EverGreene
Reverend Elizabeth Greene
What a loss to us—personally and organizationally—the Thomas family moving to Minneapolis for Steve's work! We wish them all the best, and want them to know we love them.
The organizational part is losing our eight-year Director of Religious Education (DRE), Jennifer Thomas. She has worked wonders in children's and youth RE programs, and it has been quite a process, conducting the search to replace her.
The very excellent DRE Search Committee has worked diligently all year long, ably led by Cathy Carmen (also Children's RE Committee chair). Members of the search committee have conducted a national search, breaking new ground for us, and exposing some church personned-policy holes as they have gone about it. They have been simply splendid.
As it turns out, no candidate turned up who was just right for the job, especially given that I will be gone on sabbatical next year, between mid-January and August 1, 2008. So the committee has come up with a solution that works for everyone, a blessing and a relief to us all.
Karen Raese, our current part-time children's elementary specialist, and Cathy Carmen will job share the full-time position as Acting DREs for 18 months. They are both very familiar with our program, and are more than able to maintain our high degree of excellence. The DRE Search Committee will gear up again toward the end of my sabbatical, so that I will be available during the next search.
Great thanks to the excellent work of the DRE Search Committee and all our religious educators, paid and unpaid.
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My schedule this summer: gone to Boston with youth and General Assembly in Portland from June 12 to the end of the month. I have July off and the beginning of August, returning to office hours on August 7. Remember, August is a great time to have lunch or coffee with me, as I am not doing sermon preparation. Now's not too early to call!
Wanda's Wonderings
Wanda Jennings, Board President
Change can be good! We have had a busy year at BUUF with many changes. I hope you will embrace the happenings and join with us as we continue to create ourselves over and over in this church that you cannot live without!
I hope that you were able to participate in some of the discussions led by folks who spoke to us this year. Elizabeth Greene, Michael Durall, Richard Tarnas, David Korton, Sharon Ellison, and Rina Fa'amoe have all tickled our brains with their creative thoughts. You will find us taking on some of their ideas in the coming months, as well as continuing with some of our tried and true ways of doing things.
Our Director of Religious Education (DRE) position will be filled by two well-qualified, experienced BUUF members, Karen Raese and Cathy Carmen, who will share the job for the next 18 months.
Thanks for your commitment on Commitment Sunday!
If you attended the BUUF Annual Meeting you learned about the endowment fund that BUUF will be setting up. We made some wording changes in the by-laws and we elected new officers to the Board. We welcome Sue Philley as our new vice president, Elton Hall as our new secretary, and Dale Winke as a member-at-large. These folks will begin their service to BUUF on July 1 as we begin a new fiscal year.
We greatly appreciate the service that retiring Board members Patti Raino, Bob Huntley, and Maggie Reid gave to the Board over the past few years. And thanks to the Board members who are currently serving and to all those who have led BUUF in the past, laying the foundation for what we have today.
You may be one last spark we all need to light the whole world!
BUUF Summer Schedule
Beginning June 4, Boise UU Fellowship operates on summer schedule.
There is a single service, lay led, at 10 am. Reverend Greene is not in the pulpit during summer months. She is attending UUA General Assembly from June 17 to June 24, after which she is on vacation, and will return to the office on August 7. She returns to the pulpit on Sunday, September 9.
The BUUF office will be open from 9 am to 12 noon on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The office will be closed the week of July 2.
Summer children's Sunday School consists of childcare for children under five, and a multi-age curriculum for children ages five to ten. Children over are ten are welcome to attend the service with their parents.
The deadline for announcements for the order of service is Wednesday at noon.
Newsletter deadline remains 12 noon on the third Thursday of the month. Please be aware that newsletter articles submitted to go to the BUUF office to be forwarded to the newsletter editor. They must be received in the office by noon on the deadline date. No one is here to receive late articles!
enThralled with RE
Jennifer Thrall-Thomas
It is my pleasure to announce that the Boise Unitarian Universalist Fellowship will have two acting DREs for the next 18 months.
Karen Raese and Cathy Carmen will be sharing the DRE position with an officially beginning date of July 2007. Karen has served the congregation as the children's RE elementary program specialist for the past two years and filled in during my leave of absence last year. Cathy has served as the Children's RE committee chair for the past five years.
I personally feel great about the search committee's decision to hire Karen and Cathy to maintain the RE program at BUUF. They are creative, organized and passionate about our program. It is my hope that you all will support them as you have supported me during my time as DRE.
When the search committee continues the search to find a full-time DRE after Elizabeth's sabbatical in Fall 2008, children's RE will be in great shape for the new DRE.
Many thanks to the DRE search committee. They have conducted a thorough, thoughtful and fully professional search and came up with a great plan to continue to support our children and youth.
I also want to take a moment and acknowledge the beautiful celebration that occurred on May 13. The painting, the poem and the presentation of sunflowers by the children was touching and will be forever in my memory. Thanks for being such a loving community. It has been my pleasure to be a part of BUUF.
Summer Nursery Care Needs...You!
Cathy Carmen
During the summer months, mid-June through early September, the Fellowship offers a single, 10 a.m., lay-lead service for UU members and friends. The care of our very youngest is available only if we have volunteers to staff the nursery every week. If you are available and interested in assisting, please sign the clipboard located n the North foyer. Contact Cathy Carmen (338-8984 or Karen Raese (658-1710) for details.
Travel the World with Summer RE
Cathy Carmen
Are you an adult who has experienced another country or culture first hand? Would you consider sharing those experiences with children? Then Summer RE is the place for you! Beginning on June 10 and continuing on Sundays throughout the summer months, volunteer Guides/Teachers will be jetting us off to places like India and Mexico. So, come join the fun. Our curriculum this year is entitled UU World Travelers and will be offered to youth 5-10 years of age during the single, lay-lead services that run June – early September. Youth, under the guidance of a teacher, will explore various countries through song, dance, food, games, language and creative activities. If this all sounds interesting and you'd like to take part, see the sign-up sheet located in the North foyer, specifically for Summer RE. Contact Cathy Carmen (338-8984) or Karen Raese (658-1710) for details. We couldn't travel the world without you!
Mészkõ Partner Church News
Cynthia Alleman
The Partner Church Bridge Celebration will be held at the end of the service on Sunday, June 3. We celebrate 14 years of our partnership with Mészkõ and nine years of our beautiful Transylvanian bridge. The potluck to follow will be a picnic outside. Maybe you have a favorite recipe from the Hungarian cookbook...?
A secret we want to share with you when you spend time at the bridge: What do you see when you look at the bridge? Look carefully - it is a magical place.
If you are attending GA in Portland, look for Deb Smith performing "Letters from Christine"!
June outreach helps Whittier School
Julie Fanselow
This month's social action outreach will benefit the students of Whittier Elementary School. Whittier serves one of Boise's most low-income neighborhoods, as well as an area with a high refugee population. More than 90 percent of the students are on free or reduced-price lunch, compared to 42 percent in the district as a whole. About a third of the student body are English-language learners, triple the district rate.
BUUF has a longstanding relationship with Whittier. Many Garden City children attend the school, since Garden City does not have its own district. Twenty-five percent of this month's offering plate collections will go to Whittier staff to help them meet their students' ongoing needs – for example, for back-to-school backpacks and school supplies for children who otherwise couldn't afford them. If you write social outreach in the memo of your check, 100 percent will go to the kids at Whittier.
Have you ever wondered whether your favorite justice organization could be the recipient of BUUF's monthly social action outreach offerings? If you'd like to nominate a cause for consideration, write a brief letter about the group and what it does, and give it to social justice chair Rick Groff (or email him at ). Thanks to everyone who helps BUUF reach out to our community and the wider world through these monthly outreach offerings!
Humane Health
This month our Humanists will host speakers Gene Barrett and Jim Holden, representing Physicians for National Health. All are welcome; we will meet at 9am, Sunday June 10 in the senior high room.
Humanists plan to meet throughout the summer on the 2nd Sunday of each month.
Conserve Water and Enjoy a Mimosa with the Green Sanctuary Committee!
At our pot luck on Sunday, June 3, the Green Sanctuary committee will be serving up Free Mimosas. Why... because we want you to visit us and give us your input. As part of the process of becoming a certified Green Sanctuary, BUUF is required to perform several activities and must get guidance from the congregation on what these activities will be. These actions are divided up into four main categories and they are: Worship and Celebration; Religious Education; Environmental Justice and Sustainable Living.
As a committee, we have come up with several ideas within each group, but now it's time to hear what the rest of you think. And if you really care about any one, or more, of the issues we present, we can always use additional volunteers - even on a part time or limited basis.
So please, stop by and give us your opinion, and enjoy a delicious Mimosa... which will hopefully be made using organic orange juice and, if possible, locally bottled champagne. Thank you for caring.
Every Sunday the US wastes almost 90% of the recyclable newspapers, which wastes about 500,000 trees. Everyday Americans buy 62 million newspapers and throw out 44 million, which is equivalent to dumping 500,000 trees into a landfill each week. If every person in the United States recycled 1/10 of their newsprint, it would save an estimated 25 million trees per year.
—David Woito
The Chautauqua Is Coming!
Bryan Jennings
Those of you who know what a Chautauqua is may skip to the next paragraph. If you're like I was and had never heard of it, much less been to one, here's what Wikipedia has to say (and if you've never heard of Wikipedia, don't worry, it isn't important). To being with, chautauqua was an Iroquois word meaning "two moccasins tied together" or "jumping fish." Then it became a town, a county and a lake in far western New York state. Then in 1874 a Methodist minister and a businessman created the New York Chautauqua Assembly at a campground by the lake, an adult summer camp with the purpose of providing education and entertainment to local folk who had little opportunity for either. Similar institutions, adopting the name "Chautauqua," sprang up across rural America, and some groups started touring Chautauquas. These were very popular for many years, until the Twentieth Century brought cars, movies, radio, television, and other modern marvels that provided ridiculously wide access to all the education and entertainment the average person could stand. But the idea remained, and Chautauquas, both stationary and traveling, continued to exist in some parts of the country.
Which brings us to Friday, August 3, 2007, at 7:30pm. BUUF Green Sanctuary will host the New Old Time Chautauqua with its own variation on Mr. Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. Narrated by Howard Patterson, aka Ivan Karamazov (one of the Flying Brothers), this event is billed as "A Show for the Whole Family," and "The Global Warming Slide Show a la Vaudeville with Music, Juggling and Magic"! You never knew the Apocalypse could be such fun! If you're in town—and who wouldn't want to be?—plan to be at BUUF for an evening of entertainment that could also be enlightening, and by all means, bring your family and friends. The cost? A $5 donation is suggested, but no one will be turned away. Be there, or be square!
RETREAT! RETREAT!
The Sunday Services Committee is holding its annual summer retreat on June 9 from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. at BUUF. The Committee will be tackling a number of important issues, including summer services, a theme for the fall program year, services in the fall, and Elizabeth's upcoming sabbatical. We would like to invite anyone who may have served on Sunday Services previously, anyone who may have an interest in doing so, or anyone with any interest in the future services at the fellowship, to stop by and give us your ideas.
We need your help!
The hardworking and tremendously talented volunteers on the Sunday Services Committee work each week to create the services at BUUF. They assist in selecting sermon topics for Elizabeth, find presenters for Sundays she is out of town and during the summer, select the hymns, assist in selecting readings, assign greeters, make the coffee, and a variety of other duties.
If you would like to learn more about this "behind the scenes" committee, please stop by our retreat. Also, if you have ideas on future sermon or presentation topics, or have any other input regarding Sundays at BUUF, please come visit us. We welcome your ideas!
For further information about the Sunday Services Committee, or the upcoming retreat, please contact co-chairs David Ward ( or 939-2601) or Carol Wechselberger ( or 871-2061).
Get to Know Our Newest Members
JULIE DU BOIS: Born April 1970 in La Porte, Indiana. Raised United Methodist and attended church every Sunday, but never felt like I belonged there. I stopped going to church once I was on my own. Attended college briefly in Indiana before transferring to a college in Louisiana. Met and married my husband Kit there. We moved to New Orleans and lived there for thirteen years. I went to school and worked as a Paramedic, flight nurse and a nurse in the pediatric ICU at Children's Hospital. Luckily we chose to move here shortly before the hurricane. Had our first child, Chloe, in December of 2004. I've been working as a PICU nurse at St. Lukes Hospital, and just recently became the Pediatric Cardiovascular Coordinator. Started coming to BUUF this year and finally feel as if I found the place where my family and I belong.
KIT DU BOIS: Born December of 1965 in Nice, France. My father was French, but a U.S. Navel Officer as well. Came to the United States at age three and lived on both coasts. My formative years were spent in California. I too joined the military. I spent 10 years on active duty being one of the two or three liberals in the Army. After meeting my wife in Louisiana and leaving active duty, we both decided to stay in New Orleans and attend Louisiana State University. I worked at Charity Hospital in New Orleans doing nursing and anesthesia for 13 years.
Four months prior to Katrina, with pregnant wife in tow, we headed to Boise to search out a better life for our soon arriving daughter. Prior to finding this congregation, I didn't think there was any hope in finding a religion with the liberal views we held. Nice to be proven wrong.
LEE STIGILE: My wife, Amber, and I have been attending BUUF for more than a year. Our children, Blake (5), Adaela (4) and Aaron (4), really enjoy the religious education and look forward to Sunday School every week. We're very appreciative of the great teachers. They have helped us to share values of tolerance and kindness with our children.
Amber and I are both lifelong Idaho residents; Amber was raised in Nampa and I was raised in Hazelton. I'm from a Presbyterian background and I found BUUF through the Belief-O-Matic™ on beliefnet.com. Amber has a degree in early childhood education and has a lot of great experience teaching children. I'm a Sales Engineer for MySQL.
TAMRA VANEGAS: Hello. I am married to an incredible man, Ted Vanegas. We have two children Sebastian, 14 (great sense of humor) and Isabella, 11 (amazingly motivated). I am a counselor at Lake Hazel Middle School and love my job.
My spiritual journey has been interesting. My parents, both Christian, never attended church but supported my search and provided transportation. My journey went from conservative beliefs (Pentecostal and Baptist) and a whole lot of guilt to more progressive ideology and feeling a need to "make a difference". The Episcopal Church filled that need in my life. When I met Ted he challenged me to explore some of my beliefs and so my journey continued.
BUUF has provided a good platform for my spiritual introspection. Unitarian Universalism fits our ENTIRE family. I appreciate that our children are learning about other spiritual views and celebrate that they are seeing the importance of community, mutual respect and giving hearts.
TED VANEGAS: Hello, my name is Ted Vanegas. My beautiful wife is Tamra and my two wonderful children are: Sebastian and Isabella. I live in Boise and I work for the City of Eagle as a City Planner.
As a child I was raised by a single mom who was opposed to organized religion but open to me experimenting on my own. Throughout my youth I visited a number of churches with friends including, Catholic, Mormon and Pentecostal; that latter being the most overwhelming and frightening to me. I continued into early adulthood with the idea that Christianity was a very dysfunctional and oppressive religion; that is until I met my wife who is Episcopalian. Through her and a couple of Episcopal priest friends I learned that there is another form of Christianity that is open, loving and intellectual; in other words "Liberal". Though I avoid religious labels I've come to understand myself spiritually as a "Universalist Christian"; hence, I stand before you.
Sign of the New Times
Mason Morfit
The Fellowship manifests the initial application of its new graphic identity program.
The Marketing Committee of Mary Schwartzman, Emmie Schlobaum, Chip Cole, Mason Morfit, Jolene Schow, Suzanne Woodcock, Gerry Morris and Sally Grimes has prepared a campaign to market the Fellowship's beautiful facilities to greater Boise for weddings, business meetings, and other social functions. Incomes from these rentals go directly to the Fellowship's general fund.
An open house was held Wednesday May 18 and was attended by some two dozen event planners and event co-ordinators from greater Boise. Feedback was very encouraging as we learned there are over 4,000 brides in Boise every year, and there is a lack of venues for them, particularly on such key dates as 07.07.07 or 06.07.08, etc.
The branding of The Bridge Event Center—Where People Connect raised the question of how this campaign would relate to the larger brand identity of the Boise Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. So the Board authorized the development of two new branding efforts, the second branding consists of our own new chalice logo, and a Boise Unitarian Universalist Fellowship logotype, all rendered in light sage green, darker green, black and white.
The two campaigns are seen side-by side on our new sign. Other applications are new stationery and business cards for both the Fellowship and the Bridge Event Center, and new website for The Bridge Event Center, developed by our webmaster Tom von Alten.
Watch for further examples as we move forward into the twenty first century.
It's Not Too Late – GA in 2007
Plan now to attend the UUA (Unitarian Universalist Association) General Assembly (GA) which will be held in Portland, Oregon this summer from June 21 to June 24. GA's are held each year in various places around the country and it is not often that we have the opportunity to attend one so close to home. Go to uua.org to register or check out your UU World magazine for a registration form. You will be inspired, educated and enlightened by this fun event. I hope to see you there!
Senior Sages
Tom von Alten
Join BUUF members and friends for lively conversation over a no-host breakfast at the Kopper Kitchen (2661 Airport Way), 9:30am every 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month. On June 14, Sunrise Ayers, attorney with Idaho Legal Aid Services will speak to us on June 14 about topics of interest. Bring your questions about Medicaid, Medicare, pensions, predatory lending, Social Security, wills, probate, and so on.
On June 28, Bob Olson will regale us with tales and his personal photographs of the landmarks in Thailand, Myanmar (Burma) and Cambodia. Contact Tom von Alten at 378-1217 or for more information, or if you have a topic you'd like to present (or hear).
BUUF Campers
On the weekend of July 27-29 BUUF members and friends will gather at Ponderosa State Park in McCall, Idaho for our annual family campout. It is a fun opportunity to be together in the great out of doors. While there are few planned events, there are more than enough fun things to do in and around Ponderosa. This year we will be camping in the new group campground. If you are interested in joining us please contact Karen Raese at 853-3865 for more information. We usually have space available for more people to join us.
