50 Bloomfield Avenue, Hartford, CT 06105 Tel: (860) 233-9897 / FAX 233-1333 Email: firstunitarian@ushartford.com Reverend Barbara Jamestone, PhD

Home Page- Link Central Questions and Comments	USH-Enews For December 13, 2007 Jump to: Calendar; What's happening; In Celebration & Gratitude; A matter of opinion; External events; Further Down the Road; Did You Know? Text only Printer Friendly Format
	Music Sunday - The Peaceable Kingdom by Randall Thompson - Photo by Anne Bailey 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.
	Worshipping Together Since 1830 - Services at 9 & 11 AM Sunday - A Reason for the Season -  Let’s “jazz” up the holiday preparations by exploring alternative reasons for the wondrous star struck season, while enjoying some surprising musical experiences. Music - Jazz by Walter Gwardyak - While our choir travels to Fern Street to repeat “The Peaceable Kingdom” for UCWH’s Music Sunday, we will hear the jazz piano artistry of Walter Gwardyak, Musical Director of the New England Jazz Ensemble and member of the Unitarian Society of Hartford REflections on Children's Programming Intergenerational Service Sunday, December 23rd will be an intergenerational service, and therefore there will be no religious education classes.  Please join us for a Christmas celebration.   Arts Sunday Sunday, December 30th will be an Arts Sunday, when all the children in attendance will participate in a multiage art project.  Join the RE Family as we Make Our Own Calendars in the Spirit Play classroom after the Time for All Ages.  Individual classes will not meet separately.   Search for Charity Make those internet searches pay off!  Encourage your children to use www.goodsearch.com  when looking for things online.  Each search contributes to the charity or nonprofit organization that you choose.  The Unitarian Universalist Association is one of the possible organizations, or enter your favorite cause! What Else is Happening  & Announcements Al Herzog's sermon, Small Wonders:  Unexpected Moments That Change Our Life, is now available on the web. In addition, the November financials have been published. Check Out Your Toys - In line with our directive to advocate for a healthy environment, we recommend you see www.Healthytoys.org where you can check out products, and learn about chemicals of concern. - IASC Spirituality Retreat Planned - Are you yearning for "A Place for Tranquility" for your spirit and soul? Then reserve your spot today for the 2008 Spirituality Retreat in Ivoryton, Connecticut from 5:00 PM Friday evening, January 18th through 3:00 PM Saturday. This year's bonus:  we can enjoy a second night FREE! Information sheets are located in the office and throughout the Meeting House.  Watch for more details in this month's USH-Enews and Sunday bulletins. - Deborah Meny Holiday Poinsettias - More As is our custom, we will don our chancel with poinsettias. The Giving Tree - welcomes hats and mittens and GIFTS, oh my!  This year you will find WISHES on the tree.  Please take one or more and return the ornament with your unwrapped gift by December 16th. These gifts of love will be delivered by Traci Hardison, Misha Hardison, and Eric Gatlin to My Sister's Place, a shelter for battered women and their children in Hartford.   Is There a New Baby in Your Circle? - In recognition of the holiness of every child, names of new babies born this year into our community will be read aloud during the 4:00 PM Christmas Eve service on December 24. Please send the names of those 2007 babies precious to you and your family to Gail Syring at dre@ushartford.com, or call 233-9897 and leave the name (and spelling) at the office. Christmas Eve Candlelight Service - Please join us in the Chapel on December 24th at 10 PM for a reverential, contemplative Christmas Eve service. Candlelight, participatory traditional carol singing, and the Christmas story will complete this lovely worship.  In lieu of a monetary offering, please bring a nonperishable food item to donate to the Horace Bushnell Food Pantry. From the Adult Programs Sub-Council: During coffee hour this Sunday you may want to take a look at the interesting books for purchase at the Adult Programs Book Cart located near the Registration Table.  Among the offerings are: Collected Meditations: Gifts of Life by Patricia Frevert, Ed. The Circle of Simplicity by Andrew Cecile. Understanding the Bible by John Buehrens. Hartford Unitarians 1844-1994 by Freeman Meyer. Ember Days will be celebrated next Wednesday, December 19, 12:00 - 2:00 PM, Friday and Saturday, December 21, 22,  6:00 - 8:00 PM. Led by Rev. Jamestone, this second of four seasonal observances will include spiritual exercises and time for personal introspection in silence. Come to any or all of the sessions. No registration needed.   Coming early in January - Connecticut Common Cause, a Founder's Perspective, Sunday, January 6, 1:00 PM in the Chapel. Sid Garvais who was instrumental in the formation of the CT Common Cause will tell us about its past and future work. CUREJ Potluck and Motown Revue - The following invitation has been issued to USH. In the spirit of CUREJ (Congregations United for Racial Equity and Justice), let us have a good turn-out at this event on December 15th. Take a pot-luck item, if you can. Here is the necessary information. Questions?  Joan Kemble Soutter Cards from Paintings Available 23 December - For nearly twenty years, Carolyn Soutter contributed her creative ingenuity to USH projects. She was an extraordinarily talented artist, and when she passed away in May 2006 left a legacy of beautiful paintings. Her daughter Elizabeth has created exceptionally high-quality greeting cards from vivid reproductions of four of her works. The stationery, printed on watercolor paper, has been packaged with elegant envelopes in sets of eight, and is available for sale during both coffee hours on the 23rd. Each gift-wrapped box costs $25, and makes a fantastic last-minute gift or personal keepsake. By special invitation from Rev BJ, Elizabeth Soutter  is making available the work of her mother Carolyn, of blessed memory, a devoted member of the Meeting House until her death in 2006. More (click on represented artists) - Anne Bailey Disabilities Sub-Council Focuses on Mental Health Issues - More The Holidays: How can I survive them? More Caring Network - "However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results." Winston Churchill - You are the ears of the Caring Network. Diana Heymann is the Chair of the Caring Network. Please tell Diana (heydiana(at symbol)comcast.net) 860.461.0908, or call the office when you learn of any 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. On the Calendar This would be a good time to try the web calendar, see link below... Italicized entries are non-USH events. - Please notify Brian Mullen (233.9897) of all additions or changes to the calendar. More general calendar information covering several months may be found here External Events and Educational Notes 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) In Celebration & Gratitude - Many thanks to Mattie and the choir members of USH and Fern Street for the breathtaking performance of Randall Thompson’s Peaceable Kingdom this past Sunday. Bravo! Did You Know? - The volume of sea ice at the end of this summer is half what it was just four years earlier, according to new NASA satellite data. - Hartford Courant	From the Editor: Contributors please take note. The next USH-Enews will cover two weeks, 20 and 27 December. Also, contributors will please hold items for publication until the week of intended publication. A backlog of several weeks of items with different publication dates creates unnecessary confusion. For you it is one or two items, for the editor it is a good many more. Thanks. This Week’s Feature Articles Editor's Note - you may have noticed we publish a good many things in the Messenger and the USH-Enews. It turns out we do not have as much cross readership as you might expect. This article appeared earlier in the December Messenger. A Matter of Principles – Bill LaPorte-Bryan At first, I worked with the team that tries to attract new members to USH but after I recently shifted to work with the Social Justice team, I learned something. I learned that Membership and Social Justice go hand-in-hand.  It seems that the more people join our church, the more social justice we have.  But it works the other way too.  The more social justice we have, the more people want to visit our worship services and subsequently many of them decide to become members.  What I learned was just reinforced when I watched my copy of a wonderful 10-minute UUA video called Voices of a Liberal Faith, which BJ had distributed at a recent meeting of the four Council Chairs.  If you want to watch it too, click YouTube - Voices of a Liberal Faith - Unitarian Universalists. What is it that ties social justice and membership together?  Perhaps our seven principles are the key (the Pathways to Membership participants seemed to think so).  So I’d like you to join me as we take some time to share our stories and talk about our principles, one at a time, to find out what we can learn from them and what they mean to us. Christian’s have the Apostle’s Creed, Jews have the Shema and Moslems have “La ilaha illa’llahu: Muhammad Rasulu’llah,” but, like Buddhism, we Unitarians are creedless. In fact, since we respect every individual’s right to choose his or her own religious beliefs, having a creed would probably make no sense for us. That’s fine, but what do Unitarians believe?  That’s the most common question I heard from the Pathways participants.  If they asked you that question, what would you say?  There are many ways to respond, but it turned out that we had our best discussions when we talked about our seven principles. If you’re like me and can’t remember all of them, you can find them on our website.  But, to make it easy for you, here, reduced to a single word, they are: December - Respect January - Compassion February - Acceptance March - Truth April - Justice May - Democracy June - Interdependence What a list! “But what are the months in that list?” you might ask.  Starting this month, we’ll be focusing on a different principle every month … we’ll have a “Principle of the Month” just like we have a “Hymn of the Month.” Here’s the way it will work.  Around the beginning of each month I’ll invite you to share your story about a time in your life when that month’s principle was particularly important to you.  Just send your story in to David Newton and he’ll probably publish it in a newsletter. Here’s our principle for December, respect, in ways that both adults and children can understand. The inherent worth and dignity of every person Each person is important. What does that mean to you?  Tell us about a time or an event in your life when your respect or lack of respect for someone else or for a group of people made a difference.  Or perhaps it was the other way around … maybe it was someone else’s respect or lack of respect for you that stands out in your mind.  It can be something that happened in church (out of respect, please leave out individual’s names) but it doesn’t have to be.  You can share anything in your life - from your relationships with family, friends, or even strangers - at home or at work. One thing that I learned from the Pathways participants was 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 do it together. Purple Dots - At the charge of the Council on Spiritual Life that she create a congregation wide spiritual practice of gratitude for our society and its many gifts to us as persons, Rev BJ has instituted our "Peaceful Purple Gratitude Game!" More Further Down The Road (About 30 Days) Say YES to Yourself in the New Year - Do you long to be your own true self? Do you wish to soar above the clouds? Do you seek to achieve your unique mission? Yet do paper piles, daily minutiae and your own inner critic sabotage your efforts? Come to an interactive workshop by Dr. Doreen Stern aka The Desk Docktor She reveals, “The Secret to Turning Your Paper Mess into Success, in 20 Minutes or Less” You’ll identify your true desires and develop a doable plan of taking baby steps. Plus learn how to eliminate ONE piece of paper a day to fuel your intentions. Offered through Artist's Way Date: Saturday, January 5, 2008 Time: 1:30 – 3:30 Place: Unitarian Meeting House Cost: $15 An Introduction to Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction - Sharon Gutterman, Ph.D. Based on the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D.- Full Catastrophe Living Stop! What are you thinking right now? Dwelling on the past or obsessing about the future? Learn how sweet it is to live in the present moment, aware of your surroundings, thoughts, and actions, rather than looking around the corner for the next thing to do or become. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) develops your ability to pay attention to whatever is happening in the present moment. Greater calmness can enhance your ability to cope with stress, pain and be creative. Using the tools of meditation, breathwork, yoga, and group support you can learn to quiet your mind, center your body, and connect the mind and body as a unified whole. Sharon Gutterman, Ph.D. participated in MBSR professional training under the direction of Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D. and Saki Santorelli, Ed.D.  Sharon teaches stress management and the importance of wellbeing to physicians at U. Conn. Health Center and Yale Medical Center. She also teaches the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program series at West Hartford Yoga. Her mantra: “The quality of care you give others is related to the quality of care you give yourself.” Offered through Artist's Way Saturday January 26, 2008 Time: 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM Fee: $25.00 Registration required Re- Scheduled Program: Denise Ackeifi on Traveling and Living in Ghana - 1 PM, Sunday, January 20,  2008 - Ghana is a developing country at the brink of change. Come see pictures and hear Denise's story of her travels and life in this West African nation. Her joys include seeing elephants and baboons in the wild, and  experiencing the dungeons of the African slave trade. Her troubles include  negotiating social and cultural norms and being arrested by a corrupt police  force. No advance registration required; no fee. You can bring a  sandwich or snack to eat after service, then attend Denise's illustrated talk in the Chapel at 1PM. If you don't know Denise, she's our Youth Group Director who teaches high  school in her off hours; her daughter is currently attending college in  Ghana.  She has made numerous trips to Ghana, and will concentrate  on her most recent trip, last summer. More Save the Date - Heart and Soul at USH - A Valentines Day Celebration Feb. 14th 2008 Time for a New Round of Circle Dinners Next Round of Dates : February 29, April 5, and May 10.   - Enjoy being with old friends and meeting new ones. Here's how it works: Groups of (usually) eight adults (couples and singles) will dine at different host homes. Not everyone hosts, but please host once if you can. Host supplies the entree.  Guests are assigned to bring either appetizers, salad, vegetable or dessert. Register in Fellowship Hall on Sundays.  A schedule of hosts and guests will be sent by mail.  Registration Deadline: February 10. Dates: Shown above.   Time: Determined by host Location: Various host homes Fee: A one-time fee, $2 per household Contact: Marion Kelliher 860-286-2740 marion.kelliher(at symbol)gmail.com
	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 12/12/07 8:30 PM)