Death, remembrance, UU hand signs, and daily life

Reflections on the anniversary of Knoxville shooting

The Rev. Chris Buice, minister of Tennessee Valley UU Church, spoke at SUUSI, the Southeast Unitarian Universalist Summer Institute, about the shooting that took place in his congregation one year ago last weekend:

Every church has a hymn that it likes to sing in worship and can sing better than all the others. In my church in Knoxville, that hymn is “May Nothing Evil Cross this Door.” On July 27, 2008, evil did cross our doors. A man walked into the sanctuary of our church carrying a gun in a guitar case, pulled out that weapon, and fired into a congregation of unarmed men, women, and children as children were performing a musical play. Two people were killed, Greg McKendry and Linda Kraeger. Eight were injured. All of our community was traumatized.

On that morning people prayed with their actions. (uuworld.org, July 27)

The Rev. Annette Marquis, district executive of the Thomas Jefferson District, writes: "I am reminded of how fragile life is and, at the same time, how resilient we are." (UUA.org, July 28)

Kari Kopnick, director of religious education at Westside UU Congregation in Seattle, Washington, writes:

Tennessee Valley UU Church and Westside UU Church have chosen to stand on the side of love. A love that is a fierce and abiding love. This is no frilly place to be, this is a Sequoia like love with roots that wrap around bedrock and branches that reach to the heavens. ("Chalice Spark," July 26)

Patrick Murfin reports: "our congregation, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Woodstock joined many others across the country in lighting the Chalice in memory of shooting victims Greg McKendry and Linda Kraeger" ("Heretic, Rebel, a Thing to Flout," July 27).

Whose church is it?

The Rev. Sam Trumbore blogs about Dan Hotchkiss's book Governance and Ministry: Rethinking Boad Leadership:

I want to highlight one interesting observation Dan makes that has challenged and stimulated my thinking about what both the staff and the board do. It has to do with thinking about the board as a “fiduciary.” If the board members are proxies for the “owner” of the organization’s interests—who is the owner? (July 31)

Bill Baar picks up a conversation started by another post by Trumbore about making Unitarian Universalism multicultural ("Rev. Sam Trumbore," July 16). Baar argues: "We are a Church most suited to those estranged from their own communities, and we offer a path back to living a religous [sic] life outside of their heritage." ("Pfarrer Streccius," July 31)

A Discordian Lammas?

Jason Pitzl-Waters marks the Pagan holiday Lughnasadh, or Lammas ("The Wild Hunt," August 1). Meanwhile, Strange Attractor belongs to local UU pagan group that rotates responsibility for leading its eight annual Sabbat services, and a group of Discordians "led" Saturday's Lammas/Lughnasadh ritual—into chaos. "Maybe the disruption of the scheduled holiday is part of the point," she writes, "but when people started quoting Monty Python as part of the ritual I knew my spiritual needs were not going to be met" (August 2).

UU summer conferences

The Rev. Fred L. Hammond praises the Southland UU Leadership Experience, a weeklong congregational leadership training program sponsored by four UUA districts. He quotes SUULE leader Connie Goodbread: “Faith Development is all we do. Unitarian Universalism is all we teach. The congregation is the curriculum” ("A Unitarian Universalist Minister in the South," August 1).

Paul Wilczynski summarizes UUA President Peter Morales's talk at SUUSI about "the future of our movement" ("Paul Wilczynski's Observations," July 29). The Rev. Chip Roush lists—and links to!—several musicians who performed at SUUSI ("the yes church," July 31).

Five hand signals, ten Buddhist texts

The Rev. Thom Belote offers five examples of "UU sign language"—"some of the funny hand signals that are used from time to time in UU community" ("RevThom," July 27).

Jeff W. identifies ten Buddhist hymns and readings in the UUA's Singing the Living Tradition hymnal, and corrects the attribution of several ("Transient and Permanent," July 31).

Planning for marriage equality in California

The Rev. Ricky Hoyt spent two days in strategy meetings for religious advocates of marriage equality in California:

It was very clear from our conversation very early on that the question of whether marriage equality activists should place a constitutional amendment on the California ballot to restore marriage equality in 2010, or 2012 is the wrong question. In practical terms the answer is clear: we're not ready. But 2010 or 2012 isn't really the question.

2010 or 2012 focuses entirely on the ballot, which is only a piece of the necessary work. The larger goal is not 51% of the electorate relunctantly granting us marriage, the goal is a cultural shift that sees gay and lesbian persons as full respected citizens of the state. That goal is not achieved legislatively. It's achieved through public education and advocacy, through relationship building, and through normalizing gay and lesbian lives through visibility and time.

The other false frame of the 2010 or 2012 question is the implication that unless we act now we are agreeing to submit to injustice. But public education and advocacy and relationship building and living our lives openly and proudly is justice work. It's not waiting; it's working. And it's not submitting; it's persuading folks who have already voted against once not to confirm their vote but to change their minds and hearts. ("One More Step," July 30)

On other social justice topics, Lizard Eater takes her own "prejudice pulse" ("The Journey," July 29) and the UUA has set up a social justice channel at YouTube. The latest video shows UUA President Peter Morales talking about an interfaith lobby day for immigration reform (July 28).

International connections

The Rev. Colin Bossen finds the familiar in a Czech Unitarian church:

We went to the Unitarian Church in Prague today. I enjoyed being in a Unitarian church where I didn’t speak the language. The liturgy was much the same to that of a smaller congregation in the United States and I was able to understand what was happening. ("The Latest Form of Infidelity," July 26)

Norwegian Unitarian Knut Heidelberg points to a Hungarian website featuring photos of the funeral of the Unitarian Bishop of Hungary, the Rev. Csaba Razmany (July 31).

Relating Unitarian Universalism to Christianity

Army chaplain-candidate David Pyle writes that chaplain school helped him understand and systematize his liberal faith more "than every class in liberal theology, and certainly more than my many conversations with fellow post-modern religionists." Difficult conversations with conservative Christians were especially helpful, he says ("Celestial Lands," August 3).

Jeff W., a UU religious studies scholar, explores the dilemma that confronts religion scholars when they try to discuss Unitarian Universalism's relationship to Christianity:

And now we have the situation of Unitarian-Universalists, whose religious structures, concerns, behavior patterns, and so on are consistently and obviously Christian to anyone who studies religious traditions that come from outside the West, yet who refuse to admit such continuing close relationship. . . .

This seems to point to a problem with the word “Christian” itself. We should not confine it’s definition to merely the self-representational one. One solution for scholars might be to use the word in a very strict, contextual sense. This would entail rejecting the use of the word “Christian” as a noun in relation to the average UU. For simplicity’s sake, we’ll use the first definitions supplied by Dictionary.com. The noun definition of Christian is “a person who believes in Jesus Christ; an adherent of Christianity.” You would not point out a random UU and say “He is a Christian.”

However, the word Christian could be meaningfully employed as an adjective. The adjectival defintion of Christian is “of, pertaining to, or derived from Jesus Christ or his teachings.” You could point at a UU church and describe it as Christian from a sociological or cultural perspective. There is no doubt that UUism was “derived from Jesus Christ or his teachings” (and especially from the religious forms that grew up around those teachings). ("Transient and Permanent," August 3)

The Rev. Victoria Weinstein asks the readers of "PeaceBang" whether she should read the best-selling Christian novel The Shack, and then offers her own review (July 27 and 29).

Quotidian Unitarian Universalism

The Interdependent Web does not consist only of denominational (or nondenominational) concerns, theology, and public witness. This week I'm highlighting some posts about everyday life.

Death is a deep subject, but also a deeply quotidian one. Will Shetterly at "it's all one thing" writes, "My sister is dead":

I am in an unnaturally calm state now. I got the call this morning from my mom. It took me half an hour or more to believe it. My kid sister has always been there when anyone needed her. (July 31)

David Pyle describes the inadequate-to-no health insurance he has had from his non-military employers and writes: "Please, please, please put the government back between me and my health care!" ("Celestial Lands," August 1).

Kari Kopnick describes the two-week Coming of Age wilderness trip her 14-year-old son is taking ("Chalice Spark," July 25). Then, she follows up:

Don't let your children grow up . . .

It simply is too much for a loving parent. Too much for this loving parent. Do you think if I went to Northern Minnesota and just started calling out his name, I'd find my son? Probably not. And he might frown on my interruption of his "Coming of Age" trip.

But I've decided I don't want him to "Come of Age" any longer. I want him to slide back into a little punkin' with an elf smile and an ability to balance while walking across the back of the couch. (August 3)

"On Wings of Thought" ponders unfinished knitting projects: "Each project holds dozens of tomorrows woven into its fabric" (July 30). Kelly Kilmer Hall complains that some of her chicks are picky eaters (with cute chicken photos!) ("Seeking Divinity," July 28). Plaidshoes checks out of blogging for a while to process the harvest ("Everyday Unitarian," July 26), and Mark and Linda report on the garlic harvest (with photos!) ("high hopes gardens," July 26 and July 27). What would daily life on the internet be without cat pictures? Lizard Eater has two new kittens ("The Journey," July 30).

Beyond the blogs

Patrick Murfin announces that he has "finally" joined Facebook ("Heretic, Rebel, a Thing to Flout," July 29), while Will Shetterly is "moving away from the internet" ("it's all one thing," July 29). The Rev. Dr. Marilyn Sewell, who recently retired as senior minister of the First Unitarian Church of Portland, Oregon, is enjoying writing "Mini-Reflections" on Twitter (July 26).

Chris Walton contributed to this week's roundup.