by WUUC | Oct 28, 2016 | Minister Blog
The question was, “what is or are your places of sanctuary?” He was probably 15 or 16 and he answered that he found sanctuary when listening to music and when playing video games. I asked him to tell me more about why video games were a place of sanctuary for him. He said, “Because it is the only place I have control.”
My places of sanctuary have always been the wild places where I knew that I had no control. It is the vastness and uncontrollable nature of these wild places that allow me to place my life in perspective. They assure me that there is something larger than me. Something large enough to hold me.
His place of sanctuary was of control. My places of sanctuary are the places where I surrender all illusions of control. I was struck by the difference. So I wonder, do you find sanctuary in the places where you have control or in the places where you in essence, let go of and turn over control?
Rev. Lo
by WUUC | Oct 21, 2016 | Minister Blog
A sabbatical is the gift of time for a clergyperson. I draw the purpose and meaning of a sabbatical from the Jewish understanding of “Sabbath” which is a day not just to refrain from doing but is “the day of the quieting of the heart.” It is a time set apart. It is “the place from which we live and return to taste the Holy.” One lives from the Sabbath rather than living for the Sabbath. The goal is to infuse the spirit of the Sabbath throughout all the other days of our lives.
I have arranged my sabbatical around a quieting of my heart. I am filling it with a variety of experiences and opportunities that each allows me entry into and a quieting of my heart. I will be on sabbatical from January 1- March 31 of 2017. Below is what I have put in place for my sabbatical.
January: Years ago I read Bernie Glassman’s book, Bearing Witness, about his leading a Zen retreat at Auschwitz with children of survivors, children of Nazi’s, and various Buddhist practitioners. His haunting description of Auschwitz as “impossible” has drawn me ever since. So Lori and I will fly to Krakow, Poland, spend some time visiting the old synagogues there as well as various museums including one that is housed in Oscar Schindler’s factory. In addition, I will be visiting Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps.
Afterwards I will fly to Berlin to meet up with my sister and nephew who both live in Germany. I hope to visit the Holocaust Museum again as some family possessions have been donated to their archive.
Because I have always found the wild and wide open spaces to connect me with what I hold as sacred, Lori and I will be renting a camper and visiting Death Valley as well as traveling to southern Arizona to explore natural areas.
For the month of February I will be staying at the Trout Lake Zen Abbey in Trout Lake, Washington. I will have my own “hermitage” with access to a kitchen as well as to sitting with the community twice a day. I will receive spiritual direction from the abbot. My time will mostly be spent in silence and reading.
In the first part of March, Lori and I will go to Molokai, Hawaii to spend quiet time walking the beaches and soaking up the sun as well as reconnecting after a month apart. Later in the month, I will be attending a workshop at Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, New Mexico called, The Soul Never Forgets: Leading from Your Deepest Values – A Courage & Renewal Retreat:
“Based on the work of Parker J. Palmer and the Center for Courage & Renewal®, this retreat explores issues of transition, vocation, life passion, purpose, meaning, direction, relationships and underlying life patterns, to live in alignment with your soul, your deepest values, the courage to act with integrity and authenticity.”
I would like to spend a week in Washington, D.C. afterwards visiting the National Museum of the American Indian, the Holocaust Museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the Smithsonian. If that is not possible then I would most likely spend a week on Whidbey once again walking the beaches and reading.
My hope upon my return to WUUC is to suffuse my ministry with the gifts received during this time of the “quieting of the heart.”
During my sabbatical, I will not be checking church email, answering or making church phone calls or attending to social media. In short I will be away from the “business as usual” of the work of WUUC. In case of an emergency, staff will be able to contact me with the exception of the times that I will be out of cell phone range.
Though the importance of a sabbatical is often focused on a minister, it is an equally important time for a congregation. It can be a time of reflection for the community, discovering what is of ultimate importance to it and how it wants to live into what it values. This not a time for launching a hundred new programs or ideas nor is it just a time to be in a holding pattern. It is a time to be both inward looking and outward looking, reviewing what has been and looking to and planning for what is next.
I have already lined up three colleagues to preach once a month during my absence: The Rev. Peter Lutton, the Rev. Karen Taliesan, and the Rev. Amanda Aikman. Grace Simons will be preaching this year’s Stewardship sermon. In addition, Rev. Jamil will be in the pulpit. He will also be available for pastoral care along with the Lay Pastoral Associates. The Board will carry on doing what it has been doing all year: the work of governance of WUUC. The Ministry Leads (Alaine Davis, David Simons, and Jan Radoslovich) will be meeting with committees and task forces with a focus on all the programmatic aspects of life at WUUC. Karen Hyams will continue her work as our Engagement Coordinator and Lori Varosh will continue to be the keeper of knowledge of all things WUUC. Almost without exception, if you have a question, your first call or contact should be with Lori.
In short you all — we — are in good hands: one another’s.
Peace, Shalom, Salaam,
Rev. Lo
by WUUC | Oct 20, 2016 | Minister Blog
She said, “You’ve lost a name, not a person.” She is Marci Owens who used to be Marcelas Owens. When Marcelas’s mother became ill with pulmonary hypertension, she ended up missing so many days of work due to her illness that she lost her job and consequently her healthcare. She became an advocate for health care reform but died before seeing or benefiting from the Affordable Care Act. Her son, Marcelas, picked up her torch and became a tireless advocate for health care reform. At age 11,he and his grandmother were invited to the White House for the signing of the Affordable Care Act.
Now 17, Marcelas is a transgender woman named Marci. Her statement above was in response to her grandmother’s lamenting the loss of the little boy, Marcelas. His grandmother actually went on to say that she also loved that she has gained another granddaughter.
Marci nailed it as far as I’m concerned. Transgender folks haven’t been lost, they have been found. They have found themselves. Their name and gender may change but their personhood has not been lost. And yet, it can take time for family and friends to realize that what they perceive as being lost was really a case of being found. It is not uncommon for parents to go through grieving the child they had originally known as one gender. They have to celebrate and let go of that child and welcome and embrace a differently gendered child into their hearts. But as Marci said, what has been lost was a name, not a person.
So today I celebrate not just Marci but her grandmother who loved her grandchild so much that she gave herself over to both grief and joy. May we all follow her lead.
Peace, Shalom, Salaam,
Rev. Lo
by WUUC | Oct 11, 2016 | Minister Blog
One of the wonderful things about traveling to other congregations is that I get to hear colleagues preach. On my recent trip to Fairbanks, Alaska to participate in the installation of the minister there, I was able to attend worship on Sunday morning. The Rev. Sarah Schurr, one of several Congregational Life Staff for the Pacific Western Region, was the preacher. The title of her sermon was, “Three Drops.” She talked about being an idealistic 23-year-old social worker who was going to save the world. But it wasn’t long before she realized that all she could do was be three drops.
Sarah went on to explain that drops of water can wear away stone. But only if they drop in the same place, consistently over time. She could offer three drips on one rock or one issue as opposed to saving the whole world. That got me to thinking about WUUC taking on the identity of being three drops of water in our world. That we would either focus on three areas of ministry for the year and drop away at it or that we would focus all our energies on one justice issue and drop away at it together for that year. Imagine what could be worn away…
Even if WUUC doesn’t adopt this identity, I find the three drop metaphor one that any of us can individually incorporate into our lives. Can we focus our lives and our living on three areas we want to affect and apply our “drops” there consistently over time? Would we be more effective at bringing about change if we narrowed our focus and channeled our energy? The choice of where to drip one’s drops is completely up to the individual. But drip and drop we must…
As the singer-songwriter Holly Near invites us:
“Can we be like drops of water falling on the stone
Splashing, breaking, dispersing in air
Weaker than the stone by far but be aware
That as time goes by the rock will wear away…”
Rev. Lo
by WUUC | Sep 29, 2016 | Minister Blog
October’s Theme is “healing.” Not necessarily miracles but ordinary moments and acts that relieve pain or suffering. Perhaps it is a momentary lifting of an internal weight that one has been carrying. Or the resolution of an interaction or interactions that caused all involved isolation and alienation from one another. Or it is the simple assurance such as the one a cancer nurse offered a patient at their first treatment: “Whatever it is, it is going to be okay…” Or it is that anonymous person, who in a time of need, offers us a word or touch that no one else could.
In her book, “Traveling Mercies, Anne Lamott writes, “On the first Sunday of Advent our preacher, Veronica, said that this is life’s nature, that lives and hearts get broken, those of people we love, those of people we’ll never meet. She said the world sometimes feels like the waiting room of the emergency ward, and that we, who are more or less OK for now, need to take the tenderest possible care of the more wounded people in the waiting room, until the healer comes. You sit with people, she said, you bring them juice and graham crackers.”
Offer the tenderest possible care. Offer juice and graham crackers. A cup of coffee or hot chocolate. A hand, a hug, a touch, a word. We never know what it is that will bring healing. But know that each one of us is capable of it and each one of us can offer it.
Peace, Shalom, Salaam,
Rev. Lo
by WUUC | Sep 28, 2016 | Minister Blog
I was talking with Jamil about what life is like for each of us on Sunday mornings at church. When we are actually doing what we do – leading worship and/or teaching children – we are happy campers. But both of us are aware that neither of us has time to either complete a conversation before needing to attend to something or have a conversation of any depth or meaning. So we both end up leaving church feeling as if we have been rude and inattentive, dissatisfied with our interactions, scattered and worn out from juggling all the fragments of conversations. Ironically, Sunday mornings are NOT the time to have connective or deep conversations with your ministers.
Jamil is still learning faces and names as well as directing our lifespan education and participating in committee and task force meetings as well as holding teas after services to try and get to know people. Which means that from the time he arrives in the morning, he is on and moving. I have also learned that with Jamil, if you want him to remember something or get back to you, text or email him. Neither of us can remember who it was that we said we would get back to or what it was we were supposed to do for so and so. Both of us respond well to reminders via technology!
Because we are a church made up of people from nearly 18 zip codes, Sunday mornings are the time we are all together or see one another. Consequently when we do gather, we try to grab each other to take care of business. Which leaves newcomers or folks who are not on task forces or committees essentially sidelined during the hospitality time after the service. It also turns a potential time for connection into a business meeting.
You may have noticed that we have buttons for you to choose to wear on Sunday mornings in addition to your name buttons. They are meant to be conversation starters that help us get to know one another better. We also now have coloring books and markers and crayons set up at one table for all ages to be able to color. I know that having a project in front of me takes some of the awkwardness of conversation away but in other ways, opens it up. So make sure to don a button and to sit down to color.
Jamil and I want to be engaged in meaningful conversations with the members and friends of the congregation. The best way to do that is to set up a time other than Sunday morning to connect. Both of us are more than willing to flex our schedules to be able to meet or talk on the phone or have a one-on-one ZOOM call. I should mention that Jamil’s assistant minister of Lifelong Learning, his Chihuahua, Bodhi, is also available for consultations!
Peace, Shalom, Salaam,
Rev. Lo
