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Services & Religious Education for Children & Youth
at 9:00 and 11:00 am
Childcare available during services for babies and toddlers
(6 months+ to 3 years old)
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Rev. Fritz Hudson
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The ancient Celts of Britain and the ancient Anasazi of America each formed ingenious instruments to take guidance from the cosmos. How might we, in our time, connect the skies with our souls?
Rev. Fritz Hudson, Worship Leader
Linda Blouin, Worship Associate
Walden Hill Vocal Ensemble
Joe Mish, Conductor
Connie Schuelka, piano
Through music & story rooted in native American spirituality, a Navajo teacher and an Anglo student search for a path to re-creating wholeness.
Leon Joseph Littlebird & Fritz Hudson, Worship Leaders
Mark Brutinel, Worship Associate
Leon Joseph Littlebird, flute & guitar
Connie Schuelka, piano
Ordinary people can do extraordinary things. Even seemingly simple acts can have ramifications beyond our wildest dreams. The greater good of all is called into play as we recall the "power of one".
David Roth, Worship Leader & Music
Jeff Larson-Keller, Worship Associate
Connie Schuelka, piano
Je me souviens. "I remember" - what motivates the entire province of Quebec, Canada to proclaim this their motto? Souvenir, in French, is both verb and noun, a conscious activity not just an acquisition. Canadian American novelist Saul Bellow has a character proclaim, "Memory is life." How might this be so?
Rev. Fritz Hudson, Worship Leader
Greenwood Tree Duo, Celtic folk music
Connie Schuelka, piano
A Full-hour Multi-Generational Service
In this time of All Hallows (Halloween, All Souls Day, All Saints Day) we honor our life-changing memories. Please bring something small (a photograph? an object?) to display that recalls a time, place or person that re-shaped your life.
Rev. Fritz Hudson and DRE Joyce Rood, Worship Leaders
Walden Hill Vocal Ensemble
Joe Mish, Conductor
Connie Schuelka, Accompanist
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Autumn Abandon
(October, 2016)
Then Autumn came.
It came at night, but left the days for sun and self-deception.
To make us think the Summer stayed.
But Autumn came.
I didn't know it had until I saw cucumber leaves closing limp
like used yesterdays - one morning after frost.
Cucumbers are better calendars than are calendars.
They know when Summer ends. It's life and death to them.
Max Coots, UU Minister
Autumn's nighttime arrival came in Sunday's move to Monday this week. It was still there to slap my face as I turned back westward into the wind on my dawn-time circuit around Cascade Lake.
Daytime sun, though, can permit us self-deception for still a few more days. Seize them, I say. Let us live out the prediction one of cartoonist Berke Breathed's Bloom County characters once voiced: "It's fall. The annual five seconds of wild abandon out of an otherwise decorous life is imminent."
phone: 402-617-3055
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UU Class Conversations
Workshop led by Kellie Kelly and Suzanne Zilber
Saturday, October 1, 9 am - 4 pm / Commons & Sanctuary
 Class Conversations seeks to create opportunities where people are able to openly and honestly share experiences with class and about classism. Through the workshop we will begin to:
- Engage in self-reflection on class backgrounds and learned attitudes and behaviors;
- Celebrate class diversity and the strengths and challenges inherent in each group's experience;
- Strengthen our ability to be an even more welcoming place for all people;
- Grow our membership through both diversity of class and through stronger relationships in the community;
- Love our UU Principles more authentically and embody our principles more fully.
The workshop is open to everyone, members and friends of our church, as well as other UU churches or fellowships. Free childcare will be available and lunch will be provided. The cost of the workshop is $25 per person, but please feel free to pay whatever amount you would like (more than $25 is great - less is understandable - and $0 is acceptable). Contributions will be taken at the day of the workshop.
Contact Paulette DeMers at pkd1818@gmail.com or 507-696-9567 for information about this workshop. Register online at: uurochmn.org/class-conversations
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Sunday Forum - Sunday, October 2
12:15 pm in the Sanctuary
Hosted by Mark Brutinel
U
nitarian Universalism's first principle is a belief in the inherent worth and dignity of every person. It is the spirit behind so many of our justice efforts including a woman's right to choose, immigration justice and the right to vote. With medical advances often extending a persons death rather than enhancing a persons life, the right to choose the time and circumstances of ones death is becoming an urgent desire of many.
Legislation has recently been introduced in Minnesota that would allow medical aid in dying. Modeled after Oregon's Death With Dignity law passed 16 years ago, if passed it would enable people with less than six months to live and of sound mind the right to request medication from their physician to end their suffering.
The October 2 forum will enable the presenters to share the Unitarian Universalist perspective on this issue as well as a summary of the proposed legislation. There will be opportunities for questions and conversations.
Presenters:
Rev. Harlan Limpert, Chief Operating Officer of UUA
, will guide us in examining UU values and principles around end of life care.
Rebecca Thoman, M.D., Minnesota Campaign Manager for Compassion & Choices, will explain the proposed legislation.
A Special Note from Rev. Harlan Limpert:
I encourage you to read one or both articles from a recent issue of
UU World
magazine. They will give you excellent background to the topic.
Choice at the End:
In Oregon, terminally ill people have the right to seek a prescription to end their lives - thanks in large part to Unitarian Universalists.
Cross my heart and hope to die:
When my end comes, I hope I will have the power to die well.
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Healing Service - Saturday, October 8, 11 am, Sanctuary
Presented by Roxanne Schlasner
 A healing service is a ceremony that is intended to start the process of healing by acknowledging the distress and surrendering to it. With the tools of meditation and the gift of receiving healing energy from a Reiki practitioner (an energy therapist) the distress can be transformed so the healing can begin.
Cost: free-will donation
A Reiki healing service focuses on healing that within. We can choose to activate the power within us to heal the discomfort and dis-ease of what we struggle with every day. This ceremonial service helps one to restore balance of the individual personal needs in any area of the mind, body, spirit, and soul.
What type of pain do you carry with you day in and day out? Is it chronic physical pain, depression, anxiety, anger, regret, loss of loved one? How often do we find the time to be aware of the whole self (body-mind-spirit)? The healing service will take you on a journey to connect with the pain so you receive the knowledge in how to transform it. Through meditation one can connect with the habits we have built over the years and choose if we need to keep them or change them.
This healing service has a guided meditation that goes through a process to find compassion within this in turn can lead to gratitude and forgiveness. After the meditation is an opportunity to have hands-on-healing by a Reiki Practitioner (receiving Reiki is optional).
Contact Roxanne Schlasner if you have any questions.
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Triennial UU Convocation
The Convocation will take place October 27-30, 2016 at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport Hilton in Bloomington, Minnesota. Midwestern Unitarianism and Universalism, both past and present, will be a principal focus. The meeting will offer a stellar lineup of principal speakers plus scholarly papers, dramatic presentations, and music, all in the service of better understanding and advancing liberal religion.
Major speakers will be:
- Reverend Rosemary Bray McNatt, President, Starr King School for the Ministry
- Professor Tisa Wenger, Religious Studies, Yale University
- Reverend Stefan Jonasson of Winnipeg, Manitoba, a noted historian of liberal religion in the Midwestern United States and Canada
For further information, please see
http://www.uuconvo.org
or contact Victor Urbanowicz, Local Arrangements Chair at 612-220-5204.
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Sunday Visitor Chats
If you're new to Un
itarian Universalism, we invite you to attend our Sunday Visitor Chat, a brief, casual orientation to Unitarian Universalism and First Universalist Church. We will show a 10 minute video introduction to Unitarian Universalism, through the words, music and stories of UUs throughout the country. After that we will answer some of your questions and provide an introduction to our church. Childcare is available in the Nursery, if you wish. You are also welcome to bring your children into the class with you. No sign up is needed, just join us after the service!
- October 16 or November 20 or December 18
- 10:10 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.
- Meet in the Hearth Room (off the main lobby, room with piano)
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"Thanks so much for your donation of $753 on September 12 for the
Kathe Yoss Youth Scholarship Fund. We appreciate you including us in your "Share the Plate" offerings this year and your gift is wonderful!
The children and youth who need financial assistance in accessing our Youth Recreation programs will benefit greatly from your donation. We are grateful for the Kathe Yoss Youth
Rec fund to meet these needs as they come up.
Thank you so much! You make a difference in the community and the lives of kids with disabilities."
Sincerely,
Eileen Wallace, Executive Director
PossAbilities of SE Minnesota
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Shared Plate Recipient - Sunday, October 16
Our Social Justice Council has chosen
City Center Housing's Empowerment Cent
er Building a Foundation for Our Children Capital Campaign to be the recipient of our Shared Plate in October.
Your donation to the shared plate will be matched through the generosity of an anonymous member of our congregation.
Too many families and youth in Rochester are struggling with homelessness and poverty. Recently, a youth at Rochester's Alternative High School asked a teacher to borrow a tent. The teacher assumed he was going camping. Upon further review, staff found out he had been sleeping in the parking lot and wanted to use the tent to be warmer. He had nowhere to go.
Center City Housing
is going to change that with the Gage East Apartments and the
Empowerment Center
.
Gage East Apartments
includes 55-units of permanent supportive housing for homeless families and homeless youth 16 to 21 years old. The Empowerment Center will provide on-site programming by community agencies to Gage East residents and the surrounding area. Making supportive services accessible is key to breaking generational cycles of pover
ty and homelessness.
We need your help. Center City Housing is relying on the dedication and financial assistance of the Rochester community to make this vision a reality. Therefore, we are pleased to announce the start of the Building a Foundation for Our Children Capital Campaign to renovate the former Gage East School into the Empowerment Center.
The Empowerment Center will provide intensive supportive services to residents at Gage East and to the surrounding neighborhood. The need for this type of facility in this neighborhood is a result of growing poverty and homelessness.
The Empowerment Center will work with the child, the teen and the parent to provide services designed to improve life-long outcomes. Once renovated, we expect that 200 children, teens and adults will be served daily at the Empowerment Center through:
- Head Start and Early Head Start
- Family Service Rochester
- Workforce Development, Inc.
- Lutheran Social Service's LINK program
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Social Justice at 1st UU
by Julie Gilkinson, Social Justice Council Chair
As a first step, be sure you are registered to vote (perhaps you can help register others), know where to vote, and VOTE November 8th. For a democracy to work well we need an informed electorate.
We are partnering with the Rochester NAACP, Rochester Muslim Community Circle, and Rochester 4 Justice to sponsor candidate forums.
One of the forums will be held at our church on Thursday, October 6:
Training is being offered to 1st time volunteers and those wanting a refresher.
When:
Monday, October 10th, 6:30 pm
Where:
Zumbro Lutheran Church
624-3rd Ave SW,
Rochester, MN
For further information, please email or call Karen LaFee:
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Thanks, UU Volunteers and Congregation!
by Sandy MacLaughlin, Hawthorne Helps Coordinator
In celebration of all
UU Hawthorne Helps Volunteers and our supportive and generous
UU Congregation, please enjoy the flowers in the Sanctuary on Sunday, October 2.
The September 18th "Share the Plate"
donations totaled $1,058.42. This amount is matched through the generosity of an anonymous member of our congregation.
Mini Store Staff: Mary Amundsen, Barb Anderson, Phyllis Beery, Aleta Borrud, Margaret Brandl, Diane Closson, Ronice Donovan, Ethan Eggler, Melissa Eggler, Jessie Finch,Julie Gilkinson, Nancy Harrell, Marilyn Harstad, Cathy Houghtaling, Shayna Johnson, Lynne Kirklin, Kelly Rae Kirkpatrick, Ann Lien, Rhonda Lorenz, Laura Lukes, Julie Lundberg, John MacLaughlin, Maggie O'Connell Nolte, Chris Ramage, Becca Rolstad, Anne Shea, Cathy Stroebel, Linda Thompson, Sue Wheeler and Joyce Wood.
Shoppers: Jodi Edmonson, Nancy Harrell, Maggie O. Nolte, Lyn Smith & Margo Stich
Publicity: Melissa Eggler, Julie LarsonKeller & Cathy Stroebel
Tech Support: Rob Harveland, Cathy Stroebel, Linda Thompson & Ella VanLaningham
Crafters: Marge Dalen, Jessie Finch, Laura Lukes, Sandy Ramage and Pat Siljenberg
RE Blue Barrel Helpers: Becca Blouin, Aiden Eggler, Serena Fedderson, Ellak Flanningan-Warren, Ani Freimund, Amani & Milan Gupta, Autumn Harff, Savannah & Sebastian Mielke, Clare Nelson, Issac Olson, Olini & Yanquis Riba-Marmolejo, Alex & Charlie Rivera, Daria, Jamis & Kyla Robertson, Alice Seabarkrob, Rose Tacinelli, Riley
& Sam Thompson, Ethan, Landon & Sylvia Thompson-Jewell, Arianna Vermilyea, Isak & Brian Winter, often with parent assistance.
Apologies and extra thanks to anyone we may have missed!
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Save the Date
Our
6th Annual Mike Podulke Service Auction will be the evening of
Saturday, November 12. Get this date on your calendars and start thinking of your fabulous donated goods, services and events! Donation forms will be available in October.
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Happening at First UU
Information about activities, events, classes and more is i
n our Weekly eNews, on the
Events at First UU
page on our website, and is
available on Sunday morning.
(Click on either the link or the image to see details for these opportunities.)
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Upcoming Newsletters
The deadline each month is as noted.
| Issue |
Due Date |
| November |
Monday, October 24 |
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Care Coordinators
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October 2-15
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Paula Horner & Beth Plaetzer |
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October 16-29
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Kay Eberman & Jo Payne |
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| October 30-November 12 |
John & Sandy MacLaughlin |
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| Our Staff |
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Office Hours
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Contact
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Rev. Fritz Hudson
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Interim Minister |
by appointment |
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Joyce Rood
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Director of Religious Education |
Sunday mornings
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| Sarah Rothwell |
Coordinator of Congregational Life |
Wednesday, by appointment |
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Jody Tharp
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Co-Congregational Administrator |
Monday thru Friday: 9 am-3 pm
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Connie Schuelka
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Co-Congregational Administrator |
Monday, Wednesday, Friday:
9 am-3 pm
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| Joe Mish & Connie Schuelka |
Co-Directors of Music |
by appointment |
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| Beth Curtin |
Childcare Coordinator |
Sunday mornings |
childcare@uurochmn.org |
Tom Rud
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Custodian |
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through church office
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Rev. Dillman Baker Sorrells
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Minister Emerita
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| Our Board Officers |
Members at Large
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Search Committee
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Jerry Katzmann, President
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Charyssa Cobb |
Mary Amundsen
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| Gail Bishop, Vice-President |
Randy Crawford
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Aleta Borrud
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| Ann Hutton, Secretary |
Angela Davey
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Judy Jensen |
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Rob Harveland, Treasurer
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Eric Eggler
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Amy Nelson |
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Greg Turosak
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Dave Siljenberg
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Robin Taylor
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George Thompson
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