Month: November 2019 (Page 2 of 2)

This year a number of Fort Collins Lutheran churches were anchor sponsors for the first Multi-Faith Home build at The Habitat for Humanity Harmony Cottages site on the SE corner of Taft Hill & Harmony. There are a total of thirteen congregations involved in this project including Temple Or Hadash (reform Judaism) and the Islamic Center, as well as our own Foothills Unitarian Church. The Habitat Harmony Cottages site is platted for 48 high quality, energy efficient homes with solar PV arrays including mostly site-built duplexes and a few single family homes which are built at Poudre High School through a special student program, then transported to the site. The home being built through the Multi-Faith project is for Iman and her two children, who are refugees from Syria (photo). You may have been fortunate enough to have been introduced to Iman and her children in July when she visited our church service or at the Habitat Multi-Faith picnic in August.  

Foothills support of this project has been enthusiastic. Our July share the plate collection was for this project and collected almost $3000 which was matched by Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church. We’ve had over forty members sign up for the Multi-Faith build group events & updates, thirteen attendees at this summer’s picnic and seven participants in Foothills volunteer day build this past Tuesday (Nov. 5^th) (photo). 

On our Tuesday volunteer build day, we had beautiful, sunny, crisp, blue sky Colorado fall weather. After a briefing and safety talk we broke into two groups including both Foothills volunteers and a few other volunteers, each under the guidance of an experienced construction staff member.  One group (Foothills members: Jane and Anne Aspen, Kay Williams) did “blocking” and similar tasks in one of the Poudre High built homes that is nearly finished. Blocking involves installing 2”x4” blocks that fit between the vertical studs to provide attachment points for kitchen, bath and laundry cabinets (see photos). The other group (Foothills members: Tom Saults, Katy Kohnen and myself) worked on framing and also setting a large horizontal support beam on a partially framed duplex (see photos). We had the great pleasure on this team of working with Haley one of the future home owners, an extremely personable, hard working single mom with a 5 ½ year old son.  Haley is excited for the opportunity to move into and build community in a good neighborhood with other children including some her son’s age. We broke for a group lunch about noon, and enjoyed pizza provided by Sara Steen who’s schedule did not allow her on-site participation. The work was fun and rewarding. The camaraderie was great as was the instruction and supervision. At the end of the day we were tired but pleased with the progress. The consensus was that we were each able to contribute, to learn something and had a good time doing it. Also, we were all glad the work hours were limited to 9am–3pm, and all agreed that we have a new appreciation for professional construction staff that typically start much earlier and end later. 

This was truly an enjoyable and rewarding volunteer activity. If you enjoy hands-on volunteer work I’d encourage you to check it out. Group build days are booked through the end of this year but there are individual slots open and also a wait list which often has a few slots that open last minute.

On-line registration is very easy. To volunteer as an individual or small group go to https://fortcollinshabitat.volunteerhub.com/account/signin Scroll down to create a new account, log in and then search for volunteer days of interest. Click to sign up or join a wait list. Construction days are Tues, Thur, and Sat. There are also other volunteer opportunities such as helping at the Habitat Restore and as a Restore Truck Assistant. You can also contact the Habitat Volunteer Coordinator, Abby Krstulic at akrstulic@fortcollinshabitat.org or 970-488-2610 if you have questions about the login to their site or about volunteering individually.

– Dan Siegfried, Foothills Member

Listen to the reflection here.

Hello. Good morning! I’m Teri Ashley.

I was here two weeks ago, when Reverends Sean and Gretchen introduced the theme of Discipline and invited us to share three practices over the course of this month. They asked, “Who was in … 100%?” and I held my hand up high. I like the idea of embracing practices that add meaning to life.  I like experimenting. 

In addition to challenges, I love accountability, so I thought I’d give you an update today regarding those prayer beads…

Historically I have not been much of a pray-er. However, when my mom died seven years ago, I was overcome with what the experts call “complicated grief.” Mom and I had had a brutal falling out 20 years before, and we’d JUST managed to negotiate a truce before she died. I had deep-seated hope for a mother/daughter peace treaty, but that never happened. My first act of self-care was to take my sad self to a silent retreat center for four days because I was so afraid of what I might say out loud. While I was at that center, poking around their book shop for something transformational, I found myself wildly attracted to a set of rosary beads. It felt wrong to take them home – I don’t identify as a Christian — but the thought of those beads wouldn’t let me go. So, after I returned home, I built a personal rosary: a special bead for each person in my life who knew me well and loved me with kindness and compassion. When I went to bed at night, heart heavy with thoughts of my mom, I would run those bead through my hands and recite all those names by heart. So much of creating a joyful life is learning to focus with gratitude on what we have rather than focusing on what’s missing.

So these prayer beads, the ones we’re sharing here at church, really light my fire because they connect me gratefully with all of you. I love going to bed at night and remembering this enlightening, challenging, sustaining, beloved community.  I love knowing you’re saying these prayers too. 

I’ve gotta confess that I’ve renamed the beads — well the blue breathe beads are the same — but I was having trouble remembering the names of all the other ones without my paper, so I‘ve given them simpler names: grounding, gratitude, grace, listen and love. Three “G”s and two “L”s.  Grounding, gratitude, grace, listen and love. The meaning behind them stays the same, but now I can say my prayers with the lights off.

I especially like the GRACE bead: it’s about taking a fearless moral inventory and forgiveness. It reminds me to value the tangles that come with our blessings. When I get to the LOVE bead, I still stay the names of all the people who know me and love me with kindness and compassion. Over time, I find more and more of these people here in this space.  I also try to remember the names and faces of the strangers I meet every day: the grocery clerk, the waiter, the bank teller. I wish them well, too. Every night, I ask myself if there are any amends I need to make, any forgiveness to offer.

I think of this ritual as a way to un-knot some of those tangles while I still have time. And I think of all of us doing this together, a way of sending silky, shiny filaments of love to each other every night. Ram Dass says, “At the end of the day, we’re all just walking each other home.” Instead I think, when we say our prayers, connecting with one another, we’re all tucking each other into bed.

Thank you for joining me in this practice.

When Sean decided to preach on sacrifice, I knew it would likely bring up a lot of feelings for people. It’s a charged word – and a complicated topic.

Except, I also kept thinking that it should be a really comfortable topic for our community. Because actually, we are good at sacrifice. 

Not sacrifice like, human sacrifice in the Temple of Doom, of course. But still, sacrifice where we give up a part of ourselves because we know it will serve a greater love. Sacrifice that breaks our heart wide open. Sacrifice is a necessary part of courageous love.

For example. In February 2017, our congregation decided to move to three services on Sunday.

We all thought this was generally an awful idea – it would require so many volunteers, an exhausting experience for the worship leaders, and the time for fellowship would be reduced to basically nothing.

And yet, given that we were seeing over 350 adults on Sundays, and our worship space holds 320 at a maximum, we knew that if we were going to welcome all those who seek our community, we needed to do it anyway.

It would be a sacrifice – a collective one. And we said yes – because it was and is who we are.

I’ve been thinking about sacrifice a lot over the last few weeks, as we’ve been laying the groundwork for our official launch of our capital campaign.

In order to decide on the right goal for our campaign, we’ve reached out to a small group of leaders to see if they were willing to make a commitment that could be an inspiration for others, and wow.

I have been overwhelmed to hear about the willingness that exists among us to give in ways that will be much harder than having coffee on the patio in winter. A willingness to give in ways that will create so many possibilities for Unitarian Universalism in Northern Colorado for many, many years to come.

How much have your fellow Foothills members and friends committed to so far? You’ll have to come on Sunday to find out! We’ll be kicking off the Campaign this Sunday – so we’ll share the goal – along with a whole bunch of other fun stuff during and between the services.

One of the things we’ll be exploring this Sunday is how what we focus on grows. If you want to grow your sense of human generosity and possibility – join us this Sunday! I’m excited and I so hope you can be there! 8:30, 10, or 11:30.

In partnership,
Rev. Gretchen

Notes from Disciplined: Week 3: Who Me? Sacrifice?  
Listen to the message

Music
Divisionary (Do the Right Thing) by Ages and Ages
At 10 we sang All that I Am
At 11:30 we sang Ever from Heatherlynn

Practices 
Share in a collective practice using our Disciplined Practice Guide. 
In our 11:30, we experienced our Prayer Bead practice together, which you can find on page 3 of the Guide or in this audio recording. 
Text COMMIT to 970-00 to be a part of our tips and reminders throughout the series

Text
We offered this poem from Mary Oliver as our Call to Worship
We adapted this prayer for Veteran’s Day from Amy Petrie Shaw at 8:30

Resources
Check out the message from Rev. Karen Hutt that includes a summary of the story, “Space Invaders,” that Sean told on Sunday.

Remember Often when we talk about sacrifice, we are asking those who are already marginalized or disempowered to give up even more to maintain the status quo. Yet, courageous love asks us to consider what we are willing to give for a collective liberation and wider justice.What is courageous love asking you to sacrifice on behalf of a greater good?

Why haven’t you come to my door?

This was the question our presenter asked the group of us religious professionals gathered to learn about Unitarian Universalist worship. 

She was a stranger to us, mostly, other than her name in the program. And that was the point. 

She had spent much of the last few years of her life caught in illness that kept her unable to leave home. Over the months she had answered the door many times to fundamentalist religious folks. She said they brought kindness, connection…and destructive theology. 

She looked at all of us and asked – where are the Unitarian Universalists?Why haven’t you come to my door? Don’t you know that you have a message worthy of knocking on doors about? A message that people need? That would save lives?

I’m guessing you, like those of us in the room that day, get a little or a lot nervous at this idea.  Like….going door to door to share about our church and our good news with strangers!??!!  That is not what UUs do!

But! This question from our presenter made me realize the ways we can cheat ourselves and our communities just because we want to be clear we aren’t that sort of religion.  And the potentially huge impact that progressive religion could and should have on us as individuals, and for our world – if only we decided to free ourselves from worrying about looking too churchy.  If instead of fear or reactivity about some of these practices, we held a posture of curiosity, openness, and courage. To try, and to explore.

Which brings us to this month’s theme – and especially our invitation to collective practices. Because there’s all kinds of stuff we’ve invited that might bring up some of those same feelings we had when our presenter made us think about knocking on strangers’ doors. 

Prayer beads. Table Blessings. Weekly Fast. 

And then, lean in to that discomfort as a potential opportunity for something more. Something more meaningful, powerful, communal.  Maybe at the end of this month you set it all aside and realize it wasn’t a good fit, just as you thought. Or, maybe you’ll decide to keep at it a little longer. The Unitarian Universalist practice we commit to in our principles is only to keep exploring, and to keep growing. To keep becoming – our whole lives – more and more connected, more fully alive. 

Speaking of potentially triggering ideas….this Sunday Sean’s talking about sacrifice. I invite your curiosity! Let’s see what’s there for us to learn, to grow, to become – together. 

I look forward to seeing you Sunday at 8:30, 10, or 11:30.

In partnership, Rev. Gretchen

Notes from Disciplined: Week 2: Samhain / All Souls 

Listen to the message 

Music

Divisionary (Do the Right Thing) by Ages and Ages (in the 11:30 we mixed this with our Meditation on Breathing)

Breaths – we listed this song as written by Ysaye Barnwell but actually it’s based on this poem by Sengalese poet Birago Diop

Resources

Are you carrying grief this season? Be sure to connect with our seasonal grief group, Tangled Blessings that begins Nov 12^th.  More info here.  

Curious about a move away from direct Dia de los Muertos service in recent years? Check out this video conversation that engages this question and other big from some of today’s wisest leaders in Unitarian Universalist worship

More info about the growing interest in genealogy

Practices 

Share in a collective practice using our Disciplined Practice Guide.  

If you haven’t yet, pick up your prayer beads some time this week or next Sunday.

In our 11:30, we experienced our Prayer Bead practice together, which you can find on page 3 of the Guide or in this audio recording.  

Text COMMIT to 970-00 to be a part of our tips and reminders throughout the series

Text In our 10 & 11:30 we shared this blessing from Natalie Fenimore. Learn more about the dance company featured in our 10 and 11:30 services here. Remember Our ancestors are with us as guides and as sources of comfort and courage – and their wisdom is accessible especially through our feelings, and our bodies. What ancient wisdom are you receiving in your heart, and in your body that can guide you and strengthen you in your life today?