Service Schedule:

            June 7      Appreciation Day

            June 14    Intrigue and Mayhem

            June 21    Wrap It Up And Take It With You

            June 28    TBA

 

MINISTER’S MUSINGS

    The church year ends this month. WOW!  What does that mean for UUCE and for your minister? 

    To begin, I will represent UUCE as a delegate to General Assembly the last week in June.  When I return, I’ll share the highlights with you in the Sunday July 5^th service. Then it’s time for study leave, vacation, the Katrina service trip and a five day English retreat with Thich Nhat Hanh. I am excited.

    Except for the times when I am out of state, I will be available for emergencies.  Meditation will continue on Mondays and Fridays at noon, although there may be a week or two when. I will respond to emails and telephone calls, but perhaps not instantaneously.  Although I will not attend regularly scheduled meetings, I would be delighted to participate in committee or task force retreats.

    This has been a wonderful year. Just think about the changes we have made, the traditions that we have kept, and the love that circulates here. Perhaps you can understand my excitement in realizing that, now that I know you better, I can begin planning for next year. For example, just this week I ran across a neat script and thought, “This would be perfect for the UUCE Players!”  I hope that you too are thinking in future terms and will give some thought and words to the question: what would be good for next year.

    On June 7^th we will ask you to plan for the coming year by signing up for committees and activities. Later this summer we hope to publish a master calendar for the year.  By August we will have an adult RE skeleton schedule.  Please contribute! Give us your ideas. Let us know what you want.  Concretely we are asking you for social justice and religious exploration ideas.  Should we continue movie night? Does Brown Bag Luncheon meet a need? Please brainstorm, imagine and vision.

    Be ready. Next year promises to be amazing and it starts out right away, this July.  The Center for Congregations grant which we received affords us the marvelous opportunity to develop new interests and skills as we contribute to UUCE.  We are in particular need of persons with interests in technology, - internet, websites, newsletters, finance.  Please note that I used the word “interests” not “skills.”  This can be a fun learning time for us. In fact, you may want to learn without making a long term commitment. That’s a good thing.

    I am so proud to be a member of this community and to share myself as your minister.

Summer blessings,  

    --Rev Deane

 

Deane Oliva
Unitarian Unversalist Church of Evansville
812 474-1704

 

SUNDAY SERVICES

June 7^th – Appreciation Day – Join us for this intergenerational service of celebration as we appreciate the volunteers in this church, prepare for the new year, and receive our summer Joy and Contemplation stones.  –Rev Deane and Tom Moor, Worship Associate

 June 14^th – Intrigue and Mayhem – Unitarian Universalism’s relationship to Afro Americans will be explored with emphasis on its intriguing relationship to General Assembly.   – Rev Deane and Diane Brewer, Worship Associate

June 21rst – Wrap It Up and Take It With You – This end of the year wrap up by Rev Deane will highlight her views of this past year at UUCE and plans for the future.  –Rev Deane and John Schaeffer, Worship Associate.

 June 28^th – TBA - Worship Associate,, Tom Moor

 

BOARD OF DIRECTOR’S MEETING

    UUCE Board of Director's meets the first Monday of the month at 6:30 PM. 

 

DO YOU HAVE THE VISION?

    The next step in our planning process is to develop the vision statement for UUCE.   This, like the mission statement, will be an open process and we want to have your ideas.

    We're starting with an open meeting on Thursday, June 4 at 6:30 p.m. at the church.  Bring your best ideas and we'll brainstorm through a thought process that will help direct us further down the path of the process.  As always, there are no right and wrong answers.  

    We hope to see you there!

 

MEDITATION

    Meditation will continue Mondays and Fridays at noon at UUCE.  It will last approximately 40 minutes.

 

LATE BREAKING NEWS
    We have an opportunity to vendor-participate in at least two festivals this summer.  The first is June 19th and 20th.  Announcements will be made on Sundays. Stay tuned for more information.

 

TIME AND TALLENT SIGN UP

    June 7^th is Appreciation Sunday. After the service the foyer will be filled with clip boards and sign ups for the coming church year.  Now is the time to think about what you would like to commit to this next year.  Some of you may be continuing the work that you have already begun; others may want to switch to or add a new area.  Some may not have made an actual commitment in the past; we ask you to consider supporting your church in this very useful way.  There are many types of tasks necessary to the sustenance of our church community. Some occur regularly, - once a week, once a month – others are more unique. Some have a set time schedule; others can be accomplished on your time schedule.  Here is a sample:

--Volunteer at United Caring Shelter X times per year.

--Change the leaderboard/marquee early each week.

--Copy and fold the Order of service.

--Three hole punch three copies of each week’s Order of Service and place in notebook.

--Join a committee

--Be a greeter.

--Spruce up the kitchen on a monthly basis

    These ideas are a sample of the opportunities at UUCE. Please bring your thoughts and pen on Sunday, June 7^th

 

 Calling All Fundraising Ideas!

    The Stewardship Committee is organizing a fundraising committee to organize and promote the ideas of fundraising that are all around our congregation.  This is important in order to create a "Yes, We Can" attitude among our membership when it comes to projects (special or ongoing) that require funding.

    Different types of fundraising endeavors are possible.  The Fall Festival is a lot of fun for those who volunteer their time and talents and offer a chance to "put our word out" in an informal manner to those within our community that may not know much about our religion and our church.  It is a very significant part of our fundraising activities on an ongoing basis -- the booths at the festival are mostly renewed at the end of the festival for next year's festival -- lots of advance planning and preparations are needed to make it as successful as it can be.

    Other types of fundraising are ongoing, lower profile activities, such as using GoodSearch.  Jan Steinmark has organized this capability and often has reminders in our bulletins and around the church to get people to use it -- painlessly -- when they search the web.  Other similar projects can help the church.  I recently got us registered at Home Depot so we can purchase items for the church there without paying sales tax.  This may not seem like a big deal until you realize that getting a 7% discount on our budget next year would amount to over $8,000.  Of course, we can't get a 7% discount on everything in our budget, but let's be sure we are getting that savings where possible.

    A third type of fundraising endeavor involves internal fund drives for a special purpose.  An example of this was the special fund drive to raise funds to offer a competitive bonus arrangement as we worked to recruit our new minister.  We are considering initiating a special fund drive to help offset the costs of the growth projects that we will be undertaking as a result of the “Bridge Between Ideas and Reality” (Grant) project as funded by the Center for Congregations (CFC) and Lilly Endowment.  The CFC will provide about $8,000 in funding for these projects.  We will need to come up with slightly more than that in order to implement the projects.

    The biggest question is whether you are ready and willing to become a champion for some type of fundraising endeavor for the benefit of UUCE.  For years now, Teri Rawlings has made huge sacrifices in order to implement our booth at the Fall Festival so she is obviously an example of a dedicated champion.  What kind of activity could you manage for the benefit of UUCE?  Would you be willing to organize an occasional rummage sale?  Does developing a vegan/vegetarian food festival appeal more to your taste?  Or maybe you want to help coordinate the publicity around the use of scrips from local merchants.

    Bring your fundraising ideas to the organizational meeting of the fundraising committee on June 4th at 6:30 PM at the church.  Join us as we work to organize and promote fundraising at UUCE.

 

EASY FUNDRAISERS

    All of us would like to donate generously to the financial running of our church, and here are two ways that won't cost you a cent!   When you are preparing to search cyberspace go to www.goodsearch.com, type in the charity as "Unitarian Universalist Church of Evansville" and each search generates about a penny.  And when you are shopping on-line, just take one additional step - first go to www.goodshop.com, (again the charity is Unitarian Universalist Church of Evansville) then click on your store and place your order - and the store will donate a percentage to our church!  Now, how easy is that?

 

BAKE SALE

    The Social Justice Committee will have a bake sale on Sunday, June 14, following the service. We will have all kinds of various baked goods, so bring some extra change and your sweet tooth and help support our endeavors!

 

Annual Church Dinner Presentation

    Over the past year, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Evansville has accomplished so much together, and I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that we are not the Church that we were last year. We have truly entered a new era with a strong start.

    In so many areas, we have grown in new directions. People. Congressional life. Leadership. Purpose. Orgnization. Commitment. Stewardship. And we have renewed our dedication to a just and sustainable world. With this in mind, let’s revisit the past year’s accomplishments.

 

Achievements for 2008-2009

 

1.     Minister: This will always be remembered as the year our second called minister began her journey with us.

    Last year, at this time we were only anticipating the arrival of our new settled minister. Last August, Deane joined us to become our second called minister. Her arrival was memorable as our outgoing interim minister Carolyn Brown and our new minister Deane Oliva participated in a passing of the keys ceremony, which was a rare treat. Since her arrival, Deane has brought to us her energy and commitment, which has been contagious and inspiring. Our Board members covenanted with her in October with Heartland District’s guidance. We worked hard to make sure that our contractual obligations to Deane have been met in full. Just recently, we celebrated her installation in a ceremony that involved ministers from across the city and UU ministers from the region.

 

2.     Leadership.

    We respect the equal but tri-part structure of this Church. This consists of the UUCE Board, the Minister and the Committee on Ministry.

    We also strengthened our relationships with other Unitarians in celebrating UU Sunday, working with Heartland, attending regional meeting and training events.

    The Board created a new working relationship with Church committees this year. At the start of the Church year, each committee was asked to present its goals and activities for the next year. There were conversations and the Board, I believe, was permission giving in letting those committees do what its members were passionate about. The Board wanted to make sure each committee had the resources needed to carry out their plans. These activities were tracked through regular and quarterly Church Council meetings with committee leaders. Organized in this way, the Church leadership worked  together effectively and with a renewed vitality that is reflected in all of our other achievements.

 

3.     Congregational Life.

    We saw the Congregation ramp up its activities over the summer and continue to develop throughout the year.  We can see this through a number of select activities: Decorating our sanctuary walls. Blueberry picking. Committee fairs. Movie nights. Brown bag lunches. Meditation sessions. Dinners for Eight. And a Zoo outing to celebrate Earth Day.

    Our Religious Exploration program has reported growing enrollment numbers: Over 30 students. We should also note that we have strived to make childcare available at every event where we know families will be in attendance.

    We also supported our choir this year through special gifts as we worked to develop the musical talents within our Church.

    And our Caring Committee has been there for us in our times of joys or sorrows. We are truly grateful that we have such caring individuals who put thoughts into action.

 

4.     Purpose: This year, we jumped wholeheartedly in to defining ourselves for a new era.

     We did this through telling our own stories, which were shared in World Café events. Those events culminated in the following mission statement:

“UUCE is a welcoming congregation that encourages religious freedom, nurtures individual spiritual and ethical growth, celebrates diversity, and promotes a just and sustainable world.”

     In the future, other meetings will help us to forge a vision and strategic plan.

 

5.     Grant.

    Another historical event in our Church occurred this year: We received an $8,000 grant from the Center for Congregations. Next year, we will be implementing the grant to make further improvements in membership, communication and building plans.

 

6.     Caring for what we have.

    This year, the leadership took a walk through our House and Grounds. We know that the Church will have to make a decision in the next few years about future plans to stay or to find a new place. It will be a decision that is formed and made together as we seek to carry out our vision and mission statement.

    House and Grounds has made improvements throughout the building by fixing doors, installing new thermostats, putting up flag holders or spraying for termites among a list of items. That committee held regular spruce up days to make our Church shine for key events.

    This year, we have a new look and feel thanks to a generous loan arrangement and much hard work from Jack and Alice Carden. A wall was knocked out. The space of our main room was opened up. A sink and cabinet were installed. The walls were repainted. And hard wood floors were put down.

 

7.     Safe Congregations.

    We also revisited our Safe Congregation Policy. We made sure that every member and friend of our Church had the revised policy in hand. And we conducted a thorough review to make sure we were doing what we said we doing in our policy.

 

8.     Expanded social justice efforts.

    This month we had a large committee meeting for social justice. The committee has grown from two at the beginning of the year to many people with shared energies who participate in a variety of service activities.

    Our Green Sanctuary effort this year was coordinated through RE. The idea was to educate the kids and then have them kids educate us for Earth Day. Another effort this year was to begin to make our social gatherings green for a just and sustainable world. The Annual Dinner event this year was vegan and we made every effort to reduce our waste by making better choices in dishes, silverware and napkins. The plan isw to continue making inroads until we have a more green environment.

 

    At the beginning of my term, I delivered a sermon called “New Beginnings.” It was about the purpose of rituals for the young and old alike. The lesson was that that through our rituals we grow together and become stronger and better focused as a people to create the kind of world that we want to live in. This year, we have grown together.

    We will continue to grow. With next year’s new team, which consists of our Board led by Jan Steinmark, our Minister, and our Committee on Ministry led by Mark Rigney, as well all the Committees, we will work with the Congregation to continue yet unfinished goals and achieve more.

    I have been proud to be your President this year. I want to thank each and every one of you for your shared commitment to the Unitarian Universalist Church of Evansville.

    In Peace, Chad Tew

 

GREETERS NEEDED
   Want to contribute to the church in a meaningful way but only have, say, 20 minutes a week to spare? Perfect! Be a greeter! Greeters are those wonderful, smiling people you've noticed welcoming people at the door, passing out hymnals in the sanctuary, and straightening up chairs after the service on Sundays. It's a fun, easy, and important job that doesn't take much time at all. Interested? See me, Lauren Talley, in church, or contact me via email (xgj36@hotmail.com) or phone. I look forward to hearing from you!

 

WANTED: Greeter Coordinator
    As most of you know by now, I will be moving to Indianapolis sometime at the end of the summer.  Therefore, the church will need another Greeter Coordinator.  The Greeter Coordinator's job is to find/assign people to be greeters each Sunday morning (2 for each time, one at the main door and one in the sanctuary).  There are already lists typed up of greeter duties for people who haven't greeted before and I even have a handy little notebook for you to write names down in.  No manual labor or meetings required - just talk to people and ask them to be greeters!  You can be one too, but you're not required to be.  If interested, please call or email xgj36@hotmail.com Lauren Talley

 

UUCE WATER LEAK
    Thanks to the wonderful folks who came in to help clean up after the water leak.  Thanks to you, the church is put back together and ready for business almost as usual.
   On Friday, May 22 the line to the water cooler broke sending water spewing up to the ceiling and then all over the floor in the back portion of the church.      

    Folks mopped, wet vacuumed, and gathered pitchers full of water on Friday.  On Saturday we cut out the carpets, dried as much as possible, threw out irretrevably damaged products, etc.  We were done by 11 AM.
    The insurance company has been called.  We have made an inventory of what we know has been damaged, what we suspect may be damaged, and those items that we are watching in case of damage.
    Thanks to everyone who helped.   

 

ADULT DISCUSSION GROUP

    The UUCE discussion group meets the 1st and 3rd and 5th Sundays of the month at 9:00 AM at the church. 

 

POTLUCK

    Our monthly potluck will be on June 28 following the service.  Plan to join us and gather with fellow UU’s for good food and good conversation!

 

SUGGESTIONS WANTED

    Do you have an idea for a deserving organization or agency for our monthly donations and 3rd Sunday plate shares?  We would like to have a yearly schedule made up by this fall, and your suggestions are very much needed!  Please contact Jan at jansteinmark@yahoo.com

 

SUMMER DONATIONS AND PLATE SHARES

    We are going to do something a little different for June, July, and August monthly donations and plate shares.  We have begun fixing and serving dinner at United Caring Shelter on the 3rd Friday of each month, and we are in need of supplies.  Hopefully over the summer we can build up a cupboard of necessary items so we aren't rushed at the last minute.  So, during the month of June, please bring in bags of fresh potatoes and/or cans of green beans (if you shop at places like Aldi's or GFS, you can get BIG cans of beans - much easier to deal with than opening lots and lots of small cans!). 

    We will let you know in July and August what the suggested food items are.  The plate shares for the summer months will go to buy needed items such as meat, fresh fruit, etc.  Please be generous - we need LOTS of donations to feed 100 people!  (And if you have time to help with the actual preparation and serving that would be wonderful!)

 

UU MEMBERSHIP CLASS/CHAT
    Are you new to the church and thinking about becoming a member?  Have you been visiting for a while but still don't know what we're about or just want to know more?  Are you a member who wants a refresher on Unitarian Universalism?  Join us during our monthly potluck held after the service every fourth Sunday of the month.  We'll have special lunch tables set up for visitors and interested members to sit with each other and our minister, Rev. Deane Oliva.  This will be a time to ask questions about and learn about UU history, UU beliefs, the history of our church, and the path to membership, as well as a great way to meet people at the church.  Children are welcome to eat with us, but childcare will also be provided. 

    Questions?  Contact Lauren Talley at xgj36@hotmail.com or Dave Granholm at davegranholm@hotmail.com if you have any questions.

 

SOCIAL JUSTICE SUGGESTIONS
    Many local churches are known for their involvement in major community projects.  First Presbyterian, for example, is associated with Little Lambs, which provides assistance for expectant and new mothers; Grace Baptist Church operates its own food pantry; St. Anthony’s runs a homeless shelter.
    The Social Justice Committee wants your ideas on projects for UUCE.  Perhaps we could work with students at an inner-city school or organize an annual alternative craft fair.  What community project do we want people to associate with our church?  What process should we use to get started?
    We’d like to begin planning in September, so send your suggestions and ideas to Tina Sizemore (tina5652@yahoo.com) as soon as possible.
    Thanks!
The Social Justice Committee

 

BROWN BAG LUNCHEON

    The Rev. Charles Gipson has invited us to the Willow Pond Retreat in Oakland City on June 18^th for our June Brown Bag Luncheon.  The topic will be Silence. We will leave UUCE at 11:30.  Once at Willow Pond, Rev Gipson will give us a short introduction to the topic and the retreat center. We will have time for a period of silence as well as lunch.  We will return between 1:30 and 2 depending on folks' commitments.
    For this Brown Bag Only, please let Rev Deane know that you are planning to come and whether you would rather be a driver or a rider. Thanks. 

 

COFFEE

     Place your order for chocolate, cocoa, and coffee. Contact Chris Norrington - cnorrington@hotmail.com or call.  Thanks for your continued support of this project that helps the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee. 

 

SHAMANIC DRUMMING CIRCLES

    The First Friday Shamanic Drumming Circle meets the first Friday of each month at 7:00- 9:00 PM at the church.  All are welcome.

    The Third Friday Drumming Circle meets the third Friday of each month at 7:00- 9:00 PM at the church.  All are welcome.

 

GIFT CARDS

    Do you have any gift cards that you aren't going to use? - maybe there's just a bit of money left on them, or maybe it's a store you really don't go to.  If so, our church can use them!  Every little bit adds up, and can really help!  Thanks - the Social Justice Committee