First Unitarian Universalist Church of Detroit 4605 Cass Avenue

Detroit, MI 48201

Phone 313-833-9107

Fax 313-833-0127

June 1, 2003

You, Me & A Summer Oasis

            Helen Riebling was an “Oasis of Thinking” and we know what summer drought is.  Even as the spring rains come nearly every day, are we not living in a draught of thinking throughout the land?  This draught of thinking is the kind of thinking that can shrink the firmament to a fundament and is able to reduce the more than two hundred billion stars in our Milky Way to the “God Bless America” movement.  It is the kind of thinking capable of translating quasar flashes as far as fifteen billion light-years away to mean, “I’m writing you as a personal messenger from God.”  I am suggesting, draught of the mind is the trivialization of complexity, the repression of curiosity, the “necessary restriction” of freedom, all of these, shrunk to the fanatical, literal interpretation of some letter of some law, devised in some moment of terror.

            Intellectual drought is born of the same thinking, and is, in fact, present wherever draught breathes its foul winds on our sense of possibility.  So, while having a wonderful summer, water your mind well, make an oasis of intelligence.  And would that we all have the courage and grace (as Helen and Sheryl Walling did) to use our minds well.  Have a great summer!

                        Love, Larry

Committee News

Building and Grounds

During the month of June, Building and Grounds will be conducting tours of the heating and cooling systems of the church immediately following the Sunday services

Development Committee

In spite of rain predictions, Ruth Seifert and I managed to sell $130.00 of garage sale items Friday morning, May 23.  So far we have made $503.60 for the church.  Help is very much needed on Fridays and Saturdays this summer, if only to help take items in and out of the garage.

Tracey, Sheryl Walling’s daughter, donated Sheryl’s books.  There were many relating to health.  I hope you can try to shop at the garage sales as there are many nice clothes, books, household items, children’s and baby items, a few vintage clothes and jewelry.  We also have furniture, bikes, toys and a decorative milk can.  Call Margaret Beck at 313-882-7775 to let her know when you can help.

Ministerial Relations Committee

Like a Phoenix, the Ministerial Relations Committee rises again.  After being in dormancy for a couple of years, the Committee has been revised by the Governing Board.  It is this friendly little group’s purpose to serve as a listening post for both the minister and members of the congregation whenever there are concerns or comments to be heard.  If you have something along these lines to share, all it takes is a phone call (or face to face request) to Al Acker at 313-393-8544 or Pearl Samples at 313-863-2383 or Caroline Taylor at 519-944-8247.  Remember, open communication is the healthiest way to take care of your concerns.

Women’s Alliance

Come on June 11 (please note Second Wednesday) to enjoy the fellowship of noon luncheon in Memorial Hall followed by “Music & Merriment” led by Nancy Hutchison and Friends” to give us a delightful send-off for the summer vacation time.  Nancy will give us a little history and sample of the bands she has started here and in Indianapolis.  She will also be bringing her latest Sweet Sounds group. Please make reservations for luncheon by noon June 9.  You may phone Eiko Takemoto at 313-869-6389 or the church office at 313-833-9107.  The cost of the luncheon is $6.00. The next noon luncheon will be in September.  Watch for an announcement and have a delightful summer.

Women’s Book Club

The Women’s Book Group will meet on the following dates:

            Sunday, July 13 – “The Bean Trees” by Barbara Kingsolver

            Sunday, August 3 – “The Poisonwood Bible” by Barbara Kingsolver

Please note the time change, we will meet at 12:30 P.M. in Memorial Hall.  For more information call Eula at 248-540-4303 or Maria at 313-899-1694 or Barbara at 313-863-6891.

We Get Mail

“Greeting First Church…News from a First Church former intern and ordained minister…Valerie Mapstone Ackerman.  I am relocating again.  After three years in Park Forest, Illinois and two years at the HUGE church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, I have been called to be the senior minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Lancaster, PA.  I was born in Pennsylvania and still have lots of family there.  Come visit!  My e-mail is ValMapAck@cox.net

Blessings, Valerie

Free to Good Home

I have two unopened Hewlett Packard inkjets for printer I no longer have.  They are several years old.  If they fit your printer, you are welcome to them:

HP 5163M(HP Deskjet Portable, 310, 320, 340 and HP Deskwriter 310, 320)

Also

HP 51604A

Cindy Hill

In Memory of Helen Reibling

And Sheryl Walling

It was a sad week last week. Monday, May 19^th was Helen Reibling’s funeral and Friday, May 23 was Sheryl Walling’s funeral.

I first met Helen about eight years ago when a group of us went to the opera.  Over the years I learned how knowledgeable she was and how good she was about writing to politicians about causes.  She was very generous to the church and so appreciative of the cards we sent her.  I loved seeing her notes of appreciation and especially the last one wishing us Easter greetings.  I was so happy to have Dave Robinson help me get her to and from church and to Barbara Stevenson’s wonderful Women’s History program the last of March.  She enjoyed talking to old friends and meeting our new members.

It was a surprise to learn Sheryl Walling was my third cousin at the Brinkman reunion.  For many years she enjoyed bringing her two children, Tracey and Jeff, to church and for a while her grandmother, Lily.  She enjoyed reading about old friends in the Newsletter.  Our minister, Rev. Larry Hutchison, did a great job of speaking and it was nice to see the Mercers, Andee Seeger and Thelma Murrell at the service.

Sheryl was a real survivor spending almost all her life in a wheelchair yet she managed to earn a bachelor’s degree from Ferris.  She also held a job at the VA, raised two wonderful children, have two grandchildren, drive, own a home, rent rooms, be proficient on a computer, sew clothes, be independent and have a very up-beat outlook on life.

            Margaret Beck

Ideas for Raising Some Dollars…Barbara Stevenson

-         More good ethnic dinners –6/year

-         Celebrate birthdays, honoring with a cash donation

-         Celebrate a room, Memorial Hall, the bathroom, Pullman Hall

-         Used book sales – 2 or 3/year

-         A “raise the boiler” party with tents outside and sell food

-         Different music in McCollester Hall, Pullman Hall and Memorial Hall

-         Photograph the church and/or famous Unitarian Universalists and make into quality notecards

-         Cultural Center vending cart (flowers, fruit, water, coffee)

-         Offering to underwrite a particular bill – lights, heat, snow removal – for one month

-         Organize trips

Stratford Festival

            Toledo Art Institute

            Chicago

Just to name a few.

100^th Anniversary of Ford Motor Company

Jerry Mitchell, founder and CEO of Model T Automotive Heritage Complex, Inc. (T-Plex), invites everyone to celebrate the 100^th Anniversary of the Ford Motor Company by touring the historic Ford Piquette Avenue Plant where the first Model Ts were produced.  The plant was built in 1904 and is being restored by a dedicated group of preservationists.  The Piquette Avenue Plant is located on the corner of Piquette and Beaubien Streets, three blocks east of Woodward, two blocks north of I-94.  There will be plant tours, early automobiles, educational exhibits, a gift shop and much more, daily from 10 A.M. to 5 P.M. June 12^th through June 16^th, 2003.  Admission is $12.00, which goes to restoration of the building.  Children under 12 are free with adult.  To learn more, visit www.tplex.org

Women’s History Dinner

First UU Celebrates Women’s History at 2^nd Annual Dinner.  Eighteen people joined in a lively dinner party to celebrate the lives of women.  Saluting their own mothers and grandmothers, several guests brought along stories of women from history.  Margaret Mead and Eleanor Roosevelt were particular favorites, along with Nelly Bly, Laura Secord, Caroline Severance, Margaret Fuller and others. Food from Harmonie Gardens was a hit along with a little wine and some sweets.  The purpose, besides having good food and intelligent conversation, was to honor women who have paved the way for us with lives of passion and commitment!  Blessed Be!

Save the date, Sunday, March 24, 2004 – Start your research.  P.S. Thanks to all of you who attended!

Notes from the Church of the Larger Fellowship

If you know someone active in the military who would like some UU sustenance in these trying days, please tell them about the CLF UUMIL list serve.  Here is the link to sign up: http://www.uua.org/mailman/listinfo/uumil         CLF can be a lifeline for someone who is far away from home and from her/his church community.  Quest, our monthly worship publication, has sermons by our best UU preachers, a column by Jane Rzepka, CLF’s minister, and a column for families by our interim DRE, Dan Harper.  CLF began in 1944 as a way to communicate with geographically isolated religious liberals.  This is CLF’s finest work – church by mail and cyberspace. 

SOME DAY!

The Souls of Black Folk

One Hundred Years Later

            In celebration of Juneteenth, (the day that African-Americans in Texas finally learned of their freedom, June 1865).  In commemoration of this event we honor the life and work, Souls of Black Folk, of one who dedicated himself to fighting racism, W.E.B. DuBois.  Dr. DuBois was one of America’s greatest social activists, scholar, and writer.  He wrote sixteen pioneering or provocative books of sociology and numerous essays and monograms.  In 1905, he helped form the Niagara Movement, which later led to the formation of the National Association for the Advancement of colored People, (NAACP).  He was the editor of the NAACP periodical, The Crisis.

            Dr. DuBois was a graduate of Fisk University, a private black college in Nashville, TN.  He was the first black to earn a Doctorate from Harvard University

            In 1903, his prophetic masterpiece, The Souls of Black Folk was published.  The work was written just forty years after the Emancipation Proclamation.  The work was prophetic because in it he said America’s problem would be the problem of the color line. 

Dr. DuBois’ ideas germinated the present concepts of black power, i.e. conscious self-realization, survival, an all-black party, and the need for blacks to control their own organizations and work for the separate autonomy of the black community. 

Dr. DuBois was a pioneer scholar in the field of Black Studies.  While a professor at Atlanta University in 1896, he created the first department of sociology, which was dedicated to the study of African-American life.

The Souls of Black Folk was an extension of his classic study, The Philadelphia Negro.  Dr. DuBois’ intentions were to put science into sociology.  The Philadelphia Negro was a study in which he used an empirical approach to social research.  He was the first sociologist to use that method.  It was a study of urban sociology in African-American communities.  The findings continue to be valuable a century later.  The study was so thorough and influential that it has since been frequently referenced and quoted by many historians and sociologists.

            Dr. DuBois experienced a long, often lonely crusade in his search for a solution to the American racial dilemma.  He died in 1963 at the age of ninety-five in Ghana.  This year marks the centennial celebration of his work, The Souls of Black Folk.

            Dr. James Robinson, a Professor in the Department of Communication and Theatre Arts at Eastern Michigan University, will analyze and discuss a small segment of the timeless legacy of The Souls of Black Folk and the life of this brilliant leader.  The celebration will occur on June 22, 2003 at 11:00 A.M. at First Unitarian Universalist Church.