The Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica

Featured Articles - May, 2006

Hear from New President and Building Chair at the May 21 Annual Congregational Meeting

It’s that time again — time to elect our new board, which will include a new president; Carol Kerr has reached the maximum of three terms. The board candidates are: Charles Haskell, president; Ron Crane, first vice-president; Peter van den Beemt, second vice-president; Dayla McDonald, secretary; Warren Mathews, treasurer; Rebecca Crawford, Bronwen Jones, and Pat Parkerton, members-at-large; Phyllis Kory, member-at-large for a one-year term; Edna Bonacich and Anne Gustafson, nominating committee.

Carol Kerr will automatically fill the position of immediate past president, and Patricia Wright and Marv Pulliam will remain on the board serving the second year of their terms as members-at-large. Remaining members of the nominating committee are John Fels, S.J. Guidotti, Linda van Ligten, and Victor Paddock.

Most reports are in the packet everyone who attends will receive. Minister Judith Meyer and President Carol Kerr will give oral reports in addition to the ones in the packet. After the officers are sworn in the new president will offer some thoughts about where we might be heading.

Warren Mathews will present the treasurer’s report as well as the budget report. (For good news on the budget, see “Splinters from the Board” on page 5.) The congregation will have an opportunity to discuss the planned budget and vote whether to accept, reject, or amend it.

Ron Crane will describe the status of the capital campaign, and Alison Kendall, Building Committee chair, will give us the up-to-date news on where we stand with our construction plans for phase one of the building program and our design plans for phase two.

As usual, lunch will be available for sale in Forbes Hall.

— Carol Agate

Stewardship -- What a Difference a Plan Makes

Who am I? Why am I here?” Those memorable and humorous words were uttered by 1992 vice presidential candidate James Stockdale. Last month’s guest speaker Peter Henrickson spoke them again, in all seriousness, as his opening remarks for a sermon he delivered after spending the weekend exploring the importance of these questions with leaders of our congregation.

The author of “Financial Management in the Church” said that these questions, among others, reveal the heart of why we’re in community with each other. He said that when we — you, me, our leadership — create a community, we start by figuring out what we want to be and what we need to become it. When we articulate our desires, we can plan and turn them into reality.

I’ll tell you a story that exemplifies my own desires for this congregation. I was having a conversation about our community with a dear friend who’s come to this church longer than I, when this person said, “I come to church on Sundays; I like it here. But if you ask me, ‘Am I connected to this community?’ I think the answer is ‘Not really.’ ”

In my heart I want this person’s answer to the question to be a resounding “yes.” I think we, as a congregation, have a long way to go to enable that. But here’s where the vision thing comes in.

Imagine adding someone with professional experience in creating a caring and compassionate community on our team at UUCCSM. This person could day-in and day-out focus on helping us help each other. He or she could help us figure out what gifts we have that support other people and how we can use them for our own development and others’ too.

Imagine a staff person, not a congregant with a day job who has good intentions yet struggles to find time to focus or has to drop out periodically, to work on a big project that will always take priority over volunteer work: a staff person who comes to work and has eight hours a day to focus on supporting our great volunteers who do social justice work, membership and leadership development, communication and more.

Might we have a stronger community after three years? Might some of the people who walk through our doors and “join” our church only to leave a year or two later, stick around instead? Might we have an even healthier RE program, Faith in Action program, and music program? I’d love to find out. Wouldn’t you?

I’ve told you my dream. Will you tell me yours? Then, how about if we figure out how much it will cost and see if we can make it happen? Let’s make a community that supports our personal transformation and has a demonstrable impact on the world at large.

— In faith,
Jacki K.Weber

Lucia Cargill is a Public Health Specialist Who Provides Aid for the World's Poorest

Afew hours after the tsunami devastated Indonesia on December 28, 2004, church member Lucia Cargill got an urgent e-mail message from a physician friend there. Eleven young Indonesian doctors, all members of an adventure club, were heading for the rural west coast area of Aceh. They needed help. Right away. They were carrying only backpacks.

“The message said they were going directly to the coast nearest the epicenter of the quake to assist the survivors, but had no money, no equipment, and no idea how they were going to pull it off,” recalls Lucia, a new member of our church and case manager for Vitas Hospice’s West Region.

Lucia, a registered nurse with a Ph.D., medical anthropologist, and public health specialist, is president/executive director of the non-profit American Overseas Medical Aid Association (aomaa.org). Organized in 1962 in Chicago, now based in L.A., the association provides direct aid, materials, and services to people in need, technical advice to local non-profit groups, and advocacy for local professionals working to alleviate poverty and suffering in rural areas in the U.S. and abroad.

In two days, Lucia and her board of directors raised $1,000, sent it to Indonesia, and then developed a network of organizations contributing small grants. Together with Indonesian professionals, they organized a local non-profit, called IBU4Aceh.” (“Ibu” means “mother” so the name translates as “the mother who cares for Aceh.”)

Cutting the road through to Meulaboh with the military, the medical team started work in an abandoned vocational school. “The 11 doctors and 39 other volunteers handled the dead and stitched up the living,” says Lucia. They soon recruited 120 more volunteers, including psychologists and teachers, to work with the children in six camps.

During 2005 the team saw nearly 25,000 medical patients and over 45,000 adults and children for psychosocial services, health worker training, mother and child health fairs, and community events — all on less than $150,000.

So far in 2006, $144,000 has been raised. More money is needed to continue these programs and to build a maternal and child health center.

Lucia grew up in Alabama, Texas, California, Okinawa, and the Philippines. Her father taught flying. He was one of the first Air Force fighter pilots to fly F-100s over the Pacific Rim after WWII. “Part of my history and commitment to social justice comes from exposure to these social environments and diverse people,” she believes.

“I have a three-track career: clinical nursing, public health research and non-profit work, and academic research and teaching.” She is Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at Cal State University Fresno, where she presented the Distinguished Lecture for 2006 on April 27, speaking about local responses to emergencies and disasters, and to the grassroots partnerships that may enable people in developing countries and rural areas to help themselves.

A divorced mother of four grown children, two sons and two daughters, Lucia moved here in 2002 and is now looking for a research position at UCLA or Rand, “hoping to settle down, and slowly working on my nurse practitioner license.” She is artistic, a metalsmith and jeweler working as technical advisor on the movie, “Nefertiti.” She is working on a book on healthcare and aging in America, and loves to garden.

"$o Much to Do, $o Little Time" Silent Auction Raises $5,000

In the spring of 2005 we were facing a budgetary crisis. During a town hall meeting about our budget, Leslie Reuter proposed launching an entirely new fund-raising effort with the goal of adding $5,000 to the funds for our church’s 2005-2006 operations budget.

After the summer Leslie started recruiting volunteers and considering how the auction should be organized. Ideas were drawn from the following UU churches: UU Fellowship of San Dieguito (in Solana Beach), Orange Coast UU Church, Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara, and the UU Church of Studio City.

From November through March, Leslie and cochair Kathy Cook solicited donations for sale, developed ideas for the fundraising event, solicited donations of goods and services, planned the auction, arranged the items for sale, created the many gift baskets, prepared the bid sheets, and worked to recruit a large group of people to help with the actual auction.

The auction was held the last weekend of March, with a clearance of leftover items the following two weeks. The auction was a great success. Over 57 members were successful bidders, with many more participating by donating gift items, services, and gift certificates, as well as by buying the fair trade coffee, tea, and cocoa, the UU impulse items, craft items, snacks and lunches, and posters. We received 26 donated services and enough gift items to create 97 gift baskets. The church office donated a table, an entertainment center, and a TV. Seven art works were donated and two craftspeople shared the proceeds from their wares — Jacki Paddock offered jewelry and Myra Wald offered crocheted hats. There were a total of 136 auction items resulting in a net sale just over $5,100.

More than 40 volunteers helped Leslie with this fundraising effort. They are (in no particular order): Kathy Cook (a special thanks to Kathy for being the cochair), Charles Haskell, Christine Haskell, Katie Malich, Lisa Fischer, Diane Brooks Ludowitz, Keith Ludowitz, Sandra Trutt, Karen Patch, Rich Cook, Marv Pulliam, Myra Wald, Jacki Paddock, Julie Gilliam, Margot Page, Melinda Ewen, Sherry Handa, Rhonda Turner, Bayard Storey, Nels Hansen, Amy Lacombe, Lucy Lacombe, Katie Gross, Carey Gross, Clayton Coleman, Greg Coleman, Ron Crane, John Fels, Gerrie Lambson, Audrey Lyness, Marge Zifferblatt and her daughter Ellen Stuart, Rob Briner, Helen Burns, Joanie Wilk, Jerry and Sue Moore (thanks for the pens), Betty Grant, Carol-jean Teuffel, Carol Kerr, Ofelia Lachtman, Marie Kashmer- Stiebing, and Jim Cadwell. Leslie extends her apologies to anyone whose name she may have inadvertently omitted.

Leslie hoped the fundraiser would involve the church as a community, and she was gratified to see so many members contributing in so many ways. Thanks to everyone.

— Charles Haskell and Leslie Reuter

General Assembly will Wrestle with Pacifism vs. Pragmatism

Condemnation of the war in Iraq is not particularly controversial among UUs. But how about our attack on Afghanistan?

It seems that the plenary session debate this June at the UUA General Assembly in St. Louis may be between the pacifists and the pragmatists. These are the labels being attached in the lively e-mail discussions taking place prior to GA.

This is the first year there have been serious online discussions before GA, maybe because it’s an issue on which there is disagreement. It used to be that a few congregations would have meetings to discuss the GA resolutions, but most didn’t. Now interested individuals don’t have to search for people in their own church who want to talk about the issues; they just go on line and join one of the many discussion groups.

GA resolutions don’t generally stir much controversy beyond the wordsmithing that goes into drafting resolutions. After all, most UUs advocate stem cell research, prison reform, and support for farm workers, and are concerned about global warming. But, although we have found no controversy in advocating peace, we do differ on whether there is such a thing as a just war.

This year’s proposed study issue is: “Should the Unitarian Universalist Association reject the use of any and all kinds of violence and war to resolve disputes between peoples and nations and adopt a principle of seeking just peace through nonviolent means?”

This study item asks us to go beyond simply supporting good things as most past items have. It is proposing we seek answers to questions like these: Should we adopt a specific and detailed “just war” policy to guide our witness, advocacy, and social justice efforts? Should we reject violence in any form?

To see all the proposed questions, go to page 4 at http://www.uua.org/ga/ga06/TentativeAgenda.pdf. If you would like to provide input, your delegates are Bonnie Brae, Judith Meyer, David Denton, Karen Patch, Amelia Harati, Jacki Paddock, Haley Paddock, Marv Pulliam, and Carol Agate. Catherine Farmer will also be attending.

— Carol Agate

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