UUCH Chalice
The Overlook
Unitarian Universalist Church of Huntsville
3921 Broadmor Rd., Huntsville AL 35810  
May 19th, 2016
Vol. 16 Issue 20
In This Issue
We CAN Reach 100!
bags of food
We sure can! Thanks to your generous donations, we collected 134 items for the HAP pantry in April!
The Social Justice Committee's goal is to collect and donate 100 items per month. CAN you pick up an extra CANNED good, nonperishable food item, or personal care product next time you are out shopping? Please do, and put it in the basket in the church foyer to be donated to the Huntsville Assistance Program (HAP). Suggested donations: macaroni and cheese, pasta and sauce, dry beans and rice, boxes of cereal, bars of soap, canned meat, and peanut butter!
Thanks in advance!
Fair Trade Chocolate and Coffee
coffeecup
If you are a coffee connoisseur, the Social Justice Committee invites you to visit the coffee table in the Fellowship Hall where the chocolate is sold to order your Certified Fair Trade and Organic coffee from the Kaffeeklatsch. And we still have a few bars of Equal Exchange Chocolate for sale, too!
All profits go in support of our Social Justice efforts. 
This Year's UU General Assembly
 
UUGA will be held June 22nd-26th in Columbus Ohio!
This year's theme is "Heart land: Where Faiths Connect." For further information, visit the GA website at www.uua.org/ga

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Upcoming Services
UUCH Chalice
Sunday, May 22nd, 2016
 
 
"Blessed Be"   
UUCH Choir & Musicians,
Pam Siegler, Choir Director  
 
The UUCH Choir began preparing for this service several months ago by inviting all members of our church to write on community poster boards ways you feel you are blessed. Your responses were a rich array of blessings: community, faith, family, friends, children, nature, pets, and more. The choir--with soloists, instrumentalists, ensembles, and dancers from our congregation--bring these blessings to life with songs from diverse musical traditions. From the Words of Welcome to the Rite of Community, the worship service offers a total musical experience of blessing. 
This Sunday in Children and Youth Religious Education 

hand drawingheart Children in the Peace and Justice rooms will have outdoor fun on the playground and learn more about our playground mural project.
 
Youth in the Searchers and Transformers rooms will attend the musical worship service in the sanctuary, where some of their friends will be helping to make the music!

Childcare for children age 3 and under will be provided as usual.

For the summer months, we are recruiting volunteers to share their interests, skills, and hobbies with our RE program! For more about this opportunity, see the article below! 
 
Questions about Religious Education at UUCH may be directed to Erin Reid, our Director of Religious Education (DRE) (256.694.6786 or [email protected]) or Jessica Zelaya, RE Chair (256.322.2210 or [email protected]). Register online for the UUCH Children and Youth RE Program at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WS8LDNP. 
Members: Don't Forget!
gavelAnnual Congregational Meeting
This Sunday!
May 22nd, 2016, at 12:00 p.m.
(Note the time change!)

Please make plans to attend, because we need a quorum--and we'll have important decisions to make about our property at 2222 Governors Drive! Light snacks and childcare will be provided.
Children and Youth Summer RE:
We Need YOU!

In the summer months, the Children and Youth Religious Education Program takes a special turn from the regular fall and spring curricula. We invite UUCH members and friends to plan a class session for the children and youth. You'll be part of a teaching team as either the lead teacher or a helper; and we'll be sure to have a regular RE teacher there as support. Even children and youth can partner with an adult to lead a session! SummerRE
 
We invite you to sign up to lead a session that shares a special talent, hobby, skill, or learning area of yours. Here are some topics to get your creative juices flowing: music, finger painting, scrapbooking, nature walks, gardening, yoga, science, paper airplanes, drawing, Lego, origami, fossils, friendship bracelets, mythology, sidewalk chalk, pottery, cookie-making. The possibilities are limitless!!  What's a joy to you can be a joy to others.
 
Leaders will prepare a topic/activity that is adaptable to children ages 4 to 12. Senior high youth are invited to participate as leaders and helpers, or to attend the regular worship service in the sanctuary. Because of our exciting program growth, we'll need even more leaders and helpers this summer than before! So, don't be shy! We have room for the sharing of your gifts. There's nothing like spending time with the children and youth at our church. Their energy, creativity, and intelligence are contagious. And they benefit from interacting with caring adults who make an investment in them. This is what multi-generational community is all about!
 
For the next month, we'll have posters standing in the church foyer and fellowship hall where you can sign up for a summer Sunday session. Or, you can contact Erin Reid, Director of Religious Education, at [email protected].
Caring Community Announcements

You are invited to Rachel Nicaise' Graduation Celebration!

Rondi and Greg Kelton are proud to announce that their daughter Rachel Nicaise is graduating on May 23rd from James Clemens High School. Our entire UUCH Congregation is invited to help her celebrate! The party will be on May 29th, an open house from 2:00-5:00 p.m. For more info and to RSVP, please email rondikelton@hotmailcom .

 

Follow Erin Howard in the National Spelling Bee Competition!

From proud mom Adrienne Howard:

"Several friends at church have kindly asked about how to watch Erin in the spelling bee. Below I have copied the information the bee has provided to us about the timing of the competition. I will explain what that means about when Erin can be seen and how to see it. I should also mention that more information about the bee and Erin and the other spellers can be found on spellingbee.com . 


"On Wednesday the 25th, the Preliminary rounds will be shown on ESPN 3. This is ESPN's live streaming channel on the web. You can access it from the ESPN.go.com  website. You choose the 'Watch' link near the top right, and then choose 'ESPN3' as the channel. You can also get it from the Watch ESPN app on a mobile device. My limited experience has shown that I needed to choose my cable provider and enter that password in order to use the Watch ESPN app. However, I haven't had to do that if I watched from the ESPN.go.com website. 

"There are a total of 285 spellers. Erin is speller 1 so she is in Group 1. On Wednesday, the 25th, Erin should be on 'ESPN 3' at or right after 7:00 a.m. central time. This Round 2 word is from a list of 400 words they received ahead of time. If she gets that word right, she will be on again at 12:15 central time. This word can be any word from the dictionary. If she gets that word right, then the results of the written test on Tuesday come into play. The 50 spellers with the best scores on the written test will move on to the finals, unless they missed one of the oral round words. (The written test is half spelling and half vocabulary). They will make the announcement of finalists on 'ESPN 3' after the end of Round 3. I think this will be around 3:45 or 4:00 p.m. central time. 

 

"The finals will be on Thursday and will be televised. They will be on 'ESPN 2' in the morning (9:00-12:00 a.m. central time) and 'ESPN' in the evening starting at 7:00  p.m. central time."

 
Good Luck,  Erin!
votives Care List 
 
At our Circle of Candles on Sunday,  May 15th, candles were lit for:

Bette Goodman
, a candle of sorrow: "We are heartbroken in the loss of my daughter-in-law, Stephanie, to an accidental overdose. Sweet, beautiful, loving, only 30 years old. My eight-year-old grandson Avery has a big change in his life as he will now be full time with my son Zack. We hold him in our hearts, and will do everything we can to support him and help him adjust."
 
Kathy Fisher, a candle of joy: "I celebrate my 69th birthday this Tuesday, and I am doing a great deal of pondering since Daddy lived only another 30 days after his 69th birthday. Mostly I am feeling grateful and blessed that he and mother had me and charted the path with their lives. Blessed be."
 
Barbara Hitt, a candle of joy: "My amazing 98-year-old Mom flew here from Wyoming last week to visit us and her children and great-grandchildren."

Our minister, the Reverend Alice Syltie, is on sabbatical through the month of June. For pastoral emergencies please contact Angel Hundley, the Sabbatical Coordinator, at [email protected]. Barbara Hitt is Chair of the Care Committee, and may be reached at home, (256) 881.2531; on her cell, (256) 348.5845; or by email at [email protected].
UUCH 15-16 Board Members

 

President: Laurel Bollinger 

Vice-President: Angel Hundley 

Secretary: Ed Bernstein           

Treasurer: Jerome Belcher   

Trustees: Millicent Simmons, Jon Fox, & Denise Runnels 

 

Do you have an Agenda Item for the Board?  
The Board respectfully requests that all agenda items for the meeting be submitted to Board President Laurel Bollinger, no later than one week prior to the meeting, i.e. the Tuesday before. You may leave a copy of your request in her Mailbox at the church office, or contact her at [email protected].

The next UUCH Board Meeting will be held
on Tuesday, May 24th, 2016 at 6:30 p.m. Thanks for your cooperation!

From the Overlook is a publication of

The Unitarian Universalist Church,

3921 Broadmor Rd. Huntsville, AL 35810

Minister: The Reverend Alice Syltie

Board President: Laurel Bollinger  

Editorial Board: Laurel Bollinger, Kathy Heath 

 

Newsletter deadlines are each Monday at midnight!
Please send submissions to news collator Deedee Moore at
[email protected].  

 

Admin. Office Hours: 10:00a.m. to 4:00p.m. Mon-Tue-Thu-Fri.

For Wednesday access, please call in advance. 

Office phone: 256.534-0508, email: [email protected].

Minister's email: [email protected].

Website: www.uuch.org 

 

Sunday Services are held 10:45 a.m. to 12:00 noon;  

Children's Religious Education held concurrently.   

Nursery available for age 3 years and under.

For further info on any event, call the church office:
256. 534-0508.