April 14, 2024

UUHoulton Eclipse ’24 FairEclipse ’24 was amazing!! The town of Houlton is now an “Eclipse Town” and hosted the cosmic event in grand fashion. The visitors who came will be talking about their eclipse experiences for years to come (a lifetime?) and reminisce about their time spent in Houlton. UUHoulton was busy as well, and the many people we met will carry part of our UU hospitality with them. The total eclipse itself was the event and each person had their own “totality” moment; the particular spot you viewed it from or the person or people you were sharing it with. In coming weeks we will have a chance to share some of those stories and explore the “after-effect” of viewing a total eclipse. 

This week Randi Bradbury and Ira Dyer lead the Sunday service with special organ music by Dale Holden. The title of the message is “Unity of Community.”  We will also have a short recognition and appreciation moment during announcements to share some highlights from the UUHoulton Eclipse Fair. It took a lot of volunteers and long hours to pull it off! We are attempting to have a group photo in front of eclipse rock (with alien glasses) and then we will have party cake and extra goodies from the eclipse menu for coffee hour. You don’t want to miss it! If you happen to have a Cup Cafe Eclipse T-shirt you may want to wear it to the service on Sunday. If you don’t have one yet, we still have plenty available for you, friends and family. We are also inviting people to send in eclipse photos for a power point slide show in next week’s service. The photos can be ones you took at the church or around town. Please send them to dave@backwoodsblog.com

YouTube Channel content for this week is our Eclipse ’24 service in the sanctuary at 10AM with special music on the Frisbee organ by Rev. Dale Holden, guest musician Bertrand Laurence and an eclipse themed EarthCare service titled “Our Shared Planet.”

We hope you can join us for one of the services. 

In Ministry,

Dave

There is no LGBTQ+ Luncheon on Saturday due to post eclipse fatigue. We will see you next month on May 18 at 12 noon. 

HOULTON COFFEEHOUSE
On second thought…there is no coffeehouse this weekend. Our staff is still recovering from last week’s electrifying Eclipse ’24 celebration so we’re going to take the weekend off! We’ll be back next month ready to go. Until then, check out a few of the concert clips from last weekend’s shows on The Cup Cafe Facebook Page.   https://www.facebook.com/The-Cup-Cafe-140376419359665

Eclipse ’24Everyone look up!

View from the front lawn…

Eclipse drummers post totalityJim and Peggy Shimko from UU Bangor, Joshua and Christoph

“eclipse-exposed” rocks 

Dwayne relaxing post totality

Fred Grant of WHOU and Isaac Potter made this great clip to remind us of Houlton’s  “Moment in the Sun”. 

Take a look  https://vimeo.com/932980947/988264a7bf?share=copy

THIS WEEK’S YOUTUBE SERVICE:

HERE IS THE SERVICE LINK FOR THIS WEEK’S YOUTUBE SERVICE

HERE IS THE ZOOM LINK FOR SUNDAY COFFEE HOUR:
Topic: UUHoulton zoom coffee hour & check inTime: Apr 14, 2024 11:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)       Join Zoom Meetinghttps://us06web.zoom.us/j/81880286111?pwd=vlN8YurDY0xe0DGbPOF0y8YHvB0tlk.1
Meeting ID: 818 8028 6111 Passcode: 162132

Calendar of Events @UUHoulton

April 14 Sunday Service:  Randi Bradbury & Ira DyerApril 16 Meditation Group  4PM  (online)  

April 21 Sunday Service:  David Hutchinson  (Earth Day Service)

April 28Sunday Service:  Jodi Scott

April 30    Meditation Group   4PM     (online)

May 5 Sunday Service:  David HutchinsonMay 12 Sunday Service:  Joshua Atkinson

May 14 Meditation Group  4PM  (online)

May 18 LGBTQ+ Luncheon 12 NoonMay 18 Houlton Coffeehouse  7PM

May 19 Sunday service: David Hutchinson

May 26 Sunday Service: TBA

May 28 Meditation Group  4PM  (online)

June 2 Flower Communion Service     David Hutchinson New Members Recognition Sunday Potluck BBQ Party following the service 

Virtual Offering Plate
If you would like to send in your pledge or donation simply drop an envelope in the mail. The address is listed below.  You can also send your donation electronically with our new payment system on the church website.  Simply go to uuhoulton.org and click “Donate” on the menu and it will explain how the system works. You can set up a regular monthly payment plan or donate in single transactions.  Thank you for your generous support!  
UU Church of Houlton

61 Military Street

Filmmakers focus on Houlton for eclipse documentary

by Kathleen Phalen TomaselliApril 6, 2024

photo taken at The Cup Cafe

HOULTON, Maine – Filmmakers Tom van Kalken and Mia Weinberger are discovering that Houlton is not a stereotypical, homogenous rural Maine town.  

“If you just drove through town you would think it was like any small town in America,” van Kalken said. “But if you stop and meet the people and get to know them, there’s a lot of layers to it and that’s what we’re trying to get across.”

The idea for a Houlton-based feature-length documentary, “A Moment in the Sun,” got started a bit by chance when the New York filmmakers started thinking about viewing the total solar eclipse on April 8.

As they explored the path of totality, the swath of American towns cast into total darkness by the moon’s shadow, the filmmaking duo decided to tell the story of Houlton and the eclipse.

“I was watching a video of a Houlton eclipse planning public forum and I was like, ‘I love this town, I love these people and it’s so interesting and cool that it’s the last place to see the eclipse in the country,’” Weinberger said.

Since that time about three months ago, their lens has been focused on Houlton and preparations for a projected 40,000 visitors expected to arrive in town for the unearthly event. 

The town is one character in the documentary as are the other four main characters van Kalken and Weinberger have been shadowing for the past few months. 

The four featured characters in “A Moment in the Sun” are Johanna Johnston, the executive director of the Southern Aroostook Development Corp. and head of the town’s eclipse planning; Mark Horvath, an astrophysicist who has been instrumental in offering the science side of things for the planning; Dave Hutchinson, the Houlton Unitarian Universalist minister and Erica Burkhart, a local entrepreneur who owns an in-town embroidery business while also running Bulrush Farm with her husband and five children. 

Just the other day, Burkhart invited the filmmakers to her home for dinner.

“We’ve had more home cooked dinners since we came to Houlton than we have ever had in New York,” they said. “This has turned into a much more personal project because we really connected with the people of Houlton. We really feel this responsibility to tell a good story on behalf of these people.”

Several themes for the documentary are emerging during filming, they said. 

The more obvious is the story of the community coming together and preparing for such a large event.

The other is that the film is relatable to every life.

“We don’t know what the weather will be like, we don’t know how many people are going to come, but we prepare anyway and prepare the best you can,” van Kalken said. “And then that’s the best you can hope for and it is relatable to a lot of people. There are unknowns in all our lives.”

Earlier this week, Johnston, one of the characters in the film and the person who is making sure all the critical details like porta potties and shuttle bus routes, food, gas and back-up cell service are in place, was taking a short break from filming. 

“What a wonderful opportunity for our community to be able to show how we can come together to host such a monumental event,” she said. “This is something that will outlive this one weekend and illustrate to the world what Houlton has to offer. It’s been a lot of fun.”

Both filmmakers have recently released award winning films, including Weinberger’s “The Last Hurrah, and van Kalken’s “The Salt of the Earth.”

Weinberger started her film career in comedy, eventually moving into more narrative work. And van Kalken was a writer and producer of a kids science show. They are life partners and this is the first film they will be making together. 

Because the Houlton eclipse festivities are gearing up this weekend, the filmmaking team has help coming this weekend to capture all that happens.

“We definitely will pick up on the atmosphere of how busy it’s getting and definitely interview people from away who are just visiting,” Weinberger said. 

Their plan is to have the film edited this summer and ready for film festivals in the fall and they will certainly have a cast and crew screening at the Temple Theater, Weinberger said. 

“A lot of our motivation is to make sure this is a great film and a great depiction of everything we have enjoyed here and for the people here, van Kalken said.

Awe-some

As the moon crossed over the sun yesterday, millions of people from Mazatlán to Maine stopped to gaze upward in a profound experience of awe. The solar eclipse tapped into a primal emotion. It evoked for many a mystical moment, as awareness of the celestial encompassed the earth. It revealed the close dance between spirituality and science.

For a nation pulled apart by every manner of division, the eclipse also offered a moment of unity, however brief. It was a reminder to everyone, on the same day and at the same time, that life can be magical. That being alive is a collective experience. That there is something astonishing about being part of the greater story of things.

Houlton, Maine: As the moon and the sun inched into perfect alignment in cloudless skies, turning day to night, the crowd quieted. Couples embraced. Small flocks of birds darted over the town square, and orange light glowed on the horizon. Time seemed to stop for three minutes. And then, too soon, sunlight flared. “I would pay a million dollars to see that again,” Sebastian Pelletier, 11, said.

On Monday, millions of people are hoping for their own sun-powered experience of awe. A total solar eclipse will sweep across North America, from Mazatlán up through Indiana to Newfoundland. More than 30 million people live in the path of totality, where for a few brief minutes the moon will entirely block out the sun, and darkness will swallow the light of day. A halo will glow white behind the moon, the sun’s corona.Amid the rush to purchase eclipse glasses to protect one’s eyes and to check if clouds will disrupt the view, a deeper human experience is unfolding. The eclipse taps into a primal emotion, and evokes for many a sort of mystical moment and childlike wonder, as awareness of the celestial encompasses the earth. It is a present reminder to everyone, on the same day, that life can be magical.For a nation pulled apart by every manner of division, the eclipse and the awe it inspires offers a moment of unity, if brief. It is a reminder of the collective experience of being alive, of the dance between spirituality and science, and the sheer astonishment at being part of the greater story of things.“Astronomical phenomena have probably likely always been a source of awe and fear, from ever since Homo sapiens could stand upright and look at the night sky,” said Priyamvada Natarajan, a professor of astronomy at Yale University. “In these really turbulent times, these experiences of collective awe are probably extremely helpful in showing us to transcend the day-to-day noise and chaos of our lives, and of nations’ lives.”In ancient days, communities in India believed an eclipse was a demon swallowing the sun, Ms. Natarajan said. But now an eclipse is an opportunity to pay homage to the explanatory power of science. And in modern secular society, it offers a sense of belonging, a collective moment like the religious expression of prayer and gratitude. “The question is about transcendence,” she said.
Even NASA, in its scientific, moment-by-moment breakdown of the eclipse, urges “stealing a peek at the people around you — many people have a deep emotional response when the sun goes into totality.”

The sense of the transcendence in religion is not that different from what he sees as a scientist in encountering evolution. “We are probably talking about the same experience,” Mr. Keltner said.Today, half of American adults report feelings of loneliness, and technology disconnects people from lived physicality of the human experience. Virtual realities promised an “awesome” future but have not delivered, Mr. Keltner said, and people are hungry for something more, for transcendent emotions, for a sense of loss of self.“There is something profound about sharing our awareness of meaningful events,” he said.Ancient Sanskrit texts like the Bhagavad Gita mention adbhuta, describing an expression of awe and wonder that is scary, said Deepak Sarma, professor of Indian religions and philosophy at Case Western Reserve University. Even though adbhuta has something fearful in it, it is beautiful.“Maybe something that is wonderful ought to be something feared,” said Professor Sarma, who uses the pronouns they and them. The eclipse will pass right overhead the professor’s home, and they plan to go outside and invoke various Hindu prayers and Wiccan rituals, with their partner and cat.
The eclipse is egalitarian, available to everyone, and not just humans. “All sentient creatures are going to experience this, even not sentient creatures,” they said, noting that even the stones on the ground will cool when the sun disappears.During the 2017 total eclipse, Daniel Beverly, a postdoctoral research fellow at Indiana University, measured what happened to individual sagebrush leaves when the sun went dark. The plant showed biochemical signs of stress, as photosynthesis stopped and carbon uptake slowed, he said.This time, he has experiments set up to measure the impact on an entire forest of sugar maples, white oaks, tulip poplars and sassafras. It is a rare chance to learn how an eclipse affects not just one individual, but an entire ecosystem, Mr. Beverly said.“We never get to make an entire forest go dark for four minutes,” he said. “It is an opportunity to connect dots we don’t normally get to.”Awe is found not just in the skies. The eclipse will not pass over Arizona, but at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, Sarah Haas, deputy chief of science and resource management for the national park, is filled with awe looking up from the Colorado River.“You are getting a snapshot from the bottom of the earth, looking back, the colors and the sky, from the river,” she said. “There is something very connecting to the soul about that experience.”

“That is where the magic is,” she said. “I’m not living in the past, I’m not living in the future … I am just here.”

Elizabeth Dias is The Times’s national religion correspondent, covering faith, politics and culture.Prayer List
For those working for social justice and societal changePray for peaceful action and democratic process in our nationThe war in Ukraine continuesPrayers for those in Palestine and Israel as the war continues into its seventh monthPrayers for the worsening humanitarian crisis in GazaPrayers for those affected by the recent earthquake in TaiwanPrayers for those affected by the recent earthquake in New Jersey and east coast 

The Four Limitless Ones Prayer

May all sentient beings enjoy happiness and the root of happiness.

May we be free from suffering and the root of suffering.

May we not be separated from the great happiness devoid of suffering.

May we dwell in the great equanimity free from anger, aggression and delusion.

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