Newsletter of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Of Waynesboro, VA 565 Pine Ave., Waynesboro, VA 22980 540-‐942-‐5507 www.uufw.org U Sunday Services for February 2015 us Join at UUFW for these one of a kind events: TrUUvel February 20 at 7 pm. The Frumen's will take us to Galicia in northwest Spain Our LDS movie this month Tulpan, "a gorgeous melange of tender comedy, ethnographic drama and wildlife extravaganza" . February 1, 11 am- "Black Gifts #1" with RevAlex It's the Sunday morning following UUFW's participation in Staunton's Unity Prayer Breakfast, sponsored by our local NAACP chapter. It's a Sunday to celebrate just some of the great gifts our black brothers and sisters have given us. Come, Come, to wonder at the generosity of others! February 8, 11 am - "Black Gifts #2" with RevAlex With today's worship, we continue our celebration of gifts that have come our way from African-Americans. We will be particularly attentive to gifts directed to our faith. We will also wrestle with consideration of what we might be called to give in return. Come, Come, in hope of deepening our spirit! February 15, 11 am - Details in upcoming announcements. February 22, "Our Inner Compass", Barbro Hansson Barbro Hansson, a former UUFW member and now retired UU minister from Vermont, has developed over the years a theory of an "inner compass" and how it can be used to navigate life's journey. This Sunday Barbro will share with us how we can use this understanding of the compass to help find our own proper directions and walk in faith on our own life's path. Please come and welcome Barbro back to our Fellowship. Our Mission EXPLORING: To provide a place and an atmosphere where people may practice liberal religion founded upon individual freedom of belief. • CARING: To provide emotional and spiritual support within a caring community of members and friends. • NURTURING: To provide a nurturing environment where children can question and grow to develop their own religious beliefs. • SHARING: To embrace the cause of a united world community through love and service to humanity. • From the Interim Minister, RevAlex: In my beloved home congregation in Lancaster, PA, we began every service with the following words: Love is the spirit of this church, and service its law. This is our great covenant: To dwell together in peace, To seek the truth in love, And to help one another. James Vila Blake (UU) As we start this month of February, so associated in our culture with celebration of romantic love, I encourage you to also celebrate your congregation's great gifts of brotherly love. You have them in abundance! May you ever dwell together in peace, seek the truth in love, and help one another. Much heart, RevAlex From the President, Sylvia Woodworth On our way to the service last Sunday, my husband Doug commented on how many cars there were in the parking lot of the Cracker Barrel. It got me thinking. “Why am I heading to UUFW and not to the Cracker Barrel for brunch?” After mulling it over, I have come up with the following reasons: • UUFW fills my soul, not just my stomach. • UUFW makes it easy for me to serve others, not just be served. • UUFW gives me the opportunity to hear, exchange, and learn from the ideas of many people, not just my dining partner. • UUFW offers an ever changing menu of presentations, experiences, and activities, not the same menu-of- the-year. • UUFW caters to different tastes in Sunday Services, not always the same cuisine. • UUFW is largely homemade and DYI, from delicious food to maintaining our buildings and grounds, rather than always bought ready-made or contracted out. • UUFW gives me some quiet time to reflect and ponder, rather than trying to converse over the din of a big dining room. • UUFW makes me feel energized and ready to take on the week ahead, not overly full and uncomfortable. • UUFW provides a better long-term investment of my time and money, rather than being hungry again in a few hours. At this time, the beginning of our annual pledge drive, I am inspired to give as generously as I can in order to make that investment really long-term, for generations to come. There are many choices of things to do on a Sunday morning, yet we choose to come together at 565 Pine Avenue. Let’s fund our Fellowship in a manner that will continue to make UUFW our #1 choice. Religious Education As our RE program hit the New Year we saw the usual dip in attendance due to the seasonal crud/flu, out-of-town family commitments and the post holiday blahs! We are livening up our classes and are happy to see more children coming each Sunday. Our RE field trip to see the movie "Selma" was a huge hit and the really interesting post-movie conversation had participation from youth and adults. It was interesting to see what resonated with the Youth and how that compared and contrasted with the adults. Our Middle and High School groups continue to work on their plan of how to make our UUFW presence known when I (along with Andreas and Miguel) attend the Selma 50th Anniversary Conference in March. Be on the lookout for their invitation to the larger congregation on how you can be involved. I know you will be so proud of their hard work! YoUUrs in service, Chris The UUFW Caring Network consists of Fellowship members who have volunteered to coordinate support for other members in times of special need. If you learn about or are yourself facing such a circumstance, please contact Hinda Richards, coordinator, at 887-7515 or [email protected] and also RevAlex at [email protected] or 336-471-5580. The current Network volunteers are listed below. We thank them for volunteering their hearts and time to this very important job of caring for our Fellowship members. CN Volunteer Suzy Huston 540-885-6458 Nancy Frumen 540-885-1526 Diane/Braxton Nagle 540-886-3023 Jerry Reese 540-946-8588 Rebby Sharp 540-942-0140 Lee Patterson 540-885-4455 Debby Austin 540-487-3378 Theresa Costello 919-605-1799 Latane Long 540-943-2632 Cynthia Thompson 540-887-8166 Karen Hudson 540-280-0890 Den Frumen 540-885-1526 Robert Richards 540-887-7515 Will Strickland 540-241-0147 Laura Skally 703-786-0221 Lorain Harouff 540-885-3000 Hinda Richards 540-887-7515 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Their CN Group Allen-Becker Belcher-Carlson Chandler-Crowder Curry-Faulkenberry Ferguson-Grogan Hackney-Hudson Huston-Leary Lianez-Mead-Armor Moore-G. Patterson Ken Patterson-Reese Richards-Schichtel Schmidt-Stevens Strickland-Yost BACKUP BACKUP Assistant Coordinator Coordinator Committee Reports Ministerial Search Committee While the Search Committee will be fairly silent over the next few weeks we want you to know that you will be on our minds…your voices even in our heads…quite constantly as the search continues. While we mind our search business, we hope you will take a few minutes, or a couple of hours to look at the Congregational Packet we prepared and will share with interested ministers. It can be found on the UUFW website. The Congregational Packet is, frankly, a sales tool. To put it together we synthesized the material from the congregational survey and cottage meetings, mixed in comments and testimonials from committee chairs and ministers, sprinkled all the material liberally with photos, slowly blended tidbits from our history and finally added a little flavor from our dreams for the UUFW. I must take a public moment to send our special thanks to Kim and Geoff Newton and Heather Chandler for the wonderful visual material we were able to include. And since she will not edit this piece, Florence Ferguson deserves a hug and many thanks for her care, attention to detail and skill that pulled all the packet pieces into a wonderful whole. The ministers we meet will share similar material with us. I believe I speak for everyone on the Search Committee when I say the ministerial packets are exciting to read for the rich and varied world of Unitarian Universalism they open up to us. We assure you as we move forward with any candidate we will read carefully, ask questions endlessly, listen carefully, check references thoroughly, negotiate thoughtfully and search our souls as we attempt to find the right minister for our beloved fellowship. Finally we would like you to have a glimpse of the future steps in our ministerial search (based on all things working perfectly…of course). February/March: Search Committee meets candidates, calls references, discusses deeply and narrows our choices to The One. April 2nd: Search Committee makes official offer to the candidate of our choice and further negotiations begin. Late April/Early May: Search Committee and Board announce candidate Late April/Early May: Candidating Week at the UUFW full of lunches, coffees, small and large group meetings culminating in a worship service by the candidate followed by a congregational vote. With a vote of overwhelming support Ministerial Candidate accepts our call. Before the cone of silence descends, please know how grateful this Search Committee is for your confidence, your respect for the silence we are currently imposing upon the process, and your commitment to stay involved and hopeful as our future as a Fellowship unfolds with the spring. Debora Hoard/ UUFW Ministerial Search Committee Chair Finance Committee Meet Our New Treasurer When Violet Powers McCallum understandably found her new 11-hour a day commute/ job not compatible with being our treasurer, Merrie Jo Perkuchin agreed to accept this office on our board of directors. You will remember her as the person taking the photos for our pictorial directory. Dan and Merrie Jo are wonderful additions to our community. After raising their children near Washington, DC, they moved to Bath County where they ran the RoseLoe Motel in Hot Springs for 23 years. They now live in Fishersville. Merrie Jo is an energetic person who enjoys square dancing, kayaking, and playing pickleball. She appreciates the friendly, accepting, and stimulating nature of our Fellowship. Thank you, Merrie Jo, for choosing to serve our Fellowship as treasurer. Welcome to the board of directors! Money Matters - News from Doug Woodworth UUFW Finance Chair In last month’s Money Matters I made light of the fact that the UUFW finance committee has set a goal of raising $155,000 during the 2015-2016 pledge campaign which has just gotten underway. Why, some have asked, do we need to raise so much? The somewhat flip but, nonetheless, truthful answer to that question is “so that the finance committee doesn’t have to come up with some other way of getting it out of us.” Let me explain. For the fiscal year which begins on July 1, 2015, and ends June 30, 2016, the UUFW expects to have operating expenses of about $180,000. Virtually all of this money, with the exception of a few hundred dollars from the rental of our facilities, will come from the pockets of our members. We can count on our two established fund-raisers, the service auction and the sale of food cards, to bring in at least $15,000. And typically in the course of a year there are several of us who make unpledged contributions (we have had about $6,000 of these during the first half of the current fiscal year). But, even taking all of this into account, to make ends meet it is likely our members will still have to fork out another $155,000 in one form or another. This being the case, why shouldn’t we just agree, in advance, that we will simply write a check for this amount? In its very essence that is what our pledge campaign is asking us, collectively, to do. If we fail to answer the call we will be doing neither the finance committee nor ourselves any favor. Social Action Committee, The next SAC meeting will be February 8 directly following the service. Please remember to continue bringing contributions for the First Presbyterian Food Pantry. Donations can be left in the big orange bucket in the foyer. Peanut butter, canned tuna, and cereal are especially appreciated. Buildings and Grounds Committee The painting project, the flooring project, the sidewalk project and the exterior lighting project would not have been possible without guidance from the Building and Grounds Committee, support from the Board of Directors and the hundreds of generous volunteer hours from the following people: Ted Ashby, Tristan Davies, Diane Good, Joe Good, Bill Harouff, Lorain Harouff, Alden Hough, John Hudson, Otis Huston, Suzy Huston, Bob Jochen, Rae Kasdan, Steve Kasdan, Phoenix Kowell-Ure, Sage Kowell-Ure, Tova Kowell-Ure, Braxton Nagle, Diane Nagle, Urbie Nash, Wayne Nolde, Glen Patterson, Ken Patterson, Merrie Jo Perkuchin, Ben Pumphrey, Karen Reed, Will Reed, Jerry Reese, Christina Rivera, Susan Schmidt, Rebby Sharp, John Sherwood, Chris Smith, George Thompson, Doug Woodworth. The entire congregation says THANK YOU! Lost and Found: Lost and Found items that were on the shelf in the foyer have been moved to the counter in the kitchen. Please take anything that is yours. Unclaimed items will shortly be given to a worthy cause. Va lentine Words of Wisdo m: LO VE IS AN UNCONDITIONAL CO MMITMENT TO AN IMP ERFECT P ERSO N. TO LO VE SOMEBODY ISN'T JUST A STRONG FEELING. IT IS A DECISION, A JUD GEMENT AND A PROMISE. Activities The Love-Song party has been moved to March 7, 4-7 PM at Charlotte Shnaider’s home, 30 Oak Lane in Staunton. 540 886 0517. Bring songs or we will provide words to some familiar ones. There will be snacks and wine. If you want to dance, we’ll set up the old phonograph downstairs and play swing music. Sign-up sheet at the back of the meeting room or call or email: [email protected]. The Old Time Music Jam meets every Tuesday at 7 pm in the RE building. Both musicians and listeners are encouraged to attend. [email protected]. For more info contact Will Reed, 949-6191or Brown Baggers are a group of women that meet purely for social reasons the third Wednesday of every month at 11:30 am. The February date is the 18th at 11:30 am at UUFW. Adrian Elkind is Hostess. Bring your own lunch and Adrian will provide dessert & drinks. Please let Lee ([email protected], 885-4455) or Adrian ([email protected]) know if you plan to attend. Lee is the one to contact if you have questions about Brown Baggers. The UUFW Choir, also known as the Pine Nuts will meet Wednesday, February 18 at 3 pm and Monday, February 23 at 7 pm both at the Fellowship. They welcome any and all participants. For information please contact Bill or Lorain Harouff at [email protected] or 885-3000. TRUUVEL February 20th, 7:00 pm at UUFW Den and Nancy Frumen will take us on a vicarious journey to Galicia in northwest Spain, a familiar destination for them where they have made friends for life. From there, they will share their more recent introduction to Portugal nearby. They took some Staunton friends with them to both locations last year. Come and see their pictures and hear their adventures! Bring a small snack, if you wish, to add to the table. It's an instant party! If you have a destination with pictures and stories you would like to share, or if you know of someone you would enjoy hearing from, please email Lorain at [email protected] any time to add to our list. LDS: The "Let's Do Subtitles" movie for February 13 is Tulpan. "Following his Russian naval service, young dreamer Asa returns to his sister's nomadic brood on the desolate Hunger Steppe to begin a hardscrabble life as a shepherd. But before he can tend a flock of his own, he must win the hand of the only bachelorette for miles - Tulpan. The director notes that while he used some professional actors, he can't train the animals nor the kids. "He describes the movie as "a gorgeous melange of tender comedy, ethnographic drama and wildlife extravaganza". Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 96% with 68% viewer rating. Third Sunday Potluck Lunch: February 15 is our next potluck and it has an "Asian" theme. Food Plan C: A-G brings a main dish, H-P brings a dessert or bread, Q-Z brings a vegetable or salad. Please bring enough for 8-12 people. Announcing Two New Activities at UUFW UUFW is delighted to partner with 2 community groups who will now be meeting monthly at our Fellowship. (1) Stone Soup Book Discussions has moved down the street to UUFW - Join us the 3rd Tuesday of each month at 7PM for book discussions. The books chosen range across genres from Books to Movies, Poets Pen Fiction, Summer Classics to Going Global. You don't even have to read the book to join the discussion! The only rule we have is we do DISCUSS the BOOK. We welcome diverse opinions & even erratic attendance. Wine and snacks are encouraged. Join us for our next meeting Tuesday, February 17 at 7pm in the Fellowship Hall. Everyone welcome. We look forward to some good discussions! For more information contact Theresa Costello, 919-605-1799 or [email protected]. (2) The Stone Soup Poetry Group ("Of Vine and Verse"), a very casual meeting of folks who love poetry, will meet in the RE building on the fourth Monday of every month. The next meeting is Monday, February 23 from 5:30 to 6:30. Bring a favorite poem to share or just come to enjoy others' favorites. For additional information contact Karen Reed, 949-6191 or [email protected]. UUFW Calendar for February 2015 Sun Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat 1 "Black Gifts #1, RevAlex 11 am 2 3 Music Jam, 7 pm 4 5 Exec. Committee, 6 pm 6 7 9 10 11 Music Jam, 7 pm 12 13 LDS movie, 6 pm 14 16 17 Music Jam, 7 pm 18 Brown Baggers, 11:30 19 20 TrUUvel, 7 pm 21 Book Club, 7 pm Choir, 3 pm 26 27 28 Buildings and Grounds Committee, 9 am Finance Committee, 9 am RE Committee, 9 am Chrysalis 3 pm 8 "Black Gifts #2, RevAlex 11 am Board Meeting, 9 am Social Action Committee, 12:30 15 Sermon to be announced Potluck lunch 12:30 Parent Group, 12:30 22 "Our Inner Compass", Barbro Hansson 11am 23 Choir, 7 pm Poetry Group, 5:30 pm 24 25 Music Jam, 7 pm The Reverend Alex Richardson, Interim Minister E-mail: [email protected]. or [email protected] Office phone: 540-942-5507, Cell phone: 336-471-5580 Office Hours: Monday through Wednesday by appointment Christina Rivera, Director of Religious Education Office hours: By appointment Office: 540-942-5507 Cell phone: 540-290-5024 E-mail: [email protected] Debora Hoard, Youth Leader Phone: 540-456-6390 E-mail: [email protected] Marilyn Nash, Administrative Assistant E-mail: [email protected] Phone: 943-4202. Contact Marilyn to schedule the use of our Fellowship buildings. Board of Directors President Vice President Secretary Treasurer Membership Religious Ed Bldgs/ Grounds Sun. Programs Social Action Communication Hospitality Finance Webmaster Sylvia Woodworth 949-4407 Marsha Fuller 560-1044 Gillian Preston 943-5335 Violet Powers 252-639-8125 Barbara Wright 885-1315 Michele Freeman 434-996-5335 Joe Good 804-291-8277 Den/Nancy Frumen 885-1526 Merrilee Lianez 416-3385 Mike Drumheller 241-1131 Lorain Harouff 885-3000 Doug Woodworth 949-4407 Kim/Geoff Newton 448-3915 Additional Valued Assistants Caring Network Hinda Richards Newsletter Marilyn Nash Trustees Suzy Huston Sylvia Woodworth Blake Clark Pianists Custodian 887-7515 943-4202 885-6458 949-4407 248-0228 Virginia Edwards 943-0091 Charlotte Shnaider 886-0517 Neil Van Name 447-0318 The deadline to submit information to the January newsletter is February 15. Send submissions to [email protected]. UU Fellowship of Waynesboro 565 Pine Ave. Waynesboro, VA 22980 Chocolate comes from cocoa which comes out of a tree. That makes it a plant. Therefore, chocolate counts as salad. The end.