Calendar
Programs are at 10 a.m. in our meeting room, unless otherwise noted.
(ZOOM CONNECTIONS WILL BE PROVIDED)
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September 6 – No Service – Happy Labor Day!
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September 13 – Many Waters with Dennis Peters. Welcome to our fall “Ingathering.” Today we ask you to bring a small vial of water, either from your summer wanderings, or representative of them. We’ll ask you to share, if you would, those experiences of the summer; nothing too scary, just stories among friends. And the theme of the message will be “Many Waters,” taken from Song of Solomon 8:7, and how it applies to today. So drink a cool, refreshing glass of water, and bring your vial with you for a cool, refreshing gathering!
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September 16 – Programming Committee Meeting, 9 am, Golden Leaf Cafe
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September 20 – Dr. Geoffrey D. Peterson, UWEC professor, will speak to us about US voter behavior, given that we have crucial mid-terms in November. Dr. Peterson’s primary areas of teaching are US national elections, voting behavior, conspiracy theories, and political media. In addition, he also teaches courses on tribal politics and political scandals. His current research is focused on two areas: looking at shifts in voter perceptions of the major political parties in the 21st century and examining the impact of tribal gaming on voter behavior.
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September 27 – Message in a Bottle with Dennis Peters. So you’re stranded on an island, in the middle of the ocean. Some flotsam and jetsam are there with you: rubber toys from a broken container ship, miscellaneous bottles, and of course lots of plastic. You have minimal food of a sort, but no communication. But you decide to send a message in a bottle out into the ocean. (You have some paper.) What would you write—beyond the obvious, “Help! Rescue me!” It’s a kind of existential question, isn’t it?
Coming Up
On October 4th, Brent Geboy, Director of all programs at Hope Gospel Mission in Eau Claire
Randy Dean returns to us on October 18. Last year, Randy spoke to us about leaving a fundamentalist church during his last visit.
Good Reads
Wherever You Go, There You Are
by John Cabot Zinn
Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig
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
The Road Goes Ever On and On
by J.R. Tolkien (excerpt)
…The Road goes ever on and on
Out from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone.
Let others follow, if they can!
Let them a journey new begin.
But I at last with weary feet
Will turn towards the lighted inn,
My evening-rest and sleep to meet.
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
September 2026
Support for our Community
We continue at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Menomonie to share gifts with local organizations doing important work for our community. Our August sharing gift went to the Shirley Doane Senior Center in Menomonie.
This was at the request of Jess Peters, who spoke to our fellowship in August, and who asked that her speaker’s fee be directed to the Senior Center. Jess is director of the Our House Senior Living facility. The Shirley Doane Senior Center provides a wide range of programs and services to senior citizens, including social activities, exercise programs, health related programs such as a foot and nail clinic, day trips to things like the Chanhassen Dinner Theater or baseball games at Target Field, and much more. While supported with modest annual membership fees and some City of Menomonie allocations, the Senior Center welcomes and depends on other gifts such as the one we recently directed there.
"Hopelessness is dangerous because we can lose each other.
The most important source of hope is that we have each other.”
— Sean Parker Dennison
Why Am I Still Here?
By David K. Williams
We have a dear friend who asked me that difficult-to-answer question recently: Why am I still here? Our friend is elderly, more so than I, lost a spouse six years ago, lived alone until a fall sent our friend to a senior housing facility. The days are long and lonely, vision and hearing falter, and our friend keeps coming back to that existential question.
I know that my friend believes in God and that there is a heaven, so my response has been “the Lord must have a plan for you yet.” But I don’t feel comfortable with that response, as I know my friend also wouldn’t feel comfortable hearing about an organization like Compassion and Choices.
Compassion & Choices is a society that affirms life and accepts the inevitability of death, embraces expanded options for compassionate dying and empowers everyone to choose end-of-life care that reflects their values, priorities and beliefs.
Compassion and Choices states its mission thus: “We are an organization dedicated to improving care, expanding options, and empowering everyone to chart their end-of-life journey.” Compassion and Choices formed in 1993 as Compassion in Dying, and was itself a successor organization to the Hemlock Society. The Hemlock Society was founded in 1985 by Derek Humphry, the author of the book Final Exit: The Practicalities of Self-Deliverance and Assisted Suicide for the Dying, which Humphry published in 1991.
Compassion and Choices works in a variety ways to increase the options available to Americans to choose their own end of life scenario. Currently, the right to make such end-of-life choices exists in 14 states, listed here with when that right was made legal in the state: California (2016), Colorado (2024), Delaware (2025), Hawai’i (2024), Illinois (2025), Maine (2025), Montana (2009), New Jersey (2019), New Mexico (2023), New York (2026), Oregon (1994), Vermont (2013), Washington (2009), and Washington, D.C. (2017). Many of these states have restrictions on how residents may choose end-of-life care, and only Oregon and Vermont allow nonresidents to choose final exits there.
The Compassion and Choices website notes that it wasn’t until a Supreme Court decision in 1990 (Cruzen v. Director Missouri Department of Health) affirming the right of Americans to refuse unwanted medical treatment, that the movement toward compassionate end of life options began. To some degree, the AIDS/HIV concern accelerated the movement.
I write this in no way encouraging anyone in how to make an end-of-life choice. That’s a purely personal decision, not made lightly and perhaps not without the consultation of loved ones and trusted medical providers. Here in Wisconsin, we don’t have the options that 14 other states have provided their residents, so decisions here are a bit more constricted. We Unitarian Universalists share our first principle, the ultimate worth and dignity of every person. Extending that dignity to each person’s end-of-life choices flows from that first principle as well. Few of us probably know how we would feel if we were in the shoes of my friend asking, “Why am I still here.” Perhaps time to begin thinking about your answer?
According to Jess Peters, our speaker on August 16, there are several things we can do promote memory. They are physical activity, good nutrition, adequate sleep, social engagement, stress reduction and cognitive stimulation. Jess is the director of Our House, a memory care facility in Menomonie.