If you will be having your mail held or forwarded by the Post Office please contact Venessa in the church office. The post office will not hold or forward bulk mail (The Oracle). They will send it back to the church, first class postage due. Please make sure that Venessa knows that your Oracle needs to be held until you return or what address it needs to be sent to and for how long at that address. Thank you.

    Our mission is to offer a welcoming and safe community that reaches out to and receives spiritual seekers. We provide a voice for religious diversity and encourage personal transformation as we strive toward a better world.

    Our covenant is to be a loving, joyful community that nurtures spiritual growth and promotes compassion, social responsibility, and service in an atmosphere of mutual respect.

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    Bishop John Spong has some intense and radical ideas about Christianity, which he says is the only way to save the religion from its own self inflicted demise. Amidst Christmas and heated debates amongst all religious parties, perhaps Unitarian Universalists have something to add to Spong’s ideas. Margaret Stewart is the pulpit assistant.

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    The Rev. Kate R. Walker, Dr. Beth Etter and Jon Abrams with the choir, lead our traditional Christmas Eve service. Come join us for this annual family celebration.

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Guest speaker, Mary Lib Whitney

    Once my parents divorced I was subject to the constant change of location during the holiday season. My Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years were each in different locations every year for well over 25 years. Even from year to year, I would often find myself in a different location either because my father had moved, my mother had moved, or I had moved.

    So it is with great relief and glee that I now spend my holidays all in the same place each year, my home with my beloved husband and family. I cook Thanksgiving dinner, very traditional, and Mark cooks Christmas, a different international affair every year. I’m pretty quiet and reflective on New Years so it’s not uncommon for us to stay home.

    Our culture reflects this type of family dislocation. Families spread across the country, and even the world. It’s hard to maintain any tradition when we wake up in a different bed every year on Christmas morning. It’s hard to feel a sense of connection to a special day when we don’t know where we going to be from one year to the next.

    On the other hand, I had some great adventures in many different lands. I spent Thanksgiving in Miami, Florida and Durham, England. I woke up on Christmas morning in Shaker Heights, Ohio; Florence, Italy; San Jose, Costa Rica; Woodstock, Virginia; Lincoln, Nebraska; Chicago, Illinois. Of course there were several holidays spent in Rhode Island and Colorado, two places I lived for extended periods of time. I even attended a fantastic New Year's Eve Toga party in Salzburg, Austria.

    I enjoy being home every year now, but I wouldn’t trade in my varied and exciting experiences. I always had family or friends with me, and I always had brilliant food and plenty of love. I suspect some day, Mark and I will be hitting the road to spend the holidays with his children and grandchildren – we can only hope so!

    Let us each enjoy the place in which we find ourselves during the holidays. May we each find happiness and laughter. Let us find the essence of the holidays no matter where we are! Let there be love and peace! Lots of love and peace!!

    Happy holidays to all!

    I opened my car door and immediately heard the familiar sound of the Salvation Army bell. As I trudged passed I dropped a dollar into the bucket and smiled at the volunteer. He was bundled up severely, topped with an orange stocking hat. He smiled back, thanked me, and wished me a happy holiday season. The following day my steps took me again to the store, and as I dropped another dollar into the bucket I found the same volunteer with the orange hat smiling at me. "Here, again?" I asked. "Oh, yes, I work everyday all day until 5:00," he explained. "Wow," I responded, "You certainly are dedicated." He smiled and wished me another happy holiday. And sure enough I have seen my friend with the orange hat standing by his charge everyday for the past week. Occasionally, I've seen shoppers duck by him, eyes down, frowning slightly. He seems undaunted by this and continues his ministry with a smile and a kind word. Actually, he seems much happier standing in the frigid cold than the shoppers are emerging from warm stores. This nameless volunteer has given me hope this holiday season: a hope of generosity, selflessness, and good humor.

    For the past week I have been working with the Women’s Shelter trying to put together an Angel Tree for our church and other local churches. There are a lot of people in need this holiday season, but I am hopeful to find good hearts and generous hands in our community. Please keep this hope alive and ask for an Angel tag from our church.

_ CALL THE CHURCH THIS WEEK AND ASK FOR AN ANGEL TAG _

    Women's Services Inc. is need of help this holiday season. The children from the women’s shelter need Christmas gifts, and the Unitarian Universalist Church in cooperation with other area churches want to help! If you missed church this past Sunday and still want to help please call the church office (814) 724-4023 during the week to receive a gift tag describing the person and what they want for Christmas. All unwrapped gifts with gift cards need to be dropped off at the UU church by Monday, December 19. Please remember these children as you are out shop-ping for family and friends this holiday season!

_ Coffee hour Christmas activities for children in December _

    During the month of December children are invited to participate in several arts and crafts activities. We will meet in the Arthur room during coffee hour and create decorations for the Christmas tree in the Parish House.

Church officers for 2006 were unanimously elected at the annual congregational meeting on December 4. They are:

President: Mike McGrath

Vice-President: Not filled – yet

Finance Director: Jerry Almes

Treasurer: Mike Thomson

Clerk: Cynthia Burton

Properties: Lenny Nichols, Dave Anderson, Mark Wickenheiser

Religious Education: Michelle Parcetic

Worship: Rebecca Hecking

Membership: Bruce Thaeler

Fellowship: Carlin Almes and Jennifer Snyder

Public Relations: Sarah Sargent

Social Action: Tracy Smock

Nominating Committee: Kim Lethco, Jack Sedam

Trustee: Carolyn Chase

    Carlin and I would like to thank everyone who donated to, worked the many hours, worked and attended the lunch and brunch, purchased items, helped set-up and clean-up, spent much time and money creating crafts, and helping wherever needed. We felt our 2005 Bazaar was a success and that all of you need to be proud of being a part of that accomplishment.

    We plan on having a bazaar review meeting following church on Sunday, December 18^th. We would like all interested persons to attend so that we can critique what we did and recommend ways to make the next bazaar better and more successful.

    So after church, grab your cup of coffee, tea and munchies and join us in the Living Room for a short time of bazaar chit-chat, re-view how we did and how to make it better.

The Writers’ Group on Wednesdays meet,

Our Inner Voices strong and sweet.

Come join with us. Just bring a pen

And maybe try to bring a friend.

The 14^th and the 28^th

December nights our group awaits.

The first, no prompt, write what you will.

The last, with holiday cheer your writing fill.

January 21^st Circle Supper is full unless someone is willing to host a new group and post a sign-up.

February 11^th there will be an Italian Valentine 6:59er Dinner. Sign up in the parish house by January 30. Bring a salad or dessert and beverage to share. Enjoy good company and love songs. Time: 6:59!

March 17^th: A green dinner with limericks – details to follow.

    Included in this Oracle is the 2006 coffee hour hosting schedule. Please take a moment to find your name and make note of the date.

    The Fellowship Committee would like to give a big "THANK YOU" to the hosts of the Christmas Open House event on December 4. Stephanie and David Gallogly hosted a wonderful Hanukkah House event at their home. Miriam Bowman also hosted with a delightful array of goodies at her home. It is not an easy task to prepare for an unknown number of people coming to your home; and we would like to acknowledge all the work and effort that went into the very successful event. Thank You, Thank You. All who participated in the event reported enjoying it very much. Those who could not attend missed a lovely fellowship opportunity at these two special homes. We would also like to thank all other helpers that made the event a success.

    The Fellowship Committee is not asking anyone to host Coffee Hour on Sunday, January 1, 2006, New Year’s Day. There will be coffee and tea and a drink for the young ones provided. As for any food items available for that day – we are asking that members of the congregation plan to bring any extra goodies that did not get used over the holidays and share them during Coffee Hour. If you wondered how to use those delightful items that just didn’t get consumed over the holiday season (and it is a shame for them to go to waste) now you know – bring them to coffee hour on New Year’s Day to share with your fellow UUs

    Living alone is not, for me, a quiet thing. There are, of course, the usual house noises – the furnace, windows rattling in the wind, the cat knocking books off the top shelf. In my house, there is constant cacophony. Thanks to a moderately loud case of tinnitus, my head gives guest room to an assortment of noises. Those that are always with me are a distant waterfall and a large chorus of tree frogs. Occasionally a noise like the slam of a downstairs door startles me, and the rarer sound of heavy machinery will send me to the window to see if a road-grader is going by.

    At night, videos will mask the sound, and a CD will provide the white noise until I fall asleep – usually halfway through. This week I am listening to early American Christmas music, played on appropriate instruments. On the night in question the rain outside is heavy, sounding as though it was trying to break through the roof. I am nursing a cold, and the viral rattles in my chest compete with the waterfall and frogs for my attention. I am curled on my side, and in front of me is the steady sound of the tenor snoring of a sleeping Gumball – a sound that has comforted me for years. Behind me, Brighid is offering her entire repertoire of wheezes, moans, squeaks and miniature yips. By my head, Sophie contentedly demonstrates her rolling bass purr. I am drowning in noise as the music on the CD begins a harp rendition of "Silent Night".

    The winter solstice is an important religious holiday for me. It holds within it a promise of rebirth. It celebrates the cozy, regenerative darkness that this cold time of year brings us. However, it’s also a difficult anniversary for me. Four years ago, day after solstice, I was crippled to such an extent that it took a year and a half, plus lots of physical therapy, patience, and prayer, before I could sit up.

    Now that it’s December, I’m thinking back on this slow healing process I am still in. There are many days still when even a few sentences taxes my body. However, my musings mostly focus on our church.

    In the year since I moved to Meadville, some of the UU members have made an extraordinary sacrifice of time and energy to keep me going long enough to heal. They’ve done chores I cannot manage myself, such as washing my dishes. They’ve taken on tasks needed to provide quality of life, such as taking my cats to the vet. I would be literally dead if kind-hearted people didn’t help like this.

    While I’ve made my appreciation clear to these folks (or, at least, I hope I have), I want to address our church community as a whole. Because so many generous souls helping me absolutely has to indicate something about the church to which they belong.

    As an ordained minister, my professional life has been spent in one spiritual group or another. And I’ve seen a lot of talking that people weren’t walking. It has repeatedly frustrated and disheartened me as a spiritual teacher and guide who is trying to help people move past verbal concern into social action.

    However, I’ve not seen Meadville’s UU community mistake dialog as a sufficient solution to all of life’s dilemmas. In fact, not one of the people who have helped me has ever offered unsolicited spiritual advice. Their deeds, however, spoke volumes. Their gifts of time and labor have been nothing short of blessings, in the most spiritual sense of that word. I believe our church nurtures the ability to actually embody one’s beliefs. It is a rare group that can pull this off.

    This wintry time of darkness is saturated with sparks of light and vitality. They are the hope, camaraderie, and joy my new church has given me. Thank you.

    I didn’t know quite what to say during the congregational meeting on December 4 when Kate presented me with your thanks and a gift certificate to the Plant Place. For those of you not present, this was an appreciation that I’ve edited our Oracle for some years. I want to thank all of you for thinking of me. I gather Bruce was in on it, as he confessed to researching the dates as to when it all started. As I recall, the "regular every two weeks" thing began when I had also begun a 3-year term as treasurer and was temporarily co-chair of membership, so at that time I was really churched up!

    Kate said I’ve never missed a deadline. ‘Tis true, but only because Bruce filled in for me sometimes when I had to be out of town for an extended time. He also edits the occasional photos. We both are pleased that somehow it gets done. I suppose I’d better let him help decide on the use of the gift certificate! What I’d like to do is – finally! – get a perennial herb garden started. Presently I just have chives (impossible to kill!) and maybe thyme if the chives haven’t overrun it. But if he wants a peach tree or something, I guess that will be okay!

    It’s so terribly cool that since I edit the Oracle I can ramble on like this! Just one other thing – it would be impossible to do this without the regular input from so many of you, via email, written articles, word of mouth, etc. Without that, hey – no newsletter!!

    So, enough already. My thanks, again, to all of you (and particularly to a few individuals that I suspect had a little extra to do with this), for the "15 minutes of fame".

    Next deadline for submitting items for the newsletter is Friday, December 23, 2005, at 4:30 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. When you email material, please write "oracle" in the subject line (helps distinguish from spam and non-Oracle items).