Category: Religious architecture

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Please don't worship in the round

Small congregations, or small groups within congregations, have the tenacious habit of pulling a set of chairs into a circle for worship. The idea is that this is intimate, thus warm and friendly. Thus good.

But there’s another way of looking at worship in the round that argues against it.

1. The circle is invariably closed. It needs to be broken open to admit participants, which is awkward for newcomers or latecomers. It is fixed in size, meaning it literally must be deformed to accommodate more. Both requires the cooperation of others, who will be strangers if you are new. And draws attention.

2. If the service has one or two speakers, up to half of the group will get a rear or sharp side view, and most people will be twisted in their seats.

3. Not a problem for everyone, but you will watch people pray, or make an effort to not do so. And others will watch you. No room for a private thought, a private tear.

It’s worth remembering that newcomers may not be there too meet you in worship. Even for small groups, sitting in rows has its well-deserved place.

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New 24

I took this picture of 24 Farnsworth, the future home of the  UUA, yesterday after arriving at Boston South Station. A former industrial area, reminds me a bit of lower Georgetown,  in the District of Columbia. More food options nearby than 25 Beacon, too.

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If you don't have millions to buy a Bay Psalm Book

This week one of the eleven surviving copies of the 1640 Bay Psalm Book, the first book printed in English North America, sold at auction.

The owner was Old South Church, Boston, and the sale reminded me of all the old Unitarian communion plate that was sold to keep the staff paid, the furnace stoked or the roof on.

Though I respect our history, I respect the institutions more. And there’s something sad when a communion cup or psalter becomes so valuable as an artifact that it loses its intended use; it’s like the Velveteen Rabbit in reverse. As treasure, the silver and the printed pages become less real. They were real because they were instruments of praise and thanksgiving. Better then, I think that they can be sold, conserved and placed on display, as indeed the new Psalm Book’s owner, David Rubenstein, intends to do. (He owns two of the eleven.)

Better still to keep the Great Thanksgiving at table, and our praises in song. And if you want to pray from the Bay Psalm Book… well, then thank God: you can read it online, in this 1903 facsimile reprint.

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Exterior work at Universalist National Memorial

A few people — including some of my dear readers — know I’ve been attending Universalist National Memorial Church regularly for a few months after having not been after the end of my pastorate (2000-2003) there. It feels good and it feel right; it is also the best church experience I’ve had in Washington in years, and I’m enjoying my time in the pew.

They’re doing some noteworthy things which should bear fruit, but more about that later. Suffice it today to note exterior masonry repairs which (I gather) should put some damage right, both to correct bad past repairs and more recent earthquake damage.

Scaffolding on tower at UNMC

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Hymnboard

I was in Philadelphia yesterday. Stopping by First Unitarian, I had the pleasure of touring the building, where I saw this lovely hymnboard. It, and the rest of the furniture in the Joseph Priestley Chapel I gather came from a now-lost Unitarian church in Germantown.

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A short film of hope for dying congregations

I was searching online, clicking links and reading tonight when I found this charming, touching and pleasingly funny film short. It’s about a Jewish congregation in the East End of London trying to keep a minyan on Yom Kippur. Spend ten minutes and — if your congregation is in peril — hope.


“The Tenth Man”

And the punchline, for this blog? The Sandys Row Synagogue, where it was filmed, is a real place. And this is the actual building, in another age then known as the Parliament Court Chapel, where a spiritually-conflicted John Murray and his first wife, Eliza, heard the Universal Gospel from James Relly. In other words, this is where the “father of American Universalism” became a Universalist. It makes me think, and tremble a little.

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Fourth Universalist, Brooklyn?

I got home this afternoon from a weekend trip to New York, and I’ll have plenty to say and show about that later. But I like to follow up on thoughts while fresh.

We know about Fourth Universalist in Manhattan, but what of Fourth Universalist, Brooklyn mentioned here. (But that’s not Greenpoint, where I always go for a Polish meal.)

Is this it? It does remind me of other small Universalist Churches I’ve seen.

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D.C. Pagan library an interesting institution model

Christian Science reading rooms have a place in our religious-institutional consciousness, but this new Pagan library and meeting space,  just inaugurated in Washington, D.C. is particularly interesting as a cost-distributed, multi-(Pagan)-tendency resource. A public face with less financial exposure than build-it-and-they-will-come churchmanship, and less personal exposure than the British and Irish Anabaptist “resource houses” (in people’s homes) I’ve once read of. Worth watching.

 

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Bible study in Unitarian Universalist congregations

Unitarian Universalist blogger Plaid Shoes (Everyday Unitarian) is frustrated by the lack of Unitarian Universalist-produced bible study material and got helpful suggestions from commentors. Dairy State Dad followed up, but otherwise there haven’t been any follow-on blog posts so far as I’ve seen. And I have an idea or two.

I understand the concern, but I’m not aggravated in the same way. For one, there are some denominational materials produced — if you go back a few years — particularly considering the thin demand for the resources and the high cost of producing good ones. Also, to a large degree, denominational materials have given way ecumenically to joint projects. And perhaps even more to the point, adult bible studies are often conducted without step-by-step lesson plan. That’s where I would start, or more accurately with a copy of Walter Wink’s Transforming Bible Study (which was popular when I was in seminary) or another guide on leading bible study itself.

I’d ask potential class members why they want to study, and commission one or two willing persons to learn enough about some basic concept to teach a class that’ll bootstrap further discussions and more self-directed study. Consider four different orientations a class could take:

  • better understanding how the Bible came to be as a literary artifact, and its influence in culture.
  • making peace with emotionally difficult passages of scripture, or how certain passages have been used in class members lives.
  • examining the claims made by biblical figures and themes on personal and political behavior.
  • touring the Bible for poetic and inspirational selections.

I’d try to organize five or six sessions around that and then disband or re-commit to another phase or theme. Or even a book study. But if the group is very unexperienced with the Bible, I’d start with the sessions about the Bible as an English document.

  • a review of leading English translations
  • films (television, music) that depict passages from the Bible
  • a how-to session about the general sections of the Bible, the genres they’re written in and the tools and apparatuses (maps, concordances) that of often bound with the text.

And of course, plenty of time to ask open-ended, judgement-free questions about what people want to know and learn.