Installation at First UU Youngstown

I'm plugged in and powered up -- my installation at First UU of Youngstown was this morning.
The local paper ran an article announcing the appointment: (http://tinyurl.com/MattAppoint)

The installation was part of our Ingathering and Water Ritual, an annual event at this time of the year. One of the church members was kind enough to take photos of the service, the installation, and the ritual.



First UU Matt Alspaugh Installation 9-13-09>

First UU Matt Alspaugh Installation 9-13-09

More from my Ordination

So here's the evidence - pictures from my ordination:




A video of my ordination is posted here. I was unsuccessful at posting it (as flash) in Blogger.

Ordination

Planning is under way for my ordination, at Jefferson Unitarian Church, Golden Colorado, on May 10, 2009 at the traditional time, four in the afternoon. Invitations are being mailed, a service is being outlined -- it's all very exciting.

Some would argue that I should wait until I'm installed at my first settled congregation to be ordained. That could be years, if ever, since I feel called to interim rather than settled ministry. A wise friend reminded me that the older tradition in the New England churches was for the church that 'called out' a minister -- that sent the minister out into the world -- to ordain the minister. Jefferson Unitarian Church is that 'sending' church for me.

May 10 is Mother's Day. It was the only day available in a busy church with busy people. The day fits for me, for my own mother was an inspiration for my call to ministry. She would have been surprised by that, as she was not religious, though she did admit a fondness for 'the Unitarians'.

Going with the Flow

I've been slow at posting because I've been so busy working on the Men's Retreat, among other things. The retreat was this last Friday and Saturday. Sunday, I preached at Unity Church. Normally, I take some time in advance to prepare for the service, but this service was a bit compressed. I did write the sermon early in the week, but was editing it Sunday morning. So that, plus my tiredness from the retreat gave these services a more improvisational sense. I made a lot of little gaffs, and tried to correct them as best I could.

• I left the wireless microphone on while I was getting coffee and conversing with a congregant serving coffee. The early arrivals hear all this in the sanctuary.
• I forgot to light the chalice in the first service, and had to be reminded by the worship associate.
• I said, 'Wellspring Wednesday Worship Circus' instead of 'Worship Service' (and admitted that it sometimes is!)
• I completely forgot what the ritual words are for singing the children out at the second service, so I just pulled some words out of the air.
• I grabbed too many offering baskets for the late service, so again ad-libbing the ritual words, I held onto two baskets.
• My worship associate and I have to deal with where to stand for singing and how to recess at the late service, because the stage for the children's musical has been erected. We do this with hand signals and by watching each other closely.

In earlier days of my learning, I'd have really beat myself up for any of this. Now I just chuckle. There is joy in this, even in the gaffs.

Worship with Projection 101

Yesterday I presented my first worship service, a short intergenerational service called Wellspring Wednesday. I tried something new for this worship, and prepared a set of projected images to support my message. It seemed to go well, and the children, who often get squirmy, paid careful attention.

When I watched Al Gore present on-stage in "An Inconvenient Truth", I was amazed at the software he used, and realized it was essentially Keynote, Apple's presentation software. I immediately bought a copy, and loaded it on my trusty Mac iBook G4. I've since added a Griffin Airclick USB remote control, so I can advance slides while away from the computer.

I built my slideshow as simply as possible: a set of images with no fancy transitions. I used a combination of my own images and photos downloaded from flickr. I was careful to use only images that were shared under Creative Commons licenses; you can restrict your search in flickr to these under advanced search. I did add a credits screen at the end. I included some text screens for song lyrics, these were the simplest white font on black. (Note that licensing is a concern when projecting lyrics.)

One of the places where Keynote really shines is during the presentation. The screenshot above shows what you see on your notebook screen. The projector is showing the left image, and the right image is the next image. I am amazed at how valuable knowing what the next image is when you are trying to ad lib a transition to that image. Having the time of day is useful too, though the elapsed time was less useful to me. Notes are below, also, and were very helpful as a stress reduction tactic.

Our projector, on an old AV cart, and a portable screen left over from the 1960s rounded out the equipment list. I worried about light pouring in through stained glass windows behind me, but the sun was low enough so that wasn't a problem.

Technically, things went without a hitch. When worship was done, I raced the computer and the AV cart down to another meeting room where a workshop using DVD clips was to be conducted, and that, too, went without any glitches. We trust our technology so much more these days. I didn't even have a real back-up plan in place -- a far cry from the days when I would routinely carry overhead transparencies or printouts in case something went wrong.