Unitarian Fellowship of Huntington, 619 6th Avenue, Huntington, WV 25701-2103

Member of the Unitarian Universalist Association �� Newsletter Number 2009:32

President: Bob Williams �� Vice President/Programs Director: Randy Miller �� Treasurer: Jim Maphet

Newsletter Editor: Jack Wilkinson III (304-521-9201)

The Free Thinker

Newsletter of the Unitarian Fellowship of Huntington, WV

DECEMBER 9 , 2009

EVENTS FOR SUNDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2009

10:00 A.M. WORSHIP with the Reverend Jack Wilkinson.

HOMILY: "The Promised One Is Coming"

Christmas each year raises the issue of human perfectibility as symbolized by the

Christ Child.

10:30 A.M. Coffee Break

11:00 A.M. PROGRAM with the U. U. Fellowship:

Ed Necco on "Secular Humanism"

There are three phases of religion. Let's call them 'One,' ''Two,' and 'Three' for

'past,' 'present,' and 'future.' Phase One, the past, was characterized by a genuine

contact with spirits by means of clairvoyant vision. Phase Two, the present, is

characterized by the loss of clairvoyance and the growth of the intellect, while the

ancient religious perspective became demonic. It is at this juncture that Secular

Humanism emerged and became the crowning glory of the human spirit rejecting both

the demonic in religion and the longstanding social institution of slavery. Secular

Humanism can be considered as the dramatic culmination of religion's second phase

and its greatest expression to date. However, it is far from being the last word, which

will come in Phase Three, when the spirits of Phase One are re‐embraced.

Ed Necco is eminently qualified to present Secular Humanism. He is not

expected to call it a 'religion,' but rather a 'religious substitute.' However, if a religious

substitute does the job, then it is indeed a religion for all intents ands purposes. Ed will

speak of Secular Humanism's moral and ethical imperatives, of which he has a firm

grasp as evinced in his own life and person. It is a presentation that nobody should

miss.

FUTURE PROGRAMS (PROGRAMS ARE HELD AT 11:00 AM)

Note: Worship Services with The Rev. Jack Wilkinson will be held every Sunday at 10:00 A.M.

December 20th: Claire Horton presenting "The Un‐Christmas Play"

December 27th: The Rev. Jack Wilkinson on "Unitarian Universalism"

January 3rd: Open Discussion

Unitarian Fellowship of Huntington, 619 6th Avenue, Huntington, WV 25701-2103

Member of the Unitarian Universalist Association �� Newsletter Number 2009:32

President: Bob Williams �� Vice President/Programs Director: Randy Miller �� Treasurer: Jim Maphet

Newsletter Editor: Jack Wilkinson III (304-521-9201)

January 10th: Jaqueline Muth reviewing War Is A Racket.

January 17th: “Autobiography” with Jim Maphet

January 24th: "The Art and Religion of Mustang Bhutan"

3d wk in Feb "Autobiography" with Randy Miller

RETROSPECTIVE OF LAST SUNDAY'S OPEN DISCUSSION

With a few false starts the conversation settled down to priorities at Marshall

University. Mike Moore praised the faculty. He said that during his seventeen year

tenure here it had gotten better and better, and he defended it heartily against attacks

by other Discussion participants. However, he decried the Board of Governors'

priorities, such as the hoopla over the firing of Coach Snyder and the search for his

replacement. This got us into a discussion of athletes and their alleged preferential

treatment. The statement was made that policy in some classrooms was for

instructors to offer athletes an automatic 'B' if they chose to cut classes altogether.

Sue Canterbury, our blind member, said that she had been offered this football players'

deal. Mike expressed skepticism of this degree of informality, so this observer ended

up uncertain as to the extend of possible corruption of the educative process.

Mike Moore also expressed disappointment with the Board of Governors for

their handling of the Research Institute, because of their failure to absorb the

researchers into the faculty and thereby enhance the academic status of the

University. When I later mentioned this matter to my son, who is also a faculty

member, he agreed with Mike that it was wrong to cultivate this particular breed of

cat, the isolated researcher.

Other things were discussed, but they elude the memory of this reporter.

LIGHT FROM JACK'S LANTERN

A part of me loves Christmas, and another part of me thinks it's a bitch.

However, if it weren't everything it is, then we'd have to invent another day to replace

its missing parts. It is, among other things, the time of year when we try to catch up

with our families. My Scroogish siblings call me on Christmas and sometimes on my

birthday. That's it! I called them both on Thanksgiving, Day this year, and the feeing I

got from them was that I h ad overdone it. We're three old crones who are no longer

cronies. Christmas alone holds us together in its tentative embrace.

So on Christmas we make Herculean efforts to overcome geographic distances

to actualize those yearly intervals of laying eyes on each other. So the Huntington

Branch of Wilkinson, Inc. is hiring a van with the help of my other two children, so that

we can meaningfully merge in the face of snow and sleet in the benignly‐weathered

Unitarian Fellowship of Huntington, 619 6th Avenue, Huntington, WV 25701-2103

Member of the Unitarian Universalist Association �� Newsletter Number 2009:32

President: Bob Williams �� Vice President/Programs Director: Randy Miller �� Treasurer: Jim Maphet

Newsletter Editor: Jack Wilkinson III (304-521-9201)

state of Texas, where my daughter, Heather, teaches at Texas A&M, site of the tragic

bonfire debacle a few years ago. Last year we all took a Caribbean cruise together,

some eight of us, but this year my daughter will billet us and thereby take the brunt of

the strain of being together that accompanies the joy.

Ach! The presents! I never know what to get people or how narrowly I can pare

my list down. So, what I end up doing is getting a bunch of books, most of them from

esoteric sources. My efforts at elevating my family into the empyrean are, of course,

ludicrous, but I go on getting people stuff, when my only measure is what I would like

myself. I'm beginning to think that Christmas by our spiritual caretakers to shake us up

and b end us way out of shape in order to lead us to a Zen moment. If so, I hope it

works this time before I'm utterly exhausted.