Now consider the words of F. Scott Fitzgerald: “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.”

Fitzgerald’s sentiment captures how we feel today: fully aware of how damaged our ecosystem is and yet hopeful about the future. We hold two opposing feelings in our minds and our hearts. It makes our heads want to explode and our hearts break when we contemplate the horrible challenges human behavior imposes on the earth.

We could blame the government and big businesses for being slow to implement changes that would help to prevent climate change. The fact is that governments and most businesses are slow to act when there is a conflict between the health of society and the wealth of a few. That is why in most situations, it comes back to a more personal question: What will I, as an individual, do to live more sustainably? For us as a people of faith, the question is, what will we do to improve the sustainability of the human race within this glorious creation we share with other sentient beings?

One reaction to climate change is to conclude that “The problem is just too big for me to have an impact.” Besides, there aren’t enough hours in our days, energy in our bodies, or commitment in our hearts to do one more thing. But can we contemplate the destruction that will inevitably face our children and grandchildren if present-day consumption and pollution continue?

Ordinary people must choose to do something to help make society more sustainable. We can create change if we choose to act. We need to raise our voices, rededicate ourselves, and move ahead with the realization that no one else can begin change. Governments and businesses follow the lead of active and committed people.

Sitting in a café across the canal from Ann Frank’s house, Paul Gilding wondered: What if I had sat in this same café in 1938 with a friend who would tell me that the Nazi takeover of Europe was coming? Could people then have done something to prevent it? If people knew then what was going to happen, would they have worked tirelessly to prevent the tragedy?

Today, millions of us understand what will happen if we continue to borrow against our ecosystem without giving it a chance to regenerate. The science is clear and accepted by the vast majority of climate scientists. There will be a great and colossal disruption. The rules of physics, chemistry, and biology indicate that there will be consequences to our actions. If we continue to cut more trees than we plant, put more nitrogen into the water, and put more CO2 into the atmosphere, quality of life increasingly will be damaged. Millions of people know this, including ourselves.

Now is the time for people of faith to start doing our part. Individually, you may not be able to do everything, but together we can change the future. It is time to start doing one more thing.

P.S.: If you are thinking about becoming a UUCWC member, I encourage you to contact me at minister@uucwc.org or (609) 737-0515, or to talk with someone from our Membership Committee. We welcome all who want to be a part of our vital congregation and who want to support our progressive UU principles.

It is easy to become a member of a Unitarian Universalist congregation, because we do not have a creedal test or a set of dogmas that you must assent to believing. It is, however, much more challenging to be a UU because we encourage you to grow spiritually through a free and responsible search for truth and meaning, and because we ask that you practice acceptance of one another within our congregation.

We invite those who find themselves in agreement with our uu principles to consider signing our membership book and become an official member of UUCWC.

You can do so by letting me know that you are ready to join our congregation. We will set up a time for you to meet with me and to sign our Membership Book. Call or e-mail the office, or let me or one of the members of the Membership Committee know of your interest.

You may disagree with me, but as I encounter some of the dark, cold, and snowy days of January, I realize that I would not want to live in a world without winter. After the busy, exciting, and often hectic period of December comes January with the opportunity for a little quiet reflection. We know that it is good for the natural world to pause for regeneration. Too often, we neglect our own need for down time — time for our roots too penetrate our deeper self.

Rabindranath Tagore wrote, “The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures. It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth in numberless blades of grass and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.”

As the earth spins and rotates around the sun, so do we. We are part of this great cycle of life. Too often, we forget that fact. When our life gets too busy and we start to spin out of control, we can thank the season of winter that reminds us with long nights, cold weather, and snowstorms that we are an interdependent part of the natural ebb and flow of life. I know all too well that when I get too busy, I lose touch with some of the joy of being alive in this fantastic and wonderful world.

January can provide us with some inconvenience, but it also can provide us the motivation to slow down, look around, and reflect on the past year as well as anticipate the New Year. When we do that, we are better able to appreciate the miracle of being alive and to feel and touch the natural world. The inconvenience of winter weather can be the long-awaited blessing that slows us down long enough to realize and appreciate that life — our one beautiful life — is unfolding before our very eyes.

Take the time to pause, allow your eyes to adjust to the darkness, and breathe in the spirit of life, love, and belonging.

Compassion fatigue, a relatively recent term, is extremely relevant today. The term was used in 1981 in reference to U.S. immigration policy. In the 1990s, it described a lack of patience with the homeless in our country. In 1992, it was used to describe nurses who had to deal with constant hospital emergencies. The symptoms of compassion fatigue include having a negative attitude, feelings of hopelessness, fewer experiences of pleasure, and increased self-doubt. Compassion fatigue can lesson our sense of community by cutting us off from others.

Today, we are endlessly exposed through traditional and social media to bad news here at home and around the world, replete with stories of terrible suffering. Add in the constant requests for help that we receive online and by phone, and you begin to understand why some people experience a gradual lessening of compassion and an increased cynical resistance to helping others.

We see this in the cheers of the audience at a recent presidential debate on use of the death penalty and what should happen to those without health coverage. What budgetary choices we will make as a country in the face of mass joblessness and a striking increase in people living below the poverty line?

It would be a mistake to deny that compassion fatigue is possible in our own hearts. It would be an even bigger mistake to think that there is nothing we can do to increase compassion in our lives and our communities. There is much that we can do — and this is the time of year when compassion benefits from long-honored traditions that call us to respond.

The obvious place to start is by looking at our relationships with those closest to us. The best place to practice compassion is with the people with whom we live. Then we are called to stretch ourselves and practice compassion with those in our neighborhoods, workplaces, schools, and our congregation. Moving further, we are called to reach out to the larger community and the nation. We do, after all, believe that our nation is undergirded by compassionate values. With our shrinking and interdependent world, let us extend our sense of compassion to people of all nations, religions, and ethnic backgrounds.

Come and help kindle the light of truth, the warmth of compassion, and the fire of our commitment so that it will burn brightly here at UUCWC.

Being quiet or staying still does come harder for most of us. But taking moments to slow down and be still is important. It allows us to pause, reflect, and stop doing long enough to appreciate being — being alive, being in relationship to others, being fortunate enough to experience all that we are able to experience and fortunate enough to live in relative abundance when compared to the larger world.

I love autumn. To me, it is a season of contrasts. On one hand, it is a time when the cooler temperatures infuse me with greater physical energy and added exuberance — ah, the crisp cool air! On the other hand, the shorter days and longer nights cause me to be more reflective about life and how we are here for the time being. Maybe the two are related — the latter helping me to be aware and to appreciate the former.

I encourage you to take some time this month to pause, be still, and appreciate the present moments in your life. There is much in the world about which we can be sad and fearful. And we definitely need to be on the side of those who act to make this a better more compassionate world for all people and all sentient beings. We have the opportunity to practice an aspect of one of our UU principles this very month: to affirm and promote “the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within … in society at large.” Don’t miss the opportunity and this civic duty of being an intelligent, informed, and compassionate member of our country.

We also need to take time to be still, breathe in the crisp cool air of the changing seasons, and then exhale the fear, pain, and sadness that too often remains bottled up within. We need the spiritual and emotional energy and deeper sense of purpose that stillness can bring to our days and our nights.

Like the ants, life can turn into a pattern of busyness for us. Unlike the ants, we humans can choose to pause, be still, be awake and aware, and then reflect gratefully for the gift of being alive. I encourage you to pause, be still, and reflect often this month. You might even make it a practice in your life.

I was inspired and moved when I heard Karen Armstrong speak about Compassion at our General Assembly this past June.  Below you will find this Charter, composed by notable individuals from six faith traditions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism.  To watch and listen to Karen Armstrong’s Ware Lecture go to http://www.uua.org/ga/2011/184434.shtml

The Charter for Compassion is a document that transcends religious, ideological, and national difference. Supported by leading thinkers from many traditions, the Charter activates the Golden Rule around the world. This Charter for Compassion movement is Karen Armstrong’s wish for the world

http://charterforcompassion.org/site/

The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.

It is also necessary in both public and private life to refrain consistently and empathically from inflicting pain. To act or speak violently out of spite, chauvinism, or self-interest, to impoverish, exploit or deny basic rights to anybody, and to incite hatred by denigrating others—even our enemies—is a denial of our common humanity. We acknowledge that we have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion.

We therefore call upon all men and women ~ to restore compassion to the centre of morality and religion ~ to return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate ~ to ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions, religions and cultures ~ to encourage a positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity ~ to cultivate an informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings—even those regarded as enemies.

We urgently need to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcend selfishness, compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries. Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity. It is the path to enlightenment, and indispensable to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community.

I have been a member of the Hopewell Municipal Alliance Executive Committee for the past 14 years and have found it very valuable for me as an area minister and as a parent.

The Alliance has promoted something really important for our children called Asset Building.  The Search Institute developed 40 developmental assets that are common sense, positive and help children develop into caring, responsible adults.   The more of these assets children and teenagers have, the more likely they will develop good healthy lives, become leaders and be successful in school.  Alternately, the fewer assets they have the more likely they will be to get into risky behavior.

Sounds too good to be true, but it really works.  I attended one of their conferences out in Minneapolis, MN and have been very impressed ever since.  One of the guest speakers that year was Ebo Patel, author of Acts of Faith, a book about interfaith youth service.  This year, the UUA is encouraging congregations to read and discuss his book.

If you are interested in learning more go to:  http://www.search-institute.org/assets

Here is Asset#1: Family Support.  You can show the children in your family that you love and support them in many ways.  Paying attention to them, listening to them, and taking an interest in what they’re doing are ways of giving support.  Fact: Young people are more likely to grow up healthy when their families provide them with high levels of love and support. Spend one hour a week alone with each of your children.  Take a walk listen to music, cook together, or just hang out.  And if you do not have young children, and other fact is that if young people have three or more caring adults (besides parents or guardians) who support them, they feel happier and more hopeful – that too is an asset.

Did you ever question whether we are part of an interdependent web of existence? Simply focus on our weather. We manage to control the interior temperatures of our homes and cars with air conditioning, fans, and heating units, unless our source of power shuts off. Then our confidence of being in control begins to wilt and spoil — like the food in our refrigerator. We keep our homes relatively dry, unless the earth becomes saturated and then water can find its way into basements and houses. Then our confidence of being in control begins to crumble, like soggy sheetrock.

Torrential flows of water and forest fires driven by hot and dry weather are frighteningly powerful. The threat of hurricane force winds is so frighteningly powerful that it causes governors to understand that we humans are part of an interdependent web of existence. Even a “small” earthquake in our area causes us to wake up to the reality that we are a dependent part of an interdependent web of all existence.

Gregory Bateson wrote, “The major problems in the world are the result of the differences between the way nature works and the way people think.” How we and our political leaders think matters. How we and our leaders talk determines how we act and regulate our behavior.

It is time — past time — that we ponder not so much the effect of the weather on us, but whether we can lesson our impact on it. Our task as individuals and as human beings is to enlarge our understanding of active compassion to include all sentient beings and all the rest of the interdependent web we call earth.

With Love and Warmth,
Charles

P.S.: This year, we are starting our worship services with a five-minute prelude at 9:10 and 10:55 am. This is to help better prepare us for our time together in worship, celebration, and reflection. Many of us like to greet one another and catch up on our lives, and we hope that this can be done in the lobby during this short time before the service. Thank you all for working with us on this.

As I anticipate the tenth anniversary of 9/11 I have been rereading Karen Armstrong’s Twelve Steps To A Compassionate Life.   My sermon series this year is based on this book.  The word compassion is often defined as feeling pity, but Karen Armstrong went back to the Latin to demonstrate that the root meaning is to endure something (like pain) with another person and to enter into the other’s point of view of the experience.

That is how I have often felt this past year as I read in the paper or heard on the radio or watched on the TV as someone talked about their experiences of loss ten years ago on 9/11.  I have, I would guess that you to have, wept tears of compassion as we have felt and endured the pain the other person was describing.  It is an emotionally powerful time, both symbolically and in reality.  To be sure there have been many more tragic, violent sudden and senseless deaths during the past decade, but the power and meaning of 9/11 continues to hole our hearts and minds both as individuals and as a country.

We need to talk about where we were when it happened, how we felt and how we feel.  We feel called to recognize the significance of the anniversary and this year we sense the importance of the tenth anniversary of 9/11.  It is important that we look back over the past ten years and grieve losses but also celebrate the value of the innocent lives that were suddenly claimed by a terrorist attack.  It is even important to evaluate actions that our country took in response and evaluate which ones were helpful and compassionate and which ones may have been destructive and harmful.

For me, the best result of compassion or enduring the pain of 9/11 with those who experienced the intense and tragic that day is to be motivated to do something positive that brings happiness to others and helps to remove their pain.  I hope that we as individuals, we as a country and we as a multicultural and multi-faith world can be so motivated as we observe this tragic anniversary.

Charles J. Stephens

My very first thought after my relief was what it must be like for those laboring in the middle of the night in miserable conditions to reconnect the power lines.  There were people had been working those three days, nearly constantly to restore power.  And they of course continue to be working to do the same thing for thousands of others.  I of course labor in different ways at my job and often for long hours, but nothing like the men and women who were working up on power poles or down in the mud reconnecting the power grid in the middle of the night.

It caused me to lay awake thinking about the value of labor well done.  It also caused me to wonder about the inequity of CEOs receiving millions of dollars a year and getting tax breaks while middle class working folks are called upon to make sacrifices to pay for the tax breaks and tax loopholes that allow the wealthy to get richer, the middle class and the poor to get poorer in the process.  Something just doesn’t seem right about a society that encourages this to happen.

I write this a few days before Labor Day and encourage us all to think about what kind of society we want to live in.  I ask you to look at your principles and your values as you go to sleep and then write a letter to your political leaders (or call their office) and encourage them to start being concerned about equity and justice for all the people of the United States.

Remember there are people working just as hard (probably much harder) to make our society a better society than those who are fortunate enough and lucky enough to be wealthy.  Even those who have not inherited their wealth have enjoyed the advantages of living in a country where others (many of them working at minimum wages) work day and even during the middle of the night to provide working utilities, health services and safety to others.

Let us be grateful for those laborers.