| Featured |
 Photo.
Happy
Birthday. For more photos of Betty Law's 90th birthday celebration
at First Church click on the above photo.
UUs Can Party. Members of First Church in Hillcrest celebrated
two very special occasions on Sunday, February 21: Betty Law's
90th birthday and Dan Ratelle's 30th year of choral leadership.
Both celebrations included a cake and giant cards.
Betty and her husband, Ed, are long time members and supporters
of First Church who moved from Minneapolis to San Diego. As a
stream of well wishers greeted Betty following the 9:30 service,
a colorful Happy Birthday sign hung on the window and family
photos could be viewed on a nearby table.
After the 11:30 Service friends honored Dan for his 30 years
of choral leadership. In 1980, he joined the program staff of
First Church to lead the adult choir which today is called the
Chalice Choir.
Cajun Roots. St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral on 6th Avenue right
next to Balboa Park was rocking at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, February
16, during the annual Zydeco Mass with Theo and the
Zydeco Patrol followed by a Cajun dinner for about 150 persons. Penny and Mike
Moreau, members of First Church whose roots can be traced to
Louisiana, were there as was Jim Faris, bookkeeper at First Church,
and others.
At one point in the service, one of the ministers
told the overflow audience - many of whom were not members
- that there
is no such
thing as a guest or a visitor at St. Paul's. “If you
are in the building,” he said, “you're in the family.” He
also said, just before the offering: “You know it's a church
so you know what's coming.”
Before and during the Mass, church-goers wearing
all sorts of costumes danced in the aisles to the wonderful
beat of the
Zydeco
music. In fact, "dancing is encouraged during all parts
of the service at the cathedral crossing," read the front
of the program. In the front, a visually impaired woman sat
with her companion dog. The Zydeco Mass has become a tradition
at
St. Paul's and if you haven't been, you might consider going
next year. Note: Photos of the Zydeco Mass can be found with
photos above of Betty Law's birthday party.
More Cajun. Gator
by the Bay Zydeco, Blues & Crawfish Festival is scheduled for May 7-9. If you enjoy Cajun dishes
try Bud's Louisiana Cafe in Tierrasanta, which will soon be relocating
to Kearny Mesa.
Close Up. If you know an interesting UU in San Diego County,
please e-mail mkruming@aol.com.
Join
the List. If you know someone who would enjoy
reading this newsletter every week, please email Martin Kruming: mkruming@aol.com (or
copy and paste: mkruming@aol.com). |
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Breaking News |
Social
Justice Weekend. This is the
first article in a 5-part series describing the Social Justice
Weekend (February 25-28) in the San Diego County UU Cluster.
The following explores last Sunday afternoon's Comprehensive Immigration Reform
Rally at the Federal Building in downtown
San Diego.
UUs
and non-UUs from throughout San Diego County gathered outside
the Edward J. Schwartz Federal Building in downtown
San Diego on Sunday afternoon to rally for comprehensive
immigration reform. “We stand on the side of love,” Rev.
Dr. Beth Johnson told an enthusiastic crowd of some
200 persons
of all ages, many of whom wore yellow T-shirts and carried
yellow signs reading “Standing on the Side of Love.” A full lineup of speakers included Rev.
Peter Morales, the
first Latino President of the Unitarian Universalist Association,
Rev. Dr. Arvid Straube of First Church in Hillcrest, Rev.
Kathleen Green of Summit UU Fellowship in Santee, Rev.
David Miller of Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of San Dieguito
(UUFSD) in Solana Beach and Rev. Dr. Beth Johnson of Palomar
UU Fellowship in Vista. Others speakers included Enrique
Morones, founder of the Border Angels, and Bishop
Brenda Evans Cooper of Christ Chapel World Ministries.
The
program was warmed up on a sunny afternoon by the sounds
of two
marvelous musicians—Greg Brown and Dave
Ploeser of North Crust Blue-geois
Band from UUFSD who got the hands clapping and the feet
stomping. “Today, tomorrow we
stand on the side of love,” said Enrique Morones. “Love
is the only way to overcome hate, to overcome darkness. Now
is the time for love.”
Rally-goers
came from all six congregations in the San Diego Cluster.
They included grade schoolers, high schoolers, young
adults, middle aged and older; they were Hispanic, African-American,
Pan Asian and white; they wore coats, ties, shorts, sandals,
jeans, baseball caps (one reading “1 love” on the
front), hats and red Adidas shoes; they spoke Spanish and
English; they brought dogs; they came from Chula Vista, Vista,
Encinitas, Escondido, El Cajon, Hillcrest, Burlingame, Point
Loma, Rancho Bernardo and elsewhere, including Albuquerque,
New Mexico (Roger and Nancy Harmon and their dog, Salsa, were visiting in Del Mar); some carpooled, some walked from
downtown residences, most drove, one in a wheelchair. One
non-UU simply walked along the sidewalk, listened to the
words and the music, and stayed. Everyone heard calls for
compassion, justice, reform and love.
After
more than 60 minutes of music, words and shouts, Chris
Hassett, the hugely talented
First Church singer with a magical
voice, picked up the microphone and belted out Woody Guthrie's
classic tune, “This Land Is Your Land.” Everyone
joined in. Then, before returning to the North Crust Blue-geois
Band, Rev. Dr. Beth Johnson, a self-described evangelical
UU, said: “This gathering today is... just the beginning
and we will not stop. We will not stop.” With that the
sun dropped, the temperature dipped and rally-goers drifted
off.
Next
Week: The 1st Annual Social Justice Conference at Palomar
UU Fellowship on February 27 plus Social Justice Weekend
photos from Dick Eiden of Palomar UU Fellowship and Hal
Summers of Summit UU Fellowship. |
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| Datebook |
February
14 - May 30/Pasadena. The Pasadena Museum of California
Art presents an exhibition titled “Millard
Sheets: The Early Years (1926-1944)” in the
Main Galley. Rev. Carolyn Owen-Towle is the
daughter of this famous artist.
Thursday/March
4/Point Loma. Garrison Keillor, Host of A
Prairie Home Companion, will appear at Point Loma Nazarene
University at 7 p.m. www.pointloma.edu/keillor.
Thursday/March 11/First Church. Charitable Giving
and Your Financial Strategy: Creating a Legacy Today for Tomorrow,
7-8:30
p.m. Donation. To register, contact Chris Christenson at (619)
298-9978 ext. 8014, chris@firstuusandiego.org.
March 19-21/Pasadena. The first West Coast DRUUM
Conference
will be held at Throop UU Church for people of color from Seattle
to San Diego. Contact Marisol Caballeros at (626) 795-8625
or mcaballero@uuneighborhood.org.
April
16-18/UU Men's Fellowship/Camp de Benneville Pines. The
UUMF's Annual Spring Renewal in the San Bernardino Mountains
will include workshops, deep sharing, music, drumming
and more. Click
here to download a 100kb PDF flyer/registration
form. Contact Mike Dorfi at (619) 466-5952.
Saturday/July 17/Hillcrest. Pride Parade.
Saturday-Sunday/July
17-18/Balboa Park. Pride
Festival. (The Pride Parade
and Pride Festival use the same website.)
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| Cluster
Buzz |
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Newsworthy: Last year, teenagers at Palomar
UU Fellowship in Vista accomplished a lot. They visited Summit
UU Fellowship in Santee; marched in the Gay Pride Parade; hosted a Social
Action Brunch; volunteered as waiters for the annual auction;
helped with the Holiday drive for Children's Hospital and
Women's Shelter; planted shrubs at the Fellowship; played
in the Fellowship orchestra, and so much more. A million
thanks.
Generosity. Members of First
Church in Hillcrest and the Paradise Valley
Rotary Club raised money to help bring electricity
to two clusters of a village in Malingin in the Philippines
where UUs have a partner church. “It was felt that
the existing secondary electric live wire that ran on bamboo
poles was a danger to life as it often fell off due to the
heavy rains and winds,” according to a report. UUs from
First Church will be in the Philippines this month to visit
their partner church.
Quotable. “If
that's not spiritual practice; if that's not prayer, I
don't know what is.” —Adam Gerhardstein, Campaign Manager for the Standing on the Side of Love, in
describing the work of Kathy Faller of UU Fellowship of San
Dieguito who every week takes a truckload of “pure
gold” (items she's collected in San Diego) to the colonias
in Tijuana.
San
Diego County UU Bulletin Board. If you want
to buy, sell, barter or connect, and it's legal and ethical,
e-mail mkruming@aol.com (or
copy and paste: mkruming@aol.com).
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| Submitting
Newsletter Items |
In
addition to the Feature Story, Breaking
News, Datebook (Event items)
and the Cluster Buzz, the Cluster newsletter
continues to expand. See below. If
you have a good story, let's get it out there.
Bulletin Board. If you want to buy, sell, barter
or connect, and it's legal and ethical, e-mail mkruming@aol.com (or
copy and paste: mkruming@aol.com).
UU
Profiles: We
are offering a series of periodic profiles of UU churches
around the country. If you would like to contribute, please
e-mail mkruming@aol.com (or
copy and paste: mkruming@aol.com) with your story of 150
words or less.
Good Deeds: If
you have a good deed item, please e-mail: mkruming@aol.com (or
copy and paste: mkruming@aol.com).
Reminder, For All Newsletter Items, please
submit to mkruming@aol.com (or
copy and paste: mkruming@aol.com) at
least three weeks in advance. |
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