Joy and Sorrow

“Joy and sorrow woven fine”...so said the poet Blake. I have been thinking about joy and sorrow this month. I think with joy about the new infants who have joined our community recently. It is such a delight to hear their sweet voices during the service. It is a joy to see the young ones getting older and learning to talk and walk and turning into amazing little people.

I also think about so many in our congregation who are dealing with serious illness, or caring for a loved one who is facing such trouble. I think about those who have lost family members to death. None of it is easy. I wish I could wrap a blanket of kindness around each person who is hurting. And maybe that is what church is all about—not that any of us can do it individually, but that all together, we can offer kindness and caring to those who hurt.

I just want to mention that so many of you hesitate to ask for help for yourselves! We are a congregation of giving people, but remember, receiving is also a blessing—please reach out if you need a listening ear, or a little help. I am always happy to get your call, or find a time to meet over tea. And our Pastoral Care Team and Caring Connection feel the same way too. 

And to take my own advice, I want to let you know that my partner Margy has been diagnosed with granulosa cell tumor, a rare kind of ovarian cancer. It generally has a good prognosis, though one never knows for sure. She will be having surgery on March 12^th, and be in the hospital for a few days. I will be taking a few days off to be with her and take care of her when she comes home. And likely, we'll be calling the Caring Connection for help with a few meals when she comes home. I am feeling joyful that the prognosis is good, but sad that she has to go through the ordeal of surgery. I love her very much.

Life is full of joy and sorrow, and we all deal with it. I am reminded of Louise Erdrich's words, in her novel The Painted Drum:

Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself that you tasted as many as you could.

Bafflement

What a precious thing we all hold in our hands—this community in which we can share the deep questions of our lives. We share the perennial questions that people have wondered about for generations—What is the meaning of life? What is the meaning of death? How can we live with integrity? And we share the timely questions of our own day—What is a humane solution for immigrant families without documentation? How can we adapt to a changing economy so everyone is able to participate? How can we survive climate change?

So often, in the midst of this pondering, the predominant feeling in my heart is bafflement. So many questions do not have easy answers. I am glad we don't push easy answers on the questions. I am so thankful for this community in which we can ponder together, to face these questions with kindness, with compassion, with creativity, with joy at life's mystery and beauty, and sorrow at its grief and suffering. It is good to ponder together and to be baffled together and then perhaps smile a little and have fun.

I am so thankful for all of you who care enough about this community to give of your love and time, your extraordinary talents and hard earned money, even your crankiness and impatience! The world is changing and it is good to be able to sort it out together.

Experts say that churches as we have known them are dying—that they might not exist by the end of the century. I am not sure if that is a good or a bad thing. But it reminds me that we can never take our community for granted. Allen Avenue UU Church has a lot of life in it. We hold a new kind of religion in an old form. Our vision of an inclusive gathering of spiritual searchers without dogma is a new kind of idea. But the form our church takes is the form of the old Protestant church with Sunday services and children's religious education and a building in which we gather and lots of volunteer time. Maybe the forms will have to change. It give us more questions to ponder, and bafflement to feel.

But I hope this spark of light and love will endure, this beacon of hope and kindness will keep shining brightly, in whatever forms we inherit or create together! I hope we can be open to the creativity and dedication that are needed in a time of change.

Diversity?

Part of our mission statement says, “We celebrate diversity.” Sometimes people feel that is the hardest goal of all. We have a lot of some kinds of diversity in our congregation—diversity of age, income, sexual orientation, belief, temperament. But we don't have a lot of racial diversity. We live in a very white state, though Portland itself is rich with multiple colors, cultures and languages. What might it look like, realistically, for us to celebrate racial diversity?

I believe we must go outside of our own doors to do it. When folks are working to help African immigrants get settled in a new home, that is one way. When folks teach English to those who speak other languages, that is another way. Today I want to call our attention to another vital thing we can do: join and support the work of the Portland Branch, NAACP (The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People).

The NAACP was founded in 1909 to respond to the horrors of the lynching of African Americans. There were early branches of the NAACP in Maine in response to an active KKK presence in Maine in the 1920s. The current Portland Branch was activated in 1964 by Gerald Talbot. The Portland Branch has always been an interracial interfaith organization. The mission of the NAACP is to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights for all, and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination. It is our premier organization fighting for racial equality, and has also been on the front lines against all forms of discrimination.

In November, I was voted a member of the Executive Committee of the Portland Branch, and will begin in that role in January. I am looking forward to having a closer involvement in its work, including sharing with you opportunities that arise for participation.   Check out the website for more information!

NAACP Portland

Silent Night?

What a funny paradox we live in now—the dark of the year is upon us, and yet the hustle and bustle has multiplied. While all of nature in our northern world is resting and quiet, human beings are adding more activity and stress to our lives. (And our lives often are already holding a lot of stress.) So I wanted to tell you to make some time for quiet, for the dark, for rest and stillness. But then I thought it might risk adding a layer of guilt to the whole mess. You might be thinking, “How can I find time for that, on top of everything else I have to do?”

So I won't tell you the make time for quiet. But, perhaps, you might notice the moments of quiet that accidentally cross your path. Notice the bright stars in a dark sky as you get out of your car coming home in the evening. Notice the quiet of snow over the fields on the side of the road. (Yes, snow might be coming sooner than we think.) Notice the children tucked snug in their beds. Notice the orange sunrise as you step outside for the morning paper. Notice any moment of stillness, pause, and take a breath right then and there. It's a holy moment.

Of course, there are some times in all of our lives when we, like nature in winter, feel dormant, feel like we've lost our pizzazz or creativity or energy. If you are facing such a time, rest within it—don't look at what everyone else is doing and think you're missing out. Explore the gifts within the shadows. Explore the stillness and the darkness. Nature teaches us that without dormancy, many plants can't grow at all. Human creativity is like that too. The dormancy is the gift that hides a gift. It is a holy season.

Shared Ministry

At Allen Avenue, we believe in shared ministry—every person has gifts to give and love to share, and from this sharing a community of love is created. We seek to empower our members to share their gifts to build a world of compassion, equality, and freedom. One of the ways we do this is through our Leadership and Ministry Program, called LAMP, for short. Every second year, we offer a workshop called LAMP 101. It is our “basic training” in lay ministry. We practice compassionate listening skills, talk about the helping relationship, identify good boundaries in helping, and practice finding the sacredness of each person. This year, the workshop will be held October 20^th and 21^st, Saturday and Sunday afternoons. It is open to everyone, but the number is limited to 15, so please register beforehand.

This training is helpful for all kinds of life situations, but we particularly use it for training members of our Pastoral Care Team, and the Pastoral Visitors who regularly visit our elders. So if you might be interested in being a part of those ministries at our church, please sign up, or contact me for further information. If you are a good listener, we'd love to have you be a part of this. And if you are not a good listener, it is a chance to improve that skill.

On October 14, our worship service (The Elevator Speech) will be about how we talk about our church and our faith. If you have ever described our church to your friends, family or neighbors, would you be willing to send me what you said? I would love to use some real examples in my sermon that day, and your experience could help others. I am especially looking for statements that are three sentences or less, but send me whatever you like! After each service that day, there will be a short time for discussion and practice creating your own elevator speech, and then if you like, you can be part of a video we are creating about our church. If you can't come that day, feel free to send a statement or video anytime.

Finally, it came to my attention the other day that folks may not know how to reach me, or when I am available for appointments. I am generally in the office on Monday and Wednesday, from about 11 a.m. until 5:30, and then I usually stay through the evening for meetings, or appointments as needed. If you'd like to have a chat, I encourage you to email me at revmyke@a2u2.org, or call 797-7240 ext. 13, to set up a time we can meet, because Mondays and Wednesdays often fill up beforehand. 

Are you curious about what a minister's week looks like on days other than Sunday? Every minister has their own best working mode, but here is mine. I am in the office on Monday and Wednesday. On Tuesday and Thursday I am working on sermons, and other worship preparation, which I do at my home office. Friday is my day off, and Saturdays are variable, with some special events at church (in September, for example, Saturdays included a board retreat, a memorial service and the everybody birthday party) and some days off. I think of my regular work week as from Sunday to Thursday, but you can always contact me for emergencies on any day. If you are dealing with a serious illness or death in your family, please feel free to call me at my home number, which can be found in the phone book.  (And by the way, for routine church matters, I do prefer that you call me at the church number or email.)

In our shared ministry, every member can minister to others. But I am also eager to be there for you during difficult times, so don't hesitate to contact me. 

End of Summer

Today as I write it is cool and sunny. Another fall season is almost upon us. What a summer! It was so hot here in Maine and yet we had it easy compared to the rest of the country. Wildfires, strange derecho storms, record heat waves. My parents and two sisters were among those who lost power during the terrible heat.

Last week Margy and I saw the movie “Beasts of the Southern Wild.” What a profound experience that was for me! It evoked that deep sense of things falling apart in our world—the ice sheets melting more than ever, the storms and wildfires of the summer—and yet, it also evoked the human strength we have to face it. All that strength expressed in the little girl Hushpuppy, as she faced the coming apart of her world. Hushpuppy said, “I see that I am a little piece of a big, big universe, and that makes it right.” If you haven't had a chance to see the movie, I hope you can.

Margy and I had a stay-cation kind of summer, with a number of visits from friends. I was also reading fiction—a favorite was the Mars series by Kim Stanley Robinson. Three books, huge books entitled Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars. If you like epic stories that make you think, that address all manner of issues from the environment to what makes a democratic economy, you might like these books. But don't start until you have some time to set everything else aside!

This summer I also had a special project. I created the first draft of a book I have been wanting to write. The raw material is from seven years of sermons at A2U2. If you have been hearing my sermons, you know that I am passionate about restoring our connection to each other as human beings, to the earth and all beings, and to the mystery at the heart of life, the spirit. I want to help expand our understanding of what “spirituality” is all about, so that we are not tripped up by narrow dogma, or narrow ideas of God that are not worthy of our esteem. I want to help us become a part of the Great Turning (the idea named by Joanna Macy) to living with the earth in a mutually beneficial way.

So this summer I sat down and put together a draft of a book that would offer paths to spirit, to earth, to each other. Now I am beginning a long process of editorial feedback, and the exploration of publishing options. I wanted to let you know about this, even though it will be a while before I can share the finished product with you. It was a good reminder to me of the calling I feel as a minister, and an extension of the work I do with A2U2 in ministry. I am looking forward to the time when I can share it with you, and perhaps also shape some adult education for spiritual growth using it as a resource.

I want to say thank you to the worship committee, and all our summer worship leaders for the beautiful services they led. I also want to thank the pastoral care team, for being available during the summer for compassionate listening. I understand that there were some problems with our phone system—please let me know if your message got lost. We are switching over to Time Warner on Sept 10^th, so bear with us for a few more weeks as we try to get everything in order.

During our service on September 9^th, we will have a water communion—a traditional UU ritual in which we all bring a little bit of water from someplace special to us—perhaps a place we visited, or a beach we swam in, or the water from our tap at home. It is a way to gather ourselves back together after a summer in which we were scattered around. I look forward to seeing you!

Gratitude

I am writing this the day before the summer solstice. Everything is so lush and full and green. This time of year fills me with thoughts of gratitude. I feel so happy and grateful to be your minister, and to share this ministry with such wonderfully kind and generous people in our congregation. There are so many thanks I could give that I would soon run out of space. But at this moment I want to express my thanks to a particular group, and a particular person in that group. I am speaking of the Pastoral Care Team and its long-time chair Ruby.

The Pastoral Care Team is the group that listens when you are going through a hard time, are celebrating a joy, or facing an illness. We envisioned such a team during the first year that I came to Allen Avenue, and then it slowly took shape bit by bit. It started with volunteers who were willing to answer a phone call during the summer months when I was away. We helped it along with the Leadership and Ministry Program workshop called LAMP 101. It grew stronger when I went on sabbatical in the fall of 2009. When I returned that January, we began to talk about how the team might be a part of the ministry year round, while I was here as much as when I am away.

Team members began to make note of what was said during joys and concerns, and respond with a conversation or a phone call. They did follow-up calls to those who were ill, or had lost someone they loved. Members of the team visited folks in the hospital or in their homes. Now it feels like they significantly enhance the quality of the love we share at A2U2.

I want to say a special thanks to Ruby who has had a key role in creating and guiding the team since the beginning. It just wouldn't have blossomed without her gentle presence, her behind the scenes organizing, and her availability for other team members to call upon with their questions. Ruby is stepping down as chair, but is continuing as a member of the team. She is now working as a chaplain at Gosnell Memorial Hospice House, which makes it difficult to attend church on Sundays. Connie Cross and I prepared a certificate to give to Ruby, and since we couldn't do it at a Sunday service, I wanted to let you know what it says.

In Appreciation, Ruby P.

You have been instrumental in creating and leading our Pastoral Care Team and helping it to develop and grow. You have brought compassionate listing to so many of our members and also helped to teach others how to listen with love and care. You have inspired us by your willingness to seek a new path to follow the calling of your heart into a ministry with elders. We want to offer our special thanks for all that you have given our beloved community and many blessings on your continuing journey of ministry.

I am happy to report that Merrill is stepping up as chair, and we will likely add a co-chair in the fall. During the summer, if you need a listening ear, you can call the church 797-7240, dial extension 13, and leave a message for up to a minute. Someone from the team will call you back. Or you can email care @ a2u2.org, and someone will be in touch. That is also a way you can access the help of the Caring Connection, for meals, rides, or other help during an illness or other emergency. That is another group of wonderful people!

The members of the Pastoral Care Team this year have been Ruby, Merrill, Jim, Sara, Kathy, Judith, Mike, Dick, and Lisa. Joyce and Minty joined the team this spring. We'll be doing a LAMP 101 training in October, and welcome new members anytime during the church year.

Have a joyful summer!

Rev. Myke