RE News Archive
As we move into December, suddenly the holiday season is upon us. How quickly it has arrived. This year, with the joyful anticipation of new life in my own immediate family, I find myself thinking more than ever about the meaning of the rituals of this season, and appreciating the ways in which special traditions draw us closer to our loved ones, those who are present with us as well as those who are far away or no longer living.
In my family of origin, the most cherished ritual of the holiday season was not Christmas itself but the night a week or two before when we gathered to decorate our tree. My mother was in charge of pulling the ornaments from the boxes where they’d been carefully stored for nearly a year. As she handed them out to the rest of us to place on our tree she’d tell the stories of how they were made or how they were added to our collection, who they belonged to, and what special meaning they held.
My brother and I each hung the eggshell ornaments that our mother had made for each of us after we were born. My father always had the honor of hanging the ridiculous plastic space bird my grandmother had given us one year because we were all so amused at his disdain for it. I’m no longer able to be with my parents when they pull out their ornaments, but Eric and I have continued the tradition in our own home. The space bird
tradition has evolved as well; each year I send my dad a new “ugly red bird” ornament for their tree. It’s pretty
amazing how easy it is to find new iterations to vex him.
The congregation ministry theme for the month of December is faith, and I am reminded that there are many faith traditions that have their own special rituals at this time of year. Faith is a word that can be challenging for us as Unitarian Universalists — it’s a word that has sometimes been defined so narrowly as to leave a wide swath of our members cold. But I’d love to reclaim it. I understand “faith” to mean that in which we place our trust. Faith, to me, is at heart a trust that who we are and what we do matters. A person of faith is one who makes a commitment to living in a way that reflects that trust. There is no specific belief that one must hold in order to be a person of faith; rather, to live faithfully is to live in a way that aligns with your own most deeply
cherished values and beliefs, whatever they may be.
The holidays are perhaps the time of year most heavily laden with tradition and ritual, but throughout the year the rituals we choose to share with our families, or that we practice as individuals, can keep us connected with our own faith. Some people light a chalice at mealtimes, or practice meditation or prayer, or have special words they use to say goodnight to their family members every evening. What are the rituals in your life that help you to regain focus on your intentions for how to live faithfully every day?
— Catherine Farmer Loya
Friendly Beasts Pageant Update
Our friendly beasts, preschoolers through 5th graders, will continue their rehearsals this month of “The Friendly Beasts Song” for the holiday pageant, which occurs December 23 at both services.
Below is the rehearsal schedule:
December 2 — Preschoolers–grade 5 during RE (costume fitting after RE – in the Cottage)
December 9 — Preschoolers–grade 5 during RE (costume fitting after RE – in the Cottage)
December 16 — Group rehearsal for all at RE beginning
December 22 — Saturday dress rehearsal in sanctuary (9:30 to 10:30 a.m.)
December 23 — Pageant! (both services — please arrive at 8:15 a.m.)
We realize that pageant day is a long one for the children, so please contact me if you can help:
♦ Supervising the children and providing crafts and games between the services and during most of the second service, when they’ll be in the cottage until they sing, or
♦ Bringing food for between the services (small sandwiches, bagels, cream cheese, muffins, crackers, cheese, cut vegetables and fruit, water, juice, etc.).
Ideally, we would like all children to sing at both services on pageant Sunday, but if your child can sing at only
one service, please let me know.
Here’s to another great pageant!
— Kris Langabeer
CHILDREN
This month in the children’s RE program, preschoolers will explore several different winter holidays from various religious traditions. Early elementary participants will engage this month’s theme of FAITH through stories and special class activities, including making their own kaleidoscopes, the creation of beautiful seed mosaics and putting together special “holiday care baskets” for UUCCSM members in need of some extra
cheer.
Upper elementary children in the UUniverse Story program will take part in a three-week unit called “We are All Star Stuff,” which explores the building blocks of all that exists and celebrates the connection between our own bodies and the rest of the universe. Be on the lookout for an invitation for all RE families to take part in a special star-gazing party on Saturday, December 22, hosted by the UUniverse Story team.
Middle-schoolers in the Compass Points classes will explore our Jewish and Christian heritage within the context of our Unitarian Universalist faith. And on Sunday, December 23, members of our preschool and elementary RE classes will once again take the stage during our Solstice and Christmas-themed Winter Holiday Pageant as the beloved Friendly Beasts.
YOUTH
To close out 2012 in style, all UUCCSM youth in 8th through 12th grades are invited to an evening of ice skating under the stars at ICE Santa Monica on Saturday, December 8.
The Youth Leadership Team has launched and is working on plans for this year’s Big Trip; any youth who would like to join the team are warmly encouraged to check it out, even if they’ve missed the first couple of meetings.
The YLT meets on the 1st and 3rd Sunday of each month during the 11:00 a.m. service in Forbes Room 1.
We’re also gearing up for the launch of our 8th- and 9th-grade Our Whole Lives (OWL) class, which begins in
January. Mandatory parent orientations for those wishing to enroll their youth in the class will be held on December 2 from 12:30 to 2:30 and December 16 from 12:30 to 3:30 in Forbes Room 4. The 10th- through 12th-grade OWL.class will begin in March. For more information about the OWL program contact OWL coordinator Beth Rendeiro or Director of Religious Education Catherine Farmer Loya at Catherine@uusm.org
ADULTS
UUA Common Read — What Is It?
Each year the UUA chooses a book of particular significance and invites UU congregations across the country to read and discuss the book during the same church year. This Common Read offers the opportunity to build community within and throughout our congregations by “giving diverse people a shared experience, shared language, and a basis for deep, meaningful conversations.” Last year we read “Acts of Faith” by Eboo Patel and held several small group discussions both at the church and in the homes of some of our members.
This year’s book is “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” by Michelle Alexander (The New Press). The Common Read selection committee noted the book’s appeal to a variety of civic groups and non-UU faith groups, and hope it will ground and inspire community and interfaith dialogue as well as partnerships on the issues Alexander raises. She is an attorney who is a civil rights advocate and litigator, and she asserts that crimefighting policies and systems in the U.S., such as the “war on drugs” and the incarceration system, disproportionately and intentionally affect Americans of color. She describes multifaceted, lifelong discrimination and disenfranchisement that affect people who are branded “felon.”
Alexander’s 1-hour presentation at General Assembly 2012 in Phoenix garnered a large audience and is available for viewing on the UUA website. The book is available for sale in Forbes Hall, both at the bookstore table and the Lifespan table, for $19.95, of which 20% goes to UUCCSM. It is also available at public libraries and a wide variety of book retailers.
Beginning in January 2013 Peggy and Rick Rhoads will lead a series of four discussions at the church. You
can sign up now in Forbes Hall at the Lifespan Table.
— Emmy Cresciman
Fill Your Garden With Birds and Butterflies
On Sunday, January 13, at 12:45 p.m. in our Sanctuary, Dr. Alan Pollack will offer us his presentation on
preserving and restoring wildlife habitats in our own backyards. His talk combines a discussion of the four
basic elements necessary for wildlife preservation — food, water, shelter, and safe places to raise young — with valuable information about sustainable gardening practices, including use of native plants. Also included are a virtual tour of his certified habitat garden, useful handout material, and ample time for questions and discussion.
Alan Pollack has been a long time member of the Sierra Club and the Nature Conservancy. After retiring from the practice of psychiatry in 1995, his interest in woodworking led him to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity for several years. For the past 15 years, he has also been a volunteer with wildlife rescue/rehabilitation groups that rescue and rehabilitate injured or orphaned birds and small mammals.
It was through such groups that he learned about the training given by the National Wildlife Federation to become a Wildlife Habitat Steward. Having been a life-long gardener with a knack for landscape design, he was delighted to be able to wed two of his passions: the love of gardening and the love of wildlife. His yard immediately became certified as an official wildlife habitat site, and for the past eight years he has been giving free consultation and landscape designs to homeowners, churches, and schools — anyone who wishes to create a garden that is attractive to wildlife as well as humans. Four years ago, he was appointed to the Board
of the San Fernando Valley Audubon Society and leads its Audubon-at-Home Project.
Sign up in Forbes Hall at the Lifespan Table to learn how you can support your own corner of the interdependent web.
All Ages: Second-Sunday Supper — December 9
Sponsored by the Lifespan Religious Exploration Committee, a pre-Supper event will entertain children, youth, families, and the young at heart of all ages on Sunday, December 9 from 4 to 6 p.m. Come at 4 p.m. for dreidel games and holiday crafts. Stay at 6 p.m. for Second-Sunday Supper. We will provide meat, vegetarian, and vegan lasagnas. You’ll bring a main or side dish, desserts, and/or beverages, as you’re able. You may also want to bring your menorah, dreidels, and pennies if you have them. Come for fun, stay for community — join us!
— Emmy Cresciman
Share UUr Story
“Oral history is the systematic collection of living people’s testimony about their own experiences… (It) depends upon human memory and the spoken word… The human life span puts boundaries on the subject matter that we collect with oral history.
We can only go back one lifetime, so our limits move forward in time with each generation. This leads to the Oral Historian’s Anxiety Syndrome, that panicky realization that irretrievable information is slipping away from us with every moment.” — from “Stepby- Step Guide to Oral History” by Judith Moyer 1993, Revised 1999.
The “Share UUr Story” project is all about averting Oral Historian’s Anxiety Syndrome and creating an oral and video history of UUCCSM and its members. It isn’t something that will be completed next week, or next month, or next year. “Share UUr Story” is meant to become an ongoing and integral part of the life of our church. If you are interested in oral history, if you would like to be part of the documentation of our vital and dynamic church, if
you want to tell your story, if you want to help others tell their stories, please join the team that will make it happen. Stop by the Lifespan Table in Forbes Hall, or contact Wendi Gladstone or Emmy Cresciman . Phone numbers for both are listed in the Church Directory.
Patio Chat: Faith
Monthly UUCCSM Theme Discussion with Leon Henderson-MacLennan @ 12:10 a.m. on the Patio. Sunday, December 30.
From Our DRE:
What is there for me to say about this month’s congregational ministry theme — Gratitude — that isn’t so well-worn that it sounds merely trite rather than meaningful? As Thanksgiving approaches, we are reminded to give thanks: to our families, to our friends, to people who’ve done important things in the world, to all those who make our lives easier or bring meaning to it — and so forth. But is there something more that we can do this month that might allow us to approach the act of giving thanks as a spiritual practice?
I read an article recently that posited a difference in attitude toward luck between people who are optimists and those who are pessimists. To draw an example from my own life, a pessimist would feel very unlucky for having slipped on the stairs and broken her ankle. An optimist in the same situation, however, might relate her great fortune for having experienced only a simple ankle break — she was so lucky to have gotten off with a minor injury, when a slip such as that could have resulted in a broken neck.
In “The Secret of Saying Thanks,” children’s book author Douglas Wood suggests that people don’t give thanks because they are happy, but that they are happy because they give thanks. The act of giving thanks for the good things in our lives is in essence choosing the optimist’s outlook. Even in times of struggle and hardship, there are things in our lives that we are so very lucky to have experienced, if we can only manage to recognize them.
This month I invite you to join me in a practice of gratitude. Take a few moments each evening, perhaps over dinner with your family or when you’ve just gone to bed, to call to your attention something that you experienced that day that might have escaped your notice without this moment of reflection: what one small thing happened today that you are glad about? If you tend toward the pessimist’s outlook, what happened to you today that an optimist looking over your shoulder might identify as lucky?
Tonight, as I think about my time with all of you, I am deeply grateful for this congregation’s willingness to change and grow and experiment with new ideas and new programs. I have served as your DRE for nine years now, and the work feels just as fresh and exciting as it did at the beginning. What a gift that is! Thank you for walking with me on this journey. It’ll never get old.
— Catherine Farmer Loya
This month in the children’s RE program
This month in the children’s RE program preschoolers will learn about our flaming chalice symbol, explore ways we can help one another, and celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. Early elementary participants will engage this month’s theme of GRATITUDE through stories and special class activities, including the creation of “gratitude jars” to take home and use throughout the month with their families. Upper elementary children in the UUniverse Story program will take part in a three-week unit called “Things that Go Bang in the Night,” that explores the story of the most radical cosmology ever developed by humankind and how scientists spent much of the 20th century proving it. Middleschoolers in the Compass Points classes will take a look at some of the biggest questions of all, exploring their images of the divine and learning about our UU living tradition as well as sacred texts from many religious sources. And on November 25, for this month's RE Faith in Action project, children and youth in RE will be putting together “hygiene kits” and organizing other donated items for homeless youth served by the drop-in center at Common
Ground.
What’s Up With Our YoUUth?
The Youth Programs Subcommittee of the Lifespan RE Committee is working this fall to expand our congregation’s support and opportunities for youth, including the launch of the new Youth Leadership Team, inviting participation in worship services, and creating a broad vision for how our youth can be intimately involved with the full life of our UUCCSM community. Monthly social events for Coming of Age and YRUU youth provide a fun space for getting to know one another and building trust within our group; our first event of the year was a beach bonfire at Dockweiler on October 20.
We’re also working to connect UUCCSM youth with other UU youth in the Pacific Southwest District through attendance at youth cons (conferences) and sessions at Camp de Benneville Pines. Two YRUU youth and one advisor attended the first district youth con of the year at Summit UU Fellowship in Santee, CA, in mid-October, and we look forward to many more as well as the possibility of hosting a con right here at UUCCSM in the future!
Our Whole Lives for Jr. High (8th and 9th grade) and Sr. High (10th through 12th grade)
November 11, 10:15 to 11 a.m. in Forbes Room 2. Short introduction and overview of the Our Whole Lives (OWL) human sexuality education programs being offered this year for UUCCSM youth. If you aren’t familiar with the OWL program or aren’t sure if you’re planning to enroll your teen(s) in the 2012- 13 program, please meet with Beth Rendeiro, OWL Coordinator, to learn more.
December 2, 1 to 4:30 p.m. in Forbes Hall — Part I Mandatory OWL Parent Orientation for parents of 8th-and-9th graders planning to enroll their teens in OWL.
December 16, 1 to 4:30 p.m. in Forbes Hall — Part II Mandatory OWL Parent Orientation for parents of 8th and 9th graders planning to enrolltheir teens in OWL.
Jr. High OWL begins on January 13.
Sr. High OWL parent orientations will be held in March, closer to the start date for the 10th through12th grade class.
Help Prepare for the Pageant
Once again our preschool through elementaryaged children will sing “The Friendly Beasts” song at our holiday pageant on Sunday, December 23, at both services. As in years past, all involved children will sing the first and last verses of the song. Small groups of children will sing the middle five verses, dressed in a costume appropriate to the animal speaking in that verse (brown donkey, red and white cow, dog, dove, and mouse). The children pick which animal they want to be, but traditionally, the preschoolers sing the mice verse.
We have costumes for our Beasts from previous years. Older kids who don’t want to dress as an animal but do want to sing are welcome to be shepherds.
Religious Exploration teachers and parents, please note: I will lead Sunday rehearsals (about 10 minutes long) that occur in the RE classrooms during both services. Below is the rehearsal schedule, including a dress rehearsal Saturday morning, December 22.
Please note that unlike in past years, I may not be able to conduct rehearsals on November 18 and/or 25 due to family responsibilities. If anyone is interested in filling in for me if I cannot make those rehearsals, please contact me.
November 4 - Preschoolers through grade 5: 10 minutes each classroom
November 11 - Preschoolers through grade 5: 10 minutes each classroom
November 18 - Preschoolers through grade 5: 10 minutes each classroom (tentative)
November 25 - Group rehearsal for all at beginning of RE (tentative)
December 2 - Preschoolers through grade 5: 10 minutes each classroom
December 9 - Preschoolers through grade 5: 10 minutes each classroom
December 16 - Group rehearsal for all at RE
December 22 - Saturday dress rehearsal from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. in Sanctuary
December 23 - Pageant! (both services)
Call or email me with questions — I look forward to working with your friendly beasts once again this year.
— Kris Langabeer
ADULT DOINGS
Announcing the 2012–13 UUA Common Read
“The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” by Michelle Alexander is the 2012–13 UUA Common Read. Alexander, an attorney and civil rights advocate, asserts that crime-fighting policies and systems in the U.S., such as the "war on drugs" and the incarceration system, disproportionately and intentionally affect Americans of color. At the 2012 General Assembly in Phoenix, Alexander facilitated a well-attended workshop on this subject, that received rave reviews from attendees.
The UUA Common Read invites participants to build community within our faith movement by reading and discussing the same book. If you purchase the book on any Sunday at either the Lifespan or Bookstore tables in Forbes Hall, 20% of the $19.95 cover price will go to UUCCSM. Keep an eye on the newsletter and weekly announcements for the dates of the four-session book discussion, that will begin in January led by Rick and Peggy Rhoads.
Patio Chat
Monthly UUCCSM Theme Discussion with Leon Henderson-MacLennan @ 10:10 a.m. on the Patio. Sunday, November 18 — Gratitude
Writers’ Group Continues
Following a very successful three-week introduction facilitated by Bettye Barclay, the group has decided to continue on a permanent basis on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday evenings of each month. Writers will meet in the comfortable seating area in Forbes Hall at 7 p.m. beginning on November 14.
New members are welcomed at any time — just bring paper and pen(cil) or your laptop, and arrive on time. In the interest of democracy and diversity, a different leader (volunteer) will lead the group each month. Come to one meeting each month or to both, whichever suits your schedule. We write at each meeting on prompts provided by the leader and share what we have written as we wish. For more information contact Emmy Cresciman.
Neighboring Faiths for Adults?
For years your Adult Programs Committee has been besieged by requests to provide for adults what we routinely offer to our children — the opportunity to visit other faith communities to learn about their beliefs and practices. Beginning after the winter holidays we will offer periodic visits to area houses of worship including a guided tour of their facility and a short talk by one of their members as well as attendance at a service or event. We are hoping to visit the local Sikh community early in 2013. Keep your eye on the newsletter and the Lifespan Table for breaking news and registration opportunities.
Historical Roots and Contemporary Uses of the LabyrinthSunday, November 4, 12:30 p.m., with Annemarie Rawlinson
Small-Group Ministry — Coming in 2013
The Small-Group Ministry program will begin anew in 2013. Members of a Small-Group Ministry group get to know one another and deepen their own spirituality by participating together in discussions of topics of universal human significance.
The spirit of community that develops in a group radiates outward, increasing the members’ connection to UUCCSM and to the world at large.
Of course, there is nothing new about church folks meeting together in small groups and having discussions. However, the groups of a Small-Group Ministry program have a unique set of features that make them different from study groups, classes, committees, task forces, support groups, affinity groups, or any of the other groups that one typically finds in a church:
The groups are people-centered rather than task-centered. You may get to know people by serving on a committee with them, but that's not why committees exist. Committee meetings are designed to get something done, not to foster connections between people.
The groups are on-going rather than running for a set term. Not everyone who joins a group will stay with it for years and years, but the possibility is there if you want it.
The groups are not isolated, but are part of a program that is integrated with the larger life of the church. They are an important ministry of the church.
The groups give back to the church and the wider community by annually performing some kind of service as a group project, to be determined by the group.
There's more to come. You'll be hearing a lot about Small-Group Ministry in the coming months. Registration begins January 13, 2013.
Also Coming Soon
• An all-day spiritual retreat with Rev. Rebecca
• A new slant on UU history with Catherine Farmer Loya
• Building Your Own Theology: Ethics with Leon Henderson-MacLennan
• Workshops on the environment
• A documentary film festival
The Lifespan Table in Forbes Hall is the place to go for information on all of these and many more activities. It is always staffed on Sunday mornings after each service by at least one member of the Lifespan Religious Exploration Committee.
Children’s RE
This month in the children’s RE program, preschoolers will explore symbols and images of Unitarian Universalism and our very own UUCCSM community. Early elementary participants will engage this month’s theme of Letting Go through stories and special class activities, including the creation of “calming beads” to help us learn how to let go of angry feelings.
Upper elementary children in the UUniverse Story program will take part in a three-week unit called “And Then
There Was Light,” which lays the groundwork for understanding much about astronomy and cosmology and will
include experimenting with lenses and prisms, creating our own spectroscopes, and measuring the speed of light in class using a microwave oven and chocolate bars.
Middle-schoolers in the Compass Points classes will set off on their year-long spiritual journey by taking a look
at what they are carrying with them as they go, and will then move on to thinking about the concept of radical
hospitality and what it means for the way we treat one another in our RE classrooms (and whole church).
And on October 28, children, youth and adults will wrap up this month’s theme together with our annual Day of the Dead Intergenerational Sunday services.
Youth Programs
Coming of Age and YRUU are off to a great start, with plans for monthly joint social events I the works — families should stay tuned for more details to come. We are very excited about what is in the pipeline for youth at UUCCSM this year, most notably the launch of a new Youth Leadership Team for YRUU, meeting twice per month with the support of Catherine Farmer Loya, Rev. Ernie Pipes, and Jacki Weber, to intentionally develop the leadership of our high school youth as they coordinate their special events for the year, including this year’s “big trip” (possibly a UU Heritage trip to Boston or a service trip to New Orleans), attendance at weekend-long youth conferences and the possibility of hosting one here at UUCCSM later in the spring, social justice projects for YRUU, and much more. Any youth who would like to participate in the Youth Leadership Team are welcome: talk with Catherine Farmer Loya for more information. We also have big plans in the works for Coming of Age: we hope to take our whole group to the Coming of Age-themed Junior High winter camp at de Beneville Pines at the end of November, and are exploring other possibilities for outings and community-building events. Three cheers for our wonderful advisors: Liza Cranis, Nalani Santiago-Kalmanson, Valeo Schults, and Larry Weiner for Coming of Age; and Chris Brown, Emily Linnemeier, Dan Patterson, and Rick Rhoads for YRUU.
Adults
Patio Chat:
monthly UUCCSM Theme Discussion with Leon Henderson-MacLennan@ 10:10 a.m. on the Patio
Sunday, October 21 — Letting Go
Historical Roots and Contemporary Uses of the Labyrinth
Sunday, November 4, 12:30 pm
Annemarie Rawlinson, labyrinth facilitator and builder, will share fascinating stories and facts about ancient and
contemporary labyrinths. She trained with Dr. Lauren Artress from Grace Cathedral in 1996 and has since then
lectured in the greater Los Angeles area and installed various labyrinths in public and private places, among them a Cretan labyrinth at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, one at Van Nuys Middle School, and a garden labyrinth at Christ the King Lutheran Church in Torrance. Annemarie also designed a new heart-shaped labyrinth pattern that has been permanently installed on a beach in Palos Verdes.
So what actually happens when people walk the labyrinth?
"As we walk within the sacred geometry of the labyrinth we align ourselves energetically to the truth of its
form within our being. The action of this recognition can create windows to mystical remembrance, where form
and formlessness, time and eternity, matter and spirit meet. As we walk the form we invoke a recognition of its
energetic signature within our own body and being. This recognition unveils a template wherein every step along the path becomes a symbolic representation for our life and the way we approach it." — Annemarie Rawlinson
This is an awareness we can have outside of the labyrinth as well, although the labyrinth is like a vortex because of its geometry coupled with the intent and focus of those that set it up, those that walk it now and the vibration of those who have walked it before.” — Prof. Ellen Davis of Duke Divinity
School
On Sunday, November 4, at 12:30 p.m. Annemarie will bring her portable labyrinth and will give instructions on
how to walk it to those who have never walked one before. Sign up in Forbes Hall at the Lifespan Table.
Lessons of Loss
Facilitated by Leon Henderson-MacLennan
WHEN: Thursday evenings from 7 to 9 p.m.
October 4, 18, 25, and November 1
WHERE: Upstairs, Forbes Hall
Explore
- Types of loss
- Language of loss
- Inevitability of loss
- The relationship between loss and gain
- The grieving process
- The roles of religious community
Share
- Your understanding of loss
- Coping skills and strategies
Learn
- Skills designed to incorporate loss into life
- Grief reduction through sharing
- UU Guiding Principles
Sign up on Sunday mornings in Forbes Hall at the Lifespan Table.
Small Group Ministry — Coming in 2013
The Small Group Ministry program will begin anew in 2013. Participants in a Small Group Ministry group get to know one another and deepen their own spirituality by participating in personal sharing around topics related to the big questions of life. The spirit of community that develops in a group radiates outward, increasing the members' connection to UUCCSM and to the world at large.
Small Group Ministry groups have a unique set of features that make them different from study groups, classes,
committees, task forces, support groups, or any of the other church related groups.
The groups are people-centered rather than task-centered; they are designed to foster connections between
people.
The groups are ongoing rather than time̶̶-limited, offering time for developing deeper connections.
The groups are an important ministry of the church and are integrated into the larger life of the church
The groups give back to the church and the larger community via a group service project each year for the
church and for the community.
There's more to come. You'll be hearing a lot about Small Group Ministry in the coming months. Registration
begins January 13.
October 2012 - Letting Go - Quotes from Bettye Barclay
OCTOBER 1. It’s easy to come up with new ideas; the hard part is letting go of what worked for you two years ago, but will soon be out of date. Roger von Oech
OCTOBER 2. Some of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go. Hermann Hesse
OCTOBER 3. When you’re passionate about something, you want it to be all it can be. But in the endgame of life, I fundamentally believe the key to happiness is letting go of that idea of perfection. Debra Messing
OCTOBER 4. When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. Lao Tzu
OCTOBER 5. The hardest part is what to leave behind … It’s time to let go! A. A. Milne (“Winnie The Pooh”)
OCTOBER 6. We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us. Joseph
Campbell
OCTOBER 7. Anything I can not transform into something marvelous, I let go. Anais Nin
OCTOBER 8. Our work is to interpret this Life/Death/Life cycle, to live it as gracefully as we know how, to howl
like a mad dog when we cannot … and to go on …. Clarissa Pinkola Estés
OCTOBER 9. There’s a trick to the Graceful Exit. It begins with the vision to recognize when a job, a life stage, a
relationship is over — and to let go. It means leaving what’s over without denying its value. Ellen Goodman
OCTOBER 10. Can you let go of words and ideas, attitudes and expectations? If so, then the Tao will loom into
view. Lao Tzu
OCTOBER 11. Let Go, Let God. Anonymous
OCTOBER 12. Even as kids reach adolescence, they need more than ever for us to watch over them. Adolescence is not about letting go. It’s about hanging on during a very bumpy ride. Ron Taffel
OCTOBER 13. Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties. Gail Sheehy
OCTOBER 14. Letting go means closing a door in order to be able to open another one. Bettye Barclay
OCTOBER 15. I realize there’s something incredibly honest about trees in winter, how they’re experts at letting
things go. Jeffrey McDaniel
OCTOBER 16. Some people believe holding on and hanging in there are signs of great strength. However, there are times when it takes much more strength to know when to let go and then do it. Ann Landers
OCTOBER 17. You must have been warned against letting the golden hours slip by. Yes, but some of them are
golden only because we let them slip. J. M. Barrie
OCTOBER 18. All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on. Henry Havelock Ellis
OCTOBER 19. Letting go of expectations makes it possible to approach life with expectancy. Bettye Barclay
OCTOBER 20 Before moving on you have to clear away your cherished beliefs. Dick Raymond
OCTOBER 21 Be willing to let go of those beliefs that represent your parents’ opinions, or your communities'
opinions, rather than your own. Those beliefs that withstand rigorous testing should become the foundation of your being — your reason for living. Take action on those beliefs. Jonathan Lockwood Huie
OCTOBER 22 Inner peace can be reached only when we practice forgiveness. Forgiveness is letting go of the past, and is therefore the means for correcting our misperceptions. Gerald Jampolsky
OCTOBER 23 Let go of the past and move on with creating a joyful new future for yourself. Jonathan Lockwood
Huie
OCTOBER 24. Could you risk believing that everything will unfold just fine if you completely let go of all concern
about everything else, and simply are here, now — if only for a moment? Dmitri Bilgere
OCTOBER 25. Letting go doesn’t mean giving up … it means moving on. Anonymous
OCTOBER 26. A big part of letting go is recognizing when it is time to stay in a situation and when it is time to
move on. Darren L. Johnson
OCTOBER 27. Everything flows and nothing abides, everything gives way and nothing stays fixed. Heraclitus
OCTOBER 28. Letting go isn’t the end of the world, it’s the beginning of a new life. Anonymous
OCTOBER 29. The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking. Albert Einstein
OCTOBER 30. Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness. Thich Naht Hanh
OCTOBER 31. Detachment means letting go and non-attachment means simply letting be. Stephen Levine
Fall Meditation Class
Our fall eight-week class entitled A Useful Toolbox of Meditations will start on Wednesday, October 10, at 7:15
p.m. in the SE room of the Cottage.
Meditation can teach us to become more mindful. This class also will stress inquiry and the resolution of personal issues such as hardships at work or emotional discomfort in a relationship. This is Bill’s eighth class. All have facilitated both mindfulness and inquiry, collectively known as “growing up.” Yet these classes so far have not focused on the distinction between “growing up” (emotional/mental maturity) and “waking up” (recognizing What We Are, spiritual awakening). This class will address both growing up and waking up: half the classes will be devoted to meditations pointing toward enlightenment.
Why are eight to ten meditations taught? In addition to the two major goals in this October class, participants will be attracted to some meditations but not to others, similar to their preferences for food, clothes, housing, and friends. When a participant finishes this class, he or she has a self–selected “toolbox” of meditations.
During each class, participants receive a handout describing a particular meditation. Then we discuss this handout. Next we do the meditation and share our experiences with it. Finally, this meditation is practiced as homework at least once a day. When our class again meets, we comment on our perceptions about this meditation. In this fashion, the class is experiential and learner-centered, not cognitive and teacher-centered. To sum up, the class presents the opportunity to commence mastery of any preferred meditation. Scientific research proves that meditation increases our life span and happiness.
We’ll organize learner groups that can email, phone, or have lunch with a couple of other members. Support from other participants is important. Participants will be expected to attend at least six of the eight classes. Newcomers to meditation are 100% welcome.
— Bill Blake
From Our DRE
As the summer heads toward its close, we come together once again to launch our 2012-13 program year with our Ingathering Sunday on September 9th. In the Jewish tradition, the New Year is celebrated on Rosh Hashanah, which begins at sundown on September 16th this year. The ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur mark a time of self-reflection and making amends to any you have wronged in the last year. Our congregational ministry theme for this month is Forgiveness, something that many of us may struggle with. We live in a culture that does not encourage either self-forgiveness or the forgiving of others. It’s easy to fall into castigating ourselves for small failures and mistakes, to go meekly along with our consumer culture’s prevailing assumption that being wrong or at fault equates with being weak or lesser than we ought to be. Maybe that’s why it’s so very hard, at times, to accept or to offer forgiveness.
It may seem like a funny match, this focus on forgiveness as our theme for the month of our Ingathering celebration. But cultivating a culture of forgiveness fits right in with my understanding of what it means to be part of a spiritual community. And while certainly we as a congregation don’t always get everything right, every fall we join hands and hearts yet again and in the words of UU minister Rev. Rob Eller-Isaacs, “We forgive ourselves and each other; we begin again in love.”
I am so excited about what this year will bring to our educational programs for all ages here at UUCCSM. Take a look at the Lifespan RE page in this newsletter for an overview of what’s in store. I’ve decided that the overarching theme of my year here at UUCCSM is “deepening.” That is the core purpose of our educational ministry to all ages: to provide opportunities for our members to deepen their spiritual lives, to deepen their understanding of our UU history and values, to deepen their ability to live with compassion, integrity and joy. I think we’re going to have a fabulous year together, and I look forward to getting it started.
— Catherine Farmer Loya
LIFESPAN RELIGIOUS EXPLORATION
Children
On Ingathering Sunday, September 9th, we’ll celebrate the beginning of a new church year together as one community of all ages – all will attend the service in the sanctuary. RE Classes will begin on Sunday, September 16th. No matter the age of your child, we have something exciting in store this year. We’re offering some wonderful new programs for our elementary and middle school youth, including the brand new Theme Play program, a hybrid model which integrates the very best components of last year’s Spirit Play and Theme Workshops classes, for 1st-2nd graders. 3rd-5th graders will take part in the second year of our science-based UUniverse Story class, developed by UUCCSM members Ian Dodd and Margot Page; year one of the class received rave reviews from kids and parents alike. In our 6th-7th grade class we’re taking a year off of Neighboring Faiths in order to review and revise that curriculum, and will instead be offering Compass Points, a program designed as a lead-in to Coming of Age which will help young people explore their selves, their beliefs, their UU faith and their relationships with others and the world. Be on the lookout for program materials and registration forms coming your way soon!
Youth
Coming of Age (8th grade) and YRUU (9th-12th grades) will kick off with a special teen movie night and & concurrent parent orientation on Sunday, September 9th at 6pm in Forbes Hall. Bring a pizza or a few dollars to contribute for dinner; we’ll provide the movie and popcorn. Don’t miss it! In the orientation, we’ll discuss the calendar for the year, and how parents can take part in making this year’s youth programs the strongest they’ve ever been. We’ll also introduce our COA and YRUU advisors, as well as the members of the Lifespan RE Committee’s Youth Programs subcommittee.
Adults
There’s a lot to look forward to from the Adult Programs committee during the 2012-2013 church year. Monthly Patio Chats with Leon Henderson-MacLennan will continue in September along with new workshops including a workshop for writers (current or aspiring) with Bettye Barclay and an evening with Patrick Meighan when he will talk about “Stumbling Into Activism.” We can also look forward to another series of discussions with Ernie Pipes, more on UU history and theology with Catherine Farmer Loya, “Lesson of Loss” and a new ethics workshop with Leon Henderson-MacLennan. Back by popular demand, Rick and Peggy Rhoads will reprise “The New Jim Crow.” And that’s just the beginning! You will also be hearing more about vision boards, drum circles and labyrinths, the new UUA Common Read, “Living the Welcoming Congregation” and other ways to make the world a better place.
Be sure to visit the Lifespan Table in Forbes Hall on Sunday mornings for the latest information on what’s happening in Lifespan and to register for the programs that interest you. It’s a good time to tell us about programs you would like to see in the future, too.
-- Emmy Cresciman
Patio Chat
Monthly UUCCSM Theme Discussions
with Leon Henderson-MacLennan
@ 10:10a.m. on the Patio
September 30 -- Forgiveness
Ministry Theme Quotes for September: Forgiveness
Our ministerial theme for September is forgiveness. Bettye Barclay has provided this list of daily thoughts about forgiveness for the month of September.
September 1- Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it. Mark Twain
September 2 - Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom. Hannah Arendt
September 3 - Forgiveness means letting go of the past. Gerald Jampolsky
Sept. 4 - "When you hold resentment toward another, you are bound to that person or condition by an emotional link that is stronger than steel. Forgiveness is the only way to dissolve that link and get free." Katherine Ponder
September 5 - "There is no love without forgiveness, and there is no forgiveness without love." Bryant H. McGill
September 6 - "A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers." Robert Quillen
September 7 - "Sincere forgiveness isn't colored with expectations that the other person apologize or change. Don't worry whether or not they finally understand you. Love them and release them. Life feeds back truth to people in its own way and time-just like it does for you and me." Sara Paddison
September 8 - "To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you." Louis B. Smedes
September 9 - "We are all on a life long journey and the core of its meaning, the terrible demand of its centrality is forgiving and being forgiven." Martha Kilpatrick
September 10 - "To forgive is the highest, most beautiful form of love. In return, you will receive untold peace and happiness." Robert Muller
September 11 - "The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong." Mahatma Gandhi
September 12 - "Forgiveness is a funny thing. It warms the heart and cools the sting." William Arthur Ward
September 13 - "Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future." Paul Boese
September 14 - "It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend." William Blake
September 15. - "If you can't forgive and forget, pick one." Robert Brault
September 16. -"He who cannot forgive breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass." George Herbert
Sept. 17 - "Without forgiveness life is governed by — an endless cycle of resentment and retaliation." Roberto Assagioli
September 18 - "Forgiving does not erase the bitter past. A healed memory is not a deleted memory. Instead, forgiving what we cannot forget creates a new way to remember. We change the memory of our past into a hope for our future." Louis B. Smedes
September 19 - "Life is an adventure in forgiveness." Norman Cousins
September 20 - "Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom." Hannah Arendt
September 21 - "Forgiveness is a virtue of the brave." Indira Gandhi
September 22 - "Genuine forgiveness does not deny anger but faces it head-on." Alice Duer Miller
September 23 - "As long as you don't forgive, who and whatever it is will occupy a rent-free space in your mind." - Isabelle Holland
September 24 - "Anger makes you smaller, while forgiveness forces you to grow beyond what you were." Cherie Carter-Scott
September 25 - "Only the brave know how to forgive. — A coward never forgave; it is not in his nature." Laurence Sterne
September 26 - Let us forgive each other – only then will we live in peace. Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy
September 27 - “Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude. Martin Luther King Jr.
September 28 - “I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded; not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.” Khaled Hosseini
September 29 - “The willingness to forgive is a sign of spiritual and emotional maturity. It is one of the great virtues to which we all should aspire. Imagine a world filled with individuals willing both to apologize and to accept an apology. Is there any problem that could not be solved among people who possessed the humility and largeness of spirit and soul to do either -- or both -- when needed?” Gordon B. Hinckley
September 30 - Forgiveness is the finishing of old business that allows us to experience the present free of contamination from the past Joan Borysenko
Ministerial Theme for August: Compassion
Our ministerial theme for August is compassion. Bettye Barclay has provided this list of daily thoughts about compassion for the month of August.
AUGUST 1. For me, forgiveness and compassion are always linked: how do we hold people accountable for wrongdoing and yet at the same time remain in touch with their humanity enough to believe in their capacity to be transformed? Bell Hooks
AUGUST 2. As great scientists have said and as all children know, it is above all by the imagination that we achieve perception, and compassion, and hope. Ursula K. Le Guin
AUGUST 3. My experience is that people who have been through painful, difficult times are filled with
compassion. Amy Grant
AUGUST 4. Compassion brings us to a stop, and for a moment we rise above ourselves. Mason Cooley
AUGUST 5. Few things are so deadly as a misguided sense of compassion. Charles Colson
AUGUST 6. For me music is a vehicle to bring our pain to the surface, getting it back to that humble and
tender spot where, with luck, it can lose its anger and become compassion again. Paula Cole
AUGUST 7. A love for humanity came over me, and watered and fertilized the fields of my inner world which had been lying fallow, and this love of humanity vented itself in a vast compassion. Georg Brandes
AUGUST 8. Compassion is the keen awareness of the interdependence of all things. Thomas Merton
AUGUST 9. Some people think only intellect counts: knowing how to solve problems, knowing how to get by, knowing how to identify an advantage and seize it. But the functions of intellect are insufficient without
courage, love, friendship, compassion and empathy. Dean Koontz
AUGUST 10. I believe that man will not merely endure; he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among the creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of kindness
and compassion. William Falconer
AUGUST 11. I can do no other than be reverent before everything that is called life. I can do no other than to
have compassion for all that is called life. That is the beginning and the foundation of all ethics. Albert
Schweitzer
AUGUST 12. I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest
treasures. Lao Tzu
AUGUST 13. If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.
Dalai Lama
AUGUST 14. It is not until you become a mother that your judgment slowly turns to compassion and understanding. Erma Bombeck
AUGUST 15. Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.
Dalai Lama
AUGUST 16. No, you're not allowed to be bossy when you're married. You have to learn compromise, and
compassion and patience. Star Jones
AUGUST 17. One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love,
friendship, indignation and compassion. Simone de Beauvoir
AUGUST 18. Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living
creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty. Albert Einstein
AUGUST 19. Some people are filled by compassion and a desire to do good, and some simply don't think
anything's going to make a difference. Meryl Streep
AUGUST 20. The dew of compassion is a tear. Lord Byron
AUGUST 21. Compassion for myself is the most powerful healer of them all. Theodore Isaac Rubin
AUGUST 22. Make no judgments where you have no compassion. Anne McCaffrey
AUGUST 23. The individual is capable of both great compassion and great indifference. He has it within
his means to nourish the former and outgrow the latter. Norman Cousins
AUGUST 24. Until he extends his circle of compassion to include all living things, man will not himself find
peace. Albert Schweitzer
AUGUST 25. Whether one believes in a religion or not, and whether one believes in rebirth or not, there isn't
anyone who doesn't appreciate kindness and compassion. Dalai Lama
AUGUST 26. Compassion teaches me that my brother and I are one. Thomas Merton
AUGUST 27. Compassion is not a popular virtue. Karen Armstrong
AUGUST 28. Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of
men. Confucius
AUGUST 29. Compassion is the basis of morality. Arthur Schopenhauer
AUGUST 30. Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. Plato
AUGUST 31. Give children at least as many chances to be compassionate as they have to be competitive.
Erica Layman
Patio Chat
Monthly UUCCSM theme Discussion with Leon henderson-MacLennan @ 11 a.m. on the Patio
August 26 — Compassion
From Our DRE
On June 3 we held our annual service celebrating the lifespan educational ministry of UUCCSM, now known as “LRE Sunday,” in recognition of the lifelong growth our congregation offers for children, youth, and adults, and the many volunteers whose gifts of time and self make our RE program what it is. The theme of our service this year was “Courage.”
All gathered at our LRE Sunday services were invited to take a moment to write down on small flower-shaped post-its a way in which their lives have blossomed because they took a courageous step, perhaps through participating in our congregation in some way, or in another aspect of their lives. What a beautiful diversity of stories we have in our midst; friends — I am so moved by the depth of your courage. I wish I had room to share them all here, but here is a representative sample of the responses:
· Going to coffee hour the first time took courage.
· At 14 years old, despite my shyness, volunteering at summer camp for adults with disabilities changed my life — gave me a purpose and shaped my career and heart.
· Being a parent.
· Smuggling Draft Resistors into Canada during the Viet Nam War.
· Having the faith to help my family and home be a loving place.
· Saying out loud when a joke isn’t funny; disagreeing with the “crowd.”
· I have had the courage to face my childhood abuser and still love myself.
· A girl in my class wanted to drown my friend’s garden and I stopped her.
· I signed up for a painting class after not painting for 40 years, and now I love to paint.
· I showed courage by being strong for our family during times of challenge.
· I danced with someone with special needs for a play. I thought my friends would make fun of me but I still did it.
· I was brave enough to leave an abusive relationship.
· I took in a 13 year-old girl as my kid.
· Coming out to friends and family.
· I was willing to question, search, investigate, and challenge the beliefs that were dear to me to pursue truth.
· To continue to enjoy life after my child died.
· I participated in the service today.
· RE Volunteer (even though I’m nervous each week).
· Fall 2010: started training for, and then ran, the L.A. Marathon.
· Quitting smoking and getting sober.
· Slept in the dark.
· Really, just joining the church — it allowed me to feed the homeless, march in the gay pride parade, and stand up for gay rights, and tell people I do not believe in God — it all started here.
· Marching in the Pride Parade!
· Courage to be open and loving.
What is your own story of courage? May we all continue to blossom in love, in faith, and in service to one another.
— Catherine Farmer Loya
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!
Have you ever wondered about the nature of reality?
Have you ever wanted to explore new ways to put our UU principles into practice?
Do you feel that you're still a learner yourself, and always will be?
We need you!
Please consider volunteering in RE.
We are currently recruiting volunteers for the 2012-13 RE program starting in September. We're looking for teachers to lead 1 or 2 Sundays per month, as well as volunteers for many other parts of our large and vibrant program for children and youth.
Do you love spending time with young children as they learn about the world and make friends? Then assisting in our Nursery or Preschool class is the right place for you!
Are you passionate about sharing the core stories of our faith with children as they make meaning of their lives, grow a strong UU identity, and create a spiritual community together that honors multiple learning styles and celebrates beauty in diversity? Then join our Spirit Play team, for 1st and 2nd graders.
Do science and nature fill you with mystery and wonder? Then help our 3rd through 5th graders consider “How Do We Know What We Know?” as they explore the Big Bang and the origins of the Universe, the chemistry of life, the ideas of evolution and change over time, and the interconnectedness of all people from our shared ancestry with each other and every other life form on the planet in our UUniverse Story program.
Does your heart go pitter-patter when you think about helping young people explore their identities, their beliefs, their Unitarian Universalist faith, their relationships with others and their connections to the world? In that case, you'll love being a leader for our 6th through 7th grade Compass Points class.
Is deep exploration of your personal theology, and engaging others in articulating who they are and what their beliefs are within the context of our UU faith most exciting to you? Then join our 8th grade Coming of Age team (9 a.m. only).
Are you a creative, loving, flexible adult who gets a kick out of teens and wants to support them as they grow and develop into young adults? If that sounds like you, consider joining our 9th through 12th grade Young Religious Unitarian Universalists (YRUU) advisor team.
Visit the RE table in the courtyard during coffee hour for more information or to sign up!
Minesterial Theme for July: Creativity
Our ministerial theme for July is creativity. Bettye Barclay has provided this list of daily thoughts about creativity for the month of July.
JULY 1
Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties. Erich Fromm
JULY 2
The things we fear most in organizations — fluctuations, disturbances, imbalances — are the primary sources of creativity. Margaret J. Wheatley
JULY 3
It is the tension between creativity and skepticism that has produced the stunning and unexpected findings of science. Carl Sagan
JULY 4
Conditions for creativity are to be puzzled; to concentrate; to accept conflict and tension; to be born every day; to feel a sense of self. Erich Fromm
JULY 5
Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. The friends who listen to us are the ones we move toward. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand. Shel Silverstein
JULY 6
If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of potential, for the eye, which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints, possibility never. Soren Kierkegaard
JULY 7
Creativity is a natural extension of our enthusiasm. Earl Nightingale
JULY 8
The new meaning of soul is creativity and mysticism. These will become the foundation of a new psychological type and with him or her will come the new civilization. Otto Rank
JULY 9
Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something — they just saw something — they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. Steve Jobs
JULY 10
Creativity is piercing the mundane to find the marvelous. Bill Moyers
JULY 11
A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something. Frank Capra
JULY 12
Being creative means: not numbering and counting, but ripening like a tree, which doesn’t force its sap, and stands confidently in the storm of spring, not afraid that afterward summer may not come. Rainer Maria Rilke
JULY 13
I firmly believe that all human beings have access to extraordinary energies and powers. Judging from accounts of mystical experience, heightened creativity, or exceptional performance by athletes and artists, we harbor a greater life than we know. Jean Houston
JULY 14
Living creatively is really important to maintain throughout your life. And living creatively doesn’t mean only artistic creativity, although that’s part of it. It means being yourself, not just complying with the wishes of other people. Matt Groening
JULY 15
Mystery is at the heart of creativity. That, and surprise. Julia Cameron
JULY 16
Make an empty space in any corner of your mind and creativity will instantly fill it. Dee Hock
JULY 17
Our senses are indeed our doors and windows on this world, in a very real sense the key to unlocking of meaning and the wellspring of creativity. Jean Houston
JULY 18
The creative mind doesn’t require logical transitions from one thought to another. It skips, jumps, doubles back, circles and dives, from one idea to the next. Bonnie Goldberg
JULY 19
You must not for one instant give up the effort to build new lives for yourselves. Creativity means to push open the heavy, groaning doorway to life. Daisaku Ikeda
JULY 20.
The chief enemy of creativity is “good sense.” Pablo Picasso
JULY 21
True creativity often starts where language ends. Arthur Koestler
JULY 22.
Whatever creativity is, it is in part a solution to a problem. Brian Aldiss
JULY 23
To create, you must empty yourself of every artistic thought. Gilbert
JULY 24
Creative minds have always been known to survive any kind of bad training. Anna Freud
JULY 25
It is the creative potential itself in human beings that is the image of God. Mary Daly
JULY 26
Surprise is where creativity comes in. Ray Bradbury
JULY 27
But if you have nothing at all to create, then perhaps you create yourself. Carl Jung
JULY 28
Self creation is an art of fire. M. C. Richards
JULY 29
If you are seeking creative ideas, go out walking. Angels whisper to a person out for a walk. Raymond Inmon
JULY 30
To create is to touch the spirit. M. Cassou, S. Cubley
JULY 31
Our creativity does not consist in being right all the time, but in making of all our experiences, including the apparently mistaken and imperfect ones, a holy whole. Matthew Fox
Fun for All Ages
July 21 Crafty Afternoon
Another hot summer Saturday afternoon. Boredom is setting in. You’ve done Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm. The beach is too crowded and the Coast Highway traffic is impossible. Come to church! We’re going to spend the afternoon working with clay, making dolls, knitting, sewing, making great structures from wood, creating art from junk, and more. There will be people to teach you how to do it and you can go home with something wonderful. Everyone from toddlers to teenagers to our eldest members is invited to join the fun from 1 to 5 p.m.
Getting Ready For DeBenneville Pines
Watch for the date in the order of service. We’re going to spend a Sunday afternoon in August playing camp games, doing camp crafts, singing camp songs, eating camp food, and making s’mores around a fire on the patio outside Forbes Hall. Join us!
ADULT DOINGS
Now’s the time to stop by the Lifespan Table in Forbes Hall to tell us what workshops, classes and discussion groups you would like to attend or facilitate starting in September. We want to know what you want to know. Help us to plan another exciting year in Adult Programs at UUSM. Talk to us about it at the table or contact one of the committee members: Emmy Cresciman, Judy Federick, Karen Hsu Patterson, or James Witker.
Patio Chat
Monthly UUCCSM Theme Discussion
with Leon Henderson-MacLennan
@ 11:10 a.m. on the Patio
July 2 — CREATIVITY
SHARE UUR STORY
Summer Interviews Now Being Scheduled
Check in at the Lifespan table in Forbes Hall to volunteer to share your story with us or to interview a storyteller.
Share UUr Story volunteer opportunities: 1) Share your story with us; 2) Interview those who want to share their story!
Contact Judy Federick if you'd like to participate.
From our Director of Religious Education:
This month’s ministry theme, “Brokenness,” is one that resonates with me pretty deeply these days, as I continue to recover following the Christmas Eve fall that left me with a broken ankle. Isn’t it amazing that our bones will just heal themselves, given time and rest? I take comfort in knowing that, as living beings, our broken bones will not stay that way forever. We aren’t like toys or teacups — our broken places, sometimes, are really the places where we have the greatest opportunity to grow and develop strengths that we didn’t know were lying dormant within us. My body was ready to mend itself all along, and was just waiting for the need to arise. Astounding. I also have been thinking about the imagery of being “broken open.” Rather than thinking of brokenness only in terms of being damaged, what parallels do you see in your own life if instead you envision being broken open like a seed that has given way to let something new and full of life emerge?
I am mindful though, that there are also times in our lives when we feel just plain broken, when no easy or inevitable fix is on the horizon for us. And in those times, our UUCCSM community can serve as a safe place to bring those broken parts of ourselves to be held in love and compassion. As Unitarian Universalists, part of our covenant with one another is that we will “walk together” as we carry out our individual lives. Certainly I have been buoyed by the care and help that many of you have shown me in the last couple of months as I’ve been on the mend. I am lucky; this time, my brokenness is temporary. But the gifts I have received because of it will stay. If given the choice, I certainly would not have chosen to injure myself in this way, but I am grateful for the good that I can pull out of the experience, even so. What a blessing it is to be in community with one another.
—Catherine Farmer Loya
March in the Classrooms
This month in the children’s RE program, preschoolers will celebrate the beginning of spring, and will explore many different kinds of families. Early elementary participants will explore the fourth Source of Unitarian Universalism with stories from the Jewish and Christian traditions, and will engage this month’s theme of “Brokenness.” A highlight of the month for upper elementary children in the UUniverse Story program will be a field trip to the Natural History Museum on March 11. Middle schoolers in Neighboring Faiths will learn about Sikhism, and will visit the Guru Ram Das ashram on the 11th. And on March 25th, while older children and youth are attending the YRUU service in the sanctuary, younger children will make doggy treats for shelter puppies for this month’s RE Faith in Action project. Children’s Programs subcommittee members welcome your comments and questions
— Nicole Henderson-MacLennan, Susan Hendricks Richman, Sabina Mayo-Smith, and Kim Santiago-Kalmanson.
Youth Score a Home Run with Laser Tag and Ball Park Outings
Grab your lasers and get, set, go to Ultrazone in Sherman Oaks, the ultimate laser adventure, on Saturday, March 3. A futuristic version of Capture the Flag, this game is an adrenaline rush like never before. Watch your in box for details and don’t miss this fun-filled night out organized by parents Erika and Steven Valore with Alicia and Steven Van Ooyen.
Go Dodger Blue! Saturday, April 14, youth head out to Chavez Ravine to cheer on the home team as they take on the San Diego Padres. Advance ticket purchase is required. Please RSVP to parent volunteers, Laura and Larry Weiner, with the number of tickets you need by March 31. Admission is approximately $12 each for seats located in the top deck behind home plate.
Thanks to parent volunteers Liza Cranis, Erika and Steven Valore, a spirited group of kids enjoyed pizza, games, movies and some midnight madness of baking cookies and making sundaes, while deepening friendships during the legendary overnight lock in at the church in February.
To find out the scoop on all upcoming activities, contact Lifespan RE Youth Sub-Committee Head Teri Bond. Fun is our mission!
Upcoming Adult Programs
Faith Like a River — Themes from Unitarian Universalist History.
Faith Like a River explores the dynamic course of Unitarian, Universalist, and Unitarian Universalist (UU) history — the people, ideas, and movements that have shaped our faith heritage. It invites participants to place themselves into our history and consider its legacies. What lessons do the stories of our history teach that can help us live more faithfully in the present? What lessons do they offer to be lived into the future? Join facilitator Catherine Farmer Loya in the mural room (of course!) for four consecutive Wednesday evenings, March 14 to April 4, for an introductory exploration of our UU religious tradition’s roots. To sign up, contact Catherine@uusm.org or visit the Lifespan RE table during coffee hour on Sundays.
Unitarian Universalist Association Common Read
The Common Read is coming — have you started reading yet? All UUCCSM members and friends are invited to join UUs from congregations all over the country this spring in reading “Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation,” by Dr. Eboo Patel. Why take the time to read a book that someone else has chosen, though? This is one more aspect of our congregation’s new experiment with Lifespan Religious Exploration. Just as all members of our community have opportunities to engage in some way in our monthly ministry themes this year, this is another way in which members of UUCCSM can come together to “go deeper” in our faith as Unitarian Universalists and in our connections to one another.
Why, then, this book in particular? Dr. Eboo Patel’s memoir, “Acts of Faith,” has been selected as the 2011-2012 Unitarian Universalist Association Common Read. Patel is founder and executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core, an international, nonprofit, youth service leadership organization. “‘Acts of Faith,” a beautifully written story of discovery and hope, chronicles Dr. Eboo Patel’s struggle to forge his identity as a Muslim, an Indian, and an American. In the process, he developed a deep reverence for what all faiths have in common, and founded an interfaith movement to help young people to embrace their common humanity through their faith. This young social entrepreneur offers us a powerful way to deal with one of the most important issues of our time.” —President Bill Clinton
We hope that all of you will consider taking part in this special project. Check the book out from the library, buy it for your e-reader, or purchase it from the book cart or the Lifespan RE table right here at UUCCSM during coffee hours this month. Then, once we’ve all had some time to read, we’ll offer a number of opportunities in April to take part in a one-session book discussion. Sign up for one of the two sessions offered at the church, on Sunday April 15 from 4 to 6 p.m. (potluck dinner to follow), or Wednesday, April 25, from 7 to 9 p.m. Or join one of the neighborhood gatherings being hosted by UUCCSM members in their homes — details of those gatherings will be announced soon, though there will certainly be meetings in Culver City, West LA and Santa Monica, and possibly additional neighborhoods. Don’t miss out on it!
Multi-Generational Section
Record Breaking Attendance
The February Second Sunday Supper sponsored by Lifespan RE was a blockbuster! Lots of serious young (and not so young) artists created gorgeous valentines and ate oodles of fabulous food. Fifty people between the ages of about 2 and 90 found plenty to talk about and even sing about, too. Don’t miss the fun on March 11 — no valentines, but still plenty of food and fun.
Share UUr Story
Plans continue to move forward for UUSM’s oral history project. Stop by the Lifespan Table any Sunday to share your thoughts and catch up on what’s new. In addition to interviewing our members, we would like to capture some video chats on the history of committees in the church. If you were one of the founding (or early) members of any of our committees, we would like to hear from you. On a more technological note, we are looking for a microphone that can be connected to a video camera and someone who can show us how to do it. We anticipate that many of our interviews will take place outside the church.
Patio Chat — Sunday, March 11
Monthly UUCCSM Theme Discussion
BROKENNESS
with Leon Henderson-MacLennan
at 10:10 a.m. on the Patio
Home Hospitality Needed For Visiting RE Professionals
On March 22, 23, and 24 UUSM will host religious education professionals and volunteers for a workshop on UU Identity. A few of these folks will need a place to stay in the area. If you are able to offer hospitality to one or two attendees for two nights (Thursday and Friday), please contact Emmy Cresciman for more information. You will not be responsible for meals.
From Our Director of Religious Education:
This month, the ministry theme we’ll explore together is PEACE. In services and in classrooms, people of all ages will be thinking about what peace is and how we can help bring it to our communities and to the world. Peace is a really big concept, and we often spend a lot of time thinking about peace on a grand scale: world peace, the end of wars, etc. But I’m interested, too, in thinking about what peace is on a much smaller scale — how can we build peace in our own hearts, and in our individual interactions with others?
We talk a lot about “spiritual growth” here at church, particularly when we articulate our goals for the religious education of the young people in our programs on Sunday mornings. We’re all better people when we try to be our best selves, and that best self is itself growing and changing all the time as we grow and learn more about who we are and how to be in this world. Spiritual growth means growing toward that best self — the you that is happy and healthy and enjoys being part of the world and being around other people and is excited about learning and trying new things and meeting new people. The you that’s at peace and treats everyone the way you would like them to treat you.
But it’s not always easy to know how to cultivate a peaceful self, particularly when we’re busy, or stressed, or aggravated. This certainly continues to be a growing edge in my own life. Each Sunday, elementary children in our Spirit Play classes share the “Gandhi Peace Greeting” as part of their opening ritual. The words of the greeting are a lovely reminder to me for how to cultivate a peaceful attitude toward others: I offer you friendship/I offer you love/I see your beauty/I hear your needs/I feel your feelings/My wisdom comes from a higher source/I honor that source in you/Let us work together.
I invite you to join all of us here at UUCCSM in our month of peace-seeking. Drop in for the bi-weekly Wednesday night meditation class led by Bill Blake on February 1, 15, or 29 at 7:30 p.m., or join the Peacethemed Patio Chat facilitated by Leon Henderson- MacLennan between the services on February 26. Attend services and talk to others at coffee hour about what peace means to you. And most of all, practice being at peace with yourself, and in your relationships with others you encounter this month. May each of us become beacons of peace in our homes and in our communities, not just this month but throughout our lives.
— Catherine Farmer Loya
Wild and Crazy Times for Youth
Go-cart races, Dodger game, picnic/hike, overnight and a pool party are all featured events being planned for COA/YRUU this spring. Fun is our mission! We look forward to bringing our teens together to share good times, to have adventures, and to make some memories. On the line-up for February 4 is an overnight at the Church with pizza and movies and games. In March we’ll be Go-cart racing. April takes us out to the ball park for a Dodger match-up. May brings us back to nature for a hike and picnic. We wrap up the year with a splash at a pool party in June. Dates are subject to change. Please watch your email inboxes for more information. Thanks to parent volunteers Lara Davis del Piccolo (Clelia’s mom) and Karl Lisovsky (Angela’s dad), several youth went for a whirl on the Winter Wonderland ICE skating rink to kick off the new year on January 7. Between laps under the stars, skaters enjoyed hot cocoa and homemade brownies. To find out the latest details on all upcoming excursions, contact Lifespan RE Youth Sub-Committee Head Teri Bond. Don’t miss out.
February in the Classrooms
This month in the children’s RE program, preschoolers will celebrate Valentine’s Day and will explore the many different sorts of emotions we all experience, and how to express them in ways that don’t hurt other people. Early elementary participants will learn about our seventh UU principle (the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part) with stories from science and nature, and will engage this month’s theme of PEACE. Upper elementary children will continue exploring the amazing natural world around us in their UUniverse Story class. Middle schoolers in Neighboring Faiths will learn about Taoism, including a visit to the Taoist temple in Chinatown. We’ll also offer a special peace-themed Faith in Action project on February 26 for grades K to 5 in RE.
And all families are invited to join us for a very special Second Sunday Supper on February 12 from 5 to 7 p.m.; at 5 p.m. we’ll make Valentines for our friends and families as well as church members who could use some cheer and then at 6 p.m. we’ll share a potluck dinner together. We hope to see you there!
Children’s Programs subcommittee members welcome your comments and questions
— Nicole Henderson- MacLennan, Susan Hendricks Richman, Sabina Mayo-Smith, and Kim Santiago-Kalmanson.
Help Wanted
INTERVIEWEES — Share your story on video
INTERVIEWERS — Sit down with interviewee and ask questions, guide the interview — we will train
PROJECT DESIGNERS — Work with the LRE committee to continue with the conceptualization of the project
CAMERA/SOUND RECORDISTS — Operate camera and sound equipment — we will train
PRODUCTION COORDINATORS — Set up interviews, supervise shoots
TECHNICAL CONSULTANTS/TRAINERS — Share your expertise in video production, show team members how to use equipment
VIDEO/SOUND EDITORS — Must have prior experience
ASSISTANT EDITORS — Upload and log footage
ARCHIVIST – Maintain a DVD library of interviews
SET BUILDER – Help to build an “interview booth” at church We welcome your ideas and suggestions.
Stop by the Lifespan table in Forbes or contact members of the Multi-Generational subcommittee: Judy Federick, Leon Henderson-MacLennan, Carol-Jean Teuffel, and Larry Weiner.
Patio Chat -- Sunday, February 26
Monthly UUCCSM Theme Discussion
PEACE
with Leon Henderson-MacLennan
10:00 a.m. on the Patio
New Workshop Starts February 12
"BYOT 3: Ethics" will be facilitated by Bernie Silvers and Ed Field. Bernie is an ordained Zen monk who lived at the Zen Center of L.A. for thirteen years and was president for eight years. He has also been a UU for more than thirty years and has studied ethics extensively. Ed has a Ph.D. in physics and has been a UU for about fifteen years. The class invites participants to apply their believs, values, and convictions to particular ethical situations with scenarios culled from history, literature, current events, and the participants' own lives. A text book is required and is available at our church bookstore in Forbes Hall. Sign up at the Lifespan table on Sunday mornings. The class will meet upstairs in Forbes Hall at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday afternoons.
From our DRE:
Happy New Year! As I write this, it has not yet arrived — the holidays are staring me in the face, and our Winter Holiday pageant is fast approaching. This is always a busy time, especially in these last few pre-pageant days, but as hectic as the holidays are, what stands out in my memory once they’re over is not the anxious rushing around, but rather a clear vision of what our community is really all about. I love our big, messy pageant every year because it’s one time when our whole church community fully participates in worship together.
Once the New Year arrives, though, my thoughts turn toward the new beginnings I’m hoping for. Resolutions and goals and aspirations, oh my! It is a time of searching for a better path, of seeking to be more fully myself. The life of our congregation mirrors the individual path at this time of year, too. We are midway through the church year, and January is a time when we reassess our programs to see how they’re going. It’s also a time when many new opportunities for connecting and growing are launched. Be on the lookout for signups for many new adult as well as multigenerational programs coming soon!
This month’s ministry theme is Wisdom, a theme that reaches to the heart of our Unitarian Universalist tradition. Hosea Ballou, an influential Universalist preacher in the first half of the 19th century, wrote these words in his 1805 book, “A Treatise on Atonement”: “We feel our own imperfections; we wish for everyone to seek with all his might after wisdom; and let it be found where it may, or by whom it may, we humbly wish to have it brought to light, that all may enjoy it; but do not feel authorized to condemn an honest inquirer after truth, for what he believes different from a majority of us.”
I suspect that the search for wisdom has been a part of human life as long as there have been people. As Unitarian Universalists, though, we are a people who know that wisdom is to be found in many places, and we honor the search for truth and knowledge as one of our core principles. This month, let’s celebrate the search for wisdom together. Think about the things you know now that you didn’t know this time last year, or 10 years ago, or 30 years ago. Reflect on the best piece of advice you were ever given. Remember the elders who were part of your own life when you were a child, and think about what you learned from them. Then share some of your own wisdom with those you see at church on Sunday. And ask them to share some of their wisdom with you.
— Catherine Farmer Loya
January in the Classrooms
We have a very full month planned in the children’s RE program. In January, preschoolers will celebrate some of the wonderful ways in which people differ from one another and will also celebrate the Chinese New Year. Early elementary participants will explore our interdependent web with stories from science and nature and will engage this month’s theme of WISDOM. Upper elementary children will continue exploring the amazing natural world around us in their UUniverse Story class. Middle schoolers in Neighboring Faiths will complete their study of Buddhism with a trip to the Santa Monica Buddhist Center and the Venice Buddhist Temple. And we’ll also take part in this month’s Faith in Action project on January 22 with a visit to the Turning Point transitional housing shelter, where we’ll take a tour and will make bag lunches for the residents. A big thanks to all UUCCSM members for your generous contributions to our Common Ground Faith in Action project in November; RE participants compiled 160 hygiene kits (nearly double last year’s total) and sorted many donations of warm clothing and blankets, including 170 pairs of socks and more than 50 sweaters and jackets!
Children’s Programs subcommittee members welcome your comments and questions.
— Nicole Henderson-MacLennan, Susan Hendricks Richman, Sabina Mayo-Smith, Kim Santiago-Kalmanson.
Patio Chat with Leon Henderson-MacLennan
Monthly UUCCSM Religious Exploration Theme Discussion
January 22, 2012 at 10:10 a.m. — WISDOM
Share UUr Stories
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, under the auspices of the WPA, the Federal Writers’ Project sent writers and historians around the country to collect oral histories of the American people. There was a strong focus on former slaves as well as on immigrants, artists, and musicians. These interviews are archived at the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, and in the collections of various universities throughout the country.
Today, National Public Radio has a project called Story Corps. A bus travels around the country making audio recordings of people’s stories and broadcasts them on the radio; in Southern California they can be heard on KPCC (89.3 FM). They are archived on the NPR website, www.npr.org. Each of the stories is in some way thought provoking and inspirational.
There is no more powerful tool for building community than sharing our stories. From the pictures drawn on cave walls eons ago to the era of scratchy wire recordings in the 1930s to all of today’s high-tech options, we are blessed to have the opportunity to learn from the wisdom of our ancestors, our peers, and our children.
Our intent is to carry on the tradition of sharing our stories by creating a UUCCSM video archive of the reminiscences of our members and friends. We will launch our project on January 15 during the Sunday morning service when we hope to show a clip from a video of the late John Raiford, made by Jerry and Nathan Gates.
Also on January 15 in the afternoon, Maggie and Ernie Pipes will host a screening of “Sunset Story,” a documentary on the residents of Sunset Hall. Sunset Hall was a senior housing facility for labor activists and political radicals near First Unitarian Church in downtown Los Angeles. The documentary was seen in over 300 cities in the country in 2005 on the PBS series Independent Lens as well as in theaters nationwide and at film festivals throughout the world. It follows Irja (81) and Lucille (95) as they “attend demonstrations, register their fellow residents to vote, and debate everything under the sun.”
Our project is intended to be the primary focus of the Multi-Generational Subcommittee of LRE for the remainder of this church year, and will be ongoing into the future. We’ll focus first on the elders in our congregation and on long-time members who are leaving Southern California. We hope to enlist our youth to be videographers (and interviewers if they are willing), and even the younger children can participate by asking questions of our members during coffee hour. Our video interviews may be conducted by someone from the project, by a family member, or by a friend of the interviewee. We may also video gatherings of groups of peers sharing their stories, and we might also document groups working together, for example doing a newsletter mailing or at a Second Sunday Supper. We hope that the entire congregation will get into the spirit of the project. Visit the Lifespan table in Forbes Hall to check for updates and to make suggestions and sign up to be interviewed. Subcommittee members would love to hear from you.
– Judy Federick, Leon Henderson-MacLennan, Carol-Jean Teuffel, and Larry Weiner.
Photos from the Annual Friendly Beasts Pageant
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"Love is the doctrine ofthis church/the questof truth is its sacrament/andservice is its prayer," beginsthe congregational covenantwe say together each Sundaymorning. Have you ever takenthe time to think about what we're saying when werecite these words together? Are they just nice words tosay on Sundays, or do they carry a deeper message for us?
This month our congregational ministry themeis SERVICE. Our covenant says that service is ourcongregation's prayer. But what does that reallymean? Prayer or meditation is a way of connectingwith our very deepest selves, with the sacred, andwith the whole world around us. So in the wordsof our covenant, perhaps we are saying thatthese connections are found when we serve othersand work to make the world a better place.
"Faith in Action" is what we call this work inour congregation, and there are many ways tojoin our community in acts of service to theworld. In the RE program this month, we're especiallyexcited to be conducting our annual donationdrive to benefit homeless teens served byCommon Ground. On November 27, children andyouth will compile "hygiene kits" from donatedtoiletries and will count and sort donations ofclothes, blankets, and backpacks. Last year ourmembers' generosity resulted in 86 hygiene kits- can we make it to 100 this year?
What a gift it is to our children that they are invitedto participate in putting their hands and feet on our UUprinciples, that we not only talk about what it meansto be a UU, but also give them opportunities to liveour values. As our young people are learning, givingfeels good. And doing feels even better. As UnitarianUniversalists, we know that what we do matters, andthat each of us has the ability to make a difference in theworld. How will service be your prayer this month?
- Catherine Farmer Loya
Lifespan RE
UU Kids: We have a very full monthplanned in the children's RE program.In November, preschoolerswill celebrate trees - how importantthey are and how we can helptake care of them. Early elementary participants willexplore our UU principles through story, and they willengage our November theme of SERVICE. Upper elementarychildren will learn about DNA as a commonbuilding block of all life - we'll even extract strands ofDNA from strawberries right in our classroom! Middleschoolers in Neighboring Faiths will complete theirstudy of Hinduism with a trip to the Hare KrishnaTemple.
And we'll all take part in this year's donation driveto benefit Common Ground's homeless teen drop-incenter. On Sundays in November, please bring donationsof unused travel-sized hygiene products, as wellas warm clothing, socks, underwear, blankets, andsleeping bags. On November 27, children and youthwill compile "hygiene kits" and will count and sort alldonated items. Last year we made 86 hygiene kits -can we make it to 100 this year? Children's Programssubcommittee members welcome your comments andquestions - Nicole Henderson-MacLennan, SusanHendricks Richman, Sabina Mayo-Smith, and KimSantiago-Kalmanson.
Youth in the Glow: An impressive crowd of enthusiasticbeachgoers came out to enjoy a bonfire at Dockweileron October 8. Thanks to the dedicated parent volunteersKarl Lisovsky, Lara Del Piccolo, and CarolCromer who organized the festive teen event, about 25folks had fun playing games, talking, laughing, andeating in the glow of a roaring fire. The setting sun wasespecially dramatic that night and the breeze mild.After roasting dogs, marshmallows got hot and gooeyfor delicious s'mores.
Watch your email for details about the next youthget-together on Saturday, November 12 for Bowl-ORama!Questions or ideas can be directed to any of theyouth committee members: Teri Bond, Liza Cranis,Elaine Gordon, and Nalani Santiago-Kalmanson.
Adults look inward in November with the return ofBuilding Your Own Theology (BYOT) on November 6upstairs in Room 1 at 1 p.m. Based on the assumptionthat everyone is their own theologian, this classic UUadult education program invites participants to developtheir personal credos: the fundamental beliefs, valuesand convictions that inform and direct the living oftheir lives. Facilitators are Judy Federick and MaxJohnson. Register at the Lifespan table in Forbes Hallafter the service on Sunday.
Vespers with The Rev. Rebecca Benefiel Bijur on Thursday,November 17 at 7 p.m. in the Sanctuary offer anopportunity to enjoy a little serenity before theonslaught of the holiday season.
Mark your calendar for November 27. Between serviceswe'll have a patio chat on the monthly theme ofService. Then at 1 p.m. in the Sanctuary, Adult Programswill co-host with AAHS (Atheists, Agnostics, Humanists,Secularists) a lecture by renowned sociologist Dr.Phil Zuckerman. For more information about this lecturesee Ian Dodd's article elsewhere in this newsletter.
If you have a question or an idea about a workshop,stop by the Lifespan table in Forbes, or contact amember of the Adult Programs Committee: EmmyCresciman, Joe Engleman, Tom Hamilton, JudithMartin-Straw, and Rhonda Peacock.
All-church activities in November:
November 13: Second-Sunday Games and SupperGames start at 4 p.m. Bring your own to share andteach or play one of ours (Scrabble, Dominoes,Bananagrams, Pictionary, etc.) Players of all ages arewelcome. Dinner starts at 6 p.m. Bring a side dish,salad, or dessert to share. Main dish is provided. Thefood is tasty and the company is beyond compare.
November 19: No movie - Come to ThanksgivingFeast, the potluck to end all potlucks!
Have ideas for all-church activities? Contact membersof the Multi-Generational Programs subcommittee- Judy Federick, Leon Henderson-MacLennan,Carol-Jean Teuffel, and Larry Weiner.
- Emmy Cresciman
RE Faith in Action
Common Ground Donation Drive: Can You Help?
On Sunday, November 27, the RE program will becollecting and sorting donated items to give to homeless teens served by Common Ground Westside.
Please take a look at the list of items below andbring some things in for our donation drive. Undergarments,socks and personal care items should benew. Other items can be gently used or new.
Items can be dropped off at the "Common GroundDonations" table at church on November 13, 20, or 27.
The following items are needed:
For "Hygiene Kits"
Travel- or hotel-sized toiletries (shampoo, conditioner,soap, lotion, toothpaste, deodorant, etc.), toothbrushes,shaving razors, feminine hygiene products,etc. (available at most drug stores or brought homefrom hotel stays).
Clothing Items
Socks, underwear, bras, hoodies/sweat shirts (largersizes - will be worn over other layers), warm hats orbeanies, gloves, scarves, etc.
Other Items
Blankets, sleeping bags, backpacks
Questions? ContactCatherine@uusm.org or(310) 829-5436 x105. Thank you for helping us support the work of Common Ground!