Dear friends,

By now many of you have heard this week’s sad news.  For those of you who have not, it is with great sorrow that I share the news that beloved UUCCSM member Judy Federick passed away on Sunday.  Judy was a longtime member of the church, a member of the Lifespan RE Committee, and in past years a teacher of Coming of Age and Senior High O.W.L.  This Sunday, we will spend some time during the Time for All Ages in the sanctuary talking about things we can do to take care of ourselves and get help when we are sad.  The nursery and preschool will meet as usual, and children in grades 1-7 will take part in a social justice project together.  We will gently acknowledge the loss with our younger children, as it is often more upsetting to children to perceive that people around them are very sad without knowing why.  Older youth, those in 8th-12th grades, who may have known Judy well, are invited to join Catherine Farmer Loya and YRUU advisor Emily Linnemeier during the 9:00 service for an opportunity to process our loss and ways to provide support for one another.  Youth should attend the first part of the service, rather than heading immediately upstairs at 9:00.  Following the second service, at 12:30, members of the Our House grief support center will join Rebecca and Catherine for a one-hour program of support for our church community.  Childcare will be offered during this program, and youth are invited to attend.  I hope many of you will join us.

Calendar of upcoming events:

Friday, 9/21-Sunday, 9/23
  UUCCSM camp weekend at de Benneville
Sunday, 9/23
  Multi-age Social Justice Sunday
Sunday, 9/30
  Youth Programs brunch for youth in grades 8-12 and their families, hosted by the Youth Programs
  Subcommittee of the Lifespan RE Committee.  Held between the services from 10:15-11:00
Sunday, 10/28
  Day of the Dead Multigenerational service

Volunteer Opportunities:

Nursery/Preschool Assistants Needed – Would you enjoy spending one Sunday a month with the youngest members of our UUCCSM community?  We’re still looking for several assistants for the nursery at 9:00 or 11:00, and for the preschool class at 11:00.

This Week in RE:

·         Preschool-Kindergarten: “Welcome to Chalice Children” This week our preschool class will take part in an introduction to this year’s Chalice Children curriculum, with some special getting-to-know-you activities and stories.  Meets in the NW room of the cottage.

·         1st-7th Grade: This week our 1st-7th graders will take part in a special craft activity, in preparation for our upcoming RE Offering project to support School on Wheels.  We’ll learn about the help that School on Wheels provides to homeless children and youth, and will decorate special collection boxes to be used throughout the year to collect pennies and other coins.  At the end of the year we’ll count up all of our RE donations and will send the balance to School on Wheels to support their important work.  Meets in the center room of the cottage.

·         8th-12th Grade (Coming of Age & YRUU) – 9:00 only: This week youth are invited to gather to talk about loss and ways to ask for help or give help to others when they are struggling with depression and grief, as well as sharing our remembrances of Judy Federick. Meets in Room 1, the first room at the top of the stairs above Forbes Hall.

Announcements:

NEW RE Class Snack Signups:  Parents, please sign up to provide a snack for your child’s RE class this year.  If each family signs up for 2-3 Sundays during the year, we will be covered!  Younger children’s classes have signup charts posted next to the classroom doorway.  Parents for grades 6-12 are invited to sign up via email; contact Catherinedre@yahoo.com to volunteer to help.

Pick-Up Procedures:  Children through Grade 5 must be picked up from class by their parents.  Class time lasts until 15 minutes after the hour (10:15/12:15), in order to allow for a full hour of class time, and so parents have time to grab a cup of coffee before coming to collect their children.  Please be prompt; RE teachers deserve to take part in coffee hour, too!

Allergy Information:  If your child has any food allergies (or allergies to other materials that they would possibly come into contact with in a church school setting) PLEASE make sure that we know about them!  We do provide snacks in our RE classes, so it is very important information for us to have.  There is a spot on our RE registration form for this information, but if there is allergy information for your child that you did not include on the form, or if you have not yet turned in a registration form, please email me right away with the information.  I am creating allergy alert lists for all of our classes this week.

RE Registration & Parent Commitment Form for 2012-13:  Every child and youth who participates in our RE classes needs to have a registration form and parent commitment form filled out and signed each year.  The registration form helps us make sure we have current contact information for your family as well as information about your children’s needs, your dreams for their experience in our RE program, and the areas in which you’d like to help support our church’s educational ministry.  The parent commitment form asks for parents of children in our RE program to help out as volunteers during the year to ensure that our program is fully supported and of the highest quality we can make it.  We’ll have plenty of blank forms at the LRE table in the courtyard before and after the services on Sunday mornings in September, and they are also posted on the UUSM website at http://uusm.org/sundays-and-services/lifespan-RE/registration-permission-forms. Please bring yours on Sunday, or stop by the table to fill them out.  It is very helpful for us to have our registrations right away, so we can begin to build our class rosters and update our church records for this year.

Youth Programs Brunch, September 30:  Youth in Coming of Age (grade 8) and YRUU (grades 9-12) and their parents are invited to a brunch between the services on Sunday, Sept. 30th from 10:15-11:00 under the shade structure in the courtyard for an introduction to our youth programs for the year and to meet our fabulous Youth Programs committee members.  Siblings are welcome too!  We’ll share calendars for the year, talk about our monthly COA/YRUU social events (and ask for parents’ help in coordinating), and discuss the “big picture” of our congregation’s engagement with and support for our youth.

RE Books Wish List on Amazon:  Another arm of the “master wish list” for the RE program, is an Amazon Wishlist of books and supplies that will be useful in RE classes this year or that will be valuable resources for teachers & families in our church.  We do have some money earmarked for purchases, but we are running on a tight RE budget, and donations are happily accepted.  If you’d like to help out by donating to the program, check out the Amazon list at http://tinyurl.com/rewishlist.  (Used books in “good” condition are just fine!)  THANK YOU to the members who have already sent books or other supplies our way – they are so appreciated!

UU Everyday (resources and ideas for practicing your UU values at home):

Chalice Lighting Words of the Week (September’s Theme – FORGIVENESS):

September 23:
For every time we make a mistake
And we decide to start again,
We light this chalice.

For every time we are lonely
And we let someone be our friend,
We light this chalice.

For every time we are disappointed
And we choose to hope,
We light this, our chalice.
-- M. Maureen Killoran

For the 2012-13 church year we’re trying out a new way of living as one lifespan religious community: congregation-wide ministry themes.  Each month we’ll explore a new theme, and in September our theme is FORGIVENESS.  The chalice lightings shared here will be used in all of our RE classes, and I hope that your family will also share it at home during the week.  I’m tickled by the idea of all of our UUCCSM families sharing a reflection in common each week as we go about our daily lives.

At-Home Activities to Reinforce this month’s theme of FORGIVENESS:

Are you holding on to a hurt that was done to you? Is there someone you are holding a grudge against? Think of a way of letting the “wind blow that hurt away.”

You could write the hurt into sand somewhere outdoors, and as the wind and weather slowly erase your words, work to let go of the hurt inside of you.

If you have been holding a grudge, actively work to reconcile yourself to that individual.

Explore ways that people are using forgiveness and reconciliation as a form of justice-making in the world. Some places to start might be The Fellowship of Reconciliation (http://www.forusa.org), South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, or the Victim Offender Reconciliation Program
(http://www.vorp.com).

Resources:

Books for Children:
  The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles
  Lets be Enemies by Janice May Udry
  That’s Mine, Horace by Holly Keller
  My Two Uncles by Judith Vigna
  Yoshi’s Feast by Kimiko Kajikawa
  Zinnia and Dot by Lis Cambell Ernst
  Feathers and Fools by Mem Fox

Further Reading for Adults:
·         Explore the following readings in Singing the Living Tradition published by the Unitarian Universalist Association. (Our hymnal)
o   # 438 by Clinton Lee Scott
o   #440 by Phillip Hewett
o   #461 by Reinhold Niebuhr
o   #464 by Judy Chicago
o   #477 by Vivian Pomeroy
o   #478 from the UN Envirmonmental Sabbath Program
o   #634 by Jack Riemer
o   #635 by Chaim Stern
o   #637 by Robert Eller-Isaacs
o   #666 by Thandeka
·         “Reconciliation as a Spiritual Discipline,” by Paula Cole Jones; UUWorld Magazine, February, 2004 http://www.uuworld.org/2004/02/feature1.html
·         “The Practice of Reconciliation,” by Paula Cole Jones; UUWorld Magazine, February, 2004 http://www.uuworld.org/2004/02/feature1b.html
·         Forgiveness is a Choice: A Step-By-Step Process for Resolving Anger and Restoring Hope by Robert D. Enright, American Psychological Association, 2001
·         A Little Book on Forgiveness by Marilyn Sewell, Fuller Press, 2008

This Week in UU History: (From This Day in Unitarian Universalist History, by Frank Schulman)

September 24, 1825:  Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was born in Baltimore, Maryland.  She was an important African-American feminist, abolitionist, and writer.  Harper was a strong advocate for the Underground Railroad and worked for women’s suffrage, temperance, and education.  She taught school at Union Seminary near Columbus, Ohio, and except for the years 1860 to 1864, when she stayed home with her young daughter, she lectured widely and kept a grueling schedule.  A member of the First Unitarian Church in Philadelphia, Harper was also a poet and popular novelist.  Her books include Iola Leroy (1892), Minnie’s Sacrifice (1868), Sowing and Reaping, and Trial and Triumph.  In her later years, Harper helped found the National Association of Colored Women.  She died on February 22, 1911.

September 26, 1539:  Sebastian Franck was banished from Strasburg, Germany, because of his Unitarian beliefs.  A Lutheran who converted to Unitarianism, he wrote popular books on history and religion.  Franck eventually settled in Basel, Switzerland.

September 27, 1616:  The Unitarian Church in Rakow, Poland, sent Peter Statorius III and John Lunkwitz to Altorf, Germany, to help free Unitarian students imprisoned for their beliefs.

September 27, 1833:  Rajah Rommuhun Roy died in England at the age of 61.  He was the founder of the Brahmo-Samaj, a form of Hinduism similar to Unitarianism.

September 28, 1746:  John Disney was born.  He left the Church of England to become Unitarian and succeeded Theophilus Lindsey as minister of Essex Street Chapel in London.  A leading scholar of his day, Disney worked for repeal of all laws restricting liberty of conscience.  He died on December 26, 1816.

September 28, 1891:  Herman Melville, an important American novelist and Unitarian, died at age 72.  Melville was born in 1819 in New York City.  Although his family heritage was distinguished in cultural and military circles, poverty limited his education and forced him to ease the family’s financial woes as a clerk, common seaman, and country schoolteacher.  However, Melville’s family inherited extensive libraries, in which he read widely.  He left home at age 17 and served on the whaler Acushnet, deserted in the Pacific, and lived briefly with a cannibal tribe.  His works include Typee (1846), Omoo (1847), and Mardi (1849), but he is most famous for his 1851 novel Moby Dick.  He also wrote a series of poems about the Civil war.  In later life, Melville withdrew from society almost completely, working as a customs agent and writing Billy Budd (1891).  He was a member of the Unitarian Church of All Souls in New York City.

September 29, 1929:  The first service of the Humanist Society, the first independent Humanist congregation, was held at Steinway Hall in New York City on this date.  Charles Francis Potter, a Unitarian minister and one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto, conducted the service and delivered the sermon, “A New Faith for a New Age.”  (Catherine’s note: for more information about religious humanism and to read the Humanist Manifesto, visit http://www.americanhumanist.org/Who_We_Are/About_Humanism/Humanist_Manif...)