Upcoming Services

November 4, 2018

“9/12 - From Victim to Victor: Healing the Past, Creating the Future Through the Power of

Forgiveness”

Lyndon F. Harris

“There is no future without forgiveness.” Archbishop Desmond Tutu My journey to forgiveness began while standing at the foot of the South Tower of the former World Trade Center as it exploded into an apocalyptic fireball on September 11, 2001. Little did I know the extent to which my life would soon change. As the former priest in charge of Saint Paul’s Chapel, directly across the street from the World Trade Center site, and with great help, we developed and oversaw an outreach to the workers in Ground Zero that offered massage therapy and chiropractic care, grief counseling and a food service, ultimately providing over 500,000 meals to rescue workers. But like many traumatized first responders, my life was about to get worse. This is the story of my journey, from the peak experience of serving at Ground Zero, the despair of the post 9/11 fallout, to the healing and new beginnings in my life through a therapeutic intervention based on forgiveness. This astonishing journey to forgiveness started at Ground Zero in NYC, but has continued to the war-torn city of Beirut, Lebanon, to post-genocide Rwanda, to Belfast, Northern Ireland, Jerusalem, and Los Angeles. In this presentation, we consider the journey to forgiveness, and the powerful benefits of forgiveness for individuals and communities.

Lyndon Harris is a forgiveness coach, peace activist, and an inspirational and motivational speaker, having spoken at numerous conferences across the United States and around the world. His work at Ground Zero as priest-in-charge of Saint Paul’s Chapel (located directly across from the World Trade Center in New York City) has been written about widely, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time Magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, and Die Zeit (Hamburg). His work in forgiveness is featured in the award winning documentary, “The Power of Forgiveness” (Journey Films 2006). Harris now lives in Zirconia, NC, with his wife, Maria Lund.

Thermal Belt Unitarian Universalist Fellowship November 2018

Services at 10:30 a.m. on the 1st & 3rd Sunday of each month at

835 N. Trade St., Tryon, NC www.TBUUF.org; Like/follow us on Facebook @ TBUUF

Mailing Address: P.O. Box 653, Tryon, NC 28782

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November 18, 2018

“Lessons learned from getting my tongue stuck in a bottle”

Rev. Ernie Mills

Like most people I did some crazy things growing up. I loved being the center of attention and I often went to great lengths to achieve this goal…like getting my tongue stuck in a coke bottle – all in an attempt to make the loudest “bang” at my birthday party. To be noticed, to be given attention is not a bad thing. The question is how we go about achieving it. I learned the hard way that there are unhealthy and destructive ways to get attention. In this reflection I’ll share what I learned.

Rev. Mills completed a BA in Philosophy from the University of North Carolina at Asheville, a Master of Religious Education from Duke Divinity School, and a Master of Divinity from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University. He previously served as minister to the Unitarian Universalists of Transylvania County.

TBUUF services are held at 10:30 a.m. on the 1st and 3rd Sunday of each month at 835 N. Trade St., Tryon

Coffee, light refreshments and fellowship follow our services.

Sign-up sheets to volunteer for hospitality and to greet are on the back table at each service.

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From Minister Ernie Mills

Free Thinkers

“There are three kinds of people: those who think, those who think they think and those who would rather die than think.” I have no idea who said this, but it speaks volumes. However, I would add a fourth category: those who freely think or the “free thinkers.” The free thinkers not only think but they think outside the box and they typically question everything, even the question. It’s important to remind ourselves that the word ‘question’ begins with “quest”. Free thinkers are always on the quest to know or to deepen their knowledge – be it of the head or the heart.

Unitarian Universalists have been, and typically are free thinkers. At least two of the

readings in our Singing the Living Tradition hymnal give expression to the idea of free thinking. Reading number 592 by William Ellery Channing, The Free Mind, is perhaps the most explicit rendition. Reading 591, “I Call that Church Free,” by Luther Adams, runs a close second. There are

others. Freedom is important to us, it’s one of our prime values and principles. We believe that freedom is the basis of any and all spiritual life.

One of the sources “we draw from” warns us against “idolatries of the mind.” I understand

this to mean the mind’s tendency to lock itself in some dogmatic absolute. I call that the “static mind.” The French call it “idée fixe,” the fixed idea that will not or cannot be moved.

We are encouraged to free think and not just recycle old ideas through our heads and out of our mouths. I suppose that why we UU’s enjoy a good debate and why we don’t just let old ideas and concepts such as worship, ritual, prayer, sermon, church, etc., etc. just lie there. We stir them up, we think about them, question them. This is what free thinkers do. This is who we are.

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ANNOUNCEMENTS

From Thermal Belt Outreach: It's that time of year again! Tryon Running Club is sponsoring the Half Marathon to benefit Thermal Belt Outreach Ministry on November 17th. In appreciation, Outreach will be providing Brunch for the runners and their family members which come from all areas of our country.

We are reaching out to the community for donations of brunch items. This brunch is not possible without the help of our community. We are in need of the following items:

• 60 Meat and Vegetarian Breakfast Casseroles • Hot Oatmeal/Grits • Yogurts • Muffins/Pastries • Orange Juice

I encourage everyone to reach out to 5 members of your church, neighborhood, friends or business to help us meet our goal.

Please bring casseroles in disposable pans and label it Meat or Vegetarian. If disposable pans are not being used, please label top and bottom of dish with your names so it can be returned.

Please have the donated items at the Log Cabin in Harmon Field, between 8-9 am on Saturday, November 17th. If you are donating items that are NOT HOT, you can bring them to Outreach no later than 11am, Friday, November 16th.

This event is helping feed Polk County residents that can’t meet their basic everyday needs. We would like to thank you for all your support and encourage you to share this!

Sincerely, Barb Powell, Volunteer Coordinator - Thermal Belt Outreach Ministry

MEMBER PROFILE

Have you been attending TBUUF regularly, dropping in over time or are you new to the fellowship? Perhaps you’d like to get to know others better…maybe find out you have a connection or mutual interest. Robin Edgar leads off our series of member profiles this month. If you’d care to share about yourself, whether it be your background, current life circumstances or perhaps your future aspirations…or even guilty pleasures…send an email to Laura Converse, newsletter editor (lbc617@hotmail.com)

Robin Edgar, 2018 TBUUF Board President, was born in New York and lived in the borough of Queens until she left home to study theatre at SUNY at Stony Brook. Leaving before she graduated to get married, she joined a non-denominational production company, she moved to Ohio for 15 years. After moving to Florida to care for her elderly parents, she met and married her current husband, David. Continuing to work as a professional actress and mime, she went back to college and received a BA in Communication at Florida Atlantic University and began her career as journalist, author, and workshop facilitator.

Based on the sense memory techniques in her book, In My Mother's Kitchen: An Introduction to the Healing Power of Reminiscence, Robin demonstrates how to use reminiscence as an effective tool for long term care planning as well as to cope with loss or change due to illness such as Alzheimer’s or the death of a loved one. In addition to her workshops for professional, volunteer, and family caregivers, she facilitates love and forgiveness sessions as a former Love & Forgiveness Campaign facilitator with the Fetzer Institute and teaches life writing at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC. Ms. Edgar’s other books include: Personal Legacies: Surviving the Great Depression, Fantastic Recycled Plastic, and The Day Morris Quit.

After moving to Tryon fulltime in 2012, Robin joined the Thermal Belt Friendship Council where she developed the Creative Arts Competitions for their annual Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration and served one year on their board as Secretary. In addition to serving on the TBUUF Board, she served for three years on the board of the Story Circle Network, a non-profit organization that supported an international community of women writers. During that time, as a mayoral appointee to the City of Charlotte Community Relations Committee, she facilitated intercultural communication training.

Trying not to spend too much time in front of the computer now that she is retired, Robin spends her days hiking the local trails, kayaking on Lake Lanier, or playing Mah Jong. She and David also love to travel, enjoying places such as Peru, Italy, New Zealand, and Scotland as well as visiting national parks here in the US.

REFLECTIONS Cathy Fischer’s reading at the September 23 service chalice lighting: from The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present at the Life You Have, by Mark Nepo

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Settling into the Wait Be serene in the oneness of things and erroneous views will disappear by themselves -- Seng-Ts'an

...Perhaps the greatest challenge, once fully awake, is to drop all reaching and simply open like a clam waiting in the deep until life in all its guises floods through the half-closed center that is us.

Then God enters us like a brilliant stone falling in a lake, and the past ripples behind us, and the future ripples before us, and we are breathing in eternity.