Spirit of Life

Unitarian Universalist Meeting of South Berkshire Spirit of Life April 2017 Justice, love, and compassion Sunday Worship 10:30am in spiritual community 04-02-17 Music: Ed Chastain and “Tailwinds”: Rev. Carol Allman-Morton Marian Rose Today will be a new member Sunday with friends joining our Trustee/Greeter: Martha Page community as members. Greeter: Gary Shaw Hospitality: Pauline Dongala Hospitality/Chalice: Paula Duhon 04-09-17 Music: Hilda Banks Shapiro “What Kind of Fool are You?”: Rev. Kathy Duhon Trustee/Greeter: Martha Page Rest assured - this question is not being asked, hands on hips, Greeter: Gary Shaw accusatorially, but rather, is a gentle probing of our Hospitality: Stu Dalheim experiences. We are sometimes fools, and this is both good and Hospitality/Chalice: Zoe Dalheim bad. Foolishness can be found in the themes of Palm/Passion Sunday and Passover. From fun and celebratory foolishness, to being fooled, to fickle fools, what kind of fools are we? 04-16-17 Music: Hilda Banks Shapiro “Loving our Neighbor”: Rev. Carol Allman-Morton UUMSB Choir Honoring Easter, Passover, and our Unitarian Universalist stories. Trustee/Greeter: Martha Page Share the Plate with Berkshire Bounty Greeter: Gary Shaw Hospitality: Valerie Bluhm Hospitality/Chalice: Peter Bluhm Egg hunt after worship 04-23-17 Music Marian Rose “Antidote Poetry, a BYO: succinct poems for inner strength Trustee/Greeter: Martha Page in challenging times”: Jan Hutchinson Greeter: Gary Shaw Hospitality: Miral Kruh Hospitality/Chalice: Ivan Kruh 04-30-17 Music Bonnie Benson “Catharsis”: Rev. Carol Allman-Morton Trustee/Greeter: Martha Page Shared experience of powerful stories can open us up and Greeter: Gary Shaw deepen connections. Today, we explore catharsis. Hospitality: Melissa Greene Hospitality/Chalice: Susan Montague Mission: We come together from diverse traditions as a welcoming, religious community with shared values, seeking spiritual growth, lifelong religious education, and fellowship. We strive to promote justice, acceptance, and compassion in the world. Residence: Mailing address: Reverend: 1089 Main Street, Housatonic, MA 01236 PO Box 783, Housatonic, MA 01236 Carol Allman-Morton Click here for map and directions Tel: 413-358-3877 Web: uumsb.org Email: [email protected] Spirit of Life April 2017 Page 1 of 11 Rev. Carol’s Column “Love Will Guide Us” Each year in March and April volunteers from our community gather together to determine the budget for the next fiscal year. They do this based on the shared mission and values of our community and available resources. Over the last year we have been engaged in a strategic planning process, led by the board, that has been very thorough in its information gathering. There were meetings of the whole community and members of the strategic planning group met individually with each committee of the church. Over the next few weeks they will be distilling all the feedback, visions, and hopes for this community that were shared into a single strategic plan for the next 3-5 years. That document will be a guide for our community in our ministries, and in our leadership. We will have an opportunity to learn more about the plan at an information session on April 30, and then will vote as a congregation on May 21 at the Annual Meeting as to whether to adopt the plan. While we don’t have the particular language of the strategic plan set yet, in talking with the community about the future over the last year, I know that we have thoughtful and spiritually rich dreams for our community. We will be able to try new things, honor our covenant, and explore programming opportunities, in part, through our stewardship and budgeting process. Our members are in covenanted community together. Being in covenant means we have made promises to each other. Our covenant states: We, the members of the Unitarian Universalist Meeting of South Berkshire, commit ourselves to provide support for our individual members and families of every variety in their emotional, spiritual, and intellectual lives; to promote the healthy growth of our congregation through full participation and creation of a welcoming environment for all people; and to unite in upholding and sharing the Unitarian Universalist principles. My hope for each of us is that as we look toward possibilities for the future, and the principles that will guide us, that we be thoughtful about the ways that we financially support UUMSB. Our community is largely funded each year through the pledges collected in our stewardship campaign, and so it is the generosity of the members and friends of the community that make the community possible. This gives us great opportunity to be deeply connected and engaged with the choices and work of our covenanted community, through our shared leadership. It also means that we rely on each other to fund the important work that we do together from offering a worship home for so many, to education programs, spiritual practice groups, support and caring for each other, fun community events, and communal work for justice. 1/2 Web: uumsb.org Email: [email protected] Spirit of Life April 2017 Page 2 of 11 Rev. Carol’s Column “Love Will Guide Us” I expect that the next year is going to be an exciting one for UUMSB, with many seeds that have been sown and a new strategic vision helping us on our path. When you are opening up your pledge materials from the Stewardship Committee, I encourage you to consider your annual pledge in light of our covenant and our ongoing potential for building love, justice and compassion in spiritual community. I also encourage you, if you have any questions about the stewardship process, please be in touch with me, or Bill Young, the chair of our Stewardship Committee. We would be very glad to talk with you abstractly or specifically about any questions you might have. I am so grateful to our community for its generosity and look forward to our next chapter of exploration together. Blessings to us all on the journey… Carol If you have any pastoral concerns, please call me to set up an appointment. I am available to meet on Sunday and weeknights. 413-717-5097 or [email protected] 2/2 ************************************************* Getting to Know UUMSB—April 23, 12Noon to 1 p.m. New to Unitarian Universalism, this congregation, or want to refresh your memory? Come chat with Rev. Carol about Unitarian Universalist history, Unitarian Universalist theologies, and our congregation. Strategic Plan Info session—April 30, 12Noon UUMSB has developed a new Strategic Plan. You are welcome to attend our Strategic Plan info session. Web: uumsb.org Email: [email protected] Spirit of Life April 2017 Page 3 of 11 Message from Jan Hutchinson, President Poetry speaks in metaphor. Because the Infinite Mysteries are by nature imperceptible through the human senses and indescribable in human language, religions through the ages, by necessity, have relied on metaphor. These spiritual metaphors, especially in earlier eras, were often glommed onto by officious and power-hungry religious leaders and foisted off onto gullible true-believers as literal fact —Truth with a capital T, dogma one must accept for inclusion: inclusion in the group, inclusion in the afterlife. Poetry is individual voice, fluid truth, living truth,— not dogma. If young people grew up with more exposure to poetry and greater openness to metaphor, there would be less moral distortion, less religious bullying, less battling over religious differences. Good poetry doesn’t quarrel or make logical arguments. It doesn’t merely philosophize, define, or harangue. Through image and metaphor, poetry can strengthen us, transform us, help us nurture and hold onto our best selves as we stand up for justice, compassion, and the truths our own hearts perceive. Several of our services lately have been about resistance and a search for positive narratives and actions in these surreal political times. It would be easy to give over to despair when the ship of state seems lost at sea, and the mad captain at the helm is steering us into storm after storm and throwing our friends overboard. We must protest and protect, but we also need to find antidotes to the political toxicity in order to remain sane, keep up our courage, and believe in a better future. April is poetry month. Our April 23rd UUMSB service will focus on “Antidote Poetry.” Part of the sermon time in this service will be a poetry “Bring Your Own.” Bring with you any short, wise poems that you hold close to your heart and that you turn to as antidotes to despair when losses or chaotic events tip you over. Bring your succinct and accessible favorites and share them as healing gifts in this service. - Jan Hutchinson Sunday May 21, 2017: 11:30am UUMSB Annual Meeting Saturday May 27, 2017: 8:30am-2:30pm Tag Sale Web: uumsb.org Email: [email protected] Spirit of Life April 2017 Page 4 of 11 UUMSB's Social Justice Team Update April’s UU Share the Plate Sunday is scheduled for April 16. Social Justice Team Member Martha Page will be introducing Mel Greenburg of Berkshire Bounty on that Sunday morning. Mel is a hard working Food Insecurity (our theme this quarter for the organizations to benefit from our Share the Plate tradition) activist & founder of Berkshire Bounty. Come learn about the work of his organization and give as generously as you can. Our UU Social Justice Team has two events scheduled for Sunday, April 23. You are invited to join us for one or both of these events. First, our 2nd Quarter SJ Team meeting is scheduled for 9am on that Sunday morning prior to service. We will be discussing our upcoming work.

Load more