We join together to encourage spiritual growth,
build a beloved community, and act for peace and justice.
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Sunday, January 17, 2021
(10:25 a.m. Special Pre-Service Music)
10:30 a.m. Sunday Service
"Martin & Malcolm & America"
- Rev. Carl
with Intern Minister Jen as liturgist
Special Music: Kiley Mead, Nick Int Veldt, Elaine Gleaton, Melanie DeMore, Dr. Glen Thomas Rideout, & Allison Halerz
Please spread the word about our online Sunday Services
to anyone you know who may be interested.
9:00 a.m. Buddhist Fellowship Group: Meditation & Discussion (Zoom link available at frederuu.org)
11:30 a.m. Virtual Coffee Hour
(Same Zoom Room as Sunday Service)
11:45 a.m. Friendly Forum: So, How is Your Democracy Doing?
3:00 p.m. Atheists/Humanists/Agnostics (AHA)
Discussion Group
Regularly check our homepage for
the next 7 days of online opportunities:
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General Announcements
UUCF Focus Groups with Rev. Carl & UUCF Board
- Sundays at Noon to 1:30pm for up to 12 participants in January and February 2021.
- Join us to explore five questions: (1) Check-in (2) Looking BACK: What have you been grateful for from UUCF during the pandemic? (3) Looking FORWARD: How might we best continue to live into our mission--"to encourage spiritual growth, build a beloved community, and act for peace and justice”--in 2021? (4) Looking AROUND: “Ask Me Anything” with Rev. Carl (5) Check-out: closing reflections.
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Sign-up for the date that is most convenient for you at frederickuu.org/focus.
Enrollment is now open for the Circle of Life Cooperative Preschool! Current and past CLC families, UUCF, and Kol Ami members receive priority enrollment for the entire month of January. CLC offers 2-day, 3-day, and 5-day classes for 3 and 4 year olds. Enrollment forms and information can be found on our website www.circleoflifefrederick.org. For more information email circleoflife@frederickuu.org or call 301-473-7680. Enrollment will open to the public on February 1.
Please Note: Wednesday's Poetry/Check-in with Interim Minister Jen will be held this Wednesday, January 20 at 10:30 a.m. in order to accommodate those who wish to watch the Inauguration at noon that day. Zoom link available at frederickuu.org.
Luminaire Art Show featuring the work of UUCF Member, Robert Strasser: The Blanche Ames Gallery would like to share the following information with you. This show is open in Frederick now through February 7 at the Griffin Art Center. The show is a mix of 10 pieces that all emit light. The purpose is to try to bring light to the end of a difficult year in our darkest season. Many pieces were created specifically for the exhibit but not all of them. There will be regular Friday and Saturday hours in January. The show is free; donations are accepted. Information is here: www.Luminaireartexhibition.com
The Blanche Ames Gallery: New items available from Forestheart Studio! Visit here!
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Joys and Sorrows
UUCF member Bob Hudgins died earlier this week. He has been in treatment for multiple myeloma, but his death came suddenly and unexpectedly from a perforated intestine.
More information will likely be forthcoming about a Zoom Celebration of Life and/or a gathering in person once the pandemic is over.
In the meantime, condolences may be sent to:
Mary Fletcher
6713 Balmoral Overlook
New Market, MD 21774
Please keep Mary Fletcher and the rest of their family in your thoughts or prayers.
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Ongoing & Upcoming Events
Anti-Racism Book Discussion Series
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents:
weekly on Wednesdays, 7:00-8:30 p.m. : https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2544372955?pwd=VVBUNElZcWRMOG94dWhudnZDZyt6Zz09. Isabel Wilkerson is winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Humanities Medal, and author of the critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller The Warmth of Other Suns, which earned the National Book Critics Circle Award and was named to The New York Times’s list of the Best Nonfiction of All Time. She has taught at Princeton, Emory, and Boston Universities and has lectured at more than two hundred other colleges and universities.
Meditation and/or Yoga Mini-Retreat with Rev. Carl & Irene Glasse: Saturday, January 16 (9am-Noon): $20, (We offer adjustments to be as accessible as possible for all bodies.) To register or for more details, visit frederickuu.org/retreat.
Transcendentalism, Then & Now, a four-part Zoom class with the Rev. Dr. John Buehrens, author of Conflagration: How the Transcendentalists Sparked the American Struggle for Racial, Gender, and Social Justice (Boston: Beacon Press, Jan. 2020). Four Sundays starting February 7 at 7:00 pm. Registration for the course is through All Souls Unitarian Church in Washington, DC Copies of the paperback edition of the book ($20) are now available from your preferred bookstore, including the UUA bookstore. In early January, we will create a link to register on our church's website. This will include registration fee of $5.00 per class or $20.00 for the series. Registration is open now.
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Come into the Clearing for Worship in January!
Register for 2021 Thursday Worship Services
We are reminded, even in the hope-filled newness of a season, that promise and possibility can seem too far off in the distance to reach for. We honor the realities of this moment because it matters that we name them, and it matters that we hold space for one another, particularly in the aftermath of last week’s events, so that we can make more room for what is joyful, powerful, and life-giving.
And so, during our first service back from winter break, we are blessed to be together for the first of two movements in the clearing. We'll be on a journey of release and healing TONIGHT NIGHT at 9pm ET/6pm PT called In the Mo(u)rning. We will be with Dr. Elias Ortega-Aponte, BLUU community member and President of Meadville Lombard Theological School, for a time to be present with what has been and with what is. And we’re going to do that featuring powerful music from one of Elias and Rev. Mykal's favorite artists, Crystal Waters, along with other beautiful music and dance. We hope you'll join us!
The second movement, Giving Ourselves Over, will be THIS SUNDAY, January 17th at 4pm ET/1pm PT and will be a time to be present with what can be because we’ve made good room for joy, hope, and love.
TWO beautiful gatherings in one week!!! We hope you’ll not only join us for both services/movements, but that we all will continually be called into honoring both the mourning and the rise into the promise of a new day.
BLUU's online worship services are Black Sacred Space in their entirety - by and for Black people, with the words and voices of Black folks across the diaspora. We hope that Black UUs and Black people who share our values from far and wide will join us!
For our non-Black siblings in faith, please DO share this invitation with Black folks in your life and community. Getting the word out about BLUU’s gatherings and other programming is one powerful way of lending your support, and we deeply appreciate it!
For all of our services, feel free to come into our BLUU Zoom Room as early as 15 minutes before the start of the service to get settled, say hello to the folks who are already gathering, and listen to the music softly playing as we all prepare for our time together.
Register for 2021 Sunday Worship Services.
We hold sacred space for Black people to worship as their whole selves.
Last, but certainly not least,
Please don't forget that the BLUU Ministerial Network has a pastoral careline available for Black folks. You can text or call 984-219-8711 to schedule a time to speak with a BLUU chaplain.
Pastoral care is a model of emotional and spiritual support that can be found in all cultures and traditions. People who provide pastoral care offer support to people in the joys, sorrows, and uncertainties associated with specific life events occurring while a part of the community in which pastoral caregivers serve.
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For this year's King Holiday, the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University will host a free, four-day film festival and webinar, from the evening of Jan. 15 through Jan.18, 2021. On the eve of the presidential inauguration, the festival will feature twenty documentaries as well as musical performances and conversations that speak to Dr. King's unanswered question: "Where do we go from here?"
The webinar will consist of a Zoom meeting room with our director Dr. Clayborne Carson that will take place throughout the weekend, in which he will speak with registrants on a variety of subjects, from Bay Area civil rights history to the legacy of the African American Gandhians. The schedule of discussion topics will be released shortly, and the Zoom link will be emailed to registrants on 1/15. For more information and to register, visit here.
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Please register in advance
Registration will end at 11pm on Saturday, January 16
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“Those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
We are not yet through this terrible moment. Just six days ago, our nation experienced a hateful insurrection that set our democracy and elected representatives in its violent sights. Today, we know more mob violence is planned at state capitols across the country. There is much work to do.
The UUA and Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism (BLUU) joined over 100 organizations to call on Congress to impeach and expel Trump along with the eight senators and 139 representatives who voted against the election results. This action is necessary to protect our democracy and the people of this country. Our communities and organizations are assembling in broad coalitions to fight for a democracy that works for all and policies that create safe and thriving communities.
Are you ready?
At many UU the Vote and Side with Love virtual events, we have opened with Rising Appalachia’s “I Believe in Being Ready.” We must get ready to call for the accountability that is necessary for us to move forward together. We must be ready to push for a progressive agenda during the Biden/Harris administration. We must be ready to care for ourselves and our communities, because there are no shortcuts in longhaul work. We must be ready to lean fully into our values and move away from all forms of white supremacy.
In November, when we prepared for voter intimidation efforts and a contested election, UU the Vote called on Unitarian Universalists to be ready and resilient. This year, we amplify that call. To be ready means to take on the challenges ahead by learning critical skills and strategies to harness love’s power, end oppression, and make a more just and loving world possible. To be resilient means to ground in our faith: to root our work in our values, to nurture our spiritual practices, and to build nimble, powerful communities.
We call on our faith to ground, to learn, and to take action together. This is how we get ready! In 2021, UU the Vote will partner and collaborate across programs to build the organizing infrastructure to carry our work forward, transform ourselves towards embodying our values, and build deeper and wider relationships to win a democracy that works for us all!
Let us remember Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ‘s words: It’s time to organize!
How we’re getting ready!
Ground in the work of our faith
Join us for 30 Days of Love. This is an opportunity to lift up the ways Unitarian Universalists and many of our partner organizations are building and organizing by taking bold, courageous action for intersectional racial justice.
In 2021, 30 Days of Love will focus on four themes from the recently-published report Widening the Circle of Concern, drafted by the Commission on Institutional Change, a UUA group charged with researching, reporting, and making recommendations for transforming white supremacy and other oppressions in the institutional history and practices of the UUA and its 1,000+ congregations and covenanted communities.
Check Out the Schedule!
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Learn skills and anti-racist strategies
Join the Frontline Organizing Training Series. The Frontline Training Week equips ordinary folx with the practical skills and knowledge to grow our justice movements. From honing facilitation skills, to writing effective emails, to using Google sheets, our partners at the Frontline are sharing skills to get us ready for the work ahead. Add skills and capacity to your congregation and our UU the Vote work by signing up your team to these amazing sessions.
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The day after we inaugurate our newly elected officials, we have the chance to inaugurate ourselves as change agents, as bridge builders, as citizens who heal and create and fight for justice while staying anchored in love.
On January 22, 2021, Sounds True will be partnering with visionary activist, author, documentarian, and civil rights attorney Valarie Kaur, to offer a free online event series: The People's Inauguration: 10 Days to Activate Revolutionary Love. You can join us for free here.
During the 10 days that follow, Valarie Kaur—along with special guests, including some of the most inspiring faith leaders and social visionaries of our time, such as Sister Simone Campbell, Van Jones, Rabbi Sharon Brous, Baratunde Thurston, Ai-jen Poo, Rev. Dr. Traci Blackmon, Ani DiFranco, and Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II—will provide us with 10 days of teachings and tools so that we can honor all of our emotions and find ways to fully activate our heart's intentions. The People's Inauguration is an opportunity to commit ourselves to being forces of love and justice in the world.
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Just yesterday, Wednesday, January 13, the Maryland State General Assembly re-opened after adjourning early due to the pandemic last year.
While some things will stay the same, coronavirus is still making an impact on our lives and will make an even greater impact on this year's legislative session.
Due to the pandemic, in-person gatherings, advocacy or even visits to the State House will not be possible. In person testimony, will also be severely limited. Which means that remote advocacy is going to be critically important this year. If you have not signed up for our Legislative Kick Off, please do, financial assistance is available upon request, please email Ashley at info@uulmmd.org and she will get you registered.
The first priority of the session will be to have the general assembly override the six priority bills that Governor Hogan vetoed. Last week, we had members send letters to their representatives asking them to override Governor Hogan's vetoes on:
- HB 1095/SB 669 - Funding for the Prescription Drug Affordability Board
- HB4/SB 208 - Background Checks for Rifles and Shotguns
- HB 1300 - Funding for the Kirwan Commission Educational Reforms
- SB 684 - Establishment of a Pre-Release Unit for Incarcerated Women (there are none), and
- SB 708 - Funding for the Maryland Violence Intervention and Prevention Program, including Baltimore City’s Safe Streets Initiative
If you did not contact your representatives last week, please take the time to contact your Senator and Delegates now, and ask them to override these vetoes. We expect those votes to come up early in the session, so there is no time to waste.
Contact Your State Senator
Contact Your State Delegates
While in-person meetings with lawmakers are not possible right now, you can still contact them by phone or email, and some are even conducting Zoom meetings with constituents. Please make the effort to register your support for these veto overrides as soon as possible.
Thank you!
Steve Buckingham,
UULM-MD Chair
UU Legislative Ministry of Maryland Annual Kickoff
As the Maryland General Assembly convenes its 2021 session, UULM-MD is gearing up with its Annual Legislative Kickoff, this time entirely virtual, on Janjuary 23 from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm. Register at uulmmd.org and join us to hear Senate President Bill Ferguson, celebrate our achievements in 2020, learn about our 2021 priory issues,and participate in breakout discussions with issue-specific advocacy teams. In addition, UULM-MD is the January recipient of the UUCF split-plate offer on January 17.
Register Here!
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Announcements for our weekly e-newsletter are due no later than Wednesday noon. Please keep your announcement 50 words or less. If you have a graphic for the group or organization, please include that as well. Email to: office@frederickuu.org
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