Merci Reverend G!

Everyone is invited to celebrate the six year ministry of Rev. George Buchanan in Fellowship Hall following the service Sunday, June 3rd.  A light lunch with cake will be provided.  George will be conducting the service that morning a preaching.

Solar Panel Installation Continues

Installation of our Solar Panel Array continues getting all the wiring hooked up and the inverters online.  Below is a picture (thanks to Kimberly Dyer of Bold Alternatives) of the final panel being put in place.  See an article by John Funk in the Plain Dealer at http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2012/04/first_unitarian_church_of_clev.html

Religious Education Leader Sought

We are currently in search for an individual to head our Religious Education Program.  If interested, please check out our Position Posting at: http://firstunitarian.businesscatalyst.com/pages/position-search.htm

2012 Killam Fellow Selected

Celie Katovitch, who is finishing her second year of ministerial preparation at Harvard Divinity School, has been selected as the 2012 Killam Fellow. Celie is originally from Syracuse, New York. She is excited to meet and to serve with the members of First Unitarian Church as Killam Fellow for summer 2012.

Celie came of age in the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Syracuse. She attended college in Gettysburg, PA, where she studied philosophy and peace studies and was blessed to share in the formative years of the town’s small UU congregation. It was during those years that her call to ministry crystallized. Interspersed with her seminary studies over the past two years, she has worked with First Church Shelter, a homeless shelter in Cambridge that helps its guests transition into stable housing; as a chaplain at Upstate Medical Center in her hometown of Syracuse; and as ministerial intern at the First Parish in Weston, MA. She also serves as the President of the Harvard Unitarian Universalist Ministry for Students.

Celie believes that everyone has a ministry, and that ministry is about care of the soul: it is about encouraging one another and our communities to engage the joys and sorrows of life’s journey with an openness to mystery, a grounding in gratefulness, and a trust in those threads of deep and sacred connection that draw us beyond ourselves. She shares the commitment "to search and to serve," and hopes that she may offer a listening ear and a compassionate heart as she joins First Unitarian Church in its searching and serving this summer.  Celie's first service with us will be July 8th.

Our Permaculture Garden

 

Members of First Unitarian have constructed a 5,400 square foot permaculture garden as a way to express one of our core Unitarian Universalist principles: Respect for the Interdependent Web of Life.  The principle provides a natural fit for the discipline of permaculture, which follows ecological principles to create durable, positive relationships between soil, plants, animals, and human beings.

Work on the garden began in 2010, when some 50 volunteers covered a plain grass median with a lasagna mulch---multiple layers of compost, cardboard (to kill the grass before decomposing into soil enriching carbon), more compost, dead leaves, top soil and mulch.

By spring, the lasagna mulch was well on its way to becoming black, microbe-rich soil. Still more volunteers cut and laid gravel paths, piling the new soil to planting areas. They followed by planting a “nibbling garden”—blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, persimmons, onions, sorrel, as well as tea plants like anise hyssop.  Following permaculture principles, these plants were accompanied by plants that fix nitrogen, accumulate other nutrients like phosphorous, and attract beneficial insects.

But the garden designers stressed another element, as well: aesthetics. Pinks, mixed with oranges and white—and even some purple asparagus—draw people in.  Stone seating walls, teak benches, vine-covered arches, a children’s water maze, chess tables and stools make people want to stay, sit, and talk.

(Coming soon: a picture of people sitting in one of the garden spaces in full bloom....)

In the end, 120 volunteer workers and contributions of over $55,000 have created a unique space: one of the largest permaculture gardens in Northeast Ohio and only the second Unitarian Universalist permaculture garden in the United States. It’s become a key component in First Unitarian’s designation by the Unitarian Universalist Association as a Green Sanctuary (link to that web page). What’s next?  Expanded permaculture gardens elsewhere on church property?  Group permaculture installations at member homes? Active support for permaculture projects around Northeast Ohio?  One thing is clear at First Unitarian. We not only respect the Interdependent Web of Life, we engage it.

 

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