Greensheet for UUFA Community – December 1, 2024

DECEMBER 2024 – UUFA Greensheet Newsletter 

Happy Holiday Season to all in our community and those we have not yet met.  We are a welcoming congregation and meet each week at 11:00 AM at 184 Longview Hts., Athens, OH .

Sunday services for December 2024

December 1 – 11:00 AM – Service & Potluck – We welcome our service leader, Nellie James.

Gratitude for the Physical World:  I Sing the Body Electric

A contemplation of the amazing complexity that is our physical selves and an expression of gratitude.  Potluck afterward.  Please bring a dish to share and if you would , kindly provide a card including the ingredients for those with special dietaru needs. Thank you and we look forward to seeing you on Sunday.

December 8 – 11:00 AM- We welcome Nellie James as service leader and Bill White as speaker today.

Title: Unraveling of consensus: how the internet changed us, and how we can move forward.

In the 1990s, three friends and I started an ISP in Athens because we believed in the promise of the internet to revolutionize discourse and consciousness. And, as a transformative technology comparable to the printing press, it did, but not the way we expected. The 2024 election results and the rise of far right and populist ideology are a direct result of how the internet has fundamentally unraveled consensus reality. The traditional tools and methods for discourse have become useless if not counterproductive. But there are paths forward, ways to be lights in the darkness.

December 15 – 11:00 AM – Caroling, Cookies and Community – Welcoming Barb Harrison, Nellie James and Jessie Roberson as leaders today. Please join us this Sunday morning as we celebrate the season.  We will enjoy fellowship together through song and cookie decorating.  Baked cookies and decorations provided.  Be ready to take your decorated cookies home with you to share.

December 22 – 11:00 AM – Celebrating the Winter Solstice – We welcome service leader Barb Harrison

Please join us as we celebrate the Winter Solstice and create Yule Logs or Holiday Pine Swags to take home.  In the spirit of the season, we pause to celebrate the blessings of the past year and welcome the return of the Sun.

December 24 –  CHRISTMAS EVE service – We welcome Rev. Hilary Krivchenia for our Christmas Eve service.

December 29 – 11:00 AM – A Ritual of Letting Go, Cleansing, Intention and Hope – We welcome service leader Roberta Roberson. This ritual is about letting go, metaphoric cleansing and quenching of thirst, setting of intention, healing, new beginnings and possibilities.

 

SPECIAL EVENT – SEORA (Southeast Ohio Rainbow Alliance) – Saturday , December 21st – 3:00 PM – 6:00 PM

UUFA members and friends are asked to help volunteer to work this event.  SEORA is facilitating a holiday party, with gifts and activities for kids, on this day.  Volunteers are needed to help “person” various stations at this event.  Please see Susan Westenbarger to learn how you can be involved.  (suusanw.uu@gmail.com)

 

UUFA Person of the Month – Anna Mather – The UUFA would like to recognize Anna Mather this month for her positive leadership in our community.  If you have been with us on a Sunday morning , you know that Anna can be found, leading service, providing goodies for the table or giving us support as members of the fellowship community. Thank you Anna .

 

Special Holiday Sale at UUFA  – Please see the beautiful handmade and vintage items available for sale just inside the fellowship hall.  If you purchase an item, please put the money inside the donation box provided.  We are extremely grateful to our own Richard Thieret for making this sale possible.  Funds will go to the fellowship general fund.  The sale will remain open throughout the holiday season. If you have an item to donate please contact Richard or one of the board members.

 

UUFA Executive Committee Updates for November 2024

In attendance (by Zoom) for the November 9 board meeting were: Richard Thieret (president), Pete Mather (president-elect), Susan Westenbarger (Treasurer), Roberta Roberson, Jessie Roberson, Andy Ray, Barb Harrison, Nellie James and Marilyn Zwayer (Recorder).
Last month we brought in a little more money than we spent.  We sent $500 to the UUA Relief Fund to help with recent disasters in NC, as well as other places.
The Membership Team (Barb Harrison, Jeff Wunderly, Roberta Roberson, and Jessie Roberson) would welcome others to join them.  They plan to take on service projects, such as the upcoming SEORA toy give-away (Dec. 21, from 3pm- 6pm with set-up and clean-up on either end).  We hope that other congregation members and friends will consider volunteering to help with this.  Contact Susan Westenbarger (suusanw.uu@gmail.com).
The fellowship building continues to host a wide range of events:  belly dancing, Zumba, book club, AA, Ecstatic Dancing, music lessons…  Richard has made a checklist, for users to understand their responsibilities.
Our Columbarium now has an agreement form (thanks, Richard).  We need to map out which spaces are occupied and which are available.
The Tech Committee (Andy, Roberta, Barb and Patrick Gordon) have to go-ahead to purchase a new projector to replace our current model which dates from 2008.

Our next meeting will be Dec. 14, 2024, by Zoom.

 

Updates from our Denomination – Unitarian Universalist Association 

Living Abundantly

By Rayla D. Mattson

“Give a person a fish, they eat for a day. Teach a person to garden, and the whole neighborhood gets tomatoes.”
—Unknown

My grandfather’s farm was in the middle of nowhere, Georgia. When my family would visit, he would often complain to my dad that my sister and I were too much like city folk. We didn’t know how to tend to the animals, we knew nothing about the crops, and we were always hollerin’ at this or that. I would complain to my mother about how I would never do this or that on a farm.

I now dream of moving back to that land—which, as a kid, I didn’t understand. I think about the animals I want on my farm and how I want to sit on my porch in my rocking chair, looking out over the land just like my granddaddy did. I also wish I’d paid more attention to my father’s beautiful, lush garden because until this year, my garden never produced enough for my family of four to eat.

Outdoors in a field, a person crouches near the ground. In their hand is a clump of soil, which they're displaying to the camera.

This year, my garden gave me hope: I managed to get one ear of corn, four strawberries, and three jalapeños. But there was a surprise, too: for the first time, I used as much dirt as I could from my composting. As the garden flourished, I noticed something growing. To my amazement, I was growing massive amounts of butternut squash!

The curious part is that I’ve never planted butternut squash. I do, however, make butternut squash soup every winter—and always put the seeds in my compost. The crop that’s grown most abundantly came from seeds that had been part of my compost dirt! The squash that grew were large and heavy; beautiful and tasty. I had to give lots of it away. (What I now know for sure is that my farm will have butternut squash!)

I’ve dreamed of gardening and living in a way where there is enough for my family, and plenty to share. And even when I couldn’t figure out how, still this year my garden grew enough. My life is often like this: I dream of ways to share but rarely have enough for the four of us. Yet sometimes, even still, my life garden grows and there is plenty to share.

Prayer

Oh, Abundant Source of Life, may we recognize that our gardens and our lives can grow abundantly, even when we don’t

understand how, and that there is always enough to share.