I choose the ascending path because my heart drives me toward it. "Upward! Upward! Upward!" my heart shouts, and I follow it trustingly. Nikos Kazantzakis

There is never any end. There are always new sounds to imagine, new feelings to get at. And always, there is the need to keep purifying these feelings and sounds so that we can really see what we've discovered in its pure state. So that we can see more clearly what we are. John Coltrane.

Over the past several months, I've been re-reading some of the works of the Greek author, Nikos Kazantzakis, with a particular focus on The Saviors of God. Because reading involves sitting quietly in a chair with a cup of coffee by my side, it imposes no real burden on my family. They rather like seeing me sitting quietly out of the way. That's because over the same period of time, I've also developed an obsession with the music of John Coltrane, particularly his later work. Unlike my more sedentary interest, the wild honking, feverish shrieking, and frenetic drumming of Coltrane's sonic whirlwind imposes a rather painful burden on my kin, especially when played at high volume on our living room stereo.
One of Coltrane's biographers, Eric Nisenson, states the obvious: the music Coltrane produced toward the end of his life "is often difficult to listen to; it seems to tear apart one's nervous system." But that's also the most fascinating thing about Coltrane. His music constantly evolved until it pushed at the boundaries of not only jazz, but well-established concepts like music, song, notes, and sound. By the time he died, Coltrane was playing well outside these boundaries. While not all of his art "worked" technically or aesthetically, it did lead (or push) people over the edge of their musical horizons.
Coltrane described his musical development as a spiritual quest. Nisenson writes, "to Coltrane, the universe is a place of explosive dynamism in a constant state of wild flux, with a God who is not peacefully sitting on his throne under shade trees but constantly in motion, changing the universe and being changed by it. The road to this God, and toward a life that is part of 'the force which is truly good,' is twisting and dangerous, requiring great strength and resilience."
In The Saviors of God, Kazantzakis describes a restless imperiled God pent up within every cell of creation, struggling for expression, movement, and growth beyond that which already exists. From the depths of the human heart, God struggles mightily against laziness, inertia, habit, routine, established truths, and contentment with the status quo. God calls out, Beyond! Beyond! Beyond!
Love danger. What is most difficult? That is what I want! Which road should you take? The most craggy ascent! It is the one I also take: follow me!
Kazantzakis' spiritual heroes, whether Jesus of Nazareth or St Francis of Assisi, discern this call and respond to it by pursuing difficult and dangerous paths leading them outside accepted boundaries into new freedom with God. In following this call, the heroes undergo dramatic transformations, experiencing both joy and suffering--joy in being united more closely with God, suffering in rubbing against society's grain.
John Coltrane's development as an artist, from his early days as a sideman with Miles Davis, to his first quartet, to his later experiments with the "New Thing," appears to express a spiritual impulse similar to the one found in Kazantzakis' work. Beyond! Beyond! Beyond! The most craggy ascent! Follow me! Coltrane's music underwent dramatic transformations as he descended/ascended through the terrain of his soul pursuing the "essence" of spirit/sound, and while he blew some ecstatic joy through his tenor sax in his last days, angry critics raked him over the coals and members of his audience booed him before walking out.
Kazantzakis' heroes carve out new creative territory, but over time boundaries solidify around the new spaces they open. Radical innovations turn into clichés. Startling new revelations become dusty dogma. The old heresy becomes the new Truth. Freedom becomes a cage. Pent up, God calls yet again, "Beyond!" New spiritual heroes discern and respond, and the process of creation struggles on.
Creation is not done, God is not finished. Beyond! This is one of the themes we're exploring in our church's Advent to Epiphany adult Christian education series on God's incarnation. At our first gathering, I played some of John Coltrane's music from various points in his career (Favorite Things, Ascent, and Meditations) to illustrate the impulse to move Beyond! that Kazantzakis expressed in his work. In future gatherings, we'll reflect further on Kazantzakis, listen to a bit more Coltrane, and ask ourselves how we may be experiencing this spiritual impulse to move Beyond! as individuals and as a church.
For me, this spiritual impulse also resonates with our denomination, the United Church of Christ. The new slogan the UCC has adopted to communicate its identity is: Never put a period where God has put a comma, God is still speaking... In other words: Creation is not done, God is not finished. Or as my favorite bumper sticker puts it: God loves you just the way you are, and too much to let you stay that way!
Creation is not done, God is not finished. Startling new revelations await us. That old jazz may be good, but God calls us to experiment with that "New Thing." Spiritual heroes are still needed today to discern and respond to that call from the heart, Beyond! Upward! There is never an end! Follow me!

Tom

Outreach Alert

Micah 6 Food Pantry
Training for prospective Micah 6 food pantry volunteers will begin in January. The current plan is for the pantry to be open Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings. Volunteers will also be needed at different times to pick up supplies from the central food bank, restock shelves, and so on. Training dates will be January 10 and 24.

Child Sponsorship
The Outreach Committee and Board of Christian Education will jointly participate in sponsoring a child through the UCC Global Ministries Child Sponsorship Program, part of our church's Wider Church Ministries. We have chosen to sponsor a child at the Pringle Home for Children, which provides assistance for abandoned, orphaned and street children. The home is administered by the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. The cost is $25/month, 100% of which goes to the Pringle Home (administrative costs are evidently covered by OCWM). We will seek to raise these modest costs through special fund-raisers by the Sunday School kids. We anticipate great opportunities for Christian Education through letters with the sponsored child. We also envision outreach possibilities in the future through a visit to the Pringle Home.

"Board" of Christian Outreach
After a busy, successful and rewarding year, the Christian Outreach Committee will seek to amend the Constitution and Bylaws of the church to form a Board of Christian Outreach at our annual meeting on January 25, 2004. The committee as a whole is extremely grateful to have experienced the strong support of the members of the church in our outreach ministries. We believe that Christian Outreach activities provide a great benefit to the congregation as a whole - one that merits a permanent place in the life of our church. Notification of the proposed changes should be received by each member in the mail.

BACK BAY MISSION SHRIMP BOIL
Sunday, February 1, 2004
United Christian Church
Parmer @ MoPac
$8.00 per ticket

PERSONALS
by Pat Oakes

It wasn't quite the retirement party that we had all envisaged a year and a half ago, but still, it was a very nice, if small, affair. Louise Whitworth was the church secretary for all of Yoshi Kaneda's tenure (11 years) and stayed a few months into Tom VandeStadt's new tenure as pastor. Unfortunately, since her retirement she has not been well and was not able to come to the church for the planned festivities. Instead, the party finally went to Louise! Joe McMillan and Pat Oakes from the deacons, Tommie Pinkard as moderator, and Sara Ross as good friend and neighbor took lunch over to Louise on Monday, Dec. 8. Louise's husband Lavoy had already eaten his lunch, so he ran errands while we all visited, ate Sara's delicious chicken salad, and made the presentation. A letter written by Yoshi a year and a half ago was read aloud and Louise was given a beautiful cross. Later a check was presented to Louise in appreciation for her years of wonderful service to the church. Louise and Lavoy are both preachers' kids and Louise entertained the lunch bunch with stories about her father. She told the group that she was one of 5 children of a Methodist preacher and his wife. When they went to church, the last child out the door was responsible for seeing that the door was closed and locked so that the family dog would stay in the house. One Sunday that plan did not work. During the service, their dog Rex came quietly into the church. walked slowly down the aisle, and spotted Louise's dad at the pulpit. Rex solemnly walked up the steps to the pulpit, turned around in a few circles, and reverently took his place at his master's feet. The congregation thoroughly enjoyed the whole performance. Louise would love to have phone calls and cards, so stay in touch if you can.
Clark and Cathy Hubbs had a wonderful time with their daughters and about 40 family members in San Diego. They were there celebrating the 40th anniversary of Hubbs Sea World, a research lab named for Clark's dad who was a professor of biology at Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Clark's mom was the librarian and record keeper for her husband. The Hubbs family is now celebrating the 3rd generation of folks interested in fish--Clark's dad and mom, Clark, and now their niece's daughter is getting her Ph.D. in biology at Tulane. They are also recently returned from a meeting in Death Valley for the Desert Fishes Council.
John Goff and Gail Christeson had a splendid time at the American Geophysical Union, a week-long meeting held in San Francisco. Cameron and Megan were well looked after by their maternal grandparents, Janet and John Christeson, who live in Sun City in Georgetown. John and Gail found the meeting most useful, although networking with the 10,000 attendees was a challenge. While in the area, they saw John's mom, brother and his brother's girlfriend. They also enjoyed eating out and seeing the sights.
As of mid-December Bee Polome had been 8 weeks since her last chemotherapy and radiation treatments. She is feeling not too bad, her hair has grown back in, and she is finding it easier to swallow. She was undergoing further tests in December to find out if the cancer has been stopped. She and her husband Milt enjoyed 12 wonderful days at a time-share in Acapulco. They delighted in the lovely weather, gorgeous beaches, soft fine-grained sand, and warm water. She did some painting on pottery and created 6 dinosaur banks for her grandchildren and 2 other banks for Milt's grandchildren. Bee and Milt celebrated their first wedding anniversary on January 3rd. It has been quite a year for them both, so we hope that this next year will be much less stressful. Bee's daughter and former church cellist Marilyn Harris was recently seen on KLRU during the fund-raising in December. Marilyn tours with Neil Diamond as part of the orchestra and was very visible during the show.
An update on another former church cellist comes from Matt Blackstock. His nephew Silas was our cellist back when Si was in high school in the 1970s. He recently had a tumor removed from his thigh (about the size of a human heart), but fortunately the tumor was benign. Silas is on the faculty at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa in physical organic chemistry. He and his wife Brenda have two sons, Christopher and Daniel.
Marguerite and Ben White spent an enjoyable 5 days in Denver during the Thanksgiving holidays visiting their son Carl, wife Sally, and grandsons David and Evan. Their trip was chilly but otherwise uneventful.
Rizer Everett sent in a Christmas reminiscence. It happened in 1921 when he was five years old. He stood too close to the burning candles on the Christmas tree. In those days I had a Buster Brown style haircut, and his hair caught on fire. His dad quickly extinguished the flames of the burning hair so that his skin was not burned at all. However, he can still remember that crackling sound and particularly the odor of his burning hair.
Another Christmas reminiscence comes from Tommie Pinkard. She remembers how beautiful the church always looked for the evening Christmas service years ago, all decorated with candles in the windows by Hildegard Everett. At one of these services, the Pinkard's son David was about 16 months old. He had new white high-top, hard-soled shoes, and he was enjoying banging his heels on the pew. Tommie couldn't distract him, but Hildegard, who was sitting next to him, picked him up, put him on her lap, and just smiled at him. He was so surprised he forgot all about banging his heels. Now, at every Christmas evening service, I think of Hildegard and her many contributions to our church, including loving all our children. (Editor's note--I remember making Christmas ornaments out of plastic beads with our Sunday School classes more than 25 years ago. Hildegard did all of the planning and organizing and we baked the creations in Hildegard's oven. They are still a part of our decorations, especially the star that goes above our creche.)
Paul Deisler reports that thanks to his being able, once again, to drive at night, he and Ellen were able to attend two symphonies in a row on Thursday, December 4, each orchestra with a granddaughter in it. Olivia (cello) played at Austin High at 6:30 p.m. and Ava (2nd chair flute) played at 7:30 p.m. at O. Henry Middle School. The schools are not far apart but it still was a scramble -- and very much worth it. He also notes the he was recently the recipient of a very pleasant surprise. At the end of the business meeting of the Society for Risk Analysis in Baltimore (Dec. 7-10) he and his Michigan-based co-author were asked to come forward. Each was presented with a plaque thanking them for their many years' work in writing the history of the Society. Paul also reports that Baltimore crab cakes are still the best. Paul concludes, "Life is good; we have much to be grateful for."
John Moore and Suzanne Bradford are closing in on the time when they can move into their new house built on their old lot. John reports that he is still practicing law but that he is now a fully licensed realtor.
Almost 4 months after her traumatic fall in which she broke her arm at the shoulder and her ankle in three places, Florence Castle went home on Dec. 15. Thanks to her neighbor and new friend, Carol Gibbs (she was one of the first folks to reach Florence when she fell into a ditch, lo these many months ago), her house was decorated with holiday lights and a big welcome home sign. Within minutes of her arrival home, Rizer Everett called to see if he could take her grocery shopping. The offer was gladly accepted and the restocking of the pantry was duly accomplished. Florence is getting around very well without a cane and is back to her spry self.
Mary Sinclair had surgery on Friday, Dec. 19 to correct a disc problem which was causing excruciating sciatic pain. We'll update you next month on how successful the procedure was!
The Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving Lynne Lemley was doing the grocery shopping at H.E.B. with her dad for THE dinner. She had gone to pick up some items that she had forgotten and was on her way back to her dad and the cart when she slipped on a wet floor in the produce area. Lynne says, "My feet flew up in the air, I was holding the groceries in my arms, I could not protect myself, and I landed on my butt and my left elbow!" Left-handed Lynne knew her elbow hurt, but her long-sleeved shirt hid the extent of the problem. When they got home George noted that her elbow should not be pointing in the direction it was. After a trip to the E.R. (yes, it was broken), a wait of several days to see the doctor and have surgery, she is doing fine. Oh, her wonderful mom cooked Thanksgiving dinner!
Pat Oakes had a good week with her parents in North Carolina. Pat's mom is undergoing radiation treatment for uterine cancer which has spread. Pat will go back in late January or February when her mom starts chemotherapy.

MANY THANKS

To: Pat Oakes and Tommie Pinkard for lovingly folding, stuffing, folding, labeling and tabbing the December VISITOR.
If you would like to be help prepare the VISITOR for mailing, please let Trish know!!

Christian Education Matters

All of the children and youth of the Church worked together to prepare this year's performance of "Such a Lot Like Me." Thanks to Lisa Kirch, who coordinated the pageant, and to members of the CE Committee who assisted; Julia Ross and Ellie Nash, who contributed their musical talents to the effort; Olivia Vache, Ava Deisler, and friends, who worked with Marilyn Vache to create some very artistic scenery, and masks that the younger kids decorated; and Nodie Murphy and choir for their choral anthem. The case members of the performance itself were (in order of appearance): Annie and Becky Nash, Alex VandeStadt, Cameron Goff, Eric Deisler, Corey Rendon, Warren Junior Bowles, Ashley Rendon, Julia Adams, Waamene Tysen, Olivia Deisler, Jeff and Katie Lemley, Sarah Kirch, and Julia Ross. All of the kids worked hard and deserve a special "thank you" when you see them next.
Adult Education is also thriving, with the following regularly-scheduled and upcoming events:

The Austin Forum: The Conversations Continue

Michael Cowan and Bernard Lee, in their book Conversation, Risk & Conversion, write that "true conversation always puts conversants at risk, because you cannot truly converse without risk of conversion...community is the place where conversation continually provokes conversion."
Conversation and conversion get to the heart of the Congregational way of life. It's how we seek to discern God's call and respond to the difficult challenges confronting us in today's world. We engage one another in conversation, sharing views from a variety of perspectives. We agree, disagree, mull over, read another book, check out a web site, and come back to converse some more. We occasionally convert others to our view or undergo a conversion ourselves. Some think the Congregational process continues forever on this level. Talk, talk, talk.....But there are times when we do come to a consensus and act, if not as an entire community of Congregationalists, then as individuals informed by the Congregational way.
This is the ethos that informs the Congregational Church's AUSTIN FORUM. We provide people with the opportunity to be in conversation with other people who can help frame the issues and quandaries surrounding some of today's more pressing concerns. In the Spring, the AUSTIN FORUM will continue with the following topics:

Envision Austin. What are the scenarios for Austin's growth? Who has the power to make decisions regarding development in Austin--neighborhoods, corporations, the city government? What are the ethical decisions we face as urban citizens and Christians in a rapidly growing city?
The Future of the Protestant Church. How will Protestant denominations negotiate the growing divisions over doctrine, lifestyle, and ethics in the next several decades? Will there be splits and realignments? Will the "liberal" - "conservative" divide grow? Will denominationalism cease to exist as we know it?
Millenarianism. What is it, and what is its mass appeal as a literary genre (The Left Behind Series) and as a set of religious beliefs? Is there something in the American psyche that is drawn toward good vs. evil and "end time" scenarios?
Globalization. What are the positive and negative impacts of globalization from the perspective of a graduate student or visiting professor from a foreign country, preferably a "developing" country.

There will be a few changes in the AUSTIN FORUM this spring. The location of the AUSTIN FORUM will move from our building to the Austin Presbyterian Seminary. This will afford us far more opportunities for publicity, an appeal to a wider community audience, and much better parking. The Congregational Church of Austin will still be the organizer of the AUSTIN FORUM, and this will be reflected in all of our publicity. We'll also be forming a small group of interested folks from church who want to study and reflect on these issues prior to the actual FORUMS, and to formulate questions to ask the presenters.
Please continue to support the AUSTIN FORUM. Participate. Bring a friend. Converse. Risk Conversion. It's the Congregational way!

Women's Book Club

January 19: Kidd, Sue Monk, THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES. Hosted by Frances Alford
February 16: Enger, Leif, PEACE LIKE A RIVER. Hosted by Robin Chapman
March 15: Schlink, Bernhard, THE READER. Hosted by Betsy Tylka

JANUARY BIRTHDAYS

1 Bob Breihan
Suzanne VanderPoel
18 Brad Ferguson
Betsy Ferguson
Paul Deisler
Kaitlyn Newell
22 Mary Masters
23 Danny Masters
28 Yoshikuni Kaneda
30 Robin Chapman
31 Joe Nordstrom

CONCERTS IN OUR SANCTUARY

January 29: Jazz quartet
Spring: Hoping for singer/songwriters and similar good music.
These eclectic performances will entertain you and will benefit social action projects by Micah 6, a group of nine university-area churches. The current project is a food pantry for homeless and working poor citizens.
Your $15 (student $10) donation will be shared with the University Area Micah 6 Ministry Food Pantry.

The Annual Meeting

Will be January 25 after worship. All annual reports are due to Trish NO LATER THAN January 12.

FUN AND FELLOWSHIP

A reminder: Please sign up for the Epiphany Pot-Luck to be held Sunday, January 4.