USH-Enews January 11, 2007Print Only Edition

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This is the print only edition of the USH-Enews. Photos and other graphical elements have been removed. Print is mostly black on white.

The USH-Enews is a weekly email newsletter sent to members and friends of the Unitarian Society of Hartford. The USH web address is: http://www.ushartford.com/ Check at the end of this USH-Enews for information on submissions, subscriptions and escape from the mailing list. And, to read the monthly Meetinghouse Messenger (newsletter) on line, or past issues of the USH-Enews click here.

Office hours: M-F 9-3 (excluding W 10 -11); Rev. Jamestone: Phone: 860 233-9897; Email: RevBJ@USHartford.com - Office hours: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday - Available at the noon hour and at other times by appointment.

Sunday 14 January - Southern Belle to Civil Rights Advocate - With her husband Clifford, who was founding president of the Montgomery Alabama UU Fellowship, Virginia Durr was instrumental in the Montgomery Alabama Bus Boycott. There’s a UU connection to the Rosa Parks story.

Music: The Civil Rights movement found its energy in an inspiring body of civil rights songs emerging from vigorous anthems of the southern African-American churches. Mattie first learned such songs on a bus to Washington, D.C. in 1963. Join the choir and find that spirit through music.

RE: It's counted and official! Our Middle School class spent last Sunday counting up the contributions collected from your Guest at Your Table boxes. After the mountain of change, cash and checks was tallied, our Middle Schoolers counted a total of $983.14 US dollars, 101 Chinese yuan, 10 Somali shillings, 16 cents Euro, $1.24 Canadian, and some mystery amount of Polish zloty that will remain unknown because the coin immediately became someone's exotic treasure. Thanks for helping support the Unitarian Universalist Committee's work advancing human rights in the US and round the world!

Sunday Class Plans for this Sunday
Since we need to conserve heat, our Religious Education program will follow the same schedule and locations as last Sunday. During the 9AM service, there will be a combined Child Care and Learning Center for infants through elementary school age in the Spirit Play room, Classroom C. At 11 AM, Child Care for infants through age 3 and Spirit Play for children Pre-K through Grade 2 will both be held in the Spirit Play room, Classroom C.

Timeless Themes for children in Grades 3, 4 and 5 will be Classroom D. The Middle School will meet in the Church Office upstairs and the Youth Group should bundle up and meet in their usual space, Socinus.

A Reminder to Parents: If your child is attending either the Spirit Play or Timeless Themes class, please volunteer to bring snacks. Sign up sheets are posted outside of each classroom. Due to allergies, no nuts, please. Thanks for your help!

Back up Nursery Helpers wanted! Please consider becoming a back up nursery helper. Sometimes we need last minute help in the nursery and it would help if we had a list of folks we could contact. A sign up sheet has been posted outside the Spirit Play classroom. Thanks!!!

From the Editor: The furnace installers are working diligently. It looks as if heat may be back beginning at some time Friday presuming no undiagnosed difficulties are discovered. Then winter may begin!

As a small child, I recall hearing my mother say those words to my elder siblings. (She didn’t say it to me….was probably too tired by the time I needed to hear it!)

USH provides many chances to put our feet under the same table. Just this month, you can come to a circle supper at somebody’s house, can do supper and ‘sleep over’ at our spirituality retreat on the 20th, can sign up for a wonderful 8 session ‘small group ministry’ experience to begin in February, AND if you’re not yet a member at USH you can attend our “Pathways to Membership” Monday nights to explore the myriad other tables that our members put their feet under!! (At the final session on January 29, you’ll have the opportunity to decide whether you want to join our congregation in membership.)

The nourishment to soul and body will be splendid at these and other table talks. And, making a commitment to be accountable to such a spiritual community as gathers at the Meeting House is a discipline that further matures and strengthens us as persons and as an organization that ministers to others. I am proud to put my feet under the table at the Meeting House in 2007, and am ready to accept her disciplines of community and care, which will aid my spiritual maturation. I hope to have the chance to bump against YOUR feet under the table with mine sometime in January!

And After Epiphany, What Then? - “I believe the wise men were the very first Unitarian Universalists,” Reverend Jamestone told the children clustered around her on the (warm!) Fellowship Hall floor during the January 7 Time for All Ages. Recounting the Three Kings story, Rev. BJ told her rapt audience that these wise kings used their heads (to think, study, ask questions), used their feet (not afraid to go the distance), wanted to learn new things and used their hearts.

During Sunday’s sermon (for the older audience), And After Epiphany, What Then? we learned several definitions of that word. Such as, when we see something we never imagined we were going to see, or a defining moment in life when we are touched and moved to see things in different ways. Rev. BJ described an epiphany she had in her southern garden when, against all doubts and advice to the contrary, she nurtured and coaxed violets to bloom under a magnolia tree—something they are not supposed to do. But they did. And their presence, she said, reverberates still in her life.

Rev. BJ insisted we must find ways to hold onto the glory and the power of these epiphanies in our “ordinary time.” Referring to Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” (sung by the choir), she suggested we should be willing to “go home by another way” and find the courage to “step off into the woods of 2007.” Although it is easier to follow known beliefs and traditions, Rev. BJ said she believes there is “a great light at our back, guiding our steps” and hopes we can explore the ramifications both as individuals and as a congregation.

In Sunday’s final hymn, Rev. BJ’s favorite title (“O What a Piece of Work are We”), we sang, “But give us room and more to grow, but give our spirit play and we can make a world of light out of the common clay.” - Kayla Costenoble

New Furnaces May Function Friday - So, why do we find ourselves looking at new furnaces in the photo at the top of this USH-Enews? Just send along the heat and I don’t care!

Actually, we have something here directly related to Unitarian Principles, namely, “respect for the interdependent web of all existence, of which we are a part,” which statement appears below under Nuts and Bolts in every newsletter.

If you study the picture with care, you can see that air enters the furnaces on the top at the side and the exit for burned gases is at the bottom rear, an excellent way of creating a countercurrent system. The ignited gas passes through warmed water and onto colder “boiler water” near the gas exit such that the cooling gas encounters the very coldest boiler water, and gives up the last little bit of heat because of the temperature differential.

This architecture coupled with the reservoir of boiler water actually existing in the heat distribution pipes rather than in a big vessel wasting heat in the boiler room is one of the factors creating a super efficient system, one that will wring the very last calorie of heat from the natural gas we burn.

The controls are also "digitally smart." The lead boiler is informed of the outside temperature and the temperature of the water continuously circulating through the radiators or heat exchanging pipes. A decision is made to heat the circulating water adequately to meet the need for heat in the building. If one boiler working at an efficient pace is unable to heat the radiators and heat exchangers adequately, a second sleeping furnace is aroused and recruited to double the heat effort and should that still be inadequate the third furnace is summoned to join the effort. On another day, the furnaces take turns being lead furnace so wear is evenly distributed. And, obviously, only one furnace runs when that is all that is necessary and the sleeping units can be stone cold (no heat wasted).

This may be quite clear to those of mechanical outlook, but if you are not such a person, then you may very well appreciate the really neat shining copper work around the furnaces and placement of the furnace objects in the available space creating an attractive and comfortable display of utilitarian design and efficiency. And, did you notice the smoke stack is gone, that symbol of the industrial revolution belching smoke into the atmosphere?

If that did not help, perhaps you can just focus on the fact that USH, in the face of a crisis of sorts, solved much of the problem by using a really big Chalice to keep Fellowship Hall reasonably warm while Green Sanctuary choices were considered and effectuated!

As Bill Young mentioned some time ago, our building does not lend itself to addition of layers of insulation or other retrofit heat conserving measures. Thus. efficiency in our choice of furnaces may be our best opportunity to carry out Unitarian principles of conservation otherwise known as the Green Sanctuary Program.

This we have done and it a symbolic and significant contribution to the continuing health of our children’s planet. - DCN

UUSC is working to support the legislative action to raise the minimum wage nationally. Quick action is needed to help. Here is the link.

Adult Programs: You can stop by the Registration Table in Fellowship Hall this Sunday following both the 9:00 and ll:00 AM services. We will be taking registrations for Small Group Ministry and the February 9th, Friday Night Dinner and Movie.

Be sure to mark your calendars for the Winter/Spring Programs Fair that will be held on Sunday, January 28, in Fellowship Hall following both services. Program catalogs, including all the new offerings, will be available at the fair.

A Reminder - Because of the boiler crisis, this Friday's Dinner and a Movie program has been postponed. "A Prairie Home Companion" will be re-scheduled; season ticket holders and others with reservations have been contacted. Next month's feature, "Pleasantville", is scheduled for the regular date of Friday, February 9. Remember that our offerings are open to all, so feel free to invite friends, neighbors, co-workers. We even can provide for vegans in our fabulous dinner buffet! Information on "Pleasantville" will be forthcoming. Those who would like to be added to the Dinner/Movie email list should call 693-4269 or the USH office. The series schedule can be found under New Pages on the USH home page.

SMALL GROUP MINISTRY - Spring 2007 Small Group Ministry - (by Start Date) Below is a list of our Spring 2007 SGM groups listed by start date and including available spaces.

February 1: Barbara Fraher in Glastonbury on Thursdays 10 AM -12 noon
Host: Cecelia Roehl (5 spaces left)

February 20: Gail Syring in Hartford (Meeting House) on Tuesdays 7-9 PM Host: Chosen from group (LGBTI 7 spaces left)

February 21: Bill Shoemaker in Bloomfield on Wednesdays 7-9 PM
Hosts: Kayla and Earl Costenoble (5 spaces left)

February 26: Fred Louis in Farmington on Mondays 7-9 PM
Hosts: Janice and David Newton (only 3 spaces left)

February 28: Bev Prager in West Hartford on Wednesdays 7-9 PM
Host: Carol Shoemaker (5 spaces left)

Please register by calling the meeting house office or stopping by the Adult Programs table. Let us know if you have any special needs. More Information

LET'S DO IT AGAIN ! You can register for a new round of Circle Dinners. More information.

THE GREATER HARTFORD INTERFAITH COALITION FOR EQUITY AND JUSTICE (GHICEJ) (AND ALLIES AND FRIENDS)

ANNOUNCE A PUBLIC MEETING - COMMUNITY! ACTION! JUSTICE! The Greater Hartford area’s largest faith based organization working for systemic change to achieve universal healthcare, affordable and quality early education, civil rights for immigrants and a fair and just tax system announces its 3rd Public Meeting.

The event will be held on January 23rd, 2007 from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm at the House of Restoration at 1665 Main Street in Hartford. Hundreds of people from many different faith communities, organizations and municipalities in the Greater Hartford area are expected to attend the meeting. Doors open at 6 p.m. The program starts promptly at 7:00 p.m. Childcare and a children’s program of music will also be available on site.

Rev. Jesse White, President of GHICEJ and senior pastor at First Church of the Living God in Hartford will offer opening words to the assembly, followed by a presentation of the issues.

Invited guests to this event include Governor Jodi Rell, Democratic and Republican leaders and greater Hartford area state legislators, as well as local Mayors and other public officials. Senator Donald E. Williams Jr., President Pro Tempore, has confirmed his attendance and will also address the assembly.

Allies and Friends: Connecticut Association of Human Services, United Action of Central and Southeastern Connecticut, Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding, Collaborative Center for Justice, CT ACORN, Vecinos Unidos, ConnCAN, Hartford Federation of Teachers, Connecticut Center for a New Economy and End Hunger Connecticut! Inc.

For more details, Contact: Shai Cassell at (860) 930-4278 Carol Shoemaker at (860) 231-9440 www.ghicej.com

Caring Network: While earning your daily bread, be sure you share a slice with those less fortunate. ~Quoted in P.S. I Love You, compiled by H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
- You are the ears of the Caring Network. Tell Janice Newton 677-1121 when you learn of our members enduring the stresses of life so we can reach out to those in need. - Offer your services. An infinite range of community services are available to help you. Call InfoLine at 211.

ON THE CALENDAR:

PLEASE BE MINDFUL THAT THE FOLLOWING EVENTS WERE SCHEDULED PRIOR TO THE DEATH OF OUR HEATING SYSTEM! TIMES AND VENUES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE. PLEASE CONFIRM YOUR MEETING WITH YOUR SUB-COUNCIL CHAIR OR FACILITATOR IF YOU ARE UNSURE, OR CALL THE OFFICE. IF YOU ARE CHANGING A MEETING YOURSELF, PLEASE INFORM THE OFFICE.

Thursday, January 11
9:30 am International Women’s Circle, Fellowship Hall
10:00 am Women’s Alliance, POSTPONED

Friday, January 12
5:30 pm Friday Dinner and Movie, POSTPONED

Sunday, January 14
8:00 am Music rehearsal, FELLOWSHIP HALL
9:00 am Worship Service I, FELLOWSHIP HALL
10:00 am Coffee Hour I, Fellowship Hall
10:00 am B&G, Boiler Room!, and Murray
10:00 am Comfort Shawl Knitters, CANCELLED
10:15 am Music Rehearsal
11:00 am Worship Service II, FELLOWSHIP HALL
12:00 pm Coffee Hour II, Fellowship Hall
12:00 pm Adult Programs, CANCELLED
12:15 pm "C Cubed", Coffee, Carrots, & Conversation for first time visitors, Minister's Study
12:30 pm SGM Facilitators, Library (?)

Monday, January 15
6:30 pm SIA, Murray
7:00 pm Pathways to Membership, Library (?)

Tuesday, January 16
12:00 pm ICEJ Clergy, Library
12:00 pm Men Luncheon Group, Avon
6:00 pm Calendar, Library
8:00 pm AA, Fellowship Hall

Wednesday, January 17
10:00 am Staff Meeting, Minister's Study (Office Closed)
5:15 pm Feldenkrais, Fellowship Hall
6:30 pm Tai Chi, Fellowship Hall
7:30 pm Choir, Sanctuary

Thursday, January 18
6:30 pm Stewardship, Rubin Home

Friday, January 19
5:00 pm Spirituality Retreat, ConnRi Lodge, Ashford

Saturday, January 20
8:00 am – 3:00 pm Spirituality Retreat, Ashford
6:00 pm Youth Group Social, Fellowship Hall
7:30 pm Ben Tousley Concert, Chapel

Sunday, January 21
8:00 am Music rehearsal, FELLOWSHIP HALL
9:00 am Worship Service I, FELLOWSHIP HALL
10:00 am   Coffee Hour I, Fellowship Hall
10:00 am Disabilities, Library
10:15 am Music Rehearsal
11:00 am   Worship Service II, FELLOWSHIP HALL
12:00 pm   Coffee Hour II, Fellowship Hall

To get on the calendar, call 233.9897

460 miles - that's the distance Bev Prager walked on the pilgrim route across Spain last summer! This is an ancient route, one used by pilgrims from all over the world, from differing lives, since the middle ages. Bev will share images and stories about her walk at 1 PM on Sunday, February 4, in the Chapel at USH. The story of this very personal journey is free and open to all - seekers, searchers, and travelers will all be interested. It will be followed by light refreshments. More

It is the second presentation in a new series developed for the USH community by the Women's Alliance.

The next program will be on March 4, Sunday afternoon at 1 , featuring Alvin Carter Sr in an interactive family program on drumming. Families and children of all ages are invited to bring rattles and percussives to join in the fun.

UUSC JustWorks Camp - Participate in the Katrina rebuilding effort by taking part in the JustWorks camp in New Orleans FEB. 3 -10. More information

A Matter of Opinion: (space for comment on USH issues) - Editor retains the right to make minor changes – letters should be issue oriented)

We have learned through Carol Sexton of the passing of Karen Kitchens-Law's father (Karen was USH President (98-99). If you wish to send condolences: 5530 Wylie Meadow Lane, Charlotte, NC 28269

Did you read "Remembering Others" in the January newsletter? I could not believe what I read. I had to go back and read it twice to be sure it actually said what I thought it said: The Meeting House will
have a table in the hall for displaying lighted candles in memory of others.!!! In all of my more than 70 years, I have never seen this type of display except in Catholic churches and Cathedrals.

I, for one, do not want the Meeting House to be full of this type of Catholic symbol. If any individual wishes to light a candle for someone, they are welcome to go to any Catholic church and pay their money and do so. Or they may do so in their own home. Or they can meditate silently in any pew. None of these will be offensive to any other member. But, please, please keep the candles out of the Meeting House. - Louise Schmoll

It is complex to walk your meaning making journey as a UU. We are all looking for a home to welcome us as we are, a place which, as the first UU principle says, affirms and promotes the “inherent worth and dignity of every person”. Yet we come to our USH home with various kinds of hurts to heal, emptiness to fill and longings to celebrate as part of our meaningful journey.

The challenge is that the same ritual act, program or idea that is healing to one, may reopen hurt in another. And so we turn to UU principle #3 which affirms and promotes “acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations”. The Worship sub council and Rev. BJ are beginning, as a part of our worship, a personal candle lighting ritual which is used in various forms in other UU congregations but not previously here at USH. The intention of this ritual is to offer healing and celebration to those holding personal joys and concerns that need inclusion in their spiritual life in this community. For others just thinking about these rituals may open old wounds.

May we hold each other in deep respect in our attempts to find our way forward together, including all our wounds and all our needs to heal and to celebrate. - Marye Gail Harrison, BOD Member at Large, Spiritual Life

The Little Theatre of Manchester at Cheney Hall is offering "The Fantastic Mr. Fox" Saturday, January 27, 1 &4 PM Tickets $10 for all (A classic tale of farmer vs. vermin or vice versa, this Roald Dahl classic is brought to life by Sign Stage on Tour, presented in American Sign Language and spoken word. . Join us for this production, a joy for all ages, where Mr. Fox hatches a plan to foil the farmers and provide food for his family and his animal neighbors.

The Humanist Association of CT will be trying to hold some of its monthly dinners in Hartford over the next few months. There is no speaker or agenda; but it's a chance to get in touch with the associations, many of whose members are also UU Humanists.

Call Ed Savage for other information.

the Humanist Association of Connecticut is holding dinner meetings in the Hartford area over the next couple of months. On January 31st at 7:00 PM, we'll be at Black-Eyed Sally's, 350 Asylum Street, Hartford. On February 28th, we'll try Mayor Mike‚s Restaurant, 283 Asylum Street, Hartford. For other information, please check out their web site (http://www.cthumanist.org/)

A Few Words About Our Roots From The Book, Hartford Unitarianism 1844 -1994 by Freeman Meyer:

The twelfth minister to be called as pastor of the Society was the Rev. Jon Luopa, not quite 30 years old when he arrived in September 1986 from Hingham, Mass., where he has been minister of the Old Ship Church, Unitarian. A native of Worcester, Mass., Luopa was graduated from the Harvard Divinity School in 1981. He and his wife, Annie, whom he met at the Divinity School, have two daughters, Laila and Julika. Like several of their predecessors, they arrived in Hartford as a young minister's family, eager to nurture and celebrate the future growth of Unitarianism in Greater Hartford.