The UUCW Nugget
April 27, 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.
 
Policy Governance Definitions
Willian Derr, President, Board of Management

This month's Nugget article is a continuation of thelast 2 month's articles. The first article reviewed the problems inherent in our old governance structure and how the new Policy Governance System, now being experimented with, should solve these problems. The first article also gave an overview of how the Policy Governance System works. The second article described the different types of  board policy in the Policy Governance System. This month's article defines the different elements of the Policy Governance System.
 
 Policy - is an authoritative written statement designed to control many individual decisions over time. A policy provides a framework for decisions to be made away from the board table. Good policy delegates authority to ministry leaders and guides them in how that authority should be used. Good policy allows ministry leaders to do the work of daily management of the congregation without having to waste time and energy constantly getting approval from the board.
Developing policies is the main way the board can guide the UUCW staff and volunteers. As the policy governance system continues to be used, future boards will continue to write new policies, and rewrite old policies, to allow the congregation to adapt to future changes.
 
Board -  makes the governance decisions. The board represents the membership by articulating the mission and vision, evaluating programs, and ensuring responsible stewardship of resources,
 
Committee -  In the policy governance system, committees only advise the board. They don't do any of the ministry work of the congregation. In the policy governance system the board's purpose is only to govern the congregation so they do not need all the committees that the board needed when it was in charge of all aspects of the church.  When a board is focused on governance it only needs the committees directly related to its primary roles of oversight, strategy and discernment. Committees are long term bodies that advise and assist the board on governance areas in which the board feels it needs continuous professional advice. Examples of committees in the Policy Governance system include:Finance Committee, Human Resources Committee, and Investment Committee.
 
Task Forces - are groups appointed by the board to work on a governance project for the board that has a definite end date. Examples would be: Strategic Task-Force (similar to the Futures Teams of the past), Communication Policy Task Force (would help the board write Communication Policy), or a Board Retreat Planning Task force (help the board plan and annual retreat)
 
Executive (currently our minister) is responsible and accountable for all program decisions. The executive develops a structure that enables program leaders (lay and staff) to work harmoniously to create  programs with the support of a system that delegates authority and requires accountability.
 
Ministry - is everything the congregation does; the daily practical work of the congregation. Examples of ministry include: worship services, building maintenance, food pantry, and small group ministries.
 
Teams- are created and managed by the executive to help him with the ministry (everything the congregation does) of the church.
 
Governance -  includes articulating a mission, selecting a strategy for getting there, making sure it happens, and making sure people and property are protected from harm.
  
Much of the information in this essay came from the book:
 
Governance and Ministry; Rethinking Board Leadership by Dan Hotchkiss

When Christians Were Atheists

During the early centuries of Christian history, when the new religion was a controversial challenge to the prevailing Greco Roman beliefs, Christians were aggressively attacked as practicing or promoting cannibalism, the disruption of business, gross immorality including incest, anti-family actions, lack of patriotism, antisocial behavior, causing disasters, and Atheism.

How could they be Atheists?  Because they did not believe in the gods that the majority worshipped.

Ken Curtis on Christianity.com explains the last two charges this way: "Because the Christians would not honor the Roman religions and gods, when flood, famine, or disaster came, it was assumed that the Christians were the cause.  The gods were sending punishment, many Romans figured, because of the Christians' atheism.  This charge played a large role in the notable persecution at Lyons in 177 under Emperor Marcus Aurelius.  Satirizing the prevailing view, the church father Tertullian put it this way: "If the Tiber reaches the walls, if the Nile does not rise to the fields, if the sky doesn't move or the earth does, if there is famine, if there is plague, the cry is at once: 'The Christians to the lion'."
 
In the present day, religious extremists are still accusing Atheists of various types of immorality, of being anti-family, of being unpatriotic, and of provoking the wrath of God against the nation.  Some people still view earthquakes, floods, and epidemic diseases as divine punishment for the wickedness of society.  Fortunately, we no longer feed Atheists to the lions.
 
A case can be made that we are all Atheists in the same sense that the early Christians were Atheists.  We no longer believe in the gods that our ancestors worshipped, Thor, Zeus, Isis and Osiris, Venus, Baal, or Thammuz.  Members of the Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, do not believe in Shiva and his wife Parvati and their son Ganesha, who appears with the head of an elephant.  Most of world's people do not believe that Gotama Buddha was the 28th in a long line of Buddhas and that the 29th, Maitreya Buddha, is yet to come.  Most of us will find it difficult to believe that, during the Night Journey, Muhammad rode his horse Al Buraq from Mecca to Jerusalem, ascended up to heaven for an interview with Allah, and returned to Mecca (a journey of nine hundred miles) all in one night.
 
Whatever our religious or life stance beliefs, most people become rational, common sense thinkers in evaluating the claims of religious groups that are different from their own.  So here is Tertullian going off all rational and common sensical on the Roman gods:
 
"No, we don't worship your fake gods.  We don't worship men, and you admit that your gods were all just that once.  So how did they become gods?  What did they do, that made them divine?  They certainly didn't make the world, or anything that is in it.  Nor do the promiscuous, raping, murderous crew you describe as gods deserve anything more than imprisonment in Tartarus, since that is where you would assign any man who behaved like that.  If they don't deserve that, why do you condemn in your courts men who do the same sorts of things?  And does the status of each god really depend on a vote of the senate?"
 
And "But a few more lies to dispose of.  We don't worship an ass-headed god - we leave that to you, and your Anubis cult.  We don't worship the cross, a bit of wood.  Worshipping bits of wood - idols - is your trick."

And "But you tell me that the Romans rule the world because of the gods, and we endanger state security by our failure to worship them, risking their anger.  Well, since you captured those gods from foreigners, whom they failed signally to defend, it doesn't seem as if their help is worth much!  So our refusal to worship them doesn't hurt you."

And "Every misfortune is ascribed to the Christians - as if earthquakes never happened until 33 AD."

And, finally, Tertullian says, "Surely every man is entitled to worship as he pleases."  And I say "Amen!" to that.  I think his debunking of the Roman gods is right on target; and, although his arguments will have been offensive to Roman Pagans, I think his satirical tone is hilarious.

So, in a sense, we are all atheists.  And people who avow themselves Humanists, Atheists, or whatever, are just people who take disbelief one step farther.  They believe in one less god than the religious believers around them, who also disbelieve in many gods that people once took very seriously and that members of other religions still take seriously.
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Email:

office@uucworcester.org

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508-853-2065

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www.uucworcester.org

 

 

 

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