by Mike Roberts, Church Historian
We might wonder about the state of our church 25 years ago. Here are excerpts from the Heirloom from the summer of 1991 to yield some clues,
ITEM: Lay speakers filled the pulpit for the summer. Presentations included Connie Booth leading a Congregational Hymn Sing; Pat Mastin speaking on “The Tin Man Had the Right Idea”; Bob Booth reviewed Steve Allen’s book, “Religion and Morality”; Les Nomeland spoke on “What is the Proper Role of the Supreme Court”; a two-part presentation on “Values: Myth or Reality?” was made by Charlie Reid and Cindy Fink; and, Jim Crocker-Lakness spoke on “Interpersonal Ethics, the Ten Commandments Revisited”.
ITEM: Church attendance for May was reported on 5/5 as 40 adults and 31 children, on 5/12 as 43 and 29, on 5/19 as 46 and 23 and on 5/26 as 41 and 30.
ITEM: The 3rd through 5th grade religious education (RE) class purchased a half acre of El Bosque Eterno de los Niños (The Children’s Eternal Rain Forest) near Monteverda, Costa Rica. (Author’s note: This rain forest is still alive and well with over 20,000 acres of rain forest preserved.)
ITEM: A new Board of Trustees was elected over the summer. These included: President, Sandy Gaither; Vice-President, Jean Crocker-Lakness; Secretary, Les Nomeland; Members at-large, Andrea Benchley, Lynn Eddy, Tom Adkins, and Carol Kiefer.
ITEM: The men of the church honored the women on Mother’s Day by serving a breakfast of fresh fruit, pancakes, sausage, coffee and tea.
ITEM: A service auction was conducted on June 1st which raised $1,750. Among the items offered were A Day Hike to Adams County from Bob and Connie Booth; Yoga Lessons from Muriel Steelman; A Two Hour Pruning Seminar from Connie Booth; 1 1/2 hours of Folk Dancing Lessons from Jim and Jean Crocker-Lakness; How to Invest a Few Hundred Dollars from Les Nomeland; Passes to Riverbend Orchestral Concerts from Mike Veroni; and An Afternoon English Tea from Rusty and Dan Siegfried.
ITEM: The K-2 RE class visited the Governor Bebb Preserve in Butler County, a pioneer farm and the birth site of Ohio’s 19th governor.
ITEM: The Booths and Curtises organized a dinner and blue grass music at Arnold’s Restaurant downtown on August 21st.
ITEM: A note was in the August Heirloom telling of the passing of Ginny de Havilland from cancer. A memorial service was held in October.
ITEM: Warner Cable ran a special show on “What It Is Like in a UU Church”. Nancy Howard arranged for Heritage to be featured at the beginning and end of the show.
The Reverend Patrick O’Neill cited the following reasons why UU churches close for the summer.
- UU’s are the only group God can trust to be out of his sight for two months.
- The summer hiatus is the UU revolt against the Calvinist work ethic.
- UU’s close for the summer to save energy. Closing is ecologically sound.
- We’ve always done it this way.
- To everything there is a season. A time to be opened and a time to be closed.
- UU’s are working on Master’s Degrees. Taking the summer off makes sense.