May 2006 Worship Services

Ministerial Cognitions

“Growth is a rare phenomenon. It is natural, yet rare. When the seed has found its right soil, it grows. It is very natural; growth is natural but to find the right soil--that is the crux of the matter. ”
- Osho, Discourses

We are still in the process of looking for a place to move our church, but our growth is not just about moving the church. And our growth is more than the number of members that we have attending church on Sunday mornings--though I do think we have an important message that many people resonate with, and we could have many more people attending our church if they just knew of our existence. But lately, I have been giving more attention to our providing growth experiences for our members in worship, in our meetings, in our covenant groups, and in any of our gatherings. And I have been giving more attention to growth in terms of how we accomplish our goals as a spiritual community, how we run our meetings, how we decide direction, how we band together to support one another; I think this is important part of our spiritual discipline and our spiritual growth.

I do believe that we have the right soil for growth to happen, and that our soil, our Unitarian Universalist faith, is rich soil indeed. We are working hard to make that soil even richer. We are focusing on being more open with, listening to each other, trying to work together to accomplish projects around the church--like having a greeter every Sunday (if you haven't signed up to do this, please do, we need you to intentionally greet visitors and members alike), like people cleaning the church (there is a sign up list that Kim Beam started; people notice the little things that are clean around the church--like the toilets, or the carpet in my office--it makes a difference to people who join us for worship or any gathering), like having worship associates to facilitate worship when we have lay-people providing sermons (if you are unsure how to be a worship associate, please get with me or Pam Saur; there are many of you out there who could lead the Welcome and Announcement, the Opening Words, the Chalice Lighting...,and we need your help). We may not be perfect in everything we do, we may make mistakes, but if we all work together, we will make the church, our worship, and anything we do better for anyone who joins us.

As Unitarian Universalists, we believe in relational pulpit. We believe in the freedom of the pulpit (whoever is leading worship does so from their heart and mind, what calls to them as they preach), and the freedom of the pew (whoever is in the pew, or chair in our case, is free not to agree with what is preached). But we also believe that every member of the congregation has a right to speak about what they want or need in worship to make it more meaningful to them. Sometimes this means leading your own worship services. Sometimes this means, talking to the minister, sharing your feelings with him (and hopefully he remembers, you might want to tell him multiple times) about your worship needs. One of our members talked with me about adding more silent time after Prayer or Meditation; so I have tried to do so--and I hope anyone who leads worship will do so. One of our members mentioned that whoever lights the chalice might stand behind it, that the lighting might be more meaningful to those in the congregation if they can see the chalice being lit; I am working on remembering this.

In our worship committee meetings we have tried to come up with presenters, when the minister is out of the pulpit, that will add to your worship experiences. If you have not felt that all your needs have been met by outside presenters, please come to the worship committee meetings and share your thoughts and needs. This is your church, this is my church, this is our church; we all need to participate in providing the most meaningful worship we can.

In the board meetings, I light a chalice to remind all present of the important work that we are doing--growing our church, stewarding our church, helping the members of our church. I believe that many, if not all of our covenant groups, light a chalice before they begin as well; this simple ritual calls the holy, the sacred, the love we have for one another, to the meeting or group that we are attending. I believe this simple ritual brings a different quality to our gatherings, a spiritual quality, and also reminds us to care about one another in our faith community and to care about our Unitarian Universalist church.

Growth is rare, but we have good soil, good seeds (our people), and if we water our soil with love, compassion, understanding, we will indeed grow even more.

Rev. Tom

Worship Services:

May 7

What Do We Mean by "Reverence For Life"? by Rev. Tom Capo

From the PETA, people for the ethical treatment of animals, website, "PETA believes that animals have rights and deserve to have their best interests taken into consideration, regardless of whether they are useful to humans. Like you, they are capable of suffering and have an interest in leading their own lives; therefore, they are not ours to use—for food, clothing, entertainment, experimentation, or any other reason." This sounds very much like what Albert Schweitzer meant when he said that we should all hold a Reverence for Life in how we live our lives. Many Unitarian Universalists are members of PETA, We may not be perfect in our Reverence for Life, but we do need to consider our actions through this lens if we believe that we are part of the interdependent web of all existence.

Potluck & Board Elections - Noon

May 14

The Many Views of Mother's Day by Rev. Tom Capo

In this country, the Unitarian Julia Ward Howe was the first to try and start a Mother's Day, back in 1870 – though it would have been a very different kind of Mother's Day than we now have. She called for women to rise up and oppose war in all its forms. Today, many of us see Mother's Day as a time to remember and honor our mothers, but perhaps there are some other views of how to celebrate this special day.

May 21

Fun and Play as a Spiritual Path by Rev. Tom Capo

Here are some reflections on fun and play as a Spiritual path: Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: A song is no song unless the circumstance is free and fine. Theologian Martin Buber wrote: Play is the exultation of the possible. Albert Einstein wrote: If A equals success, then the formula is A=X+Y+Z. Where X is work, Y is play & Z is keeping your mouth shut. Chinese Philosopher Mencius wrote: The great man is he who does not lose his child's heart. If these wise people thought so highly of fun, play, and keeping a 'child's heart' perhaps we might have a little fun on our spiritual path, too.

Potluck - Noon

April 28

The Courage to Say Yes by Rev. Lille Mae Henley

There are times in our lives when we have the opportunity to make a difference in other people's lives. Sometimes we do; sometimes we don't!