This is our first Sunday with Laurel Gray, our new minister, before the church year officially begins on September 8th. In this informal worship service, we will reflect on what it means to be a religious community and share what UUCSW means to us. Come to sing and share and meet our new minister. Coffee, juice and refreshments will be available. There will be childcare this week.

A brief introduction to Rev. Gray is available on our website at uucsw.org .

Our August 18th service will be facilitated by Andrea Burdick. Andrea has written poetry since she was 15 years old. She has published a novel and is currently working on her memoir. Andrea will talk about the writing process, read excerpts of her novel and memoir, as well as a number of poems. Come and listen to a variety of different genres.

The Program Committee is looking forward to fall and welcomes our new minister, The Rev. Laurel Gray. Rev. Gray will generally be leading two services per month, so there will be opportunities to hear from guest speakers as well as members of the Program Committee and others at UUCSW. Thanks to a number of you who have already indicated your willingness to speak at a service. Please feel free to suggest outside speakers you think would be of interest as well. Please contact Kathie Metzger at kmetzger200@gmail.com with questions.

This seems like a good year to reactivate The God Panels. They were begun by Gordon Muise in 1992 and have been offered occasionally since that time. They were generally very well received. At these services, three or four members of the congregation give a short presentation focused on three questions: 1) What do you believe about God? 2) What in your life has brought you to this belief? 3) How does your belief or non belief affect your life? After the presentations, panelists have a chance to question each other, and finally, members of the congregation at large are given the opportunity to make comments or ask questions of any or all of the panelists.