Nobody succeeds beyond his or her wildest expectations unless he or she begins with some wild expectations.

— Ralph Charell

Come Join the Young Adults in an exploration of hopes, fears, assumptions, and intentions — and whether we meet the expectations we have for ourselves.

Participating in the service will be Melanie Closs, Carla Conaway, Laura Gilmore, Nathan Heigert, Amy Moses, Otto O'Connor, Nicole Robinson, Gillian Siple, Michaela Romano-Meade, and Cullen Rude.

World musician Alan Tower will return to minister in music, sharing the exotic sounds of instruments like the Huaca and the Hang. This is another great Sunday to introduce a friend or family member to your Unitarian Universalist congregation.

At 10 am the Religious Education program will welcome everyone from 5 to 105 to Art for Everyone in the art room. This week the project is mixed-media collage. You may come for one hour or two, and stay as late as 12:15 to complete your project.

Rev. Fred Rabidoux will be demonstrating Pachakuti Mesa, an earth-honoring spiritual system based on the four-thousand-year-old practices of Andean indigenous peoples of Peru.

Pachakuti Mesa honors both Pachamama (Mother Earth) and ancestral spirits. Rev. Rabidoux has been studying this experiential practice for four years under the tutelage of don Oscar Miro Quesada.

The free program will start at 9:45. Come at 9:30 for conversation, coffee, and (for a slight charge) a light breakfast.

The Unitarian Universalists for Peace invite you to join with other activists Sunday at 4 pm at Ocean Beach. Come meet, socialize, and begin planning for a unique global plea for peace.

This fall, Unitarians Universalists for Peace will join with hundreds of other peace and antiwar groups to welcome the first World March to circle the Earth, calling for the end of war and nuclear arms, and the elimination of violence of all kinds. This massive march is part of a new global conscience that universally condemns violence.

This global march will last 90 days, beginning in New Zealand on October 2, 2009, and will conclude in the Andes Mountains in Argentina on January 2, 2010.

Sunday's beach bonfire and potluck is the next local step in readying for the fall's march. This social gathering will help build the peace network for Fall actions.

Sunday's festivities will include a potluck , so if you are able, please bring food to share.

You are welcome to simply show up at the beach on Sunday, or contact Yanik Crepeau or Dolores Perez Priem for more information.

Today's (June 18) Bay Area Reporter includes a photograph of the gathering and a quotation from Senior Minister The Rev. Gregory Stewart.

Flight to Sinai, a short video with scenes filmed in our church, premieres Saturday (June 20) as part of the Frameline International Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender film festival.

In Flight to Sinai, a San Francisco high school student attempts to reconcile his sexuality with his Christian upbringing. He courageously asserts - in song no less! - that his challenge is to live genuinely despite pressure from his parents and church to change who he is.

Flight to Sinai's writer and director, Charlie Vaughn, debuted his documentary Old Age Is No Place for Sissies at last week's Forum. Charlie is a former student of Greta Snider at San Francisco State University.

The Society has only ten days before we close the books on this fiscal year, and your help is needed to help the community finish with a balanced budget.

Is your current-year pledge paid in full? Call or email bookkeeper Grace Lam if you have any questions. Her phone number is 776-4580.

Remember, annual financial support is a requirement of membership. Generous financial support by those able to be generous aids in sleep, self-esteem, digestion, and aging gracefully.

And, for all our members and friends, if you did not already pledge or can make an extra gift at this time, your check or credit card donation will help us finish a challenging year with a flourish.

Thank you!

I have received such honor, I must share the news with you!

A major recognition came from an unexpected place, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences' Institute for Literary Studies, for my translation of Prof. Mihály Balázs' Bliotheca Dissidentium, a monumental work on Francis Dávid and Early Unitarianism in Transylvania.

Our book won the coveted prize of the "Book of the Year". The Hungarian Academy considered the work as the greatest recent contribution to Hungary's literary scholarship. Its translation into English claims international attention for an important moment in the Hungarian history of language, culture, and religion.

The book was published by the University of Strasbourg in English in my translation and George's [her husband's] editing.

This award hopefully will raise American Unitarian Universalists' awareness of world scholarship on the origins of Unitarianism, showing the topic as relevant to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the University of Strasbourg.