USH-Enews December 3 , 2009 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.

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

Worshipping Together Since 1830
One Service 10:30 AM

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Sunday 6 December - Multiplying the Loaves and Fishes: the Advent of a New Creation - We continue our year long reflection on nine core human needs, moving from "subsistence" in November to "creation or creativity" in December. Stay for congregational Economic Summit II at noon, as we consider how to creatively address subsistence needs at USH. - Rev BJ

Any visitors or newcomers are invited to come to the First Sunday USH Connections session held after the service this coming Sunday at 11:45. No need to register – just come! You will have the opportunity to share what you are looking for in a religious community and explore ways to become more connected here at USH. Interested members/friends are welcome to drop in, as well.

Music - The organ music this Sunday consists of two settings of the Lutheran hymn, “Savior of the Nations, Come,” by Johann Sebastian Bach. The first setting is from the Orbelbüchlein (Little Organ Book) and can be played two ways; using the full organ plenum, or a more intimate sound. Both reflect the wonder expressed in the first stanza of the hymn: “Savior of the nations, come, Virgin's Son, make here Thy home! Marvel now, O heaven and earth, That the Lord chose such a birth.” The second setting is a highly ornamented version of the chorale. It was customary for organists to introduce a hymn by improvising on the tune and Bach was sometimes criticized for improvising in such a way as to obscure the chorale melody. This setting could be subject to such criticism. The first three or four notes of each phrase are heard in the solo voice, but thereafter, everything is of Bach’s invention. One marvels at those who could only complain about the missing melody, while failing to notice the beauty of that which replaced it.

REflections on Children's Programming

Service Project for Children

This Sunday, December 6th, in lieu of Religious Education classes, we will gather in the second and third grade classroom for a small group project.

There will be no individual classes this week as all children are invited to participate. Regular classes will be held the following week. There will be childcare for children under three in the nursery.

Gail M. Syring, DRE

Things You Could Do for USH

To help our cash flow, members in a position to pay off balances on their pledge for this year may want to contribute now in order to get the deduction on their 2009 income tax. Members over the age of 70.5 can have their charitable contribution to USH paid from their IRA account (check with your ira provider) by December 31 and avoid tax on the payout amount. More

Contributions to the save our staff effort will similarly be deduct able from this year 's tax obligations as charitable deductions.

From the Editor: Suggestions for Contributors.

This Week’s Feature Articles

Second Economic Conversation
Save our Staff Progress
Spectacular Music Planned
IRA Possibilities
Friends of Music Thanks You
Winter Ember Days
With Gratitude

Second Economic Conversation - Sunday, December 6 - 12:15 PM to 2:30 PM - At the first economic summit earlier this Fall we agreed to have additions conversations in late 2009 and early 2010. The next session will be on Sunday, December 6 at 12:15 in Fellowship Hall. All are welcome and encouraged to attend and participate. Light snacks will be provided. There will be a USH financial update, including progress on key issues and results through November. This will precede an introduction to the priority setting process for the 2010/11 budget year, followed by an opportunity for everyone to identify their budget priorities and to work with others on possible budget scenarios. Please plan to attend. - Martha Page, Treasurer

Great Progress on USH “Save Our Staff! Save Our Worship Services!” Challenge! - We are making wonderful strides in our effort to raise $5,000 from at least 100 USH members and friends by December 31 in order to match the $5,000 challenge.

As of Wednesday, November 25, 59 generous members and friends have contributed $2,313 so we are nearly halfway towards our financial goal. (As of press time, any contributions from the service on Sunday, November 29 have not been included.) We now need an additional 41 more folks give the remaining $2,687 in order for us to raise a total of $10,000, which will enable us to maintain our regular worship service schedule, programming, and staff resources and availability for the entire month of February.

As you know, we will need to suspend all worship services, programming, and staff availability for two weeks in February if we do not raise the needed $10,000. Many thanks to those of you who have given so generously already…and many thanks in advance to those of you who are going to give. - Carolyn Cartland

Winter Ember Days 2009: Connecting to Deeper Sources in a Time of Too Much - When, Where, and What? - 2 2-hour long sessions - come to one or both! - Wednesday 12/16 noon-2 PM, Meditation Sanctuary at USH & Saturday 19th, 6 to 8 PM, at Rev BJ’s house (spirits at fire side following program)

No fee, please register by call or email to USH office.

During this season of winter cold and celebration, we find ourselves at the intersection of powerful cultural, religious, and personal meanings:
We are carried along and challenged by a culture that encourages endless acquisition, at the same time hearing wisdom stories from many traditions that point us to some other great wealth, all in the context of our personal journeys and questions and longings.

How do we navigate our way as a religious community and as individuals through these rich and sometimes overwhelming currents?

We will explore our personal experience of the possibilities and challenges of this season:

*What are the aspects of this time of year that touch your heart and soul?

*Where do you get lost in the rush of it all?

Through individual reflection, mindful dialogue, and group inquiry, we will move toward creating a deeper connection to what is most true for each one of us.

From this awareness, we will imagine navigating this season with clearer intention and commitment to life-giving actions for ourselves and for the church we serve. (My thanks to zen master David Rynick for content) - Rev BJ

With Gratitude - Dear Ones, - As minister I have an option to know or not know the names (and dollar figures) of those who make contribution to church coffers.

In my early years in ministry I chose not to know and in the last decade I have chosen to know. That change of mind is a story too long to tell here…I can say that there is an advantage to knowing which I had not anticipated.

When I recently read the names of those of you who made donations to the Minister’s Discretionary fund offering, and to the Friends of Music fund I had a feeling most easily described as gratitude but it was much more than that, and being an NVC aficionado I decided to try to look deeper than the feeling of gratitude so as to connect more closely to my own WITZ. I noticed it was a feeling that is often accompanied by a lump in the throat and tear in the eye. It is something like the relief that comes when I’ve been holding my breath about something for a long time, and the word finally comes. I decided for now to call the feeling joy, which is not something I feel very often. I am normally at peace, content, and am sometimes delighted, tickled, or happy. But joy ... is not so common.

I felt joy at seeing your gifts, my perception of which met two needs. My need to to be allowed to matter was met in those moments. I was not aware until then that I even HAD a need to be allowed to matter, and it was joyful to recognize both the need and the fulfillment of it.

Further, my need for affirmation of a choice I made 30 years ago was met. When I look back over my life, and see how that one choice has impacted my life and the lives of those I love, I am not always sure it was the best choice. As I imagine the good that will come in the lives of other people from your financial gifts, I am joyfully certain that I made a very good choice to become a minister.

My best, - Rev BJ

Spectacular Music Sunday Planned - For so the children come” is the theme of this year’s Music Sunday, December 13th, 2009. The service centers around music of the season, both vocal and instrumental, but it also includes funny and poignant and evocative memories of Christmases past by members of our choir.

“The weekend after Christmas, just turned 3, standing on a stool in a neighborhood restaurant, singing out Jingle Bells and Silent Night for the customers; my first really public performance.”

This precious recollection shaped an entire life of joy in singing. Such reminiscences will be sprinkled among the music in the service, including Corelli’s “Christmas” Concerto, Telemann’s “Laudate Jehovam” for choir and strings, the “Hildegard Motets” by Maria Löfberg (a Swedish composer born in 1968!), J.S. Bach’s Prelude & Fugue in G Major, and our centerpiece, “For so the children come,” by Elizabeth Alexander. It was this piece that gave us our theme: “For so the children come,” Christmas relating to children and the music that they may listen to.

Joining the Chancel Choir will be violinists Ann Stowe and Ginny Allen, cellist Julie Hassler, and of course our organist-harpsichordist-pianist Mark Child.

The composers represented on Music Sunday are an unusual blend of traditional “dead white European males” paired with very-much-alive younger women. Elizabeth Alexander is a Unitarian composer and former choir director who is drawn to texts from our Unitarian Universalist heritage. “For so the children come” is in our hymnal as a responsive reading by Sophia Lyon Fahs, the founder of UU religious education. It appears with a simple musical setting in the hymn supplement “Singing the Journey.” Ms. Alexander has given it a more complex and challengingly engaging setting in her choral work accompanied by piano. Jazz chords and rhythms support some Christmas carol fragments in a unique blend.

By contrast, J.S. Bach, Georg Philip Telemann and Arcangelo Corelli are thought of as musicians of the past. In their day, however, they were the most popular and sought-after composers. They understood how to write in a way that speaks to all people, which is why their music is still performed and enjoyed today. Corelli titled his 8th concerto “Fatto per la notte di Natale or "Made for the night of Christmas," because of the Italian tradition for rural shepherds to journey into a nearby town on Christmas Eve and play their pipes in front of nativity scenes. We are so fortunate to have our wonderful congregational string players bringing us this glorious music for this Music Sunday. The culminating Postlude will be Bach’s magnificent Prelude and Fugue in G Major, which is a major performance achievement by our superlative new organist Mark Child. - Mattie Banzhaf

Year End Charitable IRA Rollover – Special Opportunity! - Unitarian Society of Hartford members and friends over the age of 70 ½ can make a tax-free deduction in 2009 of up to $100,000 from an IRA directly to the Unitarian Society of Hartford [USH]. This is a special, time-limited opportunity made possible by federal legislation extended through this year-end. IRA gifts can be made simply and without tax complications.

Please consider this relatively painless and creative way to contribute to our “Save Our Staff! Save Our Worship Services!” challenge to raise $5,000 from at least 100 USH members and friends by December 31, 2009. What a wonderful way to give to our USH community!

For those interested, contributions may also be made to the USH Endowment fund or split between the two (or more) USH funds.

What to Do?
Send written instructions to your IRA custodian requesting a rollover directly from your IRA to USH or another organization of your choice. Brian Mullen is the USH contact. You or your IRA custodian can reach him at: 860-233-9897 ext. 102 for transfer details.

Make the transfer of funds on or before December 31, 2009.

You will not owe income taxes on the amount of the gift and you can count the gift towards you minimum required distribution. To take advantage of this tax-free opportunity, funds must come from an IRA or Rollover IRA, not a pension, profit sharing or other form of retirement funds. Please contact your financial advisor to answer any and all questions regarding the impact on your individual tax status.

Thank You, Thank You - The Friends of Music are sending out hugs of gratitude on behalf of the whole congregation in thanks to those who so generously contributed to the Music Fund. In the six weeks, beginning in mid October until November 30, we all succeeded in raising $6,125.00, a sum which will keep our current music program in tact for the remainder of the church year.

This guarantees that you will hear the glorious voices of our section leaders and cantor through June. For this, we are truly grateful to you, our supporters. And to those who contribute each week by singing and reacting to the music, who provide feedback to the musicians and to staff about our musical offerings and about your musical preferences and wishes, “keep it coming.” We are about community; we are a community. Music is one of the strong bonds that hold us together in the Light. May it always be so.

Love to you,
The Friends of Music

Rally and Vigil Planned December 21 - Does it matter to you that right now families live in fear for their lives just because of their ethnic identity? Does it make a difference to you that women who need to collect firewood to feed their families risk being brutally raped or even killed by marauding militias? Do you feel any need to stand up for nearly 3 million refugees who have been burned and terrorized out of their homes and livelihoods?

If you can summon the will in your own heart to make a difference instead of just turning away, the Connecticut Coalition for Darfur wants you to come out and help make a future without genocide a reality.

On December 21 there will be a morning rally in downtown Hartford with a Danbury High School administrator who collaborated with his students to make a video that helped push through legislation to authorize divestment, a Darfur expatriate and survivor, and maybe even Senator Dodd. In the evening, we'll hold a candlelight vigil on the campus of St. Joseph's College in West Hartford. You're invited! Don't stand by while genocide and other atrocities continue! Stand up and insist on respect for human dignity and life. For more information, please view our event fliers or contact organizer Joshua Schreier at schreier.joshua(at symbol)gmail.com." More and still more

What Else is Happening

What Time Are You and Yours Planning to Come to the Festival of the Season On Saturday, December 5th? Whenever you come, Santa and Mrs. Claus will be there to greet you and our USH Christmas Tree, decorated by the Youth Group, will be up in the lobby. You’ll have an opportunity to spread Holiday Cheer to the children who live next door at the Village for Families & Children by putting a gift on the tree as you come in to enjoy the Festival’s many treats. More

Basket Raffle Continues (More)

Holiday Luncheon, Wednesday, December 9 at Noon - All women are invited to attend this Christmas party hosted by the Women’s Alliance. Sign up for the Pot Luck Lunch on the Alliance Board in Fellowship Hall. Lunch will be followed by the traditional holiday reading of A Visit From St. Nicholas To a Liberated Household and bring your favorite Holiday Poem to share.

To provide some holiday cheer to the less fortunate, bring a gift for Interval House, Hartford’s program for battered women and their families. Books, crayons, color books, stuffed animals, blocks, basic toiletries or disposable diapers of all sizes are especially welcome. Sign up by Dec. 6 so we can set a place for you.

You may also bring your spouse, partner or guest. $1 per person will be collected to cover our costs, or $6 per person if you do not bring a dish to share.

Holiday Bake Sale, Sunday, December 13 - The Women’s Alliance is sponsoring a bake sale after the Special Music Service on Dec. 13. Pumpkin bread, Cranberry bread, Christmas biscotti and Chocolate biscotti lovingly baked in the Meeting House Kitchen will be offered along with a variety of donated items. Bakers please bring your home made goodies to Fellowship Hall before the service.

Tai Chi Class for Beginners Contemplated - Options for times are Wed. evenings from 5:00 to 6:00 P.M. or Mon. or Tues. afternoons at a time to be determined. If you are interested please call Ginny Hedrick at 860.677. 9272. If possible classes could start in Jan. 2010.

The Magical "Bagdad Cafe" - Friday, December 11 ~ Dinner and Movie - “It's just a greasy spoon and a rusty gas pump in the middle of the Mojave Desert, but to a mysterious, stranded Bavarian woman and a few mismatched regulars,
the Bagdad Cafe becomes a magical place.” Rotten Tomatoes

. . .a sweet story about the common threads that connect disparate people, a cinematic jewel that is both ‘hilarious and touching.’" Los Angeles Times

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On Friday, December 11, the USH Dinner and Movie feature will be the eccentric 1988 comedy “Bagdad Café.” It’s a favorite of Barbara Hellenga who will lead the post-movie conversation.

To honor the quirky German tourist, the entree will be goulash over noodles; a vegetarian option will also be available for those requesting it when registering for the film.

On the 11th, drinks and chat at 5:30, dinner at 6, movie at 7. Helping hands to assist with set-up any time after 4:30 will be much appreciated.

Register by calling the USH Office (860-233-9897) or at the Coffee Hour Programs Table on Sunday, December 6; please make your reservations by Monday, December 7.

Adult Programs - Stop by the Programs Table on Sunday, December 6 to register for the December 11, Friday Dinner and Movie. The featured movie will be Bagdad Cafe. You may also register by calling the USH office at 860- 233-9897.

We just might have the book you're looking for to give during holiday time. Stop by and look at the offerings in the Book Cart located next to the Programs Table.

Mark your calendars for the 2nd session of Ember Days that will take place on Wednesday, December 16, 12:00 - 2:00 PM and Friday & Saturday, December 18, and 19, 6:00 - 8:00 PM.

Have you been thinking about trying Tai Chi? (see above).

The fall programs are winding down and it's not too early to think about possible programs to offer in the winter/spring term. Perhaps you or someone you know has an idea for a course, workshop, or Sunday afternoon program that you would like to see included.

To obtain a Program Proposal Form, you may go here. 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 or Nancy Reed no later than Monday, January 4 so that your proposed program can be reviewed and included with the other 2010 Winter/Spring Programs for Adults and Families..

Caring Network At college age, you can tell who is best at taking tests and going to school, but you can't tell who the best people are. That worries the hell out of me. Barnaby C. Keeney - 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)

Social Justice Journeys (From the UUA) And from USH

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Green Topics - Did You Know? Regifting Sale! - It's not too late to bring in those new gifts that don't quite suit you but others might like. Drop them off before the service in fellowship hall.
REDUCE-REUSE-RECYCLE

CHICO BAGS ARE BACK! However some of the bigger bags with designs on them and/or made from recycled material are $7.50 instead of the incredibly low price of $5. Both are available at the Regifting Sale and Green Table and very convenient for keeping in the car/purse for those unexpected trips to the store.

We will also have green stocking stuffers and green cleaning bags (bags full of stuff from the green table) including our very own USH bags for sale. Holiday shopping CAN help the planet and USH.

DID YOU SEE the beautiful magazine rack on the way into Fellowship Hall? Help yourself to any of them - REUSE-REDUCE-RECYCLE

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

An Evening of Opera Arias, Sunday December 6th, Beth El Temple, West Hartford More

Surviving the Holidays: Navigating Family Conflict 12/12 and 13 (more)

Our own Maggie Greene and her daughter Nora Pasco, both superb poets, will be the featured readers at the Wintonbury Branch Poetry Series and Open Mike this month.
This event is on December 17, 2009 (Thurs) 7:00 P.M. at the Wintonbury Public Library, 1015 Blue Hills Ave (rte 187), just north of Cottage Grove Rd (rte 218), Bloomfield, CT.
Light refreshments are served and the open mike follows the featured poets. Stir your heart, soul and your creativity! For more information, call the Wintonbury Branch Library at 860- 242-0041.

The Hillstead at Christmastime - We've been offered a tour by one of the lovely docents, Patricia Carr.

The date is December 30th, the time, 1PM

The cost to seniors is $9, for adults, $12.

Please sign up at the Programs table or call the office with your reservation.