Iraq Memorial, Unitarian Church, Davenport

Today's QC Times publishes this story on the Iraq War Memorial at the Unitarian Church in Davenport.


Iraq war memorial opens at church


By Mary Louise Speer Sunday, January 18, 2009

Elizabeth Russell of Rock Island gazed at the names of fallen U.S. soldiers displayed in the “Arrival at Dover” war memorial.

One name stood out to her, Lance Cpl. Jesus Suarez del Solar, who died early in the Iraq war.

The exhibit honors soldiers who have died since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

It opened to the public Saturday at Unitarian Church, Davenport.

“I guess I would liken it to going to the Vietnam Wall memorial,” Russell said. “Seeing all those names. Seeing all those lives that were lost, and the families that lost them.”

Russell met Suarez del Solar’s father while on the “Wheels of Justice” bus tour in California and listened to his story about becoming an activist voice in the war debate.

“You walk past, you can’t take in the names of everyone. You wonder about the families they left behind,” she reflected. “I think the memory of these people demands from us the question: What do we do to honor their lives.”

Artist Jay Strickland of Rock Island hopes the work helps viewers better understand the meaning of the 4,227 U.S. soldiers who have, as of Saturday, died there since the invasion began in March 2003. The display is arranged in chronological order.

“I wanted people to see the totality of the fatalities that were coming back,” he said.

Each name also has a brief description of how that individual died, whether in combat or on duty, from injuries sustained from IED’s or while being treated in medical facilities for their injuries.

Strickland still has more names to add to the list but the ceiling-high display of names, flag-etched caskets and hanging crane mobile is on display through Feb. 1.

Strickland has a background in photography and he’s created other art pieces to illustrate the genocide in Darfur, Sudan.

The memorial’s name was inspired by the fact that bodies brought back for burial travel through the Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

U.S. policy prohibits photos from being taken of the flag-draped caskets at Dover. The tiny coffins are visual reminders of how many fallen warriors have traveled through Dover, Strickland said.

“I don’t have a friend or family member who died there,” he said. “But they all died for me.”

The city desk can be contacted at (563) 383-2450 or newsroom@qctimes.com.

© Copyright 2009, The Quad-City Times, Davenport, IA

Frank Rich, Obama and Warren

Frank Rich has a wonderful piece in the New York Times, 12/28/08 on the controversy around President Elect Obama's invitation to Pastor Warren to give the prayer on Jan 20th.
Read it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/28/opinion/28rich.html?hp

I also encourage you to read Scott Wells' piece at boyinthebands.com which is also printed in this blog.

TAKE HOME REFLECTIONS
December 21.
Written by Angela Chenus.

December 21st:
A magical date since times long ago, solstice, the day the ancients believed the sun had abandoned the world for good, so dark and long was the night. Celebrating the solstice is celebrating faith, faith that the sun and spring will return, that there will be a long period of darkness yet, but that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Can you find a way to embrace the cold and dark, knowing that it will not last forever?

Is there a celebration to be found in cozy days by the fireplace, adventures in the snow, hot cocoa and the warmth of shared stories and shared snuggles?

Today: read together a story from the Inuit. Their mythology is fun and powerful, they were, after all, making it through six months of winter darkness each year! Titles for children:

Raven, by Gerald McDermott from James Houston's Treasury of Inuit Legends
And/or: Light candles to banish the darkness from the corners. Making candles is a tradition we have in our family on this day; an easy method is rolling a sheet of beeswax around a wick. Materials can be easily found on bee-keepers' websites and kits in children's catalogs.

Then go for a candle light walk in the woods (or a close approximation thereof, the back yard may be adventure enough,) to welcome the return of the light that begins at midnight.


December 22nd:
Today is Hanukkah; Happy Hanukkah! and yes, Christmas is almost here, and you really don't have time to be reading these reflections, well-intentioned as they may be, there are things to do! As I look around me at this time of the year, there are inevitably a million things I have not done that I would like to accomplish, yet if I take a closer look, there is much good that has been done, and at this late date, that will have suffice.

Today: take a moment to breathe, to contemplate, to meditate. You could start your day with a personal meditation and lead your family in a collective sharing of something each is grateful for. We call our daily gathering in our house “joys and sorrows” like at church, but sometimes we banish the two categories in favor of sharing a gratitude.

Remembering how fortunate we are can help subvert the “gimmes” that have perhaps set in for the children and the despair of not doing it all for the adults.

December 23rd:
In my Catholic tradition, each year we would breathlessly await the coming of the “little lord Jesus” as my four-year-old calls him. Today is the day before the eve. The excitement is beginning to become palapable in households with children. It is also a time of awe, as we contemplate the miracle of birth, again. Here are a couple of ideas for cultivating the awe and wonder.

If your house contains a Nativity scene, you could gather around it with the kids and imagine out loud what each character might be thinking right now. Spin a story for a figure; that angel on Earth-duty for the first time, what a night for it! Joseph, first-time father; ask Dad what Joseph might be feeling. One lamb, lost among the big feet, or in the arms of his trusted shepheard, in awe at being let up this late tonight.

If your house does not contain a Nativity scene, you could create a “birth of the sun” scene, with a cradle or cushion in the middle and all of the figurines, stuffed animals and dolls your house contains all around to witness the rebirth of the sun. They surely have tales to tell as well.

December 24th, It is the Eve, the big one, Santa is probably coming to your house, ready or not, Christian or not. Breathe in, be in the moment, welcome the holy presence you believe in into your own heart first today. Your mood and attitude will set the mood for the rest of the family, take care of yourself first.

One of our favorite traditions is attending the evening service at church, then taking a plateful of cookies to the neighbors' houses, caroling through the neighborhood at the top of our (mostly the kids') voices. This always has a nice effect when it has snowed and all is still. You could find your own way of spreading cheer and sharing the joy with others today.

December 25th, Merry Christmas! If you are not Christian today, you and your family, as Unitarians honoring the lives of great religious leaders, could bake a cake for the birthday of Jesus. Enjoy the day together!


Happy Hanukkah! Merry Christmas! Happy Solstice! Joyful Yuletide! Angela Chenus

November 30 Take Home Reflections

Take Home Reflections: November 23-Christmas Eve, 2008
Unitarian Church, Davenport, Rev. Roger Butts

Sunday, November 30, 2008
First Sunday of Advent

Perhaps you are a bit like me at this time of year.

You cannot hear much of anything above the cacophony of sound—rushing shoppers, maddening crowds, loud and persistent advertisements.

Maybe you long to hear that small, still voice that occupies every living thing, that place where wisdom and gratitude reside.

Maybe in the midst of the rush, you can sense a place deep in your being that says: Be still.

You can hear the Buddha-inside you say, “Find a tree, sit a while.” You can hear the Jesus in you say: Sit a while, find a dear friend, share a meal.

You can hear the psalmist say: there is no where you can go to escape love’s embrace, you might as well enjoy it while it lasts.

You can feel the goddess in you: the wind in the trees, the falling snow, notice it. Love it. Embrace it. You are part of it.

You can sense Emerson whispering in your ear: why keep looking, striving, seeking. You are at home.

Great love, grant that I might find a stillness, hold a stillness, love a stillness, so that the great call of my heart can be heard and the great love at the heart of all things might be enjoyed.


FAMILIES:
The first theme in advent is hope. Tell you children a story this week about a time when you experienced hope, how it felt to you, what it meant, how it changed your life. Ask your child about what they hope for.


Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Last Sunday (November 30), we introduced a number of new members into our church community. Roger used the image of wild geese as a metaphor for what it is like to be a part of a church—shared leadership, lots of encouragement, a sense of working together. When is a time that you experienced some of that in this church? What was that like for you? As you look back on the last year, what stands out as a particularly collaborative effort that you took part in, and what did it mean for you?


FAMILIES:
Let your children suggest a dinner menu in the next few days. Talk to them about who all was involved in the preparation of the food. Talk to them about Thich Nhat Hanh’s idea that we are all in everything—that the farmer who raised the broccoli is in the broccoli, that the sun is in the broccoli, that the rain is there. And give them an opportunity to name all of the things that might be in their food. Also, give them a chance to say thank you to all of those things and people.

Thursday, December 4, 2008
Pay very close attention right now to where you are, how you are sitting, what you hear, how you feel, why you are there. Pay attention prayerfully.

What am I feeling right now?

Sometimes I seek solace for my soul outside my soul, but if I listen very carefully, I can feel myself restored right now.
(From Awakening the Soul by John Morgan).

Families:
Ask your children what they might wish to learn about in the next few days. Listen carefully to their response and try to build a time to share with them what you know about what they wish to learn about.

Friday, December 5, 2008
Tonight at sunset, in the Jewish tradition, the Sabbath begins. The Sabbath is a time to express gratitude, to be with family members, to share a common meal and to go about the business of praise. All of these speak deeply to the tasks involved in the life of the spirit.

What can you do to include some or all of those components into your Friday?

Try to take a Sabbath moment in the midst of your rushing around.

Families:
Sit down with your family for a shared meal. Invite your children to pay attention to the food right in front of them. Ask them to name the food. Ask them to notice the food. Invite them to be grateful for the food.
Share a time with your children when you had an especially fun Christmas/holiday memory. Who was there? What happened?



For Sunday, December 7th: Read “Of the Coming of John” by W.E.B. DuBois. It is available at the library in The Soul of Black Folks (1903) or search for it online (the whole story is online).

Take Home Reflections Week of November 23 2008

TAKE HOME REFLECTIONS
WEEK OF NOVEMBER 23-NOVEMBER 30
Our theme for the year: Home


SUNDAY November 23, 2008
In the entranceway of my house, there is a painting from Haiti by a fellow named Casimir. He painted this village market scene, full of bright vibrant colors and triangles and circles in the 1950s. It is one of my prized possessions, because I bought in Washington DC in the early 90s at a Haitian art store. I bought it when I had little business buying anything of value. I had little money. But I scraped the money together and took a chance. I love that painting. It reminds me of my starting out as a young adult in the DC area, all that energy, all that vibrancy, all those new opportunities. In a word, it stands for possibility.

What piece of art work in your house stands for something other than what is in the frame, or on the canvas? Where does it take you? How does it make you feel?


FAMILIES:
If you have children old enough to understand, tell them a story about a piece of art work in your house. Tell them about your life at that time.

What can you and your whole family create together? What are you working on just now?

Remember, I asked in early fall for you to befriend a tree. How is it doing?

MONDAY November 24
All around, you can see the energy building towards the holiday season. Christmas trees are appearing in the local hardware stores. Decorations are out and about. Radio stations are beginning to play the music of this season. It is a festive time.
What will you do to keep yourself in balance this holiday season?

FAMILIES:
Ask your child: What would you like me to teach you about this week? If you ask, they will tell you. Go to the library together and pick out an age appropriate book about what they’d like to learn about!

TUESDAY November 25
In his reflection during the service last week, Our Paths Home, Tyson Danner talked about the healing power of community, and specifically on what he valued about the Unitarian Church community. He said, that he always loved the song, There is a Balm in Gilead to heal a sin sick soul. He said that he doesn’t know if there is a balm in Gilead or not, but he knows there is one in Davenport.
What helps to keep you whole? What helps to heal the wounds that are uniquely yours?

FAMILIES:
There is an opportunity to prepare stockings with stocking stuffers for truly disadvantaged children in the community. Sarah Moulton (sarahmoulton1@yahoo.com) is leading the way. We’ll dedicate those, I think, on December 14th. Share with your children a time when you helped another person and what it meant to you. Go out if you can and buy some stocking stuffers with the kids, and tell them who they are going to help (children of domestic violence and children formerly homeless.)

WEDNESDAY November 26
Thanksgiving Day is nearly here. Some great old church person said: If the only prayer I offered up was thanks, that would be enough.
Say a prayer of thanks today. Take five minutes. Be still. And whether you offer your thanksgiving to God or to the universe or to someone who helped you, offer up thanks!

FAMILIES
Teach your children to say prayers of thanksgiving!

FRIDAY November 28
Today, stores open up at an ungodly early hour. What is your relationship with commercialization and consumerism. Sometimes I buy things to make me feel better. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. What would it be like to adopt an attitude of greater simplicity? On December 14th, the service will be on simplicity. What was a favorite holiday memory that did not include material goods?
FAMILIES
If it is not too cold, take a family walk together. Notice things that you find absolutely beautiful that are absolutely free!


SATURDAY, November 27
Tomorrow at church, the image we’ll lift up is the idea of wild geese. There is a poem by Mary Oliver by that name, Wild Geese, that you can find here
http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2002/06/21
Read it and think about what it says to you.
See you in church!

Matthew Shepard October 12 Service

On October 12 at 11 a.m., the Unitarian Church will host a joint service with Metropolitan Community Church Quad Cities to commorate the 10th anniversary of the death of Matthew Shepard. Here is an op/ed that Pastor Rich Hendricks and I wrote about the service. This letter has run in the Quad City Times and the North Scott Press and soon in the Argus/Dispatch.

From Tragedy to Hope

In 1955 African American Emmett Till was brutally murdered in Mississippi in a racist hate crime. As a result of that attack, the civil rights movement was energized and less than ten years later Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In 1998 gay American Matthew Shepard was brutally murdered in Wyoming in a homophobic hate crime. As a result of that attack, the movement towards full civil rights for God’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (“LGBT”) children was energized. See, for example, www.matthew shepard.org. Yet, 10 years later there is still NO national legislation protecting the civil rights of LGBT persons. And the hate continues.

As recently as this month, three gay men in Des Moines were attacked with thrown bricks amid a torrent of homophobic hate speech. This past July a man shouting insults against “liberals and gays” interrupted a church service at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, killing two adults and wounding seven others.

The Human Rights Campaign website states it best: “All violent crimes are reprehensible. But the damage done by hate crimes cannot be measured solely in terms of physical injury or dollars and cents. Hate crimes rend the fabric of our society and fragment communities because they target a whole group and not just the individual victim. Hate crimes are committed to cause fear to a whole community. A violent hate crime is intended to ‘send a message’ that an individual and ‘their kind’ will not be tolerated, many times leaving the victim and others in their group feeling isolated, vulnerable and unprotected.”

It is time to end homophobic bigotry, hate and violence. It pains us to know, even more so as clergy persons, that homophobic violence often finds its roots in religious-sponsored bigotry and hate. While many Christian preachers publicly espouse anti-gay rhetoric from their pulpits, very few of those same preachers also remind their congregants that Jesus denounced violence of any kind or that Jesus called on his followers to love even their enemies. When churches and individuals fail to speak up for tolerance and against hatred, they leave the world at risk to heinous crimes that should not happen. Churches and individuals have enormous power to make a difference for all that is good and right instead of promoting bigotry and hate.

People have a right to believe what they want about whether LGBT people are included in God’s love. Regardless, all people of good conscience everywhere must speak out against violence and hatred. On Sunday, October 12, 2008, the Metropolitan Community Church of the Quad Cities and the Unitarian Church of the Quad Cities are holding a joint worship service at 11:00 a.m. at the Unitarian Church, 3707 Eastern Avenue in Davenport. The service is in remembrance of the 10th Anniversary of the slaying of Matthew Shepard. The service is entitled “From Tragedy to Hope.”

We invite all who abhor violence and hate to attend the service and for all persons everywhere to spread the word that hate and violence are no longer acceptable behaviors in our land.
Rev. Roger Butts, Unitarian Church, Davenport
Rev. Rich Hendricks, Metropolitan Community Church of the Quad Cities