Congreational Conversations

Synopsis of Meetings

The Conversations

Some Notes on the Conversations

Congregational Conversations

I’ve been struggling for weeks to write a synopsis of the meetings we had in January which we called the Congregational Conversations of Worship. I told myself I didn’t have the time, that I was looking for the best way to organize it all, that I was waiting for inspiration. Finally, I’ve realized that there is no way to know, no way to be sure or right – there is only the leap over the cliff into the unknown with the faith that something will come of it.

This past January more than 60 members of our congregation came together in 3 separate meetings to have a congregational conversation about worship. As background, we remembered our vision and strategic initiatives regarding worship from the strategic plan written in 2002. They are as follows:

Vision: Our worship service and music fosters:
Spiritual renewal and development, and a strong sense of community for our diverse and growing congregation.

We feel challenged to grow spiritually through the exploration of many different cultures and world religions.

We are comforted by the thematic congruence with our Unitarian-Universalist traditions.

Our worship services are thematically consistent, with a high degree of professionalism, and reflect our increased diversity.

Our sanctuary enhances our communal spiritual experience.

Strategic Initiatives:

1. Develop and run a program to increase lay involvement by training members                                                                          in worship theory and how to plan, conduct, and participate in worship services.

2. Incorporate more diverse forms of worship and music that broaden our experiences, reaching out to incorporate styles and content that speak to many different cultures, while retaining respect for our Unitarian-Universalist traditions and the overarching spiritual purpose of the worship service.

With this as our backdrop, we explored what diversity in worship means to us, what cultures are there even now within our own community in addition to other cultures who have not yet come through our doors, what are our Unitarian- Universalist traditions (someone suggested this might mean “whatever we experienced the first year we came to the Meeting House”) and what do we mean by spiritual purpose.

After that, we talked about how we might expand our experiences in worship to encompass both the familiar and the new, so that over the course of a worship month or year, all might feel that they had been moved to experience the transcendent. For some this would come through the utter joy of a moving organ postlude. For others, the experience might be felt while swaying to a traditional spiritual or singing out a chant accompanied by hands acting as drums on the pew. Embodied rituals such as the lighting of candles brings a sense of bodily feeling of being held in community for some, while for others it brings up feelings of resentment and anger from the past. And, so, the ultimate question becomes “How do we live in community and find the spiritual nurture we crave and need to survive, while honoring the needs of others that feel so opposite to what we yearn for?”

In the end, we recognized that the transcendent will come for us all when we not only experience our own bit of ecstasy in that form we love and feel as true, but when we experience it as knowing and feeling our neighbor’s joy and uplifting in that which does not speak to us on a personal level.

I’ve been reading Gregg Levoy’s book Callings in anticipation of his visit here in June. Chapter 3 is entitled “Braving Conflict”. He says that heroism can be “redefined for our age as the ability to tolerate paradox, to embrace seemingly opposing forces without rejecting one or the other just for the sheer relief of it”.   He goes on to cite the work of Robert Johnson in his book Transformations where he calls “the ground between conflicting forces as a holy place. The struggle to hold paradox is ultimately a “religious” experience, in the sense that re-ligare means to re-join, to bind together opposites, to restore them to each other.”

My hope for these conversations before they took place was that many more of us would come to understand the complexity of worship-making and to see the depth of thought that goes into the crafting of every Sunday and to hear from you how this translates into the filling up of your spiritual needs. What came out of it, for me, was a profound sense of the universal – that which we are seeking in coming here to worship is so basic to our sense of self in the world, even though we might access it in different ways. If we can trust that the abundance of forms does not impede our progress, but rather brings us closer to that which we are seeking, we will all find that there is more than enough.

Levoy talks about thinking too much as a danger on the path of pursuing one’s calling. He says a “call is a missive from the province of mystery. . . Beyond a certain point, faith is the magic lamp and humility the abracadabra”. After leaving these conversations, I could hear the abracadabras just a bit louder and see that the light from the lamp shining on our path was just a bit brighter.

P.S. For those of you who crave more concrete information, feel free to read the attached notes, taken by scribes during the 3 sessions. They merely represent snippets of conversation, which cannot recreated from notes alone.
Congregational Conversations with notes following

Friday 1/16/09

Diversity:
Not always the same
Not talking to the same people all the time
People understanding at different levels and experiences
“Outside the comfort zone”---challenge to personal expectations
Diverse does not mean being all things to all people…subscribe to not being judgmental, but not needing to try everything

Broaden experience
Know things we didn’t know before
Provide different ideas of what church means
Opportunity to learn more about a person
Enhance spiritual growth
Be moved to appreciate there are different ways to worship
Reach different parts of one’s emotions
Religion is people’s attempt to confront that they will die
Church/worship helps us understand where we are going and how we make meaning of our lives
Touching people in heart and mind
Effects of the candle lighting:
         Meditative
         Reflection on memory
         Feeling part of community
Looking at familiar things differently

Cultures
How did becoming a Welcoming congregation and inviting the GLBT community change how we think of ourselves?
What other cultures do we represent?
         Age…multigenerational
         Educational level
         Income
         GLBT
         Religious background
         Theist, deist, humanist
How do we speak to all these cultures

Spirituality [Interesting discussion…spirituality was the topic for this section, but people focused on more questions]
How accessible is our worship?
What is a new person’s perspective?
What works for both the “insider” and people trying to get to know us?
How do we become aware of “insider communication?
What makes us comfortable in our service/worship?

UU tradition
Intellectually vigorous sermon
Cohesive service
Democracy
Social change/action
The unknown is unknowable
We carry previous religious backgrounds but we are not bound by them
This church is built from our own spiritual search
We all understand this differently

Music
A goal is to create seamless integration of sermon and music for a total service
More involvement of youth and children in music
Underused talent of youth
Kids performing music is not integrated as part of the service…it is performed at the congregation
Congregational response (clapping) engenders “performance” attitude

Hymns
Participation of the congregation makes them part of the service, not an audience
We all make a joyful noise
New tunes are tough
Learning and repeating hymns helps people participate in singing as a community
There is great pleasure in singing with the choir. The “descant” is like going into warp drive
The congregation does not need to be polished…we want to be able to belt it out
Love the organ
Hate the organ

Two different services:
RE at only one service is a loss
Paths only cross with one part of congregation
More time between services is needed so 2 groups might have the opportunity to meet
Can coffee be between services to increase interface of the two services
Consider family friendly service and a meditative service
Can we have RE between services

ETC
How do we create more simple services with broader experiences
If too many things compete for our time we lose focus and meaning
We need uncluttered worship
For our senior members of the congregation the constantly changing worship style is confusing and frustrating

Saturday 1/17/09

Diversity
Does a diverse congregation want a worship that is more experiential than intellectual
Theological diversity must be addressed. Teresa spoke of the concept of god in Islam and explored that relationship of the individual to god.
We need to look back on traditional Christianity so we can know how to speak with the Moral Majority.
The Order of Service gives the structure to the diverse sermon topics and music we want to experience

Broaden experience
The nuance of novelty can be positive
Intentional change is needed rather than change for change’s sake
It is a tricky balance to maintain the familiar while adding unfamiliar elements.
We need to create centering events in our worship so we can ease into diversity.

UU Tradition
UU churches are all different
Our tradition is non-tradition

Spiritual
The repeated practice of coming to church can be our way to transformation
Transformation can occur on different levels…individual, congregational, global
The congregation uniformly wants a good sermon and solid preaching
Short sermons do not fulfill everyone
Testimonials do not work for everyone.
Conversation on Yoga practice:
         Jnana…scholar
         Bhati…devotional
         Hatha…senses
Karma…action/service
People should come in to the sanctuary more quietly
If the candles were at the side of the entry could the lighting be done outside of service time

Music
Music can be diverse, but so can who is producing it.
Music, familiar and unfamiliar is welcome, but we need the help of the choir when it is new.
World music
Humming and chanting can create meditative experiences
There is a sense that the choir is separate from the congregation

ETC
The chancel art is very busy and elements cannot be seen from the back
Simplify the chancel art.
If we have two different types of service, how do the children learn the variety of ways we worship
Consider a longer service where the children might be dismissed later into the service.
Do not assume that when we make changes or introduce new ways of worship that everyone understands why.

Sunday 1/18/09

Diversity
Music could be beyond the hymnal
Increased attention to everything around, using all the senses
Multiple resources enhances the richness of experience
Diverse forms come from spiritual motivation (as opposed to expressing diversity without gain in understanding)
Does diversity lead to a path or is it an offering of different experiences…i.e. we are not looking for a smorgasbord of worship opportunities

Spiritual
Being in touch with the moment
Being in tune with every sense may be spiritual
We can be spiritual but not religious
Many paths to the truth
Spiritual is overall while religion adds a creed
To accept others with warmth helps lead our spirituality
Why do we cry when we feel spiritual---overwhelming connections
Transcendent…lifting the spirit higher
         For some it is the arts
          …the action/service
         Being at one with the universe or the universe of people
         Sense of the soul being touched by
                  Nature
                  People
                  The arts
Wholeness becomes the holy
Sense of being integrated as a human being…the integrated self feels holy
Full of the sense of life
Can we substitute wholeness for spirituality?
Silence and meditation are important for some members to experience worship in personal intimacy

Culture
How do we make others feel comfortable here
How does our traditional form of worship lead to discomfort
We respect “otherness”…our congregation values diversity
If we embrace traditions new to us, do we estrange our current members
We are proud of our GLBT heritage.

Music
Strong appreciation for the selection f music being “integrated with the sermon/service
The Musical Dedication and Spirit of Life ground us in music and allow for the pleasure of appreciating the other music in the service
Does the repetition of new ideas broaden the experience over time.

Etc:
Returning to the “traditional service is difficult to identify because each person identifies the “traditional” service by the first experience at
USH
Some people need a chunk of time to become deeply involved in the sermon and yearn for the intellectual depth of the longer sermon
Thematically consistent service is appreciated
Aesthetic integrity is recognized
We hang the elements of the worship on a structure so sit must be solid

Notes from congregational conversations Friday 1/16 and Sat 1/17

Hand out 1 page 2
            How can we bring understanding and respect to these equally important qualities…..
            Like youth in the service – we get to know them
            Children perform at us
            Lift up what has ultimate worth (BJ might have said this but it sounded good!)
Diverse:
            Different
            Talk to different people
            Outside of comfort zone

Broaden experience:
            Different idea of what church means
            Get to know someone new
            Enhance spiritual growth
            Visit other cultures
            Reach different parts of emotions
            Deal with big questions differently
            Looking at familiar things differently
            Accessibility for those who are not here
            Different types of services
            Agree that the unknown is unknowable

Diversity in order of service:
            We should do unfamiliar hymns with the choir present. “Ease into diversity”
            Tricky balance – keep the sense of the familiar while introducing new things.
            No change for the sake of change.
            We already have diversity – why would we want more?
            Intentional change, with a reason – not disjointed.
            Predictability
            We need to take “Other Person 101.”

Congregational Conversations 1/16/09 Note from Carol Davidson

Diverse means: Different sounds, words, music, people.
                          Speaking to all kinds of people and experiences
                          Outside our comfort zone
                          Clean and uncluttered; we're not everything to all people
                          Two different services

Broader experience means: Learn new
                                              New definition of church
                                              Know another person
                                              Enhance spiritual growth
                                              Visit other cultures for other spiritualities
                                              Reach different parts of emotion
                                              Worship - dealing with big questions, what on earth am I do do with my life

                                              Touch heart and mind in different ways
                                              See familiar things differently

Cultures: black, ages, education levels, income levels, celebrations/holidays and seasons, music Sunday, poetry Sunday, religious backgrounds                                             and new directions, how accessible are we to 'outsiders", atmosphere-comfort.

UU Traditions: Retain respect for our UU traditions
                         Intellectually rigorous sermon
                         UU congregations, all are different
                         Democracy and the need to discuss
                         Social change, social action
                         Freedom for our own spiritual search, acknowledge the unknown as unknowable
                         Aesthetics in music, quality

                                                     FENG SHUI - GOOD ORDERLY DESIGN?

Question #2 - How can we bring understanding and respect to these equally important 'qualities' of music in worship and points (a) and (b) following:

                       One service; youth, families, kids, RE. Second service: music, sermon, reflection
                       Discomfort with 'performance'
                       Hymns and participation by congregation
                       Matty leading chants is dynamic
                       Traditional hymns with choir; descant is moving
                       Loss of connection with members

Question #3 - Can we find resources such that we have one 'traditional' service that does not reflect this restructuring?

                       Not enough time between our two services
                       RE in the middle maybe?
                       John's Joyful Noise celebration choir

Let us know of any comments, errors and corrections - thanks (revised 00/00/09)