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

Member of the Unitarian Universalist Association �� Newsletter Number 2009:31

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 2 , 2009

EVENTS FOR SUNDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2009

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

HOMILY: "Indulgence"

We shall consider self‐gratification and its opposite. Can we keep the balance?

10:30 A.M. Coffee Break

11:00 A.M. PROGRAM with the U. U. Fellowship: "Open Discussion"

This session is open to all concerns, and President Bob Williams in his evenhandedness

will give everyone a chance. I, for one, would like us to consider, however

briefly, Joan Becelaere's question of whether we are a peace church. This could lead

us into Iraq and whether to stay in with Obama or get out with Biden.

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 13th: Ed Necco on "Secular Humanism"

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

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

January 3rd: Open Discussion

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

January 17th: “Autobiography” with Jim Maphet

3d wk in Feb "Autobiography" with Randy Miller

RETROSPECTIVE OF LAST SUNDAY'S DINNER

We came, we saw, we ate. I wondered if a bird would show up. Pieces of it did.

The surprise was a huge haunch of pig produced by Alan Stern. Someone brought

wine, which gives me an idea for future dinners. There was enough food for all.

Ed Necco warned us about upcoming speaker Jaqueline Muth. It seems she's a

firebrand who "takes no prisoners." The faint of heart should stay away along with

men who are nervous about their masculinity. Ed never said "ball‐buster," but he

came close. However, he neglected to warn us about himself. He's coming up Sunday

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

Member of the Unitarian Universalist Association �� Newsletter Number 2009:31

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

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

after next, and I'm trembling as I wait for my fondest illusions to be ripped to shreds as

he holds forth on his secular humanism. Secular? Schmekular! He's a true nonbeliever!

Of course I'm just funnin.'

LIGHT FROM JACK'S LANTERN: "AGING"

We're all aging. In fact, we're a congregation of agers, and we're damned good

at it. On the News Hour a few nights ago they did a short piece on an American poet.

I don't remember her name, but she said something that stuck with me: "Seventy was

good, but eighty's better." In my imagination I can appreciate her journey. For her the

very ground of our being is becoming more and more luminous, more and more

incandescent. She's ripening, perhaps even beginning to rot, but she has, like Henry

David Thoreau, backed life into a corner until it has utterly revealed itself to her. She

has not lost her expectation of renewal.

We, an aggregation of slow‐burning fires not altogether unlike this poet, would

probably welcome any young person who might accidentally stumble at our doorstep

and spill into our midst, giving us a quick flash of brightness. We mavens of

mellowness would do well to slide our thumbs across the new cutting edge of genius.

Let the long awaited one warm his or herself at our slow‐burning fires and let us give

him/her our attention while he/she gives us a new gospel.