Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Briarcliff, Croton, and Ossining

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: All things with which we deal, preach to us.  What is a farm but a mute gospel?  I’m not sure what he meant by gospel, but I will assume he meant that which is true–one of the definitions offered by Webster. Anyway, I like the metaphor. Emerson was a Transcendentalist who was reacting to what he considered the stale theology of Unitarians. While Unitarians were known for their rationalism and devotion to reason, the Transcendentalists wanted their religious life to have passion and feeling wedded to critical thinking.  They had a hunger for personal and authentic experience.  They sought a living religion that would stir their hearts, not just something based on old established rules and forms.  Their highest goal was spiritual growth, the cultivation of their inner spiritual  natures(longings and aspirations for meaning, purpose and connection).  When Emerson wrote the statement above, he was suggesting that a farm, a mountaintop, an interpersonal encounter, a day at work are all mute gospels, if we will but let their teachings infiltrate our days.  Spiritual practice to the Transcendentalist was a way of helping oneself to ground all thought, action, ethics, religion and art in one’s individual experience.  Through spiritual practice, humans get closer to the mind of the divine.

Some of us believe that there is an ineffable spirit that animates all creation. We don’t feel dogmatic about it.  It’s just a feeling. Some of us need to name that spirit.  So we call it “God” or “Universal Spirit,” or “The Holy One” or “Love”. The Transcendentalists named it “Over-Soul.” Transcendentalists thought that the existence and nature of God could not be known through empirical demonstrations, but only intuitively, by faculties that “transcend” the seen and felt world.

I found myself thinking about the Transcendentalists in recent days after viewing a wonderful DVD entitled Listening to Experience, produced by the UU Association of Congregations.  In this recording, 12 visionary UU ministers talk about growth in their respective congregations, all of which are the fastest growing ones in the UUA.  In sharing their experiences one minister noted that people come to her congregation today because they are hungry for the holy, for the divine and for connection.  Interestingly, the Unitarian author, David Robinson, writes that spirituality is the “feeling or hunger for a deeper inner life and a more profound experience of the world that we share. We’re haunted by the specter of our own superficiality.”  I’ve also been speaking about connection and depth in some of my sermons.  Recently I commented that UU’s need a clearer religious and theological identity. I mentioned that I believe gratitude should be central to our identity and also commented that we need to speak of a God that people who take both faith and reason seriously can   believe in. 

For some of us, language is a vehicle to knowing and experiencing the depths.  Words such as God, divine, transcendence, Ground of Being, Universal Spirit, are words that help us probe the mystery of being, and connect ourselves relationally to the greater good, or to that which is greater than all and present in each. During the spring and summer months, this relational quest is heightened by the beauty of rebirth and nature.  There is a running joke amongst ourselves about how we UUs take a vacation from God in the summer.  Well, I don’t think so.  We will continue to have lay-led services on Sundays. And whether atheist or theist or something else, hopefully we’ll be attaching ourselves to the Presence of Being that we all experience in the world of nature, vacation and play and even on Sunday mornings at worship. …… allowing the mute gospels to speak to us.   I love you all.  See you soon.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 10th, 2008 at 11:14 am and is filed under Minister's Letter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Our Acts of Ministry:

1. On March 27, our Social Action Committee organized and led a community dialogue in response to the recent violent crime that originated at the A&P. This effort represents the kind of service and witness essential to the ministry of any UU congregation.

2. On March 15, many of us were moved by our women’s choral group, Spirits in Harmony, performance at the annual fundraiser. The event reminded me, once again, how significant music is in our Fellowship. Worship and celebration are also essential to the ministry of our beloved community and music plays an integral part. Can we do more? I think so. Are we ready to hire a part-time music minister?

3. On Sunday, April 13, Rappin’ with the Rev has been scheduled. You will see the announcement elsewhere in the Fellowship News. Speaking of ministry, this meeting will provide an opportunity for all of you to rap with me about how you view the overall ministry of the Fellowship and share your ideas about how we can together continue to enhance and extend our ministry.

4. On April 20, we will celebrate Earth Day and the Green Sanctuary committee will sponsor a fabulous Sustainability Fair. And, on April 27, we will celebrate Social Action Sunday and have invited David Diamond, Faculty Advisor of Gay-Straight Alliance at Lakeland and Walter Panas High Schools to speak to us about how to be an ally for GLBT youth community.

5. On Sunday, March 30, our Pledge Drive will begin. You may have already received a letter about this in the mail. Our financial commitment is also a ministry. Why? Because it helps make a difference in people’s lives. You help make this happen all the time through the volunteer work you give to the Fellowship through committees, programs, and teaching. Just look at all the wonderful things we are doing as I have noted above! And there are so many other events and programs I have not mentioned! We are a busy little Fellowship! I think it’s wonderful!

But obviously, we also need money to pay the bills and adequately support the facility, the staff and the program! But I am suggesting that we think of our pledge as beyond the realm of bills. It takes money to fulfill visions and make it possible to minister to one another and our children and to reach out to those in need and those who are looking for a religious faith such as ours. Ultimately, the money we pledge supports the values, vision, hope and essence of our little community. What is that worth to you?

Well you could answer that it’s priceless! But we also have to get real. The range of our pledges runs from $50 to $7200. Suzanne and I will increase our pledge this year about 6.5% to $5000.00. Our Fellowship’s median pledge (midpoint of the range), however, is $660 and according to UU guidelines, it should be around $1,000 or $85 a month per pledging unit. So think about this figure as you consider your pledge this year. Obviously, we hope to increase the median range significantly.

But let’s be clear. Your pledge, whatever it is, is an opportunity to gladly give the best you can, as you are able, because you cherish who we are. You are giving to something you believe in. So as you decide upon your pledge amount - consider what this institution means to you personally, but also consider what it means to the larger community. Then give as you are able out of a generous spirit, so that the values you cherish in our Fellowship might continue to take root and have life in you, in your family and in your community. So be it. Jim Covington

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 at 11:52 am and is filed under Minister's Letter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

On My Mind: Our Faith and Social Action

In our September Newsletter I outlined the areas I believe we need to focus on to strengthen our ministry: Religious Education, music, family life, and
social responsibility. I believe many of you have responded and are working to broaden our ministry in all the areas mentioned. As you know, we will be welcoming the Rev. Dr. Ed Thompson, minister of music from the Westport UU Congregation along with its Chamber Choir to our Fellowship on February 3rd. He will also speak with us about the music ministry program at Westport.

Religious Education is utilizing a new team-teaching approach with our children and everyone is expressing enthusiasm about that. Marjorie Redleaf continues to work in a dedicated fashion, leading a parents support group. And last week I attended a Social Action Committee meeting and left feeling very positive about the work and enthusiasm of the committee members.

Our social action work is an integral part of the life of our Fellowship. Martin Luther King Day reminded me once again how important it is for the human community to work for justice and healing and attend to those who need help and support in the larger community. King often referred to the Beloved Community of believers– not believers in anything, but believers in justice and love. King’s vision of beloved community has always fashioned my outlook in the ministry. As a UU, I have faith in the abilities of human beings to work for the common good, heal the social disruptions around them, and assume responsibility for those who, beyond their own true efforts, remain hungry, alone and sick. The source of this work is love. This love I speak of is not romantic love but the divine “call” to humanity. I believe the very meaning of history is to be found in the struggle for community and working toward the fulfillment of humanity. I believe this is the divine purpose of our existence. This is my faith. In my opinion, in this struggle the only reliable “object” of my faith and devotion is Agape–love– the power of God– which reconciles and reunites us. This was King’s faith and he was able to truly revolutionize the values of his time.

One of my favorite UU theologians, James Luther Adams, writes that the prophetic liberal church is the church in which all members share the common responsibility to attempt to foresee the consequences of human behavior with the intention of making history in place of merely being pushed around by it. . . . He also wrote: !. a faith that is not the sister of justice is bound to bring people to grief.

I believe our social action work is an integral part of our Fellowship. At its best, Social Action work can strengthen and enlarge and vitalize a congregation. It can build community, nourish the spiritual life of members, and shape public life. While what I have written may sound lofty on this page, it remains in my mind that the core reason we assemble is not only to heal ourselves but to help heal the world around us–whether it be ministering to those among us who are lonely, feeding the hungry in Peekskill, working together to save our environment, working for justice in the gay and lesbian community, combating racism, or working for justice among oppressed peoples on another continent.

I believe there is a transforming, commanding, reality in this world that exists in all living things. It lives within us and its focus is on creating meaningful human history. I call this reality God. And sometimes this reality requires the power of organization and the organization of power through human coalitions. The human coalition I choose to commit myself to is called the Unitarian Universalist Association.

With that in mind, I urge you to listen to that sustaining reality in your own life, follow its lead, and maybe, just maybe, find your way to a meeting with our Social Action Committee. Join them now. Work together. Serve the community. Give power to that transforming reality that abides within you and seeks to manifest itself through your service to help create the Beloved Community. See you at the Fellowship. Jim Covington

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 31st, 2008 at 12:12 pm and is filed under Minister's Letter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Cartoonists like to represent the New Year as a new baby, to connote new beginnings or starting over, a fresh start. Sounds innocent enough. But I was reminded recently in something I read that babies do have to grow up and that the first two words most babies learn to speak consistently are “no” and “mine.” You might say that a lot of us go through the rest of our lives saying these two words over and over. No and mine. Interestingly, most religious traditions at their best, including our own UU faith, would call you out of yourself into something bigger, broader, more beautiful.

We are called out of ourselves to love God and our neighbor. This idea goes against the grain of the modern day emphasis prevalent in our culture, including even contemporary “spirituality” which is unabashedly about you. It’s about me: my feelings, my adjustment, my success, my happiness, my relationships, my salvation, my opinions and my needs. It’s about good advice on getting ahead, achieving my goal, increasing my net worth.

There’s a place for personal goals and feelings, of course. But the principles of our UU faith–compassion, justice, equality, tolerance place the emphasis elsewhere: to love one another and live for the common good, for God or the greater Source of Life and for neighbor. In that regard, all religious traditions at their best–including our own–talk about our responsibility as a community of human beings to our world, our earth, our planet, our fellow humans, and our responsibilities to those less fortunate, those who are oppressed and those who are in need.

In a recent sermon I suggested that the heart of our UU faith could actually be defined as gratitude. In fact, I believe a deep sense of gratitude saves us from succumbing to the “me and mine–focusing on the self alone” syndrome and transforms our outlook to that of us and our. That’s because the discipline of gratitude reminds us how utterly dependent we are on the people and world around us for everything that matters. From this flows an ethic of gratitude that obligates us to create a future that justifies an increasing sense of gratitude from the human family as a whole. The ethic of gratitude demands that we nurture the world that nurtures us in return. It’s another way of defining what love means.

In a similar vein, one of my favorite modern prophets, William Sloane Coffin, once wrote: Love is the final measurement of our stature: The more we love , the bigger we are. There is no smaller package in all the world than that of man all wrapped up in himself.

I love you all. May our new year together be one of abiding love and gratitude in all that we do. See you at the Fellowship.
Jim Covington

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 26th, 2007 at 8:06 pm and is filed under Minister's Letter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Rappin’ with the Rev! By now you must know that beginning on Dec. 2nd our Committee on Ministry will sponsor the first of a series of congregational meetings with me. Subsequent meetings are planned for February and April. The meetings will be held after each Sunday service.

The purpose of the minister/congregational meetings is to discern together how we can best serve and minister to each other and the larger community and fulfill our mission. One of the questions behind these meetings together is this: “who do we exist for?” This question is answered in our mission statement.

Our mission is our passion. The word comes from the Latin “mitere”–to let go, to send, to throw. But a mission depends upon a vision, and we know from the biblical book of Proverbs that “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Or in my revised translation: Without vision the parish perishes. Vision is where we want to go. Mission is what we intend to do to get there.

The way we implement these aspects and work together becomes our ministry. We are all ministers here. Ministry is not about power. It is about service. It is about being there. It’s about being with when things can’t be fixed and no solution can be found. Ministry is about building and maintaining a strong vital institution. And ministry is about witnessing to our faith. Witnessing is not about trying to save anybody’s soul, but it is about telling other people about who we are–a free religious community, where all are welcome, where the theology arises out of your own experience and conviction and knowledge, where justice is done in this world, not in the next.

So I am hoping what I have articulated above (in addition to my comments in November Newsletter) will serve as a guide for us as we Rap with the Rev. I look forward to hearing your thoughts, concerns and pro-active ideas about how we can better serve one another and the larger community.

I am also looking forward to the services we have planned for the coming month. On Dec. 2nd we will introduce our newest members, the Brennan-Pennas family. On Dec. 16, our children will attend the early part of the 11 a.m. service. Susan Wright will be leading them and us through some Christmas carols. And I will tell a story. On Dec. 23, we will have a wonderful Christmas service with Spirits in Harmony singing at both services.

So as we enter these holiday times of Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa, I wish you the holiday that you need, whatever that may be–be it forgiveness, or new love, or a reunion with long-lost friends, or a deep sense of thankfulness. This can also be a difficult time for those who are alone or who have suffered recent losses. It’s alright to be sad in these times. Reach out to those you know and love. Don’t hesitate to ask for company, for help and support. You are loved! And I’ll see you at the Fellowship! Jim Covington

This entry was posted on Friday, November 30th, 2007 at 12:29 pm and is filed under Minister's Letter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

On Sunday Dec. 2, our Committee on Ministry will sponsor the first of a series of congregational meetings with me over the coming months. Subsequent meetings are planned for February and April. The meetings will be held after each Sunday service. I am announcing our first meeting a month in advance to give everyone plenty of time to think about what you would like to share with me in regard to your view of our mission and our ministry. More information about these meetings will be forthcoming in the weeks ahead.

As already alluded to above, the purpose of the minister/congregational meetings will be to discern together how we can best serve and minister to each other and the larger community and fulfill our mission. I will want to hear your respective views about how we can improve our ministry, but the word “discern” is important here as it implies a collaborative effort to determine how we can all support one another as we seek to minister and fulfill our mission. In most meetings we like to declare our views and score our points. Fine. But I am looking forward to these meetings as being an opportunity for all of us to determine how we can proactively and cooperatively identify, expand and improve our efforts to serve the community and transform ourselves.

Let me define what I mean by mission, ministry and transformation. Mission is not a Fellowship program. Our mission is the meaning of our existence. We exist to transform and change ourselves and the human community in light of the principles by which we seek to live. Living by our faith and principles leads to depth, engagement with others that is real and sometimes healing, and service in the community. This is how we transform ourselves.

Our ministry is a shared ministry. A shared ministry is one in which together we seek to support one another by finding the avenues through which we can best serve the life of the Fellowship and the needs of community. I am interested in fostering a ministry culture. A ministry culture approach believes and expects that all people have been given gifts for ministry. Moreover it believes that ministry belongs to the congregation as a whole; it does not belong only to the ordained. Seen this way, our ministry is a partnership.

So I am looking forward to listening to you when we meet to share our vision of our ministry, not from a “if-only” “should-have” or “judgmental” point of view but from a view of hope, appreciation and abundance. I say “abundance” because I believe that all of us have gifts for ministry. Our task is to help one another discover, identify and exercise those gifts for the greater good. See you at the Fellowship. I love you all. Jim Covington

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 6th, 2007 at 12:54 pm and is filed under Minister's Letter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Sunday, October 14 has been designated by the UUA as Association Sunday. The purpose of this day is to affirm and celebrate the common bonds and purposes of Unitarian Universalists everywhere. We will also host a special collection to help support the outreach efforts of the UUA. Hundreds of UU congregations, including our own, will be participating in this momentous event. And we want this Association Sunday to be a religious experience.

The UUA is developing a dynamic new program to “to grow” our faith and numbers by helping all UU congregations to reach out and inform people and communities everywhere that there is a body of liberal religious people who reject religious dogma and who vigorously uphold the values of worth, dignity, compassion, justice, peace and environmental responsibility–all of which are urgently needed to help heal the wounded world. And I believe the numbers who are looking for a religious home like ours are enormous.

I believe we can attest to this in our own Fellowship. I believe we now hold the largest membership in the history of our congregation and more neighbors are visiting us than ever. The Fellowship is changing, my friends, and growing. And I welcome it all. With this in mind, at a recent Board Meeting, I shared some of my views about where we go from here. I framed those views with three questions which I hope all of us will be discussing in the coming months:

1. Why are we here? What is our purpose? Would we be able to tell if we were fulfilling our purpose or not?  It doesn’t have to be mysterious. Our purpose may simply be stated in our mission statement.  Or it can be: We are here to change lives…….We are here to serve the community……..to teach moral values…………..to nurture our spiritual needs…….  I will say, however, that our purpose should not be the comfort and satisfaction of our members.  It has to be more dynamic, far-reaching and deeper than that.   What is important is that we not forget our purpose, and that we keep it alive in our hearts and minds in everything that we do! (RE-read our mission statement!)

2. What is our future? How do we envision it? How do we want to grow? Given the changing needs of the times in which we live, our changing lives, and our changing community, how do we begin to imagine our future? My hope is that together we will begin to imagine a future that will be boldly transformative of our lives and our world.
Where do we start?  In my mind this question implies two things: 
urgency and patience.   To be alive and vital and purposeful, we have to act with some sense of urgency, whether it is related to programs, social concerns, or a new building. 
What are our urgent needs and goals? I believe I stated some of these urgent goals, as I see them, in the last Newsletter. But urgency also has to be balanced with patience.  We must be patient as old structures give way, with our leaders, with one another and allow change to happen organically.  We don’t always have answers in advance.  We grow and learn by listening, envisioning, serving and processing as we go.
  
I urge all of you to keep these questions in mind and have conversations about them as we continue to work together and serve in the coming year–in your committee meetings, social gatherings, dinners, during the coffee hour and one day soon, at a TOWN HALL MEETING (to be announced) that will be led by me and the Committee on Ministry where all of us can assemble and talk about your vision for the Fellowship, your hope, and the urgency of our mission and our needs–and then make them come true. See you at the Fellowship.
Jim Covington

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 17th, 2007 at 3:33 pm and is filed under Minister's Letter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

A Vision of Our Ministry: 2007-08

At this time of the year as we prepare to resume regular services after the summer break, I usually convey what I consider to be our program priorities for the coming year. You might call it the “minister’s vision of our ministry.” What I am about to list is not altogether new. Based on conversations I have had with many of you over the past several months the following is what I have discerned to be of importance to us at this point in our spiritual growth and active outreach.

I am aware that the ministries I am about to name will require volunteer leadership, perhaps more than we can honestly provide. Nevertheless, if I were asked, “what are the ministry programs and improvements you think your congregation needs to implement?” these are the ones I would name. The list does not preclude other outreach/educational programs. I encourage each of you to follow your own heart and interests and create other program ministries, if you are so interested. The Green Sanctuary program and the Buddhist Exploration group were both started by members who had a particular interest in those issues. So aside from the Sunday worship services which hopefully will continue to inspire, connect and heal our hearts and souls and a highly energetic membership committee that is doing a phenomenal job of welcoming and engaging people who visit us, these are the areas I hope we can at least consider and possibly prioritize in the months ahead:

Religious Education

This is always a priority. I don’t know about you, but if I had a young child I would want to believe that the Religious Education program at the UU Fellowship offered the most open and relevant religious, moral, ethical education I could find that would help me as a parent in teaching the strong, responsible, liberal values that I would want my child to learn and live by. This kind of RE program requires strong leadership, a challenging/creative curriculum, dedicated teachers and strong active support from the Board of Trustees and overall membership of the Fellowship. We are a small (but growing) congregation and presently, we can only afford a part-time Director. All the rest of the leadership is voluntary. So this area of our ministry is a challenge.

Social Responsibility Council

I think we need to write a strong social responsibility policy that will define what we mean by “social responsibility” and serve as a direction for the Social Concerns committee ( which I am suggesting be called Social Responsibility Council) in ascertaining, organizing and actively addressing the social issues of both our immediate and the larger community. Again, this is a volunteer group and requires strong leadership.

A More Active Outreach Program to the Gay and Lesbian Community

I believe our “welcoming congregation” status is a wonderful milestone and makes a powerful statement to the community. However, I think we need to be more active in reaching out to the gay/lesbian/transgender community and also more active in supporting civil rights issues and legislation for the GLBT community. But we need leaders. This group could also be considered a task force of the Social Responsibility Council.

Family Life Ministry Program

I hope we can build on Marjorie Redleaf’s work with parents of adolescent children and offer other such programs for parents (including gay/lesbian families) of
infant/toddler children, marriage support/education programs, and support program for elder members. It seems to me that a Family Life Support Program would be highly welcomed and valued by the larger community. I think it should be an important ministry of all liberal religious congregations.

Music Ministry Program

I have addressed this before. I think we need a Music Ministry leadership committee that will welcome/invite/coordinate the inclusion of other musicians into our worship services on Sunday mornings. I believe Music is absolutely key to the experience we want to create and have when we assemble for worship!!

Again, I am sure there are other areas that need attention as well. Our membership committee is doing an outstanding job and I anticipate that they will continue to reach out and welcome more new people to our Fellowship, and keep them here once they have joined us. If we could somehow follow through on the areas I have described above, the membership will no doubt have their hands full.

However, I welcome other suggestions for improving our congregational ministry. My belief is that if we can at least begin to pursue the areas I have outlined above, our ministry will grow, not to mention our membership, but more importantly, our message of liberal religious values and spiritual growth will be witnessed by those seeking the kind of community we have created and represent.

I look forward to another year of growth, service and nurturing connections with all of you. See you on September 9th when we begin the new congregational year with our Water Communion Service! Bring a small vial of water from whatever place of travel or important to you. Jim Covington

This entry was posted on Monday, September 10th, 2007 at 3:01 pm and is filed under Minister's Letter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Dear Friends,

Henry David Thoreau wrote: “I wish to begin this summer well, to do something in it worthy of it and of me; to transcend my daily routine; to have my immortality now in the quality of my daily life!” Hmmmn. Not bad! Wanting to “transcend my daily routine, to have immortality now. . .” I can relate to that. And I am looking forward to experiencing it. . . . like taking my folding canvass chair out to Central Park early in the morning for an hour’s respite and reading a good book I have had resting on my shelf for the last two months. Will I do that? You bet. A least for a couple of days!

I think we all need a break, a slowing down, a change of pace. It’s been a very busy year, always is of course. We’ve had countless committee meetings and people have given a lot of time and effort to our ministry.

So I want to say thank you to scores of you who have enthusiastically contributed time and effort to the life and program of the Fellowship. Many of you have been enormously generous with your time and commitment over the past year. There are a lot of things that need to be fixed, mended, changed, improved, dropped, added, addressed, included and planned. But let us not forget all the positive change, love, commitment, dedication, building, support, caring, celebrating, learning, laughing, singing, crying, discovery, inspiration, conversation and connection we have experienced. The Fellowship has truly been a nurturing, inspiring environment for me and I believe most of us.

Perhaps the number of new members we have welcomed in the past year is testament to the spirit of things. To those of you who have joined us this year, I truly look forward to your input, participation and friendship in the days to come.

We do have one very important meeting coming up–our annual business meeting on June 3 at the 11 a.m. service. Eddy Fried has written about this in his column, so I refer you to his thoughtful appeal to your attendance and participation. There will be a regular worship service at 9 a.m. on June 3, a good time to “transcend your daily routine.” So come to both services! Then on June 10, we will have an extraordinary service celebrating the “coming of age” of 17 of our young people! During the summer months we will continue to have lay-led services at 9 a.m. —again, in the spirit of having your immortality now, i.e. a place to quietly meet and engage and to transcend the daily routine.

However, a lot will still be going on this summer as we quietly plan for our return to regular schedule in the fall. I will still be meeting and talking with people and available for pastoral counseling. I have a number of vision projects in mind that I will be discussing with our new Board such as: an even stronger, vital RE program, a more comprehensive social action policy, a family-life program, and a more dynamic music ministry program. But more about that later.

In the meantime, I wish you all a restive summer and as many moments to transcend your daily routine you can find! I love you all! See you at the Fellowship!
Jim Covington

This entry was posted on Friday, June 1st, 2007 at 12:43 pm and is filed under Minister's Letter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Dear Friends,

“What shall I write?” I ask myself as I start to prepare for this column. I look up above my desk and see the rows of book shelves. My eye catches the name Studs Terkel, one of my favorite writers–such a great writer/conversationalist he is. I think I try to mimic him when I listen to my therapy patients and invite them to share their life stories. But then I note the title of the book, on which his name is printed: Will the Circle Be Unbroken? It jumps right out at me. I immediately remember that old hymn when I was a child when my grandmother sang it as she cooked dinner every night: Will the circle be unbroken, by and by, Lord, by and by. Terkel’s book is based on interviews with dozens of people who are asked in the Terkel manner, to share their reflections about death, rebirth and hunger for a faith. I read it a few years ago. So I take it down off the shelf and I open it. I see that I’ve underlined in red about half of its pages.

What’s going on? Well, with the death of our good friend Dirk Barrett, whose memorial we celebrated a few days ago and of course with the images of Virginia Tech still searing my mind, maybe that’s why the book jumped out at me as it has. Life ends, sadly, tragically sometimes. Life goes on and on. The circle continues. Does it?

What is the circle? Well, of course, it’s the circle of family, friendships, and children. It’s the circle of life’s connections. Will it be unbroken? Don’t know. I do know that I will never forget Dirk. I will never forget how 32 lives, young and old from all over the world, were ended tragically on a college campus. This frightens me and yet also makes me appreciate the connections I am privileged to have and nurture–my wife, my children, my family, my friends–including all of you reading this essay.

Interestingly we sponsor Community Circles at the Fellowship, where people come together to share their stories and spiritual journeys face to face. At weddings, I say that the ring is a circle that has no beginning and no end. A couple of weeks ago in a sermon I talked about the circles of relational activity that we participate in at the Fellowship–caring, deepening, embracing, giving. These are the roots that hold us close.

Will the circle be unbroken? I say it will remain unbroken as long as we keep giving to the life that we have, brief, sometimes tragic, always mysterious. That is, it will never be broken so long as we all keep doing the best we can to care for one another, learn and live as best we can in our communities. The circle of connection that we share at the Fellowship is the same that existed 50 years ago. The people are different. The connection is the same and the values we share. The circle remains unbroken.

We give in many ways to make that Fellowship circle eternal, through service, time, energy and money. When we make a financial commitment, we strengthen the circle of connection with promise and hope. When we teach our children the values and ethics of responsible living, we strength the circle with moral commitment and vision. When together we work to serve the common good, the circle remains unbroken.

One of the persons Studs Terkel interviews is a Rabbi Robert Marx. He says: I think Hell is within us. . . .I believe that there’s also Heaven in us, too, but I believe there’s Heaven that transcends us. I’m talking about what we do on Earth. I’m also talking about something that takes place in us and through us after our life is ended. We are preceded in life by our mothers and fathers, and I think we, in turn, give something even in our death, to those people who come after us. . . . .

Ah, so that’s what I’m trying to say! I know it’s true of Dirk Barrett. And it’s true even of those who died in Blacksburg, Virginia. Maybe it’s not true of everybody. But, maybe even those who die in infamy, whose lives are a living hell, ironically reveal a truth never to be forgotten. And so, the circle remains unbroken. I love you all. Jim Covington

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007 at 1:51 pm and is filed under Minister's Letter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Dear Friends,
How passionate are you about Unitarian Universalism? Can you take it or leave it? Or is it important enough to you to go out and really let people know about how liberating, nurturing, and challenging, you have found our faith to be? It has been suggested that one of the reasons UU hasn’t grown much in our country, is that we hide our light under a bushel rather than let it shine. We don’t want to share our faith lest we appear evangelically oriented–lest we appear as proselytizers—God forbid! Oh, my!!!
Another reason I think UU hasn’t grown much is that some people come to us expecting an oasis of human congeniality, since we’re so “rational” and our values emphasize compassion and the worth of the individual. You looking for that kind of church? With a cool preacher to boot? Well, you won’t find it. Sorry. Even UUs are human. Boy, do we make blunders and misjudgments! But it is our faith, our principles, that matter most, as in any serious relationship or commitment. So we must be ready to work through our personal issues and stand by our faith because our faith and our commitment to our values are so much more important than our differences. Don’t you think?
Another reason we might not be growing so much, is that we intellectualize a lot. UU members sometimes blah, blah, blah, intellectualizing one another to death and never experiencing the heart of faith – a passionate belief in something beyond one’s self, something that is not amenable to scientific measurement or proof.
Personally, I think there is a lot of passion and joy in our Fellowship. Obviously we have grown a lot in the last few years. All of you are so caring, humorous, inquisitive, searching, grateful, politically and environmentally conscious. Our recent 50 anniversary celebration is a prime example of how well you work together and support one another. And we are blessed to have had so many good people, founding members and others to remember and celebrate. How do we keep this going for another 50 years! ?
With passion! With conviction that we are an imperfect human community of values, faith and a vision that will touch peoples’ hearts, ethically and spiritually guide our children, and serve a fractured world.
But we also have to tell people. We have to invite all people, especially the weak, despised and the vulnerable. We have to shout out our good news to the rooftops and the mountains and the riverbanks that we are here! We ALL have to welcome them when they do come.
We have to take active stands in the community for environmental and social justice and the welfare of others who need our help. We have to explore more ways of deepening our spiritual nature. We have to offer support to the families in our midst through all the development stages, from birth to retirement.
And last, certainly not least, we have to be generous with our money to support the growth and mission of the faith we treasure.
Can we do this? It depends on you. If this is a religious family you can take or leave–we won’t do much at all. Probably just fade away. If it is a human (and therefore imperfect) community of faith you regard as one of the most important commitments in your life, because of what it stands for, then I totally believe we can shine, shine, shine in the community and the world–as we should be shining for those in a world looking for the light we bear. What do you think? See you at the Fellowship.
Jim Covington

This entry was posted on Friday, March 30th, 2007 at 10:24 am and is filed under Minister's Letter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Dear Friends,

By the time you receive this Newsletter, you will know that our gala 50th anniversary celebration and auction will be only a couple of days away on March 3. As of this writing, it looks like it will be a great time together. On Sunday morning, March 4, we will continue the celebration by honoring those who were some of our founding members or who were members shortly after the founding years. Though they are now few in number, we will look forward to their memories and recollections of those early days. I hope you can be with us that Sunday.

As I often say in my opening words on Sunday mornings, we are a human community. But we are not just any ordinary human community. Ours is based on high ideals of how we want to be and live in the world. That community was started 50 years ago by 12 brave and committed individuals, persons who believed in a particular world view based on universal principles of compassion and justice. They believed others in the Croton area also shared that view and so our founders took risks and created a place where those others could join them. And so they have. They are us.

And now, our task is to look into the future as our founders did and determine the kind of promise and future we want to create and offer to those who are searching for us and will join us and take the lead. It is a serious challenge and I consider it a blessed opportunity. Ours is an opportunity to extend the living human tradition we are presently so fortunate to be a part of - a tradition filled with social and human rights activists, free thinkers, spiritual seekers and religious innovators. Our calling is to extend that tradition to those who will follow us, seeking what we are seeking: truth and meaning.

Victor Frankl wrote that there are three sources of human meaning:
1) the intrinsic worth of human experiences of love and beauty
2) the capacity to endure suffering; and
3) participation in serving a cause that is greater than the self.

I find all three sources within our Fellowship:

* The intrinsic worth of human experiences of love and beauty is what we celebrate during worship each Sunday and what we share in our common endeavors and camaraderie.

* Through sharing and mutual support, our capacity to endure and become wise through the disappointments, losses and tragedies of life is enhanced.

* Through our collective commitment to our UU principles to live compassionately with one another as we work to heal a fractured world, we are able to transcend the self.

That is a tradition well worth keeping and nurturing and passing on, don’t you think? I feel truly blessed to be a part of it. The experience connects me with life at its best. See you at the Fellowship.

Jim Covington

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 27th, 2007 at 3:03 pm and is filed under Minister's Letter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Dear Friends,

Fifty years ago, in 1957, a few local members of the White Plains Community Church decided to look into the possibility of forming a UU congregation in the vicinity of Croton-on-Hudson. Twelve interested people held a meeting in Croton and it was voted that the Unitarian Fellowship of Briarcliff, Croton and Ossining be formulated.

The first order of business, after adoption of by-laws, was the establishment of a Sunday School for about 35 children in the Community Nursery School in Croton. Adult programs were added next. In 1959,the growth of the Sunday School forced an expansion to include the Bennett Conservatory of Music. Finally, in 1963, the congregation purchased the Boscobel Methodist building, where we continue to meet today. And the rest is history, as the saying goes.

Of course, much has happened in the interim. The Fellowship has had its ups and downs. When I was asked to serve as the Fellowship’s part-time minister in 1990, we had about 40 active members and no RE. While the early years had had a very active Religious Education program, those young people grew up and moved on and growth of the Fellowship diminished.

Now, of course things are quite different. We have over 130 members and friends and a very active RE program and more groups and meetings and activities than I can count. In the early days, most of our members were humanists, atheists and activists and not much interested in spirituality as it was associated at that time with fundamentalist religion and biased against science. Today, our “religious” beliefs remain diverse, in fact, even more so, and while we still have many who define themselves as humanists we also have more people who consider themselves Christian, theist, Buddhist, pagan, and many who are interested in the spiritual aspect of life. This diversity and renewed spiritual interest is true of the entire denomination.

But for me, the most important experience has been my association with some of the finest people I have ever met–people who are less interested in religious dogma and more interested in ethics and values, and how we can live our lives with meaning and active compassion as good citizens, parents and partners and with whom I can share the experience of “ultimacy”–that which is greater than all, yet present in each. We are also a welcoming congregation, which means we welcome all men and women into our Fellowship regardless of sexual orientation and seek their leadership. For me, becoming a Welcoming Congregation was one of the most important milestones we have reached in my tenure as your minister.

Our founders made it possible for us to enjoy that kind of inclusive spirit which has led to the camaraderie, activities and personal relationships we enjoy at the Fellowship today. But I believe many of you are also here because you know that developing a religious and spiritual life is important. The secular world won’t help. Material success and personal victories only go so far. Religion, as I understand it, is our human response to the dual reality of being alive and having to die. We know we are going to die and therefore question what life means. And we seek to live in such a way that our lives will be worth dying for. We nurture that life through our connections with one another, caring for one another, and service to the world.

Religion is being aggressively challenged these days and in many respects, I believe rightfully so. But the kind of “religious faith” we adhere to is not an other-worldly faith or dogmatic faith, but one that is deeply human in the best sense of that word. Ours is the faith of a beloved human community with an active world-view and an inner nurturing that multitudes are seeking. For that reason, I believe we have a responsibility to reach out to the community and invite and welcome its citizens–gay or straight, married or single, of all ethnicities– to join us. I think we are doing this now better than ever, but we can do more.

For all the above reasons, I also believe we should celebrate our wonderful Fellowship. We do that to some degree every Sunday. But on March 3, we will celebrate our GOLDEN 50th ANNIVERSARY at our Gala Auction and Entertainment Evening and on March 4 at our worship services. Mark these dates, watch for more announcements and make your plans to be there! We have much to be thankful for and much to celebrate! See you at the Fellowship!
Jim Covington

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 1st, 2007 at 12:38 pm and is filed under Minister's Letter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Dear Friends,

It’s a bit of a surprise when the old calendar comes to an end and it’s time to hang up a new one. It hardly seems possible that all those days, so empty and abundant just a year ago, have now been used up. Alas, it is true. To an electronic calendar -the kind you find on computers and cell-phones - all years are equal, just one screen among many. There is no sense of transition, nothing like the act of taking down a kitchen calendar stained with the year’s events, the months dog-eared and paper-clipped, the days pasted over with stick-on reminders for dental appointments and the dogs’ heartworm pills.

A calendar like that is full of emendations and erasures and crossings-out, a record of changes of plan and purpose. If only the past were as easily emended.

But if there’s any fixing to be done, it will have to be done in the future. That never seems quite as apparent as it does on New Year’s Day. Of all the holidays on the calendar, this is, in some sense, the most secular one, a holiday open to whatever we choose to make of it. The day acknowledges no presidents or heroes or movements or births or deaths. It merely signifies the turning of the year and your own place in time.

We may not think so consciously about it, but New Years Day makes it clear that the year is a vessel full of only so many days and that one’s life is a vessel full of only so many years. Seen that way, a new calendar naturally looks like a moral proposition.

It occurs to nearly everyone, sooner or later, to wonder why we measure out our lives in years. Some might say there are astronomical and cultural reasons for this. But are those reasons good enough? The fact is that in the strange business of being human, nearly the strangest thing of all is the consciousness of time. How can a year seem so short and so long all at once, like the one that just ended?

Looking ahead, it’s possible to say that the coming year, 2007, will contain 365 days. It’s impossible to say, from here, just how long they’ll take. Who knows? Between our personal lives–all the unexpected and planned events, new found friends, lost relationships that will inevitably take place–and the unpredictable occurrences in a glorious and violent world–who knows how this year will evolve? But we do have each other. And perhaps, that is all we need, as we continue to care for each other, our children and our families, serve the larger community, and work to make our Fellowship a worthwhile and centering experience in all the days and years to come. Isn’t that why we come to the Fellowship? To help make those 365 days a bit more meaningful and purposeful in every way? I think so.

One leaf turned this year was my 16th year as your minister. Needless to say the days and years during that time have been some of the most rewarding, challenging and fulfilling ones in my life. The days have been richly filled. This year, I look forward to more of the same, but with an even greater vision for a welcoming, charitable, ministering, teaching, singing, justice-seeking community of good human beings. I love you all.

Jim Covington

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 26th, 2006 at 8:42 pm and is filed under Minister's Letter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

At a recent Community Circles facilitators’ meeting we talked about the meaning of community. It is no accident that we call our small group ministry program, Community Circles. And so that evening, we shared our stories about family, childhood homes, friendships, church and yes, the Fellowship. We shared our stories about connections.

If you are a member of a Community Circle, you will probably be sharing your own stories in the coming weeks, if not already, on the meaning of community. In fact the very purpose of CC is to foster deeper connections. A vibrant religious community is one that offers opportunities for individuals and families to get to know and spend time with each other. When done right, a committed community becomes a large, very large, extended family. Vibrant congregations help their members move toward the mystery that is deep within them. . . . and beyond them.

Vibrant congregations are also engaged in the life and challenges of the broader community. It does so by welcoming the broader community inside its doors and by going out of its doors to be of service to those who are in need and to work for justice. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called this the “beloved community”- a community grounded in reconciliation, redemption, and love rather than division, inequity and fear.
Community experiences provide connections. Connection is the essence of a human moment. A human moment occurs any time two or more people are together, paying attention to one another. Connection is also a feeling of being a part of something larger than your self. It can be a friendship, a cause, a belief system. I believe human connection in this way is the essence of spirituality.

At this time of year when the light grows dim and the holidays are celebrated–families, friends, town communities and religious communities come together to share a festive meal at the table, give thanks, sing old carols, tell and retell stories, exchange gifts and carry on traditions. All of these events can renew connections and deepen our community life. If you are alone, reach out to your friends and neighbors. Those of you not alone, be mindful of your neighbors and members of the Fellowship who may need a word of thoughtfulness or an invitation into your home for a meal or for company.

As we approach winter solstice, I look forward to these days of holiday tradition many of us will all be sharing. As a people of faith, we are on a lifetime journey exploring what it means to be alive and in relationship with each other, the broader community and with the cosmos. As we share our journeys, celebrate the meanings of tradition, and search for the right questions together (not just the answers), we make and strengthen connections. We foster community. We live deeply. We love. We serve.
So, Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukah! Happy Kwanzaa! Happy Holidays! See you at the Fellowship.

Jim Covington

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 5th, 2006 at 10:50 am and is filed under Minister's Letter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

I trust you have read Eddy Fried’s letter by now. I requested that his letter appear first in the Newsletter, because I think it so instructive, visionary and moving, particularly in regard to his quotes from Anne Sumers and Sandy Lewis. Each of them offered such poignant answers to Eddy’s question as to why they give so much to the Fellowship–as do so many others of you! I trust that most of you can relate to their answers. Part of Anne’s response was: “Because it makes me feel I am a part of something larger than myself.” And part of Sandy’s response was: “I consider the Fellowship my spiritual home, and as such it has special value to me.”

Those are very powerful statements about what the Fellowship means to each of them. In my opinion they speak for most of us.

I believe the sine qua non in our quest for meaning and spiritual development is feeling that you are involved in something greater than yourself. I also believe that no religious affiliation will bring depth and meaning without its members having a deeply felt-sense of the value it brings to their lives. The meaning of “value” is “a principle or standard regarded as worthwhile.” To the degree we feel that our Fellowship brings meaning and value to our lives, we in return will give of ourselves—not from coercion, but from love.

As far as I am concerned, the goal of a congregation is not necessarily to be a large congregation or even to be a great one. That doesn’t mean I am not in favor of growth. I am. We need to grow, in my opinion. But the desire for numerical growth never supersedes the desire to be a REAL congregation first. By “real” I mean a community of human beings who do all the things that Eddy mentions in his letter: welcoming, nurturing, empowering and serving. Through these efforts we deepen real connections and make a real difference in the world. But we do these because we choose to do them and we choose to do them because of the value they bring to our lives. This is our ministry.

And so, at the risk of being repetitive, I end with Eddy’s closing words, because I like them and they ring so true: The light is on, the door is open. Please come in. We have much warmth to share.

See you at the Fellowship.

Jim Covington

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 1st, 2006 at 12:30 am and is filed under Minister's Letter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

In 1957, 12 local members of the White Plains Community Church decided to look into the possibility of forming a fellowship in the Croton vicinity. They started meeting in the Croton Community Nursery School and established a Sunday School for about 35 children. A few years later, because of the need for more space, the Croton Fellowship purchased the Boscobel Methodist Church, the building where we presently meet.

And as the saying goes, “the rest is history.” In the coming year we will be celebrating our 50^th anniversary. In fact, on October 8 the program committee will begin the celebration with a program on the Fellowship’s history. In the spring we will have a gala celebration in conjunction with our grand fundraising festivity. But throughout the year we want to remain mindful of this important anniversary.

Next year, I will also complete my 17^th year as the Fellowship’s minister, which means I will have been with the Fellowship for one third of its existence. I find that almost incomprehensible, and yet, that is indeed the case. I spoke last Sunday about our ministry through institutions. Institutional religion has negative connotations for some people and I can understand why. It does for me as well. Yet, as I said in my sermon, where would we be without institutions and particularly our own religious institution to carry on the liberal values, rituals and religious education for both adults and our young people?

I am indeed very proud to have been a part in carrying on that faith tradition our founders began in Croton 50 years ago. While every generation has different needs, we owe it to our founders, ourselves and our children to keep that liberal tradition going forward. Being your minister for the past 17 years has certainly been one of the most rewarding, challenging and cherished experiences of my life. And I want to help the journey our founders started and we ourselves have joined and shaped and shared over the last half century to continue on into the future. Together, with faith and service, I have no doubt that we will. When we light the chalice each Sunday we say together, Life is a gift for which we are grateful. We gather in community to celebrate the glories and mysteries of this great gift. And at the end of the service, I say: And now the service begins. With those comments we express our gratitude for the gift of life, our awe for the magnitude of existence and our duty to preserve the gift we have been given. These are expressions of the religious impulse. They are the center of our reason for being together as a religious community.

And by the way, if you know of others who you believe are looking for that kind of religious community experience, invite them to come with you on Sunday, October 1, our Open House, Bring a Friend Sunday! See you at the Fellowship.

Jim Covington

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 1st, 2006 at 12:15 am and is filed under Minister's Letter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

ABOUT MUSIC:

One of my favorite quotes by a Unitarian minister is by A Powell Davies, minister of the All Souls Church in Washington D.C. during the mid-20th century. He wrote: I go to church. . .because I fall below my own standards and need to be constantly brought back to them. . . I must have my conscience sharpened– sharpened until it goads me to the most thorough and responsible thinking and action of which I am capable. Because I must feel again the love I owe my fellow men and women. I must not only hear about it but feel it. In church I do.

Of course he is talking about connection and responsibility, the essence of a vital congregation. But Powell is also talking about “feeling” the love to which he aspires. I believe the most immediate and direct way to attain that experience is through music. Another one of our UU theologians, James Luther Adams wrote: With a special sense of immediacy and inwardness, authentic music redefines, illumines, refreshes, orders our experience. It is not escape from reality; it is rather the rediscovery of a center of meaning and power, of a center that is a symptom and sign of faith–ultimately not a human achievement but a gift of grace.

Those are profound words and I completely agree with James Luther Adams. Here’s another quote by our UUA President William Sinkford: Song allows us to name the Holy, to give thanks, to acknowledge both joys and sorrows. Singing helps our very “heady” faith find its loving heart. And we know that a congregation that loves to sing is almost always a vital and strong religious community.

Even the German philosopher, writer Johann Goethe once remarked that there are places in the human heart that words cannot touch: places in the heart that only music can touch.

Since I began my ministry with this Fellowship 16 years ago, I have always emphasized the importance of music. We have come a long way since those early days. Erika Schemer, our pianist, and our women’s choral Spirits in Harmony, continue to “touch our hearts,” as do other musicians and our congregational singing. I do consider these our “gifts of grace.”

And I want more. Someone has said that music is much more than entertainment for Sunday morning services. Music is ministry. And I agree. With music, we connect, we build right relationships, we touch the heart, we unify. When the music is right, people leave the Sunday services humming the music. Hopefully the sermon has also touched the heart, but I don’t believe very many ever hum it!

So having said all of this, once again, I want to call on all of you who are musically talented to share your gift with the Fellowship on Sunday mornings and any other appropriate time. I want more music, more singing! I will welcome accordions, banjos, jazz vocals, clarinets, harps, guitars, folk singing, a men’s choral, and any other experienced vocalists and instrumentalists playing and singing music—the kind that calms the mind, touches the heart, celebrates and connects us to our human story.

And here’s another gift of grace: In recent years we have been blessed to have a children’s choir, led by Susan Wright, who unfortunately, may not be able to continue to lead. How wonderful it is to hear our children sing and play! I want more. But who will lead them? If you are interested, let me know. Singing together is a unique congregational activity in which both elders and youth can participate as equals.

So now I am waiting for you to respond. You can respond in two ways: First, if you are interested in participating in our music ministry and can play or sing at our 9 a.m. service, contact Iris Dayer, and let her know you are interested and what you can do. We especially need musical folks at the early service. If you are interested in participating in our 11 a.m. service, contact Erica Denler.

Second, I am in the process of asking the Board of Trustees to approve the formation of a Music Ministry Committee. If that comes to fruition, the 2nd thing you can do is volunteer to serve on that committee whose task will be to manage our music program and help enlist more musicians.

See you at the Fellowship on September 10. Bring your vials of water for the water communion! It will truly be wonderful seeing everyone again, reconnecting, serving and singing along the way!

Jim Covington

This entry was posted on Friday, September 1st, 2006 at 1:51 pm and is filed under Minister's Letter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

We have recently welcomed new members to the Fellowship. When new members are introduced at Sunday morning services, I usually read a statement I wrote several years ago about what it means to become a member of the Fellowship. I’ve decided to include it in this space for all of us to read and especially those who are still considering whether to join the Fellowship. It still best expresses my own thoughts about membership. Of course, I could elaborate about each sentence. I’m sure it can be improved. I often say to people that we are a liberal religious community as opposed to a literalist” religious community that is defined by dogma. In other words our faith or worldview is shaped by our own personal experiences, knowledge, insights, and fortified by reason. Our overall mission is ministry. These thoughts are at least implied in the membership statement below. Hopefully it’s a good enough statement to serve as a guide for those of us who are already members who may want to contemplate anew what your membership means and to those who are considering membership.

This is what I say:

Jim Covington

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 1st, 2006 at 10:44 am and is filed under Minister's Letter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

By the time you receive this Newsletter, our pledge drive will have ended. Based upon the early pledges (50% of membership), you have been very responsive and generous.

On May 7, we are planning a town-hall” meeting after the 11 a.m. service from 12:15 – 1:15 to discuss the results of the recent “opinion survey” and allow all who are interested respond, offer more feedback and together decide what areas of our ministry need greater attention in the coming months.

Speaking of ministry, after a few years of research and consideration, Committee on Ministry has recently been appointed by the minister and the Board of Trustees. The establishment of this committee was endorsed by the congregation at our annual meeting in 2002. For your information, a more detailed explanation of the COM is included elsewhere in the Newsletter and more information will be forthcoming.

This month we will honor all teachers and children who have participated in our Religious Education program. May 14 is RE Sunday and on May 21 we will recognize and honor those who have led and participated in the Our Whole Lives program on human sexuality

And finally, as of this writing, we have about 12-16 people signed up for our Getting to Know UU orientation class on April 30. In recent months, our membership committee, chaired by Anne Summers, has been quite active in reaching out to all the many visitors we have and friends who are nonmembers. As active as the membership committee has been, I want to emphasize however, that all of us need to be welcoming and engaging of those who visit us. I must say, the comments I have received recently from many of our visitors indicate indeed how welcomed they do feel and how friendly they experience our congregation to be. On May 21 we will officially welcome our newest members.

So obviously there’s a lot of positive stuff happening. And I like to think or hope that the result of this activity is ultimately a sense by many if not most of us of a vital human connection. This is not always experienced by people who join us or visit us, and the reasons for that vary.

And so a few decide to leave us and move on to something else. I am always saddened when that happens, and wonder, what if anything I could have done or others of us to help make people feel more connected. It is not always my responsibility or our fault, but I do try to reach out to those who have left to understand their experience. Invariably, for different reasons, most say they didn’t feel “connected.”

Nevertheless I believe our Fellowship remains a growing and vital community. However I don’t believe the connection I refer to above is based primarily on “faith” or “theological diversity” or “spirituality” or political affiliation. We all have very different points of view about those matters. I believe the key to our connection is not that we believe together but that we walk together. We are bound together( religion means “to bind together), not by common beliefs but by a covenant to walk together into the mysteries, fully respecting the diversity, relishing learning from one another, vigorously discussing the issues that confront us and living an ethically responsible life . We have chosen to walk together “in a world where the lights are dim and the very stars wander.”

I do believe our “principles” provide an ethical framework for our journey together. And I believe that is very important. If one cannot feel comfortable with our principles, chances are you will never feel quite right with the Fellowship.

But I am inclined to say that it is not the principles themselves, or reason or spirituality or history or richness of diversity that fosters the connection– though these all contribute – but that we are on a journey together.

What really connects us is less ideological than narrative. It is our stories intermingled with the stories of others and the collective story of humanity.

What holds us together is a very curious sense of being on an adventure of the spirit without a known destination. We remain open to the Mystery and we share our experiences and points of view. We may disagree. But because none of us claim to know the whole truth about the Mystery of life, we can still remain respectful of each other’s world view or the window through which the light of truth, as we say when we extinguish the chalice each Sunday, shines for each of us respectively. The “fire of our commitment” to justice and an ethical responsible life is enkindled all the more. Therein rests the most vital source of our connection with each other—or as we say: “the warmth of our community” where we share our journeys, live courageously, and celebrate the gift of life with both joy and humility.

See you at the Fellowship!
Jim Covington

This entry was posted on Friday, April 28th, 2006 at 6:07 pm and is filed under Minister's Letter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.