Secrets
January 2016
The human heart has hidden treasures,
In secret kept, in silence sealed;
The thoughts, the hopes,
the dreams,
the pleasures,
Whose charms were broken if revealed.
—Charlotte Brontë
Articles
Secret-Keeping
I found out that something was wrong the same way I find out so many things nowadays: on Facebook. When I first joined that online social network, I was delighted to reconnect with friends from my growing-up years: high school buddies, former prom dates, even my best friend from Catholic elementary school, whom I hadn’t ...Read more »
Not as Alone as You Think You Are
So, here’s a question to get us started: Who do you tell your secrets to? Now, don’t go and say you don’t have any secrets. Because that’s just not true; everyone has secrets. Everyone does. Read more »
The Biggest Secret at CLF
The biggest secret at CLF is that we need your support to sustain Quest Monthly! With nearly 700 members in prison, and hundreds more on fixed incomes, many of our congregants are unable to contribute financially. Read more »
Secrets and Silence
In her book On Lies, Secrets, and Silence one of the essential writings of 1970s feminism, Adrienne Rich wrote: “Whatever is unnamed…will become, not merely unspoken, but unspeakable.” Read more »
REsources for Living
What does it feel like when you have a secret? We asked folks on the CLF Facebook page: How does it feel in your body to carry a secret? Read more »
Did You Know?
Did you know that you can share in real-time worship with other CLFers, or watch services on-demand after they run live? Read more »
Secrets
The human heart has hidden treasures, In secret kept, in silence sealed; The thoughts, the hopes, the dreams, the pleasures, Whose charms were broken if revealed. —Charlotte Brontë Read more »
124: On Showing Up and Support: Black Lives of UU
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Leslie MacFadyen, Kenny Wiley and Lena Gardner talk with The VUU team about showing up and supporting. The VUU is hosted by Meg Riley and Joanna Fontaine Crawford and airs on Thursdays at 11 am ET. This episode first aired December 17, 2015. The VUU will be taking a break for the holidays and will return on January 7, 2016.
A Legacy of Hope
Why, you might ask, would we honor James Lord Pierpont? James, who was born in 1822, grew up a Unitarian, but it was his father John who was the minister. John was also an abolitionist, someone who fought against slavery. But James actually fought on the side of the South during the Civil War.
James married and had children, but he left them behind to start a business as part of the California Gold Rush. His business failed after his goods burned up in a fire. A few years later his wife died, and James left his kids with his father as he followed his brother Rev. John Pierpont, Jr. to Savannah, Georgia, where the younger John Pierpont was called to serve a Unitarian church.
So what about this makes James Pierpont so special? Nothing. It was a lot of failure and sadness. Except that somewhere around the time that he moved to Savannah, James wrote a little song you might have heard. He called it “The One Horse Open Sleigh,” but you might know it as “Jingle Bells.”
Pete Markham/Flickr
When he was going through trouble and loss, James Pierpont could have no idea that he would create something that 150 years later would be part of the joyful holiday season for millions of children and adults. That’s hope for you.
A Time of Stillness and Cold
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For many, the month of December is a time of stillness and cold, and it can be lonely. So we warm it up by welcoming love back, ushering in the return of light, and celebrating the resilience of our communities. Read more →
Did You Know…
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That you can contribute to the CLF while your do your shopping on Amazon? With the Amazon Smile program, part of the proceeds of any purchases you make will be given to the CLF at no additional cost to you. Be sure to designate the “Church of the Larger Fellowship” as the organization you are supporting. Using this link will do this!
Hope
December 2015
“Hope is patience with the lamp lit.” —Tertullian
Articles
At the Intersection of Despair and Love
My connection with the Unitarian Universalist Trauma Response Ministry began September 26, 2001. It was just fifteen days after the perilous events in New York City, Washington, DC, and western Pennsylvania. Read more »
The Hope of Our Ancestors
My heart is aching for answers, for a way this makes sense, for a way to understand a 12-year old child shot, a way to understand Eric Garner, a father of six, choked to death in broad daylight with his murderers caught on camera—no medical attention, left to die in the street just like Michael ...Read more »
Hope Has Human Hands (Excerpt)
In the late 1940s and early 50s, there was a song which, when it came on the radio, would make my dad groan and move as if to turn it off, muttering “That darn song, it’s so sticky!” and my mother and I would cry out, “No, we want to hear it!” Read more »
From Your Minister
For years, one of my favorite hymns of hope has been Carolyn McDade’s “We’ll Build a Land.” It opens with: “We’ll build a land where we bind up the broken; we’ll build a land where the captives go free…” Read more »
REsources for Living
Christmas is a season of hope. If you’re a kid, it’s probably a season of hoping for presents. There are lists you give to parents and letters you send to Santa and lots of waiting and hoping for the very best of loot. Read more »
A Time of Stillness and Cold
For many, the month of December is a time of stillness and cold, and it can be lonely. So we warm it up by welcoming love back, ushering in the return of light, and celebrating the resilience of our communities. Read more »
Hope
Hope wakes up in her green-lit room, stretches, tugs at her flannel nightie, opens her limbs to the morning. Read more »
URGENT: Release Rev. Fulgence Ndagijimana and other Unitarians Suffering Persecution in Burundi
We stand with Unitarian Universalists across the globe calling for the immediate release of the Rev. Fulgence Ndagijimana of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Burundi.
“On November 16th, the minister of the church, the Rev. Fulgence Ndagijimana, was arrested from the church at gunpoint, taken into police custody and interrogated severely, regarding the activities of his church. He was threatened with physical harm and death. At the moment he remains in custody, with other members of the church also being questioned.”
—International Council of Unitarian Universalists (ICUU)
