Category Archives: Liberal religion

Happy 200th, Henry

I managed to miss the two hundredth birthday of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (27 February 1807 – 24 March 1882). A poet who is perhaps best known for his poem “Paul Revere’s Ride,” it also happens that Longfellow was a Unitarian. If you go up to visit First Parish in Portland, Maine, they will show you the pew which he and his family rented.

Longfellow’s reputation has fallen on hard times. Today, the critics dismiss his poetry as too sentimental. And the historians rightly point out the gross inaccuracies in his poems;– when I was a licensed tourist guide in Concord, Massachusetts, I had to constantly explain to people that despite what Longfellow wrote in “Paul Rever’s Ride,” Revere never made it to Concord because His Majesty’s Regulars captured him in the town of Lincoln.

Nevertheless, Longfellow’s straightforward language and imagery helped create the political mythos of the United States. I still get chills as I read the last lines of “Paul Revere’s Ride”:

In the books you have read
How the British Regulars fired and fled,–
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farmyard wall,
Chasing the redcoats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load.
So through the night rode Paul Revere;–
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm,–
A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.

…although, in the context of the current political and military adventures of the United States, it is worth noting that Longfellow was a pacifist.

So happy 200th, Henry. Sorry I missed the actual date. But according to the Web site of the Longfellow Bicentennial, I’ll have plenty of other opportunities to celebrate — including an “evening conversation” at 6:30 tonight, at the Longfellow National Historic Site in Cambridge.

Sunday school teachers can find activity kits here: Link (scroll down and follow the link labeled “Activity Kits,” which brings up a pop-up window).

Works by Longfellow at Project Gutenberg: Link.

Org theory and b-schools

The blog orgtheory has a good post on the recent history of organizational theory, summarizing a recent paper published in Organizational Studies: link.

What interested me most about this history of organizational studies is that since the 1980’s, most organizational theorists have migrated to the business schools. Which helps explain why the organizational theory I read seems to be permeated by free-market and business attitudes. I’m pretty comfortable with a business approach, but a congregation is not a business, a minister is something different from a chief executive, other program staff are not the same as employees, lay leaders are not the same as volunteers in a non-profit. It’ll never happen, but wouldn’t it be nice if organizational theory developed ties to the theological schools?

Friday video: Non-standard promotional video

My week of vacation doesn’t officially start until tomorrow, but because I didn’t have to be in the office today I stayed up late last night figuring out how to make a video. It turns out to be insanely easy to learn how to use iMovie, the video editing software shipped with all Mac computers. So just for fun, I made a promotional video for First Unitarian, splicing in images I happened to have on disk, and adding a soundtrack I had made a while ago in GarageBand….

(Note: video host blip.tv is defunct, so the original link to this video no longer exists. The above image is a still photo that was used in the original video. I still have a copy of this video, but have not put it online again.)

If the clicking on the picture above doesn’t work, try this: Link. (If you tried earlier and it didn’t work, try again — I uploaded a bad file at first.)

After I checked out some other videos on You Tube that promote Unitarian Universalist congregations. Most of the other videos take a documentary approach, with warm friendly shots of kids, choirs, ministers, etc. Most of their soundtracks use hymns, piano music, ministers talking, etc. From a sales and marketing standpoint, such videos are probably much better than mine. I guess maybe my video reflects a different understanding of Unitarian Universalism, more like that in the video for The First Unitarian Universalist Church of Second Life: Link (did Christine make that video?).

I’d love to hear your thoughts on what constitutes a good promotional video for Unitarian Universalist congregations. What demographic would you target? How would you get approval from your congregation’s Board (or would you even try)? Would you do a documentary, something more like a music video, or what?

More songs

Four new songs/chants added to the main Web site — Link.

The songs:

  • “Alleluia Round” attributed to Mozart
  • “Listen, Listen, Listen,” a chant by Paramahansa Yogananda
  • “May the Long Time Sun Shine Upon You,” an anonymous contemporary chant (in 7/4 time, how cool is that?)
  • “The Ocean Refuses No River,” a chant supposedly of Sufi origin.

As far as I know, these are copyright-free songs. I’ve included lyrics, along with abc notation which allows you to hear the melody and the chords by using the “abc Convertamatic” Web site [link].

Busy? Yeah.

This turned out to be a day that filled up with meetings and administrative work: checking in with office staff in the morning, a phone appointment with the consultant I work with, checking email, proofing the newsletter, checking in with the editor of the congregational cookbook, home for a quick lunch, then back for a meeting with the architect who’s developing a master plan for maintaining our building, followed by a special meeting of the Board of Trustees, grab a quick take-out dinner at the Thai place down the street, followed by a meeting for the community sustainability group of which Carol and I members. Speaking from experience, I’d say that serving as minister of a small congregation can actually be more demanding than serving as minister of a larger congregation, because in a small congregation, I’m it, there isn’t another minister on staff who can cover a meeting instead of me. In my experience, you’re more vulnerable as the sole minister in a small congregation — and the congregation is much more vulnerable, too, because if something happens to you (you go into the hospital, God forbid, or have a family crisis, or just go on sabbatical ), there’s no one there to take up the slack. I’m not complaining or looking for sympathy. I love my work, and I’m happy in my congregation. But when you think that more than half of all mainline congregations in the United States are small, that means that more than half the congregations in the United States are pretty vulnerable in this way. If you’re looking for reasons why mainline congregations are sturggling, I don’t think you have to look any farther than this.

Another microphone rant

Just finished talking to my dad, and we wound up talking about one of our favorite subjects — the best way to use a microphone. Back in November, I posted a list of microphone tips and techniques, but tonight dad and I came up with a couple of new ones that I thought I’d share with you:

  • When you are using a clip-on or “Lavelier” microphone, do not bump the microphone, and it would be best not to clap (or at least clap with your hands well away from the mic, like over your head) — for if you bump or clap, you will deafen your audience.
  • If the sound tech tells you where and how to stand so that the microphone can pick up your voice, stand there — for if you do not, chances are no one will hear you.
  • One way to improve sound quality in your congregation is to train all those use a microphone during the worship service at least once a year. (We ministers can set an example here by agreeing to participate in such training — after all, every one of us, no matter how experienced, can continually improve her/his microphone technique.)

I’ll add one last little item. Please remember that the sound tech is probably your friend. S/he wants to make sure you are heard as much as you do (because s/he knows that if you are not heard most people will blame her/him, not you). Many sound techs are geeks and may not have the smoothly polished manners that you have, but it is wise to listen to them with an open mind because they really want the same thing you do — they want you to be heard. And if you believe that the sound tech in your congregation is not your friend, you have two viable choices: (a) get a new sound tech that you can trust, or (b) take voice lessons so that you don’t really need a microphone to begin with.

Earlier post on microphone tips: Link.

Movement and drums and Sunday school

This past Sunday, I got a chance to teach in our tiny Sunday school. Just one girl showed up, A—; my co-teacher was A—‘s grandmother.

We have been using the curriculum “Stories about God” by Mary Ann Moore, a curriculum which exposes children in the primary grades to a wide range of God-concepts. Moore is especially interested in feminist theology and non-orthodox God-concepts. On Sunday we did the session on “God as Mother of Us All.”

In this session, Moore has the children do a creative movement exercise. Creative movement is not one of my strong suits. Over the years, I’ve led a fair number of creative movement exercises with children, and even with teens and adults, but I’ve never been satisfied with my efforts. Suddenly I was not looking forward to teaching Sunday school.

But then I remembered that the old “Haunting House” Sunday school curriculum came with a little booklet by Barbara Kres Beach on doing creative movement with kids, and I remembered that in that booklet was an idea that might help me out. I dug out my bootleg copy of “Haunting House,” and found the photograph I remembered: a picture of children in a sunlit room doing creative movement exercises, with a woman in the background holding a frame drum and a drumstick. Kres Beach suggests: Use a drum to set the pace and tone when you do creative movement with kids. Ah, ha! — all of a sudden I was ready to try creative movement.

By chance, I own a bodhran (an Irish frame drum), and I brought it in on Sunday. The creative movement exercise starts out with the children lying on the floor, breathing peacefully and quietly — I made circles on the drumhead with the beater, a soft and meditative shh-shh-shh sound. Everyone stands up and takes a big step! — a tap on the drum, and A— and her grandma were on their feet, stepping forward and reaching to the sky! I did a slow beat on the drum when that was called for, and a faster, wilder beat when that was called for. At last we finished up back on the floor, with me making the soft shh-shh-shh sound with the beater again.

It was magical. The simple addition of a drumbeat made it so. A— had a blast (so did her grandmother, and so did I!).

Then it was time for the story, and A— was ready to settle right down and listen. “Stories about God” is a good curriculum, and the story built on the creative movement exercise. I felt that A— really understood the God-concept I was trying to get across, and the simple addition of a drumbeat meant allowed me to pull it off.

New Web site on congregational finances

“Steward’s Prophet” is a new Web site run by Rev. Karen McArthur. Karen, who is affiliated with the United Church of Christ, has a strong background in congregational finances and administration (I’d say she knows more about these topics than anyone else I know). She has been doing interim ministry for a while, but has now decided to go out on her own as a financial consultant to congregations.

Her Web site is still brand-new, but she says she plans to add new material monthly. If you’re interested in congregational finances, it’s worth bookmarking. Link.

Possibilities for post-Christian worship, appendix

Reading — words and language — are central to post-Christian being. A course of readings could be used to tie together common worship, small group work, and private devotions; as well as provide a link between common worship and curriculum for young people’s religious education. Call this course of readings a “lectionary.”

Overview:

The “lectionary” year is divided roughly into four seasons: December-February, March-May, June-August, September-November. Assuming not all post-Christians live in the northern hemisphere, or in locations with four defined meteorological seasons, these “seasons” are not assigned names. A post-Christian perspective does not assume one set of readings will fit all post-Christian congregations in all locations, no matter what the surrounding culture might be, so there must always be some flexibility in which readings are used by a given congregation.

The “lectionary” year starts in December: Christmas season as the time when post-Christians tend to remember their Christian past with the most fondness. Readings for December-February explore Christian scriptures, and Hebrew scriptures as filtered through the Christian tradition (i.e., not from a strictly Jewish perspective which would require some familiarity with the Talmud). In March-May, the readings are drawn from non-Western religious traditions.

June-August has two options: more Bible readings for congregations which value their Christian heritage; and readings in social justice. September-November covers readings from the immediate heritage of the congregation (denominational or otherwise), as well as material pertaining to indigenous religious traditions connected to the congregation’s location. Note that for June-November, a special effort can be made to find readings by women.

Rough outline for a three-year cycle:

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