Hosted by Interweave in conjunction with amBI, L.A.'s Bi Social Community. Anyone who is bisexual, fluid, pansexual, queer, a friend/ally is welcome. For questions contact Judy Federick.

This October, our Generous Congregation recipient is the Westside Food Bank. UU Santa Monica has a long relationship with Westside Food Bank: donating food, volunteering labor, and raising money. Most UUSM youth and young adults remember trekking over on a Sunday morning to sort food and learn more about hunger in our community. 

This year there’s a way that UU Santa Monica members and friends can support the Westside Food Bank and get some exercise in the process. Westside Food Bank is conducting their 31st 5k Hunger Walk virtually, October 17-24. And the UUSM Hunger Task Force is on the march!

We are doubling down to support Westside Foodbank with cash. They distribute to more than 70 local service agencies and can stretch a dollar like nobody’s business. The economy is improving, but even before the pandemic, an estimated one in five individuals in LA County lived with food insecurity.

If you are able, please join us to walk the 5K, on your own time, in your own neighborhood; or with the group on October 17. Yes, a real in-person group is walking October 17 at 2:00 pm. We’re starting at 18th and Arizona, but note that the church buildings and campus are is closed. This is a public, intergenerational event, so mask up and kids must have an escort.

If you’re not able to walk, please help the Hunger Task Force by supporting an individual walker or the team.

Lois Hutchinson and Jo An Peters will lead the walk, and all funds will go directly to the Westside Foodbank to help food-insecure persons in our communities. This is a way to have some fun, in addition to your regular support via Generous Congregation donations on Sundays.

Remember, lots of people are walking on their own time in their own neighborhoods, but we will be walking at 2:00 pm on October 17 starting at church. We are hoping to get ten walkers with ten sponsors each, raising $1000… or even more.  It's going to be super fun!  Everyone is welcome, kids, dogs, families, single folks, old and young… Come join us as we walk AND make a difference!

The currently-playing movie Whale Rider depicts a community of indigenous people in New Zealand trying to adapt, survive, and thrive in the modern world. Despite the apparent differences from the situation of our own religious community, there is much we can learn about the creative tension between tradition and innovation from this charming film. Silvio Nardoni is affiliate minister of our church. Music Sarah Kirkup, flute

Dr. Kerry Noonan will talk about the commonalities among related spiritual movements that have emerged in the last thirty years, variously called Earth-Based Spiritualities or Neopaganism. She will also look at the distinctive features that differentiate them from each other, what these traditions have to teach us today, and how they dovetail with Unitarian Universalist principles. Dr. Noonan earned a Ph.D. in Folklore and Mythology from UCLA, has been following the path of the Goddess in earth-based spirituality for almost twenty years, and is ordained through Temple of Diana, a feminist religious organization dedicated to women and the Goddess. She teaches at UCLA and Cal State Northridge.