Friday, May 30, 2008
Unitarian Universalist Military social network?
While listening to NPR a few weeks ago I heard about Ning.com where people can create their own social network (think Myspace or Facebook but on a smaller scale). I thought how cool it would be to start a UU Military network. I would start it myself but I'm about to rotate back to sea duty and it's a new construction ship so I really won't have the time to manage a site. Is anyone interested? I was thinking that a "social network" might get some more hits especially among the younger members.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
A Friendly Footprint...
A proposal for action to aid Iraqi school children, sent to UU's in the Military by Richard Anderson of the Boone NC UU Fellowship:
On May 13th at 6:33 am, my son called me via satellite phone from a small village in Iraq. He was exasperated with the conditions he found on the ground. He described the village his unit was based in as total squalor but his greatest disappointment was the condition of the school. The students had neither pencils nor paper, few books and no games or sports equipment. Our Church, the Boone Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship has taken on the mission to provide school supplies for distribution by the Marines on the ground. As a church, we can buy at a discount and avoid the added expense of sales tax. We can also get uniformity in the supplies, which makes shipping and distribution easier. This is a volunteer run effort with no administrative costs and will not be used to promote or publicize the church. We are merely the vehicle for this assistance. Your contribution is tax-deductible and you will get a statement at the end of the year. Make checks payable to the church. Please help out our bookkeeper by writing “Will’s Kids” or “Friendly Footprint” on the memo line of your check. Send donations to:
Boone Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship
381 E. King St.
Boone, NC 28607
On May 13th at 6:33 am, my son called me via satellite phone from a small village in Iraq. He was exasperated with the conditions he found on the ground. He described the village his unit was based in as total squalor but his greatest disappointment was the condition of the school. The students had neither pencils nor paper, few books and no games or sports equipment. Our Church, the Boone Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship has taken on the mission to provide school supplies for distribution by the Marines on the ground. As a church, we can buy at a discount and avoid the added expense of sales tax. We can also get uniformity in the supplies, which makes shipping and distribution easier. This is a volunteer run effort with no administrative costs and will not be used to promote or publicize the church. We are merely the vehicle for this assistance. Your contribution is tax-deductible and you will get a statement at the end of the year. Make checks payable to the church. Please help out our bookkeeper by writing “Will’s Kids” or “Friendly Footprint” on the memo line of your check. Send donations to:
Boone Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship
381 E. King St.
Boone, NC 28607
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Problems with UU's in the Military
Hello everyone,
Well, our hosting service did something odd this morning, and completely trashed the customized template that UU's in the Military has had for years. Because of upgrades and changes, I was not able to restore the old template, and had to upgrade the site...
So, we have lost a few elements, such as our blog listing (which we can restore) and our listing of Congregations with UU Military members in them (about which I have questions whether we want to restore).
I think all UU Congregations have Military Affiliated UU's in them, but some dont know it. By keeping such a list, we are implying that only these congregations have military UU's... and that is just not the case.
So, over the next several days I will be changing the template and restoring some of the lost items.
All of our posts are fine, so dont worry about that.
Thanks all!
Yours in Faith,
David
Well, our hosting service did something odd this morning, and completely trashed the customized template that UU's in the Military has had for years. Because of upgrades and changes, I was not able to restore the old template, and had to upgrade the site...
So, we have lost a few elements, such as our blog listing (which we can restore) and our listing of Congregations with UU Military members in them (about which I have questions whether we want to restore).
I think all UU Congregations have Military Affiliated UU's in them, but some dont know it. By keeping such a list, we are implying that only these congregations have military UU's... and that is just not the case.
So, over the next several days I will be changing the template and restoring some of the lost items.
All of our posts are fine, so dont worry about that.
Thanks all!
Yours in Faith,
David
Fill out the Survey!
Hello All,
Lou Portella (Ret. Navy ET1), the founder of the UUniforms military support group at the UU Church in Norfolk Virginia has put together a survey on military attitudes within our congregations.
Check out this article at UUMM to learn more, and to fill out the survey!
http://uumm.blogspot.com/2008/05/online-survey-on-uu-and-military.html
Yours in Faith,
David
Lou Portella (Ret. Navy ET1), the founder of the UUniforms military support group at the UU Church in Norfolk Virginia has put together a survey on military attitudes within our congregations.
Check out this article at UUMM to learn more, and to fill out the survey!
http://uumm.blogspot.com/2008/05/online-survey-on-uu-and-military.html
Yours in Faith,
David
Saturday, May 03, 2008
Welcome Chief Smith
UU's in the Military would like to welcome a new member, CW2 Edward Smith... here is his introductory email!
Hi! I'm CW2 Edward Smith. I found your website searching for potential congregations to join when I get out of the army in the coming months. I was raised Unitarian between the Eastside congregation of Pittsburgh, PA and the Orlando, FL congregation.There have been two main benefits of the military on my spiritual life. The first (and most obvious) is that in the military, especially with current circumstances, I have faced very difficult decisions and stressful situations. During those times, I felt that life was pulling me around by the nose. I was barely keeping up with things as they happened, with little time for forethought, there was no time for reflection. After these short, intense events though, I was able to reflect and learn some life lessons. I can't say that I have them organized enough to put down in a few short sentences though. The second (and more interesting) is that in the military I have been forced to work, live and socialize with people to whom I would not normally gravitate. I took the opportunity to learn a lot about the Mormon faith. I have engaged in lengthy conversations with a southern baptist who was running around camp informing everyone else that they were condemned. Normally, the evangelical nature of these faiths have caused me to avoid forming relationships with the people of that faith. But, through military service I was able to (forced to?) learn about the people, their faiths, and still get a lot of work done together. I'm leaving the Army shortly and hope to move to an area with an active UU fellowship. Unitarianism hasn't made its presence felt yet here in southeast Alabama. I look forward to reading some more of the older and upcoming posts on this site.
Edward
Hi! I'm CW2 Edward Smith. I found your website searching for potential congregations to join when I get out of the army in the coming months. I was raised Unitarian between the Eastside congregation of Pittsburgh, PA and the Orlando, FL congregation.There have been two main benefits of the military on my spiritual life. The first (and most obvious) is that in the military, especially with current circumstances, I have faced very difficult decisions and stressful situations. During those times, I felt that life was pulling me around by the nose. I was barely keeping up with things as they happened, with little time for forethought, there was no time for reflection. After these short, intense events though, I was able to reflect and learn some life lessons. I can't say that I have them organized enough to put down in a few short sentences though. The second (and more interesting) is that in the military I have been forced to work, live and socialize with people to whom I would not normally gravitate. I took the opportunity to learn a lot about the Mormon faith. I have engaged in lengthy conversations with a southern baptist who was running around camp informing everyone else that they were condemned. Normally, the evangelical nature of these faiths have caused me to avoid forming relationships with the people of that faith. But, through military service I was able to (forced to?) learn about the people, their faiths, and still get a lot of work done together. I'm leaving the Army shortly and hope to move to an area with an active UU fellowship. Unitarianism hasn't made its presence felt yet here in southeast Alabama. I look forward to reading some more of the older and upcoming posts on this site.
Edward
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
