The Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica

Featured Articles - November, 2003

Friendly Beasts Celebrate 10th Anniversary

For the 10th year, our preschool through elementary-aged children will sing “The Friendly Beasts Song” at our holiday pageant, on Sunday, December 14, at both services.

To celebrate the anniversary, we’re planning a video screening and photo display of past performances in Forbes Hall in December, so please share your recorded memories with Kris Langabeer.

As in years past, all involved children will sing the first and last verses of the song. Small groups of children will sing the middle five verses dressed in costumes appropriate to the animal speaking in that verse (brown donkey, red and white cows, sheep, doves, and mice). If you or your child is not familiar with the song, audiotapes are available.

We have a few costumes from previous pageants, but parents are encouraged to create their child’s costume (don’t panic — we have easy suggestions). Older kids who don’t want to dress as an animal but do want to sing are welcome to be shepherds. The children pick which animals they want to be and whether they want to sing one of the animal verses, but generally, the preschoolers sing the mice verse.

Religious exploration teachers please note: I will lead Sunday rehearsals (about 10 minutes long) that will occur in the RE classrooms/ 17th Street lot during both services. More details will be announced in the December newsletter and
the order of service notices. Call me with questions. I look forward to working with your Friendly Beasts once again this year.

— Kris Langabeer

Judith's 10th Anniversary Celebrated

At the lectern are the Rev. Judith Meyer, along with Jim Cadwell, Dean Voegtlen, and Carol Kerr, participants in honoring her.

Dozens of people, under the leadership of Julie Nyquist, worked on a lunch to celebrate our tenth anniversary with Judith as our minister. The turnout for the service and the celebration strained our capacity to the maximum. There was standing room only at the second service and the patio was so packed it was hard to move. Nevertheless, participants managed to get to the many tables heaped high with food.

Having had our last settled minister for 35 years, our church must be a good place to be. Judith has 25 years to go.

Stewardship Story: “Ready, Set, Pledge!”

Thank you to the many UUCCSM members who have already sent in their pledges for 2004. We are in
the middle of pledge season. You’ve seen evidence in your mail box and heard touching testaments of the importance of the church in the lives of community members from the pulpit and in our new program
guide, “Articulating Our Vision.”

But our efforts have taken a different form this year. What we’ve tried to do is replace some of the hoopla and haranguing of the “pledge drive” with a longerterm process of contemplation, informing, and commitment.
That is, contemplating the personal meaning of the church, informing ourselves and each other as to what it takes to run the church, and committing to taking an active role in supporting the church with pledges and time.

It’s not an easy challenge — we debated the importance of pledge drive haranguing for some time, especially given budget shortfalls in recent years. But haranguing isn’t a healthy way for a community to grow. Better to clearly articulate our mission, programs, and expectations.

Thank you to the core group of people who encouraged this shift in thinking, and then followed through by engaging community membership and committee leadership in this process: George Brenner, Warren Mathews, Ron Crane, Pat Wright, Ofelia Lachtman, Judith Meyer, Carol Kerr, Robert Kory, Jim Cadwell, Carol Agate, and many others.

Thanks, too, to congregants who shared their gratitude for the church in October Sunday services. These include Daniel Teplitz, who has been here since he was literally a baby, and who thanked the church for giving him confidence, friendships and a love for music and performance; Robert Kory, who shared his passion for our children’s programs; and Edna Bonacich, who sang the praises of the choir.

Next month, we’ll report on the results of the drive. In the meantime, I hope you’ll engage in your own process of contemplation, informing, and commitment. Your pledge is vital to the health of our community.

In faith,
Jacki K. Weber

New Classes, New Ideas; New Leaders Needed, Too

Your Adult Religious Growth and Learning (ARGL) Committee has been busy preparing for our fall classes, some of which have already begun. On October 4, we held an all day class on adult relationships and adult sexuality, which was well attended.

Our minister, the Rev. Judith Meyer, took a suggestion from ARGL and began a program of sermon talkbacks, the first of which was on October 1, and was not only well attended but interesting and provocative, with new ideas. ARGL appreciates Judith’s beginning this new series of sermon talk-backs. We are pleased with our fall schedule of classes and
the signups have been encouraging.

ARGL is always looking for new people to teach a class for adults on the subject of religious and/or spiritual learning. New ideas for classes are always welcome, as are new ARGL Committee members.

If you have not yet signed up for a class, please feel free to do so by calling the church office. I think you will find the classes stimulating and a great way to meet new people. We look forward to seeing you for new learning and new fellowship.

— Jean Allgeyer for ARGL

Some Results from the Web Survey

To find out how members and friends use our church’s electronic communications, Liz Fuller and Dan Kegel developed an online survey asking for feedback on the online version of our newsletter, our website and the FIA Bulletin. There were 72 responses. In this issue we highlight the results of the newsletter questions, and next month we’ll report on the responses regarding the web site and the Faith in Action bulletin and give our conclusions.

Newsletter

For the past few years, we’ve been posting the monthly church newsletter online, with a URL available only to members and friends who request it (this helps protect the privacy of church members mentioned in the newsletter). Of the 72 people who
responded in our survey, 50 are aware that the newsletter is available on the website. Nineteen of them read it every month, three read it most months, six every few months, six rarely and 20 people never read it. Those who don’t read it say they either forget, don’t like reading things on a computer screen, can’t print the document or have trouble opening .pdf format files.

Of those who look at the newsletter online, 16 read all of it online, five print it out to read and 14 glance at it online, then wait for the mailed version to read it in full. Twenty-three intrepid souls are even willing to give up the mailed newsletter in favor of the online version, while 14 still want their paper copies.

When we asked if people would prefer to have an abbreviated version of the newsletter online, with a public instead of private URL, 29 people said they prefer to have the entire newsletter online with a private URL and no public link, rather than an edited version suitable for the public.

Twenty-six respondents said they do currently receive our monthly email notifications when a new newsletter is posted, and 41 people said they don’t. Of those 41, 33 said they would like to receive the notifications. Interestingly, however, when we went to subscribe the 33 people to our notification list, we discovered that most of them were already on it, which means they may already receive our notifications but aren’t aware of it. (As of October 18, we have 261 subscribers
to our email announcements list (which includes notices of newsletter postings), and 192 subscribers to our email sermon distribution list.)

An alternative to posting the newsletter online would be mailing a .pdf file directly to a list of subscribers. Thirty-five of our survey respondents said this distribution method would be fine with them, but 14 said it would not and that they prefer the website postings.

— Liz Fuller

Back to Features Index