May, 2005
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Rev. Grey's column, "A Sabbatical Letter," is available here. First Forums may be found here In the InterimBy Rev. Millie Rochester Interim Minister for Religious Education Looking out my office window, I marvel at the green of trees that (it seems) only yesterday bore bare branches. I love spring, when as the poet Denise Levertov observed, “So much is unfolding, so much is in bud.” And, like the transition from cold winter days to the heat of summer, when it is no longer winter, and not yet summer - an in-between time of new growth stemming from the old - the church has built on its past, renewing its vision in preparation for new professional religious education leadership. If that phrase sounds familiar, it may be because I have often referred to it as one of the five goals of interim ministry. These complementary tasks of reflecting and looking ahead call to mind the ancient god of ancient Rome, Janus; and not co-incidentally, this is the metaphor associated with interim ministry. Wendell Berry wrote, What we owe the future is not a new start, For we can only begin with what has happened. We owe the future the past, the long knowledge That is the potency of time to come. Now, in these last two months of my time with you, having reflected on the past, our gaze focuses on the future. The work of discernment yielded a decision to hire a Director of Religious Education, and the Search Committee’s efforts resulted in a very good candidate (see further information about this elsewhere in the newsletter). But simply hiring a professional for next year is not the end-all, any more than determining what curricula will be used is. No one person and no one Council (even such a dedicated one as the RE Council) can create a successful religious education program. That requires the continuing commitment of members and friends. Such commitment is defined by more than money, it is also reflected in participation in the full life of the church - attending and bringing young people to church classes and helping as you can to lead classes; attending and bringing young people to social events and helping as you can to organize them. Through these and other acts, we can have a powerful effect on the future of the church, of other adults, and of young people. These are sacred acts, when they grow the spirit. In the coming weeks, as plans continue to unfold for the next church year, I hope you will feel called to fulfill the promise of the future with your participation. Faithfully yours, Millie New DRE Selected The Board of Trustees on Thursday April 21 approved the recommendation of the search committee to hire Danielle Gerrior as Director of Religious Education, beginning in August. Danielle will graduate from Meadville Lombard this Spring, and has been working as an intern with Rev. Millie Rochester since February. Danielle grew up in a Unitarian church. She received her B.A. degree in 1999 from Stonehill College, Easton, MA. She enrolled at Meadville Lombard in 2001, and in 2003-2004 she was an intern minister for a Unitarian congregation in Edmonton, Canada. She is not seeking a ministerial position at this time, and regards the DRE job as an important career development step. According to the search committee, “her references and our experiences with her to date suggest that she is a caring soul who really thinks about how to connect with children of all ages in interesting and creative ways.” Study of Islam A recent RE Sunday was devoted to exploring the concept of social justice through the lens of Islam. Many thanks to Aneesah Ali, who contributed greatly to planning and carrying out the event. And to Mumpaz Champsa, who through a series of happy co-incidences joined us, sharing some of her knowledge and expertise, as well as many personal artifacts. Thanks also to Zarinah Ali, Finley Campbell, and Veronica Jenifer, volunteers that morning. Teacher Appreciation Breakfast will be held before church on May 15.
Contact Paulette Dodson if you can help. And plan to stay after church
for the RE Open House. Board Talk By Margaret Hellie Huyck At our regular Board meeting April 21 we took the following actions: 1) We authorized the Search Committee to offer the DRE (Director of Religious Education) position to the candidate they recommended: Ms. Danielle Gerrior. Danielle will graduate from Meadville/Lombard this spring; she is currently interning at First Church under the supervision of Rev. Rochester. The position is 30 hrs/week. 2) We agreed to authorize the Treasurer to move the MRE sabbatical funds into the operating budget for this fiscal year, since these funds will not be needed for the original purpose. In addition, some other funds will be moved into general funds to meet the anticipated deficit. 3) We discussed the proposed revisions to our Personnel Policies, as crafted by the Personnel Committee (Tom Huyck, Chair, and Madeiria Myrieckes) in consultation with the ministers and staff. There are still some questions remaining about health care benefits. We will review a revised draft at the May Board meeting. 4) We (again) considered the appropriate Charge for the Committee on Ministry. We are working with the COM, the Committee on Congregational Participation, and the ministers to define the best use of our relatively limited volunteer pool. 5) We endorsed helping send Madeiria Myrieckes and Bette Sikes to the Midwest District Leadership School this summer. 6) We urge all members (and friends) to attend the following key leadership events: • LEARN leadership strategies for First church! Saturday, April 30, 10-2 • Claiming Our Future: Sharing Perspectives on Covenant, Saturday May 21 • Annual Meeting elect officers, act on Budget, Sunday, May 22, 12-1:30 We will all soon be enjoying our new Chancel doors and sound system thanks to all! Blessings on all who have pledged to our programs, and to retiring our Bell Tower Restoration debt. We are all building - and maintaining - our beloved community. CALL TO OUR ANNUAL MEETING: SUNDAY, MAY 22, 2005 We shall gather together for a light luncheon and our Annual Meeting after service on Sunday, May 22, 2005. We will plan to begin at 11:45 and end by 1:15. At the Annual Meeting we will: • Send greetings to our past ministers and those not with us in person • elect our new lay leaders for terms beginning July 1, 2005 • receive Reports (written and oral) from our many Committees and Task Forces; • adopt the budget for the 2005-2006 fiscal year; • welcome our new DRE; • vote to approve delegates to General Assembly 2005; and • honor some of those who have made special contributions to our church community As you probably realize, we are finishing up our current Stewardship/
Pledge campaign, during which we make the most generous promises we
can to fund our ongoing programs and to reduce our debt for the Bell
Tower Restoration. If you have already made your pledge - thank
you! If you have not, please do so now. And, if you can stretch to add
some to strengthen our visions, please do this. CAUUC Meeting The Chicago Area Unitarian Universalist Council (CAUUC) will meet Saturday, May 21, at the Hinsdale Unitarian Church from 8:30 am to 3 pm. The speaker at the 10:30 program will be Douglass Cassel, Director of the Center for International Human Rights and professor at Northwestern University, speaking on “The Patriot Act: Last Refuge for Scoundrels?” The Afternoon workshop will be on “Marketig Ourselves: What Works?” If you plan to go, please contact Bobbi Campbell. Friday Noon Concerts On Fridays in May, Music Director Michael Thorn presents another
series of noontime concerts. The concerts are open to the public, free
of charge, and begin at noon: Hyde Park Transitional Housing Project The second annual meeting of the Hyde Park Transitional Housing Project
will be held Monday, May 23, at 6:45 p.m. at Augustana Lutheran Church,
5500 S. Woodlawn Ave. The program, “The Partnership to End Homelessness”
will feature Nancy Radner, Executive Director, of The Partnership to
End Homelessness. "Jazz Mass" to be Performed The "Jazz Mass," a setting of the English text of the mass, composed by Music Director Michael Thorn, will be performed by the choir of the First Unitarian Church, at the Sunday service, May 1 at 10:00 a.m. The choir will be accompanied by Mr. Thorn's jazz trio. This will be the premier performance of this work. Mr. Thorn composed an earlier version of the piece, with Swedish text, when serving as music director of the Arentuna Kyrka, a parish of 7000 members in Uppsala, Sweden. He recalls that in that parish there was a continual demand for him to compose new musical settings of the liturgy, so he decided to draw on his experience as a jazz musician and the congregation "loved it." In rehearsals, the choir has been very enthusiastic about the new expanded version of the Jazz Mass, which utilizes a variety of rhythms and idioms, ranging from swing to samba to bossa nova. It will be performed as a concert piece at the Sunday service. Later in the service the Michael Thorn Trio will accompany the congregation in hymn-singing. Composition has been Mr. Thorn's particular interest during his 35-year career as a church musician and jazz musician. He has written music for organ, piano, chorus, voice and chamber groups. A catalogue of his compositions and CD recordings appears on his website, www.michaelthornmusic.com. Michael Thorn grew up in Hyde Park and studied piano with Hyde Parker
Gavin Williamson. While earning his Master's Degree in Music Theory
and Composition from Roosevelt University, he studied organ at Rockefeller
Chapel with Edward Mondello. Michael and his wife Eva Liljendahl moved
back to Hyde Park last year when he became music director of First Unitarian
Church. Great Books Great Books will meet May 15 at 11:30 a.m. in the Religious Education Resource Room to discuss Age of Iron by J. M. Coetzee. If buying this novel, get the Penguin edition, first printing, 1998. Call Gloria Gnatz or Kennie James for further informaiton. Calling All Guys and Dolls All Aboard! Get on the JAZZ Express! Do you remember "Jazz at the First"? A few years ago, our church sponsored a monthly evening social event called, "Jazz at the First." Jazz at the First was a nightclub atmosphere evening event. Jazz enthusiasts were brought together to socialize and enjoy local jazz bands. It was FANTASTIC! Our new music Director, Michael Thorn would like to revive this event by featuring his Jazz trio. Saturday, October 8th, 2005 is the tentative date this wonderful event will be launched, accompanied by a special Silent Auction. Here's where your help is needed. We are seeking people interested in making "Jazz at the First" a reality again. • If you love jazz, enjoy having a night out with great entertainment, want to bring our church family together to expand our warmth and friendship to others in the Chicago community, we need your help! • If you enjoy planning events, contributing, soliciting or displaying items for the silent auction, working in partnership to accomplish a common goal, we need you! • If you are new to First Church and want to meet other church members, become more actively involved in church activities, and enjoy helping others, we need you! Please contact the Activities Committee Co-chairs, Ann Collins or Mary
Lee Greenlee this month and let us know how you wish to help. We will
form a committee and begin to turn this dream and hope into a reality. RACIAL JUSTICE TASK FORCE REPORT By Allan Lindrup The Racial Justice Task Force adopted an updated Vision and Mission Statement at its March 24, 2005 meeting. In other business, we heard from Susan Grubb about two potential service projects. We have been hearing about several pieces of legislation through the task force's Chair, who is our liaison to the Justice Coalition of Greater Chicago. At its March meeting the task force endorsed HB 1019, which would fight racial profiling in Chicago by having the Chicago Police Dept. collect sidewalk stop data, which would then be analyzed for evidence of racial profiling. We also voted to oppose HB 779, which calls for forced DNA testing of all persons arrested on a felony charge. Our positions were relayed to the ACLU of Illinois, which is leading the fight on these pieces of legislation. Claiming Our Future Task Force The Claiming Our Future Task Force invites you to join us as we explore "Building a Community Together" on Saturday, May 21 from 9:00 a.m. to noon (with courtesy continental breakfast beginning at 8:30 a.m.). The meeting will be held in Hull Chapel, and will be facilitated by Angela Merket of the UU Central Midwest District Through this workshop, we continue our journey and conversations about the meaning of covenant and how we are together in our life as a congregation. As we meet and work together in our church life, we will explore how do we make the intent of our current Affirmation real in times when agreement is difficult? How do we support each other in living it out? What are our members' responsibilities and obligations to each other? Join with us for this unique opportunity to create greater understanding of how we are together as a community and how we can grow in greater insight and understanding. NOT TOO LATE TO LEARN!! COME SATURDAY (April 30) By Ken Schug, Surveys on GROUP EFFECTIVENESS are rolling in, and identify several areas of concern that we can discuss at the LEARN! [Leadership Enhancement and Recruitment Now!] Workshop, 10 am-2pm April 30. Advance Reservations not needed, just your presence and participation as we address the issue of how to ensure effective group action. Light munchies will be provided. NOTE: Survey forms will be accepted through 5 pm Friday for those who have not yet submitted them. Goal is to get a survey from each member of all church groups (this means multiple forms from individuals who belong to more than one group.) Blank forms are in the President-Elect's mail slot (the small one just below the President's!) Property Committee Clean-up Day May 30th Save the day: Monday May 30, 2005. Join us for a complete church clean up day complete with lunch and beverages. This is a day when all of us can help, some by sitting down, some by climbing, other lifting, you will find a way to lend a hand. See the bulletin board at coffee hour to sign up for how you will work. Joan Pederson/Chair, Richard Pardo, Richard Snow, Ev Bernstein, Madeiria Myrieckes, Winston Kennedy SUNDAY STEWARD REPORT and REQUEST By Ken Schug It is anticipated that The Sunday Steward Team will continue in operation
after the return of the Senior Minister which will require 4-5 more
volunteers to meet the goal of each Steward serving once in each two
month period (i.e . 6 times a year. We also need a permanent coordinator
whose responsibility would be to arrange the Sunday Steward schedule
and arrange for last minute substitutes when necessary. Current volunteers
are Finley Campbell, Ann Germany, Margaret Huyck, Harold Moody, and
Grace Williams. To join this auspicious group please contact Ken Schug,
the Interim Coordinator (and Recruiter) in one of the following ways:
whisper in his ear, put a note in his mail slot (almost 24/7), or send
him an email at kschug@msn.com. THANKS!! Among Our People By Madeiria L. Myrieckes Rev. Viola Moore is doing well and has returned to church following her recent illness. We continue our loving concern for Vi Stark. Michael Donner and Bernie Frieden still need our calls and visits. If you need Pastoral Care or have concerns regarding church members, please contact Madeiria L. Myrieckes Lay Pastoral Care Associate Coordinator. Sabbatical Committee Report By Madeiria L. Myrieckes The congregation has enjoyed an excellent variety of pulpit speakers
for the Sabbatical. With six weeks left in our Sabbatical, it is time
to begin the process for Rev. Grey's return. Rev. Grey will be in the
pulpit the first Sunday in June. We will have a congregational evening
on June 8, 2005, when we hope Rev. Grey will share some of her experiences
with us. A re-entry startup is planned over the summer. Watch the next
newsletter for further information. Report of the Nominating Committee The Nominating Committee is pleased to announce its nominees for the elective offices of the First Unitarian Society of Chicago. Elections will take place during the Annual Meeting of the Society on Sunday, May 22, 2005. All terms begin July 1, 2005, and will continue through June 30 of the year specified for each position. Additional nominations may be made from the floor at the Annual Meeting. PRESIDENT: The President for the next year is Ken Schug, who was elected President-elect last year PRESIDENT-ELECT: Bette Sikes (serves as President in 2006-2007) Board of Trustees (three-year terms): 1st Alternate: Hank Henriques (2006) Continuing Trustees: Margaret Hellie Huyck, Jim Proctor, Bette Sikes (2006), Diana Gray, Pat MacClarence, Ken Schug (2007) R.E. Council (three-year terms): Continuing Members: Anita Orlikoff, Joan Pederson (2006), Melissa Harris-Lacewell, David Puszkiewicz, Dolores Rosenblum (2007) Program Council Chair Social Justice Council Chair Nominating Committee (T=past Trustee, I=incumbent) Respectfully submitted, 2005 Nominating Committee: Joanne Kent, Evelyn
Johnson, Allan Stern, Catherine Harth-Stern, Cynthia Oakes Report on the Central Midwest District Annual Assembly By Finley C. Campbell On April 16 Ellen LaRue, Finley Campbell, and Bobbi Lammers-Campbell attended the Central Midwest District (CMWD) Annual Assembly as delegates of First Church. We each went to different sessions and have collaborated on the article below: After an incredible "continental breakfast" which included made-to-order omelets, we all attended Rosemary Bray-McNatt's lecture, which followed the morning worship. The Rev. Dr. McNatt spoke about "Beloved Community." Finley's report: I then attended three workshops: the first dealt with Unity Temple's incredibly extensive membership program, consisting of a paid staffer and a large corp of volunteers; however, the presenters did maintain that even a small membership group could institute a major part of their program: intensive phone callings of visitors and extensive efforts in involving new members into the life of the church, or rather, the ministries of the church, even as a one time effort to "break the ice,' e.g., serving as a ticket taker at one of our Unity parties. My second workshop dealt with involving children and youth in regular church services at which the following points were made: I. There is no set pattern involved in this, but one thing was clear: we need to involve appropriate youth in regular services, not just special multigenerational ones; II. Until this contradiction is resolved, we will continue to lose young people at the age of 18 because the present system of pulling youth out of service to go to Sunday School or some other non-worship activities deprives them of the opportunity to learn about the complexity of our faith; III. One of my young colleagues, Kara, age 14, pointed out that she liked going to a regular service, provided that the preaching was interesting and the worship activities were lively. My final workshop dealt with marketing UUism, literally, involving the following: first, the focus of this type of marketing is not for one particular church but is to design to feature the denomination as a whole in order to make Unitarian Universalism interesting to people in a particular demographic niche in an area; secondly, such an approach would mean that several UU churches would get together to generate the funding for such a marketing campaign; and finally the campaign would include the use of post cards (for mass mailings - in Houston they did 100,000), billboards, radio spots, full page newspaper ads, beautifully designed color flyers, etc. Another major highlight was the business meeting where, as an item of old business, I presented suggestions for implementing the anti-imperialist resolution passed last year. The resolution called for interested church members to begin the process of educating their congregations to the need for them to become anti-imperialist churches just as a few of us have become anti-racist churches. I also circulated a list of suggestions for action. Copies of the resolution and suggestions are available upon request. The essential function of the resolution and the suggestions for its implementation was to bring to our general consciousness that we are now living in a time of inter-imperialist rivalry where the danger of trade wars leading to a world war is possible. Knowledge of the political economic, socio-cultural, and socio-psychic dimensions of this economic system is part of the cognitive sophistication we are going to need to decide just how far down the imperial road we are willing to go, even if the ostensible goal is democracy and freedom. Bobbi’s report: Saturday's sessions ended with a worship service organized by the young adults. It was clear that the integration of young adults into our congregation would mean some real changes in the way we worship! Ellen’s report: Second was the Anti-Oppression Models and Methods workshop led by National Coalition Building Institute (NCBI) trainers. The basis of this organization's method is that guilt tends to solidify prejudice, every issue counts, hearing of stories can shift attitudes, skill training leads to progress, and teams are necessary for institutional change. We took part in a couple of exercises to get a taste of their method. In one exercise the leader called out a series of categories and people stood up when they fit the category. In another a list of groups such as young adult, older adult, single, etc. was drawn up. We chose the group that applied to us for which we would like to work with others to complete the statements "What I wish people would stop saying about us is*", and "What I would like for people to know about us is*" Then each group presented their statement completions to the whole group. Third was a session called Anti-Racism and UU Young Adults, led by Elandria Williams. The UU Young Adults have developed programs and training sessions for learning about anti-racism. Elandria is a trainer with these programs as well as the Jubilee World and the NCBI methods. She started by reading an excerpt from the movie the Color of Fear. Then we went around the room introducing ourselves and giving our reaction to the reading. Following that we paired off and shared our responses to several questions such as "Describe an experience that you have had with racism and how you responded", and "Why does racism exist?" We also received a sheet with a marginality/mattering exercise for illuminating a "continuum of community" aimed at identifying when we matter to someone or a group, when we feel alien or marginal. We did not get to this exercise because we got into a lively discussion about why racism exists. This was a special pleasure to me because there were so many young adults participating. All of these types of workshops are available to congregations as a
means of anti-racism training. THERE ARE 10,000 UNITARIANS WHERE???? By Ken Schug In MEGHALAY! No, that is not part of Transylvania, but a small, geographically isolated state in Northeast India. Meghalay has an area and a population (2.2 million) both about 1/6 that of Illinois At the April 10 First Forum Rev. Neil Gerdes reported (and shared photographs) on a recent visit that he and Rev. Barker made to that area, in part to plan for a Meadville Seminary scholarship program for people from that church interested in preparing for the ministry. Many of the churches have their own schools which are considered superior to the public schools. Because of its isolation, Hinduism was not strong and the local tribes had animist religions. In the late 1800's a local resident who had been influenced by the Brahmo Samaj reform Hindu group, made contact with a Unitarian missionary in Calcutta, and formed a small group which has now grown to 40 congregations totaling about 10,000 members (including children). That percentage would translate into about 12,500,000 Unitarians in the U.S. (Actually ~ 210,000!)
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