Sunday morning
Mar. 8th, 2009 11:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
winterbadgerSlept fairly well, and I didn't feel too boggled by the time shift. Had just enough time to eat breakfast, shower, and get to the early service at UUCSS.
I find their services very moving, as if there is something that's speaking to me very deeply there. And I think their minister is a tremendously good speaker and a very thoughtful writer. She's very good at, as it were, showing you the tools and materials that she plans to build her theme from, and then constructing it carefully, smoothly, with humour (where that's appropriate), respect, honesty, and strength. On my last two visits, and on my former ones, I've always found her to be compelling, providing a vision and inspiring people to rise to meet it, to examine themselves or to help others (or both). Today's sermon was no exception; she spoke about how difficult times give people (both as individuals and as communities) the opportunity and the challenge to measure their resilience in the face of adversity, learn how to build it, and use what strength and skill they have to help themselves and others.
I also find that her readings and sermons introduce me to writers I might never otherwise have encountered. One example from today was a passage she quoted from Theodore Roethke, from his poem In A Dark Time. And she also quoted from Forrest Church, another UU minister who, I find now I've briefly Googled him and read a couple of his sermons, has a lot of thoughtful and valuable things to say. And last week she quoted a passage from Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Divinity School Address", which reminded me among other things that there are a lot of good writers, far too many, whose names I know but whose words I am unfamiliar with.
I find UU in general seems to meet a lot of my philosophical needs while presenting me with challenges to be more tolerant and open to other ideas (a challenge I could probably benefit from). Certainly I find it very inspiring and provides me with encouragement to learn, think, and a venue for prayer that isn't as problematic as other religions I've participated in. And UUCSS seems to be both a fairly friendly place and one where the congregation is both on a similar wavelength to mine and quite diverse in age (as much as I loved TRS, I was almost always the only person other than the rabbi under the age of 40--of course it helps that I've grown so much older, given that *I'm* not under 40 any longer. ;-) And (of course I had to check!) there are congregations in Edinburgh and Glasgow (as well as Aberdeen and Dundee, and even Orkney!)
OK, lunch, then back to painting little men!
I find their services very moving, as if there is something that's speaking to me very deeply there. And I think their minister is a tremendously good speaker and a very thoughtful writer. She's very good at, as it were, showing you the tools and materials that she plans to build her theme from, and then constructing it carefully, smoothly, with humour (where that's appropriate), respect, honesty, and strength. On my last two visits, and on my former ones, I've always found her to be compelling, providing a vision and inspiring people to rise to meet it, to examine themselves or to help others (or both). Today's sermon was no exception; she spoke about how difficult times give people (both as individuals and as communities) the opportunity and the challenge to measure their resilience in the face of adversity, learn how to build it, and use what strength and skill they have to help themselves and others.
I also find that her readings and sermons introduce me to writers I might never otherwise have encountered. One example from today was a passage she quoted from Theodore Roethke, from his poem In A Dark Time. And she also quoted from Forrest Church, another UU minister who, I find now I've briefly Googled him and read a couple of his sermons, has a lot of thoughtful and valuable things to say. And last week she quoted a passage from Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Divinity School Address", which reminded me among other things that there are a lot of good writers, far too many, whose names I know but whose words I am unfamiliar with.
I find UU in general seems to meet a lot of my philosophical needs while presenting me with challenges to be more tolerant and open to other ideas (a challenge I could probably benefit from). Certainly I find it very inspiring and provides me with encouragement to learn, think, and a venue for prayer that isn't as problematic as other religions I've participated in. And UUCSS seems to be both a fairly friendly place and one where the congregation is both on a similar wavelength to mine and quite diverse in age (as much as I loved TRS, I was almost always the only person other than the rabbi under the age of 40--of course it helps that I've grown so much older, given that *I'm* not under 40 any longer. ;-) And (of course I had to check!) there are congregations in Edinburgh and Glasgow (as well as Aberdeen and Dundee, and even Orkney!)
OK, lunch, then back to painting little men!
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Date: 2009-03-08 04:55 pm (UTC)However, if I were to join an organized church the UU Church is the one I would join. They are awesome in their outlook, social services, inclusion, core beliefs, and intelligence. And this is what makes it for me "Ours is a non-creedal, non-doctrinal religion which affirms the individual's freedom of belief" -- Unitarian Universalist publications. I went to the services at the one in Arlington and it was great. :-)
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Date: 2009-03-08 05:40 pm (UTC)And I know I'm very fortunate in having a church I really like less than 20 minutes from home. I realise many others have to go much, much further to find fellowship that they feel meets their spiritual and social needs.