December is the darkest part of the year and our collective fixation on light increases. What does this mean for us as individuals and as a religion?

Joining Peter on the chancel will be Rev. Fred Rabidoux, Denis Paul, Whitman Donaldson, and Worship Associate Anna Sylvester.

The choir will minister in music, and the children's choir will sing us out to the Holiday Faire.

Religious Education begins its exploration of holidays from different religions and cultures with an early Hanukkah celebration Sunday. Crafts, music, games, stories, and activities will begin at 10. All children and youth will meet in the chapel.

Each year on Christmas Eve, our children reenact the story of the birth of Jesus. If your child would like a part in this tableau, please sign up Sunday or call or Betty Skwarek at 776-5480 x 162 or email her. Roles still to be cast include Mary, Joseph, wise persons, angels and shepherds. Costumes will be fitted December 14, and dress rehearsal is December 21.

The church school has a wonderful dilemma in the Early Childhood class: lots of children, particularly little ones. The Religious Education program is recruiting a few volunteers who understand the needs of infants and toddlers to help out one or two Sundays a month. Help with preschoolers is also welcome. Please contact Betty Skwarek in the RE office or email Marie Roark, the Early Childhood supervisor.

If you are a new Society member or contemplating membership, you're invited to sign up for "New UU, Sharing the Journey" on three consecutive Sunday afternoons beginning January 25. Registration forms are available at the front desk or you can phone or email Betty Skwarek (see contact information in two paragraphs above).

Have a festive lunch, a treat in the Tea Room, and bring your family and friends to enjoy the music and shopping. Fair Trade gift baskets, Up On Top cookies, and Kopanang embroideries are wow gifts that serve communities here and abroad. Buy a beautiful fresh evergreen wreath, or order one custom made.

There are many ways you can participate:

• Bring "giftable" items to the church office anytime before Saturday night.
• Bring cakes for the Tea Room and baked goods to the kitchen.
• Donate warm coats, hats and gloves for adults and children.
• Volunteer to help set-up or clean up.
• Just come and enjoy yourself!

Your participation helps the Society and its associated ministries. Most importantly, going to the Faire helps you start the holiday season in the best of spirits.

Often times children come to Up On Top without adequate warm clothing or their clothing becomes soiled.

The program tries to maintain a supply of practical clothing such as pants, sweaters, shirts, underwear, socks, and coats, and they need your donations to keep their stock up.

The children who attend Up On Top are ages 5 to 10 years old. If you are able to provide any of these items, please bring them to the Up On Top Cookie Table at the Holiday Faire. There will be a large box provided for the clothing donations.

Every year from Thanksgiving through New Years, thousands of Unitarian Universalists of all ages place Guest at Your Table boxes on their dining tables or other family gathering places. They feed the boxes daily with contributions for the work of the denomination's faith-in-action organization, the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC).

You can pick up a 2008 Guest at Your Table centerpiece in the church office and at the UUSC table on Sunday.

The ritual of making contributions to a Guest At Your Table box offers families an opportunity to set aside time daily to reflect on the Unitarian Universalist commitment to social justice and human rights work and the meaning of the choices we make on a daily basis about our material resources. Amid the commercial whirl of the holiday season the Guest at Your Table box helps us reflect on and share our many blessings and to connect with the deeper meaning of the season.

Society members joined thousands of activists from around the country in Columbus, Georgia in late November. After meetings and educational events, on Sunday morning the final vigil and protest at the gates of Fort Benning took place.

While the road to the entrance of the military training school was fenced in, thousands of solemn marchers chanted "Presente!" after the names of hundreds of civilian dead were read aloud. This was the 19th year of this protest.

The service also memorialized the 19th anniversary of the killing of six Jesuit teachers, their housekeeper and her daughter by the Atlacatl Battalion, trained at the School of the Americas.

This year participants voiced hope that with our country's recent electoral changes, the SOA/Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation military institution will be finally closed.

Moderator Jane Park led the Congregation in celebrating the naming of Rev. Margot Campbell Gross Minister Emerita of the Society during last Sunday's worship service.

Now retired from professional ministry, Rev. Campbell Gross was praised by Jane who read a resolution from the Board of Trustees. Rev. Campbell Gross was cited for her service as co-Senior Minister which capped her ministerial career. Current Senior Minister Rev. Gregory Stewart added his personal and professional appreciation for Rev. Campbell Gross' ministry.

Rev. Campbell Gross is shown expressing her thanks for the honor in this photograph by Sonnie Willis.