Notes of a Worship Visitor in Naperville

Having finished an Our Whole Lives facilitator training workshop at 9PM Saturday evening, I decided not to drive the 5+ hours home that night, staying instead to worship with the DuPage Unitarian Universalist Church, which had hosted the workshop. My friend and seminary colleague Charlotte Lehmann is the Ministerial Intern there, and I hoped to see her too.

I arrived at 9:20 for a 9:30 service, hung my jacket, went to the restroom, and made my way into the sanctuary with a few minutes to spare. It was a rainy morning out, with clearing skies forecast for later, so I wasn't surprised to find a very spare congregation with a large portion of the seats empty.

Despite the use of the "C-word" in the name of the congregation, the sanctuary appears to have been designed to deemphasize the churchiness of it. It is a modest rectangular room with a high flat ceiling with exposed beams. Individual chairs in rows facing the front with a center aisle serve instead of pews, as is true at many of UU congregations. At the front is a low stage with a wide pulpit in the central position. It appears designed to simultaneously stress the central importance of the spoken message, which is called a sermon here, without drawing a vivid visual connection to the pulpits used in many Christian denominations. Directly below the pulpit is a low table with a wooden chalice on it that holds a white tower candle. To the left, in a rather cramped corner, is a keyboard, a baby grand piano, the place from which the 6-person choir sings and the place for a drummer and guitarist to sit and perform. To the right is a bronze sculpture incorporating a ring of 25 candle sockets large enough to hold full-sized dinner candles, to be used during Joys and Concerns.

The shape of the service was somewhat different than I usually encounter, with the sermon coming immediately after the opening song, the offering and joys and concerns coming after the sermon, and no announcements being spoken, instead being printed on an insert to the order of service.

WELCOME
CHALICE LIGHTING
PRELUDE
OPENING WORDS
OPENING SONG
SERMON
OFFERING/ OFFERTORY
JOYS and CONCERNS
CLOSING THOUGHTS
CLOSING SONG
POSTLUDE
BENEDICTION

It is an order that, while not so specified, is closely derivative of the liturgical churches' structure of liturgy of the word followed by the liturgy of the eucharist, except for the sermon's length, which was more related to the "low" liturgical form of much of Protestant Christianity.

The Welcome was spoken by a member of the congregation's board. In it, the invitation was made to newcomers to stand and introduce themselves. I was surprised that there were several newcomers. All the more surprising given the low overall attendance at the service. But as each of us introduced ourselves, the congregation spoke words of welcome to us. When I sat down after introducing myself, the woman behind me rubbed my back, which was a bit of a surprise. And then we settled into the service with a child kindling the chalice and the performance of the prelude.

The service did not make use of the gray hymnal Singing the Living Tradition. Instead, along with a sung prelude from Garth Brooks ("Standing Outside the Fire," 1993), a sung offertory from James Taylor ("Shower the People," 1976), and a sung postlude from John Legend ("If You're Out There," 2008), the congregation sang two songs from the teal hymnal Singing the Journey, which is a 2005 supplement. The two songs from it: "When I am Frightened" and "Love Knocks and Waits For Us to Hear," copyrighted 1999 and 1996, respectively. Love or hate the gray hymnal, one advantage it has over the teal hymnal is that more of its selections can be sung by a congregation with minimal stumbling. It seems to me that the selections, while nice for a choir, were a bit complex for a congregation trying to sight read. But we made it through...

The Rev. Emmy Lou Belcher's sermon was titled Follow the Fireweed. She had great pulpit presence. And her sermon pulled together many different global, social justice, and political issues, stories, and anecdotes, together with several references to Christian existentialist theologian Paul Tillich and a couple to Unitarian theologian James Luther Adams. At various times, the poignancy of the stories she cited moved me, even to the point of tears. But I admit that, perhaps because I was tired from the intensive workshop and did not get enough sleep the night before, I could not discern what her theme was, let alone the structure of the sermon.

Joys and Concerns, often considered something to be tightly managed in our congregations, was open and comfortable here. Persons with a joy or concern came to the front, were handed a candle by the minister that they then lighted, inserted into the sculpture intended for that purpose, and then spoke what they wanted to share, without the minister appearing antsy or trying to control the time used. It felt like a very comfortable time of sacred sharing within this congregation. After the last candles were lighted, the minister, eyes closed, spoke words of pastoral prayer, lifting up the spoken and unspoken joys and concerns without resort to God-language or language of request. Very nicely handled. It so clearly was prayer yet of a sort whose words and intent could not make the most ardent anti-theist uncomfortable yet whose frame was open to theistic interpretation by those for whom that makes prayer meaningful.

I had a cup of coffee during the coffee hour that comes between the 9:30 service and the 11:15 service, thinking I might see my friend Charlotte. Somehow our paths did not cross. Given the warm words of welcome at the beginning of the service, I expected to be approached and drawn into conversations while I had my coffee, but no one spoke to me. And since I was thinking about hitting the road and getting home, I didn't take on the responsibility of starting a conversation myself, as I ordinarily would do.

When I had finished my coffee and made a pitstop, I headed for my car. Just outside the front door, I was greeted by a woman who told me that growing up conservative Christian, she had gone to a church-run camp on Little Grassy Lake, near Carbondale IL. She wished me safe driving, and I was on my way home.

I didn't have my camera along, so I can't share a picture of the building or sanctuary, but here is a link to a copyrighted image of the church: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimfrazier/1486821723/