Monthly Archives: January 2008

Pigeons in winter

This afternoon, Carol and I took our usual walk along Route 6 across the harbor to Fairhaven. We talked about this and that, part of the ongoing conversation that people who have known each other for a long time have. The wind swept down from the north, picking up cold and dampness from the harbor; it cut right through my windbreaker; it was exhilirating but draining; Carol walked on the lee side of me, letting me act as a windbreak for her. “Boy, that wind is cold,” I said. And just then a pigeon came flying down towards where they all roost under the bridge, flaring its primary feathers as it rode the wind currents. I thought it was enjoying its ride on the stiff north breeze, and for that moment I thought that maybe the pigeons didn’t mind the cold and liked the stiff north wind.

But on the walk back, Carol pointed out dozens of pigeons roosting on a sheltered rooftop, where they could be out of the wind and warmed by the sun.

Undecided

June 8 of this year will mark the 300th anniversary of First Unitarian in New Bedford. Well, that’s not exactly true. It’s really the date of the oldest extant written record of the congregation. June 8, 1708, is when the the Massachusetts provincial legislature ordered that a Puritan minister be settled in the town of Dartmouth (much against the will of most of the people who lived here, since at that time 80% of the town was Quaker and most of the rest were Baptists, and they had no desire to see their tax money go towards supporting an established Puritan church).

We are kicking off our year-long celebration this Friday with an evening worship service. The mayor of New Bedford has kindly agreed to come and read the original act of the legislature that established the congregation. The minister from the First Congregational Church in Fairhaven, which amicably split off from our church in 1794, is coming to read the earliest church covenant we have. Everett Hoagland, the former poet laureate of New Bedford, will read one of his poems. And — this just sunk in today — I have to preach a sermon suitable for a three hundredth anniversary.

I have to say, I don’t have much inclination to preach a sermon on history. My personal attitude is: the past three hundred years have been fun, let’s celebrate them, but let’s really look ahead to the next three hundred years. What will it take to keep this congregation going for another three hundred years? And what will the surrounding society need from us over the next three hundred years?

So what would you do: preach a nice safe historical sermon, or talk about the moral imperative of facing up to things like global warming, peak oil, the legacies of racism and colonialism?

For you history geeks, below I’ve included the text of the act that established a Puritan church in the old town of Dartmouth… Continue reading →

Jenkin Lloyd Jones and Emerson meet

Ellen Tucker Emerson, daughter of Ralph Waldo Emerson, was an engaging writer in her own right. She never bothered to publish anything, writing instead for the enjoyment of her family and friends. Recently, I’ve been dabbling in the two volume set of her letters (Kent State University Press, 1982), and I came across a letter in which she describes going to a Unitarian summer conference with her father in 1879; by which time her father’s memory loss was fairly pronounced. In addition to giving a fascinating glimpse into the very beginnings of the kind of summer religious conferences that still continue today at places like Star Island and Ferry Beach, she also writes about how she happened to meet Jenkin Lloyd Jones, the secretary of the Western Unitarian Conference:

Weir’s N.H. July 22nd 1879

Dear Mother,

We all met at Nashua and came in high spirits to Lake Winnepisagee. We landed on a platform right over its waters, and felt all that sense of coolness & stillness & relief of getting out of the cars into beautiful nature that we have all often enjoyed. A friendly voice cried out “All who wish to go to Concord Building, follow me,” so we all followed, presented our credentials which were received with laughter and pocketed unread, because they said we didn’t need any, and the we were told the evening meeting was just beginning. The Meeting consisted of a welcoming address from Mr Powell of Laconia, who said he was chairman of the Reception Committee appointed by the N.H. Unitarian Assn. as their representative, as such, servants of all who arrived, to take good care of us, and that they would do it to the utmost. Then one Rev. from Mr Beane of Concord N.H. telling us about the lat Grove-Meeting, and that all who attended it learned the lesson that religion was more a social & less a solitary sentiment than they used to think, and that the cumulative effect of making it the business & study of a whole week night and day had been very great so that not only in general the Unitarians of N.H. had been more active, zealous and mutually attached ever since than they had been before, but that individual men had felt through the whole year the lift they got here last July, it was true of him, and he believed almost all who were here would be able to give the same testimony. So he congratulated us that we had come, and said we couldn’t help expecting much from this week. Then some notices, and we were dismissed and brought by Mr Powell to our present abode, Mrs Lovett’s house, quite near the Ground on a hill overlooking the lake and having a fine view of the Gunstock Mountain and the right and Ossippee Mountain on the left. The cooking is admirable, and there is plenty of new milk. Of course the mountain water is excellent. We arrived just a little late at the 8.30 morning prayer-meeting. There was the “Rev. Jenk. Ll. Jones” addressing us, not from the stand but down in the aisle. What he said was good and in a quiet sincere voice. Someone else spoke. Then there was silence, and Mr Powers said “If the Spirit doesn’t move us, we will close the meeting.” Notices were given, a hymn was sung, and Mr Jones gave the blessing. We were told that Mr Tiffany would preach at 10.30…. We were pleased, I of course most of all, that dear Mr Tiffany was here and we enjoyed his sermon. It was “Physician heal thyself”, learn something before you attempt to impart. In the course of it he couldn’t help saying that Mr Emerson was an example of the true way of teaching. Then arose his brother ministers and “hackit him in pieces sma’ ” (not on the point of Papa) except Rev. J. Ll. Jones who had a great deal to say about Father, in much the same strain as Mr Tiffany, and what did the man do, but standing within a rod of me insist on looking me in the eye all the time he wa speaking of Father. I stood it a little, but kept him out of focus a great deal….

I love the way she slides from dead serious to dryly humorous to slyly witty, sometimes in the space of one sentence. And I like the way she threads together small observations and minor incidents, seemingly quite unrelated, to make her narrative. But to conclude her miniature portrait of Jenkin Lloyd Jones….

In a letter to her sister, dated two days later, she wrote, “I have here had a chance to see the Western Unitarian Minister side by side with the Eastern. They are the most different creatures imaginable.” I suppose one difference was that the Eastern Unitarian Minister would preach from behind a pulpit; while Jenkin Lloyd Jones, a Western Unitarian Minister, came down from the stand to speak from the aisle. Ellen concludes, “On the whole my hero is the Rev. Jenk. Ll Jones…. Mr Jones spoke on the subject of the afternoon “If Life worth living?” I heard more clearly now than I had before the advantages, the joys, the light of Unitarianism. It was a beautiful, beautiful speech.”

Not noticing

I spent this morning driving around to local graveyards, looking for 18th C. gravestones to photograph — I’m giving a talk on 17th and 18th C. gravestones at the Whaling Museum in a couple of weeks, and I needed to get some visuals for the talk.

Had I spent the morning driving around in some other place, away from home — even had I been just twenty or thirty miles from the New Bedford area — I would have had much to write about. Travel has a way of opening our eyes; we laugh at tourists who come to our home town, and walk slowly, gawking, and stopping to take photographs of everything; but then when we go someplace new, we behave in exactly the same way.

Since I stayed near home, I didn’t see much. Even though I drove to one place I hadn’t really seen before — the Hixville section of Dartmouth — I didn’t pay any particular attention to it. I drove to it, found the cemetery I was looking for, quickly took photographs of a few gravestones, and left; all without having noticed much of anything beyond the gravestones.

On volunteering

I spent about six hours today — most of the day — putting together a draft of a Web site for South Coast Sustainability Network, a local environmental group. At the end of the day, I realized that I don’t enjoy volunteering which requires me to hunch over a computer screen all day.

My job as a minister is mostly sedentary — I sit in meetings, I respond to email, I write sermons, I sit and talk with people. Yet before I became a minister my jobs were far more active — I worked in a warehouse, I sold building materials, I worked for a carpenter. In my core, I need to be physically active. With a sedentary job, I am not enthusiastic about spending my non-working hours at sedentary tasks. In fact, after spending six hours today working on that new Web site, I was so antsy and so desperate to do something active that I actually lifted weights — and I hate to lift weights.

The problem is that most of the skills I bring to community volunteer work — knowledge of the Web; moderately good committee member; not bad at publicity and marketing — these are all sedentary skills. Maybe what I need are volunteer opportunities that allow me to be outdoors and active.

I think my goal for this new year is to come up with active, outdoors volunteer responsibilities to replace the sedentary, indoors volunteer responsibilities I now have.

Intergenerational installation services?

Recently, someone asked how to have child-friendly installation services for new ministers. There’s no one answer to this question, but drawing on the dozen years I spent in religious education, I offered some ideas on how it might be done — and I thought I’d share those ideas here, especially because some of my readers might have even better ideas on how it might be done.

Here are some of my ideas on how to create an intergenerational installation service….

(1) 60 minutes tops First and foremost, someone has to keep the installation service to 60 minutes, tops. This is absolutely the hardest thing to do — installation services have a tendency to go on and on, often lasting for 90 or 120 minutes, which is too long for many young children. In my experience, you can limit an installation service to 60 minutes if the minister being installed and/or the installation committee tell each participant exactly how many minute the participant will be allowed to speak. (Scroll all the way down to find a sample schedule, from my own installation service in 2005.)

If it is impossible to limit the service to 60 minutes, and if there is unwillingness to select at least a few speakers who are known for being able to relate to children, then in my opinion it is best to arrange for the children to leave partway through the service and go off to other activities.

(2) Kid’s order of service I often try to create a Kid’s Order of Service for intergenerational services. A Kid’s Order of Service has puzzles and games and coloring pages, often with a religious theme. I like to give out the Kid’s Order of Service with a box of crayons (the cheapo boxes with 8 crayons are fine), along with a couple of colorful pipe cleaners. The kids like to get this packet of goodies, and it helps makes them feel welcome in the service.

A sample Kid’s Order of Service might have the following:

  • A page with the order of service in large type, with simple explanations of each item. (aimed at about age 9-11)
  • Two or three coloring pages using copyright-free material. I have used Beatrix Potter illustrations (she was a Unitarian), designs based on Frank Lloyd Wright stained glass (he was a Unitarian), and pictures by members of the congregation. (aimed at younger children)
  • Two word search puzzles, one easy and one more difficult, with Unitarian Universalist theme — I often use the Puzzlemaker Web site to generate the puzzle for me. (aimed at 8 and up)
  • Three or four mazes, ranging from easy to hard, and I might place a flaming chalice graphic or graphic of our church at the end of the maze — again, the Puzzlemaker Web site will generate mazes. (aimed at 6 and up)
  • A copyright-free story on a religious theme, such as a fable, or a story from Ellen Babbit’s book of Jataka tales (aimed at 9 and up)
  • Other pages of activities to total a dozen or more pages.

(3) Let parents know it’s OK to bring kids Of critical importance is selling the parents on the whole idea. They need to be assured that an intergenerational service is good for the kids. Parents should be reassured that it’s OK to bring quiet toys for children to play with during the service. Also, be sure to let them know that there will be childcare available in case older kids melt down. If possible, have a “cry room,” a nearby room where parents can take fussy babies and toddlers, and where they can hear an audio feed of the service.

It really helps if the minister also encourages parents and children to attend together!

(4) In case kids make noise… It’s important to prime several of the speakers to be ready in case a young child or baby vocalizes during the service. Have speakers primed to say something like, “It is wonderful to have children in the service to make us aware of the future of this church,” or “The sound of babies vocalizing in the service brings home to us the importance of future generations,” or the like.

(5) Minister’s commitment Finally, I can’t emphasize enough that the minister being installed has to be committed to an intergenerational service. For my installation in New Bedford, I let everyone know that I was fully committed to intergenerational community, and I have to acknowledge that I got a certain amount of criticism for inviting children in my installation — therefore I wouldn’t blame any minister who decides not to do an intergenerational installation!

Those are my ideas — what can you add from your own experience?

Continue reading →

The primaries begin

Today is the date of the New Hampshire presidential primary elections. This quadrennial event causes me to reflect on American democracy.

Some people tell us that the United States of America is a true meritocracy, where only the most capable and talented people rise to the most prominent political positions.

By contrast, Teresa Nielsen Hayden tells us: “Never believe in a meritocracy in which no one is funny-looking.”

If Nielsen-Hayden if right, United States presidential politics is not a meritocracy.

Good play

Roger Clemens told Mike Wallace that he “never” took steroids. “Swear,” said Roger.

Roger Clemens had an hour-long phone call with his former personal trainer, Brian McNamee. This was not long after McNamee had said publicly that he had given Clemens steriods. A lawyer for McNamee has raised the possibility that Clemens was engaged in “attempted influencing” not long before both men are supposed to testify before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Roger Clemens very much wants to get into baseball’s Hall of Fame.

This would make a good play, written by Sophocles, at the end of which Clemens’s hubris destroys him.

It’s cute!

When I got to church today, I discovered that my XO laptop had arrived on Friday, which was my day off. I got home from lunch carrying the cardboard box from the One Laptop Per Child foundation. “Look what I got!” I said to Carol.

While I was taking off my coat, she finished getting the box open, and we took out the cute litte green-and-white laptop. “It’s cute” she said.

It is cute. To open it, you unfold two little ears (which serve as antennas for the wifi) and that releases the screen, which then folds up to reveal the child-sized keyboard. The whole design is brilliant, including both the hardware and the software. And it comes with amazing software: a varitey of educational software including measurement programs, a calculator, etc.; photo- and audio- and video-editing software; music-creation software; a text editor; a simple Python compiler; a paint program; and much more.

The XO does have distinct limitations. No printer drivers yet (a low priority, according to the One Laptop Per Child Web site, in part because they are committed to cutting down on paper use for ecological reasons). A tiny, child-sized keyboard (I’m typing this entry on my new XO, and my big hands definitely do not fit the keyboard well). Some holes in the software (the Flash player on the Web browser does not work yet). A small screen (not so good for middle-aged eyes). It’s pretty slow compared to my Mac Powerbook. And it is clearly designed to be an educational tool, not a general purpose computer.

But overall, I’m very impressed with the XO — and I’ve just begun to explore its capabilities and possilities. As I learn more about its capabilities, I’ll let you know more about it — maybe I’ll make a video so you can see it in action.