Unitarian Universalists
of the
Online
Newsletter for February
2006
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here to open the February Calendar in PDF
February Newsletter
Deadline is Monday, February 20
Submit items to
kivana@comcast.net
Board Launches UUCV’s Five Year Plan
Adult Religious Education Offerings
Make a New Year’s Coffee Resolution
Congregational Events and Happenings
Bursary Fundraising Goal Exceeded
Our monthly minister’s column, this month from Rev. Judy Welles
In my family, we have an understanding that it’s perfectly acceptable to give used books as gifts – either books we’ve read and enjoyed and are willing to part with, or bargains we picked up at a used book store. As a result, a lot of books changed hands among us during the holidays, and my bedside table is almost sagging under the weight of all that is luring me to read.
Recently I joined a book club, which gives me an excuse to read books that I might otherwise pass over – not out of disinterest, but because I don’t have time to read them. Now that there are six other women waiting with bated breath to hear my words of wisdom on the book we’ve agreed to discuss… well, I have to read it, don’t I?
Duane told me that he’d recently
learned why
When I was preparing for my December sermon on reading as a spiritual practice, Duane and I made a pilgrimage to the Library of Congress, a place I have always wanted to visit. It was staggeringly beautiful, with brightly colored paintings on every surface (ceilings, walls, alcoves), gold leaf setting off the colors, statues of philosophers and authors everywhere. The four-story reading room, which we viewed from above, looked like a shrine, with the heads of the worshipers bent over their volumes and a dignified silence weighting the air. I was disappointed not to see the stacks, which cover miles of shelving underground, but the beauty of the building spoke volumes about the respect our political forebears held for the printed word and where it should be housed.
I think I’m about to confess here, right in front of God and everyone, that I am having a love affair: a love affair with books. I would rather read than anything else I can think of, and I mean read while sitting in a comfortable chair with a good light over my shoulder, not read something off a computer screen. That’s efficient and necessary, but hardly pleasurable. There’s reading because there’s something you need to find out, and then there’s reading for the sheer joy of reading, for the reflection that reading engenders, for the curiosity it provokes, for the images it inspires.
Judging by the response to my sermon on reading, I am not alone in my passion for books. When I mentioned to colleagues that I was preparing it, everyone had suggestions, and many had that “gosh, I wish I’d thought of that” look on their faces. After the service, someone suggested that we have a place on our web site for UUCV’ers to list their favorite book recommendations, which sounds like a good idea to me. (We hope our new web site will be up this spring.)
In fact, if you want to start up a conversation with someone but aren’t sure how to begin, ask them “What are you reading these days?” That’s sure to begin an easy conversation which could lead in all sorts of directions, and will tell you much about your acquaintance. You might even end up inviting her or him to participate in our Serious Stuff Book Group, which gathers on the fourth Sunday evening of each month at the meeting house to discuss such books as The End of Faith, by Sam Harris; The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseyni; or Kitchen Table Wisdom, by Rachel Naomi Remen.
It’s interesting to juxtapose our collective love of books and reading with the ideas about simplicity promoted by Virginia Jackson in another December sermon. If you’d like to lighten your load of books (or just exchange them for different ones), please consider donating them to the Book Nook, where they will either be put on display in the Social Hall for others to purchase (while you purchase theirs), or will be sold on line at Half.com. Both of these avenues serve as fundraisers for UUCV and play right into our collective love of books.
On the Chinese calendar, we’re about to begin the Year of the Dog. Will 2006 be the Year of the Book for you? Let’s talk about it…
See you in church! Love, Judy
February 5 “When Hope Is Hard To Find”
Presented by guest minister Rev. Priscilla Richter with Dot Everhart,
Worship Associate. Music will be provided by Pat Spader.
It's mid-winter, national and international events seem bleak, we are too busy, and our feelings of futility run high. What are the spiritual resources that we can access to keep us living fully as people of hope?
February 12 “Is Lust Good or Evil?”
Presented by the Rev. Duane Fickeisen and Ellen Lyon, Worship
Associate. Music will be provided by Carol Knisely and Judy Marti.
Is lust a bad thing? It’s one of the official seven deadly sins, and surely it
can lead us into trouble, but might it also serve us well in leading us into
deeper relationship and communion with another person?
February 19 “What is the Value of One Vote?”
Presented by the Rev. Judy Welles and Carla Claycomb, Worship
Associate, with Pat Spader providing music.
Women have had the right to vote for eighty-five years now. Perhaps that’s too long to remember to be grateful for the suffragists who made great personal sacrifices to win this right for us. Perhaps some reminders would be in order. (This is an “R.E. Tie-In” service, as the children will be learning about Elizabeth Cady Stanton today.)
February 26 “Fasting as a Spiritual Practice”
Presented b the Rev. Duane Fickeisen and Dan Cozort, Worship Associate.
Music will be
provided by Julie Moffit and Ken Laws.
Lent begins this week on Ash Wednesday. In the Christian tradition, it’s a time to “give up” something significant. Weąll discuss how fasting might serve as a spiritual practice, and what role abstaining from something that gives us pleasure might play in spiritual awakening. There will be an open discussion on the topic on the following Wednesday evening, March 1.
From Priscilla Laws, President of the Board of Trustees
We are currently just past the middle of year 0 of the 5-year plan approved by the Congregation last October. So in our December and January meetings, we discussed how to get started on the plan. Some of the activities that are already underway include:
(1) ongoing efforts of the new task force to revitalize our Website;
(2) new efforts by the Membership Committee under Doug Spencer’s leadership to help us all become more welcoming;
(3) discussions with Dot Everhart’s Stewardship Committee about its dream to evolve toward a level of pledging that allows us to use other fundraisers for outreach projects, and about the Committee’s plans to use our Long Range Plan and its emphasis on music as a campaign theme;
(4) preparations by the Music Committee to apply for a Chalice Lighter Grant to help us bring a 1/4th time Music Director on board;
(5) assessment of the outcomes of Leslie Carr’s pilot advertising campaign to gauge a cost-effective level of effort in our future Uncommon Denomination campaign;
(6) work with Carole DeWall and her Finance and Fundraising Committee to identify effective new fundraisers and rejuvenate existing ones;
(7) plans to initiate dialog with the Religious Education Committee and ways to enhance adult/child interaction and become more family friendly; and
(8) ways to expand our Small Group Ministry program.
There is a lot to do this year and next. Many hands including yours are needed to make this rewarding but relatively “light” work. The good news is that there are many different ways you can contribute to the effort. Additional copies of the UUCV Long Range Plan are available on the Information Table in the Social Hall. I urge you to re-read it and think about how you can help make our plans a reality. Volunteer to join a committee or get involved with If you have ideas for how you can help, don’t hesitate to contact me or any Board Member or Committee Chairperson about them.
From Kevin Snow, UUCV’s Director of Religious Education
Ok, so now that the New Year is officially here, are you ready to start looking into the not-so-distant future? Everyone should have brand new, shiny day books, calendars, and the like waiting to be filled with exciting new activities. For those of you with children, I am sure you need a few date books just to keep your children’s lives straight let alone yours. It really is true that kids these days have more going on then in the past. I never had so many activities in my life as a younger person. Wait, I don’t have that many as an adult either!
But, for those kids who do have a busy life there are some things they should stay in touch with in RE at UUCV and adults should know too! It will have come and gone before this newsletter is in most people’s electronic hands, but on January 29 several of our middle school age kids will be participating in a snow tubing event with four other area UU churches. We will be meeting at UU of Harrisburg for their regular service and then shuttling up to Ski Round Top for the afternoon. Also, of importance with this age group will be several visits to area churches as part of their program to learn more about other faith groups. They have already visited Catholic and Jewish worship houses and a pending visit to a nearby protestant congregation is in the works, so keep your eyes out for news.
If you missed the RE Parents’ meeting in January, please stop by the RE table in the Social Hall to check out our new sign up sheets for the rest of this season and this summer. Summer RE plans will be finalized shortly and we will notify you of those plans via this newsletter. We still need your help on several dates so please put yourself down for a teaching or helping spot. It is not too late to check out the dates you might be available for this summer, so please keep us in mind as you are making plans. UUCV has a commitment to providing a full year RE program, something unique to our congregation, and we will need your help to keep this fulfillment.
Our Youth Group also has some
exciting plans in store. More Sunday
breakfast meetings are planned for the rest of this year as well as tentative
plans for a service project involving the Viva House in
Before I sign off for another
month, don’t forget that the JPD Annual Conference will be coming up on March
31- April, 1. Every year area UUs get
together for a district-wide gathering of worship, fun and education and this
year the conference is being held near
For those of curious mind or yearning intellect, there are several Adult R.E. offerings coming up this month. Look for the Adult R.E. brochure on the sign-ups table.
One-time events: On Wednesday, Feb. 1 there will be a
discussion about William Ellery Channing’s “Likeness to God” and “Self
Development” sermons. This is a
follow-up to Duane’s January 29 sermon; it will be held in the meeting house
library at
On-going classes will also begin
in February. A four-session Dream Group
begins on Tuesday evening, Feb. 21 at
For those interested in issues related to care of the elderly, there will be a workshop which starts Thursday afternoon, Feb. 16. The six sessions will be spaced out through March and into April, co-facilitated by Judy Welles and Dot Everhart (and with several guest presenters as well). Anyone even remotely interested is invited to fill out the yellow form on the sign-ups table near the class sign-up sheets to help in planning.
Parents of young children will
appreciate the “Being a U.U. Parent” class that will be offered on five Sundays
after the service, beginning at
The Social Action Committee of
the Unitarian Universalists of the
Thursday Febuary 2,
Colman McCarthy, founder and director of the Center for Teaching Peace
will explore the idea that unless we teach our children peace, someone else
will teach them violence. A syndicated columnist for the Washington Post from
1969 until 1997, McCarthy teaches nonviolence at the Georgetown University
School of Law,
Event Location: Rubendall Recital Hall Discussion Location: Rubendall Recital Hall Lobby
Thursday Febuary 16,
Steve Aldrich, president of Bio Economic Research Associates will
explore whether this fear is justified; possible scenarios involving this flu
strain; consequences for the future of public health, and the economy and
society. Sponsored by The
Event Location: Great Room,
If each person at UUCV made a new year's resolution to make coffee on just one Sunday of the year we'd have too many volunteers! So far this has not been the problem. Sundays from February through December 2006 are wide open. Consider volunteering to make coffee on one of those Sundays. It's OK to plan ahead and sign up early! The coffee-brewing only takes 20 to 30 minutes and can be done either before or during the Sunday service. It doesn't involve attending meetings or asking people for money. Just put your name down on the coffee schedule in the Social Hall or contact Ellen Lyon at 731-1324 or emlyon@comcast.net. If you'd like a partner, Ellen knows someone who is willing to brew the coffee but needs help getting the pots upstairs.
February 3 Who cares if the
groundhog sees his shadow? Join us at
February 25 MUSIC FESTIVAL - FOR ALL INTERESTED IN UU MUSIC The UU Congregation of Frederick, MD is hosting a one-day festival entitled "Lifting Up Our Faith - A Musical Journey" on Saturday, Feb. 25. Workshop topics will include children's choirs and music, song leading, worship theory, sources for free music, liturgical dance, bell choirs, staff compensation, and other topics. Cost is $30 per person if paid before Feb. 18. Registration forms are available from Judy Welles or Ken Laws. We hope to have at least one car full of interested folks making the trip! This topic is appropriate and timely for our congregation's increasing emphasis on music, so let us know if you are interested in participating.
February 26 Serious
Stuff Book Club's next meeting will be Sunday, February 26. The
selection for discussion at the
From Priscilla Laws,
When I returned from
Nevertheless I was also scared because Karena Butt of the Christian Council of Mozambique (CCM) and I determined that our UUCV Social Action Council needed to raise this year’s goal from $3,750 (25 girls x $150 per girl) to $12,000 (48 girls x $250 per girl). In mid-November, I sent email messages to everyone who you suggested to me and many other friends I have come to know over the years. Funds rolled in. As of a mid-January we had collected just over $17,000 from 81 donors, and 35% of these donors were UUCV congregants and their offspring! Actually, if we also count all of us who put money in the baskets during the two month long Change for the World Collections, then we UUVCers actually constitute the majority of the donors.
A total of $9,500 came from 7
large donations ranging form $1000 to $2500 each. The articles in the UUCV
World and the Carlisle Sentinel made a huge difference. For example, when George and Ruth Koch, UUs
from
Earlier this month Karena Butt and her assistant Adelia Raul brought a group of girls from Namarroi to the CCM headquarters in Quelmane so they could help the girlsstudy for entrance exams to the Teacher’s College in nearby Nicodala. I just got a wonderful message from Karena. “Yesterday Adelia and I took a bus to Nicodala (from Quelmane) and found out that 12 of the 17 girls got in to the teacher training course. In 2 years at age 17 or 18 they will teach in the village schools. We are so excited.”
If you want to be added to my email distribution list and get progress reports on the girls from time to time, contact me at lawsp@dickinson.edu.
December we collected $224 for the Baby Layette program part of the Army Community Sevice. I"m sure our donation will be a help for this terrific program. February we will be collecting for CAN which is a group in the Shippensburg area that helps out needy folks with their heating bills, utilities, etc. Stay tuned to previews and the weekly order of service for more details on this program.
This has been a very difficult period for several of our members whose parents died right around the holidays. Please make a point of reaching out to Beth Shank, whose father died on December 20; to Ellen Lyon, whose father died on December 29; to Janet Mooney, whose father died on January 9; and to Cindy Good, whose mother died on January 10. These are the times when it can make a big difference to be part of a loving community.
Thanks to everyone for decorating
the UUCV Mitten Tree. We donated the following items to Project Share,
including: 33 hats, 47 pairs of gloves, 9 pairs of mittens, 13 scarves, 2 pairs
of socks, and 2 headbands. From Cynthia A. Good