USH-Enews Jult 1, 2010 Print Only Edition

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.

Sunday - 1 & 8 August: Third Summer Dyad-Relationship with the Ultimate - Gail M. Syring, DRE/VC & Carol Davidson and Randi Wuertz, Worship Associates

Wherever one falls on the theological spectrum from theist to humanist, one must consider their personal relationship with the source of all things, the Ultimate.

How do you make sense of the universe when the unthinkable occurs; when tragedy strikes our home, our nation, our planet? Who or what is to blame for the seemingly senseless way of the world? What is the source of the human resilience that allows us to overcome unimaginable obstacles, and still appreciate the profound beauty of living?

This week we will have opinion comments on last weeks's sermon. If you missed it, you may read it now.

Our Green Crafts activity this Sunday, August 8th will be Paper Roll Jewelry and Tools. Join us to make a bracelet or a pair of binoculars out of paper towel rolls and other recycled materials!

Nursery Care is available downstairs as well.

Speaking of Faith: Why Religion Matters and How to Talk About It

Eight USH members and Rev. Barbara Jamestone recently completed a three-session discussion of the book Speaking of Faith. The author, Krista Tippett, is the radio host of a weekly one-hour program of the same name on National Public Radio. The program explores the wisdom of the great religious traditions and promotes an intelligent discourse about humanity’s shared experiences to find meaning and relevance.

BJ nudged the discussion group into being by mentioning from the pulpit that she had bought twelve copies of the book for the purpose of reselling them to church members and that once they were all sold we would have enough participants for a “book group” that could discuss the book’s message over multiple sessions -- and that the copies were selling fast. Speaking of Faith consists of six chapters, so we agreed to talk about two chapters in each session.

The first two chapters trace Krista Tippett’s spiritual journey starting in Oklahoma and the influence of her Southern Baptist preacher grandfather. As a student at Brown University much of her childhood religion seemed “irrelevant.” She studied as a Fulbright scholar in Bonn, West Germany in 1983. This was followed by time in Berlin as a journalist and then as an envoy to the US Ambassador specializing in nuclear arms strategy. It was there that she began to question the limits of strictly secular solutions to human problems. She left Berlin in 1988, the year before the fall of the wall. Understanding religion’s importance as a component in dealing with world issues became a priority in Krista’s life. She studied at Yale Divinity School and then became a religion journalist with NPR.

The remainder of the book shares insights that have come out of the eight years of weekly conversations with theologians, scientists, journalists, environmentalists, people from all walks of life covering the spectrum of religious and spiritual thought. The book emphasizes that when speaking (and listening) to conversations of faith, each person speaks their own truth. You can disagree with another person’s opinions; you can disagree with their doctrines; you can’t disagree with their experience.

In our USH study of the book, we were encouraged to underline, highlight or make note of passages that resonated with us and then share them in the group discussions. Some of the thoughts that came out of that process are:

The discussion also challenged us to think about some issues that relate directly to our own lives as members of the Unitarian Society of Hartford:

At the end of the last discussion we asked if there are other books on religion or spirituality that members would be interested in reading and discussing together? It was suggested that the quarterly hard copy of UU World magazine might provide interesting material for further study and discussion.

A Midsummer Night's Dream - Last summer I was honored with the invitation to serve as minister of the week at Ferry Beach, one of our UU camps in Maine. I carry many images of those days in memory: walking the beach, doing yoga with a bunch of UUs, enjoying bunking with our own Gail and Josh, preaching every day….it was there that I tried out the theme that became our USH year long pulpit study of how faith community can help meet our core human needs.

Far and away the most memorable experience I had was being part of a joyful dance community created by Randy and Sandra Locke. Each morning some of us old folks gathered to learn a few simple ethnic circle dances and to chat informally with the Lockes about what I consider to be a splendid ministry that began years ago and continues full force now that they are retired.

Randy and Sandra travel all over (from their home in the Mid West) in their camper loaded with sound equipment and a library of every kind of music under the sun. Stopping along the way at UU churches for dance evenings, they visit our UU camps and conference centers and create magic for two or 10 days with UUs as young as two and as old as Methuselah (the grandson of Noah, who lived to 969 years!)

Next week with be their 21st year to lead UU fellowship dance evenings at Ferry Beach.
Every evening Randy turns up the music and folks flock in, from the beach, the cozy front porches, the play yard, or the last program event of the evening. A huge popcorn popper turns out as much popcorn as everybody can eat. Wine and soft drinks flow freely. Little ones crawl in and out of the laps of folks sitting along the walls. The atmosphere and ease, safety, and sheer pleasure are palpable. In the middle of the room are teens, grandparents, young married couples, kids, seniors, a toddler or two, and even Ferry Beach staffers.

In his wonderfully gentle and mostly nonverbal way, Randy soon has everybody leaning, stepping, turning, and reaching out their hands to everyone who steps into the room. Even the folks who see themselves as clumsy, unskilled, and totally without rhythm are soon smiling, clapping, and joining the circle to be taught the ‘moves’ quickly by the 10 year old standing beside them.

I have rarely enjoyed more peaceful, accepting, relaxed, and fun hours. As the week wore on, I found myself yearning for MY congregation to get to experience the multigenerational fun, laughter, relaxation and profound mutuality and connection which I was witnessing. So…… I told Randy and Sandra about our wonderful church family, and asked if they would come see us the following year, and was tickled when they said YES!

The year has zipped by and, this Friday night at 6:30 PM in the Fellowship Hall at USH, we are recreating that nurturing experience for folk of all ages. We’ll have the popcorn, soft drinks, and wine all ready for you. Bring the whole family, your next door neighbor, your friends who are visiting from Nevada…..call up and invite somebody at USH who you’ve been wanting to get to know better!

This precious evening is a gift to you, my congregation, from Randy and Sandra. I will be returning from my study month to host the Lockes and to share this midsummer night’s dream with you. It has the potential to be one of those experiences, like our USH July 4 potluck in my back yard was for me, which the commercials say "are priceless." The strength of our USH circle of care depends on your being present so that others may get to know you better. So leave your wallet and potluck dish carrier at home, bring friend or family, and let’s dance, or cheer from the side lines. - Rev BJ

USH Membership Initiative Kick off -
The coming church year will hold several opportunities for our members to step out of any loneliness, isolation, boredom, or unwanted solitude and into a ready made community of tender loving care, right here at USH. Your presence is a vital part of creating this common life we want to share with others.

The first event of the year long initiative is this Friday evening at 6:30 in our Fellowship Hall! UUs Sandra and Randy Locke will lead us in a frolicking and leisurely evening of fellowship, conversation, easy listening music, and a bunch of circle and line dances from around the world. (See above)
All ages are welcome! You don’t need a partner, nor dancing shoes.

You don’t even need to dance! Just come on over for popcorn and drinks! If you don’t come, you will miss an amazing experience and you will be missed by your friends at USH who hold you in their hearts. Don’t miss the grace-filled evening, brought to you completely free of charge, because of the wonderful generosity of the Lockes. - Rev BJ

Cool Music on a Summer Night Planned 8/29 - 7:30 PM. - A message from our Music Director Mattie Banzhaf - Along with Edith & Ed Savage, Carol & Ron Sexton, & my husband Wally, I just got back from Argentina. Carol and the Savages and I were singing with Vallis Musicae, a Hartford-based chorus, in five concerts around Argentina.

Ron and Wally were an enthusiastic part of the audiences and also took loads of photos. The bonus for me was visiting with long-lost relatives in Buenos Aires. It was a splendid trip, the more so because it was winter in Argentina (southern hemisphere) so we evaded some of Connecticut’s intense heat. We got on the plane at a sweltering 98 degrees and soon were clambering through the snow in the Andes. Even the tropical rainforest at Iguazu Falls was temperate, and singing outdoors at the Jesuit mission ruins nearby was magical.

Now back home it’s time to think ahead. One big challenge for the Music Department is the absence of USH funding for our Section Leaders who make our choir as good as it is, meaning we need to do our own fundraising for that. Here’s where you all come in, and we hope you’ll show enthusiastic support for the music program that enlivens and enriches your Sunday services.

What can you do? The biggest thing is the easiest – please come to our next fundraising concert, which will be a great one: our recent team of piano wizard John Jesensky and scintillating soprano Katie LaPorta Jesensky (yes, they were married last summer) are coming back to treat us to their musical magic. John will be playing favorites by Billy Joel, Elton John, Ben Folds and maybe, The Beatles! As a special bonus we’ll also hear from our dear friends Patrice Fitzgerald and Richard Leslie, our cantor Melissa Paul, and a few surprise guests to join the fun and entertain us on a summer evening.

Here are some of the details, and a few ways you can enjoy a great concert and help the music program at the same time.

Join us with this end-of-summer fundraiser, and get comfy with some cool tunes. - Mattie Banzhaf

“Really awful things happen in our world. Sometimes they happen to us. But still, somehow, we survive—we better than survive, we go on living, and with luck, we forgive whatever powers or circumstances that may be out there…and before we know it, we are living life again—singing praise, looking at a good day ahead. We don’t all believe in the same god—we may not believe in any god at all. But perhaps, by some grace or resilience, we have forgiven whatever’s in charge.”

These were the closing words in a sermon on forgiveness by Reverend Jane Rzepka, Senior Minister of the Church of the Larger Fellowship, heard at the Unitarian Society of Hartford Sunday August 1. For those of us who do not often have the chance to visit other Unitarian churches and hear other UU ministers, the summer dyad series is giving us the opportunity to hear some guest sermons, read by Worship Associates—or, in this case, by our own Gail Syring, Religious Education Director.

Prior to the sermon, Worship Associate Randi Wuertz presented a reading on forgiveness. It listed three things forgiveness is not: denying, excusing and forgetting. What forgiveness is is something we receive as a gift; it comes when we want it and makes us free.

Reverend Rzepka said that among those who do believe in God (recognizing that “many among us take the perfectly tenable position that no god exists at all”), the gods vary dramatically. Even the God viewed by Christians and Jews “differs in temperament, motivation and strategies for getting human beings to behave.”

She explained that this, her annual sermon on forgiveness, would be about forgiving God—“whichever of the gods might be yours, if you have one at all.” So how do we cope when our gods or our universe or our world view has failed us? We “forgive God…we come to terms with whatever’s in charge: the cosmos, happenstance, god. And then, wonder of wonders, we turn around and find something to praise. We continue to pray or to sing or to note beauty with pleasure. We live on in spite of it all. We smile. We affirm. We find some positives out there.”

As we have come to expect, appreciate and delight in UU sermons, Reverend Rzepka used pertinent quotations from a wide variety of sources to illustrate her points. They included Shakespeare’s King Lear railing at the gods (dramatically read by Gail);Psalm 22 in the Hebrew scriptures; the Christian scriptures (Jesus’ “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”); Archibald MacLeish’s play, J. B.; Rabbi Harold Kushner’s When Bad Things Happen to Good People and distinguished theologian Dietriach Bonhoeffer.

Reverend Rzepka, minister, author and teacher, was awarded the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) Award for Distinguished Service on June 25, 2010. From 2000 to 2010, she was senior minister of the Church of the Larger Fellowship, an online congregation for isolated religious liberals, the largest congregation in the UUA. She is now Minister Emerita of this congregation. - Kayla Costenoble

Women's Alliance Fall Retreat October 22- 24 Reading one Book Together - The Unitarian Alliance Ministry to Women is happy to announce its R & R weekend on October 22 - 24, returning to the Victorian retreat house called Senexet in northeastern CT. Details on activities (all optional!) and reservations will be forthcoming.

Last fall's group suggested participants read a book in advance, then discuss at the Retreat. Tracy Kidder's newest was chosen; Strength in What Remains "is a testament to the power of will and friendship, and of the endurance of the soul." It's available at local libraries (there's enough time to use inter-library loan) and bookstores.

"With an anthropologist's eye and a novelist's pen, Pulitzer Prize-winning Kidder . . . recounts the story of Deo, the Burundian former medical student turned American émigré at the center of this strikingly vivid story . . . . . reading this book . . . enables one to walk in the footsteps of its singular subject and see worlds new and old afresh. This profoundly gripping, hopeful and crucial testament is a work of the utmost skill, sympathy and moral clarity." Publishers Weekly review

Questions? Email Alliance Cabinet (at symbol) ushartford.com or leave a message at 860-693-4269.

Multigenerational Dance Event - On Friday, August 6th at 6:30 PM, Randy and Sandra Locke will be offering a joyous dance party for the whole family! Randy and Sandra are lifelong UUs who have been featured at the Mountain and Ferry Beach every year since 1990. With an inclusive philosophy that dance is for people of all ages and abilities, they will teach a variety of dances that will suit a variety of tastes and styles. There is no need to bring a partner nor for any previous experience!

I met Randy and Sandra at Ferry Beach last year, and their enthusiasm and passion is contagious! Teens, children and adults alike are fervent fans of their accessible style, and they are in great demand at UU congregations across the country.

Join us for music, dancing, food and fellowship at this free event in our Fellowship Hall. No RSVP is necessary, so bring a friend! (more) - Gail M. Syring

Adult Programs - Fall is fast approaching! There is still time to submit your program proposal to be included in the 2010 Fall Programs for Adults and Families Notebooks. The notebooks are beginning to be assembled and we'd like to include your program.

To obtain a Program Proposal Form, you may go to the website home page. Then, from the Spiritual Life pull down menu (on the left side of the home page), click on Adult Programs. In the first paragraph, click on download the form in Microsoft Word. The form is also available at the USH office. Please attach a detailed paragraph in Microsoft Word (if possible) about the program to the completed Proposal Form that can be used for promotion. Please email the completed Proposal to Janice Newton no later than Monday, August 16 so that your proposed program can be reviewed and included with the other 2010 Fall Programs for Adults and Families.

Vote for nine Titles From Dinner & Movie Nominations by Wednesday, August 11th. - Dinner and Movie Fans are reminded to submit their favorite nine titles photofrom the list of over 50 nominated this June. Film summaries, ratings, and reviews can be found on websites such as Rotten Tomatoes or IMDb, just by typing in the movie title.
Please send your nine titles to pickmovies@ushartford.com. Call 860-693-4269 if you have any questions.
Winning titles will be announced in September; the season will begin Friday, October 8.

Reserve now for $10 Pizza Dinner & Movie on Fri, August 27 - Like pizza and movies? Our first Pizza and Movie night will be Friday, August 27, in Fellowship Hall. More

Caring Network - My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind. Albert Einstein - 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.

Green Topics - Did You Know? - Green Table Summer Hours: 3rd Sunday of the Month 8/15). Stock up on your environmentally friendly cleaning and paper goods. Please don't take a vacation from doing what's right for mother earth.

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

A Matter of Opinion

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.

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