USH-Enews for May 29, 2008 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.

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 the web 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.

Worshipping Together Since 1830
Summer Services at 10 AM

Sunday - 1st Youth Sunday - The Youth Group is hard at work on this year's Youth Service. The theme? Saints: individuals or groups who impact the lives of others in a positive way, pursue the happiness of others, and/or go beyond the expectations of global citizenship. The service? A rich mosaic of youth-inspired or created poems & short sermons, guitar & piano music, and a saint tree. What's a saint tree, you ask? Come to the 10 AM Youth Service on Sunday and experience it for yourself! As always, your full participation will be invited.

Notice of Annual Meeting pdf Slate of Officers and related details. Meeting follows the Sunday Service June 8th.

Board Meeting Minutes for May have been posted on the web.

Music - For the Youth Service dedicated to saints, the Chancel Choir offers a new song from the hymnal supplement, "The Fire of Commitment." This exciting new anthem is by Jason Shelton, one of the new generation of Unitarian composers. The Youth Group is providing all other music in the service.

REflections on Children's Programming -
Meeting with Youth, Parents & Staff - Please join us in the meditation space immediately following the service to discuss the schedule proposed by the Youth Group for next year.

Coming of Age Celebration - Many of our eighth and ninth grade students will be Coming of Age in a Chapel Service on Saturday, May 31st at 4 PM. Please congratulate the members of this year's class:

Marc Czepiel
Marissa Elish
Ginger Furey
Benjamin Garmise
Daniel Hanson
Hannah Phillips
Janabeth Ward

Summer Programming - Our summer program will begin on Sunday, June 8th. Children will attend the worship service through the children's message and then attend class as a multiage group in the Spirit Play classroom.

Request for Summer Storytellers - Help pass on the wisdom of our parents and grandparents to our children. We need people willing to volunteer to tell a story to our RE class this summer. Brush off your favorite bit of wisdom, your most exciting adventure, or even your tallest tale and share it with our children. Please contact Gail at: dre@ushartford.com for more information. - Gail M. Syring, DRE

From the Editor:

This Week’s Feature Articles

Experiencing Shabbat this Fall
Buddha at the Meeting House
We Say Farewell to Alice
A Matter of Principles
Safe in our Mouths

Experiencing Shabbat this Fall - Saturday, June 14, at 4:00 PM - A Creative congregational conversation about Business Meetings on Sundays in the Fall, plus other strategies for our great leap forward!

The Hebrew word Shabbat literally means "to cease." Although Shabbat (or its anglicized version, "Sabbath") is generally translated as a "period of rest," the literal translation would be "ceasing," with the implication of "ceasing from work." It is to actively abstain from work, rather than passively. How might we "cease from labor" in the midst of frantic hours, weeks, months, years? Our ancestors in faith formally set aside a full day several thousand years ago, but our own "week ends" have become anything but ceasing from work or periods of rest. And so, in the coming year we'll ACTIVELY practice that spiritual discipline, here at the meeting house, by holding the times between 9:40 and 1 PM as Shabbat.

This will create the need for careful planning for church business meetings in the hours before and after the Shabbat. We might designate one Sunday a month for ' 1st Sunday lunch bunch' meetings at 1 PM, and planning a light lunch for everyone at coffee hour, before heading out to meet at 1 PM. Furthermore, one Sunday a month could be designated as "3rd Sunday breakfast bunch" with meetings over doughnuts and coffee from 8:30-9:40.

You could drive to the Meeting House two Sundays a month, get most business meetings out of the way, see friends, break bread together, and have some Shabbat time as well!

Join me, board representatives, and NVC facilitators for some creative brainstorming on June 14 at 4 PM at MH. (One last congregational meeting on Fall Sunday Planning occurs on Sunday, August 24, after worship.) - Rev. BJ

Buddha at the Meeting House - Readings, stories, songs, chants and silence brought a bit of the Buddha to the May 18 service at the Meeting House to honor and remember the birth, enlightenment and death of Siddhartha, the Buddha. Buddha lived and preached in south Asia 2500 years ago. Some 350 million people today follow his teachings.

During her Time for All Ages, Rev. BJ showed the children (and the congregation) clustered around her on the chancel floor a delightful photographic portrait of herself as a little girl. Rev. BJ explained that Buddha says the child continues in the adult, that we are not separated from our early selves and, further, that we are all part of each other and everything is part of everything else.

Rev. BJ said “we enter the stream” when we accept that there is another way to be other than the “way we’ve always done it.” She supports meditation as a “spiritual practice and a form of worship” and invited members to join the USH weekly meditation and/or use the meditation room at the Meeting House.

Telling about her trip to visit the site of Buddha’s death in a small, poor village in northern India, Rev. BJ said she sat at the feet of a huge statue of Buddha most of one day. The statue’s bare feet have become a symbol of the “one who has gone.” In his final words, Buddha told his followers that he would “appoint no successor” and they should “work hard to gain your own salvation.”

The title of Sunday’s sermon was, “Think Slowly, Look Deeply.” Rev. BJ said that our decisions and deeds are not predetermined; we receive information from everywhere. Slow thought and integration of the mind (looking deeply) help us to maintain a sense of personal integrity. Humans are capable of creating fields of wonder. If our actions are not grounded in a reflective state, she said, they are ineffective and dangerous.

There is a path to walk to freedom and to the fullness of humanity. Four of Buddha’s eight-step path are right action, right speech, right livelihood and right concentration. Rev. BJ invited members to look deeply and think slowly in the coming year.

At various points during the service, the choir and the congregation chanted “Gate Gate,” (gone, gone beyond, totally gone beyond, awakened, alleluia), reflecting the joy of enlightenment when earthly cares are gone. The choir’s version started with the subdued chant, then broadened to a jazzy, hand-clapping joyous song. Gracing the chancel were a statue of Buddha that has lived in the Meeting House for many years, and a stunning new banner created by Diane Cadrain depicting a Buddhist temple in Thailand with colorful dragons, a staircase leading to the temple and elements of the Buddhist Eightfold Path. - Kayla Costenoble

We Say Farewell to Alice - Adjectives galore were used to describe Alice Hunter Kimball, as family and friends celebrated her life during her Memorial Service at the Meeting House on Memorial Day. Alice died on May 16 at the age of 93.

Rev. Susan E. Wyman, pastor of the Second Congregational Church of Hartland and a close personal friend of Alice’s, led the service. She called Alice uppity, nurturing, abusive, caring, loud, critical, articulate, pacifist, feminist, radical and a master of Robert’s Rules of Order.

From family, relatives and USH members, we learned new things about Alice’s life and were reminded of events we shared with her. Martha, one of three daughters, said, “She squeezed all there was out of life.” Her mind remained strong to the end, as she played bridge weekly, did crossword puzzles and sudokus. Martha said her mother was a member of the Thursday Club, whose members researched, prepared and presented papers; Alice was proudest of a paper she gave on the history of purple dye. Alice had a life-long love of the out-of-doors and made many camping trips, did house boating, jeeping and rode a mule to the bottom of the Grand Canyon when she was in her 70’s.

Tom, Alice’s only son, said, “She managed to keep the peace for the four of us.” He said she used him and his three sisters to “perfect her organizing skills”—each child had their own color, their own seat in the car and at the table. Back in the ‘50’s, he said, when playing party games like taking an IQ test were popular, Alice was amused that her IQ turned out to be (slightly) higher than her husband’s. Tom’s adjectives to describe his mother included “modern” but also “old-fashioned, introspective, helpful, energetic, frugal, respectful.” Her favorite coffee cup told the story. On one side was the word “Alice;” on the other side were the words, “With a capital A.”

Alice’s daughter from California, Susanna, told how Alice “kept the MIT class of 1936 together,” holding annual gatherings at her Hartland Pond home. (Note: This lovely family place was the scene of many annual gatherings; the USH Women’s Alliance met there for dozens of summers.) Phil Hunter (his grandfather was Alice’s uncle) mentioned the “military rule of Alice.” Lisa Kimball, Alice’s niece, described Thanksgiving at Alice’s and the “obligatory trot around the lake.” She called her aunt the “one person you’d like to be stranded with on a desert island” because Alice would be sure to provide food and fun.

Then it was turn for Alice’s USH friends to tell their Alice stories. I told of a Women’s Alliance party in 2002 when we old ladies all wore old clothes with special stories attached to them. Alice wore the bright blue pants and tunic suit she had worn once to a restaurant. Told that she could not enter wearing pants (it was that long ago!), she immediately dropped her pants and the tunic top became a very short dress.

Upon hearing of Alice’s death, Louise Schmoll sent the news to the UU Women’s Federation (UUWF) in Boston; many years ago, Alice was the first president of this group. Louise received a reply telling still another Alice story. In the 1978 General Assembly, the UUWF sponsored workshops. In one of them, Alice, wearing a bright orange pantsuit, reminded the women, “To be recognized, you must be seen.”

Anne Bailey, who visited Alice in the Torrington nursing home just four days before she died, called her (along with Betty Arnold) the “brightest buttons” in the Alliance.

Alice, we are honored to have known you. - Kayla Costenoble

Safe in Our Mouths - During our worship service on Sunday, May 4, 2008, we were blessed to listen as three of our congregants spoke eloquently and movingly about living with various forms of brain disorders. Each speaker revealed that this congregation has been a refuge of safety, support, and understanding for them and that, with us, they feel known and respected, or, as Bill Laporte-Bryan said, “safe in my mouth.” We have been touched by your responses to the service and have learned from many of you how the challenges of brain disorders have touched your lives, also.

We will continue to explore how to expand the circle so that more of us can work together to “be safe in each other’s mouths.” We would like to hear from those who live with brain disorders and those who do not, so that we can collaboratively figure out how to make our entire congregation, and even the larger community, “safe in our mouths.”

We would appreciate your feedback, input, and participation. It isn’t necessary to join the Disabilities Sub-Council and we will respect any desire for privacy and confidentiality; we merely would like your help in determining how we can best learn from and support each other, and where we go next on this journey together, a journey to “be safe in our mouths.”

Please contact Carolyn Cartland (crcartland1(at symbol)comcast.net) or Bill Laporte-Bryan (billb(at symbol)ushartford.com) with any suggestions, comments, or ideas

A Matter of Principles – We’ve come to the last of the seven articles in the series about our UU principles. Our USH Annual Meeting will take place on June 8th and appropriately our UU principle for June is democracy. Let’s take a look at what the UUA website says democracy means, in words that adults and children can understand.

The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large.

All people need a voice.

What does that mean to you? I suspect we all think of democracy as “government by the people” but what’s that “right of conscience”? My dictionary defines conscience as “conformity to one’s own sense of right conduct” so this principle, among other things, means that we believe we have a right to conformity with our own sense of right conduct.

A few month’s ago, our Board approved a new procedure for our church to take a position on an issue related to social justice. If you want to take a look at that process, click on this link: Policy on Adopting USH Position Statements. Do you think our new policy embodies our principle for June, democracy? Does it ensure your right of conscience?

By the way, do you remember our seven principles? Here they are with a sentence after each one that expresses a related belief that was part of the precept which guided my life and my behavior even before I became a Unitarian. Frankly, I was amazed when I first came to our Meetinghouse and discovered that our seven principles and my beliefs were essentially the same. I had found my spiritual home!

December - Respect - I assume that everybody has a deep and beautiful soul.
January - Compassion - I feel for everyone else.
February - Acceptance - I do not assume that everyone else thinks the same way I do.
March - Justice -When someone feels that they’ve been treated unjustly, it tends to separate their words and actions from their deep and beautiful soul.
April - Truth -I assume that finding the truth and meaning of everything is an essential part of living.
May - Interdependence - The collective behavior of a community of any size (from two people to every living being) is largely dependent on the relationships between its members.
June - Democracy - Collective thought is better than individual thought, most importantly better than mine since individually, like everyone else, I am utterly insignificant.

Do you agree with my belief related to democracy that collective thought is better than individual thought and that, in a sense, you and I, like everyone else, are utterly insignificant? For me, that idea is the most comforting of all our seven principles. Somehow it removes all of my “should’s” and “should be’s” and lets me be myself, whoever that is. I like that! It makes me more comfortable when I exercise my own right of conscience. If being insignificant bothers you, don’t forget my third belief; I don’t assume everyone else thinks the same way I do.

It seems to me that the more we think about and practice our principles, the more meaningful they become. They become real. They become part of us. So, join me. Let’s try to practice all of our principles all of the time. I admit it’s not that easy, at least for me, but, then again, it’s not that hard either and it’s a heck of a lot more fun! Wouldn’t you agree? - Bill LaPorte-Bryan - Social Justice Chai

What Else is Happening & Announcements

Farmington Valley Arts Center to feature pen, ink and pencil drawings of Dick Hall. The Arts Center is located at 25 Arts Center Lane, Avon, CT 06001. The show will continue from May 8 - May 31st.

Women's Alliance 2008 Education Grant Applications Due June 1st - The UAMW of USH is pleased to announce that their Educational Grant applications are available during the month of May. More

Spring Outing - Attention all USH women: The Alliance Spring Outing is coming up on Wed. June 4. Join us for a celebration of sisterhood with a lovely lunch at the Firebox Restaurant, located in the historic Billings Forge at 539 Broad Street in Hartford, which if fully handicapped accessible. Following lunch, we will go to the Museum of CT History in the Supreme Court Building on Capitol Avenue to see the Michael Borders murals depicting the history of CT industry. (Michael is the artist who did the painting hung on the wall in David’s Den).

The museum is free. Lunch is at your own expense. Meet at noon to carpool from the Meeting House or at the restaurant at 12:30.

Please sign up by June 1 at the latest – either on the sheet posted on the bulletin board in the lower lobby (to the right of the men’s lav) or by contacting Anne Bailey: 860-379-7740 or annebailey713@yahoo.com

From the Adult Programs Sub-Council: Following the 10 AM service on Sunday, stop by the Programs table to sign up for the final Friday Night Dinner and Movie of the season. We'd also like to hear your suggestions for possible adult programs to include in the 2008-2009 Programs Catalogs. Proposal forms are available at the Programs table on Sunday following the 10 AM service, in the office, and at the USH website (click on Spiritual Life and then Adult Programs).

You may also contact an AP Sub-Council Members - Janice Newton, Chair, Ginny Berrien, Helen David, Virginia de Lima, Nita Hansen, Barbara Hellenga, Mary Leonard, Nancy Reed, Beverly Spence with your thoughts.

Among the offerings at the Book Cart on Sunday are copies of Nonviolent Communication - A Language of Life and Respectful Parents, Respectful Kids - 7 Keys To Turn Family Conflict Into Cooperation, for $15 each. These books were used in conjunction with recent USH Nonviolent Communication studies.

Friday Dinner and Movie, June 13. The final movie for the 2007-2008 season will be "Away from Her". Julie Christie was nominated for best actress …"a film of piercing clarity, one that knocks you out over and over again with its beauty and generosity." St. Paul Pioneer (2007)

Caring Network - Keeping the heart open is no easy task. We know not only our own pain and our neighbor's pain, but also the agonies played out in the farthest reaches of this Earth. We allow ourselves to see, to care, to witness. From Claiming the Spirit Within, edited by Marilyn Sewell - 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. 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.

Further Down The Road (About 30 Days)

Painters Needed - In August a team of painters, not necessarily the artistic type, will enhance the appearance of another classroom. Any one who is interested in picking up a brush on a Friday or Saturday in early August should contact Skip Berrien at f.berrien(at symbol)comcast.net or call him at 243 0149.

External Events and Educational Notes

The American Friends Service Committee, CT area, will hold the annual dinner at USH on Saturday, June 7 with silent auction at 4:15, dinner and program 5:30-9. "Engaging the Spirit for Justice and Peace: the Work of the AFSC" is the topic. $45 pp/$30 students/financial contact Connecticut@afsc.org

World Refugee Day will be at the Hartford Public Library, 500 Main St www.hplct.org on Saturday, June 21 from noon until 4 PM. Hartford Sister Cities International, Hartford's Refugee Community and numerous other cultural organizations invite you and your family to commemorate World Refugee Day. Free events include exhibits, information, booths and dances from around the world.695-6334 or ask Brian Smith. - The Kembles

On the Calendar

Italicized entries are non-USH events.
Please notify Brian Mullen of all additions or changes to the calendar. Follow this Link to all our scheduled events!

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

photo

Did You Know? - A swap to a new, efficient fridge would save enough energy to light the average household for nearly four months, with an overall payback of about three years.

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