First Unitarian Universalist Church of Detroit

Moderator's Report

To the Congregation

Dear Members and Friends,

Rev. Larry Hutchison's last service was educational and delightful to the ears with all of the special music and the fun review by Larry and Nancy's "Things I Meant to Say".  The retirement party afterwards was wonderful.  It was my pleasure to present the following action to Larry Hutchison during his party:

Minister Emeritus Larry Hutchison

in grateful recognition

of his countless valuable contributions

to our beloved church

during his nine-year tenure as minister,

and with the hope that we will continue

to enjoy the benefits of his wisdom,

The Board of Trustees

and the congregation of

First Unitarian-Universalist Church of Detroit,

with great love and respect,

hereby officially confer upon

Larry Hutchison

the title Minister Emeritus

The Board of Trustees approved this motion at its meeting on the 14^th of June 2004.  The congregation will have the opportunity to approve it at our Fall Annual Meeting.

 

Larry will be "on call" through mid-August to help us if any special need arise.  He expects to be in the office for a few hours every Tuesday in case you would like to visit with him or treat him to lunch.

 

David Parke, our interim minister, will move into his apartment in the Lafayette Park area on June 27.  He will be in Detroit for a week getting settled prior to departing for visits with his family - he has six children and eight grandchildren.  David will return to Detroit on August 18^th and hold regular church services on August 22 and 29.  The service September 5^th will be a Labor Day songfest and regular church services will resume on September 12^th.

 

I look forward to seeing you at our summer services.  As always, please contact me if you have any questions.

                        Happy Summertime

                        Colleen Dolan-Greene

                        Moderator 2003-2005

 

Committee News

Building and Grounds

Please join us for a cleanup/fixup day at First UU on Saturday, July 10 from 9:00 A.M. - noon.  Questions?  Call Earl Harvey at 313-563-2629

Development

Thanks to Sharlene Gage for her help with the garage sale Friday.  Last Saturday we were able to give the church $147 making a total of $1075.00 donated to the church.

Thanks, also, for the nice donations of items from the Bendure's, Cotman's, Lee Thume, Benita Mullins, John O'Connor, Ann Taylor, Mary Lee Ventzke, Ellen Sibley, Sharlene Gage and my niece Elena Takkla.

Any donations of items and help you can give is greatly appreciated.  Hope you can come to Grosse Pointe Farms some weekend and have a shopping spree.  It is very pleasant sitting outside in the yard and meeting many interesting people in this gorgeous weather with all the beautiful flowers in the yard.  We have a lot of baby clothes and toddler girls clothes, women's shorts and many other great values.  Most are only 50 cents or $1.00.  Margaret Beck 313-882-7775

 

 

 

Worship

Listed below are some of the results of our Lay Leader training held on April 18^th. We discussed how we could extend our service beyond worship and some of the answers were:

v     Tee shirts with church logo

v     Encourage each other to DO

v     Tell the world about us

We also talked about what leadership is

v     Maintaining focus

v     Ownership

v     Making it fun

v     Proactive

v     Getting to know the people

And we talked about what worship is:

v     Positive energy

v     Soul healing

v     Including arts

v     Emotional support

v     Awareness outside of self

v     Performance

There will be more in upcoming Newsletters.

 

Women's Book Club

.  The book for July 11th will be The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown and our August selection will be Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McColl Smith. Please note change of time for the summer sessions.  We will be meeting from 12:30 - 2:30. Please contact Maria Majer at 313-899-1694 for more information.

 

Work Wanted!

Do you have light housework that you probably won't get to before the turn of the century?  How about a family member who needs a companion.  Maybe washing and ironing that’s been piling up to the ceiling?  Is there anything else around your

house that needs doing ? Would you like to be relieved of the drudgery of shopping?  Then I’m you person! Call me – Charlotte Allen - I'll do it for you and won’t charge you an arm and a leg.

313-393-3982 or cell phone 313-804-0065 or email me at

clallen_rev@earthlink.net

 

Thank You

On behalf of Larry's retirement party committee, I would like to thank everyone for all the help and generous contributions that were made.  Your efforts made a great party even better.

Irene Schultz - Barbara Stevenson

Co-chairs

 

We Get Mail...

From Helga Herz...Dear Friends at First UU Church of Detroit, Your Newsletters and the many kind greetings I have received make me feel I have a continuing, lasting connection with the Detroit UU church.  I have found here a new UU church and just joined the River Road Unitarian Church in Bethesda, MD.  My cousin, Diane, and her friend Marge joined the same day.  The church has three ministers and numerous committees, task forces and activities in which I can only participate selectively.  The May 18^th "Celebration of Millie’s Life" in Washington, D.C., which I was able to attend, was a rousing inspiring tribute. Sen. Debbie Stabenou was among the speakers, and several other Michigan people were there...

Ed. note:  Helga's address is 2201 Colston Dr. Apt 811 Silver Spring, MD  20910-2549

 

Speaking of addresses, Nancy and Larry Hutchison's address is 11527 Forrister Rd. Clayton, MI  49235 - phone 517-547-3429

July Birthdays

Happy June 18^th birthday to Joe Thomas.

July Birthdays:

4. Woodrow Brown, Mildred Robinson

3. Rose LaBolle

5. Ruth Seifert

7. Tracey Martin

11. Alex Mercer

12. Edie McKnight

21. Felix Sirls

25. Stuart Smith

Ed. note…If you haven’t seen your name on our birthday list, it’s because we don’t have it.  Please jot down you name and birthday (year not needed) and leave it in the Newsletter box outside the church office.

 

Possible Action

Submitted by Barbara Stevenson

Larry Hutchison spoke with me regarding a discretionary fund to address some of the needs of homeless and "economically challenged" people in the area around the church.  For many First UU church members, there is a desire to help, but uncertainty about what works best.  Former interim minister, Dick Hasty, also suggested a fund to be managed by a team of First UU members.  Another concern has been what to do about panhandling during coffee hours by homeless and others.  There are many trained social workers and community workers in our congregation, can you help?  Can we meet and discuss this idea in July? After church? Please contact me if you are interested in developing a program and a fund.  A program could be done jointly with Crossroads.  Call me at 313-863-6891 or 313-571-3400 – ext. 39

 

Items from the Internet

The year was 1904.

Maybe this will boggle your mind, I know it did mine!  The year is 1904...one hundred years ago. What a difference a century

makes! Here are some of the U.S. statistics for 1904.

The average life expectancy in the U.S. was 47 years.

Only 14 percent of the homes in the U.S. had a bathtub.

Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.

A three-minute call from Denver to New York City cost eleven dollars.

There were only 8,000 cars in the U.S., and only 144 miles of paved roads.

The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.

Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California. With a mere 1.4 million residents, California was only the 21st most populous state in the Union.

To be continued.