February 15, 2007 Print Only Edition

Home Page for the website of the Unitarian Society of Hartford.
Word Version of this document in color with photographs, which will print nicely for those who use Microsoft Word.

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 - Rev. BJ office hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday by appointment.

Sunday-18 - Feb. - Building the Culture of a Social Justice Movement - People of faith have an incredible opportunity to join in the prophetic tradition of imagining a culture of justice that breaks through all patterns and systems of oppression. Building a social justice movement is more than just applying skill; it is the commitment of every person to answer the call of transforming society.

South African citizen, Margaret Steinegger-Keyser serves as Lead Organizer of the Greater Hartford Interfaith Coalition for Equity and Justice (GHICEJ) in Greater Hartford, and is also serving as Director of the Center for Conflict Transformation in Hartford. She is adjunct professor at Hartford Seminary, and former Director of Training with Plowshares Institute.

Music: - The poems of Langston Hughes resonated with composer Charles Callahan, as he set, "The Lord Has a Child" as an unusual but simple vocal line, revealing the tender words.

The Chalice Choir will not be meeting this week, (Feb. 18) but it will meet on Feb. 25th. if you have any Idea's for Easter songs that would also be good for church, then please let me know, either by phone (860-675-4727) or by email: Nancy.nelsonI(at symbol)comcast.net, or when I next see you.

Even if you have not come before, if you are in preschool - 2nd grade and like to sing, then you are welcome to join us. Easter is the next time that we will be singing. - Aubrie Nelson

RE: This week Religious Classes are scheduled in the usual classrooms during the 11 AM service. Child Care and a Learning Center will be held downstairs in the Spirit Play (Classroom C) during the 9AM service for infants through children of younger elementary age. We offer a Nursery downstairs in the Stone Room (to the right of the Spirit Play classroom) during the 11 AM service for infants and children up to three years old.

Middle School Parents: The Middle School class will have two more field trips to houses of worship as part of its Neighboring Faiths curriculum. The next trip is on March 18 to St. Patrick/St. Anthony in Hartford to visit a Catholic church. The third and final trip is to the Islamic Center in Windsor on April 29th. Both these field trips will involve different pickup and drop off times and locations than those that usually occur here at the Meeting House.

March 18, trip to St. Patrick / St. Anthony--Parents are asked to drop off their children directly at the Catholic Church by 9:45 AM in order to join the planned visit scheduled for 10 AM. The length of this visit is being finalized, but it is anticipated that the class should be back to the Meeting House in time for the coffee hour held after our 11 AM service.

March 29 trip to the Islamic Center-- This trip will run from 12:30 to 1:30 PM with the class expected to return to the Meeting House by 2 PM. This schedule is necessary for the class to fit in a tour of the Center before a typical period of daily prayers. We will be asking that children be brought to the Meeting House at the usual time for the 11 AM service. Instead of a regular class, there will be a bagel brunch before the children leave at 11:45 AM for the Islamic Center. Thank you for your cooperation.

Completed Field Trip Permission Forms are necessary for youth to participate in these trips. Forms are being prepared and will be e-mailed later this week. We will also have paper copies of this form available in Servetus. To minimize paperwork, a consolidated form including both of these field trips will be prepared. Parents are asked to check off which trip(s) their children will be attending. If you have questions, please contact Nina Binin or Ed Lyman.

January Board Minutes are available.

From the Editor: Hope you had a very nice snow day, or at least needed a little exercise. Did you know the USH snow removal budget is $5,500?

Goal: Comprehensive Communications - USH members and friends are sprinkled all over central Connecticut. The task: how do we communicate effectively with our far-flung congregation? How do we punch through the clutter of modern communications to reach our audience in ways attractive enough to cause them to read or hear what we say? How do we manufacture the “glue” to make our USH community a warm and caring place where somebody knows our name, and cares when we go missing?

Part of this task falls on the Communications Sub-Council, a division of the Community Within. The guiding philosophy of the Communications Sub-Council is to discover the means of communicating with you, and to deliver a message to you using the communication channel you prefer, from paper to voice to pixels on your computer screen. If you can use multiple channels, we prefer to communicate using the least expensive method.

Vehicles of communication developed to reach you include the Meeting House Weekly, the brief news-sheet handed to you on Sunday in the Order of Service. This vehicle must be brief so that attention is focused on the service in progress. As we all know, some of us cannot be present every Sunday because of other pressing events or conditions requiring that we remain at home. So how do we reach this substantial audience?

Enter the world of paper and electronic communications. As an ever-growing number of our members have computers and as the speed with which these machines can receive and send information increases, we rely increasingly on these communications. They include the comprehensive website providing general information, timely information conveyed by calendar pages, and the weekly USH-Enews. E-News subscribers are alerted each week to the presence of new web pages through a short email communication designed to avoid spam traps carrying a link to the web page. In the electronic medium, we can use color pictures and audio files of services, while avoiding the prohibitive costs of producing and mailing the result to you by snail mail.

Because email use is such an attractive method of low cost communication, we have asked those who can to read the electronic version of the monthly Meetinghouse Messenger. Reading this version reduces the number of Messengers that have to be mailed and helps our budget bottom line.

For those with no computer resources, we continue to send the paper version of the Meetinghouse Messenger 10 months a year. In the paper and postage department, we also distribute a number of first class letters for various important issues.

Another electronic communication method receiving extensive USH usage employs a listserv. A listserv is a group of email addresses with an appropriate title maintained on a server with our web service provider. If, for example, you are a member of the Worship Sub-Council, a single email sent to the email address, worship(at symbol)ushartford.com is immediately resent to all the members of the Sub-Council. Listserv use improves group communication and avoids individuals keeping outdated lists on individual computers. USH has approximately 45 listservs devoted to various sub-groups. New ones are created when necessary and outdated ones are deleted.

Members of the Communications Sub-Council and some of their projects-duties are:

Tom Reed (Posts weekly service notices in the Hartford Courant; participates in creating the Reference Directory of Mug Shots (RDMS) and writes articles appearing in USH-Enews and Messenger).

Anne Bailey (Intrepid photographer and guru of bulletin board display and maintenance and writer of articles. Heavily involved along with David Newton and Brian Mullen in adding small black and white headshots and relevant information in the next edition of the Directory.)

Kayla Costenoble (Former Messenger Editor, 2002-2006 now frequent writer of articles appearing in both the Messenger and USH-Enews.)

Sarah Gilligan (Freelance writer and graphic designer recently working on external communications with the Growth and Renewal Task Force.)

Gail Syring (Heading up a USH calendar project and working closely with Brian Mullen improving methods of scheduling events and disseminating calendar-related information.)

Rosie Rindfleisch (Editor of the Sunday Meeting House Weekly and, as office staff, part of all manner of communications, including, answering the phone - an oldie but goodie..)

Brian Mullen, (Production manager for printing and distribution of the Meetinghouse Messenger, printer of tickets, helper in publicity of all sorts, maintainer of event schedules along with regular business functions associated with accounting and maintenance of business records and much, much, more.)

David Newton (Webmaster, editor of USH-Enews and Messenger and chair of the Sub-Council.)

Janice Newton ( Special outreach responsibilities through reduction of the USH-Enews to a decent looking paper document and its limited first class distribution to those without computer resources.)

It would not be complete to stop here. We note the efforts of the Disabilities Sub-Council working diligently on methods of communication for those with special needs. Special note must be taken of the advertising acumen of the Unitarian Performing Arts group, and the regular written materials submitted by President Huntington, Treasurer Leicach, Secretary Kinney, Rev. Jamestone and others such as Nancy Reed, Nita Hansen, Edith Savage and Marion Kelliher. Their faithful notices and articles are the basic fodder for our publications, and are appreciated by those they represent and those of us who read their articles and notices.

And there are many others…
Are we reaching you?
We are trying.
Let us know. - DCN

Committee on Ministry - recently met with the RE Sub-Council for a considerable discussion about religious education and its place in the USH family including ways to increase RE participation in all aspect of congregation life. Read more now.

Following the service on Sunday 2/11 folks gathered for a potluck looking forward to Valentine's day and honoring families of all kinds.

The decorations representing the hard work of Traci and Misha Hardison and supporting efforts of many others made the event an outstanding success.

Traci and Misha Hardison were honored as the most recent marriage and Bev and Stu Spence represented the longest marriage among attendees at 48 years.

sermon topic for the day (see next; Photos by Anne Bailey and David Newton) - DCN

We had a love-in of sorts during last Sunday’s service as Rev. BJ declared, “This (the Sunday before Valentine’s Day) is my favorite Sunday of the year.” She explained that it gives her a chance to “rededicate” herself to her vocation as a preacher, and also gives her a chance to preach about something everyone agrees on—love.

She said that scientists are coming to believe that love and other virtues (and vices) are “part of our hard wiring” and there is a close correlation between love and physical survival, involving sexual, familial and communal love. Love is probably our highest human virtue, Rev. BJ said, “but there is not one of us who has not failed miserably at it,” at some time or other in our lives.

Rev. BJ told her congregation that “I’m crazy about religion, and I’m crazy about all religious institutions.” She said that religion is the human institution that binds us to the vast spirit of love, and she has decided, after careful consideration, that “religion brings the very best return on investment.” She said “God is love, and love is God” and she wonders how she can talk to us about love without using “the big G word.”

Using the same flip chart she had used with the children during her story time with them, Rev. BJ showed us her W A G A T chart whose letters stand for the ways we show love—through Words, Actions, Gifts, Attention and Touch. She asked each of us to think about how we would rank this list “to show love best.”

Although the service was not “advertised” as an intergenerational one, the musical offerings involved some very little persons (two tiny munchkins from the Chalice Choir who sang about love coming from giving) and the talented Russ Barnett, guitarist-composer from our high school group, who played and sang one of his own compositions and found the congregation joining him in the chorus of “Let’s Get Together.” - Kayla Costenoble (Editor's note: the sermon is posted on the web)

A Reminder from the Aging Resource Ministry (ARM) of the Caring Network - In our effort to compile a summary of resources available to the aging members of our Society and their friends and families, we recently requested your help. We asked for your recommendations of individuals, agencies, and organizations that have satisfactorily served you and you family.

We also asked any willing individual professionals with skills that might be useful, to volunteer their expertise from time to time in consultation with members in need or their caregivers. The response has been very generous to date. We would like to add to our list of volunteers someone with Financial Planning Skills with an emphasis on issues of the elderly. Would any member with this expertise be willing to volunteer?

We sincerely appreciate all of the responses received thus far. Those of you who have recommendations you have not yet submitted, please do so within the next two weeks. Send them to Betty Palmer at
bettypalmer365(at symbol)yahoo.com or by snail mail to me at P.O.Box 365, New Hartford, Ct. 06057. Thank you for joining us in this effort - Betty Palmer

Supper and Games Night - Calling All Diners & Game Players for Supper & Game Friday Night, Feb. 16 - 6 PM.

Gather up the kids, friends & expert Fictionary Dictionary players for a winter's evening potluck supper followed by an array of games (like cards, monopoly, twister) that is only limited by your imagination.

Do not miss out on all the good eats - Get your game on at the USH Meeting House, Fellowship Hall on Friday February 16th, 6PM. Of course we prefer that you sign up ahead of time, but it's also OK to show up at the door on Friday night - As long as you bring food for you family and some to share. A mere $2 gets you dessert and beverages. Y'all come! For more info, contact Esther McKone, ESTMCKONE(at symbol)AOL.com or 677-6682.

This Sunday, February 18, there will be a special showing of An Inconvenient Truth, at 1:00 PM in Fellowship Hall. The free movie is 1 hour 40 minutes long with a discussion to follow, facilitated by Virginia deLima.This film, with lots of visuals, is a powerful and clear explanation of global warming. You'll be amazed and impressed. The high school group will be selling pizza and sodas before the movie, or you could bring a bag lunch from home. Please call the USH office at 233-9897 to reserve your seat. (More information)

Save the Date!! Saturday Evening March 17 “Bringing in the Green” - Did you know they are going to name the boilers? March will usher in Spring’s warmth and light and also the “greening” of the Meeting House with our 2007-08 Annual Stewardship drive. Look for many surprises during the month (Beware of people in large green hats!) and be sure to come to the main event at the Meeting House on St. Patrick’s Night. We will celebrate “Bringing in the Green” as we are treated to a musical biography of BJ, sample decadent desserts, and pledge our financial support. See you there!!

Help Win Marriage Equality - A bill for marriage rights for same-sex couples has been introduced in CT Judiciary. Governor Rell has stated she will veto a marriage bill for same-sex couples. We need to tell our legislators that discriminatory denial of marriage rights to same-sex couples must come to an end. You can help same sex couples and their families gain the dignity and respect that only marriage can provide.

Join Love Makes a Family on Wednesday, February 21 for Lobby Day. Find Peg Otto at the Social Justice table in Fellowship Hall during coffee hour on Sunday, Feb. 18th for more information. You can also contact Peg at pegotto(at symbol) sbcglobal.com if you would like to get more information or to register to attend Lobby Day.

Adult Programs: If you haven't done so already, be sure to pick up a copy of the Winter/Spring Programs Catalog at the Registration table in Fellowship Hall during the coffee hours on Sunday. The catalog is also available online under adult programs along with a PDF registration form.

The Six Healing Sounds Workshop, Saturday, February 24, 10 AM-12 noon and a Feldenkrais Workshop, Saturday, February 24, 1-3:30 PM. Informational flyers about these two programs will be available at the Registration table.

Joan Kemble and the UUSC In New Orleans

Photo
UUSC volunteer Elandria Williams (right) of Powell, Tenn., helps load cleaning supplies at the Resurrection of Our Lord School in New Orleans. With her is a member of the school's staff. (Photo by Nikki Rivera/UUSC) (Nikki Rivera/UUSC)

USH social activist Joan Kemble is back from New Orleans volunteering with the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, an independent human rights organization, in the JustWorks work camp. The volunteer workers were there to contribute to the huge task of restoring New Orleans.

Joan will speak about her experiences of heart and hand in New Orleans at 12:30 PM on Sunday, Feb. 25, in the USH Chapel. The program is free and open to all, offered to the USH community by the Adult Programs Committee, co-sponsored by the Council on Social Justice.

People staying after services for the talk may want to bring a brown bag lunch to eat during coffee hour. The UUSC website describes the week-long camp, which concludes Friday, as one of two JustWorks camps the UUSC is organizing this winter to help make the Gulf Coast area more livable. The UUSC has operated more than 40 JustWorks camps across the United States since 1996 as short-term projects that help volunteers examine and understand the root causes and damaging effects of injustice.

One goal of the New Orleans work camp was for participants to go home and spread the word about the needs they saw in New Orleans. According to one of the program coordinators, “Things are going great. . . .People here are happy to see us. . . .Right after the holidays they felt like they’d been forgotten.” Some people think New Orleaneans are reasonably settled by now, but that’s not the case. “We’re just starting to get into the repair stage now,” she said. “There will be much more to do.”

Ember Days, Session 1, Wednesday, February 28, 12-2 PM, Friday, March 2 and Saturday, March 3, 6-8 PM. Rev. BJ will facilitate these contemplative gatherings that include spiritual exercises and time for personal introspection in silence. *

* No fee, but please register on Sunday or by calling the office at 233-9897.

Caring Network: The world is not moved only by the mighty shoves of the heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker. - Helen Keller - 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.

Thursday, February 15
6:30 pm Stewardship, Servetus

Friday, February 16
6:00 pm Supper & Games Main Dish Potluck, Fellowship Hall

Sunday, February 18
8:00 am Music Rehearsal, Sanctuary
9:00 am WORSHIP SERVICE, CHAPEL
10:00 am Coffee Hour, Fellowship Hall
10:00 am Children’s Choir, Chapel
10:00 am Great Decisions, Library
10:15 am Music Rehearsal, Sanctuary
10:30 am Chalice Choir, Emerson
11:00 am WORSHIP SERVICE, SANCTUARY
12:00 noon Coffee Hour, Fellowship Hall
12:30 pm Movie viewing and discussion: “An Inconvenient Truth”, Fellowship Hall

Monday, February 19
Presidents Day Holiday – Office Closed
6:30 pm SIA, Murray
7:00 pm Pathways SGM, Library

Tuesday, February 20
12:00 noon ICEJ Clergy, Library
12:00 noon Men’s Luncheon Group, Carmen Anthony Fishhouse, Avon
6:00 pm UU Questions, Minister’s Study
7:00 pm SGM, Library
8:00 pm AA, Fellowship Hall

Wednesday, February 21
6:00 pm Tai Chi, Fellowship Hall
7:30 pm Choir, Sanctuary

Friday, February 23
7:30 pm Vaughn Mauren Organ Recital w/Anhared Stowe, Sanctuary

Saturday, February 24
10:00 am – 12:00 noon Six Healing Sounds Workshop, Channing
1:00 – 3:30 pm Feldenkrais Workshop, Channing

Sunday, February 25
8:00 am Music Rehearsal, Chapel
9:00 am WORSHIP SERVICE, CHAPEL
10:00 am Coffee Hour, Fellowship Hall
10:00 am Children’s Choir, Chapel
10:00 am Great Decisions, Library
10:00 am Disabilities, Channing
10:15 am Music Rehearsal, Sanctuary
10:30 am Chalice Choir, Emerson
11:00 am WORSHIP SERVICE, SANCTUARY
12:00 pm Coffee Hour, Fellowship Hall
12:15 pm "C" Cubed, Minister's Study
12:30 pm “The UUSC in New Orleans”, Chapel

DOIN' TIME IN THE HOMO NO MO HALFWAY HOUSE How I Survived the Ex-Gay Movement - Written and Performed by Peterson Toscano

Saturday, March 10, 2007 - 7:30 PM Unitarian Meeting House - 50 Bloomfield Avenue, Hartford CT (near the intersection of Bloomfield Avenue and Rte. 44)

See for yourself what happens behind the doors of America's zaniest ex-gay residential program. Peterson Toscano takes you on a tour of the Homo No Mo Halfway House, a Christian residential 12-Step program that attempts to save men from the "evil snares of homosexuality" through bizarre rules, a masculine resuscitation regime and brain numbing reconditioning.

Based on Toscano's real life experience floundering in various Ex-gay ministries, he weaves together humor, program jargon and outrageous eye-witness accounts to form a piece that is hilarious, poignant and inspirational. See for yourself if our hero comes OUT alive!

Tickets are $15 in advance/$20 at the door/$10 for students - To order tickets, call (860) 233-9897 For more information, visit www.p2son.com or www.homonomo.com

They're coming! Sweet Honey in the Rock! Mark your calendar for March 8, 7:30 PM, at Immanuel Congregational Church. We can get a group rate if more than 10 of us go! Join Rev BJ and Rosie Rindfleish for a quick supper downtown then on to a fabulous evening of soul stirring song.

Save the Date: SUNDAY, MARCH 4, 1 PM Members and friends, families, children of all ages ~ come to a free interactive intergenerational program featuring drumming! Bring your rattles and percussives to Fellowship Hall at 1 PM on Sunday, March 4.

Alvin Carter, Sr., master of Afro-percussion, former artist in the Hartford Schools, will galvanize the assembled crowd, just as he has in the past in programs at USH and other churches, in concert performances, seminars, and lecture demonstrations to adults and children alike. He will share his love for drumming and a message of love and mutual respect.

This is the third and final program presented to the USH community this year by the Women’s Alliance, designed to appeal to those with a keen sense of rhythm, those who like music, those with a heart beat. The first program featured a curator from the Hill-Stead Museum with the unique biography of Theodate Pope Riddle, female architect.

Last Sunday during the second program, our own Bev Prager recounted her pilgrim’s walk in Spain with slides to an audience of over 80 fascinated people.

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

The Humanist Association of CT will be trying to hold some of its monthly dinners in Hartford over the next few months. more

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

It has been 150 years since those five distinguished Hartford gentlemen gathered at the home of "Seth Saltmarsh to sign the Declaration of Faith that founded the Society. And 164 years have passed since Samuel Joseph May preached Unitarianism before that "vulgar sect [of] industrious mechanics & labourers" gathered in Allyn's Hall. Along the way we have had our share of ups and downs. No more and no less than other religious groups, we have been blessed and cursed with saints and sinners. But ultimately our is the triumphant story of a hopeful idea: that liberal religion is vital to the spiritual health of Hartford.