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Congregational
Mission
Statement
We are a Congregation creating a better world by nurturing the heart and expanding the mind.
We provide a safe, caring community where all can freely explore diverse religious thought.
We work for justice and equality with the power of compassion and compassionate power.
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UUCGT Quicklinks
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If you would like to receive our monthly newsletter
the Beacon
please contact
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THIS SUNDAY:
For the Service, the Zoom link is here.
The Service is at 10:30 AM but you can begin
signing in at 10:00 AM to visit!
Sunday's Service
2.28.2021
A LAY-LED SERVICE
"BELOVED COMMUNITY in DIFFICULT TIMES"
The UUA proposed 8th principle states: ""We, the member congre-gations of the UUA, covenant to affirm and promote: journeying toward spiritual wholeness by working to build a diverse multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions."
Let us look to the biblical Esther of the Hebrew Scripture as a model.
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REV. CATHY'S MESSAGE FOR THE WEEK...
We just completed the Starting Points Class last week. If you are interested in becoming a member of UUCGT, we will be offering a New Member ceremony on March 21st. Another Starting Points class will be offered in the spring if you missed this one. It is a wonderful experience for both new UU's and longtime UU's. As soon as we get enough interest, we will offer another class.
In addition, I am preparing to offer another workshop beginning in March called Harvest the Power. This is a six-week leadership development workshop designed to strengthen leadership skills while offering intentional faith development that will help form integrated leaders who model healthy personal and leadership practices. If you are interested in joining me for this experience, send me an email
revharrington@mac.com and I'll add your name to the list.There is a limit of 10participants and there is no fee. We will have a planning meeting after church on March 7th to determine the days and times that will work best for the group. Here's a summary of the workshop and its goals:
The 2020 edition of this curriculum reflects new understandings gained from faithful practice of congregational leadership in a multi-generational, multicultural, diverse, and inclusive faith community. It is designed to cultivate a "we" rather than "I" culture in our congregations and addresses the stresses and opportunities Unitarian Universalists are facing in this time of rapid change in our world by offering frameworks and strategies to help leaders engage with congregational conflict as a way to grow in capacity to respond faithfully and live out the congregation's mission and values in the world.
- Encourage congregations and participants to view holding a leadership position as an opportunity to enrich and deepen the leader's faith
- Deepen participants' understanding of covenant and the practice of keeping covenant within the leadership team and in the congregation
- Guide leaders to center relationships as a faithful practice, thinking of the congregation as a "we" rather than a collection of individuals
- Lead participants to develop an understanding of the importance of personal spiritual practice and integrity to healthy leadership
- Guide participants to consider which voices and perspectives were marginalized in the past and need to be part of congregational or leadership decision-making
- Introduce systems thinking, and provide some practice with exploring congregational issues through a systems lens
- Encourage participants to consider that conflict can indicate questions needing attention in the larger congregational system and invite them to respond accordingly
- Deepen and enrich the experience of congregational leaders and, by extension, the ability of congregations to live out their missions and values, both in congregational life and in the wider world
- Invite leaders to become aware of their own role in the congregation and to develop a leadership approach and skills to guide a community toward a faithful response toward a faithful response to conflict.
Spring is on the horizon, and the vaccine production is rapidly increasing. I can't say exactly when meeting in the church building will be possible, but I can say that you have a wonderful team working on planning a safe return and another team is forming to investigate and implement a plan to offer a hybrid worship experience.
Hang in there, we have survived the winter! Don't forget my office hours on Zoom Wed 12-1:30 ( https://uuma.zoom.us/j/97928800471) and appointments are available for one-on-one time. Email me or call to make an appointment.
In faith and love,
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Again, the Zoom link for SUNDAY SERVICE is
Sunday's "Reminder" Flash will have a link to the Order of Service, which will be posted on our website homepage at uucgt.org as well.
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WOW!
(And please indicate your intentions for your check
ON THE MEMO LINE!)*
Fifty of you have already returned the Pledge Form, thank you! If you've got the blank form that came in the mail, please fill it out and send. If you have not received it, you can download it here.* 
You can see the beautiful brochure the Stewardship Team helped create here.
Still no pledge form, or no access to a printer? Please call (231) 947-3117 or e-mail the office and Guy will get one out to you in that day's mail.
No matter how you receive your form, please fill it out and send it to: UUCGT, 6726 Center Road, Traverse City, Michigan 49686, or e-mail it to office@uucgt.org
*If you send a check to UUCGT FOR ANY REASON, please INCLUDE WHAT THAT CHECK IS FOR in the memo line! Part (or all) of your Pledge for the current Fiscal Year? That, please remember, is 2020-2021; we're in that Fiscal Year now and will be until June 30. Our NEXT Fiscal Year, which is the purpose of this Pledge Drive, is 2021-2022 and begins this coming July 1; it runs through June 30 of 2022.
If you have any questions please contact one of us on the Stewardship Team.
John Hoffmann, Alison Kadlec, Karl Keinath, Jon Luoma,
Mary Anne Rivers, and Rick Walter
Did anyone - anyone at all - make the hat, the brooch, or the pterydactyl?
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Vespers for Peace
Join us on Friday evenings for a calming time of
music, contemplation, poetry, and inspiration.
This Friday, February 19, 2021 at 8:00 PM
Begin signing in at 7:30 to visit
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MINISTERIAL SEARCH TEAM REPORT
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The character of Anna Leonowens in Rodgers & Hammerstein's "The King & I" gets to sing some of the legendary songwriting pair's best-loved lyrics:
Getting to know you, getting to know all
about you.
Getting to like you, getting to hope you
like me.
Getting to know you, putting it my way,
But nicely,
You are precisely,
My cup of tea.
This is where we are now. We are getting to know our pre-candidates better on a deeper, more personal level. We have studied their written records, had initial interviews with them, observed their videos, and are continuing to have conversations with colleagues and supervisors about them.
Meeting with these dedicated, aspiring individuals more casually and exchanging more detailed information is next, and that will help us get to know whether we can be each other's cup of tea.
It won't be long now. Put the tea kettle on!
Mary, Geoff, Charles, Dusty, Jim, Chris, Jan
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A FEW NOTES
from Renée Russell
This week we are challenged to explore our 8th Principle,"journeying toward spiritual wholeness by working to build a diverse multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions." What does that mean for music at our church?
This is a question I will continue to contemplate and pursue. While I am eager to create collaborative experiences that invite diversity, I had some moments of reflection on that thought, inspired by the conversations in our breakout room after last Sunday's powerful service. What is my motivation for wanting/needing diversity in our congregation? Exactly who am I picturing when I think of diversity? Are they people of different ages, races, gender identity, sexual orientation, abilities? It seems important to begin with where I am. Have I, am I currently creating a safe space now that invites diversity? Am I actively involved in our community to make this a safe place to live and create? How do I currently respond to music I don't naturally gravitate to? To be honest, if I'm not intentionally curious, I tend to fast forward through all the new young acts highlighted on Saturday Night Live, most of whom push all the boundaries of established norms. Am I prepared for music that may be different or out of my comfort zone or the comfort zone of our congregation that others will want to engage in? Are the places where I resource music intentionally diverse?
To be honest, much of the music that is preferred by this congregation is music preferred by affluent, older white people. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with that but we cannot expect people outside of that demographic to be drawn to us, why should they be? Do they need to be? Is that need being filled elsewhere? If so, should we instead extend support rather than competition? It is important to note that youth are driving much of the increasing diversity in our community, but it is also important to know that the younger generations communicate, create, and share music in dramatically different ways than previous generations.
Further, the current topic of conversation among UU Music Ministers is about the lack of inclusivity regarding pronoun use in our hymnals. Are we open to looking at and changing familiar materials to address that? And it is important that the music making experience is accessible to all abilities as well. How can our music program support and provide opportunities in diversity without necessarily requiring anything in return? I believe these are all things to contemplate as we look at dismantling racism and oppression within our own institution and I believe remaining open to critique and guidance as we move forward are of utmost importance.
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RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
from Claire Crandell
We Chose Love on 2/23/21!
As always it is so nice to be together and we thank the youth who attend and share their insights, weekly events, pets, and art abilities! We continued this week with the theme of how love can grow or spread. We imagined a rock being thrown into a pond and the ripples going out. We talked about how our UU faith believes that all people have goodness in them and that we are called or asked to act and expand our love in as many ways of kindness we can. We talked about the various acts and ways we could share our loving kindness then we watched a short cartoon video (see below). After watching the video we drew a light bulb acting in some loving way "sharing the light". The results were very sweet. We look forward to seeing you this Sunday!
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Did you take a minute last week to look at what
the UU ORIGINAL VOICES have to share?
Click on the graphic below
to see the newest work
from our creative writing group.
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You can access the calendar online
Rev. Cathy's virtual office hours are Wednesdays, 12:00 - 1:30 PM. That Zoom link is here. _____________________
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UUCGT Bulletin Board
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MEN'S GROUP SUPPORT OF THE STATE & BIJOU:
A SUCCESS!!
Mark Gustafson reports happily that the Men's Group's drive to support the State & Bijou Theatres during the continued pandemic shutdowns has been a remarkable success: the men collected over $1,800.00 in support of the volunteer-based nonprofit theatres. That amount underwrites more than half of a month's utilities and other maintenance costs for The State.
The State Theatre will express its gratitude by thanking and honoring the UUCGT Men's Group ON ITS FRONT STREET MARQUEE! You'll see us up in lights next month.
POSTPONED: The "How to be an Anti-Racist" book group will be postponed until mid to late March. Start date TBD. You can still sign up for it now, and I'll keep you posted.
The Wednesday dinner group has tried to stay connected these past months, socially distanced picnicking in the UU parking lot when we could, on ZOOM when it was rainy. We are going to weekly ZOOM now, 5:30 every Wednesday. If you would like to join us, contact Mike and Sandra McDonald for the ZOOM invite. You may bring your glass of wine.
SOCIAL JUSTICE ACTION!
Our ever-vigilant Emmy Lou Cholak shares the following challenge from the ACLU's "People Power" Project: If you believe that no person should be discriminated against because of who they are, will you call our constituent connect line to contact your member of Congress today and ask them to vote 'Yes' on the Equality Act when it is brought to a vote?
CALL NOW: 1-844-924-225
We've all heard stories about folks who have been followed by security officers while shopping, or harassed on transportation because of who they are or how they look.
This bill will finally make it illegal to discriminate against individuals for "shopping while Black" or "flying while Brown." It will also become illegal to sexually harass anyone while shopping or on transportation, or deny healthcare or housing based on sexual orientation and gender identity. And for people who live at the intersections of multiple targeted identities - like Black transgender women - these protections will be a repreive from the persistent and painful daily reality of discrimination.
People, regardless of who they are, deserve to live and move freely in our public spaces. It's time the law catches up to this truth and codifies these civil protections.
Call your member of Congress today and ask them to vote 'Yes' on the Equality Act.
And the Social Justice Action Committee will be meeting (via Zoom) on Sunday March 14 following the regular Service. Any and all are welcome to attend. The Zoom link is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83555920435.
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End Note (in honor of the long, hard work of our Ministerial Search Team!):
"When nothing is sure,
everything is possible."
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The UUCGT building is closed until further notice;
however the office is again staffed (at least) Tuesday-Friday, 9am-3pm.
Stay up to date on the UUCGT website
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