The Newsletter
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RevElations!
You might have already heard that our Unitarian Universalist Association's General Assembly will be here in Columbus this June 22-26. Now is the perfect time to think about how you'd like to be involved.
If you are a "do everything" sort of person, and have the time available, you can register to attend the whole event, starting with the opening celebration and banner parade Wednesday night, right through the closing celebration on Sunday afternoon. There are worship opportunities each morning, and throughout the day; workshops on any topic relative to UU you might imagine; general sessions to hear the news and do business of the denomination; plus special events (including this year's Ware Lecture by Krista Tippett). Full registration is $405, although you can register for just one day's of events for $150.
Special events that don't require registration, and which are free and open to the public, include the Service of the Living Tradition, which is a formal worship that honors the professional ministry, and the large Sunday morning worship. The Service of the Living Tradition will be held Thursday night at 7:30 PM, and Sunday morning worship takes place at 10:30 AM. If you have never worshipped with almost five thousand other UUs, it is not an occasion to be missed! Also, on Sunday, the exhibit hall, with its displays, bookstores, tee shirts, chalices in every form, lots more is open to the public.
We at NUUC are also looking for delegates, who might vote on our behalf during the general session business. Delegates should commit to some time studying the business issues ahead of GA, and be present at all of the general sessions, which are scheduled in the morning on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and throughout the day on Sunday. We have some scholarship money to help delegates with the registration fees, so please contact me ( [email protected]) as soon as possible if you think you might be interested in serving as a delegate.
You can find more information about GA, and Register, at:
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NUUC Summer Spirituality Retreat June 18!
Join Rev. Susan, Student Minister Katie Kuntz-Wineland, and Commissioned Lay Leaders Teri Cornell and Allison Fagan for a NUUC Spirituality Retreat, Saturday June 18, 9 AM-2 PM. We'll meet on the beautiful campus of the Methodist Theological School in Delaware, Ohio (a seven-minute drive from church). You'll have your choice to participate in several different guided spiritual practices, including yoga, mindfulness meditations, drumming, reflection on sacred texts, walking the labyrinth and musical chant. Included is a healthy lunch with items right from the seminary's own farm. Register on the signup sheet in fellowship hall, or online at http://nuuc.org/education/adult-programs/ |
Spring Spruce-up Day on Sat. May 21st
Plus fun free lunch!
Mark your calendar!
On
Sat May 21st from 9AM - 3PM
we will be holding
Spring Spruce-up Day
to get both the church and Nielsen House ready for summer. We'll be doing a variety of tasks both outdoors and indoors.
At noon we'll break to enjoy a lunch provided by Rev. Susan with each other and visiting members of the UU Justice of Ohio board.
Please
consider helping out on this day. You could work for a few hours, half a day, or more... whatever works best for you. Any help will be appreciated. If May 21st doesn't fit your schedule, you can select a task and do it when you can. Look for the sign up sheet and list of tasks posted in Fellowship Hall. If you have any
questions about this event, please contact Bob Keith or Roger Orwick of the Building & Grounds Committee.
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Inspired by walking with our Coming of Age Youth in the C
RIS 5k, we are beginning a weekly NUUC Walking Group. We will meet weekly
beginningTuesday, May 3rd at 9am, to walk the paved loop at Sharon Woods
Metro Park. We will rendezvous at the Maple Grove Picnic Area, at the
picnic tables. Come as you can and enjoy the park and fellowship with other
NUUC'ers. Contact Allison Fagan at
614-270-8117
(call or text) or
[email protected]
for more information and to let us (Allison, Melinda
Rosenberg, Rod Myers, and Kristen Grimshaw) know to expect your company.
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This summer from
Thursday, June 23 - to
Sunday, June 26, The UUA General Assembly will be held at the Columbus Convention Center We have an amazing opportunity to share our sense of community by attending this great event. But we can also provide a service to the many others coming from all over the country to attend.
Please consider being a host for someone who might like to choose an alternative to the standard hotel room during General Assembly. If you live in the city of Columbus, or even on the outer suburbs, and have a spare room and a generous spirit, you might find this to be an extraordinary change to learn about other UU's.
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The NUUC Recorder Ensemble has full wind in its sails once again. We would like to invite you to join our
tootling fun! For more information, contact Becca Morse at [email protected]
(or 614-805-6680)
We rehearse together on the second and fourth Fridays of each
month at noon at Friendship Village of Columbus. If you're interested, but the rehearsal time doesn't work for you, just go for Baroque and contact us anyway:
If enough people are interested in an alternate time, I'm sure we can work out a second rehearsal schedule. Just because a hobby blows doesn't mean it's not fun!
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Meets at Noon the Third Tuesday of the month. Get all the details by clicking here. |
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Hospitality Teams
No doubt you have noticed, that since November, there have been different greeters each Sunday morning. You may have also noticed that the coffee hour host signup sheet has been filled in three month blocks. This is the result of the Leaders' Council creating four hospitality teams, each of which would serve one quarter. Each team is responsible for making sure that we have greeters and coffee hour personnel assigned for each Sunday for a period of three months. It is up to each team to decide how this is accomplished. Members of the team could rotate themselves to cover these services or they could enlist other members of the congregation to fill these responsibilities.
The rationale behind this process is twofold. It eliminates the burden of a social committee constantly trying see that someone has signed up for coffee hour host and a membership committee trying to make sure there is a greeter each Sunday. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, is provides more involvement opportunities with minimal time commitment for our friends and members.
We are in the middle of our second quarter with this system. It has worked remarkably well. So far, since November, we have not been without a greeter or coffee hour host on any Sunday morning. Being on a hospitality team may sound like more of a commitment than it really is. It consists of one meeting on a Sunday after the service and serving one, two or zero times as a greeter or coffee hour host. Normally there are 12 Sundays in a quarter. If there are 12 folks on the team, each team member is responsible for one Sunday as greeter and one Sunday as a coffee hour host. Some team members may not enjoy greeting but enjoy hosting coffee hour and vice versa. In that case, team members can trade off responsibilities or someone, not on the team, who enjoys one or the other of these tasks might be asked to take a Sunday.
The first two teams were filled by asking individuals. Very few, of which declined the invitation. We have two quarters left to complete a year. Consider this your personal invitation to be included on one of these teams. It would be wonderful if we could do this without having to asked those who have already served to do it again. Although, I know that many would be willing to repeat. Anyone willing to help out with this project, please contact John Rodeheffer ([email protected]).
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Music Notes
May promises to be a very busy month for music at NUUC! The combined adult and youth choirs have a special surprise on May 1 (and again on
May 22.) See below if you are a parent of one of our many musical youth. Additionally, the NUUC Recorder Ensemble will perform during the service on
May 8.
Music Sunday is
May 22 at 10:30am. I hope you will join us for our annual intergenerational service celebrating the role of music in our worship services. Here are just a few examples of the music you will hear on
May 22: The adult choir will be singing a new arrangement of "Bright Morning Stars," a gorgeous American folk song. John and Lily Rodeheffer will play a flute duet and the McCallister's exchange student, Xenia, will play guitar and sing.
Back by popular demand, the NUUC Youth Orchestra will perform "Dragon Dances" for Music Sunday. Parents, rehearsals for "Dragon Dances" will be as follows:
Sunday, May 1 at
11:45-12:15
Sunday,
May 15 at
11:45-12:15
Sunday, May 22 at 10:00
The Youth Choir (Explorers, Travelers, and Seekers) will be singing with the adult choir on
May 1 and May 22. Rehearsals for "This Little Light of Mine" are:
Sunday, May 1 at 9:45
Sunday, May 22 at 9:45
I'm seeking performers for Sunday services during the summer months. We have a need for instrumentalists and vocalists for offertories and musical interludes while the choir is on summer break. Please contact me to sign up for a date and talk about repertoire.
Musically Yours,
Marlene Hartzler
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Mowing at NUUC - We Need Some Help
For this mowing season, the Building and Grounds Committee plans to handle the mowing using the same approach as last year, which will avoid us having to contract out the mowing and save about $3,050 in the budget. Our plan is for the B&G Committee to handle the mowing on a rotating basis with some help from the congregation. B&G Committee members will mow 3 weeks of each month, and the 4th week and sometimes the 5th week will be handled by a different volunteer from the congregation. This approach will spread the work so each committee member will mow about once a month, and each congregational volunteer would mow just one time during the season. Our approach will keep everyone's work commitments reasonable.
The area to be mowed includes both the church yard (bounded by the driveway and the parking lot) plus the yard around Nielsen House. We have a riding mower, which is used for almost all of the mowing. For a few small, tight areas, which the riding mower cannot handle, we use a push power mower. The southern field at the rear of our property and the west side of the parking lot are excluded and will be mowed separately compliments of Gary Rusk, using his large tractor.
Therefore, we would like to get 1 or 2 volunteers from the congregation each month to mow one time in the season. The mowing season runs from April through early November. But volunteers from the congregation will be needed only for the months of May through October, which is 6 months. Three of those months have 5 weeks and will require 2 volunteers, so we need a total of 9 volunteers.
Please consider volunteering to mow one time this season. If would like to help the church handle the mowing, you can sign up on the mowing sign-up sheet in Fellowship Hall. Just pick a date that works for your schedule. If you have questions or would like more information, just contact Bob Keith at 740-369-1919 or
[email protected]
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May 2016 Newsletter Social Action News
B.R.E.A.D. ORGANIZATION (BUILDING RESPONSIBILITY EQUALITY AND DIGNITY) NEHEMIAH ACTION on Monday, May 9th, 6:15-8:30 PM at Celeste Center, Ohio State Fairgrounds, 717 E. 17th Avenue, Columbus, OH . Our annual Nehemiah Action is a gathering of thousands of people of faith coming together from diverse religious, racial and economic backgrounds from around Central Ohio.BREAD will ask for public commitments to solutions to: improve access to jobs and economic opportunity for residents in the Linden and Hilltop areas and for ex-offenders, and provide a municipal picture ID for vulnerable populations such as victims of domestic violence, the homeless, immigrants, and those re-entering society from incarceration. We'll also receive updates on previous asks: a Safe Streets program to reduce gang gun violence and progress made toward an accredited clubhouse for people suffering from serious mental illness. BREAD rises! To get free tickets contact Pam Patsch
[email protected]
or Alice Rathburn at
[email protected]
or (614) 563-0536. First UU is offering bus transportation for $4/person or $10/family of 3 or more. For more information see the bulletin board in Fellowship Hall.
UUJO IS LOOKING FOR A NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ...
This is a part-time (15-20 hours per week), hourly paid position to begin no earlier thanAugust 1st and no later than December 1st of 2016. The Director may work from anywhere in Ohio and travel for meetings in Columbus several times a year. UUJO is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer. Resume and cover letter including three references and their contact information should be emailed to Dan Schneider, Chair of the UUJO Executive Search Committee at
[email protected]
or mailed to 3847 Meadowlark Lane Cincinnati OH 45227.
For more information see the bulletin board in Fellowship Hall or go to the UUJO website
http://www.uujo.org/
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UPCOMING NW EARTH INSTITUTE COURSE: VOLUNTARY SIMPLICITY - Wednesdays, May 18 - June 22, 2016, 7:00 - 8:30 pm, Simply Living Office, 2350 Indianola Avenue, Columbus, OH 43202.
Our decisions on how we live and consume are not made in a vacuum. We are affected by the consumer culture and society around us. Voluntary Simplicity helps participants examine how modern society can interfere with caring for the planet. Together, you explore how consumption patterns have an impact on you and your relationships, as well as the environment. Discover ways to slow down and live simply.
NWEI discussion courses are designed to encourage systems thinking and inspire participants to make positive changes in their own lives. This is a great opportunity to learn more about important issues, build community with others, and create change. Class sizes are limited to 8-12 people so be sure you sign up soon.
The cost is $29 for the book. See more about the course at:
NWEI Voluntary Simplicity
. For more information or to register for the class contact Pam Patsch at
[email protected]
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Voluntary Simplicity - an antidote for "TOO MUCH"
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