| Children's Religious Education Update |
Our Children's Religious Education (CRE) program is divided into two groups by age. In CRE, which meets each Sunday at 11 AM, we challenge our children with interactive studies about religion and science.
The older children will be focusing on the following topics during September:
September 20:The Calendar and the Sun and Moon cycles.
September 27: Wildlife and Plant life (or) what you can eat and what eats you.
The nursery group will be focusing on the following topics:
September 20: Autumnal Equinox and Autumn
September 27: Something to do with families
Lesson plans are subject to change, but this is the plan.
Contact: Wes Phillips and Sarah Brown
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Last summer, the news was filled with stories about the thousands of unaccompanied children coming across the US border, fleeing violence and poverty in Central America. Inspired to make a difference, more than twenty ministers joined us in Tucson for our first Clergy Border Witness that fall.
The publicity has faded since last summer, but the reality remains unchanged - and desperate. Children and families are still being deported, regardless of the deepening peril they face in their home countries. Our border has become a militarized zone, and violence has increased as our government pressures Mexico to turn back migrants no matter what their ages or circumstances.
This continuing crisis cries out for a response from people of faith. Please join us this November 2-7, to bear witness to the continuing human rights abuses on the US Mexico Border.
 UUA President Peter Morales, UUMA Executive Director Don Southworth, and Director of the UU College of Social Justice Kathleen McTigue will lead this delegation.
Together, we will walk a migrant trail with volunteers with No More Deaths, a ministry of the UU Church of Tucson. We will witness the militarization of the border itself, observe "Operation Streamline" hearings designed to criminalize immigrants, and travel into Mexico to visit with recent deportees and hear their stories. We will worship together, and will help each other discern how our ministries and our movement can respond to the need for immigration justice.
Reverend Susan Frederick-Gray, who participated in last year's Clergy Border Witness trip, describes her experience: "The impact of this trip was enhanced by being together as Unitarian Universalists. Our faith, our singing, our prayers became a sacred space to hold the heartbreak and the examples of resistance as one. In this way, what we learned and experienced impacted not just our individual perspectives, but our public voice and commitment as faiths leaders, as UUs."
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Newsletter and Website Submissions
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As always, we are eager to publish information regarding committees, boards, Adult RE, CRE, events, and services, but we need your help. The website and Facebook page can be updated daily, but the newsletter cannot. New information needs to be submitted (submissions@uuamarillo.org) by noon Wednesday if you want it to appear in the Friday morning newsletter. If you need an event placed on the website calendar, you may submit that request with description, image (or we can provide one), starting and approximate ending time, specific location, date (or dates for a recurring event), and name of contact person. Help us help you get your message out in a timely manner.
PLEASE, EVERYONE CAN MAKE ALL THESE COMMUNICATIONS MORE EFFECTIVE BY READING THEM EACH WEEK--ESPECIALLY THE WEBSITE AND NEWSLETTER!
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In addition to the events described in this newsletter, you can find a complete listing by clicking on the Calendar icon to the left.
Want more detail? Check both the News and the Events sections of our website, uuamarillo.orgAlso on our website, you can learn more about our Fellowship and our faith, Unitarian Universalism.
All events are held at the Fellowship, 4901 Cornell St., unless otherwise noted.
If you are unsure how to reach any of the individuals named as contacts, please email the AUUF office or call our Office Administrator, April Myers, at 806.355.9351 and leave a message. She will return your call during her office hours, which are Tuesday- Friday from 9 AM to noon.
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Sunday Worship - 9:30 and 11 AM
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David Green speaks on Lost Scriptures, discussing writings omitted from the New Testament but widely circulated among early diverse Christians.
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Guest Adair Buckner, Attorney at Law, speaks on Essentials of Estate Planning.
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October 4, 2015
David Green and the AUUF President lead a special New Member Celebration Ceremony, welcoming all who have joined the Fellowship since the previous New Member ceremony. On this special day, only one worship service is held, at 11 AM, in order for the whole Fellowship to join in welcoming the newest members of our beloved community!
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3rd Sunday Breakfast
Sunday, September 20 - 9 AM
Breakfast is served! At 9 AM on the third Sunday of each month, members of the Women's Simply Salad & Soup Fellowship provide a yummy breakfast. Enjoy a hearty breakfast and stay for worship at 9:30 AM or Adult Religious Education at 10 AM.
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Women's Covenant Group
Monday, September 21 - 6 PM
The Women's Covenant Group studies and discusses feminine spiritual and social topics. We are studying a UU adult RE curriculum, Cakes for the Queen of Heaven, a woman-honoring curriculum by Rev. Shirley Ranck. Topic this week: Future Fantasies
Contact: Keralee Clay
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Women's Simply Salad & Soup Fellowship
Wednesday, September 23
- 6:30 PM
Our women's group meets every 2nd and 4th Wednesday for good food and great conversation. The meetings on 2nd Wednesdays are at the Fellowship-potluck style. On the 4th Wednesdays, the women meet at a different restaurant each month.
Contact: Ann Benedetti
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Adult Religious Education
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 Please join us at 10 AM each Sunday this month for a lively discussion of these topics.
Sunday, Sept. 20: This week we are watching and discussing Lawrence Principe's Science and Religion lecture on "Faith and Reason; Scripture and Nature." Please join us.
Sunday, Sept. 27: This week we are watching and discussing Bart Ehrman's fourth lecture of The New Testament ( the real story). The subject will be "The earliest traditions about Jesus." Please join us.
Contact: John Gay
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Outdoor Day/Campout at Buffalo Lake Happening NOW!
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Don't forget, "outdoor" UUs and friends are meeting at Buffalo Lake National Wildlife Refuge TODAY, Friday, Sept 18, any time after 4 p.m. For details of location, what to bring, etc., click here.
If you can't come this evening, just for supper and/ or to camp, plan to join us TOMORROW, Saturday, Sept. 19, for more festivities. We'll have a pancake breakfast about 8 a.m., and hot dogs will be provided for lunch around 12 noon, with munchies to follow. We'll be at the refuge until late in the afternoon, so come join us for as much time as you can, for nature activities and camaraderie. You don't have to sign up; just show up!
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September 22, 7-8:30 PM at the Fellowship
The book for September is Lila by Marilynne Robinson: In Robinson's highly acclaimed 2014 follow-up to the Pulitzer prize winning Giliad, its narrator, Reverend Ames, recalls the challenge he found in the lost soul of the young, tenacious woman he married. As in Giliad, compelling characterizations are combined with theological ponderings to produce top shelf literature.
Contact: Dick Moseley
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 Wednesday, September 23 - 6:30 PM
Every 4th Wednesday of each month the Men's Brotherhood meets from 6:30-8 PM in Chandler Hall. This covenant group provides men a private place for discussing feelings, for developing the trust to share without judgment in a confidential and safe environment, for permitting open discussion of concerns and receipt of the collective wisdom of others who have dealt with similar problems, and for finding ways to use new insights to improve one's everyday life.
The September meeting will draw lessons from David Green's book Mend: Being the Man She Needs as a springboard for discussing personal relationships, perspectives and communication.
Contact: Rick Todd
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Autumn Circle Dinners Update
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Do you want to host a circle dinner this autumn - or sign up to attend one?
Several people have signed up to host Autumn Circle Dinners, and we will continue to have a sign-up sheet on the bulletin board by the kitchen so others can do so. Click here to access full details from the website.
Also, as we have hosts and dates chosen, we will be providing sign-up sheets in the foyer for those who would like to attend. Please remember that we would like for "newbies" to our fellowship to sign up in the first week or so, with long-standing members signing up afterwards, to allow for all the new members of our group (anyone who has been attending 2 years or less) to attend a Circle Dinner if they choose to do so.
We'd love for everyone to be involved, making our Fellowship a closer "Circle"!
Circle Dinners scheduled for this autumn:
- Saturday, October 3: Minnie Venable/April Myers
- Saturday, October 10: Eileen Murphy & James Doores
- Monday, October 12: Pam & Steve Mayes
- Saturday, October 24: Lee Shuwarger
Contact: Janda Raker
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UUA Southern Fall Conference - Glen Rose, Texas
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Fall Conference is scheduled for November 13 through 15 at Glen Lake Camp and Conference Center near Glen Rose, Texas. The theme for this conference is "Into the FUUture!" Let's all register before October 26 (for discount) to boldly go where no UU congregation has gone before to gain tools and resources for charging ahead into the coming year, the next 10 years, or the next 10 decades. There are five tracks each designed to help leaders effect real cultural change toward growing a vital, healthy, effective UU community that helps its members achieve our vision of a world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all. Click here for more information. Contact Nina Stein to coordinate transportation and off site room sharing.
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Doug Pagitt. Flipped: The Provocative Truth That Changes Everything We Know About God. New York: Penguin Random House, 2015.
Pagitt encourages us to change our mind when we are convinced of a better way of living and to see ourselves as being In God (according to Paul) rather than seeing God in us. His rethinking the parable of the widow's mite and story of the sacrifice of Isaac is worth the price of purchase. He points out numerous occasions when Jesus flips conventional notions of the spiritual expectations of established religion. Pagitt is the minister of Solomon's Porch in Minneapolis and owns three businesses. His approach has been labeled emergent or revisionist-- theologically liberal and openly questioning whether evangelical doctrine is appropriate for the post-modern world.
Recommendation level
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 WHEREAS Unitarian Universalists affirm and promote the Seven Principles, and live our faith by living our principles, and
WHEREAS the Fifth Principle is "the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large,"
BE IT RESOLVED that the Amarillo Unitarian Universalist Fellowship stands with the Move to Amend campaign and communities across the country to defend democracy from the corrupting effects of undue corporate power by amending the United States Constitution to establish that:
- Only human beings, not corporations, are endowed with Constitutional rights, and
- Money is not speech, and therefore regulating political contributions and spending is not equivalent to limiting political speech.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Amarillo Unitarian Universalist Fellowship hereby joins with other organizations statewide to instruct our state and federal representatives to enact resolutions and legislation to advance this effort.
RESOLUTION APPROVED: 9-14-15
MOTION: Board of Trustees
SECOND: Board of Trustees
AYES: 76 (number in congregation voting aye)
NAYS: 1 (number voting nay)
ABSTENTIONS: 0 (number abstaining)
________Sharon Kay Baker____________ (name of board secretary, printed)
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 From Nora Rasman, Standing on the Side of Love Campaign Director---
As we kick off a new congregational year, we are so excited to announce that Thirty Days of Love, this time dedicated to intersectional racial justice, will be back in 2016! Thirty Days is an exciting opportunity to support the emerging and ongoing racial justice organizing happening in Unitarian Universalist congregations across the country, in the tradition of organizing for civil and human rights and in support of the growing Movement for Black Lives.
After a brief hiatus this year to allow room for the newly launched Climate Justice Month, Thirty Days returns Saturday, January 16 and continuing through Sunday, February 14, 2016.
As in previous years, each week will have a focus; in 2016, we'll be centering on racial justice as it intersects with other core justice priorities of the UUA, such as immigration justice and LGBTQ equity. We will feature multi-generational and family resources as in years' past, and will offer congregational resources for each week.
Back in 2012, the team at Standing on the Side of Love realized there were exactly 30 days between Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and Valentine's Day. We had already been re-imagining Valentine's Day as a social justice holiday for a few years, so we thought we'd get creative and make something meaningful happen in between these two powerful holidays. From that Thirty Days of Love was created!
In subsequent years, it hasn't been an exact 30 days between these two holidays, but the dates still provide an important anchor to the start and close of our initiative.
So, what are the goals for Thirty Days of Love? Why is it important and why should we participate?
Thirty Days of Love brings tools for individuals and congregations to engage in listening campaigns, expanded partnership and collaboration, theological reflection, collective sharing, political education, and support for direct action. We offer tangible resources for you celebrate the words and deeds of unsung heroes and to continue the effort to promote equality, acceptance, diversity, and inclusion.
Thirty Days of Love has been a phenomenal experience for lots of folks and we consider this year no different. We want you to join us in 2016! This year, we'll send one weekly email on a specific justice issue as it relates to racial justice, and offer you resources for reflection, education and action. There will also be a daily message or action shared via social media so follow along on Facebook and Twitter to see those messages.
In years past, we have heard the powerful voices of justice leaders both within Unitarian Universalism as well from many of our partner organizations who are on the frontlines of organizing for racial justice. We expect this year to be no different. Take your involvement to the next level by signing up to participate in Share the Love Sunday, giving a Courageous Love Award, and collaborating and organizing with local Black Lives Matter organizations to take action for racial justice in your own community.
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Walk to End Alzheimer's
September 19 - 9 AM
Sam Houston Park, 4101 Line Ave.
The Alzheimer's Association Walk to End Alzheimer'sŪ is the world's largest event to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer's care, support and research. Held annually in more than 600 communities nationwide, this inspiring event calls on participants of all ages and abilities to reclaim the future for millions. Together, we can end Alzheimer's disease, the nation's sixth-leading cause of death. Please help us raise money for a cure! Click here for more information or to register call (806) 372-8693
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