Dear Members and Friends,
This evening, Rosh Hashanah begins, launching the Jewish High Holy Days. It is the most spiritually rich time for the Jewish faithful as they are called to reflect on where they have fallen short of their values and what relationships are in need of repair. I take these days to reflect on forgiveness and These Days of Awe, as they are known, as they don’t celebrate a person, event, or season. Instead, they celebrate the human capacity to change and grow.
This year I won’t be preaching on the Sunday that falls during this spiritually rich time. For this is the Sunday that Rev. Dr. Terasa Cooley can be with us. She was supposed to be with us last spring. She will preach on “The Blessings of Shared Leadership.” Our liturgy will engage the wisdom of the Jewish High Holy Days, including our Antiphon of Atonement. If you come to worship, you will see how engaging and grounded Rev. Cooley is.
Following the service we will enjoy a potluck lunch (don’t worry if you don’t or can’t bring anything; our leadership committees have agreed to ensure we have a spread!)
After lunch, Rev. Cooley will offer a highly acclaimed workshop entitled “The Blessings of Congregational Conflict.” She is now a UU transitional minister and has a career in helping congregations strengthen their skills in engaging conflict openly, creatively, and productively. She is the author of Transforming Conflict: The Blessings of Congregational Turmoil.
It behooves us all if you can make the time to participate in Rev. Terasa Cooley’s workshop on Sunday from noon to 2:30 PM (the last half hour will be for all who want to reflect on the Congregation’s structures). I ask you to do what you can to attend this workshop. If a critical mass of our members and leaders attend, I believe you as a congregation will be on target for getting a settled minister.
Imagine how this Congregation will be strengthened if over 100 members participate together in learning how to:
- identify your individual patterns of dealing with conflict and strategies for adjusting them in healthy directions.
- learn skills in dialogue and “lowering the temperature” of difficult conversations
- analyze the patterns of congregational conflict
- learn tools for having open and creative congregational processes
May the Days of Awe be spiritually meaningful for you, and I look forward to being with you this weekend. I arrive Thursday afternoon and will be with you through Monday early afternoon.
Warmly,
Alan
The Days of Awe Begin with Us by Rev. Debra Hafner
The Days of Awe begin with us tonight.
May the next ten days be days of reflection, introspection, and peace.
May we prepare ourselves for the changes in the year to come.
May it be a good year.
May it be a healthy year.
May it be a year of peace for all of us, all around the globe.
May it be a year of peace within ourselves.
May we live our lives with integrity, service, and love.
May we be blessed with the strength of this community, of our families, of our friends.
May we remember what is truly important in life and may we remember to be grateful every day.
May we all be inscribed another year in the Book of Life.
La Shanah Tovah!
Now is the time for turning by Rabbi Jack Reimer
To everything there is a season,
and there is an appointed time for every purpose under heaven.
Now is the time for turning.
The leaves are beginning to turn
from green to red and orange.
The birds are beginning to turn
to storing their food for the winter.
For leaves, birds, and animals
turning comes instinctively.
But for us turning does not come so easily.
It takes an act of will for us to make a turn.
It means breaking with old habits.
It means admitting that we have been wrong;
and this is never easy.
It means losing face;
it means starting all over again;
and this is always painful.
It means saying: I am sorry.
It means recognizing that we have the ability to change.
These things are hard to do.
But unless we turn,
we will be trapped forever in yesterday’s ways.
God, help us to turn, from callousness to sensitivity,
from hostility to love, from pettiness to purpose,
from envy to contentment, from carelessness to discipline,
from fear to faith.
Turn us around O God, and bring us back toward You.
Revive our lives, as at the beginning, and turn us toward each other,
for in isolation there is no life.
from The Spirituality of Imperfection by Ernest Kurtz and Katherine Ketchum
Once we accept the common denominator of our own imperfection, once we begin to put into practice the belief that imperfection is the reality we have most in common with all other people, then the defenses that deceive us begin to fall away, and we can begin to see ourselves and others as we all really are. … When we accept ourselves in all our weakness, flaws, and failings, we can begin to fulfill an even more challenging responsibility: accepting the weakness, limitations, and mixed-up-ed-ness of those we love and respect. Then and only then, it seems, do we become able to accept the weakness, defects, and shortcomings of those we find it difficult to love.
