Thank You!

As I return from leave, I wanted to extend my gratitude to our community for graciously supporting my family and me as we spent this precious time together.  I am especially grateful to Rev. Justin for going the extra mile (or ten) during this time away by assuming preaching responsibilities, pastoral duties, and additional administrative tasks.   Rev. Justin did all of this in just his first year with us!  Sam Treadaway led the Board of Trustees while picking up additional responsibilities in my absence.  A longtime leader, Sam has stepped up numerous times in our history and I was grateful to have his experienced hand at the helm.  And a big thanks to Deb Davelka, our administrator, who coordinated our communications and so often makes it all look so easy! 

Ann Marie and I also appreciate all the members who took the time to prepare meals for us, visits, and notes of support.  A special thank you to the Care Committee Co-Chairs Nancy Delux and Michelle Murphy with support from Anne Laukaitis, Merry Overholser and Shakeisha Gray for demonstrating how care goes to the core of our Piedmont UU Church community. 

With gratitude,

 

Rev. Robin, Ann Marie, Kirk and Ella

Spiritually Speaking: Being Human, Being Buddha

One of the gifts of recent parenthood has been living into the liminal spaces.  Liminal spaces are those that are marked by transition.  From the latin limin, meaning threshold, liminal spaces are times of change.  Babies are all changes all the time.  As soon as we’ve gotten used to the latest pattern- from how much they eat or sleep to how much they weigh or what they can do (rolling over yikes!), well as soon as we are good and used to things, they change.

I say gift because being a new parent has put right in my face something that is always happening-change.  As the old saying goes, change is the only constant.  We joke about this, have bumper stickers that allude to it and authors like Pema Chodron build a life on learning how to live with it.  And yet..

It still surprises me.  What something changed?  How?  When?

Especially people.  I expect people to be absolutely constant.  So, whatever I’ve decided about you in the first ten seconds, well you should just behave according to this perception all the time.

Of course I am exaggerating a bit here.  But I do think a good deal of us spend an unfortunate amount of time living out of our stories of others as well as ourselves.  When folks do enact genuine change and transformation they often encounter immense resistance by those who love them the most in their life.  You need only watch one episode of the Extreme Weight Loss to see change-resistance phenomena in action.  Or talk to anyone who has stopped acting in accordance with an abusive or oppressive system. 

This month our theme-based ministry resumes with the theme of compassion. The more I study Buddhist practices of cultivating compassion and the more I try to cultivate compassion in my own life, the more it seems that compassion relies upon a healthy embrace of change.  When we can grant ourselves the ability to grow and let go, as well as gift that to others, we ultimately become more compassionate beings. 

The cynic relies upon life as it is and will always be but the hopeful, compassionate heart is open to the process of change and transition.

It is hard spiritual work to be open to change.  Sometimes it feels like a screaming child at 2 am that awakens the soul to the fact that things are in transition!  But ultimately, when we can embrace the evolution of life in unwelcome changes (cue screaming baby at 2 am) we open ourselves as to the blissful (such as the acceptance of our humanity at 2 am broken open there before the aforementioned baby).

Glad to be back friends, looking forward to living into compassion with you and what’s more sharing a bit of our journeys together.

In faith and compassion,

Rev. Robin

Rev. Robin is back from leave

Beginning September 1^st Rev. Robin will be returning from leave.  She’ll begin part-time for the month of September and then return full-time beginning October 1^st. 

So what does part-time mean? 

In September, Rev. Robin will lead worship on Sundays, be available for urgent pastoral calls, attend to rites of passage (weddings and memorials), and lead staff meetings and supervise staff.  In addition, Rev. Robin will be attending the Board of Trustees, Shared Ministry Team, and ADORE Team meeting. 

In October, as she returns full-time her office hours will be on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 3-5 pm, by appointment.  In addition, she will take Fridays as her day off and Tuesdays as her writing day. 

As always, please feel free to reach out in September or October by contacting Rev. Robin at robin@puuc.org or by calling the office at (704) 510-0008.

Nerdy Religion Time

Once again I will be filling in for Rev. Robin for her column. We’ll be tackling another fun subject this month in our Nerdy Religion time together. One of the questions I get most often about Unitarian Universalism is what we believe about God. As Unitarian Universalists one of the topics it seems we are least able to discuss is what our beliefs are relating to God. It makes sense that we would be both squeamish and curious on this topic because our views differ and we know that this has been a place of discord for Unitarians and Universalists since long before any of us were born. I propose that we open the channels for discussion on this a little bit.

Historically both Unitarianism and Universalism come from theistic, Christian traditions that make two major, and to some heretical, statements about God. The Unitarians believed that there was one God, rather than the Holy Trinity which consisted of God, the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Our nerdy forefathers came to this conclusion because they analyzed the text of the bible and they didn’t believe that the bible actually has the trinity in it. You can get super nerdy about that by following this link.

The Universalists didn’t believe that God would send people to hell forever. In fact they believed that it would make God evil. These nerdy forefathers derived their conclusions from logic. They didn’t belief that the bible supported the idea of eternal damnation, but moreover they didn’t think it would be fair. They believed there is no way that God could be both loving and capable of setting up a system where people could be punished infinitely for a finite amount of evil living. They believed evil needed to be punished, just not forever. I challenge any one of you to be nerdy enough to read all of this.

For us what we believe God is, if anything, isn’t so uniform, but I believe that the lessons gleaned from these two ideas about God still have a great effect on Unitarian Universalists. From the Unitarians and their one God we see a divine in whatever form that is open to all. There is no God that exists only for some and not for others. The sacred in this world, whether that be God or nature or the spirit that connects us is open to any and all.

From the Universalist we take the idea that there is no special treatment in this life or the next. While we don’t know what happens after you die, we know that it is not affected by your works, beliefs or rates of church attendance. Again, the sacred is available to, within and among all people. None are left out.

What do you think? Tell me about what God is for you in the section below.

See you Sunday!

When being a Chalice Lighter trumps the elevator speech

If you have been a Unitarian Universalist for long, you have heard about the elevator speech.  This is the speech you should always be prepared to make when entering an elevator with a stranger who shows an interest or curiosity about Unitarian Universalism.  You should have at your disposal all the right words to paint a picture of our denomination which will challenge the interest of your captive and motivate him/her to pursue further pathways to share your enthusiasm.  I have always found this difficult!  A few months ago I was starting a new class at the local YMCA.  “Aquatics Blast”, I think it was called.  My new instructor was spending some one-on-one warm up time to become acquainted with me as we paddled about.  She was from the Ukraine, and between her accent and my hearing disability the conversation was doing some stuttering.  “Do you go to this church?,”she asked.  At that time the YMCA was sponsoring the Elevation Church on Sunday mornings.  “No,no, I’m a member of the Piedmont Unitarian Universalist Church, which is very close to here  --  only about a mile down the road”, I said, as I waved my arm in a northerly direction.  My new teacher frowned and repeated the name of my church slowly.  “Well, what does your church believe?”, she asked.  I launched into an overview of the Seven Principles, trying to express our philosophy in an efficient manner.  “You mean you have no book?”, she asked incredulously.  “Well, we build our belief system from studying the important books of many religions”. I explained.  “You mean you are not Christian?”, my teacher asked.  “Well some Unitarian Universalists are Christian and some come from another faith, but we have come together in this denomination  which meets our needs and gives us a church home, I said.  “So, you are a new religion?”  “No,no we have been around for a long time.  We have a lot of congregations in the Northeast; we actually  started in Transylvania”, said I.  “TRANSYLVANIA!!”, exclaimed my instructor.  This was going from bad to worse and I just wanted the conversation to be over, which it soon was.  As I swam away I thought how thankful I was for Chalice Lighters.  I could help introduce other people to all that our faith has to offer and not feel so guilty about another failed elevator speech!

Sandra Woolsey