Thoreau Woods Unitarian Universalist Church Huntsville, Texas

formerly known as the Huntsville Unitarian Universalist Fellowship

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Past Services and Events
Past Lay Sermons

 

 

Welcome to the Thoreau Woods UU Church of Huntsville, Texas

 144 East Mosley Lane

See our map and directions

     

 

  9:30 - 10:15:  Religious Education

10:00 - 10:30: we gather and have coffee.

10:30:  Sunday morning service 

For more information call (936) 295-3170.

 

 Recognizing no distinction of class, nationality, race, gender, or sexual orientation,

 we welcome everyone to our congregation.

 

For more news and details, see this month's newsletter.

To hear our radio advertisement from President James Moore, click here.

 

 

February 2012 Services

 

Sunday, Feb. 5

Speaker: Robert L. Peake, M.D.

Topic: Euthanasia

Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS).  He will review the history and the role of the Christian Church. Will discuss the Netherlands and Oregon where PAS is practiced and review their experiences along with Dr. Jack Kevorkian ( Dr. Death). Review some famous cases and personal and will close with the importance of having a Living Will.

Bob was born and raised in Indiana. Residency in Internal Medicine and 3 yr fellowship in Endocinology and Metabolism at IUMC. Returned to TX in1968 to be on faculty at UTMB in Galveston. Left academia 1983 for 10 yrs of private practice in General Internal Medicine and then returned to UTMB for 5 yrs. Retired 1997 and moved to Lake Livingston.

 

Married to Karen 1957 and their daughter lives in Austin. Two grandchildren both in College Station.

Enjoys photography and travel, fishing, sailing, bridge and yard work when he has to.

Special music:  Duet by Asia Gillespie & Kelli Amick.

Sunday, Feb. 12

Speaker: James Moore

Topic: Just Help: A Mission of Love

With Valentine’s Day this month, many people immediately think of the loved ones closest to them, whether spouse, parent, or child. But what does it mean when Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The congregants of Thoreau Woods believe that we are not simply a society of ideals and principles, but a community called to action, based on the struggle to love one another, and Just Help.


Sunday, Feb. 19

Speaker: Ervin Boehm

Topic: The Necessity of Virtue

Mr. Boehm will be presenting a sermon written and preached by Rev. Galen Guengerich at All Souls Unitarian in NYC on November 8, 2009.  His sermon is a precursor to his eight part series on virtue that the Rev. presented at the 2010 General Assembly in Minneapolis.  Ervin Carl Boehm was born 9/1/51 in Milwaukee, WI.  After his father’s death in 1963, he moved with his mother to Hot Springs, AR.  He graduated from high school there in 1969, the same school as Bill Clinton.  He got his BSBA degree with a major in General Business from Henderson State College in Arkadelphia, AR in 1973, and got a BA degree with a major in art and minor in Sociology in 2004 from SFA in Nacogdoches.  He has worked in retail, hospitality, newspaper, and the printing industry.  He has lived in Wisconsin, Arkansas, Texas, West Virginia, and Alabama, and currently lives in Lufkin.  He has officially been a UU since 2000 but was a UU without really knowing it almost his whole life.

 

Sunday, Feb. 26 Speaker: Jimmy Satterfield Topic: God Helped Me Find Love in the Former Soviet Union

There will be a potluck following the service.

Looking for love in all the wrong places seldom leads to a successful marriage.  Letting God take charge led to finding love in one of the most unsuspecting venues – in the former Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan.

Since taking early retirement from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in 1994, James (Jimmy) Satterfield has worked and lived in over a dozen foreign countries – primarily former Soviet Union Republics or Soviet aligned bloc countries including Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Republic of Georgia, Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan as well as in Iraq, Indonesia, Kenya and Sudan.

Born in Jackson and raised in Meridian, Mississippi, after High School he served 8 years in the U.S. Army.  Jimmy then went to work for Philco-Ford Corporation in 1966 as an Electronics Engineer on a remote Air Force Early Warning Radar site in Alaska before being transferred to Houston in 1967 to work at NASA during the Apollo program. While at NASA, he also acquired a BBA degree in Accounting in 1972 from the University of Houston and subsequently a CPA license from the State of Virginia. 

Upon leaving NASA in 1972, he worked for a Cable TV Construction company managing construction projects across the USA before joining the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC) as a Bank Examiner in 1976.  During his banking career he progressed to and held senior level management positions in the private sector and Federal Banking Regulatory agencies at various locations including Texas, Louisiana and Washington, D.C.   Now semi-retired, Jimmy enjoys staying  busy as a “Meals on Wheels” volunteer, online study courses, golf, travel and with his beautiful wife, Natasha, and family of 5 children, 17 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren.

  

See the Past Services and Events  page for past Thoreau Woods services.

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

 

R.E. for adults meets every Sunday from 9:30 to 10:15 A.M. 

UUA Tapestry of Faith Adult RE Program

Resistance and Transformation: UU Social Justice History

Thoreau Woods UU Church

Fall 2011

I do not pretend to understand the moral universe;

the arc is a long one...

And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice.

— Theodore Parker

19th-century Unitarian minister and abolitionist

 

Adult RE Group Covenant: “How We Agree to Be With Each Other”

We agree to start and end programs on time; practice respectful dialogue; honor diversity of opinion and approach; preserve participants’ confidentiality if requested; learn from one another in every meeting; and nurture our spirits in a loving and peaceful community.

Facilitator contact information:

James Moore

936-439-5718

jamesmoore@shsu.edu

 

DATE and TIME        Workshop

1/08 @ 9:30am 15.The Struggle for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Equality
1/15 @ 9:30am 16.Is There More?
1/22 @ 9:30am Workshop 1: Hosea Ballou
1/29 @ 9:30am Workshop 2: William Ellery Channing
2/05 @ 9:30am Workshop 3: Margaret Fuller
2/12 @ 9:30am Workshop 4: George de Benneville
2/19 @ 9:30am Workshop 5: Charles Chauncy
2/26 @ 9:30am Workshop 6: Sophia Lyon Fahs
3/04 @ 9:30am Workshop 7: James Luther Adams
3/11 @ 9:30am Workshop 8: Forrest Church
3/18 @ 9:30am Workshop 9: William F. Schulz
3/25 @ 9:30am Workshop 10: Thandeka

 

R.E. for Youth:  September-May Religious Education classes meet every Sunday morning from 9:30 to 10:15 with a class for youth junior high or older (current student population is the 3 Norman boys.) Additional students are welcome. Anne True will teach this class. We may call on others to teach this class. Curriculum guides will be available. Volunteers who would teach the class once a month are encouraged.

We are required by UUA guidelines to have 2 adults in every class for children or youth and in every child care situation.

The class for the younger children will be held during the Sunday morning service and will include a story and crafts. Beth Williamson will teach this class. We may call on others to teach this class. Curriculum guides will be available. Volunteers who would teach the class once a month are encouraged.

We are working on having child care for children of adults who wish to attend the adult religious education class. We could employ two high school or college students for this task. Or we could use two adult volunteers willing to be present at 9:30.

            Volunteers supervise their play time and may hear the sermon over the loud speaker in the RE room. Please sign up at the name tag table or talk to Beth Williamson at 295-3170.

UPCOMING EVENTS

 

Compassionate Communication Movie Series  Each screening to take place on Thursday at 7pm at Thoreau Woods UU Church:

February 2 - Groundhog Day

February 9 - Peaceful Warrior

February 16 - Gran Turino

February 23 - 12 Angry Men

 

Each of the films features themes of how people should best interact in a way to avoid harmful speech and deeds. Questions for each film session's discussion after the movie include:

How does the main character or characters' interactions with others change throughout the film?

What experiences lead to these changes?

Will insights from this story affect how you communicate or interact with others or yourself?

 

January 22 - Congregational Meeting - Parking Lot Vote.  Directly after service, the congregation will meet to vote on the plan for the church parking lot. The ballot for the congregational meeting will read as follows:
"This vote is to approve the construction of a concrete parking lot as well as financing up to $25,000 through incorporation of the church and granting authority to the president to negotiate such a loan."

This will allow us to pay for a concrete parking lot in the front of the church that will eliminate the problems we have experienced of visitors getting their cars stuck in the mud and having difficulty walking on the uneven terrain. Concrete will cost more than asphalt initially, but because it requires less maintenance, the total cost will be less than asphalt (no sealer cost, weed control, wear,etc.). There is very little, if any, maintenance to be done for concrete. The map for the parking lot plan submitted by the Facility Management Committee is attached. For more information on the process and importance of incorporation for our organization prior to taking out a loan, please visit http://www.ehow.com/how_7190096_incorporate-church-texas_.html
 

Circle Dinners: You sign up as a participant and indicate which month (or months) most convenient for you to host the dinner in your home. The host/hostess provides the entrée and calls the people assigned to that home to arrange for the rest of the meal.  We will plan for January, February, March, and April. Please call Joan Stringer at 291-6009 if you are interested in participating in these fun gatherings.

 CHARITY OF THE MONTH 

We designate a different charity each month.  Please make out checks directly to the charity and put in collection plate on Sunday morning.  For more information about this month's charity, see the most recent newsletter.

February 2012:   SAAFE House

THOREAU WOODS COFFEEHOUSE  

Saturday, February 18:  The next coffehouse will be Hans York with Jorge Palomarez opening.  For details about this concert and for information about future concerts, go to Thoreau Woods Coffeehouse. 

 CUUPS SCHEDULE

The CUUPS group will meet the first and third Sundays at 2pm for study groups.  

FOOD FOR PEACE
In September, Food for Peace was donated to firefighters and fire victims in Walker County. We will continue our social action project of collecting donations of non-perishable food items to be donated to those in need, along with information about compassionate communication. We will be distributing food both to those who are homeless, and those who are not. So donations of food that require no cooking are greatly appreciated. (Granola bars, vienna sausages, bottled water, and peanut butter are just a few suggestions.)

DONATE BLOOD

There is a blood drive the 2nd Saturday of each month at Gibbs Elementary (on 19th St.) from 8-4 in the cafeteria. You can give blood in the name of our church. It is under Huntsville Unitarian and the code # is 4130.  

PROPOSED NATURE TRAIL

To those who would like to work with the Grounds Committee (currently a committee of one—myself!), there will be a work session this Saturday morning at 8:00. The purpose will be to "touch up" the Nature Trail that is a work in progress. It began with Bob Collier going over the circuitous path I laid out with his brush-hog, then considerable hand clearing. Many thanks to Todd Barber of Huntsville Steel (who fabricated the handrails for the Church) for cutting some galvanized steel trail markers. The beginning section of the Trail was more or less obliterated by the construction of the two new houses on Mosley Lane, so some sacks of pine straw or bark mulch would be welcome. I have parceled out those sacks that have been previously brought to the Church—mostly by Dixon Lichtenauer—and can use a lot more. Pine straw prevents weed growth and cuts down on sand tracked into the building. Be sure to bring work gloves if you come, and a simple tool or two (pruning shears, hoe, rake).

 

Paul Culp

 

p.s. I think the current trail is about one-third of a mile. When the weather cools down I plan to extend it into the additional property the Stringers donated.