President's
Pulse
by Roger Sessions
December 1997 - Soul Food
The best thing about our church is the quality of the soul food we serve. We probably
don't all agree on whether or not there is a soul. But I think we all agree that we need
soul food.
What is a soul? My dictionary says it is "The animating and vital principle in
human beings". I certainly believe in one of those. And I believe it needs to be fed.
How do we feed our soul? To some extent, with our Sunday services, although I see this
as a relatively small part of the picture. Not that Chuck doesn't give us good grub. It's
just that there is so much more to the church.
We feed our souls by all the ways this church becomes part of our daily lives. It is
the pot-lucks, the Women's Spirituality Group, the Zen sittings, the Circle Suppers, the
CUUPS meetings, the philosophy clubs, the book clubs, the committee meetings, the working
with the children, the outreach to our community, the lunches after church, and all the
pulling together we do to make this place work. For me, the choir is a full soul meal in
itself. Just think! Rebecca has taught me to sing!
It is great the way these activities seem to spring out of nothing. The latest entrée
in our menu is the coffee house which will be starting up in January. I can't wait for
this. Thomas Moore is starting up a movie group. Jonathan Chiles is starting up a religion
badge for Scouts. Every time you turn around, something new is appearing out of nowhere.
This is a sign of a vital church, one with plenty of food for the soul. Being in this
church is like walking through an apple orchid. If you are hungry, all you have to do is
reach up and grab something.
Sometimes there seems to be too many things to do here. I could easily spend 100 hours
a month here. I would love this, but it would severely restrict my ability to make a
living. But it's much better to be in a church with too many things going on than in one
that has nothing going on. Perhaps the motto of our church should be: "Live Oak -
It's not just for Sunday anymore!"
Roger Sessions
November 1997 - Putting Your Fingers Together
Chuck talked recently about the importance of belief-centered action. He called this
"putting your fingers together", meaning bringing together your beliefs and your
actions. I thought this was a great sermon. I have started trying to visualize my actions
as the moment-by-moment living-out of my beliefs.
There is one problem with this system. In order to live out my beliefs, I first needed
to figure out what my beliefs are. I thought about this for a while.
I finally decided that my core belief is in the Miracle of Love. By this I mean that
within each of us is a reservoir of love. This reservoir can be used to refresh us in our
journeys, it can be drawn against in times of trouble, it can be the nourishment that
fuels our greatest accomplishments. Every single one of us has this fantastic resource
available at every moment of every day. All we need to do is to learn to draw from it.
This seems nothing less than a true miracle.
For me, living out my beliefs means a conscious decision to base all of my acts on
love, to sprinkle every moment with the life-giving waters of love. My church plays many
central roles in this. It is the perpetual source that regenerates my reservoir. It is my
day-to-day teacher of what it means to treat someone else with love and respect. It is the
living monument to what we can all accomplish when we work together in a spirit of love.
Chuck chose an opportune time to initiate this internal dialogue I have been having
with myself. Because I have also been thinking about the coming pledge drive. How can I
encourage people to want to participate? Should I talk about what we have accomplished?
About pledge levels? About how money is the lifeblood of the church? But people know all
that. They have heard it all before.
We often laugh at fundamentalist religions and their approach to pledging. We say,
"Of course people pledge well in those churches, they get heaven in return! What can
we offer UUs?" But I have started to realize that this argument is not true.
People do not pledge well in those churches because they are promised heaven. They
pledge well because they see pledging as one of the ways in which they live out their
beliefs in their daily lives. It is one of the ways in which they put their fingers
together, as Chuck would say. Because these people see pledging as living out their
beliefs, their churches have incredible resources. They are fed directly out of the
reservoir of love of their members.
I think this is the right approach to pledging. Not worrying about percentages, or
minimums, or income levels. But every member thinking about pledging as one of the ways in
which we live our beliefs, one of the ways in which we put our fingers together. With this
attitude, our church will be nourished directly out of the reservoir of love of our
members. And when we tap into this reservoir, we can accomplish anything.
Please consider this when you make your pledge this year: Realize that you are not just
writing out a check. You are not just supporting your church. You are making a living
statement about how you integrate your beliefs into your life. You are putting your
fingers together.
Roger Sessions
September 1997 - Joining The Community
Why would anybody want to join a church? Especially our church, which promises no
tangible rewards, either now or in the hereafter. We don't pressure anybody to join. You
can sit on the sidelines indefinitely. You can watch the services. You can make friends.
You can even take part in church activities without ever joining. You will certainly feel
less stress at pledge time if you don't join. Why would anybody ever want to join our
church?
Joining a church is like a marriage, but a marriage between an individual and a
community. It is the community promising to nurture, honor, and support the individual. It
is the individual promising to nurture, honor, and support the community. It is the
community and the individual acknowledging publicly that each needs the other to be whole.
When we join the Live Oak community, we participate in a ritual that tells the world we
have found our home. We tell the world that the people in this community, with all their
hopes and cares, joys and troubles, beauties and imperfections, are the people with whom
we want to share our lives. When a new member joins our community, they are paying us a
dear compliment and a great honor.
When a new member joins our church, we treat the occasion with joy and, often,
laughter. But beneath the joy is the knowledge that we will someday share sorrows, and
beneath the laughter is the knowledge that we will someday share tears. Being a member of
a community does not immunize us from hard times; it just ensures us there will be people
there to help us through those times when they come.
Clifton L. Taulbert describes this commitment between an individual and a community in
his book, Eight Habits of the Heart. He writes, "Within the community,
dependability is being there for others through all the times of their lives, a steady
influence that makes tomorrow a welcome event." When we join Live Oak, this is the
simple but profound commitment we make: being there for each other through the times of
our lives.
How do you know when it is time to join our community? That is like asking how you know
it is time to get married. You can have a great relationship with another person without
ever making a formal commitment to that person. But that committment, that unqualified
promise to always be there, brings forth a new level of intimacy that can never be
achieved in a relationship with reservations. This commitment more than improves the
relationship. It transforms it. Nobody can tell you when you are ready to make this
commitment. You just know it.
Joining a church is like that. Nobody can tell you when you know you have found your
community, and when you are ready to proclaim it home. Nobody but you knows when you are
ready to look this group of people in the eye , and say, "I want to be part of you. I
want to support you. I want to be supported by you." I can only advise that when you
know that time has come, don't be afraid. Go with your feelings, and step into the
embrace. We will be there for you. We will be honored that you have chosen us to share in
your life.
Roger Sessions
August 1997 - Our Home of Dreams
We are planning a big party for ourselves, an open house for our new home. Some people
may think this is odd, celebrating a building which is, after all, nothing but a pile of
sticks and bricks on a thumb nail piece of property. But we who have been through it know
better. This is much more than sticks and bricks. This is our church. We built it. And now
we are going to celebrate it.
One year ago we watched as our church home was destroyed by a major fire. At least we
thought it was our church home. Over the following months we learned that our real church
home was our community, and our community was something we took with us wherever we went.
We dedicated ourselves to building a new church home. We raised the money. We put in
the hours. And now, one year later, we have it. Nobody gave it to us. We gave it to
ourselves. This church is our gift of love to each other.
What is this church, then, but a reflection of ourselves? It exists because of us. We
choose to spend our time building this church. We choose to make it a financial priority
in our lives. We don't do these things because anybody tells us to. We do them because we
want to. This church is not built of sticks and bricks. It is built out of our wants and
desires, and our determination.
Our church is important to us. It is our shelter in the storm. It is our extended
family. It is our community. It is the people we care for, and the people who care for us.
When we celebrate our new church home, we are really celebrating ourselves.
Gaston Bachelard wrote, "If I were asked to name the chief benefit of the home, I
should say: the home shelters day-dreaming, the home protects the dreamer, the home allows
one to dream in peace." This is a wonderful description of the home that we have
built. A place where we can dream together in peace.
Let us celebrate the dream we have created, and the peace we have together.
Roger Sessions
June 1997 - My Seven Principles
I have had several recent conversations in which I mentioned that I don't agree with
any of the seven UU principles. In most cases, I was met by (more or less) shocked
disbelief. If I had had any idea I could elicit such remarkable reactions from this simple
statement, I would have made it a long time ago.
My biggest problem with the seven principles is that I consider them broad to the point
of being meaningless. EVERYBODY agrees with these principles. I mean, how many of your
friends, regardless of religion, would say they don't respect the interdependent web of
all existence? How many people do not believe in justice, equity, and compassion (except,
of course, when they are driving on 183)? Can you imagine a dinner conversation in which
someone seriously says they don't accept the goal of world community with peace, liberty,
and justice for all? I mean, even Superman believed in that, and he may be the only
historical figure that nobody (to my knowledge) has ever claimed as either a Unitarian or
a Universalist!
So if the seven principles are too mushy for my taste, what would I suggest as sterner
fare? Here are my seven principles, the principles that I believe uniquely define our
religion as practiced at Live Oak.
1. We believe in community. We believe it is a fundamental need of every human being to
be accepted by a warm and loving community.
2. We believe in diversity. We believe that our church community is invigorated by
embracing members with different belief systems, backgrounds, and lifestyles.
3. We believe in personal growth. We believe that our belief systems are constantly
changing and evolving as we experience more of the diversity of life. We believe that the
church should help in this process by exposing us to as many new ideas as possible.
4. We believe in nurture. We believe that our most important charge as members of a
religious community is to nurture the growth and development of every other member of the
community.
5. We believe in free thought. We believe that the role of the church is to support us in
our quest for understanding, not to define for us what that understanding should be. We
judge each other not on what we believe, but on how we act on those beliefs.
6. We believe in love. We believe that all problems can be resolved simply by people
working together guided by genuine love and caring.
7. We believe in each other. We trust the other members of our community to provide us
with the same support and encouragement that we pledge to offer ourselves.
These are my seven Unitarian Universalist principles, the principles that make our
religion special and make Live Oak a home. What are yours?
Roger Sessions
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