Suzelle

Suzelle Lynch, Minister, 360.377.4724,minister@kuuf.org

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Sunday Worship Services And Other February Events

Sunday, February 2, 2003 - 9 and 11 am "Why Two Heads Are Better Than One," Guest Speaker the Rev. John Gibbons, Minister, First Parish in Bedford, Massachusetts, and member of the Unitarian Universalist Partner

Church Council. Rev. Gibbons will bring us a sermon on the spiritual basis for valuing perspectives different than our own. The KUUF Choir sings for the 11 a.m. service today.

Sunday, February 9, 2003 - 9 and 11 am "The Spark that Enlivens Our Faith, the Rev. Suzelle Lynch. Faith is an interesting word. Sometimes it substitutes for "religion," as in the popular book on Unitarian Universalism, "A Chosen Faith." Today, though, I want to explore faith as in belief, as in what we place our confidence in, what we lean on in bad times and take for granted in good times. What is your faith? Special Music today.

Sunday, February 16, 2003 - 9 and 11 am ""Loving this Church," the Rev. Suzelle Lynch. Anne Morrow Lindbergh wrote, "When you love someone, you do not love them all the time, in exactly the same way, from moment to moment." I think this also is true of the way we love our Fellowship, the way we find meaning in being a part of this place. Come and find out more! The KUUF Choir sings for the 9 a.m. service today.

Sunday, February 23, 2003 - 9 and 11 am The annual celebration of love in the month of St. Valentine. Poetry, letters, and music by Suzelle Lynch; Tom Cameron, Bob Dietz, Lisa Johnson, Alex Miller, Kay Morgan, Susan Trainer, and the KUUF Choir under the direction of Mike Menefee. Lisa Johnson will serve as Lay Leader. Young people are invited to bring a teddy bear to the service for Intergenerational worship today.

Women Who Love to Read will be meeting Monday, February 24, 2003, 6:30pm, at the home of Phyllis Millard to discuss The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. Heather Purcell will facilitate the discussion, all women members and friends of the Fellowship are invited. Everyone brings finger foods for a simple potluck. Please contact Phyllis for info or directions to her home.

The Men's Book Club will be meeting Wednesday, February 19, ,2003, 7pm at Charlie Coate's residence to discuss the book Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. All male members and friends of KUUF are invited to attend for a lively discussion of this book and current events. For more information call Jim Chapin.

Spiritual Book Discussion Groups
The Day Group will meet at 1 pm on Thursday, Feb 13, 2003 at the home of Lois Mcallister. Note that this is a deviation from our usual meeting schedule. We will begin discussion of the inspiring book, The Power of Now, A guide to spiritual enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle

To accommodate those who can't attend the day group meetings, a second Spiritual Book Discussion Group is being initiated. Interested people met at the home of Sunday Farr on Jan 23 to discuss future meeting times. The outcome will be announced in Feb. Sunday Service announcements. For details contact Bob Trainer or Sunday Farr.

Safe Congregations Task Force

A KUUF Board-appointed Safe Congregations Task Force will begin meeting in February. The Safe Congregations Task Force will take a deliberate look at the safety philosophy, policy and procedures guiding our programs for children and youth. There are many congregations who have completed this process, the task force will be drawing on their experiences and work. If you are interested in participating please contact Melinda Hughes at dre@kuuf.org or 360.377.4724.

Welcome to KUUF's Newest Members!

Sarah McGregor joined the Fellowship on December 23. She's the daughter of Jennifer (McGregor) Stowell and came to the Fellowship from the time she was eight years old through high school. Sarah's currently a student at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York, where she is enjoying her studies for an acting career. Her current passion is for Shakespeare's works. Sarah, like many of our young folks, thought she already WAS a member of KUUF since she grew up here. But in Unitarian Universalism, because we have congregational polity, and because we believe our children have the right to choose their religion, membership is something one has to actively choose as an adult. Sarah became involved in peace protests over the summer and found herself feeling solidly and actively connected to her UU values of love, tolerance and acceptance of everyone, and the Universalist idea that salvation is open to all persons, and decided it was time to sign the membership book. Sarah misses her mom and her family and her dog, and the grass and trees and nighttime stars of the Northwest, but she's thriving living on the upper West side of Manhattan, and has good neighbors and friends who share her beliefs and ideals. Welcome, Sarah!

April Scriven became a member of KUUF on January 10. She found the Fellowship through a newspaper article that listed gay-friendly establishments. KUUF was one of only three churches listed, and we were the first one she tried. She came in late summer of 2001, on one of our late summer potluck Sundays, and the first person she met, Judy Park, warmly welcomed her and helped her feel very much at home. Before long she was attending worship regularly, and soon met her now-life partner, Melinda Hughes, here. April and Melinda were married by Rev. Suzelle Lynch last summer. April has been one of our Neighborhood Group Liaisons, and also helped coordinate the former Flaming Chalices group for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning folks. She feels that becoming a member of the Fellowship is an important commitment, and decided that she was ready to make that commitment and become more involved here. April writes poetry, and enjoys bicycling and hiking, and working on the 1922 bungalow that she and Melinda share.  Welcome, April!

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New Fellowship Office Hours

9am - 3pm

Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday

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Annual Canvass Pledge Drive

Begins March 8th

A New View: UU & You

What begins with C asked the apple of the tree

Why, Candle, Chalice and Canvass, all three!

But what is canvass with two "esses", oh what could it be?

Very simple, said the tree, it's as plain as can be,

A Dinner and a Party and a Pledge, you see.

For all us crazy cats at this local UU

want everybody to come to our colorful big Do.

For it's sure, it's certain, it's definitely true,

that it's time to get together and discover A New View.

We invite one and all, just a few weeks hence,

Bring your silly side, your appetite, your dollars and cents.

We'll dine and we'll play and we'll tally the till

to fund our year's coming dreams, oh yes we will!

Canvass Dinner Party March 8

Mark your calendars for the year's biggest bash at KUUF the annual Canvass Dinner on the evening of March 8th. It's the party where we gather KUUF members, friends and guests to break bread together and then invite everyone to pledge to support KUUF for the 2003-04 fiscal year. This year's theme is "A New View: UU & You" - with thanks and apologies to Dr. Seuss!

Our Canvass theme echoes the planning our Board and lay leaders are doing on discerning who we are at KUUF now, and what our future direction should be -- since more than half of our members have joined in the past five years. For newcomers, the Canvass Dinner is a great way to get to know more people here. There's never a dull moment at a Canvass Dinner where the entertainment brings out the best (and wackiest) of our members and friends. It's free, childcare is provided, and the table hosts outdo themselves at the creative and marvelous table settings.

Come to the Dinner,

Oh come, please do!

It will be lots of fun with you and you and you!

Pacific North West District UUA Annual Meeting "Tributaries to Peace 2003"

This year's meeting will be held in Moscow, Idaho, February 14-16, at the University Inn-Best Western. The keynote speaker will be Forrest Church who is serving his 25th year as senior minister at All Souls Unitarian Church in New York City, the largest Unitarian church in the country. He is one of the leading UU voices in the United States today. Activities at the annual meeting includes receptions, workshops, worship, music and entertainment. For details visit their web site (www.pnwd.uua.org/agm2003.html).

There is transportation by bus available to the meeting (leaving from Seattle with parking provided), for complete details visit the PNWD web site (see address above) and click on Transportation.

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Message from President William G. Sinkford (issued January 15, 2003)

Friends,

I understand that there has been considerable discussion and distress over what was published in a newspaper article recently. I am writing to share with you what happened, to address your concerns, and to assure you that I share many of the concerns you have expressed. Here is what happened. This past Sunday (1/12) I preached a sermon entitled "The Language of Faith" at First Jefferson UU Church in Ft. Worth, Texas. (I also addressed this issue in the column I wrote for the upcoming March-April issue of UU World; this article has been posted on our web site at http://www.uua.org/president/030115.html and I encourage you to read it.)

Following the service, I did an interview with a reporter from the local newspaper, an interview which covered a number of issues including the points about religious language I made in my sermon and magazine column. The reporter published a story that reported things I did not say, and drew conclusions that I did not reach. In particular, the reporter's first sentence read, "A former atheist who is now president of the Unitarian Universalist Association will push to put the word 'God' into a new statement of principles."

Let me be very clear: I spoke of the need to periodically revisit that issue, to read and reflect upon-our foundational language. I did not call for the Principles to be rewritten. I spoke of the need for individuals to consider supplementing the language of the Principles with religious language in describing their own faith. I did not call for the inclusion of the word "God" in either the Principles or in anyone's individual descriptions of their personal faith. I understand the alarm and genuine distress that many of you felt on reading the news story and accounts of it. I would be similarly alarmed if any UUA president presumed to do what the story suggested I had done.

You need to know that I did not in fact make the statements reported in the Ft. Worth paper. Here is the text of what I said in my sermon at the Ft. Worth church about God language and the Christian tradition:

But "religious language" doesn't have to mean "God talk." And I'm not suggesting that Unitarian Universalism return to traditional Christian language. But I do feel that we need some language that would allow us to capture the possibility of reverence, to name the holy, to talk about human agency in theological terms-the ability of humans to shape and frame our world guided by what we find to be of ultimate importance. I have learned from these events that I need to exercise greater care in addressing the broader world, including reporters, about Unitarian Universalist language and beliefs. I mistakenly assumed that the reporter would understand my remarks with the same

Level of nuance and clarity that I had intended them. That did not happen, and on reflection I see that it was unlikely ever to happen. I should have better anticipated how someone not steeped in our tradition might easily draw the erroneous conclusions he drew.

That said, I still believe that it is time for us to have a conversation about our foundational language. Indeed, we have a bylaw requiring that the Board of Trustees review the Principles and Purposes every 15 years (see Article XIV, section C-14.1 of the UUA Bylaws, on web at http://www.uua.org/ga/bylaws.html#Section%20C-14.1). My hope is that both the sermon and the World column will serve as a stimulus to get this conversation going.

I ask your help in moving past this misunderstanding, and I ask your further help in redirecting our energy to where it can do the most productive good. If you speak with someone not on this e-mail list who is concerned about what they have heard, please forward this e-mail so that they can read what actually happened.

Unitarian Universalism today is strong and vibrant. We are increasingly claiming the Good News of our liberal faith. Let's use our energy to make Unitarian Universalism even stronger, and to share our Good News with a world that badly needs it. This incident has the potential to lead us into a rich discussion of who we are and how we describe ourselves. I welcome that discussion.

In faith,

William G. Sinkford

Do you have questions or concerns about our newsletter The Candle? Get your answers here.

If your concerns are about the newsletter content, the style or suggestions for future articles contact Rev. Suzelle Lynch, 360.377.4724, minister@kuuf.org.

If you didn't receive your newsletter, need to change your address or would like to be on our mailing list contact the Fellowship office staff who are responsible for distribution, admin@kuuf.org, 360.377.4724.

If you have questions about the newsletter deadline, if your article will fit in the newsletter or want a special graphic with your news item contact the newsletter editor (New editor being appointed at time of printing, contact Fellowship for info on new editor.)

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Treasurer's Report

Pledge donations to this date total $107,722. The budgeted amount is $109,631. meaning that we have a shortfall of $1,909. Quarterly statements will soon be issued. We are doing well, and let's all try to bring our pledges up-to-date before the end of our fiscal year in April. Thank you for keeping the shortfall (relatively) low.

Darlene Johnsrude

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President's Corner
Susan Weinstein

The month of February brings more public attention to 'love' particularly with Valentine's Day. From the special meeting held for Fellowship leaders on January 11th, to the KUUF Birthday Party, and including the trauma several of our families are enduring, the love and caring of this community by and for each other make KUUF what it is.

What we want KUUF to be in the future was a primary focus of the special meeting for church leaders and program staff held on January 11th with the Rev. Anne Heller as our facilitator. Almost 30 people came. We talked and worked in groups of four; and, came up with the following four areas we want the Fellowship to focus on this year and next:

* Our mission/vision/covenant

* A maintenance plan (including a manual)

* The space issue

* Growth

Yes, we do have a mission statement (that only Suzelle had memorized). We need to revisit that to see if it accurately reflects where we are now. There were other issues that were discussed and need attention too. But we need to become clearer what we are about as a congregation which will help us better achieve our other goals.

Some congregations have visioning days where the entire membership develops their vision. We have had this in the past; and hope to do so in the near future. You'll be hearing and reading more about this!

Our meeting ended early on the 11th. The day was sunny and people headed out fairly quickly. All except Carl Hajek who quietly began changing light bulbs, and doing other maintenance. Those building and grounds guys are terrific ... as are our RE teachers and staff ... our office staff... our choir ... Suzelle....our computer/genius husband/wife team... The list goes on and on ... And Valentines are in abundance! Thank you.

With love,

Susan

Our Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) Contributions

The Fellowship received a thank you letter from the UUSC expressing their thanks for our congregation's contributions. They also attached a report of our donations and number of UUSC members over the last 3 years. Their records show:

FY 2002 - $1200.82, 16 UUSC members @ KUUF

FY 2001 - $ 987.19, 17 UUSC members @ KUUF

FY 2000 - $2062.00, 16 UUSC members @ KUUF

Below are the statistics for our 2002 Guest at Our Table fundraising event and past years (information provided by Melinda Hughes, DRE.)

2002-$675.04 (1 Chuck E. Cheese token, 1 smartcarte token from SeaTac, 3 Canadian dollars, 1 mark and 5 pence)

For the 2002 fundraiser, 100 boxes were ordered from the UU Service Committee, 79 were picked-up at the Fellowship and only 34 returned.

Amount collected in past years:

2001-$955.82

2000-$987.19

1999-$1,201.22

1998-$860.78

The UU Service Committee is responsible for important human rights work. Your involvement and support helps make possible their work to protect the basic human rights and inherent worth and dignity of all, and enables each of us to put our faith into action.

For more information on the UUSC's work visit their web site at www.uusc.org

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RE Calendar  February 2003

Sunday, February 2nd

9:00 YAC

11:00 Youth Group
check-in
group building activity
plan cookie sale fund raiser

Sunday, February 2nd
RE Committee Meeting

Saturday, February 8th
6:00 Cookie baking at Kelsey Campbell's for fund raiser

Sunday, February 9th
10:00 Cookie sale after first service
11:00 Youth Group
check-in
group building activity
cookie sale after second service

Sunday, February 16th

11:00 Youth Group
check-in
group building activity

Sunday, February 23rd
Bring your teddy bears for the intergenerational worship

11:00 Youth Group
check-in
group building activity
Activities to fill-in
Deliver backpacks
Vertical World
Set up youth corner

Volunteer Opportunities in the RE program

- Keep the supply closet organized. Swing through the supply closet at the learning tree and make sure supplies are where they belong, note any supplies that are running low.

- Be the second adult in the Toddler room any Sunday. Volunteers are need for both services.

Contact Melinda Hughes, DRE (360.377.4724, dre@kuuf.org) if you can help.

Rainbow World
A Column on the issues of Racism, Diversity and Multiculturalism

By the Rev. Suzelle Lynch

February 9th is Freedom to Marry Day for 2003, a day when we remember that not all couples are able to marry legally, a day that reminds us of our continuing UU commitment to the rights and the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning persons.

The information below comes from www.lambdalegal.org. It speaks very clearly on the issue, and could be used as a resource for anyone wanting to know more.

Why Same-sex Couples Should Have Equality in Marriage -- Today, same-sex couples are not allowed to marry in any state - no matter how long they have been together, no matter how committed they are to their relationship or their children, no matter how much they have already assumed the same responsibilities as different-sex married couples, and no matter how much their families need the protections and benefits that come with civil marriage.

Same-sex couples want the right to marry for the same reasons different-sex couples do. Same-sex couples want to get married for the same variety of reasons as any other couple: they seek the security and protection that come from a legal union both for themselves and for any children they may have; they want the recognition from family, friends and the outside world that comes with a marriage; and they seek the structure and support for their emotional and economic bonds that a marriage provides. All gay people, whether in a relationship today or not, whether they would choose marriage or not, deserve to have the same choice that all heterosexuals have.

This inequality in access to marriage should end, just as our nation has abolished prior discriminatory exclusions. Marriage is a civil right that belongs to everyone. Loving, committed same-sex couples form families and provide emotional and economic support for each other and for their children just like other couples do. When different-sex couples apply for a marriage license, the state does not ask them whether their relationship is worthy of its recognition.

This is not the first instance of unlawful governmental interference with the freedom to marry. Less than forty years ago, many states prohibited interracial couples from legally marrying. In Loving v. Virginia, a married interracial couple was arrested in Virginia and faced up to five years in prison. The state court upheld their conviction because it found interracial relationships to be "unnatural."

"Tradition" is not a reason to deny marriage to same-sex couples. Marriage was "traditionally" defined as a union of two people of the same religion or the same race, or one in which wives were the property of their husbands. Those "traditional" elements of marriage changed to reflect this nation's core principles of equality for all people. Marriage should be defined to include the committed relationships of same-sex couples as well.

The right to a civil marriage is not a right to a religious ceremony. Couples who wish legal recognition for their marriage must first get a license issued by the government and then have an authorized person marry them. This is a civil marriage. The person who marries the couple may be a government official (such as a justice of the peace or city hall official) or an otherwise authorized individual (such as some clergy). But if the couple asks a clergyperson to marry them, that clergyperson can always say no, meaning that the couple would have to ask some other authorized person. Civil marriage does not deny the rights of religious groups not to marry couples, according to their religious principles.

Domestic partner benefits are inadequate. In certain cities, states or companies, there is limited recognition of relationships between unmarried partners, often including both different-sex couples and same-sex couples. As domestic partners, couples may gain access to health care coverage and certain other basic family benefits. But many couples wish to structure their families around a broader set of rights and responsibilities. For these couples, domestic partnership is no substitute for civil marriage.

Civil Unions are an important step forward, but separate is still unequal. Vermont offers "civil unions" to same-sex couples. Civil unions provide a set of rights and responsibilities within Vermont that parallels marriage. This is an important step forward. It is not marriage, however, and its implications beyond Vermont have yet to be determined by the courts. It is a separate and unequal institution, setting same-sex couples apart for second-class citizenship in the eyes of others, which will carry over into how such couples are treated in other areas of their lives. Having the choice to marry is full equality. A separate, gay-only institution is not.

The sky will not fall because of equality for same-sex couples. When opponents are desperate for arguments, they resort to familiar "the sky will fall" claims, such as the argument that allowing same-sex couples to marry could be followed by demands to legalize polygamy. This is a scare tactic, not an argument. Same-sex couples want the freedom to marry that is currently taken for granted by different-sex couples. The issue is about legal recognition for couples. (All info above from www.lambdalegal.org)

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How To...

Ever wonder how to get things done around the Fellowship? Below are the instructions for a task often asked about. (Next month, How to Reserve Space at the Fellowship.)

How to get An Announcement In The Sunday Order Of Service

* Announcements must be turned in by 9am on Tuesday prior to the Sunday they are to appear in the bulletin.

* A good announcement will include what, when, where, how and who! Be sure to include the name, phone number and/or e-mail address of a contact person.

* Type up your announcement including contact information and email it to alex@kuuf.org or, place it in the folder for the Administrator next to the kitchen door. You may also mail announcements to: KUUF, P.O. Box 2015, Bremerton, WA 98310.

* With rare exceptions, only announcements pertaining to KUUF events will be made verbally during the worship service. For exceptions, or if you hope to do a "special announcement" yourself about an upcoming event, please call our minister, Suzelle Lynch 360.377.4724 or e-mail minister@kuuf.org.