Wednesday, April 15, 2020
OUR VIRTUAL SUNDAY SERVICE

April 19, Earth Day Service  

Join UUCR for our annual Earth Day service hosted by the Green Sanctuary. Wednesday April 22, 2020 will be the 50 th anniversary of Earth day. The first Earth Day was a unified response to an environment in crisis — oil spills, smog, rivers so polluted they literally caught fire.

On April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans took to the streets, college campuses and hundreds of cities to protest environmental ignorance and demand a new way forward for our planet. Once again, we are faced with the need to overcome environmental ignorance and find a new way forward. Disease is natures response to environmental degradation. We are in crises and must look for a new way.

This Earth Day service will be a meditation to guide each of us toward a personal path of environmental awareness and justice.

To view this service (it will be uploaded late morning/early afternoon on Sunday), click  here  to go to the UUCR's Youtube channel. You may also to to the church's webpage,   uuofchesterriver , and find the service by clicking on the tab at the bottom of the "Keeping In Touch"  column on the left side of the page. 
 
If you would like to have a Joy or Sorrow included in the service, please submit it in writing to Rev. Sue at  sue.browning2@gmail.com  by 12 p.m. Friday and she will read them each as a part of the service.
 
We will also have written versions of the service available that we can email to you or mail to you by US postal service. 
FROM YOUR COMMITTEE ON MINISTRY
Beloved congregation, your Committee on Ministry (COM) is here for you during these changing times of our lives. We are the group of congregants that cares for our ministry to one another and right now our communal ministry is looking and feeling so different. We have moved services online, we are emailing and zoom calling more often, and we are connecting with our sister congregation on the shore in new exciting ways. All of this shifting can be hard and COM is here to observe, support, and listen as we freely explore this new sense of ministry together. May we remember that in our new ways of creating community it is important to communicate openly and directly, listen actively, be open to differences, honor privacy, and respect confidentiality and complexity in everyone's lives.  

Please be in touch if there is any support which would be helpful.

—Lynn Geisert, Chair of UUCR's Committee on Ministry, and members Annie Lavin, Caren Samuels, and John Ramsey

FROM YOUR SOCIAL CONCERNS/SOCIAL JUSTICE COMMITTEE

The Social Concerns/Social Justice Committee of UUCR reports that the Board recently moved $600 into our budget to support feeding the hungry in Kent County. After emails and some phone calls, we decided to send the full amount to the Community Food Pantry, with half of the money designated for the food pantry itself and half of it for their help with the Social Action Committee for Racial Justice’s food drive. The committee is very grateful to the Board for taking this action during the current crisis.

—Amy Warner, Co-Chair of UUCR's Social Concerns/Social Justice Committee, and members.

FROM YOUR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION COMMITTEE

Religious Education classes have continued for the last 3 weeks as Pat Bjorke and Connie Schroth host a Zoom session with young UUCR families at 9:30 on Sunday mornings. Sharing thoughts and talents, hearing stories and keeping in touch are good ways to make up for the current isolation. Contact Pat Bjorke (morningmom2@gmail.com) if your family would like to join us.

We ask that all children be registered in the UUCR Religious Exploration Program, so that we have the necessary permissions. Please use the online registration form at https://uuchesterriver.org/learning/elementary-school and click on link for registration. Online RE sessions are not open to the public for the protection of our children's safety.

—Pat Bjorke, Chair of UUCR's Religious Education Committee, and members.

BIRTHDAYS

Tom Tontarski, Tues, April 7
John Ramsey, Thurs, April 9
Amy Warner, Mon, April 13
Jim Lavin, Fri, Apr 17
Kim Agee, Thurs, Apr 30
UPCOMING SERVICES

APRIL 26, 2020 - Virtual Service
You may access all of our previous services by clicking on the red arrow at the bottom of this email.
MISSING YOUR DEAR FACES

From your editor: One of the things about UUCR that I am missing the most is seeing you all on Sunday morning! How about sending me photos of yourself and/or your dear ones as you work and play at home, or just any photos you'd like to share on the Broadsheet? Please send to  janewhardy@gmail.com  and to the office,  uuofchesterriver@gmail.com . Let's not forget what we look like!

Thank you, Sydney Brookes, for sending this picture of a beautiful vase of lilacs from your yard.
IN MEMORIAM
Mildred Hawkins, mother of Dick Hawkins and mother-in-law of Nancy Holland, passed away last week at Heron Point. She was 104 years old. 

For those wishing to reach out to Nancy, you may contact her at:

Nancy Holland
458 Quail Court, C'town 21620
410-639-7388
Bites—
nourishing spirit-filled families one bite at a time
Family Prayer or Grace:
May we be strong.
May we be happy.
May we be safe.
May we be at ease.
May it be so.
EXPLORING UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISM

Timely Messages from Our Past 

Editor's Note: I thought it might be interesting to do a column each week about our UU roots -- and how these connections might help up make sense of the world we live in today.

Here's a Unitarian hero:  Ralph Waldo Emerson.  Emerson, (May 25, 1803 -- April 27, 1882) was an essayist, lecturer, philosopher and poet who led the Transcendentalist Movement of the mid-19th century. He disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays and more that 1500 lectures across the United State.

Here are a few more of Emerson's most "quotable quotes."
  • Few people know how to take a walk. The qualifications are endurance, plain clothes, old shoes, an eye for nature, good humor, vast curiosity, good speech, good silence and nothing too much.
  • We must be our own before we can be another's.
  • Civilization depends on morality.
  • The first wealth is heath.
  • We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a belly-full of words and do not know a thing. The things taught in schools and colleges are not an education, but the means of an education.
  • Our strength grows out of our weakness.
  • Sincerity is the highest compliment you can pay.
  • Before we acquire great power we must acquire wisdom to use it well.
  • We gain the strength of the temptation we resist.
  • How much of human life is lost in waiting.
  • Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
  • It is one of the most beautiful compensations in life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.
#57-65 OF 64 THINGS WHITE PEOPLE CAN DO FOR RACIAL JUSTICE

By Corinne Shutack, posted in Medium.Com, August 13, 2017 
57. Write to your city or town government representative to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous People’s Day like  these cities  did.

58. Donate to Standing Rock through the  Standing Rock Sioux Tribe .

59. Write to your city or town government representative to divest from banks that are financing the DAPL, private prisons, and detention centers.  Seattle and Davis, CA already did , as well as  Los Angeles , and there are  campaigns going on in many cities to divest . Start here:  http://howtodivest.org/

60. Personally divest your investments in private prisons and detention centers. Start  here . Many people are divesting from Wells Fargo for their  substantial role in Standing Rock  and from private prison companies Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), GEO Group, CoreCivic, and G4S.

61. Get your city/town, company, place or worship, etc to divest from private prisons and detention centers. Since the start of a national  prison divestment campaign , cities like  New York  and  Cincinnati ,  higher ed institutions ,  churches , and  corporations  have divested.

62. Read  this article  about an overt white supremacist’s son’s journey to relinquish white supremacy and watch  this video  about Daryl Davis, a black man who gets KKK members to disavow by befriending them. For those you know who are overtly racist (see #45), think about ways you can create exposure for them to people who don’t look like them, share their religion, etc. Jane Elliott says, “People who are racist aren’t stupid, they’re ignorant. And the answer to ignorance is education.” Frederick Douglass notes, “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” It may be best to focus on children, adolescents, and young adults currently being raised by overtly racist parents. Maybe it’s tutoring them so they could get on a college track, encouraging them to study abroad, or turning them on to colleges where not everyone looks like them and shares their religion, etc. Maybe it’s spending time with them on some regularity and showing them the achievements and beauty of non-white cultures. Be creative.

63. Talk to the white people you know who aren’t clearly upset by white supremacy. Use “I” statements and “I care” messages (“I feel [feeling] when you [behavior]”). They need to know you see a problem. Call them out, and call them in. As a start, ask them to watch the videos in #40. For people you know who’ve been radicalized by FOX News and other nationalist (not conservative) media, who’ve been so pummeled with fear and hatred of “the other” that they’ve become ISIS-like towards others, how can you and other family and friends guide them through conversation to show them that their actions are now in direct contrast with the values they feign to purport?

64. As a nod to #63, don’t become the monster, as you try to kill the monster. As Gloria Steinem says, “The ends don’t justify the means. The means are the ends.”

65. Black men and women. Kara Springer, a black woman artist, created the image/public art that begins this piece. It’s called  A Small Matter of Engineering, Part II .  Christian Campbell  tweeted to ensure the art was attributed appropriately and correctly.
Dear UUCR Members and Friends ,
I hope you like the new format for our “Broadsheet” — and its new name, “UUCR Reflections.” Please let us know your thoughts about the new look, and how we can make the newsletter easy (easier) to read and use. We are experimenting with typefaces, backgrounds, etc. Let us know what you like!

A thousand thank you's are due to Jan Whitney, our office administrator, who has more or less taken over “Reflections” since the beginning of the pandemic, during which, for some reason, my home internet connection has become unreliable.

Jane Hardy, “Reflections" Editor at janewhardy@gmail.com or the UUCR office at uuofchesterriver@gmail.com
Pastoral Care & Connection
We are here for you!  We will focus on staying directly connected with our members and friends, especially those who may need assistance or support. The caring teams from our congregation is staying in touch, but if you need to reach out, please be in touch with any of the contacts below to stay connected (and see additional contacts below for RE families): 
 
Please know your congregation is here. We can help you find connections. Please don't hesitate to reach out and let us know what is helpful for you in this time. 

Rev. Sue p: 703-201-2745 | e: sue.browning2@gmail.com
Jan Whitney (Office) p: 410-778-3440 | e: uuofchesterriver@gmail.com
Kevin Brien p: 443-262-2215 | e: dogenlight@gmail.com  
Gayle Folger p: 410-778-7923 | e: gaylefolger@gmail.com  
Nancy Holland p: 443-690-6619 | e: holland.nih@gmail.com  
Vida Morley p: 410-810-0340 | e: vidamorley@icloud.com  
Unitarian Universalists of the Chester River 914 Gateway Drive, Chestertown, MD 21661
Phone: (410) 778-3440
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