Unitarian Universalist Congregation
of Northern Chautauqua

Do you feel UUCNC is your community? Would you like to be listed on the UUCNC Contact List so others in the congregation can reach you via phone, e-mail or snail mail? If so, please submit this information by Sunday, February 12:

• Your name (and other adults and children in your household if you would like them listed)
• Mailing address and phone number(s)
• E-mail address (if you’d like it listed)

Please see the Contact Us tab above to learn where to email or phone your Contact List info. A Contact List update folder will also be on the back table on Sunday mornings, for those who wish to correct existing listings or add new ones. The new Contact List will be mailed or sent electronically only to those listed on it, along with the March newsletter.

Plan to be part of the first Sources Supper sponsored by the Religious Exploration Committee on Sat. Feb. 25 (time and place to be announced).

The Religious Exploration Committee is hosting a series of Sources Suppers during the winter and spring of 2012. What is a Sources Supper? A unifying and transforming meal ritual that connects us to our Unitarian Universalist past and inspires us as we move forward.

The Sources Supper ritual aims to create a deep connection with our Unitarian Universalist heritage via story telling and conversation around a common meal. The Sources Supper was created to help families understand their UU heritage.

On February 25 we will gather for soup, bread and salad, during which we will explore the meaning and history of the chalice and how families can incorporate the lighting of the chalice into their dinner rituals. At the end of dinner, each family will create their very own chalice to take home with them that evening. We ask each family to contribute to the meal by providing a soup, salad or bread. The RE committee will provide juice, coffee, and tea. Please sign up on the back table, indicating whether you will bring one of the above and how many will be attending. All are welcome!

Please see Karen Taverna for more information.

The Social Action Committee has chosen to work on getting UUCNC officially recognized as a Welcoming Congregation for LGBT people.

A series of seven workshops will begin Sun. March 4. Workshops are expected to last about an hour, from 1-2 PM every other Sunday at the Fredonia Grange Hall. There is no required commitment that you attend all sessions (although that would be most laudatory!) but to come as often as you can.

For more information, see the Special Events link at left, and check there for updates as each workshop is planned.

Save the Date!

UUCNC will hold a congregational retreat on Sat. March 24 in the social hall of the Presbyterian Church on Central Avenue, across from the main entrance to the college.

We will focus on identifying our own strengths as individuals and as a congregation and on finding ways to become more fulfilling and productive through the use of those strengths.

The committee planning the retreat is an offshoot of the nominating/leadership development committee and hopes to make the day balance in terms of work and play, with plenty of opportunity to get to know one another better. Please plan to attend!

It is time to start thinking about our annual stewardship campaign. The Stewardship Committee met to start making plans regarding the campaign timeline, as well as a kick-off event. Remember the fabulous Italian Dinner we put together three years ago? Well, this year get ready for a Mexican Cantina!

Save Sat. March 31 for a fun evening of Mexican food and music (time and place to be announced). In the meantime, we encourage to you spend some time thinking about what our congregation and its presence in northern Chautauqua County means to you. Why are you involved? Why do you give? What about our congregation is important to you? How do you live our mission statement? How are we “Connecting with courage through love, faith and service”?

Questions? Speak with Stewardship Chair Amy O’Connell.

At the last congregational meeting (June 2011), members of the congregation voted to move forward with the Building Acquisition process. While the phrase “building acquisition” implies the purchase, lease, or rental of a new-to-us property, it is not limited to this. All possibilities are being reviewed, including staying at the Grange.

What is our target? Is it the map with the circles on it where each member can indicate what distance he or she is willing or able to drive to get to a UU worship service on a Sunday morning? If you haven’t done so, fill out the small questioner so the Building Acquisition Committee has your feedback. This is essential.

Is it the vision board posted in the back of the Grange Hall where you can bring photos or sketches or words describing your dream facility? Contribute to this, and your ideas will be vivid and clear to others. Have you taken an opportunity to read through the large, white, three-ring binder Karen has put together with all the information, reports and other documents related to the search to date? Check it out! It’s available every Sunday.

If you missed the skit, you missed members of the Building Acquisition Committee searching high and low with a magnifying glass, binoculars, and a telescope, searching out the range of possibilities for a permanent home for our congregation. You won’t believe the possibilities we have already checked out — including turn-key operation churches (3), farms (with and without barns) and farmhouses, rough warehouses near the lake, lofty cow barns, an ice cream shop, a horse farm, the Caboose building next to the Grange Hall, a pole building and a winery or two, the elegant Risley Estate with a gas well, an empty restaurant in Cassadaga, the Newman Center, a funeral home, and the BOCES science building.

We have revisited the possibilities of working with the Grange to make our present meeting place more accommodating to our needs, and we have started to explore costs related to building from scratch. Karen is compiling a slide show of other UU churches and their designs so that we can actually see what other congregations our size have chosen.

We have requested assistance from a UUA consultant who will help determine our readiness to move ahead via a feasibility study, and our Board has approved payment for this service. We have made inquiries to find a UU attorney in Western NY who might assist us in the process. We have asked our Executive Board to begin planning for a capital campaign, should the consultant confirm that we are in a position and mindset to move on. We have John Ames and Russ Boisjoly in the wings waiting to offer financial guidelines for the project. Mitch Cummings and Brian McMahon have offered to check into structural questions.

We need your ongoing feedback, questions, suggestions, and enthusiasm to guide us. Members of the committee are available after church or at home to hear your opinions. Karen Taverna (Chair), Audrey Dowling, Inez Krohn, Nancy Mayer, Cate McAllister, Skeeter Tower, and Rev. Terry Kime (ex officio).

It has been a year since the Caring Circle reorganized, and we have been busy providing rides, meals, help with errands, and friendly visitors. We thank all of you who have helped with these endeavors, for it is with your assistance that we can help care for those members and friends of our community who are in need.

In the attempt to provide the best service possible, we need your continued support. During the month of February you will find a check list in your order of service. Please look it over and fill it out. We would love to know how you can help if you are willing!

As always, please contact either Cheryl Ritch or Judy Singer if you have a need that can be fulfilled by the Caring Circle.

A regional phone number and website are available to answer questions which are beyond the scope of the Circle members. To find out what agencies might be able to help, dial 2-1-1 or visit www.211wny.org

Adult spiritual development classes will be offered this winter.

In an effort to discover the topics which appeal most to UUCNCers, Rev. Terry is asking folks to “vote” for the classes they find most intriguing and would like to attend this winter. Below is the list of possibilities. In January, there will be signup sheets for each of these. All are encouraged to put their names down for all the classes they are interested in attending this winter. The class with the most signups will be offered and will likely start in late January or early February, depending on the date and times that work best for those who have signed up.

If two classes have a good number of sign ups, both will be offered, perhaps consecutively. Please take a look now at the offerings so you’ll know how you’ll “vote”. Remember, too, that our Social Action Committee will be leading the Welcoming Congregation program (a focus on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues and how we can be supportive and inclusive), starting with workshops in February.

For newcomers, new members and friends:

• The New UU: Six 90-minute sessions that provide a foundation in who we are as UUs. It offers newcomers and new members a chance to explore our theology and worship, history, religious education and social justice philosophy and practice, governance and what it means to be a UU member.

UU Social Concerns:

• UU Common Read 2011-12: Acts of Faith, by Eboo Patel: One 90-minute guided book discussion session based on this memoir of an American Muslim who comes to believe in religious pluralism. Patel founded the Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC), a nonprofit focused on building an interfaith youth movement. Patel invites those who believe in religious pluralism to support young people, helping them to work across faiths to make the world a better place.

• Resistance and Transformation: Sixteen 90-minute sessions on our UU social justice history. Themes include abolition, peace-making, civil rights, free speech, utopianism, counter-culture, the women’s movements of both 19th and 20th centuries, sexuality education, and LGBT equality.

Understanding our UU Faith Tradition:

• A Chosen Faith: Seven 90-minute sessions based on the book, written by two UU ministers, of the same title that explores our Living Tradition (spiritual sources of UU that nourish and guide us). Provides history and basic foundational thinking regarding our UU faith.

• What Moves Us: UU Theology (ways of naming and understanding the Holy/what has deepest meaning for us): Ten 90-minute sessions that explore the life experiences of both historic and contemporary Unitarian Universalists, highlighting that which caused in them a change of heart, a new direction, new hope, and a deeper understanding of their own liberal faith. These workshops offer participants a chance to engage with and bring their personal experiences to bear on the very questions explored by each theologian in turn. The program offers a pathway for developing not only one’s own personal theology but also one’s deep understanding of the threads of our Unitarian, Universalist, and Unitarian Universalist theological heritage. Hosea Ballou, Margaret Fuller and Forrest Church are some of the UUs examined.

Spiritual Growth

• Discover Your Spiritual Type: One 2-hour session that helps you determine if yours is a head, heart, mystical or visionary approach and the best ways to cultivate your spirituality based on type.

• Wisdom Walk: Practices for Creating Peace and Balance: Nine 90-minute sessions based on the book of the same title which explores a spiritual practice from each of eight spiritual traditions, including Hinduism (create a home altar); Buddhism (meditate and find peace); Islam (surrender to prayer) and others. Participants will commit to practicing these various spiritual disciplines and will reflect on their experience together.

• Spirituality in Everyday Life: Seven 90-minute sessions which explore our spirituality through a variety of practices meant to sharpen our spiritual awareness. These include keeping a journal, guided meditation, ritual, prayer, and imagery.

• Build Your Own Theology (Ways of naming and understanding the Holy/what has deepest meaning for us): Twelve 2-hour sessions that help you to discover what your thinking and experience affirm about spiritual matters such as religious experience, human nature, ultimate reality, ethics and meaning. Stating that “theology” can mean the field of study, thought and analysis that discusses religious truth, this course is founded on the idea that our theology has to do with our ultimate concern and commitment.

After a month-long process that started with a Saturday afternoon gathering in October, to several votes during worship services in November, and a congregational gathering after service the first Sunday in December to explore two possibilities, a one-sentence mission statement was adopted:

UUCNC: Connecting with courage through love, faith, and service.

This statement will be used in conjunction with our longer mission-covenant statement developed in 1995 and reaffirmed in 2005. The UUA recommends that congregations review their mission statements every few years as new folks come and others leave, to be sure all are included in the process and can contribute to it, so all current members and friends of the congregation feel ownership. It is also recommended that a congregation have a mission statement that is short, memorable, and compelling.

It is anticipated that the one-sentence mission statement UUCNCers developed will guide us over the next couple of years, grounding us as we envision and plan for our future. Thanks to all who participated in this process and thanks as well to Leanna White McMahon and Ginny Horvath for facilitating the final gathering.

Many hands make light work! This year, the membership committee is asking everyone’s help in providing treats, making coffee and cleaning up afterwards. We are following the practice of many of our sister churches and assigning each member or regularly attender to one Sunday, to provide treats, make the coffee, help serve it, and clean up the coffee service after coffee hour. People who have difficulty climbing stairs have been exempted, and in every case the assignment is entirely optional.

Please note that people are being assigned in pairs. You will not be alone! We hope that this provides an opportunity for fellowship and fun, as we take collective responsibility for continuing our tradition of extending outstanding hospitality to all who attend our services. Questions? Please ask any member of the Membership Committee: Amy O’Connell, Nancy Mayer, LoVetra Rose, Judy Singer, Ann Weiss-Bingham and Jefferson Westwood.

The Youth group reminds the congregation that the donation of your deposit cans and bottles is greatly appreciated! Colleen, the owner of Cash for Cans (on Route 60 in Fredonia, just south of Route 83) has generously offered to continue keeping a tab for us for this ongoing fundraiser. Call ahead to check when they’ll be open: 716 672-2274.

All you need to do is drop off your deposit cans and bottles when you are out running errands. If you ever have trouble getting there or need help with a large accumulation, please call youth group leaders Chris and Kelly Filkins, and they will coordinate a pick up with a member of the youth group.

Every little bit helps! Last year we raised just over $150 in four months for our trip to Boston, and we are already on our way raising money for our activities for this year. Thank you for your support!

The Northern Chautauqua Community Foundation now has a BIG GREEN BOX for battery recycling!

Drop off your Alkaline – NiCd – NiMh – Lead – Silver – Mercury and – Lithium batteries for recycling.

Batteries can be dropped off Monday-Friday from 8 AM to 4:30 PM at 212 Lake Shore Drive West, Dunkirk, NY.

For more about BIG GREEN BOX, click the title above.