Coffee Hour

What sermon did you hear this week?

By Chris Walton

Our first handful of discussion topics are still active, so if you haven't yet had your say in the Hit the Jackpot and How Did You End Up UU? conversations, please jump right in! But we're also starting to look ahead to upcoming Coffee Hour topics. If you have a question you'd love to discuss with UU bloggers and commenters, visit the Coffee Grinder. (I'd be especially interested to hear from you if you have a poll question to propose as part of the discussion.)

Meanwhile, what was the topic in your congregation today? Anything especially memorable?

Odysseys: How did you end up UU?

By Chris Walton

I see that more than two dozen of us have answered the poll question, "How long have you been involved in the Unitarian Universalist movement?," but no one took up my all-too-subtle invitation to tell their own story in the comments.

But I really am curious. What's your story? How did you end up among the Unitarian Universalists? What hooked you?

Welcome to Coffee Hour!

By Chris Walton

You've been here before: It's the bazaar next door to the sanctuary, the place all the Unitarian Universalists go after a Sunday morning service to grab a cup of fairly-traded coffee, find a friend, navigate around the card tables strewn with social-action petitions, groan about (or praise!) the choir, amend the sermon, buy a book, look for brunch partners, or lurk hoping to overhear something really interesting. The walls of the parish hall are covered with bulletins and posters for this or that committee; the brochure rack invites you to "Meet the Unitarian Universalists" and hear the voices of UU theists, humanists, Christians, feminists, and on and on. It's a lively place — so lively, in fact, that although ministers might not want to admit it, some people in the congregation show up only for Coffee Hour.

Surely you're thinking: What a great model for a group blog! Thanks to My Irony's Chutney, a group of us UU bloggers have been talking for the last month about ways to expand and enrich the on-line conversation about Unitarian Universalism, liberal religion, and the UUA. Today we're debuting Coffee Hour, an interactive group blog.

Each month — maybe more frequently, if the conversation really takes off — one of the bloggers will announce a new discussion topic. Respond on your blog, or chime in at Coffee Hour. (The current buzz this month is Hit the Jackpot, by Prophet Motive's Tom Schade.) What if you don't have much to say on the discussion topic? Start your own discussion in Talkback, take the poll, or suggest a topic for a future discussion. Or wander off to one of the UU blogs and discussion forums listed on the front page. Whether you have your own blog or just want a place to talk with other UUs, we hope Coffee Hour becomes a part of your week.

If you have questions about the site, start with our frequently asked questions. Still wondering? Leave a comment here or e-mail Coffee Hour Feedback.

Hit the Jackpot

By Tom Schade

If you had a whole bunch of money, as though you had won the Powerball thing, and after you set aside just that small amount for your personal needs, and a slightly larger amount of those needs not yet imagined, and then another chunk for when you are really bored, and then you decided that you should devote the rest of this vast fortune to making Unitarian Universalism all that it could be, how would you spend the money? Please exclude professional fees to hit squads and therapists (remember they can't change unless they want to change) from your answer.

Coffee Hour FAQ

By chutney

Q. What is “Coffee Hour?”
Q. Why Coffee Hour?
Q. Who is Coffee Hour?
Q. How does Coffee Hour work?
Q. How do I participate as a blogger?
Q. What if I don't know how to "trackback," or if I use Blogger or AOL or other software that doesn't generate a trackback ping?
Q. I’m interested in an old topic (not this month’s). Can I still post about it?
Q. But I don’t have a blog. Does that leave me out in the cold?

Continue reading "Coffee Hour FAQ"

Poll: Are you a newbie?

By Chris Walton

How long have you been a Unitarian Universalist? Take the poll — it's in the sidebar on the front page — and then share a bit of your story in the Comments.

(Please note: Coffee Hour polls are generated using a free, ad-supported service. The ads do not carry the endorsement of Coffee Hour; please send feedback about the ads — or the poll service — to Coffee Hour Feedback.)

Talkback: Introductions, etc.

By Chris Walton

In the "olden days" — as in, for several decades during the feisty heyday of the fellowship movement in the mid-twentieth century — lots of Unitarian Universalist services included "Talkback," a time in the service for anybody to respond to the speaker, offer their own point of view, climb on the soapbox, or exercise what the theologian James Luther Adams called "the freedom of the pew." (A lot of congregations never picked up the practice, of course, and many today have moved away from it, hosting a forum for open discussion after the service or calling it something less confrontational. UU World used to call the letters to the editor "Talkback," until a reader commented on the rowdiness and ferocity that had come to characterize the phenomenon in many churches (not to mention the letters to the editor). The magazine renamed the section "Letters.")

But we'll revive the name here, urge everyone to behave themselves, and invite you to start your own conversations in the comments to each week's "Talkback."

This is the open-discussion post. Take it away! (Or tell us about the sermon you heard this week . . .)