Spirituality, Science, and Healing Sunday Sermon Series

SABBATICAL COMMITTEE UPDATE  

Four months into the sabbatical period and with just two more to go, indications are that all is going smoothly, as hoped. Thanks to the detailed planning done by the Rev. Dr. Sara Zimmerman, the Worship/Program Committee, and our Worship Associates, attendance at Sunday services remains at the average seasonal level, and the quality of our services and guest speakers remains high. Congratulations and thank you to all who've made this possible.

Please "save the date" -- the first Sunday in March for a welcome party for Rev. Sara. 03-03-13 will be her first Sunday in the pulpit after the sabbatical period. The welcome party--immediately following the service--will be in the Multi-Purpose Building.

This is not only an occasion to welcome Rev. Sara back, but a party for us, as a congregation, to become reacquainted with our Minister after a six-month absence. In some ways, this welcome party will be like a Water Communion service, where we can learn what each of us has been up to in the intervening period, were we may have gone, what we experienced, and how we may have changed. We hope everyone can make it. Yes, there will be food. Watch for more information....    

If anyone has any questions relating to the "Welcome Party" or Rev. Doc. Zimmerman's Sabbatical, please contact a member of the Sabbatical Committee:

• Pat Benedict (Co-Chair),
• Bill Blymiller (Co-Chair),
• Ara Rogers (Member), and
• Ed Benedict (Member).

All may be contacted at sabbatical@uutampa.org.

Join us for

Children: The Challenge:

A six-week study group for parents

Beginning January 15, 2013

Tuesdays @ 7:00 to 8:30 p.m.

FREE

Unitarian Universalist Church of Tampa

Multi-Purpose Building

These groups will be conducted by local therapists, Anthony Miller, LMHC and Randall Gainforth, LMHC. A limited number of Rudolf Dreikurs' Children: The Challenge will be made available for $18.00.

Parents want help knowing how to reduce conflict, have fun, and raise responsible children. These groups are designed to help parents deal with such concerns as bedtime, meals, chores, homework, school, and fighting. The groups provide a source of encouragement and support for parents who want to improve their relationships with their children.

Parents will learn how to:

• Develop friendly and cooperative relationships
• Create a family atmosphere of freedom with order
• Use encouragement
• Resolve conflicts
• Conduct family meetings

Parents will also learn the basic goals of misbehavior and how birth order affects decision-making and personality development.

GREAT COURSES DISCUSSION NEW DAY-TIME HOURS

 We are getting closer to modern times!   

Jan. 7th             What is Enlightenment?  Kant on Freedom; & Moral Science and                            the Natural World  

Everyone is welcome; join us when you can. Snacks are provided.  

Questions? Contact Jeannette Manning, 813-857-0468, manningjea@yahoo.com.  

Read a Good Book!

By Carol Baker    

Happy New Year!  

If you got some gifts last year, I hope at least one was a GOOD BOOK. This time of the year, there are lots of lists of Best Books for 2012, so those are great for suggested reading as well as the following:

Cay Cahalin: Let me recommend The Inn Boonsboro trilogy by Nora Roberts. Okay, so she's a romance writer, but she has done amazing things with the 60 million dollars she makes a year. Boonsboro, Maryland, has been around since before the American Revolution, and it is near Antietam, the site of the bloodiest day in the Civil War. She and her husband have renovated old buildings and now own the Inn Boonsboro, Turn the Page Bookstore, Fit in Boonsboro Gifts, and her son owns Vesta Pizza and a restaurant and top house. You can look up all of this online while you are reading the fictionalized version of how all of this happened. There is even a resident ghost at the inn. No Pulitzer here, but lots of fun.

Judy Lehman: Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett is a great read. This is a portrait of unwavering commitment between friends that spans twenty years, from long winters in the Midwest, to surgical wards, to book parties in New York. 

If you haven't already read Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy, you should read it too! This is Ann's friend Lucy that Truth and Beauty is about. I read Ann's book first but they are both outstanding, and I believe the order in which you read them is immaterial.

Ron Hammerle: Can you imagine

 For our younger readers or for parents/grandparents who are looking for good children's books:

Jack & Peggy McNair: We are reading the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling. There are 7 books in the series, covering Harry Potter's magical adventures from age 11 to 17. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading these books aloud to Jack. They have led to many discussions between us about integrity, good vs. evil, and making choices. Jack says he enjoys them because they're "mysterious and make you want to know what happens next." I recommend these books for older elementary children to adults. As the series progresses, the books become darker and more serious. The books also "grow" with the reader, meaning the reading level becomes more advanced with each book. A great series for imaginative young people and young-at-heart people!

Joyce Formica: I just started reading The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory. It's a historical novel about the two Boleyn sisters competing for the love of the king, tied up in all the glory and ruthlessness of Tudor England, during the reign of Henry VIII. I chose it to read because it is so very different from the murder mysteries written within the 20th century that I usually read. It's interesting to compare the lifestyle of that era with today's. Women of today have the freedom to shape their own destiny.

Thanks for all the contributions. Keep them coming and Happy Reading!

Carol Baker

Starting a New Year with the Young Adult Group (YAG)

By Anna Deyle, YAG Leader

deylea@gmail.com 

The purpose of the Young Adult Group (YAG) is to provide a community at the church for 18-35-year-olds. YAG serves as a way for its members to be active through social events and volunteering. We meet for brunch after the church service on the second Sunday of every month at the First Watch Café on Fowler Avenue. We also hold a second social or volunteering event each month.

Due to our busy young adult lives, we have not always kept the church community informed of our group's goings-on. In this coming year, we are rededicating ourselves to doing just that and to getting the word out about our group to young adults in the larger Tampa area.

On December 5th we held a planning meeting that began with an election of a new YAG leader. Erik Gern, our outgoing leader, has served the group since May 2011, and I will be serving as our new leader.

At the meeting, we discussed plans to launch a YAG marketing campaign to attract new young adult members from the surrounding community. Two of our members, Seth Keith and Greg Culmone, are currently designing a YAG Webpage where we will post information about the group and our upcoming activities. A Facebook page and YAG Twitter account are also in the works. Greg Culmone has designed a logo for our group that can be seen at the top of this article. We are also making a flyer about the group that we can post at colleges in the surrounding area and hand out to new young adults who visit the church.

We are looking forward to growing our group in the New Year and coordinating events with other committees at the church. Our two events planned for January are our monthly brunch on the 13th and a bowling outing on the 26th. If you would like more information about our group, please e-mail us at: uuctyag@gmail.com  

You can also email me directly at: deylea@gmail.com  

Scrip Fundraising

UUCT is now signed up with Scrip to raise funds for the church's general fund. The best part about Scrip, is that it does not cost you anything! You purchase gift cards for places you already shop, and the church receives a portion!

Visit http://www.shopwithscrip.com/ to see the list (it's long!) and to purchase gift cards. UUCT's Enrollment Code is 8FB2E1CE35565

Questions? E-mail Stacy Gilmore, our Fundraising Chairperson at stagilmore@yahoo.com 

Sponsoring Angels

At times, members of our church community have family or other issues and are unable to renew their financial commitment to the church. We are seeking angels willing to sponsor a church membership.

Both you and the recipient would remain anonymous.

If you can become one of our sponsoring angels or would like more information please contact Joyce Formica at keyspouse2@aol.com.

With appreciation and thanks,

Joyce Formica, Pledge Secretary

I am an aerospace engineer, inventor, tutor, spiritualist and scout bee. I was born in Melbourne Florida and graduated from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach FL. I feel like I have been on a long spiritual journey... that is just beginning.   I feel the pain of failing finances and failing marriages from which great wisdom is emerging, therefore, I salute my teachers. A great joy in my life was the discovery of the U.U. community which I anticipate will bring a steady supply of joys. I spend my spare time gathering knowledge, experimenting, inventing and contemplating the solving of complex environmental problems, which are of exponential importance and may be more related to our level of conscious awareness. But really, I long for a good community on a stable planet.

Karin Lanning

I was born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1938, where, after high school, I graduated from the Stockholm School of Business with an AA in Business Administration.

I met a New Yorker at one of the university dances in Stockholm in the summer of 1963. A year later, at age 26, I arrived on a Fall Saturday in New York City onboard the Bergensfjord, to make America my home. The next day, he and I poured over the "Want ads" in the Sunday New York Times and picked out a couple of jobs that seemed OK for me.

Monday morning, he took me to the subway stop in Flushing and said, "The

train goes that way. Good Luck and I'll see you tonight!" Equipped with a subway map I was on my way!!!

A month later, and now engaged to my American man, I started my first job at the American Institute of CPAs at 666 Fifth Avenue.  

We went to Sweden in the Spring of 1965 and had a small but formal wedding in Stockholm, performed by the Justice of the Peace.

March 23, 1969 is one of the happiest days in my life, the day our son was born. While being a stay-at-home mom for six years, I went to Queens College and received a BA in Psychology.

Well, my first marriage ended and in 1983 I met Terry. Two years later, we moved from New Jersey to Massachusetts, and after Terry and I had been "an item" for five years, the UU Minister in Franklin, MA married us in 1988.

The next big mile stone was in 1992, when I became an American citizen.

On New Year's Day, 2003, after leaving a snowy Massachusetts, we arrived in sunny Florida.

Today, I have the best job in the world - being a grandmother to seven-year-old Katrina.

And, finally, I am just starting my own business and every day I wake up, curious to find out what today will hold.

Terry Lanning 

Terry Lanning is an only child, born in New York, in 1946 to a Presbyterian father, and his "born again Episcopalian" mother. When he was three, Ralston Purina Company transferred his father to Jamestown, New York.

Taken to the Episcopalian church, Terry balked at the "the top-down, learning-by-rote atmosphere at Saint Luke's. And the ideas of original sin and Christ coming back to life seemed twisted to me. I became adept at faking illness on Sunday mornings so I didn't have to go."

His parents were "...knee-jerk Republicans, far to the right of center who strongly supported McCarthyism and spotted Communists everywhere. Terry escaped by attending Syracuse University and then developing a career in corporate communication. He and his first wife Leslie, with their two daughters Kari and Jodie, moved around the country eventually landing in Morristown, New Jersey in 1982 where, in response to a neighbor's relentless urging, he found the Unitarian Fellowship. He says, "I went just so my neighbor would stop pestering us, but I immediately loved the diversity, the lack of a creed, the feeling of total acceptance, and the amazing program variety from Sunday to Sunday. I signed the membership book on my third visit."

While in the midst of divorce, he met Karin in early 1983 at a self-help group for the unemployed he founded at the Fellowship called "USE," Unitarians Seeking Employment. In 1985, he and Karin moved to Massachusetts where he eventually founded his own marketing communications business, which he ran till he and Karin moved to Apopka, Florida, a northern Orlando suburb, in 2003.

In 2005, they relocated to Wesley Chapel to be closer to Karin's son Peter who lives in New Tampa. They joined Spirit of Life Unitarian Universalists in Odessa, where they remained active members until late last year when they decided to affiliate with UUCT. Terry says, "This church reminds me of my first UU experience in New Jersey. I especially like the progressive nature of this organization and its focus on growth and improvement. I feel very much welcome and at home, here, and am happy that Karin and I are becoming members today."

I was born and raised in Miami, FL.  My family was affiliated with a Lutheran church, but we never joined.  I graduated from the University of Florida in 2003 and moved off to Denton, TX for graduate school in counseling psychology.  I was a nanny in Texas for 9 years while I volunteered hours at a women's federal prison, a college counseling center, and 5 years in community mental health with the City of Irving.  I moved back to Florida this August for a full-time pre-doctoral internship at the University of South Florida Counseling Center.  I've always wanted to be in the helping profession and look forward to a long life of service.  I moved to Florida with the best-dog-in-the-world, Dirk, and his archnemeses, my cats, Scout and Momma. 

Kim McDonald 

Sixty years ago this month, I was born in Detroit, on what was likely a cold, overcast Michigan day. I was fortunate to move at a young age to Ontario, Canada, where I grew up at a hunting and fishing resort surrounded by pristine forests and lakes. As a teenager, I returned to the U.S. with my family, and eventually I settled down with my high school sweetheart on a 20-acre hobby farm in rural Michigan. There we raised our two great kids, Travis and Jen, along with several horses, dogs, cats, chickens, and even three murderous pigs, who met their end early after I discovered they were munching on the chickens.

My bucolic life was shattered when my husband asked for a divorce in 1987. I realized that my low paying job as editor of a live steam hobby magazine would not support me, so I said good-bye to the farm and took the opportunity to attend college and earn a master's degree in counseling psychology. After graduation, I remarried, and worked with my enterprising husband, Mac McDonald, at his counseling agency. In our spare time, Mac and I motorcycled the back roads of Michigan's northern lower peninsula, enjoying the beautiful countryside and the spectacle of the northern lights from our favorite scenic turnout.

As much as I loved Michigan summers, I hated the snowy, gray winters, so was delighted when Mac and I moved to Zephyrhills in 1999. I relished the sun and the warmth in Florida, but we were taken aback by the low wages we found in our profession. A year later we settled in Tampa, and by 2003, Mac was starting up a business to do evaluations on troubled kids, which was followed by a second assessment business in 2005. Mac has since retired, and one agency has been sold, but I continue to run the second business.

In addition to my two kids and their spouses, I now have five beautiful grandchildren. Although three of them live in Michigan, I am lucky to have Jen and her family living nearby in the Brandon area. Besides my family, I also love my five cats, the Bucs, golfing, reading, history and my morning puzzles and coffee. Recently I have started building glass garden totems from found objects, and am trying hard to learn Tai Chi, one of the biggest challenges I have ever faced. I have also found the community at our UU church, and I look forward to making it part of the next chapters of my life.

Taoist Tai Chi and its Benefits to Mind and Spirit

Tai Chi is a present I gave myself for my 50th birthday. Prior to starting my Tai Chi practice, I had been diagnosed with moderate to severe spinal degeneration, bursitis in both Achilles heels, and although not diagnosed, I had sciatic pain in my left hip. I had always been physically active, riding bicycles for thousands of miles and playing adult soccer for 13 years, but I noticed on a later week-long bicycle trip in Wisconsin, that I had lost the flexibility to get up and down, set up camp, and crawl into a two-man tent to sleep on the ground, and put everything away the next morning.

I am in my tenth year of Tai Chi, becoming a beginning instructor about five years ago and Continuing in Training in March 2011. As you all can probably guess, Tai Chi has resolved all of these physical issues and improved my strength and balance as well.

That being said, my career has been in mental health. I started working with children, youth, teens, and parents for Hillsborough County for over 33 years ago. Presently, I have been in private practice in Temple Terrace for almost 5 years. This is what I wrote for the Brandon Center's Grand Re-Opening Ceremony.

I have been asked to speak briefly on the impact on mind and spirit from the art and practice of Tai Chi. My hope is that I have been asked to speak on this subject because of my love and professional acquaintance with psychology. I say that because when I hear "mind and spirit" I think of psychology and the psychological impact that Tai Chi has on me, and I think, on all students of Tai Chi as well.

When I think of the psychological benefits of Tai Chi, I think of them on two levels; obvious and subtle. When I say obvious psychological benefits, I am talking about behaviors that are consistent with good mental health. These behaviors are discipline, commitment, and dedication. Discipline is shown when we make the time for classes, workshops, and travel. Commitment is shown when we make our financial contributions and pitch in with cleaning and other chores. Dedication is shown by our striving to grow our knowledge of Tai Chi and grow our awareness of our bodies. This striving that we practice is a different paradigm from our cultural ambition for perfection and success.

In Tai Chi, we "only" want to relax and allow ourselves merely to function. These behaviors-discipline, commitment, and dedication are healthy behaviors, making Tai Chi a wellness activity. Wellness is a positive and proactive perspective that effectively replaces another cultural paradigm, focusing on what is wrong with us and what our deficits are.

Another more obvious psychological benefit comes from Tai Chi's physical movement. Our bodies evolved to move and our minds evolved to solve problems. Tai Chi in effect becomes a challenge to be solved and in doing so, stimulates our minds. Physical and mental stimulation are effective counter behaviors to depression.