April 14,2024

”The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life“

Catholic priest and mystic Henri Nouwen wrote “The spiritual life is that constant movement between the poles of loneliness and solitude, hostility and hospitality, illusion and prayer.” What does he mean by that? How can we live our lives with a sense of spirit or wonder and awe at the center?

Speaker; Rev. Terry Davis

Rev Terry is the part-time minister of UU Fellowship of Hendersonville.

She found Unitarian Universalism and her spiritual home at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta, where she was a 20-year member. In her ministry, she has served as the neo-natal intensive care unit chaplain at Emory University Midtown Hospital in Atlanta; as the pastoral care minister at Eliot Chapel, a 600-member Unitarian Universalist congregation in St. Louis, Missouri; and as the solo minister at Northwest Unitarian Universalist Congregation, a 250-member faith community in suburban Atlanta.

Terry and her spouse Gail Hyde moved to Asheville in 2019 after Gail’s retirement as CIO of Habitat for Humanity International. During the early years of the pandemic, Terry completed an intensive two-year spiritual director certification program with the Haden Institute, an international and ecumenical program grounded in Jungian psycho-spiritual teachings.

She has a private spiritual direction and short-term counseling practice in Asheville.
And, for fun and as food for her soul, on Saturdays, Rev. Davis serves as a “Craggy Rover” (volunteer park ranger) on a 5,892-foot peak high above the Blue Ridge Parkway for the National Park Service.

Story for All Ages

Under the Love Umbrella  by Davina Bell (Author), Allison Colpoys (Illustrator

Musicians:

UUFH Choir; Virginia Erwin, Interim Choir Director; Shirley Gruenhut, Piano Accompanist

Virginia Erwin retired with her husband, Michael, to beautiful Hendersonville in 2018. She is the mother of two and the grandmother of two.   Before retiring, Virginia taught voice and music history for over thirty years. Her original voice training, at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, prepared her for opening a private voice studio. Later, with advanced degrees in Education from Syracuse University, and in conducting from the University of Virginia, she taught Music Appreciation and Classical Voice on the faculty of Piedmont Virginia Community College.  

As a member of NATS and ACDA, she also directed several church choirs in Maryland and in Virginia. Before moving to the mountains, she accepted the position of Music Director of the Blue Ridge Chorale in Culpeper Virginia, where she remained for seven years, until her move to the NC mountains. . While in Virginia, she wrote and produced several educational musical plays for Charlottesville students.  

Since retiring, Virginia enjoys most of all the opportunity for choral and solo singing. She also gardens, walks her two huge dogs, and works at playing golf, which she thinks is much harder than singing. 

Shirley Gruenhut is an avid chamber music player and New York native who now calls Hendersonville home. A graduate of Brooklyn College, she was the first time recipient of the prestigious Charles Ives Award for excellence in musical performance. She studied graduate level piano accompaniment at the Manhattan School of Music. She assisted at the Metropolitan Opera House studios and has performed regularly in New York, as well as Europe and Israel. Shirley is a member of ACMA-Association of Classical Musicians and Artists, Sing For Hope, and ACMP-Association of Chamber Music Players. She is also a professional member of AAPF, the Asheville Area Piano Forum. She was founder of several chamber music ensembles

April 21,2024

“Living Sanctuary”

UUFH Settled Ministry Candidate George Grimm-Howell will reflect on the powerful role our liberal faith has in creating sanctuary and safety for those whom society has othered. 

Speaker; George Grimm-Howell, MDiv

I’m honored and excited to be your candidate for settled ministry. Before we meet in person later this month, I wanted to share some highlights about myself and my journey to ministry.

My family roots are deep in Indiana farm country, but after college I lived in Northern Virginia for a time, embracing a new life among the green and vibrant mid-Atlantic states. There, I met my spouse and life partner, Betsy. She was from Missouri, and after we married, we settled in her home state and have been in St. Louis since 1994. We have two grown children, Owen and Meredith, who live in Minnesota and Missouri, respectively. Many years ago my aunt and her wife moved to Asheville, later joined by my grandmother, and I’ve felt a deep spiritual and family connection with the region ever since.

I grew up Baptist but became unchurched during my college years as I expanded my world view and traveled abroad. I have Betsy to thank for introducing me to this strange and wonderful faith called Unitarian Universalism! We have been members of our home congregation, First Unitarian Church of St. Louis, for 30 years. Over that time, I fell in love with our free and fearless faith and participated deeply in church life. I served in many roles, including singing in the choir, sitting on the board, and chairing multiple committees, including music, partner church, welcoming congregation, and worship. I’m thrilled that my home church will ordain me into Unitarian Universalist ministry on June 8 of this year.

Our church nurtured me as I grew into lay-led ministry and eventually enrolled in seminary. I attended the United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities in St. Paul, Minnesota, from August 2017 to May 2022. There, I studied with other UUs, along with Christians and those of many other faiths. In addition to UU studies, I embraced the Arts and Theology track, where I explored all the spiritual dimensions of the arts and their power to transport and illuminate many truths. My theology is broad and expansive, embracing pantheism and religious naturalism.

After seminary, I completed my clinical pastoral education (CPE) at two sites in the city of St. Louis, serving largely African American unhoused or housing-insecure souls. Afterwards I selected the UU Church of Columbia, Missouri, for my intern ministry, which lasted from August 2022 to December 2023. I currently serve the UU Fellowship of Jefferson City, Missouri, preaching one Sunday a month.

My vision for ministry in Hendersonville is to continue to center love and create a community of care, both among ourselves and for those in our community who are marginalized, suffering, or just plain lonely. I hope to create a shared ministry with you that embraces music and the arts, poetry, and beautiful worship that stirs the heart and pricks the conscience. I also hope to continue to build on your culture of learning and curiosity for all ages and the building of connections in the wider community — both with those who are hungry for inclusion and those who are doing the good work of social justice.

We will be sad to leave our home church community which has held us so warmly and tenderly through many trials in life, including births, deaths, and my coming out as a queer man in 2013. With the support of all the congregations I’ve served and other companions, Betsy and I now consider ourselves a queer couple with a greater capacity for love, commitment, and good communication than were ever possible in my closeted days. This UU faith saved my life, and that has inspired me to pay it forward, centering life-giving love wherever we can.

Betsy and I are excited for what comes next. As we contemplate transition to a new community, we know that we will grow new, deep roots in Hendersonville. My mother, now of blessed memory, wrote a poem in 2012 called “New mountains await.” Her sense of spirit-filled anticipation seems a fitting close.

New mountains wait.                                                                                                                                                       They call to me                                                                                                                                                                                The view on top                                                                                                                                                                                       I long to see.

Blessings on your path until we meet face to face and heart to heart.

Story for All Ages

“The Elephants Come Home“: A True Story of Seven Elephants, Two People, and One Extraordinary Friendship Kim Tomsic (Author), Hadley Hooper (Illustrator)

Musician; 

Michael Jefry Stevens

Mr. Stevens is a accomplished pianist, composer and “Steinway Artist,”. He has released over 80 CDs and composed over 340 works for both large and small ensembles. An active band-leader for over 40 years, his music spans jazz and modern musical styles. Michael lives in Black Mountain and is a frequent performer and popular jazz piano teacher in the WNC area. We, once again, welcome Michael to UUFH as our guest pianist

April 28, 2024

“Lend Your Ear to a Fish”

 UUFH Settled Ministry Candidate George Grimm-Howell invites us to explore the spiritual practice of deep encounter. Through art, we borrow the eyes, ears, and heart of the other. Through encounter, we unlock divine mysteries.

Speaker; George Grimm-Howell, MDiv

I’m honored and excited to be your candidate for settled ministry. Before we meet in person later this month, I wanted to share some highlights about myself and my journey to ministry.

My family roots are deep in Indiana farm country, but after college I lived in Northern Virginia for a time, embracing a new life among the green and vibrant mid-Atlantic states. There, I met my spouse and life partner, Betsy. She was from Missouri, and after we married, we settled in her home state and have been in St. Louis since 1994. We have two grown children, Owen and Meredith, who live in Minnesota and Missouri, respectively. Many years ago my aunt and her wife moved to Asheville, later joined by my grandmother, and I’ve felt a deep spiritual and family connection with the region ever since.

I grew up Baptist but became unchurched during my college years as I expanded my world view and traveled abroad. I have Betsy to thank for introducing me to this strange and wonderful faith called Unitarian Universalism! We have been members of our home congregation, First Unitarian Church of St. Louis, for 30 years. Over that time, I fell in love with our free and fearless faith and participated deeply in church life. I served in many roles, including singing in the choir, sitting on the board, and chairing multiple committees, including music, partner church, welcoming congregation, and worship. I’m thrilled that my home church will ordain me into Unitarian Universalist ministry on June 8 of this year.

Our church nurtured me as I grew into lay-led ministry and eventually enrolled in seminary. I attended the United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities in St. Paul, Minnesota, from August 2017 to May 2022. There, I studied with other UUs, along with Christians and those of many other faiths. In addition to UU studies, I embraced the Arts and Theology track, where I explored all the spiritual dimensions of the arts and their power to transport and illuminate many truths. My theology is broad and expansive, embracing pantheism and religious naturalism.

After seminary, I completed my clinical pastoral education (CPE) at two sites in the city of St. Louis, serving largely African American unhoused or housing-insecure souls. Afterwards I selected the UU Church of Columbia, Missouri, for my intern ministry, which lasted from August 2022 to December 2023. I currently serve the UU Fellowship of Jefferson City, Missouri, preaching one Sunday a month.

My vision for ministry in Hendersonville is to continue to center love and create a community of care, both among ourselves and for those in our community who are marginalized, suffering, or just plain lonely. I hope to create a shared ministry with you that embraces music and the arts, poetry, and beautiful worship that stirs the heart and pricks the conscience. I also hope to continue to build on your culture of learning and curiosity for all ages and the building of connections in the wider community — both with those who are hungry for inclusion and those who are doing the good work of social justice.

We will be sad to leave our home church community which has held us so warmly and tenderly through many trials in life, including births, deaths, and my coming out as a queer man in 2013. With the support of all the congregations I’ve served and other companions, Betsy and I now consider ourselves a queer couple with a greater capacity for love, commitment, and good communication than were ever possible in my closeted days. This UU faith saved my life, and that has inspired me to pay it forward, centering life-giving love wherever we can.

Betsy and I are excited for what comes next. As we contemplate transition to a new community, we know that we will grow new, deep roots in Hendersonville. My mother, now of blessed memory, wrote a poem in 2012 called “New mountains await.” Her sense of spirit-filled anticipation seems a fitting close.

New mountains wait.                                                                                                                                                       They call to me                                                                                                                                                                                The view on top                                                                                                                                                                                       I long to see.

Blessings on your path until we meet face to face and heart to heart.

Story for All Ages

(TBA)

Musicians;

UUFH Choir; Virginia Erwin, Interim Choir Director;  Shirley Gruenhut, Piano Accompanist

Virginia Erwin retired with her husband, Michael, to beautiful Hendersonville in 2018. She is the mother of two and the grandmother of two.  Before retiring, Virginia taught voice and music history for over thirty years. Her original voice training, at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, prepared her for opening a private voice studio. Later, with advanced degrees in Education from Syracuse University, and in conducting from the University of Virginia, she taught Music Appreciation and Classical Voice on the faculty of Piedmont Virginia Community College.  

As a member of NATS and ACDA, she also directed several church choirs in Maryland and in Virginia. Before moving to the mountains, she accepted the position of Music Director of the Blue Ridge Chorale in Culpeper Virginia, where she remained for seven years, until her move to the NC mountains. . While in Virginia, she wrote and produced several educational musical plays for Charlottesville students.  

Since retiring, Virginia enjoys most of all the opportunity for choral and solo singing. She also gardens, walks her two huge dogs, and works at playing golf, which she thinks is much harder than singing. 

Shirley Gruenhut is an avid chamber music player and New York native who now calls Hendersonville home. A graduate of Brooklyn College, she was the first time recipient of the prestigious Charles Ives Award for excellence in musical performance. She studied graduate level piano accompaniment at the Manhattan School of Music. She assisted at the Metropolitan Opera House studios and has performed regularly in New York, as well as Europe and Israel. Shirley is a member of ACMA-Association of Classical Musicians and Artists, Sing For Hope, and ACMP-Association of Chamber Music Players. She is also a professional member of AAPF, the Asheville Area Piano Forum. She was founder of several chamber music ensembles