December 8, 2024
“UU candles from First Sunday of Advent” (2024)
After the service last Sunday as I was removing the candles from the wooden bowl that we use for our weekly Candles of Joy and Concern ritual, I noticed the curious “melt-down” arrangement of the extinguished candles. The nine candles came out as one interconnected wax sculpture. Unexpected as it was, it contained an Advent theme of its own, we are not as separate or independent as we might think. Our one life becomes a shared life as we spend time and seek sacred space together. In case you’re wondering, I did not discard them (how could I?), I found a safe storage place from which they will reappear at some future point in time.
This Sunday is the second week of Advent. We will sing our first Christmas hymn, the tree is up in the parlor and the minister’s homily is titled “The Advent List.” The tree is not decorated as of yet, so please join us during coffee hour for goodies and tree decorating too!
YouTube Channel content for this week is a flashback service to December of 2020, one of our early online services during Covid. The service was recorded in an empty parlor with just the speaker, musicians and the camera man. Looking back, those were interesting times indeed. In this 2020 Advent Service Nick Foster is the soloist, Dale Holden the pianist, Dave Hutchinson the speaker and Fen Carmichael the camera man. The title of the homily is “Nativity.”
Once again, we’re including a copy of this year’s Annual Request in today’s Support Page. The pledge campaign lasts from November 17 until December 15 as we will use these numbers to help in our budget process. The response has been encouraging so far. Please consider a pledge of support! We hope you can join us for one of the services online or in-person.
Enjoy the week-end and keep warm!
In Ministry,Dave
Unitarian Universalist Church of Houlton 61 Military Street, Houlton, ME. 04730
ANNUAL PLEDGE APPEAL 2025
Dear Members and Friends,
As 2024 and the events of the spring, summer and fall are winding down, we look forward to our hunkering down period. The Danes and Norwegians refer to this as “Hygge”. A time of warmth, introspection, and planning. The dark colder months, in some ways, force us into the comfort of our homes, to take a deeper look into what the new year will bring. And what preparations we need to consider and address in the coming year.
Just as our own homes require tending to, so does our Church home. Caring for a 120+ year old building has it challenges. We are very grateful to our Building Committee (BC) for their dedication and support in giving of their volunteer hours, spent working on and assessing the needs and priorities of our Church building. We were blessed this year with a Putnam Grant award, which enabled us to update the building with heat pumps. We expect this upgrade will help us with lower costs in heating and cooling and a savings overall in the utilities budget for 2025. The BC is currently assessing what the priority projects are for this next budget year. We will be applying for another grant to help with those projects. While we don’t yet know exactly what needs to be done, we know there will inevitably be more projects than money to cover them all! We have all witnessed what happens to old buildings without regular maintenance and deferred repairs. So while we are hopeful we will be amongst those chosen by the grantor to receive funds, we still need to plan for the building needs, regardless of receiving grant funds. This is the hard work of stewardship.
The FRISBEE ORGAN has been tuned and some much needed repairs made. As you can imagine, an instrument of this size and age requires regular ongoing maintenance, and a plan to insure it continues to perform as the literal beating heart of the Sanctuary. The Board of Trustees (BoT) has established a separate fund (The FOFO) dedicated to keeping this beautiful organ in its best possible condition with regularly scheduled maintenance, repairs and tuning.
The Cup Cafe has re-opened post Covid after a much needed upgrade and investment in the kitchen. We are excited to see the progress and development of programs for the community being offered in that space. Our hope is that the evolving programs will help support us in many ways, spiritually, socially, and financially. And along with the re-opening of the Cup Cafe, the Houlton Coffee House Open Mic nights are back! We look forward to hearing more about these events as they unfold.
As a small, but growing congregation of 30-40 active members, the budget falls on these few shoulders in order to meet the needs of the church. The volunteers, in-kind hours spent, and donations of materials, are a priceless component of meeting these needs. We would be unable to meet the demands of our church without those contributions. Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts.
But there is still insurance and utilities to pay, fuel to buy, grounds maintenance fees, supplies to be ordered, an on line digital presence to support, and a salary to pay. Which doesn’t even begin to address the building maintenance and repairs.
For the last few years we have budgeted fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000.00) as the Annual Pledge goal. With your commitment, we have been successful at reaching that number! We recognize that you share a love for this Church, these people and the historic building we call our spiritual home. A place of acceptance and inclusion, a safe place to be yourself in what can sometimes be a hard and difficult world.
All of these efforts and budget items rely heavily on the pledges and financial contributions from our supporters. This year we are asking, if it is within your ability, to stretch a little bit more. We have raised the budget goal for the pledge to twenty thousand dollars ($20,000.00). We recognize this is ambitious, but also necessary to meet this goal and the operating costs we anticipate. Your pledge is only part, but a big part, of meeting our needs. It not only represents your financial commitment, but also a spiritual commitment by investing in our future and this congregation as a body of spiritual sustenance and fellowship.
We deeply appreciate all that you do and have done. These funds will help us continue the work that started here so many years ago. It may interest you to know that we are the only US UU Church reaching south to Bangor and as far north as Fort Kent. We are committed to continuing to be a beacon of UU principles for those people searching for a place to grow in their spiritual journey. We are committed to providing a Sanctuary of open doors, thoughtful minds and loving hearts here in the Crown of Maine.
Please consider making your pledge today. Enclosed is a pledge card to return to us along with your preferred payment method. If you wish to also donate to the organ fund than please mark the appropriate box and note the organ fund on any checks or correspondence for our accounting accuracy. The body of the pledge funds are dedicated towards to the general operations fund for the Church.
With deep gratitude and hopeful expectations for the next year, we respectfully ask for your support in making this pledge a reality.
The Board Of Trustees is in full support of this initiative and fully vested in the pledge drive. Each, to their own ability, has increased their pledge from the prior campaign as a commitment to this goal.
The Pledge Committee:
Chair, Randi Bradbury
Members
Reverend Dale Holden
Reverend David Hutchinson, Advisor
UUHoulton would like to recommend an online immersion experience led by Fálki Heiðdóttir from Falcon & Acorn. Since she’s locally based in Island Falls you can also meet her in-person and get to know her. More information is available on her website at falconandacorn.com
Early Bird Registration is open for 13 Moons: A Journey to the Goddess Within.
13 Moons is a 13-month-long immersion. It is a deep-dive offering to support your personal healing and transformation work. Over 13 Moons, we’ll get to know the Norse goddess Frigg and her 12 Handmaidens. We’ll also delve into Norse myth, folklore, and traditional and contemporary practices. AND! There’s some physical movement and creative play tossed in too! If you identify as a woman aged 35+, enjoy working in a small group format, and want to immerse yourself in deep self-study (in good company) this coming year, our 2025 cohort might be just what you’re looking for!
13 Moons is an online offering. Access to Zoom is required. We also use a social media platform called the Mighty Networks to talk with each other between our live calls.
Read more and register at https://www.falconandacorn.com/13moons
Be sure to apply the Discount Code: AROOSTOOK at checkout to receive an additional 15% discount at registration. If you choose the monthly payment option, this discount will be applied to each subsequent payment.
~Fálki Heiðdóttir
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 hour & check inTime: Dec 8, 2024 11:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meetinghttps://us06web.zoom.us/j/85390620571?pwd=NowRXaQTDgG448agll58jd5HzyD8pz.1
Meeting ID: 853 9062 0571Passcode: 534660
Calendar of Events @UUHoultonDec 8 Sunday Service: David HutchinsonDec 14 LGBTQ+ Luncheon 12 noonDec 14 Houlton Coffeehouse 7PM Feature: Event Horizon and Johnny StrawsDec 15 Sunday Service: Dale HoldenDec 21 Winter Solstice Celebration 7PMDec 22 Sunday Service: David HutchinsonDec 24 Christmas Eve Candlelight Service 4PM (potluck in the church fellowship hall following)Dec 29 Sunday Service: Open Pulpit Service (yule log)
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
UUA Boston
From the President’s Desk:
After a turbulent and exhausting election season, I know that many in our communities feel a deep sense of confusion, anger, and uncertainty. This moment raises important questions about the future of our country, the safety of those targeted for oppression because of their identities, and the resilience of our collective democracy. We find ourselves pulled both outward, to the actions we hope will make a difference, and inward, toward the relationships of communal care from which such actions must arise.
In challenging times like these, our faith calls us to find strength in each other. As I have said in recent weeks, we are a sanctuary people; a people who aim to create safety for both body and soul within our communal spaces. We are also a faithful people – drawn to communal care not just by our ethics, but by our historic religious tradition. Our congregations and communities are rare places where people can be vulnerable enough to build trust and capacity for resistance. And this is why, as Unitarian Universalists, we are called to build and sustain community; it is the greatest tool we have for resilience.
History reminds us that people of faith and conscience have been essential to every movement safeguarding equity and human dignity. Now, it is our sacred duty to be in solidarity with communities most affected by systemic barriers—trans and nonbinary beloveds, migrants, LGBTQIA+ communities, people with disabilities, and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. Though the path ahead may be daunting, we give one another strength and courage through our collective resolve.
In the days and weeks to come, even before the fullness of our organizing priorities takes shape, here are ways we can continue this sacred work together:
Cultivate Community Resilience
Faith in each other is a source of great strength. Every controlling regime works to destabilize us and convince us of our powerlessness by separating us from one another. Instead, turn toward each other and nurture the bonds within your communities, providing care and upholding our commitment to equity and inclusion by centering those most directly impacted by violence and oppression.
Now is the time for hyper-local action that will fuel the movement of larger waves of change and resistance. Whenever possible, link up with community organizations. Don’t re-do or re-invent what partner organizations are doing. This can be a time to hold space, build relationships and thicken the bonds of those committed to doing the work together. Indeed, the building of accountable relationships is itself one of the greatest actions we can take in these moments.
Show Up for Those Most Impacted
Engage with local allies and support structures that protect the rights of those most vulnerable among us. Your congregation’s role as a sanctuary for justice and compassion is your most vital ministry in this time. When we show up, let us show up ready to listen and learn new truths rather than with an eagerness to declare what is true. Let us lead and follow, each in turn, and always with the guidance of frontline communities.
Engage in Advocacy
Remember that change is always possible, and our collective voice is powerful. For most of our history, Unitarians and Universalists have had a disproportionate impact on the public discourse, given our size relative to other religious denominations. Grounded in community, connected to the local, following and leading, let us continue to support one another constructively as we work toward a long-term vision of a more just world.
Please know that your UUA, Side With Love, and Congregational Life teams are here with you. In the weeks ahead, we will provide resources and guidance to help you and your community remain resilient, faithful, and impactful in this next chapter of our shared history. Together, we will navigate the challenges ahead, rooting ourselves in our Shared Values and always centering love.
As we move forward, remember to care for yourselves and each other. Thank you for your unwavering commitment to justice and to communal care, which strengthens our faith and our nation. We remain in this sacred work together.
Faithfully,
Sofía
Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt is the 10th UUA President, elected at General Assembly in June 2023 for a six year term.
Rev. Dr. Betancourt has served Unitarian Universalism for more than twenty years in many roles.
How to Practice Mindful Breathing for Anxiety
It’s a simple, calming meditation that you can do anytime, anywhere. Instructions by Melvin Escobar with Gregory Mengel.
MELVIN ESCOBAR • GREGORY MENGEL
26 NOVEMBER 2024
When I was twelve years old, I experienced a near drowning at a public swimming pool. I’d been to the pool many times, but since I’d never had swimming lessons, I always stayed in the shallow end. One bright and sunny day, my best friend convinced me that he could teach me to swim. First, I’d just need to jump off the diving board into the deep end of the pool, and he’d instruct me from there. He swore he’d catch me somehow. Needless to say, he didn’t catch me, and I found myself suddenly over my head in the most terrifyingly literal way. Naturally, I panicked. Gasping for air, I inhaled gulps of water before the lifeguard jumped in to drag my water- and trauma-logged body out of the pool.
I avoided all bodies of water for the next twenty years. Until one day, sitting on the shores of a beautiful mountain lake, I resolved that when I got back to the city, I would learn to swim. I went home and enrolled in swimming classes through my local community college. Equipped with several years of mindfulness practice, I was finally going to face my fear.
I wanted to be able to be in the water without being flooded by anxiety or experiencing agonizing flashbacks from that fateful day. It was an excruciating three semesters. I’d get home from class, and my husband would ask, “How’d it go?” My pat response was, “I survived.”
Mindful breathing was my lifeline. There were days when I was so overwhelmed I had to get out of the pool before class was over. But just as often, my practice enabled me to stay connected to my body and the present moment. Over time my anxiety began to abate.
Now, I’m happy to report that, when it’s safe enough, it’s nearly impossible to keep me out of the water! Even though I still get overwhelmed at times, I bow to my body-mind and acknowledge that it’s simply trying to protect me from harm.
The dharma is all about learning how to navigate the unpredictable waters of life with awareness, wisdom, and compassion. In these anxious times, there are plenty of stressors affecting our breathing. Moment to moment, we may be unconsciously anticipating the next ping of our phone or the next horror in our feed. The looming chaos in our political and planetary atmospheres weighs on us constantly, along with the ever-present demands of work and family. Meanwhile, Covid has forced us all to reckon with the profoundly interdependent nature of breathing.
As the dharma reminds us, however, we have agency in relation to our breath. The practice of mindful breathing not only reveals that respiration is both automatic and voluntary, it empowers us to choose the quality of breath appropriate to each moment. In times of intensity, as when literally or metaphorically drowning, our breath becomes short and shallow; its purpose is to create the energy we need to get ourselves out of danger. But energy from a fight-or-flight reaction that isn’t discharged can manifest as toxic stress. Practicing mindful breathing can help us metabolize excess energy or preempt the reactivity that produces it. In fact, a growing body of research is revealing substantial benefits for the body and mind when we breathe diaphragmatically or engage in other mindful breathing practices.
When entering into any mindfulness practice, it’s important to let go of the idea that there’s one right way to be mindful. You can be sitting, standing, moving, or lying down. Your eyes can be opened or closed. You can be in an ashram or a cubicle (or a swimming pool). What matters most is the quality of your attention and intention.
While a variety of mindful breathing practices have been handed down over time, I will be offering an approach that’s based on the teachings in the Anapanasati Sutta. This sutta guides the practitioner to focus their attention on body, feeling, mind, and mental objects while following the breath. According to this scripture, “mindfulness of in-and-out breathing, when developed and pursued, is of great fruit, of great benefit.”
Let’s dive into the practice!
1. Mindfulness of Body
Begin by noticing that the body is already breathing. Take long, smooth breaths into your entire body, from the tips of your toes and fingers, all the way to the top of your head. Allow your breath to expand into your belly. Observe the sensation of your breath as it enters into and passes out of your nose or mouth.
2. Mindfulness of Feeling
Next, gently notice where the body may be holding excess tension. Can you find ease or even joy via your breath? Bring kind awareness to whatever sensations are present; label them as pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. Focus your attention on the pleasant aspects of breathing. You might try on a slight smile, vocalizing as you exhale, or imagine a warm and protective light surrounding you as you breathe.
3. Mindfulness of Mind and Mental Objects
Now, contemplate the mind. The mind can be conceived of as a flow of nonstatic sensations: thoughts, feelings, and physical perceptions that float around in the field of awareness. As you take this moment to meditate, allow these sensations to arise and pass away along with the breath. Instead of overidentifying with them, cultivate a sense of nonjudgment and gratitude. Breathe with whatever is present, for it’s merely the flotsam and jetsam carried along by the currents of consciousness.
4. Continuing Your Practice in Daily Life
As you draw your practice to a close, relish any moments where you experienced clarity of mind. Bow to the stillness that was made possible amidst the ebbs and flows of sensation inherent in the aliveness of your body.
Consider these questions as guidance for bringing the practice into your daily life: How can a daily practice of mindful breathing buoy you in times of distress? How can you stay mindful of your breath when you feel at risk of going under? How can mindful breathing help you more skillfully navigate the choppy waters of your community and society as a whole?
Melvin Escobar is an El Salvadoran bilingual-bicultural Dharma teacher, licensed psychotherapist, and certified yoga instructor. He serves as a Core Teacher at East Bay Meditation Center, has a Master’s degree in Social Work, and is a registered yoga instructor.
Gregory Mengel is a senior teacher with the UNtraining, which offers classes for white-identified people to unlearn white racial conditioning.
Embracing Courage in a World in Crisis
When the suffering of the world knocks at our door, says Singhashri Gazmuri, we must be courageous enough to open it.
Many of my students come to me asking how they are meant to respond to the world? “What can little old me do anyway?” They are depressed, in despair, overwhelmed, and immobilized. It’s a good question.
How do we re-learn and re-claim our humanness and our interconnectedness?
It’s understandable that, given the current state of our world, our initial reaction might be to look away and hide. Who wants to witness the immense suffering of so many beings? Why would we choose to turn toward so much confusion, hatred, and greed?
The part of us that simply wants to be happy and well feels threatened by the state of our world, a world that reminds us over and over again that there is nothing that can be relied on in samsaric existence. And yet, this has always been true. Even before the reversal of Roe v. Wade. Even before the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. Even before the coronavirus pandemic. Even before the election of Trump.
Lately, I’ve been asking myself what I was doing before all this began? But I can’t find the exact moment when things started to feel so out of control. I can’t find the source of all this hatred and heartbreak. When I look more deeply, all I find is my direct experience and the ways in which I am still cut off from myself and the world. All the ways I have used my practice to hide away and shore up some false sense of self and safety. Soothed myself into thinking it’s possible to “resilience” my way out of samsara.
We must ask, How am I hiding from reality right now? In what ways have I cut myself off from my own suffering and the suffering of others? What are the costs of doing so?
If we take the teachings on conditionality seriously, we begin to find the truth of what’s happening to us right now. We have been deeply conditioned over countless years and across hundreds of generations into alienation and obliviousness. We have been cut off from land and body, culture and beloved community. Societal forces like patriarchy, white supremacy, ablism, homophobia, and xenophobia all depend on the false view that some people are inherently better than others. And all these forces have conditioned us, whether we know it or not. Whether we like it or not.
And so, we hide: from ourselves, from our conditioning, from each other, and from our fullest potential. Or, perhaps, we’re hidden, and we continue to collude with our hidden-ness. Our true nature has been hidden from us and from each other under layer upon layer of delusion, and we’ve been habituated to go along with it, etching the grooves of ignorance deeper and deeper into our individual and collective psyches. As if we’ve been enchanted by an ancient spell.
So how do we break the spell? How do we re-learn and re-claim our humanness and our interconnectedness? This is a crucial question for anyone privileged enough to have encountered the dharma and chosen to follow it. If we aren’t asking ourselves this question, we risk using the teachings to stay comfy and safe. We risk a further cutting off and retreating into the false refuge of a peace built on lies, a peace we can only experience under very specific conditions, a peace that can’t be shared with anyone else.
Fear festers beneath all this hiding. Perhaps we are scared because we can no longer ignore the precariousness of our situation. We end up doing all sorts of things to mask the fear; we turn away as it grasps onto the deepest parts of us. We keep ourselves distracted with food, work, Netflix, drugs and alcohol, the stories we tell over and over about ourselves and each other. Even our meditation practice can become a distraction. We can become very good at blissing out. Blissing out to check out.
Paradoxically, in order to go beyond our conditioning, our practice calls to us to delve more deeply into it. And the best way I know how to do that is in and through the body. When the forces of delusion are strong and I recognize the familiar patterns of turning away and hiding from suffering—my own suffering and that of others—I could ask myself, What’s going on in my body right now? What don’t I want to be with? What am I running away from? What does it feel like to be cut off?
Often, when I explore my somatic experience in this way, I find the contraction of fear in my belly, numbness in the heart, gripping in the throat. Here it is right now and it is deeply unsatisfying. Yet at the heart of my own alienation lies the key to my liberation. If I can acknowledge it, stay with it, keep meeting it with compassion, slowly it begins to melt. The freeze response begins to loosen, and I begin to relax into a more spacious, transparent way of being and relating.
As I begin to get curious about the specific ways these energies are held in the body right now, I’m taken to the root of my delusion, the “karmic knots” that have formed over my lifetime, the lives of my ancestors, and perhaps even my past lives. Without awareness, we inhabit these knots, retreat into them, hide in their creases.
Once I identify these places of holding, I gently use awareness to turn toward and meet these energies directly. I notice the sensations with patience and love—the tension, churning, burning, whirling, tingling, tightness, hardness, numbness. I familiarize myself with the uncomfortable aspects of the experience and with the sense of possibility that comes when I notice them beginning to change, soften, move, and liberate.
In this process, I also open to any thoughts, emotions, memories, and images that may appear in the mind as I continue to attend to the changing sensations. I work to hold these with curiosity, learning to relate to them from a place of awareness, rather than rejecting or indulging them, allowing them to move through me in their own time, their own way.
Insights into my habits and their impacts may arise through the process. I forgive myself and resolve to ask forgiveness from others. Finally, I practice resourcing myself with pleasant sensations in the body, kindness and compassion practices, writing, dancing, art, and spending time in nature or with loved ones.
Over time, in unlocking the energy bound up in unhelpful hiding habits, I’ve felt a fuller alignment of my thoughts, words, and behavior with my deepest heart-wish for liberation and justice for myself and all beings. I have found that I am much more effective, less bound by fear and ambivalence; I am able to respond more creatively and with less inhibition to the pain of this world.
And so, when the world knocks on our door and we wonder, “What can little old me do?”, we may instead ask, “Am I courageous enough to open that door?” Are we brave enough to see and be fully seen? Can we stop hiding from ourselves, from one another, from reality? In choosing not to hide we may just begin to manifest a different world, one built on love, truth, and a return to wholeness.
ABOUT SINGHASHRI GAZMURI
Singhashri is a queer, Latinx-American Dharma teacher and writer ordained in the Triratna Buddhist Community. She teaches mindfulness and compassion as means to awakening to love, beauty and truth and has committed her life to supporting collective healing and transformation and the joy and freedom found there. She currently lives in London with her partner.
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 the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza
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 FloridaPrayers for post election AmericaPrayers for those in need or homeless during this Advent season
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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