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Qp^Ktericy Uwiiew ^ .MJLSOTIS ^ QP^KTERICY UWIIEW ^ VOL. XIV N°4 REVIEW OF FALL-WINTER 2009-2010 PUBLISHED WINTER 2010 At this year's Heart & Soul Auction, Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, was presented with the Forrest Church Award by Forrest's daughter, Nina Church-Adams {left), and All Souls President, Nancy Northup (right). See: The 21st Annual Heart & Soul Auction, p. 3. EDITOR'S CORNER he Fall months of 2009 were a sad period for all of us at All Souls as we hoped against hope that Forrest would beat the odds once Tagain, and then mourned his much too early passing. In some way, his death put a shadow over all the usual November and December festivities. Still, life in our congregation moved on as we voted to approve a program for future development at our special congregational meeting, and changed the dates for our fiscal year. Meanwhile, our much reduced ministerial staff managed to keep the pews filled on Sunday mornings, put on three spectacular musical services on Christmas Eve, as well as the other traditional readings and services. Even the snowy and freezing weather did not keep church members away from the holiday parties, lectures, gift tables and the anniversary celebration we usually attend during these late Fall months. This edition of the Quarterly was delayed by unforeseen circumstances so that much of the information of Fall activities was out of date by the time of publication. We hope you will find the articles we included interesting and promise a more up-to-date edition for the Spring issue. Of special interest is the article about the changes going on in our church right now that we hope will direct the attention of our readers to the importance of how all of us participate in the daily life of our community (seep. 1). This is also reflected in the article based on a special meeting of the Young Adult Group focusing on budget problems as our congregation is adjusting to new fiscal restraints and responsibilities due to economic retrenchments {see p. 12). This issue also covers both the 2010 Heart & Soul Auction and the Third Annual Invitational Art Show {seep. 3). —Marietta Moskin In future issues of the Quarterly, we would like to highlight special achievements in the lives of our members: books, articles, awards, performances, etc. Please let us know about your recent achievements, creative or otherwise. Please contact Marietta Moskin at 212-289-7900 or by e-mail at [email protected]. Editors: Marietta Moskin Lois Chazen CONTEXTS Production Editor: James E. Moskin •Changes at All Souls p. 1 •The 21st Animal Heart X Sinil Auction p. 3 Contributors to this issue: •Who We Are: Judy .Samuelson p. 6 Daniel Beshers •The Advent of Forrest Church at All Souls p. 9 Lois Chazen •Beyond the Church Doors p. 10 •YoungAdult Stewardship Meeting: 2/28/10 p. 12 Valorie Dawson •The Future of Unitarian Universalism p. 13 Eric Haas Marietta Moskin CHANGES AT ALL SOULS A HISTORICAL LOOK AT THE RECENT PAST —by Marietta Moskin he past year brought difficult times to the country, the city, and to All Souls. The weather was harsh. The economy declined. And our Tcommunity lost a beloved minister who had led us for thirty years. It was a loss we anticipated and yet one that hit us hard in our collective psyche. Even before the Rev. Dr. F. Forrest Church died, the signs of economic hardships had started to touch our congregation and had begun to require changes in our habits and routines. As the Board and the ministers looked for new solutions to deal with escalating costs, declining income and the problems brought to us through the phenomenal growth in the size of our congregation during Forrest's ministry, new ideas were proposed for how to administer and organize our expanding community. And now, the Rev. Dr. Galen Guengerich, as the 10th minister of All Souls, is starting this last decade before our 200th birthday with a multiplicity of problems to be faced and overcome. Perhaps, this is a good moment to pause and look back at the ups and downs this congregation has experienced during the past 50 years of our distinguished nearly 200 year existence. In 1955, when Forrest's predecessor, the Rev. Dr. Walter Donald Kring, assumed the ministry, All Souls was a much smaller but prosperous congregation with a thriving Sunday School that prompted the church to build three additional stories of classrooms on top of the two story Wiggin House, an actively engaged congregation and a positive view of the future. With a single minister in charge of our congregation, church members were very much involved in the day to day running of the organization through a number of Board appointed committees, some mentioned in the Bylaws, as well as other volunteer work designed to help the staff and with fund raising in various ways. For example, an all-church Fair, dating back to the days of the Civil War, not only helped to build our community but also served as a fund-raising tool until changes in church demography made this too difficult to continue. All of this, of course, was very much in line with our UU ideas of congregational polity under which the congregation is managed by its members through the Board of Trustees and lay leaders within the congregation in conjunction with the minister who is elected to provide spiritual leadership and to lead the staff in the day to day administration ofthe church. By the middle ofthe turbulent 1960s, the placid ways of All Souls had changed. New York had become a difficult place to live, young families with children fled to the suburbs, and the average age ofthe members of All Souls increased. The religious education program shrank to a ghost of its former vigorous self, and by the time Dr. Kring announced his retirement in the late 1970s, he and the members of the various Boards struggled with the financial shortfalls. 1 Forrest Church walked into that financial challenge when he arrived in 1978. At not quite 30, he had planned on an academic career and was unprepared for the problems of managing a failing religious institution. It was certainly his charisma, his unbounded optimism and his ability to learn his craft quickly that helped him turn our congregation around, start an amazing growth spurt and help us become one ofthe largest congregations in the denomination. Of course, he was also lucky enough to do this at a time when our economy started to grow and boom. There were ups and downs during Forrest's ministry as well, including economic downturns, periods when the church lost members and times when changes in membership prompted re-evaluation of our goals. A comprehensive study was made in the early 1990s by a Future's Committee composed of members ofthe congregation and chaired by Bill Bechman, to see if we needed to change our ways and in what direction we wanted to move. In 2008, a Strategic Planning Committee employed an outside consulting agency to similarly reassess and establish priorities as to where we were going. Those results are now being considered although the means of implementation have not as yet been shared fully with the congregation. And so, here we are in 2010 with a newly appointed Senior Minister once again facing a difficult economic situation, only this time, complicated by the needs of a greatly expanded membership. This raises new and difficult questions: How can the needs of such a large congregation be met using our traditional forms of congregational polity? How can sufficient funds be raised without placing excessive pressure on less affluent church members? How can we channel the wish of people to be involved in manageable tasks through the committee system without interfering with the needs and abilities ofthe staff? How can our self-governance operate and interact with multiple ministers, each of whom works within his or her own sphere of expertise? Finally, how can our elected Board of Trustees communicate openly and regularly with the membership they represent, even when some matters need to be settled decisively and in a timely manner? And perhaps most importantly, what responsibility does Congregational Polity place on each individual member ofthe congregation? THE 2 1ST ANNUAL HEART & SOUL AUCTION —by Lois Chazen he 21st Annual Heart & Soul Auction took place February 9 at the venerable Down Town Association on Pine Street in the heart ofthe Tfinancial and banking district. The grand late 19th century building afforded three floors of spacious wood paneled rooms to receive guests for cocktails, a display of multi-faceted offerings in the silent auction, and for the live auction, dinner and a bountiful dessert table and dancing. Music accompanied the cocktail hour and set a lively background for the dancers. I^T The auction has had a variety of venues over the years. The event began as part of the Women's Alliance holiday fair and then in 1990, moved outside the Church and was held at the offices of Shearman and Sterling law firm's New York office. Other locations include the Russian Tea Room and the Starlight Roof of the Waldorf Astoria. In recent years the auctions took place at Christie's beautiful quarters at Rockefeller Plaza. Stephen Lash, Chairman of Christies, North and South America, was a founder of the Heart & Soul Auction along with the Rev. Dr. F. Forrest Church. Carolyn Brody, Francesca Thompson and Michele Jawin were groundbreaking volunteers. And, in each of those years, Stephen has donated his significant talent, charm Auctioneer Stephen Lash and wit as auctioneer.
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