Being Part of the Larger WE at Church |
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Dear ones,
Early on in my recovery from alcoholism, over 25 years ago now, one thing became abundantly clear. If I was going to make this change and become the person I could be—healthy and clear, living in alignment with my values and eager to be of service to God and others—I was not only going to have to stop drinking alcohol; I was going to have to talk to people.
Now this might not seem that hard to some of you, but I am an introvert and I’d prefer to sit quietly and read or walk in the woods—ideally with someone I love next to me, not talking. This way of being baffles my wife even now, 18 years into our relationship.
But perched there on the threshold of recovery, I knew that I would not be able to travel this journey of physical, mental, and spiritual transformation alone. I would need to become part of a bigger WE—a WE that was doing something I could not do on my own—a WE that somehow needed me, too, to be all that it could be even as it helped heal my spirit through my active participation.
Early on, members of the recovery community that would eventually become one of my spiritual homes gave me some advice. If you are feeling uncomfortable when you arrive at the meeting (or a family gathering, or a dinner party, or church, or coffee with a group of friends), look for who and how you can help.
If someone is setting up chairs or making coffee, join them. If you notice someone else arrive who doesn’t seem to know anybody or doesn’t know how things work, go introduce yourself and share what you know. If someone is sick or sad or hurting, you don’t have to say much—just tell them you’re glad that they are here and you’re there to listen if they want to talk, or sit quietly with them if they don’t. Ask if there is anything you can do to help ease their burdens, and when they tell you what they need—do it.
The most important thing, my new community members told me, is to find ways to help others to feel wanted, worthy, and whole—and to participate in caring for the community as a whole. Even introverts and folks who might feel awkward in social situations for all kinds of good reasons tend to find that these simple techniques work. Doing these things will help you feel a part of the larger WE, folks told me, and they were right.
There are so many ways for each of us to be a part of the larger WE here at church—ways to get connected and care for individuals and the community as a whole—ways for each of us to be a part of the larger WE that can help us become the people we can be—healthy and clear, living in alignment with our values and eager to be of service to others and the holy. Here are six important ways you can be a part of the community right now—we invite you to pick one or all six—and as always, to add your own, too.
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If you are a member of the church, come to the annual meeting on Sunday, June 5 at noon. You can join us online or in person. And early on in the meeting, if and only if we have a quorum of 25% of voting members (just over 250) present, the congregation will vote to call Rev. Arif Mamdani as our Associate Minister. Rev. Arif has been serving as our Assistant Minister for the last three years, and his spiritual leadership, compassionate care, and values-aligned organizational know-how are incredible gifts to receive. I welcome the opportunity to work in partnership with Rev. Arif as we lead First Universalist together, and to do this, I need you to show up for our annual meeting and vote. Let’s affirm the many gifts Rev. Arif offers us and say yes to our shared future together.
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If you are connected to the church and you believe in our mission, please make a financial gift to support our annual operating budget. Our church is sustained by your gifts—and we cannot do what we are meant to do and be who we are meant to be without all of our participation. We create the larger WE of our community together, and we need each other to do it. You can make your gift here.
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Welcome back Dr. Glen Thomas Rideout! Glen Thomas will return to work after a two-month medical leave on Sunday, May 22. He’ll be working part-time and primarily behind the scenes through much of the summer, and we look forward to his full return as our Director of Worship Arts in mid-August. When you see him at church, please remember that we respect each other’s privacy when it comes to our health, and instead of asking him about his health or where he’s been, I suggest trying out the phrase that our beloved member, Mary Djerf gifted to me: “I’m so glad you are here. We’ve been waiting for you.”
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Send love to Rev. Karen Hutt: Rev. Karen has been away from church for the past four weeks, and will be away for the summer as she prioritizes her own health and wellbeing, and takes a break from her ministry with us until September. Rev. Karen loves us and our church, and we can send notes of care and support to her at church, and we’ll make sure she gets them.
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Welcome Rev. Kate Tucker: this summer, let’s extend a warm welcome back to Rev. Kate Tucker, our Minister Emerita, as she provides a consistent welcoming presence in worship, and lends her gifts of spiritual depth, poetic preaching, and deep love to our congregation to our time together on Sunday mornings. Rev. Kate will not be providing pastoral care or leading the staff. She will be ensuring that our worship life offers a space of comfort, challenge, joy and belonging each week from June 12–August 14.
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And last but never least, if you find yourself noticing someone at church who might not know their way, there’s no better way to feel welcome yourself than by welcoming them in. If you notice a job at church that needs to be done, ask a staff member if you can help by doing it. And if you notice someone doing something on behalf of the community, consider how you might move in next to them to say thank you, and if you are able, how can I help?
We’re in this together: the work of transformation and liberation, the joy of welcoming and belonging. Everybody In.
Love,
Rev. Jen
Rev. Jen Crow
Senior Minister
First Universalist Church of Minneapolis
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Worship
Sunday, May 22, 10 a.m.
Recent Podcasts & Recordings
May 15 Cycle of Life
May Worship Theme
Upcoming Sundays
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News & Features
May Board Meeting Rescheduled
Gratitude for Volunteer Chalice Pillow Makers
Member Name Tags
Faithful Action Newsletter
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Happenings
Abortion & Reproductive Healthcare Small Group
Summer Sign Up Sunday
Electric Saturday
AUW Annual Meeting
Ongoing Gatherings
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Sunday, May 22 — 10 a.m.
Youth Sunday
Minnehaha Park Bandstand
In our beloved annual Youth Sunday worship, our senior high youth offer a story, music, and reflections on our worship theme of "Who tells your story?" The service includes a Bridging Ritual to honor our graduating seniors, marking the end of their time as First Universalist youth and welcoming them into young adulthood in our church. Youth Sunday is a moving expression of our vibrant multigenerational religious community that you won't want to miss.
Worship leaders: Senior High Youth with Rev. Arif Mamdani, Emma Paskewitz, Lauren Wyeth, Aimee K. Bryant, and Franco Holder
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IN PERSON AT 10 A.M.
In person worship over the summer months is offered as a single service at 10 a.m. This Sunday, we'll be meeting at the Minnehaha Park Bandstand for worship.
WATCH THE RECORDING
This service will not be live-streamed, but will instead be recorded and available for viewing later. The recording will be available here by May 24.
CHILDREN & YOUTH
Religious Education classes are on summer break, and there is no childcare this Sunday.
USHERS NEEDED
If you're planning on joining us at Minnehaha Park, please consider signing up to usher during the Offertory. Ushers pass the offering baskets and make sure cash and checks are stored securely afterwards. Even if you're new to ushering, this is a relatively simple way to help worship go smoothly! Please sign up and let us know when you'll be there on this sign up genius. Those who sign up will receive more information before Sunday. Thank you!
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Directions: Minnehaha Park is located at 4801 S Minnehaha Drive in the southeastern part of Minneapolis, just off of Highway 55 and 46th Street. The park is accessible via Metro Transit bus routes 23, 46, 74, and the A line, and the light rail’s Blue line. The bandstand/pavilion at the park is located just to the east of Sea Salt, and south of the parking lots.
Parking: There are two paid parking lots on the northern side of the park, off of Godfrey Parkway. There is free street parking on city streets to the north of the park. Bike parking is available on the southeastern side of Sea Salt.
Accessibility: The bandstand is wheelchair accessible via paved paths from the parking areas.
What to bring: We encourage you to bring water and to check the forecast and dress for the weather (bring warm layers!). The bandstand benches are slatted and wooden; please bring a cushion or folding chair if you have difficulty sitting on a hard surface.
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May 15: "Everybody In"
Building Dedication Sunday
Almost 30 years ago, First Universalist Church dared to dream of a physical space that might mirror our mission – a place where there would always be room for one more, where our sense of who we are is ever-expanding, a building that might embody a love that will not let anyone go. On May 15, we celebrate the completion of our capital project, Not for Ourselves Alone: Building an Inclusive Future, as we welcome everybody in and say thank you to our past, present, and future selves.
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Reflections by Liz Farmer, Membership Coordinator:
We have much to be grateful for and much to celebrate this week as we are astonished by the beauty and tell the story of our beloved renovated church building. We thank and celebrate our past selves for drawing the Circle of Love so wide that we needed a bigger space for it to be truly welcoming! After six years of capital campaigning, planning, and construction, we thank our spiritual ancestors for their move to 3400 Dupont, notice and honor the work of multiple teams of people that made the building beautiful and accessible today, and set our intentions for the years ahead together. When the world around us and our individual lives feel off balance, scary, whizzing by at warp speed, First Universalist has held decades of us steady. With the work of renovating the building done for now, we continue unfolding and transforming our hearts, habits, and church culture. Our sense of who we are was thirty years ago as it is today: loved just as we are and ever-expanding.
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We hold Jens Holmboe and his family in our care today as they mourn the death of his father Paul, who passed away at the age of 72 earlier this week. Paul had declining steadily for months, and was sitting in his favorite chair, watching sports when he died. We surround Jens, Parker, and their whole family as they grieve Paul’s passing and prepare to celebrate his life later this week.
We mourn with friend of the church Dawn Carlson Conn on the death of her husband. Dawn has created many of the stoles worn by ministers of the church and so has been part of our liturgical life for many years. We hold her and her family in our love in this tender time.
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May Worship Theme: Who Tells Your Story? |
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May is a season of regrowth. It is when spring really kicks into high gear. A time when the world around us comes alive again and some of us tell stories through what we cultivate. It is a time when we return to the earth because the ground is ready to receive us. Having released the cold hardness of winter, new life bursts forth, new blossoms telling the story of their time in seed and what they are becoming above ground. It is a story of life, of brightness and color, growth and joy which permeates the air. But it is short-lived, as is every life, really. The flowers of spring depart quickly for the sturdier growth of summer, and it can be easy to forget the frost-defying crocus and the sudden blink-and-it’s-gone burst of lilacs.
At a time when the stories we tell shape our world in palpable ways, the question who lives, who dies, who tells your story calls to us to grab hold of the chorus, to blend our voices and tell a richer, bigger, more multilayered and sometimes far more complex story of who we are and who we can be together.
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On Sunday, May 29, we’ll gather for one service at 10 a.m., in person and online, as we welcome UUA President Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray and others as they lead worship through a recently released recorded worship service on covenant and repair, “Woven in a Single Garment of Destiny.” For those who would like to gather in person, the worship service will be shown in the sanctuary at 10 a.m., and live streamed then as well.
On Sunday, June 5, we’ll celebrate Flower Communion together in person and online at 10 a.m., enjoy a cookout under the tent at 11 a.m., and come back together at noon for our Annual Meeting in person and online, where you’ll have a chance to hear all the ways First Universalist is living into its mission, approve the operating budget, and vote to call Rev. Arif Mamdani as our Associate Minister.
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May Board Meeting Rescheduled to May 26 |
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Thursday, May 26, 6:30 p.m. on Zoom
The May meeting of the First Universalist Church Board of Trustees has been moved back by one week to Thursday, May 26. The Board usually meets the third Thursday of most months at 6:30 p.m. The Board is currently meeting in a virtual format, over Zoom. Information about the May Board meeting, including the Board packet and Zoom information, will be posted here next week. |
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Thank You to Volunteer Chalice Pillow Makers |
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Every year during our Youth Sunday service, our graduating seniors receive rainbow chalice pillows handmade by volunteers from the church.
This year, 36 graduating high school seniors will receive one of these special pillows as we mark their completion of Religious Education, welcome them into young adulthood at church, and send them into the next phase of their lives with love.
Thank you so much to this year's pillow makers! Pictured left to right, they are: Judith Grittner, Marnie Peichel, Jennifer Hains, Carolyn Liebler, and Sara McMullen.
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Name Tags: Last Chance to Order Before Fall |
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We are in the process of ordering new name tags for all members, but we need your help! If you are a member, you can now order a new name tag with larger text and your pronouns by filling out the form here. If you’d like to order a name tag, but aren’t sure if you’re a member, contact Membership Coordinator Liz Farmer.
The deadline to get your order in this time around is Wednesday, May 25, and we are hoping to have a large enough quantity to qualify for a lower price per name tag, so please help us out by getting your order in now! There is no cost to you, and we don't anticipate placing another order until November.
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May Faithful Action Newsletter |
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Read our latest Faithful Action newsletter, which contains information about volunteer and advocacy opportunities, events, news, and more from our justice teams and community Faithful Action partners. The newsletter is available as a Google doc here. |
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Programs, Classes, Events, and Meetings |
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Sharing Stories of Abortion & Reproductive Healthcare |
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Abortion & Reproductive Healthcare Experiences Small Group Spiritual Direction
Sundays, June 12, 19 & 26, 11:15 a.m. – 12:45 p.m. in person at church
The recent news leak of SCOTUS overturning Roe and Casey rulings has, for many, come with a sense of loss, grief, anger, feeling dismissed and other complex emotions. As we anticipate the formal ruling from the high court coming sometime this Summer, we know that drawing deeper into community can support our practice of staying compassionate in the midst of suffering and injustice. If you have a personal experience of abortion or reproductive healthcare, and would like to gather with the intention to listen to truth unveil and to speak your story in community, we hope you will join us in this small group.
Small group spiritual direction is a structured model for engaging the spiritual practice of deep listening. Participants will be invited to listen to group members’ stories of abortion and/or reproductive healthcare access, and to share their own story. Your story may be a recent one or years old. Participating in the offering and receiving of spiritual care through deep listening can be a vital part of holding our life experiences in a sustainable way. Participants in spiritual direction groups often find that the group experience does two things: hearing our stories can help us understand our stories in the context of our lives, and sharing our stories in spiritual direction can help us to hear more clearly the movement in our lives of god/spirit/that which is greater than us. In other words, the group is a space where we experience more clearly what the little acorn told us: we are that.
This newly formed Abortion and Reproductive Healthcare Experiences spiritual direction small group will meet for three sessions on Sundays, June 12, 19, and 26 after church service from 11:15 a.m.–12:45 p.m. This group will meet at church in person. Participants must commit to attending all sessions.
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Sunday, June 12, 11 a.m. – 12 noon
What are you longing for? Friendship? Service? Direct Action?
Come learn about the many church groups and teams meeting at First U this summer. Members from each group will be excited to chat with you about what they’ve got going on and how you can join them. Whether you are seeking connection with congregants in small groups, wanting to volunteer in the church, or be active on the housing, environmental, immigration, or racial justice teams, there is something for everyone! Join us in the social hall after the service on Sunday, June 12.
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Saturday, June 4, 9 a.m.–noon
Church members show off their electric cars! The First Universalist Environmental Justice Team invites you to Electric Saturday, showcasing over 15 Electric Vehicles (EVs) and Plug in Hybrid Electric Vehicles, most owned by members of our church community. Owners will be available throughout the morning to answer all of your questions about owning electric cars.
Electric bikes owners will also be displaying their e-bikes and answering questions.
Check out e-mowers and snow blowers too!
Information from Xcel Energy on their EV charging programs will be available. Climate organizations will also be sharing renewable energy resources and advocacy opportunities. Brian Anderson from Let’s Go Zero Carbon, will make presentations throughout the morning about buying, charging, and living with electric vehicles.
Curious about electric vehicles? Stop by anytime between 9am and noon on Saturday, June 4. If you have questions, or to show your EV or e-bike, contact Lane Ayres at lanebfa@gmail.com
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Association of Universalist Women Annual Meeting |
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Saturday, May 21, 1-3 pm
The Association of Universalist Women invites all women, gender-fluid and non-binary people to its annual meeting which will be both in person and on Zoom on Saturday, May 21. The program will be on reproductive rights with a short video by Rev. Kelli Clement followed by small group discussions about what we can do to prepare for the changes that are coming. A short business meeting will follow. Come for a fun time, tasty food, engagement and community building. No cost and no need to RSVP. You are welcome to bring a friend. Join Zoom Meeting
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Grief Group
Every other Sunday, 4–5:30 p.m. on Zoom (May 22...)
Participants are invited to bring their whole selves and whatever grief they may be carrying. Through sharing, silence, ritual, and reflection, we offer each other support and companionship. Join via Zoom here.
UUs in 12-Step Recovery
Sundays at 7 p.m.
Weekly confidential drop-in group for UUs in 12-step based recovery from all kinds of addiction & family dysfunction. Join via Zoom. (Meeting ID: 922 6965 4151 Passcode: 839388)
12 Step Spirituality – In Person
First Saturdays, 9:30 a.m.–noon
The workshops meet monthly on the first Saturday of each month through June and are for all people in or interested in 12 step programs. They include meditation, meditation instruction, short talks and small groups. Details available at 12stepspirituality.org
12 Step Spirituality - Zoom
Saturdays, 9:30 a.m.
Designed for those actively working a 12-Step program and who want to explore and deepen their spirituality through Centering Prayer. Meeting details: 12stepspirituality.org
Weekly Meditation Group (multi-platform)
Tuesdays, 9–10:15 a.m. on Zoom and in Room 209 at church
Chi Gung
Thursday mornings 10 to 11:30 a.m. on Zoom
Pat,Gottschalk leads gentle movements with a focus on harmonizing our personal energies. Contact Judy Broad at jab679@gmail.com for Zoom information.
Poetry Lovers Group
First Thursdays, 7–8:30 p.m.
Reacquaint yourself with poets you love and discover other poets who are new to you while connecting with fellow Poetry Lovers at church. More information.
Association of Universalist Women Happy Hour
Thursdays at 7 p.m.
Join the 7 p.m. Happy Hour here (Meeting ID: 817 4022 5684; Password: 675052).
Parents & Caregivers of Babies and Preschoolers
Thursdays, 8:30–9:30 p.m.
Parents/guardians of little ones gather for mutual support and spiritual sustenance. Email Lauren at lauren@firstuniv.org to be connected to the group.
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COVID-19 Safety Measures & Policies |
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Our COVID policies were last updated on May 9, 2022. You can read the latest policies here.
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Church Office Open Hours
The church office is open on Wednesdays, 10 a.m.–4 p.m. and by appointment on other days of the week.
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Weekly Liberal Submissions
We encourage you to submit news!
To do so, fill out our online submission form. Edits for length and/or content may occur. The deadline for submissions is noon on Wednesday the week of publication. The Weekly Liberal is compiled and edited by Communications Manager Jenn Stromberg. Past issues and policies can be found on our website.
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Contact Us
First Universalist Church of Minneapolis
3400 Dupont Ave. S.
Minneapolis, MN 55408
612-825 1701
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