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Dear
Ron,
Welcome,
Thanks
for receiving our free online monthly Good News
issues. This issue is full of big
news including: General
Assembly, Revival 2012, commentary for the
liturgical holy days of Pentecost/Trinity Sundays
and more. We hope you enjoy it and will help
support us as we grow our presence in the
world.
We
are always looking for contributors to our monthly
online newsletters, our website and other
publications. If you have book, film, music,
website reviews, prayers, artwork, writings
on biblical passages or spiritual issues, sermons,
or more, send them to Rev. Ron Robinson. We
are especially looking for contributions to our
weekly lectionary reflections posted on the Virtual Monastery section of
our website.
To
join with us in our movement,
to renew your membership, or to
make special a donation for our projects
visit our web
site. |
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General Assembly - June 22-26,
2011
Charlotte, North
Carolina
"Thieves
in the Temple"
Communion
service by
Rev. Kathleen
Rolenz
The
UUCF will present the General Assembly
Communion Service on Thursday, June 23, from
4:30 to 5:45 p.m. at the Convention
Center Room 203AB in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The Rev. Kathleen Rolenz will be the preacher. Her
homily is entitled "Thieves in the Temple." The
communion service liturgy is designed after one
used by the late Rev. Suzanne Meyer at Revival
2005 in Fort Worth, Texas, and in honor of her
life and ministry, including service with the
UUCF. See the order of service on our web
site in the General Assembly
section.
The
Rev. Rolenz is co-minister at West Shore UU
Congregation in the Cleveland area, past president
of the UUCF, editor of the anthology Christian
Voices in Unitarian Universalism, and co-author of
Worship That Works.
We
will once more have our major booth in the Exhibit
Hall as part of the combined booth for the
Theological Sources. It is number 322. We will
have materials and resources for sale and
giveaway, a chance to sign up for dinners out
together, and opportunities for small group talks
at the booth. It is a great place to rest
during the event, meet old friends, make new
ones and be an ambassador for the UUCF. Sign ups
for volunteering at the booth will also be at the
table. To help with set up on Tuesday, June 21,
email Rev Ron
Rrobinson. |
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Revival/Retreat 2012
Many Voices, Many
Verses: Revealing the Feminine in
Christianity
To be hosted at the Unitarian
Universalist Congregation in Fairfax,
VA.
We will have
three featured presenters:
- We
are pleased to bring Amy Oden, dean and
professor of history at Wesley Theological
Seminary in Washington, D.C. Dr. Oden
received her B.A. from the University of
Oklahoma and her Ph.D. from the Southern
Methodist University. Dr. Oden has published
such books as In Her Words: Women's Writings
in the History of Christian Thought, and
You Welcomed Me: Sourcebook on Hospitality
in Early Christianity, and the Wesley
Study Bible. She has recently finished a
book entitled God's Welcome:
Hospitality for a Gospel-Hungry
World.
- Margaret
Starbird is the acclaimed author of many
books holding up the importance of Mary
Magdalene and reclaiming the images of the
Sacred Feminine in Christianity, including
The Woman With the Alabaster Jar, and
The Goddess in the Gospels: Reclaiming The
Sacred Feminine, among others. She received
her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the
University of Maryland and studied theology at
Vanderbilt.
- Mary
Hunt is a feminist theologian who is co-founder
and co-director of the Women's Alliance for
Theology, Ethics and Ritual (WATER) in Silver
Spring, MD. Among her books are Fierce
Tenderness, and editor of New Feminist
Christianity, and Guide To Women in
Religion, and From Woman Pain to Woman
Vision. Dr. Hunt received her Ph.D. from
the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley,
California. She
also received the Masters in Divinity
from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley
and a Masters in Theological Studies from
Harvard Divinity School. Her undergraduate
degree in Theology and Philosophy is from
Marquette University.
We
will have Centering and Contemplative Prayer on
Thursday, opening worship, Communion and Baptism,
Prayer and Healing service, a joint worship on
Saturday afternoon with the Fairfax congregation,
workshops and conversations on special topics of
spiritual issues, small groups for more intimate
exploration, three meals as part of the event
registration, dinners out together Saturday night,
and much more.
Details
are being developed so stay tuned to our web site for updated
information. Plan
now to come celebrate with us in the Washington,
D.C.
area! |
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Trinity
Sunday - June 19th, 2012
Whenever
the UUCF gathers, we often hold conversations
with seekers who get to ask any question
about UU Christianity. One of the most popular
questions is about if we believe in the Trinity.
After responding about the non-creedal nature of
our organization and tradition, and mentioning our
roots and continuing connection with churches and
individuals who are Trinitarian
Universalists, we may get into a conversation
about how the Trinity has been undergoing a
reconstruction and liberalization of interpretation by many
theologians. Liberation, Process, Feminist, and
new Missional theologians have been
reframing the Trinity in terms of an
experience that reveals a divinity in
community, in mutuality, and
incarnation.
For
this Trinity Sunday, here is a link to an essay called "The
Truth in the Trinity" by Rev. Carl Scovel,
minister emeritus of King's Chapel in Boston,
originally published in the Summer, 1973 issue of
The UU Christian.
A
wonderful discussion related to Unitarian
Universalism and the Trinity, in history and
contemporary times, was held in the space of the
Philocrites blog by Chris Walton, now editor of
the UU World magazine. Those posts can be
read here.
As
one theologian, Henry Van Dusen, expressed
back last century, too, Christian faith began as
"a trinitarian religion with a unitarian
theology." Meaning that early Christians
experienced the divine in three ways, Father,
Christ, Spirit, but they, being grounded in the
God of Israel, thought of God as One. The recent
scholarship in process theology has explored some
of this territory. Here is a link to bibliography and more
resources for further study.
Finally,
here is another link where you
can see materials used in a course on Unitarians
Looking At The Trinity that was held last Fall at
Pathways UU Church in the
Dallas and Fort Worth area.
It is full of background material on historic and
contemporary ways to consider Christology and the
related theological
concepts. |
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Carl Scovels Annual
Retreat
at Glastonbury
Abbey, Hingham MA: Christlike
Lives
Rev.
Scovel has sent out this information about his
annual retreat.
"Our
annual Jesus retreat will take place on the
weekend of Friday, November 11, through Sunday
noon the 13th at Glastonbury Abbey in Hingham, MA.
In
this retreat we will focus on the lives of people
who have represented to us "Christlike" qualities.
First, we will discuss what kind of qualities we
find "Christlike" and then we will read to each
other accounts of people who have exemplified
these qualities to us.
The
cost for the retreat will be $130, checks payable
to me and sent to me at 36 Hampstead Road, Jamaica
Plain, MA 02130. One registers by sending a check.
Some
of you may remember that in past years I asked for
contributions to a woman who was living on the
edge of poverty. This year I am asking for
contributions to the summer program of a small
youth center in the housing project one block from
our house. The leaders, Maura and Elvin, run a
full program in the basement of a unit and do this
on a bare-bones budget. I'm hoping to raise money
to help their efforts. I've gotten to know a few
of these youth; they are wonderful people and
deserve all the support they can get. If you'd
like to give, please send a tax-deductible check
to "Community Service Care," Inc." at 36 Perkins
Street, Jamaica Plain MA 02130, and write "Attn
Alison Yoos." On the lower left line of your check
please write "South St.Youth Project" with an X
after it. This will make sure your check goes to
the project and the "X" will let Alison know that
it's from our retreat group.
Although
we were pretty close to full on the last two
retreats, if you know of someone who might profit
by our kind of time together, please let them
know."
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Support the UUCF
The
UUCF is a self-supporting and self-sustaining
institution. The first and most important reason
to stay connected to the UUCF is because we
represent a liberal religious Christian presence
in the Unitarian Universalist Association. We
believe that Unitarian Universalism is broadened
and deepened by our active presence and our
faithful witness. We represent one of the few
organization in the UUA that can claim an
authentic theological position, and the only one
that can claim a historical tradition that dates
back to the beginning of our movement.
You can change the
world by keeping alive the free and radical spirit
of Jesus in the world, especially in our UUCF
life. Here you can join with
us for the first time, renew your
membership, answer the call to contribute to
specific projects or make special donations. To
support UUCF click on this link to be redirected
to our
website. | |
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Address: P.O. Box 6702, Turley, OK
74156-0702
Phone: (918) 794-4637
We are non-creedal followers of Jesus rooted
in the history and tradition of Unitarian
Universalism. All who wish to freely follow
Jesus are welcome to be members of the
UUCF.
Sincerely, |
Ron Robinson
Unitarian
Universalist Christian Fellowship
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