• Home
  • rainbow flagA Welcoming Congregation
  • Safe Congregation SealKeeping Safe
  • Capital Campaign
  • DONATE/REALM
  • TUCWomen
    • About TUCWomen
    • Join Us
    • Events
    • Contact
  • Contact
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

The Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Westport

10 Lyons Plains Rd., Westport, CT 06880 - Ph: (203)227-7205 Sunday Services: 10:00 AM

Unitarian Universalist Association
  • Calendar
    • Calendar
    • SOUNDINGS
    • Communications Guidelines
    • ZOOM Instructions
    • Tips For Making Videos
    • Event & Space Reservations
    • TUUCWSocial Email List Ground Rules
  • Welcome Visitors
    • UU Orientation
    • Directions & Services
    • Special Ceremonies & Dedications
    • Our Congregational History
    • Our Faith
    • What is a Unitarian Universalist?
    • We are Unitarian Universalists
    • How did you become a Unitarian Universalist?
    • History of the Flaming Chalice
    • UU History in 8 Minutes
  • About Us
    • Our Mission Statement
    • Our Vision Statement
    • About Our Ministers
    • Committee on Ministry
    • Our Staff
    • Getting Involved
    • Board of Trustees
    • Governance
    • Healing and Resilience Task Force
    • Congregant Celebration
    • Pastoral Care Chaplains
    • The Caring Support Network
    • Our Welcoming Congregation
    • Photo & Video Galleries
    • Links – Beyond Our Walls
    • SOUNDINGS
    • Communications Guidelines
    • Events & Space Reservations
    • Pledging
  • Faith Formation
    • Welcome to Faith Formation at TUUCW
    • Faith Formation for Children and Youth 2023-24
    • This Week in Family Faith Formation
    • Faith Formation Programs 2023-24
    • Faith Formation Registration
    • Adult Faith Formation
    • Soul Matters
    • Keeping Safe
  • Social Justice
    • Welcome to Social Justice
    • Advocates for Prevention of Gun Violence
    • Beardsley School Committee
    • Immigration and Refugee Committee
    • KIVA Microfinance Committee
    • Racial Justice Committee
    • Westbridge Coalition
  • Music Program
    • Our Minister of Music
    • The Music Committee
    • The Bell Choir
    • The Choir (Women and Men)
    • Special Projects Choir
    • Once & Again Singers
    • Children’s Choir
    • Teen Choir
    • Sight-singing Classes
    • Cabaret
    • Voice Classes
    • Love Is the Spirit
    • Tune My Heart To Sing
    • Support Our Music Program
  • Sermons & Poetry
    • Minister’s Messages
    • Sermons – Audio
    • Sermons – Video
    • Rev. John T. Morehouse’s sermons
    • From Your Senior Minister: Facing Grace
    • Facing Grace – Rev. John’s blog
    • Rev. Frank Hall, Minister Emeritus – sermons
    • Rev. Frank Hall, Minister Emeritus – Dear Friends
    • Intern Minister’s sermons
    • Guest Minister’s sermons
    • Poetry & Readings
    • Communications from Your Ministers
  • Live Stream

Dear Friends – February 28, 2011

May 1, 2011 by Rev. Frank Hall - Minister Emeritus

Dear Friends,

For the past twelve years Randy Cohen has written a column in the New York Times Sunday Magazine called The Ethicist.

Last Sunday he wrote his 614th piece to say Goodbye. I was sorry to read that he will no longer be responding to the moral dilemmas presented to him by folks from all walks of life. It was a one-page piece, usually there were two situations presented. He offered serious, thoughtful responses, with alight touch. He had a well-balanced sense of humor.

He wrote, “I came to see that what readers often sought was not a ruling on what to do – they seemed to know – but an argument for why to do it.” He said that his approach to the column and in his personal life was ‘resolutely secular,’ not religious. I found it secular humanistic, which gives it a religious flavor, at least in the generic sense of what religion really is.

His column had a down-to-earth touch with questions like, “May you move to high-priced unoccupied seats at a ball game; must you warn an observant Jewish in-law that, contrary to what he supposes, the soup heʼs about to eat is not kosher? May you pocket lots of motel soap and donate it to the homeless?”

“Modest problems, perhaps, but when dissected they revealed much about power, money, race, class,gender, the mutual obligations and unspoken assumptions that connect us.”

He says, “I wasnʼt hired to personify virtue, to be a role model for the kids, but to write about virtue in a way readers might find engaging.” He adds, “What spending my workday thinking about ethics did do was make me acutely conscious of my own transgressions, of the times I fell short.” See what I mean about bridging the gap between a religious confession and a simple, matter-of-fact secular comment?

The column itself, aside from what he might say, offered a reminder that we make decisions every day and whether we’re conscious of it or not we are guided in the decision-making process by an underlying sense of morality, which is at once highly personal and at the same time part of a larger social structure.

I hope the Times will keep the column, but after twelve years it wasn’t simply another column but it was uniquely him. Sure, someone else can do it – and I hope they will – but I’ll miss his special touch – his private brand of humor and willingness to be vulnerable.

I was glad to learn that he’s working on a new program for public radio, “A Question of Ethics.” We’ll be hearing, rather than reading him.  For me his departure will leave an empty space in my Sunday Times magazine.

Now I invite you to turn this page over and read a couple of old, familiar poems that contain little hints about our ethical lives, about the decision-making process and what’s behind those little, day-to-day decisions – the expressed or implied promises we’ve made and are determined to keep, as best we can.

Yours,

Frank

Filed Under: Dear Friends Tagged With: Dear Friends, Rev. Frank Hall

SEARCH

Categories

  • Events
    • Announcements
  • Interdependent Web
  • Minister's Message
  • Order of Service
  • Readings
  • Sermons
    • From Your Senior Minister: Facing Grace
    • Guest Minister's sermons
    • In The Interim
    • Intern Minister's Sermons
    • Minister's Message
    • Rev. Frank Hall, Minister Emeritus
      • chautauqua
      • Dear Friends
      • Rev. Frank Hall's sermons
    • Rev. John T. Morehouse's sermons
    • Rev. Shelly Thompson, Assistant Minister for Faith Formation
  • This Week at Church
  • TUCWomen Blog
  • Uncategorized
    • Uncategorised
  • Upcoming Sermons
  • Minister’s Messages
  • Sermons – Audio
  • Sermons – Video
  • Rev. John T. Morehouse’s sermons
  • From Your Senior Minister: Facing Grace
  • Facing Grace – Rev. John’s blog
  • Rev. Frank Hall, Minister Emeritus – sermons
  • Rev. Frank Hall, Minister Emeritus – Dear Friends
  • Intern Minister’s sermons
  • Guest Minister’s sermons
  • Readings & Poetry
  • Communications from Your Ministers

     The Unitarian Universalist
     Congregation in Westport
     is a member congregation of the
     Unitarian Universalist Association

      CLICK HERE if you have any questions      about The Unitarian Universalist
    Congregation in Westport

Congregational Hours: Tuesday - Friday
9:30 AM to 4:00 PM

Summer Hours:
July & August until after Labor Day:
Tuesday - Friday 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM

CLICK HERE to contact the web master

CLICK HERE to opt in to receive
the Weekly Congregational Email Blast

Membership Directory June 2023

Copyright © 2023 · Visit us at The Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Westport - 10 Lyons Plains Rd., Westport, CT 06880 - All rights reserved.