December 2002

Without the abundance of the heart nothing great can happen.

-Paul Tillich

• Sermon: "If Santa Could Talk to Us," by Jane Rzepka,
• REsources for Living, by Dan Harper
• CLF Member Profile: Billie K. Layton , by Eliza Blanchard
• Against All Odds, by Lisa Doege
• Amalgam of Myths, by Richard S. Gilbert
• Are you curious, by Quest staff
• No January issue of Quest, by CLF Board of Directors
• In Our Library, by Quest staff
• Lucky, by John Gibbons

If Santa Could Talk to Us

If Santa could talk to us as December approaches...
- Wouldn't he tell us he's pretty tired of all the articles in the magazines
about perfect Hanukkah and Christmas gifts for everyone on the list? He's
been around, just as we have. He knows it can't be done.
- Wouldn't he be bored to tears by now with the sermons on the excesses of
commercialism? Santa knows the hype's out of control-that's very old news.
He's heard that message-just as we have.
- Wouldn't Santa roll his eyes at the TV segments on the deplorable violence
offered in the toy department? Santa's smart enough to give nice presents,
just as we are. Tell him something he doesn't know.
- Wouldn't he throw up his hands at the stack of advertising fliers and
catalogues in his recycling pile? He's got enough paper in his life, thank
you very much, just as we do. He doesn't look at any of it, and he's Santa
Claus!
- Wouldn't Santa say, "Hey, the elves and I do this job all year long, and
even we don't make it such a big deal." "Relax," he'd say, "it's only
presents. Just remember three things:"
1. The first thing Santa would probably say is "Giving presents is an excuse
for a good time!" That's the first thing. The only reason to give a present
is because you want to. You have the chance to focus on what it is that's
likable, or even lovable, about a person in your life. You get to recall the
moments you've seen the person happy.
You can imagine gift-giving scenarios: you treat that older neighbor (who
doesn't drive) to a trip to the planetarium-you both do love the night sky.
He's usually pretty crusty, but you can tell: today, in spite of himself,
he's happy. Or you buy your grown-up daughter the complete paperback set of
Sue Grafton mysteries. How glad she is! A baby in your life is teething-a
wooden spoon, sanded smooth. Bliss. The mother of your children?
Wow! A photograph. (She does love her photo albums. She always says that's
what she'd grab if the house were on fire.) A photograph of all three kids
looking human and happy and everything. She says, "Nice going." You had the
foresight to tape every single episode of that crazy obscure TV show before
it was too late. Your niece and nephew in San Antonio are enraptured, and
incidentally, stunned by your good taste.
At holiday time, you can focus on the people you like best or the people for
whom you can make a difference. You have the opportunity to think about what
they'd like to receive in combination with what you'd have fun giving. And
that's a good deal. Isn't that what Santa would say?
Of course Santa may never have found himself in that perpetual motion
machine where they give and so you give and so they give and so you give,
and after all, she is your father's only sister, even if she has atrocious
taste and inevitably sends you a bag of walnuts, which she knows full well
you're allergic to. Santa doesn't stick around long enough on Christmas
morning to know what it's like when you've tried, you've really tried, to
find something your aunt will appreciate only to watch her face sag with
disappointment year after year, because the only thing she really wants is
an assault rifle, and frankly, what with your Unitarian Universalist value
system, you disapprove. Santa may never have had an aunt like that. But
surely he would stroke his whiskers at the prospect and say, "You know, that
set up doesn't make any sense. What are you going to do about it?"
The point is, giving presents is an excuse for a good time; yours and
theirs.
2. If Santa could talk to us, I think he would say that "Presents are just
presents." You can only guess what the giver meant by it. You receive a
Brooks Brothers blazer in the mail from your grandmother. Maybe it means, "I
love you so much and you're such a handsome guy and I know how you love
Brooks Brothers blazers, so Happy Hanukkah." Or maybe it means, "You're such
a slob, you never will learn how to dress like a grown-up, but I'm giving
you this blazer, and since you don't make very much money I know you'll have
to wear it, and then you'll look more like what I want you to look like.
Merry Christmas!" Or how about, "I never was a very good grandmother to you,
and now you're all grown up, so I'm sending you this expensive blazer even
though I'm living on a fixed income established in 1947, and I hope you'll
visit me soon."
Presents can be about control, or indebtedness, or guilt, or competition or
disrespect. They can be about forgiveness, or good cheer, or love, or
light-hearted goofiness, or hope for the future of the relationship. One
popular book tries to convince us, "Gifts speak for you. Each gift you
present becomes an extension of your taste, a measure of your interest in
the recipient, even an indication of your personal power. Gift giving can be
the key to a successful business relationship, add deeper meaning to a
romance, bring joy to your loved ones and warmth to any celebration."
Wouldn't Santa say "No, that doesn't sound too healthy."? Wouldn't Santa say
that the proper approach to giving presents is to load up a sleigh with
gifts that the folks on the list would enjoy? Wouldn't he suggest happily
giving the presents away with a great and loving Santa-esque smile on your
face, expecting nothing in return (well, maybe a cookie or two and a glass
of milk) and hope that the Legos are received as Legos, and the necklace as
a necklace, and the subscription to National Geographic as a magazine with
especially pretty pictures. Wouldn't Santa recommend that if you have a
message to give, or a message you think you're receiving, to rely on words,
nice and clear, and let the presents be presents?
3. Finally, if Santa could talk to us I think he might pick up the phrase
that many of us saw in a piece by Stephen Edington in Quest, years ago. The
article was about gift giving among Native Americans in Massachusetts when
the Puritans first landed. In that Indian culture, a gift, once received,
was to be given away again. The gift must always move. The gift must always
move.
Did somebody teach you to bowl? An older brother, or the nun back at St.
Mary's who took a special interest in you, or that very old flame? Well,
that gift has to move. You love bowling. Who will you share that with?
You've inherited your great-grandmother's handkerchief, the one she brought
over on the boat from Latvia. It's in the attic, or the basement-has been
for years. But the gift must always move. Who else might appreciate the
history, the ties, the roots?
Who are you going to teach to sing O Come, O Come Emmanuel, or dance the
cha-cha, or read 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea? Who's next in line to receive
a flaming chalice necklace? Or the menorah you used as children? The wind-up
toys. The Amish crèche. The gift, the really good gift, must always move.
The holidays are approaching, sure as I'm standing here. We know what's in
store. We know how to do the holidays. We're going to be fine. Just remember
three things:
1. Giving presents is an excuse for a good time! 2. Presents are only
presents. 3. The gift must always move. If Santa could talk to us, that's
what I think he'd say.

Quest December 2002 Contents

CLF Member Profile: Billie K. Layton
by Eliza Blanchard, ministerial intern, Church of the Larger Fellowship

"My femur and patella are mostly held together with.nails!" declares Ms.
Layton, thirty year member of CLF from Coffeyville, Kansas, which she
describes as being in the heart of the Bible belt. This has not slowed her
involvement with the larger world one bit. She writes letters to The
Reporter, the local paper, eloquent letters which are regularly published.
Many of us may relate to her favorite issues. "I will always be pro-choice!"
she said in a recent conversation. "It was my very first issue and is still
close to my heart, but right now I'm concerned with our young people." She
wonders how we can stem the increase in drug and alcohol abuse among members
of her granddaughter's generation. About the separation of church and state,
she said, "I believe we should remove 'under God' from publicly recited
pledges of allegiance. We bring our religion to our pledge-we don't need to
state our religious beliefs."
Born and raised in Independence, Kansas, she graduated from Independence
Junior College. She worked her way from being a secretary in 1950 to
becoming a grade ten civil service administrator with the Social Security
Administration in Kansas City, Missouri. A divorcee, she supported herself
and her son.
When asked how she found the CLF, she said she'd "always liked what I'd
learned about them" during her visits to a Unitarian church in Wichita,
where she was a secretary for the Air Force auditors. One of the auditors,
Ed Rosenberg, had invited her to his church. "Everyone talked over my head,"
she laughed. "I was younger then, and unused to the excellent vocabulary of
some UU's." She remembered those experiences later, after a health collapse
that left her in a coma for a month.
Spiritually challenged by her illness, she wrote to the Reverend George
Marshall, the minister of CLF. She recalled, "He wrote back and got me on
the list. I read those beautiful sermons, and I got the World when it was a
pulp paper." In reading them, she was exposed "to a special type of
thinking."
While she would love to be more physically and socially active, she remains
vitally connected to the world and world issues through her writing and her
spiritual questing.

REsources for Living
by Dan Harper, interim director of religious education, Church of the Larger Fellowship

It is summer in Australia and the living is easy....
In the north, the meaning of Christmas comes from the fact that it is the
darkest, coldest time of year: a seed of life and light is sown in the
darkness and, from deep within our souls, it grows and will reach fruition
in some far-off time. In the southern hemisphere, though some manage to
share that wonderfully rich Christmas pudding mix of anxiety and hope,
mostly the holiday is not a festival of cold and warmth. Instead, it is a
festival simply of hot and more hot.
Rest assured, however, the people of Euro-Christian cultures of the southern
hemisphere manage to find the Christmas spirit in the midst of summer just
fine. Midsummer alters the meaning of Christmas. Immanuel: God is among us,
the carrier of God's message of peace on earth and good will to all is here,
and the joy is in the here and now, not in some far off distant month. What
is maddening [for Australians] is choosing appropriate hymns! All those
Christmas carols speaking of the warmth amidst the cold and the light born
at the darkest time of the year as if that's the entire meaning of the
holiday. It is the carols that are out of sync, not the people or the
holiday.
And frankly, Unitarians are the worst of the lot. It is almost as though
once we left [traditional] Christian theology behind, we lost the
significance of holidays by tying them down with seasonal meanings. But
living in Australia has allowed me to find new meanings to the
holidays-sometimes even deeper ones.

Mark Allstrom, minister
Unitarian Church of South Australia

What does Christmas mean to Unitarian Universalists? As Mark Allstrom points
out, Unitarian Universalists have left behind traditional Christian
theology, including the story of a miraculous virgin birth. Perhaps for us
the Christmas story gets its power, not from the wonders of the angels,
virgin birth, and star of Bethlehem, but from our knowledge that the child
who was born on Christmas day grew up to be the great teacher and rabbi,
Jesus. We know that Jesus called on us to create a world of justice and
compassion, where we will treat our neighbor with the love and compassion
with which we ourselves hope to be treated.
It's important to remember that children who live in or near dominantly
Christian cultures hear the miracle birth story of Jesus. They will have
questions about the Christmas story, and perhaps that's why it's most
important that we don't take the easy way out and turn the Christmas season
solely into a celebration of the solstice. We have to face the Christmas
story head on.
My favorite way of dealing with the Christmas story with Unitarian
Universalist children is to tell the miracle birth stories of Jesus, the
Buddha, and Confucius. There are wonderful versions of all three stories in
the classic book From Long Ago and Many Lands, by Sophia Fahs (available
from the CLF Lending Library). I like to tell one story each week in the
three weeks leading up to Christmas, ending with story of Jesus. After
telling each of the first two stories, you may enjoy asking children what
they liked best. Then when you tell the last story, the story of Jesus'
birth, you might ask the children if this story sounds like the first two
stories. How much of the story do they think is true? (Of course, younger
children still can't distinguish between reality and fantasy, so this isn't
really a fair question to ask of them.)
If you're looking for a more formal lesson plan to use with older children
(say, 8-12), try the CLF web site at
http://www.clfuu.org/clf/betweensundays/middlechildhood/Jesus_birth2.html,
or write to me for a photocopy. Also, all three miracle birth stories are
available on this web page.
Families with teens (ages 13-18) can discuss the three stories all at the
same time. Take a look at the birth story of Jesus in more depth by turning
to the original source for the story, the Bible. In the Christian
Scriptures, there are four different versions of the life of Jesus: the
books of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John. It's important for Unitarian
Universalist teens to develop their own relationship with the stories, as
well as to recognize how much emotional power the Christmas story has for
more traditional Christians. Where does that emotional power come from? As
Unitarian Universalists, what is emotionally powerful about our faith
tradition?
No matter what the ages of your children are, try to decide as a family what
the meaning of Christmas is for you. Is the time of year more important to
you than the story? If so, how would you celebrate Christmas if the seasons
were reversed? If your family subscribes to the CLF-RE e-mail list, post
your responses to the list. (If you would like to subscribe to the list, go
to the CLF members page at www.clfuu.org/members and click on email
lists).That way, we can all find out what Christmas means to Unitarian
Universalist families from around the world.
Finally, I hope that both you and the children in your life enjoy and find
meaning in this ancient story of birth, for as we say in our tradition,
"Each night a child is born is a holy night."

Quest December 2002 Contents

Against All Odds

by Lisa Doege, minister, the First Unitarian Church, South Bend, Indiana

As a little girl, I made a tiny clay menorah with birthday cake candles in
my Unitarian Universalist Sunday School. I brought it home, along with
mimeographed sheets of readings, which my family read at dinnertime during
Hanukkah before lighting the candles. The story I was taught of the Hanukkah
lights was the story of the consecrated oil miraculously lasting eight days,
when it should have burned out after a single day.
Later, it wasn't much of a surprise to me to learn that some scholars
attribute Hanukkah lights to a much earlier, now forgotten, nature festival
predating Hanukkah itself. We know about the layering of holy days and
holidays, and the almost universal practice of celebrating light in these
darkest days of the year. That's a powerful image that finds resonance in
many hearts this season.
It is, however, Hanukkah lights as a symbol of a people who survived against
all odds and held onto their faith through it all that interests me this
year. What I find fascinating about the account of the Maccabean period is
that the Syrians not only had might and power on their side, but their
culture was also tremendously attractive. Some Jews converted willingly.
Resisting temptation and surviving coercion, the Maccabean Jews kept their
faith and maintained their identity, as Jews have time and again throughout
their history. And so Hanukkah lights will shine the world over for eight
days, a symbol of Jewish triumph over assimilation.
Most Unitarian Universalists aren't Jewish (though some are), and most of us
have never been or are likely ever to be subject to deliberate assimilation
by a foreign power. Yet for those of us who kindle Hanukkah lights each
December, the ritual is much more than an empty gesture of liberal religious
correctness. We light the candles to symbolize, to honor, to celebrate the
ways, great and small, that each of us has triumphed over forces that would
have us abandon our beliefs, give up our faith, or lose our identity.
I have, since becoming a minister, had occasion to stand up for my beliefs,
for some of our shared beliefs. For example, during an interfaith World AIDS
Day service, I listened in horror, along with the rest of those present, as
the main speaker for the evening condemned homosexuality. After several
stunned minutes I realized the responsibility for putting an end to his
remarks rested with me, the chair of the committee sponsoring the service. I
stood in my pew, saying "This has got to stop." I nodded to someone close to
the front of the church to escort the speaker from the pulpit, and directed
the soloist next on the order of worship to sing her song. After the song I
apologized for the pain we had caused. We concluded with a litany of
healing. Those remain the most difficult moments of my ministry to date.
You all have stories like mine. Stories of the decades-long friendship you
had to end when you could no longer ignore the racism. Stories of the
protests you marched in, the picket lines you refused to cross. Stories of
being a political or financial or social conservative in a group that
welcomes all views but yours. Stories of times when moral or ethical
decisions cost you your job but saved your soul. Stories of times when being
true to yourself meant turning your back on your family. Stories of times
when to speak out, difficult as it was, was easier than to remain silent.
Stories of your triumphs over both seduction and violence. Stories that
belong to almost every one of you who left other religions behind to follow
this one, and thus keep your faith.
Our hanukiyah [or menorah] shines here for each of you, for all the choices
you've made in those moments-grave choices-choosing other ways, even when
offered silver, gold, and the king's friendship.
My colleague Lynn Ungar wrote:
Light fires that can be seen for miles,
that dance and spark and warm
the frozen marrow. Set lamps
in the window. Declare your
presence,
your loyalties, the truths
for which you do not expect to have to die.
It would take a miracle you say,
to carve such a solid life
out of the shell of fear.
I say you are the stuff
from which such miracles are made.

So you are. And your fires burn brightly. May it always be so-for while the
victories we have already won have not brought an end to tyranny, together,
in our faith, we can triumph over ever greater odds.

Quest December 2002 Contents

Amalgam of Myths

by Richard S. Gilbert, minister emeritus, First Unitarian Church of
Rochester, currently visiting minister at Starr King School for the Ministry
and interim parish minister at Jefferson Unitarian Church in Golden,
Colorado

The secret's been out for a while. After all, it was printed several years
ago in The New York Times, so it must be true: Unitarian Universalists are
"striking the chord of spirituality." That's right! We are not merely
logical, colorless cold fish in the goldfish bowl of religions-we actually
have heart-and, dare we say it, soul. As for me, I never entertained the
notion that we were merely a "bastion of rationalism." I always thought
Unitarian Universalist religion was of heart and hand, body and soul-in
short, for the whole person in the whole of life.
Many Unitarian Universalists celebrate the season's darkness by embracing
elements of nature and human nature that make for growth. For us, the
changing of the seasons-Christmastide, the winter solstice, New Year-means
family get- togethers and gift exchanges, candlelight and mistletoe,
pleasant ceremonies to help us get through the darkness and cold of winter,
ceremonies with age-old pasts.
However, we surmise that for the ancients, these rituals were matters of
life and death itself. While we may be disgruntled with the darkness, they
were fearful that such a loss of daylight might lead to a perpetual winter.
When they discovered that the winter solstice was really the "hinge of the
year" and longer daylight and greater warmth would come again, that the
earth would be reborn, it was time to make merry-and not just to have a
party-but to thank the gods for another reprieve from death. Midwinter
festivals were a celebration of their very survival.
Y The Anglo-Saxon Yule means the "yoke" of the year, the balance point with
the lowest ebb of sunlight, but with promise of lengthening days. The Yule
log was burned both to emulate and to attract the sun.
Y The Advent Wreath had its beginnings in the pagan fire wheel, made from
greens to symbolize life. Some people burned greens on the hillsides; others
made great wheels, set them afire, and rolled them down the hills.
Y Yggdrasil, the World Tree, is a universal symbol of life whose roots and
branches were thought to hold the universe together. In early times it was
the sacred tree before the house of the gods, decorated with small lamps,
bowls of fat and cedar wicks. As we light our Christmas tree we simply
reenact that ancient ritual.
Y Mistletoe was sacred to the Druids, for it was supposed to have healing
powers. It was also a symbol of peace-enemies would stand beneath a spray to
make peace compacts, sealing them with a kiss.
Y In Rome the solstice was marked by Sol Invictus, the Undefeated Sun. The
Saturnalia festival meant seven days of extravagant decadence and intense
merrymaking. This must have been the forerunner of contemporary office
parties. Saturnalia had an egalitarian dimension, too. Slaves were allowed
to meet their masters as equals. In some traditions kings and peasants,
lords and serfs, exchanged places for a day and all rejoiced in the rebirth
of the year. These festivals were sometimes called "Days of
Misrule."
While we generally think of Christmas as a uniquely Christian holiday, it
was, in fact, created by people in many times and traditions. For example,
the virgin birth of a supernatural savior was common in the mythology of the
ancient world.
Y Consider the pantheon of those supernatural saviors born of a virgin:
Krishna, the Hindu god-man; Buddha, the Enlightened One; Confucius, sage of
ancient China; Zoroaster, of ancient
Persia.
Y In the pagan world similar stories were abundant about Plato, Alexander
the Great, Hercules, Dionysus. The Egyptian god Osiris was supposed to have
been born on December 25.
Y The narrative of the birth of Bacchus led one writer to rephrase one
traditional Christmas song to, "I'll be home for Bacchanalia."
A birthday was not assigned to Jesus until 336 of the Common Era. But should
it coincide with spring on March 28, April 19 or May 20, or winter, January
6 or, in keeping with most winter solstice festivals,
December 25? After all, the shepherds tended their flocks around Bethlehem
by night from about mid-March to Mid-November. They never went out during
the cold midwinter season. That decision was called by some critics, "a pact
with pagans." It was St. Francis of Assisi, who in 1223 created the manger
scene complete with animals.
I cite these miraculous religious birth legends, these pagan practices of
winter solstice, to remind us how deeply we believe in the hope symbolized
by the birth of a baby; how deeply etched in our bones is a communion with
the workings of the earth; how fundamental is our need for festivity, ritual
and ceremony; how universal are humanity's spiritual yearnings no matter how
varied their form.
Christmas is a magical time of the year not only because of the fabled birth
in the stable, but because it is the amalgam of so many myths and practices
that come out of the pagan world. At heart, we are all pagans-dependent on
the coming and going of the seasons.
As W.H. Auden puts it in his For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio:
Music and sudden light
Have interrupted our routine to night,
And swept the filth of habit from our hearts.
O here and now our endless journey starts.
And so it does.

Quest December 2002 Contents

Are you curious? New course offering for February 2003
Are you curious about the who what and when of Unitarian Universalism? CLF's
ministerial intern, Eliza Blanchard, will offer a "New UU" course in
February. It will be offered in four sessions, on-line. The four parts will
include Roots (a little history of the movement), Shoots (more of our modern
history and social action initiatives), Branches (a bit about the CLF,
what's in it for you, and how it fits in the UU picture), and Wings (our own
spiritual journeys and where we might want to go next). Please contact Eliza
Blanchard at eblanchard@uua.org if you have questions or would like to
participate.

What Sustains You?
The holiday season is truly joyous, just fun, or filled with meaning for some; an ordeal for others; and neither here nor there for a few. We'd like to hear from you: What sustains you during the holidays? We'll share as many responses as we can in an issue of Quest during the holidays next year.
Respond to or to Jane Rzepka, CLF, 25 Beacon Street, Boston,
MA, 02108.

Did you know that CLF sells UU-themed Order of Service covers for all
seasons? Watch for our new designs available in January.

Quest December 2002 Contents

No January issue of Quest

Dear CLFer:
All about you are preparations for the "season's joyance", as one of our
hymns puts it. But if you are like me, you look forward to escaping with
this issue of Quest and its quiet and thoughtful meditation on the season's
fundamentals. It is welcome preparation for the coming days of unbridled
commercialism and unfocused celebration. I enjoy the image of the CLF
congregation, scattered around the globe, reading these pages with hope and
pleasure.
I'm glad to be able to tell you that even during the holidays, your Board of
Directors and CLF takes its responsibilities very seriously. And one of our
most important responsibilities is fiscal. We all know that financially
speaking, these are difficult times. In order to stay our course, we have
decided to restrict our spending by means of several budget cuts.
It goes without saying that our budget was lean to begin with, so the cuts
have been painful. We have a wonderful staff, but at their suggestion we
lowered their travel budget to zero, raises were minimal, and our presence
at General Assembly last June was reduced. We've introduced budget cuts in
the areas of Web development, advertising, and computer upgrades, among
others. But perhaps the most difficult decision of all was to cancel the January issue of Quest.
I am composing this letter to you in September, and you'll be reading it in
December. By then, we all hope, the economy will look rosier, our phonathon
and canvass will have been more successful than ever, and member
contributions will be way up. That will make our responsibilities less
difficult and allow the staff to give you the church and services we all
want to have. On behalf of the Board I offer our sincere regrets at making
the cuts we have had to-including your January Quest.
Our hope lies in our combined generosity. It is neither too late to pledge
for 2003 or to make a contribution in this year. We will be most grateful to
all of you who contribute generously.
Thank you.

Brad Greeley, Chair,
CLF Board of Directors

Quest December 2002 Contents

In Our Library

The Church of the Larger Fellowship provides you, our members, with a
library of classic and contemporary books of special interest to Unitarian
Universalists. Our Web site lists up-to-the-minute holdings (www.clfuu.org),
and you may call our librarian, Giovanna Spadaro, with questions, at
617-948-6150. To remind you about the library, we offer a few listings here.
And if you are interested in purchasing any of these titles, contact the UUA
Bookstore (www.uua.org/bookstore or call 1-800-215-9076)
Call to Selma: Eighteen Days of Witness, by Richard D. Leonard, Skinner
House, 2001
Dick Leonard was 37 years old and the minister of education at the Community
Church of New York at the time he answered Martin Luther King's call. His
journal forms the core of this book and captures one viewpoint of this
pivotal moment in the struggle for voting rights. Call to Selma includes
first-hand accounts and reflections from more than two dozen other Unitarian
Universalists, plus award-winning photographs by Ivan Massar.
The Gift of Faith: Tending the Spiritual Lives of Children, by Jeanne
Harrison Nieuwejaar, Skinner House, 1999
The Gift of Faith calls for parents to be intentional, strong, and clear in
their choices regarding religious life, particularly in an increasingly
secular culture that pulls families away from spiritual awareness. By
sharing her own stories and experiences, Jeanne encourages children's
primary religious educators, the parents. This book offers support both for
isolated Unitarian Universalists and UUs who are part of a
congregation.
Thematic Preaching: An Introduction, by Jane Rzepka and Ken Sawyer, Chalice Press, 2001
Co-authored by our own minister, Jane Rzepka, this book offers both food for
thought about worship in general and practical advice about leading
services. The only basic UU text on the subject, the book contains
philosophical fundamentals, practical advice, emotional resources, sample
sermons by the denomination's leading ministers, and cartoons. If you
appreciate good preaching, volunteer as a worship associate or serve on a
worship committee, preach regularly (or think you might someday), you'll
want to read this book.
Proverbs of Ashes: Violence, Redemptive Suffering, and the Search for What
Saves Us, by Rita Nakashima Brock and Rebecca Ann Parker, Beacon Press, 2001
In a combination of memoir and theology, Rita Brock and Rebecca Parker show
how emphasizing Jesus' sacrifice on the cross sanctions violence and exacerbates its
effects, encourages silence about the abuse of human beings and hinders the
process of recovery. Brock and Parker give witness to the legacies of
violence in their own lives, and in the lives of those they have known,
loved, and ministered to. Unitarian Universalists who once were or who are
now Christians find this book especially powerful.
Day of Promise: Collected Meditations, Volume One, compiled by Kathleen
Montgomery, Skinner House, 2001
Gathered from the more than 1,700 meditations published since the
consolidation of the Unitarians and Universalists in 1961, this collection
was created with a specific audience in mind: a reader looking for comfort
and challenge. Each is by a Unitarian Universalist; each captures something
important embedded in our tradition.
What We Share: Collected Meditations, Volume Two, compiled by Patricia
Frevert. Skinner House, 2002
Inviting readers to reconsider the small events of daily life, the
selections in this anthology express in turn gratitude, grief, celebration,
sorrow and acceptance. Gathered from four UUA meditation manuals: In the
Holy Quiet of This Hour (Richard S. Gilbert), Blessing the Bread (Lynn
Ungar), Evening Tide (Elizabeth Tarbox), and Taking Pictures of God (Bruce
Marshall).
All the Gifts of Life: Collected Meditations, Volume Three,
compiled by Patricia Frevert, Skinner House, 2002
Selections from the following UUA meditation manuals: In the Simple Morning
Light (Barbara Rohde), Green Mountain Spring and Other Leaps of Faith (Gary
A. Kowalski), Noisy Stones (Robert R. Walsh), and The Rock of Ages at the
Taj Mahal (Meg Barnhouse).
Listening for Our Song: Collected Meditations, Volume Four, compiled by Margaret L. Beard, Skinner House, 2002
Selections from the following UUA meditation manuals: A Small Heaven (Jane
Ranney Rzepka), A Temporary State of Grace (David S. Blanchard), Life Tides
(Elizabeth Tarbox), and Into the Wilderness (Sara York).

Quest December 2002 Contents

Lucky
by John Gibbons, minister, First Parish in Bedford, Massachusetts

The lost-and-found pet notice reads as follows:
Lost. One large and lively, multi-colored nondescript mutt. Ragged left ear, one-eyed, three-legged, missing tail. Answers to the name "Lucky." Reward. Beloved.
And so the holiday season is upon us: large, lively, multi-colored and
hard-to-describe. The celebrations are a bit worse-for-wear, sometimes
shabby, oft-abused. We the celebrants-at least those above a certain age-are
a bit dog-eared ourselves. Some of us bear the scars of unfestive frays past.
Nonetheless, the old bounding mutt of December still answers to the name
Lucky. Despite all that is missing and all that is too much, there is in this season an abiding delight that we are still alive, still sniffing, still licking hands and faces, still barking at the moon, still rolling in trash, still chasing cars, rabbits and rainbows, still risking life, limb and tail, and still able to sleep and dream, curled warm on the rug. We are disfigured; life has taken its huge toll, but no more, and more remains.
We are lucky to be living in these beloved days and beloved nights. May we
find delight, and may delight also find us. There is a reward.

Quest December 2002 Contents

Last updated June 12, 2005