by Jane Rzepka, minister, Church of the Larger Fellowship
“I’m not just saying this because I’m your mother. Now listen, and believe me, you are the prettiest, nicest girl in the entire school, not to mention the brightest, and if you don’t believe me just go look in the mirror. I happen to know that there are dozens of young men who would give their eye teeth to go out with a wonderful girl like you. Boys are shy, too, you know. Don’t you worry, someday your ship will come in.” Actually, that little speech? That’s the full title of this sermon.
We could all use that kind of speech from somebody who grabs us by the lapels in the morning, looks us square in the eye and says, “Listen. You are wonderful. You have what it takes. We all like what you are, who you are. You do a good job at life. We care about you; we love you. Count on that. Don’t ever doubt that.” And then you go off and begin your day.
Healthy little kids know they’re hot stuff. Little kids strut. Little kids say what they think. When you tell José he looks terrific in his new shoes, he’ll say, “I know.” What happens to that? How do we lose that certainty that we look terrific in our new shoes?
Well, we get battered about. Some big kid says that the new shoes are for babies. Grandma treats the new shoes as “just shoes.” José loses sight of the bouncy, resilient child he is and “becomes” his shoes. That’s the short answer: we lose sight of the good, solid citizen inside, the divinity within, and adopt what we think we heard from the outside world as a comment on our very core as a human being.
In a Sunday service some years back, a colleague, Forrest Church, asked the people in the pews to look at the people sitting next to them or in front of them or behind them. He said, “I’ll make a bet with you. I bet that at least one of your neighbors in the pews looks as if he or she knows something that you don’t know. Or looks like they have their act together. And I’ll bet something else. I’ll bet that when they were looking at you, they were thinking the same thing.”
Not that most of us are on the brink of psychological disaster. We’re just inclined to imagine that the people around us have smoother lives—they’re less lonely, or more in control of their anger. They’re neater, or surer, their children don’t talk back, they have more close friends, fewer money worries, more job satisfaction, a better sex life. There’s a lot of looking around, a lot of not feeling so very good inside.
It’s self-esteem that can go to bat for us. Self-esteem is our reputation with ourselves, how we hold ourselves in our own estimation. The poet Derek Walcott writes:
The time will come when, with elation you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror, and each will smile at the other’s welcome.
The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other’s welcome.
That’s good self-esteem. It’s a feeling, not a scorecard. It doesn’t matter whether or not you are the best bowler on the team, or the worst; the best salesperson in the company, or the worst; fat or thin, indebted or rolling in dough; it is psycho-epistemological—at the very root of your being—what you think you’re like, not what you do.
At about the time we begin to talk about aspects of life so basic, as basic as self-esteem, we find that we’re talking about religion. What are we like? What is human nature? Do we start off corrupt at birth, or do we come equipped with an essential goodness inside? Is there a power that makes us what we are? Are we sheep waiting to be led, or are we more or less in charge of the direction of our lives?
These questions are not merely angels-on-the-head-of-a-pin theological; they directly affect the way we feel about ourselves. Unitarian Universalists are fortunate in this regard, because our religious tradition has always gone hand in hand with the fostering of self-worth. We have battled the concept of original sin for 200 years.
Imagine a mind-set in which you are at your very core depraved and sinful, before you even get started. Imagine—and I know some of you were raised this way and don’t have to imagine—imagine the weight and pain of trying to live a healthy and satisfying life knowing always how lowly you are. The Calvinist system works for lots of people and I appreciate that, but for me its appeal is nearly impossible to comprehend.
From the Unitarian side of our history, we have, in the mid-1700s, leading Boston ministers Jonathan Mayhew and Charles Chauncy emphasizing the good in human nature—radically stating that our natural powers can be cultivated and improved until we attain an actual likeness to God. From the Universalist side, we inherit the words
of John Murray, who in the familiar quote said, “You possess a small light...uncover it, let it shine, use it in order to bring more light and understanding to the hearts and minds of men and women. Give them not hell, but hope and courage.”
Later, of course, we have Ralph Waldo Emerson claiming that within us is “the soul of the whole; the wise silence; the universal beauty....When it breaks through our intellect, it is genius; when it breathes through our will, it is virtue; when it flows through our affections, it is love.” If any of this theology sinks into us or our children (and I believe it does), our self-esteem is wonderfully supported. We mustn’t take this spiritual blessing for granted.
OK. Healthy self-esteem is something we believe in. But believing in it isn’t enough—we have to figure out how to get it! And just when we’re busy figuring out how to get it, we remember that Unitarian Universalism tells us we already have it! Our theological ancestors pointed out that actually, there’s nothing we have to do—we simply “possess a small light” that we need only “uncover” and “let shine.”
My own favorite image is of a new baby, a baby about three months old. A three-month-old baby is a pretty pure form of life, and when you hold that baby and look into its eyes, you smile. You just do. The baby hasn’t come home with a good report card, the baby isn’t the author of a best-selling screenplay, the baby doesn’t have a fancy new hair-do, the baby, just by virtue of being alive, is good enough to be smiled at. So are we all.
But it doesn’t always feel that way.
I performed a wedding once and had a little trouble with the marriage license: it blew away. It just sailed into the heavens on that windy wedding day, and was never seen again.
So I went to Boston City Hall. I had my ordination certificate along, and the wedding ceremony, the couple’s check, our parish register, church letterhead, and my driver’s license. But the woman said, “No dice. I have to see the church records.” It did no good to point out that these were the church records—she wasn’t budging. Neither of us, it turned out, could imagine exactly what kind of “church records” would suffice.
After a couple of hours of this, I, too, began to doubt that I’d ever performed the wedding, become a minister, or been born and given a name.
As an adolescent, when I sometimes doubted my existence or my place in the universe, I turned to the existentialists, if only to confirm the legitimacy of the doubt. But the actual healing always came from the love, or even the nonchalant acceptance, of people around me. We must remember to do that for each other, even at City Hall.
The expert on this, of course, was the TV personality Mister Rogers, Fred Rogers, who died a year ago February. Frankly, I never took to Fred. He was just so sappy, and, to tell you the truth, I get a little queasy when I even think of the tune, “It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.” But when it comes to self-esteem, Mister Rogers was a pro. I hesitate to mention the tunes he sang for fear you’ll burst into song right there on the bus or at the hair dresser or wherever you’re reading this, but he wrote pieces like “Everybody’s Fancy”: “Some are fancy on the outside, Some are fancy on the inside. Everybody’s fancy. Everybody’s fine.” Or, “It’s such a good feeling to know you’re alive,” or “You can never go down, can never go down, can never go down the drain.”
We don’t, most of us, have Mister Rogers to remind us every day that we can’t go down the drain and we’re plenty fancy just the way we are. But we do have each other. It doesn’t take much.
This is what we can do: We can accept and affirm one another.
We don’t have to approve of our neighbor’s tax forms or lawn care or voting record to approve of his or her humanness. We don’t have to be dazzled by our spouse’s or roommate’s performance as a washer of clothes or cars to offer an extra affectionate word or gesture. We need not be at all impressed with the state of our children’s room to open our arms to them. There’s a cartoon, and it’s true, that says, “By accepting you as you are, I do not necessarily abandon all hope of your improving.”
Inside you know you’re terrific in your new shoes. You know, and I’m not just saying this because I’m your mother, you know, that you’re the prettiest, nicest girl in the entire class. And when you forget all that, when you’ve lost sight of how holy you are, when you’ve lost track of the miracle that you are, when you don’t feel at all to be the wondrous human being that you are, somebody will remind you because you once reminded them. And then,
The time will come When, with elation You will greet yourself arriving At you own door, in your own mirror, And each will smile at the other’s welcome.
When, with elation
You will greet yourself arriving
At you own door, in your own mirror,
And each will smile at the other’s welcome.
The text of the above CLF poster, from the 60's, reads:
Church of the Larger Fellowship BRING A CHURCH TO A FRIEND Wherever he or she may be
The Church of the Larger Fellowship goes where you go - a church with members everywhere. The ministry and services of CLF provide sermons, publications, library, religious education and counseling by mail.
by Laura Cavicchio, ministerial student and CLF member, Reading, Massachusetts
Do you actively choose your religion? Do you practice keeping what has been called “the mind open at both ends”? Are you okay with being “in the question”? Are you drawn to the fellowship of other people who cherish their right (and choice) to be different? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, chances are good that you are a religious prospector.
“Religious Prospecting.” This colorful word-pair was coined by the Unitarian historian Charles Lyttle, author of a book called Freedom Goes West. The book documents the uniquely Western history of the spread of Unitarianism in 19th century America. “Religious prospecting,” in Lyttle’s usage, describes how isolated people with like-minded convictions found and shared liberal religious ideas on the rural Western frontier. It is a fascinating history, and it’s our own history as members of the Church of the Larger Fellowship.
Religious prospecting reflects the energy of self-determinism and the will to overcome separateness that characterized the early American liberal traditions. It underscores the ways in which religious liberals on the Western front sought out one another. It even conveys some of the zeal, the hope—the “prospect”—of the liberating ideologies that our early evangelists sought to articulate and promote in the field.
With the building of railway access from East to West, Calvinist evangelists were out recruiting Western converts. In response, a founding purpose of the American Unitarian Association in 1825 was to “promote pure and undefiled religion” throughout the whole country by the distribution of tracts and other publications and the support of missionaries. In those times, Unitarians were one of many Christian sectarian voices competing in an arena where Calvinist doctrine was dominant, and orthodoxy was virtually required.
The AUA commissioned a five thousand mile missionary expedition. Much of it was on horseback over difficult terrain. Its purpose was to make connections with religiously liberal, intellectual folk throughout Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, and Illinois. Other religious prospecting expeditions focused on the larger cities along the Ohio River, the Erie Canal and the Great Lakes.
The text of the above CLF brochure, from 1966, reads:
CLF A Larger Fellowship A Smaller World
The proliferation of Western-produced publications to spread the liberal word to a specifically Western mindset came next. Of these, The Pamphlet Mission, published in Chicago, is one of the earliest periodicals. In 1878, Robert Collyer wrote in an editorial in the first issue:
We want to make this new publication, The Pamphlet Mission, go like a benediction among Liberal thinkers all through the West. To feel that our little fortnightly messenger is the most welcome visitor, especially in the lonely homes and thinly scattered communities of free religious thinkers…. Each number of the publication will make good the promise of its title; i.e., that each will stand for real FREEDOM of mind, for real FELLOWSHIP between differing minds, and as most important of all, for CHARACTER as the test and essence of religion. We hope not only to meet the want of persons who are already connected with Liberal organizations throughout the West, but especially do we desire to reach the isolated Liberals—the fives and tens and twenties in small towns—men and women thirsty for such words as these pamphlets will carry. Besides their use in the home, they can do good service among the neighbors, and furnish regular material for Sunday meetings and discussions in places hardly to be reached by Liberal preachers. To all who welcome the Liberal word, we would say: Turn missionary and local agent. Show your copies right and left…and thus, for five cents once a fortnight you will have a silent preacher in your neighborhood preaching Freedom, Fellowship, and Character in Religion.
The text of the above CLF brochure, from 1975, reads:
"It is good for me to be Part of a Cause Greater than Myself." CLF
“Turn missionary and local agent.” Those are determined words. And there is a similar ring of urgency in the words of Susan Lloyd Jones, who laments “the Western problem,” as she called it. Her words come to us in a never published, handwritten manuscript of the same era:
One of the first, most persistent perplexities that faced the Western Unitarian movement at its earliest inception was how to reach the isolated? How carry our gospel of love to hearts hungering for it? All over this long, broad Mississippi Valley were scattered men and women toiling ceaselessly to found homesteads and rear families….They began bravely to do and to dare, to struggle and to achieve, to raise out of the chaos of wild-wood and flower-strewn prairie the cultivated farm, the church, the schoolhouse, the cities of culture. But O, the weary wanderings in the wilderness when, amid black days and nights of prairie malaria…the vials of theological wrath were poured upon their offending heads: “Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, with wrath and fierce anger; to make the land a desolation and destroy the sinners there out of it.” If instead, some believed that life and character made for righteousness and they had a faith in God’s goodness, justice, and love…they were shunned, and stood alone, with aching hearts. Those who have not known the burdens borne by lonely souls can hardly realize the joy, the relief, the ecstasy that came to those who discovered that they were not only one but many…that there was a whole denomination of doubters. What they feared as heresies were indeed great affirmations, large faith, and a strong believing. To touch such lives, and bring them within the electric circle of a Liberal fellowship—this was the Western Unitarian problem.
One of the first, most persistent perplexities that faced the Western Unitarian movement at its earliest
inception was how to reach the isolated? How carry our gospel of love to hearts hungering for it? All over this long, broad Mississippi Valley were scattered men and women toiling ceaselessly to found homesteads and rear families….They began bravely to do and to dare, to struggle and to achieve, to raise out of the chaos of wild-wood and flower-strewn prairie the cultivated farm, the church, the schoolhouse, the cities of culture. But O, the weary wanderings in the wilderness when, amid black days and nights of prairie malaria…the vials of theological wrath were poured upon their offending heads: “Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, with wrath and fierce anger; to make the land a desolation and destroy the sinners there out of it.” If instead, some believed that life and character made for righteousness and they had a faith in God’s goodness, justice, and love…they were shunned, and stood alone, with aching hearts. Those who have not known the burdens borne by lonely souls can hardly realize the joy, the relief, the ecstasy that came to those who discovered that they were not only one but many…that there was a whole denomination of doubters. What they feared as heresies were indeed great affirmations, large faith, and a strong believing. To touch such lives, and bring them within the electric circle of a Liberal fellowship—this was the Western Unitarian problem.
To the daunting physical and spiritual challenges of survival on the Western front came the answer of a God of fire and brimstone that arbitrarily damned sinners to hell before they were even born. But determined liberal voices denied the imposition of that God. Theirs would be an unrestrained faith.
The text of the above CLF brochure, the 20th anniversay edition, reads:
TWENTY YEARS OF A GREAT... IDEA!!!
Where were YOU on October 1, 1944? On that date the CHURCH OF THE LARGER FELLOWSHIP was Chartered with fifty-seven members.
After twenty years, C.L.F. is still going strong, still adding members, still reaching out to bring Unitarian Universalism to persons in need of a church home. It offers inspiration, education, reading material, devotional guidance, sermons, and denominational resources to nearly four thousand fanilies today. It has served tens of thousands over its twenty years AS A CHURCH.
CLF
Even after the advent of the railroad transformed the West, newspapers and mail were carried long distances on horseback. Early Unitarian tracts, with names like “The Faith Once Delivered to the Saints,” and “Unitarian Views” and periodicals like The Pamphlet Mission were literally carried from house to house to spread the liberal word. If you subscribed and you knew of some doubting neighbors in your valley, you passed your issues on.
The Western blend of Unitarianism forged in the wide-open spaces combined a radically inclusive spirit with an ethic of individualism and a strong dose of social consciousness. Western Unitarians were energetic and highly devoted to freedom of religious inquiry, and they had little in common with Easterners. So, in 1852, seventeen Western churches got together and formed the Western Unitarian Conference. The goal was to bring scattered individuals, fellowships, fledgling groups, and even non-Unitarian liberal thinkers, closer together and to meet their uniquely Western spiritual needs. Unity in a context of freedom was the guiding principle. As the result of a controversy in 1875 over the right to call oneself Unitarian as opposed to Christian, the Conference passed a resolution that stated: “The Western Unitarian Conference conditions its fellowship on no dogmatic tests but welcomes all who wish to join it to help establish Truth, Righteousness, and Love in the World.”
I love the Western idea of fellowship as a haven for all “honest doubters,” as stated by Jenkin Lloyd Jones, husband of Susan. He described his ideal of church as
“A free congress of independent souls…it will be the thinker’s home…. Over its portals no dogmatic test is to be written to ward off an honest thinker or an earnest seeker. This church must emphasize Universal Brotherhood.…it will seek to welcome low and high, poor and rich, unbeliever and believer.”
Consider along with this, The Pamphlet Mission’s banner motto of “Freedom, Fellowship and Character as the test and essence of Religion.” Character as the test and essence of religion. Deeds, not creeds.
Everyone’s effort was needed, so it is not surprising that women made their mark in Western Unitarianism. Women kept the Western Conference going by opening a central office in Chicago, where they had a book repository and a headquarters for mailing tracts and letters. Women were leading churches and becoming ministers. Sallie Ellis in Cincinnati, a poor, nearly blind invalid started a network of missionary volunteers called the Post Office Mission. Sallie Ellis mailed thousands of books and letters to the really isolated folk of the West, including those who were homebound and imprisoned. Soon almost every Unitarian church in the West had a Post Office Mission of its own.
Over the next few decades, various kinds of correspondence ministries morphed into the model of a parish “church by mail,” complete with a minister and all the trappings of by-laws and governance, membership, finances, outreach, and education. This was the vision that in 1944 became the Unitarian Church of the Larger Fellowship, established during World War II to meet the needs of religious liberals of any persuasion isolated by war, geography, or inaccessibility to free fellowship. After merger with the Universalist CLF in 1961, the Larger Fellowship truly came of age as a vital extension arm of the UUA, making possible the growth and support of many UU fellowships and small congregations, and continuing to meet the unique needs of isolated individuals and families.
The text of the above CLF brochure, the 30th anniversay edition, reads:
30 Years It's Just a Beginning 1944-1974
A Larger Fellowship... A Smaller World.
Nine years later, the CLF became a legally, financially independent, autonomous congregation, like every other congregation in the Unitarian Universalist Association. In that same spirit of historical Western religious adventurism, the CLF stands on the edge of “what is church?” and it continues to expand frontiers of religious liberalism.
by Helen Zidowecki, acting minister of religious education, Church of the Larger Fellowship
What is really funny? How does humor help us? How can it harm us?
These questions formed the topic of conversation for 30 youth grades 6-8 and adults at a conference which explored the connection between humor and the UU Principles. We looked at examples of good humor and examples of harmful humor, and developed guidelines that might arise from the UU Principles.
We began with the “inherent worth and dignity of every person.” Examples of good humor of this type included having a joke that can make everyone feel good, humor that focuses on life, and developing the ability to laugh at ourselves without putdowns.
For example, it takes me about three tries to actually leave when I am going somewhere. I get everything in the car….Then I think of something that I forgot, so I go back to get it. I get all settled in the car again, and remember something that would be nice to have, and go back in again. Eventually, I do get on my way. Even my dogs understand this. They don’t move when I come back into the house. I have learned to accept this as part of myself, to laugh about it, and to relax.
The text of the above CLF brochure, the 40th anniversay edition, reads:
CLF at 40 Celebration and Challenge Celebrating 40 Years of Service
MEETING THE CHALLENGE OF THE FUTURE!
The second and sixth principles consider “justice, equity and compassion” and “peace, liberty and justice for all.” Great ideals, but how can they relate to humor? The group considered “compassionate humor” as including funny life stories at memorial services, stories about someone whose life was undoubtedly filled with a sense of justice, fairness and compassion. And considering peace, we can rely on sayings such as “a world without peace is like a world in pieces.”
The principle of “acceptance and encouragement to spiritual growth” would be where Unitarian Universalist jokes would come in. Of course, like anyone else, Unitarian Universalists definitely do not like to be categorized as one homogenous group. Humor, however, can point to bits of truth and allow us to laugh at our own limitations. Have you heard the one about what you get when you cross a Jehovah’s Witness with a Unitarian Universalist? Someone who comes and knocks on your door for no apparent reason.
In discussing the “rights of conscience and the democratic process” the group mentioned that poking fun and making comments about the weaknesses of the government might make us more aware of the need to be active in addressing concerns and injustices. This principle calls us to use humor to express a concern without reinforcing stereotypes, attacking opponents, or putting down people’s rights to their own beliefs.
Finally, another of my favorite principles related to humor—the “interdependent web of all existence.” I’ve learned a lot about humor from paying attention to the incongruities between humans and the world around us. We have a menagerie of 2-3 dogs and 3-5 cats and sometimes a bird, depending on who is visiting. A couple of years ago, I started writing “Dawg Notes” to keep people current with life at our house. The dogs took over writing parts of the notes, from their perspective. I started looking at the events of the day as stories to be told. And, even in the sad events, there are sparks of humor. As the youth at the conference put it, “We’re all in this together!”
These descriptions of good humor were set against jokes that are harmful to a group of people, from “dumb blond” jokes to those with ethnic and racial overtones. Harmful humor also includes jokes that stereotype people by making assumptions about groups they belong to, jokes that ridicule beliefs and values, and jokes that take a superior attitude.
The guidelines that youth developed for healthy humor were:
Spring is a time when humor and joy abounds in the northern climates, filled with incongruities such as early spring flowers capped with snow crystals or downpours when the sun is shining. There is so much within and around us that is full of good humor! Look for it, celebrate it, live it!
Just for fun, here are a few UU jokes—a little practice in taking ourselves lightly!
Why did the UU cross the road? To support the chicken in its search for its own path. What do you call a dead Unitarian Universalist? All dressed up with no place to go. Arguing with a UU is like wrestling with a pig. Pretty soon you realize the pig likes it. How many UUs does it take to screw in a light bulb? Twenty. Seven to form a committee to discuss the ecological implications of compact fluorescent vs. incandescent bulbs, six to form a committee to discuss labor practices, six on the aesthetics committee to discuss the exact tint and wattage, and one who goes ahead and does it without consulting anyone else.
Why did the UU cross the road? To support the chicken in its search for its own path.
What do you call a dead Unitarian Universalist? All dressed up with no place to go.
Arguing with a UU is like wrestling with a pig. Pretty soon you realize the pig likes it.
How many UUs does it take to screw in a light bulb? Twenty. Seven to form a committee to discuss the ecological implications of compact fluorescent vs. incandescent bulbs, six to form a committee to discuss labor practices, six on the aesthetics committee to discuss the exact tint and wattage, and one who goes ahead and does it without consulting anyone else.
It’s true. Sometimes, CLFers meet. Though many of us feel we know each other after spending time on the CLF’s electronic lists or reading about other UUs in print, meeting each other in person adds another layer to the relationship, as several CLF members note below. If you’ve met other CLFers, please let us know! –Ed.
Susan Harper, Mankato, Kansas, tells us:
Julie Fitzer and I met (face to face) this fall after she enrolled at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. We went out for ice cream and got acquainted. I drove her out by the UU Fellowship in Lawrence, so she would know where it is. Then, later in September, Bob and I picked her up and we drove to All Souls UU Church in Kansas City, MO to meet with another CLFer, Lois Reborne, and her partner Pat. We all attended a lovely Friday evening lay-led service. After the service, we followed Lois and Pat to a Vietnamese restaurant and we all had a grand meal and got well acquainted. It is so, so nice to have faces to go with names. Julie and I correspond occasionally off the CLF electronic list (CLF-L), as do Lois and I. I hope that she knows she has “family” in Kansas, since she is so far from home.
Julie Fitzer, Lawrence, Kansas, adds:
Meeting the Harpers and Lois not only put faces on CLF-L posts, but also made me pay more attention to what they write. Interacting with them and observing the body language and smiles that the written word cannot capture gave me a new depth of appreciation for these fine souls. CLF rocks!
Scott Kasmire, Kunming, China, writes:
At first I thought belonging to the Church of the Larger Fellowship would be merely a pale substitute for a physical church. But it seems time and again, I’ve been proven wrong. Mainly because of my participation on our general topic e-mail list (CLF-L) I have, over the course of years, made friendships at least as meaningful as those from my previous “brick and mortar” church experiences. And every once in a while I’ll get to meet a fellow CLF member face to face. I was lucky enough to accomplish this again during the past summer. Fellow CLF-L “church-goer” R. Lee Montgomery lives in Yasothon, Thailand. As it happens, I’ve been living about due north of him for some time, in Kunming, China. When I was in the United States Navy my ship often visited Thailand, and I longed to return for a holiday. So a few e-mails later, Lee and I had plans set up to meet in Bangkok. We spent two days touring some mutually neglected spots in that city and we discussed everything from Thai history to the chemistry of the human memory. Discussing is one of the things Unitarian Universalists seem universally good at! When we said goodbye, we were much closer friends than I had expected we would become.
R. Lee Montgomery, Yasothon, Thailand adds:
I kept Scott’s head spinning with my UUnique view of everything from the Students’ Revolt of 1973 to cabbages and kings. Scott had the advantage UUs on the electronic list don’t have, of stopping me in mid-stream-of-consciousness to back up and explain things a bit!
From Evelyn Mischung, Giessen,Germany:
October 31 - November 2 there was a retreat of European Unitarians (EUU), taking place right here in Germany, at Oberwesel. I had the opportunity to participate and enjoyed it so much! I have always envied those of you who have the possibility to attend GA (General Assembly) in North America. Well, this was my GA! I met lots of American UUs living in Europe, among them Gevene Hertz and her husband, who live in Denmark. She and her husband John are the ones who really hold together all these UUs (mostly Americans) living in Europe. The retreat was jointly organized by the EUU and the “Deutsche Unitarier” (“German Unitarians,” an association of some 800 members). Well, everyone who talked to me expected me to be one of those “German Unitarians.” So I had to explain to them that I was a German Unitarian, however not a “German Unitarian,” but a CLFer instead. And just about everyone asked me what CLF was. So, after the closing of this retreat, the CLF was much more known in Europe than before! There was another German CLFer who helped me with this, Roland Siebeke of Berlin, also a member of the CLF-L list. He did a great job in translating almost all that was said and written officially, either in English or in German. We heard two sermons by UU minister Mark Belletini, and his sermons touched me more than anything I have heard being said from a pulpit for many years. They were the first UU sermons I ever listened to, and I was greatly impressed.
October 31 - November 2 there was a retreat of European Unitarians (EUU), taking place right here in Germany, at Oberwesel. I had the opportunity to participate and enjoyed it so much! I have always envied those of you who have the possibility to attend GA (General Assembly) in North America. Well, this was my GA! I met lots of American UUs living in Europe, among them Gevene Hertz and her husband, who live in Denmark. She and her husband John are the ones who really hold together all these UUs (mostly Americans) living in Europe.
The retreat was jointly organized by the EUU and the “Deutsche Unitarier” (“German Unitarians,” an association of some 800 members). Well, everyone who talked to me expected me to be one of those “German Unitarians.” So I had to explain to them that I was a German Unitarian, however not a “German Unitarian,” but a CLFer instead. And just about everyone asked me what CLF was. So, after the closing of this retreat, the CLF was much more known in Europe than before! There was another German CLFer who helped me with this, Roland Siebeke of Berlin, also a member of the CLF-L list. He did a great job in translating almost all that was said and written officially, either in English or in German.
We heard two sermons by UU minister Mark Belletini, and his sermons touched me more than anything I have heard being said from a pulpit for many years. They were the first UU sermons I ever listened to, and I was greatly impressed.
From Lois Reborne, West Plains, Missouri
Oh, how we gathered, we far-flung CLFers, at the CLF’s Gathering at The Mountain, a UU retreat center in Highlands, North Carolina, in September of 2003. We gathered to eat, barely noticing the good food for the fun of conversation. We gathered to worship and reflect, ably led by CLF board member Laurel Amabile and CLF church administrator Lorraine Dennis the first day, then co-created by us “campers” the rest of the time. We sang with Shelley Jackson Denham, the Mountain Quartet, and just with each other. We gathered for a nature walk, for hiking, for sightseeing and ice cream slurping. We watched the sun rise above valleys full of mist and listened to the rain drop from the old gnarled pines. Did I mention we talked? About everything? In just three days? I’ve never been to this sort of gathering of UUs before. General Assembly is for me almost boggling in scope, a roller coaster ride that it takes months to digest. District conferences I’ve been to are often short, and loaded with business and workshops focused on congregational leadership. CLF’s gathering was more like a family reunion—with a fascinating family I’d never met before. For me the Gathering was both an adventure and a homecoming. I look forward to being there again!
CLFers everywhere are invited to the second annual CLF Gathering at the Mountain this Labor Day weekend, September 3-6, 2004. The weekend will be facilitated by the Mountain staff and by a group of CLF volunteers. This weekend promises to be an opportunity for CLFers to have some “face time” with each other in a beautiful mountain setting where you can do as much or as little of planned activities as you would like. We will worship, sing, do crafts, tell stories, hike, and more. Most importantly, we will get to know each other. We had a great time last year and hope that it might become an annual pilgrimage for your family. Many UU congregations come together at a conference center for a retreat once a year. For isolated UUs, coming together in this way can be a very special way to find community and make life-long friends. Take a look on the CLF website at www.clfuu.org and on The Mountain’s website at www.mountaincenters.org and make your plans now to be at The Mountain this Labor Day weekend.
I remember when I first proposed the idea of a sabbatical to my congregation thirty years ago. It was part of my agreement and pretty standard around the Unitarian Universalist Association, but it was a surprise to most of the members of the church. Not that I wasn't due one, but most of the parishioners did not have sabbaticals and so weren't sure how it could happen. How would services run, weddings and memorial services get done, the driveway get plowed (I did that, too) and the newsletter get out? It took a while for those questions to get answered. And then to talk about the whys and the whos and the what fors.
Business folks and lots of others don't take sabbaticals. Happily, the UUA is more like academia, where the need for a time to escape the pressure of day-to-day responsibilities and rebuild the creative juices is understood and planned for. Only a real escape from the regular responsibilities of ministry offers the possibility of true re-creation.
Time has come for the CLF minister’s sabbatical and we on the Board and Executive Committee are getting ready for March 1st. Our uncommon church requires different responses, and luckily, the CLF is accustomed to ministers’ sabbaticals. We can guess, from past experience, that we will learn more about how our congregation runs. And we will take back some of the responsibilities we have passed on to Jane. We'll probably find that some of the jobs Jane is coping with now can be done by others of us in the church. That's the kind of thing we learn on a sabbatical.
I also look forward, as you do, to Jane's return. From personal experience with my own sabbaticals, I know she will return with new energies, new directions for her ministry and our congregation and new stories. I will miss her words to us in Quest. And know they will be more appreciated when they resume.
In the faith,
Brad Greeley, Chair Board of Directors
Rain-softened mud showed clear deer tracks where mother and little one earlier crossed my path. One set smaller wandered back and forth among the steadier, larger tracks. I stopped, stooped and placed the vee of my spread fingers in one of the tracks and felt the deer. The next rain will flatten all the mud again, and erase these sharp prints. I realized that my foot prints will also disappear but it was all right, better; at once I was free, unfettered. I walked along counting the minutes of my great day.
Rain-softened mud showed clear deer tracks where mother and little one earlier crossed my path.
One set smaller wandered back and forth among the steadier, larger tracks.
I stopped, stooped and placed the vee of my spread fingers in one of the tracks and felt the deer.
The next rain will flatten all the mud again, and erase these sharp prints.
I realized that my foot prints will also disappear but it was all right,
better; at once I was free, unfettered. I walked along counting the minutes of my great day.
by Henry B. Stevens, CLF member, Punta Gorda, Florida
...that the CLF has an on RE curriculum plan for use by families and small groups? Lots of resources, activities, books to borrow. Go to www.clfuu.org and click on Religious Education, then RE Curriculum
Last updated June 12, 2005
Church of the Larger Fellowship (CLF), 25 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02108-2823 Phone: (617) 948-6166 · Fax: (617) 523-4123 · E-mail: clf@clfuu.org
