Sian's Shenanigans (Page 3)

There is an island near Seattle that has a kind of magical effect on me. Whenever I go there, I find that as soon as I touch the ground, a feeling of calm comes over me: my whole body relaxes and I feel grounded. The place is called “Whidbey Island” and somehow, someway it feeds my soul. Have you ever felt that sense of calm? Maybe when you went away on a vacation and looked out over the ocean? Or…

“Leap and the net will appear.” ~ John Burroughs, American naturalist and nature essayist. Recently my best friend made a huge leap of faith. She left her career of 30 years, as it was just too stressful and harming her health. For someone like her, this lack of security, assurance and sense of foundation, was extremely difficult. Every day she deals with constant questions, “What’s next? What do I do? Who am I? How will my spouse and I be…

Wisdom is a fascinating notion. Who gets to determine what is or is not wisdom? If you look at the six sources of Unitarian Universalism you’ll note that we’ve thrown everything in there but the kitchen sink! But if we are going to be inclusive, we have to recognize that all these sources do have wisdom in them. And they also have some really bad stuff in them. How do we tell what is wisdom? Well, that’s what we have…

In February, I attended our NMI Interfaith Council’s monthly luncheon at the AME church and the topic was “The Black Church in OC.” We had a wonderful presentation by Dr. Richard Rose on the subject of “Liberation Theology” which is the foundational theology of the Black church. He said: “When salvation/liberation is realized in a person’s personal life, that individual works diligently to make sure the larger society, of which he/she is a part, provides fair and equal access to…

Balance in our lives is something that everyone struggles with. We balance obligations and freedom; we balance work and play; we balance individual needs and the community. Life seems like a balancing act. Someone once described my job as Minister as one of those circus performers who tries to keep the plates up on the sticks – constantly needing to keep the stick and plate spinning or it all comes crashing down. I’m not sure it so much describes my…

Gary Chapman believes that there are 5 love languages: Words of affirmation, quality time, receiving of gifts, acts of service and physical touch. Each of us has one or two ways that we prefer to be “loved” and there are ways that our loved ones prefer it too. And each of these types of love can be applied whether it’s romantic, filial or a beloved community. I’ve seen all of these forms of love in this congregation. I see love…

There are all kinds of power in the world – there is influence or authority. Those are types of personal and corporate power. And then there is the “higher” power, aka God which is a kind of omniscient power. The month we are going to be exploring all types of power – personal, corporate and divine. As religious liberals, we have a kind of dysfunctional relationship with power. On the one hand, we come from fairly privileged households. Privilege is…

Recently the OCUUC Board decided to ask themselves and the church about “what does the church mean to me?” Each board member has been coming up with their own vision statement about the church and what it means to them. It’s been wonderful to hear these visions statements and we are going to be sharing them with you in the weeks and months to come. Our church has a mission statement, but not a vision statement. The mission of the…

I love that our worship theme for November is “Faith.” Because we are about to take a leap of faith! Last Spring, your president, Don Martin, and I held a series of townhall meetings to discuss what to do about our space for worship. You see, we are between a rock and a hard place. In our current space, we are too small to go to two services – not enough people to make two services vital feeling. But we…

On my first Sunday back in the pulpit preaching, afterwards a kind congregant came up to me and said “We missed you!” I grinned back, “Thanks!.” Tom L., one of our long time congregants, saw my grin, leaned toward me and whispered, “Doesn’t that feel nice?” Oh yah it does! It’s nice to be missed. I missed you all too. I’m very grateful to the Board, especially our President Don, the Committee on Ministry, the staff and everyone who made…

So in one month, I’ll be going on sabbatical. I’m looking forward, as I’m sure you can imagine, to days of sleeping in and rejuvenating. But I’m also looking forward to exploring ideas, arts and knowledge that I never have time for during my current busy days. In June I’ll be heading to my normal month of relaxation up in Seattle to see my family. I’ll also be taking an art class near Seattle. In July I’m going to start…

Salvation is not a word I like, I have to admit. I generally don’t mind Christian theological concepts, but this one makes me twitch. It’s the worship theme this month and so I’m squirming a bit. Salvation, from a liberal theological standpoint, is often described as “wholeness.” But I think that’s a bit of a stretch. The original Greek word for salvation is Soteria. Soteria means protection from harm, often then translated into “salvation.” The world “Salvation” is the Latin…