May 2002
The history of theology is full of .
. .
adaptations, compromises, and rationalizations of once-local gods.
-H.G. Wells
We Have To Go Back to Abraham
by Marlin Lavanhar, senior minister, All Souls Unitarian Church, Tulsa,
Oklahoma
I’m 25 years old. I’m all alone, on a bicycle. I’ve just
crossed the border from Turkey into Syria. By staying on the road, even
to eat my lunch, I’m avoiding the many landmines that litter the
ground around this disputed border. I’m a little scared. I don’t
know much about Syria, except what I’ve read in the newspaper.
The image stuck in my mind is of a nation of terrorists who look like
Arafat: men who haven’t shaved in days with dotted turbans on their
heads. In order to get in, I lie to the border guard. I say, “I’m
Christian and I promise I’m not traveling to Israel.” He stamps
my passport.
I begin biking through the sandy desert on a road with little traffic.
Every 20 minutes or so, I pass men standing in front of mud and dung-walled
homes. They’re wearing
turbans and haven’t shaved in days. They’re waving me over.
I look at them and point straight ahead saying, “Sorry, I gotta go!”
I feel vulnerable and alone; this country feels dangerous and I’m
getting tired. I’ve been bicycling for two hours without a break
and have 60 pounds of gear on my bike. I decide to take one of the beckoning
men up on his offer to come over. He’s six foot two inches and weighs
about 270 pounds. He’s wearing a turban and hasn’t shaved in
days. I tentatively enter his small home, feeling somewhat apprehensive.
As the tea water boils, he asks me in broken English, “Where are
you from?”
I say, “America-Chicago.”
He looks at me with wide eyes, “Chicago!” He dramatizes as if
there is a machine gun in his hand and says, “Bam, bam, bam. . .
dangerous!” Followed by, “Al Capone.”
It made me realize how many misconceptions we had about each other’s
countries.
Syria turned out to be one of the safest countries I visited. And the
warmth and hospitality was among the best I’d received during a three-year,
around-the-world bicycle trip. In the towns and villages, people argued
over who would take me in for the night and feed me dinner. Each family
sent me off after a large breakfast with a packed lunch in my bag. You
see, hospitality is very important in Islam. It’s a religion that
began with Abraham-who is said to have left his tent open on all four
sides so that no matter what direction someone came to his home, they
would feel they were entering through the front door.
When we look at why there’s so much misunderstanding and mistrust
between Muslims and people in the West, we have to mention the anti-Islamic
media in the U.S. It’s ironic how all of a sudden it seems as if
the press are all experts on Islam. But to get to the heart of the misunderstanding,
we have to go back to Abraham.
As the Hebrew Scriptures (also known as the Old Testament) tell us, Abraham’s
first son was Ishmael. Ishmael was born to Abraham by Hagar, who was Sarah’s
slave. Sarah gave Hagar to Abram as a wife once she realized that she
could not bear children herself. The Bible tells that for 13 years, until
Jacob was born to Sarah, Ishmael was Abram’s only son. Ishmael was
his firstborn son, and in Genesis 17:20-21, God promised: “As for
Ishmael. . . I will bless him and make him exceedingly numerous; he shall
be the father of twelve princes, and I will make of him a great nation.”
Both Arabs and Jews believe that the Arab people are the offspring of
Ishmael. So the Arabs and the Jews are half brothers, both sons of Abraham.
Now, let’s re-read the passage from the Bible regarding the sacrifice
of Abraham’s son. Gen: 22 reads:
. . . God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And Abraham
said, “Here I am.” God said, “take your son, your only
son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him
there as a burnt offering. . . ”
Doesn’t that seem strange, that God would say, “take your only
son-Isaac. . . ”?
As the Muslims have contended for centuries, the only time when Abraham
had only one son was during the 13 years before Isaac was born-and that
son was Ishmael. Therefore, Muslims claim, and have a good case, that
it was not Isaac that God asked Abraham to sacrifice, but rather it was
Ishmael, his first and oldest son. This is just one of the confusing and
contradictory passages in the Hebrew Bible that Muslims point to in order
to demonstrate that it cannot be the unblemished word of God. Muslims
believe, however, that the Hebrew and Christian scriptures are indeed
God’s revelation to humanity, but that each one has been corrupted
by human mistakes and mistranslations.
In the case of the sacrifice of Abraham’s son, Muslims believe that
Isaac’s name was deliberately inserted in order to deny the Arabs
God’s promise to Abraham’s descendants. In Genesis 17:8 God
says to Abraham: “I will give to you, and to your offspring after
you, the land where you are now alien, all the land of Canaan, as your
perpetual possession; and I will be their God.” Of course, this promise
of the land contributes to the complexity of the Palestinian issue. If
God promised the land to Abraham’s descendants, one would think that
would include Ishmael as well as Isaac’s offspring.
Now, some might argue that Ishmael was the son of a slave who Abraham
took later as his wife. Therefore, the blessings and other promises would
not go through her son; they would only go through the offspring that
came from Abraham’s first wife Sarah. One could make this case, but
it’s not very strong, because if we look at the 12 tribes of Israel,
they come from Jacob’s 12 children. And, we know, four of those children
were born to maidservants. None of these sons was denied the blessings
and covenant and land because their mothers were maidservants.
So, Muslims have pointed to a double standard within the Hebrew Scriptures
regarding Ishmael. In Islam the second major holiday is the celebration
of Eid, to commemorate the obedience of Abraham to God when he went to
the mountain to sacrifice his first-born son Ishmael. In this seemingly
simple story, we find the roots of some of the animosity between Arabs
and Jews.
Many Americans don’t realize that Islam considers itself to be the
continuation of the Jewish and Christian traditions; it actually considers
itself to be the perfecting of those traditions. Islam considers Adam,
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joseph, and Jesus all to be prophets. Muslims
accept the story that God helped Moses and the Jews escape Pharaoh in
Egypt and that God gave Moses the commandments on a mountain in the desert.
They believe that Jesus came to spread God’s love and a star announced
his arrival. However, Muslims contend that while the Hebrew and Christian
scriptures reflect the revelation of God, they have been written down
by men and contain some mistakes and errors.
Early Unitarians would agree completely with Muslims on this point. Unitarians
have been saying for a long time that these scriptures have been put into
the words of human beings, and not just any human beings, but specific
people in a specific time and culture. Therefore, they cannot be taken
literally; rather they must be read by employing reason and scholarship.
It is interesting to note that by interpreting the Bible using reason,
logic, and scholarship, Unitarians made some of the same critiques of
Christianity that Muslims make. Like Unitarians and Universalists, Muslims
have always rejected the conservative Christian notion that people are
born with original sin and are in need of redemption.
In his book Reading the Muslin Mind, Islamic author and scholar Hassan
Hathout explains that: In the Quranic version of this event the devil
tempted both Adam and Eve, they both sinned, they both repented, they
both were forgiven, and that was the end of original sin.
I found it interesting as I traveled through many Islamic countries that
in conversations with Muslim scholars, I realized that they knew more
about the development of the Christian Bible and tradition than do many
Christians. They have been taught since the development of Islam in the
seventh century C.E., that Jesus was not widely considered God until the
fourth century, when Constantine called the council at Nicea in 325 and
developed the Nicean Creed-a creed that Constantine spread across his
empire in order to unify it and consolidate his power. Like Unitarians,
Muslims are aware of this widely documented history, and therefore they
too reject the notion of Jesus’ divinity as a myth created long after
Jesus died.
Unitarian Universalists and Muslims are in full agreement in the area
of religious tolerance. Now this might come as a surprise to many of us,
but the Quran is explicit. It reads: “Let there be no compulsion
in religion,” (2:256). As a matter of fact, one of the first actions
that Muhammad took when he returned to Medina to establish the first Islamic
state was to make a treaty among all of the tribes (including the Jews),
ensuring their freedom of religion and worship.
According to Will Durant’s series, “The Story of Civilization,”
when Marco Polo set out across Persia (in 1271) to see the China of Kublai
Khan, he found himself within the Mogul Empire almost all the way. History
had never before recorded so vast a realm. Throughout these states, the
Mogul rulers maintained roads, promoted commerce, protected travelers,
and permitted freedom of worship for diverse faiths.
And a few centuries later during another Muslim Empire-the Ottomans-we
are told: “. . . the Christians in Islam enjoyed a religious toleration
such as no Christian ruler would have dreamed of. . . At Smyrna, for example,
the Moslems had fifteen mosques, the Christians seven churches, the Jews
seven synagogues. In Turkey and the Balkans, the Greek Orthodox Church
was protected by Turkish authorities from any molestation in their worship.”
What many westerners forget (or were never taught) is that while much
of Christian Europe was in the throes of the dark ages, when most Christian
leaders were burning books and denouncing science and any intellectual
competition, it was the Muslim world that preserved great libraries and
the Greek heritage. They continued the advances of science and academics.
They brought forth leaps in medicine, chemistry, physics, astronomy, philosophy,
and mathematics (algebra is actually an Arabic word and it was invented
by Muslims). It’s difficult for those of us raised with such a Eurocentric
education to realize that from at least the eighth through the thirteenth
centuries, Islam was culturally, politically, and militarily superior
to Europe. It seems biased to Muslims that western civilization is referred
to as having grown out of the Jewish and Christian heritage, when in fact,
it’s the Jewish-Christian-Islamic heritage that’s responsible
for much of western civilization.
While I have pointed out some similarities between Unitarian Universalism
and Islam, I see significant differences as well, the role of women and
the concept of jihad being the two most conspicuous-obviously there is
plenty of material here for another sermon. Today there are more than
one billion Muslims with whom we share this planet. Among them are millions
of devout, intelligent, and caring people. With all that’s happening
today, it’s important, however, to keep in mind where we are in the
story of civilization. We must realize that world events are not solely
a tale of the battle of religions. Religion has often been used as a tool
or a pretext to disguise lust for land and power. If nothing else, the
story shows us that we have to use our minds in religion and that we have
to let the core teachings of tolerance, respect, and forgiveness prevail
over literalism.
May the descendants of Ishmael and the descendents of Isaac one day realize
true kinship. May the land of Israel come to know peace. And may all people
heed these words from the Quran:
You Humankind:
We have created you as a single family,
And made you into nations and tribes
That you might come to know and cherish one another.
Quest May 2002 Contents
 From
Your Minister
by Rev. Jane Ranney Rzepka, minister, CLF
Lean Forward and Listen
“The Musical Kaleidoscope: Together at last: Schubert and Pearl
Jam.” That’s the title of an article that appeared in the
New Yorker a few years ago. “Something odd occurs toward the end
of ‘Odelay,’ a new album by the young artist known simply
as Beck,” says this article. “As happens with so much music
these days, the record weaves together scraps from here and there: rap,
rock, funk, jazz, folk, significant traces of Bob Dylan. The second-to-last
song on the disk, ‘High 5 (Rock the Catskills),’ goes a step
further: just past the one-minute mark, Beck’s edgy, white-boy
rap abruptly dissolves into a foreign sound that turns out to be, of
all things, Schubert’s ‘Unfinished Symphony’. Dissonant
chords make a strangely natural segue out of the rough rap texture before
the symphony’s B-minor theme offers its mournful strain. Bursts
of white noise signal a return to the twentieth century, but the ear
has been spooked . . .The all-American messiness of contemporary taste
is something to be savored . . . Lean forward and listen.”
Almost everywhere, culture is a mosaic, a crazy quilt, a mishmash of
widely diverse components. It’s not only music. Children’s
reading lists at school range from South African stories to novels from
Argentina. And food. Many of us look forward to sushi purchased fresh
from the local grocery store, or linguini, or burritos, or meat loaf,
or pad thai. And yes, you turn on your car radio and you’re likely
to hear Chopin, or yodeling, or Bulgarian chant, or Dixieland. It’s
as the New Yorker said of those in the United States-we’re living
in the midst of an “all-American messiness.”
As the messiness goes, religion is right up there. On a recent Sunday
one of my colleagues celebrated the Iranian New Year with a Sunday School
class, went on to a performance where a woman portrayed an African American
freed slave, Sojourner Truth, who talked with God and Jesus, and in
the evening was enthralled by a sacred music concert in a Greek Orthodox
Cathedral.
A professor at Harvard, Diana Eck, points out that these days, “the
Buddhist temple is being erected down the road from the Mormon church;
the mosque and synagogue are sharing the same busy urban street.”
She notes that in the United States, there are more Muslims than Episcopalians.
We have 1.3 million Hindus, and 600,000 native-born Buddhists, with
another million or two converts. She asks, “What is Buddhism becoming
as it grows in the soil of Arizona? What is India’s Sikh tradition
becoming as American Sikhs . . . sing out their devotions and celebrate
their holidays in Oklahoma City? How are American Muslims passing on
their most cherished values in Houston or Seattle? How are American
Hindus reshaping the complex religious and regional traditions of India
in Nashville? And how are America’s Christians and Jews changing
as they encounter new neighbors of other faiths and learn to work together
on school boards and interfaith councils?”
We are living in a religious hubbub. Some Unitarian Universalist children
attend Hebrew School as well as Sunday School, or Sunday School and
CCD, or Sunday School and family celebrations at a Hindu temple. And
a large number of you regularly step back into the religion of your
own up-bringing when the occasion arises at holiday time or at family
weddings and funerals.
And you know what I think? I think it’s a blast. It’s as the
article says: “messiness of contemporary taste is something to
be savored. . . . Lean forward and listen.”
Sure, you find yourself on occasion wondering whether you should cover
your head or remove your shoes or eat the little plate of food or offer
it up as a treat for the gods. What are the purple beads for? Or the
white flags fluttering in the wind? What are you supposed to do with
Holy Water? But I don’t read Hebrew! Why aren’t there any
chairs? Should I be kneeling? What page are they on? What language is
that, anyhow? And what do we do amidst our unfamiliarity? As Unitarian
Universalists, we open ourselves to the experience and we “lean
forward and listen.”
About five years ago a two-volume set of books came out called, How
to Be a Perfect Stranger, a kind of Miss Manners of religious etiquette.
You read through it and learn that women should cover their hair before
entering the prayer area of a mosque. You learn that it’s rude
to leave a Jewish service when the Torah is being taken out or returned
to the ark, and that the Methodist church does not refuse communion
to any Christian, but you must be a Christian. We discover that in The
Reformed Church in America, non-Christians must not join in saying the
Confession of Faith-the Apostle’s Creed-and that in some Mennonite
churches, neither open-toed shoes nor jewelry are permissible. You learn,
above all, that across the board-whether you are visiting a Catholic
church or a Hindu temple or any of the Protestant denominations, it
is offensive for you as a guest to participate in any part of the service
that you don’t believe in. It is considered rude to join in saying
a prayer with the others if you don’t believe the words of the
prayer. Participating in somebody else’s liturgy is not a “when
in Rome, do as the Romans do,” kind of thing.
All this becomes anything but academic when you walk into, say, a Catholic
church, as our family did when my husband’s grandmother died in
Michigan. There we were, the whole extended family: about 50 Polish
Catholics, and four Unitarian Universalists. Here’s what my children,
young adults now, encountered in person for the first time: the open
casket and the kneeler, the Rosary service, the closing of the casket
service, pallbearers, watching people cross themselves, the ceremony
where you unfold a cloth and cover the casket, the Polish hymns, the
deep belief in immortality, liturgical incense, communion, the Lord’s
Prayer recited from memory, and after the service the menu, in Polish,
at a Polish Club.
As Unitarian Universalists, we take the position that, as I’ve
been saying, the “messiness of contemporary [religion] is something
to be savored,” and that what we should do is “lean forward”
with respect and “listen.” So we did that in Detroit.
But as a parent, in a situation like that, you wonder, as you find yourself
testing out Unitarian Universalist theory-you wonder, especially if
your children are young: Will my child be confused? Will my child feel
out of place or left out or just stupid? As a member of a non-Unitarian
Universalist larger family, you wonder, or rather you strongly suspect,
that the aunts and uncles will understand you to be a negligent parent,
a bad mother, whose children don’t even know to genuflect or pass
the peace. I know how it can be.
Suffice it to say that when you want to participate in other religious
traditions, if for instance you were raised in another faith and you’re
feeling nostalgic for your former religion, or you’re adventuresome
and you want to experience something new, and you can participate without
compromising your integrity, Unitarian Universalists applaud that. But
family situations or social situations need never pressure you.
A word about children. Many of our children are born Unitarian Universalists.
Some of them know our chalice lighting words, they know what to do during
Flower Communion, they know how to light Hanukkah candles, they know
the Christmas story-they know your UU family practices-they know all
the Unitarian Universalist stuff, sometimes better than their parents
do. All their lives they have been offered the chance in Sunday School
or at home to think freely and feel deeply about matters religious.
Most of our children will feel a general familiarity about other religions,
we hope, but they are not likely to believe literally, for example,
in the Hebrew prayer that might be so important to your grandparents,
“Blessed is the Lord Our God.” Nor, regardless of what your
own Christian background may be, are they inclined to relate personally
to the Christian words, “Our Father who art in Heaven.” But
the point is, even when the rest of the congregation on a religious
occasion is saying a prayer that’s “well-known,” it would
be offensive-bad manners and bad religion-to ask our children to pretend
to believe in or recite this kind of prayer if in fact they don’t
believe it. We need to teach our children to feel proud of the religious
views they’ve developed as their own.
Meanwhile, from the point of view of other religions, we’re the
strange ones. How strange are we? I looked it up in Volume II of How
to Be a Perfect Stranger: “Unitarian Universalism teaches that
worship invites those present to focus on the transcendental, the intimate,
and the worthy. It helps us regain a sense of ourselves, and reminds
us that we may challenge greed or violence which pollutes the human
condition. . . .Some [church] services are formal, and maintain a sense
of decorum and a devotional atmosphere. Other services are marked by
applause. . . .But whatever the style, the community remains the locus
of the holy. . . .
“Unitarian Universalists worship in a variety of settings-from
a Gothic nave to a large living room, from a 19th-century meeting house
to a rented school auditorium. . . .
“The flaming chalice is the symbol of Unitarian Universalism. The
chalice symbolizes sharing, generosity, sustenance and love. . . . A
few churches may have a cross. Some have a range of symbols, such as
a cross, a Star of David, a Buddhist wheel, [and] a Tao circle. . .
.
“There is no kneeling during a Unitarian Universalist service.”
These books use the same format in describing each religion, and one
of the categories is “dogma.” I couldn’t wait to discover
after all these years just what Unitarian Universalist “dogma”
would be, so I quickly turned to the dogma section. And here’s
what the authors said-they did pretty well given the tough spot they
were in: “Unitarian Universalists believe: (1) Personal experience,
conscience, and reason should be the final authorities in religion.
Religious authority lies not in a book or a person or an institution,
but in ourselves. (2) One cannot be bound by a statement of belief.
Unitarian Universalism does not ask anyone to subscribe to a creed.
(3) Religious wisdom is ever-changing, and human understanding of life
and death, the world and its mysteries is never final, and revelation
is continuous. (4) All men and women have worth. Differences in opinion
and lifestyle should be honored. And (5) One should act as a moral force
in the world, and ethical living is the supreme witness of religion.
The here and now and the effects that our actions will have on future
generations are of great concern. Relations with each other, with other
peoples, nations and races should be governed by justice, equity and
compassion.”
Not bad, don’t you think? But strange, as religions go. Because
of course we’re not hemmed in. We’ve got this odd freedom,
and this weird idea that diversity is fine. It’s not a perfect
religion, but somehow we each feel free to develop our own spirituality,
and we gather, quite happily for the most part, in one community of
love and care.
And when it comes to the religions of others, we see through our own
clear and confident eyes, we savor, we lean forward with respect, and
we listen.
Jane Rzepka
Minister
Quest May 2002 Contents
REsources for Living
by By Betsy Hill Williams, Director of Religious Education, CLF
It will come as no surprise that today’s American
celebration of Mother’s Day has roots both ancient and modern.
The ancient Greeks held a festival each spring in honor of mothers,
and offered tribute to Rhea, the mother of all the Olympian gods.
“Mothering Sunday” became a tradition in England in the 17th
century. The 4th Sunday of Lent was set aside to honor mothers; indentured
servants were given the day off to go visit their mothers, and special
cakes, called “mothering cakes,” made the visit festive.
Inspired by a yearning to heal the wounds of the U.S. Civil War, two
women are most responsible for the holiday celebrated today as Mother’s
Day in the United States. The first was a young Appalachian homemaker,
Anna Jarvis, who tried to improve sanitary conditions on both sides
of the battlefield throughout the war by organizing “Mothers’
Work Day Clubs.” After the war, she continued to unite Union and
Confederate women by organizing Mothers’ Friendship Days.
The other is Unitarian poet and activist Julia Ward Howe. Influenced
by Jarvis’s work, and already well known for writing “The
Battle Hymn of the Republic,” Julia Ward Howe took up the cause
of peace by uniting mothers against war. With a stirring poem, the “Mother’s
Day Proclamation,” she rallied the women of Boston, Massachusetts,
on June 2, 1870, and implored mothers all over the world to join them
in declaring June 2 as Mothers’ Day of Peace.
Arise then...women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have questions
answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy, and
patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of
another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."
For years Howe presided over the annual rally and festival
on Boston Common, but the local event never took off, and she failed
to get formal recognition of a Mother’s Day for Peace.
In 1905, Anna Jarvis died. Two years later, her daughter, also named
Anna Jarvis, asked her mother’s home church in Grafton, West Virginia
to honor her mother on the anniversary of her death, the second Sunday
in May. Remembering that her mother once said that she hoped for “a
memorial mothers’ day commemorating the matchless service [mothers]
render to humanity in every field of life,” the young Anna Jarvis
began a campaign to establish an annual memorial day for women. With
Jarvis’s dedicated efforts, this idea did catch on, and in 1910,
West Virginia became the first state to recognize Mother’s Day.
In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson officially proclaimed Mother’s
Day as a national holiday to be held each year on the second Sunday
in May.
Despite Anna Jarvis’s promotion of Mother’s Day as a, heartfelt
expression of love and gratitude, the holiday took its own course and
Jarvis believed that it had become a commercial event. She grew to hate
it and sadly, her later years were spent fighting the very holiday she
founded; she filed a lawsuit to stop a Mother’s Day festival in
1923 and was even arrested once for disturbing the peace.
Quest May 2002 Contents
More than a Hallmark Holiday
Your feelings about Mother’s Day may be as passionate as Julia
Ward Howe’s were, as disdainful as Anna Jarvis’s were or as
tumultuous as its history is. But still, Mother’s Day comes. And
when it does, we pause to think about our own mothers, about being a
mother, about the many ways of mothering, and the many ways of being
mothered. Here are four brief pieces about mothers from readers of Quest.
My Many Mothers
I have many mothers. There is the mother who gave birth to me and who
calls me twice a week to see how I am doing. This mother stands six
feet tall with auburn hair. Her rounded hips carried me through this
world when my own legs were too short to keep up. Looking at this woman
is like seeing my own body telescoped through time. There is no ambiguity
about what I will look like in thirty years’ time. Her body gracefully
leads the way. The older I get, the more like her I am. Gestures of
hers become mine almost without my permission. It is scary and funny
at the same time. She and I are connected in ways that I only partly
understand.
I have another mother. She is the aunt who welcomed me every summer
from the time I was eight onward. At first, I came for only a few weeks
to her house in the country. However, by high school I would arrive
the day after school ended and leave the day before it started up again.
Later, her home was where I landed when my heart was broken and I needed
a safe place to mend. She taught me that graciousness makes life a little
easier and more beautiful, and that life’s simpler pleasures can
be sublime. Though I don’t have her body or her gestures, she was
(and is) no less a mother to me.
Another mother is the aunt who took me in for six months when my family
was in transition. In this aunt’s world, life was a show and we
were living on center stage. In her company I learned that each day
can be quite grand, with a little extra effort and a dose of wild abandon.
In the sense that she has loved me and shaped me, I am her child, too.
There were others still. There was the woman who made my ordination
stole for me. She embroidered it with a chalice (though she isn’t
a Unitarian Universalist) and butterflies (as a symbol of the Holy Spirit)
and sewed a secret pocket, in the back, for my lipstick and tissues.
This woman is an Episcopalian priest. She waited a long time for her
denomination to recognize her right, as a woman, to be ordained. She
reminds me of many things, not the least of which is the privilege of
ministry. She too has been a mother to me.
At times, growing up, I used to wonder how my mother could share her
“birthed right” so easily, sending me willingly to this woman
or that. “You can never have too many mothers,” my mother
used to say. I am beginning to see the wisdom of her words. In the reflected
light of the women to whom she sent me, I was allowed to mold my vision
of myself. Indeed, for all of us, it is in the company of such women
that we find our sense of who we are as women (and who we might become).
There can, therefore, never be too many of such women in our lives.
by Vanessa Rush Southern, parish minister, the Unitarian Church
in Summit, NJ
From the UUA Meditation Manual, This Piece of Eden; available
from the UUA Bookstore and from the CLF Library.
My mother
will be 97 soon. While she knows family, and recognizes familiar faces,
and can still offer wise counsel, her short-term memory has failed completely.
It frustrates her, makes her feel worthless and “stupid.”
I wish she wasn’t “that way.” I wish I could do something
about it, but I can’t. That’s how she is.
My sons are approaching their mid-20s. One, to my dismay, opted against
college. The other, to my dismay, dropped out after a year. I wished
they hadn’t “done that.” I wished I could do something
about it, but I couldn’t. That’s how they were. Now one son
is a talented auto mechanic with a developing future at a large dealership.
The other is working full-time to help get his girlfriend through grad
school, and then she’ll support him while he finishes his education.
Time has transformed my mother from an independent, quick-thinking woman
to a frail and confused one. If I spent my energies trying to make Mom
“better” I’d lose sight of the many fine and loving qualities
she still retains.
Time has transformed my sons from argumentative, stormy adolescents
to kind, caring, well-grounded young men. If I spent my energies trying
to make my sons reflect on past errors, I’d lose sight of the strides
they are making, without my help, toward maturity.
This Mother’s Day I find myself acutely aware that our UU Principles
would have us affirm every individual’s inherent worth and dignity.
As my mother reaches the end of her days, my sons begin to approach
their prime. May I, as a daughter and a mother, continue to see them
and love them for who they are, where they are.
by Elizabeth Templeton
South Burlington, VT, member, Church of the Larger Fellowship
My Mother.
That would be the teenage girl who birthed me and my sisters. Who had
the energy, joy, and sense of play of a child, to share with her children.
That would be the young wife writing each evening to her husband far
away in Vietnam. That would be the “nontraditional” college
student sharing exam anxiety with her junior-high students.
That would be the Project Manager, who lined her homemade, pinstripe
suits with fire-engine red. That would also be the baker of bread, the
knitter, the painter, the patcher of jeans, the potter, the stitcher
of quilts, the poet, the candlemaker, and singer. And most recently,
the courageous woman who faced cancer with humor and grace.
And won.
by C. J. Parker, Fort Collins, CO, member Church of the Larger
Fellowship
I have two Gen-X sons
who are trying to find their way, and they talk to me about their confusion
and their longings. Work and love. It’s always the same. I’d
like to say to them-and I know I can’t use this, because they would
just say, “Oh, Mom”-but I would like to say: Praise God with
your body, care for it and honor it. Do no less with your mind. Give
your gifts, and do what brings you joy, deep joy. Forget about making
money just now-that will come. First find what you love and give yourself
to it. Do work that will sustain you through the times when love is
gone and the night is long. Do work you will not be ashamed to tell
your children about. And do work that, when you come to finish this
life, you can look back on and smile at, saying, “I enjoyed that,
yes, I did, and I made the way a little easier for others.”
by Marilyn Sewell, senior minister, First Unitarian Church of
Portland, OR
From Wanting Wholeness, Being Broken; available from the UUA
Bookstore and from the CLF Library.
Quest May 2002 Contents
Notice to all members of the Church of the Larger
Fellowship,Unitarian Universalist
by Ken Sawyer, Clerk
May 1, 2002
Per Article Vll, Sections 1 and 2, of the Church of the Larger Fellowship
(CLF) Bylaws, the 26th Annual Meeting of the corporation will be held
on Friday, June 21, 2002 at 5:30 p.m. at the Centre des Congres in Quebec
City, Quebec (immediately following the CLF Worship service, which is
at 4:15). The purpose of the meeting is to:
- Elect a Moderator from among members present to preside at the meeting
- Elect members of the Board of Directors, the Nominating Committee,
the Clerk, and the Treasurer from the slate of candidates presented
on the ballot and mailed to members in April 2002
- Recognize retiring directors for their service
- Transact such other business as may legally come before the meeting.
Special music for GA worship service
The General Assembly of the UUA is being held in Quebec City, Quebec,
Canada this June and the Church of the Larger Fellowship will be have
its popular worship service on Friday, June 21 at 4:15 p.m. at the Centre
des Congres. This year’s service will be filled with the music
of Quebec as performed by the Children’s Choir of L’Ecole
V’la l’Bon Vent. These energetic and talented young people
will be led and accompanied by adult members of this well-known troupe
of singers, dancers, and instrumentalists. Join us for Joie! The CLF
Worship service in Quebec City
Quest May 2002 Contents
Dynamic Within
by Nancy Andrews,Golden, Colorado, member, Church of the Larger Fellowship
This blossom on the ground
Is another and another
And eventually all days
Turning
This blossom should lie
Undisturbed
It is from a seed of ancient light
First light
Undiminished first light,
Clearly it is resplendent.
There is less noise
Than the noise of the blossom
In a footstep that is there
Among
In the grain in the seed.
I should not lift this flower
Hold it closer try to own it
But for all I know
The wind might take its task to hand
Strong, ferocious Aeolus wind.
I saw it in a gentle rage
Blowing blossoms from the trees
Another day
Petals flying all
In one direction
Like Botticelli hair streaming
Far away far far
Perhaps the petals covering thorns of roses
In the gardens of Shiraz
Petals coloring gray-green olive trees
In Gethsemane
Layering ancient cities like Jericho.
The footstep is certain
I must leave the blossom there
From a seed the tree let fall.
Listen,
Kabir says -
“there is a secret sound inside you”
I say it is the blossom, the footstep
Beyond all wind
Or rage.
Quest May 2002 Contents
Did You Know that CLF is still looking for delegates to General Assembly
in Quebec City? If you are going to GA and would like to be a delegate,
let Lorraine know at 617-948-6166 or Ldennis@uua.org.
Last updated June 12, 2005
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