Visions for Eliot
A sermon preached for the congregation at Eliot Unitarian Chapel
in St. Louis, MO by the Rev. Dr. Daniel ÓConnell on March 30, 2008
Whither is fled the visionary gleam? Where is it now? The glory and the dream? So wrote the poet Wordsworth. I’m not sure where the visionary gleam is, but I can tell you where the red dumpster is.Wordsworth, Ode: Intimations of Mortality from Recollections of Early Childhood, 1807.
We’ve known for a long time that our sanctuary has needed repair. And that our old religious education wing needs renovation.
We have what we call our old RE wing and our new RE wing. The new RE wing has two floors and an elevator. That’s where our children’s classrooms are.
The old RE wing is where Children’s Chapel is, the choir room, the senior high room, and our religious education offices. It was built in a hurry after a fire destroyed much of it in the 1970s. It has held up well during those years, but it is nearing the end of its useful life.
Which brings me to today’s question: why? Why is it important to do these renovations? I don’t mean the immediate answer of– well, if we don’t fix it up, it will fall down around us. While true, it really isn’t enough of a reason.
It may be nice to have a historic building, but what’s it for? What good is it?
We are here this morning, because some people who came before us had a dream. A vision of a beacon of liberal religion in Kirkwood. They made their dreams come true. And here we are.
It can be great to dream big dreams. Big things require big spaces. My first office as a minister was in a converted house. And my office was in what had been the master bed room. And it had a high ceiling. Probably 15-20 feet high in some places.
And when I came to Eliot, and they asked what room I wanted for my office, I chose the room with the tallest ceiling, since I was already used to that. So, I’ve spent my 10+ year career in the ministry with a high ceilinged office. Does that make any difference?
A university professor– after moving through a high ceilinged airport to a low ceiling plane, had an idea. She conducted a series of tests where students performed various tasks— some in a room with a 10-foot ceiling and some in an identical room except that the ceiling was two feet lower.
What she discovered was that students in the higher-ceiling room consistently did well on tasks where they had to envision relationships between things, while students in the lower-ceiling room performed better on detail-oriented work.
With the higher ceiling heights, what seems to happen is that people subconsciously get a sense of freedom from the spaciousness of the room. And in lower ceilings, we are activating thoughts related to a sense of confinement, or some kind of limitation.
So, she concluded that people who need to focus on detail, like computer programmers, should be assigned to the lower-ceiling work areas, while those who need to do goal-setting, plan strategies, come up with innovative concepts or in other ways see the bigger picture should get the higher-ceiling spaces.
So, take a look at the room we are in right now. A pretty high ceilinged place, isn’t it?
We had a survey in the order of service for the last couple of weeks. And we got about 25 responses.
The survey is available today also, if you’d like to jot down your thoughts. It’s in your order of service and you can drop it off at the office or up front at the pulpit if you’d like. We’ll have a basket up here.
And the survey has 3 questions. Questions about core values, core purpose, and a BHAG, or ‘big, hairy, audacious goal. I got these concepts from a Harvard Business Review article that a church member gave me.
So, what does that mean? Core values are the guiding principles by which Eliot Chapel navigates. Core purpose is our most fundamental reason for being.
And a BHAG is an ambitious plan that revs up the entire congregation. Typically BHAGs take many years to complete.
In our survey, I ended up with three groups of 8 responses. Some of the responses were positive and forward thinking. A couple were negative.
For core values, for the guiding principles by which we navigate, the following were mentioned:
• freedom, reason, tolerance;
• cultivating spiritual growth;
• friendship, importance of education
• free religious thought, celebration of religious diversity
• respect & acceptance.
Interestingly, in one group of 8, three people couldn’t or didn’t name what they thought the core values of Eliot Chapel are. Maybe that means we ought to be identifying and articulating our core values more among our members and friends.
Because if some of us feel unable or unequipped to say what the core of Eliot Chapel are in an anonymous survey, how can we ever expect ourselves to be articulate to family, friends, and strangers about our core values.
For a church, core values are what we say is most important. Our core values are a “small set of timeless guiding principles.” They don’t require any outside justification. They are what define us. They are what make us distinctive. Our core values define what we stand for. And I think the items people came up with in the survey fit the bill pretty well.
Free religious thought; celebration of theological diversity; the importance of trying to create a loving community– these ideas came up repeatedly.
Although this wasn’t explained in the insert, core purpose refers to Eliot’s reason for being. And the answers we give as to our core purpose, ideally, will capture a little bit of the soul of Eliot.
One person pointed out our core purpose is captured in our mission statement. Excellent answer whoever you are.
Another said our core purpose is to provide a welcoming place, “even for very odd & very traditional believers.” Someone else said our core purpose was to “balance out those right wing bas– people. To show that religion is a force to join people in the good, rather than a division to ostracize and condemn others.”
Another person in this first group said our core purpose is: “to create and grow a community of people who explore and support the spiritual journey of the individual and group, who support one another, who take compassionate action for the betterment of the local and world communities.” Wow. That sounds thoughtful and encompassing.
That second group of eight, who had 3 people who didn’t identify core values, also had 2 who didn’t identify a core purpose. Remember, a core purpose is the reason we exist. If we can’t articulate why we exist, it will be difficult to talk about why this place is important.
Again, I read about a creed-less alternative to mainstream religion; to foster community; to unify a theologically diverse people.
Our third group of 8 talks about our core purpose being a community of love & support, without judgement; and to assist each individual on their religious and spiritual journey. Once more we can read about providing a community to help express and live out our values.
Someone wrote that our core purpose is to “provide a place where people can learn and grow from all religious practices and ‘experiment’ to find the right mix. There is also an external element of acting for what is right.”
Another way to think about our core purpose is to ask: What would be lost if Eliot ceased to exist?
Hundreds of children, hoping to learn religion free from fear of damnation, would be disappointed.
gathering in loving authenticity would lose a place of safe exploration.