Service Leader: Scott Miller - UUCSR Board member, former worship associate, and SSU professor

Worship Associates: Eric Fischer with Susan Thollaug

Music: Alan Bell & Roger Corman

*Please stay for the Congregational Meeting after the service and meet Rev. Dave

Service Leader: Rev. Dave Clements, UUCSR's new Interim Minister

Worship Associate: Mark Sowers

Music: John Ray, Gage Purdy & Roger Corman

Service Leaders: Rev. Dave Clements with the Right Relations Team

Worship Associate: Judy Withee

Music: Gage Purdy with the Choir

In beloved memory of our dear friends Phil and Jenny Harriman who endowed this service, we explore the issues of autonomous and intelligent systems as they continue to influence more and more of our decision making, even our moral decision making. We address strategies for being moral humans and/or moral machines even as amoral entities, both human and machine, gain increasing power in our world. These issues are implicated in several of our Seven UU Principles, and should inform our current deliberations on a potential eighth principle.

Service Leader: Dr. John Sullins, III. Dr. Sullins is Professor of Philosophy at SSU, specializing in ethics in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Philosophy of Technology, Engineering Ethics, and Computer Ethics.

Worship Associate: Richard J. Senghas

Music: Roger Corman

Dear Fellow Members,

Not much has happened this month. The board has been taking a break this July and we will resume meeting in August. There is a change in when we will have board meetings- we will now meet on the 4th Thursday of every month starting August 25th. We are doing this to allow the finance committee to be able to provide the board with more complete financial information which is available closer to the end of the month.

We did have a very, very short Special Board Meeting on July 7th to approve a Special Congregational meeting set for Aug 7th. The plan is to have the Congregation vote on approving the contract for a new, badly needed roof as well as a line of credit which may or may not be needed to cover any possible unforeseen expense that sometimes happens when replacing a roof. Both the Operations and the Finance Teams have done incredible work in identifying a roofing company and determining how to finance such a large undertaking. We will have a new roof and that is exciting!

And also on August 7th, we will meet our new Interim minister, Reverend Dave! He will have a part of the August 7th service and he will do the chalice lighting and closing for our Congregational Meeting. Right now the plan is to serve a small lunch after the Congregational Meeting and that would be an opportunity for individuals to greet him. It probably won't be a time for longer conversation with him. We'll have to give him some space although we'd all like to have his ear on the first day he arrives. He'll have just gotten into town the day before. If you want to help him, he will need some help on August 8th when his furniture and boxes arrive, and it would be great if he didn't have to unload his stuff all by himself.

On another note, the Board has been making phone calls to try to assemble a steering committee to fun a service auction this fall. Right now, we still don't have a steering committee. We have lots of people who can make small commitments to help out and that is great, but if we are to have a successful auction, we really need some people to step forward to lead this. This is a really fun activity that raises a lot of money for our congregation! And we are deeply in need of fun. It has been a hard year in so many ways. So, if you want to be a hero, help us have fun, cure our collective mental health challenges due to isolation and extreme seriousness, please consider being on the steering committee for the service auction. Contact Leslie Norinsky (President@uusantarosa.org).

And finally, many in our congregation have been dealing with illness. Many have gotten Covid, and although it seems everyone that I know of has recovered, we still have many vulnerable members and family members of our congregation who need protection from this disease. There are people who have not returned to our community precisely because they are vulnerable. The pandemic is not yet over.

Stay well people!

With optimism for a bright future together.

Leslie

I’m looking forward to another year serving this congregation and all of you and I am so excited to be welcoming Rev Dave to our wonderful home. We have challenges ahead, as always, but as long as we keep on caring about one another, I am confident all will be well.

Please plan to attend the Special Congregational Meeting on August 7 right after the service. The Operations Team (referred to as Ops), those dedicated to the maintenance and improvement of our beloved building, and the Finance Committee will be assisting the Board to request your approval to move forward with the roof replacement for a total not to exceed $325,000. A breakdown of the financing is included in the meeting packet emailed to you. Please note, we have received an offer of a matching donation of $50,000 from an anonymous donor to assist with the financing. We will need to raise another $50,000 in donations from other congregants to take full advantage of this generous offer. Some folks have already come forward to donate to this cause. If you’d like to join them please make sure to note that the donation is for the roof project.

We are also requesting that you approve the Board applying for a Line of Credit from our bank for $100,000. We may need a bridge between the time we receive invoices to pay and the time we are able to gather all the funds. We may not receive all the donations we need. It is a good idea for us to have the line of credit available since we will have exhausted most of our reserves. These are all good reasons to have the line of credit available. It is our hope and goal to not make use of it but we feel it would be irresponsible to move ahead without it, just in case.

All the details are in the packet already emailed to you. We have tried to be clear and thorough in our explanations but if you have questions prior to the meeting, please feel free to contact any of us.

I remember so clearly our Congregational Meeting in January. I don’t know if it was really a stomy day but it sure felt that way to me. I had to give you a lot of bad news about where we were headed because our pledges were so low and we had budgeted for significant amounts of revenue that weren’t materializing and likely wouldn’t. We provided a revised budget but by the time of the meeting, reality looked even more dire than that.

Fast forward and we ended last year with a minimal net loss, maybe $2,000 tops (numbers are not quite final) as opposed to the $55,000 loss we had projected in our revised budget. That’s even with Rev Julie’s full payout hitting last year although it included salary that would have been paid in July of this year. This good result happened because you all came through with donations and increased pledges. And you have put us in a good position to start this new year. Thank you so much your generosity in getting us back on track.

So how are things going so far in the first 3.3 weeks of our new year? We have lost members. Some folks have moved away physically and some have just moved on. I count only 173 pledgers in the Realm database down from almost 200 last year. So, of course, recorded pledges are down and well short of budgeted pledges at this point with most pledges entered or rolled over. There are still some active members who have not paid last year’s pledge. So as I mentioned last month - you can still make those payments and really make a difference for us moving forward into our new year.

Once Rev Dave is here, I expect that we will see some folks coming back and new ones appearing. It is early in the year and it is summer so folks may have forgotten to make pledge payments. There is time to catch up. I think you know, I will be vigilant and keeping you informed, Beloved Community.

Summer curriculum continues through August, with regular curriculum returning on September 18th. You can look forward to the following starting up again in September:

Keep on eye on the weekly RE newsletter for more info about RE in the coming months.

Additionally, registration for this congregational year's session of RE has begun! Please make sure to sign up your children and youth for the program, and let us know how you can volunteer in the coming year. As always, we are in need of volunteers for the programs listed above. If you are able to help out, please contact me at dre@uusantarosa.org or at (707)-494-8799.

In love and gratitude,

Era Capone

Director of Religious Education

This Sunday, the kids of RE will be taking on a wide range of unusual tasks. Using teamwork, critical thinking, and creativity, they'll figure out novel solutions to a variety of silly dilemmas.

No RE today! Instead, children are invited to join us in the sanctuary for this musical, multigenerational service.

This Sunday, the kids will be making chalices! Using tiny flower pots and an array of art supplies, the kids will express their own relationship to Unitarian Universalism through art. Kids will also be decorating the chalices they'll be using in RE when the congregational year starts back up in September.

This Sunday, the kids will be extending their conversation on morality and machines. They'll examine tricky moral dilemmas, explore fascinating new technologies, and synthesize what they learn by designing their own machines that make the world a better place.

In addition to reaching out to a Lay Chaplain, you may add your personal joys and sorrows to the Milestones Book (on the stand just outside the sanctuary door) to be shared during the Sunday service. You may also email your milestones to laychaplains@uusantarosa.org by Saturday morning so they can be included in the Sunday service.

Your Lay Chaplains are here for you. Contact us at laychaplains@uusantarosa.org, or call us: Lucia Milburn, Barbara Kezur, Bruce Hope, Mary Lee Lill, Gayle Shirley, Judy Ervice (chair)

As Pagans, we seek always to be connected and familiar with the goings-on of the natural world around us. The leaves of the oaks and buckeyes and bay laurel have darkened now from their bright new spring colors. What are the birds passing through, fattening up before they migrate? More than 200 species of birds pass through our area, from tiny hummingbirds to bald eagles, and you may see some of them at your feeder or in the local trees.

Pagans celebrate this time of year as Lughnasadh or “Dimming”, the midpoint between the summer solstice and the autumnal equinox. The days have noticeably shortened now from the peak of their length in June, but it is generally warm and, around here, reliably dry. Traditionally, this is the time of the first harvest, when grains, hay, alfalfa and other fodder crops are brought in. As a result, bread and beermaking are associated with this holiday, which locally we add to blackberry gathering and the preparation for the grape harvest.

Each station on the Pagan “wheel of the year” has meaning in the context of what the natural world is doing, what is happening in the agricultural cycle and what the equivalent time is in the arc of a human life. Lughnasadh is a time to reflect on the early gifts this year cycle has brought us: our own personal first harvests. As the year is measured in relation to a human life, it is the time of middle age, and we celebrate those at the height of their careers and intellectual powers at this time. Children may be leaving home for school or work; long-sought advancements may have been achieved. It is the time for gratitude for these developments and celebration that our lives have led us to this place.

You have questions, we found answers. On Sunday, August 14, after the service and following a light lunch that we are providing, we will gather in the Sanctuary for our first Community Conversation. We are delighted that Rev. Dave will join us. We expect to finish by 1:15, having had an opportunity to report out the answers to your questions. We expect a bit of discussion, mindful of our time constraints. We will offer zoom as well so all can be part of this. Any questions you may have can be answered by any of us:

 Or send them via email to communityconversations@uusantarosa.org.

In this month's newsletter:

In this month's newsletter:

The Supreme Court decision to overturn the landmark ruling of Roe vs. Wade marks a tragic regression to one of our most basic rights—body sovereignty. Moreover the Supreme Court has signaled that other rights, such as the right to marriage or gender-affirming care, may soon be restricted as well.

There are no Soul Matters themes to use as guides for worship in August. We have many interesting services planned at UUCSR including our exploration of our seven Unitarian Universalist Principles.

Want to JOIN a Soul Matters group this fall? Sign ups for Soul Matters groups will take place in the courtyard on two Sundays, August 21 and August 28, after the service.

Want to FACILITATE a Soul Matters group this fall? If so, please attend a Soul Matters Facilitator training, Saturday, August 13, 10-12 at UUCSR.

707-291-2666