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Vol. 18, No. 8     Newsletter of the San Marcos Unitarian Universalist Fellowship     April 2005

We meet every Sunday at 11 a.m. from September through April at the Campus Christian Center on the Texas State University campus - 604 N. Guadalupe St., San Marcos, Texas 78666    512-396-2986    www.smuuf.org

President: Priscilla Leder; Vice-President: Jeff Rasco; Treasurer: Bob Patton; Secretary: Jeannie Lewis
Directors: Laura Watters and Barbara Jacobson; Children's Religious Education: Melani Howard
Newsletter Editor: Jane O’Ferrall Moss

April Calendar

April 3.  Rev. Peter Bauer.

" SPIRITUALITY AND HEALING: WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?" 

Novelist Joseph Conrad saw his connection with the whole. He spoke of "the latent feeling of fellowship with all creation- and to the subtle but the invincible conviction of solidarity that knits together the loneliness of innumerable hearts." Painter Piet Mondrian also spoke of the artist's communion with something greater than the individual self, noting that "art has shown that universal expression can only be
created by a real equation of the universal and the individual." Painter Paul Klee saw that the whole speaks through the part. The artist's

"position is humble," he said, "He/She is merely a channel."  Mythologist Joseph Campbell championed the idea that every human is divine. He pointed out that this teaching is virtually universal, including within Christianity. Campbell observed that Christians believe that "the kingdom is within." "Who's in heaven" Campbell asked. "God. So if heaven is within me, so is God !" This universal concept, that God (Goddess, Allah, the Tao - take your pick) lies within, is relevant to immortality-for, if this indwelling god is immortal, so too, in some sense, are we.

Lay Leader: Priscilla Leder

Stories for All Ages: Shirley Ogletree

Refreshments: Janet and Steve Wallace

 

April 10.  Rev. Ed Silliman.

“Parables: Old Stories Made New."  Rev. Silliman will take a look at how old wisdom stories may have meaning for our present day lives.

9:30 Women’s Group:  Jeannie Lewis.  "Women and Fear."  Do women live with a fear that is unique to them and pervasive their entire lives?  Are our fears rooted in reality or are they imagined?  Do we alter our behavior because of our fears?  Can we and should we live our lives as if we had no fears?  We'll plumb the origin of our fears and share our self-estimation of their veracity. This group communication may help us let go of fears that may be irrational and/or affirm our reasonable fears.

Lay Leader: Priscilla Leder

Stories for All Ages: Volunteer needed

Refreshments: Lynn Williams

 

April 16 and 17.  Spring Retreat.  Hannah Wells.

See article for details.

 

April 24.  Dr. Lynne Fulmer.

“Ethics in Student's Lives?”  Dr. Fulmer will be discussing the ethics bowl competitions.  This will include our students' participation in regional and national competitions; she will share some cases and hopefully elicit some discussion on the ethical dilemmas that form the basis for the cases.  Is taking Adderall and Ritalin cheating?  Can it be compared to the use of performance enhancing drugs in sports?  Should colleges ban both?

Lay Leader: Priscilla Leder

Stories for All Ages: Volunteer needed

Refreshments: Jane Moss

 

May 1.  Annual Meeting. 
Last service of the year.  See article for details.
 


Spring 2005 SMUUF Retreat Schedule - From Lisa Cradit, Coordinator

Our Annual Spring Retreat takes place on April 16 and 17 at University Camp in Wimberley. The purpose of the retreat is to have fun, relax, engage in intelligent conversation with interesting friends and learn a little more about each other. You needn't be a member of our fellowship to attend and we won't make you profess lifelong loyalty to our group. The weekend is informal and mostly unstructured; there are no seminar sessions, classes or embarrassing confessions that often happen at church retreats. Instead, there is plenty of swimming, hiking, lawn chair sitting, eating, board games, Frisbee flying, fishing, and general laying-back in the company of mostly like-minded folks. You can come for part or all of the retreat. Once you get there, though, you'll probably want to stay. There are mountain biking trails, shallow-water swimming, deeper water swimming (also good for kayaks, canoes and inner tubes), hiking trails, chairs for napping, etc. Those who stay overnight can sleep in the very adequate bunkhouse but you can also pitch a tent on the lawn and listen to the river flow. Or you can drive home and come back for breakfast and listen to Hannah Wells at the camp on Sunday morning.

Our focus this year will be on sharing the past with the future. Think about things you did for fun as a child: played cards, jacks or marbles, rode bikes, sang "Ring Around the Rosy," read comic books, jumped rope or whatever. Then think about how you can share those activities with the children (young and old) of our fellowship. We'll have the sharing time on Saturday afternoon into the evening. The shared activities can go on outside or inside; just let me know what you intend to share and I'll try to organize our time wisely. I'll be careful not to give it too much structure--in typical UU fashion, our group shies away from too much scheduling but prefers free-spirited fun instead! Please feel free to attend even if you don't feel like sharing or can't think of anything. We always need a good, appreciative audience for the things we share. We invite friends and family--the more the merrier!

Following is the schedule of events:
Saturday 4/16
1:00-3:00 Gather, play in the river, hike, ride your mountain bike, kayak, read, chat, etc.
3:00-3:30 Snacks (provided by SMUUF)
3:30-6:00 Sharing Time (see above for ideas)
6:00-6:30 Prepare for Dinner
6:30-7:30 Dinner: Chicken curry (prepared by Barbara Jacobson) and drinks will be provided. Please bring side dishes and condiments. SMUUF will provide tea, juice and wine, but feel free to bring something else if you'd like. We'd also like to have a few people share their skills at cooking dessert in a Dutch oven in the campfire. If you have a Dutch oven and know how to use it, please let me know.
7:30--? More sharing, board games, singing, campfire tall tales, roasted marshmallows

Sunday 4/17
9:00-11:00 Continental breakfast (potluck) SMUUF will provide coffee and juices.
11:00 Worship service
12:30 Lunch--SMUUF will provide
1:30-5:00 Free time to enjoy the afternoon with fellow liberal thinkers

Bring:
Games, toys, sports equipment, water toys, sunscreen, hats, binoculars, birding books, native plant books, musical instruments, bathing suits, walking shoes, sleeping bag or bedding if you plant to spend the night. Note: we encourage you to bring your own eating utensils and plates, in order to cut down on the trash we produce. If you forget, we'll have some available.

Lodge has:
Kitchen, bathroom with 2 showers, 2 refrigerators, barbecue pit, 2 stoves

Location and directions:
University Camp (see map). As RR12 enters Wimberley, turn right onto RR3237, after 0.6 miles turn right onto Flight Acres Road.  Go 2.8 miles, there is a very small sign pointing down a road going off to your left.  Go 0.9 miles to the gate.  When you reach the gate, you will see a lockbox marked Beretta Lodge and/or SMUUF Retreat. Dial the lock to 2001 (as in 2001: A Space Odyssey). Use the key in the box to open the gate. Close the gate. Lock the key back in the box. Drive past the caretaker's house to Beretta, a fairly large building on your left.

You can email Lisa (lcradit@tlu.edu) with what foods you plan to bring, since Sylvia, our food chairperson is recuperating from an unfortunate biking accident.  Signup sheets will be sent by email and also will be available at the services.  Barbara suggests the following condiments: chopped almonds/pecans/peanuts, grated coconut, chopped green onions or sweet onions, chutney, chopped boiled eggs, chopped tomatoes, raisins, chopped pineapple. 

 

The annual meeting will be held Sunday, May 1.  This will be the last meeting of the year.  A Nominating Committee consisting of Mantie Autry, Jan Burks, and Priscilla Leder (filling in for Laura Watters, who is unable to participate) has been formed.  Anyone interested in serving on the board is invited to contact one of them.  Several board positions need to be filled.

 

Congregational Ballots for voting at the meeting will be inserted in the Order of Service before that date.  It is essentially a list of issues that the fellowship might want to address at General Assembly in June.  The UUA wants to know which potential Study/Action issues especially concern congregations so those items can be added to the agenda at General Assembly. A poll will be conducted by placing ballots in the Order of Service for two Sundays. But meanwhile, be thinking about which of the following are especially important to us. Potential Study/Action items include:
Women's Rights Worldwide
Safety of All Children and Youth
Peacemaking
Need for Affordable Housing
Moral Values for a Pluralistic Society
Ensuring Voters' Rights
 

Five New Members

On Sunday, March 20th, five new members were welcomed into the fellowship.  We are delighted to have 'added to our flock:'

  • Jeff Hobkirk. Born: First generation Texan born in Texas City, TX to parents from Michigan and England who met and married when they were living in in South Africa
    Live: Rural area between San Marcos and Wimberley
    Job: insurance company adjuster in Austin
    Other occupations: Playing the cello, music of all types, reading, native flora and fauna, birds, bridge, US Masters Swimming, basenji's (dogs), cooking, eating
    Myers Briggs personality type: INFP
    Religious Background: Family did not attend church, but major Pagan-based Christian Holidays were celebrated
    Spiritual interests: Currently into writings of Carl Jung, exploring Earth-centered mysticism and meditation. I am working on being greener, more organic and more simple.

  • Phyllis Hobkirk.  Born: a Gemini in Jennings, LA. to Cajun mother and father.
    Live: at the midpoint between San Marcos and Wimberley
    Job: Left the corporate world of insurance transitioning to an unknown career
    Other occupations: passionate about tai chi, chi gung, trance dance, collage, nature, travel, other cultures, all education...
    Myers Briggs personality type: ENFP
    Religious background: staunch Catholicism
    Spiritual interests: Exploring Hawaiian and Eastern mysticism (see above other occupations)

  • Diane Young.  I'm a native of Opelika, AL where my ancestors first bought some land in the 1840s. Members of the White family have been living there ever since. I was a Research Associate at the School of Veterinary Medicine and my husband, Sam, a professor of Mathematics at Auburn University. Upon retirement we moved to San Marcos.
    My hobbies are: amateur entomology, gardening, cooking, and fighting the religious fundamentalists.

  • Lorena Parker.  Lorena is a native of San Antonio, and her five children and their children still live there.  When she and Seth retired, they wanted to live close to them, and settled in Canyon Lake.  Lorena has been very active in numerous organizations.

  • Seth Parker.  Seth grew up in a military family and lived 'everywhere.'  He recently retired from university teaching, his last position in Kentucky.  It was there that he and Lorena began attending a UU church.
     

 

Bobcat Build Comes to the CCC on Saturday, April 2

Bobcat Build - Saturday April 2, 2005 - 9am to 1:30pm

Between 6 and 10 Texas State University students have volunteered to work at the CCC. Jennifer has listed these projects as important to the CCC:

1. Clean patios & storage closet

2. Pull weeds, mulching, & planting in existing beds

3, Organize the closet 

These projects have been recommended by members of SMUUF:

1. Divert rain water so it doesn’t destroy existing & future landscaping

2. Create a butterfly and bird garden area in the back.

Lots of tasks! Not much time. We can complete some and get a good start on the others.  The students may need assistance from people with real-life experiences on some of the projects. If you haven’t already volunteered to help and are able, please come to the CCC on April 2nd. Anytime. 
Thanks, Judy Telford

 

Our fellowship raised an amazing $258.40, collected over two Sundays, helped by a very generous donation by Karl Brown.  And a further generosity by some of our Master Naturalists (Judy Telford, Barbara Jacobson and Ann Allen) who plan to continue working to maintain the butterfly and bird garden.

 

Children's Religious Education

During the month of March we continued to cover the Old Testament stories - from the Tower of Babel to Jacob and Esau.  In April we will study the many adventures of Joseph, using Disney movie, "Joseph - the King of Dreams."  We will also revisit the 7 UU principles on the last Sunday of April.

 

Meals on Wheels

The Meals on Wheels  program provides hot lunches for elderly and/or homebound persons. Staff at the Allen Woods Homes package prepared meals; volunteers deliver them. Most of the clients pay monthly for the meals. However, some pay on a daily when their meals are delivered.

 

During the week that I helped, Hector and I delivered lunches to 17 homes in San Marcos. We began at 10:45 and finished by 12:30.  Seven churches are currently participating under the organization Churchwomen United. They rotate deliveries by week; usually there are two teams that deliver meals.  This volunteer activity of four people will require a minimum of about two hours a day for one week approximately every eight weeks.

 

If you are interested in participating in this project or have a question, contact me at 512/353-8143.  Judy Telford

Invitation to Fellowship from Jeff and Phyllis Hobkirk
All are invited to the Path to the Labyrinth Potluck at the Hobkirks on 4/3/05 from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM.  Yes, we are building a labyrinth!   However, it should be noted this is the first gathering in a series.  Our objective for this initial attempt is to concoct a path leading to the proposed site.  We are making eggs, quiche, and Jeff's famous pancakes. We invite cold cuts, cheeses, salads, fruits, or whatever your little heart desires to share. Please come and lend your energy/spirit to this endeavor and wear supportive shoes (it is so rocky)! For directions, call 754-7453 or e-mail hadeharia7@centurytel.net.

Priscilla Leder Receives Fulbright Scholarship for a Semester in Belgium
 Though I still don’t have the paperwork, I’ve been assured that I did receive the award and that the documents for all Fulbrights are held up in the State Department.  So, I can tell you that:

The Université catholique de Louvain was founded in 1425 and has undergone many changes over the years, including the burning of its library in WWI. In 1971, following what their web site calls “pressure from the world of Flemish politics, which was hostile to a francophone university on Flemish soil,” the university was split into two, a Dutch-speaking university which remained in Louvain (Leuven in Flemish) and a French-speaking university which moved almost all its departments to a new town, symbolically named Louvain-la-Neuve, in the Brabant Wallon region. José and I will live there January to May of 2006, while I teach (in English, thankfully) two advanced undergraduate classes and advise 6-8 thesis students. Meanwhile, I’ll try to learn some French. Allors!

UU Regional News Item

An Interfaith Service of Renewal
"The Sacred Through Women's Eyes: Celebrating Choice, Celebrating Life, Celebrating Values"
Sunday, April 3, 7:00 p.m. at the Congregational Church of Austin, 408 West 23rd Street

Join us for an interfaith service to welcome the spring season, to honor the sacred work of women, and to celebrate choice. Contact Rev. Dr. Barbara Coeyman, chaplain of Planned Parenthood, for more information: barbara.coeyman@ppfa.org, 512-276-8000, ext 220.  Visit us online at www.pppaustin.org

Following the service, visiting scholar Rev. Tom Davis will be available to sign his new book, 'Sacred Work: Planned Parenthood and its Clergy Alliances' (Rutgers University Press 2005). Tom is visiting Austin from Saratoga Springs, NY, where he served for many years as chaplain at Skidmore College. Copies of Tom's book will be available for purchase at the worship service.

UUA News

Religious Leaders Speak Out on Schiavo Case

In a statement released on March 26, 2005 through the Center for American Progress, a group of interfaith religious leaders asked our nation's elected officials to end "selective morality" in Washington as witnessed through the emergency legislation passed in the Terri Schiavo case. The statement, signed by the Rev. William G. Sinkford says, in part, "We, the undersigned religious leaders, hold that compassion and respect for a family's private decision making, respect for the rule of law, and respect for medical expertise are things of great value [and] are in fact moral goods that we jettison only at our peril."

 

The UUA has long been a voice in support of the role of individual choice in end of life decision-making.  In 1988, the UUA General Assembly passed a resolution which provides for the possibility that individuals may make very different choices which should be honored equally: "Unitarian Universalists advocate right to self-determination in dying, and the release from civil or criminal penalties of those who, under proper safeguards, act to honor the right of terminally ill patients to select the time of their own deaths."
 

 

Editor’s Corner by Jane Moss

  • Please contact anyone on the nominating committee (Jan, Mantie, Priscilla) if you are willing to serve on the board in some capacity.

  • Barbara Jacobson reports our fellowship collected $488 for the UU Service Committee, and twenty individuals are members.

  • It was so good to see Fran and Tom Hodges at the March 27th service!  They brought their friends and fellow Summer Texans of the Comal congregation, Joe and Marilyn Boyd, of upstate New York.

  • Jeannie Lewis will have signup sheets for volunteering for the Food Pantry food collection Saturdays.  She will need eight volunteers for two hour shifts on seven Saturdays during the remainder of 2005.  As you may recall, this is the fellowship's volunteer service project this year.
     

  • Todd's new electric bike is great, but perhaps Silvia Eleguea doesn't think so!  She was giving it a trial run after church on the 27th, and took a bad spill.  The EMS came to her rescue, along with our own former EMSer, Todd.  Her elbow was dislocated, and she has three broken bones in her left foot.  Judy Telford should have a lot of sympathy for her, having recently broken her ankle riding a motorcycle.  Silvia will be spending time in a wheelchair and on crutches, but is in good spirits, though thinking her bike riding days may be over.
     

Melani Howard takes a spin

  • Susan Welch's daughter, Rachel Willard, just received notice of a wonderful award, the Outstanding Employee of the Year at Goodwill Industries.  This is a national competition.  In addition to a plaque and a check, Rachel will be flown to Appleton, Wisconsin, and be provided with a rental car, when she attends the ceremony.  Rachel was selected because she had moved from living in a shelter to a job as a receptionist in the Goodwill store in Corpus Christi to the Accountant for nine stories in South Texas.  Our hats off to a young woman that has worked hard and proven herself a valuable employee.
     

  • The board is thinking about having a Water Service at our first service next year. People would collect and save some water from their travels, etc. and bring it to the service to pour into a vessel or on the ground.  If you click on the link below you can read more about it, it has an interesting history.  http://www.uua.org/clf/quest/2003-09.html#blanchard1
     

  • I'm looking for someone to help me with the newsletter next year.  Our fellowship has gotten larger and has more going on, and trying to keep up with everything has grown into quite a job.  Please email me at jofmoss@wimberley-tx.com, or tell me at church, if you would consider doing it.

 

Add to Address List

Meagan Evans, bay_o_bob@hotmail.com

 

Dates to keep in mind

April 1, Friday.  Meagan Evans will read some of her poetry at the Blue Goat.

April 2, Saturday.  Bobcat Build.  Cleanup day at the CCC.  Contact Judy Telford for scheduling.

April 3, Sunday.  Hobkirks for Potluck and Labyrinth construction.

April 16-17.  Saturday and Sunday.  SPRING RETREAT.

April 30, Saturday.  Leadership training workshop, First UU of Austin.  Contact FUUA for details.

May 1, Sunday.  Annual Meeting.

June 23-27, 2005.  General Assembly of the UUA at the Fort Worth Convention Center in Fort Worth.

June 25, July 9, August 13, September 10, October 15, November 12, and December 10.   Saturdays.  Food Pantry collections at Wal-Mart.  Contact Jeannie Lewis.