Monthly Archives: December 2011

Notes from Rev. Kenn – December 3, 2011

The up-coming weeks and new year will be a busy time for our Florida congregations. In addition to the ceremonies of winter holidays, travel, and guests, there’s the emotional challenges of keeping a generous heart in lean times, retaining faith in “peace on earth” when that seems unlikely, when civility has fallen as a shared value and winning at all costs has risen. As one year ends, what will arise in the next?

Faith is always about keeping hope alive, being able to see over the horizon of what is before us. Indeed, it is often about being more optimistic than the facts seem to warrant and committing anew to build the world we dream about. So, as we enter this winter season, I urge you, be of good cheer. There is still ministry for us; we are needed.

Across the land, Unitarian Universalists are preparing to engage issues of “otherness” and diversity as we have never done before. Next June’s “Justice General Assembly” in Phoenix will focus on the issues of human dignity, economic oppression, and xenophobia. Correspondingly, our March 23-25 District Assembly in Jacksonville is similarly attuned to these issues as we talk about Crossing Boundaries. More details will be forthcoming in January.

For now, I issue a challenge to the Florida District congregations:

• Let’s commit to having 5% of our District membership in Phoenix (roughly 250 adults).
• Let’s have a like percentage of our youth at GA and DA!
• Let’s have 50% of our congregations represented at GA and 75% at DA!
• Let’s raise $5,000 in financial assistance for those — especially our youth — who want to attend GA but have difficulty affording the cost. After January 1st, look for a flyer announcing a call for individual and congregational sponsors to provide financial aid (money or air-miles or hotel-points) to attend GA.

Then a favor: Would you send me a note about what your congregation is doing in the way of engaging issues of immigration justice and how are you preparing for this year’s GA. How are you building the world of love and justice?

Many thanks!!! May your winter celebration renew your soul and enliven your commitment.

Rev. Kenn

Notes from Rev. Randy – December 3, 2011

The Holidays can be a confusing time for many people.

For our youngest members, the overwhelming commercialism and complex eclectic mix of mythologies may be just plain “too much.” The emphasis in our culture on materialism (even in a time of economic challenges) seems to herald the season on Black Friday (think what must pass through a four-year-old’s mind seeing frantic crowds rushing for perceived bargains!) and continue with weekly sales reports in the news. We may forget that what adults get from the news is not what children hear.

– I need to add a personal note. In the earliest days of the Korean Conflict, when I was first becoming aware of television news . . . back when John Cameron Swazey took all of 15 minutes to tell us everything we needed to know . . . since almost all of the news was of Korea, I thought that when the “war” was over, news programs would also be over! Remember, the perceptions of our children are not the fine-tuned (or conditioned) responses of us adults. –

But, it is not just our youngest who can be confused with the season. Many new parents find that are confronted in ways unforeseen by the demands of the season. Conflicting family traditions and expectations often coupled with competing desires for connections yet a new separate identity can make it a time of intense tensions. Many people remember back with mixed emotions to those early family years, remembering warm moments but also remember arguments and fights about how to do the holidays “right.”

Among us are also those for whom the holidays are the emptiest time of the year. The high moments of the season all seem in the past, and now isolation, aloneness, or estranged relations means a time of alienation, loneliness, or regrets. Placed against a backdrop of implied gaiety and people can feel out-of-step or misunderstood.

The list of confusing emotions grows long and deep, accentuated by the cultural motifs of the season.

Into this time of confusion, our religious communities can offer some positive responses: understanding, connection, and respite.

To be communities which acknowledge the diversity of responses to the season, in age appropriate ways, is to offer understanding. The greatest source of feelings of loneliness and depression is a sense of not being understood . . . of standing tragically alone. A little understanding goes a long way!

Being a place in which the ordinary of life continues among all the hoopla provides connection for people. Especially this year when two of the holidays fall on days traditionally used for our times of gathering, those times of community provide essential connections for those who feel adrift. Maybe the best gift that those who have lives rich with connections can give is being there on those days for the others who know holidays only as empty days.

Also, amidst all the chaos of commercialism, our communities can be places of respite, in which we do not demand so much as offer, do not require so much as relieve, do not expect so much as welcomed. Being a place of calm amidst all the tumult may be our greatest gift of all.

May we all reach January whole and appreciative, and looking back at December be able to say “If it weren’t for my Unitarian Universalist congregation, I don’t know how I would have survived all of that!” That is the gift of community which is ours to give.

Rev. Randy

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