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.

    In a culture designed for extroverts, how do we introverts take care of ourselves, and how do we get those extroverts to be quiet for a moment so we can think? What might an introverted culture look and sound like? Rob Sharp is the pulpit assistant.

    Dave Anderson, Hannah Cosdon and Michelle Parcetic are speaking on their religious journeys.

    One of the fun activities I get to do as a minister is be a guest preacher at other Unitarian Universalist churches in this area. I’ve spoken at our North Hills church in Pittsburgh (twice this year because their minister is on sabbatical), our East Suburban church in Murrysville, First Unitarian in Pittsburgh, and more recently in Erie (while their minister, the Rev. Steve Aschmann was having a good time down here in Meadville).

    I always enjoy these visits with other Unitarian Universalists as I observe how they conduct their worship services, discover what activities they are engaged in, and how they treat each other, and I, the stranger at the door. They sing many of the same hymns, and say many of the same words, yet each group has their idiosyncratic way of being together.

    The Erie Congregation, for example, have covenantal words they share every Sunday, which they wrote several years ago. Their children have their own set of covenant words which they share during the service as well. The Erie congregation has chosen to make their relationship with each other a priority, and show it every Sunday by reciting their words of support and aspiration.

    In East Suburban, because their congregation is quite a bit smaller than ours, they stand up and tell their announcements from the floor, as well as their joys and concerns. The last time I was there, it seemed most everyone had something to say for both announcements, and joys/concerns. By the time I got to the sermon it was quite late in the service. Clearly they like to share their lives with each other, and have therefore chosen to make this a priority in their weekly time together.

    In my previous church in Denver, they frequently recite their Mission Statement during worship as a way of reminding themselves they are present for something larger than their individual needs.

    We can learn all sorts of things by listening to our UU sisters and brothers in other churches. This winter our congregation has engaged in fruitful conversation with other UU churches for just this reason. Mike McGrath our esteemed Board President, Lee Ann Wester, our brilliant Director of Religious Education, and myself, your loyal minister, have met twice with a group of representatives from four other area UU churches. Those churches are Erie, Girard, Slippery Rock, and Jamestown, NY.

    We are creating a new model for cooperation, sharing of resources and ideas, brainstorming, problem solving, and general support. The group is very friendly and delighted to be forming a bond that will hopefully sustain itself for many years.

    We will be meeting at least three times a year in our different churches. In addition, we are planning an annual picnic for all members of our congregations. This year’s picnic is tentatively scheduled for mid to late August at Presque Isle State Park. Those of us on the regional district committee are excited about bringing our area church members together for fun as well as spiritual sustenance and depth. Stay tuned to the announced date for our regional Ohio Meadville District picnic in August!

    It is a wonderful experience to be reminded we Unitarian Universalists are not as isolated as we sometimes feel like we are. In rural ministry, it is critical to reach out to others across the fence in order to learn and grow beyond our self interests.

    Our children’s program is embarking upon a social action project this spring. The children will be participating in the Read to Feed, a program of Heifer International.

    Read to Feed is a reading incentive program that offers global education opportunities and will foster in your children a love for reading, a passion to help others and a way to help create a better world. Children get sponsors for each book they read during a time frame set by his or her leader. The goal is to raise money to buy gifts of livestock for struggling families who have few resources and need an ongoing source of income.

    Heifer International, a non-profit organization, works to end world hunger and save the earth. For close to 60 years, Heifer has helped more than four million impoverished families in 128 countries move away from poverty and toward self-reliance.

    The idea is simple and it works. Instead of providing hungry families with a non-renewable source of food, Heifer International provides a "living loan" of an animal. The family’s health and standard of living is greatly improved by what that animal can provide. This might be milk from a cow or goat, eggs from poultry, meat from rabbits, draft power from water buffalo or wool from llamas.

    Key to the success of the program is that Heifer provides extensive training in animal care, environmentally sound agriculture practices and community development. The result is to transform not just families, but the environment and communities.

    Another cornerstone of Heifer International is "passing on the gift". Families who receive an animal "repay" the loan by giving one or more of their animal’s off-spring to other families in need. That family passes on their gift to another family. So, one gift multiplies throughout the community.

    Heifer International currently provides more than 27 types of animals that provide food and/or income to struggling families in 48 countries (including the U.S.).

    Our first step in this project will begin on Sunday, April 30. All families will receive a packet of information including a sponsor and reading list. There will be a special display during coffee hour in which everyone can read more about the program. People from the congregation can also sign up to sponsor our children during this time. (If you would like more information now you can visit the program’s website at www.heifer.org.) Our children will also talk about this program in their regular RE classes in the following Sundays. Please make every effort to educate yourself about this program and sponsor our children in the upcoming weeks!

    The Fellowship Committee is sponsoring Circle Suppers again in June. The date is Friday, June 9, 2006. There is a sign-up sheet in the Parish House for those who wish to participate as well as for those who would like to host. This is a great way to get to know your UU members and friends in a more social and relaxed setting. We encourage you to sign up as soon as possible and enjoy a very special evening. Thanks!

    The Membership Committee is seeking volunteers to be Sunday Greeters. This involves one-half hour during a month of Sundays. We like greeters to commit to a month because it gives some continuity, especially if there are returning visitors. It is important that we all are welcomed, and in the doing, you will become acquainted with newcomers, and shake the hands of friends! If you sign on, you will get a volunteer description so that you know what is expected of you.

    There is a sign-up sheet on the Parish House desk, or you can call Carolyn Chase.

    While going through some old files the other day, I found a blue 3x5 entitled Gems. It was the booklet that was sent quarterly to the parents of the children at St. Anne’s. This particular one was dated summer, 1938. I would have been 6 years old and in the second grade. The first half of the booklet consisted of the telling of the happenings on campus and in the lives of the children, as well as inspirational essays – not unlike miniature versions of some of my columns. A version of the beatitudes reminds us that "Blessed are those who plod and do not weary. Blessed are those who work and do not brood." A look at the world after a rainstorm tells us that, "the leaves begin to whisper their gratitude after rain; the flowers sweeten the air as though blessing its freshening moisture; the colours of the trees and fields are as if the Maker had lately ceased from brushwork and left His marvelous painting to dry."

    In the back is a section called Memorabilia and Pages-in-waiting. It is a journal of some of the significant events of the spring:

    January 20, the week’s mind of the Father Founder. This one was hard to read, as I adored Father Powell, as did the other inhabitants of St. Anne’s. He was a true priest to the children. I was alone in the dormitory, in bed with chicken pox when Sister told me he had died. I lay there, blinded by tears as the chapel bell tolled, one ring for each year of his age. To this day, he is one of the strongest images I hold of my time at the school.

    And then, March 11, Wars and rumors of war. How one man’s ambition can rock the very foundations of world peace! And again, March 13. War cannot be played by rules! It is impossible to improve war, except in the direction of more effective and wholesale destruction. It is vain to hope that war can be made sportsmanlike . . . War is not a contest between gentlemen ... All that a nation has will it give for its life. These were but the beginnings of notations that would fill our lives for the next few years. Who of us didn’t have relatives fighting, "in land and sea and air," that we prayed for every morning? We also had Sisters from a convent in China who we interred in a prison camp in the Philippines for most of the war.

    But life does go on. March 29, They tell us that there is such a thing as a long-haired dachshund. For our part, we’d as soon have a whiskered sausage; still, it might be used as a carpet sweeper. And, April 1, a day for being and for making fools; but, pray, what custom or which rule supplies a day for being and for making wise?

    How much of the wisdom my elder years have provided, has been already stored in a treasure chest I carried with me since the ten remarkable years, from age 4 to 14, at this very special school.

Dear Friends,

    In the springtime people of all faiths reaffirm our connection to the earth and greet the returning light with hope and optimism. Passover, Easter and the Vernal Equinox all celebrate this season of hope. As I reflect on events of the past year I am mindful of why this season is so important, and I am especially mindful of our brothers and sisters, both in this country and in remote parts of the globe, who have endured natural disasters, war, and genocide. It is with their sufferings in mind that I find hope in the story from the Hebrew Scriptures that has inspired people for thousands of years.

    The book of Exodus tells how a proud people were freed from bondage to an oppressive regime. The story of the Israelites’ captivity and liberation is close to my heart this year because I heard echoes of this ancient tale when I visited refugee camps in Chad last November. Like the Israelites, the displaced people from the Darfur region in Sudan fled their oppressors, leaving behind their homes, possessions and, in many cases, family members. Driven out by violence, they did not even have time to prepare the unleavened bread that was made in haste by the Israelites and that is remembered in the Seder meal hundreds of generations later. As one refugee explained to me, "We escaped only with cloth." They had nothing but the clothes on their backs. Their portion was bitter herbs and salty tears.

    Many of the exiles crossed the border into Chad, where their need and numbers overwhelmed the local villages. The sultan of the small town I visited explained that when he beheld the hungry, desperate newcomers, he knew instantly that there was no other option but to open the granaries and share his community’s precious food stores. Like manna from heaven, this sustenance was given to the exiles as an act of grace. It was unearned and unexpected, but offered freely. The sultan’s faith called him to welcome the Darfur refugees as honored guests. This noble man knows what we all know deep in our hearts: that we are called to shelter the homeless and to feed the hungry. Ours are the only hands on earth to make compassion real.

    The suffering endured by the people of Darfur is beyond heart-breaking. But I find hope in knowing that we have the power to alleviate their misery and to stop the genocide. The ongoing atrocities in Sudan are a call to all people of conscience. Your congregation can help by joining the Save Darfur Coalition’s_ Million Voices for Darfur Campaign before it concludes on April 30th. Ours are the only hands on earth to make justice real.

    During this season of rebirth, when nature bestows her grace so freely upon us all, let us remember our brothers and sisters in exile who long for a peaceful home. Let us begin again in love by renewing our commitment to our most sacred calling. Ours are the only hands on earth.

    In faith,

    The Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst in Massachusetts is sponsoring a bed & breakfast fundraiser – "Emily Dickinson’s World" – to be held October 13-15 this year. This tenth weekend of private tours, lectures, poetry and music takes place at the height of New England’s fall foliage season – a time when, in Dickinson’s words, "The Maple wears a gayer scarf/The field a scarlet gown."

    The cost is $360/person, including lodgings and meals provided by members of the Society, as well as all admissions. For a brochure and registration materials, write to the UU Society of Amherst at P.O. Box 502, Amherst, MA 01004; phone 413-253-2848 ext. 1; email a request to <unitar@crocker.com>; or visit <http://users.crocker.com/~unitar>.

    The day finally arrived. Forrest Gump dies and goes to Heaven. He is at the Pearly Gates, met by St. Peter himself. However, the gates are closed, and Forrest approaches the gatekeeper. St. Peter said, "Well, Forrest, it is certainly good to see you. We have heard a lot about you. I must tell you, though, that the place is filling up fast, and we have been administering an entrance examination for everyone. The test is short, but you have to pass it before you can get into Heaven."

    Forrest responds, "It sure is good to be here, St. Peter, sir. But nobody ever told me about any entrance exam. I sure hope that the test ain’t too hard. Life was a big enough test as it was." St. Peter continued, "Yes, I know, Forrest, but the test is only three questions.

    Forrest leaves to think the questions over. He returns the next day and sees St. Peter, who waves him up, and says, "Now that you have had a chance to think the questions over, tell me your answers."

    Forrest replied, "Well, the first one – which two days in the week begins with the letter ‘T’? Shucks, that one is easy. That would be Today and Tomorrow." The Saint's eyes opened wide and he exclaimed, "Forrest, that is not what I was thinking, but you do have a point, and I guess I did not specify, so I will give you credit for that answer."

    "How about the next one?" asked St. Peter. "How many seconds in a year? Now that one is harder," replied Forrest, "but I thunk and thunk about that, and I guess the only answer can be twelve." Astounded, St. Peter said, "Twelve? Twelve? Forrest, how in Heaven’s name could you come up with twelve seconds in a year?" Forrest replied, "Shucks, there’s got to be twelve: January 2nd, February 2nd, March 2nd...." "Hold it," interrupts St. Peter. "I see where you are going with this, and I see your point, though that was not quite what I had in mind.....but I will have to give you credit for that one, too. Let us go on with the third and final question. Can you tell me God’s first name?"

    "Sure," Forrest replied, "it’s Andy." "Andy?" exclaimed an exasperated and frustrated St Peter. "Ok, I can understand how you came up with your answers to my first two questions, but just how in the world did you come up with the name Andy as the first name of God?" "Shucks, that was the easiest one of all," Forrest replied. "I learnt it from the song –

    "ANDY WALKS WITH ME, ANDY TALKS WITH ME, ANDY TELLS ME I AM HIS OWN."

St. Peter opened the Pearly Gates, and said: "Run Forrest, run."

    Next deadline for submitting items for the newsletter is Friday, April 28, 2006, 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). Thank you.