I took my camera with me this morning when I went to preach at the Michael Servetus Unitarian Society/Church (it's called a "Society" on the bulletin, but a "Church" on the sign in front). I thought I'd have all of these great photos to choose from, but wouldn't you know it, my batteries died after three snaps. The three pictures I did take were carefully planned, however, and you can see them at by clicking here. The first photo shows the sign the church has put on the street you need to turn from in order to find the them. The second one is the sign you see on the way into the parking lot. And the third is of the church itself. I wanted to take a picture of the interior of their wonderful chapel, but that's when my batteries ran out. You can see it on their website, though: www.msuu.org.

 

At any rate, I did preach there this morning, which happened to be their Religious Education Appreciation day. I wish I could tell you more about what happened, but I'm trying to keep my posts to a reasonable size. I can tell you this: it was one of the most heartfelt and genuine RE Appreciation Sundays I've every attended. And it was a privilege for me to be part of it. The sermon I preached was called "Connected Community" which was really just a slightly altered version of my sermon "And How Are the Children." The three main concepts are: one, we need to assess how well we're doing in the world by continually asking ourselves, "How are the children?"; two, what children need is "Connected Community"; and three, a big part of creating and sustaining a connected community is knowing the kind of people we aspire to be. You can read more about those last two points in some previous posts of mine, one about the "Hardwired to Connect" report, and another about the Lifespan Faith Development Staff Group's Vision Statement. I preached this sermon several times this church year, but it seems to me that this Sunday was the Sunday it was truly meant for (or, for which it was truly meant).

 

This is a small congregation that's been around for over 40 years. They've had their share of joys and sorrows, and they've just recently come through a difficult time. But the spirit of life is alive and well in Fridley. And they care about their children--deeply. As I said, it's heartfelt and genuine. If someone were to ask me, "How are the children at the Michael Servetus Unitarian Society?" I'd say without hesitation, "The children are well...the children are well."
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We've received a working draft of a report prepared by the UUA's Youth Office detailing the results of our recent district-level Consultation on Ministry To and With Youth. Feel free to download a copy of the report and look over the results of almost four hours of intensive work at our recent Annual Meeting by over 40 youth and adults from around the Prairie Star District. I'm pleased with the contents of the report--it gives us a lot to work with on both the congregational and the district level. Here are some of my favorite proposed changes:

One of the things I'd like to do with this blog is to start posting photographs of me in action! Okay, so action may not be the best word. But I do get around (I'll be in Fridley, Minnesota next weekend, and in Bismarck, North Dakota the weekend after that). I think it'd be nice to have some pictures of the congregations I visit, etc., which is why I've opened an account with Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/psdlund/) and added a "badge" on this website so you can see the latest photos that I've uploaded. Right now all the pictures are of Henry David, but very soon I'll be posting photos from my travels, with the latest ones appearing on this website in the righthand column. So please feel free to leave a comment about how cute H.D. is...and starting in couple of weeks you should start seeing pictures from around the plains and prairie states that make up the best darn district in the UUA!
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Okay, so I haven't kept my promise to post more frequently, but it's been a really busy couple of weeks. Of course, blogging about what I'm doing during busy weeks like these was part of my promise, too. So here's a quick update on what's happening.

 

Right now I'm at the Mt. Olivet Retreat Center in Farmington, Minnesota for our district's post-Annual Conference Ministers & Religious Educators Retreat. We're working with Barbara Hummel on Circles of Trust, a concept developed by Parker Palmer. It's very interesting, very useful, and very exhausting. In fact, I'm skipping a breakout session at this very moment.

 

So rather than doing some small group sharing, I'd like to offer this highlight from the Prairie Star District's Annual Conference. There were a lot of things to like about the conference, but the moment that captured my heart was the post-banquet dance on Saturday night. I was out running an errand during most of the dance, but when I returned to the hotel, I found a multigenerational group in the center of a darkened room, doing a simple dance to the tune of "Goodnight Irene." There were elders and youth and children and young adults, and the band (Wild Rhubarb) was playing sweetly and simply, like the song itself. Someone motioned for me to join in, and I did, taking the hand of my welcoming neighbors on each side and effortlessly joining the dance.

 

It was a wonderful moment, and it got me thinking: How often to any of our congregations host multigenerational dances? My guess: not very often. And that's a shame because dancing together among the generations is an essential part of many cultures, including most the cultures of most of our ancestors. I'm thinking that such dances should be a regular part of our congregational celebrations. What do you think?

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According to ScreenNow, "Registered sex offender record information from all 50 states and the District of Columbia is available through the U.S. Department of Justice Web site." The site, known as the Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Registry (named after the North Dakota woman who was murdered by a known sex offender), "is a cooperative effort between the state agencies hosting public sexual offender registries and the federal government. This web site is a search tool allowing a user to submit a single national query to obtain information about sex offenders through a number of search options:"

• By Name
• By ZIP Code
• By County (if provided by state)
• By City/Town (if provided by state)
• By State (one or multiple)
• National

Now there are some restrictions on how the information available on this site can be used. Most states more or less say the same thing South Dakota does:

ANY PERSON WHO USES INFORMATION CONTAINED IN OR ACCESSED THROUGH THIS WEBSITE TO THREATEN, INTIMIDATE, OR HARASS ANY INDIVIDUAL, INCLUDING REGISTRANTS OR FAMILY MEMBERS, OR WHO OTHERWISE MISUSES THIS INFORMATION, MAY BE SUBJECT TO CRIMINAL PROSECUTION.

There are no restrictions that I know of, however, in the states that make up Prairie Star (Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin) when it comes to using this information to decide whether or not a congregation should allow someone to volunteer to work with children, youth, or vulnerable adults. What this means is that there are absolutely no more excuses ("We can't afford it," "We don't know what to do, " etc.) for congregations not to at least check to see if a volunteer wanting to work with children, youth, or vulnerable adults is a registered sex offender. This is the bare minimum when it comes to protecting our children.

For more information on protecting children, youth, and vulnerable adults, click here.

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