Sunday services begin at 11:00 a.m. in the Kiwanis Room at the Lochiel Kiwanis Centre at 180 College Ave. N., Sarnia

(enter by the Forsythe St. main door).

June 5: “Southwestern Ontario’s Carolinian Forest: Is there Hope?” - Steve Lane

While we believe we live in an interconnected web, some of us are not fully aware of the treasure trove ecosystem in which we live called the Carolinian Zone. Steve will take us through his research for a television documentary on the subject from 30 years ago and update us on what’s happened to our environs since them.

June 12: “Soulcraft – Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature & Psyche” - Annette Verhagen

Bill Plotkin says there is a great longing in each one of us – a longing to uncover the secrets and mysteries of our individual lives, to find the unique gift we were born to bring to our communities and to experience our full membership in the more-than-human world. This journey to soul is a descent into layers of the self much deeper than personality. Annette will be talking about her experience with the nature-based approach of soul initiation and wilderness rights of passage.

June 19: “Cultivating Character” – Rev. Lori Kyle

An important part of our human development is the cultivation of personal character. On this Sunday, we will explore author David Brooks’ take on this topic, and hear how the process of character development can surprise us.

June 26: “Annual Flower Communion & Welcoming Ceremony” - Allan McKeown

Today, we join with other UU congregations in celebrating a flower communion service. Please bring a flower (wild or cultivated) to exchange with someone else in celebration of our diversity and love of Nature. We will also be welcoming new members at this last regular service of the 2015/16 program year. IT’S ALSO SOUP SUNDAY TODAY!

… a refreshing alternative for religious explorers

I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E

1 June Services

2 Executive Team Report

3 President’s Reflection

4 Life/UU Principles

5 Events

6 Praying as UU’s!

7 Praying Cont’d

The Oneness of Everything

“Anybody can create

community with people

who believe just like they

do. The true test of

community rests in the

ability to create it with

people who disagree

with us.”

- Lee Barker, Unitarian

Universalist Minister

June 2016

Unitarian Fellowship of Sarnia & Port Huron 180 College Ave. N. Sarnia, Ontario

www.uusarnia.com

The Flaming

Chalice

June Services

The stained glass chalice in the header hangs in the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Salem, OR.

Page 2 The Flaming Chalice

Executive Team Highlights from May 2016

Refugee Sponsorship: We remain in a “pause” position. We are engaged with both the Mennonite Central Committee and the Canadian Unitarian Council (both are Sponsorship Agreement Holders) in order to be matched with a Syrian refugee family. Membership: We currently have 44 Members and 8 official Friends. A new member welcoming ceremony will be included in the service on Sunday, June 26th. Membership materials will be ordered through the Unitarian Universalist Association. Program: Mary Ann Nichols has joined the Program Team and has brought forward some interesting speaker and topic ideas. The June services are set. Sharon MacKay will head up the summer program and would appreciate suggestions and assistance. Wendy Starr will touch base with UU ministers at the CUC conference concerning availability for next year. The Team intends to theme next year’s programming around our 6 sources as we move towards creating a Vision Statement for our Fellowship. Religious Exploration: The intention remains to advertise our RE program for the 2016-17 program year as long as we have the personnel to carry this through.

Finance: There remains a net budget surplus. A new ‘user friendly’ financial management computer program has been recommended and will be investigated. Lay Chaplaincy: Two Fellowship members attended the L.C. Basics Training Course in Hamilton on April 29 – May 1, 2016. They both found this to be an enriching experience and were quite impressed with the First Unitarian Church of Hamilton. 60th Anniversary Celebration: Plans are well underway for the June 18th anniversary dinner at the Holiday Inn. The menu has been determined, a program team formed and tickets printed. The CUC has requested a write-up about our event for publishing in the eNews. Executive Team Meetings are open to the members of the Fellowship. They happen at 6:30 pm on the 2nd Thursday of the month from September to June at

the LKC. The next meeting will be on Thursday, June 9, 2016

.

Executive Team Report By Ann Steadman

The Flaming Chalice

Page 3

F

Presidents Reflection: What Informs Our Spiritual Practice?

Do not dwell in the past,

do not dream of the

future, concentrate the

mind on the present

moment.

Buddha

Presidents Reflection:

What Informs Our Spiritual Practice? - Part 3 In our recent members and friends survey the question “What informs your spiritual

practice?” was posed. The top three answers given were “Earth-Centered Spirituality” 70%,

“Humanism” 61% and "Mysticism” at 59%.

Last month humanist spirituality was explored. This month I will reflect briefly on

mysticism, the belief in “the fullness and the connectedness of all things, with or without

God.”

In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, the Unitarian Transcendentalist, “Within us is the

soul of the whole; the wise silence, the universal beauty, to which every part and particle

is equally related, the eternal One.”

While science has now proven the inter-connectedness of all existence, mystics throughout

the ages have experienced it both inside and outside of religious settings and traditions.

Mystical states can happen anywhere and at any time. Quite often an intense sense of

‘unity with all’ comes to us through Nature, while walking in a forest or gazing at the night

sky.

The Huffington Post has recently reported the following: “At the same time the share of

Americans who say religion is important to them has been going down, the share of people

who feel a deep sense of wonder about the universe at least once a week has been going

up. According to the Pew Research Center, it rose from 39 percent to 46 percent between

2007 and 2014. Among atheists, it jumped 17 points, to 54 percent.

Mysticism, however, involves more than “mystical experience”. According to Jerome

Gellmann, the ultimate goal of mysticism is human transformation, not just experiencing

mystical or visionary states.

From the realization of the ‘oneness’ of everything, comes the call to action in the world.

And for us UUs this means to proclaim Unitarian Universalist values as boldly as is possible.

Respectfully, Ann

“The most beautiful and profound emotion we can experience is the sensation of the mystical. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who

can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our faculties can comprehend only in their primitive forms – this knowledge, this

feeling, is at the center of true religion.” Albert Einstein

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The Principles of our Religious Faith

We, the member congregations of the Canadian Unitarian Council, covenant to affirm and promote:

The inherent worth and dignity of every person;

Justice, equity, and compassion in human relations;

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

A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;

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

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

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

The Flaming Chalice

Page 5

Regular Events

Book Club: Continues to meet on the 3rd Sunday of every month at

9:15 am at ‘Parkside Perk’ on Front St. On June 19th, we will be reviewing the book How Can I Help? A week In My Life as a Psychiatrist by David Goldbloom and Pier Bryden. Everyone is welcome to come out and join the discussion, whether you’ve read the book or not. Future selections are discussed at the meeting.

Men’s Group: The Men’s Group plans will be announced as they

become available. Please speak with Allan McKeown or Dwayne O’Neill for further information.

Women’s Circle: It’s been a while but the Women’s group does

have an outing planned for late May. On Sunday, May 30th, we will attend the Dante Club launch of two books of poetry: “The Fabric of My Soul” by Venera Fazio and “Exploring Voices”, edited by Venera and Delia De Santis. There will be readings by the editors and contributors and light refreshments. The event begins at 2:00 p.m. and runs for approximately 2 hours. Everyone is welcome to attend. Future events have yet to be decided.

Small Group Ministry: Members meet every other Thursday

afternoon at chosen locations. All are welcome. Contact Betty Learn for info at: 519-337-4039.

60th

Anniversary Update

Our Fellowship will be 60 years old this year.

Prepare to Celebrate !

Dinner at the Holiday Inn, Pt. Edward

Saturday, June 18th

, Social time 5:30, Dinner at 6:30

3 course sit-down dinner (your choice-vegan, beef, or salmon)

Cost $25 per person

Ann has the tickets!

Please be prepared to make your meal choice at time of purchase.

Page 6 The Flaming Chalice

Praying as Unitarian Universalists How can we pray with integrity, grace, power, and purpose?

WAYNE B ARNASON, KATHLEEN ROLENZ | 2/25/2008 | SPRING 2008

When it comes to understanding the form and meaning of prayerful moments in Unitarian Universalist worship, the first

practical question we encounter is our dilemma with the language of reverence.

One minister in a congregation we visited began her prayer, “Spirit of Life, Holy One, named and unnamed, mother and

father of us all . . .” and the introduction continued for what seemed like a full minute. This style of opening prayer is not

uncommon in Unitarian Universalist churches. Ministers are keenly aware that if they were simply to say “Dear God . . .” some

members of their congregation would flinch in the moment or protest later. We strive to be as theologically inclusive as possible.

We ask ourselves, what about the pagans in our midst? How do we include them in a spoken prayer? How about the atheists in our

congregation, for whom the word God or the mention of a deity outside of human knowledge is meaningless? If we avoid the

word prayer and the forms of prayer, and call that segment of the service “Meditation,” we may recognize that the last thing the

committed meditators in our pews do when they are meditating is listen to lengthy poetic exhortations. If these quiet and

contemplative moments in our worship point toward a dependency on the mystery of life that is beyond our naming, how do the

words and actions we choose to use help or hinder us in this task?

This is the unique dilemma of anyone who is supposed to lead the prayer time in a Unitarian Universalist congregation.

In UU humor, the joke is that we pray “to whom it may concern,” an approach generic enough to cover just about every

theological persuasion. At the same time, the many poetic forms we use can create an invocation so bland or jumbled as to strip

the prayer of any power or import. How can we pray with integrity, grace, power, and purpose, when we struggle with the

question of to whom we are praying?

Many worship leaders who wish to address a reality larger than ourselves resolve the dilemma by using the most

inclusive form they can. We noted earlier the popularity of “Spirit of Life” as a beginning for prayer because it represents a safe

harbor for both theists and humanists.

Some of our churches use traditional prayer forms that have been part of their liturgies and congregational identities for

generations. Inclusivity is a value for these congregations, but they will not compromise their liturgical identity and tradition to

achieve it. Instead, they search for it outside the worship service. Most of our congregations give their ministers and worship

leaders broad leeway in how they use and introduce prayers or meditations.

Our advice is to keep it simple. If you like to use diverse invocations, don’t use them all in one prayer. Use ones that have

both integrity in the context of your own theology and the potential to include the widest variety of people. As an alternative,

begin with the same invocation every week, but let the congregation know what it means to you from your theological perspective

and how you believe its consistent use adds to the worship life of the whole congregation.

The balance of words and silence is an important decision in whatever form of prayer or meditation you use. One of

Kathleen’s pet peeves occurs in both Unitarian Universalist churches and in other traditions. The minister says “Will you join me

in a time of prayer or meditation?” and then launches into a long, wordy prayer that takes the listener to the other ends of the earth

and heaven and back, ending with a prompt and efficient “Amen.” Too often there is no time allowed for silence before or after

the prayer. Prayer may be felt as just one more thing to be done before the sermon can begin.

The power of silence cannot be overestimated, and yet it is one of the aspects of liturgy most lacking in our worship.

Perhaps this is because most of us are uncomfortable with silence. Our discomfort may come from our rebelling against having to

be silent in church as children, or perhaps it is the awareness that when we enter silence together, we really aren’t completely

silent. The minister’s stomach rumbles. A child cries in the back of the sanctuary. Someone coughs and another rustles through

her purse to find a cough drop. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to order complete silence on a Sunday morning in worship. We

suspect that the more compelling reason that Unitarian Universalists tend to shun silence is that it invites us to enter deep waters of

the spirit, and we do not know if we have the buoyancy to swim.

“Be still and know that I am God,” the psalmist writes. And 1 Kings 19:12 says, “God was not in the fire, or in the

earthquake, or in the wind, but in the still, small voice.” To sit together in silence requires confronting the inner workings of our

own minds. In silence, we see more clearly our thoughts and feelings, our hopes and losses. We can shut them out by compiling

our to-do lists or fretting about the crying baby, but if we continue with the silence, we feel the tug of the spirit calling us to a

larger life. For some, these feelings are strange and unsettling. There is nothing to do in that silence but “be.” There are no

landmarks, no roadmaps, no GPS systems to guide us, save for the rhythm of our own heartbeat and the rise and fall of our own

breath.

A skillful prayer can provide a congregation with these landmarks and put a name to the feelings that well up in silence.

It can guide beginning travelers through the emptiness of their own silence and help them to see the variety and beauty that exists

there. Worship leaders whose prayers touch the congregation deeply and consistently are people whose prayers well up from their

personal spiritual practice. The single most effective thing a person can do to create meaningful prayers is to have a rich private

prayer life oneself. When a congregation enters a deeper silence together, the feeling in the room is palpable. The silence is rich

and dense, as if all had just dived into a refreshingly clear lake on a hot summer day. It is here, in this space that the knowing

comes, that the insight is seen and the healing witnessed.

The Flaming Chalice

Page 7

The Oneness of Everything

Far beyond the grasp of hands, or light to meet the eye, past the reaches of the mind there find the key to nature's harmony in an architecture so entwined.

Like the birds, whose patterns grace the sky and carry all who join in love expanding, The message of peace will rise in flight taking the weight of the world upon its wings,

With the oneness of everything.

Peace is in the dance of trees who stir before the first breath of wind is yet perceived Trust in the song, becoming one with the dance, and all mysteries can be believed.

Like the sorrow of the clouds, whose tears fall caring on the soil undemanding, Lessons of love are giv'n that we might rejoice in the music they bring

Of the oneness of everything.

From the chords that sound of molecules, spinning billions to a cell, the call resounds afar, To the sun who warms the dancing earth, and whose song holds it close on the journey of

a star. Songs of lives long past who touch our own are written in the earth forever giving. And now to maintain the harmony gives to us all lives worth living

In the oneness of everything.

Still we seek to find a truth that we might understand, and reduce to terms defined Vast and immeasurable time and space all so overwhelmingly designed. Oh passing years, just might I know the faith that winters in the heart

to be reborn in Spring. To hear and to feel the pulse of life enters my soul as a song to sing,

Of the oneness of everything.

Jim Scott is a UU songwriter, vocalist, concert performer and classical guitarist. Three of his songs are in our hymn book, Singing the Living Tradition. Jim has performed in concert for us on several occasions.

http://jimscottmusic.com/

To make this possible, this silence can be neither too long nor too short. If it is too short, there is not enough time to delve

deeply, but allows for skimming the surface. If it is too long, those meditating or praying may find their minds wandering far afield.

The meditative stance should always be alert, awake, and receptive. The silence before, during, or after the prayer or spoken

meditation is useful if it helps the individual move into the depths of their own being and then out again.

Prayer can cut through our intellectual barriers and touch our hearts, enabling us to feel truly held and embraced by

community and by love. Led by a minister or worship leader who pulls a prewritten prayer from the hymnbook minutes before

delivery, it can also leave us bored. At its best, prayer is a conversation between people and their minister, their community, the

world, or their God.

The most meaningful prayers are not cleverly written but sincerely delivered. Cerebral prayers can leave us cold. The

purpose of prayer is to put the mind and the heart together in a spirit of attentive, calm, and quiet awareness. When a prayer does

not contain a shred of the person who offers it, it is a hollow echoing of words, regardless of its poetry, craft, or style. The preacher

or worship leader must know the congregation well enough to speak to their condition that day. “Canned” prayers seldom have the

power of a prayer that has been born in the moment.

The purpose of prayer in transformative worship is to allow enough silent time in the worship for transformation to occur. When we

sit together in silence, when we lift up in prayer the gamut of human experience and emotion, we create a time to reflect on these

things. When we are invited to a period of meditation and can focus on our breath or a word or an image, the action has the ability

to distill our thoughts. When we can listen fully and reflectively to the “still small voice” within, we may be surprised and

encouraged by what emerges.

Adapted from Worship That Works: Theory and Practice for Unitarian Universalists. © 2008 Wayne B. Arnason and Kathleen C. Rolenz, published by Skinner House Books

Page 8 The Flaming Chalice

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is “Bring a Guest” Sunday!

Each issue of the “Flaming Chalice” newsletter is printed by the Organization for Literacy Lambton (OLL): helping every person acquire the gift of literacy.

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“Because of the role that religion has historically

played in denying gay, lesbian, bisexual and

transgender people their full humanity, I believe

that we now have a special calling to reach out

to our GLBT sisters and brothers. We need to

offer an explicit welcome, because the world can

still be a very unwelcoming place. We need to

offer radical acceptance, because neither family

nor society can always be counted on to be

accepting. We need to offer unconditional love,

because Love is at the heart of religious

community.”

— Allison Barrett, Canadian UU Minister