Goodbye, UU Musicians Network Conference attendees!

The UU Musicians Network conference ended yesterday morning with 120 of the attendees singing at the 9 am service at FUS of Madison, directed by Dr. Stephen Alltop. The special music was "Little Elegy" by Stephen Paulus -- a piece commissioned by the UUMN. The choir also sang Bach's "Dona Nobis Pacem," Rutter's "Down By the Riverside" and "Deep River" by Andrew Paulsson.

"Deep River" filled me with the holy spirit and connected me with the divine. I wanted to throw my hands in the air, but since I'd already had my hands in the air for the hymn "There Is more Love Somewhere," I thought I'd better not do it again. :-) And, I would have clapped on 2 & 4 all during "Riverside" if I had been 100% sure of avoiding 1 & 3. Anyway, the music was sublime!

It was such a wonderful gift and an honor to host this conference. I encourage all UU congregations who are mid-size and larger to host the UU Musicians Network conference. The 2010 conference had about 240 attendees, so perhaps it would be difficult for a small congregation to host this.

Thanks to FUS Music Director Dan Broner and especially to Assistant Music Director Linda Warren for organizing this conference.

Crashing the UU Musicians Network Conference

I'm volunteering a little, but having a ball! For example, I volunteered to drive Dave and Greg, two conference attendees, over to Babcock Hall so they could buy me (and themselves) some real UW-Madison ice cream. Heavenly!

After that, Elizabeth Alexander and some fabulous singers (such as John Hubert and Jason Shelton) sang Elizabeth's "Go Out!" Also heavenly: the Opening Ceremony in downtown Madison, where the new leaf unfolded, the Madison Festival Choir sang gorgeous anthems, and Gini Courter spoke. What a thrill!

We can host this conference because of our new space. We couldn't have done this years ago because we had a small auditorium with a triangular-shaped kitchen. Now we have a 90-second dishwasher that I almost know how to use!

Thanks to Dan Broner and Linda Warren and all members of the UU Musicians Network. You are crucial to our UU religious faith. For me, the times when I've felt most connected to the divine, to God, have been when I'm listening to (and singing) our music.

Elizabeth

Upper Midwestern Modest: What a Hoot!

Wow! Everyone had a blast at our late evening performance at GA. This was my first time performing at GA rather than being a presenter of a workshop. Throughout the program, waves of love and positive energy burst from the audience, washing over the cast before returning to the listeners in an endless cycle -- just like the wave pool at Noah's Ark (in the Wisconsin Dells)! It felt soooo good!!

Thanks so much to everyone who came to the show and especially to the cast, some of whom endured hardship to get to Minneapolis. Soprano Melissa Simonson missed the FUS Madison chartered bus because of a power outage, but found a ride with Lauri Schwarz & Abby Swetz Wednesday morning. Amber Nicole Dilger was the last of us to arrive. Driving up Thursday morning, her car broke down! Thank goodness she made it to GA in time to hear Peter Mayer's concert Thursday evening. Both women are sopranos in the Meeting House Chorus at our church.

Special thanks to youth cast members Robin Delaquess, Noah Huber and Willy Bernstein, all members of the 2009-2010 Saturday Coming of Age class. As we know, youth are our present (not just our future), so it would be weird not to have any in our Revue. It was quite an honor to be in their presence, not just at the performance, but at rehearsal. All three helped refine our skits and program order.

Below is a list of the main cast members. Several more FUS folks sang "Uma Familia" with us at the end of the show, including former Meeting House Chorus member Joel Gilbertson-White, who recently graduated from Starr King.

Abby Swetz, duet of "Amazing Grace" and, like, poetry reading, you know?
Amber Nicole Dilger, soprano soloist
Dan Broner, pianist & conductor of "Uma Familia"
Eva Wright, pianist extraordinaire
Joe Harris, guitar
Lauri Schwarz, duet of "Amazing Grace" and the voice of the UU Translator
Lynn & Richard Scoby, writers of the Mustard commercial
Melissa Simonson, singer-songwriter
Nick Schweitzer, writer & lead character of the Guy Gris skit
Noah Huber, electric guitar
Robin Delaquess, accordion & fast-talking youth
Samuel Bates, Guy Gris announcer and Emcee support
Vicky Jones, actor in Guy Gris and coach
Willy Bernstein, the voice of the UU Translator 2.0

I was the Emcee, writer of the UU Translator & the News from UUUSaFe, and producer.

Thanks to the GA Planning Committee, for believing in our performance application.
Elizabeth

"Upper Midwestern Modest: A Pretty-good Revue"

at General Assembly June 25th in Minneapolis

I'm having a great time preparing to be one of the choices for late evening entertainment at GA in Minneapolis, Friday June 25th at 9:30 pm in room 208 A-D of the Convention Center. Not just me, of course; we've got a cast of seventeen or so -- 25 for one choral piece. The cast includes our music director Dan Broner, lots of singers and actors, two guitarists, a pianist and an accordion player. I've gathered quite a mix of ages, from teenagers to much older (ahem).

Upper Midwestern Modest is a variety show in the style of a long-running Minnesota radio show, with lots of music, a few skits and a commerical or two -- commercials for products every UU needs. I hope lots of people come because the show is going to be great! Well, pretty good.

I thought of doing a show like this a number of years ago because I wanted more of an outlet for celebratory UU humor and to showcase some of the musicians at my huuge congregation. Knowing that in 2010 we'd be in Minneapolis (a mere five hours from Madison), I focused my energy on getting a spot on the schedule. I applied way back in mid-November. My friend, actor & singer Vicky Jones, helped with the title and the description.

So, if you'll be at GA and somewhat awake late Friday evening, come to room 208!
Elizabeth (emcee)

So Many Worship Services, So Little Time!

Now that experienced minister Rev. Crestwell is at the UU Church of Annapolis, that congregation is second on my list to visit, right after the 11:30 am service in Tulsa, described in "The Gospel of Inclusion." When my spouse read the UU World article aloud to me, we both were excited. "Let's visit Tulsa!" I exclaimed. Sam suggested we go for Christmas. We cannot do that because family is coming here to visit us, but I've got to find the time to go and bask in the joy and praise of Universalism.

An article at the UUA’s website states “Diversity of Ministry Initiative Settles Two New Ministers.” The Rev. John Crestwell is one of the “new ministers” referred to here. As many of us know, Rev. Crestwell was at Davies Memorial UU Church for a number of years. In fact, he is a featured speaker on a DVD called “Listening to Experience” that came out in last April. This DVD features twelve ministers whose congregations have done very well, including Peter Morales, Laurel Hallman and Rob Hardies.

Hearing podcasts of ministers' sermons doesn't do it for me; I don't get a whole lot out of it. No, I want the Entire worship experience, from anticipating being there, finding a parking spot and being greeted at the door all the way through to leaving the grounds. The whole enchilada is the worship service to me. Between working at one church and being a member of another, I already have to juggle and find myself going to 9 am at one & 11 am at the other. This makes it difficult to leave town! Argh. Maybe I will settle for podcasts and reading sermons.

Peace,
Elizabeth

Why Am I Still Afraid To Invite You to My Church?

I've been re-reading Michael Durall's new book The Almost Church Revitalized. It is much better than his previous Almost book. In fact, his arguments make a lot of sense to me.

On pages 33-34, Durall outlines "What Membership Should Mean":

Attending Sunday services regularly
Participating in one program each year that deepens your faith
Participating in one outreach or mission project each year
Reaching the 5 to 10% giving level as soon as possible
Telling others about the church

From my perspective, it is easy to accomplish the first four items. It interests me that there is nothing here about "volunteering" to help run the church in any way: no expectation to join a committee, become an usher or any other of the myriad of jobs to do at any church. Maybe this reflects Durall's understanding that members everywhere naturally find a niche where their greatest gift meets the congregation's greatest need.

I have a heck of a time with that last one: Telling others about the church. Lately, I've been telling folks about participating with our Standing on the Side of Love banner in the LGBTQ Pride Parade. Half the time, I've been telling people who would not attend or even watch a Pride Parade. Frankly, I don't want people who are uncomfortable with this to join my congregation! What I don't do well is any kind of "targeted marketing" (so to speak), where I seek out folks who seem to have certain values and tell them about my church. I almost did this recently, but chickened out. My thought was: what if you come but you don't like it? It would be my fault. Clearly, I need to get over this. How do you tell people about your church, society, congregation or fellowship?

What if 3% of the Members speak for All Members?

At my huuge congregation of 1,565 members, a "quorum" is 50 -- as long as fifty members sign in at a Parish Meeting, all the decisions made are valid. Fifty has been the quorum for the last 60 years at least, while the congregation has grown steadily from 175 all the way up to 1500 adult book-signed members.

Well, I decided that it is high time to have a discussion about increasing the quorum or, even better, making the number a percentage of our membership. I floated the idea of 10% -- 150 members. Someone immediately mentioned that we would never be able to make a decision if we required that many people! In reality, ever since 300 of us voted to fund our building addition, we've easily had 150 and more at our Parish Meetings. Part of this is just getting smart about scheduling a PM: serving lunch after the second service, then going right into the meeting. None of this 5 pm Sunday-potluck-and-meeting crap. Hardly anyone went to those; in fact, several members of the Board of Trustees didn't even attend.

What do other very large congregations do about this? Many of the decisions at my congregation aren't even put before the membership because we have policy governance. As a matter of fact, our mission changed last year, after needing to be improved for many years. Finally, a whole group of lay leaders collectively brought up the issue of revising our mission two years ago, but it was changed by one person: our senior minister. That's right: he re-wrote it by himself. Mission accomplished!

We members still call ministers and vote for the yearly slate of officers, council chairs and committee chairs. And we would be the ones to amend the by-laws and the Bond of Union.

Elizabeth