GOINGS ON AT ALL SOULS

A NEW WRITERS’ GROUP STARTED
A newly formed All Souls Writers’ Group held its first organizational meeting on June 18 in the Ware Room with about 25 people in attendance. The interest level of the attendees varied, some being particularly interested in a hands-on writers workshop, others expressing greater interest in networking or learning techniques for submitting materials to publishers. The group had been called and was chaired by Rebecca Minnich.

A decision was made to try to hold monthly general meetings at which different topics would be discussed while a structure was proposed for smaller sub groups to meet separately to pursue more specific purposes. Those in attendance included published writers, reporters and poets as well as aspiring writers who were looking for guidance and help.

This new Writers Group’ is the offspring of an earlier attempt to gather creative members of All Souls into a group then labeled Media Group which seems to have lapsed owing to a lack of interest. It is to be hoped that this new, more topically focused group will fulfill the expectations of those who came to this first meeting.

WOMEN’S ALLIANCE
At its Spring Luncheon on Saturday, May 5th, the Alliance launched its  new advocacy effort to alleviate human slavery with a panel discussion that included Rep. Caroline Maloney, Peggy Montgomery representing the UU-UNO, and Taina Bien-Aimé from Equality Now.

A capacity crowd of interested members and guests first lunched on chicken salad, fruit and desserts in the Gallery before moving on to the packed chapel to listen as the experts on the panel described the plight of untold women and children who fall prey to unscrupulous traffickers all over the world who exploit those modern slaves in brothels and factories where they are forcefully held under inhumane conditions, even including large numbers here in New York City.

A subcommittee of Alliance members is already hard at work to find the best ways to join other groups for advocacy and possibly more tactical methods to help stamp out that evil.

Alliance Outings
Alliance groups visited a number of different events and places during the early Spring. A guided tour through an exhibit at the New York Historical Society on June 14, showing the work of women who designed glass lamp shades and other products for the workshop of Louis Comfort Tiffany early in the 20th Century, was particularly interesting. A strike by male glass workers gave women the opportunity not only to assemble, but also to design Tiffany glass wares, and they were found to be more adept at this delicate work than their male counterparts. The exhibit portrayed how colored sheets of glass were produced and then cut into the intricate shapes needed to create the leaded designs.

A visit to the Conservatory Gardens at 105th Street and Fifth Avenue on June 16 took place on one of the hottest and sunniest days of June but offered a delightful glimpse into the varied botanical specimens represented in the various gardens. A very knowledgeable guide provided interesting information. Afterwards, as the group had lunch in a shaded portion of the front yard of the Museum of the City of New York, an unexpected lecture program taking place in front of the Museum provided a special bonus to the participants.

A Bird Watching expedition in Central Park guided by the noted birding expert Sara Elliott took place on May 19. This outing has become an annual Alliance tradition.

THE LIFELINES CENTER
These monthly Friday night presentations are attracting bigger and bigger crowds as Neil Osborne finds ever more topically attractive films for his movie nights. The Al Gore film, “An Inconvenient Truth,” shown in June to a full house provided a spirited discussion afterwards in the Ware Room about global warming and conservation. These movie evenings attract viewers from outside the ranks of the congregation, adding to All Souls’ outreach to our neighborhood.

Other groups in the church have also started to show films of particular interest to their participants, some of which are being co-sponsored by the Adult Education Committee.

Particularly interesting, was a recent film, shown on a Sunday afternoon in June, about Wal Mart and how this giant corporation suppresses wages wherever their stores are opened, causes small local businesses to close shop, and how their pressures on manufacturers to lower prices affect US trade policies, particularly with China, and add to the outsourcing of American jobs. A lively discussion after the showing of the film made it evident that here too, an All Souls event attracts many outsiders including people from the neighborhood.

ADULT EDUCATION
During the past year, the church council has worked hard to define its own work and mission statement and to find more and better ways to help groups to work together in order to provide more cohesive programs for all church members to enjoy.

At its June meeting, the Council approved a proposal for an all-church event to take place next April with the tentative name of “Fun Day.” This event will include church members of all ages, including the children in the Church School, and hopefully will engage all groups in the church to participate in some aspect or another. The idea is to have an (inexpensive) silent auction based on services provided by members or gift certificates solicited from neighborhood merchants, a lunch service, children’s activities etc.—all of this to raise a modest amount of money for a specific, needed project within the church. The proposal has been submitted to the Board of Trustees for its approval.

HISTORICAL SOCIETY
On Sunday April 1, the Historical Society presented its annual Henry Whitney Bellows Lecture under the auspices of the Adult Education program. The lecture by Timothy Kenslea was titled:“The Sedgwicks in Love: Courtship, Engagement and Marriage in the Early Republic.”

Timothy Kenslea, a history teacher and editor, provided an in-depth look into the lives of various members of the Sedgwick family during the 19th century, based on the immense Sedgwick archives of correspondence and notebooks he studied over a number of years. Henry Dwight Sedgwick was a founding member of All Souls and his brother and sister were early members. Catherine Maria Sedgwick, his sister—a novelist whose work was among the first authentic strains of American Literature—and other members of the large Sedgwick clan provided interesting insights into the life of their period through the profusion of letters and notes they addressed to each other and which have been painstakingly preserved.