Messenger Newsletter Content June 2005

June Services

5 June “Thus Do We Covenant…” - Worship Leader: Rev. Arline Conan Sutherland - Arline will reflect on what it means to enter into the covenant that has gathered us since 1844 as we honor those who have brought our liberal religious tradition this far and welcome those who are joining us.

Annual Meeting immediately following the service. Children are invited downstairs for a movie and popcorn.

12 June Celebration Sunday! - Worship Leader: Rev. Arline Conan Sutherland - Join us for this festive intergenerational service as we install new officers, celebrate flower communion and sing the hymns of the season – including the hymn sold at the last service auction “And Everyone Neath His Vine and Fig Tree.”

Picnic! Join us immediately following the service for good food and fun.

19 June “Our Father” Worship Leader: Rev. Arline Conan Sutherlan - Fatherhood has so many permutations and layers! These include familial, civic, and religious connotations. Arline will reflect on various aspects of fatherhood.

Ice Cream Social! Following the service, make a sundae!

26 June “My Love Affair with the UUA” Guest Preacher: Rev. Claire Bamberg - The Rev. Claire Bamberg is the new Executive Director of the Pastoral Counseling Center of West Hartford. Although Claire’s background is primarily in the field of pastoral counseling, she has served several congregations including a Unitarian one twice.

President’s Message

Reflections on a School and Church Year

Each June as the school year comes to a close, I find myself pausing and reflecting upon the past nine months--what my kids learned that year including both their struggles and their accomplishments. As a first grader, my son Jacob experienced many firsts: learning to read chapter books, double digit subtraction, riding a two wheeler and how to play team sports. Our daughter Ginger comes more and more into herself every day. It’s beautiful and I don’t want to miss these moments.

I have in our mudroom a large plastic box for each of the children’s schoolwork. As reports come home and backpacks are unloaded, everything gets put into these boxes. During the first week of summer the kids and I sit down together and we go through their boxes. We sort out the papers and we marvel at how much they accomplished and how their work has progressed.

Then we put all of the papers into different boxes which are labeled and stored in the basement. When we are done we take the now empty plastic boxes and place them back up on their shelf in the mudroom. Not many papers go into them over the summer, but they wait patiently until September when once again they will overflow with dittos and reports.

I have tried different things in my life to practice daily reflection such as meditation, journaling, practicing gratitude before a meal. All of those things have worked for a time and they are tools that I return to ever so humbly over and over again.

However it is the natural cyclical pauses such as New Years, family birthdays and anniversaries that hold it all together for me. Each of these times invites us to stop and to look back over where we have been and where we are going.

And so it is too in our spiritual community--the passing of another year with all the joys and sorrows of our congregation. We are so blessed to have each other and our spiritual home. May we take the time to pause, to clean out our metaphorical plastic boxes from this year, to enjoy the summer days and to make room for the year ahead.

Many blessings,
Rebecca Judd

Summer Fun Days at The Meeting House

Keep in touch with your USH friends over the summer. In addition to wonderful weekly worship services, a variety of just-for-fun social events has been planned. Here’s what’s in store.

Sunday, June 12--Community Picnic. Right after the worship service. Hamburgers, hot dogs, veggie burgers, beverages and dessert provided. Contributions of side dishes (baked beans, salads, chips, etc) are welcomed. Free to all USH members and friends.

Sunday, June 19--Fathers’ Day Ice Cream Social. Right after the service. A selection of ice creams and toppings. Make your own sundaes. Tickets on sale in Fellowship Hall. Adults: $3 in advance, $4 at the door. Children under 10: $1.50 in advance, $2 at the door.

Sunday, July 17--Community Breakfast. Continuous seating from 8:30 to 10 am. Tickets on sale in Fellowship Hall. Adults: $7 in advance, $8 at the door. Children under 10: $3 in advance, $4 at the door.

Friday, August 19--Community Cook Out. 5:30 pm ‘til whenever. All food and non-alcoholic beverages provided. Just bring your family, friends and—if you like—your favorite lawn games and wine or beer. We’ll eat and frolic outside, weather permitting, or in Fellowship Hall if it rains. Tickets will be on sale in Fellowship Hall beginning the last Sunday in July (July 31). Adults: $10 in advance, $12 at the door. Children under 10: $4 in advance, $5 at the door.

Sunday, September 11--Ingathering Picnic. Immediately following the worship service. Hamburgers, hot dogs, veggie burgers, beverages and dessert provided. Contributions of side dishes (baked beans, salads, chips, etc) are welcomed. Free to USH members and friends.

To make these summer fun days work, we’ll need help with set up, food preparation, serving and clean-up. No meetings—just fun. If you can help with any of these events, please contact Margaret Leicach at 674-8284

Women’s Alliance Plans Two Events This Month

The Women’s Alliance Cabinet will meet on Thursday, June 9 at 10:30 am in the Meeting House library. The meeting’s main agenda will be to set dates for activities for next year. All members are invited.

Join us on Thursday, June 23, from 11 am to 4 pm at the pond side home of Alice Kimball. Swimming, canoeing, hiking, eating and conversation will fill the hours, rain or shine. Bring a sandwich for the pot luck lunch sandwich tray, bathing suit and towel, sweater, sun hat and good hiking shoes. Sign up in the lower lobby and get directions to Alice’s West Hartland home. Bring a friend to share this favorite day.

Louise Schmoll

It’s Not That Far Away

To remind: stay glued to the internet for Meeting House news during July and August. The almost-monthly print Newsletter is not published during these summer months. Your Newsletter editor gets time off for good behavior.

However, the deadline for the September 2005 Meetinghouse Messenger is Monday, August 15. Please send articles by email to messengernews@ushartford.com.

New Look Emerging Downstairs at the USH

Bulletin Boards

Wondering where the bulletin boards which used to be on the wall in Fellowship Hall have gone? You’ll find them leaning on the left wall in the downstairs exit to the Memorial Garden.

All material on those boards which seemed to be current has been relocated to the bulletin board in the lower lobby; there’s still space available there should you need to post something.

This is, of course, part of the Display Task Force’s project to renovate the lower lobby and Fellowship Hall. Watch for fresh paint, new colors, acoustic panels, improved lighting and, in place of those bulletin boards leaning on the wall, movable displays for notices.

Lobby Lounge

Lots of lights are now on in the newly decorated lower lobby lounge. Members and friends are urged to take time to sit down and enjoy the comfortable furniture, new lamps, paint and décor there.

However, to keep our new look looking new, we need to keep reminding our younger children that the area is for quiet use. The light-colored furniture does not take well to foot stomping or snacking by the younger set.

Parents, if you could help us with this, it would be much appreciated.

And for those who get tired of standing in Fellowship Hall during coffee hour, the inviting lounge is a quieter, more comfortable place to catch up with old friends or have a conversation with a visitor.

Anne Bailey

June’s Musical Notes

Our congregation has secret musical talents! On May 15, at the end of Terasa’s farewell service, nearly the entire congregation joined the choir in our traditional parting song, “God Grant You Many Years.”

Now, there was no real rehearsal on this piece, which means that the musical aptitude in the pews is very high! No wonder we get such positive comments on the music in our services.

June 5. The choir sings “In That Great Getting’ Up Mornin’” as an upbeat prelude to the Annual Meeting. Feel free to join right in on this anthem!

June 12. Children’s voices will fill our sanctuary. Our “ACDA Super Six” will interpret the very moving “One Candle, One Flame” with some solos, and Ginger Furey will render a lovely Italian solo. The choir sings Dave Brubeck’s “How Does Your Garden Grow” in celebration of Flower Communion and as a metaphor for Children’s Day.

June 19. As a unique gift for Fathers’ Day, our baritone soloist Tony Nasto is joined by his dad, trumpeter Dennis Nasto, in a not-to-be-missed new production from the prolific pen of Tom Schmutzler.

June 26. To be announced, as the choir departs for the summer.

But we’re already making plans for a great new season next church year.

Mattie Banzhaf
Musical Direcctor

Farewell Tribute to Terasa on “Half Past May”

Flowers, fitting testimonials from friends, special music and gift-giving highlighted the May 15, 2005 farewell service on Reverend Terasa Cooley’s final day as the Unitarian Society of Hartford’s minister.

The beautifully planned and executed service began with Jack Pelham lighting the chalice; Jack was the first child Terasa named (five years ago) during her ministry here.

Gathering all the children on the Chancel steps, Terasa read them one of her favorite Toad and Frog stories; this one featured celebrating spring and an awakening on “half past May.”

Terasa thanked Reverend Arline Sutherland for asking her to choose favorite hymns for this special service and for “indulging” her in her choices. The hymns were “Praise Be to God, the Almighty,” “Immortal Love,” and “My Life Flows on in Endless Song.”

Terasa also thanked organist-composer Tom Schmutzler for the two anthems he composed especially for her and which the choir sang during the service. ”Let Thy Love Play Upon my Heart” was composed for this farewell service and “What is Divinity” was composed by Tom for the November 5, 2000 installation service for Terasa.

Testimonials were presented by four members of the Society. Endowment Committee Chair Al Herzog thanked and credited her for creating a congregation-centered Society, for starting the Small Group Ministries (“your gift to us”) and for her sermons and Texas tales. Leah Rubin-Cadrain told attendees that she had been “born into the congregation” and was now a college sophomore. She found Terasa’s sermons “miraculously attuned to my life” and recounted “electrifying conversations” she had during lunches with Terasa.

Bart Bracken, past Society President, reflected on the many significant changes during the past five years of Terasa’s tenure, including governance, accessibility, becoming a Welcoming Congregation, and an improved sense of being a caring community. He felt that “Terasa has supported us in our exploration of who we are and who we want to be.” Rebecca Judd, Society President, said she liked Terasa because she is a woman, because of her strength and because of what she says. She said her life has been changed and influenced by Terasa’s initial question to her, “So what would you really like to do with your life?” Rebecca’s eventual answer was to be a minister, and she came a step closer by leading the worship service on March 6, 2005, speaking on joy.

The children of the Society gave Terasa a memory book of pictures, drawings and photos; Terasa told them she would “hold it and treasure it always.” Terasa’s tongue-in-cheek but symbolic gifts included a handsome leather membership book to Society President Rebecca Judd; a bound copy of her doctoral dissertation (“Strategic Plans and Change Process and Congre-gational Accomplishments”) to President-Elect Charles Huntington; and a heavy bunch of church keys (some unknown) to Arline.

Gifts from the Congregation to Terasa, presented by John Stowe, included roses, a large travel bag and, in it, a substantial check to help her on her trips to far away places such as Boston and Turkey.

Kayla Costenoble

FAREWELL

Reverend Dr. Terasa G. Cooley

Many thanks!

I wanted to offer a brief word of thanks for the extraordinary send-off you gave me. The service moved me to tears so often I gave up wiping them away. The music was absolutely extraordinary, and the testimonials said a great deal about the depth of this congregation.

Your presents to me are so appreciated. The subsidy of our trip to Turkey will ensure that we will be able to fully savor the uniqueness of where we will visit, and I will send pictures to enews so you may see what you helped support.

Many of you asked if I could come back to visit soon. As much as I would love to do that often, it will be important for me to give some space to allow your relationship with Arline to come to a new, more central place. And you will need to forge a new relationship with your future called Senior Minister that I will need to be distant from.

Perhaps in a few years that person may wish to invite me back, but until then, know that I will keep informed about what’s happening in the congregation and in your lives, and that you will remain in my heart.

All my thanks and blessings,

Terasa

Summer Small Group Ministries Scheduled

Yes, the time has come to sign up for summer Small Group Ministry.

We are pleased to be able to offer two groups, one in July “east of the river” and one in August “west of the river.”

The July group will be facilitated by Barbara Fraher. The location is East Hartford and the host will be Dick Edwards. This group will meet Tuesday mornings from 10 am to 12 noon. The dates are July 5, 12, 19 and 26.

The August group will be facilitated by Andrew Millard. The location is West Hartford and the hosts will be Margaret and Ed Sax. This group will meet Sunday afternoons from 3 to 5 pm. The dates are August 7, 14, 21 and 28.

You can register by calling the Meeting House office at 860-233-9897. If you are interested, we urge you to register early, since there will be only one group each month.

In the fall we will return to our “many groups at many locations” format. In the meantime, put Small Group Ministry on your summer calendar.

Bev Spence

USH Kids Have Fun With New “Spirit Play”

As I began to tell the story of the elephant, the blind men and the nature of truth, Avery Becker St- Germain burst out, “I love the stories!” The stories, drawn from many sources, including Native American, Hinduism, UU traditions as well as from the Old and New Testament, are a critical element of a new curriculum this year – Spirit Play.

The children volunteer to ring the chime, which helps them attend and focus, while one child will lead the hymn singing. Then, using manipulatives, their teacher will tell the story of the day.

What is striking is that all of the kids are visibly engaged and focused on the story and the questions the teachers pose at the end. Afterwards, they choose their “work” and enthusiastically play with the manipulatives, draw, paint or work with clay, and even occasionally working into their play the themes of the story.

The class concludes with “feast,” and each child shares what they are thankful for. With the success of this year, Spirit Play will be expanded to include the second grade. As my daughter reports, “It’s really fun!”

Nina Elgo

June 5 Collection Will be For Partner Church in Lupeni, Romania

The collection taken during the Sunday, June 5 service at the Meeting hose will benefit our partner church in Lupeni, Romania.

In the short time Zoltan Koppandi has been the minister in Lupeni, several renovations have been made to the parsonage, including bedrooms and a new bathroom for visitors. With funds always in short supply, help from the Unitarian Society of Hartford is greatly appreciated.

This may be your chance to be one of the first visitors to use their new rooms. The Burlington, VT church, also partner to Lupeni, is planning a trip to Transylvania in mid to late September. The last Sunday in September is Thanksgiving in Lupeni, an interesting time to visit.

With a probable limit of ten persons, anyone interested should contact Bill Suiter as soon as possible.

Louise Schmoll

May Collection at Meeting House For Center City Churches

The offering during services on Sunday, May 1 was to benefit Center City Churches; a total of $670 was donated to help the organization.

The Unitarian Society of Hartford is a member of Center City Churches, whose aim is to strengthen community in Hartford through programs that try to change lives and renew human possibility.

Center City Churches is a not-for-profit, non-sectarian social services agency that assists thousands of people each year in three areas: basic needs through the MANNA programs, children and families through the Center for Youth, and adults with HIV/AIDS through Peter’s Retreat.

Growth Seen as Key Issue for the USH

“Growth is the key issue you will have to face to fulfill your potential as a congregation,” departing Minister Terasa Cooley said during the April 27 Sunday service and workshop on growth. The Board of Directors has unanimously approved a goal of growing by 100 new members by June 2006.

During her sermon on growing congregations, changes and transitions, Terasa used a Passover prayer as a metaphor for change, “Do not hesitate to leave your old ways behind…sing songs as you go, and hold close together.” However, she warned, every church has a “Back to Egypt” committee. Growth requires courage, faith and fortitude, she felt. Terasa recalled the “sense of vibrancy” she experienced when she arrived here almost five years ago. She found us to be a place of many generations, happy to be here. Why, then, talk of change? Terasa suggested that new people have something to offer, that members die or move away, and change is exciting, scary, necessary and inevitable.

During the workshop following the service, Terasa reported on the Large Church Conference she attended in Boston. She described “mega churches” as vibrant, fun and excited about their future. They offer a full spectrum of programs on social justice, social action, social service and social reflection. At least 40% of the churches’ budgets go to social ministries and to the communities around them. These mega churches accept change as their norm; some change their governance structure every two years.

They have the staff to provide and support these programs, and it takes money. Their worship shows that they are spiritual, religious communities. They call themselves “liberal religious

communities” and see themselves as part of the larger world. These large churches do not understand themselves as a family, but as a place where one can go to make friends. They are interested in offering opportunities to create many small communities within the church.

UU member Peg Horne has agreed to chair the new short-term Strategic Growth Task Force. She told the more than 30 persons who attended the workshop that her “new calling” is to get the word about our Society “out to the greater community.” She urged members to join the Task Force.

The Unitarian Society of Hartford has about 400 members; it is considered a midsize church. Large congregations number 600 and above and there are, at most, 30 such congregations. The largest UU church has 1800 members. In terms of growth, 10% of the UU congregations account for 40% of the growth.

According to results of a June 2002 UUA survey (distributed by Terasa during the workshop), some characteristics of large churches include inspiring and uplifting worship services and excitement about the church’s future. They offer well organized programs including community service programs, discussion groups, choirs and teen activities in addition to church or Sunday school. They offer opportunities for theological study, prayer or meditation groups, senior adult activities and parenting or marriage enrichment.

Kayla Costenoble

Bishop Selders: Risk- Taking Responsibility In Social Justice Work

“It is our responsibility to take risks,” and to experience feelings of rejection, failure, expulsion and inadequacy, pulpit guest Bishop John Selders said during his May 1 Let Justice Flow sermon at the Meeting House.

He asked USH members if they knew the “sounds and smells of the community just beyond this church” and challenged them to get to know and understand “that which is over there” (the city of Hartford) and to become a part of the lives of others. He called the city of Hartford “one of the poorest in the nation” and put Hartford, Bridgeport, New Haven and Waterbury on the “worst list of urban areas in this country.”

Bishop Selders rejected the dictionary definitions of “social justice” (conformity to law, equity, fairness, goodness, etc.). Within the community of faith, he said, social justice is the responsibility to be actively involved in action and change issues, and the state has a responsibility to the poor and to seeing they receive a “rightful share of resources.”

In periods of great spiritual awakenings, Bishop Selders feels, there is a public phase which engages us in the political process. He does not feel that is happening now, and the emphasis is on private and personal behavior.

Bishop Selders, an Anglican bishop, is pastor of the Amistad United Church of Christ, President of the Interdenomi-national Congregations and Ministries, and is on the executive board of ICEJ (Interfaith Coalition for Equity and Justice). Reverend Terasa Cooley, introducing him, said, “Bishop Selders and I are old friends,” noting that years ago in Chicago they served two churches close together. Bishop Selders began his sermon saying he would ”speak to you from my heart.” He solicited affirmations from UU members, and told them that in his 20 plus years of public ministry he has worked with many liberal-minded congregations.

Kayla Costenoble

Social Justice Talk Back

“Why are you here?” social justice workshop leader Peter Magistri asked the 15 or so persons assembled in the chapel after Bishop Selders’ sermon.

Answers included: support Reverend Alvan Johnston and ICEJ; further involvement in progressive politics; learn more about social justice issues; cross racial and ethnic divide; help make our congregation more comfortable in welcoming those not exactly like others; learn how to become pro-active in other cultures; hear others’ opinions; gather strength; lessen feelings of inadequacy and discomfort in dealing with social justice issues.

Among the workshop participants were three UU members actively involved in ICEJ (Shai Cassell, Carol Shoemaker and Mike Winterfield) and Ann Pratt, ICEJ lead organizer. They reported on Reverend Johnson’s recent resignation from ICEJ and said his criticism of ICEJ’s racial problems have to be taken seriously. Carol Shoemaker held out the hope of a possible reconciliation, and Shai Cassell suggested this was the challenge of social justice work and was also a “tremendous opportunity” for ICEJ to become stronger.

The workshop was sponsored by the Information and Advocacy Sub-Council of the Council on Social Justice. K. C.

Musings . . . Reverend Arline C. Sutherland

As summer approaches, the pace of life slows for many of us. The rhythms of an academic year run deep. Children are out of school and many of us leave town for the beach, or the mountains, or wherever.

Here at the Meeting House, we feel the shift. Starting just about exactly at the beginning of summer, Father’s Day, the number of meetings drops and fewer people are around. The staff takes advantage of this apparent lull to get organized, to clean up the database and tend to the things that we never got around to during the rest of the year. We plan for the future and set up new systems to facilitate work flow. The significant information though is that we are here.

Spiritual and pastoral needs don’t take vacations. There is always a minister on call. Although I will be away on vacation the weeks of July 2, July 30 and August 27, the staff always knows how to reach me. If you have a pastoral emergency then, please contact the office; they will contact us. Since it is summer I will be more flexible about exactly when I’m in Hartford. But again, the significantinformation is that I am available.

This congregation proudly holds services twelve months of the year. Yet the rhythms of summer are felt in the sanctuary as well. We offer more innovative worship from more varied worship leaders. Several opportunities for spiritual connection and fun are also planned. You will find the worship schedule and information about our summer Religious Education on an insert in this newsletter so that you can post it on your bulletin board or refrigerator door.

I am thrilled that our new Director of Religious Education, Ken Silberman-Bunn, will be around as of July 17! He and I will spend time getting to know each other and learning how to work together.

For me, summer is the season of finding touchstones for the sacred in such ordinary moments as coffee with a friend, weeding the garden, or walking the beach. It is the season of reading beach novels, playing with children in the ocean, and finding the best ice cream cones on the Cape – a project that requires much research and testing.

As you make your way through the summer of 2005, I invite you to gather a small container of water from a moment or a place of significance to you. As is the tradition in many Unitarian Universalist congregations, we will mingle these waters at our Homecoming service on September 11.

May this summer bring you encounters with divinity in its many and various forms!

Blessings, Arline

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Let us know of any comments, errors and corrections - thanks (revised 5/27/05)