Universalist Anchor. A New Look at the Old Testament. December Worship & Activity Schedule at UNMC, cont. December Worship & Activity Schedule at UNMC

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1 Universalist National Memorial Church Universalist Anchor December 2005 A New Look at the Old Testament Studious Skeptics Jim Morgan s study of the Old Testament for pagans, skeptics, and others, as the sign out front says, has gained a steadily growing following on Wednesday nights. The series continues on December 7 and 14 at 7 p.m. You can join right in, without having attended earlier sessions. The first two sessions dealt with the Bible as good Hebrew history with historical metaphor being the essential writing of a people who felt called by God. Understanding that peculiarity is crucial to being grasped by their message, and enables a person to celebrate with them in what God is doing. The next weeks will look at the worship and wisdom of the Hebrew Scriptures. December Worship & Activity Schedule at UNMC Friday, December 2 7:00p.m. The Potter's House, 1658 Columbia Rd. NW UNMC and Food for All will sponsor an evening of entertainment. Food and beverages available. Entertainment at 8:00 pm. With poetry, storytelling, and music. Sunday, December 4 11 a.m. Worship: The Second Sunday in Advent: Ways God Cares: God Gives Peace, Jim Morgan, preaching 12:30p.m.Welcome and Membership Committee Monday, Dec 5 7:00 p.m. Board of Trustees Meeting Continued on next column December Worship & Activity Schedule at UNMC, cont Wednesday, Dec 7 7:00 p.m. Bible Study: Understanding the Old Testament A New Look Jim Morgan will be teaching. The class will run thru Dec 14. Sunday, December a.m. Worship: The Third Sunday in Advent: Ways God Cares: God Gives Joy, Jim Morgan, preaching. Saturday afternoon, Dec 17 Leland Place dinners. Meet at 3:00 at UNMC and cook the dinner, then take it to Leland Place and eat with the residents. See Dave Skidmore s article on page 4 for more information. Sunday, December a.m. Worship: The Fourth Sunday in Advent: Youth Service Saturday, December 24 8:00p.m. Traditional Christmas Eve Service with Christmas Carols Sunday, December a.m. Worship: All Souls Church will join our Service on Christmas Day Revival in NYC Mark your calendar! The Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship Revival 2006 will be held in New York City, Nov. 2-5, 2006, at Fourth Universalist Society ( 160 Central Park West at 76th Street in Manhattan, where the Rev. Rosemary Bray McNatt is the minister. If you'd like to be on the mailing list to receive updates via electronic mail, send a message to UUCFOffice@aol.com.

2 PAGE 2 UNIVERSALIST ANCHOR DECEMBER 2005 Deacons Corner: Honor Our Good Intentions When someone makes a suggestion about how we might improve things at UNMC, what do you hear? A complaint? A demand on your time? Yet another reason to stay home from church? The deacons considered this issue at their monthly meeting in November, drawing on the guidance found in the congregational covenant, which we adopted last May. It states that in our relations with one another, "We will act in good faith and assume the good intentions of the people with whom we are interacting." It certainly is true that our limited human resources are often strained to get done everything around the church that seems to need attention. Therefore, our first reaction to a suggestion may be to dismiss it as impractical or not in keeping with our tradition or simply too expensive anything to avoid the burden of more church business. That's the kind of reaction common when one lives in a culture of scarcity. However, Mary Katherine Morn observed, during her service as our interim minister, one of the things we can have in abundance is love. As the deacons see it, this means that when we hear a suggestion, we should listen first for the love and caring that someone is bringing to the church community. Honor those good intentions, for as we read in I Corinthians 13, love is kind, does not act rudely, hopes all things, and never fails. The person making a suggestion may be asking not for your time commitment, but just for your input to help improve an idea, and may have come to you out of appreciation for your special gifts. So, listen with love to what the person is really saying. Don't read into it anything burdensome, but rather rejoice that so many ideas can flow freely in our community. Continued on page 3 Entertainment and Fellowship for a Good Cause on Dec 2 On Friday, Dec. 2 UNMC and Food for All will sponsor an evening of entertainment at The Potter's House, 1658 Columbia Rd. NW, WDC. The doors will open at 7:00 for food and beverages and the show will start promptly at 8:00 pm. Entertainment will include poetry, storytelling, and music. Potter's House Sounds of Hope series is a ministry of the Church of the Savior, a liberal, ecumenical Christian Church with a long history in DC. For more information, Contact Perry King. Parish Notes DEPARTING: Head Verger and lifelong UNMC member David Fox is making plans to leave Washington, D.C., in April. David will join his brother, Bill Fox (UNMC Minister Emeritus), and sister-in-law, Lynn Fox, in Canton, Missouri, where Bill is President of Culver-Stockton College. MARRYING: The wedding of Mark McNabb (UNMC Board Secretary) and Caroline Brown will be celebrated at the church on December 17. We extend all best wishes to the bride and groom. JOINING: Addie Forman, who has been visiting UNMC along with her mother, Sarah, signed the membership book on November 20. She will be formally welcomed at the service on December 11. Addie is the great-granddaughter of Mary Stuart Chamberlain, an early 20th century Unitarian feminist. PARTYING: Jorn Dakin celebrated his 65th birthday on November 26th. Jorn's daughter, Linnea Dakin of Los Angeles, and his son and daughter-in-law, Bjorn and Beth Dakin of Pittsburgh, were present at a gala celebration, along with former colleagues at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and many other guests, at Esposito's Restaurant in Fairfax, Va.

3 DECEMBER 2005 From the Pastor s Desk UNIVERSALIST ANCHOR Dining at Leland Place PAGE 3 Many Christmas stories end with some kind of a miracle: a piano explodes and food comes out or a person is suddenly able to exceed his skill level. Some are more outlandish than others, but it seems to be the trend for a paranormal experience to occur at Christmastime. Then, just maybe, by its very nature the Season invites us into a magical and enchanting world. The Harry Potter stories have softened up the broader populace to that possibility and since Harry can fly, there is ever the likelihood that we can fly as well! There is an aura around Christmas which the story invokes: a virgin conceives and bears a son; the heavens move from their specific orbit to create a starry wonder; an angel appears to shepherds to calm their fears; and a heavenly choir sings in unbelievable majesty to the astonished shepherds. If it happened once, we reason, then why not believe that miracles can happen again? And they do! Often we are different on Christmas Day or a couple of days before. We are softer, more open, gentler, more giving and indeed reformed like Mr. Scrooge. Our characters are metamorphosed, at least for a brief period. You can t teach an old dog new tricks so the old saw goes, but Christmas has miraculous powers to do that. As you participate in all of its pageantry this year and absorb all of the music and praise, just maybe, a miracle will happen to you - one that can sustain you for a lifetime. Jim The men of Leland Place enjoyed a taste of Louisiana on Saturday Nov. 12 with a dinner of jambalaya, salad, Italian bread, ice tea and ice cream and strawberries. Jambalaya, for the uninitiated, is a spicy casserole dish of rice, sausage, chicken, shrimp, tomatoes, celery, green pepper, green onion and chicken broth. Thanks to volunteers Liz Crawford, Addie Forman, Jim Morgan and Jessica Muhm. (And thanks to bargain shopper Jorn Dakin who spotted the justslightly-overripe strawberries at $1 a pint and donated a few to the cause.) Seven Leland residents and a visiting Salvation Army volunteer shared the meal. Leland is a halfway house on North Capitol Street for men recovering from homelessness and addiction. It's part of S.O.M.E (So Others Might Eat). Our next dinners are scheduled for December 17 and January 21. Please RSVP to the church. We meet at 3 p.m. in the church kitchen, eat at Leland at 5 p.m., returning to the church by 6 p.m. Volunteers divide the cost of the meal, an amount that usually works out to about $12 to $25 per volunteer. Deacons Corner: Honor Our Good Intentions, cont from page 2 The deacons also discussed the need for every member and friend of the congregation to consistently "be a connector" - especially during after-worship hospitality hour. It's tempting to use the time to catch up with familiar friends, but offering a genuine and friendly welcome to the stranger and the wayfarer is central to our faith - not to mention the key to growing our small congregation. The active deacons - Richard Hurst, Perry King, Clint McCully, Sue Mosher, Vicki Pepper, Jennifer Sandberg, and head deacon Dave Skidmore - meet monthly to discuss the well-being of the congregation. Each deacon also is available for one-on-one conversation. You can identify us at hospitality hour by our blue nametags.

4 DECEMBER 2005 UNIVERSALIST ANCHOR PAGE 4 Sing We Now of Christmas What are your favorite Christmas songs and anthems? Pass them along either to Jim Morgan or to our music coordinators - Kirk Denton and Donna Simonton - as they pick hymns and other music for the season. This is a great opportunity to explore the riches in the Singing the Living Tradition hymnal, where the Advent Christmas songs are numbers 224 through 259 and include some traditional favorites not represented in the Hymns of the Spirit hymnal, whose Advent/Christmas section is 150 through 178. Chancel Flowers for December Mary Simmons, Chair December 4 : Flowers are given by the deacons, on behalf of the church, in celebration of the wedding of Caroline Brown and Mark McNabb. December 11 through December 25: The Christmas decorations and flowers are given in memory of Kevin Joseph McNamara by his daughter Jillian McNamara, David, Byron and Averell Gatton; also in memory of Walter H. Wood by his family; and also in memory of Sandy and Marcia Sandberg by their daughter Jennifer Sandberg, son-in-law Clint McCully and grandchildren Linnea, Ian, and Brett. There are several open dates for memorial flowers in the coming months in Please contact Mary Simmons to donate flowers for the Sunday service. Your Holiday Purchases Can Benefit Others Did you know that UNMC has a Pastoral Discretionary Fund that the minister can use to address unmet needs of church members and the wider community? One small but steady source of income for the PDF is through an affiliate arrangement with Amazon.com that sends a small portion of the price of each purchase back to the church. If you are planning to buy holiday gifts online, consider purchasing through our Amazon affiliate link, so that the PDF can benefit. Here's how it works: Just go to the church's web site at scroll to the bottom of the page, and click on the "Visit the UNMC bookstore at Amazon.com" link. You'll first see a list of popular books on Universalism, but then can search for any item you might want to purchase - books, music, electronics, household items, clothing, etc. There are no special codes to enter, no special forms to fill out. It's all automatic, as long as you enter Amazon's site through the link on the church's web site. The PDF is an important part of the church's ministry, enabling the minister to provide confidential assistance to members who, for example, experience a gap in their health insurance or need help with unexpected bills and to meet other needs in our community. While the Amazon.com affiliate program benefits the PDF with a small ongoing revenue stream, donations are always welcome and can be given to the church treasurers or any deacon. Anchor Deadline for January is Monday, December 19.

5 The Universalist Anchor is published monthly for the members and friends of the Universalist National Memorial Church in Washington, DC Sixteenth Street, NW Washington, DC (202) Dr. James R. Morgan, Interim Minister The Rev. Dr. William L. Fox, Minister Emeritus Board of Trustees: Rob Bertram, David Burton, Richard Hurst, Perry King, Clint McCully (Assistant Treasurer), Mark McNabb (Secretary), Brian Pepper (Treasurer), Jennifer Sandberg, Greg Wigle (Moderator) Our Mission (adopted May 2002) We create a loving community for worship and service in the spirit of Jesus Christ. Mr. David Skidmore, Head Deacon Mr. Kirk Denton, Organist Marguerite Bogle, Church Office office@universalist.org We welcome all and respect individual beliefs as we grow together. The Universalist Anchor Universalist National Memorial Church 1810 Sixteenth Street, NW Washington, DC 20009