Huntsville Unitarian Universalist Fellowship

To the dull mind all nature is leaden. To the illumined mind the whole world burns and sparkles with light.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

IN MEMORIUM

The Rev. Dr. Frank Schulman

March 26, 1927 - January 4, 2006

The Huntsville Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship lost its best friend and minister on January 4, 2006. True to his word, Dr. Schulman modeled courage in his battle with cancer and dignity in his death, thus continuing a lifelong pattern of commitment to the causes and principles he believed in. A scholar, teacher, minister, author of six books, theologian, historian, and civil libertarian, Dr. Schulman inspired us all.

After serving as minister of Emerson Unitarian Church in Houston for twenty-five years, Dr. Schulman agreed to become our minister in 1997. With his leadership, we have grown in numbers and become stronger in our faith. Twenty members of our congregation journeyed to Houston to attend a memorial service in his honor on January 8. That's more than half of us and gives witness to the high regard in which we hold him. "Frank, we miss you."

Huntsville UU Services
Services are held on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of each month at 10:30 a.m. in the Laura Chapel of Huntsville Memorial Hospital. Visitors are always welcome. For more information, call 295-3170.

Sun. Feb. 12: Dr. Don Post will speak on "Responding to the Holy Other." He asks: What can we expect from the Holy Other and what does the Holy Other expect from us? How does one respond to a God who seems to love some and not others? How does one make sense out of this and what is the appropriate human response to the Holy Other?

Sun. Feb. 26: Our guest speaker will be Robert Winter Owl Vann, a Cherokee storyteller and genealogist. Speaking about "The Gift of the Teller," he will cover Native American re-enactment storytelling, children's stories, tall tales, and improvisation.

Huntsville UU Women
Wed. Feb. 1: The Women’s Sharing Circle will meet at 10:30 the home of Roberta Krock to finish Part I and begin Part II of the study guide for What the Bleep Do We Know. Discussion facilitators are Roberta Krock and Anne True.

The free study guide can be downloaded on the internet from http://www.whatthebleep.com/guide/

Wed. Feb. 8: The UU Women will join the Red Hat Society for lunch at 11:00 at the Catfish House on Hwy 19.

Feb. 24-26: The Southwest UU Women's Annual Conference will be held in Ft. Worth at the Doro Tesoro Hotel. The theme this year is "Discovering What We Know: Celebrating 20 Years of UU Women's Wisdom."

Report from Joan Stringer on Festival of Cultures
Plans for the Festival of Cultures are coming together nicely. The date of the event is Thursday, February 9th, from six until nine. There is no charge for tickets, and no one will be turned away.

The coordinators of the food and entertainment committees met on January 17th and on January 24th. Not all churches have been contacted, but many are participating.

We UUs are contributing the drinks, (coffee, tea, and lemonade) creamer and sugars. Happily, I can report that the UUs have really come out with coffeepots in arms and offers to help!!! Yes!!!! So far the Krocks, the Siglers, Brenda Barr, the Phillips, the Paynes, Sylvia DeVoss, Anita Plummer, the McAdams, the Williamsons, and the Stringers are scheduled to be a part of the celebration.

Carla McAdams and Sylvia DeVoss are making posters for a display of Unitarian literature, and Stuart and Beth Williamson will be on hand to answer questions about Unitarianism.

We would like for everyone to come and join the festivities. Other than lots of good food, there will be continuous entertainment by a variety of cultural performers.

Report from our president Carla McAdams on the Schulman memorial
As a congregation, we gave a monetary gift to Dr. Schulman's favorite project, the Kemenyfalva church in Romania. In addition, we are discussing the formation of a fellowship library in honor of Dr. Schulman. It will include the books he donated to our fellowship along with other donated books, DVD's, etc. from congregational members and friends (several have already earmarked books for this project) and from UUA. A committee has been appointed to gather information for this project.

President's Report from the Congregational Meeting
Our congregational meeting on Saturday, January 28, resulted in a plan of action. At least once a month, a minister will be scheduled to speak. Our process of selecting a permanent minister will proceed slowly. We will listen to several candidates before making a decision.

After some discussion regarding the growth of the fellowship, the subject was tabled until our annual congregational meeting in May, at which time a committee will be appointed to investigate ways to expand growth.

The possibility of finding a larger meeting place was also considered since our growth may be related to the physical environment in which we conduct our services. The present lack of facilities to accommodate children was of particular concern.

Joan Springer made a report on plans for the Festival of United Cultures (the Diversity Forum project), and the fellowship voted to donate $140 toward the rental of the building and beverages for the event.

Note from Alice Schulman
Dear Friends of the Huntsville U.U. Church,

I have something more to thank you for, after receiving the notice of your gift, in Frank's honor, to the Kemenyfalva church in Romania. It pleased us very much that you shared his enthusiasm for the work being done by that church, in spite of a tyrannical government, floods in the church, and the pervasive poverty of that area of the world. That liberal religion has a glorious history there, and is being preserved and advanced by gifts such as yours.

I feel safe to thank you for both of us.

Alice

from Quotations from the Wayside edited by Brenda Wong
Note from Gail Phillips: This delightful little book was given to me by Dr. Schulman, and I have come to cherish it. I would like to share some of my favorite quotes from it with you.).

On Change

"You have to live by shedding."--Robert Frost

"Only that which changes remains true."--Carl Jung

"Perhaps we never appreciate the here and now until it is challenged."--Anne Morrow Lindbergh

"When things are breaking up, something great is breaking through."--Vivian T. Pomeroy

"Habits are at first cobwebs then cables."--Spanish Proverb

"The world's best reformers are those who begin on themselves."--George Bernard Shaw

Huntsville UU Newsletter Deadline: To submit news to the UU newsletter, e-mail Gail Phillips. Please have any news or announcements that you would like to have in this newsletter to the editor by the 20th of each month.

Annual Meeting
On May 1, 2005, we elected officers and approved appointments to various positions listed below for the church year 2005-2006.

Officers

President: Carla McAdams

Co-Vice Pres./ Program Chairs: Scott and Anita Plummer

Treasurer: Lee Stringer

Secretary/Membership Chair: Joan Stringer

Immediate Past President: Karl Mahaffey

Appointed Positions

Organist: Dixon Lichtenauer

Keyboardist: Sylvia DeVoss

Co-Song Leaders: Melissa Templeton-Mahaffey, Beth Williamson, Dixon Lichtenauer

Co-Reading Leaders: Ann Staples, Richard Lane

Newsletter Editor: Gail Phillips

Order of Service Editor: Roberta Krock

Publicist: Stuart Williamson

Hospitality Coordinator: Pam Johnson