From Our Minister Archive
From Your President and Minister
The time for sharing your dreams about the future of our church is here. During the month of October, your board of directors will facilitate eight meetings — four after services on Sundays and four in members’ homes. ignups are taking place in Forbes each Sunday. The meetings will last 90 minutes, and discussion will revolve around a set of questions, which will be the same for all groups. If you feel the urge to write out answers to some or all of these questions, your president will be happy to receive them. You can email or mail them to Cynthia at home, or you can leave them for her in the office.
Our Long Range Planning Committee, chaired by Patricia Wright, has been working on Vision Statements for
some time. They adopted the following mission statement that reflects their vision for the church:
“We want to build a church that is an agent of transformation, central in individual people’s lives and in the community at large. We desire to reflect our larger community and its diversity and to be a place where people feel welcome, well connected, valued, and loved.”
In their work, they were inspired by the sermon given by Rev. Tom Rosiello on February 13, 2011 prior to the Rev. Rebecca Bijur’s installation. He in turn was inspired by sermons delivered by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who speaks of a complete life as a balanced life, equal in depth, breadth, and height. In his sermon, Rev. Rosiello interprets these terms in a UU context, referring to a healthy church as a place “where the three dimensions of community, spiritual depth, and social justice are in balance.”
To quote him further: “Among us here this morning, I am sure there are deep longings for spiritual depth, for inclusive community, and for real justice. I know it is easy, even exciting, to run with just one of them; the one that we are more committed to, perhaps better at. The harder task is to hold all three in equal measure. When we do that, we learn that each enriches the other and contributes to a whole that is something more, something much more than just the sum of its parts.”
In the spirit of these words, we will be exploring what we value, what we long for, and what we are willing to commit to in our life at church. In sharing with each other, we will each give the gift of ourselves and receive from others in return. These meetings are the first step in a process which will culminate in goals for the future and also some decisions and actions about the best use of legacy gifts, such as the bequests our church has received in the past year. Let’s see what we can dream — and do — together.
— In Anticipation,
Cynthia Cottam and Rev. Rebecca Benefiel Bijur
P.S. You will notice a theme to the questions: each one begins with you. Our intent is not to fuel a shallow vision of a church that is only about meeting the needs of the individual, but rather to invite you to personally and intentionally commit to the good work of building our shared future. Dive in!
Visioning Questions
1. Describe your relationship to the church in terms of depth: the inner dimension. Consider the practices that bring you self-understanding, healing when you are hurting, practices that touch your soul, connect you with the spirit of life, and lead to spiritual depth, personal growth, and a claiming of your own personal worth and dignity. What makes this church transformational for you in terms of depth, and central in your life as you are living it right now? If money were no object, what would you like to see the church do to further enrich your experience in this area?
2. Describe your relationship to the church in terms of breadth: reaching outward to others within our community. Consider the practices that enable you to care for others and be cared for, to help others in times of need and receive help, and to communicate with respect, kindness, and consideration, even when you experience disagreement or disappointment. What makes the experience of reaching out to others, and receiving help from others, transformational for you? If money were no object, what would you like to see the church do, to promote your growth in this area and to help us take good care of each other?
3. Describe your relationship to the church in terms of height: reaching upward, beyond our community. Consider the actions that help you to realize your aspirations for a better world, connect with something larger than yourself and your concerns, experience solidarity, work for justice and fairness, and help you live your deepest values as you relate to your neighbors and to the world at large. What helps you to express your values fully? If money were no object, what might the church do to make your actions transformational, both for yourself and for the world?
4. How do you see yourself in the church three years from now? 10 years from now? 30 years from now?
Last July, before departing on six weeks of summer leave, I gave you all an invitation from my colleague Tom Owen-Toole, to cast your nets into the depths — the depths of life, and of faith. On the other side of that rewarding time of travel, childcare, reflection, housework, study, visiting other churches, and email, I am still wrestling with his words.
You see, Tom writes about the fear that has kept him so often on the surface of things, and kept him from “delving downward into consciousness and growth.” If you are like me, it’s easy to take his statement literally, and recall your frozen moments lingering on the shores of the ocean, the lake, or the pool, reluctant to finally take the plunge into the water. What is it that keeps us there, considering, waiting, delaying?
And then there is my son. As the waves come into view this summer at the beach, he runs toward them, tiny legs pumping, face aglow with delight. A joy (and a parent’s terror) to behold, it is all I can do to keep a grip on
his sandy tummy as he splashes into the surf, laughing, reaching, wanting more. What is it that allows some of us to dive in, to run toward the waves as if toward some grand new adventure?
As we make our way together into a new church year, I want to know what is calling you forward into the deep. Are you ready to go beyond the surfaces of life, toward growth, understanding, healing, and renewal?
Tom writes (in my adaptation), that it is the voice of our liberal and liberating faith that calls him forward and urges him on in hard times:
Our relentless faith has issued its summons.
It is beckoning and calling to us, saying
Climb down from your elevated perches
Vacate the comfortable surrounds of life’s surface
And together we will enter life’s depths
Where authentic suffering, joy, and meaning await us.
I hope you will cast your nets into the depths with your minister and your spiritual community at 18th and Arizona this fall.
See you in church,
Rev. Rebecca
Dear Friends,
The full life is full of many journeys: through space, through time, and through rites of passage. Courage is often required by those who begin and complete big journeys. [Telling stories about our journeys invites listeners] to consider and celebrate the journeys they’ve taken and those that still lie ahead.
– Aaron McEmrys, minister of our congregation in Santa Barbara
As our church year comes to a close, we are completing a journey we began together at our Ingathering services ten months ago. Since September, our babies have begun walking, our fifth graders have grown into middle schoolers, and our 8th graders have come of age. We have new classes of high school and college graduates to celebrate, as well as the families, parents, and grandparents who have cheered them along at every step on their journey. Congratulations to you all.
This summer, I hope you’ll continue your spiritual journey at church, as we swing into a season with some intentional differences from the academic church year. For many of us, the summer kick-off was on June 9, when a record 68 UUs from Greater LA (including 58 from this congregation) “prayed with their feet” by marching in the LA Pride Parade. From June 16 to September 2, our whole community comes together on Sunday mornings for one service at 10am. We have a few other changes to try out, as well. This July, Thursday choir rehearsal will morph into Wednesday SummerSings, led by DeReau Farrar, Director of Music, where we will celebrate hymns old and new and experiment with alternative approaches to community-created music. And in the place of age-separated Religious Exploration classes, our children will experience an all-ages Sunday summer camp, and twelve of our high schoolers and their advisors will head to New Orleans for a week-long service trip.
As the journeys of our children begin and end, so do our own. My hope is that the summer months are a time of (even) more reflection, connection, creativity, and spaciousness, in your lives, and at 18th and Arizona, your spiritual home.
See you at church,
Rev. Rebecca
PS: Your minister will be on study leave from July 10-August 5. Study leave allows ministers to read, reflect, study, write, and continue educational development of benefit to the ministry. During this time I am on-call for pastoral needs, although you will not see me in the pulpit or in committee meetings. From August 6 to 20, I will be on vacation and traveling with my family to the East Coast. During this time our Committee on Ministry (Kris Langabeer, Gerrie Lambson, Dan Patterson, and Alan Brunell) and Pastoral Care Team (Ron Crane, Michael Eselun, and Bronwen Jones) will be on-call for ministry and pastoral needs.
This month’s column is limited to new material since the publication of my annual report to the congregation last month. That report included information on staff changes at UUCCSM during this last church year, information about the launch of our Small Group Ministry Program, and a review of life passages (births and deaths in our congregation).
With great pride, I report that your Generous Congregation plate-sharing gifts of over $8,500 have served the children, youth, and families of the following organizations: Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice — Los Angeles (CLUE-LA), Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services, Gays and Lesbians Initiating Dialog for Equality (GLIDE), Homeboy Industries, Ocean Park Community Center (OPCC), Our House Grief Support, St. Joseph Center, TreePeople, Turning Point, Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations (UUA), UU Legislative Ministry — California (UULM), UU Service Committee, UU Trauma Response Ministry, Venice Family Clinic, and the Westside Food Bank.
Thank you for all you do to support the ministry of our church, and to live our values here and in the wider world.
Gratefully,
— Rev. Rebecca Benefiel Bijur
Note from Rev. Rebecca: I will be on study leave from July 10 to August 5. Study leave allows ministers to read, reflect, study, write, and continue educational development of benefit to the ministry. During this time I will be on call for pastoral needs, although you will not see me in the pulpit or in committee meetings. From August 6 to 20, I will be on vacation and traveling with my family to the East Coast. During this time our Committee on Ministry (Kris Langabeer, Gerrie Lambson, Dan Patterson, and Alan Brunell) and Pastoral Care Team (Ron Crane, Michael Eselun, and Bronwen Jones) will be on call for ministry and pastoral needs.
Dear Friends,
There are probably more efficient ways to organize a congregation than by asking all of our 370 voting members to show up, mostly in person, for our Annual Congregational Meeting. And I’m sure we could think of other ways to elect our leadership, approve our budget (most of which will be raised from our own pockets), tend to our facilities, and take a stand on the justice issues of our time.
But I’m not sure there are many other approaches to congregational life that would do as much to demonstrate our faith in democracy, and allow us to “practice our openness to the wisdom in every voice among us,” in the words of my colleague Heather Janules. I take a lot of pride in our way of doing things, and I appreciate the staff and volunteer leadership that allows our Annual Meeting to continue to be a meaningful, wise, and faithful gathering.
This year our goal is to provide a comprehensive Report on Programs at least a week before the Annual Meeting, so that you can learn more about the accomplishments, challenges, and hopes of fellow church members and staff who have served our congregation this year. Last year’s report included updates from more than 40 groups! My hope is that by May 12, electronic versions of this report will be posted on our website, and paper copies will be available at the church office and at coffee hour.
See you in church, and on May 19,
Rev. Rebecca
Witnessing for Love
“This line goes on forever,” said one student, as he passed by the “wall of humanity” gathered to counterprotest the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) at Santa Monica High School. The WBC is nationally known for its anti-gay activism, and for using its right to free speech to bring hate-filled signs to schools and to the funerals of soldiers.
On Monday, February 25, I joined the counter protest to tell our students that hate has no home here. Eventually, we grew to about 400 strong, a double loop lining Pico Boulevard with messages of peace, love and acceptance. We were overwhelmingly students, organized by leaders of the Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) at Samohi and neighboring schools, as well as clergy, hotel workers, and community members. Bursts of song rang up and down the line: “Amazing Grace,” “Give Peace a Chance,” “All You Need Is Love,” followed by chants of “two, four, six, eight, teach our students not to hate!” We linked arms, stayed true to our vow not to engage the protestors, chatted, watched the line grow and grow. My colleague Robert English, youth pastor of First United Methodist Church, was interviewed by two journalists for a story in the Santa Monica papers. He took a break from armlinking to post photos on Facebook with the caption, “witnessing for love.”
At 7:45 a.m., the WBC ended their protest, packed up their signs, and left to cheers from the counterprotestors.
The GSA finished collecting donations, saying their goal had been $100 for every minute of the protest. The students headed to class, or to breakfast. The counter-protestors unlinked our arms, packed up our rainbow signs, and melted away to other streets and sidewalks.
It felt good to be in that line, going on forever.
- Rev. Rebecca
More than 10 years ago, President Bush memorably described an “Axis of Evil” in his State of the Union address. Since then, there have been more stories, more studies, and more books on evil.
But that doesn’t mean evil is easy to talk about — or should be easy to talk about.
In modern history, the term “evil” is most closely associated with the Holocaust. This is the event to which all other horrors are most reliably compared, for better or for worse. But evil cannot be so neatly defined and confined, writes philosopher Susan Neiman.
She believes thinkers of every age have called “evil” that which “shatters our trust in the world,” an experience that is not only global or historical, but also, devastatingly, individual, personal, and inter-personal. “Evil is not mysterious, not insignificant, and not rare,” writes Rebecca Parker, liberal theologian and president of Starr King School for the Ministry, our UU seminary in Berkeley, CA. “It is ordinary, life-destroying, and pervasive.”
It seems to me that talking about evil, much less undoing evil, is ground where I have feared to tread — along with a host of religious liberals and pluralists. Have we abandoned the language of evil and left it in “morally unscrupulous hands,” as Neiman believes? What does evil mean to you? How do you understand evil at work in the world or in the human heart — and with what tools will we resist, interrupt, and unmask it?
These are deep waters. I hope you will dive in with me and your fellow church members as we wrestle with evil this month.
Much heart,
Rev. Rebecca
More than 10 years ago, President Bush memorably described an “Axis of Evil” in his State of the Union address. Since then, there have been more stories, more studies, and more books on evil.
But that doesn’t mean evil is easy to talk about — or should be easy to talk about.
In modern history, the term “evil” is most closely associated with the Holocaust. This is the event to which all other horrors are most reliably compared, for better or for worse. But evil cannot be so neatly defined and confined, writes philosopher Susan Neiman.
She believes thinkers of every age have called “evil” that which “shatters our trust in the world,” an experience that is not only global or historical, but also, devastatingly, individual, personal, and inter-personal. “Evil is not mysterious, not insignificant, and not rare,” writes Rebecca Parker, liberal theologian and president of Starr King School for the Ministry, our UU seminary in Berkeley, CA. “It is ordinary, life-destroying, and pervasive.”
It seems to me that talking about evil, much less undoing evil, is ground where I have feared to tread — along with a host of religious liberals and pluralists. Have we abandoned the language of evil and left it in “morally unscrupulous hands,” as Neiman believes? What does evil mean to you? How do you understand evil at work in the world or in the human heart — and with what tools will we resist, interrupt, and unmask it?
These are deep waters. I hope you will dive in with me and your fellow church members as we wrestle with evil this month.
Much heart,
Rev. Rebecca
More than 10 years ago, President Bush memorably described an “Axis of Evil” in his State of the Union address. Since then, there have been more stories, more studies, and more books on evil.
But that doesn’t mean evil is easy to talk about — or should be easy to talk about.
In modern history, the term “evil” is most closely associated with the Holocaust. This is the event to which all other horrors are most reliably compared, for better or for worse. But evil cannot be so neatly defined and confined, writes philosopher Susan Neiman.
She believes thinkers of every age have called “evil” that which “shatters our trust in the world,” an experience that is not only global or historical, but also, devastatingly, individual, personal, and inter-personal. “Evil is not mysterious, not insignificant, and not rare,” writes Rebecca Parker, liberal theologian and president of Starr King School for the Ministry, our UU seminary in Berkeley, CA. “It is ordinary, life-destroying, and pervasive.”
It seems to me that talking about evil, much less undoing evil, is ground where I have feared to tread — along with a host of religious liberals and pluralists. Have we abandoned the language of evil and left it in “morally unscrupulous hands,” as Neiman believes? What does evil mean to you? How do you understand evil at work in the world or in the human heart — and with what tools will we resist, interrupt, and unmask it?
These are deep waters. I hope you will dive in with me and your fellow church members as we wrestle with evil this month.
Much heart,
Rev. Rebecca
Dear friends,
One of the things I loved about riding the subway in Boston was getting to see what everyone was reading. Especially the university students — a train leaving Harvard Square was bound to have a Russian novel or two, or at least someone working on flashcards. These days it is probably harder to get your book recommendations by catching sight of a title on the train, since most commuters are reading off their Smartphone or tablet. In any case, my column this month is dedicated to sharing a glimpse of what’s on your minister’s bookshelf:
“The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in an Age of Colorblindness,” by Michelle Alexander. This is the UUA’s Common Read, and also the subject of a four-part series here at the church sponsored by Faith in Action. Bryan Stevenson’s TED talk [http://www.ted.com/talks/bryan_stevenson_we_need_to_talk_about_an_injustice.html] provided the final push I needed to buy this book from our book cart and start reading.
“Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard,” by Chip and Dan Heath. A recommendation for those hitting the usual obstacles to their New Year’s resolutions.
“A Paradise Built in Hell: the Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster,” by Rebecca Solnit. She describes how solidarity and community result in the wake of earthquakes and other disasters. Some of you may have heard Solnit speak on this topic earlier this fall at the Santa Monica Public Library.
“Doubt, A History: The Greater Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson,” by Jennifer Michael Hecht. More to come on this on the first Sunday in February, when Ian Dodd and I join forces for a service about the benefit of doubt.
And I’m always taking recommendations, ebook or otherwise. Happy reading — or scrolling.
Your minister,
Rev. Rebecca