The Worship Service Planning workshop was led by the Rev. Kathleen Ellis of Live Oak Church in Austin. I realized after a few moments that I had met this woman years ago when she was still a student at Perkins School of Theology at SMU. She led a Build Your Own Theology series at First Unitarian in Dallas, that I had the happy opportunity to participate in. She was an attractive, soft-spoken person then and has not changed. She provided some excellent handout material that I can share with our slate of lay leaders. She also brought a number of resources from her own library for us to look at.

The persons in the group spent time discussing what each church is doing regarding lay-led worship. I was surprised and pleased to learn that we here at UFL seem to be well ahead of the game. Many congregations are struggling with the same issues that we have already dealt with: recruiting of lay-leaders and helping them to plan their services. When my turn to speak came, I told how we had organized our group of lay-leaders, that we had held a planning workshop, and that we had recruited 16 people to take turns at the lectern. This number was greeted with applause! Even in much larger churches there aren't so many, and they sometimes have the added burden of finding lay-leaders for multiple services. In fact, most of the time this duty seems to fall on the same few over and over, and I was asked how I had found so many willing people. (There is no secret - I simply asked. And people came forward on their own, once we started talking about the need. I think there is an open spirit in our fellowship, something positive and proactive.)

I was glad to hear Kathleen speak, and to be able to contribute something to the discussion. It was a pleasure to meet people from other churches as well. It is good to feel that we are not out here by ourselves.

Speech is a powerful force. But how much attention do we pay to our speech? . . . Do we actually bring some wisdom and sensitivity to our speaking? What is behind our speech, what motivates it? Does something really have to be said? When I was first getting into the practice of thinking and learning about speech, I conducted an experiment. For several months I decided not to speak about any third person; I would not speak to somebody about somebody else. No gossip. Ninety percent of my speech was eliminated. Before I did that I had no idea that I had spent so much time and energy engaged in that kind of talking. It is not that my speech had been particularly malicious, but for the most part it had been useless. I found it tremendously interesting to watch the impact this experiment had on my mind. As I stopped speaking in this way, I found that one way or another a lot of my speech had been a judgment about somebody else. By stopping such speech for a while, my mind became less judgmental, not only of others, but also of myself, and it was a great relief.

--Joseph Goldstein, Transforming the Mind, Healing the World

Support the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee while sharing the spirit of the season. UUSC holiday cards will be available in November. Place your orders now! Proceeds from the sale of these cards help UUSC continue to advance justice and work for basic human rights in the name of Unitarian Universalist principles.

We are proud to announce this year's contest winner: "Be the Light" by Alex Leaver of First Parish Church in Plymouth, Mass.

To view this year's cards and to order, go to www.uusc.org/holidaycards. You can also call 617-868-6600.

Unitarian Church of Baton Rouge

Fall Conference Planning Committee

Someone is doing things right. Lots of folks! Lots of churches! Unitarian Universalism is growing across the Southwest District and the rest of the country at a time when our faith is greatly needed. At the 2006 SWUUC Fall Conference at the Unitarian Church of Baton Rouge on November 10-12, 2006, we’ll gather people with success stories in UU church leadership from around the Southwest District and the UUA. Our theme speaker will be Rev. Michael Schuler, Parish Minister of the First Unitarian Society of Madison, Wisconsin, one of the largest and most successful UU congregations in the country. Come learn from Rev. Schuler and other UUs to grow your spirit and to help your own congregation prosper. Take time to enjoy the cuisine and music for which Louisiana is famous! An optional Sunday day trip to the storm-ravaged areas of New Orleans and an optional post-conference relief work opportunity are also planned. Conference registration forms are available at your church, at the Unitarian Church of Baton Rouge website (http://unitarianchurchbr.com), or by calling the church at 225-926-2291.

The seventh UU principle states: Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. Children can learn about this concept by reading (or having read to them) the following books:

A Tree Is Nice by Janice May Udry

Every Living Thing by Cynthia Rylant

The Wump World by Bill Peet

Maxine's Tree by Diane Leger

Katherine and the Garbage Dump by Martha Morris

Everybody Needs a Rock by Byrd Baylor

The children's version of the seventh principle states: We believe in caring for our planet earth, the home we share with all living things.