Voices From Bell Street Chapel

June 21, 2014June 12, 2016

Pride: We decided to refuse the shame

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Gay Pride’s origins lie in protest, not celebration. And to this day, defiance is core to what Gay Pride is all about.

The first Gay Pride march took place in the West Village in New York City on the first anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising. It was a taking-back-the-streets action against a world in which the gay communities had been abused, bullied, isolated, marginalized and oppressed. Stonewall was a declaration of war against oppression. It will be nice when Gay Pride is a victory march, but we are far from there yet.

It wasn’t pride back then. Gay people needed to know their place and keep their heads down if they wanted any measure of safety. Being gay was understood to be a matter of shame. The very fact of our existence was an offense against the public order ─ and remains so today in much of the world. So our part of the existing social contract was to avoid giving offense by remaining invisible. By definition, gay life existed in a demi-monde.

Because gay life centered on families of choice, and the families’ living rooms were the gay bars, these places reflected the marginalization of their inhabitants: seedy, tawdry. Stonewall Tavern was mob-run, not surprisingly. Even the mob disliked being associated with the gay world, but not so much as to refuse our money. Politicians made headlines by periodically attacking these homes, with inspectors and vice squads and the police, destroying lives and careers but making political hay among the nice people.

It’s Pride because with the uprising we decided to refuse the shame. The world turned upside-down. We’re here and we’re queer. Instead of hiding, we would parade. Instead of the seedy and tawdry, we would dress up in rainbows and sparkles. Straight parades have cheerleaders and majorettes in skimpy outfits twirling rifles. Our parade has skimpy outfits, but they’re Speedos. Our cheerleaders are drag queens. People get offended. But they always were.

We won’t take it anymore. We want our homes, our families, our safety, our lives and our loves. Just like everybody else. No more shame. Pride.

“We won’t die secret deaths anymore. . . . We will be citizens. The time has come”

– Prior Walter, Angels in America

Bell Street understands pride, and Pride. Join us at the June 21st Rhode Island PrideFest in Providence, at dusk.

– Brian Kovacs

March 2, 2014March 2, 2014

The unifying experience of being alive

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Sally Gabb connects the profound and mundane. More than simple opposites, Gabb asks us to consider the spaces in between.

Do I usually look at snow in a spiritual way? Of course not. When snow arrives I have a variety of emotions: it will be pretty, but it means winter is really here. Snow will be a monstrous pain in the you know what to get out of the driveway, to get to work. Winter means cold and darkness, so while snow can be lovely, after the first experience each year I say – that’s enough!

Of course, like spirituality, we all experience weather differently. For the child it means snow men and snow angels. For the skier, snow is a blessing – it means the potential for enjoyment outdoors. For the gardener and the farmer, snow provides a protective cover for plants, and a source of much needed moisture. But all of us in New England have a relationship to snow.

We might ask, why are sunshine, light and warmth positive metaphors, including those we use in our spiritual lives? Science tells us that light – our source the sun – provides our world with energy needed to sustain life. Most of us see light as a positive force, and all spiritual traditions refer to light – to enlightenment. Because we constantly experience weather – dark and light, cold and warm, storm and calm – it is inevitable that we will create metaphors for our emotional and spiritual lives.

Actually, while I have just talked about weather conditions as opposites, weather can enable us to move away from these opposing dualities. We talk of days that are partly cloudy – a transition from sun to storm. We all relate to sunrise and dusk –the transition times between dark and light. We know that weather temperature doesn’t move directly from warm to cold, but has a period of change.

There are spiritual traditions that emphasize dualities: heaven and hell, good and evil… we prefer to see a more complex picture that reflects the complicated nature of our relationship. This non – dualistic approach was a major aspect of transcendentalism embraced by Emerson and Thoreau.

See the unity of spiritual experience across all faiths. See not the day versus night, storm versus calm, but the unifying experience of being alive…

February 23, 2014

Weather: The primary metaphor

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Sally Gabb, a member of the Chapel’s Worship Committee, reflects on the “primary metaphor” within human culture – weather.

Did you enjoying this weekend of 50 degree days? How do we all feel after this season of icy cold and snow? How does winter affect you – do you get down from the darkness? When spring weather arrives with it’s introduction of light and warmth, does your mood automatically lift, do you get up in the morning with a smile rather than a groan?? As an April baby, I have always found that spring, and spring weather give me energy and hope.

Weather is probably the most common of human experiences. It affects us all. And because of this, it is the primary metaphor for our thoughts and beliefs about life – including our spirituality. Metaphor is such an important part of our thinking process because much of our experience can’t be explained concretely or literally. This is especially true for our spiritual thinking, our spiritual beliefs.

As Sam Keen points out in Hymns to an Unknown God*: “Language which authentically describes a spiritual experience transcends verifiable knowledge and is very imaginative, poetic, metaphoric and inexact. It is language stretched to the breaking point. In speaking about spiritual matters, we are always beating around the bush, albeit a burning bush.”

Of course, major metaphors in spiritual discussion refer to weather, darkness and light, storm and clearing.

In discussing weather metaphors and spirituality, Simon Jacobson of the Meaningful Life Center wrote on the MLC blog:

“Snow is an intermediary state between fluid water and solid ice. In order to appreciate the spiritual implications of this, we need to examine the properties of snow.

A snowflake needs at least two components in order to form. In addition obviously to cold air, it requires water droplets (vapor), and a nucleus. The nucleus is made up of dust, minerals or other microscopic particles in the air.

A snowflake is formed when water takes shape around these microscopic particles and the cold air turns it into ice crystals.

Thus snow has two components: water and earth – earth being the particles, and the water being the droplets. Earth is the material world – without any recognition of G-dliness; water is the knowledge of G-d – divine energy without any containers. Thus snow, being half heaven and half earth provides the perfect intermediary between these two worlds.”

January 12, 2014January 12, 2014

Transient and permanent

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Theodore Parker, an abolitionist, feminist and radical Unitarian preacher in Boston in the 1840s, wrote a famous (and for its time) controversial sermon, “A Discourse on the Transient and Permanent in Christianity.” Basically, he argued that even if Jesus was not found to not be divine, his ethical precepts – “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” – are true, worthy guideposts for a healthy, balanced, justice seeking life.

The discussion over what is dust in the wind (transient) and a given of humanity (permanent) has been ongoing in many faith traditions. Among Unitarians and Universalists, member congregations have tried to create a big-umbrella of beliefs – a common set of ethics, and multiple ways of arriving at those ethics. Yet, even our most agreed upon common principles adapt over time, based on democratic input and reflection.

Unitarians were once a persecuted group in Eastern Europe, and Universalists turned traditional Calvinism on its head- saying God so loved the world, none would forever burn in heaven. Unitarians came to be found in New England, India, the Midwest, Jamaica, the United Kingdom, and Hungary, among other places. Universalists spread from New Jersey across the US, eventually partnering with churches in Japan.

In 1961, Unitarian and Universalist congregations in the US and Canada promised to unite in seeking …

1. To strengthen one another in a free and disciplined search for truth as the foundation of our religious fellowship;

2. To cherish and spread the universal truths taught by the great prophets and teachers of humanity in every age and tradition, immemorially summarized in the Judeo-Christian heritage as love to God and love to man;

3. To affirm, defend and promote the supreme worth of every human personality, the dignity of man, and the use of the democratic method in human relationships;

4. To implement our vision of one world by striving for a world community founded on ideals of brotherhood, justice and peace;

5. To serve the needs of member churches and fellowships, to organize new churches and fellowships, and to extend and strengthen liberal religion;

6. To encourage cooperation with men of good will in every land.

As of the latest revisions, Unitarian and Universalists congregations affirm the following principles …

1.The inherent worth and dignity of every person;

2. Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;

3. Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;

4. A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;

5. The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;

6. The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;

7. Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

Reflecting on what is transient and permanent can help us to consider what to hold on to, and what to let go, in our daily struggle to live and be together in community.

December 27, 2013December 27, 2013

No room for Them in the Inn

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“In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus – that the whole world should be enrolled.”

This was the first census, when Quirinius was governor of Syria.

So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town. And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manager, because there was no room for them in the inn. ”

In 2007, there were 3926 homeless people in Rhode Island.

As of 2012, there were 4868 homeless people, an increase of 942.

It is 2013, and there still no room at the inn. Contact the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless to see what you can do to change the experience of our neighbors and far too many families.

As Sophia Lyon Fahs has written:

“For so the children come
And so they have been coming.

Always in the same way they come
Born of the seed of man and woman.

No angels herald their beginnings.
No prophets predict their future courses.

No wisemen see a star to show
Where to find the babe that
Will save humankind.

Yet each night a child is born is a holy night,

Fathers and mothers-
Sitting beside their children’s cribs
Feel glory n the sight of a new life beginning

They ask, “Where and how will
This new life end?
Or, will it ever end?”

Each night a child is born is a holy night-
A time for singing,
A time for wondering,
A time for worshiping.”

December 22, 2013December 23, 2013

No isolation of opposites

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by Ray Perreault

Having dogs has changed my routine, now I’m out in all four seasons and in every type of weather. This has reopened my eyes to the changes in the plants and animals that create and recreate our living landscape.

Each bird, every animal, is a point of view, a unique set of eyes, part of a long delicate thread that stretches backward to the beginning of time. Each is also a restless movement into the future. It is a future we can no more predict, than the great lumbering dinosaurs could dream that their descendants would someday fly effortlessly from tree to tree and continent to continent. I see more mystery in everything.

A few years ago, during a West Nile Virus outbreak, I found a dead crow on the ground. I cradled it in my hand. It had the sheen of blackened steel, a rainbow iridescence of blues, green and violet.

In living, it was loud, raucous, territorial, fierce, wise and fearless. Lying silent and still, it seemed to weigh barely more than its own shadow.

There are a million, million invisible workings that make such a marvel possible. My whole life, these birds have flown above, but their existence still seems like a magicians crepe paper trick.

This is a world where magic is commonplace and taken for granted.

Truest alchemy is taking place every day. The golden sun is transmuted into green leaves, crimson cardinals, blue jays, goldfinches, all the animals, flowers and fruit.

It is a play with a cast of trillions over 300 million years in the making. It here on the well-worn paths of an urban park because it thrives wherever it is given space.

In our living world, there is no isolation of opposites: no inner and outer, abundance and scarcity, past and future, or life and death. All are cycling or seamlessly connected and mutually affirming. Spectacular endurance and greatest delicacy exist together, not side by side, but wound into beings that are fully both.

My renewed sense of wonder has become a place of peace and contemplation in the middle of restless activity.

I have to remember to thank my dogs.

December 15, 2013December 16, 2013

Call to Worship: Just a Little More Light

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Looking at continuities between past and present, Audrey Greene reflects on the “religion of light”

Religion of Light
by Audrey Greene

I can imagine that ancient woman, huddling in her cave, above the village. The harvest had been good enough, she thought.

But with the harvest came the darkness. The sun still came each day but then left, sooner and sooner. Where did it go, why did it go? The cold was coming again, as it had before. What, what could be done? They still had the fire, that gave them warmth and light. It could not grow the crops, but it would have to do for now. Then she remembered, they would light bigger and bigger fires each night, as they had done during the last dark time and perhaps the sun would return as it had last time.

I can see that woman, and all the other women and men like her, huddled in terror as the sun died away and the cold came again. And what could they do but keep their own small lights burning? To warm themselves, to chase the darkness to the edges of the cave, to keep out the marauders, to see each other’s faces. When the harvest was in, there was nothing left to do but huddle together around the fire in the growing darkness and tell stories.

That’s it, isn’t it? The cave, the cold, the fire, the stories we tell each other. Very little has changed. Sure, the cave looks a little different, but the stories are essentially the same, there are not that many plot lines.

We face the growing dark and cold again. It’s difficult not to feel the fear. But when I see all these stories of solstice, from ancient Saturnalia though Santa Lucia to Kwanzaa, I see people looking for just a little more light.

And that’s why we come here, not just for the warmth of community but for light…the religion of light, not radiated from a single source which seeks our unending obedience and praise, not filtered through a rigid hierarchy or translated into immutable laws, but from each other!

How great is that? We each have some light.

Some of us are incandescent, some of us are positively luminescent, we all flicker once in a while. But we know that together, our light is more than enough to get us through the dark. With music and words, with memories, and myths, let us celebrate our light.

December 8, 2013December 8, 2013

Unitarians and Universalists

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Who exactly are Unitarians and Universalists? From the active congregation on Benefit Street to our spunky chapel off Broadway, the following reflection from Brian Kovacs suggests that this modern faith is actually very old, is defined as much by who we are not, as much as by who we are, and suggests there are some lessons from uncertainty.

Unitarians and Universalism

From the beginning, the strains of Unitarian-Universalism have formed a protest against core principles of Christianity — the religion of the dominant culture. Unitarian-Universalism has rejected in turn fundamentals of Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Lutheranism, Anabaptism, Anglicanism and Protestantism, to name just some. Unitarian-Universalism has been and can be defined, to this day, by what it doesn’t believe as much as by what it does. And that is true for many modern Unitarian Universalists as well.

For most of my life, I’ve begun any statement about what I believe with what I reject. I think many people come to this denomination and this church, rejecting what they can no longer accept. The core belief is disbelief. We define ourselves by what we are not.

Universalist scholars trace its origins back to the early Christian church, to the fourth century theologians Origen and Gregory of Nyssa. They held that no one was damned and no hell awaited anyone at death. Later, Universalists rejected all claims to an exclusive revealed truth. They therefore rejected biblical authority and institutional inerrancy. Everyone’s spiritual salvation is a product of their spiritual quest and rational search. No revelation can supercede the genius of the rational mind. On the contrary, revelation must always be subject to reason.

In America, Universalism grew with the new country, with John Murray and Hosea Ballou (who family has RI connections), among others — two names that be familiar to some Bell Streeters. It aligned itself with social reform and renewal: its principles included the abolition of slavery, gender equality, separation of church and state, and spiritualism. The first American ordained woman minister,

Olympia Brown, was a Universalist. The year was 1853. In later years, Universalists actively sought inspiration in religious literature and practice outside Christianity and Western culture. Spiritual insight was sought in the Bhaghavad Gita, the writings of Lao Tsu and Confucious, the Koran, Jewish Mishnah and Haggadah, and elsewhere.

Unitarianism sprang up in multiple locations in mid-fifteenth century Europe: Poland, England and Transylvania. That was the era of the Reformation. In Transylvania, the Unitarian movement got its first legal status, protection and institutional legitimacy. Unitarians rejected the divinity of Jesus, the doctrine of the Trinity, election to grace, predestination, authoritarianism in religion and special

revelation through scripture.

Unitarianism flourished in America following the Revolutionary War. At Boston’s King’s Chapel, settled minister Rev. James Freeman led the congregation in rewriting the Book of Common Prayer, excising all Trinitarian doctrine and references to a divine Christ. Numbers of congregational churches soon followed in asserting a strict monotheism that excluded a privileged role for Jesus except as a good man and teacher.

Non-creedal churches, Univeralism and Unitarianism had no fixed beliefs, no doctrines, no statements of faith. They believed what their members believed, taught what their churches and their schools taught, and preached what was spoken in their pulpits. It was democratic, diverse, rational and rabidly individualistic. That’s hardly changed.

Brian Kovacs

Religion of Light by Audrey Greene

Religion of Light
by Audrey Greene