After our Worship Associates Workshop last Saturday, I revised our “sample program” on the web page to reflect what workshop participants decided was a good standard for our services. I would like to hear your opinions about what should go on the back cover. Jan and I have seen the 7 UU Principles on the back of many churches’ order of service. We currently have an explanation of UUism which reflects several of the principles, but is simpler and less formal.

Our current Order of Service shows this on the back:

- Unitarian Universalism is a religion which honors the great teachers and prophets of every age and tradition, yet searches for new expressions of goodness, truth and meaning.

- We are bonded together by our belief in the supreme worth and dignity of each person.

- We strive for justice, equality and compassion in all human relationships.

- We cherish the acceptance of one another and encourage spiritual growth in our congregations.

- We promote respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

Jan’s Order of Service has the following on the back:

We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to honor and uphold:

• The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
• Justice, equity, and compassion in human relations;
• Acceptance of one another and encouragement of spiritual growth;
• A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
• The right of conscience and the use of democratic processes;
• The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;
• Reverence for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

The flaming chalice has become a symbol of our denomination.  The flame and the chalice were brought together by an Austrian artist, Hans Deutsch, in 1941.

(For further information: www.uua.org)

We could fit the following shortened version on the back of our program easily:

There are seven principles which Unitarian Universalist congregations affirm and promote:

• • The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
  • Justice, equity, and compassion in human relations;
  • Acceptance of one another and encouragement of spiritual growth;
  • A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
  • The right of conscience and the use of democratic processes;
  • The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;
  • Reverence for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

(For further information: www.uua.org)

Note that Jan’s wording has “We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to honor and uphold” while the above sample includes “There are seven principles which Unitarian Universalist congregations affirm and promote” – Which of these phrases would our congregation prefer? My hunch is that people don’t want to use the word “covenant”.

Which list would you like on the back of the order of service, the 7 principles, or the simple explanation of our beliefs?

Here are some comments I have recieved through the UUCortland-L email list (with no naming of the authors):

“I prefer the 7 principles.”

“I’ve seen these 2 sets of wording alternated over the course of time.  The first wording contains only 5 bullets which creates a question; where are the other 2 principles? Or aren’t these the 7 Principles?  Then, what are they?”

“I like the latter [7 principles] text.  Plus, it gets rid of that pesky word “religion” which to me implies dogma.”

“I like the first [our current wording] — it seems more personal and accessible.”

“The seven principles.”

Please add your comments below, by clicking on the Comments link. Thanks!

—Julia Schult

Sunday, June 7, 2009 will be our Flower Communion service. This is becoming a staple for UU congregations around the U.S., but our congregation hasn’t been aware of its importance to others in our faith (as far as I know! Please post a Comment if I’m  not right about that!).

For many UU communities, the Flower Communion ends the regular service season and starts the summer schedule, just as the Water Communion ends the summer schedule and acts as a Gathering In for the regular church year.

Reverend Jan sent out the following message to our listserv:

On Sunday June 7th we will have our annual flower communion service.  Everyone is asked to bring a flower to share.  I would also like to know if anyone has graduated or is planning to graduate from middle school, high school, college or some other educational program by June 2009.
Blessings,
Rev. Jan

The Wikipedia entry on Flower Communion includes some history and details about the Czech Flower Celebrations, and suggestions on bits that could be included in the service.

Here’s a PDF from the UUA (Unitarian Universalist Association) about the origins and common elements of a Flower Communion.

Go now in Peace! And add a Comment below…

—Julia Schult

Wow, how time does fly! The winter blahs must have set in because this blog has languished. Please comment below if you missed reading this UUCortland Blog.

Some recent comments from our President, Chris Ogden:

Singing for the Green: We had a great turnout for the kick-off dinner for our stewardship campaign.  Thanks to the generosity of Chuck Lochner who planned, purchased and acted as “top chef“, a delicious dinner was enjoyed by the 30 some who attended.  John Ogden, Jim Lawson, and Jim Pelton assisted with the cooking.  Marion Lutz and Ellen Ketchum helped with other kitchen tasks including serving and clean up.  Marion  planned the decorations with Jim Lawson, Jim Pelton, Ana Brendes, and John Churchill assisting with the set up for the dinner.  Fred Lutz was the official  vacuumer.  Many other people helped with cleanup.  The entertainment was supplied by our very own Mens Chorus accompanied by Amy Schultz.  In addition, Mary Ann DeRusso-Allbight and Heather Beardsley treated us to two duets.  It was a delightful evening.  Thank you to all who helped and participated.

The Belfry [is tilting, leaking, and needs structural help.] This past Saturday a contract was signed with a contractor who has experience with restoration work.  The focus of the work to be done will be to reinforce the inside structure of the church bell tower.  When that has been completed, the large pediment under the belfry and the wood trim around the roof edge will be painted.  Funds have been raised to cover the cost of these two projects.  I want to thank Julia Schult, Jim Pelton and Karen Kenning for their time, effort and dedication to helping get these projects under way.  I also want to thank those who helped raise the funds by supporting our “paint can collection’ and our recent fund-raising events. Jason Thornton is designing a computer model of the church belfry to assist the engineer and contractor that we are hiring, so that they can see a 3-dimensional view of the belfry as they work on its reinforcement.  Thanks and Go Jason! TOGETHER we can make things happen!

-Chris Ogden

p.s. Please do use the comments below to let me know if you value this blog and want it to continue. You can compare the fall, when there was an entry every 1-2 weeks, and the winter, when there hasn’t been a new posting for 3 months. Which do you like better?

—Julia Schult

On Saturday, January 10, about 14 people of the UU Church of Cortland gathered at the Interfaith Center on campus to ponder the vision, mission, values, and raison d’etre (reason for being) of our church organization. Julie Ganson was our fearless leader. The Board President,  at least 3 other Board members, and our Minister were among those gathered. As was I, the church webmaster, and the following are my opinions and observations, not any kind of official message!

We considered the strengths of the UU Church of Cortland, which include our people, our building, our history, and our values. We considered our challenges, including our building and our need for people – including paid staff – and therefore our need for money! Then we tried to create a vision of what we want for our church. Now, if you know anything about this whole “visioning/mission/goals thing”, you know that it is easy to slip into a buzzword bingo mindset, and come out with, for example, a mission statement that sounds nice but doesn’t do anyone much good over time. Julie Ganson was great at pushing us to make this method produce valuable, concrete results. Part of how she did that was by NOT insisting that we follow a time-limited process, but by letting us work through our thoughts and differences even though that takes time. As a result, we – the folks who were there – have a good sense of our strengths and weaknesses, and what is important to members and friends of the congregation, even though we did not come out of this one-day retreat with tidy statements of our “vision, mission, and goals”. Instead, we have many thoughts captured on large sheets of paper, and a determination to use those thoughts to:

• Help the Pledge Committee share elements of our vision with those who will be asked to support the church financially.
• Help the Board understand the needs and wants of our members and friends.
• Provide a base on which the congregation can build through future retreats, forums, or meetings, in order to crystallize our vision and mission, after which the Board will create specific goals to accomplish, with specific plans and timelines.

Our job as Board, members, and friends will be to ensure that this process is followed through, so that we can become the busy, active, safe, and well-known community within our region that we want to be, without stressing, pressuring, or burning out the people we have.

Let it be!

—Julia Schult

It has been a great holiday season! The children’s pageant, which focused on the Winter Solstice this year, was fun. At the first service of the New Year, the kids talked about New Year’s resolutions while the grown-ups were pondering how we choose our UU rituals.

But by far one of the neatest parts of the season for the church community was the Christmas Eve Service of Carols & Candles, organized by our minister, the Reverend Jan Johnson.

The UU Church of Cortland, bedecked for the Christmas Eve Service

The service included invited soloists, members and friends of the church, all led by Jan. More than forty people attended; next year it will probably be more. Four readings related the story of Jesus’ birth, accompanied by appropriate hymns and a gradual dimming of the lights. Just before the Silent Night, each person in the congregation lit a candle and the church sparkled with candlelight and the lights from the tree.

Another of our successful collaborative efforts to build our community, and hopefully the start of a beautiful local tradition!

—Julia Schult

Holiday Greetings!

• After the service on Sunday, December 14th, join us and help “green” our church sanctuary.  We will put up our Christmas tree and decorate the window wells with real evergreen bows.  Bring any decorations you would like to contribute to the effort, homemade or store bought.
• Sunday, December 21st, will be the children’s holiday service:  ”Celebrating the Winter Solstice“.  The actual astrological solstice occurs at 7:04 in the morning, EST. It will be a service reflecting on the darkness, and then the children will wake up the sun. Finally, the children will depict the astronomical solstice as a story/play.
• On Christmas Eve, December 24th, at 5:00 pm please join us for a traditional service of stories, carols, candle-lighting, and special music led by Rev. Janet Johnson.  We hope both regular churchgoers and others in the area will come and make the UU Church of Cortland Candlelight Service part of your Christmas Eve. Carols and candles, what could be better!

—Julia Schult with help from our congregation’s President, Chris Ogden

Everyone knows our church needs funds, especially for preservation of the building. Marion Lutz has come to the Board with an offer, but we’ll need commitment to make it work!

Marion has coordinated quilt raffles for several organizations, and is willing to coordinate one for us. This has potential to bring in several thousand dollars, much of which might come from outside our small congregation. In order for this to happen, we will need 1) volunteers to help Marion create the quilt (experience helpful but not necessary) and 2) everyone to commit to selling raffle tickets.

1) to make the quilt, Marion can design it and host work parties. If we get together a group of women for a quilting bee, we might even get a Women’s Group going. Or we can have a come-all-ye working party or two. There will be jobs for both experienced quilters and non-quilters. Can you commit to helping?

2) to sell the tickets, Marion says the price would be reasonable, but hopefully almost every member or friend could commit to selling at least $25 worth of tickets, priced at about $1-2 each. People who don’t want to sell the tickets could buy them with their own money. However, we need to have a relatively large group of people willing to sell tickets in order to make this project worth doing. Are you willing to sell tickets?

I will send this out by email also, and you can reply to the email or click on “Comments” below and add a comment to this post. Please respond so that we know whether to proceed with this project!

—Julia Schult

This fall we had a series of 3 services in partnership with the Syracuse Peace Council, bringing us insights from the Onondaga tribe of Haudenosaunee on “Educating for Peace” (9/28), “Environmental Issues” (10/26), and “Land Rights Action” (11/9). Each service gave us a chance to learn about and take inspiration from this particular tribe’s philosophy, and educate ourselves about some hot issues here in Central New York.

I would be interested in finding out what people learned during these services. Please use the Comments link below to share your “take-away messages” from these services.

People who would like to learn more can explore the NOON website or the Onondaga Nation’s website.

Thanks for reading!  —Julia Schult

At the last Board meeting we talked about the “Congregational Talk Back” part of our service and where it should be placed in the service.  I felt that it disrupted the flow of the service to have it right after the sermon, and I wanted to save it for the fellowship time after the service.  Others felt that the fellowship time might be too noisy and therefore not a good time.  Someone suggested that those who wanted to respond to the sermon could stay in the sanctuary while the others go downstairs for the fellowship hour.  I’d like more opinions on this topic.  What do you think?

Blessings!                                                                                                                                                      Rev. Jan

p.s. Please respond by contacting Jan, or using the Comments feature below – click on “Comments”, then scroll down to add your comment.

First, let me say thank you to those who organized the Susquehanna String Band concert and the Organ Crawl. I hear they were well attended and very fun!

If you have looked at the web page lately you may have seen that there is a new page about the stained glass windows. That page is not looking as good as I hope to make it, so enjoy its information now, and I’ll try to make the pictures prettier soon!

I also posted a new video linked in to the Building page showing a Video Visit to the Belfry. This video was put together for the children’s RE, when we were having a conversation about “sacred spaces” – meaning spaces set aside as UU churches, and also places where you can go to collect your thoughts or gain comfort. Here’s the video, if you haven’t seen it!

Soon I will post more details about the Building, and where we stand on painting, making the building safe, and preserving it for the future.

This church does not stand still this year!!

—Julia S.