in medias res: thoughts from the interim minister at UUCD

Last Minute Soup and Conversation Reminder

2008-11-19T13:30:00.001-08:00

Chicken soup. Tomato soup. Wild rice soup. What is it about soup that makes it the cultural panacea for whatever ails you? A head cold – soup. The side effects of chemo – soup. A bad day at school – soup, followed by chocolate chip cookies. A broken heart – soup , chocolate chip cookies, Haagen-Dazs. Loneliness -- a bowl of soup shared with a friend.

The Mayo Clinic once did a study of the efficacy of chicken soup as a cold remedy and determined it worked pretty well. But exactly what is it that makes soup so comforting ? The aroma? The steam? The salt? The fat? Some alchemical combination of all four? Or maybe the most comforting part is that someone cared enough to make it for you or that you cared enough to make it for yourself? Perhaps the secret healing ingredient in soup isn't actually in the soup at all – maybe its the "attention" that it took to shop, chop, heat, serve and provide sympathy, company and a listening ear. Maybe the healing attributes of soup are in the sympathetic conversation that gets filtered through the mist of fragrant steam rising from the bowl. Whatever the secret ingredient, it seems to me that sharing soup is one way of communicating care.

This evening at 5:30 the Ministerial Transition Team is hosting a soup and conversation gathering. The topic of conversation is the first phase of the congregation's mission statement, "to care for one another, grow spiritually and work for justice." Between slurps we will talk about what "caring" looks like and feels like and explore who is included in the phrase "one another". The whole event will wrap up by 7pm.

This conversation is an important part of the Transition Team's work gathering information about who you are as a congregation so you can choose your settled minister wisely. I think it's a dollar a person and we have plenty of soup. Kids are welcome. It should also be fun. I'll be facilitating so perhaps I'll see you there! Blessings, Gail

Baby Steps

2008-11-17T14:34:00.000-08:00

Today's baby step, here in the Land of Blog, was finding the toggle that will allow you to respond when I ask a question, or you have a comment! It may still take a while for your comments to show up since my next baby step is figuring out how to moderate the comments. Many thanks to Lisa Johnson for her patient blog coaching and the photo of birch trees on the header of this blog. She gets all the credit for bringing the visuals for this blog into better harmony with UUCD's website.

It was beautiful here in Duluth today - cloudy bright with sparkly flurries blowing around - it felt like being on the inside of a snow globe.

Blessings, Gail

Souls and bodies

2008-11-11T09:18:00.000-08:00

I had a fascinating conversation with a visitor last weekend. He was writing a paper for a medical ethics class and he asked me what Unitarian Universalists believe about when the soul enters the body. I explained that Unitarian Universalists would have many different opinions about such things. Some of us would embrace the notion of a soul that exists independently of the body, others would not. Channing preached a famous sermon in an earlier century where he argued we are created in likeness to God and one might infer a soul from that, but it simply isn’t a debate in which we invest time or energy.

It turns out the conversation in his class was about euthanasia and abortion. Ah, I thought, perhaps I can offer him firmer ground here. I explained that we are a non-creedal tradition with a congregational polity and to find a common statement about what Unitarian Universalists think about those topics he would need to go to the statements of conscience from our annual meeting - the General Assembly. I was quite certain we had weighed in on both of these topics over the years, although our language for them would be quite different. We would talk about a protecting a woman’s right to choose and about supporting a person's right to a death with dignity. I don’t know if he ever found what he was looking for on the UUA website. I do know the conversation got me thinking.

I suppose I could have told him what I believe about souls and bodies, although that wouldn’t have been representative of all Unitarian Universalists by any means. I could have told him that I believe that just as consciousness requires the biochemical matrix of the body, the soul is also emergent from the body and does not preexist it. The soul doesn’t enter the body, it evolves from it. I think of God the same way. If there is a god that is more than a metaphor, that god does not preexist the universe or exist apart from it but arises from the cosmos the same way awareness arises from the body. Since we are a part of the physical universe we are a part of whatever consciousness, soul or divinity emerges from that universe …

I could have shared with him that I think that whole life/choice debate is the wrong question and the issue ought to be how to ensure that no woman is ever coerced into sexual activity, that every child is a wanted child, and that there are so many choices for avoiding conception and so many supports for raising a child or placing the child with an adoptive family that it would be rare indeed for a woman to choose to terminate a pregnancy.

I could have told him that if I were living with a terminal illness and my pain was spiraling beyond the reach of palliative care I would want to have the choice to end my life. I have no idea whether I would avail myself of that choice, but I would want the option.

I didn't tell him those things mostly because he took me by surprise and there just wasn't time ...

In our faith tradition the minister has the “ freedom of the pulpit”, the responsibility to say what he or she believes is true. Members have the reciprocal responsibility, the responsibility to take what the minister says and think about it and decide for themselves if they find it reasonable and resonant and worthy.

What would you have said to our visitor?

Blessings, Gail

Tell me your stories

2008-11-05T20:49:00.000-08:00

A snippet of your history – did you know that in June of 1890 The Ladies Aid Society of the Unitarian Society of Duluth brought the Rev. Olympia Brown to Duluth to speak on women’s sufferage? Olympia Brown was was a Universalist minister. She was the first woman ordained by any major denomination in the United States.

One of the tasks of the interim time is for the congregation to “come to terms with its history”, to share its many stories and rediscover its core story and find ways to tell that story that animate the hearts and minds of its members.

I’ve asked if Marree Sites will begin the next chapter of the church’s written history starting where the first hundred years ended and sharing more anecdotes and stories as well as the historic bones and facts. We need your stories.

I have some questions to get you started – things it would be fun to know. You can put them on paper or just respond on the end of this posting. Feel free to share other stories about the congregation as well.

What is your most vivid memory of you time at UUCD?

If you were telling this congregation’s story what genre would you use? A fairy tale, a mystery, a pioneer saga, a melodrama ??? Tell it!

What makes you the most proud of UUCD?

Are there stories about why the congregation chose this location – between the university and the college and the green civic space of Chester Bowl?

Are there stories about the design? Why such a large fellowship hall and the unusually generous kitchen ? Whose idea was the indoor garden?

What are the stories of this congregation’s environmental/ecological commitments? Where did UUCD’s environmentalism start?

What are the stories about your past buildings and about the communities to which you sold them?

What is the story about the name of this congregation and how it changed from the First Unitarian Society, to the First Unitarian Church, to the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Duluth?

When we know our stories we are able to draw strength from the inspiring parts and we can work to transcend the limiting parts. When we know our stories we can choose our futures wisely. I look forward to reading and sharing more of your story.

Blessings, Gail

Spam!?

2008-10-28T17:45:00.000-07:00

So- as I said in the first post, I am a reluctant participant in the digital world. It seems deliciously ironic, then, that the first response I get to my blog is from Blogger.com telling me that I am under suspician as a spam site and that they have placed a warning on the site and will shut it down in 20 days if I don't respond! I am amused. Given my email track record - long stretchs of electronic silence and terse responses at the best of times - I'm about as far from a spam site as I can imagine! I hope this will be resolved in short order so the link can go up!

Blessings, Gail

Welcome

2008-10-27T15:36:00.000-07:00

Growing Souls, Practicing Community, Transforming Culture, Healing the Planet

This is the interim minister's blog for the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Duluth. Although I realize many different people may read this blog, my intended audience is the members and friends of UUCD and various other seekers and allies who are interested in the congregation. I wanted a way to share information about the many interesting and important things that happen here on a daily and weekly basis and a place where I might reflect at greater length on the various challenges of being a Unitarian Universalist and trying to live according to UU values. A blog seemed like a better answer than loading up your various mailboxes.

This is all an experiment for me so I won't make any promises other than to post as often as I have relevant thoughts or timely news and information. I am not easy or fluent with digital formats or electronic etiquette so at least initially this blog will not be set up for responses. You can, of course, email me, but please know that if you want a timely response, the telephone is still the better bet where I am concerned and my strong preference would be to chat with you face to face. That said - I think this might be kind of fun -- let the experiment begin!

Blessings, Gail