Remembering Maria Harris

In the past fifty years, which North American has had the most radical ideas on church life? My vote is for Maria Harris, feminist scholar and teacher. She’s best known as a religious education sholar, but I think of her as the expert on practical ecclesiology.

Harris is best known for her radical ideas about what churches really teach, as opposed to what classes they offer. Throw out that old notion that religious education is confined to Sunday school classrooms. Harris told us that we start learning about religion the moment we walk into a church building — or as she put it, the whole church is curriculum.

Think about going to a worship service at a congregation you haven’t visited yet. If someone welcomes you at the door, however shyly and awkwardly, you learn that this congregation welcomes the stranger, those who aren’t yet a part of the community. If people give money freely and gladly during the offertory, you learn that this is a generous people. And so on. It works the other way, too. If you want to teach people about generosity, it’s not enough to teach a stewardship class, which Harris would call “explicit curriculum.” We also teach each other about generosity through our actions, which Harris terms “implicit curriculum.” Andf the implicit and explicit curriculums teach different things, everyone’s just going to get confused.

She also talked about the “null curriculum,” what we teach by its absence — a very useful concept to anyone who’s trying to do anti-racism work in a local congregation.

That’s just the beginning of what this quietly radical scholar said. Over the past ten years, her books have been changing my entire approach to religion. Sadly, I just learned she died in February, 2005, after a long illness. You can read a wonderful tribute to her life and work by her former colleagues at Andover Newton Theological School [update: Feb, 2006, tribute removed from Andover Newton Web site], where she began her teaching career.

If you want to get radicalized, try reading these books of hers:

  • Fashion Me a People: Curriculum and the Church, Presbyterian Publishing, 1989;
  • Jubilee Time: Celebrating Women, Spirit, and the Advent of Age, Bantam, 1996
  • Reshaping Religious Education: Conversations on Contemporary Practice, with Gabriel Moran, Presbyterian Publishing, 1998.

Go on. Read one of her books. Radicalize your congregation. I dare you….

Summer rhythms

The herons and egrets have been back for about a month now. Breeding season is over, and they have moved away from their rookeries. Last evening, I saw a Black-Crowned Night Heron at the edge of the water near Island Park. It still wore one of the long wispy white breeding plumes trailing back over its black head.

Island Park isn’t an island any more. In spite of the rain we had yesterday, the Fox River remains low. The water is so low, Island Park is connected by dry land under both the north bridge and the south bridge, leaving a long pool of water on the eastern side which is no longer connected to the main river.

A fair number of fish must be trapped in that long pool of water. Night before last, I stood on the north bridge to Island Park and watched a Great Egret fishing, a big showy white bird completely intent on the small fish darting about in the water at his or her feet — and completely oblivious to all the people sitting fifty feet away on the deck of the Mill Race Inn.

The fishing appears to be good on the main river, too. One afternoon, I saw five people spread out across the river, wading in water up to their knees, and fishing. A Great Blue Heron waded the river a little downstream from them, and it was fishing, too. Some human beings have the conceit that we are different from animals, but I don’t see it. Like every species, we have our peculiar adaptations that help us survive, but the capacity to manufacture tools like graphite fishing rods does not make us unique, any more than the Black Crowned Night Heron’s breeding plume makes it unique. It’s summer, and all the plants and animals are responding to the ongoing rhythm of the year in their various ways. It’s enough to say that.

150 years of ecstatic witness

One hundred and fifty years ago today, on July 4, 1855, Walt Whitman published his first book of poetry with just twelve poems. According to Malcolm Crowley, in his introduction to a 1959 Viking Press reprinting of the first edition, central to the book is a mystical experience Whitman had in June of 1852 or 1853, which is perhaps best summarized in this passage from the first poem (which was later revised and titled “Song of Myself”):

I believe in you my soul….the other I am must not abase itself to you,
And you must not be abased to the other.

Loafe with me on the grass….loose the stop from your throat,
Not words, not music or rhyme I want….not custom or lecture, not even the best,
Only the lull I like, the hum of your valved voice.

I mind how we lay in June, such a transparent summer morning;
You settled your head athwart my hips and gently turned over upon me,
And parted the shirt from my bosom-bone, and plunged your tongue to my barestript heart,
And reached till you felt my beard, and reached till you held my feet.

Swiftly arose and spread around me the peace and joy and knowledge that pass all the art and argument of the earth;
And I know that the hand of God is the elderhand of my own;
And I know that the spirit of God is the eldest brother of my own,
And that all the men ever born are also my borthers….and the women my sisters and lovers,
And that a kelson of the creation is love;
And limitless are leaves stiff or dropping in the fields,
And brown ants in the little wells beneath them
And mossy scabs of the wormfence, and heaped stones, and elder and mullen and pokeweed.

A child said, What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands;
How could I answer the child?….I do not know what it is any more than he.

No wonder Emerson felt a shock of recognition when he read Whitman’s first book. Emerson was more rticent about his private experiences, and more widely read in Eastern philosophy, but his poem “Brahma” says pretty much the same thing as Whitman: an ecstatic “all is one.”

Getting ready to move

My last official day as the interim minister of religious education of the Unitarian Universalist Society of Geneva (what a mouthful) was yesterday. I cleaned up some paperwork, and went out to lunch with Lindsay Bates, the senior minister, for our last meeting. As of today, I’m on vacation.

But it won’t be a relaxing vacation. I still have to pack, and get ready to move. The packing is the worst part, because of the books. I admit it, I have way too many books. I’m still packing away the books in my office at the church, and haven’t even begun to pack up all the books in our apartment. Books, books, books. Red books, green books, books with feathers on the cover. Maybe I’m taking this idea of “a learned ministry” too far.

The move itself should be relatively simple, once the books are taken care of. We had a bad experience with a regular moving company last time, so it looks like we are going to rent one of those “Pods,” where you load up this big metal boxy container, put your own lock on it, and the truck comes and takes it all away and drops it at your new house. Should be simple, because we don’t own much of anything.

Except books.

Cold front

You could see the thin clouds moving into the clear blue sky from the west at seven. By seven thirty, the sky was covered except for a blue band in the east. The wind idly shifted and blew gently from the south. My joints hurt slightly, I had to catch my breath suddenly. A general sense of discomfort. By eight fifteen, the sky in the west had cleared. The sun lit the tops of the trees and set. A moment of clarity. Not the drama of last night’s cold front, thunder and lightning and brief sudden rain squalls that brought only a trace of rain. Just a moment of discomfort, and I could breath again.

Too mellow

Dear me, what’s a cranky person to do?

Mr. Crankypants is not feeling very cranky. Much to his dismay, Mr. Crankypants is feeling decidedly upbeat.

It’s all the fault of that foul phenomenon known as General Assembly. For what is supposed to be a big denominational business meeting, General Assembly sure made Mr. Crankpants feel — well, uplifted and hopeful.

Usually, General Assembly makes Mr. Crankypants feel mean and nasty. Amazed, at how Unitarian Universalists can argue endlessly about totally trivial matters. In the past, Mr. Crankypants has come home from General Assembly feeling so mean and nasty, that the meanness and nastiness lasted for an entire year.

This year, what with Elaine Pagels’s lecture, and some good sermons, and several good workshops, Mr. Crankypants came home feeling mellow and relaxed, and generally hopeful about the future of Unitarian Universalism. This was a novel feeling indeed.

Cranky people do not like to feel mellow, relaxed, and hopeful. It makes us feel as though we’re losing our edge. It’s enough to make Mr. Crankypants watch the television news… watching that mind-numbing drivel will surely bring on the crankiness again… enough of this stupid blog, hand me the remote!

It’s all about the Web, and worship

On board the “Texas Eagle,” en route from Fort Worth to Chicago

Looking out the window of the train, I see the grass in Texas has begun to turn brown for the summer. But you can only look at brown grass for so long. With an overnight train trip ahead of me, I’m going to have some time to reflect on General Assembly (GA).

The best part of GA for me continues to be my volunteer work with the GA Web staff. It was exhausting to write some ten thousand words for the GA Web site in five days (not including the writing I posted on this blog). But the exhaustion was worth it because each year, I learn more and more from the other Web workers about what makes a topnotch Web site. And more and more, I am coming to learn that a good Web site is essential for any church.

I learned that each Sunday there are hundreds of hits on the “Find a Congregation Near You! “Web page. This means hundreds of people each week go looking for a nearby UU church, and they find that church through the church’s Web site. Second, in one 24 hour period this weekend, there were over 1,500 hits just on the Web page which allows you to access video coverage of General Assembly, meaning that people who are already Unitarian Universalists use the Web to find out more about their own faith.

One more thing I learned from GA — really really good worship services do make a difference. We had some really really good worship services at GA, and cynical and snarky as I am, I have to admit those worship services deepened my faith. Now, I did not agree with everything that was said or sung in those worship services — but come to think of it, that’s one of the things that makes really really good Unitarian Universalist worship services.

Those are my reflections on General Assembly. Whether you attended GA in person, or experienced it through the Web — what are yours?

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Best free wifi in Fort Worth, Texas

Fort Worth, Texas

Still pounding the keyboard of my laptop — still trying to get my last story posted to the Unitarian Universalist Association Web site.

While I take a break from writing, here’s my vote for the best free wifi spots in downtown Fort Worth….

First place — The Human Bean, Houston Street between 8th and 9th — great coffee, fun and cheerful staff, with music ranging from reggae to alt rock to classic rock. The breakfast sandwich is a standout, for only $3. the wifi connection is a little slow at times, but basically fine.

Second place — The Flying Saucer, on 4th St. near Commerce (just down from the Barens and Noble bookstore) — with hundreds of beers available (many on tap), excellent bratwurst, a few comfy leather couches on the first floor. I have to admit that after a Bodington’s and a Guiness, I did not get out the laptop to check the wifi signal.

Third place — the lobby of the Radisson Hotel — not very attractive, but the wifi connection is fast and reliable — and you could probably sneak in here even if you weren’t staying here, and no one would notice. The lunch buffet is decent, and the wifi signal reaches all parts of the dining room.

OK, gotta get back to writing this last story. TTFN.

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Closing

Fort Worth, Texas

The closing celebration of General Assembly 2005 is over — and the closing celebration was lots of fun. Check out the video online at the video page of the General Assembly Web site.

General Assembly is done — but we’re not done here in the Web room. We’re going to be up late, trying to get the last of the stories written and posted, the last of the videos archived, the last of the photos formatted and available. We just ordered two dozen Diet Cokes in — caffeine to keep us going.

Me, I’ve got about 3,000 words to write before I go to bed. I probably won’t be able to post on this blog again until Wednesday, sicne I will be getting on the train tomorrow for the ride home. See you then.

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