[Visitors] June UUFT Beacon Newsletter

Thu May 22 08:44:05 EDT 2008

            Newsletter of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Topeka
            4775 SW 21st Street  .  Topeka, KS  66604  .  785-272-9233  .  www.uuft.org

            Proud to be a Welcoming Congregation

            June 2008

A Month of Sundays . . .

June 1 - State of the Union. What does it mean to be a vital and healthy congregation? How do we get (or stay) that way? Rev. Lisa will ponder the state of our UU Union, celebrate our proud tradition of lay leadership, and together we'll try to glimpse the future we're striving and yearning for so earnestly. Today's services will be brief to accommodate the UUFT semi-annual meeting, immediately following the 2nd service, at which new board members will be elected and outgoing board members will be honored. Service contact: Rev. Lisa R. Schwartz.

June 8 - Raggedy Rev. Ragtime is one of those purely American arts, and it's so straightforwardly accessible that you don't need to know anything about music to enjoy it. Rev. Lisa Schwartz will just be back from playing at the Scott Joplin Festival in Sedalia, Missouri, and she'll share a little of that old raggedy music by Joplin, Morton, Adams, and others. The Second Sunday lunch will follow the second service. Service contact: Rev. Lisa R. Schwartz

June 15 -  Inheritance From our Fathers: Dreams and Debts; FLOWER COMMUNION.  On this Father's Day Rev. Lisa will reflect on the non-material things our dads leave us, those dreams and debts we carry for them long after their passing. This service will also feature our annual Flower Communion service, a UU springtime tradition. Bring a flower to share, from your garden or the grocery store, or even a blooming beauty from the side of the road. Service contact: Rev. Lisa R. Schwartz 

June 22 - Theology of War & Peace. "Should we, the Unitarian Universalist Association and member congregations, adopt a specific and detailed 'just war' policy to guide our witness, advocacy, and social justice efforts?" A conscientious objector in Europe during the Viet Nam war, UUFT member Chuck Fantz will discuss Paul Rasor's UUWorld article (Spring 2008) on Prophetic Nonviolence (http://www.uuworld.org/ideas/articles/68490.shtml).  

June 29 - The Still, Small (determined) Voice of Hope. What is the nature of hope? Hope is much more than happiness or wishful thinking. Hope is a way of life; it is fearless, courageous, even stubborn. Hope is defiance in the face of hopelessness. Join us for an exploration of the determined nature of hope. Guest speaker UU minister Rev. Kathy Riegelman.

Services begin at 9:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.

Lifespan Religious Education

News about our Doings
Judy Sasser, DLRE

Events:

Memorial Day Sunday, May 25th, Religious Education participants will clean rooms, say goodbye to their teachers for the summer, and have an outdoor party.  Members of the Fellowship are invited to join us in the yard for hot dogs, etc. immediately following the service.

Summer Program:  Our summer program will be a multiage program, for children pre-school through 8th grade.  Older youth will assist and mentor the younger children.  Our theme this summer is "Peace, Kindness, and Justice".  The following activities are planned:

1.       June 1:  Rosie Cuttrer will do story telling and there will be playground play.

2.       June 8:  Peace-making skills for kids; working and playing together.

3.       June 15:  Learning "I Care" language and Flower Communion.

4.       June 22:  Belonging to the human family, to everyone.

5.       June 29:  4th of July Cookout and Games in the yard.  All invited.

6.       July 6:  Feelings and Empathy.

7.       July 13:  Conflict Resolution.

8.       July 20:  Peacemaking.

9.       July 27:  Brown vs. Board --- curriculum.

10.   August 3:  Brown vs. Board --- curriculum.

11.   August 10:  Brown vs. Board --- Field Trip, Parents and others invited

12.   August 17:  Amnesty International.

13.   August 24:  Possibly Water Communion (not firm yet).

14.   August 31:  Labor Day cookout and water games:  All invited.

15.   September 7:  Promotion Sunday for the children and youth.

16.   September 14:  New Curriculum and Stewardship Starts.

I will be going on leave on June 1 and will return August 1.  During the interim our RE Co-Chairs, Duane Johnson and Bobbi Schaeffer, will be in supervision of the RE program.  I will be attending GA, taking care of some RE "loose ends", and working on my credentialing process during that time as well as catching up with family events and a neglected garden.  Please support Duane and Bobbi.  We need many volunteers during the summer months so that regular teachers can take a much needed break. 

There will be no "story for all ages" during the summer months.  Children will report directly to the Emerson Room at 11:00 a.m.

Meetings:

·         Small Group Ministry Facilitators Meeting --- May 25th,  10 a.m., Darwin Room 

·         OWL Team Meeting and dinner --- June 11th at 6:30 at the Sassery

Wants and Needs:  

As you clean out for the media sale, the RE program could still use a couple of more "boom" boxes, especially if they play both cassette tapes and CDs.  White sheets and old white handkerchiefs could be used for painting on and then used for curtains in the new RE wing.

Peace and Blessings,

Judy

DLRE

MCC Topeka PRIDE Picnic

The Metropolitan Community Church Topeka PRIDE picnic will be held on Saturday, June 7th, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.. The Church is located at 4425 SW 19th Avenue, Topeka. Members/friends of UUFT are invited to attend. There is no admission charge. Last year over 250 people attended this event and shared a delightful afternoon. For further information, call 272-1442 or visit www.MCCTopeka.org .

Dinner for All: June 21st at 6:00 p.m. Ever wonder how to get to know other UU's that you never really get the opportunity to speak with? Well, here is your best chance: All members and friends of UUFT are invited to participate in the summer's 1st Dinner for All, hosted by Phil and Joanne Roudebush at 6525 SW 53rd St. Simply drive up Gage Blvd or Burlingame Rd. and look for their house on top of a hill (south side) after you pass Wanamaker Rd. Please bring a covered dish, any meat items you and your family/ guests wish to consume, beverages, insect repellant and lawn chairs. Phil and Joanne will furnish table service, barbecue grill, lemonade, water and iced tea. Children are welcome. This is a great way to get to know other UUFTers so circle the date on your calendar!  Questions: call Phil and Joanne (478-9019).

Fair Trade Coffee, Tea and Chocolate

Once a month the Social Justice Committee sells Fair Trade coffee, tea and chocolate through the UUSC Coffee Project. The committee also provides Fair Trade coffee for the congregation to drink each Sunday. By purchasing these Fair Trade products, and donating a few coins when we drink coffee, we are helping small-scale farmers in Latin America, Africa, Asia and the U.S. as they build a better future for themselves and their families.

Through the project, farmers earn a fair price for their products, have access to affordable credit, and gain a long-term trading partner they can trust, a Fair Trade Organization called Equal Exchange.

With your support, these communities invest in education, health care and agricultural improvements. In addition, for each pound of coffee, tea or chocolate purchased by UU congregations through the project, Equal Exchange makes a contribution to UUSC programs that support the human rights and social justice work of community-based cooperatives in coffee-growing regions.

Please help the Social Justice Committee continue to provide coffee each Sunday morning by donating generously into the can provided beside the Bunn coffee maker in the kitchen. If you are hosting a special event, remember to add a little extra to the can to keep us supplied with "Good coffee for a Good Cause."

New Horizons

By Rev. Lisa Romantum Schwartz

We stand once again at the threshold of summer, a season when most of us strive for a respite from some of our daily routines. As I write this, I'm making plans for travel and study from late June through the month of July. Though I do plan to spend some perfectly idle summer moments in my hammock with a novel, I will again use my "summer hiatus" as an opportunity for deep reflection and study.

Here are some of the things I'll be doing and reading while I'm away: In late June I'll be attending Ministry Days, a conference organized by the UU minister's association. Jim and I are going tent camping in Wyoming in July in the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. I'm hoping for a personal retreat to the St. Scholastica monastery in Atchison, where I love to soak up the energy of that remarkable community of women. In the midst of all that, with any luck, I'll learn to play a bodhrán, the beautiful frame drum I bought a few years ago (it's been hanging on my wall as an objet d'art ever since) and visit my sister at her new home in Louisville, KY.

I have many books in my summer reading box. To scratch the itch of my growing interest in eco-spirituality, there's Thomas Berry's The Dream of the Earth which combines Western, Asian, and Native American thought to construct a framework for a new human community that's connected to our planet. And there's Paul Hawken's Blessed Unrest, which that emerging human communities may be able to act as an "immune system" for our planet.

I'll study some practical tasks of ministry, too. I'll be reading Dr. Tex Sample's Earthy Mysticism, which he describes as "spirituality for unspiritual people," and in a similar vein, Kathleen Norris' Amazing Grace. There's a book of essays about preaching in fresh and interesting styles, and a book called Worship that Works: Theory and Practice for Unitarian Universalists. There's one called Leading With Soul, too.

Then there's a book by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a Harvard-educated neuroanatomist who wrote My Stroke of Insight about her personal "voyage into, and back out of, the silent abyss of a wounded brain." (I recommend Dr. Taylor's online lecture, found at:  http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/229, which takes less than 20 minutes and will rock your ideas about both cognition and spirituality.)

Other titles include Facing the Lion, Being the Lion, by Mark Nepo. (Maybe I should learn to be a lion before I'm faced with a bear in Yellowstone.) And there's one called The Year of Living Biblically, based on A.J. Jacobs' attempt to follow the Bible literally (including the commandment against wearing clothes made of mixed fibers, to play a ten-string harp, and to stone adulterers, among others). 

To balance the levity of that one, I'll read The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus by the Harvard professor Rev. Dr. Peter Gomes, and another by the progressive evangelical minister Brian McClaren, called Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope.

So, now that you know my plans for summer, what about yours? I'll be eager to reconnect with you in August and swap summertime stories!

Lisa

      June Calendar of events

            1
           Annual Business Meeting, after second service, UUFT

            7
           MCC Topeka PRIDE Picnic, 4425 SW 19th

            14
           Media Madness, 9a.m.-3 p.m., UUFT

            21
           Dinner for All, Phil and Joanne Roudebush's, 6525 SW 53rd Street, Topeka

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