Circle of Life

 * Frances Simmons Pearson died peacefully on January 21, 2013. Her memorial service will be held Feb. 22 at 2:00 pm at the church. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Casa de la Luz Foundation, 7740 N. Oracle Road, Tucson AZ 85704. See her obituary toward the end of this newsletter. 

* Adrian Korpel's son, Joost Korpel, of Iowa City died at age 54 of a heart attack on Jan. 16th.

* Diane Szollosi's husband Glen was recently diagnosed with cancer.

* Margaret Fleming's brother died January 17.

* Vince Palowski's niece recently died.  

* Linda's best friend and father of her daughter died unexpectedly.

UU Day at the Legislature Feb. 18  

UUSybelle@gmail.com with 'vegan recipe' in the subject line.

Tucson Chamber Artists February 8

Tucson Chamber Artists, including our own LB, present music of Argento and Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle with guest conductor Philip Brunelle, founder of VocalEssence and frequent collaborator with Garrison Keillor, on Friday, February 8, 8:00pm, at Catalina Foothills H.S. (4300 E Sunrise), and Saturday, February 9, 7:30pm, at Our Saviour's Lutheran Church (1200 N Campbell). For more information and discounted advance tickets: 401.2651 or www.TucsonChamberArtists.org.

Greeters Needed

Here's an opportunity to meet a new people on Sunday mornings. We currently need friendly people to serve year-round or part of the year as regular or substitute Greeters. Don't worry that our standards might be too high. A few minutes of training is all that's needed for you to join the ranks of the GREETERS.

To explore further please email Jane Paul at janerpaul@yahoo.com or phone at 520-572-2011.

Education on Death and Dying

The first of 3 classes to (better) educate us on this topic was offered at MVUU on Wednesday evenings January 16 by UU friend and certified Fellow in Thanatology John Abraham, M.Div., F.T. It was very informative as to how to make advanced directives most effective. If you missed it, please be sure to attend the next two sessions. You won't regret it.

March 20: Learning to Live with Loss

To sign up send an email to UUSybelle@gmail.com.
A $2 donation per session is requested, but if this is a hardship, please attend anyway

Childcare will be provided if needed. Let Donna know a week before the class.

Enjoy Gardening? Garden Plot Available

MVUU Connect

A fun and easy way to stay connected to your UU Friends!
MVUUConnect@yahoogroups.com is our Electronic Community Bulletin Board. Use it to share short messages. Post any notices of interest to our community that would not be official MVUU announcements, newsletter articles, or posted on our website. This group is not intended for discussions on religious questions, church practices or policies.
If you have not received your invitation, and would like one, please let Donna know in the office, 579-7094, or email her at office@uucnwt.org

WhaleCoast Alaska Summer 2013

Have you always dreamed of visiting Alaska? If so, WhaleCoast Alaska 2013 is for you! Four Alaskan UU fellowships invite you to experience our eco-cultural and spiritual program this summer! See Alaska through the eyes of local UUs in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, and Sitka with friendly homestays and unique tour activities.  

See wildlife, including moose, bear, whales, bald eagles, seals, and caribou. Visit Denali National Park. Experience Native Alaskan culture. Enjoy all that our beautiful state has to offer. Programs led by Dave Frey, a member of the Fairbanks, Alaska UU congregation, an expert in Alaska travel.  

To find out more about your Alaskan trip of a lifetime, visit www.WhaleCoastAK.org, email dfrey@whalecoastak.org, or call 907-322-4966. We would love to share our Alaska with you!

Minister's Column

To welcome, care for, and inspire. That is our mission statement, boiled down to its essence. If I had that as a bumper sticker, I would slap it on my computer as a reminder to myself, that every sermon I write, every program I lead, every phone call I receive needs to aim for this simple, central chord. To welcome, care for, and inspire. It's a good bumper sticker... I mean, it's a good message, a good mission.

As I type I have just wrapped up leading a group of 10 prospective members through the "Path To Membership" course. That is a truly fulfilling task as it allows me to get to know new people through one of their most personal vocabularies, that of faith and religion. During the class we discuss what drew each of us to Unitarian Universalism and to MVUU in particular, which includes the question about how we define Unitarian Universalism. It occurs to me that a very fine answer for me might be something like the following: "I go to MVUU because of their mission. It is a community dedicated to welcoming, caring for and inspiring people."

As I reflect further on our mission, I am drawn to the part just beyond the three main verbs, the part that directs our action to those, "among us and beyond our walls." It occurs to me that this is a cyclical relationship. By providing inspiration to those among us, we empower each other to go boldly into the world, where we may welcome, care for and inspire the stranger (which hearkens to our covenant, incidentally - how fun). It is also true that in welcoming, caring for and inspiring those beyond our walls, we will find our ability to welcome, care for and inspire those among us and, most importantly, our selves.

Spiritual work must include both internal and external action. We must reflect, orient and then engage the world. That engagement must lead to further reflection and orientation. Internal work: critical thinking, prayer, meditation, ecstatic dance, poetry and on and on is entirely necessary to the spiritual path. However, if an engagement with the world does not grow out of such practices, then they devolve into self-reverence, become superficial and yield only fantasy.

Similarly, working for justice in the world is necessary. But I submit to you that justice work without subsequent reflection, without consciously exploring your engagement through spiritual practices, also runs the risk of being ego driven, skin deep and, ultimately, denies the fundamental internal transformation that sustains change in the world.

The spiritual path must put the world in conversation with our character, with our soul.

Over the course of my first many months here, I have been looking primarily at pursuing the mission as it pertains to those within our walls. We have investigated realms internal. All the while, various programs have been forming and gestating to the point where the time has come to take what we have together and engage the world and then reflect on the change such engagement brings.

Specifically, I am thinking about all the wonderful activities happening in our Social Justice and Adult Religious Education Programs. What follows is a robust menu of ways that you can engage the world through your involvement with MVUU.

The UU day at the legislature will be taking place on Feb 18. I have found there is no better way to affect change than one on one, compassionate communication with our elected decision makers. We will be focusing on issues of immigration, education, and health care.

Additionally, we now meet monthly to dig into the issue of race, ethnicity and oppression. Our prison ministry in Eloy has grown and gone through an annual re-orientation with the prison chaplain. The Green Sanctuary program is being reinvigorated and Interweave continues on as strong as ever. We now have a Mountain Vista Unitarian Universalist Reverence for Life Project, which is a part of the Unitarian Universalist Association's animal ministry.

I am sure that we will find surprising linkages between all these justice oriented programs. I would encourage you to avail yourself of at least one of these programs. I also encourage these programs to embrace the cycle of reflection, engagement, reflection. If you tend to be action oriented, schedule some time to reflect on how this work is shaping your spiritual path. If your group tends to be contemplative or educational, attempt to find a way once a quarter to move into the world. Rinse and repeat.

Of course, all the while, keep that mission statement in mind. To welcome, care for and inspire those among us and beyond our walls.

Enjoy the journey.

Pastor Ron

Annual Choral Festival February 2

The UU Congregations of Arizona will hold the Annual Choral Festival on Saturday, Feb. 2 at Valley UU in Chandler, AZ (6400 Del Rio Street-- http://www.vuu.org/findus ). The all-day event (organized this year by our own choir director LB) will feature singers from many of the choirs and congregations in Arizona and will be led by Kellie Walker, Minister of Music at Valley UU and choir directors Christopher Eubank (Granite Peak UU Congregation, Prescott), Connie Jahrmarkt (UU Congregation of Phoenix), L.H. Brown (Mountain Vista UU Congregation of NW Tucson) and Brian Moon (UU Congregation of Tucson).  

A full and rewarding day of music-making and fellowship will be capped off by a worship service featuring the massed choir performing several anthems and responses. All are invited to observe the rehearsals throughout the day (beginning at 9:45 am) or attend the service at 4:30 pm.

For further details, speak with LB or one of the members of the choir.

Stewardship Conversations

Don and Ardith Dickason: Connecting to Our Community

When Ardith and Don Dickason arrived recently at an MVUU auction dinner at Hatunens', some guests remarked on her baby-soft, taupe and robin's egg blue shawl. Ardith's reply was, "I met the maker of this shawl in our UU church when she was two months old, and she gave it to me last summer when we went back to Michigan for our grandson's wedding!"

Connections are important to Don and Ardith, and that is a big reason why they have supported their congregations since the late 1950s.

Back then, the Dickasons were church searching when they remembered a favorite psychology professor they knew as Unitarian when they were students at the University of Michigan. Ardith wrote to Boston to ask where there was a Unitarian church in the Detroit area. Referred to Church of Our Father, later renamed First Unitarian Universalist Church of Detroit, they found a "home" in a congregation that was both Unitarian and Universalist years before the denominations merged in 1961. They became fond of their minister, Rev. Tracy Pullman, who was particularly good at involving new members, Don said. They liked the church school (for by then they had three children), a couples club and choir. And because Don was still in college and they had a fourth child coming, their first pledge was only $1 per week, they remembered.

Soon, Don became a long time volunteer in religious education, and Ardith worked with the youth group after her children volunteered her, including the camps. Ardith chaired the membership committee and served on the board as chair and as treasurer...in fact, for many years as treasurer! She also served later on a Ministerial Search Committee. When Don, who worked in computers for the auto industry, was transferred to Spain for a year, Ardith picked a successor, who then died while she was in Spain with her family. So, the following year, Ardith became treasurer for another five years! Over time, as their income grew, their pledges grew as well.

Over his career, Don worked for Boeing, Ford Motor Co., General Motors and Martin Marietta. When all the children were in school, Ardith worked in research for a Temple University project in Detroit and for Planned Parenthood, and later handled the inventory for a hardware store. She retired in December 1997, on her 70th birthday, and Don retired earlier that same year.

The Dickasons moved to Tucson in 1998 and joined our congregation, a big difference from their 500 member one in Michigan. For a time, Ardith assisted the treasurer, yet managed to resist that post!   Don volunteered for years on Fridays in the MVUU office. He created many service auction booklets, both in design and production, and was a "name tag go-to guy." He still creates the round MVUU name tags.

Both Ardith and Don were active on the MVUU finance committee for many years, and both served on the planning team that formed the Endowment Fund, voted into place by the MVUU congregation in 2000. They'd had a positive experience with a similar fund in their Detroit church and experienced its growth with members leaving gifts to it in their wills. Then, when Don and Ardith sold some property about a decade ago, they made a large contribution to MVUU's endowment fund!

Every year the Dickasons have pledged (and paid) what they can to sustain our congregation. Both said they see pledging as a responsibility of membership to maintain salaries, the building and the comforts of heat and cooling. "Everyone needs to pay for these as much as they can," Ardith said.

Yet, the most important thing about their giving is, they agreed, "We feel we are part of a family here! It's basically supporting our family!"

Religious Education News 

YRUU Meeting, 12 Noon

Monday, February 4--RE Committee Meeting, 4:30 PM

Sunday, February 10--Regular RE Classes

Ron's "Sacred Texts" Talk for YRUU group, 12 Noon

Monday, February 11--YRUU Meeting, 6:00 PM

Sunday, February 17--Students will be in the service the entire time.

Sunday-February 24--Regular RE Classes

Adult Religious Education

Wednesday evenings are designated for Adult Religious Education

In Progress

2nd Wednesday of the month 6:30-8:00 pm: "Race and Ethnicity," facilitated by Chuck Tatum and Ron Phares. Discussions prompted by videos, readings, and speakers. Will involve learning more about the Doctrine of Discovery and for-profit prisons.

3rd Wednesday of the month 6:30-8:00 pm: "Death and Dying" classes by John Abrahams, Certified Thanatologist. Coming up: "What is a Good Death" (February 20) and "Learning to Live with Loss" (March 20). A $2 donation is requested for each class, with half going towards the costs and half towards MVUU operating budget.

4th Wednesday of the month 7:00-8:30 pm: "Sacred Poetry as Spiritual Practice," facilitated by Bob Wallace and Ron Phares. No need to know or understand poetry.

Also (see information elsewhere in the newsletter)

• Wednesday morning writing workshop, facilitated by John and Margaret Fleming
• 1st and 3rd Monday evenings 6:30-8:00 pm- Growth, Discussion and Book Group
   Conversation and Book Club, facilitated by Tom Bunch.
• February 4th: 4 previous MVUU Board Presidents will share their thoughts on what they did and why, and on what they wish they had done or not done.
• Saturday, February 16: Book discussion for UUA's One Read Book, The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander.

Any of the ongoing classes or groups can be joined at any time, once or every month. All adult classes are open to anyone age 14 and older.

Childcare will be provided for any class or meeting, as long as Donna in the MVUU office is notified a week ahead of time. All participants (whether they have children or not) in any class, Finding Heart group, or discussion are asked for a voluntary donation of $1-2 per gathering, to help defray the cost of childcare providers for events. This is without pressure and no one will be turned away for not doing so. No explanations needed.

If you would like to teach a class, or organize a discussion group, please feel free to do so. These can be scheduled anytime that is convenient for the facilitator, as long as there is no conflict with other MVUU activities. Please coordinate with Sybelle van Erven. UUSybelle@gmail.com (520)471-3557

Also open to anyone

"Touched by Adoption" is a group of adults touched by adoption in any way (whether on the side of adoptive family or birth family). The group meets on the third Sunday of the month, 12:00-1:30 pm at church. Participants share thoughts and feelings related to topics pertinent to adoption. For more information contact Sybelle van Erven.   

Frances Pearson's Obituary

Frances Simmons Pearson was born on April 5, 1938, in New York City. She died peacefully on January 21, 2013, in Tucson, Arizona. Frances relished life as a world traveler and photographer whose work was shown on the East Coast and in Tucson.

A move from Maryland to Tucson in 2004 allowed Frances to merge her love of photography and of the Southwest. A former black and white film photographer, she began exploring digital color photography. Her subjects ranged from road trip scenes and landscapes around the Southwest to butterflies at the Tucson Botanical Gardens, rodeos, and celebrations of Days of the Dead.

Photographs by Frances were juried into the "Canyons of the Southwest" exhibit at Tohono Chul Park Gallery, and into the 18th Annual Fall American Photo Exhibition at the Hubbard Museum of the American West, Ruidoso Downs, NM. She was Artist of the Month at the Western National Parks Association in Oro Valley. She had solo shows at the Campus Christian Center near the University of Arizona, the Oro Valley Library, and the Kaleidoscope Gallery of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Northwest Tucson. Her work was also exhibited at the Murphey Gallery at St. Philip's Episcopal Church.

Born in New York City and raised in Southern Pines, NC, Frances received a bachelor of arts degree from the Columbia University School of General Studies, New York City, in 1962. Eager to see the world, she became a service club director for the US Army Special Services in Germany for three years, running recreation centers for enlisted men. She was recruited to do the same work in Vietnam, arriving there in 1968, just after the Tet Offensive. A year later, she returned to the states and settled in the Washington DC area with her husband, a military officer.

In Washington, Frances was hired as program director for the National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs. In this role, she took part in the campaign by the women's rights movement for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, which was approved by Congress and sent to the states during her tenure, ultimately falling one state short of ratification. Frances and her husband moved briefly to Hawaii, where she edited material for a canoeing club. The marriage ended in divorce. Later, Frances returned to the Washington DC area, where she worked as a realtor for a number of years.

In 1989, Frances began studying photography at the Corcoran School of Art, Washington DC, working exclusively in black and white. She said she was drawn to patterns and their repetition. She believed that light was the transforming element in photography, a transformation requiring skill and serendipity to capture on film. During these years, she resumed her travels--with camera in tow--visiting China, Australia, New Zealand, Egypt, Greece, and Sri Lanka, as well as many parts of the United States.

Her work during this period was accepted in juried shows at Strathmore Hall, Bethesda MD; Touchstone Gallery and Studio Gallery, Washington DC; the Ellipse Art Center, Arlington VA; the former Washington Center for Photography; and the Art League in the Torpedo Factory, Alexandria VA. She and her sister, Diana, a jewelry designer, also shared a show sponsored by the Moore County Arts Council in their home town of Southern Pines, NC.

In Tucson, Frances was an active member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Northwest Tucson and of the Columbia University Alumni Club of Southern Arizona. She also belonged to a spiritual discussion group for many years. She especially enjoyed hiking in Arizona.

Her family includes two sisters, Ann Wood of Reston VA and Diana Self of Dallas TX; two nephews, Nathaniel Wood of Crofton MD and Jason Wood of Herndon VA; two nieces, Julia Stilwagen of Pinehurst NC and Jennifer Ehlert of Minneapolis MN; and eight great-nieces and great-nephews. Her photographs of her family grace all their homes.

Board Highlights

Keeping Everyone Up To Date

Mountain Vista UU BOARD OF TRUSTEES

January 15, 2013

NOTE: These Highlights are from the draft minutes.  Final minutes in their entirety will be posted outside the Office after approval and include any reports submitted.

Next Meeting: 6:30pm, February 19, 2013 Fireside Room

State of the Congregation Meeting to be held after services January 27 with lunch provided.

Stewardship Committee Description: Updated and approved.

Second Checking Account: Approved for use of "pass-through" monies that do not affect the budget.

New Interest-Bearing account: Approved.

December 2012: Net income was $21,320.43 and monthly expenses of $5,723.87

MVUU balance sheet shows our total liabilities and equity at $778,974.01.