Opportunity for Good:
Here’s a non-partisan opportunity to encourage fellow citizens to vote in the 2022 mid-term election. Vote Forward, a non-profit organization supported by UU the VOTE launched The Big Send, in which voters write a few sentences telling why we vote on letters to low-frequency voters. The letters are all mailed on October 29. All you need to do is provide and address the envelopes and write your short message. Joanne Rokosky has 100 pre-printed letters and stamps to distribute to anyone who can contribute by writing a few letters (in multiples of 10). If you can help get out the vote in this way, please email Joanne Rokosky at Joanne.Rokosky@comcast.net.
Food for Our Souls:
UUCC First Sunday In-Person Service, Sept. 4th
The Touchstones Themes for September and October are Awakening and Awe. And on September 4th, we return to Odd Fellows Hall to hear Gregg Berman talk about “Permission To Be Our Full Selves — The Healing Power of Nature’s Awe.” Gregg will explore how nature, Forest Bathing, and the power of awe can support you on your journey to becoming your full self

From the time we are young children we learn that in order to feel safe and be loved we need to edit ourselves. We need to be something different. How might our lives be enriched if we gave ourselves permission to step out of the boxes we’ve constrained ourselves in. Permission to be our full selves. In this talk Gregg will share some of his personal journey and how nature supported his evolution. Nature is always available, wherever you are. We are blessed with an embarrassment of riches of awe and wonder here on the San Mateo Coastside. We’ll explore how nature, the practice of Forest Bathing and the power of awe can support you on your journey to being your full self.

Gregg Berman is a guide and life coach, informed by his decades of experience both as an RN and as a wilderness guide in his mission to help people break free from their self-judgments and limiting beliefs. He is owner and founder of In Connection With Nature. His company supports connections with our internal nature and genius while deepening our connections to each other and to the world around us.

This live in-person service takes place at Odd Fellows Hall, 526 Main Street, Half Moon Bay, CA, 94019. Out of an abundance of caution, we require mask wearing for churchgoers throughout the service, with the exception of those actively speaking at the front of the room. Odd Fellows Hall has relatively new high-circulation air ventilation system. And since May, with our mask protocols in place, no one attending our in-person services at Odd Fellows Hall has caught COVID. The link to join us over Zoom is below.

For the Order of Service, click here
Please join us at 11:00 am Pacific, 2pm Eastern
Gathering for service and music begin at 10:50 am

"Introduction to Spiritual Practices"
with Esther Wallace, M.Div.
UUCC's Beloved Esther Wallace, M.Div., is teaching an 8-week introductory course on developing your own spiritual practice starting in September. Registration is open through September 5th.

Do you find yourself wanting rhythms of life that nourish spiritual resources, but don't know where to begin? Have you ever wanted to develop a spiritual practice, but didn’t know where to turn for guidance? In this 8-week introductory course, we’ll explore spiritual practices as accessible technologies of wisdom, connection, and creativity. Themes we’ll work with include breath/movement, prayer/connection, text/reflection, time/pace, ritual/space, dreams, pilgrimage, and ancestors. This course welcomes those who have no experience with spiritual practices, those who are curious but don’t know where to begin, and those who may have previously established spiritual practices. 

Suggested contribution: $100; sliding fee scale and limited free spots available. Click here to register for the course or visit Esther Wallace's website at hallowedbe.org.
UUCC Tea by the Sea, Sunday, September 25th, 3:30pm
Starting in September, we'll kick-off a new way of gathering together with a social tea hour once a month, every fourth Sunday, from 3:30pm to 5pm. Our first UUCC Tea by the Sea will be held outdoors on Sunday, September 25, 3:30pm - 5pm, at Noreen and Bill Heavlin's home at 850 Francisco Street in El Granada. Come enjoy a variety of teas and made-to-order espresso drinks while munching on home-baked pastries and savories. We hope there's enough interest to host these tea socials every fourth Sunday of the month. For directions to the Heavlin household and to RSVP, email Noreen at uucoastside@gmail.com.
UUCC "Sharing the Pulpit" Sunday, Sept. 18, 11am
We welcome back David Marsland to the UUCC pulpit on September 18th, with a sermon entitled "Loving Kindness." We live in a world where children can be murdered through guns bought legally. We live in a world where we willfully destroy the future of our children and grandchildren by spewing fossil fuel carbon into the air. We live in a world where peaceful countries are still being invaded. Our world calls out for loving kindness.

In our Unitarian Universalist services we often sing the Metta Chant, an ancient Buddhist loving kindness practice. This service will center on sharing a simple meditation practice of loving kindness. You will have an opportunity to practice loving kindness yourself. Loving kindness towards ourselves, those we know and love, those we don’t know and those we don’t love. Even those whom we find it hard to love. Loving kindness for all beings.

David Marsland participates in the UU Coastside Community along with his wife Verna Barrientos. David has led a previous UUCC service on Climate Action. He loves to bicycle. David has four sons and three granddaughters and wants to do all he can to ensure that they live in a world full of loving kindness. 

This service will be presented over Zoom.
Volunteer Jobs Needed for In-Person Services
Now that we are meeting in person on First Sundays, we need help in different ways. Can you commit to helping out in any of the following ways?


  • Photograph our September 4th Service
  • Greet people as they come in
  • Set up chairs before, and/or put them away after, the Service
  • Help unload and load video equipment for hybrid service
  • Assist with setting up video equipment for hybrid service
  • Bring flowers!
  • Pass out the orders of service and distribute hymnals
  • Assist with hand-held cameras for hybrid service
  • Clean up of the hall before closing

To tell us how you can help our Beloved Community come together again, please contact us at uucoastside@gmail.com. And thanks to all who have or continue to volunteer!
Compassionate Caring Committee:
The UUCC Compassionate Caring Committee volunteers are often able to support our members during life events such as post-operative, illness, or being homebound. Do you need food delivery or an errand run? Are you feeling loneliness, loss, or grief that a call might help?
 
Please contacuucoastside@gmail.com if you’d like support or if you want to volunteer.  
We Appreciate Your Support:
For supporting UUCC financially, we have two options:
(1) Donate by Check
If you prefer to donate by check, please make your check payable to UU San Mateo, and write UUCC on the memo line. Please mail your check to:

Nancy Palmer
506 Willow Avenue
Half Moon Bay, CA 94019-1648
(2) Online with Stripe
UUCC Planning Committee Meeting Highlights
Below are some key decisions from UUCC's Planning Committee Meetings for August 2022:
  • Appreciation of two wonderful services in August: Bill Heavlin's service on Ambiguous Loss in Odd Fellows Hall and our final Shared Pulpit sermon by Sylvia Forsyth from UUFSCC.
  • Cleared up a couple of accounting issues with the help from Paula Nuguid from UUSM.
  • Further discussion on potential and upcoming speakers with a new Starr King divinity student, Ron Ahnen, a full time Professor of Politics at St. Mary’s College, and Kalen Fristad, a United Methodist preacher who travels around the country promoting the ideals of Universalism.
  • Discussed suggestions by regular attendees on how to improve our Sunday services format.
  • With recently reported low levels of COVID in San Mateo County, discussion on whether no longer to require proof of vaccination status as long as everyone except active speakers stay masked during the service. Another poll will be sent out to the community for their comments.
  • Change from the Rokosky's to the Heavlin's landline phone number for information on UUCC.
  • Decision to begin UUCC Tea by the Sea on fourth Sundays starting in September.
  • Bill Heavlin will gather community interest in a UUCC Chalice Circle over Zoom once a month starting in the Fall.
  • Notes shared on community meetings attended by UUCC Planning Committee members in August with the UUA Western Region President's Meeting, CoastPride's Multi-faith Partner's Meeting, and Coastside Collaborative.
Food for Our Souls:
Unitarian Universalist Coastside Community
Half Moon Bay, California
Bill Heavlin, UUCC Planning Committee
Dave Rokosky, UUCC Planning Committee
Noreen Cooper Heavlin, UUCC Planning Committee
Tom Devine, UUCC Music Director
Bruce Rafnel, UUCC Technical Director