Civil rights activist and religious leader Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is justifiably celebrated by a national holiday commemorating his birthday. We explore the life and legacy of King’s contemporary and fellow Black liberation leader Malcolm X, with whom he is often compared. Pam Gehrke belongs to the Unitarian Universalists of San Mateo, where she leads the Decentering Whiteness group.
The Brown Bag Books (BBB) selection for February is A Place for Us: A Novel by Fatima Mizra (Fiction)
“Absolutely gorgeous …Mirza finds in the intensity of a faithful Muslim family a universal language of love and anguish that speaks to us all… In prose of quiet beauty and measured restraint, Mirza traces those twined strands of yearning and sorrow that faith involves. She writes with a mercy that encompasses all things….” Washington Post. “a family epic that is textured and keenly felt… Mirza draws Amar’s lifelong struggle with the concept of unconditional devotion so poignantly that readers will find it exceedingly relatable. But so too is the mysterious whisper in his ear urging him always to return, no matter how far he strays, back home.” NYT Book Review.
Please join us on February 4 at noon in the Fireside Room to
discuss this moving, insightful book.
A couple of years ago, UUCPA set up an account with Google for Non-Profits to host/manage our uucpa.org domain email accounts. The first step was to transition the staff email accounts which has already been done. The second step, which has been happening slowly since then, was to transition the mailman lists to Google Groups.
In mid-December, we ramped up the transition because our in-
house mailman server wouldn’t boot up (you may have noticed that
the email list info page http://lists.uucpa.org/mailman/listinfo/ is
unavailable) and we decided we’d rather spend the effort doing
something we were planning to do anyways (transitioning to Google
groups) than troubleshooting/fixing the existing server.
Over the past few weeks, we have transitioned most of the active
mailman lists and email aliases to Google Groups. You should be
able to send/receive emails to/from these groups the same way you
used to (eg. send an email to announce@uucpa.org to publish an
email to that group. Emails sent to Announce will come to your inbox
via announce@uucpa.org.)
Note that some of the groups and aliases will be retired. If you would like to check the status of your group/alias, please email us at email-help@uucpa.org.
Additionally, if you have any questions about the process, please send us an email at email-help@uucpa.org.
Come join us between services every second Sunday in Room 1 for
UUCPA Story Time, where each month we will read a short story
about a different religion or social issue. Children young and old are
welcome to join us!
After the story, children with their parents are welcome to check out a book bag containing books on different religions or social issues. This is a great way for families to learn a bit about different religions and the world around us together! Please try to return it the following second Sunday (or before) and pick up a new set.
In December the UUA announced its new #UUtheVote Campaign, calling on UUs to “join forces with all people who want to organize our communities and our nation to #VoteLove and #DefeatHate”, in accordance with our UU principles. The UUA is providing guidance and a framework for UU congregations to use in doing this electoral justice work, in concert with selected non-partisan partner organizations. To kick off this campaign at UUCPA, the Action Council is sponsoring four election justice events in January. These include the #UUtheVote Campaign Launch Zoom call hosted by the UUA, as well as three events organized by the two partner organizations selected by the Action Council: Reclaim Our Vote and Vote forward. January events are listed below. More detailed information on each event will be provided the week prior to the event. Please join us in working for love and justice in 2020!
UUA Event: Sunday, January 12th, 1:00-2:30 pm, Room 9
#UUtheVote Campaign Launch: UUAZoom call live viewing (60 minutes), followed by a 30-minute discussion. To register for the event, email KristiIverson@uucpa.org
Vote Forward Event: Saturday, January 11th, 2-4pm, UUCPA Main Hall
Write Letters to Register Voters in Key States: To register, email AnneFrahn@uucpa.org
Reclaim Our Vote Event: Sunday, January 19, 3:00-5:00 pm, Main Hall
Write postcards to disenfranchised voters of color in Texas or make phone calls to those disenfranchised in Colorado, alerting them, asking them to re-register before the Primary.
Reclaim Our Vote Event: Monday, January 27, 7:00-9:00 pm, Main Hall
Voter Suppression: The Biggest Threat to Democracy in 2020
Reclaim Our Vote 2020 Kickoff and fundraiser, with the film “Suppressed: The Fight to Vote”, presentation of the 2020 strategy and plan by Founder Andrea Miller, and postcard writing.
Reclaim Our Vote is a volunteer-driven, nonpartisan outreach campaign to fight voter suppression, especially in the South. We are organized by the Center for Common Ground of Virginia, with the help of the NAACP, Black Voters Matter, VoteRiders, DemLabs, Mi Familia Vota and other organizations. We phone, postcard, and text voters of color who were purged from the voter rolls, to ask them to re-register and vote.
Vote Forward is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization. Our mission is to empower grassroots volunteers to help register voters from under-represented demographics and encourage them to vote. We build tools to enable Americans, wherever they may be, to encourage fellow citizens to participate in our democracy.
There is a new procedure for providing audio recordings of Sunday Services. If you want a recording only of the sermon, it will be available for listening and/or downloading on the website within a few days of the day of the service. Access the sermon here: http://www. uucpa.org/worship/past-worship-services/ and select the sermon you wish to hear.
Heather Chen (via web@uucpa.org) gets the sermon from the second (11 am) service and posts to the website. Sermons for visiting worship leaders are only posted if permission to post online is obtained.
If you wish to listen to other parts or the entire service, please send an email message to audio-recordings@uucpa.org and request the service by the specific date, e.g. February 4 Service.
Within a few days, you will receive a message granting you access to a Dropbox folder for the particular service you have requested. You will not be able to access this folder unless you have Dropbox account (basic one is free) and you have received a message to grant access.
Note that the procedure must be followed for each Sunday service you wish to listen to because the music performed by the choir, by special musicians and the congregation may necessitate restricted distribution because of copyrights.
Note also that because of space limitations the full recordings of a Sunday Service will be available for approximately a month following the service and then be deleted from Dropbox. CD recordings will no longer be produced.
The Caring and Sharing portion of both services get sent to Sara Newcomb (via joyconcern@uucpa.org).
Millennium, Tribal Wisdom and the Modern World – large, many photos
Mayo Clinic Family Health Book
John James Audubon, the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Birds – many plates, large format
Lorna Doone. 2 vols. 1893 – some damage to the back of vol. 2
Sara Crewe, or, What Happened at Miss Minchin’s, by Frances Hodgson Burnett. 1916. The story upon which The Little Princess is based
A non-fiction picture book on the history of rats over time
Our Finest Hour – a Life photo essay on the WWII generation
The Atlas of Natural Wonders – covers the Grand Canyon, Mt. Everest, and a number of other sites
Day in the Life of America – large photo collection
Lost – DVDs of seasons 1-4
Four picture books featuring the elephant Babar the first one is in very good condition, the others are worn but cover other adventures
The Bookstore is in the Main Lobby. It is open one-half hour before and after most Sunday morning services (excluding second Sundays when we have Second-Sunday Lunch).
I have seven Agave parryi plants that were offshoots from the mother plants in front of the Main Hall. These are not California natives but if you want any, let me know. I am also posting on NextDoor. (3 photos attached: one of the available plants, one showing how some look after a year in my yard, and one showing a mature Agave parryii in a pot.) —Nancy Neff
Our Annual Community Dinner happens on Saturday, January 25, at 5:30 pm in the Main Hall. All are invited to this fun, community-building event! Delicious food, company, and childcare provided.
Contribution Statements will be mailed out on or before January 31, 2020. You can access your statement immediately by logging onto your Profile via our church database, Realm. www.onrealm.org/uucpa.
If you need assistance accessing your profile, please contact Jeff Cashdollar during office hours Monday – Thursday, 9:00 am – 2:30 pm. Jeff will be happy to walk you through the online process or to answer any other questions.
By Amy Zucker Morgenstern on Jan 11, 2020 09:57 am
We now have an Amazon Smile account! This means that UUCPA will receive a small percentage of every dollar you spend at Amazon. You only have to set it up once and then it’s automatic. Go to smile. amazon.com and when asked what charity you want Amazon to support, put in UUCPA. After that, whenever you use Amazon, it will donate a portion of your purchase to the church. (You should use the URL smile.amazon.com instead of amazon.com, but if you forget, Amazon will remind you.)
If you don’t already have an Amazon account, you’ll be walked through the easy process of creating one. And if you already have a charity designated on Smile, and want to change to UUCPA – thank you! – just look at the drop-down menu on Your Accounts and you’ll see Smile about halfway down.
Our treasurer, Kay Brown’s, setting this up means free money for the programs and people of our congregation – let’s start scooping it up! — Amy
January 19 and February 2 are the next two deadlines to submit items for publication. Send them to newsletter@uucpa.org or leave hardcopy in the church office. Note that we do not publish personal phone numbers/email addresses to safeguard privacy.
Our Our Whole Lives (OWL) comprehensive sexuality education seems to keep increasing in popularity, and for the first time ever we were not able to accommodate all the children and teens who wanted to enroll in our OWL classes. (Fortunately, however, we were able to accommodate all the children and teens from UUCPA who wanted to participate.)
I was unhappy that we had to turn some people away from OWL. Even though California has mandated comprehensive sexuality education in the public schools, our OWL program is still superior, because we can be unabashedly feminist and unabashedly LGBTQ-friendly. Plus, we are able to focus on building relationship skills and communication skills in a way that just isn’t possible in a public school setting. Our wider community needs OWL.
So why did we have to turn people away from OWL programs this year? It was because we did not expect to offer three age levels of OWL in one year. We had planned to offer OWL for gr. 7-9 and gr. 4-6, but then some of our high school students came to us and asked if we could please also offer OWL for gr. 10-12 this year. Of course, we said yes!
But that stretched our pool of volunteer teachers to its limit. In the past, when we have had a larger-than-expected demand for OWL in a particular age level, we have been able to offer two sections to accommodate everyone. But this year, by adding another age level, we ran out of teachers.
Needless to say, I’m starting to look for OWL teachers for next year. If you have relevant professional experience — we especially can use M.D.s, R.N.s, social workers, and teachers — or if you are a parent who is committed to sexuality education, please contact me to apply to become an OWL teacher!
All three age levels of the Our Whole Lives (OWL) comprehensive sexuality education curriculum are now completely filled and will be serving almost 40 UUCPA children and teens. This includes OWL gr. 4-6, OWL gr. 7-9, and OWL gr. 10-12. We will next offer OWL gr. 4-6 and OWL gr. 7-9 in the 2021-2022 school year. If there is sufficient demand, we will offer OWL gr. 10-12 next year; if not, the next time we plan to offer it is in the 2022-2023 school year.
If you want to stay informed about upcoming OWL classes, register your children every year for UUCPA’s religious education programs — that’s the best way to make sure we have up-to-date contact info for you.
Ecojustice Camp, a week-long day camp sponsored by UUCPA, believes that humans can have a positive impact on each other, and on the natural world. Ecojustice Camp is a time for campers to feel a part of the interdependent web of all life. See the camp Web site for photos and more info about activities: ecojusticecamp.org
This year Ecojustice Camp will run from June 15-19. There’s a half-day camp for rising gr. 1-2 (completing gr. K-1 in June). For rising gr. 3-9 (completing gr. 2-8), there’s a full day camp from 9-3, with a long day on Wednesday for a field trip (till 4 p.m.), and an overnight on Thursday evening. Rising grade 9 can be Counselors-in-training (CITs).
Core adult staff are Lorraine Kostka and Dan Harper, directors for gr. 2-8; Kris Geering, director for gr. K-2; Mike Abraham, business manager; Jenny Robertson, Carol Steinfeld, and Tobi Nielsen (Tobi is from the Sunnyvale UU Fellowship).
Navigators, our bias-free scouting group, meets twice a month, September through May. Contact Ed Vail at chapter42leaders@navigatorsusa.org to be put on the email list. Read more about Navigators at UUCPA here: Navigators
Upcoming events:
Navigators – 01/19/2020 at 11:00 am - 12:15 pm in Room 10 Navigators – 01/26/2020 at 11:00 am - 12:15 pm in Room 10
The annual PCD Women’s Retreat is coming up on March 5 – 8, 2020. All self-identified women are welcome to join us. Our retreat offers something for everyone: delicious meals; workshops for the mind, body and spirit; hiking in beautiful woods; conversations with new and old friends; time for quiet contemplation; and a boutique, silent auction, and book swap. To learn more and register for our retreat, please visit our website at www.womenandreligionpcd.org. If you have questions, feel free to ask long-time attenders Sally Ahnger, Fran Perry and Barbara Shonborn. We hope to see you there. Invite a friend!
Go out into the world in peace,
Be of good courage,
Hold fast to what is good,
Return no one evil for evil,
Strengthen the faint-hearted,
Support the weak,
Help the suffering,
Rejoice in beauty,
Speak love with word and deed,
Honor all beings.
