Here is our program.

New York City
All Souls is a religious community:
In the experience of worship, we gather to contemplate the mystery of
God, interpret the wisdom of religion, and explore the insights of science.
Our purpose is to awaken our sense of the sacred and renew our resolve
to transform ourselves and our world.
As human beings, we all emerge from the same Source and share the
same Destiny. As a community of faith, we make shared commitments
and offer mutual support. As individuals, we each bear responsibility for
our own beliefs and actions.
We practice a discipline of gratitude, by which we acknowledge our utter
dependence on the people and world around us, and we practice an ethic
of gratitude, by which we accept our obligation to nurture others and the
world in return.
2015-16 Board of Trustees
Victor Fidel, President
Carol Kirkman, First Vice-President
Li Yu, Second Vice-President
Sabrina Alano, Heidi DuBois, Carol Emmerling,
Richard Ford, Neil Osborne, David Poppe
Clerk of the Society
Jeffrey Friedlander
Pastoral Care
When you or someone you love is in need of a helping hand or a listening ear,
the All Souls Pastoral Care ministry provides practical assistance from our
Caring Team as well as emotional and spiritual care from our ministers and
Lay Pastoral Associates. To request support, please email PastoralAssociates@
AllSoulsNYC.org or leave a message on our confidential, 24/7 pastoral care line at
(646) 669-9345.
Lay Pastoral Associates – Lois Coleman, Paul DiMauro, Trish Katz, Marilyn
Mehr, Rae Ramsey, Marion Wise and Hanan Watson
Caring Team – Jane Colvin
Order of Service
Lay Sunday
January 31, 2016
10:00 and 11:15 a.m. service
“I am a living member of the great family of all souls.”
-- William Ellery Channing
Renée Anne Louprette, Associate Director of Music
Community Choir of All Souls
New Amsterdam Boys and Girls Choir
Paul Cohen, saxophone
SOUNDING OF THE BELL
Variations on Amazing Grace
Calvin Hampton (1938-1984)
Paul Cohen, Conn-o-sax
PRELUDE
WELCOME
Carol Emmerling
CALL TO WORSHIP
Wake Up Everybody
John Whitehead, Gene McFadden and Victor Carstarphen
New Amsterdam Boys and Girls Choir
OPENING WORDS
Betty McCollum
Opening Words for the month of January are being given by nominees to the Board of Trustees in
advance of the February 7 Annual Meeting. This is your opportunity to learn more about how All
Souls has become part of their spiritual journeys. Members will receive more information about the
nominees’ background and experience by email or mail before the Annual Meeting.
Please ensure that your electronic devices are silent.
Parents are welcome and encouraged to bring their children into the Sanctuary.
Restless children are welcome in the Vestibule where you can hear the service,
or to our infant and childcare program on the 4th Floor.
BOND OF UNION
In the freedom of the truth
And in the spirit of love,
We unite for the worship of God
And the service of all.
DOXOLOGY
From all that dwell below the skies,
Let faith and hope with love arise;
Let beauty, truth and good be sung,
Through every land, by every tongue.
Amen.
UNISON READING
580
The Task of the Religious Community
Neil Osborne
HYMN INTRODUCTION - CONNECTION
HYMN
READING
CREDO
MEDITATION
PRAYER
David Poppe
Gather the Spirit
347
Heidi DuBois
Li Yu Trois mélodies grégoriennes:
Clemens rector
Wilmer Hayden Welsh (1932-2008)
Paul Cohen, Conn-o-sax
Sabrina Alano
HYMN INTRODUCTION - POSSIBLITY
HYMN
Be Thou My Vision
20
OFFERTORY
Carol Kirkman
Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit arr. by William L. Dawson (1899-1990)
ASCRIPTION
Spirit of Truth, of Love, of Pow’r,
We bring ourselves as gifts to Thee.
Oh bind our hearts this sacred hour,
In faith and hope and charity.
Amen.
SERMON
It’s Our Responsibility
Victor Fidel
HYMN INTRODUCTION - TRANSFORMATION
HYMN
Li Yu
We’ll Build a Land
121
BENEDICTION
POSTLUDE
Liturgial Music: Gloria
Guy de Lioncourt (1885-1961)
Paul Cohen, soprano saxophone
❖❖❖
For the past year, the Board of Trustees has been working to articulate
All Souls’ mission and what our mission means for our community. In
the fall of 2015, we engaged in deep conversation with the congregation
about our best experiences of All Souls and our hopes for the future of
this community.
From these workshops, the Trustees and our Senior Minister distilled
three core values that will ground us as members of this spiritual
community, drafted a mission statement of how we will live our core
values, and identified the differences we together intend to create as a
religious community (called “ends”). In the coming months, we’ll be
discussing with the congregation the full Vision 2020 project: what
differences All Souls can make within ourselves as individuals, among
the people of All Souls as a community, and beyond All Souls in the
larger world. The mission and ends will, in turn, guide the work of
congregational volunteers, the Trustees, and the staff as we serve this
community.
Our worship service today celebrates the three core values this
community expressed in the Vision 2020 conversations: Possibility,
Connection, Transformation.
❖❖❖
A Note About Lay Sunday
The idea of Lay Sunday came from the Unitarian Laymen’s League, which was a national
men’s organization during the 1920s-1950s. The Laymen’s League had monthly
meetings with prominent speakers and was similar to the Women’s Organization
(which organized much earlier and also met monthly with invited speakers). The
women did far more in the way of charity work, while the men were busy running
the Church and trying to promote good churchmen among the congregation, inviting
speakers to lecture on character building and good Christian living. The Women’s
Organization is still alive today as the Women’s Alliance, but the Laymen’s League
was disbanded several decades ago.
Charles H. Strong, who served on our Board of Trustees for 20 years, including
for a time as President, was the first National President of the Unitarian Laymen’s
League. In 1921 Strong suggested that one layman each year should preach a sermon
in every Unitarian Church. Our archives has copies of sermons that were preached
in several of those years by various laymen in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. Our Minister
Laurence Neale (1942-1955) originated the service on one Sunday in May of each
year. He assigned various aspects of the worship service to laymen, similar to what we
do today. It’s unclear when we began having the whole Board doing the Lay Sunday
service with the President of the congregation preaching the sermon, but this is the
origin of Lay Sunday.
- Lorraine Allen, All Souls Archivist
❖❖❖
The All Souls Board of Trustees is very excited to share with this community this recent
announcement from the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Presidential Search
Committee:
Rev. Alison Miller has been selected as one of two nominees for the presidency of the
UUA. Alison was dedicated at All Souls and grew up in our Religious Education program.
She led the youth group here, worked as the assistant to Rev. Forrest Church, was ordained
at All Souls in 2004, and served this congregation as the Assistant Minister from 20042005 (see her full All Souls story at http://www.alisonforuuapresident.org/growingup-uu/). Since 2005, Alison has been the senior minister of the Morristown Unitarian
Fellowship in Morristown, NJ. Alison’s mother, the late Inez Miller, was a long-time All
Souls member, Trustee, and Deacon.
Also nominated was Rev. Sue Phillips, who works as the Regional Lead for New England
on the UUA field staff. The election for UUA presidency will be held in June 2017 at
General Assembly in New Orleans.
About Today’s Music
This morning, we are pleased to welcome back the New Amsterdam Boys and Girls Choir
directed by James Backmon. They will present the hit rhythm and blues tune Wake Up Everybody,
originally recorded as the title track of the 1975 album by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes that
featured Teddy Pendergrass on lead vocals.
The All Souls Choir will present the rousing arrangement of Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit by Alabamaborn William Levi Dawson (1899-1990), one of the most prolific contributors to the art of American
choral music. His arrangements for a cappella choir of African-American folk music in particular
are designed with remarkable precision and have become beloved staples of the repertory.
Special guest Paul Cohen is one of the strongest voices bringing the saxophone into the
mainstream of classical music performance. He has appeared with the New York Philharmonic,
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, and many other
notable ensembles. Combining his musicological pursuits with performing activities, Dr. Cohen
has rediscovered and performed lost saxophone repertoire and published more than one hundred
articles on the history and literature of the saxophone. He is on the faculty of Manhattan School
of Music, Rutgers University, Brooklyn Conservatory, and the Aaron Copland School of Music at
Queens College. Paul Cohen and Renée Anne Louprette have been performing together since their
ensemble début at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2014.
The Conn-o-sax, featured in the Hampton and Lioncourt works, is a bold, innovative saxophone
made by the Conn company (of Elkhart, Indiana) for a very limited time in 1928. Combining
elements of the saxophone, English horn, and heckelphone, it attempted to create a new voice for
the saxophone. It succeeded brilliantly as a new instrument but failed in the marketplace; we know
of only 25 still in existence. Innovations of the Conn-o-sax were numerous: a straight instrument
with a pronounced bulb at the bottom in the key of F (E-flat and B-flat are traditional keys for
saxophones), equipped with an extended range (low A to high G) and a custom mouthpiece. The
result was a unique timbre, visual appearance, and technical versatility visionary for its time.
Calvin Hampton (1938-1984) received his musical training at Oberlin Conservatory and Syracuse
University where he studied organ and composition. From 1974 to 1983, he played weekly concerts
at Calvary Episcopal Church in New York City, gaining international recognition as an organ virtuoso
and cutting-edge performer. Variations on Amazing Grace, originally for English horn and organ,
was commissioned by Thomas Stacy, principal English horn of the New York Philharmonic, in
1983 - one year before Hampton’s death from a long battle with AIDS. Hampton used the verses
of Amazing Grace as influences for each variation, but left it to the listener to discern which verse
of the traditional hymn applies to which variation. At Paul Cohen’s request, the Hampton estate
has approved performances of Variations on Amazing Grace on the Conn-o-sax due to the close
timbral relationship of the instrument with the English horn.
Guy de Lioncourt (1885-1961) was a French composer and student of Vincent d’Indy. Known as
an organist and theoretician, he composed mostly sacred music. Trois mélodies grégoriennes is
comprised of three movements based on Gregorian chant melodies (Clemens rector, Puer natus est,
and Pascha nostrum), each one tender in its lyrical simplicity.
Wilmer Hayden Welsh (1932-2008) was an American composer whose wide range of works
included symphonic, chamber, and theater music. He studied at Johns Hopkins University and
became professor of Music at Davidson College, North Carolina, from 1963-1991. Liturgical Music
is a set of seven short pieces based on parts of the Roman Catholic liturgy. The Gloria contains bold
rhythms and surprising harmonies evoking an energetic dialogue between the organ and soprano
saxophone.
Today At All Souls
Thank you to the Adventures in Ideas Forum
for serving coffee today.
The Comic Vision as Religious Perspective in Shakespeare’s
Twelfth Night
with Rev. David Robb
10:00 a.m. in Reidy Friendship Hall
In this series we will investigate one of Shakespeare’s most celebrated comedies, Twelfth
Night, while also exploring the special perspective provided by the Comic Vision. Though
Twelfth Night is not specifically a religious drama, themes common to religious traditions
abound as Shakespeare pits human ignorance and evil against human folly, pretense
versus honesty and the individual against the universal.
Is Cosmopolitanism Possible? From Global Citizenship to ISIS
and Back Again
with David McClean, Ph.D.
11:15 a.m. in Reidy Friendship Hall
The idea of Cosmopolitanism (being a “citizen of the world”) has been around for
thousands of years, and has been both praised and vilified repeatedly for different
reasons. Is cosmopolitanism merely a philosophical and political “pipe dream,” or
might it be possible to create a global order of “interlocking citizenships” with high
regard for the cultural and political “Other”?
Finding Your Faith When Your Faith Leaves You - Interweave
LGBT
1:00 p.m. in the Forrest Church Gallery
Interweave-LGBT invites you as we are joined by lesbian and gay Mormons who will
share their reaction and experiences to and with the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-Day
Saints’ recent policy change regarding LGBT individuals and their children.
Sunday Conversation on Racial Justice
1:00 p.m. in the Chapel (Rescheduled time due to last week’s winter storm)
Join us for our monthly Sunday Conversation on Racial Justice. All are welcome to
bring their ideas, questions, and energies for racial justice. This gathering will be an
incubator and bridge-builder for a variety of issues, identities and interests relating
to race and racial justice. For more information please contact Betty Jeanne RuetersWard at [email protected].
Heart & Soul’s Blue Man Group Fundraiser for Girl Scout
Troops
5:00 p.m. at Astor Place Theatre in Greenwich Village
Join this FUNd raising event to support our Girl Scout troops in East Harlem. Tickets are
still available ($50-100 suggested donation, a portion tax-deductible). Stop by the Heart
& Soul table during Coffee Hour, or call Sandra Fisher at (646) 675-3608.
This Week At All Souls
Tuesday, February 2
Women’s Reading Group
6:30 p.m. in the Ware Room
Wednesday, February 3
Stories With Soul
6:45 p.m. in the Ware Room
Larry Kurz reads Roman Fever by Edith Wharton
Thursday, February 4
Career Development and Life Design Work
7:00 p.m. in the Minot Simons Room
Meeting-in-a-Circle, like a support group
UUJME Film Screening - The Wanted 18
7:00 p.m. in Reidy Friendship Hall
UU’s for Justice in the Middle East will be showing the most recent film presented by
Just Vision, The Wanted 18, directed by Amer Shomali and Paul Cowan. This event is
co-sponsored by the Israel-Palestine Film Festival, an interfaith film group of mostly
Upper West Side congregations.
Saturday, February 6
Angie Henry Utt Lecture: GenHERous
with Barbara Simonetti
3:30 p.m. in Reidy Friendship Hall
Barbara Simonetti, All Souls and Women’s Alliance Member, will speak about “GenHERous,” a
concept she has developed to stimulate conversation among women of various generations that
has proven to be very successful. She will discuss her motivation to organize these conversations
and the response of the women who participate. Tea and scones will be served at 3:30 p.m.; lecture
will begin at 4:00 p.m. Sponsored by the Women’s Alliance. All are welcome!
Sunday, February 7
The Comic Vision as Religious Perspective in Shakespeare’s
Twelfth Night
with Rev. David Robb
10:00 a.m. in Reidy Friendship Hall
Religion and the International Roots of the American Civil Rights
Movement
with Professor Sarah Azaransky, Ph.D.
11:15 a.m. in Reidy Friendship Hall
Parents of Teens Support Group Meeting
11:15 a.m. in the Mezzanine Room
Newcomers are very welcome to join us.
ALL SOULS ANNUAL MEETING
12:00 p.m. in the Sanctuary
Exercise the Unitarian Universalist Fifth Principle: VOTE!
To be eligible to vote at the February 7 Annual Meeting, you must have signed the
big red register of members, and have made a contribution of record (by check,
credit card, securities or pew envelope) in the previous 12 months. You must be
present in person to submit your own ballot at the start of the meeting.
Changes for 2016:
• Ballots and other meeting materials will be available beginning at 9:30 a.m. in
the Vestibule for distribution and pick-up.
• Two worship services at 10:00 and 11:00 a.m. will be shortened so that the
meeting can begin promptly in the Sanctuary at 12:00 noon. There will be no
Coffee Hour.
• Young Adults will join the Deacons in the ballot counting process to enable faster
dissemination of the election results.
• Children are invited to a festive, supervised pizza party in Reidy Friendship Hall
so that parents can fully engage in the meeting activities in the Sanctuary.
Childcare is provided.
Announcements
New York Common Pantry
Every month, All Souls members and friends donate food items to the New York Common
Pantry (formerly the Yorkville Pantry). In February, the Pantry would love to collect:
Brown rice
Canned beans
Oatmeal
Peanut butter
Please bring your donations (no glass containers) to Reidy Friendship Hall during Coffee
Hour on February 14th or bring them to the Church Front Office anytime.
Social Justice Table
Look for the Social Justice Table at Coffee Hour for petitions about nuclear disarmament,
the Syrian refugee crisis and more, as well as information about upcoming programming
on social justice issues regarding race, LGBT communities, and even more!
Nuclear Disarmament Task Force
Please stop by the Nuclear Disarmament table at Coffee Hour to sign a letter opposing
the production of new nuclear cruise missiles.
Are You On Facebook? So Are We!
If you use Facebook to keep abreast of your friends, family or social calendar, there are
many All Souls communities whose pages you might want to “like” or Groups you might
like to join, including:
All Souls Nuclear Disarmament Task Force
All Souls Stories with Soul UU NYC
All Souls Young Adults UU NYC
Friday Soup NYC
Heart & Soul Charitable Fund, Inc.
Monday Night Hospitality
Musica Viva of New York
Navigators USA
New Amsterdam Boys & Girls Choir
Peace and Justice Task Force All Souls
Racial Justice Initiative of All Souls Church
Unitarian Universalist District of Metropolitan New York
Unitarian Universalist United Nations Office
All Souls Church
1157 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10075
Church Office: (212) 535-5530; Fax: (212) 535-5641
[email protected] • www.AllSoulsNYC.org • Facebook.com/AllSoulsNYC
Nancy Arnold, M.Div. – Interim Assistant Minister ([email protected])
Maryah Converse, M.A. – Stewardship & Membership Associate ([email protected])
Marc Dolgow - Writing and Editing Intern ([email protected])
Galen Guengerich, M.Div., Ph.D. – Senior Minister ([email protected])
Mario Hardy – Events Director ([email protected])
Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez – Director of Music ([email protected])
Kamila Jacob – Youth Ministry Coordinator ([email protected])
Camellia Jahanshahi - RE Assistant ([email protected])
Katharine LaBoy – Accountant and HR Administrator ([email protected])
Natalie Lebert – Music Assistant ([email protected])
Renée Anne Louprette – Associate Director of Music ([email protected])
Eileen Macholl, M.A., M.B.A. – Executive Director ([email protected])
David Robb, M.Div., S.T.M. – Ast. Minister for Adult Education ([email protected])
Rachel Rosenthal, M.S.W. – Communications Manager ([email protected])
Betty-Jeanne Rueters-Ward, M.A. – Program Director ([email protected])
Maurice Spivey – Facilities Manager ([email protected])
Taryn Strauss, M.Div – Director of Religious Education ([email protected])
Receptionist/Front Desk:
Karen Mojica ([email protected]), Ishaq Sloan ([email protected]),
Caridad Garcia, and Katryna Richardson
Custodial Staff:
Hing Yuen Kwan, Avidan Gomez, Robert Reyes, Henry Alston, Robert Gooden,
Stephen Franklin, and Linwood Williamson.
Mary-Ella Holst – Director of Religious Education Emerita
Richard D. Leonard, M.Div. – Minister Emeritus ([email protected])
Pamela Patton – Pastoral Associate ([email protected])
Joseph Boyd – Student Minister ([email protected])
~
The Religious Education Programs for Adults, and for Children and Youth meet on Sundays
from 10:00 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. during the church year. Details on the upcoming programs are
published in the order of service and at www.AllSoulsNYC.org.
~
We
The member congregations
of the Unitarian Universalist Association
covenant to affirm and promote:
• The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
• Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
• Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth
in our congregations;
• A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
• The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within
our congregations and in society at large;
• The goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice for all;
• Respect for the interdependent web of all existence, of which we
are a part.
The living tradition we share draws from many sources:
• Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all
cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces
which create and uphold life;
• Words and deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront
powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming
power of love;
• Wisdom from the world’s religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual
life;
• Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God’s love by loving
our neighbors as ourselves;
• Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the
results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit;
• Spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle
of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.
Grateful for the religious pluralism which enriches
and enables our faith, we are inspired to deepen
our understanding and expand our vision. As free
congregations we enter into this covenant, promising
to one another our mutual trust and support.