Service Leader: Rev Dave Clements

Worship Associates: Linda Lampson

Music: Gage Purdy Pre-Recorded

Pianist: Pre-Recorded Roger Corman

Share the Basket: Saturday Breakfast for our Neighbors

Service Leader: Lay Chaplains

Worship Associate: Judy Withee

Music: Gage Purdy

Pianist: Roger Corman

Share the Basket: The Martin Luther King Birthday Celebration

Service Leaders: Rev. Dave Clements & DRE Era Capone

Worship Associate: Susan Thollaug

Music: Alan Bell

Pianist: Paul Gilger

Share the Basket: Saturday Breakfast for our Neighbors

Service Leaders: Rev. Dave Clements

Worship Associate: Eric Fischer

Music: Gage Purdy & The Choir

Pianist: Roger Corman

Share the Basket: Vital Immigrant Defense Advocacy and Services (VIDAS)

Service Leader: Rev. Dave Clements & DRE Era Capone

Worship Associate: Cathie Wiese

Music: Sally Jones

Pianist: Roger Corman

Share the Basket: Centro Laboral de Graton (CLG)/Graton Day Labor Center.

“There’s No Place Like Home”

During the Christmas Holidays I had the opportunity to watch an old Classic, “The Wizard of Oz." I was struck with the thought that for many of us there is really no place like home. Sometimes that home we speak of is not the home where we came from but instead the home that we have created in the moment.

My thoughts are many as we begin a new year together. My hope for us here at UUCSR is that we can say at the end of this new year, “There’s No Place Like Home" (UUCSR). I am excited to be here and to learn and walk with all of you down this yellow brick road that we are charting together.

We have a lot of work to do in 2023. Who we are and how we want to be known in the community. We will also begin to look at our organizational structure. What do we need to change? What do we need to let go of? We will be looking at our finances and what changes we need to make as a congregation to support our programs and our staff and to work towards financial sustainability.

The next six months will be an exciting time here at UUCSR. I invite all of you to stay engaged with this congregation. We need to hear your concerns, your hopes, your dreams and above all your ideas. As your Minister I am here not to save you or fix you but to engage you with each other and with this Unitarian faith community.

May 2023 be a banner year and may we as a congregation learn, grow and become engaged with each other as we begin to dream, hope and plan for the next steps here at UUCSR. Know that I am here to serve and that I welcome your comments, opportunities to meet and freely chat.

Cheers,

Rev. Dave Clements

Happy New Year, all!

I’m writing this early since there are early deadlines, and it feels like I just wrote this column a few days ago!

In any event, here’s what’s new since the last newsletter:

We have changed the day for the monthly Board Meetings and we are now meeting on the first Tuesday of the month. Therefore, our next meeting is Tuesday, January 3rd at 6:30 pm. Hopefully, we will have healthy board members and will be able to meet in person- that’s the plan. We do better work in person, but I am also grateful for Zoom. How would we have maintained anything during the pandemic if not for Zoom? I have a hard time imagining what our lives would have been like.

The Finance team and Board held a second joint meeting on December 10th. As has been reported, our congregation has been in deficit spending for several years and one of our priorities has been financial stability for this congregation while preserving our commitment to our mission as a church community.

In that light, we intend to engage the congregation in some discussion of who we are, and who we want to be as a UU congregation. There is a lot to discuss! Therefore, we will have a meeting for our congregation coming on January 21st, at 4:30 pm, prior to our Congregational Meeting on January 29th.  We are a diverse community in lots of respects -- we are from many walks of life. We are from various socio-economic, ethnic, religious experiences and geographical backgrounds. And we are bound together through our mission. That said, our diversity also provides a lot of different perspectives. This can be seen as an asset, but sometimes it feels very difficult to navigate. We interpret the past, present, and vision of the future each from our own set of lenses. We are already a great community, but we have much work to do together. We shall celebrate life, empower one another, care about one another, and make UUCSR (and therefore the world) a better place and a financially secure place while we do this work together. Rev. Dave and I have been batting around a way to title this meeting, something like “What’s Your Direction?” or “Whose Congregation Does This Belong to?” or “Having a Say” or “Free Food”, but we have not come up with a catchy name that will entice everyone to attend. So, we don’t have a good name for our meeting. Is there a perfect title to a meeting that will encourage and excite folks to come? I’m open to suggestions. Email me if you have the PERFECT name for our meeting! And we will have fun and put on our flexible thinking hats while doing this work!

If there are no more big traumatic events on the horizon (like firestorms, pandemics, earthquakes, political strife, war, or locusts), we look forward to upcoming events -- a chili cookoff in February, a talent show, a concert, and a service auction (April or May timeframe). We will announce dates and details when we have them.

But for now, just have a Happy New Year! Breathe, Love, and Laugh.

Leslie

“I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.”

-Maya Angelou

Financial results through November 2022 - Revenue: We are behind about $24k in pledge revenue through 5 months. Total revenue from operations is behind about $38k. Expenses: Total expenses are also under budget. Net Income: While Glaser Center net income is over budget, for overall operations there is a net loss of about $17k through the first 5 months of the year. Glaser Center net income is about $5k.

Thank you to all for your donations to our Holiday Appeal – There is always time to make a donation by check or through Realm. If you have a question about how to make your gift, please ask Aphrodite or me.

Don’t miss the Congregational Meeting on January 29th for a recap of last year’s financial results.

A Happy January thought - We depend on our congregation to be there for us. It was here when disasters struck and will be here when the next occurs. It provides a platform for our leadership in the community and our individual good works. It nurtures us when we just need a warm embrace and supports us when we feel we may stumble. It is where our friends are. It is home.

Linda Balabanian, Treasurer

Hello all,

Contact Era at dre@uusantarosa.org to get involved!

This Sunday, the kids of RE will hear the story What's My Superpower by Aviaq Johnston. After the story, the kids will take time to explore their very own super powers through games, discussion, and art! With the year still brand new, this session will inspire kids to create goals for themselves as a way to build their own, unique superpowers!

This Sunday, the kids of RE will be looking at the life and lessons of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. through the lens of our UU Principles. After hearing the story Let the Children March by Monica Clark-Robinson, the kids will create signs that share the dreams they'd like to share with the world and make self-portraits that go past the color of their skin.

This Sunday, the kids of RE will be learning all about the Lunar New Year, and the many different cultures that celebrate it

If you attend services, you are aware that there is a Lay Chaplain each Sunday who reads the entries in the Milestones book and is available after the service if someone needs a listening ear. Additionally, our ministry involves assisting our minister by being in contact with people who are ill, unable to come to church or who have experienced a recent loss. We meet twice monthly to identify the needs in the congregation. We are also available to connect with any congregant who requests it. Please contact one of us directly or all of us at LayChaplains@uusantarosa.org if you or someone you know needs support.

Our Lay Chaplains are:

Rob Carlisle

Judy Ervice

Bruce Hope

Barb Kezur

Lucia Milburn

Gayle Shirley

Gretchen Vap

(Danielle Barlow Illustrations)

This January has a feel of new beginnings. The CUUPs group would like to invite you to join them as we plan for 2023. We will decide which celebrations to hold for the congregation and which to celebrate within the smaller group. Will we be able to have Beltane with a May Pole in the courtyard? Will we host another Sunday service as we did in 2022? We will be discussing CUUPs’ path for this new year at our regular 4th Tuesday zoom meeting. Please join us on zoom and help us decide. Email cuups@uusantarosa.org for the zoom link and more information. Until then, enjoy this poem by CUUPs member Mark Green. Blessed Be!

It begins where the smoke

Hits your eyes: smouldering peat,

Mutton stew on a broad iron hook,

Deep snow: How can it ever

Have been summer? Apples wrinkling

And mice in the barley---

With so much to fear, thank fortune

For company! We’ll tell our tales,

Remember how we passed the cold

Last year, and last, and those

Who couldn’t. The grape leans across

The seasons, clasps the hand of summer’s

Dried rind, dreaming the new fruit,

Calling the sun back, world

Without end,

Amen.

ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM THE 8TH PRINCIPLE TASK FORCE

The 8th Principle Task Force is pleased to announce the schedule for our Q & A, Discussion offerings. These meetings will help us prepare for the vote to adopt the 8th Principle on February 26. We hope we have found times and modalities that accommodate all and look forward to these sessions with our community. Come with your thoughts/questions and we will have lively discussions, including Zoom comments/questions you may place in the chat.

January 8, following the service, in person and zoom, facilitated by Carol Daeley and Jeanie Bates

January 25, 6:30 PM, zoom only, facilitated by Margaret Bregger Coston and Jeanie Bates

February 12, following the service, in person and zoom, facilitated by Mary Keefe and Jeanie Bates

We want to clarify the information we have received from the UUA (Unitarian Universalist Association). The work of the Article II (of the UUA bylaws) Study Commission involves thorough study of our principles and purposes as currently understood with an eye to potential, meaningful change. The process will move through several phases before a final vote at the GA of 2024. (Google: UUA Article II Study Commission).

From the material found at this site:

“The Commission’s Statement

...though the task we have been charged with is larger than the specifics of the 8th Principle, we understand these ideals to be at the very heart of our work and very much part of the direction we are journeying. We understand the work we are doing to be building on the strengths of the 8th Principle movement. Whatever flowers grow from the process of engaging UUs in this reimagining, the seeds sown by the 8th Principle project will surely bloom brightly.”

Please feel free to contact Jeanie Bates or Tamara Murrell with any questions.

General Assembly (GA) is the annual national gathering of Unitarian Universalists, where we conduct business of the Association, explore the theological underpinnings of our faith, and lean fully into our mission and principles. GA 2023 will be held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, June 21–25, 2023. UUCSR is allotted five or six voting delegate positions; delegates may participate in the work of the Association either in-person or online via Zoom. Check out lots of info about GA at https://www.uua.org/ga, and email Nominating Committee chair Ben Ford at bjford64@gmail.com if you are interested in being a delegate to represent us at GA!

***********

At the January congregational meeting, we will elect Board of Trustees and Endowment Committee members. The Nominating Committee is preparing nominations that will include:

One or two additional nominations are still in process. Brief bios of all nominees will be included in the packet of information for the congregational meeting.

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 Helge Lemke, Steve Sweaney (co-chairs), Nadene Carroll, Carol Daeley, Linda Lambert, Elizabeth Wheless, and Clare Whitfield.

Please look at the exciting offerings listed below. And tell your friends.

After a recent sermon at UUCSR in which Rev. Bev talked about Mysticism, and shared her own personal mystic experience, several people came to her wanting to share their own stories. Scientific data is showing that mystic experiences are far more common than most people believe. They happen to very ordinary people –– people who are not actively seeking such experiences, and they can happen quite spontaneously. Most people are reluctant to talk about these experiences because they fear being misunderstood or ridiculed for such “woo-woo” nonsense.

This is a one-time gathering inviting anyone in the congregation who wishes to share such experiences in a safe environment to gather and listen deeply to one another’s stories. We will listen deeply and compassionately to one another, without judgment.

One need not have had such an experience to attend, but all will be asked to covenant to uphold strictest confidence about anything that is shared, unless given permission by the sharer to do so.

Rev. Bev Spears is a member of UUCSR and an Ordained American Baptist Minister. For questions, please contact her.

The Christian faith tradition, as practiced, is a predominantly exclusive, prescribed & restrictive belief system. It suppresses its own rich mystic tradition, and all too often causes pain and alienation. Come discover a far different approach to Christianity—one that is expansive, adaptive, inclusive, and sees spiritual growth and development as an integrative part of Unitarian Universalism.

In three weekly sessions, we will engage head and heart in discovering that Christianity, far from a rigid, static belief system, is a dynamic, ever-evolving spiritual movement inviting us to a profound experience of the Cosmic Divine.

Rev. Bev Spears is a member of UUCSR and an Ordained American Baptist Minister. For questions, please contact her.

ZOOM link to be shared later. Watch the Weekly Newsblast.

Before she died in 1974, Felicia Bornstein Lubliner wrote about her internment in ghettos and concentration camps (Auschwitz, Gross-Rosen) in Nazi-occupied Poland, powerful stories published by her son, Irving. He will share excerpts from Only Hope: A Survivor's Stories of the Holocaust, shedding light on her experiences and indomitable spirit, as well as his own experience as a child of Holocaust survivors and his process in bringing the book to fruition. He will pause during the presentation to invite questions.

Irving Lubliner is an emeritus professor at Southern Oregon University (SOU), where his specialty was mathematics education. Since retiring in 2014, he has taught math, blues harmonica, and literature classes for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at SOU, where he also served on the Council of Directors. In 2019, he created Felabra Press and published his mother's writings about the Holocaust, the book that will serve as the theme for this presentation.

After a showing of a short and powerful documentary about an unlikely friendship between a nun and a convicted murderer serving life without parole in Alabama, there will be a panel discussion by the director, Eric Ivey, and several formerly incarcerated people. The program will be organized by John Mutz, a congregation member and former LAPD Station Commander.

Time and Location TBA

Time and Location TBA

Rev. Dave Clements

Gage Purdy

Time and Location TBA

Jeanie Bates jeaniebmft@gmail.com 707-861-9491

Jonathan Choe jonathanchoe@yahoo.com 707-322-8544

Susan Bartholome bartlev@sonic.net  707-887-9810

Alan Bell  alanlinda43@yahoo.com   707-546-6988

Lucia Milburn lamilburn01@gmail.com  707-829-0290

Cathie Wiese cathie@sonic.net   707-486-3774

Kitty Wells kittywellslmft@gmail.com  707-433-3351

A New fob system is in the works and all members with key-fobs will need to update their fobs. The date that these will be active is still to be determined but will most likely be around the end of January.

After the switch, your old fob will no longer be active. Please keep your eyes peeled for information in the weekly Newsblast for more details to follow.

Warm and well wishes for a bright new year!

-Aphrodite- Congregational Administrator

One effective way to slow Climate Change is to deprive the Fossil Fuel Industry of the funds necessary for them to continue emitting Greenhouse Gases. Many Climate Activists have sold their personal investments in Fossil Fuels as have many institutions such as churches and universities. However, the UUA retains an “egregious amount of shares invested in the fossil fuel industry.” The UU Young Adult Divestment Caucus is proposing a business resolution for the 2023 General Assembly: “ We are calling upon the UUA, through the UUCEF [UU Common Endowment Fund], to divest from the entire fossil fuel industry and redistribute those funds from the UUA’s endowment in the form of reparations to Indigenous, Black, and Brown communities.”

In order to bring this resolution before the 2023 GA, their petition must be signed by 250 congregational members, no more than 10 from a single congregation. Please stop by the Climate Action table following an in-person Sunday service for more information and to sign their petition.

In this month's newsletter:

In this month's newsletter:

Side with Love (a campaign sponsored by the UUA) announces 30 Days of Love, the annual month of spiritual nourishment, political grounding, and shared practices of faith and justice. Will go thru Martin Luther King, Jr Day (January 16) thru Valentine’s Day (February 14).

Sign up HERE

707-291-2666