UUCM

Lights! Camera! Action!

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Help Support our Weekly Service

We need YOU to help with the A/V technical needs on Sunday morning. It’s easier then you think! 

We know it appears complicated with all the wires and 3 monitors, but thanks to some recent upgrades, all you really need to do is push buttons – and who doesn’t like pushing buttons?! You’ll assist with the PowerPoint slides and camera-switching during the service. We have detailed written instructions, lots of helpful notes, and friendly, forgiving folx to support you every week. 

Training is provided along with lots of support so you wont be alone!

Please contact AV@uugrassvalley.org with questions or to get started!

UUCM CAN BE A “GOOD TROUBLE” CONGREGATION

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The late John Lewis urged everyone to get into “good trouble.” UUCM will be designated a Good Trouble congregation if we meet at least four of the seven criteria established by UU the Vote for participation in the 2022 election. The Bending the Arc task force has accepted this challenge and the work to become a Good Trouble congregation has already begun. Here are the criteria and UUCM’s progress to date:

Criteria 1 – Average 20 postcards per member.
Done. We hope to prepare and mail 10,000 postcards!

Criteria 2 – Average 200 text messages per member.
We can do this, but we need a task leader to help us get organized.

Criteria 3 – Average 20 calls per member.
We are making great progress. At least 400 calls have been made. A phone bank training will be held on 9/18 to recruit more volunteers.

Criteria 4 – Average 20 door knocks per member.
Would anyone like to take this on?

Criteria 5 – Reach 20% volunteer engagement.
Thanks to the postcard club, we have already done this.

Criteria 6 – Average two newly registered voters per member.
Task force members met with the school district superintendent to discuss tabling at the local high schools to preregister students. Stay tuned for further updates.

Criteria 7 – At least two members volunteer to be poll workers or poll watchers.
One person has volunteered to work on election day.

If you would like to help UUCM become a Good Trouble congregation, you may contact Keith Johnson at Justice@uugrassvalley.org or any other member of the Bending the Arc task force.

Rev. Kevin Weekly Message – September 8, 2022

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This Sunday we invite you to bring some water from home to the service, a little bit of water to pour into a common bowl.

I write this in the midst of the 109-degree Tuesday heat (having, with some pride, sent my Michigan family photos of the weather app stats on my phone), and so the value of water is near the top of my thoughts.

Some of you will know this annual UU ritual, called a Water Ceremony or Water Communion. The original was created in 1980 for the Women and Religion Continental Convocation of Unitarian Universalists by Carolyn McDade and Lucile Schuck Longview. They “wanted to create a new ritual ‘that spoke to our connectedness to one another, to the totality of life, and to our place on this planet.’ They included a new, inclusive symbol of women’s spirituality: water.”

Eight women were asked to bring water from their far-flung homes across the continent, to pour them into a shared bowl, and to speak to the significance of that particular water, now joined with the rest. Women at the convocation brought the powerful ceremony home to their congregations, and so a new UU ritual was born.

For many years, the localized versions of this ritual involved people bringing water from special places to which they had traveled over the summer, and naming the water’s significance. It has long been a fall ingathering ceremony in UU congregations. As you might anticipate, this has often led to some very clear distinctions between those who have the means to travel the country or world in the summer, and those who do not.

Here, this year, as we enter our theme of belonging, we invite you simply to bring water from your home or someplace special nearby. (If you bring water from a special far away elsewhere, that’s okay, too.) Once again, we will pool our waters in a shared bowl, with all the layers of meaning such a gathering of waters might call forth in these sweltering, arid, and bifurcated times. In fact, I’ll ask you about the meaning you find in this! NOTE: If you will be joining online Sunday, we invite you to have some water to pour into a bowl as well. We’ll invite you to be seen on-screen as you pour, if you are willing.

Meanwhile, may you find the hours of respite you need from the many kinds of high temperatures that hover over our lives.

With care,

Rev. Kevin

Family Ministry | New School Year

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For many people, September feels more like new years than does January 1. September is the start of a new school year, a new church year, and a renewal of rhythms and routines around home and family. The summer fun is over and it’s time for our young people to get back to work.

Time to Mail Virginia Postcards

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Great job on Virginia Postcards for the general election! Early Voting Starts on September 23 so you can begin mailing your cards Monday Sept 5 – Nov 5.

Don’t wait, the sooner the get them the sooner the buzz starts in Norfolk and don’t forget to put your dots on the Tally Jar Poster in the lobby.We only have a few packets left to be adopted. Please pick up one Sunday if you can.Only want to do a few postcards? Come join our postcard writing parties before and after Sunday services

Rev. Kevin Weekly Message – September 1, 2022

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Today we enter the September theme of “belonging.” Belonging has been a resonant if unofficial theme for the past nine or ten months, and the Board has wisely identified “connection and reconnection” as a primary goal for this current congregation year.

I know that some of you are feeling disconnected and distant, wondering whether and how this community continues to be important to you.

Justice Night | EVs and the Clean Energy Economy

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There is probably an electric vehicle in your future.

On Wednesday evening get your questions answered by a panel of your UUCM friends who own electric vehicles Join Cheryl Branch, Gayle Schultz and Bob Branstrom, along with a guests who own a hydrogen car.

Join us in-person at 5:30PM with a potluck at the church.

Discussion will begin at 6PM and also offered via Zoom.

Share the Plate Update

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UUCM’s July Share the Plate recipient, Nevada County Habitat for Humanity, will receive $766.50 thanks to generous UUCM members, friends and visitors. Those weekly donations add up! Thank you, all.

Phone Bank Training

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Phone banking is a valuable tool for justice seekers. Why? Because it works. For example, in the 2020 Georgia Primary election at least 60% of the voters contacted through phone banking did vote. Over one-half of these voters were first-time or infrequent voters.

Are you apprehensive about making cold calls? If so, this training is for you. We will go over the process step by step and answer all your questions. Come see how easy it is!

This is a one time training session to be held on 9/18/22 from noon to 2 p.m. in the Channing room. The training will be conducted by Keith Johnson and Bob Miller of the Bending the Arc task force.