This is an "open letter" written shortly after the UUFC had begun to use their beautiful new sanctuary (6/1/95)

For Members and Friends of the UUFC:

Toni and I are well and enjoying Spring's turn into Summer. I have just received with pleasure, as always, the latest copy of The Fellowship. It is wonderful to have brief contact again with you'all!

However, I am less pleased by the proposal of the Aesthetics Committee to commission an "artistic piece for behind the podium to be considered a permanent improvement." Nothing is permanent and I am presently much more involved with becoming than being.

On of the joys of the old sanctuary was the way the banners, hangings, decorations, etc. appeared, moved about, disappearing and reappearing. If there was a pattern and a policy, I couldn't discern it and in that uncertainty I felt the strength of constantly becoming.

The Aesthetics proposal smacks too much of a rigid, doctrinaire, one might even say, creedal organization. Commission art (always a good thing to do) but do not make its place or role "permanent."

If there is to be a "permanent piece," permit me the following suggestion: I attended the Mainline UUC (Devon, PA) shortly after they began to use their new building. There were no decorations behind the podium, except for a dangling wire with an s-hook at its end, for all the world a question mark. What better symbol for UUers: a question mark where cross, star, ankh or whatever would be expected in other houses of faith?

Yours in friendship, Jonathan Black