Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of
“The Road Goes Ever On . . . ”
Sunday, December 28, 2008
by Rev. Dr. Gretchen Woods
Here we are, on this final Sunday of the year 2008, also
the last Sunday that I shall be with you until May 31, 2009. What can I share
with you that may be useful for the months ahead? Let us explore this together.
This is a curious time of year anyway. Christmas is over,
but the New Year as yet uncelebrated. Snow has given way to winter’s rains and
raw weather. We feel the world holding its collective breath in the
northern hemisphere until we clearly see the days lengthening once more. As a
species, we seem to be holding our breath, waiting for the sun to return, for
the inauguration of a new world leader, for someone to figure a way out of our
political and financial trials, for spring.
As we noted in the reading from Karen Hering
during our service of Lessons and Carols on Christmas Eve, “. . . it may be the
best time for remembering, with gratitude of heart, all that we have been given
and considering, with generosity of spirit, all that we might give back.” We
make resolutions during this fallow time of the year, in best cases from a
sense of satisfaction and generosity that wants to “pass it forward,” “it”
being the gifts we have been given.
This time of reflection, of quiet before the spring rush
to plant the seeds of the year to come, allows us to become intentional in our
thoughts and more conscious in our feelings. We ask, “Who am I? Why am I here?
What is important? And How then shall I live?” (the ket religious questions) with
more intensity when it is quiet and dark.
Pensively we ask “Who am I?” What are my gifts, my
talents, my skills – and how do they fit in this religious community? Your
gifts and talents are as many, a varied, and as filled with potential as any
could be. Consider them well. How have we made the most of them, What may we yet bring to fruition?
Certainly, when I came
here, this congregation seemed a bit unsure about its gifts and talents, about
its mission in the community, other than a full-bodied commitment to excellent
worship with fine music and guiding our children in free exploration of their
possibilities as human beings. In the last nine and a half years of shared
consideration, we found that our care for our children is matched by our
concern for our environment and our desire to work for a better life for all of this beautiful and benighted planet.
This has manifested in
continued quality worship and religious exploration for all ages and
fundraising for socially concerned agencies in our county and the world (Thank
You to all in the Social Concerns Committee). In addition, we have created a
renewed Campus Ministry and presence on OSU’s campus (Thank You to Lynn Kelly
[now Gardner] and the Rev. Sarah Schurr), Covenant/Conversation groups (Thank
You to Louise Ferrell and Marcia Shaw), the Social Justice Action Group (Thanks
to Charlie Miller and Claudia Keith), the Peace Action Council (Thanks to the Bobs:
Winget and Ozretich), Housing for the Homeless (Charlie Miller again), and the
Environmental Action Committee (Courtesy of David and Elizabeth Waldorf and
John Elder). We found enthusiastic people who committed time, talent, and
treasure for all these projects. While we could use more volunteers for many of
these functions, we are now contributing to the larger community in powerful
ways.
When we ask, “Why are we here?
And What have we accomplished?,” we must not only
speak of those projects, but acknowledge that we are drawing more and more
young families and singles to our congregation. We now have well over thirty in
the infant and toddler program, not in small part due to Jan Wetherell’s continuity of presence there. We have added the
presence of ten lay ministers (each with his or her own special area of
service), eight of whom will continue to serve through the sabbatical. I cannot
thank you all enough! (Susan Grace Beekman, Rich Brainard,
Wolfgang Dengler, Jill Fischer, Jesse Ford, Cliff Pereira, Sheila Smith, and
Til Tillitson) Do check the board in the foyer to remind yourselves
of their areas of service.
Since I arrived, our staff
has increased significantly, adding our fine pianist/church musician: Raven
Sanders. We increased hours for both Co-Directors of Religious Exploration
(Thank You, Niya Standish and Michael Molk) and our Office Administrator (Thank
You, Yaney MacIver). We added a Newcomer Coordinator (Thank You, Nancy
Haldeman), who then morphed into a Community Coordinator (Thank You, Jesse
Ford). Finally, we renewed administrative support for the RE program (Thank
You, Alice Hall). This could only happen because you, the congregation, showed
awareness of needs for the program and provided the treasure to support our
response to those needs.
Speaking of needs, we have fulfilled the request of this
congregation to provide a Master Plan for the future of our buildings and
accomplished not one, but two renovations and aesthetic improvement programs
for the whole set of buildings, thanks to funds from Rita MacDonald and David
and Jane Loomis. This included a significant upgrade of the sound system in
this Main Hall and improvement of the listening system for the hearing
impaired. “Can you hear me now??” None of this would have happened in quite the
same way were it not for the perseverance of the many building renovations
committees and Wolfgang Dengler, and the ongoing diligence of Russ Karow. I am
certain that these improvements added immensely to the influx of new families,
young and old. And what a wonderful use of the gifts and talents of our
members!
I am also deeply grateful
to all the newcomers and long-time Unitarian Universalists who have chosen to
retire and/or relocate here or have newly found our religious approach useful
to you. You bring so much to our programs and our total congregational life.
Your gifts and talents have created who we are now and will co-create who we
yet may be. All of this is effective expression of a call to all of us to offer
the best we are and have for the greater good of all in this congregation and
the world.
I know none of this was
dependent upon me, except the ongoing quality of worship and creating an
atmosphere that says, “Yes, we can!” (at the risk of
stealing from a successful campaign – and who would not!) I recognize that
there is no way all this could lie on my shoulders. We
move forward together – or, as one of my teachers once said, “Good leaders
don’t lead from the front, they ‘go with’ the people.” You have let me do this
in wonderful ways.
So, now, I take a break, a
sabbatical, to reassess “What is important?”. Many
have asked me why we did not hire another minister for the five months I shall
be on sabbatical? I believe that this congregation
will benefit from time without a single assigned leader. I have found the work
more than one person can do. When I came, you told me you wanted an associate
minister to serve here as well. You can now openly explore what you feel you
want and need without being concerned for my feelings in the process.
A deeper reason is to
provide a time during which you may explore your place in the leadership of the
congregation and how your visions might be expressed without a single strong
person voicing opinions from the pulpit or in meetings. You now have the benefit
of many different preachers during this time, plus fine speakers from this
community and our own congregational voices. Congregational polity suffers when
one voice dominates all the time. This is a time to reclaim freedom of the pew
and to assess your priorities without my presence. The Sabbatical Committee is
already deep into planning conversations among you to explore these
possibilities.
In like manner, it is a
time for me to consider what and how much I will take up again when I return. I
will also ask myself, “What is important and How shall
I live?” This is a time to for me understand the depth and breadth of what I
have been doing here (I am truly fatigued!) and how I might best use the years
to come at your service. There is no doubt that, provided
my health and mental agility continue, I have, at minimum, seven more years of
ministry left in me. But is it appropriate for us that those years to be spent
with me alone? Or should we consider changes that would benefit both the
congregation and me?
What are our aspirations?
What do we yet wish to accomplish. Certainly this congregation should continue
to attract new families of all sorts and spread the good news of Unitarian
Universalism throughout the larger Linn-Benton Community. We definitely need a
new social hall to provide space for gatherings of the whole body of the
congregation. We should maintain our active presence on the OSU campus and keep
our good name in the music community by continuing to provide a wonderful venue
for community concerts. We could resurrect our engagement in the larger
community through more social and political activity from our members, as well
as the congregation. We could continue to upgrade our actions that express our
values here in the mid-valley of the
I also wonder if we should
not begin to assess whether the name “Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of
Corvallis” serves us well. We are clearly no longer a fellowship which, by
definition, means “a small group meeting in homes that does not provide
religious education or supportclergy. Of course, the
word “fellowship” automatically carries heavy male connotations. Further, in
the understanding of our larger culture, a fellowship is a small charismatic
and/or fundamentalist Christian church. We are neither. Once again, we approach
500 in membership and offer the finest cradle to grave religious exploration
available. We may not like to acknowledge this, but it is true.
I do not favor changing our
name to “church,” as that implies a Christian organization. We might consider
calling ourselves a “congregation” or a “community.” We also might want to
acknowledge that we are the only effective UU gathering of people in the
Linn-Benton area. I don’t have a prescribed notion for a name change, but I
feel it is worth considering while I am gone.
As for me, I shall rest for
at least a month before I begin to serve a small Unitarian congregation in
Both you and I will be
considering our hopes, our dreams, and our legacy. We will assess our energies,
our calling, our resources for the journey ahead. And
though we shall surely come upon the unexpected, and it will affect our path,
our willingness to take the journey consciously and with spirit is essential. This is the way we bless one another;
this is the way we are blessed: consciously giving and receiving of the best of
our gifts, talents, and treasures. There are always more opportunities, more
hopes, more dreams, more to accomplish. As Frodo sang
at the end of his journey:
Still round the corner
there may wait
A new road or a
secret gate;
And though I oft have
passed them by,
A day will come at last when I
Shall take the hidden paths
that run
West of the Moon, East of the Sun.
With love, Gretchen
“The Road Goes Ever On . . . ”
Order of Service
Sunday, December 28, 2008
10:00 AM
Welcome and Announcements:
Board Host
Prelude: “In Dreams” by
Walsh and Shore
Chalice Lighting
Opening Words
Opening Song: #56 “Bells in
the
by Howard Thurman
Celebrating with Music:
“The
Road Goes Ever On . . . ”
by J.R.R.
Tolkien and Donald Swan
Sermon/Reflection
“The Road Goes Ever On . . . ”
Sung Response: #295
“Sing Out Praises for the Journey”
Spoken Response
Candles: Milestones of Joy
and Sorrow/
Offering
Meditation
Closing Song: #12
“O Life That Maketh All Things New”
(verses 1 & 2)
Closing Words
Closing Song: #12 (verses 3
& 4)
Celebrants: Nancy Kyle and
the Rev. Dr. Gretchen Woods
Church Musician: Raven
Sanders