FEBRUARY 2021
The building may be closed, but our church is OPEN!
There are many ways to get involved and stay connected:
and more!

There are opportunities for learning & fellowship, working for social justice & racial equity -learn more here!
SUNDAY SERVICES





SUNDAY WORSHIP SCHEDULE

Watch Virtual Worship Service On Demand!

10am: Live Religious Education Service on Zoom

11am: Live Community Coffee Hour on Zoom

&

7pm: High School & Middle School Youth Group

WE ARE
 CLOSING THE GAP
Generous year-end donations and pledge increases have further closed the Building Project funding Gap to just over $200,000. In part, this "good news" amount assumes that pledges ending in June 2021 will be fulfilled. Early fulfillment of pledges and non-pledge donations before June will substantially reduce the amount of the fixed loan required when the Building Project finishes. It is understandable that some pledges must be delayed because of current financial challenges. Other pledges are "fourth year" pledges that are not scheduled to be fulfilled until June 2022. In either case, pledges fulfilled by June 2022 will help erase a long-term loan protecting the church's operating budget from any loan burden going forward.
See the Building Project page here for more information.

WHERE DOES THE 
BUILDING PROJECT STAND? 

By the time this newsletter is published, our Town of Chapel Hill and third-party inspections will be nearing completion. At a high level, this means the structure is fully installed and the portions of the mechanical, electrical, audio/visual, and plumbing systems that will subsequently be covered and inaccessible in the walls are in place. Anticipating the subsequent layers of insulation and drywall, we first inscribed on the plywood sheathing the names of several hundred congregational family members signifying their endorsement of our wonderful new space-to-be. The exterior trade work (roofing, soffits, trim, siding, and masonry) will have been installed, with our custom doors and window installation on the horizon. You can take a virtual peek at the ongoing work by visiting the Building Project webpages: more info, weekly Photo Gallery updates or recent mini-videos here. Questions? Email us here.

HOT COCOA & WHEELS SOCIAL (-DISTANCING): 2/14/21, 2-3PM

We hope you can join us! Weather-permitting, we will meet in socially-distanced assigned (& rotating!) spots in the large parking lot at church for a fun (and tasty!) social event, including hot cocoa, fun and fellowship. For kids, we are introducing "wheels-distancing". Kids can bring their wheels -- bikes, trikes, scooters, and skate boards and ride around the parking lot for fun. For safety and Phase 3 compliance, there is a strict guest number limit, and registration is required. Please complete this form to RSVP. Thank you.

CHILDREN'S & YOUTH MINISTRY
FEBRUARY PROGRAMS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUTH
  • Our Soul Matters Theme for February is Beloved. There are lots of ways for families to connect with church. This fall, we are offering take-home kits for children. On Sunday mornings, you can join Family Worship 10-10:30AM on Zoom, or watch the Family Worship video with your family anytime. Every Saturday afternoon, there is a fun event on Zoom. Sometimes we play Bingo, or Magic the Gathering. Sometimes we have a Choose Your Own Adventure. On Sunday evenings at 7PM, there is worship for youth, followed by Middle and High School Youth Group at 7:30PM.
     

  • Details about the Children's Ministry program are here.
  • Details about the Youth Ministry program are here.
  • If you would like to be put on the weekly email for Children and Youth Ministry to get the zoom links, please Contact Marion Hirsch here.
JUSTICE & SERVICE
SPIRITUAL EXPLORATION FOR ADULTS
DAILY READING AND REFLECTION GROUP ON ISABELLE WILKERSON'S CASTE

SEA (Spiritual Exploration for Adults) is sponsoring a reading and reflection Facebook group on for the book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson. Read 10 pages a day (a chapter). Post a short reflection daily in a private Facebook group. Each of us will take the lead to start the post for each day. The book is terrific and very well written, but heavy and deep and helpful to read slowly and in community. Starts Monday February 1. Ends March 11. Led by Marion Hirsch. More info & registration here. Questions? Contact Marion Hirsch here.

RACIAL EQUITY MOVIE DISCUSSION GROUP 

Join our racial equity movies group. We'll watch a movie/series each month dealing with issues related to racial equity on our own, meeting together on the third Thursday of each month to discuss the movie. In February, we will have two discussion groups: 1st and 3rd Thursdays. We'll explore the issues that these movies raise in our lives, and how they point us in ways to respond. Discussions led by Kathy Hodges and Baptiste Lefebvre. Register here. Information about how to stream the movies here. Questions? Contact Kathy Hodges here.
  • Feb 4 - Selma
  • Feb 18- I am not your Negro
  • Mar 18 - Just Mercy
  • April 15 -TBD
Study of the Dao De Jing (Tao Te Ching) 

March 23, 30 and April 6 (on Zoom: 7-8:30): Kari Andrade will lead this study this primary text of Daoism (Taoism) written 2500 years ago; it is the second-most translated book in the world after the Bible. Together, we'll study 6 of the 81 chapters focusing on the 3 treasures of Daoism: compassion, moderation and humility. We will read several translations and discuss their meaning and how these ancient ideas still apply to our lives. Each chapter is similar in length and complexity to a poem. Register here. Questions? Email Kari Andrade here.

Rev. Thom Belote & Living Our Covenant with Intention (LOCI) 
RACIAL EQUITY OFFICE HOURS 

Talking about race can be difficult, and initiating conversations about it can be intimidating. The Unitarian Church of Chapel Hill has been working on building open and safe spaces to have these discussions. In that spirit we would like to invite you to our Racial Equity Office Hours! People can bring questions, experiences they are unsure about or wish to reflect more on, or just general thoughts and feelings. Racial Equity Office Hours are a space where people are encouraged to tackle challenging questions and reflect on their own interactions with race throughout their lives. There will be experienced facilitators to provide topics and guide the discussions in general. The format will be very casual, and people are encouraged to drop in or drop out whenever they get the chance. 

Office hours will be consistently held weekly every Thursday at 2pm, here and Sunday at 5pm, here
We hope to see you there! Contact  Rev. Thom Belote here, or Dave Klibanow, here.
COMMUNITY SERVICE MINISTRY
THE IFC HAS MOVED

The IFC moved from its interim location on West Rosemary to its newly-built home at 110 West Main in Carrboro during the first half of January. Almost all services, except overnight accommodations, will be in this new building designed to house a large, multi-service non-profit. The Community Market, formerly called the food pantry, will be there, as well as many of the offices and counseling services. The Community Kitchen served its first meal there on January 19 and will be going non-stop at this new location. Many of the IFC volunteers have been paused during the Covid outbreak, but the kitchen has still managed daily meals-to-go with staff and very few volunteers. Our church has been fortunate to keep connected during this time through our liaison, Rick Szymanski.
SHARE THE PLATE
The CHATHAM COUNTY COUNCIL ON AGING (COA) extends its deepest gratitude for the generous donations received from the January 10th SHARE THE PLATE. Your donations contributed $395 toward the ongoing work of the COA in helping older adults remain safely in their homes, especially during COVID-19. Thank you for your support!  For more information on the COA, visit their website here.

LEARNING & FELLOWSHIP
WELCOMING MINISTRY
THE COMMUNITY CHURCH COOKBOOK 2020 - COPIES STILL AVAILABLE!

There are still some copies available of The Community Church Cookbook 2020! It contains 130+ tantalizing recipes from dozens of enthusiastic contributors in our congregation. This cookbook, the first to our knowledge, will enhance our virtual connections through sharing beloved recipes, some that are familiar favorites on the Jones Building buffet tables, and some that are intriguingly idiosyncratic.
Order your cookbooks here - Scroll down to "Cook Book" under "One-Time Donations), or you may pay by check. The price per book is $15. Proceeds will help close the Gap for the Building Project! Please look in the Weekly Announcements for information on picking up your order. If you have any questions, email us here.
RARE WOMEN
RARE WOMEN

As Rare Women, we build relationships in small groups by sharing our lives and the gifts, myths, and challenges of growing older. Interested newcomers (not just elders) are welcome and are encouraged to join any of the three existing groups. All groups meet at least twice a month via Zoom and will finish discussing Women Rowing North by Mary Pipher at their first meeting in February. Beginning with their second topic-based meeting in February, members of the groups will share experiences and lessons learned from their lives, decade by decade, with ages 0-9 being discussed first. THIS WOULD BE AN EXCELLENT TIME FOR NEW MEMBERS TO JOIN. Questions to consider for each decade can be found here. The Zoom links and list of topics and meeting dates and times for each of the three groups through June 2021 can be found on the Rare Women's webpage, here Contact Susan Blanchard here.
HOUSING OPTIONS AS WE AGE 

Membe rs and friends of our church are invited to join our discussions about housing options and challenges as we age. Some members of the group are looking at these issues from their own perspectives, whereas others are interested in learning about options and challenges that their parents are facing. We meet, via Zoom, on the second Wednesdays here and fourth Wednesdays here from 1:30-3:30PM. On February 10, Maria Tadd, author of Happiness is Growing Old at Home, which she wrote about her experiences with helping her mother live out her life at home, will talk about what she has learned since she published the book in 2009 and her own plans for aging in place. On February 24, Susan Blanchard will talk about Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities (NORCs) and planned retirement communities. Links to resources can be found here. Contact Susan Blanchard here if you would like to join our email list. 
OUTDOOR CONNECTIONS
FRI FEB 12 OR SAT FEB 13, 5:30 PM, MASON FARM

It's time for the annual woodcock walk. Woodcocks are long-billed, bug-eyed, quail-sized birds who look a lot like Snipe but actually exist. At least sometimes. To make as sure as we can this time we'll scout possible areas in advance. We're splitting this across two dates/groups for Covid safety's sake.

It's worth it to hear/see perhaps the most elaborate courtship ritual of our native birds. Males begin with "peenting," a nasal overture of honking bleats aimed at alerting prospective partners for: Act II, a spiraling "whistling" courtship flight, designed perhaps to dizzy both parties. No part of this being mundane, the whistling is a produced by specialized tail feathers. Followed by: Act III, a strutting, tail-flaring testosterone-driven display which requires the only available open space, the path on which we'll be standing. - Stephen Chandler
 
 RSVP here.

WOMENCIRCLE
WOMENCIRCLE FUN AND GAMES

Fun and Games! Women of all ages are invited to an afternoon of fun, playing games on Zoom, Saturday, February 6 from 3-5PM. Please sign up by February 4 with Ruth Gibson here in order to receive advance material you will need. We'll begin with a greeting game and then continue with the two following games..
Scattergories, led by Linda Thompson, is a game of creative quick thinking. Players score points when given an initial, and they must name unique objects within a time limit.
Wise and Otherwise with Ruth Gibson: Participants will be sent a short list of proverbs in advance. To play the game, one player reads half a wise saying from someplace in the wide world, and everyone else submits a completion. Then you see whose ending is deemed the wisest!

NON-FICTION READERS
NONFICTION BOOK DISCUSSION FOR FEBRUARY 

On Saturday, February 20 from 10:30 to 12:00, the Nonfiction Readers will discuss Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, by Matthew Desmond. This Pulitzer Prize-winning book combines personal stories with sociological data and analysis. The author follows eight families of renters, black and white, as they struggle to maintain decent and affordable housing in the city of Milwaukee. It is "written with the vividness of a novel," according to the New York Times, which named it one of its top-ten nonfiction books of the year. It is a disturbing description of the US affordable housing crisis, seen through the eyes of those most affected by it. Ed Steffes will be leading our discussion. The Readers meet on the third Saturday of each month. New members and drop-ins are welcomeContact the group here to ask questions, or to be placed on the distribution list for meeting information.
OFFICE NEWS
WE'VE ADDED A SECOND CHURCH ZOOM ACCOUNT

Ten months into Virtual Churching, our church community is as busy as ever! To accommodate our robust programming, we've added a second Zoom account so more groups can meet. Moving forward, we will be offering congregants "Zoom 1" or "Zoom 2" for meetings. You can check to see if either is available for a specific time by looking at our Church Calendar here and reserve one of the Zoom accounts by filling out this reservation form. Regardless of whether you use our Zoom accounts or your personal account, please remember to fill out the reservation form so we can add all events to our calendar and make all our offerings visible and accessible to the wider community!

If you have questions, email Dana here or call 919-229-9452.

MARCH NEWSLETTER SUBMISSIONS ARE DUE FEBRUARY 15
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The C3HUU Board wants to hear from you! 
Learn more about the Board here, including viewing the Board and Congregational Meeting minutes.  
 
If you would like to learn more about joining The Community Church of Chapel Hill, please contact our Membership Director, Rachel Rose, here.
Whether you are brand new or a longtime attendee, and whatever your beliefs or background, we welcome you to our community of friendship and ideals.