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By WILFRED LANGMAID
For The Daily Gleaner

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The Unitarian Fellowship of Fredericton, 874 York St., will be holding Healthy Congregations workshops this fall. Held over two weekends, Sept. 12-14 and Oct. 3-5, the workshops are offered by the Canadian Unitarian Council, the fellowship's national body.

What is a healthy congregation?

According to Peter Steinke, it is "one that actively and responsibly addresses or heals its disturbances, not one with an absence of troubles."

Steinke is the author of How Your Church Family Works and Healthy Congregations: A Systems Approach, both published by the Alban Institute, an ecumenical, interfaith organization. His material was explored by 16 Unitarian Universalist participants in a three-day training program in 2006.

Rev. Raymond Drennan, a retired Unitarian minister, was one of the participants. He will be facilitating the six-part workshop in Fredericton.

"Rev. Drennan is an especially valuable facilitator," said Jo-Anne Elder-Gomes, chair of adult programs at the Unitarian Fellowship and organizer of the Healthy Congregations program. "He's been very generous with us, leading worship services, facilitating workshops and organizing retreats every year. And he has a lot of insight into how we work as a group."

The Unitarian Fellowship of Fredericton is a lay-led congregation. Their regular 11 a.m. Sunday services may be led by their own members, sometimes with an invited speaker. They may be also led by visiting Unitarian Universalist ministers or leaders of other faith groups.

On Sunday, Sept. 14, Drennan will serve in the latter role. He will be leading a service with the intriguing title I Wish Lao-Tzu Hadn't Said That.

He explained that he will be talking about the words of the Tao Te Ching, noting, "They challenge me, so let's be challenged together."

Being challenged together could be good way to summarize the weekends that are planned. Elder-Gomes admits it might not be easy, but knows that it is important work.

"It is painful for us when there are disagreements or hurt feelings in our church communities," she said. "We'd like to think that a spiritual community was immune to this kind of thing. But, in fact, our feelings are strongest when things matter most to us. Perhaps that's especially true in Unitarian groups."

Elder-Gomes explained that members of the Unitarian Fellowship do not share a common creed or belief system. Rather, they affirm a set of principles that balance the acceptance of individual responsibility for living in a way consistent with their own understanding of spirituality, on one hand, and, on the other, the universal human need to share in community and to develop "right relations" with each other.

There are implications for this.

Because of the range of views and values, Elder-Gomes said, "We tend to really like to ask questions, to have long, broad and deep discussions. I think some of us get more anxious or defensive when the discussions become difficult, while others cherish openness and may accept differences more easily.

"We all want to make decisions that are fair and compassionate, but, as Steinke explains, health is a process and not a state, and it's something we all can learn to do better."

One of Steinke's premises is that the leader's role is to be less anxious than the system. Elder-Gomes explained the implications of this premise.

"This way, people can recognize and transform their feelings, and learn to respond rather than react to challenges. Instead of a quick, emotional reaction, which leads to blaming and hyper-vigilance, a more reasoned and helpful response can take form. Steinke uses research on the human brain, as well as on people as parts of complex systems, to guide congregations towards holistic vitality and wellbeing, and to encourage them to 'choose health.'"

Such a pursuit is a good fit for the Unitarian Universalist community.

Elder-Gomes quoted Linda Thomson, the Canadian Unitarian Council's director of regional services for eastern and central Canada, who states, "Systems thinking is interestingly enough expressed in our seventh Unitarian Universalist Principle - which call us to affirm and promote the web of all existence of which we are a part.

"Training and support for leaders and members is essential if we want to choose health and to support our congregations in becoming all that they can be."

The Fellowship also offers a number of programs of interest to the general public, such as The First Thursday Discussion Night, at which people share a potluck supper and then discuss current topics. For more information, contact Elder-Gomes at eldergomes@yahoo.com.