Reflection & Action
Week 2
January 8-15, 2017
Full Week Faith

Our worship theme for January, 2017 is "A Community of Prophecy." Throughout the month, we will send an email mid-week containing words for reflection, a suggested spiritual practice, and opportunities for action.
In This Issue
Words for Reflection

" Our prophets died for the freedom of faith;
We are here in their spirit.
We are here to practice and sustain our living tradition;

To light a chalice,
Claiming for justice
The heat and power of fire.

In our free faith,
We are here,
Seeking freedom from despair,
The freedom to be loved as ourselves,
And the freedom to grow beyond imagination.

We are here,
Gathered in the name of all that we find holy.
Let us give thanks for the gift of gathering here."

-Rev. Heather K. Janules

Readings from the Common Bowl  from January 8, 2017
SpiritualSpiritual Practice
"The idea of spiritual practices encourages individuals to take responsibility for their own spiritual development by spending time working on it, deliberating on its meaning and how best to pursue it, seeking to understand the sacred through reading and the counsel of others, and seeking to have contact with the sacred through personal reflection and prayer." - 
Robert Wuthnow

The spiritual practice we offer this week is a meditation on music. Music and tonal chanting is used to connect with values and what is greater than ourselves in many faith traditions, including Buddhist, Islamic, and Hindu traditions. Our Ministerial Intern, Elizabeth Mount has adapted a general practice to resonate with the values of our UU faith. This week, we will highlight "Ella's Song" by Ysaye Barnwell, performed in our service on January 8.
 
justice defined
ActionsProphetic Actions
in the home, community, and wider world

This week we continue to explore what prophecy means for our faith tradition. Through "prophetic actions," of word and deed, we seek to reflect and support our Unitarian Universalist values in our homes, community, and the wider world. 

With this goal in mind, here are some suggestions of prophetic actions:

1.  Write a Letter (with warm cookies)

Thursday, January 12, join Warm Cookies for the Revolution to learn why letter writing is still an important and effective part of civic activism and perhaps write a missive of your own. Guests will include Denver City Councilman Jolon Clark's aide Anita BaƱuelos and Westword editor Patricia Calhoun to discuss the value of letter-writing. As always, there will be cookies! 

All ages are welcome. Let the organizers know if you will be wanting childcare during the event via the event page linked below.

Thursday, January 12, 2017, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
at the McNichols Building, 144 W. Colfax Ave., Denver ( map )

2. Use Words that Offer Welcome

As we gather in community to offer community connection to people of many different identities, we sometimes find our language does not fully reflect the diversity of our congregation today. We hope to continue the conversation opened in our Sunday service on Jan. 8th with a resource about pronoun usage for non-binary identified individuals, including Mx. Elizabeth Mount, our Ministerial Intern. Learn more at the link below.


3. Lift Your Voice in Song

Local artists and activists lift up the power of protest music with the performance series "No Enemies." On Wednesday, January 18, we encourage you to attend "No Enemies: Awakening," an evening of powerful performances and community singing led by the Flobots and the Colorado Children's Chorale's 303 Choir, and several other artists. Watch a video preview and get tickets, $10 per person, via the event page linked below. 

Wednesday, January 18, 8:00 p.m. (doors open at 7:30 p.m.)
North High School,  2960 North Speer Boulevard, Denver (map)

4. Show Up for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Marade

Whether you stop by to share a warm greeting or accompany us on our route from City Park to Civic Center Park, we ask all in our congregation to join us at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day "Marade." The annual "Marade" is both a parade and a march: a commemoration of the leaders and good works that have inspired us and rally to end to the inequities and injustices that remain. Find more details via the link below.

Monday, January 16, 9:00 a.m. (Procession Begins at 10:00 a.m.)
MLK, Jr. Memorial Statue in City Park, Denver ( map)


*Links may require a Facebook account to open. If the links do not work for you, please contact Ministerial Intern Elizabeth Mount, elizabeth@firstuniversalist.org, for event details.
" Every single human being should be the fulfilment of a prophecy: for every human being should be the realisation of some ideal, either in the mind of God or in the mind of man."  - Oscar Wilde,  De Profundis

The Ministerial Team of First Universalist Church of Denver

Rev. Jeannie Shero, Senior Minster

Elizabeth Mount, Ministerial Intern

Aaron Norris, Ministerial Resident