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MAY 2017
Monthly Bulletin
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Whoever you are, whomever you love,
However you express your identity;
Whatever your situation in life,
Whatever your experience of the holy,
Your presence here is a gift.
Whether you are filled with sadness,
Overflowing with joy,
Needing to be alone with yourself,
Or eager to engage with others,
You have a place here.
All are welcome here.
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WORSHIP
Services are Sundays
9:15 and 11:15am
Contemplative Worship on Wednesdays
11:45am on the outdoor labyrinth or in the Sanctuary
Theme for May:
EMBODIMENT
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May Sermons
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May 7:
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What is White Supremacy?
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May 14:
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Heartache and Wholeness |
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May 21:
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The Use of a Good Song |
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May 28:
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Too Fast
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Become part of the Worship Weaver Team:
Want to join the Worship Weavers Guild?
Until recently, our Worship Weavers Guild was really only open to people willing to take an "out front" role in worship - doing readings, offering reflections, and any of the other things that take place in the front of the sanctuary. But not everyone who has gifts to offer our congregational worship is comfortable - or even able - to get up in front of people. Beginning this next year (2017-2018), we are expanding our Guild from its current 6 members to a range from 7-9, and we're accepting applications from people who would prefer to engage only "behind the scenes."
Click
HERE for more information/to apply.
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Fun fact: the first time a crèche, a nativity scene, was ever used as part of a Christmas Eve service was in 1223. It was a living crèche - with a real donkey, a real ox, a real mother and father, and a real baby - and it happened in a cave just outside the small Italian town of Grecio. The idea for this came to Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, whom we know today as St. Francis of Assisi. Francis wanted people to have a real, visceral experience of the teaching of the incarnation - that the God many thought so distant had not only became one with humanity, but had come into the world as a tiny, vulnerable, helpless baby.
"Incarnate" comes from the Latin roots in and carn, literally "into flesh." "Embody" is a more recent term (it originated in the mid-16th century), but it means the same thing - "to come into the (a) body."
This month the theme we're exploring is embodiment. I think there are really two interrelated questions that we'll be dancing with:
- What does it mean to embody something?
- What should we be trying to embody?
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Spirit of Life
whom we have called by many names
in thanksgiving and in anguish-
Bless the poets and those who mourn
Send peace for the soldiers who did not make the wars
but whose lives were consumed by them
Let strong trees grow above graves far from home
Breathe through the arms of their branches
The earth will swallow your tears while the dead sing
"No more, never again, remember me."
For the wounded ones, and those who received them back,
let there be someone ready when the memories come
when the scars pull and the buried metal moves
and forgiveness for those of us who were not there
for our ignorance.
And in us, veterans in a forest of a thousand fallen promises,
let new leaves of protest grow on our stumps.
Give us courage to answer the cry of humanity's pain
And with our bare hands, out of full hearts,
with all our intelligence
let us create the peace.
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May Social Action Collection
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By Sally Bastian
Virginia Organizing is honored to have been chosen for the Social Action Collection on May 21 and so appreciates TJMC's support through the years.
Virginia Organizing is a non-partisan statewide grassroots organization dedicated to challenging injustice, and fights for the rights of the LGBT community (including marriage rights), for immigrant rights, for an end to racial profiling, for a strengthening of the social safety net, for a healthy environment, and more. With 10 organizers, Virginia Organizing continues to work to add more organizers and more chapters, in order to reach the scale needed to fight increasingly powerful moneyed and corporate interests. With the huge push to private (schools, prisons, Social Security, Medicare and more) and to weaken government protections for regular people and the environment, we must join together.
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Happy 5th Anniversary, Solar Panels!
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By Laura Horn
Ever since I served as your President, I've wanted to continue the discussion about our solar panels. Thanks to John Semmelhack's expertise and industry, we have some facts to share. Thanks to others "who were there," we have some history and perspective to share. So on Earth Day 2017, as we approach the 5-year anniversary of our solar panels, I offer some results, the cost and return on investment compared to expectations, a look at the decision process, and a look forward.
Continue reading
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Ordination of Pam Philips June 3 at 2PM
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By Bev Thierwechter
We, the TJMC-UU and the UU Community Church, are delighted to invite you to attend the Ordination of Pamela K. Philips into the Unitarian Universalist ministry on Saturday, June 3, 2017 at 2 pm in the TJMC sanctuary. A reception will follow in the Social Hall.
Ordination is the act by which a person becomes a minister. In our faith tradition, only a congregation can ordain a minister. Although we are part of a national organization, our Unitarian Universalist heritage has always been a religious tradition that values democracy in its governance, and the congregation's power to ordain is one part of this. It is a ceremony with great meaning for both the church community and the new minister.
Continue reading
Childcare will be available.
Please RSVP by May 15th
on childcare when you reply to the Paperless Post invitation, telling us how many children and their ages, so we can hire the appropriate number of child care staff. Contact ordination@uucharlottesville.org with questions.
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Reception at TJMC: Sunday, May 7@12:30 in Social Hall |
Then and There
I called out letters
blurred and less blurred.
My eyes were examined.
Machines and I agree.
I can see the written page,
the threading needle, the paved road.
I look and look for,
but what I can't see
is the later, the after this.
I am blind to then and there.
Susan Patrick
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With AmazonSmile, you can select Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church as your charity of choice so a portion of every purchase you make goes to supporting the work we do in our community. Please spread the word to your friends, family, and everyone who shops online.
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The TJMC-UU Monthly Bulletin is a digital publication of articles/essays that is published on or around the first of each month. Submissions should be saved as a Microsoft Word file including a title and by line, and emailed to
office@uucharlottesville.org by the
third Friday of the preceding month. Holidays may affect submission deadlines.
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