September Mary An Godshall (President) John Davenport (Newsletter Editor)

Transcription

1 Church Office Community Church Unitarian Universalist th St New Orleans, LA Sunday Services at 11:00 a.m. CCUU NEWS The newsletter of Community Church Unitarian Universalist Rev. James A VanderWeele minister@communitychurchuu.org Church Office ccuu@communitychurchuu.org For more information, visit the CCUU website at or visit the Greater New Orleans UU website at Members and friends can subscribe to our yahoo group by sending an to CCUU-NOLA- Members-Friends-subscribe@yahoogroups.com Mary An Godshall (President) president@communitychurchuu.org John Davenport (Newsletter Editor) newsletter@communitychurchuu.org Deadline for next newsletter Sunday, September 21, 2008, 6:00 pm Visitors: Please, contact church office to continue receiving newsletter. Send calendar input items to calendaradmin@communitychurchuu.org. If you received this via USPS and can retrieve the newsletter from please advise ccuu@communitychurchuu.org so that we may save the postage. Coming Events Sept 6 Sept 7 Sept 14 Sept 14 Sept 14 Sept 15 Sept 19/20 Sept 20 Sept 21 Sept 28 Sept 18 6:00 pm Our Jazz Funeral Sunday Service, Rev. Jim VanderWeele, Intention and Attention: Elevating Your Spirit. This service includes our water ceremony. Please bring some water (whatever its source). Our minister s homily will focus on advancing our positive qualities. Sunday Service, Who Was Jesus? Rev. VanderWeele invites you to walk through the hills of Galilee with Jesus and his followers. 12:00 7:00 pm Lakeview Fest 7:00 pm Finance Ministry 7:00 pm Board Meeting Recycling Project / Drop off between 4pm Friday and 9am Saturday 6:30 pm Dinners For Eight / Sign up with Charlotte or Carol for this great event!!! Sunday Service, Rev. Jim VanderWeele, Clapp Analyzes What Is Evil and What Is Good. Our minister shares Parson Clapp s views on the activities in life that make people happy as well as the ones that make them miserable. The Life and Times of the Reverend Theodore Clapp. Our presenter will be Jocelyn Cole, owner and operator of Tour-New-Orleans.com, member of Friends of the Cabildo, Save Our Cemeteries and the New Orleans Tour Guides Association. Sept 26 Sept 27 Sept 27 Oct 16 Oct Nov 20 Dec 18 Potluck / Workshop with Leigh Henderson / Location and time TBA Tri-Church Worship/Program Ministries workshop at North Shore UUS with Leigh Henderson / Time TBA Tri-Church Community Outreach Ministries workshop at North Shore UUS with Leigh Henderson / Time TBA First Church's annual Fall Retreat at Fountainbleau Park Choir Practice, Sundays 9:15 am to10:45 am Duplicate Bridge, Fridays 6:30 pm to 11:00 pm, Duplicate Bridge with individual rotation. Taoist Yoga and Meditation, Wednesdays 5:30-6:30 pm. Check on resumption date with Jim. STAIR Start The Adventure In Reading, Saturdays 9:00 am to 11:30 pm

2 Community Church Unitarian Universalist 6690 Fleur de Lis Drive New Orleans, LA CCUU NEWS The newsletter of Community Church Unitarian Universalist And the Walls Came Tumbling Down We had been told it would take 30 minutes to tear down our old house of worship, but its design was tough enough and its framing strong enough and it beams sufficiently massive that the claw for mechanical destruction pushed and pulled for more than an hour in its struggle to tear down the walls of our former church. Fifteen of us showed up for this demolition. We arrived with a variety of feelings. I cannot speak for others but my joy in seeing this progress was undermined by my sorrow. Kathleen App said it well, I never had the chance to worship there, but know how important a place it was. Important words, because our newer members all see the changes we are making at CCUU. Today, as I sit in my office and look out across a defrocked concrete slab, it feels good to see that old building removed. It is the beginning of the next step. As I was reminded recently, death leads to life. Each loss points toward a life that will be arising. This is the way of the cosmos just as it is the way in human life. The next step in our rebuilding will be a loss of concrete. Despite the fact our Building Committee explained the need to remove and replace the slab some of us mentioned how strong it looks, how it had no cracks, and what a shame it will be to lose it. The sad truth is that the strength of this slab, even with a lack of cracks, makes no difference!!! We will save money by removing it, save $50,000 or more. As the Building Committee mentioned, we will want every available penny when we begin to rebuild. This brings us to the progress being made toward finding the financial support that will enable us to rebuild. We have made our commitments. Will we be able to find additional help and assistance? Our national committee is chaired by the Reverend John Buehrens (former President of the UUA), the Reverend Kim Crawford Harvie (minister of the Arlington Street Church in Boston, MA), the Reverend Michael McGee (once a pastor at First Church, now ministering at the UU Church of Arlington, VA), and Jeri Moulder (from the Live Oak UU Congregation in Goleta, CA). The development of this team of leaders has occurred over an entire year. They will encourage leaders from around our association to pledge their support to the GNOUU capital campaign, primarily focusing on the larger congregations within our Association. Their efforts, geared toward the larger contributors, are not the only approach being pursued. My focus has been to meet old friends, and those who appreciate our struggles in New Orleans, and many who have forgotten about us but may benefit from a reminder. Many of our denominational leaders have shared their interest and expressed their verbal support, but a campaign like ours is a first. It has never been tried before. This is why Mary An Godshall, Liz Trotter, Suzy Mague and I have spent the many hours working with GNOUU. It is also why Cynthia Ramirez and Clint Kaufman have joined the Board of the Center for Ethical Living. We are all combining our efforts to demonstrate the need to support our congregations here in this New Orleans area. We are doing something new. Hopefully, all of us will delight in the new steps we are taking. The walls we have lost will be replaced, yes they will. Meanwhile, we are all continuing with our efforts to move on toward this rebuilding. With faith in life, Jim VanderWeele September 7 Intention and Attention: Elevating Your Spirit. This service includes our water ceremony. Please bring some water (whatever its source). Our minister s homily will focus on advancing our positive qualities. September 14 Who Was Jesus? Rev. VanderWeele invites you to walk through the hills of Galilee with Jesus and his followers. September 21 Clapp Analyzes What Is Evil and What Is Good. Our minister shares Parson Clapp s views on the activities in life that make people happy as well as the ones that make them miserable. September 28 The Life and Times of the Reverend Theodore Clapp. Our presenter will be Jocelyn Cole, owner and operator of Tour-New-Orleans.com. 1

3 Message from the President On Friday, August 22, the CCUU sanctuary was demolished. Built in 1972 with no windows and sloping walls, it looked a little like the flat topped pyramids of the Mayan Indians of Guatemala, sacred places indeed. When it was built, it had wood shakes on the outside walls and was nestled among pine trees (lost to Katrina), and gave a little hint of New England. When it acquired the white shingled siding, it took on the look of a great sun-drenched villa, perhaps in a desert country, like Egypt. After the mud of Katrina had dried and the door hung open, Catherine Castro and I entered to look around at the mold and destruction and were struck by how small the space appeared. We commented on how we had spent so many hours in this space it had become important to our lives. After it was gutted and cleaned, the space seemed much bigger, but quiet and lifeless, yet with potential. As you all know, the rules for rebuilding changed along the way, and it had to come down. The event was well attended by members and friends and strangers who stopped and took a little time out of their day to observe and perhaps mourn with us. A building does not make the church; it is the people who make the church. But the space where people worship and mark the special times of their lives becomes a sacred space, not because of the beauty of the building but because of the people. We will all carry with us many memories of times spent there. On September 6, we will commemorate the sanctuary with a jazz funeral and second line and food, for our members, our neighbors, and our fellow GNOUU churches. It will be a grand party (it is, after all, New Orleans) to say goodbye and look to the future with hope and anticipation to the time when we will have a brand new church building. Among the words of sympathy and concern that we received, a special one came from Katy Korb, our previous minister: Dear Jim, Would you convey to the congregation my deep sympathy and shared grief for the loss of the building which sheltered us for so long and my faith that a new day is dawning for them. A new building, opening its arms and heart to the community, as the congregation has so beautifully done since Katrina (and for which I give you infinite credit, Jim) signals a joyful, unlimited possibility for tomorrow. Faithfully, Katy Korb Thanks, Katy, for that message. We do, indeed look forward to a joyful, unlimited future. GNOUU Update. We ve received almost $770,000 in pledges and donations, closing in on 30 percent of our goal of $2.7 million. Our third annual Katrina Anniversary Dinner is at First UU of New Orleans on August 30th. Members of all three churches are busy preparing for this event. There is a poignant irony that as we look forward to the anniversary dinner, we are also wondering what another hurricane out in the Gulf might be doing it surely seems to be eyeing New Orleans. By the time you read this, we will know what Gustav is planning. As you know, our capital campaign has now shifted its focus to churches and UU s in the rest of the country. Our partner church, Pacific Unitarian, in Ranchos Palos Verdes, California, is planning a service to commemorate the third anniversary of Katrina and to make the first annual installment of their $75,000 pledge to our rebuilding. Suzy Mague will be on hand to represent CCUU and to receive the check. Words almost fail at this tremendous act of generosity, and we are so grateful. We have also been remembered by others. Barbara Mair of Community Unitarian Church in White Plains, New York, who visited us last year, is speaking at their Sept. 21st service about her experiences in New Orleans and her meeting with GNOUU members. She says that her church will be taking donations all through September for the GNOUU rebuilding. Also, Marc Maxson and Heather Katcher, who are now in Washington DC and greatly missed, spoke about GNOUU and its work last Sunday at their former church, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Centre County in central Pennsylvania. This church takes a monthly collection for a worthy cause, and this month it was GNOUU. Many thanks to Marc and Heather for taking our message out there and to UUFC for its generosity. Generosity is the underlying driver for everything that GNOUU is about. We are asking others to be generous to us so that we can rebuild and become strong. We, too, are called to be generous in our own communities. To that effect, GNOUU has undertaken to help the struggling Gulfport congregation by donating funds to pay for half a year s rent. The congregation is small but it has been in existence for 30 years, which bespeaks commitment and persistence, and we were pleased to be able to help keep that spirit alive. In the GNOUU spirit of helping and supporting our fellow congregations, North Shore has reached a cooperative ministry agreement for next year, 2

4 beginning in September, for a shared part-time ministry with Rev. Jim and with Rev. Melanie Morel- Ensminger from First Church. They will share a quarter-time consulting ministry (1/8th time each) which will provide 10 to 12 units of service each month. The Unitarian Universalist Minister s Association defines a unit as 3-4 hours of service. Rev. Jim will serve as an independent professional contractor using his own free time while Rev. Melanie s service will be a shared ministry with First Church in which North Shore will be paying oneeighth of her salary package with First Church for the coming year. Center for Ethical Living and Social Justice Renewal. The CELSJR is an outshoot of GNOUU, one we have not talked very much about, and I would like to bring you up to date on that. After GNOUU was formed, following the strategic plan for the three churches, it was realized that in order to receive grants from many organizations, we needed a group, separate from the churches, that could obtain 501( c)(3) nonprofit status and apply for grants from a wide array of granting organizations, including government ones. The idea took hold and a great deal of progress has been made in bringing this vision to reality. The Center now has a board of trustees, a mission statement, a budget, an executive director and funds. CELSJR s mission is to contribute to the rebirth of Greater New Orleans and the Gulf Coast Region through programs and services that promote social, racial and economic justice. The center strives to empower, inform and help build a sustainable, equitable and inclusive community. Many of you are aware of the Ethical Living in NOLA lecture series sponsored at CCUU this is part of the work of CELSJR. (By the way, we never could come up with a snappy acronym, so CELSJR is it.) Other activities include the planned Aids kitchen at First Church. All the Center s programs will address the involvement of all three church campuses, the common needs of their surrounding communities and the involvement of as many community partners as possible. The Volunteer Center housed at First Church, now renamed the Rebirth Volunteer Center, is the cornerstone project of CELSJR. The UUA/UUSC will transfer control of the Volunteer Center in October, along with the remaining funds. A generous infusion of funds also came from a collection held at General Assembly. Future funds will come from grants, and already two grant proposals are in the works. Quo Vadis Breaux, who has been director of the volunteer center, has accepted the position of executive director of CELSJR. Each church has three members on the board of CELSJR. The CCUU board members are Cynthia Ramirez, Clint Kaufman, and Mary An Godshall. As Terry VanBrunt, president of North Shore Church, wrote in a newsletter article, It is my hope that CELSJR will become our embodiment of hope in action. I share that hope and also the hope that it will be a source of pride and inspiration for us. One final note...leigh Henderson is coming to New Orleans for the weekend of Sept. 26, and she will be meeting with us Friday evening, Sept. 26, for a potluck and a fun workshop focusing on change hope everyone can come! Also tentatively planned are Saturday workshops at North Shore for members of the Worship/Program ministries of each church and of the Community Outreach ministries. Many of you will remember Leigh Henderson, a member of our partner church in New York, who has visited us several times before and conducted a number of leadership workshops. Working with Leigh is always fun and inspirational you will come away from one of her workshops invigorated and full of great ideas. As the details are finalized, information will be sent via the Yahoo mail group. Mary An Godshall Our Jazz Funeral - Second Line Celebration - Potluck Picnic to Follow It will be held outdoors (if the weather permits), on Saturday, September 6, 6 PM in the backyard behind our Annex. We will be commemorating the demolition of our sanctuary. This event can be very therapeutic in helping with our healing process. We can Reflect on our Losses, Say Good-Bye to the Old and Create Space to Welcome & Celebrate Our New Beginnings. We can Celebrate being Thankful for all that we Have & all that we Are! We Have Surprises In Store for You!!! All are Invited & Welcome, our members & friends of our 3 local churches (GNOUU), our Lakeview neighbors & other friends. GNOUU is sponsoring the event. 3

5 COMMUNITY CORNER Social Justice and Community Outreach Update on the activities of the Community Ministry. Recycling The next recycling pick up day is September 20. Please drop off your recyclable materials at church between 4:30 p.m. on Friday, September 19, and 9:00 a.m. September 20. What can be recycled? -- Plastics (#1-7), paper, cardboard, paper board, shredded paper, and metal containers of aluminum, tin, or steel. No glass. Community Ministry will join forces with Membership in a joint effort to meet our neighbors and to encourage the city to restart curbside recycling. We have drafted a petition and the plan is to canvass the neighborhood and ask for signatures from a.m. on Saturday morning, October 11. While asking for signatures, we can meet our neighbors and also market/advertise the church and our presence in the neighborhood. If you can help with this project, contact Liz Trotter, Carol Chapman, or Rev. Jim. Once we get as many signatures as possible, the hope is to personally take the petition to as many council members as we can get in to see, as well as the head of the N.O. Sanitation Department, and let them know that our neighborhood supports and wants curbside recycling! Note: We will keep a copy of the petition at church for anyone who would like to sign it. Beyond These Four Walls Please contact Liz Trotter if you would be willing to speak briefly during the service regarding volunteer work you are involved in outside of our church. We want to get to know you better and learn about your good works. Second Sunday Collections: September 13-- We will take up our monthly charitable collection to benefit All Congregations Together (ACT). ACT is a congregation-based community organization dedicated to empowering people to effect change and improve the quality of life for our families and communities in Greater New Orleans by working to develop leaders in our member congregations and by teaching them congregation-based organizing. CCUU is currently a member of ACT (Rev. Jim serves on its board of directors). One important project that ACT has been co-sponsoring with the Gibson Foundation is called the Music Rising Project that assists houses of worship by replacing musical instruments and related equipment lost or damaged in the hurricanes of Some notable contributors to the Music Rising Project are U2 s The Edge, Producer Bob Ezrin, Gibson Guitar Chairman and CEO Henry Juszkiewicz, Former President Bill Clinton, The Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund, Mr. Holland s Opus Foundation, MusiCares, Guitar Center, Musician s Friend, VH-1, MTV, Rolling Stone Magazine, Kennedy/Marshall Co., Ticketmaster, Live Nation, Madonna, Elton John, Celine Dion, Staind, INXS, Toby Keith, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Tim McGraw, and Def Leppard. On August 10, we collected a total of $396 to benefit the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana (JJPL). If you want to know more about this organization, check out their website at Lakeview Festival 2008 The 2008 Lakeview Festival will be held at St. Dominic s school yard (on Harrison Avenue), Sunday, September 14, 2008, noon until 9:00 p.m. CCUU will again sponsor a booth with a game for children from noon to 7:00. If you can help run the game for an hour or two that day, please contact Ann Duffy. Also, we can all support our neighborhood and the festival by heading over and having lunch there after church. They have many booths with local food. Proceeds from the festival will go to neighborhood improvements. More info can be found at Ready for Children: Cynthia Ramirez and Suzy Mague are planning for a good religious education experience for children who visit us this fall. They need help to provide a teacher and helper each Sunday; curriculum plans and materials are ready for you. Please let them know that you're interested or say yes when they ask. Children are a joy to work with and young families are our future - let's make them welcome! Small Talk the newsletter for small congregations Small Talk is a newsletter dedicated to supporting and strengthening the small Unitarian Universalist congregation. It is edited by the Rev. Jane Dwinell and designed by Dana Dwinell-Yardley. Small Talk is published monthly except for a summer break in July and August. It is free online as a PDF. Visit to download free back issues. 4

6 Board of Trustees Report-August 18, 2008 Rev. Jim will be spending his free Sunday with the North Shore church. They do not have a minister at present and are in need of support and guidance. We will resume our First Friday potluck dinners this fall. We plan to have someone from the Houston congregation come over to talk to us about the meaning of, and how to form and run Neighborhood (Covenant) Groups. A very close-knit group formed out of the Wednesday Night Book Discussion gathering. In fact, we were loath to give up meeting together over the summer while our leader, Jim, was gone. We continued to meet at Ann Saunders house, where she served the most sumptuous bread pudding ever to hit the palate. We painted Mandalas with colored sand, charted our horoscopes, held a play-reading, and had a poetry night. So get ready to help out and have some fun. We will resume New Member classes this fall. Motivational speaker, Leigh Henderson, will make a presentation on Friday, September 26. The Jazz Funeral complete with a brass band for the demolition of the church building will be held on Saturday, September 6, at 6:00 pm at the church grounds. We will second-line down Fleur de Lis; then back to the grounds for food, music, and a few words from those who remember when. We will save some of the wood, and some copper from the demolition for making a chalice. Attendees from the other two local churches and our Lakeview neighbors will be invited. So bring your handkerchiefs and be ready to let go of your old sadness and say hello to your new happiness. Planning for the Operating Fund Drive and the Fellowship Dinner is well underway. It will be on Saturday, October 18; Socializing at 6:00 pm, Dinner at 6:30 at the Chapel of the Holy Comforter on Lakeshore Drive. Music will accompany and light entertainment will be provided along with collection of the pledge cards. Pledge statements will go out next month. We are a little behind in pledge payments, so check your records. Suzy Mague will attend a service on August 31 at the Pacific Unitarian Church in Rancho Palos Verdes, California where she will receive a check for $25,000 of the $75,000 contribution that church has pledged toward our rebuilding efforts. Karen M. Young Start The Adventure In Reading Start The Adventure In Reading (STAIR) was founded in New Orleans in 1985 by former teachers and currently operates 23 sites with 200 students from Orleans, Jefferson and Plaquemines Parish public schools. Its main goal is to increase reading skills, comprehension and background knowledge for students needing extra help. On average, STAIR students scores in Oral Reading Fluency (as determined by recognized tests) increased more than 150%! Community Church will reopen its STAIR site in the fall, needing new and returning tutors. The sessions will be held in the Annex from 9-11:30 am on Saturdays; each tutor is assigned one child for the whole school year; the student will come from the 2 nd grade at Dibert School (on Orleans Ave); and applications can be submitted by calling Sara Woodard, Director, at I believe that the exercise involved in leading a child up the stairs to a better life is healthy for your heart! Rocile Muller Muppet Mysticism Here s a link to a youtube video of Marc Maxson s Muppet Mysticism service of July 13, 2008: eature=playlist&p=433c9765adbbe294&index=0 &playnext=1 Fall Retreat Everyone is invited to share in the food, fun, and fellowship of First Church's annual Fall Retreat at Fountainbleau Park, Friday, October 17 to Sunday, October 19, 2008 Attend all or part. Workshops, nature walks, campfire sing-along and talent show, great meals -- fun for all ages. Details and publicity poster will be sent out soon, but mark your calendars and alert your members now. InterConnections The Summer 2008 issue of InterConnections is now available online at A PDF of the complete issue is also available there. 5