Inner Care
• Get to know members meaning of life. Explore our journeys, learn from others. Pot lucks, small gatherings. Shouldn’t be an inner circle.
• Make groups more inclusive.
• Institute small groups on a limited time frame so they don’t burn out. Not have things opened ended. Fear of signing up for something for life.
• Can’t be exclusionary. Doing things at peoples houses eliminates many (due to size of apartments, etc.). Excludes people without money or big enough homes.
• Importance of knowing others names.
• Importance also of getting to know another: like caring group
• Better venues for getting to know members. Doesn’t like coffee hour.
• Does not like to be made uncomfortable. Has been insulted, discriminated against. Big hole-losing existing members.
• Feels it’s more welcoming now. Felt it used to be very exclusionary. Church has failed her children. Need to keep people, have families feel part of community.
• Use facility more. Can’t us his home for events.
• People feel daunted by parking.
• Focus workshops. Work together. Art classes, etc. Woman’s group.
• Have a Craig’s List type thing. We all could advertise our services-sell-offers of rooms available. Many talents of church we don’t know about.
• Feels that non-members don’t have the right to speak up.
• Comes, gives money, bit is not a member. Doesn’t want to sign a book (ex-catholic) He loved the bean supper with skits –found helpful, wasn’t formal, met people.
• Bean supper a big hit. Open to the public?
• Would like open public dinners.
• Concern about amount of work involved with dinners.
Bridge to Community
• You get close to people that you have done community efforts with. Way to intimacy. Working on goal together.
• Soup Kitchen
• Go to USM for outreach. Sharing the Good News. Doesn’t have to be a deed. Tabling-a presence important.
• Common Ground Fair
• Portland High School-our neighbor. Poster in alley. Tutoring in classroom. Outreach to guidance councilors and social works. After school clubs-invite them.
• Technology. Community TV. Channel 4. Pod casts-live stream. Video/audio.
• Use our own high schools for ideas and engage.
• Sister church. Latin America or in US or South.
• Voter registration drives.
• Use groups that already exist: Safe Passage.
• Partner with another church that is already good at it.
• Bridge to Community –continued
• Ferry Beach Retreat-area UU’s. Opportunity to explore social action.
• Inner City church- for unchurched, not church Sunday morning. Programs. Place to give back.
• Outside garden services in summer.
• Banners. Acknowledge impact-more-alley.
• Solstice etc. outside. Maypole.
• UU Book group. Meet outside church. In community.
• Connection with other UU’s.
• Groups that come here. Make connections. Thursday concerts-important to have someone speak.
• Connect with AA, Thai Chi, Playback.
Worship
• Tension between preservation/visionary plays out here in worship. Elders/big givers object to banners/lights/renovations. Let’s be visionaries but not throw baby out with bath water; drive out traditional big givers.
• My alternative is Quaker Meeting, but prefer something with a sermon BUT sacred, centered, atmosphere with spirituality in services. Non traditional stuff is fine but not chaos.
• Dislikes should be respected, not told to “stuff it”
• It’s important to tolerate elements/styles of music you don’t like and that the program be varied to serve all.
• We are open but we can’t be everything to everyone.
• Authenticity is important in using and honoring other traditions.
• Excellence is important.
• A central, constant experience is important to me.
• I like to leave feeling that I learned something.
• Sacred space, life changing experience is important.
• Toughing people, elevating common themes to significance.
• Excellence is a certain level of competence that doesn’t break the experience.
• Personal participation is make the experience sacred-singing, etc.
• It is possible to combine preservation and vision. Example: Unison affirmation can be a common element while other things change.
• 7 year old says the affirmation.
• Need numbers in the meeting house to have energy.
• We need to understand why people don’t come back; tinkering with worship may not do it.
• Preserve the sacred no matter what we do,
• People are leaving for many reasons, not worship alone.
• Came during summer; hooked by different kind of service. Grew to like regular kind of service.
• Possible to have different styles of services at different times to serve multiple audiences, a.k.a. Soulful Sundown.
• Been here 4 months and haven’t heard anything about Islam.
Building Congregation
• Collaborate with other churches, ie; Williston-West and Polish Church; diversity
• Have other faiths meet at different times. Use the church / rent the space.
• Expand Building Use Coordinators role.
• “Bring a Friend” Have current members invite others to service on Sunday and events and Men group and others.
• Collaboration with A2U2.
• Have a service periodically focused on a symbol of the traditions; including the UU symbol; Buddhist. Etc.
• Put info at USM, SMCC, bookstores, library.
• Services on public access TV
• Pancake breakfast to include music and advertise it.
• Invite the Noonday music attendees to Sunday Worship, AA as well.
• Volunteers to Youth Groups to represent UU, ie; Long Creek
• Worship at nursing homes, college campuses.
• Educate public with ads to free papers. Use quote: “We do not ask all to think alike, we ask all to think.” “We don’t; have to think alike to love alike.” (Goes with our Mission.)
• Like Kitsy: carry around UU newsletters to give out when appropriate. Also where UU jewelry if comfortable.
• More collaboration with historical society and being speakers in schools to talk about UU for history classes, especially elementary and H.S. On college level on comparative religion.
• Building Congregation-continued
• Look at the latest survey for the ministerial search for ideas.
Funding
• Broader opportunities to solicit funds.
• Grants / ?
• Identify what programs we need to fund.
• Identify cast of each segment of the vision statement
• Annuities to church
• Functions that bring in people and ?
• Endow partial activity or ?; ie; RE or music
• Pledge for support church plus separate pledge for “special interests”.
Mission
• Mission should be to meet spiritual and emotional needs of attendees
• Should be attractive to outside.
• If talk is in theory and not concrete-intentional plan
• Is our strength in spiritual realm?
• Multiracial / Intergenerational communion
• Big Buddy.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church
One Woman’s Perspective
By Ashley Lasbury, President
These spoken remarks were made to a group of 55 or so of the most active members of First Parish on the morning of January 9th. Now is the time to widen the focus and share my concerns and vision of our future with the entire congregation. After presentations by Kitsy, Will and myself, the larger group broke into small “passion groups” to generate edgy, creative ideas to rethink “how we do church”. Those ideas will be shared in the near future. Again, my presentation was spoken and I have written it as it was delivered. Peace.
I refuse to lead a dying church! I. Refuse. To. Lead. A. Dying. Church! Anna, our VP, refuses to lead a dying church. Val, Brownie and Stephanie refuse to lead a dying church. The entire Governing Board of First Parish refuses to lead a dying church and it is my hope that by the end of the morning you will refuse to be members of a dying church. I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church is the title of a book by Paul Nixon that most of the leadership has read or is in the process of reading. Long before I heard of the book, those words summed up what was in my heart. You were invited here this morning because in church-speak you are “stakeholders” of First Parish, the backbone and beating heart of our community. And I don’t know about you but I am tired of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
Straight Talk
My remarks this morning are a combination of John McCain’s Straight Talk and Obama’s Vision of Hope. First the Straight Talk. As a community, First Parish is healthy. The information from the cottage meetings clearly indicates that we are a healthy congregation and we are optimistic about our future. Just walk into coffee hour any Sunday and you can’t help but feel the vitality and energy swirling in the air! But the institution is not so healthy. I maintain that the institution may not be sustainable in its current form for very much longer. Our numbers are in decline. This is not just our reality but is challenge being faced at the association level as well. Unitarian Universalist churches have been in decline since the early 70’s. This trend is affecting main line Protestant churches across the country. Right here in our city the church building on Chestnut Street has become a restaurant. Another is deciding whether it can afford to keep its doors open for much longer. Since our high water mark in the early 90’s when First Parish was the fastest growing mid-sized congregation in the UUA, our numbers have slowly declined. Membership is down, church attendance is down and pledge income is down.
One of the inconvenient truths I wanted to speak to you about this morning is money. During the last budget year the leadership had to cut $40,000 out of our budget. We have taken a pledge not to dip into the endowment; that is a path to certain ruin. We also vowed to create a realistic budget, not one based on the hope that an “angel” would swoop down and pull our collective nuts out of the fire. So we cut $40,000. $20,000 of it was hard; the other $20,000 was easy as our interim ministers do not require us to pay them benefits. If you have not thanked Will and Kitsy you may want to consider doing so. We are getting top-notch Interim Ministerial guidance for very little money. In a few months when it comes time to create the 2010/2011 church budget the leadership will have to build back in that $20,000 as you can be sure that our new minister is going to want benefits. That is our challenge, but I am not here this morning to talk to you just about money.
Why Now?
I know many of you are wondering why we are talking about these issues now. Why shouldn’t we wait until our new minister joins us? Very simply, I don’t think we have the time to wait. We have only 5 months left in this all important Interim year and we must use the time wisely. We must start to make changes NOW and not wait until some undefined point in the future. There are at least two reasons. The first is that, as Kitsy will tell you, any minister new to a congregation will spend the first year of their ministry just getting to know the congregation and letting the congregation get to know them; establishing a foundation of trust; not making any sudden changes or moves. But if the congregation is already in the process of growth and change; if, as Will says, “The train has already left the station, then the new minister will be able to just hop on board.” We cannot wait yet another year to start to meet our challenges. We must start now. We must get this train moving out of the station NOW.
The second reason is that we must not be a “minister-centric” church. That is not a healthy model. We have been in the past and we have seen the results. Members have become so tied to the minister and not the community that when the minister leaves, they leave as well. We must instead become a “mission-focused” church. To that end, the Governing Board has created a provisional Mission Statement for First Parish that I am pleased to present to you this morning:
At First Parish Unitarian Universalist church we are called to:
Grow in Spirit;
Nurture Community and
Help Heal the World
We aimed for simple, simple enough for our youngest to remember. I like this mission. It is a mission I can sink my teeth into and it gives us a place to start. Not perfect but pithy and deep. As a mission focused church, we are not waiting for one person to rescue us, to save us or to fix our problems. We can and will do that for ourselves. As Will likes to remind me, “A good minister gets out of a congregations way.”
Rev. Peter Morales, the new President of the UUA, wrote about this very issue in his first editorial for the UUA World magazine in September. If you have not read it, please do so. You can find it easily on-line. He wrote that in order for the denomination to survive we must fundamentally “rethink how we do church.” That was his challenge to us. To fundamentally rethink we do church. It is our great challenge.
A Walk in the Forest
If you will indulge me, I would like to place us all metaphorically in the forest. We are on a path in the woods. The path is wide, well marked and well traveled. We can clearly see where we are, where we have come from and where we are headed. The path is easy to walk. It is safe, well lit and above all else, it is comfortable. We know this path. But if we continue to walk this path we are going to have to make some hard financial choices in the near future. 90% of our budget is comprised of staff salaries and when we have to make cuts in the budget in the future those cuts will be made from staff. Now, this is not necessarily a bad thing. If we choose to cut the position of Office Facilitator then we would have an office run by volunteers. Many churches do it and do it well. We may choose to cut the position of Music Director and have a choir led music program. Certainly our choir is up to the challenge based on the wonderful music we were blessed with during Summer Services. Again, not a bad choice. Or we may choose to go without a DRE and have a completely parent run RE program. Many churches do it and do it well. One final possible choice is that we decide we cannot afford to pay for a minister. We would have either part-time ministerial coverage or become a completely lay led congregation. Not a bad choice. Many churches in the UUA are lay led and the congregations are vibrant and healthy. Allison comes from a lay led congregation and she can speak to the advantages of this choice. I am not trying to scare any of you but I do want to make it very clear that if we continue to walk the safe, comfortable path we are on then we are going to need to make some hard choices in the future. I want us to make those choices with our eyes open.
A Vision of Hope
But there is another path. It would require us to make a turn off of the beaten track onto a path that is less well marked. A road less traveled, if you will. This path is harder to walk. It is at times dark and scary. It is filled with obstacles that we may be required to go over or around. We may become lost at times but I have faith that we will find our way back onto the trail. This path is going to make many of us uncomfortable. It is the path of Intentional Dynamic Growth. No, not just growth for the sake of growth; because this path has a bright, shining light at its end that is guiding us, leading us on. This bright, shining light is a Vision for First Parish of Abundance. A vision of abundance! You can plug in any word or words that work for you but I like: Abundant love. Abundant membership. Abundant fun. Abundant fellowship. Abundant money. Abundant folks in the pews on Sunday morning. Abundant hands to service. A future of Abundance. And if we choose to walk this less traveled road and if we become frightened and uncomfortable we can turn to each other for comfort. Because we would not be alone. I believe that we can reach that future of abundance for First Parish if we bring our collective passion, creativity and above all, courage to this challenge. Together, with the congregation will powering the train, we can travel very far indeed.
Thank you.
By Ashley Lasbury, President
These spoken remarks were made to a group of 55 or so of the most active members of First Parish on the morning of January 9th. Now is the time to widen the focus and share my concerns and vision of our future with the entire congregation. After presentations by Kitsy, Will and myself, the larger group broke into small “passion groups” to generate edgy, creative ideas to rethink “how we do church”. Those ideas will be shared in the near future. Again, my presentation was spoken and I have written it as it was delivered. Peace.
I refuse to lead a dying church! I. Refuse. To. Lead. A. Dying. Church! Anna, our VP, refuses to lead a dying church. Val, Brownie and Stephanie refuse to lead a dying church. The entire Governing Board of First Parish refuses to lead a dying church and it is my hope that by the end of the morning you will refuse to be members of a dying church. I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church is the title of a book by Paul Nixon that most of the leadership has read or is in the process of reading. Long before I heard of the book, those words summed up what was in my heart. You were invited here this morning because in church-speak you are “stakeholders” of First Parish, the backbone and beating heart of our community. And I don’t know about you but I am tired of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
Straight Talk
My remarks this morning are a combination of John McCain’s Straight Talk and Obama’s Vision of Hope. First the Straight Talk. As a community, First Parish is healthy. The information from the cottage meetings clearly indicates that we are a healthy congregation and we are optimistic about our future. Just walk into coffee hour any Sunday and you can’t help but feel the vitality and energy swirling in the air! But the institution is not so healthy. I maintain that the institution may not be sustainable in its current form for very much longer. Our numbers are in decline. This is not just our reality but is challenge being faced at the association level as well. Unitarian Universalist churches have been in decline since the early 70’s. This trend is affecting main line Protestant churches across the country. Right here in our city the church building on Chestnut Street has become a restaurant. Another is deciding whether it can afford to keep its doors open for much longer. Since our high water mark in the early 90’s when First Parish was the fastest growing mid-sized congregation in the UUA, our numbers have slowly declined. Membership is down, church attendance is down and pledge income is down.
One of the inconvenient truths I wanted to speak to you about this morning is money. During the last budget year the leadership had to cut $40,000 out of our budget. We have taken a pledge not to dip into the endowment; that is a path to certain ruin. We also vowed to create a realistic budget, not one based on the hope that an “angel” would swoop down and pull our collective nuts out of the fire. So we cut $40,000. $20,000 of it was hard; the other $20,000 was easy as our interim ministers do not require us to pay them benefits. If you have not thanked Will and Kitsy you may want to consider doing so. We are getting top-notch Interim Ministerial guidance for very little money. In a few months when it comes time to create the 2010/2011 church budget the leadership will have to build back in that $20,000 as you can be sure that our new minister is going to want benefits. That is our challenge, but I am not here this morning to talk to you just about money.
Why Now?
I know many of you are wondering why we are talking about these issues now. Why shouldn’t we wait until our new minister joins us? Very simply, I don’t think we have the time to wait. We have only 5 months left in this all important Interim year and we must use the time wisely. We must start to make changes NOW and not wait until some undefined point in the future. There are at least two reasons. The first is that, as Kitsy will tell you, any minister new to a congregation will spend the first year of their ministry just getting to know the congregation and letting the congregation get to know them; establishing a foundation of trust; not making any sudden changes or moves. But if the congregation is already in the process of growth and change; if, as Will says, “The train has already left the station, then the new minister will be able to just hop on board.” We cannot wait yet another year to start to meet our challenges. We must start now. We must get this train moving out of the station NOW.
The second reason is that we must not be a “minister-centric” church. That is not a healthy model. We have been in the past and we have seen the results. Members have become so tied to the minister and not the community that when the minister leaves, they leave as well. We must instead become a “mission-focused” church. To that end, the Governing Board has created a provisional Mission Statement for First Parish that I am pleased to present to you this morning:
At First Parish Unitarian Universalist church we are called to:
Grow in Spirit;
Nurture Community and
Help Heal the World
We aimed for simple, simple enough for our youngest to remember. I like this mission. It is a mission I can sink my teeth into and it gives us a place to start. Not perfect but pithy and deep. As a mission focused church, we are not waiting for one person to rescue us, to save us or to fix our problems. We can and will do that for ourselves. As Will likes to remind me, “A good minister gets out of a congregations way.”
Rev. Peter Morales, the new President of the UUA, wrote about this very issue in his first editorial for the UUA World magazine in September. If you have not read it, please do so. You can find it easily on-line. He wrote that in order for the denomination to survive we must fundamentally “rethink how we do church.” That was his challenge to us. To fundamentally rethink we do church. It is our great challenge.
A Walk in the Forest
If you will indulge me, I would like to place us all metaphorically in the forest. We are on a path in the woods. The path is wide, well marked and well traveled. We can clearly see where we are, where we have come from and where we are headed. The path is easy to walk. It is safe, well lit and above all else, it is comfortable. We know this path. But if we continue to walk this path we are going to have to make some hard financial choices in the near future. 90% of our budget is comprised of staff salaries and when we have to make cuts in the budget in the future those cuts will be made from staff. Now, this is not necessarily a bad thing. If we choose to cut the position of Office Facilitator then we would have an office run by volunteers. Many churches do it and do it well. We may choose to cut the position of Music Director and have a choir led music program. Certainly our choir is up to the challenge based on the wonderful music we were blessed with during Summer Services. Again, not a bad choice. Or we may choose to go without a DRE and have a completely parent run RE program. Many churches do it and do it well. One final possible choice is that we decide we cannot afford to pay for a minister. We would have either part-time ministerial coverage or become a completely lay led congregation. Not a bad choice. Many churches in the UUA are lay led and the congregations are vibrant and healthy. Allison comes from a lay led congregation and she can speak to the advantages of this choice. I am not trying to scare any of you but I do want to make it very clear that if we continue to walk the safe, comfortable path we are on then we are going to need to make some hard choices in the future. I want us to make those choices with our eyes open.
A Vision of Hope
But there is another path. It would require us to make a turn off of the beaten track onto a path that is less well marked. A road less traveled, if you will. This path is harder to walk. It is at times dark and scary. It is filled with obstacles that we may be required to go over or around. We may become lost at times but I have faith that we will find our way back onto the trail. This path is going to make many of us uncomfortable. It is the path of Intentional Dynamic Growth. No, not just growth for the sake of growth; because this path has a bright, shining light at its end that is guiding us, leading us on. This bright, shining light is a Vision for First Parish of Abundance. A vision of abundance! You can plug in any word or words that work for you but I like: Abundant love. Abundant membership. Abundant fun. Abundant fellowship. Abundant money. Abundant folks in the pews on Sunday morning. Abundant hands to service. A future of Abundance. And if we choose to walk this less traveled road and if we become frightened and uncomfortable we can turn to each other for comfort. Because we would not be alone. I believe that we can reach that future of abundance for First Parish if we bring our collective passion, creativity and above all, courage to this challenge. Together, with the congregation will powering the train, we can travel very far indeed.
Thank you.
Teenage Angst
One Woman’s Perspective
By Ashley Lasbury, President
One of the challenges of raising teenagers is what I am calling “Parental Idiot Syndrome”. One moment you are the font of all wisdom and the next you know nothing. One moment you are asked to explain why the sky is blue and where the birds go in the winter and the next you are deemed clueless. It is shocking and funny at the same time. Going hand and hand with P.I.S. is an inability to suggest anything to a teenager without getting an eye roll and attitude. Add to that the fact that they are ego driven; that they tend to believe that the world revolves around them. Is it any wonder parents are eager to kick the chicks out of the nest? I know that it will change as they grow into mature adults but that doesn’t make it any easier right now.
First Parish is not a teenage child. First Parish is a faith community filled with like minded people who are wondrously diverse and strong willed. Yet there is a bit of the teenager in us all. If we haven’t thought of it ourselves then we might balk at sage advice. Especially if we do not perceive that we have a problem. Well, I do see that we have a problem. We are members of a congregation who’s numbers are in decline. This is a reality that is being faced by the entire denomination not just here at First Parish. There is only one path to an abundant future for our community: we must grow our church.
One of the easiest ways to grow a church is visitor retention. Makes sense, doesn’t it? If more of the people who choose to visit us each Sunday return the next Sunday then that increases the likelihood that they will keep on coming. If we help them connect and put down roots, if we help them to find their ministries then they will keep on coming. And the easiest path to visitor retention is if all of the active members of First Parish change the primary reason they go to church from worship or fellowship to welcoming and connecting with visitors. Now, don’t get all bent out of shape. I am not suggesting that we paint the Meeting House doors pink. What I am suggesting is that you own our challenge of growth. You know you will be fed during worship. You know that you will experience fellowship and community on Sunday morning. I am not asking you to give those up. I am asking you to change your thinking a bit. If each of us made welcoming and connecting with visitors our primary reason for attending public worship each Sunday we would be well on our way to accomplishing our goal. But if you are thinking in teenage mode you may be thinking to yourself, “Isn’t that someone else’s job?” or “Don’t we have a committee that does that?” or “Someone else can do that. Talking to strangers makes me uncomfortable.” or “I like us just the way we are.” And I, as your loving leader ask you gently and with kindness, to put the teenager aside; to open your minds and spirits; to embrace what is good for the congregation at the possible expense of what your personal desires may be. Acting with one mind and one heart we can grow our congregation together. Peace
To learn more about Intentional Dynamic Growth and where the denomination is now I recommend you watch this 15 minutes 2 part YouTube video: www.youtube.com/user/newUUorg
By Ashley Lasbury, President
One of the challenges of raising teenagers is what I am calling “Parental Idiot Syndrome”. One moment you are the font of all wisdom and the next you know nothing. One moment you are asked to explain why the sky is blue and where the birds go in the winter and the next you are deemed clueless. It is shocking and funny at the same time. Going hand and hand with P.I.S. is an inability to suggest anything to a teenager without getting an eye roll and attitude. Add to that the fact that they are ego driven; that they tend to believe that the world revolves around them. Is it any wonder parents are eager to kick the chicks out of the nest? I know that it will change as they grow into mature adults but that doesn’t make it any easier right now.
First Parish is not a teenage child. First Parish is a faith community filled with like minded people who are wondrously diverse and strong willed. Yet there is a bit of the teenager in us all. If we haven’t thought of it ourselves then we might balk at sage advice. Especially if we do not perceive that we have a problem. Well, I do see that we have a problem. We are members of a congregation who’s numbers are in decline. This is a reality that is being faced by the entire denomination not just here at First Parish. There is only one path to an abundant future for our community: we must grow our church.
One of the easiest ways to grow a church is visitor retention. Makes sense, doesn’t it? If more of the people who choose to visit us each Sunday return the next Sunday then that increases the likelihood that they will keep on coming. If we help them connect and put down roots, if we help them to find their ministries then they will keep on coming. And the easiest path to visitor retention is if all of the active members of First Parish change the primary reason they go to church from worship or fellowship to welcoming and connecting with visitors. Now, don’t get all bent out of shape. I am not suggesting that we paint the Meeting House doors pink. What I am suggesting is that you own our challenge of growth. You know you will be fed during worship. You know that you will experience fellowship and community on Sunday morning. I am not asking you to give those up. I am asking you to change your thinking a bit. If each of us made welcoming and connecting with visitors our primary reason for attending public worship each Sunday we would be well on our way to accomplishing our goal. But if you are thinking in teenage mode you may be thinking to yourself, “Isn’t that someone else’s job?” or “Don’t we have a committee that does that?” or “Someone else can do that. Talking to strangers makes me uncomfortable.” or “I like us just the way we are.” And I, as your loving leader ask you gently and with kindness, to put the teenager aside; to open your minds and spirits; to embrace what is good for the congregation at the possible expense of what your personal desires may be. Acting with one mind and one heart we can grow our congregation together. Peace
To learn more about Intentional Dynamic Growth and where the denomination is now I recommend you watch this 15 minutes 2 part YouTube video: www.youtube.com/user/newUUorg
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Sausage and Tortellini Group Soup
1 pound sweet or hot Italian sausage (out of the casings)
1 cup chopped onions
2 garlic gloves, minced or pressed
1 can diced tomatoes with juices
1/2 diced red pepper
1 stick celery, diced
1 large carrot, sliced
5-7 cups beef broth (I use Swanson's 50% less sodium beef broth)
1 TBS dried basil
1 TBS dried oregano
8-10 ounces fresh cheese tortellini
1 bag baby spinach
Saute sausage in large soup pot over medium high heat until cooked through, crumbling with the back of spoon, about 10 minutes. Transfer with slotted spoon to a bowl reserving drippings. Add enough olive oil, if needed, to make 1 TBS in bottom of pot. Saute onions and garlic until onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. Add vegetables, sausage, tomatoes, beef stock and herbs to pot and simmer for 40 minutes or until veggies are soft. Salt to taste.
10 minutes before serving add tortellini to simmering soup. 2 minutes before serving stir in the spinach. Serve with Parmesan cheese (optional). If soup becomes too thick add more broth or water.
6 servings
Enjoy.
1 cup chopped onions
2 garlic gloves, minced or pressed
1 can diced tomatoes with juices
1/2 diced red pepper
1 stick celery, diced
1 large carrot, sliced
5-7 cups beef broth (I use Swanson's 50% less sodium beef broth)
1 TBS dried basil
1 TBS dried oregano
8-10 ounces fresh cheese tortellini
1 bag baby spinach
Saute sausage in large soup pot over medium high heat until cooked through, crumbling with the back of spoon, about 10 minutes. Transfer with slotted spoon to a bowl reserving drippings. Add enough olive oil, if needed, to make 1 TBS in bottom of pot. Saute onions and garlic until onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. Add vegetables, sausage, tomatoes, beef stock and herbs to pot and simmer for 40 minutes or until veggies are soft. Salt to taste.
10 minutes before serving add tortellini to simmering soup. 2 minutes before serving stir in the spinach. Serve with Parmesan cheese (optional). If soup becomes too thick add more broth or water.
6 servings
Enjoy.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Living a Story Worth Telling
Both the Mexican tradition of El Dia de los Muertos and the Celtic tradition of Samhain can be traced back thousands of years. Both ancient cultures believed that at this time of year, when the harvest had been gathered and the dark is replacing the light, that the veil between the living and the dead becomes thin. As we have heard, Mexican families gather at their loved ones gravesides, spread blankets out on the ground, eat a meal together and tell stories. It is through those stories that beloved mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters and children are made real again. Those stories are living memory.
I love stories. I love telling them and love sitting and listening to a story well told. My grandmother, Cece, was a story teller. Her full name was Cecelia Chase Lasbury but I called her Gran. Gran filled my childhood with stories of her youth and of my ancestors. She was a powerful woman, my grandmother. Tall, elegant and strong willed. She taught me many important life lessons: not to chew gum in public (I looked like a cow chewing my cud), which fork to use when there was more then one in front of me and that a well bred lady never needed to resort to profanity in order to express herself. And she taught me not to make important life choices based on fear. One of my favorite stories of my grandmother happened when I was a teenager and we were traveling together in England. We were waking down a street in a small English village when she spied a garden she admired over a fence. Before I knew what was happening she had walked through the fence gate and asked me to take a picture of a bush she liked so that she could show it to her gardener in Camden. I was mortified. I was also sure that we were going to be arrested at any moment. Instead, due to her charm, we were invited in for tea. By sharing this story with you this morning, by speaking her name out loud, I have brought my grandmother into the room with us. The veil between the living and the dead can be made thin at any time of the year when we tell their stories. Gran’s spirit lives on within my family whenever I tell her stories.
But what happens when we do not tell the stories? When evoking a name or a memory causes such pain that we hesitate to speak? My sister died when I was nine and she was 5. As you can well imagine, my parents were devastated. As a child, I soon came to understand that it was not O.K. to talk about Katie. To this day, my mother prefers not to talk about my sister. This silence has meant that her stories have passed from living memory. When we shy away from speaking of a dead loved one because it is uncomfortable or we are told not to tell the stories, something essential is lost.
What does this mean to all of us this morning? I think a good sermon or homily should give us something to chew on. It challenges us to live better lives. Here is my question: What stories do you want to be told about you after you are dead and gone? What stories will my darling children and their children tell about me when I am gone? Will you tell the story about the time that I forgot your sister’s birthday? Or when I set the oven on fire cooking Joshua’s birthday brisket? Or when the police came to the house when we were having the minister over to dinner because two of my children, who shall remain nameless, were hanging out of the upstairs bedroom window yelling to passerby’s that they had been kidnapped and were being tortured? Yes, those stories will be told but the part that I want to be remembered are the choices that I made. That I chose to laugh and not to yell. That I lived with humor and joy and love. That is the essence of my spirit that I want those stories to contain. So my question for you is this: Are you living a story worth telling? And how do you want that story to be told?
Thursday, October 15, 2009
November Stone Soup
This afternoon I had the most extraordinary experience. I sat in the familiar pews of First Parish surrounded by over 600 people from all over the State of Maine who had come to an interfaith rally and service against discrimination. The Meeting House was packed with folk who were old and young, gay and straight, rich and poor and all of the colors of the rainbow. Yet in spite of the diversity we were united in purpose; that Maine be the first state to uphold the right of all people to marry. Catholics and Lutherans, UUs and Jews, Episcopalians and Congregationalists affirmed with one strong voice that Love was the only path. Love is the way we heal our world. Love is always worth striving for in the end.
The rally and the upcoming vote are personal for me. My eldest daughter fell in love 2 years ago with a lovely person. He is intersexual. He loves my daughter and treats her with dignity and respect. To be honest, I would not have picked this path for my beloved child as it will be a hard path to walk in the years to come. But we do not get to pick who our children will love. All we can hope for is that the relationship is healthy and nurturing to all concerned. And even though their path will be hard, it will be less so if Prop 1 is voted down. And when they marry, as they plan to do at some point in the future, they will be able to do so with all of the legal safeguards our government has to offer.
And I will dance with joy at their wedding.
Peace
The rally and the upcoming vote are personal for me. My eldest daughter fell in love 2 years ago with a lovely person. He is intersexual. He loves my daughter and treats her with dignity and respect. To be honest, I would not have picked this path for my beloved child as it will be a hard path to walk in the years to come. But we do not get to pick who our children will love. All we can hope for is that the relationship is healthy and nurturing to all concerned. And even though their path will be hard, it will be less so if Prop 1 is voted down. And when they marry, as they plan to do at some point in the future, they will be able to do so with all of the legal safeguards our government has to offer.
And I will dance with joy at their wedding.
Peace
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Stuck in my Shoes
It's happened before and it will happen again. The lure of an open microphone and a captive audience will prove to be too much of a temptation to a person with an agenda. This morning was one of those occasions. I noticed her as I was standing by the side of the lectern listening to the first announcement. I know all of the members of the congregation by face, if not by name. The well dressed woman who marched up and stood at the back of the announcement line was a stranger to me. As discretely as possible I walked down to stand by her side. I asked her in a whisper if her announcement pertained to the life of the congregation. She answered in the affirmative but would not meet my eyes. Her manner was tense and purposeful. If I had gone even one step further and asked her what the announcement was, the situation might have been averted.
She walked up to the lectern and started speaking. At once I knew that I had made a mistake. The woman was clearly angry at everyone; a member of the congregation whom she named but whom I did not recognize, her custody situation, life in general. As she continued to rant she frequently looked over in my direction as if she were waiting for me to stop her. Kitsy stood up shortly after she had started to speak but was as hesitant as I was to interrupt. So the rant continued. I was in turn horrified and transfixed. Stuck in my shoes. Finally, a member of the congregation came down from the choir loft and whispered in my ear that it was time to act. She and I approached the lectern together and we gently each took an arm and assisted her from the chancel area. As she walked down the center aisle and out the doors she continued to speak her truth in a loud and clear voice.
It was then that I heard it. Voices from the congregation. I did not hear any of the exact words that were spoken to her as she walked from the church but I do remembered the tone and it was harsh. I was shocked.
As this day has worn on I keep coming back to the incident. I am troubled and confused. When we open our doors each Sunday morning we claim to welcome any and all who choose to join us. Does that include the mentally ill? Does it include the stranger who has an axe to grind? The woman was not a danger to the congregation but where is the line? Do we have an obligation to let anyone say anything they wish, whether it be during announcements or Joys and Sorrows? She could have easily taken the microphone during Joys and Sorrows. Who decides that the content is not appropriate? The minister? The worship leader? The Head Usher? And then what? Where is that line between compassion for the speaker and the sanctity of the worship service? If I had been less kind, less trusting, less hopeful that she would finish at any moment, would the outcome have been different? If the choir member had not come down and taken the initiative would she have spoken for another 10 minutes?
The most troubling question of all for me: why were angry voices raised in response as she left the Meeting House? Yes, she should not have acted as she did but what of compassion? I have felt the same level of anger, the despair and the deep, deep frustration at a world that did not feel fair or just. I have walked in her shoes. As a faith community what do we owe the wounded, troubled souls in our midst? Why did I not follow her out of the meeting house and ask if she needed help? I have none of the answers only many, many questions.
Peace.
She walked up to the lectern and started speaking. At once I knew that I had made a mistake. The woman was clearly angry at everyone; a member of the congregation whom she named but whom I did not recognize, her custody situation, life in general. As she continued to rant she frequently looked over in my direction as if she were waiting for me to stop her. Kitsy stood up shortly after she had started to speak but was as hesitant as I was to interrupt. So the rant continued. I was in turn horrified and transfixed. Stuck in my shoes. Finally, a member of the congregation came down from the choir loft and whispered in my ear that it was time to act. She and I approached the lectern together and we gently each took an arm and assisted her from the chancel area. As she walked down the center aisle and out the doors she continued to speak her truth in a loud and clear voice.
It was then that I heard it. Voices from the congregation. I did not hear any of the exact words that were spoken to her as she walked from the church but I do remembered the tone and it was harsh. I was shocked.
As this day has worn on I keep coming back to the incident. I am troubled and confused. When we open our doors each Sunday morning we claim to welcome any and all who choose to join us. Does that include the mentally ill? Does it include the stranger who has an axe to grind? The woman was not a danger to the congregation but where is the line? Do we have an obligation to let anyone say anything they wish, whether it be during announcements or Joys and Sorrows? She could have easily taken the microphone during Joys and Sorrows. Who decides that the content is not appropriate? The minister? The worship leader? The Head Usher? And then what? Where is that line between compassion for the speaker and the sanctity of the worship service? If I had been less kind, less trusting, less hopeful that she would finish at any moment, would the outcome have been different? If the choir member had not come down and taken the initiative would she have spoken for another 10 minutes?
The most troubling question of all for me: why were angry voices raised in response as she left the Meeting House? Yes, she should not have acted as she did but what of compassion? I have felt the same level of anger, the despair and the deep, deep frustration at a world that did not feel fair or just. I have walked in her shoes. As a faith community what do we owe the wounded, troubled souls in our midst? Why did I not follow her out of the meeting house and ask if she needed help? I have none of the answers only many, many questions.
Peace.
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