Special musical note - the beautiful piano prelude this service was performed by our own young Max Hunt.

Our book this week is a personal favorite, Lifecraft: The Art of Meaning in the Everyday by the late Reverend Forrest Church. Church, who was senior minister at the distinguished All Souls Unitarian Church in Manhattan, serves up some thoughtful, brief meditations on making life more meaningful. There’s no dogma here; readers will find gentle anecdotes drawn from Western philosophy, music and art, as well as from Church’s own life and experience. He states that life becomes more meaningful when we intentionally divide it up into various projects – the parenting project, the career project, the God project, and so on – and prioritize those based on our own situations. Those situations will change, and we must change with them, Church asserts, citing a touching example of a professional football player who quit the NFL to spend time with his terminally ill preschool-age son. A case where presence was the most important thing. At the book’s close, Church prods those who feel stuck in a rut to simply “turn the page,” much as readers who find themselves reading the same paragraph many times without paying attention need to move on. Church does not offer earth-shattering advice here, but readers will be comforted and perhaps challenged by his call for self-examination.

I book for this week is The Betrayal Bond: Breaking Free of Exploitive Relationships by Patrick J Carnes. Exploitive relationships can create trauma bonds–chains that link a victim to someone who is dangerous to them. Divorce, employee relations, litigation of any type, incest and child abuse, family and marital systems, domestic violence, hostage negotiations, kidnapping, professional exploitation and religious abuse are all areas of trauma bonding. All these relationships share one thing: they are situations of incredible intensity or importance where there is an exploitation of trust or power.

In The Betrayal Bond Patrick Carnes presents an in-depth study of these relationships, why they form, who is most susceptible, and how they become so powerful. He shows how to recognize when traumatic bonding has occurred and gives a checklist for examining relationships. He then provides steps to safely extricate from these relationships.

Our book this week is Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. Author Barbara Kingsolver and her family abandoned the industrial-food pipeline to live a rural life—vowing that, for one year, they’d only buy food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is an enthralling narrative that will open your eyes in a hundred new ways to an old truth: You are what you eat.

Torreah “Cookie” Washington is an accomplished artist and textile designer. She was selected as one of 44 Master Art Quilters for a quilt that honors President Barack Obama. Washington also has quilted, designed costumes for theater, film, stage and high fashion wedding gowns for the past 12 years using silk, cotton rayon, batting, beads, buttons and photo transfers.

She was recently featured in two documentaries, “The Wayshowers” and “Skin Quilt”.

And please remember to support the church when you shop at Amazon.com by clicking on our links! Our recommendation this week goes along with our them of compassion – Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life by Karen Armstrong. Karen Armstrong believes that while compassion is intrinsic in all human beings, each of us needs to work diligently to cultivate and expand our capacity for compassion. Here, in this straightforward, thoughtful, and thought-provoking book, she sets out a program that can lead us toward a more compassionate life.

We apologize for the delayed posting of this podcast.

Our reading this week is based on Elaine’s sermon and is the book Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brene Brown. In Daring Greatly, Dr. Brown challenges everything we think we know about vulnerability. Based on twelve years of research, she argues that vulnerability is not weakness, but rather our clearest path to courage, engagement, and meaningful connection. The book that Dr. Brown’s many fans have been waiting for, Daring Greatly will spark a new spirit of truth—and trust—in our organizations, families, schools, and communities.

And for those of you interested in the TED talk referenced, you can click on the image to the right, or just go to http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability.html.

Our book this week is Thanksgiving: The Biography of an American Holiday by James W. Baker.

In this, the first in-depth study of the most American of holidays, James Baker sweeps away lingering myths and misconceptions to show how this celebration day was born and grew to be an essential part of our national spirit. Thanksgiving: The Biography of an American Holiday opens with an overview of the popular mythos of the holiday before discussing its possible religious and cultural precedents. This classic Yankee holiday is examined in historical and contemporary detail that embraces everything from proclamations, sermons, and local and regional traditions to family reunions, turkey dinners, and recipes. Thanksgiving’s evolving face is illustrated with charming and often revealing period prints that chart our changing attitudes: the influence of Victorian sentiment in Thanksgiving’s development, Progressive utilitarianism, intellectual “debunking,” patriotic wartime reclamation, and 1960s-era protest. Thanksgiving remains controversial up to the present day, as Mayflower descendants, Native Americans, and commercial exploiters compete for the American public’s opinion of the holiday’s contemporary significance and its future status. This is an intelligent and illuminating introduction to a beloved holiday and a fascinating cultural history of America and Americana.

Our book this week reflect the forum of the day on Kurt Vonnegut’s writings.  Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five: A Novel is a staple of English literature, was chosen as number 18 on the list of all time greatest English language books, and contains riddles, questions and propositions that may be of particular interest to UUs.

Kurt Vonnegut’s absurdist classic Slaughterhouse-Five: A Novel introduces us to Billy Pilgrim, a man who becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. In a plot-scrambling display of virtuosity, we follow Pilgrim simultaneously through all phases of his life, concentrating on his (and Vonnegut’s) shattering experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden.

The recommended book for this week is So Help Me God: The Founding Fathers and the First Great Battle Over Church and State by the Reverend Forrest Church. In this vigorous history, Forrest Church offers a new vision of our earliest presidents’ beliefs, reshaping assumptions about the debates that still reverberate across our land. Today’s dispute over the line between church and state (or the lack thereof) is neither the first nor the fiercest in our history.

In a powerful retelling of the birth of the American body politic, religious historian Forrest Church describes our first great culture war—a tumultuous yet nearly forgotten conflict that raged from George Washington’s presidency to James Monroe’s. On one side of the battle, the proponents of order—Federalists, Congregationalists, New Englanders—believed that the only legitimate ruler of men is God. On the other side, the defenders of liberty—republicans, Baptists, Virginians—cheered the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, and believed that only the separation of church and state would preserve man’s freedom. Would we be a nation under God, or with liberty for all?

Our book this week is This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women. Based on the NPR series of the same name, This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women features eighty Americans–from the famous to the unknown–completing the thought that the book’s title begins. Each piece compels readers to rethink not only how they have arrived at their own personal beliefs but also the extent to which they share them with others.

Featuring many renowned contributors–including Isabel Allende, Colin Powell, Gloria Steinem, William F. Buckley Jr., Penn Jillette, Bill Gates, and John Updike–the collection also contains essays by a Brooklyn lawyer; a part-time hospital clerk in Rehoboth, Massachusetts; a woman who sells yellow pages advertising in Fort Worth, Texas; and a man who serves on Rhode Island’s parole board.

The result is a stirring and provocative trip inside the minds and hearts of a diverse group of people whose beliefs–and the incredibly varied ways in which they choose to express them – reveal the American spirit at its best.

Were going to take a slightly different turn this week with our book choice, “Charleston Come Hell or High Water: A History in Photographs” by Robert Whitelaw. This book captures the indomitable spirit of one of America’s oldest and best-preserved cities. Praised by Charlestonians since its initial publication, and now in its sixth printing, this gripping collection of 168 black and white photographs depicts Charleston from the advent of photography in the 1840s through the late twentieth century.

Updated with photographs of Hurricane Hugo’s destruction, “Charleston Come Hell or High Water” offers a pictorial saga as engaging and multifaceted as the city itself. Southern belles in the camellia gardens of Magnolia-on-the-Ashley, Citadel cadets in drill, African-Americans at work, attending church, or coping with natural disasters, and the 1901 South Carolina Interstate and West Indian Exposition share pages with images of devastation wrought by war, hurricanes, fire, tornadoes, and an earthquake. The photos include Civil War views, many from the glass plates of Mathew Brady, and images taken by both local enthusiasts and professional photographers. The collection highlights Charleston’s trove of architectural gems—some lost but many preserved for the future.

Our recommendation this week is for With purpose and principle: Essays about the seven principles of Unitarian Universalism edited by Edward A. Frost. This invaluable book contains a short history of the Principles and Purposes followed by essays from present-day UU leaders including John Buehrens, Marilyn Sewell, Earl Holt and Barbara Merritt. World community and the interdependent web of all existence are some of the topics explored.

Our recommendation this week is Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation by Parker J. Palmer. With wisdom, compassion, and gentle humor, Palmer invites us to listen to the inner teacher and follow its leadings toward a sense of meaning and purpose. Telling stories from his own life and the lives of others who have made a difference, he shares insights gained from darkness and depression as well as fulfillment and joy, illuminating a pathway toward vocation for all who seek the true calling of their lives.

Reverend Stanfield delivered this address to our church on September 30, 2012.

Our book for this week is Social Justice Handbook: Small Steps for a Better World (Bridgeleader Books). Every day we are confronted by challenging societal problems, from poverty and institutional racism to AIDS and homelessness. It can all seem so overwhelming. But while none of us can do everything, all of us can do something. This handbook will help you discover what you can do.

Our book this week is Diversity Consciousness: Opening our Minds to People, Cultures and Opportunities by Richard D. Bucher.

This empowering study on human diversity helps readers develop the ability to understand, respect, and value diversity–and demonstrates how opening one’s mind to the views of other peoples and cultures is central for a quality education and successful career. Personalizing the learning experience by integrating a variety of real-life student experiences and perspectives, it discusses topics in a style that promotes self-reflection and dialogue that is inclusive and not condescending. Complete with self-reflective journal questions, case studies, and interactive exercises, it discusses diversity and workplace issues–such as teamwork, conflict management, leadership, racism, prejudice, and communication; and zeroes in on the relationship between an employee’s success and his/her ability to develop flexible thinking to positively and effectively deal with a variety of diversity issues.

Our book this week is Beginner’s Grace: Bringing Prayer to Life by Kate Braestrup. Prayer is an ancient and simple way to prepare yourself for grace, or love, and to learn to recognize it when it comes. Even the briefest “grace” spoken before dinner offers its time-honored wisdom. Yet in spite of hundreds of traditions and teachings and books about prayer, millions of Americans have become ambivalent about it, and this can be especially so with Unitarian Universalists. They are unsure how, when, where, and even why they might pray, afraid they’ll do it wrong, or worried that they won’t be heard.

Writing in the beautiful, funny, honest narrative style that moved and inspired readers of her first book, Here If You Need Me: A True Story, Kate Braestrup explains what prayer is and the many ways we can pray. With an approach that is both personal and inclusive, Beginner’s Grace is a new kind of prayer book. Even if you don’t pray and don’t consider yourself religious, there’s room in this book for you. In these pages, Braestrup explains how and why the practice of prayer can open a space in our busy lives for mindfulness, gratitude, contentment, and a wider compassion toward others.

Fetal alcohol syndrome is growth, mental, and physical problems that may occur in a baby when a mother drinks alcohol during pregnancy. Using or abusing alcohol during pregnancy can cause the same risks as using alcohol in general. However, it poses extra risks to the unborn baby. When a pregnant woman drinks alcohol, it easily passes across the placenta to the fetus. Because of this, drinking alcohol can harm the baby’s development.

Our link this week is to The Best I Can Be: Living with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome-Effect by Liz Kulp. This book tells the story of a girl who suffers from FAS, and her journey with her adoptive parents towards education and independence.

Oh, and don’t worry, the pancakes in the picture are healthy banana oatmeal pancakes from our friend Heather Solos over at Home-Ec101.

For those who may not know her well, Reverend Tenbrink is our Unitarian Universalist Community Minister who serves the larger community beyond our church. The primary arena of her ministry is chaplaincy. Rev. Tenbrink is a native midwesterner, who grew up in Kansas City and earned an undergraduate degree from Grinnell College in Iowa. Prior to seminary studies, she volunteered with the Peace Corps in the Cape Verde Islands and coordinated the social justice program of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas. In April 2010, she was ordained into the ministry by the Unitarian Universalist Church of Davis, California and graduated from Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago, one of our two Unitarian Universalist seminaries.

Our book choice this week is The Darkness Around Us is Deep: Selected Poems of William Stafford. Reverend Tenbrink has chosen to use one of Stafford’s poems in her service today, and there is much to explore within his words. William Stafford was an American poet and pacifist, and the father of poet and essayist Kim Stafford. He was appointed the twentieth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1970.

Alison Piepmeier is author of Girl Zines: Making Media, Doing Feminism (New York University Press, 2009), the first academic study of zines by girls and women. She is also co-editor of Catching a Wave: Reclaiming Feminism for the 21st Century (Northeastern University Press, 2003), a collection that is widely taught in Women’s Studies classes, and author of Out in Public: Configurations of Women’s Bodies in Nineteenth-Century America (University of North Carolina Press, 2004). She directs the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at the College of Charleston, where she is also associate professor of English, and she is a member of the Governing Council of the National Women’s Studies Association.

Our book this time, and remember that purchases through these links benefit the church, is The Georgia Guidestones: America’s Most Mysterious Movement. The books author, Raymond Wiley, explores many ideas on the stones. Conspiracy theorists surmise a global plot on the part of a group of shadowy men to subjugate and oppress the world’s population and create a “new world order.” Others believe that the man behind the monument was a Rosicrucian, and that the stones are representative of that group’s magical manifesto. Some people even believe that it is a landing site for an alien spacecraft of some kind. At the heart of this confusion is the missing piece of the puzzle: who was the mystery man who started the entire chain of events?

Our book for this week is from our speaker, Reverend Monty Knight, entitled ”Balanced Living: Don’t Let Your Strength Become Your Weakness“. In this work Reverend Knight develops the theme of balance as central to good mental health, to moral and spiritual health, to emotional well-being, and to social functioning. This theme emerges from his more than thirty years of experience as a Christian minister, as a counselor, as a teacher and clinical supervisor of counselors, as well as from experience as a management and human-relations consultant. According to Knight, when we are failing or falling, it isn’t always because of some inadequacy or limitation; it is rather because we have taken a strength (or it has taken us) too far–a strength that has become a weakness.

Our book this week is “Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow“. In the more than twenty-five years since she co-founded Omega Institute – now the world’s largest center for spiritual retreat and personal growth -Elizabeth Lesser has been an intimate witness to the ways in which people weather change and transition. In a beautifully crafted blend of moving stories, humorous insights, practical guidance, and personal memoir, she offers tools to help us make the choice we all face in times of challenge: Will we be broken down and defeated, or broken open and transformed? Lesser shares tales of ordinary people who have risen from the ashes of illness, divorce, loss of a job or a loved one – stronger, wiser, and more in touch with their purpose and passion. And she draws on the world’s great spiritual and psychological traditions to support us as we too learn to break open and blossom into who we were meant to be.

Our book recommendation this time is Presence: The Art of Peace and Happinessby Rupert Spira. From the publisher’s words about the book …

Your self-aware presence, knows no resistance to any appearance and, as such, is happiness itself; like the empty space of a room it cannot be disturbed and is, therefore, peace itself; like this page, it is intimately one with whatever appears on it and is thus love itself; and like water that is not affected by the shape of a wave, it is pure freedom. Causeless joy, imperturbable peace, love that knows no opposite and freedom at the heart of all experience….this is your ever-present nature under all circumstances. Rupert Spira’s Presence: The Art of Peace and Happiness is a profound and luminous book with great power and is obviously the fruit of many years of contemplation.

Remember that the purchases you make through these links to Amazon.com cost you no more than if you went there directly, but a small portion of the purchase price goes to support the church. Every little bit helps!

Malvina Reynolds (August 23, 1900 – March 17, 1978) was an American folk/blues singer-songwriter and political activist, best known for her song-writing, particularly the folk music songs “Little Boxes” and “Morningtown Ride”.

Peter “Pete” Seeger (born May 3, 1919) is an American folk singer and an iconic figure in the mid-20th-century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead Belly’s “Goodnight, Irene”, which topped the charts for 13 weeks in 1950. Members of The Weavers were blacklisted during the McCarthy Era. In the 1960s, he re-emerged on the public scene as a prominent singer of protest music in support of international disarmament, civil rights, and environmental causes.

This message was delivered on July 15, 2012.