Celebrate!
For those in the Northern Hemisphere, March brings the start of spring. So it should come as no surprise that March brings holidays that celebrate re-birth, and that bring a certain degree of high spirits—and even silliness—along with them.
Click on the links below not only for information about these holidays and how you might celebrate them, but also for links to games, activities and more.
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We Honor… |
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| Since March is Women’s history month, we honor a group of the very earliest women ministers, known as the Iowa Sisterhood. When Eleanore Gordon was born in 1852, there were no women who were ordained ministers. The first woman to be ordained as a minister in any denomination was Universalist Olympia Brown, and she didn’t serve her first church until 1864. But still, Eleanore and her best friend Mary Safford decided when they were young that they wanted to be ministers. They practiced preaching standing on a stump in a field in their home town of Hamilton, Illinois, and Mary went on to found a Unitarian church there. Eleanor followed her friend Mary into ministry, and, separately and together, for many years they served a variety of Unitarian churches in Illinois, until they retired to Florida (and started a Unitarian church!).
But Mary and Eleanore weren’t only pioneering women ministers who brought liberal religion to the “West.” Eliza Tupper Wilkes founded eight societies, mostly in South Dakota and Minnesota, served as director of the Iowa Unitarian Conference, and as secretary of the Post Office Missions of St. Paul, Minnesota. Like her other “Iowa Sisters,” she recommended and trained women to the missionary ministry.
Other women ministers who are considered to be part of the Iowa Sisterhood include: Martha Chapman Aitken, Mary Leggett Cooke, Caroline Bartlett Crane, Mary Graves, Marie Jenney Howe, Ida Hultin, Marion Murdoch, Anna Jane Norris, and Helen Grace Putnam. They organized and served parishes in Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, the Dakotas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Ohio, in addition to Iowa. These women worked extremely hard for very little pay, and often managed to get jobs only because the male ministers weren’t willing to take on the very hard job of serving congregations so far away from the established churches of New England. The women of the Iowa Sisterhood not only managed to introduce much of the mid-west to liberal religion, and build churches that helped in the daily lives of congregants as well as preaching open-minded religion on Sunday, many of them also worked tirelessly for women’s right to vote. |
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Act!
During the Passover Seder, which is celebrated at the end of this month, at a certain point in the ceremony it is traditional to open the front door and declare “Let all who are hungry come and eat….” The story reminds those who celebrate that they should be kind and hospitable to strangers, since the Jewish people knew what it was like to be strangers in the land of Egypt. Whether or not you are celebrating a Passover Seder, you and your family or congregation can reach out in hospitality. Can you help make or serve a meal at a soup kitchen or shelter for the homeless? Work with an agency that helps immigrants in your community? Or maybe even just share a sandwich at lunch with someone you don’t yet know well.
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Nurturing Your Spirit
The Indian festival of Holi involves people splashing each other with paint or paint power, covering everyone in big (messy) splashes of color. For many people who live in the Northern Hemisphere, March can be a time that feels starved for color. In many places winter has been going on for months, but there are still no leaves on the trees and no flowers blooming. One way to nurture your spirit in the spirit of Holi (and of Ostara, the first day of spring) is to bring some extra color in your life. Break out the finger paints, or wear your brightest clothes. Draw a big picture with bright crayons, markers or paints, or hang brightly-colored crepe paper in your house. Or close your eyes and see how vividly you can imagine different colors. How do the different colors make you feel? Does thinking about yellow make you feel different than thinking about green or red? Of course, there’s always color around you if you take the time to notice. You might want to go outside (even if you need a warm jacket) and see how many different colors you can find, even on a day that seems very grey and gloomy.
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Principles in Practice
Our second UU principle talks about “justice, equity and compassion in human relations.” One way to understand “equity” would be “balance,” which is a good word to think about at the time of the spring equinox, when the light and the dark are in even balance. Do you feel like there is balance in your relationships? When you spend time with friends do you take turns choosing games or making decisions? Do you feel like there is balance in your life? Do you have enough time for both work and play, enough time to learn new things and to rest with what you know? Is there a balance in your life between what you have and what you share? You might want to read this story about Finding Balance and see if it stirs any thoughts about balance and equity for you.
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