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The Blue Hills Unitarian-Universalist Sunday Service March 14th will be led by member Judith Barisonzi, professor emeritus of the University Wisconsin.  Our service hour consists of songs and various readings from UU Sources and Principles, with a time for discussion and contemplation.  Barisonzi will encourage those attending to consider ways in which it is possible to “Travel Back in Time”, assuring “Yes – we are able to do this!”   During Sunday’s service we will look at family records and stories, and the ways they keep families together.

Blue Hills UU continues to hold Sunday services on Zoom at 10 a.m.  The internet link will be sent to members, although all interested are invited to take part.  Visitors may contact Ken Hood > ken@bluehillsuu.org < for the link needed.    Those lacking cyberlink connection or equipment to enable participation, are invited to meet in the fellowship hall located at 230 W Messenger, masked and distanced, to watch the presentation on large screen ZOOM.

Blue Hills Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship of Rice Lake will host Rev Julianne Lepp, minister for the U U Congregation of Eau Claire, to conduct our first spring service, March 7^th .  Tackling the challenge of “Thriving in a Difficult Time”, Rev Lepp stresses that “Not only do we minister to each other, but we carry our passions, action and values into the wider world”.

Underscoring the value of outreach and justice work, vital to living out UU values, Rev Lepp’s service will guide those attending in the awareness that “We seek our place in the world and the answers to our heart’s deepest questions – as we seek, may our hearts be open to unexpected answers.”

Blue Hills UU continues to hold Sunday services on Zoom at 10 a.m.  The internet link will be sent to members, although all interested are invited to take part.  Visitors may contact Ken Hood > ken@bluehillsuu.org < for the link needed.    Those lacking cyberlink connection or equipment to enable participation, are invited to meet in the fellowship hall located at 230 W Messenger, masked and distanced, to watch the presentation on large screen ZOOM.

We are pleased to once again welcome Rev Phil Lund of the UUA St Paul, to lead our Sunday Services this week.   As we anxiously look forward to an end to the challenges and isolation of sheltered living patterns the covid virus has required, Rev Lund asks us to consider “What Commitment Means” as we move into a post-pandemic future.   

What will it take for us to not only return to our pre-crisis status, but to emerge from crisis to a better future?  We’ll explore the commitments we can make to ourselves and to each other as we work to co-create a new tomorrow. 

Blue Hills UU continues to hold Sunday services on Zoom at 10 a.m.  The internet link will be sent to members, although all interested are invited to take part.  Visitors may contact Ken Hood > ken@bluehillsuu.org < for the link needed.    Those lacking cyberlink connection or equipment to enable participation, are invited to meet in the fellowship hall located at 230 W Messenger, masked and distanced, to watch the presentation on large screen ZOOM.

In what can be seen as a continuation of last Sunday’s discussion on Unity, the Blue Hills Unitarian-Universalists will consider the concept of Kindness during their February 21^st Service.

After briefly reviewing recent research in sociology and psychology views of the place kindness plays in our nature and society, member Pat Shifferd will lead us as we discuss two questions taken from the “Touchstone Covenant Series” on this topic.  What prevents the wider practice of kindness?  In extending or receiving kindness, how can we work to make it an act of compassion, rather than an act of charity in which the giver is assumed to be in a superior position?  

Blue Hills UU continues to hold Sunday services on Zoom at 10 a.m.  The internet link will be sent to members, although all interested are invited to take part.  Visitors may contact Ken Hood > ken@bluehillsuu.org < for the link needed.    Those lacking cyberlink connection or equipment to enable participation, are invited to meet in the fellowship hall located at 230 W Messenger, masked and distanced, to watch the presentation on large screen ZOOM.

Coming to us LIVE from our Blue Hills Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship hall in the afternoon Sunday 14^th, will be a special musical program created by Jackie Rae Daniels playing a variety of string instruments, our friend Carol McDowall on violin, accompanied and engineered by Nate Baker. 

The talented trio will be celebrating the release of their new CD as they broadcast LIVE to us on YouTube from BHUU.   “In The Blood” was inspired by Jackie Rae and dedicated to her mom, Carol, for instilling the love of music in their family and countless others;  the CD is intended as a “give back” to community service.  All proceeds will be donated to a charity that gives hope to folks in hopeless situations:  “To Write Love on Her Arms”, including donations of all tips generated from this show and ongoing EP sales of the CD “til the end of time.”

To watch this wonderful musical gift coming to you LIVE from in our cozy fellowship hall, go to https://youtube.com/channel/UCtrP0_nYHr64Zy5ns0_mz2A on your internet and join us at 3:30, February 14^th  — and prepare to have a lovin’music filled afternoon.

To follow Jackie Rae on Spotify, the link is : https://distrokid.com/hyper…/jackieraedaniels/in-the-blood

Order of Service

Unity.   Defined in Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary as the “State of being One;  singleness.  Concord, harmony, accord, uniformity of sentiment.”   And “a complex or systematic whole.” 

Our Blue Hills UU’s will welcome fellow member Pat Barry, now of Madison, to lead our fellowship in the mission to find just that: Unity,  as we consider crafting a letter to President Joe Biden on possible ways there might be to unify our divided nation.   Sound like a challenging, courageous mission to you?  Be with us Sunday, February 14th @ 10 a.m. as we work to determine what “unity” there may be in our “complex, but systematic whole”  fellowship.

Blue Hills UU continues to hold Sunday services on Zoom at 10 a.m.  The internet link will be sent to members, although all interested are invited to take part.  Visitors may contact Ken Hood > ken@bluehillsuu.org < for the link needed.    Those lacking cyberlink connection or equipment to enable participation, may meet in the fellowship building located at 230 W Messenger, masked and distanced, to watch the presentation on large screen ZOOM.

Rice Lake’s Blue Hills Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship again welcomes Chaplain Dennis Peters of Menomonie to conduct the Sunday Service, February 7^th.   Continuing with the theme “The World and What it Means” he began at his last visit, Peters will consider “the meaning of life”on a societal level.   What does life mean to the individual as defined by the social group she or he is a part of?   Peters will lead the fellowship to consider what the intrinsic meaning of our world is, which  promises to generate a lively discussion.

Blue Hills UU continues to hold Sunday services on Zoom at 10 a.m.  The internet link will be sent to members, although all interested are invited to take part.  Visitors may contact Ken Hood > ken@bluehillsuu.org < for the link needed.    Those lacking cyberlink connection or equipment to enable participation may meet in the fellowship building located at 230 W Messenger, masked and distanced, to watch the presentation on large screen ZOOM.

Order of Service (PDF)

As we wrap up January, we’ll celebrate BOOK SUNDAY during our Blue Hills UU Service on the 31^st.   Each of us attending will be encouraged to share our thoughts in suggesting a book others might find interesting.  During this long, restricted winter and year of the pandemic, the seclusion and solitude has brought many of us to find many excellent titles as we’ve spent more time with our noses in books.  Time to share the bounty and your discoveries with others!   

Members of the Hidalgo Valley UU congregation of San Juan, Texas will be joining us on Zoom for this discussion, adding the grace of new faces and perspectives to our circle. 

Blue Hills UU fellowship continues to meet via Zoom – the link will be sent to members, although all interested in these Services are invited to attend.    Visitors may contact Ken Hood > ken@bluehillsuu.org < for the link needed to join the service.  Those lacking cyberlink connection or equipment to enable participation and want to attend service are invited to meet IN the fellowship building located at 230 W Messenger, masked and distanced, to watch the presentation on large screen ZOOM.

Blue Hills Unitarian-Universalist’s Sunday January 24th 10 a.m. Service will engage members in a consideration of how the processes of science intersect with our view on “What is Right?,” in the context of being part of the natural world surrounding us.  The discussion stems from a dialogue that took place between six persons over several months, when BHUU member Jim Bradley posed questions about the relationship between humans and nature.     

The dialogue focuses on the questions “Do humans have a moral obligation to care for the Earth, given they, and therefore their actions, are a part of Nature, not separate from it?  What basis is there for calling some human actions that affect the rest of Nature moral and others immoral?”

Four of those who took part in the original discussion will participate in the Service:  Kent  Shifferd, Mark Van Etten, Jim Bradley, members of BHUU, and Bill Deutsch of Auburn University.  Robert Hasman and Waldo Asp as participants in the original dialogue will have their positions represented.

Blue Hills UU fellowship continues to meet via Zoom – the link will be sent to members, although all interested in these Services are invited to attend.    Visitors may contact Ken Hood > ken@bluehillsuu.org < for the link needed to join the service.  Those lacking cyberlink connection or equipment to enable participation and want to attend service are invited to meet IN the fellowship building located at 230 W Messenger, masked and distanced, to watch the presentation on large screen ZOOM.

PR 2021-0117

Blue Hills Unitarian Universalists welcome back to Rice Lake an old friend and fellow UU Arthur Thexton of the Milwaukee area, to lead us at Service this coming Sunday, January 17^th.  10:00 a.m.

Arthur describes himself as an “upraised UU,” having grown up at the Unitarian Church in Summit (NJ);  later attending Meadville/Lombard Theological School, he received his M.A. in Religious Studies from the University of Chicago Divinity School in 1974 after graduating cum laude from Beloit College in 1972.  Then earning a J.D. from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1977, he  spent the majority of his career in Madison, Wisconsin, but for a short time he served as our Family Support counselor at Barron County in the 1980’s.

Mr Thexton speaks regularly at UU congregations in Wisconsin, calling himself “a part-time, itinerant, circuit-riding, lay preacher in the UU tradition.” He served as a part-time night chaplain at Meriter Hospital in Madison for two years, and was active in community affairs, serving on the boards of the Wisconsin Coalition Against the Death Penalty, the Unemployment Compensation Appeals Clinic, the Williamson Street Grocery Coop, the James Reeb Unitarian-Universalist Congregation (which he helped found) and the North Madison Youth Soccer Club.  

On January 17^th. Arthur will explore with our Blue Hills UUs the question of what it means to be spiritual for a UU – why it’s a good thing, and how we do it.  

Blue Hills UU fellowship continues to meet via Zoom – the link will be sent to members, although all interested in these Services are invited to attend.    Visitors may contact Ken Hood > ken@bluehillsuu.org < for the link needed to join the service.  Those lacking cyberlink connection or equipment to enable participation and want to attend service are invited to meet IN the fellowship building located at 230 W Messenger, masked and distanced, to watch the presentation on large screen ZOOM.