UU Church of Brevard

                         The YIN Commendments for Ending Global Terrorism and building a safe community from Dr. Rev. Linnea Pearson, Ph.D.
1.     Lighten up.
2.     Remember, human life is short and meant to be enjoyed.
3.      Look about you and exclaim daily at the wonder and the beauty.
4.     Feel sympathy for those who know no way but violence and greed.
5.     Try to figure out a way to help them.
6.     If you’re a man, know it’s time to give women their due.
7.     If you’re a woman, know it’s time to “roar”!
8.     If you’re a child, don’t lose your sense of delight in every day.
9.     Know that all religions are ‘man-made,” some of them in China.
10.             Cultivate Spirituality as if it were a Sacred Garden.

On Saturday, June 8th from 2:00 – 4:00 p.m., Rev. Kevin Annett will be speaking at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Brevard. Kevin is co-founder of the International Tribunal into the Crimes of Church and State (ITCCS), which initially focused on crimes against humanity in western Canada committed against the Mohawk and six other Native North American Nations. Kevin will not only share his painful and heroic story, he will also describe how the colonization

of all peoples by trans-national corporations is in everyone’s backyard. Kevin has become an expert in identifying themes of modern colonization and in identifying the connections between colonization, genocide and trans-national corporations, some including religious institutions. Using his work we can see the attention we need to pay to local and national legislation. Come and meet a dragon slayer, honor his work and life and learn how to focus our activism to quell the fire of the dragon.

We will also hear good old-fashioned (but current) protest songs from DockStreet Band.

We look forward to sharing this event with you and our community. We support the Native North American fight for justice, and opportunities for their stories to be heard, We can learn from their history and see more clearly what is happening all over this land.

Almost single-handedly, former Canadian clergyman Kevin Annett has for over twenty years documented and exposed the deliberate mass murder of aboriginal children in Canada’s Indian residential school system, and brought to trial those responsible.
Rev. Kevin Annett has become an expert at identifying themes of modern colonization and in identifying the connection of colonization, genocide and the role of some transnational corporations including religious institutions. He is the author of many books on the subject of genocide, the crimes of religion, and child abuse and trafficking, and he is an award winning documentary film producer. For more information, visit his website http://canadiangenocide.nativeweb.org/index.html.

Using his work we can see the attention we need to pay to local and national legislation. Come and meet a dragon slayer, honor his work and life and learn how to focus our activism to quell the fire of the dragon.

The DockStreet Band will share with us their original protest music.

Unitarian Universalist Church of Brevard on Saturday, June 8, from 2 pm to 4 pm.
2185 Meadowlane Avenue
West Melbourne, FL 32904
Tel: (321) 220-3472
E-mail: uucb2185@gmail.com

Once you have a god that does not change the game is over, because we humans are always in the process of change. Therefore we can never totally identify with the unchanging divine. This is where Unitarian Universalist theology differs significantly from more conservative theologies. In Unitarian Universalism the divine is always evolving, changing, moving, just as the universe is, in the image of the divine we exist. In this case the image is a verb just as God or the divine is a verb. Feel the flow is an experience of the divine; freeze the flow is to kill the divine spirit. This is an important distinction.

“…when women speak truly they speak subversively–they can’t help it: if you’re underneath, if you’re kept down, you break out, you subvert. We are volcanoes. When we women offer our experience as our truth, as human truth, all the maps change. There are new mountains. That’s what I want–to hear you erupting. You young Mount St. Helenses who don’t know the power in you–I want to hear you.”

– Ursula K. Le Guin

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/sci_cult/leguin/

From where do we derive our rights as people?
Is it from the government, the constitution, or the bill of rights?
If it is from any of these they can be taken away, modified, the meaning changed, or enforced only for a particular group. For example, the book Sacrifice Zones could have been easily called Right-less Zones.
What if our rights were derived from the seventh principle of the Unitarian Universalist faith principles?
Unitarian Universalist congregations affirm and promote:
Principle number seven: Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

What if being an expression of the interdependent web of existence was the source of our rights? Then no King, Queen, President, (think free speech zones), or legislative body could take or alter the meaning of our rights.

Rosemary Rauford Ruether in a response to Thomas Berry’s work, The Great Work says, “ that the transformation that is needed to achieve a sustainable society must contain a dynamic interaction of three components: transformation of consciousness and culture, transformation of technology and transformation of social, legal and economic relations between humans. There cannot be a focus on only one or two of these components at the expense of the other(s). The transformation of culture and consciousness includes a profound deconstruction of the patterns of hierarchical dualism in Western theological, philosophical, psychology and scientific thought and their reconstruction in terms of relations of dynamic mutuality.”

Bruce Alexander in his work the, Globalization of Addiction, says that central to the process of recovering from the globalization of addiction is, “Getting beyond the first steps of social action described here requires a global transformation in world view.”

In Thomas Berry’s thinking: “Firstly, the primary status of the universe. The universe is, ‘the only self-referential reality in the phenomenal world. It is the only text without context. Everything else has to be seen in the context of the universe’. The second element is the significance of story, and in particular the universe as story. ‘The universe story is the quintessence of reality. We perceive the story. We put it in our language, the birds put it in theirs, and the trees put it in theirs. We can read the story of the universe in the trees. Everything tells the story of the universe. The winds tell the story, literally, not just imaginatively. The story has its imprint everywhere, and that is why it is so important to know the story. If you do not know the story, in a sense you do not know yourself; you do not know anything.”

The myth we have been living with, internalized into our very body is proving to be destructive to our planet and our bodies. The rights granted by governing agencies play a role in this destruction. For a recent example the State of Massachusetts was contesting the continuation of a nuclear plant whose time was up, and has recently proven to have difficulty in operating in the snow storm that just past through the state. The Federal government on behalf of a citizen of Louisiana, Entergy denied the state’s wishes. “The state’s attorney general contended that the decision should have considered safety issues raised by similar boiling water reactors and spent fuel pools damaged during the Fukushima Daiichi crisis in Japan. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and its Atomic Safety and Licensing Board declined to hold a new hearing on the re-licensing. On Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Boston upheld that decision, the Cape Cod Times reported.”

The federal government, the courts and the corporation trumped a state’s rights and thus safety concerns. This is a theme in the narrative we must transform and move out of, clearly the human rights, the humans of Massachusetts are subjugated to the rights of the legal citizen of Louisiana, Entergy.

Having rights originating from being an expression of this wonderful web of existence, which means local communities would trump powers from thousands of miles away, would change the story in which we live.

Healing Our World and Ourselves a Unitarian Universalist calling

Every component of the Earth community has three rights: the right to be, the right to habitat, and the right to fulfill its role in the ever-renewing processes of the Earth community.

These rights are foundational to our seventh principle: Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

In the fall of 2011 as David Cobb was on one of his Barnstorming tours drawing our attention to the social, economic, constitutional and political problems that have developed because the supreme court granted human rights to an act of commerce. While having dinner with David, I proposed the idea of a conference including three movements: Move to Amend, Rights of Nature and Recovery from the Globalization of Addiction. His first response was a clear affirmation and said he was on board. Since that time UUCB has been planning the conference “Healing Our World and Ourselves.” Soon after the board covenanted to affirmed and promote the conference, we sought out help from the community. It was clear we could not accomplish what we wanted to do alone. The Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry of Florida stepped up and said, “ yes” we will partner with UUCB to bring this message to the State of Florida. There is something about these three ideas, these three movements, and the speakers that is energizing people. We have over 75 preregistrations so far, coming from all over Florida and some from Georgia. Our speakers and musicians are coming from Oregon, Vancouver, B.C., Vermont, and Florida.

We are following the leadership of one of our faith ancestors, Henry Nelson Wieman. Wieman made the observation that “the fullest attainment of humankind can only be achieved when people make the ultimate commitment-to engage in Creative Interchange, the true source of human good and transformation…….People are made for creative transformation as a bird is made for flight.” Creative Interchange occurs, “when the individual finds one or more persons with whom she/he can engage in that kind of interchange which creates in each an awareness of the original experience of the other person….. We must counteract the forces that obstruct Creative Interchange, such as prejudice, all forms of ignorance, and blocks to the creative process. There are no guarantees that Creative Interchange will bring this world to peace and justice, but it has that potential.”

And we move in the direction of that potential without guarantees. This what Joanna Macy calls Active Hope. Active Hope moves us to work together for the good while living in a state of uncertainty.

So we act to create a space for creative interchange in hope of transformation, moving away from a destructive way of life to a way of life that sustains life; holding onto what we have now and then turning toward a way of life in which life can flourish once again. What do I mean? Last night I listened to Marty Baum of Indian River River Keepers. He was clear the Lagoon is in serious trouble as life processes in the lagoon are being diminished. We can stop and hold the human behaviors that are literal killing the lagoon, he reports, and then create human patterns in which the lagoon can begin to flourish with life once again. This pattern of spiritual transformation, educating, holding, adjusting is part of the Great Turning as Joanna Macy speaks of it.

The conference on February 15th and 16th , is part of the spiritual transformation and educational legs of this pattern. We Unitarian Universalists add the Creative Interchange dynamic. Bringing the Rights of Nature, Move to Amend and Recovery from the Globalization of Addiction into creative interchange is not only an act of transformational education it is also an act of recovery itself. You will notice the flow of the conference includes space for the participants to share their story and the part of the story that is foundational to their vision. As Wieman teaches the sharing of “the original experience of the other person” is a core aspect to transformation.
Briefly I will highlight a principle from each movement. From the story of the rights of nature, Cormac Cullinan and Judith E. Koons promote a key dynamic in the law that needs to emerge: a governance system that supports and sustains life needs to take into account the attributes of what is being governed, There should be a correlation between the regulatory system and what was being regulated, and this structure is built on three principles: the intrinsic value of the Earth: the relational responsibility of humanity toward Earth; and the democratic governance of the Earth community.
Move to Amend: when the Supreme Court grated human rights to acts of commerce, the foundational/elemental dynamics of our constitution and representational democracy changed. You can not have congress charged with the duties to regulate commerce and then grant commerce protection from those regulations. Our country is no longer our country when entities created by humans gain human rights at the expense of humans.

Globalization of Addiction: Brings the awareness that the very act of granting some types of corporations human rights and Bill of Rights protection results in the development of addictive personalities. When as the Declaration of Independence declares, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all persons are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–……. laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness”, we can clearly see the contrast of our present governing/corporate rulers. Our Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–or Safety and Happiness” are not primary concerns. The majority of persons were against NAFTA, for public option health care, against the war, against the polluting of the treasured home land — all issues of “Life, Liberty,…Safety and Happiness”, and yet entities created by “man” control the day because of having been given the rights of humans . And the human response of having no power to be self determining is the development of an addictive life which reveals itself in social, economic and political structures that move us toward destruction.

So we, in an act of active hope, speak, organize and gather to bring spiritual transformation to our local communities and our land turning us toward life.

Rev. Gregory Wilson

( videos of Jo Ana Macy on uncertainty, http://www.nomanslandpromotions.com/JoannaMacy.html. And http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpbgjpxkwMM)

Full Moon Speaks: The Promise of Things Not Yet Born
In a slow, steady rocking chair
a mother nurses her child.
I bathe her in my light.

I touch gently also
the cheek of the soldier who will never
be younger
than he is now
and
catch the tear
that waits
in the pause
of his shocked eye
but
does
not
fall.

Tonight I shine as full as I ever will.

Tomorrow the descent
toward darkness
will already have begun

So I will give what light is mine to give
now,
like mother’s milk
from full breasts.

I will take you in my arms
I will hold you in my lap
against my round belly
so full of the promise
of things not yet born
and things not yet dead.

We will cherish this moment before it is gone.

Tonight I will rock you in the cradle of
silver oceans
pulling on threads that stretch to their
waters
and to the secret seas of women.
You will see me in an old woman’s
long white hair
and the fine filaments
of the spider’s web
that mirrors the lines
on the Great Crone’s face

In my gentle fearless lapping
I will call you out from your hiding places
from the cramped quarters where
you blow on meager coals

I will bring you forth on
frostbitten hands and knees
you will gaze at each other in awe
my reflected light in your eyes,
and you will be transformed.

You will know this moment in all
its broken possibility
has been given to you in greatest trust
and is already passing from
your fingers
leaving the smell of saltwater
and the cry of seabirds
and the cloudy image
of what might have been

Therefore
look to me!
Look to my coming,
my waxing
and
waning.
Look upon my milky face
drink deeply my light that
comes and goes
and comes once more.

Take heart, fearful ones!
Be loved
my sweet,
scared children!

Do not fear your shining
nor its passing
but shine, shine into the dying of the light!
and then turn gently
into that good night!

The darkness will hold you –
it must –

just as the womb
holds our dearest dreams,
softly,
and with
most
tender
care.

- Rebekah Still

The Unitarian Universalist principles are based on the foundation of freedom. However freedom has come to mean something the promotes individual interest rather than community values. Freedom that does not acknowledge and honor the unifying aspects of community will not last long. A legal freedom that eliminates the well being of the other is not freedom at all. Wieman identifies the problem.

Henry Nelson Wieman in his work Creative Freedom, identifies the problem he feels his generation faces and that is, “the Democratic peoples have come to interpret freedom in terms of private, local, competing in transitory interests. They will view democracy as a utility to serve these interests. They do not recognize as commanding their ultimate allegiance a common good underlying these private interests and sustaining them. They do not recognize the prior claim upon their devotion to that development continuous through history which creates freedom in social relations and in the mind of humanity. Having no such ultimate commitment to Democratic peoples identified freedom with social control exercised by changing desires, hates and fears which happened at any time to possess the minds of individuals and the voting majority. Under such conditions that leaders of a democratic society cannot command great sacrifice for what preserves freedom when its demands run counter to private interests and popular slogans. This results in a disastrous weakening of the power for concerted action in the struggle for dominance between freedom and purity.”

This quote is similar to some of the ideas in the sermon

To advance, you must regularly progress through four cognitive faculties: first, by perceiving what physically surrounds you; second, by mental visualization in which images are whirled around you; third, moving by purposive imagination among intentionally positioned images; thenceforth, by precise meditation, you may comprehend individual thoughts as they are formed.

—Giordano Bruno, 1583

Is the celebration of light:

The coming of a purity in our lives making all things new.

A power and hope that can heal and lead us to dance free of all burdens. A moment in time when we let go of all the thoughts that race through our minds. To enter into a new way of being —-lighter freer, and more enjoyable.

This is the promise of this night:
As in all promises we must commit to the path in which promises can be fulfilled, but that is for new year resolutions. This night we welcome light and goodness into our being without thought.

The divine is with us:
The divine dwells in our very being and body

as we live we bring light to this sacred community and the
light brings healing to all woundedness past present and future.

The divine is living in you now