Our Mission:
“We gather as a welcoming, caring community to nurture mind and spirit, celebrate diversity, and work for justice.”
Have a friend who would enjoy our community? Invite them to join our mailing list.
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Book Drive!
As part of our honoring of the critical work of self-determination for our Black and multi-racial community during Kwanzaa, we will have our first Book Communion during the December 27 Kwanzaa service! We ask each Prairie member to purchase a book that will be donated to Read to the Children, a partnership between the Colorado State Library's Institutional Library Development and the Colorado Department of Corrections Libraries. The program, currently available at all 22 Department of Corrections facility libraries, helps offenders stay involved in their children's lives by encouraging their children to read. The program accepts Children’s books in gift-giving condition. The book will be read by the family member who is incarcerated and then sent to the child. Download guidelines here.
As part of the service, we will ask our Prairie community to share the book they've selected and to talk a little bit about why they chose it. Consider doing some research to learn more about books that might be appropriate to select. Also, consider purchasing your book from a Black Bookseller online or curbside locally. Books will then be collected by the Justice League. As has become our custom, you may drop off in Parker at the home of Melissa B. (720) 471-0853 or in Aurora the home of Kim M. (720) 636-1912 or we are happy to stop by to collect from your doorstep.
Thank you!
Lifespan Education Coordinator
Prairie Unitarian Universalist Church
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PrairieUU pre-Christmas Eve Service Gathering
Thursday, December 24, 6:00 pm
We will gather as PrairieUU in this space before joining the greater UU Regional Community in a 'A UU Christmas in Colorado' via Zoom - link here.
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Christmas Eve Service
Thursday, December 24, 7:00 pm
"We are One Body Beyond Our Walls"
All are welcome to join us as we celebrate Christmas together. We will be featuring “The Christmas Story in Three Movements” with wonderfully created collectively by our music ministers from across the Denver Metro and a new Christmas telling focused on our youth by our Religious Professionals from Colorado and Utah.
Join for the first of its kind combined celebration in the Rockies!
From the following UU communities:
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Sunday Morning Experience
Join us for Worship Online at 10:30 am
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Sunday Worship - Kwanza
Sunday, December 27th, 10:30 am
Join PrairieUU as we gather for worship centered around the 2nd principle of Kwanzaa: Kujichagulia – Self-Determination. Join us as we honor the African heritage that allows African Americans to define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves.
Join us for Conversation:
Beginning at 10:15 via Google Meet . This will be our space to chat and socialize before and during the service. We will also share Candles of Community immediately following the service in this same meet.
Watch the Worship Service:
Our Sunday morning service will be available live
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Sunday, December 27, 9:30 am
Kids (and their grown-ups), join us this Sunday for our K-5 religious education program! All through the month of December, will be exploring the theme of stillness. Our Soul Matters curriculum is specifically designed to keep kids engaged and curious over an online platform. So come along for stories, activities, and fun!
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Sunday, December 27, 11:45 am
Welcome to our Middle and Senior High Youth from our PrairieUU and local community to gather together. Join us for conversation, spiritual growth, and social activities.
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Sunday, December 27, 11:45 am
Cultural (Mis)Appropriation. Celebrations like Kwanzaa that celebrate the diverse backgrounds of our UU BIPoC community often require learning from white allies to foster deep, authentic understanding and respect. It may seem that it is complicated to not unintentionally hurt others when we participate in the culture and music of our BIPoC siblings that we are trying to honor. We may find it easier to just avoid conversations about race all together. But our UU principles and Prairie's vision for Beloved Community that works for justice supports us to stand together and to keep going. Please join us immediately following the service as the Justice League leads us in activities and discussions that illuminate a loving path forward. Consider doing some background reading in preparation. Excellent UU resources can be found here.
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What You Missed:
If you missed Worship over the last few weeks, you are invited to visit our Facebook page, YouTube or on our website to view our services.
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Ralph Waldo Mouse Says:
"Wake up with determination ...
go to bed with satisfaction ."
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Dear Beluvs,
Happy Holidays! On behalf of the entire ministerial staff, I wish you all a Happy Solstice, Merry Christmas and Jubilant Kwanzaa. We realize that for many of us this can be both a time of celebration and pain. A good number of us are missing many of our usual holiday traditions with family, friends and our PrairieUU community. I want to remind you that we are a strong community that is built on an unwavering faith and covenant to care for one another. If you need anything please let me know. Be sure to join us on Christmas Eve at 6pm in google meet before we all head off together to our 7pm joint community Christmas in Colorado service.
Please note that while I am always available to you for pastoral care. The church office will be closed from December 24 at 5pm until January 4 at 10am so that our staff will be able to have some quality family time. If there is anything that you need urgently, please let me know.
The regular church hours are Sunday 10am-5pm and Monday - Thursday 10am-5pm.
In Service,
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Happy and Safe Holiday for All
The Board met on December 16, 2020, and were pleased to appoint Safety Advocates for three areas: Bill B. for Cyber Safety Advocate and Personal Safety Advocate and Calisse W. for Pandemic Safety Advocate. The goal of these positions is to inform the congregation, congregational leaders and staff about how to stay safe when meeting or doing Prairie UU work They will provide information from the UUA, state and national experts/organizations so that our community has information about how to stay safe from cyber, personal and health risks due to COVID-19. You will be hearing more about these roles in the Congregational Meeting on January 31, 2020 after the worship service. In the future, a document with guidance about each area of safety will be available on the website and google documents. Also, an email address will be set up for each Safety Advocate so members can contact them for information.
We are still looking for a Safety Advocate for Sexual Misconduct. See below.
The Board also approved 2020/2021 financial support for the Mountain Top Project that AJ and other UUA ministers are leading with other UUA congregations to support our BICOC members. This is built on the positive outcomes of the BIPOC speaker and discussion sessions. Financial commitment is required from all UUA congregations involved to move the project forward.
The Finance Committee and the Board will develop a Goal/Dream 2021/2022 budget to present to the Congregation for input and approval on January 20, 2020. The Treasurer and I will be asking Committee Chairs to submit their budget requests so they can be included in this budget. The Treasurer and the Finance Committee report that this year's finances are in good shape with income over expenses. Your generosity in pledges and financial gifts to Prairie UU are greatly appreciated. We also have been notified that we will receive funds for COVID related expenses from a Douglas County grant. More details will be provided at the Congregational Meeting.
I hope I have tweaked your interest to attend the Congregational meeting, mark your calendars! (January 31, 2020) Also, the COSM has an exciting presentation about Prairie's Vision and the UUA Widening the Circle of Concern connections.
In Covenant,
President Board of Trustees
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Adopt-a-Family
The Justice League extends a HUGE thank you for the outpouring of generosity and kindness in response to our Adopt-a-Family event. We collected a mountain of gifts and enough cash to cover groceries and diapers for the month of December. Please know that for this family of seven, this dismal 2020 will end on a positive note because of PrairieUU.
Thank you for all that you do!!
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The election is not over - for more information on what you can do - click here.
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Rethinking Thanksgiving
Let’s rethink Thanksgiving- read Melissa’s important message here.
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Support PrairieUU - Amazon Smile
If you shop on Amazon, please remember to use the special link and Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchases to PrairieUU! This is through the Amazon Smile program. http://ow.ly/8zJi50BOssx
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Support PrairieUU - King Soopers Rewards Program
Our assigned Non-Profit Organization (NPO) number is UC596.
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DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION ADVOCATE
Board Liaison to the Nominations Committee
The Board is recruiting an individual to serve as a Board appointed advisor to the Nominations Committee. Our work with the COSM to create a more inclusive, diverse slate of nominees for Congregational Elections has led the Prairie UU leadership to recognize the need for an individual with experience and understanding of how bias can influence our choices and prevent a wider representation of diversity in our Prairie UU leadership. If you or someone you know is interested in serving in this role, please let Vivian Littlefield, President of the Board of Trustees know. The position should begin in time for our nomination process in March 2021.
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COMMUNITY SAFETY ADVISOR
The Board is seeking an individual to serve as an Advisors to our Prairie UU Community on Safety in the area of Sexual Misconduct.
The role as currently envisioned is that the Advisor would search the local, state and national information sources for evolving information, review the UUA resources in these areas and provide regular, timely information to the congregation and the church leaders. The specific role and activities can be proposed by the individual/s who assume the role/s. If you are interested in serving in this important position/s, contact Vivian Littlefield, President Board of Trustees.
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MUUved to Action
Tuesday, December 22, 6:30 PM
Join us for our next MUUved to Action meeting. MUUved to Action group is a sub-group of our Justice League that meets weekly as a result of being called by our members to "not sleep through the revolution". We meet to address the urgent and immediate calls for justice action in our community. We are also joined by other Denver Metro UUs and community members.
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Men's Group
Wednesday, December 23, 6:30 pm
Please join us for this month’s Men’s Group!
If you have ideas for topics for discussions for future meetings, please let Dave L. know.
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MUUved to Action
Tuesday, December 29, 6:30 PM
Join us for our next MUUved to Action meeting. MUUved to Action group is a sub-group of our Justice League that meets weekly as a result of being called by our members to "not sleep through the revolution". We meet to address the urgent and immediate calls for justice action in our community. We are also joined by other Denver Metro UUs and community members.
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Healthy Living Small Group
Friday, January 1, 1:00 pm
Join Pastor AJ and others in our community as we engage in a healthy(ier) living time together. We will meet once a week to share ideas, recipes, what works and what doesn’t about exercise. This will be a time to connect Mind, Body and Soul. If you are interested, please join Pastor AJ’s facebook group UU Healthy Living. Finally, Pastor AJ is also joining Weightwatchers and is inviting you to join with him. If you are interested, there are a couple of special promos that are now running but end tonight. For more information, check with Pastor AJ or sign up with Weightwatchers directly.
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Community
Information and Resources
If you have other community resources that we should share, please let us know.
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Quick Videos on Racial Disparities and COVID-19
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Control of COVID-19 Is on the Horizon
I hope that we all realize how critical it is for us to control the pandemic and that the key to achieving this will be immunization. I would like to share some specific information about vaccines as soon as the data have been evaluated by independent medical experts. In the meantime, I have written the below introductory item, which may be a bit trite, but which is meant to emphasize the importance of immunization. I would like to submit follow-up news items soon that will provide factual information about the vaccines. If you think that this blurb and the plan to have follow-ups are not appropriate for the newsletter, let me know. I will try to find some other way of sharing information. As a former medical epidemiologist at CDC, I am serious about this subject and think that my insights may be helpful.
Sincerely,
Clark H.
Since there are no uniformly effective therapies for coronavirus infection, we must rely on strategies that prevent infection. Public health measures, such as mask-wearing, physical distancing, and isolation, although effective, are difficult to enforce and have not been adequately adhered to by the public. They have proven inadequate to stop the pandemic in the U.S. It now appears that control of the pandemic will require both the public health measures and mass immunization. The currently emerging vaccines, many of which are based on messenger RNA technology, seem to be highly effective and remarkably safe. As these vaccines become available, we should all embrace these remarkable advances in medical science and protect ourselves, our families, and our communities by participating as soon as possible in the national immunization campaign. Only when the momentum of COVID-19 has been broken will our lives and economy begin to resemble their pre-pandemic states.
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Quick Videos on The State of COVID-19 Vaccine Development
What you need to know - click here.
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COVID Assistance Funds and Resources |
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Arapahoe County Rent and Mortgage assistance for Covid related loss of income, click here for more information.
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Douglas County is offering Covid-19 assistance funds to individuals and families. Please click here for more information.
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City of Aurora Covid-19 resources please click here for more information.
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Parker Covid-19 information and resources - please click here for more information.
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Support PrairieUU
Click on the images below to learn more!
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Follow and Connect with us! |
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Get the most out of G Suite in your workplace with training guides, tips, customer examples, and other resources.
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To connect via a computer simply click the links provided.
To connect via a phone or tablet you will prompted to need to download the Google Meet app.
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We Look Forward to Hearing From You |
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Newsletter & Announcement Contributions
All requests for the Monday newsletter and Orders of Service are due on Wednesday at 12 pm. (PLEASE NOTE: All submissions are subject to editing for content and space.)
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General Office Hours
Mon-Thur - 11:00 am – 4:00 pm
The church office will be closed from December 24 at 5pm until January 4 at 10am so that our staff will be able to have some quality family time.
Office Hours - M-Th 11:00 am - 2:00 pm
Phone/Text: 720-549-0530
Schedule an Appointment via Google Calendar
Office Hours - M-Th 11:00 am – 4:00 pm
Phone/Text - 720-549-0531
Schedule an Appointment via Google Calendar
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Committee Emails
LifeSpan - Religious Exploration for all ages
Membership - Visitors, becoming a Covenantal member
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Mailing Address:
PrairieUU Church
P.O. Box 1684
Parker, CO 80134
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