When I became President I made a check list of all I wanted try to accomplish. One by one I have crossed one task or another off: Creating more income by renting office space, negotiating a new heating system, etc etc. Now I will tackle the big one ~ what could possible go wrong? I am going to name the elephant in the room: “Joys and Concerns”. It’s an inspired ritual part of our service every Sunday. However I think we have lost or forgotten the true meaning.

I searched the UUA website and found that we are not the only congregation who struggles with how to negotiate a time honored tradition.

Done well, they show that we’re a caring and reverent religious community. Done poorly, they embarrass us. Joys and Sorrows, or Joys and Concerns, our Sunday morning sharing of the highs and lows of our lives, can be a rich and rewarding experience that builds community. Or it can start the week on a sour note as speakers take off on political and commercial tangents, give too much vacation detail, and share their weight-loss successes.

The article continues  If done well, joys and concerns can serve as the UU equivalent of what more liturgical traditions call ‘the prayers of the people,’” says Rev. John Buehrens, Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) president. “The problem is that we have little sense of liturgy – a word that just means ‘the work of the people’ – little sense of how worship needs to have a shape and tone that is reverent rather than self-indulgent.

I am not suggesting that we change where in the service it falls. I am not asking that it all be written before hand, which many churches have started to do. Is there a way we can make the symbolism more reverent? I truly appreciate Reverend Gowdy and her way of hearing and reframing in a responsive closing. Many churches have a candle lit as each one shares, some keep it to one sentence, or perhaps have a standard prelude everyone needs to read “Today we are grateful for many things. Here in community we call them to mind and speak aloud some of the things that bring us joy. ‘My daughter’s graduation…Our wedding anniversary…etc.’ “Today we have concerns and prayers for loved ones and friends. For Christine’s operation.. .For Ed’s loss of his mother…”

There is a Buddhist story of  a king who had six blind men gathered together to examine an elephant. When the blind men had each felt a part of the elephant, the king went to each of them and said to each: “Well, blind man, have you seen the elephant? Tell me, what sort of thing is an elephant?”.

Perhaps we need to understand what our Elephant is not just from our own point of view, but the benefit of all.  

Respectfully submitted,
Terrill M Ploss                
President

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