In This Issue

The Paradox of Pluralism

May 5th

The Paradox of Pluralism invites us to embrace our differences without compromising our convictions, to engage in meaningful dialogue without sacrificing our faith, and to navigate the complexities of our pluralistic world with humility, and love. As we journey together, may we find unity amidst diversity and strength in our shared humanity.

Service Leader: Rev Dave Clements

Worship Associates: Susan Thollaug

Music: Gage Purdy & The Choir

Pianist: Roger Corman

The Basket: Our Own Saturday Breakfast for Our Neighbors

The Challenges and Opportunities Presented by Pluralism

May 12th

As followers of faith, we are called to engage with the world around us, embracing diversity while remaining rooted in our convictions. This sermon will delve into the challenges and opportunities presented by pluralism, exploring how we can maintain our spiritual integrity amidst a sea of differing beliefs.

Service Leaders: Rev Dave Clements 

Worship Associates: Joe Gabaeff

Music: Gage Purdy

Pianist: Roger Corman

Share The Basket: Humanidad Therapy and Education Services

Our Annual Flower Communion

May 19th

Join us for our Annual Flower Communion Service, a beloved tradition that embodies the essence of our Unitarian Universalist faith. In this special gathering, we come together to celebrate the beauty of diversity and the interconnectedness of all life. Each member of our community is invited to bring a flower, symbolizing their unique journey, experiences, and contributions. As we assemble, our diverse array of blooms becomes a vibrant tapestry of colors, shapes, and fragrances—a tangible representation of the rich tapestry of our congregation.

We will celebrate after the service by having a potluck meal together.

Service Leader: Rev Dave Clements

Worship Associates: Jonathan Choe

Music: Gage Purdy & The Choir 

Pianist:

The Basket: Our Own Religious Education Program

CASTE

May 26th

Reading "Caste":

Join us as we explore Isabel Wilkerson's understanding of American racism as an intentional and pernicious caste system of the West. Hear from some of the more than 40 UUCSR members who have discussed her book in our reading groups. And consider our next steps as we journey toward spiritual wholeness and accountably dismantle racism in ourselves and our institutions. 

Service Leader: Members from the various Caste reading groups

Worship Associates: Mark Sowers

Music: Sally Jones, Crystal McDougall Purdy, Jen Freese

Pianist: Roger Corman

Share The Basket: Ceres Community Project

Save the Date!

Interfaith Pride service at UUCSR

June 2nd

UUCSR Santa Rosa 547 Mendocino Avenue, Santa Rosa. Join NBOP's Religious Leaders Caucus (NBOP)-affiliated faith communities as we lift up the rights of LGBTQAI+ people, and join our voices to call for meaningful social change! Expect music, prayer, joy, and solidarity.

From the Minister's Desk

Reverend Dave Clements

Embracing Change: Letting Go and Embracing Future Possibilities 

As we stride forward into the ever-unfolding journey of life, I’m reminded of the profound significance of letting go. Letting go isn't just about releasing the past; it's about making space for the infinite possibilities that await in the future.

In every phase of life, there comes a moment when we must bid farewell to what no longer serves us — be it old habits, outdated beliefs, or relationships that hinder our growth. It's in these moments of release that we pave the way for new beginnings, fresh perspectives, and boundless opportunities. UUCSR is getting ready to start a new chapter in your life as a congregation. Part of preparing is to recognize that in the past mistakes were made by individuals, the board, and ministers, and it serves no purpose to hang onto these mistakes. What I encourage instead is for you to begin to foster an attitude of what did we learn and how can we improve.

Embracing change isn't always easy. It requires courage, resilience, and an unwavering faith in the promise of tomorrow. But with every step that you take away from the familiar shores of the past, you inch closer to the vast horizon of your potential.

So, as you stand on the threshold of a new chapter, let's embrace the art of letting go. Let's surrender to the flow of life, trusting that it will carry you towards the brightest version of yourself. Open your hearts and minds to the myriad of possibilities that await this congregation, eager to shape your destiny with each decision you make.

Together, let's dare to dream, to explore, and to create the future you envision. Let's celebrate the beauty of impermanence, knowing that in every ending lies the seeds of a new beginning.

Here's to releasing the anchors of the past and setting sail towards the boundless horizons of tomorrow. 

With hope and anticipation,

Rev. Dave 

President's Message

Leslie Norinsky

A whirlwind month:  

The Congregation passed the Resolution for a Bilateral Ceasefire in Gaza just as the possibility of mass starvation in Gaza was being brought to light in the press and after over six months of visual press coverage of children being killed in mass numbers by the Netanyahu armed forces, 150 hostages still being held by Hamas, and over 200 Aid workers killed in Gaza since October 7th. I am proud of this Congregation for holding up our values that we are all one human family, that we all are inherently worthy and that we UUs will stand for equity and compassion in all human relations.

The Congregation also passed the vote to go into Search and out of an Interim period. Although not all of our hurts have been healed, we feel that we are ready to enter into a new phase. The first step has been to gather names from all members for recommendations of people to be on the Search Committee. The Board will discuss how to ensure that this committee represents the aspirations and viewpoints of a representative sample of the Congregation and then a subcommittee of the Board will go through the lists and come up with a great slate. At the time of this writing, not all members have yet been called. By the time you receive this Newsletter, we hope that this process will have been completed. At the June Congregational Meeting, the members will be asked to vote on the slate of candidates. I know from my own experience calling folks that this will be a somewhat challenging process since so many different names have been submitted.

The Search Committee will also have a lot of work to do with the Congregation, ensuring that all voices are heard and considered, and that democracy prevails. We will need to have accurate and accessible financial information in order to make decisions collaboratively and wisely. Furthermore, we are hopeful that whoever serves as our next Minister(s) will be exactly who we need them to be for this point in our journey together.

As this church year ends, I will be leaving the Board, but I am hopeful and optimistic for our future together.

-Leslie

Message from Our Music Director

Gage Purdy

This month at UUCSR, we proudly explore the theme of "Pluralism," celebrating diversity and the coexistence of different beliefs, cultures, and perspectives. As we know, pluralism is not merely tolerance but an active appreciation and respect for the multitude of voices that contribute to our shared experience.

In the music ministry here at UUCSR, pluralism manifests in myriad ways. It's evident in the varied genres, styles, and traditions we embrace: from classical hymns to contemporary anthems, from jazz to global rhythms. Our choir rehearsals and Sunday music offerings serve as a microcosm of pluralism, where voices from all walks of life blend harmoniously to create a euphony of unity and inclusivity. Furthermore, our instrumentalists draw inspiration from various cultural backgrounds, infusing our worship services with a rich tapestry of melodies and rhythms. 

Through music, we transcend barriers and connect on a deeper level, celebrating the unique contributions of each individual while finding common ground in our shared love for music. As we journey through pluralism in music, let us continue to embrace diversity, cultivate empathy, and foster a sense of belonging for all. Together, let's create harmonies that resonate with the beauty of our collective humanity.

-Gage

Message from the Treasurer

Jan Hess

Pledge revenue as of March 31, was $326K. This was $131.00 below budget at this point in the year. The Stewardship Team, which monitors pledges and contacts pledgers about their pledges, expects pledge revenue to be between $10K and $15K under budget by the end of the fiscal year. Donations, conversely, are still above budget by $11,400. Glaser Center net income is $5K above budget. Fundraising is $16,600 below budget but our major fundraiser is the Service Auction and it is not until June. Remember to get involved and help us make money for the Congregation…and it’s going to be fun! 

Expenses- Employee expenses are $20K under budget; it was more last month ($30K), but we are doing well. Expenditures for Operations which includes building and maintenance, were under budget by $14K. Even Utilities were close to budget only $200 over. The biggest expense was Insurance, which increased approximately $3K. Total overall expenses were $26K below budget, after deducting $6K for UUA Dues that won’t be paid until June. 

Total income was $433K less Expenses $411K = Net Income $22K plus reimbursement for expenses from Saturday Breakfast of $11K for Net Income of $33K. This is a good place to be in the Third Quarter of our fiscal year. 

Another important fact is that we currently have 192 pledging units (households include multiple members). We currently have 240 UUCSR Members (not including children). 

Jan Hess, Treasurer (I’m available for any questions)

UUCSR CEASEFIRE RESOLUTION

Shared by Rev Bev Spears

At a special congregational meeting on April 7, 2024, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation Santa Rosa voted unanimously to make a public statement in regard to the ongoing violence in the Israeli / Palestinian conflict. The Bilateral Ceasefire Resolution reads as follows:

Religious Education

Era Capone

Hello all,

May is here, and along with it all the end-of-school festivities and craziness! RE will officially be moving into its summer curriculum starting in June, with a heavier focus on activities, projects, games, and guest instructors during our Sunday morning gatherings. In the meantime, however, we have lots going on in RE, including end-of-year youth trips, Flower Communion, Pride, and Summer Camp-aign registration!

This has been an exciting year for RE, with huge turnouts for programs such as OWL, D&D, and UU Parenting, and it couldn't happened without all the amazing support from our congregation's amazing families. Thank you for making this year so special; I'm excited to share with all of you what we have in store come September, and can't wait for all of you to be a part of it!

For those of you looking to get involved in RE, we would love to have you join us! If you're interested in volunteering, leading an activity, or just want to learn more about our programs, please email me at dre@uusantarosa.org. There's a little something for everyone in RE, and we can't wait for you to join us!

In love and gratitude,

Era

dre@uusantarosa.org

Taize at UUCSR

Mark your calendar for Taize services on the following first Thursdays of the month:

May 2nd, June 6th, (no service on July 4th), August 1st 

From CUUPs

By Chlele Gummer

Renewing Your State of Mind

Living as human beings we have an elevated point of view. Because our brains have created the world of today with cars, airplanes, electricity, telephones, and electronics, all the creations of the last 150 years, we think we are the top form of life. We live indoors, away from nature in houses of materials that no longer resemble their natural state. We design plants to surround us, instead of those nature would provide. We build cities of concrete creating a place for buying and selling all things made by us. In making these dramatic changes of the natural state we turn it into something toxic to life.

Because of our creative brain we have stranded ourselves from the nature that gave us life. At some point in our lives then, we feel a lack, an emptiness we can’t explain. I suggest that we need to change our focus. We need to examine nature, to practice a respect for it, and to commit to caring for it. It’s as easy as caring for the spiders in your house. Don’t laugh. I have rescued spiders in the tub or sink by throwing a towel over the edge, giving them a way to climb out.

We need to do more than feed the birds. We need to make choices that enhance nature like leaving the fall leaves in the borders over winter to protect the insects, like composting our food waste, and not using plastics. We can get outside to see the nature that is still left to see. We can appreciate the dandelions and other flowering plants that invade our lawns. We can stop covering the earth with cement and find a more natural way. To protect the climate we can start using the bus for short trips and walking to the store, reserving the car for out-of-town trips. We can insist that governments require the latest earth saving materials in building homes and cities and to invest in taking care of the remaining wild places.

I encourage you to become more interested in what lives around you: the plants, the animals, the insects, and the smaller life forms, enabling them to live with us and we with them. They are not the enemy; they are our family from whence we came.

-Chlele

First Sunday Flowers Dedication

The Chancel flowers on May 5th, are dedicated:

by David Reitzell and Mary Keefe

In loving memory and honor of David’s mother, Evelyn Reitzell, who would have been 94 on May 18th. She was love and light and dedicated her life to family, friends and her church. She is deeply missed.

For more information on how you can dedicate First Sunday Flowers, contact flowercommittee@uucsrsantarosa.org

Service Auction

UUCSR’s Roaring 20th

Help UUCSR celebrate 20 years at our downtown home!

What You Need to Know

1. This year’s Auction party is Saturday, June 1—just one month away—from 5 to 8 p.m. Happy hour at 4:30. Costumes of the period encouraged! Child care avail.
2. We are eagerly accepting donations NOW. Look for the Auction table in the Social Hall after services or click on the link in your Weekly Newsblast. Return form to the office or auction table, or email it to leeski2@sonic.net.
3. Tickets will be sold at the door or in advance at the auction table on Sundays on a sliding scale of $10 to $40 p/p. Tickets also available at brownpapertickets.com/ event/6305213. Admission includes a free drink.
4. While the idea, of course, is to bolster our operational budget, we are offering numerous affordable items and get-togethers to fit your own budget.
5. Early bidding will take place in the Founders Room each Sunday in May. Additional items are online at UUCSR.betterworld.org.

Food! Drink! Music! Entertainment! Join us!

Soul Matters

Soul Matter's March theme is: Pluralism

(Click on the photo for more information)

Soul Matters is a deeper spiritual version of Small Group Ministries where we meet monthly or twice monthly in small groups to dive into our own spirituality and get to know each other in a more personal sharing.

Contact Katie for information

Katie Trieller: ktrieller@icloud.com 707-329-5083. smallgroupministry@uusantarosa.org

Share The Basket Donations



Share the Basket offerings from Sundays and direct Donations for the month of March 2024

Miracle League North Bay: $330.34

Sonoma County Law Enforcement Chaplaincy: $361.96

UUCSR Religious Education: $420.01

Saturday Breakfast for Our Neighbors Share: $350

Saturday Breakfast Direct Donation: $777.00

*Please note that Share the Basket Donation checks need to be made out to UUCSR in order for us to process them and send the intended donor their share. We are not able to process checks made out to the individual organizations. Thank you.

~ ~ ~

Please consider joining the Share committee. It is a very rewarding position.

Your Share the Offering Project members,

Elaine Wellin, Mary Louise Jaffray, Jan Prater, Judy Wismer

From The Lay Chaplains

Those who attend services in person may enter a personal joy or sorrow in the Milestones book which is found just outside the sanctuary door on Sunday mornings.

For those who attend on Zoom there is now the opportunity to email your Milestone to laychaplains@uusantarosa.org anytime up until 10 am on Sunday mornings. The Lay Chaplain will add your entry to the book to be read during the service.

As always, anyone can use the email to send milestones at any time or to contact a Lay Chaplain for support.

Please limit milestones to personal joys and sorrows. If you have an announcement please contact the office during the week.

Our Lay Chaplains are: Rob Carlisle, Judy Ervice, Bruce Hope, Barb Kezur, Gretchen Vap

Adult Education:

The Adult Education Committee offers a wide variety of courses and programs in such areas as film, science, current social and political issues, skill development, personal growth, and forms of religious understanding. We always welcome suggestions from anyone who would like to present or participate in a program. Our members are Steve Sweaney (chair), Nadene Carroll, Carol Daeley, Linda Lambert, and Clare Whitfield.

1001 Opening Nights

Alan Bell

Six-Eight Sessions

Tuesdays May 7—June 4

3-4:30 PM. Board Room

It seems everything has to have a Golden Age, whether or not it was truly golden. For television, it was the 1950s. Some great plays made their way to American screens during that period: Marty, Requiem for a Heavyweight, No Time for Sergeants, 12 Angry Men. These plays featured some hungry unknown actors like Paul Newman, Andy Griffith, Jack Palance, Rod Steiger, and James Dean. The plays were performed LIVE. Each session will start with background information and then the play will be shown in its entirety. Most are under an hour. After each performance, we'll engage in a free-form discussion.

Alan Bell is a Congregation member with 20 years of experience in television, mostly as a public TV producer, and 15 years as a professor of communications.  

For more information, contact Linda Lambert at linlambert@mcn.org

Detective Fiction and Religion Part 2

Carol Daeley

Wednesday May 15

2-4 PM, Board Room

Because detective fiction emerged as a defined genre in the 19th century, its affinities with scientific realism, close observation, and rational thinking are often stressed. But there is also, from the beginning, a close association between detective fiction and what is, or appears to be, supernatural. Many detective novels build their plots around specific religions. How and why? The last meeting of this class will discuss P.D James’s Death in Holy Orders (Anglicanism). We will also be privileged to hear from congregation member Linda Lambert, author of the Justine trilogy, about detection in her novels.

Carol Daeley is a Congregation member and a retired professor of literature, though professors of literature never actually retire. 

NBOP:

• Save the Date! Saturday June 8th 4-9pm: Celebrate community power at our all-ages annual festival with all-you-can-eat tacos, performances, a raffle, and cumbia dance party at beautiful Penngrove Park. All proceeds to benefit North Bay Organizing Project. For more info and tickets: www.northbayop.org/culturaycambio

• JOIN UUCSR's CORE TEAM: This team will be a liaison for UUCSR and NBOP. As a member organization, UUCSR is building a NBOP CORE TEAM to join the work of NBOP and build collective power in making an impact on local social justice issues in Sonoma County! CLICK TO READ MORE HERE

Glaser Center

May is a full month at the Glaser Center. Please watch for notices about events open to the public.

Here are just a few to check out:

• May 12, 3pm: Occidental Community Choir Mother's Day Concert.
• This event is accompanied by a pre-concert sponsored by The Glaser Center, "All Creatures Great & Small"-- a Free & Innovative "Inclusive Sensory-Friendly 20 minute Choir Concert" 
• Saturday, MAY 18, 7 pm San Francisco Scottish Fiddler's Spring Concert 

Please contact the Leslie at: leslie.jacobson@uusantarosa.org