A Unitarian Universalist Church | 1800 Bell Ave. Des Moines, IA 50315

P: 515-244-8603

What's Next? I'm ready.

a Lay-Led Service

Joys & Concerns for Sunday should be submitted by noon on Friday.

Click on the Caring Community webpage for the following options:

• Caring Ministry – for temporary assistance, such as meals or rides, or to volunteer 
• Please note: the Caring Ministry phone number is now
• 515-244-8603 ext. 108
• Pastoral Care – for support through a difficult time 

Ellen Taylor is the Pastoral Care Associate available for this service time. Please email pastoralcareteam@ucdsm.org for assistance during the week.

NEWS THIS WEEK

This section holds events happening this week, as well as articles submitted in the past 7 days. Be sure to continue scrolling to read about other upcoming events, church news, and social justice efforts!g

Intercom March 31

Thanks to coordination from Victoria and Alice, Staff has been able to plan an Intercom publication for Friday, March 31! Please plan to send Intercom publication items for the March 31 Intercom to communications@ucdsm.org a week early -- Wednesday, March 22, at noon. Submissions received after this date are not guaranteed a place in the March 31 Intercom, but can be published the following week.

Thank you!

Emily Petty - Communications Coordinator and Alice Stewart, DFA

You're Invited!

from the Memorial Reception Committee

This is a special committee that functions at the time of the passing of a member or friend of our church community. It is a time that we help and support families as they honor & celebrate the life of their loved one. Our next memorial reception will be for Mary Kelly’s service on April 22, 2023. 

The functions of this committee include helping with set up, providing baked items for the reception, ushering, serving at the reception, helping with clean up/ re-setting and anything else as needed. 

If you would like to be part of this special ministry team, let me know. 

Thank you, Lynne George.

The third annual Central Iowa Trans Lives Festival will occur on April 1 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 1800 Bell Ave. in Des Moines.

It is hosted by First Unitarian Church of Des Moines, an LGBTQ+ Welcoming Congregation. In honor of the International Transgender Day of Visibility, the all-ages festival showcases the creative work of transgender, genderqueer, and non-binary adults and youth from around Iowa.

Work includes visual art and crafts for sale, food trucks and booths, live music, poetry, literature, and dance, drag, and comedy performances. Local nonprofit and community organizations providing support and resources to the trans community will also be on hand.

This event is open to everyone, and admission and parking are free. Security will also be provided so that everyone can experience a safe and fun event.

Trans Lives Fest Call for Volunteers

Help us celebrate and host transgender creatives and their artistry on April 1! The Trans Lives Festival was a huge success last year, and we expect it to grow this year.

So, we need your help!

Various volunteer positions and shifts are available, including setup help, entrance greeters, cashiers, runners/helpers, and tear-down/clean-up help. Thank you for your consideration!

Sign up here!

Email tag@ucdsm.org with any questions

Transforming Hearts Workshop Series

Tuesdays, April 4 – May 9, 7 – 8:30 p.m. in Griffin Hall

The UU movement has come a long way in LGBTQ+ inclusion, but there’s still a long way to go. Meanwhile, trans and non-binary people are under attack in our country in wildly escalating ways.

We need to dig deeper. This program goes beyond “trans 101”— it’s a six-session course that explores the theological grounding of radical welcome; your own gender journey; trans identity, experiences, and spirituality; the role of culture in inclusion; and how to engage in culture shift.

Join us! Please email tag@ucdsm.org to sign up by March 31.

What to expect: Each week we will watch a 45- to 55-minute lecture by Rev. Mykal Slack and Zr. Alex Kapitan, two trans/non-binary UU leaders, and discuss the content together. In between sessions there are supplemental resources we can engage with on our own.

Humanist Update

Book Group

The Humanist book group meets at noon on the first and third Sunday of each month, both in person at the church (right after the forum) and via Zoom. The next meeting will be on April 2, when we will discuss chapters 5 and 6 of Finding Darwin's God: A Scientist's Search for Common Ground Between God and Evolution.

Watch Party

The Watch Party format will resume on Sunday, April 23. Join us at 1:00 p.m. at the Stine Barn in West Des Moines to watch and discuss the Bill Maher 2008 documentary film Religulous. Email info@humanistsocietyofiowa.org if you have any questions or suggestions for future programs.

Secular Student Alliance Program

Passover is a celebration of the Jews’ deliverance from slavery, but you don’t need a god to celebrate that kind of human liberation. You can Join the Secular Student Alliance and the Society for Humanistic Judaism’s HuJews on Campus for a Webinar at 6:00 PM on Monday, April 3. The Webinar will discuss seder without a god and demonstrate how the Passover seder can be a universal call for human rights and dignity. Click here to find more information or to register for the webinar.

A Letter from Two New

Kitchen Project Team Members …

Wow, we are so excited! My little brother, Bernie, and I (Char) have arrived at First Unitarian, and are eager to get out of our packing crates and set up in our new home, which is your new kitchen! I’m a sparkling new Wolf four-burner induction cooktop. And Bernie is a two-burner version, so not as big as me. We journeyed here from the Sub-Zero Group’s manufacturing plant in Wisconsin.

Not to brag, but we are the most efficient heat delivery system available in kitchens today! Induction generates a magnetic field that induces heat directly into the cookware with precise temperature control. The heat we produce is different than what you are probably used to – we don’t generate nearly as much external heat as conventional stovetops. So you aren’t likely to “sweat over a hot stove” when using us. (And, anyway, that doesn’t sound like much fun.) And while most cookware can be used on our surface, not all work with induction heat. A test, we learned, involves something called a magnet. If you put a magnet on the pan’s surface and it sticks, that pan will fry your fish or sauté your sauce on an induction unit! But if not, you’ll have to find a different pan.

I’m just 30 inches by 21 inches, so I will pack a lot of power with four units without taking up much space; Bernie is smaller with only two units. Here’s a drawing from the project contractor showing our placement in the west wall counter near the ovens.

We understand we will be moving out of our Griffin Hall shipping crates and into our new home, hopefully in the next few weeks. We can’t wait to shed these boxes and get to ‘cookin’!

See you soon,

Char (& Bernie)!

P.S. Check out more information on the Kitchen Project Page!

Transgender Day of Visibility

Friday, March 31, 6 – 7:30 p.m.

The City of Des Moines Civil & Human Rights Commission's LGBTQ Advisory Council and community members are organizing a rally to celebrate and uplift transgender and gender non-conforming individuals who have come out to live as their authentic selves. Hear from speakers as they share their stories and learn what you can do to make Des Moines safe for all. More info here.

Submissions to the Intercom Weekly are due on Wednesday at 12 noon. Submissions after the deadline cannot be guaranteed a spot in that week's newsletter.

Want to publicize your church event? We have a form for that!

Visit our "Our Events" page to fill out the form.

Email communications@ucdsm.org with any questions.

Ordination Service at Cedar Falls

We are warmly invited by the Cedar Valley Unitarian Universalist in Cedar Falls, IA to attend the Ordination of their minister, Emma Peterson, to Unitarian Universalist ministry on Sunday, April 2 at 4:00 p.m. Rev. Victoria Safford will give the sermon.

Fellowship, Food, & FUNds #23 Alert!

Mark your calendars for FFF #23, April 29 & 30, and start thinking about what you might like to offer! Never heard of it? For more info on our biggest fundraiser of the year and community-building series of events, see this link.

To participate, please fill out this form.

Your help is needed! Particularly needed are individuals who enjoy making clever announcements and cover table displays after church during the month of March to promote participation, as coordinator Elaine Imlau, will be out of state most of the month. Please contact her via email at foodfair@ucdsm.org or directly via text or call.

Griffin Gallery Artist March

Tanya Lichinsky

Tanya Lichinsky received her education in painting, life drawing, still life, sculpture, and art history from Repin's School of Fine Art in Moldova. Oppressive political conditions in the former Soviet Union pushed her to make the decision to look for a stable life in the United States. She has been drawing and painting since early childhood and has developed unprecedented taste and vision through years of industry and freelance experience. Creation has become a necessity where any medium, be it watercolors, acrylic, oil, or pencil, is utilized. Her muse can be exotic, but it can also be anything from everyday life or even something out of a negative space that looks interesting.

This piece was inspired by Barbados, 40x40 acrylic on canvas.

Our current partnerships run from September 2022 through August 2023. They were selected by our members at our June 2022 annual meeting. The organizations are:

Hawthorn Hill

Our Champion is Sally Boeckholt

Let's Talk

Our Champion is Ellen Taylor

Faith In Action: It's Time to Nominate Partners for 2023-24!

Led by our Faith in Action (FIA) Coordinating Team, our congregation selects two nonprofit organizations each to receive financial support with proceeds from our Sunday service collection. Recipients are nominated by church members and chosen at our annual church meeting in early June. We have proudly worked with more than 20 organizations, including Al Exito, Candeo, Central Iowa Shelter and Services, and more. Our current partners are Let's Talk and Hawthorn Hill, who began receiving contributions in September, and have each received over $4,500.00 so far this fiscal year.

Each spring, the FIA Coordinating Team solicits applications from congregation members for outside organizations to become one of our two annual Faith in Action partners. Now is the time to make your nominations!

Each nominated organization needs to be nominated by a church member, and must have a "champion" who will work with the FIA team to promote the organization throughout the year. The links below explain the program in more detail, and will guide you to the nomination form on our website.

Nominations must be received by 4/30/23, and the FIA team will be sharing more about our nominees during May.

Thanks to ALL of the congregation for expanding our reach in Central Iowa through Faith in Action

https://www.ucdsm.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/FIA-Partnership-Responsibilities.pdf

https://www.ucdsm.org/faith-in-action/

Rev. Victoria Safford, Transitional Contract Minister

vsafford@ucdsm.org

Office phone: 515-244-8603 ext. 102

Cell: 612- 405-3318

Alice J. Stewart, Director of Finance and Administration

director@ucdsm.org

515-244-8603 ext. 101

Mondays: by appointment

Tuesdays – Thursdays: 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Fridays: by appointment

Zoom meetings available upon request

Birch Spick, Faith Formation Coordinator

& Congregational Life Coordinator

FFOffice@ucdsm.org

CLOffice@ucdsm.org

515-244-8603 ext. 106

Off Mondays

Tuesday - Friday: 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.

Emily Petty, Communications Coordinator

communications@ucdsm.org

515-244-8603 ext. 103

Off Mondays

Tuesday-Friday: 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.

To submit an item for the Intercom, email communications@ucdsm.org by Wednesday at noon.

Hannah Notch, Social Media and Executive Support Specialist

hnotch@ucdsm.org

Tuesday - Friday: 1:00 - 5:00 pm

To have an event or meeting added to the church calendar, email Hannah at calendar@ucdsm.org