Weekly
Newsletter
High
Country Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (HCUUF)
Weekly
Newsletter: August 13-19, 2018
CONTENTS
• Sunday
Services
• Upcoming
Service & Social Time, August 19, 2018
• Thoreau
as Spiritual Guide led by Rev. Kirk Loadman-Copeland
• Take
a Knee!!
• When
Dreams Become Nightmares
• Touchstones
Journal for August: Unity and Diversity
• HCUUF
Facebook Page
• Other
News Sent under Separate Cover
• HCUUF
Website
• Contact
Information for Newsletter Announcements
• Contact
Information for HCUUF
• Consulting
Minister, Board Members, Committees, Musician, Staff
• Sunday
Services
Our
weekly Sunday Services take place in the Fellowship Hall of the
Lord of the Mountains Church in Dillon, CO at 4:00 pm and are
followed by a Social Hour or Potluck at 5:00 pm. Potlucks
usually occur on the last Sunday of the month.
During
2018 we have had a short sabbatical during the months of May
and October during which no services are held but other
activities takes place from time to time.
• Upcoming
Service & Social Time
August
19, 2018: Service & Social Time
Sermon
Title: We Are Many, We Are One
Speaker: Rev.
Kirk Loadman Copeland
The
ideal of E Pluribus Unum, “Out of many, One,” has never been
easy, yet it remains a worthy goal. It is easy to look at the
radical right and see the consequence of tribalism. Ugly!
Yet
that same tribalism flourishes on the radical left. The work of
unity in diversity depends on the moderate middle. How can we
weave the beautiful fabric of unity from so many diverse
threads?
• Thoreau
as Spiritual Guide
Led
by Rev. Kirk Loadman-Copeland, Consulting Minister
Thoreau’s
Walden remains a classic in American literature, and many have
deemed it a spiritual classic. This course will run for four
Thursdays in September.
A
brief lecture regarding Thoreau and his influence will be
followed by discussion of the assigned readings from Walden.
Depending on the number of people participating, there will be
one discussion group or several smaller ones.
While
there is no fee for the course, registration is required for
planning purposes. If you would like to participate, please
email Kirk at Kirkhcuuf@gmail.com.
If you have any questions, please email Kirk.
The
weekly topic and assigned readings for discussion are as
follows:
September
6: How Do We Spend Our Lives?
Reading for discussion: “Economy”
September
13: How Do We Wake Up?
Reading for discussion: “Where I Lived and What I Lived For”
September
20: How Do We Grow?
Readings for discussion: “Reading” and “Sounds”
September
27: How Then Shall We Live?
Readings for discussion: “Solitude,” “Visitors,” and
“Conclusion”
• Take
a Knee!
by
Rev. Kirk Loadman-Copeland, Consulting Minister
As
you approach the grave of any soldier who died defending
America, take a knee.
For
the courage and clarity of Colin Kaepernick, and his protest
against police abuse, take a knee.
For
Michael Brown, Eric Gardner, Tamar Rice, Walter Scott, Freddie
Grey, Philandro Castile, and all the others who have died
tragically and needlessly at the hands of police, those very
officers who swore an oath to serve, protect, and defend, take a
knee.
For
Heather Heyer who was killed by a white nationalist in
Charlottesville, take a knee.
For
the more than ninety people killed and others who were wounded
in shootings in churches in the last 20 years including
Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist in Knoxville, the Sikh
Temple of Wisconsin, Mother Emanuel in
Charleston, and First Baptist in Sutherland Springs, take a
knee.
For
the churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples that have been
desecrated or burned, take a knee.
For
all those killed and wounded in more than 200 school shootings
since April 1999, including Columbine, Red Lake, West Nickel
Mines, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, Umpqua Community College,
Santa Fe, and Parkland, take a knee.
For
all of the other mass killings including the concert in Las
Vegas, the Pulse Nightclub, and San Bernadino, take a knee.
For
the refusal of legislators to pass sensible gun control
legislation, take a knee.
For
all of the wounded warriors who struggle for healing and
wholeness, and for those veterans whose service to America led
to homelessness or finally ended in suicide, take a knee.
For
all of the immigrants who came to this land in search of a dream
called America, for those now being denied asylum, for children
ripped from their parents’ arms and imprisoned, and for
countless others who died in the deserts of the Southwest trying
to get here, take a knee.
For
the Statue of Liberty, who now weeps, take a knee.
For
black lives that have not mattered since slaves were brought to
America in the 1560s, for the stunning incarceration rates of
black males that represent the new Jim Crow, and for the cancer
of dehumanizing racism that seems stronger than ever, take a
knee.
For
the genocide of the first peoples of this land and for every
treaty made with Native tribes that was broken by the United
States, take a knee.
For
the ravage of drug overdoses, now dramatically increased by
opioids, which killed over 70,000 Americans in 2017, take a
knee.
For
the corporate greed that resulted in close to six million
foreclosures during the Great Recession: jobs lost, careers
ended, families ripped apart, and dreams forever destroyed, take
a knee.
For
those white lives that now no longer matter, though their
grievances are used to fuel the fires of dissension and racism
within America, take a knee.
For
the assault on our democracy: voter suppression, gerrymandered
districts, Citizens United, special interests, Russian meddling,
and more, take a knee.
For
the undermining of the rule of law, for trading lies for truth,
for the assault on the free press, for political tribalism, for
legislators who betray the constitution and their oath of
office, and public officials whose greed places self-interest
above the national-interest, take a knee.
For
the willful ignorance of climate change and the peril that the
earth and we face, along with all life, take a knee.
For
those who have given up on the American dream, both in this
country and among our allies throughout the world, take a knee.
For
all the women who have been paid less than men for the same job,
for those who have suffered domestic abuse, and for those who
have suffered sexual harassment and assault, take a knee.
For
the elderly who seek dignity in their declining years, for the
differently-abled who struggle to make a life worth living, and
for all who simply seek to love whom they love without ridicule
or discrimination, take a knee.
And
for every other way in which we have fallen short of the
nobility of which we as individuals and a country are capable,
take a knee.
Take
a knee, as an act of compassion, a call to justice, an awareness
of humility, a gesture of solidarity, a prayer of kindness, an
invocation of our better angels, and a necessary precursor to
reclaim our power as citizens.
Take
a knee, and then, in the wise words of poet Maya Angelou,
“rise.” Rise to resist, to protest, to march, to vote, to
volunteer, to dream, and to work for as long as it takes to “Let
America be America again. / Let it be the dream it used to be,”
as the poet Langston Hughes wrote.
Take
a knee, and then stand, place your hand over your heart, and
whisper the words, “with liberty and justice for all,” and mean
it.
• When
Dreams Become Nightmares
