Happy New Year!!

Odd to read that in September, I know, but this time of year always feels more like a beginning to me than January ever does. I’ve turned one year older, school has begun, and with school the Unitarian Universalist church year gets underway, as well.

The new year is always a good time to try new things. One of the new things we’ll try this year is a monthly theme for exploration. The themes are broad, and you’ll find them informing worship services in sermons and time for all ages, and even in our music. These themes will be part of the discussions in our covenant circles. If we’re fortunate, these topics will carry over into our conversations outside of the church, as well.

During the month of September, our theme is “vision.” You’re probably wondering why we bother starting with this theme when we spent so much time talking about it during our mission and vision process last year. The answer, quite simply, is now that we have a vision, we need to keep it in the forefront of our congregational consciousness and discover for ourselves how that vision becomes a reality. It’s a worthy exercise for the beginning of a new church year, because a vision, when embraced and followed, can be a powerful tool for change.

I saw one of the greatest examples of this reality in practice at this year’s General Assembly in Minneapolis. Prior to GA, there had been a recommendation by the UUA Board of Trustees to consider withdrawing GA 2012 from Phoenix due to the controversy over the state of Arizona’s new immigration laws. There was much energy, fairly evenly divided, on both the “pro” and “con” sides of the boycott debate. For the record, I was quite publicly against the proposed boycott, and like many others who spoke against the proposal; our opinions were most often based in our own vision of how an effective and justice-seeking denomination behaved (which was not by withdrawing). Those who were in favor of the boycott were concerned for the safety and well being of our Latino/a and Hispanic clergy and laity, as well as for other people of color (and quite rightly so, as I learned in hindsight after my experiences in Phoenix). Neither side had a 100% corner on the market of truth in this situation. Neither side was entirely wrong.

Emotions, however, were high on both sides. In the weeks leading up to GA, there was much vitriol expressed on both sides towards the other in online forums and elsewhere. I was saddened by some of the tone of the dialogue, and truly, I was beginning to dread what I was certain was going to be a terrible fight on the plenary floor in Minneapolis. My expectations would be confounded, for something rather wonderful happened in between the time of the initial arguments, and the arrival of delegates to Minneapolis: there was a mutual realization of what we shared in common in spite of our disagreements.

In several planning sessions long into the night, both the “pro” and “con” sides of the boycott issue got together in the same room and hammered out a new proposal to replace the UUA Board’s recommendation. Both sides of the argument realized that they shared a commitment to protesting the new Arizona laws and engaging with the issues of immigration in more productive ways. We came to an understanding in that week that (1) we could not abandon our brothers and sisters in Arizona who were on the ground 24/7 fighting injustice, pleading with us to come, and (2) a GA in Arizona, in light of what our allies were asking could not be an ordinary GA. “No Business as Usual” became the watchword.

By the end of GA 2010, the delegates had passed a motion to hold a “Justice GA” in Phoenix in 2012, with the minimum necessary business of the Association taken care of, and the rest of our time and resources directed towards social justice projects in Phoenix. In the end, both sides won a little bit—it was neither a boycott, nor a standard GA tone deaf to the needs of the communities within and outside of the UUA. And it was a resolution that was achieved in the end because of vision—a vision of who we are and what we believe in, and not internecine fights over what we are not.

Imagine what it would be like if we approached our disagreements in our congregations in this way, by laying aside differences and searching in earnest together for what it is that we share. This is why vision is so important and why we begin this new church year by keeping our own vision at the forefront of what we do. “We need not think alike to love alike,” has long been the watch-phrase of our living tradition. Sometimes, we forget this sentiment far too easily. It is the world we are building together—how we walk together—that matters most. Our vision is the roadmap.

As we move into our themed exploration this year, I’d like to invite you all to take part in the conversation. I want to hear your own thoughts on the subjects, and not just your responses to my sermons. This month, I present you all with two questions that tie in to the sermons I’ll preach on vision in September:

• What does it mean to celebrate diversity and seek unity in action?
• What does it mean to be a beacon of hope?

Send me an email, write me a letter, or give me a phone call. Tell me what you think the answers are.

I have many people to thank for their help and service over the past several months. If you joined us for any of our Dinner and a Movie nights as part of this summer’s Summer Blockbusters series, you enjoyed some wonderful meals and company. My deepest thanks go to Sherry Hardage, who has coordinated these dinners for the past two summers and has kept them creative and entertaining. My thanks also go out to our other chefs and volunteers who helped make these evenings such a success: Helen Deaven, Janet VanCleave, KokHeong McNaughton, and Felicia Orth.

I also need to say a big “thank you” to Kathy Gursky. Kathy has spent some of her free time over the past several weeks transcribing sermons from the podcasts. Preaching from an outline has meant no texts to share, and I’m very grateful to Kathy for taking the time to help put my words on the written page.

Our Mountain Desert District Assembly will be held from October 8-10 in Salt Lake City, Utah. We are eligible to send four delegates to the assembly. If you have the time and you’re interested in attending, please get in touch with Mike McNaughton, our Denominational Affairs chair, for more information, or visit mdduua.org.

My regular office hours have resumed, Monday-Wednesday, 9 a.m.-3 p.m.

See you in church,
Rev. John Cullinan

I think no one can surpass the eloquence of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. as he delivered his I Have A Dream speech. Even after more than forty years this speech is thrilling to read or hear—it is prophetic, challenging, inspiring, urgent, hopeful and faith-filled.

While reading it, I couldn’t help but think of faith communities and the potential we have to change people’s lives, just as his speech has done. As he questioned America’s promises to all people, as he urged unity of purpose, and as he supported his dream with faith and hope so must all of us do the same for each other and for the world.

We Unitarian Universalists write and talk much of building the beloved community, but the real work to do so is difficult. It requires time, the gift of presence, patience, honesty, empathy, deep listening and accepting that to evolve in heart, mind, and soul takes effort and encouragement. As the children, youth and adult religious education (RE) programs begin on September 12, I hope we can practice the chant I taught to the children who attended the summer camp: “When I breathe in, I breath in peace—when I breathe out, I breathe out love,” a chant that forces us to slow down, be present, and discern what is most important in our lives.

My dream(s) for this year are:

• That all adults know the children and youth by name and have at least one conversation with them
• That great joy and lots of laughter and gratitude will be apparent in our inter-generational services
• That our children and youth will participate in meaningful social justice activities
• That children, youth, and adults will support and mentor each other to greater spiritual depth and practice
• That the church will find the perfect DRE
• That church work will be thought of as holy and sacred work

It is delightful to welcome our children and youth back to RE classes and all the adults who will challenge, inspire and mentor them. This year’s teachers are Nancy Tenbrink*, Lorraine Whalen*, Suzette Williams*, Rebecca Howard, Susan Mendel, Elizabeth Watson, Mike Begnaud, Kimberly Peterson, Steve Tenbrink, Kristine Coblentz*, Warren Houghteling*, and Gordon Keating. (*Returning teachers from last year—thanks!!)

It’s also delightful to welcome Theresa Cull as the new RE chair this year. I’m grateful for the RE committee members who’ve agreed to stay on the committee for one more year: Mark Peterson, Jim Cooley, Kay Ulrich, Tara Adams, and Elizabeth Watson. We will miss Amber Ripoll’s contributions on last year’s committee.

I’m more than pleased to have Pam Risley, Danise Begnaud, Mike Adams, Connor Schultz, and Cameron Van Cleave agree to join the new Youth-Adult Committee, which will focus only on the youth program (7-12^th grades).

You Need to Know

1. RE classes start on September 12 from 10-11 a.m. for preschool-8^th grade. High school meets from 11-noon.
2. The Children and Youth Safety Policy was ratified by the Board and is now in effect. You can view the policy on the church website (under Religious Exploration). I hope all church members will become familiar with the policy and support it.
3. Children and youth are welcome to sit with their parents at each service for the first 20 minutes or through Time for All Ages. Childcare will be provided after they leave the service in the Assembly Room or on the playground.
4. OWL sexuality education classes will meet on most Sundays (see church calendar) from 4:30-8 p.m. from August 29-Nov. 14. This is a closed group.

The church summer camp was so fun for me (and I think the kids). Many thanks to Susie Schillaci, Elizabeth Watson, Robyn Schultz, Kristine Coblentz, Tamara McMahon, Stephanie Richard, Susan Mendel, Kimberly Peterson, Tara Adams, Monica Thompson, Kristen Dors, and Petra McDowell. 6-7^th grade helpers (who were superb!!) included Rowan Cantua, Donnie Thompson, Kai Coblentz, Drake Terrill, Theodore Peterson, Nica Vasquez, and Rory Cooley. With 24 younger kids this was a group effort to keep kids safe, included and cared for.

See you soon,
Benette Sherman
Interim Director of Religious Exploration

Like other churches, the Unitarian Church tends to attract a group of people who are fairly homogeneous in their beliefs and ideals. It might be tempting to believe that all of our members and friends share the same thoughts and ideas.

Making this assumption can be a mistake.  Three examples:

1) Many years ago I was attending one of our dinners and found myself trying to explain our Church to a visitor. I summed it up by saying “all the members are either atheists or agnostics.” A longer-term member than I, now deceased, was sitting across from me. She looked at me sharply and said, “I beg your pardon!” It was a valuable lesson in diversity for me that I have never forgotten.

2) At General Assembly this year, I sat down for lunch with a group of attendees I didn’t know. When I introduced myself and indicated that I was from Los Alamos, one of the women said something to the effect of “well that must be very interesting being a UU in that town.” Another indicated to me that he had attended several protests here. When I tried to explain to them that many of us who worked in the field of nuclear weapons felt we were doing our part to maintain peace, they tuned me out, got up, and walked away. I suspect that there are many within our community who would also disagree with me on this subject.

3) Finally, at a recent activity, I overheard a member make the statement that our Church had only one Republican. Maybe not; I can think of a few more (including myself) who, while possibly not card-carrying Republicans, tend to lean somewhat more to the right than the majority of our members.

As I said, we are not totally homogenous. Thinking we are, and more importantly, deciding that someone who does not believe as we do is beyond the pale, can lead to some of our members or friends not participating in all aspects of our community or worse, leaving it completely. For a couple of months a few years back, I tried other churches in Los Alamos. I finally decided that I could only be a part of this Church, and that our community was too important for me to leave.

I truly believe that all our members and friends try hard, in their own way, to follow our Seven Principles. But what I come up with inside my own personal belief system probably is different from what you do. And that’s OK. In the long run, true diversity, in all aspects, will strengthen our community.

Board Doings

At our meeting on August 18, the Board approved the Charge to the Architect that many of you have been working on. It is a well thought out and well written document that shows where we want to go, philosophically and practically, with our new building. It is also the next important step for this project. I commend all that worked on the document.

In other business we approved the purchase of new computer and phone equipment to replace some that were recently zapped by lightning, and money

to buy some needed cooking equipment for the kitchen. The latter is funded out of part of the funds earned during the “Dinner and a Movie” nights. Thanks goes to all those who made this series possible.

Dean Carstens
2010-2011 Church President

At the 2010 General Assembly in Minneapolis, delegates voted for “Immigration as a Moral Issue” for the congregational study action issue (CSAI) for 2010-2014. For more information about the background and focus of this CSAI, please visit the UUA’s Commission on Social Witness website at http://www.uua.org/socialjustice/issuesprocess/.

As such, the focus of our church’s denominational affairs email list denom@uulosalamos.org will be switching from Ethical Eating (the last CSAI) to this one. You can subscribe to this email list and receive announcements, articles of interest, updates, and proposed congregational action plans (like a book discussion, for example), by sending an email to majordomo@uulosalamos.org with a simple command in the body of text: subscribe denom.

If you are already subscribed and would like to remove yourself, you can do the same but with a different command line: unsubscribe denom.

The delegates also voted on the proposed business resolution to hold the first Social Justice General Assembly in Phoenix in 2012 instead of a regular General Assembly. There has been strong support to hold General Assembly every other year instead of annually, so this resolution could well be moving us into that direction.

Rev. John and I answered the call to action for a demonstration on July 29^th in Phoenix to protest SB1070. We’ll have more to share with you during the Sunday morning service on August 29^th.  Some of our General Assembly delegates will be presenting a report during the Forum hour on Ingathering Sunday, September 12^th. They will also have more to say about denominational affairs.