Pilgrim House
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
Older Programs : 2013
Older Programs : 2011 • 2012 • 2013 • 2014 • 2015 • 2016 • 2017 • 2018 • 2019 • 2020 • 2021 • 2022
December 29 – The Annual Tolling of the Bells Program
Please let Mel Aanerud or David Conradi Jones know of anyone or anything that you would like to have remembered in this annual program of remembrance.
December 22 – Pilgrim House Holiday Celebration!
Please join us for our always-special intergenerational PH holiday program, complete with group caroling, favorite holiday readings, seasonal music, a performance by the PH Chorale, a special guest (possibly from the far north), favorite foods, and more. Contact Bill Rohde for participation in the chorale and for any music selections that will be presented by you or your children and contact Mel Aanerud for readings that might be included (please let them know by December 15). And don’t forget to bring that favorite holiday food for our traditional potluck finger foods feast after the program. Remember that parking becomes crowded for this program and we can park across the street at either the Armory or the Arden Hills City Hall lot. See you there!
December 15 – Blessings of the Dark
It’s a spiritual test for some of us to embrace the dark of winter; for others this time is precious & potent. All are welcome to this service that will explore the power & blessing of the dark through story & song.
Rev. Kelli Clement is a UU Community Minister in affiliation with First Universalist Church, and serves as the Executive Director of the MN Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.
December 8 – A Feng Shui Journey
Among our six Unitarian Universalist Sources are the teachings of Earth-centered traditions, which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature. Feng Shui has developed out of the Earth-centered traditions of Asia. International Feng Shui expert Carole J. Hyder will walk us you through the evolution of Feng Shui from China to its present form today. Carole will explain how it began and how it has become a sought-after approach to creating balance, harmony, and purpose in life, especially in the past 10 years. Carole has facilitated hundreds of private residential and commercial consultations, and she is the founder of Wind and Water School of Feng Shui, a nine-month certification program licensed by the Minnesota Office of Higher Education. Her program at PH will highlight her experiences with students and clients, and describe how Feng Shui has been powerfully implemented in a local hospital.
December 1 – Being Politically Active within a Faith Community
Mark Ritchie is not only the Secretary of State for the State of Minnesota but also a Unitarian Universalist.
November 24 – Our Traditional Pilgrim House Thanksgiving Celebration
Our PH Thanksgiving program is a not-to-be-missed time of celebration and community, bringing together Pilgrim House members and friends with special music, a performance by the Pilgrim House Chorale, seasonal readings and poetry ... and more. If you or younger members of your family have a musical selection you’d like to share, please contact Bill Rohde by Sunday 11/17. Similarly, if you have a reading you’d like to share, please contact Mel Aanerud.
Join us after the program for a Thanksgiving meal. Susan Setter is the food coordinator. As in past years, she will supply the ham and set up the social room for the event. Members/friends are asked to contribute other food items for the event. A sign-up sheet for items will be passed at PH during the programs in early November.
See you there!
November 17 – Girls inc.
Girls Inc. inspires all girls to be strong, smart, and bold through life-changing programs and experiences that help girls navigate gender, economic, and social barriers. Research-based curricula, delivered by trained, mentoring professionals in a positive all-girl environment equip girls to achieve academically; lead healthy and physically active lives; manage money; navigate media messages; and discover an interest in science, technology, engineering, and math. The network of local Girls Inc. nonprofit organizations serves 136,000 girls ages 6 – 18 annually across the United States and Canada.
November 11 – The Coalition for Impartial Justice
This is a broad-based, non-partisan organization advocating for a constitutional ballot question that allows voters the opportunity to decide how they would like to select and retain judges in Minnesota. The reforms specifically call for public performance evaluations of judges, merit selection, as well as retention elections. The coalition includes over 30 plus member organizations that represent business, labor, religious, and other non-profit organizations. – See more at: http://www.impartialcourts.org/about/index.html#sthash.Xc2lGgS6.dpuf.
November 3 – Prohibition with Dan Spock
Prohibition is the newest exhibit at the Minnesota Historical Society. Prohibition was the period in American history from 1920 to 1933 when the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibited the manufacture, sale, transport, import, or export of alcoholic beverages. It put legal brewers out of business and opened the nation’s door to unintended consequences: bootlegging, gambling, prostitution, rackets, gangsters, and organized crime. The 18th Amendment was repealed with the passage of the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on December 5, 1933.
October 27 – Men In Black
Men in Black are a quintet of male vocalists harmonizing a capella to a wide range of popular music, including Doo-Wop, early rock, folk and spirituals. Their musical interests reflect their lives over the past decades, and they’ve been delighted to find that younger audiences also resonate to their music. Come join us for delightful morning concert! Bob Meyenburg, Bass/Baritone; Robin Partch, Bass; Fred Bailey, Tenor; Roger Alm, Tenor/Baritone; Dick Rogers, Baritone.
October 20 – Human Rights Don’t Defend Themselves: The Advocates for Human Rights
Since 1983, The Advocates for Human Rights has been working to promote and protect human rights and the rule of law in the U.S. and around the world. Learn about the work of The Advocates in the areas of immigration, human rights education, women’s human rights, human rights monitoring, and how you and your community can be part of the human rights movement.
The speaker will be Aviva Breen, Board Member.
October 13 – Why Bees are Disappearing
Honey bees are the world’s most important pollinator of crops, they are essential to the productivity of agro- and natural ecosystems. Currently, honey bees are in serious decline in the U.S. due to the combined effects of diseases, parasites, pesticides and nutritional deficiencies. Since the term Colony Collapse Disorder was coined in 2006, national surveys reveal that 30-35% of all honey bee colonies die every winter across the U.S. Beekeepers make up losses by splitting surviving colonies or by purchasing new colonies from national bee breeders and distributors. However, this loss is not sustainable and it is critical to research ways to improve bees' natural defenses.
Renata Borba is a graduate student at Dr. Spivak’s lab at the University of Minnesota pursuing a PhD degree. She is originally from Brazil and has been in the U.S for 6 years. She is studying the effects of propolis to colony health and immunity as well as the behavior mechanisms of resin collection.
October 6 – Alexandra House with Krysta Sather
Alexandra House provides domestic violence and sexual violence services. Their free services include 24-hour emergency shelter, support services and advocacy to victims of domestic and sexual violence. Our fellowship has had a number of associations with Alexandra House. Often our members and children volunteer there. The Social Action and the Religious Education Committee requested that we have someone come and explain their services to us.
September 29 – Our Spiritual Relationship With The Land That Feeds Us – Atina Diffley
Atina Diffley was recommended by Rob King. Her book Turn Here Sweet Corn was a Pilgrim House book club selection and a 25th anniversary Minnesota Book Award Winner. Eating is a sacred act. Our daily food decisions affect the wellness of the land, and the life that lives upon it. Atina is an organic farmer and author who will provides an empowering conversation about our spiritual food relationships—with the earth, plants and animals, families and communities.
September 22 – Protection of Alaska’s Wilderness by Louis Asher
Alaska may seem far from Minnesota but we are all part of the same ecosystem that makes up our planet. For example, migratory birds travel from Alaska to the rest of the U.S. and beyond. Climate change, which affects us all, is dramatically more evident in the Arctic, where regions have warmed up twice as fast as the rest of the planet.
Oil and timber extraction proposals would create great stresses in our pristine Alaskan wilderness areas. They bring tremendous perils with small short term economic gains and long term environmental consequences, as well as significant long term economic costs. We will explore proposed activities in the Arctic Ocean, the Arctic wildlife refuge, the Alaskan national petroleum reserve and the Tongass rainforest.
September 15 – History of Religion in America – Jon Butler
The History of Religion in America with Howard R. Lamar Professor Emeritus of American Studies, History, and Religious Studies Yale University, Adjunct Research Professor of History University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Vice President Organization of American Historians. Religion in the United States is characterized by a diversity of religious beliefs and practices. Various religious faiths have flourished, as well as perished, in the United States. Religions that span the country’s multicultural immigrant heritage, as well as those founded within the country, have led the United States to become one of the most religiously diverse countries in the world.
September 8 – Water Communion
Our annual "welcome back" celebration: connection and community, revitalized through song, readings, and sharing. We’ll also highlight the centrality of "covenant" in Unitarian Universalism. For the Water Communion, please bring a small amount of water from a favorite source. What special meaning does it hold for you?
August 11 – The Minnesota History Center Presents Then Now Wow
From past to present, many "Wow!" moments have shaped this great state. A representative from the History Center will explain the largest exhibit ever created by the Minnesota Historical Society which explores Minnesota’s history in the prairies, forests and cities, interacting with the people and animals who have made their homes here. Everything is built at a child level but it is a program suitable for all ages.
July 21 – Sea Life from the Mall of America
A representative from Sea Life will talk about animal adaptations and will have a fish tank that will allow children to touch sea life.
June 23 – The Glad Hatter and Her Hats
The Glad Hatter – Pati Kachel, a local story teller, will share with us her collection of vintage hats. As she puts them on, she magically becomes the colorful characters who once wore them. You’re invited to wear a hat and share a story too! Pati inspires listeners through stories and programs about life. She entertains audiences in churches, retreat centers, schools, libraries, hospitals, coffee shops, prisons, and bookstores. She has traveled from Pittsburgh to Seattle presenting her story programs and songs.
June 2 – Flower Communion followed by the Annual Meeting
Bring a flower from your garden for our traditional Flower Communion program. To keep that day moving we will move acknowledgments and thanks you’s over lunch (Taco bar and beverages provided by the board; pot luck items provided by everyone else) followed by the Annual Meeting.
May 12 – Ralph Reeder Community Support Center
Laurie Lindblad is the community social worker with the Ralph Reeder Community Support Center, where her role is to build capacity, connection and collaboration in order to support at-risk and vulnerable individuals and families within our community. Previously, she was Director of Family & School Success at The Family Partnership in Minneapolis. She has a Master’s Degree in Social Work from Denmark, where she held a number of social work positions. Laurie has over 20 years of social service experience, including directing infant, preschool and school-age childcare programs, working with children with mental health needs and their families, providing refugee counseling services, and developing and directing a number of family and community support programs.
May 5 – From Choice to Justice: Our Spiritual Work 40 Years After Roe
Labels are polarizing & do not help us build or strengthen our movement for reproductive health, rights & justice. We will explore the Unitarian Universalist’s current Congregational Study Action Issue (CSAI) & how we can increase our conversational capacity in this ongoing work that is pastoral, prophetic, & progressive.
Rev. Kelli Clement is the Executive Director of the MN Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. A Unitarian Universalist community minister in affiliation with First Universalist Church, she is a graduate of United Theological Seminary where she was the coordinator of Seminarians for Choice, and is a part of the national speakers bureau of the Reproductive Health Technologies Project. When her family was living in the Netherlands last year, Kelli was privileged to speak at UU congregations in Amsterdam, Basel, Brussels, Paris, & rural Germany. Kelli lives with husband Mike (whom she met at a pro-choice rally!), daughter Fia, & poodle Memphis near Lake Nokomis in S. Mpls.
April 28 – Creativity and Innovation Presented by Louis Asher
A fun-filled, interactive and thought-provoking presentation. Attendees will be gently challenged to use their creative abilities in ways that lead to innovative and fun solutions. Real-life creative and innovative problem-solving examples will be discussed. The talk will feature a number of interactive activities.
"If at first an idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it." -- Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
April 21 – How a Norwegian Bachelor Farmer is Saving the Land, and the Lake
When it comes down to it, most of the land and water that is important to conservation is in private ownership. The Minnesota Land Trust will present the story of how one landowner’s decision to NOT develop his property is inspiring people to rethink the real value of land. The Minnesota Land Trust is a non-profit conservation organization dedicated to preserving our state’s natural and scenic heritage. http://www.mnland.org Presented by Barbara LaMotte, Marketing & Membership Manager, Minnesota Land Trust.
April 14 – Hand Me Down My Walking Cane with Author Carla Hagen
I have always been intrigued by lost things: people, places, cultures, as well as lost causes. That was why I felt compelled to write the first fictionalized account of the small communities in my home county, Lake of the Woods, who had been forcibly relocated during the Great Depression. Although the settlers were offered low-interest loans for more desirable farmland, most of them preferred their hardscrabble life in villages built on peat bogs and jack pine sand ridges where they were free to poach deer, grow their food and live their lived free of any mayor, police or clergy. They resisted the move, sponsored by the Resettlement Administration or RA (later the Farm Security Administration or FSA), and that resistance became legend in the borderland where I grew up. Hand Me Down My Walking Cane is their story. The relocation ties these characters together in ways they could never have foreseen as it changes the life and the landscape of the forest villages. My talk will focus on the story and the significance of the relocation in the turbulent, troubled 1930s.
April 7 Brief History of the Soul with Professor Charles Taliaferro
Charles Taliaferro is a Professor of Philosophy at St. Olaf College. He is the author or co-author of twenty books including A Brief History of the Soul. Taliaferro has been a visiting scholar at Oxford, Princeton, NYU, and Columbia, He has given lectures at Oxford, Cambridge, University of St. Andrews (Scotland), Yale, NYU, University of Chicago, the Gregorian (Rome), University of Beijing (China), and elsewhere.
March 31 – Spring Celebration
We will be conducting our traditional Spring Celebration with people from the fellowship sharing their talents. The children will depart for a special activity mid-program. We will schedule children’s early and adults later in the program. If you or your children have a talent – music, dance, spoken word – that you would like to share: contact Lollie Jensen or Mel Aanerud.
A potluck spring brunch will follow the program, coordinated by Katrina Edenfeld. All are invited.
March 24 – What’s New at the U: The Impact of the University and the Role it Plays in Helping to Advance MN as a State
Mary Kay Delvo, director of advocacy, University of Minnesota Alumni Association presents this program. Representatives from the University of Minnesota and the University of Minnesota Alumni Association went on a road trip, visiting 13 cities in 12 weeks. The purpose of this "road show" was to inform Minnesotans around the state about the importance of University education, research, and outreach to their communities. Have you ever attended a cultural or sports event at the U, ever eaten a Honeycrisp apple or puffed wheat cereal, ever worn a seatbelt? The reach and impact of the U is felt across the entire state, even for those who have never set foot on campus or don’t have a diploma.
March 17 – Colleen Bertsch and Szászka Present Music of Transylvania
In the Transylvanian countryside, string bands are used for weddings, dance parties, and self entertainment. These ensembles include at least one violin, a kontra (modified viola) and string bass. Szászka is honored to share examples of Transylvanian string band music from different villages to demonstrate the rich variety of music this region has to offer. Szászka was formed in 1996 to perform traditional Transylvanian village dance music. Sara Bruins and Doug Code, founding members of Szászka, are from Madison, Wisconsin. Colleen joined Szászka in 2006. She lives in Minneapolis and is a PhD student in ethnomusicology at the University of Minnesota.
March 10 – One Journey Through the Universe with Michael Holt
An exploration of how astronomy has played a role in human development. For our ancestors, the changing night sky presented a puzzle. Explaining it, bit by bit, fueled science and changed religion. This legacy is available to us today, if we’ll just find a dark place and look up.
Michael Holt is an occasional amateur astronomer, a longtime UU, and a member of First Universalist Church in Minneapolis.
March 3 – The Delphi Trio (followed by our Annual PH Auction)
The Delphi Trio from Michael Servetus UU Church in Fridley will provide a concert of jazz music. Relax to a program of instrumental and vocal delights.
Then enjoy an expanded Soup Sunday and settle in for our always fun fundraiser auction. Check out what Pilgrim House members and friends have contributed for your bidding pleasure.
February 24 – Doug Ohman – A Journey from the Headwaters
Award winning photographer, author and story teller Doug Ohman paddled his kayak with camera in hand down the mighty Mississippi from its start at Lake Itasca to the Iowa border. Hear his stories and outstanding images from this journey.
February 17 – Diaries and Journals from the U.S. Dakota War
This is the 150th anniversary of the U. S. Dakota War. The Minnesota Historical Society has many ways to experience this event. We will use diary and journal entries of people who were there to set the stage, be there in Fort Ridgley, New Ulm and observe the aftermath, all in the words of those who experienced it.
February 10 – Wall-Busting and Bridge-Building: Hospitality in a Globalized World
Presented by Eleazar S. Fernandez, Professor of Constructive Theology at United Theological Seminary. We are living in a glocalized world. The global is lived locally and the local is lived globally. Given this context, our neighbors are not only those within our immediate locality, but also those in other parts of the world. Ironically, amidst the rhetoric of global village, walls of fear and division are rising, hearts are constricting, and moral imagination shrinking. Faith communities and responsible citizens must respond differently and creatively. What we are called to do is to embody the message of radical hospitality and to participate in the work of enlarging people’s moral imagination.
February 3 – A New Era in Unitarian Universalism
Learn about the proposal for "Regionalization" from our Prairie Star District Chair (and resident of Fridley), Kathy Burek. This proposal would merge three districts in the geographic center of the U.S. into one Mid-America Region. Advantages include field staff spending less time on administrative duties and more time on nurturing healthier congregations with leadership support and other services. How it would happen, what the impacts to congregations would be, and more…all from a local knowledgeable leader.
Then, during our Soup Sunday, our own Long Range Planning Committee will present a summary of the results of the discussions with members and friends last fall – and the next steps for using this information to begin preparing an updated five-year plan for Pilgrim House. Sure to be informative!
January 27 – Tar Sands Oil and the Keystone XL Pipeline
This talk will shed light on the U.S. energy situation as a whole, highlighting tar sands oil and the Keystone XL Pipeline. It will also touch another hot topic, that of fracking. Presented by PH member Louis Asher, a retired Researcher/Statistician and instructor. He worked at 3M Co. for 39 years and was known as a very practical, motivating and extremely entertaining/fun instructor. He now volunteers in organizations that deal with habitat conservation, climate change and renewable energy.
January 20 – Best Read of the Winter
Join us for a discussion of the best books people have been reading. Come prepared to offer your favorite books of the past few months and to hear what others have been reading. Contact Lollie Jensen if you have a book you would like to present.
January 13 – Clocks and Time
Brent Glommen, an expert on clocks, will discuss clocks, how they work, how they have evolved, some ideas about time, and how clocks have been used. Brent Glommen, of Brent Glommen Clock Repair in Roseville, is a 2nd generation clock person. He has been repairing clocks for 26 years and has taught a class in advanced clock repair.
January 6 – Justice in Common... and in the Commons
We Minnesota UUs have just spent a year very engaged in a common pursuit defending the future freedom to marry. And our denomination has been deep in the struggle for LGBT and immigrant rights, particularly in 2012 but for quite some time now. What are we learning about ourselves, our capacity for justice, and the larger world we inhabit with all our neighbors, as we begin a new year of this vital work?
This program is presented by Ralph Wyman, Director and Organizer of the Minnesota Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Alliance.
Older Programs : 2011 • 2012 • 2013 • 2014 • 2015 • 2016 • 2017 • 2018 • 2019 • 2020 • 2021 • 2022