Civil Awakening (Online Service)
Sunday, June 7, 2020 - 10:00am
Rev. Jeremiah Kalendae
Worship Associate:
Cassie Winters
Our congregation proudly declared “Black Lives Matter!” and we commit ourselves to the difficult soul work of dismantling white supremacy within ourselves and in our society. Join us for a special service exploring the liberatory power being unleashed in the world as we transform LGBTIQ Pride Month into an intersectional call for racial justice.
Finance/Budget Information - Zoom/Online
Finance/Budget Information. There will also be a meeting to discuss the financial status of the church and budget for the 2020–2021 year meeting. Join this meeting on Sunday, June 14, 11:30 am. Contact vilma@soc.ucla.edu or admin@uusm.org for Zoom information.
Date / Time:
Sunday, June 14, 2020 - 11:30am - 1:30pm
Contact Name:
Vilma Ortiz
Meet and Greet the Candidates - Zoom/Online
Meet and Greet the Candidates: You can join a Zoom meeting with candidates for the board and Nominating Committee. Candidates will be available on Thursday, June 11, 7:00–8:00 pm and Friday, June 12, 6:00–7:00 pm. Since this is a large group, we are having two meetings to accommodate everyone. Please join us on one or both dates and engage with them. Contact president@uusm.org or admin@uusm.org for Zoom information.
Date / Time:
Friday, June 12, 2020 - 6:00pm - 7:00pm
Contact Name:
Vilma Ortiz
Meet and Greet the Candidates - Zoom/Online
Meet and Greet the Candidates: You can join a Zoom meeting with candidates for the board and Nominating Committee. Candidates will be available on Thursday, June 11, 7:00–8:00 pm and Friday, June 12, 6:00–7:00 pm. Since this is a large group, we are having two meetings to accommodate everyone. Please join us on one or both dates and engage with them. Contact president@uusm.org or admin@uusm.org for Zoom information.
Date / Time:
Thursday, June 11, 2020 - 7:00pm - 8:00pm
Contact Name:
Vilma Ortiz
Parent's Meeting Group - Zoom/Online
Please contact Teri Lucas at uusmreassist@gmail.com for the Zoom link information.
Date / Time:
Sunday, June 7, 2020 - 12:00pm - 1:30pm
Contact Name:
Teri Lucas
Nature Journaling with Dorothy Steinicke - Zoom/Online
A lifelong lover of the outdoors, Dorothy has more than twenty years experience leading hikes for children and for adults and introducing people to different aspects of nature in Topanga Canyon, Ballona Wetlands and Dockweiler Beach. She surveys beaches for the Audubon Society looking for endangered beach birds. She has been involved in programs that document amphibians in local creeks and has been involved in programs to monitor turtle populations.
We will have a brief discussion of how important natural places have been to us. We will then engage in some exercises using writing and drawing to more closely observe natural items. I will address the anxiety that the majority of people feel about drawing. We will take time to work individually and then share, not necessarily what we have done-although that will be welcome, but what insights we gained from making our observations. We will start with brief times of observation and then gradually extend them. I have designed this so that it can be done by people who do not currently have access to the outdoors.
Please contact Teri Lucas at uusmreassist@gmail.com for the Zoom link information.
Date / Time:
Sunday, June 21, 2020 - 1:00pm - 2:30pm
Contact Name:
Teri Lucas
AAHS Freethinker Forum - Zoom/Online
Date / Time:
Sunday, May 24, 2020 - 1:00pm - 2:30pm
Contact Name:
James Witker
What Do We Need to Live? (Online Service)
Theme:
Thresholds
Sunday, May 31, 2020 - 10:00am
Rev. Judith Meyer
Worship Associate:
Aubrey Sassoon
While it may be too soon to draw durable lessons from the pandemic, it still prompts us to ask ourselves what we need to live. Our awareness of suffering and uncertainty, combined with the challenge and sameness of our days, may offer some new answers.
The Rev. Judith Meyer served as the Minister of UUSM for 15 years, from 1993 to 2008. Upon her retirement, the congregation voted her Minister Emerita. She now lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, with her husband, David Denton. We’re excited that she can join us for this service.
Update/Disclaimer from Worship Associate Aubrey Sassoon:
While our Sunday worship for this morning, Sunday May 31st, will soon be streamed, we thought it important to preface it with this disclaimer: due to the nature of our online worship format many of the components of the service are recorded ahead of time -- sometimes by as much as a week -- and so when events develop quickly we’re less able to give them the immediate space to process as we might otherwise during an in-person service.
This week has been a hard one, and for none more so than our Black and African-American friends, family, and community members. The threat of violence against Christian Cooper in New York, the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis, and of Tony McDade in Tallahasee, just to name the recent few, are tragic and enraging and have inspired thousands upon thousands of people across the country and the world to protest the treatment of Black persons, particularly men, in our white-centered culture.
As a leader in our UUSM community and your worship associate this morning I want to take this opportunity to affirm that the violence leveled at these men, and the loss of their lives weighs heavily on our community. To be true friends, allies, accomplices, to the glory of the lives of people in our communities and beyond who are different from us we have to open ourselves bravely to accountability and not perform acts of solidarity simply for social clout, but because they are the right thing to do as we live into the principles of our Unitarian Universalist beliefs.
Some protests, including those here in Los Angeles, have developed elements of what some call rioting or looting. Many are familiar with the quote of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who explained that “a riot is the language of the unheard.” It is an expression of the anger and heartache and loss and trauma of generations after generations of people who have been told that their pain is lesser and their futures are not their own to build, and that to protest or resist this will never be acceptable. As a white individual I have not grown up with this burden, nor have my brother or sister or mother or father. I cannot comprehend, nor will I ever, the full extent to which that affects a person, and so I refuse to be the judge of how anyone responds when that pain is prodded to the surface.
In our own church we will be working to build space for those who are most directly affected as they process these events and aspects of our community and society.
As I sit here this Saturday night, unsure still what changes may come in the morning as a city-wide curfew has come into place, I hope the worship we present to you can still bring solace and support to any who need it.
I am glad that you are here.
-Aubrey Sassoon, Worship Associate
Our Sabbath (Online Service)
Theme:
Thresholds
Sunday, May 24, 2020 - 10:00am
Rev. Jeremiah Kalendae
Worship Associate:
Sue Bickford
Sundays are a sacred time for worship, rest, and play in our tradition. That is perhaps especially true in this time of quarantine. How did it come to be that we gather like this for a time of Sabbath? This week we will explore the Jewish and Christian origins of our sacred day and its relevance to our lives.
Liminal Space (Online Service)
Theme:
Thresholds
Sunday, May 17, 2020 - 10:00am
Rev. Kikanza Nuri-Robins
Worship Associate:
Natalie Kahn
When you are finished with where you are, and not yet where you are going, and not entirely clear about why you are where you are, you are in Liminal Space. Resting in the arms of ambiguity might become a spiritual practice for you. Join us as we consider how we might take greater advantage of the grey areas in our lives.
The Rev. Dr. Kikanza Nuri-Robins is a consultant to people and organizations in transition. She works with non-profits and faith-based organizations around the country helping them address issues of leadership, communication and cultural competence. Her most recent book is Fish Out of Water and she is currently collaborating on a book about gender identities. She is a member of our UUSM community. http://www.KikanzaNuriRobins.com