by WUUC | Feb 11, 2016 | Minister Blog
I read an article over the weekend that had caught my attention because the title asked, “Why Give Up Chocolate for Lent When You Can Give Up Plastic?” Why indeed I thought to myself. As UU’s, we don’t tend to have a Lenten practice. And those who do might chose not what to give up necessarily but what to do.
Last year someone turned me on to a Facebook page in Duvall called “A Month Without Plastic.” I learned a lot from the page about ways to switch over from plastic to other materials. I find it a full-time job to give up plastic. So I made the decision not to throw away all the plastic I already have but to whenever possible, avoid buying new plastic. That means that even though I happen to love arugula, at this time of year, it only comes in the clamshell plastic containers. Containers that are not recyclable. I will not die if I wait to eat arugula when it is in season here and available at farmer’s markets.
The truth is, it is cheaper for the industry to produce new plastic products than to recycle plastic. So recycling when it comes to plastic is not always the most ecological choice. Not using it at all is almost impossible given that it seems to be in everything. And call me paranoid but I am not convinced that the recycling of plastic doesn’t release fluorocarbons into our air.
So this year, I am not going to give up chocolate for Lent. I will however, continue to reduce the buying of plastic anything. How about you? You game for a season of chocolate and less plastic? Maybe we should start a Facebook group…
Peace,
Rev.Lo
by WUUC | Feb 5, 2016 | Minister Blog
The beauty of the morning was all around me. I was looking as usual for the raptors that hang out in the bare trees by the flooded fields and river this time of year. As many as 12 at a time. The fog was once again thick, lingering, soft tendrils wisping away as warmth and light settled in. So it was a rude awakening to see a flying object head my way from the large truck in front of me and the trailer it was pulling. At first I thought it had been thrown. Then I realized it must have worked its way out of the front loader that was on the trailer. The object was a plastic water bottle. I sighed. Yet another one thrown to the earth to hold interminably.
When we had our high winds and heavy rains earlier, I had seen the aftermath as I drove this route: long pieces of black plastic used to generate additional heat for plants were strewn along fences. It seemed as if the new vista would be plastic. It reminded me of a kids’ book Lori has that illustrates with photographs where all of our stuff ends up. The picture I remembered was a landfill full of plastic.
This morning NPR has a story about a French swimmer who having swum across the Atlantic will now try to be the first person to swim across the Pacific. Among the obstacles he might face in addition to 20’ waves and sharks was the floating garbage patch mostly consisting of the world’s plastic.
Naomi Klein, most recently author of This Changes Everything :Capitalism vs. the Climate gave a speech to a graduating college class this past spring. One of the things she said was, don’t focus on individual changes one can make such as recycling and trying to stay away from plastic in any form. Fight, demonstrate against, challenge, take on the corporations whose actions- remember the Supreme Court granted them personhood- are really destroying our climate, our environment, our earth, our lives. So getting all upset as I had about the one plastic bottle flying out of the front loader and the plastic lined fence was really just an exercise in futility if I care about change.
This past week I had the first of my 9-month once a month online class about UU Theology and Social Change. In preparation for the first class we were asked to answer this question: “What time is it on the world clock?” Now, I knew about the atomic clock. I was unaware of the world clock. It is a creation of the late activist, Grace Lee Boggs and her husband. They visualized the last 3000 years of human history where every minute represented 50 years. Their point in developing this clock and question was to say that revolutions and massive social change constitute only 4 or 5 minutes out of our entire history. They argued that, activists should turn our backs on protest organizing because it “leads you more and more to defensive operations” and “Do visionary organizing” because it “gives you the opportunity to encourage the creative capacity in people and it’s very fulfilling.”
Which brings me to the realization that if we are to increase the minutes of social change and justice, we will need to do so with the tools not of my petty irritation but by creativity and imagination. And use those two skills to do in essence what Naomi Klein told the students to do: speak truth to power. This is not to say that any of us should give up our individual efforts to live more consciously of our daily impact on the world climate. Doing so allows many of us to live authentically and in allegiance with our values. But we cannot stop there. We have to do something to increase the movements for justice and change so that on the world clock, they occupy more and more of human time. The time? It is now.
Rev.Lo
by WUUC | Feb 2, 2016 | Minister Blog
Spending an entire weekend with one’s Board in a comfortable and intimate cabin can be some clergy’s idea of hell. Not mine. The Board and I spent Feb. 22-Feb. 24 together on retreat. Which should really be called an advance because other than about an hour and a half break to snowshoe and walk around, we were busy advancing the vision of WUUC.
WUUC has a history of hitting a certain numerical membership peak and then dropping back from that peak. For nearly its entire existence (for those of you who do not know this, WUUC’s first worship service had 100 adults and children in attendance) WUUC has been hitting that peak and falling away from it. So there was a sense of urgency amongst the Board that it be proactive in moving WUUC up and over that peak for good.
A church’s mission (its reason for being) should define everything it does. WUUC is a wonderful community of people who care for one another and about the world. But one can rest easily there and not move forward. I had been thinking about this for several years and came up with three words that I believe define and guide us: Connect, Engage, Transform. The Board agreed.
People come to churches for a reason. They are seeking, looking for something. For many that manifests in a desire to find like minded people who profess common values. They are looking to connect to a community and with their best selves and their constructs of the ineffable. So “connect,” for me means connecting to one another, our best selves, and that which gives us meaning.
Engage. Well, the biggest challenge for any church is to move people from the pew to full connection and engagement in the community. Studies show that if people’s needs are met, they will want to give, to contribute. In fact, they long to participate. WUUC needs to help people engage in the life and leadership of the church. To engage deeply in community and one’s own spiritual journey.
And finally, transformation. You all may recall that I used to be quite irritated by the notion that the purpose of worship is to transformation. Too much pressure for me every week. But as I lived with that concept, I have come to embrace it. The religious and spiritual life is not stagnant. Life is not stagnant. Growth is what keeps us healthy and alive. I look to the church as the one place in this world where I can be nudged, challenged, prompted, cared for, comforted, and inspired to heal not just myself but our world. What other institution does that?
The Rev. Nancy Bowen, the Regional lead for the UUA’s Pacific Western Region put it this way: “The purpose of the church is to heal the consequences of lovelessness and injustice in the hearts and minds of our members so that they might heal the community and together heal the world.”
This is the vision the Board embraced over the course of the retreat. This is WUUC. And our future, our movement forward over the peak, is now.
Gratitude to these committed leaders…
Peace, Shalom, Salaam,
Rev. Lo
by WUUC | Feb 1, 2016 | Minister Blog
You may have noticed that when we have children and adults present in the worship service, we are a bit cramped for seating. People who come in late have a hard time finding a place to sit. Then when the kids and the teachers leave for RE, the place is pockmarked with open seats! And if you have visited RE lately, you know that our classes are packed. This is a happy problem!
Here is the issue: when a sanctuary is 80% full or perceived to be 80% full, new folks feel as if there is so place for them. In fact, an 80% or more filled sanctuary is the equivalent of hanging a “No Vacancy” sign out. That is not the message we want to convey at WUUC.
Know that your Board is being proactive in strategizing how to accommodate our growth. This will involve working with the County as well as architects to determine what our actual capacity is on the property we currently have. It may involve temporarily having the children go directly to their religious education classes instead of starting in the sanctuary. It looks like we may need to go to two services in September. Can we push out the sanctuary? Should we build the RE wing and fellowship hall that were in the original plans? Do we need to become multisite with people meeting Duvall? Where is the growth happening in the area and do we need to consider another site? These are questions, not solutions. Nothing has been decided. It is the Board’s job to explore as many options as possible and then make recommendations and solicit feedback from the congregation every step along the way.
Look for further communication about WUUC’s growth in future newsletters.
by WUUC | Jan 13, 2016 | Minister Blog
I have heard of the Mama Bear that mothers transform into when a child of theirs comes under any harm or perceived threat. I know better than to mess with any Mama Bear. But the Mama Dragon is a whole other species that conservative religious traditions are going to have to reckon with.
It was a woman whose daughter identifies as bisexual who told me what a Mama Dragon is: a mother from a faith that has rejected her child based on that child’s sexual/affectional orientation. A mother who not only loves her child but accepts, affirms, and supports her child’s orientation. And defies her church’s teachings. Mama Dragons are making hard choices left and right for many of them have lived their whole lives within a religious tradition and culture. Make them chose their church or their child and the Mama Dragon choses her child or children. Beware the pain, courage, and bravery of a Mama Dragon.
On January 24 at 6:30, Kimberly Anderson will be sharing her Mama Dragon photographic documentary project at the Woodinville Unitarian Universalist Church. Anderson is a Utah based artist who works exclusively in large format black and white photography. The Mama Dragon project concentrates on outreach and suicide prevention among LGBT+ youth.
Photographing mothers of these children who unconditionally support and love their kids and sharing their personal narrative is the goal of the Mama Dragon Story Project. Anderson has photographed nearly 70 mothers (most of whom are LDS but not exclusively) and gathered stories to be published in book form and a concurrent traveling exhibit. Anderson has been working on this exclusively since January of 2015.
Access your inner Mama Dragon and join us on January 24.
Rev. Lo
Honorary Gramma Dragon
by WUUC | Jan 3, 2016 | Minister Blog
resistance (n.) mid-14c., from Old French resistance, earlier resistance, from Late Latin resistentia, from present participle stem of Latin resistere “make a stand against, oppose” (see resist). Meaning “organized covert opposition to an occupying or ruling power” [OED] is from 1939. Electromagnetic sense is from 1860.Path of least resistance is from 1825, originally a term in science and engineering.
Resistance may be a noun but it is an active one. It implies action. Over and against something. A forceful pushing. A wall. To hold back. The Resistance in Holland during WWII was an underground group that actively resisted the Germans and their presence in Holland. We hear the word a lot as a mindset: folks resisting, objecting to, holding back an idea or way of thought.
When I think of “resistance” as our theme for our worship this month at WUUC, I think of action. Of the actions of those who resist or take on injustice who challenge in word and deed the status quo of our society. I truly believe that to be a UU is to be engaged in resistance. We resist a religious culture of doctrine, indoctrination, and creeds, asking that each person take responsibility for their own spiritual and religious journey. We affirm that it is diversity and pluralism that is needed for any healthy eco-system of any kind.
We hold as a principle not just the “inherent worth and dignity of every person” but of the inherent worth of the interdependent web of life of which we are a part. Relationship trumps efficiency. Commitment to living in harmony rather than dominance over the natural world is more valued than greed.
This sort of resistance is “building a new way” in our world. Or maybe it is just lifting up what one author called “the Other America” that has been with us all the time. Those who have resisted the dominant culture since its inception. Those who see the world perhaps from the outside in rather than the inside out.
What is it that you wish to resist so that you may live an “undivided life?” A life that is full and rich in community, relationships, and values? May this be a month of resistance and an insistence on what you hold up and live by as having ultimate meaning and value…
Because I believe that being a UU is a form of resistance, I have compiled a resources to help us live our UUism. The first four links are about parenting UU children. The last one will give adults an entry point to explore UU resources around adult education and exploration.
http://blogs.uuworld.org/parenting/2010/02/22/welcome-to-uu-worlds-parenting-blog/
http://www.uua.org/re/families/parenting-resources
https://www.pinterest.com/clareseashell/unitarian-universalist-uu-parenting-and-family/
https://uuacreligiouseducation.wordpress.com/resources/
http://www.uua.org/re/adults
