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.

We all have those moments of thinking of someone just as they call, or we’re thinking of buying a particular book and a friend gives it to us. We look for these synchronized moments in our lives as confirmation of our faith in something larger and directive in life. But what do these events really mean if anything?

² ² ²

Guest speaker will be Eric Boynton from Allegheny College; pulpit assistant will be Josh Searle- White.

Note: Kate is speaking at First Unitarian Church in Shaker Heights on the 22^nd while their minister is on sabbatical in exchange for his visit to Meadville two years ago when Kate was on sabbatical.

    Cindy and I quickly stuffed the poinsettias into the garbage bag before my beloved husband, Mark, came in the door of the church. We were undecorating the sanctuary after New Years, and I knew, just as Cindy knew from her own experiences with her husband, that the poinsettias would end up in my house if we didn’t move fast.

    We all place different values on life and its various forms and stages. These values direct us in all sorts of ways in how we treat other living systems in our interdependent web of life. We may be a strict Buddhist and patiently avoid killing even the smallest of bugs (think of the Kleenex commercial boasting it kills germs). Many vegetarians are motivated by the value they place upon the lives of animals.

    Or we may be an aggressive hunter shooting at anything that moves during or not during, hunting season. Most hunters are not aggressive, most are fair in the hunt for game, but they place a different value on the life of the animal than vegetarians.

    Some people can have an abortion, others feel that life begins at inception and could never abort a life even during the very early stages of life.

    At the other end of the spectrum of life there is the dilemma of assisted suicide for the chronically ill. The residents of Oregon brought the issue to a vote, but the controversy has not been diminished.

    Of course there is also the death penalty. In this alone is the value for life pitted against itself as our society justifies the death penalty as penance for murder.

    The value we place on life can lead to some of the most heated debates and emotional quagmires in our human struggle to live our lives with dignity and meaning. Too often we assume our values are just and correct, and assume everyone else is living in some sort of sin or meaningless life. Yet our ongoing discussion about the values we hold so high, can help mature humanity into a deeper understanding of our relationship with each other and with what we hold as sacred.

    Those poinsettias did end up in our house, after Mark was given the trash to take to the dumpster. His values are different than mine, he won’t kill spiders and ants, while I’m content to send them on to their next stage of life. I honor his values, even though I’m not wild about having my house filled with half dead looking plants. We have a compost pile, but Mark says no way. Anybody want a poinsettia?

    The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee has reported that we raised $1038.28 for our annual Guest at Your Table service in November. This is the highest amount we've raised for this service! Thanks to everyone for their generosity for this incredibly wonderful service.

    When Carolyn Chase, Chair of the Membership Committee, submitted her annual report for the Annual Congregational Meeting, there was no mention in it of the hard work of some of the committee in publishing our new Photo Directory. Either it was an oversight, or Carolyn was trying to forget the hours of work she and Bruce Thaeler put into it. Scheduling the sittings for the photos was not even half the job. Carolyn and Bruce spent countless hours laying out the Directory, adding location photos, proofreading, and other production tasks. Thanks for a job well done!

    How long can a person live without sunshine?! I peered out of my car windshield as the wipers smeared mud across my line of vision. (I live on a dirt road.) I slowed and turned into my driveway. I glanced at the clock on my dashboard and was amazed to see 11:00. Still morning, yet the lack of sunlight made it feel more like late afternoon. No wonder people go to tanning salons, I thought.

    I jumped out of the van and slopped and sloshed to the front door. The house, too, was dark and damp. I began to feel like a prisoner destined to live in a gloomy cell. I sighed as I shed my coat and boots. I put on some hot water and sat at the kitchen table to brood. How long can a person live without sunshine?! I thought again.

    As I nursed my hot tea I began hearing a very strange sound outside my side window. It was the sound of spring. No, it couldn’t be. But sure enough, as I ran out to get my daughter and niece off of the bus, a large flock of birds rose up from the trees. The glorious sound of chirps and cheeps filled my ears and for a second I thought that perhaps this wasn’t January after all. Of course, I knew better, and the birds disappeared soon after. However, I realized later that they had left me a very precious gift that morning: hope.

    It is not too late to join us on our musical journey! Guest and in house musicians Lisbet Searle-White, Mark Cosdon, Ron Mumme, Lenny Nichols, and John Hyatt will share their talents with our children. Each Sunday (January 8, 15, 22, and 29) our young people will gather in the Arthur Room, listen to a variety of music, learn about the lyrics and songwriters, and then participate in hands on activities promoting friendship, caring, courage, justice and peace.

    Musical selections come from the curriculum I Will Be Your Friend from the Southern Poverty Law Center for Teaching Tolerance. The musical collection encompasses rap, folk, jazz, gospel, show tunes, spoken word and traditional song. The goal of the curriculum is to "encourage students, teachers and parents to sing together, laugh together and write music together in order to help build a more joyous and peaceful community."

    The Coming of Age class (grades 6-8) will begin their visits to other places of worship. In February the class will learn about Buddhism from our own Rev. Kate Walker. Kate will share her Buddhist temple experiences with the children following the service on Sunday, February 12. (Pizza will be provided!) And then on Saturday, February 18, the Coming of Age class will travel to the Zen Center in Pittsburgh where they will experience Zen meditation and take a tour of the Buddhist temple. More information is on the way to the Coming of Age parents.

    All right everyone ... I need you to use your imagination for a moment. Imagine me, Rebecca Hecking, your Worship Committee chair, with white hair. Got it? Ok. Now add a goateeish sort of beard. Still with me? Great. Now add a red, white and blue stovepipe hat and a blue suit. I’ve got a slightly grumpy look on my face (probably because I’ve grown a beard!!) and am pointing in your direction. I look straight into your eyes, and say loud and clear: "I WANT YOU on the Worship Committee!!"

    That was a scary picture, wasn’t it? Oh dear. Don’t make me do that again!! The worship committee is actively seeking new members. We would love to have you join us!! If you have an interest in helping to plan our common worship life, please consider joining. We meet the first Monday of every month at 7 pm in the Arthur room. Our next meeting will be February 6. Hope to see you there!

    Friday, January 13 is the next date for the Soup Kitchen gang to meet over at Stone UM Church at 10 a.m. The "snow birds" have flown south so we’ll be a little short handed – please come and help out if you are able. Call Venessa at 724- 4023 for information.

    The Anglican and Roman Catholic churches have a ritual that comes after the Gospel in the Mass. It is called the Kiss of Peace (although there is usually no kiss involved), Spreading the Peace, or simply the Peace. People not only shake hands with their pew mates, but with any one else they want. It involves a mass exodus from the pews to wish peace to others anywhere in the sanctuary. It usually takes about 15 minutes to get everyone settled back in their seats so the service can continue. I attended Christmas Eve Mass at Christ’s Church and participated in the ritual. My closest neighbors were two rows away. I reached over the pews to shake hands and exchange a few sentences. At the end of the Mass, the woman behind me came up to me and gave me her address and phone number. "Call me after Christmas and we can have coffee together. I promise not to proselytize." Instead of tucking the information away and forgetting it, I posted it on my refrigerator. This time I will call.

    At the Market House this week I ran into a man who used to come to this church. I know him, but not well. He invited me to have tea and a snack with him. Normally I would explain that my bus was due in ten minutes and I had to get home. This time, something made me say, "I’d love to." We talked for over an hour, mostly about spiritual things, and I came away with lots of things to think about, and a warm glow.

    Maybe the change in my willingness to let new people into my life is a result of losing my address book. I suddenly realized how much of my life was in that book, and suddenly I had no way to reach my daughter, who has just moved, or my close friends from my past lives. A few sent me Christmas cards with return addresses and I started a new book. The thought that they might be gone for good frightened me. I realized how important the connections with friends are, and the pain when those connections are broken.

So my theme for 2006 (not re-solutions) is "Connections" – building new ones, reclaiming lost ones, and being open to opportunities. It’s rare that I can’t wait an hour for the next bus.

    On Friday, January 27, 2006, the Social Action Committee will host a 6:59er and the movie Wal-Mart: the high cost of low cost. Please sign-up in the Parish House.

    Luke A. Snyder graduated with highest honors December 17 from Georgia Institute of Technology. He was awarded two bachelor of science degrees, one in computer science and one in discrete mathematics. He was honored at a reception the Friday before graduation for having one of the highest grade point averages in his graduating class.

    Being a member of the National Collegiate Scholars, Golden Key Honor Society and the Computer Science Honor Society, he also was awarded two Undergraduate Research Opportunities in Computing medals.

    Luke also worked as a teaching assistant throughout his sophomore, junior and senior years. The summer of his junior year was spent studying in Spain. He has accepted a job with Amazon in Seattle, WA, and is applying to graduate schools.

    Luke’s parents are UU church members Jim and Cindy Snyder. We extend to each of them our congratulations, and very best wishes for good things to come.

    Next deadline for submitting items for the newsletter is Friday, January 20, 2006, at 4:30 p.m.