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Current News
On this page:
May 19 Annual Congregational Meeting Report
UUCC and Members Featured in Online
Articles
All-Church Group Sale Held
May 10-11
The
Listening Ministry: A Shared Ministry
Attention, volunteers: Tally up
your time
Spring food deliveries to the Pantry -
thanks
May 19 Annual Congregational
Meeting Report
At the Annual Congregational Meeting after worship on May
19, 2013, members approved our new Mission and Vision Statement, approved
the 2013-14 budget, and elected five members to the Board of Trustees for
terms beginning July 1, 2013. Annual reports also were presented.
Click the links below to see the following items:
Mission and Vision Statement
2013-14 Summary Budget
2013-14 Detailed Budget
President's Annual Report
Minister's Annual Report
Treasurer's Annual Report
Religious Education
Director's Annual Report
New board members elected for two-year terms were George
Bunyea, Ene Chippendale, Mary Denson, and Pack Matthews. Also, incumbent
Maria Oropallo was elected to a second two-year term. Present board members
who will continue for another year are Qhyrrae Michaelieu, Mary Beth
Schillinger, Steve Scott and Gregg Suhler.
Photos of and biographical information about the board
members elected on May 19 appear below.
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George Bunyea
George Bunyea: "I have been a member of UUCC
since March 27, 2011 and have attended church here for almost four years. I
am a single father of an 8-year-old daughter, and for the past three years I
have been active in the religious education program. I humbly seek to serve
our church on the Board of Trustees, and I also intend to continue my
involvement in the R.E. program." George also has served on the
Facilities and Grounds Team.
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Ene Chippendale
Ene Chippendale: "Joining UUCC four years
ago was the culmination of my long search for a spiritual home. At UUCC, I
have found a place of warm welcome and acceptance. I leave each Sunday with
a sense of peace and a resolve to do better in a world that needs us. I like
being in a church where people ask questions and don't spout dogma, where
individuals care for each other and show their concern through action, and
where members promote and work to achieve social justice. I have enjoyed
being a Worship Associate and member of the Social Action Committee. I
believe the UU Church has the potential to grow and expand its mission under
the leadership of our outstanding minister.
"I am a teacher and own Focus on Learning Center, where we
help students believe in their potential and discover the joy of learning. I
am married to Michael Chippendale, an emeritus professor and administrator
at the University of Missouri and the owner of Chippendale Consulting. Our
son Steve is a lawyer in Washington, D.C. and has two children, Clay (3) and
Casey (1). Our daughter Kate is a child psychologist who lives in Concord,
Mass. with her husband Kosti and son Alex (6)."
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Mary Denson
Mary Denson: "I am a life long UU and was
raised in the Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbia, Missouri. I became
a full member in 2011. I am currently a Montessori teaching assistant at
Grant Montessori Preschool. I went to a Friends boarding school in Iowa for
high school, and while I was there I learned much about the Quaker consensus
process method of decision-making. Through my four years of experience
leading and participating in this process, I learned how to utilize the
process to insure that the values of the school were being upheld while also
enabling each individual to be empowered to speak and be heard.
"I am passionate about Unitarian Universalism and our
living tradition. In the past two years I have been on several committees. I
look forward to helping create policies with my fellow board members that
enable our mission to be more fully carried out and further reaching. I am
looking forward to serving our church through this leadership role. I also
look forward to learning through this experience along side my fellow UUs."
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Pack Matthews
Pack Matthews: "Finding the UU church was
one of my first tasks after moving my young family to Columbia in 1991. I
was asked to be on the board early on, and was able to avoid that challenge
through the years by starting a spiritual explorers club, directing R.E.
(before paid staff), joining the Peace Building Team, teaching Yoga classes,
and participating in various lay-led services.
"Now I feel I may have enough years behind me to
contribute effectively to the board. Daughters Zoe and Hannah grew up in
this community, and as an empty nester now, my livelihood is derived from
juggling a piano tuning business and a start-up built around one of my
inventions. I don't think there's ever been a more exciting time and place
to be a liberal religious community, and I'm excited about the possibility
of contributing to this rich new chapter in our church as a board member for
the first time."
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Maria Oropallo (incumbent)
Maria Oropallo: Maria is the current
Board President. Coming to us from New England via Virginia, Maria joined
our church in 2009. Last year she chaired our Public Relations Committee,
co-chaired the Founder's Day Mid-Winter Gala, and is a member of the Social
Action Team and the Design Team. She is a consultant for non-profits working
on behalf of low-income seniors and people with disabilities.
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UUCC and Members Featured in
Online Articles
Journalism students at the University of Missouri-Columbia
recently completed a series of articles focusing on local religious
attitudes, with particular emphasis on the growing numbers of people who
describe their religious affiliation as "none" or "spiritual but not
religious."
Our church and some of its members were the subject of
online articles written as part of the project:
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All-Church Group Sale Held May 10-11
The annual All-Church Group Sale was held from 7 a.m. to noon on Friday
and Saturday, May 10 and 11.
Sale organizer Marianne Erickson provided the following report on the sale:
Through the sale of the generously donated gently used belongings of our
members and friends, we netted approximately $900 from the sale this past
Friday and Saturday. The proceeds wil be split evenly between the church
operating fund and the PhysZOU student-run physical therapy clinic for area
residents who lack insurance coverage for needed therapies. I understand
that the PhysZOU clinic plans to use the funds we raised for them to
purchase a standing-assistive device that has been needed for some time for
patients who are too weak to stand on their own for treatments.
I wish to specially thank these individuals for their amazing support of
this week-long organizing and sales effort: Diane Suhler, Corinne Mann,
Robert Mize, Qhyrrae Michaelieu, Win Scott, Marg Tyler, Christi and Korri
(Hannah) Hutton, Allen and Marian Hjelmfelt, Al Lackey, Cathy Johnson, Irene
Karns, Melissa Bedford, Melinda Farhangi, Hazel Breitenbach, Sue Bader, Sara
Birkmeier, Jeff Krug and his daughter, Ellie, George Bunyea, Mary Margaret
Coffield, Ellen Atkins, Brian from Habitat for Humanity, and a host of
others.
The many contributions of valuable, useful and educational items were sold
to many community residents who have never visited our church before. And,
the remaining useful items were carted off to the following organizations
for their clients and customers: Habitat for Humanity, the Columbia Public
Library, Boone County Jail (paperbacks), Rainbow House and True North.
This truly was a green project that benefitted many and will continue to do
so through the work of the PhysZou Clinic, as they use the therapy equipment
that this sale helped to fund.
Thanks to Marianne Erickson for providing the photos below.
Win Scott, left, and Marg Tyler played a sisters' duet on the
keyboard Win purchased at the sale. They played beautifully!
Helpers were tired but happy after the sale when all the items were
gone
and the church was back in order. Pictured, from left, are Allen
Hjelmfelt,
George Bunyea, Marian Hjelmfelt, Win Scott, Marg Tyler and
Robert Mize.
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The Listening Ministry: A Shared Ministry
A message from your Committee on Ministry by
Howard Hutton
As a community that developed from a fellowship, many of
us are familiar with shared ministry, literally. We have shared the pulpit,
the chores, the caring, the social action, the maintenance, the music, the
joys and the concerns. Even though we have served in many different ways,
our church has coalesced like one small-group ministry. Now we are becoming
several different ministries. We are in orbit around each other, around the
love of truth and around the truth of love.
The listening sessions for the visioning process have
become a spiritual practice brightening our inner shine and igniting our
mutual radiance. Making time to listen to ourselves, as we speak to someone
else, is creating a whole new space, inside and out. This is ground zero for
our creative impetus and combined energy to be well. The actions we need to
take and behaviors we need to change are dependent, like never before, on
coming together at the very time we are the most separated, because the
pressures of society and our inner responses are inextricably connected.
We are changing the balance, by listening to each other.
We are making strong connections for the spirit to flow like energy through
a completed circuit. A great deal of strength and courage comes straight
from being heard. We are ever bolstering this organization. New ideas and
friendships are popping into existence, and, like cross-sulcus synaptic
connections in the brain of a genius, we are fostering out-of-the-box
solutions to the problems of rampant consumption and aloneness.
Shared ministry is individuals making the connections with
their hearts and their friend’s hearts that puts their Universe back into
play – serious spiritual fun. The spiritual environment of our hearts and
minds share a place of courage and safety where uncertainty and
vulnerability are our prized possessions. It is here where we look around,
smile and find ourselves today. Even for the most courageous and honest
thinker, this can be scary and anxiety provoking. It is also how we know we
are alive and learning. Instead of consuming our earth whole, this is the
garden where we can spend our days in consumption of the varied and evolving
greenery of truth and adorn ourselves with the fragile and fragrant blossoms
of compassion.
Who am I going to listen to today?
Your Committee on Ministry is made up of Alan Arnold,
Allie Gassmann, Rebecca Graves, Rev. Molly Housh Gordon, Howard Hutton, Todd
Iveson, and Jeanne Murphy.
[From the May 2013 Searchlight]
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Attention, volunteers: Tally up your time
The Fiscal Review Committee is gathering information on
the amount and kind of uncom pensated work done by vol un teer church
members.
Any and all uncompensated work will be documented, such as
kitchen help, building and grounds, youth work ... the list is long!
Please help us in collecting this information over the
next few weeks. Watch for an order of service insert in the coming weeks.
For more information email Roy Keller, Katherine Mears or Diane Suhler.
[From the May 2013 Searchlight]
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Spring food deliveries to the Pantry – thanks
On March
21, we took 62 pounds of food to the Central Pantry of the Food Bank for
Central and Northeast Missouri.
Another 260 pounds was taken to the
Central Pantry after the Easter food hunt.
Thanks to all of you who
donate food. It is needed.
[From the May 2013 Searchlight]
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