Sunday schedule:
Discussion forum: 9:15 a.m.
Service: 10:30 a.m.
Sunday services take place at SUUF building, 901 Beatrice in Salina, Kansas. Join us for coffee and conversation at 10:00 a.m., prior to the 10:30 service, as well as after the service is over. Dress is casual.
Events listed below take place at SUUF building and are free, unless otherwise noted.
SUUF Calendar
FEBRUARY
Wednesday afternoons, 4:00-:006pm
Reverend Thea’s office hours. Stop by for a visit and a hot drink. It’s an opportunity to let Thea know what’s on your heart and mind personally or having to do with the Fellowship.
Thursday, February 2, 5:30-6:30pm
Weekly Meditation Group. The Meditation Group meets in the RE classroom. There is a brief reading, sitting and walking meditation, and a brief discussion. All levels of meditators are welcome. Email for more information.
Sunday, February 5, 8:15am
Social Justice committee meeting. Anyone interested in being a part of the UU Social Justice Committee is welcome to come to a committee meeting that will meet before the forum.
Sunday, February 5
Forum: Charity or Moral Obligation. “We all agree that it would be morally wrong not to pull a drowning child from a nearby lake, even if that meant ruining a suit of clothes worth, say, $500. But suppose we know that a donation of $500 to Oxfam is virtually certain to save a child in Africa from starving to death. If there’s no moral difference between the child starving in Africa and the child drowning nearby, then donating to Oxfam (or similar groups) is not an optional act of charity but a moral obligation. In particular, if a couple spend $500 on an anniversary dinner instead of giving it to save starving children, they have acted immorally.” What do you think of Peter Singer’s line of reasoning?
Service: Black History in Music, Talk, and Food. Farrah Hastings and Rev. Nietfeld help us to celebrate black history month with a guest musician, stories and words from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Harriet Tubman, and Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Following the service, Farrah is hosting an old-time soul food potluck with a showing of the movie “The Help.”
Sunday, February 5 at the Soul Food potluck
A new covenant group is getting started and those interested will gather at the potluck following the service to set the first meeting date. A covenant group is an intentional lay-led small group that deepens and expands the ministry of a congregation and helps to build community, providing opportunity for deeper relationships -- intimacy -- and opportunity for deeper spiritual exploration and search for meaning -- ultimacy (as defined on the UU Small Group Ministry Network website). Email Thea at okiethoreau@yahoo.com for more information.
Monday, February 6
Show your support for Salina LGBT people and a city-wide amendment at the City Commission meeting. Salina LGBT need your help! It is time LGBT have equal rights in Salina. The North Central chapter of Kansas Equality Coalition is going to the City Commission meeting Monday February 6, 2012, to ask for an amendment to Chapter 13 of the Salina city code pertaining to equal opportunity and affirmative action to include “Sexual Orientation” and “Gender Identity” in the category of protected classes. It is essential we show our support for equality. The February 6th City Commission meeting begins at 4:00 pm in Room #107 at City-County building, 300 W Ash. The meetings begin with the Citizen Forum where Janice Norlin will ask to have the equality amendment added to their agenda. We want a room full of supporters as well as some willing to stand up and just say they support this amendment. (The meeting begins promptly at 4:00 pm, so please do not be late.) E-mail Larry Bunker, North Central Kansas Equality Coalition Treasurer, at lbgm67401@yahoo.com or call 785-452-0171 with questions and/or to let us know you can attend. With your support we can made a difference.
Thursday, February 9, 5:30-6:30pm
Weekly Meditation Group. The Meditation Group meets in the RE classroom. There is a brief reading, sitting and walking meditation, and a brief discussion. All levels of meditators are welcome. Email for more information.
Sunday, February 12
Forum: Essential Worth and Dignity. Suppose a house is on fire and two people are in danger of death. I’m fairly near to one, whom I could almost certainly save; the other is farther off, so that a rescue is possible but not highly likely. Morality no doubt would say, make the certain rescue. But suppose the person further off is my wife. The principle of treating everyone equally would imply that this should make no difference. But this is a difficult conclusion to accept. Shouldn’t I try to save my wife even if the likely result is that both she and the stranger will die? How does this relate to the UU principle of the essential worth and dignity of every person?
Service: Social Justice. The Kansas Equality Coalition is a unified statewide group of fair-minded people who are determined to end discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, seeking to ensure the dignity, safety and legal equality of all Kansans. Come learn more about how to support equality in our community.
Wednesday, February 15, 11:30am-1:30pm
Kansas Nonviolence Network potluck lunch. Peace and Justice educators and activists meet quarterly around the state to share stories, ideas, and books. This month the group is meeting at our Fellowship and everyone is welcome to join the simple potluck lunch and conversation. For more information, contact Thea Nietfeld, okiethoreau@yahoo.com
Wednesday, February 15, 6:00-7:30pm
OWL, Our Whole Lives Sexuality Education, Meetings for Parents and Children. OWL, or Our Whole Lives, is a comprehensive, life span, age appropriate, sexuality education program. OWL provides information about sexual development, but also helps participants to clarify their values, build interpersonal skills, and understand the spiritual, emotional, and social aspects of sexuality. These two meeting will help to determine how many children and their families are interested in the OWL program, so that we can begin the actual curriculum in February on the second and third Wednesday evenings.
Friday, February 17, 7:00pm
Social Justice Film American Teacher. This month's film is a documentary from Academy Award-winning filmmaker Vanessa Roth (Freeheld), which makes you want to cry, or scream, or both. The film was created in part as a response to the blockbuster Waiting for Superman, which many have found flawed in its simplistic embrace of charter schools as an educational solution. The creative direction and narration supplied by actor Matt Damon and novelist Dave Eggers provides a powerful view of another unmet problem, high-demand/low-pay teacher work conditions. The bright young public school teachers profiled in the film, from a cross-section of communities ranging from rural to urban to suburban, are people you would want your kids to spend their days with. Yet long hours, low pay and scant respect for the profession undermine career paths that should be respected and revered. American Teacher was inspired by Teachers Have It Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America's Teachers, a book co-authored by Calegari, Daniel Moulthrop and Dave Eggers, in which teachers reflect on the pros and cons of their jobs. Teachers Have It Easy was on The New York Times Best Seller List, but the authors wanted to reach a larger audience with their message. As Eggers and Calegari wrote in a New York Times editorial, "When we don't get what we want in our military endeavors, we don't blame the soldiers.”
Sunday, February 19
Forum: Corporations as People. If corporations are people with certain rights, should we as a society impose certain responsibilities as well? What would these responsibilities look like?
Service: Enjoying Love, Religiously. Rev. Thea Nietfeld shares that noticing and appreciating love is a joy. Our Universalist ancestors have given us theological grounding with their assertion that God is Love. Let's share the favorite things and favorite people who warm our hearts and make us smile.
Sunday, February 19 following the service
Board meeting. All members and friends are invited to attend the monthly board meetings.
Sunday, February 19, 2:00pm
UU book Club. At our January meeting, we voted to move our Book Club to the 3rd Sunday of each month beginning in February. In February, we will meet to discuss The Family by Jeff Sharlet. The public library has this book, and it seems a fitting one for this election year. Location to be announced. Looking ahead, The Twelfth Insight by James Redfield will be discussed in March, and Hunger Games is scheduled for April. We will need to plan locations for those as well.
Wednesday, February 22, 6:00-7:30pm
OWL, Our Whole Lives Sexuality Education, Meetings for Parents and Children. OWL, or Our Whole Lives, is a comprehensive, life span, age appropriate, sexuality education program. OWL provides information about sexual development, but also helps participants to clarify their values, build interpersonal skills, and understand the spiritual, emotional, and social aspects of sexuality. These two meeting will help to determine how many children and their families are interested in the OWL program, so that we can begin the actual curriculum in February on the second and third Wednesday evenings.
Wednesday, February 22, 6:00-7:45pm
Summer Peace Camp planning session. A group is just beginning to form to develop ideas for a summer peace camp for those going into kindergarten through sixth grade. The peace camp will take place for five days this summer from June 4-8.
Thursday, February 23, 5:30-6:30pm
Weekly Meditation Group. The Meditation Group meets in the RE classroom. There is a brief reading, sitting and walking meditation, and a brief discussion. All levels of meditators are welcome. Email for more information.
Sunday, February 26
Forum: Core Aspirations. “Happiness comes from having substantial, rich core aspiration(s) that are challenging for you (thus requiring personal growth) yet achievable, that you deeply value and wish to embrace and pursue (e.g., physicist, farmer, parent, machinist, philanthropist, spouse, monk, sufi, etc.), and having sufficient freedom, ability and resources to successfully purse them.” --Prof Richard Warner, U of Penn. If you value aspiration this highly, is it possible to not value the same aspirations in others and is it possible to be truly happy without also being moral toward others?
Service: Spiritual Odyssey. Merriam-Webster defines odyssey as a long wandering or voyage usually marked by many changes of fortune. Come this morning to hear Patrick Harrington share his spiritual voyage with us.
Monday, February 27, 6:00-8:00pm
Introductory Program on Evolutionary Consciousness. Come to the Fellowship this evening for a video by Barbara Marx-Hubbard called Humanity Ascending…a new way through together, Part 1: Our Story. Discussion, including the possibility of forming a group to continue to focus on evolutionary consciousness, will follow the video and light snacks will be provided.
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UPCOMING EVENTS
MARCH
Sunday, March 4 after the service
Gathered Here. Gathered Here is a joint initiative of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) Board of Trustees and the UUA Administration in which all Unitarian Universalists (UUs) are invited to discover our common aspirations and unleash the power of our faith.
JULY-AUGUST
July 31-August 5
Camp StarTrail: Five a Days of Fun, Learning, Fellowship, Spirituality PLUS air conditioned luxury. Come to Camp StarTrail (between Omaha and Lincoln) for another grand adventure/retreat for UUs of all ages. Past activities have included bead-making; dream analysis; painting; quilting; survival skills; Amazing Race; sock hop; talent show; barn dance, camp fire (with s’mores); challenge courses; OWL for adults; swimming, nature hikes; ad hoc writers’ group, bridge games and lots more.
Hotel-style luxury
Camp StarTrail pampers the camper with four housing options -- meals included: (a) hotel-style luxury with private baths; (b) college dorm-style rooms with bath down the hall; (c) rustic cabins with a shower house; and, for the purist, (d) actual honest-to-goodness camp-style camping with a short walk to the rest rooms.
Camp StarTrail is sponsored by Prairie Star District Unitarian Universalist.
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901 Beatrice Ave. | Salina, Kansas 67401 | 785-825-6275 | info@uusalina.org
