May - August 2007 Services at 10AM 6/17 - 9/2 Children’s Programming and Nursery Jump Station: Services; President's Column; Reflections from the Reverend; Music Notes; Ember Days; Childrens' Art Display; Can we Go Out and Play; Ask not What RE Can Do for You; Alliance Luncheon at Rockledge; Alliance Reorganization Meeting; Celebration Dinner; SGM; Petty Fund Scholarship; Call for Movie Nominations; Officers - Staff- Office Hours; Current Calendar; Communications Survey 3 June - Envisioning the Congregation We May Become (9:00 & 11:00 AM) - Building the world we dream about. From the vantage point of today and USH's long history, President-elect Bill Young and Rev. Jamestone tell the stories of our journey and what may be ahead. 10 June - Capek’s Flower Festival (9:00 & 11:00 AM) - The flower festival is our one uniquely Unitarian liturgical act without borrowed words or ritual acts from any other faith. Do you know the story? Please bring a fresh flower or two for our huge congregational bouquet, and let us once again celebrate the beloved diversity of our congregation and the many gifts of our members. - BJ 17 June - Fathers’ Day and ‘Flow’ (10 AM Service) - Michal Csikszentmihalyi has written extensively about what he calls ‘flow,’ based on longitudinal and international research studies, including thousands of interviews about what makes for happiness, creativity, subjective well-being, and fun. In “The Evolving Self,” he explores the notion that “Evolution equals integration plus differentiation.” What core capacity for self-differentiation resides in us all, regardless of gender, which we might discover by exploring our mythic definition of the ‘father’ image? – BJ 24 June - The Practice of Compassion (10 AM Service) - The theme is Buddhism - Professor Ellison Findly is Professor of Religion and Asian studies at Trinity College. Her focus is women and Buddhism, and philosophy of plants; currently Buddhism and textiles. 1 July - Power Play (10 AM Service) - An overview of the many faces of power, and how it has been used and misused throughout time. Examine how we can be conscious of our own power and use it to help ourselves and others around us lead a meaningful life. - Rebecca Bryan 8 July - The Joy of Music (10 AM Service) - From my early days to the present: a journey of a lifetime through music. - Sid Garvais 15 July - All Of It Or None Of It (10 AM Service) - The story of a spiritual journey back to the center, finding home somewhere between poles of belief - a story of questioning, exploring and learning. - Stan Forrester 22 July - Starry, Starry Night (10 AM Service) - Do you watch for Venus at sunset? Did you know Sirius, the Dog Star, is the brightest star in our sky and inspiration for Sirius in the Harry Potter stories? Can you find the North Star that led escaped slaves to freedom? As sophisticated urban people, how do we stay connected to the inspiration of stars, which all humans have experienced until recent times? - Marye Gail Harrison 29 July - Songs of the Spirit (10 AM ServiceChapel Service) - Back by popular demand, a song circle. Sing songs that lift your heart, touch your spirit, and heal your soul. - Fred Louis & Maggie Greene 5 August - “A Rose Is A Rose Is A Rose” (10 AM Service) - We all give labels to ourselves, other people, and our experiences in order to understand and help place them in a certain perspective. How does this practice help and/ or hinder our real understanding of ourselves and others? When and how do labels prevent our understanding of ourselves and others? Is reality, mostly, not what it is but what we have decided it is? - Caroyn Cartland 12 August - Lessons from the Lounge Chair (10 AM Service) - We welcome new members who have come to us this summer, and welcome Rev BJ to the pulpit for a ‘special guest slot’ – she does not formally return from vacation until September 9. Come hear what happened at General Assembly in Portland, and some pastoral prognostication about our upcoming church year as we explore the theme of “family” - BJ 19 August - Big Rocks & Golden Handcuffs (10 AM Service) - A personal tale of how we put first into our lives' "jars" the biggest rocks that came our way - even if it didn't quite make "cents." - Karla and David Principe 26 August - Who Are We .. Really? (10 AM Service) - Join in six fanciful interviews with a chemist, an astronomer, a theoretical physicist, Lao-Tzu, Albert Einstein, and BJ as they answer this question. - Bill LaPorte-Bryan 2 September - Poetry Service (10 AM Service) - We celebrate the end of the traditional summer season with a service including poetry, music and words about love and joy -- and how they are essential to our spiritual lives. - Patrice Fitzgerald President’s Column - What is Wisdom? - The closest I have gotten to understanding spirituality is contained in Parker Palmer’s notion of a process of coming to terms with life’s conflicting truths. The outcome is not an actual reconciliation of things that by nature are irreconcilable, but rather a degree of wisdom from having tried. But, this begs the question: What is wisdom? In a recent issue of the New York Times Sunday Magazine (May 6, 2007), Stephen Hall summarizes the ongoing research that attempts to describe the concept of wisdom. Using several different approaches, psychologists have characterized wise people as embodying a keen understanding of human nature, an emotional stamina acquired in the face of adversity, an openness to considering new ideas, a readiness to forgive, humility in all things (i.e., if you think you are wise, you probably aren’t), and a penchant for lifelong learning. It seems that wisdom is only partially knowledge based and has more to do with an emotional steadiness in processing information, both that received from external sources and that generated internally. People judged by the researchers to be wise are sensitive to their own emotional states and to the emotions of those around them, and they are able to achieve some emotional distance when circumstances warrant a degree of objectivity. In a completely different line of research neurophysiologists are attempting to understand the structure and function of the brain. A number of brain imaging studies have correlated the notion of wisdom with the ability of those areas of the brain responsible for cognition function to inhibit other centers in the brain that deal with negative emotion. In essence, wise people are able to voluntarily use their thought processes to focus on positive rather than negative emotions. They have a highly functional set of relationships between their thoughts and their emotions. This is a process tending to improve with age. The people identified in the article as examples of wisdom all seemed to possess this list of characteristics, but what appeared to be more important was their ability to access in appropriate ways the precise mix of these characteristics needed to address a wide variety of situations. In other words, the most central feature of wisdom is not simply possessing certain characteristics, but, rather, having a set of functioning relationships between these characteristics. Wise people are able to draw on their life experiences, especially those experiences that tend to be more adverse, to achieve some clarity on human nature, to be aware of their own principles, to know when to act or not, and to be sufficiently humble to question assumptions in the face of new information. The touchstone of wisdom is adaptability-anchored self-awareness. If the research is correct and it is possible to identify and study wise people, I wonder if it is also possible to conceptualize a wise organization, specifically, a wise church. In the 177-year history of the Unitarian Society of Hartford, have we achieved a state of wisdom? Where within our walls is embodied a keen understanding of human nature and the human predicament? What have we, as a congregation, learned from the adversities that we have faced, and do we have access to the emotional stamina that comes from having overcome challenge? Where do forgiveness, humility, and lifelong learning fit into our spiritual life? I believe that all of these characteristics are present in our congregation, although I assume that some are more likely to be found in one segment of the congregation or in one generation more than another. How, then, can we tap these resources (i.e., how do we relate to each other) such that we, as a corporate entity, act with wisdom across the range of circumstances that we face? As Unitarian-Universalists we do not have dogma on which to fall back. Ours is less a religion of deterministic answers and more of a religion of questions combined with a willingness to entertain them. We value openness to new ideas, acceptance of others, and a healthy awe for the unknown. Marshaled together and with added touches of humility, forgiveness, and a sense of history (both that which we inherit and that which we create) we have the foundation for, but not the assurance of, a kind of corporate wisdom. I am tempted to go on and say that the world is in desperate need of our wisdom, but such a statement would reflect the type of self-preoccupation that is antithetical to the notion of wisdom. The issue is more: Who do we want to be as a people of faith? In the absence of dogma, the answer, it seems to me, lies not so much in cataloging who within our congregation possesses characteristics associated with wisdom, as in finding new ways to relate to each other. Psychology deals with thoughts and emotions, and those psychologists who are engaged in research around the concept of wisdom seek a consilience between thought and emotion. They have gone so far as to concede that wisdom has more to do with the regulation of emotion than it has to do with the acquisition of knowledge. While we place a high value on thought and emotion, our primary focus at the Unitarian Society of Hartford is spiritual. Perhaps we have an advantage in being able to see wisdom as spiritual in nature and its acquisition as spiritual in purpose. And, in our own particular UU take on spiritual matters, we have before us not religious dogma, but choices in regard to who we wish to be and how we wish to act. Wisdom, it seems, is one of our choices. – Charles Huntington Ember Days Returns to the Chapel - May 30 12-2 PM; June 1 and 2 6-8 PM We will enjoy some hours of worship in the Quaker tradition, and reflect on the practices of discernment, clearness, and obedience in Quaker worship and decision making CHILDREN’S ART DISPLAY - Our current art exhibit is contributed by artists in our Religious Education program. Artists and/or parents may pick up the work following the 11:00 am service on Sunday, June 10, when the show will come down. June 3 – What were Unitarians singing 50 or 100 years ago? What might we be singing 50 years from now? We’ll explore some UU musical possibilities in this service that takes the long view of our Society. June 10 – Flower music for Flower Communion and Children’s Sunday is provided by all our musicians, from the youngest (Chalice Choir and Children’s Choir) to the adults. June 17 – The Choir reprises some favorite anthems before taking a well-deserved break for the summer. June 24 – TBA During the summer the Choir is off, resting our voices and participating in exciting choral workshops like those run by CONCORA and Berkshire Choral Festival. Here at the Meeting House, our Music Associate John Jesensky will be in charge of all music, for Sunday worship services and any other events. Any musicians (instrumentalists or singers) who would like to offer their musical gifts in a service should contact John via the USH Office (or see him any Sunday) to set up an appointment to discuss selections and rehearse. John will be the organist and/or pianist each Sunday and will be happy to accompany if given enough lead-time. The summer music season extends from June 24th through September 2nd. On Wednesday September 5th the Choir season resumes with our annual Potluck (in either Fellowship Hall or the Library, weather dependent) and kickoff rehearsal. We welcome new singers! Basses and Tenors are especially needed, but there's room for more Sopranos and Altos too. Please contact Mattie (banz@hartford.edu) or any Choir member. Contrary to popular opinion it is not necessary to be able to prepare Death By Chocolate or grow organic tomatoes in order to join Choir (but it doesn't hurt). Come sing with us! And if your preference is for joyous enthusiastic singing without reading music or prior training, look for John's announcements of the Celebration Choir, coming soon to a Unitarian Society near you. Can We Go Out and Play? - This summer, the RE program will be offering a weekly directed activity for all ages at 10:00 AM on Sunday mornings. These activities are designed to promote community building and creativity while having fun. Interested adults are needed to volunteer 90 minutes of their time on one Sunday to assist with this program. The only skills necessary are the ability to remember how much it meant to spend time with engaged adults as a child, and the desire to experience the headiness of being young in the summertime. Nursery care will also be provided. If you can come out to play with us, please contact Gail Syring at dre@ushartford.com or at the Meeting House for more information. Ask not what RE can do for you.. - Our cooperative Religious Education program thrives due to the creativity and commitment of volunteers. Our dedicated team chooses the curricula, teaches the classes, assists in the classrooms, chaperones field trips, and provides numerous other essential services for our children. Each adult involved in RE has an indelible impact on the spiritual development of the children in our congregation, and your talents are needed to make our team complete. Please consider including the RE program in your personal ministry this year, and set a living example of the seven principles for our children. Comprehensive training is available for all positions, and no prior experience is required. Please contact Gail Syring at dre@ushartford.com or at the Meeting House to discuss what level of commitment is right for you. Luncheon at Rockledge June 7 - Join Alliance friends for lunch at the Rockledge Restaurant, 289 South Main Street, West Hartford, on Thursday June 7. We will carpool from the Meeting House about 12:40 PM or you can meet us at Rockledge for lunch at 1:00. Reservations required, so sign up on the Alliance bulletin board or contact Louise Schmoll, 242-2953, no later than Monday, June 4. Alliance Reorganization/Cabinet Meeting June 7 - On March 13, the Society Board of Directors voted to accept the Alliance proposal to reorganize under the Community Within. On April 22, the Alliance membership voted to make this effective July 1. The Alliance cabinet will meet Thursday, June 7, at 10:00 AM in the Library. With reorganization there is much to be discussed about next year’s activities. Your involvement and ideas are vital to make this work and to facilitate our collaboration with several other sub-councils. You can join us for lunch at the Rockledge Restaurant after the meeting. More about this new sub-council, Unitarian Alliance Ministry to Women (UAMW) will appear in the September Messenger. Celebration Dinner - Come celebrate
with GHICEJ on June 14th. All are invited. It
will be an evening to celebrate our legislative
wins, and to acknowledge all who have worked
with us this past year. GHICEJ will host a potluck
supper that evening from 6:30 - 8:30 PM at Grace
Lutheran Church on Woodland Street in Hartford. There
will be a brief business meeting prior to
dinner, but the main focus will be good food
and socializing together. So if you signed a
petition, came to a rally, turned out to support
the Public Meeting in January, we'd like to see
you on June 14. Please bring a dish
to share and RSVP to Shai Cassell at 860-930-0256.
- Desserts provided by GHICEJ.
Small Group Ministry for Facilitators - It was like “School for Teachers,” only more fun and nourishing for the soul. Last March, Reverend BJ graciously agreed to facilitate a Small Group Ministry for facilitators. We met on four Monday evenings in BJ’s home, a cozy setting that helped bring us together. Participants included Barbara Fraher, Lisa Gabrielle, Heather Ferguson-Hull, Margaret Leicach, Bill Willett, Bev Prager, Bev Spence, Gail Syring, Ginny Berrien, and Mike Roy. The topics stimulated some deep sharing. We started with “God and the Apple and Creativity.” It posed the questions, “What if the creation story had a different ending? What if we’d been raised with a creation myth that involved God’s delight in our exploration and expansion, rather than his disappointment at man’s disobedience?” On the lighter side was the reading, “Falling Grace,” about the therapeutic benefits of a good belly laugh. Things turned a bit more serious with a passage from Mark Morrison-Reed’s “Been in the Storm So Long.” He postulated that we need to fear not death, but empty and loveless lives. We ended with “A ‘Why’ To Live,” which concerned the individual’s search for a sense of purpose in life. On reflection, this SGM allowed us to create a form of laboratory. We experimented with format. We decided not to take a break in mid-session, and we offered no food or drink besides water, partially out of respect for Hunger Awareness Month. BJ also ended each session with a wrap-up question asking what meaning each participant extracted from the session. In debriefing, some of us also felt that as a group we could have done a better job at times in following the SGM covenant. We felt we could have listened more intently sometimes, we could have afforded more equal opportunities to speak from time to time, and we could have talked for shorter lengths of time occasionally. This is good. By walking in the participants’ shoes, we learned from this laboratory, and are encouraged that we can do a better job of facilitating groups in the future. Once again we will offer Small Group Ministry in the summer, with one group in July and one in August. Each will meet one evening a week for four consecutive weeks. Heather Ferguson-Hull will facilitate in July, starting on Monday, July 9. Margaret Leicach will facilitate in August, starting on Thursday, August 2. Both groups will convene at the Meeting House in air-conditioned space. To register, you may sign up at the Adult Programs table in Fellowship Hall on Sundays in June, or you may call the church office. - Mike Roy The Greater Hartford Interfaith Coalition for Equity and Justice Announces its Spring Leadership Training Program - This program is free to members. Location yet to be determined, but will be in the Hartford area. All three sessions are recommended but not required. Training to be provided by Ken Galdston, Director of the InterValley Project, a New England organizing network, and mentor and consultant to GHICEJ. Some of the topics to be covered are:
Dates and Times: Saturday, June 2nd 9 am to 3 p.m. (Lunch provided) Monday, June 4th 5:30 p.m to 8:30 p.m. (Light dinner provided) Tuesday, June 12th 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. (Light dinner provided) Please reserve your spot as soon as possible, by calling Margaret or Shai at 548-1744. Please note what sessions you will be attending. Petty Fund Scholarship - The Information and Advocacy Sub-Council oversees the Jean Petty Fund, set up in 2002 with Jean’s bequest. Additional donations have been made, and can still be made to honor Jean and Steve Shepard’s inspirational justice work at USH. Applications are now being accepted through the end of June, 2007 for scholarships from the Fund for peace, justice or environmental projects representing the work that they did. The Fund is prepared to make $500 available. Smaller requests will be given greater attention. Applications should be sent to the Information & Advocacy Sub Council. Here's your chance to nominate titles for the
2007-8 Dinner/Movie series. As in past
seasons, titles may be current, classic, neglected,
independent, studio, foreign, documentary, fiction,
or or or … Most important is that
the movies provide a springboard for our after-viewing
discussion.
**** Officers: Charles Huntington, President; Bill Young, President Elect; Margaret Leicach, Treasurer; Sue Kinney, Secretary; Nancy Mandly, At-Large Community Within; Marye Gail Harrison, At-Large, Spiritual Life; Peg Otto, At-Large Social Justice. Council Chairs: Hugh Schweitzer, Administration; Carol Sexton, Community Within; Fred Louis, Social Justice; Nina Elgo, Spiritual Life STAFF: Rev. Barbara Jamestone, Minister; Gayle Syring DRE; Denise Ackeifi, Youth Advisor; Brian Mullen, Business Manager; Rosie Rindfleisch, Administrative Asst; Mattie Banzhaf, Music Director; John Jesensky Music Associate: Peter Magistri, Sexton; Robert Gavin, Custodian. Office hours: M-F 9-3 (excluding W 10 -11);Rev. Jamestone: Phone: 860 233-9897; Email: RevBJ@USHartford.com Office hours: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday - Available by appointment. Articles for the Meetinghouse Messenger should be directed to messengernews@ushartford.com by the 15th of the month prior to publication. This issue was edited by D & J Newton, Brian Mullen and Rosie Rindfleisch. So much stirred up in the momentous first year of my life among you. I find myself largely stumbling into the next field of wonder before having had time to absorb and appreciate the one I’m leaving behind. You likely know what I mean! I appreciate the gracious permission you are
giving me to do things differently and to toss
seeds of potential programs and possible futures
abroad among you. Can you hang
onto your hats for two more years of this? If you’ll
join me in a three year adventure in removing nails from
old wood, and trust that there is a grandness of design that
will reveal itself to us, beginning year four we will have
huge stacks of beautiful old boards with rich patina of age
and polish with which to build. We will build a structure
of heart and mind and body even more fabulous than this Meeting
House on Bloomfield Avenue, even more outrageous and noteworthy
among our neighbors, using the blue print which has gradually
come into focus as we make our way from uncertainty to complexity
to paradox and back again. And by the time of our 200th
anniversary in 2030, it will all be very clear what we’ve
been up to all this time, and you’ll be ready for another
big panel for the entryway, which illustrates the whole thing!
Let’s imagine what will be on that panel, and what
first steps we need to take today in that good orderly direction. Yours - Rev BJ Editor's note: If you have Microsoft Word, simply download the communication survey form, complete it and send it along to Tom Reed as an attachment. If that presents difficulties, for you, just copy the survey below and paste it into a Word Document, or print the web page and complete it with pen and send along the hard copy. We will appreciate your effort so please give it a try. Survey on Vehicles of Communication Please take a few moments to provide your editors with useful information on the Meetinghouse Messenger (the paper or electronic monthly publication), the USH-Enews (the web-based weekly electronic newsletter), and the Meeting House Weekly (the sheet of information included in the Order of Service each week).
Meetinghouse Messenger _____ As is _____ Prefer
Changes
____ As is _____ Prefer
Changes (Please see more questions on the reverse side of this sheet.) The Meeting House Weekly (Included With
the Order of Service On Sunday) _____As
is _____ Prefer
Changes General Comments Welcome:
NOTE: If you are able, please respond by email to tmreed35(at symbol)comcast.net This form will also appear as a Microsoft Word Document on the Website, which can be downloaded, completed and returned as an attachment. Otherwise, please leave a paper copy of your response for Tom at the Meeting House office. You may also send it by snail mail to USH, 50 Bloomfield Avenue, Hartford, CT 06105 Thank you for taking the time to provide us with feedback. If you do not reply by June 17, we will assume that these three vehicles of communication meet your informational needs but please do respond as we need both positive and negative comments to evaluate what we do and make appropriate adjustments.
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