Service Leader: Rev Dave Clements

Worship Associates: Mark Sowers

Music: Gage Purdy

Pianist: Roger Corman

Share the Basket: Saturday Breakfast for our Neighbors

Service Leader: Rev Bev Spears

Worship Associate: Judy Withee

Music: Gage Purdy & The Choir

Pianist: Roger Corman

Share the Basket: Raizes Collective

Service Leaders/Guest: Rev. Dave Clements

Worship Associate: Cathie Weise

Music: Sally Jones/ Robert Howseman

Pianist: Paul Gilger

Share the Basket: Saturday Breakfast for our Neighbors

April 23rd

Service Leaders: Rev. Dave Clements

Worship Associate: Eric Fischer

Music: Alan Bell

Pianist: Roger Corman

Share the Basket: The Committee on the Shelterless/COTS

April 30th

UU's core values of empowering people and caring for one another are exemplified by our comprehensive sex education program, OWL (Our Whole Lives). We are increasingly confronted with conservative forces in this country who promote traditional gender norms, limited reproductive choices, and unscientific, fear-based, abstinence-only sex education. We believe that our children and our community deserve better and we are committed to providing the education to make informed decisions about their bodies and their relationships.

Join us for the May Pole Dance After Service hosted by CUUPs

Service Leaders: Era Capone-DRE

Worship Associate: Meike Mandel

Music: John Ray

Pianist: Roger Corman

Share the Basket: The Living Room

I am impressed with where UUCSR is on striving to be an anti-racist anti-oppressive congregation. On March 15th a group of UUCSR members met to discuss action steps that could be taken by the congregation to begin to live into the 8th principle. Below is a summary of the action items: 

I am excited that we have these three projects and I invite all of you to become engaged with them. The 8th principle is calling us to action and sometimes we need to learn about history so we can better understand. The book Caste will provide you with 450 histories of the treatment of people of color in this country. You will read about things that happened that no one ever talked about in our history classes in school. 

In addition, in April we will be having another meeting to discuss many of the action items that were talked about on our Taco meeting back in January. This will be on Saturday April 29th 5 -7pm bring salad fixings and there will be a sign up the middle of April.

  Since the very day that I joined our Board of Trustees, UUCSR has been in transition. Change can be uncomfortable, and human beings do not accept change readily. On the other hand, if the people we know and love just transformed themselves all the time, we would not be able to count on anything or anyone, and we wouldn’t have any stability in our lives. But, transitions are an inevitable and unpredictable part of life, as we all know. Embracing change and using it as a growth experience is part of being a resilient people. The world has changed and our UU place in the world has to change to meet the challenges of the world.

   I was reading something that Rev. Marge Keip (remember her, old timers?) said: let us consider “a broader picture of our faith endeavor. Consider religions as offering frameworks that render life coherent and assure us that we belong to the human family, to the earth, and All That Is, however we name it. A religion that fits us helps us know we are at home in the universe. Religion seeks a cosmic view; it’s a whole picture enterprise.” This says it all for me. It underlines the importance of the 8th Principle. It underlines the importance of democracy. It underlines the importance of seeing ourselves and everything we do in this church and outside of this church as preserving that vision of one, whole human family where everyone is important and belongs.

   And as a short-time volunteer in the governance leadership of this church, I see my role as promoting more democracy through more transparency. We current board members, all seem to be united in this endeavor. We see ourselves as church leaders, not just as managers. We hired an Interim Minister, who has a role as a systems analyst, who can see us through becoming who we want to be in a world that is rapidly changing, to keep us relevant, and help us to see how we might change to keep up with the needs of our community. There will be disagreements, and agreements. But we’ll keep on keeping on, because what’s the alternative?

   In the spirit of transparency and democracy, I am attaching a document that shows the important discussions and decisions that the board has made since the start of this fiscal year. If you are interested, you will find the link here.

   Be well, church family.

   Leslie

“Generosity is a practical expression of love.” Gary Inrig

By the time you read this newsletter, we will have made some staff changes in the finance area and we should start to have more timely financial information available to us. As I write this, I do not yet have financial reports for the month of February so instead of detailed information, the following is more an general analysis of where we are financially at this point.

The Finance Team has put together several reports and spreadsheets for the Board during the year in order to try to understand the financial trends and expectations/possibilities for our future. Looking at our past 10 years of financial data, it is notable that we have ended the years with deficits more than half the time, with the size of deficits much larger than the size of surpluses. We have received a few one-time cash influxes that have helped to mask the deficit spending and also had built up surpluses previously which are now fully spent. It is likely that this year will end in deficit even though we will be significantly under budget in the expense area for various reasons that will not be repeated.

Over the past 6 years pledge revenue has been mainly flat around $450,000 annually. This fiscal year pledge revenue is well under this level and based on our current expectations increases will likely be slow over time. This is a national trend in churches of all denominations.

The Finance Team and the Board have been working on next year’s budget with the intention of creating a balanced budget. The Board wants to involve interested members of the congregation in discussions to include differing perspectives and promote understanding of the difficult financial considerations ahead of us. Be on the lookout for communications from the Board about meeting dates so that you can have any questions answered and provide your input. Please participate in this important process.

Linda Balabanian, Treasurer

We will be hosting a bi-monthly meeting of an informal justice choir where we will invite members of the community to gather with us to raise our voices in songs that call for justice, reform, and support in our community and the larger world! In this group we will engage in the empathetic, collaborative, and collective power of singing together to create change. We will also be inviting local speakers to come speak with the choir to offer a platform to disenfranchised and historically marginalized/underrepresented voices. Justice Choir meetings will be on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of each month from 5:30-6:30pm with some time to socialize afterward. Feel free to stay for the UU Choir afterward at 7pm.

We are putting together a group of instrumental musicians to provide music during services monthly! This is an open invitation: if you play an instrument and are interested in supporting special music/singing together, please reach out to musicdirector@uusantarosa.org with the subject line “UUCSR Instrumental Group”.

Change in Staffing

Bettina Jeffers is leaving us to pursue other opportunities. We wish her and her family the best.

I am happy to announce that Amy Yoro (see photo) will be taking over as the bookkeeper at UUCSR. Amy will officially start April 1st and will be working at our office 2-3 days a week. Amy will be directly reporting to our church administrator.

Although Amy is not new to UUCSR, she is new to this position. Please welcome Amy!

Hello all,

This past month we've seen several new families come check out RE! We're so excited to be growing our program, and we want your help spreading the word. If you know a family that might enjoy some or all of our many programs, have them contact me, or better yet, bring them along on for a Sunday service! And, as always, if you want to get involved with RE, we would love to have you. You can contact me at dre@uusantarosa.org to get involved.

In love and gratitude,

Era

Since 1989, the Wednesday Night Market has been Santa Rosa’s largest street fair. With hundreds of attendees visiting the market every Wednesday during the summer, it is the perfect place to meet new people and introduce them to our UUCSR community!

This year, UUCSR plans to have its very own booth at the market, where we will offer activities for kids and families, and provide information about the many exciting events and programs put on by our congregation. However, in order to make this happen, we need representatives from our congregation to help run the booth!

If you would like to join us for a Wednesday or two from 5:00-8:00pm throughout the summer, please contact Era Capone at dre@uusantarosa.org and let her know you're interested!

Chalice Camp is a week-long day camp for kids entering 1st-9th grade! The camp highlights kernels of our religious heritage and theological turning points in our history that make us who we are today. Campers explore and experience UU identity, history, and values through energetic worship, games, drama, art, and community building.

The camp is held on June 26th-30th from 9:00-5:00pm, with projects, discussions, and games planned throughout. Campers are asked to stay the entire day so that they can experience the camp and its curriculum fully.

$350 for Regular Registration (children entering 1st-6th grade)

$200 for Counselor in Training (youth entering 7th-9th grade)

Check out the Chalice Camp Website, which also has info on Chalice Camps taking place in Marin and Oakland this summer. If you'd like to know more about Santa Rosa's camp, or would like to get involved, please contact camp director Era Capone at dre@uusantarosa.org, or by phone at (707)-494-8799.

This Sunday, the kids of RE are celebrating Trans Day of Visibility. They'll hear the story When Aidan Became a Brother by Kyle Lukoff, and afterwards, explore how defining yourself can be both an act of vulnerability and empowerment.

This Sunday, the kids of RE are celebrating Easter! After Time for All Ages, kids will hear the story of Ostara and then head out to the courtyard for an Easter Egg hunt!

This Sunday is our second early family service. This service is designed for kids and families, with lots of opportunities for movement and plenty of engaging activities. This service goes from 9:00-10:00am, and will help us to determine if there is enough interest to hold an earlier, second service on every Sunday.

This Sunday, the kids of RE are celebrating Earth Day! Through story, music, and artwork, they'll live up to our 7th principle by exploring how to become stewards of our planet.

This Sunday, the kids of RE will be preparing for Beltane, also known as May Day. They'll be joined by representatives from CUUPS, and will make their very own flower crowns! After service, families are invited to participate in CUUPS' Beltane celebration by dancing around the maypole and wearing their newly made flower crowns.

Special Family Service

As spring unfolds, with longer days and warmer temperatures, we Pagans look forward to the holiday of May Day, which some call by the Irish name of Béaltainne. This very old European celebration of the beginning of summer (as it is calculated in Ireland) was traditionally the first day to return to the outdoors after the long, cold winter. Trees and early wildflowers are flowering, now, and birds are nesting; on May Day, young adults would “go a-Maying” to the woods to “gather flowers” and get a little privacy, so this holiday is often considered sensual and sexy.

There are many traditions for May Day, such as the burning of balefires (“Bel-fires”) through the previous night, driving cattle between two fires to bless them, gathering dew on May morning and applying it to the face to preserve youthfulness and beauty, tying bright ribbons in the trees, and, of course, dancing the Maypole, which we will do at UUCSR on April 30 after the service!

May first is also the International Day of the Worker throughout most of the world. It is a time when we remember the importance and dignity of labor, and recommit ourselves to labor justice in the form of equal access to employment, a living wage and other compensation, and the right to collective bargaining.

One old central European tradition for this time of year is the making of May Wine, a sweet, sparkling wine flavored with dried woodruff. Here is a recipe:

Ingredients—serves 20

4 bottles (3 l) of cheap, sweetish white wine such a Riesling or Gewurtztraminer

Several pinches of dried sweet woodruff leaves

Two bottles (1.5 l) dry sparkling white wine

Strawberries

Pour the still wine into a punchbowl. Add the sweet woodruff leaves, and refrigerate for at least two hours. Add the sparkling wine. Float strawberries in the May Wine to add color and a pleasant taste combination.

Note: fresh sweet woodruff will not conduct the proper flavor. Pick it and dry it in a low oven first. I like to keep a jar of dried woodruff I picked the previous year with my Pagan ritual supplies, and use that for making the May Wine.

Additionally, our ministry involves assisting our minister by being in contact with people who are ill, unable to come to church or who have experienced a recent loss. We meet twice monthly to identify the needs in the congregation. We are also available to connect with any congregant who requests it. Please contact one of us directly or all of us at LayChaplains@uusantarosa.org if you or someone you know needs support.

Read "From the Minister's Desk above for how UUCSR plans to walk the path of the 8th Principle.

Rev. Dave Clements is our current minister. He holds an MDiv degree from Meadville Lombard Theological School. Among other accomplishments, he served as interim minister to the multi-cultural and multi-racial Cape Town Unitarian Community. During his time there he kept a journal which became his book When the Elephant Laughed.

Please join us for a workshop that will help overcome physical and mental barriers that can interfere with clarity and confidence for both singers and everyday speakers. We will explore, and apply to ourselves, these concepts, derived from Barbra Conable’s Internationally recognized curriculum described in her book :

UUCSR's Annual Service Auction will be springing on us soon --- May 20.

We need your donations and participation.

This year we will be jumping into the 21st century by taking our beloved Service Auction on-line! Services and gift items will be presented for bid online (more information soon) so the general public will be able to participate in this. Our UU Community offerings such as special dinners, game nights, personal services, etc. will be up for bidding in the traditional way at the UU. On May 20th we will come together to celebrate and bid while enjoying our Service Auction feast. See the attachments for donation suggestions and the donation offering form, along with contact information.

See the two buttons below for a list of Donation Ideas or an Auction Donation Form.

Let's put some “Sparkle and Shine” into our long-awaited 2023 auction!

In this month's newsletter:

In this month's newsletter:

Men's Retreat: April 7-9 

Men, please mark your calendar for the Men’s Retreat, happening on Easter weekend, Friday evening, April 7 through Sunday afternoon, April 9, 2023, at Black Mountain Retreat Center, in Cazadero. Cost is $160 per person (includes 6 meals), and scholarships are available.

All men who are members, pledging friends, or guests of UUCSR are welcome. One does not need to be in a men’s group to attend the retreat.

Renew friendships and make new friends. Enjoy personal sharing in small groups, singing, hiking, laughter, and a variety show. Fun and good for you!

Reserve your place by submitting a registration form and making payment at the Men’s Retreat table outside the sanctuary after Sunday services. Get a registration form at the table or download it at: https://web.uusantarosa.org/connect/social-activities/mens-retreat/

For more information, contact Bruce Hope.

SIGN-UPS APRIL 16th And 23^rd after Service

It's time to register for this year's Women Together Spring Weekend Retreat at beautiful St Dorothy’s Rest in Camp Meeker! Our theme this year is "Finding Your Spark" celebrating rejuvenation and renewal after our collective isolation . This is a wonderful opportunity to get to know other women in the congregation on a deeper level. We will have our popular small group discussions on the theme and a variety of great workshops plus our Silent Auction and the great food!

Registration will begin on Sunday, April 16th for UUCSR members and friends, then open to friends and guests on Sunday, April 23rd as space allows. Look for registration forms outside the UUCSR office door or on the days of registration. Or click here to access the form electronically. Remember to bring your checkbooks! The cost is $260 for a room and $240 if you stay in the dorms. Scholarships are available at half price.

Room assignments will be made during registration. Remember, we cannot hold your place without payment at the time of registration so if you're not able to be there in person, arrange for a friend to sign up for you. If you have mobility issues and need special arrangements, please contact LeAnn Fagan.

We're looking forward to another wonderful weekend together!

Curious about Soul Matters groups?

For an introduction, attend “Taste of Soul” in the Board Room after the service on Sunday, April 2. Rev Dave and Katie Trieller will share information on how this small group program nurtures the spiritual side of Unitarian Universalism, and enriches relationships with others and ourselves. All are welcome.

707-291-2666