The UUCW Nugget
January 6, 2016
 
Office Hours
(Sept 1, 2015 - 
June 30, 2016):
Mon, Tues, Wed: 
9 am - 3 pm
Thur. 9 am - 2 pm
(Closed 2nd Wed.
Oct - May)


Congregational Mission Statement
"The members and friends of the Unitarian Universalist 
Church of Worcester covenant to be a congregation of love, hope and justice inspiring people to take on the challenges of a changing world."
  
Welcoming Church 
Mission Statement 

The LGBTQI and Allies of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester strives to further the affirmation and celebration of LGBTQI individuals in all aspects of the church community. We also seek to increase the visibility of UUCW as a Welcoming Congregation within the greater community.
 
On Being Vigilant

The confluence of events this week including Executive Presidential Orders related to gun violence, the occupation of a Federal facility in Oregon by armed protestors, the execution of 47 people in Saudi Arabia and the resulting outcry and escalation tensions in the Middle East, continuing warfare in Afghanistan and Syria, and yesterday's news that North Korea has probably detonated a hydrogen bomb device, lead me back to remarks I made on New Year's Eve at the Community Voices for Peace Vigil at First Unitarian Church, sponsored by that congregation, the Worcester Islamic Society and the Center for Non-Violent Solutions.  In a month when we are focused on Non-Violence as our Touchstone Ministry Theme, it seems even more apropos.  And while it is directed toward us as citizens of the United States, its sentiment can certainly be directed toward citizens in any country of means or  aimed at many national or multi-national entities. 
 
Blessings, Aaron

Remarks at Community Voices for Peace Rally

Thursday, January 31, 2015
First Unitarian Church, Second Parish
90 Main Street
Worcester, Massachusetts
Rev. Aaron R. Payson
 
"The price of liberty is eternal vigilance."  This oft quoted phrase has become the rallying cry of a terrified, terrorized and, if we are to be honest, terrorizing people.  Often attributed to Thomas Jefferson, it is, in fact, a paraphrase of a quote by John Philpot Curran in 1790, "The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt."  And, interestingly enough, unlike those who have turned this phrase into a rallying cry for maintaining heightened alertness against terrorist threats, the quote was originally aimed at Government, the British Government, by Curran who was speaking on the Right of Election of the Lord Mayor of Dublin.  It was a sentiment expressing the need for citizens to be mindful of legislative and judicial over-reach, of the dangers of occupation, of the fragility of their freedom as an occupied people. 

His was a call to remain awake to the real possibility that the threat to what we value most, our freedom, is not a foreign enemy, but the very systems by which we are governed and by which we regulate our lives.  I am mindful here of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King's admonition, that "One of the great liabilities of history is that all too many people fail to remain awake through great periods of social change. Every society has its protectors of status quo and its fraternities of the indifferent who are notorious for sleeping through revolutions. Today, our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change."

On this Eve of a New Year, it is this call to vigilance, a word that literally means, to stay awake, that is at the heart of my meditation on Peace. 
  • In an era when we continue to stand at the precipice of the ever-widening chasm between the haves and have-nots of this world - we need to be vigilant to craft means of crafting equity and equality.
  • As citizens of this country continue to be swept away by raging currents linked to our environmental indifference and other nations starve for lack of the very resources in which we are drowning -  we need to be vigilant to not to confuse our wants with the needs we share with all life on this fragile planet.
  • We need to be vigilant so that we are not content to feed the ravenous appetite of our profit-making prison system with the lives of black and brown men.
  • As our inner cities smolder with gun-smoke and we continue to titillate ourselves on the perpetual spectacle grief that rages across our screens as we gorge on an interminable production of the pornography of death we call the 24 hour news cycle, we must be vigilant not to confuse the rights we defend with a militaristic mindset that marginalizes, degrades and dehumanizes any who opposes it, justifying lethal methods as a means of first resort for the sake of security (which you and I know is code for the maintenance of white power and privilege).
Therefore, my peace-making friends, let us pledge this evening to be awake to the possibilities afforded us at the turning of a New Year.  Let us pledge to disrupt the status quo, awaken the indifferent and transform chaos and misery in to harmony, happiness and justic.  In short, let us be vigilant disturbers for peace not of it.     
The Path to Non-Violence
Beau Rivers, Ministerial Intern

When I think about non-violence, images of Mohatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. come to mind as they mobilized acts of civil disobedience to achieve liberation from British rule in India and the inhumane treatment of African Americans in the United States. Gandhi and King knew non-violence resistance must become a spiritual practice before it may be used as an inter-personal tactic or a political strategy.
 
To engage in the spiritual practice of non-violence, the Rev Kirk Loadman-Copeland suggests we first cultivate an awareness of violence in relation to self and others. Second, practice compassion, empathy, courage, and non-judgment in relation to self and others. Third, choose compassion (non-violence) in the face of violence as authentic and empowered selves.*
 
Since violence maybe viewed on "a continuum that is influenced by power, stress, anger, will, fear, and conditioning," Copeland believes anything less than a full commitment to all three stages will devolve into yet another form of violence known as passive aggression.*
 
To develop our awareness of violence, Copeland suggests we ask ourselves these questions:
  • What role has violence played in shaping who we are?
  • What harm has been done to us as a result of violence?
  • How have we consciously or unconsciously harmed others due to how we have been shaped by violence?
  • What triggers us to feel or act violently?*
Acknowledging violence for the first time may be difficult, frightening, and gradual. And yet we know with supportive help it may also be healing, liberating, and empowering.
 
To experience the meaning and power of compassion to transform lives, Copeland recommends the practice of Non-Violent Communication developed by Marshal Rosenberg. By using non-judgmental language we open doors of communication that lead to greater mutual understanding. In Rosenberg's experience, those who engage in non-violent communication often discover it leads them to experience greater compassion.*
 
Copeland also sees compassion on a continuum that moves us from sympathy to empathy. We may define sympathy as the ability to recognize our own or another's pain/suffering, and empathy is the ability to feel our own or another's pain/suffering. Compassion then is deeply relational and draws its potency from Love as it inspires us to relieve our own suffering and the suffering of others.
 
Non-violence is a spiritual practice deeply rooted in compassion that moves us through three stages of engagement - intra-personal (within the self), inter-personal (with another), and communal (with a group). It has the potential to transform individual lives through the healing power of love and achieve social and political change at national and global levels as we have seen with Marriage Equality, the American Civil Rights Movement, and India's independence. May we continue to engage in the spiritual practice of non-violence through self-care, non-violent communication, and peaceful social action as we encounter our differences in relation to our Mexican, Black, Syrian, and Muslim neighbors. May it be so...
 
Many Blessing on Each and Everyone in this New Year!
Beau
 
* References from the January 2016 Touchstones article by Rev Kirk Loadman-Copeland


Special Congregational Meeting 
to Vote on Solar Panels January 10, 2016 
Immediately Following Sunday Worship
Mara Pentlarge and the Solar Panel Team



There will be a special meeting after church to approve this project. We need to have a quorum present of Members of the Church to get this approved. As one long-time member said: "We can't be putting panels up that will be there for the next 20 years without a decision by the whole congregation that this is what we want to do. This is not a board decision, or a committee decision. This is everybody." So BE THERE!
 
The Solar Team needs your approval to move ahead with this project of installing PhotoVoltaic solar panels on our roof, so we can get some of our electricity from the sun. The plan is to lease the panels from a solar company that will put them up and maintain them for us for free. We get a portion of the electricity that will be generated, and the remainder of the electricity goes to the company that installed them, to repay their investment.
 
It seems like a good idea all around.
 
I hope you'll agree on Sunday, and vote YES,
Contact Information

Phone:

508-853-1942

Email:

office@uucworcester.org

Fax:

508-853-2065

Website:

www.uucworcester.org

 

 

 

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