“Between Melting and Freezing” with Rev. Dr. Jeanne Foster, Anne Jungerman, Krystalargo De Lindachrist, & Brian Shaw

Between Melting and Freezing

with Rev. Dr. Jeanne Foster, Anne Jungerman, Krystalargo De Lindachrist, & Brian Shaw

We often feel buffeted between crisis and crisis, problem and problem, issue and
issue. How do we find moments of rest, times of peace, in a fast-paced, crisis-torn
world? In a passage from the Four Quartets, T. S. Eliot writes: “Between melting
and freezing / The soul’s sap quivers. / The dumb spirit stirs.” This poet, who is
part of our UU tradition, has wisdom to offer us about living in the “between”
times.

Rev. Dr. Jeanne Foster grew up in New Orleans. She received her Master of Divinity degree
from Starr King, was ordained by the Monterey Peninsula UU Church, and served as minister of
the UU Fellowship in Modesto. She earned her Ph.D. from the Graduate Theological Union in
the interdisciplinary area of Religion, Literature, and the Arts. She is Professor Emerita at Saint
Mary's College in Moraga, where she taught Literature and Creative Writing for many years.
Her primary focus now is on her own creative writing. Her poetry books include A Blessing of
Safe Travel; Goodbye, Silver Sister; and most recently, Your Form Became My Own. She is co-
translator with Alan Williamson of The Living Theatre: Selected Poems of Bianca Tarozzi, which
won the Northern California Book Award for Poetry in Translation. Her new manuscript is
called From a Tuscan Farmhouse Window. Her passion is ballroom dancing and, in particular,
ballroom dancing in Tuscany.

Order of Service

Welcome
Opening Words
Centering through Music — “Memories” (from Cats) by Andrew Lloyd Weber
Chalice Lighting

Anne: We light this chalice as a symbol of the light within every human heart.
May our individual sparks meet and merge bringing both light and warmth to the world.
Congregational Response: Be ye lamps unto yourselves; be your own confidence;
hold to the truth within yourselves as to the only lamp.
(Attributed to Gautama Buddha)

Opening Hymn — #354 “We Laugh, We Cry”
Time for All Ages — “The Naming of Cats,” From T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats
Singing Out the Children — #118 “This Little Light of Mine”
Reading — Selections from Four Quartets, T.S. Eliot
Reflection — On Eliot’s connection with UUism and my interest in this particular passage from Four Quartets
Announcements
Sharing of Joys and Concerns
Silence (one minute)
Musical Response — Improvisation
Offering — “You Must Believe in Spring” by M. Legrand
Message — “Between Melting and Freezing” — Rev. Dr. Jeanne Foster
Closing Words
Closing Hymn — #16 ‘“Tis a Gift to be Simple”
Extinguishing the Chalice

We extinguish this chalice, but not the light of truth, the warmth of love, or the fire of commitment. These we carry in our hearts out into the world, until we meet again.

Benediction