luuf newsletter nov 2013.pub

8/13/2019 Luuf Newsletter Nov 2013.Pub

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October Service leader

MaryJo Urban

A short meeting of the LLUFBoard Meeting was held onWednesday, October 23

rd,

2013. The following issueswere discussed:

Noise Level in the

Kitchen

We continued an ongoing

discussion of how to reducethe noise level in the kitch-

en area and decided to

pursue the following op-tions at this time; (1) CathyEdwards will make some

colorful hangings which

will be draped from theceiling; and (2) Jim Everett

will make a prototype of asound box which will hangfrom the ceiling. We will

test these options to see

how much each reduces thenoise level.

Hail Damage to the

Roof and Siding

We are awaiting word from

the adjuster for Eric Insur-

ance to determine whetheror not there was enough

damage to the buildingduring the June 27th hail-

storm to warrant a new roof

and money to defray someof the cost of repainting at

least the west side of the

building.

Annual Inspection by the

Fire Department

Our facility passed the an-

nual inspection by the Man-

itowoc Fire Department.

The fire extinguishers are

up to date.

The new exit sign Ron in-

stalled on the NE entranceto the building was ac-

ceptable

The boiler certification is

okay until 2015.

Halloween CandyThe board heartily en-

dorsed the membershipcommittee’s idea of pass-

ing out candy to the neigh-borhood children on Hal-

loween.

LUUF NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER 2013

Turkeys for TREP

The collection for TREP for

November will be in the form

of donations to cover the costof turkeys for Thanksgiving.

Thanks to Jim Sustman for co-ordinating this effort.

Greeters, Coffee, Cleaning

& Yard work Volunteers

A new sign-up sheet for

Greeting, Coffee Preparation;

Cleaning; and Yard Work willbe put up in the coat room so

if you are able, please sign

up to help with the ongoing work of the LUUF.

Due to a conflict with both the

Thanksgiving and Christmas

Holidays, the November/December board meetings will take place on Wednes-

day, December 4, 2013, at7:30pm. If you have any is-

sues you would like the

board to discuss, please feelfree to attend the meeting.

Kathy Fishback, President

NOMI NA T I NG COMMI T T E E

Linda Hunter (Chair Ginny Finnel

Jim Sustman, Marion MarquardtLUUF Choir



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The day-to-day life of our fellowship is the glue thatholds our spiritual community together. UnitarianUniversalism approaches the more "secular" aspectsof fellowship life with the same religious intent as it’sworship. Our religious education classes, adult ac-tivities groups, community volunteerism and buildingfacilities committees are essential aspects of our spiritual work. We believe it is our deeds, not our

creeds, which are most important. Volunteer oppor-tunities abound! Please consider signing up for cof-

fee service, greeter, shoveling, or any other activity or job that helps to keep our fellowship moving forward and running smoothly. Volunteer sign up sheets are

in the coat room.-

Every day we have people helping the Fellowship in ways that allow our com-munity to thrive. Whether you are a board member, on a committee, you makecoffee, do dishes, vacuum, shovel snow, rack leaves, plan a garden, help coor-dinate a service or you do one of the other countless tasks, the time and talentsyou share is incredibly important for our Fellowship community. Please know

you are immensely appreciated.


Evie Sustman, Chr.

Max Alexander

Zoe Alexander

Dan Fischer

Carol Wergin

Sandy Bast

CHILDREN’S RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

FALL 2013

The Children’s Religious Education Fall Session

“Experiences With the Web of Life – Part 2” begins on

Sunday, September 8, 2013 and will run through Sun-

day, December 15, 2013. All children from the ages of

4/5 through 10/11 are invited to participate in this fun

and lively program.

The Children’s RE is preparing for a special program

and presentation on December 22nd. Mark your calen-

dar, you won’t want to miss the performance. If it’s as

good as last year, it’s sure to be a full house.

A special thanks of appreciation goes out to Evie

Sustman and her assistant, Max Alexander, who have

volunteered to lead the children’s program for the

2013/2014 session and Jill Finnel for childcare during

service.

**************************

Please note that there will be no Children’s Religious

FA CI LI T I E S

COMMI T T E E

Ron Kossik (Chair)

Tom Clark

Kathy Fishback

Jim Rabata

Dick Urban

Dan Wergin

Zoe & Joe Alexander will provide shop anddrop services for LUUF members andfriends at their home on Saturday, Dec 7.You may drop off your children while youshop, wrap presents, or whatever. Zoe willprovide fun craft activities for your children,while you shop.

Time and details will be provided in the Dec.newsletter….. Contact Zoe to reserve.



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During the month of October 2013, our weekly Green Tips discussed the subject: Air. The following is for those of youwho may have missed a Sunday bulletin:

Oct. 6- Climate change is all about what we put into our air- what goods we consume, how we get from here to there,how we manage our homes. Everyday choices can help improve air quality and conserve energy.

Right now our FARMERS’ MARKET is at its most delightfully colorful and wonderfully productive best. Thealternative, produce hauled from an average of 1500 miles away, has an enormous environmental cost. Trucks get

six mpg of diesel, and that 1500 miles puts 5,550 pounds of carbon dioxide (the main greenhouse gas contributing toclimate change) into the air per truck per trip. Buying your produce at the Farmers Market is about fresh flavor, visit-ing with friends and neighbors, supporting your local economy, and contributing to deliciously crisp clean Fall air-which youll breathe 20,000 times a day.

Oct. 13- Burning piles of newly raked leaves was a tradition in The Olden Days. Now we know better: Open burningcontributes to poor air quality, can be dangerous and is the number one cause of wildfires in Wisconsin. Open burn-ing puts particulate matter into the air, which can cause serious health problems- especially to those with asthma or cardiac disease. The particulate from open burning can also contribute to acid rain, changing the nutrient balance of lakes and streams, and wearing on building and monuments. A better use for those leaves? Shredding for mulch or composting.

Oct. 20- That wonderful Fall air will be so much more breathable if you do your part to reduce air emissions. Insteadof using gas-powered leaf blowers, pick up a rake to move your leaves around. Besides, its great exercise!

Oct. 27- Breathing is dangerous to your health! Air has now been “officially classified as carcinogenic to humans” bythe research agency of the World Health Organization. “Air pollution, mostly caused by transport, power generation,industrial or agricultural emissions, and residential heating and cooking, already is known to raise risks … (for) heartand respiratory diseases.” Particulate matter, a major component of air, is ranked alongside asbestos, plutonium,silica dust, ultraviolet radiation and tobacco smoke as a Group 1 human carcinogen. WHO says its findings applyworld-wide with some areas much worse than others, and lists eastern North America with relatively high exposure.

Real Food...where did it go? If we are what we eat, then don’t we have a responsibility to understand what we’re eat-ing and where it’s coming from?

The Farm to School Building Awareness group of Healthiest Manitowoc County (HMC) invites you to attend freemonthly discussion groups specific to food, and the power of our individual decision-making. Woodland Dunes, at3000 Hawthorne Drive, Two Rivers, will be hosting a session on Tuesday Nov. 12 from 6-7:30 pm to explore the topicof food and small changes that can be made to have a big impact on our lives and the communities in which we live,

work and play. Workshop conversation will focus on selected videos, books and guest speaker topics. Locally sourcedsnacks will be provided.

For more information please contact Cath Pape at HMC...(920) 652-0238 or [email protected]

The next GLOBE meeting is tentatively scheduled for Sunday November 10 th after Service. Everyone is welcome.

Green Living On Behalf of the Earth

GLOBE


Environment committeeBev Rowling (chair), Judy Rollin, Jean Biegun, Kari Alice Lynn, Carol Wergin



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Cool Congregat ions is a program of Wiscons in Inter fa i th Power and Light

The mission of Wisconsin Interfaith Power and Light is to inform, train, and activate people of all faiths and faith communities to takconcrete steps in response to climate change through the promotion of energy conservation, energy efficiency and renewable energ

order to protect Earth’s ecosystems, safeguard public health, and ensure just, sufficient and sustainable energy for all.

For mo re informat ion, vis i t ht tp: / /www.WisconsinIPL.org or contact Dr. Peter Bakken,

Execut ive Director, at (608) 837-3108 or info@Wis cons inIPL.org

Why Would We As Unitarian Universalist

Want To Be A Cool Congregation?

The Answer Taken From … 2006 Statement of Conscience from the Unitarian Universalist

Earth is our home. Life on this planet will be gravely affected unless we embrace new practices.We as UUs are called to join with others to halt practices that fuel global warming/climate change,

To bring sustainable alternatives, and to reduce the impending effects of climate change with just

and ethical responses. As people of faith we commit to a renewed reverence for life and

respect for the interdependent web of all existence.


The “Cool Congregation Workshop” held here at our Fellowship on Oct 27th

gave us information and some tools to use that will help us move the above

statement forward at our Fellowship.

Presented by Peter Bakken, from Wisconsin Interfaith Power & Light, it waswell attended by people from several different congregations in our communi-

ty. First Lutheran Church, Lakeshore Unitarian Universal Fellowship, St.

James Episcopal Church, Lakeshore United Methodist Church, and St Thom-

as Catholic Church were all represented.

This informative and entertaining workshop included time for …..

The ABCs of climate change

Why we care about this as a faith community

Measuring our household carbon footprint

How to organize a Cool Congregation program at our Fellowship.

After reviewing our personal footprint reports, we were asked to take a pledge to find ways we could reduce our

household energy and review our cost savings and reduced energy use after one year.

We as a congregation now have the tools and opportunity to bring this program to our Fellowship

And to learn more ways we can care for the earth by reducing the causes of climate change.

For more information on Wisconsin Interfaith Power & Light www.wisconsinLPL.org

Cool Congregation was sponsored by Manitowoc County Interfaith Organization

RUTH (Responding with Understanding, Truth, and Hope)

Bev Rawling; UU Environment Committee



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A D ULT A CTI VI TI E S

COMMI T T E E

Jean Biegun, (Chair)

Beth Barfield

Kathy Edwards

Judy Rollin

LET’S GET CRE TIVE

Andrew and Kari Alice present:

“A Very Surprising Doodling Event”

November 16

10:00am

LUUF

Sign up sheets at LUUF, or call

Kari Alice at: 794-6163

Design ideas, books, pencils and paper

will be provided to learn technique.

Come play with us!

2nd Wednesday of each month

November 13, 6:30pm

Thanks Zoe



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Just released, it has received wonderful reviewsby Barbara Kingsolver, the Wall Street Journal,The New York Times, etc. "Signature" is a histori-cal novel about a woman 19th century botanistthat takes the reader on a worldwide adventurethat wrestles with 19 century science and spiritu-ality, religion and evolution, the role of women,colonialism and science.

New York Times: “Gilbert has established her-self as a straight-up storyteller who dares us intoadventures of worldly discovery, and this novelstands as a winning next act. The Signature of AllThings is a bracing homage to the many naturesof genius and the inevitable progress of ideas, ina world that reveals its best truths to uncommon-ly patient minds.” – by Barbara Kingsolver . OMagazine “The novel of a lifetime…”

An inviting couch read for the beginning of cold weather season. Can be purchased on Amazonfor $17.37 hard copy, and $10.99 Kindle. Sorry,the Manitowoc library has a long waiting list forthis book. Visit www.elizabethgilbert.com for moreinfo and review.

This is an open book group. All are welcome.

LUUF BOOK GROUP

November 115:30 –7:00 At LUUF

Consider participating in Fellowship's CIR-CLE SUPPER November!

Circle Suppers are simple and fun - a pot-luck at a host's home, or a gathering at a

restaurant - and they are a great way to getto know Fellowship friends. A Circle Sup-per has a maximum group size (not morethan 8) to contribute to good conversationover a shared meal.

For the potluck dinner, participants coordi-nate with the host on what to bring. For therestaurant dinner, participants pay for theirown meals.

Friendly Fellowship around GoodFood! Volunteer to host, or sign up for ourFall round of Circle Suppers!

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 9TH -- 6:00 PMHosted by Jim and Jennifer Hollahan

@ Jim & Jennifer’s Home in Manitowoc

Welcoming 6 participants—Check with

Jennifer for availability.

Circle Supper Coordinator: Cathy Edwards

No Circ le Suppers du ring hol iday season!

Circ le Suppers wil l return in the New Year!

Happy Holiday’s

CIRCLE SUPPERS



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"In the garden, Autumn is,

indeed the crowning glory of the year, bringing us the fru-

ition of months of thoughtand care and toil. And at no

season, safe perhaps in Daf-fodil time, do we get suchsuperb color effects as fromAugust to November."- Rose G. Kingsley, The Autumn

Garden, 1905




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Meets first Thurs of each month at 7:00.

St. James Church 434 N. 8th St

Phone: (920)374-3524

Email: [email protected]

GAY-STRAIGHT ALLIANCE

UW Manitowoc

Email: [email protected]

Caio Menzer

(920)320-1141

We believe that schools can be truly safe only when every student is assured of access to an education without fear of harassment of violence.

http://www.gsafewi.org/


OU T RE A CH &

S OCI A L J U S T I CE

COMMI T T E E

Jim Sustman (Chair)

Nancy Horvath

Jennifer Hollahan

Patty Marquardt

John Thompson



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The coordinators of Lights in Lincoln Park are hosting a Volunteer Contest. The lights are open nightlyNovember 29th through December 28th; however the contest nights are only Sunday, Monday, Tuesday

and Thursday. The top three volunteer groups to generate the most traffic will earn cash!

Come check out Lights in Lincoln Park on Monday, December 16th between 5:45 and 8:45!! Thecost to tour Lights in Lincoln Park is $5 per car. The more traffic Hope House can generate on De-

cember 16th the better our odds are of winning up to $750!!!

Did you Know...There are Only 55 Days Until Christmas Have you Started Your Shopping? ?

Friday in December (6th)!! Well, maybe not for all of your Christmas shop-ping, but consider stopping in at A>Cute Angle on 8th Street in Manitowoc that night! A>Cute Angle will donate 10% of the profits

made between 6pm & 8pm to Hope House that evening! What could be easier?!?! Cross items off your Christmas list, get some

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Check out our NEW Amazon.com wishlist!!!! Just go to Amazon.com, login to your account

and do a wish list search for “Hope House of Manitowoc County”

On the wish list you will find a list of items that Hope House can always use as well as those unique items that

pop up that we might need on a one- You can order the items from our wish list under your account

and they can be shipped directly to Hope House.

An easy, no-fuss way to give!

The next Hope House volunteer training will be held on Monday, December 2nd

6:00pm to 8:00pm. The location of the volunteer training is TBD.

LUUF VOLUNTEERS HELPED AT TREP IN TWO RIVERS AND PETER’S PANTRY

IN MANITOWOC DURING ANNUAL BOY SCOUT FOOD DRIVE

On Saturday October 19, 12 volunteers from our Fellowship helped the scouts deliver bags,pick up food, sort, count and restock pantry shelves from 11am to 1pm during the

annual Boy Scout food drive.

Thanks to the following members and friends for representing LUUF during this annual food drive

TREP Volunteers: Jim & Evie Sustman, Jim Rabata, Dan fisher, Kathy Fishback, Linda Hunter,Mary Jane Lukes, Jennifer & Jim Hollahan

Manitowoc Peters Pantry Volunteers: Zoe, Joe and Max Alexander helped the Boy Scouts deliver bags the week prior to the food drive and returned to pick up of bagged food during the event.



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Festival of the deadEven in its secular and commercial form, Halloween ritualizes our inescapable destination.

By Patricia Montley UU World

Although in the minds of most modern people who celebrate it, Halloween is now a secular holiday that has lost its religious asso-ciation with saints and souls of the beloved dead, there are still many people around the globe who celebrate festivals of the dead,many of them at this time of year.

Wiccans around the world regard the feast of Samhain (October 31-November 1) as the most important of their four quarter days. A common ritual is the Dumb Supper, which Anne Lafferty describes in “A Seeker’s Guide to Modern Witchcraft and Paganism.”

The table is laden with potluck dishes. There is a place setting for each person present, as well as one in front of anempty chair. This place is for the Beloved Dead, who are being honored by this meal. The first plate filled is given tothem. The living eat in silence, thinking about their ancestors and others they cared about who have passed on.When the meal is over, the leftover food, including the food that was on the plate for the spirits of the dead, is takenoutside and placed on the ground.

Participants might then tell stories and share memories about their beloved dead or sing a song honoring them. Sometimes the

food prepared for the supper includes favorite dishes of the departed in whose honor the ritual is observed.

Since the late Middle Ages, the dead have been remembered in Christian countries in Europe and elsewhere around the globe informal church services on All Souls’ Day. Although fear of “roaming spirits” was officially declared superstition, pagan beliefs andpractices persisted. In Germany, for example, when peasant farmers harvested the hay and brought it to the barn, they broke thefirst straw and offered it as food for the dead. Even today in Latvia, after the Fall Equinox festival of Mikeli, a quiet shadow periodbegins. “At this time,” according to Mara Mellena of the Latvian Institute, “the shadows—spirits of the dead—visit the farmsteadsto look over the life of the household,” and to bring blessings for future life and work.

One of the most elaborate festivals at this time of year is el Día de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead, observed on November 1 and2 in Mexico and other Latin American countries. Typically infants and children are remembered on the first day and adults on thesecond. Here the dead are not feared but welcomed. Combining Roman Catholic rituals of All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days with mil-lennia-old Mexican Indian traditions, the holiday includes solemn religious rites such as masses and prayers for the dead inchurch.

There is also feasting in the home, where scattered petals and burning incense invite the spirits to enter and partake of their favor-ite foods and special bread, hojaldra, which have been set out on tables or home altars decorated with flowers and photos of de-parted family members. What is not consumed by the dead provides a festal meal for the living. The leftovers from that meal maybe taken to the cemetery and laid on the graves of ancestors or distributed in the community. The event includes processions,pageantry, elaborate food, bright decorations, and even fireworks. While this is a time of mourning for the beloved dead, the per-

vading atmosphere is one of fiesta. Cakes and candies in the shape of skulls, skeletons, coffins, and gravestones “sweeten” theconcept of death, perhaps reminding those who eat them of the sweetness of living in heaven as well as in the memories of one’sdescendants. Some families keep candlelight vigils through the night at the gravesites of their dead and attend open-air memorial

masses.

While “sophisticated” North Americans are tempted to view some of these practices as primitively morbid at worst or quaint atbest, Peter Morales cautions us in “Bringing the Dead to Life,”

If we dismiss the Day of the Dead as pure superstition, we can easily miss the profound spiritual and psychologicalinsight that makes this tradition powerful. A Mexican boy spending the night at his uncle’s grave has a connectionacross time with his forebears that our children do not. While we dwellers in a technological age are connected tothe World Wide Web, cellular phones, and cable TV, [while we] have message machines, voice mail, pagers andcall waiting, we have cut ourselves off from the web of time. Traditional cultures, with their mediums and ghosts andreincarnations, have understood intuitively something we’ve repressed: the dead don’t die; they live on.

Continued on page 13



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For Hindus, the dead live on when their souls are reincarnated in other bodies. One of the major festivals of Hinduism, and possiblythe only one that is truly pan-Indian, is Diwali, the Festival of Lights (from the Sanskrit dipavali , or “row of lights”), which is ob-served with temple services that include singing and recitations from sacred texts. Celebrated on dates in the lunar calendar thatcorrespond to late October and early November in our Gregorian calendar, it marks the official end of autumn and the beginning of

winter. In upper India, Diwali also marks the beginning of the commercial New Year. People clean their homes, light oil lamps, andset them in rows along the parapets of houses and temples or float them in rivers. They invoke Lakshmi, goddess of fortune andprosperity, to bless their homes and businesses as they open new account books. They wear new clothes, visit friends and family

members to exchange gifts, and set off fireworks.

But in Bengal Diwali honors the goddess Kali, the five-millennia-old Creator-Preserver-Destroyer of the Universe, the womb-and-tomb primal mother found in so many ancient religions. Her breathing is the pulse of the universe, for she is at once the menstrualsea of blood that gives birth to the world and the fierce, emaciated hag whose primordial hunger must feast on animals and humansto replenish the energy that drives the cosmos. Thus she is often depicted wearing a necklace of skulls, her hair wild, her tongue

red with blood, dancing ecstatically on cremation grounds, gathering up souls to be seeds for new life. In this destroyer mode, Kalimay well be our worst nightmare—the nightmare we must come to grips with, for in facing her, we face our own terror of annihila-tion.

As Monica Sjöö and Barbara Mor remind us in The Great Cosmic Mother , primitive peoples seemed to understand that life and deathare the same. It was a paradox they strove to be conscious of—just as we strive to escape it:

Moderns who neither kill nor grow their own food nor bury their own dead would seem to have solved the problemby avoiding it; but in fact the resolution is simply delegated, nowadays, to nightmare, slaughterhouses, torturerooms, death squads, and “snuff” films, in which criminal priests perform obscene sacrifices to the gods of displacedresponsibility.

For early peoples, the paradox was somehow made bearable through ritual expression of their fury, which often took the form of bloody sacrifices to the death deity. For us, the paradox remains unbearable and yet, despite our best efforts, inescapable. So wetry to trivialize it. The hags of our Halloween cards and costumes are domesticated reminders of the Wiccan wise women whoserved as midwives and morticians, who themselves represented the hallowed and harrowing goddess of womb and tomb, of life

and death. The ghosts and goblins and grim reapers who people our parties and parades are fun versions of the very serious desti-nation that we know deep down we cannot escape.

Such trivialization may put the paradox at arm’s length, but it does not resolve it. Yet perhaps it is not too late for us to return to ritu-al for that resolution. We cannot, to be sure, revert to the bloody sacrifices practiced by some of our ancient ancestors, but perhaps

we can embrace other kinds of rituals that will, whether we believe in a personal afterlife or not, enable us to find comfort in theunderstanding that life and death are one.

Excerpted with permission from “Samhain, All Souls and Day of the Dead,” In Nature’s Honor: Myths and Rituals Celebrating the Earth

(Skinner House), copyright 2005 by Patricia Montley. The chapter includes a variety of seasonal rituals for personal, family, and congre-

gational use. See sidebar for links to related resources .

ME MB E RS HI P COMMI T T E E

Dan Fisher (Chair), Jim Everett, Kim Everett

Dan — Helping with Halloweencandy handout at the Fellowship

The UU Guitar Group “In Good Time”Performs for Trick n’ Treater’sBev, LUUF’s very own Angel

LUUF Halloween



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Lakeshore Unitarian Universalist Fellowship620 Park Street

Manitowoc, Wisconsin 54220

L A K E S H O R E U N I T A R I A N U N I V E R S AL I S T M I S S I O N

As a welcoming and accepting, diverse and inquiring spiritual fellowship,

We unite to create a community which stimulates a free exchange andExploration of ideas, foster spiritual and intellectual growth, and

serves as a base for active outreach to benefit the world around us.

AS UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISTS, WE AFFIRM AND PROMOTE THESE PRINCIPLES

The inherent worth and dignity of every person

Justice, equality and compassion in human relationships

Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations

A free and responsible search for truth and meaning

The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process

The goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice for all

Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part

PEACE TO ALL

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