Circle of Life

 

Our healing thoughts and wishes go to:  

 

Roy Powley, who is battling cancer and is now recovering from pneumonia at Health South. 

  

New Office Hours

 

Pastor Phares' office hours are changing. He will be in the office Friday afternoons and taking his day off on Mondays. All else remains unchanged.

Office Hours: T, TH, Fri 1:30-4:30

Writing Day: Wed

Day Off: Monday

 

CPR Class Monday, March 25

 

5:30-6:30 in the Fireside Room, FREE.

Ages 12 and up, compression only

 

More info at http://heart.arizona.edu/learn-cpr

 

Reservations Required! Please RSVP to office@uucnwt.org by Friday, March 22, 1 pm

Thank You

 

Many thanks to all those who brought food and helped out in so many ways in making the reception after the memorial service for Frances Pearson a special event. Connie Armstrong

Preserve Our Ambience

 

 

Now that we have new carpeting and chairs, we ask you to refrain from bringing food or drink into the sanctuary.

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.

The Newsletter deadlines are the 12th and 24th of each month.

 

On March 23 at 8:30 p.m. local time, hundreds of millions of people around the world will turn off their lights for Earth Hour, the world's largest collective display of commitment to protect the planet.

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!

Grocery Gift Cards

EASIEST way ever to help our church! Just see Alberta Gunther and let her know which store you frequent. She will explain how each time you visit the store can result in money to MVUU! She has accounts set up with Albertson's, Fry's, Basha's and Safeway. It is quick and easy to get started. Help our church each time you shop! Please sign up today.

Adult Religious Education

Death and Dying March 20

 

Presented by UU friend and certified Fellow in Thanatology John Abraham, M.Div., F.T.
Contact John for more questions: 520-235-5646 or jlavet@earthlink.net or www.DeathAndDyingHelp.com 

 

March 20: Learning to Live with Loss

Loss is inevitable. Death is a natural, normal part of life. One may deal with death constructively and positively, or in ways detrimental to oneself and to loved ones. What is normal and not normal in grieving? How long? How can I help others? What is the one major exception to healthy bereavement? How will I know when I'm doing better? Are there different types of grief? We'll learn about complicated grief, anticipatory grief, disenfranchised grief, the five tasks of healthy mourning, and the "stages theory." We can learn how (and how not) to respond to those who have lost someone.  

  

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.

Morning-Long Silent Retreat Mar. 23

 

8:30 am to noon in the Fireside Room and outdoors. Everyone is welcome to participate. Another "spiritual practice" event from the "Bakehouse" pilot group, this will be led by Kathy Kouzmanoff, Bob Wallace, and Pastor Ron. Contact any of them for further info.

 

A silent retreat can be quite a mind-opening experience. Being alone with your thoughts and feelings, in a beautiful place, with no conversation, phone, internet, books, housework, or outside agenda. Bring your own folding chair, to sit in your own inspiration spot during the morning. Whether you walk, sit and think, write, or just sit, it's a kind of meditation. A chance to get closer to whatever is going on in your soul. We come together at 8:30 to get oriented and share our intentions for the morning. At 11:30 we have a half-hour sharing session: how did this experience go for each of us; what came up?

Social Action Movie March 23

 

5:00 pm, Social Action & Justice's "4th Saturday Movie Night" for March is Interweave-themed. The movie will be "Edie & Thea: a Very Long Engagement", a documentary directed by Susan Muska and Gréta Olafsdóttir. After 42 years, feisty and delightful lesbian couple Edie and Thea are finally getting married. From the early '60s to the present day, the tireless community activists persevere through many battles.

It's one hour long, then finger food dinner, then Q&A and guest speaker (TBA). This is open to ALL, so please plan on coming, and bring anyone you'd like!

From Premise to Promise: An Introduction to MVUU and Unitarian Universalism--Begins April 1 

 

This class will be held for three consecutive Monday evenings: April 1, 8 and 15, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. There will be plenty of stimulating conversation and good company.

 

True to the Unitarian Universalist way of doing things, these sessions are in large part based on the participants. We hope to learn something about ourselves and each other. Additionally we will touch on Unitarian Universalist history (which really is fascinating), theology, and the concept and practice of covenant.

 

Please come if you are...

• Curious about the Unitarian Universalist faith, its history, and this congregation
• Considering becoming a Member (there's no obligation)
• Unitarian Universalist, but new to Mountain Vista

April 1 and 8 sessions will be led by Ron Phares. On April 15, leaders will answer your questions and also provide overviews of activities, church operations, stewardship, and membership. There will be a New Member Ceremony on Sunday, April 28.

 

Participating is an enjoyable way to meet other newcomers, form friendships, and learn. All are welcome. To participate, email Jane Paul or just come.

 

Questions? Contact Jane, Chair of Membership, at janerpaul47@gmail.com. Come to 9922 N. Sumter Creek Place, (near Linda Vista and Camino D'Oeste). Mapquest http://mapq.st/R4hZA8

 

The Force is with us for another year! Let's celebrate our financial (& other) generosity and brighter future now that this year's Financial Commitment Drive is almost concluded. Our Commitment Celebration will be April 13, 6 pm at MVUU.

Religious Education News 

 

Religious Ed Classes: Sunday, March 17, 2013

The Tigers will be taught by Clinton Ponder-Gilby, with Ali Brennan assisting. They will be discussing Principle #4, a free and responsible search for truth and meaning.

Alana Wyatt, with assistant Lucius Eberlein, will be teaching the TAMS. The subject is the March Equinox.

Ingo van der Heiden is the nursery attendant, assisted by Robyn Pratt.

There will be a YRUU Potluck and Movie at Ron and Katie's house, Sunday, March 17, 5 PM.

Please remember to donate your empty aluminum cans to the RE Department. There is a special collection bin outside the Goldblatt Building, by the shed. Thank you, Emily Ricketts, for taking the cans to the recycling plant regularly. The proceeds benefit the Camp de Benneville Pines Scholarship Fund.

 

Sunday, March 24--Regular RE Classes

 

Sunday, March 31--Students in service entire time.   

Brunch and Easter Egg Hunt after the service. Students are asked to bring in dyed eggs or plastic eggs for the hunt. More info will be emailed. 

 

THANK YOU: Special thanks to Julia Chapin-Tsai and Emily Ricketts for donating snacks!

 

If you have any questions, please call Donna, the Director of Religious Ed, at (520) 441-0870 or e-mail her at cdpratt1@live.com

 

Wednesdays, 9:30 am, Writers' Workshop

 

1st & 3rd Mondays, 6:30 pm, MVUU Growth Group

You are invited to a conversation/book group, MVUU Growth Group. Our aim is continued learning in subjects that enhance congregational vitality. Subjects include stewardship, leadership, membership, community building, development (strategic) planning, ministry, or--in two words--institutional growth. We see this group as leadership training but it is also aimed at members who are not yet leaders but are interested in growing, and cultivating MVUU as an institution and understanding more deeply what it means to be a member of this community.

How: Your participation is encouraged at any level. The least involved is to get on our email list and receive emails informing you of our weekly meetings, the material we have read and are reading, and summaries of each meeting. The next step up is to come to the 1 ½ hour meetings and add your thoughts and questions to the conversation without reading the material. You do not need to read the material in order to show up and add to our continued learning and growth. Want the ultimate experience? Show up and read the books or articles or watch the videos that we as group select. Is it okay to just pop in when you can but not commit to making it every week? YES.

When and Where: Currently we meet on the 1st and 3rd Monday evenings 6:30-8:00 pm at the church.

What: For March 18th we wrap up our exploration of MVUU centered around the extensive survey that was taken in 2011. We then begin a discussion on long-range (or strategic) planning. Please view the you-tube video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_yuwypm2Qc prior to the meeting.. Email Tom sparky9132000@yahoo.com for a pdf of survey results, or any questions/comments.

"Why Stop Now?" 7 pm,at Jim and Debbie Gessaman's, 8822 N. Sky Dancer Circle. We are limited to 15 persons by space considerations. Please bring a snack to share. Roger Ebert calls this film a charmer that escaped notice under the radar. It is a bright screwball comedy about one fraught day in the life of a piano prodigy, his crackhead mother and her drug dealers. Please sign up with John at john.wilcox2008@comcast.net or at 531-1413.

"Sacred Poetry as Spiritual Practice" March 27

 

Feeling left out of the Financial Commitment Drive?

 

You want to enrich yourself and make sure MVUU continues to provide positive connections to your life: "To Welcome, Care For, and Inspire" as our mission states. For some reason the Financial Commitment Drive has not contacted you--perhaps you are a snowbird or visitor who is not on our Members list, or a Friend who has not filled out an annual Financial Commitment (pledge) form previously. Please remain left out no more. E-mail Tom Bunch (sparky9132000@yahoo.com) so that he can contact you, give you a brief overview of MVUU finances and a Financial Commitment form-or see him after one of the next 2 Sunday services. ACT NOW!!! The Finance Committee and Board begin working on the budget soon. Let gifts flow through us daily.

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 speak  ers. 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 Abraham, Certified Thanatologist. Coming up: "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 and 2nd Tuesday 7:00-8:30 pm: "Sacred Poetry as Spiritual Practice," facilitated by Bob Wallace and Ron Phares. We're reading, discussing, and experiencing poems by great mystical poets from all over the world. To participate, you don't need to "like poetry" or know anything about poetry or mysticism; all you need is curiosity and an open heart. We're currently reading a bunch of Rumi, the great Sufi poet from the 1200s in Turkey. We meet 7:00-8:30PM on the fourth Wednesday of each month, and also the second Tuesday of each month. Join us whenever you can.

For more info contact Bob at bob@robertmwallace.com or 414-617-3914

 

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 Conversation and Book Club, facilitated by Tom Bunch.
• 3rd Sunday of the month, 12:00-1:30--"Touched by Adoption,"  facilitated by Sybelle van Erven 

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  

 Leon Tsai and Diana Chapin-Tsai

We've lived here 10 years. Two years ago, we adopted out daughter, Julia (age 7 now) from Taiwan. She is our motivation to join the UU church. Leon and I have never been involved with any formal religion. We wanted Julia to grow up with some sense of organized religious education. My beliefs and values are Buddhist, but I can't relate to the culture of Buddhist Temples, etc. The UU church honors my beliefs, and I can relate to the people here more easily. Julia likes go to RE, and Leon and I enjoy the inspirational sermons.

 

Leon keeps quite busy practicing Gastroenterology. I am, at present, not employed in my trained field of psychiatric Occupational Therapy. Being a mom and volunteering at Julia's charter school keep me busier than I would like.

 

Leon and I love to dance and have been doing vintage social dance for 12 years. That is our love, but we have done very little of it since adopting Julia. We hope to get back into it more in the future. Leon is musical and plays guitar and ukulele, among other instruments that he dabbles at. I am a naturalist and love being with animals and out in nature. We both love to read, watch British comedies on PBS, try new recipes from our vegetarian cookbooks, and spend time at home with Julia, our three cats, and pet rat. At present, our lives are rather mundane. Everything revolves around Julia's development and growth. We have put our "hobbies" on hold a bit, until we have more time and energy again.

 

I will briefly summarize our pasts. Leon immigrated here from Taipei, Taiwan, with his family when he was eight years old. He was raised in New Orleans, went to college at Louisiana State University, and moved to San Francisco after completing his medical training in Internal Medicine. I immigrated here with my family from Munich, Germany, to Batavia, New York, when I was four years old. I studied at Boston University, transferred to an O.T. school in Reutlingen, Germany, and moved to San Francisco after graduating.

 

We met in San Francisco and married in Gibraltar. Then we joined the Peace Corps and lived in Dakar, Senegal, for two years. Afterwards, we moved to Louisiana where I returned to college to study Veterinary Technology, and Leon returned to Louisiana State University to specialize in Gastroenterology. In 2002, we moved to Tucson because we like the desert.

  

Cody Patterson    

 

Cody Patterson is the Assistant Director of the Institute for Mathematics & Education at the University of Arizona. A self-proclaimed jack-of-all-mathematical-trades, Cody teaches undergraduate mathematics courses at the University, runs a center for local K-12 mathematics teachers, works on projects related to the new Common Core State Standards for Mathematics, and occasionally provides free consulting for engineers and financial analysts. He enjoys finding ways to help teachers and students understand challenging mathematical ideas.

Cody grew up in Weatherford, Texas and was the first of three sons. During his formative years, his family was politically conservative but did not observe any religious tradition. Therefore, the best explanation for Cody's decision to join the Mountain Vista Unitarian Universalist Congregation may be his desire to rebel against every facet of his political and cultural upbringing. Cody appreciates Mountain Vista UU's openness to people of different religious backgrounds and belief systems, its values of fairness, open inquiry, and community, and its friendly and welcoming culture.

 

In his spare time, Cody enjoys writing, reading (both fiction and nonfiction), running, hiking, and watching sports. He is a member of Toastmasters International and enjoys developing his public speaking skills. He dreams of fulfilling the Heinleinian vision of a competent human being as someone who can "change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly." For now he is content to have mastered four, maybe five, of the above skills, and is going to try to learn to play guitar.

Adopt a Native Elder Program

 

Over the past couple of years, I've spoken to many of you about a program that's near to my heart, the Adopt a Native Elder Program. This program helps the Navajo elders that struggle for their basic needs. These people have little or no government funding since many do not qualify for social security benefits or other government funds. Many of the ones we serve had their homes taken away, were forced off their land and relocated.    

 

I've been going twice a year to the Navajo Reservation (I stay in Winslow, AZ and travel to different parts of AZ reservation each day) since 2007. Many of you have asked how you can help. The simplest way is to give money - any amount is helpful. The elders specifically need: firewood and food certificates, or we purchase fresh produce when we're on the Reservation. Some of the items needed are: kitchen wash clothes, kitchen towels, scrubbing sponges, Clorox wipes, Kleenex, fly swatter(s) and flashlights (batteries too). Also baby wipes, Bengay, honey, peanuts, jerky and Vienna sausages.

 

The next food run delivery is May 5-9, 2013, which is the Sanders, Big Mountain, and Teesto. If anyone is interested in going on this run, please contact me and I will give you information about lodging, meals, hauling donations, volunteer work during the food run, and so on. Since Tandra will not be making this food run, I will have a seat available in my truck. All others would need to carpool.

 

I have many wonderful experiences with the Navajo. One elderly lady in Sanders stood and sang "God Bless America," the only English she knew. This especially touched my heart because she had been relocated from her home to Sanders and ripped away from her family. Another time an elder lady who was blind wove me a rug and thanked me for helping her people. I have also met two Marine Corps code-talkers. Being a Vietnam Marine Corps veteran myself, it was such a privilege to shake hands with them. One of them had a quilt that I purchased so he could have some money to go to Washington and be honored for being a code talker. Numerous times I have been touched by these wonderful people.

 

To learn more about this program, visit their website at www.anelder.org. You can contact me at 520-572-4741 or stevemcg@q.com.

 

Make checks payable to Adopt a Native Elder and mail them to P.O. Box 3401, Park City, Utah 84060. Or you can give the money to me and I will make certain you receive a tax-deductible donation letter from the ANE program. I'll leave an Adopt-a-Native Elder Box in the Goldblatt Building if you'd like to leave donated items. I will also have information about the program on the Social Action tables. We are part of the Standing on the Side of Love projects.

 

I am pleased that so many of you have shown enthusiasm for this program. We appreciate all of you who have donated in the past and thank all of those that will donate now and in the future. Please help the Navajo elders survive another season.

 

Steve McGeeney