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.