| Oracle Articles - January 2008 |
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The Oracle - January 2008 The word of the month is: Communication
Sunday, Jan. 6 | “Living This Day”On this first Sunday of a new year, let’s focus on the importance of living each day to the fullest, accepting that the past is gone and the future is yet to be. Sunday, Jan. 13 | “The Path to Identity: Through Separation or Integration”In the next in my series on historical disagreements in our Unitarian and Universalist history, we’ll be looking two examples involving differing views regarding whether more marginalized groups in our religious communities need time apart or whether they can achieve parity by working together within a system characterized by an imbalance of power. Sunday, Jan. 20 | “We Shall Overcome”In the next in my series on music that has been important in my life, I’d like to share a bit of history of the song “We Shall Overcome” as well as memories of significant times for singing this powerful song. Sunday, Jan. 27 | “Come Drink Deep”We will have the joy of having Carolyn McDade with us for the service. The morning will include some sharing from Carolyn, listening to some of her music performed, as well as singing together some of her songs. (Please see flyers in Gore Hall or the December Oracle for information about Carolyn’s Saturday workshop.) ************************ Newcomers’ Series *************************************************** REV-VIEWING It just so happened that our canvass team had one of its first meetings the morning after my service focusing on John Lennon’s song “Imagine.” “Imagine” quickly suggested itself as the theme for this year’s annual stewardship campaign. You are invited and encouraged to imagine with our canvass team ways in which your generous gifts can help this congregation grow and thrive during a time of transition. I also invite you to extend your view outward and imagine, in this election year, our country moving closer toward the vision John Lennon offered in his song. May this be a year when we begin restoring our nation’s good name in the eyes of the world. May we remember our great spiritual calling to be peacemakers (“blessed are the peacemakers….”). (“You may say I’m a dreamer…”) I hope that you are all aware that the UUA congregational study/action issue for the years 2006–2010 is “Peacemaking.” You may recall that in November, my historical issues sermon dealt with the reality that we have not been a “peace church” (though there have been pacifists among us) but rather have generally sided with “just war” theory. At the same time, we have passed numerous resolutions in support of disarmament and peace and offered counseling for conscientious objectors. As stated in the UU “peacemaking” resolution, the fundamental question we are asked to explore is: “Should the Unitarian Universalist Association reject the use of any and all kinds of violence and war to resolve disputes between peoples and nations and adopt a principle of seeking just peace through nonviolent means?” This study issue pushes us to engage deeply with our Sixth Principle: the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all. Would that we would each take the time to search our hearts and actively engage in conversation about this question. There are some fascinating questions to explore in addressing this issue. I encourage you to visit the UUA website and look at the text of the study issue. There will be many, many issues of public policy facing our country in 2008 that need the voice of liberal religion; that need a morality grounded in the values we profess. Global warming, the Iraq war, social service cutbacks, hate crimes legislation, legislative elections—all will present challenges in 2008 that need our voice to help “discern a core morality that would bend the arc of our current public moral universe toward compassionate justice.” Yours in our faith, ************************* From the President Here are several of the avenues of communication currently in place: · The Oracle is our monthly members’ newsletter. Contributors are church staff and leaders. Amy Fairweather, our church administrator, is the creative editor and the deadline of the 15th of the month is firm. Security of information and access is a priority. Members can read/download it as a .pdf file from the church website, have it mailed directly, or pick it up at church. Friends and guests can pick the Oracle up at church or have it mailed to them for a limited time.
How can each member help?
— Kathy Homblette ************************** Social Justice Tuesday Begins 2008 with a Visit from ACORN *********************** Hike Sponsored by Meditation Group We will meet at 9:00am in the parking lot of the church and carpool to Wekiwa Springs Park. For those who prefer to meet at the park, please meet at the parking lot of Wekiwa Springs Park (1800 Wekiwa Circle, Apopka, Florida 32712) by 9:45am. There is a parking fee of $3 for single occupant vehicles and $5 for vehicles with 2–8 occupants. This is primarily a social event, but in the spirit of meditation a short portion of the hike (about 20 minutes) will be in silence to allow each of us to tune in to the beautiful, natural surroundings and to mindfully walk the trail. The hike will last about two hours, with a couple of stops along the way. All levels of fitness will be accommodated. We’ll do some gentle stretching before and after. You should wear hiking boots or sturdy shoes and bring a bottle of water. If you have any questions, please email Ross at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it . —Ross Payne *********************** On November 19 at our MOOLA GHOULA you purchased something cool or wonderful or fun or handy. Save money and enjoy yourself by redeeming those items that looked so good to you on auction night. The donor of your item is looking forward to hearing from you! Make that money well spent! —Dayle Steakley ***************** Meditation & Yoga Day This program is offered on a donation basis. Although this program is open to all, some meditation and/or yoga experience is helpful. Ross Payne will facilitate the meditation portions and Amber Melendy of Shine on Yoga will facilitate the yoga portions. For additional information or to reserve a space (advance registration required by January 15th), please call email Ross Payne at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it . Please include your phone number when you reserve a space. —Ross Payne ************* A HUGE thank you goes out from all the Church members to Jenniffer Allen for her assistance in driving Margaret Greiber to join us every Sunday for our service. Sundays wouldn’t be the same without Margaret’s smiling face, and Jenniffer makes that happen. Thank you Jenniffer for the rides, and thanks to Margaret for continuing to make FUCO a priority! ************ Share the Plate on January 20th Their mission is to be Central Florida’s champion of compassion by restoring dignity to those in need, at-risk, or in a financial crisis. Offered here is assistance to the working poor and hope by offering men, women, and children food assistance and other support services. The First Unitarian Church of Orlando designates one Sunday per month as “Share-the-Plate” Sunday, on which the non-pledge worship service collections are split evenly between FUCO and a designated non-profit group (501(c) 3) whose mission is consistent with that of FUCO and/or the UUA. Members or groups within the congregation may make nominations for a designee, with the final decision being approved by the Board of Trustees. —Steph Garber ***************** Greetings and a Happy New Year First, I want to take a moment to thank some very special folks who brought Christmas Joy to so many. Thank you to our amazing YUUth Advisors: Cathy Spoone, Mike and DeDe Cross, Gladys Smith Mangan, Heather Neff, and Carie Mendyk. The First Annual YUUTH Improv Lock-in was a smashing success. Nine FUCO yUUth shared their energy as we played games, created bizarre-but-tasty pizza (Kyle, you win with the yogurt ball pizza), produced truly creative name tags and hats (Beth, your pompom creation was fabulous), and shared their talents during our improv coffee house. In my mind there is a definite tie between Sam and Emma’s “All six episodes of Star Wars in five minutes with commercial interruptions,” and Cathy Spoone’s clogging, but all of the talent was truly wonderful. Then, the worship service our yUUth created: That, my friends, was an indescribable experience; you would truly have had to be there to understand the power of those moments. As for our YUUth service projects— the Chalice Tree for the foster kids at The Grove was very successful and the teenagers and staff at The Grove send their warmest thank you to all of you who contributed to that worthy cause. Likewise, the “Feed 100 Families” project was also successful, and we thank you for bringing your canned goods. And, THANK YOU to our amazing yUUth who carted and counted and cajoled us all into making these service projects happen. The future of our faith appears to be in very good hands. Next, I want to thank the actors, singers, and dancers who worked so hard to put on our 2007 Christmas pageant. I don’t think I was the only one with tears in my eyes that night. And of course a round of applause goes to all the adults who pushed and praised and played and sewed to bring it all together with an extra special thank you to Gladys, Miriam, Jamie, and Cat. Yay You! Finally, I want to give a heartfelt thank you to all of our Religious Education teachers who dedicated their Sunday mornings from Sept. – Dec. to teaching our children and youth about the history of our Unitarian Universalist Faith. Your work will live on in the minds and hearts of your students for many years to come. LOOKING AHEAD: Spring Religious Education Registration begins at 9:00am Sunday, Jan. 6 We begin our OWL (Our Whole Lives) program this month.
OWL classes are available only to children and youth whose parents have attended OWL orientations. For our other children and youth, we have an intergenerational and interactive open classroom in the RE Assembly Room each Sunday morning from 9:30–10:30am. Our focus is the Seven Principles of Unitarian Universalism, and all young and young at heart are welcome to drop in any Sunday and join us. Be a blessing today, Abbie Potter, LRE ******************* Adult RE Sunday Mornings from 9:30 to 10:30 am in the Sharon Lee Hiett Library
Sunday Mornings from 9:30 to 10:30 am in the Assembly Room
Tuesday Evenings in the Sharon Lee Hiett Library
Other Adult RE Events Meditation: Sitting meditation with an Open Discussion Thursday, Jan. 3, 10, 17, 24, and 31 from 7:00 to 8:30pm in the Sharon Lee Hiett Library. No experience or registration is needed. Check out orlandomeditation.com for more information and other events. Day of Meditation: Saturday, January 19, from 9:00am to 5:00pm. Sitting and walking meditation, gentle yoga, and some group discussion. A vegetarian lunch is provided. Registration required. Contact This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it . Mystic Grove Ritual Saturday: Thursday Jan. 3, from 7:00 to 9:00pm in the RE Complex. Dances of Universal Peace: Sunday, Jan. 20, 4:00 to 6:00pm in Gore Hall. Check out DancesOfUniversalPeace.org for more information. ****************** New Member Coordinator on Board —Personnel Committee ***************** Alliance Programs Healthcare Center for the Homeless $1,000 Remember, you don’t have to be a “dues paying” member of the Alliance to join us for any or all of our activities. In fact we LOVE to welcome new faces! So drop in with your brown bag lunch any Tuesday, or join us as we visit a nearby restaurant. Come for the good works or come for the conversation and good company. Just come! January 1 No regular meeting, but if you want to come share Black Eyed Peas for good luck in the New Year, come on down about 11:30. Bring some food to share—and call Nancy Kellman to let her know that you’ll be joining us. January 8 10:30 Sort and Price for Continuing Bazaar 11:00 Board Meeting12:00 White Elephant Gift Exchange as we eat our brown bag lunches. Come with a gift to exchange and join us! January 15 10:30 Sort and Price for Continuing Bazaar, make sandwiches for the homeless.Noon Lunch and conversation January 2210:30 Sort and Price for Continuing Bazaar12:00 Lunch, and speaker Donna Klamm, from the Hemlock Society. Stay a bit later and discuss the possibility of organizing a Hemlock Society chapter here in Orlando. January 29 10:30 Sort and Price for Continuing Bazaar12:00 Lunch. We hope to convince some of our newer members to share their biographies with us. Also, because this is an election day, we may have voters who would like to shop the Bazaar. Be prepared to be good salespeople! Nancy Kellman & Jean Siegfried, Programs ******************** From the Desk of the Music Director December was abuzz with the joy of music at FUCO. The RE Pageant brought forth our youngest performers as well as some of our teens. The Choir ranged from the rhythmic speaking of a holiday theme to a rendering of Gabriel Faure’s beautiful “Pavane.” The Sunday Ensemble Singers added to the mix, and we enjoyed the various styles of five different soloists. Our resident group, The Harmony Sisters, wove their harmonies and guitar sound to worship and we ended the year with a performance of the Tuesday Nite Band. I’ve listed all these musical moments not impress you but to show the rich variety and sincere dedication of all these musicians. We are truly blessed with much talent in the Beloved Community. Thank you. Now it’s time to move forward into 2008. We have three events coming up which will open our church to the community at large as well as the entire group of UU worship churches and associations in our state of Florida.
We encourage your help, volunteerism and participation in all three Events. This New Year will be an exciting one for Music at FUCO. Improvements in our Audio Department as well as the Outreach of the three events mentioned above are in the offing. I thank you for your comments, suggestions and ideas. ****************** Unitarian Universalist Service Committee Jessica Curren
*********** The UU Mid-Life Couples Camaraderie Group This congenial group meets the second Saturday of every other month. Newcomers are always welcome. Our next event will be an all-group potluck dinner at the home of Jane and Ron Gross. In addition to good food and scintillating conversation, we will take some time to talk about the future direction of the group and plan our event schedule for 2008. Please join us! Contact Jane Gross. —JoAnn Gatlin *********** Baking Our Way to the Sock Hop! On Jan. 20th Playschool will be holding a bake sale in the courtyard. Proceeds go toward putting on the end-of-year church-wide SOCK HOP! Get ready to eat cupcakes and do the twist! —Cat Rigby **************** UUA Trustee Tidbits Hopefully each of you enjoyed a fine holiday season and are looking forward to a wonderful 2008. It seems the older I become the faster time flies. This month I write of good news. As you know our UUA began a new health plan in 2007, which belongs to the UUA itself. The UUA Employee Benefits Trust owns and operates the plan on a non-profit basis to benefit the participants. When our UUA first announced the intention to create a UUA Health Plan, the importance of owning and operating our own plan for the benefit of our congregations, affiliated organizations, and self-employed community ministers was emphasized. One of the goals of the plan was to create enough financial stability to be able to offer a better rate predictability than the broader market. This year solid progress has been made toward creating a rate stabilization fund. With that fund in place the plans will only experience a 4% increase over the 2007 rates. This was achieved as the plan was improved for 2008 to meet expectations in some important benefit and eligibility areas. For 2008 the plan will be bigger and better. Based on the feedback received from plan members, three significant and valuable improvements will be in place for 2008. An annual comprehensive routine eye exam with no deductible has been added. Adult immunizations will be covered without a deductible. And outpatient mental health visits will increase from 20 to 40 per calendar year. Your UUA Trustees also approved improvements to all three PPO plans and expanded eligibility to reach more staff in our congregations. The threshold has been lowered for participation to 750 hours worked per year from the current 1,000 hour requirement. It is hoped the eligibility reaches many who still do not have coverage. Responding to input from seminarians the eligibility of all interns in candidate status and working at least 750 hours per year for a UU congregation, paid or unpaid, or as a community minister will be specifically recognized. Your Trustees and UUA encourage all congregations to contribute at least 80% of the cost for this plan for employees and at least 50% of the cost for additional family members. Contributing to the cost is a concrete way for a congregation to demonstrate commitment to UU principles of social justice and a life with dignity for all persons. Sharing the cost is also a good way to enhance plan stability for the future. To find out more about our UUA Health Plan go to the website and Google the Health Plan. Much information is at your fingertips. If you have questions and/or concerns for the UUA Board of Trustees or me, email This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it . I always enjoy hearing from individuals and congregations. Happy New Year! —Joan Lund
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| Last Updated ( Monday, 28 January 2008 ) |
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