USH-Enews February 24, 2011

Jump to: Sunday Service; Calendar; What's Happening; Feature Articles; External Events; Further Down the Road; Social Justice Journeys; Community of Caring; Green Topics ; A Matter of Opinion

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USH-Enews is a weekly email newsletter produced for 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 or to find past issues of the weekly USH-Enews click here.

Office hours: Rev. Jamestone: Phone: 860 233-9897; Email: RevBJ@USHartford.com - Rev. BJ office hours by appointment.

Orchid Looking Out the Window

USH Wants You: Leadership Application Process Begins

Effective July 1, there will be four openings on the USH Board of Directors and four openings on the USH Leadership Development/Nominating Committee. The openings on the Board will be President-elect, Secretary, Board Member for Social Justice, and Board Member for Spiritual Life. These positions will be voted on at the USH annual meeting on May 22.

For the first time, the USH Leadership Development/Nominating Committee has designed an application process for filling the upcoming vacancies on the Board and the Leadership Development/ Nominating Committee. There is a packet containing the application form, skills required, expectations of the position, excerpts from the USH Constitution describing the duties, and a document titled “Twelve Principles of Governance That Power Exceptional Boards.” The packet for applying may be obtained as follows:-(Leadership Application and Related Information. This is a Microsoft Word document you may download; Duties of Board Members - from the Constitution [also a Microsoft Word document] and Principles of Governance, [a PDF document]).

The deadline for applying is March 23. Hard copies of the application are available in the office. Following receipt of the applications by March 23, the Leadership Development/Nominating Committee will review applications, speak with candidates as needed, and select candidates for inclusion on the slate to be voted on at the annual meeting on May 22.

We heartily encourage your application for any (or all!) of these open positions. Service to the USH community takes many forms. Participation on the Board or Leadership Development/Nominating Committee are wonderfully satisfying ways to demonstrate your commitment to our Society, denomination and the larger world. Being a “leader” at USH is a privilege and an honor; it means representing, listening, respecting, and serving our fellow members and friends. It is the ultimate way to live out our values. Please consider this opportunity to serve the Meeting House and join the long line of leaders who have done so before you and who will do so in the future.- Carolyn Cartland

The Leadership Development/ Nominating Committee
Carolyn Cartland, Chair; Tina Davies; Bruce Robbins; Greg Nickett; Cedric Woods

SAVE THE DATE
SUNDAY, MARCH 6TH, 2011
FAMILY-FRIENDLY STEWARDSHIP BRUNCH
Please bring the family to a short worship service at 10:30 a.m.
Then to breakfast with all the fixings in Fellowship Hall at 11 a.m.
Frittata * Quiche * Eggs * Bacon & Sausage * Fresh Fruit * Bagels * Cereals
REAFFIRMING AND RENEWING OUR COMMITMENT TO EACH OTHER AND TO THE UNITARIAN SOCIETY OF HARTFORD

Worshipping Together Since 1830
Service 10:30 AM

Sunday 27 February - Excellence in Ministry: A Report From a Gathering of 400 UU Clergy - What is required for UUism to live into its promise and become a transformative religion for our people and our world? Rev BJ returns from a week of exploring this question at our national clergy event, with good news! Rev BJ

Sundays: 9:00 AM. Choir Practice - All who love to sing are welcome to come join us. We especially need more men and sopranos. For more information contact Carolyn Halsted at 860-343-0677 or chalsted(at symbol)wesleyan.edu.

Music Ministry We Share

Please come on Sunday, March 13 at noon to continue the discussion begun on February 6 about our shared ministry, specifically our music ministry at USH. Questions to be explored:

What does music mean to you? In what ways does music provide spiritual nurture and help build community and connections among people? What would you most like to see in the music program offered at USH? What practical considerations and obstacles might limit these possibilities? - Carolyn Halsted

REflections on Children's Programming

Religious Education Classes

All children and youth are welcome to attend classes after the Time for All Ages. If your child is not yet registered, please email Gail at: dre@ushartford.com

Sunday, February 20th
Ages Birth-Three: Nursery Care
Pre-K-First Grade: Spirit Play-The Exodus
Second & Third Grade: Faithful Journeys: Be Fair
Fourth & Fifth Grade: Bibleodeon: Adam & Eve
Sixth-Eighth Grade: Popcorn Theology & Coming of Age
High School Youth Group: Discussion

Gail M. Syring, DRE

What Else is Happening

Financials for January 2011 have been posted on the web.

Gordon Horn Memorial Service & Reception - Saturday February 26th, 2 PM. Please plan to bring finger foods (cookies, bars, fruits and veggies). Tell Janice what you plan to bring to the reception. 860.677.1121 or dcnewton(at symbol)snet.net and, thank you!

Adult Programs - You can sign up for another fun Friday $10 Pizza and Movie Night at the Programs Table this Sunday. Books, along with A Chosen Faith ($16), are available for purchase at the Book Cart located next to the Programs Table. Stop by on Sunday with your questions or you can refer to the complete listing of classes and programs on the web.

There will be no Programs Table on March 6th because of the Stewardship Brunch, etc. Please, sign up for the movie this Sunday. See description below.

Coming Programs:

Meditation and Dharma Gathering, Wednesdays, 5:45 – 7 PM.

Non Violent Communication, Wednesdays, 7:15 – 9 PM. (More)

Our Chosen Faith, Wednesdays, March 9 and 23, 7 PM. This ongoing class is open to all members, friends, and newcomers. Feel free to drop in and try it out. The class time will be an interactive dialogue based on your own questions and reactions to the authors' perspectives in the book A Chosen Faith. Also, bring your “UU World” if you read something in it and would enjoy hearing what other UUs at USH think about the article.

Thursday, March 17. The USH Book Club’s next book for discussion will be Cleopatra: A life by Stacy Schiff. For location and questions, please call Jean or Richard at 860-678-1030.

Secret

The Secret in Their Eyes” - $10 Pizza Dinner & Movie Friday, March 11 - "Unpredictable and rich with symbolism, this Argentinean murder mystery lives up to its Oscar with an engrossing plot, Juan Jose Campanella's assured direction, and mesmerizing performances from its cast".

The IMDb summary: “A retired legal counselor writes a novel hoping to find closure for one of his past unresolved homicide cases and for his unreciprocated love with his superior - both of which still haunt him decades later.” This 2009 R-rated crime thriller won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film and is a joint Argentine-Spanish production. You can watch a trailer here

You may reserve at the Programs Table during coffee hours on Sunday or by calling Janice (leave a message) at 860-677-1121. We’ll want to know if you prefer meat or veg pizza, then beer or soda. Please reserve by Monday, March 7. Please do not call the USH office for reservations.

We meet at 5:30 for popcorn and libations, pizza at 6, movie at 7, followed by optional conversation about the film. Helping hands to set-up before 5:30 are always welcome. For questions or concerns, please call Nita at 860-693-4269.

Last Chance To Register for Small Group Ministry – Registration for spring Small Group Ministry ends this week. Three groups still have space, but you must sign up NOW. For a description of how SGM works, click here. Register on Sunday or by calling Janice Newton at 860-677-1121 or e-mailing Janice at dcnewton(at symbol)snet.net. Please note the number of spaces available.

Start Dates/Locations:

1. Monday evenings (7:00-9:00 PM), March 7, Hartford - Facilitator Carol Davidson, Host Bruce Robbins - This Mini-SGM of four sessions will focus its readings and reflections on aspects of faith. Newcomers to SGM (or to USH) are welcome! 2 people needed

2. Monday afternoons (1:00-3:00 PM), February 28, Glastonbury - Facilitator Barbara Fraher, Host Kathy Herzog 3 people needed

3. Wednesday evenings (7:00-9:00 pm), March 2, Simsbury - Facilitator Bev Prager, Host Esther McKone (at home of Bev Prager) 3 people needed

- Mike Roy

Social Justice Journeys (From the UUA) And from USH

Guess What? Hartford kids are learning to read thanks to the Greater Hartford Interfaith Coalition Volunteers! Join us.

Do you remember when you learned to read? The door was opened to whole new worlds beyond one’s imagination.

We invite you to become a tutor through our Education Partnership Project, and experience the rewards of helping a child learn to read.

We coordinate a literacy tutoring program at Noah Webster and Rawson Schools, two Hartford elementary schools and we are looking for more dedicated volunteers who will commit to reading with a child one day a week, usually in the morning, for about 1 to 2 hours. Tutors are trained and given ongoing support from school staff. You will join a team of other enthusiastic tutors and be kept informed of student’s progress in school.

Our tutors are rewarded in countless ways…
“What a thrill it is to have a struggling child in September reading fluently by May. The literacy tutoring programs...must continue. With more tutors, more children can be served. Fluency and comprehension are the doorway to all education and with a little help from a caring adult that door can be opened for a child.”

“I am part of what has become a small army of volunteers who go into the school and tutor. Our work is bearing fruit, as Noah Webster is now the top performing school in the district on the Connecticut Mastery Test, with scores increased by 11% over last year. There are many reasons why I tutor –my astonishment at their improvement in reading fluency over just a few months, the absorbing stories in the challenging reading text, the brightly colored school full of light and more….”

…and the school principals say:
“Our volunteer tutors are passionate and committed. The time they spend with our children has truly had an impact on their reading ability. Just as important, the students feel so special having a one on one relationship with the tutors…”

Are you ready to volunteer as a tutor? Call Shai Cassell at 860-930-4278 or email scassell54@comcast.net.

Green Topics - Did you Know? New United Nations report tells us again that eating meat has perhaps the largest negative
environmental impact of any human action. And, more than half of the world’s crops are fed
to animals.

A Matter of Opinion

Further Down The Road (About 30 Days)

The Caring Corner

Over prepare, then go with the flow.- Regina Brett

Caring Network - If you know of any member experiencing some difficulty, please contact Diana Heymann, Chair of the Caring Network heydiana(at symbol) comcast.net 860.461.0908 or call the office so we can provide some assistance.- before 10:30 on Sunday. A wide range of community services is also available to those in need by calling InfoLine at 211. Please contact Diana if you are able to volunteer your services.

Community of Caring - If you have a need, please call the Meetinghouse, ext.102 or email bmullen(at sign)ushartford.com
A COC person be in touch with you asap.
If you need food immediately, please take a meal/s from the top two shelves of the freezer in the kitchen. - Love, Service, & Helping One Another

Caregivers Support Group The Caregiver’s Support Group has changed the time of its meeting, now meeting the first Thursday of every month from 11 AM to 12:30 PM in David’s Den. Our next meeting is Thursday, March 3. If you are caring for a loved one with a serious illness or health condition, or have recently done so, please join us. We would love to have you. If you have any questions about the group, please don’t hesitate to contact Diana Heyman at heydiana at Comcast.net or Carolyn Cartland at crcartland1 at Comcast.net. - Carolyn Cartland

From the Editor: Suggestions for Contributors.

This Week’s Feature Articles

Nominating Committee Ready for You

Thanks to All of You

Hartford Kids Learn to Read, You Can Help

Belief and Community

Women Composers Festival

Dearest UU friends; WOW = Wonderful! Outstanding! Whirlwind!!!

We would like to express our thanks and utter joy for the awesome success of Gail’s benefit. The outpouring of love, warmth and caring shown to our close friend was and continues to be absolutely astonishing! Our USH community has contributed (apart from the blood, sweat & tears left on the dance floor) well over half of her total funds raised to date.

We want to thank everyone: from those who made the tickets, flyers & posters, to those who helped us with tickets sales, to those who donated refreshments, paper goods and ice, to those who helped in the kitchen, to those who helped with set up and clean up, to those who assisted with the silent auction, to those who made the beautiful tissue paper decorations, to those who contributed monetarily and/or donated items for the auction, and to those who purchased auction items – you have our sincere THANKS!

To those who rocked the congo line, who spread their wings for the chicken dance, who sprained a hip doing the twist, who grooved to the electric slide, who brought out their inner child for the Hokey Pokey, who slow danced with their sweetie and who insanely contorted their body for Thriller, you were SPECTACULAR!!!

Great job on all the desserts!! And for those of you who brought chocolate, you have been added to our special friend list!

Six years ago, we entered the doors of USH anxious but curious. We joined our first LGBT SGM to become more acclimated and sat down next to Gail Syring. Since that time, our friendship with Gail has grown closer and deeper. We have come to find how important she is to many of you as well…

THANK YOU FOR OPENING UP YOUR HEARTS FOR OUR USH SWEETSHEART!!

Many thanks!!! - Julie Smith & Debbie Nardi

Belief and Community - “What have we (UUs) become? What do we stand for?” Visiting pulpit guest Reverend Mitra Rahnema asked these questions during her thought-provoking sermon on February 20. To answer these questions, she first gave an abbreviated history of the Unitarian Universalist movement.

The UU religion was founded by two 18th and 19th century ministers—Hosea Ballou for the Universalists and Henry Channing for the Unitarians, who, according to Reverend Rahnema. “didn’t even like each other.” They saw the dualism in their culture become dogma, and they rejected superficial salvation. They saw the possibility for social progress. Humanism began to grow roots.

After World War I and II, liberal faith crashed. How can God be with us, if this is what we do to each other? During the next 30 years, Reverend Rahnema said, “God died a thousand deaths.” In the post-modern era, the idea of God became a metaphor, no longer part of our rational thought.

Recently, she said, God or the spirit of God has made a “strange return.” The wonder, beauty, transcendence and evolution of God is “present in our community today. What we believe and know and who we are are dependent on something we don’t believe…We clasp hands with those who came before us and those who come after us in music so subtle.”

Reverend Rahnema said UUs challenge systems of faith born out of fear. “The separation of the sacred and the human cannot separate our relationship with the inner connection beyond our walls or we will become irrelevant.”

We have options, she said. (1) We can hold on to our religious beliefs. (2) We can hold on to experience. Or, (3) we can “become theologians.” Reverend Rahnema suggested we choose the third option and develop a theology of “progressive pluralism.” Pluralism demands a “sacred interrelationship with one another, with society and with the universe.”

How we approach one another is important, she said; “I will not thrive unless you thrive.” Belief is the beginning of pluralism. How do we achieve it? We have to look for dualism. We have to recognize that we are all products of a culture we also criticize. We have to realize we are all connected and surviving in a harsh world. We have to spread the UU view out into the world.

Reverend Rahnema is now serving a second interim year at the Grosse Point Unitarian Church in Michigan. A lifelong Unitarian Universalist, she grew up in Ventura, California and has previously served congregations in California and Missouri’

Earlier in the service UU member Mike Winterfield, in a testimonial, told us “what this place means me.” Mike rejoined the USH last spring and is presently on the Stewardship Committee and is an SGM and men’s group participant. He said he had “stumbled” into UU in 1960 in Atlanta (he had been told he might meet interesting women there). Although he did not at that time, later, he and his wife Jane were married by former UUA President O. Eugene Pickett.

“There is something more here,” he said. Earlier in his life, he was “pretty clueless” about any underlying spiritualism. But now, what he values includes life experiences, depth of relationships, his friendship with the late Earl Costenoble (thank you, Mike), understanding himself, realizing how life matters, integrating rational and intuitive forces, and being part of a men’s group where “a guy can talk about hopes and fears just like the rest of you.”

Because he believes the Unitarian Society of Hartford needs his full support, Mike told the congregation that he will increase his pledge by 25 percent in the upcoming pledge drive. - Kayla Costenoble

Women Composers Festival Saturday March 5th - A dozen USH members, conducted by Director of Music Emeritus Mattie Banzhaf, will be part of the Concert Pro Femina in West Hartford. Interim Director Carolyn Halsted will also be featured, playing her own solo piano piece, “Wings.” This exciting and varied evening of classical works by women will include vocal and instrumental solos along with small chamber pieces.

Featured will be Suzanne Corey-Sahlin, principal Violist of the Ridgefield Symphony and the Norwalk Symphony, playing two movements of a sonata by Rebecca Clarke with pianist Gerald Steichen, conductor of the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra and himself a versatile performer. Also featured will be this year’s Festival guest composer Gilda Lyons performing her own unaccompanied vocal work based on the poetry of Anne Sexton.

Other pieces will include an unaccompanied trumpet solo by Hartt composer Jessica Rudman, a vocal duet with piano by Sylvia Goldstein, and vocal works from Hildegard von Bingen, Barbara Strozzi, Isabella Colbran, Alma Schindler Mahler, Francesca Caccini, Josephine Lang, Poldowski (Lady Dean Paul), Ruth Still, Betty Roe, and Jeanine Tesori.

Soloists will include well-known soprano Judith Milardo, Hartt junior and mezzo-soprano Dana Kephart, trumpet-player and baritone Richard Leslie, and Hartt graduate and mezzo-soprano Patrice Fitzgerald. Also included will be the small women's ensemble performing an ancient "Lauda" with a recently-composed trumpet fanfare.

Join us for this wonderful celebration of music composed by women throughout the ages.

Tickets: $10 adults/$5 students

Date: Saturday, March 5th, 2011
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Venue: Flagg Road United Church of Christ
Address: 134 Flagg Road
West Hartford, CT

For the eleventh year, the Women Composers Festival of Hartford will take place in various locations throughout the Hartford area.

Performances start on February 24 and go all the way through March 27. Detailed information on all the many events can be found here or email us at info@womencomposersfestivalhartford.com.

On the Calendar - Please notify Brian Mullen of all additions or changes to the calendar. Follow this link to all our scheduled events

External Events and Educational Notes

Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts cordially invites you to two exciting music filled evenings! Better yet, Jorgensen would like to extend a special $5 ticket discount to our congregation members, and their family and friends for the following events...

The Canadian Tenors
Fri & Sat, Feb. 25 & 26, at 8 pm

This glorious quartet has charmed audiences the world over with their blend of classical and contemporary pop music, from powerful anthems to the most beautiful melodies. And now they’re performing at Jorgensen in the popular Cabaret Series.

Listen to The Canadian Tenors

The King’s Singers
Streets of London
Thurs, Mar 17, at 7:30 pm

One of the world’s most celebrated a cappella groups, these Grammy-winners perform music ranging from ancient madrigals and motets to Sting and Michael Bublé – something for everyone!

Listen to the King’s Singers

Remember, congregation members, and their families and friends, can receive $5.00 off the price of any single ticket (excluding UConn Student tickets). Simply call the Box Office at 860-486-4226 with the discount code SING-5. (This promotion is valid for phone sales only.)

Please share the attached E-card with your family and friends! And, if you are interested in organizing a group trip, please contact the Box Office for discounted rates for groups of 10 or more.

For more pricing and event information go here.

Nuts and Bolts: The member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association covenant to affirm and promote: the inherent worth and dignity of every person; justice, equity, and compassion in human relations; acceptance of one another and encouragement of spiritual growth in our congregations; a free and responsible search for truth and meaning; the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process, within our congregations and in society at large; the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all; respect for the interdependent web of all existence, of which we are a part.

Generally, USH-Enews will be posted on Thursday. Send email related to the USH-Enews to dcnewton at ushartford.com If you have announcements or articles you wish to be published, send them along with the subject line USH-Enews by 4:30 PM Wednesday evening. Comments are always welcome. If you wish to have your name removed from the distribution list or have learned of the electronic publication and wish to have your email address added, just ask. © Unitarian Society of Hartford

Let us know of any comments, errors and corrections - thanks (revised 02/23/11 7:30 PM)