RevCyn

Registration for General Assembly starts on Monday.  I haven't been to the last two General Assemblies -- I haven't felt like I could afford it.  This year I intend to go, even though, well, I still can't afford it.  There are some ways to cut expenses for GA--you can have a roommate, or stay in a cheaper hotel far away from the conference center, and spend the time and energy and money to figure out how to get to and from the conference center.  I will most likely do this.  But there are some ways that the expenses can't be cut--there's no reduced rate based on financial need for the GA registration.  I look forward to the day when I can vote on everything from my home computer, watch the events on the streaming video, and have no need to travel across the country to participate in our democratic process.  This past year it got closer--I was able to vote for president by absentee ballot, and I was able to watch some of the proceedings.  Meanwhile...

Last Sunday I did that presentation on Social Networking with my parents in the Detroit area, but I'm still immersed in Social Networking because I'm working on a webinar on the subject for our district... and I'm procrastinating on sermon writing, of course. What better time to blog? MySpace Having heard an NPR report and read a New York Times article (see below) which suggest that while Facebook is gaining popularity overall, MySpace is still more popular with certain minority groups, I wonder if UU churches might be further perpetuating our problem of addressing primarily white culture by being on Facebook and not MySpace.  I, and my church, have Facebook accounts and not MySpace ones.  Looking for UU churches on MySpace, I encountered only a couple.  Thomas Jefferson Unitarian Church is one.  So I decided the other day to try to create a MySpace account for the church.  My idea was to see if I could, like I did with the Ning page I set up a while ag...

The Standing on the Side of Love campaign did a great job of getting a consistent message out through UU churches and ministers this week.  I saw numerous blog posts, newspaper editorials, and other writings on the subject this week.  Here's a sampling: The Rev. Cecilia Kingman said in the Wenatchee World : As for us, though, we proclaim God’s love for all people — that great, redeeming love which has no limit. And we invite everyone who places compassion, justice and love at the center of your faith to join us in standing on the side of love. In Potsdam, Austin Kenyon said on " News 10 ": This weekend is a symbol, it's done purposefully, to reimagine Valentine's Day as a holiday. To reimagine it not as just a holiday of candy and Hallmark cards. But as a day of love and acceptance for everyone. In Maryland, on the Beltway, the Rev. Diane Teichert told dcagenda.com that she would no longer sign marriage licenses, saying: Valentine’s Day is about more than r...

One of the reasons I've been blogging less is that I was working on the Opinion Editorial that ran in today's Jackson Citizen Patriot.  If you'd rather read it here, here's the text: State must recognize committed same-sex couples With Valentine's Day right around the corner, our thoughts naturally go to the subject of love. Many loving couples will get engaged or married to celebrate their commitment. But there are a lot of loving couples in our community who cannot celebrate in this way because of our state's limitations on same-sex marriage. Many of the same-sex couples that I know are in relationships that have lasted longer than my marriage. These couples are raising children. They own houses together; they are an asset to our community. They are in every significant way like my husband and me, except under the law. The majority of Americans now believe in something we call "civil unions," and are willing to give same-sex couples the sam...

I spent the morning working on a PowerPoint slide explaining how I do social networking (for a presentation that I'm helping my father on for an organization named SEMCO ). So the picture below is how one minister does social networking for a congregation. It basically amounts to this: I try to blog once a week, and I try to post on the church's Facebook page once a week. The rest pretty much automatically happens. Added note: Of course, now that I've done this picture, things seem to be not working anymore.  It's been over an hour since I posted this, and it hasn't fed into either my Twitter or the church Facebook.  Perhaps it's just a blogger delay? Second Addition:  It did eventually work and go to the Twitter and the Facebook, just like it should.  Meanwhile, I've unscrambled the picture a bit.  Here it is below:

My usual blogging time was spent writing an opinion editorial this week, so unless I get jazzed about something tomorrow, it's looking like there's no real blog post this week. So meanwhile, Let's Save Michigan . (This site also has an open letter to sign onto about the need Michigan has for more federal money for light rail - see here .  And there's an awesome pledge , which includes things you can do such as shopping at small local businesses, attending cultural events, and being an informed voter.  Very doable.  So let's do it.)