Burbania Posts!

Church Music and Worship Context

2012-01-18T07:53:00.000-08:00

So, as a follow up to my previous post, the jury returned and the answer was "mandolin". A healthy dose of Eliot members contributed to the conversation (virtually and in person) and a goodly number of others chimed in as well. It was nice to hear from folks. It turns out that many of us have opinions about music in general and church music in particular. I find that reassuring. It isn't really just a consumer product after all!

During the "discernment process" I learned a few things. Actually, it might be better to say that I was reminded of them. Many of them had to do with ritual and symbol. I started thinking about this when it was suggested to me that the uke--though certainly capable of achieving depth in a wide range of musical styles--is perceived by many as a "toy". This perception then alters the experience of the worship service. In a different way the same can be said for the organ and the piano. They, too, are capable of a wide range of expression. However, if the uke is viewed as whimsical, these more "traditional" instruments are viewed as formal. In both cases, bringing them into a church makes them liturgical objects invested with religious meaning.

This simple fact brings up questions for the worship leader and church musician. Should you play in a style that reinforces the instruments' perceived strengths and biases, or should you change it up? Will a serious song on the uke or a folk (or jazz, or rock) song on the organ help or hinder your message for that week? The instruments we use are themselves symbols that say something about what worship will be like on a particular Sunday. In addition (particularly for the larger instruments that double as furniture) they send a message to the observer about what kind of people worship in that space. The message may be true or false. After all, they do this without ever playing a note.

I usually try to avoid the terms "traditional" and "contemporary" when talking about worship because they are more of a hindrance than a help. What, after all, is traditional for one group is not for another. What is true is that the instruments we use and the music we play on them tells the story of who we were and who we are right now. The real question for people is whether or not our worship experience fits the context we find ourselves in. Each week we ask our selves if what we see and here is in some way us.

One thing we must all remember, though, is that this context evolves over time. At Eliot Church we originally accompanied singing with bass-viol, violin, clarinet and flute. Today that would be considered odd. Back then it wasn't. It would be wrong for us to look back and assume that our predecessors' greatest wish was an organ (in 1830!!??). More likely it just worked for them. Many songs we now consider "traditional" when played on the organ were made for other media. I still maintain, for example, that one of the worst crimes perpetrated in hymnody was to move Were You There? to the organ. I am sure others disagree.

What does all this mean? It means that we come to church with different expectations about music just as we come to church with different expectations around other parts of the worship experience. We also come with different hopes and desires for what worship will be like for us in the future. This process is different for each of us just as it is different for each congregation. Our challenge as communities of faith is figuring out how to have conversations around these things. This means understanding how our context changes over time. It also means we must understand how it remains the same.

In my Doctoral Project Paper that no one is ever likely to read I talk about how it is important when preaching to speak the symbolic language of the congregation one is preaching to. The landmarks of our lives have special meaning to us and when they are used well, we are better able to engage with an idea or theme. Music is one of those landmarks. It is important to know what works for us and to understand that other styles probably work well for others. The challenge for those of us who lead worship regularly is to be aware of and connected to our communities in ways that make these landmarks accessible to us as well.

So, anyway, the uke isn't going anywhere. Neither are the piano or the organ. However, as time goes on we will continue to seek ways to expand our worship pallet (musically and otherwise). This will include mandolin and guitar. It will include offerings from children and adult volunteers. Each congregation speaks its own language, after all. I think we all want that language in our particular congregations to be as rich as possible.

Whither the Music Ministry?

2012-01-06T07:22:00.000-08:00

I have been giving a lot of thought lately to the direction of worship music--particularly non-piano and non-organ music--at the church. Since the advent of our summer ukulele (and other instrument) worship series, we have seen a steady increase in other forms and styles. During the other three seasons, we have never actually replaced a regular hymn, but we have added other tunes to the service. This seems to work well. In addition to the usual soloists that accompany our accomplished pianist from time to time (trumpet, cello, clarinet, et cetera), we have heard from the uke, many guitars, drums, bass, and mandolin. Many of these performers were youth. Folks seems comfortable with that and we have allowed a few of the older and more serious of our young musicians to play on "normal" (non-kid-focused) days.

I, of course, continue to hack away at the ukulele. It comes out once in a while during the year and--I must admit--I seem to be a little bit better than I was two summers ago when this experiment got seriously underway. That said, I feel like I am at a turning point. Perhaps the church is as well. I am not sure, though, so I will keep this post directed toward my own music ministry.

The fact is, I see some weaknesses in the current set-up. The "Adam pulls out the uke" routine isn't quite old hat, but it is limiting. I lead hymns and occasionally play "special music" but I am always on my own. My colleague Matt does pretty much the same with the guitar and occasionally accompanies youth singers. The difference, I think, is that guitar has a greater range.

Also, the uke just cannot compete with other instruments in an ensemble. This Christmas vacation, during one of those family jam sessions that sometimes break out amongst hippy families, I was clearly outclassed in terms of volume. The casual guitarist banging away on a big steel-string will naturally obscure a small, nylon four-stringed instrument. While I don't foresee a time in the near future at Eliot where we would have a regular "praise band," certainly occasional group performances would lend a deeper dimension to what we are doing. When the youth groupers do it, people talk about it for weeks...in a good way.

What I do know is that I have little interest in dusting off my guitar. There are plenty of guitar players of varying interests and skill levels. The world doesn't need another one. One of the advantages of the uke has been that it is unusual. It makes even old hymns seem new and different. The uke makes us quirky and funky. These are both good things when struggling against cookie-cutter worship. Still, as I mentioned earlier, the concert uke does suffer a bit in range as well as volume. Also, mine (the Fluke) does perky well, but struggles when a fuller sound is called for. Most of my work will continue to be solo, so I would like some depth.

This is all a long way of saying that I need to branch out, consider more ensemble work, and generally increase my solo options over the long, hot summer as well as (to a lesser extent) the church year. This will require an additional instrument, but I am not sure which way to go.

I have ruled out certain directions, though. The Banjo, for example, is a great instrument but is too much like the Fluke in sound and image. In fact, I have narrowed it down to three overlapping options...

Mandolin: Over Advent a couple of our confirmands performed Eddie Vedder's song "Rise" on the mandolin and it sounded great. The a-type mando has a clean old-timey sound which would go well in our congregation. It is also loud. As a steel-stringed instrument is can compete with the guitars without need of amplification. This is important in a church with 19th Century wiring.

The downside, of course, is that it is not a uke. I like ukuleles and their mellower, rounder tone. Also I would have to learn new chords. This isn't a deal-breaker. It would be fun! Still, it has to be factored in since I am not that great a musician to begin with and the purpose isn't so much my enjoyment as creating and growing a new dimension in our congregational worship...

8-Stringed Tenor Ukulele: OK, this is an intriguing option. The 8-stringed uke is, naturally, fuller sounding. It is tuned like a regular uke. The larger tenor body gives it a mellower feel. One made of wood instead of plastic would also help here. I know how to play it and the samples I have heard have a lovely, rich sound that would win people over in a heartbeat.

The only problem, honestly, is that they aren't falling off trees here in New England. These are expensive instruments, particularly the solid mid-range ones. I would have to order online and hope for the best. Mandolins, on the other hand, are plentiful. People also know what they are. I have gone to multiple music stores and the 8-stringed uke stumped everyone I talked to. Finally, it would need to eventually take an amp for group play. Wiring aside, this is fine. However, those models naturally are better made and cost more...

Electric/Acoustic Tenor Uke: This occurred to me recently while pestering a local music dealer about mandolins. In order to distract me, he put me in the corner with a Kala UBASS and plugged me in. The UBASS is--as you probably guessed--a bass guitar in the form of a tenor(ish) sized uke body. I had played it before, but unplugged its polyurethane strings make it sound like rubber bands hitting a cereal box. Plugged in, though, it is beautiful. Sting (apparently) likes them because they take up so little space but give a great big sound. I reluctantly walked away from the fretless model. I could see exactly how I would use it. Unfortunately, it didn't fit the needs of the church. That is, it would only be useful in a group. Feel free to buy me one, though. I would definitely put it to work...

Anyway, perhaps what I need to do is get a good solid-wood acoustic tenor ukulele with a good pick-up. It would have the strength of being easier to play solo and in groups. It would have a better sound than my current line-up. Also, I could get a better one of these for the same money that I would spend on one of the other options. The disadvantage, though, is that it wouldn't have the full sound of the 8-stringed instruments. Effects pedals might even the score a bit, but--let's face it--I play pretty small rooms so the natural acoustic sound would dominate anyway. It would be a lovely sound...but it would be one with half the strings of the other choices.

Anyway, I am asking for your help. What do you think? If you are a member at Eliot, what would you like to hear this summer? If you like the current sound, option #3 might make sense. If you would like more range, the others may be more advantageous. If you are not a member, I bet you still have an opinion. I would love to find out your biases.

Let me know...really...either here or one Facebook or by email. I have truly enjoyed this aspect of worship and would like to see it grow!

Uke of the Year!

2012-01-04T11:28:00.000-08:00

I am sooo glad 2011 is over. I am looking forward to 2012 and new pages to be turned. Of course, there is some unfinished business to attend to here at Burbania Posts. I got sick before, during, and after Christmas so have been silent in the virtual sense for some time. This means I missed the holidays, end-of-year meditations, and such that were better handled by other clergy-bloggers anyway. What they cannot handle, though, are football predictions and...the ukulele....

So today I wanted to lift up my "Uke of the Year". It is not the best I have played nor is it my "main instrument". It is, however, the best value and--as a New Englander--I like that. I was given this particular uke as a reward for spending a lot of money at a local used instrument store. My plan was to give it to my five-year-old. The ungrateful wretch was so pleased, he threw it in the trash! It is mine now. Finders keepers...

If you are not given one, the Makala MK-SD (because that is its name) is easily purchased for under $40. Most folks would look at such a low price and deem it a toy. In a good way it is! However, in another way it is not. The sound is classic soprano uke. It is durable (it is also part-plastic which is a good thing in this case) so it can be tossed around. It is cute. It comes in bright sparkly colors and features a bridge in the shape of a dolphin. The paint seems to be somewhat thicker than one might expect, but that is in part to hide the plastic and the no-doubt close-to-cardboard front.

Here at the parsonage we have left it sitting on the couch in the living room. Most of us cannot help but pick it up and give it a strum when we pass by. I have found myself playing around with it as I try to think of the right word for a prayer or sermon. It really is that charming. It makes us happy.

So, for the record, I have played a lot of ukes this year. In the soprano category there has been my Johnson UK-100, the "Flea" (and also its cousin the Firefly banjo-uke), a poorly tuned Lanikai, an unamed uke for sale at Best Buy, and multiple varieties with the word "Aloha" printed on them. This little Makala held its own and was far and away the best one for under $40. Everyone should own a ukulele. However, few people should spend more than this. You should be comfortable getting sand in it or hitting it with a soccer ball. More expensive ukes are for people with performance requirements or who want a larger size. Ukes that are both bigger than a soprano and cheaper than $100 are usually not very good.

That said, I will probably buy it some Aquila strings to improve the sound. In fact, the soprano uke is such a small instrument, much of the sound quality comes from strings. This may be a useful tip for those of you who don't want it to be too jangly.

Here is a comparison picture to see what you are dealing with. The smallest one is--yes--the Makala. The Fluke is one size up (concert) and the instrument I play in church. The other is a guitar just to show you how small the uke really is...

Imagined Worlds

2011-12-12T11:41:00.000-08:00

It was cold this morning--finally--and now it seems that winter may come after all. In a perfect world, Monday would be my "sabbath day". In reality, though, it is the day I tie up loose ends from Sunday and start work on the upcoming week. It is the sort of day (if you are minister planning services for Pageant Sunday and Christmas Eve) that would ideally be spent in front of the fire, thinking Advent thoughts and scanning the sacred texts for just the right thing to add depth and newness to what is, after all, an annual occurrence. As it turns out I had to settle for plugging in the Christmas lights and making some hot chocolate to get in the mood. Some parsonage committee in the distant past decided on forced air heat. The fireplace is just for show.

Otherwise, that is the sort of day I have been having. I read some Luke and its commentary. I checked out a passage in Titus--suggested by a sermon from Peter Gomes--and settled for Gomes, himself. Ann Weems is in the mix as well, along with a few other likely candidates. I try to give some serious thought to these sorts of things. Sometimes the readings set up everything else in a service. When this happens they need to bring us along. They need to point out the clearest way to the topic or image we wish to inhabit.

One of the tricks to the religious life these days is placing oneself in the world the Bible tells us about. We have to enter a place where angels bend near the earth and evil kings deceive wise mages. Yes, I understand the parallels to our society and the social justice message in the Gospels. I also see that there are clear connections to be made between the Bible and this world. In fact, I love that stuff. The detective story around who wrote what and when is a big part of why I entered the ministry. The divine charge to work toward the Commonwealth of Heaven is what gets me up most mornings.

I am also aware of the many debates in the realm of Biblical scholarship. I know that things probably didn't go down quite the way we imagine them. I know that the oldest gospel--Mark--has no interest at all in the birth if Jesus. I know that the story we tell is as much influenced by years of Christmas pageants than what is in scripture. I know that Matthew and Luke were human beings with a different sense of what history is and means from our own understanding. Again, I love the detective work of going back to figure out their contexts and intent.

Still, that isn't what I am into during Advent. I am not interested in what really happened in any "official" just the facts sense. Instead, I am interested in being there. I want to live in the story and find ways to make it true for me and--as a pastor--for my congregation. I think that many people who go to church are like this. For thousands of years we have tried to make the Christmas story (for example) true. Faith is finding a way to believe that in some way it really is.

Yesterday after church, we skipped the second half of the Patriots game to go to Waltham and attend what was billed as a sort of "Dickens Festival" with people in period costume reciting portions of various Christmas stories from that great old Unitarian X-Mas sage and generally being...well...festive. There was going to be a Santa and free hot chocolate and craft vendors of various kinds. What I missed in the online notice--but now I know--is that this isn't exactly how they roll in Waltham. It wasn't so much Dickens as Steampunk. The elves mingled with the wizards and engineers. The Dickensian carolers sported goggles and homemade ray-guns. Oh...and Queen Victoria was there...singing with the masses.

You see, this is the sort of thing I mean. Our ability to imagine a world both like and unlike our own gives depth to what we do and how we feel. If you asked any of these folks if they thought their characters were "real" they would acknowledge that, no, they are fully aware of the fact that their jobs as computer programmers or teachers, or clergy, or whatever would call them back to the boring old universe on Monday morning. However, in that moment, what could be better than celebrating the holiday as part of a dimension at once both present and distant. Church is one of those worlds, too. It is a place where magic exists and you don't have to run out to Target in order to make it so.

When we come to worship one of our goals is to stand in two worlds at the same time. We want to surround the mundane, everyday world with the world of wonder, just like the steampunks or the families at the Urban Nutcracker, or the folks who stashed a gnome (steampunks all) at the inn in Ironforge, or painters, or poets, or musicians or any number of people who use their skills to build something that tells a story which invites us to move outside ourselves. Now is the time to imagine these worlds. Now is the time to dream those dreams.

Things are picking up for many of us now. Let's not let the mindless tasks get too far ahead of us, OK? Keep the season holy in your own way. Remember the wonder that comes with the darkness. Let's make it into something special.

PS Two of these pictures (the 1st and the 3rd) are actual works of art and I neglected to get the names of the artists. They are still on exhibit, though, and they are truly worth checking out....

This Is My Tent

2011-12-09T02:00:00.000-08:00

I put it up yesterday evening after considering the very real possibility of the end of the Dewey Park occupation. It is my old "pre-kids" tent and now it lives next to our house on what passes for our front lawn. We had to hunt around a bit, but it was worth it. Occupy has meant a great deal to me and to my family. It has given us an outlet for our frustration over the direction of this country. It has given many, many people a voice. Of course, the various local encampments have already done their part. The movement isn't ending because the camps are gradually closing. In fact, it has gone suburban. As tents get taken down in the cities, it is important to put them up here in Burbania.

Over the last few months, the tent has become a symbol for many. However it is one that stretches back into the past. For many folks it conjures up images of "Hoovervilles". For others (myself included) we are called back to the divestment protests of the 1980's. There are other connections, too. I don't know what it means to you, but on the lawn this one occupies, it stands in part for freedom and mobility. It is too small to carry all the stuff that weighs us down, yet it is a shelter and comfort. It reminds us of all that we have. It reminds us that all we have won't fit in the future.

For me, at least, there has always been another association that has relevance here. It may be why I made the effort find it. The tent for me is spiritually significant, too. The fact is, in many traditions--and for many individuals of no particular tradition--the tent means something more.

In the faith traditions I am most familiar with, Paul the Apostle was a tentmaker in a community that knew a lot about tents. If you read the Hebrew scriptures--Exodus in particular--tents are everywhere. Mary and Joseph, traveling from Nazareth to Bethlehem would have had one. Traveling back to Nazareth, that tent would have sheltered their new baby. John the Baptist would have had a tent, too. There was little call to mention tents in these stories. It would have been obvious that a transient people had them. Jesus--that wandering laborer no doubt often unemployed--would have had a tent, too. The tent is a basic tool and home for displaced people in difficult times both then and now.

So I set up my tent. Right now that is all there is. There isn't a sign to go with it. Maybe I will put up lights later this week. Maybe I won't. It faces the road and the rush hour traffic. I don't know what people make of it. This is the only tent in our neighborhood not rolled up for winter, so it isn't entirely clear that it serves any purpose or has any meaning on its own. I also don't know how long I will let it sit there. It will remain, at least, through Advent. Christmas morning might make a good clear end-date...

My hope is that over the next few days there will be other tents on other suburban lawns. That way each of our tents gains more meaning. It would be nice (if you have a lawn and a tent and are so inclined) if you put yours out as well. Then perhaps people will think a bit before turning back to shopping lists and expeditions to the mall.

Anyway, this is my tent. What are you planning to do with yours?

Hey, Michael: Death and the Ukulele

2011-12-06T04:20:00.001-08:00

Death is a subject that frequently rises to the surface these days. Partly this is because of my job. Clergy are often perceived as experts on death--or at least the "afterlife"--though we have never been dead ourselves. However, we have and do spend time dealing with many of the issues that surround death. We accompany people on journeys of suffering and grief. We console the loved ones of the departed. We answer questions about life when death lurks--as it does for most of us--right outside our vision. Still, that isn't the whole story. This year death has been keeping pretty close to home.

Last winter, for example, my son (the one also known here as "Norm") and I were in a car accident. We were hit on the side by a much larger car. We didn't see it coming, but in that instant between when we were hit behind the driver's seat and when we settled into the snowbank the only fear I had was for the boy sitting right behind me. As it turned out, he was OK, if somewhat exasperated. He asked me what we were going to do next, and we got to it. Sitting next to him in the ambulance (he had some back pain that went away) I thought again about what had happened. What if we weren't fine? What if I couldn't make it better? The car, it should be noted, was totalled and has not been fully replaced.

Later that winter our dog died. We had gotten her as a puppy to be a sort of "practice child" before the birth of our eldest. That son is now 13 years old so our dog (a husky) was pretty old, too. There wasn't the same sort of panic as in the accident, of course, but her absence from our lives is still felt today. Who, after all, will drink all the water out of the tree stand? We have not replaced her and I am not sure we will.

Then in the spring, my wife's father died after a long struggle with a series of illnesses. For a while it felt like the bottom had fallen out of our family. We went down to Maryland to be with her mom. We started our own work of grief and remembering. That work isn't finished. I am not sure it will ever be. Craig's birthday is always on or near Thanksgiving. We have been thinking about him a great deal this holiday season.

Oh...and I turned 40 and had my first brush with prolonged chronic conditions. Nothing life threatening but, again, a moment of frailty not entirely unexpected and not at all welcome. Of course, work continues. Life continues. Yet things have changed quite a bit for me this year and not all of it has been bad. As I told my congregation recently, we all have secret pains and that pain can either separate us or unite us in our humanity. I find it easier to reach out, to be patient, to be tolerant of others because this year I have been reminded that I do not always know what others are going through. When I do know, I find that I can connect better than I have been able to do in the past. So much of the ministry is about caring for others. It comes more easily sometimes if you are also grateful for the care you have received.

Of course, there are resources, both traditional and contemporary, for folks who are struggling. There are rituals and prayers that remind us of the inevitability of death and help us to come to terms with it in a language that we can understand. I use a lot of these and tend, personally, to lean toward the more intuitive and artistic elements of working through the "valley of the shadow". Pilgrim's Progress still means more to me than those stages of grief, for example. I also find little or no solace or support in some of the more "pie in the sky" descriptions of the afterlife.

What does work for me--as always--is the uke. In the morning, before the kids get up and my wife returns from exercising, I have time to play two songs. Lately one of them has been Michael Row the Boat Ashore. It is an African-American spiritual that most of you know. There are many, many verses addressing a variety of topics, but the version that most of us know is about death. The Archangel Michael serves as a sort of boatman to the afterlife. I like it. The song is about boats, something I know a bit about. It is also about the journey.

I suspect you have heard the song and have probably played or sang it, too. The chord progression is simple C-F-C-Em-F-C-G-C. Some folks make that second F a Dm. That's your business. The words are well known and you can look them up. When we sing it in church, we don't use printed words but instead call out the verses by their names "sister help to trim the sail", "the river is deep and the river is wide", "the River Jordan is chilly and cold". After each verse we appeal to Michael to give us a hand. We all need help sometimes after all...

Maybe, even, the song isn't so much about death as it is about a life of crossing the river. We trim the sails, we row, or paddle, or portage, or tow as we pass through the rapids and the calms, the sandbars and spits of rock that get in our way. This living is hard work. I, at least, am happy to get the chance to do it.

Here is a link to the Wikipedia article about the song.

Here is a link to Bobby Darin.

Advent Ukulele and the Music Wars

2011-11-30T10:59:00.001-08:00

A couple of articles in the most recent Christian Century magazine caught my eye. One is about music in church. The other is about art in worship. Later I might revisit this second one as there was some interesting material in it about collaboration and ritual. We are experiencing a bit of a renaissance in these parts, after all. Increasingly (even in my rather staid New England congregation) we are finding ways to be creative in our worship life. This is good. The question, of course, is how to do these creative, different, and often meaningful things while still remaining true to the tradition. This is, by the way, a fun question to start answering.

The same theme can be seen in the other piece. There is a sense in the church universal that there are two kinds of music for worship. In fact, there are folks who believe there are only two kinds of worship! One is labeled "traditional" and the other is labeled "contemporary". What a limited pallet indeed. As a uke player I have often wondered which camp my own musical offerings reside in. On the one hand, during summer services (and at other times like this past Sunday) I usually play fairly traditional hymns. Most of the time I play ones people know. That would seem traditional to some, but the ukulele throws us a curve. This past Sunday we opened the Advent season with a rather boisterous singing of "Go Tell It on the Mountain". I played and sang the verses. The congregation sang the choruses. I am pretty sure this particular arrangement was a first for this particular congregation. Where does that fit in the worship wars?

The article talks about congregations that have avoided the usual musical labels and sought to claim their own musical language. Good for them. I hope they keep on experimenting.

As for music at the Eliot Church, we are doing a little experimenting of our own. One of my goals is to have at least one out-of-the-ordinary offering each Sunday. In addition the the ukulele version of "Mountain", I played one other piece ("Silent Night"). Also, our Assistant Pastor for Religious Education brought his guitar and taught us the chorus to a more contemporary (there's that word) song. I wish I could remember the name of it. I will look it up. In addition we sang hymns accompanied by piano and organ. For this upcoming Sunday some of our confirmands have worked up a song from Eddie Vedder's substantial catalogue. They are also doing a play for the Children's Focus.

One criticism (gently given) to us after the service was that we had only played one actual Advent hymn! For whatever reason, Advent hymns have fallen by the wayside for many of us. I promised that I would remedy the situation and so I am working on it. Yesterday I spent quite a bit of time on the uke testing out songs.

So, anyway, here are some pieces that sounded pretty good. We will probably not actually give them the string treatment this year and stick to the piano instead. The uke, in particular, is probably best in small doses for some of those who do not attend church in the summer. Still, these songs responded well to the change in style, so use them as you think best...

Comfort Comfort ye my people

Hail to the Lord's Anointed

Come Thou Long Expected Jesus

Awake Awake for Night is Flying

O Come O Come Emmanuel

Watchman Tell us of the Night

On Jordan's Bank the Baptist's Cry

This is probably enough to last us through the season and still give us time to sing some of those carols that don't quite make it into the two Christmas Eve services. People do like to sing carols, after all...

Here are the two articles:

New Harmonies

Artists in Worship

Thanksgiving Dinner Will be at 4:15

2011-11-23T08:19:00.000-08:00

You must eat Thanksgiving Dinner dinner after 4:15pm.

Why? Well the reason should be obvious but I will help you. You see, tomorrow there will be a wide variety of individuals sitting down together to that festival of over-abundance known as the Thanksgiving meal, right? If you are fortunate, some of these folks will be people you know and love. Others will be people you just know. Others are spouses and dates of your cousins and siblings and, really, you just hope they fit in. Well, have you ever wondered where the folks in the last groups go before and after dinner? In enlightened households they watch football.

Yes, I know, togetherness blah, blah family blah blah. However, on Thanksgiving Day we ask these poor folks to sit through 4-8 hours of over sharing, gossip about people they don't know, and (if they are potential permanent family members) silent yet obvious judgement. Of course, there will be the relentless one-upmanship as well that will manifest itself as a long, boring, yet oddly intense conversation about things like cranberry sauce.

There will be those who want to flee. Let them.

There are people who will need a refuge. They need a place to unwind and be a tad less festive. You might know someone like this. You may be someone like this...even if you don't normally follow the game. So...hosts, put the TV in a side room near the wine and beer table so they will be out of the way and well fed. Then, if you don't join 'em yourself (and there will be times you want to), check in on them from time to time. You will hear them laughing and talking. They will smile at each other. It will the be happy no-pressure room. In fact, they will become friends and occasionally come out of their den to check on the rest of you (and to steal appetizers)!

Simply put, football lubricates the social contract between your dad, your sister's new boyfriend, your cousin's wife and all people like them. Yeah, they watch the game. Still, that isn't all they do. There are conversations to be had, after all. This frees you up to do...whatever it is that the non-football watchers do...talk about food?

So what about 4:15? Well, that is the easy part. You see, there are three games on Sunday but the most interesting one is first. The Detroit Lions will host the Green Bay Packers at 12:30pm. Detroit--who always plays on Thanksgiving--has possibly the best team they have ever had. Green Bay, however, is even better. That said, it has also been traditional on this day for the Lions to lose in spectacular fashion. This year is different. This year they might win. The Packers are efficient, lovable football heroes. Even your slightly aloof more sophisticated-than-thou relations will allow that they enjoy the Packers. They are a non-profit, after all, in the smallest major-league city in the nation. The Lions on the other hand are from Detroit and owned by the Ford family. The Lions are mean, dirty, and profane. I love Detroit. I am picking the Lions to win and I will be cheering for them.

At 4:15pm there will be another game. It features the other traditional T-Day team, the Dallas Cowboys who will be playing the Miami Dolphins. On Thanksgiving there should be at least one cold-weather team in each game. Warm-weather teams are an abomination to the sport! Dallas should win this game, but I dislike them intensely. Miami has an outside chance of an upset (and I devoutly hope they take that chance) mostly because the Cowboys are over-hyped prima-donnas. Anyway...4:15 is a good time for Thanksgiving dinner. The second game will be messy and hard to watch after the first game, which will be a wonder to behold. Also, your football-watchers will be primed for a break and feeling ready for any social awkwardness during dinner (just don't ask them to pray).

Finally, there is an evening game on NFL Network. It isn't so much a network as a 24 hour infomercial for the National Football League. However, if the evening seems to be dragging on (the game starts at 8:20) and you have this exalted station, put the game on. It should be a good one. You will have to slog through a bunch of saccharine drek about the two head coaches. They are brothers. Get it? Brothers...playin' football...on Thanksgiving? Once that is over, though, the game should be very good. The San Francisco 49ers will be playing the Baltimore Ravens. Both teams are division leaders. The QB's Alex Smith (SF) and Joe Flacco (BAL) are competent, but both teams rely on defense and a brutal running game to win. It is football that your ol' grampa would appreciate. I am picking the Ravens.

So...to Recap... Lions, Cowboys (please God, no!), Ravens

By the way, if you are feeling a bit out of your element, Thanksgiving is a good day to learn about football. Those in the know will be eager to help you. Good topics of conversation involve Aaron Rodgers ("is he as good as (Peyton, not Eli) Manning/ (Bret) Favre"), Ndomukong Suh ("is he mean/dirty/awesome?"), Reggie Bush ("Can he really be an every down back?", Tony Romo ("why Tony Romo?") The aforementioned coach brothers (the Haurbaughs) and how the Ravens aren't as good without Ray Lewis.

November Simplicities

2011-11-17T10:48:00.001-08:00

Late fall has its own aesthetic. Today, for example, the sky is a unbroken slab of white. The ground ranges from the dark green of our dead grass to the reddish-brown, yellow-brown, grayish-brown, and plain-old brown of the dead leaves. There is the black, too, of the cold mud and a haziness to everything. Even the people are wearing their seasonal earth-tones.

It isn't hard to slip into a contemplative mood when the world looks like this. Holidays are--in part--an exercise in memory and nostalgia. Thanksgiving is only a week away and I am remembering the years when we would go down to my grandparents' farm for the holiday. I worked there most of the summer during high school so many of my memories are of toiling through various agricultural pursuits. However, our November visit was somewhat more relaxed. We would show up a day or two early and leave a day or two late with the Christmas tree strapped to the roof of our car. The last Thanksgiving I celebrated at the farm was when I rushed back from seminary in Chicago. My grandfather--who was born in the farmhouse--had died there a couple days before.

Maybe this is why I feel the need to be active and outdoors right now. In those days we would knock around the barnyard or up into the Christmas trees (yes, we sold trees), returning only to shower, throw on a blazer, and eat. Then we would go outdoors again. Work, walks, and really sad looking football were the staple of our days.

Today I took the camera out to get some photographs for the church newsletter. It is a weekly online publication and I like to drop a few pictures in there to make it more interesting. I walked though the woods along the aqueduct and then over to the non-profit, organic, community farm. It was nice to be there. I think I did a good job of not getting in the way.

I captured quite a few images. For reasons already mentioned, they were mostly inadequate. They didn't translate well to the flat frame. I kept trying to catch a picture of the falling leaves. I have been thinking about them as I continue to drop those things in my life that provide me with undue complication. I have written about this earlier, but it occurred to me that nature, itself, is releasing that which is unnecessary for these dark days. It is good to know you are not alone, even if your only companions are trees.

Of course, no one is ever completely alone in the 'burbs. I bumped into some church people and their friends on their own explorations. Also, as I wandered around, a yellow dog attached himself to me and eventually tried to follow me home. When I brought him back to the farm I was reminded of the fact that--sometimes--the things that attach themselves to you--like goofy dogs--are OK.

Oh...and goats, too...

Here is the link to the earlier post I mentioned...

Occupy Burbania II

2011-11-10T10:32:00.000-08:00

I have been pretty pleased with the state of our young people lately, so I was disappointed to hear about the riot at Penn State. I have met too many impressive college students and recent graduates--both liberal and conservative--to make any generalizations right now. That said I am not happy. Yes Joe Paterno was fired. Yes he is a famous football coach. He is also a famous football coach who failed to report a case of sexual abuse and by his silence contributed to a cover-up that has hurt many more children and families. I'm sorry (but not really). He had to go. I hate to think of the message this riot sends to victims of such abuse. If I didn't know better I would ask if perhaps there was something else kids could be protesting these days. Of course there is, and they are.

My college professor friends occasionally tell me about all their students who don't quite understand what is going on in the world around them. They are interested in their careers or dating or sports. They don't read their assignments much less the newspaper. Big ideas are lost on them. I believe these people are real and exist on every campus in the nation. Penn State is not unique in this. Still, that is not the whole story. The pictures in the New York Times yesterday were of Penn State students calling for Paterno's firing. I assume they still go there today. Also, I continue to see these folks marching and speaking in other ways much closer to home.

This past weekend we went in to Boston for a couple hours to take part in a march. We had a good time and I am glad we went. That said, our experience was the sort that critics of Occupy--particularly those on the left--would recognize. We went down for an event publicized on the web, both on Facebook and on Occupy Boston's official page. Apparently it didn't happen. We ended up hanging out with a few other folks from the 'burbs who had also seen the notice and eventually there were enough of us for a short tour of the financial district. I would say that we were roughly 100 in number. That number includes me, my wife, and our three kids, making us 5% of the 99% on that morning.

On our way to lunch afterward we ran into another group of about 100 protesters who apparently checked the MoveOn.org page and started from somewhere else. There was rumor of another small march somewhere else in town as well. We never saw them, but it doesn't mean they weren't also there...

I suspect that this will be the norm for while. It is getting colder. Life is getting more frantic for those of us with children who also work and live some distance from downtown. There are problems with winter coming, too. These smaller marches--at least for now--keep the movement on the minds of many. I think how the Occupy movement adapts will say a great deal about its viability for the future and its ultimate impact on our national discourse.

Part of this adaptation, of course, has been to branch out into surrounding communities. We had our first "Occupy" meeting on Sunday afternoon. It was a very suburban affair. We met in the library. The regular activists and civic leaders were joined by others interested in the "brand". There was a reporter from the local paper and a camera from a local TV station. There was some concern from some folks that there would be an encampment somewhere. Really it looks like we will be doing more episodic things that give people here a chance to participate without turning their lives upside-down.

One suggestion I liked was the idea of putting tents and signs on our lawns. This would keep the movement in the minds of our fellow Burbanians while allowing us the opportunity to utilize our comfy beds. It is also culturally sound. We live in separate houses. Why wouldn't we occupy the 'burbs in a way that is spread out as well?

Either way, the conversation continues. Last night we had a philosophy group discussion about Henry David Thoreau, Adin Ballou, and their influence on movements like Occupy and the Tea Party. This worked for us as a way to discuss some the issues we find important. We will be doing this again (and probably again after that). Agree or disagree, Occupy has gotten people out here thinking big thoughts. It is a great feeling.

Thank you scruffy college students. Keep up the good work.

And Now...The Holidays

2011-11-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

I started my day by carrying a pile of frozen pumpkin guts to the compost bin. Yes, they sat on my porch overnight. Some families don't put up their Christmas trees until December 24. My family doesn't carve pumkins until the afternoon of October 31. Halloween is--to me--the calm before the storm. The kids, of course, are running about consuming sugar and whatnot. There are a few casual parties over the weekend to drop in on. I actually get to chat with adults, which is nice. Then, after a nocturnal family stroll to the homes of (mostly) strangers, it is over and "The Holidays" begin.

Don't panic if they haven't begun for you. However, they have for me and for many other clergy. They have also begun for many retailers. In my life the months of November and December are best regarded as one looong roller-coaster of celebrations and high expectations. This, after all, is the high season of attendance and involvement for the church. It is (possibly excluding the second half of Lent) when the most people are allowing themselves to think spiritually. It is also when people are thinking commercially. This dynamic makes it a busy time for the church and its staff.

Right now things are pretty calm. Yes, today is All Saint's Day, but I am not going to pretend that there are too many Burbanians building their morning around this fact. I am only giving it a passing thought (which is too bad). What I am doing is lining things up now for later. Today the first broad brush-strokes are going down on the canvas of church life for the next sixty days. Much of this work is under the radar but essential. It is best to think of this time as one big unit with peaks and valleys rather than distinct episodes. Many people will experience times of busyness and chaos followed by times of calm and quiet only to have the chaos break through again. The church needs to acknowledge this reality while providing a safe place to retreat so folks can both celebrate and mourn if necessary. Life is complicated. The holidays often lay that out for us.

Services are being planned for the time leading up to Thanksgiving and then for Advent. How do they fit together? How do we keep them dynamic and interesting? How do we welcome the new visitors that this time inevitably brings while honoring the needs of the regular attenders? How do we include times both for sound and for silence? Programs are planned that happen only during this time and must be combined with other programs. In my congregation we have lost access to our "church basement" and kitchen. This season, things like potlucks and craft fairs (all right after worship) will be in the sanctuary. That means complication. It is good complication, but it is complicated nonetheless. Also and always, there are those highs and lows of life for all of us. Are we ready for them?

On the surface, then, the church remains much like it did last week. I will be preforming weddings and officiating funerals on the weekends as usual. There will be Sunday School and worship. There will be discussion groups and forums that won't have anything to do with the "big days" on our calendar. There will be various community events and denominational meetings. There will be the annual canvass campaign. However--slowly--the holidays will rise to the surface and, hopefully, we will have found ways to deepen the experience for everybody.

Anyway, if this is your reality of the holidays, I wish you a blessed season and good luck in your good work. If it isn't, I ask you to remember that it is the fact of life for your church and its staff. Please be patient with us when you can be...

...and please, please, come to church to share the season with us!

Here are a few links to earlier posts on this blog that you might find useful in your own planning this year...

Here is a post about my holiday "shopping rules" that I wrote a few years ago. I still find it a useful reminder of the need to keep my purchases in perspective and in check...

Here is a follow-up about buying stuff for kids...

Here is one about snow. We have already had some this year...

Finally, a short sermon from last Advent...

...and a link to All Saints Day on the wikipedia...

Bibles For Kids

2011-10-31T08:18:00.000-07:00

I wrote an article in one of my previous blogs about the "right" Bible for kids. The post bothered me then and it still bothers me. What bothers me is not that I wrote it but that the subject presents to me as something of a jungle. I am a firm believer that kids should have access to the Jewish and Christian scriptures. They should be able to read them for themselves without too much doctrinal interference and should be allowed to make their own conclusions. That said, it can be a complicated issue for parents. The Bible is complicated. It encompasses a wide variety of topics and a vast array of styles. It is also--to be honest--a book that many parents (including church-goers) do not know very well, even if they like to believe that they do.

I know that some folks don't like their kids to read it because of the violence and sex. The fact that many of these same people allow their kids to play video games and watch TV would indicate that there may actually be other reasons. I know that there are others who are concerned with what sort of conclusions that kids will make. It is this second group that actually prints and purchases children's Bibles. This dynamic is also part of the reason it is hard to find a "good" one.

The parental urge to tidy things up can wreak havoc on the book. It can also create a final product that reflect the theological leanings of its editors as much as it does the Bible, itself. A similar process goes on with Bibles for teens. There is sometimes a desperate attempt to make scripture more accessible by re-packaging scripture and--in some sense--rewriting it. It may then read like what old people think of as "cool"...but is it still the Bible? Is it still accurate enough for kids to make their own conclusions? If you truly believe that accepting a specific creed or doctrine is a necessary prerequisite for eternal life, wouldn't you naturally want to emphasize that which might reinforce your position?

Well, anyway, you see the problem. I think that more important than which Bible is read is how it is read. As parents and religious educators it falls to us to explain our approach. That, of course, means that we need to educate ourselves about what that approach is. That means taking a little time to do some research, to read a bit, to ask our pastors and others what their take is. A couple of weeks ago at Eliot we had an after-church forum about our approach to scripture. I have written about my own take in previous posts. Others had their own--yet mostly compatible--ideas. Discussions like this give us the tools to teach or, even better, be "learning companions" with our children.

The homeschooler in me is a big believer in participating in the education of our offspring. In no place is that more necessary than in their moral and spiritual development. After all, the schools don't do this work (separation of church and state is a good thing!). Sunday school is only an hour a week and (were we to be honest) most of us don't make it every week, do we?

So here is the link to that old post. It now lives on the web page of the Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship. If you are looking for specific book suggestions, you can start there. Like I said, though, it bothers me that I cannot think of better ones.

Finally, if you are looking for a Bible yourself, I recommend the Oxford Annotated Bible (with Apocrypha). It's translation (New Revised Standard) strikes the best balance, I think, between readability and scholarship. The Annotated Bible also provides a wealth of clues and notes for a deeper understanding of the work.

Article Postscripts
My thoughts have changed a bit since that UUCF article was posted so there are two things worth mentioning...

1) The grade levels are merely suggestions! The DK Bible that I mentioned is actually fine for K-2 as well as pre-K...just expect your 2nd graders to be ready to move on...

2) I should note that these days we are handing out "Good News" Bibles to the 2nd graders instead of the version listed in the article. Ostensibly the Good News is more readable for younger kids, which is great if they actually do read it. Honestly, though, the one my kids read is the one in the article, which is an NRSV translation with age-appropriate notes. They didn't look at it much in 2nd grade but picked it up again in middle school....

Simplicities

2011-10-26T07:45:00.000-07:00

Fruitlands...look it up!

Lately I have been into peeling things away. Maybe it is because I am forty-and-one-half-years-old. Maybe because the leaves are falling and the air is colder. Maybe it is because I have been so busy...

This past Sunday I preached using two texts that I hadn't read in a while. One was "The Transient and Permanent in Christianity" by Theodore Parker. The other was "Christian Simplicities" by Palfrey Perkins. The first of these is well known among many liberals. The second is an important text for Christians in the UUA. Both of them have been important to me.

In both cases, the authors talk about removing those things that are non-essential to the faith. They are concerned primarily with things like doctrine and ritual, while pointing a sophisticated modern eye to the Bible and its meanings. We, as a religious culture, pick up a lot of theological and spiritual baggage that just sometimes needs to go. That is the argument, anyway, and it is one that has worked for me for a long time.

Still, something has changed for me recently. While I was preparing for the service--and for the related Bible Forum after church--I started thinking about how little I use this discipline of subtraction in my own life. As a default, Burbanian culture practices a theology of addition. Are you sad? Here is something to cheer you up! Stressed out? Sign up for yoga! Are you busy? Get an iPad! We do this also with relationships. If you want to spend more time with the kids, then coach soccer. You get the idea. We add. I add. It is what we do. We do it, in fact, until we find ourselves bent by our cares and worries.

So anyway, I am back to trying to approach my life differently. I am not sure I have a choice. While there is an obvious environmental and economic impact, Burbanian life is also not sustainable on a personal level. Sometimes we (or I) over look that. The questions have changed for me. So now I am trying to ask "Is there God in this?" If the answer is no, then I let whatever it is pass.

Or, at least, that is the goal. It is harder in reality than in theory. The fact is, most of the time I ask this question the answer is the same. Yeah, there is a lot of not-God in my life. Sometimes I wonder where it all came from...

Still, I try. I am finding that certain areas are easier to deal with than others. Food, though I backslide from time to time, has been the easiest. I can safely say I am eating better. I also exercise more. I am keeping yoga in the schedule. However, I am addicted to stuff like no one's business. Yesterday I sent a vast raft of paper to the recycling and started making decisions about the clutter (books, computers, software, garbage, etc) that gets in the way and sucks up my time. I need less paper. I need less technology. I like to have both around, but then I feel the weight.

Also hard are attitude and behavior. I bet some of you readers know what I mean. Even so, I am trying to ask myself to find God in my feelings, behaviors, and judgements. If the answer is "no" (as it often is) I am working to let them go. It is hard to keep your head in the 'burbs.

Sounds bleak on a rainy day doesn't it? It shouldn't. Asking these questions and getting "no" back means getting an opportunity to change things. Asking these questions and getting a "yes" makes that yes so much more meaningful.

This morning Son #3 and I had breakfast together before school and work. There was no one else home and there were few distractions. He got up early so we had plenty of time. My wife says he is a lot like me. We worry about stuff and fixate on specific things. So that is what we did...in a good way. It was a pleasant hour working out our days.

Of course, his stuff has a lot more to do with kindergarten, which was nice. We had a good time chatting before we walked to school. Some time while re-packing his bag (he wanted to make sure he had the exact right combination of pumpkin muffins and Goldfish--both chocolate and original--for whatever his snack needs are today) I asked myself that question about God's presence and received a resounding "yes". I will take it. After all, there is Grace in these simplicities.

And The Church Goes On...Thinking About the Bible

2011-10-20T07:22:00.000-07:00

To read this blog lately, one would think all I do is sit around thinking about "Occupy". In real life, of course, this isn't true at all. Right now, in fact, I am psyching myself up to get into "Sunday preparation" mode. Things will be busy this week. I am organising a discussion group about Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" and its influence on current social movements like Occupy, The Tea Party, and the Arab Spring. That isn't close to the half of it, however...

On Sunday, in fact, we will be wrapping up a series of services on the liberal church. This week we will be thinking about how liberals approach the Bible. There will be two discussion groups (one before church and one after) and, of course, the service itself. In my experience (by no means exhaustive) most of the folks attracted to religious liberalism practice a sort of "theology of subtraction". We approach our faith looking for things that are not divine so that we may remove them from our understanding of God (or whatever term one might wish to use). This is, by the way, a very ancient and accepted technique. The idea is to peel away Christianity's human-made complexities to reveal the simplicities. Or--to use slightly different language--we seek the permanent within the transient.

We even do this with scripture. Certain passages make sense to us. Others seem nonsensical. Still others we find ourselves arguing against. Each case is different and has something for us. When we agree with scripture, it can bring insight to the topic. When we are confused we can seek further clarity like religious detectives. When we disagree either our own view is modified or strengthened because of the challenge. In each case, though, we can ask where God is and where God isn't.

I think most people do this, but not everyone is able to acknowledge it or articulate it. Some traditions make claims for their own approach. There are those who believe the Bible is, in fact, internally consistent. There are those who use the complexities of their own tradition to mediate the meaning of scripture. I like subtraction.

Folks familiar with the tradition can probably figure out some of the readings. One will be Theodore Parker. Another will be Palfrey Perkins. I am also questing for a Bible verse that would fit. Feel free to let me know if you think of one! Perhaps I should have known this would be difficult....

Anyway, back to it. I don't mind, of course. I love talking about the Bible...

More on Protest Music...and a Blog to Check Out

2011-10-19T10:30:00.000-07:00

So, I was reading the New York Times this morning as an accompaniment to my yogurt and herbal tea when I noticed an article about the intriguing lack of protest songs. The article points out that many of the artists currently writing in the protest genre are older folks (with the exception of Everlast, but he isn't exactly young by music standards). Also, there was a sense that both the audience and the record companies don't like the controversy music like this might cause. Perhaps, too, songs about economic justice are just harder to write than peace songs. Finally, there was a nod to social networking bring people together in a way that music used to.

There was something else in the article that got me thinking. Someone pointed out--citing recent works by Green Day and Pink--that protest songs seem to be more easily written during Republican administrations. There is a person to embody the issue. On the other hand, Obama is someone that many of these potential protest writers voted for. Some folks had high hopes. Some of us (including me) just had regular hope. Obviously, it has been a frustrating few years for the 99%, which is at least part of why the occupation is happening. Plenty of protesters are angry with Obama, just not in the Tea Party kind of way.

With that in mind, I wonder if this is a case where the religious tradition of lament may be of assistance to our occupy songsters. That is, maybe not a fight song, but the blues...

Anyway, here is the link to the NYT article. It is worth the read.

Here--just in case you didn't read it--is the link to my previous post on this subject.

And...drum roll...here is a link to the new blog of my friend Peter Boulatta! Peter is doing quite a bit of "occupy" blogging right now but, as a fellow clergyperson, I know that he has other plans as well.

Occupy Burbania?

2011-10-18T07:58:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it feels like two worlds doesn't it? Folks who have participated in the protests at the various "Occupies" do not, for the most part, actually sleep there. We come in from our various lives when we can. We bring ourselves, our voices, our children, our food and water. We do our part (and blog incessantly). Then we go home.

Now some folks no doubt go back to communities where people are curious about what is going on at the occupation. Maybe there are even people going in and coming out at various times throughout the week. One non-geographic community I am a part of is exactly like this. That would be the loose association of liberal clergy all across this nation who have embraced the new movement. In Burbania, though, interest and understanding are harder to come by. We go into the city by train or car, passing full soccer fields and busy shopping districts. Then we come out and it is as if we had never left.

I think we have a challenge in getting to the folks who live in suburban America. Suburbs (particularly past the "second ring" of 'burbs that wrap a major municipality) are inward-looking places. They have their own (usually very local) issues, their own interests and concerns. It is easy out here to forget the suffering of other people. In fact, the culture in some ways encourages us to do just that. In many parts of the 'burbs things like unemployment and homelessness are balanced by worries about which kid gets the big part in the school play, who scores the winning goal, who has cleaned up the fall leaves...and who has not.

Still, there is no point in complaining unless you are going to do something about it. The first step, I think, is to identify some of the challenges that exist in getting the word out and helping people understand what the movement is about. The place to begin is with cultural issues. There are certain streams in our lives that make it difficult for Burbanians to relate to the Occupy movement. Actually, they exist in each of us regardless of our geographical location. When I list them it might make sense for us to consider how they play in our lives. Do we embrace them? Do we struggle to keep them in perspective? Do we ignore (and therefore unreflectively integrate) them? I for, one, have noticed my reaction to these streams changes over time.

Good Order: The suburbs are a place where structure is given a great deal of authority. "Good" suburbs are places where people feel they have a great deal of control over their environment. "Bad" suburbs are--not surprisingly--the opposite. A "bad" suburb has too much of the city in it or it is a little too country. The goal, it seems, is to approximate Mayberry as much as possible (kids, ask your parents). I know it looks like it is rural in a sound-stage kind of way. But it isn't. The goal is closeness and closedness. That is what people mean when they celebrate how "everybody knows each other". There is a place for everyone we know...and everyone has their place.

Occupy is not about order. It is about disturbing that order so that people can look at things differently. Chaos is something we see in the city (diverse populations, traffic, crime) and in the country (weather, nature, and, yes, diverse populations again). If you live in a place where good order and social stratification are basic building blocks of society, this chaos is frightening.  We can, and do, fixate on side issues that then loom large in our minds. Is the park clean? Did somebody step on the plantings? Did someone really spit on someone else? Why is everyone yelling?

The Aspirational 1%: Not everyone who sides with the 1% are themselves wealthy.   As we know, there are many folks in that 1% who side with the 99%. Why then, wouldn't it also go the other way? There is a stream in our culture--often unexamined--that declares the good (even just) life to be the pursuit of as much wealth as possible. These folks can be found in all strata of middle and upper-class 'burbs. It is part of life. People's parents and grandparents believed it, too. The rules are simple and we all know them. It is better to own than to rent. It is better to live in a "good" suburb than a "bad" one. You must trade up in cars and houses regularly or be left behind. Your job need not be one that returns anything back to society, nor do you need to contribute your time and money in other ways. If you make enough, then some lemon bars for the PTO every once in a while (along with assistant coaching) should cover your social obligations. Particularly if you obey the law.

Occupy attracts a different group of people. I already mentioned the clergy. We are not alone, though, are we? Teachers spring to mind as a much abused group in this category, but there are others. The problem is that if your view is that what you make is what you are worth than it must also be true that there is something wrong with people who make less. It is a challenge to the Burbanian model that literally does not compute. There are people, for example, who honestly believe that folks are protesting so that they personally can get a job. In this aspirational stream there is no concept of a fleet of boats being lifted together. No understanding of union in its broadest sense. No wonder the message seems so vague to some observers.

Busyness: I don't even know why I bother with this one. If you live in Burbania, you know what I mean. We are on a roll the minute we get up until the minute we get to bed. Because of this we don't always have the time to examine and reflect. We cannot stop even if it means missing the most important social movement in the last decade. I am not judging, believe me, I know how hard it can be to get out of work and realize that for the next four hours you will be a catering and bus service for the fam and after that...you will go back to work for a couple hours.

What we need is clear communication. We need ways to find out what is happening "out there" (in my case about 15 miles away) that are clear and at least somewhat accurate. This brings us to yet one more stream...

Poor Communication: As I mentioned earlier, the 'burbs tend to look inward. We are worried about our lawns and our kids. Past that things become hard to understand. Now, this isn't to say that there aren't millions of us who are interested in the world around us and trying to do the right thing. The fact is, we do go in to the city to protest and we do engage in a vast number of activities in our community to make the world more just. That said, it is hard to learn about the world outside the suburbs, particularly about Occupy.   This has to do with the weak information stream that we get from the press.

Here is an example. This Saturday I participated in a march in Boston that had thousands of people. I mean, it was HUGE. We started up on the historic Common by Park Street Station. Then we worked out way through the Financial District to Dewey Square where the encampment is. We made a lot of noise. We stopped traffic. However, press coverage was...light. It turns out Deval Patrick (our governor) decided he needed some Occupy glow and went down with his coffee to stroll around the encampment while nothing else was going on. That was the story of the weekend. Patrick talking to handful of people in a fairly empty tent city. Unless you were in Boston that day, you might get the impression the movement was a rather ho-hum affair. The reality was far different. As I have mentioned in an earlier post, we have seen the same thing around the demographics of participants. According to the regular press, everyone is an unemployed student.

The press, by its own admission, was slow to notice Occupy Wall Street and then the rest of the movement. They have also been, by its own admission, slow to figure out how to cover the event. Many articles are defensive reports on how there aren't any demands. We are making their job hard and it bothers them, so they say the movement is complicated. In reality it isn't all that complicated. There is a fairly steady and consistent economic critique. Also, there is some good modeling of an alternate democratic process in how the movement runs. Yes, there are specific demands in certain areas that vary. Any movement this large will be like that. It isn't a problem, but it is chaotic, egalitarian, and at times hard to describe in a sound bite.

It should be noted that one of the ways around the information gap is the internet. I get a great deal of news that way. On Facebook I have "liked" the Occupy movements in Boston, New York (Wall Street), Worcester, Bangor, and Providence. I also get updates from friends and acquaintances in each of these places and in many others. I read articles (pro-, con-, and mixed) that are easy to find. Still, for many folks social networking is just email-with-pictures and blogging is a mystery. For them other solutions need to be found.

Occupy the 'burbs...in a way. I am thinking that the mission of occupiers who go in to the city and then come out is a simple one. We need to talk. We need to bring up in friendly suburban ways that we went to the march. We need to give people opportunities to discuss in ways that make them comfortable. Mostly, though, we need to give the movement a face that our neighbors recognize 'cause we're not all that bad.

The question then becomes where we do these things. That is up to you. I see people at the kids' schools. I see them picking up and dropping off. There isn't a lot of time, but I do try to let them know where I have been. I also see people at church. Church is a good place for discussions, actually. It is part of our mission to come together as a congregation. It is also a place that naturally attracts people looking for something more in their lives. Church people expect to resist the inward-looking streams. I believe they hope that we will help them do that.

These places may not work for you, of course. I think the important point, though, is to remember that the real work isn't walk around with a sign. The real work is changing the world for the better.

Good luck. Keep the Faith.

Occupy Music!

2011-10-17T09:47:00.000-07:00

I realize that most regular readers are aware that this is not my first protest rodeo. Primarily (but not exclusively) thanks to a politically active family, the Labor Movement, Divestment, Jackson '88, and the two Gulf Wars, I have had ample opportunity to participate in direct action as manifested on the American left from the mid-1970's until today. The reason that I bring this up is that during that same time I have also experienced the decline of the great institution known as the protest song.

I miss it. When I was a young person being dragged to rallies and marches in support of striking members of the United Paperworkers International, I remember singing. I remember, in particular, that when the old people sang, they knew the words. When the young people (Boomers) sang they needed the words written down or shouted out in advance. The people just slightly older than me didn't sing at all. When I was older, similar (mostly UPIU or Democratic Party) events showed evidence of the same trend. As the years passed, there was less singing and more chanting, more yelling. This is not to say that chanting and yelling aren't legitimate means of expression, of course. However, I do wonder where the songs went.

I think they went the way of technology. I have mentioned this before in reference to the hallowed tradition of hymn-singing, the last place random everyday folks are expected to produce music. With the recording industry in its various permutations came music as private entertainment. We might sing now, but it isn't in public. It is in the car. "Singing in public" now means a whole family singing together in the car and making a whimsical Facebook Update out of the experience. ("Sang Lion Man today with little Timmy. He's gonna be a rock star!")

Churches now hang on with really loud organs and persistent pastors with ukes. In the world of protest, though, we are silent. Yes, I know I can google Billy Bragg, Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, and so on. But they are pros. We on the other hand, do not sing, if only because we are out of practice and do not know the words. We also aren't all that interested.

This woman brought her ukulele to the march this Saturday. It looks to me like a concert-sized Lanikai. First she seemed to be trying to get folks singing. Then she used it as a rhythmic accompaniment to the chanting. Neither worked out so well. Mostly because we were stuck in a knot of Boomers who weren't going to let their nostalgia tour be derailed by some protest full of noisy youngsters. When we moved closer to the action, we lost track of her. At the encampment there were also a few other musicians around. Each, though, was giving a brief concert to themselves or a few friends. No one was trying to reach out.

I should say, though, that I do have some hope. Ukulele-woman was, after all, giving it a shot. There was also a banjo guy apparently learning Blowin' In the Wind (that should make the Boomers happy). Most of my hope comes from my experience with the DIYers in the uke community. Here technology becomes an asset. It is easy to find protest songs on the web. It is easy to find Chord progressions, too. It is easy to bridge the cultural divides and to start a "collection" of songs all people can sing. Gen Xers and Millenials are learning ways for the Internet to bring us together rather than comfort us in our isolation. Music--it is clear--is a part of this. So I urge you to occupy music yourself. Learn a protest song and teach it to someone else.

Here are some suggestions. These are just starters, by the way, and you should do the legwork yourself. It is good practice. If you do not know the tune, YouTube is there to help you. Once you know that, you can google the name of the song and the word "chords". Yeah...I know...you figured that out. Then, feel free to make suggestions here. I am occupying music, too.

This Land is Your Land (Woody Guthrie)
There is Power in a Union (Joe Hill but everyone thinks Bragg wrote it)
Blowing in the Wind (Dylan)
Union Maid (also W. Guthrie)

Good luck people! Keep the faith...

Occupy Boston

2011-10-11T11:26:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I spent a few hours occupying Boston. We started at the Common with mostly student groups and then picked up folks representing various other organizations as it went along. MassUniting (a coalition of community groups), for example, was listed as a co-sponsor. This was the same march that eventually ended up in the standoff at the Charlestown bridge. Of course, if they had put people to work to fix the bridge there would have been plenty of room for everyone. Needless to say, that was the point....

Actually, my wife and I had stepped out slightly earlier. If we knew what would happen, maybe we would have hung in there a little longer. However, the kids were hungry and tired. There was homework to be done and, of course, the two of us had work in the morning....

Funny thing, though, to hear and read about Occupy Boston (and the other "Occupies") one might think that all there is to them is a few hundred unwashed hippies on the ten-year plan at their local college or university. I find this odd. I (as most of you know) am a middle-aged small church pastor from West Dullsville and as I looked around the crowd, I am darn sure I was not the only one. OK, maybe they weren't all middle-aged pastors but there sure was a lot of grey on quite a few respectable looking heads. In fact, I don't need to "get a job" do I? Still, I was there. Also, my kids weren't the only under-18-year-olds blocking traffic yesterday. I was pleased to see them take time from suburban kid pursuits to engage in a little direct democracy.

So...there were older people and younger people making their voices heard and their presence felt.

Furthermore, what's so wrong with college students? Yes, they were there, and I have heard them referred to in a variety of derogatory ways for their perceived "laziness". Some folks were concerned that they didn't present well. It is true that they weren't dressed for the Young Republicans meeting. But wouldn't it be weird if they were? On the whole I found them to be polite and helpful. Many of them were certainly working hard, too. They kept my sons hydrated, gave them cough drops when they couldn't yell anymore, and generally were as welcoming and friendly as young adults can be. They were good company. I would hire them, even if they did happen to trip over Rose Kennedy's flowers.

This demographic breadth is important, by the way. The fact is, Occupy Boston is the result of legitimate concerns and experiences expressed by people who come from a wide variety of backgrounds and perspectives. Someday (perhaps soon) the encampment will go away, but the situation that brought it about will not. No doubt there are--right now--any number of pundits trying to pat us on the head and move this movement off the stage, but the problems are real and the message remains even if the messengers change...or aren't quite what some folks would like.

As one Burbanian to another, I would recommend that you go down and see the encampment for yourself. It isn't very far and they could use the support. They honestly feel that they are camping for all of us, for the 99%. I feel that they are, too. And when we march, we march for all of us, even if we don't all agree. There is a schedule of events (that does change from time to time), but going over to say "hi" would also be appreciated. If this isn't your bag, give me a call. If I have the time maybe I will go with you...

However, do bring them some water or a blanket or something, would you? It's not all that comfortable a place to be right now.

Here are a couple links:

First the link to MassUniting. The group affiliated with them that I know best is Mass Community Action Network or MCAN. I worked with them to help found and interfaith group in the Framingham/Natick area. Yep...church (and synagogue and mosque) people.

Also, here is the link to Occupy Boston. Here is a story from the Boston Globe with interviews from some of the not-students who were arrested.

A Sermon from the First Sunday in Advent

2011-09-28T07:06:00.000-07:00

I have a confession to make: even though I make a good show of pretending that I dislike all those Christmas decorations going up at the mall right after Halloween, there is a part of me that loves it! This year I am thinking about Christmas now as things seem to get way too busy in the parsonage during Advent to truly mainain a consistent sense of wonder. To that end, I am getting into the spirit of the season by posting some of my Advent sermons of the past...

This one was preached the Sunday after Thanksgiving this past year (2010). It is pretty short. On that Sunday we instituted a new ritual. We read six passages. Three were from the Bible and three were not. The purpose was to put them in conversation with each other. I reference four of them in the sermon. The only one that might be hard to find is in "Teaching Metaphors" by Nathan Graziano. I will post a link to his web page if you are interested. Of the others, one is by Ann Weems and the other two are the Magnificat and the Benedictus, both from the Bible (the Tyndale Translation 'cause it's Adventy).

After each reading we lit a candle in one of the six sanctuary windows and then had a brief moment of silence. It was a nice way to enter the season on a day when so many congregants were on the road back from Grandmother's house.

This is also the first time that I played the ukulele in front of the entire non-summer congregation! Good times...

"White Christmas"
First Sunday in Advent 2010
Rev. Dr. Adam Tierney-Eliot

Ann Weems in our reading today laments that "too often our answer to the darkness is not running toward Bethlehem but running away". Maybe this doesn’t apply to you but for many of us, it is probably true. We can get stuck in the darkness. We can get lost--turned around--and in our confusion we may not actually see the light, not travel toward Bethlehem, but instead go backwards.

Some of our readings today have reflected moments of desperation and states of pain that—even if we have not experienced them ourselves--we can understand. Think of that teen mother we opened our readings with, struggling to create a future for herself and her family. It is a hard life. It is the same life that was before that other teen mother we read about today. But Mary sang "My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my savior, for God has looked with favor on this lowly servant".

Advent and Christmas remind us to seek out a light in the dark, to hope for a better future. Like Mary and Zecharia and Isaiah we too must realize that a difficult and tragic past does not doom us to a similar future.

Now, we have been talking about a lot of serious stuff this morning. However, the spirit of Advent can be found in much lighter fare as well. For that reason, I would like to end with something from the world of musical comedy.

Do you all know the movie White Christmas? It was made in 1954 and told the story of two friends (played by Danny Kaye and Bing Crosby). They have names in the film but, really, Danny plays Danny and Bing plays Bing. Having already, like most Americans of their generation, lived through the Great Depression, we first see them on an unnamed battlefield during the Second World War. There they are saying goodbye to their commanding officer. Then the movie fast forwards a few years and the war is over

After the war Bing and Danny become successful Broadway producers, but it is clear that something is missing in their lives. They are running to and fro putting on their shows in Florida and New York and DC. They are busy. Still, they seem to be either running away or running in place.

Now I know it is a musical comedy so what is missing in their lives isn’t some great secret. There is no quiet, looming tragedy. There is just a vague sense of displacement for two people accustomed to being displaced. They haven’t yet settled down. They aren’t married (It is the '50's so you have to be married to be happy). Furthermore, the father figure in this film--the commanding officer from their war days--is failing at his business venture--a ski Lodge in Pine Tree Vermont. There is no snow and he is losing money. As a Mainer growing up I always wondered why they didn’t just get snow-making machines. Then they could have as much snow as they wanted.

Now, this is (as the name implies) an Advent movie. As we know, what keeps them going--just as it does for Mary and Zecharia--are their dreams, their hopes for a better future. For Bing And Danny
these dreams are symbolized by the idea of a white Christmas. That is, they possess a simple hope that things will be just like they "used to be" at some dimly (and probably incorrectly) remembered time. Through the course of the movie. They fall in love with Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen. They also manage to help out their old general By getting there war buddies together at the lodge for a big production number, all the while dreaming of this White Christmas. Then, after they save the day and everything seems right in the world, the snow finally comes...

It’s corny, like many great films. It's like in the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy realizes everything she ever needed was in her own back yard. But...we watch these movies. And in the case of White Christmas, we watch it because it tells us about our own simple hopes this Advent season when we all pray for simplicity, family, and friendship, Faith, Hope, Joy, and Love.

At this point I pulled out the uke and we sang "White Christmas". I think they are used to this sort of thing now, but the collective look of surprise was priceless for me and the summer folks...

Links:

I only have a couple. As promised, here is the link to the book Teaching Metaphors. I cannot remember the name of the poem, but it is the one about the teen mother. Folks may also be interested in Graziano's baseball blog.

The Challenge of the Small Church

2011-09-27T06:58:00.000-07:00

This past week the local American Baptist church closed its doors. There are many reasons for this, some of them specific to the congregation. For better insight into those reasons, you can read the article I have linked at the bottom of this post.

However, what concerns me is what it says about the future of other smaller congregations in Burbania. The ABC church owned their own building right on the common downtown. They used it for various community activities, so people knew who they were and were in and out of the building regularly. Still, few people chose to drop in on Sunday. It should also be noted that our little corner of Burbania really isn't all that small. In these parts we like to think it is. However, were we magically transported to the state of Maine where I grew up, it would be the second largest city. The 'burb next to us is larger than Portland! There are all these people and yet we cannot seem to maintain a mainline Baptist church.

In the article (if you read it) you will note that the only congregation interviewed that claims substantial growth is Episcopalian. This makes perfect sense to me. I know that church well. It is well run, but I suspect that demographics play a large role in the situation as well. We live in an extremely Catholic area. We also live in a place that is more liberal in many ways than most of the country. This means that the Episcopalian combination of orthodox theology, Catholic-looking polity and liturgy, and progressive social agenda is both compelling and safe for many Burbanians. Also, it is larger and its very largeness attracts more people. There are more programs, after all, and the responsibilities are distributed over a broader constituency.

Meanwhile many of the rest of us (Baptists, Congregationalists of all four branches, Presbyterians, etc) have to explain who we are to visitors who often come expecting worship to look a different way. Even if their theology is closer to one of these denominations, they face the challenges of small-church life and--coming from a different paradigm--don't necessarily see its benefits. Life is different in a large church. You show up, participate in what you want to participate in, and go home. Certainly you give money and there are plenty of ways to be involved if you wish to be but there is also the potential for anonymity. This model may very well fit the lifestyles of most of my neighbors better than the model of my own congregation.

We are set up a bit more on that "monastery model" I wrote about at the beginning of my sabbatical. The congregation members (for the most part) try to be present and interested in the life of the church. There are few strangers. The strangers who visit become friends pretty quickly, too! We see this as a good thing. The small church is (or can be) a force for intentionality and wonder in a world that continues to succumb to waves of frantic expenditures of energy and goodwill.

We Burbanians tend to move through a cloud of loosely held affiliations. In most of these affiliations we are either consumers or providers. In the small church the balance between what we take and what we give is more even. We still try to think in terms of "we" rather than "me". However, we are stretched by the world we witness in and some of that stretching can be a trial.

I don't have any answers today. Folks at the church are talking about our future and--in many ways--The future for our church seems bright. Still, we lost a neighbor congregation to the realities that impact our own existence, so it seems worth taking a moment to mourn its passing and to think about what comes next...

Here is a link to the article in the local paper. Take a moment to look at the pictures...

Here is a link to my post about the liberal church being a modern monastery...which it isn't but I think it is a useful metaphor nonetheless...

Michael Vick, Ebenezer Baptist Church, Second Chances

2011-09-21T11:32:00.000-07:00

The Story of Michael Vick is, I think, pretty well known by even non-football fans. This Sunday he is returning to Atlanta where he first played in the NFL. It is also the place he left when the bottom fell out and he went to prison. Now he is a big star again with the Philadelphia Eagles, trying to re-write his place in the world.

Here is a link that I found interesting, both because of the QB in question and because of the church. It made me think about the life of congregations and the act of forgiveness. It is apparently in two parts, I have only seen the piece on the left...

Ukulele Hymns for Private Worship

2011-09-20T10:36:00.000-07:00

As you are no doubt aware--the flow of time being what it is--my annual ukulele summer service series is over. I have some thoughts about what I have learned. However, I am still digesting. Much of it has less to do with the uke in particular and instead concerns worship in general. I have been reminded of things that I once knew about worship and discovered a few more. I will post on this soon, so feel free to read the "Ukulele" posts to get up to speed if you aren't already.

What I wanted to bring up now, though, is perhaps the most interesting byproduct of using the uke as the summer instrument of choice. I now tend to use it myself, for private prayer and worship. In fact, if there is any "spiritual discipline" that I can claim, it would be the daily singing and playing of Abide With Me and My Life Flows on.

I came to this by accident. Over the summer I played every day. I would warm up on popular tunes from the catalogues of Rodgers and Hammerstein, The Decemberists, and Mumford & Sons. After that, I would practice the hymns for Sunday. However, as the summer wore on--and it did wear--I found myself playing a few hymns over and over as they suited the mood and the instrument. After a while they became part of my daily routine. Now, with the pressures of work and kids, sometimes they are the only pieces I have time for.

Still, I manage to get the uke out to play and sing those two songs. They have provided a spiritual focus to at least a small part of my busy day. They have provided solace during a season which--for a variety of reasons--I will not miss.

If you are thinking about the possibility of increasing the importance of music in your own spiritual practice you might want to give thought to what I have accidentally done. Other hymns might work better for you. Perhaps other instruments as well, though the uke gives everything it encounters a sweet simplicity that is hard to beat. It is (as I have mentioned before) relatively easy to play moderately well, so when there is no one to impress, it might be just the thing.

I would, however, recommend that if you do use Abide with Me, that you find a traditional version that you like. The UU hymnal (Singing the Living Tradition) for example, excludes the verse with the line "I need thy presence every passing hour". I need to hear and utter that from time to time. It is a basic tenet of my own faith. I do need God. It is good to say that every once in a while.

A recent Facebook conversation about music in our personal spiritual journeys pointed out some of the many ways in which we use music to touch the Divine. In particular, the question was about how we do this outside of corporate worship. Here's hoping that you have a way to personally integrate music, too.

The Rest...and More Predictions

2011-09-15T11:28:00.000-07:00

OK, it is time for me to decide on the other two divisions to follow this year and the decision is a difficult one. I have written about this before. Last year, I chose the AFC West and the NFC West. As such, I selected the two worst divisions in football. The NFC West, in particular, was unimpressive. They managed to produce the first team ever to win their division with a losing record. That cannot be rewarded. The only reason to follow the AFC West is to keep tabs on the crazy in Denver where the incumbent Kyle Orton (not brilliant but reliable) may be replaced by Tim Tebow based at least partly on Tebow's evangelical street-cred. This is interesting in a sociology of religion kind of way...but it feels too much like work.

Also, all the teams were so bad that it was a freefall to the bottom. That creates a difficult environment for making rational decisions.

Therefore the west is out and they are being replaced by the AFC North and the NFC South.

AFC North

This year, the turbulence for these teams is restricted--for the most part--to the field. The Pittsburgh Steelers have tended to put the cap on this division, leaving the Baltimore Ravens to fight for a Wild Card spot. This year we find the Ravens already one game up on the Steelers. In fact, they beat the Steelers 35-7. Both these teams are very good, but I do not see Pittsburgh getting ahead of Baltimore. Besides, I don't like (Steelers QB) Ben Rothlisberger and my mother-in-law lives in Maryland.

The other two teams are...well...really, really bad. They both play in Ohio, which is all you need to know about them. However, I do have some other useful information for those awkward social situations I mentioned earlier. Both teams are in a rebuilding phase and who "wins" third place may very well come down to injuries. The Cleveland Browns are slightly ahead in the rebuild and their QB, Colt McCoy seems to have that "special something" sports people call "intangibles". Yeah, I know, he has best sports name since Speed Racer. Still, I like him. The Bengals beat the Browns this past Sunday but Colt shouldn't loose any sleep over it.

Predictions

Ravens (Say "hi" to Gramma, kids!)
Steelers (Will get the wild card and "play angry" but will lose to the Ravens...again)
Browns (Because someone has to come in third)
Bengals (They are on a five-year plan to mediocrity. Let's hope they make it)

For the BBQ No one pays attention to the Browns and Bengals so you are safe making things up about them. The Browns have the best uniforms in the NFL. For years they have been trying to get brown to go well with orange.

Where I come from, one is not allowed to say nice things about the Steelers. There are reasons for this that a quick google search will get you up to speed on. If there is a pause in the conversation and it is your turn to talk, you cannot go wrong by saying "well, it is really hard to beat that Raven's defense" at which time someone will say "yeah, and Flacco is no slouch either." Joe Flacco is Baltimore's QB. It is true. He is not a slouch.

Also fun: The Ravens are named after a certain poem by Baltimore's favorite son Edgar Allan Poe...which is awesome and might get some of you on safer conversational ground.

NFC South

I just can't do it...

...There is no reason to pay any more attention to the NFC. Sure, there are the Saints, who everyone wishes would win another championship game. There is also the entire NFC East to consider. However, the Cowboys play in the NFC East and we do not want to encourage them...

So how about...

The AFC South?

This is fun. These folks have had the unthinkable happen to them. Peyton Manning, the best Quarterback in football (yes, he truly is) has injured his neck and will not be playing this year. I personally hope he retires. No one should risk another neck injury. I would be unable to watch his games for the potential catastrophe implied in every offensive play. The absence of Peyton means that the Indianapolis Colts will not win their division this year.

So where does that leave us? The Houston Texans are the logical choice. However, I am going with the Jaguars of Jacksonville. Call it a hunch but I think that their somewhat old-fashioned offense (that means they are a running team) will keep the defense fresh (it takes longer for running teams to score). Also, they seem to "want it more". Perhaps this is because they will all be fired at the end of the year if they don't make the playoffs. I am not making that up! Sure, no one goes to their games and the owners would like to move to LA...but think of the earthquakes! The Texans are always the next-big-thing. My bet is that they stay that way.

Wait, there is another team, isn't there? That would be the Tennessee Titans. They, too, have a decent running game, but there other parts aren't quite as good. They lost their coach. They are rebuilding. Also, their QB situation is tenuous. Placeholder Matt Hasselbeck is ancient. Yes, the Jaguars have a placeholder, too. But I think Luke McCown is better than people give him credit for. Yes, I just said that. If you are feeling brave, you can say that, too.

Predictions:

Jaguars (Surprise!)
Colts (Contrary to popular belief, they are more than Manning...but they don't make the playoffs)
Texans (Maybe they beat the Colts...)
Titans (Hopefully they don't injure RB Chris Johnson. They will want him next year)

At the BBQ: It may be best to avoid talking about these folks. If you absolutely must, remember that the "Jaguars will surprise people this year" and "the Colts are such a finesse team".

There you have it: three AFC divisions and one from the NFC. Good luck in all your sacred fall endeavors...

How Could I Forget? All of New England will curl up in front of the TV tonite for A Football Life: Bill Belichick. You can too!

First Week Down and Predictions

2011-09-14T09:13:00.000-07:00

I realized yesterday that in the list of upcoming posts I forgot an important one: football predictions. The first week of the season is over and now it is time for me to briefly pontificate on the subject of who is worth talking about during backyard Burbanian cookouts. This is a service I provide to those of you who don't follow the NFL but still want to be able to make light conversation with the spouses of your own spouse's work friends....and folks at weddings and the like.

Now, I do watch football. I like its complexity. I like its larger-than-life elements. I also like the fact that I have never played it myself, which means I don't have any negative schoolboy baggage to cart around. Finally (and perhaps the biggest reason) I like it because it is on Sunday afternoons and there are days when all I want to do after church is have a beer and watch 250 lb humans pound the living snot out of each other. I'm not proud of this, but it's true...

Traditionally, I select four divisions. This gives me the opportunity to concentrate on the game while also leaving plenty of time for work and family. Here are the first two divisions I will be profiling. They are both back from last year because they are quite good and fun to watch...

AFC (American Football Conference) East

As a Patriots fan of long standing, this is my "home division". I am very fortunate in that it is also the most fun to watch. There is some turmoil in it right now, but that will sort itself out shortly. The Patriots are the defending division champs though the Jets (who play in New Jersey) have done better in the playoffs. The competition between these two teams will be stiff. Neither has much to complain about. Basically the Pats have the edge over the Jets when they are playing other teams. The Jets, however, always play well against the Pats and usually win. If New England expects to make it to the Super Bowl, they really need to figure out what to do about their division rival.

The other two teams are the Buffalo Bills who have been very bad for a very long time and the Miami Dolphins who have tended to be pretty good, but not good enough in a tough division. This year you can expect this situation to reverse.

The Bills defeated a (horrible) Kansas City Chiefs team in the first week. Somehow, the usually incompetent front office in Buffalo realized that for them doing nothing in the offseason is much better than doing something, so they return with a good coach and a good QB, both acquired by accident in previous years. The Dolphins on the other hand lost their opener to the Patriots. Yes, the Pats are a good team, but the crazy-humiliating game had more to do with the poor play of an apparently out of shape defense than with anything else. Chad Henne (QB) did pretty well as did their new star running back Reggie Bush. That said, they are using the frail Bush as an every-down back so you can expect him to be injured soon...

Predictions

Patriots (They are just better)
Jets (I think they will miss the playoffs this year)
Bills (Again, the path of least resistance will pay off)
Dolphins (Management should look at Buffalo's new model)

At the BBQ: You cannot go wrong saying things like "The Pats/Jets are looking good this year". If you are feeling a tad brave, though, you could say "I think the Bills will surprise some folks".

NFC (National Football Conference) North

OK, these guys will also be close. The Green Bay Packers are the reigning NFL champs and the universal darlings of the sports world. That's nice. I don't think they will win the division, though. It could have easily been the Chicago Bears in the big game if not for the injury to their QB Jay Cutler. Elsewhere in the sports section I discuss said injury which--apparently--some folks feel wasn't serious enough to require his exit from the game. I think they are wrong. I feel Cutler will come out of the firestorm stronger. Also, the balanced offense of the Bears ("balanced offense" means that they run the ball as well as they throw it) will put the division in their grasp once again (they won it last year).

The other two teams are experiencing a changing of the guard not unlike that of the AFC East. The Minnesota Vikings are coming out of a truly horrendous experience that ultimately culminated in the final days of the Brett Favre story. Newbies will have to google Brett. I don't have the time to get you up to speed. Now they have a new coach and a new (to them) QB in Donovan McNabb, who threw for a whopping 39 yards Sunday. That is really bad. He will improve. This has been a weird opener for many players as the prep time was reduced because of the lockout. Still, I cannot see them defeating the Detroit Lions who are finally getting their acts together. In fact, the Lions could mess things up for the current champs if the Packers are not too careful...and Lions QB Matthew Stafford stays healthy.

Predictions

Bears (If they stay balanced)
Packers (They will still make the playoffs, though)
Lions (They will also win the Thanksgiving Day game against the Packers)
Vikings (Play in a dome and have the only cheerleaders in the division. Coincidence?)

At the BBQ There is plenty of good stuff here already. However, as a general rule, you could mention how good McNabb can be and question the general strength of his "receiving corps" (ball catchers) and the "offensive line" (the big guys up front). Also you can start any statement about the Bears with "I know people don't like Cutler, but..." and people will nod sagely. Actually that works for McNabb, too. The other two QBs (Rodgers and Stafford) are super-popular prom-kings.

There ya go , my people...good luck this fall!

Update: Apparently the Dolphins fired Benny Sapp, a Cornerback (that's on the defense) basically on the strength of one failed effort on his part. Here is a link. It looks like the Dolphins have some serious management issues.

Finally: Here is the link to my defense of the aforementioned Jay Cutler.

Peaks and Valleys

2011-09-12T09:24:00.000-07:00

This time of year is full of peaks and valleys. Certainly it is true for the average small-church pastor. However as a small-church pastor, I think I am safe saying that this is also true for a great many other people. There is a feast or famine element to the summer months. Many things are put off until the fall and--big surprise--when fall comes it turns out we put off more than we thought! Honestly, I am not so sure the whole summer thing is as awesome as we are meant to believe. I would rather have a couple of weeks off per season. I think it would be better for the kids if school was that way, too.

Anyway, I have had trouble finding the time to sit down and update Burbania Posts. A few years ago it would have even been more difficult. Now, of course, we are coming off our highly successful summer series so there are fewer things to get going again. In fact, many of us are still in the habit of going to church. Still, it takes quite a bit of effort to get rolling again and this past weekend marked the final turning of the corner into "normal" church life.

It pretty much started on Friday when I went into Boston to sequester myself at the Athenaeum. I needed to get away from the general hustle of getting the church ready in order to write my sermon and put the finishing touches on both a memorial service and a wedding planned for Saturday. After I got home I ran off to the wake followed by the wedding rehearsal. The next day I officiated both of these events and finished my sermon for Sunday.

The second Sunday in September is called "Kickoff Sunday" at Eliot. It marks the beginning of the church's school year. Naturally, this brings many adults back as well! Interestingly, though, a show of hands indicated that the vast majority of adult attenders were people who had come over the summer as well (just in smaller numbers each week). Perhaps the others will show up at next week's "Ingathering Sunday". The sermon was fine. I probably worried it a bit too much, but that is a natural thing for preachers getting back into the swing of things.

My day was not quite over, though. After the service and the Kickoff brunch, I eventually made my way to the local United Methodist Church to help out at the annual September 11 commemoration. I was in charge of the handing out of flower bulbs near the end. The bulbs were not my idea but I wish they were. I have a bag of them that will now go into the parsonage flower beds to compete with the weeds that normally live there.

As you can see, there were quite a few peaks and valleys over the past few days. One of my favorite parts of serving a small church (or this small church, anyway, where I have served for eight years) is that I know the people. In each case the peaks and the valleys have meant more because of this connection built over time. Maybe that is why today was more about the business side of the ministry. I dropped off the wedding license. I ran errands like picking up my new business cards (I finally put "Reverend Doctor" on them). This afternoon I will be studying for future worship services and then picking up the kids and driving them around. O the Burbanian life!

I have a variety of posts planned for the coming weeks and, hopefully, I will be able to work out some kind of schedule. I absolutely must tell you about how the ukulele worship experience wrapped up. Also, I am no longer a homeschooler and want to tell you about that. Certainly as we roll along there will be more at the church to share as well. We have great plans for the year...

That is all for now. I hope that all of you have survived your peaks and valleys intact.

A Couple Musical Links

2011-08-24T09:05:00.000-07:00

I am getting things ready for the NEW CHURCH YEAR and so am being hasty with today's post. However, two musical giants have died this week and are deserving of you attention. One is Jerry Leiber. The other is Nick Ashford. I have posted links to a couple of articles for each.

Also, if you would like to see some ukulele versions of their work, feel free to "like" Burbania Posts on Facebook. I have posted some video links there. The versions aren't mine but I had a good time finding them....

Here are the articles:

Nick Ashford also there is an article here that you might find interesting.

Jerry Leiber (from Time Magazine) and the NYT

The Farmers' Market

2011-08-23T13:02:00.000-07:00

Lately, we have been volunteering in the Natick Community Organic Farm (NCOF) "stall" at our local farmers' market. When I say "we" here, I mean my family. On weeks that we help out, we get over to the farm, help load the truck, staff the stall (from 9am when the market opens until 1pm when it closes), then break everything down and help unload the truck back at the farm. The whole process takes up between 5 and 6 hours of our Saturday. Though we pitch in on everything, we are not alone. Other people--particularly at the farm--are around and in charge. This is a good thing.

Our reasons for doing this are multi-faceted. We want to do something as a family to give back to our community. It is a way to fight back against the general consumerist culture we all live in. In the 'burbs it is easy to forget that the world isn't really set up for our own personal convenience. We are supposed to find ways to pitch in and serve the community. This is a way that works for us. Besides, the boys get to practice their math while making change.

We do a lot of service through church, of course. That, however, is also where I work. Parish ministry is, in many ways, a life of service. It is also a public profession that naturally draws family members into many activities as well. Still, to be solely a volunteer is a different thing. I remember growing up in a politician's family. There really was a difference between volunteer work that had to do with my dad's career and that which did not. For us, part of volunteering outside the church is to give the kids a chance serve in a way that they can own.

NCOF also has to do with local food, one of my favorite subjects. Even though we have a CSA share from Many Hands Organic Farm we also maintain a relationship with NCOF. We have been members--off and on--since we came here. The Assistant Treasurer at Eliot Church works at the farm. The boys both attend programs there during the school year and take part in its summer camp. In fact, I walked over to the farm a couple hours ago to purchase some tomatoes for dinner. My son was working the cash box.

Another advantage I have found to working at the Farmers' Market is that I get to talk to people. This helps my extroverted pastoral self survive the "low season" at church without driving family or congregants crazy! The topic of conversation is naturally different. I am called upon to plumb the depths of my culinary knowledge. The identities of many of the veggies are not quite as obvious as one might think. Herbs, in particular seem to be confusing for folks. People--rightly--want to know which tomatoes taste sweetest. The same goes with the onions. The massive celery also seems to generate a large number of questions. It is a challenge to talk about food for such a stretch of time.

I do my best to answer their questions and to do a little research when I can. I worked on farms in high school and have managed to maintain a garden from time to time. I ask my sister-in-law (an organic farmer in Maine) when I can. However, the best resources for information have been my CSA experience of the past couple years and my own tendency toward culinary adventure. I have yet to see a vegetable that I haven't used in some way. This week, though, we were all stumped by the difference between the "Cucumber" and the "European Cucumber". My son was selling both kinds today. I hope he noted the differences...

Baseball Sunday and Summer Services

2011-08-22T12:08:00.000-07:00

It appears that we are reaching that part of the UU Blog cycle when we talk about how churches should really have summer services. Talking about the issue can make us sound a bit like a broken record but--really--that's fine. It is the sort of annual ritual that never quite reaches adequate resolution. It needs to be brought up again.

Regular readers of Burbania Posts are, I think, well aware of my position on this. Summer services in my congregation are used to try out new things. We turn the smaller attendance and generally more casual atmosphere to our advantage by worshipping in a way that we might not otherwise. It is fun.

This summer attendance has been higher than usual (though still way below what we expect when school starts back up again). Maybe our attitude is paying off! No matter what the reason, our regulars are enjoying themselves and, I think, the visitors are as well. Incidentally, some of my colleagues have mentioned the whole "summer visitor" thing and there is truth in that. We have had many more this season than in the others.

I was back in the pulpit after a few weeks off. In spite of that gap, I have been around church a lot this summer. I have been here enough, in fact, to endorse the importance of having the pastor around even when most everyone else is on vacation. God doesn't really go to the Cape, after all! That said, I also believe that people need to have realistic expectations for the season. In most liberal-to-moderate Burbanian congregations things will be smaller. Again, this can be taken as a strength. It is a time for people to learn and adapt, creating something new and different for when the rest of the church returns.

This was "Baseball Sunday" for us as we went from our worship service to Pawtucket, Rhode Island to watch the Red Sox AAA affiliate get destroyed by a team from Syracuse. That, too, is something that we don't get to do the rest of the year. It is our second time doing this and we learned from the first. Reserved seats got us under the stadium roof, for example. We also gave away our excess tickets to random folks at the gate "Courtesy of the Eliot Church". They sat with us as well.

Perhaps I will post the "sermon" later. I have written before about how our summer format is such that the whole service has an integrated "sermonish" feel, so perhaps it won't work all that well. Our readings were from Babe Ruth (about liking pitching for the Sox better than batting for the Yanks), Jackie Robinson (about Hank Greenberg), Walter Johnson (about the 1924 World Series), and Paul. We sang three hymns, all accompanies by the ukulele, of course. They were "Abide With Me", Take Me Out to the Ballgame", and "Oh Freedom". I received some nice comments about how the uke facilitates the singing without being overwhelming. I also decorated the sanctuary with baseball-themed pictures, books, and such to help with the "immersion" experience. Maybe next year the PawSox will actually win...

Parking Lot Garden

2011-08-14T13:19:00.000-07:00

Over vacation we took the time to eat at the Thai restaurant in Skowhegan. The fact of its existence is a sign of the changing world we live in. When we lived and worked in Skow the same building was a pizza shop that regularly rotated through management. Then it was purchased as a movie set for the HBO miniseries "Empire Falls" (based on a book by the same name). Empire Falls is a fictional town loosely based on municipalities in the area where I grew up ( I grew up in Lisbon Falls, in the Androscoggin Valley). In the book the town is definitely "working class". It is the kind of place where they barely notice the recession because there hasn't been a "recovery" for decades. Skowhegan is a bit like that, too. It feels like home.

Anyway, the building became a diner named after its role in the movie (the "Empire Grill"). It featured the "diner siding" you can see in the top picture and a faux-weathered sign out front. The breakfasts there were pretty good but, apparently, that restaurant manifestation ran its course. Now they serve up some very fine curry. The noodle dishes are OK, too. However, if you like curry, go with that instead.

What I wanted you to check out, though, is the back of the building and the garden they planted in the small space between the vertical walls and the parking lot pavement. There are a variety of herbs (including a very healthy Thai Basil plant), squash plants, and some tomatoes just beginning to ripen. This tiny garden is evidence of the sort of tenacious practicality I like about the people of my home state. I hope they have a much longer and more successful stay than their predecessors.

They were also--it should be noted--at the Skowhegan State Fair...

Home Again

2011-08-13T14:22:00.000-07:00

I am back at work starting Monday. There is a long list of tasks waiting for me. There are the emails and phone calls that have piled up. Also there is planning to do both for the end of summer services and the beginning of "regular" church in the fall.

Of course, I am coming off my annual trip to Maine. We stay at our "camp" on Lake George, which divides the towns of Canaan and Skowhegan. Our time at the camp is important to us. We reconnect with each other. Of course, we reconnect with more than that. There is something supernatural about a natural world that pushes in on you in a way that it cannot in the 'Burbs. The glories of Creation surround you like the water in the lake. They hold you up.

The trick with vacation is to find a way to bring it with you. After the more stately pace of "rusticating" while visiting friends and family, the return to the general chaos of Burbanian life can be a let down of cosmic proportions. If I look down while jumping off the dock (a mere fantasy this year as we never got the dock in) I can see the splash my feet make before the rest of me reaches the water. That is where I am right now. I am in the air, looking for the splash.

Still, time does not wait. The boys received their homeroom assignments. This includes Norm, of course, who will be returning to structured education after his "sabbatical" year. We are all excited. It is an important year for the church, too. Customarily the year after a sabbatical is one of increased energy and opportunity for everyone. A vision for the future becomes more clear. The plans and dreams of a year ago become altered into some new reality.

Here's to all of you waiting for the splash of Autumn. I pray that it goes well for you.

Here is part of a very long prayer from Theodore Parker

O thou who knowest what all time shall bring forth, we cast our eyes forward, and though every day is hidden in darkness before our eyes, we pray thee that there may be such light within our heart, that it shall make it all glorious light about us, from hour to hour, and in strength that thou givest us we may do the appointed duty of each day, and reverently bear its cross, and so fill up our time with thy service.

Football Season

2011-08-01T06:35:00.000-07:00

So the sports world has been a bit surprised by all the public interest in the NFL since their lockout ended. I don't know why. The new contract is the product of many hours of conversation and compromise in light of the current global financial situation. Neither side chose to paint the other as greedy, godless and un-American beings bent on destruction of our nation. Nor did either side choose spectacular capitulation as a negotiating strategy (yeah, you know what I'm taking about). That meant respectful dialogue, give and take...you know where this is going...

Anyway, so sue me for taking refuge in football prognosticating. It has been a rough week in many respects and it will get rougher.

My first installment has to do with the rather tricky subject of division selection. Regular readers know that I am too lazy to cover the entire league and instead choose two divisions from each conference. Hopefully, they turn out to be the most interesting. Last year was a mixed bag, with the AFC East and the NFC North delivering (though in different ways) and the "Wests" (both AFC and NFC) proving their minor league credentials once again.

At this early date, therefore, I have only decided on two divisions. The other two might get cut...

First the Keepers:

AFC East: The early storyline here is the arms race betwixt the Jets and the Pats. Both teams have made key acquisitions in the last couple of days. Both are viewed as marquee teams likely to challenge for the Super Bowl. The past few years have seen the Pats win the division and the Jets move ahead of the Pats in the playoffs. Very exciting stuff.

Of course, there are two other teams. The Buffalo Bills continue to aggressively pursue a move to Toronto by proving that they could be a reasonable farm team for Toronto's CFL Argonauts. The other team (Miami Dolphins) has so far decided not to compete much this year either, avoiding any temptation to get a quarterback to play for them (Denver's Kyle Orton being the most obvious upgrade). They also have taken on Reggie Bush, a high-quality RB when he is well and when he ummm...doesn't carry much.

Players to Watch: Chad Ochocinco (Pats) and Darelle Revis (Jets)

NFC North The soap opera the Vikings provided us last year should continue for a while longer until QB Donovan McNabb shows what is "left in the tank". I am going out on a limb and saying that there is plenty in there. It will be up to the coaches, though, to scheme in ways that work for him.

The Lions are looking better all the time. However, they haven't given much thought to the offensive line, so we can expect to see a plethora of QB's this year. Jay Cutler of the Bears will get his chance to show that he is not the whiner many people think he is. I never had this opinion of him, actually. However it seems traditional for Bears fans to despise their QB's. Why?

Finally there are the Super Bowl defending Packers. Not a bad lineup of teams and only one (the Vikings) bothers to have cheerleaders.

Players to watch: Donovan McNabb and Jay Cutler

And the other two divisions.

AFC West These teams are traditionally horrible. There is just some really bad football that gets played by these teams. The only reason to watch is because of the odd-but-intriguing elevation of Tim Tebow to sainthood in Denver. If Orton doesn't get traded (he is slightly better than Tebow but doesn't paint bible verses on his eye-black) maybe there will be a QB controversy. Otherwise the Chargers will likely win the division so no real need to watch.

Of course Tebow could turn out to be good which might pull me back. However, I am thinking next season will be a break-out year for him.

NFC West Boring....(snore)...

OK, Tavaris Jackson (Seahawks) may turn out to be interesting...

Links:

Here is a link to my post about Cutler and the Myth of Toughness

And the Argos

Greatest Hits

2011-07-31T12:52:00.000-07:00

So Burbania Posts has been plugging away since August of 2009. In honor of its impending anniversary I will (over the next few weeks when I feel like it) find reasons to post links to old articles. Today I will provide you with links to the five most-viewed BP articles of all time. These aren't necessarily my favorites and some simply pop up more often on Google for some reason. Still, here they are, from #5 to #1...

#5 So Who Are the UU Christians? This is a relatively recent post. Its popularity may well have something to do with the fact that I have pushed it at church as something folks might want to read. It has to do with one of the most central concerns of life in a congregation like Eliot. Responses, incidentally, have been varied...

#4 Declining Denominations Who among BP's core readership isn't interested in this? My relatives, that's who (excluding the Reverend Mother, of course). It also appears on Google sometimes...

#3 The Liberal Church is the Modern Monastery? OK, I was surprised by this one. It was an early attempt to think of ways to re-cast how we think of the liberal church in Burbania. I will need to go and read it again to see what it says...

# 2 Meadville/Lombard Makes Me Dizzy Other UU bloggers have noted that posts about UU institutions (particularly snarky ones) get a whole lot of hits. These thoughts about my alma mater make it to #2 on the all-time list. It is an interesting read today since so much has happened to M/L since. Perhaps they should put a hard copy in the archives at Wiggin Library

and (drum roll please)...

...#1 Ukulele Hymns for Congregational Worship! I know...shocking. I think there has been some genuine interest in worship for smaller congregations. This is a good thing as smaller congregations may be a thing of the future. Also, I have discovered over the past few months a fairly ecumenical interest in the subject. There have been quite a few searches using the key words of the title.

I do hope that folks have found the uke series helpful as I have enjoyed working on it. Even if you don't have a uke, much of what I have written about is applicable in other contexts...

Anyway, that is all for now! Thanks the folks who have dropped by over the years. I am still around so feel free to drop by again! This is definitely the...um...longest lasting of all my blogs...

...Oh...and a consolation prize goes to #6 on the all-time list: When Will College Cease to be Relevant?

Ukulele Melee

2011-07-29T09:36:00.000-07:00

It should be noted (since I post on uke-related things from time to time) that my initial approach to the instrument was primarily practical. I needed something "musical" for worship. It needed to be informal and welcoming to reflect the nature and tone of our shorter and more sparsely-attended services in July and August. It needed to be relatively easy to get started playing and--as I hopefully improve--it mustn't ever make me seem to say "Hey! Look at me! Awesome show-off musician here!". Even today, when my enthusiasm for the instrument has grown, this remains its primary function. I am a preacher, not a musician. The uke is a tool for worship.

Of course, I do also love to play. I usually find the time to "practice" every day. I noodle about on it even more, drifting about the house with one of the sopranos. This annoys the family very much. Therefore, when my wife noticed that the first annual "Ukulele Melee" at the De Cordova museum was happening this Thursday (yesterday) it seemed worth checking out. At the very least, it would give me a chance to see other people with the same interest.

I have been around enough to know that uke players rarely get invited to jam with other people. Folks don't get together in Burbania and say "gee, what we need is more uke in this song". They should, of course, but they don't. Perhaps some day there will be a band for those of us who play weird instruments. A uke, cowbell (and other odd percussion), recorder, wash-tub bass ensemble would rock! Until then, ukists play with each other in loosely formed clubs and "meetups". The "Melee" was an event sponsored by just such a group.

My travelling companion was Son #3, who very much appreciated the free uke lesson. While it wasn't an event for children per se, there were lots of kids. Some were brought by their uke-obsessed parents. Others were themselves uke-obsessed. Then there were the kids of tired Burbanians looking for a distraction. I should note that we were a mixed group in many ways. The gender split was even. The young hipsters mingled well with the aging sailors sporting banjo-ukes. The Boomers were embraced as well. My son got many pats on the head from the old men, particularly when he made me go back to the car so he could carry our Johnson soprano around.

There was also a uke builder there. Daddy's Music was letting folks borrow Lanikai ukes for the strum-along. The folks from Flea Market Music were also there. It was a small market, but a nice one. Jumpin' Jim Beloff was "in the building" selling his wares (the Flea and the Fluke as well as various other items). Some folks were very excited to see him. Yep, a genuine uke celebrity...

One guy was so excited he kept tugging at his partner yelling "That's him! That's the guy!"

So, anyway, we came, we listened, and we played along. The open-mic was a bit intimidating. The strum-along was more my speed. There was a group leader (playing a Flea) and a guy on wash-tub (see...synergy!) to keep the 40 (or so) uke-players--and the 80 (or so) singers--together. The sound was quite awesome. Son #3 enjoyed it and so did I.

While maneuvering toward my car (many players has set up their own mini-concerts and workshops all over De Cordova's lawn) I had to ask myself how church could be more like this. Sure, this was the "Christmas and Easter" crowd. Still, it was a group of people, both the dedicated and merely curious, who came together to hang out, have a good time, learn, and (possibly) form a community around a shared interest. No doubt some folks made connections there that will help them on their journeys. People may "bowl alone" but they still play together, don't they?

If I have the chance, I will go again.

Links:

Pau Hana 'Ukulele were the folks who make ukes.

Flea Market Music have that new, stunning banjo-uke. I got to play it. It is very, very nice.

Lanikai...

...and finally, the Ukulele Union of Boston who sponsored the event.

PS...I am serious about the recorder thing. Get in touch with me...really....

Things are Quiet...Perhaps Too Quiet

2011-07-28T06:36:00.000-07:00

It is July here in Burbania which means all activity is reduced to minimal levels of effectiveness. Many people are on on vacation and won't return for another month. Others have packed the kids off to camp to spend time pursuing various interests. Others have jobs and the added diffculty of maneuvering around the changed schedule of others and the increased social demands of the season.

I have been in Maine visiting family and friends while trying to keep our camp in reasonably working order. There is alwasy an infrastructure problem. Usually it is the water. By the end of the visit the water was fine but the propane had run out. We use propane for our gas lights, the stove, and the miracle of technology known as a "propane fridge". Our last night we had a lovely evening with old friends thanks to a very good Zinfandel, our collection of oil lamps, and our trusty Coleman Stove.

One of these days (if we don't sell the place first) we would like to go to solar power for some of these necessities. Until then, it is was it is. We are too far off the grid for anything else.

Now we are home and various tasks keep rising up from the earth to keep us busy. I am theoretically on vacation, but there is much to do. I think this happens to most people at least sometimes.

Still, there should be some additional posts soon. After all, the NFL strike is over and the crazy feeding-frenzy of free agency is in full swing. Also, I am doing some reading on various topics concerning the church. Perhaps most obviously, I continue to play the uke and plan for summer worship so...who knows what comes next?

Ukulele Hymns and Summer Worship Update

2011-07-19T06:58:00.000-07:00

It seemed worthwhile to post an update on the trajectory of our summer worship services. The challenge for us has been how to provide a quality worship experience during the "off" months of July and August. The services need to adapt to the setting and situation that we are faced with. Most of our members (youngish families especially) are away and cannot be counted on to attend. Those that are around are often busy. It is hot. There is no music director. This has prompted us to develop a 30 minute service with overlapping and connected parts in order to help folks have a quality worship experience while also allowing people a little extra time to get on with whatever summer plans they might have.

In fact, I find that I tend to conceive of the summer service format as a sermon with many movements.

Anyway, at the beginning of this post you will find a picture of our "summer sanctuary". It is, perhaps obviously, a portion of the larger sanctuary. A couple years after my arrival, we made this the traditional summer arrangement. A smaller crowd needs a smaller space to feel connected and at home. We moved the focal point from the large, central pulpit to the lectern on the floor. This cut the sanctuary in half. We further encouraged people to sit near the front. Now we use slightly over a quarter of the sanctuary space. As you can see, there are some other features. The most prominent differences between the worship space now and what it looks like the rest of the year are the uke (with associated hardward like the music-stand and the stool) and the picture board.

First, I would like to make a couple comments about the picture board. It is a new thing I am trying out this year. We are not a "power point" church. However, with the tight schedule in the summer it seemed a good thing to try to engage more of the senses with the sort of props that don't take over a service but can inform it. Two Sundays ago we talked about the Parable of the Sower. I put up two classic paintings inspired by the story. This past Sunday we were talking about the gap between our dreams and our reality. On the board went pictures from The Wizard of Oz and The Sound of Music. That final picture is of the chapel at Trapp Lodge. So far the response has been neutral-to-good. Some folks have found them helpful to understanding and following the service. It doesn't appear that anyone found them to be a distraction.

Next, of course, there is the ukulele. I am using the concert-sized Fluke pretty-much exclusively this year as the mellower sound and improved playability make the musical segments less anxiety-provoking and a bit more contemplative. Most of the hymns have fit closely with the sermon topic (as I said, in my mind they are part of the sermon). The first Sunday in the series focused on creativity. I chose two hymns that came from a folk tradition (the African American tradition in this case). They were Michael Row the Boat Ashore and We Are Climbing Jacob's Ladder. Both of these have many different versions that fit the contexts of both the singer and the audience. My final Hymn was Bring ,O Morn, Thy Music by William Gannett. Here the tune ( Holy, Holy, Holy) is well known, but the words are not.

This past Sunday included Amazing Grace, I'll Fly Away, and Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. It was a bit "bluegrassy". I'll Fly Away in particular is a bluegrass standard that I remember from the various festivals of my youth. During this service, I also played Edelweiss as "special music". However, I encouraged people to sing along if they wished and some folks did. It isn't a terribly formal service, after all. The chord progressions for all seven of these are easy to find so I won't replicate them here. I will say, however, that the "special music" did give me the opportunity to play around more with the uke. Accidental church musicians like myself must always remember to keep the playing simple for the actual congregational singing so everyone can follow along.

In all segments of the service (readings, pictures, hymns) there were introductions, explanations, and/or stories that lead into the theme of the day. This meant that the actual "sermon" served more as an extended meditation or conclusion to the the unified worship experience. At least that was my goal...I suspect that it worked better for some and less well for others.

I am out of the pulpit for a while now and I do not know how the other preachers will modify what I have been doing. All four of them (my colleagues Matt and Donna as well as two lay-preachers Sue and Molly) have been party to the general service planning. However, I hope and suspect that they will have different takes on what to do with their time. I will reflect on what I have learned and then return in a few weeks. Increasingly the summer services have become a time to experiment. Who knows what we will think of next?

Finally, it should be noted that attendance has been pretty good for us. We had fourteen people on the first Sunday and thirteen on the second. We had visitors, too. Feel free to drop by if you have the time! It is great to be in church.

Here is a link to a post I did this past winter about the Trapp Lodge Chapel. That post was on a different subject than my sermon, but the picture is nice and it is about religion, worship, and art...

Interesting Link: Michael Irvin in Out Magazine

2011-07-13T06:24:00.000-07:00

Today is the day I do the work of getting together the order of service for Sunday. I also need to start thinking about the sermon, itself. Thanks to my "Church Musician" status, this process has become a bit long and involved. Therefore, I have little time to write today.

I do have an interesting link for you though. Michael Irvin will need no introduction to football fans. During his playing days he was a larger-than life character and stereotypical sports "bad boy". Now as an announcer, he retains a bit of that charm. This month he is on the cover of Out magazine talking about his brother who was gay, the pressures he felt around issues of sexuality throughout his career as a football player, and about his current position on gay marriage, among other things. Religion geeks might be interested in knowing that he is the son of a Primitive Baptist pastor and is now a member of TD Jakes' congregation.

He also speculates about how an openly gay athlete would fare in any of the big leagues. It turns out, he is optimistic.

For what it is worth, Irvin is now a respected elder statesman in his world. What he says hold a great deal of weight to many. You may want to read it...

Here it is.

Eddie Vedder's Uke--the "Ukulele Songs" Review

2011-07-12T06:31:00.000-07:00

If we were to broadly outline two different approaches to uke playing these days, one example could easily found on the web in the work of instrumentalists like Jake Shimabukuro. He is a musical genius pushing the boundaries of what the instrument is capable of. In fact, much of the current--yes, faddish--popularity of this tiny instrument probably has to do with his impressive antics. He is cool. Very, very, cool. No doubt Vedder (also--let's face it--cool) would like to surf off if he could.

However, there is another approach. In many ways it is more traditional. That approach begins with the idea that the uke is primarily a singer's instrument. It rolls along behind and under a distinct and expressive voice, encouraging the singer to new heights of story-telling. Again, on the web, it isn't hard to find examples of the style. Most famously, perhaps, there is the work of Israel Kamakawiwoʻole.

In his album, "Ukulele Songs" Eddie Vedder--a singer by trade and vocation--falls into this second tradition.

I bought the album over the weekend and it has been on short rotation ever since. The songs--not surprisingly considering the source--depart from the stereotyped "happy" image of beach parties where one might expect to find Jimmy Buffet-types wandering about drinking beverages with unusual names. Vedder's work is introspective, folky (even a bit country) and unadorned. There is no band, really, and the accompaniment is sparse. It has some of the drive of his work with the other members of Pearl Jam without, of course, the loud grungy aspects. It is a slightly more mature (yet ironic) album which should appeal to his maturing-yet-still-ironic fan base.

During the first couple of times I listened to the album what I most noticed was his very simple playing style. Of course, this doesn't mean he was hacking around! I have to say that I am dedicated ukeist of merely (or hopefully!) average competence but to my ears he played it well. In addition, closer inspection of the rhythmic patterns, fingering, and chord progressions revealed some to be quite complex. Still, they felt simple. The uke served the songs. This is a good lesson for all of us who try to play over our natural gifts. It isn't how fancy you are that matters. What matters is that everything fits. This is also good advice to worship leaders, I think.

I wonder if he is touring with this. I saw him of Letterman (via Youtube) and can only think the overhead would be minimal. If I were him, I would book myself into a few folk bars and clubs, drive myself there, set-up, play, and get a free meal. People would love it.

So there you go. It's not quite a full review, obviously, but from my perspective as someone looking for good models as a player as well as solid entertainment, this album works. It isn't a "look at me" album (something he is sometimes capable of) but a "here it is" album. That, I think makes it both refreshingly honest and appealing.

Here are the links:

Jake Shimabukuro
Israel Kamakawiwoʻole
Eddie Vedder

Update: Of course he is on tour...

I Have Seen Google +...And It's OK...

2011-07-11T07:11:00.000-07:00

OK, so perhaps it is a bit early to start reviewing something that apparently most people don't know exists and that is still in testing mode. However, I have been testing it and I have found it to be...well...OK....

I have been following its development in the news and online for a while now and knew I would want to try it. I have issues with Facebook and wouldn't mind at all finding a different social networking option. My problems with FB are many so I won't go into all of them now. However, some of my biggest problems are addressed by Google + so it is worth bringing them up.

It has always felt to me that Facebook is best understood as an epic reunion party.  A good portion of the most enthusiastic users I know log on to find old friends and old flames in order to discover that they, too, have kids, go to the beach, and watch Little League. Having never seen the attraction of normal reunion parties, this isn't a big draw for me. At a virtual party like this our lives are flattened. They become shallow. I have written about this before. The past is drawn into the present and we end up sharing things with folks we only dimly recall (or have never met) that we wouldn't normally share. We don't really know them anymore. On the other hand, we choose not to share things with others because there are so many witnesses. I am someone who likes to keep the past where it is. I also like to know the people I am communicating with.

One related problem I have with FB is that we are all "friends". This is the levelling thing again. Most of my FB friends aren't friends, really. Some of them were in the past. Some (hopefully) will be in the future. However,  a friend is someone who calls or writes or drops by when they are in town. The friends (here I mean real friends) who don't do these things are usually people I live close to and see anyway. Yes, I know that some friendships have been rekindled thanks to FB. However, I wonder how much it contributes to making us lazy social slobs who don't ever get around to visiting.   Also, if you spent time with these virtual "friends", would you realize that there are good reasons why you don't call or write or visit?

Finally, FB theoretically can be used for networking around jobs, hobbies , and interests. However, it seems like it is an "either/or" proposition. I have a weblog (obviously) which I link to FB and, I hope, interesting things to say. Every once in a while a colleague I have never met attempts to "friend" me, partly (I think) so that we can connect in clergy sorts of ways. The problem is, that person never gets to see my web links and interesting professional thoughts because they have "hid" me and my inane chatter about the kids, etc. No doubt others have hid me because they don't want the blog posts and shop-talk. That then requires two FB pages. My Burbania Posts FB page has a whopping 14 members...

So along comes Google +. Right now it is populated by the sort of people who find new computer things fun. In fact, this process has made me realize that I am one of those people. Mostly we write about being there. It is like moving into the new dorm at college. "Hey! Check out the cool fridge!" "Cable and Free-Wi-Fi!" It is awesome, Dude. We are also breaking things and waiting for maintenance to come fix them. However, even in its limited buggy state, it isn't hard to see the potential for someone like me.

The big selling point is their use of "Circles". You can put people on Google + into affinity groups based on shared interests and how you know them. Each circle can be added or removed from any post. People can be added or removed from each circle. So, if I have folks who I think want regular updates from the blog, I can put them in a category for it ("Colleagues", "Friends", "Eliot Church" depending on the topic of the post). If they are more into beach pictures, that can happen, to ("Friends" and "Family" definitely, "Colleagues" not so much, though some are in both circles). I will probably even add a "Burbania Posts" circle. That way they can get blog posts and nothing else if I (and probably they) wish.

Remember, you can add or subtract groups at will. You can also move people around. The circles are not static. That colleague you have suddenly been spending lots of time with? They can be friends, too. That buddy from 8th grade who moved to town? Let's see if they come to the picnic you invited them to. It also makes things easy for those of us who need to maintain work/life boundaries (clergy, teachers, etc). Not sure your students should see that picture? Don't let their circle in (though that will require and level of organization that may be difficult for many).

So that is the difference I see. I think there are going to be plenty of people who will not be interested in this sort of networking. For them, the FB system works well and they have invested a great deal of time into that online persona. Because some of them are, in fact, my friends and family, I will stick around FB. However, I see the appeal of Google + and will use it, too.

Instead of a reunion party, Google is trying to make something closer to a denominational convention. There is a big area where everyone can mill around. There are also smaller areas for workshops and other gatherings based on affinity and interest. There is even a place for people who want to sneak out to grab a coffee and just chat in real actual life.  The people in that last group are called "friends".

Random Interesting Links: Goodbye Space

2011-07-08T08:22:00.000-07:00

As you are probably aware, today marks the final launching of the NASA space shuttle program. This is sad. I am a big fan and, honestly, don't see why we want to stop sending people up. I dimly recall an urge to privatize (a popular urge these days) but I have been a fan of Kirk, Spock, and Bones too long to think it is a good idea to let corporations control outer space. It just seems shortsighted to me.

Well, that is all. It just seems that the day needs to be noticed and marked in some way.

Here are two links.

This one is to the official NASA launch page.

This one is to the Goddard Project. It is a program funded by the Worcester Area Mission Society (WAMS), the service arm of the Central Association of the Massachusetts Conference, United Church of Christ (CA-MACUCC). WAMS does do many, many other things. Most of them are a of a traditional church service variety. However, this is perhaps the most fitting to link to today.

Old Food

2011-07-07T11:23:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking a bit differently about food lately. Yes, we have a CSA share and I have treated regular readers to a large number of pictures and food posts. Still, it is different. Perhaps it is because this year's garden has come to an abrupt halt thanks to that new sewer pipe. The pipe is in. The garden is not. There is no sense doing so until after the parsonage is stripped and painted in the fall. All that paint dust could spoil whatever we put in. I guess this means that I am limited to those hop plants in the 12 gallon containers...

Anyway, this gives me a ridiculous amount of time to plan for next year. The CSA provides us with a goodly chunk of our regular seasonal vegetables. Much of the rest is supplied by means of the grocery store or the Natick Community Organic Farm (where the boys are currently learning to grow things, make cheese, and weed the produce). I am thinking, therefore, of branching off in a more experimental direction by growing plants that are no longer popular. In today's New York Times there was an article about what is growing in the gardens of places like Plimouth Plantation. This has given me some ideas. I am considering burnet, smallage, and purslane. Of these, purslane is probably the most common. In fact, I remember pulling it out of the garden when I was a kid. The CSA packed some and it was a challenge to sample. I will be braver this year. Also I might like to try growing Good King Henry though the name is apparently the most exciting thing about it...

Here is a link to the article.

Summer Worship

2011-07-06T12:27:00.000-07:00

We are getting close to our summer series at Eliot Church and I am in the midst of preparation. It would be easy, I think, to fall into a sense of inadequacy about this. After all, many folks think of summer worship as primarily "compromise-based". The minister in many congregations is often on vacation as are many members. Services are often shorter. Religious Education programs--particularly for kids--are skeletal or non-existent. This situation causes many people inside and outside of the church to consider it "closed" until the fall with the doors kept open by something not-quite-as-good. This is too bad. We are not closed. In fact, some of the most interesting worship services occur in the heat of July and August.

Of course, there are compromises. It was compromise, after all, that made the uke our primary liturgical instrument during this time last year. However, I think of these changes as a source of strength. The uke worked out pretty darn well! The absence of RE means that we have to be open to the possibility of one or two (or hopefully more) kids in the sanctuary. Services have to be able to adapt to a multi-generational group in an integrated way.

Other perceived "facts' about the summer just aren't true. Many congregations--particularly in the UUA--will make it through the summer on the strength of their dedicated (and often excellent) volunteer lay-leaders. This is not the case at my church. Out of the nine services, I am preaching five of them. Our Affiliated Minister is preaching one. So is our Assistant Minister for Religious Education. That leaves two others.

That said, services are different. This is a better word. We do not settle for second-class worship at our church. What we do provide is worship that has been adapted in a way that makes it most effective for the setting.

The two largest worship challenges for me this summer have to do with the music and the service length. Once again, the uke takes center stage for the hymns and any "special music". I have written about this elsewhere but it may be worth noting now--as I am both both musician and preacher--that the entire flow of worship changes. Hymns leak into sermon-time and reading-time. There are fewer clear boundaries between "parts" than is usual. This is fine. The time restriction has always required a more "conversational" approach. Lower attendance also brings me down out of the pulpit to the lectern on the floor. We use one half the church, too, so we are closer together. We are a more compact congregation and our service reflects that.

Sometimes a"reading introduction" will be as long as the homily. Sometimes the prayer or a hymn that we are learning will seize the primary spot. In these cases one might be tempted to say that there wasn't a sermon at all! Perhaps, though, it would be more accurate to say that the entire service is one big sermon with organic changes in pace and medium. There are also occasional breaks for congregational participation. I recommend this "big sermon" approach to summer preachers. This is a chance to bring in elements that wouldn't fly with a larger group. Ineffective compromise in worship only occurs if we exibit slavish dedication to making it like it usually is. Then we have cast a negative light on the differences. We are much better off understanding that this summer church is open for business, but the way we do our work has changed--even grown.

My "summer congregation," by the way, likes fairly traditional things. We are not considering adaptations that will make worship unrecognizable. If you come to Eliot Church normally, you will know you are in the right place in July and August. If you don't normally visit, you should think about dropping by. You may find that you are in the right place too.

Oh...I almost forgot! I have a link to a blog for folks who are interested in music and worship in a liberal church setting. Liberal Religion Gets Loud has something of a contemporary worship bias (not a bad thing, by the way). I find it interesting to see what other folks are up to...

The Miracle of the Parsonage Septic

2011-07-03T12:37:00.000-07:00

I realize that this picture doesn't look like much. However, Facebook friends of Burbania Posts are aware of the massive devastation inflicted on a portion of the parsonage lawn this week. Our century-old cesspool was finally laid to rest unlamented and the house was put on the town sewer. This required some major excavation. The workers cracked the hard shell of our tiny street. They also had to run a pipe directly through where my garden--until that point--stood. A long trough was dug and general mayhem occurred (again, pictures on FB if you want to see them). The compost bin was emptied. The garden was no more.

However, upon returning today from a brief camping trip to Maine (more on that later), I happened to notice this speck of green in the small suburban desert. They are chives. In all the tumbling the lawn took, somehow they landed on their feet and are staging a comeback. I put a brick wall (the bricks from the larger garden) around the plant to indicate its protected status. It isn't much, but it is a beginning.

Perhaps this can be a sermon illustration for someone. I will leave it up to my fellow preachers to extract some meaning from the event...

Random Interesting Link: UCC General Synod!

2011-07-01T05:13:00.000-07:00

The house is quiet this morning for the first time in a long time. Sons #1 and #2 are at camp. Son #3 is in daycare. This is great. I think I will get some work done.

In honor of that work, this Friday I begin a new feature. The Random Interesting Link. Today it is to the United Church of Christ Official General Synod Webpage! As you may recall, I wasn't at GA and I missed people. Now I am not at this (sigh). Oh well...there is always the next one...

So Who Are The UU Christians?

2011-06-30T06:22:00.000-07:00

I get this question (and it's variants, including "How can you be both UU and Christian?") much more often than I wish to. It isn't a bad question, but it is a difficult one. The fact is, I have never come up with a good answer. The problem, I think, comes down to one of perspective and language. What does the questioner mean by "Christian"? More importantly, what does the questioner mean by "Unitarian" and Universalist"?

It is really quite awkward that a non-creedal organization like the UUA has consistently chosen to use two theological doctrines in its name. There have been other name suggestions over the years, many of which would be much more accurate. Still, we keep this name to reflect the merger of two distinct liberal movements within Christianity. They weren't (and aren't) the only liberal movements out there, but they are two with profound stories to tell.

Yes, I said that they were Christian movements. These are Christian doctrines, of course, and really make the most sense in that context. For most of their history the Unitarians and the Universalists just assumed they were Christians. In the case of the Unitarians, they were Christians with an eccentric but not always strictly "Unitarian" christology. In the case of the Universalists they were Christians who believed that all people (both Christian and non-Christian) went to heaven. Universalists themselves had a variety of views on the nature of Jesus. If these famous UU predecessors (Emerson, Channing, Ballou, et. al.) were asked this question, they might respond by saying "How can you be UU and not be Christian?"

Again, the problem of language appears. The modern Unitarian Universalist Association, after all, is not a Christian institution. There is still a sense among some (not me) that the UUA is anti-Christian. As you may have gathered, I don't believe that this is because of the two theological positions stated in its name. There have been many more forces involved in creating the Association we know today.

Either way ("anti-" or "non-"), the current situation is a circumstance divorced from its historic roots. Honestly, it isn't one that gets in my way all that much except when I have to answer this "UU Christian" question. In this context one could simply respond by pointing out all you have to do institutionally is be a Christian who goes to a UU church. In spite of attempts to clarify what, exactly, the UUA stands for, it remains non-creedal.

This, however, isn't usually what people mean either. There is a sense in the way the UU Christians themselves use the term that implies (accidentally, I believe) doctrinal adherence. That is, if you are a Buddhist in the UUA, putting "Unitarian Universalist" in front of your theological preference is primarily a geographical designation. "I am Buddhist but I go to the UU Church". Theologically, you might also be saying "I support the free and responsible search for truth and meaning". Good stuff. I support that, too. However, if you are a Christian in the UUA, doing the same thing it sounds (gasp!) downright creedal. It is misleading. There are, after all, many Trinitarians in the UUA. There always have been. Also, many Christians in this context (and in other contexts) are Arians (look it up), or Agnostics, or don't particularly see formal christology as terribly relevant to their faith. In the UUA some Christians, in fact, are Athiests...

I have always preferred the terms "Free Christian" and "Liberal Christian" as they encompass my own faith and those of many other people on similar journeys. For all three of these terms, the nutshell definition is that we choose to "freely follow Jesus" without adherence to specific creeds. The particulars, are up to individuals to discern. We also make a point of claiming the word "Christian". To those who tell us we are not, we respond by asking who made them the gatekeepers of the faith. We will decide for ourselves if we are Christian, thank you very much!

Of course, many of us choose to do our discernment in groups. We congregate in many different ways. The way I am most familiar with, though, is the Christian church. Later I will write a bit about what being a member of a Christian Church in the UUA is like. I am very interested in discovering what these churches can be in the future. Until then, here are some links. The first one is particularly useful.

Here is a brief essay written by the Rev. Tom Wintle. Tom is the Senior Minister of First Parish Weston, a member congregation of the Council of Christian Churches in the UUA (note the formulation of the name). He is also one of the senior prophets in our movement, having held many leadership positions in the UUCF, the CCCUUA and other organizations. Once again, if you have questions like the one in the title of this post, it is probably the most important and helpful thing to read.

Also....

Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship (UUCF)

Council of Christian Churches in the UUA (CCCUUA)

Arius (I wouldn't really leave you hangin' would I?)

Swimming Transcendentalism

2011-06-29T08:03:00.000-07:00

Life at the parsonage has been a bit crazy lately. Summer is upon us and various programs for the kids have coincided with various projects of my own and of the family in general. Also, there have been maintenance issues. Right now contractors are digging up my garden to put in a pipe that will connect the ol' parsonage to the town sewer. Losing the garden has been sad. However, retiring the cesspool most likely put in a century ago when plumbing finally came to Eliot Church is such an overdue joy I can put up with re-planting. Sadly though, all this action does mean that I am home on a beautiful day. I would rather be swimming.

Swimming is my preferred form of exercise. However, I see no real reason to do it in a pool. The pool always has a "fast lane" and a "slow lane". Both are for folks who are getting their assigned laps in so they can be healthier people. There is nothing wrong with that. I am just not linear enough as a person to enjoy it. Why isn' there a "treading water for a while" lane? Perhaps a "pretend you are a whale" lane would add some zing to Adult Swim. I drive the kids to the "Y" every weekday. I believe I am qualified to assert that there is no place or reason there for an "admire the view" lane.

So sue me for wanting swimming to be more stately and entertaining. I will stay out of your way at the pool and go to the lake. This weekend we managed to get over to Walden Pond. Many of you will remember it from literature. Every once in a while the 'burbs make a lasting positive contribution to society. Impressionism springs to mind. So does Transcendentalism...OK it has been a while...

Lots has happened to the poor old pond since Henry Thoreau (with the help of his buddy Bronson Alcott) cleared a small piece of Ralph Waldo Emerson's Burbanian possessions to build his one-room house. The plan was that Henry would play flute to the fishes, garden, write and walk to his friends' homes for dinner. It worked out famously. Fame has both preserved this area in the midst of development and attracted many, many visitors.

The pond is quite a bit more crowded than it was back in Thoreau's day. It is a state park with a changing room, two small beach areas and a life-sized statue of the great man, himself. There is also a mock-up of his cabin located near the parking lot. The original cabin site is about half way around the lake near a large pile of rocks. It turned out that Alcott's memory was a bit off when showing folks where the house was. Thankfully this meant that the stone-offerings brought by Thoreau worshippers failed to obscure the actual foundation when it was finally located.

Anyway, it was a fantastic day for a swim. The crowds stayed right on or next to the shore. The wet-suited fast-lane folks jumped in, swam across the lake, came back, stripped off their wet suits and marched on to their power-bars or power lunches or whatever. This left the middle of the lake for boaters (no motors, please) and random water-treading back-floaters like myself. It was awesome. it was rejuvenating. I was reminded, in fact, of a sentence describing Horace Bushnell written by one of his biographers, Barbara Cross. "In isolation, a 'sweet sense of estrangement' crept over him, and he responded to the 'sublime cataracts' of the East Hampton ocean and of Niagara as to the 'divine music' which he heard in the 'lofty passes of the alps.'" OK, Concord Massachusetts isn't an Alp. Still, it was nice and with my eyes pointed to the sky and my ears in the water I could have been anywhere.

Walden isn't where I usually do my swimming, though. The next day we went to Dug Pond, the town beach in my own municipality. It was somewhat less crowded, but judging by the number of brief conversations and encounters I had there, it appears that I know a lot of teenagers and middle-aged men. I must be old and semi-respectable (sigh). The view is a bit different as well. Instead of forest and wet-suits there were familiar faces and the emerging facade of our new high school. You could hear the power-tools and the trucks trying to get it ready for the students of a year from now. Still, with your head in the water you could be anywhere.

I like fresh-water swimming. I like it up in Northern Maine where the water is cold and the crowds are thin. I like here in town, too. It isn't just exercise. Watching the landscape and the people who enjoy it I am reminded that--along with William Henry Furness--I can "rejoice that we can so freely approach the infinite majesty of heaven, that in this vast and various creation we are not lonely and forsaken".

I think I am OK going to Dug Pond. I wish I was there now...

Here is a link to Walden Pond for you non-MetroWesters.

Here is a link to Dug Pond, in case you plan to visit me this summer.

Here is Horace Bushnell. Incidentally, for a more nuanced view of the man, I would recommend Gary Dorrien's work on liberal Christianity. Cross wrote in 1958 and rather glossed over some of Bushnell's less liberal traits. Also...yes, I really did think of that sentence about Bushnell while floating in Walden Pond. I just read the book and that is the best sentence in it...

Here is William Henry Furness.

Are Seminaries Dying?

2011-06-28T08:19:00.000-07:00

In a way, they are. Some might return in another form becoming (like Obi-Wan Kenobi) "more powerful than you can possibly imagine". However, they will be greatly altered by the experience.

The traditional seminary is disappearing. Really we shouldn't be surprised. Most of them have been going along the same way they have since 1909 and quite a few things have changed since then. I have written a bit here about the same dynamic in churches, themselves. What we are going through now is a semi-chaotic musical chairs of closings, mergers, and re-visioning that will eventually settle out in a much altered landscape. How it will all turn out is up for grabs...

The question I was asked in relation to yesterday's post had to do with the reasons why this is happening. The short answer is that I don't know. Still, I do have an opinion and to me it appears that seminaries are suffering from some of the same forces many similar institutions have been subjected to. After all, the mainline churches are not growing. Why would their professional schools be?

Here, though, are a few specific areas of stress for the traditional seminary model...

The Age and Lifestyle of Current Seminarians
I alluded to this in my previous post. In my (unscientific) observation, the age of new ministers is dropping from the heights of just a decade ago. However, this means that many people are entering in their thirties and forties rather than their fifties and sixties. This is a demographic that is often "married with children". There are fewer "empty nesters" to fill the classrooms in the traditional model. These Gen X and Millennial folks are not able to leave their families for a year at a time to settle in some random town. They need the seminary to come to them. Or, at least, they need flexible points of contact. Yes. I almost said "TouchPoints" but I didn't, so give me a break.

Technology
"Technology" is a nice big word that includes complex things like the interwebs and more common things...like airplanes, DVD's and UPS. You know how they work. Today's seminary student has many more ways to be in contact with school and professors. More of those "TouchPoints" (really, it needs a better name) are creeping in to real life at school. This makes it possible for you to stay married, remember your kids' names, and even keep your old job while studying. Who wouldn't want to do that?

Denominational Change
Look, I know that some of my readers just got back from GA. Others are on their way to General Synod. I am also very aware that many people think the whole UUA/UCC project that is my church to be beyond comprehension. Still, I do believe that denominations don't matter as much as they used to. Sorry. It's true. On the plus side we have the opportunity to re-imagine our faith in a collaborative atmosphere. The down side, though (if you are a seminary) is that we don't need nearly as many schools if we are all talking to each other and training each other's clergy.

Also, weaker denominational ties mean that congregations (and other funding agents, like individual members) are less likely to fund the schools. Yes, there were a great many congregations represented at GA. However, there were also a great many that were not there. They had other concerns. If you are a member of a congregation and you are voting on that congregation's (always tight) budget, are you going to pay your minister or are you going to give money to the denominational school? The minister wins most of the time. Besides, if the minister is a UU, there is a good chance that s/he went to Andover Newton Theological Seminary (UCC/ABC).

The Ministry is Changing
This is really a conversation all its own, isn't it? Still, it is true. There are many different ways to go with that, but from a strictly financial standpoint, things are certainly getting worse. The salaries have always been low when compared to the level of education expected. Now most settlements are likely to be part-time. From a cultural standpoint, the ministry isn't as attractive as it used to be, either. There are other ways to help people. Many of these other professions garner more respect and are less socially awkward. That people still wish to become ministers is a sign of the deep and abiding faith of those individuals. They need help!

Sticking with the seminary issue, what I am trying to say is that this is not a profession that people should be entering with lots of debt. Those of us in clergy families--young and old--are learning to live leaner and leaner lives all the time. We were never high on the hog in the first place and it doesn't look like we will ever be. It would be just plain wrong to choose an educational model that dooms new ministers to poverty. Seminaries need to be leaner, too.

I believe seminaries are becoming leaner. It's not just M/L. Chicago Theological Seminary has moved into smaller, more efficient digs, for example. Bangor Theological Seminary is renting from Husson College, a business school. The "Theological University" that M/L decided not to join? There will be one eventually. It is inevitable. In fact, it is a good idea.

One Final Note: There is one group of educational institutions that may have a different strategy in this downturn. I don't really know enough about their inner workings to hazard a guess. Those are the "Divinity Schools" affiliated with major Universities. Could it be that these will become the last bastion of the old way?

So Meadville/Lombard Has a Home

2011-06-27T06:30:00.000-07:00

And (at least from my parsonage chair in Burbania) it looks like a good one! M/L will be moving out of the old neighborhood to downtown digs owned by the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies. Seminaries are struggling everywhere. It is nice that M/L found somewhere to settle.

At first glance, the new location has some obvious advantages. Since M/L seems to have pretty much given up on its residential program, the connections to Hyde Park are no doubt less central. When I attended, I took a majority of my courses either at the University of Chicago or the "Hyde Park Cluster" of seminaries. These were very important connections for me and I wouldn't have attended M/L without them. Of course, that train left the station well before now.

In the current "TouchPoint" program, students are there for shorter periods of time with fewer needs or opportunities to interact with these other institutions in long-term or meaningful ways. Now short-term housing is necessary. Non-seminary attractions need to be more like the ones that bring folks to GA than the ones that encourage long-term residency. I never visited Navy Pier when I was a Meadville/Lombard student. I did go to the grocery store. However, when I attended intensives as part of my ACTS DMin Program, Navy Pier was a fun and regular weekend distraction. It also doesn't hurt to have a classroom-with-a-view. I hope the architect at Spertus put in some nice ones facing Grant Park.

This is not to say that there isn't a flip side. As I said, if I were a 23 year-old looking for a seminary, I wouldn't consider M/L now. I would go to a place with the strong residential program and resources of the old model and location. I didn't want to visit Chicago. I wanted to live there. When I was M/L seminarian, though, I was the second-youngest student in my entering class, which had an average age higher than my current age. Perhaps for institutional health this is an important move. Perhaps for the health of the movement it is important to provide UU-specific training to prospective UU ministers.

However, I do hope that in the midst of selling this new era in theological education people take the time to remember that what we had was good and worthy, too. Neither the past nor the present are better. They are just different from each other. When something is gained (even something good) something is lost as well.

Here is the link to the announcement in the UU World. I couldn't find anything on the Meadville Lombard Home Page. That may just be a function of having made the announcement at GA.

Also, here is the website of M/L's new landlord. It is unclear the extent to which the two institutions will be collaborating, but that would be nice, wouldn't it?

Music and Worship (a Summer Uke Update)

2011-06-24T09:02:00.000-07:00

I was walking back to the parsonage from church just now and couldn't help but notice the remarkable decline of traffic on our usually busy road. It must be summer again. I preached my final "regular" service last Sunday. My colleague Matt Carriker is preaching this week. Then we are on to those summer services, which will begin on July 10. Eternal custom at Eliot dictates that there be no service on July 4 weekend.

I have been getting ready for the summer series. Unlike many of my UU colleagues (but very much like many pastors in the UCC) I do a lot of preaching in the summer. It is a time to do different things and to experiment. The results of those experiments sometimes find their way into worship after Labor Day.

Earlier posts on the "uke" theme at this blog have discussed the difficulties and joys of a more "folk" worship style over the summer. This creates some new challenges while offering a different spin on some old ones. In particular, there is the question of how music relates to the rest of the service and how the change in medium informs the tone. Music, after all, needs to contribute to the overarching worship message. This is a fact that many people (mostly lay people but--alas--sometimes clergy) forget.

Most worship leaders will try to select hymns that connect to the service. This is true during any season and in any worship style. Music Directors will do the same with offertory and interlude. That both of these individuals take the time to do so would indicate that it is more than the lyrics of a hymn that are important. The music, itself, affects how the words impact us, how we take them to heart, and how we "hear" or comprehend the rest of worship that day. This means that when we sing "Holy, Holy, Holy" this summer accompanied by the uke. It is experienced differently than it is when we are backed up by the organ or piano. It is more intimate. It is more delicate. It is in some sense more personal. We are not praising a grand and distant God or power, but instead a God who lives in small moments and small things. One who appreciates the uke's sometimes ironic commentary. In fact, the spare nature of the uke probably makes the experience different from what it would be on a steel-string guitar. This, however, may be a matter of degree.

I was speaking with a couple of Eliot's regular summer attenders about this. They both suggested that we try to focus on some of the old hymns that we don't otherwise sing. I have some listed in a previous post. To these they added "Michael Row the Boat Ashore" and some others. This makes sense. There are, after all, some hymns that the traditional church instruments just can't make work well. We should sing some of those. Of course, that folks are making recommendations is a good sign. It means that the worship experiment is something that we are all willing to own. It makes it more collaborative and conversational.

This summer I will be preaching sermons with the following titles: "Living Creatively", "Filling the Gap", "On Baseball", and "To Be What We Dream". I will also be officiating on Labor Day Weekend, but I don't quite know what I will do with that. Preaching in the summer is different, too. I preach from the lectern rather than the pulpit. I use fewer notes. Sometimes the sermon is broken up into smaller pieces.

Anyway, If you have thoughts about how music could interact with these topics, let me know. The Baseball sermon comes before our annual field trip to the PawSox, so some baseball-themed music might be in order. Also on Labor Day, perhaps a few songs from the rich musical tradition of our nation's labor movement. Let me know if you have any favorites. It is likely that the magic uke will be in the driver's seat many of these Sundays...

Here is the previous post about my summer uke project.

I Am Not at General Assembly...Again

2011-06-22T05:52:00.000-07:00

It is, once again, time for UU General Assembly and I am not there. At least I think it is going on. I can only really tell by the various Facebook updates of my friends. It must be in Charlotte, NC because that is where most of my colleagues appear to be seeking restaurants in which to eat with other colleagues.

I haven't been to GA for a long time. My last one was in Boston in 2003, a massive chaotic blob of an event which I entered into during the day and then retreated from in the evening to my friend Hank's house in Medford. My favorite GA was in Quebec City where I shared a tiny dorm room (the "cheap housing option") with Son #1 at a local university. We would get yelled at by senior colleagues for being too loud, though I think they were really mad at the teens who would run about at all hours being high schoolers in a college dorm. I thought they lent a certain excitement to an event that was otherwise dominated by old people.

My son was a pre-schooler then. The best moment for me came near the end when, after a particularly exhausting day he said "Dad...we are partied out." He was right. I don't think either of us have been that partied out since. We spent the rest of week subsisting on cheese curd and apples purchased at the college store...awesome.

Boston was in 2003. Since then...nothing. The reasons have been varied. Regular readers know that I now serve a congregation affiliated with both the UUA and the UCC. This means there are lots of meetings. I cannot make them all. Also, as is the norm with ecumenical congregations, denominational loyalty isn't a high priority. My time, therefore, is often better spent elsewhere. Perhaps most importantly, GA is expensive. I don't have a whole lot of money to travel around to national events, even if my friends are there. Finally, it doesn't really fit my schedule. The kids are getting out of school today. I need to be here for them.

So GA isn't really a big part of my life, Still, I do miss parts of it. It would be nice to see people, though I suspect that I am only dimly remembered (if at all) by the GA-attending clergy. I will watch parts of GA online and keep up with a few of the blogs. I expect to see some pictures of happy colleagues on Facebook. Maybe I will go purchase some cheese curd right now...

For those of you who may also be at home this week, here are the links I will be following...

UU World has fairly comprehensive coverage. You can get to most stuff by following Chris Walton's links posted there.

I will also be reading Yet Another UU, Boy in the Bands, and Beauty Tips for Ministers. This is partly because they are my friends and I can imagine them there having a good time without me. Also, they tend not to be too "party line" in their approach. You can always go to UUpdates, of course, for multiple giddy blog entries. Some of them are quite good...

The CSA Has Begun! (With Links to MHOF and Dismas House)

2011-06-14T05:14:00.000-07:00

I must admit. The beginning of this year's Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share has added a bit of spring to my step over the past day or so. It has been a busy time. School is ending. Summer services are beginning. There is other stuff to. I look at my metaphorical plate these days and find it close to full. I bet some of you are feeling the same way.

Last year the CSA buyer's group at the church was quite a bit larger. Some folks split off to form another group. Others just decided it wouldn't work for them. That's OK. I have to say, though, that it works for me! It is amazing what a bag of local organic veggies can do for one's spirit. It elevates our minds and joins us to the ground. Last night we had a salad that didn't even know it was picked yet. May there be more salads like that to come...

Here is a link to the Many Hands Organic Farm where our share comes from. They do good work, both with their veggies and with Dismas House. Here also is a link to the Many Hands Sustainability Center. When choosing a farm, we felt that this was the one where our money went farthest. We are very, very happy with our choice!

Ya know...I believe there are a few slots left for the Framingham pick-up site. You might want to check it out. After all, every Burbanian should eat more vegetables...

Ukulele Hymns for Congregational Worship

2011-06-08T06:25:00.000-07:00

Introduction
Scott Wells asked me about my plan to accompany congregational singing on the ukulele this summer. This was a timely request as I am collecting the likely musical suspects today so I can start to get them ready for the Sundays I am in the pulpit. As of now I am scheduled to preach four Sundays in July and August. Last year I also came in and played for one more Sunday solely as "Church Musician". This may or may not happen again, but either way, I think I have a good list to choose from.

First, however, there must be a bit of explanation as to how I put this list together. The primary concern, honestly, has little to do with the instrument and more to do with the folks who will be singing with me. The fact is, many aspects of our Burbanian culture point toward musical performance by a professional, rather than musical participation. I have written about this elsewhere at BP. We are part of a professionalized culture. In hymnody this makes us uncomfortable, often, with a) singing in general and b) singing without the words in front of us. Singing together in public can make some Burbanians tense. Most of our congregations are to some extent (or entirely) Burbanian. If your congregation has many rural folks or hipsters (I grew up with rural hipsters) then this is less of a problem.

So...why not just use a hymnal and play along to that? The problem with having hymnals is that they were written with the organ and the piano in mind. This brings us to our second concern. The uke is a stringed folk instrument. It can be used to play many of the same songs, but it goes about it differently. The uke swings a bit more. It puts gaps and pauses in different places. In essence, the hymn becomes a "cover" of the more formal song they know. Even though many covers are better than the original, it does create confusion at first. For example, a couple of times last year I found that the congregation, rather than following the music being played, followed the music in the book and I had to catch up or slow down. It works, I guess, but the uke makes a lousy organ.

What to do?

Good question. First, you make sure your introductory sermon is about Reverend Doctor Adam Tierney-Eliot's firm belief that worship is a folk art. It is, even with a paid choir and music director. People (even in the most dry and sleepy congregations) are there to experience and participate in worship. They are not an audience. That done, here is the method I developed over last summer and during this year...

A) Introduce the hymn
B) Play and sing the first verse alone (even if you have a hymnal or printed words)
C) Start again now that folks have a sense of the rhythm with the first verse
D) Any tips you can give the first few times you sing a hymn are a good idea--like shouting out the line before singing it (Arlo Guthrie calls this the "Pete way")

OK, Now the Hymns

I have played all of these at some point or other. About 90% of them have seen action on the uke either at church or at the nursing home. My experience with them may not be the same as yours, though, so feel free to disagree, modify your own list, etc...

Hymns That You May Need Printed Words For
(Still sing it through and use the "Pete Way" when you can)

Abide With Me
All Things Bright and Beautiful
Amazing Grace
Be Thou My Vision (Yeah, I know...but you don't have to do the bad guitar version)
Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing (Think Bluegrass...which could be said for many of these)
For All the Saints
Holy, Holy, Holy (This one is awesome using a finger-picking style, be sure to play around with it)
Rock Of Ages
Take My Hand, Precious Lord (title sometimes reversed) (This can also be put in the group below)

Full on Noteless Folk Way
Were You There? (This sounds very different--and much, much better--on the uke)
Oh Freedom! (A good one to start with because people know it)
This Land is Your Land (OK, more "folk" than "hymn" but good to break-in a Burbanian church)
I'll Fly Away
Just a Closer Walk With Thee

Use At Your Own Risk (and yes, I may risk at least one of these this summer)
Joyful, Joyful
Onward Christian Soldiers (Forward Through the Ages)
We Gather Together
All Creatures of Our God and King

Three for the Nursing Home and Some Congregations
I Love to Tell the Story
In the Garden
What a Friend We Have in Jesus

Ok, my final advice is--after a while--to use some of these that your church doesn't know. You will want to introduce them as "Special Music" first. I am intrigued by "I'll Fly Away" in this respect. My church does not know it, but the chorus isn't hard and people could chime in when they feel comfortable...

If you have further questions, feel free to check out my "ukulele" posts under "Labels". You will find some info about the different types of ukes and a bit on the whole "folk worship" thing.

So What Ever Happened to Sabbatical?

2011-06-07T06:50:00.000-07:00

I am officially done with sabbatical now and--I must say--the end was pretty much a blur. My "May Term" started out pretty well. Norm and I had some projects lined up (for him and for me) and we started to slowly work them off. However, it wasn't too long before we got word that my father-in-law, Craig Nelson, had passed away. He had been sick for a long time. Still, you are never really prepared when someone you love dies. The second half of the month was spent in various stages of mourning. We drove down to Maryland to be with my mother-in-law, Margaret. Then, upon our return, we had to deal with our own feelings of loss while plunging back into "normal" life. While I would rather that Craig was still with us, I am glad I was on sabbatical for this. Most importantly, I am glad that I was able to be present for my wife and the rest of our family.

Now--with some sabbatical tasks abandoned or postponed--I am back at work. I preached Sunday and then helped lead a discussion on grace in our congregations at the Council of Christian Churches in the UUA Annual Convocation. It was a enlightening event and has given me much to think about. It turns out I am not the only person who thinks that the presence of grace may the most important aspect of our lives as faith communities. The challenge is, of course, to keep that front and center when there are so many less spiritual concerns that call for our attention.

I am also planning summer services. I officiate and preach about half of them. When I am present at summer worship, I serve as the musician in addition to other duties. Therefore, I am working up a dozen hymns on the uke. This Sunday is "Children's Sunday" and there are two more "regular" services after that. Finally, I am trying to figure out ways that the congregation can provide more "points of (grace-filled) contact" for church members this fall. We will try some sort of "Worship Lab" at a non-Sunday morning time-slot. We may try some other things as well. Perhaps a "Pub Theology" group.

Norm is playing "catch-up" today. While we did manage some field trips to the US Naval Academy, The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, There wasn't much time for more structured learning. Today this has been made somewhat more complicated by the presence of Son #3 who is with us on Tuesdays and Thursdays now that he has graduated from nursery school. Norm is writing a paper on the life of Samuel Prescott. If you don't know who he is, you can ask Sarah Palin about him. I am sure she knows by now...

I realize there are a few blog-posts in what I have been up to, but with family concerns taking priority, they have had to wait. Once things calm down, though, I will have time to reflect on the year. I learned a lot, I think, but I haven't quite figured out what.

Here are links to: The Maritime Museum, The US Naval Academy, and The Met

Oh...and Samuel Prescott

Let There Be Grace in the Church

2011-06-02T04:26:00.000-07:00

When I said, "My foot is slipping," your love, O God, supported me. When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul. (Psalm 94:18-19)

Before the institution of the church, its rituals, its pastorate, its buildings, its committees, and its many ministries there was a deep seated personal need. There was an absence felt in every human being. Throughout our existence as a species, ships and caravans (literal and figurative) have been outfitted and new maps made to help us fill that hole. However, as each ship returns and each map waxes and wanes in importance, the absence remains. Every new certainty brings new questions and so, still, we do not know our place. We do not know our purpose. We do not know why we are here. We cannot—at least easily—feel the transcendent present in much of our lives.

The world has turned out to be quite a far cry from the Land of Eden. God, if there is one, isn’t our next door neighbor anymore. We are isolated. There is a great deal of traffic between us. We have trouble reaching each other, let alone the Divine. That said, while we may be on our own in many ways, we do not have to be truly alone. Humanity, in spite of its many failings, is a social race. We can break down the barrier between us. We can fight the traffic. We can work toward a common goal. We can, that is, if we are willing to put our personal interests aside for the greater good. This is the reason for ships and caravans. This is the reason for church.

Still, while we travel together, there is a sense in which the journey we are embarked on is a personal one. We ask our own questions. We wait for God to speak to us. The grace we seek in the church isn’t something to be merely talked about. It is something to experience. If God (however conceived) is not present in our church, no committee work, no pledging, no hymn singing or sermon preaching will make any difference. Grace—the sense of us touching the Divine and being touched back—is at the core of what we do together. This possibility draws us to worship and to the lifeways of our congregations.

The problem is that this grace can easily be lost in the rush of our lives. The mall doesn’t have even one kiosk dedicated to the stuff. Nor do we parents find it as often as we would like next to the soccer field or the hockey rink. Perhaps we find that when we do manage in the midst of our chaotic lives to get to church, grace isn’t making an appearance there either.

Connecting to God can be hard work. The church can make that work easier or even harder. We want to pray the words of Psalm 94 and truly feel God’s love when our feet slip. Often we are able to do just that. Sometimes, though, we are not. we live in a time and society when moments of grace can seem all too rare. The challenge for the church is to find a way ensure that it has a home in our sanctuaries, meeting rooms, and out in the world.

The Council of Christian Churches in the UUA will be considering the topic of grace and its role in the church this Sunday at its annual convocation. Once again, further information can be found here.

Declining Denominations

2011-05-23T12:28:00.000-07:00

It looks like adult membership in the UUA has dropped again, for the third year in a row. We are not alone, of course. The UCC, for example, saw a 2.8% drop, the largest one-year decline among the groups measured. Other mainline and liberal churches are is similar situations. So, too, are some conservative ones. I will leave it to the folks whose job it is to slap happy faces on things to do so. I, however, think we have a problem.

It seems that there are two obvious questions to ask about this...

Why is this happening? What are we going to do about it?

I don't pretend to have an answer. That said, I will hazard a guess that cannot be universally applied, but may be relevant in some situations. I suspect that our church cultures do not reflect our world's reality. Peter Morales, President of the UUA makes a reference to culture in his report to the UUA trustees. "The culture is moving our way theologically," he says, "but not institutionally”. I am not sure I know what he means about the first part. Theologically our multi-cultural nation is all over the board. I think his second observation has some merit, though. My concern (and I have mentioned it here in the past) is that we have found ourselves unable to adapt to the needs of our communities. Instead, we expect the community to adapt to us. We liberals tell folks that they are all welcome...if it is convenient for our particular institution in its currrent format.

For example, Let's say you live in a town with a Little League. If you don't have one, I bet you know a municipality that does. Some mom or dad volunteers to coach their child's team. They--both of them--work all week. Saturday they drive a few towns over to visit Grandma. Sunday afternoon, the kids need to do homework and Mom and Dad need to sit back and watch some TV. The only time for team practice is (you guessed it) Sunday morning. What do we (the churches) do? We do what we have always done. We notice that that particular family isn't in church every week. We complain about attendance. We remind people that it is the responsibility of members in our faith community to attend church from time to time. Then we feel bad because folks would rather play baseball. They feel bad because they can't make it. Bad feelings abound.

What if we provided other programs and worship services that Mom and Dad Baseball could make? Maybe it would mean that there wouldn't be as many folks in church Sunday morning. Of course, they weren't coming anyway. So maybe it means the Baseballs get to stay part of the community instead of dropping out.

This failure to adapt isn't necessarily about worship language and liturgy. Churches with "contemporary" worship services are struggling, too. It isn't about "theology" either. Liberals and conservatives are struggling to maintain attendance. It think it is--at least in part--about something much more dull. It's about our busy, busy lives. It is about how modern people use their time. It is about how people interact with the organizations we are affiliated with.

Yes, the busy-ness of our lives is exactly why folks need their congregations. People need to find time in their schedules to connect with God or the Transcendent or whatever. The problem is, we expect them to come to worship on our terms. The mainline denominations are old and they do things the old way. It feels like it is perpetually 1955 or 1963. It's 10am (or (9:30 or 11:00) on Sunday morning. We tell folks that they must go to church at that time or not go at all. Yeah, we don't actually say it, but our actions do. There is no grace in this attitude. There has to be a better way.

I will attach a link to a post I wrote earlier this year about this same topic. I will say, though, that there is no blanket fix for the problem. Like politics, all religion is local. Each congregation knows (or should know) its situation and context best. Every community must adapt in its own way. We need to wonder how many ways we have for folks to connect with our institutions. We also need to adjust our expectations for what constitutes a "success".

I am rambling...

Here is that link to one of my previous posts on this subject. Okay...here is another (even older) one.

Here is a link to the UU World article.

On the Council of Christian Churches

2011-05-16T07:05:00.000-07:00

My congregation belongs to an organization called the "Council of Christian Churches within the UUA". It is (not surprisingly) exactly what it sounds like. The Council is a group of UU churches that--for whatever reason--identify themselves as part of the great Christian conversation. Some churches (like mine) are affiliated with other denominations (usually, but not always, the UCC). Others are solely UU-affiliated. In some, the worship services (both traditional and non-traditional) "feel" Christian in some way. In others not so much.

For its size, this is a pretty active group. The Council has been helpful to us over the past few years as we built up our Religious Education program and--eventually--hired an Assistant Pastor for Religious Education. RE Directors and Ministers of RE from the Council met with church leaders and helped us with curricula , organization and job descriptions. Our experience runs counter to some of the stereotypes about these churches that I remember hearing not too long ago. Our churches are filled with progressive, creative folks. Many of our congregations are filled with young people (hence the RE programs). The future actually looks very bright in our little corner of Christendom.

Currently the Council is looking forward to its annual Convocation. This year we will be hearing from Reverend Carl Scovel, who retired from an historic ministry at King's Chapel a decade ago and continues to be one of the great and fascinating figures of our movement. His presentation is entitled "Amazing Grace: The Love of God in the Lives We Live". Later on, I will participate in a workshop discussion with Reverend Mark Caggiano, minister of First Church in Chestnut Hill. Our topic will be "Grace in the Church".

Convocation will be on June 5 at 1pm this year. We will be meeting at First Parish (UU) in Weston. Everyone is invited! Click here for our brochure with further information.

My Other Seminary, Cold Wet Days, Burrowing

2011-05-10T08:02:00.000-07:00

It is a cold wet day outside in Burbania. Thanks to the peculiarly permeable walls of the old parsonage, it is a cold wet day inside, too. Norm is doing math. He is learning how to convert pints to quarts and do other similar feats. Needless to say, he is thrilled.

We had quite a bit of excitement this morning. All the folks in the neighborhood got up, turned on their computers and TV's, then realized that the cable was out. This was particularly exciting at the parsonage. For some reason the infrastructure powers-that-be put the master-electronic-thing right outside our window, so the boys and I watched as it was put back to normal. For us it was free entertainment before starting our day. It was a problem for the SUV's trying to use our little road, though.

Days like this make me think of alternative building techniques. I'm not kidding. Early in our marriage, my wife and I lived in a ground house in North Central Maine. It was built by a couple lawyers from New York City who wanted to start a "free school" for hippies back in the 1970's. They didn't last long. By the time we lived there the building was in a state of general disrepair. We rented the upstairs from the large family who lived downstairs. They were (and I assume still are) part of the "homestead" movement. They were also Evangelicals of a conservative bent. They were good folks, even though they were sure we were going to Hell.

Anyway, the house burrowed into the side of a small mountain and had large south-facing windows taken from an old barn. We could heat that place with a candle. It was true even on a day like this one. It is a good day for burrowing.

All I have today are a couple links. The first is about my "other" seminary, Chicago Theological. I have been talking a lot here and elsewhere about Meadville/Lombard. Therefore, it seemed to make sense to point out the other action going on Hyde Park. CTS has moved and is constructing a new building across the Midway, near the place where the old Ryder Divinity School (also of Lombard College) used to be. It doesn't burrow into the ground, sadly. However, it is LEED certified and has (or will have) a super-cool roof garden. It is nice to see that they are doing well. I am pleased that they are trying to be eco-friendly. I look forward to checking out the building on some cold, wet, day.

The other link is to a somewhat more rural pursuit (I don't think the church would want me to build one here). Perhaps on my next sabbatical I will go a learn how to build a cordwood house. They look awesome and they just have to be warm. Perhaps when the day comes that I no longer need to have my cable connection contantly running, I will retire to a place like this and live out the rest of my days a bit closer to nature...

"Un-College" Update

2011-05-05T16:10:00.000-07:00

My colleague and friend Scott Wells has taken up the conversation begun in my previous post about alternatives to college education. Scott has a much clearer mind than I and has some fairly concrete suggestions and categories to play with. It is worth checking out here...but do come back...

I posted a comment on Scott's blog about something that has come up in the discussion here, namely the importance of the social element. The word "social" doesn't begin to cover the depth of many of those relationships. Every scholar needs a community of scholars they can share with. They need people they can teach and also learn from. This doesn't just happen in class, either. In the theological hot house of Chicago's Hyde Park, many a doctoral paper (including mine) is (or was) developed, reviewed, and refined at Jimmy's Woodlawn Tap.

Scholars also need friends. This is something that I sometimes forget. During my own undergraduate years I attended four different schools (yes, for financial reasons). I met my wife, Allison, during my second stint at Bates College. That said, I have very few other continuing relationships with people I met during that time. There are a few Facebook friends and one college friend I have reconnected with through Facebook. That's it. I have (thankfully) been able to keep in touch with a few folks from both my seminary stints. Some of them have become friends and remain important to me. They still form an important part of my life as a learner as well. The networks we form are important.

Any sort of "un-college" would have to find ways to address this need. Homeschoolers have "co-ops" where families band together to teach and learn. Not going to college doesn't necessarily mean not having access to communities of learning. It may, however, mean working to build that community.

When Will College Cease to be Relevant?

2011-05-04T04:32:00.000-07:00

So here I am in a place that, honestly, I never really thought about when I started a family. I am just a few years away from the "great college hunt" for Son #1. In the part of Burbania in which I live, it is an annual rite of passage for children--sometimes starting in their Sophomore year--to collect viewbooks, burnish their talking points and go out on the "college tour." Ultimately this leads to a personal existential crisis and--finally--selection of the "perfect place" to spend the next four (or more) years.

The problem is that I have no realistic way of paying for this. I don't mean in the sense of the boys not being able to go to the "schools of their choice". I mean that I cannot afford any school. Period. Also, I do not see that situation changing in the near future. My wife and I chose professions that help people. The financial rewards are, therefore, somewhat limited.

One can ignore many of the issues around this odd distribution of wealth. Our work is fulfilling, after all, and renting isn't all that bad. However, in the case of college, it is a problem. The question isn't whether we will go into debt but how much debt we are willing to take on. There are three of the little dears, so we must ration--carefully--the family resources. Perhaps they will live at home and study at one of the local state universities. Perhaps they (and we) will have to take on more jobs to make it work. I don't know. It is an open question.

I also wonder how long we Burbanians are going to let this situation last. I am well aware of how much better off my family is than most people are. If we cannot afford the escalating tuition, how will other people? Who is going to all these schools? Is everyone going into debt for fear that their child is one step closer to homelessness without a degree from Bates?

There is a sense from the media and from parents that there is nothing we can do. According to common wisdom, college is necessary and, therefore, we must sacrifice what financial security we might have for the sake of our children. Still, as tuition and fees increase, shouldn't there be a moment when we decide that Harvard is just one big scam? There has to be a better way to gain the knowledge that college ostensibly provides. These institutions may be pricing themselves into irrelevance.

I am serious here. If tuition increases and becomes (increasingly) an exclusive club for those who can afford exclusive clubs, there will come a time when the rest of us find other options. For example, why can't my children "homeschool" their undergraduate experience? We are, as I have mentioned in other posts, members of the Boston Athenaeum, a private library with collections primarily focused in the arts and humanities. My kids are bright. They can do their own research. Also, "a la carte" college courses taken as necessary could fill in gaps. Even with occasional courses, membership in a library, and other costs, the expense would be much less and the education at least as good for a motivated student.

People in my generation (that would be GenX) graduated with mountains of debt. It isn't at all clear that it was worth it. Now another generation is learning the same thing. What are the chances that smart people are going to repeat the mistakes of the past? Wait...don't answer that.

What I meant to say was that it only takes a few people to change the way we think about higher education. All it takes is enough people to think outside the box to create a new paradigm in learning. The argument that one has to go to college to be an intellectual has always been a weak one. The argument that a piece of paper from a large institution qualifies you for gainful employment may be weaker than we thought as well. Programs of self-education have the potential to create curious life-long learners. Perhaps some of our children will give it a try...

A Community in Transition

2011-05-03T03:50:00.000-07:00

Every community changes...constantly. Just as with any living thing, there are endless adjustments. There are moments of birth, of growth, and of death. Every era in an organization comes into being, cycles through its life, and then moves on. However, there are times when astute observers notice previously unseen changes in a system and are then able to see other shifts that are no doubt on their way. We are only human, after all. Many times a change that seems sudden is really a long time in the making.

Consider the National Football League, for example. Changes are coming soon. The economy has altered the playing field. Its major actors have as well. There are new safety rules. There are new issues around competitiveness. There are, of course, issues around compensation. This past week the owner-enforced lockout was briefly lifted. Then darkness came again as the the league filed an appeal and was granted a "stay". This conflict didn't happen overnight. It comes from years of record profits and the final pressure to find new ways to share them. It gets increasingly difficult, I believe, for the owners to cast themselves as victims. However, perhaps when you are that privileged, it is hard not to see yourself as snubbed and oppressed by all around you. Those cruel, cruel, baristas didn't get your coffee right this morning, Mr. Kraft. You deserve a better coffee and a nation weeps with you...

Far away (but not far enough, sadly) from the board room, actual teams are in transition. The draft wrapped up and (someday) there will be free agency, retirements, and such that will remake teams and cultures. These changes will determine the future success of these organizations. I am talking football here, but feel free to insert your own organization. In many ways we are all the same.

One team in transition is Mr. Kraft's New England Patriots. This is clear from the draft news. The Pats picked players to fill important holes and maintain their perennial contender status. They first chose an Offensive Tackle. This is no surprise. Next came a Cornerback. This is...a bit. Last year's big draft acquisition was a corner, too. The backfield, it appears, will become a strength next year.

Then things got a little odd for a while. They drafted two Running Backs, Shane Vereen and Stevan Ridley, who possess complimentary skills. Then they picked a Quarterback, Ryan Mallet. Remember what I said about noticing changes that have already occurred and planning for ones that will come soon? Well, here you are. Sometimes the changes we recognize aren't always that welcome are they? Even if everything turns out OK in the end.

Let's start with the Running Backs. What change did the team recognize? For years the Pats have had a backfield committee, led not by their ostensible starter (or "premier" back) but by the consistent third-down, change-of-pace presence of Kevin Faulk. Faulk is in his late thirties, which in RB years in like your late 90's. His committee includes a couple of other grey and grizzled old guys, Sammy Morris and Fred Taylor. They are some of the most popular Patriots on the current team. Faulk is one of the most popular ever.

When Faulk was lost for the season early last year, the fan-base went into mourning. Others stepped up, of course, and things went on. Now change has come in the form of younger legs. At least two of the old guys will probably have to leave the team. It is quite possible that all three of them will retire together. I hope that it is a good departure. When Faulk leaves (either this year or next), the only player on the roster to have participated in all four Belichick-era Super Bowls will be Tom Brady. That is organizational change.

Speaking of Brady. That Ryan Mallet is no normal third round QB. He dropped on draft day because of "character issues". Do not doubt for a moment that he is a contender. No, Mallet won't be replacing Brady soon, but he is a real presence and will influence the narrative from now on. He is very good. Interestingly, during the draft more than one analyst described Mallet's game as being like that of the man Brady replaced, Drew Bledsoe.
This is Tom's first time as the old guy fighting off the youngster. All his other backups have been just that (Matt Cassel was a surprise). I wonder how he will handle it? Organizational change, after all, often reflects of brings about personal change. Bledsoe did as well as anyone in this situation so there is at least one example of moving on gracefully. Bledsoe--a huge star in his day who led the Pats to a Super Bowl against Brett Favre's Packers--saw his demotion as a time to start planning for the future. He started for five more years on lesser teams (Bills and Cowboys) and then retired to make wine and roast coffee. He wanted to be near his family. Now his only football connection is coaching his son's Pee Wee team...the Patriots.

The Bledsoe story is a telling one in this case, actually. Brady is quoted as saying that he plans to play the next ten years. He didn't say that they would be with the Pats. Brady is not the young man who rose to prominence so many years ago. He is now a husband and father. He is also a supermodel (and, yes, married to one). Boston isn't big in the supermodelling world. At some point he will want to be with his family in California doing celebrity things, maybe shilling his buddy Drew's wine. The Bay Area teams stink. He could end up playing there for a few years while getting ready for his new life.

Change is coming. It is coming to football teams, to billionaire owners, and it is coming to you and me. Maybe your changes don't quite fit with my examples. That's not much of a surprise. We don't really live in a sports metaphor do we? Still, how we deal with change is important. Does it crush us? Are we unable to let go? Or do we move with as much grace as we can muster into new arenas? Brady, Faulk, and all the rest of us need to ask ourselves at times whether we want to be like Drew Bledsoe or like Brett Favre. Really, its not that hard a choice.

Oh...and vote for Drew Bledsoe for Patriot's Hall of Fame. You don't want Parcells to get in on his first year of eligibility, do you?

James Joyce and Feats of Athletic Prowess

2011-05-02T04:54:00.000-07:00

I always thought of Joyce as more of a sedentary creature. You know what I mean? I picture him drinking, smoking, and writing...perhaps sleeping when he must. Still, this doesn't seem to faze the folks at the "James Joyce Ramble" in Dedham, MA. Apparently it all somehow makes sense to honor Joyce while hosting a 6.2 mile race to raise money for Dana-Farber and Amnesty International. This year my wife was running. So I went and took pictures.

The mixed themes were embodied by the participants in the final product. The race--which is certified as a qualifying race by some officiating body--was dominated by a group of truly fast people. After them came the normally fast folks out for a good healthy competition. Then there were walkers, going from station to station while enactors (the fourth group) read selections from Joyce's most important works. Everyone had a good time, I think. The distribution of folks, however, was still interesting. One of the readers used sports metaphors to describe the reader-culture. The "rookies," for example, are always stuck with Finnegan's Wake to see if they have enough stuff for the next year.

It was this particular work that inspired the original founding of the race. Back in the eighties, someone thought that since reading Joyce is such a workout, it went well with running. Yeah...really. That is the official explanation. The race's mission statement reads, "Running is an expression of freedom and poetry, both of which embrace the deepest values of life. The Ramble embraces these values as an expression of charity, a plea for human rights and a celebration of art."

While waiting for our wife and mother to run by, the kid's and I listened to this woman...

...read from Finnegan's Wake and this man...

...read from Dubliners in front of this house...

...which has serious structural issues but is the oldest house in Dedham and the ancestral home of some Vice-President. Then she ran by...

...(clearly the happiest runner in the picture) and then we went home.

Astute readers will recall that yesterday was a Sunday. I am back on sabbatical for one more month. One of the great things about sabbatical is that we get to do things we cannot normally do. My wife likes to run races. Since so many races are on Sundays (a good day for non-clergy families), usually her options are limited by my need to be in church. It was fun to be able to do this.

Perhaps today I will go and make a Joyce purchase. I loved Dubliners but--sadly--that is where my reading ends.

Incidentally her time was excellent. Boasting is OK...right?

To School or Not to School?

2011-04-29T06:57:00.000-07:00

Right now Norm is battling his way through one of the occasional epic spelling tests that I inflict on him. His brother--sick and awaiting his visit with the doctor--is hovering over him with sometimes helpful advice. We do this (and other things like math tests) even though Norm could care less about these subjects right now. We do it because we always thought he would go back to school next year. There are "benchmarks" that the school likes us to meet and, honestly, I want him to be up to speed upon his return. This isn't a problem for most subjects. He gets his science from various projects and from the homeschool program at the bird sanctuary. History comes along with his art studies. Reading and writing are things he likes to do. Math and spelling, on the other hand, are not as much fun for him. I would wait to teach them if I thought he wasn't going back.

Now he is having second thoughts about school next year. He has made friends in the homeschool world and he is afraid that he will miss them. There are a lot of these friends, actually, and they are distributed all over Eastern Massachusetts. He is correct. Most of them will fade away quickly. Also, he has found--now after almost a year of what the homeschool folks call "de-schooling"--that he likes the structure he has developed for himself. He is curious about different subjects and pleased that he can go pursue them. This, too, will be lost at school. By its nature a school needs to structure its topics and time in a general sort of way. There is also a great deal of focus on measuring results. There is an official reward system and hierarchy based on grades and physical prowess. This opens the door to informal hierarchies amongst the children. In the homeschool world that we have experienced this year, the kids and their teachers are more often colleagues, working together to pursue individual interests. In many ways, its not unlike grad school...if none of the students had drivers' licenses.

On the other hand, next year is the beginning of middle school in our town. His friends will go an meet the kids from one of the other elementary schools (there are five in all and two middle schools). Everyone will be new and might be open to making friends. The teachers may be a bit more flexible. There will be a few electives. Also, it is the school Norm's brother goes to. Of course, it is also a whole lot less time consuming for Dad and more convenient for for both of us.

Adults I have spoken to fall into various camps based on defending what choices they (or their children) have made. The homeschool parents are mostly sympathetic, understanding the pull of school for kids who have been in it at some point or another. Other adults are mostly sympathetic as well, though sometimes there is a hint of judgment. We wouldn't be in this situation if we just did what everyone else does, after all. To them it seems an unnecessary complication for a kid. From my perspective and Norm's, I don't think we would have missed this year for the world.

Still, it is a quandary with no clear answer.There are advantages and disadvantages to every plan. Many of his friends on the homeschool side are in their own discernment processes, too. I am giving him some space to explore his options and will interesting to see what we come up with. Soon Norm will finish his spelling test. it is boring but he is doing fine. Then we will go outside for phys ed. We will walk over to the park and he will ride his skateboard for a while. He is a homeschooler after all, he can do what he wants.

Post-Easter Blues

2011-04-28T10:33:00.000-07:00

I always find it hard to get going the week after Easter. Yes, the seasons have changed and we are all supposed to be spritely and vigorous. However, it takes time for me to ramp up. No doubt part of this is because of the toll Lent, Holy Week, and Easter can take on someone in my profession. Every job has times like this. It is the high-energy time. It begins when many folks are feeling sluggish from their winter hibernation. It ends on the official "resurrection day". That's a lot of pressure. That's a lot of activity. Of course, it is also allergy season....

Whatever the reason, I find that right after Easter I want to either hide indoors or climb a really large mountain in some less populated region. I also would like a place with fewer cars. I was raised a country-boy but don't particularly miss it except when each season changes. The 'burbs just don't feel (and certainly don't smell or sound) the same as where I grew up. I miss the connection to nature that comes from inhabiting a place where nature--not people--still holds the balance of power.

Well, we didn't drive up to Maine. We also haven't hidden in some far corner of the parsonage. What Norm and I did manage to do was to drive about a mile away to the local bird sanctuary. We just barely managed to beat the rain. It was good to be there. We walked on some of the trails we enjoyed during our winter hikes and marveled at the changes. We spotted some birds and reported them to the office so they could go on the list. It was nice to be out, even if it didn't quite meet all of our requirements. Burbania is about compromise, after all.

We also signed Norm up for homeschool classes at the sanctuary. This is good. He has taken them before and misses his friends. These classes--held in various locations and on various subjects--are very important social outlets as well and educational ones. Norm is considering a second year of homeschool. A lot will depend on whether he feels he can see other kids. Homeschoolers spend little time at home, actually. A lot of it is spent with fellow-students. A lot of it is spent in nature. Which reminds me...its time to plan for summer camps...

For the Ukulele Lover in Your Life...

2011-04-27T04:52:00.000-07:00

...and I am in your life...right?

OK, there are a couple of items burning up the uke-world right now. The first is the increasing popularity of current rock-stars releasing uke albums. Yeah...it's a fad. However, the folks who are doing it are still cool. It will reach the point of ridiculousness if NKOTB (kids...ask your parents) jumps on the bandwagon. Anyway, Amanda Palmer and Eddie Vedder do not need their alt-cred burnished, yet there they are banging away on the ultimate DIY instrument.

The more exciting development, however, comes from the makers of the "Flea" and "Fluke" ukuleles. As many of you know I purchased a Fluke online (excellent customer service, by the way) and love it! I used it in church on Maundy Thursday (a rather contemplative service) and on Easter Morning (not contemplative at all!) and it fit well in both places. The quality of sound and ease of play exceeds the price, which is a nice trick.

Well, they have added a new item to their line. That's right, they now are making a banjo-uke (also known by the classier name "banjolele")! The Banjo-uke is pretty much just what the name implies. It is a ukulele with a banjo body. My sense of them has always been that they are more uke than banjo in how they play. However, the sound they create is novel and different. I want one. Actually, what I really would like is for the folks who make it to give me one so I can write a review. How many uke-playing ministers can their be out there...other than Li'l Rev? A uke makes people happy the minute they see it. Banjos do the same thing. From a pastoral perspective, what could be better than the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup of folk instruments?

OK...Links...

Here is a link to a blog post I meant to add to my previous Uke post. It is about being a permanent beginner. This is what I am when it comes to music...

Here is Amanda Palmer's album. Yes...Radiohead covers...too cool...

Eddie Vedder's album isn't out yet...but it will be...

Recent NKOTB news. No, this has nothing to do with the uke (thank God) but Donnie helped a fan get a new kidney which is actually kinda classy...

And (Drum Roll!) The link to the Flea banjolele! The price is rather steep, but eventually they will re-tool their plastic fretboard and that will bring the price down quite a bit. Until that magical day, here is a video of the Beloffs, the first family of hip uke production talking about their new product. Their interviewer, (Aldrine Guererro) by the way, is a bit of an internet sensation himself and the face of the Ukulele Underground web page.

...oh...and Li'l Rev...

Hops. Meadville. Manny.

2011-04-26T10:46:00.000-07:00

I took some time out on Good Friday to plant my hop rhizomes in these buckets. The three clustered together are all Chinook. Chinook is a rather feisty high-alpha (bitter) hop used by some American brewers to make themselves feel manly. However, it also has a rather pleasant flavor and aroma...and they are supposed to be fairly good growers. Next to them is the Kent Goldings rhizome. I am not sure I can still call it that. The word "Kent" in this context is in reference to where it was grown originally (County Kent, England, UK). It is the classic hop for many of the English-styled ales. Perhaps it should be called "Parsonage Goldings" now. Finally, in the big purple bucket, is the Brewer's Gold rhizome. This one shares characteristics with both of the others. I will be using it for aroma and flavor in my homebrewed beers.

I will blog more about the hops if they manage to survive. A couple of the Chinooks were quite dry when I planted them and the others may just fail to thrive in their new homes. They are in buckets for the simple reason that--as a parsonage dweller--I possess the renter's sense of impermanence. Also there will be a great deal of work on the house this summer (paint and septic) so the hops need to be more mobile than other plants.

Since there isn't much more to say on this subject I have a few (unrelated) links...

The conversation continues around the Meadville/Lombard situation. There have been additional comments made to the post by Scott Wells. I am pleased to hear from current students, though the issues seem to have been muddied a bit and combined in a great big--slightly tense--ball. For example, I really don't think there are too many people who doubt the need to sell property. It had to be done. It would be good to move on to more important viability, image, and culture issues. That said, the background information on why the "TouchPoint" curriculum came into being was much appreciated.

Also, here is a thoughtful piece at Rev. Cyn (Reverend Cynthia Landrum) and some very thoughtful comments that coincide with much of my own experience with M/L. Though she graduated only a year after me, I did not know her. I was on a "six year plan" of my own devising. Still, her impressions of the place ring true for me as well.

Finally, for those of you who follow baseball and are still able to read the New York Times. Here is a link to a very good story about the brilliant and sometimes troubling Manny Ramirez. Here also is a link about the attempts of some colleges to get around Title IX

On Fasting IV

2011-04-23T16:08:00.000-07:00

Well, we made it...more or less. I will say that I will probably never become any sort of spiritual athlete. That having been said, I do think I can recommend the whole fasting thing...at least in small doses...

The worst part was after lunchtime. We were all quite hungry and had to find ways to distract ourselves. The kids played. My wife worked and--yes, really--gave some thought to the Good Friday story. It is easier when you put the whole experience in context, after all. I wrote a couple of blog posts and got ready for Easter Sunday. I am using the story from Matthew this year. I buried myself in the commentaries to avoid thinking about my aching head. Also, I took time out to read the Good Friday story from John.

When we decided to do this I wrote what I thought were the reasonable goals for the day. That is, consideration of our relationship with God, understanding of the suffering of others, and reflection on how we can live our lives more ethically. The first goal was achieved in abundance (at least for the grown ups). Going hungry helped us to understand and value the gifts of creation. The suffering of others wasn't all that far from our minds either. My wife and I couldn't help but find solace in the limited nature of our fast. This naturally lead to the question of what it would be like if this was always the way for us. This is not, obviously, a happy thought. The final goal didn't work out quite so well, though. Frankly I was too hungry to think about any great action or plan.

It should also be noted that there was one unforseen benefit. We fasted as a family. Therefore, it became a shared experience. Was it the same as a vacation somewhere warm or exotic (or merely interesting)? No, it wasn't, but it was a whole lot cheaper!

In the end it was a useful spiritual exercise and one that may become part of our annual worship life. For one day we were constantly reminded of the Holy Week story. This is a good thing. On Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday I try to remind folks that the resurrection moment implies--even requires--a death. Suffering is part of life. The Good Friday fast is an acknowledgement of the the presence of suffering in our lives.

After all of that, we made reservations at a local restaurant and broke our fast together. Now on to Easter...

A Few More Meadville/Lombard Thoughts

2011-04-22T07:55:00.000-07:00

I don't have long. There is hop-planting to be done and a sermon to be written. However, I direct your attention to two very interesting comments to my last post on the subject of Meadville/Lombard. They both bring up interesting points. One is that there is a great deal of adjustment going on in the UUA about what the professional ministry is and is for. This, naturally, creates challenges for its two seminaries. The other riffs off of that and brings to mind the obvious financial stresses on our seminaries. The Hyde Park Cluster, for example, has seen its share of suffering all around. It isn't just Meadville/Lombard. In fact, some seminaries are in much worse shape.

I, too, am quite proud of my seminary and its willingness to explore various options. However, the fact remains that the school presents itself (at least to me) as a series of odd and unconnected episodes. There always seems to be a "great new vision" or a "cutting edge program" being unveiled. It is tiring. What I want to know is that things are going along in the usual boring seminary way. Are there still courses being taught? Will there be a library? Where will the seminary and the library be? Scott Wells and Bill Baar both note at their blogs that there appears to be a lack of transparency. I would like to say otherwise, but instead I am forced to agree.

Perhaps the next great press release/email should lay a few more cards on the table (past talking points). How is M/L financially? When I ask this, I would like an answer with more than a word or two. Maybe some broad numbers would be helpful. Also, what is the plan for a location? I am genuinely interested. Are all courses going to be taught on line and in intensives now? That's fine. Just tell me why. Again, more than a couple sentences would be nice. So, too would be a practical (rather than theological and pedagogical) answer.

I end with a confession. About halfway through my DMin in Preaching program (as a student at Chicago Theological Seminary across the street from M/L) I had the opportunity to explain my preaching project to my advisor and some of my fellow students. I talked to them for some time before I realized they had no idea what I was on about. They were frustrated and so was I. It turns out, I wasn't making sense to anyone but me! In order to graduate I had to make sense. It is as simple as that. I am sure that M/L has a plan and that it makes sense to them. However, if they want me to buy in to it, they have to do a much better job of explaining.

Here is a link to Boy in the Bands where there is a much more extensive conversation

Here is a link to Pfarrer Streccius...

On Fasting III (and a bit about Maundy Thursday Communion)

2011-04-22T04:12:00.000-07:00

This may well be a two-post day as I want to get back to the Meadville/Lombard thing. However, I thought a fasting update was in order. Perhaps not surprisingly we made it through the night. Last night's Maundy Thursday service was lovely with few words and a healthy dose of music. Our hymns were played by Harriett Buckingham, our long-time Maundy Thursday pianist. Our Assistant minister played the guitar and sang for the Interlude. I, of course, played the Fluke to kick it off. Also, communion was served.

As I noted (or at least implied) in last night's post, the goal was originally to stop eating after the service. We thought it would be a nice symbolic touch to have communion be the last thing consumed. In reality we got a bit nervous and did some snacking before bed to fortify ourselves. Still, the symbolic end will be around 7pm this evening if we can make it. Also, this is a solid-food fast, so there will be liquids consumed during the day.

My big question right now is what to serve for dinner. I tried a few Google searches, but mostly I found references to some diet plan that involves regular 24 hour fasts. It had suggestions, but they all had to do with losing weight. My concern is a bit different, obviously. Any suggestions would be helpful. I plan on being very hungry...

Here are the essential elements of last night's communion service, just in case someone ever wants to replicate it.

THE MUSIC:

On Uke:
Were You There? We did this as a sing-along without words printed. Sometimes I think we get so busy reading the words that we forget to experience the moment.

On Piano (all from the Pilgrim Hymnal):
Holy, Holy, Holy (that's right UU's...the trinitarian one)
Rock Of Ages
Abide With Me

On Guitar:
In the Bulb There is a Flower This was sung as a solo piece by Matt Carriker.

READINGS:
Exodus 12:1-4, 11-14 (the Passover story)
Luke 22:7-18 (the Communion story)

The actual service of communion consisted of reading the next two verses of Luke and handing out the bread and wine at appropriate moments.

Donna Vuillemier and I were the deacons.

On Fasting II

2011-04-21T18:13:00.000-07:00

The boys and I will be fasting from this evening until the same time (more or less) on Good Friday evening. I think we are expecting this to last about 22 hours. Our reasons have been explained in a previous post, which I will link to below.

The plan is to stop eating shortly after the Maundy Thursday Communion service. Drinking is OK, though. I think God will understand if I don't want dehydrated kids! The plan so far has gone reasonably well. After getting home from communion we did take some time to have dessert and to consume anything else we thought our body might need to burn tomorrow. Now we are off to bed. I will let you know how things turn out...

Here is the link to that earlier post.

Meadville/Lombard Makes Me Dizzy

2011-04-21T13:07:00.000-07:00

So it turns out that Meadville/Lombard Theological School (where I received my Master of Divinity in 2000) has chosen to continue its journey alone after all. That is fine. I am sure that there are good reasons not to form the "Theological University" with Andover Newton. I can think of a few. Not the least of these issues is the physical distance. However, I will miss the "both-and" tone of the epistles from this merger-not merger. For every email sent saying that ANTS and M/L were working as a team, there was one explaining that they were really different institutions and would remain so. They were much more entertaining than the ones I got when M/L was merging with Starr King. Still, they aren't quite as fun as all the blog posts when that fell through.

I have no complaints with the choice to break off talks. I will say that there seems to be a pattern and it is a bit confusing. It may be that this all feels quite different while sitting in Hyde Park. However, as a dedicated Meadville/Lombard observer for many years, I find that this constant change in direction makes it hard for me to say nice things all the time. I like to say nice things about my seminary, but they keep me spinning...and spinning...and spinning....

I still haven't figured out what the new curriculum is about. Thank God I am not in school! That means I have the time...and little or no pressure. In fact, I think I will wait a while to see if that changes, too...

Here is the link to the press release from the seminary.

Uke Stuff

2011-04-20T16:49:00.000-07:00

It is Holy Wednesday night and I am trying to figure out if there is any way I can play "Were You There" on the ukulele for Maundy Thursday Communion. The fact is, there is almost no way to make it sound contemplative with either the Soprano or the Concert sized instruments. They want to be perky and bounce around. The tone of the service is contemplative... Perhaps as a sing-along prelude? Postlude? Maybe I should rush-order a baritone?

Anyway, this quandary has motivated me to do something else with my evening. I am, therefore, adding a "Ukulele" subject heading to my "Labels" list. This will be the first and will contain other relevant links below....

Folk Worship? (August 5, 2010)

End of an Era (Sort Of) (August 30, 2010)

Return of the Staybattical Part 1 (December 30, 2010)

The Magic Fluke (A Review?) (March 23, 2011)

If you have any suggestions concerning my current issue, by the way, do let me know. My colleague Matt is already playing something on the guitar for the anthem so it may be a case of "less is more".

Boston Marathon

2011-04-18T11:49:00.000-07:00

There is only one international athletic competition in my town and that is the Boston Marathon. The marathon winds its way through various municipalities in Burbania before plunging into the city for the big finish. The boys and I made sure to get up and walk into town in time for the big race, which is still wrapping up and will be for some time.

After grabbing some snacks we made our way to Mile 10 to see the elites run past. Most of my pictures didn't come out well (sports photography was not a career option). However, here are some that did...

See? Mile 10...

The women ran on our side of the street so I got some OK pictures. The men ran on the other so I only got one even moderately good one...

Hellen Mugo

Desiree Davila...Did she come in second?

I don't know who this is, but she was very fast and near the front...

Someone named Grandt, obviously. I think she was behind the first group...but not too far behind...

Ryan Hall, Bekana Daba, Geoffrey Mutai, Gilbert Yegon. I didn't get a good shot of the runners next to Mutai and behind Yegon...anyone? Mutai went on to win and--I believe--set a new record. Ten miles is still pretty early in a marathon.

...and Alistair Cragg...great name...he's Irish...

I should note that the marathon is a big party for those of us not running, which is a good thing since we were cut off from home by the race....

A popular local karaoke singer and public access TV celebrity kept us entertained

Matt Carriker, Eliot Church's Assistant Pastor and Birthday-Boy sold snacks to raise funds for the West Virginia WorkCamp trip...

...and...well...some of the runners had a party, too...

I missed taking a picture of the guy in the gorilla suit and also missed all three of the people I went to watch! Congrats to Rebecca, Luis and Tom! I hope you had as much fun running the race as I did looking for you...

Say It Ain't So Dr. Willimon...

2011-04-05T04:22:00.000-07:00

Hello Dr. Willimon,

You don't know me but I thought I would drop you a quick line this morning. Last night before bed I was reading the lovely obituary of Peter Gomes that you wrote in the Christian Century magazine. I am sure you miss him. We all do. He was a lion of the pulpit and a leader and mentor to many of us. Peter Gomes is someone many preachers around these parts strive to be like and that is a good thing. However, I must take exception with something you wrote. It was a little phrase and--no doubt--you put it in because you like the sound and cadence. It is a preacher's phrase. I said it out loud. Too bad it is incorrect.

You were writing about Peter Gomes' writing--I think--but you may have been being a bit more general that that when you described the man as "a sort of eloquent last hurrah of New England Christian liberalism at its very best." Excuse me? Last hurrah? Understand, sir, that I mean no disrespect to you or to Dr. Gomes, but we are not ready for our last hurrah just yet. Every week great preachers in the tradition of New England Christian liberalism climb into their pulpits to stand between the rampant forces of conservatism and intolerance on the one hand and that flood of secular indifference on the other.

Notice I didn't say we "hold back" those forces. We are still realists though still we try. The intolerance we know how to fight. The indifference hurts us badly but we have not given up. We stand there in our churches--from half a dozen denominations--preaching the gospel as we know it to those members of our congregations who have the will to hear. We will do so until all of New England has turned its back on us. That will take a while. In fact it may never ever happen! I promise you if there is a last hurrah, there will be no Dr. William Willimon around to see it and write us a splendid eulogy.

Perhaps you meant only to suggest that Gomes was better than we who remain. You did, after all, say he represented our tradition at its very best. I respectfully submit that there are plenty of people today who will rise up and take his place. It is what Dr. Gomes would have wanted, by the way. You may not know these people. Perhaps you thought all the New England churches were filled with historical recreations like Sturbridge Village. That's OK. On the blank edges of some of our maps are the words "Here there be W. Willimon". We haven't met you either, but we suspect you might exist. Most of our churches have a pastor or two. Others have determined lay people. They are all doing good work and, again, we have not given up to the point where we will not do our very, very, best!

Cheer up! I am writing to reassure you. Your friend Peter lives on in more ways than one. The fact is, we carry more light and truth than even we realize. That truth, doctor, will never die...

Yours in New England Christian Liberalism,

Rev. Dr. Adam Tierney-Eliot

1.3 Car Family

2011-04-04T07:30:00.000-07:00

You may recall that one of the very first posts on this blog was about going down to one car. This, I think, is one of the great challenges for the environmentally conscious Burbanian. Some would even say it is impossible in certain settings. I live in the sort of area that a few residents still like to call "semi-rural". It's not rural at all, really, but there are big-ish lawns, space between houses, trees, and not so much as a bus stop within two miles. So I and my neighbors climb into our cars--one for each licensed driver in the family--and go about our business in splendid isolation from each other.

I am not judging, trust me. Checking out the date on that early post, it appears we have been attempting to get down to one car since November, 2009. That is a long time. We first made some mild attempts to sell our Toyota Sienna. I don't like this car very much. Driving it is like driving one of those Star Trek shuttles...or paddling a raft over a lake of Jell-O. Funny thing, it looks like there are enough mini-vans around town and nobody wanted another one. Altering our strategy, I made calls and sent some emails about selling my car. It was a Saab 9-2x (really a re-badged Subaru Impreza). I didn't want to sell it. It got better mileage. It looked better. It was more fun to drive. Also, I could fit all the kids and the dog in it to run errands if need be, maneuvering through the tighter areas of the family bus-route with little thought or worry.

We had pretty much given up selling that car too when a miracle occurred! I got into an accident and totaled the Saab. This was a couple months ago. Now we are embarked on the journey toward single-car ownership in a big way. You may ask why we haven't bought another one. Perhaps a "Smart" car, or a two-door hatchback with three seatbelts in the back? The fact is, we cannot afford it. So there may be--to be honest--a bit of putting a smiley-face on a bad situation when I say we are planning to take the plunge. However, this is not entirely the case.

I realize that my personal energy-policy view could be seen as somewhat eccentric. However, I truly believe that we need to start considering potentially inconvenient lifestyle changes if we hope to live on this rock in the future. I think the government should consider making us turn off all non-essential appliances for a hour or two a day, for example. I also am not a fan of hybrid cars, which substitute one form of pollution (batteries) for a portion of another form of pollution (petroleum) so that we can continue to drive larger cars than we need. Really, hybrids are a dead-end. You can, in fact, purchase a regular car that uses less gas...but that would mean compromise in comfort, convenience, and so on.

So, anyway, we only own one car now...the boat-like Sienna. Having only one has in fact reduced the amount of total driving we do. Norm and I walk the two miles to the train station when we need to go into Boston. My wife and I pool our errands at times in order to get everything done. Is it inconvenient? Yes. Does it reduce our carbon footprint? Yes. Will it work over the long term? I don't know.

See, here's the thing. When I had my accident I wasn't planning on a single-car lifestyle. I do most of the after-school driving. However, I rely on my wife to pick up the youngest from daycare after she gets out of work. By that time I am miles away--usually at the YMCA--and beyond helping. I also have meetings in Worcester every month and there are weddings I will officiate this summer in scenic locales. These are sticking points in the schedule.

What we do have, which has helped us immeasurably is my dad's car. It is a Saturn Ion from the time when Saturn really started phoning it in. I mean, it was born broken and it hasn't gotten better over time. However, while we do not use it much, it gets us through the scheduling bottlenecks until we are able to plan for our one-car existence. Our goal is to ease out of it, which I think may be possible...once this "Y" calendar cycle is exhausted, perhaps, or maybe just a little bit longer...

OK, I have my doubts. We are still trying, though. I would like to get us at least from 1.3 cars to 1.1 this summer. At that point one can rent occasionally and bike more frequently. Maybe--with some lifestyle adjustments--it is doable.

Here is the link to that old post about selling our car

Here is a post about the cars of the future. It looks like I never edited this post for typos, spelling, and grammar...but the cars are nice...

On Fasting

2011-03-30T06:31:00.000-07:00

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Isaiah 58:6

The boys recently asked me if we could do some sort of fast during Holy Week. I was surprised. We had been talking about Ramadan and I had mentioned that fasting (though few people actually do it these days) is also a part of the Christian tradition. These days we like big meals on our holidays. Displays of excess are meant to show our joy or, at least, our wealth. They thought it would be a nice lead-up to Easter if we took a little time to deprive ourselves.

This morning I read a column by Mark Bittman. Turns out he is fasting this week as part of a Bread for the World campaign to draw attention to what proposed congressional budget cuts will do to the marginally-fed people both in this country and abroad. It underscores, for me, an issue that I have found infuriating about the "national austerity" language politicians are throwing around these days. The folks who talk about belt-tightening no doubt feel they are making some sort of sacrifice--maybe one fewer ski trips next year--but the kids still have their own cars to drive themselve to Yale, Harvard, and Sarah Lawrence (or whatever). Meanwhile the ones who make the actual sacrifices are pretty much ignored.

I cannot take this fast this week because a) I just heard about it today and b) I just (like today) turned the big 4-0 and there are some culinary requirements to be made of me. Besides, the donut I am eating right now is all that stands between me and the stereotypical existential crisis that strikes Americans during this sensitive time. However, I am planning to honor my sons' request and Bittman has helped me to refine my thinking on the subject.

So here are the (or my) reasons to fast this Good Friday...

1) It makes us think about God. In particular, it makes us think about the Holy Week story. Holy Week is a reflective time, meant to make us consider some big-picture questions about our lives and our relationships. Good Friday may be a great day for picking up those Cadbury eggs but the party is on Easter. The joy of Easter comes from surviving hard times--times of famine--before the happy times. There is no resurrection without death. While a brief fast is nothing like crucifixion, it does remind us of (and allows us to participate in) the actual "reason for the season".

2) It makes us think about the suffering of others. Yeah, cheerful thought, I know. However, the fact is that Bittman and his friends are right. There is a great deal going on in the world that our Burbanian minds blithely skip over on our way to the kids' soccer practice. What if, for just a short time, we stood in solidarity with them. What if the fast we chose was their reality? That word "their" encompasses a large portion of humanity, including many Americans who can expect life to become much more difficult in the near future. The fact that they will also be blamed for their own difficulties by many powerful people is one more reason to stand with them.

3) It makes us reconsider how we live. I am big into this "considering how we live" business. It is a continuous theme in my sermons during Lent. I am sure some church members would say it is a theme all the time. It was the original purpose of this blog.

The fast Isaiah chose at the beginning of my post was to "loose the chains of injustice". There is quite a bit more to that than sincere thoughts when the subject comes up, sending money to faraway places, and voting. Our cars, our homes and our diets (how, what and where we purchase) contribute to the national and international unequal distribution of food and wealth. We have sinned, people. We are guilty of other people's pain. Fasting gives us time to meditate on that important and unavoidable (if unpleasant) fact.

4) It puts us in touch with God. Yes, I know I already wrote this but it needs to be repeated. When we are hungry we are in touch with the hungry people of the world--God's people. We are in touch with a suffering God in the midst of God's own creation. We are reminded that there is something bigger and more important than the commute, or the meeting, or the contract, or the petty fights we have with both loved ones and strangers. Holy Week--including Palm Sunday and Easter--is the holiest time in the Christian faith (hence the name). Fasting reminds us of this spiritual ground.

I looked online for some fasting plans. The Catholic Good Friday fast (according to at least one sight) is one meal and two snacks. The kids think this is cheating. Like skipping lunch and calling it virtue. I suspect we will come up with a compromise position. Right now I am thinking of dragging them to Maundy Thursday Communion and fasting from that point until dinner on Friday. They are kids, so they will get liquids and perhaps some sort of light breakfast...and a fruit-break. I don't want them getting all grouchy, after all...

I would love to know what others do, if anything. I would love it, too, if folks joined us.

Here is a link to Mark Bittman's article

Here is a link to Bread for the World

Here is a link to the farm where we get our CSA share. Our buying group takes turns picking up in Framingham and then leaving the food on the parsonage porch. If your fasting leads you to some sort of action and you are in the area, feel free to join our group. It is open to anyone for whom it works.

The Magic Fluke (A Review?)

2011-03-23T07:00:00.000-07:00

As most of you know, one of my more unusual projects this year has been learning how to play the ukulele. It all began with a gaping hole in our summer service plan (no pianist) and has since morphed into both a music ministry and an irrational obsession. In the picture above you can see two of my three ukes. The third is exactly like the one on the left. The barely seen instrument to the left of that is my son's old guitar.

I purchased the two Johnson Soprano (UK-100) ukes some time ago to hack around with the kids. That tale is well documented and can be found in the links at the bottom of this post. They have served me well. I have dragged them to nursing homes and to church services for the purpose of hymn-singing. They have a charm that is hard to deny and add a great deal to services (particularly congregational singing) when played in the traditional (or stereotypical) strumming manner. Soprano ukes are great "singer's instruments". Their smallness means there is little or no real barrier between the player and the hearer. Also, its...um...limitations are actually strengths, encouraging the singers to do more with their voices to compensate for the sparse instrumentation. After fixing the action on the Johnsons with my trusty jacknife I found them to be servicable, loud, charismatic instruments and I love them.

However...though I insist that I will always be a beginner, I did find that their small size made them difficult to play in the fingerpicking style that I was accustomed to with the much-less-fun guitar. This meant eventually getting another uke. This is where the Magic Fluke comes in. It is the black ("Lava") oddly shaped instrument on the right.

First, a brief note about size. There are four ukulele sizes. They are (from small to large) the soprano, the concert, the tenor, and the baritone. The first three are all tuned the same (gCEA, the "g" is to indicate that the string is higher than the C and E), though the largest of those (the tenor) sometimes is tuned with a low G instead of a high one. Some sellers will tell you that the soprano is the traditional one, the concert is for kids and women, and the tenor is for men with "big hands". Honestly I think that is just because they want folks to purchase the more expensive (and most popular) tenors. What guy doesn't think his hands are big? The Fluke is a concert-sized instrument and my hands are fine. The baritone is tuned like the high strings on the guitar but sounds somewhat different. I suspect it is the existence of the baritone that gives rise to the Burbanian "I want my child to play the guitar so I will buy them a uke" thoughtstream.

I checked out a variety of concert ukes and this is the one I came up with. The reasons are simple. I wanted an intrument that was still fun and still sounded like a ukulele. The longer strings on the bigger models give them more of a "guitary" (and, I think, less charismatic) sound. They are mellow insturments--very pretty sounding actually--but don't quite fit my usage requirements. The concert size does. Perhaps it is a slightly sleepy sound, but it jumps around like it should. The concert Fluke jumps around a bit more than most.

Here is the thing about the Fluke. It is shaped funny (charming) and is half-plastic. The neck and the front are wood. The fretboard and the rest of the body are synthetic. It has something of the feel and look of half-wooden toys I remember from the eighties...in a good way. Yes, this makes it sound different. I remember as a kid listening to one of my dad's favorite bands (Schooner Fare, they played sea-shanties about ships that sank and then were raised back up). In concert, they used guitars with plastic bodies that (at least to my ear) generated a more penetrating note and gave their sound a slightly steelier backbone than many of their folk contemporaries (thank God). On the Fluke--which has Aquila nylgut strings--what the body does is maintain some of that soprano joyfulness while also letting me pick, strum, and play individual notes with greater ease. The fretboard is slick--literally--which is also interesting and fun (sometimes)!

Of course, it is also more expensive. I got the standard garden-variety Fluke and all I can say is that it better last a looong time (and no jokes about the plastic back lasting 2,000 years, OK?). The sopranos were something like $40 each. Of course the Fluke soprano (called a "Flea") is quite a bit more than that. In spite of the expense I am satisfied and--honestly--think I got a good deal. Flukes are--thanks to the way they are built--less expensive to make than many comparable instruments. I am philosophically opposed to spending too much on a folk instrument. After all, folks should be able to afford them...right?

Anyway, I have already typed enough, considering that I said I was taking a blog-break. Here are the links...

Here is the original uke post

Here is an Amazon link to reviews of a soprano similar to mine. It should be noted that they don't seem to make the UK-100 anymore...

Here is the link to the folks who make the Fluke. Incidentally, they are based in West Hartford CT and the fluke shipped from Sheffield MA. Good, New England ukes....

Online Downtime

2011-03-15T07:28:00.000-07:00

As you may have gathered, I am taking a break from blogging. The reasons are varied, but here they are...

1) It is Lent. This year for Lent I am trying to spend less time online. The easiest way to do this is drop blogging and use the time in other ways. Also, I am extremely busy at work as we get ready for Palm Sunday and Easter. We are also making plans for church programming for next year. I need to focus on these things.

2) I need some time to consider the direction of Burbania Posts. This year I expanded its range to encompass my sabbatical year and--of course--homeschooling Norm. I originally thought of it as a way to connect with family and church members during this year of study and transition. However, my readership continues to tend toward the fellow bloggers, clergy, and friends who have always dropped by. Good folks, too. Family and church members do read it, but not, it appears, in any great numbers.

No matter what group you might be in, I am glad to have you. Thanks for reading my blog and I hope you do again! The question for me, then, is what do I want to write about in the future if I expect people to be interested in reading what I write? Do I go back to gardening (which right now sounds fantastic) and other Ecological concerns? Do I blog about my career as a small church minister? I don't know. Perhaps the blog has even run its course and I need to find some other creative outlet. If so...what?

3) I am really grumpy in March. Can't help it. Those of you who know me know this already. I need to reduce distractions so that I can be present as pastor, father, husband, etc. while also experiencing the beauty of spring and the wonder of my favorite liturgical season.

Still, I don't like firm dates so you may hear from me (here, that is) before Palm Sunday, but probably not. It is more likely I will be back during Holy Week. Until then, fellow bloggers can expect me to lurk on their blogs and comment from time to time. Others are welcome to email or call or whatever. I will be working...and buying seeds...

Sacred Spaces and the Folk Chapel

2011-02-17T07:37:00.000-08:00

The congregation recently gave me a generous graduation gift in honor of the completion of my DMin. Part of the gift was a stole with pine trees on it. The other part was meant to help defray the costs of a vacation. Recently we made use of this second part.

Many folks like to go south during the winter. Honestly, I have trouble seeing the attraction. My family likes to go out in the snow. You can't beat the winter. Retreating from it just makes you more isolated. Therefore instead of some warm spot like Florida, we went north to Stowe, Vermont. It is one of our favorite places. We stayed in town at one of the many motels, but we spent much of our time on skis and snowshoes. The kids love it. We love it, too.

Of course, even though it was a vacation, I couldn't completely remove my minister hat. On one of the days, I took Norm and Son #3 on a hike to the Chapel at Trapp Lodge. The chapel was built by Werner von Trapp to commemorate his coming through the Second World War in one piece. Part of this story is, of course, told in (or adapted to) the "Sound of Music" movie. In real life, Werner was one of the Trapp kids who escaped Austria and the Nazis. He was also a musician and a farmer. During the war, however, he served in the 10th Mountain Division. He was, not surprisingly, happy to get back home.

The chapel is an interesting place. It is small. It fits only four or five people at a time. There is no electricity, so all the light comes from the "windows" along the walls. The images inside are mostly Christian. There are crosses, as you can see in the picture. Also, a strangely beat-up Gideon Bible lies on the table. There is a place to put your written prayers, too. In that sense it reflects the religion of the Trapps at the time it was built. Though there is no reason to believe that the family is more religious than any other, the main lodge has quite a bit of religious imagery in the public spaces as well. It isn't overwhelming, but there is enough for a minister to notice without trying too hard.

However, there is another vibe that works its way through the chapel scene that, I think, is what continues to make it a sort of pilgrimage spot for a variety of people. It is set in a beautiful location and its presence accentuates the spiritual element of the natural world that surrounds it. That is, it transcends sect and helps us reach the religious sense that exists in all humans regardless of their interest or creedal affiliation. One of my mentors in the ministry--a Presbyterian--once told me that all Mainers are at least half pantheist. He meant it as a compliment. I am pretty sure that it was true when he said it and that it is true today for many folks. People who live in Northern New England may have an easier time of seeing this dimension of their lives than folks from Burbania. Still, deep down, Burbanians have this tendency, too.

     Perhaps it is true, though, that rural people are bigger chapel builders. There is certainly less fear of being considered different. Having some sort of shrine outdoors can make one stand out a bit. In my time in Maine (all my childhood and a good chunk of my adulthood) I have encountered a great many shrines and markers that folks have put up for the purpose of devotion. I have built a few myself. I don't see that happening as much where I live now. There is the expense of owning a large enough piece of Burbanian land. There is the effort of construction. There is also the sense of faith as being intensely private. If there is any outward sign of a religious life, it is usually kept inside the Burbanian home.

     Also, there is a greater connection to the land in rural places. There just is. Working outdoors, or knowing a large number of people who do changes your relationship with the earth. That relationship has grown with time and with contact in a way that a few camping trips and a lift ticket cannot replicate. Our relationship with the earth benefits more from "quantity time" than "quality time." This can be said about many other kinds of relationships. If we are really half-pantheists at heart, it would make sense that shrines and chapels would be built by those most comfortable with the imagery and the language of the natural settings these objects rest in.

     It should be noted that many of these shrines that I have seen are not built by terribly religious folks. Or, rather, they are terribly religious (as most people are) but they are not big into organized religion. People who go to Werner's chapel may go to church or synagogue, but I bet most do not. It still means something to them. It still brings them closer to the Divine, whatever that might mean for them. Chapel building is a form of democratic folk worship. We should be doing more of this, even in places where the societal structure is less flexible than it is in Stowe, Vermont.

Incidentally, it would be a great place for a wedding. I bet it would cost a whole lot of money unless--of course--it was a "guerrilla wedding.". I always wanted to do one of those...

Homeschool in Winter

2011-02-08T04:59:00.000-08:00

Norm and I have been busy lately with writing and reading projects. These are the topics he chose to focus on while I am in my "sabbatical phase". This week, however, we are also spending time with math. Our multiplication tables need more work before we tackle division in March. This is a challenge for me as much as for him as I, quite frankly, faked my way through math...or maybe I slept. Unfortunately, Norm shares this tendency and so we struggle together to make it interesting.

This is one of the biggest tensions in homeschooling for me this year. I need to find the right balance between what the school will require him to know in 5th grade and what Norm actually wants to spend his time learning. Many long-term homeschoolers worry quite a bit less about this. The idea is to wait until the child is interested before tackling a subject. This seems to me a graceful form of education. Unfortunately it is probably unrealistic in the way we structure public education today. In school what is important are benchmarks, scores and tests. These determine your achievement level and, therefore, your worthiness to advance.

I am not a test sort of person. I am a minister trying--for one year only--to teach one specific child in a way that makes sense to him. Still, we must hit the benchmarks for next year. We sepnd time focusing on his interests. Then we frantically try to keep up elsewhere. It is amazing all the things there are to learn about that school doesn't seem to know exist. Even among that which is traditionally taught, certain subjects suffer because, for example, actual school is less interested in art and history in fifth grade than Norm is. It is not clear that it is ever that interested in art. History becomes a concern later on, I guess.

Fortunately there is writing. Everyone wants kids to be able to that...right? During the wetter sorts of days this winter, when we just cannot get out of the house, this has been our saving grace. We are learning about how to make sound and interesting paragraphs. We are putting them together to make essays. We are doing our best to expand vocabulary and--even--improve spelling. Still, we mostly want to get outside. There is too little of that.

I do have concerns in writing as well. They are similar in nature to the ones I have about math. When he returns to school his classmates will probably have learned the same things, but they will have learned them in a different way. Terms will be different. Approaches will be different. My experience with many (not all) teachers has been that they know one or two ways to teach a subject quite well. They are sometimes less convinced that there are other ways. Will people know that he knows what he knows? We shall see, I guess.

So the winter of our homeschool year continues with interuptions for his brothers' snow days. Still, signs that spring is around the corner can dimly be seen now. We have had a lot more rain this week than snow. Astronomy classes at the local Audubon Sanctuary are starting up this Thursday. Art classes and the Athenaeum still fill our Fridays. All of this gets us up and going. Soon there will be less time to be concerned about the future. We are learning this winter and that is good.