WIDER

I am always mindful of the words of Hillel:

If I am not for myself, who is for me?
If I am for myself alone, what am I?
If not now, when?

Our life together in religious community flourishes as we find ways of supporting ourselves. Only we can develop ownership and stewardship of our community.

But, as Hillel reminds us, if community building only serves our parochial needs, what are we?

The wider community--our denomination, our neighbors, our local towns and cities, our region, and our world--call out for our involvement. If the development of our own religious community promotes growth, then the development of our involvement in our larger communities promotes depth.

And if not now, when?

In the section on Professional History, I shared many of my activities that reached beyond individual congregations. Those activities in the denomination and in my communities helped to define and express my larger ministry.

For a glimpse of my community activities in Illinois, click here.

Some other significant activities and accomplishments include the following:

In Williamsburg I was very active in a local group called All Together which actively seeks to reach across lines of religious, racial, and economic separation to weave a sense of a whole community. I have served on Panel Discussions, as a program planner, and as a workshop presenter in their work.

I worked with both Housing Partnerships (a local group) and Habitat for Humanity on projects.. In September, 2002 I worked withwith our UU congregation and other congregations building one new house with each of these organizations. The Habitat House involved, for the first time nationally, a coalition of Christian, Jewish, Unitarian Universalist, and Muslim groups. The construction was scheduled to coincide with the anniversary of September 11, as a symbol to our community of the power of hope and cooperation.

working on a Housing Partnership Project

I worked with members of my congregation with Faith in Action, a local affiliate of a national movement to provide support services in our local community. Their focus is on support services to un-churched seniors.

I was a founding member of a new coalition, Williamsburg Community of Faith for Peace, which continues to present diverse opportunities in the community (panel discussions, prayer rallies, newspaper articles, write-you-representative days, "Vote ‘NO' to War" ballots in local newspapers) to allow peace to have an equal or better-than-equal presence in the public consciousness.

I was honored to be asked to offer the Invocation at the 2003 Martin Luther King, Jr. Annual Awards Breakfast of the local chapter of the NAACP.

I expanded my A Season of Celebration resource guide into a full-day program for public schools which is used by the Northport-East Northport School District. This annual festival of multi-cultural celebrations of the season involves children from Kindergarten through fifth grade.

I have consulted with a number of schools: Providence, Rhode Island public schools, Philips Academy (Andover, Massachusetts), and the Pike School (Andover) on sexuality education; the North Merrick (New York) Park Avenue School after-school program on the design and implementation of offerings for their sixth graders; Three Villages (New York) public schools on family education issues; Southampton (New York) High School on interactive educational models; Williamsburg/James City Schools on gifted education.

I have been an invited speaker on issues of the Holocaust for non-Jews at several libraries and schools.
While in the Milwaukee area, I produced and hosted a weekly half-hour radio program that mixed rock music with discussions of ethical and religious issues. According to ratings in 1971, our 7:30am Sunday morning program averaged 10,000 listeners.

I have also served, in a consulting or design capacity, numerous community organizations, including several local libraries, Planned Parenthood of Suffolk County, several local school districts, the Ecumenical Child Care Network, and community development agencies.

My commitment to social change has led me to involvement in several other styles of activism:

In Milwaukee, I was a member of the governing board of the Greater Milwaukee Council for Religion and Urban Affairs, which supported a great variety of social services, crisis intervention, advocacy, and interfaith projects.

In Providence, in addition to my work with the schools and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, I served as a counselor to unwed pregnant teens, and designed a peer-tutoring project for disadvantaged inner-city youth.

In Andover, I was active in interfaith nutrition work to help deal with the hunger problems in nearby Lawrence, and helped our congregation, working with other congregations, to establish a shelter for abused women.

On Long Island, in addition to the work with schools and libraries mentioned above, I designed a school action project for senior high youth which involved hands-on work, in the manner of Habitat for Humanity, on a school vacation break. I have also advised the Student Activity Fund, a UU-based funding program for Long Island youth, that provides grants to college students who work in nonprofit, social-change based organizations.

In Virginia, I was co-organizer of a statewide UU day at the capitol. Working with First Unitarian Church of Richmond, and the other UU churches in the area, creating the first day-long combination of worship, education, and direct contact with legislators for our members. This was not issue based, but skill and encouragement based, trying to make individuals more knowledgeable and comfort with the process of influencing decision-makers. In a state which our UU congregations belong in two different UUA Districts, this initiated cross-district programming of this nature in Virginia.

In 2001 and 2002, I was the coordinator of the Thanksgiving Service at Colonial Williamsburg, transforming a staid interpretive drama into a truly interfaith time of worship weaving Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Pagan, and Spiritual elements. Attendance at this new service swelled to over 500!

In 18th century garb for the
Colonial Williamsburg Thanksgiving Service

One new aspect of my involvement in the wider community has come with the advent of extensive electronic communications. From 1998-2002, I held a weekly on-line discussion on spirtitual issues; our Sunday evening chats drew people from five continents.

In 2004, I began podcasting of my sermons, becoming one of the first liberal religious broadcast of this nature. Now listed on i-Tunes, Podcaster, i-Podder, Yahoo!, and numerous other podcast directories, my sermons are downloaded weekly by some 300+ subscribers. Here's a link to my podcast sermons.