The Rev. Jeremiah Lal Shahbaz Kalendae - May 14, 2023
Women's Liberation and Flower Communion
The liberal religious tradition catalyzed women's liberation since its inception. What makes our spiritual heritage different from other religious movements in this regard? I was invited to reflect upon this question with the Beverly Hills Bar Association last month. Join us as we explore women's liberation in UU history, culture, and theology. In honor of Mother's Day, we will celebrate the tradition of Flower Communion this Sunday! Each person is encouraged to bring a special flower for the chancel ceremony and then return home with another unique flower from the congregation. Please bring one with you to church!
From Monthly: "Creativity"
There are so many ways to be creative! Here’s a small bouquet of ways to approach creativity at this time, in this place, in our community. We’ll explore in our worship, small groups, and personal reflection this month’s theme, The Path of Creativity. A creative life is any life where somebody consistently follows their curiosity more than their fear. ~ Elizabeth Gilbert But our mosaic making tells another story too, one that is often more difficult to see… One that lies not in the beautiful and broken bits and pieces but in the grout… Grout happens in board meetings and committee meetings and endless emails and slow-moving institutions. It is in weekly potlucks shared by neighbors, a ride to church, and coffee in the social hall after worship… ~ The Grout, Rev. Marcus Hartlief We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out. ~ Ray Bradbury Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death. ~ Anais Nin We have a mythology that tells us creativity is selfish. We are tutored to believe that artists are self-centered, but I think that as we experience our creativity, we experience a sense of expansion that is in fact the opposite of selfish. ~ Julia Cameron Cultural messages tell women that making art and having children are incompatible pursuits. But science suggests that women may become more creative after having kids. ~ Erica Hayasaki One of the primary reasons we get tripped up when it comes to creativity has to do with fear and judgment. We may have had an elementary school teacher that told us dogs do not look like pigs, and penguins are not fire hydrants with wings, a high school English teacher who told us our writing metaphors were stale and well worn, or a camp director who said we couldn’t act our way out of our lamest lie… Well to that i say: hogwash!… ~ Fireflies and Genius, Rev. Kaaren Anderson The heart of human identity is the capacity and desire for birthing. To be is to become creative and bring forth the beautiful. ~ John O’Donohue Because our religious tradition is grounded in innovation, we could say we are a people of creativity… However, we can’t simply cling to that definition unless we understand more deeply what it demands of us… ~ Nurturing Creativity, Rev. Jonalu Johnstone