Call to Worship – RI Future

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 25, 2013

Brainwashed to Buy

By now I’m sure everyone has torn open their gifts and are watching television before preparing today’s Christmas meal. And that includes many of my non-Christian friends who now celebrate the holiday. That’s quite a change from when I was a kid and it was a religious holiday, celebrated by Christians in a solemn and respectful way. However, that isn’t the case any more and it bears some investigating.

In the 60’s and 70’s, as a kid growing up in Providence in a family of modest means, we used to make handmade gifts in woodworking and ceramics classes and exchange them with family members and those close to us. No one ever went into debt for buying everyone something for a holiday that was supposed to be about the birth of Christ.

A couple of generations have passed since then, generations who through no fault of their own grew up bombarded with advertising at almost every turn of their heads. Maybe because not everyone had televisions when I was young, or maybe because we spent more time playing outside, we weren’t exposed to it as much. Now, though, the last generations have grown up in the public relations age and not enough of them were warned about the nature of that business, to influence them to buy, buy, buy.

Radio and print advertising were easy to gloss over, we could change the channel or flip the page, even early TV ads were easy to ignore. But, as the years rolled on, advertisers got more clever and the opportunities arose to hone their skills with television ads, online ads and now ads on smartphones, the succeeding generations got overwhelmed and now by into what advertisers are doing without giving it much thought.

The FCC ruled subliminal advertising illegal in 1974, but think about the aggregate damage the use of non-subliminal advertising has had on our culture. Today, advertisers have the carte blanche right to run just about any ad they want. Corporate America pumps more into advertising their products than it does to produce the goods, thereby pumping up the cost of the product and no one seems to realize the fact.

A marketing student told me just the other day that courses teach students now, just to market to the high-end buyers since the middle class and lower income ranges are already brainwashed into their buying patterns. If this cynical view is being taught in classrooms, imagine the conversations taking place in the marketing departments and board rooms all over America and beyond.

The key is education. When I was a senior at Classical High School, my English teacher, Mr. John Sharkey, took almost two weeks to explain to us the nature of advertising and the need for us to be cynical and critical of every ad we saw since the primary objective was for that ad to separate us from every dollar in our pocket. I have no idea if anyone is still including that lesson in any curriculum, my guess is that since most teachers spend way too much time teaching to a test, that this is one lesson that falls by the wayside.

Our kids need this knowledge. They need to know the difference between the Wamart commercial with paid actors playing associates telling the world what a great place Walmart is to work; and the actual working conditions and bare subsistence level most associates live while Walmart is one of the greatest recipients of corporate welfare. Young men need to know that using Axe spray isn’t going to get them attacked by a group of young women. Young women especially need to know they don’t need to look like fashion models. And everyone should know, they don’t have to go spend money for spending money’s sake just because of the birth of Christ more than 2000 years ago. Christ isn’t getting any of the money spent, it’s all going into corporate coffers.

Merry Xmas, all; and to all a good life!

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

November 4, 2013November 4, 2013

Urban renewal: Springfield or All Souls

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“They were saints in their own estimation, and more terrifying than any sinners I’ve ever encountered.”

– Teresa of Avila

One of the scary realities is that evil is attractive. If evil wasn’t attractive, no one would choose it.

Unitarianism is a religion with an inspiring history – going back to Eastern Europe, and the villages and cities caught between the Catholic and Muslims Empires of the Reformation where Unitarianism first grew. From Eastern Europe, the teachings spread, first briefly, to Poland, the Netherlands, than England. Unitarianism developed in the United States, India, the Philippines, and, today, Uganda. Yet, historically, in addition to our triumphs for free thought and social good, this faith has baggage. Mark Morrison Reed’s book “Black Pioneers in a White Denomination,” offers us some words of caution and double take.

Over one hundred years ago, there was a preacher, originally from Jamaica, who began to doubt the Trinity, and found his way to Unitarianism. His name was Ethelred Egbert Brown. Brown had a vision of Unitarianism that wasn’t limited to the fancy neighborhoods of Boston, but one accessible to all people -working people, people of color. He studied at Meadville Theological School in Pennsylvania, and through much effort, founded a small but active Unitarian congregation in Harlem. His efforts were shunned by the denomination, he received minimal financial or moral support. Reportedly, the President of the Unitarian Association would hide if he heard Brown was visiting the Boston office.

The Association, the powers that be, didn’t think it a prudent investment to support a Unitarian church in Harlem. The guardians of Unitarianism thought they were being fiscally responsible. There is no Unitarian Church in Harlem today.

In the 1960s and 1970s, numerous American cities were in upheaval. The times were full of excitement, fear, demand, and hope. A politicized generation noted the glaring contrast in differing facilities and supports in neighborhoods, overcrowding and weak investment in schools, and growing demands for full civil rights were made against often crony prone city governments and aloof financial centers. This contrast produced tensions and changes. Highways were splicing and cutting against the skin of centuries old streets and houses, and tens of thousands of people were being relocated. In this context of upheaval, many urban Unitarian and Universalist churches closed, or relocated to the suburbs. “Why stay in the cities?” Many asked. “It’s not prudent,” some felt.

In Springfield, Mass, a 19th century Unitarian church voted to sell its property and move to the suburbs. The church was replaced with a parking lot. There is no Unitarian Church in Springfield today. Without the physical space, there is no community to gather and to heal.

Yet, not every city and every congregation chose to flee to the suburbs. In DC, currently home to one of the most diverse and successful congregations in the whole Unitarian-Universalist Association, a group of people at All Souls congregation had a vision. Located in the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood of DC, a group of board members had a vision for a large, vibrant, progressive, multiracial religious congregation. It wasn’t easy. In fact, it took years. Yet, it happened. Generations of congregants joined together to build an active, progressive multiracial neighborhood congregation. All Souls has fed the hungry, helped the sick, and done the work of justice.

History doesn’t move in a line. There are choices to be made. What type of congregation do we want to be? Do we want to be Springfield or All Souls?

October 27, 2013

Call to Worship: Does everyone have a right to dignity?

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Unitarian Universalist congregations affirm seven principles, basically a set common ethics and sources of traditions, that all member fellowships acknowledge. The first principle of Unitarian -Universalism is to affirm “the inherent worth and dignity of every person.” The following reflection is written by Brian Kovacs, a longtime member and worship leader on struggling with the First Principle.

Struggling With the First Principle

I told a friend I was working on the difficulty of living the First Principle. I had no sooner said, “the inherent worth and dignity of every person” than she cut me off and said, “That’s not true.” Further discussion was out of the question. My friend is a socially-engaged and liberal Jew. For her, our First Principle is not just preposterous, it is wrong. To her, people obviously do not all have the same inherent worth and dignity. She thinks we’re mad. Well, then, what are these Principles? Are they ideals, abstractions, unreal sentimental aspirations, untrue? Are they to be honored in the abstract and denied in the concrete? Do people have inherent worth and dignity? Like my friend, you don’t have to believe that. These are Principles, but they are neither dogma nor creed.

‘Worth’ and ‘dignity’ could mean respect or regard. They could mean access: rights. Perhaps they mean equality of some sort, though that’s not exactly what the Principle says. Personally, I wonder if you can have worth and dignity without equality, without human and civil rights, without access: education, health care, the ballot box.

Many people believe that worth and dignity must be merited. I’m gay. Like other marginalized groups, my people are often told that they haven’t earned access or regard and therefore do not deserve it.

Or, that by being offensive or impertinent or demanding or obnoxious or violent, they have disqualified themselves from legitimacy, individually and collectively. Are there statuses that diminish a person’s worth and dignity in some manner? Is there a list? If we find one status that somehow disqualifies a person will we not find others?

In the spirit of Max Weber’s Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, some people handle the inherent ambiguity of human existence by looking for objective signs of one’s worth and dignity: prosperity, success, power, celebrity. The rich and powerful are worth more; the proof is that god favors them. Poverty and suffering are proof of god’s distain. That’s the prosperity gospel. It’s found in Pentacostalism, Mormonism, Scientology, Presbyterianism and frankly I think even among Unitarian-Universalists.

In the words of Belize, from Angels in America, it “isn’t easy. It isn’t worth anything if it’s easy. [It’s] the hardest thing.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a martyr of the Nazi Reich, called what we’re talking about, The Cost of Discipleship. When the Worship Committee offers leadership training, one thing that’s stressed is that the best services come at a cost: “Say something that it costs you to say.” Our struggle with the First Principle and with all the Principles reflects what it costs us to say and to believe things of value. I wonder: what’s your struggle?

Brian Kovacs

October 19, 2013October 19, 2013

Call to Worship: Time Capsule, part two

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From its inception in the 19th century the Religious Society of Bell St Chapel – a Unitarian Universalist congregation in Providence’s west end has been devoted to each persons free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Below is another excerpt from a pamphelt published by the society in 1934.

NOT HOW NEW BUT HOW TRUE

Liberals in Religion do not reject any orthodox doctrine just because it is orthodox, because it is old. Neither do they hasten to accept an idea just because it is new.

Not how old or how new, but how true – that is what they ask. Their quarrel is not with the conservative or the radical as such but with the dogmatist.

The tested truths of the fathers and the tested truths of the moderns – between these there can be no contradiction, and the Liberal welcomes them both as essentials of his faith.

Whenever anybody finds out the truth about any subject, he makes an addition to Liberal doctrine.

The Bell Street Chapel invites you to its fellowship. Its members do not agree to think alike but all alike agree to think, to exercise their reason and conscience in matters of faith, to follow the truth wheresoever it may lead them.

The principles of the liberal faith is set forth at

BELL STREET CHAPEL

Providence

October 6, 2013October 7, 2013

Call to Worship: Bumper Cars

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Audrey Green expresses our jolt as a congregation when our new minister suddenly resigned from a fairly new assignment. The announcement reminded her of riding a bumper car. However, as you read this, you will understand how she realizes our bumpy rides at Bell Street are unique and often help foster our beliefs to make this a better world for all in it. Yes, we got jolted and bumped as a congregation, but we also found the good from all we went through and are moving forward together in common cause.

Bumper Cars
by Audrey Green

I am not an amusement park person, I’m a “walking on flat surfaces in sturdy shoes” person.

Since I would shake with terror at ferris wheels, I was pressured by high school friends and later my children to at least ride the bumper cars. At least! The bumper cars!

I remember the shady carnival guy casually hanging off the back bumper of a car, saying “No bumping!”

(What?)

“And don’t ever, ever, ever, get out of your car, you will be electrocuted!”

Oh, dear Lord!

My car’s pedal doesn’t work, I drive haltingly around the outside of the ghastly electrified rectangle, trying in vain to avoid the spine shaking and doubtless paralyzing “bump”.

Whether my maniacal brother, a gleeful high school classmate, or yes, one of my own dear children, it inevitably came, “Wham!”

And there I’d be, shaking, smiling gamely, nodding in false hilarity. What fun.

Lots of Bell Streeters think of this congregation, our spiritual gathering, as a safe place of acceptance and unconditional love. And it is that wonderful sanctuary. Yet, in my 15 years here, and especially this last summer, I’ve begun to understand that it’s also, along with the rest of life…bumper cars. It would be nice to think it didn’t happen, that we all just got together on Sundays and at meetings, potlucks, and picnics, gazed at each other fondly, spoke rationally about shared concerns, and “hugged it out” when the rare differences arose.

And that does happens, but then, “Wham!” And, I’ll admit, in this particular bumper car ride, I’m not always the timid soul keeping to the corners or smiling benignly while easing around other cars, nope, I have been the oblivious bumper. This past July, we all got bumped, badly. Many of us, especially those who’ve been here for years, had been feeling more comfortable and “safe” than we had in a long, long while.

We “knew” that CJ, our minister, was here for the long term, that he loved us, that he was going to lead us towards a promising future Bell Street that shone brightly in the middle distance, beckoning. Then “Wham!” He left. And he not only left unexpectedly, but with many questions unanswered. We felt not only abandoned but utterly puzzled. All we got was a giant bone-shaking jolt and the view of his back bumper as he sped away. What was that?! And many of us are still shaking, still moving delicately, checking our bones and our hearts to assess the damage. I think it’s going to take a while.

I always left the bumper cars with great relief. Shook my head in patently false regret when an excited friend or one of my children said, “Come on, let’s go again!” No, thank you.

But, of course, we can’t avoid every bump in life. Especially if we want the support, solace, and joy that comes from living in community. And Bell Street bumper cars are a bit different from those at your local amusement park, we’re not aimlessly cruising around each other, idly passing the time. We are bumping together along a road to a better understanding, to a better society, to a better world. I’ve pretty much run this bumper car metaphor off a cliff, so I’ll end by saying that this particular ride, at times jarring, frustrating, challenging, lovely, uplifting is also, in my opinion… sacred. We, sometimes with trepidation, join together because we know that what we are here for is bigger than each of us, it’s a dream, an abiding faith in what can be if we all continue to bump along together.

-Audrey Greene

September 29, 2013

Call to Worship: Time Capsule

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From its inception the Religious Society of Bell St Chapel; a Unitarian Universalist congregation in the west end of Providence has been dedicated to each persons free and responsible search for truth and meaning .

Below is a excerpt from a pamphlet published by the congregation in 1934.

The Religious Fellowship

Of Bell Street Chapel

Its Purpose – Its Nature – Its Message

The purpose of the Bell Street Chapel Fellowship is to deal in plain terms with the supreme things in human life as measured by the rational conclusions of science and history.

It is religious, not in the traditional, but in the ethical and scientific sense of the word – religious because it is an earnest and constructive movement devoted to the service of man in all that makes for the elevation and realization of his ideals.

This society has no fixed creed, because it recognizes the undeniable right of every man to think his own thoughts, and because it is unequivocally pledged to the support of truth as discovered by the growing intelligence of man. It has guaranteed to its minister perfect intellectual liberty, for the reason that to deny the teacher freedom to speak his idea of the truth is to deny men freedom to hear the truth.

The Sunday morning service is devoted to the work of educating the people to think for themselves, and to think rationally. No person can be free from political and religious oppression and corruption if he is either opposed to, or incapable, of free thought. This service, therefore, seek to lead people from the narrow, stilted, conventional path of humble submission to the authority of others out upon that broad highway where real men and women walk, with heads erect, fearlessly thinking out things for themselves.

The simple devotional service, with an address by the minister is held in the Bell Street Chapel, off Broadway, every Sunday morning at 10:00 o’clock. All persons who are interested in an intelligent faith and commonsense religion are invited to attend.

The Religious Fellowship

Of Bell Street Chapel

Its Purpose – Its Nature – Its Message

The purpose of the Bell Street Chapel Fellowship is to deal in plain terms with the supreme things in human life as measured by the rational conclusions of science and history.

September 22, 2013September 23, 2013

Call to Worship: Where peace must be practiced

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The following reflection was delivered by Kate Gillis, a retired educator and life-long Unitarian. Gillis asks, us to consider those who are seekers. She writes, “The path to truth is not well lit. We move in and out of illumination as we go and we see our way more clearly sometimes than others.”

“Love is the spirit of this church, and service is its law. This is our great covenant: to dwell together in peace, to seek the truth in love, and to help one another.”

Each week I join with all of you in saying the Unison Affirmation. Since I have it memorized, I am free to look around while I am saying the words.

By the time we are halfway through saying the affirmation, my eyes have usually centered on the large painting that is behind the pulpit. I am almost always drawn to looking at it by the time we are saying the last three phrases of the Affirmation, the part that says “To dwell together in peace, To seek the truth in love, and to help on another.” As I say the word “dwell” I look at the building or house that is in the middle of the picture. “Dwell” — dwelling. That house represents someone’s home – my home, other people’s homes. That is where peace must be practiced. I can focus on that house in the picture and fill it with energy to radiate peace to all who enter. If that house represents all the houses in the world and they were all filled with peace, then maybe we could all dwell together in peace.

As we recite the next phrase, “To seek the truth in love” my eyes go to the figures on the road. From a distance and even close up it is not possible to really see any details in these figures. So again they can represent all of us, all people who are seekers. The two people and the horse and cart are moving towards us. They are in the sunlight but have just left the shadows and will soon move into the shadows again. The path to truth is not well lit. We move in and out of illumination as we go and we see our way more clearly sometimes than others.

And then the last phrase “To help one another” brings my eyes right to the two people. Each of them is traveling along the road with the other. They have each other to help carry their burdens and to share riding on the horse. They can talk to each other and offer encouragement and comfort as needed as they proceed on their journey.

In the Unison Affirmation, the three phrases about dwelling, seeking and helping, are the supporting details for the initial statement – “Love is the spirit of this church and service is its law”. In the painting the people and house are also the details of a larger painting.

The main object in the painting is the snow covered mountain. It is a massive mountain that reaches up into the clouds. For me this is a perfect symbol for love, for the divine spirit. People have always been drawn to mountains as the homes of the gods. Often temples have been built on the highest location possible. When I am standing on top of a mountain with a cleared peak, I can see for miles and soak up the majesty of the ongoing land and the vastness of the sky. It can feel like a love that encompasses all.

The other objects in the painting represent some suggestions of what else is part of our world. On the left is a second path. The people are traveling on one road but the presence of the second path suggests all the many possible roads there are to travel. There is also a substantial rushing stream or river. Water. I am so glad water is in the painting. We cannot live without water. Our lives are entwined with the salt water of the sea. In the foreground of the painting are boulders, rocks – the holders of the memories of the earth. There is also a meadow and some trees, homes for some of earth’s creatures.

All of these things call out when I say the phrase “And service is its law.” If I love all these things, want a healthy vibrant earth, want peace, want to be free to seek the truth and live with other people then my law must be service. I must consciously act in ways that work to preserve our beautiful blue-green planet home, the earth.

September 15, 2013September 16, 2013

Call to Worship: ‘That urggh feeling’

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Audrey Greene, coordinator of the Worship Committee at Bell St Chapel, asks, “Maybe, we just have to learn to live without answers. To think of the questions as an end in themselves. Is that possible?”

Drift

I like to sing and dance. Aside from sitting with my children at the kitchen table and watching them eat, singing and dancing are the closest thing to heaven for me. But there’s this point. Not always, not every time, really only when I’m learning, when urrrrrgh. The timing is not there, the note won’t come, the feet are not connected to the brain. Granted, being 6 feet tall, my feet are quite a ways from my brain and that may be part of my problem with dancing.

But I’ll bet each of you has experienced a moment like this, many times. You’re learning a language, or taking your first fencing class, or trying water color painting, when you’re reaching, you’re struggling for the right way, the answer, and it feels like it’s never going to happen. You feel unmoored, uncertain, even afraid. I see little kids deal with this every day and it is interesting to see which ones keep trying and which ones throw themselves into fits of weeping and which ones just walk away.

Honestly, I’ve often been the type who walks away. I think this is because my mother told me I was smart. So I thought anything I didn’t know instantly and without effort wasn’t worth learning. This is not a good mindset for a child entering first grade, and I can tell you it didn’t win me many friends. My mom was doing the best she could, but I wish she’d told me I would sometimes fail, mess up, feel frustration. I’m still working on this.

Someone told me that that uncomfortable feeling is actually your brain growing dendrites, new connections between cells. This is a very good thing, especially for folks of a certain age. Actually, I think uncertainty, that urggh feeling, is a good thing for everyone.

Yes, we are a meaning-making species, we love answers. But answers for their own sakes, especially when it concerns the vast messy problem of people living together in peace, can be limiting and dangerous. Sometimes it feels to me like many Americans would love to have any answers at all, even very outdated ones from 250 years ago, just so long as they are answers. And it seems there are plenty of people willing and eager to provide those answers, even if they have to make them up.

Maybe, we just have to learn to live without answers. To think of the questions as an end in themselves. Is that possible?

Here is where I think Unitarian Universalism and especially Bell Street can lead the way. Although even in this congregation, we can get a little squirrelly (which, parenthetically, is a great image; a little wild-eyed animal clutching her precious nut of truth, her eyes darting this way and that) when things are in flux. I think we are uniquely qualified to open, examine, and live with life’s pressing questions. Where are we going? Who are we? Why are we here? Who knows? We are okay being unmoored, a little scared. We know we have each other. I say, let’s continue to drift together.

– Audrey Greene

September 8, 2013September 9, 2013

Call to Worship: Common Humanity

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This 1917 article written by Rev. Arthus Winn, reinforces the hope that our future of our growing diversities of class interests, racial national pejudices and purposes will also enable us to grow interdepencence, respect and cooperation that will enable us all to keep the unity of the spirit in the bonds of future peace. Such wise wisdom expressed so many years ago.

Common Humanity (slightly adapted)

If there is any age which needs to see life steadily and see it whole it is our own. If there is any time when men need to see things together, when they need to see deeply enough to see musically, when they need some principle that will unite the competing yet complementary forces into harmony, it is the present. At a time when the tendency of life is to ever greater and wider differentiations, when individual peculiarities are emphasized, and humans tasks are specialized, our hope for the future is that the growing diversities of class interests, racial and national prejudices and purposes there will also be “a growing interdependence and respect and cooperation,” enabling us all to keep the unity of the spirit in the bonds of peace.

And when the deeper view is taken and not the mere surface view, we discover that the things that bind us together are greater and more abiding than the things that separate. Religion is learning the lesson; nay sectarian disputes, subtle and profitless dogmatic wrangles and theological bickerings which once absorbed so much of the thought of the religious world have already in large measure passed away. And it is not an unreasonable attitude to cherish the belief that some day statesmanship will be guided by a wisdom which discovers how much we all have in common. It is a vain thing to imagine that national differences will be eliminated. Indeed to prospect now is that national differences will be intensified, rather than lost; and yet, the time will come when inspired by the view that unites, the nations with national pride undiminished will be drawn closer together in the unity of the spirit because they have given thought to the things that make for peace.

Despite the clash of arms and the shock of strife the fact of our common humanity abides. At bottom human nature is one… The socialists have been surprised that the tie of nationality was stronger than the tie of class. We shall yet learn of the tie of humanity is stronger and more permanent than the tie of class or nation.

Call to Worship is a regular Sunday series written and curated by some of the folks from the Bell Street Chapel, a Unitarian Universalist church on the West End of Providence. Click here for more on this series. And here for the archives.

September 1, 2013September 8, 2013

Call to Worship: The Bell Street Chapel blogs

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“Love is the Spirit of this Church, and Service is its Law. This is our Great Covenant: To dwell together in peace, to seek the truth in love, and to help one another.”

Bell Street Chapel is a Unitarian Universalist congregation in the West End of Providence- and has been since the 1880s. Our history has been tumultuous, mundane and inspiring – and we want to go digital!

This “Call to Worship” blog spot is our way of connecting with a wider community across the state – you. Starting this Sunday, we will be uploading reflections and sermons from our pulpit. If you like what read each Sunday, check us out in real time, Sunday mornings at 10:00am. We’re the temple next to the dog park, off Broadway, at 5 Bell St.

Our story is tied to our neighborhood. Providence’s West End in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (from Olneyville to Federal Hill) was a hot-bed of ideas- free religion, socialism, immigrant Catholicism, theosophy, Armenian Orthodoxy, rights for women, mysticism, labor unions, Progressivism. In that background, James Eddy, an eccentric and charity-minded art dealer, founded a chapel for a free religion.

In the 1890s, Bell Street Chapel called the first female minister in Rhode Island, Anna Garlin Spencer. Garlin Spencer was involved in the Suffrage Movement, the Peace Movement, promoted education for women in Olneyville, and was investigated by the Federal Government for her anti-war activities in the 1910s.

Our chapel had speakers from Booker T. Washington to Susan B Anthony. Bell St. was the church of the reform governor who told Lincoln Steffens that Rhode Island was, “A state for sale, cheap.”

In more recent times, our chapel bounced from 12 members in the 1980s peaking at over 100 in the early 2000s, and has remained steady at about 60 today. We have a history of support for LGBT rights going back to the early 1990s, if not earlier. We were the first church in Rhode Island to oppose the Iraq War, and among the first congregations to support Marriage Equality. We share a portion of our undesignated collection plate offering with a different social justice organization every quarter.

Our hope is that by sharing some of our chapel community’s thoughts on spirituality, social issues, and day to day living, Bell St Chapel will have some impact on the discussions of what is right and just in Rhode Island today.

As James Eddy, the founder of Bell St Chapel, once wrote, “Organized error is more powerful than unorganized truth.” Bell St Chapel has been a space for liberal religion for well over a century- our words aren’t always popular, but we’re a home for reflection and action.

As Unitarian Universalists believe all people have value and all are connected. Let’s figure out a way to better live together. Have a good week!

Religion of Light by Audrey Greene

Religion of Light
by Audrey Greene