The Musings of Reverend Catherine Harrington
July 2008
Our 2007-08 year officially ends on June 30 and as we begin our fifth year together, I want to pause a moment and think back on the past year with its achievements, challenges (ice storms and floods), joys and sorrows. It was a great year!
We have a new church administrator, Lisa Rile. We were able to survive the interim thanks to superwomen, Jeannene Hall and Alice Dennison, for filling in.
We said a very sad good-bye to beloved treasurer & fix-it committee founder and chair George Reeber at the end of February, but we issued a grateful welcome to our new treasurer, Dave Hall, who cheerfully accepted the challenge and responsibility.
We have a new Pastoral Care Committee chaired by Chrissie Hall. After dedicated service, Peg Gage passed the torch of the Membership Committee to new co-leadership, Anne Pettigrew and Carol Farley. They are doing a fabulous job!
The stalwart guardian of Adult Religious Education as well as Fabulous First Friday Film Festival, David Nixon, continues to enhance our lives with his imagination and dedication.
We welcomed five new members and several new friends this year!
Dr. Lou Yock not only provided world class religious education for our children, he kept us entertained this winter and spring by teaching the History of Christianity and an Introduction to Philosophy. Some Monday evenings, forty or more people gathered in the sanctuary to expand our minds and engage with others. Lively discussions made time fly and left us longing for more. Lou, as it turns out, is hilariously funny and charming as well as brilliant. If you missed Lou’s classes last year, you’ll have another chance this fall when the Intro to Philosophy class continues.
Nate Smith graduated with honors from Ludington High School and will be headed off to Michigan State in the fall. Among many other astounding accomplishments, Nate and sister Lauren performed in the Letha Fulton Dance recital and danced together to “America” from West Side Story. It’s hard to describe the pure bliss in watching this brother and sister, each one talented and successful in their own right, dancing, acting, and playing off each other with charm and finesse that only two people as familiar as siblings could pull off! It was a delight to watch, to say the least. I’ve been fortunate to attend these dance recitals for the past four years and next year Lauren will be a senior. Do we have any budding dancers? Of course, AVA! Thank goodness! Ava should be good for at least another 8-10 years of dance recitals!
And Rachel Kramer, daughter of Geoff and Michelle King Kramer, graduated from Ludington High School and was selected as all-around senior. She will attend U-M in the fall.
My personal leave this year wound up taking form as a week’s vacation to play with Abby, a wonderful prayer retreat in Boston, and a week off to recover from gallbladder surgery.
My study leave: I had the privilege of attending a six-day training at the University of Minnesota titled: Victim Offender Dialogue in Cases of Severe Criminal & Political Violence: A Mindfulness Based Approach to Restorative Dialogue & Healing. My trip to Ireland this year for two weeks was born of an invitation to return to the Buddhist monastery and participate in the filming of a documentary-type series that will be published as a tool for making the remarkable healing work of Dr. Michael Murphy available for groups. The Love, Loss, and Forgiveness workshops can be practiced in groups around the world. The surprise for me this year was that the workshop, which was not much different from last year except for most of the participants, provided me with more clarity and healing than I could have imagined.
Thanks to the hard work, patience, and dedication of the leadership of this congregation, we managed to successfully complete three years of the ministerial fellowship evaluation process and I received my full fellowship. With full fellowship, the UUA will help with some of the costs of my DMIn. Though we are finished with the MFC evaluation process, we will continue to evaluate and measure the effectiveness of our ministry at People’s Church, both of the minster and the congregation. This is a useful tool to help us make changes as well as celebrate our successes.
I began working on a Doctor of Ministry degree at Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago, taking two courses in January. My goal is to gain proficiency in conflict resolution as well as delve deeper into the practical and spiritual aspects of grief, loss, restorative justice, and forgiveness. My theological research will be dedicated to understanding how the world’s great religious traditions deal with death and grief. I want to draw wisdom from a panoply of religious rituals so that my work with victims from any faith tradition or no faith tradition can be truly effective.
Restorative Justice is a relatively new movement in the United States, but it has roots in ancient Indigenous traditions. The transformative power of restorative dialogue in the lives of victims and offenders resembles the kingdom of God that Jesus talked about. For me, it was like drawing a deep breath after drowning in a sea of despair. Suddenly there was enough oxygen for everyone involved. Relief came in many ways; emotionally, physically, spiritually, and even materially. The amount of money we saved the state of California by avoiding a lengthy trial is staggering. Money that states could use for education and health care; lifegiving and life-saving as opposed to the suffocating debilitating retributive punitive criminal justice process that serves no one except to perpetuate a dysfunctional system and incarcerate one out of every one hundred American adults (New York Times, 2/28/08), making the prison industry big business.
In my free time, I’m taking guitar lessons and enjoying playing and singing every chance I get. It is like finding a long lost friend.
I’m looking forward to our coming year together. We’ll continue to learn and grow together and find ways to invite others into our beloved community.
When I see my colleagues at General Assembly they always ask how things are going with my congregation and I can honestly say, “I’m lucky! I’m proud of my congregation and even more than that, I truly love them!”
In faith and love,
Cathy
