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.
December 20 will be the day of our annual decking of the sanctuary halls. Festivities will be begin with a wassail at 6:30 followed by a potluck dinner. After dinner, activities tables will be open for Christmas tree decorations, a gingerbread house, holiday music, and a jigsaw puzzle. The tree will be ready for trimming and the sanctuary will be ready for decking. After a closing ceremony, we'll clean the place up for Sunday services.
Music is a part of the event, so bring your voices, instruments, and CDs or be prepared to suffer through Henry Halff's collection of tasteless Christmas ditties.
A signup sheet will be available in church on December 7 and December 14. Questions: contact Sandi Boyd (sandi.boyd@earthlink.net, 830-606-0636).
After services on December 21, we will make our sometimes annual pilgrimage to The Bridge. Please join us.
The Bridge is a temporary residence for kids that is run by Roy Maas Youth Alternatives. Children live there because of temporary circumstances that preclude their living at home. We'll show up on their doorstep with Pizza, games, and music so that they can have a more joyous holiday than they would otherwise. Visits such as these are a good way for our small church to have a tangible impact on the welfare of our community.
Questions: Contact Joan Bradshaw (joanbradshaw@sbcglobal.net, 341-8506)
Come join us at 6:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve! Warm hearts, jingle bells and the raising of our voices in the carols and holiday stories of our childhoods will be on the agenda.
You are cordially invited to bring friends, neighbors, and your favorite holiday dessert to share with all. Please RSVP to 313-5070 or mail minton22@yahoo.com with number of guests, if possible. Last minute arrivals are welcome. Co-coordinators are also welcome.
The Remarkable Film Series will continue with its general theme of "Family" in January. The film selected is "This is my father" starring James Caan as a middle-aged schoolteacher seeking his roots and attempting to find his real father in Ireland. This film will be shown on Sunday, January 18 at 6:00 PM at the church.
December 14 - "Language of Reverence or Aversion?" Speaker: Bob Ireland
December 21 - "Home for Christmas," Coordinator: Henry Halff, Speakers: Donna Esquivel and Greta Lee
December 28 - "As it is written ...," Speaker: Patrick Woosley
January 4 - "The History of God," Speaker: Steve Botts
January 11 - "The Pleasures of Junk," Coordinators: Steve Boyd and Margaret Batschelet
January 25 - Speaker: Rev. Barbara Coeyman
February 1 - Annual Worship Review
Where: Catherine and Bob McKee's place 11703 British Arms When: Noon to 7:00 p.m., December 25
We're going to be hanging out with family and church friends. If you are free for a while, and would enjoy a little holiday spirit and refreshments, please come and join us. We'll provide beverages and some sort of eats. If you want to bring something, feel free. Christmas is a great time to share with friends. If you can't make it, we wish you a very happy holiday and we'll see you in the new year.
The Women's Support Group will meet at the church at 7:00 p.m. on the following dates: December 15 and December 29.
Do you need a little extra help or do you know someone who does? To contact the pastoral care sub-committee, please call any of the following individuals: Joan Bradshaw at 341-8506, Sue Minton at 679-7598, Catherine McKee at 681-4197 or Sally Wiesen at 256-9732. Our minister, Barbara Coeyman is more than willing to help in any emergencies were she might be of service. You can contact her at 512-453-2026 (home) or 503-806-7593 (mobile). You can also contact the pastoral care committee by confidential (but not anonymous) email to cuuc-cares@yahoogroups.com.
The CUUC Men's Group meets on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of the month from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM (NOTE THE CHANGE OF TIME) at the church for beer and soda, guy food, and occasional conversation. All male friends and members of the church are urged to attend. Interested men can join the Men's Group's secret mailing list by sending an email to cuuc-men-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. Henry Halff (210-493-7501, henry@quiensabe.com) can answer questions and provide further information.
When you or your committee/group schedule a meeting or event at church using the church facilities, please send an e-mail message on the same to Sue Minton (minton22@yahoo.com) with a copy to Henry Halff (henry@quiensabe.com) as soon as possible, so we will avoid having any conflicts in scheduling the church facilities.
Soup lunches scheduled for the fourth Sunday of the month, and each group in the church is expected to take responsibility for a single lunch. There are still gaps in the soup-lunch schedule. Group leaders can sign their groups up on the sign-up sheet in the coffee room.
We're looking for volunteers for some repair projects that need to be done now rather than later. Come work or come support the workers. We are also looking for volunteers to make a quick and simple sandwich lunch. If you haven't attended a Clean-Up Day in the past, you've missed some great times at the Church.
Scheduled Projects:
Please e-mail your RSVP to minton22@yahoo.com, or subscribe to cuuc-ops@yahoogroups.com. Please include in your response a list of any surplus materials that you can donate to any of the scheduled projects. The opportunity to utilize cuuc-ops provides us with the ability to communicate and plan for the operations and maintenance needs of CUUC without being tied to a meeting schedule. Please consider joining this important on-line group.
A special December thank you goes to Sandi and Steve Boyd for building much-needed shelving in the Women's Room closet; and to John Bradshaw for doing extensive repair to a rotted board on the eave outside the Fireplace Room. And, as always, a thank you to Bob McKee for his time and expertise in troubleshooting electrical and plumbing questions that save us so many maintenance dollars.
Second in the CUUC Social Justice Colloquium Series. Scheduled for January 17, 18
The film, "Uncensored, The Truth Uncovered," will be the centerpiece of the second in the CUUC Social Justice Colloquium Series. Sponsored recently by Move-On.org, the film chronicles press coverage from 9/11 thru the declaration of war with commentary provided by former CIA employees, ambassadors, ranking members of the armed services, and DOD.
Showings will be Saturday evening, 7 p.m. on January 17, and again on Sunday, January 18 at 1:00 p.m. Please e-mail minton22@yahoo.com or cuuc-justice@yahoogroups.com for flyers and press releases to circulate to family, friends, and colleagues.
Walden Coffeehouse Concerts are held at the First Unitarian Universalist Church. Providing a listener-oriented, smoke-free and alcohol-free venue
On Saturday, January 10: Karen Mal
Karen Mal 's songs are like the old time remedy that mixed honey and lemon. They are sweet without being precious and have a lasting bite to them that makes them both memorable and good for you. Add a voice to match, and you have a musical panacea, curing our ills and adding to the grace of living. - Michael Jaworek, The Birchmere
Awhile back I talked about the unity in our diversity. What is it that holds free faith together? How do we have anything in common, given that the premise of the free way of religion is the individual's right to chose her or his own path of searching. Or said another way, Unitarian Universalists tend to be fairly independent people, who I suspect are drawn to free religion because of ... well ... of the freedom it offers. So then the 'catch' becomes how independent people come together in community. Where is the unity in a group of independent people?
One answer I give to questions of unity is 'respect'---respect for the other persons individual spiritual orientation is an action and attitude that each person in free religion must exercise. And simply that process of respect can bind us together.
Orthodox religions tend to be more explicit in demonstrating commonalities: beliefs, events, historical figures that everyone knows and understands in generally the same way .... for example, in Trinitarian Christianity, the event of the resurrection. And those commonalities are articulated every chance possible. On the other hand, Unitarian Universalists are much less overt in stating our unities, perhaps because often we are not sure what they are. Even if we consider 'respect' as a unifier, I realize that is still a rather amorphous concept to articulate in practical terms.
In our quest for or questioning of our unity, perhaps we need to engage in some leaps of faith, and trust that we are united, we are unified, we are in community together, simply by virtue of being associated with this faith community. Alas, I suspect that we often vocalize the differences much more than the similarities.
But I think we can also help ourselves remind ourselves of our unity. For example, the lighting of the chalice can be a powerful, non-verbal ritual that we each in our individualities can share together. We may not even know exactly how we are together, but this simple act of lighting the flame can remind us that we are together, we are part of a community, grounded in respect for difference.
So I want to encourage us to think about starting any gathering together--not only at worship, but at meetings, meal preparations, work sessions, etc.--with a chalice lighting, and maybe with some inspirational words, or maybe some sort of personal check-in. I suspect that none of us can become overloaded with reminders of what holds us together and builds community.
Blessings for the holiday season.
Barbara
Many of us keep up with church news through subscriptions to mailing lists hosted (for free) by Yahoo! Groups http://groups.yahoo.com. Folks with a common interest can subscribe to one of these mailing lists (see the email directory in this newsletter) and receive messages posted to a special email address for the group. For example, if you're subscribed to CUUC-Announce (and we certainly hope that you are), you, and everyone else so subscribed gets every message sent to cuuc-announce@yahoogroups.com.
But wait! There's more! Each group has its own web page. The one for CUUC-Announce, for example, is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cuuc-announce/. These web pages have their uses. You can use them to change your email address, to turn off email and turn it back on, to look at past messages, to get the list to deliver all your messages in a daily packet (called a digest), to check the membership list, and for other time-wasting activities.
However, there's a catch. To get to all these nice features of your groups' web pages, you need to (gasp) register. For those of you with yahoo.com email addresses, this may only mean that you need to tell Yahoo! Groups about your Yahoo identity. If you don't have a yahoo.com email address, registration means getting yourself a Yahoo identity. (Please try to keep from laughing at the concept of a Yahoo identity.)
Registration is completely harmless (really) and free, but it can be a daunting experience for the computationally challenged. So, the list dad, Henry Halff (493-7501, henry@quiensabe.com), in the hope that getting people registered will save him time in the end, is offering two workshops in which he will walk people through the registration process and answer any questions about the church's mailing lists. These workshops will take place after services on January 4 and January 11. If you're interested, just show up; reservations are not required. You don't have to bring your computer; one will be provided. You don't have to be a subscriber to any of the lists; we can get you signed up on the spot.
The Board of Trustees of CUUC would like to remind all members that before you obligate any expenditure on behalf of the church, please make sure that you have secured agreement for such expenditure from the appropriate committee chair.
December 14 - "Language of Reverence or Aversion?" Speaker: Bob Ireland
December 14 - Men's Group, 7:00 p.m.
December 15 - Women's Group, 7:00 p.m.
December 20 - Deck the Church party and potluck, 6:30 p.m.
December 21 - "Home for Christmas," Coordinator: Henry Halff, Speakers: Donna Esquivel and Greta Lee
December 21 - Trip to The Bridge, after servicesv
December 24 - Christmas Eve service, 6:30 p.m.
December 25 - Christmas day open house, the McKees
December 28 - "As it is written ...," Speaker: Patrick Woosley
December 29 - Women's Group, 7:00 p.m.
January 4 - "The History of God," Speaker: Steve Botts
January 4 - Electronic mailing list workshop, after services
January 10 - Walden Coffeehouse, Karen Mal, 7:00 p.m. First Unitarian
January 11 - "The Pleasures of Junk," Coordinators: Steve Boyd and Margaret Batschelet
January 11 - Electronic mailing list workshop, after services
January 17 - Clean-up Day
January 17 - Social Justice Colloquium: "Uncensored, the Truth Uncovered," 7:00 p.m.
January 18 - Social Justice Colloquium: "Uncensored, the Truth Uncovered," 1:00 p.m.
January 18 - Remarkable Films series, "This Is My Father," 6:00 p.m.
January 25 - Speaker: Rev. Barbara Coeyman
February 1 - Annual Worship Review
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