Please continue to think of the Free Store and bring in whatever you can donate. There is one bin in the foyer and one downstairs in the office area – both are clearly marked. Donate new or gently used items from the following list:

For the living quarters: toiletries, bedding (twin sheets, blankets, pillows, pillow cases), towels and wash cloths, housewares (small appliances, dishes, glassware, utensils, silverware, small tables), soft luggage, tote bags.

For the men: jeans (32/30, 30/30), baseball caps, jackets of any kind, t-shirts, hooded and regular sweat shirts, sweaters, scarves, gloves, mittens, hats, belts, ties, shoes/running shoes/boots, straw hats;

For the women: jeans, pants, coats, pocketbooks.

No fancy clothes for anyone, please, and no children’s clothing at all.

URGENTLY NEEDED ITEMS are readers (125, 150, 175), safety glasses, and sunglasses.

Any questions? Contact Nedra Stimpfle, nstimpfle@nycap.rr.com, 587-4980

Shelley is a member of our congregation. The Lay Worship Leader is Robert Mohowski.

The International Center of the Capital Region (ICCR) in collaboration with the Turkish Cultural Center Albany (TCCA) is organizing a workshop and orientation for teachers. It is scheduled for Tuesday, February 28 from 6 to 8 PM at the Town of Colonie William K. Standford Library, 629 Albany Shaker Road, Loudonville, and will include an overview of the program and a presentation by local Turkish American community members from TCCA who will give a welcome, description of history and culture, and provide samplings of Turkish cuisine.

Additionally, of those who attend the workshop and subsequently fill out an application, three Capital Region educators will be chosen to have the opportunity to travel to Turkey for approximately two weeks during the summer of 2012.

Please note: to be eligible to participate in the Teacher Study Tours to Turkey the applicant must attend the orientation and be currently teaching K through 12.

For more information or to RSVP, please call ICCR at 518-860-5363.

As you know, we’ve spent quite a bit of time these past few months talking about a new mission statement. We’ve held discussions with the congregation and have taken input about what the new mission statement should include. Now it’s time for us all to vote Yes or No on the proposed Mission Statement.

OUR MISSION IS:

● To Inspire Thought and Spirit

● To Build Community

● To Serve Others

If you are currently involved in the congregation, you will have received an email with a link to the page where you can submit your vote. If you have not received the email, please contact the church administrator at administrator@saratoga-uu.org. Additionally, you will find a box and ballots at the back of the sanctuary.

WHY DO WE NEED A NEW MISSION STATEMENT?

A mission statement will help us to coordinate and guide our actions so that we can take the steps necessary to keep our congregation vital and responsive to our inward needs, as well as to those of our local community and the world beyond.

To be a significant force in these communities, we must operate from a secure financial foundation that we have not yet achieved. To reach this goal we will need to grow the size of our congregation. Such growth seems ultimately achievable in the context of a rapidly growing city. A well funded UU congregation of substantial size can constitute a spiritual beacon in our lives, in Saratoga Springs, and beyond.

The kind of mission statement we seek should be short so that it can be remembered. It should be a powerful motivator for action. It should fuel a vision of where we will be, and be headed in five years. To do this, it cannot be all defining or all inclusive – it should be the start of a conversation, not the end of it. Further, it is not likely that most will agree with every word. But no mission statement should be thought of as cast in concrete. We should revisit it every year or two – as we now revisit our first Mission Statement, developed in 2005.

With those thoughts in mind, the eleven members of the Growth Task Force here propose a Mission Statement. In the spirit of the beginning of a conversation, we have also prepared an elaboration of the goals found in the mission statement. Think of the Mission Statement on one side of a card, and the elaboration on the back – a format chosen by other UU churches. The elaboration contains most if not all of the mission suggestions from meetings within our Congregation about our Mission. The elaborations will form the basis for our vision statement.

OUR MISSION IS:

● To Inspire Thought and Spirit

● To Build Community

● To Serve Others

Each of the words in this mission statement allows for a diversity of meaning, some of which is indicated below. Many belong in interchangeable categories and there is no attempt to be all-inclusive. The possible meanings are inclusive enough so that individuals can provide a multiplicity of interpretations.

TO INSPIRE THOUGHT AND SPIRIT

Opening Minds

Acceptance

Sunday Service

Intellectual stimulation

Spiritual enrichment

Child and Adult RE

Great music

Small Group Ministry

Conversation

TO BUILD COMMUNITY

Spiritual home

Caring for each other and others

Congregation size, financial stability and influence

Intentional outreach

Welcoming, Nurturing

Inclusive worship

Acceptance

Sharing time, treasure & talent

Small groups (ministry & others)

Social events

UU traditions & history

TO SERVE OTHERS

Social justice

Responsible actions

Helping others

Environmental conscience

Journey with others in a cause

Striving for peace

Advocate justice and fairness

Caring for each other

Respect individual worth and dignity

Phyllis, the coordinator of the Free Store of the Backstretch Employees Service Team of the Saratoga Racecourse, and Marcia, the Benefits Assistant for B.E.S.T., will share their experiences, describe the lives of the workers, and suggest ways in which we can all become more involved with the organization.

Coordinated by Nedra Stimpfle, UUCSS member, and Bonnie Nelson, Director of Religious Education, this multi-generational service seeks to educate us about how our lives are touched by immigration, the current study-action issue of the UUA. There are no religious education classes today.

The Lay Worship Leader is Maureen Rice.

For more information on the FUUSA Organic Farm Fair, please contact Chris Bystroff at bystrc@rpi.edu or NOFA’s Marty Butts marty@nofany.org

Sue Bender

Many of you no doubt have heard the old joke about “How Many Unitarians does it take to change a light bulb?” The answer:

An undetermined number. We choose not to make a statement either in favor of, or against, the need for a light bulb.

However, if on your own journey you have found that light bulbs work for you, that’s fine.

You are invited to form a committee, write a poem or compose a modern dance about your bulb for next Sunday’s service, during which we will explore a number of light bulb traditions, including incandescent, fluorescent, three-way, long-life, and tinted, all of which are equally valid paths to luminescence.

As we know, Unitarian jokes abound. Almost always, we laugh at them; they make fun of our idiosyncrasies and capture something of the fierce independence in many us. But there is also something vaguely unsettling in this usually gentle fun-making, suggesting that we have no religious core. There is an insinuation that while we respect the religious traditions of others, we resist defining our own.

Well, recently I have begun to bristle a little at these jokes and their insinuations, even when the prodding is done with a twinkle. Unitarian Universalists have a deep and proud heritage of free religious community and our congregations nurture a life-affirming faith in human dignity. Our shared belief in the importance of individual conscience, reason, and experience in matters of faith is a proud cornerstone of Unitarian Universalist theology. Our Sunday services offer us the opportunity to find the best in ourselves and invite us to let those qualities inform our actions in the everyday world. As a participant in the UU Wellspring Program, I came to appreciate our traditions more deeply, and gradually the jokes lost their humor for me.

The Wellspring Program was designed by the members of the Rochester Church under the leadership of their minister, Reverend Jen Crow. It was designed as a program of spiritual deepening that would draw on UU history and traditions to guide participants in forming a faith that could underpin their being in this world. This program was meant to differ from the old “Building Your Own Theology” program, a staple of late 20th century UU congregational life, in its emphasis on asking questions and making affirmations rooted in “[the] rich Universalist heritage of faith, hope, and love and the Unitarian legacy of freedom, reason, and tolerance” (Crow, pg. 65).

Intrigued by the opportunities offered by such a program, I joined with three other members of this congregation, four members of the Glens Falls Church, and our ministers to pursue the Wellspring curriculum. This was not a light commitment. For a ten-month period our group explored Unitarian and Universalist history and studied a wide range of theologies. Throughout our study, each of us sought to grasp how these theologies might take shape in our own lives. Later in the service, Lili will describe how our considerations of the theology of forgiveness affected her.

The bulk of our readings and writings were done in preparation for our every other week meetings. We consciously shaped these group meetings as what Parker Palmer has called a “Circle of Trust”. Our ground rules were that each participant was accorded the right to speak without interruption and that we would listen to rather than question or comment on one another’s views. Each of us was to speak honestly and we would maintain trust through confidentiality. In our conversations, we strove to articulate what we believe and what our beliefs were calling us to do and be in the world.

We also committed to support our individual journey through Wellspring by developing a daily spiritual practice such as meditation, writing, listening, or praying. And each of us found a trained spiritual director with whom we met once monthly to discuss questions of faith. Nikki will describe her experience of this dimension of the Wellspring program later in the service.

Our initial explorations centered on UU history, and I would like to share with you a sense of how these affected my own spiritual development. While I knew something of UU history prior to Wellspring, it was within its curriculum that I began truly to understand the historical depth and courage of our heritage. Ours is a religious tradition that we can embrace with pride and humility. If we reach far back into our European roots, we encounter Michael Servetus in 16th century Europe. While studying law, he availed himself of the opportunity to read the Bible made newly (and dangerously) available by the printing press. There he was surprised to find the Trinity was mentioned nowhere. From that moment he became an ardent anti-trinitarian, and he coupled this belief with rejection of the notion of original sin. Servetus believed that all people, even non-Christians, were capable of improvement and justification and did not restrict the benefits of faith to a few recipients of God’s selective grace. He insisted, rather, that grace abounds and humans needed only free will and intelligence, which we all possess, to grasp it (summary after Hughes, pg. 6).

These positions brought Servetus into direct conflict with Calvin, and he was ultimately convicted of anti-trinitarianism and opposition to child baptism, convictions which carried the penalty of being burned at the stake. In the wake of Servetus’ death, one of his defenders observed that “When the Genevans killed Servetus, they did not defend a doctrine, they but killed a man…. [W]hen Servetus fought with reasons and writings, he should have been repulsed by reasons and writings”—not execution (quoted in Hughes, pg.5). Indeed, it is in Servetus’ insistence on religious truth acquired through direct experience with the Bible and individual powers of reasoning, coupled with his faith in individual human dignity that we find the first courageous assertion of the faith principles of modern liberal religion.

It is also in the separation from Calvinist doctrine in mid-eighteenth century New England that the founders of Unitarianism in this country found their identity; here again belief in free human will and a benevolent God were central principles. Universalism made its appearance in America at about the same time and espoused similar principles. Believing in a loving God who embraced everyone and that dignity and worth is innate to all people regardless of sex, color, race, or class, Universalism was a more evangelical faith than Unitarianism—challenging its members to reach out to people whom society often marginalized. But it was in their shared commitment to an inclusive theology that both denominations nurtured an impetus to create a more just society. Unitarian preacher Theodore Parker was a prominent abolisitionist, while Universalist Clara Barton went from the Civil War “angel of the battlefield” to become the founder of the American Red Cross.

After the two traditions were merged in 1961 our UU membership embraced the Civil Rights Movement as passionately. Twenty percent of the new denomination’s ministers responded to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s call to march for justice, and martyrdom for deeply held beliefs once again stalked our forbears. Minister James Reeb was beaten to death in 1965 in Selma, Alabama after a meeting with other activists; and Viola Luiza, a member of the Detroit church, was shot to death in Montgomery while driving marchers back to the airport after the major demonstration there. This tradition of dissent and courageous support for social justice continues in our denomination today, and it is important to recall that it stems from a deeply held religious conviction, a modern version, if you will, of faith in universal salvation (after Harris).

This is the story I learned well in Wellspring, and through it I developed a newly found respect for the depth of religious commitment associated with our UU heritage. It is for this reason that I bristle at Somerset Maugham’s quip that “A Unitarian very earnestly disbelieves in almost everything that anybody else believes, and he has a very lively sustaining faith in he doesn’t quite know what”. I prefer rather to think of us as women and men who treasure their freedom to choose their faith, trusting in their reason, experience, and conscience to lead them to reverence for the good and true, which we find embodied in our heritage.

Works Cited

Crow, Jennifer 2008 “Our Question Mark Faith” In Reverend X: How Generation X Ministers are Shaping Unitarian Universalism, edited by Tamara Lebak and Bret Lorie. Jenkin Lloyd Jones Press.

Harris, Mark “Unitarian Universalist Origins: Our Historic Faith”.

http://www.uua.org/publications/pamphlets/introductions/151249.shtml accessed, 1/22/2012

Hughes, Peter Peter “Michael Servetus” In Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography, http://www25-temp.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/michaelservetus.html accessed 1/22, 2012.

Maugham, Somerset 1970 Of Human Bondage, pp.98-199. Plain Label Books (ebook).

Nikki Williams

There are religious words that trigger negative reactions in us because they are associated with unpleasant memories or ideas that have been rejected by our feelings and reason. Worship is the religious word that bugs me most. My history and my feelings tell me that I don’t want to “worship” anything. It hardly matters that the word has several meanings. I get hung up on it almost every time I hear it.

God with a capital G is one of those tricky words. Holy is another. How about church? Do any of these words give you an uptight feeling?

The word spiritual can be such a word. It has associations for people, and not all of them are agreeable. But here I am, preparing to talk to a whole group of UUs about spiritual practice and spiritual direction. Frankly, it makes me uneasy. Yet, what I learned about spiritual practice during my time in Wellspring was an eye-opener for me and I’d like to share some of it with you.

I used to associate spiritual practice with activities like praying the rosary or reading the Bible. These things can be spiritual practice, but there are many other activities I can engage in to feel more in touch with that which is bigger than me and the something inside me that motivates and inspires me to be a good person.

One of our early Wellspring readings was a book called “Everyday Spiritual Practice: Simple Pathways for Enriching Your Life.” The book was edited by a UU minister. About forty contributors wrote chapters about their own spiritual practice. Sure, some of the oldies but goodies were there: prayer, sacred reading, meditation, fasting. But there were some surprises on the list: cooking, sewing, dancing, music, parenting, gardening, art, volunteering. While some of these have given me what I might call a spiritual experience at times (like listening to music, for instance), I never thought of any of these as spiritual practices before Wellspring.

But what makes spiritual practice different from a hobby or something we enjoy doing that gives us a little lift when we’re feeling low? The answer is three-fold: intentionality, regularity, and depth. When we do these things with intention (that is, with a goal in mind) and regularity (meaning creating space for this in our lives) and depth (digging into it, as it were), spiritual practice is a liberating, soul satisfying activity that begets creative, empowered living.

For several years I practiced Tai Chi and Chi Kung. I took classes twice a week, practiced the form and meditated at home in between, and did some reading to deepen my understanding of it. The result was that I felt more balanced emotionally and physically, found it easier to manage my life in general, and felt more open and relaxed in many situations. (Gee, maybe I should consider going back to it!) Anyway, I didn’t call it a spiritual practice, but I see now that it was. It had intentionality, regularity, and depth.

My spiritual practice changes from time to time as my life and needs change. Right now a change is in the works for me. I am reading a book called Poetry as Spiritual Practice. I stumbled upon it while spending a Christmas gift certificate and just had to have it. It seemed so me, containing something that has already, from time to time, enriched my life. I think it’s time for me to be intentional about, regular with, and deeper into writing poetry.

Well, I’m running out of time and still haven’t talked about my spiritual director.

I found the idea of having a spiritual director while in the Wellspring program a little off-putting at first, but it was part of the deal and I was determined to give it my best shot. I completed the Wellspring program last summer, but I still see my spiritual director every four to six weeks or so. She is not a therapist, not even a UU, but she is highly trained and experienced in her field.

We talk. I get to say how my life is or is not measuring up to my expectations about what is right and good. My spiritual director, because of her training, helps me settle more firmly into my belief that life is much more than the rat race I allow it be much of the time. Notice I said my belief. She isn’t there to mold me into the image of some saint or other. She’s there to help me realize my best self.

Here is a quote from Edith Hunter, a religious educator:

Perhaps we should realize that our need is not to “find something to believe” – but rather to discover that our lives indicate what we believe right now. This is the place to start.

So….

My daily life is about what I believe. Coming to church once a week isn’t enough to keep me on the path I want to be on. My spiritual practice feeds my ability to live my life as a wonderful adventure called becoming.

On so many levels, Wellspring was a wonderful experience.

Lili Dobert

Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.

Mark Twain

This is my humble attempt to explain my experience participating and completing the Wellspring Program. Last year I was asked to participate in the program through the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Glens Falls. It came at a time when I was looking to deepen my spirituality. I find that the UU principles provide great guidelines to live accordingly, but practicing it on a daily basis takes a certain level of maturity. There is no step-by-step instruction. There is no recipe. I can regurgitate the principles, word for word, but to actually put it into practice on a daily basis… being intentional with my words and behavior that parallel the UU principles …every moment of the day… takes great effort on my part. Participating in the Wellspring Program was my opportunity to further explore my spiritual beliefs. The program would give me answers… so I thought. Actually, after completing the program, I had more questions… more confusion. But then again, my initial goal was to deepen my spirituality and not look for concrete answers.

My spiritual practice focused on being present in the moment. Every morning, I would wake up and look out at the lake. Music would play in the background. I was intentionally being aware of the moment: how my body moved, what I saw, what I heard and what I felt. In addition, I was acutely aware of my thoughts. It was difficult to be present for a long period of time. My thoughts would wander to people and events of the past or people and plans for the future. I would have thoughts that would feed a full range of emotions but the thoughts that created painful feelings were the most difficult to deal with. Thoughts associated with injustices, no matter how big or small, were the most intrusive and the most stubborn. These thoughts did not want to easily leave my head. They had an uncanny ability to stick. Not only were they sticky, but these thoughts also had a domino effect quality, one painful thought leading to another….It was like my Pandora’s Box was opened. The more I had these negative thoughts, the worse I felt. These thoughts rented so much space in my head that they needed to be evicted.

After months of meeting with my spiritual director, doing my spiritual practice, and completing the readings of the program, the group discussed the concept of “Forgiveness”. The following passage is taken from one of the readings of the Wellspring Program. It begins by telling a story about a boy being bullied. He was immediately consoled by an elderly neighbor with hot chocolate and these words of wisdom …

“’This day has other things to give you.’ …Besides the hurts and indignities of an unfair universe, this day has other things to give you. Besides the anger that you want to carry in your heart for all the wrongs done to you – this day has other things to give you. If you are ready to let go of your anger, to forgive what has happened in the past, this day has other things to give you.” …

Which, as odd as it sounds, makes me think of monkeys!

Recently I learned that park rangers in Africa have devised an incredibly unique way of catching monkeys. Tagging and administering medicine to monkeys are routine tasks of rangers. In an effort not to harm the monkeys with guns and darts as they capture them, the rangers have come up with something they call “the banana method.” Its simplicity is its brilliance. You take a fairly large and heavy Plexiglas box and drill a small hole in the side of it, a hole just big enough for the monkey to squeeze its hand through. Inside the box you place a banana. Inevitably the monkey will see the banana through the Plexiglas and come down from the tree to get it. By straightening out its fingers, the monkey can easily get its hand in and grab hold of the banana, but once the monkey makes a fist with the banana in it, there is no way for it to pull its hand back out. It’s stuck, that is as long as it refuses to let go of the banana. And for some reason having to do with complex issues of adaptation and instinct, monkeys – virtually every single one of them – have a terrible time letting go. Freedom is right there for the taking if only they let loose their grip. But, you see, they don’t. A part of them holds on for dear life. A part of them remains stuck. And it’s important to remember that it’s not their whole being stuck in the cage, only their fist, only one small part of them. But that one small part, because it is unable to let go, becomes a great weight to the monkey, holding its entire life hostage.”

Sitting On The Stoop (Let Go Of The Banana!), Scott Tayler, Parish Co-Minister, September 26, 2004

Discussing the concept of “Forgiveness” with other group members helped me understand the purpose of forgiveness. One definition I came up for Forgiveness is the ability to let go of painful feelings associated with injustice. Can you forgive someone who cuts you off when driving? Can you forgive family members when conflict arises when a parent passes away? Can Holocaust victims forgive the Nazi’s? Where is the line drawn when it comes to forgiveness? Are there people more worthy of forgiveness than other people? What I took from the discussion that night is that when I face the issue of forgiveness… The purpose of “Forgiveness” is not actually for the other person…. It is not for the person or event that perpetrated the injustice. Forgiveness is for me. Forgiveness is for me to be free of the anger, pain, sadness that keeps me a prisoner, from being compassionate, and loving others without exception. That one moment of time … no matter how big that moment is, that moment of time of injustice need not mar our spiritual being. That is the big picture. Forgiveness gives ME Freedom, internal peace and tranquility. From this internal peaceful energy, I can then emit peaceful energy to others. If I let go of the banana, if I let go of the anger and pain, I am free to see the beauty of this world, and the beauty of all its people. Most important of all, it allows me to have compassion for everyone, give love to everyone and live in peace at all times. If I master this step, my spirituality has internalized to a deeper level.

It has been said that love isn’t genuine unless it seeks to be effective. That points us toward the tough and holy question of what’s required to transform heartfelt calls for change into results that reflect our UU values.

Mr. Feder is a lifelong UU who covered business and technology for the New York Times for 27 years before entering divinity school in 2008. He is currently completing an internship at the Morristown (N.J.) Unitarian Fellowship and serving as consulting minister at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of the Poconos in Stroudsburg, Pa. Dan Berggren will sing his original song on the theme, “Occupy the Moment.”

The Lay Worship Leader is Elinor Brook.

As I sit down to write, it is just a couple of hours away from President Obama’s State of the Union address. He’ll talk about where we’ve been this year, and where we’re going. We’ve been doing a lot of that here lately in our congregation. We’ve been doing it quite a bit in regard to our Youth Group as well.

I passionately believe that young people inherently have an amazing capacity for compassion, love, and empathy. I believe they truly want to serve and make a difference in their world and have the power to create enormous positive change—if we, as the adults in their lives, listen to them and support them in opportunities to do so. In keeping with our 6th Principle of working toward a world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all, it is our responsibility as a congregation to work together to ensure that our youth have these opportunities.

This is just one of the many reasons why a strong, vibrant youth ministry is so important to a UU congregation. In addition, it is our UU children and youth who are the future of not only our congregation but of our faith. It is these remarkable young people who will take Unitarian Universalism with them as they go out into the world and spread it if we provide an empowering, enriching youth ministry experience for them. In addition, an active, vibrant youth group will radiate that positive energy throughout the whole congregation.

Over the past two years, Addy Waldie has done an absolutely outstanding job of coordinating and leading the Youth Group. She’s invested an incredible amount of time and energy with our youth working on social justice projects, such as raising funds for Rebuilding Saratoga, developing their youth community and their identity, and building fellowship. And she’s been doing it all on her own. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Addy for her incredible contribution to our Youth Group—for all her time, energy, and commitment to our kids. Thank You, Addy!

However, one person cannot do this alone. Our Youth Group has endured some bumpy times this school year, mainly because we haven’t had enough adult volunteer leadership to support Addy in her role. But she’s done an amazing job of keeping the group together during this difficult time. With this in mind, we’ve been working diligently to look at what was needed and taking action to get the group the support that it needs to thrive. And we’re making some great strides. I’ve been working to recruit more volunteers. Also, we’ve chosen a social justice-themed curriculum, “Heeding the Call: Qualities of a Justice Maker,” which, along with providing a rich learning opportunity, also provides a structured learning tool for adult volunteers to work from. The group is no longer meeting offsite at First Baptist but is back “home” and meeting at UUCSS. And we’re opening a dialogue about what we want for our Youth Group.

At a planning meeting this past week, we started by asking three questions: “What do we want to provide for our youth?” “What heritage do we want to pass onto them?” “How can we include them more in our congregation?” Here’s what the group came up with:

1) To have our youth be positive about church.

2) To provide values education and a safe place for youth to process life issues.

3) To provide a safe environment where they can be themselves.

4) To provide a space of their very own that they can call “theirs” and create it the way they want it.

5) To help them develop their own spirituality and relate it to service through service trips.

6) To provide heritage trips to important UU sites.

7) To integrate them into our church life; that they will serve both within and without; to be involved with projects of the Social Justice Committee.

To develop their leadership skills.

9) To educate them about Unitarian Universalism and world religions.

And now, I’d like to hear from you. I’d like to invite all of you into this conversation. What do you want for our/your Youth Group? I ask that you think about those three questions. How might you answer? We’re looking for feedback from everyone. This isn’t just a conversation for parents of kids currently in the group. This is a conversation that needs to involve every member of our congregation. As we continue to talk about growth and “where we go from here,” I believe that the needs of our children and youth and their families must be of paramount importance and a primary focus in that discussion. I will continue in my role to advocate for those needs and for the best possible Religious Education and Youth Group experiences we can provide. In order to do that, I need to hear from you. Please know that I am always available to talk with you about your thoughts, ideas, suggestions, and concerns.

It’s true—we’ve made a great start! As part of the effort to increase adult leadership and to support Addy in her role, we’ve pulled together a small team—a terrific group of volunteers who have come forward to teach and substitute. Our newest Youth Group volunteers are John Adams, who has volunteered to assist Addy with teaching the group on a fairly regular basis, and Jack and Shelley Carter, who have volunteered to teach periodically throughout the year. Thank you all so very much for being willing to give your time and energy to help and support our youth!

Although we’re making progress, we’ve a long way to go, and we need your help! We still have a serious need for adult volunteers to teach, to be available as substitutes, and to help with special events, service projects, and other initiatives. Our Youth Group cannot continue without a strong, consistent team of adults.

If you like working with young people, please consider volunteering to work with the Youth Group. If you are interested or have any questions, please contact me at 899-8098 or dre@saratoga-uu.org. I am also currently holding office hours on Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the church and can be reached there at 584-1555. I look forward to hearing from you!

With peace and warm blessings for these winter months,

Bonnie Nelson, Director of Religious Education

dre@saratoga-uu.org

The program is open to children who have experienced the death of a loved one, including a parent, grandparent, sibling, or friend. A parents educational support group runs concurrently with each children’s group. This group is designed to help parents better understand how grief affects their children and how they can assist them in the grieving process.

The entire 6-week Wave Riders program is offered free of charge at the Community Hospice of Saratoga County at 179 Lawrence Street in Saratoga Springs. Registration is required, and space is limited. Please feel free to contact the Hospice at 581-0800 for more information.

Attendees will meet others who are new to the congregation while learning about the long and rich history of our religion. We will also talk about our individual and collective values and beliefs and will have an opportunity to discuss those with one another and with Rev. Hoddy. Some of the leaders of the congregation will also be with us to discuss the many opportunities available to both Friends and Members here at UUCSS.

We hope that you can join us for these informal and informative evenings. Please contact us for more information.

Caren Baker • carenabaker@gmail.com • 583-0944

Nedra Stimpfle • nstimpfle@nycap.rr.com • 587-4980

Toiletries, bedding (single bed sheets, pillows, pillow cases), towels and wash cloths, housewares (small appliances, dishes, glassware, utensils, silverware, small tables), soft luggage, tote bags.

For the men: jeans (32/30, 30/30), baseball caps, jackets of any kind, t-shirts, hooded and regular sweat shirts, sweaters, scarves, gloves, mittens, hats, belts, ties, shoes/running shoes/boots, straw hats; For the women: jeans, pants, coats, pocketbooks.

No fancy clothes for anyone, please, and no children’s clothing at all. Urgently needed items are readers (125, 150, 175), safety glasses, and sunglasses.

After the service we’ll pack the items and take them to a storage space. Please contact me if you have any questions.

Nedra Stimpfle

nstimpfle@nycap.rr.com • 587-4980

Look for more information in next month’s newsletter. Interested in helping to plan and run the event? Please check in with one of us.

Mary Cobb • marync6@gmail.com

Alan Bartenhagen • alanbart@nycap.rr.com

We especially thank early arrivals for being seated toward the front of the Sanctuary and away from the aisles as much as possible so that those who arrive after you may find a seat more easily.

Dennis Herlihy, Head Usher

dennis_herlihy@yahoo.com

The Lay Worship Leader is Nan Asher.

Youth Group
Sherry Rydinski and John Adams will be our teachers. The Youth Group will be working on the “Heeding the Call” Tapestry of Faith Program for Youth Workshop 1B: The Call for Awareness. The group will begin their Activists Interviews and will be exploring Points to Ponder. They will also be working on the logos for the Congregation T-Shirts.

“She’s gone off the deep end spiritually, and it’s ruining Sunday morning,” s/he said. It was a comment passed on to me third hand.

Hmm, really? Well, let’s think about it. It’s true my spirituality has deepened in recent years. I’ll tell you what it’s like swimming down here—things to fear, but also infinite possibilities for freedom and great joy.

Listen

Read