tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1565134720473645552024-03-13T10:20:27.774-07:00Salt AirWords from the pulpit of the First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Palm Beaches, and other significant messages.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger132125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-156513472047364555.post-74138947547835366192020-07-26T18:42:00.002-07:002020-07-26T18:42:58.177-07:00Shared Ministry: The Dance of Partnership, July 26, 2020<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vSgo2iHI8Mo/Xx4w58HSeoI/AAAAAAAAPIs/HUGqxVyD6goGGZH2flQ-42HO0GP0BhhsACNcBGAsYHQ/s1074/IMG_20150114_154940570.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="927" data-original-width="1074" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vSgo2iHI8Mo/Xx4w58HSeoI/AAAAAAAAPIs/HUGqxVyD6goGGZH2flQ-42HO0GP0BhhsACNcBGAsYHQ/s320/IMG_20150114_154940570.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Amy Stauber</div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Way back in February as I was doing my homework as the Selection Committee Chair, I spent an hour or two each morning with my coffee reading In the Interim. This book of essays, edited by Barbara Child and Keith Kron, got me excited about the possibilities of interim ministry and the search process that I was committed to for our congregation. </div><div><br /></div><div>Even before I knew that we would find a minister, I, in my hopefulness, volunteered to lead the services at the end of May after our successful interim ministry search and again at the end of July to welcome our hypothetical new minister. Based on what the book said, it seemed like the right thing to do. </div><div><br /></div><div>My hope paid off. In May, the Selection Committee was able to present to you our new interim minister, Rev. Ed Proulx. And today the newly formed Transition Team is preparing the way for him to take over next week as our full-time minister. </div><div><br /></div><div>We are here today to prepare for the ministry that is to come and to celebrate the ministry we have been doing for and with each other in this last year. We are here to celebrate how much ministry 1stUUPB — its congregants and ministers — have been doing for nearly 70 years. </div><div><br /></div><div>As our full-time interim minister, Rev. Ed will be leading services 3-4 times a month, and he will be our guide, helping us refine our financial and leadership practices and helping us prepare for our next phase of ministry whether that be developmental, settled or contract. But I can assure you that one thing will not change with Rev. Ed’s arrival. The myriad ways we, you and I, each participate in the ministry of 1stUUPB will grow and continue.</div><div><br /></div><div>Change is coming our way, no doubt. But we’re no strangers to change. A little over a year ago, 1stUUPB adapted quite quickly to becoming a lay-led congregation. And not one of us has escaped the changes that dealing with a world-wide pandemic has caused. In the midst of this past year we have adapted to being an online community. </div><div><br /></div><div>Now once again, the forces of change are among us. We must each redefine our roles and relationships to the community of 1stUUPB in light of the fact that we now have a full-time interim minister to guide and support us. The roles of dozens of lay leaders within our congregation will shift and transform.</div><div><br /></div><div>And this is truly a cause for celebration! </div><div>New life streaming into our congregation and our spiritual lives. </div><div><br /></div><div>A new beginning. </div><div><br /></div><div>Isn’t that sense of refreshing newness what we all could use right now? </div><div><br /></div><div>This past year I feel that I have been unofficially enrolled in a fictional school that I lovingly call UU University. It began with my first Board meeting in May 2019. Very quickly, I found myself in need of an education. Reading our bylaws. Figuring out just how exactly one was supposed to serve a UU congregation as a Board Trustee. Very soon I had to figure out how to be a leader when there was no minister, how to help the congregation decide what to do next, and when we did decide that we wanted an interim minister, how we go about getting one. </div><div><br /></div><div>Fortunately, I was not alone in any of this. We went about this process together.</div><div><br /></div><div>One of my all-time favorite TV shows is Parks and Recreation, which takes place in the fictional town of Pawnee Indiana, but if it were a real town, it would not be far from where I grew up. The place I still think of as home. </div><div><br /></div><div>The show is the brainchild of fellow Midwesterner Amy Poehler. She plays the undaunted public servant Leslie Knope who loves her town and desperately wants to serve it. Leslie is infamous for her project binders complete with color-coded tabs, charts, and personalized covers. Not only does she create these hyper-organized binders for her work, but her friends find her making them for their life projects as well. </div><div><br /></div><div>I hate to tell you how many Leslie Knope binders I have put together for 1stUUPB in the last year, but I can tell you, I have learned so much by being a student at UU University. I have learned about the nuts and bolts of how a UU congregation operates, and I have learned a lot about myself and how to collaborate with others. </div><div><br /></div><div>In addition to my binders, I have also developed quite a library of books from In Spirit, the UUA’s bookstore. I realized what a couple of UU nerds my husband Larry and I are. Between the two of us, we have a whole shelf of UU books. Worship that Works by Wayne Arnason and Kathleen Rolenz and Serving With Grace by Erik Walker Wikstrom to name a couple.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, I have probably compressed several years of learning into one due to the nature and circumstances of my leadership role, but it has all been extraordinarily valuable. I learned that UU congregations, or congregations of any faith denomination, do not exist only because of the minister, rabbi, priest, or imam. They exist because of the lay leaders who, come hell or high water, will make sure that the Congregation continues. But ministers do make us better. They connect us to the larger UU world. They provide spiritual guidance and consolation, pastoral care, staff supervision, and a level of professionalism that is hard for us to do on our own. They provide a glue that holds us together, but they cannot do it alone. They need us. And we need them. </div><div><br /></div><div>As Rachel Melcher, our Board president, mentioned in her words back in May, “We share the load, a shared ministry, because we’ve chosen to journey together toward the land of living our best ideals.”</div><div><br /></div><div>We all have an opportunity to minister to each other just by being present. </div><div><br /></div><div>One of my deepest desires for our Congregation is to make leadership easier. That is a pretty lofty task. It might even be an impossible one. After all, what worth doing is ever easy? Building the beloved community takes some effort, but it can bring us deeper into understanding ourselves. It can round us out. Those parts of us that we do not think are our strong suit could become a little stronger. The deepening of our commitment to UUism could bring us growth in ways we could never have imagined.</div><div><br /></div><div>The horrific world of COVID-19 has forced us all into the virtual world for connection with people beyond our immediate households. It ironically and tragically creates opportunities that in no way assuage our grief, our problems, our frustrations, and our loneliness, but there are opportunities. There can be growth, even if it is just a tiny sprout of green in a vast desert.</div><div><br /></div><div>A sprout of green that has turned up in our Congregation is that the pandemic has made it possible for at least 10 of our members to attend the UUA’s General Assembly, an annual convention celebrating our faith. I know the virtual version of GA was no substitute for the shoulder rubbing that happens in person every year at these grand UU exhibitions, but the exposure that I got to the larger arena of the UU movement, even if it was just virtually, was like a shot of adrenalin lighting up these socially distanced, housebound days stretching out into months with no foreseeable end in sight. </div><div><br /></div><div>Attending GA made me feel plugged in to a super conductor of energy, strength, and resources. I learned that the big churches of the UU world have resources to share with us little guys. It is so easy to get frustrated by the sense that we have a lack of resources — people, money, staff. But connecting with GA showed me abundance. </div><div><br /></div><div>1st UU Church of Dallas, which has over a 1000 members, 3 ministers, and 17 staff members, shared a program they have created for membership development called Faith Forward: from Visitor to Leader. It is a faith formation curriculum designed to help members develop their UU faith from the first day they walk in the door of the congregation to when they eventually serve on committees or in leadership positions within the congregation or in the community working to promote our principles. I signed us up for a free trial of the first module in the series. It focuses on spiritual practices. Faith Forward has provided a complete set of videos and lesson plans for 12 one-hour sessions, so if anyone is interested in delving into this goldmine let me know!</div><div><br /></div><div>Another highlight of my GA experience that offered me a glimpse into the wealth of opportunity in the UU world was a workshop I attended hosted by Rev. Galen Guengerich who is the senior minister at All Souls New York, another 1000-plus member congregation. This one with 4 ministers and 21 staff members! </div><div><br /></div><div>His talk brought out the poet in me. I found myself jotting down poems during GA breaks, and the tendency toward lyrical, meaningful thought has continued through the summer. His talk, which was really an extended sermon, brought me back to one of the very first spiritual practices I developed in life, the writing of poetry, he helped me to recognize the shift that is happening in my spiritual life as I enter middle age. </div><div><br /></div><div>He said that spiritual practice is not “a temporary diversion or a tasty escape.” This statement caught my attention. He was describing what I thought was true for most of my life—that spiritual practice was something to draw me inward, away from the world into a juicier reality. Spiritual practices are a chance to connect deeply to oneself, in order to see, but ultimately a healthy spiritual practice leads you into deeper relationships both to people and the natural world. </div><div><br /></div><div>Rev. Guengerich states that “spirituality opens us up to what’s terrible and needs changing and to what’s wonderful and needs savoring.” </div><div><br /></div><div>The challenge of a spiritual life is to balance the need to connect deeply with ourselves and the responsibility we have of connecting deeply with others. </div><div><br /></div><div>There is no ministry without relationship. </div><div>There is no ministry if it is not shared. </div><div><br /></div><div>My eyes were again opened by the Ware Lecture delivered by best-selling author Naomi Klein. She showed how climate justice is at the root of all injustice. It is a tangled web. Those most affected by global climate change, and the natural disasters arising from it, are those who are racially and economically marginalized. It is not surprising that in the midst of a pandemic so many people are demonstrating in the streets demanding racial equality.</div><div><br /></div><div>GA offered multiple opportunities for coming to terms with white privilege — how we tell our nation’s history with blinders on, how we glorify the past, and how we contribute to the erasure of indigenous peoples both past and present with the stories we tell. From Christopher Columbus and his “discovery” of America to the Mayflower landing and the first Thanksgiving, to the sanctification of the Founding Fathers and beyond, we are used to a history that distorts, covers up, and erases the genocide and slavery that mark our nation’s founding.</div><div><br /></div><div>I came away from GA challenged to know about the indigenous people who used to live on the plot of land I now claim ownership of. I came away from GA wondering what my true calling is. What my job is. What my role in doing my part to save the world and its people should be.</div><div><br /></div><div>My thinking brought me back to us. 1stUUPB. My thinking brought me back to YOU. As a Board member, I, along with 7 other people, am entrusted with ensuring the continuance and stability of this faith community. By making sure that we have a minister, that we have smooth transitions of leadership roles, by making sure that we care for our facilities and the spiritual needs and the spiritual development of our members, I, in a very small way, am doing my part to re-write history. To write a new future. Right now the UU movement is truly the light of the world, and its congregations are how we can perpetuate and spread that light.</div><div><br /></div><div>As UUs we accept the challenges of radical compassion and love and acceptance every day. We model democratic process at its finest. We participate in People Engaged in Active Community Efforts. We show up for the Pride Parade and the MLK, Jr. Parade. We show our humanity by covenanting over and over again with each other. Knowing that we are human. Knowing that we fail. But keeping our eyes on the prize. Gaze ever fixed on the vision of what we can be when we are serving each other at our finest. </div><div><br /></div><div>Are you willing to take up that call? Are you willing to serve your highest ideals? Are you willing to learn about yourself? To grow deeper into your humanity? </div><div><br /></div><div>Are you willing to share this ministry, the ministry of Harriette Glasner, who helped found not only this Congregation, but the local ACLU, Planned Parenthood, and Emergency Medical Assistance? Are you willing to share the ministry of Nancy Benjamin, another early member of our Congregation who founded The Benjamin School? </div><div><br /></div><div>Are you willing to take up the ministry of Rev. James Reeb, who was killed marching in Selma, Alabama, in 1965? </div><div><br /></div><div>Are you willing to join a committee, lend a helping hand, send a card, or make a phone call? </div><div><br /></div><div>Can you think of a way to send cookies virtually during coffee hour?</div><div><br /></div><div>Are you willing to commit yourself to the nobility of striving for a better world, a better life, a better self?</div><div><br /></div><div>We ask no less of ourselves, my friends. Unitarian Universalism is not a religion for the faint of heart. Unitarian Universalism is no religion for the settled, the unquestioning, or the complacent. It is no place to stand still. </div><div><br /></div><div>No one at the UUA headquarters in Boston is wearing a uniform from the Middle Ages. We venerate no bones of saints, only stories of service and ideals. We march boldly forward whether the rest of the world is ready for it or not because we know that the world is dying without the light we represent. </div><div><br /></div><div>We know that individually we are broken, our imperfections humble us. We know that our world is broken, shut down, locked down, incapacitated by fear and incompetence and corruption at the highest levels of leadership. And then there is our planet. Record heat—100 degrees recorded in Siberia in June. Raging fires, pandemics. Our world is melting around us. </div><div><br /></div><div>What can we do?</div><div><br /></div><div>We already know the answer. We are already doing the work. We are fighting for what is right at hand. We are building the common good from where we are. We are supporting the structures that we know sustain. We are ministering to ourselves and each other. We are coming to church. We are not afraid to get involved. We are present. We are witnesses, supporters, and bridge builders. We are welcoming a new minister. May the spirit of love guide us from here.</div><div><br /></div><div>May it be so.</div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-156513472047364555.post-45047540662402681312018-11-12T12:19:00.002-08:002018-11-12T12:20:53.946-08:00November 11, 2018 Sunday Service Sermon and Readings<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zNOL-F90-2s/W-nfReS4GjI/AAAAAAAAHog/LkKjEO5qa94dMcHMmSB-r1Ow-TdtY5f7QCLcBGAs/s1600/WARD%252C%2BPAUL-052.Jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="815" data-original-width="634" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zNOL-F90-2s/W-nfReS4GjI/AAAAAAAAHog/LkKjEO5qa94dMcHMmSB-r1Ow-TdtY5f7QCLcBGAs/s200/WARD%252C%2BPAUL-052.Jpg" width="155" /></a></div>
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<b style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">1stUUPB Sunday Service on November 11, 2018, led by Paul Ward, <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">President of the 1stUUPB Board of Trustees and author of <i>The Inner Journey to Conscious Leadership.</i></span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><u>Opening Words</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">My opening words this morning are from Marianne Hachten Cotter's <i>Welcome to this Place of Possibility!!</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Welcome to this place of possibility!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is love's hearth, the home of hope,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">a refuge for minds in search of truth</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">unfolding, ever beautiful, ever strange.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Here, compassion is our shelter,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">freedom our protection</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">from the storms of bigotry and hate.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In this abode, may we find comfort and courage.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Here may our sight become vision</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">to see the unseen,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">to glimpse the good that is yet to be.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">https://www.uua.org/worship/words/opening/5451.shtml</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Dream Big Dreams </i>- Poem by Douglas Stewart</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Can you imagine being on the moon,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Or can't you see past the roof in this room?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">You must take things beyond what you can see.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">You must look past what is handed to you and me.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">What is here are the essentials of life.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The bare minimum, which can lead to stress and strife.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But look beyond what seems to make sense.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Go ahead and peek over that real tall fence.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">For what you find out there, beyond this place</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Might just bring a new-found smile to your face.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">For dreams are free, they don't cost a dime.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">If you try, you'll like it and it will help pass the time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">See, the limits we have put on ourselves</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Are from giving in to peer pressure and putting our dreams on a shelf.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Are you going to accept the status quo?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Or are you going to go where no one else goes?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Our dreams are what drive us and bring out our best.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">They're the lights that guide us when we're put to the test.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Go ahead, dream and follow your heart.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">You might be surprised and to others look smart.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">To dream is true freedom, expressed in our minds.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Let's see where they take us.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Maybe we will end up successful </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">And heroes of our time.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Most of all, achievement (no matter what shape or size)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Started as a dream in someone's inner eyes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Remember dreams are free, so jump in … get your start.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Who knows where you'll end up when you follow your heart.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">A better place, a better time.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">A better world we can find.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The answers all lie deep in our dreams</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Locked up in our minds. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Douglas Stewart</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><u>Story for All Ages</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Higgins: <i>A Drop With a Dream</i> by Christopher Buice, read by Amy Stauber</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Once upon a time there was a drop of water named Higgins.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Higgins was no ordinary drop of water. He was a drop with a dream.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Higgins lived in a valley where it had not rained in a very long time, so all the lovely green grass was turning brown, all the beautiful flowers were wilting, and all the trees were starting to droop.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Higgins had a dream that one day the valley would be a beautiful place again. But what could he do? After all, he was only a drop of water.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">One day Higgins decided to travel and tell others about his dream. All the other drops listened very politely, but no one believed that his dream would come true. "Higgins," said one, "get your head out of the clouds. You can't spend your whole life dreaming."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Higgins decided that he had to do something to make his dream come true. So he began to think and think and think. One day, as he was walking by a rusty old bucket, he got an idea.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"If enough of us drops of water got together in this bucket," Higgins thought, "there would be enough water to sprinkle on a few flowers to help them grow and become beautiful again!"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Eagerly, Higgins told everyone his great idea. But everyone thought he was being foolish. "That Higgins is nothing but a dreamer," they said.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Higgins decided he had to do something to convince the others that he was right. So he said to them, "I don't know about you, but I'm getting into the bucket! I hope some of you will join me. Then there might be enough water to help at least some flowers grow beautiful again."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">So Higgins ran as hard as he could, hopped way up in the air, and landed with a kerplunk in the bottom of the bucket.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">And there he sat . . . JUST A DROP IN THE BUCKET.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">For a long time Higgins was very lonely. It seemed like no one else was going to join him. But after awhile some of the other drops could see that the grass was dying and the flowers were wilting and the trees were drooping. They all agreed that something must be done.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Suddenly, one drop shouted, "I'm going in the bucket with Higgins!" And he leaped through the air and landed — kerplunk — in the bucket.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Then two other drops yelled, "Wait for us!" And they hopped through the air and landed in the bucket. Then ten drops jumped through the air into the bucket. Then thirty. Then fifty! And then hundreds of drops came from all around just to hop in the bucket!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Soon, the bucket was completely full of water. But there were still more drops that wanted to join, so they found another bucket and hopped in. Before long, there were two buckets of water— then three — then four — then ten — and then hundreds — and then thousands of buckets of water!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Along came a powerful breeze that blew over all the buckets, and all the water flowed together to make a mighty stream. Everywhere the water flowed, the grass turned green again and the flowers bloomed and the trees stood tall and straight once more.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">All this happened because Higgins had a dream and his dream came true. Because he knew that although he was just a drop in the bucket, enough drops in the bucket make a bucketful, and when there are enough buckets with the wind behind them, then justice will roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. </span>http://bit.ly/2PnT4zt</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">About the author:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Rev. Chris Buice is minister of the Tennessee Valley UU Church in Knoxville, Tenn.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><u>Sermon – <i>Mission Possible</i></u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Possibility thinking is powerful, it is the force that has transformed the world; it is possibility thinking that has allowed us to go to the moon and to invent the Internet, and it is this possibility thinking that has allowed us to seek new vistas, to find the most amazing love affairs, and to become more than we ever thought possible. I hope today that I can in some way inspire you to be possibility thinkers. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Let me share an example of my own experience of possibility thinking. In January 1977, I found myself in Dayton, Ohio just in time for the inauguration of Jimmy Carter. This was my first ever visit to the United States. I was twenty-five years old. There I was, working in research and development at NCR - you likely remember the company as the National Cash Register Company. I was a mechanical engineering designer, but I wasn’t designing cash registers, I was designing cash machines or what we now refer to as ATM’s, Automated Teller Machines.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The first ATM was introduced by Barclays Bank in North London, in June 1967, more than fifty years ago. The design is credited to an engineering team led by John Shepherd-Barron of printing firm De La Rue. I was working at the De La Rue company in partnership with NCR.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Do you remember the first time you used an ATM? The first ATM the U.S was installed in Rockville Center, New York by Chemical Bank in 1969. But this really isn’t a story about ATM’s.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">After spending nearly three months at NCR in Dayton, Ohio, I dreamed about moving to the US, but at that time I knew that was impossible. I continued my career traveling around Europe with occasional business trips to the US. But I was a possibility thinker and nearly twenty years later, I was offered the opportunity to work in the U.S. for 2 or 3 years. I came to New York in 1995. Those 2 or 3 years turned into 5 years, then 10, and eventually to more than 20 years, and still counting. Living in the U.S. became a possibility for me and then became a reality. I continue to be a possibility thinker.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">As I continue with my theme of possibility thinking, I invite you to think about what wonderful things have happened to you that you first thought were impossible? When did you think possibility? When were you a possibility thinker?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">One of my favorite possibility thinkers is the White Queen in Lewis Carroll’s <i>Through the Looking Glass</i> <i>and What Alice Found There</i>. In a conversation with Alice, the White Queen said:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"I'm just 101, 5 months and a day."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"I can't believe that!" said Alice.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"Can't you?" the Queen said in a pitying tone. "Try again: draw a long breath and shut your eyes."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Alice laughed. "There's no use trying," she said: "one can't believe impossible things."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Queen, in response to Alice’s skepticism about believing impossible things, suggested that she begin practicing possibility thinking. Although fictional, this children’s story is a wonderful inspiration for believing in the possibility of impossible things. Thinking from a place of possibility can provide the bridge from our dreams and imaginings to our actions that can help make the world a better place to live and work. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Reverend Dan suggested I might like to share some reflections on the role of president of the board of trustees during my talk today. I also want to talk about why I am wearing this poppy. All the while, keeping in mind our theme of possibility thinking.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">When Rev. Dan emailed me a few weeks ago to ask if I was available to lead the service this week, I checked my calendar and said yes. Then I realized that, with Dan as our ministerial leader, we have a new higher standard for our Sunday services. I love listening to Dan’s sermons. So, if this is your first visit to our sanctuary or you haven’t been here for a while, please don’t judge our usual standards by today’s service. Come back and meet Reverend Dan!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It has been my honor to serve on the Board of Trustees, first as clerk, vice president, and for the past 2 1/2 years, as president of the Board. Much as I have enjoyed serving on the Board, I have to say, I am already looking forward to the end of April when my term as president is complete. I am appreciating term limits!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">As I look around this morning, I can see quite a few members of our Congregation who have served as president of the Board of Trustees. You know the challenges of this role.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">One minute I am engaged in conversations about the strategic direction for the Congregation; the next minute I find myself collaborating with members of the Board about one of our most important tasks -- that of hiring a new minister. Along with these big issues, I am engaged in conversations and email exchanges about other important issues such as the campus sprinkler system or the cleanliness of the ladies’ room.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Whatever the topic, when I come from a place of service and possibility, I can make a positive contribution. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In the coming weeks, we will begin a strategy planning process. We already have a Long Range Financial Planning Task Force and a Communications and Marketing Task Force. The Strategic Planning Task Force will look at the bigger picture, the future of our Congregation. We will look at our purpose, our vision, our mission, and our specific goals.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Two years ago, we set a goal of 200 members by 2020. Some of you thought that was impossible. I know it is challenging. Florida is a place where a few people call home, but many pass through on their journey through life. Despite the frequent departures, our Congregation has stopped shrinking and we are positioned for growth. I still believe 200 by 2020 is possible; not easy, but possible. And even if we do not achieve the goal, isn’t it worth the effort?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I encourage you to believe in the possibility of sustainability and growth for our Congregation. If we come from a place of service to our Congregation, we can achieve great things. I invite you to ask: how may I help? How may I serve? I have appreciated the opportunity to serve as president of the Board of Trustees. Thank you for your support.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Now let me share some reflections on the wearing of the poppy. The remembrance poppy is an artificial flower used since 1921 to commemorate military personnel who have died in war. Inspired by the World War I poem "In Flanders Fields" poppies were first adopted by the American Legion to commemorate American soldiers killed in that 1914–18 war. They were then adopted by military veterans' groups in parts of the old British Empire. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Today, the poppies are mostly used in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, to commemorate their service men and women killed in all conflicts. These small artificial poppies are often worn on clothing leading up to Remembrance Day or Armistice Day, and poppy wreaths are laid at war memorials.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Some people choose to wear white poppies as an alternative to the red poppy. According to the Peace Pledge Union, the white poppy symbolizes remembrance of all casualties of war including civilian casualties, to stand for peace, and not to glamorize war. Purple poppies are used to commemorate animal victims of war.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">To conclude my comments in celebration of the centenary of the end of the First World War, let me read the poem that inspired the use of the remembrance poppy, <i>In Flanders Fields</i>, written by the Canadian military doctor and artillery commander Major John McCrae early in the First World War:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In Flanders fields the poppies blow</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Between the crosses, row on row,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> That mark our place; and in the sky</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> The larks, still bravely singing, fly</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Scarce heard amid the guns below.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">We are the Dead. Short days ago</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Loved and were loved, and now we lie</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> In Flanders fields.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Take up our quarrel with the foe:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> To you from failing hands we throw</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> The torch; be yours to hold it high.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> If ye break faith with us who die</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> We shall not sleep, though poppies grow</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> In Flanders fields.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I struggle to find possibility thinking in the concept of war but let me remind us of the Ode of Remembrance, I shared during our quiet time</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The passage from the poem "For the Fallen", written by Laurence Binyon.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">At the going down of the sun and in the morning</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">We will remember them."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">By remembering the fallen, maybe we can focus on the possibility of lasting peace.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Having celebrated the centenary of Armistice Day, let me share a few more positive thoughts about possibility thinking.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">One of my teachers is possibility thinker Ben Zander; Ben Zander is the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and co-author of the book, <i>The Art of Possibility</i>. Ben tells the story of the two salesmen who traveled to Africa from England in the 1900s. They were sent to find out if there was any opportunity for selling shoes. This was long before emails so they wrote telegrams back to Manchester in northern England. One of them wrote, “Situation hopeless. They don’t wear shoes.” And the other one wrote, “Glorious opportunity. They don’t have any shoes yet.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">To be a possibility thinker, you have to be a dreamer. You have to have imagination.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">So let me share of a story about <i>Daring to Dream</i> by an unknown author:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">An 8-year-old boy approached an old man in front of a wishing well, looked up into his eyes, and asked: "I understand you're a very wise man. I'd like to know the secret of life."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The old man looked down at the youngster and replied: "I've thought a lot in my lifetime, and the secret can be summed up in four words.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The first is think. Think about the values you wish to live your life by.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The second is believe. Believe in yourself based on the thinking you've done about the values you're going to live your life by.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The third is dream. Dream about the things that can be, based on your belief in yourself and the values you're going to live by.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The last is dare. Dare to make your dreams become reality, based on your belief in yourself and your values."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">And with that, Walter E. Disney said to the little boy, "Think, Believe, Dream, and Dare."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I love the idea of daring to dream. I have “Dream Big” written large on a cushion in my apartment.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">What are your dreams? Do you dare to dream, to dream big; to dare to dream and then do it, to make the dream a reality?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">(UU) Christopher Reeve, the actor best known for his role as Superman, was left quadriplegic after being thrown from a horse during an equestrian competition in 1995. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">One of my favorite Christopher Reeve quotes is, “So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">For me, it all starts with belief. Let’s pause for a moment. What do you think is impossible, but you really want to believe is possible? What to you dare to dream?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">A final word on possibility thinking from Wilferd Peterson, an author of inspirational essays. He says, “Walk with the dreamers, the believers, the courageous, the cheerful, the planners, the doers, the successful people with their heads in the clouds and their feet on the ground. Let their spirit ignite a fire within you to leave this world better than when you found it.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Your mission this week, should you choose to accept it, is to become a possibility thinker!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">May it be so!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><u>Closing words</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In celebration of possibilities that lie ahead, I share this quote inspiring us to focus on the goodness in the world. These powerful words were written on the wall of Mother Teresa’s home for children in Calcutta, India.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div align="left" style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.</i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-156513472047364555.post-14041557139076625972018-01-22T19:27:00.001-08:002018-01-22T19:27:36.209-08:00LIFE OF THE CONGREGATION – January 21, 2017<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We
have established an ad hoc Marketing and Communications Committee tasked with
improving communications within our Congregation and to those outside of our Congregation. We met for a kick-off meeting yesterday which helped identify
priorities and also demonstrated the wide diversity of opinion about what is
most important. I want to thank Gary Evans for stepping up to lead this
Marketing and Communications Committee. He will be forming the team over the
coming weeks. I invite everyone to share their thoughts about Marketing and
Communications with Gary and the team.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Harry
Wolin is leading the pledge drive this year. We will hear more from Harry as we
move into the month of February. Your pledges will determine the budget for
future of programs such as Religious Education and Youth, buildings and
grounds, and everything else.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We
continue our search for a full-time minister. Next month we will be seeking
your opinions on the performance of our ministerial leader, Dan Lambert. Look
out for a survey that will be available online and on paper. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Many
thanks to those of you involved in putting on the Art Show. Ministers Hall is
looking great. Our Fellowship Hour will be extra special this morning.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Thank
you all for your support of the Board of Trustees and your active participation
in the committees and Congregational activities. Please reach out if Dan or I
can help in any way.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Paul
G Ward, </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: large;">President,
Board of Trustees</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-156513472047364555.post-64705867968732402792017-12-19T08:35:00.001-08:002017-12-19T08:35:06.547-08:00LIFE OF THE CONGREGATION – Dec 17, 2017<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I
would like to provide an update on the composition of the Board of Trustees.
Bob Ashmore has stepped down from the Board for health reasons. I am sure you
will join me in thanking Bob for his service on the Board.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">One
of our newest members, Elizabeth Shine, has been appointed to complete Bob’s
term of office. Elizabeth has been part of our Congregation for more than a
year and was previously a member of a UU congregation in Connecticut for
fifteen years. Let’s welcome Elizabeth to the Board of Trustees.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The
Board held its annual retreat two weeks ago. One of the outcomes of the retreat,
approved at this week’s Board meeting, was the formation of an ad hoc Marketing
and Communications project team. The purpose of this team is to explore how we
can do a better job of marketing and communications. We plan to kick this project
off in January. If you have expertise in marketing and communications and would
like to contribute to the team, please let me know. I will be leading the team
initially.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I
will be heading to England on Christmas Day and wish you all a happy holiday
season and a wonderful new year. “My theme for the new year is Shaping the
future as if you will live forever, while living today as if you may die
tomorrow.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Thank
you all for your support of the <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a>Board of Trustees and your
active participation in the committees and congregational activities. Please
reach out if Dan or I can help in any way.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Any
questions?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Paul
G Ward<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">President,
Board of Trustees</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-156513472047364555.post-6407322734798892172017-12-12T13:59:00.004-08:002017-12-12T13:59:58.415-08:00Rev Dan Lambert: White Supremacy Culturally Dangerous, Morally Repugnant<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mgDhEo_vxIM/WjBRG7sJUuI/AAAAAAAAEF8/3NvOJqpfZakWk04KHU_iRtVKYtBLY9UJACLcBGAs/s1600/230.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="547" data-original-width="555" height="393" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mgDhEo_vxIM/WjBRG7sJUuI/AAAAAAAAEF8/3NvOJqpfZakWk04KHU_iRtVKYtBLY9UJACLcBGAs/s400/230.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">First, I will state the obvious. I am a white man. That you can tell by looking at me. </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: large;">You can determine that by looking at my skin.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">What you cannot see is my heart. You cannot know my passions, my sorrows, my fears, my loves, my frustrations simply by looking at me.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">You cannot know my heart for bringing people together.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">You cannot know my desire to heal hurts and to right wrongs.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Why is this important today? Why does this matter as part of the discussion about white supremacy, white privilege, and the Black Lives Matter movement?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It matters because for far too long white people and black people in America have been talking past each other when it comes to race relations.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It matters because for far too long we have looked at each other with suspicion, with contempt, with fear, doubting each other’s motives and hearts. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I am trying to be part of the solution. I am trying to help. I am trying to be the change I want to see, but our culture does not make that easy.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Here’s what I know:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I know that I do not and have never owned slaves, nor have I ever been a slave.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I know that untold millions of proud Africans were brought to America against their will and enslaved.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I know that, in the 150 years since the end to legal slavery, blacks have not had equal opportunity, equal treatment, or truly equal rights in America.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I know that I can only empathize in part with the plight of blacks because I am not black and cannot experience what they have experienced.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">25 years ago, when my auburn-haired girls were only 5 and 2 years old, and my son was a new born, we moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, so I could go to seminary. The large townhouse community we moved into was the best option for us because of its location and because the rent was affordable. It also just so happened to be about 85% black. For the first time in my life I WAS in the minority. My girls had no idea what it meant to be in the minority, and I really didn’t want them to know</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In the three years we lived there, we all made good friends in the neighborhood. Alexa, Caley, & Cameron played with the other children, and if there was ever a concern or a problem, the almost entirely black community knew exactly which white family the red heads belonged to. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Yes, there was crime and trouble. There was a murder just three doors down from us one night as a result of a domestic dispute. The couple was white. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Many people say that our goal should be to raise our children to be color blind. To see all people the same and treat all people the same regardless of race, nationality, or religion. I disagree. In fact, I think that is a very dangerous idea that ignores the realities with which those who are not white, Christian, and male face every day in America.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Rather than being color blind, the preferred goal is to be aware of the systemic racism, bigotry, and prejudice that is deeply rooted in our government, our society, and ourselves in ways that can be very subconscious and difficult to recognize unless you have been on the receiving end of such discrimination.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As a result of living as a minority in that Cincinnati community for much of their formative years, my kids learned to build friendships based on how much fun other kids were, irrespective of color, gender, religion, or socio-economic status. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Because of that, my three children who experienced being part of the minority have all become champions for social justice in a variety of ways. In fact, my oldest daughter married a terrific guy who just happens to be black. My other daughter taught ME how she sees people’s souls, not the color of their skins, their gender, their religion, or their relative wealth. Her relationships bear witness to that. My son and his wife both majored in the social work field and are dedicated volunteers with a Court-Appointed Special Advocates for families in need.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">These experiences and many, many more help illustrate why I am so deeply repulsed by the idea that any individual or any group of people believe they are inherently superior to any other person or group. White supremacy is one of the most culturally dangerous and morally repugnant philosophies active in America today. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Allow me to remind all of us again that the number one Principle of Unitarian Universalism is the inherent worth and dignity of ALL people.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">While I absolutely strive to empathize to the best of my ability with the realities, prejudices, and challenges that blacks are facing, I know that my understanding will always be limited because I am a white male. I want to understand and be more aware of my white privilege and how that affects my daily interaction with, and advocacy for the black community.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I want to be part of the solution. In order to be part of the solution, I know I need to listen more, to read more, to advocate more, to participate more.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">That is why I am here today. To listen and to learn. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It is my moral obligation as a fellow human. Amen.</span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-156513472047364555.post-12066795711286234322017-11-19T14:11:00.006-08:002017-11-19T14:11:52.539-08:00YouTube Video of Rev Dan Lambert's Nov 19 Sermon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lN9CpezOzHk/WhIBaKOW_rI/AAAAAAAADmk/KISaRHqu2jgPBX6Xj0F0Oqxu916RsG4kACLcBGAs/s1600/50.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="403" height="173" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lN9CpezOzHk/WhIBaKOW_rI/AAAAAAAADmk/KISaRHqu2jgPBX6Xj0F0Oqxu916RsG4kACLcBGAs/s200/50.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The video of Rev. Dr. Dan Lambert's sermon on Nov 19, 2017 can be found on YouTube at <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-quSgz_hfQ7K1tlRqb7_PA/videos&source=gmail&ust=1511215429620000&usg=AFQjCNGw7JOzOaJZF7YJXP4-CDICOcVqeQ" href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-quSgz_hfQ7K1tlRqb7_PA/videos" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/<wbr></wbr>channel/UC-quSgz_hfQ7K1tlRqb7_<wbr></wbr>PA/videos</a></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-156513472047364555.post-36634518039210960982017-11-19T14:02:00.003-08:002017-11-19T14:02:53.112-08:00LIFE OF THE CONGREGATION – Nov 19, 2017<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dtAKhAOz5OY/WhH_TxWOejI/AAAAAAAADmY/YSHjAH1-AOQxyce3-p6hc0av_zbpz2gAwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20171119_113748019.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="426" data-original-width="426" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dtAKhAOz5OY/WhH_TxWOejI/AAAAAAAADmY/YSHjAH1-AOQxyce3-p6hc0av_zbpz2gAwCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20171119_113748019.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The
<i><b>New UU</b></i> seminar was held yesterday – 13 new and prospective members attended.
Thank you to the members of the Membership Committee for organizing the leading
the event. We will be welcoming new members during the service on December 3<sup>rd</sup>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The
search for a settled minister continues. Some confusion over the UUA process
means that the search will take longer than expected. We will continue the
search and, in parallel, search for a possible full-time contract minister. It
is too early to know if Rev. Dan could be in the frame. I know you will give us
both feedback on Dan’s ministry. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The
Village Players of the Palm Beaches will be presenting Mike Harabin’s “A
Holiday Tale” here in the Sanctuary in December. Our own Joe Suhrbur is one of
the singers. I saw an earlier edition of the show two years ago and thoroughly
enjoyed it. I encourage you to attend. Tickets are $20 and 90% of the proceeds
will be donated to our Congregation. Saturday December 2 at 8pm and Sunday December
3 at 2pm. Barbara has the information.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Thank
you all for your support of the Board of Trustees and your active participation
in the committees and Congregational activities. Please reach out if Dan or I
can help in any way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Paul
G Ward, </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: large;">President,
Board of Trustees</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-156513472047364555.post-18742638228579953502017-11-05T19:16:00.002-08:002017-11-05T19:16:41.218-08:00Dan Lambert's Nov 5, 2017 Sermon on YouTube<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Watch Dan Lambert's sermon "What Does It Mean To Be a Liberal Religion" on the 1stUUPB YouTube channel at <a class="m_8884434095716521024OWAAutoLink" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-quSgz_hfQ7K1tlRqb7_PA/videos&source=gmail&ust=1510024152081000&usg=AFQjCNFZqwC-r-wwZE0usJLoHxN-1SF8gA" href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-quSgz_hfQ7K1tlRqb7_PA/videos" id="m_8884434095716521024LPlnk506946" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/<wbr></wbr>channel/UC-quSgz_hfQ7K1tlRqb7_<wbr></wbr>PA/videos</a></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-156513472047364555.post-87394627482545361732017-10-31T07:06:00.000-07:002017-10-31T07:06:47.989-07:00Who Do You Think You Are?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MidPNG2Ouvs/WfiCGv-IWrI/AAAAAAAADZs/r2xLBGd5fR0zZqKoxkIN8k4F1CME_z1MwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20171022_110647767.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="379" data-original-width="295" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MidPNG2Ouvs/WfiCGv-IWrI/AAAAAAAADZs/r2xLBGd5fR0zZqKoxkIN8k4F1CME_z1MwCLcBGAs/s400/IMG_20171022_110647767.jpg" width="311" /></a></div>
<div id="m_-4676195990494240146yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1509369003024_26948">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Male … White … U.S. Citizen … Able-Bodied … College Educated … Privileged … Gay … Father … Son … Fiancee … Minority … Unitarian Universalist … Spiritual … Humanist … Leader … Organizer … Business Owner … Copywriter … Gardener … Artist … </span></div>
<div id="m_-4676195990494240146yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1509369003024_26953">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br id="m_-4676195990494240146yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1509369003024_26954" /></span></div>
<div id="m_-4676195990494240146yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1509369003024_26955">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I bring all of these identities, roles, and more to a new life in a new town. </span></div>
<div id="m_-4676195990494240146yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1509369003024_26956">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div id="m_-4676195990494240146yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1509369003024_26959">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Moving, although a stressful transition that can bring somewhat jarring and traumatic changes such as a new job or school, a shift in economic responsibilities, leaving behind friends, and losing comforting physical surroundings that represent memories made and relationships started … </span></div>
<div id="m_-4676195990494240146yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1509369003024_26960">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br id="m_-4676195990494240146yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1509369003024_26961" /></span></div>
<div id="m_-4676195990494240146yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1509369003024_26962">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">... is also an energizing opportunity that offers you the ability to shed roles and responsibilities that no longer bring joy or meaning to your life, let go of unfulfilled plans or dreams, and allow you to finish writing your previous chapter so a crisp, new page can be turned to start the next one.</span></div>
<div id="m_-4676195990494240146yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1509369003024_26963">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br id="m_-4676195990494240146yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1509369003024_26964" /></span></div>
<div id="m_-4676195990494240146yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1509369003024_26965">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In a recent Palm Beach Post article about why some people love South Florida and some do not and move away, it was quoted that “moving does not guarantee happiness”, and demonstrates that continually examining how we view ourselves (and others) and repeatedly asking “who do we think we are” is an important exercise in deepening one’s understanding of oneself and crucial to our lifelong spiritual journey.</span></div>
<div id="m_-4676195990494240146yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1509369003024_26969">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br id="m_-4676195990494240146yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1509369003024_26970" /></span></div>
<div id="m_-4676195990494240146yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1509369003024_26971">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">All life transitions — be it moving, a birth or death of a loved one, the ending of a marriage — push you to take an introspective look at who you have been, who you are at the moment, and envision your future self.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This exercise of self-exploration and reinvention is hardly limited to moments triggered by external circumstances, but accessible from within at any time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I have found that a very telling way to check who I think I am at the moment is to view the “curated” identity I present via my social media pages. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It offers a quick visual representation of the “public” me by the things I “like” and “share, how and what I say in posts, and what confirmation biases I am displaying through them. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This always forces me to examine how I am presenting myself as authentic versus an idealized or contrived self and exposes areas that I need to re-examine and question further.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Examining identities within a wider circle is an invaluable exercise -- and recently, I, along with many other UUs of the Florida Southeast Cluster had the opportunity to attend the annual meeting and the “Thinking -- and Living -- Outside the Bubble” workshop led by Rev. Carlton Elliott Smith at the Treasure Coast Unitarian Universalist Congregation in nearby Stuart.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">A healthy number of our Congregation’s members attended and had the opportunity to (respectfully) burst our bubbles of birth-given privilege, protection, and isolation through exploring our roles and identities to develop deeper understanding of others. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This Congregation has a wonderful opportunity right now to engage in meaningful conversations about how each of us as individuals and as a whole define this religious community as well as examine how the larger community perceives us.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Being new to this Congregation — I have a much different perspective than a member who has been involved for decades. I look forward to getting to know all of you better — and you me — by hearing your experiences, expectations, beliefs, and values and sharing mine with you.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: large;">But, by all of us raising our voices to share, listen, and redefine ourselves as a religious community — we can both illuminate our congregation’s positive attributes and identify its “growing edges” — all invaluable for informing our developing a ministerial road map for our future. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Much like the brightly colored and patterned strips of fabric that make up the tapestry panels in our sanctuary, all of our unique — as well as shared identities and roles — are woven into a vibrant and pattern that incorporates each individual into one cohesive whole. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It takes a lot of stitching, weaving, and pricked fingertips to bring the whole forth, but the journey and the results can be magnificent.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This exploration of the mystery, and the movement of the unknown into the light, is one of the projects of our spiritual journeys. Deepening our understanding of ourselves. Gaining courage in exposing more of ourselves to others. This is one of the important ways that we find meaning in our lives -- how we discover our truth.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Creating a safe space for this exploration is one of the important functions of a religious community. Providing opportunities for people to know themselves better. Encouraging respectful engagement … that allows us to walk together on the journey… and to live more fully into the possibilities of human relationship. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We are here to nurture these important human needs. To know ourselves and to know others. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As we move more and more of our lives in the sunshine, we have more light on our path, and more warmth in our relationships, and more energy to give back to the world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Amen and blessed be.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">(With gratitude to Rev. Kathy Schmitz of 1U Orlando for her inspiration in developing this service)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: cyan; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Excerpts from "Who Do You Think You Are", a sermon delivered by David Traupman at 1stUUPB, Oct 22, 2017. </span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-156513472047364555.post-91453676467853847852017-10-30T08:15:00.005-07:002017-10-30T08:15:57.055-07:00Meditation, by Amy Stauber<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GJOGbp8gGW0/WfdB0UHs8NI/AAAAAAAADZI/8KWBhFz-xks4VeM5odApLrYwlMx8oEfsgCLcBGAs/s1600/Amy%2B20171029.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="373" data-original-width="384" height="307" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GJOGbp8gGW0/WfdB0UHs8NI/AAAAAAAADZI/8KWBhFz-xks4VeM5odApLrYwlMx8oEfsgCLcBGAs/s320/Amy%2B20171029.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">In
this quiet, still space,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">the
dust can gently settle.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The
sands can softly sift through the glass,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">and
we can hear the quiet voices.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The
voices of Spirit<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">ever
present beneath the buzz and hum of daily living.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">We
create sacred space here, now, together<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">for
soul to emerge and flower within our hearts.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #ea9999; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Words for meditation by Amy Stauber, delivered by the author from the 1stUUPB pulpit, Oct 29, 2017.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-156513472047364555.post-3265295007311765932017-10-29T18:12:00.001-07:002017-10-29T18:12:29.987-07:00Alloween: the Spirit and the Mystery<div class="MsoNormal">
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8dj1AWkr1pQ/WfZ7qn8__II/AAAAAAAADYM/ulaN2S8AQvMdKRkb_ZGfGWyPe4pDxu6MwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20171029_100815268.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="636" data-original-width="508" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8dj1AWkr1pQ/WfZ7qn8__II/AAAAAAAADYM/ulaN2S8AQvMdKRkb_ZGfGWyPe4pDxu6MwCLcBGAs/s400/IMG_20171029_100815268.jpg" width="317" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 24px;">I drink my coffee black and eat my chocolate dark. Luna is the name of my black cat. I even have a tall, dark and mysterious husband. To top it all off, I was born under the sign of Scorpio, right smack dab in the middle of the time of year when it gets dark earlier and earlier each evening, so I guess it makes sense that I have a preference for things dark and mysterious, and that something comes alive in me during the fall.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">I most became aware that I have an inordinate obsession with fall and in particular the celebration of Halloween when I was teacher at a Catholic school in Louisville. I came up with a two week project on Halloween that had my students develop what I called a Halloween packet full of research on different aspects and origins of the holiday and stories revolving around it. My principal, who meticulously went through our lesson plans asked, “Amy, isn’t this a bit much on Halloween for eighth graders?” Her reaction demonstrated to me that not everyone is as thrilled with the costumes, scary stories, and trick-or-treating as I am.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">One of my main concerns about moving to south Florida 11 years ago was how much I would miss the changing of the seasons. I can remember my disorientation that first year when October and November passed without any noticeable change in the heat or the vegetation. I still struggle a little bit each year, and have learned how to make the most of Halloween and fall decorations. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">On the Autumnal Equinox Sarah Wilson shared a video that expresses my sentiments about fall in the South exactly. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">A woman wakes up on the first day of fall excited and happy. She goes to her closet and pulls out a cozy sweater and scarf with fall leaves on it. She puts on a pair of fuzzy boots and makes herself a big mug of pumpkin spice coffee. Then she heads out the door only to find a couple of guys outside in shorts and short-sleeved shirts. She immediately starts sweating in her scarf and too hot sweater and with a big frown on her face slams the door, knocking her fall leaf wreath right off. She probably went straight to her air conditioner and cranked it down a few degrees just to get in the mood.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">Needless to say, the killing frosts of autumn do not touch south Florida, but if you look closely, the signs of change are there. We lose a fraction of the intensity of the sun. Instead of 90 degrees it’s 83 or 84, and occasionally we get a South Florida version of a cold front. Today might be the day. The ocean loses its aquamarine hue and no longer feels like bathtub water. And we do have our own version of a killing force of nature. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">Hurricanes don’t freeze us. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. They leave us sitting in our dark un-air-conditioned homes thinking about all the dead foliage we have to clean up. And we’re grateful that’s all we have to do. We’re grateful we have all of our loved ones accounted for; we still have homes standing, water to drink, and passable roads. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">This fall many people in Texas and the Caribbean came face to face with the killing and destructive forces of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria. Though it takes a different form, we are familiar in South Florida with the killing breath of autumn.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">Our religious and cultural traditions reflect this dying time of year and ask us to take a look at death and perhaps make friends with it. After all, it is as natural a part of life as birth. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">Many of you attended Bill Schoolman’s service on The Right to Die, last month. In his discussion of the need for our society to take a closer look at how we allow people with terminal illnesses to suffer needlessly, he accounts for this cruelty by suggesting that we as a culture, a society, are so obsessed with youth that we almost make it seem unnatural to show age, to show signs of the passage of time. We treat death as unnatural, but as I was explaining recently to a high school student that I tutor in English about the symbolism of Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, I haven’t heard of any one yet, no matter how great he or she was in life who was able to overcome death. Maybe you could count Jesus, but even though many believe he rose from the dead, he still didn’t get to stay. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">I was explaining to my student that Santiago, the protagonist of the novel, is fighting more than a fifteen hundred pound marlin and the sharks who want to feed on his great catch. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">He is an aging fisherman. He feels his decline deep in his bones. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">Santiago doesn’t care that he has no money for food. What’s most important to him is the will to live and to prove that he is still a hunter and a fighter. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">He’s still alive. But no matter how he fights, the sharks keep coming, just like the deterioration of the body. Just like death. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">We can die our hair, freeze our fat, and get Botox, but it doesn’t change the inevitable. Nature’s passage into this darkening time of year helps keep us honest about that.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">Celebrating this time gives us a chance to collectively take a look at death. Coming together helps us examine it at arm’s length, maybe make friends with it, or at least develop an acquaintance, and as our cultural tradition of Halloween invites us to, maybe have a little fun with it. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">The ancient Celtic ritual of Samhain and the Christian versions of it All Saints Day, All Souls Day, and Dia de los Muertos provide an opportunity for deepening our spiritual understanding of death. These traditions welcome connection with whatever lingers of the dead, the ancestors, those we have buried, or burned to ashes, those for whom our hearts still tenderly long. We revisit their memory, rekindle their spirits by fire or candlelight and commune with them, talk to them.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">And like Odysseus on his trip to the Underworld, we may receive news from home (our spiritual or ancestral home), and we receive something along the lines of prophecy, perhaps the direction we should go to get back home.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">Can I provide a rational explanation for the times in my own life when I have felt the veil lift between the living and the dead? Perhaps not, but I have had experiences that were for me powerful and spiritually moving, despite whether or not I can prove the veracity of them, or that they mean what I want them to mean.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">Twenty years ago, I was living in a Benedictine monastery considering becoming a nun. It’s an old monastery on top of a hill in Southern Indiana. A gorgeous Romanesque chapel sits on top of that hill and at the foot of it is the cemetery. On All Souls Day, the Catholic feast day that I now know derived from the pagan celebration of Samhain, the sisters led a procession from the chapel to the graveyard at Vespers, the sunset prayer service. Gray skies threatening a thunderstorm, incense thuribles swaying on chains, sending out rich, piney and earthy scents of frankincense and myrrh. Chanting and the litany of saints. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">A movie could not have set the stage better. The wind threatened to blow out all of our handheld candles with the little cardboard disks wrapped around them to protect our hands from dripping wax. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">It wasn’t until we were all safely inside on our way to the dining hall that it started to rain, but the sun was shining in the westward windows when we reached the hall. I turned to one of the sisters next to me. Her post middle-aged face was bright like a little girl’s. I bet there’s a big rainbow, she said. We ran together to the colonnade that wrapped around the chapel. Standing in the rain, we looked up to find a perfect half-circle of a rainbow arcing right over the top of the chapel. Can I explain the occurrence scientifically? Of course I can. It was raining and the sun came out. The water refracted the light. But can I explain the timing and the placement? Not a chance. Can I prove that it was the souls of the departed reaching out, connecting for a passing moment with the living? No, I can’t. All I know is what my soul needs, what my heart knows and longs for. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">Last summer I visited another graveyard in Southern Indiana, my ancestral graveyard. My grandparents, great grandparents and great-great grandparents are buried there. My beloved grandmother who died 27 years ago is buried there. It had been 15 years or so since I had visited her grave, yet when I stood there reading her name, remembering. I found myself saying, I still miss you, Mamaw. When I looked up, I saw through my sunglasses rainbows in the clouds. I thought it was some trick of the eye with the sunglasses, maybe it was. But it lasted until we got in the car and started driving the country roads to my uncle’s house. It lasted so long I felt compelled to mention it to my Dad. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">I know there are lots of things I want to believe, and I want to believe that something of those nuns, something of my grandmother, and something of my mother who died last year lives on, even if it is only in my memories and in my heart. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">And there is great wisdom, great consolation</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">in celebrating this great inexplicable mystery, this darkness from which we all come and to which we all must return.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">When my mother died, I was by her side along with the rest of my family. Let me tell you, when death overcame her, I understood the ghoulish masks of Halloween and how they mock the face of death. I left the hospital that night with a twisted and distorted image of my mother’s beautiful face burned in my memory.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">And that night I dreamed of her. She was alive again and had an important message. “I’ve come back to make amends,” she said. The dream was so powerful it woke me up shaking a little bit and I had to remind myself that my mother’s “ghost” would never hurt me. In the middle of the night after such a loss, it’s easy to lose your grasp on the rational world. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">The next day, I told my Dad about the dream, and he shared with me that all during the time my mother was dying, he kept whispering in her ear to make her peace and to forgive her siblings.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">My parents are devout Catholics. Dying in a state of forgiveness is very important to them. And my mother really struggled with forgiveness when it came to her family. She was the oldest of eleven. They were all victims of abuse and alcoholism is a family trait. There were many misunderstandings and hurt feelings over the years.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">We have no idea whether or not Mom made her peace with them in her heart. She was in a coma when the priest gave her last rites. This gave my Dad some anxiety about her soul. But love has a way seeing things through despite the seeming finality of death. You see, my Mom had us, the family she created and we became her agents on this earth. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">Dad called each and every one of the living siblings and invited them to the services and to our house. At the visitation, an aunt I had never met before, but who was my mother’s maid of honor appeared. I walked her and some of my other aunts over to a table and showed them pictures from my mom and dad’s wedding at which they were all present. An uncle I barely knew showed up and agreed to be a pallbearer. My sister, brother, and I spent time during the visitation and after the funeral getting to know them all, hearing stories that helped us understand the pain my mother carried. Perhaps together, my Dad, my siblings, my aunts and uncles and I, did for my mom what she could not. We invited each other in. We made amends. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">Forgiveness, the healing of souls, the connection of love that is stronger than the grave — THAT is what Samhain, Halloween, All Saints Day, All Souls Day, and Dia de los Muertos are all about.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">Do I know for sure whether my rainbow experiences at the monastery and at my grandmother’s grave, and the dream I had about my mother are real connections to the beyond, or not. No. I don’t. Are they figments of my imagination? Maybe. Probably. But, I do know for sure that part of me needs these little miracles. They keep me strong and they keep me alive and thriving. They keep my grandmother and my mother alive in me. They passed me the torch of love and I’ll carry it with me to the end. And when it’s time. I’ll pass it on too. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">Another thing I know for sure is that one thing doesn’t die. Love. The way we touch the hearts of others. The loss others feel when we die proves that. The love I still feel for my grandmother 27 years later proves it. She lives and will continue to live because she taught me to love, and I will give my love to others. Her love was the product of her mother’s love and all those who loved her. And my presence here today is the product of my mother’s love.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">So let’s take this time these next few days and dare to look at the grave. Stick our hands in the ashes and the dirt and remember and listen for the messages from home about how to get back home, and most importantly feel the love that doesn’t die.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Alloween: The Spirit and the Mystery, a sermon delivered by Amy Stauber from the 1stUUPB pulpit on Oct. 29, 2017.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-156513472047364555.post-72604222363473450252017-10-15T14:04:00.002-07:002017-10-15T14:04:47.860-07:00Words from the Pulpit, Oct 15, 2017<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt;">
<b><span style="color: #484848; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><i>The Road Ahead or The Road Behind</i></span></b><span style="color: #484848; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> by George Joseph Moriarty<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #484848; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Sometimes I think the Fates must<br />
Grin as we denounce and insist<br />
The only reason we can’t win<br />
Is the Fates themselves that miss<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #484848; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Yet there lives on an ancient
claim<br />
We win or lose within ourselves.<br />
The shining trophies on our shelves<br />
Can never win tomorrow’s game. [but]<br />
You and I know deeper down<br />
There’s always a chance to win the crown<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #484848; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">But when we fail to give our best<br />
We simply haven’t met the test<br />
Of giving all, and saving none<br />
Until the game is really won<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #484848; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Of showing what is meant by grit<br />
Of fighting on when others quit<br />
Of playing through, not letting up<br />
It’s bearing down that wins the cup<br />
Of taking it and taking more<br />
Until we gain the winning score<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #484848; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Of dreaming there’s a goal ahead<br />
Of hoping when our dreams are dead<br />
Of praying when our hopes have fled<br />
Yet losing, not afraid to fall<br />
If bravely, we have given all<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #484848; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">For who can ask more of a man<br />
Than giving all within his span<br />
Giving all, it seems to me<br />
Is not so far from victory<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #484848; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">And so the Fates are seldom wrong<br />
No matter how they twist and wind<br />
It is you and I who make our fates<br />
We open up or close the gates<br />
On the road ahead or the road behind<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">John Wooden, UCLA Basketball coach, described success not as winning
but, he said, <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">SUCCESS IS PEACE OF MIND WHICH IS A DIRECT RESULT OF </span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">SELF-SATISFACTION IN KNOWING YOU MADE THE </span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">EFFORT TO BECOME THE BEST YOU ARE CAPABLE OF BECOMING.</span></b></i></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;"><span class="msoIns"><ins datetime="2008-11-10T14:48">Quiet
Time/Meditation/Prayer</ins></span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Microsoft Sans Serif";"> </span><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">Fond Words</span></b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">
by <b>Andrew M Hill</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">Hard
words will break no bones:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">But
more than bones are broken<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">By
the inescapable stones<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">Of
fond words left unspoken.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">So,
let us in the quiet of our minds speak fond words:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">for
those to whom we are close and who are close to us;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">for
those whose presence is now a memory;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">for
fond friends and helpful neighbors;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">And
let us in the quiet of our minds speak fond words for those we too often
forget:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">for
those who are struggling with poverty, with tyranny, or with disasters<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">for
those who seek work, a home, or better health<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">for
those who are discriminated against because of who they are.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">And
let us in the quiet of our minds try speaking fond words for those for whom we
find it difficult to speak fond words:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">for
those who we never see but on whom we depend<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">for
those who irritate us because they are only doing their job<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">for
those with whom we are out of sorts<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">And
let us in the quiet of our minds just hope that someone else is speaking fond
words:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">for
those who we love to hate<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">for
those who we cannot love and who are unlovely to us<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">for
those who we have forgotten.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">Hard
words will break no bones:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">But
more than bones are broken<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">By
the inescapable stones<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">Of
fond words left unspoken.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 150%;">Reading: Ysabel Duron<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 150%;">For this reading, I would like to share the story of one of the
many Purpose Prize winners. The purpose prize was founded in 2005 by Marc
Freedman, CEO of Encore.org. Since that time, the Purpose Prize has generated
nearly 10,000 nominations and produced more than 500 winners and fellows.
Marika and Howard Stone became Purpose Prize fellows early in the program. In
2016, the program transitioned to a new home at AARP. The AARP Purpose Prize™
award honors extraordinary individuals who use their life experience to make a
better future for all. These are extraordinary stewards who make a
difference in the lives of others<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 150%;">One of the Purpose Prize winners is journalist and cancer survivor
Ysabel Duron. In 1999, Ysabel Duron’s gynecologist discovered a golf ball-sized
cancerous tumor in her pelvic region. The diagnosis: Hodgkin lymphoma. She is
an inspirational cancer survivor. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 150%;">After she recovered, she was haunted by how few other Latinos she
had seen receiving treatment. Questions about</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> how, and
where, Spanish-speaking cancer victims got help plagued her. She had survived.
But how many did not? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
September 2003 she founded Latinas Contra Cancer (Latinas Against Cancer), an
organization committed to educating, supporting, and providing essential
services to low-income Spanish speakers suffering from the disease.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div style="background: white; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The call to action answered by Ysabel Duron has had an impact
far beyond the Bay Area where she lives. Her passionate commitment is helping
Latino communities across the U.S. gain access to cancer support, information,
and treatment about cancer. Duron’s game-changing networking, partnerships, and
legislative advocacy have been the hallmark of an encore career with
significant social impact.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The social need is great. Cancer is now the leading cause of
Latino deaths in the U.S., killing one in five, a rate higher than heart
disease. And for Duron, framing the message of cancer prevention and helping
organize social and psychological support for those most in need has become her
mission.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I don’t have time to share her entire story today but here is
her message:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“I knew I had a responsibility to represent this community of
color, that I had to operate with integrity and shine a light. All the
challenges kept preparing me <b>to stand up
for something</b>.” To stand up for something.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Duron is now committed to reshaping federal policy, law, and
funding. An advocate for extending the Affordable Care Act to cover more
immigrants, Duron believes “everyone deserves the best treatment they can get
when they’re ill.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 150%;">After her own experience fighting, surviving and “putting a
human face on the big C,” Duron’s great empathy for cancer patients has made
her absolutely clear on her bigger purpose in the second stage of her life. “I
was meant to do this — to be a voice for an underserved, underrepresented
population without a voice.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">Ysabel Duron exemplifies what it means to stand for something.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;"><u>CLOSING
WORDS</u></span><br />
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<h1 style="background: white; margin-bottom: 8.05pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: #373839; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; text-transform: uppercase;">A POWER AT WORK IN THE UNIVERSE<o:p></o:p></span></h1>
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<span style="color: #58595b; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Adapted from words by </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt;"><a href="https://www.uua.org/offices/people/tom-schade"><span style="color: #58595b; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Tom Schade</span></a></span><span style="color: #58595b; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #373839; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">There is a power at work in the
universe.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #373839; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">
It works through human hands,<br />
but it was not made by human hands.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #373839; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
It is a creative, sustaining, and transforming power and we can trust that power with our lives and with our ministries.<br />
It will sustain us whenever we take a stand on the side of love;<br />
whenever we take a stand for peace and justice;<br />
whenever we take a risk.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #373839; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Trust in that power.<br />
We are, together, held by that power.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #373839; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">May we stand for what we believe
in.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #373839; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">May we seek thrive-ability for
our environment, our Congregation, and for ourselves; moving from surviving to
thriving.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #373839; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">May we never shirk our
responsibilities to ourselves and the universe<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #373839; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">May we strive to be, not so much
the best in the world but, the best for the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #373839; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">May it be so.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #373839; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #373839; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="background-color: #d9ead3;">Words spoken by Paul Ward from the 1stUUPB pulpit on Oct 15, 2017. (His sermon follows.)</b></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-156513472047364555.post-11258914975502176972017-10-15T13:53:00.000-07:002017-10-15T13:53:18.918-07:00Sustainability and Stewardship: From Surviving to Thriving<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HsSNcra8gvg/WePKnBuR6VI/AAAAAAAADFU/9Iyog40wtzEDmhe7iF6ocfe4ewXV7BjGgCLcBGAs/s1600/Paul%2BWard.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="996" data-original-width="954" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HsSNcra8gvg/WePKnBuR6VI/AAAAAAAADFU/9Iyog40wtzEDmhe7iF6ocfe4ewXV7BjGgCLcBGAs/s320/Paul%2BWard.JPG" width="306" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">I spent much of the summer at my home
in Portsmouth, England. Portsmouth is the home of the British Navy and my
apartment overlooks the harbor entrance. When I arrived, the USS George HW
Bush, one of the largest aircraft carriers in the world, was anchored just
outside the harbor, in sight of my apartment. It was good to see the U.S. Government was providing special security for my visit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The UK Government must also have got
wind of my being in town. They also sent an aircraft carrier but not just any
aircraft carrier -- they sent Her Majesty’s Ship, HMS Queen Elizabeth, the
newest and largest vessel of the British Royal Navy. I was there to witness the
ship’s first entry into Portsmouth Harbor. Portsmouth will be the home port for
this aircraft carrier which is expected to be the Flagship of the British Royal
Navy for the next fifty years. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">According to Rear Admiral Chris Parry,
aircraft carriers combine the sustainable reach of maritime platforms, the
striking power and versatility of aircraft, and the multi-role possibilities of
distinctly large chunks of deployable sovereign territory. Sustainability is an
important theme for this aircraft carrier and for my sermon today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">One last reflection on HMS Queen
Elizabeth: when the ship was launched in Scotland last year, rather than the
traditional champagne launch, it was a bottle of Scotch whisky that was smashed
against the hull to launch the ship. What a waste! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I want to start with some “What if?”
questions: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_Hlk491527316"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What if we focused on sustainability
rather than allowing our valuable resources to be used without concern about their
replenishment?<o:p></o:p></span></a></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What if we focused on stewardship
rather than leadership?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What if we focused on thriving rather
than just surviving?</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_Hlk491527189"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_Hlk491527189"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So,
I am going to talk about sustainability and stewardship in three distinct
areas: first of all, linking to our Justice Action Ministry, I will address
environmental stewardship and sustainability. Then I’ll move on to stewardship
and sustainability for our Congregation. And finally, I will address personal stewardship
and sustainability.<o:p></o:p></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But what is stewardship and what is sustainability?</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I like the definition of stewardship as
a theological belief that humans are responsible for the world, and should take
care of it for the greater good -- Humans are responsible for the world, and we should
take care of it for the greater good. It is about the careful and responsible
management of something or someone entrusted to our care.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The definition of sustainability that I
like is: something that can be continued or a practice that maintains a
condition, meeting current needs without harming our environment and without
sacrificing the ability of future generations to <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a>meet
their own needs by balancing environmental, economic, and social concerns. So,
something that can be continued without harming our environment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So, let’s begin with<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Environmental stewardship and sustainability <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I am often impressed by the passion of
advocates who speak from this pulpit. Leah Rothschild who was our service
leader during the summer described herself as an eco-feminist which I found
described as someone who combines ecological concerns with feminist concerns,
both philosophically and politically.
Leah described her experiences of tree sitting, which is a form of
environmentalist civil disobedience in which a protester sits in a tree,
usually on a small platform built for the purpose, to protect it from being cut
down. Tree sitters are stewards of the trees and the forests.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I have never been a strong advocate; I
am not really an activist but, as some of you know, I am writing a book on
Conscious Leadership and conscious leaders stand for something. So, I have been
challenging myself about what I stand for. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So, I stand for non-violence, I stand
for freedom of speech but strongly believe in the philosophy of do no harm. I
also stand for protecting our environment. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Environmental stewardship refers to
responsible use and protection of the natural environment through conservation
and sustainable practices. We need to be good stewards of this earth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Although the origin is uncertain, I
really like this quote: “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we
borrow it from our children.” -- “We do not inherit the earth from our
ancestors; we borrow it from our children.” While I was in England last week, I
was told to expect another grandchild next spring. I am looking forward to
having another grandchild. But, what am I doing to protect the environment for
my children and grandchildren? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In my book, I have included the story
of the Patagonia organization. Yvon Chouinard is the founder and owner of
Patagonia, an organization that began life creating pitons and axes for the
sport of rock climbing. Chouinard soon realized they were becoming, in his
words, environment villains. The iron pitons hammered into the rocks caused
major damage. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">After an ascent of the Nose in Yosemite
National Park, once pristine and considered impossible to climb, Chouinard
became disgusted with the degradation he had seen and, despite the pitons being
the mainstay of their business, decided they would phase out the piton
business. In the event, in 1972, they replaced the damaging iron pitons with
aluminum chocks that could be wedged in by hand and easily removed rather than
hammered in and out of cracks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Patagonia has become a very successful,
environmentally conscious business and is now described as a supplier of
environmentally friendly clothes and equipment for silent sports, none of which
require a motor and where reward comes in moments of connection between people
and nature. I love that: moments of connection between people and nature. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In his book, <i>Let My People Go Surfing</i>,
Yvon Chouinard explains why he was in business. He said, “True, I wanted to
give money to environmental causes. But even more, I wanted to create in
Patagonia a model other businesses could look to in their own searches for
environmental stewardship and sustainability, just as our pitons and ice axes
were models for other equipment manufacturers.” This purpose is supported by a
mission statement which is: “Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm,
and use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental
crisis.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">An interesting tension exists between
“building the best product” and “causing no unnecessary harm”?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In an interview with </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">Rick
Ridgeway, VP of public engagement at Patagonia, published in Conscious Company
Magazine<i>,</i></span><span style="color: #464646; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt; font-style: italic;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">he talks about this tension.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Patagonia has replaced the chemistry in
the durable water resistant (DWR) coating on their shell jackets from one that
was causing some considerable harm on the environment through fluorocarbon
chemistry with one that is less harmful; but it is still harmful. In analyzing
and considering all the other potential replacements they have found that
coatings that do no harm to the environment last for only one or two years
instead of the fifteen or twenty years for the current jacket. Patagonia cannot
possibly be comfortable, much less complacent, with where they’re at, because
it’s not nearly good enough but they are working on it and they are being transparent
about it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Environmental stewardship and the
importance of the sustainability of our planet for future generations cannot be
over-estimated despite what the U.S. president has to say about climate change
being a hoax invented by the Chinese. I support the Paris Climate Change
Agreement.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I have not yet seen Al Gore’s new
movie, <i>The Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power</i> but from what I hear, it is
optimistic perspective on just how close we are to a real energy revolution.
Apparently, he pursues the inspirational idea that while the stakes have never
been higher, the perils of climate change can be overcome with human ingenuity
and passion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bringing this closer to home, let me
mention the Climate Action Coalition of South Florida. I live on the beach and
I know the sea levels are rising. I expect Singer Island to be underwater at
some point in this century. I don’t think I can stop the sea levels rising but
I can join in the those seeking action. I encourage you to support the Climate
Action Coalition of South Florida and other environmental initiatives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">UU Stewardship<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Let me move on to the stewardship and
sustainability of the First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Palm
Beaches. As president of the Board of Trustees for this Congregation, I take
stewardship and sustainability of this Congregation very seriously. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Our next stewardship campaign is
some way off but I hope you will continue to be inspired to give generously in
support of our Congregation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As Unitarian Universalist theologian Tom Owen-Towle once said, “Generosity involves openheartedness, the cardinal
ability to give lavishly of yourself to others, to the world around you, to the
divine communal Spirit in which we live, move, and have our beings.” He goes on
to say this “generosity undergirds and underwrites all other values. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Without generosity, one loves
sparingly, if not stingily; <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">without generosity, our acts of justice
happen rarely; <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">without generosity, we hoard our
precious gifts of time and soul and other resources.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The tension between generosity and
stewardship challenges the Board of Trustees. We want to be generous and caring
for each individual and yet we must take action for the good of all. Decisions
we take are not taken lightly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Some might say we are surviving quite
well even without a minister. So far this year, we are within budget. We are coping
without a minister. With the active support of so many of our Congregation, I
hope you will agree that we are doing more than just surviving -- we are thriving.
That doesn’t mean we are complacent. Selection teams are working diligently to
hire a settled minister for the long term and a contract minister for the short
term. I will be providing an update in my Life of the Congregation presentation
after the service today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We have new members joining and
existing members are actively engaged. If you are ready to get more involved,
talk to members of the Board and members of the committees. Let’s continue to
move positively towards an increasingly thriving Congregation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Personal stewardship<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So, I have talked about environmental
stewardship and Congregational stewardship. I would like to end with a focus on
personal stewardship. For me, this is about choosing service over self-interest.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Peter Block, who I met in New York
about 20 years ago, wrote the book on stewardship. He wrote, stewardship is to
hold something in trust for another; a choice to act in service of the long run
and a choice to act in the service of those with little power. Although recognizing
that the idea of stewardship is somewhat elusive and suffers from ambiguity,
the practice of stewardship still provides a framework for thriving in the
complexity of this modern age.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ultimately, we must make a choice
between service and self-interest. We exist in an age of self-interest and
entitlement. But can we come from a place of service? Can we ask, how may I
help you? How may I serve this person or this organization? How may I serve
this Congregation?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As I look for examples of conscious leaders,
I look for people who act responsibly for the good of all, not first and
foremost for their own self-interest. One source of inspiration is the Purpose
Prize™ -- an award that honors extraordinary individuals who use their life
experience to make a better future for all. <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_Hlk495584419">I shared the story of Ysabel
Duron<span style="color: #333333;"> </span>in my reading.</a> There are many
other examples of exemplary stewards who have made a difference. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As I prepared this service, I was
reminded of our sixth and seventh UU principles:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt;">6th Principle</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">: The goal of world community with peace,
liberty, and justice for all;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt;">7th Principle</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">: Respect for the interdependent web of all
existence of which we are a part.<span style="color: #373839;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">These principles run through this
message of stewardship and sustainability.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So, what are you called to do?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">His Holiness the Dalai Lama said, “Today,
more than ever before, life must be characterized by a sense of universal
responsibility, not only nation to nation and human to human, but also human to
other forms of life.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Today, October 15, is the 288th day of
the year 2017. There are 77 days remaining until the end of the year. What do
you stand for? What are you called to do before as we begin to plan for 2018?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So, let me come back to sustainability
and stewardship.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I have a growing passion for sustainability
of our planet. Last week, the European Union hosted the 4th edition of the Our
Ocean conference in Malta. At the conference, 437 tangible and measurable commitments were agreed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">Let me share one commitment. </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">P&G Dish brands</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;"> -- the world's
#1 selling handwashing liquid -- announced it will continue to use 8,000 metric
tonnes of recycled plastic per year in its transparent plastic bottles, using
an average of 40% Post-Consumer Recycled plastic content. </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">P&G Dish Care</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;"> are also using recovered beach plastic and
raising consumer awareness of the ocean plastic issue. These initiatives
complement P&G's support of the efforts of the Trash Free Seas Alliance to
dramatically reduce the flow of plastic into the world's oceans. Members of the
Trash Free Seas Alliance® aim to reduce and make continual progress toward
eliminating ocean trash.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There are a lot of good things
happening. I invite you to look for the causes that inspire you to encourage
the survivability of our planet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Our Congregation is doing more than
surviving. I believe we are thriving while we search for a settled minister. I
appreciate every one of you, and all you do as stewards of our Congregation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I invite you all to consider the
questions, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">How may I serve? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">How may I help sustain our environment whether it be our
planet, our country, our state of Florida, our County of Palm Beach, or our own
back yard? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">How may I help this Congregation to thrive? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Put service before self-interest. </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">May it be so.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="background-color: #d0e0e3;">Sermon by Paul Ward, delivered from the 1stUUPB pulpit on October 15, 2017.</b></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-156513472047364555.post-2521733087253816792017-10-02T08:21:00.003-07:002017-10-02T08:21:25.828-07:00Spiritual Capitalism -- Dr. Richard Hattwick <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--9K1_5GW9EY/WdJYdcCC3vI/AAAAAAAADBM/90Injm5VAWo8foMlVdjES_GAJBGUJn2ugCLcBGAs/s1600/HATTWICK%252C%2BDick.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1250" data-original-width="1000" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--9K1_5GW9EY/WdJYdcCC3vI/AAAAAAAADBM/90Injm5VAWo8foMlVdjES_GAJBGUJn2ugCLcBGAs/s640/HATTWICK%252C%2BDick.jpg" width="512" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">SPIRITUAL
CAPITALISM</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">(A Peek at Some
Possibilities) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><o:p> </o:p> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Is
capitalism consistent with Unitarian Universalism’s SEVEN PRINCIPLES? Does it
produce social justice and spiritual growth? Does it have the potential to do
so?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Answering that question for the entire capitalist
system seems to be the implication of the sermon title and the reading by
Charles Handy ( <i>The Hungry Spirit, </i>1998).
Handy actually does that in his book. A framework for doing that might be a
comparison of American individualistic capitalism with the social welfare forms
of capitalism found in many of the other industrialized nations. Another approach
would be to compare America’s broadly defined New Deal era ( 1930s–1970s)
with the subsequent Bad Deal era of the 1980s to date. Robert Kuttner does a
good job of that in his two books <i>EVERYTHING
FOR SALE </i>(1997) and <i>(The Squandering
of America </i>( 2007). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> I
could have tried to do that. I could have discussed both parts of the Handy
quotation, both the virtues and the vices. But that is far too complex a
subject for a Sunday sermon. Instead, I want to focus on one-half of the Handy
quotation, the virtues part. I plan to further narrow the focus by addressing
Handy’s claim that capitalism has the virtue of promoting morality and
community. And I plan to further narrow the focus by discussing the spiritual
potential of one capitalist institution ……. Business. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">THE ACADEMIC
BACKGROUND</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> The
background for this sermon and a reference to which you can go afterword is the
American National Business Hall of Fame. I became involved with that
organization at the time of its founding in 1972. The founders were a group of
business school faculty who were concerned about the need for our students to
be exposed to good business leader role models. So we launched a research
program to identify examples, write their business success stories and find
ways to get those stories into classrooms. One of the classroom presentation
projects was a 50-minute slide illustrated lecture on business ethics. You can
still view a version of that on YouTube ( search for the American National
Business Hall of Fame videos) or on the hall of fame web site. That topic, business ethics, is what I plan
to call your attention to today. But I’m redefining the topic as one aspect of
spiritual capitalism. And I will argue that the capitalist business firm can be
a vehicle for social justice and spiritual growth. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">WHAT TO LOOK FOR
IN THE REST OF THE SERMON</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">1.<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Definitions - I begin by defining spirituality and social justice</span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">2.<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Business Ethics – I continue by using business
hall of fame studies to shed light on the ethical potential of capitalist
businesses. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">3.<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Business Spirituality ( the highest level of
ethics) and the vocational service ideal
– I then introduce a case study of business spirituality and give the concept a
new name, VOCATIONAL SERVICE.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">4.<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>I next offer some thoughts about the vocational
service ideal becoming the basis of a spiritual capitalist system.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">5.<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Those thoughts raise the issue of codes of ethics
so I offer a couple of code suggestions</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">6.<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>I end with a couple of ideas for bumper
stickers.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">DEFINITIONS</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Let’s begin by defining the
concept of spirituality which I will be using. If we were involved in a
multi-week Teaching Thursday program I would use Ken Wilber’s book INTEGRAL
SPIRITUALITY for my definition. And I would use one of the Thursday sessions to explore
his definition. But today I only have a few minutes to define the concept. So I
will use humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs
concept.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Maslow, you may recall, argued that humans
have a limited number of basic needs which are arranged in a hierarchy. At the
lowest level are survival and safety needs, in the middle are a collection of
needs for community such as belonging, being appreciated and being respected.
At the upper level are the needs for self-actualization and self-transcendence.
I define spirituality in terms of those top two needs. Spiritual growth is the
process of working toward meeting those needs. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I can also use Maslow’s hierarchy
to define social justice. Social justice, I suggest, is a situation where all
persons are able to satisfy their lower and middle level needs adequately
enough to focus on meeting their self-actualization and self-transcendence
needs. We’re talking about entitlements – basic income, health care, retirement
income, safety net, education, housing, and so on, Entitlements should not be a word of
opprobrium. It should be a word to describe spirituality in economic policy. If
you have a neighbor who rails against entitlements in principle you need to
encourage him to work on his spirituality and economic literacy. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">BUSINESS ETHICS
AND SPIRITUAL CAPITALISM</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Let’s
turn now to the issue of spiritualism at the level of the business firm. Again,
I’m talking about potentials rather than probabilities. I will use the American
National Business Hall of Fame program on business ethics as the framework for
analysis.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">If you viewed the business
ethics program, here is what you would hear and see:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">1.<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>The opening question – Can a person behave
ethically and still succeed in business?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">2.<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>The three possible ethical codes – exploitation
ethic, ethic of justice, ethic of altruism</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">3.<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>The distribution of laureates among the three
possibilities - None at the lowest level. The rest at one or the other of the
remaining two with the majority at the ethic of justice level.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">4.<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>The laureate’s adoption of the stakeholder view
of ethical responsibility - A business has a responsibility to serve all
stakeholders fairly – customers, employees, investors, suppliers, local
community, and environment. Profit is a
long run goal which depends on how well the other stakeholders are served. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">5. <span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">F</span>or each stakeholder hall of fame laureates held specific goals. ----Typical
laureate views regarding ethical responsibilities with regard to the first two
stakeholder groups were as follows For
customers the basic goals are fair price, fair quality, honesty in
communications and refusal to deal with potential customers if a low level of
ethics would be required. For workers, including management, the goals were
good pay and increasing pay made possible by increased productivity, job
security with long run continuing employment, providing an atmosphere conducive
to daily happiness at work, and providing personal growth and a sense of
meaning through work.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">6.<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Identification of an ethical code to use to figure out what the typical
laureate’s view would be with respect to other stakeholders --- suppliers,
local community, investors, environment ----THE FOUR-WAY TEST.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">THE VOCATIONAL
SERVICE IDEAL - A CASE STUDY</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> In my
opinion both the ethic of justice and the ethic of altruism represent
spirituality at work in the business organization. They both reflect what is
sometimes referred to in the business literature as the vocational service
ideal. I like that term and for the rest of the sermon I will use it
synonymously with the concept of spiritual capitalism when we’re talking about
the business firm. Let’s now take a closer look at the vocational service ideal
as it appeared and flourished at ServiceMaster, a company founded and led by
three of our hall of fame laureates.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> The
story begins with the firm’s founder, Marion Wade. Born in 1989 Wade finished
high school in 1912. For the next two and one half decades he made a living as
a salesman. He sold insurance; he sold pots and pans; and he sold home
moth-proofing services. He was good at selling. But he was also unethical. As
he put it:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">“<i>Customer-stealing, commission-cutting,
minimizing the importance </i></span><i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">of the fine print
–all these were tricks of the trade I learned after </span></i><i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">becoming victim of
them several times … It was a cutthroat racket … </span></i><i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">(It made me fast
on my feet and enjoying the competition more than </span></i><i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I
despised the double-dealing.”</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In 1930 Wade was selling home
moth-proofing services when the company he worked for went broke. Teaming up
with another man he started his own moth-proofing business. It was successful
but remained small. It was also in 1930 that Wade became a deeply committed
Christian and began daily reading of the Bible. For the next fourteen years he
lived a double spiritual life … shady ethics at work and Christian ethics at
home. As he put it:</span></div>
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<i style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-large; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></i></div>
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<i style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-large; text-indent: 0.5in;">“ I was trying to personally honor God, but I
never tried this with my </i><i style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">company because I
had been trained in the school of competition </span></i><i style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">which attests that
religion and business don’t mix.”</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Then, in 1944, there was an
epiphany. A chemical explosion occurred while Wade was moth-proofing a closet.
He lost his sight. For months he was confined to a hospital bed in darkness
with <i>nothing to do but think about his
past and future lives. He prayed. He asked for forgiveness for his past</i>
behavior at work and promised to work as a Christian in the future if his sight
returned. He vowed to transform his business into one where, in his words, “
Every employee, from top to bottom did his job for the Glory of God.” Wade’s
sight returned; he went back to work and kept his promise or covenant. kept his promise. The results were
gratifying. As he explains: </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">“ We began each day
with a prayer and an acknowledgement of
our </span></i><i style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">commitment… We all
felt the influence. We found ourselves undergoing </span></i><i style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">changes in our attitudes toward each other as
well as </span></i><i style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">toward the job. We
all got along better: there was more willingness </span></i><i style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">to go the extra
mile, to work the extra hour; and when disagreement</span></i><i style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> arose, as it
inevitably does, we were able to resolve it by a prompt </span></i><i style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">discussion rather
than carry grudges and lose tempers … The </span></i><i style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">dedication brought
new vitality into the group. We developed a </span></i><i style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">new pride in doing
a good job.”</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">What we see here is Wade’s
attempt to create a spiritual company culture. Again in his words:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> <i>“When you work for the Lord you find
yourself raising the level of </i></span><i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">your efforts. Your
job becomes more than a job. It becomes a </span></i><i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">calling. It is now
the ministry by which you glorify God. You work </span></i><i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">harder and you do
a better job so that your efforts will please God </span></i><i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">who
is now your silent partner.”</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Over the next decade the firm
experienced excellent growth. Three key partners were added, two of whom, Ken
Hansen and Ken Wessner worked closely with Wade and succeeded Wade as company
president. New lines of business were added. The ServiceMaster name was adopted
(It meant “service to the master”. Policies were developed for the purpose of
keeping the new spiritual culture strong. Four of those policies are worth
mentioning because of their implications regarding what a spiritual capitalist
company might look like. Those four are:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">1.<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Don’t
engage in competitive pay for employee performance. “ An employee is hired at a
specific salary to do a specific job, and as the company prospers, so does he.
But if he is willing to work a little harder only when he is baited by bonuses
he really isn’t doing his job in the first place.”<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">2.<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Hire
only people of high moral character. “ It is my duty to learn as much as I can
about a man before I send him out to represent a company that is dedicated to
the Lord.”<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">3.<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Delegate
responsibility. “ We set policy at staff conferences, then each man goes back
to his office to do his job, using his own brains and his own skills to make
decisions.”<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">4.<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Dignify
every job in the company. “ A job has only as much dignity as the man gives it,
and the best way to dignify a job is to dedicate your efforts to the Glory of
God.”<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In
1957 Wade gave a talk about his company’s spiritual approach to business and
how it energized the employees. The administrator of a nearby Catholic hospital
was in the audience. Afterwards she contacted Wade, told him about the
hospital’s problem with housekeeping. Employees performing that function
exhibited poor attitudes toward their work and it showed in poor performance.
There was high turnover. Could ServiceMaster take over the cleaning function at
the hospital and work some of ServiceMaster’s magic there? Wade, Hansen and Wessner investigated the
possibility and then decide to give it a try. It worked! The hospital cleaning
crew became energized. That became the basis of ServiceMaster’s subsequent
growth. By the late 1970s hospital service represented 95% of the company’s
business. For ten years starting in 1978 ServiceMaster was the most profitable
company on the Fortune 500 list of American service companies. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">By
then the academic community had discovered ServiceMaster. The Harvard Business
School conducted two studies of the company. The studies verified the company’s
claim that its policies energized the workers to feel proud of their work and
to find meaning in it. Harvard found a number of other secrets to the company’s
success including training procedures and ongoing research to develop new
products which would increase employee productivity thus allowing the company
to raise employee pay. Among the training approaches were in-hospital workshops
which ServiceMaster workers attended jointly with the hospital’s doctors,
nurses and administrators. The objective was to help all attendees see how
vital the cleaning function was to patient recovery.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">While
Harvard was busy finding out what made ServiceMaster tick, the firm’s three top
leaders were busy looking for a new mission statement. The initial reason for
doing that was that managers were discovering much untapped talent among the
entry level employees. A yearning to help those people develop their latent
capabilities emerged. So added to the one mission statement, To Honor God in
All We Do, was added a second statement, To Help People Develop. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I
have been referring to the mindset of Marion Wade, Ken Hansen and Ken Wessner
as spiritual ethics. It is the ingredient which defines spiritual capitalism at
its best. Another name for the phenomenon is vocational service. Let me finish
this sermon by using the term vocational service and speculating about the
possibilities of it becoming widespread in capitalist economics.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">FROM THE VOCATIONAL SERVICE IDEAL TO THE SPIRITUAL
CAPITALISM IDEAL</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">A world of businesses imbued
with the vocational service ideal would take us a long way toward the ideal of
spiritual capitalism. One world-wide private sector community service
organization actually promotes that vision. Rotary’s mission statement reads, “
The Object of Rotary is to encourage the ideal of service as the basis of
worthy enterprise AND in particular foster acquaintance as an opportunity for
service, high ethical standards in business and professions and the dignifying
of each Rotarian’s occupation as an opportunity for service.”</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The mission statement goes on to suggest that the service ideal should
apply to the other aspects of a Rotarian’s life
AND presents this vision for world peace, “ Advancement of international
understanding, good will and peace through a fellowship of business and
professional persons united int the ideal of service.”</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> That
is an inspiring ideal but by itself it requires that a large majority of the
population voluntarily practice
vocational service --- in business, in government, and elsewhere. But that
alone is a bit utopian. Encouraging the spread of the vocational service ideal
needs to be coupled with a comprehensive set of government rules for market
behavior and government policies to do those things which markets cannot do or
do adequately. As noted at the beginning of the literature on government
economic policy is relatively advanced in this area. We know what can be done.
But it won’t be adequately done until those in government adopt and are able to
practices the vocational service mentality. Perhaps requiring fiduciary
responsibility for elected officials would be a move in that direction. Imagine
a cabinet secretary, a congressperson or a president being removed from office
for failure to comply with the job’s mandatory fiduciary responsibility. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">CODES OF ETHICS</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Even
a vocational service mentality backed by a comprehensive fiduciary laws won’t
lead to perfection. But the shortfall can be reduced by practical codes of
ethics. Rotary has an application here also. It is called THE FOUR WAY TEST of
the things we think, say and do- Is it the Truth? Is it Fair to All Concerned?
Will it build Good Will and Better Friendships? Will it be BENEFICIAL TO ALL
CONCERNED?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Unitarian
Universalism also has what could be called a code of ethics, our SEVEN
PRINCIPLES. It’s a bit too long and somewhat indirect for daily use multiple
times. But it is great for quiet review at the end of the day. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">BUMPER STICKERS</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Let
me conclude with a few suggestions for bumper stickers to promote the concept
of vocational service and spiritual capitalism.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">For
the individual I suggest ----- Service Above Self ! One profits most who serves
best.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">For
the entire capitalist system which includes the economy, the polity and the
culture I suggest ----Vocational Service and Mandated Fiduciary Responsibility.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <span style="background-color: #f1c232;">"Spiritual Capitalism" -- a sermon by Dr. Richard Hattwick on Oct 1, 2017 at 1stUUPB.</span></span></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-156513472047364555.post-65220981645345162712017-09-18T13:49:00.001-07:002017-09-18T13:49:17.085-07:00CB Hanif's Closing Words, Sep 3, 2107<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Quoting Dick Gregory</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oNnE-_Pk8c0/WcAxO7JmMlI/AAAAAAAAC-U/LwwCKE8rA-MQ6syejHEtgMDWkwtIg7YXgCLcBGAs/s1600/DICK%2BGREGORY.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="507" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oNnE-_Pk8c0/WcAxO7JmMlI/AAAAAAAAC-U/LwwCKE8rA-MQ6syejHEtgMDWkwtIg7YXgCLcBGAs/s640/DICK%2BGREGORY.jpg" width="506" /></a></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-156513472047364555.post-69920625198991733792017-09-18T13:46:00.001-07:002017-09-18T13:46:13.873-07:00CB Hanif's Opening Words, Sep 3, 2017<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">With G-d’s Name, the Merciful
Benefactor, the Merciful Redeemer.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Well, if ever a minister was preaching
to the choir, that would be me, back here in the Home of the Original Good Guys
– and Gals :-)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But even a bunch of do-gooders can use a
call to listen, to our higher angels. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">“Do unto others as you
would have them do unto you,” is how the Golden Rule is stated in Matt. 7:12. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background: white;">It is an ethical
principle found in all enlightened ethical systems and religions.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">My entire title for today was rather
long, and understandably didn’t fit the program: To “Reflections on a Golden
Rule,” please add: “and the death of white supremacy.” I’ll be speaking to the
latter as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I’m going to address today’s topic with
a series of cultural reflections, some of which will be familiar, but all of
which I hope you will appreciate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Rather than offer a strictly religious
talk, I’m incorporating a popular culture twist to emphasize, as I always do,
that not all Muslims are stuck in their own cultural box. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">To me Al-Islam is as cosmopolitan as
humanity, and I hope to demonstrate that a bit. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">For starters, some of you make recognize
these words. You’ll appreciate that I won’t try to sing them:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="http://songmeanings.com/songs/view/11420/" target="_blank" title="Steppenwolf – Monster"><b><span style="background: white; color: windowtext; font-size: 14pt; text-decoration-line: none;">Steppenwolf –
Monster</span></b></a><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">By Jerry Edmonton and John Kay.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Once the religious, the hunted and weary</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Chasing the promise of freedom and hope</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Came to this country to build a new vision</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Far from the reaches of Kingdom and pope</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Like good Christians some would burn the witches</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Later some got slaves to gather riches</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">But still from near and far to seek America</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">They came by thousands, to court the wild</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">But she just patiently smiled and bore a child</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">To be their spirit and guiding light</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">And once the ties with the crown had been broken</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Westward in saddle and wagon it went</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">And till the railroad linked ocean to ocean</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Many the lives which had come to an end</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">While we bullied, stole and bought a homeland</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">We began the slaughter of the red man</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">But still from near and far to seek America</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">They came by thousands to court the wild</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">But she just patiently smiled and bore a child</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">To be their spirit and guiding light</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">The Blue and Grey they stomped it</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">They kicked it just like a dog</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">And when the war was over</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">They stuffed it just like a hog</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">And though the past has its share of injustice</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Kind was the spirit in many a way</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">But its protectors and friends have been
sleeping</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Now it's a monster and will not obey</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">The spirit was freedom and justice</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">And its keepers seemed generous and kind</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Its leaders were supposed to serve the country</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">But now they won't pay it no mind</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Cause the people grew fat and got lazy</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Now their vote is a meaningless joke</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">They babble about law and order</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">But it's all just an echo of what they've been
told</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Yeah, there's a monster on the loose</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">It's got our heads into the noose</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">And it just sits there watchin'</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">The cities have turned into jungles</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">And corruption is stranglin' the land</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">The police force is watching the people</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">And the people just can't understand</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">We don't know how to mind our own business</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">'Cause the whole world's got to be just like us</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Now we are fighting a war over there</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">No matter who's the winner we can't pay the cost</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">'Cause there's a monster on the loose</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">It's got our heads into the noose</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">And it just sits there watchin'</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">America, where are you now</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Don't you care about you<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a>r
sons and daughters</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Don't you know we need you now</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">We can't fight alone against the monster</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">America, where are you now</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Don't you care about your sons and daughters</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Don't you know we need you now</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">We can't fight alone against the monster</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">America...America...America...America...</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">(See it at YouTube https://yhoo.it/2x9qesp)</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-156513472047364555.post-54575773519450333342017-09-18T13:32:00.000-07:002017-09-18T13:32:04.020-07:00Reflections on a Golden Rule – and the Death of White Supremacy<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As many of you know, I am blessed to
come from the Muslim tradition of El Hajji Malik Shabazz -- still better known
as Malcolm X -- and Muhammad Ali; as well as their teacher, who we still call
the Hon. Elijah Muhammad, and his son who was eulogized as “America’s Imam” -- Wallace Deen Muhammad, the best follower I know of the Prophet Mohammed of
Arabia, upon whom be Peace.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">These are all outside-the-box personalities.
By the time they were done, there was little left in us of any racial
inferiority complex, and we needed Imam Mohammed and the Quran to balance out
our superiority complex.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Our story, however, has all too often
told by those motivated by fear. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">When it has been recognized that there
is no need to fear, the response has been to ignore, as in, “Nothing to see
here. Move along, move along.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Which brings me to reflect on my journey
as a UU.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I’m happy to say it was not fear that
prompted my first invitation to speak here -- at the request of Bob Ashmore, I
think. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In fact, in those days most of my
speaking engagements came in my role as news ombudsman for <i>The Palm Beach Post.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I’ve done this many times since, at the
request of Richard Lake and others, and Larry Stauber at least one time before this.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I think it also was Bob who years ago asked
me to lead a Spring semester Teaching Thursdays class, on Islam. It was even
better when he had me choose the specific focus. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I had long had in mind a series for
non-Muslims on Chapter 12 of the Quran, named for Yusuf, or Joseph. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The idea appealed to me because the
story of Joseph is familiar to Christians, Jews and others, and the Quranic
narrative is exquisite, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So for nine weeks, I brought in all my
own translations, ordered some additional copies, and we formed a reading circle,
covering the beautiful story -- and any questions folks had in general. I
invited fellow imams as guests. The response was great.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">To show how UU clueless I was then, I
asked our then UU minister, Pallas Stanford, to present on Joseph from a
Christian perspective in one class -- because I had assumed UUs to be a
Christian denomination. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">No worries; Pallas did a wonderful job showing
Donny Osmond’s “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” and we enjoyed
that too.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">That was one of many programs our small
New Africa of the Palm Beaches group hosted here. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">One that brought particular joy was the
panel of Muslim women of all ages, including my dear better half, Aneesha. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I still have photos somewhere of the UUs’
glowing smiles, and of Pallas and our Imam Jaabir Muhammad during the reception
across the way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But even when we hosted interfaith
programs elsewhere – such as a community center in Riviera Beach, or Methodist
church in West Palm Beach -- our UU supporters such as Ghassan and Mary Rubeiz
and Bob and others have been there. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I remember Janet Fryman standing nearby
following one program at the church when a woman came up to say we Muslims
should stop worshipping Muhammad, and didn’t I know that all the “good” verses
in the Quran had been abrogated by “bad” verses. Why am I still surprised when
people try to tell me about my religion?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And although I am a longtime member of the Muslim Community of
Palm Beach County, I have no doubt that when we open a mosque closer to where
we live, as we inevitably will, there will be UUs and myriad other friends
present. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">There goes that Golden Rule again, and
there also is no question that I am a better Muslim for the many words of
wisdom and love and wonderful spirit I have enjoyed here. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I recall after one Sunday sermon here, a
UU friend complained privately to another and me that a self-professed atheist should
have been allowed to speak. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But where else if not here, I asked,
adding that I agreed with almost everything the speaker had said, except I too
am obviously a deist. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a>I say all that to
say that I have been welcomed in ways that remind me of another statement whose
origin I don’t recall anymore: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">That if those of us who were raised as
Christians had been treated by most Christians the way Jesus -- peace be on him -- taught, we wouldn’t have felt a need look elsewhere, and thus revert to the
faith of countless of our forebears who were snatched from Africa. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The same lack of dissonance that applies
here, I share with the Focolare Movement, of which I also consider myself a
member. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As many of you know, this is the
Catholic lay movement of 2.5 million members in more than 180 countries, long
led by the woman we still call the Blessed Lady Chiara Lubich. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">You may have heard me refer to them as <i>genuine Christians</i>, as one Muslim
brother once put it, due to their exemplary way of putting the Gospels into
practice. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Some of you know local members such as
Mercedes Mont, who is a regular at our annual Interfaith Picnic, and who has
attended at least one program we organized here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Other Focolare members were regulars at
our annual Muslim Convention, as well as the mosques in our association, long
before I had heard of their movement. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">That is in large part because Lady
Chiara and Imam Mohammed shared the same concept we do here, of focusing on
universal principles -- not changing people’s cultures.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So to say that the Focolare also help
make me a better Muslim is an understatement. Like many of my dear ones here,
they are people who <i>live</i> the Golden
Rule. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">When they invited my wife and me and
others to Italy for the occasional international meeting of Muslim friends of
the Focolare, we were treated in spirit like royalty -- as they always do.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Last Saturday, my wife and I were together
with Florida and Atlanta Focolare members at St. Mark Catholic Church down in
Boynton Beach, for a daylong sharing of the ideal that universal fraternity -- G-d’s plan for humanity -- is not a dream. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">A popular expression at our gatherings
is “Jesus in the midst” -- which I understand as saying, from a Christian
perspective, that “the Spirit of G-d” is present. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So I love it when we recognize there is
“big Jesus in the midst.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Now, if you do not yet hear in these
reflections on the Golden Rule the death of white supremacy, perhaps I can
help in another way <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">One reason I asked our outstanding Music
Coordinator, Peilin, if she could incorporate Cat Stevens’ music today, is that
I really, really wanted to hear her interpretations of it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But another reason I want to highlight
his music is to underscore how we too often put ourselves in a box.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Many of you know not only the beauty of
his music -- witness the choir and all that snappy percussion on “Peace Train” -- but also his lyrics. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Many of you also know that in the wake
of the trials that all too often befall a popular music star, Stevens adopted
Islam, changed his name to Yusuf Islam and stopped playing his music. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It seems some “learned” folks had told
him that music is unacceptable, if not forbidden, in Islam.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Now I’m no great Islamic scholar, but I
am a student of someone who was: Imam W.D. Mohammed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Our next Imams Leadership Meeting, in
Orlando on Saturday, will include my colleagues -- whom some of you have befriended at our
picnics -- who indeed are Arabic scholars.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We span the nation. Another top scholar
in Arabic, my good friend Imam Faheem Shuaibe, in Oakland, not only sees every
movie worth seeing, but also breaks down their subliminal messages, from an
Islamic perspective. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">You can find him online at
aclearunderstanding.net.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">My own Quranic Arabic is far from
fluent. Yet I pray in it, read the Quran every morning, and for decades have
been reading the entire Quran during our fasting month of Ramadan.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But while music is not part of formal
Muslim worship services, to those who say music is <i>haram,</i> or forbidden, I say: Show me that in the book. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">No, music is not <i>haram</i>. <i>Haram</i> music is
haram. And anyone knows it when they hear it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The good news is Yusuf Islam is back
performing his classic Cat Stevens lyrics such as “Peace Train,” and “Where Do
the Children Play,” and I couldn’t be happier
for him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But these things shouldn’t get that
complicated. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Quran says it well: “Let there be no
compulsion in matters of faith.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We here are evidence that one need not
be Muslim to live that principle.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Of course, politics is part of popular
culture too. So I hope you’ll indulge me as I go rogue a moment. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I’m a proud Democrat. So I naturally I’m
not pleased with the outcome of the 2016 elections. OK, there’s another
understatement.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Those of you who voted for the current
occupant of the White House -- nah, I’m sure that’s no one in here -- let me
change that:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Tell
this to your friends,</i> who voted for
the C-O-W, the current occupant of the White House: Go home, look in the
mirror, and tell yourself that you are surprised by the current state of the
nation, because you didn’t know you were voting for a self-professed serial
assaulter of women and exemplar of bigoted behavior. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Just don’t be surprised if the mirror hollers
back: “You lie!” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And of course, I’m sure there are some
good people on all sides.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">To speak about labor, on this Labor Day
weekend, it is worth noting that those votes for the COW not only ignored, but
also dissed, the years of hard labor of the 95 percent of African-American
women who voted for what would have been the first woman president.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It is worth noting too, on this Labor
Day weekend, that those votes also dissed the sacrifices of The Rev. Dr. Martin
Luther King, and countless others in and outside of the movement he led, in
getting a president to finally say, “And we <i>shall</i>
overcome!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Same for those who thought they could
afford to vote for the candidate who never was going to win, and now will be
remembered as Bernie Nader.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">One unquestionably serious leader, Frederick
Douglass, was correct when he said that “Power concedes nothing without a
demand. It never did and it never will.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I hesitate to invoke the term, “Speak
truth to power,” because it has become almost cliché. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But that’s what the overwhelming number
of white kids and others did in Charlottesville and Boston, in the face of the
attempted rise of white supremacy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">(Which goes to show that not all
unreconstructed southerners are from the South.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It’s also worth remembering that it was
mostly whites who lost their lives fighting to end slavery in the United
States. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And closer to home, it was an
overwhelmingly white crowd that showed up for the organizational meeting of the
Palm Beach County chapter of Black Lives Matter, hosted here last month. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">If Douglass was correct -- and of course
he still is -- then it is clear that much of the lack of progress today is a result
of the fact that not enough people are demanding it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">One place where that starts, is voting.
If the so-called “Obama Coalition” had done so, we wouldn’t be talking about
the current COW.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">OK, getting off my political soapbox:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">White supremacy didn’t just emerge after
Charlottesville, or the current occupant of the White House.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Many of us have been acutely aware of
its slow, agonizing death -- and the fact that its demise is picking up steam.
The signs are clear. The current occupant of the White House is just one of the
latest.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">White supremacy is a symbol for those
attitudes that stereotype people as “The Other” -- Mexican rapist; Muslim
terrorist, the black drug dealer -- and then say: “We are willing to go not to <i>our</i> graves, but to <i>yours</i>, to keep you in your box where, by the way, we can exploit
you, and other people around the planet, and pretend it’s not happening.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But not only is it easy to put
others in a box. It’s also easy to get ourselves in one, for example by
choosing to believe in and follow that which is contrary to our own humanity,
not to mention the humanity of others, rather than using our G-d given
intellect.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Spiritually
navigating this death of white supremacy means holding fast to what we know is good for all. Such as
Universal Principles. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We have to be clear that we’re going for
the gold, as in the Golden Rule.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">No, I don’t mean, “Do unto others before
they do unto you.” Not that one. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And we surely don’t mean, “He who has
the gold, makes the rules.” That’s the current system. It ain’t working. Time
out. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I’m talking about the goodness, the kindness,
the mercy and love, to which our Creator has been calling us, throughout
eternity, in every which way, including countless messages that are divinely
inspired: whether the Psalms of David, the Buddhist and Hindu scriptures, in
the Taurat, the Injil, and Quran. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">White supremacy is back? No, it never
went away. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">They want their country back? Sorry. The
majority of us ain’t going back. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Right? Many of you surely sang that song: “Ain’t gonna
let nobody turn me ’round.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This journey through religious and
spiritual messages is a reminder to myself first, and to all of you, that the
creation is one, humanity is one. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Or Unitarian. <i>And</i> Universal. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Muslims say in the Arabic, “Allah u
Akbar,” which is often translated “God is Great.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I prefer the interpretation we received
from Imam Mohammed: “God is Greater -- than anything we can imagine.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But Muslims have another expression -- “Allah u Ahad” -- a simple expression that the Creator is One. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Or as our Focolare remind us from the
scriptures: “May they all be one.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And yes we are all different, and
unique. Imam Muhammad reminded us that our diversity is to give wheels to the
unity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So, when will we see that unity fully
manifested? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">How long? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Not long.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But the reality of this universe requires
changing the perspective too many of us have, that it all about what I want,
when I want it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As Muslims, we take instruction from the
life example of the Prophet Mohammed, the prayers and peace be with him always.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">His success didn’t happen overnight. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Neither did the success of his
companions after him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Neither did the corruption that followed
them all -- just like every other major spiritual figure.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But consider: If this is still the
dawning of the age of Aquarius, and if an age lasts a thousand years, or
50,000 years, as some scholars say, then I say we are barely past sunrise. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The sun doesn’t just jump up to high
noon. It’s movement is almost imperceptible.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Yes morning has broken. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But we have to stop thinking that this
is all about us. That it’s all supposed to happen in our lifetime. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Just ask the people in Texas.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In a beautiful revelation to the Prophet
Mohammed (and we Muslims like to say prayers and peace on them whenever we
mention G-d’s prophets) which is memorialized in the Quran, G-d tells him:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Whether we show you in your lifetime
what we have promised the people, or we bring it about after we bring you home,
know that the promise of G-d is true.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">“The arc of the moral universe is long,
but it bends toward justice.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Unitarian minister and abolitionist
Theodore Parker is credited with that metaphor about historical progress, which
was popularized by Dr. King and cited by former President Barack Obama. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In a book on freemasonry copyrighted in
1871, an unidentified author specifically said it this way:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 5.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We cannot understand the moral Universe. The arc is a long
one, and our eyes reach but a little way; we cannot calculate the curve and
complete the figure by the experience of sight; but we can divine it by
conscience, and we surely know that it bends toward justice. Justice will not
fail, though wickedness appears strong, and has on its side the armies and
thrones of power, the riches and the glory of the world, and though poor men
crouch down in despair. Justice will not fail and perish out from the world of
men, nor will what is really wrong and contrary to God’s real law of justice
continually endure.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Which brings us to the present moment,
and what to do with it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And for the sake of common ground, I
again submit that a key is always the Golden Rule.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I admit I have to remind myself of that.
Often. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As a Muslim I am thankful that Al-Islam,
which translates best as “The Peace,” is pregnant with practices that provide
excellent reminders. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We don’t have time to go in depth today
about them all, such as charity, and fasting in Ramadan.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But I would be remiss if I didn’t
mention the sheer bliss of being among the several million members of humanity
who have completed their Hajj, or pilgrimage, to the ancient city Mecca. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As some of you know, that’s when I met
my dear wife.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Even more fundamental is the simple act
of prayer, to which Muslims are called five times a day. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It is Islam’s most identifiable practice,
which means to me that one who gets off the floor, after indicating that they
bow only to our Creator, and then proceeds to murder innocents, is a worse
hypocrite than the one who commits racist murder while wearing a cross around
his neck.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The signs and messages are there for
those with ears to listen and eyes to see.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Sly and the Family may have said nailed
it when they sang, “Sunday school don’t make you cool forever.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">James Brown echoed the Almighty when he
sang, “I don’t care, about your past. I just want, our love to last.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">That’s the goal, to which the universe
is calling us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Let’s go.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sermon by CB Hanif: Reflections on a Golden Rule – and the Death of White Supremacy, delivered at 1stUUPB September 3, 2017.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-156513472047364555.post-89036713402345897292017-07-24T13:21:00.004-07:002017-08-28T06:36:01.111-07:00Text of sermon delivered by Amy Stauber, July 23, 2017<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PnnS41Fj66g/WXZWIckBiaI/AAAAAAAACoo/E_vnhkJLLgkzW_UvpWSo_XkoBSOuuPA7wCLcBGAs/s1600/19.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="546" data-original-width="514" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PnnS41Fj66g/WXZWIckBiaI/AAAAAAAACoo/E_vnhkJLLgkzW_UvpWSo_XkoBSOuuPA7wCLcBGAs/s320/19.jpg" width="301" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I feel like I am
filling some big shoes up here. We have
had so many wonderful service leaders this summer. Thank you, everyone who has taken on this
responsibility for our Congregation. And
thank you for allowing me to offer this service today. I am grateful to be here before you this
morning to offer hope, consolation, depth, and humanity. These are the potentially life-saving or
perhaps more accurately said, soul-saving gifts of great poems. I want to start off by reading one such poem
that has served those two purposes in my life. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<u><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Wild Geese</span></u><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">You do not have to
be good.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">You do not have to
walk on your knees</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">for a hundred miles
through the desert, repenting.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">You only have to let
the soft animal of your body</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> l</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">ove what it loves.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Tell me about
despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Meanwhile the world
goes on.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Meanwhile the sun
and the clear pebbles of the rain</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">are moving across
the landscapes,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">over the prairies
and the deep trees,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">the mountains and
the rivers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Meanwhile the wild
geese, high in the clean blue air,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">are heading home
again.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Whoever you are, no
matter how lonely,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">the world offers
itself to your imagination,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">calls to you like
the wild geese, harsh and exciting—</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">over and over
announcing your place </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">in the family of
things.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> --Mary Oliver</span><o:p> </o:p><br />
<o:p><br /></o:p>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I am not sure at
what point in life I discovered nature’s capacity to astound, awe, comfort and
console, but when I go back to the little river town I grew up in along the
Ohio River in Indiana, it feels like our house and neighborhood are on the
verge of being overtaken again by the wilderness. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I was still in
elementary school when I started taking really long walks. The longer the walk,
the closer I could get to country roads and wildness. In those days nature felt like the only thing
big enough to hold all of the grandeur going on in my head, the hopeless
idealism of youth and the excitement and thrill of discovery that comes so
easily when the world is new to the senses.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Mary Oliver’s more
grown-up approach to nature in her poetry, her ability to find awe and
reverence and truth through observation, the fact that she knows “how to be
idle and blessed” while feeding a grasshopper, reminds me that nature has been
and will continue to be a container for the great swells of my humanity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">One of my lifelong best-friends introduced me
to Mary Oliver through the poem “Wild Geese.”
I still have the well-worn photocopy she gave me when we were in
college. During my first few years as a
middle school teacher, the poem resided on my bedside table and I read it like
a prayer in an effort to cope with a career that did not suit me and a marriage
that was doomed to fail. I hovered over
the words: “You do not have to be good./ You do not have to walk on your knees/
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting/ You only have to let the soft
animal of your body/ love what it loves.”
Those lines were such a relief to a falling away Catholic who felt like
she was missing the mark constantly.
Mary Oliver helped me be a little kinder to myself for not having it all
figured out.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">“Wild Geese” helped
me remember that the world was calling to me “harsh and exciting” like a flock
of geese flying overhead. I need only
connect to the raw energy of wild landscapes to find consolation from the
tangles of my very human existence. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Mary Oliver’s poems
remind us all that when life doesn’t make sense, when life doesn’t turn out
like it’s supposed to turn out, when we are so tangled up and can’t see or hear
the answers we need, we can seek out the wild places. We can remember that underneath our
sophisticated humanness we are still just like the animals we share the world
with seeking shelter, food, warmth, and companionship. It’s that simple. And there’s compassion in that, for ourselves
and for each other. It’s about being
enough. We are enough just because we
exist.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Returning from a
Mary Oliver poem, or the walk that her poem might inspire us to take, we might
find nothing in our lives altered. The
problems are still there. The world
still is what it is. The difference is
an internal shift. We connect to
something a little more primal, instinctive, less in our head. We have our feet more solidly on the
ground. It might be possible to be a
little easier on ourselves and everyone else who seems to be letting us down or
antagonizing us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Sometimes we need a
break from the fires of our commitments, our passions, our careers, whatever it
might be that has us spinning our wheels.
Some cold, cold waters thrown on the burning coals of our goals, and
conundrums, that’s what a poem, a Mary Oliver poem, or the walk inspired by a
Mary Oliver poem can do. Replete with
natural imagery, yet devoid of sentimentality or romanticism, Mary Oliver’s poetry
is an invitation to connect with the world around us that exists in spite of
human endeavor and is in fact indifferent to it. She evokes the humbling power of landscapes
and other creatures of the earth to put our humanity in perspective, to realize
that nature, though we may collectively have the power to alter and maybe even
destroy it, is still a more powerful force than we will ever be. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Poetry of Mary Oliver: An Invitation to “Your One Wild and Precious Life”, a sermon delivered at 1stUUPB by Amy Stauber, July 23, 2017.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-156513472047364555.post-935695027996641452017-07-17T12:44:00.001-07:002017-07-17T12:44:21.505-07:00Ben Juhl's July 9 Sermon<div class="MsoTitle">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">On 9 July, 2017 I gave a lay-led
sermon/talk on “Drugs Legalize?” at the 1<sup>st</sup> Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Palm Beaches. Many agreed
with the subject and 5 people of my age group later told me they had lost a
loved one to drugs or had someone who was having addiction problems. I decided
to offer a shorter version for all to consider about the opioid and other drug
addiction problems. Please write, email etc your state and federal
legislators with your opinion. Or yell at me if you think it will help. Here is the shortened sermon:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Many of us have enjoyed a drink or a smoke at one time or
another without much thought of the legality. How many know a friend or
relative that shortened or ended their lives by excessive use of some products
both legal and illegal?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">An article by John Tierney of the New York Times in the
1990's is still current; Mr. Morales of Bolivia held up a small green coca leaf
as he talked about international drug policies. He denounced the U.S. for
criminalization of coca as he stated it has been demonstrated that the coca
leaf does no harm to human health, Andean people have been using it for
centuries for tea, gum etcetera and it was the Americans making it into white
powder that cause problems as do many other things concentrated and in a high
enough dose. It was the U.S.'s problem not the product they had been using for
centuries. Saudi Arabia can prohibit alcoholic beverages all they wish but they
have not asked the U.S. to eradicate and the barley fields in Tennessee and in
the rest of the world. We however ask
the worlds growers to eradicate coca leaf and heroin poppies thinking it will
get rid of our problems.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">How to tackle a problem that has long been intertwined with
our lives? Many items materials or ingredients have been used in ceremonies or
celebrations that are now illegal, much
of the time it was priests/shamans etc. that were allowed to use these,
however I’m sure there was leakage of the ceremonial stash to the local populace.
Most everyone wants something to ease the pains and hurts of everyday living
(physical and mental). Actions which affect only oneself are hard to
criminalize, i.e. I drink so what’s it to you, or yea I smoked a joint, so what? All the laws, penalties and prohibitions which have been enacted have come to
naught.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Volstead Act prohibiting the sale of alcohol nationwide
was a disaster. View the PBS series “Prohibition“ by Ken Burns or the book “The
Last Call” by Daniel Okrent for a fast education. It was repealed in 1933 as
the government needed money and a tax on beer would come in quickly, that or
try to raise taxes on the wealthy. States passed the repeal in less than a
year. Mother Culture (society’s consensus of opinion) had spoken. However
organized crime became better established and is still with us. Alcohol
consumption has varied over the years, a big celebration was tempered by the
depression and delayed by WWII.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The 1950's thru 1980's were good times for the
industry. Remember lounge lizard and the three martin lunch? Heavy drinking
fell out of favor in the 1990's. DUI became a problem, death rates soared due
to more and faster cars. More people driving both drunk and sober. More laws
were passed against DUI and the safety of autos was greatly improved.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Anyone
remember the advent of seat belts? Some thought Joe Stalin had taken over and
any fool knows that you will survive if thrown clear. Now most people use
shoulder harnesses and follow the law with little complaint. Mother Culture had
spoken, but not as loud as about for the repeal of prohibition.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Some interesting items: Deaths from alcohol poisoning halved
by 1935.The first DUI was in London in 1897, New York passed the first DUI law
in 1910, in 1936 the first balloon for testing for breath alcohol was used. New
York City bars had closing times again not wide open as during prohibition.
Licenses were required for manufacturing and sales gave revenue to city, state
and federal governments.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Consumption of narcotics had been around for centuries,
mostly for medical purposes, outlandish claims of stopping the craving for
alcohol and making childbirth a pleasure were some of them. In 1875 the city
of San Francisco made it a misdemeanor to own or patronize an opium den. Some
Chinese immigrants brought the habit with them. How come? Suggest you Google
opium wars and note the British wanted to import opium to China. In 1914 the
Harrison Narcotics Act passed, this was first federal act to restrict the
access of opioids and cocaine!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In 1930 the Federal Narcotics Commissioner Harry Anslinger
claimed that marijuana caused lunacy and murder, mainly by black people, and
everyone else too. His campaign against marijuana may have been enhanced by his
association with nylon rope manufactures, it was not as good as hemp rope at
that time. This has never been proven. However his tactics were similar to the Dries before prohibition and the present NRA i.e. see you at the voting booth.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In the 1950's and 60's LSD and psilocybin were being
investigated for treatment of mental problems, however they became symbols
of youth rebellion and social upheaval, funding was stopped.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In 1971 President Nixon declared a “War on Drugs” increasing
federal enforcement and penalties.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">1973-1977 Eleven states decriminalized marijuana possession,
it remains a class one drug for federal purposes.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">1981 President Reagan made drugs a priority, arrest and
incarceration soared. Remember “Just Say No” -- good idea but it didn’t
catch on.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Our government zigged and zagged but hasn’t moved towards liberalization
because (in my opinion which it and $50 will nearly always buy a cup of coffee)
opponents say I’ll see you at the poles next election.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Cigarettes continue high on the list of causing lung cancer.
Lung cancer was little known until after WWI when cigarette smoking started to
become popular. In WWII and Korean troopships were welcomed by the Red Cross
giving out small packets of cigarettes. About half of all adults smoked
(including me). It was proven that tobacco companies made sure the nicotine was
high and stable -- remember the televised hearings? Anyway advertising of tobacco
products was curtailed, now smokers are in the minority. Thank goodness it was
not made illegal, organized crime would love that. Again Mother Culture has
spoken about what’s permissible.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Punishment for use and possession has overcrowded prisons.
Cancer and PTSD sufferers who might be helped are restricted and many become
criminals to get relief... In the meantime usage of all type of illegal drugs
continues unregulated: armed enforcement and legal statutes have done little to
stop sale or distribution. Yes there is a debate if marijuana effects the pain, or you are just too high to notice. No one seems to fund and scientific studies
on this and other aspects of addiction and treatment. The U.N.s’ report on coca
leaf was blocked by the USA.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Here in Florida voters passed a medical marijuana amendment,
legislators dither over regulations, quantity and retail locations etc... In a
special legislative session some rules have been established. 25 distributors
have been authorized and maybe progress will be made. I have heard that law
enforcement say that there is no field test for narcotic levels. I’m sure
modern science and engineering can come up with devices that will stand up in
court for this in less time than it took to invent the breathalyzer, if it’s
funded</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Drugs enter from all over, gangs, drug lords and dictators
enjoy immunity from prosecution in many areas as money talks. Hand ringing and
rhetoric about stopping the source does little. Illicit distribution of legal
and illegal opioids continues with few prosecutions.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This in my opinion how to solve the problem (the value of it
has been noted) and in no way reflects the congregation's opinions.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">1 .<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Legalize, tax, grade and label all recreational
drugs (alcoholic beverages are labeled by content i.e. percentage in beer or
wine and proof in spirts). These drugs must be labeled by content, purity and
origin, Taxes should be similar to those on tobacco or alcohol, high enough to
discourage consumption but not high enough to encourage illegal production.
(The ATF, FDA and DEA are already set up and might possibly be merged for more
effect and less cost, (DEA alone is over 2 Billion).</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> .<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]--> Penalties
for sales to minors should include the seller and the seller’s suppliers.
Producers should also be liable if product was not diverted/stolen or altered
in manners beyond their control.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> .<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Designate a percentage of the revenue raised for
scientific addiction treatment, research and anti-addiction advertising by
advertising agencies who know how to sell things and Ideas: the remainder could
go into the general fund. It’s estimated that about 10% of the population
(think cigarettes and booze) uses narcotics, half handle it with few problems,
in the other half it becomes harmful to themselves or others and requires
treatment.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So I offer my opinion and reasons I hold these views for
consideration, you may agree or disagree. I urge you to make your views known
to all your elected officials. If they do not know your views they cannot act
upon them. Just Google the title of the office or go the League of Women Voters
website as they maintain a current listing for contact information. That’s
among the ways they listen to Mother Culture's thoughts.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">An old acronym covers this situation. Years ago when on the
Missile Test Range even mild swear words weren’t tolerated on communications
nets, when you or a station really messed up TYHOYA was broadcast, maybe using
your name or your stations call sign, public shaming!. It stood for “take your
head out of your arse”. In regard to drug policy I say to society and all
elected officials TYHOYA!</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Ben Juhl </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-156513472047364555.post-76813820998764292322017-04-09T13:26:00.001-07:002017-04-09T13:26:30.229-07:00Letters<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PN5Ul4Js3XU/WOqYz5eoGxI/AAAAAAAACIg/LUZN5W4ugmAAcDY-ujjlJknVXaeAvpubQCLcB/s1600/20170409%2Bletrs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PN5Ul4Js3XU/WOqYz5eoGxI/AAAAAAAACIg/LUZN5W4ugmAAcDY-ujjlJknVXaeAvpubQCLcB/s400/20170409%2Bletrs.jpg" width="146" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">I had a difficult time writing the sermon this
week. My intent was to provide a look at
where we have been as minister and Congregation for the past few years. I found myself staring at the blank page and frustrated with being
unfocused because I hadn’t expected this topic to bring me to the places it
did. I walked away several times and
then it hit me. What I really should be talking about is personal
ministries. You see your letters, cards,
and emails always, usually, are about your experiences in this community. I turned to the Unitarian Minister Erik
Wikstrom for inspiration. He writes, “Imagine [this congregation] not as [an
entity] led by a few overly taxed volunteers but one where leadership is a
broadly shared ministry that members of the community undertake for the deep
joy of it.” For many here this is the case, but I ask each and all of you this
morning, “What is your ministry?” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">I believe each of us has one, at least one. Yet
I’m wondering if some of you might be shaking your heads, musing to
yourselves,” “Isn’t it enough that we honor our pledges, that we volunteer our
time, that some of us take on positions of leadership in this Congregation? Now
we’re supposed to be ministers! Let’s
back up. Let’s back up into what I mean when I talk about shared ministry,
about the ministry we’ve shared together and the ministry you will share with
your next chump -- I mean minister. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">We can blame our specifically Christian forebears,
especially our Protestant forebears, for this notion of shared ministry. And we
can blame something called congregational polity for the focus on shared
ministry within our Unitarian Universalist practice. And we can blame that quip
of “deeds not creeds” for our emphasis on putting our faith to work in what we
do over the matter of what we believe. Shared ministry emerges from a notion
called “the priesthood of all believers.” It’s grounded in the early Christian
understanding that experience of the divine was mediated solely through the
figure of Jesus, whom devout Christians understand to be God in the flesh, the
son of God, if you will. The early Christian church had no priests. It was
informal and egalitarian, with each believer expected to use her or his
individual gifts to build up the Christian community, which was pretty wobbly
in those days of the Roman Empire. This understanding receives especially
strong emphasis in the First Letter of Peter. Believers are implored to “Come
to him, to that living stone….and like living stones be yourselves built into a
spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">Of course a quick trip through the history of the
church tells us that the non-hierarchical approach to building “a spiritual
house” was honored in the breach. When Martin Luther took up his hammer and
nailed his 95 theses—or points of frustration—on the door of the Castle Church
in Wittenberg in October of 1517, he had had it with an established church that
had reached a point where access to the holy was not only mediated by an
exclusive cadre of priests, but mediated for a profit. The Reformation had
begun with one angry monk. And we
Unitarians — not even known as Unitarians yet, but already simmering with the
ingredients of what has been called the “radical Reformation” — went even
further. Thirty-six years almost to the day after Luther had committed his act
of defiance, the Spaniard Michael Servetus, was burned at the stake on orders
from Luther’s colleague, John Calvin, for questioning the authority of the
Trinity. Was Michael Servetus ordained? No, Servetus was just one of those
living stones, but with a different set of beliefs than what had hardened into
the hierarchy of the Christian church. Servetus helped put the “radical” into
Reformation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">We who are Unitarians and Universalists and now a
blend of both have long been notorious for our radicalism. We’ve been dubbed
heretics as if it were an insult, when a heretic is simply one who exercises
choice. To be creatures of choice is core to our practice of faith and doubt. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">So we move into the notion of congregational
polity, its own special form of choice. Our Unitarian Universalist
congregations, exercise this choice, this heresy, with each congregation calling
its professional ministers, ordaining us, and serving in a mode of independence. A few years ago, a commission of our
Association spent several years pondering the notion of congregational polity
and came up with a report that spoke to the interdependence that defines us. It
was a report written by committee — how else would we UUs take on a
non-hierarchical topic? — but I found myself reading it with pleasure. Within
the topic of congregational polity, there’s a provocative discussion of
religious leadership, which moves into a discussion of shared ministry. I found
this passage jumping off the page: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">“One key aspect of Unitarian Universalism is our
belief that ministry of the congregation does not belong exclusively to
ordained clergy, but to everyone.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">The text continues with some commentary that comes
to us from an earlier committee’s report on ministry in which commissioner Neil
Shadle explained: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">"Ministry is the vocation of every person of
faith, [and] Unitarian Universalism, as a democratic faith, affirms the
“priesthood of all believers;” we are all lay ministers, whether or not we
choose to be professional religious leaders." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">Here we are, coming full circle back to that
notion of the “priesthood of all believers.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">But the circle had already expanded, thanks to
that great giant of a 20th century theologian, James Luther Adams. Adams taught
over the many years of his career at Boston University, Meadville Lombard
Theological School, Harvard Divinity School, and my alma mater Andover-Newton Theological School. He occupied
fully the slice of history that was his, commenting, writing, engaging
students, and taking on the brokers of power and privilege through the
questions that rocked his time. It’s not surprising that he stretched the
“priesthood of all believers” into the priesthood and prophethood of all
believers. Prophets, we might remember, were those annoying flower children of
the Old Testament — Jonah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos. Troublemakers all, they
called the populace of their day to take seriously stuff like loving your
neighbor as yourself and honoring the divine by so doing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">Adams himself had a prophetic gene or two. Why
else would he have written so forcefully about what we’re called to do as
prophets, a ministry that makes most of us entirely uncomfortable? “The
prophetic liberal church,” he claimed, “is not a church in which the prophetic
function is assigned merely to a few.” Adams said, “The prophetic liberal church is the church
in which persons think and work together to interpret the signs of the times in
the light of their faith, to make explicit through discussion the epochal
thinking that the times demand. The prophetic liberal church is the church in
which all members share the common responsibility to attempt to foresee the consequences
of human behavior (both individual and institutional), with the intention of
making history in place of merely being pushed around by it.” And the cherry on
top of his sundae? “Only through the prophetism of all believers can we
together foresee doom and mend our common ways.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">If we take seriously the priesthood and
prophethood of all believers, if we take seriously shared ministry, I’m
guessing that the first act of faith is to hyperventilate. Once we catch our
breath, we can take stock, probably sing a hymn or two, pray desperately, “Why
me?”, and trust that the coffee and sweets will be really great today. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">On the other hand, shared ministry can be doing
our part as a spiritual practice; it can be spiritually transformative even.
Such is the case made by Erik in his article. Making soup and sandwiches for
this community or sometimes for folks who have hardly anything else to eat is
as spiritual as meditating at sunrise. Serving on a committee or leading a
Small Group Ministry gathering or teaching in our religious education program
or posting a banner that proclaims “Black Lives Matter” is as spiritual as the
deepest reflection. And sharing your gifts of time, talent, and treasure
ensures that no one here need suffer from burnout. You’re not fully ‘here, now’ unless you’re
actively involved and pulling your share. Shared ministry lets each of us ‘be
here now. As we are called to care about
and work to end injustices in the world, to care for our planet, to enact love
and beauty — we are called to practice for these actions in the wider world by
ministering here in our community. Many of you have or are finding your
ministry within and through the shared ministry that sustains our
congregational life. Some of you may still be wondering, pondering, and even
resisting the notion that “works” go hand in hand with faith, that “spiritual”
goes hand in hand with “practice.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">I believe all of us are here in this Sanctuary for
a purpose. It’s about faith, but faith isn’t enough. At least that’s what the
author of the New Testament book known as The Letter of James proclaimed: “What
gain is there if a person claims to have faith but doesn’t have works?” James
didn’t know enough to let it drop with that. He kept going. “If a brother or
sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go
in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the
body, what does it profit? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">Can you imagine having James on your committee?
Well, we have a James-like figure at the helm of our Board of Trustees.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">Rev. Mark Howenstein tells us, “The new paradigm is one of shared ministry,
in which all members and friends are responsible together for the healthy
operation of the congregation. In shared ministry, all are called to contribute
their time, treasure and talent, in ways that are distinctive and appropriate
to their circumstances, their bounty and their skills.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">Time, treasure, and talent! That’s a lot, perhaps
overwhelming for some of us. When I get overwhelmed, I start thinking in steps,
one step at a time. Let’s try that right now. What is your ministry? What are
you doing right now that speaks to the faith and works of this Congregation,
that feeds the hungry, that teaches our children, that shouts to the powers
that be in our own time to change course, that keeps the kitchen clean and the
facilities painted, that gives the lawn a haircut and helps the flowers grow and
helps us all grow? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">There are four simple questions to consider: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">1) What am I good at?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">2) What do I like to do?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">3) What needs to be done?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">4) Is there stuff happening in my life right now
that suggests I scream for help? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">What am I good at? Sometimes what we’re good at is
what we least like to do. I’m really good at cleaning a bathroom. I’m really
good at turning a messy paper into a fairly coherent document. Do I like to do
these things? No. So what am I good at that I like to do? Or even that I kind
of like to do? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">Okay, on to the next question: What needs to be done?
Well, I believe both the joy and heartache and celebration and rites and tasks
of new ministry need to be done. I believe there are tough corners to turn and
new chapters to write. I could stop here, but there’s that fourth question, and
it’s so subjective: Is there stuff happening in my life right now that suggests
I scream for help? For me right now, probably not. There have been times when I’ve had to scream
for help in my life, and I know that some of you have had to do this too, even
if you first scream silently. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">So what is your ministry? Let those four questions
swim in your mind for awhile. Let them play out in your heart for awhile. Then
step back into your understanding of your own priesthood, your own prophethood.
Step back into the circle of this religious community and ask once again, “What
is my ministry?” How will I work my faith?
And your answer? May your answer be some kind of gratitude that you are,
that you are here, and that we are here together on this Sunday morning. May
your answer be some kind of celebration for the bounty of beauty created by
living in paradise. May your answer be some kind of love and friendship and
soul stretching of which we can all partake. May your answer be gratitude for
the miracle of life in which we find ourselves, no matter which side of the bed
you woke up on this morning, no matter how you might have felt as you brushed
your teeth or scarfed down your coffee, no matter how you hoped or despaired as
you walked out the door, risking once again religious community. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">Your letters, cards, and emails expressed this
shared ministry, the need for shared ministry.
May you continue to reach out to your minister and express not only what
they did wrong this week but with messages that remind the minister that you
too have a ministry. May we open our hearts and minds and hands, giving and
receiving the gifts of who we are and who we can be in this faith that we share
and this life that we live. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">May it be so.<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: normal;">
<span style="background-color: cyan; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"Letters" a sermon delivered by the Rev. CJ McGregor at 1stUUPB, March 9, 2017</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-156513472047364555.post-63104274637696568192016-12-30T08:04:00.002-08:002016-12-30T08:04:50.628-08:00Message from Paul Ward, Dec 30, 2016<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #002060;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Greetings Members and Friends of 1stUUPB,</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #002060;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As we approach the end of the year and prepare for the new year, it is a time for reflection, letting go, and intention setting. In terms of our Congregation, the year just ending did not unfold as many of us expected, or even hoped for, but now is the time to let go of the past and begin thinking about the possibilities that lie ahead.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #002060;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Ministerial Selection Committee has begun its work and I am grateful for a highly capable team representing our Congregation on this journey. In my interactions with UU congregations around the country, I have found many congregations going through ministerial transitions. We are not so different and we are not a difficult Congregation. We are a diverse Congregation with wide ranging opinions, as the recent survey results showed, but we value our community. My intention is to come from a place of possibility and be the best I can be in support of this Congregation.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #002060;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Thank you for your comments, feedback, emails, and telephone conversations. I am listening! I am in England for New Year, returning to Florida on <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_71744738" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">January 9</span></span><sup>th</sup> in time for our next board meeting, but the channels of communication are still open.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #002060;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Thank you to members of our Board of Trustees, members of our committees, our staff, and everyone who contributes to the smooth running of our Congregational activities. </span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #002060;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I wish you a new year filled with hope, happiness, peace, and prosperity.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #002060;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">With love and gratitude,</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #002060;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Paul G. Ward</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #002060;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">President, Board of Trustees</span></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-156513472047364555.post-84259055512778322512016-12-06T18:10:00.003-08:002016-12-06T18:15:53.472-08:00Bearers of Light<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7M8jYs1i2u0/WEdvS3JO3QI/AAAAAAAABk4/evni26OX7RskpmjEuKQya42-iFk95nfIQCLcB/s1600/20161204%2Blite.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7M8jYs1i2u0/WEdvS3JO3QI/AAAAAAAABk4/evni26OX7RskpmjEuKQya42-iFk95nfIQCLcB/s640/20161204%2Blite.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"><span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Many of us are re-emerging from our
post-election haze. Some of us are
not. That is the nature of heartfelt
loss. We all grieve differently. No
matter where we stand, today we are seeing what the election has cost us. It
has cost us our progressive voices. We are now watching while a bully is taking
over the presidency with a fake mask, while his followers are waving their palm
leaves and cheering. So, it is our
responsibility to say as Unitarian Universalists “it is time.”</span></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"><span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It is time for us to use our voices. It is
time for us to get centered in our principles, stand in our truth, lock arms
with other people of faith and be the firewall. NOW is the time.</span></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"><span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Today we are
talking about responsibility. It is our
responsibility to use our voices. It is our responsibility to speak out. But, it is also our responsibility to
understand human nature; to study emotional systems; to analyze things from
ethical and theological perspectives. I believe it is our responsibility as
Unitarian Universalists to be a moral voice; to be the leaders during dark and
scary times. Buddhist Jack Kornfeld writes, "The great inspiration of the
Buddha's teaching is that we must each take ultimate responsibility for the
quality of our lives. Given certain volitional actions, certain results will
follow. When we understand that our lives are the unfolding of karmic law, that
we are the heirs to our own deeds, then there grows in us a deepening sense of
responsibility for how we live, the choices we make, and the actions we undertake."</span></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"><span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;">We are the people who have to see the light,
to point to the light, to know that there is light in the darkness. As such, we cannot be silent. We must be bearers of light. </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It is perfect timing for us to
consider how we might be bearers of light.
We are in the darkest time of the year.
Both literally and metaphorically. Pagans will celebrate returning light
with Winter Solstice celebrations, Hanukkah is the Jewish Festival of Lights
celebrated in countries all over the world. Diwali, meaning array of lights, is
a Hindu light festival. It symbolizes the triumph of light over darkness. During the 9 days prior to Christmas, Mexican families march from house to
house with candles looking for a room at the inn. Kwanzaa begins on December
26th to honor African harvest traditions. It was created in 1966. Candles
representing the seven principles of Kwanzaa are lit each night for a week.
Family and friends come together to take pride in their unique culture and to
celebrate their common heritage. And of course we have our own candlelight
ceremony here in this Congregation on Christmas Eve. We must be bearers of
light. We must be light in the lives of people around us as we navigate these
desperate times.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">When I was little we lived in a
double house on the Canadian border. Our
family lived in the back of the house while my grandmother lived in the front.
It was a house my grandfather bought for his sons when they married after the
WWII. Rumor has it that my grandpa did pretty well bootlegging whiskey during Prohibition.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But that’s another sermon. My dad’s family was a close-knit Scottish/French Canadian clan. We were always together. Maybe it was because we
lived in the same house, but we ate together many nights a week and always on
Sunday. My dad’s family was loud and passionate, and they could yell at you one
minute and hug you the next. One time our neighbor asked me why my family
argued all the time, which was a great puzzle. We didn’t argue we were… well,
colorful!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In March 1989, our color was surely
drained when my father died suddenly. He was 48, and I had just turned 20. I remember my dad’s smile, his
wicked sense of humor, and his laughter; it could light up a room. When he died, my mother went into mourning.
As was the custom, the bereaved wore black as a sign of loss. I think it
was a way to say to the world, “Be easy with me, I’m grieving.” My mom said she
did it out of respect, but I suspect it truly represented her deep sorrow. She
wore only black for a long while. She
hung on to her sorrow and her mourning clothes; it seemed as if she was stuck.
She eventually began wearing her regular clothes again. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Now our close-knit family also included
our neighbors Alphonsine and her clan. Alphonsine, a feminine and French name
meaning noble and ready, was my mom’s best friend. Our houses were so close;
you could stand at the kitchen sink and wash dishes at our house and talk
across the driveway to Alphonsine as she stood in her kitchen washing
dishes. In the summer of 1989,
Alphonsine decided it was time to help my mother move beyond her black mourning
clothes. I don’t know how their conversation went at all. But I remember the
day clearly, as if it were yesterday. My mom left the house wearing black and
returned hours later in a cloud of lavender. I can see her walking toward me, a
big smile on her face and lavender beads around her neck. But more than dressed
in lavender, or the even the beads, my mother looked different because she had
her light back, a light that had been dimmed by her tragic loss.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In a book by artist Jeanne Dobie
called “Making Color Sing,” the author introduces the idea of mouse colors.
That’s right, mouse colors…m-o-u-s-e. They are subtle pale colors. When they
are brushed up against a darker color, they illuminate the painting. They are
almost imperceptible when you look from a distance, but their impact on the
painting is profound. Mouse colors create a setting where it is possible for
the brilliant color to come into its fullest bloom. Mouse colors are like the
bit players who support the stars. I
believe there are people in the world who are like mouse colors; they bring
light to our dark places. They are most often subtle. If we are lucky, they
come to us with presence and gentle influence at the exact time we need them. I
think of them as light bearers.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Our friend Alphonsine, in the story about my
mom, was a light bearer. She cared for my mother and their relationship by
showing up when needed and finding the right path that led my mom back to the
color of her life.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In 2006, one year after Hurricane
Katrina decimated Louisiana, Rev. Marta Valentin offered a sermon to the UU
congregations of New Orleans. Those congregations suffered immense challenges,
but most congregations struggle with difficult times and change. I think her
words are relevant to all of us. In her sermon she described the bearers of
light who showed up with aid and support during a tragically dark time for
the congregations. This is what she said: “To be a bearer of light is to hold
in the highest esteem the building of relationships. Bearers of light are not concerned with what
they can take, but with what they can give to any situation, even one that
might rile them. It can be a commitment one makes to lighten an experience that
might seem heavy, to share an insight even when it might scare you to do so. It
can be a commitment to remain calm, when all around you the world is spinning,
to remain grounded when the urge is to take flight, to remain loving when the
devil is knocking on your door, pushing you into the abyss that is misdirected
anger.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Who doesn’t need people like this
often in their lives, people who love us and value our relationships and our
community and are committed to hold the lantern when life seems so very dark? I
think we all know that our body craves light. Any one who lives on the Canadian
border in February knows that. Light stimulates our neurotransmitters; we
produce more serotonin. It improves our mood, and lightens our life. But I believe our spirit craves light too. We
are hungry for illumination, enlightenment, the mystical experience, or…in
Universalist language -- a gentle stirring of love in our hearts. The presence of spiritual light offers us a
sense of healing in difficult times. Our ability to see this light makes it
possible to feel a sublime connection to one another. We blur our separation
and our ability to see deeply into each other’s hearts opens us to true
communion. When we do that, we become bearers of light for one another.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Now we all know there are times in
our lives when we live in the light and our world is in technicolor. And other
times we live in the dark, when the black hole of circumstance sucks us in.
Like post-election season. Times where there is no light, and we see no color,
even as we look out at our vibrant world. Perhaps we lose someone we loved, we
end a relationship, or we simply experience life changes, and we can get drawn
into a dark lonely place. At such times of struggle, it is difficult even to
see our own light. We find ourselves living in the shadows. We can become frightened
and sorrowful and angry. As a young
adult I thought the idea of mourning clothes was silly and outdated. When my
own mother died, I wore a green suit with a lavender tie; it was her favorite
color, after all. But in the months following her death, I felt so deeply and
profoundly sad. I remember feeling as if I needed to wear black, because the
wound I carried was invisible to others but wide open and gaping to me. I lived
in the shadows; I went through my days taking care of my young family with
little joy or brilliance. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I think we all have such shadows. They are
sorrow and pain we don’t want to see; they are our lesser qualities -- our meanness,
our stinginess, or our judgment of others. They are our inadequacies, the parts
of ourselves that just don’t measure up to our self-expectations. Like a
dormant virus, they sneak out, especially during hard times, political and
otherwise. And it wouldn’t be so bad if
we just waited for the virus to pass, but I’m afraid all too often, we project
our shadow onto others, ascribing motives to them that simply aren’t true and
that have more to do with us than with them. These are the times we need light
so we can honestly and openly see our hidden selves.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">There is a Sufi teaching
story about a character, the Mulla, named Nasrudin. A man was walking home late one night when he
saw the Mulla Nasrudin searching under a street light on hands and knees for
something on the ground. “Mulla, what have you lost?” he asked. “The key to my
house,” Nasrudin said. “I’ll help you look,” the man said. Soon, both men were
down on their knees, looking for the key. After a number of minutes, the man
asked, “Where exactly did you drop it?” Nasrudin waved his arm back toward the
darkness. “Over there, in my house.” The first man jumped up. “Then why are you
looking for it here?” “Because there is more light here than inside my house."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It’s pretty clear Nasrudin is looking
for something very important, a key. And the key could easily symbolize an
aspect of himself. Aren’t we all looking for that key? But in this case, the
key is in the darkness of his house, so that is where he must look. This is
also true of finding the shadow parts of our selves; it requires us to look in
the darkness and uncover the key to our behavior. Perhaps there is a way to bring light to
those dark places, our shadows. Perhaps that’s where the light bearers come
in.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">To explain that, I’d like to borrow
the concept of light from the Quakers. They believe that there is a light in
each of us that is more than our intellect or conscience. The light within is
like a flickering flame deep in our souls that when responded to and tended,
grows to fill our entire lives with light. When the internal light is dim, and our shadows are long and dark,
another person who sees us and sees the light can make all the difference in
our lives.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">That is the work of the light
bearers. They mind the light. They pay close attention to all that connects us.
They see beyond the shadows and hold a vision of us in the light. They see us
as whole and perfect, exactly as we are, even when it’s hard for us to see
that.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Now some people are gifted with
that ability; I can actually think of a few people in this Congregation who
have the gift, and believe me, we are lucky because communities need such people. But most of us are more
ordinary, and we need practice. Seeing the light and minding the light in
others is in fact something we can learn. It takes willingness and commitment,
because seeing the light in others is easy when they are pleasant and so much
harder when they are not. It is really hard to feel connected or to see the
light in other persons when they are disappointed in you or you them. But that’s when they need it the most. If only we could wear black mourning colors
when we are lost, or perhaps red when we are enraged at life, or maybe green
when we are too tender to touch. If we had an outward sign of our innermost
circumstance, maybe then we could tell the world around us, “be easy with me,
I’m hurting, and I’m scared.” But life isn’t like that; there are no uniforms.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">So maybe the key is to invoke the
spirit of love or if you like, the spirit of — God. When we see others in the
light of love, we find their challenges are probably no different from our own.
We see beyond their shadow to the deep light within, and holding them this way
we ensure that we are touched by their lives, by their pure humanness. The
distance between us lessens, and our concerns become each other’s. And in that way we become bearers of light…we
see and mind the light in one another…and by doing that our own light grows
brighter, and together we bring understanding to the shadows between us. Perhaps
we simply say Namaste–the light in me sees the light in you…<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">May it be so.</span></span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">"Bearers of Light", a sermon delivered by the Rev CJ McGregor, at 1stUUPB, on Dec 4, 2016.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-156513472047364555.post-79788674368272345942016-10-16T16:18:00.002-07:002016-10-16T16:18:49.788-07:00LIFE OF THE CONGREGATION – October 16, 2016<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dlXpUI7JeAE/WAQJzu6Dz2I/AAAAAAAABeA/CzMZJLuDJBcvn7Jz0zY9cTnjz6rFbNGpgCLcB/s1600/WARD%252C%2BPAUL-052.Jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dlXpUI7JeAE/WAQJzu6Dz2I/AAAAAAAABeA/CzMZJLuDJBcvn7Jz0zY9cTnjz6rFbNGpgCLcB/s320/WARD%252C%2BPAUL-052.Jpg" width="248" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;">Hurricane Matthew passed us by with limited impact but not before we readied our campus for the worst. Thanks to our Sexton Willie Nelson for ensuring our security and to Ben Juhl and Sylvia Ansay for guiding the preparation and clean up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;">The board approved the appointment of Maria Cristina Gonzalez-Lopez as the new Religious Education Committee chair. Thank you to Maria for stepping up and to Richard Keelan for your leadership over the past few years. <u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;">Rev. CJ has announced his decision to leave the Congregation. The board strongly supports CJ’s desire to complete his contract, which runs until the end of April 2017. I know many of you are disappointed that CJ has decided to leave us, but it is his decision and we must move forward.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;">We are planning to hold a series of cottage meetings next month to seek input from the Congregation on bringing in a new minister. We have a number of possibilities to consider:<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;">We could call a settled minister although, because of the timing, that would not be possible until 2018.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;">Other options include an interim minister, a consulting or contract minister, or another developmental minister.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;">I was at the UU Ministers Association meeting <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1931461684" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on Thursday</span></span>, presenting a leadership workshop, and met Kenn Hurto, our UUA regional executive. Kenn told me that the rules for developmental ministers have changed and would, in effect, be like a long-term interim minister. That would be for up to 5 years, but <b>without</b> the option to be called to settled ministry. Kenn is seeking more information about it.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;">The Transitions Team will lead the selection process. If you were invited to be a member of the Transitions Team last month, the goal has now changed, but the role is perhaps even more important than before. I hope you will agree to be part of the team.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;">I would like to clarify the situation with our intern, Claudia Jiminez. Even with CJ’s departure, Claudia can continue her internship with this Congregation for the next two years and I am very much hoping she will. Claudia and I are meeting to discuss possibilities.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;">I look forward to supporting this Congregation through the transition. Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns about the transition. As always, I am ready to listen.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;">Paul G Ward<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;">President, Board of Trustees</span><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12.8px;"> </span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-156513472047364555.post-39963509436268126142016-09-19T11:27:00.000-07:002016-09-19T11:27:24.930-07:00Water is Life<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cTVGGgseGzg/V-AtOQebE0I/AAAAAAAABdE/ULXJCKpPRVUfxn-UEn7GO-XXN-SZOLowgCLcB/s1600/20160918.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cTVGGgseGzg/V-AtOQebE0I/AAAAAAAABdE/ULXJCKpPRVUfxn-UEn7GO-XXN-SZOLowgCLcB/s400/20160918.jpg" width="152" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: large;">I have a solid memory of being five
years old and surveying our northern New York land with my father. He was
trying to find the best place to dig a well. One thing, however -- I'm not sure
if I'm imagining it -- but I think he might have been using a branch to find the
groundwater, which is called dowsing. Coming from 18th century
superstition, while using a branch as you would a metal detector on the beach
you search for groundwater and supposedly the branch would shake if you indeed
found water. I wanted this part of the memory to be true, but alas every study
over the last century agrees that dowsing remains a superstition. I remember my
father choosing a spot and breaking ground with a shovel. In fact, he and a few
other men dug this well mostly using shovels. They extracted a few boulders out
with machinery which when clustered became a playground for kids and a hiding
spot when we stole a few moments to smoke cigarettes as teenagers. Those
boulders remain in the same spot today.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">At 5 years old I understood that the
well and water was central to our livelihood. The well was vital not only to my family, but to two neighboring families.
You see, the wells that had been used for a couple of generations had gone dry.
Water had been a great concern for my family and our neighbors. The digging of
the new well and access to water meant sustaining life for the people, land,
and crops and animals on the land.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">After
my parents died, the land and property were sold. My brother and I received much
grief from the other two families using the well. The thought of water scarcity
made them do and say things I would have never expected. You see, the new owner
of the well could have cut the other families out leaving them without water,
without the resources they needed to live. Eventually we nailed down an
agreement and all was settled. Perhaps one of the earliest water summits. Over 40 years later the well still
supplies water and hasn't once gone dry. I’d like to give credit to the supposed
branch.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This success story is becoming more
uncommon these days. I recently watched
a video titled <i>A Four Year Old Bucket
List</i>. In that video we see a 4 year old Kenyan boy who has been granted
the opportunity to do everything he has on his bucket list before he dies. He goes to the ocean for the first time, he
plays soccer on the national field, and he has his first kiss, among other
things. The boy isn’t terminally
ill. His reality is that most children
where he lives die before they are 5 because they have no access to
unpolluted and quality water and that water is already in short supply. The boy
doesn’t complete his bucket list.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I've learned firsthand, through my
ministry, and study that water is life and when that resource is absent or
threatened, relationships fall apart, conflict arises, people are oppressed, threatened,
hopelessly die, or are even killed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We don't need to look far for the threat to
life. We have our own battles to fight right here in Florida to ensure water is
life giving. I’m talking about the
Everglades. The two biggest threats to the Everglades is water quality and
water quantity. Development on the coast calls for an increased demand for
water, but the problem is that the quantity of water isn't growing as demand
grows. Man-made structures don't allow water to flow to the Everglades as it
should. Often the water that reaches the Everglades is not quality. Runoff from
expanding urban centers and unsustainable farming practices are polluting the
water supply which is already limited. Not unlike the well of my childhood
there is tension around the issues of quality and quantity. Stakeholders such
as Native American tribes, park services, fish and wildlife services, the
Audubon Society, water management, concerned citizens, religious groups, and
others are all players in the Everglades issue and all have varying opinions,
resources, ignorance, and ideas which create conflict over life-giving water. Will
we see results before we have to make bucket lists for our loved ones and we see our environment continue to suffer and die?
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I’ve shared with you that after Hurricane
Katrina I traveled to the 9th Ward of New Orleans a few times, which had been
the most devastated part of the city. I realized after being on the ground for
only a few hours that my project of gutting and rebuilding homes was secondary
to landing in the middle of a human rights conflict. Residents desperate to
return to their homes and communities were being blocked by local and federal
officials. In order for a community to be restored, that community needs health
facilities, food, and water. All human rights in my book. Just ask Canada. Residents
wanted to return but resources were held up and denied. The water remained
muddied both figuratively and literally. Some did return to find that the mayor
had ordered the demolition of their home where generations have lived. No
access to water, food, or shelter. Basic human needs stomped on. I forgot to
mention this was a black neighborhood where people were challenged
socio-economically. If you were asking yourself, "why would officials do
that?” I just gave you your answer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Perhaps the most recent water and land
conflict on our radar -- if it isn't perhaps it should be -- is the conflict in
Standing Rock in North Dakota. Earlier this summer I began hearing about
something happening near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. A few people from
Standing Rock on horseback were trying to stop the construction of an oil
pipeline, the Dakota Access Pipeline, that would cross the Missouri River just
upstream of their community. Many were arrested. The next I heard, they had
been joined by people from the other six Lakota Sioux tribes, then by the
Cheyenne, traditional enemies of the Sioux, and then tribal people from across
the country started getting in their cars and trucks and driving to the camp on
the banks of the Missouri River. Now, in
September, there are flags of 300 indigenous nations flying at the Camp of the
Sacred Stones, and there are several hundred to several thousand people
(depending on the moment), of all races, at three different camps, all gathered
in support of nonviolent resistance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The people there say they are not
“protesters,” they are water protectors, and they are doing this for all of us.
Many faith and environmental communities have joined their voices in support,
including Rev. Peter Morales, the president of the Unitarian Universalist
Association, who called on Unitarian Universalists to support the Standing Rock
Sioux. The fight by the Standing Rock Sioux to halt the Dakota Access Pipeline
has emerged as one of the defining climate justice fights in the United
States. It has also become a central
focal point of the ongoing worldwide struggle by indigenous peoples to have
their treaty and land rights respected by other governments and
corporations. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Indigenous people are
among the most vulnerable communities on the front lines of the climate crisis,
and are leading the fight. Corporations have repeatedly used force to extract
fossil fuels from their lands with approval from government attorneys and
military forces. Major pipeline projects invariably cut across Native lands
while bypassing white suburban communities. We must follow the lead of
indigenous communities that have protected their land for countless
generations, and work together in solidarity to ensure a thriving planet for
future generations and all living things.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I tell you all of this to help you
understand that the situation in Standing Rock is yet another event in a series
of events of oppression. Native Americans have been here before. Columbus and
colonists have cheated, raped, murdered, oppressed and were at the wheel of
genocide from the very beginning. If you doubt genocide will be a consequence,
you’ll need to explain to me why dogs with gnashing teeth are being allowed to
tear at the flesh and spirits of protesters and why poisoning an indigenous
people is considered with no feeling or conscience. The Sioux Tribe protecting
their land in North Dakota aren't simply greedy. They understand that if a
pipeline is built it will be sparking genocide. Water is precious and a
pipeline would contaminate that life-giving resource, leaving a community to
die. They become dispensable once again.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This people are also protecting the
sacred. Their ancestors are buried within the land, which is treasured, revered,
and has significant and sacred meaning. I know if the construction of a
pipeline that would run through the cemetery where my parents and grandparents are buried I would be equally as outraged and afraid that that sacred land
would be defiled. I can breathe easy. That won't happen. My ancestors and I are
white.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The dogs growl, the pepper spray bites,
the bulldozers tear up the soil. “Water is life!” they cry. “Water is
life!” The presence of suffering in this
cry of outrage is profound. We are called by our faith to say, “No more, no
more. You will not poison our water or continue ravaging planet earth: mocking
its sacredness, destroying its ecosystems, reshaping and slowly killing it for
profit.” As the Green Party insists, the North Dakota authorities should
instead be pressing charges against the real vandalism taking place at the
Standing Rock Sioux reservation: the desecration of sacred burial sites and the
immoral use of vicious attack dogs, calling on our government to halt the Dakota
Access Pipeline company that is endangering drinking water.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As I watched videos, read updates, and
talk to my colleagues who had been to Standing Rock over the past weeks, I
could feel my heart turning toward North Dakota, almost as if a part of me was
already traveling there, longing to bear witness to something extraordinary,
something never before seen on this continent or perhaps anywhere, the rising
up of the tribal nations to protect water and land. As Rebecca Solnit wrote in <i>The Guardian</i>: “What’s happening at
Standing Rock feels like a new civil rights movement that takes place at the
confluence of environmental and human rights awareness.” And the protectors have been clear that they
need the support of everyone, that without many witnesses, they could be
silenced, just as they have been intimidated and silenced before, for these
last 150 years. I watched a video of 13
year old Tokata Iron Eyes, talking about why she was there as a water
protector.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I felt I needed to be in North Dakota. But how could I go? It seems wild to just
pick up and go to North Dakota. I have sermons to write, committee meetings to
attend, and family and financial responsibilities. But I kept thinking of the
UUs in 1965 who heard the call from Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to come to
Selma, and how many of them, certainly many of the ministers, had responsibilities
that could have kept them home: sermons to give, committees to attend. And yet,
and yet…they got in their cars, got on airplanes, got on trains to travel to
Selma to support those who were struggling nonviolently for basic civil rights,
against enormous odds and overwhelming police presence, threats, and
brutality. How is this different? In
North Dakota there are people who have also been oppressed for generations,
rising up courageously, facing their own fear for the sake of their culture and
community and for the rest of us, and calling for people of conscience to join
them. And native people from the Northwest and around the country have answered
that call. How can I not?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I wondered if I had the audacity to do
this. It is part of my call and it will
benefit this congregation too. I am going to Standing Rock. Stay tuned for the
details. As Unitarian Universalists we
must challenge ourselves to imagine things differently, to be brave enough,
creative enough, to birth a way of life that does not bring so much death in
its wake. My friend and colleague the Rev. Kathleen Matigue writes, “We have to
do this. We live still in the illusion that we have a choice, but we have no
choice. It’s like believing that in the ten seconds between now and the moment
your car crashes into the wall, it’s optional whether or not you turn the
wheel. It’s not optional. We either turn the wheel or we crash. Turning that
wheel means focusing intently on how we can live differently, how we can
reduce, and reduce again, the enormous amounts of everything that we misuse—but
especially life giving water.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Not only will I follow my call to
Standing Rock, I will offer ways that you can contribute from Florida. As one
of our greatest leaders, Chief Sitting Bull of the Hunkpapa Lakota, once said,
‘Let us put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children.’
That appeal is as relevant today as it was more than a century ago.” The beauty
of the earth, the necessity of the earth, call us. We have to answer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">May it be so.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Water is Life</i>, a sermon delivered by the Rev. CJ McGregor at 1stUUPB, Sep 18, 2016.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-156513472047364555.post-53312215155294825232016-09-05T10:14:00.000-07:002016-09-05T10:14:57.133-07:00Black Leaders, White Allies<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lUhRgLa9JjE/V82muDpdWJI/AAAAAAAABcg/4i7ivHRKQNgTM-JAR415G_ma78sZF-CYQCLcB/s1600/20160904.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lUhRgLa9JjE/V82muDpdWJI/AAAAAAAABcg/4i7ivHRKQNgTM-JAR415G_ma78sZF-CYQCLcB/s400/20160904.jpg" width="160" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In
the last few weeks I've been challenged by my white privilege on two occasions.
In the first instance I watched two black youths walk down the street on their
way to school in Lake Worth. On their backs they had backpacks. The backpacks
were what you might call “see-through” because the material used was clear. I
could see all the contents being carried in the backpack. I didn't think how
innovative it was or that it may be a new fashion trend. No, because the youths
were black I thought what a good idea because the police could see inside the
backpack and the youths might be less likely to get stopped, searched, or even
killed. My white privilege was challenged, because had the youths been white I
would have never thought of the advantages of a see-through backpack. I simply
would have thought about the fashion trend. I wouldn't have worried about whether a white youth might have a greater
chance of survival using such a backpack.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">If
you’re not a person of color in America you might not need to worry about such things.
Black Unitarian Universalists and their allies across the country gather on a
Facebook page to organize and support one another. They call themselves
Unitarian Universalists for Black Lives. I received a notice of a post from the
page. The post annoyed me. It read:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We find
ourselves particularly dismayed by the willingness of UU congregations and
ministers who have shown support for the Movement for Black Lives and now feel
compelled to signify their allegiance to police officers and policing itself.
As members of an over-policed and underserved constituency targeted by the
police for harassment, economic exploitation and random violence often
resulting in death, we wonder: Who does
this allegiance to law enforcement serve?
How does it undercut the messaging of the Movement for Black Lives and
take focus away from the need for fundamental restructuring of law enforcement,
if not the altogether abolition of law enforcement as we have known it? What are Black Unitarian Universalists to
make of their congregations’ and their ministers’ public affirmations of an
institution known to oppress and kill them from its inception?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
responded to the post writing that I was tired of groups assuming that all cops
are bad cops and that if we are truly going to resolve race relations with
people we need to create relationships and collaborate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
didn't sleep after writing that message. I lose sleep when something isn't
right or I believe I haven't challenged myself to do the right thing by looking
at all the sides of an issue or problem. The next morning I sat up in bed and
thought "white privilege!" You see, as a white person I can’t
remember an instance, an experience, a situation where I couldn't trust the
police. In fact, I was raised in a culture where police were my friend and
helpful. If I had been born black it would've been a different story. I would
have been born into a world where policing was invented to control me, deny my
rights, cause physical and emotional pain. I haven't had an instance or
experience that would lead me to mistrust police. I am now suspicious of police
since racism in America has had a brighter light shed on it. Not being in touch
with my white privilege allowed me to write that post where I was asking people
who are black to get over it and move on where police were concerned.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I'm
not ashamed of my white privilege. It is what it is. It is when I don't check
my white privilege, identify it, own it and how it shapes my actions and
reactions that I should be concerned. Had I done that work before making a
decision about the backpacks and the message I sent, I likely would've never
allowed my ego and privilege interfere with what is right, just, and true. We
should all think about as Unitarian Universalists what we are called to do.
Whether it be the Everglades, climate change, poverty, homelessness, or race
relations, as Unitarian Universalists our faith and tradition calls us to
respond in an informed and compassionate way. Both of the examples I shared
this morning left me asking what do black leaders want from this white
ally? I bet you've asked yourself a
similar question.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">One
thing I know, that our Justice Action Ministry knows, is that blacks need to
lead and white allies need to listen and to learn. Blacks need to control the narrative because
whites have controlled it for far too long and look at what this is come to in
our history. The answer to the question, "what do black leaders want from
their white allies?" has varied. In
fact over the past couple of years the black narrative has changed. Take for example the case of Cornell West. He
is a black professor at Princeton and an extremely influential activist. West
has been criticized that his view of race relations no longer works or is what
the black community needs to progress.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Some
compare him to the boxer Mike Tyson. Once great, once dominant, once feared, he
is now a faint echo of himself. American
academic Michael Eric Dyson tells us, "Like Iron Mike, West is given to
biting our ears with personal attacks rather than bending our minds with fresh
and powerful scholarship. Like Tyson, he is given to making cameos — in West’s
case, appearing as himself in scripted social unrest, or playing a prophet on
television in the latest protest. He has squandered his intellectual gift in
exchange for celebrity. He’s grown flabby with disinterest in the work needed
to stay aloft: the readiness to read, think, and recast thought in the crucible
of written words."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
am disheartened by such criticism. I admire Cornell West. However, the black
community is expecting something different in their modern leadership and
modern movements. That causes white allies to ask, "What is expected of
me?" We should listen to the answer and learn.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It
is an important question. Whether Unitarian Universalists should be allies to
and involved in the modern black justice movement is not a question but a
given. But what qualifies as an ally, from black and white perspectives, isn’t
universal. “I think a white person can only be a true ally if he or she works
from the desire to dismantle white supremacy instead of merely being fueled by
white guilt,” says Katrina L. Rogers, the communications manager of an advocacy
organization in New Orleans. Rogers tells us “never be under the assumption
that if a white person identifies as an ally that they’re invested in my
well-being.” “Labels mean little,” she says and “if you’re not working with us
and taking our direction, you’re not an ally.” While some argue that
institutional change happens only when white people get out of the way, seeing
white people participate in the cause can lead to awareness. When white people
see white people brutalized it stirs up the same fears and anxiety that black
people have had to contend with on a daily basis for centuries.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">While
the role of white participants in Black Lives Matter shouldn’t be left to black
organizers to figure out -- black Americans have had to contend with racism and
it isn’t the responsibility of blacks to show whites how to be good allies and
comrades -- white activists and sympathizers with the Black Lives Matter cause
should take a page from white activists of the civil rights movement: that
black people are the leaders, that the movement is centered around them, that
glorifying white participation in a black-led movement is gauche and unhelpful,
that it isn’t about white people.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There’s
no clear path or prescription for how white allies should operate in a movement
led by black and brown people -- that’s part of the work. But one refrain
expressed among white activists is the idea that the freedom of white people,
of all people, is tethered to ending injustices for people of color. One thing is for sure: it’s the
responsibility of whites interested in ending racism to sacrifice their
comfort, ask questions, and take cues and orders from black people without
relying on them to show you and tell you how. It’s not the usual order of
things, but it’s the way forward. Groups like Showing Up for Racial Justice,
which began after black leaders approached a group of white organizers during
the Tea Party’s rise in 2009, are thinking and talking about how to be
effective white allies and organizers against racism. Their goal “is to get
millions of white people in the movement,” says Andrew Willis Garcés, SURJ’s
regional resource organizer. He says, “We actually want to ask white people to
step into that messiness and tension.” When it comes to organizing, Garcés says
that SURJ has developed relationships with black- and brown-led organizations,
but doesn’t expect to be told what to do or say. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In
his searing book, <i>Between the World and Me</i>, Ta-Nehisi Coates implies that
it’s not his job — or, by extension the job of other black voices or leaders —
to coach white folks, let alone worry about their feelings. Which it’s not. The
whole point is that we white people should be the ones thinking more about
black people — their feelings, their experience and their reality, which can be
dramatically different than our own. But at the same time, Coates concludes his
text noting that structural racism won’t change until white people change. There
are already white people who want to change, and want to help spur change in
their communities. Many people are reticent to speak out, for fear of
misspeaking; others want to do something, but don’t know what to do. Instead of
continuing to unconsciously reinforce structural racism in America, there are
many white people who want to consciously help deconstruct and dismantle it.
But how? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It
is not up to Black Lives Matter, nor any movement led by and for communities of
color, to make space for, or articulate a vision for white people. The
expectation that black leaders and movements should automatically do so is a
subtle extension of the sort of white-centric entitlement that gives rise to
the need for such movements in the first place. Then again, we haven’t exactly
blazed a path to enlightenment and liberation so far on our own. While doing
research for this sermon I found some of the leading voices and activists in
Black Lives Matter who shared their hopes, asks and even demands for white
people in America today. Each echoed many of the same themes, encompassing both
hopes and critiques. Here, in their own words, is what they said:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> "I don't like the term ally.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Black folks are never
safe, so it’s important for white co-conspirators or comrades to think about
the level of comfort — safety — that is assumed to them by sitting on the
sidelines and not actively engaging in the movement for black lives because it
seems “too risky.” I want comrades who will show up when I’m most vulnerable
and be in active solidarity with my struggle as a person in a black body and
take some risks, because I’m putting my life out on the line every single day.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">•Dante Barry, executive director of Million Hoodies Movement
for Justice<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Allies are
best as accomplices.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Be complicit in dismantling racist structures by taking
risks, putting your bodies on the line in the streets, sharing access to
resources (and releasing agency over them), living in some discomfort with
difficult conversations in collaboration, knowing when to listen and organizing
other white folks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">•Mervyn Marcano, spokesman for Ferguson Action<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Safe
spaces are illusions.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Racism is an illness that afflicts each and every one of us.
It steals our humanity, our capacity for empathy, the righteous indignation
that is our birthright. I don’t believe in allies; I believe in the
decolonizing power of solidarity. White people ought to challenge themselves to
engage in more spaces of risk and difference.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">•Umi Selah, mission director of the Dream Defenders<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“You can be
progressive and anti-black.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The two are not synonymous. Just because you have
progressive politics doesn’t mean you’re not racist as hell, that you don’t
think black people are less than; it doesn’t mean you have a racial analysis.
Being progressive doesn’t give you a pass. You have to do the work within
yourself if you’re going to be in this space.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">•Celeste Faison, co-founder of the Black Out Collective and
coordinator of Black Lives Matter, Bay Area<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Expand
what being progressive means in America.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The conditions that are taking the lives of black and Latino
communities with heart-shattering speed cannot be solved with economic
solutions alone. A progressive movement that isn’t organizing to dismantle
structural racism isn’t a progressive movement. It’s a movement of white
middle-class self-interest, where white people on both sides of the aisle are
fighting to retain white privilege in different ways.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">•Malkia Cyril, director of Center for Media Justice,
co-founder of Media Action Grassroots Network<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Stop
saying ‘all lives matter’”<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Understand why you can’t say that. Whatever people need to
do to understand why that’s not OK, they need to do that. What we’re saying
right now is that all lives will actually matter when black lives matter — and
black lives don’t matter right now. So we need to say black lives matter to
change that. We need to change that individually, we need to change that within
our communities and we need to change that systemically.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">•Robbie Clark, organizer with Black Lives Matter Bay Area<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“It must go
beyond saying #BlackLivesMatter.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I want white people to do the work of pushing Democratic
darlings to take more seriously the impact of structural racism…. Beyond saying
#BlackLivesMatter, I want to hear more about what each of them will do to
ensure a world where #BlackLivesMatter — and that means weighing in for an end
to deportations and citizenship for all, fighting to end mass incarceration,
ensuring that domestic workers have full rights in and outside of the workplace
and on and on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">•Alicia Garza, special projects director for the National
Domestic Workers Alliance and co-creator of #BlackLivesMatter<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Organize
yourselves.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“White liberals and progressives have a responsibility to
organize their communities for social justice using an explicitly anti-black-racism
frame. There is no need to hide behind black or people of color organizations.
Commit yourself to organizing poor and working class white folks. We are
capable of organizing our communities. Our children need everyday white folks
to work harder to ensure that black women don’t have to worry about dying after
failing to signal properly, walking while transgender or trying to protect
their children.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Let us, black and white alike, do the work to understand
ourselves in the context of the anti-racism movement. White allies, it is not
enough to say “I’m not racist.” Prove it. Do the work. Understand white
privilege without guilt. Black leaders, as white allies we will do the work but
need your direction and grace as to what you need. As black leaders and white
allies, as Unitarian Universalists, we have a responsibility to one another. The
responsibility to love, to be outraged, to act, and to heal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">May
it be so.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #e69138; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Black
Leaders, White Allies, a sermon delivered by the Rev CJ McGregor at 1stUUPB,
Sep 4, 2016.</span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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