USH-Enews May 10, 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.
Link to various "normal" newsletters.

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 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. And, to read the monthly Meetinghouse Messenger (newsletter) on line, or past issues of the weekly 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 - 3 May - Mother as Mask of the Eternal: A Metaphor for Basic Trust - Might our archetypal ideas of "mother" be an invitation to explore a state of being, which is foundational to being persons of faith? Is there some capacity for "basic trust," as it is described by spiritual teacher A.H. Almaas, some mature return to innocence that can enhance our spiritual journey? Along with celebrating Mother’s Day, we will welcome new members, and celebrate the end of our stewardship campaign.

Music: As a Mothers' Day musical gift this Sunday, our new Music Associate John Jesensky has composed "Reflections on 'Spirit of Truth.'" Who knew that John is a composer as well as an accomplished pianist and budding organist! John's Postlude was actually written as a mothers' day present: Percy Grainger composed "Colonial Song" as a gift for his mother in 1911. The piece speaks about Grainger's love for his homeland, Australia, as well as for his mother. And we'll have two mother-daughter pairs singing duets that day, Celeste Smith and her mother, Kim McClain, at the 9:00 service, and Kathleen Barth and her mother, Patrice Fitzgerald, at 11:00. "As a Branch in May" (sung by the Choir at 11:00) was composed by Gwyneth Walker for this season, and a gentle Vietnamese hymn in duet form rounds out the morning's music.

Family Registration is coming up soon! To properly plan for next year's Religious Education program, the Religious Education Sub-Council will be requesting that families with children complete and return registration sheets. Your cooperation and timely response will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

From the Editor: Sometimes putting the most recent or important events at the top does not do it! Buy a ticket for a kid.

This Week’s Feature Articles

Gail Syring named 3/4 time Director of Religious Education Effective May 1st.

Please welcome Gail, a member of USH since 2006 and active participant in USH affairs from the "get go."

When Gail Syring was a little girl she and her brothers played hospital. Her brothers were the doctors and their stuffed animals the patients. And what was Gail’s role in their play? She was the hospital administrator and chaplain, checking to see that the patients had their dinners and reassuring them and their parents that the procedures would not be painful.

She says this play was prophetic for her life. She is finishing eight years as an administrator at University of Hartford where she started as Director of their Women’s Center and moved for several years to residential life including Assistant Director of Staff Development and Training as well as Assistant Director for First Year Experience, their program for freshmen.

She has managed the U of H million dollar Text Book Department and most recently has been Assistant Director of Assignments and Billing, managing twenty million in billing.

As a staff member she also was faculty advisor for the UHUUs, a group begun by our own Rachel Johnson who is a U of H student. Gail was also advisor for the Rede, the U of H pagan group on campus, served as university advisor for GLBT Diversity Training, and chaired the Diversity Committee for Residential Life.

Further, after many years questioning and sampling various religious paths as diverse as Roman Catholicism and Wicca, she is called to the ministry as a UU. She will begin part time divinity school in the fall. Gail says having a calling is like being a dog tied to a cart. You either run with the cart or get dragged by the cart, but when you are a really good dog, you get to ride in the cart.

Gail recalls vividly and with a smile that on March 12, 2006 as she listened to Mozart in USH worship, she said to herself, “This is a place where I could be a minister. These people are like me – bright and a little strange.” Since then she says she has “volunteered for everything” at USH and lots of time she feels she is riding in the cart.

Gail has a clear vision about what Religious Education can mean at USH. “I have a vision of a time when there is evidence of our commitment to our children in every aspect of our congregation. It is our responsibility to nurture the relationship between our children and our collective principles.”

Please take a moment to welcome Gail into her new position. - Marye Gail Harrison

Imagining Possible Futures: A Transforming Conversation - May 21, 10 AM coffee with Dr Mark Hicks

Dr. Hicks will be delivering the “Charge to the Minister” at Rev. BJ’s installation on Sunday afternoon May 20, and the following morning he will be helping us imagine what a multi-racial, multi-cultural future for USH could look like, should we decide to facilitate and fund that path from the Meeting House.

We will hear what All Souls Church in Washington DC ‘feels’ like from Mark’s perspective, as a truly rainbowed congregation. We will hear about a national curriculum Mark has written for the UUA that weaves anti-racist and anti-oppressive thinking and practice into the spiritual life of UU congregations across North America.

We will have an hour to ask questions and imagine one possible future for USH with this progressively-minded faculty member at George Mason University’s program of Initiatives in Educational Transformation (IET), a professional development Master’s degree program for public school teachers in the greater Washington, DC Metropolitan Area.

Mark is committed to the ideals of creating collaborative, democratic and socially conscious learning communities; is recognized for his work in transformative thinking and teaching; is an artist who weaves critical pedagogy, music, the arts, social justice, and progressive teaching into his consultancy work; and is known for creating “social containers” that surface fresh thinking around long-term problems. For more information, go to Mark’s web site

Come join Rev BJ and Dr. Hicks for a challenging conversation. Location TBA. Please RSVP to Rev BJ.

Mattie's Magical Music, or Never Underestimate the Power of a Woman - Every Sunday is special at the Meeting House, but Music Sundays are especially special. And Sunday May 6 was no exception. A music-filled program entitled The Passionate Voices of Women Composers gave the congregation an opportunity to hear, in words and music, the voices of women.

The program, narrated by UU member Nina Elgo, with assistance from women members of the choir (although Tom Kemble was allowed to be the voice of an angry father), was researched and written entirely by Music Director Mattie Banzhaf.

We already knew Mattie was an extraordinary conductor with a marvelous voice; now we also know how dramatic a writer she is.

In her, “A Time for All Ages,” Mattie introduced the large number of kids crowded around her on the chancel floor to Nannerl Mozart, Wolfgang’s talented older sister, whose composing voice, cute when she was a little girl, was silenced when she grew up because she was expected to marry and have babies.

Other women composers on the program included Alicia S. Carpenter, who wrote the words of Hymn 344, “A Promise Through the Ages Rings,” and Florence Price, the first black woman composer to reach national recognition, whose “Night” was sung by guest soprano Stacey Grimaldi. The choir offered a spirited “Dance of Life” by Ann MacDonald Diers, a UU composer who composes anthems exclusively for UU churches,

Both the words and music of “Spirit of Life” (hymn 123)--which has become an important part of Sunday services--were written by UU composer Carolyn McDade. During Sunday’s program, the congregation sang the hymn, then listened to the choir repeat it. Ms.McDade wrote, “When singers become the singing…some horizon, both inner and outer, opens and we know, if only briefly why we live.”

The toe-tapping jazzy “Bones Be Good” by Gwyneth Walker, presented by pianist John Jesensky and soprano Stacey Gimaldi, earned a round of applause, as did the “Concertino for Flute and Piano” by guest flutist Laurie Bollinger with Vaugn Mauren on piano. Sunday was organist-pianist Vaughn’s last day at the USH. He will be graduating from Trinity College and continuing his academic musical journey at Yale in the fall.

Vaughn received a standing ovation from the congregation, Light-hearted gifts included a Unitarian t-shirt and a Yale t-shirt (at the 11 AM service) and an appropriately-filled envelope at the 9 AM service. - Kayla Costenoble

Take a cue from the little animal to the left and pay close attention. We need your help on this one. (Photo by Carol Cooper)

Life Together: Lovely Indeed - The Installation of Rev. “BJ” Jamestone will be held Sunday, May 20, 2007 at 4:00 PM. This will be grand and historic event for our church community.

If you have not given us your RSVP, planners are anxious to hear from you.

Please let us know:

We are making this easy for you. Click and send your response right now! response

You may personalize a Tibetan-style "prayer" flag with a message or drawing for Rev. BJ, to be displayed at the May 20th ceremony. Flags will continue to be available at Coffee Hour through May 20.

Please consider helping with the parking crunch at the time of the Installation by parking next door at “The Village.” It is a short walk back across the grounds.

Can You Help Weed? Would you be able to spare a short time to help weed in the USH Memorial Garden? We are trying to get it completely weeded so we can add a layer of mulch. Our own gardens are also crying for help, so we could really use a few more weeders.

The wonderful Youth Group did a great job on Sunday weeding. Many thanks to them! If you are familiar with weeds, and have a bit of time to help, please just pull the weeds OUT and dispose of them in the woods! If you aren’t sure what is a weed and what is a desirable plant, please call us (677-1121) and we will meet you at USH.

There are a couple of buckets and trowels near the door into the Meeting House. Fill the buckets with weeds, dump the weeds in the woods (not at the edge, please walk in a ways) and then return the buckets and trowels to their original place, hopefully for the next weeder.

There is no pay, there are no prizes, but there will be an abundance of gratitude from us! If you do weed, please drop us an email or call us so we can properly thank you!!! And, while you are at the Meeting House, please visit this beautiful and sacred place. - Janice and David Newton

Photo

Installation Service Collection to Follow Custom and benefit the Living Tradition Fund

The 1988 General Assembly established the Living Tradition Fund and requested that "Ordination and Installation Services held in member societies include an offering" to the fund. Over the years, that request has become a tradition among us.

Income for the fund comes from individual gifts, offerings at Installations, Ordinations and other milestone occasions, and from two services at General Assembly-the Ministers Association worship service during Professional Days, and the Service of the Living Tradition.

The Living Tradition Fund provides three types of support for ministry:

Words from Adult Programs - Do you have a special interest that you would like to explore in an Adult Program at USH this fall or next spring? Now is the time to be heard. We are all ears! We certainly have several ideas ourselves but they might not be what you have in mind. The process for proposing a course you would like to offer is very simple. Go to the USH website, look under Adult Programs and there you will find the Proposal form. Fill it out as best you can and leave it in the Adult Programs mailbox in the office. Alternatively, you may speak with one of the AP committee members about your ideas and we will help you.

Contribute to Installation Reception May 20 - In lieu of a costly party, BJ 's wishes to commemorate her installation with a generous donation to Pat Kelly and the "Ebony Horsewomen." What is this? You can help by supplying your favorite appetizer or dessert for her reception.

Please sign up at the Sunday coffee hour program table with Carol Sexton. Help make BJ's installation, "Lovely, Indeed!"

How Can You Support Poor, Working Families in Our Community and in Connecticut? - Support a State Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC): A Pro-family, Pro-business Policy!

A state EITC would provide tax relief to hard working, low-wage families, helping them close the gap between what they earn and what they need to make ends meet.

Makes Work Pay - EITC only goes to working people.

Helps Low-Wage Earners - a family of four earning no more than $38,000 could receive as much as $900.

Pumps Money into the Local Economy- EITC filers spend the refund in their local communities on basic necessities.

Reduces Poverty - federal EITC reduces child poverty 25%.

Makes the Tax System Fairer - CT workers earning less than $21,000 pay more than twice the rate on combined sales, property, excise and income taxes than the wealthiest 1% of state residents.

CALL GOVERNOR RELL AT 1-800-406-1527 Or Your Legislator & Tell Them That You Support a State EITC

More information available at the Social Justice table in Fellowship Hall - Shai Cassell

Unitarian Society of Hartford to Present the Tanglewood Marionettes in An Arabian Adventure May 19 at Universalist Church of West Hartford more

Help Us Help Some Kids in Need of Some Fun - Please purchase a $10 ticket to the Tanglewood Marionette performance on May 19 for a child in residence at the Village for Children and Families (our across the lawn neighbors at the Meeting House). Many of these children have no visitors on the weekends and they don’t attend school on these days either, so it is not an easy job to keep them constructively occupied. They also don’t get to take many field trips for entertainment. When you purchase a marionette ticket for one of them or one of their staff, you are liberating the children into a world that is not often open to them and, I assure you, they will love it.

If you are willing to purchase tickets, just call Brian in the office, 233-9897, or Edith Savage, 232-5603 to let us know how many you want to buy. Make payment on Sunday at coffee hour or by phone in cash, credit card or check (made out to USH). Thank you in advance for your caring and generosity. - Edith Savage

From Adult Programs - We are continuing registration for Small Group Ministry in the summer this Sunday. There is one group in July and one in August. Each will meet one evening a week for four consecutive weeks. Heather Ferguson-Hull will facilitate in July, starting on Monday, July 9. Margaret Leicach will facilitate in August, starting on Thursday, August 2.

Both groups will convene at the Meeting House in air-conditioned space. You may sign up at the Adult Programs registration table after both services or contact the office.

Caring Network - Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. ~Buddha - 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. A wide range of community services are available to help you. Call InfoLine at 211.

EMBER DAYS, Wednesday, May 30, 12 - 2:00 pm, Friday and Saturday June 1 and 2, 6 - 8:00 pm. Rev. Jamestone will lead us in this fourth seasonal observance of nature. It is a time set apart for silence, simplicity, solitude, and abstinence from the ordinary. Bring your journal and consider abstaining from food, the newspaper, speaking, and email as preparation for the sessions. Come to any or all of the sessions. There is no fee but please register on Sunday or by calling the office at 233-9897.

CHILDREN’S ART DISPLAY. Our current art exhibit is contributed by artists in our Religious Education program. Artists and/or parents may pick up the work following the 11:00 AM service on Sunday, June 10, when the show will come down.

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 Little Theatre of Manchester
177 Hartford Road
Manchester, CT
Box office:647-9824
Ticket Prices: $18: General Admission ($16 st/sr) $23 VIP($21, st/sr)

Treat Mom like a Queen. Take her to see The Mousetrap on her day (Sunday, May 13 @ 2 P.M.) and she’ll enjoy a beautiful rose and a great performance! (And the Queen, although invited, has sent her regrets but wishes us well…..really!)

May 21, 2007 - Connecticut’s most exciting new choral ensemble – will sing a benefit concert entitled Voce Sings for Habitat for Humanity more

Thursday, May 10
INSTALLATION RSVPs DUE TODAY!
10:00 am Women’s Alliance, Library
7:30 pm Church of the Divine Light, Chapel

Friday, May 11
5:30 pm Dinner & movie, “The DaVinci Code”, Fellowship Hall
6:00 pm Civil Union Rehearsal, Sanctuary

Saturday, May 12
9:30 am – 1:30 pm Rental, Chapel
4:30 pm Civil Union, Sanctuary
6:00 pm Rental, Fellowship Hall

Sunday, May 13
8:00 am Music Rehearsal, Chapel
9:00 am WORSHIP SERVICE, CHAPEL
10:00 am Coffee Hour, Fellowship Hall
10:00 am Coming of Age, Fuller
10:00 am Children’s Choir, Chapel
10:15 am Music Rehearsal, Sanctuary
11:00 am WORSHIP SERVICE, SANCTUARY
12:00 noon Coffee Hour, Fellowship Hall
12:15 pm C Cubed, Minister’s Study
1:00 pm Mother’s Day Event, Fellowship Hall

Monday, May 14
6:30 pm Survivors of Incest Anonymous, Murray
7:00 pm Artist’s Way, Servetus

Tuesday, May 15
10:30 am Adult Programs, Servetus
12:00 noon ICEJ Clergy, Library
12:00 noon Men’s Luncheon Group, Avon
7:00 pm Worship Associates, Minister’s Study
8:00 pm AA, Fellowship Hall

Wednesday, May 16
10:00 – 11:00 am Staff Meeting, Minister’s Study (OFFICE CLOSED)
6:00 pm Dharma Gathering, Emerson
6:30 pm Tai Chi, Fellowship Hall
7:30 pm Choir, Sanctuary

Saturday, May 19
11:00 am Tanglewood Marionettes, Universalist Church of West Hartford, Fern Street
3:00 pm Civil Union Rehearsal, Sanctuary

Sunday, May 20
8:00 am Music Rehearsal, Sanctuary
9:00 am WORSHIP SERVICE, SANCTUARY
10:00 am Coffee Hour, Fellowship Hall
10:00 am Children’s Choir, Chapel
10:00 am Council on Social Justice, Library
10:00 am Disabilities, Ballou
10:00 am Building and Grounds, Murray
10:00 am Comfort Shawl, Lower Lobby
10:00 am Coming of Age, Fuller
10:15 am Music Rehearsal, Sanctuary
10:30 am Chalice Choir, Chapel
11:00 am WORSHIP SERVICE, SANCTUARY
12:00 pm Coffee Hour, Fellowship Hall
2:30 pm Civil Union, Sanctuary
4:00 pm Installation of Rev. Barbara Jamestone, Sanctuary;
Reception following, Fellowship Hall
Italicized entries are non-USH events.

Please notify the office of all additions or changes to the calendar. To get on the calendar, call 233.9897

Did You Know? - Excerpts from, The Solution is You, by Laurie David - By printing the first edition (2003) of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on 100% recycled paper, Raincoast Books realized the following ecological savings: 39,320 trees saved and 27,329 BTUs of energy saved (enough electricity to power the average American home for 262 years).