UUFOM

One of my favorite novelists once began a story with the admonition "A beginning is a delicate time." It is an admonition that is in my mind as I have been preparing to become your new Interim Minister. When I met with Rev. Fran at General Assembly in Minneapolis, she told me of her love for you as a congregation and as individuals, and how much she enjoyed her time with you. She expressed pride in you, and hope for the time that I will be able to spend with you in the coming year. I am both excited and honored to have been chosen by the Interim Minister Selection Committee and the Board to walk in ministry with you.

I am coming to UUFoM having spent a year as a Chaplain Resident at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital and Rainbow Hospice and Palliative Care in Park Ridge, IL. It has been an amazing experience to walk with families through traumatic injury and loss in a Level 1 Trauma Center, and to walk the journey known as "End-of-Life" with hospice patients and their families.

Of the many things that I will take away from this past year, one of the most profound has been that what seems to matter most at such moments of crisis and loss is not esoteric theology, not church doctrine or creed or truth with a capitol T. What has mattered most to these families amidst such loss is to know that they love one another, that they will miss one another, and that they forgive one another. It is from that place that they are able to begin again, amidst such change.

With the beginning of a new ministry, we too are given a moment to "begin again in love", as a reading from our hymnal says. I look forward to "beginning again" with you, as I visit the congregation during the first week of August. I look forward to meeting you, learning about your passions, seeing how you, as Joseph Campbell said so well "follow your bliss". I look forward to exploring with you the vision you have for UUFoM, and sharing with you some of the journey that has brought me to you.

Through August, I will be learning about the congregation (reading by-laws, Board minutes, and annual reports). I will be talking with committee chairs, staff members, and the Board, and be learning about you as individuals and as a congregation. I hope to be laying the foundation for a strong start for a new Director of Religious Education. I will step into the UUFoM pulpit for the first time on September 5th. During August, you will see me come and go, as I will be commuting from Chicago as I complete my Chaplain Residency. On August 27th, Sandy (my wife) and I will complete our move to Midland, and be proud to call your home our new home.

If you could design a word that meant excited and humbled, joyous and sober, motivated and sedate, inspired and open to what will come… it would begin to describe my emotions at coming to the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Midland. It is a beginning. It is a delicate time… and I pray we can begin together, another beginning amidst the many in our lives… in love.

We invite all who feel ready to make a commitment to become a member of our fellowship. To do so, talk with Kevin King (Membership Committee Chair), Lisa Drottar (Board President), or any member of the membership committee.

***August 8, 2010 "The Almost Unitarian Rabbi"
Rev. Leah Hart Landsberg

Unitarian Universalism has always included multi-religious people. In the 1800s, Rabbi Sonneschein said that Unitarianism and Reform Judaism varied "only in the shading." How does this story help us be together now, in a world and religious movement with so many wonderful and complicated identities?　

The Rev. Leah Hart-Landsberg is president of UUs for Jewish Awareness (www.uuja.org), and is a lifelong UU-Jew.

***August 15, 2010 "Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People? — An Evolutionary Approach to Theodicy"
Fr. Richard Kropf
Coordinator: Jozef Bicerano

Theodicy is the branch of theology that defends God's goodness and justice in the face of the existence of evil in our world. The emergence of evolutionary scientific perspectives, both for our entire physical universe and for life on our planet, has led to major advances in our understanding of this perplexing problem.　 Dr. Kropf, who is a specialist in theology and science, will discuss evil from this new perspective. He will also suggest its implications, both for the future of humanity and for our concept of God.

August 22, 2010 "Hear Me"

We will explore poetry as a form of expression in this service, which will be based upon poetry from various sources.

August 29, 2010 "First Principle Discussion"
Prad Mathur

The first principle of UU religious faith "Individual Worth and Dignity" will be the subject of discourse to be presented by Prad Mathur. He will trace the origin and development of this concept in History, Literature, Political Theory and Law. He will discuss various French, English, Irish, Russian, and American authors and publicists whose treatment of the subject moved human imagination in the Western world. Their writings shaped the norms, mores, and ethos that permeate American political, legal and constitutional systems to our enduring benefit.

*** (August 8 and 15) following the service, we will take our guest speaker out to lunch. Everyone is invited to join us.

Social Justice News

Ye hungry for justice, Ye weary of hate, Ye passionate for action, please come.

Hot Topics

Hot Topics will be on hiatus for the summer- but that doesn't mean we can't gather for conversation around the coffee
machines if people are interested. Hot Topics will resume in September. Please keep an eye out for September's topics
in August's newsletter.