SUNDAY SERVICES

10:30 am

Children & Youth

Religious Education

10:30 am

Minister

Ron Phares    

rdphares@gmail.com 

579-7094, 661-0791 

Office Hours:

M,T,Th -- 1:30 to 4:30   

Director of

Religious Education 
Donna Pratt  441-0870

mklo@earthlink.net   

Choir Director

L. H. Brown

579-7094

lbrownvh@yahoo.com 

Congregational

Administrator

Donna Pratt  579-7094,   406-5121, (cell) 441-0870  

office@uucnwt.org  

Office Hours:

8 am - 1 pm  MWF  

Newsletter Editors John and Margaret Fleming
888-7059

margefleming@earthlink.net 

Deadlines: 12th & 24th

Board of Trustees

President:

1st Vice President:

Jim Gessaman 

Charity of the Month

The Green Basket Charity for February is the National Alliance on Mental Illness.   

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander has been selected as the 2012-13 Unitarian Universalist Association Common Read. We are forming a group to discuss this book following the UUA discussion guide.  

The discussion will take place on a Saturday morning, February 16 from 9 to 11 am in the Sanctuary. This date will give ample time to purchase and read the book. Anne Leonard will be the discussion facilitator.  

The books can be ordered through the UUA for $19.95. If we can get a group order there will be a discount. Please let Anne know if you want to participate and if you would like to get in on the group order. She will need to know about the group order by December 15. Contact Anne at anne@alartworks.com, or by phone: 825-3449.

2013 Point in Time Street Count

Make sure that everyone counts! And help secure services and resources for those who are experiencing homelessness.

How You Can Help

Survey--meet and collect valuable data from community members who are experiencing homelessness.

Wednesday, February 27, 6:00 am - 10:00 am and 3:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Location: throughout Tucson/Pima County

Training

All surveyors must attend a brief training

Monday, February 25, 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm

Location: 801 W. Congress

Donate

Volunteers need to be approachable, and participants need to be thanked for their time. We are asking for donations to

Food gift cards

Snacks (soft food items)

Monetary donations for

Volunteer appreciation

Supplies/materials

Register at http://www.miniurl.com/s/3HA 

Tucson Pima Collaboration to End Homelessness

Hymn Singing Sundays

Congregants are invited to arrive 15 minutes prior to the service (10:15am) to join in the singing of hymns on those Sundays when the choir does not sing. We will practice the hymns for that Sunday and other Sundays in the month. If time permits we will sing other hymns; hopefully some of your favorites. Please join us.

Announcements  

Time and Talent Team

Please visit Stewardship's Time and Talent Team on Sunday. The table will be filled with information for persons wishing to learn about MVUU and all we have available to offer. The table will be by the entrance to the Goldblatt Building.  

Café Justo

Order your  Café Justo--the Coffee for Social Justice and Ethical Drinking too!

This coffee is fair traded plus shade and organically grown. To learn more about Café Justo and view what's available, go to http://justcoffee.org  

To place your order, contact Elizabeth at 520-269-3414 or reedeliz@gmail.com 

Once you order, you will be contacted each month for your next order.

Diary of a Lazy Gardener

by Alberta Gunther

A big SORRY to those of you who read this column regularly. I haven't written for some time. No excuses--though I have thought of some good ones--just lazy.

I have temporarily given up on the big garden in back. In front I have a lot of lettuce, radishes, some the size of apples, a small amount of spinach and carrots. I've planted beets but so far they have chosen not to grow. The carrots are fun. I got a package of mixed carrots so when I pull one, I don't know what color it will be; red, white, yellow as well as orange.

One radish looks like a large turnip, pinkish on top then white.

On a different subject, sorta, the deep freeze did a number on my yard. The lemon tree may survive but I don't expect lemons any time soon. I think the other plants will make it, maybe.

Until next time.......stay tuned.

Did You Know?

There is a Global Chant Group, Crones of the Northwest Group, AA group, Wise Women Drummers, and a Tucson Women's Chorus Group that meet regularly in the Fireside Room? The groups rent our facility, but the events are open to anyone. Please check the MVUU calendar for dates and times, or email office@uucnwt.org for more info.

Save the Date: April 26-28   

This year we will experience another new way of meeting as UUs, April 26-28 we will go to San Jose for the first Regional Assembly for the Pacific Western Region. Our PSWD/deBenneville Pines annual meeting will be held as part of this event. So save the date to join with Unitarian Universalists from across the west.

Frances Pearson's Memorial Service February 22

Frances Pearson's memorial service will be Thursday, February 22, at 2:00 pm. 

Connie Armstrong is organizing the reception.  Folks can contact Connie by phone or email if they would like to help contribute food, or assist with set-up/take-down. 520-544-7723 connieachuckg@aol.com

Stewardship Conversations

At their wedding 23 yrs ago

What would my life be without a UU congregation? I was  raised in the Beverly Unitarian Church through 60s with the Rev. Vincent Silliman. (look for his readings and hymns in the grey hymnal) It was a castle on the south side of Chicago. The congregation is still there.

Except for the decade of my marriage to an Episcopalian, I've been a member of UU congregations in Rochester Michigan, Evanston and Palatine Illinois, and Chandler Arizona. MVUU is my sixth UU congregation and probably the friendliest and most energetic of them all.

Imagine if MVUU weren't here! How would I ever connect with such interesting, talented, and thoughtful people who value what I value? I could find such folks in my hobby guild, book club, bridge group, or at work, but I could never find them all in one place.

What could take the place of our Sunday service that would bring as much intellectual inspiration, sense of kinship, and connection with others? Reading a great book, watching a movie, and playing nine holes are satisfying, but they can't possibly bring it all together like our minister and this congregation.

So I need this congregation to be here for me.   It needs to be fed it so it grows and thrives. The more it thrives, the more we will thrive from the wide array of talents, skills, and gifts we bring to it.   My life is richer because of Unitarian Universalism and this congregation. In order for it to be here for me, it needs as much of my treasure as I can manage.   

I am also beholden to my Unitarian Universalism for personal reasons. I saw an ad in the Chicago Reader (a newspaper like the Tucson Weekly) for a singles discussion group for the religiously unencumbered. I sat across from the handsomest man in the place, who just happened to have been raised Unitarian Universalist as well! The leader of the discussion group heard us talking and realized we might be less than "religiously unencumbered," but he let us stay and talk. We hit it off, agreed to meet again, and now we've been married for almost 23 years.  

I am not saying that if Conrad and I were not both Unitarians we would not have hit it off, but it sure gave us a great place to start. So, how could I not support my congregation, with my time, my talent, and with my financial support and commitment?

Conrad Paul

Why do I support my Unitarian Universalist Congregation?

I am the first born of a Jewish family in Chicago. My mother, father, and I lived with my mother's parents. My father was 19 when I was born and my mother 20. My mother, who was 12 when she came to this country, lived through Crystal Night in Germany. My father was born of Russian Jewish parents who walked out of Russia shortly after the revolution because pogroms literally made life impossible for them.  

My father was born in Chicago. When I was born he wanted nothing to do with religion. After living through race wars between Jews and Italians in Chicago, he saw religion as just another way of being different, and he had had enough of that.  

By the time I was 5 we had moved up in the world and were living in a relatively nice suburb of Chicago, much more ethnically mixed than where we had lived up until then. My mother wanted some religious structure for my brother, my future brothers, and me. She and my father heard about Unitarianism somehow, and my mother convinced my father to agree to try it. There was no congregation nearby, so my father put a classified ad in the local newspaper in Park Forest. The respondents formed the Park Forest Unitarian Fellowship. I remember trying in vain to sleep while a bunch of adults joked and sang during choir rehearsals in our living room. Park Forest now boasts one of the larger Unitarian Universalist Congregations in the Chicago Metropolitan area.  

I support Unitarian Universalism by supporting my congregation.It is just a way one supports this faith community movement. It is the way. You see, our movement is built upon congregational polity. The congregations govern themselves, send representatives to the General Assembly, and monetarily support the Unitarian Universalist Association through fulfillment of the Fair Share Obligation. If the congregations do not exist, the movement ceases to exist. It's as simple as that. We are not a community that exists in the abstract. We exist in the concrete establishment and support of our congregation as a community with a mission, and an institution that functions. Sometimes we function extremely well, and sometimes we struggle. The existence of my faith, Unitarian Universalism, lives and breathes through the functioning institution of the congregation.

So why do I support this congregation? Simply put, it is the congregation closest to where I live. Which means it is the congregation I have joined. It is not a cause like the Sierra Club, the Holocaust museum, or the NAACP. Those are organizations I support because they support causes I believe in.  

Sometimes this congregation supports causes consistent with my values, and sometimes it does not. This inconsistency has been true of all the Unitarian Universalist congregations I have belonged to. Yet I always support my congregation. That would not be the case if the Holocaust Museum were to start publishing racist studies. I would resign my membership in a heartbeat. That institution represents a cause I believe in. It is not synonymous with who I am. I do not say, "I am the Holocaust Museum" the way I say "I am a Unitarian Universalist."

I support this congregation because of my desire to be open to different ways of seeing and being in the world. It opens me up. That openness shapes me and makes me who I am at the same time I shape and make the congregation what it is. I support this congregation so I can be me.

Making Connections: the 2013-2014 Financial Commitment Drive

The stewards have been trained, and we are looking forward to meeting with each of you in the month of February. We know that you already do make a Financial Commitment (pledge) and we can count on you to continue. Thank you!!! The main goal of the meetings between the trained stewards and all of you, who are also stewards of Mountain Vista UU, is to meet, talk, and get to know each other better-to build the connections between us. We feel this is a great way to enhance MVUU's mission To Welcome, Care For, and Inspire...

So please welcome your personal steward when they ask for a meeting. That meeting might be at your home, or theirs, or a coffee shop, or a park. This is a chance to make a new friend or deepen your connection with an old friend. At the end of your meeting they will take a brief time to sketch out the current budget and the Stewardship Committee's 50% in 5 years visionary budget and give you your pledge form.

There will be the Financial Commitment Form for the next fiscal year (July 1, 2013-June 30, 2014). There will be opportunities for you to increase your current year commitment and an authorization for automatic withdrawal from your bank account to help you pay your pledge automatically at intervals you choose. Please consider choosing this payment method, as it makes the Board and Finance task of budgeting much easier.

If your household is ready to fill out your form at the meeting with your steward, super. You can do this and hand the form to your steward at the meeting. If you need to consider and discuss amongst yourselves before filling out the form, that's OK too. Please return your pledge form to your steward before the end of February.

As I pair the trained stewards with each of you, I am jealous. I want to be the one visiting and getting to know each one of you. But I suppose I must share and my wife, Ruth, would like me to keep my day job.

Tom Bunch, Financial Commitments Team Leader

Email comments or questions to sparky9132000@yahoo.com

Weekly Activities

Anyone interested in writing is invited to join the Writers' Workshop to share their writing, critique each others' work, and offer suggestions for improvement. Come any time for one session or a series of sessions. If you have writing to be critiqued, please bring 10 copies--no more than 3 pages.

For more information, contact Margaret Fleming at 888-7059 or margefleming@earthlink.net.  

Thursdays, 6:45 pm, Tucson Women's Chorus

Thursdays, 7:00 pm, Choir Practice

Saturdays, 6:30 pm, AA Beginners Meeting 

Bi-Monthly Activities

 
1st and 3rd Thursdays 4:30-6:00 pm, Grief Support    

For members of the GLBTQ Community, at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tucson, 4831 E 22nd Street, Tucson. This is an informal and relaxed group for anyone grieving a loss of any kind, no matter how long ago it was. We are sponsored by TMC Hospice. Before attending, please call Karla Brockie 269-9573. 

Monthly Activities

"Touched by Adoption" February 17 

Adults touched by adoption in any way (whether on the side of adoptive family or birth family) share thoughts and feelings related to adoption. The group meets on the third Sunday of every month. For more information contact Sybelle van Erven.    

Movie Outing Sunday, February 24

"Amour" at the Loft, time to be announced.

Roget Ebert gives four stars to this sub-titled French film nominated for best film and best foreign film at this year's Academy Awards. It is the story of love and death of an aged couple. Please let John know if you are coming to be notified of the exact times. john.wilcox2008@comcast.net 531-1413

Bookaholics Unanimous February 25     

Bookaholics Unanimous meets the last Monday every month at 6:45 pm. We select a variety of books based on what has intrigued members. The one who suggests the book generally leads the discussion of that book.

Our next meeting is Monday, February 25th. The chosen book is Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo. Non-fiction, it depicts the stories of some of the unforgettable inhabitants of Annawadi, a slum community next to the Mumbai airport. Ms. Boo is a Pulitzer prize winning journalist who has spent many years in India.

The book for March 25th is Canada by Richard Ford; for April 29th it will be My Beloved World by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

Welcome newcomers and members. For more information contact: Anne Leonard anne@alartworks.com or 825-3449.

UU Gateway Fellowship Celebrates

The Gateway Fellowship had a party on February 8. Originally planned as a Christmas party, it was postponed for some unspecified reason. So this time it was a Valentine party, lasting four hours instead of our usual two-hour visit. We were again treated to songs by the interfaith choir, and a talented inmate performed several numbers on the harmonica, which sounded almost like a full orchestra. We had Joys and Concerns, several readings and a meditation, as usual, and, in keeping with the Valentine theme of love and friendship, an exercise in remembering some of our best friends.

These services are always inspiring. The only thing we didn't much enjoy was the lunch they served--standard prison fare, filling but very tasteless. We had bought some extra food for the prisoners--sandwich makings, potato salad, pie, and cookies, and they really dug into them. We could certainly see why they found them a treat.

We have three more volunteers waiting to be approved, including Pastor Ron, but the bureaucracy is moving with glacial slowness. When they join us, we will have twelve active members. There are about that many in the inmates' group also. The fellowship has about an equal number of white, Latino, and African-American members, and there is one Asian too.At this last meeting we were joined by a Jewish inmate and a Wiccan. Diversity is strong in the Gateway Fellowship. 

Survey Results

A total of more than 60 people attended one of the four repeat presentations, "Evaluating MVUU's Building and Property", given by MVUU's Facilities Study Team. About 45 attendees then filled out a survey responding to questions raised in the presentation. If you were not able to attend one of those 25-minute presentations, you can view it online; Larry Jagnow was the presenter.  

If you wish to fill out a survey after watching the video, e-mail Larry Jagnow (aljagnow@msn.com) for a copy of the survey and return your filled out survey to him or send or leave it in the church office. We encourage your viewing of the video and your feedback on the survey, if you were not among those who saw the live presentations.

Food, Food, Food!

Unitarian Universalists love food (and coffee)! Food is one of those things that we are all touched by every day and at many of our events, classes, groups, and meetings.

We pride ourselves in being welcoming to everyone and inclusive of anyone and I believe we are doing a good job. But there is always room for improvement, isn't there?

So here are some thoughts of a vegan/gluten-free UU....

It may seem overwhelming to create a dish that has no animal products and no gluten in it. I used to eat animal products, and I remember thinking there must be some culinary magic to make food palatable, without using dairy, eggs, honey, or meat. But then I decided I wanted to put my values into action, so I started reading and learning and found out it is not magic. I discovered that the average American eats way more protein than necessary, that many foods that we don't see as protein rich actually contain protein, and much more. I thought I could never go without cheese though. But here I am a few years later, still happy, probably healthier, and feeling good about myself.

In the meantime Arnold was diagnosed with Celiac disease and had to start eating gluten-free. Now there's a challenge for you! But, through study and sharing with others I also learned a lot about that. And now I find myself needing to leave the gluten behind. Good thing I already learned how to.

So I have been asking those who bring dishes for luncheons and events to remember those among us who eat vegan or gluten-free. And I have been pleasantly surprised by their willingness to do so.

Thinking more about it, it really seems like that would be a good choice for the majority of our dishes. Certainly it won't hurt anyone to have no animal products for one meal, or no gluten (though admittedly, gluten-free bread is not so great).

And something all of us should be doing anyway: read food labels. You may be surprised what you find in what you thought was a healthy item, besides dairy or gluten!

None of this is meant to be a complaint or criticism. I am just trying to give you a glimpse of the other side. And, if you have found a way to make your dish vegan, please send the recipe in for our MVUU Vegan cookbook to UUSybelle@gmail.com.

Volunteer of the Month

After Tom Bunch's amazing performance as writer, director, and actor in the February 3 skit, it's inevitable that he should be named Volunteer of the Month.

Tom's career as a volunteer is testimony to his penchant for learning. He deliberately seeks out an area he's unfamiliar with and then learns everything he can about it in order to lead it. He did this when he became Chair of the R.E. Committee and served very effectively for two years. Then he took on Buildings and Grounds and chaired that committee very successfully. Now he is chairing the Stewardship Committee, an even more challenging role.

In the course of his learning all he can about stewardship, Tom has facilitated the learning of a number of others via a reading and discussion group that meets regularly. It has a long and hard-to-remember name, but most people call it Tom's group. His imaginative interpretation of Tom Cloud-Crawler and associates in the skit leading off the annual pledge drive was a big hit with the congregation.

Tom regularly attends Board meetings as an observer, a good way to learn more about how the congregation operates. He also participates in other activities and regularly contributes his famous soups and salads to our potluck meals. A true player.

Liturgical Theme for February: THE WAY   

Sunday Services for February

 February 17, 2013  

"Ways and Means"

Ron Phares

On the day prior to the UU Day at the Legislature, we will seek out the ways and means of effective political engagement. How does our mission and covenant inform us as we confront the powers and principalities of the political structure? Conrad Paul is Worship Associate. The choir will sing.  

Liturgical Theme for March: CONNECTEDNESS