Growing Potters

One of my favorite stories from our Universalist heritage is the story of Thomas Potter and John Murray. You can read a dozen versions of it elsewhere, but the gist? John Murray was a Universalist minister in England - but life got really horrendously awful. We're talking Job, here. He set sail for America, to lose himself in a new land. The ship gets within sight of the New Jersey coastline and they're stuck. Murray goes ashore to barter with someone for supplies and meets Thomas Potter who just happens to be a Universalist and has BUILT A CHURCH and has been waiting for a minister to come along. Murray shakes his head. "Not your guy, sorry." Potter tries to wrangle something out of him and it just isn't working--but he finally gets the glum man to agree -- if the wind hasn't changed and the ship is still stuck? Yeah, fine. We'll have a service Sunday.

Thank goodness that the wind didn't change. Murray went on to spend the next 39 years spreading the good word of Universalism in the colonies (and soon, the fledgling nation.)

As cool as Murray was, I keep coming back to Thomas Potter. This illiterate farmer had done some thinking and decided that Universalism made a lot of sense to him. But there was no Universalist church anywhere near, so he built a church on his land...and waited. (In the mean time, he let other groups use the church, with or without ministers.)

How can we develop Potters in our congregations? People who are willing to do the hard work, to create a sacred space and invite in change, wrestling with others' reluctance to bring forth their prophetic voices?

Awakening and Brainwashing Souls

Ever notice a word popping up in most everything you're reading, whether it's a book or an article or a website?

This week mine has been "inculcate". Dictionary definitions lean toward repetition, rote, and even brainwashing. The Online Etymology Dictionary claims that it came into usage in the 1540s, from L. inculcatus, pp. of inculcare "force upon, stamp in," from in- "in" + calcare "to tread, press in," from calx (1) "heel."

Why, yes, I am reading lots of educational theory. But I'm a Religious Educator, and a Unitarian Universalist at that -- I seem to recall our Unitarian forefather William Ellery Channing saying

The great end in religious instruction is not to stamp our minds upon the young, but to stir up their own;

Not to make them see with our eyes, but to look inquiringly and steadily with their own;
Not to give them a definite amount of knowledge, but to inspire a fervent love of truth;
Not to form an outward regularity, but to touch inward springs;
Not to bind them by ineradicable prejudices to our particular sect or peculiar notions,
But to prepare them for impartial, conscientious judging of whatever subjects may be offered to their decision;
Not to burden the memory, but to quicken and strengthen the power of thought;
Not to impose religion upon them in the form of arbitrary rules, but to awaken the conscience, the moral discernment.
In a word, the great end is to awaken the soul, to excite and cherish the spiritual life.

It's too bad Channing didn't include lesson plans and materials lists with that. It would make my job so much simpler.

Dread and Treasure

I'll admit it - sometimes I clear my desk by throwing everything into a basket. Sometimes it's an oversized laundry basket.

Then it becomes a Dread Object. You know, those things you don't want to deal with because WHO KNOWS what's in there and what will you do with it anyway and oh, if people knew what you were hiding... they would have such a horrible picture of you! Whee, anxiety. In a laundry basket. I'd prefer dirty socks, thanks.

Today I got brave and emptied the big laundry basket. I found all the props from a sermon I did in January '09, notes from a few workshops, a bunch of stuff I should have recycled long, long ago.

AND TREASURE!

A bunch of early Unitarian Universalist (1961-1963) pamphlets:

So You Are Concerned w/ Children's Worship (All three bulletins)

What Speaks to Our Children (Robert L. Cope)

Dynamic Religious Education (Jack Kent)

The Methods of Religious Education (Robert L'H. Miller)

Guide for Parents of Children Studying Child of the Sun (Beverly Shimmin)

Any Size is the Right Size (Mary Lou Page)

And a more recent addition, which I've been hunting for months:

What Did Jesus Say About Homosexuality?

My reading glasses didn't make it to work today--actually perusing any of the material will wait for a luckier day. But none of it goes back in the basket. Or on the desk.

New GOODREADS group for Religious Educators...

and anyone else who might be interested...

http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/32946.UU_REads

This group is a "place" for Unitarian Universalist Religious Educators to share what they are reading as they seek to understand, to facilitate, and to grow Unitarian Universalists and Unitarian Universalism. Yes, we'll definitely hit on the credentialing annotated resource list, but revelation is not sealed and there is some truth in most every book.

Buddha in Your Backpack...

Sometimes, quite on a whim, we come up with new projects for ourselves...

My latest is to preview some of the gazillions of "Teens' Guide to X Religon" on the shelves of the local library. Partially to know what's available for our youth and young adults, and partially because, well, I can do that reading while my brain is tired... First in my hand was _Buddha in Your Backpack: Everyday Buddhism for Teens_ by Franz Metcalf.

In general, accessible and covers all the major bases of both Buddhism and the teen years. His tone has some painful moments of "I'm trying too hard to sound cool to teenagers", but he's got a passion for both subjects and some really great resources.

The sexuality section was not *quite* OWL values, but almost. Any youth who has taken OWL will be nodding their head.

(I am doing a bunch of reading towards the credentialing process for Unitarian Universalist religious educators - if you'd like to know what that list looks like, check out

http://www.uua.org/documents/recc/reading_list_annotated.pdf )

Struggling with a book...

I finished reading _Every Person's Guide to Judaism_ and honestly, it was a bit glossy for me. I wanted something a little deeper--something that got into the overall theology... and in one of those coincidences of the electronic age, I got an email from the library listing new additions to their religion section.

And so I picked up Judaism: A Way of Being by David Hillel Gelernter. The email blurb had sounded PERFECT -- four thematic images that tie it all together, plus the Jewish answers to some of life's biggest questions...and while written for the searching Jew, it would be interesting to all students of religion.

Well, first of all, it appears that I'm not ENOUGH of a student of religion yet - he had references to the Torah and Talmud that were WAY beyond me - I did some side research as best I could.

Gelernter's also Modern Orthodox, or as he prefers, Normative. He is pretty darned certain that people stepping outside of traditional gender roles will destroy civilization....what? I had to put the book down a few times - he may call it "perfect asymmetry", but claiming that a woman (or homosexual man) is "fundamentally unfit" for the bimah? I don't buy your arguments, sir. Especially the misunderstanding of Shakespeare writing his female roles for female actors...

There was much in the book that was fascinating and some was even inspiring. It led me to more deeply consider the Abraham-Hashem relationship, to the point where I'm scripting not only their conversation, but Abraham's explanation to Sarah when Isaac spills the beans on Camping with Dad...

(I am doing a bunch of reading towards the credentialing process for Unitarian Universalist religious educators - if you'd like to know what that list looks like, check out http://www.uua.org/documents/recc/reading_list_annotated.pdf )

Will you be having an open bar at your reception?

(I swear, I'll get back to commentary on my reading list really soon.)

Why have an open bar at your wedding reception?

Well, it will add a certain sense of celebration and community - it is tradition around the world for people to come together to toast the occasion. It will definitely make much of your crowd happy.

But there are a few things to keep in mind besides the monetary expense--

It may set the tone for the entire event - people linger at the bar rather than mingling or getting in the buffet line. There may be some amount of raucous behavior, yes? When the booze is free, people may very well partake of it more than they usually do.

You probably want to have a few trusted family members or friends on hand to help manage people who have had enough. Or will you simply hope that the bartender handles it?

Be respectful as well, to those who may be in recovery, or who choose not to drink for other reasons. Attractive non-alcoholic alternatives are signs of a conscientious host.

--

Having unrestricted Joys and Sorrows in the worship service is like having an open bar.

Yes, it can add a certain sense of community and it will make a lot of people happy.

But it also sets the tone for the entire worship, and may lead things down unexpected (and sometimes chaotic) roads. It may even make some people uncomfortable.

And just as a reception may need those people willing to be "bouncers", a congregation needs to have elders who will take on such a role, articulating the rules of the tradition and speaking firmly and lovingly (after the service) to those who need clarification.

As in all things, your mileage may vary.