In October, we welcomed two new members to the WUUC staff team. Amy Genova is our new Membership Coordinator, and Skylar Hopkins is our new Director of Religious Education. They will both be around on most Sundays, so please take a moment to say hello and welcome them when you see them!
Here is a little about Amy Genova:
Amy Genova grew up at the foot of the Rockies in Denver, Colorado. She has also lived in Arizona, Texas, Indiana, and Missouri. She and her husband, Thomas Perchlik, relocated to Washington state 6 years ago, just in time for their granddaughter, Willow’s, first birthday. Her husband, Thomas, introduced her to Unitarian Universalism when she was 23, and they later were married in the backyard of the Greeley UU fellowship. They have two children, Emily Perchlik, second lead architect of the Northgate Bridge and mother to a small grove of grandchildren: Willow, Olive and Hazel, and Molly Perchlik, a research scientist at the University of Washington. Amy enjoys poetry, reading, cooking, walking, swimming, movies, games, voting rights, a good protest and social justice.
And here is a message from Skylar Hopkins to the WUUC community:
Hi everyone, I’m Skylar. Most of you have probably known me for a large portion of my life as I have been a member at WUUC since 2003. However, if you don’t, here’s a few things about me. I grew up in Woodinville and I currently live in Snohomish with my family, my partner Zach, and my dog Holly – a pomeranian husky mix. One thing you should know about me is that I love music. I play piano, guitar, bass, ukulele, and I sing. It’s likely that you’ve seen me perform a song or two during a service with my family and other members of the church. In the past few years I have found a passion for working with children and returned to school to begin my journey towards a degree in education. Two years ago I combined my love of music and working with children into a job teaching music lessons. I am excited to bring my creativity and experience with kids to this new job. I look forward to getting to know all of your children and helping them on their spiritual journeys.
After a slow and restful summer, we had our Ingathering service back in September. And, although this was when we kicked off our church year officially, I’m really starting to feel the momentum of our community picking up now.
Slowly but surely, more and more people are showing up to the church on Sundays to attend worship services in person. Most who attend stay for coffee hour afterwards, and I’m noticing the conversations there are getting warmer and livelier as the weeks go on. I’m also seeing a steady stream of visitors coming to check out our community and learn more about who we are; and most of these visitors are returning again because they like what they experienced.
Volunteers are coming forward to provide snacks and make coffee, the choir is returning to a version of its pre-pandemic self (and has even added some new members), and we’ve got a whole crew of Zoomkeepers, and camera and sound techs trained and ready to go. And this is just the Sunday morning experience. Circle suppers are back, small group ministries like pondering the big questions and soul matters discussion groups are back to meeting again, and more social offerings are getting added to the calendar each month.
In October, we hired two new people to join our WUUC staff team. And now as I work with Amy Genova, our new Membership Coordinator, and Skylar Hopkins, our new Director of Religious Education, I find myself getting excited about the things we are planning for the coming year. As I write this, we just had our first collaborative event with the Woodinville Country Day School (who shares our space Monday – Friday), a Trunk or Treat prior to Halloween. It was a wonderfully fun event, and it was also an encouraging step toward potentially more collaborative community events in the future. Just having the Day School in our church building through the week brings an energy to our space, and I can feel it. We are doing the things a community should be doing: building human connections, strengthening relationships, and showing why the whole is always more than the sum of its individual parts. We are stronger together, and together we can be a positive force for good in the world. And we start by being a positive force for good right here in Woodinville, by being good neighbors.
I’m feeling the energy, and I hope you do too. Let’s keep it going and see what we can do.
Good news, we have new staff, new visitors, and members returning to in-person service. PLEASE remember to wear your Name Badges to help these folks learn your names. Also, returning your badges to the basket in the lobby allows the membership committee to keep track of attendance! Thanks for all you do to help our church keep growing!
As the COVID team has adjusted the required safety measures for gatherings, it has now become possible to have potlucks in the sanctuary the way we did before the pandemic. The powers that be have all concurred that this is okay.
I’d like to propose that we hold our first potluck after service on the Sunday following Thanksgiving. While I feel a similar though lesser ambivalence about Thanksgiving as I do about Columbus Day, I am all in favor of Thanksgiving dinner leftovers (Yum!!!) being used to jump-start our potluck resurrection. That way they’ll be no need to agonize about what to cook and bring (although you might be in agony as you contemplate having to share your candied yams or green bean casserole). If, like me you have a qualm about a holiday that is hurtful to some indigenous people, please try to focus on the spirit of gratitude and thankfulness and less on the questionable historical myth.
Having done a potluck at the end of November, I would propose to hold the next post-service potluck on the first Sunday in January and then every first Sunday thereafter.
You may be asking why we should go back to doing these when we already have the monthly Circle Supper potlucks. There are several reasons. Circle Suppers have limited seats available, they aren’t family friendly, they are not necessarily conveniently located, and, for much of the year, they require driving after dark in strange places. As we have younger families join us, it’s important that we find ways to include all of their members, not just the adult members. For those with limited transportation, a potluck just after service is much easier to manage than a special trip to someone’s home.
If you think you might be interested in attending the potluck in the sanctuary, it’d be great if you could go to the link below to let me know. It’ll help me plan if I have a rough idea of how many people might stay after to share food together.
Thank you to the 34 people who voted for their favorite organizations for ASJ’s monthly Special Collections! Votes have been tallied and below is a list of the ten organizations receiving WUUC’s special collections over the next year. A couple spots are always left open to respond to unexpected events that lead to efforts we feel called to support.
On November 20th our Special Collection will go to the organization that received the most votes – Northwest Abortion Access Fund – which serves Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Alaska with trained, compassionate volunteer advocates running a toll-free hotline, help with paying for their abortion care, and help with transportation and housing for the procedure.
In September we collected $1,032 to support WUUC’s Black Student and Family Fund (BSAFF). This money, along with WUUC volunteers, assists families of students in the Northshore School District (especially those living at Greenleaf, a subsidized housing community) with a variety of needs – from essentials like food, shelter, and monthly bills, to community organizing, leadership development, and support for future dreams including college and career development. Your contributions fund programs and services with the goal of providing a safe environment for students to explore and express their identity as they navigate the racial constructs of their world.
The ASJ Committee thanks WUUC members and friends for their generous support of our monthly special collections, which take place during services on the third Sunday of every month. Instructions for giving are posted during the service, and you can also donate anytime the following week at https://onrealm.org/wuuc/-/give/now, or by sending a check to WUUC at P.O. Box 111, Woodinville, WA 98072. Please make checks out to WUUC and write “ASJ Special Collection” in the notes.
Special Collection Recipients, Nov. 2022 – October 2023 (In order of number of votes)
Northwest Abortion Access Fund
Black Students and Families Fund (BSAFF)
Arms Around You
Na-ah Illahee Fund
Advocates for Immigrants in Detention Northwest
National Alliance on Mental Illness – Eastside (NAMI)
