Nora Unitarian Universalist Church 
November, 2005 November 6: “The Free Pulpit” – Rev. Lisa Friedman, from the UU Fellowship of Mankato, will be trading pulpits with Don as she explores the meaning of the free pulpit and reflects on the art of preaching in the liberal religious tradition. (Lisa will also lead a discussion of her sermon at the 9:00 A.M. adult education discussion, held in the parsonage parlor.) 9:00 Discussion Group • Musician:
Sally Hanson November 13: “This I Believe” – Nora Church, like every UU congregation, exists to promote religious freedom. This service will feature several Nora members who will share their core beliefs as we celebrate that freedom. 9:00 Discussion Group • Musician: Jordan
Rathman November 20: “Hunger at Home and Afar” – Members of our Social Justice Committee and some of our children and youth will join Don as we consider both scarcity and plenty. 8:30 Board meeting • Musician: Mimi Kamleiter 9:00 Discussion Group 
SOCIAL JUSTICE COMMITTEE The Social Justice Committee is busy working on the goals voted on by the congregation for this year. In addition to our local goal of supporting Food for All and our global goal of supporting the children of war in Iraq, $500 has been sent to help our sister church in Benced, Transylvania. You may remember they suffered severe damage due to the flooding that occurred in their area. Sarah Oelberg was able to hand deliver our financial support as she had a trip planned to the area. November 20th - you’ll notice in the calendar of services for this month - we will be working together with Don and the youth to kick off the Guest At Your Table program for this year. Our goal is to have multiple occasions for the youth and adults to work together on projects during the year. Our committee also defined its mission at our October meeting. Our mission will
be: NORA BOARD NOTES The Board of Trustees adopted the following policy at its October board meeting: “In order to make informed decisions, the Board of Trustees asks that any information concerning an item to be put on the board agenda, especially those concerning a purchase, be given to the Board President 10 days before a Board of Trustees meeting. The information can be given to the Board members with the meeting agenda. If this procedure is not followed, the Board of Trustees reserves the right to postpone the vote on that item until the following meeting.” In other business, the Board approved the purchase of speakers to be located in
the Kaffe Stua and the basement so that the rooms could be used in case of a large
event. The Board is still seeking members to plan a 125th anniversary celebration.
Anyone interested should contact Rev. Rollins or Sheldon Rieke. Also discussed
was the formation of a Caring Committee to assist the minister with visitation. STAFF CHANGE The Board last month grudgingly accepted the resignation of Julie Schmitt as our office administrator, and hired Nita Gilbert to fill the position. Be sure to let Julie know how much you’ve appreciated her work, and be sure to congratulate Nita on her new job. Thanks, Julie. Welcome, Nita. OFFICE CHAIRS Now that we have a nice wooden desk in the church office, we’re looking for a couple of office chairs to finish off the improvements to that space. If you happen to have a reasonably serviceable office chair or two you’d like to be rid of, see Don or Nita. ALTERNATIVE GIVING OPPORTUNITIES Some of you are already aware of these, but I want to either remind or inform you of two ways to give to the church and get additional income tax benefits. The first method is to give appreciated stock directly to the church. You don’t pay capital gains on the gain in value, and you get a charitable deduction for the full value of the stock on the date given to the church. The church has an account through Andy Foster at Piper Jaffray, Mankato, and his toll-free number is 1-800-395-3445. The second method, which works well for farmers, is to give grain to the church. This removes the grain receipt from your taxable income, which is a better benefit than the normal charitable deduction because you save self-employment tax. You must be an active farm proprietor or partner and also be on the cash basis. Get a storage receipt made out to the church, and send it to me at my home address: 1622 Northridge Lane, N. Mankato, MN 56003, with a letter indicating that you are giving the grain to the church and that the church can sell it at any time that it wishes. The church must then directly instruct the elevator to sell. Any FSA certification must be done before the gift is made. –Sally Hanson TO KEEP IN TOUCH Gil and Sally Hanson’s oldest son is undergoing treatment for cancer. Clayton Olson’s son Noel is recovering from a heart attack. Bryan Becken, Ardelle Becken’s son and a new visitor at Nora, has undergone three weeks of radiation to the brain, and will be having chemotherapy in the near future. Our thoughts and prayers go out to them and their families. SMORGASBORD 2005 Another successful Smorgasbord was held October 2nd, on a beautiful fall day. Many members and friends of Nora Church helped make it a fun and fruitful event. A special thanks to Joy Rathman and Julie Sellner who co-chaired the event. They brought new ideas and energy and did a great job organizing and getting people involved. In a preliminary report, Nora Women’s Society treasurer Bonita Blomquist indicated that a total of $5,471.50 was collected that day from ticket sales, donations, food sold and proceeds from the Country Store. All bills were notin at this writing so net totals are not available, but it looks like it compares favorably with previous years. More than 400 dinners were served (the figure includes workers). –Janet Rosenbloom Thank you to everyone who helped make Smorgasbord successful! To those of you who helped prepare the church and grounds, baked and cooked, shared your culinary and artistic talents in the Country Store, entertained the masses, made monetary donations, and cleaned up when the day was over: Thank you!! It made the whole experience so much easier for two rookie co-chairs to have so many dedicated people to depend on for advice and help. –Joy Rathman and Julie Sellner COMMITTAL SERVICE A committal service for Bonita (“Bonnie”) E. Hahn was held at 2:00 P.M. Friday, October 28th at Nora Church with internment of cremains at Mt. Pisquah Cemetery. Bonnie was the sister of Phil Hahn, a member of Nora Church and current resident of Des Moines, Iowa. Bonnie was born on March 26, 1948. She graduated from Arlington-Green Isle High School, then went on to complete her undergraduate studies at St. Olaf College. She lived in both Boston and Chicago, and had a business, Student Flights, for a period of time. She also graduated from the University of Chicago with a graduate degree in humanities. Bonnie had friends from all over the world. At St. Olaf she studied Eastern religion and went on a global semester for six months. She really was a citizen of the world, and she loved life. However, due to the debilitating effects of multiple sclerosis, she spent approximately the last seventeen years of her life bound to a wheel chair. Bonnie died on July 16, 2004 of aspiration pneumonia at Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines, Iowa. A memorial service was held in Des Moines. LUNCH BUNCH The next Lunch Bunch get-together will be on Wednesday, November 9th at 11:30 A.M. at the Holiday Inn, downtown Mankato. All are invited to attend! “NORWEGIAN BAKING SCHOOL” Come join us for a fun-filled day of baking on Saturday, November 12th from 9 A.M. till …??? Learn some tips in making some of our Norwegian “goodies”: lefse, flat bread, rosettes, krumkake (scrullers). There will be a $15.00 charge to cover expenses. Each person will be taking home some of each item. Please call by Monday, November 7th to one of the following: Joy Rathman (507) 877-2457, Julie Sellner (507) 375-8737, or Shirley Olson (507) 439-6879. NEW ULM AREA COMMUNITY THANKSGIVING SERVICE The New Ulm Area Ministerium will host a community Thanksgiving service on Wednesday, November 23 at 7:00 P.M. (It will likely be held at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, 417 S. Minnesota. Listen during announcement time at church for further details.) As the sermon for the service, Don will be using the one-man Thanksgiving presentation he gave last year at Nora. Plan on joining us! ADULT RELIGIOUS EDUCATION & GROWTH Sunday morning adult discussions will be at 9:00 A.M. every Sunday in November and the topics will be as follows:
Okay, so you’re thinking that all the good movies stopped with “The Three Stooges Go To Mars”. Well, take heart, the Adult Growth & Education Committee is hosting Movie Night at the church for at least the next few months. The November feature will be “The Apostle” (Robert Duvall) and will be shown on Friday, November 4 at 7:00 P.M. Bring a snack or non-alcoholic beverage to share. (Note that this film has one violent scene and some adult language.) A cookie bake/exchange is being planned for early December. An announcement will be made with further details. RELIGIOUS EDUCATION Smorgasbord: Thank you to the kids that worked at the games and raffle during Smorgasbord. They earned $174.50 and should be very proud of themselves for the effort they put into their work. The earnings will be combined with the money that is left from Easter Breakfast last Spring to use for service projects. We will be working on our first service project at our November RE Wednesday.
Curriculum materials and activities will be sent to the teachers the Monday or Tuesday before they teach. Important RE Dates
** PLEASE NOTE: RE WEDNESDAY AND COA
** THIS COA CLASS HAS BEEN MOVED TO THE THIRD WEDNESDAY IN NOVEMBER BECAUSE OF THE THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY. **
Reminders * Sunday School is from 9:30 -10:15. Children’s Winter Service The Children’s Winter service will be Sunday, December 11th . The title is “A Holiday Pagent”. There will be parts for all of the children, COA’ers, Tweeners, Juniors and preschoolers/toddlers. Individual readings will be divided and given to the children to read through on Nov. 20th. Please let Anne know ASAP if your child(ren) will not be available to participate on Dec. 11th . We will run through the script with props on Sunday, Dec. 4th . for Sunday School. COA’ers should plan on attending Sunday School on Dec. 4th, if possible. Other announcements The nursery is now open for infants/toddlers /preschoolers and their parents during
services now. We would like the children from the Juniors and Tweeners class to join us during church, however recognize that between Sunday School and church it may be a long time for the children to sit. If families are feeling the church service is too long for the younger children (Juniors and Tweeners) to sit through, they may feel free to let their children leave after the children’s story. There will be an age appropriate video downstairs for them to view until the end of the service. If the weather is nice, they may also play outside. Several of the children have chosen to play outside and that has worked well. We ask that the elementary school children not use the nursery as it is a tiny space that was designed for the youngest children. Thank you for your assistance. We are always looking for people interested in teaching or helping out with RE
and Sunday School.
EVENTS GOING ON IN THE AREA One Voice: An 80-voice gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) community chorus from the Twin Cities going on tour throughout Minnesota to bring their message of freedom and equality.
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