2019 Sermons

2019 Sermons: see below
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2018 and earlier sermons:
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December 29:
Looking Backwards, Leaning Forwards, Living Now
Sermon by Dr. Scott Tilley
The end of December is traditionally a time for looking backward on the year that was. This year is particularly significant because it’s also the end of a decade. What major events helped shape your life over the past 12 months? Over the past 10 years?

Reflecting on the past is fine but looking forward is even more important. As you lean into 2020, what are your New Year’s resolutions? What are your dreams and goals for the next 10 years?

Above all, remember that the past is done, and the future hasn’t happened yet. If you spend too much time pondering what might have been, or what might still come to pass, you’ll forget to enjoy the only time that really matters: now. Come to this stimulating sermon by Scott Tilley to learn how to live in the present.

Scott Tilley is an emeritus professor at the Florida Institute of Technology, president and founder of the Center for Technology & Society, president and co-founder of Big Data Florida, past president of INCOSE Space Coast, and a Space Coast Writers’ Guild Fellow. His recent books include “Systems Analysis & Design” (Cengage, 2020), “SPACE” (Anthology Alliance, 2019), and “Technical Justice” (CTS Press, 2019). He wrote the “Technology Today” column for FLORIDA TODAY from 2010 to 2018. He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Victoria.

Dr. Scott Tilley

Tuesday, December 24, 5:30 pm
Christmas Eve Service
Holding Time
Join us for candlelight, readings and carols that help us to celebrate the Christmas season.

"Winter Candle" is the Story for All Ages

December 22:
Music for Mid-Winter Festivals
Presented by Rev. Amy Kindred, Stephen Downen and the Choir
Throughout the world, there are nearly 60 winter holidays celebrated in the month of December.
Join us for a festive morning of music and song.

December 15:
The Mitten
Produced by Children, Minister and Adults
Jan Brett, a beloved author and Unitarian Universalist, wrote a lovely book about a lost mitten in 1989. Today, with a slight adaptation, the children will bring this beautiful story to life. Join us for this inter-generational service that celebrates love and inclusion.

December 8:
Sermon by Rev. Scott Alexander

December 1:
"Meet Me in Potter's Field"
Sermon by Rev. Amy Kindred
Folk tales exist in all communities, even in Unitarian Universalist circles. Join us this morning as we revisit an old story, based on truth, that reveals how one man's crazy idea helped heal another man's troubled heart.

Dr. Robert Tucker

November 24:
Giving Thanks
for Who We Are
Sermon by Rev. Dr. Robert Tucker

November 17:
Stories from Around the World
Sermon by Rev. Amy

November 10:
Annual Combined UU Spacecoast Picnic
(No Sunday service)

November 3:
End of Life Options
Patti Nivens, from Compassion and Choices spoke.

October 27:
The Thin Veil
Reverend Amy Kindred AND the children of Friendship Fellowship.
In this shortened service, the children will read poetry about Halloween and the minister will offer a brief message about the importance of a holiday shared by three different cultures. Additionally, we will publicly welcome the individuals who have signed the membership book since last November. - After the service today, we will hold our semi-annual congregational meeting.

October 20:
Recycling Right
As Unitarian Universalists our seventh principle guides us toward "Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part." By extension we are all responsible for safeguarding the earth by proper recycling of whatever products we can. Our speaker, Andrea Bolitho, will guide us through the process of correct recycling in Brevard County.

Andrea Bolitho is the Recycling Coordinator for Brevard County Solid Waste. She has degrees in Biology and Environmental Science and has worked for the County for three years. She provides educational programs for community groups to enhance knowledge of Recycling Right.

Andrea Bolitho

October 13:
Evil and Oz
Sermon by Rev. Amy Kindred
Frank Baum wrote a classic story titled The Wonderful World of the Wizard of Oz in 1900. Join us this morning as we explore where various elements of the story were derived and rediscover it's power to inform us today.

October 6:
On Forgiveness
Sermon by Rev. Amy Kindred
Mark Twain wrote, "Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it." Must we forgive to live full lives? Of all the issues addressed by countless religious traditions, forgiveness is one of the most controversial.

September 29:
Wired for Ritual?
Sermon by Rev. Amy Kindred
The term “ritual” is often attributed to prescribed actions in a religious ceremony. With the changing terrain of religious thought, are rituals still important? More to the point, how do we feel about ritual in Unitarian Universalism?

September 22:
Manageable Marks of Maturity
Sermon by Rev. Paul Johnson
Our UU principle calling us to encourage each other in our spiritual growth draws on the tradition of "self culture" and "salvation by character" established by our founders. My sermon will develop my personal, contemporary take on this worthy tradition.

Rev. Paul Johnson

September 15:
Justice for the Earth
Sermon by Rev. Amy Kindred

Studies are clear. The earth needs our attention right now. Where will we find the gardens of hope and what will move us all in the direction of positive action?

Photo: courtesy www.indianriverlagoon.org/Symposium.html

September 8:
Bees, Ants and Other Intelligent Beings
Sermon by Rev. Amy Kindred
Call it what you will, intelligence or rote memory finely turned by evolution, bees and ants are amazing creatures. Let’s celebrate nature’s little working wizards!

September 1: Service cancelled due to hurricane threat

August 25:
Living a Principled Life
Sermon by Rev. Amy Kindred
Unitarian Universalists aspire to live 7 main principles. The path is not always easy but friends and members work hard to pursue lives of purpose. Join us to find out more about what it means to be a "UU."

August 18:
Trees, Change and Acceptance
Sermon by Rev. Amy Kindred
What is the latest research about trees and what are the subtle messages they might provide for our own lessons in life?

The Story for All Ages was "Peter's Chair," described below. During the sermon, the video below was played.

More information about Champion Trees is at championtrees.freshfromflorida.com/home.mvc/Index

Peter’s Chair
Harper & Row (now Viking), 1967

Peter has a new baby sister. First his father paints Peter’s old cradle pink, then his crib. Then his parents want to paint Peter’s chair! “Let’s run away, Willie,” he says to his dog. And they do. This is a gentle and reassuring story about sibling rivalry.

Peter has a problem: a new baby sister. Because of her, he’s not allowed to make noise in the house, and his baby furniture has been repainted pink. He decides to grab his little blue chair and run away with his dog, Willie. Once he discovers that he’s too big for the chair, he starts to think it’s all right to give it up. At lunchtime, Peter’s mother sees his sneakers under the curtains, but he isn’t hiding there—it’s a trick! In the end, Peter meets his parents on his terms, not as the baby of the family but as a boy who can make his own decisions, and outwit his mother, too. Now he’s ready to help his father paint the chair that used to be his. Read more at www.ezra-jack-keats.org/ezras-books/peters-chair/

August 11:
Blooming of the Lotus
Sermon by Rev. Amy Kindred
Rich symbolism abounds in eastern traditions.
We'll explore Buddhism's gift for helping us to make sense of life's ups and downs.

August 4:
Science and Ethics

A Panel Discussion by Rabbi Craig Mayers and Dr. Scott Tilley
Both panelists have individually spoken at Friendship Fellowship before on this subject. Today we will combine their talents in a wide ranging discussion of how science and ethics will affect the future of religion and our world.” Rabbi Mayers spoke on January 6, 2109, on the subject of "Ethics and Technology" and on July 15, 2018, on the subject of "Applying Ancient Rules to This Modern World." Dr. Tilley spoke on November 11, 2018 on the subject of "Genetic Engineering" and on September 2, 2018, on the subject of "Artificial Intelligence and Society." Summaries of these sermons are available on our Recent Sermons page (2019 sermons) and our 2018 Sermons page.

Rabbi Craig Mayers

Dr. Scott Tilley

July 28:
The MeToo Movement
Sermon by Rev Ann Fuller

July 21:
Music Program: History of Unitarian Universalist Hymns
Sermon by Stephen Downen, pictured below with his guitar, leading the choir. Amy Rosebush is behind the choir at the piano.

Rev. Schwartzberg

July 14:
The Four Agreements
Sermon by Rev Trish Schwartzberg

July 7:
Citizens Climate Change Lobby
Sermon by Lisa Ruckman

Ruth Rodgers

Thank you to
Ruth Rodgers and Helen Bennett for the sermon summaries below.

Helen Bennett

June 30:
The Consequences of Party Reform in the 21st Century
Sermon by Dr. Terri Fine, UCF
Nominating conventions culminate a lengthy process. Formal public goals of conventions include nominating presidential and vice-presidential candidates and adopting party platforms. Sustained media focus enables parties to introduce rising stars, formulate policy initiatives, strengthen party connections, and mobilize members to work on behalf of the party and candidates. Changes in delegate selection rules following the party reforms in the late 1960s reflect emerging tensions about party roles while nominating conventions matter far less in presidential nominations than in the past. This presentation will focus on how these changes have and will affect the 2020 presidential nomination contest and what that means for voters and activists at the grassroots.

Dr. Terri Fine, Ph.D.

Summary by Helen Bennett:
Dr. Terri Fine gave her talk on party reform in order to help us understand the nominating process in our current race for the presidency. There have been changes in delegate selection rules following reforms set in motion after the 1968 Democratic convention, which was chaotic because we had lost our chief contender, Robert Kennedy. In addition, there were mob demonstrations outside the convention center in Chicago because of opposition to the Vietnam War and because some groups had no say in the platform. Police tried to quell the violence.

On April 4, 1968 Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, and then on June 5, 1968 Robert Kennedy lost his life after winning the California primary. It was expected that he would be the nominee, as LBJ had resigned as president on March 31, 1967. The eventual nominee was Hubert Humphrey, who lost to Richard Nixon in 1968. (He had lost the governorship of California two years before and announced, “You will not have Richard Nixon to kick around anymore.”)

The Democrats had been dominating politics and expected to win again. After they lost to Nixon, George McGovern formed a committee to reform the nominating procedure. The new rules of the McGovern-Frasier Committee said that the nominating procedure had to be Open, had to be Fair, and had to be Representative of the party. If a candidate had 25% of the vote in the primaries, he deserved a delegate. The caucus or primary had to be held on time. (An early caucus took place on a bus.) No one was to schedule a primary or caucus before January 1. States would lose their representation if they held theirs before that date.

Today, in order to be open, a primary is better than a caucus. In 1968, 40% of the states held caucuses; now, over 40 states hold primaries. To have a delegate, a candidate must have won 10—25% of the votes in primaries or caucuses. In 1972, the delegates were based on race and gender; now, they are based just on gender.

In 1980, two years before the ERA ended, Congress was able to propose amendments to the Constitution. At that time, the ERA was endorsed by Republicans. Roe vs. Wade was decided 7 to 2. The ERA and pro-choice factions were intertwined.
The cost of a nomination has become way too high. Because we have closed primaries in Florida, Independents have been registering with a party in order to vote in a primary. A new result has been “front-loading,” earlier scheduling of primaries because of the expense to nominees. Now, many are in January, instead of March. States would prefer to draw out the process. Super Tuesday is in February, when many states hold their primaries or caucuses.

A Regional Primary system has been suggested, whereby the country is divided into four districts. They each take turns being first to hold their primaries. Candidates can stay in longer and it would cost them less money.
Dr. Fine then answered questions about the Electoral College, government funding of elections, and how the party decides who will participate in the debates. hb

Dr. Robert Tucker

June 23:
How Golden Is Your Rule?
Sermon by Rev. Dr. Robert Tucker
The Golden Rule seems simple, but it is not. It has a fascinating and surprising history, especially in America. Though it appears in almost all religions and philosophies, there is some special about Jesus' version which makes it uniquely profound. More than this, it is the very foundation of our own UU Principles. In this sermon, I trace the intriguing history and quite varied interpretations of this moral principle.

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” This simple statement, which has occurred in some form or other in all the great religions, has been praised for “its ability to compress all of ethics into one sentence.” The Jewish version, which was known to Jesus, says: “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. This is the whole Torah; all the rest is commentary.” Jesus himself said, “In everything you do, do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.” Thus he based his teaching on the Jewish Bible (Old Testament).
Dr. Tucker gave us a history of this familiar ethical precept, as well as its various versions. In Victorian times, Americans took the Golden Rule very seriously. It was embroidered on samplers and written in children’s primers. However, nowhere in the Bible is it called “golden.” The original term “Golden Rule” was first used in 1575 for the “Rule of Three,” an algebraic procedure for solving proportions. Later, in the Age of Reason, such philosophers as Spinoza and Hobbes created ethical systems with moral maxims like the axioms of geometry and algebra. Eventually, the epithet “Golden Rule” was used for the moral duty of reciprocity; what we wish for ourselves, we should wish for our neighbor—which eventually came to mean all of humankind. (Aristotle thought our neighbor meant only our immediate friends.) Immanual Kant coined his own rule, called the “Categorical Imperative”: Act as if the maxim of your actions were to become through your will a universal law of nature.” In the principles of Utilitarianism, we are taught by John Stuart Mill, that we should strive to achieve “the greatest good for the greatest number.” According to Aristotle, the “greatest good” is happiness [and we have maintained this idea in our own Declaration of Independence]. From the ancient Greek Sophists, Stoics, and Socrates, through Confucious and various religions, there has been some version of the Golden Rule.
However, in the novels of Charles Dickens and poet William Blake, there have been cynical renderings of the great Rule. In the USA, by mid-20th century, our people became witty, and coined such versions as, “He who has the gold makes the rules.” Unitarian Universalism incorporated the idea of equality of all people in its Seven Principles: “We …affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person; justice equity and compassion in human relations; acceptance of one another…; a free and responsible search for truth and meaning; the right of conscience…the use of the democratic process…[and] the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all…”
The Golden Rule is not outdated, but remains a pertinent guide for our conduct today. We cannot always live up to its high ideals, but at least we can try. We should strive to know the motives for our actions. “How golden is your rule?” Dr. Tucker says that is the most important question of all.
(Summary by Helen Bennett.)

June 16:
The Two Choices: Samuel Davis, Jr.
Sermon by Rev. Amy Kindred
Singer Sammy Davis, Jr. said, “You always have two choices: your commitment versus your fear.” Raised by parents of two differing faith traditions, one Catholic and the other Baptist, this renowned entertainer converted to Judaism as an adult. Join us as we explore how he succeeded to live a life of faith and passion while encountering one challenge after another.

On Father’s Day, the Reverend Amy Kindred reviewed the life of Sammy Davis, Jr. Although he was not a Unitarian Universalist, he used his talents and associations to promote our second UU principle of justice, equity, and compassion in human relations. The point of her message, said Rev. Amy, was not to idolize him but to point out that some of the social ills he encountered and tried to change are still with us today.

In his memoir, Why Me?, cowritten with Jane and Burt Boyar, Sammy writes that as a child he was sheltered from racial prejudice by his uncle and father, with whom he performed in vaudeville shows, so he did not face it until he joined the army. While there, his nose was broken three times by white soldiers, and he was covered with white paint, with one white solider telling him he was still a “nigger” underneath. One white officer, however, shared his library of books with Sammy, with Sammy reading in the bathroom at night, where he could go unnoticed by the other soldiers. He was also chosen to perform for the troops, which gave him great joy.

After leaving the military, he continued encountering racism in his career, often performing on stages at hotels where he could not register as a guest. He writes, “In Vegas, for twenty minutes, twice a night our skin had no color. Then, the second we stepped off the stage, we were colored again.” He was banned from clubs such as the Copacabana, but Frank Sinatra advocated for him and got him in.

He was married three times. The first was a business deal that lasted only a few months. Then he married May Britt, a white Swedish actress. At that time, interracial marriage was a felony in 31 states. May converted to Judaism (as Sammy had done earlier, identifying with the oppression that the Jews had suffered over history), and the couple received death threats and thousands of letters denouncing their marriage. This criticism intensified when May became pregnant with their first child. Sammy writes, “Would it be better if I married a Negro woman? Would they treat my child any better? ...My baby would have it tough no matter what.”

Sammy wrote, “You always have two choices: your commitment versus your fear and as no two things are equal, one of them outweighs the other.” When asked to go to Selma by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., he went, and helped out with money on several occasions. He once told Martin he wouldn’t go South because “I’m married to a white woman up here. You want to get me lynched?” Martin told him not to worry, that he was safe in God’s hands, leading Sammy to ask, “But suppose God is busy?”

Sammy was surrounded by good friends. When he lost an eye in an automobile accident, Frank Sinatra came to the hospital to visit him, and the attending nurse became so starstruck that she couldn’t move. Frank also helped him get a house in Hollywood Hills, an area where black people were not allowed to purchase a home. During the filming of Porgy and Bess, Sammy told Sam Goldwyn he couldn’t work on Yom Kippur, and Goldwyn suspended production for one day to accommodate him.

As a performer, Sammy felt it his responsibility to work for positive change. He was asked to campaign for John F. Kennedy, which he did, and in return he was sent an invitation to the inaugural party. While excitedly making preparations to attend, he got another phone call rescinding the invitation, explaining that Kennedy was being forced to reconsider, “and to fight it would be counterproductive to the goals he’s set. He very much hopes you will understand….”

Sammy writes, “I felt a torrent of words bubbling up in my throat. No, don’t ask me to understand. Don’t do this. Don’t humiliate me. Don’t cut me in half in front of my wife. In front of all the people I’ve told about it…” But he didn’t say any of them. Instead, he said, “I understand. Thank you for calling.”

Sammy also writes about the differences between John and Bobby Kennedy. John, he describes, “was always raised eyebrows, thinking about the next advantageous move,” but Bobby was the one who wanted to right the wrongs. “He was a humanist, not a do-gooder, but a good-doer.”

When Nixon was elected President and asked Sammy to meet with him, Sammy, a Democrat and Kennedy friend, asked around if this was a good idea before accepting the offer. Later, when a photo appeared of him hugging Nixon, he lost countless friends, including Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, Frank Sinatra, and Ethel Kennedy. In spite of this, Sammy accepted an invitation to the White House for lunch, where they talked about education and business and even about the correct term to use in referring to Sammy’s race, with Sammy assuring Nixon that “black” was now the accepted term.

By the time Sammy died at age 64 in 1990, he and Frank Sinatra had rekindled their friendship, and Sammy was continuing to put aside his fear in favor of his convictions in working for justice, equity, and compassion in human relations. May we all be motivated to remain steadfast in our convictions and press on in this important work of our second UU principle. …rr

June 9:
What Not to Say at a Time of Loss
Sermon by Rev. Amy Kindred
It’s so hard to say the right thing at the right time. This is especially so when someone is grieving. Let’s explore some phrases that are helpful rather than hurtful.

Rev. Amy Kindred opened her sermon on loss with two humorous quotes, one from Mark Twain, who said, ‘I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience for it,” and Woody Allen, who quipped, “It’s not that I’m afraid to die. I just don’t want to be there when it happens.” Humor is one good way to confront our fears.

When a loved one dies, we may ask ourselves where that person went, but none of us know for sure what happens after death. Therefore, when a grieving person asks us that question, we must be honest in saying we don’t know. If the person states his or her beliefs about where the deceased person is, we can listen and nod and say, “Could be.”

Another question that may arise is “Why?” Again, we have no answer. Some people may see death as a punishment for some past transgression, but that is backward thinking, said Rev. Amy, for it ignores the importance of the future. We should never blame the past or subscribe to “if onlys,” as if the death could have been prevented “If only” the circumstances had been different. Death occurs; it is inevitable, and all we can do is offer comfort to the grieving.

Before beginning the list of things NOT to say at a time of loss, Rev. Amy stressed the power of forgiveness. Because the person grieving is unable to regulate his or her emotions, and the person trying to help feels powerless and inadequate to the task of providing comfort, sometimes things are said that are unhelpful. In that case, forgiveness is important for both the person grieving and the person offering comfort.

Rev. Amy listed eight suggestions for things Not to Say to someone who is grieving:

Don’t say, “I know how you feel.” None of us can truly know how another person is feeling. Instead, we can say, “I can’t imagine what you must be feeling. Talk to me if you feel like it.” We shouldn’t tell our own story unless we are asked.
Don’t say, “My friend fought cancer and survived. He has such strong faith.” Instead, say, “Cancer sucks. It’s awful that another person has died from this illness.” It’s okay to name what happened, to say, “It’s so sad to lose your husband. It’s just awful.”
Don’t say, “Let’s not talk about your mom. I know she died and I see it’s a sensitive subject.” Do say, “Tell me what you loved about her. What was she like?” Ask what her name was.
Don’t say, “I heard your dad died. He’s in a better place.” If the person who is grieving says the loved one is in a better place, you can nod and agree, but none of us know what happens to someone when they die. Instead, say, “I’m so sorry. It’s hard to see you suffer, but I’m here for you.”
Don’t jump in to fill the silent moments. Sometimes a simple touch or hug is better than words. Sometimes there is nothing to be said, nothing to do but breathe and put a hand on an arm or shoulder.
Don’t say, “God wanted your loved one to be with him.” Again, if the person grieving says this, you can nod quietly in agreement, but don’t say this as true unless you are asked and you believe it to be true. You may say, “I have no answer for why this happened. All I know is that we are here to help one another in this lifetime. I am here for you.”
Don’t say, “Your friend brought this on herself. After all, she never stopped smoking.” Express your sympathy with “Life presents many challenges. I’m sorry your friend is gone and you are hurting so much.”
Don’t say, “There is a reason for everything.” Maybe there is, and maybe there isn’t. If the person grieving says it, be caring by not disputing it, but if asked if you believe it, you can focus on the present. “What will we do to honor the life of the loved one? What can we do to remember him or her?

We should accept that grief involves a range of emotions, from anger to sadness to numbness to acceptance. If the person who is grieving is snippy or unresponsive to you, don’t take it personally. Send a note or card to remind him or her that you are here if needed, and forgive, forgive, forgive. Speak carefully, forgive often, and allow the memories to live on. ….rr

June 2:
The Evolution of the Brevard Zoo
Sermon by Keith Winsten, Executive Director

Keith Winsten (floridatoday.com)

Before the Sunday service began on June 2, Keith Winston, our guest speaker, was called upon to remove a frog from a toilet in the women’s bathroom, which he did, thus demonstrating his expertise as Executive Director of the Brevard Zoo. Serving in that capacity since 2004, Winston has almost 30 years of experience in non-profit administration, communications, and environmental education. He has a B.S. in Biology from Yale University and an M.S. in Public Health from the University of Illinois, Chicago. He is active in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, and his work in conservation education and exhibit development has won numerous awards. He has helped develop professional training programs in the US, Brazil, and China.

He opened his talk with the volunteer community effort that led to the formation of the zoo, with thousands of people helping to clear the woods and build the zoo, some giving up vacation time from work and even taking unpaid leave in order to help out. When the call went out for volunteers, nobody knew how many people might come, and a makeshift corral was built for keeping watch over the children who came along with the adults. When many more people than expected showed up, the two women charged with watching the children were overwhelmed as the children soon escaped the enclosure and ran off to play in the woods. The zoo still relies heavily on volunteers as well as paid employees, and there are currently 95 volunteer slots. Winston quoted Margaret Mead, who observed that “a small group of concerned citizens can change the world—and they are the only ones who can.”

The zoo’s mission is to connect kids with nature in a natural Florida setting. Each year they provide “Zoo School” for 5th graders in Title 1 schools, where the children are bused to the zoo for up to three weeks of the school year to learn about nature up close. Recently a young man about to enter his senior year of college came to the zoo to donate $512, his savings from a part-time job, as a thank you for the time he had spent in “Zoo school” in the 5th grade. Without that time, he probably would not have gone to college, for it was the first time he had enjoyed school and made an “A” in a class.

The zoo is independent and has no public support, so it relies on admission fees, food and gift sales, and donations from the community. In 2008, when the country went into a recession and the shuttle program ended in Brevard County, the zoo looked for new ways to attract people outside the immediate area and opened Treetop Trek, a zipline journey over the outdoor natural exhibits.

Animal wellness and conservation are important concerns. The zoo has a program for creating oyster reefs and shoreline restoration of the Indian River Lagoon and has helped move scrub jays out of the way of development.

Their newest exhibit, the South American loop, will show monkeys and jaguars in a natural setting, with three different places where they can live, with routes to travel back and forth.

Once a year, at the end of the school year, the zoo has a $5.00 day for the community, and the zoo is always packed on those days, with close to 5,000 guests attending this year. The zoo also hosts community events such as their annual Halloween “Boo at the Zoo.”

With the Indian River Lagoon stretching the length of Brevard County, the zoo wants to be “a front porch” onto the river, bringing people together to study its health and restoration, and creating a central space for those researchers and students. Their next goal is to build an aquarium on a site in Port Canaveral where people can come and learn more about the Indian River Lagoon and the creatures that live in it. One donor has pledged $14 million for the project, but much more money is needed to see that dream become a reality.

Brevard Zoo, with its focus on education and conservation, is not only a great place to visit but is a real asset to the community it serves. ..rr

The city of Dhaka

May 26:
Born in Bangladesh
Sermon by Dr. Tauhida Parveen
I was born in Bangladesh, but I’m a citizen of the USA. Growing up in a third-world country is full of challenges, even more so if your life’s goals don’t align with cultural norms and societal expectations. As an independent woman, I wanted my own career and my own identity. To achieve these goals, I had to leave Dhaka, first for Turkey, and then for America. Come to this sermon by Tauhida Parveen to hear about her personal journey to success.

Dr. Tauhida Parveen

Our guest speaker on May 26, Dr. Tauhida Parveen, immigrated to the United States at age 18 after being offered a scholarship to Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, GA. Born in Bangladesh, a third world country that offered only poverty, overcrowding, and a patriarchal culture where women were expected to want nothing more from life than to be wives and mothers, she decided at an early age that she wanted her own career and her own identity, goals that were impossible to achieve in her native country.

Her father worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and during her childhood his work took the family to Turkey for an extended stay, where she began to see that a different way of life was possible. The family then returned to Bangladesh, where she attended high school. Unable to go anywhere without being accompanied by her brothers, she rebelled against the repressive culture, and by the time she was sixteen, relatives were advising her parents to find her a husband. Her mother, however, who was married at fourteen, pushed back, saying she wanted Tauhida to finish high school, and Tauhida began secretly applying to universities in the United States, knowing she wanted to escape the future awaiting her in Bangladesh.

When she was offered a partial scholarship to Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, GA, and told her parents, there was initial refusal and months of battle, but they finally let her leave in December of 1996. She arrived in Georgia with $500, knowing nothing about the college system, never having seen a computer, not knowing how to drive, and knowing no one whom she could turn to for help. She found good friends who brought her food, taught her how to drive, and helped her get her first job, working the night shift at a gas station convenience store.

Her goal was to get a degree and find an employer who would sponsor her so she could remain in the United States, but as she was finishing up her undergraduate work, 9/11 happened, and life became much harder. Although Bangladesh is a Muslim country, she is not a Muslim, proclaiming that her only religion is “freedom,” but because of the heightened tension of the time, she decided to remain in college and pursue a higher degree. Again, she applied to several colleges for a Master’s Program and was offered a full scholarship and a teaching assistantship position at Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) in Melbourne, Florida.

After getting her Master’s degree, she went on to receive a PhD in Computer Science from FIT and an MBA from the University of Central Florida. She became University Dept. Chair for Software Engineering at Keiser University and now is lead instructor at Thinkful, a NYC-based startup focused on online education for tomorrow’s developers. She is the vice president and co-founder of Big Data Florida and a member of the Board of Directors for ASTQB. She has a particular passion for supporting other women in STEM fields.

Her parents and brothers are now in the United States and her mother is working at a job she loves. Although she was born in Bangladesh, Parveen considers herself “reborn” in the United States, and she reminded us all to find our own worth and to be grateful to live in America where every person is free to pursue his or her dream. She ended with a quote from Alan Turing, “Sometimes it is the very people who no one imagines anything of, who do the things no one can imagine.” ….rr

May 19:
Flower Ceremony
Sermon by Rev. Amy Kindred
“Flowers are the music of the ground. From earth’s lips spoken without a sound,” wrote Edwin Curran. Based on a ritual created by a Unitarian minister from Prague, we intend to recognize the beauty of multiplicity. All attendees are invited to bring a blossom from their yard, farmer’s market or grocery store to share during the service.
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On May 19, the Reverend Amy Kindred, with the assistance of Ruth Rodgers, Cliff Saylor, and Pete Crumpacker, held a beautiful flower ceremony to commemorate the hardships and suffering that people of faith have undergone in order to practice their religion. The idea of liberation is a common theme in many religions, from the exodus of the Jews from Egypt and the lamp that burned for eight days, to the crucifixion of Jesus and the Buddhist eight-fold path that leads to the cessation of suffering.

In our own Unitarian history, we have stories of struggle and hardship, as illustrated by the life of the Unitarian who created the Flower Communion or Flower Ceremony. Norbert Capek was born in 1870 in Bohemia, part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He grew up Catholic but became a Baptist at age eighteen, going on to become a minister and missionary. As war broke out in Europe in 1914, fearing arrest for his anti-Catholic writing, he fled to the United States and settled in New Jersey, where, five years later, he resigned from the Baptist Church to become a Unitarian. After WWI ended, he and his wife returned home to Bohemia, which was now part of Czechoslovakia, and started a Unitarian Church there, with Norbert as minister. Later, his wife Maja became an ordained minister, and twenty years later, their church was the largest Unitarian church in the world, with over 3200 members.

War arrived again, however, and in 1941, Norbert was arrested by the Gestapo. He died one year later in the concentration camp at Dachau. Meanwhile, his wife had returned to the US in 1939 to raise funds for a refugee program sponsored by the Unitarians and the Quakers. She did not learn of her husband’s death until she returned home in 1945 after the war ended.

Now that we know the history, said Rev. Amy, let’s look at how the Flower Ceremony came to be. One beautiful spring day in 1923, Norbert Capek went for a stroll. The rains had freshened the air, the birds were singing, and flowers were blooming. An idea came to him for a service to celebrate this beauty, and the next Sunday he asked everyone at his church to bring in a flower or budding branch or even a twig. It didn’t matter what kind or color or size, for each was beautiful in its own way. This was the first Flower Communion, and it has been continued in UU churches and fellowships around the world to celebrate spring and the coming together of diverse individuals toward a common purpose.

Reverend Amy then asked the congregation to come forward, row by row, to accept a flower from the person in front of them and then to take one from the large array of flowers on the table to give to the person behind them, giving everyone the opportunity to give and to receive, to recognize the gift of the Unitarian tradition, and especially to remember Norbert Capek and our other Unitarian ancestors who lived and sometimes died for their religious convictions. ….rr

May 12:
A Mama Who Didn't Mince Words: Margaret Fuller
Sermon by Rev. Amy Kindred
“Today a reader, tomorrow a leader,” wrote Margaret Fuller. This powerhouse of intellect and justice, the first female foreign correspondent in the United States, this amazing woman from New England is part of our Unitarian Universalist DNA.

On Mother’s Day, the Reverend Amy Kindred talked about the life of Unitarian Margaret Fuller (1810--1850), an outspoken advocate for women’s rights in the 19th century. Included in our Sunday Order of Service bulletins was a photograph of Fuller, with her handwritten signature beneath, and Rev. Amy began with an analysis of her signature, based on a book by Ann Mahony titled Handwriting and Personality: How Graphology Reveals What Makes People Tick. The sharpness of the “t” implies great intellect, and its height, as well as the depth of the “g,” reveals the high standards she set for herself and how far she was willing to go to achieve and seek answers. The disconnect between the “g” and the “a” shows an openness to stimuli from the environment, and the slight rightward slant of her writing suggests she is midway between the personality of extrovert and introvert. These descriptions are only “common tendencies,” but a look at her life, said Rev. Amy, will show if these traits show up in her personality.

At age ten, she dropped her first name “Sarah,” preferring to go by “Margaret” because of its Latin origin. She was closer to her father, a Unitarian Universalist minister, than to her mother, telling her mother that she thought sewing was “immoral.” Once, as her father was preparing a sermon on “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone,” she asserted that she had no sins and could think of nothing to atone for. Shortly after that, he sent her off, at age thirteen, to Groton, a girls’ school outside Boston, where he hoped she would develop a more modest attitude. Until that point, she had been tutored at home with lessons in Latin, German, drawing, music, math, and more.

At age nineteen she moved back home and created a schedule for herself of reading and study. She fell in love with the German writer Goethe, one of the greatest figures in Western literature, and a friend recommended that she read Sampson Reed’s Growth of the Mind, a book promoting the idea that everything in the world is an aspect of God. Margaret responded that she preferred to shape her philosophy as the birds built their nests, to desert one and move on to another as she outgrew each one. She wrote throughout her life and left behind volumes of work, including private letters and journals as well as work written for publication. She got a job teaching and became friends with Ralph Waldo Emerson, offering to give him lessons in German. He found her rather forward, but he and his wife enjoyed her company, and Emerson introduced her to other free-thinkers in the Boston area.

Margaret was always blunt with her words, once admonishing three young girls who were talking during a performance of Beethoven’s work, telling them she hoped, “in the whole course of your life you will not suffer so great a degree of annoyance as you have inflicted on ...music lovers this evening.” Being quite good with words, she became editor of The Dial, produced by the Symposium Club, a transcendentalist group, in 1840, and two years later was asked to write for the New York Tribune. By that time, she was lecturing widely on women’s rights and published Woman of the 19th Century, in 1845.

The following year she traveled to Europe, where she met an Italian man, Giovanni Ossoli, and soon became pregnant. Some sources say they married in a civil ceremony somewhere in Italy, but not all authorities agree. After giving birth to a son in 1848, she remarked that up that point she had been “all intellect,” but now she was “all emotion.” During the next two years, as war raged in the area, Giovanni fought and Margaret continued to write for the Tribune and volunteer in the local hospital, tending to wounded soldiers. In 1850, the family boarded a ship headed to America, but during the journey the ship’s captain died, and the ship hit a sand bar near Fire Island, close to New York City. On July 19, 1850, the young family perished amidst stormy weather.

Margaret’s Fuller’s spirit lives on, said Rev. Amy, and it is because of “brave, passionate, outspoken, progressive thinkers” like her that our UU tradition survives. She encouraged us all to leave behind something of ourselves in thought or deed that will endure after our deaths. …rr

May 5:
Helping Hands
Sermon by Rev. Amy Kindred
It’s a celebration of cooperation! Through skit, story, poetry and song, we’ll celebrate the power of committees to get things done.

Summary by Ruth Rodgers:

Committees are a vital part of keeping Friendship Fellowship at Pineda functioning, and May 5th was set aside as a day to recognize the work done by these various groups, with each committee sponsoring an element of the service and giving some information about their responsibilities. Hospitality, represented by co-chairs Linda and Art Brosius, welcomed guests, and the opening hymn, presented by the choir and led by choir director Stephen Downen, was followed with some words by Music Committee chair Rebecca Ziegler. The Chalice Lighting was led by Pete Crumpacker, representing the Service Leaders Committee, and Chip Hines, representing the Membership Committee, welcomed everyone and gave some information about that committee’s work. The Story for All Ages, sponsored by the Youth RE Committee, was read by chair Ruth Rodgers.

Joys and Concerns, sponsored by the Caring Committee, was introduced by committee co-chair Barbara Kurtz, and the music for the offertory, played by pianist Amy Rosebush, was sponsored by the Buildings and Grounds Committee, which includes Upkeep and Safety, led by Alan Osborne, External Aesthetics, led by Kitty Linton, and Internal Aesthetics, led by Bobbie Keith.

The sermon by Rev. Amy was based on an article written by UU Minister Meg Riley, senior minister of Church of the Larger Fellowship (CLF), a Unitarian Universalist Congregation Without Walls, and published in UU World in Spring 2012, listing ten reasons why people who hold certain religious beliefs might not feel welcome in a UU Fellowship. ( For more information about the Church of the Larger Fellowship, go to questformeaning.org)

Belief 1: God wrote it, I read it, that settles it. As UUs, we’re not concerned about settling things. We are more likely to use words like “exploring, questioning, wondering, learning, growing.” We don’t believe God wrote particular words, and not every UU believes in God at all.

Belief 2: There is only one right way, and many wrong ways, to understand what is most holy, precious, and true. As a community of many different religious traditions, from atheists to Christians, Buddhists, agnostics, humanists, pagans, and more, we are not seeking “The Truth” so much as seeking “a dance with the mystery.”

Belief 3: It really doesn’t matter what I do day to day in my life, so long as I have done the proper rituals and accepted God into my heart. As UUs, we believe in deeds, not creeds, with love being central among our values. Are we helping one another? Are we kind? Are we making the world more just?

Belief 4: Some people are worthy of help and love, and some people just aren’t. Although some people do truly rotten things, we believe no God would create people just to damn them, and the chance to turn one’s life around exists for all.

Belief 5: God will reward the good and punish the bad after death. You won’t find many UUs talking about hell. We believe that most hell is suffered here on this planet and we are accountable for the hell we create for others.

Belief 6: Spirituality has no connection to politics. We don’t get into the business of supporting candidates, but we are a community of activists who support marriage equality, protection of the earth’s resources, and human rights for all.

Belief 7: God has created a natural order, and traditional families and gender roles reflect that order. As UUs, we believe that lesbian and gay couples, feminist men and women, transgender and bisexual people, and multiracial and multicultural families are part of the great gift of human diversity.

Belief 8: God gave the earth to humans. Humans have dominion over the earth. UUs talk about “the interdependent web of all existence.” We are dependent upon the earth, and far from having dominion over it, we are grateful for this marvelous planet and believe in treating it with care and respect.

Belief 9: People here are just waiting for someone like me to tell them the truth, so that they can become better people and be worthy of God’s love. UUs are not waiting for their minister to tell them what to believe in order to be saved.

Belief 10: I have nothing to offer this community, but I can receive from others. All of us have unique gifts to offer. Newcomers may want to start small, but we hope all who come will find this to be a safe, nurturing community where each person can find a role within it.

Rev. Amy ended with a quote from Mahatma Gandhi: “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”

Following the sermon, the closing hymn was sponsored by the Social Justice Committee, represented by member Diane Sparks, and the closing words were given by members of the Long-Range Planning Committee. Finally, announcements were sponsored by the Events committee, who presented a skit written by Events Committee co-chair Gail Hardesty. …rr

Anonymous humorous couple

April 28:
The Humorous and the Religious
Sermon by Rev. Paul Johnson
Rev. Dr. Paul S. Johnson holds the Doctor of Ministry, and Doctor of Divinity degrees from Meadville/Lombard Theological School in Chicago, and has served UU congregations in MN, MD, VA, NJ, and NY. After leaving his last settled ministry at the Shelter Rock UU Congregation on Long Island, he assumed his present position as developmental minister at the Treasure Coast UU Congregation in Stuart, FL. He has served his denomination as president of the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association, as a member of the UUA's Commission on Social Witness, and as a board member of Meadville/Lombard.

The Reverend Dr. Paul Johnson, developmental minister at Treasure Coast UU in Stuart, FL, and our guest speaker on April 28, spoke to us about the positive relationship between humor and religion. We laugh at the incongruous and the unexpected, and laughter provides relief from our problems and often a feeling of superiority, such as in the joke about the minister, the priest, and the rabbi who are discussing what they want said about them at their funerals. Both the minister and the priest want the speaker to talk about the good they have done and the souls they have brought to Christ, and then the rabbi says he wants the speaker to say, “Look, he’s breathing!”

Humor is therapeutic. Positive thoughts and emotions produce endorphins in the brain, and studies at the Mayo Clinic have shown that laughter can reduce blood pressure and boost the immune system.
Humor is used for prophecy and satire to reveal truths about the world around us. Much underground humor deals with political situations, such as a joke about a young man who is given a sealed envelope to take to his polling place on voting day. He starts to open the envelope and is stopped by someone who asks why he’s opening it. When he replies that he wants to see who he is voting for, he is told he can’t do that because it’s “a secret ballot.”
Humor also points out the human foibles that we all possess. A man who was on his deathbed, with only hours to live, smelled chocolate chip cookies and managed to get out of bed and crawl down the stairs and into the kitchen just for a taste, but when he reached for a cookie, his wife slapped his hand, saying, “Them’s for the wake!”
Johnson followed up with a few more jokes in the same vein, such as one about a rabbit who escapes from his research lab and has a great time playing with the wild rabbits in a carrot patch until he has to go back to the lab because he’s dying for a cigarette. Then there was the man who stopped in to get a haircut before going on vacation. When his barber asked where he was going and was told “Italy,” he began telling the man how hot and miserable summers were in Italy. Then the barber told him the airline they were taking was terrible with bad service and lousy food, following that up with asking what they were planning to do there. When the man replied they wanted to see the Pope, the barber laughed and told them they’d never even get close. Weeks later, after his return, when the man stopped in for another haircut, the barber wanted to hear about the trip, and the man was all smiles as he told him about the beautiful weather and the wonderful flight there and back. “Did you see the Pope?’ the barber asked. “Yes, we had a private audience in the Sistine chapel,” was the reply. “And what did he say to you?” the barber asked. “He wanted to know where I had gotten such a terrible haircut.”

Johnson also read from a book called Dear God in which children wrote in questions to God such as “Why don’t you do big things anymore like part the Red Sea?” and “What were you thinking about when you made sex?”

Both religion and humor are open to the future, providing limitless possibilities. When God told Abraham and Sarah that they were going to have a baby in their old age, both of them laughed, and the name “Isaac” means laughter. Johnson concluded with the story of a man who was caught poaching on the king’s land, and in an effort to avoid punishment, told the king that if he’d give him a year, he could teach his horse to talk. When a friend asked why he’d said such a thing, the man replied, “A year’s a long time. The king may die, I may die, the King may change his mind about punishing me, or the horse may learn to talk.”

All of us should be such optimists. …rr

Closeup of Van Gogh's Starry Night

April 21:
Death, Resurrection and Rebirth: Reinterpreted by Vincent Van Gogh
Sermon by Rev. Amy Kindred
What can we learn about faith and life's mysteries from viewing a painting? What nuggets of truth exist in looking at the artist's life who created it? Come and explore Van Gogh's perceptions of faith that includes Easter season's theme of triumph over death.

On Easter Sunday, the Reverend Amy Kindred introduced the idea of death and resurrection with the example of a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. We don’t know, she said, if the caterpillar likes her new transformation as a beautiful butterfly more than her old self as a caterpillar, but as our own lives go through many endings and rebirths, we like to think those changes have led us to a new perspective that might lead to a good life.

One person whose life and work illustrated this death and resurrection pattern was the painter Vincent Van Gogh. Born in Holland in 1853, he was raised Protestant in a Catholic community. His father was a minister, and with a long family tradition of ministry in the family, Vincent felt called to enter the ministry, giving a sermon at age 23 and becoming a missionary to a community of impoverished miners. He even tried to copy every word in the Bible—in three different languages!

He enrolled in seminary but had to drop out after three months. Problems included unhealthy ways of expressing his faith such as going without food and giving away all his possessions, beating himself on the back with ropes to suffer as Jesus had, and having academic challenges. When he was not allowed into the ministry, he became furious with the church and began reading secular works such as those by George Eliot, Whitman, Emerson, Shakespeare, Dickens, and Zola, leading him to forge a self-styled religious humanism that combined Christian beliefs with ideas drawn from leading nineteenth century novelists and philosophers.

Still Life with a Bible

About this time, his father died, and Van Gogh painted Still Life with a Bible (oil, 1885). With a copy of the painting displayed on the screen, Rev. Amy pointed out important aspects. In the upper right corner is a candle, receding into the background. Its flame is missing, perhaps representing his father’s voice which no longer shed light on Van Gogh’s faith. The Bible in the center is the painting’s focal point, open to the passage that discusses the “Suffering Servant” in the book of Isaiah, showing that although Van Gogh’s life has turned from ministry, his mission would continue to be one of servitude. In the foreground is The Joy of Living by Emile Zola, a book Van Gogh had read over and over. It is painted yellow to symbolize love—or more specifically, divine presence. This novel inspired Van Gogh to broaden his spiritual vision, and the painting is one “of despair, of proclamation, and ultimately, of optimism.”

Van Gogh saw his turning from the ministry to art as a rebirth and wrote to his brother Theo that he was emerging renewed,” like a bird after molting time.” His paintings reveal his growing awareness of man’s connection to nature—from a blade of grass to a faraway star. Although much of his work reflected death, isolation, suffering, and loneliness, it also became resplendent with color. He relied on his faith in God, his understanding of mortality, and his experience of the world he recreated on canvas. He viewed death as “a transportation rather than a culmination,” writing that “just as we take a train to get to Tarascon…we take death to reach a star.”

Starry Night

Van Gogh yearned to experience close relationships with others, but he had few close friends and even fewer intimate relationships with women. In one incident, he cut off part of his ear and mailed it to a woman. He suffered from depression and epilepsy, but he used his painting to remind himself that renewal would occur, as it does in nature. In his famous painting Starry Night (oil, 1889) he unites his deep Christianity with his love of transcendent mystery. The painting is mostly of the sky, showing the stars and moon, resplendent with swirls, but it also shows two fixed vertical elements, a cypress tree on the left, a symbol of nature, and a church in the center, its steeple reaching into the sky, showing his Christian faith.

Van Gogh died in 1890 at age 37. He lived long enough to teach, through his art, powerful messages about faith, hope, infinite love, death, and resurrection. What might we learn, asked Rev. Amy, from his works? We all encounter death and rebirth in the changing seasons, and we all experience loss such as losing friendships with fellow workers when we move on to a new job, or mourning not just the death of a loved one but grieving for our own lives in connection to that person. Such changes force us to emerge from our old lives into new ones. Images such as the Christian story of Jesus’ resurrection, the changing of a caterpillar to a butterfly, or paintings such as Starry Night all help us to understand this cycle of death and resurrection. “May our journeys,” Rev. Amy concluded, “continually be enlightened by universal gifts perceived by our senses as well as our hearts and minds.” ….rr

April 14:
Walking the Talk:
Our Unitarian Universalist Heritage of Justice Makers
Sermon by Rev. Amy Kindred
Quick. Name five Unitarian Universalists who worked for justice. Need a little help? Join us and come away from the service with a better understanding of our UU lineage.

Author Israelmore Ayivor, in his book 101 Keys to Everyday Passion, puts people into three categories: the wanters, the wishers, and the makers, but Rev. Amy Kindred expanded that list to five: the wanters, the wishers, the makers, the whiners, and the tireds. The WANTERS are known by their statements of entitlement, “This is what I want. You need to do it,” while the WISHERS are sneakier: “Somebody should do this,” and then they step back without helping to further the stated wish. All of us can easily recognize the WHINERS—no smile ever, and the TIREDS are like Eeyore, from Winnie the Pooh, who sees the world through gloomy eyes. The MAKERS are the folks who make things happen and who motivate others to join in their endeavors. Our history, said Rev. Amy, is filled with a gallery of Unitarian Universalist justice makers.

Henry David Thoreau is best known for his book Walden, a reflection on living simply in nature and for his essay “Civil Disobedience,” justifying his refusal to pay taxes to an “unjust state,” for which he spent time in jail until they were paid by a friend.

Lucy Stone was an advocate for women’s suffrage who also spoke out against slavery. She was the first woman in Massachusetts to earn a college degree and continued to use her maiden name after marriage.

Francis Ellen Watkins Harper, born free, traveled the South campaigning for racial and sexual equality. This abolitionist, lecturer, and poet, wrote: “I ask no monument, proud and high/To arrest the gaze of the passers-by;/All that my yearning spirit craves/Is bury me not in a land of slaves.”

James (Jim) Barrett, Lt. Col. Retired, USAF, along with another physician (Dr. Britton) was killed for his convictions at a women’s reproductive health clinic in Pensacola, FL. His wife, June Barrett, a nurse who was also vocal in supporting women’s reproductive rights and the dignity of those who were gay, was injured in the same attack.

Whitney Moore Young, Jr., a civil rights leader who worked to end employment discrimination and to move the National Urban League from a passive civil rights organization into one that was more aggressive in seeking socioeconomic opportunity, joined a UU congregation in Atlanta, GA in 1954 and was later elected to the board. He was criticized by some African Americans for attending a “white” church.

James Reeb, a young UU minister serving All Souls Congregation in Washington, DC, was killed in Alabama during the Civil Rights March from Selma to Alabama, dying of head injuries in the hospital two days after being badly beaten by local whites.

Margot Adler, a signature voice on NPR and author of Drawing Down the Moon, a book about neopaganism, also covered everything from the AIDs epidemic to the Ku Klux Klan to the terrorist attacks of 9/11. She died of cancer in July 2014 at age 68.

The Reverend Dr. Thandeka is a UU theologian, journalist, and congregational consultant. Given the name “Thandeka,” which means “beloved” by Archbishop Desmond Tutu in 1984, she is the founder of Affect Theology, which studies the links between religion and emotions using insights from neuroscience.

Zacharia (Zach) Wahls, the son of two lesbian mothers, is an activist for LGBTQ equality. Along with his younger sister, he produces decks of playing cards featuring portraits of women who changed the world. Released in 2016, over 20,000 decks of cards have been shipped worldwide.

In addition to individuals, many UU congregations have worked or are currently working to make a difference. Some that Rev. Amy cited (past and present) include the UU Congregation of Soverville, NJ (helping the impoverished), the Lakeshore UU Congregation in Montreal (sexual health and contraception), UU Church in Seattle (housing for those with AIDS), Birmingham Unitarians (classes to prepare children for integration of public schools) Olympia UU Congregation in WA state (tiny houses for the homeless) and the UUs in Rochester, NY (building a playground in a community with no park or play access).

Whether working individually or collectively, UU justice MAKERS make a difference. …rr

April 7:
Love's Messy Persistence
Sermon by Rev. Amy Kindred
Derived from stories of myth and truth, we’ll explore how the human need to conquer violence is ever-present and ever-persistent.

During the offertory on Sunday, April 7, members of the congregation were asked to take a piece of bamboo from the offering basket to hold and consider during the sermon. Bamboo is one of the four “noble gentlemen” in Chinese art, representing uprightness, tenacity, and a hollow heart. It is also endowed with integrity, elegance, and plainness.

The question before us, said Rev. Amy, is “How do we use love—rather than violence—to move ourselves and society in the direction of a more just and peace-filled existence?” Change doesn’t have to come through brute strength and ferocity; it can also come through persistence and cleverness. She gave several examples to illustrate this persistence.

According to Greek myth, the goddess Atalanta was abandoned by her father, the king, at birth because she was not a male. Nursed by a she-bear in the wild, she was found and raised by a hunter and became so famed throughout the kingdom for winning every race she entered that her father reclaimed her. When the time came for her to marry, she insisted that she would only marry someone who could beat her in a race. Many suitors tried and failed, but one young prince was so enchanted by her that he prayed to Aphrodite for help. She gave him three golden apples and told him how he could win the race.

As the race began, Atalanta gave the prince (Melanion) a head start, and when she caught up with him, he threw a golden apple at her feet. She couldn’t help but stop and pick it up. Soon she overtook him again, and he threw the second golden apple a little off to the side, allowing himself to again get ahead. When she caught up, he threw the third apple as far as his arm could hurl it. As she ran off to get the apple, he crossed the finish line and won her hand and her heart. Atalanta treasured her golden apples and her husband’s cleverness.

Another example of persistence is Malala Yousafzai, who, at age 17, became the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Shot by the Taliban for advocating for girls’ rights to an education, she was airlifted to a hospital in England. She continues to advocate for girls’ rights in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the Taliban continues to blow up schools for girls and conduct poison attacks to discourage attendance. Before the Taliban came, girls were educated, and Malala explained, “I had two options. One was to remain silent and wait to be killed, and the second was to speak up and be killed. I chose the second one. I decided to speak up.”

Malala shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2012 with Kailash Satyarthi, a man who campaigns for Indian child rights. He founded the Save the Child Movement in 1980 and dedicated his prize to children in slavery. As noted by the selection committee, “It is an important point for a Hindu and a Muslim, an Indian and a Pakistani, to join in a common struggle for education and against extremism.” As Malala asked, “Why is it that countries…are so powerful in creating wars but so weak in bringing peace? Why is it that giving guns is so easy, but giving books is so hard?”

Martin Luther King, Jr. drew from the Bible for his images and phrases, saying we will not be satisfied “until justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream,” and he was heavily influenced by the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, a Hindu who, as an adult, was exposed to Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu teachings. Gandhi said, “It is the law of love that rules mankind. Had violence, i.e. hate ruled us, we should have become extinct long ago.” Gandhi’s nonviolent approach to civil disobedience, which was copied by King, led to major societal changes both in India and the United States.

You and I, concluded Rev. Amy, are not Malala, Kailash, Gandhi, King, or Atalanta. We might not think our actions and words make a difference, but we really do set the tone for the rest of society. Most of us want to tell others how they should change but are reluctant to look at our own behavior. We need to become mindfully aware of how we speak to and about one another. May we become like the bamboo, she encouraged, “with features that include uprightness, tenacity, and a hollow heart that remains open to anything that is of benefit… May we remember that love, though messy and hard at times, in its persistence, has power. Finally, may we never forget that one stalk of bamboo is not nearly as strong or beautiful as a whole grove.” …rr

March 31:
We All Laugh
Sermon by Rev. Amy Kindred
Humanity is filled with countless differences. And yet, we share the same needs for love, connection, the desire to understand, feelings of sorrow, joy and yes, the need to laugh and to play.

“You don’t stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing.” With those words by Michael Pritchard and with the help of three members of the congregation, Linda Brosius, Sue Huseman, and Pete Crumpacker, the Rev. Amy Kindred led us through a humorous sermon of riddles and jokes about Unitarian Universalists, along with some serious health benefits of laughter.

How do you know if you are a Unitarian Universalist? If you find yourself rewriting a church survey rather than taking it.
You are a UU if you think socks are too formal for a Sunday service.
You are a UU if you take your planner to church instead of a Bible.
What do you get when you cross a UU with a Jehovah’s Witness? Someone who knocks on your door for no apparent reason.
How does a UU walk on water? She waits until winter.
All of us need a sense of humor for our own health and longevity. Rev. Amy outlined six health benefits of laughter.

It promotes relaxation.
It boosts the immune system. Deep diaphragmatic breathing cleanses the lymph system and removes toxins from the body.
It improves your mood. When you laugh, the brain releases endorphins, interferon-gamma (INF) and serotonin, nature’s own feel-good chemicals.
It shifts your perspective. Laughing allows you to feel safe when confronted with anxiety-provoking situations.
It has social benefits. Laughing with other people promotes emotional connections, improving cooperation, communication, and even romance.

Rev. Amy quoted from an article by former UUA President Peter Morales in which he talks about why some UU congregations grow and thrive while others decline. One thing that healthy congregations have in common, said Morales, is they have a lot of fun. “I know,” he said, “that ‘fun’ does not sound very religious or spiritual or deep or profound…yet as I attend congregations that have been named a Breakthrough Congregation…I always hear laughter.”

Rev. Susan Sparks, minister at Madison Avenue Baptist Church in NYC, describes laughter as “a spiritual practice.” She maintains that practicing laughter is no different than practicing yoga or meditation or prayer. “If we make time to invite joy into our lives each day,” she says, “we will become more aware of the joy and laughter in our lives and in the world.” Living in NYC, she equates laughter to washing her windows. Even though they will quickly become dirty again, she cleans them because she doesn’t want to look through dirty windows at the world. “Making laughter and joy part of our daily routine is like doing windows,” she writes. “It cleans away old patterns that block our vision. It allows more light into our otherwise dimly lit houses.”

Rev. Amy ended her sermon with more UU riddles and jokes and encouraged us all to laugh at ourselves as we welcome spring. …rr

March 24:
On Immigration
Sermon by Rev. Amy Kindred
"I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; The arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways;" said Theodore Parker."I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice." How do we hang onto hope for a more just future?

Service leader Laura Kercelius introduced Rev. Amy’s sermon on immigration by reading a letter written by a 13-year-old girl that was published in the Terre Haute (Indiana) Tribune in 2009. Referencing a message posted on a local church roadside sign that read, “Jesus died and rose. And He lives for you. What did Allah do?” the girl pointed out how intolerant it was and called for greater unity and respect for diversity. However, the results were not all positive. Other letters to the editor poured in, condemning her letter and agreeing with the sign’s message. When Rev. Amy contacted the paper’s editor, knowing that many supportive letters had also been sent (the girl was a member of the UU congregation she was then serving in Terre Haute), and asked why those letters were not being published, his reply was that “Good news doesn’t sell newspapers.”

Now, ten years later, we are still seeking unity, said Rev. Amy, “a broader community that celebrates differences but promotes dignity…where all of us in this nation might find a home and offer a home for all who seek.” Our country is one of immigrants, and we have been enriched by that diversity. Rev. Amy told us of attending an interfaith meeting the day before where someone said, “Look at us. We all look the same.” Rev. Amy thought, “No, we don’t look the same,” but we do all want the same things—"to be safe, to have food, to have sanctuary for our public gatherings, to be respected…and affirmed for who we are.”

Rev. Amy then told of being part of a group of 112 clergy people (32 of them UUs) who planted themselves in front of the White House in July of 2014, protesting on behalf of immigration reform. When they ignored police orders to “step aside,” they were arrested, placed in handcuffs, and taken to jail on buses, where they were processed and paperwork was filled out. After paying fines of $50 each, they were released and taken by van back to the place they had assembled earlier in the day—the national headquarters of the United Methodist Church.

As she walked inside with the other van occupants, Rev. Amy heard a loud banging from inside. A young African American woman was walking in circles, pushing chairs and throwing her hands in the air, repeating, “It’s not right, It’s just not right. My brother, my sister gets slammed to the ground and they get kindness. It’s not right.” That young woman’s perception was entirely accurate, said Rev. Amy. As she got a bottle of water from a cooler, she knew that had she been a person of color on any other day, at any other unorganized event, she would not have been returning to the comfort of this space. She knew at that moment that the fight for justice is ongoing. It is not easy; it is sometimes dangerous and always messy, but working for liberation for others is a fight for liberation for all of us.

It has been five years since the protest at the White House, 10 years since the letter written by 13-year-old Saagaricka Coleman, born in this country (her mother from India, her father from the US), and the problems and disunity are still with us. The fight for justice is one that requires action. We can’t all be arrested, but we can show up when our brothers and sisters ask for support. We can speak up when we hear someone say something like the following:

(1) There is an immigration crisis. While it is true that there are 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States, Congress seems incapable of passing any sort of immigration reform. The crisis appears to be one of political will.

(2) Immigrants are criminals and terrorists. Research shows that immigrants are less likely to be criminals than US natives. Your odds are better at winning the lottery or dying in a plane crash than being murdered by an illegal immigrant.

(3) Immigrants are bringing diseases into the United States. The fact is that Mexico has a 99% vaccination rate for measles, compared to the US rate of 92%. Mostly what they bring with them is dehydration, fatigue, and twisted ankles, not communicable diseases.

Let’s not give up, said Rev. Amy. Our work for justice must continue. On May 26, we will have a speaker who immigrated to this country from Bangladesh, and she will be talking to us about her personal experiences, so Rev. Amy encouraged us to be here for her story. …rr

March 17:
Are You Saved?
Sermon by Dr Robert Tucker
"Are you saved?" We hear that all the time, usually from folks who have no business asking. In this sermon I explore what is really behind this interrogatory and suggest ways we ought to respond.

Dr. Robert Tucker

In this lecture, Dr. Tucker explains the ramifications and different definitions of the question, “Are you saved?” When it is asked by a fundamentalist preacher, such as encountered by the soldier Ethan Allen and the writer Pearl Buck, it can mean that God is stingy with His salvation, as “not one in twenty would endeavor to avail himself of the offered salvation, and not one in fifty was really the object of God’s solicitude.” Every religion has a different perspective on salvation; “no two religions—not even any two denominations within the same religion—ever agree on the meaning of ‘salvation.’”
The lay preachers who come to our door offering salvation if we will read their Bibles and tracts are doing so because they believe, “In order for me to be saved, the divine being I worship commands me to tell you about my religion and try to save you.” We are not to be impolite in turning them away, but to tell them that we don’t like to talk about religion. We should tell our young children the same, that they should not argue with their schoolmates about religion, but to change the subject or to walk away. There is no winning such an argument.

Religions differ because they provide an “in group” and an “out group,” with such polarities as Jew and Gentile, Christian and Pagan, Muslim and Infidel. If you belong to our own group, we will trust you but maybe not others. Therein lies the basis of racism and ethnocentrism. Our religion provides “a feeling of self-worth, or self-esteem, and or moral goodness or self-righteousness.” The basis of religion is “love” and not “logic,” and religions are basically conservative. Only on rare occasions, such as with the Hebrew prophets or Martin Luther King, Jr., does religion rise to a new level of ethics.
The “language of religion is not literal or historical, but is, instead, symbolic and mythological….Unlike science, religion’s theological doctrines do not deal in verifiable ‘facts’ which add up to ‘knowledge.’ Rather, religion deals with unverifiable beliefs which must be taken on faith.” Religion has a “totem pole” of heroes and villains for us to emulate or disdain; on the one hand, we have saints, gods, goddesses, angels, prophets, and healers; and on the negative side there are devils, demons, apostates, and nonbelievers. Some religious leaders, such as Jim and Tammie Baker, use religion as their means to get rich and achieve fame.

Our western tradition sees time as chronological and linear. Christianity, Judaism, and Islam think that life is good, and when it ends, they want to see it continue as an afterlife. Buddhism and Hinduism see time as cyclical, and their aim is to end suffering by getting off the Wheel of Becoming through transmigration of souls and achieving Nirvana, or complete annihilation of the self.

But what are we to make of the question, “Are you saved?” If we have a secular definition, we may think that it means “the solution to all life’s problems.” This can never be achieved, as our misfortunes are indeed profound. We may think of salvation as “peace of mind,” but this still leaves unsolved our ultimate problem, death. Whether the meaning is thought of as secular or religious, it is best not to confront a friend or relative who really loves us in argumentation. It is best to say, “Yes, I am saved. Thank you for asking,” and then change the subject. Remember that Unitarian Thomas Jefferson once wrote: “No man has the right to abandon the care of his salvation to another.” hb

March 10:
Art and Spiritual Well-Being
Sermon by Rev. Amy Kindred
Distinguished professor of neurology, Antonio Damasio studied the work of Spinoza and deduced that the spiritual experience is located at the
Intersection of beauty and actions conducted in a temper of peace.

Beginning with a reading from a book called Looking for Spinoza, by Antonio Damasio, the Reverend Amy Kindred gave several examples of how people have used art to lift themselves up and find relief and pleasure in the midst of pain, depression, or isolation.

Damasio describes visiting 19-year-old Cindy in the high-risk unit of a hospital maternity ward. She had begun labor at 5 ½ months, a labor that the doctors had been able to stop, but she was required to remain hospitalized for the duration of her pregnancy. On his first visit, Damasio entered a dark, bare hospital room, no flowers, cards, or family photos. Cindy was lonely and angry at God for putting her in this situation. When he returned a week later, photos were on the wall, a blanket from home covered a chair, and stuffed toys lined a counter. Cindy asked him to listen to the poetry she was writing to her baby. She sounded happy and excited, and the writing seemed to be the agent of her transformation.

Another example described a young girl and her friend who were on a trolley car in 1925, headed to the market in Mexico City, when a bus turned in front of them, causing the trolley to slam into a brick building. The young girl ended up on the floor of the trolley with a metal rod sticking out of her lower torso. Weeks later, in the hospital, the girl, who had been attending medical school to become a doctor, began drawing and painting on her body cast. Permanently scarred from the accident and facing one surgery after another, she began to paint and became famous later in life for her paintings. That girl was Frida Kahlo.

Suffering, said Rev. Amy, is part of life. All of us at some time or other will experience pain, but the question she addressed was not why suffering exists or how to avoid it but rather, what happens when we are faced with it? How do we cope mentally with such circumstances? The impulse to create something seems to be a common response after an illness, an accident, or a time of great loss.

As a child, Vincent Van Gogh wanted to be a minister like his father, but after a failed attempt at seminary and missionary work, he began to paint. Most likely an epileptic, according to the latest research, he faced physical difficulties, falling often (partly from seizures and partly from drinking absinthe), but painting became his way of overcoming his illness and finding joy in life.

“It appears,” says Dr. Antonio Damasio, “we are wired to find ways to solve our own problems in order to maintain well-being, or balance…” The focus here, said Rev. Amy, is not on aesthetics or the final product but on the impulse to create. Neuroscientists suggest this is the result of neurons prompting the right hemisphere of the brain to sustain and even enhance well-being, while many counselors and art therapists might say that it has to do with spirituality, with facing the moment and moving ahead.

Rev. Amy told about a man in her neighborhood who suffered a stroke, forcing his early retirement. A scientist who had never created anything from wood before, he began to make small rocking chairs, exquisitely carved with very fine detail. Then she told us that when she went through a difficult breakup after a long relationship, she began to crochet. She ended up with hot pads that curled up like Barbie doll hats, but the process of creating something gave her a profound sense of hope and took her mind off her problems.

She ended with the story of a woman she met in the hospital during her time as a chaplain. The woman, who was waiting for a new heart, went into a severe depression, but then she began making beaded bracelets and selling them to the doctors, nurses, and anyone else she met, sending the profits to a hunger organization in Africa. When a new heart was found, Rev. Amy visited her as she was going into surgery and she asked Rev. Amy to pray for a man down the hall who was also waiting, saying, “He really deserves a heart more than I do.”

Whatever causes such impulses, whether it is brain activity or spiritual invocation for hope, when we are faced with hardship, this impulse to create, to make something new, seems critical to enhancing our spiritual well-being and giving us new hope and joy. …rr

March 3:
Five Smooth Stones:
James Luther Adams
Sermon by Rev. Amy Kindred
James Luther Adams wrote about what it means to be human in a religious sense. Let's explore how this Unitarian preacher's message has relevance today, more than 100 years after his birth.

“Everybody needs a rock.” That is the title of a children’s book written in 1974 by Byrd Baylor, (illustrated by Peter Parnall), which gives ten rules for searching for the perfect rock to keep as one’s own. The story, which was read to the children and adults for our weekly Story for All Ages, set the tone for the March 3 sermon by Rev. Amy Kindred, based on the essay, “Five Smooth Stones,” by James Luther Adams, a Unitarian parish minister and a professor at Harvard Divinity School, Andover Newton Theological School, and Meadville Lombard Theological School. It wouldn’t be too much of a jump, said Rev. Amy, to apply the process of choosing a rock to how one adopts a theology.

Adams, considered one of Unitarian Universalism’s greatest thinkers, states and then expands upon five key underpinnings of religious liberalism.

“Religious liberalism depends on the principle that revelation is continuous.” Ultimate meaning, Adams says, has not and cannot be captured. We are continually gaining new insights into nature, science, and what some may wish to call God. He describes God as “the reality that works upon us and through us and in accord with which we can discern truth, beauty or goodness.”

“All relations between persons ought ideally to rest on mutual, free consent and not on coercion.” Adams gives an example of how chickens quickly form a hierarchy of pecking rights. Religious liberalism began as a protest against ecclesiastical pecking orders, followed by protests against political and economic pecking orders. As UUs, we maintain that we each have the ability to search for and find our own “saving truth” and that truth may be different for each of us. Rev. Amy told a story she had heard from a UU colleague, the now retired Reverend Bill Breeden, about watching chickens while living in a commune in Indiana in the early 60s. One day he noticed three chickens gathered around a metal bucket turned on its side in the chicken yard. When one chicken went inside the bucket and clucked, another chicken pecked at it until it came out, whereupon the second chicken went in the bucket and clucked, followed by the third. “It seemed,” said Bill, “these bucket cluckers were enamored by hearing their own voices… They were bucket cluckers of the worst, most selfish kind.” How many of us, he then asked “are bucket cluckers, beings that like hearing our own opinions and then speaking more loudly to drown out other voices?”

“Religious liberalism affirms the moral obligation to direct one’s effort toward the establishment of a just and loving community.” Unitarian Universalists have been known throughout history for their social activism, advocating and fighting for social justice. These UUs include civil rights activist Whitney Young, journalist Margot Adler, former US President William Howard Taft, anti-slavery writer and lecturer Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, and Unitarian clergyman Joseph Priestley, who discovered oxygen and carbonation. Fighting for social justice is exhausting, imperfect, and sometimes dangerous work, but we are up to the task, said Rev. Amy, partly because of those who have gone before.

“We deny the immaculate conception of virtue and affirm the necessity of social incarnation.” Adams asserts there is “no such thing as goodness as such. There is the good husband, the good wife, the good worker, …the good citizen.” He goes on to say that “the faith of the liberal must express itself in societal forms, in the forms of education, in economic and social organization, in political organization. Without these, freedom and justice in community are impossible.” This idea that only power in numbers can change things for the better is illustrated in the story, The Heaviest Snowflake, by Kurt Kauter. A titmouse asks a dove how much weight is in one snowflake. When the dove replies “Nothing more than nothing,” the titmouse tells him about counting snowflakes settling on a tree branch. The branch held 3,741, 952 snowflakes, but when the 3,741,953rd snowflake fell, the branch broke and landed on the ground. The dove, after thinking for a while, muses that “perhaps there is only one person’s voice lacking for peace to come to the world.” May we, said Rev. Amy, collectively carry our faith of intention to make the world a better place, perhaps to break the final twig that upholds oppression of all forms.

“Liberalism holds that the resources (divine and human) that are available for the achievement of meaningful change justify an attitude of ultimate optimism.” In spite of war as an ever-present force, and all of the negative news we are bombarded with on a daily basis, we are also encouraged, said Rev. Amy, to believe that hope and healing also exist in the human acts of kindness, compassion, and respect we see all around us. Like the Old Testament story of David selecting “five smooth stones” in preparation for his battle against Goliath, tiny movements can make a difference in the face of gigantic obstacles. …rr

February 24:
Blue Boat Home
Sermon by Rev. Amy Kindred
Now more than ever, the earth needs us, our attention and our intention. We'll explore seven facts pertaining to what's causing hardship for our climate and seven ways to make positive change for the future. (Sermon script follows video.)

The video below shows how precious our Blue Boat Home appears when seen from the moon. It is a NASA simulation of what the Apollo 8 crew saw as the Earth rose above the lunar horizon during their fourth orbit around the Moon. The video pauses to overlay two photographs taken by the crew and includes a clock overlay. The Earthrise picture the video contains has been called "the most influential environmental photograph ever taken." (Click the "Play" button in the middle of the video to watch the earth rise and the icon in the bottom right for a full-screen view).

As Unitarian Universalists, we may think that we are more responsible stewards of Earth than other groups, but on the last Sunday of February, the Reverend Amy Kindred pointed out that many other faith communities (Bahai, Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Hindi, Islam, and others) joined Unitarian Universalists in contributing statements to a book compiled by Citizens’ Climate Lobby volunteers about things we can do to mitigate the impending effects of global warming. We are only one part of a broader community who realizes that our “blue boat home” is in trouble, and that all of us are partly responsible.

Knowing that her actions are contributing to earth’s destruction as we know it, said Rev. Amy, can leave her feeling hopeless, but she has decided that “maintaining hope is an act of defiance.” We can’t pretend we’re not aware of what scientists are telling us, so if we are the justice-seeking people we claim to be, we must examine and take responsibility for our daily habits, including what we eat, how often we drive our vehicles, how we run our air conditioner, what we buy and what we throw away.

One area to consider is our diets. Science tells us that consuming large quantities of meat adversely affects people across the globe. What we choose to eat is a personal decision, but two of our seven UU principles address our approach to making food choices. We affirm the inherent worth and dignity of all people and the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. Rev. Amy said her concern wasn’t meat-eaters vs. non-meat-eaters, but how much meat we consume.

In the US alone, over 260 million acres of forest have been cleared for crop production, most of which is used to grow livestock feed. One pound of beef requires 1799 gallons of water for its production, 660 gallons of water for one hamburger. Factory farming contributes to global warming, which is causing horrendous weather events around the globe. We’ve heard many people talk about how the people of Puerto Rico are still struggling to recover from Hurricane Maria and how the US government should help, but none of those people are saying they should change their eating habits to lessen their contribution to the rise of such terrible storms. Couldn’t we all forego eating meat one day a week because it’s good for the planet? The Dalai Lama wrote, “My religion is kindness,” so couldn’t we be kind to our Blue Boat called Earth by giving up meat one day a week?

Our concern for the earth is an issue of social justice. Our choice to live a religion of kindness means we must consider the well-being of complete strangers. Thich Nhat Hanh wrote, “We need to realize that the Earth is not something outside of us. … When you realize the Earth is so much more than simply your environment, you’ll be moved to protect her in the same way you would yourself…. Reducing the amount of meat we eat and alcohol we consume by 50% is a true act of love for ourselves, for the earth and for one another.”

Concern for the earth is not new. The idea of global warming as a result of burning fossil fuels was first suggested in the 1890s by Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius. The World Health Organization says that the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide has increased more than 30% since pre-industrial times, trapping more heat and posing health risks, including death from high temperatures, changing patterns of infectious diseases, and more allergens and asthma sufferers.

Another effect is rising sea levels, causing population displacement. More than half the world’s population lives within 60 kilometers of shorelines. Floods cause injury and death and increase risks of infection from water and vector-borne diseases. Global warming also is expected to reduce crop yields in regions where food shortages are already a problem.

Some ways we can love the Earth, taken from the UU statement on Climate Change, are (1) reduce our use of energy and consumption of manufactured goods that become waste, including avoiding use of plastic bags, (2) plant and preserve trees and native plants, (3) eat energy-efficient food that is locally produced and low on the food chain, (4) avoid plastic cutlery and food ware, (5) support safe and responsible development of power sources with low greenhouse gas emissions, (6) promote access to family planning services in the US and around the world, and (7) treat environmentally responsible practices as a spiritual discipline.

Rev. Amy ended the sermon by asking people to write on a Post-It note something they have done or plan to do to be part of this earth-saving revolution. These notes were then posted on a paper on the wall. All of us need to make a commitment to do what we can to take care of our precious Earth, our Blue Boat Home. …rr

February 17:
The Future:
Solar Electrification of Florida
Sermon by Philip Fairey,
Deputy Director, Florida Solar Energy Center, University of Central Florida
Mr. Fairey will outline present initiatives in the development of solar energy in Florida and where these will lead. The future is coming sooner than you think.

Philip Fairey

Florida, the Sunshine State, certainly has an abundance of solar energy, and Philip Fairey, deputy director of the UCF Solar Center in Cocoa, presented a slide show of the advantages of the movement away from fossil fuels to making greater use of the energy produced by the sun. PV (photovoltaic) panels were invented by Bell Labs in 1954 and used on satellites in the 1960s. Those first cells were expensive, costing $10,000 a watt, but today that cost is down to $1.00 a watt, making rooftop PV panels the best investment homeowners can make on reducing their utility costs.

The Florida Solar Energy Center partners with many other groups to promote the use of solar energy, from working with manufacturing and research programs to training engineers, testing products, and even sponsoring an Energy Whiz Olympics where schoolchildren compete in solar cooking and car racing.

In comparison to gasoline and electricity, the cost of using solar power has steadily gone down, from fifty-five cents a kwh (kilowatt hour) in the 1980s and ’90s to only four cents a kwh today, making it an attractive option for residential and commercial use. Over 90% of all energy used in Florida is used in buildings, where rooftop PV panels can capture the energy of the sun.

The RESNET HERS Index measures the efficiency of residential buildings—the amount of energy consumed, and in 2006 energy code standards were set in Florida at 100 for new construction. The standard for new homes today is 70, and, with rooftop PV panels, that number can get to zero, meaning that the building generates all of the energy it consumes. Fairey showed slides of two recently built Habitat for Humanity homes, one in Manatee County with a HERS index of 53 and another in Volusia County with a HERS index of 49.

Florida residents can get an income tax credit for installing solar panels on their homes, and the state has seen a steadily growing market for these PV panels. The CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) predicted for 2018-2023 is 20% growth for residential, 15% growth for nonresidential, and a decrease of 6% for utility installations. For homeowners wishing to purchase rooftop PV panels, a group called Solar United Neighbors (www.solarunitedneighbors.org) works on cooperative purchases and installation in specific geographic areas to help with better pricing. The price for an average system is $7,000, and for a large system, $12,600, but the savings in utility costs ($844 a year for the average system and $1519 for the large) means that the system will pay for itself in a few years’ time.

As the price of fossil fuels continues to go up and solar prices come down, solar energy is definitely the wave of the future, along with electric cars. Not only does solar energy reduce greenhouse gases, it also creates more jobs in the clean energy field. Thomas Edison, in 1931, said, “I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy,” and it turns out he was right. ….rr

February 10, 2019:
A Rumi Kind of Love
Sermon by Rev. Amy Kindred
The Greeks identified eight types of love and the Bible describes four. This morning, we celebrate "Agape," the selfless kind of love, and the prose of Rumi who wrote, "Love is the bridge between you and everything."

On the Sunday before Valentine’s Day, the Rev. Amy Kindred began her sermon by telling us about the course on love developed by University of California professor Leo Buscaglia. Many people disparaged the idea, but Buscaglia felt that learning about love was like learning how to cook or how to be an auto mechanic. “Each person,” he said, “has the potential for love. But potential is never realized without work…. One must never be satisfied with his or her ability to love. No matter where he or she is, it is always just a beginning.”

She then quoted some children’s definitions of love. Billy, age 4, said, “When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know your name is safe in their mouth,” and Terri, age 4, said, “Love is what makes you smile when you are tired.” Karen, age 7, defined love as, “When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.”
As Valentine’s Day approaches, it is appropriate to speak of love, and some of the most famous love poems were written by Rumi, a poet from the Sufi tradition (a mystical path of self-discovery based on the teachings of Islam.) Our modern senses interpret these as love poems written to a sweetheart, but in reality, they pertain to adoration of God or a divine source. She quoted one poem in which he says, “When you hear the music/Of the whirling lovers, leap and join their circle,” a reference to the whirling dervishes, a style of worship that Rumi created.
Rumi was born in 1207 in Balkh, a part of Afghanistan, and his family fled the Mogul invasion and settled in Turkey where his father founded a Muslim school. Upon his death, the school passed down to his son, Jalaluddin Mohammid, who became known in the West as Rumi because he lived in “Rum,” as the Persians called the Byzantine kingdom.
Rumi’s poetry is beautiful and accessible for most people, and much of it is in conversational form: I asked, “What should I do?”/He said, “That is the question.”/I said, “Is this all you can say?”/He said, Seeker, always keep asking/What should I do? Another poem talks about the demarcation of the body and soul: I am in love with Love and Love/Is in love with me./My body is in love with the soul/And the soul/Is in love with my body./I opened my arms to Love/And Love embraced me/Like a lover. Yet another speaks of the Divine one: The King who stole my heart/Sent a message with a butterfly./It said, “I am yours”/And a hundred candles/Burst into flame.
“The Sufis regarded God not as an aloof heavenly King but as their Beloved on earth and in this life,” wrote Rasoul Sokahbi. He goes on to say that they used feminine terms to express their love for this Divine, a shift away from the masculine terms by which God had been addressed. One poem refers to grasping “the chain of my Beloved’s hair.” There are also many references in Rumi’s poetry to wine and intoxication, a metaphor for this ecstatic love for the Divine: My beloved, I do not know anymore/If I am on earth or in heaven!/Do not hand me the wine/Bring it to my lips/I am so drunk/I cannot find my way/To my mouth.
Rumi also wrote about loss and the need for connection: I am lost without You/Take my hand! All of us need love and connection to others, and as today marked the launch of our annual pledge drive with our Canvass luncheon held after the service, Rev. Amy reminded us to think about the importance of Friendship Fellowship to each of our lives and to reflect on two topics: love and service. …rr

February 3, 2019:
Elements In-Gathering Service
Sermon by Rev. Amy Kindred
On this Sunday morning, you are invited to bring a little water from home (or a shell or a rock) to contribute to a bowl on the table at the front of the room. This in-gathering is based on a Unitarian Universalist ritual that began in the late 70s and continues to occur in Unitarian Universalist meeting houses across the globe.

Image courtesy Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fairfax, VA

“Celebrating Nature and Our Community” –Rev. Amy Kindred

On the first Sunday of February, the Reverend Amy Kindred held an ingathering service in which members of the congregation either poured water into a common bowl or brought in an object from nature to symbolize coming together as a community and as a special welcoming for our Northern snowbirds who spend their winters in Florida. She explained that the ingathering ceremony began in the late 70s or early 80s when a group of women wanted to create a special ritual to celebrate coming back together after time spent apart. They decided that since water is a common element found everywhere and symbolizes many rivers running to the same source, each participant would bring in a small container of water from a place that was important to her. Then each would pour her water into a central bowl so that all the waters combined to represent their unity.

Today, bringing containers of water from various places can be difficult, especially if traveling by plane, so Rev. Amy has adapted the service to also include other objects from nature that are important to the participant, perhaps a stone or a seashell.

As our pianist played soft music, the congregants were invited to come forward, row by row, and place an item on the table, saying one sentence about where it came from and its meaning to them, or to pour a small amount of water from a pitcher on the table into the common bowl, saying what that water represented to them—perhaps a lake or a river or an ocean, maybe even a pond or puddle, and why that body of water was important to them.

Along with special readings and music, the ceremony was a moving one, as congregants learned more about one another through their words as each stated what that item or water represented to them, whether from far away, such as the River Jordan in Israel, or close to home, such as the Indian and Banana Rivers and the Atlantic Ocean. Although we come from many disparate backgrounds, we were all reminded that at Friendship Fellowship at Pineda, we are all part of a loving, supportive community, united in our purpose and principles. …rr

January 27, 2019:
Beauty in Our Relationships
Sermon by Rev. Amy Kindred
Within the fellowship, we have a covenant of right relations. It's a promise we make to each other to grow together in a community of honor and support. How might this way of relating with one another look?

The Reverend Amy Kindred introduced her sermon on Jan. 27 with an excerpt from The Velveteen Rabbit, by Margery Williams, in which the Rabbit and the Skin Horse are talking about how it feels to become real to a child. By that time, the Skin Horse tells the Rabbit, “most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get all loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.” Our name, Friendship Fellowship, said Rev. Amy, signifies our purpose of focusing on kindness in our relationships, and our Covenant of Right Relations, along with our mission statement, identify some ways of achieving that purpose. She then read the goals listed in our mission statement: caring for our members through mutual respect, friendship, and support; exploring intellectual and spiritual ideas in pursuit of truth and understanding; using our collective voice, efforts and resources in the service of human justice; and creating intellectual and philanthropic opportunities that welcome/engage/and include the wider community.

Our Covenant of Right Relations contains a pledge that members make to one another and then explains the steps to take when conflict occurs. Rev. Amy told us that her years as a minister have taught her that most of our interactions as Unitarian Universalists are less about who knows what and more about what is felt and experienced. She told us about a situation in another UU fellowship where she served in which a new member had agreed to take over the position of chair of the Care Committee, only to be told that one of her jobs was to buy a gift for each member who was hospitalized, because that was the way it had always been done at this fellowship. The new member, not financially able to buy gifts, not only resigned as committee chair but left the congregation.

Rev. Amy then offered four suggestions for how we, at Friendship Fellowship, might “lean toward beauty in our relationships.” First, “Use ‘My concern is…’ and ‘I feel…’ statements.” If you disagree with a change, speak directly to the person responsible and use words that express a concern rather than words that diminish that person’s intent. Then speak about how you are feeling. This, she stressed, is a learned skill, not something that comes naturally, so we will need to work on changing our approach.

The second comes from one of the statements in our Covenant of Right Relations: “Let people finish sentences.” How often do we rush in to share our thoughts and convince the other person of our “rightness” without really listening to what the other person is saying? This interest in being “right” is handed down in our DNA and is a part of UU heritage. Historically, Unitarianism attracted wealthy, well-educated people, and one book on classism in our history, titled Elite, by Mark Harris, states that in the 1800s, Unitarians “had a concept of heaven that resembled a glorified Harvard graduate school, where the best and brightest belonged.” We need to move away from this feeling of elitism and welcome the gifts of all people.

The third, which Rev. Amy learned from a counselor more than 25 years ago, is “Let go of any grievance that is more than thirty days old.” This, again, is hard to do, but no good can come from dragging up an old argument or resentment. We must put it behind us and move on.

The fourth, taken again from our Covenant of Right Relations, states,” Neither a verbal comment nor an email should ever “call out,” attack, or criticize another person.” In this age of social media, all of us see these types of “call out’s” all the time, and entire social justice movements have been prompted by such tactics, but in this community of friends, creating a movement against one another is counter to the goal of developing more kindness in our relationships.

Rev. Amy ended by saying that she brought these suggestions not because of any conflict at FFP but simply as a way to help us deepen our commitment to this community, to one another, and to our shared focus on bringing the message of UUism to others. …rr

Dr. King

January 20, 2019:
Martin Luther King, Jr. -
Celebrating a Purposeful Life
Sermon by Rev. Amy Kindred and Bill Scott
Martin Luther King, Jr. had strong ties to Unitarian Universalism. He gave the Ware Lecture at the national gathering of Unitarian Universalists, General Assembly, in Hollywood, Florida in 1966. What was his message and how relevant is it today?

To honor the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., Service Leader Bill Scott and FFP minister, the Reverend Amy Kindred, presented a program of readings from some of King’s most well-known letters and speeches, interspersed with appropriate music provided by Music Director Stephen Downen, pianist Amy Rosebush, and the choir.

The service began with Bill Scott reading an excerpt from King’s “Letter from the Birmingham Jail,” written in 1963, in which he responded to a letter written by eight leading clergymen and published in the local newspaper asking him to call off the protest demonstrations he had organized. King refused, reminding the ministers that his protests were nonviolent and were a response to injustices long suffered by the blacks, who had been waiting far too long already for their civil rights to be granted. He wrote that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” and called for them to stand with him in Christian brotherhood to see unjust laws overturned.

The second excerpt, also read by Bill Scott, was from King’s “I Have a Dream” speech given at the March on Washington in August of that same year. As he ended his speech, King recounted his dream of equality for all, that his children would someday be judged “not for the color of their skin but for the content of their character,” and that all of us would be able to sing “My country tis of thee, sweet land of liberty,” with new meaning, that “freedom would ring” everywhere in America, from Stone Mountain in Georgia and Lookout Mountain in Tennessee, from Mississippi and from every village and hamlet in America, and we could all join in singing the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God, Almighty, we are free at last!”

The third excerpt, read by Rev. Amy, was from the Ware Lecture delivered by Dr. King at the UUA General Assembly in Hollywood, Florida, in 1966. In this lecture, King talked about the role of the church during this period of great social change. In an age when we can leave Tokyo on Sunday morning on a plane and arrive in Seattle the preceding Saturday night, it is obvious that the world is a neighborhood, and we have a moral and ethical commitment to make it a brotherhood. King went on to say that the church must move out into the arena of social action. We must learn to live together not merely because the law says so but because it’s right. You can’t legislate integration,” he said, “but you can legislate desegregation. It may be true that the law cannot change the heart, but it can restrain the heartless. The law cannot make a man love me, but it can restrain him from lynching me.”

The final excerpt, read by Bill Scott, was from “I’ve Been to the Mountain Top,” a speech King delivered to a group of sanitation workers on strike in Memphis the day before he was assassinated. In it, King recounts an incident that happened to him in New York at a book signing in which he was stabbed in the chest with a knife that just missed his aorta by a fraction of an inch. Doctors told him that if he had sneezed, he would have died. In telling this story to the workers, he recounted how glad he was that he hadn’t sneezed, so that he could continue the work he had been doing all over the country on behalf of civil rights. He ended by saying that he had “been to the mountaintop,” and that he might not get there with them, but he had “seen the Promised Land.” The next day he was shot and killed.

As we honor and celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., may we all remember the brave and purposeful life of this man who did so much to advance the cause of civil rights. …rr

January 13, 2019:
A Perspective on Our Lady of Guadalupe
Sermon by Rev. Amy Kindred
The image of the Virgin of Guadalupe is plastered on belt buckles, boots and billboards. She's loved by countless Catholics the world over, especially in Mexico. Can a Unitarian Universalist love her too?

After calling our attention to a painting of “Our Lady of Guadalupe” that she found at a flea market several years ago and now keeps in her office at Friendship Fellowship, the Reverend Amy Kindred told us the story, through words and a series of slides, of how this image of the Virgin Mary came to have such significance to Mexicans and Mexican-Americans.

As a UU humanist who is also open to wonder and mystery, Rev. Amy draws inspiration from the teachings and practices of Buddhism and the love and compassion of prophets like Jesus and Gandhi, while also being informed by science and affected deeply by nature. She finds images, like Our Lady of Guadalupe, powerful as metaphors to make sense of life.

In the image, the Virgin Mary is surrounded by yellow rays that draw the viewer in, and her blue robe, sprinkled with stars, implies that even in darkest night, a mystery is hidden but never absent. The folds in the fabric of her pink dress indicate movement, that faith is not fixed but moving forward.

The image’s origin is unclear, but imagine yourself as a Nahuatl living in what is now Mexico in 1519. The Aztecs ruled the land, and the Nahuatl people were oppressed peasants. When Cortez and his group arrived from Spain, his leading lieutenant, Alvarado, was fair-skinned, blonde, and blue-eyed, leading the Nahuatl to think he was Quetzalcoati, the god of creation, whose arrival had been predicted by the Nahuatl to save them from the Aztec rulers. Cortez and his men did fight the Aztecs, but instead of freeing the Nahuatl, they became the new rulers.

Cortez was looking for gold and new land for Spain, but he was also there to save souls for God. The Catholic Spaniards were monotheistic, with the belief that “one God died so thousands of people could live,” while the polytheistic Nahuatl believed that “many people had to die so the one Sun God could live.” To us, this idea of human sacrifice seems barbaric, but Rev. Amy reminded us that as Americans, we all subscribe to the idea that in wars, many soldiers will die so others may live, so it’s a matter of perspective.

The two languages were also different. The Nahuatl language is composed of complementary unions of two words or symbols. The world was “heaven-earth,” humans were “face-heart,” and God was “night-wind.” The Spaniards had the traditional one word—one meaning, so for them “truth” was arrived at through a process of abstraction, whereas for the Nahuatl words were not enough, and images and engravings were important.

In the indigenous people’s culture, women participated in war and religion, but the Spaniards treated the women as chattel; they were beaten, raped, and traded as gifts, and the Christian God was imposed upon them as a single, male figure to be worshipped and obeyed. Little wonder that they resisted conversion to this new religion.

Twelve years after Cortez arrived in Mexico, the Virgin Mary appeared to a native who had converted to Catholicism, instructing him to tell the bishop to build a church on the hill where she appeared. The bishop did not believe him, and the next day Mary appeared to the man again. He told her he couldn’t talk because his uncle was sick, but she told him his uncle was healed, which turned out to be the case. She also told him to pick the roses on the hill and take them to the bishop as proof. When he presented the roses (blooming out of season) to the bishop, they fell from his mantle and beneath them was the painted image of the lady.

Regardless of whether you believe the story or not, said Rev. Amy, the image seems to join the two cultures. In the painting, Mary is holding a tassel, signifying in Catholicism that she is pregnant, and a flower, which had the same significance to the native Nahuatls. They regarded her as the “earth-fertility” goddess whom they called “Our Lady Mother.” Her hands, palms together, denoted prayer for the Spaniards and a position of offering to the Nahautls. The stars in her robe indicated the luminous skirt of the parent of the sun god, Quaetzalcoatl . This ambiguity of who she represents is one of the most powerful aspects of the image.

Today, what is purported to be the original image hangs in the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City where thirty masses a day are held. Reproductions of this image show up everywhere in Mexico and the southwestern United States—on boots, belt buckles, and bottle caps—among other places. Many people carry her image to hospital beds or in parades opposing abortion. She is near to the hearts of those who view her as an image of strength and a reminder of lost ancestry.

Rev. Amy ended her sermon by reflecting that for her the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe represents the human desire to cling to hope, to wish for a future filled with more peace and less war, more love and less hate, more health and less sickness, and more unity and less division. …rr

January 6, 2019:
Summary by Helen Bennett

Rabbi Mayers gave a fascinating talk, accompanied by slides, on Judaism’s take on the ethics of modern technology. He said that Judaism is pro-technology, as long as it tends to make life better. Now we are faced with genetic manipulation, which can lead to ethical quandaries. Since the onset of CRISPR, which can modify DNA before birth, we have to decide which modifications are to be accepted for the betterment of the human race.

We can create designer babies or clones, but are such creations desirable? Rabbi Mayers cited the movie “Gattaca,” from 1997, in which people are segregated by genetics. In this film, people are shown choosing traits of potential babies, such as resistance to disease, height, strength, and blue eyes. Also, the desired sex is chosen by potential parents, who want the child that is “the best” of themselves. CRISPR has recently been used in China to create babies that are HIV-resistant. These babies will have to be carefully monitored throughout their lives to see if there are unforeseen problems.

The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly was formed in 2008. They decide on what to do with non-selected embryos when several are created by in vitro fertilization. Genetically modified organisms are fine for corn, but for people? This has to be determined. Is it okay to modify DNA to get rid of diseases such as AIDS, diabetes, cancer, etc., but not hair, eye color, or sex? The Jewish scholar Maimonides said that life has infinite value. As he was a doctor, he probably would have approved ridding the world of terrible diseases, but not other modifications.

Another problem is cloning. What to do with excess clones if the one you wanted for organ transplantation is already utilized? Rabbi Mayers asked us, “What is the television program that had the most murders of all time?” He surprised us with the answer: “Star Trek.” That is because every time a character was “beamed up” by the all-time murderer Scotty, that character was destroyed in the chamber and then cloned. If we ever are able to use such technology to transport us from place to place, we would have to be destroyed and then cloned! Did you realize that?

In 17th century Prague a “Golem” was created to help the Jews against persecution. (This creature resembles the Incredible Hulk.) The Golem finally turned on everyone, and had to be destroyed. Be careful what you wish for!

Rabbi Mayers cited the “Ship of Theseus” that breaks down and is constantly replaced by a new one. This is similar to our own bodies, for every seven years our cells are replaced. Are we then a different person? Is this similar to cloning?
Rabbi Mayers told us that in Jewish law, suicide is wrong. He left us much to ponder about our ability to replicate ourselves and change our own DNA. What should actually be done is a matter of ethics. hb

Rabbi Craig Mayers