"The Spiritualityof Cool" by Rev. Tom Schade

Tue Feb 27 14:58:18 CST 2007

M I N I S T E R ‘ S   M E M O

“Peacebang and the New World Coming”

A few weeks ago, the Boston Globe featured on its Sunday front page one of
my colleagues in the Unitarian Universalist ministry, the Rev. Victoria
Weinstein, who serves the church in Norwell, Massachusetts. Rev. Weinstein
(rhymes with Einstein) writes an online journal, or “blog” called “Peacebang
’s Beauty Tips for Ministers.” (Don’t ask why she calls herself “Peacebang”
on line; it is a long story which is mildly amusing only if you know her. It
does fit her.)

I have known Victoria for years; she and I are both activists in the
Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship. We see each other at General
Assembly, where we have long conversations about matters of deep theology,
the challenges of parish ministry, and what some people mistakenly choose to
wear in public. She propounds sound doctrine on all three subjects, but
especially on the latter. Her blog shares her impeccable judgment with a
larger audience. It is a ministry to other ministers, serving up tasty tips,
lists of dos and don’ts, tiny tidbits of criticism and generous portions of
encouragement about how religious professionals should present themselves in
their public roles. She writes mostly for other women, but occasionally has
some words of advice for male ministers.

Her overall message is that religious professionals make a characteristic
error about our appearance. We would like to believe that life dedicated to
spiritual matters is compromised by thinking too much about clothes and
appearance. We should be above that sort of thing, we think, especially in a
society which values looks and appearance as much as this one does. But a
lack of concern for appearance communicates only disregard and disrespect
for those we serve. It also graphically demonstrates that religion and the
church don’t really connect to the real world, but exist only in some
parallel universe of our own making, a world were thinking is supreme. It is
also self-indulgent and morally smug at the same time.

She writes:
Friends, we are soldiers in the army of the Lord. I know some of you may
shudder at the militance of that statement, but it's Biblical and I embrace
it. Our weapons in the fight are love and compassion, strength of spirit,
joy, beauty, humor, and faith.
Those weapons are not instantly at our disposal simply for the wishing. We
must clothe ourselves in this armor with intentionality and confidence,
believing ourselves worthy to wear it. We cannot do this by slogging around
entirely in our heads, regarding our bodies merely as containers for our
big, impressive brains and stubbornly insisting on projecting hostility to
an aesthetic sensibility shared by most of the world.
>From head to toe, you are a vessel of God. It is not frivolous or selfish to
love and care for the feet that take you walking through your parishes. It
is not selfish or frivolous to love and care for the arms that you wrap
around the grieving. It is not frivolous or selfish to love and care for the
face that shines on your people with the message of love and grace your
words can never fully express. It is not frivolous or selfish to love and
care for your hands, that do the work of Love both menial and mighty, or to
vigilantly guard, love and care for your good hearts, that bear so much care
on behalf of others. It is not overly luxurious or sinfully sensuous to love
and care for all your epidermis, that clothes the miracle of what lies
underneath. It is no sin to know who you are and care well and
unapologetically for all of it, in the knowledge of Whose you are.
 Go ye and groom ye to the high office to which you are called.

She can do her own preaching. I suggest that you
check out her site at http://beautytipsforministers.blogspot.com/
<http://beautytipsforministers.blogspot.com/>  for the full flavor of her
commentary. She is wise and funny.

And she is on the front page of the Sunday Globe. And she is going to be
featured on ABCs Nightline. She gets readers, not only from the world of
Unitarian Universalist ministers, her original audience, but from female
ministers in many denominations and from all around the country, and even
the world.

She describes the media’s interest in her this way:
I believe that this little flurry of attention is related to the mistaken
impression people have that we clergy are remote creatures, too busy being
super-duper holy to be fully engaged in the world the way "ordinary" people
are. You know, I know, and God knows that we're not super-duper holy, we're
not remote, and we're not disengaged from the real world as lay people know
it. Like everyone else, we're trying to juggle all our responsibilities in
life, with the added layer of attending people through the spiritual journey
and speaking a word of hope and grace on Sunday mornings. We're trying to
figure out how to communicate through our appearance some of the relevancy
and vibrancy we believe is present in the contemporary Church.

And in that, she is a harbinger of a new world. Increasingly, the entire
world is at our fingertips, and information flows across boundaries of
location and denomination. There are many people for whom Peacebang is their
first introduction to liberal religion, and they are astounded to run across
our religious perspective in their internet surfing. Ideas and perspectives
about religion are spreading in every direction.

This is the world in which First Unitarian will have to operate for the
decades to come. Not only will we have to build a religious community among
people who see each other face-to-face and share the greater community of
Worcester, MA, but we will also be communicating with people all over the
world. It will be an exciting time.

                  Tom

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