Musical Cultural Appropriation
What do Brahms’ Hungarian Dances, Mozart’s Turkish March, and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Song of India all have in common? They are all good examples of a composer “borrowing” a different culture’s musical themes (or one’s concept of another culture’s musical themes). I played these pieces for the Prelude of our service about Cultural Appropriation. In the case of Mozart’s Turkish March, he evokes the sound of the Turkish Janissary (military) bands, which was a very popular custom at the time. Even though…
A Year From Now?
At our last Board Meeting October 23rd, the Board considered all the changes that are happening in our church and our community. The two biggies are the pandemic and our new Sanctuary-to-be. Of course that’s just the start! We talked about the different kinds of change: short or long term, technical (a solid “fix” is possible, i.e. we all need to learn to use Zoom) or adaptive (more systemic and not as possible to “fix” i.e. some people prefer Zoom…
Jingle Dancing
The PreK-7th graders read the picture book Jingle Dancer by Cynthia Letitch Smith during their time together on October 10th as part of exploring how listening helps build relationships. This book was also selected in honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day on October 11th. It’s a story about a group of Indigenous Women who are using the tradition of Jingle Dancing to help the world heal the fear caused by the pandemic. The dresses, also known as Prayer Dresses, mimic the sound of falling rain and…
Making History
We are in the middle of making history right now. OK, so we are always in the middle of making history, but it just feels so “present” to me right now (no pun intended). It feels that way because I have no idea what the future holds, which is a very unsettling feeling. Everything seems up in the air: what does the future hold for our children when it comes to the environment? After the pandemic, what is the future…
October Sanctuary Update
As we get closer to the targeted date of early February 2022 when the demolition of the existing Suite 4 building is to take place, there are a number of tasks that are in need of completion. The construction committee continues to move forward on these requirements in collaboration with our architect, domusstudio. Most importantly we are awaiting feedback on the Development Review Plan submitted last month to the City of Costa Mesa Department of Development Services. Once feedback is…
The Hard-Working Volunteers
I want to highlight the many hard-working volunteers who have stepped up to make our hybrid services happen. I’m sure most people realize that it takes lots of extra energy – and volunteer hours – to create basically two services simultaneously – one on Zoom and one in Daniels Hall. Huge kudos go to Steve Morihiro, who did all the research to figure out how to make hybrid services work effectively, gathered all the extra equipment we needed (including miles of…
It’s Good to be Back
Tom and I had a wonderful trip around our country. 7374 miles, two hurricanes, one parent, two children and spouses, three grandchildren, four siblings and spouses, and many nieces, nephews, cousins and great friends later, we are back. All of it was a few at a time and as COVID safe as we could manage. My overriding impression is of a fantastically diverse and spectacularly beautiful country, and how lucky we are to be able to visit the people and see everything we…
Fall Programs
Here in Religious Education for Children and Youth, we kicked off fall by sharing a beautiful Water Ceremony created just for kids on September 12th. We had 19 children and youth with us, and it was a fantastic experience. I was so touched by the way the kids were eager to participate and showed reverence in their own ways. It was very special for me, and I hope it was for them, too. On Sunday, September 19th, we began our…
Cultivation of Relationships
As we celebrate the cultivation of relationships this month, it is my great pleasure to let you all know about two wonderful new relationships for this congregation: Affiliated Ministers! Affiliated ministers are different from called ministers (like me). They are not interns, they are board approved, and generally they are not paid for the covenantal work they offer. They are ministers who would like to affiliate with a congregation for a variety of reasons. Rev. Judy (who you all know)…
