Shetterly will be the featured pulpit guest at each of the church’s three services. There are 2 morning services, at 9:00 and 11:00 respectively, and an afternoon service at 4:30. Each is followed by a chance to socialize, enjoy a cup of coffee, and share your thoughts. Visitors are welcome.

Click here for directions to the First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee, a home for those seeking community, social justice, and spiritual and intellectual growth.

Telling the truth. It’s a seemingly simple phrase that contains great complexity. In relation to our nation’s ideals, what is true and why does telling the truth matter?

Artist and educator Robert Shetterly has devoted much of the past decade to exploring these questions. By way of offering some answers, he has created Americans Who Tell the Truth, a series of paintings portraying individuals from many walks of life whose lives span the past 200 years.

Some are familiar names and faces, others less familiar. The thought-provoking quotes that accompany these stunning portraits address what it means to have the freedom to speak the truth, and remind us of our responsibility to do what we can to ensure that we are told the truth.

Learn more about Robert Shetterly’s work at www.americanswhotellthetruth.org.

Shetterly will also lead an intergenerational conversation from 1:30 to 3:30 on May 1, “Stand Up for the Promise of America,” on individual rights and responsibilities. This group conversation, which will include inspiring music and visual art, is intended for children in grades 4–8, their parents, and other adults.

Eighteen paintings from the Americans Who Tell the Truth series will be on display in the Leenhouts Gallery and elsewhere in the church from April 17 to May 28.

The 18 portraits on display honor the work of well-known and less famous individuals: James Baldwin, Winona LaDuke, Doris Haddock, Noam Chomsky, Kathy Kelly, Francis Moore Lappe, Jonathon Kozol, Frank Serpico, Marian Wright Edelman, Samantha Smith, Terry Tempest Williams, Fannie Lou Hamer, Derrick Jensen, James Bell, Murphy Davis, Emma Tenayuca, Daniel Ellsberg, and David Korten.

This programming is made possible by a bequest to First Church from the estate of Irma Morter.

For more information, visit the First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee’s website.

Ms. Callaway is the newly appointed Business and Community Partnerships Coordinator for the Milwaukee Public Schools.

She will discuss the need for critical relationships with parents, alumni, community organizations and local government.

New MPS Superintendent Gregory Thornton has promised to develop more business and community involvement. Ms. Callaway was hired to help build more connections with business and community groups or all types and sizes.

She is an award-winning radio and TV reporter and a past communications director for MPS, and served for the last 7 years as communications director for the Greater Milwaukee Foundation.

Join us for this program at 10:10 (Jan. 19, 2011) upstairs in Max Otto Hall!

Click here for a full schedule of Sunday Forum programs at First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee, in downtown Milwaukee, exploring topical issues of the day: the arts, politics, the environment, health issues, education, and more.

The First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee, located just northeast of downtown on the corner of Ogden and Astor streets, offers a spiritual home where:

* Freedom, reason, community and social justice come together
* Diverse beliefs are respected and celebrated
* Spiritual and intellectual growth are encouraged
* The interdependent web of life is respected
* Children and adults explore all the world’s religions

This Sunday, First Church member Will Fellows will discuss his new book: Gay Bar: The Fabulous True Story of a Daring Woman and Her Boys in the 1950s, just released this fall from University of Wisconsin Press.

The original memoir edition of the book was written by Helen P. Branson; she served as “Mother Courage” to the patrons of the bar she operated in Los Angeles.  She wrote about her experiences and the struggles of her gay friends in the remarkable but obscure 1957 book, Gay Bar.

In this new edition, author Will Fellows interweaves Branson’s chapters with his own insightful commentary and excerpts gleaned from letters and essays appearing in gay publications of the period.

“By pairing this new edition of Branson’s insightful memoir with a study of 1950s America, Fellows clarifies how ahead of her time Branson was: she believed, for example, that being gay was more than sex and that gay men living together could consider themselves married. This stimulating account of support for gay rights pre-Stonewall is an eye-opener.”—Publishers Weekly

Will Fellows is also the author of acclaimed books Farm Boys: Lives of Gay Men from the Rural Midwest and A Passion to Preserve: Gay Men as Keepers of Culture, both published by the University of Wisconsin Press. He lives in Milwaukee.

Join us for this program at 10:10 (Dec. 19, 2010) upstairs in Max Otto Hall!

Click here for a full schedule of Sunday Forum programs at First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee, in downtown Milwaukee, exploring topical issues of the day: the arts, politics, the environment, health issues, education, and more.

The First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee, located just northeast of downtown on the corner of Ogden and Astor streets, offers a spiritual home where:

* Freedom, reason, community and social justice come together
* Diverse beliefs are respected and celebrated
* Spiritual and intellectual growth are encouraged
* The interdependent web of life is respected
* Children and adults explore all the world’s religions

Lynn Oehlke, CEO of the St. Catherine Residence for Women, located right in our Milwaukee neighborhood at 1032 East Knapp, offers safe, affordable and supportive housing to women with limited income.

Ms. Oehlke will share with us how St. Catherine’s goes about serving disadvantaged women with more than suitable housing. It capitalizes on the strength of the women-helping-women culture . . . integrating it with a focus on health and education, supporting each woman’s effort to achieve self-sufficiency and a satisfying life.

As a Catholic organization since 1894, St. Catherine Residence respects the diverse religious beliefs of its residents and accepts women of all faiths and backgrounds.

Join us at 10:10 (Nov. 7, 2010) upstairs in Max Otto Hall to learn more about this nearby neighborhood program!

Click here for a full schedule of Sunday Forum programs at First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee, in downtown Milwaukee, exploring topical issues of the day: the arts, politics, the environment, health issues, education, and more.

The First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee, located just northeast of downtown on the corner of Ogden and Astor streets, offers a spiritual home where:

* Freedom, reason, community and social justice come together
* Diverse beliefs are respected and celebrated
* Spiritual and intellectual growth are encouraged
* The interdependent web of life is respected
* Children and adults explore all the world’s religions

Philip Martin, author of A Guide to Fantasy Literature, will explore the spiritual aspects of fantasy literature as a way to plumb the depths of our beliefs and ideas of right and wrong, good and evil. He’ll use examples from the classic fantasy stories of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, as well as from recent blockbusters like the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, works of magical realism, and dark fantasy novels, such as popular vampire fiction (Twilight, etc.).

Philip Martin is a folklorist, award-winning author, and book editor who has worked with award-winning children’s and adult fiction. He has created and authored audio, photodocumentary, and written studies of cultural heritage, as well as a number of instructional guides for writers. Previously acquisitions editor for The Writer Books (connected with The Writer magazine), he now directs Great Lakes Literary, providing editorial and marketing services for writers and small businesses.

Martin is also the husband of First Church administrator Jean Johnson.

A Guide to Fantasy Literature (2009) is an updated version of a 2002 edition, of which Newbery Award winner Lloyd Alexander said, “Rich with insights, thorough and knowledgeable, it’s the best and most reliable guide to a multi-faceted subject. At heart, it’s a work of deep love and understanding of a powerful literary genre.”

Join us at 10:10 (Oct. 31, 2010) upstairs in Max Otto Hall to learn more about fantasy literature and spiritual beliefs!

Click here for a full schedule of Sunday Forum programs at First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee, in downtown Milwaukee, exploring topical issues of the day: the arts, politics, the environment, health issues, education, and more.

The First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee, located just northeast of downtown on the corner of Ogden and Astor streets, offers a spiritual home where:

* Freedom, reason, community and social justice come together
* Diverse beliefs are respected and celebrated
* Spiritual and intellectual growth are encouraged
* The interdependent web of life is respected
* Children and adults explore all the world’s religions

Janet Fitch is an independent documentary filmmaker who creates films that move from the world of polarizing frameworks to offer a fresh glimpse of sensible solutions to critical social problems.

This film is part of her award-winning, 3-part documentary series: Guns, Grief and Grace in America.

Click here for more on this series at the New Moon Productions website.

The three documentaries – Dear Rita, The Promise of America, and Changing the Conversation: America’s Gun Violence Epidemic – offer an in-depth look at gun violence in the United States through local, state and national lenses.

Fitch’s work often airs on Public Television and has won a variety of accolades and awards. The films have been featured at the Moondance International Film Festival, New York Festivals International Film & Video Awards, and Houston WorldFest (dual Silver Education Awards), and garnered a Telly Award for The Promise of America.

Join us this Friday (Oct. 22, 2010) at the First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee to watch this film and discuss it with the filmmaker.

The First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee, located just northeast of downtown on the corner of Ogden and Astor streets, offers a spiritual home where:

* Freedom, reason, community and social justice come together
* Diverse beliefs are respected and celebrated
* Spiritual and intellectual growth are encouraged
* The interdependent web of life is respected
* Children and adults explore all the world’s religions

Dr. Stephen Byers is a former Milwaukee Sentinel writer who now teaches journalism at Marquette University.

He will speak on rapid changes in journalism today . . . as front-line reporters seek to maintain quality content while juggling the technology revolution and the speed of the news-delivery cycle.

Dr. Byers also mentors groups of journalism students who travel to India to partner with journalism students there to gain a multicultural perspective, something required for all Marquette students.

Join us at 10:10 (Sept. 26, 2010) upstairs in Max Otto Hall to learn more!

Click here for a full schedule of Sunday Forum programs at First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee, in downtown Milwaukee, exploring topical issues of the day: the arts, politics, the environment, health issues, education, and more.

Join us in Max Otto Hall for this fascinating program presented by Herman Bender. Geologist Bender has made some of the most important archeological discoveries in America over the past several decades — extensive petroforms (sacred arrangements of stones into various shapes) in the Fond du Lac area going back 4,500-5,000 years.

These stone alignments to stars in the sky were more profound than simple calendar systems. They had profound significance and represented the union of heaven and earth, the archetypal masculine and the feminine, as ceremonially experienced and celebrated by indigenous peoples in Wisconsin’s past.

Herman Bender is an independent researcher, geologist, and amateur astronomer who has given talks on native sites, petroforms, and cosmology at prestigious universities around the country from Marquette to Princeton. He has published scholarly articles in the fields of archeoastronomy, petroform research, applied geophysics, cultural landscape studies, and history.

He has been consultant to and continues to work with members of a number of Native American tribes, including the Northern Cheyenne, Lakota, Ojibwe, Potowatomi, and Ho-Chunk, as a specialist in Plains and Woodland Native American astronomy traditions and related cosmologies. Much of his work is related to Native American land claims, repatriation issues, and cultural identities.

Click here for a full schedule of Sunday Forum programs at First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee, in downtown Milwaukee, exploring topical issues of the day: the arts, politics, the environment, health issues, education, and more.

How would you feel if copies of the Bible were burned in downtown Milwaukee this weekend? Scared and vulnerable? Persecuted or angry?

What Reverend Terry Jones was planning to do this Saturday in Gainesville, Florida, is a violent act meant to threaten law-abiding citizens of our country. Along with freedom of speech and the right to assemble, our nation was founded on freedom of religion. That goes for Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims, among others.

As a Unitarian Universalist minister, I feel called to stand on the side of love, and to speak out against acts of hatred and intolerance. Would Jesus burn the Koran as a way to honor the lives of Americans lost in the terrorist attacks of September 11? I think not.

While I am relieved that Rev. Jones called off his plan, I am not fooled by his motives. He sees himself as engaged in a holy crusade against Muslim people, which can only serve to incite more violence, by fueling Islamophobia in our country and provoking extremist acts against our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Holy Crusades, of any stripe, can only end in anguish.

Rev. Dena McPhetres, Associate Minister
First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee

Titled “Nature, the Gentlest Mother,” the benefit event will be held at the First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee, located at the corner of Ogden and Astor streets in Milwaukee.

The exciting program features classical music by or about women, including songs by Clara Schumann, Lori Laitman, Aaron Copland, and Samuel Barber. The recital also boasts three world premieres by living American composers.

A freewill offering will be accepted for Sojourner Truth House. The Sojourner Truth House provides services to help break the cycle of domestic violence. Their 37-bed emergency shelter for battered women and their children offers safety, basic necessities, support groups, advocacy services, and childcare. Individual counseling is available during the day, in the evening, and on weekends.

The program is presented by the Economic Justice Committee of First Church. Hope to see you there!