REV-elations: a column from Rev. Margaret  

“For all that is our life we sing our thanks and praise; for all life is a gift which we are called to use to build the common good and make our own days glad’ — lyrical words by a British Unitarian, set to music commissioned for our UU hymnal. They’ll   be flowing through our services as the annual stewardship drive begins mid-month. It will be     our theme, in message and song.

Stewardship? It’s a larger word than canvass, or pledge drive. It refers to how we use all that we “own,” what we do with the resources we have at hand. There’s a touch of recognition in the word that what’s ours is for now, not forever. And this in turn invites awareness that change itself threads through our days.  Life is always in movement. Time is always in transition; some times more evidently so. Like now.

In the dictionary that is falling apart beside my desk, transition and transformation appear to mean the same thing: change in form, appearance, structure or character.  Yet the two words feel different.  In physics, transform means to change into another form of energy — which seems to capture that difference (if energy can be captured at all).

An interim year is transition time; that’s a given. Transformation is a possibility. For intentional interim ministers like me it’s a vision and a hope. The deepest, richest transformation that I know is from need-centered to gift-centered living. It works like magic in all that is our life.

I treasure words and am forever seeking just the right one, so my Oxford Thesaurus, American Edition is a cherished companion. Its editor hooked me with this comment in the introduction, relative to how language is molded by those who speak it: “One might be tempted to draw conclusions about the voracity of English speakers by reflection that the entry for take has about twice as many definitions in most dictionaries as that for give.” I checked, in one, and then several more. It’s true.

We live in a consumer culture. In essence, consuming is taking. Have you noticed whether it makes you happy?  I’ve given this lots of thought—thoughts I look forward to sharing with you. 

In the interim,

        AFFIRMATION in bloom

WOMEN WHO LOVE TO READ
Women Who Love to Read will meet February 23^rd,at 6:30 at the home Phyllis Millard in Bremerton. The February selection is Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine by Bebe Moore Campbell.  For information call Anne Stout, or Lene Hajek. All women are welcome.

PRESIDENT’S CORNER

As promised, we are continuing with the Summary of monthly meeting Board actions (which appears below).  What does not appear as an official action but something that did occur at the January 8 meeting has to do with The Chalice Lighters commitment that the Board members made.  Each and every one of the Board members signed a pledge (some were already pledging Chalice Lighters) to The Chalice Lighters program.  What is that you say?

MAYDAY   MAYDAY   MAYDAY          We know that when those words are said someone is asking for help.  The Chalice Lighters program is like that too.  When you commit to The Chalice Lighters program you, as an individual, pledge that when a call for help goes out from the PNWD for financial support for another congregation in need, you will mail off a check for at least $10, for that particular effort.  You pledge that you would be willing to do that for up to three times in a year.  That means that you are on the hook for $30 in a year if asked.

What it means to other congregations is that they can buy the chairs that they need or complete a new building or some other worthy and grand or little cause that is aimed toward growth.  What it means to our Fellowship is that we might also be in a position to ask for such help as we grow, but it means more than that.  It means that we are individually acting upon our belief that we should help others and spread the UU word.  The money from this program stays within the Pacific Northwest District.  Many of our fellow congregations have benefited from this program, and so can we if we get a majority of us to individually make that commitment.  If you need more information ask any Board member for a form to fill out to make your pledge.  Forms are in the entry to the Fellowship.  You can save us money for a mailing to you individually, if you will take the action to get a form and send it in.  Besides, your contributions will be tax deductible.  By the time May 1 roles around I want this Fellowship and you to be able to say that you are ready to answer the MAYDAY call.
                                                     Paul D. Flemm

TREASURER’S REPORT

As you can see, we have had more expenses than income this past month.  However, as I mentioned in the last report the search committee is now starting to spend money and that money will have to come out of our reserves.  Next month’s report will reflect the amount that will be transferred into the checking account within the next couple of days.

Lene Hajek, Treasurer

BOARD NEWS
SUMMARY OF JANUARY 8 BOARD ACTIONS 

•  Board reaffirmed the childcare policy to include expenses of childcare for OWL teachers while they are teaching.

• Board voted not to have a substitute KUUF birthday party due to the postponement of the planned dinner theatre production.

• Learning Tree maintenance issues were referred to the Building and Grounds Committee.

• Potential savings on switching long distance telephone service was referred to the Technology and Finance Committees.

• A revised Affirmation that arose out of the Mission Visioning day was released for trial among the Fellowship prior to a vote at the Annual Meeting.
  

KUUF Ministerial Search Committee

We are coming up on the most exciting time in our search process.   The search committee has reviewed the ministerial records of 14 applicants, conducted phone interviews with six and have decided to pre-candidate five of these. You wonder why five when the UUA recommends three. We have done our best to adhere to the guidelines recommended by the UUA, but the committee found wonderful qualities in these five candidates and believes it fair to this congregation that we actually meet all five. These pre-candidates will be visiting here over the next 6 weeks and from those interviews we will determine which candidate to present to the congregation for consideration to be the next minister of KUUF. The congregation will meet the minister during candidating week (tentatively scheduled for April 18-25), and vote to call the minister the last Sunday.

Yes this is a daunting task, but we take pride in this fellowship and will do our very best to search our inner selves to make the best choice for KUUF, a place we all love and a place that will  continue to grow on this new and exciting journey.

Feel free to ask us questions. Please remember though, that the names of our pre-candidates are confidential.

— Marlene DiMauro, for the Search Committee: Beth Wilson, chair,  Leif Bentsen,  Linda Gabriel Dee Boatwright-Frost,  Ginger Younie,  Dick Norton

     KUUF & UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST
ANNOUNCEMENTS

Social Concerns Committee Notes
The State Legislature is in session.  Thanks to Bob Trainer the email list has been activated to lobby our legislators on children's issues.  If you would like to be added to that list or want to be dropped, please let Bob Trainer know. 

Nominations for Board Members
     Nominations are now open for new board members and new members of the Nominating Committee.  Serving on the Board of Trustees is a way to contribute to KUUF and learn about the inner workings of the fellowship.  This will be an exciting time to be on the board, as we welcome a new minister and go through the changes that will undoubtedly occur as a result.  Board members serve for three years.
     The Nominating Committee is responsible for finding nominees for the board as well as for other key positions in the Fellowship. We are seeking members who can serve either two or three year terms.
     If you are interested in either of these roles, please contact Sandra Coates.

Bremerton Foodline
Many thanks for KUUF support of the foodline over the last year. We sponsored 8 families with food baskets and collected more than $450 in contributions over the holidays. Bremerton foodline gave out more than 500 food baskets over Christmas.  The women's bookclub collected new children's books at their Christmas party and donated them to the foodline to give out as Christmas presents, making some kids very happy.  Please keep remembering and bringing in food donations.  Hygiene items are also really needed.  People need our support all through the year.   Thanks, ­Dirk VanZanten

Are you a “NEW UU”?
Come Saturday, MARCH 6, at 9:45 AM, for a full and friendly opportunity to deepen your acquaintance with Unitarian Universalism, our history, our diversity, our zest for spiritual adventure, and with congregational life here at the Fellowship. The Membership and Welcoming committee will serve lunch, and you’ll be on your way home, nourished body and soul, by 2:00. We simply need to know if you’re coming.  RSVP to the Fellowship office: (360) 377-4724 — or by e-mail to Rev. Margaret (mkeip@uuma.org) — or sign up on the bulletin board on Sunday.  Childcare can be arranged with enough advance notice (confer with Rev. Margaret).

A Hymnal of your Own?
If you’d like your very own copy of SINGING THE LIVING TRADITION, they’re available from the UUA Bookstore, on the web at www.uua.org/bookstore or by phone: 1-800-215-9076. Cost is $28 plus $5 shipping, UPS. There’s no discount on multiple copies, but shipping per copy goes down with a larger order. [give Rev. Margaret a check for $28 between now and February 29, and you’re willing to wait for your copy, she’ll cover the shipping charge.

Margaret’s Eager To Know…
…if anyone in the fellowship knows how to do magic tricks with coins — and if anyone’s birthday is February 29.  Reach her at: 360-308-8200; mkeip@uuma.org

The Duck Hunt has flown!
Most regrettably, illness in cast member families has required indefinite postponement of this grand KUUF anniversary Dinner Theater event. Perhaps next duck hunting season? A 21shotgun salute (no ammunition) to playwright Alan Searle and every one of the folks who invested such heart in the preparations to date.

She’s Older Than Dirt Reclaiming an Ancient Heritage by Alex Miller

I opened an historical atlas to a magnificent two-page spread of Paleolithic Europe (10,000 to 40,000 years ago). The book was a general reference, not one related specifically to my inquiry into prehistoric goddess mythology. Or was it? Quickly I flipped back to the front cover to assure myself I’d picked up the right volume. Yes, I had. But there she was, her image scattered like wild flowers on tundra, over a range of lands from the Pyrenees, across the Alps and the Carpathians, on past the Black Sea, and upward to a place as far north in Eastern Europe as Scandinavia is in the west. Her image was the key that marked all the locales where archeologists have found prehistoric artifacts of the primal mother-goddess. From as early as the mid-eighteen hundreds, when the real antiquity of the human race was first being realized, some investigators suggested that the ubiquitous images represented a widespread belief in a supreme deity that was female. Archeological evidence to support that idea came to light only with the highly refined technology of the twentieth century. Today we enjoy the assurance of a reliable science that can in fact link the female images to an earth goddess, to her officiators and to the ceremonies of a religion related to the seasonal cycles of life.     Until 1981 the oldest of these images was thought to be 30,000-years-old, found at Willendorf in Austria. But older perhaps by as much as a quarter million years is the Acheulian goddess, who was discovered in the Golan Heights and carbon-dated to an era between 232,000 and 800,000 BCE! She shares many of the physical attributes of Willendorf and others found so much later: great round belly, pendulous breasts, wide hips and full buttocks. She is the source and fullness of all life, of the very earth itself. And she held the reverence of humankind for at least 200,000 years. But how did it happen that the dominant metaphor for life and creation for the greater part of human history and prehistory all but disappeared from the cultures of Europe and European descent? And what accounts for her phenomenal return to the contemporary imagination? “The image of a Mother Goddess who embodies all the processes of nature has proved to be one of the most resonant and influential of the modern era.” (Jacket note, The Goddess, Shahrukh Husain, University of Michigan Press, 2003)  One of the persons who asked these questions with good effect was The Reverend Shirley Ranck, a Unitarian Universalist minister. “I wanted to know how and why the power of the Sacred Female had been edited out of my own Western traditions.” Thus began for Reverend Ranck many years of exploration into what she calls women’s religious history, and the relationship between this religious history and the personal and social psychology of contemporary women. Her study culminated in a ten-part curriculum published in 1986 by the UUA, “Cakes for the Queen of Heaven.”   This course for adult women is designed to share what Shirley Ranck discovered: “. . . that imagining the divine as female confirmed some deep inner knowledge I had glimpsed but never quite trusted: [that] my own competence and power, my own strength of will, my own body as a sacred source of life and nurture, are divine.” Beginning FEBRUARY 28, women at KUUF will have an opportunity to participate in the explorations of “Cakes for the Queen of Heaven.” The Adult RE Committee will sponsor the course, which I will facilitate in one Saturday workshop and eight week-night sessions. A sign-up sheet will be posted in the foyer soon and you may contact Alex Miller for more detailed information.

Rainbow World
A Column on the issues of Racism, Diversity and Multiculturalism
Provided by the KUUF Anti-Racism Committee

Black History Month By Robin Carson, ARC Member

History is an interesting thing. We often have not experienced certain events in our own lifetime and rely on the words of others to understand how and why we are where we are now. This is not always easy in an environment where people write and rewrite history.  We are often left not knowing what is truth and what is fiction. There are hateful people who rewrite history to try to make us believe that things did not happen, like the Holocaust or that leave out things, like the fact that millions of stolen Africans died, due to the indescribably disgusting transport to their enslaving destinations. Then there is the tactic of just leaving people completely out of the pages of mainstream history books, making them seem invisible, unimportant and lacking contribution. This has often been the case in Black history.

It is Black History Month. This means that for 29 days this year, different venues will highlight contributions of African Americans. So, why is there a month for Black history? Because historically, the contributions of Black people have been unrecognized and disregarded.  Read these words: Black history.  What came to mind upon reading those two words?  How many of you thought about something other than slavery?  Okay, maybe a few of you thought about something else, but I would be willing to bet that you thought about slavery first.  It is a good thing that you know about slavery, but really, how many of us know the details or stopped to think about the horrific nature of what really went on and how humans could possibly treat each other that way, and still do. And as I write these sentences, interestingly enough, my inclination is to elaborate on the issue of slavery, thus doing what we have had done so often, to not go past slavery to look at the numerous contributions of African Americans to this country.

There are so many contributions, things that we use in our daily life.  But I want to focus on the celebration of Black History Month.  I want to focus on the fact that Black History Month exists.  This in itself is important because, over the years I have heard too many times, the ignorant question of why we don’t have White History Month.  My reply has often been, “Every day is White History Day.  We study and celebrate the contributions of European Americans all the time.” 

Inclusion has not been a strong suit for a country that is representative of the world’s population.  So what I’d like to do is share a little bit about how Black History Month came to be.  In 1926, Black history had hardly begun to be studied or documented at the time and it was this neglect and omission that prompted a Harvard Ph.D. named Dr. Carter G. Woodson to start Negro History Week.  It was his hope that through this special observance, all Americans would be reminded of their ethnic roots, and that togetherness in the United States’ racial groups would develop out of a mutual respect.  He chose the second week of February for Negro History Week because it contains the birthdays of two men who greatly impacted American Blacks: Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.  In addition there are several other incidents that make February appropriate such as February 3, 1870—the 15^th Amendment was passed, granting Blacks the right to vote; February 25, 1870—The first Black U.S. Senator, Hiram R. Revels took his oath of office and on February 12, 1909—The NAACP was founded.

While those are good reasons, it was during the Bicentennial celebration in 1976 that the week-long celebration was expanded to the whole month to allow more time for programs, observances and celebrations. 

Celebrating Black History Month is a good thing, but hopefully one day the sharing and contribution of all Americans will be appreciated, accepted and understood so that there will be no longer be a need to designate individual months to do what we should be doing everyday.

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION for Children Youth & Adults  FEBRUARY 2004

Midway through the religious education classes for children and youth is a good time to take stock of where we’ve been this year and where we’re going. Our program is blessed with wonderful people. We have many inquisitive children and youth who attend regularly and are actively involved. We have dedicated parents who bring their children and youth to the Fellowship week after week. We have caring teachers who attend planning meetings and prepare and facilitate lessons which help our children and youth grow. We have involved committee members, on both the Youth/Adult Council and the Children’s Religious Education Committee, who make thoughtful decisions and follow through with action. We have a supportive minister who challenges us to provide a strong program. And we have a loving congregation that values and cherishes its religious education program. What a wonderful place to be.

This year, 7 adults involved in the religious education program have attended trainings. Lisa Johnson and Jim Chapin, two of our youth advisors, attended a three day youth advisor training in Shoreline, Washington. Jenny Aunan and Ed Ramey attended a three day OWL training in Boise, Idaho. Kaela and Shawn Ultican attended a three day OWL training in Vancouver, Washington. And if that wasn’t enough, Kaela attended a three day Renaissance Module on religious education administration.

On of the biggest changes has yet to take place as this is being written, and will have just happened when this is being read.  The Religious Education Program for Children and Youth is changing times. Beginning February 1^st the Religious Education Program for Children and Youth will be taking place at 9:30 am.

The 1^st-3^rd grade class is also changing curriculum, from We Believe to Treasure Hunting on February 1^st. This new curriculum looks to be engaging and fun. From the introduction: “The theme of treasure hunting was chosen to involve children in the excitement of the search for meaning in life at the concrete level of their understanding. Each week, through games, crafts, songs and stories, the children explore the meaning behind a Unitarian Universalist principle or value. … Central to the “Treasure Hunting” curriculum is the class treasure chest, and each child’s treasure chest which he or she makes to take home. Every week the children make or receive an object to put in their chests symbolic of that week’s principle. Similarly, every week an object goes into the class treasure chest.” If you’d like to take a look at the curriculum stop by the Religious Education office.

The Religious Education Program for Children and Youth is buzzing with activity. If you’d like to get more involved contact Melinda L. Hughes, Director of Religious Education or any of the Children’s Religious Education Committee members.

Worship for All Ages
Henry David Thoreau, Christopher Reeve, Susan B. Anthony, John Adams, who else will grace our pulpit this year? We’ve heard about our chalice and will be hearing about the quilt hanging behind the pulpit. If you’re interested in being a mystery guest or have a piece of fellowship history that you’d like to share, please contact Rev. Margaret or Melinda Hughes, DRE.

Adult Religious Education
WANTED:
The Adult Religious Exploration Committee is looking for people to participate in Adult RE programs as facilitators. Qualifications: interest in getting to know more people in the Fellowship, desire to explore a topic in some depth, interest in stimulating and nurturing personal growth in others as well as oneself.. Reward: participating in an experience that is fun as well as enlightening and having the support of the Adult RE Committee. We will handle all the logistics and administrivia for the program you may be interested in leading. Many of the programs that are currently being considered have a curriculum that is ready for use. We are currently looking for facilitators for a Bible Study course and a course using films as theological text. Of course, we will also support other courses that you may consider.

If this opportunity interests you, please contact Susan Dearth at 360.871.7245 or gardenscapes@silverlink.net for more information.

KUUF CALENDAR UPDATE
To paste on the inside back cover of your new KUUF DIRECTORY (available at the Fellowship Office)
Complete KUUF Calendar

MARCH CANDLE SUBMISSION INFORMATION

If you would like to place an item in The Candle please email it to Odette Hugues. The deadline for submission requests is the 3rd Sunday of February for the March edition. Submissions may be subject to approval. If you didn't receive your newsletter, need to change your address; would like to be on our mailing list or have other questions you may contact the fellowship office staff, admin@kuuf.org, 360.377.4724

KUUF BOARD & STAFF

BOARD OF TRUSTEES — 2003-2004
Paul Flemm – President
Frank Seehale – Vice-president
Ed Ramey – Secretary
Lene Hajek – Treasurer
Claire Favro
Jim Brophy
Ray Jessen
Margo Rinehart
Alan Searle
Susan Weinstein

KUUF OFFICE / PROGRAM STAFF
Office phone: 360.377.4724 
Rev. Margaret Keip – Interim Minister
mkeip@uuma.org, 360.308.8200
Melinda Hughes – Religious Education Director
dre@kuuf.org 
Jenell DeMatteo – Religious Education Assistant
jenell@kuuf.org 
Sherry Attaway – Office Manager/Bookkeeper
admin@kuuf.org  (office hours: Wed/Fri
Alex Miller – Office Assistant
alex@kuuf.org  (office hours: Mon/Thurs)

The Kitsap Unitarian Universalist Fellowship affirms and promotes the inherent worth and dignity of all persons, without regard to their faith, creed, race, color, ethnic or national origin; their sexual orientation, gender, or gender expression; their age, mental or physical ability, economic status, or political affiliation.

4418 Perry Ave NE
PO Box 2015
Bremerton, Washington
98310
360.377.4724
admin@kuuf.org

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