December 1, 2002 THE CHALICE NEWSLETTER OF THE OBERLIN UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST FELLOWSHIP 317 East College Street Oberlin OH 44074 a welcoming congregation that seeks to be a spiritual home to people of free faith regardless of race, sexual orientation, class, or any of the other differences that might separate us To discontinue, contact . SUNDAY MORNING PROGRAM SCHEDULE -- ALL ARE WELCOME Sunday School: 9:30 - 10:30 Child care: 10:30 - Noon Forum: 9:30 - 10:30 Social Gathering 10:30 - 11 Service: 11 - Noon Care for the very youngest children available during services and forums OUUF meets in the Oberlin Early Childhood Center at 317 East College Street, marked by a large abstract statue of a parent and child. Service and Forum space is barrier-free. Parking in the front and to the east. OUUF WEBSITE Sunday, December 1, 2002 CAN MUSIC SAVE THE WORLD? special music service -- 11:00 am Andy Frantz, Service Leader This will be a service featuring music performed by adults and child- ren from our Fellowship, as well as songs that we sing together as a con- gregation, and some recorded music that we listen to. The songs have been chosen to fit the theme of the service, exploring the place of music in our lives personally, socially and spiritually. All are welcome. NO FORUM, NO SUNDAY SCHOOL. SOCIAL GATHERING starting 10:30 am. UNDERGROUND COFFEEHOUSE CONTINUES The next Underground Coffeehouse will be held December 20, at 8:00 P.M. at First United Methodist Church. About 30 people attended the first edition - children, youth and adults. Pick a song or poem and join us! A $1 dona- tion and canned food item are re- quested. The Underground Coffeehouse is a chemical-free environment. FROM THE MINISTER His name was Nick Clements, and he may have been the best Santa imper- sonator ever. Longtime member of the First Universalist Church of West Paris, Maine and a funeral director for most of the year, Nick (St. Nick, as he preferred to be addressed) could charm youth and adults as easi- ly as children, atheists as well as Christians, Scrooges as well as holi- day groupies. In Santa impersonation as with the rest of life, goodwill and genuine joy go a very long way. Although daily confronted with the reality of death (it was Nick who first told me the old saw about how a good undertaker would always be "the last to let 'ya down") Nick was full of life - perhaps even more so during the holidays. At the annual church Christmas party, Nick would pass out gifts on behalf of needy families. He'd then invent gag gifts for the youth. And when the young ones were safely downstairs grazing on sweets, Nick would offer a somewhat rowdier (nearly blue) version of the Old Guy for the adults. Kind, fun and irrev- erent, that St. Nick. Nick Clements died a few years ago. I don't know if anyone has dared take his place in that small Maine town, but I know for sure that Nick Clements was St. Nick at his mytho- logical best. If the original Old Guy is looking on, keeping score of the many folks who have played him over the years, I seriously doubt that many have done so with the gusto and grace of a certain undertaker from western Maine. For all the crass and vulgar trap- pings that have accumulated like barnacles on Christmas, St. Nick will not let the rational pessimist in me surrender such a holy season. If you revel in Christmas, may your joy be multiplied. And if these days are but a time of sadness, may the spirit of St. Nick bless you and remind you to hold hope close. Happy holidays, Don HOLIDAY POT-LUCK Saturday, December 14, 6pm, at Phyllis Smith and Cal Frye's, 367 North Prospect. THE OUUF BOARD will meet at Fryes' at 5pm. Visitors are always welcome, and the input of OUUF members is both welcome and guaranteed under our Bylaws. Sunday, December 8, 2002 DISABILITY: BIRTH DEFECT OR IMMACULATE CONCEPTION? morning service -- 11:00 am Mary and Rich McKee, Service Leaders Disabilities are bad. Right? Well, one may find some derived good. But what if the disability is inherent in one's essential persona? Join us and think about which came first, Gus or his extra chromosome? All are welcome. IN THE CLASSROOM WITH OUR SPECIAL CHILDREN fellowship forum -- 9:30 am Susan McDaniel, Intervention Specialist Susan is a Special Education teacher at Langston Middle School. She will give an overview of Special Education from 1975 to the present, including the different categories and the different services the Oberlin City Schools offer. All are welcome. SUNDAY SCHOOL 9:30 am Regularly scheduled RE classes for grades 6-9. Intergenerational service rehearsal in Green Room for grades 5 down. R.E. INFORMATION BOARD Calling all creative-type youths! Kim needs your hands-on input in creating our RE info board. Come spend part of a weekend afternoon with me at my house. Yummy food and snacks provid- ed! Please let me know if you are interested. Kim Peters 776-0132. LAKE ERIE REGIONAL MINISTRY Lake Erie Regional Ministry (LERM) is the steering committee for the three congregations served by Don Rollins. The next LERM meeting will be held at Oberlin Early Childhood Center on January 11 at 9:00 am. Olmsted UU Congregation will host its Christmas Eve service at 5:00 pm rather than 7:00 pm. Please note this time change and plan to join us for an intergenerational service. Don Rollins will be service leader. Sunday, December 15, 2002 WINTER INTERGENERATIONAL SERVICE morning service -- 11:00 am Don Rollins and Kim Peters With Hanukkah, Solstice, Christmas and the entire Fellowship family, what's not to enjoy? Come ready to sing and celebrate! All are welcome. COMMITTEE ON MINISTRY CONCEPT fellowship forum -- 9:30 am Rev Don Rollins This Forum will focus on a proposal that would alter our fellowship gov- ernance to include Robert Latham's Committee on Ministry model. Don will lead us in a discussion of how the model works and how it might serve OUUF as a tool for evaluation and conflict management. (See BOARD NOTES for a fuller description.) Please attend and offer input and feedback! All are welcome. COOKIE POTLUCK social gathering 10:30 - 11 Everyone is invited to bring Christmas cookies to share. SUNDAY SCHOOL 9:30 am Final rehearsal for the 11 am presen- tation at the Intergenerational ser- vice. Children gather in Green Room. Please bring us your kids while you enjoy the Forum led by Don Rollins. NEW MEMBERS January 5th Rev Rollins will lead the Fellowship in welcoming new members. The membership book with be available at the January 5 service for all who would like to sign. Anyone who is thinking about joining OUUF and has not yet talked with Don, is urged to call him (440+366-1027). The Fellow- ship, a spiritual home for people of free faith, values your commitment! RELIGIOUS EDUCATION Regularly scheduled RE classes resume January 5 at 9:30 am. The Forum that Sunday will be an RE Open House: Adults will meet for a brief explana- tion of our RE program and then an open invitation to sit in on any or all classes. CURRICULA PRESCHOOL/KINDERGARTEN Kerry Langan, Rebecca Cross. Parent helper: Mary McKee. "Celebrating me and my world" An exploration of a child's world through literature, (Aesop's Fables), poetry, music, movement, arts & crafts. GRADES 1-3 Barbara Fuchsman, Kim Peters. "Stories About God" An explora- tion of God: in image, in world reli- gions, by emotions, values and the children's personal experiences. GRADES 4-5 Peg Tucker and Phyllis Smith "Holidays and Holy Days" We will be learning about and celebrating holidays which honor a universal human response to life and highlight the values we, as UUs affirm. The holy days give us an opportunity to examine the religious beliefs of others, and in the process, our own. GRADES 6-7 Katie Styer, Ed Miller. "Neighboring Faiths" We will learn about the great religions of the world and visit their places of worship. Before the outings, parti- cipants will need to sign a waiver (provided at the first class). GRADE 8-9 Keith Koenning. "Thinking the Web: Moral Issues and Systematic Thinking" The class will be discussing current medical, societal and global issues. Participants will learn how to be aware of their thinking pro- cess, develop discussion skills and gain understanding of consequences of decisions made. AROUND OBERLIN Darlene Krato writes: Rev. Chuck Booker-Hirsch usual- ly resides with his family which includes a wife and small children in Ann Arbor, MI. But for the last three months has resided in a Federal Prison due to his beliefs concerning the School of The Americas at Fort Benning, Ga. Chuck took the step over the line, where Oberlin College students have recently protested over the training our government is providing other countries. Chuck through his ministry has been involved in Guatemala and, like the people in the Santa Elena Project of Accompaniment, knows of the problems and how the U.S. plays into that. Chuck will be speaking at 6:30 p.m. at FIRST CHURCH IN OBERLIN on Sunday, December 8th. There is a pot luck at 6 p.m. John Gates and Don Hultquist, a new resident at Kendal and a close friend of Chuck's, are among the event sponsors. For those attending the Musical Union and Oberlin College Choir at Finney that night: come early, get your parking spot, listen to Chuck and then attend the concert. Katie Gass writes: I'm a senior at Oberlin and I've been involved in various OUUF and LUUV activities during my time at Oberlin. Right now I'm working on a big anti-war conference that Ober- lin is hosting for northeastern Ohio. It is going to be Decem- ber 7th and 8th at OBERLIN COLLEGE (specific times and events are yet to be decided). We still need some people to voice their opinion on the war, sanctions in Iraq, a regime change, discrimination in the US, and other pertinent issues, as well as people who'd like to lead a workshop. I've attended various lay-led sermons at OUUF and I feel like there are a lot of well-spoken opinionated people who may like to participate in this confer- ence. I invite members of OUUF to both attend and actively participate in this conference. Any one interested in speaking should contact me via email (katherine.gass@oberlin.edu) or phone: (774-1047). Frida Berrigan will speak at PEACE COMMUNITY CHURCH on Friday, December 6, following the Peace Potluck. The potluck will begin at 6 pm and Berrigan will speak around 7:15. Additional topics for discussion will include events at the School of the Americas protest. Frida Berrigan is deputy director of the arms-trade project at the New School University's World Policy Institute. Sunday, December 22, 2002 IN PRAISE OF WINTER: A WINTER SOLSTICE CELEBRATION morning service -- 11:00 am Virginia Erdy and Barbara Fuchsman Service Leaders As the wheel of the year turns at the Winter Solstice, we feel the power of warmth and light against growing cold and darkness. We will celebrate the promise of returning light while ex- ploring the opportunities for insight and sharing offered by this season. All are welcome. COMPARING UU VIEWS OF CHRISTMAS: CELEBRATING AND COPING WITH THE HOLIDAYS fellowship forum -- 9:30 am Barbara Fuchsman, Discussion Leader Come and share your frustrations and sorrows, as well as the joys you ex- perience during the American celebra- tion of Christmas. All are welcome. NO SUNDAY SCHOOL VOLUNTEERS NEEDED Refreshments on Sunday morning are supplied by members and friends of the congregation. We invite you to please participate. BOARD NOTES: COMMITTEE ON MINISTRY At its October meeting, the Board voted to endorse the Committee on Ministry recommended by Don Rollins. The 12/15 Forum will fill everyone in on the idea. Here are a few basics: A. The COM is a separate standing committee, charged with two primary functions: 1. evaluating the overall (profes- sional and lay) ministry of OUUF, based on our mission statement; and 2. providing a means for negotiating conflicts within the congregation - including any related to our minis- ter. B. Members are elected to staggered terms by the congregation, with membership between 3 and 5. C. The COM has the power to make recommendations about how to improve our overall ministry but not the power to enact them, thus the Board and congregation remain central to the actual implementation of any changes. The December 15 forum will be given to a discussion of the concept, with a congregational vote to follow in January. In the meantime, feel free to contact Don (440+366-1027) with any questions you might have. DECEMBER AT A GLANCE 12/1: No Forum; Andy Frantz, Music Service 12/8: Susan McDaniel, Special Education; Mary & Rich McKee, Disability 12/14: Pot-Luck preceded by Board Meeting 12/15: Don Rollins, Committee on Ministry; Cookie Pot-Luck 10:30; Don Rollins & Kim Peters: Intergenerational Celebration 12/22: Barb Fuchsman, Coping w/Holidays; Virgina Erdy & Barb Fuchsman, Solstice 12/29: Ed Vermue, Christmas Celebrations; Burwassers, Remembrances Sunday, December 29, 2002 REMEMBRANCES morning service -- 11:00 am Lisette & David Burwasser Once again, each of us is invited to share memories of this season with a brief story of childhood or adult remembrance of these holidays. The guided meditation that introduces this service will reflect the spirit of the ancient Yule holiday. An inter-generational service; all are welcome. CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS fellowship forum -- 9:30 am Ed Vermue, Forum Leader Cultures around the world have infused their seasonal and sacred rituals into their celebration of this holiday. Ed will provide a video presentation of the global variety of Christmas observances. All are welcome. NO SUNDAY SCHOOL WE ARE THE BODY OF THE CHURCH Members or friends of OUUF who harbor a topic for a sermon or forum: OUUF needs your creative participation! Hymns, readings, music, etc. can be furnished by the Program Committee. FROM THE U.U.A. SAVE THE BEACON PRESS "Beacon publishes books that promote UU values and make a crucial differ- ence in the world - books that would probably never be published if Beacon didn't exist." Rev Bill Sinkford President, U.U.A. Beacon Press, publishing arm of the UUA, is in dire financal straits. The UUA cannot afford to prop up a loss- making publishing house indefinitely. The 2002 General Assembly unanimously passed a resolution calling on each delegate to buy Beacon books and to see that the members of our congrega- tions do the same. It suggested that if every UU bought two Beacon books a year, the struggle to keep the Press economically viable would be won. There are gift ideas in the Beacon Press ad in the current UU WORLD: eight special holiday packages, each one containing at least two books related to one of the UU Principles. "If Beacon can sell two books to every adult member in the UUA annual- ly, it can survive. It's up to you, to me, to us." Denny Davidoff Past Moderator, U.U.A. Published monthly by the Oberlin Unitarian Universalist Fellowship: member, Unitarian Universalist Association and Ohio-Meadville District thereof. Mail: MPO Box 0354, Oberlin OH 44074-0354. Phone: 774-5591. Email: Website: Clergy: Rev. Don Rollins. R.E. Director: Kim Peters. Chair: Tom Phinney. Vice Chair: Barbara Fuchsman. Treasurer: Ed Miller. Secretary: Katie Styer. Editor: Dave Burwasser. Webmaster: Cal Frye.