First Parish Unitarian UniversalistBy Faith Made Strong
A sermon preached by the Reverend Diane Teichert
First Parish Unitarian Universalist - Canton, MA
October 21, 2001
On Sunday, September 30th, I attended the dedication of the new Unitarian Universalist meetinghouse in Franklin MA not far from here. It was a glorious day, a true celebration, a long-awaited day for them, I am sure, and for their minister, I know!
Some time ago, I met with the Reverend Carol Rosine once a month for a year, for the mentoring new Unitarian Universalist ministers are required to receive. Over those months, I heard about the fits and starts of planning, fundraising, and architectural design that eventually resulted in the groundbreaking, construction, and furnishing of this building that was so joyfully dedicated last month. It was a lot to struggle through for that not much more than 200 member congregation. As we sang in our opening hymn this morning and also on that day, "by faith made strong."
I'd heard about the $325,000 they raised in their original three year Capital Campaign, the two-year mini-campaign that had to follow to raise another $75,000, and I since heard that last winter they had to cough up an additional $70,000 to pay off the contractors.
In those months of meeting with my mentor, I heard that nothing happened, nothing at all, for many months after the ground-breaking. I knew the minister sometimes worried that a building would never get built.
But, by faith made strong. And, there we were! Singing, giving thanks; taking in the good wishes of a state senator, a selectman, and a local rabbi; clapping for the youth choir, loving the humble pride of the architect (son of a UU minister); amazed by an exceptional and very young violinist, rallied by preacher Bill Sinkford (the newly-elected President of the UUA), singing some more, and giving thanks even more.
Through it all, I was very much distracted and totally enthralled by the lovely scene of pines and oaks, passing clouds and blue sky I could see through the huge window that fills nearly the entire wall behind the pulpit. "By faith made strong."
The First Universalist Society in Franklin, as it is called, was first gathered in 1856, about 150 years after First Parish was founded. In the 1970's, the membership in Franklin was dwindling and only a few-referred to as the "faithful nine"-carried on. They made the difficult decision to sell their building to neighboring Dean College. For many years after, worship services were held in the campus Chapel. But, when the population of Franklin began to grow, so did the membership of the church. In 1987, Carol Rosine became their minister, their membership grew by 300% in five years, and sometime not long after, they must have begun dreaming of a home of their own.
From the outside, their new home looks rather plain. (You may see photographs of it and of the other two meetinghouses I am describing today at the Sermon Circle during Coffee Hour). It's a grayish tan, wood-sided, with only a few very small widows visible as you approach. It's a long oblong with a peaked, not flat, roof. You enter a foyer that opens into a fellowship space, where coffee hour is held. The windowed wall that separates the fellowship hall from the worship space went up at the last moment, I learned, erected by members because they'd run out of money to pay the contractors, and it was painted the night before the dedication! A light lemon, trimmed in white, as is the worship space itself.
From the inside, it is not fancy but it has an open, airy wonderful feeling. As you enter the worship space (I don't know if they are calling it a sanctuary or not) and forward to the facing wall and up nearly to the peak, there is a large appliqu‚ wall-hanging Flaming Chalice, lit by a spotlight so that the golden chalice and its flame are as if afire, set against a fabric background of rolling green hills and blue blue sky.
I've already mentioned the wall of clear windows behind the pulpit; on the opposite wall there are only a few little ones for cross ventilation, I imagine. But, I haven't mentioned the pulpit. It is large and handsome like ours, but not raised as high; it is hand-made (by a UU minister) but of a much lighter wood than this one, with a table for the Chalice and flowers in front.
Instead of pews, they have chairs which are movable. Which is a good thing, because the worship space doubles as Religious Education space during the hour preceding the service. Chairs are grouped and dividers set up for the classes, and then set in semi-circular rows for worship, which is attended by many of the older children while group activities are provided for the younger ones. That's their arrangement, until the next capital campaign, for a Religious Education space.
So different than First Parish is this new meetinghouse in Franklin! No stained glass windows, no pews, no dark wood, no red carpet, no Paul Revere Bell, no steeple, no history, no memories or not many, yet!
But, even the children are thinking of the memories they are now making, though. The night before the dedication, as people were putting the final touches on the space, one young helper said to the minister, "When my grandchildren get married here, I can tell them I helped get it ready when it was new!" By faith made strong.
Fifty years ago, when the then new Meeting House of the First Unitarian Society of Madison Wisconsin was dedicated, there must have been a youngster who said something like that, someone who now is old enough to have grandchildren celebrating marriages or services of union there.
That building was designed by that congregation's most famous members, the noted American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and it bears some of his signature characteristics as well as some of his signature faults. Wright initially estimated the cost to be $60,000 but it ended up well over $200,000 and "would have been higher if not for the sweat equity of its members, sacrifice by the contractor, and Wright's own commitment to the enterprise," writes the current senior minister, who also exclaims, "$200,000 was a huge sum for a congregation of less than 200 to bear in that era." By faith made strong.
Now our fellow UU's in Madison number 1800, and they continue to struggle to maintain their building of historic architectural significance. Again writes the Reverend Michael Schuler, "Heavy usage and the ravages of wind, water and time have exacted their toll.And even as it has basked in the reflected glory of Frank Lloyd Wright's genius, the Society's membership has also had to cope with another side of his legacy: the leaking [copper] roof!" By faith made strong.
The Meeting House in Madison is much fancier than the one dedicated in Franklin last month, as one might expect of Frank Lloyd Wright. It is said on their website that the sanctuary (which they call "the auditorium") "begins under a lowered ceiling which sweeps dramatically upward to an inspiring light-filled prow of interlacing wood and glass behind the rostrum. The ceiling's graceful curves suggest, in Wright's words, `the wings of a bird in flight.'
"The glass prow creates a majestic exterior, which gives the building impressive height without a steeple--an expression of unity in Wright's design. The stone rostrum stands beneath a suspended canopy that deflects sound. The seating is designed to allow parishioners to face each other as well as the minister. This unique arrangement enhances a sense of community. The cushioned double and single benches can be rearranged or removed for varied activities such as dinners, concerts or performances."
So different than both First Parish and the new meetinghouse in Franklin is the one in Madison! Yet, the words spoken at the first worship service held fifty years ago in Madison's Unitarian Meeting House may as well have been spoken 177 years ago when this pulpit was brand new, or last month in Franklin. On that day, the warned his fellow parishioners to not become enamored with the notoriety of their new building, but rather to focus on what happens within it. He admonished, fifty years ago,
"To become ours [the admired structure] must bring enrichment from within to the religious cause which our Society exists to serve. Caught up in our aspiration and thought and action, the architect's work of art has to be absorbed in the art of life."
Whatever the shape and age of the buildings in which we worship, I think we Unitarian Universalists tend to call them "meeting houses" because we feel they are places for meeting each other in aspiration, thought and action, more than we think of them as sacred places of sanctuary and retreat, places of inspiration and insight. We've tended toward wanting our faith to be one of deeds not creeds, a faith in action, engaged in making the world a better place for all, not a cloistered faith removed from the troubles of the world.
Our meeting houses have been for us places in which the community of faith meets, reminds itself of what is good and true and right, and charges back out to our daily lives with renewed energy and love. "Aspiration, thought and action," as the philosopher preacher in Madison said fifty years ago.
But, these days since September 11th, we are perhaps valuing more than ever- before the beauty of our meeting house for the "enrichment from within" also proclaimed that day in Madison.
We need the calm here, the comfort, the pause in our otherwise too busy, maybe too shallow, too fearful and worried lives. Perhaps we Unitarian Universalists will experience our houses of worship as sanctuaries now more than ever because we Americans of relatively comfortable means feel newly unsafe in the world around us. We are more aware of our need for the reassurance and safety of a sanctuary in the storm.
By faith made strong, not to complete a building project despite rising and unforeseen costs, but a faith made strong to keep hate out and hold love in, yes, but more importantly even, to hold us in love, to hold us in love that casts out fear.
In the Christian tradition it is said, and it is especially emphasized in the Universalist side of our UU heritage, that "God is love and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear." (I John 4: 16, 18).
At the end of his sermon at the dedication in Franklin, preacher and Unitarian Universalist Association President Bill Sinkford declared, "This is a day of celebration for you. And celebrate you should. But your new home sits in a world where the illusion of safety and security has been shattered. Minister to one another and minister to that broken world. May you use your new religious home well. May you use it to love one another and, in the great tradition of Universalism, make manifest the power of love in this community.Know, deep in your souls that it is only love that can cast out fear. And know, that there is a universal love, however you name it, that has never broken faith. and never will."
Being in Franklin on the day they dedicated their new Meetinghouse gave me pause to reflect on the many different kinds of buildings in which we Unitarian Universalists worship. The buildings are nearly as varied as the religious backgrounds and theologies of those who worship therein!
As varied as our backgrounds are, though, we come together in this meetinghouse, this sanctuary, and find that its beauty brings enrichment from within, aspiration, thought and action, but also love, solace and comfort. By faith made strong.
In this morning's reading, you heard about the "sanctuary without a door" where Unitarian Universalists of Odessa Florida worshiped with no meetinghouse at all. (I see on their website now that they have since built a pavilion overhead, open on the sides, and a cement floor).
You've heard described the plain yet wonderful new Meetinghouse in Franklin Massachusetts and the grandiose fifty-year old Frank Lloyd Wright Meeting House in Madison Wisconsin.
And, then, there's our New England-style meeting house, "the one with the yellow doors." With the pineapple symbol for hospitality over the front door. The richly dark and grained pulpit here and the stiff box pews with their uncomfortable but, happily, padded seats. And the history-telling stained glass windows.
And the earth, the sun and the moon on the wall behind the pulpit reminding us of the vastness and wonder of all creation, and that one does not have day without night, darkness without light. Oh, and all the hands joining together-portraying the importance of community in this faith tradition.
I love our old meetinghouse, especially in mid afternoon day when the sun shines in through the warmly colored windows, casting a golden glow. You should really come in sometime at that hour, especially this time of year. You'll sense the calm that lingers here after everyone has gone home.
It seems that you all take your love with you when you depart, but leave some of your peace behind.
Amen.