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Annual Salad & Dessert Potluck
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The Summer Salad & Dessert Potluck is becoming an annual event! Join us on Sunday, August 4th, as we celebrate the dog days of summer. Bring a salad to share OR dessert to share! Iced tea and lemonade will be available. If you have a small wading pool, suitable for our younger members (or for those who would like to take a chair outside and just stick their feet in), please feel free to bring it. |
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Join us on Facebook!
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Ways and Means
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Fair Trade Sales will not be held in the month of July.
The next Fair Trade sale will take place on Sunday, August 18th in Fellowship Hall after the service.
In September, Fair Trade sales will resume every second Sunday of the month. Please contact Becca Morse with any questions or for caffeine and/or chocolate emergencies! beccamorse@gmail.com or (614) 805-6680
Join the Service Auction Task Force: Help organize and run our Annual Service auction!
Cookbook Task Force: We would love to do a cookbook fundraiser early next year, and need someone to run this Task force. Will it be you?
If you are interested in volunteering for these opportunities, or if you have other ideas for fundraising opportunities for our congregation, Please contact Becca Morse at beccamorse@gmail.com. Thank you!
Sign up for the Kroger Community Rewards card
Do your regular grocery shopping, and earn money for NUUC at the same time! If you need help signing up. someone will be available on the second Sunday of each month to walk you through the process.
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| Brown Bag Books |
Meets at Noon the Third Tuesday of the month. Get all the details by clicking here. |
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Looking for something to do something meaning filled this Summer? | |
Member Sheryl Hardin runs
the all-volunteer Dublin
Free Summer Lunch Program and is looking for volunteers.
The program is being held at Daniel Wright Elementary School, where Sheryl teaches, and where there is a 59%
free and reduced lunch population.
The address is 2335 West
Case Road, Columbus, 43235.
Volunteers are needed each day from 10:45-12:45 to interact with kids from ages
1-18 during activity time
and lunch. Teen volunteers (ages 14-17) will be working with our younger students.
If you have younger children, they are welcome to come
and participate in the
activities with their
appropriate age group.
You can register for any days you are available at our website.
Any questions, contact
Sheryl Hardin at
or (614) 571-6415 |
| Mowing Season is here |
Mowing at NUUC - We Need Some Help
For this mowing season, the Building and Grounds Committee plans to handle the mowing using the same approach as last year, which will avoid us having to contract out the mowing and save about $2,400 in the budget. We plan to do the mowing on a rotating basis with a little help from the congregation. Building and Grounds members will mow 3 weeks in each month and we are asking for volunteers from the congregation to handle the mowing for a month's 4th week and the occasional 5th week. This plan will spread the work so each committee member will mow only once a month, and each congregational volunteer would mow just one time during the season.
The area to be mowed includes both the church yard (bounded by the driveway and the parking lot) and the yard around Nielsen House. The field at the rear of our property will be mowed by Gary Rusk, who has volunteered to mow that area for the season. We have a riding mower, which is used for almost all of the mowing. For a few small, tight areas, which the riding mower cannot handle, we use a push mower.
Therefore, we would like to get 1 or 2 volunteers from the congregation each month to mow one time in the season. The mowing season runs from mid-April through early November. But volunteers from the congregation will be needed only for the months of April through October, which is 7 months. Two of those months have 5 weeks, so we need a total of 9 volunteers.
Please consider volunteering to mow one time this season. If would like to help the church handle the mowing, you can sign up on the mowing sign-up sheet in Fellowship Hall. Just pick a date that works for your schedule. If you have questions or would like more information, just contact Bob Keith at 740-369-1919 or
bobkeith@frontier.com
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You can
Adopt-a-Flowerbed
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Again this year we will be doing an activity called Adopt-a-Flowerbed. For this activity, we will divide all the flowerbeds around the church and Nielsen House up into 4-foot wide plots, and people can select one or more plots.
Then you can plant flowers in your plot(s) and care and tend them during the growing season. Participants are encouraged to make "catchy" signs for their plot(s). Some of the names already being discussed include "Jan's Jungle," "Grimshaw's Gardens," "Keith's Korner," etc.
We think this activity will be popular for old and young alike. It will be a particularly fun project to do with your children.
A sign-up sheet is located on the bulletin board in Fellowship Hall. Just sign up and select your specific plot(s) from a drawing showing all the available flowerbed plots. You can sign up for as many plots as you want, with plots being available on a first-come basis. Plots are outlined by pink-colored strings and marked with a number tag.
Participants in the Adopt-a-Flowerbed activity are asked to abide by the following:
1) Only flowers should be planted, which can be either annuals or perennials. But no bushes or trees (flowering or otherwise) should be planted.
2) No rocks or timbers should be placed on a plot.
3) Participants will be responsible to water, weed, and tend their flowerbed plot.
4) Please leave the plot boundary strings between you and your neighbor so that you and your neighbor will know exactly whose plantings are whose. But if you have multiple, adjacent plots, you can remove the strings within your plots.
The Building and Grounds Committee is organizing and administering the project. If you have questions, please contact Bob Keith at
740-369-1919 or bobkeith@frontier.com
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 RevElations!
What a roller coaster week of legal decisions. First the profound disappointment of the Supreme Court's decision on Voter Rights, and then the celebrations for the gains for marriage equality, and then, at least for me, the subsequent reminder of how far we have to go to achieve marriage equality rights in Ohio. How to feel about all of it? I kept thinking of our hymn, "Joy and Sorrow are woven fine." In all of this I was very touched to see a joint article in the Huffington Post by two of our UU ministers (click here to read it), one an African American straight woman, the other a lesbian woman, announcing their refusal to either celebrate at the cost of ignoring the other's pain, or despair at the cost of ignoring the other's (momentary) achievement.
Ironically, when I came across this article, I had just finished reading an article how many corners of the fourth century church rejoiced when, ending centuries of persecution, the Emperor Constantine took the church into imperial embrace. In their excitement that their subjugation was over, many Christians became completely and unintentionally entangled in the corruptions and oppressions of Empire. They thought the problems of the church were solved forever, when in fact, they were only beginning. I am hoping that, in a paraphrase of the philosopher Jean Luc Nancy, we might remember that there is no other meaning than the meaning of relationship, where presence opens to the presence of all beings, where all beings means all entities, everything past and future, everyone alive and dead, all matter, plants, gods, and animals. None of us are free until we all are. Let the celebrations--and the work!--both continue.
To Life!
Susan
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From our Music Director
MUSIC NOTES
This month, we will continue to have talented soloists and ensembles presenting music at worship services. The NUUC Recorder Ensemble will perform on July 14. On July 28, Marty Keith, Carolyn Gross, Sue Frederick, and Darlene Tschudy will sing "Simple Faith."
Pianist Wade Jones will be on vacation July 21. If you would like to play two hymns (your choice) on piano during the worship service, I would be delighted.
Musically yours,
Marlene Hartzler, Music Director
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NUUC Threshold Committee
The Threshold Congregation Committee has started with analysis.
One of our sources was a general demographic report was for the area 15 miles from our current location in Lewis Center. Some interesting things from that report:
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The population is expected to grow 5.1% from 2012 to 2017.
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The lifestyle diversity in the area is extremely high with a considerable 47 of the 50 U.S. Lifestyles segments represented. The top individual segment is Rising Potential Professionals representing 13.0% of all households.
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Based upon the number of years completed and college enrollment, the overall education level in the area is very high.
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Concerns which are likely to exceed the national average include: Achieving a Fulfilling Marriage, Time for Recreation/Leisure, Child Care, Aging Parent Care, Achieving Educational Objectives and Satisfying Job/Career.
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6.3% of households with children are living below the poverty line in our area.
We have opportunities at NUUC:
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Multigenerational services and programs
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Formation of small groups
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Our history and institutional knowledge is not available which means we may repeat missteps
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We have many UUA resources available to us (other similar size congregation, examples, programs, and consultants)
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Names, faces, and congregation roles are not always known - You can help be welcoming just by wearing your name tag
Our next step is to clearly state our goals. Please share your thoughts and questions with us!
Cathy Rodeheffer, Bob Keith, Sydney Schardt, John Rodeheffer, Kim Poderys, and Laura Howe
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From your Social Action Committee
You are invited to attend an evening of informative entertainment, wine, appetizers and lively discussion: On July 20th at 7:00 pm, NUUC will be hosting the "The Prosecution of Judge Waite" a live "Dramatic Historical Performance" of a play by James Allison, Prof. Emeritus, Indiana University at Bloomington.
Summary: Supreme Court Chief Justice Morrison Waite (1874-1888) is accused of birthing the "Monster" of "Corporate Personhood" in the 1886 "Santa Clara vs. Southern Pacific Railroad" case.
Professor Allison thoroughly researched the case and Judge Waite's life over many years. He authored this play to educate and inform the public. You'll learn about the falsehood in the Supreme Court's formal report on this case. Over the years this has led directly to the almost unlimited power that corporations and the very wealthy have in our elections. It also led to the many challenges we face in our society, our economy, the global environment, and much more. Many consider this case a fatal blow to democracy in the U.S.A!
Learn what is being done to correct this and to restore our democracy and fair elections. Presented by Move to Amend - Central Ohio and performed by Farrell Brody, Danine Axelrod, Alice Faryna and Michael Greenman. Move to Amend is a national coalition of organizations promoting the passage of a constitutional amendment that will declare that "Corporations are not Persons" and that "Money is not Speech".
At the UU General Assembly in June, the UUA supported the proposed 28th "We the People" Amendment to the Constitution through an Action of Immediate Witness. For more information see the SAC bulletin board in Fellowship Hall, visit the Move to Amend website at https://movetoamend.org or the Facebook page for Move to Amend - Central Ohio.
This event will be open to the public so please invite your friends and neighbors to come learn more about this issue and to experience UU hospitality. A sign-up sheet will be posted in Fellowship Hall.
ANNUAL SCHOOL SUPPLY DRIVE: It's back to school! In Delaware, the first day is August 14. NUUC members and friends have an opportunity to help others by participating in the Social Action Committee's annual School Supply Drive to benefit students who are served by the Delaware County Juvenile Probation Program.
The donation of school supplies is one way for the congregation to express its belief in the importance of education to a group of students who are at higher than average risk for failing and dropping out of school.
This program serves approximately 150 middle school and high school students, ranging in age from 13 to 19. A collection box for school supplies will be available at the church through Sunday, August 11. Your donation of school supplies, or money to purchase supplies, will be greatly appreciated. If you choose to donate money, please write your check to NUUC and put "School Supplies" on the memo line. This can be dropped in the offering basket or mailed to: NUUC, P.O. Box 541, Lewis Center, OH 43035.
If you have any questions, please contact Becky Mullis at 614-776-5569 or b.mullis@hotmail.com. Thank you for your continued support!
ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP GROUP: The next meeting of the Adventures in Green group is scheduled for July 7th at 6:30.
We will be discussing food including organic farming, GMO's, and buying locally. There will be several opportunities to visit local farms during July and August. Check out the NUUC Adventures in Green Facebook page and the bulletin board in Fellowship Hall for more information. If you are interested in joining the group, please come to a meeting or contact Pam Patsch at pgp723@aol.com.
LOOSE CHANGE OFFERING: In June, our congregation donated $61.82 to support Kaleidoscope Youth Center, an organization in Ohio solely dedicated to supporting LGBTQ youth and their allies. Our Loose Change offerings in July and August will go to the School Supply Drive sponsored by the Delaware County Juvenile Probation Program.
SOCIAL ACTION COMMITTEE BULLETIN BOARD: We have so many exciting things to share that we needed to expand our space!
Check out the folding divider in Fellowship Hall with information about upcoming SAC activities as well as issues and actions at the local, state, and national level. If you have information about social justice issues you want to share with the congregation, please post it on the bulletin board or email it to Pam Patsch at pgp723@aol.com.
The next SAC meeting will be on July 7th at 11:30 in Nielsen House. We welcome new members. For more information about the Social Action Committee, contact Pam Patsch at pgp723@aol.com.
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From Your Board of Trustees Meeting
Board Minutes
April Board Minutes Click Here
May Board Minutes Click Here
June Board Minutes Click Here
Committee Work
Building and Grounds remains a most hard working group, what with the Spring Spruce Up day this weekend, the weekly supervision of mowing, the flower bed adoption program, and triumph! This month the gutter people were able to hang the new gutter on the sofit so masterfully repaired by the committee earlier, saving the congregation much money. It was fun to see the rain on the east side of the church running so nicely into and not over the gutter during this week's downpours. Social Action Committee's "Adventures in Green" small group for folks interested in environmental issues is nicely underway. They are also planning a group meeting to hear about plant based nutrition, and more plans for the bulletin board-this time, member profiles that detail what social action interests people have so people with similar interests might connect. Social Committee (Eileen W, really) cleaned out and organized the coffee service cupboard. Sounds like a small thing, but it much improved the minister's state of mind. The Pastoral Care Associates and Casserole Brigade came through with nice help and food for Chris Bolles' memorial service this month. Worship Committee has not met, and Summer services are filling in nicely. Religious Education is taking a small hiatus, happy for the break after a difficult year. Ways and Means is easing off a bit after the super successful dinner, concert and auction event-but I this is a great committee...they are always thinking and asking good questions. The Threshold Committee has been doing good work with a SWOT analysis of the congregation, and more.
Treasurer's Report for May 2013 Outlined below is a summary of the financial report presented to members of your Finance Committee and Board of Trustees for the month of May, 2013:
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Actual $ Received and Paid
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Budget (Planned Receipts and Payments)
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2013 Pledge Offerings
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13,824
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12,259
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Non-Pledge Offerings
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1,358
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0
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Rental Revenue
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100
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154
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Ways and Means - Fundraising
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1,214
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361
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Total Income
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16,496
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12,774
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Total Expenses
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11,773
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12,726
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2012 Pledge Offerings
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6,187
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0
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2013 Pledge Offerings
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66,051
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61,294
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Non-Pledge Offerings
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3,154
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0
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Rental Revenue
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675
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771
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Ways and Means-Fundraising
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1,865
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1,806
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Total Income
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77,933
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63,871
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Total Expenses
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59,528
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63,630
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