Category Archives: announcements

Denton CUUPS Samhain Festival

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Saturday, October 29
Gather at 7:00 PM, start promptly at 7:30

Come join the Denton Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans for our 2016 Samhain Festival on Saturday October 29th. We gather at 7:00 PM and the ritual begins promptly at 7:30.

We’ll honor our ancestors and beloved dead, the Gods of our ancestors, and John Barleycorn, the embodiment of the harvest. Bring a memento of your beloved dead, a representation of a deity or several of your choice and join in the memorial ritual, as we cast the last of the harvest onto the fire and celebrate the ancient Celtic end of the year.

Please bring an item of food or drink to share after the ceremony. Donations of 2-3 dollars to help offset expenses will be appreciated but are not required.

Children who can participate maturely and respectfully are welcome to join in. We will have childcare for younger children.

For questions or information, please contact John Beckett at 972-948-9211 or JohnFranc@aol.com, or see our website at http://www.dentoncuups.org/

at the
Denton Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
1111 Cordell Street, Denton, TX 76201

DIRECTIONS: From I-35, exit US-380 (University Drive) eastbound. Go approximately 1.8 miles east on University, then turn right (south) onto Fulton Street. Go three blocks, turn right (west) on Cordell. DUUF is on the left, on the southwest corner of Fulton and Cordell – our illuminated sign is on the corner.

samhain-2014-15-facebook-cover

Gleichentag: The Autumn Equinox

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Saturday, September 17
Gather at 7:00 PM, start promptly at 7:30

Denton Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
1111 Cordell Street, Denton, TX 76201

Please join the Denton Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans for our celebration of the Norse festival of Gleichentag (“even day”). This is the Autumn Equinox, a time of balance when light and dark are equal. It is a celebration of the grain harvest and a time to take stock of the year, to gather together, and to share food and drink with each other, the landvettir, ancestor spirits, and the Gods of the harvest time.

We will be holding a feast as part of the ritual, or as the Norse would have commonly called their High Day rites, a symbul, where we will share food and drink among those here, and with all those who come in peace to join us for feasting and song.

The first part of the celebration will be outside (weather permitting, which it usually is this time of year) and the ritual feast will be inside in the RE wing. Please bring a dish to share, and a favorite poem, a toast, a reading or song if you want to honor you ancestors, spirits, or deities aloud.

Children 10 and older who can participate respectfully are welcome to attend with a parent/guardian. Childcare will be provided for younger children.

For questions or information, please contact John Beckett at 972-948-9211 or JohnFranc@aol.com.

Gleichentag 2015 Facebook header

Egyptian Summer Solstice

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Denton CUUPS 13th Annual Egyptian Summer Solstice
Saturday, June 25
gathering begins at 7:00 PM, ritual begins promptly at 7:30 PM

“What is below is like that which is above,
and what is above is like that which is below.
They work to accomplish the wonders of Ma’at.
May offerings of every kind come forth in abundance,
Like all things which flow forth from Ma’at.”
the Emerald Stela, Liturgy of Offerings.

 

The ancient Egyptians had rituals to mark the turning of the seasons, to establish the ways of balance in life. For our 13th annual Egyptian Summer Solstice, we will adapt these rituals of Khoiak and Shura to our place and time.

We will honor the Neteru, the Gods and Goddesses of ancient Egypt. And we will commit ourselves to live in balance, to honor the land on which we live, the blessed dead, and the ways of Ma’at.

Please bring an item of food or drink to share after the ceremony. Donations of 2-3 dollars to help offset expenses will be appreciated but are not required.

At the Denton Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
1111 Cordell Street
Denton, TX 76201

11 500 British Museum

Beltane Circle Saturday May 7

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Beltane 2015 03a

Gathering begins at 7:00 PM
Ritual begins promptly at 7:30 PM

“Inside all of us is hope. Inside all of us is fear. Inside all of us is adventure. Inside all of us is a wild thing.” – Maurice Sendak

Come and join us for our celebration of Beltane, the Celtic fire festival, as we honor the wildness of Nature, as well as the wildness in ourselves. With music, dancing, our traditional Maypole Dance, and the flame of community, we welcome you to join us in our wild rumpus!

This will be an outdoor, family-friendly circle. Due to building reconstruction, we have no nursery and are unable to provide childcare.

Please bring an item of food or drink to share after the ceremony. As always, a donation of a dollar or three to help defray costs are appreciated, but not required.

If you have any questions, please contact John Beckett at JohnFranc@aol.com or 972-948-9211.

at the Denton Unitarian Universalist Fellowship – 1111 Cordell Street – Denton, TX 76201

DIRECTIONS: From I-35, exit US-380 (University Drive) eastbound. Go approximately 1.8 miles east on University, then turn right (south) onto Fulton Street. Go three blocks, turn right (west) on Cordell. DUUF is on the left, on the southwest corner of Fulton and Cordell – our illuminated sign is on the corner.

An Introduction to Modern Pagan Religion

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Saturday, February 27, 2016
1:00 PM to 5:00 PM

Are you curious about modern Pagan religion? Would you like to hear about it from people who’ve been practicing it for years? Are you on a Wiccan, Druid, or another Pagan spiritual path and would like some live instruction to complement your reading and other solitary practice? Have you outgrown the many Wicca 101 books but are unsure how to move on?

The Denton Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans will present An Introduction to Modern Pagan Religion on Saturday, February 27. This will be our 6th time holding this popular class. We’ll cover the beliefs and practices of our ancient ancestors, the origins of Wicca and other modern Pagan religions, basic spiritual concepts and how different Pagans understand them, the role of Nature in our beliefs and practices, and the essentials of personal spiritual practice.

The class will be led by Cynthia Talbot, an anthropologist who’s been a practicing Witch for over 20 years and is our CUUPS Treasurer, and John Beckett, the Coordinating Officer of Denton CUUPS and a Druid in the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids.

There is no charge for this class, but donations are requested. This class is “family friendly” and is appropriate for older children. We are unable to provide childcare for younger children at this event.

If you have any questions, please contact John Beckett at JohnFranc@aol.com or 972-948-9211

Intro to Modern Pagan Religion class

Changing the Name of our YahooGroup

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We have changed the name of our YahooGroups e-mail list from D-CUUPS to DentonCUUPS, to bring it into harmony with our Facebook page and with the name of this website. If you have the YahooGroup bookmarked or if you have it in your e-mail address book, you’ll need to change to the new address.

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/DentonCUUPS/info

If all you want to do is continue to receive Denton CUUPS announcements, no action is necessary.

If you aren’t on our e-mail list, please consider signing up for it. Messages sent via our YahooGroup are delivered to everyone on the list, while Facebook throttles posts made on this page according to their mystical algorithm. Our YahooGroup is a moderated, low-volume, announcements-only list.

More Info on the DUUF Fire

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Here are some links to other stories on the fire at our church, the Denton Unitarian Universalist Fellowship.

Here’s an article on The Wild Hunt:  http://wildhunt.org/2015/12/denton-cuups-cancels-yule-ritual-due-to-arson.html

One from the Denton Record-Chronicle:  http://www.dentonrc.com/local-news/local-news-headlines/20151218-church-hopes-for-quick-repairs.ece

And commentary from Denton CUUPS Coordinating Officer John Beckett: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/johnbeckett/2015/12/arson-at-yule.html

We will be back in the sanctuary for Imbolc, and we expect to have full use of the building by Ostara.

hymnals

photo by Rev. Pam Wat

more on the Yule cancellation

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For the past 15 years, Denton CUUPS has held open rituals on almost all the eight major Pagan holy days. Providing seasonal celebrations and worship for UU Pagans, Pagan-identified UUs and UU-friendly Pagans (and anybody else who wants to come in good will and friendship) is part of our mission and we take it very seriously.

So it was with great reluctance and sadness that we canceled this Saturday’s Yule Circle following the fire at the Denton UU Fellowship. The building will not be usable for at least a week, and a variety of logistical issues would make it extremely difficult to relocate this ritual to another location, or to hold it in the front yard of the church.

Some friends have suggested that we do it anyway, even if all we can do is gather in the parking lot and sing a song of defiance in the face of adversity. While we admire that resolve, it simply isn’t doable for us at this time for a variety of reasons, some apparent and some not.

Our sacred space has been desecrated by intentional violence – the building is not the only thing that’s been damaged. On Saturday evening, CUUPS members will hold a private gathering where we’ll talk about what’s happened and how we want to respond. We would prefer to be leading a public Yule circle instead, but this is something we simply must do.

We thank you for your understanding and we look forward to seeing you at Imbolc on January 30.