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Rev. Janet Newman
June 20, 2010
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Rev. Janet Newman
June 20, 2010
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Rev. Janet Newman
June 13, 2010
Seniors Bridging Ceremony
Natalie Houchen, Shannon Mahoney, Aaron Osmer, Lauren Tothero, and Sierra Tothero
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Rev. Janet Newman
June 6, 2010
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“Cloudburst” Music by Eric Whitacre, poetry by Octavio Paz
First UU Choir
Kelan Latimer, baritone
Gitanjali Mathur, soprano
Carol Ginn, reader
Chris Smith, Dan Wilson, and Peter Pope, percussion
Kathryn Grovier, piano
Brent Baldwin, conductor
The First UU Choir performance of “Cloudburst” is not included in the audio file above.
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Rev. Janet Newman
May 30, 2010
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First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin, Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, April 20, 2010 at 6:30 p.m.
First UU Church of Austin, 4700 Grover, Austin, TX 78756 in Room 13
In Attendance:
Trustees: Nell Newton, President; Eric Stimmel, Vice-President; Kae McLaughlin, Treasurer; Chris Jimmerson, Secretary; Sheila Gladstone, Immediate Past President (Ex-Officio); Margaret Borden; Jeff Hutchens, Derek Howard; Aaron Osmer, Youth Trustee; Brendan Sterne; Michael West.
Executive Team: Janet Newman, Interim Minister (Ex-Officio); Sean Hale, Executive Director (Ex-Officio)
Staff Present: Brent Baldwin, Director of Music, Lara Douglass, Director of RE
Visitors Present: Sandra Ries, Chair of the Nominating Committee
The President called the meeting to order at 6:36 p.m.
The Trustees present adopted the agenda (Appendix A, page 1).
Motion: Margaret Borden – Adopt the agenda.
Second: Brendan Sterne
Discussion: None
Vote: All affirmative
The trustees read the board covenant (Appendix A, Cover Page) in unison and the President lit the chalice.
No visitors were present at the meeting who wished to speak during the visitor’s forum.
The trustees had read the consent agenda items prior to the meeting.
Motion: Brendan Sterne – adopt the consent agenda items.
Second: Michael West
Discussion: None.
Vote: All Affirmative
Nominations Committee: The Chair of the Nominating committee presented the Leadership Slate for the upcoming year (Appendix A, page 36). She noted that the Nominating Committee would be interviewing a candidate to chair the Fellowship Committee shortly.
Motion: Chris Jimmerson – Appoint the committee chairs and board-appointed nominating committee members as recommended by the Nominating Committee
Second: Derek Howard
Discussion: None
Vote: All Affirmative
The Trustees expressed appreciation to the Nominating Committee, specifically phrased as “you guys rock”. The Trustees also expressed their appreciation for the committee chairs and nominating committee members who had agreed to serve.
Governance Discussion – Speaking with One Voice: The Treasurer gave an overview of the policy-based governance (PGB) principle of the board speaking with one voice (or not at all). She summarized the major points from resources located at http://www.carvergovernance.com/pg-np.htm and http://policygovernancetalk.blogspot.com/ (scroll to “Rigorous Debate”). She highlighted that board members must speak up when discussing high-level, policy decisions and be willing to engage in debate. After such debate though, the board speaks as one voice under PBG.
She gave an example for board discussion wherein a church member expresses discontentment with personnel policy and wants something done about it. The member particularly dislikes the paid holidays days, which they find excessive in number and some frivolous in nature. They would like to see staff work on Martin Luther King Day, Memorial Day, and others, just as people do “in the real world” because this member certainly does not get those days off.
The Trustees suggested the following way to handle such a situation:
The Treasurer gave a second example in which a staff person approaches a board member because they believe the staff receive too few paid holidays and that Veteran’s Day, Columbus’s Birthday, and others should get added, just like government employees, bankers, and others. There was general consensus that the staff person would be redirected to the Executive.
As a final exercise, she raised the question of whether individual board members should vote in a congregational meeting on matters upon which the board as a whole has made a recommendation.
The Trustees discussed the following:
The President noted that this was for discussion purposes, as the church is not yet functioning under PGB. A Trustee asked for a “straw poll”, as even though the church is not fully under PGB a congregational meeting was scheduled soon. The President asked for a show of hands on whether Trustees would be comfortable with each of the following options as regards individual Trustees voting on board recommended items at congregations meetings (will total more than attending as Trustees could vote for any option with which they would be comfortable):
All Trustees would be asked to vote for the board recommendation: 2
All Trustees would be asked not vote on the issue at the meeting or abstain: 10
Trustees would vote their conscious as a church member: 2
The Trustees agreed that this had been an excellent discussion that warranted further consideration at future meetings.
Delegation of Financial Reporting and Budgeting to the Executive: The Treasurer gave a brief overview of proposed motions to delegate financial reporting and development of the annual budget (Appendix A, pages 25 and 26). The Trustees discussed the following:
There had been little concern regarding delegating financial reporting and management to the ED, so the following motion was offered.
Motion: Michael West — The Board of Trustees of First UU Church of Austin hereby assigns responsibility and authority for church financial reports, related data, and otherwise supervising financial operations to the Executive Team. Said authority and responsibility includes the ability to change and adjust the report format, the manner of keeping data, and any related policy or procedure outlined in the Policies and Procedures Manual, with the exception of the Financial Assets Management Policy and Bylaws, which require congregational approval to change.
The Executive Director will inform the board of any material changes through her/his regular monthly report.
The Executive Director’s July 2010 monthly report will provide a more thorough description of the changes undertaken since adoption of this policy, the results, and significant concerns which have arisen in the process.
Second: Chris Jimmerson
Discussion: There was no further discussion.
Vote: All affirmative.
Based upon the discussion of delegating the budget development process, the following motion was offered:
Motion: Chris Jimmerson — The Board of Trustees of First UU Church of Austin hereby assigns responsibility and authority to develop the annual budget for the board to the Executive Team. Said authority and responsibility overrides any language to the contrary within the Policies and Procedures Manual, with the exception of the Financial Assets Management Policy and Bylaws, which require congregational approval to change.
Acting to further the mission of the church, the Executive Team will present a budget proposal to the board for consideration no later than its monthly October meeting.
Second: Eric Stimmel
Discussion: There was no further discussion
Vote: Affirmative – 7, Negative – 2, Abstain – 0
Delegation of Rental Policy to the Executive Team: The Vice-President presented a proposed motion to delegate facilities rentals to the Executive Team to the free the board of discussions over small adjustments to the policies and operational details (Appendix A, page 27).
Motion: Jeff Hutchens – The Board of Trustees of First UU Church of Austin hereby assigns responsibility for and authority to change church rental policy to the Executive Team. Said authority and responsibility overrides any language to the contrary within current policy, including the Policies and Procedures Manual, with the exception of the Financial Assets Management Policy and Bylaws, which require congregational approval to change.
The Executive Director will inform the board of any material changes to said policy through her/his regular monthly report.
The Executive Director’s July 2010 monthly report will provide a more thorough description of the changes undertaken since adoption of this policy, the results, and significant concerns which have arisen in the process.
Second: Brendan Sterne
Discussion: None
Vote: All Affirmative
Covenant Between the Board of Trustees and the Executive Team: As the board has begun delegating to the Executive Team, the Secretary and the Interim Minister facilitated a discussion of promises the board and the Executive Team might make with one another to ease this transition and support one another. Such promises that the board might make to the Executive Team and that the Executive Team might make to the board will serve as the basis of a covenant. As the discussion unfolded, it became clear that most of the promises were mutual. They included:
A Trustee suggested that the current board covenant might also serve as the board and Executive Team covenant, while others expressed a desire to see a specific covenant regarding the board/Executive Team relationship. The Interim Minister and Secretary agreed to take the data from the discussion and return with draft language for a Board of Trustees and Executive Team Covenant of Healthy Relations.
Settled Minister Search Committee: Trustee Michael West, who had been charged by the board to lead the selection process for the committee, presented the following church members to serve on the Settled Minister Search Committee (SMSC): Sharon Moore, Maria Nehring, Jill Wiggins, Lynda West, Jill Smith, John Franks, Dale Whiteaker-Lewis, Michael Kersey, Gary Bennett. The Trustees agreed that this was a great group to serve in this important role. A Trustee commented that it will be important that the SMSC operate with an open and transparent process while also guarding confidentiality.
Motion: Derek Howard — adopt the slate of members of the SMSC as recommended and charge them with the task of selecting the candidate for presentation to the Congregation for Senior Minister of First UU Austin.
Second: Chris Jimmerson
Discussion: A Trustee inquired as to the reasons the members had given for serving on the committee. Their reasons included:
Michael West also noted that the members will bring a variety of skills and experience, demographics and lengths of time as church members.
Vote: All Affirmative
The Interim Minister offered to conduct a ceremony of investiture for the SMSC, as well as the new Board of Trustees, once elected. The Trustees agreed that this would be terrific.
Report on Interim Minister Salary and Housing Package: The President reported that in order to attract the best candidates for Interim Minister and to prepare ourselves for doing the same for the Settled Minister Search, the Executive Committee had authorized the Interim Minister Search Task Force to enter midpoint into the UUA Settlement System. This totaled a package of $110,080. The Treasurer noted that moving expenses would be required also.
Request to Authorize the Executive Committee to Finalize the Agenda for the Congregational Meeting: The President requested this authorization for the Executive Committee, as there will not be another board meeting beforehand. She noted that the agenda would be much the same as the one for the Pre-Congregational Meeting (Appendix A, page 10)
Motion: Brendan Sterne — Authorize the Executive Committee to finalize the agenda for the Spring Congregational Meeting.
Second: Margaret Borden
Discussion: None
Vote: All Affirmative.
The Secretary noted that the change to membership requirements in the bylaws that had been a requirement of a contribution of record within the last 13 months at the Pre-Congregational meeting would be changed to 12 months for the Congregational Meeting. This change was based upon discussions at the Pre-Congregational Meeting.
Special Fees: The Immediate Past President presented a proposed motion to allow the ED to set and assess certain fees on rentals when such rentals caused extra costs to be incurred by the church (see proposal and examples on page 28 of Appendix A). Such fees would only offset these increased expenses and would not result in excess revenue. This would prevent the need to go through budget revision procedures each time such excess costs are incurred.
The Trustees discussed that the Executive Team rather than only the ED will be allowed to make these decisions; however, the ED could be the person who complies monitoring reports for the board.
Motion: Chris Jimmerson – The Board of Trustees of First UU Church of Austin hereby assigns authority to set and assess special rental fees, defraying the cost of doing business, to the Executive Team. These pass-through fees will apply directly toward the actual cost of the expense, and may include, but are not limited to, items such as:
The Executive Director will inform the board of any material changes to said fees through her/his regular monthly report.
The Executive Director’s July 2010 monthly report will provide a more thorough description of the changes undertaken since adoption of this policy, the results, and significant concerns which have arisen in the process.
Second: Derek Howard
Discussion: None
Vote: All Affirmative
Bridge Builders Action Team Charge: The Secretary presented a proposed change to the charge for the Bridge Builders Action Team. The Team is nearing completion of its current charge and has identified the need for a task force to oversee and monitor a governance transition plan. The Trustees discussed that it might be clearer to re-create this as a task force to avoid confusion over the many uses of the word “bridge” that have been employed in the church recently.
Motion: Derek Howard – Create a governance task force charged with developing a plan for transitioning to policy-based governance.
Second: Brendan Sterne
Discussion: None
Vote: All Affirmative
Governance Discussion – Report on Answers from Questions from Prior Board Meeting: The Secretary reported on a discussion he had with our consultant on governance regarding two questions that had come up at the prior meeting. The first had to do with whether a vote to adopt the Consent Agenda Items would still be needed. The Secretary reported that the board would still need to adopt these items. As regards a question over whether an issue involving a memorial fund would be a board policy or an executive policy after a transition to PGB, the secretary reported that the answer would depend upon how the board wrote policy regarding financial matters and where it stopped and delegated remaining interpretation to the executive.
Governance Discussion – Moral Ownership: Brendan Sterne facilitated a discussion of “moral ownership” or to whom the board is accountable. He summarized the highlights from information available at http://www.carvergovernance.com/pg-np.htm (scroll to section on board as owner-representative), explaining the difference between moral owners of an organization or church versus its customers. He also highlighted an article on church ownership contained on pages 30-32 in Appendix A. He noted that while for First UU Austin, church members are obviously part of the moral ownership, that the board’s accountability may include ownership beyond church members.
The Trustees discussed the following as their moral ownership:
Proposal to Shift to One Service During the Summer Months: The President presented a proposal from the Executive Team and Senior Staff that the church shift to one service during June, July and August. Such a shift offers several potential advantages:
The Trustees discussed the potential advantages and disadvantages of the proposal, potential times for the one service and how to coordinate with the Public Forum without causing technical or other problems for the forum. The consensus of the Trustees was to pursue this potential change for the summer months, with the President and Executive Team working with the forum team and technical folks on logistics.
With no further business, the President adjourned the meeting at 9:25 pm.
Respectfully Submitted,
Chris Jimmerson
Secretary
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Christian Schmidt
May 23, 2019
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The FUUCA Youth Service
Shannon Mahoney, Patrick Balaguer,
Coleen Mahoney, Sierra Tothero,
Lauren Tothero, Aaron Osmer,
Natalie Houchins
May 16, 2010
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Rev. Janet Newman
May 9, 2010
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Meetings in bold are open to the public. Only church leadership (committee chairpersons) can attend italicized meetings. Only board trustees can attend other meetings.
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Kristin Grassel
May 2, 2010
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Rev. Janet Newman
April 25, 2010
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You are invited to the May 16, 2010 Congregational Meeting. Click here for rules regarding voting at the meeting.
We hope you will be able to attend. Childcare may be arranged by sending an email to childcare@austinuu.org.
First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin, Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, March 16, 2010 at 6:30 p.m.
First UU Church of Austin, 4700 Grover, Austin, TX 78756 in Room 13
In Attendance:
Trustees: Nell Newton, President; Eric Stimmel, Vice-President; Luther Elmore, Treasurer; Chris Jimmerson, Secretary; Sheila Gladstone, Immediate Past President (Ex-Officio); Margaret Borden; Derek Howard; Aaron Osmer, Youth Trustee; Brendan Sterne; Michael West; Laura Wood.
Executive Team: Janet Newman, Interim Minister (Ex-Officio); Sean Hale, Executive Director (Ex-Officio)
Staff Present: Brent Baldwin, Director of Music
Visitors Present: Kathleen Ellis, Stephanie (Canada) Gill, Kae McLaughlin, Jeanette Swenson, Daesene Willman
The President called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m.
The Trustees present adopted the agenda (Appendix A, page 2).
Motion: Brendan Sterne– Adopt the agenda.
Second: Michael West
Discussion: None
Vote: All affirmative
The trustees read the board covenant (Appendix A, Page 1) in unison and the President lit the high-tech chalice.
Daesene Willman thanked the trustees for being servant leaders and for supporting freeze nights.
Stephanie (Canada) Gill presented the YEW GROVE Pagan Interfaith brochure (Appendix B) and announced the Ostara Ritual & Potluck on March 21 at 2 p.m. She also announced the Grand Re-Opening of the library that will include a book sale and potluck on Saturday, April 17. Book donations will be accepted from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. and the sale will begin at 11 a.m. and go until 2 p.m.
The trustees had read the consent agenda items prior to the meeting. The President explained that the board would begin following a new procedure for the consent agenda to begin practicing some of the governance procedures from the recent board training on governance and to leave more time on meeting agendas to hold intentional discussion and exercises regarding governance. She noted that:
Motion: Chris Jimmerson – adopt the consent agenda items.
Second: Brendan Sterne
Discussion: A trustee asked that if a policy issue were raised by a report in the consent agenda whether it would be put on the discussion and action section of the agenda that month. The President replied that it would depend upon the urgency of the issue.
Vote: All Affirmative
Nominations Committee: Jeanette Swenson from the Nominations Committee presented the slate for trustees being nominated for the next board year, as well as the Nominating Committee’s suggestion for board appointees of committee chairs (Appendix C). She noted that the Nominations Committee had taken an expanded role this year by conducting leadership training. This seemed to lead to more candidates and those candidates being more prepared and enthusiastic. There were more candidates than positions available. She urged the continuation of leadership development and noted that the openness of the nominating process had also helped.
The Trustees discussed the process for the appointment of the Youth Trustee. The current Youth Trustee noted that no choice had been made yet and that the Youth Trustee process is separate and occurs in September.
Treasurer: The President informed the Trustees that she had accepted the resignation of Luther Elmore as Treasurer due to personal reasons. She thanked him for his amazing work as Treasurer, as did the other trustees. She noted that Kae McLaughlin, Treasurer nominee for the next board year, had agreed to serve as Treasurer for the remainder of the current board year should the board appoint her.
Motion: Brendan Sterne – Appoint Kae McLaughlin as Treasurer for the remainder of the current board year
Second: Chris Jimmerson
Discussion: None
Vote: All Affirmative
Review of New Financial Statements Format (Appendix A, Page 18): The Executive Director (ED) gave an overview of the financial statements in their new format, noting that the summary page provides key information at the top, followed by more detailed notes for those who prefer them. He gave an overview of the balance sheet and the Profit and Loss Budget Versus Actual Summary, noting that the workbook sent to Trustees also contains a sheet with more details for those who want them.
A Trustee noted a concern about plate collections being lower than anticipated and referenced an article that addressed “skimming” of collections within churches. The ED expressed that pledge collections were higher than anticipated and that more church members may be marking their plate donations as going toward their pledges. He also noted that there is always more than one person involved in accounting for plate collections. Luther Elmore also noted that collections for non-profits are separate now rather than split from one collection and that this has worked well but would keep the non-profit out of the church collection numbers as it had been in prior years.
A Trustee asked about whom to address any question about the Financial Statements. The ED responded that such questions should begin with him.
Discussion with Kathleen Ellis, District Ministerial Settlement Representative: The President welcomed Reverend Ellis, who summarized and highlighted information in materials she had brought regarding the settled minister search process (Appendix D). She highlighted the following from the materials:
Michael West, charged with assembling the search committee, sought advice from his fellow trustees on making the selection process as transparent as possible. He suggested several methods for inviting applications including an article in the church newsletter, several weeks of announcements and putting the invitation into the Special Notes. He noted that due to timing issues, doing some of these could delay the selection process.
Reverend Ellis noted that the search committee could be assembled as late as May.
The consensus of the trustees was to utilize all of these methods and to have a relatively short deadline for applications once the various announcements have been completed.
Dates, Times and Locations for 2010 Board Retreat and Values/Mission/Ends Retreat: The Vice-President asked the trustees to mark their calendars for May 22 for a retreat at U Bar U and to plan to arrive by 11 a.m. and stay overnight. The costs will be $30 each, which includes meals and housing.
The Secretary asked the trustees to mark their calendars for the values/mission/ends session on June 12, 2010 from 9 am to 4 pm in Austin, location to be announced.
Executive Session: The Trustees entered into an executive session to discuss a personnel matter and those who were not trustees left the room.
Governance Discussion:
Nested Bowls – The Secretary reviewed the nested bowls diagram (page 33 of Appendix A) from the policy-based governance training materials wherein values represent the largest part of our chalice, containing within them the mission, which contains within it the ends statements. He noted that flame of the chalice represents linkage with those we as trustees represent. Good board governance lies within these areas, and policy-based governance would result in four kinds of board policies:
These polices will start at the broadest level and work toward the more specific until the board feels comfortable that the Executive could make any reasonable further interpretation of them. The Executive will make any policies beyond that point. To make time for examining governance during board meetings, the board will need to begin delegating policies that are clearly not within the four above, setting any limitations as needed.
Policy Governance the What and Why – Brendan Sterne facilitated a brainstorming session on why we are considering policy-based governance and what it entails both to help trustees clarify the concepts for themselves and to serve as way to begin educating others about it. The trustees brainstormed the following:
Policy Governance, Why?
====================
– Clarify accountability, authority and responsibility
– Staff empowered to do their work
– Board focus on the mission
– We are a growing congregation
– Full board meets 3 hours per month; Executives work 40 hrs+ per month
Policy Governance, What?
====================
– Board creates policies
– Board sets limits
– Board focuses on Vision / Strategy, not administrative details
– Board monitors Executives
– Board deals with policies, *not* individual cases
Policy Agenda Exercise – The Vice-President facilitated a discussion of what items on an earlier board agenda (page 35 of Appendix A) might be delegated to the Executive and which not. The trustees were in consensus that the agenda items involving personal days, pay periods and the rental policy could be delegated. There was some question regarding a proposal for a memorial and how exactly the consent agenda would be handled (would it need to be adopted at all?). The trustees will seek clarification on these from the consultant for moving toward policy-based governance. An agenda item regarding an internal audit committee might be a part of monitoring under policy-based governance.
Linkage – The Secretary facilitated a discussion of how the board could conduct linkage (definition on page 36 of Appendix A) with its moral ownership (definition also on page 36). He noted that the board is clearly accountable to the church members but that at a later time the trustees will discuss that the moral ownership might be even larger. The trustees discussed the following ways to let the congregation know about linkage opportunities and to provide such opportunities:
– “Bridge to our Future” / AI Process
– Senior Lunch
– Board member announce, “Available to chat after service”
– Broadcast emails from individuals
– Holiday events
– Get linkage ideas from the congregation (ask them!)
– Newsletter item announcing new board
– Use specific subject lines in emails
– Phone calls by trustees — gather input
– Phone calls on member’s anniversary of membership
– Board members host house parties
Kitchen Remodel: Michael West stated that a member of the congregation had approached him who might consider providing up to $50,000 in matching funds (not currently budgeted by the church) for a kitchen renovation. He asked if a kitchen had been included in the plans for a potential new RE wing in the future. The trustees recalled that the plans did not include a full kitchen but advised checking with the building committee.
The trustees expressed enthusiasm over the possibility of such an offer and a renovation of the kitchen.
With no further business, the President adjourned the meeting at 9:25 pm.
Respectfully Submitted,
Chris Jimmerson
Secretary
Note: Appendices B, C and D will be scanned and made available here shortly.
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Mark Skrabacz
Pastor – UU Church of the Hill Country
April 18, 2010
One morning, long, long ago—in fact, 120 million years ago, something incredible happened here on Earth: The first flower ever to appear on the planet opened up to receive the rays of the sun. Prior to this momentous event, the planet had been covered in vegetation for millions of years but none had ever before flowered. I imagine that this first flower probably didn’t survive for long, since conditions were not quite yet favorable for a widespread flowering to occur. One day, however, such conditions came about. A critical threshold was reached, and our planet became filled with an explosion of color and scent. It was an evolutionary transformation in the life of plants and all life.
Much later, flowers would come to play an essential part in the evolution of consciousness of another species: us! Think about it: over the years, flowers have provided inspiration and insight to countless artists, poets, teachers, and mystics. In the New Testament, for example, Jesus, himself, tells us to contemplate the flowers and learn from them how to live. And the Buddha is said to have once given a “silent sermon” during which he held up a flower and simply gazed at it. After a while, one monk began to smile. It is said that this monk was the only one who had understood the sermon. According to legend, that smile (which has been interpreted over the years as “awakening”), that smile was handed down by twenty-eight successive masters and became the origin of Zen.
So it is no accident that flowers are included in so much Buddhist art. Seeing the beauty in a flower can awaken humans, however briefly, to the beauty that is an essential part of our own innermost being, as the Buddha called it, our original face — our true nature.
This is one of the reasons why many of us like to garden and work with plants. They are serene and their energy is infectious.
This is all described by Eckhart Tolle in his book, A New Earth. Tolle raises the possibility that important religious teachers like the Buddha and Jesus were some of humanity’s “early flowers,” so to speak. That is to say, they were our precursors. They were rare and precious beings who were as revolutionary in their day as was that first flower 120 million years ago. And when they appeared on Earth, conditions were not yet favorable for widespread comprehension of their messages. This, argues Tolle, is because humanity wasn’t evolved enough, hadn’t yet reached a critical threshold of understanding to grasp the teachings. Thus, these great teachers were largely misunderstood by their peers.
This raises the question: are we more evolved now, some 2,000-2,500 years since the Buddha and Jesus were alive? How many of us think that we are? Although this evolutionary growth of consciousness has seemed to come in fits and spurts—and even seems to regress at times.
In these days of population growth and climate change, of industrialization and shrinking natural habitats, the question becomes whether or not are we evolving quickly enough to preserve life as we know it?
I want to be clear: this is not going to be a doomsday Earth Day sermon. Rather, I want to share with you this morning why it is that I am feeling hopeful in spite of the many problems threatening the health and future of our Mother Earth.
Let me start with the assertion that we already possess the technical knowledge, the communication tools, the ability to educate our fellow humans about population control, and the material resources to grow enough food, ensure clean air and water, and meet the rational energy needs of all of us. We have everything we need to survive and thrive for generations to come. Everything, that is, except for the required shift of consciousness that will inspire us to implement changes on a global scale. Many of us are still plagued by the old habits and understandings that have caused the mess in which we now find ourselves.
“The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be.” Thus began the famed astronomer Carl Sagan’s majestic 1980 television series, Cosmos. The epic grandeur of Sagan’s Cosmos—suffused with “billions upon billions” of planets, stars, and galaxies—captivated the imagination of viewers everywhere. But despite the almost sacred reverence for existence that permeated the series, some still took issue with its strictly scientific bias, finding little room for the numinous or the transcendent in Sagan’s naturalistic worldview.
Fifteen years later, the integral philosopher Ken Wilber issued an 800-page response to concerns such as these. Titled Sex, Ecology, Spirituality, Wilber’s grand tome argued for a more holistic conception of the universe—one that would honor the profound revelations of science and religion alike. He called the Universe “the Kosmos” (with a “K” from the Greek). So when some use the term “Kosmos,” with a “k”, it’s not only to affirm our appreciation for Sagan’s extraordinary universe but also to restore the spiritual depth and transcendent mysticism that the ancient Greek philosophers, who coined the word, duly acknowledged and revered.
Perhaps a more realistic synthesis of the two comes from renowned systems thinker Gregory Bateson,
“If you put God outside and set him vis-a-vis his creation, and if you have the idea that you are created in his image, you will logically and naturally see yourself as outside and against the things around you. And as you arrogate all mind to yourself (Arrogate, from the latin arrogatus defined as claiming or seizing without justification.) Continuing with Bateson: as you arrogate all mind to yourself, you will see the world around you as mindless and therefore not entitled to moral or ethical consideration. The environment will seem to be yours to exploit. Your survival unit will be you and your folks or conspecifics against the environment of other social units, other races, and the brutes and vegetables. If this is your estimate of your relation to nature and you have an advanced technology, your likelihood of survival will be that of a snowball in hell. You will die either of the toxic by-products of your own hate, or simply of overpopulation and overgrazing.” Sounds daunting and all to familiar.
Here is the good news: although still relatively small, there is a rapidly growing percentage of humanity that is experiencing a shift in consciousness that many deem necessary if we are going to survive as a human species. Some associate the shift to the theories and proofs of quantum physics. Others attribute it to the emergence of the internet—which has brought connections and ideas into our homes from all over the world — our global village. Still others see it as a natural result of the end of imperialism or of the 2500 year epoch of the dark ages. I personally think that all of these things are having their impact. Just go to any bookstore and you’ll to find a number of books on the subject, some written by notable scholars such as Joanna Macy and David Korten.
These two writers differ greatly in their fields of expertise—Joanna Macy is a Buddhist scholar, and David Korten is an expert in business and economics. But both are currently telling us the same thing: that we are now living in a defining moment in the course of our history. That the era of cheap oil is ending, climate change is undeniably real, and economies can no longer rest on the unsustainable foundation of financial and environmental debt. Out of necessity, they tell us, we are collectively entering a new era. We are moving away from the life-killing political economy birthed by the Industrial Revolution and we’re moving towards a sustainable, life-enhancing political economy that exists in harmony with the Earth. They both refer to it by the same name. They call it “The Great Turning.” Perhaps you’ve heard of it.
Simply put, this concept of The Great Turning encompasses all the actions currently being taken to honor, care for and preserve life on Earth these days—and there are lots of them. But it is more than these, too. It involves a new understanding of who we are and what we need to be happy. In large numbers, people are learning the falsehood of the old paradigm that there is an isolated, competitive, solid self. In its stead, we are beginning to embrace a new paradigm in which our selfish and solid separateness is seen for what it really is: an illusion. We are discovering our inter-connectedness to everything, our mutual belonging in the web of life. So despite centuries of mechanistic Newtonian conditioning, we are slowly learning to name, once again, this world—and everything in it—as sacred, as whole.
Whether these understandings come through Gaia theory, systems theory, chaos theory, or through liberation theology, shamanic practices, the evolutionary theology of UCC minister Michael Dowd, engaged Buddhism,or even Unitarian Universalism, such insights and experiences are now freeing growing numbers of us from the grip of the industrial-corporate-growth society. They are offering us nobler goals and deeper pleasures. They are redefining our wealth and our worth, thus liberating us—finally—from compulsions to consume and control everything in sight.
To me, I view this trend as a natural emergence of the Feminine (or Yin) Principle in a world that has been strongly skewed toward the Masculine (or Yang) Principle. But however you view it, there is no denying the fact that something is sparking a transition around the world and it is giving me hope!
That’s because one of the best aspects of this shift is that there is less room for panic or self-pity. No, with these new understandings of who we really are, it is gratitude that generally arises, not fear. We become grateful to be alive at this moment, when—for all the darkness around us—blessings and awakenings abound. The Great Turning helps us stay mindful and steady, helping us join hands in community to find the ways the world self-heals — like our Sanctuary Garden and Hands on Housing. The present chaos, then, doesn’t doom us but becomes a seedbed for a better, more sacredly connected, future.
This is a very exciting time to be alive: we have so much potential; we can make such a difference! Of course that’s not to say that these coming years will be easy. One can always expect resistance to change, especially when it affects profitability and patterns of dominance. No, we are now encountering times of great suffering and uncertainty. And at times our grief will seem overwhelming—like the type of grief so many of us are currently feeling about war, and genocide, and natural disasters, and over-population, of species extinction, and so many more disasters.
But like living cells in a larger body, it is natural that we feel the trauma of our world. So today — this Earth Day — we offer some balance to the paralysis of analysis and its intense anguish that we might be feeling these days. These responses arise from the depth of our caring and the truth of our interconnectedness with all beings. After all, “to suffer with” is the literal meaning of compassion. And this world could use a lot more compassion.
What if we were to understand our relation to nature and our environment in sacred terms or poetic terms or, with Emerson and Thoreau, in good old American transcendentalist terms, but there is no broadly shared language with which to do this. So we are forced to resort to what is, in fact, a lower common denominator: the languages of science and bureaucracy. These languages have broad legitimacy in our culture, a legitimacy they possess largely because of the thoroughness with which they discredited religious discourse in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. But many babies went out with the bath water of religious dogma and superstition. One of these was morality. Even now, science can’t say why we ought not to harm the environment except to say that we shouldn’t be self-destructive. Another of these lost sacred children was our very relation as human beings to the mystery of existence, as such. As the philosopher G. W. Leibniz famously wondered, “Why is there something rather than nothing?”
For St. Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century, this was the fundamental religious question. In the place of a medieval and renaissance relation to the world that was founded on this mystery, we have a mechanical relation that is objective and data driven. We no longer have a forest; we have “board feet.” We no longer have a landscape, a world that is our own; we have “valuable natural resources.” Avowed Christians have been slow to recall this sacred relationship to the world. For example, only recently have American evangelicals begun thinking of the environment in terms of what they call “creation care.” We don’t have to be born again to agree with evangelicals that one of the most powerful arguments missing from the 21st century environmentalist’s case is reverence for what simply IS. One of the heroes of Goethe’s Faust was a character called Care (Sorge), who showed to Faust the unscrupulousness of his actions and led him to salvation. Environmentalism has made a Faustian pact with quantitative reasoning; science has given it power but it cannot provide deliverance. If environmentalism truly wishes, as it claims, to want to “save” something—the planet, a species, itself—it needs to rediscover a common language of Care.
Here’s a valuable learning: you cannot defeat something that you imagine to be an external threat to you when it is, in fact, internal to you, when its life is your life. The truth is, these so-called external threats are actually a great convenience to us. It is convenient that we can imagine a power beyond us because that means we don’t have to spend much time examining our own lives. And it is very convenient that we can hand the hard work of our resistance to these so-called externals over to scientists, our designated national problem solvers.
Environmentalism should stop depending solely on its alliance with science for its sense of itself. It should look to create a common language of care (a reverence for and a commitment to the astonishing fact of flowers and plants and existence) through which it could begin to create alternative principles by which we might live. As Leo Tolstoy wrote in his famous essay “My Religion,” faith is not about obedience to church dogma, and it is not about “submission to established authority.” A people’s religion are “the principles by which they live.”
I’ll close with this: The establishment of these principles by which we might live would begin with three questions. First, what does it mean to be a human being? Second, what is my relation to other human beings? And third, what is my relation to existence as such, the ongoing “miracle” that there is something rather than nothing? If the answer to these questions is that the purpose of being human is “the pursuit ofhappiness” (understood as success, which is understood as the accumulation of money); and if our relation to others is a relation to mere things (with nothing to offer but what they can do for us); and if our relation to the world is only to “resources” (that we should exploit for profit); then we should be very comfortable with the world we have. If this world goes to perdition at least we can say that we acted in “good faith.” But if, on the other hand, we answer that there should be a greater sense of self-worth in being a human, more justice in our relation to others, and more reverence for existence as a sacred Whole, then we must either live in bad faith with market-driven capitalism and other systemic “givens,” or begin describing a future whose fundamental values and whose daily activities are radically different from what we currently endure. The risk I propose, as our choir sang, is for us to rise to the nobility of a star. We should refuse to be mere functions of a system that we cannot in good conscience defend. And we should insist on living a new story, one that re-cognizes the mystery, the miracle, and the dignity of things, from flowers to frogs to forests to our fellow humans, simply because they are.
Happy Earth Day!