2008

Feb 10, 2008: “The Delicate Dance of Religion and Science” The Rev. Alison Cornish and John Andrews

Today’s service has its origins back a few months ago, when I received an e-mail notice that declared February 8-10 “Evolution Weekend.” That sounded interesting, but I felt I would really be wandering far from my field of expertise to stand up here, with so many of you out there who know far more about science than I, and try to talk with you about this subject. So I invited John Andrews to join me this morning, to help speak to the science of this subject, while I will try to speak to religion. In every sense, this has been a collaborative effort, including the books we brought to one another for background reading – I offered Huston Smith’s Why Religion Matters: The Fate of the Human Spirit in and Age of Disbelief to John, and he loaned me Lawrence Principe’s Science an Religion.

2007

Oct 14, 2007: "We Covenant As..." The Rev. Alison Cornish

"What do you believe?" the inquiring guest might ask. As you know, the response is likely to be different from each and every member so asked. That might be an interesting exercise - to ask a guest just how many beliefs were revealed and shared in the course of a single coffee hour. But it is not beliefs that either define who we are, or bind us together. Our "we" is not "we believe." Read more.

Sep 30, 2007: "What's for Dinner?" The Rev. Alison Cornish

I planned this sermon about food many weeks ago - thanks to the rigors of our newsletter deadlines - not knowing, not able to know, what might transpire between then and now. Ken Wisner's death this week has cut across the life of this congregation - and me - and memories of Ken were with me as I wrote my reflections for this morning. Ken was many things to many people, but I suspect many of us remember Ken's connection with food. Ken was an unabashed lover of eating. He ate with great joy, even gusto, especially those 3 bowls of ice cream he could polish off after a meal more suited to someone twice his size. Ken and Jeanne often opened their home to our congregation's circle suppers; they celebrated Ken's birthdays by grilling on their back deck; and they are charter members of the 'lunch bunch,' a gang of you who head out together after Sunday's service. It is with these thoughts that I dedicate this sermon, 'What's for Dinner?' to Ken Wisner. Read more.

Sep 23, 2007: "I Believe"

The idea of exposing the fruits of our Sharing Circle to a broader circle is a little unsettling, particularly when it comes to core beliefs. It seems to lie outside the basic concept that we all signed on to. Read more.

Apr 8, 2007: "Miracles Abound" The Rev. Alison Cornish

Mysteries are where our imaginations have a chance to stretch and roam free. Mysteries demand that we set aside our need for order and tidiness, for all things to be understandable, and domesticated. Mysteries invite us into the full experience of life, rather than standing outside analyzing and judging and weighing the odds of getting to the bottom of it all. Mysteries require that we become comfortable with 'maybe,' or 'not just yet,' or, 'hang on I'm still discovering, there's still more here.' Read more.

Jan 21, 2007: “When we know we're ANGRY, and when we don't” The Rev. Alison Cornish

This morning we continue our exploration of the Seven Deadly Sins. My aim in this series has been to look at how the classic deadly sins - or vices, or transgressions, or infractions, or whatever term works best for you - how these are with each of us, every day, now, in our time. For, as the theologian Matthew Fox reminds us, 'sin evolves as culture evolves. Our capacity for destruction and alienation, self-hatred and social resentment, luxurious living among gross injustice, evolves.' (Fox, 7) Over the past few months, we've looked at gluttony and greed - today we take on anger. Read more.

Jan 7, 2007: "To Each a Search" The Rev. Alison Cornish and Edna Trunzo

Edna has laid some groundwork for our exploration with her "Individual Perspective." She has asked us to consider just how much of what we see in the world around us might be somewhat a reflection of who we are. Just what do you hear when that duck quacks? And she's asked us to think about how much of what we encounter in the world is conditioned by what we've experienced in life, or the assumptions we don't even know we have. We all have "lenses" through which we view the world, but we've been wearing them so long, and they fit so well, that we just don't notice them anymore, never mind question them. Read more.

2006

Nov 26, 2006: "Accommodating Greed" The Rev. Alison Cornish

Of all the seven deadly sins - gluttony, envy, pride, sloth, anger, lust and greed - greed is perhaps the one that we most likely want to say that's someone else's sin. But I believe Wendell Berry's words we heard during the meditation - By this earth's life, I have its greed and innocence, its violence, its peace. I do believe that by simply living upon this good earth, greed is a part of each and every one of us. Yes, every one - each of you - and me. Read more.

Nov 5, 2006: "Voting Values" The Rev. Alison Cornish & Martha Potter

Today Martha and I want to look a bit deeper at this thing called American democracy, this fragile, visionary, messy and precious wild experiment in which we are blessed to live - to be a part of. And, because we are a Unitarian Universalist congregation, and this is a Worship Service, we are going to focus our thoughts, our readings, this morning on this idea, coming from the words of William Sinkford, president of our Unitarian Universalist Association - "Unitarian Universalism has always had a spiritual center and a civic circumference." Read more.

Oct 22, 2006: "Liberalism is Dead. Long Live Liberalism." The Rev. Alison Cornish

Liberal theology has its roots in the advent of the modern world, beginning in the time of the radical reformation of Christianity in the 17th century - actually, around the time that our ancestral Unitarian ideas were beginning to take shape in Europe. In the words of the inimitable Adams, liberal Christianity was a protest against pecking orders. (Adams, 308) (You may know that the phrase pecking order comes from the barnyard - from chickens, to be exact - and describes which chicken gets to peck at whom within their rigidly hierarchical social organization.) In that great turning point in western history - the dawn of the modern age - there was a rising protest against ecclesiastical, political and economic pecking orders. Read more.

Oct 8, 2006: "Straight Talk About Coming Out" The Rev. Alison Cornish

Coming Out Day is for all gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and straight people that are committed to a just and equitable world. It's a time to reflect on all the different phases of the process of coming out.

Consider, for example, coming out to one's self. The recognition of difference, and of uniqueness, starts in childhood, and grows more important, and intense, in adolescence. For GLBT people, this includes a growing realization that that you don't necessarily 'fit the mold.' It takes self-awareness to realize there's more than one way to be in the world. And it takes courage, too. It takes self-acceptance, and love. It takes new language to describe an emerging identity. It takes time and space - to wonder, to question, to explore, to test. This coming out - the self-recognition of one's identity and orientation - doesn't happen just once in a lifetime. Read more.

Sep 24, 2006: "Pesky Vice No. 1 - Gluttony" The Rev. Alison Cornish

The common definition of gluttony is to eat, gloriously, generously, wildly, to the point of being so stuffed that one simply cannot eat any more. Think - All-you-can-eat buffets. Supersize me fast food options. Even the ritualistic Thanksgiving dinner. No 'portion control' here. For some, these gluttonous moments are an occasional indulgence, and for others, a regular compulsion.

The problem with seeing gluttony as a matter simply of quantity is that, well, it's not really the whole story. First of all, it leaves too many of us out of the picture. There's not much purpose in talking about deadly sins if it's always about someone other than us. That inimitable food writer, M.F.K. Fisher wrote, 'It is a curious fact that no man likes to call himself a glutton, and yet each of us has in him a trace of gluttony, potential or actual. I cannot believe that there exists a single coherent human being who will not confess, at least to himself, that once or twice he has stuffed himself to bursting point on anything from quail financiere to flapjacks, for no other reason than the beastlike satisfaction of his belly.' (Prose, 83-84) Read more.

Sep 10, 2006: "Converting to Unitarian Universalism" The Rev. Alison Cornish

What does Unitarian Universalism offer in terms of belief? And what difference does it make to become a Unitarian Universalist - to an individual or to the world?

There are many avenues into a Unitarian Universalist life. By the time someone joins us, they know it's not about doctrine, or creeds, or rituals or rites. Instead, it's about what I call the 3 B's - belonging, believing and behaving. Each of these is an entry point, a way in, to our tradition. Read more.

May 21, 2006: "We Dedicate Ourselves to ..." The Rev. Alison Cornish

This afternoon, along with our friends and families and guests, we will dedicate this meetinghouse. Dedicate – the word, in a religious context, means to consecrate or to set apart for a specific use or function.

This afternoon, we will hear and say special words and sing and listen to particular songs that will do just that. But this morning I want to explore what it is that we may dedicate ourselves to … that is, what is it that we, members and friends of this congregation, set ourselves apart for? To what do we, the Unitarian Universalists of this South Fork, devote our life and energies? Read more.

Apr 23, 2006: "Watching for Divinity" Betsey Perrier

Grace lies in the utterly sensuous world of holding babies, eating with friends, walking in the woods, swimming on summer days. It comes in the deep, hot days of summer when the cicadas suddenly start their rasping, bringing back the memory of hot, dusty days from as far back as human and other than human memory has existed. These moments open everything up, connect us to everything. Read more.

Apr 16, 2006: "The Promise of Easter" The Rev. Alison Cornish

This idea - that resurrection is the story of our lives, too - is what I glimpsed for a moment in that wedding. It's resurrection, in Hardies' words again, that allows us to find hope when we are lost in despair; to find a new path when we've encountered a dead end; to go on living, even finding joy again when death touches our lives. Read more.

Mar 19, 2006: “Sharing Our Stories of Estrangement” The Rev. Alison Cornish

There's another aspect of this parable of the two sons, and that's the invitation to explore estrangement and reconciliation in the most intimate of situations - a family. It's in our families, and family-like relationships, where the hurts of separation are most painful, and the deep, transformative work of reconciliation is most powerful. I see these relationships as our nurseries, our training grounds, for the skills and practices that will be needed in every area of our lives for as long as we shall live. Read more.

Feb 19, 2006: "Not by Twos, But by Groups They Shall Be" The Rev. Alison Cornish

More and more, Unitarian Universalists are realizing that the Sunday morning
experience, including worship service, classes, even coffee hour, doesn't give us time to truly engage in deep conversations with others. For many of us, if
Sunday is the only time to ponder life's big questions, our search for intimacy and ultimacy won't be fully met. That's why small group ministry is spreading so rapidly through our tradition. And that's why I, and our Adult Education
Committee, have decided to launch our own version here at the UUCSF. We
have already started by studying other congregations' experiences and models,
and by May - just around the corner - we hope a pilot version will be up and
running. Every one is invited to participate in this, if it sounds interesting to you. Read more.

Jan 29, 2006: "Living in a Time of War" The Rev. Alison Cornish

If the fields of war banish the practice of spiritual values, I think that one way war spreads beyond localized conflicts is by making so many of us non-combatants lose our connection with these same values. It is in this light that I find his holiness the Dalai Lama to be such a profound example of someone attempting to publicly maintain these qualities of the human spirit in the face of war, violence, cruelty and oppression. The Dalai Lama is a clear example to me as to how one might live in a time of war. He does this by his commitment to the cultivation of the qualities of the human spirit, by not capitulating to the anger and revenge and retribution to which he is surely entitled. He names love and compassion, patience, tolerance, forgiveness, contentment, a sense of responsibility and a sense of harmony as the spiritual values he seeks to strengthen in himself, but writes that these qualities are only meaningful when they bring happiness to both the self and to others. What unifies all these spiritual values is that they imply some level of concern for others' well-being. They help to counter our habitual preoccupation with our selves. Read more.

On this day I am always somewhat caught, betwixt between wanting to celebrate the work of this extraordinary champion of civil rights, and also bound to speak the truth in love about the work still before us. Yet, the very fact that it is on this particular day that I speak of these issues is fundamental to my theme today. As a white-skinned person, a part of the dominant culture in this country, I have the option of looking at race on this day. Tomorrow, or the next day, I can return to life as usual, which means I can go about my daily life not thinking much about race at all. I have the privilege of living apart from the day-to-day challenges of race that come because of the whiteness of my skin. The ability to choose to enter into this subject, or not, is just one aspect of white privilege, the subject of my reflections this morning. Read more.

2005

For me, the Winter Solstice speaks directly to that Seventh Principle and, through the eons, has served as a focal point for virtually all the inspirational sources we Unitarian Universalists claim as our heritage. So let’s talk about the Solstice and these various sources that inspire our Unitarian faith tradition for surely, in our Unitarian Universalist Calendar there is no other time we are so strongly reminded of the multiple sources upon which our movement is based.

I find my great affection for the Winter Solstice is tightly connected to “the results of science”, for ultimately the winter solstice is a creature of the scientific and rational world. Like gravity, it is a fact that all may observe. But unlike gravity, we can also understand the features of the rational and scientific world that make it so; we can directly experience that transcending mystery and wonder. Read more.

Dec 4, 2005: "John Brown, the Transcendentalists & the Passion for Social & Political Change" William Dalsimer

As David Reynolds points out in his new biography, "John Brown, Abolitionist":
"Had the Transcendentalists not sanctified the arch-abolitionist John Brown, he may have very well remained an obscure tangential figure-a forgettable oddball. And had that happened, the suddenly intense polarization between North and South that followed Harpers Ferry might not have occurred.” Read more.

Oct 30, 2005: "The Thin Places" The Rev. Alison Cornish

Samhain was identified as a time when the veil between worlds was the thinnest. It's this idea - that there places, times, even states of being which are "thin," that allow us a glimpse into something other than what is right before us - this is what I take from Samhain. For it is just this glimmer, the shimmering of something beyond, that I believe holds the key to the mystery and imagination we are so desperately in need of in our times. For I do worry, along with the writer quoted at the top of your Order of Service, that our mystical vision has atrophied, and, as a result, we are the poorer. Read more.

Oct 16, 2005: "How Justice is Served" The Rev. Alison Cornish

Taking seriously the subject of the death penalty might sound like something most of us would rather not do - and yet, that's exactly what I'd like to explore this morning. To a certain extent, capital punishment is making a come-back in this country - in fact you might remember that last May, the State of Connecticut, just a few miles away, executed Michael Ross, the first execution to take place in Connecticut - or anywhere in New England - since 1960. Just prior to Connecticut's act, the New York State Assembly Codes Committee voted against reinstating the death penalty, narrowly defeating attempts by Governor Pataki and the State Senate to "fix" a fundamentally and constitutionally flawed death penalty statute. But those who have followed the issue know that we are far from done with this. Read more.

Sep 18, 2005: "Balance" Stuart Lowrie

... I can make these two observations about balancing one's life.

From our solar system and from its passage through the annual revolution of the seasons, we know that balance is not equality. Even though we get a better deal on spring and summer than our brothers and sisters in the southern hemisphere, our seasons are “balanced” by any other meaning of the word. Similarly, those aspects of our lives that give us a sense of balance and harmony need not be equal with one another for us to truly be “balanced”. Read more.

Sep 11, 2005: "Leading With Joy" The Rev. Alison Cornish

As we gather together, here, on September 11th, 2005, the fourth anniversary of the events of September 11th, 2001; as we gather here, a slim two weeks after Hurricane Katrina made landfall in the gulf states, these words speak so clearly to me - A certain day became a presence to me; there it was, confronting me - a sky, air, light: a being. It leaned over and struck my shoulder ... granting me honor and a task. The day's blow rang out, metallic - or it was I, a bell awakened. Read more.

Aug 28, 2005: "A Word from Texas" The Rev. Alison Cornish

Every year, our Unitarian Universalist denomination, like many denominations in this country, holds a grand gathering for all its clergy and lay leaders. Ours is called, "General Assembly." A gathering of Unitarian Universalists for all comers from all corners is never for the faint of heart. Even in the best of circumstances, our General Assembly, or "GA" for short, can be - often is - an overwhelming event. Read more.

Aug 21, 2005: "The Wisdom of Howard Thurman" The Rev. Kate Lehman

Howard Thurman was one of the most influential people of the twentieth century: not only did he help to change the hearts and minds of people, he also helped to change the system which oppressed the hearts and minds of people, and especially people of color. That fact alone makes him worthy of our attention. Read more.

Jul 17, 2005: "The Harmonics of Music and Meaning" Galen Guengerich

John Brockman is a literary agent who maintains the scientific web site Edge.org. According to The New York Times, Brockman poses a question each year to a distinguished roster of authors and other notable public figures. The question for 2004 was “What’s your law?” In other words, what bit of wisdom or pattern in nature, either grand or small, have you noticed that could be named after you? Here are a few of the responses. Paul Steinhardt, an astrophysicist at Princeton University, offers Steinhardt’s Law: “Good science creates two challenging puzzles for each puzzle it solves.” Computer scientist David Gelertner responds with Gelertner’s Third Law: “Scientists know all the right answers and none of the right questions.” John Barrow, a mathematical physicist, questions the whole idea of universal laws with Barrow’s First Law, which states that “Any universe simple enough to be understood is too simple to produce a mind able to
understand it.” Read more.

Jul 3, 2005: "Summer Daze" The Rev. Alison Cornish

I have strong memories of a couple of summers growing up. For a few years our family rented a cottage on a lake just half an hour away from our home. Mom, my brother Michael and I moved out there for two weeks, and Dad "commuted" to his job, joining us every evening after he got off work. It was a vacation in the sense that we were not living at home, but in many ways, life actually went on as usual. Read more.

Jun 19, 2005: "Values in 21st Century Conservation and Politics" Stuart Lowrie

In America, standard values or "qualities considered worthwhile or desirable" would certainly include: fairness and a "level playing field", hard work, democratic traditions; rights of the individual, wisdom of our founding fathers, patriotism, personal safety, personal responsibility, among many others that you could name in a heartbeat, I'm sure.

These values form our identity as a country, and to a profound extent, they form and influence our identity as individuals. They don't all carry the same weight, of course, but form a collective core of values from which each of us reacts to the world and the issues with which the world confronts us. Read more.

May 1, 2005: "Why Give?" The Rev. Alison Cornish

It was just 6 years ago that I made the decision to pursue ministry as my vocation. Not that I hadn't thought about it before. Many times. And every time it did, I managed to push it down again. There were lots of reasons that I resisted that big step - and one of the biggest was ... money. Or rather, the lack thereof. Read more.

Apr 17, 2005: "Our Town" The Rev. Alison Cornish

Thornton Wilder's biographer, Richard Goldstone, may have been overstating his case just slightly when he wrote in 1975, "every day of the year [Our Town] is being performed somewhere in the United States." Perhaps a little exaggeration - but certainly not much. Read more.

Apr 3, 2005: "Celebrating Friendships" The Rev. Alison Cornish

For all the difficulties I know families with children who have genetic disorders must face, when I read stories like the one about Cassie, I find myself smiling in gratefulness. Grateful for the wisdom that comes, unexpectedly, from an eight-year. In just a moment, a turning of the phrase, ‘Are you a stranger?’ becomes, ‘Now we’re friends!’” Read more.

Feb 20, 2005: "Do You Remember" The Rev. Alison Cornish

A few years ago, my family – my parents, my brother and his wife and son, and Pat and I – were gathered together for a dinner celebrating my mother’s birthday. As a present, my brother had framed up a picture of his youngest son, Andy. At the time of our gathering, Andy was already 6, but the picture was of Andy when he was about 2 years old – an adorable picture of a bubbly and energetic baby. Read more.

Feb 6, 2005: "Our Own Right Size" The Rev. Alison Cornish

Author and artist Sue Bender opens her recent book, “Stretching Lessons,” with an anecdote. She relates a short conversation between a friend and her 4-year old nephew. “How big you’re getting,” she told him. “Oh, I’m bigger than that!” he replied. Read more.

Jan 16, 2005: "Soul Work" The Rev. Alison Cornish

Dear Martin –

I am writing this letter to you on the eve of your real birthday of January 15th.
It is one of those wild weather days, with wind and rain and wildly fluctuating temperatures. It is the kind of day that makes it hard to forget that we live in real atmosphere and real time because it so surrounds us, immerses us, in reality. Every moment seems to call to us – “look what’s happening now. Pay attention! You’re about to get wet, or cold, or blown into the next county.” Read more.

Jan 2, 2005: "The Day After" The Rev. Alison Cornish

It’s a good time of year to talk about “The Day After.” The holidays are loaded with “Day After” stories, more than just the “Day After” sales that seem to be ubiquitous with the season. Coming, as I did, from a home that celebrated Christmas with great style, the preparation for the holiday was elaborate and lasted for many weeks. Read more.

2004

Dec 19, 2004: "A Winter's Reflection" The Rev. Alison Cornish

“It was the longest night. People gathered from near and far, in small groups and large, to share their fears and grief and the darkness in their hearts.” In our western, modern, or post-modern, 21st century lives, it is nearly impossible to recapture the sense that our ancestors must have felt, sitting on hilltops, or cowering in caves, thinking that the sun was dying, disappearing. Read more.

Nov 7, 2004: "What's So Radical About Hospitality?" The Rev. Alison Cornish

It was a quiet summer on Noyac Creek, our front yard. For the first time in years the creek hasn’t been filled to overflowing with Canada Geese and their offspring, fuzzy goslings with bright eyes and outsized feet. Read more.

Oct 3, 2004: "Promises, Promises" The Rev. Alison Cornish

Summertime is many things to many people – vacations, a more leisurely pace, travel, even fresh local foods – but for ministers, summertime finds us, sometimes several times a week, doing what ministers have done for centuries – witnessing vows. Read more.

Sep 19, 2004: "A Question of Balance" Stuart Lowrie

The solstice and the equinox are with us for as long as we can imagine. They preceded us further back than we can measure. And they have shaped, most profoundly, the lives, rituals and beliefs of the humanity throughout its time on earth. With luck and intention, they will be observed and enjoyed for countless years into the future. Read more.

1997

Mar 2, 1997: "The Quest for Truth Amid Tradition" Stuart Lowrie

The power of a belief of one individual, shared even tenuously by others, had remarkable ability to stymie and warp a clear inquiry into the truth. Read more.