Monthly Archives: March 2005

More Dr. Lyttle

Thinking about Dr. Lyttle yesterday prompted me to glance through some of the old church newsletters he produced from 1949 through 1964. At the top of the March, 1962, issue of “The Geneva Unitarian Pioneer,” Dr. Lyttle included this quotation:

“That worshipper of mine who cherishes no hate against any human being, but is full only of friendliness and compassion; who is free from self-seeking and the illusions of the self; to whom sorrow and joy are the same; always patient and content; given to meditation; self-controlled, resolute — he [sic] is dear to me. He [sic] before whom none is disquieted and who is disquieted before none — he also is dear to me….” (The Lord Krishna to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita)

Further down the page, I find this announcement:

“‘The Ethical Teaching of the Major Oriental Religions’ has been chosen as the central theme of our pre-Easter sermon series. It will be interesting to note the ehtical unison amid the diversity of ideological counterpoint. The treatment of each ‘gospel’ will, however, be as realistic and practical as possible.”

What a religious inheritance we have been given in our church. What a privilege to be part of this historic church!

Remembering Dr. Lyttle

Today, I happened to be talking with Dave Johnson on denominational business. Like me, Dave is currently serving as an interim minister. The conversation meandered, as such conversations do, and we wound up talking about the congregations we’re currently serving.

When Dave found out where I’m serving, he said, “Geneva, Illinois? I spent some time out in the Geneva church.” Turns out he was a student at Meadville Lombard Theological School when Charles Lyttle was both a professor at Meadville Lombard and the minister out here in Geneva. And Dave was one of the student ministers Dr. Lyttle brought out to gain experience here in Geneva.

Needless to say, I asked Dave about Dr. Lyttle. Dave told me one story about Dr. Lyttle coming out from Chicago to do a child dedication. But when he got here, he realized he had forgotten to bring a flower. It was spring, so Dr. Lyttle went out the front door of the church and grabbed the nearest flower. The long stalk and the roots came with the pretty white flower, but that didn’t stop Dr. Lyttle. He marched into the church carrying the flower, roots and all, and the child dedication went on.

Dave added that photographs of Dr. Lyttle don’t adequately represent his sense of humor, and his sense of fun. Dr. Lyttle thought church should be fun, says Dave, and he made sure the Geneva church was a fun place. (I think you can see some of that in the portrait our church has of Dr. Lyttle — the artist has captured a definite twinkle in his eyes.)

Dr. Lyttle sounds like my kind of minister.

Conversations at coffee hour

A few years ago, I heard Ruppert Lovely speak. He was the long-time minister at the Countryside Unitarian Universalist church in Palatine, Illinois. He said that he believed the main task of a minister was to do theology with his/her congregation. Other tasks of ministers are incidental to doing theology. This seems to imply that the main purpose of the congregation is also to do theology.

At coffee hour here at our own church this morning, I found myself involved in a number of theological conversations. People here like to talk theology. My guess is that that’s why many or most people stay with this church — so they can talk about the ultimate nature of reality and the meaning of life, what happens after death, what the nature of humanity is, what people ought to do with our lives, whether there is a transcendant reality — all those great theological questions.

So how about this statement: every part of church life should be shaped by theological questions. Why can’t that be true, too? Which would mean that committees should figure out the thological grounding of their work. Finance people should understand the theological nature of their work. The Board should shape overall policy of the church based on theological considerations. I’d even argue that we already do this much of the time in Geneva — our founding covenant, which we still say each week in worship services, and which we read at the beginning of Board and Council meetings, frames our work together in theological terms.

Since we’re Unitarian Universalists, someone is bound to argue with me and assert that theology is not at the center of church life. Admittedly, I would be surprised if were entirely correct about this. Nonetheless, I’ll bet I’m not too far from the truth (whatever truth is).

No great revelation

No great revelation, but worth remembering…

Big meeting at church this morning. Angela Merkert, district executive of Central Midwest District, came in and led a workshop on systems theory for churches. Gave us lots of good ideas on how the Geneva church could really become a program-size church.

Afterwards, I ran into A— as he was leaving the meeting. “All this church growth is fine,” he said, “but people don’t realize how much fun we had in the old days.” He’s got a point. Fun isn’t the only reason for church, but if church isn’t fun, what’s the point?

It’s no great revelation, I know, but church can (and should) be fun.

In the church, overnight

We’re here at the church for an OWL retreat, 17 youth in 7th and 8th grades, and four of us adults spending the night (another two adults will come in tomorrow). Worship went a little late tonight. We met in the sanctuary, lit all the candles in the wall sconces, and a candelabra up front — our little church is beautiful in candlelight. We did a lot of singing in the worship service tonight, and it sounded wonderful in that space. It was a good worship service mostly because this is such a good group of youth, particularly kind and supportive of each other.

You always wind up feeling sleep deprived after one of these overnight church retreats. But this is also the kind of thing that really builds church community — and I’m not just talking about building community in youth groups. We Unitarian Universalists should have more overnight retreats for adults. You don’t really know someone until you’ve talked to them about spirituality at 2 in the morning.

Knowing a city by its bookstores

One of the great things about being an interim minister is that you get to move around the country. In the past three years, we have had the luck to live near three of the great cities of the United States. Last year we were near Berkeley, California; the year before that, we lived outside Boston; and this year we’re living near Chicago. I define a great city as one that has lots of independent bookstores.

I just spent the afternoon and evening in Chicago, where of course I spent hours in a bookstore. I was up in the Lincoln Square neighborhood, and stopped in one of those used bookstores with books piled everywhere. “Should I check my backpack?” I asked the owner. “No,” he said, “but be careful going around corners. You don’t want to start an avalanche.” He wasn’t kidding.

You learn a lot about a city by its bookstores. I always zero in on the religion section. In Chicago bookstores, you always seem to find lots of historical criticism of the Bible and general hardcore theology books, which I attribute to the influence of the University of Chicago, and there always seems to be a smattering of “Christian inspirational” books. In Berkeley bookstores, you’ll find tons of books about eastern religions and east-west studies, partly due to the influence of the university, but also because Berkeley is a Pacific Rim city that looks west more than east. In the religion sections of Boston (and Cambridge) bookstores, you find lots of scholarly books about Western religious traditions, but also a surprising number of books on Confucianism because Harvard has become a center for neo-Confucian studies.

Each of the great bookstores of each city tell you a little more about the character of the city. Berkeley has Eastwind Books, specializing in East Asian writers, and where I first got books by Lu Xun, an amazing Chinese writer of the early 20th C. The Seminary Coop Bookstore in Hyde Park in Chicago is quite simply the best academic bookstore I’ve ever seen. And the Mass Bible Society in downtown Boston carries an excellent selection of books on liberation theology and liberatory theologies, as well as good story books for children. (On their Web site, click on the “Bookstores” link, and then on the link “The Bible and Homosexuality” — yup, they’re liberal Christians.)

Trivialobservations, I suppose. But I do find it interesting that different places address different religious questions. And what I’ve seen in the bookstores plays out in the UU congregations I’ve served in each of these three places. Trivial, perhaps, but fascinating.

More on ministry with youth

What shape should our ministry with youth take? That’s a question I’ve been asking myself a lot recently.

When I was in seminary at Andover Newton Theological School, I took a course on philosophy of religious education with Bob Pazmino. Bob contended then that if you really want to radicalize a church, you should work to get youth on every committee. I understood what he meant in two senses. First, by including youth on all committees, you’re brining new perspectives and you’re spreading power within the congregation in some radical ways (there are implications here for anti-racism work, by the way). Second, striving to become so inclusive that you manage to do away with the age segregation characteristic of contemporary society is in itself a radical act. On this second point, Bob, an evangelical Christian, would talk about recognizing that all persons are part of the body of Christ. I’m not an evanglical Christian, but I sure find resonance with my own theological notion that all persons, regardless of age, are worthy of dignity and respect.

As you might have gathered, I like Bob’s radical approach to our ministry with youth. I think youth should be fully integrated into our religious communities. I do have my doubts as to whether it’s possible. Sociologist Murray Milner, in his recent book Freaks, Geeks, and Cool Kids, points out that it is very convenient for adults to segregate teenagers out of adult life. As Milner points out, there’s no great incentive for adults voluntarily to deal with the sturm und drang of adolescence. Much easier to restrict them to youth groups or other age-segregated programs so we adults don’t have to deal with that sturm und drang. And much easier for youth to go with the flow of wider society, and not have to come face-to-face with adults.

But I’ve come to believe that kind of segregation is Not A Good Idea. It seems to me that one of the real strengths of Unitarian Universalist congregations is that they can be places where you can come into meaningful contact with persons of all ages.

I have seen two widespread models of youth programs. The personal growth model creates youth groups that look like support groups or group therapy sessions. The class model creates youth programs that look like a sixth day of classroom schooling. Each of these models serves a few youth very well. What I prefer is a model that recognizes that youth are individuals, that different youth will be best served by different ministries of the church — and most of all, a model that does not see youth as consumers of church, but rather that sees youth as co-creators of church.

Imagine that. Youth as co-creators of church. Wouldn’t it be fun to be a part of that church? I think so.

It’s official: changes in UU ministry

We all knew it was coming, but it’s official now. At their December, 2004, meeting, the Ministerial Fellowship Committee (MFC) voted that beginning in September, 2005, they would no longer require candidates for the ministry to concentrate in one of three “tracks” or categories of ministry. In the recent past, new Unitarian Universalist ministers declared a specialty in parish ministry, ministry of religious education, or community ministry. The MFC is the body that credentials new ministers by requiring minimum standards for study and knowledge (including a master of divinity degree), minimum standards of psychological health and flexibility, practical experience including a ministry internship and a chaplaincy internship, and face-to-face interviews.

In the real world, the tracks have been blurred for some time. Parish ministers have been taking positions as ministers of religious education, and ministers of religious education have been taking positions as parish ministers, and similarly with community ministers. My feeling has been that the tracks just meant more paperwork for us ministers — and there really hasn’t been all that much difference between the tracks.

There’s a downside to this decision. Both community ministers and ministers of religious education have worked to expand our understanding of Unitarian Universalist ministry — especially our community ministers, who have taken UU ministry far beyond the bounds of local congregations, out into the wider community through social justice work, community organizing, chaplaincy, etc. I hope that continues.

But on the plus side, I think search committees will feel less restricted. This gets us away from that stark choice — parish minister, or minister of religious education. Now search committees should be open to looking for someone with a mixed set of skills — a preaching minister with lots of experience with children, or an associate minister who would oversee religious education, and have expertise in pastoral counseling for all ages, and so on.

As our church here in Geneva begins to look for a permanent second minister, the MFC’s decision comes as good news. My sense is that the congregation would prefer a second minister who has primary responsiblity for religious education, and who spends a lot of time on worship and administration, and helps Lindsay with pastoral care — in other words, would prefer a sort of mixed minister, with expertise in both parish ministry and the ministry of religious education.

Voice from the past

I’ve been looking through old copies of our church’s newsletter, The Pioneer, dating back into the 1950’s. In June, 1962, Rev. Charles Lyttle, then minister here in Geneva, printed part of an old letter from Rev. R. L. Herbert, who had been minister in Geneva from 1874 to 1880. Rev. Herbert went off to serve in the Denver, Colorado Unitarian church, and in 1881 he wrote this to his former church in Geneva:

“And to all of you in that dear congregation I write again to say: Do your best to banish superstition. Be brave for truth at any cost. Do not bow to any fashionable lie; and chiefly, in thought and life, teach the nobility and excellency of good character. Prove by these fruits that you believe in the best doctrines. Then, every day, winter and summer, you will make to be Flower Sunday and this earthly life heavenly!”

[If you’re a UU history nut like me, it’s clear that Rev. Herbert was moving into humanist beliefs even at this early date. Herbert was the one who got our congregation to substitute the phrase “practical goodness” in our covenant, in place of the original “practical Godliness.”]