Volume 16, Number 11 – May 2015
We Are a Welcoming Congregation
Upcoming Services
Services are on alternate Sundays at 10 AM
May 3: Rev. Suzanne Wasilczuk The Heart of Unitarian Universalism explores our seven principles in word and song.
May 17: Rev. Denise Tracy The Art of Living: The Life and Faith of Joseph Campbell Many Unitarian Universalists have been inspired by Theologian and Philosopher Joseph Campbell. This service will let us learn more about his life and faith.
Events and Information:
Adult R.E.: Adult RE is on alternate Sundays at 10 AM. On May 10, we complete our course on the Vikings. On May 24, we begin "Exploring the Roots of Religion",
Annual Meeting: Attention members: the annual meeting will be May 16 at 11 AM. Potluck lunch to follow. If you cannot attend, please give someone your proxy.
Men's Group Meeting: The Men's Group next meeting will be on Tuesday, May 12, at 6 PM at the home of Paul Braunstein. The main course will be a fish fry and those attending should bring a side dish as well as their beverage of choice. All male members and friends of the Fellowship are invited to attend.
New Women's Group: The Women's Discussion Group sponsored by the Care Committee will meet on Tuesday, May 26th at 10:00 A. M. at the Fellowship. All members and friends are welcome. We hope to meet each month on the fourth Tuesday. For more information contact Mary Ann Fields at 715 385 2975 or talk to another Care Committee member.
Women and Religion: Toward a new day...Dedicated to freeing ourselves, others and the Earth from traditional, historical and contemporary oppressive and patriarchal systems, we work together to implement the 1977 UUA Women and Religion Resolution: examine and put aside sexist assumptions, attitudes and language. For more information, visit: www.uuwr.org
NUUF Auction: Good News to All. There will be our annual fundraiser auction this year. We have scheduled it for Saturday, June 20th. For those of you who forget, this is a chance to volunteer a fun activity, service or item to be bid on at a potluck/auction and then to bid on something that suits your fancy. It’s such a great way to socialize that I can hardly contain myself. So here’s the deal> if you have been hankering to host a fabulous get together or to offer your talents in some subtle way—then this is your chance. Let us know what talent you want to offer up to the bidding delight of untold millions for the benefit of our fabulous Fellowship and then join in the fun and bidding on June 20th starting at 5:00 PM. Submit your offerings and plan on attending at the NUUF Absolutely Audacious Annual Auction.
Please submit your auction item to the Board at> thoyt@newnorth.net or in person to any Board member: Bob Hanson, Barbara Logan, Diane Reupert, Ginny Metzdorf or Terry Hoyt. Let the fun begin.
General Assembly is Coming! GA this year will be in Portland Or from June 24-28. Housing and GA registration is now open. Visit http://www.uua.org/topics/general-assembly.for more information. Interested in being a delegate? Contact Bob Hanson.
Arts in Our Community
NUUF Art Gallery: Check out NUUF's latest art exhibit with works by Cathy Peterson and Elinore Sommerfeld.
On Saturday May 2nd NUUF member, Sharon Reilly will be the Featured Artist at the Lakeland Art Gallery which is inside the Great Northern Coffee Traders in Downtown Minocqua at 215 W Front Street. Sharon will be doing a demonstration from 9-2pm, and painting items to be purchased. You can find many great Mother's day cards and may be something for Grads and Dads. Sharon's artwork is currently on display at the Lakeland Art League Gallery as well at the fellowship.
Sharon Reilly will be teaching class, "Exploring Traditional Asian Watercolor Techniques" at Dillman's Resort from May 31 to June 5. For more information, visit www.dillmans.com/reilly.
Concerts at Jerry and Tara's: Ceila and Ryan Meisel piano and sax jazz
Saturday, June 13 at 7PM http://www.meiselmusic.net/ryan-meisel/
Frogwater Folk: Friday July 24 4pm on the dock seen from the boathouse or the water http://www.frogwater.us/index.asp
Tara Woolpy's New Novel: Tara's new novel, "Midnight Supper at the Rise and Shine", a story of love, redemption and healing, is scheduled for release from Bats in the Boathouse Press in late May, 2015. We'll be sending out more information as the release date nears (or visit the webpage www.batsintheboathouse.com). In the meantime, check out the beautiful cover designed by Pat Bickner of A New Leaf Creative Services.
Eileen Schultz' New Blog: Well, I just wrote my first ever blog. I hope you'll check out my web site at www.eileengoggins.com. I'd love to hear from you and if you have read Intertwines, your thoughts on the book.
Please let me know if you are showing work, appearing in a performance, have literature/poetry to share. Elinore
New from the Sheard/Thieret in Ohio: Please let everyone know that Richard and I are now living in the home we built in Ohio five summers ago. I retired from teaching last June, and Richard tried to retire, but ended up taking a chemistry teaching job in a public school about an hour from here. Well, I'm not totally retired either, because I reactivated my law license after I learned that our county had a need for guardian ad litems to represent children in court actions. I'm now doing that part time. We continue to read the UU news and notices from the Northwoods, and we fondly remember our three years living near you all. We hope to return for a visit sometime this summer or fall, but we're glad we settled in Ohio because our greatest hobby is caring for our fruit trees, nut trees, and garden. We've been getting more exercise than we probably should be getting at our ages, but so far our bodies are intact. Wenda
Frederick Place Dinner: Please contact Diane Reupert or Barbara Logan for the May dates.
News from the MidAmerica Region:
Two New Congregations! By a vote of the Board of Trustees of the Unitarian Universalist Association on March 5, 2015, two new congregations in MidAmerica Region have been welcomed into affiliation with the UUA. Congratulations to Open Door UU Fellowship in Owensboro, Kentucky, and Saint Croix Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Saint Croix Falls, Wisconsin.
First Online Renaissance Module: Our Commitment to Online Learning
By Nancy Combs-Morgan, Congregational Life Consultant
As part of our MidAmerica commitment to our congregations to provide learning opportunities for religious professionals and lay leaders, we are pleased to announce that Rev. Phillip Lund and I will be co-leading the UU History Renaissance Module this Spring and Summer. As the first online Renaissance Module offering, this engaging learning opportunity has been designed for professional religious educators, especially those in the UUA's RE Credentialing program, but is also open to any leader who wants to go deeper into our rich heritage.
The 8-week series includes a special history project designed by each participant, and informative opportunities to explore your own congregation's history. The online learning experience sessions are all on these eight Friday afternoons: May 9, May 22, June 5, June 19, July 10, July 24, August 7, and August 21. Attendance is expected, but the programs will be recorded, in case someone has to miss one or two. More information and registration available here:
Another Breakthrough Congregation in MidAmerica Region!
Congratulations to the Lake Country Unitarian Universalist Church in Hartland, Wisconsin, for being the newest UUA Breakthrough Congregation! Each year the UUA's Congregational Life Office recognizes a handful of congregations that have "broken through" barriers to achieve exemplary goals. Lake Country is the latest of those located in the MidAmerica Region. The congregation is profiled in UU World magazine, here: http://www.uuworld.org/life/articles/300861.shtml
Consider supporting the MidAmerica Region: MidAmerica Region is building a new era in Unitarian Universalism where UUs visibly live our faith, create connections, grow our membership and welcome all persons who share our UU values. Visit www.uua.org/midamerica to add your support.
Midwest Leadership School: July 12-18, 2015 at the beautiful Beloit College campus for youth and adults. Register at.
Reflections from Regional Assembly: More than 450 UUs from across the region met in Naperville Il a couple of weeks ago to hold the first RA in one location (last year's was held in 4 locations simultaneously). There were a number of themes running through the weekend, especially related to racism, white privilege and economic inequality. Another major theme, that I want to share with you, was an examination of how we worship. What I took from this weekend was NOT that new bells and whistles are good just for the sake of being new, but that we should examine our worship practices to thoughtfully consider whether what we do really works for us. Do we always do the same things because that's what we've always done? Is good enough the best we can do? Are there other ways of conducting a service that might be more meaningful?
For example, we saw a video from a church in Tulsa of young community members performing "slam" poetry, poetry based on rap and hip hop. It was very powerful. One of the best parts of the whole weekend. Now, I doubt we have many slam poets in the Northwoods, but I do know we have many accomplished poets around here. What would it be like to have a poet read some of his/her poetry during the offertory, instead of music? Particularly poetry related to the theme of the sermon. Would we be willing to at least try this once or twice to see how it affects worship?
Another example, just because "we've always done it that way", are we still best served by having announcements before the service begins? Do they sometimes drag on just a bit? Many congregations do not have announcements at the beginning of worship. We could consider only having announcements in the bulletin, in the newsletter or sent out via email. We could consider a simple form to fill out that the person introducing the service could briefly read. We could move announcements to the end of the service. This is a small change that could bring us into the spirit of worship and meditation sooner and more deeply. Would we be willing to experiment with this?
Finally, there is a movement called, "Alternative Worship", the intersection of the secular and the sacred. This movement calls on us to set aside ALL the preconceived notions about what a worship service looks like and start from scratch. During the workshop I attended, we did some rough planning of an imaginary service and it was very exciting and challenging. I won't try to go into detail here, but I suggest you visit www.alternativeworship.org to read more about it.
I would be glad to talk to you about any of this. There was much to think about and consider. Elinore
From the President: April found me in Naperville, Illinois for the first ever Midwest Regional Assembly of UUers from the three midwestern areas recently merged. Tom and Elinore joined me in sharing the programs, presentations and events. Typically, I got the greatest benefit from the conversations with individuals about the specifics of their approaches to Unitarianism Universalism. The inevitable comparisons drawn between "them" and "us" has led me to feel pride in our congregation and its activities.
Now that the weather has finally broken, we can look forward to our snowbirds returning along with their smiles and energy. Upcoming events include our annual meeting on May 16 (please attend or send your proxy), and our spring auction of exciting member services on June 20. Mark your calendars for both, please.
Bob
Milestones
Amy Kratz 05-05
Joan Hafner 05-08
Ethan Cummings 05-08
Toni Lieppert Polfus 05-09
Jim Ferguson 05-11
Jim Young 05-14
Julie White and Joe Holzem 05-16
Emerson Morris 05-16
Kate Egan Bruhy & Mark Bruhy 05-18
Kay Hoff 05-18
Solomon Wasko 05-19
Bev Strauss 05-20
Cheryl and Bob Hansen 05-21
Walt Jones and Natalia Graf 05-21
Jeanine Semon 05-25
Alan & Sharon VanRaalte 05-28
Carol Amour 05-28
Bob Dallapiazza 05-30
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NUUF and NEWSLETTER INFORMATION
Northwoods Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
P.O. Box 1881
Woodruff, WI 54568-1881
Robert Hanson, President
The NUUSLetter is published monthly. Newsletter Deadline is the 27th of the month. Please send submissions to Elinore Sommerfeld at esommerf@aol.com.
For distribution of announcements between newsletters or email/address corrections, contact Candy Sorensen at sorencan@yahoo.com.