By Emmalinda MacLean Director of Religious Education emmalindaDRE@gmail.com At the beginning of February, we decided to change our Religious Education classes in a big way, and I like it. We went from five classrooms—nursery, preschool, elementary, junior high, and high school—down to just one, meaning that toddlers up through teenagers now gather in a large … Continue reading RE MATTERS: Bold Changes for Our Classroom Community
MARCH 2017 What Does It Mean To Be a Community of Risk? To act is to be committed, and to be committed is to be in danger. ~James Baldwin Risk is usually associated with the dare devils and thrill seekers. The real danger, we’re told, is a life of boredom. The … Continue reading SOUL MATTERS: What Does It Mean To Be a Community of Risk?
By Scott Rieker Choir Director, Emerson Choir scott@scottrieker.com It’s a privilege to be attending a graduate program where every class presents something valuable to learn. Often, those lessons are curricular, but sometimes they also generalize to larger realities. With that in mind, I offer these four lessons that I’ve learned recently. Lesson One In … Continue reading MUSICAL MUSINGS: Four Lessons About Silence, From Grad School
By Tracy Watson Vice President, Board of Trustees At its February meeting, the Emerson Board of Trustees continued to grapple with the problem of filling the vacant position of Building and Grounds Manager. Recently we almost lost our wonderful Board President, Lynne Masuhara, who had just about decided that she was the only one … Continue reading FROM THE BOARD: “Three Heads are Better than One”
On Sunday, February 12, 2017, Officer Jose Moreno of the LAPD gave a presentation and Q&A on immigration and deportation issues at Emerson Unitarian Universalist Church. Officer Moreno encouraged members of the congregation to attend the Neighborhood Watch meetings in the West Valley to become better informed about what is happening in our community, especially regarding immigration. … Continue reading NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH MEETINGS IN WEST VALLEY
A STATEMENT OF CONSCIENCE FROM EMERSON UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH REGARDING THE ELECTION OF THE PRESIDENT In the aftermath of the 2016 presidential election and in response to the acts of violence and hate crimes that have been made against Muslims, immigrants, people of color, and LGBTQ people in the San Fernando Valley, Emerson Unitarian Universalist … Continue reading A STATEMENT OF CONSCIENCE
By Emmalinda MacLean Director of Religious Education emmalindadre@gmail.com Well, we are certainly alive in interesting times. This isn’t a reality any of us saw coming, and it’s frightening, especially to those of us struggling with how to explain to children—if at all—what’s going on in the world around them, and why people in power right … Continue reading RE MATTERS: Raising Children in the Resistance
By Scott Rieker Director, Emerson Choir scott@scottrieker.com Public humiliation has been considered an effective means of punishing people since time immemorial, and most forms of punishment include an element of shame. Society has created constructs that make it easier to shame some groups of people—usually based on gender, sexual orientation, or socio-economic status—and we will … Continue reading MUSICAL MUSINGS: This Is Humiliating!
Afraid that our inner light will be extinguished or our inner darkness exposed, we hide our true identities from each other. In the process, we become separated from our own souls. We end up living divided lives, so far removed from the truth we hold within that we cannot know the “integrity that comes from … Continue reading SOUL MATTERS, February 2017, What Does It Mean To Be A Community of Identity?
By Scott Rieker Director, Emerson Choir scott@scottrieker.com I’ve debated for weeks over whether I should pen this column, because to some folks the subject matter is offensive, or at least controversial. After speaking with several gay kids over the past month, especially about their desire for positive role models, I’ve decided to go to print in … Continue reading MUSICAL MUSINGS: A New Year’s Revelation
