Disruptive people

To the editor:

Lester Welch's letter about disruptive people (InterConnections, July/August) was a vivid reminder of how our congregation responded for a number of years to the presence of one who waws disruptive. We were kind, we tolerated the behavior (although we remonstrated with the person), but we felt powerless. We made sure that counseling was available. We felt we had no right to expel the individual from the community.

The problem was that on several occasions an ongoing program had to be abandoned because many stopped attending because they would not risk being attacked or witnessing such an attack. Visitors often did not return to our church out of fear. Some avoided the social hour to protect their children.

It was only when our new minister pointed out that the presence of the disruptive person was threatening the very existence of our community that our board (after many months of discussion), voted to expel the person from the church. The church is indeed not a social club, but when our fears of hurting one among us permits that one to harm or threaten many of us, something must be done to bring the life of the community back into balance.

Bette H. Sikes
First Unitarian Society, Chicago

Antennas Unhealthy

To the editor:

In this past year many of our church communities have entered into agreements with cellular phone companies to install Personal Communication Systems antennas without realizing that digital microwave radiation is a health hazard, especially to children and the elderly.

Many towns and churches have been beguiled by the large corporations and told the technology is safe. Because of financial difficulties many UU churches seem unable to resist the temptation of money. But there is literature that shows immediate harmful effects such as DNA breakage, learning defects and in the long term, cancer.

Some towns have enacted strong zoning bylaws to include at least 1,000-foot setbacks from residences, schools, hospitals, nursing homes and historic districts. If we do not want antennas in neighborhoods, we certainly do not want them in church steeples. Churches should be a safe place, a haven, a place of refuge, a sanctuary, a house of prayer, not a place of danger.

Churches and towns are naively led to believe that the main issues are aesthetics and money, not health. We need to alert the UUA of this danger and stop radiation in UU steeples. This is by far the biggest danger to our churches in years. It was with deep regret that I left my own UU church after 16 years (over this issue).

Margaret T. Patton
43 Plain Road, Wayland, MA 01778

Livelier Meetings

To the editor:

The following letter is a response to Alex Gacic, the chair of the long-range planning committee at the UU Fellowship of the Emerald Coast, Valiparaiso, FL (123), who had asked on MEMB-L, the UUA's electronic discussion list for membership issues, for advice from other UU leaders about ways to make committee meetings livelier and more meaningful.

Alex:

One of my wonderful former ministers, Ralph Stutzman, taught leadership training skills that included two great things to increase fun in committees. They worked for me.

The first is to check in at the beginning, which means you go around the circle and ask everyone to share a piece of personal information that indicates whether they bring energy to the meeting or whether they are depleted. This helps people connect and makes for a livelier meeting. Granted, there are folks who are uncomfortable with this, but for me, it's a matter of a good meeting or a boring one. People can"pass" if they don't want to share.

The second, is that at the end of the meeting you go around the circle a second time and process the meeting. People tell what the meeting was like for them, whether they liked it and found it productive. It also gives them an opportunity to offer suggestions for better meetings and to apologize if they interrupted someone earlier or if they tried to talk and felt no one listened. The idea is to keep the meeting in the room rather than having people go home and phone their friends about their frustrations.

Another thing Ralph Stutzman taught us was to sometimes go around the circle and ask everyone's opinion on something that was under discussion. That way the quiet people get involved, and I always consider it "fun" to hear everyone's opinions.

Stefani Cochran
UU Church of Shenandoah Valley, Stephens City, VA (100)

Encroaching Dogma?

To the editor:

At this year's religious education conference on Star Island, a director of religious education pointed out the 'What We Believe' poster (InterConnections, July/August). She rightly noted that UU's don't have a fixed set of beliefs. In general, we have a set of affirmations we tend to agree upon.

The concept that UU's have a fixed set of beliefs is confusing at best and frightening in the extreme. We will not be purchasing a poster.

Gordon Adams
Chair, RE Committee, UU Fellowship of Falmouth, East Falmouth, MA (204)