Editor: Steve Botts, stbotts@texas.net
Nosotros, las congregaciones miembros de la Asociación UU, convenimos en afirmar y formentar el valor y la dignidad propria de cada persona.
President
Mary Grace Ketner
Secretary
Vicki Lee Mattern
Treasurer
Nancy White
At Large Member
Sonya Graham
At Large member
Peter Van Dusen
Operations & Maintenance Committee Coordinator
John Bradshaw, Patrick Shearer
Member Services Committee Coordinators
Clem Chow, Jeff Ketner
Program Committee Coordinators
Henry Halff, Stephanie Shearer
CUUC Website Manager
Margaret Batschelet
About two years ago, I started practicing Yoga almost daily. I follow a video with Rodney Yee. I jokingly began referring to him as my guru. I’ll tell you why.
The first payoff was elimination of back pain and discomfort. For fifteen years, prior to taking up this regular yoga practice, I went running to chiropractors at least once a month. In the past two years, I have gone only a few times.
Also, Yoga has routinely delivered me enjoyable emotional states. In yoga induced peace and happiness, I do some of my best thinking. I rely upon being able to achieve such states, in order to write sermons, articles and even to enjoy quality in all of the relationships that shape my life.
Despite the consistent positive effects, I am still surprised most days practicing yoga, when such pleasant conditions emerge. Perhaps the surprise has to do with the bad mental habits I practice during many of my other waking hours. Cluttered, becomes my normal mental state, and I am surprised when I find my way back to a clearer condition.
That exercise has positive effects on how I feel mentally, emotionally and physically is nothing new. I long ago learned that if I didn’t expend some energy in daily exercise, I’d likely expend it creating anxious and unpleasant moods. Physical exertion helps me sleep better, and sleep also has profoundly helpful effects. Exercise in the form of swimming played a big part in my turning my life around beginning at age 20. I had abused myself with drugs and alcohol, and when I started swimming I was desperate to cleanse my polluted body from accumulated toxins. I used to pray that I hadn’t done irreparable damage, and swimming gave me hope. I guess exercise and spirituality are not necessarily separate.
What we generally call yoga is hatha yoga, and it’s actually part of a 5000 year old system of beliefs and practices intended to help the practitioner achieve self realization, enlightenment and communion with the divine. The purpose of hatha yoga is to seek self -awareness through mastery of the body. Other forms of Yoga seek enlightenment or self-realization through knowledge, devotion, breath work, service etc.
Knowing that yoga is more than exercise hasn’t kept me from being surprised at it’s reliably positive effects. It also amazes me that despite its healing influence, I have still had a hard time maintaining it as a priority in my life. I skip yoga for a few days, and feel worse physically, mentally and emotionally. And yet I regularly allow other needs to crowd it out of my morning. I confess that this is also true of many of the good practices I’ve acquired. My attitude about “discipline” hasn’t been positive. Fortunately, I am beginning to notice that sometimes discipline is the only thing that brings me to any freedom. Can you relate? In any event, I intend to keep practicing.
A man once asked God "What is relativity?"
"Oh," said God. "That means, for example, that a million dollars to you is like a penny to me."
"In that case," the man retorted, "May I please have a million dollars?"
"No problem!" said God. "But, wait just a minute."
It does seem like we at CUUC have waited God's own minute for all the pieces of our dreams to fall into place. Even now, we have several important components for growth raring at the bit: a gifted and energetic minister, a competent task force charged with kick-starting growth in the church-shopping month of August, a beautifully tended streetscape with a brand new eye-catching sign, an inviting social action agenda, and some very fine services, programs, picnics, and other opportunities for inspiration and fellowship already lined up for the summer through early fall.
A penny from God could definitely help with all that, but we plan to move full speed ahead toward our modest goal of World's Greatest Church sometime before God's minute is up, so hold on to your hat and jump on board!
Several weeks ago, I was at the church printing orders of service, cursing and muttering while struggling to extract crumpled sheets stuck in the printer and other such hassles when Pastor Phil came down the stairs and spoke to me. Somewhere in the conversation, Phil mentioned that some of the UU churches he serves as a visiting pastor don’t use orders of service at all, but have some sort of message board at the front of the church that provides the information that the congregation needs to know for the day.
This set me to thinking about orders of service and wondering how important they are to the congregation at CUUC. It seems to me that orders of service have always been a part of going to church that I had never thought about or questioned.
I remember from growing up in the Baptist church that my dad always took his order of service home every Sunday and put it in a shoebox under the bed. When the shoebox got full, he would take it to the storage shed out back and then start another shoebox. As far as I know, no one ever referred to them again.
Today, I have mixed feelings about orders of service. On the one hand, they can be troublesome and time-consuming to prepare, and printing them uses up a lot of paper, which is an expense to the church. On the other, some of them are very artistically done and are very pertinent to the subject of the service. Besides that, the backs of orders of service provide information about our church which visitors may want to know.
And of course, orders of service are a part of church tradition and provide people with something they can take home.
I would like to hear from newsletter recipients about how they feel about the importance of orders of service - for them, against them, or indifferent to them. Please send responses to my personal e-mail - stbotts@texas.net and I’ll print your thoughts in the next newsletter. Please don’t address this on CUUC discuss or any of the other CUUC yahoo groups.
Phil Schulman, the consulting minister at CUUC, has been a lifelong advocate of ecological awareness and social justice. At age 11, he first petitioned the citizens of his town to save the forest behind his home. Since then he has written editorials, served as a board member of a national human rights organization, participated in myriad campaigns for peace, ecology and social justice, spoken at rallies, vigils and demonstrations, and walked on peace pilgrimages across the US, France and Palestine. He says he's delighted to share his passion with us all.
Establishing civilized conversation through Socratic dialogue as an alternative to the yelling and screaming heard on mainstream TV and radio.
Len Wheeler has had an active life, following careers in business, education, as well as following other interests. She has recently retired as a Texas prison teacher. She is now involved in an effort to help Socratic dialogue become the style of conversation for the future. Len aided in the three Socrates Cafes that are in existence.
For people who think of themselves as political liberals in the classical mold (as I do), Stevenson continues to have strong appeal--40 years after his death and 50 years after his second run for the presidency. The 2004 electoral campaign got me to wondering why this was. In my research, I've discovered that, before JFK received the nomination at the 1960 Democratic convention, Eugene McCarthy--another liberal icon--placed Stevenson in nomination for a 3rd candidacy. I'm also currently reading a new book entitled "The Return of the 'L' Word," the L-word of course being "Liberalism." My service will be a reflection on these things.
Peter Van Dusen - Member of CUUC and chair of worship committee. Philosophy instructor, St. Mary's University since 2001. Earned M.A. in philosophy at California State University, Long Beach in 1984; graduate, U.S. Naval Academy 1970. Areas of professional interest: ethics and economics. Amateur flutist; personal interests in classical music, history and German studies.
UU Churches across the nation are coming out on behalf of the rights of gays and lesbians to marry. This issue stirs a lot of negative feelings, dividing our nation along red and blue lines. Let’s take a personal look at how we can face this issue with courage and dignity.
For more on Rev. Phil, see the entry for 5/28
How the wisdom accumulated from the experience of a long life enables the elders in our society to make a unique contribution.
Marilyn DeKing is a prominent member of CUUC and a practicing artist. She has led and participated a number of Sunday morning services. Some of her presentations have involved her art and others that are drawn from her life experience.
NEWS The RE classes are coming to an end for another Church year. We are finishing up World Religions with a study of Cosmology. We visited Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Shintoism and African American Mythology. The 14th of May was our RE Closing Service. Participating were: Crystal and Elvira Mattern; Michael, Micaela and Maggie Gullick and Nicholas and Jadzia Thompson. They were ably assisted by visitors Meagan and Ryan Fullmer, who are Gullick cousins. (Meagan and Ryan and their older brother Shawn were frequent visitors this year and we will miss them as they move to Japan.) If you missed this service, it was wonderful and a chance to see your church children bloom.
We will be making crayon wash epoch timeline drawings of the Universe and also some cosmic beads for the next 2 Sundays (5/21 & 5/28). RE will continue this summer on long Sundays and begin for the church year the first Sunday in August. We will be having lots of adventures next year: Hogwart’s, Simpsons, Seuss & Tolerance. This summer, we will be talking a lot about tolerance and critical thinking and lots and lots of craft activities!!!!
When I was a little girl, I loved the summer because it was Vacation Bible School time. Since my parents both worked, I stayed with several different people; so, I got to go not only to my Methodist VBS but to the Baptist and I think I hit the Lutheran one too. I loved the fact that I got to see my friends who went to those churches during the summer and I loved all the crafts! I welcome the chance to give that same type of story, music and craft experience to your children this summer.
We may not be studying about the Bible - but we certainly will be studying ethics! So, continue to expect RE on short Sundays (6/11 & 6/25 - 7/9 & 7/23). I will fill you in on more of what I plan to do during the summer next month. So, thank you again for a wonderful 2005-2006 in RE and for allowing me to be a part of your children’s lives. GJK
“I believe that children are our future, teach them well and let the lead the way… Show them all the beauty they possess inside. Give them a sense of pride ...” Whitney Houston.
Things are heating up a bit! We're seriously looking at two properties--an undeveloped 1.7-acre parcel along the S.A. River near Mission Concepcion, and a warehouse/condominium conversion on S. Flores near downtown. A few more people are showing up at each meeting--come check out what's happening on 1st and 3rd Wednesday evenings at the church. Next meeting is Wed., June 7th, 6:30 pm.
The picnic will be on May 29th. Elly and Crystal and I will be setting up to start festivities around 3pm and expecting to have the grill ready at 5pm.
Everybody bring your own food to put on the grill and a side dish, dessert, or drinks. I'll bring a sign up list Sunday so we don't get 10 bowls of potato salad.
And John Bradshaw has worked wonders to get the pool up and running for us!!! Yeah, John!!
Introducing Carol Bertsch: Though she is relatively new to our congregation, Carol Bertsch first joined the Unitarian Universalist church in 1990. She is married and has been a lawyer for fourteen years, the last nine of which have been in her own practice. Carol specializes in elder law and judging from the number of baby boomers soon reaching retirement age, we can expect Carol to be busy for quite a while. If you catch Carol at an unguarded moment, she would probably admit that she has a little bit of a workaholic problem. She loves her practice and it is natural to assume that she has some rather satisfied clients.
The second film in the Kenneth Branagh series will be "Othello". The 1995 film features Laurence Fishburne (http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0000401/)in the title role with Branagh assuming the role of Iago. This film will be shown at church at 6:00 PM on Sunday, May 21.
The Remarkable Film Group selected "Rabbit-Proof Fence" as the third in the series. The 2002 film is set in Australia in 1931 when three aboriginal girls escaped after being plucked from their homes to be trained as domestic staff and set off on a trek across 1500 miles in the Outback. This film will be shown at church at 6:00 PM on Sunday, June 18.
1st Wed and 4th Wed. Radius Cafe, 106 Auditorium Cr. (parking in rear) 2nd Wed: Madhatters Tearoom at S. Alamo and Beauregard (King Wm.). Contact: Len Wheeler 224-1588 for further information
It meets the 2nd and 4th Monday of the month at the church at 7:00 p.m: June 12th June 26th July 10th July 24th.
Back to table of contentsDan Brown's hot book, The Da Vinci Code, is the topic for the first meeting of the Book Club at 7 p.m. on Tuesdays at the church. In addition to a murder mystery, romance and controversy, the novel offers an unusual religious controversy: Did Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene marry and create a bloodline that continues today?
The Women's Support Group is open to women and friends of the church. We meet every 2 weeks, on a Monday night at the church, starting at 7 p.m. and usually finishing before 9 p.m. Each woman usually talks for about 10 minutes about anything she wishes. However, you don't have to talk if you would rather not. What is divulged is kept confidential unless otherwise stated. It is a great way to get to know the women in the church on a more personal level in a safe environment.
We invite you to come and join us and let us get to know you. 4/24, 5/8, and 5/22 are the meeting times for the current period.
The Cuuc men's group meets every other Sunday from 6:30 - 8:30 P.M. All CUUC men or visitors are welcome to join us.
Group leadership rotates from meeting to meeting. The leader for each meeting is also the host, and he is responsible for furnishing snacks and drinks.
We usually start off meetings with a clearing, in which each member is allowed to talk about recent events in his life, if he wishes to, for as long as he sees fit. Next, the facilitator introduces the topic for the evening. This may involve a short reading - a poem, an article or other text. The subject could be just about anything that the facilitator would like the group to address: What's going on at CUUC, religion, economics science, health, family, friendship, etc.
Around 8:30, we wind things up by deciding who is going to facilitate the next meeting, declare this one finished, clean up, and leave.
The Remarkable Film Group consists of members and friends of CUUC who gather each month to view one feature film and discuss it afterward. Everyone is welcome to attend. The films are usually shown at church at 6 PM on the third Sunday of each month. Films are shown in a series. The attendees select the theme and content of each series normally compose of four films of a common theme, directed by the same person or featuring a specific actor or actress. Past film series have carried such themes as Women Messiahs or include films directed by John Sayles or those featuring Peter Sellers. Current leaders of the group are Clem and Joyce Chow. Any questions about this group may be directed to Clem or Joyce.
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