First Unitarian Universalist
Church of Detroit

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We have seen much activity for the month of January! We had a festive farewell for Ann and Earl Harvey as they prepared to move to Florida and we hosted a wonderful Middle Eastern dinner on the 19th with many of you in attendance on that cold January evening. We also participated in the annual Martin Luther King – MOSES dinner to honor those committed to social justice in our community.

Meanwhile, our Wednesday Night Vespers continue and I hope each of you have the opportunity to stop by and check out Vespers. It is a great mid-week retreat.

As we move into February, please mark your calendars for Sunday the 3rd as we host another festive farewell for the Schultz family who will be relocating to New Mexico. On Saturday, February 18th we will host a planning session to measure McCollester Hall for some painting and window treatments. If you are interested, please plan on stopping by at 10:00 AM. We will be painting and partying on the 23rd so please join us at 10:00 AM. I hope to see many of you then as we show this room where we spend hours of social time together.

Also, February 24th we will have experts from Recycle Detroit sharing with us what can be recycled so we can use our recycle containers to their best advantage. The information session will be at 12:30 PM. More information will be forthcoming, so keep an eye on the website, Newsletter and Orders of Service.

February also finds us continuing our “Building a Better World” program, a field test on racism, scheduled for Sunday, February 3rd and Wednesday, February 6th. This is also the last chance to sign up to participate as well!

If you have not noticed, your Board is hosting coffee hour this month. This will help us understand the process and with the Worship Committee, create a user friendly “how to” sheet so that any group or team of members can host coffee hours during any given month. Look for a signup sheet on the “Governance” Board in the hall near the sanctuary. This is an easy way to support an activity we all enjoy – coffee and conversation.

Remember your Board meetings are the second Wednesday of the month at 7 PM in Room 212 and you are welcome to join us as we deliberate policies to ensure our future and our legacy. I hope to see you at one of these meetings. We continue the review process for heating the Church House, supporting the 2008 Canvass and preparing to formulate the next budget based on the work of the various groups including our “planning” team who are working to collect your input for our future plans.

Finally, don’t forget we have our own Ms. Lee Thume and Company’s CD available for purchase with the proceeds supporting our church. See Lee Thume or Gwen Foss to purchase your copy.

Let’s continue to “liberate the truth, radiate kindness and love courageously”, together.

Alicia Biggers

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It is with sadness and excitement that I edit this last Newsletter. As most of you know, we are relocating to Las Cruces, New Mexico on February 11. I began editing the Newsletter in 1989 and it has been a most interesting, and sometimes challenging, experience. I would like to thank you all for allowing me to hone my writing skills over the past 20 years. I would also like to add that our door will always be open to our First UU family. We have rented a 3 bedroom – 2-bath house so there will be plenty of room for visitors.

Irene Schultz

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We meet every Wednesday Night 7:30-9:00pm at 1st UU to sing together. No talent required. Bring a few songs to share, any style, or just come and sing with us. Our main rule is "no put-downs."

Gwen Foss, 248-473-4566

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After a holiday respite, the Core Team on Building the World We Dream About at First UU met and has scheduled times for continuation of the discussion begun last fall about understanding the dynamics of racial discrimination and creating its antithesis – The World We Dream About.

The program is being field tested at our church and involves 24 separate discussion topics. We have completed 4 discussion topics. The upcoming topic is unit 3A – Problems and Promises of Unearned Privilege. This topic will be presented Sunday, February 3 at 12:45 by two facilitators. The same topic will be offered Wednesday, February 6 at 7:00.

The next unit (3B) continues the discussion on unearned privilege and suggests methodologies for dismantling privilege. That program will be offered on Sunday, February 17 at 12:45 and Wednesday, February 20. We will continue this sequence so that the first and third Sundays and first and third Wednesdays of each month will be the dates when the program is offered. Mark your calendars now so that you can reserve the dates and participate in the program. This sequence should tie in nicely with Souper Sundays, Sunday potlucks, and dinners associated with Vesper services on Wednesdays.

If you have not attended the meetings that took place in the fall, we urge you to attend the immediately upcoming sessions. Building trust within the group is important and having knowledge of prior discussions is necessary to achieve the goals of the program. Please realize, therefore, that if you have not participated in The World We Dream About yet, the February sessions will be the last opportunity for you to enroll in the program.

Jim Harvey

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Some of us enjoyed the play Ceremonies in Old Dark Men at the Detroit Repertory Theater. James Bowen, former UU Red Door Player, had the lead part and did a superb job. $60 was turned in to our treasury for the general budget.

Margaret Beck

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Upcoming luncheons and programs:
These are the first luncheons and programs for 2008. Cost is $6 for the meal that begins at Noon. Reservations can be made by calling the church office or Eiko Takemoto by the Monday before the luncheon. All are welcome.

February 20, 2008 (3rd Wednesday)

Poetry Reading -- Bring a favorite to share.

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Stove, refrigerator, a trombone and some furniture for sale – no reasonable offer refused. Call Irene at 313-838-3348 if interested.

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STRANGE DEFINITIONS
ADULT: A person who has stopped growing at both ends and now grows in the middle.
TOMORROW: One of the greatest labor saving devices of today.

FAKE NEWS

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5-year phase-in plan that would become known as “Euro-English”.

In the first year, “s” will replace the soft “c”. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard “c” will be dropped in favour of “k”. This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter. There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the second year when the troublesome “ph” will be replaced with “f”. This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expected to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.

Governments will encourage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.

Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent “e” in the language is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing “th” with “z” and “w” with “v”.

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary “o” kan be dropd from vords containing “ou” and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl.

Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi to understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united Urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

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The deadline for printed material is Sunday, February 3, 2008 no later than NOON or the following Monday no later than 5:30 p.m. for electronically submitted material. Please DO NOT send items to Irene, as she is moving out of state. Contact the Minister, Office Administrator or Webmaster for information.