Reverend Denis Letourneau Paul, Minister

revdenispaul@gmail.com Minister's Calendar

Worship

In Person and on Zoom 10:00 am

"Grace as a Grounding Practice"

Rev. Denis Letourneau Paul

and Nancy Rose

Grace is one of those "itchy" words for many of us, a remnant of old beliefs about an all-powerful god deciding our fate for us. Some receive grace and some don't. But the act of grace, especially when approached with mindfulness, can be a fully human virtue that enhances our lives and the whole world.

Order of Service

Religious Exploration

In Person

10am-noon

The video above is a read aloud of a book I think everyone will enjoy. It has beautiful images and poetic language. Soul Matters reminds us that "we can see the beautiful ways that we can find our multicultural center when we decenter whiteness."

As we find our center this month, we also center racial justice. Check out "Let the Children March" about the thousands of school children, inspired by MLK who marched against segregation in 1963. And here is a PBS special about a group of Chicago 5th and 6th graders who traveled to Burmingham to learn this history: Children who marched for equal rights inspire a new generation | PBS NewsHour

Rev's Reflections

OWL has to be the most revolutionary thing our Association of Congregations has ever offered us. Are you interested in being part of it?

OWL stands for “Our Whole Lives,” and it’s a curriculum of sexuality education geared toward humans in different phases of our lives. Pre-schoolers learn about personal space, appropriate boundaries and good touch vs. bad touch. At the other end of the life spectrum, older adults learn about navigating intimate relationships after the loss of a spouse or the loss of mobility. And so much more.

The lessons and discussions among participants are less about physiology, and more about spirituality, psychology and sociology. As an adult, you’re going to have the chance to deepen your understanding of healthy relationships, consent, boundaries, respect, self-esteem building, and the amazing and ever-changing expressions of gender expression and sexual and affectional orientation.

Does any of that sound interesting to you? It should! Because if you’re past retirement, and you’re paying any attention at all to what “the kids” are talking about, you’ve probably noticed that how they’re talking about the world’s oldest pastime is very, very different from how we talked about it in the last millennium. 

And that’s a good thing. 

Since our youngsters are just getting involved in the OWL program for high schoolers, a lot of you have been asking about making available the program for adults. We’d love to make that happen, but before we can offer the curriculum, we need trained facilitators. We need folks willing to commit to a seven-part (daytime) training online during the month of March, so that we can begin to offer the program in late fall.

If you think you might be interested in being trained as a facilitator, please join us for a Zoom conversation next week, on Thursday, January 19 at 11 AM on Zoom. You can follow this link.

You probably have a lot of questions. Lee and I hope we can answer them.

Without facilitators, we can’t offer the program, so please consider giving this incredible gift to the adults in our congregation and our wider community. It’s a gift that will give back to you more than you can imagine.

In Peace,

Rev. Denis

Members and friends are cordially invited to join a congregation in Oregon virtually for Seminary for a Day on Saturday, January 28, at First Unitarian Portland. This year’s spiritual theme is Transcendentalism.

The keynote speaker is Rev. John Buehrens. Rev. Buehrens served as UUA President, 1993-2001. A prolific author, his most recent one about our heritage is CONFLAGRATION: How the Transcendentalists Sparked the American Struggle for Racial, Gender, and Social Justice (Beacon, 2020).

More details here.

Pastoral Care Committee

The UUCSC Pastoral Care Committee (PCC) serves Members and Friends in times of crisis. Our charge is to be a presence, to accompany people when there is an emergency. We do not provide rides and meals. That is the charge of Helping Hands (see below). We support Rev Denis in his ministry to our faith community. Please contact any member of PCC when you have, or know of someone who has, a need.

Submitted by Linda Whyte Burrell, Barbara Beckwith, and Sky Kimball

Upcoming Sunday Services

Jan. 22 Langston Hughes Poetry (South County Fundafest 2023 event)

April Brown, S.Kai Cameron, & Eugenie Rose Belony

Jan. 25 Shadow To Light (on Zoom) Rev. Denis

Jan. 29  Brazilian-American storyteller  Antonio Rocha (Fundafest event)

February 5 Where is the Love? Rev. Denis

All the details here.

FUNDA FEST 25

Several tellers from South Kingstown’s Jonnycake Storytelling Festival, including Len Cabral and Valerie Tutson, formed the RI Black Storytellers in the late 90s, beginning FUNDA FEST in 1998. And now FUNDA is celebrating its 25th Anniversary with an extra weekend of storytelling events and three FREE storytelling events in South Kingstown. All are open to the public.

• Poetry of Langston Hughes

UUCSC Sunday Service,  January 22, 2023, 10 a.m.

April Brown, Kai Cameron and Eugenie Rose Belony, Langston Hughes Center

• Harriet Tubman: A one-woman show by Janice Curtis Greene

Special production: Wednesday, January 25, 2023, 6:00-7:30 PM

South Kingston High School See flyer directly below.

• Brazilian-American storyteller Antonio Rocha

UUCSC Sunday Service, January 29, 2023, 10 AM

A pass for all festival events and tickets for individual concerts/events,running January 14-29, 2023 can be purchased at fundafest.org. All ticketed shows are offered both in-person and live streamed. 

Submitted by Johnnie Rodriquez

Town of South Kingstown 300th Anniversary Speaker Series

January 24th, 2023 -- 7PM -- SKHS Auditorium

Tomaquag Museum Executive Director, Lorén Spears, is the first speaker in this series, which is part of the 300th Anniversary year-long celebration.

Her session is entitled Kumagooaunash Numanutoom, All Creator’s Gifts. Come, listen and learn about South Kingston's history. 

REMINDERS...

UUCSC Committees always need help and new ideas.

Please contact President Elizabeth Donovan at elizdn342@gmail.com.

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