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Congregational
Mission
Statement
We are a Congregation creating a better world by nurturing the heart and expanding the mind.
We provide a safe, caring community where all can freely explore diverse religious thought.
We work for justice and equality with the power of compassion and compassionate power.
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UUCGT Quicklinks
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If you would like to receive our monthly newsletter
the Beacon
please contact
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CONGREGATIONAL SURVEY UPDATE
Before we begin this week's Flash: Chris Walter and Jim Linsell, our survey gurus, along with Jan Zerbel and all the rest of our hardworking Ministerial Search Team, asked me to include the following regarding our Congregational/Ministerial Search Survey:
- Thank you to all who have responded so far to the survey!
- Due to technical glitches and expected U.S. mail delays the Survey Coordinators from the Search Team have extended the deadline. But do not dally, and please take the time to GO TO THIS LINK NOW and give us your opinions.
- Downloadable, printable PDF of survey can be found HERE.
- Each of you is a part of the Ministerial Search journey, we need and appreciate your input.
- If you received a paper copy but have not returned it, please do so as soon as you are able!
And please see the note from Guy
at the top of the Bulletin, below!
I'll be working remotely and would be grateful for help
making sure any loose ends are tied!
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This Sunday, October 1, 2020
#VOTE LOVE, #DEFEAT HATE*
*Or, as we'd say on a film set,"Take 'two'!"
Once again, apologies for the technical glitches that compromised last Sunday's Service. But we are ready to carry what we'd planned for the day forward to this coming Sunday morning.
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Dear Ones,
You won't want to miss this Service! #VoteLove, #NotHate: A National UU the Vote Worship Service is grounded in our Unitarian Universalist Values. From our work for marriage equality, women's suffrage, the abolition of slavery, for civil and voting rights, to advocating for a path to citizenship for immigrants, to taking on the 'New Jim Crow' and white supremacy today, Unitarian Universalists have a long legacy to carry onward.
Join UU's all over the country for this wonderfully inspiring service this Sunday. Our UUA president, Susan Frederick-Gray, will share a homily, and many other UU's from our own Congregation and from around the country will share music, words of inspiration, and music. We will have an opportunity for discussion following the service. Find out how you can take part in UU the Vote and make a difference!
In faith and love,
Cathy
The Rev. Dr. Cathy Harrington Interim MInister Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Grand Traverse [email protected]
Sunday morning's Order of Service is hereand will be published in the
Sunday Morning "Reminder" Flash!
Click on the link below to join the service...
The Meeting ID is 817 7744 8560
Sunday Services are automatically recorded and posted to our Zoom account; however we had no Service to share. I'll leave the link up for Sunday the 20th if you missed it and/or would like to re-view! Click here to view the Service of Sunday September 20. A password is required, that code is 6QhJe^#5
This is your chance to listen carefully.
Your whole life might depend on what you hear.
- Joyce Sutphen
The Soul Matters theme for October is Deep Listening, and the poet suggests that learning to listen, to truly listen is not only the greatest gift you can give to another, your life may depend on what you hear. The Soul Matters small group packet is available to you if you'd like to read further and engage the exercises to help you practice deep listening. One question asks you to remember a time when someone listened to you when you needed it most. "Who first gave you the gift of deep listening?" Try writing the answer in a journal. What would happen if you committed to try listening deeply, to friends, to nature, to yourself? Sutphen's full poem, "How to Listen" offers further instruction on deep listening.
Paul Tillich wrote, "The first duty of love is to listen," and Rumi said, "The soul has been given its own ears to hear things the mind does not understand." If you have an anecdote you'd like to share about a time when someone gave you the gift of listening or a time when you listened deeply to what your soul, and it changed your life. I'll include it in the message on Sunday, October 11th.
In faith and love,
Cathy
How to Listen
Tilt your head slightly to one side and lift
Your eyebrows expectantly. Ask questions.
Delve into the subject at hand or let
things come randomly. Don't expect answers.
Forget everything you've ever done.
Make no comparisons. Simply listen.
Listen with your eyes, as if the story
you are hearing is happening right now.
Listen without blinking, as if a move
might frighten the truth away forever.
Don't attempt to copy anything down.
Don't bring a camera or a recorder.
This is your chance to listen carefully.
Your whole life might depend on what you hear.
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MINISTERIAL SEARCH TEAM REPORT
This week's MST meeting was largely devoted to focusing on lessons learned from the congregational journey of the past 15 to 50 years, especially as they relate to leader/congregation decision-making and interaction. Jim Linsell led a constructive discussion using the Appreciative Inquiry method, which allowed each of us to freely express our individual feelings about what has worked well in the past and why. Applying those positive insights is one more important piece in the process of our search for the settled minister who fits well with our needs and shares our wishes for the future.
Another especially important piece of the process is in your hands as you participate in the Congregational Survey. We are still seeking more responses. It is not too late! Click on the link to the online survey or return your paper copy today!
Thank you for doing your part,
YOUR TEAM - Mary, Geoff, Charles, Dusty, Jim, Chris, Jan
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MUSIC: "A Few Notes"
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Our Music Director Renee Russell will be taking some time
off in the coming week. She asked me to share the following:
Many of you may know that I am a board member for a local non-profit called Arts for All of Northern Michigan. I joined because for several years now I've watched them grow and offer wonderfully inclusive art experiences with professional artists (painting, ceramics, glass blowing, journal making, music, dance, drama, yoga) for those with disabilities in our community BUT doing it in such a way that the teaching is done to include those of all abilities, so my sister (who was born with Down's Syndrome) and I can take a class and both learn together. I've spent most of my life fighting for inclusivity on behalf of my sister and I can tell you this wonderful little organization, that partners with TCAPS to provide art classes in the schools, is getting it right. We recently opened a large studio on Woodmere to expand class options to everyone in the community, no matter your ability. As you can imagine, the pandemic is hitting those with compromised immune systems the hardest. We are working hard to create at-home instruction (through home kits with videos and online classes) for anyone of any ability who cannot attend classes in person. We are hosting a fun fall fundraising event to raise money for this change in instruction. It's called Arts for All Roll and Stroll. We've curated a special all-access outdoor art tour to be enjoyed October 1-15. Please visit the website for details and at-home art learning options. I hope that you will join in the fun!
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RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
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- from RE Teacher Claire Crandell -
"A circle of friends is a blessed thing."
Sunday and Every Day, My Little Blue Book of Unitarian Universalism
RE gathered together so happy to see one another again. We reviewed our ASL signs we had learned last week and Amanda (who we were surprised to learn knows ASL!) shared a couple new words to practice during this next week.
This was our last Sunday of focusing on the theme of "Renewal". Our quote for the day was "Love the world back to wholeness." We talked briefly about what that might mean and the answers were sweet and loving. Basically we all decided the easiest way we can "renew" both others and ourselves is to be kind, smile, and share. We did a brief meditation reminding ourselves that we do carry a "peaceful place" within.
We shared what we had all done the past week and then played a stick drawing game where we had to draw: our favorite thing to do, our favorite sport, our favorite animal and not saying anything, show the stick drawing to one another for others to guess what it was. It was fun and we laughed a lot. As we are now in harvest season, next week we will bring a SIMPLE vegetable recipe to share with one another. Here is a beautiful video from RE for all to watch...Love blooming: https://youtu.be/pZVdQLn_E5w
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UUCGT Calendar - Stay Up to Date!
Sunday Services, meetings and classes are hosted on Zoom until further notice. Need help with Zoom? Click on Zoom links below. Note that as of September 30 2020 Zoom requires a passcode and/or an enabled "Waiting Room" for ALL newly scheduled meetings.
Requests must be made by Wednesday at noon for the next day's FLASH, please, if you want your meeting or event included - especially if you are requesting a Zoom set-up!
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Today, Thursday, October 1
1:30 PM
Creative Writing with Alison Ernst
Friday, October 2
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UUCGT Bulletin Board
From Guy in the UUCGT Office -
Dear Friends - I leave today for a week or so in Texas, doing some caregiving and making arrangements for elderly parents who are not doing well. I will be checking the e-mail to uucgt.org daily and will in fact be doing most of my regular work remotely. (If nothing else, the pandemic has taught us how much technology has evolved to make it possible to work from elsewhere. Only a few years ago this wouldn't have been possible as most internet bandwidth could never have accommodated Zoom meetings, Skype calls, remote graphic design work, and so on.)
I have tried very carefully to look ahead and double-check schedules over the next week or more in terms of committee and other group meetings, trying to make sure I have things assigned their proper days and times in the Calendar and that anyone who needs a Zoom set-up/link has one. Would you please click on the "Continue reading" link above to the Calendar for the coming week and let me know right away if you see an error or need Zoom help? I have no doubt at all that I've missed something! Additionally:
Judy Myers has graciously and generously offered to help out a bit if needed, and if any others among you have a little time to share in the coming week there are a few simple tasks that have to handled here and in person, such as mailing out printed copies of the Beacon and Flash. Additionally, a few different committees are trying to update lists of Members and Friends and I'm wondering if some of these efforts couldn't be overlapped? I'm also trying to save anyone from doing redundant work. You might contact members of the Endowment Committee (co-chairs are Don Pyne and Ellie Smith), Search Team, and our Survey Gurus Chris and Jim and see if two inanimate objects can be knocked down with one stone. (I'd rather keep our birds healthy.)
Thank you ALL for generous messages of kind support and care. I have never before worked in an environment where so many people support each other as the UUs here do.
From Kim Gribi -
A heartfelt THANK YOU to those who so generously donated to help bring 11 teens and 2 chaperones from the My Block - My Hood - My City organization in Chicago to TC and Mackinac Island for what turned out to be a truly wonderful vacation.
The weather was perfect and the kids had a lot of fun biking around and touring Mackinac, zip lining at Mt Holiday, swimming at the Grand Traverse Resort, playing putt putt golf, barbecuing and playing basketball. For some of these kids, it was their first time out of Chicago. So thank you SO much for making this happen. I could have NEVER done it without you!
Here's a very brief example of the fun had by all...
From John Hoffmann -
The annual Crop Hunger Walk event scheduled for 10/11 this year at the Civic Center will not occur. There is a "virtual event" and congregants are encouraged to make an on-line contribution to the Walk.
From Carol Ritter -
"I took this when I was overwhelmed with admiration for the strength and power of the forest."
From Emmy Lou Cholak -
The fight against voter suppression continues in Florida. A federal appeals court ruled in favor of Gov. Ron DeSantis that people with felony convictions will not be able to vote in the 2020 election if they owe any back fines or fees. The lower court judge whose ruling was overturned rightly characterized this as a poll tax.
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Finally: A new Directory will be created later in the fall.
Thanks for sending in updates and corrections; we haven't forgotten them. We may be shifting some of the ways in which we maintain our database and it may turn out that it'll be much, much easier to wait and create a directory within the new system.
Not only that, we'll have a more attractive and helpful directory!
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End Note, take 'two':
"We do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate."
- Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826 , 3rd president of the United States and primary author of the Declaration of Independence
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Most of the UUCGT building is closed until further notice;
however the office will generally be staffed* Tuesday-Friday.
with any questions or concerns.
*With thanks to Alison Ernst for suggesting
the gender-neutral language here!
Stay up to date on the UUCGT website
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