my ministry with with you. I mean that literally. Because ministry is all that we do together. Ministry is all that we do together. So when i began ministry with you. I heard up rumblings here and there i often hear rumbling so be careful when you rumble or muttering i heard muttering. That this congregation. Should. Bill itself. As the only human is congregation in town. I don't know. Well i don't know if it's true i don't know if we should. Take that spin on who we are and i don't have an opinion at the moment. Should this society though make you manism its central identity its claim to fame. I think that humanism should be an important part of how we describe ourselves as long as we don't ignore the possibility that word again. That's the mysterious the unknown the awesomeness. The wonder of the universe the complexity of life is long. As we don't ignore that all of those things also played important roles in our humanity. In our quest to become the best that we can be. I have had more than one experience that i can only describe as mystical. Not supernatural. But indescribable maybe a little bit like dreams can be. Except i was wide awake. Who knows everything. Not one of us. For me the only sensible approach to everyday living is a humanist one. But i cannot rule out the possibility that there is something greater than each of us but when i say that you know i don't mean a supernatural being. I'm not really sure what i mean. I struggle for the right words. I've come to this conclusion through experience. What can be hard to find language for. Can often be experience for example when people work together. Really work together. To help heal. The broken world. When we laugh together. When we experience joy in nature when i'm at the bottom of grand canyon. Or when i'm in northern minnesota looking at the sky. Northern lights they're not. There's something bigger than me. I don't have to call it god with a capital g. But. Text a my my humanism. I find that sometimes in conversations with others certainly in the company of children. In our animusic something's created that is bigger. Then my mirror self so i guess i maybe not a pure humanist. As i said my humanism is a. Oh don't worry i don't think i'm going to start calling myself a theist certainly nothing wrong with that. Not there. But having said that doesn't mean that i don't believe in god. It's all about the definition of the word. My definition is not mine alone but the one i prefer. Is god as that which ultimately concerns us. That witch. Mackers. I intend to keep using certain words because they best describe certain aspects of life. If used as originally intended for example the word religion comes from the latin word religio meaning. Wait for it. Reverence honor or respect. I have a great deal of reverence and respect. 4life. The unitarian universalist. Humanist association which you can find if you go to the org. Says this about being religious. We are religious i forgotten quotes. In that we share with most unitarian universalist. But natural human desires for a beloved and accepting community. A purpose greater than ourselves rituals. Rituals humanist association writing here. Rituals and practices that resonate with our common humanity and shared mortality. And opportunities to work with other tough-minded warm-hearted people. To do good in the world and to help one another attain. The greatest possible. almonte in life. Some questions we might ask and ponder. Is humanism dying out within. Our unitarian universalist tradition. Are the numbers of those who consider themselves to be humanistic lining. In our congregation. Are younger people interested. In humanism do they even know what it is. I can tell you that there is a large group of young adults in the unitarian universalist congregation. In ann arbor michigan who have formed a very large juventus group. And i can tell you that when i went to general assembly in providence rhode island in 2014. When i visited the humanist booth. I had a wonderful conversation with a young man in his early twenties. For my sink that uu congregation in new york city. About humanism. He was. Dispersing the table. The boot and he was very enthusiastic about humanism and its future. Check it out for yourself at the next general assembly which is within driving distance. Will be in columbus ohio. June 22nd to the 26th maybe we can get a van. And one more question. Are we indeed the humans congregation in town. And if so what does that mean for a future. Doesn't mean that we're going to go it alone when it comes to doing the work of the world and it. Going it alone means being able to speak the language of those with whom we are traveling. You might choose to use so-called god language. Metaphorically. Literally figuratively but we should be comfortable using it. And defining words our way. Sorry acting out of hubris or humility. There's a fine line in humanism. Between the two. Do we act out of being full of ourselves. And why shouldn't we be where the humans weren't charged right we can do anything we want we rule the world and we don't need any help from any god. Unless we are defining god as that which is. Most. Most worthy. Of our attention. Or. When we choose to act out of humility. To be humble humanist. Not proud not arrogant the unpretentious. Thankful for life and full of joy for our humanity. With enough room. In our joy and our thanks. And our humility. For those or not. Cure. Humanist. Professor norman says that at bottom humanism is a commitment. To developing a shared and responsible understanding of what really matters. And living accordingly. That requires humility i believe not huber. I think it would be fascinating to write a new humanist manifesto and norman did just that you can study them and read his accompanying article in the january february 2015 issue of the humanist magazine. But for now i will test just tell you. That his manifesto is called. Humanism big-picture mattering map. With the subtitle of what really matters. And why. He has only nine statements. Not fifteen or twenty one or whatever the number was. Humanist manifesto 2 and he attributes the basis of each of these 92 famous people. Face of philosophers mostly. Basically as you can tell from the subtitle his mattering map in his words is his attempt to capture. In brief. These are all very brief. What centuries centuries. Of patient inquiry have taught us about genuine mattering. Now where have i heard that before. Yes that is my preferred definition of god. That would ultimately concerns us. We could as easily say that the holy the religious is that which genuinely mattress. I am a humanist. Space baseline humans sometimes human is pagan sometimes even his food is penzone the day. I have things are going. How much despair feel for the world maybe while there have been out in nature recently. But i am a humanist i have to imagine the unimaginable. And this for me is where the sacred the religious enters into the equation. Despite the ifs ands and buts. And the maybes of life. I am a humanist who tries to look at. What. Is. Did you go from there. To what. If. And why not. The pledge. It's pledge that i make despite or. Maybe because of. The state of the war. I make it with sadness knowing how far short of its loftier goals. Humanity has come. That's far. More importantly. I continue to make my pledge to humanism with joy. An optimist. Always recognizing. Possibility. A possibilities. Unknown. Those of you who weren't here last week we had a conversation about whether you should say. You can say bless you if you're an atheist or humanist. And in that you know we also have sore silly but then later. I don't say bless you but it is a god damn it. Perfect. Humanism so i'm okay with that and to be fair we have to say that falk hurts and edwin h wilson wrote the human and wikipedia says 17. I think you're right. The closing words are a poem by donald summerfield. Now i got this out of the january february 25th. Humanist magazine. Black deep breath anyone understand why. Titled yes and maybe. If you are if i am if we can if you do if we don't if you want if we fall if we rise what then. Kisses nike with our if babies with us and bought with insolence and incongruity with a. Chapter yet to be read across your indefatigable life. The fallacy of mine framed in this kindred restlessness of some other deeper place. This forest is ancient sanctuary of fontaine reason sensuality two more passion resides reject the all-encompassing all-consuming great lie. Toss aside the sky daddy mythology jump the abyss with me find new meaning in the journey is not old wound if maybe we will shape the world with our hands if yes we cannot lose the depth and breadth of humanity say it is so say it say it is so. Thank you and she saw god okay pleasant be going peace. Beat your neighbor.

uuprairie_org

Pr130428CarolynWaxler-ed.mp3

The opening words will be spoken today by karen and compassion beyond our family and friends to all living beings to all of creation. Learning to love is a long and winding path way and a source of all meaning on this earth. Okay. So. This story is called a little child can show us. And actually it's a true story and we wanted to learn. About what little children would do if they saw someone who was sad or hurt or crying. This most people thought that young children would not care about someone else. Or try to do anything to help them. Does. A lot of people think that kids are. More like. Little devil. But. People were wrong about that. And so this is a story about a little girl and her name was julie and this is the sad this is a true story she was just 18 months old. And that's not i mean she's just not much more than a baby herself by then is she i mean because. She's only been walkin and talkin herself for a little while. And her mother was a very busy woman. And she had several other children. And she also took care of others. People's kids. So one morning a neighbor came over and asked if joey's mother could take care of brian. 2. While she ran some errands. So. The mother. Did that in the house this is a small house it was just packed with babies and young children and julie's mom was kind of a no-nonsense kind of person and matter-of-fact and she could take things in stride. But today she really had her hands full. So after the neighbor left. Baby brian started shrieking. Topless law. Angela's mother tried to calm him down. But he just got more and more upset. And she thought it might help to the mother thought it might help to put him in a highchair. And give him some cookies. As soon as brian started to cry julie look very startled. And worried and her whole body tensed up like she was really scared herself. But you didn't run away. Instead. She went over and reached out to him. Then he just threw the cookies on the floor and started crying some more. Julie carefully picked up the cookies and tried to give them back to him remember she's just a year-and-a-half-old no. And. The mother was surprised by this because usually julie would try to eat everyone else's cookies. And then the mother put brian back down the floor see if that would settle him down but you just kept crying. And julie kept harboring over him and whimpering a little bit herself so then the mother put brian in a playpen but that didn't help either but still julie just stayed there right by his side then she gently stroked his hair. And reached into the playpen to patty shoulder. The mother left and went into the kitchen. From there she could hear julie cooing at bryan to bryan making his kind of sympathetic sound. But the crying still didn't stop. Finally julie came into the kitchen and urgently pulled her mother back into the living room. So she was not able to help herself so she went to find somebody else. To do it. Took the mother's hand and tried to put the mother's hand on brian's yet. Now say ugly because the mother was so busy. She really feel to appreciate what all the different things that the child had tried to do this little. One-and-a-half year-old. So. Don't really like julie thomas. If you're not just concerned about themselves and then i just little devil. They also cure for others in need. And she was still like that five years later. Eric seemed to come from deep with inside her. So she has my sympathy is grown-ups do and more than some. So i think that that's a good lesson. For us all to remember. Do you know kids like that that that like to try to help and is that something that you like to do. Well that's good that's good. You have any questions or. Okay well that's the children's story for today. Thank you so much caroline. About two weeks ago we had a presentation by maurice waxler who talked about compassion and empathy. In the nonhuman in the early humanoids. And as we keep on having talks and presentations about peace nor goals for peace and objectives of peace. And the people doing wonderful things for peace but i'm a recycling kind of guy and people talk about the wonderful things are going on in san francisco and i say well that's fine and good but what is going on in pittsburgh it doesn't mean that much. In terms of real things that can be done is what keeps on driving me to bring things to do to the service. And i think about embrace simple sense watching our kids. Just a simple fact of each other using using the phrase used words at the schoolyard and the power of impacting kids early asian in developing a sense of empathy and whatnot. We have very fortunate here to have caroline who works at that center and a couple power couple. Anyway i'm very much looking forward to caroline talk and it can we have a mock-up in the in the service of title of today's talk is the origins of compassion in humans account is currently a senior scientist at richard davidson center for investigating healthy minds of the uw. Where they conduct research on mindfulness kindness and compassion. She's been featured in articles about a research on empathy the new york times and elsewhere and as she's coming to the podium i'm going to pass out when the article so you can take a look at it please share with your neighbor. Thank you peter if they thank you for the invitation it's very good to be here with you today is defined as a general base. In 2008 barack obama campaigned on the importance of promoting empathy for the welfare of our children and nation. Hubert humphrey once said that the moral test of government is how government treats those who are the dawn of life the children. Those were in the shadows of life the sick the needy and the handicapped and those were in the twilight of life the elderly. Why don't you and your principles is to promote justice equity and compassion in human relations we're far from alone in affirming the value of compassion variants of the golden rule are found in all major faith traditions and i've long been part of folk wisdom as well. You don't need to be religious to practice the golden rule but one challenge is how to put these principles and values into practice. And another is to practice them by skillful means. What is distinguish between compassion and what they call idiot compassion which is not helpful it can actually make things worse for the victim for the helper for both major religious scholar recently published a book called 12 steps to a compassionate life. Whatever that means positive regard for others can that inevitably be created in children and this is where child temperament comes in we have a more difficult child. I think that someone in their studies to support that but at some of the learning is through the modeling of others behaviors and and as why when i spoke about parents who model these behaviors that that's another kind of stores for the child to learn so you can predict perhaps since this mother was doing a lot of childcare something like these almost like patting gestures i mean i think it's in here to be social and to reach out. But there are sex differences you don't as often see boys taking on this role though it's not that it's certainly that they never do different kind of ways in which boys and girls show their concern empathy the feelings are less difficult to see you don't hear them queen as much they do they get more involved in instrumental actions which is true of sex differences throughout all generations. I mean i know appearance where their kids were around that age where was really upset because the child doesn't seem to be showing enough concern and. Couple things come to mind here actually several things all mammals i think have that capacity the mirror neurons although it hasn't been studied in all mammals but there's a distinction and adults and he in the brain and what happens in when someone is exposed to someone else's suffering parts of the pain matrix light up in the brain. Fair and i've heard stories about cats coming like when someone told me that her friend was too sick to get up to eat that the cat actually brought up to the bed. The scientific community is very keen on trying to foster this kind of information and they're going to be putting together a special issue of a journal called developmental psychology and with the college of people to be publishing about compassion and empathy and children so. You know and the display rules in different cultures so that example my belief is almost universal and throughout history but cultures vary so in terms of what they permit what they allow what they discourage that received tremendous differences. Yes i do you've taught you try to find that place and obviously there are heinous act that you can't you can't accept but even think about nelson mandela and others who have been tortured in prisons to survive is better and to try to relate to. I'm closing words will be traveling to wolves a cherokee legend. One evening an old cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on within people he said my son the battle is between two wolves inside all of us one is bad there's anger jealousy breed fear guild false pride and ego the other is good it is joy peace love hope empathy generosity.

uuprairie_org

Pr150906RobBrink-ed.mp3

Good morning and welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society my name is aaron basch and i am co-chair of the membership committee. Prairie aspire speedvault and open-hearted and open-minded congregation we welcome people of every color and ethnic and religious background sexual orientation gender and family structure. We welcome you no matter what your age or abilities or in abilities. And the opening words will be read by an urbanski. The opening words are by justin owens. Thanks to google we can instantly seek out support for the most bizarre idea imaginable. If our initial search fails to turn up the results we want we don't give it a second thought rather we just try out a different query in search again. And the tedesco family will come forward for the chalice lighting. But the way that this chalice eliminate the inherent worth and dignity of every person and their labor on this weekend that is set aside to honor the benefits we enjoy from the fruits of labor. I am very happy to be able to introduce to you rob brink. Rob served as a christian minister for 15 years. Five of those as a solo minister in a small church in saugatuck michigan over the years his love of science and human being pushed him further and further to the theological left. Until he realized he couldn't be a minister anymore and resigned. This last year has been one of major transitions including the loss of career home. Faith and marriage. But he joins us today with a smile because a man with nothing to lose these opportunity everywhere. I love that last line so i introduced you to you rob rink. Thank you. Get things squared away here. So we already got the. Faith stuff there we go there things pastors don't get to say. Things like shut up and go away i'm tired and you're very annoying. Are you allowed to thinking you just need to get upset if you actually say it out loud. Some pastors can drink and some can cuss but the thing no one is allowed to say is i don't believe this anymore so. I got out. And now i'm just a guy who thinks stuff and the thing i think is i don't. By this anymore. I still like jesus i just don't think he's god. I don't think there is a god. And when i told my family they were so excited. We're not exactly. They didn't know what to do like from their perspective i had just destroyed all of my foundations. From my perspective i finally got some. And that's what we're talking about today. I need a volunteer to play a simple guessing game anyone brave want to come up front. My man. The way we play this this thing is driving me insane. So that it's a simple guessing game there's three numbers. Gave the three numbers fulfill a rule. I know the rule you got to guess the rule. The way you guess the rule is by guessing 3 numbers. And i tell you if they fit the rule. You can guess as many times as you want as you want and i'll even get you started. Enter prove that this is fair i'm going to write the rule down. Here. Set will review it at the end of the game. Alright so bob you want to be my my referee here. Rainbow sandals. You're the only one who knows. All right so we ever will and i'll get you started i will tell you. That your initial set of numbers. Is 2. 4 + 8. 24 nate. Fitbit they fulfill that rule. And you can guess as many times as you want i'll tell you yes or no whether they cut the rope. Obvious one is they go up by. Even numbers to 4 a.m. double it no. Beautiful words to and then 4 days for something to store but maybe the next one was the 614. Nothing you have to offer a set of three. So you give me a new set of three and i tell you they said the rule 2482. 4612 3612 does federal. What's the next one run. Also heads the room are you sure you don't want to just let him play. I try my voice pretty. Do you know the rule. So you guess until you know the rule and then you tell me the rule. Cuz it was way better than 5-10 1505. So you double. 4-h. That's so the rules and you double it again for the next number that's your yet you're wrong. Good job.. That's actually a very unfair test. Most adult human beings fail that test. What's interesting is children. Who failed the test but they feel it less frequently. Then adults do. Because they they haven't had enough time to really get good at this buy it. Which is called confirmation bias it's built in your brain. So let's reveal the. Body want to tell him. 3. So the rule is three increasing numbers. Take the reason why that's unfair is. Unless you get really really precise and persnickety all of your guesses are going to confirm. What you thought originally. Guy and the reason why it's double unfair is your first one sets up the expectation i gave you 248. They would set the double double rule that wrote that in your head. And then every gas after it because the rule was so loose confirm the rule i wrote in your head. Until you've got all this support for the rule i put in your head and you say on must be true. Except it's not. Everybody with me so far now you've got a party trick you can do this to your friends it's fun. If you need another example. Turn on your radio your television. Guy who here would like to see just for one week rush shut up. Show hands and just to be fair on the world invited here you can say the same thing about rachel maddow. Right. They're two sides of the same toy. They are there to present an ideological that's their job that's why they get paid that's why people to knit. Their audience loves them because it feels so good. They are someone else tell you. You are already correct. Confirmation bias. It's everywhere we swim in it. And the way you could beat this by it's the only way. It's the question your own gas to take the rule in your head and instead of guessing something that confirms the rule. You intentionally guess something that would break the rule in your head. That's the trick. So how would that work with our game. The rule i primed you with was double-double right and also friend you kinda with even. So even the easiest one your first guess is got2b. Yo what 36. 12. Does that include synod number that you did that so that was good that's progress right you know it's not just even numbers but then everything else after that was double double double double double double we just kept confirming our gas. So what would be a guess that would disconfirm double-double. What. 123. 123 would still get you a yes you would expect to know based on the rule in your head. So you would actively choose to disconfirm the rule in your head you would get the unexpected yes angle. And now you've begun actual learning. That's how you break out. That's what we call science. If you do that. If you try and you try you create a rule and then you break it and then you create a rule and you break it and you create a rule and it works. And that it works. What's a 14 times. You can be confident that it's probably right. Can you be sure. But you can be confident. Progressive. Her. That you are getting closer. 2 something true. That's what i call a small truth it doesn't explain everything and it explains one thing accurately. Another brilliant along you are wondering what any of this has to do with real life or church or anything like that. Any answer is everything. You guys exist. To help the people who didn't show up today right. That's the whole reason you're here you said it at the beginning of the day. So. You look out. And you see. Functionally infinite need. Do you have functionally infinite money. Pretty sure that's a no. That means you have to choose. You have to pick. How are we going to help. Who were we going to help how much are we going to help. And the churches. Each church has their own answer. Cuz they got it figured out right. You just say the sinner's prayer and then they going to heaven and you might as well shoot him now cuz they're done. Or. Some other church says y'all wearing social justice and so we're going to come at 4. Social change within the greater madison area and we're going to organize sit-ins and we're going to make the legislation change in that's our thing. Each church has their answer and of course the corporations had their answer. And the politicians will they got you just ask them they got answers. But here's my problem. When there's that many answers the one thing you know for certain is there not really answers. I call this the walden bookstore test. You walk into any bookstore. And you look at how many books there are to fix a given problem. I have a plumbing problem oh look there's the plumbing book. Yeah you got your choice you got bob vila and some other guy. Right. I have a spiritual problem about how to get over addiction you got you got a wall of books like a whole section labeled self-help. Hey that means. There's no answers. There's 1,000 answer. Which means we don't really know. If we knew there'd be one book. What we have instead of opinions. And opinions reach. A confirmation bias. Take for example young dylan roof. Do you remember dylan. He's the one who brought the gun to wednesday night bible study at american or was it. Emanuel african methodist episcopal church killed nine people left us all wondering. Why. How's the agency just broken. In the head or was he manipulated. Will the cool thing about living today. Is we actually know the answer. Cuz he left a blog. And they found it. Like a week after. He did this. Any in his own words he says quote. The event that truly awakened me his words. What's the trayvon martin case. I read the wikipedia article in right away i was unable to understand what the big deal was i mean it was obvious zimmerman was in the right. But more importantly this prompted me to type the words. Black on white crime. Andy google. And i never been the same since that day. The first website i came to was the council of conservative citizens. There were pages upon pages of these brutal black-on-white murders i was in disbelief. At this moment i realized something was very wrong. How could the news be blowing up the trayvon martin case while hundreds. Are these black-on-white murders got ignored. Nkn quote. That's how he got started. He had an idea in his head he google searched it and surprise surprise people agree with me. But you know he had the idea already in his head because of what he typed. He talked black on white crime. He could have typed did trayvon deserve it. He could have typed. Ar. Is citizen justice effective. He could have had some. Neighborhood watch violence. If you wanted to educate himself on the topic. But he had an idea in his head and all look the internet provided him with a slew of confirmation. Look at all these people who agree with me it must be true. And confirmation bias turn the flicker of his privilege into a flame of racism. So he made his plan it got his gun wrote his manifesto. And went to bible study. He sat with him for an hour. While they discuss the bible. You remember the bible right. Love one another forgive your enemies. Like not shoot them. He was sitting with a doctor. A state senator. Edit teacher. But he didn't see them because they did not fit. The story in his head. He didn't hear them either they were doing a bible study. Pray for those who abuse you and spitefully use you. But he didn't listen. Because those words didn't fit the story in his head. When he finally couldn't stand the mental dissonance between the story in his head and the reality around him. He stood up and said quote. I have to do it. You rape our women and you're taking over our country. Now i know that the old testament is dark but i'm pretty sure that's not in there. That's the story he carried with him into the room. Everything that confirmed it was proof. Everything that disproved it was ignored. That's confirmation bias. And that exact same bias is built into our brains. The kkk not the enemy the media is not the enemy racism is not the enemy. Self-satisfied certainty. Is the enemy. Unfounded confidence that we are correct. That's the enemy. And reality is the cure reality is the check it's the balance it's the test. It's the only judge of truth. Is it better. To just hand a poor person $2. Or is it better to hand them a sandwich $1 worth of sandwich. That's a testable opinion you can run a double blind experiment and find out what works better in your neighborhood. Are white people more intelligent than black people also testable. And of course that age-old argument should the toilet paper go over or under you can actually. Record how much bacteria exist on the paper roll one way or the other. You can test it. Youjin. How much effort it takes to reach up as opposed to reach under you could do 100 split test experiments were they pull and see how many times does it come off clean and how many appendages. They've got the big truth i'll figure it out in their heads and they accept whatever confirms that they explain away whatever doesn't. They they they because of course that's all those people stopping right that doesn't apply to us where different. Have you. How many how many children of the 80s do we have. Anybody gen-xers. Right you watch g.i. joe. That you get to the end of g.i. joe the same thing every time to do the moral of the story and then there's the little kids applied i like newly enlightened no i know and knowing is half of. G.i. joe except it's not. Just because you know your brain has a built-in bias doesn't mean you're magically out from underneath that buy it. It's hardwired. You don't get to think your way out of it you learn to cope with it. It's like losing an r. You don't think your way out or more i guess i got a. Justin. Pop it up i'll just pay more attention and now i'll be able to write with my non-existent right hand know you have to learn how to cope. You have to learn how to compensate. So what i'm offering you today are a couple compensation strategy so you with me. I know it's warm. You with me alright says the first clue. This is your first compensation strategy if you can call that a clue or maybe a warning sign. That you were slipping into or already trapped in a bias. Okay. Ladies and gentlemen i'd like to introduce you to cough. He's my invisible dragon. He goes with me everywhere. Say hi to everybody pop. He likes you. Oasis suite. I am glad that some of you can see him anyway how about you doubters is there anybody here that cannot see my pet dragon puffs okay. So what i'd like you to do is i'd like you to prove me wrong. What test can we run to prove that my invisible dragon is not actually standing there. Yeah you could you could do a survey how many people seeing how many people don't not super scientific. We could start what else. Yes if you got a real dragon that he would be able to roast marshmallows i happen to have a marshmallow so let you join no no you don't understand. Pop is not a fire-breathing dragon he's a gentle dragon next test. Step on his toes alright are you ready pop. Yeah that's not going to work cuz pop has really tough toes. Next test. Yeah. Oh okay so yeah okay so you can investigate that's good i could say pumpkin fly. And he's invisible he's got tough toes. And and he really likes marshmallow. Right. Give me one more test i'll let you off the hook. Can i prove it. I could say if i were in your shoes i could say let's get some powdered sugar and sprinkle it in the air right here. Bad because pop is obviously standing right here. And if he's invisible than the powdered sugar would reveal him correct. Except that he's powdered sugar permeable and he does have puffy so we could put a scale underneath him and we could weigh him except he can fly and he likes to play tricks so as soon as you got the skill under him he would fly and then the weight would just stay zero all the time. I hope what you're noticing. Is that i already know the answer. I never have to do the test. Because i know how the test is going to turn out. Because somewhere in here. I know puff isn't real. This is the track. This is the tool. If you ever find yourself explaining away the results before you do the test. You already know somewhere in here. That you don't believe this anymore. Because if i really believed that i had an invisible friend named popeye be like believe me that i have. But i know. So that's your first test that's your first clue. When. You're in an argument and someone says yeah but and you go no no no that won't work because you already know the answer. You're dealing with pop. Daiso pop would like you to do is follow them all home and stay with him forever. He says he will. Yep he's not that's one of his things he's magic hello. He can go with all of you at the same time. So. Our next tool first one is papa tension when you're fighting with invisible dragons. Cuz now that you hear it you'll notice it. The second one. Is simpler and also harder at the same time. I want you to go out there and combat the scourge of homophilia. Not homophobia obviously world against at. Homophilia. Colloquially colloquially. Known colloquially known. As like attracts like. I'm into stuff that agrees with me. That's why i watch rodger rachel or whatever and there's never been a better day or time for it like back in the dark ages. To achieve this level of protection from dissonance. You would have to have a lot of money. Dubai flunkies and yasmin and sycophantic now you can get all of that for free online. You can turn on your hot and cold running media. And getting news pre slanted to your preference. If we choose to any one of us can spend our lives in a carefully constructed echo chamber. Which will never challenge. At the very best. It will. Encourage us to live out our ideology. Faithfully. And that's good. That's good for golden blocks that's good for swing city council's that's all it's good. It's just not good enough. The world has plenty of made-up minds already. You're here because you want to be different. So my challenge to you today is to go home and if you're a facebook person. Go to the other team. And click like. And let some of that drivel. Populate your feet. So that at least once a day you're exposed to someone who disagrees with you and that's some partisan hat like a real intelligent person who thinks the other way. Hey if you're a blogger subscribe to somebody else's blog if your newspaper person you probably don't want to read to whole papers everyday. Boy you could do is subscribe to the other side best. Monthly magazine or quarterly magazine. And force yourself to read it. Homophilia is a disease no one can cure you can only treat the symptoms through intentional. Uncomfortable exposure to other people spots. That's today's challenge. The practice the difficult art of disconfirmation. Also known as rational scientific thought. Really don't care. What you believe because reality doesn't care what you believe reality is the same regardless. So take what you know. Intestine. And whatever stands at the end of the day might be worth believing. Thank you. I think that is the essential argument of modern western culture. That's that we we are engaged in a probably 1,000 years struggle so far. To allow ourselves to confront reality to allow reality to confront us. To accept that the world is round. And and we've been fighting every inch of the way and i think we're getting all 100 years from now we'll still be fighting. Are closing words are going to be read by. This awards from terry pratchett to the character lord vetinari from his novel the truth. A novel of discworld. Remember that they get uncomfortable when you tell them new things. Who sings well new things aren't what they expect. They like to know that say a dog will bite a man that's what dogs do they don't want to know that man bites a dog. Because the world is not supposed to happen like that. Insure what people think they want is new. But what they really crave is old. What do speckled telling people what they think they already know is true. Invite you to greet your neighbor and say around and have some coffee and socialized.

uuprairie_org

Pr110403FredEdwards-AHumanistLookAtMythSymbolAndArt-ed.mp3

Good morning and welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society i mary mullen a member of the program committee aspires to be both an open-hearted and an open-minded congregation. And we welcome people of every ethnic and religious background and whatever your color your sexual orientation or your family structure. And we also welcome you no matter what your age. Or what's your abilities or even better yet your inabilities later in the service will invite visitors and guests and returning friends to introduce yourself. So that we might get to know you better. On sunday mornings we provide a wide variety of services. Representativa dietary member a member of the wider community or by a minister reverend j jane espensen. And today we're hearing from a member of the wider community fred edwards who's from out of town a humanist look at miss symbol and art. We have a few announcements before starting our service this morning. Message from bob park about the humanists union today what the topic is fred edwards who's here is going to be showing slides of billboards. And adds used around the country by the united coalition of reason and that'll be from 12:30 to 1:30 here today so you're welcome to stay for that. Our opening words will be provided by fred edward. When the poet invoke. In his splendid friends either shining spears of heaven. The murmuring fountain. And the rushing stream. When he calls upon the earth to harkin. And b the wild sea listen to his song. When he communes with the sweet secluded valleys in the hottie headed hills as if those inanimate objects were alive. Cuz if these masses of brute matter were endowed with sense and thought. We do not smile we do not sneer. We do not reason. But we feel. A secret chord is touch within us. A slumbering sympathy is awakened. Into life. Who is not felt an impulsive hatred and perhaps expressed it in a senseless curse against the fiery stroke of sunlight or a sudden gust of wind. Who is not felt a pang of pity for a flower torn and trampled in the dust a shell dash two fragments by the waves. Such emotions or ideas last for only a moment. They do not belong to us. They are the fossil fancies of a bygone age. They are a heritage of thought from the childhood of our race. Or there was a time when they possessed the human mind. There was a time when the phrases of modern poetry where the facts of ordinary life. There was a time when man lived in fellowship with nature believing that all things which moved or changed had minds and bodies. Kindred. To his own. This is from wynwood reed. The martyrdom of man. Please welcome bob and barb park to light our chalice. Oxalis reading for today is from the writing of greg epstein humanist chaplain at harvard university. Humanism is a bold resolute response to the fact that being a human being is lonely and frightening. We humanist take one look at a world in which lives of thousands of innocent children i ripped away every year by hurricanes earthquakes and other acts of god not to mention the thousands of other fundamental injustice of life. And we conclude that if universe we live in does not have competent tomorrow management then so be it we must become the superintendent of our own lives. Humanism means taking charge of the often lousy world around us and working to shape it into a better place. But we know we cannot ever finish the task. It's now time for our presentation and i would like to introduce fred edwards. He has a long into history of organized humanism for 15 years he was the executive director of the american humanist association and for 12 years he was at. Editor of the humanist magazine and he's past president of camp quest which is a summer camp for three thinking children and he served on the board also of the international humanist and ethical union. And a founding board of the national center for science education. As a continuing voice for humanist ideas he has over the past 35 years appeared on national. And local television in the united states and canada. And it's been interviewed on radio and four newspapers around the world and lectured and lots of places including north america here europe and india. And today he does serve as the national director of the united coalition for reason. It's an organization that was founded in 2009 and it works to foster cooperation among local groups in the community of reason. And to watch billboard and bus and ad campaigns to raise the public profile as such group. He also served on the faculty of the humanist institute. Is the national director of the international darwin day foundation and access management and public relations consultant to the american humanist association. So i think we have an expert here. So i'll turn it over to him a few minutes look at miss symbol and arch. Well i don't know if you've been wondering about it but. I have. What is this fascination. With vampire. Does 2007 stephenie meyer's twilight series of young adult fiction is propelled her and subsequently the actors who play or characters in film. The stardom. And with her is come charlaine harris author of the sookie stackhouse series of vampire novels that became hbo's true blood. Serious. Other novel series include melissa dela cruz is blue bloods l'oreal k hamilton anita blake vampire hunter and pc and kristin cast. House of night. As women authors they all take their cue. From anne rice's vampire chronicles created a major phenomenon in the 1980s. + 90. This was also the era of francis ford coppola is film bram stoker's dracula as well as the film and tv series. Buffy the vampire slayer. So the fascination run the d. Whenever potent imagery enjoying an incredible revival. Which i think is reason enough. To reference the literary and cinematic vampire as a textbook case. Of how miss symbol and r. Are used to reflect a truth. A concern a passion. Or an important value. Vampires you saying. No physically non-existent are far from here relevant. Preventive medicine symbols never are. They tell us a lot about how people feel. Add about the times in which one lives. Now when i use miss. When i use that word i. Don't intend to technical meaning employed employed by anthropologists but rather the more general usage is shown in the second definition in the american heritage dictionary. Which is. Any real or fictional story recurring theme or character type that appeals to the consciousness of a people by embodying its cultural ideals. Or by giving expression to deep. Commonly felt emotions. Duff define myths are found everywhere. And some of the most powerful and influential occur in popular culture. Subsidies are often the ones that have the greatest immediate social impact. Take for example the fact that the vampire of 18th and 19th century literature particularly english literature is almost always an aristocrat. This is significant to the earlier imagery from folklore. Where is there the vampire is more often seen as a fellow peasant. Perhaps a disease member of a family with the guide and who threw his or her plague and imagine stalking in the night drains the life from the other family members one by one. In many cases this proved to be a reasonable primitive explanation for a phenomenon now better explained by the germ theory of disease so the nature of the vampire. It changed because it's audience was different. In such literature produced by and for an emergent middle-class the vampire becomes a powerful symbol of the evils and absurdities. Of a predatory aristocracy a blood-sucking nobility often linked by family ties to foreign governments that set off the labors of the middle and working classes. So the vampire became the villainess symbol in a class struggle a battle that the middle class was already winning. To demonstrate this view of the literature i need only note certain recurring story elements. There's a depiction of those who conquered the aristocratic fiend as members of the middle-class they are clerk professors elementary school teachers and they frequently utilize and industrial technology completely unknown to the hopelessly feudal vampire. This is particularly evident in the 1897 novel dracula by bram stoker. Here the middle class heroes are able to catch the count before he returns to his castle because they know how to plan their pursuit according to railroad timetable he on the other hand is for the most part stuck on a slow-moving sailing ship. Symbolically ratifying and illustrating a contemporary european trend toward throwing off the yoke of monarchy they pursue him back to his rotting castle prove that such aristocrats have no hard and expose him to the public light of day by this process the pedigree google is destroyed and capitalism. And technology. Now with the end of world war 1 and the resulting fall or diminution of a number of monarchies this type of vampire imagery slipped from fashion to be replaced by another variety. The war end all wars and brought in its wake rampant poverty and disease throughout much of europe. And as symbolized as suffering a hideously ugly and plague carrying fiend entered the scene most starkly drawn in the 1922 german silent film nosferatu the symphony of horror. Got devastated as europe was however the united states experienced to change of values instead. The lyrics how you going to keep them down on the farm after they've seen paree expressed a new worldliness of those returning from the war the changing morality of the roaring twenties followed making it possible to not so subliminally illustrate a growing sexual freedom in the stage production of bram stoker's novel. And lord byron century-old imagery of a vampire has a handsome and charming nobleman suave and culture with continental accent and dashing cape was easily revive. In october 1927 dracula opened on broadway with bela lugosi in the lead it quickly became a major hit followed by two national tours that grosses promoters millions of dollars. During the great depression that followed public interest in vampire lore increased more than ever. Ray kearney professor of film at boston university note the dracula always rises again in hard economic times quote vampires. So they planned so the plane was transformed to a film in 1931 where the mysterious and sexy count continues to feed off his victims and to wage war against traditional morality such a vampire of course can never be allowed to win. He and in the 1936 dracula's daughter she must finally be conquered by cross bearing religious fanatics will make it a point to either kill or convert back every sexually liberated woman or man the vampire has created. That's how we have a mid-twentieth-century allegory of reaction the story told by those who would save a repressive system of family values from the supposed evil influences of an unstable and changing world. Its popularity with audiences however stem or perhaps from the way of titillated. From the way it offered increasingly positive images. Forbidden fruit. During the 1940s this sensual approach became a commodity. A product to be marketed through numerous repetitive plots carried out by a stable recycled actors and we had the ever seductive hollywood vampire. Well new postwar sexual revolutions of the 1950s and 60s served vampires even more attractive and their victims even more willing gay and lesbian vampires entered the scene in the 1970s and after that a number of other changes began to occur ray kearny to claire's the core of the vampire is sexual dynamic. The frightening territory where someone possesses you and you become obsessed. There was a sense of betrayal of being out of control of men and women using each other. During most of this time from 1958 to 1979 christopher lee eclipse bela lugosi is the quintessential blood-sucking tempter. Bathroom but in this case he was sadder than his predecessor. And for this reason increasingly desirable. The sadness in fact soon became a statement of its own bringing the vampire into his most recent transformation as someone we could sympathise with. Beginning in the late 1960s alongside of rising social and global consciousness some vampires were metamorphosed into tormented and self-deprecating hero. There was barnabas of the dark shadows tv series louis and lestat of the anne rice novels. These were being to suffer from an existential inner conflict. Uncertainty. Guilt. Try as they may these vampires cannot help the fact that by the very act of living they wreak definition truxion on legions of innocent victims. In short the vampires become. Power cell. A people who will enjoying the consumer society that provide so much life and pleasure unwittingly and ironically rape and destroy the planet suck the life out of cultures and poorer nations even the cultures of our own poor. The symbol of the vampire that's has become something that appeals subtly to a perhaps unconscious on generated by our own witnessing on tv of scenes as so many people dying and famines and natural disasters. Further get encourages many to consider the idea that today's and industrialized nations are comprised of albeit well-meaning parasites feeding off the oppressed. This change in the meaning of the image. Indicate that the old-style vampire scares us. Cadillac. From the beginning of world war ii we've existed in an environment that spawned a hitler or stalin a mouse. What can a mere vampire do to top that in limited war. As a result of a no matter how vicious. Impersonal or thirsty. Can begin to compete with an ordinary eighteen-year-old american soldier sitting behind a 20 mm electric cannon firing 700 xxplosive rounds permit. Vampires consider our fears today only if they're evil. Is psychological. And only if the grips is in a vice. Of inner conflict. So this is one thing that vampires have become. Mirrors of our own socially. Self-aware. Self-doubts. For teenagers today vampires and those who love them often represent misunderstood misfits. As a metaphor for aids we're encountering a deadly act of love. For these and other reasons vampires remain very much with us. Anne anne rice's words they are a fathomless wealth of metaphor. Cats are so many other myths and symbols. However a common approach. In many humanist and freethought circles back in the 1990s was to debunk. Rather than to understand. A superstition. To prove for example.. No vampires existed. That wasn't very many people really thought they did and whatnot so engaged humanists and freethinkers tended to forget about myth legend and folklore all together. In the light of a literal lipstick almost legalistic rationalism symbols and imagery became annoying. Or humanistic continue taking such a reaction i think it would doom humanism to irrelevance. Precede meth symbol and art often appeal to very human visceral subconscious feeling. But there shouldn't be cause to relegate them to the misty isles of the irrational. Works and symbolic ark. Narratives both folkloric and literary are almost always deliver it and even rational products of the mind. Behind them stand. Difficult creative and intellectual prophecies not to mention a long and distinguished history of artistic and literary criticism. Narrative art in particular must stay within certain rational bound as laid down by aristotle in his poetic. In order to maximize its aesthetic and social appeal. Humanist who pride themselves in their rationality and common sense can when they look more broadly appreciate that the story narrative is perhaps the most efficient means of communication known to humanity and one not lacking in intellectual and ethical merits. Weather present in a film. Novel. Play poem. Song a well-told story can affect the mind in a way that no didactic lecture or philosophical argument usually can. And the idea so imparted will more easily be remembered. That's why in the lines are so many millions of secular people today. Art literature and music have supplanted religion as the method of choice for examining ethical and moral quest. And the humanist movement as it grows. Is reaching that secular writing more human being into the aesthetic. Growing comfortable in the presence of striking images in griffin tail and becoming a tease with the power of myth and the symbol. All great political and religious movement have had their images. And stories. There've been hero tales allegories legends and songs and from these such movements have derived strength. Staying power and growth. Jesus told parables. The bible is a collection of narratives not philosophical arguments. You'll be hard-pressed to find very much theology in the bible. Evangelicos give anecdotal personal testimony. Not scientific demonstration. Ever noticed that a good story. It's one of the ways people recreate their experiences in order to make sense of them. Stories are that's part of the rationale and analytic process not mere superstitious or emotional substitutes. For thinking stories are also democratic. They can reach a wider audience that includes people not frequently engaged in philosophical and ethical discourse. Which is why the story narrative may prove to be the vehicle of choice. By which human ism is taken to the people. Indeed there have been human of storytellers inhuman of stories in the past. One only need view a tragedy by euripides to find that out. Consider the following example. In the back by yuri patty's expresses in poetic drama all the seductions and dangers of cultic and fanatical belief. His characters suffer personal tragedy to the very extent that they allow themselves to be caught up in the bacchic frenzy. Or to dogmatically and undemocratic lee work to suppress the dilation called. And dionysus in the end is exposed as a cruel capricious and vindictive god that he is. Through him all his promises of joy through faith are ultimately broken. And if a jinaya at all us a priest declares that agamemnon has sinned against the god and this is why the wind is not blowing and will not to send his thousand ships to troy. Only penance through the sacrifice of his daughter. So reluctantly agamemnon orders the daughter seized and burned at the stake. She's courageous in the face of death will her father's cowardice before the altar of superstition unwittingly dooms him also. For he will later be murdered by his wife to avenge the daughter's death. But for now the priests lights the flame and ironically not a moment too soon because the winds have already begun to blow. In the trojan women the forgotten suffering in the aftermath of every war is laid bare. The undeserved tragedy one after another but falls these women of troy. The women unlucky enough to survive the final destruction of their once-proud city. And why was troy brought down for what did so many greeks and trojans give their lives. To retrieve a wife charged with adultery. Euripides. criticizes in his plays religious fanaticism superstition male domination war and other evils. But how often are his works recommended to humanist a would-be humanist readers how often do humans group show the gripping film version. Michael cochran jonas is iphigenia and the trojan women and interesting lee enough. The trojan women starred katharine hepburn. Who acknowledged that she was an atheist man who received the humanist arts award from the american humanist association. Names of other humans storytellers are legion lucian moliere shakespeare george eliot mark twain ambrose bierce george bernard shaw henrik ibsen sinclair lewis. Just to name a few. In the realm of popular fiction we often think of science fiction writer isaac asimov. Not only did his work express humanist value but he was directly involved with the humanist movement. That was a mystery writer miriam allen deford. Yet when it comes to the direct glorification of reason through storytelling. Perhaps no rider did more than sir arthur conan doyle his character sherlock holmes by his shrewd use of longitude. Heroically personifies the power of rationality in action. Some humanists unfortunately prefer to focus on the author's private beliefs in the paranormal especially his promotion of some rather curious photographs of fairies. Outside of popular novels and short stories there's the even more accessible material from television. It hasn't always been easy to deliver humanist views to the wide audience reach by this medium. But today doing parkour the pioneering work of late star trek producer gene roddenberry. The public has increasingly become comfortable with various aspects of the humanist message. And about humanist an atheist. Roddenberry made no bones as to what he was up to. When receiving the 1991 humanist arts award from the american humanist association he encouraged others to follow his lead and keep finding ways to insert humanist messages into their work. Today on television numerous shows from time to time for humanistic ideas the years of go would have been quickly censored. So noticeable has this change been that he vangelico christian groups frequently charged have taken over the networks. Baypoint affect popular shows as house. The mentalist. The simpsons. In fact the all of the writers for the simpsons but one. Are atheist and the one who was an evangelical christian. Wrote in christianity today that well they weren't really atheist. Because they believed in moral values. Beyond novels a teleplay is there other ways to relate story. In more tribal cultures there's the village storyteller who relates legends special meaning to the community in urban societies the counterpart used in nightclub stand-up comedian she or he shares with eager audience insights about society human relationships. And anything else that matters. If i could go for a humorous story turn off an illustrated point better tan and then can an intellectual argument. Take for example the understanding that would blind faith. Agreement between people isn't really possible. What's the reliable triad of reason observation and compassion is abandon. As a standard of judgment. There's no longer any common ground people confine. Might becomes right and differences between individuals and groups. Become settled. 54. No need to venture into the labyrinth of logic and epistemology to argue this. Just do as mark twain did in the damned human race. And tell a story of a little scientific teske perform. I'm on my experiments with death. In an hour i kind of cat and a dog to be friends. I put them in a cage. In another hour i caught them to be friends with a rabbit. In the course of two days i was able to add a fox. Squirrel. And someday. Finally. Imonkey. They live together in peace. Even affectionate lie. Next. In another cage. I can find an irish catholic from tipperary. Finally the salvation army colonel from wahpeton. Interstate way to hold a. When i came back to see results. The cage of the higher animals the nonhumans. Was alright. But in the other there was about a chaos of gory odds-and-ends of turbines and pheasants and flats in bones and flesh. These reasoning animals it disagreed on a theological to tell and carried the matter to a higher court. Or let's take the argument that it's easy to believe in the wrong religion. The wrong god. What proof is anyone that they've chosen to write. A person needs verification if she or he wants security. So why go on. Just tell the story. About the skydiver. Hello the time would come to pull the ripcord and release for shoot. So she pulled it. Cheap old hard and waited. But nothing happened. Chipotle getting harder and again and again and it broke her hand but the parachute remained is tightly packed. Has before and actually continue to fall free the greenearth rising up rapidly to breed her she struggled. I need her struggle to beaded cross she changed around her neck work free of her blouse and begin to swing out in midair it dangled before her eyes it dangled until suddenly. Save me. She prayed she shouted hopelink with fear and what she knew was her laugh. Of belief. Went out from the clouds above streak a giant hand like lightning and sees her body and held her fur. Protectively that ended her fall. And the woman he the sort of relief. And thanksgiving. Oh thank you thank you dear saint francis you are my guardian my hope my solace i will honor you forever dear dear saint francis. But a thunderous voice in the sky inquired loudly. Ignatius. Four of assisi. The woman swallowed hard and thought. She looked at the hand that held her and then with a trembling voice she chose. Of assisi. Suddenly the hand open-door freefall resumed in the voice boom loudly wrong. In a myth or superstition no matter how persuasive it is. Need one belabor this point with examples of harm from false belief. How can one just tell the story of the man skiing down the mountain. So it came to pass that he was on the slope. He removed himself far from his friends and was enjoying the solitude of nature. Has the winter wind whipped through his hair his sound fusing without of his skis blading definitely through the plants no. A sense of buoyancy. Transported is mine. And distracted him from the ragged. Jagged reality of a cliff edge rushing rapidly toward his feet. He tumbled down along the sheer face. And by the purest of luck his hand caught a branch. And halted. His descent. Haunted him. And there he hung. He was too far down to clamber up. And as he looked at his feet still swinging to and fro. From the shock of his sudden stopped he could see nothing but the d. Deep and ragged councilman floor easily more than a mile below. The branch was all we had. It cracked from the. Stream threatening to break under the pressure of his weight. Has he held on pale with fiery slowly cautiously so it's not to stress the branch even more let out a cry. Is anyone there. The word bounced off the ridges and echo through the gulf. He waited. I was no answer. So we called out again. Is anybody there. Again the words reverberated against the silent rocks. But this time. Slowly. Sensuous lee with increasing clarity or soft. Protective voice begin to rise up from the depths of the chasm. Feminine and sweet did spoke with welcome words. I am here. It's a delicate tone seemed to fill the mountains i am here for you the goddess of the abyss. The mother of the crags i will protect you let go of that french safe into my arm. Her last words slipped away cool into the depths. The man continued to hold on. Perplexed. He looked about. He thought. And wondered. And then after a long and considered silence. He shot it out. Is anybody out there yeah stories can go a long way toward making a point therefore we need to define our philosophy exclusively in abstract. An intellectual term. Plato in his dialogue style of philosophizing and with his frequent use of examples from mythology help show. But this is the way we humans naturally explore and communicate even abstract ideas. So why shouldn't we see this is permission to be who we are. Humanism can be not only intellectual but aesthetic as well. Today post-modernism is addressed its inducing us to be less smug about supposed objective truths and to increase our recognition of the rich and human narrative. Even in humanist conclusions and ideal. Have we seen the same missed the same symbol can have vastly different meanings at different times and places. So met some symbols need not be viewed as unchanging. They're better phoenix vehicles for helping people understand and communicate new ideas. In this connection we found a humanism has a story to tell. It has works of art and may now call upon and use them without apology. Myths and symbols playing natural part in the pattern of truth. And understanding. Medicine symbols and art are also uniquely human. And decidedly so. Had a decidedly so as reason and science. Has such it's only normal that a broad-based humanist philosophy will include them within its universe. And it's a perfect fit. Here for the prairie uu society which affirms and promotes. A free and responsible search for truth. And me. We have a few minutes now for questions and comments and darcy will bring the microphone so that everyone that has a hearing device can hear. Well it became a kind of. Play itself out in the 1950s and early sixties and then the vampire came to become gradually one of us in the 60s so ed because i kind of a new rise and social consciousness in the 60s transform the vampire image from just you know as a sexual liberation thing which now was pretty well established. Pleasure run an evil a wicked pleasure out of about sex and then you build in new ideas and so it included lesbianism. It does gradual branching out of. Did you have to break free and you couldn't break free too much. 5e idea of a fully liberated women wasn't going to be very strong and victorian times and it started to become a little stronger in the 1920s so you did have films like dracula's daughter and female vampires in the 1940s it and in fact the 30s as well. Yes there's always a problem of young woman being torn between bad boys and good boy and that's part of what that's about that the author of the twilight series is a mormon. And so she did make sure that her vampires don't have any sex that they that the young men are these fictional guys who will who don't want sex from you but will love you forever so. Star trek aficionados they notice the humanism and like it because it makes social commentary for example instead of they're just being this evil monster that must be destroyed on some planet it's like oh why why is this being acting so it was just protecting its young it was a female and so. Find they come upon another society where they want to have everything kneel-down infirm and they want to have simple doctrines and they they don't want to change and they don't want to adjust a new ideas and so the people in starship enterprise we're supposed to never influence and change societies they do and. Optimistic view of the future. That's another aspect of it. Okay one more question a lot of these infected the awareness that we have of the folklore of the. The vampires in connection with bats and things shows up in. Aaliyah renaissance and the age of enlightenment or the 18th century that was a lot of these legends were written down recorded by you know people who are doing a kind of sociological anthropology research. And vampires and then in fact dracula can is a shapeshifter and can change into a wolf. Bayan nf1 of the elements but that part of it was actually removed from the novel there's a. There's that there's a short story that bram stoker made this. Part that he left out of the novel into called dracula's guest in which it features director that has a werewolf rather than as a bat. So these various changes is various ideas. Or understood you can carry the vampire idea all the way back. To homer's odyssey where he goes down to the underworld and there he has to spread all of this blood out so that the ghosts will come and feed on the blood in the trough of these animals that he sacrifices and then that will make them able to talk and tell him what his destiny is. So this whole ad and in fact one definition of a vampire is a blood-drinking ghost. So and that's why you can go through keyholes and turn into all of that sort of thing so don't try to work out the biology of the vampire. Are closing words. Are from the greek playwright aristophanes. From the murmur and subtlety of suspicion. With which ryzex one another. Give arrest. Make a new beginning. And mingle again the kindred of the nations. In the alchemy of love. And with some finer essence of forbearance. A are mine. Thank you so much for coming. Please extend the hand of friendship to those around you and then join us for coffee and conversation thank you.

uuprairie_org

Pr131201WillGreen-ed.mp3

Welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society i'm mary mullen and i'm a member of the program committee i'm not christina she's at home with a sore throat i do know prairie aspires to be both an open-hearted and an open-minded. Congregation andre welcome people of every ethnic. And religious background whatever your color your sexual orientation your gender or your family structure. And we also welcome you no matter what your age or what your abilities are in abilities. On sunday mornings we do provide a wide variety of services. I always say you ought to come at least five times to get a sense of what we're like our services are presented either by a prairie member a member of the wider community as as true today and. Also by our minister our consulting minister sandra today will green sitting right up here in the front will be presenting. Service called mentoring positive. Our opening words will be read by peter anderson. When a young person even a gifted one grows up without. Approximate living examples of what she may aspire to become. With a lawyer scientist artist a leader in any realm. Her goals remain abstract. Such models as appear in books or in the news however inspiring or revered. Are ultimately too remote to be real. Let alone influential what a role model in the flesh. Provides more than inspiration. His or her very existence. Is confirmation of possibilities. One may have every reason to doubt saying. Yes. Someone like me can do this when i was a kid i would have become that probably never even known a lawyer instead of a teacher. And urbanski and penny either will do the chalice lighting. It takes a village to raise a child. Mentors who light the righteous path. Let our chalice light. Be the symbol of the mentors in our midst. Well i'd like to introduce our speaker now will green will be coming up here in a few minutes he's originally from gary indiana and he's founder of mentoring positive incorporated which is a mentoring program working with at-risk youth in the community he created that company 9 years ago and you might wonder how he came up with the title of the organization he had lost his mother to cancer breast cancer at the age of 46 in his mother's name is muriel perkins mp as a tribute to his mom he took his mom's initials and created the year by madison magazine and in 2012. I got a lot of time alright here we go so i'm going to take 20 years and wrap it up in about 20 minutes so i come from gary indiana number one murder capital. Pass those around to this salsa actually is going to be in metcalf markets probably within the next four weeks so that was one of the goals that the boys had off the block off the block is the name that they came up with themselves they came up with it cuz they want to get themselves off the block. So it will be in my calves and i'm probably in the next four weeks i'm working with uw-extension and uw entrepreneurial clinic to kind of form the business so we'll create the off the block enterprises llc under the nonprofit so we can help support the nonprofit through that program. So we'll have all the blocks also and we'll have a program qari jeweled we have people in the community donating jewelry to our girls and my wife run the program with them that they break down to jewelry put it all back together and their own creative ways and create this jewelry so we'll have those two programs the one going down the pike so those two businesses michael enterprise businesses that will start you can go ahead and programming around so we believe that kids have external internal assets and their broken-down in. Two different categories here with 8 for the external support empowerment boundaries expectations constructive use of time in the external. Internal assets internal commitment to learning positive value social competencies in a positive identity support support and external you know young people need to be surrounded by people who love care for appreciate and accept them they really do my daughter gets up every day and she is looking at my face and make sure everything is going to be okay in the world and the kids are kids need that they really do they are very in tune to how if you're scared i had an intern we went to mcfarland i do some groups in mcfarland and i had i had interns first day and one of the kids instantly walked up on them was like. You look you seem scared oh my god you know so they totally can tell they are so in tune with how how their surroundings is working around them the empowerment young people need to feel valued and valuable this happens when you feel safe and respected. Boundaries and expectations young people need clear rules consistent consequences for breaking rules and encouragement to do their best. These are things that we truly believe the power of mentoring helps kids be successful constructive use of time young people need opportunities outside of school to learn develop new skills the interest. Skills and interest with other you that adults that is just vital for our kids to have positive relationships and growing our community. Indian our internal asset commitment to learning young people need a sense of the lasting importance of learning and a belief in their own abilities. I know that because i was a special education assistant in the school district for a couple for years. And i was amazed how many kids that said they couldn't do math. With me just sitting by their side they could do math because i was encouraging them to do math and i expected them to do math it's unfortunate but. There's a report that came out racial equity summit that i went to and this report is out and it just came out recently. And disparities in this in this community for minorities. Is this pretty alarming and really honestly it's a state of emergency really their prison cells being made of our third and fourth grade reading levels and i sat in the school and sat with 11th graders that couldn't read at third and fourth grade levels and that is just an injustice to us all because we all will pay for that you know there's no way we can have a junior in high school that cannot read that the third and fourth grade level it is just that your mental to our community so i really feel like it's so important that i do that i inspire kids to be the best they can be and we said hi limits we cannot we cannot set limits for our kids cuz if we don't set the high expectations. Positive values young people need to develop strong guiding values and principles to help them make healthy life choices. Social properties young people need the skills to interact effectively with others to make the. Difficult decisions and to cope with new situations. And that stuff for kids i study psychology. No kid is ready to make a good decision until they like 25 the brand is not ready it's just not ready to do it so. It really is important that we are. I'm support and god are you. I'm in families that sydney doubt here and positive identity young people need to believe in their own self-worth into feel that. They have control over the things that happen to them. And that's so true. It's so true. I've been around kids and i use basketball the light i use it because it's the hook we use our model is to hook is the key. So basketball i always get the kids to the program always get them there so. I use the basketball court has my form before any basketball is played. We talked about anger management we talked about conflict resolution we talked about peer-pressure all these things that take our kids the wrong way we talk about these things and we use that group format to have each other have all the kids in the group hold each other accountable i love the cohort model because you know if one kid is out of line the other kids trying to chime and tell them they had a lie. And that's what we need is not a husky adults that's going to move our kids is going to be the kids that move the kids cuz once one kid says it's cool and helping kids go right along with it. Especially the kids and me and my wife were quick cuz. A lot of kids like to take on a bad boy image. So they think that's the way they can get seen in our community. So if i get those. You know bad boys. To come our way in a positive light other bad boy see those guys in a positive light meal. Oh there is another life out here and that's what we need to do mentoring positive that's why do mentoring positives every moment i meant or positive. Into our kids and families any address for social skills mental health issues delinquency problems and fatherlessness these are some of the things is why i got into mentoring how come from probation officers supervision counselor background i used to work for youth services of southern wisconsin hearing in the community. And i work for the cap supervision program so. What happens if the kids get in trouble they go through the court system and i would have to write a report to the judge the a social worker and report how this kid is doing in our community each month. I was good at that and i like that job but. Always have the stigma of that i was a probation officer or supervision counselor. And it was always the social worker that may have put the kid on house arrest or something but it was always me delivering the bad news so. Even though when i. Built this good relationship you can't be like well you cool but you told me i got to stay in the house now they wasn't busy with the social worker so. Really when my mom was passing and i was fortunate that you know i went through that experience cuz. Add i really been devastated if i lost my mom and i wasn't able to talk with her losing her to cancer gave me the opportunity to talk with her kind of plan things out and i look at that as a fortunate situation because she wasn't just taken away from me so really you know like i said i got into this because of these issues. And when my mom passed away i just felt like if i was a mentor i would have much better than last in trusting relationships with people especially after american minorities we just don't like people in our business we don't like the police even though the police i have so many police i have so many good police in our neighborhood they look for jobs for families they like go out try to have activities with the family and and our family still don't trust the police and it's all because maybe just one incident that they may not have been apart of it's just one incident that they seen and they figured that's how the police are so we got to break those stereotypes of policing in our community so that's why it's the way to like move our kids into a positive atmosphere of being whoever they want to be the benefits is improved relationships advocacy we go to the schools we make sure that we advocate for our kids and fam amelie's in schools make sure they get everything they supposed to get in school positive role model and increase personal self-awareness. How to block enterprises i'm just embarking on this social enterprise social innovation. And it's just been actually the best thing for me i was fortunate to go through a sustainability leadership program over at edgewood and that's what kind of really sparkly interurban a guy just seen a different way to like do therapy for kids and families you know through gardening what better way to do that you empowering people by having healthy access to food and you know empowering them to grow their own food and now i have kids out here about to sell it in stores you know so they still need an opportunity to do something where there's a trade where they want to be a business owner these are opportunities we have to give our kids and families we have to do this because it's not traditional do anymore i'm generation x i take and we have the millennials millennium's coming up so that's that crew and they're going to think differently they're going to do business differently they're just going to do things differently so it's going to look very different force facebook. Are we still are we and we still happy we still happy we still happy. But lindsay was one of her first kids and cap supervision so lindsay was going through the cap supervision program that me and my wife worked at the program and then she came back to be a mentor and our mentoring program so it was so funny cuz she called and she was just like she said to my wife you were the only one cuz she her family was pretty privileged she was just out dealing with the drugs and getting into like just she was bored i'm thinking. But my wife you know we have this talent of holding kids accountable but they still love us you know what i mean so i'm pretty sure i don't have to raise my voice so i can just give him this look. In a no. So it's just one of those type of things and we just did some surveys to a lot of the kids come around our program cuz they love to be there they love they know when they come there they're going to be seen there going to be felt in our program so lindsay came back and she said my wife was the only one that held her accountable and told her that she needs to do this this and this and that's why she came back and she knew it was real and that's why she wants to come back and help with the girls or girls groups we have girls elementary girls group we work on self-esteem social skills we have like i said uw mortgage center uw buddy badgers what we call them so they come down they had two good tire out same music and did all these things so it's just because we get a lot of people that come back and want to help out a lot of kids that come back to i really would love to touch those 35.42 really touch them and not lose them i want it i want them all to be seen i know every kid that comes to anybody out there looking for 1,000 people to make sure you have the right heart and you in it for the right reasons and we want to support you when we do that so it's very vital. Every every interaction with a kid and family is very vital to like that positive relationship-building connectedness to the community and knowing the resources that will that's what we do we're very connected to the community we know about a lot of resources in a community just from our background so really when i moved to mentoring and help me tell the kids when i working with a lot of a tryst really high-risk at-risk kids is that if you do this so you do this cry you going to go to detention they're going to hold you there then going to call you social worker then you going to have a hearing and did all these things are going to happen so i really try to keep them away from from doing those things and that's why we're here so. I got into it because of minorities i really have a love and passion i saw a lot of our kids not going to school failing in our school system and i just felt like i had to do more and once my mom passed away i went through a time where i just kind of depressed actually really i was just like i don't even want to take a phone call really and i just felt like i had to do more so that's why i quit my job and started bedroom positive so i'll wrap it up there cuz i know we got questions that you may have but thanks for allow me to come speak with you or am i always feel humbled when somebody invites me to come speak to share what we do because i think it's so valuable and i really care about the people that we work with are really care about the less fortunate i've been there and i know if i could do it i haven't done anything especially i haven't done anything special today so thank you. I think we hooked the girls actually we do have some basketball team so my daughter she's in fourth grade she plays on the 5th grade team we actually go into the deals. This coming up saturday they have a basketball tournament so some girls are into basketball we use the jewelry as the hook and right now we have. Elementary-aged and we just starting to get some middle school girls. Soda elementary-age they just love to be around. so i can be arts and crafts any any opportunity have to hang out the elementary girls want to do it once they move in the middle school a lot of our kids my own frames changes. It's so you can see it like from elementary going in the middle school once they get out of elementary school a know-it-all. What i think so going into middle school so we have some middle schoolers right now that's coming around it's a lady named kelly. Parts snyder she runs project girl so this program really looks like girls from self-esteem how they're marketed took in the media over-sexualized zacian so they talk about those issues so it's really a dynamic kelly's really dynamic with the girls and also have them meeting with strong police officer hear his daughter ran track at the university of minnesota and she's meeting with these girls to so we created a sisterhood group so we're just trying to create some sisterhood around the girls they really possessive actually so girls will you tell him like invite other girls to the program they really don't want them there. We do contract with department of corrections. So we do we do fee-for-service so i. They make call me and send me a referral and say well i want you to work with this kid for like 8 hours this month and they may say i want you to work in the areas what we just actually want them to get some recreation recreational activities or we want him to see if you can help him get a job or you know work on resumes with this kid so they may send us 48 hours and we'll charge him up to you for a hour for that kids so we do that with department of corrections dane county human services i do contracting mcfarland school district doing some groups out there and then my wife we write small grants so we have people service clients and then we have clients that's in the darbo eastside of madison we have those clients that we serve for free through the small grants that we get and just community support also is very true very true. Yes very delicate situation it is is very delicate and i always think about you know the message that i am delivering to the kids cuz i don't want the wrong message delayed relay to the family to the to the parents because once that structure is broken down then it kind of messes up the whole relationship so i am very very particular in the discussions that we have and it's about you know trust and it's about you know getting to a point where the comfort level of where that family that kid and family is so. Alright thank you.