October 20, 2024
View from Katahdin Woods & Waters National Monument Contact StationOur UUHoulton group ventured to the new
Tekαkαpimək Contact Station at Katahdin Woods & Waters National Monument after the Sunday service last week. Seventeen UUs and Bobby (Cyndie’s little dog) car pooled to Staceyville and spent the afternoon exploring one of the nation’s newest National Monuments.
The Friends of Katahdin Woods & Waters hosted a “first look” of the Tekαkαpimək Contact Station on August 17-18 with a ribbon cutting ceremony including the US Secretary of the Interior. The center is still under construction and will be turned over to the National Parks Service and open in 2025. This past week-end was one more opportunity to get a first look. It is simply amazing and will require several more visits to take it all in. I overheard people remark on the spiritual nature of their experience and the strong emotional response. It is a treasure to have this sanctuary of nature and spirit in our area. Sunday Service this week is a continuation of our theme for the year with Part Three; Love at the Center. We will look at dynamics of the spiritual life; in this case the two dimensions of religion. You will find study material related to the topic included in this week’s Support Page from Love at the Center; Unitarian Universalist Theologies.
The minister also has another rock/crystal to facilitate our discussion and practice. YouTube Channel content for this week recognizes:
Indigenous Peoples’ Day with a lecture by Isaac St. John, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer of the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians (HBMI). Isaac is an archeologist and cultural historian working to study and preserve the traditions of the local Maliseet Tribe. Isaac’s lecture is titled “A Tale of Two World Views” and he discusses the differences between the Indigenous and Western worldviews of the environment and self. Q&A will follow the presentation. One of the related topics is the recent river restoration project on the Meduxnekeag River and the Maliseet Tribe’s involvement. The minister has a short slide show to accompany the discussion. We hope you can join us for one of the services online or in-person.Enjoy the week-end!
In Ministry,
Dave
Study Material for Session #3
Love at the Center
Chapter One (excerpt) “The Theology of Love Was Never a Monologue” by Rev. Nancy McDonald Ladd
Surely many of us know the too-often-preached dictionary definition of the word theology that says it arises from the ancient Greek theo and logos—meaning god and talk. And so, theology, we say, is God talk or talk about God. It’s the way we speak of and speak with the holy. But how do we carry on this theological conversation as the inheritors of the Unitarian, Universalist, and Unitarian Universalist traditions? What does it mean to us, now, to do this theological God-talk without simply just declaring things across barriers of difference and disagreement? Perhaps most importantly, what does the evolving language and practice of our shared theology call us to in this time, when the world is so full of pain that it feels as if everything we value is on fire?
I’ll just come right out and say it—especially right now, when the world is in pain, the stakes are so high, and the work of progressive faith is as important as it has ever been. Here it is:I’m not sure I really care what I personally and individually believe anymore.Frankly, I’m not sure you should really care what I believe either. This is not to say that belief doesn’t matter. Yes, there are beliefs that kill and beliefs that give life—yes, of course. Stay with me.I want to make a case that maybe we shouldn’t spend so much time asking what it is we personally do and do not believe in the deep inner recesses of our own hearts; maybe that highly individualistic and utterly non-relational question “What do you believe?” isn’t the point of theology in the first place. After all, theology is a conversation. Remember that old dictum we started with? It’s God-talk. Theology is not an inner monologue for the purposes of one’s own clarification and edification. It isn’t talking to oneself about oneself for oneself. At the very least, theology is a dialogue, and so the question that I think is most pertinent to our history and our time is not so much “What do I believe?” as it is “With whom am I in holy and accountable conversation?
As we often say, we are a covenantal faith rather than a creedal one. We speak of how we want to be together rather than a set of common assertions we are supposed to believe together. In this way, we are a people who make promises in relationship to others. As Martin Buber famously put it, human beings are “the promise making, promise breaking, promise renewing creature.”2 The hardest and most important promises are only very occasionally the sort of promises you make to yourself alone. If theology implies the existence of something or someone to attend to, covenant implies the existence of something or someone to make promises to, and the earliest examples of covenant in the historic Hebrew and Christian traditions from which we draw our theological sustenance were definitely not made alone in quiet attic rooms with lots of uninterrupted alone time to ponder the meaning of things.
In the ancient world from which we draw this covenant tradition, a covenant was kind of like a contract or a notarized document. It set out the framework for a relationship, the promises and conditions under which that relationship would proceed…In this way, the covenants of our theological ancestors were not merely a set of behavioral ground rules that the people made between each other. Rather, they were promises negotiated, made, and lived out in relationship to a living God. In the case of our Universalist ancestors, this was a living God whose very essence in this world was the experience of irresistible and ever-present love.
It was theologian Jurgen Moltmann who popularized the framework of a vertical and a horizontal dimension to faith. The vertical is that which transcends us, that which pulls us up to an object of reverence. The horizontal is the dimension of faith lived out right here—among us and within us, a this-worldly faith that calls us to attention and action in this present moment. Moltmann said that these two aspects of faith, the vertical and the horizontal, are not alternatives in competition with each other. Instead, they exist in essential and dynamic tension, with the vertical always putting pressure on the horizontal. This means that the transcendent in which we are in covenantal relationship always exerts some kind of transformational pressure on this world and each of us within it.
And that, not a call to theism as such, is at the heart of my contention here. It is merely this, that theology, covenant, and the love that will not let us go—none of it—is really about us uniquely and specifically. It really isn’t about you at all. Or me. When we unseat the vertical dimension entirely and cease to pursue a relationship with the holy separate and beyond our own understanding, a thing that happens is that we tend to try to put ourselves in God’s place. Likewise, when we mistakenly believe that theology is all about what we do and do not personally believe, we tend to discount the inherently relational and covenantal dimensions of theology itself, turning it into a monologue of our own assertions instead of a dialogue with the beloved.
When we put ourselves in God’s place, another thing that happens is that we get an awfully high opinion of our own personal perspectives and our own inherent individual goodness. We can also exert a great deal of our personal energy asserting the truth of that individual rightness and personal goodness to each other and defending ourselves against anyone who would claim otherwise. In this way, making a good account of oneself can become the people’s singular preoccupation, usually at the expense of the community-building mission we claim to collectively share. As one pair of community leaders recently put it, goodness itself “is a designation one seeks to defend rather than something we seek to generate in the world in concert with other people.
Love, however, only exists in relationship to the beloved. Like theology, it is an inherently relational enterprise. It does not require individual retrenchment into a place of defensiveness and self-protection. It does not care what you believe. Love cares how we can generate life-giving hope in concert with those around us. As we have practiced it in our theological tradition, love is not now and never has been something that happens in isolation, separate from the sacred push-and-pull of relationship with each other and with the holy. Love does not happen all alone. Like theology, it has never been a monologue. It unfolds, together, in places far beyond the entrenched positions of what each of us does and does not believe. It is not mine or yours—but ours.
LGBTQ+ Luncheon
October 19, Saturday 12 Noon
Come to The Cup Cafe this Saturday for a LGBTQ+ potluck meal open to all generations and allies!
If you would like to bring a dish, you’re more than welcome to but there is no cost to attend. The meal will take
place on Saturday, October 19th from 12:00 – 2:00 at 61 Military Street
HOULTON COFFEEHOUSE
October 19, Saturday Evening 7-9 PM
The Cup Cafe, 61 Military Street OPEN-MIC NIGHT
It’s open-mic night this Saturday night at the Houlton Coffeehouse. If you are an aspiring musician, poet, stand-up comedian or writer you won’t find a better stage (or more supportive audience) to try out your material. Believe it or not, the Houlton Coffeehouse is now in our 32nd year (and still going strong!). Come early to sign up and we’ll try to fit in as many performers as possible. If it’s cold outside, come inside and get some hot foods. Jody and her kitchen crew have a great food lineup for coffeehouse; Apple Butternut Pumpkin Soup, French Onion Soup, Gouda Apple Walnut rolls, Vegan Broccoli & Cheese Rolls, Pepperoni & Cheese Rolls and assorted sweet treats. Wowsa! The fizz bar will also be open and our full line of coffee drinks available on the espresso machine. Pumpkin spice lattes are back for autumn!
Come early for supper and hang out before the show. Cafe doors open at 5:30PM.
See you at the Cup!
Feel the buzz…Menu
Apple Butternut Pumpkin Soup (vegan)French Onion SoupGouda Apple Walnut RollsBroccoli & Cheddar Rolls Pepperoni & Cheese RollsAssorted Sweet TreatsHot Spiced CiderPumpkin Spice Latte
Expanded Menu
Vegan Breakfast Rolls; egg, cheese, hash browns & sausageVegan Treat Ball and Sauce RollVegan Cinnamon RollsHam and Swiss Cheese RollsVegan Lemon, Raspberry Cream Cheese Whoopie Pies
In Celebration of Music, Poetry and the Arts…
During the month of October we are designating our weekly Pishke donations for two specific projects; on October 13 our donation went to the Maliseet Tribe Food Bank and on October 20 and 27 our donations will go to the UUA Disaster Relief Fund for recent hurricane victims. The Pishke is our UUHoulton effort to collect funds for local needs in our community and our own group as well as
specified social justice needs. Our shared life benefits us all.
UUA Disaster Relief Fund
The scale of destruction in the wake of Hurricane Helene has been utterly devastating to many communities in the southeastern United States. Some Unitarian Universalist congregations have been seriously impacted and others are still trying to assess the damage. You can help support Unitarian Universalists and their communities as they recover from this storm by giving generously to the UUA’s Disaster Relief Fund.
Sunday plate collections are an important way to support this fund and we encourage all congregations that are able, to consider taking up such a collection. Disaster Relief Fund donations become grants to Unitarian Universalists, their congregations, and their communities. All gifts granted in the course of immediate crisis response will be extended directly to impacted communities. While an immediate collection is ideal given the immediacy of the need, please consider a gift or dedicated collection at any point, now or in the coming months.
Our hearts are with everyone struggling to get through these days and begin recovery efforts, especially our siblings in LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC communities, who have consistently been the least supported by local institutions. We know that some UU communities experiencing lesser impacts have already been organizing support for more directly-impacted folks. Thank you for being a beacon of hope for so many.
THIS WEEK’S YOUTUBE SERVICE:
HERE IS THE SERVICE LINK FOR THIS WEEK’S YOUTUBE SERVICE
(Please note it won’t be active until 10AM on Sunday morning)
HERE IS THE ZOOM LINK FOR SUNDAY COFFEE HOUR:
Topic: UUHoulton Zoom coffee hourTime: Oct 20, 2024 11:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meetinghttps://us06web.zoom.us/j/87336332721?pwd=PZwnNux5R5wVRzdMSQDWoaWtLHPHtS.1
Meeting ID: 873 3633 2721Passcode: 313710
Calendar of Events @UUHoulton
Oct 19 LGBTQ+ Luncheon 12 Noon in the cafe
Oct 19 Houlton Coffeehouse 7PM
Oct 20 Sunday Service: David Hutchinson
Oct 22 Meditation Group 4PM (online)
Oct 24 Art Class @The Cup 3-6PM
Oct 27 Sunday Service: UUHoulton CUUPS Group
Nov 2 Arts and Craft Show 9AM-3PM UU fellowship hall Food and Refreshments available in The Cup Cafe
Nov 3 Sunday Service: Brigitte Rivers
Nov 5 Meditation Group 4PM (online)
Nov 10 Sunday Service: David Hutchinson
Nov 16 LGBTQ+ Luncheon 12 noon
Nov 17 Sunday Service: Pledge Drive Kick-Off Sunday Group-Led Service Potluck Meal Following the Service
Nov 19 Meditation Group 4PM (online)
Nov 24 Sunday Service: David Hutchinson
Nov 24 Art Class @The Cup 1-3PM
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 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
When Resistance Becomes River
Wisdom from the school of soft things
| SARAH BLONDIN“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature—the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.”—From Rachel Carson’s seminal work, Silent Spring.My body has been repeating a single word for the past few years: “Receive”, as if laced with some mysterious meaning, I have been asking how? Please show me how to receive. This word emerges at this time of collective uncertainty like a steady, insistent pulse.As a child, I remember lying in the dark of my room, receiving the warmth and comfort of my bed. I am held high above the cold wooden floors, cocooned in a silent downy embrace. Moved by this kindness I start to cry. The gift I received was incredibly simple. I was consciously connecting with, opening up to, and bringing into my little body a feeling of safety. While the world outside that bed scared me, I found sweetness in between my struggles and let my body unwind. A real moment of pause. A true understanding dawned: goodness reaches out to me from many directions, not just overwhelm. In the midst of fear and unease, there was something gentle to be found. I could tune in, I could bring it in. After all, we are mostly bodies of water. I could harness my power by riding gentle currents.Receiving has enabled me to tilt on my axis, to change the lens, to move with fluidity. As I see it, receiving is the opposite of resisting. In both the turbulent and peaceful moments of my life, I am actively receiving something. As with water meeting stone, sometimes receiving is about allowing ourselves to flow around what appears impossible. Darkness presses down on me and teaches me how to receive my body of wounds. By receiving, I embrace both its complexity and a gentle love capable of holding it. It is teaching me how to be grown. During my peaceful moments, I am receiving the presence of God hidden in all places. The air around us hums steadily with silence and love. This peace teaches me trust. Grown in Trust.Is there anything other than resistance that causes suffering? How can we reduce our resistance by receiving more often? Is it possible to look for gentleness in everything we do and follow it through our lives?It is my hope that I can be attuned to the whole, so I can receive the truth of the ongoing violence and destruction, the fears, the tears, the prayers, the mothers, the fathers, the orphans. Could I widen my aperture and allow the unaffected light of gentleness to breathe with me? In every room and moment, is it possible for me to welcome it into my body as medicine, as emptiness, as safety? Could I help my world move out of resistance, into a new frame of mind? A warm bed around each of us that is generous, and supportive. A balance between what hurts and what heals. This story was shared by a member of our community last week. She offers a vivid illustration of receiving nature’s expression:Yesterday I felt this constriction with all the tension in the collective psyche right now, with the growing wars, the US election around the corner, and these extremely destructive hurricanes we are experiencing here in the southeast US, with Helene and now Milton barreling down in a few hours. Last night I took a walk in my neighborhood. I contemplated the crescent moon perched in between tall palm trees branches and I felt the still humid thickness in the air, that eerie calm before the storm. I released my fears to the moon praying that she stem her powerful tides. I asked the air to soften her blow just a bit. I came to this reflection that these hurricanes are just an extreme example of what happens inside of us individually and collectively, how our emotions can become mini energetic cyclones. I was once again amazed and the inter connectedness of it all. I felt a sense of awe within the dread and now here you are sharing your experience of confronting and releasing your own inner storms.Through her receiving, she entered a new state of awareness that stabilized her in a way, imparting a palpable wisdom. Eyes wide open, awake, inside the storm. Looking in every direction, she sought out what was being offered. As a whole. It was in the midst of the upheaval that insight and understanding came to fruit. Sometimes I wonder if receiving is nature’s oldest language – one we’ve known since before words. When a tree receives rain, it doesn’t question the timing or the amount. It simply opens its leaves, lets the water travel down its bark, shares with its roots, and offers what remains to the earth below. In this giving-receiving dance, there’s no separation between personal and universal.Perhaps this is why my body keeps whispering “receive” – not just as a personal invitation, but as a remembering of our place in the greater dance. Like water finding its way through soil, or light passing through leaves, we too can learn this ancient way of being. A way that transforms both the receiver and the received. Our ability to receive fully enables us to become part of nature’s own immune system, her way of healing herself through us.I will leave you with a letter from nature itself, the Great Mother. The following words came to me while sitting under a large cedar tree in my front yard:“The human is trapped inside a too small container filled with many voices. They must journey into the wild of themselves, and of nature, to empty the self. Find in the gentlest place, a light that knows and grows with each visitation. Inspire the heart inside the human to wake from its palpating disconnect. An inner voice reminds you: there is a great reason for your existence.Stand in harmony with what hurts and what heals, both yin and yang. The union. There can be no closed eyes, both must be open within one another. The clear center inside the light and the dark. Look for what is gentle. Weep your heart out to the tree, to the water, to the grass and to the sky. Recover your balance. Grace-filled forevermore.Let my trees guide you. In the same way that my grass is now, bend. As the great gusts shift, let the pollen and dust be shaken loose. The husk, the seed, the bits that cling to you. Release.Observe me stir this body of life as I wake and reform, seed and carry, touch and ruffle that which needs the extremes in order to find its next home. By all my mighty shapes, I show you what it means to give up your will and accept your limitations. Don’t take up arms. The chaos will eventually lead to order, you must understand this. Act slowly in these moments. Watch and be still. Listen.There is no formula for learning how to let go. You can practice and think you know, but on special days like this one, I’ll show you. After taking the seeds, I toss them into the air. Don’t worry about where it lands, my darling girl. In my garden, you are also a seed. With my wind, I carry you.When you embrace this truth without arguing, you will discover its beauty. Tiny, frightened thing, nothing can destroy you. Remember not to lose heart. The nature of your being is morphogenic. Be humble in realizing this. To surrender your preconceived notions by bowing with my branches. Drop everything from your head and hands. You follow, I lead.“Like the cedar teaching me to bow, like dawn after night and spring after winter – everything returns to receiving. It was my body that knew this truth before I could grasp it, and it ran through me like a mantra. These enduring reserves of strength are found in opening and welcoming. Flourishing – like trees, rooted in nature’s endless healing, who long ago learned to dance between earth and sky. love,SarahSarah Blondin @sarahblondinThe author of Heart Minded, an artist, meditator, and mother. |
We have lots of photos from recent activities associated with UUHoulton but not enough data space toshare them all on this week’s Support Page. We’ll have more next time!
Group photo from Katahdin Woods and Waters Day Trip(sorry, not everyone made it into the photo)
Pressing Cider at Aroostook Apple Days
Group photo of UU Women’s Trip to Grand Manan
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 Prayers for the worsening humanitarian crisis in GazaPrayers for those affected by the tragic school shooting in Georgia.Prayers for those recovering from the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Florida, North Carolina and the South EastPrayers for peace in the Middle East as the conflict widensPrayers for those recovering from hurricane Milton in Florida
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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