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Sunday Services

Sunday, March 4  -   Sue Lacy , “Honor, Lift and Reinforce: The Way of the Spiritual Activist.” 

A journey of meditation and mindfulness, action without attachment to results, and sustainability.

Sue Lacy is the JUUST Change Consultant working with us on our Restoration Fund Project, Accepting Difference in Valdosta , GA funded through a JUUST Change Grant from the UUA which we received in 2006.  Ms. Lacy is President of Round River Consulting in Akron , Ohio .  She has years of experience in community organizing and anti-oppression work.  Many of you met Sue last April when she first visited Valdosta for conversations with a number of people in our wider community.  Plans for her second visit to Valdosta and the JUUST Change discussion scheduled for March 3 are discussed elsewhere in this newsletter.  We are delighted that she will be the speaker at our Sunday service during this visit to our area.

                The UUA in introducing this new service at the 2005 General Assembly quoted Ralph Waldo Emerson’s words: “The soul shapes the world that I live in.  It grows by evolving new states of being.” They went on to state that these words “aptly describe the vision of a new service offered by the UUA, the JUUST Change Anti-Oppression Consultancy.”  A coordinator of the program “likened the JUUST Change name to the Nike ad, ‘Just Do It,’ but with our own UU twist, our commitment to work for justice.”(quoted from www.uua.org, 8/2/05)  Our participation in this program has been invaluable as we develop our local social justice project.

 

Sunday, March 11  - Rev. Jane A. Page, “Can You Say GRACE?” 
In her sermon, Jane will explore the various theologies regarding "grace" as well as her personal experiences and understandings of this "amazing" concept.

Sunday, March 18 – Dr. Michael Stoltzfus, “Religion and Science”

We will discuss religious, scientific, and moral issues associated with questions regarding evolution, intelligent design, and scientific creationism.  The core of the issue is whether a scientific understanding of biology and nature allows room for questions about God, meaning, and morality.  The simple answer is yes.  The facts of nature are what they are, and cannot, in principle, resolve religious questions about God, meaning, and morality.  Some of the legal and political controversy associated with these issues will be highlighted. 

 

Sunday, March 25 – Rev. George Bennett, “Force vs. Power”

Culture is a force that has great influence over groups and individuals.  This force maintains cultural cohesiveness by encouraging certain behaviors and attitudes and by discouraging or shunning others.  Spiritually advanced groups and persons are inhibited by this force but they are not stopped.  The force of culture is no match for the spiritual power of unconditional love that includes and welcomes others in spite of the force of cultural shunning.  Spiritual power is stronger than cultural force.

 

 

Meditation Group

The Meditation Group is meeting regularly in the sanctuary every Sunday morning at 9:30 AM.  You are welcome to participate.  If you would like to know more about the group speak with Dee Tait .

INVITATION TO MEMBERSHIP If you are interested in becoming a member of our fellowship, we encourage you to talk with our President, Lars Leader .  We welcome your questions, and we extend an open invitation to all who want to join our liberal community of faith.

 

Religious Education for Our Children

The RE program for children currently meets at 9:30 AM each Sunday morning.  There has been discussion about changing this time to 10:45 AM to meet concurrently with the Sunday morning service.  Susan Bailey and Mya Storey are interested in hearing your comments on this issue.  Speak with them or with a member of the Board.  They also need some volunteers to help with the  program.  You can volunteer for once a month, once every two months, or more often as your schedule allows.  To meet UU District guidelines we need two adults present for each session.  You can volunteer as a helper or as a teacher. Contacts:  Mya Storey; Susan Bailey.

 

   

Newsletter

Editor:  Betty Derrick  

Website:  Carol Stiles

March 15: Deadline for the April newsletter.  

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Social Action Activities

Break Bread Together

Our date for meal deliveries with the Break Bread Together program is the 2^nd Monday of each month.  If you can deliver meals on this day beginning about 11:00 AM, please contact Frank Asbury.

 

JUUST Change Grant Project

Sue Lacy, our JUUST Change Anti-Oppression Consultant, will return to Valdosta the weekend of March 2-4, 2007.   Members of our Social Concerns Committee, Betty Derrick, Lars Leader , and Susan Bailey, will meet with her for a strategy session on Friday.  The community contacts, with whom Sue Lacy spoke during her visit in April, have been invited to participate in a conversation on Saturday, March 3.  We will provide a light lunch at noon at the UU church and Sue will facilitate the conversation.  Our Social Concerns committee members will sit in on this conversation, which will be the first time our community contacts have met as a group.  Although we must wait to see how this conversation develops, it is our hope that the outcome will be the creation of a progressive coalition of diverse community members with shared responsibility and some agreement about what the next steps should be.  As discussed at our congregational discussion in December, we anticipate that our Restoration Fund may be used as seed money for this endeavor.

The Social Concerns Committee was glad that a number of our members participated in the discussion after the service on December 10.  As you are aware over recent months the community contacts for this project have shared their thoughts with our congregation at Sunday services. The committee hopes these talks and the December discussion have fully engaged our congregation in the goal to develop a truly meaningful social justice thrust for our wider community.  It is clear we are still learning together about the needs of our community as well as how our small group can best affect change where change is needed.   The UUA, at our request, extended the time period of our grant, which makes possible Sue Lacy ’s return to Valdosta this month to facilitate this meeting with our community contacts. 

Rev. Jane A. Page, Minister, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Statesboro, serves our congregation in Valdosta each month.  She is available for conferences and special services when she is in Valdosta .

Although our community contacts have been invited, specific plans for the March meeting are still in process.  The Social Concerns Committee may be in touch in late February seeking volunteers to prepare the church for this visit and in providing the lunch for our guests. Contact: Betty Derrick    (Reprinted with date changes from January 2007 newsletter)

 

Accidental Activists – from Carol :

    Last month, I had the pleasure of speaking before the congregation in a service titled: “Accidental Activists:  LGBT Concerns in South Georgia ” (with apologies to Candace Gingrich for her book of the title, The Accidental Activist).  

                I reflected on some of the many ways our congregation has provided outreach to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities in Valdosta over the years, and how we might continue our efforts as part of our ongoing dialogue in the “Accepting Difference” and JUUST Change consultancy project.  For instance, we participated in Diversity Week events at VSU and helped ensure that Macon Pride was able to participate in the Diversity Fair in 1999.  We hosted the “Love Makes A Family” exhibit in 2000, and helped ensure that it was on display at VSU, as well as here in our own church.  

                For me, diversity week at VSU back in 1999, helped crystallize what UU Valdosta is about… working on behalf of religious diversity, racial and ethnic diversity, and LGBT rights… “an inescapable network of mutuality” to quote Martin Luther King, Jr.

                A church worker was passing through the Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Gainesville FL (burned by an arsonist a few years ago) as Rev. Barbara Jamestone, UU interim minister in Gainesville in 2004, was admiring one of the replaced stained glass windows.  The woman said to Barbara:

“He burned our church, for no good reason. He didn’t do it for money or for food

or for any advantage to him at all. He did it in hate, and we built it back in love.”

                And that, my friends, is how we ALL become accidental activists…. We may never know why our beautiful church-in-the-woods was so severely vandalized back in May 2003.  But I want to say to all of you here today, that I am proud of you – of us – for the efforts to use the renovation fund for the Accepting Difference project in conjunction with the JUUST Change Consultancy – let us again, blaze the trail, and let us, too, move forward in love….love for the inherent worth and dignity of every person and for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.    

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At the Church-in-the-Woods

New Hope Christian Fellowship - Sunday evenings: Choir practice at 5:00 PM. Service at 6:00 PM.  

Taoist Tai Chi – Monday and Thursday: Beginners Class: 5:30-6:30 PM;  Continuing Class: 6:30-8:00 PM.  (Instructors: Dennis Bogyo and Luana Goodwin ) 

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Board of Directors Meeting - February 7, 2007

Attendance:  Lars Leader, Dee Tait, Doug Tanner & Rosie Asbury   Lars opened the Board meeting with a reading from the UU World.   The Board approved the minutes of the January meeting.  Lars received an e-mail from Rev. Kenn Hurto, the Executive Director of the UU Florida District, asking how we are and how he can support our ministry. The Board thought that it would be nice if we can invite him one Sunday morning to speak to our congregation. Dee will e-mail him to convey the invitation. The Board discussed whether the UU Valdosta congregation should be under Florida District or some other district. [Editor’s note: Valdosta is the only Georgia church in the Florida District; several Georgia churches are in the Mid-south district; others are in the Thomas Jefferson District. Mid-south and Thomas Jefferson both encompass several states in the southeast.] We will refer this matter to Rev. Jane Page to see what she thinks about it.  Doug presented the Treasurer’s report. Pledges and collections are on target as of this time. The Board approved the purchase of a new vacuum cleaner for the sanctuary, instead of having the old one repaired.  Dee presented the Program report. All services have been scheduled through April and most of May.  The next Board meeting will be on Wednesday, March 7, 2007 at 6:00 P.M. at the RE Building.

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Treasurer's Report

Doug Tanner

FUND BALANCES at January 31, 2007                          

General Fund                                        $21,979.40             

Restoration Fund                                 $11,715.64             

Total (Cash)                                          $33,695.04      

                       

OUTSTANDING DEBT                                     

Mortgage                                              $17,483.35                     

        

OPERATING RECEIPTS AND DISBURSEMENTS:

Receipts:                                January                      YTD Seven Months           

  Plate                                        215.00                                935.00

  Pledge                                  1,005.00                             7,710.00

  Rent                                         240.00                             1,680.00

  Interest Income                         0.00                                540.00 

TOTAL RECEIPTS              1,460.00                         10,865.00

Disbursements:                                                   

  Mortgage                               500.00                             3,500.00

  Speaker's Expenses               750.00                            4,275.00

  Repairs & Maint.                       0.00                               417.00

  Newsletter                                  0.00                               228.20

  Supplies                                      0.00                                 75.47

  UUA dues                                  0.00                            1,960.00

  Utilities                                   188.09                            1,256.94

  Advertising                            350.00                               350.00

  Other                                         15.00                               105.00 

TOTAL DISBURSEMENTS                              

 1,803.09                           12,167.61 

NET RECEIPT (DISBURSEMENT)              ($343.09)                ($1,302.61)

 

Unitarian Universalist Association Dues: Florida District congregations led the way with 51% of our gifts to the Annual Fund (fiscal year ending June 30) paid as of mid-January.  Our congregations provide $237,084 toward the District’s Fair Share of $243,750. 88.4% of our congregations are Fair Share contributors. This directly affects our District’s budget in the form of a grant back to Florida of $28,366. “Fair Share” is the minimum requested contribution by a congregation. The UUA’s Board of Trustees sets the amount. Here is what it “costs” to be part of the larger Unitarian Universalist world: For 2005/06: $51 per member. For 2006/07 $53 per member. For 2007/08 the number rises to $54 per member. The Florida District Dues have been $19 per member for the last three years. The Board will discuss possible changes at its February meeting.  The Valdosta UU congregation is a Fair share contributor.  As you think about your pledge for the coming year keep in mind what it costs just to be a UU member and then add in your support for our local fiscal needs.  

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UU Activities and Announcements

Further information is posted on the bulletin board in the R.E. wing at the church.  Also check your Sunday Order of Service for announcements. 

March 2- Jim Scott Concert, Vero Beach

March 3 West Central Cluster-Social Action Workshop with UUSC President Charlie Clements, Clearwater , FL

March 3-Southwest Cluster Annual Meeting and Celebration of SW Cluster Congregations: Part 2, Ft. Myers , FL

March 10- Celebrated Speakers Series, The Motley Fool, Vero Beach , FL

March 17-Northeast & East Central Clusters Meeting, Meet Our New District Executive & Humanist Ed Doerr to Speak, Rockledge , FL

March 20-Deadline for Florida District Awards nominations

March 23-25- Christopher Penczak Weekend Workshops Cocoa Beach , FL

March 24 Northeast Cluster Event with Rev. Kenn Hurto and William Murry, Jacksonville , FL

March 31- Celebrated Speakers Series, Doris Kearns Goodwin Vero Beach

April 27-29 District Annual Assembly, Clearwater Congregation. The District Assembly is the major time for us to engage the missing element of congregational polity: congregation-to-congregation connections. This year’s theme — Cornerstones & Cupolas — focuses on doing the basics extremely well so that we may rise to new heights of service to one another.

Northeast Cluster events in March: Larry Rayner, President of the Florida District NE Cluster, has extended two personal invitations (a note and a phone call) to us to attend Northeast cluster events in March.  He has scheduled two events one in the northern part of the area ( Jacksonville , March 24), the other in the southern part of the cluster area (Rockledge, March 17).   At both events, we have an opportunity to meet the new District Executive, and also to hear a well-known religious humanist speaker.  Saturday March 24, 2007 - UU Church of Jacksonville , 9 AM - 3 PM  Meet Rev. Kenneth G. Hurto, D.E.  Florida District’s new District Executive Rev. Kenneth G. Hurto talks about where he wants to take the Florida District, how he wants to do it, and how the Northeast Cluster can help. Meadville-Lombard Theological School Past President William Murry speaks Rev. Dr. William Murry, immediate past president and chief executive officer at Meadville-Lombard Theological School in Chicago and minister emeritus of the River Road Unitarian Church in Bethesda, MD, will speak in the afternoon. His topic will center around religious humanism. He has been a college professor and a parish minister and is the author of two books, A Faith for All Seasons: Liberal Religion and the Crisis of Life, and Religious Humanism for the 21st Century.

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UUA TRUSTEE TIDBITS                            Joan Lund

After I return from a UUA Board of Trustees (BOT)meeting there is so much I want to write in the report submitted for the District webpage (check it out) and monthly packet but there is never enough room. One of the topics I have not written about is how the UUA publishes our positions on social justice issues. The way they are written now is cumbersome requiring reviewing numerous statements in different locations. The current process of having to find and digest an assortment of statements to discern the UUA’s position is not efficient or an effective approach to public witness. With thanks to information from Rob Keithan, Director of the Washington Office for Advocacy the development of a new Public Policy Statement (PPS) process will make our social justice policies widely accessible to UUs.

PPS will allow the Association, the general public, and the press to readily determine the UUA’s policy on a given issue. The process being proposed will assemble information in a simple, accessible format, and be drafted by the UUA staff and approved by the BOT to ensure that they are appropriately represent the statements from which they are drawn, without creating new policy. Since PPSs summarize exiting statements rather than create new policies the BOT determined their creation did not require bylaw changes or General Assembly (GA) action.

The creation of PPSs was recommended by the Social Witness Review Panel in April 2004 and approved by the BOT in October 2004. The new process will involve Staff submitting PPS to the UUA BOT to include the proposed PPS draft, with a cover letter reviewing the themes/process relevant to that PPS and links to where the supporting texts can be found (Actions of Immediate Witness, Statements of Conscience, etc.). The BOT’s responsibility will be to review and affirm adoption of a UUA PPS, based on actions of previous GAs thus permitting staff to rely on, and use it publicly. Or the BOT may not affirm the PPS, which would require referring it back to staff for further work as directed. Also if not affirmed the Social Witness Review Panel may offer another option and the BOT could refer the PPS statement directly to the GA assembly. It would be voted up or down. It will be recommended that the BOT not exercise the last option until or unless an effective process for this exists, because this option would require considerable collaboration with the CSW and Moderator as well as education of GA delegates.

For complete versions of the PPSs that have been approved by the UUA GA and BOT you can see www.uua.org/actions. As you know you can always contact me at jlund@uua.org . Hope you are all staying warm and well during our cooler weather. I am always grateful I live in Florida at this time of year.

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The Reverend Kenneth Gordon Hurto

Florida District Executive

At a recent Board retreat, I asked congregational leaders: Whom do we serve? Some answers:

• We serve the alienated and disaffected. We are an alternative to orthodoxy and a sanctuary for those fleeing the righteous judgmentalism that so defines much American religious sentiment. William Ellery Channing’s 1819 essay, Unitarian Christianity is a defining text.

• We serve naturalists. We are home for those seeking refuge from industrialism and its neglect of nature. Emerson and the Transcendentalists led the way long ago. Today our Green Sanctuary movement carries on the tradition. Perhaps this is why so many of our meetinghouses are in the woods.

• We serve the universally minded. Our people want religion to reach broadly and universally, unfettered by sectarian concerns. Many of our congregations post symbols of the world’s great religions in their sanctuaries—reflecting the inspiration of ancestors who organized the world’s first great Parliament of Religions in 1898.

• We serve rationalists. Many of our people seek Unitarian Universalism as a haven from superstitious nonsense—in religion and elsewhere. Whatever else may be said of us, we are thinkers. Or as the Fort Myers congregation proudly proclaims, we are a church “where reason and religion meet.”

• We serve justice-seekers. Hearing the ancient call of the prophets Micah and Amos, since the days of Theodore Parker, Clara Barton and so many others, we are a people who want salvation in this world. We serve those who dream of a land where the promise of human dignity is fulfilled and fairness prevails. We seek to embody Jesus’ teaching to love one another. From the abolition of slavery to the liberation of women, from resisting racism in all its forms to becoming Welcoming Congregations, we have stood and stand against oppression and with the marginalized. 

This is a good start. For many, Unitarian Universalism is an alternative to something, a haven and refuge. We serve those seeking a sanctuary from dehumanizing and hurtful beliefs and practices. This is our history. May I suggest as well three additional answers that may guide our future:

• We serve the lost. We seek to be a healing home for those who do not know why they got up this morning. We serve those who are bewildered by the impossible demands of the 24/7 work culture. We serve the lonely, those who have no lasting human connections with whom to share life’s joys or sorrows. We need to reemphasize the Universalist sides of our faith that equates God or the holy with the power of love.

• We serve the counter-culture. Unitarian Universalism is not an escape from the social world, but neither is it simply an embrace of what is. More than a matter of justice, we serve those who believe our culture is spiritually sick. We need to stand against the self-indulgent narcissism of our sensation-addicted culture, its greed, its lust for power, its distractedness and indifference to the world our grandchildren will inherit.

• We serve democracy. The political aristocracy of left and right, in bed with the moneyed-classes and the war-machine, make noise about the common-good, but serve their entrenched interests. Increasingly, our electoral process is at great risk from untrustworthy voting machines to the corrosive buying of influence at all political levels. We Unitarian Universalists need to be more fully in the public square defending democracy at every level.

What would you add to this? How would you define our “mission-field” for our time? What should the District do to support you and your congregation’s ministries?