Writing
I have a framed drawing a friend made of me at age five declaring that I will be a writer. The caricature scribbled on the back of a paper sack reflects that since I was very young, writing has been a way that I make sense of the world. Whether it is composing a yearly haiku for our intern minister or my weekly contributions to our vespers liturgy, writing a column for our newsletter or an ebullient eulogy for a beloved member, sermon-writing or taking on a 600+ page tome on the history of anti-racism in our Association, I find great joy in exploring how we can deepen our journey as human beings through the written word.
As a lay leader at Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, I co-created a liturgical drama group called Mundane Players which used scripts, often humorous and sometimes poignant, to deepen the impacts of services. Using members of the congregation as readers, we performed dozens of these dramas which were very popular. I continued the use of this technique to support our integrated “workshop rotation” approach to religious education at TJMC-UU and also to augment sermon presentations and the “Time for All Ages” at MDUUC. Poetry, multi-voiced readings and other offerings are a part of services.
And as digital advances have changed our world, I have worked to adapt, recently adding a page of meditations to our congregation’s website and always looking for ways to use social media to spread the insights of our faith.