News from UUCNWT

The Management Committee has authorized a transition from our old website to a new website design system called Squarespace that is better adapted to current technologies. The transition will be gradual, and the current site will remain operational until the new one is fully developed.

The Gateway Project has been using this program for its website for over a year, and it works well. To see the new site in its early stage, click here.

Advantages of the new site:

· It's user-friendly

· It can be accessed from any computer

· Committees and teams will be able to update their own areas

· It's sophisticated enough to satisfy experienced web designers

· It is continually being updated

· There is 24/7 assistance

A training workshop will be scheduled soon, so that everyone who needs to use it can learn how. If you would like to be the editor for your committee or group, contact John Fleming at 888-7059 or elfuturo@earthlink.net

Youth Art Exhibit

The Mountain View Youth Art Exhibit opened Sunday May 15. Our talented young artists have used their imaginations and skills in a variety of techniques and media. The artists are: Clarissa Ballesteros, age 17 (16 when did the art); Steven Ballesteros, age 14 (almost 15); Janan Power, age 11; Shaylor Brennan, age 9; and, Robyn Pratt, age 11. Enjoy this exhibit until June 25.

Anne Leonard

anne@alartworks.com

Sunday Book Discussion Group

reader

The Sunday Morning Book Group has chosen our next book, American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us, by R D Putnam and D E Campbell. We will be discussing about the first 50 pages on June 5.

In recent controversy over the national motto,"In God we trust," Putnam and Campbell see a symptom of profound change in the national character. Using data drawn from two large surveys, the authors plumb these changes. The data show that the tempestuous sixties shook faith in religion and that the seventies and eighties incubated a strong resurgence of devotion.

But the two most recent decades add another twist, as young Americans have abandoned the pews in record numbers. Still, despite recent erosion of religious commitment, Americans remain a distinctively devout people. And devotion affects life far from the sanctuary: Putnam and Campbell parse numbers that identify religious Americans as more generous, more civically engaged, and more neighborly than their secularly minded peers.

But the analysis most likely to stir debate illuminates how religion has increasingly separated Republicans from Democrats, conservatives from progressives. Readers may blame the Christian Right for this new cultural fissure, but survey statistics mark liberal congregations as the most politicized.

But whether looking at politics or piety, the authors complement their statistical analysis with colorful vignettes, humanizing their numbers with episodes from the lives of individual Protestants and Catholics, Jews and Mormons. An essential resource for anyone trying to understand twenty-first-century America.

Immigration-a Focus for the Coming Year

Since the announced theme of the 2012 General Assembly to be held in Phoenix is Immigration, our congregation, along with others in Arizona, is focusing on this topic. Several of our members attended the UUA course, "Immigration as a Moral Issue" at the UU Church of Tucson. In addition to a substantial amount of written material as background, the course included several guest speakers, and two field trips, one to Nogales, and one to the downtown Federal courthouse to see immigrants being "processed."

We are now planning to offer this course at our church in six sessions, beginning October 10. To sign up, contact Margaret Fleming at 888-7059 or margefleming@earthlink.net

Additionally, we plan to offer a hands-on religious education course for our older youth based on making a documentary video on the subject of immigration. Kids will learn the principles of videography, how to formulate questions and conduct interviews, how to write commentary, and how to edit text and videos. The finished video will be uploaded to our YouTube and Facebook sites. In the process of putting this together, the kids will learn a lot about immigration-related issues.

Signage for Mountain Vista UU

A team from Building and Grounds Committee will be planning signage to go outside our sanctuary. We need an identity sign that indicates our name and can help direct the newcomer toward our entrance areas.

Anne Tatum, Anne Leonard, John Fleming and Connie Armstrong will be sharing ideas, but we need input from YOU. To date, we are considering a worded sign, either attached to the north side of the sanctuary, or one standing alone in that area, a pergola type of structure through which we would enter, and a flaming chalice as part of the sign.

If you would like to share an idea, please write a description, draw it, indicate rough measurements, where it would be placed and send that in writing to B&G committee member Anne Tatum, ahtatum@mindspring.com .

Interim Minister's Column

Words of Joy

Rev. Joy The Ministerial Search Committee will be on retreat together soon, and will soon begin in earnest gathering information from the congregation about what you are hoping for in a settled minister. Their work will be intensive over the next year.

I dedicate this month's column to the Ministerial Search Committee as they embark upon their journey together. Here is a reading about finding that special minister.

Found! The Perfect Pastor

After hundreds of years of search, a model pastor has been found! He preaches for exactly 20 minutes and sits down. She condemns sin but never hurts anyone's feelings.

He works from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. in every type of work from preaching to custodial service. She makes $60 a week, wears good clothes, buys good books regularly, has a nice family, drives a good car and gives $100 a week to the church. He also stands ready to contribute to every good work that comes along.

He is 26 years old and has been preaching for 30 years. She is tall and short, thin and heavy-set. He has one brown eye, and one blue, and hair parted down the middle, left side dark and straight and the right brown and wavy.

She has a burning desire to work with the teenagers, and spends all her time with the older folks. He smiles all the time with a straight face because he has a sense of humor that keeps him seriously dedicated to his work. She makes 15 calls a day on church members, spends all of her time evangelizing the unchurched, and is never out of her office.

This reading, in slightly different forms (I added the gender variety), can be found quoted on many internet sites, from many faiths, without attribution. I first saw it some 30 years ago, in those pre-internet days, circulating among UU newsletters, especially in congregations that were in search for a new minister at the time. It is still a poignant reminder that a minister, try as he/she might, can never be all things to all people. May you bear this in mind as you think about the ministerial qualities that you would like to see in your next settled minister.

Meanwhile, I've got to get back to my walking on water practice (don't worry-I know where the rocks are!).

Warmly, with a wink, Joy

Congregational Meeting June 12

Official notice of the MVUU Congregational Meeting

In the sanctuary at 12:00 p.m., following our church service and a light lunch.

To All Members of UUCNWT:

The following five (5) matters will be considered and voted on by the Congregation.

1. The following persons have been nominated for positions on the MVUU Board of Trustees for the Fiscal Year beginning July 1, 2011 (Fiscal Year 2011-12 runs from 7/1/11 to 6/30/12):

Officers:
President: Conrad Paul
1st Vice President, Chair Congregational Life Council: Chuck Tatum
2nd Vice President, Chair Administrative Council: Larry Jagnow
Secretary: Elizabeth Reed
Treasurer: Bill Casey
Trustee at large: Lisa Ponder-Gilby
Trustee at large: Jim Gessaman

2. The nominees for the Nominating Committee for 2011-2012 are:
Meg Kidwell
Debbie Gessaman
TBD

3. The nominees for the Endowment Committee for 2011-2012 are:
Jan Anderson
Ann Ellsworth
David Hatunen
Anne Tatum
Clare Toth

4. Approval of the UUCNWT/MVUU Covenant of Right Relations:

UUCNWT/MVUU Covenant of Right Relations
With love as our guide, we covenant to:
+ welcome the stranger
+ encourage and support one another
+ honor our diversity
+ ask questions with an open mind and heart
+ listen deeply and seek understanding
+ speak directly and compassionately when we have differences
+ trust one another and remain in community while differences are resolved.

5. The Fiscal Year 2011-2012 Budget:

A copy of the recommended Budget will be available for inspection in the Church Office soon after the May 24 Board Meeting; and Absentee Ballots will be available at the office by Thursday, May 26. Those members who wish to have an Absentee Ballot e-mailed to them should contact Dorothy, our Office Administrator, at office@uucnwt.org or by phone at 520-579-7094; basic information on the Budget will be available by telephone to the office, but you will not be able to vote on the Budget because amendments will be made to it at the Congregational Meeting. You may email your Absentee Ballots (or mail them to UUCNWT, 3601 W. Cromwell Drive, Tucson AZ 85741) to her by no later than Friday, June 10, to be counted at the Congregational Meeting on Sunday, June 12.
                                           Signed,
                                           Deborah C. Gessaman
                                           Board Secretary

Activities and Events

Water Rights Movie in Sanctuary June 3

Friday evening June 3, 2011. A movie showing of Blue Gold at 6:30 pm. This is a Green Sanctuary Committee item. The topic is water rights worldwide. Popcorn and beverage will be provided, and a small donation will be asked at the door to help out with the expenses.

Movie Outing June 4

Cave of Forgotten Dreams, 4:55 pm, Saturday, June 4, Oro Valley Marketplace Cinemas. This much-acclaimed Werner Herzog documentary shows the first viewings of "the astonishing Cave of Chavet-pont-d'Arc," in 3-D, a first glimpse of ancient drawings, a discovery that "closed the distance between our lost human past and our present." Supper after at Harvest Moon Asian restaurant near the theaters. Look for a poster, review, directions and a signup at Mountain Vista. Please sign up to be notified of any changes. jgwilcox@comcast.net 531-1413

Bookaholics Unanimous June 29

Praise for author Jane Hamilton is written carefully and thoughtfully, not heaped mindlessly to satisfy an assignment. Her books satisfy our need for solid prose, and her characters grip us and hold us until the end. Because we've all enjoyed her books, we're taking the time on June 29th to focus on author Jane Hamilton. Bring your opinions of books by hers that you've read, and we'll do the same, and we'll meet in the Fireside Room at 6:45 p.m. on June 29th. What a delightful way for book lovers to spend a summer evening. Start soon on our next selections: July 27-- The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman; August 31--The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen; September 28--A Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank. Stretch out in that lawn chair and enjoy the desert around you while you relax and read.

Contact: Elaine Harris azbooklover@comcast.net 290-1026

Ministerial Search Committee Update

Your Ministerial Search Committee is already at work on finding Mountain Vista UU a settled minister. Thanks to you, the congregation, eight members were selected May 1 to conduct the search over the next year. We are Peter Becskehazy, Evalyn Bennet-Alder, Gwen Goodman, David Greene, Betty Meikle, Pat Reddemann, Anne Tatum, and Sybelle van Erven. We will be gathering information and ideas from each of you, through "cottage meetings" and a survey to help us find the best minister match for our congregation's needs and vision.

So far, the committee has been studying UUA materials on the process, forms and packets that need to be completed. We held an initial meeting with Rev. Joy on May 16 to discuss her role in helping and the appropriate limitations of the interim minister.

The committee has scheduled the recommended retreat, with a facilitator, on June 3 and 4, to be held at the Redemptorist Renewal Center at Picture Rocks, west of town. Our congregation held a retreat many years ago at this facility, and it is well set up so the focus can be on the work that the committee must do. Bob Miess, whom many of you remember from his visit here earlier this year, is our Ministerial Settlement Representative and will be facilitating the retreat.

You will be updated periodically on the stages of the process through this newsletter and in person by committee members. While specifics of the minister candidates are a confidential matter, the committee members want our congregation to know what we are doing. Thank you for choosing us for this important task,

The Ministerial Search Committee

RE News

Upcoming Events

Sunday, May 29th - Regular classes

Sunday, June 5th- Intergenerational Service: Flower Communion

Wednesday, June 8th - RE Committee Meeting, 6:00 PM, Goldblatt Bldg.

Sunday, June 12th- Kick-off of RE Summer Program, "Share Your Passion"

Wish List: Canisters of powdered lemonade mix.

Summer RE Program

This summer we are planning a Share Your Passion program, in which various adults will visit and share their passions with the kids. Some examples are scrapbooking, drumming , bird-watching, genealogy, singing, and public speaking . Any of you who have a passion you'd like to share with the kids one Sunday, please let Donna or Margaret know. Even if you don't have teaching experience, this is something you can do. One of the RE teachers or committee members will be with you to serve as a liaison, find supplies, provide snacks, and help you with the kids. We will continue with the story in the Sanctuary on the first and third Sundays.

Stewardship Soundings

This is the first of many writings related to the topic of Stewardship and what role it plays within the congregation.

Let's first deal with the 2011/2012 pledge drive, which has been a great experience and in many ways seems to have brought a new positive energy to our congregation. Pledge drives usually do bring people together because of the importance of giving financially in support of the general welfare of the congregation. Also, the basic fact that the congregation is affected by the positive or negative outcome of meeting the pledge drive financial goal it is felt by all: Budgets are either met and the congregation is able to meet its goals and objectives, or budgets are reduced and programs and projects are cut or abandoned.

This year, at least so far, we missed our goal of $130,000. We have reached $115,133 (as of 5/22/2011) with hopes of getting another $4000 from last minute pledges. Even so, we will still miss the goal by either 23% or 9%; disappointing, yes, but a disaster, no. I don't want to focus on reasons why we did not make the goal, but will say as a congregation we actually did a good job in the ten weeks from launch to wrap up. Thankfully we have other means to reach our overall budget needs. Plus, who knows how many new members we have waiting in the wings?

For many people Stewardship is a hard committee to get people to understand. Think about it: some people look at us as the money grabbers. However, the fact is that pledging and the subsequent contributions keep the church viable, not only for our congregation but for the entire Tucson community.

Over time we will focus on the meaning of Stewardship and how it is a congregation's responsibility and need. We will explore other aspects of Stewardship and how it can assist in financial and life planning as well as examine various sources of income needed to grow the congregation, plan new facilities and develop stronger church sponsored programs, projects and events.

A really smart man once told me that Stewardship is the lynchpin of a successful church experience. We should all look forward to becoming lynchpins.

Joe Bredau
Stewardship Chairman

PS: I wish to thank the rest of the Stewardship Team for the Pledge Drive--Larry Jagnow and Gary Kern. We made a great threesome. And special kudos to all the canvassers who called so many people, so many times, and collected so much money.

Make a Difference-Join the Primavera Dinners Team

One of the social action projects of our congregation is preparing and serving a weekday dinner meal to the residents at Five Points. This apartment complex is part of the Primavera Foundation's program to aid previously homeless persons in Tucson. The residents of the complex are off the street, working and managing their lives in positive, productive ways. To ease the workday of the residents, the dinner is prepared by volunteers from various churches and individuals in the Tucson community.

For many years, members of our congregation have provided the dinner on the third Wednesday of every month. The persons who volunteer to do a dinner are called Team Leaders. They choose the month they want to do and are responsible for selecting the menu, buying and preparing the food, and getting it to the apartment complex by 5:30 p.m. The residents serve themselves, so the Team Leaders are not obligated to stay after delivering the food. Many of them, however, report staying and enjoying conversations with the residents.

We currently need more Team Leaders. Can you help? It's really easy and fun and is a chance to put our faith into practice. We would like to have enough Team Leaders so that each one would be responsible for only one month of the year. We also welcome help from other volunteers in doing shopping, cooking, delivery, and of course donating money. The Primavera Foundation is extremely grateful for all the help and support it gets, and the residents really appreciate the meals.

A Team Leader training includes a walk through the entire process with an experienced volunteer, including going to the apartment site to deliver the meal the day of the dinner.

To volunteer or to ask questions, contact Emily Ricketts at 795-2153.

Diary of a Mad Gardener

By Alberta Gunther

Springtime, a perfect time to garden. The winter garden that I had in my front flower bed is over. I've saved seeds from the radishes but didn't try with the lettuce. Since I ate all of the carrots, there were no seeds to save.

The back garden is looking good. I did lose the peas but I have zucchini and, for the first time, cucumbers. In the past cucumber seeds failed to grow and transplants died. I've got three healthy looking tomato plants with green tomatoes. I've planted okra which did well last year. I'll be planting green beans this month. These are the heat loving beans that I got from Marion. If I can stay ahead of the aphids I'll be OK. More next month.

Green Sanctuary Notes

The following story is brought to you by the Green Sanctuary Committee.

In the line at the store, the cashier told the older woman that she should bring her own grocery bag because plastic bags weren't good for the environment. The woman apologized to him and explained, "We didn't have the green thing back in my day."

veggies The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. The former generation did not care enough to save our environment." He was right, that generation didn't have the green thing in its day.

Back then, they returned their milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. But they didn't have the green thing back in that customer's day.

In her day, they walked up stairs, because they didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. They walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time they had to go two blocks. But she was right. They didn't have the green thing in her day.

Back then, they washed the baby's diapers because they didn't have the throw-away kind. They dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts - wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that old lady is right, they didn't have the green thing back in her day.

Back then, they had one TV, or radio, in the house--not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief, not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen, they blended and stirred by hand because they didn't have electric machines to do everything for them.

When they packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, they used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, they didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. They used a push mower that ran on human power. They exercised by working so they didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she's right, they didn't have the green thing back then.

They drank from a fountain when they were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time they had a drink of water. They refilled their writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and they replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But they didn't have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. They had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And they didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint. But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful the old folks were just because they didn't have the green thing back then?

Sunday Services for June

June 5, 2011

Intergenerational Flower Communion Service

"The Earth Laughs in Flowers"

Rev. Joy Atkinson

We will come together as many, and join the varied flowers we bring as one. This service will commemorate the unique Unitarian ritual established in the 1920s by the Rev. Norbert Capek in Prague, Czechoslovakia, and celebrated yearly in many of our congregations. Please bring one flower for every member of your family (and a few extras for newcomers if you can) to add to the communal vase. The Tucson Women's Chorus will sing for us. Steven Ballesteros is Worship Associate.

June 12, 2011

"You Must Be Present To Win!"

Rev. Joy Atkinson

As we move into the often slower-paced summer, let's pause to consider the benefits of living a more mindful life. Christiane Heyde is Worship Associate.

June 19, 2011

Father's Day Service

"Our Fathers, Ourselves"

Rev. Joy Atkinson

The service will explore Father's Day and the role of fathers in our lives. Romy Fouad is Worship Associate.

June 26, 2011

"UUs and Other Heretics"

Galina DeRoeck

Did you know that Arius, our proto-ancestor of Unitarianism, was a Libyan Berber? We'll review some interesting "heretics" and discuss the meaning of heresy then and now. Margaret Fleming is Worship Associate.