Looking for that great sermon by Ken Nye? Check the Beloved Community Page to the left! - JL

To read an excerpt from the sermon/service on October 23rd click on the Beloved Community Page to the left.

October/November 2011 - The Secrets of Life & Death

On October 23rd we turn our attention from Ingathering, home and radical hospitality to begin an exploration of the secrets of life and death in both worship and adult religious education settings: How do we live life to the fullest? What happens to us when we die? What is our relationship with our ancestors? How can we affirm life when we are grieving? How do we live and love through death, and the lesser loses of aging, illness and trauma?

Sunday Worship

October 23rd - The Secret of Life - Rev. Jennifer

We begin with a Partner Church Sunday exploration of living life to its fullest. This worship service will give you a chance to see and hear some of what happened at the Unitarian children's camp we c0-sponsored this past summer in Romania, and after the service you can put your faith into action by signing up to provide all or part of an educational scholarship for one of the children in our Partner Village of Gyepes, Romania

October 30 - Ancestor Sunday with Kate Connelley

November 6 - Death & Lesser Losses - Rev. Jennifer and Ken Nye

Join Rev. Jennifer in a service she's prepared with congregant Ken Nye to explore illness, aging and loss.

Religious Exploration for Adults

The Secrets of Life & Death

What if I don't know what to believe?

Join Rev. Jennifer and guest speaker Jane Mullen on three evening explorations of aging, end-of-life issues and death.

November 8, 9 & 15th

**Please register by Friday, November 4th by contacting Joan Guild at joan@guilds.net

The Gospel of Mary

Many thanks to all the folks at the Saco UU church for welcoming me so warmly as their guest Minister last Sunday. For those of you who were interested in finding out more about the sermon topic, try these great reads:

more mainstream - The Woman with the Alabaster Jar by Margaret Starbird & Jesus and the Lost Goddessby Freke & Gandy

more academic - The Complete Gospels by Robert J. Miller, ed. & In Memory of Her by Elizabeth Fiorenza & The First Edition of the New Testament by David Trobisch

And for a copy of the sermon you can email me at yarmouthminister@yahoo.com

Many blessings,
Jennifer

Invitation to Pilgrimage

Want to feel cared for, befriended, awed and inspired? Then come to France on Pilgrimage with me! All the updated info is on the Pilgrimage & Mission link to the left.

Our Beloved Home September & October 2011

If you missed church on September 18th, we continued our exploration of home and radical hospitality and were called to worship by the words of Mary Oliver:

Red Bird

Red bird came all winter

firing up the landscape

as nothing else could.

Of course I love the sparrows,

those dun-colored darlings,

so hungry and so many.

I am a God-fearing feeder of birds.

I know He has many children,

not all of them bold in spirit.

Still, for whatever reason -

perhaps because the winter is so long

and the sky so black-blue,

or perhaps because the heart narrows

as often as it opens -

I am grateful

that red bird comes all winter

firing up the landscape

as nothing else can do.

To learn more about our exploration of narrowing and opening the heart read an excerpt of the Morning Message by clicking on the Beloved Community page to your left

For more information about our 2011-2012 church year check out the Beloved Community page - the link is to the left. The Pilgrimage Page has also been updated - see you Sunday! - Rev. Jennifer

September 2011

I'm a big believer in trees. Trees quite literally sheltered me when I was a child, as well as providing countless hours of games, forts, hideouts, and sheer beauty. Growing up in Colorado there were many places to look out over long sweeps of prairie and see a lone tree on a hill - and it always seemed there must be a mystery there, and a treasure.

And then there were the aspen trees. Here in Maine there are more greens in the summer than I've ever seen before in my life, and a true riot of colors in the autumn months. But in the landscape of my childhood there was prairie and evergreen and flatiron mountains, and nothing to interrupt that majesty, except the aspens. The aspens were different. They were beautiful, lithe, a little mischievous. Their leaves turned silvery green - quite flirtatious and audacious compared to their imposing neighbors. And in the fall they blazed up bright yellow, unashamed, screaming for attention, loving every whispery, windy moment of their glory.

What fascinated me most about them is their relationship to one another - in a stand of aspen it is highly likely that you're really looking at one tree, though it appears to be many. Underground, at the heart of things, deep in healthy soil, one single extensive root system is sending out multiple shoots that become those lithe, laughing branches. I've gone through the world, marking my inner and outer journeys through and around forests and woods, meadows, hidden gardens, new paths and wide vistas wondering if it isn't true that, at the heart of things, all trees are one family - perhaps when I touch the bark of a new birch in Bar Harbor those old friends near Boulder know where I am, and that I'm still laughing, and still a believer in trees.

We are like this - apart, and connected - separate entities that are yet part of the same extensive family. We search for the right balance of family, self, rewarding work, down-time, family involvement. There's no one who is not engaged in this search, and when we reach moments of balance and contentment we find home, and we create safety and possibility around us. We're going to be talking about home, and freedom as we come together at Ingathering - as we come home to our church and our friends and our faith community, but always remember that freedom of the body, and freedom in the law and in human relationships is rooted, deep in the healthy soil at the heart of things, in personal freedom brought on by a balanced and integrated life. No matter what else swirls around you, or who your neighbors are, you can be healthy and upright in heart and spirit, and live out loud in your own glory moments. May it be so.

I'm looking forward to seeing all of you, and rejoicing in our church home for a fifth year together. Safe travels of body, mind and spirit as you make your way through the first weeks of autumn, and, hopefully, find yourself at the doors of First U again. There's so much to share.

Warmly,

Rev Jennifer

June 2011

In this month's issue of Spirituality & Health writer and research scientist Emma Seppala tells us that play is good for us, body and soul. "When we engage in play we become like children again because we are fully present - a state which, for many spiritual traditions, is also equated with being one with divinity." She suggests that any activity that puts us 100% in the present moment is extraordinarily good for us, and, of course, the summer months make this easy. Concerts, art shows, fairs, time at the beach with loved ones, long walks under fine skies, playing in puddles in the rain, throwing the ball for the dog, choosing new toys or a lovely scarf for someones birthday party, even a new and different project at work - all opportunities to be present in having fun. "Mischief is the outcome of joy," writes His Holiness Sri Sri Ravvi Shankar. "What is life without fun?"

One of my favorite kinds of grown-up play is pilgrimage. Pilgrimage allows me to briefly step out of all the roles I hold dear - mother, spouse, minister, consultant, sister, friend, and be the Self that existed before those roles. Yes, my Self lives through the roles, illuminating them and being illuminated by them, but sometimes it seems a bit overwhelmed - sometimes it seems that I've become so serious about my life than everything and everyone in it has become work, and I'm concentrated on the past or concerned with the future, but rarely completely present in the present! That's when it's time to take a break.

Going on pilgrimage purposefully places me in the present moment for days on end, and in the presence of the sacred. I go on sacred-site pilgrimage to stand in the places where human beings have found and felt their connection to something life-giving and much bigger than themselves for hundreds or even thousands of years. I always expect to feel not much at all in these places beyond a sense of awe at the beauty people are capable of creating, or the natural beauty of the landscape. And so often I am pleasantly surprised to find that I feel so much more than that, that I am moved by the things that have happened in these places, and the people and their gods who acted them out. I am so often left with tears in my eyes, or with my heart pounding, surprised by the feelings of wonder, inclusion, joy, fear, anticipation, sorrow, and healing that overtakes me when I slow down enough, and open my heart and soul enough, to be overtaken. What wondrous love is this, oh my soul, oh my soul? What wondrous love is this, oh my soul?! I go to sacred sites and am always taken home to the sacred place inside myself - the place of being 100% present in my own life.

I hope that you are looking forward to some time of play, retreat, and even pilgrimage with your Self and your family and friends as the summer begins. As UUs we acknowledge not only many sacred sources, but many sacred places, and I know you've got a few of your own. If you're moved toward pilgrimage, consider letting the church know that you'd be interested in the Hungary/Romania pilgrimage that's in its infancy stages of planning, or perhaps you'd like to travel with me to the sacred sites of France next year - we'll be going again May 5 - 12th, 2012. Take time to have fun this summer! It's good for you, body and soul.

Many blessings,

Rev. Jennifer

quotes from: Your Soul Needs Playtime by Emma Seppala, PhD, in Spirituality & Health: The Soul/Body Connection . May/June 2011 p.50

May 2011

You know, sometimes life doesn't go the way you want it to, and the body is to blame. One minute you're moving forward, running the race, fighting the good fight, dedicated to your job, your family, the people and organizations you believe in, your friends. You're planning vacations, and feeding the cats (or dogs or gerbil) and then suddenly, you're sick, or someone else is and you find yourself sliding toward a precipice in your life that you didn't even know existed! Life doesn't always go the way you want it to, and sometimes the body is to blame.

During spring break, as April really got beautiful around here, I got sick. Scary sick. My doctors and my caring partner pulled me back from the edge, but I spent over a week in bed, and you'll see me slower and spacier for a little while still to come. There were a million things that were supposed to happen that week -a birthday celebration, an all-family yard clean-up, day trips to fun places, phone meetings with colleagues and friends - I got to one of them: a day in Boston at the New England Aquarium.

I'd been to the aquarium before, but something deeper and richer happened for me this time. I was aware of the beauty and strangeness all around me, of the science, the conservation, and the excitement. But for the first time, because I was so, painfully, aware of my own body, I was fascinated by the bodies of the sea animals - animals I don't usually "like" - animals like sting rays and jellyfish. The graceful movement of their bodies seemed to fill my own stagnant, earth-bound body with well-being. I could not believe I'd never seen how they flow before - how they are not just in water, they are of water: Their bodies and their environment and their fellow creatures so seamlessly tied together that all was in constant harmony - like a dance or a song that they can sustain indefinitely. I sat and stood and walked in wonder and felt tired worn-out things in me begin to smooth and flow again. I felt peace instead of thinking it.

May is the season of the body. It is the ancient beginning of summer, since between now and the end of June we are graced with the longest light of the entire year. May is about physical love: fertility and the joy of finding love in our own bodies and in the bodies of our partners. It is the perfect time to love our bodies into well-being, and to teach our children how to love their physical appearance, and how to honor themselves and others with their romantic and physical behavior and choices. In May our bodies are free - free from all those layers of clothes and socks and coats and scarves and hats! - whew! Free to run, to walk freely, or sit on the porch in sunshine-bliss, to swim, to kayak again, to play ball and to lie in the grass and look up through the newly-leafed trees. May our spirits follow the places our bodies will go, and may we know love, health and happiness in the months ahead.

Warmly,
Rev. Jennifer

PS: I'm off for two weeks in May, on a journey of pilgrimage to France and Ireland. If modern technologies, and the god/desses who watch over us Luddites, will allow, I will blog from France for the first week to include you in the many wonderful experiences our pilgrimage group is encountering. Please check the "Pilgrimage & Mission Page" of my blog for these updates. - JL

March 2011

March is the month I struggle with in Maine. One friend tells me she never makes decisions in January, and more than one of us, I'm sure, have family members who threaten to go to bed for the entire month of February - just call "uncle!" and stay under the covers until the worst of the cold is over. But for me it's March, a month that marks full spring every where else I've lived, but in Maine is only the beginning of the season of "unlocking" as Bill Rixon has taught me. I tend to look at day after day of gray sky and struggle not to lock the door of my house and mind.

This year I've found a way around the gray days of March - this year in worship all the craziest, most fun, most topsy-turvy celebrations fall in March, and we're honoring three of them: Mardi Gras, Purim and Ostara. This is what I call fun! Enough fun to chase my own worst moods away, and instead to share a spirit of joy-filled good fun with everyone around me.

These celebrations are always about letting go: letting go of our own egos, our typical expectations, our projections of who we are and who we want others to be...even letting go of our relationship with the sacred for just a moment, and letting some new air and ideas in there. We can trust that what is divine knows how to find us again....As one Rabbi says, this can be a terrifying time of year for some folks. While children rejoice in the silly masks, stories, treats and chances to make music and then make noise, many adults would rather face the somber acts of contrition and forgiveness at Yom Kippur than let go of their egos and inhibitions at Purim!

It's good for us. If you're at all like me, and the gray skies and cold temperatures in combination with the demands of succeeding at work and family get you down right about this time of year, take a moment to laugh at yourself. If you need inspiration go read a Calvin & Hobbes cartoon, or ask your grandchild to tell you a joke...Maddie's favorite is this: "Mom, a man walked into a bar...Ouch!"....Paint a bright picture and don't worry about anything beyond how good it feels to put the scrumptious colors on the white paper. And, of course, call your favorite laughing partner - child, spouse, parent or friend - and let them in on your moments of joy.

Of interest to me as well is what none of these celebrations let go of: They're all interested in giving to others even as they celebrate - wildly - the abundance that any one person or family enjoys. As we gather for worship and religious education that's full of fun, our church continues to give in myriad ways. We minister to couples getting married and their interfaith families. We give care to people who are grieving, and host memorial services and minister at graveside services when the family does not have another religious community to go to. We make sure people have enough oil to heat their homes as the cold continues. We pay for medicines and for rent. We dish out food and smiles at the soup kitchen. We organize to bring summer camp to children who can't afford it. We support partnerships that concentrate on the civil and legal freedoms of all people. We make sure our elders have someone to talk to, and warm meals to enjoy. We help parent answer their children's big questions in ways that are life-affirming and recognize the worth and dignity of people with varied religious beliefs...We are giving so much, day in and day out - I hope you feel it, know it, and participate in it. In joy and in sorrow, in good times and in hard times, this is a community, and an organization, worth your full support.

See you Sunday!

Rev. Jennifer

February 2011

Slowly

she celebrated the sacrament of letting go

first surrendered her green

then the orange, yellow and red

finally she let go of her brown

shedding her last leaf

she stood empty and silent, stripped bare.

Leaning against the winter sky

she began her vigil of trust...

from Seasons of the Heart by Macrina Wiederkehr

submitted by congregant Bill Rixon

Some of us love winter. Some of us love the winter holidays, the lights, the food, the family times. We love cross-country skiing, snowfall on pine trees, brooding storm clouds, the ducks in the half-frozen river. We love sweaters, boots, hot chocolate, reason to make soup and eat bread. We love snow forts, snowball fights, and snuggling into bed early and late, just as the sun does at this time of year. For those of us who love winter, we could sail through January on the wings of epiphany as we've explored it at First U - seeing the magic and mystery in the season, and in one another. We've been filled up by exploration of our shadow side, and our heroes, revived by quiet time, and reflection. We're getting ready to go ice skating on the pond, leaning into winter, secure in our vigil, our season, of trust.

Some of us are more like my daughter, Madelin. Madelin is 6. She wants you to know that it's 19 1/2 weeks until she gets to move to the beach. She spent last Saturday getting her older brothers to help her count. Then she went to pack her bags. She has ready a stash of t-shirts, shorts and bikini bathing suits, none of which will fit her by the time June rolls around, but that is of little consequence. Madelin has a summer spirit, a deep longing to run forever bare-footed, with only the lightest clothes skimming over her sun-warmed skin. She faces February the only way she knows how, packed and ready for it to be far, far behind her.

Whatever your spirit tells you about February in Maine, know that at church we'll be marking the month with a unique combination of celebration, exploration and reflection. For those of us who need a little infusion of warmth we'll be celebrating love and generosity in our worship services throughout February. And, we'll have a chance to celebrate our love for one another and for our church community, as well as practice our generosity, by attending our Heart In Hand wine tasting and live auction on Saturday, February 12th. This event will be full of light, laughter, good friends and good fun. It's open to all, and another way to fill up our Gathering Room with purpose and hope, as we set that welcome table and sit down to enjoy the feast. If you are feeling a bit blue in this season, we'll do our best to cheer you up, hold you close, and help you look forward and inward to that eternal spring that's always possible in loving community.

For those of us who find the season easy to embrace, both for it's winter-time fun and it's chance to reflect, discuss, and rejuvenate, we're also exploring sabbath and sabbatical this month. What does it mean to mark a time in each week as our sabbath? How can sabbath bring hope, help and healing at crucial times in our lives? We've granted our Director of Religious Education (DRE) a sabbatical for the 2011-2012 church year - What does this mean for both our DRE and our church community? How will it infuse all of us with new ideas, energy and opportunity? Join us at the Mid-Year Meeting on January 30th to begin the exploration, and follow Channels and this blog for more opportunities to reflect on what it means to rest, keep trust, and be reinvigorated by letting go.

Many blessings,

Rev. Jennifer