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9:15 and 11:15 a.m.
Intergerational Earth Day Celebration: "The Lorax"
Join us as we celebrate Earth Day and reflect upon ways that we can better care for our beautiful planet. A dedicated intergenerational cast of 40 puppeteers, singers, musicians, dancers, storytellers and actors will present the beloved Dr. Seuss story, featuring Laurie Green as the Lorax puppeteer, Henry McDaniel voicing the Once-ler, and Nathaniel Cox-Thurmond as the young Once-ler. Our ministers and musicians will create space for personal reflection and a renewal of our commitment to care for our earth.
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This Week in Religious Education:
This week RE Classes will not meet. We encourage families and teachers to attend our special Earth Day Intergenerational Service. Childcare will be available in Room 108. High School youth group will meet for a pizza lunch and then plant trees on church grounds.
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Our Folks...
Last weekend, two of our youth attended a "unCONquerable", an event held each year for UU youth in our region. Though the name and theme of the event changes yearly, the focus remains the same: acknowledging the shift (bittersweet for many) from being a "youth" to becoming a "young adult". We often refer to this as "bridging" - and in fact, many bridging services are held in congregations, at larger events known as cons, and even at the UUA General Assembly each year. This year, John Smith and Hans Kelson bridged into young adulthood!
A service of memory for Melissa Keller will be held here in our Meeting Room on
Monday, April 23 at 4:00 p.m.
A memorial service for John Hicks is planned for the afternoon of
June 30.
Our thoughts and hearts are with Tommie Owens, who was recently hospitalized with a broken hip. Cards are welcome.
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Pledge Update
We are grateful for the hard work of many people who made our Pledge Day - Community Day (and the following day's worship service) a huge success. And THANK YOU to those of you who have pledged - over 240 have made a commitment for next year's budget and we deeply appreciate each and every pledge people make to keep our congregation alive and thriving! If you have not pledged yet, please do so (
Click here to make your pledge for 2018-19 - choose "I want to make a Pledge Commitment" or contact the office staff). Our Board of Directors will reach out to folks who pledged last year (but haven't so far this year) so that we can put together a budget in advance of our Congregation Meeting. We are working hard to reach $650,000 and are three-quarters of the way there, so this is a critical time to receive pledges (and any increases you are able and willing to make). Thank you, again and again, for supporting this congregation!
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Join Green Sanctuary Task Force members and our youth group this Sunday afternoon to celebrate Earth Day!
As part of our permaculture vision we plan to plant 50 small, bare-root hazelnut tree saplings and spread a layer of wood chips along the north side of our property. Join us to celebrate Earth Day at
1:00 p.m.
this
Sunday, April 22
, if you are able to help.
This is a family-friendly event! We'll train you to use a planting bar to make the planting easy. And if we have enough volunteers we can plant 50 more hazelnuts along our south property, which we cleared of Asian honeysuckle last month.
If you'd like to share a pizza lunch with the youth group in Fellowship Hall at
12:30
, please contact Molly Donnell by
Saturday
afternoon so we can order enough. Or bring a bag lunch, as well as appropriate clothes, hats, gloves and shoes, and a wide shovel and rake if you can!
In preparation for planting the trees, we laid a biodegradable weed barrier, topped by 3" to 4" of 20-year old sawdust to kill the grass around the north hedge. This will reduce the need to mow and will control weeds on this stretch of our property. A layer of jute and the wood chips will top it off.
In a few years the hazelnuts on the north side will grow into a low, edible hedge, and provide a noise and wind barrier in the summer. They will provide a sense of enclosure along a walking path on the south. A few evergreens will provide some winter interest.
--Molly O'Donnell,
[email protected]
or 812-345-7399
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Just Peace Task Force Hosts Workshop on Abolishing Nuclear Weapons April 25
On Wednesday, April 25th at 7:00 p.m. here in our Fellowship Hall, Timmon Wallis and Vicki Elson of the Nobel Peace Prize winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons will lead an interactive workshop, "The Global Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons Begins Locally." It should be an empowering event. Co-sponsored by Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, the Just Peace Task Force of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Bloomington, the Peace and Social Concerns Committee of Bloomington Friends Meeting, and the Campaign for a Just Peace in Palestine/ Israel. Free -- all are welcome! Info, contact David Keppel.
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The Hoosier Abortion Fund needs your support!
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Your Pledge Dollars at Work
Your pledges will support a second year of the Wellspring program for spiritual deepening beginning next fall. It has been very successful during this pilot year! For more information about Wellspring, contact Reverend Mary Ann Macklin or Reverend Emily Manvel Leite.
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25% Sunday Non-Pledge Plate Recipient Nominations Open
The process for nominating the next local non-profit agency to receive 25% of our Sunday non-pledge plate offering has begun. An application form for the 2018-19 fiscal year is now available from Steve Mascari,
[email protected].
Click here
to read the application guidelines. The application deadline is April 30.
The Social Justice Funds Committee: RuthAnn Cooper, Kelly Rockhill,
Anna Beauchamp, Steve Mascari. Advisor: Jackie Hall
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When Parking, Please pull all the way in
When parking on our lot, especially on the northwest corner of the property, please pull your vehicle all the way in to the parking block when you park. There are larger vehicles and vans that cannot clear that corner easily unless vehicles are pulled all the way in to their parking spots. Thanks! --Carol Marks, Church Administrator
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Traffic Patterns at Church
With few exceptions (which we will always alert you about), the drive on the north side of the church building is ONE-WAY going east. Several times recently we have had mini-traffic jams due to folks driving west on this drive. Please adhere to the one-way east rule to avoid mishaps. Thanks! --Carol Marks, Church Administrator
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Annual Reports from Committees and Task Forces Due May 15
Each year, we compile an annual report for our spring annual congregational meeting. It contains reports from ministers, staff, and task forces and groups within the church who would like to be included. It is a fine historical record of the work of our congregation, and we post it on our website as well (http://www.uubloomington.org/about-us/annual-reports/) Suggested maximum length of each report is 250 words. Social Justice task force leaders should send their reports to Jackie Hall, [email protected] by May 8, and she will format a large Social Justice report to submit. All others should send their reports to Carol Marks by May 15, [email protected].
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For More Information
see the April 17 edition
of our newsletter, The Prologue.
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Masthead photo from the internet.
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