Newsletter for May, 2014
From Our Minister:
Dear members and friends,
I’ve just started taking a civic engagement class, called the People’s Academy, where we are learning all about how Santa Monica works. At our first class, we took a look at the city budget and asked the City Manager how to get things done in Santa Monica. He said some people think city government is a vending machine — you put in your money, you get your candy. (And if you don’t get your candy, what do you do? That’s right, you kick the machine!)
But government, he said, isn’t like that. (He also mentioned it’s no fun being treated like a broken vending machine.) Instead, he thinks government is a barn-raising: a group of people with different skills, interests, and abilities coming together and sharing resources to do something too big and too important to do alone.
You know, I’ve heard that before — right here at church, where we practice congregational polity, a way of sharing leadership and participating in the decisions that concern all of us. Congregational polity is a legacy from our spiritual ancestors, the Pilgrims, who so famously promised one another their mutual aid and support. On Sunday, May 18, at our Annual Congregational Meeting, you’ll be asked to remember that promise and to lend your aid and support to 373 of your fellow church members as we elect our leaders, approve our budget, tend to our buildings, and take a stand on the justice issues of our time.
In the City of Santa Monica, we’re known for a high level of civic engagement. At 18th and Arizona, I want each
of us to be known for a high level of congregational engagement — including lending your voice, and your support, to the important decisions we must make together. I’ll see you at the Annual Meeting (and Barn-Raising) on May 18.
In faith,
Rev. Rebecca
P.S. Though we have two services, we are one congregation. Toward that end, we will have one service
celebrating the Coming of Age of our youth at 9 a.m. on Sunday, May 18, and one Annual Meeting at 11:30 a.m.
Additional seating, as well as sound and video of the service, will be provided in Forbes Hall as we experiment
with this schedule this year. Please plan to come to worship at 9 a.m. on May 18, enjoy a light brunch with our
Board of Directors in the courtyard after the service, and stay on for our Annual Meeting at 11:30 a.m.
From Our President:
May Day, when I was a little girl, was a day when we made little bouquets of flowers and left them on our neighbors’ doorsteps. This custom must have originated with my mother, and I have never heard of anyone else doing it. It definitely seems to come from a different time and place, and it is a happy memory for me, full of the joy of spring and the surprises it delivers. May was also the month of my favorite church Sunday of the year — flower communion. Here in Southern California, we are used to having flowers all the time, but for me, after living through a long, cold Wisconsin winter, flowers seemed incredibly beautiful and exciting. Each congregant brought a flower to share and took home a different one. I took two of my children back to Wisconsin to hold their naming services on flower Sunday. This year, around the time the Madison Unitarians are having flower communion, I will be chairing our May 18 Annual Meeting.
I do not associate the Annual Meeting with flowers, but I do consider it to be special and important. It is the
embodiment of our fifth principle: The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our
congregations and in our society at large. It is our chance to come together as one body to govern our community. We will elect our officers and members of the Board of Directors. We will review and approve a budget. We will hear the story of our building project and review its budget. We will vote to approve (or not) additional funds to complete the final phase of this project: replacement of electrical wiring and new lighting for the sanctuary. We will hear reports on the year from our minister, our treasurer, and our outgoing and incoming presidents. We will hear comments from the members of the church.
May 18 is also Coming of Age Sunday, and our youth will lead one service at 9 a.m. This is always a wonderful
service, and I encourage you to brave the early morning to experience it. There will only be this one service for this Sunday. Following the service, brunch will be available for purchase, provided by one of our small group ministry groups. The Annual Meeting will begin at 11:30 a.m. I hope to see you there. It means a great deal to me to see you all in the sanctuary, participating in the care of our church. When the meeting is over, I will be your Past President, and will have turned over the responsibilities of the office. No doubt I will breathe a sigh of relief. I plan to go outside and smell the flowers.
See you at the meeting,
Cynthia Cottam
Featured Articles:
How are Earth Day and Easter Related?
Lay Sermon on Easter/Earth Day, April 20
by Laura Mathews
Some of you may know me as a climate activist with Citizens’ Climate Lobby, the group I went to Washington with to lobby for a carbon tax. Others might know me more from my spiritual journey, that of striving to practice the teachings of Jesus. I’m honored to be here today to talk about them both.
And I’m here to pose a question: How are Earth Day and Easter related?
Easter, as one of the central celebrations of Christian teachings, and Earth Day, on Tuesday, a celebration of the planet we all share and need to care for — what do these have in common?
To my view, they share similar themes. They both celebrate life and they both encourage us to think of others.
This earth teems with life. In the five mass extinctions over hundreds of millions of years, many species were lost to us forever. But life as a whole bounced back, eventually evolving this last time to include us.
Yet now we face a possible mass extinction of our own doing due to climate change. The earth, as many have said before me, will be fine. It will adjust back to its normative temperature as it has done repeatedly, and life will again cover the planet as it always has.
But what will happen to us? That is the question. We may be facing radical changes to our way of life, where we can live, the foods that are available to us, even how long we can shower.
Beyond that, we will see upheaval as nations around the world struggle for survival. In many cases, as we’ve seen in the Sudan, Egypt, and Rwanda, fighting has started already, sparked by climate alterations that led to drought and rising food costs.
How can we ensure that this does not get out of hand, that we retain the best of ourselves while shedding the evils that have brought us to the brink?
This is where the meaning of Easter might bring some hope.
If you’re familiar with the Easter story you know that after being executed for activism against the regime at that time, the story says, Jesus came back to life. It goes on to say that after this resurrection, Jesus appeared to his fishermen friends on the beach one morning. He fed them a breakfast of fish and charged them to likewise "feed [his] sheep,” or tend to those he had shown the most love, as he would himself.
The story of rebirth and the call to be a shepherd, whether you believe it literally happened or not, has meaning for us today as we strive to discern how we should care for those most impacted by the changing environment, but who are the least to blame.
Some of you might be aware of the recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change detailing how the degradation of the earth’s climate is already impacting all the nations of the world. The report concluded that the brunt of it will be felt most by those who had the least to do with causing it. Unfortunately, the nations most responsible for the damage resist helping poorer nations adapt and cope. And unfortunately, those poorer nations often turn to violence and upheaval to defend their children and their future.
This could be a story of slow or sudden death, of the human race crucifying itself by turning a blind eye or drowning itself in conflict over resources. But like the story of the earth, the story of humanity has always been one of rebirth and renewal. I believe the Easter story has seeds of this promise in it. “Feeding the sheep” is a metaphor that has meaning to me as I consider my obligation to those on the other side of world.
I remember meeting a young woman from Bulgaria on a trip to Greece several years ago. She wound up saving me from missing a connection and being stranded for several days.
We subsequently had dinner together. She ate the humble meal she had in her bag. I ordered the seafood pasta, from which I proceeded to pick out the squid and the octopus. She watched me for a moment, then said, “Are you going to eat that?”
I said no, I didn’t like it. She bluntly said, “In Bulgaria, we would never waste good food like that. Can I eat it?” Taken aback, I said, “Sure,” and got her another fork. She happily devoured all my leftovers.
This blew me away. I really had to analyze it to figure out what had happened. My initial inner protest was, “Well, I paid for it, I don’t have to eat it.” Immediately following that was the realization that this is probably a uniquely American attitude. “If I can pay for it, I’m entitled to waste it.” I discovered to my chagrin that this was a value I had completely absorbed. I felt it was my right to do whatever I please with whatever I had bought and paid for.
I started noticing how much that assumption colored my actions. I would buy too much produce and let it go bad. I would drive to a store two blocks away so I wouldn’t have to carry things home. I would leave lights on because I didn’t like to walk into dark rooms.
But isn’t the fresh produce about more than the kale or the oranges? It’s also the trucks bringing the produce to market, the water used to grow the plants, the labor that had harvested it. When I threw out that orange, I was wasting all of that. Was I really entitled to do that just because I’d paid the eightynine cents?
It was when I realized that somewhere, someone was burning a chunk of coal to get me those lights that the switches were finally changed to “off.”
That encounter with my Bulgarian friend changed me. I still take way more than my share compared to the rest of the world, because I’m still living in America. I can’t do much about that. But I also have something that Bulgarian girl doesn’t have. I have a voice in the most powerful political landscape in the world.
My voice, just by virtue of the fact that I was born and live here, can reach farther and do more than millions of voices in Bangladesh, in Sudan, in Bulgaria. This is the thing I should not waste. Since I am enjoying more than my share of what the earth has to offer, I also should speak up more than my share to balance that. If everyone on the earth had an equal voice, this would not be necessary. But, they don’t. I have to be active for the earth and my brothers and sisters in faraway lands who cannot speak for themselves.
A couple weeks ago I attended a forum for those running for retiring Henry Waxman’s seat in Congress. In the Q&A period, I got up and asked, “Waxman has been a giant fighting against climate change and for the environment. How do you plan to fill those very big shoes?”
One of those six will probably go to Washington in Waxman’s place. By asking the question, I let them know that I’d be holding them accountable. I let them know that I expect them to make this issue a priority. I let them know I’d be watching.
In this election year, each of us has multiple opportunities to speak up for our brothers and sisters across the globe — with our questions, with our being educated on the issues, with our vote. Even our one vote, here in the U.S., can do way more than we know.
Today, too, there are hundreds and thousands of earnest people — scientists, activists, even politicians — working to mitigate and adapt to the changing climate. They deserve our support for research and our educated influence on policy-making. I encourage everyone to think about what aspects of this challenge most move you, and take that energy and turn your passion into action. The more of us who speak up, the better.
When we talk about saving the earth, we are really talking about saving ourselves. The earth will be fine, with or without us. What each of us needs to decide is what aspects of humanity are worth allowing to continue.
Do we continue with rampant consumption and the waste that goes along with it?
Or do we become reborn as a civilization that values ideas over objects, relationships over possessions, giving over receiving?
Do we continue to claim, as Americans, “If I can pay for it, I am entitled to waste it?”
Or, even if it means we have to learn to consume less, do we become willing to share?
The rebirth and resurrection that humanity must undergo will change us from what we are today into what we need to be tomorrow. We must welcome that change. Wasteful practices must be left in the tomb, and seeing ourselves as part of a larger whole is due for resurrection. We can resurrect it first in our own hearts, and then look for ways to “feed the sheep.” In the process, we might just save ourselves.
Annual Report of the UU Santa Monica Newsletter Team
Editor-in-chief : Charles Haskell, (present term: July 2013 to June 2015)
Editors: Laura Eklund, Liz Fuller, Joyce Holmen, Rima Snyder, Jennifer Westbay Calendar: Laura Eklund
Art Directors: Charles Haskell, Wendell Pascual, Carol Ring, Pam Teplitz
Photographers: Charles Haskell, Carol Ring
Distribution: Elizabeth Fuller (electronic edition) and Peggy Kharraz (paper edition)
Staff changes in 2013-2014: Geralyn Lambson and Carol-Jean Teuffel retired from the committee after many years of service. We will miss them both. Wendell Pascual has joined the team as a graphic designer. He is a highly creative professional from UCLA. We welcome him warmly to our newsletter team.
Charge: The primary function of the newsletter is to inform the congregation and visitors of church issues, programs, and activities. The Newsletter Team is responsible for production of the newsletter, including making reasonable discretionary decisions relating to content and design. The team chooses its own editor-in-chief for a two-year term, subject to approval by the board of directors. Space and emphasis in the newsletter is allocated according to priorities that are available on request. All newsletter items should be emailed to newsletter@uusm.org by noon on the 15th of the month. Articles received by this deadline are published, provided they are considered appropriate material for the newsletter. Articles received after the deadline may or may not be published, depending on available space and whether the material can be added to the issue without disrupting our publication schedule. The editor-in-chief may edit material for length, style, grammar, etc., and refuse material that is not appropriate. Any questions or problems concerning the newsletter should be addressed to the editor-in-chief. All material published is copyrighted and is the property of the church.
RELIGIOUS PRACTICES IN OTHER COUNTRIES: Carol Ring shares photos from her recent trip.
Left, a monk bows at the gate of a Buddhist stupa in Nepal; right, a Hindu woman offers flowers and candles at an Indian roadside shrine during the Spring Holi celebration.
News & Announcements:
May Generous Congregation
This month, 50% of our non-pledge offering will go to Unitarian Universalism beyond our congregation, including the Unitarian Universalist Association, UU Musician’s Network, UU Ministry for the Earth, and UU Pacific Southwest District.
One Service Only on May 18
Please note that there will be ONE SERVICE ONLY on Sunday, May 18...at 9:00 a.m. Our congregational Annual Meeting will be held in the Sancturary at 11:30.
Membership Trends
This chart shows the average number of members at UU Santa Monica each year from 1963 to the present time. Also shown are the periods of time that our settled ministers have served during this time. Breaks in the straight lines represent periods when ministerial duties were covered by a series of interim ministers. The membership information was provided by Warren Mathews. — Charles Haskell
Need a New Photo?
Member photographs will be taken on May 4 from 10 to 11 a.m. at the southwest corner of Forbes Hall. Look for Christine and Charles Haskell to check in.
CareNet Can Help
CareNet offers meals, rides, and cards to church members and friends. If you have such a need or know of someone who does, please call the church office, or call Karl Lisovsky, or send an email to carenet@uusm.org
Faith in Action News:
UUJMCA Justice Training
Join us at the Spring Justice Training!
Saturday, May 31
9:30 - 3:00
UU Church of Studio City
12355 Moorpark Street, Studio City
For more information or to register, visit uujmca.org/justicetraining
Sponsored by: The Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry of California,
Los Angeles & San Fernando Valley Cluster
$20 per person, no one turned away
UUJM sustaining members receive $5 discount
FIA Program on Syria
More than 30 people heard UCLA doctoral candidate Ziad Abu-Rish speak on “Making Sense of the Syrian Tragedy” on April 20. The conflict began in 2011 when a group of boys in Daraa, inspired by the Tunisian uprising, publicly asserted that the people wanted the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad to fall. Their arrest and execution ignited the uprising, initially a civilian non-violent mass movement, which evolved into a militarized conflict between various factions and the regime and among the factions. Now, more than 130,000 people have been killed, 50% require direct aid to meet basic needs, and more than 9,000,000 have been displaced internally or externally.
Abu-Rish stressed Syria’s strategic importance to external powers: U.S., Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Russia as well as the U.S. government’s insistence that Russia and Iran not be included in any negotiations to end the conflict. Please go to www.sdaid.org if you would like to donate to aid Syrian refugees.
-- Roberta Frye
Green Living Committee News
In celebration of Earth Day, we would like to highlight and focus our attention on recognizing some green and sustainable leaders in our UU Community. The built environment contributes to 40% of our greenhouse gas emissions. Our members are leading the way towards making the built environment a better place to live and having less of an impact on our treasured Blue Marble, Earth.
John Zinner’s whole work life (and outside work) is centered on sustainability in the built environment. He advises Whole Foods and other large companies on how to make themselves more sustainable and have less impact on the earth. In acknowledgment of John’s pioneering contributions to the field of green building and sustainability, he was recognized by the U.S. Green Building Council as a LEED Fellow in 2012. He continues to advise our congregation on how to improve our sustainability in our buildings and campus.
Christine Hardin is a UU Santa Monica member and owner of Pickett Design Associates in Culver City. Christine is a leading interior designer in the healthcare industry as well as an experienced residential and commercial designer. She and her team (including Beth Brownlie) donated interior consulting services to the UU Forbes Hall and kitchen renovation. Function and sustainability were part of the goal in creating an aesthetically pleasing environment. She tirelessly pushes the envelope with her clients and project vendors to place environmental sustainability at the forefront of her design efforts.
A big thank you to both of you from the Green Living Committee and your UU community. Thank you for taking our Seventh Principle and promoting it in the workplace, the community, and at home.
Next month we will feature all the sustainable features we put into the new staff offices and sanctuary restroom.
— Beth Brownlie
Hunger Fund Donations
The UUCCSM Hunger Fund is running low! Monetary donations are needed to feed the participants at Step Up on 2nd — the monthly meal served by Faith in Action volunteers, and our sack lunch effort for P.A.T.H. through Lunches for Bunches. Make checks payable to UUCCSM — please mark “hunger” on your check memo line or envelope. For more information send an email to hunger@UUSM.orgSave the Date
The LA Pride Parade is Sunday, June 8.
Green Living Committee:
Splinters from the Board:
As of this April’s meeting the church has 373 members. Jenny Jay was re-instated, and Anne Escaron and Doug Worsham have joined us. During the month of March the UU Santa Monica Generous Congregation Contribution gave $652 to Homeboy Industries, $90 to LA GOAL, and $218 to the Chalice Oak Foundation.
The Rev. Rebecca Benefiel Bijur reported that on the invitation of Len and Elizabeth Adler she will be convening a small group for folks in their 80s and 90s, meeting for the first time this month. Also, through her partnership with CLUE, Rev. Rebecca joined a Community and Worker Foot Washing for Maundy Thursday at St. Augustine’s-by-the-Sea.
DRE Catherine Farmer Loya brought to the board that this year’s participants in the Coming of Age program would like to have only one service this year, at 9 a.m. As this opened up the possibility of moving our usual start time for the Annual Congregational Meeting, the board voted to start the annual congregational meeting at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, May 18.
Church Administrator Nurit Gordon reported that the Empty Bowls Fundraising was a great success, collecting more than $2,395 to be sent to the West Side Food Bank. While the Hunger Fund contributions keep coming in, $4,200 per year is needed to keep up Lunches for Bunches and Step Up on Second.
Music Director DeReau Farrar announced that due to scheduling conflicts VanNessa Hulme will no longer be our Soprano Section Leader. DeReau also attended the “Finding Our Way Home” retreat for UU church professionals of color in Boston, MA. He said it was “an incredibly encouraging and enriching experience and he was grateful for the opportunity to widen his personal and professional community.”
Jerry Gates and Steve Young presented the Nomination slate for the 2014/2015 board. The Board was appreciative of their hard work and efforts.
Karl Lisovsky, Bob Dietz, and Bryan Oakes presented their proposal for audio visual equipment and access in the sanctuary, which the board approved. Again, the board appreciated their detailed proposals and hard work.
Beth Brownlie and Bryan Oakes updated the board on the building projects. The board approved the last of the change orders and were given a summary of the overall costs of the project. Everyone is delighted by the lovely new office space for our staff.
Acting Treasurer Alan Brunell led the discussion regarding the budget to be presented at the Annual Congregational Meeting on May 18. Although some were concerned over the amount of deficit built into the budget, the board approved it.
The next board meeting will be on May 13, 2014. The meeting was adjourned at 10:30 p.m.
Other UU News & Events:
UUJMC Spring Justice Training
Join us at the Spring Justice Training!
Saturday, May 31
9:30 - 3:00
UU Church of Studio City
12355 Moorpark Street, Studio City
For more information or to register, visit uujmca.org/justicetraining
Sponsored by:
The Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry of California, Los Angeles & San Fernando Valley Cluster
$20 per person, no one turned away
UUJM sustaining members receive $5 discount
RE News:
From Our DRE
This month’s ministry theme of AUTHORITY takes us right to the heart of our Unitarian Universalist tradition. Early Unitarians often came to their antitrinitarian views because in their own readings of scripture they couldn’t find mention of or support for the doctrine of the Trinity. They held the firm conviction that each person has the right and responsibility to use their own power of reason to determine what was true (which leads directly to our fourth UU Principle — the free and responsible search for truth). And on the other side of our UU family, the
Universalists chose to believe that a truly loving God would see to it that in the end all people would be saved, taking a stand for universal salvation in opposition to the popular Calvinist theology of their time. While our UU theology these days differs quite a bit from the beliefs of our spiritual ancestors, what is as true now as it was then is the way we answer this question — by whose authority are matters of faith and belief determined? Why, by our own, of course.
When our 2014-15 RE program launches in September, our 3rd to 5th graders will take part in the return of the science-focused UUniverse Story curriculum developed right here at UUCCSM by Ian Dodd and Margot Page. When we offered this program for the first time several years ago, one of the young people asked a very good question — why do we do science at church? Part of why we “do science” is to engage children’s sense of mystery and wonder by learning about the natural world around us, and help them recognize the interconnectedness of all that exists (our seventh UU Principle — the interconnected web of all existence of which we are a part). But another reason why we feel so passionate about this program is because of the central question that provides the foundation of the whole curriculum: How do we know what we know? The answer that we are our own highest religious authority is a central one for Unitarian Universalists, but it is also incomplete if left there; we not only need to be free to make our own choices about what is true and right, but also need to know not only that we should choose, but also how to base our choices on critical thinking and reason. Because if we don’t know “how we know what we know,” we also won’t know how to separate good science from bad science…or meaningful ethics/religion/values from superficial, and so forth.
UU religious educator Katie Covey has developed a “UU Equation” that suggests that by teaching our seven UU Principles and seven UU Sources (the usual six as well as her own addition of our UU heritage), by way of the four themes of world religions, our Jewish and Christian heritage, Unitarian Universalism, and OWL, we transmit four essentially UU beliefs. The four beliefs she posits are:
- We believe that by being together in community we learn best and love best.
- We believe that there is potential for good in each person.
- We believe that we can trust the inner voice of our hearts and use reason and compassion to make decisions.
- We believe that choosing is the essential religious act.
I invite you to join me this month in celebrating the sources of authority we hold sacred — the inner voice of reason and compassion in each of our hearts as well as the deep wisdom to be found outside of ourselves, in the teachings of science, the rich heritage of our UU tradition, the prophetic voices of people throughout human history and in our own time, and the practice of faith of religious traditions all over the world.
— Catherine Farmer Loya
Ministry Theme for May: Authority
Bettye Barclay has provided this list of weekly thoughts about our ministerial theme for May. Daily thoughts are published in the weekly email announcements.
Week 1. The ultimate authority must alwaysrest with the individual’s own reason and critical analysis. — Dalai Lama
Week 2. I do not believe in immortality of theindividual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind it. — Albert Einstein
Week 3. There is no necessity to separate themonarch from the mob; all authority is equally bad. — Oscar Wilde
Week 4. No Man has any natural authority over his fellow men. — Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Week 5. The ultimate court of appeal is observation and experiment…not authority. — Thomas Huxley
Children's RE
This month we’ll be wrapping up our 2013-14 RE program year in all of our classes, and preparing for a fabulous Lifespan RE Sunday on June 1.
The K through 1st grade Our Whole Lives class will wrap up mid-month, and on May 18 we’ll gather as a full congregation at 9 a.m. for a worship service led by this year’s UUCCSM 8th graders as we celebrate their Coming of Age.
We are also getting ready for our summer RE programs and are excited to announce what we’ll be offering this year. The preschool class will be reprising the very popular Summer of Seuss program last offered in 2012. And for elementary and up, we’re crafting our very own summer-long, hands-on exploration of our seven UU Principles. For both programs we will be recruiting church members to sign up to lead or assist for one Sunday
during the summer, so start thinking about your schedule now!
— Liza Cranis
Youth
On March 30, fourteen youth from YRUU, the high school group, took over the pulpit to talk about “Unitarian Universalism in the Public View.” They scoured social media to find out what people are saying about UUs. They went down to the Third Street Promenade to ask people on the street their impressions of UU. And they shared their own impressions about what Unitarian Universalism means to them. One of the highlights of the day was an original poem by Jacob Weiner (see below).
— Dan Patterson
ORIGINAL POEM READ AT THE YRUU SERVICE ON MARCH 30 BY JACOB WEINER
Why are you you?
What makes you,
You?
What makes you,
You?
Is it how you answer the BIG questions?
Or how you question the bold answers?
Can you be molded by these questions?
Or how you question the bold answers?
Can you be molded by these questions?
Or must you mold yourself through your questioning?
They ask:
What god do you believe in?
We ask:
Do you believe in the worth
and dignity of every person?
and dignity of every person?
So what defines you?
The answers,
The questions,
The questions,
Or h w you question the
answers given.
Why are we us?
What made us UU?
Were we dragged here as a child.
Guided by a friend.
Forced to make a religious
compromise.
compromise.
Drawn in by the community.
Or just Tempted by snacks.
Or just Tempted by snacks.
Even if all of the above apply,
Why did we stay?
Why did we stay?
We
The Young Religious Unitarian
Universalists,
Universalists,
Y R U U
Stand in front of you today.
Not as Zombies,
But as young adults,
But as young adults,
Trying to show you what the
public thinks we are.
public thinks we are.
And through extensive research
we have concluded.
we have concluded.
We are really great.
But no one knows who we are.
Does it matter?
In fact the public not knowing
who we are only makes us
more special.
who we are only makes us
more special.
Our small quirky community
of loving individuals.
of loving individuals.
Every shape.
Every size.
Every age.
Every color.
Every size.
Every age.
Every color.
EVERYONE is welcome here.
Our uniqueness is our beauty.
No matter how you got here,
No matter how you got here,
No matter why you
stayed here.
stayed here.
YRUU is more than a group
It’s a life changing experience,
It’s a second family,
It’s a life changing experience,
It’s a second family,
It’s a new perspective,
It’s a place to explore the world,
It’s a place to explore the world,
And it’s a place to explore
your self.
Audlt RE
Wednesday Night Writers: A welcoming space for all writers, regardless of prior writing experience or expertise. Please join us May 14 and May 28 (second and fourth Wednesdays), 7 p.m., Forbes Hall for writing, helpful critiques, and moral support. Unlock your creativity! No sign-ups required — just show up!
Lifespan Religious Education in May
Long, Strange Trip: A UU History: We continue our six-part video and discussion series about the history of Unitarian and Universalist thought from the beginning of the Christian era to what we know today as Unitarian Universalism.
“Part III: American Unitarianism.” Join us May 21 (third Wednesday of May), 7 p.m., in Forbes Hall, to learn about the development of Unitarianism in America from 1620 through the death of Theodore Parker in 1860. Highlights of the hour-long video include:
- The early fractures between religious liberals and Congregationalists in Colonial America;
- The effect of Joseph Priestley’s immigration and William Ellery Channing’s role in the formation of the American Unitarian movement;
- The final split between the Unitarians and the Trinitarian Congregationalists in the 1820s from both a theological and a legal perspective;
- The Transcendentalism of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, and Theodore Parker;
- The key role Fuller played in moving Transcendentalism out from a niche movement in Concord to the driving force behind Unitarianism;
- The role Theodore Parker played in advancing Unitarianism beyond its traditional Bible-centered roots and his role in some of the great social justice issues of the day, especially the abolition of slavery.
The screening will be followed by guided discussion. You are welcome to bring your own brown-bag supper for
pre-workshop socializing at 6 p.m. Childcare is available on request. Sign up in Forbes Hall at the LRE table after Sunday services.
Patio Chat
Join us for our monthly UUCCSM Theme Discussion with Leon Henderson-MacLennan. Sunday, May 25, 10:10 a.m. on the Patio. The topic will be Justice.