From Your Interim Minister 1

From the President... 2

Ready, set, resilience 3

RE in the Time of COVID -19 4

Navigators USA—Update 4

Full Moon Vespers 4

Equality Clinic 4

April Worship with UUCA 4

April 2020 Volume 24 Number 4

Inside this issue

From Your Interim Minister

WHAT IS SPIRITUALITY? In his essay Nature, Ralph Waldo Emerson (Unitarian, 1803-1882) describes spirituality as our “original relation to the universe.” To use the language of his age, he means revela-tion must be first-hand, not from scripture, but from direct personal experience.

A century later another Unitarian minister A. Powell Davies (1902-1957) preached in a sermon – “There is no God in the sky. The spiritual is not supernatural, but remains with the natural. We must outgrow our childishness. We must learn to trust the unknown, exchange courage for the cowardice of begging for miracles. We must be spiritually free, and only truth makes us free.” He delivered this sermon in 1951.

Then there is the Catholic monk and mystic Thomas Merton (1915-1968) who warns us that the spiritual realm “is a pure and a virginal knowledge, poor in concepts, poorer still in reasoning.” This is from his book New Seeds of Contemplation.

In our own churches we have those who want more spirituality and others who are dis-turbed by what they think that might mean. There is great confusion about this.

However, you should know I have a particular prejudice. I believe religion must be more than being correct. Religion and spirituality are not fundamentally intellectual pursuits.

I am convinced that awe, mystery, love, beauty, justice and intensity are central to a reli-gious life. There is something in us that yearns for transformation, for connection to something sacred, something far beyond the mundane and the petty. That yearning can be repressed and denied, but it cannot be eliminated.

For me, spirituality is more a feeling than an opinion. Because of this, it is fiendishly dif-ficult to put into words.

Our religion should grow out of our profoundest experiences, our profoundest sense of what is sacred and good in life. Consequently, our spiritual experience can be challeng-ing, even unsettling. A true spirituality results in taking a look at our whole lives, at eve-rything we do – both good and bad.

Spirituality isn’t a lifestyle choice. It involves envisioning what life can be and then let-ting that vision guide our whole lives. At best, we become our spirituality. Our lives are expressions of our spiritual growth.

Inevitably, spiritual growth – that is, growth in compassion, humility, forgiveness, and love – happens in relationships that are committed to unity. Spiritual growth responds in healing ways to anything that fosters separation or permits brokenness. Here I mean unity not as sameness, but as mutuality.

Maybe the question, “What Is Spirituality?” is the wrong question.

I have come to believe that spirituality isn’t a “what.” It is more of a “how.” Spirituality is about how I perceive, how I feel, how I act. It is about the quality of my life and your life and our lives together.

Continued on page 2

From the President…

President’s Ponderings

Scary times!! How does our UU faith help us in times like these? Few of us believe in a transcendent being who can swoop in to fix things or at least take care of us and our families. The line I have automatically added below my signature in emails is, Reason, Respect, Compassion, Community. It sums up the basics of Religious Humanism, but I think, equally well sums up what UUism is about. So, let's think about how it applies. Reason: Get the best information available about the pandemic, think dispassionately about the implications of that infor-mation, then act on it. The best scientific info is from NIH (Anthony Fauci) and the CDC. The best-balanced news, in my opinion, is from PBS. They are uniformly saying self-isolate as much as possible, practice good hygiene, and maintain a healthy lifestyle; i.e., adequate sleep, balanced diet, some exercise, and maintain contact with friends and family electronically. This is going to get worse, a lot worse, but we can do our part by doing what I've just suggested. Respect: This one can be harder when we try to apply it to some of our "leaders." Remember, our first principle - respect for the inherent worth and dignity of every person - does not allow for exceptions. We can deplore someone's actions without forgetting their basic humanity. Compassion: It's easy to feel compassion for those who are so obviously working long hours for our well-being - health care workers, truck drivers, workers in grocery and drug stores, etc. Similarly, for those stricken with the virus and their families. But eve-ryone is affected to some degree or another. In addition, life goes on. People get sick from other diseases, accidents happen, cancer patients have to continue their chemo, high school seniors are missing their only shot at proms and graduation ceremonies, weddings are postponed. Let's not be selective in our concern by limiting it to those we think most deserving. Compassion fatigue is a real phe-nomenon. Fight it. Community: We lose some of our humanity when we are isolated for too long. We turn inward. We give too much weight to our needs and desires and those of our closest loved ones. Reason, respect, and community start to recede. We live in an era of un-precedented connectivity. Use it to maintain connection to friends and family. Join us in the on-line worship service. Benita Hogan and others can help you set up virtual meetings and book clubs online. We, our country and our church, will survive this. Our goal is to live by our principles so that we come out on the other side stronger and more resilient.

Yours in our faith – Andy Reese

Page 2

March Attendance

March 1st

107 March 8th

100 March 15th

—- March 22nd

116 March 29th

66

What is Spirituality, continued from page 1 I leave you with the Universalist minister Clinton Lee Scott (1887-1985). This is from his book Parish Parables –

“Now there was a certain man that for many years did frequent the Temple on the Sabbath. Then did he cease to be found in the Great Congregation. And a neighbor inquired of him saying, ‘How is it thou art no more seen in the Temple on the Sabbath day?’ And the man did give answer, ‘I like not the words that the Master speaks: for she put not an end to the questions that vex my mind, neither provides me with sure salvation for my soul. Verily she leads us into deep waters, and leaves us there without means of res-cue.’ Now when this conversation was told to the Master of the Temple she answered saying, ‘Go tell him that remains away from the Great Congregation that the Temple stands not to provide life preservers, but is a place where one learns how to swim.’”

In the Spirit of Life,

Reverend Don

Page 3

Ready, reset, resilience submitted by Mindy Gales, D.R.E

Part of the “Beauty of Being Broken” series.

It is funny how nature has a way of making us take notice of things that we take for granted. Call it yin and yang, good and evil or whatever duality your belief system guides you to, for each scary thing, there is usually a silver lining. Sometimes the silver is barely a glimmer, and sometimes it is emblazoned and is so bright, it is blinding. For instance, during the COVID-19 quarantine, the Earth had a chance to breathe. Pollution disappeared in China and the canals in

Venice are clear and the wildlife is returning.

Image from NPR, “Why China’s Air Has Been Cleaner During Photograph: Andrea Pattaro/AFP via Getty Images The Coronavirus Outbreak,” by Lauren Sommer, March 4, 2020. Most of the time, one’s ability to see the silver lining is based on one’s attitude. I am an eternal optimistic-pessimist - I envision the absolute worst-case scenario, and hope with reckless abandon for the best possible outcome. By no means am I ignoring or down-playing the dire seriousness of COVID-19. A friend of mine’s brother who has serious liver problems was exposed by his best friend who happened to be one of the two initial COVID-19 cases in Virginia. Her brother can’t get tested, and the test his friend had was botched and they won’t retest him. To be perfectly honest, I am terrified to the point of paralysis. My rational self knows that I NEED that irrational hopeful silver lin-ing. Hope is how we get through times like these, whatever form that hope presents itself. I am genuinely shocked at how fractured our relationships and our world have become, and that it took a world-wide illness to get people’s attention. It took a pandemic of epic proportions to remind the world that we are literally connected to each other. Public health is just that - public. It feels like we have taken individualism to an extent that we’ve forgotten, perhaps intentionally or not, our responsibility to each other. Nothing makes you focus on the interconnected web of life like it being brought to your attention that you now need to take measures to sanitize the gas pump, your groceries, your take-out containers. And with the initial fear of the unknown and the uncertainty of how this virus spreads, people did what people do - they tried to con-trol what they could, in the form of hoarding food and weirdly enough, toilet paper. This is to the detriment of the health and wellbe-ing of others especially those emergency responders that can’t find food after they have worked a 12+ hour shift taking care of us and the people who need distilled water for medical machinery like breathing equipment. Our reaction to this crisis comes with a long overdue need for a hard look in the mirror. My guess (my hope) is that people will take stock of their actions and change their response accordingly. Not everyone will change to act in everyone’s best interest. But I have to believe that enough people will recognize that we have more in common that connects us than divides us; that civility is not an option, and that we are, in fact, our brother’s keeper. *https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/03/04/811019032/why-chinas-air-has-been-cleaner-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/20/nature-is-taking-back-venice-wildlife-returns-to-tourist-free-city)

Unitarian Universalist Church of Augusta

3501 Walton Way Ext Augusta, GA 30909

Phone 706 .733 .7939

www.UUAugusta.org

We welcome stories, news and pictures sent in for our

monthly Newsletter.

Deadline: Monday before the last Thursday each month

e-mail directly to the

church office: officeadmin@uuaugusta.org

April Worship with UUCA

Sundays at 11am

Sunday Services will be available online at: https://www.youtube.com/user/uucamedia

Sunday, April 5th – “Five Pillars of Faith” - Rev. Don Cameron

Sunday, April 12th – “Strength of Our Loving” Rev. Don Cameron

Sunday, April 19th — “People of Gaia” -Rev. Don Cameron

Sunday, April 26th – To Be Announced

7pm—Full Moon Vespers

A N D F I N A L L Y . . .

Equality Clinic The Equality Clinic was cancelled for the month of March. They are hoping to resume offering services on April 8th. In an effort to improve the efficiency of our outreach to the Equality Clinic, I have set up a SignUp account for everyone to sign up for food donations. I have included a link to click on for the April 8th clinic - https://signup.com/go/RMFyWYt. If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know - dre@uuaugusta.org. If the clinic is cancelled, I will announce the cancellation as soon as the clinic informs me.

Full Moon

Vespers

Beltane Vespers

Sunday, April 26th

7pm in the Sanctuary

Outdoors by R.E. wing (Sanctuary in case of rain) At Beltane we celebrate the arrival of summer and the fecundity of the earth by dancing the Maypole. We'll be outside for this one (no drums so as not to disturb the neighbors) but we'll be dancing. Bring 6-7 yards of ribbon in the color of your choice for the Maypole. This circle is appropriate for children. Festive dress encouraged!

Contact: Jezibell Anat -kyriapanagia@yahoo.com

RE in the Time of COVID-19 What a time to be creative! We are at the crossroads of merging generations. It is an exciting time and also very intimidating. I will ad-mit, when it comes to technology, I know enough to make me dangerous. I have grand ideas and goals that I know are attainable, but the path between the grand idea to the end result is rather bumpy. With UUCA’s newly formed Social Media Committee, the path just got much smoother. (Please see, Social Media Commit-tee article) We are experimenting with Zoom as a teaching tool, Facebook Live, Hangouts, and anything else we can

Navigators USA Chapter 95 Update

Navigators USA, Chapter 95 is following the UUCA’s clo-sure schedule. At this writ-ing, Chapter 95’s next meet-ing will be on Friday, April 24th from 6:30-7:30 at UU-CA. Due to the incredible number of kids involved in Navigators, we have already outgrown the RE Wing! Cluster groups will be meet-ing in newly assigned rooms in the church. Please check the Navigators USA, Chapter 95 Facebook Page for up-dates - Navigators USA of the CSRA Chapter 95.