Sep-03
From Our Minister:
When I arrived in California 10 years ago, I had no idea how long I would stay.It was such a big change for me, leaving my friends and family in the northeastand taking up ministry in Santa Monica. I didn’t tend to have long ministries:two years at one church, four at another, and six years at the Unitarian UniversalistAssociation — the longest I ever remained in one job.
I was always looking for a new challenge, and the Santa Monica church wasit. The first year was eventful: the January 1994 Northridge earthquake tookplace the morning after the installation service. Our building suffered seriousdamage and everyone’s lives were disrupted. I had to wonder whether movinghere was such a good idea.
Ministry is unpredictable, I realized, and as I set about picking up the piecesafter the quake, I also realized that bonds form during times of distress. Andthey did. Before long, I felt like a real Angeleno, flying down the 10 freewaywith my friend Wanda the first day after it reopened.
Little did I know back then, however, how much my life would change or howlong I would stay. We never know what the future will bring! I often wonderedwhat it would be like to have a long ministry (10 years is long by most standards).More than once I have turned to Ernie Pipes, our minister emeritus, who servedour church for 35 years, for advice. He taught me that a congregation is constantlychanging, that you do not need to move somewhere else to renew your ministryor find new challenges.
I also learned that a long ministry is good for churches, which benefit fromthe stability and continuity a committed leader provides. One of the reasonsour church is so strong is because of Ernie’s integrity and the depthof his ministry, tested over many years. Now I appreciate for myself the valueof putting down roots and serving people for a long time.
These 10 years have been good ones for me. We have much to look forward to.And though no one can predict the future, it is certain to pose new challenges,interesting changes, and probably another earthquake sooner or later.
-- Judith Meyer
From Our President:
The board had an excellent retreat on August 9, 2003. I am so delighted tobe serving with board members who bring energy, thoughtfulness and no smallmeasure of passion to the process. We also manage to share our ideas (even whenthey differ) in a respectful manner. Thank you to all the board members forattending.
We began the retreat with a group exercise that I am going to recommend toall of you. (See instructions below.) We broke into three groups of four andtook 15 minutes to identify three strengths of our church and three weaknesses.When we gathered back together as a big group, we shared our thinking. Perhapsnot surprisingly, the strengths and the weaknesses identified by the small groupswere very similar.
I wanted to share the identified strengths with you. We agreed that our churchbenefits from a terrific minister. We also agreed that our church enjoys tremendoushuman capital in the sense that we have a large number of committed and energeticvolunteers. Finally, we agreed that the seven UU principles provide a foundationof strength for the growth and development of our community.
We did, of course, identify three weaknesses. Some of them may seem obvious(like finances), and the board will be focusing on these concerns this year.We will talk more about these weakness in the future.
In the meantime, here is the exercise I want to recommend to each of you.(Yes, homework. It is September after all.) Please take a few minutes this monthto think about the strengths and weaknesses of our church. The group dynamicreally helps, so talk to your spouse, your child, your partner, your friend.Put these strengths and weaknesses on a piece of paper and leave it for me inthe president’s mailbox at church or send it in by mail. We, as a board,may have agreed on our vision of our strengths, but we need to hear your visionstoo to round out our perspective.
As the board begins a process this fall of identifying goals for the year,we would benefit from having your list of issues (good and bad). I think youwill also find that writing down the pros and cons, as it were, will remindyou of why you make this church your spiritual home.
-- Carol Kerr
Featured Articles:
When people come together to make this church a place that can speak to ourspiritual, social and emotional growth we have a vital community. Let’slook at some of the people doing this very important work (committee chairs)and their hopes for their committees.
Helen Burns, Shirlee Frank and Peggy Kharaaz are the driving forces behindnew member suppers, where they coordinate food, drink and recruiting of longer-timechurch members to act as hosts for periodic new member welcome dinners. Theyalso coordinate Dining for Dollars, in which they work with a dizzying numberof congregation members to host dinners-for-auction in their homes throughoutthe year. This fundraiser raised nearly $20,000 for the church this year. Withboth of these endeavors, they seek to create church community in a social environment.Their hopes for the future? More help in organizing and executing both of theseprojects.
Shirlee Frank also chairs the Gallery Wall Committee, which provides groupand solo art exhibitions in Forbes Hall. In the coming year, she’d likethe funds to replace the 20-year-old beige-colored cloth covering on the wall.
Warren Mathews writes that the Finance Committee’s mission is to makesure the church operates in a financially sound manner. They don’t makeany program decisions, but they do seek fiscally sound ways to accomplish programsand long-term objectives. Finance’s dream is to see a substantial andcontinuing increase in church income, which realistically means a substantialincrease in annual pledge income plus an active program of deferred giving.
Carol Agate looks to connect our congregation to the greater world of UU throughthe denominational affairs committee. Barbara Kernochan chairs the buildingcommittee, and Laurel Bleak coordinates new member evenings with the minister.
You’ll see more specifics about the works and desires of these wonderfulpeople and your other committee-chair-neighbors in the pews as we publish ourfirst UUCCSM program booklet for the coming year next month.
The greater appreciation we have for each other’s contributions to ourcommunity, as well as each other’s hopes and dreams for our congregation,the better stewards we’ll become.
In faith,
Jacki K. Weber
Workers Justice Will Be on the FIA Agenda
On September 14, our congregation will choose which faith in action (FIA)issues they want to support during the coming months. One of the issues to bevoted on will be “Partnerships for Justice.” This campaign willhelp 4,000 low-wage hotel workers in the Santa Monica area to achieve fair workingconditions in union contracts that provide fair wages, health benefits, fairworkloads, and job security.
Cathie Gentile, member of the church’s FIA Commission, explained the“Partnerships for Justice” campaign in a pulpit announcement onAugust 31. Two organizations, Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE)and Santa Monicans Allied for Responsible Tourism (SMART) hosted a dinner andinformation meeting last month about “Partnership for Justice” atSt. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Santa Monica. Attending from our congregationwere Cathie, Ernie and Maggie Pipes, Sylvia Berke, Mar Preston, Paula Bernsteinand Abby Arnold.
In advocating the “Partnerships for Justice” issue, Cathie cites,from the UUA general assembly in Boston in June, a portion of the statementof conscience that addresses the issue of worker rights: “We are calledto participate in the work of organizations that advocate for human rights,fair employment standards, and environmental justice. Countries have the responsibilityto require foreign and domestic companies to pay fair taxes, ensure their workersa locally-defined living wage, provide a healthy and safe work environment,and respect the right of their workers to bargain collectively in independentlabor unions and to engage in strikes and other job actions when necessary.”
“The low-wage worker campaign has the potential to be a significantlabor movement in our community as well as the country,” believes Cathie.“As Unitarians, we have a long history of supporting labor issues. I hopeour congregation feels as I do that this is a worthwhile effort and will chooseto become advocates for the workers who currently engaged in this struggle.”
News & Announcements:
Ministers' Schedule
The Rev. Judith Meyer is available for meetings and appointments in the churchoffice Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. She works at home Fridays and Saturdays.Her day off is Monday. This month, Judith and Stefanie Etzbach-Dale will bein Chicago October 28-30 for an Internship Conference sponsored by Meadville-LombardTheological School.
Pulpit Suggestions Invited
The Pulpit Committee invites your feedback on the summer services, your suggestionsfor guest speakers, and your comments about how to improve the quality of ourworship.
Our job is to find guest speakers when the Rev. Judith Meyer is out of thepulpit, train members of the congregation to serve as pulpit hosts, and assistwith services created by members of the church. We’d like to hear yourcomments. Please e-mail Pulpit Committee chair Vilma Ortiz,and your feedback will be reported to the committee (Sue Bickford, Alison Chipman,Kathy Cook, Gary Kinsinger, Scott Roewe), which meets the first Tuesday of eachmonth.
Weekly Mediatation is Starting Again
Meditation and discussion of various spiritual and religious subects will beginevery Tuesday evening beginning September 2 in Room 6 from 7 to 9 p.m. The classwill be led by Bernie Silvers, a former Zen monk.
Meditation and discussion will resume again every Sunday morning from 9:30to 10:45 a.m., beginning September 7, in Room A (building behind Forbes Hall,upstairs). Bernie will again lead the discussions and teach meditation. Beginnersare welcome. For more information contact Bernie.
Holiday Boutique Needs New Sponsor
For more than 10 years, the Social Action Committee had, as one of its projects,the very popular holiday recycling boutique, which enabled members of the congregationto clear out their closets of new and nearly new items and to buy other people’snew and nearly new items at prices more affordable than Macy’s 15-hoursale. The proceeds, which amounted to between $2,000 and $3,000, went to non-profitagencies in our community. We also contributed a fax machine to the farm workersunion office in Oxnard, and $1,000 to the new California Unitarian UniversalistLegislative ministry.
The Social Action Committee has disbanded and we are looking for a committeeor group of energetic people to take over this fun and worthwhile project. Manyitems are left over from last year’s boutique, and also, some wonderfulconsultants are prepared to meet with any group or committee to help keep thisproject going. Sunday, November 30, has been put on the church’s calendaras the date for this year’s boutique.
Commitments should be be made as soon as possible to leave time to properlyput the boutique together. Please call Sylvia Berke, JanFolick, or Marge Zifferblatt if you are interested.
-- Sylvia Berke
Art Note
Calling all artists who are members of our congregation...to be part of theOur Own Artists exhibit in December on our gallery wall in Forbes Hall.For more information, call Shirlee Frank.
Name Tag Reminder
It's September. Please start the season right by wearing your name tag!
Building News:
We Get the City’s First Green Light to Start Our Building/Remodeling
Have you noticed the large signboards in front of the sanctuary and facing17th Street? They represent a giant step forward in our building process. Wehave officially submitted our building proposal to the Santa Monica city planners,applying for a conditional use permit and parking variance, and those signsindicate that the city process has begun.
As is customary, alas, our application was deemed incomplete. The city hasposed additional questions about very specific architectural details and eventhe types of trees we anticipate planting, and our architect and others havebeen busy responding to those remaining queries.
Once our revised application has been deemed complete, the city will giveus a date for our hearing. You will know this step has been taken when a dateappears on those big signs.
Meanwhile, we have requested an itemized breakdown of costs from our selectedconstruction company.
Our next decision points will focus as much on our financial picture and thewill of the congregation as on the city’s approval process. Stay tuned.
— Barbara Kernochan for the Building Committee
Faith in Action News:
Our third annual issues election is Sept. 14
Do you feel passionately about feeding the hungry, housing the poor, payingworkers a living wage, reining in the Patriot Act, or reinvigorating the UnitedNations? Do you want our church to become involved in prison reform? Would youlike us to work for universal access to health care? Is there some other socialjustice issue or concern that you feel we should tackle?
The Faith in Action (FIA) Commission is responsible for coordinating the witnessand advocacy program of our church for issues such as these. Each SeptemberFIA holds an all-church, town hall meeting to review FIA programs and to prioritizesocial action activities for the coming year. This year’s annual issueselection will be held after church on September 14. It is the third such electionsince FIA was created in September 2000 and the first since FIA was formallyestablished by congregational vote in May 2003.
The meeting will be in two parts. First, we will review current FIA activitiesrelated to peace, civil liberties, hunger, economic justice, and our newly recognizedstatus as a UU Welcoming Congregation. Members of the congregation attendingthe issues election will have an opportunity to ask questions about these programsand make recommendations about whether or not these programs should be continued.
The second part of the meeting will consist of small group discussions aboutideas for new social action programs and topics. These ideas for the futurewill be pooled and prioritized by group vote. New FIA programs, if any, willbe based on this process.
FIA is committed to focusing our witness and advocacy activities on thoseissues of greatest interest to the congregation. Please come to the annual issueselection on September 14 so we can determine your priorities and be responsiveto your most pressing concerns.
Charles M. Haskell
Chair, FIA Commission
Splinters from the Board:
Summer Retreat Focuses on Restructuring the Board
Instead of a scheduled August meeting, the church board had a retreat on Saturday,August 9. The facilitator, Patty Oertel, is not a UU but hasa great deal of consulting experience to boards of non-profit organizations,including faith-based organizations. All but one board member attended.
The session started with the participants identifying perceived strengthsand weaknesses of the church. Then, in an effort to return to the practice ofhaving board members serve as liaisons to committees within the church, muchof the session was devoted to examining how committees might be structured intoportfolios of responsibility. The benefit of reinvigorating the portfolio conceptis to keep the board informed of noteworthy happenings and to give committeesand their chairs a more direct voice on the board.
The meeting concluded with a discussion of how the perceived weaknesses inthe church, such as our current inability to fully fund our operating budget,could be turned into achievable and quantifiable goals for the year.
There was a board meeting in August, after all. On August 10 an emergencymeeting was held before church to ratify the search committee’s selectionof a director of religious education.
-- Carol Agate and Carol Kerr
RE News:
Catherine Farmer is Our New Religious Education Director
CatherineFarmer, from the UU Church in Riverside, has been named our new director ofreligious education (DRE). A near-lifelong UU, Catherine originally comes fromOhio. “Both children’s RE and YRUU involvement played vital rolesin my own growth and development,” says Catherine.
Catherine came to Southern California to attend Pomona College in Claremont,where she received a BA in history with many courses relating directly to herinterest in religious education. She then worked closely with Greg Stewart atthe Neighborhood Church in Pasadena for several years helping make the Way CoolSunday School format a success in that congregation.
From there, Catherine was hired as director of religious education for theUU church in Riverside where she has served full time for the last couple ofyears. “Religious education is the focus of my life’s work,”she says.
“My goal is to serve a congregation that is interested in developingits educational ministry in a sustained relationship with a settled professional.”As part of her commitment to religious education, Catherine plans to becomea credentialed director of religious education through a new program offeredby the UUA. This last year, she has been a consultant to our RE program in reviewingour curriculum and led the volunteer training session on August 23.
“We were very impressed by Catherine. She was articulate, passionateand experienced. She stood out as the best fit with our congregation, the REprogram and its goals, “said Karen Patch, chair of the search committeefor a new director of religious education. Other members of the search committeewere Diane Fletcher-Hoppe, Janet Goodwin, Victor Paddock, and Karen Raiford.The Rev. Judith Meyer adds: “I expect to enjoy working with Catherineas a colleague and hope to learn from her how better to minister to our childrenand families. She has a lot to offer.”
-- Karen Patch
UU Teens Have Programs from 8th to 12th Grade
Our lively youth program is ready to start another fun year. At 9 a.m. willbe the coming of age program for 8th graders. This class will prepare for thecoming of age service at the end of the year.
For teens in 9th through 12th grade, there is YRUU at 11 a.m. This youth empoweredgroup (with adult advisors) plans ways to put their UU faith into action.
For both groups, we plan to continue our tradition of monthly social activities.Last year we went miniature golfing, rock climbing, ice skating, bowling, playedlaser tag, plus had a couple of lock ins. For more information contact the YouthActivities Committee (YAC) chair, Karen Patch, or just askone of our teens!
Our Summer DRE Tells What She Learned on Her Summer Vacation
As William Shakespeare said, “And summer’s lease hath all tooshort a date.” Summer has ended but not without its lessons. What haveI learned as the church’s summer director of religious education (DRE)?So much.
I learned that if you have water, they will come. (Our trip to Water Worldwas a huge success.)
I learned that any obstacle, big or small, can be overcome and can also befun.
I learned that the junk around my house (from toilet paper rolls to leftoverelectrical wire) can be made into a stunning piece of art.
I learned that our children are talented, generous and creative and can puton a really great show. (But, hey, I already knew that.)
I learned that the books of Dr. Seuss offer great lessons in Unitarian Universalistprinciples.
The summer has come and gone. I feel as if I had just started my stint asthe summer DRE and now I am done. Whom to thank? So many:
The volunteers who made Way Cool Camp possible: Iris Jue, Alan Cranis, EmilyHero, Rachel Nannini, Daniel Teplitz, Sharon Voigt-Damerell, Sherry Handa, DebbieMenzies, Kris Langabeer, Joyce Holmen, Mort Postel, Linda Van Ligten, LindaMarten, Diane Fletcher-Hoppe, Karl Hoppe, Colette Fletcher-Hoppe, Jeff Greenman,Kerry Thorne, Dorothy Steinicke, Beverly Alison, Phyllis Kory, Caroline Falk,Martha Bonner, Pam Teplitz, Amelia Harati and Tom Ahern. Your support createdan atmosphere of love and learning. Our children have learned that church isindeed a special place.
The teachers who took on “Summer of Seuss”: Tom Kafka, Ann Hanson,Lyn Armondo, Peggy Kharraz, Nancy Gershwin, Kit Shaw, Cathie Gentile, Ruth Harper,Anne Gustafson, Karl Lisovsky, Janet Goodwin, Anna Silver, Pat Gomez, CindyAmer, Michelle Levesque, Julie Millett, and Michael Branton. Our preschoolersand kindergartners had a special time and place to really call their own.
Karen Patch and Jana Poirier for sitting in as DRE for the day.
The staff of our church: Marie Kashmer-Stiebing, Steven Andrew, Peggy Butler,and Jose Ruvalcaba. You all made my job so much easier.
The Rev. Judith Meyer for believing in me.
And finally, a huge thanks to the children and our YRUU group. You remindme why I love this church so much. I love you all.
Okay, since I love quotes so much I’ll end with one now from Josh Billings:“To bring a child in the way he should go, travel that way yourself.”It’s been a great trip.
-- Liza Cranis
Check Out the Way Cool Sunday School Pictures!
They're located upstairs next to the DRE office.