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River Road Unitarian Universalist Congregation
To grow and deepen in Community, Spirit, and Service
eWeekly
January 26 - February 2, 2023
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Upcoming Worship Services | |
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I Like My Living Tradition Just the Way It Is!
Rev. David Miller, Senior Minister from UUCF
One service, in-person and virtual:
Sun., Jan. 29, 10am: Hybrid Service, also on YouTube
11am: Coffee Hour, both over Zoom and in-person
Watch for two links in the Saturday email: a YouTube link for the service and a Zoom link for the virtual Coffee Hour after the service. Recording will be posted on our YouTube channel. You can find our Order of Service online; if you are not watching in real time the Order of Service may not be available.
Sanctuary Hybrid, Online and In-Person: Service will be available via YouTube.
Join us online or in person for worship at 10am. By attending an in-person service, you are giving RRUUC permission to use your likeness in videos and photographs. Sunday service is broadcast live, and may include wide shots of the crowd in the sanctuary.
Welcome to pulpit swap sunday! While Rev. Nancy is in Fairfax, we’re delighted to welcome the vision, humor, and warm heart of Rev. David Miller.
As we consider changes to our principles as stated in Article II of the UUA Bylaws, we consider moments of orthodoxy and heresy throughout the history of Unitarian Universalism including what has served us, what serves us now, and what will need to serve us in the future.
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Masks are still required during service, but they may be taken off to eat and drink during coffee hour in Fellowship Hall. We want everyone in the congregation to remain as healthy as possible, so please - remain home if you or your family members are feeling any cold or flu-like symptoms.
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Notices & Online Ministry Offerings | |
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Annual Benefit Concert for the DC Abortion Fund
This year’s Benefit Concert is entitled “Symphony of Psalms” with performances by the Cedar Lane Choir and professional quartet. Please join us Sat., Jan. 28, at 7pm at Cedar Lane or online.
In recognition of the 50th anniversary of Roe v Wade on Jan. 22, Cedar Lane's chosen beneficiary is the DC Abortion Fund (DCAF). DCAF helps people in Maryland, Virginia, and DC to afford reproductive health care, including those who travel out of state because of abortion restrictions which disproportionately affect low income people.
DCAF believes a person's right to health care should not depend on their wallet. After the overturning of Roe, more people than ever are reaching out for financial assistance from DCAF and there is a constant need for fundraising. Donations give people access to make their own decisions about if, when, and how to raise their families.
Cedar Lane is proud to host this benefit concert, and share gifts of music with the broader community, including the Potomac Partnership and other UU congregations. Join us in person at 9601 Cedar Lane, Bethesda, MD 20814 or live online. For further information go to Cedar Lane UU Congregation's website. You can also donate to DCAF using this link.
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LATN Education Initiative Q&A
RRUUC congregant and LATN member Isabel Castillo has facilitated a school in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico to meet the needs of children and parents during COVID. The community is growing and the impact is evident. Abriendo Brecha is a holistic school that is already making a difference in the education of 21 children and the lives of 16 families so far.
We invite you to an informal video presentation to learn more this Sun., Feb. 29, after the service, in the fellowship room.
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Mural Painting Party
Our beautiful Flower Garden mural in the RE classroom hallway needs more blooms!
This Sun., Jan. 29 beginning at 11:30, all are welcome to add their artistic flair! Let's finish this together! All supplies are provided.
Contact Laura Piervincenzi with questions.
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Beloved Conversations Online - Registration Opens Feb. 1
Beloved Conversations is a program for people seeking to embody racial justice as a spiritual practice. Our program is grounded in Unitarian Universalism, developed and offered by the Fahs Collaborative at Meadville Lombard Theological School, and open to all learners. In Beloved Conversations, we are here to heal the impact of racism on our lives, in order to get free together.
Within, our program's first phase, focuses on the internal work that each of us needs to do as we engage in deeper personal understanding, explorations of race and racism, extracting our souls and spirits from white supremacy culture, and work for racial justice. This work is different for white folks and for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC+) and is done entirely in different courses: Gathering Our Selves for BIPOC+ and Un/Learning for Liberation for white people.
Registration for Within Spring Term 2023 opens on Wed., Feb. 1! Spring Term will run from March 13 through May 29. Registration closes on Feb. 28. More information at meadville.edu/light/fahs-collaborative/beloved-conversations.
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This Sunday
Regular RE classes. Except for those in Spirit Play and OWL, children begin in the sanctuary.
Classroom assignments:
Childcare (under 3 y.o.): room 14
Spirit Play (3–5 y.o.): room 20 (start time: 10:00)
Elementary (grades K–2): room 25
Elementary (grades 3–5): room 23
Middle School: Fiatfalva
OWL: room 31 (start time: 9:45)
Youth Group: room 32
Parents/caregivers of PreK–5th grade students: please pick up your kids in their classrooms after service.
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Next Contemporary Issues Forum: Feb. 12, 12-1pm, via Zoom
"Preparing for Emergencies: Are you Red Cross Ready?" from Candice Covin, American Red Cross
Everyone knows the American Red Cross helps people during major emergencies. But did you know that there are more families displaced in your neighborhood than you may think, e.g., from house fires and floods? And did you know that it’s also part of the Red Cross’ mission to help you help yourself? Becoming “Red Cross Ready” for an emergency means following simple steps in advance to ensure you can weather a crisis safely and comfortably. Being prepared may not prevent a disaster, but it will give you confidence to meet the challenge. Ms. Covin will review the actions that can help make a difference.
Register to attend this forum at us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYvduCtqD0sH9QjTAHkIwNj8NFfcTIsrMgU. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
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Friday Morning Book Group
The book group meets on the third Friday of the month beginning at 10am (via Zoom) to discuss a book selected by the group. Participants are invited to sign in as early as 9:45am to chat before the discussion begins at 10am. In the coming month we will be discussing the following book:
February 17: Desert Queen by Janet Wallach
Contact the River Road office to be put on the email list for the Zoom link.
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UUA Common Read
Join us for a timely and stimulating discussion of the UUA Common Read for 2022-23, Mistakes and Miracles: Congregations on the Road to Multiculturalism. In this book, co-authors Nancy Palmer Jones and Karin Lin — a white minister and a lay person of color — explore the journeys of five UU congregations (including nearby UU Church of Annapolis) as they move toward Beloved Community. How might their stories and lessons impact our own antiracism work here at River Road? What can we learn as we share our own stories?
The book will be explored by Zoom in four sessions; please plan to attend all four sessions. One series of sessions will be on Wednesday nights from 7-8:30pm (March 8, March 22, April 5, April 19); a second will be on Thursday afternoons from 1-2:30pm (March 9, March 23, April 6, April 20). Registration info coming soon!
The book is available in hard copy through the UUA bookstore, as an audiobook through the UUA, or as an ebook through Amazon.
Offered by RRUUC’s Educating4Change Pathway to Racial Justice.
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Voices from the Holy Land Film Salon
On Sun., Feb. 12, join an online discussion about the documentary “’Til Kingdom Come,” at 3:00pm. Learn about the political alliance between U.S. Evangelical pastors and the state of Israel. Register, view the film, then join the event: tinyurl.com/VFHL-February2023. Watch the trailer: tinyurl.com/VFHL-KingdomTrailer. This event is co-sponsored by Churches for Middle East Peace and Palestine Israel Network–Episcopal Peace Fellowship.
Abstract
Millions of American Evangelicals are praying for the State of Israel. Among them are a dynasty of Kentucky pastors and their Evangelical congregants in an impoverished coal mining town. They donate sacrificially to Israel’s foremost philanthropic organization, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, because they fervently believe the Jews are crucial to Jesus’ return. This film traces this unusual relationship, from rural Kentucky to the halls of government in Washington, through the moving of the American Embassy in Jerusalem and to plans for annexing the West-Bank. It exposes a stunning backstory of the Trump and Netanyahu administrations, where financial, political, and messianic motivations intersect with the apocalyptic worldview that is insistently reshaping American foreign policy toward Israel.
Panelists and Moderator
Mark Braverman: Author, Executive Director of Kairos USA
Bruce Fisk: Author, Senior Research Fellow, Network of Evangelicals for the Middle East
Maya Zinshtein: Israeli Filmmaker and investigative journalist
Don Wagner: Author, Presbyterian Minister, former National Program Director at FOSNA
Lara Friedman (moderator): President of Foundation for Middle East Peace
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Lost to Gun Violence
As part of our ongoing commitment to the activists who are interrupting gun violence on the streets of our cities, we are saddened yet honored to memorialize the names of those in our area lost to gun violence recently. These lives continue to matter: Baltimore: Dion Brandon; Carl Gilmore; Cameron Bullock; Kwantez Charles Henson. District of Columbia: Morgan Francis; Keshon Cornish; Dale Henson; Renando Griffin. Upper Marlboro: one person name withheld; Windsor Mill: one person name withheld. Every life lost to gun violence shatters the world for each of us, and every life saved by those who interrupt the violence helps knit us back together.
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Extend the Offering: La Clinica del Pueblo
RRUUC has partnered with La Clinica del Pueblo for over three decades. Jan. 22 was (or would have been) the 50th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision that guaranteed abortion rights. On that day, shared the plate with La Clinica, specifying that our funds go to support LCDP’s very inclusive reproductive rights education outreach.
You may continue to donate all month long by making online contributions (select "Extend the Offering") or by making check donations to RRUUC (designate La Clinica).
RRUUC’s support is vital to LCDP’s ongoing work and mission to provide affordable, culturally appropriate health care to the Latino and immigrant communities of the Washington metropolitan area. RRUUC also donated holiday gifts through their online purchase options for La Clinica’s children during December. La Clinica del Pueblo has expressed their deep appreciation for our continued generosity.
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RRUUC Land Acknowledgement
Acknowledging and remembering that we are situated on the traditional land of the Nacotchtank and Piscataway people, and on the land on which enslaved African people and their descendants labored and lived, we gather together in worship. May the words of our mouths, the meditations of our hearts and the actions of our hands point the way toward a more just future. May the memory of those whose love and labor went before inspire us to create a path of greater joy and justice for all who will follow.
If you would like to learn more about our land's history, please watch the service from June 13, 2021.
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River Road Unitarian Universalist Congregation
6301 River Road, Bethesda, MD 20817 | 301-229-0400 news@rruuc.org | www.rruuc.org
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