CUUPS Bulletin - June 2010

Expenses:
GA Ops & Travel     3,170
Administrator         1,440
Office Rent               360
CUUPS Bulletin         500
CUUPS Podcast         360
Bulk Mail & Postage 1,620
Internet/Website       240
Advertising               180
Donations/Affiliates   200
Convo 2011 Prep      500
Total Expenses     8,570

Book of the Month

This summer when Margot Adler taught a overview of Paganism at Meadville Lombard seminary - along with traidional books on the history of Paganism that are often included with such classes - she added this new book to the reading list, so we're highlighting it as well this month.

In this innovative and deeply felt work, Bron Taylor examines the evolution of "green religions" in North America and beyond: spiritual practices that hold nature as sacred and have in many cases replaced traditional religions. Tracing a wide range of groups--radical environmental activists, lifestyle-focused bioregionalists, surfers, new-agers involved in "ecopsychology," and groups that hold scientific narratives as sacred--Taylor addresses a central theoretical question: How can environmentally oriented, spiritually motivated individuals and movements be understood as religious when many of them reject religious and supernatural worldviews? The "dark" of the title further expands this idea by emphasizing the depth of believers' passion and also suggesting a potential shadow side: besides uplifting and inspiring, such religion might mislead, deceive, or in some cases precipitate violence. This book provides a fascinating global tour of the green religious phenomenon, enabling readers to evaluate its worldwide emergence and to assess its role in a critically important religious revolution.

This book is presently (July 22nd) available in paperback at Amazon for $22.45. Of, if you use a Kindle you can get it in electronic form for $9.99 and save a few trees in the process.

CUUPS Bulletin is a publication of the Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans, Inc.

The CUUPS Bulletin is available for free to anyone interested in UU-Paganism. To subscribe visit the CUUPS website and fill in the form at the top of the webpage.

Corporate Officers:
Pres. - David Pollard,
Secretary - Rev. Michael Walker,
Treasurer - Dick Merritt
At large Boardmembers: Ollis Hughes, Rev. Dr. Christa Landon, and Niko Tarini.

Oct. 2009 - 2,668
Jun. 2009 - 2,542
Mar. 2009 - 2,456

Greetings!

General Assembly was, as always, a fascinating experience. This year it was in Minneapolis, and apart from a couple of severe thunderstorms, the weather was splendid. The panel discussions and workshops held near our booth in the display area went off quite well. On Saturday, we had a lovely outdoor Midsummer Ceremony, hosted by Twin Cities CUUPS (see picture above)

After our celebration, we went across the street for lunch and the CUUPS Annual Meeting. At the meeting:
* We closed nominations for the 2010 Board Elections. We have six candidates running for five available positions (3 Full Terms, and two unexpired partial terms). The candidates are: Rebecca Crystal, Imari Kariotis, Rev. Roger Mohr, David Pollard, Don Schulte and Rev. Michael Walker. Bios / Candidate statements will be sent to all voting members of CUUPS very soon.
* We elected a 2011 Nominating Committee of Rev. Melanie Emsinger, Jerrie Hildebrand and Rev. Michael Walker. They will be looking for candidates to run in next year's election.
* A 2009 CUUPS Financial Statement was distributed.

Back at the CUUPS Office, our new Administrator has been busy revising our website. The day it changed over was the day General Assembly started, though it's very much a work in process. The basic interface is very similar to our original website back in 1997, but we're including a lot of the content that was in the 2002 version. Just this past week we added the CUUPS Recommended Reading List. This is something Phaedra Bonewits had compiled back in 2001 and had been very popular, so if you have suggestions on how to update the list for the new decade please send your suggestions to Rev. Christa Landon.

The other big project that Heidi is working on is that she has submitted the paperwork for CUUPS to reacquire it's bulk mail license. Once, we've gotten that we plan to contact everyone in our database who isn't currently a member and let them know that CUUPS is still around and active.
Also as a reminder, if you've still got old CUUPS paperwork, the address to snail mail material for the fastest response is:

CUUPS Member Services

c/o Sacred Journey Fellowship

1215 Main St.

Garland, TX 75040

CUUPS Podcast
Next week, CUUPS will release the seventh issue of it's monthly podcast on iTunes and Libsyn.com. In just a few months the Podcast has received over 2,500 downloads and a 5 star rating on iTunes. If you have an mp3 player, or your computer accepts audio files, please feel free to download and listen. Each episode runs 40-50 minutes and is free!
Download from iTunes
Download from LibSyn

Update on Isaac Bonewits

Isaac felt the energy we generated in May. And he sends his thanks. That was a Rolling Thunder Ritual. Now we're looking for a Rolling Coin Ritual. Medical bills date back to the fall. Since then Isaac has been in and out of the hospital with numerous surgeries and procedures. Currently, he is receiving hospice care at home. All of this has cost money, and theirs is beyond used up. So we're trying a new twist on an old theme.

The next full moon is July 26. Any time that day or night, please go to Isaac and Phaedra's website and make a donation. http://www.neopagan.net/ This is a simple kind of magick, and it is something that will make a major difference in their lives. Any donation of any amount will be gratefully appreciated. It's a way of paying tribute to one of our most significant Pagan elders.

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Welcome to issue number 15 of the CUUPS Bulletin where we review what happened at General Assembly, announce our very first Sermon Contest, and Rev. Christa Landon speaks of her religious experience as a Pagan.

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If you would like to send something to the CUUPS Bulletin, just email bulletin@cuups.org

Introducing the CUUPS Sermon Contest!

We're trying something new for us this year, a sermon contest. Here's how it is going to work:

This will be open to anyone who has given a sermon on a Pagan and/or Earth-centered Spirituality related topic at a UU church between Nov. 1, 2009 and Oct. 31, 2010. We need a copy of your sermon in text for and a copy of it in audio form.

After we receive you sermon, our sermon panel (this year the Rev. Kendyl Gibbons and the Rev. Joan Van Becelaere) will listen to and read them - then pick four finalists.

Then, in early 2011 the four finalists will be played - one a month - on the CUUPS Podcast. At the end of this, the winner will be chosen by online vote of the podcast listeners! We're asking that the listeners consider four questions as they hear the sermons:

Originality - Is this a book report or something no one else has said/thought before?
Delivery - Is it easily understandable?
Accessibility - does it speak ONLY to Pagans or ONLY to non-EarthCentered UUs or both?
Does it refl ect UU values as well as Earth-centered spirituality?

Once online voting is completed, we will announce the Contest Winner at General Assembly in Charlotte.

CUUPS_Chalice In the June & July CUUPS Podcast

We sent the following email out to many of the CUUPS chapter yahoogroups on April 23rd:

The Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans has just released the sixth issue of our new CUUPS Podcast. The CUUPS Podcast for June 2010 includes David Pollard talking about the history of Earth-centered
Spirituality in Unitarian Universalism, and Amanada Udis-Kessler performing her hymn "Mother Earth, Beloved Garden" which is #1067 in the new Singing the Journey hymnal. Email her at audiskessler@coloradocollege.edu if you'd like to buy a copy of her CD by the same name.

http://cuups.libsyn.com/

You can download a free copy of the podcast either by going to iTunes and typing "CUUPS" in the search bar, or download it directly at http://cuups.libsyn.com

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The next issue of the CUUPS Podcast is scheduled to be released the last week of July, and will feature a discussion recorded at the 2010 General Assembly on Sunday Morning Magick where people from a variety of congregations talk about what Earth-centered ritual elements work well for Sunday morning services. The conversation is moderated by the Rev. Ann Marie Alderman. We'll also be talking about other news from General Assembly.

If you have information that you'd like included in it either email it to bulletin@cuups.org OR call 330-89-CUUPS (330-892-8877.)

A Pagan's Religious Experience

Rev. Christa Landon, A.M., D.Min., current member of the CUUPS BOD

You asked about the sources of my theology, which texts had greatest authority for me.

As a Pagan, I believe that the primary revelation of the Holy is Nature Herself. Reading is useful, but no substitute for doing. And so the most important source of my faith is in direct encounter with Numinous Nature. The patterns of life are written in the rhythms of the waning and waxing moon, in the cycle of planting and germination and growth and fruiting and harvest and fallowing. I deepened my contact with the Numinous by working the New Moons and Full Moons, the 8 Seasonal Festivals, and other rituals of encounter. That's the Pagan way.

There is a beautiful Traditional invocation used by many of us in the Dark of the Moon, and in times which call for courage: "Great Being of the Dark Night, though I do not see Thee, I know of thy Presence by the power which I feel within me. By bud and stem, by leaf and flower and fruit, by life and love do I know Thee."

Pagans contemplate the actual, immanent Presence of the Divine in every process of life. For us, there is nothing truly profane, that is, outside of the Temple. Consequently, Paganism has not been a church-centered religion, but a daily-life centered religion. In every task we participate with divine energy. Farming, weaving, metal-working, midwifery, maintaining the fire, each task which sustains life and culture has a particular numinous quality, corresponding to respective tutelary deities. The Divine is actualized by participating in human activities; the human is empowered and inspired by participating in the Divine work of creating Cosmos. Life is sustained by a partnership of the human and the Divine.

Because we believe that the primary revelation is Nature, and that all religious art, literature and traditions are merely commentary, most Pagans have focused on direct and intimate, even homey, engagement with the Divine, rather than interpretation of scripture or abstract speculation ABOUT the Divine.

Out of this engagement and identification, out of dreams and visions, myths arose. Psychologist Carl G. Jung believed that there are universal archetypes which live in our unconscious minds and unite people all over the world. As I began to celebrate the rhythms of the seasons, I became slowly conscious of these archetypes as living powers. The Gods and Goddesses were like fragments of dreams, singing to me in the shadows of the waking world. Now and again I would catch the words, which would renew my courage and fill me with joy.