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Sun Jun 9 2019 Spring #12
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| On the Journey: Borders/Boundaries (2019 June) - HERE |
| From the Minister: Fri Jun 7 - HERE |
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Practice of the Week: Once-a-Month Retreat Days When I mention my retreat days, people are often curious and perplexed, unable to imagine that such a thing is even possible or desirable. The formalized solitude of making retreat, and the one-on-one companionship of spiritual direction, are valuable components of the practice of serious spiritual seekers. READ MORE |
List of all Practices of the Week -
HERE
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From the Music Director
Images of kids inform the two works chosen for Sunday morning's Centering Music, both by composers from the Catalonian region of Spain: Federico Mompou and
Manuel Blancafort. T
he CUUC Choir makes its final appearance of the congregation year, and Kim Force teams up with niece Isabel and hubby Christian in a fun medley as the morning offertory...
READ MORE
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Religious Education Our next two Sundays are so very exciting, with the Affirmation Ceremony and BBQ on Jun 9, then our RE Sunday on Jun 16 with the kids parade, Eco-Ranger skit, Bridging Ceremony, special music, and so much more!
RE this Sunday: Grades 2-3 start in Fellowship Hall to rehearse. Grades 4-7 start in the sanctuary. Grades 8-12 start in class...
READ MORE
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Upcoming Worship Services
Sun Jun 9, 10:00 AM
"Crossing the Line"
Rev. Meredith Garmon
It's important to establish good boundaries. We are also called to reach across borders. How to tell the difference?
This Sunday is our Affirmation Ceremony for 2-3 grade Religious Education students.
Sun Jun 16, 10:00 AM
"Religious Education Sunday"
Perry Montrose, Michele Rinaldi, and friends
A celebration of our teachers, our students, and all the wonderful religious education events of 2018-2019.
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Memorial Service for Roberta "Bobbi" Collins, Sat Jun 8, 2:00pm, Sanctuary
We gather to celebrate the life of longtime member Bobbi Collins, who died on May 14. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to The Wildlife Conservation Society at wcs.org.
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BBQ Community Meal, Sun Jun 9, After Worship
BBQ chicken, hot dogs, burgers, vegan options, and more! Suggested donation only $5 per person; $4 for kids under 12 and seniors; maximum $21 per family. Don't miss it!
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Wise Aging Group, Tue Jun 11, 3:00pm, Fireside
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Science & Spirituality, Thu June 13, 11:30am, Fireside
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Faith Development Friday, Fri Jun 14, CUUC
Our evening of learning, spiritual growth, and community. 6:15pm Pizza & Salad Community Dinner; 7:00pm Programs. Programs include "Faith Like a River" Adult RE and Family Journey Group. RSVP to
CUUCevents@gmail.com by Fri 12:00 noon so we know how much pizza to order!
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Adult Religious Exploration
"Faith Like a River" Adult RE, Fri Jun 14, 7:00pm, Fireside Area
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RE Party in Honor of Michele Rinaldi & Perry Montrose, Sun Jun 16, 11:30am, Fellowship Hall
After our Religious Education Sunday, join our party to thank Perry and Michele for all their hard work on our RE program this year and bid them a fond farewell. We wish them both all good things in the future!
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From Environmental Practices
Major manufacturers are cooperating in an experiment in reusable packaging. Procter & Gamble, Nestlé, PepsiCo, Unilever, and others will be selling products on a site called Loop and will deliver them in attractive and sturdy reusable containers in a returnable pouch. The emptied containers will be picked up in the pouch for free, then cleaned by the manufacturer and resold.
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Presentation: The Slave Dwelling Project, Sun Jun 9, 2:00pm, Jay Heritage Center, 210 Boston Post Road, Rye
Joseph McGill, Jr., founder of The Slave Dwelling Project, and Dr. Larry Spruill, historian and Morehouse College professor discuss the places where enslaved men, women, and children lived, worked, slept, and died in Rye before and after emancipation.
jayheritagecenter.org
, 914-698-9275.
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YC Pride March, Sun Jun 30, New York City
The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Hudson Valley (UUCHV), Croton, will be leading the Westchester UU contingent in NYC's Pride March. We will be meeting at 31st Street between Madison and Park Ave South by 12:30pm. Come march with us!
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UUA General Assembly, Wednesday, June 19 - Sunday, June 23, Spokane, WA
Can't make it to this year's GA? View live stream events on your device! Speakers include Robin DiAngelo, author of White Fragility. Visit
uua.org/ga/off-site
.
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UUA Monthly Newsletter - June
"This month's newsletter (click
HERE) features key resources to help you get the most out of this year's General Assembly, whether you come to Spokane or participate virtually from your own community." -
Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray, President, Unitarian Universalist Association
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Share the Plate for June: Interfaith Council for New Americans of Westchester
We donate half our non-pledge collection this month to the
Interfaith Council for New Americans of Westchester (ICNAW)
, a coalition of local congregations that provides welcome and support to refugees being resettled in our area. To learn more or to join the CUUC Refugee Resettlement team, contact Robin Rocchi (
robinandal@verizon.net
) or Jane Dixon (
lilrhodie@gmail.com
).
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Caring & Sharing Circle
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This Week at CUUC
The full calendar can be found
HERE.
Room numbers subject to change; please check the board on Sunday morning. To reserve a room or Zoom online meeting, contact the CUUC office (914-946-1660 x2,
admin@cucwp.org).
Sat June 8 - 9:00am Rental: Exercise; 10:00am Food Prep for Community Meal; 10:00am Zen; 1:00pm Rental: WCBNY; 2:00pm Memorial for Bobbi Collins; 2:30pm Rental: WCHJ
Sun Jun 9 - 8:15am RE Council; 8:45am Choir Rehearsal; 9:30am Nursery Care; 10:00am Worship; 11:30am Community Meal BBQ; 11:40am Music Committee
Mon Jun 10 - 5:00pm Rental: Exercise; 6:30pm T'ai-ch'i
Tue Jun 11 - 10:00am Rental: Exercise; 3:00pm Wise Aging Group; 7:30pm Choir Rehearsal
Thu Jun 13 - 11:30am Science & Spirituality; 7:30pm Journey Group - D. Manetta, K. McGahren-Clemens
Fri Jun 14 - 11:00am Journey Group - Rev. Garmon; 6:15pm Faith Development Friday (6:15 Dinner, 7:00 Programs)
Sat Jun 15 - 9:00am Rental: WCSPP Open House; 9:00am Rental: Exercise; 10:00am Zen
Sun Jun 16 - 9:30am Nursery Care; 10:00am Worship: Religious Education Sunday; 11:15am Coffee Hour; 11:30am RE Party for Perry and Michele; 11:40am Sunday Journey Groups; 5:00pm Journey Group - Leahy
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Coordinator of Religious Education: Michele Rinaldi,
RE@cucwp.org, 914-946-1660 x4
Congregational & Communications Administrator: Pamela Parker,
admin@cucwp.org, 914-946-1660 x2
Board of Trustees
Social Justice Coordinators
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Words of Alasdair MacIntyre haunt me:
What matters at this stage is the construction of local forms of community within which civility and the intellectual and moral life can be sustained through the new dark ages which are already upon us. And if the tradition of the virtues was able to survive the horrors of the last dark ages, we are not entirely without grounds for hope. This time however the barbarians are not waiting beyond the frontiers; they have already been governing us for some time. And it is our lack of consciousness of this that constitutes part of our predicament. We are not waiting for a Godot, but for another - doubtless very different - St. Benedict.
(Benedict of Nursia [480-547] composed the "Rule of Saint Benedict", a set of rules for monastic life that were so widely adopted throughout the middle ages that Benedict is thought of as the founder of Western Christian monasticism. For MacIntyre, Benedict thus represents the salvaging of "civility and the intellectual and moral life" and "the tradition of the virtues" after the fall of Rome.)
"New dark ages . . . are already upon us," he says. The "barbarians . . . have already been governing us for some time." It's startling to realize that he wrote this 1980.
Actually, though, this sense of decay of order is a leitmotif of the last century. In 1919, W.B. Yeats wrote:
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
I am not as pessimistic as MacIntyre, nor do I find the dichotomy between barbarism and virtue quite as compelling as he does. The Greek and Roman virtues are valuable, but some newer virtues -- equality, most generally and most significantly -- are also important. Still, the sense of things falling apart has only been growing -- if not continuously for the 100 years since since Yeats wrote, then in the 40 years since MacIntyre's passage. On the right, this manifests as a reactionary urge to return to a largely imaginary period of American greatness. On the left, it is the populist appeal of that reactionary urge that occasions a feeling of civilizational collapse.
Still, I believe MacIntyre is right that, "What matters . . . is the construction of local forms of community." It is that conviction, and the desire to contribute what I could to construction of moral community, that propelled me eventually out from the academy to the congregation.
My money's on the proposition that it is we -- we who gather to share our lives, strengthen our values, and deepen our wisdom -- who are ourselves the new St. Benedict. "Doubtless very different," indeed!
Yours in faith,
Meredith |
Your Moment of Zen: Mutually Dependent Arising Owl spoke up one evening during the question period and said, "It is clear to me that you don't think much of 'mutually dependent arising' in connection with the morning star case. Is it a questionable notion to begin with? Raven said, "When you hoot, the whole forest hoots." "Mole...READ MORE
Zen Practice at CUUC |
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