Nature Journaling with Dorothy Steinicke

The nature journaling group will be considering birds.  Hopefully, we see them everyday, but in this session we will give them a closer look and see what we can learn.  We will be observing, writing and drawing.  No previous knowledge or expertise is required.  First time attendees are most welcome. 

A lifelong lover of the outdoors, Dorothy Steinicke has more than twenty years experience encouraging people to a love of the natural world. She leads hikes for children and for adults in Topanga Canyon, Ballona Wetlands, and Dockweiller State Beach.

Rev. Judith Meyer

Rev. Jeremiah Kalendae

Join in the fun Monday, Feb 8 4:00 to 6:00 pm when we bake at home together, to the benefit of Grass Roots Neighbors. Young and young-at-heart alike will bake, share recipes, and Zoom together. Bring out your families and your family recipes!

Email hunger@uusm.org for the Zoom link. Touchless pickup of donated items on the Westside will be coordinated during the week, thanks to our wonderful Hunger Task Force volunteers.

This Winter, the Peace & Social Justice Committee offers another opportunity to read and discuss Dr. Ibram X Kendi’s “How to be an Antiracist.” Last year’s acclaimed New York Times #1 Bestseller was our guide for several sessions of provocative, important learning and dialogue in early 2020. In the time since, our country has been roiled by more violence, protests, and a renewed call to confront systemic racism. And this instructive volume has solidified its place as something of a “common read” to understand both racism and anti-racism today. This is a chance for more UUSM members and friends to join us as we reconvene to review Dr. Kendi’s lessons and apply them to what we have seen and experienced during this difficult years.

Ibram Kendi is a professor of history and international relations and founder of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University, along with a new center at Boston University. He became the youngest winner of the National Book Award for his previous work, “Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America.” In “How to be an Antiracist,” he argues that a redefinition of terms — focusing on policies rather than attitudes and feelings — is in order if we are to properly confront the historical legacy and enduring oppressive systems of racism. Drawing on his personal story of struggle and awakening, he writes that “being an anti-racist requires persistent self-awareness, constant self-criticism, and regular self-examination.”

The Faith In Action: Peace & Social Justice Committee undertakes this study as part of ongoing work we have been doing for many years. Study groups such as this (following texts like “The New Jim Crow,” “This Changes Everything,” “The Third Reconstruction,” “Justice on Earth,” and “White Fragility”) help us, together, to seek knowledge and grow in our understanding of how systemic racism continues to shape our society. Growing our knowledge and understanding, in turn, help us to bear witness and work for change as part of our congregation’s commitment to UU principles of love and justice.

Please join us for this important work!

This sermon will invite listeners to spend some time contemplating how they understand and embody anti-oppression work  in their spiritual lives and practices. You'll learn a bit more about me and my path, and together we'll encourage one another to clarify and embody our commitment to liberatory insights and actions in 2021, Year Two of a global pandemic, continuing economic and political polarization and distress, and climate crisis. 

One of the consolations for the loneliness and monotony of the past year has been the companionship of nature. Forest, desert, river, ocean all remind us that we are not as alone as we thought. We just have to listen.

Join us as we explore our ministerial priorities, new church offerings, and developmental progress this church year. We will also honor the arrival of the Lunar New Year as we celebrate and deepen our commitments to multiculturalism as a congregation.