Calendar
Programs are at 10 a.m. in our meeting room, unless otherwise noted.
(ZOOM CONNECTIONS WILL BE PROVIDED)
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October 4 – Brent Geboy, executive director of all activities at Hope Gospel Mission, headquartered in Eau Claire, will speak to us about the many programs of Hope Gospel Mission.
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October 11 – Service with Dennis Peters. Mother and Spirit—Revisited. I visited this topic about 8 years ago. Since my mother’s birthday was a few days ago (September 22), it seems appropriate now. She would have been 100 years old this year. She died at 66. Let’s talk about the role of mother, and how that fits into our spiritual life, as well as our day to day lives.
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October 18 – Randy Dean, former minister of a fundamentalist church, returns with a presentation about the spirituality of love.
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October 25 – Service with Dennis Peters. Totems—the Natural World. For a very long time now, I’ve had a special affinity for a few different animals in the world around us. I am not unique in this regard! There are peoples around the world with some of the same thoughts, implemented in a number of different ways. The Anishinaabe or Ojibwe are a good example of this. Is it magic? Just an inclination, like a good luck charm?
Coming Up
In November we will host Lucas Chase, Executive Director of the Mabel Tainter, and Cathy Sultan. Lucas will speak to us about the Tainter and its connections to the Unitarians and Cathy will speak about her many years living in the middle east.
Good Reads
Love You, Bye: A Daughter’s Journey in Essays and Poems by Brenda Miller
Tend to Your Spirit: Mindful Living with Chronic Illness by Rev. Julianne Lepp and Florence Caplow
Seven Principles
- The inherent worth and dignity of every person
- Justice, equity, and compassion in human
relations
- Acceptance of one another and
encouragement of spiritual growth in our
congregations
- A free and responsible search for truth and
meaning
- The right of conscience and the use of the
democratic process within our congregations
and in society at large
- The goal of world community with peace,
liberty, and justice for all
- Respect for the interdependent web of all
existence of which we area part
Did you know?
We learned the following from Dr. Geoffrey Peterson in his presentation to us about voter behavior on September 20:
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That there are 3,574 counties in the U.S. and their voting ballots are designed by each individual county.
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Voter ID laws do not stop voter fraud.
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In Australia and the Netherlands, one is required to vote. If one does not vote, one can be fined but enforcement is rarely imposed on its nonvoting citizens.
We Believe...
Unitarian Universalists do not follow a creed, or statement of beliefs expected of all members. Rather, we are encouraged to undertake our own search for what is meaningful and spiritual. That search may seek out other belief systems to understand them and perhaps follow parts that are of value to the searcher. Among any given Unitarian Universalist congregation, members may include humanists, atheists, Christians, Buddhists, agnostics, pagans, or a range of other beliefs. We consider all valid, and welcome them in our congregations.
The Chalice News
October 2026
Sharing Sunday Supports Homeless Kids Project
As the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Menomonie we have committed to supporting important causes in our area which align with our values through our Sharing Sunday contributions. For the month of September, our financial support went to the Homeless Kids Project.
In 2021, UUCOM member Mary Beth Lvoncek brought to the fellowship’s attention the challenges faced by homeless kids in the Menomonie school district. By rough estimates, there were over 100 school-age children in the school system who were homeless. That homelessness could be caused by the child’s family experiencing a lack of housing, family challenges which caused kids to couch-surf with friends, or even sleeping in cars.
Over the past five years, our fellowship, following Mary Beth’s leadership, has raised funds to provide food bags for kids when school is out of session and free breakfasts and lunches are unavailable, money for haircuts, pool passes at the waterpark in summer so kids could take showers, toiletries, and even gift cards donated for kids to get new shoes at a local shoe store. The need continues, and our fellowship support for September was directed to allow this effort to continue as well.
"A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had,
but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP (Live Long and Prosper)”
— Leonard Nimoy
Three Lives
By David K. Williams
Within the course of 30 days, America lost three iconic figures. Wendell Berry died on August 3rd, Dolly Parton passed on August 25th, and Gloria Steinem left us on September 2nd. Each was a towering figure in their chosen field and left a legacy of substantial proportion.
They each had something in common, growing up in poverty, but overcoming that to go on to great things. It’s hard to say where each ended up financially, though the trappings surrounding her suggest Dolly Parton had extensive wealth. Wendell Berry returned to a life of simplicity in his Kentucky boyhood home area, and though a successful writer, it’s doubtful his wealth approached that of Dolly Parton. I’m not sure what circumstances surrounded Gloria Steinem at her death.
But the wealth, or lack of it, is no measure of the outsize influence these three people had on American culture. Gloria Steinem dedicated her life to advancing opportunities for women, traveling constantly to speak with groups, leaders, Congresspersons, whomever she could to advance the place of women in American life. She became the face of a movement, and bore with that role the many slings and arrows that came her way during decades of advocacy.
Dolly Parton was another pioneer for women in the field of country music, but her reach extended far further. She was respected and successful in that field, but crossed over into popular music as well. She frequently joined other artists (one of my favorites is Dolly singing “Jolene” with the a cappella group Pentatonix) to help advance their careers. But her work also transcended music, as she created a foundation that has provided over 300 million books to children around the country before they get to grade school.
Wendell Berry sounded a quiet though forceful clarion call about the challenges of Big Agriculture. He not only wrote about small tract farming, but inveighed against the loss of those small farms to the juggernaut of corporate farming. He learned how to plow his own family’s land behind a pair of mules as a child, and returned to farm his own land behind a pair of draft horses—maybe that’s a step up?
I can only guess at any interaction between these three people. Maybe Wendell Berry had strong opinions about Dollywood, the theme park Dolly Parton founded in eastern Tennessee. Maybe Dolly had reservations about Gloria Steinem. Maybe Gloria didn’t think Dolly was outspoken enough about women’s causes.
Lots of “maybes” there, and for many reasons, none of them matter. We can each take from all three of these luminaries good measure of what they believed and stood for and what effect they’ve had on American life. The world is a lesser place for the loss of all three.
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.”
— Jimi Hendrix
Response to “Why Am I Still Here”
From UUCOM Friend Mike Cundiff
My essay in the September newsletter prompted several comments and thoughts, including this deeper look at end of life options by Mike Cundiff, a friend of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Menomonie. I’m grateful for Mike’s sharing of his knowledge.
—Dave Williams
Mike wrote:
I just read your commentary about end-of-life choices in the UU Newsletter. I appreciate what you wrote about Compassion and Choices. I’ve been a donor to C&C for about 10 years.
I’m also a long-time member of the Final Exit Network: https://finalexitnetwork.org/. Unlike C&C, FEN is a member services organization that will “help” you die if you meet their criteria for “assistance.” I put a couple of words in quotation marks because of the limits of language. It’s illegal in all 50 states to provide material assistance to suicide or, as FEN likes to put, it “self-deliverance.” But it is legal under the First Amendment to provide information and guidance. For instance, say I have a painful life-ending illness, dementia, ALS, MS, etc., I can apply to FEN for help. FEN’s board, which includes lawyers, clinicians, clergy, etc., would review my application and, if I qualify, would send an Exit Guide to my residence to “assist” me with my self-deliverance. The Exit Guide may reside nearby or from across the country and FEN pays for all the travel expenses. There are many more details to this process that are available on the FEN website, including information about the so-called Swiss Option for those who wish to go there for end-of-life assistance.
There’s another smaller organization that also advocates for end-of-life options, The Death with Dignity National Center: https://deathwithdignity.org/ The Death with Dignity National Center is very small and I’m not sure what they do that C&C can’t do better. I let my membership in that organization expire several years ago. There are a few international organizations that advocate/provide for end-of-life options and a simple Google search locates them.
All three of these organizations have YouTube channels that provide additional information. Another good YouTube channel in the space is the Hemlock Society of San Diego: https://www.youtube.com/@hemlocksocietyofsandiego
Feel free to share the info above with the rest of the Unitarian Society if you wish, and thanks for mentioning C&C in the UU Newsletter.
Mike
I Believe...
By Paul Helgeson
I began attending Unitarian services in the early 1960’s when I was attending college and living in St Louis, Missouri. This was about the time when Unitarians and Universalists were coming together to form the Unitarian Universalist Association. It was the thoughtful sermons dealing with everyday issues and drawing inspiration from world religions (Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, Paganism, and others) that drew me in. A person was not condemned to Hell if he didn’t profess the same belief system as everyone else in the congregation.
I grew up attending Bethany Norwegian Lutheran Church which was part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA). The church and church community were important aspect of my life as a child and teenager. I was active in our church, studied the catachism, was confirmed at age 13, participated in summer bible school and church camp.
I no longer consider myself a Christian. But I do believe in the values that Jesus Christ taught in the Sermon on the Mount. The so-called Christian Church has a terrible record of supporting atrocities such as colonialism , slavery, racism, and antisemitism. Not to mention the wars in Europe between Catholics and Protestants, between Christian and Muslims. It is a horrific history!
I believe a church or congregation should provide two important functions:
1) A community of individuals who support one anther in each person’s search for truth and meaning. We don’t have to have the same belief system to support one another.
2) A community that encourages each person to develop their own belief system. We support one another and don’t believe each member has to have the same belief system.