Spiritual morning

I don't usually go to the UU church with Valerie, but today was an exception, because they had a guest minister, former folksinger Fred Small.

Valerie posted on Facebook about this, so I'm just going to reproduce her words, rather than writing my own. It was a shame he gave up folk singing, but he is doing a lot of good climate related work, and I enjoyed listening to his sermon about hope in the face of all the disasters we are currently dealing with, not just climate.

 

My heart is full.  This morning at church there was one powerful moment after another.  The guest minister was the Rev. Fred Small, of whom more in a moment.  The music was provided by our music director, Mel Springer,aided by Alice Springer.  Mel has been absent for several weeks and it was an absolute joy to have him back at the Steinway.  More, all the service music Mel played was by Ukrainian composers, beginning with a powerful rendition of "The Great Gate of Kiev"  by Petrovich Mussorgsky.  Rev. Small stepped to the pulpit to deliver the opening words, but began by saying that the prelude was so wonderful that he though maybe he should just pack up and go home.

Since we are in the middle of the pledge campaign, there was a testimonial from a member, encouraging pledging by talking about what membership in our congregation means to her.  She spoke so eloquently and personally that when she had finished Fred said he had been in the UU ministry for a couple of decades and he had never heard a better testimonial.

During "Joys and Concerns", I related a day when I had had both a joy and a concern:  Decades ago, I attended a concert by singer-songwriter Fred Small at Club Passim, during which he announced that he was leaving the folk circuit to go to divinity school, with the intention of entering the Unitarian Universalist ministry.  There were so many UU's in the audience that there were more cheers than boos.  This anecdote made Fred laugh. The readings, the rest of the Ukranian music (including "High Noon"), and the sermon were, in a word, superb.

After Fred's prayer and meditation, and a period of silence bracketed by the sound of the singing bowl, Mel played, as the postlude, the Ukrainian national anthem.  Slowly, every member of the congregation rose to their feet in silent homage.

We have a tradition in our church, of just rubbing our hands together in appreciation of service music, so as not to break the worshipful mood. Usually, however, we violate that tradition at the end of the service and applaud the postlude.  Today, though, no one clapped.  We just stood in mute tribute.

After the service, since coffee hour doesn't happen due to Covid concerns,we gathered outside to greet and talk.  Fred told me that he discovered Unitarian Universalism while he was on the folk circuit.  He performed in coffee houses hosted by UU churches.  He would often use as a greenroom the ministers' studies, and read pamphlets about UUism from the UUA, while waiting to go on.  He remembered thinking "this is a kind of church I could go to".

I left the church feeling "spiritually" fed.  This kind of experience is why I have been a UU since 1962.