The UUCW Nugget
March 15, 2017

Office Hours
(Sept 6, 2016 - 
June 29, 2017):
Mon, Tues, Wed: 
9 am - 3 pm
Thur. 9 am - 2 pm


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.


UUCW Covenant of Right Relations
In consonance with the principles and purposes of the Unitarian Universalist Association, we the members and friends of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester covenant to sustain and support a courageous and caring community by:
 
* Bringing our best selves to form a welcoming, loving, and inclusive community of faith;
 
* Creating an atmosphere of celebration and worship in a safe environment;
 
* Providing opportunities where diverse people and points of view are respected and where open-hearted and open-minded discussion of our differences is encouraged;
 
* Treating each other with kindness and respect;
 
* Approaching conflicts with a spirit of humility and with the respectful intent for peaceful resolution;
 
* Engaging in and encouraging spiritual and intellectual growth across the lifespan;
 
* Fostering social justice and positive transformation in our community and in the world at large;
 
* Growing and maintaining the resources necessary to support the missions and ministries of this congregation;
 
* Fostering fellowship and enjoying each other and the unique gifts that each person brings to our community.
UUCW Response to Refugee/Immigrant Issues - March 19 - 11:45 in the Sanctuary 
     
Our congregation has been invited to participate in a network of faith-based communities in the Worcester Area to develop a response to concerns about new refugee and immigrant policies. A few of our members have attended area meetings to educate themselves about the issues. This Sunday, March 19, they will share that information with interested church members at 11:45 in the main sanctuary. The goal over the next few weeks will be to consider some of the various options of how we as a faith community might get involved in this wider effort. Bring your concerns and ideas.


The UUCW Covenant on Right Relations 
  
As the Committee on Ministry becomes the Committee on Right Relations, they are asking members and friends of the church to evaluate the principles of the covenant.  We might as well start at the beginning.
 
Accordingly, here is the first principle - "Bringing our best selves to form a welcoming, loving, and inclusive community of faith."
 
This statement evokes for me the Touchstone theme of February, Respect.  We can do better than tolerate difference, we can strive to respect the common humanity among us all.  Here are a story and a poem exploring the theme of respect, so necessary for becoming a welcoming, loving and inclusive community.
 
Everybody Else by Jabari S. Jones
 
On a spring day in Farmington, Maine, I was walking to the Reny's [department store]. I made my way through a line of cars that were waiting for the light, and in front of me was a large Confederate flag flying from the back of a white pick-up. I crossed the street, not looking at who was driving the truck, and went into the store. As I went about my business, I felt stunned; my mind stirred with thoughts and feelings, memories and speculations. I felt fear, and anger, and curiosity; worry, and defiance, and humiliation.
 
As I stood at the register, I chatted with the older white woman behind the counter. "Hi, how are you today?"
 
"I'm good, how are you?," she replied. I paused, and then I told her about the truck with the flag.
 
She said something like, "Oh, yes, we have some of that around here, but don't let it upset you. Don't let it get to you."
 
I appreciated her gesture, her attempt to comfort me. At the same time, her gesture made me more uncomfortable. She was asking me to respect that person's right to fly that flag and shrug it off like everybody else. What she failed to see, or perhaps ignore in a gesture of 'colorblindness' wrapped in the First Amendment, is that I am not like everybody else who walks in the shadow of that flag. I am from "away;" my hair is coarse; my skin is dark brown. I am a black man in Maine. In so many ways, I am not like everybody else around here. But I want to belong here. In so many ways, that flag represents the denial of my rights, my belonging.
 
It is impossible for me to blend in, to hide my black body, to "not let it get to me." I don't have the privilege of hiding from history. Because I am conscious, I know what it is; I know its name. It rides in the back of a pick-up truck, it proudly stalks around town like an alpha predator. It clings to me like a nightmare, while it seems like everyone else is walking through a dream. I point at the thing and say "Look!," and the crowd replies, "Yes, but..."
 
When I hear "Yes," I feel heard. When I hear "but," I become invisible; my life doesn't matter. It's this "but-," this disbelief in the truth of black bodies, this tolerance for something that is ugly and intolerant, that is the terror that  "everybody else" allows to walk in their midst: a casual terror that I cannot escape any more than I can escape my own body, my own consciousness. A terror that makes all lives matter less. I struggle to wake up from the nightmare, and the dream that is its mirror image. I struggle to make my life matter, for black lives to matter, so that all lives will matter.
 
 
Listening with the Heart by Gary Kowalski

Maybe prayer doesn't mean talking to God at all.
May it means just listening.
Unplugging the TV, turning off the computer,
Quieting the mental chatter and distractions.
Maybe it means listening to the birds
And the insects, the wind in the leaves, the creaking and groaning of the trees,
noticing
Who else is out there, not far away but nearby;
Sitting so still we can hear our heartbeat,
Watch our breath, the gentle whoosh of air,
The funny noises from our own insides,
Marveling at the body we take so much for granted.
Maybe it means listening to our dreams,
Paying more attention to what we really want from life,
And less attention to all the nagging, scolding voices from our past.
Or maybe it's all about listening to each other,
Not thinking ahead to how we can answer or rebut or parry or advise or admonish,
But actually being present to each other.
Perhaps if we just sit quietly we'll overhear a peace whispering through the centuries
That's missing from the clamor of the moment.
Maybe prayer means listening to the silences between the words,
Noticing the negativity of space,
The vast, undifferentiated and nameless wonder
That underlies it all.
Maybe prayer doesn't mean talking to God at all,
But listening with the heart,
To the angel choirs all around us.
Those who have ears,
Let them hear.


Message from the Committee on Right Relations
(AKA Committee on Ministry) 


 
Due to changes in responsibilities for the Board along with that of Minister and Leadership for the congregation (as outlined in the current Governance Experiment), the Committee on Ministry has recognized that much of what has been the responsibility of the committee have now been taken on by the Board.
 
Over the past couple of years, COM has been reviewing the feasibility of transitioning to a Committee on Right Relations or "CORR". There has been a movement within the larger Unitarian Universalist community to have a formal body that can help organizations with the difficult task of transforming congregational behavior and emotional systems.
 
During this exploratory stage, the members of COM have been discussing what this transition would look like, and what would be our role for helping members of our congregation.  Last October we attended a workshop in Barnstable presented by the UUA of New England called Living into Right Relations. We gathered additional information to help guide us through the transition, but what we learned most of all was that we are on the right track and already ahead of the curve when compared to other congregations.
 
Over the next several months, our committee will roll out more information and will communicate what we learn with the congregation. But we are going to need your help. Our first task which we are starting today is to ask you to spend some time over the next few weeks to think about our existing Covenant of Right Relations (The Covenant is listed on the sidebar of this email). As with many policies in place in different organizations, many of us are aware the covenant is in place and, while most of us live this covenant, we probably haven't paid much attention to it.
 
Our goal is to make our covenant a living document. Our community does not have a test of faith, but we do have a social contract in the covenant. Beginning this week as part of the Nugget, we will be adding one line item of our covenant per week for you to reflect on. We are also asking for input from you on each one, asking for your experiences and observations. Your responses will be confidential and the information will be shared anonymously. At future meetings the committee will discuss the comments and share with the congregation some of what we have learned.
 
 
At coffee hour, in the coming weeks, the committee will have a table where you can talk to one of the members about your experiences and thoughts regarding our Covenant. We welcome any comments and questions. Additionally you can email any member of the Committee at the addresses below.  
 
Thank you for your time.
 
Contact Information

Phone:

508-853-1942

Email:

office@uucworcester.org

Fax:

508-853-2065

Website:

www.uucworcester.org

 

 

 

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