Sunday, April 11 “The Grace of Springtime”
Parker Palmer wrote, “I’ll wax romantic about the splendors of spring in a moment, but first there’s a hard truth to be told. Before spring becomes beautiful, it’s plug-ugly, nothing but mud and muck.”
This month’s worship theme is Grace. This Sunday, let’s explore what the season of spring has to teach us about extending grace to all the beings that surround us.
The login for Zoom is https://nwuuc.org/zoom/ or follow the service on our Facebook page. Stay tuned in afterwards for our Coffee Hour at 11 am.
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Call for Chalice Lighters
We are seeking chalice lighters for May. NWUUC welcomes participation in the weekly Sunday service. Options to participate include lighting a chalice via Zoom during the service or submitting a video to re@nwuuc.org that can be played during the service. LED lighting options can be used instead of a flame. Please use this link to sign up: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/8050F4AAEAC2F4-chalice
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The Anatomy of Arts Production: the Easter Event
by Philip J. Rogers, DOM
As a youngster I was known for constantly inquiring about the “how” and “why” of matters. That characteristic has served me well over time as a music professional once I came to realize that the creative arts in the academy and otherwise must be approached from a production perspective of asking how and why to accomplish a performance end result. Those who desire professional careers in the performing arts are required to understand the nature and process of production preparation. We learn to interface with the creative technical expertise of lighting designers, costume designers, set designers, videographers, sound designers and stage management logistics teams. The knowledge base of each of these specialists continually inform us of current resourceful practices which allow our final creative product to effectively and economically manifest.
In our recent quest here at Northwest, Rev. Misha shared her drive-in service concept during several of our weekly staff meetings in late 2020. After contacting Larry Wallis, we discussed how best to formulate that concept into a vision and eventual end product. I desired to know how we could manifest a balanced sound of singers and instruments via the purchased FM transmitter’s signal into each automobile. In addition, the service was to be simulcast via a ZOOM internet feed requiring video cam interface. It became apparent that the technical prowess of Russ Martin and David Morgen were critical to this process. The technical production team was complete. Larry, David and Russ met with us for six weeks to work out the varied technical logistics for keyboard, guitar amp, vocal balance, anti-noise FM signal clarity and video interface that included far too many trial and error details to share here. What you witnessed therefore on Easter Sunday, with tweaks yet being made, was exactly what that collaborative dynamic produced based on the culmination of multiple hours of experimentation for a seamlessly creative and effective communicative end.
Many thanks to Rev. Misha (the visionary), Liz Martin and Stephanie Bullard for their assistance as associate producers and advisors. The pared down music team of Voices of Northwest members Sally Mitchell, Traci Montgomery, and Dail Edwards prepared weeks in advance to make their participation as flawless as it was on Easter Sunday. All that our speakers had to do was step to the mic and share comfortably. The talent pool of all ages that is resident within this congregation is astounding and we are blessed to have persons with such diverse creative skill sets from which to benefit. “Bravi tutti!!!”
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The NWUUC Book Groupies will meet Tuesday, April 13th, at 7 pm on Zoom to discuss Good Kings, Bad Kings by Susan Nussbaum. This book was a previous Pen/Bellwether Prize winner for Socially Engaged Fiction and “follows the lives of a group of typical teenagers – alienated, funny and yearning for autonomy – who live in an institution for juveniles with disabilities”. This book “challenges our definitions of what it means to live with disability”.
