UUCSC News and Updates
Weekly on Fridays
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Unitarian Universalist Congregation of South County, RI
All are welcome!
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Reverend Denis Letourneau Paul, Minister
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Worship
In Person 10:00 am Outside
with celebration and treats to follow
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"Seeds of Faith"
Lee Cowan, DRE
May 1, 2022
I hope you will join us for a May Day celebration this Sunday! We will be outside in our backyard, around a beautiful Maypole. The service will include elements of story, song and spiritual reflection, plus a Maypole dance!
How often do you think about what kind of seeds you are planting in the world? What kind of messages and examples are you spreading? And how have the seeds of Unitarian Universalism grown inside of you? These are some of the questions we will ponder as we celebrate the pagan holiday of Beltane and the height of spring in all its glory.
And plan to stay after for treats and a dance performance by the Ladies of the Rolling Pin! Two of your dear staff here at UUCSC dance with them! (can you guess which ones?)
Please bring a chair for yourself and treats to share!
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Religious Exploration
In-person
10am-noon
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A Beltane Celebration!
I am so honored to lead this service, because Beltane is a very special day for me. It's the halfway point between the two equinoxes, when spring is in full swing. It's a time of celebrating fertility and blessing the soil in our gardens and under our feet.
I hope you will join us to dance the Maypole, make May crowns and baskets and hear the story of the dandelion seed who traveled to all 8 continents.
Please bring a blanket or chairs and snacks to share after service if you are able!
And if you aren't familiar with the Ladies of the Rolling Pin, check out the video above. Every year on May Day, they dance at dawn by the ocean, joining Morris dancers all over Britain, Canada, and the US who welcome the sun on May 1st with this joyful tradition. They will be outside the Towers in Narragansett this Sunday at 5:43am to greet the dawn over the Atlantic ocean. All are welcome! It's maybe my favorite day of the year.
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Lee Cowan, Director of Religious Exploration |
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SHARE THE PLATE SUNDAY
Half of the plate and designated collections received by check or online
the first week of each month are shared with a worthy local nonprofit.
May's recipient of Share the Plate is Amenity Aid. Their mission is to improve the health and wellbeing of vulnerable populations by creating access to essential hygiene products. Working with nonprofits, they distribute hygiene products to their network of direct service agencies that assist vulnerable populations across all of Rhode Island.
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UUCSC welcomed Marlon Carey to our sanctuary on April 24th, 2022. He blew everyone away with his depth, his brilliance and his big heart. Enjoy this poem, "Methodology" we recorded during our Zoom coffee hour.
Submitted by Johnnie Rodriguez
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Tomorrow, April 30th at 2pm |
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Please join us for an all UU Beach Clean-up with other RI congregations. We have invited First Unitarian in Providence, Westminster UU in East Greenwich and Channing Memorial in Newport. Come join in some UU cross-pollination!
We will meet on the ocean side of the Scarborough State Beach main pavilion. Please bring trash bags or buckets (for easier trash depositing!) if you have them.
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I was asked recently what is important to me about Unitarian Universalism or, in particular, about UUCSC. I was also asked to be very brief. I came up with this. The comfort of community—questioning, exploring, together. I actually like the brevity of my answer, but I would like to elaborate on it a bit. What keeps me coming back here, week after week, year after year?
I first came to UUCSC about 18 years ago. Some friends had described it to me and thought I would like it. My younger daughter was off in college and I knew life would be changing as she moved on with her own life and that I would be wise to widen my circle of friends and acquaintances. So, I gave it a try. I walked in by myself one Sunday morning and have been coming ever since. What is it that calls me back? It is often awkward to do things alone and I did have some awkward moments but one thing that really helped was when somebody would remember me from the week before and take the initiative to speak with me. Val Follett is a pro at this. She made sure new people didn’t go without a hello and more often than not she threw in a hug too.
The times I have felt most connected to the church have been when I made the time to be involved—when I worked on the Capital Campaign to raise funds to buy our home here at Lily Pads, when I sang in the choir and now, when I am serving as the president of the board. Times when I felt I was able to use my skills and interests to help the congregation. It was/is during these times of being active that I got to know other members better. There is no better way to get to know people than to work on a project together, particularly a project you both care about.
I kept coming back because I liked what I heard here; I was learning about new things; I liked the acceptance that there is not one way to believe and that we all have much to learn from each other. I liked the people here, the quest for new ideas, the desire to learn to be a better person. I liked when someone spoke about their spiritual journey and I would realize that, boy, I really didn’t know anything about that person before but now I really do. Perhaps most of all I simply liked the people that I meet at UUCSC--all of us searching for understanding in an often times crazy, scary world, all of us trying to be our best selves, all of us needing friends and community. I had found a community.
Why is it that you come back? What does UUCSC mean to you? And what might you share with us that would also help you to become more connected? Do you want to greet people on Sunday morning, organize a discussion group, work in the garden? I would love to talk to anyone about their ideas. We welcome new ideas and new people. Ideally a community should be always changing and evolving, and new ideas and people are essential for that to happen.
With peace and joy,
Elizabeth Donovan
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D4$+ Coming on June 1!
Our Dining for Dollars PLUS auction will be filled with wonderful events and gatherings, and will take place from June 1 through June 5. Trish and I are so excited that LOTS of wonderful folks have stepped up to host more than 22 great events that will take place throughout the year (thanks so much, generous D4$+ hosts). We hope everyone is as happy as we are to finally be able gather and have fun – whether inside or out. Please watch for more information in the coming weeks about D4$+. The auction will take place online, but we are arranging several in-person ways to place a bid, so that it is accessible for all. There’s something for EVERYONE in the D4$+ auction, and we hope everyone can take part. Wishing you a happy spring!
Betsy Dalton and Trish Hindley
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Tuesday, May 3, 2022
6 PM Potluck In Person
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Carolyn Gilligan’s Home
13 Hathaway Lane, Peacedale, RI
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Bring your own drink, plates & utensils and a POTLUCK dish to share.
Together Women Rise is a powerful community of women and allies dedicated to achieving global gender equality. We have hundreds of local chapters across the U.S. where members learn about and advocate for gender equality issues, give grants to organizations that empower women and girls in low-income countries, and build community to forge meaningful connections that increase our strength and collective impact. All are welcome. For more information contact: GailBurchard@gmail.com Details here.
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Consider becoming a Worthy Now Pen Pal |
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I was matched with a person in Texas last summer. Our letter exchange has been very gratifying for both of us. The Church of the Larger Fellowship (CLF) runs the Worthy Now Prison Ministry program. They continue to have a long list of incarcerated members waiting to be connected with a free-world UU pen pal. Currently, the waiting list has over 100 people, and they have run out of free-world writers to connect them to. This link will tell you more about the program. www.WorthyNow.org/pen-pals/
Submitted by Mary Fulton
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Adult Education and Experience |
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· Open Forum to Culminate Earth Day 2022
Friday, April 29, 2022, 7PM, via ZOOM
The Green Team and Social Justice group at Peacedale Congregational Church will hold an open forum to discuss points emphasized in the full length documentary, Kiss the Ground, narrated by Woody Harrelson. The movie sheds light on an “new, old approach” to farming called “regenerative agriculture” that has the potential to balance our climate, replenish our vast water supplies, and feed the world. Please watch the video on NETFLIX or here at Kiss the Ground at any time prior to the forum.
Submitted by Johnnie Rodriguez
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Open House at the new home of the Jonnycake Center at 22 Kersey Road tomorrow, April 30, from 10 am to 1pm. Members of the community are welcome to learn about the new initiatives planned for this year, see what food is offered in the Jonnycake Market, and learn about volunteer opportunities.
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Memorial Service at UUCSC Sanctuary
for Victoria Shinagel
Daughter of Ann Seemann
Saturday, May 7, 2022
1:00 pm
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Atten: UUCSC Committee Chairs
In preparation for the annual meeting, please email your annual report
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Please join the Antiracism Group on Monday, May 23, (note change of date) 2022, at 7pm on Zoom. We will be discussing Firekeeper's Daughter, the 2022 Reading Across RI book, by Angeline Boulley. We highly recommend reading it, but if you do not read the book feel free to join us and listen in on the conversation.
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The UUCSC Share the Plate committee recommends one of these four organizations that are providing support to Ukrainians in crisis. |
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Bethany Sorrentino, Helping Hands Coordinator
Don't be afraid to ask for help - helping hands are here!
Helping hand volunteers are also needed.
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Find where you might contribute and join a committee today!
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List of Black owned businesses from RI Monthly magazine. Patronize these businesses all year long. This small effort can help undo racism. Please send pics and reviews to Etta for sharing here and on website.
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June 22 - 26, 2022
View the most recent
Ibram X. Kendi is the 2022 Ware Lecturer
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Includes lists of Black-Owned Businesses
Your search for truth and meaning begins here.
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How to Submit Info to This Newsletter |
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Send announcements and news with Newsletter Item in the subject line to Etta Zasloff, Editor, at zasloff.etta@gmail.com and Sara Kaplow, Congregational Administrator, at uucscri@yahoo.com by Tuesday Noon
to assure publication by Friday of that week.
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