The fellowship was delighted to welcome 11 new members on January 23rd:
Joanne Ashley, Julie Gard, Brian and Jean Hushagen, Michelle Lindblom, Shay MacKay, Janelle Masters, Beth Nodland, Bonnie Olson, Dan and Tracy Wanek.

We are encouraged by the growth of liberal religion on the prairie. The fellowship certified 70 members to the UUA this month.

The UUA Prairie Star Districts Annual Conference will be held in St. Paul, MN April 8-10, 2005.

Conference Theme: Unity in Diversity Source of Hope and Courage. This will be a weekend of lively conversation among people committed to fostering peace, justice, and equity around the world.

Outstanding Keynote Speakers: Rev. Michael Schuler: Diversity in the Pew: Possibility or Pipe Dream? Rev. Rosemary Bray McNatt: Liberal Religion: A Date With History

Featuring an array of workshops, food, music and fun. Bring the whole family. Youth Conference for 7th 12th grades. Childcare for ages 3-11.

INTERESTED? See the Annual Conference bulletin board display at the Fellowship or go to http://psduua.org/conf.

Informational Meeting: Sunday, February 6 at 12 noon in the Fellowship library.

If you havent read any good books lately, maybe its because you havent checked out the fellowship library. Thanks to generous donations and the fellowship budget, there are many new titles, and more being added at a steady rate.

If youre looking for some thoughtful short readings for yourself or as part of the Sunday Service, check out the meditation manuals. There are four of them, soon to be five, and they are reposing all in a row on the shelf marked Readings, starting with Day of Promise.

A Storybook Set for children, has four volumes published by Skinner House, one of the two denominational presses (Beacon is the other one) with such entrancing titles as Hide-and-Seek With God and What If Nobody Every Forgave.

Theres In Our Own Best Interest, How Defending Human Rights Benefits All Americans by William F. Schultz, and, on order, Tainted Legacy, 9-11 and the Ruin of Civil Rights also by William F. Schultz.

Look for a list of new publications in the next newsletter.

Library hours are 10:30 - 10:55 and 12:00 12:30 on Sunday, but you can also find a board member with a key. A sign up sheet is handy if someone is not on duty.

Betty Mills, Library Chair

Parker Palmer is one of my favorite authors. I attended a workshop of his two years ago in Madison on "The Care of the Soul." I look for anything he has written. In this small book, "Let Your Life Speak - Listening for the Voice of Vocation", he talks of listening and accepting one's "true self and of how hard it is sometimes to find one's true calling. "Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it, listen for what it intends to do with you," Palmer says. He is a very sensitive teacher, with a great deal of wisdom to share. Janet Merrill

A Course in Miracles for Beginners, a book discussion group is meeting at the Fellowship each Thursday evening from 7:00 to 8:30 PM. The discussion group is open to people from all religions, and is being coordinated by Tone-Lisa Stenslie. The group will be discussing the 3 books of the Course in Miracles--text, workbook, and manual. For more information contact Tone-Lisa at 663-0054.

This is a summary from the latest UUA "InterConnections" publication. Congregations can support issues, but not candidates. We must remain in compliance with our tax exempt status. We can educate and register voters, but only in a non-partisan manner. We can lobby, for or against specific pieces of legislation, as an "unsubstantial" portion of our activities. There is a total ban on partisan political activity, and that includes donating meeting space.

The IRS prohibitions do not pertain to individuals, but we need to be clear that we are not representing the congregation. And we cannot invite candidates to speak from the pulpit. If you would like more information, go to : http://www.uua.org/news/2003/voting/links.html.

REMINDER TO PARENTS: Religious Education classes will run from 10:00 to 10:45 a.m. There will also be supervised activities for UU Youth who do not wish to stay in the sanctuary during the program and infant care in the Nursery.

Bismarck-Mandan UU Fellowship is, once again, an Honor Society, having paid its fair share of District dues. These funds, along with UUA dues, help support our paid District staff, Nancy Heege, and Rev. Phillip Lund, who, in turn, provide trained support to congregations in the areas of long-range planning, organizational and leadership development, ministerial transitions, religious education development and conflict management.

The Notable American Unitarians project of the First Parish in Cambridge and its Cosponsors-including the Unitarian Universalist Funding Program - now communicates worldwide on six continents via the Internet: ( www.harvardsquarelibrary.org )

The statistics reported to us in March 2004 state that we are getting nearly a quarter of a million hits per year. The leading continent is North America: the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

In South America, we are being viewed and read in Brazil, Argentina, Columbia, Belize, Chile, and Peru.

In Europe the countries responding to our Harvard Square Library website are: The United Kingdom, Netherlands, France, Germany, Poland, Italy, Finland, Belgium, Yugoslavia, Sweden, Switzerland, Hungary, Spain, Denmark, Hungary, Norway, Portugal, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Croatia, Ireland, Romania, Malta, he Russian Federation, Turkey, and Iceland.

In Asia we are reaching Japan, the Philippines, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates.

Include in Africa our viewers in South Africa, then add our participants in Australia, New Zealand, and the Cocos Islands in the Territory of Australia in the Eastern Indian Ocean.

The Notable American Unitarians project began three years ago and grew to feature 150 twentieth century biographies now online. Soon will come, celebration of Notable Unitarian women and men who contributed to American civilization from 1740 to 1900.

Herb Vetter hfvetter@post.harvard.edu

Paintings and sculpture by long time member and Congregational Mentor, Arnie Lahren - through January

The UUI, Unitarian Universalist Infidels, is a UUA-Related Organization whose purpose is to support and work to maintain a place at the UU table for atheist, agnostic, skeptic, and secular humanist UUs. This spring it will publish the first issue of a semiannual (twice yearly) newsletter that will provide a voice for viewpoints and opinions not usually represented in UU World magazine.
You can order this year's spring and fall UUI newsletters by sending your name and address and a check for $3.00 to UUI, 16265-D Dahlgren Road, King George, VA, 22485. (If you care to send more, it will go toward the fee for the booth we are going to have a General Assembly.) We plan to include a section titled, "Talkback to UU World" and invite your comments.
The UUI Newsletter will also be published on-line at www.uu-infidels.org, and if you wish, you can join the UUI discussion group by sending an email to uui-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

It's time again to sign up and take your turn providing treats to accompany our coffee, tea or juice during the coffee hour preceding the program on Sunday mornings. A sign up sheet for the coming year is posted on the bulletin board. Please sign up either alone, as a family or with a friend. It helps to feed our tummies as well as our souls and minds.

FAIR TRADE COFFEE

Bismarck-Mandan UU Fellowship will be trying Fair Trade Coffee. Please tell us how you like

A SIGN-UP sheet for Sunday morning Greeters will be posted on the bulletin board beside the sign-up for coffee hour. A welcoming hand and friendly smiles makes newcomers and visitors feel welcome and more comfortable. Whether you are relatively new yourself or one of the old-timers, please consider signing up to come a bit early and extend our hand in friendship.

"Ever thought about who picked out the dishes we use for potlucks? No, it wasn't a committee. Actually it was the grocery chain known as Red Owl who gave out dishes for shopping there. So the fellowship shopped there until we had enough to go round."

"In case you are wondering about the theological significance of singing "The Easter Parade to close our Easter Sunday programs, rest easy. It's sentimental, not theological. Long, long ago when the ladies wore new spring hats and the gentlemen wore suits and ties to our Easter programs, Ginny Conrad (Mrs. John) was our pianist. She launched into the song one Easter Sunday morning and it became a tradition. The first Easter after she died, we omitted it, but John stood up and started it for us anyway, and it's been there ever since in memory of Ginny, John, and all those other joyful people who launched this fellowship."

Books of Interest: " Full Circle: Fifteen Ways to Grow Lifelong UUs", by Kate Tweedie Erslev. "A Lamp in Every Corner: Our Unitarian-Universalist Storybook", by Janeen K. Grohsmeyer, Boston, MA 02108

The church library is taking shape, but we need your help. If you have any books belonging to the church, please return them now. The library committee needs to see what we have before they can decide what to get. They would also be happy to take donations, religion related, in the following categories:

Readings, history, poetry, sermons, biography, Life/Self help, Religious Education, Philosophy, Bible Studies, Environment, Philosophy, Church Administration.

The library committee will select from the donations, returning the non-selected books to the donors if they so specify, otherwise giving them to the public library for the book sale. The treasurer will provide a receipt for tax purposes if requested.

Any suggestions you have as to books, videos, material you think would be a good inclusion, please let the committee know.

The Library Committee:
Betty Mills
Barb Lennington
Helen Hammond
Carol Jean Larsen
Dean Conrad

This is the bicentennial year of the birth of Ralph Waldo Emerson. While he is widely known as an essayist and poet, some of his best writing comes from his early career as a Unitarian minister.

These recently published books are now in our UU library.
1. Emerson As Spiritual Guide by Barry M. Andrews
2. The Spiritual Emerson: Essential Writings edited by David M. Robinson
3. The Living Legacy of Ralph Waldo Emerson: An exhibit booklet commissioned by the Emerson Bicentennial Committee of the Unitarian Universalist Association
4. Waldo Free and True: A Kid's Fun Book About Ralph Waldo Emerson by Betsy Hill Williams
5. And finally, here are two excellent Internet sites devoted to Emerson: www.rwe.org and www.emersoncentral.com

Two Emerson internet sites devoted to Emerson are

"The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson"

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