Editor: Margaret Batschelet, typea45@swbell.net
Nosotros, las congregaciones miembros de la Asociación UU, convenimos en afirmar y formentar el valor y la dignidad propria de cada persona.
The Remarkable Film Series will be showing "Citizen Kane" on Sunday, November 11. Released just over sixty years ago, this film is considered by many critics to be the best American film ever produced. As this is a relatively long film of 143 minutes in length, we will start the showing at 5:00 pm and everyone is invited to bring a brown bag. There will be an intermission.
A group of Community members will be attending the performance by the Dance Theatre of Harlem on Saturday, November 3 at 8 P.M. The performance till take place at the Lila Cockrell Theatre, and tickets $25, $20, and $15. This is the troop's 31st season; they are still under the artistic direction of Arthur Mitchell. For more information, contact Lisa Kuntz at 493-8092.
The many readings contributed for our special commemorative serve on September 16 are now available as a .pdf file for download. You can find them at http://www.cuucsa.org/concern.html
All persons interested in participating with the Worship Committee, Religious Education Committee and the Social Justice Committee are invited to participate in the monthly meeting in the Fireplace Room on Sunday, October 14th following Church Services. The Agenda will include reports from each of the Committees with a general evaluation of how the new format is/ isn't working. Time will be provided for each Committee to work separately, if desired. I need to be somewhere else by 1:15 so I hope it will move quickly. Joan Bradshaw, Chair, Program Committee
The operations and maintenance committee has been counting the number of people attending service. Attendance on October 7 was 27 Adults, 7 children.
On October 14, Louis W. Cable, a retired geologist, will give a talk on human evolution featuring slides taken in Kenya while he was there prospecting for fossil evidence of the early hominids. The presentation will include an overview of the background and current scientific thinking concerning the origin of modern humans and their evolutionary development plus what my lie as human evolution continues to unfold. There will be an open discussion following the presentation.
October 14 - Human Evolution: The Search for Human Origins, Speaker: Louis W. Cable
October 21 - UU's and the (Worldwide) Web of Interdependent Life, Speaker: Margaret Batschelet
October 28 - The Day of the Dead. An Intergenerational Service.
This is a pre-announcement to begin planning for this year's Thanksgiving Dinner. Anyone wishing to get involved in planning can call me at 256-9732. -Sally Wiesen
RE is rocking along, as usual, trying to do too much with too little time. The children are learning about famous UU's and the significance of each of the parts of the Worship service. We have had to cancel the upcoming Drumming service because of World events but we can wait to hopefully schedule it for another time. The children have decided on four social action programs in prioritzed order: Creation of a children's Peace Garden, adoption of an animal at the San Antonio Zoo, beautification of the front area of our church property and making a donation to the Heifer Animal Project.
They want to earn the money for the projects so have scheduled two events the first being a car wash in front of the Church on November 4th. Donations will be accepted following completion of this service. The second is that of serving a luncheon at church. This has not yet been scheduled.
Our children want to make a difference and we will help to see it happen. Those of us who are privileged to work with your children would like you to know and enjoy them as much as we do. Jean informed me that one informed her last Sunday that she was adopted from North Korea. Can you guess who that was. She also said she would like to know more about North Korea. Can you share anything with her??
And a final message from Mike Stepp: My daughters and I frequently take walks together during which we discuss the mysteries of our universe. Not long after the terrorists attacks, I questioned Michelle about her feelings concerning those events. She replied, "I'm just a kid. You adults got us into this mess and its up to all of you to get us out of it. I'm not worried about it." I thought, so be it. Let kids be kids and adults be adults.
Bill Schulz, President of Amnesty International, will be speaking at 1st Church, San Antonio on Thursday, 25 October 2001, at 8:15pm in the sanctuary. He will be speaking on human rights as addressed in his recent book, "In Our Best Interests: How Defending Human Rights Benefits Us All" . It should be interesting to hear what he has to say in light of the recent American crisis and the world reaction to it. Bill Schulz is a former President of the UUA - Unitarian Universalist Association - and took his present job upon fulfilling two terms with the UUA. Donations will be accepted at the door, but no one will be turned away for lack of monetary contribution as that would ne counterproductive to the cause. Please contact the church for further details- phone - 210-344-4695 / web site www.swuuc.org/sanantonio / email UU1@juno.com (no attachments, please) snail mail - 7150 IH 10 West / San Antonio, TX. 78213
This letter was sent to all subscribers of UUA-hosted mailing lists from UUA President William G. Sinkford to offer the continuing support and resources of the Unitarian Universalist Association. -- Deborah Weiner, Director of Electronic Communication.
October 1, 2001
Dear Friends,
Our faith and our souls have been tested in the past three weeks. Like most of you, my emotions swing from uncertainty to sorrow. But I am filled hope when I think about the outpourings of love from our faith community. So I'm writing all Unitarian Universalists whose email addresses we have to share my gratitude for your responses to this crisis, my thoughts about the challenges ahead, and my suggestions about resources that might be of use to you. Since I don't have email addresses for every UU, would you please forward it to others who might appreciate it and post a copy at your congregation or ask for this to be sent out in your congregation's newsletter? Thank you.
Our sense of safety has been shattered. Still, UUs everywhere have taken the tragedy as an opportunity to start coming to terms with the brokenness in our world. Our congregations have reached out to the Arab, Muslim and Sikh communities with a common voice that declares, "We will stand with you." In one of our congregations, the members have started to walk fearful Muslim children to school. Across the land we have been offering help and sanctuary to those who are being unjustly profiled.
Moments after the attacks, all of us who work for you at the UUA tried to imagine how we could be most helpful. I was in Washington and immediately reached out to the Muslim community. The American Muslim Council sent my message of support to over 14,000 Muslim congregations in the US. We issued a letter in support of the Sikh community as well. A Sikh leader tells me that in every instance of violence or harassment of Sikhs she knows of, UUs showed up to support those who were attacked.
The UUA staff immediately began reaching out to congregations and their leaders. Our web coverage and support for congregations began within three hours of the attacks on the World Trade Center. Within thirty-six hours our website, www.uua.org, had religious education resources on the web, an electronic bulletin board for people to share their experiences with lay and clergy moderators, and first-person accounts from our New York-based clergy. Not long after we began to provide additional worship, counseling and musical materials for downloading. We've tried to offer both support and concrete suggestions for action.
I'm proud of what we've done so far, but there are challenges ahead. Our religious community has come together in remarkable ways around the shock, fear and grief caused by September 11. There is danger, though, that our nation will confuse vengeance with justice, and that our differing opinions about that action will threaten our sense of community. It would be easy for us to begin arguing among ourselves as to who is right. Can we remember that one of our great gifts is our ability to live in a pluralistic religious community? Can we moderate our principled positions until we know what it is we must respond to? Can we just think, and feel, and be together as a religious community? People are looking to the churches. Our sanctuaries, like those of all faiths, have been filled to overflowing. Professional and lay leaders in our congregations have been working overtime to provide many extra services in addition to regular programming. Talented church musicians have written uplifting songs and selected pieces to bring us together. And our administrators have managed communications during these frantic, never-ending days, with calm and skill. They are doing this with less volunteer support than usual because so many of us are distracted and need to attend to our own needs and those of our families. There will be more stress ahead when we feel the effects of job lay-offs and military deployment. Please remember that one way to make a difference in this crisis is to help out in your congregation.
I'm working with the UUA staff to help you and your congregations with the challenges ahead. We are asking district staff to encourage mutual support and coordinate regional responses. And I am making myself as available as possible. To continue to help in every way we can, I'm listing some resources we have ready on our website that you can link to immediately.
Please be kind to yourself and one another through these days. There will be a long struggle ahead to reclaim the gentle spirit, and we need all the positive Unitarian Universalist energy we can muster.
In faith,
Bill Sinkford
Please check the UUA website for the following resources which may be of help to you and your congregation in the coming days and months:
1. The main 9/11/01 website has gotten more than 13,500 hits in its three weeks on our site - full of useful information, communications from our religious leaders and faith partners around the world as well as stories of the spirit and means of lifting up community: http://www.uua.org/news/91101
2. Worship resources are available from two sources: a compilation by the Rev. Marjorie Bowens-Wheatley: http://www.uua.org/news/91101/reliturgical.html and submissions by our ministers, at http://www.uua.org/news/91101/clergy.html
3. Read about the ways in which our congregations can support the Muslim and Sikh community and other at-risk groups, with resources from the UUA's Washington Office: http://www.uua.org/uuawo/issues/respond/index.html
4. Let us support our children in these difficult days. Three links are relevant: first, materials from our RE department at http://www.uua.org/news/91101/re.html second, a piece submitted by Lee Sanchez ("Helping Children in Response to Today's News") at http://www.uua.org/news/91101/wapta.html finally, Meg Riley's wonderful reflection, "What Do We Tell Our Children," at http://www.uua.org/news/91101/mriley.html [Note: This last piece is also included in the collection of CUUCSA readings at http://www.cuucsa.org/concern.html ]
5. Inspiration in the stories of others and a remembrance of those UUs who died in the tragedy - read stories of ministry from New York at http://www.uua.org/news/91101/threeviews.html and "In Memoriam" at http://www.uua.org/news/91101/memoriam.html
October 14 - Human Evolution: The Search for Human Origins, Speaker: Louis W. Cable
October 14 - Program Committee Meeting after service
October 21 - "UU's and the (WorldWide) Web of Interdependent Life," Speaker: Margaret Batschelet
October 24 - Women's Group, 7:00
October 28 - The Day of the Dead, Intergenerational Service
November 7 - Women's Group, 7:00
November 11 - Remarkable Film Series, "Citizen Kane," 5:00p.m.
If you'd like to receive the e-mail version of this newsletter every month, send a message to Margaret Batschelet, the newsletter editor.