A Celebration To Remember
June 2011
What a beautiful, wonderful ceremony we celebrated together Sunday afternoon! The weather stayed agreeable and folks arrived as planned and we had a good time together!
How can I begin to thank you all for such generosity? From the hours folks put into creating (behind my back, I might add!) that astonishing quilt wall hanging, to the hours folks put into planning the invitations, the ceremony and music, the setup, all the logistics, decorations, the reception and food plus amazing cake, nursery care, and hospitality, not to mention the generous financial contributions folks made to pay for the event and the many hours spent cleaning up the nursery beforehand and the whole Grange afterwards, you have given unstintingly of your hearts, minds, hands, and pocketbooks! My deepest gratitude for your kindness and the ways all of these actions were expressions of caring.
And then there’s the ceremony itself — with the music of angels! Connie and Cheryl playing hymns to gather us, the choir’s glorious call to worship, Cheryl and choir touching our hearts with Swimming To the Other Side with Cate’s wonderful bass line and Cheryl’s astonishing harmonies, Judi carrying us on the river of our souls, Barb pulling us together into one stream (and making a surprising change in the lyrics), Amy calling us back to the most important, simple gifts, and the guitars, bass guitar, and djembe sending us all forth strong in our simple faith. The many participants calling us to celebration, reminding us of the stream of witnesses, lighting our chalice, responsively remembering the directions we want to go, our giving to the UU Partner Church Council and UU Service Committee. And the sermon, charge to the minister, and charge to the congregation — all asking us to consider important future steps (space seemed to be a recurring theme!) and how we might care for one another, ourselves, and our larger community. And our actual covenanting, our promises, to one another: how serious and deep, and how joyous. The prayer blessing us.
It will be a day long remembered, and I hope that memory will always bring a smile (and perhaps even a tear now and then). I know it will for me.
With a full heart for the specialness of May 22nd, and wishes to you all for a summer full of an abundance of all good things,
Terry
© 2011 Rev. Theresa Kime
Welcome, May!
May 2011
As May brings us leaves, more flowers, more sunshine and time to be outside enjoying our senses and nature, I offer you this poem by e.e. cummings for reflection and joy:
i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any – lifted from the no
of all nothing – human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
Wishing you every blessing for a wonderful month of May,
Terry
© 2011 Rev. Theresa Kime
Growing the Spirit
April 2011
How does one grow the spirit? How do newcomers, friends, and members at UUCNC explore and deepen their spiritual journey and learn more about Unitarian Universalism? How do we touch the world in ways that encourage and heal?
A congregation exists to connect its members to a stronger spiritual life so that they might further their work in making the world a place of blessing and welcome for all. A stronger spiritual life includes individual, personal development and also includes outer-oriented development within the congregation itself and within the larger community. To aid in this, UUCNC offers “foundational courses,” classes, and gatherings that explore, connect, deepen, and expand.
If you’re new to UU, a first course you might attend is an “Introduction to our Faith and Congregation.” This orientation to the beliefs and values we hold dear is offered several times throughout the year, and the next one will be Saturday, April 23, from 1:30-3:30 PM. Next, you might participate in “Discover your Spiritual Type,” to see what kind of spirituality (heart, mind, mystic, visionary) most speaks to you, and/or take a “A Chosen Faith,” which explores our UU Living Tradition (spiritual sources). Following these, you might find “Build Your Own Theology” helpful; it’s a course which gives you the opportunity to consider what the Holy/the Spirit is for you and how to best connect with it and live in accord with it.
Other classes I lead are also offered on a variety of topics throughout the year, such as the pastoral care training classes, classes on the Buddhist paramitas and half-day retreats. Additionally, there are chalice circles – small groups that meet once or twice a month to reflect on themes they choose – and many “affinity groups,” folks who gather around a similar interest, such as the Women of Spirit, Men of Empathy, UU Riders, Writing Circle, Communal Dining, Third Tuesday Table Talk, Eastern Philosophies, Adventure/Travel Group. New groups arise as folks express other interests and form around them. EarthWorks, an environmentally-focused action group, often leads service projects such as beach cleanups during the summer and sponsors films and presentations for the community on protecting our earth.
If you are interested in any of the above, please contact me or Jefferson Westwood, our Membership Committee Chair, or speak to any board member, who would be happy to connect you with a contact person.
Ours is a progressive faith that invites all to participate – to connect, share, explore, deepen and expand. Be you a newcomer, longtime member, or friend, join in with any of our classes, events, and service projects. Everyone is invited! Come and be part of us.
Grow your spirit, and help heal our world.
Rev. Terry
© 2011 Rev. Theresa Kime
Transition
March 2011
March. Often a transition month. We get closer to spring, with hints of warm weather to come yet winter usually keeps its hold on us, reminding us we’ve a ways to go before we reach our vision of a different way of life.
So, too, in our congregation, is March a transitional month. A time when members will seriously consider where the congregation is and what their commitment to the future might be. Hopefully last month, members explored what calling a minister means in terms of mutual responsibilities and commitments, and during this month, members are encouraged to attend meetings with me for conversation to explore the “match” we might make, congregation and minister. Are we heading in the same direction? Passionate about a similar vision for the congregation? Do my skills and strengths fit well with the skills and strengths a minister of this congregation needs at this time in its life and into the future? What do we see in terms of our relationship to one another, my leadership style, and changes to role and responsibilities if a call were issued?
It’s an exciting time. A time for reflection and for leaning into the future to see what glimpses we may find there of our hearts’ desires for ourselves as UU’s and as a congregation. May we be open to discovery, learning, and appreciation as we walk together, looking for clues and possibilities.
Wishing you every blessing,
Terry
© 2011 Rev. Theresa Kime
Celebrating Margaret Fuller
February 2011
Last year was the bicentennial of the birth of Margaret Fuller (1810-1850). Several members have asked me to consider preaching about this ancestor of our UU faith and I will do so on Feb. 27. Our Social Action Committee has planned to sponsor a Margaret Fuller re-enactor to come in March to the Fredonia Opera House to encourage the community (and us UUs!) to learn more about this remarkable woman.
The UU Bicentennial Project Commission, which planned events all last year to celebrate Fuller, has written: “Today we consider Margaret Fuller one of the guiding lights of the first-wave of feminism. She helped educate the women of her day by leading a series of Conversations in which women were empowered to read, think and discuss important issues of the day. She empowered generations to follow through her ground-breaking writings, especially her landmark book Woman in the Nineteenth Century.
“Among her accomplishments:
- First American to write a book about equality for women
- First editor of The Dial, foremost Transcendentalist journal, appointed by Ralph Waldo Emerson
- First woman to enter Harvard Library to pursue research
- First woman journalist on Horace Greeley’s New York Daily Tribune
- First woman literary critic who also set literary standards
- First woman foreign correspondent and war correspondent to serve under combat conditions.
“The span of her life coincided with an era known as ‘The Flowering of New England,’ a time she shared with the looming figures of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Bronson Alcott, Elizabeth Peabody, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, among others.”
I look forward to joining with you on March 10th at the Opera House to enjoy the Fuller re-enactment. And consider bringing a friend to both the Feb. 27th service as well as the play. May Fuller’s life inspire us to deepen and expand the living of our UU values.
With every good wish,
Terry
© 2011 Rev. Theresa Kime
Caring and Compassion
January 2011
As we emerge from a season of holy days meant to cultivate our kindness and goodwill, our generosity and caring, it is good for us to consider in this New Year how we care for those within our congregation — those undergoing stressful times, times of transition or illness, those who may be isolated or facing challenging situations, as well as those celebrating a life event. How might we best support and encourage, mourn and celebrate with one another, as a religious community, throughout our life journeys?
Individually we may reach out, send a note, email, or make a phone call, offer to shop or offer a ride, a meal, childcare, a visit, a caring presence. Yet how might we best care for one another on an institutional level, especially considering the needs of newcomers who might not have yet developed an individual support network within our religious home? How might we organize ourselves, as a congregation, to address such needs and concerns so that we can better aid one another?
Our congregation’s bylaws state that a Caring Committee is to be one of our standing committees, and that is a good thing. This committee would be the contact point for organizing support for folks within our congregation. Currently, that committee is not active and holds no regular meetings, though kind folks in our congregation often do aspects of its work. Taking to heart our mission/covenant statement that we “build among and beyond ourselves a caring and compassionate community,” it would seem that an active Caring Committee could provide an avenue for supporting our mission.
On Saturday, January 22, from 1:30-3:30, I hope you will join me for a meeting considering the rejuvenation and reorganization of this important committee. Bring your ideas for what support we might offer members and friends to enhance and sustain our “caring and compassionate community.” Consider together how the committee/team might best function. If you have ideas or energy to contribute and can’t make the meeting, please contact me beforehand, so I can bring them to the meeting. Use the information at the Contact Us tab above.
In this New Year, let us be grateful for all we have received from this wonderful spiritual community, and let us make plans to keep extending its kindness and compassion.
Wishing you a New Year filled with joy and good,
Terry
© 2011 Rev. Theresa Kime
Reflection and Transition
December 2010
December is a transition month. It can offer a time for reflection and for adjustments to our life course, personally and communally. The holy times of this month ask us to take time to remember new life, what saves us, what matters to us, miracles, the joy of generosity and goodwill, and the beauty and mystery of the natural world. We also end one year and begin another, leading to questions about where we’ve been and some time for dreaming about where we might go.
What has 2010 been like for you? What decisions were made in your life that have changed it and you? What events occurred that have given you new considerations, insight? What’s one thing you learned? One way you became more compassionate or kind, more loving? What hardship have you endured and how have you found support for your healing?
What has 2010 been like for you as a member or friend of this congregation? What worship services have you especially been touched by? How has being connected here changed your life and how? How would you like it to change you, and what might you do to enable it to do that? What events or projects have delighted you? How have you given yourself for the common good, stretched yourself in some way? What have the challenges been for you as part of community life? How has your spiritual life been deepened?
I will be sitting down sometime before January 1, perhaps on the last day of the year, lighting a candle and doing some reflection on the above questions. And then I’ll do a list of thank-you’s and gratitudes, and write some dreams I have for myself, and our congregation, in the new year. I hope you’ll join me in this reflection, in spirit, wherever you are that day.
Wishing you every blessing and holiday joy,
Terry
© 2010 Rev. Theresa Kime
Season of Thanksgiving
November 2010
Most of us love this season of Thanksgiving. It’s a bright, warm spot for many in the midst of autumn’s bare trees and the continual drop of daily temperatures and shorter days. No matter if we gather with friends and family on the day itself or dine alone, it is always good to take time to offer thanks – thanks that we have food and shelter and that we do not live in a war-torn area. We may find ourselves giving thanks for family and friends, near and far, those with whom we are close and those with whom we struggle. Thanks for the possibility of learning, growing, creating, and giving. For art, for music and poetry. For science and math and medicine. Thanks for spiritual teachers around the world who inspire us. For peacemakers with their courage and dedication. Thanks for the sky and for our pets, for water and lakes, for pastures and for the wild creatures that surprise us.
This list is just the beginning, isn’t it? Likely you can think of many, many more things to add, and hopefully you will. If not specifically on Thanksgiving Day, at least sometime in November (maybe once a week this month), perhaps we’ll each take time to write our lists of gratitudes, and also take time to read them over, and over.
And then, with full hearts, maybe we will turn our attention to those places in our community, in our families, in our country and the world, where such a list is cut short, and we’ll find a way to help change that.
With gratitude for your good hearts and the joy of our connection,
Terry
© 2010 Rev. Theresa Kime
Embracing Change
October 2010
October, and the changing of the seasons is definitely upon us, a transition we can no longer ignore. Change sometimes has its moments of wonder and moments of difficulty, like fall, with its beautiful leaves but chill in the air, and later bare trees.
Buddhists remind us that the constant of life is that it is ever changing and unpredictable. This can be scary, and, it can also be renewing when we savor every moment as a new beginning.
Whatever is happening in your life this season, our congregation is there to support and encourage, celebrate and grieve with you. Come on Sundays this season to share in the warmth and renewal of the spiritual home we create together.
Wishing you every blessing,
Terry
© 2010 Rev. Theresa Kime
Energy and Enthusiasm
September 2010
It will be so good to see you all again on September 12! I hope you’ve had a refreshing summer and are eager to gather once again for a congregational year full of energy and enthusiasm.
Many exciting things are being planned: our first-ever Service Auction on November 13th, a youth group trip to Boston in the spring to experience our UU roots, clarification of our congregation’s mission and vision, Chalice Circles (a small-group ministry) to meet monthly to reflect on sermon themes, development of a Covenant of Right Relationship! Yes!! Yes!!
We’ll be engaged and challenged this year to “deepen our understanding and expand our vision,” as our UU Principles and Living Tradition put it. I can’t wait, and I hope neither can you!
With every good wish,
Terry
© 2010 Rev. Theresa Kime