The Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica

Featured Articles - April, 2008

Iran Today: The Iranian Points of View

The Speaker Series sponsored by the Peace & Civil Liberties and the Faith in Action Committees has enlisted Said D. Jabbari, senior analyst and spokesperson for the Center for Promotion of Democracy and Human Rights in Iran (CFPD), to speak to the subject of “Iran Today: The Iranian Points of View” on Friday evening, April 4, at 7:15 p.m. in the sanctuary.

For more than 30 years, Mr. Jabbari has been a scholar and student of Iranian-U.S./West relations with an emphasis on national and international security issues and developments. He specialized in the study of psycho-politics (terrorism, war, and conflict) at the University of Southern California. A founding member of the Movement for the National Independence of Iran (GAMA) in the late 1970s, he has been a producer and anchor for the f o rmer weekly cable program “Iran Fi l e.” Mr. Jabbari has written numerous articles and op-ed pieces in the past 25 years and has been interviewed extensively by the U.S. and international media.

He will present an objective view of Iran in today’s world and respond to questions, such as, What is the makeup of Iran’s government? Do the Mullahs or President Ahmadinejad make final policy? What is the role of the Iranian parliament? Does Iran truly deserve its reputation as a pariah nation, and is it the number-one threat to the United States and Middle East? What is the history of U.S. and Iran relations going back to the 1950s, i.e., the CIA’s ouster of the Mossadeq regime, the American role in the Iraq- Iran War, the hostage crisis, the lack of any official diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Iran these last 25-plus years, Iran’s surge to develop nuclear energy and possibly atomic we a p o n s, President Bu s h’s designation of Iran as an “axis of evil” nation, and the current sanction strateg i es by the U.S., Europe, and the United Nations? What will Iran’s reaction be if the U.S. invokes a war on Iran? Is there any hope of a rapprochement at this time between the U.S. and Iran? What is Iran seeking in its relation to the world? Don’t miss this vital talk. In this dangerous time, it is important that we know as much about Iran as we can. Come with questions. A reception in Forbes Hall will follow the event.

— Arvid Knudsen

Sunday Attendance

2006 services

2007 Services

What Was Lost Can Be Found

This is a story of the interconnected web of life. On October 31, 2007, I received an email inquiry asking if I were the Diana Elaine Spears that had sent a letter in 1977 to the Infant of Prague Adoption Agency. I replied that it was I. I had a baby daughter when I was a teenager and for many good reasons felt it best to have her adopted, hopefully into a loving two-parent family. I had sent a letter to the agency to let them know that if at any time my daughter inquired they could give her my name and address.

She indeed had inquired in 1988. California law required that they not give her my name without the permission of her parents. She was reluctant to ask her mother for permission as she felt this would make her mother unhappy. She pursued the matter eventually, finding out my name in 2002, but still didn’t have my address, and she had moved to South Carolina. Time passed until her co-worker received a book from a friend in California who had located her birth parents.

My daughter e-mailed this woman and asked her to search for me. She came back with my name referenced to UUCCSM. My daughter got on the web and checked our web site. There she found the Faith in Action Bulletin Green Issue Spring 2007 and an article I had written on composting that included my e-mail and a photo of the Green Committee. She searched further and found other photos of me with Marguerite. She was excited to find she still had a grandmother living. It was then that she wrote me.

I immediately replied. She told me that her father had died 11 years ago and her mother seven years ago. She had grown up in Fresno, had a stay-at-home mom, been closest to her dad, and had a sister three years younger, also adopted. She had a long-time partner, Michael, but no children. We kept in daily contact until she could come to Ca l i f o rnia on February 19 so we could celebrate her birthday together on February 20.

She gave me a possible address of her birth father in San Diego County. I called him and forwarded many of the photos she sent me and told him of her plans to come. I arranged for us to go to San Diego to meet him and go to the zoo. My daughter, Tami Shannon, and I met; we fit right into one another’s lives as if only a few years and not a lifetime separated us. My mother welcomed her easily too.

On her birthday we went to my Emeritus Gospel Chorus class, where I introduced her.William Bryant, our chorus’ music director, sang “Happy Birthday” to her. I took Tami to meet Judith Meyer and her dog, Aki. While I was working, Tami and my mom went over family albums and drove around the West Side.We had received an e-mail from Tom, Tami’s father, saying he had been sick but would try to see us in San Diego.

I was gratified that he was able to come.We had a lovely breakfast and spent about two hours together. They, too, got past any discomfort or shyness they spent the rest of the day enjoying the San Diego Zoo.

Sunday Tami accompanied me to church where, despite the frenzy of Dining for Dollars, my mother and I managed to introduce Tami to some church members. My cousin, Ferol Mennen, and her husband, Dick Smoak, of Neighborhood Church, came, and we had a fabulous brunch at the Huntley House — where Bill and Marjorie Anderson and her reunited daughter Mindy also happened to come. That evening we took Tami back to church to hear the Louis Durra Trio and meet more church members.

Monday Tami and I went around to some of the beach areas and Venice Canals.We ate at my mom’s that night and spent our last evening together at the home that a friend had let us use while Tami was here. I took Tami, my daughter who had been lost but now was found, to the airport the next morning as she was flying north to visit her sister.Words cannot express the gratitude and joy I felt for my daughter’s return to my life. Since I never married nor had other children, I feel blessed. I am happy that the feeling was mutual. I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to introduce Tami to everyone, but our life isn’t over yet.

— Diana Spears

Silence in the Bedroom, Silence in the Pew

It is time to recruit participants for the adult version of Our Whole Lives (OWL), the lifespan sexuality curriculum, which we are fortunate to be able to offer our congregation. We did not teach the course last year because there was not sufficient interest.

Lack of interest? Since sex sells everything, it is not possible that we are uninterested. Perhaps sex seems unimportant — after all, we are busy and we already know how to do it. However, if we broaden our perspective a little, we must realize that sexuality is central to our identity. It is our connection to the life force and it colors every aspect of our lives. It is a critical component of our physical, mental, and spiritual health.

Religion has always been intimately involved with sexual rules and rituals. The problem is that sex is embarrassing. We have a great deal of trouble talking about it. We are not very good at talking about it with our partners or our children, and we are even less good at talking about it with each other.

So how about some practice? The curriculum for this course is excellent. It is interactive and fun. The richness of the course comes from participation, which is why we do not run it without 10 to 12 committed participants. There is no need to be shy. It is not necessary for participants to reveal personal sexual experiences. An intern minister participated with initial trepidation and ultimate enthusiasm.

This spring we offer three four-hour workshops, and the course will continue next fall. There are 12 workshops in all, and we present them two at a time. These are the topics: sexuality and values; sexuality and communication; sexuality and spirituality; discovering the sexual self; experiencing the sexual other; sexual attraction and early relationships; developing relationships; committed relationships; sexual diversity; sexuality and family; sexuality and aging; sexual health.

The dates for spring are Saturday, May 10, 1 to 5 p.m.; Sunday, June 1, 1 to 5 p.m.; Saturday, June 7, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. To sign up, come to the table in Forbes Hall, or contact Cynthia Cottam.

Letters

This is my personal take on the costs estimates for the building program calculated for the church by C. P. O’Halloran Associates. I am not speaking for anyone but myself.

The church developed a plan that expanded the sanctuary, rehabilitated Forbes Hall and the rooms above it, built a small new building behind the cottage, and landscaped the entire site. It was a good plan that met the expressed needs of the congregation. The construction cost was estimated at $3,057,000. This does not include costs for architecture, project management, furniture, etc. Even so, it is considerably more than the $1,268,000 we have. In my view it is extremely unlikely that we are going to raise the difference before our Conditional Use Permit expires in 2013. So something has to give.

O’Halloran broke the construction costs down as follows:

Landscaping $273,000
New classroom building $536,000
Refurbishing Forbes $1,604,000
Expanding sanctuary $645,000
Total $3,057,000

It’s pretty hard to see how we can get by without landscaping. My understanding is that Santa Monica regulations make landscaping fairly expensive. Fortunately the city is willing to contribute. So if we assume a city contribution of $40,000 we are left with $1,268,000 + $40,000 - $273,000 = $1,035,000. That is, we have about a million dollars for things other than landscaping. I see two basic options:

Option A: Expand the sanctuary. That means moving the office somewhere, presumably the cottage. So RE has to go back to the rooms above Forbes Hall. We would have $390,000 left over, not enough to build the classroom, but enough to substantially improve the second floor rooms above Forbes Hall. Alternatively, we could leave RE in an unimproved second floor and spend the $390,000 on accessibility or other improvements.

Option B: Not expand the sanctuary. This leaves RE with the cottage, removing the need for the new building. The entire $1,035,000 can be spent improving Forbes Hall and the rooms above it. This is still much less than the $1,604,000 estimated for the Forbes renovations we have planned. Some decisions would have to be made about relative priorities within Forbes.

I prefer option B, focusing on Forbes Hall and the second floor rooms. My hunch is that most other folks agree.

Finally, let me note what great work the building committee has already performed. The cottage is glorious. Most of RE has great facilities, the sort that really impress visitors. When the backyard is landscaped we will have a spectacular facility.We may not get everything we want in Forbes, but we are going to get a lot, including greatly improved accessibility. If the sanctuary is a little crowded sometimes, that’s a problem most older Protestant churches would love to have. Our most important goal is to stay united and keep moving. We are doing really well.

— Tom Hamilton

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