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Sue Ignazito-Wilhelm - December 21, 2003

My husband and I, along with our son, have been coming to Eliot for almost a year. When I signed up to do the Welcome, we had intended to be members by this day; but the time kind of flew by, and then the holidays came, and it just hasn't quite happened, YET.

So, here is my story about why we DO intend to become members of Eliot Chapel.

You see, my parents were mostly non-religious. They chose not to teach my sister and I any particular belief-system, leaving it up to us to explore and choose for ourselves.

Holidays were very secular, with little mention of the faith behind them. My father's family is Jewish, so we lit Chanukah candles. My mother's mother's birthday is Christmas day, and we continue her tradition of decorating the entire house in the same glitter and sequins that Grandma likes to wear on her own clothing. I felt there was something missing, and I went about seeking my religion. In college, I finally felt that I had made up one of my own. Later, I learned that I was really a Unitarian!

I had studied the beliefs of people from all continents and had chosen those that felt right to me. I had found the things that all those faiths had in common. Those common ideals can, amazingly, be boiled down to one sentence:

It is important to CHOOSE to live a life of LOVE, COMPASSION, and DISCIPLINED COMMITMENT to humanity.

It is the inspiration toward love, compassion, and a disciplined commitment to humanity, coupled with a wonderful sense of humor, that I find here at Eliot that makes me want to become part of THIS tradition. My sincere thanks to all of you who make it happen.

Jane Larson - December 7, 2003

I was thrilled to discover Unitarian Universalism about 17 years ago when my husband David Day and I began to attend First Unitarian Church in the city. Our impetus was to enroll our 3-year old in Sunday School and establish 'The Sunday Morning Habit.' Like a dutiful parent, I signed up to teach Sunday School, but I¹ll save those stories for another Sunday when no one has signed up to do the 'welcome.'

How many of you are going to be in the pageant next week? First time? How many of YOU (adults) were as surprised as I was when you first learned that a UU church had a Christmas pageant? It is a comfort to me that this cultural tradition had not been abandoned.

This brings me back to First Church, Christmas 1992, when our son, Patrick, who was then six weeks old and the youngest member of the congregation, was cast as the baby Jesus. I was nothing less than a proud stage mom, when I would brag to my non-UU friends -- which at that time was all my friends! -- that my son was the baby Jesus in the Christmas Pageant -- AT A UNITARIAN CHURCH!!! One friend responded, "Then he¹s not just the baby Jesus, he¹s the baby Everybody!"

Everybody! That's a word that can be used alot around here! We welcome everybody. We learn from everybody! Everybody's opinions and feelings matter. And no matter where you are in your search for truth, for the meaning of life, or for a spiritual home, we welcome you to continue your search with us. You will have lots of company!

Dottie Brenner - November 30, 2003

First, what my beliefs are now as a Unitarian. They weren’t the same 47 yrs ago when I joined.

• Open heart, open mind
• Be as non judgmental as possible for others and for yourself.
• Have confidence in yourself and others
• Just as in science experiments - we have a theory that is tested and the data analyzed but we never come out with a perfect answer - only a workable theory.
• This search will never end. It will go on to infinity.
• This is my God. I stand in awe of the endless journey. I like to call it 2 to the power of (not squared) but infinity.

How did I come to these beliefs?

My mother was very loving. She believed in bringing out the best in people by better communication. My father was very scientifically oriented and talked almost every day about evolution and how it was a workable theory. I was raised in a liberal Baptist church in Washington D. C., where until the age of 12, I never missed a day of Sunday School. After 12, I sang in the church every Sunday night in the Junior Choir until I went to College.

I EVOLVED from this church. In high school the math, science and literature of Shakespeare, Shaw, Thoreau and Emerson had more and deeper meaning than some of the things I had heard at Sunday School. In college, under graduate school, the major in psychology and minor in science added to this evolvement that begin with the Baptist Church - open heart - open mind. In grad school my courses in social work and teaching further enriched my beliefs about being non judgmental. I also just happened to read Huston Smith’s Religions of the World. There are other view points. While attending this same grad school, a welcome party was held in which they informed us of the community resources including the Ethical Society and Unitarian Church. After 2-3 years of attending the First Unitarian Church I met John Brenner, who along with his two brothers had attended the Ethical Society Sunday School and the Boy Scout Troop held there - both lead by the same man. The Ethical Society is not that different from Unitarian Churches. We married. Our son attended the Sunday school at First Church and Eliot for 17 or 18 yrs.

My further development in MY Unitarian beliefs was enhanced by not only Dr. Clark, Rev. Robinson and Dr. O’Connell but by teaching Sunday school at First Church and Eliot Chapel and by reading the books in the small sunday school library at First Church while I organized them.

Shortly before John Robinson left I listened intently to a sermon that I would call "I Stand in Awe of Where the Quest for the Unanswerable Question Will Lead Us." That really impressed me.

This faith has stood the test of fire recently in conflicts within my past immediate family and extended family. It helped a lot in my mental conflicts to write this.

These beliefs again are:

• Open heart, open mind
• Be non judgmental as much as you can for others and your self
• Science will come up with only workable theories.
• The quest goes on to 2 to the power of (not squared) but to infinity.
• I stand in awe of where the quest for the unanswerable question will lead us.

Perhaps through these beliefs which I share with others we will never have a perfect world but one better than we could have imagined. These are my beliefs now. They will change and refine in completely my own way until I die. This is what Unitarianism encourages me to do. To me this is Unitarianism.

Judy Highfill - November 23, 2003

Welcome to the Bread Service, one of our favorite traditions at Eliot Chapel. If there are any visitors with us this morning, a special welcome to you! We hope you will enjoy participating in this unique service, celebrating the first Thanksgiving and the diversity of our Eliot community. We UUs feel a special connection to those early seekers of religious freedom because they were among those who later became known as Unitarians and Universalists.

My name is Judy Highfill. I grew up in Union, Missouri, a small town 50 miles southwest of St. Louis, and was raised in the liberal German Protestant tradition of my parents -- a denomination now known as the United Church of Christ -- whose Eden Seminary in Webster Groves is the "school of choice" for most local UU ministerial candidates.

When I was 13, studying for my Confirmation, my father died rather suddenly of lung cancer, and this led me to take the study of my childhood religion more seriously than most of my friends did. At that time, I believed that God -- usually defined by the attributes of love or creativity -- must first of all be logical. So the Apostle's Creed -- which was the litmus test for membership in our most liberal corner of Protestant Christianity -- was a bit of a problem for me. The two facets of Christianity that troubled me most were its exclusivity and the concept of the trinity, which was not found in the Bible. My liberal pastor tried his best, but was unable to totally convince me that these were necessarily conclusive or logical. Like many others who have come to this place, I was already a UU in my youth, but without knowing it.

So when I visited Eliot Chapel in 1994 and shortly thereafter attended a New U class to learn more about Unitarian Universalism, I immediately felt "I had come home" theologically. That first Sunday, instead of scriptures taken solely from the Bible, I heard the familiar poetic words of Lao Tzu, the founder of Taoism. This example of respect for religions beyond Judeo-Christianity was exactly what I was looking for.

This past summer I enjoyed learning more about Unitarian Universalism on a broader scale, by attending the UU General Assembly -- our national convention -- in Boston. This experience was one of the highlights of my spiritual life, the east coast being the birthplace of American Unitarianism. It was also a joy and a privilege to sing with the 300-voice choir; to carry the Eliot Chapel banner in the parade opening the Assembly; and to visit so many historical UU churches -- including the one that John Robinson, our former minister, attended as a boy; to see the cemetery where he rode his bike as a child -- alongside the graves of Thoreau, Emerson and Hawthorne; and to see "the rock" at Plymouth, MA, and the FIRST First Unitarian Church, which has been continuously active as a congregation since the 1600's and is still operating today under the original covenant written by the pilgrims and Puritans -- our spiritual ancestors -- whose Thanksgiving ceremony we celebrate today.

So welcome to Eliot Chapel! I hope you enjoy the service and that you'll come back again and again.

Chuck Schuder - October 26, 2003

I grew up in the Roman Catholic tradition. As a child and a young man, I loved the pageantry in the liturgy there. To this day, when I smell incense, I still think to myself, "God smells like that!" In my particular church, we had an extensive children's music program, but the Nuns who ran it only let girls participate. Since I have ALWAYS loved making music, that was my first disappointment with the church. Still, I just thought it was a normal thing: Boys play baseball; only girls sing in the choir, right? So, I continued to be very active in the liturgical and social life of the parish, even to the extent that I was the president of our teen-age youth group, and on the Diocesan Youth Council.

As I grew up, folks taught me that Catholics were the most moral people. Furthermore, among Catholics, the ones who sent their children to Catholic schools, or who attended Catholic schools themselves, were really the best ones. To be fair, those attitudes were not the teachings of the Church, per se, but of some of the teachers in the schools I attended thru college, and of my nuclear and extended family.

After I grew up and left home to be a soldier, I continued my close association with the church. But, for the first time, I met, worked with, played with, ate with, slept with and lived with highly moral, even admirable folks who weren't Catholic. It was only then that I started to come to a vague awareness of Catholic self-righteousness.

Later on, after I returned to the United States to attend grad school, I continued to be very active in church life. I still really believed in the hierarchy, the "rules" and the rigid, dogmatic, even superstitious statements of faith. However, I was beginning to become gradually more and more disenchanted. I began to drift away.

Only after a divorce and a move far away from family, did I really break away from Catholicism completely. Frankly, it wasn't because of any dogmatic or hierarchical thing, but because after thirty or forty years of being a good, loyal Church member, the Church rejected me. It took a lot to convince me, but that was the final straw. Instead of helping me through a difficult period in my life, the Church threw me out!

Now I know that must sound as though I am a whiner, and a really bad reason to reject a philosophy I had lived and loved for a long time. So, I looked at the various Protestant religions, especially those closest in dogma and liturgy to the Catholics, such as the Episcopalians, the Lutherans, and so on. I found that many of the most active people there to be just as dogmatic, just as rigid, just as self-righteous as the Catholics, if more compassionate.

Then I finally came to St. Louis, and met Rebecca, who later became my wife. She introduced me to Eliot through the Madrigal Dinner in about 1987 or 88, then took me to the All Church Dinner which kicked off the pledge campaign that year. I started attending services, got to know John Robinson, who was the minister here then. I found the music to be WONDERFUL. Unlike the Catholics, they even let me join the choir! I found a church without hierarchy. I found a church without rigid dogmas. I found a church where members and clergy accepted me for who I was and who I am. Note that I did NOT say I found a place without a plan for good living. There may be no formal creeds or dogmas here, but there IS a strong sense of right and wrong. In my opinion, those ethical "rules" make much more sense than the Catholic ones.

I know, I know, this place is far from perfect. Sometimes I get a crazy sense of an attitude that seems to say, "If you're not open-minded like me, you're wrong." But we laugh at ourselves, and do not take ourselves too seriously. We are compassionate. We are friendly. We think for ourselves. We believe in whatever articles of faith we find realistic as long as they don't violate the dignity of folks who disagree with us. We value and respect the morality and good intentions of all people, not just Unitarians who attend Unitarian schools. Are there such things as Unitarian elementary schools?

Anyway, it took me a long time, but I finally found the place where I belong.

Gene Hutchins - November 9, 2003

It was nearly 21 years ago that my wife Nancy and I went to Visitors' corner and met Rich Vaughn and Mary Taylor. This started us on our Eliot Chapel journey.

We came to Eliot because we felt that we were missing a spiritual connection in our world. Nancy was raised an Ethical Culturist, I a Catholic. We had attended the Ethical Society for two years earlier. But left it: we found it lacking, it was sterile and devoid of spirit.

At Eliot we found a vibrant, lively communtiy of people connected by their spirit of good will, good cheer and positiveness.

About 18 months later our son Robert was born. Eliot's R E program became part of our life. He has been in it from nursery through the Senior High Youth Group.

Now that he is completed this, you might wonder why do you still come? There are four other aspects of Eliot that really bind me to this church.

• First is the ministry of the pulpit: From this pulpit, where John Robinson and now Dan OConnell and Bonnie Viegard continue the ministry. I have learned and gotten insight and enlightenment that I am comfortable with. I have faith and not fear my life.

  In life there are twists, turns and evolutions that make the journey rough and overwhelming. You can try and change, alter or influence the outcomes. But sometimes nothing you can do will work or alter. Then use Faith, not fear. In the long run things will be better and you will be better for it.

• Second is the fellowship of the congregation: The people of the church are an extended family.

  Over the years I have met lots of people here, some I know casually, most I know enough to call more than acquaintance. But I have also made some true friends. These are people that I will spend time with at Thanksgiving and Christmas. The love I have is as strong as that for a for my sibling brothers and sister. There is that bond of love.

• Third: about seventeen years ago, John Robinson called a group of about a dozen of us men to form a group to support one another. Over the years this has grown. We are more informal and some what ad hoc but we call ourselves SNAGs, S-N-A-G ,Sensitive New Age Guys.

  Our group varies in size. We have had as many as 50 and usually about 25 to 30 men. We formally meet one weekend a year at Bergfried.

  We have two rituals: The Check In is where you share your view of life. Where you have been and are from, where you are at and seem to be going. And more importantly where do you want to go and why?? Those men who participate are seemingly better able to deal with the twists and bends of life. You learn that you are not alone and there are others who are there with you who can help if you are willing.

  The other ritual is roasted pig for Saturday's supper ... We eat pretty well.

• Fourth is Bergfried: this is a tract of ground at the confluence of the Gasconade and Missouri rivers. It is square mile that was gifted to Eliot by the late Doris Shreve and her sister Julia Ligenfelter. It is entrusted to Eliot to keep it in it's natural state as much as possible. We've done that.

  This is not Forest Park or Kirkwood Park. You will see the physical world of nature and wildlife. You will love Bergfried. You can see all kinds of birds, animals and plants and the experience of the wind and elements.

  You will not see any more glorious sunsets anywhere. And in the morning at dawn if the wind, humidity and temperature conditions are right you see the Lady of the Mist. She will come up from the Gasconade through the draw in the woods, out across the north meadow and rise up and leave to the east. You see that and you will be forever hooked. You didn't see that on National Geographic you saw that at Bergfried.

I have been a member of Eliot for nearly 21 years, I hope to be a member for another 21 years, God Willing.

I encourage you to do the same, I don't think you will be disappointed.

David Crowley - November 2, 2003

I’ve now been a UU for over 30 years, far longer than I was a Catholic or Congregationalist, and everything good and bad, that I read, see and hear about religion convinces me now, more than ever before, that Unitarian-Universalism is the right religion for me. Flexibility in faith, which I learned from my parents, is a hallmark of this denomination. Respect for the vast diversity of spiritual expression is a central UU concept and a cornerstone of my faith as well.

At a primitive level, I do believe in God, but without clear evidence for a supernatural deity, I must base my faith practically on the regard and support I can give to other people and on my involvement in everyday matters affecting my family, my colleagues at work, my friends, my church, my community, my nation and humanity in general.

As I grow older, I become more and more optimistic about the ability of ordinary people to support and help each other through all the difficulties and pain that life has to offer. In the face of bleak and tragic news almost every day, this optimism is sustained by the warmth, personal affirmation and enthusiasm I feel every time I come to Eliot Chapel, my true church home.

Brent Vaughn - October 5, 2003

What brought me here? Well, my parents did when I was quite young. I was fortunate in that my parents were looking for a religious community and found Eliot Chapel in the process. How and why they discovered Eliot is probably similar to the way that many of you have.

Mom was raised as a Roman Catholic in a south St. Louis County parish, but she never felt close to the church. In fact I rarely heard her say anything about her church experience and few in her family had any consistent church involvement.

My dad on the other hand had a very involved fundamentalist Christian childhood at a small town Presbyterian church and many in his family were and are active in their own churches. While in college though he became disenchanted with some of his traditional beliefs when his questions about some of those beliefs raised the ire of his religion teacher.

Even though they experienced some disillusionment with some of their religious upbringing, my parents apparently shared a concept of God and believed our family needed to be part of a church community. I remember hearing debate between them, the importance of which completely escaped my brother and me. We visited several different churches for a year or so. And when they couldn’t decide on a real church service for a given Sunday dad would read Bible stories to us. We were going to be churched one way or another! Period.

When I was 5 years old Mom found an ad for Eliot Chapel and requested literature. We visited the church and joined soon after. So from kindergarten through my mid-teen years I received a liberal religious education here at Eliot. Of course I don’t remember all the individual lessons learned. But what I learned here certainly affected how I would eventually lead my life.

I stopped attending church in my later teen years. Other things started to take priority. Sadly I guess I felt that going to church just wasn’t important anymore.

A few years ago, however, I realized that something was missing in my life, but what that “something” was I could not readily explain. After a lot of soul searching though it became clearer. It wasn’t accurate to say that I had learned everything in childhood that I needed to know and that no improvement was necessary. I further realized that many of my beliefs seemed to be self evident and taken for granted. Were my beliefs really credible? Correct? Ethical? Spiritual? Responsible? I needed a refresher course and reconnecting with the Eliot community seemed the best place to go for a remedial workout.

Reflecting on all of this resulted in a personal epiphany about why Unitarian Universalism is important to me. To me the essence of UU values is in consciously using life-long-learning as an avenue to pursue truth and goodness. In fact there are many learning opportunities offered at Eliot thanks to so many talented and giving people who also share the belief in enriching life by expanding awareness opportunities for themselves and others.

Growing up I heard it said many times, half-jokingly, that folks often came to UU congregations from more traditional churches on their way to becoming un-churched. Maybe that does happen, but looking around Eliot I see many people that were here way back then. Many of you have taught in the RE program. I know that it was you and other adults that gave your time to me and other children, to share your experiences and by example show us how to grow into giving and caring members of the community.

That’s why I decided to become an RE teacher even as my own children have entered adulthood. To me it’s important to give back to the community that has and continues to give me so much. And by doing so, my life-long-learning continues.

Thank you.

Bruce MacKenzie - September 28, 2003

In reflecting on what 1000 Sundays—and countless other days here—have meant to me, I found myself humming, like Pooh I suppose, humming a little tune. The tune buried in the middle of our old hymnal, #159, in our new hymnals is now, happily #1:

“Prayer for This House"

May nothing evil cross this door,
And may ill fortune never pry
About these windows; may the roar
And rain go by.

By faith made strong, the rafters will
Withstand the battering of the storm.
This hearth, though all the world grow chill
Will keep you warm.

Peace shall walk softly through these rooms,
Touching our lips with holy wine,
Till every casual corner blooms
Into a shrine.

With laughter drown the raucous shout
And, though these sheltering walls are thin,
May they be strong to keep hate out
And hold love in.

The first time I sang this hymn I could rub my fingers along the outside pages of the hymnal and pick up soot, could still smell the fire that burned through here in 1978—the hymn has always been, for me, a prayer for this house--Eliot Chapel. But it has been my hymn too, a prayer that has sustained and continues to sustain. In welcoming you to this house this morning, I pray that you too will find something just as sustaining here. Welcome to our house, Eliot Chapel!

Tim Gardner - May 18, 2003

I remember the church of my youth as dark and authoritarian. The rafters supporting the roof were dark. The old pine flooring was stained dark. The few chandeliers that hung down from those rafters were dark iron and put out little light. The pews were dark. The ministers wore long dark robes, as did the organist, the choirs wore dark, and the acolytes, all under their white cassocks.

The pulpit would have been over there, and higher, because, you know, ministers spoke with a higher authority, the lectern for the Lessons or the Epistle would have been here, the girls choir in pews over there, the boys choir facing them in pews back here, and the organist tucked back behind them. The overflow crowd on Easter and Christmas would be stuffed through a doorway over here, and the baptismal font, an attractive nuisance for some young lads, over there.

Windows over the altar, and along the nave were constructed of dark wood framing dark stained glass depicting Bible stories. It is certainly not so, but in my memory all the scenes were bloody. I was very active in the children's choir and the youth group, the choir because it pleased me, the youth group because it pleased my parents, and I was all about pleasing my parents. So I never told them how much I disagreed with the words of the hymns and the liturgy, the creeds still etched in memory, the theological constructs I found unbelievable.

I just went away to college.

The first Sunday I came to Eliot with my first wife Paula and my first son Jeremy, snow was floating gently past these windows. The chairs were turned toward Argonne and placed in semi-circles so we could see each other's faces as well as the minister's. It was February 1975. There were good words that morning, and quiet spaces between the words, and music. But mostly I remember the walls, these cool clean walls of tranquility and the windows that brought light into this our sanctuary, the very sanctuary that in my youth was so dark and foreboding - this sanctuary that during my youth had been Grace Episcopal Church and then after one hundred years of darkness sold to those brave souls who had founded Eliot Unitarian Chapel and literally transformed this space which has so transformed me.

My father at age 95 is still a member of Grace Episcopal Church now several blocks to the East up Argonne. I often tease him that what we Unitarian Universalists are about here at Eliot is reclaiming this holy space from the heresy of the Trinity. Sometimes we are a bit irreverent in this space with our coffee and our clatter. Sometimes we play. Last night we had Klezmer Music ringing off the walls. In December we hold Elizabethan Madrigal Dinners with food, fun and frivolity. Today we hold our Annual Meeting. But in this same space we have dedicated and baptized our children. We have publicly declared our love to our spouses and life partners. We have laughed with joy. And we have cried with sorrow as we say goodbye to so many loved ones of Eliot.

For me this is holy space. This sanctuary is sanctuary. For all I have been a part of at Eliot, and I have been a part of much, for this - and you - are my community, I love nothing as much as I love stealing into this space, early or late, when few or none are here, and sitting still, surrounded by these cool clean walls. Holy space. Sanctuary. As you too share in this community, may it be so for you. May you find sanctuary within these walls. Welcome to Eliot.

Mike Manning - January 26, 2003

I want to discuss Eliot as a place of connections and community. When I began attending Eliot, one of my first activities was to volunteer as a Religious Education teacher. Since my daughter was entering the first grade, that is the grade I chose. During the course of the tri-mester, somehow I connected with a troubled boy in that class. He wasn’t really a bad boy, and he was definitely very smart, but he could not fit in. He could not curb his behavior sufficiently to keep from disrupting the rest of the class. Still, I liked him and he liked me and I could usually get him in the hall and calm him down. I would love to say I cured him, but, as usual, it is not that easy.

Over the years, as the class grew up, he dropped out of RE, then he would try attending again, with the predictable results. Then he would disappear again for awhile. But whenever we saw each other, we said hello and did what we could to catch up ... given the usual communication difficulties age differences present. He came back in the 7th/8th grade Boston Bound year and went on that trip. I served as a chaperone, as did his mother. I once again enjoyed watching him interacting with his classmates. That particular class was exceptionally close throughout their time together at Eliot and they knew him and openly accepted him when he chose to participate. What I saw at Boston Bound was the tremendous intelligence and potential this boy possessed. He emerged as one of the leaders in the extraordinarily successful trip. His mother and I shared renewed hope for his future.

But growing into a teenager was rough for him. He went down the wrong path. I will not elaborate, but to say he eventually left home and ended up in a dilapidated shell of a house with others who chose similarly.

Finally he reached bottom. Here, I want to say that his parents are wonderful people. They are my friends and they did all they could. But sometimes wayward children cannot envision their parents as their benefactors, and such was the case for this boy. He was about to choose to repair his life and begin making use of all that potential I always told him he had, or he would choose to sink into oblivion. Where could he go? ...... CONNECTIONS ... COMMUNITY ... That is what Eliot is about. He knew only one other set of adults he had ever closely connected with, Margie and I, at Eliot. He came and asked for help. We could not refuse. We knew him, after all, from the 1st grade, at Eliot. We knew his parents, especially his mother. We knew that if one of our children turned to them, or others here at Eliot, we would want them to try to help.

The boy did not have a plan how to get started, but needed somewhere to catch his breath while he figured one out. We prayed he would follow through and tried to keep skepticism away from our door. For 3 months, he struggled, but kept somewhat employed, and kept contact with his parents (one of our rules). Finally he chose to get straight. He enrolled in a program that is helping him get his GED and is keeping him from distracting temptations while he jump-starts his life. We had helped him over the threshold.

CONNECTIONS and Community, folks ... Eliot is all about connections and community.

Helen McIntosh - January 19, 2003

Good morning. My name is Helen McIntosh, and I am Chairman of the Social Action Committee. I developed a church habit attending the Methodist Church while growing up in Oklahoma. I came to realize I appreciated the lasting truths that Jesus taught, but questioned some of the dogma that had grown up around him. My first exposure to Unitarianism was in Dallas, shortly before Peter Raible's father retired from the ministry there. It was the first time in years that I had stayed awake through an entire sermon.

We started coming to Eliot in 1968, not long after our oldest child was born, and have been here ever since. As a Unitarian, I have appreciated the freedom to explore ideas. At Eliot I have appreciated being in the midst of dedicated and creative people who enjoy sharing in the life of the church and greater community.

Thank you.

Jerry Higginbotham - January 12, 2003

I was born at the end of the great depression into a religious environment of legalism and fundamentalism. There were two churches of our denomination in my hometown. My father’s family was in the "wrong" church; my mother’s family was members of ours- the "right" one. Minor differences of opinion divided the churches and families as surely as if one were Muslim and the other Jewish Orthodox.

As an idealistic youth, one Sunday morning I publicly prayed for God’s blessings on Christians everywhere. Following the service, church leaders sternly warned me never again to infer that there were Christians other than in our church. My father, although lacking even a high school diploma, became a self-educated evangelist/minister in that church where he continues active in his 92nd year.

Leaving that church, my immediate family spent most of my adult years in a more liberal protestant denomination. In the sixth decade of my life, however, I decided to be free of the hypocrisy of pretending belief in traditional Christian doctrine. This led me one Sunday several years ago to visit Eliot Chapel where I found a total experience which spoke to both my heart and mind. A place without dogma, doctrine or creed where I learned about a new trinity of freedom, reason and tolerance ... where it wasn’t necessary to believe in supernatural beings, events and places ... a place where music was at the opposite end of the quality continuum from the a cappella congregational singing of my youth. Long ago, a co-worker spoke often of his gifted son; imagine my surprise to find that gifted, albeit quiet and shy son, conducting the Eliot choir I joined.

After a lifetime of Bible emphasis, I was impressed by the brochures and pamphlets from the Unitarian Universalist Association, and books in Eliot’s library such as Losing Faith in Faith, A Chosen Faith, and Challenge of a Liberal Faith. And serving on the Program Council made me aware of the great variety of opportunities Eliot provides for small group involvement which I enjoy as a member of Friday Forum.

Eliot Chapel is indeed a place seeking truth, freedom, and beauty which touches and uplifts my mind and spirit. So may it be for you.

Lisa Dahlgren - January 5, 2003

Hello and welcome to Eliot Chapel. For those of you who have attended before, how many times have you heard that message? I've heard it now for over 12 years. My name is Lisa Dahlgren. My husband David Maguire, and I, began attending Eliot Chapel after our first daughter died. She died shortly after she was born. I came looking for solace and understanding, soothing and peace. Pretty tall order for continued attendance if you ask me. Nevertheless, things actually were much like they are now, and when John Robinson said "stay left", we did, at least in order to find visitor's corner.

Unlike the experience some of you have related to me, I was not immediately taken with Eliot. Maybe it was because we came in the summer and back then things were, well, lets say, very laid back during the summer. We were encouraged to return when there were more programs in the fall. Even in the fall, however, I did not find ready solace or answers to the pain that was in my life at that time. Looking back at it, I'm not surprised. I had never been particularly drawn to any church, and I didn't even know what Unitarian Universalism was.

We attended sporadically for the next five years or so. By then I had met a few people. David and I had more children, and I got to know and appreciate Janet Pillman. In fact, the more I saw her work, the more I liked her and pretty soon, for me, Janet Pillman was in many ways, Eliot Chapel. I don't think I would have become as involved with Eliot if it had not been for Janet and the programs she started. Now don't get me wrong, I never got a bumper sticker saying WWJD, meaning of course, What Would Janet Do? But I felt her decisions were wise, and her counsel strong. I really, really, looked forward to that month of the year-January-when she did the services. I started to attend regularly. For several years, I was content at Eliot, never really a part of the core of Eliot, but happy to be making acquaintances, teaching R.E. and listening a few times a year to sermons about talking trees (remember that one?), giving and receiving grace, and making amends with family members.

Then-it happened. No, not an epiphany, not that. Instead, I was asked to serve on the Search Committee. And I heard myself say "Yes, I would like to do that". So, BOOM, there I was, suddenly right in the thick of things. As a Search Committee member I wanted to do what was right for my fellow congregation members, and of course, what was right for Janet. Through that year I got to know an incredible group of people on the Search Committee, and to meet wonderful people as we came together to listen to one another and make some important decisions. I felt my charge in my heart, and really tried to listen to past and present members. What a great way to get to know Eliot!!! All the listening seemed to culminate for me in the making of the CD ROM the Search Committee produced, called, appropriately, for the state of mind I was in, "The Voices of Eliot Chapel".

As many of you know, in the middle of our search Janet resigned. As you can probably guess from what I have said here today, Janet's resignation was sad for me. That is when I really started to question why I was involved at Eliot, and what I got from Eliot. I needed to look beyond what one or two people were doing at Eliot, and look past filling a role at Eliot for only the sake of others. It was time for me to look at what I had really created at Eliot, not Janet or John. In most ways, the answer by then was really simple. Somewhere along the line of relatively small involvement, fairly medium commitment, and some ambivalent feelings about religion, I had been a part of creating a community. Janet had perhaps started certain programs, but I, and others, had brought them to fruition. And as we had done that work, we had changed and molded the programs so that they became ours. I was somewhat surprised to realize that I had become Eliot Chapel along with so many others.

In many ways, my realization of this is symbolized to me every week during services. Here we come together and use our voices in many different ways. Now, for me, Eliot is the blending of voices we bring here, my own included. All different, but all alike. There is something that I have done and enjoyed since I began here at Eliot. Once a month or so, I stop in the middle of a song, or a reading, and listen. I listen to the people around me. When I do, I hear all sorts of things. I hear the strong voice from someone who is confident in the words, the guy who sings delightfully off key, even the quiet shy voice from two rows behind me. I hear the people I know, and ones I will not be able to get to know, and some I have never seen before. Their voices, your voices, are a reminder to me of how we have come together and created many, many things. I like that. I like being a part of that. When I stop and listen, the words and music you speak swirl around me. They bolster me, they bring me humility, and courage, and remind me that it is okay if I am one of those who sing off key, whether it is during our song, or with something I am trying to accomplish outside of church. Ultimately, when I return to the singing or reading, I find I speak with a surer voice, because I know I too, I am one of the many but important voices of Eliot Chapel.

Thank you.

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