Volume XIII, Number 9
Shorelines www.wsuuc.org
October 2013
Rev-It-Up: Facing Our Fears By Rev. Wayne Arnason, Parish Co-Minister
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ith the first chill in the air and the first leaves dropping, that old familiar edge of anxiety about the coming winter surfaces inside me. Will it be a really cold one this year? Will it snow a lot? I notice that the leading edge of this fear of winter is very primal within me. It feel like it arises from the ancestral fear of winter’s danger that was a real fear of starvation for the hundreds of generations that came before me. The fear of winter in the life I live today is mostly resistance to inconveniences. How real are the routine fears we face within us? What scares us the most? Death? Divorce? Pain? Financial Ruin? Loneliness? These are important questions that aren’t answered only by psychology or psychiatry. They are spiritual questions about how we feel at home in the world and
what our lives mean to us. Because October is a month where the results of the harvest have always been tallied up and we take stock of how we will get through the winter, because October is a month when we project out and make fun of our deepest fears in the cultural and religious holidays that end the month, it seemed to the ministers like a good time to take up the worship theme of “Facing our Fears.” This month we begin one of our Story Year additions to our worship, an opportunity for lay member of our church to tell us a story about whatever the worship theme of the month might be during one of our services. In ways that will be both light-hearted and serious, in partnership with our worship associates and staff members, your coministers are looking forward with great anticipation to fac-
Announcing NEW Blog: West Shore Waves By Matthew McHale, Intern Minister
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e are excited to announce West Shore Waves (http://westshorewaves.wordpress.com), a new blog for written reflections, stories and musings on a wide range of topics including theology, culture, history, church life, social justice, arts and current events. West Shore Waves is, as the tagline says, a place for “provocation and prose from West Shore UUs.” The primary contributors are West Shore’s ministry team and staff: Revs. Wayne Arnason and Kathleen Rolenz; Director of Lifespan Faith Development, Kathy Strawser; Intern Minister, Matthew McHale; and Director of Music, David Blazer. We’re excited about the blog for several reasons: It allows for writings that don’t really fit in Shorelines or a sermon; it also lets us write timely responses to current events; and, perhaps most importantly, West Shore Waves will allow for lively, thoughtful and respectful discussions, through the comments section, between the writers and the readers in a way we simply can’t do in Shorelines or with sermons. So be sure to give us a wave (comment). We are launching West Shore Waves with two articles—a reflection by Rev. Wayne about a memorial to the four girls who were killed in the Sixteenth Street Baptist
Church bombing fifty years ago during the civil right movement, and a story by Kathy Strawser, about her recent experience working as a chaplain at the Veterans Administration. Here’s an excerpt from her article:
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Twenty years ago, my father was in his final hours in hospice care, and I remember my mom sitting very close to his bed and talking to him. I thought it was strange. He hadn’t shown any awareness of us for a couple days. I knew he wouldn’t answer. He didn’t even move his head in the direction of her voice. Sometimes she’d retell a special time they had together. But mostly she gently told him, over and over, “Everything is alright…You’re doing such a good job…We’re going to be fine…We love you so much…You’re almost there…” It wasn’t until this past summer, when I served a chaplain internship on the hospice unit at the Cleveland Veterans Administration Medical Center, that my mother’s lesson about dying became real for me. (Read on at http://westshorewaves.wordpress.com.) There will be new posts on the blog at least once a week, so be sure to bookmark it and check back regularly.