Comments for Cooking Together

Comment on Call to Arms by Marta Valentin

Marta Valentin — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 18:25:22 +0000

Hi Trudy -
I would be honored. Could you please send me a copy for my records?

Thanks and many blessings -
Rev. Marta

Comment on Call to Arms by Trudy Ferland

Trudy Ferland — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 14:06:01 +0000

Hi Marta,

Wonderful. Can we publish this in our church newsletter?

Trudy
First Universalist Church Pittsfield ME

Comment on New Doctrine of Discovery Discussion Guide by Clyde Grubbs

Clyde Grubbs — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 17:07:27 +0000

The Doctrine of Discovery was a theological intervention that was institutionalized in a principle of law. Manifest Destiny gave the principles of the DoD as a romantic vision, the United States was given a mandate (by God) to conquer and occupy the continent. Whether it was for Christianity or Anglos Saxon Freedom depended on whether the visonary was an evangelical or a transcendentalist (Emerson and Thoreau were Manifest Destiny advocates on racial grounds.)

Comment on Screen “Lost in Detention” for Your Congregation! by Laura Snidzik

Laura Snidzik — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 22:03:22 +0000

This is an excellent resource and a great introduction into what is happening with “secure communities” and ICE. If you couple it with Maria Hinojosa’s Ware Lecture at GA I believe congregants would learn a great deal and be compelled into action.

Comment on New Doctrine of Discovery Discussion Guide by Nancy Fisk

Nancy Fisk — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 06:09:58 +0000

I’ll be interested to see how this ties in with Manifest Destiny, which is what I was taught about in my Chicano Studies class at Cal State Northridge in the 70′s.

Comment on New Doctrine of Discovery Discussion Guide by Bonnie

Bonnie — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 02:12:13 +0000

estadosunidiense I think abbreviated EEUU

Comment on New Doctrine of Discovery Discussion Guide by Don Porter

Don Porter — Sun, 20 May 2012 19:45:28 +0000

The Spanish term “estadounidense” is used commonly although not universally through much of Latin America. My experience is that casual conversation, especially among those with less education, often uses the lazier term “american(o)a”. It appears that in Spain, “estadounidense” is rarely used. Among educated people in Latin America the identity issue is often important enough that the inaccurate use of “american(a)o” to mean “estadounidense” is offensive. “Political Correctness” has created some changes in standard usage within the USA for various terms. I’m not optimistic that we’ll come up with a PC term to replace “American”.

Comment on New Doctrine of Discovery Discussion Guide by PJ Deak

PJ Deak — Sun, 13 May 2012 12:48:05 +0000

I agree that this is GREAT material. As someone involved in both ARE and CYRE in my congregation, I was very excited that the video is kid-friendly – meaning that we could incorporate it into our 2nd / 3rd grade curriculum for next year as well as doing something for adults. When I was traveling in Guatemala a few years ago, someone pointed out that we were all “Americans” – regardless of which country in the Americas we were from — and that in (Guatemalan) Spanish if I wanted to clarify my country of origin as the USA I could say “Norte Americano” (North American) or “Etato Unidense” (not sure about spelling, but essentially meaning “United States-er”). It is interesting that in North American English, we don’t have a word that clearly means “United States-er” so I frequently use the Spanish word when making that distinction. Why not adopt the Central-American Spanish word for this idea, and simply acknowledge that sometimes English has it’s limits and other languages/cultures can express the idea better? Other languages have Ameican-English words pushed on them all the time! THANKS, GAIL, for this great material!

Comment on United States Immigration: Theological Reflection and Discussion by Rev. Carlton Elliott Smith

Rev. Carlton Elliott Smith — Fri, 11 May 2012 03:11:44 +0000

Listen to reflection authors Susan Karlson, Michael Tino and Colin Bossen live on The Journey Toward Phoenix, Friday, May 11, 2012, 2:00pm-3:00pm EDT. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/revcarltones. You can call in with your comments and questions during the second half-hour. If you miss the live webcast, you can still hear it in the archived episodes at the web address above, or at http://www.uucava.org. Also check out The Journey Toward Phoenix group on Facebook.

Comment on The Spiritual Practice of Being in Partnership by Kelly Dignan

Kelly Dignan — Fri, 04 May 2012 18:50:21 +0000

Thank you for providing this theological underpinning for our social change work, Janice! You have offered a framework that describes what the UU Church of Boulder Immigration Ministry has been doing without really knowing it. We have posted in the past about some of the work we’re doing, but here is an update since then as it relates to your post.

The group is a learning community grounded in the ethic of restoring right relationship. We developed relationships with three local coalition partners in the Boulder area who serve undocumented immigrants. Through them, we met three immigrant families whom we have accompanied through difficult and joyful times. Our message to these companions is:
One of our Unitarian Universalist values is that all people are sacred and worthy of respect. This country’s current immigration system results in inhumane treatment of human beings, and because of our religious values, we disagree with it. We want to change the system, and we want to follow immigrants’ voices so we can know how best to change it. Instead of acting for immigrants, we want to speak and act with immigrants. Even before the immigration laws change, we want to companion immigrants in their lives, and in this companioning, we seek to transform ourselves so that we can help transform the world.

In effect, we are trying to do what you write about here – a spiritual practice of partnering.

One family was torn apart when the father was deported just before Christmas. We helped the mother apply for work permits and passports, and she and her children have joined us at monthly vigils at the ICE detention center. Another family was expecting a baby, and we held a baby shower for them and accompanied them during their journey to obtain a drivers’ license and work permit. Another needed to have surgery, and we helped her raise the co-pay and accompanied her before and after surgery.

During all of this, we used guidelines for companioning which I developed using pastoral care guidelines. The Theology of Accompaniment is an event better guide because it has theological emphasis.

Ministry Group members do the accompanying and then return to the group for shared spiritual practice with the intention to center ourselves, connect us to the something larger than ourselves, and increase our compassion. Then we conduct theological reflection on the experiences and discuss how we are transformed emotionally and spiritually by these experiences. Next we incorporate new learning and strategies for improving the way in which we companion.

Our experience has been as Fr. Kurt Messick described: we have become intensely aware of our companions’ conditions — body, mind, spirit, hope, future — and how these things differ from mainstream Western culture. It also has called us to the development of our interior lives, as a means of strengthening the identity of those from whom culture often robs or ignores.

Kelly Dignan
Ministerial Intern
Unitarian Universalist Church of Boulder