Unitarian Universalist Church of Jackson

NUUSLETTER

 A Newsletter for our Members and Friends

March 2006 - Web Edition

Love is the spirit of this church, and service is our law.

To dwell together in peace, to seek the truth in love, and to help one another.

This is our covenant

WORSHIP SCHEDULE

Every Sunday Forum at 9:30am, Service at 11:00am

March 5

Forum: Pick a topic, or add a topic to the Jester’s hat for discussion.  Steve Bollinger will coordinate.

Service:  “Occupy Holy Ground”: The Reverend Jacqueline Luck.  The words for this title are the name of a chapter in Tom Owen-Towle's book, Growing A Beloved Community. They struck my heart when I first read them, and perhaps they are evocative to you, also. I have been waiting for an opportunity for us to do more thinking and responding to what they evoke.

 March 12

Forum:  Answer questions drawn from the Brown Bag that Bill Gressett has constructed. Many questions pose genuine dilemmas.

Service:  “It's Not Easy Being Green”: The Reverend Jacqueline Luck.  Where in the world will such a title take me...us? No hints from me, I'm waiting on inspiration!

March 19

Forum:  "The Secular Gospel of Carl Sagan": Tom Head will discuss the new book that he edited, Conversations with Carl Sagan, University of Mississippi Press, 2006. 

Service:  Elise Morse Gagné - Ralph Waldo Emerson. 

Potluck lunch and Congregational Meeting will follow services

March 26

Forum:  A possible reading program for juveniles.  Waverly Liles will coordinate.

Service:  Margaret Drake - Religion and Health

 

 

Deadline for submissions to the April UUCJ NUUSletter: March 18.  Please make submissions to NUUSletter@uujackson.org.

If you would like to receive the NUUsletter by email, please user our NUUS subscription form.

Mississippi Musings

I looked as my father-in-law nodded toward a tall, thin, somewhat frail appearing elderly man. See that man over there? That's Scopes of the Scopes Monkey Trials.  I remember wondering why he was in Shreveport, LA, at the Petroleum Club. For the sermon for Evolution Sunday,  I did some research that I didn’t use then; perhaps the story will be of interest yet.  

John Thomas Scopes, age 24, was in his first teaching position after graduation and taught high school algebra and physics. He was an athletics coach and occasionally substituted in the biology class.  At the encouragement of a business man, Scopes agreed to break the Butler Bill, a Tennessee law forbidding the state's biology teachers to contradict the biblical creation story in the classroom.

According to UU minister Gary Kowalski, Scopes told the kids they were mammals and that once the earth was molten and too hot to support life.  After that statement, the police came into the classroom and arrested him.  John Scopes was tried by the State of Tennessee in the infamous trial, Tennessee versus Scopes, in Dayton, TN, 1925.

The Butler Bill was an unpopular bill, and some townsmen saw an opportunity to bring money to Dayton if they could arrange to have the trial in their town. They sought a local biology teacher to be the defendant and found Scopes. Some maintain that it was all about money.

The judge refused to get into all the brouhaha about Genesis and biology; he simply found Scopes guilty of breaking the law. Scopes was fined $100, and then Scopes spoke for first time: Your honor, I feel that I have been convicted of violating an unjust statute. I will continue in the future, as I have in the past, to oppose this law in any way I can. Any other action would be in violation of my ideal of academic freedom... to teach the truth as guaranteed in our constitution of personal and religious freedom. I think the fine is unjust. (Famous Trials)

The fine was paid for Scopes.  He quit teaching and returned to school on money donated to him by people over the country. He studied geology and had a successful career in the petroleum business. One source said he took a job in Venezuela and faded into obscurity, although my father-in-law did point him out quietly.

John Scopes died in 1970, soon after the time I saw him in Louisiana. We can imagine how often he was censored or, hopefully, thanked.  I think what impresses me so in this story is how young John Scopes' life pivoted on that decision he made at 24 years of age. Few are blessed with the knowledge that such a pivotal decision is being made at the time.  Perhaps we would be paralyzed into inaction if we did know how big it would be. That the trial was very difficult for him was mentioned in some of my reading.

I found also that a Unitarian minister from New York, a Rev. Charles Francis Potter, traveled to Dayton at the time, and when his friend, a Methodist minister, announced he was going to let Potter preach, the congregation became so upset that the Rev. Howard Gale Byrd, though a family man, resigned from his ministry to the Methodist Episcopal Church North of Dayton,TN. Unitarian Thomas Potter later signed the Humanist Manifesto in 1933.

People of integrity make the decisions they have to make, standing up for what they believe to be right. And, though few receive the notoriety John Scopes did with their decisions, many try to live their lives intentionally. They know it matters to what they say Yes  and to what they say No,  and often it takes courage and much thought. I take my hat off to the young men in Dayton, and to all of you who live your lives with integrity.                          

Jacqueline

The President’s Corner

The last two months have been very intense and exciting for this president and board of trustees. 

First, we had to have a vote to try to hire our part-time minister fulltime.  We did it! Second, we had to raise the money to pay for her salary.  We are almost there! Third, we had to get our Nominating Committee to provide us with a good slate of officers.  Hallelujah!  They are listed later in this newsletter.  Fourth, we hosted the Mississippi UUs in an all state meeting February 26th with Wayne Clarke from UUA.

We are on a roll.  But actually, this roll started back in the spring of 2000 when we decided to join the newly defined program of “consulting ministry.”  Then we had Rev. Barb Jamestone for that year.  The next year we took the next step and had Rev. Marti Keller and Rev. Roy Reynolds in their shared consultancy.  We liked that so much we kept them for two more years.  Then we learned of the yoked part-time ministry opportunity with Our Home Universalist-Unitarian Church of Ellisville.  Now we are finishing up two years of that partnership.  This is the way successful individuals also go about reaching their goals, by defining the goal, by making regular small steps toward that goal.  We have celebrated each step of the way and now here were are on the brink of a new experience, or at least new for most of us as it has been decades since there was a fulltime minister for this congregation.   Hallelujah!   It’s not easy for this agnostic Buddhist UU to say Hallelujah!   But the occasion calls for it.

 Margaret

Children’s RE News

 

The children received many compliments for their creative efforts which resulted in a delightful inter-generational celebration of the Chinese New Year on January 29. Paloma and Sharmila were the clear-voiced and expressive narrators during the service. Isaac, Caitlyn, Claire, Jacqueline, Jordan, Keely, David, Katie, and Elena contributed their talents to other portions of the service.

During the first half of February, Trina Cameron helped the youngest children make a mosaic-decorated pot for a nursing home, and all of the children made valentines for members who have not been able to attend services due to health problems.

Trina Cameron and Ranjan Batra have been planning activities for the younger children.  Lessons for the older children in March will revolve around Lucy Stone, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Joseph Priestley, and Beatrix Potter.

Dary Shenefelt

 

CONGREGATIONAL MEETING & OFFICER SLATE

 

The Nominating Committee of the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Jackson, MS, offers the following slate of candidates to be voted on at the congregational meeting March 19, 2006, during the potluck after church.  The paper ballot will provide a line to write in candidate, from whom approval must be obtained before nominating them from the floor.

* President - Waverly Liles
* Treasurer - Ray Shenefelt (to complete term he took over last fall)
* VP Building & Grounds - Steve Bollinger
* VP Programs - Brian Heffner
* VP RE - Trina Cameron
* VP Communications/PR - Tom Head
   Nomination Committee - 3 to be nominated from the floor. Please get 
   approval before nominating a member.
*   _________________________
*   _________________________
*   _________________________

The 2006-2007 budget will also be approved at this meeting.

Personal Services Auction

April 1, 2006, Saturday, April Fools’ Day, we will have a fund raiser in which members will be asked to think of something they do well to offer to be auctioned off to make money for our church. 

• Our minister has offered one of her works of art.
• Fran Leber offers a pair of Ballet tickets.
• Margaret Drake offers to write a short story about you or about someone you choose.
• Margaret will also offer to come to a place of your choice and sing three songs accompanying herself with her autoharp.

Some other options could be

• to cook a special meal that you like to cook and take it to the buyer’s home or invite them to yours
• babysitting
• taking someone’s children to the zoo
• taking someone kite-flying
• guiding the buyer on an unusual hiking or biking trail
• the possibilities are infinite

 Margaret Drake will be approaching you to ask what you could contribute to this auction.

We are hoping to have Rick Gagné and Elise Morris-Gagné and their music group, which performs at Fenian’s Pub, provide us some warm-up music.

Youth Detention Center Collection

Third Sunday of each month.  Please help clothe and keep clean our incarcerated youth who come to the Detention Center with only the clothes on their back. The collection box is in the hallway inside the entrance.   

Needed are:

Crew neck white T-shirts in large sizes

White under shorts in large sizes

White socks

Irish Spring and Dove soap

 

Rev. Gordon & Mrs. Judy Gibson’s Civil Rights Tour Dinner

We will host the approximately thirty people Gordon Gibson is bringing on the Civil Rights Tour on March 23.  Needed are vegan dishes to augment our fare from Hickory Pit Barbeque.  If you can bring such a dish, tell Margaret Drake.

Liturgical Hangings...We are ready to make new hangings for the ceiling of the UUCJ sanctuary. Regardless of gender, if you are interested in painting or dyeing fabric or sewing simple seams please met Saturday, March 4 at ten at the church and we will begin brainstorming possibilities. If you are interested, please call J. Luck

Science and Religions Class: First and third Tuesdays at 10:00 in RE building at UUCJ. All are invited.

 

PLEDGE CAMPAIGN

 

The pledge campaign is well under way.  Many people have increased their pledge substantially.  Of 50 potential pledge units, we have 27 pledges and have yet to hear from 10 people, as of Feb. 18.  The pledge results are projected to allow us to make the change from half time to full time minister with an estimated $13,000 to $14,000 budget deficit, subject to board review of the budget.  Our savings allow us to manage this size deficit for a year, but it must be substantially reduced the following year.  Thanks to all who have pledged, and to the pledge committee of Margaret Drake, Jack Hammond, Tom Head, & Natalie Maynor. 

 

-Ray Shenefelt

 

The Morse-Gagnés will host a Circle Supper to be held Saturday evening, March 25^th, at their home in Clinton.  People who wish to attend need to talk to them to find out what dish they should bring and what time.

 

The Gay & Lesbian National Hotline, the nation’s largest GLBT hotline, announces a major expansion of its services to the community with the establishment of the GLBT National Help Center (www.GLBTNationalHelpCenter.org) to coincide with a request to also assume responsibility for the GLBT National Youth Talkline.

GAY & LESBIAN NATIONAL HOTLINE
1-888-THE-GLNH (1-888-843-4564)

The Gay & Lesbian National Hotline provides telephone and email peer-counseling, as well as factual information and local resources for cities and towns across the United States.

GLBT NATIONAL YOUTH TALKLINE
1-800-246-PRIDE (1-800-246-7743) 

 

 

Web Pages of  Note:

Just Works work camp in Biloxi March 6-10, for UU's interested in helping repair some of the damage of Katrina. http://www.uusc.org/info/workcamps.html

 

The World magazine on-line articles on the Gulf Coast Relief Fund Panel: http://www.uua.org/news/gulfcoastrelief/index.html