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Office Hours:
Tuesday through Thursdays, 9am-noon; study day Monday; day off Friday.
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MINISTER's MUSINGS
Rev. Stephen A. Landale
MAY 2008
“Church of the Open Heart.” That’s how one of your past ministers described the essence of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Eugene in a conversation last spring, when I was in the search process. Other ministers smiled and agreed with these words.
The warmth and openness of this community is clear. Most members, it seems to me, feel a sense of caring (in giving as well as receiving), particularly those who are well-established in an ongoing group, whether it be the choir or a men’s group, a dedicated committee, a small group ministry group, or an informal gathering of peers, such as parents, young adults, or retirees.
Sadly, though, some members are not feeling that warm embrace. Less well known, for whatever reason, the congregation’s informal caring networks may not reach them. With approximately 400 adult members, our church needs to become more intentional in its inclusiveness. We are blessed with remarkably caring individuals who pay attention to who is missing, send cards, and make hospital visits. I feel blessed to be ministering with such people, such as Kathy Dillon and Sue Craig…and many more than I can name here. Yet even with their efforts, and my making more pastoral care visits in a week than most ministers at churches of this size, we need more.
Establishing a Pastoral Associates (PA) program here has been one of my top priorities. PAs are selected and trained by the minister to visit church members and friends in times of transition and those unable to attend church regularly, such as those in nursing homes with limited mobility. Monthly meetings are provided to help them deepen their art of spiritual listening. The content of their visits will be shared only as needed for supervision, and anything shared will be kept confidential. From these meetings and others, I will learn who needs a visit from their minister.
Nine UUCE members took my PA training in April: Kathy Dillon and Bonnie Romane, Co-Chairs; along with Kate Savannah, Fred Schultz, and Dianne Watson, all of whom will begin serving as Pastoral Associates immediately; and Betty Boyce, Bob Coleman, Sally DeCou, and Ann Fuller, who will join the program as it grows this year.
Co-Chairs Bonnie Romane and Kathy Dillon will serve as PA Coordinators for two-month periods, with Bonnie taking the first two-month term. If you would like a visit from a PA, or know someone who might, tell the Coordinator through the end of June. She will assign Pastoral Associates in consultation with me.
The Pastoral Associate visiting you comes not as a professional counselor or social worker but as a spiritual listener. She or he is there to listen with compassion, and perhaps help you engage your situation spiritually, with your deepest or best self. Visits will be up to an hour, with conversations varying from person to person. In the hospital or similar situations, visits will usually be briefer and more of a check-in.
PAs will be careful to work within their limitations, making referrals, including to me, as appropriate. They will also coordinate closely with the Caring Committee, which provides people in transition with practical short-term assistance, such as rides to the hospital or home-cooked meals to people following the death of a family member. Bob Coleman is the Caring Committee Coordinator through the end of June. Please see Bob if you know of someone who could use their assistance. In trainings with 90 pastoral associates from 22 UU congregations near Boston, I learned of thriving programs wherein even well-established church members with many friends still occasionally asked for a visit from a Pastoral Associate. It can be quite valuable to speak with someone who has a little distance from your situation: someone who is there to listen to you, ask a few questions, perhaps suggest resources or perspectives, including our UU Principles. I will continue to provide pastoral care directly, focusing on those whose situations call for a minister. I am greatly relieved to know that any one in this community who requests a pastoral visit will be able to receive it in a timely fashion.
The PA program should help us become a true “Church of the Open Heart. “ Beginning this month, far more people will be receiving pastoral visits. Eventually, dozens of members will be trained in the art of spiritual listening, which will have ripple effects of kindness and mindfulness throughout our community and beyond.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~In faith and gratitude, Rev. Steve
April 2008
One of the highlights of my ministerial career thus far was the “Life From Darkness” pageant on Dec. 16th that I had the honor of co-creating with Director of Religious Education Candee Cole and many, many volunteers–actors, costume designers, stage managers, patient parents of actors, and more. What a joy that service was, celebrating the creation story of the universe, as learned by science and told by a writer with a poetic flare, Jennifer Morgan, author of Born With a Bang: The Universe Tells Our Cosmic Story, Part I.
The words Candee and I spoke, as the Universe narrator, came directly from this book, with very few modifications. I purchased Born With a Bang in October 2006 at a UU ministers’ chapter retreat near Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The leaders of the retreat were UU Connie Barlow and her husband, Rev. Michael Dowd. As you may have learned from a UU World cover story a couple of years ago, they are itinerant evangelists for “The Great Story”–the ongoing creation story of the universe, which, when understood deeply, leaves us with a religious awe and gratitude for being stardust, created with the explosion of stars. Their inspiration is the work of Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry, authors of the book, The Great Story. It might be more accurate to say they are disciples of Swimme and Berry, among others in this growing movement, interwoven with the Deep Ecology of Joanna Macy and many others.
Barlow and Dowd sold their home over six years ago and have been living in a white van, traveling around the continent offering workshops on “The Great Story.” They are an interesting couple: Connie is a biologist, an atheist, a UU, and (my observation) a low-key, short-haired introvert, accessible but not flashy. Michael is flashy, a natural preacher and evangelist, a former Catholic turned born-again Christian who fought evolution, to a born-yet-again “Crea-theist,” a religious man who (it seems to me) bows at the altar of creation itself.
Rev. Michael Dowd will be with us on Thursday, April 10. I hope you can come to hear this passionate evangelist for “The Great Story.” The Board kindly rescheduled its monthly meeting so we could host Dowd while he’s in the area. On Sat., April 5th, Green Sanctuary will present a workshop based on the work of Deep Ecology leader Joanna Macy, following a film. On the weekend of April 19-20, we’ll celebrate Earth Day with a work party at Alton Baker Park (Sat. at 9:00 a.m.) and worship services Sunday morning.
What a rich month this is at UUCE and in Oregon. In April we will be charting our future with financial commitments, moving towards the selection of a new home, electing new leaders, and more. (We have no Passover Seder scheduled, but if you would be interested in helping to organize one for next year, please let me know.) Meanwhile, the state will be gearing up for the highly contested Democratic presidential primaries. And we will have several chances to honor Earth Day, manifest our seventh principle of respecting the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part (not master), and deepening our commitment to living in right relations with the life that sustains us. Blessed Be.
In faith, Rev. Steve
March 2008
Money seems to have a dirty name in church. Some of us have been part of religious organizations that seem to worship it. But money is a neutral medium, neither positive nor negative. Like other resources, such as time, it can be used for good or ill. In this church, we strive to use it for good. We pay our staff salaries and benefits. We give our offering once a month to an outside agency in line with our values. We keep this place going–and we’d like to do more. We’d like to offer scholarships for leaders to attend UU leadership trainings, for instance. We dearly need to expand our staff, to catch up with our membership growth.
This month you will begin hearing from our Stewardship team and other members in testimonials, in preparation for Celebration Sunday, on April 6th . On that date we will gather again for one large worship service at Lane Community College to celebrate and make our financial commitments to this church.
I invite you to use this time to explore important questions: What does the Unitarian Universalist Church in Eugene mean to you? What would it mean to help it grow and thrive for this and following generations? Given this value, what is an appropriate pledge?
I’ve observed that when people conduct this sort of personal inventory, they discover that church ranks higher in their hearts than it does in their checkbooks. For some people, church takes second place only to family, or perhaps to a meaningful career. Many, if not most of us, would put it in our Top Ten or even our Top Five. But when we look at our checkbooks, it often ranks about Number 30–somewhere below specialty coffee drinks!
The canvass conversation is a way of helping us make our actions congruent with our values. This congruence is key to spiritual and emotional health. In our materialistic and impulsive age, deliberately choosing to redirect one’s resources from overpriced consumer products to a community that supports one’s values is a revolutionary act. Think about that.
A friend of mine has helped me see church as a “spiritual cooperative.” This name recalls for me the food cooperative I joined in Ithaca, N.Y., where I paid monthly dues and worked two to four hours a month. I felt a much closer connection than I did with any other stores. Shoppers and workers smiled and talked with each other quite a bit, as they were all part owners. People treated the store and each other with respect. Everyone had an investment in the place.
That’s the way it is here at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Eugene. But sometimes we forget. We can easily start thinking of this place as our consumer-oriented society teaches us to see everything: as a disposable product produced by “them” that is to be purchased and used for personal gain.
You are part of an institution that does not fit into consumer-oriented, fee-for-service thinking. There is no “them” in this home of liberal religion. You are all part owners here. You are joining together your talents, desires, and resources (time and money) for mutual benefit, to make yourselves into better people and to make the world a better place. You are part of a spiritual cooperative!
And I’m part of it, too! It’s a good feeling. I will think hard about my pledge, while reflecting on the meaning this community has to me. I hope you will, too.
In faith, Rev. Steve
February 2008
Every man’s condition is a solution in hieroglyphic to those inquiries which he would make; he lives it as life before he perceives it as truth.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson
Every woman’s condition is a solution in hieroglyphic to those inquiries which she would make; she lives it as life before she perceives it as truth.
--Adapted by Rev. Steve Landale
This is a special month in the history of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Eugene. Your building committee and task forces are preparing for our move--searching for properties, exploring means of evaluating properties based on our values, inviting you more deeply into the process, assessing our financial prospects, and more. The charts and tables and left-brain analysis is flying high. This is good.
And… it’s time we paused to listen to what our souls have to say about all of this. As a congregation, UUCE has decided to move, to make a significant external change. This will be a meaningful transition for us--a transformation or growth in who we are as a church, not just where we are--to the extent that we reflect on our spiritual and soulful growth as a community. It’s time to reflect not just on a new property and building, but on what this change will facilitate: the next long chapter--likely decades--in the life of this beloved community. It’s time to ask ourselves, more deeply than we have in the past, and with the input of newer members and friends, “Who have we been? What is emerging in this transition? Who do we seem to be becoming? As we grow, what will be our necessary losses? Are there loved aspects of this stage that we will need to leave behind? What qualities of our character and vision will we take with us, and grow?”
You will be invited to reflect on what you want for our church, and in particular on your best understanding of the truth UUCE has begun to live. This transition began the moment members received the letter of resignation of Rev. Carolyn Colbert in September 2006. It continues even now. Following Emerson’s words, you will be asked to look closely at our emerging identity as a hieroglyphic from which the truth of our future may be gleaned. This information about emerging values and identity during our transition is critical to the direction, health, and ultimate success of UUCE’s moving to a new home. It is the right-brain, intuitive and spiritual reflection that will complement the more linear thinking already underway.
I will be reflecting on our transition as spiritual growth in my sermons on February 10th and 17th. Following the 11 a.m. services on those days, from approximately 12:30 to 2:00 p.m., we will have “listening groups” throughout the church, for people to listen to the reflections of others, and possibly speak themselves, on three transitional questions posed during the services. These questions and this time will be an important part of this reflective process, but they will not address all of the important soul-questions we may have.
Please sign up in the social hall for only one of these dates. If you are able to help provide lunch or other help, please note on sign up sheet.
- Everybody wants to be somebody; nobody wants to grow. --Goethe
The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become. --Charles DuBos
Life is the only real counselor. --Edith Wharton
Blessings on our journey… and on yours, as individuals and families,
Rev. Steve
January 2008
Minister’s Musings
Happy New Year! I am glad to be beginning this year with you.
Although I arrived in August and began leading worship services in September, this time of beginnings has many stages.
On January 27th at 4:00 p.m. we will have our Installation service, at which I will be formally installed as UUCE’s settled minister, and the members of UUCE and I will enter into a covenantal relationship more fully. To make sure we have room for everyone, including ministers and other guests from out of town, this service will be held downtown, at the First Christian Church, 1166 Oak Street.
The service will last approximately 90 minutes and will be followed by a reception there, much like the monthly interfaith services held in the same sanctuary. My colleague and friend the Rev. Deborah Cayer, of Sharon, Mass., will be preaching the sermon, congregational president Olga Turner will lead the congregation in the Act of Installation, and your former minister the Rev. Carolyn Colbert will offer the Charge to the Congregation. Several other ministers will have brief speaking roles as well. If this is your first UU ministerial Installation (or Ordination) service, you may be surprised that I’ll say very little. I will speak my words of covenant to you and then offer the benediction at the end. Childcare of course will be provided. I hope you can take part!
That morning, in our usual 9 and 11 a.m. services, I will preach on our shared journey thus far. I hope you can be there as well. It’s a lot of church on one day, but then again, the following Sunday is the Super Bowl, so you may want to fill up your church time bank!
As I look back on 2007 with gratitude, and ahead to 2008 with hope, my time with you is foremost in my mind. Happy New Year indeed! Many blessings upon us all, and may we use this magical beginning to become an even stronger congregation, serving the larger community with joy and hope.
In faith,
Rev. Steve
December 2007
Christianity grew to become one of the world’s great world religions in part by creatively merging aspects of its own story, theology, and practice with those of paganism. Thus we have the resurrection of Jesus celebrated in the spring on a holiday known as “Easter,” in honor of a fertility goddess, and we have the Easter Bunny distributing eggs – pagan symbols for fertility, absent from the Bible (last time I checked).
We also have the birth of Jesus celebrated during the week of the winter solstice. As Pagans celebrate the return of the Sun, Christians celebrate the birth of the Son! The introspective quality of winter, with its short, cold days and long, starry nights, lends itself well to the mysterious and awe-filled quality of the Christian story of God taking the form of a human being, born in a manger. Many people who do not embrace the Christian story do take to the story of the wise men following a star to find this baby. Many Unitarian Universalists who keep aspects of Christianity at arm’s length love to sing Silent Night by candlelight, “… glories stream from heaven afar, heavenly hosts sing ‘Alleluia,’ sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace.” This story captures something elemental in religion: here we are, in the midst of this unimaginably expansive universe, hardly significant at all, yet each of us is as precious as this baby. God is everything; we are not even specks of dust compared to God. And, God is this baby, and all babies: we carry God in our arms.
If you are still in town, I hope you will come (with family and friends!) to either or both of our Christmas Eve services, when we will honor the great mystery of life in the stars above and the baby we hold in our arms. The Sunday prior to these services, Dec. 23rd, we’ll turn to pagan and naturalistic understandings of the season. Our pageant this year will be a super-spectacular celebration of the creation story of the universe on Dec. 16th. Other services will focus on prayer, the nonviolence teachings of Jesus, and Likes and Wishes: Looking Back and Blessing our Future on Dec. 30th. This holiday season, amid the busyness and consumerism, I hope that we may find together a rekindled awareness of the deep spirituality that gave birth to these holy days
In faith,
Rev. Steve Landale
November 2007
Here’s a question that is curiously not asked often in church: How goes it with your spiritual life?
And so I ask you now: How goes it with your spiritual life? You, the reader, yes, you!
What helps you slow down, so that you can truly experience your life, rather than buzz through it, preoccupied with worries, regrets, or a to-do list? When was the last time something small and ordinary became a source of wonder or meaning for you? How is your relationship with Creativity? With Story? With Silence? What creates in you a space for pure, unadulterated Joy?
When was the last time you took yourself to your horizon, met and faced a fear, or sat with the suffering of another? What brings you more deeply to yourself? What brings you out of yourself? What helps you smile and be your best? What role does service play in your life—joyful service?
How do you greet the morning? How do you let go of the day, and welcome sleep? When do you count your blessings, or offer thanks?
How are you doing with your doubts, your regrets? Are they pushed down, and festering? Or can you sit with them, perhaps with someone else? If you are actively involved with this church, how does your involvement relate to your spiritual growth? What kind of activity here would assist your spiritual growth?
Do you sense that participating in this community could be more of a spiritual practice for you, but you are unsure of how? If so, call me.
This season of Thanks-giving, for what or whom are you truly grateful?
In faith,
Rev. Steve Landale
Minister’s Schedule
Sunday coffee hour:
Time for the minister to connect with visitors, children, and members & friends not on committees. Please refrain from bringing church business to him during coffee hour (or prior to a worship service), as this can be handled at other times. Please do introduce your children and your guests to Steve!
Office Hours
Tuesday through Thursdays, 9am to noon.
study day Monday; day off Friday.
Scripture is everywhere... pay attention.
When to call the minister?
If you’re thinking of calling and are not sure if it’s appropriate – call! At church, 686-2775.
Call Steve’s cell phone, 401/837-8032, for pastoral emergencies or for short-term changes to appointments.
