Rev. Addae Kraba's office hours
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Rev. Addae keeps the following office hours at the Fellowship when she is in town. 10 AM to 2 PM, Tuesday through Friday, or by appointment if necessary.
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Special Board of Trustees Meeting
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Saturday, April 30, 10 AM
Incoming and outgoing members of the board meet with Rev. Keith Kron to discuss our transition.
Snacks will be provided.
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May 1 was the Roman celebration of Flora with pastel streamers and flowers woven into boughs of greenery. Later, dancing around the May Pole became a frequent celebration at schools and parks in Europe and America. Actually, the holiday is celebrated all over the world, but for varying reasons. Read more about it!
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| 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 nursery group topics change according to individuals who attend and cannot be listed in advance, but they fall under the curriculum Celebrating Me and My World.
May schedule coming soon!
Contact: Wes Phillips
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 Strong Families and the UUA are partnering for another year to lift up the spirits of mamas who are incarcerated on Mother's Day this year. Our commitment as Unitarian Universalists to reproductive justice calls on us to pay attention to how immigration detention centers and incarceration tear apart families and prevent us from raising children in safe and healthy environments.
Unfortunately, detention is what thousands of immigrant mamas will get this Mama's Day. They are among the 34,000 immigrants that Congress requires to be locked up. You read that right. It's called the"detention bed quota" and it's part of a larger struggle as we work to get more immigrant mamas and families out of prison.
Under the law, many of the mamas locked up have a right to be free and live in the United States, but they will often be imprisoned for months, or even years.
As one mama in detention explained, "Only God has given me the strength to bear all of this time here." For her and many other mamas, until they're forced out or set free, prison is all they'll get for Mamas Day. That is, unless we step up.
We can do something special for immigrant mamas in detention this year. CultureStrike has designed beautiful cards to go out to mothers everywhere. And we're collaborating with Presente.org, NWDC Resistance, and Strong Families to print these cards out and deliver them to mothers in detention across the country.
Since it takes a lot of time to navigate through the detention centers' rules, please complete your card ASAP so we can deliver it to the mamas.
These cards can be a message of hope to mamas who left everything behind to make a better life for themselves and their families. They might just be the difference that gives them the strength to fight through detention and win their freedom in immigration court.
Cards will be delivered to detention centers in Washington and Pennsylvania, and maybe in more states depending on the response. Our goal is to send much needed love and hope to mamas who have fled desperate situations and are fearful of having to return to them.
Your cards will also send a message to our government: This is not the way our country should be treating mamas and families who have come here in search of refuge and a better life. Help send that message now.
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Registration for General Assembly is in full swing. Rates increase on May 1, so you may want to register soon. You can register HERE. The theme of this year's GA is Heart Land: Where Faiths Connect. More information is available at UUA website.
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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 above.
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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Rev. Keith Kron, Director of UUA's Transitions Department, Boston, speaks on The Van Gogh Café. Living our Unitarian Universalist values isn't always as easy as we would like it to be. Often what we strive for is not what actually happens. How can we improve the odds that we will lead with our best values inside and outside our congregation? This sermon will explore these issues as they pertain to your next minister and the ministerial search process. A time of questions and answers with Keith open to all congregants will follow the service.
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May 8, 2016
Dr. Shelley Armitage speaks on Walking the Llano: Personal Ecologies. What we think of as landscape is often, in the western view, something "out there." But what if we were to consider ourselves as much a part of the landscape as "the boulders we stand on" (Leslie Silko)? The talk ponders how this inclusiveness and awareness may affect our personal ecology or balance as related to our own backyard, the llano estacado.
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May 15, 2016
Food Not Bombs speak on Food Not Bombs. Members of the group will answer the question: "What is Food Not Bombs and what do they do?" They will also follow up on the Shoe Drive that they held in cooperation with AUUF.
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Adult Religious Education
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 Please join us at 10 AM each Sunday.
We are rotating three subjects. Each covers a different aspect of Adult Religious Education. All are welcome. No advance reading is necessary and no test will be given.
May 1: The New Testament: #13 "The Acts of The Apostles."
May 8: My Favorite Universe: #4 "Death by Black Hole"
May 15: Natural Law: #13 "Late Medieval and Early Modern Views"
May 22: The New Testament: #14 "Paul-The Man"
May 29: My Favorite Universe: #5 "Ends of The World"
Contact: John Gay
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 Sunday, May 1, After 11 AM Service
Bring your potluck dishes and join other members of the congregation to share in the camaraderie and dining pleasures this first Sunday in May in Chandler Hall. If you don't have a dish to bring, join us anyway for good food and great friendships.
Contact: Rosemarie & Bill Kirkland
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Thursday, May 5 at 7:00 PM 
A handful of us aging UU womenfolk have read the book Being Mortal by surgeon Atul Gawande and would like to invite any of you who are interested to attend an open discussion.
Dr. Gawande contends that our current medical model for dealing with people who are reaching the end of their lives is not adequate. He says doctors and the children of aging parents want aging people to be safe, and what aging people themselves want is usually autonomy, even at the risk of being unsafe.
He says the medical community has been asking the wrong questions, thus allowing very little autonomy on the part of the aging person. There is a new and better way emerging, in a doctor-patient relationship called "interpretive," which allows shared decision-making. The questions asked by interpretive doctors are, "What is important to you?" and "What are your worries?" If remaining in one's own home and having a cocktail with friends is more important than being safely in a managed-care facility, there are ways to make that happen.
For some time now, several of us have had dreams of a UU retirement community where we could continue our friendships, but live in closer proximity to each other where we could more easily keep an eye out for each other, and where obtaining certain services to assist us would become more convenient. How to make this happen has seemed like a pipe dream, but it might become closer to reality if a greater number of us are interested.
Let's begin a bigger conversation about how we want to live as we grow inevitably older and need more assistance. You do not have to read the book before this meeting, although you may want to afterward.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR NOW!
Contact: Minnie Venable
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Special Screening - TRAPPED
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 Friday, May 6, 2016 at 7:00 PM.
Doors open at 6:30 PM.
Join us to watch the Sundance award-winning film, TRAPPED. This film traces the abortion rights saga from Wendy Davis's bold filibuster against Texas's awful abortion restriction law to today-when access to safe abortion for hundreds of thousands of women rests on the Supreme Court's shoulders, all through the eyes of the brave individuals to run and work at abortion clinics. Come learn how and why clinics are shutting down, because if we don't fight back, there may be no clinics left.
This event is free to the public - please invite friends and family. Each person planning to attend needs to sign up by following this link.
Contact: Martha Baird or Yvonne Moore
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Spring Garden Gathering at the Fellowship
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Saturday, May 7, 8:30 - 10 AM
Got spring fever? Join fellow UUers in a garden spring cleanup. We'll cut back the grasses, clean up the weeds and maybe add some "May flowers."
Contact: Deb Winters at 806-336-1212.
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Meet the Artist - Royal Brantley
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 Tuesday, May 10, 7:00 PM
Meet the Artist presents Royal Brantley speaking on "Interpretation and Collaboration." Royal Brantley is Director and Regents Professor of Theatre at West Texas A&M University. After receiving his BA in Theatre from West Texas State University, he served as a professional intern and company member at the Dallas Theater Center, where through Trinity University he earned his MFA in Theatre. As a professor, Royal has been recognized as an outstanding educator by West Texas A&M University, The Texas A&M University System, and the Texas Educational Theatre Association. He has directed over seventy-five productions at West Texas A&M University, received regional and national directing awards from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, served as a Directing Fellow at the Julliard School in New York City, and has had the honor of judging the State UIL One-Act Play Contest in Austin on several occasions.
Bring a friend or two to enjoy the refreshments and the theatrical guru of the Panhandle.
Contact: Pam Mayes or Ann Hicks
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UU Spring Campout and Day Outing
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 Friday and Saturday, May 20-21
Save This Date!
The UU Spring Campout and Day Outing will be the weekend of Friday and Saturday, May 20-21. This time we'll head north to McBride Canyon, part of the Lake Meredith National Recreation Area, for camping and conviviality on Friday evening and part of Saturday, and we'll go four miles north to Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument for part of Saturday, for a guided tour of the quarries, led by our own Wes Phillips, former ranger of the area. This is all just off the Fritch Highway, Hwy. 136, about 30 miles north of UU, and there is no charge for camping or touring. This should be a fun weekend. Plan to join us for whatever fits your schedule and interests. Details will follow.
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 Mark V. Ewert, The Generosity Path: Finding the Richness in Giving (2014).
A blurb on the back of the book sums up its approach succinctly:
Financial giving can be its own spiritual path. We have a deep potential for meaning-making and life satisfaction when we look to grow from being occasional, haphazard donors to deliberate, ambitious ones--the life-changing transition from donor to philanthropist. With easy-to-read guidance, The Generosity Path sheds new light on our finances--connecting money to our values, beliefs, and loves--promoting skills and strategies in charitable giving. Starting from a very personal place, it helps readers to find clarity in their own experience and then focus on their areas of passion to build a plan of action. Inspiring personal stories help demonstrate the development of financial generosity, the challenges involved, and the deeper benefits we all might expect from being more intentional with our giving. Creative tools for reflection and practice guide readers' progress. This practical yet wise volume also features information about collective giving in a community setting, family, or giving circle. Ideal for religious and civic organizations, The Generosity Path includes a discussion guide for group use.
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Jane Eyre (The Musical)
 April 29-30 @ 7:30 PM
Branding Iron Theatre, WTAMU
A successful dramatic interpretation of the ever-popular novel by Charlotte Bronte, Jane is also blessed with a luxuriant score, haunting and memorable music, and crisp, intelligent lyrics which speak from the very heart of this tragic and romantic story. True to its 19th century origins, Jane Eyre is a lavish Victorian banquet of emotions; passion, cruelty, revenge, repression, courage, emotional and physical abuse, faith and forgiveness, and love - most of all the eternal healing power of an all-consuming love.
Jane's story is that of a plain yet spirited girl, orphaned at an early age, who becomes governess at Thornfield Hall, where she falls in love with Edward Rochester, the master of the house. Though Jane's sharp wit and defiant nature clash with Rochester's temperament, the two quickly develop a deep bond. But, Rochester's past, a dark secret imprisoned at Thornfield, threatens to destroy their love just as it begins, as it ultimately destroys Thornfield Hall itself.
Reservations at 806.651.2804 or here online. Adults: $16; Seniors (60+): $12.Box Office hours 2:30-5:30 PM and 1 hour before performance.
 FireSongs Songwriter Series
Wednesday, May 4, 6:30-8:30 PM
FireSongs Songwriter Series is a new, weekly series that is unique in Amarillo, in that each Wednesday night, a different area songwriter or combo will perform entirely original material---no covers. We have a wealth of creative energy here in the Panhandle and this series aims to celebrate those who express this energy through songwriting.
The shows are at Fire Slice Pizzeria (7301 SW 34th Space 10, Summit Shopping Center) on Wednesdays from 6:30 - 8:30 PM. It's a listening environment, so talking is discouraged in the concert room while the show is going on, but this makes it a much nicer environment, and of course Fire Slice has wonderful food which may be enjoyed throughout the show. There is no cover, but reservations are suggested to guarantee seating in the listening room. Call (806) 331-2232. The artist performing May 4 is Chancy Bernson. The next performance, May 11, is by Two Weeks.
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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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