UU Minister Visits
John
Young,
minister at the Jacksonville UU Church, will visit our congregation on June 3. His
sermon title is “Sacred Humanism John
Young grew up in a small town in Kansas. He completed his course work for a
Ph.D. in political science, but moved on to seminary at Meadville at the
University of Chicago, where he received his D.Mn. in 1971. In 1987, he was a
Merrill Fellow at Harvard University. He has served UU churches in: Chicago,
Bloomington, Indiana, New York City, Paramus, New Jersey, Sacramento,
California, and is now the Parish Minister at the Jacksonville, Florida UU
Church. He has been active in civil rights and disarmament movements, in
anti-poverty, homeless and affordable housing efforts, mental health, and
international liberal religious ecumenical, United Nations, and peace efforts.
He is an adjunct professor of philosophy and religion at the University of
North Florida, teaching courses on: Gandhi, Indian Religions, and Religious
Non-violence. He has two grown children in California, and his wife, Kathleen
Moran, is a technical writer.
Plan to come the first
Sunday in June and meet and learn from this UU minister from one of our
neighbor congregations in the Florida District.
Water
Service - A service is planned
for early fall to share summer experiences and celebrate our community.
Collect
a vial of water from places you visit or from your home or workplace and save it for this
service.
New Officers
Congratulations to the new officers for the church year
beginning July 1, 2001 - June 30, 2002:
President - Diane Holliman
President-Elect - Ann Kasun
Secretary - Charles Green
Treasurer – René Kerr
Religious Education Director - Joan Cline
Building and Grounds Chairperson – William Atkinson
Thank you to nominating
committee members Joan Cline, Chair, and Lea Atkinson, and Jim Ingram.
Women’s Group
Join us for good food and great company, the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of
each month at 7:00 p.m. Bring a snack, ideas for discussion, or just yourself!
Contact Julie Halter for more information.
Saturday, June 16,
6:00 p.m.
Several
members of our UU family will be leaving Valdosta this summer. Please help
celebrate their time with us at a potluck dinner at the home of the Kasuns. Festivities begin at 6:00 pm.
Call Ann if you need more information .
Molly, Doug, Tom, Julie - thank
you! Our best wishes go with you, as you begin anew - or renew - your
connections with others. We will miss you, yet you are building
more links on our ever-expanding interdependent web! (Expect
visitors....)
Thank you! Thank you!
To
the Board this year for jobs well done!!!!
President Virginia Branan, President-Elect and Program Chair Diane Holliman,
Secretary Doug Fraser, Treasurer René Kerr, R.E. Director Ann Kasun
VIRGINIA'S VISION
A note from the newsletter editor: I have
admired Virginia’s vision for our community from my first days in Valdosta.
We are fortunate that her leadership skills have often focused on our
church. Thank you Virginia for
your vision for our congregation and skillful leadership to help us reach that
vision. As you leave the Board
for now don’t stray too far. We
need your talents and wisdom. Thank
you for being you and for sharing yourself with us.
MED
Congratulations
to Jack Ford!
Jack Ford, our minister here in
Valdosta for several recent years, is now in full Preliminary Fellowship with the UUA.
Your editor thought that you might like to know something about the
basic procedure for someone to become
a UU minister. Jack has provided
the following information. If you
are new to our church, what he has to say will help you understand how well
prepared our UU ministers are and really appreciate what Jack has been doing
over
recent years and his accomplishment in reaching this milestone.
There are actually 3 levels of
involvement in becoming fellowshipped, that is sanctioned through the UUA
Department of Ministry. An aspirant is one who has made initial contact; a
pre-candidate has completed more paperwork, enrolled in seminary, etc.
The third level is the candidate.
To be accepted into fellowship,
a candidate must have completed the following:
* Master of Divinity degree or
its equivalent
* C.P.E. (Clinical Pastoral
Education), one basic accredited course, usually in a hospital setting.
* Career Assessment Program at
an approved center; includes psychological assessment, analysis of skills,
MMPT-2; Myers-Briggs, etc. Jack
says he completed this step at the Center for Career Development and Ministry,
Newton Centre, MA., and it took 4 days.
* Supervised Internship in
ministry equivalent to at least one year full time. Jack competed this step
while
serving as our minister here in Valdosta.
In addition to all of this, a candidate must
provide:
* Biographical information form
and a 1-page personal and family history
* 4-page essay, "The
Theological Context of My Call To UU Ministry"
* 4 to 6 letters of
recommendation, in various areas of competence
* Statement of Competence
covering 15 topics: liberal theology, UU history, world religions, social ethics, religious education, worship,
management, Hebrew/Christian scripture, etc.
* Reading list of at least 25
books specified by the Ministerial Fellowship Committee (M.F.C.)
At or near the end of these
accomplishments, each candidate appears before the M.F.C. for a 1-hour oral
exam which includes a 10-minute sermon and 45 minutes of questioning based on
the packet of information generated by the
above requirements, evaluations, etc.
This is the final step which Jack
completed in Chicago Friday, May 4.
Someone in Preliminary
Fellowship must be called to ministry by a UU church and complete 3 successful
annual evaluations. At that time
the minister will be accepted into Final Fellowship. Ministers reaching this full fellowship are honored in a
moving ceremony at General Assembly each year.
Way to go Jack
and best wishes for the future!
UNITARIAN
UNIVERSALIST CHURCH OF VALDOSTA
2001
ANNUAL MEETING MINUTES
MAY 6, 2001
I. CALL TO ORDER by Current President - VIRGINIA BRANAN
II. Minutes by Doug Fraser of
the 2000 Annual Meeting was read by Virginia and approved with no corrections
or changes.
III. A presentation of the
2001-2002 budget was proposed by Rene’ Kerr. A motion was made to approve
the proposed budget by Jim Ingram and was seconded by Betty Derrick and after
no further discussion vote was taken and motion passed.
IV. Diane distributed a
Program Committee survey and discussed content and intent. Virginia asked that
the survey be completed and returned for review.
V. Virginia recognized the
outstanding service that Jim Ingram had given during the past year for
improvement of the church grounds; Bobbie Dixon and Lea Atkinson
for the cleanliness of the buildings and William Atkinson for service
of maintenance of the buildings and grounds.
VI. Jim Ingram read the
nomination of officers for 2001-2002 year beginning June 1, 2001. Virginia
asked for other nominations from the floor. There were no other nominations. A
motion was made to accept the slate of names as presented; a second was made
and the motion passed.
Congratulations was offered
by President Virginia Branan to the new Board of Directors:
President:
Diane Holliman
President
Elect (program chair): Ann Kasun
Secretary:
Charles Green
Treasurer:
Rene’ Kerr
RE
Director: Joan Cline
Buildings
and grounds chair: William Atkinson
VIRGINIA BRANAN announced that
the UU General Assembly meeting will be June 21-25th in Cleveland,
OH and asked if anyone was interested in attending.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
BY DIANE HOLLIMAN
1. A new board of directors’ orientation will be held May 27,
2001.
2.
Diane recognized Virginia Branan for
outstanding service as President in 2000-2001.
Respectfully
submitted:
Charles
Green, Secretary – 2001-2002
Welcome to Our Newest
Member: Pete Zimmerman.
Peter Zimmerman
grew up in Texas, where he received is Bachelor’s in Religion from Baylor
University. He is married to Dana
Zimmerman, a native Georgian who teaches at Berrien High School.
Pete works at Greenleaf Psychiatric Hospital as a counselor and hopes
to get his Masters in social work. Peter
is active in the National Association for the Mentally Ill.
Pete is interested in Celtic culture, psychology/sociology, and role
playing games. He is a self
described, ”liberal, inclusive Christian” and is especially concerned for
those spiritual seekers who want to find a safe place to explore faith.
Social Action
Activities
Break Bread Together
Our
date for meal deliveries with the Break Bread Together program is the 2nd
Monday of each month. If you can
deliver meals on this day beginning about 11:00 AM, please contact Virginia
Branan.
Programming
Plans/Opportunities
Ann Kasun, President-Elect/Program Chair
July
2001-June 2002
Since we are getting ready to
begin the church year, I thought this would be a good time to touch base with
each of us about programming plans and some opportunities for each of us.
I
have agreed to work for our community by
serving as Chair of the Program Committee. I have asked several members to
serve on the committee with me and as soon as I have responses back from
everyone I will share their names with you.
In
the meantime, it is important for me to share with you how I plan to approach
this job. I think that we all
have an understanding of just how amazingly diverse our group is.
With such a group, it would be impossible to meet the needs of each and
every member with every program. It
is my intention to attempt to bring programs to our church that are as diverse
as our members. My starting point
will be the surveys that you recently completed.
Speakers that the majority of the congregation has enjoyed in the past
will be invited to return to broaden our knowledge of familiar topics or to
challenge us with new topics. If
you have not yet had the opportunity to complete a survey, please do so.
When we reviewed the topics
proposed by the UUA for discussion and action this year, the overwhelming
majority of you indicated that the topic that most interested you is the
separation of church and state. The topic that received the second highest
number of votes was the changing family.
You can expect to see speakers on both topics this year.
Diane Holliman volunteered to
take care of arranging visits from a UU minister. While this is not yet
complete, you should be able to expect a minister once a month. Additionally,
once a month I will attempt to arrange for a speaker who is able to tie their
discussion to one of the UU principles.
In all of this, I will need
your patience and your help. Because
of our rich diversity, we move in many circles in this community.
I am asking that each of you keep our programs in mind while you are
going about your life. If you hear an interesting talk or lecture please get the
contact information for the speaker and share it with me. If you run into someone at a meeting, in the grocery store,
or while buying a pizza, who has something interesting to say, please get a
phone number or an email and let me know.
Please also become involved in
our programs by volunteering to lead an occasional service.
You really don't want to listen to me each and every week.
This is not difficult and does not require a lot of prep time. I will
take care of getting your music and reading choices into a printed program, if
you do not have those resources. I
will also be happy to conduct a
basic
worship class if anyone wishes to serve in this capacity, but does not think
that they know how.
We all need to work together to
make certain that our Sunday morning services remain a valuable way to spend
our time. I am counting on you,
please let me hear from you! Ann Kasun
Treasurer’s Report
March
Outstanding Debts
Mortgage:
$40777.45
UUA
$238.00
$41015.45
Savings:
$2500.00
Income:
Pledge:
$1180.00
Plate:
$163.49
Fundraising:
$1054.55
Rent:
$240.00
$2638.04
Expenses:
Mortgage:
$700.00
Utilites:
$197.31
Postage:
$34.00
Insurance:
$674.00
Speaker:
$488.50
LAMP:
$100.00
Advertising:
$525.00
UUA:
$238.00
Electrical:
$325.00
Fundraiser:
$179.26
$3461.07
Your Treasurer, René
Kerr
Congratulations to Betty Derrick on her NSF
grant (with a physics colleague) for an undergraduate laser laboratory at VSU.
Betty has also just been reelected to another three year term on the
Council for the American Association of University Professors.
She is one of three people representing District V, which encompasses
most of the southeast. The
Council is the governing body of the Association.
UU Activities and Announcements
Further information is posted on the bulletin board at the
church.
June
15-16 Florida District New President’s Forum, University UU Society in East
Orlando
June
17-21 Exploring the Nantahala Wilderness, Plan a MountainScape at The Mountain
Retreat and Learning Center in Highlands, NC (828) 526-5838
June
21-25 General Assembly, Cleveland, Ohio
July
1-7 Family MountainCamp, The Mountain
(see above)
July 8-14
Leadership School for Social Justice, The Mountain (see above)
July 22-28 SUUSI 2001
Mark
your calendar now for this summer week of fellowship and fun on the Virginia
Tech campus in Blacksburg, VA. Brochures are available at the church.
This year’s theme is The Interdependent Web.
A bracelet was left at the CoffieeHouse and has not yet been claimed.
It is silver inlaid with turquoise, blue, and beige stone.
Mexico is engraved on the inside.
If it is yours, ask one of the officers.
Are
you a UU... and a Seminole too?
Can you help? The University Unitarian Universalists of FSU are attempting
to identify as many alumni/nae from FSU as possible. We'd like to let you know
about our Campus Ministry through our bi-annual newsletter. We join a
nationwide effort to collect alumni/nae information for schools across the
nation. Whatever your university, please send in the following information
about yourself: Your name, address, email, telephone number,
colleges/universities attended and year graduated. Send it to kim@cennexus.com
or Campus Ministry, UU church of Tallahassee, 2810 N. Meridian Road, Tallahassee, FL
32312. FSU Alumni can visit www.afn.org/~afn49740/uuu.html for an online form.
A
PRAIRIE HOME WEEKEND – OCTOBER 12-14,2001
Members of the White Bear Unitarian Universalist
Church in Minnesota invite you to join us for our fifth annual bed and
breakfast weekend. The highlight of the weekend is attending a live broadcast
of Garrison Keillor’s radio variety show A
Prairie Home Companion. Other activities include sightseeing in
Minneapolis and St. Paul, touring historic landmarks and museums, fellowship
with WBUUC members and much more. Attendees will stay B&B style with
members of WBUUC members and dine with them on Friday and Saturday nights. For
more information: Write WBUUC PHW, 328 Maple Street, Mahtomedi, MN
55155;E-mail whitebear@unitarian.org;Phone
651-426-2369.
JOIN UNITARIAN
UNIVERSALISTS FROM THROUGHOUT THE SOUTHEAST FOR
THE
ANNUAL GAY, LESBIAN, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER PRIDE
FESTIVAL AND
MARCH
ATLANTA,
GEORGIA
FRIDAY
– SUNDAY, JUNE 22 – 24
Volunteers
will be staffing a booth throughout the weekend providing outreach on behalf
of the Unitarian Universalist Association.
Parade on the 24th.
BRING YOUR
CHURCH BANNER!
For additional information, please contact George
Adams, Atlanta UU (write UU-Valdosta for more information at ufv@geocities.com
)
