The Oracle

November 1, 2004

    The election is over and the country is left with the wreckage of a contentious political campaign. What’s next for a divided country? What’s a country to do when fundamental values are at risk for everyone. Is anyone happy with the results?

    We commemorate Veterans Day with a painful look at what we can never forget, lest we pay the price again.

    By the time you’re reading this, it will be a day or two after our election day. Hopefully we’ll have a final decision on who our elected officials are. Looking back at the last few months of such unprecedented political activity, I am struck by the incredible amount of civic activity. Whatever our motivations are, the result has been an increased interest in our national interests and hopefully increased self empowerment.

    Whatever the results are, the work is not over. The world is still broken, and many still feel dejected and disempowered. Our lives are still in need of peace. We will still wake each morning to find grief and loss, and we must face the challenge of finding meaning and depth in our daily rituals.

    Ultimately the government, even the U.S. government, is powerless to repair all the ailments of our hearts and souls. Only we as individuals, working in community, can address the many ailments of our soul. Unitarian Universalist minister Gary Kowalski writes, "Campaigning in America often carries messianic overtones, and politicians collude in the drama of puffing their biographies to mythic proportions. They make big promises, but no new administration can deliver friendship, peace of mind, personal integrity, or a sense of self worth. Finding the qualities that make life worth living, building them into our daily lives, and passing them along to our children, will continue to be our personal responsibility, regardless of who controls town hall, congress, or the White House."

    When we leave the voting booth, hopefully we won’t leave our commitment to healing our broken world. One vote is not the end, nor is it the beginning. It is merely one step of many toward a healthier community. Our power lies within our daily routines, from how we treat our neighbor, to how we love our family. Our power is our hope for the future and the pursuit of what we hold as good and of deepest value.

    For the past year I have shared my personal experiences with religious education at home with my own children, and many of my stories have been about these "mud-puddle" experiences: taking a walk in the woods, catching caterpillars and lightening bugs, decorating the Christmas tree¼ I truly believe that the heart of religious education lie in these little activities.

    For example, my sister-in-law and I have been taking turns baby-sitting recently. As a result, I have not been alone with my daughter for a few weeks. So last Friday I decided to devote the entire afternoon to a mommy-daughter day. We traveled to Kinsman to play on the playground, eat lunch at a small family restaurant, and visit the local library. It required very little money (as a matter of fact, I paid for lunch with quarters from my piggy bank). We talked and laughed about im-portant things in her life like her cat, her brother, horses, preschool, and her friends. I could tell by the look in her eyes that she felt very important.

    As I ate dinner with my husband that evening, I regaled him with our "exciting" adventures. Suddenly, I was engulfed with an overwhelming feeling of thankfulness. The afternoon reminded me of the most important thing in life¼ time together. And it is in this time together that we show our children the true meaning of "religious education".

    This past Halloween Sunday our children enjoyed a family service followed by Halloween activities in the Parish House. Thank you to all the volunteers who helped supervise our activities. Regular RE classes resume Nov-ember 7 and 14. Guest At Your Table is scheduled for November 21 (details below), and another family service is scheduled for November 28.

    This annual event is scheduled for Sunday, November 21. The RE children will be preparing soup and other delicious side dishes to celebrate this event. The entire congregation is invited to partake in this feast during coffee hour. Donations will be collected for the UUSC (Unitarian Universalist Service Committee) on that Sunday. The Social Concerns Committee will be sharing more information about the UUSC in the next few weeks. So please mark your calendar and join us on November 21 to show your support!

    Over the course of the next few months the RE program will be highlighting several of our wonderful and dedicated RE teachers in the Oracle.

(RE Teacher for grades 1-3)

Laurie Parendes, her husband Mark Wickenheiser, and their son Owen have been attending the UU Church of Meadville since the fall of 1999. Laurie has been a professor of Geography at Edinboro University for the past 6 years. Upon becoming a member of the church she joined the RE Committee and has also served as the RE Chair. At first, Laurie was a little hesitant about teaching since she was al-ready teaching during the work week. However, she says that the atmosphere was so different and the material so refreshing that she enjoyed it immensely. She has been teaching grades 1-3 for 3 years. She has found great fulfillment with her involvement with the RE program. She loves getting to know the children in the congregation and being a role model for her own son. She has also found that teaching the RE curriculum has helped her to question and reflect and to grow spiritually.

JANE ANDERSON

(RE Teacher for grades 4-5)

Jane Anderson, her husband Dave, their son Martin, and their daughter Emily have been attending the UU Church of Meadville for approximately 10 years. When they first arrived at this church Jane immediately volunteered to teach in her son’s PreK class. She has been teaching ever since! During the week Jane works for two Allegheny projects. She works as a Coordinator for the Meadville Community Energy Project and an Educational Outreach Coordinator for the Center for Political Participation. She has enjoyed the opportunity to get to know the children of the church and serve on the RE Committee. She says that many times she herself learns a great deal from the material she presents in class. This experience has helped her in her own spiritual journey.

    We had a compelling talk last month by a person living with AIDS and have an equally interesting subject, "Addiction", on November 14 at 9:30 a.m. in the parish house lounge. Members of our congregation who have provided counseling on this topic will lead the discussion. This is for all congregational friends and members who don’t mind getting to church earlier and enjoy joining other UUs in topical discussions. This was chosen due to the article in the July/August UU World which highlights addiction as "a spiritual issue" as well as a social and medical problem.

    What do you think?? Come join us!! For questions, contact Betty Richmond, Adult Education Chair, 333-6051 or Fran Smith, smithfb65@hotmail.com.

    The second night of SALON will be on Tuesday, November 9, from 7-9pm in the Parish House. The topic in general will be racism, but as was apparent at the first meeting, discussion will most likely diverge at times to various other important topics of the day and our lives. Our Association has asked us, as congregations that understand our re-sponsibilities within the vast inter-dependent web in which we live, to consider the tragedy of oppressive behaviors in our society and what it might be possible to do about them. What affects one of us affects us all. The first SALON addressed many of the "isms" (classism, sexism, ageism, ableism) but the second discussion will focus primarily on racism. Reading materials about racism and a sign up sheet for the second session of SALON are in the church office. Even if you were unable to attend the first discussion on this topic, you are invited and welcome to come on Nov-ember 9. Alison Wohler will continue as facilitator for this exploration of what we as Unitarian Universalists can do to make our personal lives and that of our congregation more open to and welcoming of diversity.

    SALON will be a series of discussions, every other Tuesday evening throughout the fall and winter, with a variety of both topic and facilitative leadership. If you will have child care needs please let the office know one week in advance. For questions call Kate Walker at 814-724-4023.

    Will those interested in discussion of the book Leaving Mother Lake, by Yang Erche Namu, please meet me at the end of coffee hour on Sunday, November 7, to choose a date and time for discussion.

    I still have one copy available at $12.60. They can be ordered at Tattered Corners; it takes about a week.

    There will be a work day on Saturday, November 6, starting at 9 a.m. There are inside and outside projects to be done. Outside work will include raking the leaves and cutting back the flowers, so please bring rakes, tarps, clippers and gloves. Inside projects include cleaning, tearing up the flooring in the Arthur Room, and possible painting. Please bring appropriate cleaning items and/or tools.

    Questions can be directed to Len Nichols or Jim Snyder.

Thanks!! Please plan to attend.

    Friday November 12 is the next date for Soup Kitchen at Stone UM Church at 10 a.m. Volunteers are needed and welcomed! Call Stewarts at 425-3397 for information.

    A study of pesticide and chemical exposures in children being conducted by government researchers is raising some disturbing questions. For one thing, $2 million in funding will come from the American Chemistry Council, an industry group with, one might argue, a vested interest in the results. The ACC and the U.S. EPA both claim that the source of fund-ing will have no effect on the study, but some remain skeptical of the arrangement. Most troublesome is the fact that children who participate in the two-year study must live in homes likely to be heavily polluted with pesticides. So their parents must agree to have the home periodically sprayed with pesticides, for which they receive the tidy sum of up to $970.

    Children’s rights advocates fear that the poor will be especially drawn to the offer of money. What is the name for this exercise where-in the chemical industry pays to have poor kids up to three years of age exposed to chemicals and studied? The Children's Environmental Exposure Research Study or CHEERS.

    Have you been scared enough yet? Between the elections and Halloween, it’s getting a bit spooky.

    Really, though, whatever you think about the elections, Halloween shouldn’t be quite so frightening. I gave out candy last night to the most delightful bunch of little kids, in a vast array of costumes from the Lion King to lovely princesses. The amount of gore was much less than when my kids were growing up. And long gone are the tricks that followed a pronouncement that treaters were not welcome.

    Despite misconceptions that Halloween (or Samhain, pronounced Saw-win) is about Devils and evil demons, it’s not. The word Samhain means "end of the summer" and Halloween is a shortcut for Eve of All Hallows, otherwise known as All-Saints’ Day. It is a time for honoring the saints of the Christian church, and is followed by All Souls’ Day, a time of connecting with ancestors and beloved friends who have died.

    In pre-Christian times, it was the last harvest of the year, when produce was gathered and prepared for the winter ahead. In the pagan (Latin: One who lives in the country) calendar, it is the beginning of the New Year. It is also the time when the veil between the world of the living and the dead is thinnest, and people all over the world have various ways of celebrating and honoring those on the other side of the veil. Pumpkins (turnips in Ireland) were carved and lighted to show the way to their spirits. In Mexico, The Day of the Dead is celebrated with the eating of sugar skulls. The only scary part of this is the amount of sugar consumed by young children.

    It’s a time of celebrating the gifts of the earth that help us survive, and those who have gone before who have made a way of life for us to survive in. It is also a time of offering up prayers for those who lost their lives in The Burning Times. It’s as simple and unscary as that. Everything else is decoration. Of course there are rituals specific to particular groups or areas of the world, such as jumping the fire for good luck, dancing around bonfires, eating special foods, hugging, kiss-ing, telling stories, laughing, sharing friendship, but most of these are only scary in the way a fast ride at the amusement part is, full of screams, laughter and fun. It would take too much time and space to tell you about them all, but I do answer questions, and can refer you to books if you are interested in learning more.

    Even Satan was a saint until John Milton had him tossed out of Heaven for trying to grab power. Wiccans (wise people), by the way, do not worship Satan – most don’t even believe he exists.

    Thanks to Peggy Bell's initiative, our half century old dish-washer has been repaired and appears to work. Please feel free to use it.

    Contrary to popular belief, it is both a dishwasher and sterilizer, so pre-washing is necessary only to remove large hunks of food and lipstick. Please note more specific directions on the wall above the unit.

    Enjoy....

    Hospice of West Crawford County is offering its annual "Coping with the Holidays" bereavement support program on Tuesday, November 9 at 6 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church, 890 Liberty Street in Meadville. This event is designed for people who are mourning the loss of a loved one. The focus of the evening will be on ways to cope with grief during the upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season. The program will be held in the "Red Room", which is on the sanctuary level of the church. There is no fee for this program, and no pre-registration is required.

    Active Aging, Inc. is sponsoring "Through a Veteran’s Eye, A Salute" on November 4, 5 and 6, 2004. This celebration will be honoring our area veterans though wonderful displays and speakers. The event is open to the public. See posting in the parish house which detail each day’s events.

    Questions may be directed to Active Aging at 814-336-1702 or 800-321-7705.

    Have you ever wanted to see some of the sites of the civil rights movement: the Edmund Pettus bridge in Selma, 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, the church whose burning drew Chaney, Schwerner and Goodman to Philadelphia, Mississippi? These and many more are included in a tour being offered this spring by the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Elkhart, IN.

    The April 9-17, 2005 tour has been planned and will be led by the Rev. Dr. Gordon Gibson, minister of the Elkhart Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, who was involved in the early stages of the 1965 Selma voting rights campaign and was the Unitarian Universalist minister in Mississippi 1969-84. He led a similar tour in the spring of 2004. The Rev. Ed Harris, a native of Birmingham, will also be on the tour as a resource.

    The tour, by luxury motor coach, will include all admission charges, overnight accommodations, and most meals in the $995 cost. Videos on the bus and visits with 1960s activists will supplement the site visits. The tour will begin and end in Birmingham, Alabama. For full details and registration information, you can go to the Elkhart Fellowship’s web site at www.uufe.org. You can also request a printed version by writing UUFE, P.O. Box 584, Elkhart, IN 46515 or e-mailing judygibson@juno.com. Registration is on a first-come basis with almost half of the 30 seats already re-served. A participant in the 2004 Tour said, "the stories from the folks who were ‘in the trenches’ make the Movement come alive." Another participant described it as "seeing the Movement through the real experiences of real people".

    Next deadline for submitting items for the newsletter is Friday, October 29, 2004, at 3:30 p.m. You may email your articles to: <mthaeler@zoominternet.net>; or leave items in the folder on Venessa’s desk in the parish house. It would be helpful, when you email material, to write "Oracle" in the subject line (helps me find it more easily). Also, new phone number (toll-free): 1-877-580-3760. Thank you!