by WUUC | Jun 1, 2022 | Announcements
“I guess after plan A fails, I need to remember there’s still a whole alphabet out there.”
Who of us doesn’t need a little help remembering that? Especially after enduring Covid for so long. The war in Ukraine, hatred and violence across the nation, the ongoing reckoning with racism, the world’s inability to deal with climate change. And political division. You get the point.
It’s easy to feel demoralized, daunted and defeated these days. With so many things going wrong, it’s easy to overlook the many things going right.
For Unitarian Universalists, this tunnel vision is the central tragedy of the human condition. Which is also why blessings are so core to our faith. They are our way of widening our view.
As UU’s we don’t say a lot of blessings. But we do point to them. For us, blessings are not so much about giving something to each other or receiving something from on high, as they are about helping each other notice all that’s already been given. To notice and to live into blessings prompts us to live in balance and experience joy and gratitude even when tumult surrounds us.
And it’s not just about widening our view to see the gifts and blessings themselves; it’s about widening our understanding of life. Pointing to blessings repairs our relationship with life, allowing us to see it as generous instead of indifferent or threatening. And that’s no small thing. Because when the world seems stingy with us, we start getting stingy with others. In contrast, those who feel blessed have little trouble passing blessings on. Life spills into us and we spill into others.
And in that overflow, it does indeed get a whole lot easier to notice that there is, most certainly, a whole alphabet out there.
Submitted by Linda Sherry, and modified from the June 2022 Soul Matters materials. Soul Matters is a UU guide for monthly themes available to All UU Congregations. Please consider bringing these themes to your WUUC small groups, circle suppers, even committee meetings. And to those you know outside our community – just imagine if more and more people could balance their life, to sooth their suffering by including and embracing the blessings, wherever they can be found. — and they are everywhere when you know how to look.
Find the June Soul Matters packet here.
by WUUC | May 27, 2022 | Announcements
In person congregational and choral singing has resumed at WUUC. To continue prioritizing the health and safety of all who attend as well as our larger communities, we ask that service attendees wear N95 or KN95 masks if they plan to sing. We will provide this higher quality mask to individuals who may show up to the service without one. We believe these higher quality masks, in addition to the other COVID safety measures we already have in place, will allow us to safely bring back choral and congregational singing during Sunday worship services.
Bringing back singing is an exciting step for our congregation. While this is a positive development toward a more fully reopened church, we are aware that the pandemic is not over. COVID cases are again on the rise and the pandemic continues to evolve with new variants. It is possible that we will need to move back to tighter restrictions again.
The COVID Response Team will continue meeting regularly to monitor COVID cases numbers and hospitalization rates, and these precautions are subject to change.
Please remember to bring your N95/KN95 with you on Sunday if you plan to sing! Again, we will have extras if someone needs one.
With gratitude,
The COVID Response Team:
Leslie Morton
Emily Kuo
Lane Owsley
Barbara Ramey
Kerrie Vespaziani
Questions:
Covidteam@wuuc.org
by WUUC | May 26, 2022 | Announcements
By Carol Taylor
One of the things I appreciate about being a UU is our willingness to question previous doctrine and tradition, and adapt to what is needed here and now.
Check out the latest issue of UU World, Stitching a Layered Faith, for stories of how the UUA and UU organizations are addressing changes outlined in the Widening the Circle of Concern report from the Commission on Institutional Change.
“This ability to grow, change, and adapt is a fundamental expression of our living tradition” (from “Embracing an Ethic of Love” by Rev. Dr. Susan Frederick-Gray). “Unitarian Universalist programs seek not only social justice in the wider society, but cultural transformation within” (from “Change from the Inside Out” by Elaine McArdle).
If you have not had a chance to read the WCOC report, it’s available in full online and there are hard copies available at the church. See for yourself what issues are being discussed and considered.
by WUUC | May 26, 2022 | Announcements
By Carol Taylor and Erika Jackson Kirkendall
Join us for a screening of the award-winning documentary On the Divide on June 29th. The film follows the story of three Latinx people living in McAllen, Texas who, despite their views, are connected by the most unexpected of places: the last abortion clinic on the U.S./Mexico border. As threats to the clinic and their personal safety mount, our three characters are forced to make decisions they never could have imagined.
The rights of child-bearing folks are under increasing threat in our country. “On the Divide is a slice of what is happening around reproductive rights on the ground.” Join us for a compelling look at the complex issue of personal reproductive choice and its impact on people’s lives.
Our own Erika Jackson Kirkendall has deep family connections to the community of McAllen. She will help us lead an in-person discussion after the showing. If you would like to make arrangement to view the film remotely, please contact ctaylor@wuuc.org. Additional participation details to follow closer to the event.
by WUUC | May 26, 2022 | Announcements
We invite you to join the Golden Girls for lunch on Thursday, June 30, at 11:30 a.m. All women are welcome!
We will again eat at McMenamins Tavern on the Square, 18607 Bothell Way NE, Bothell. We will eat outdoors under cover and with heat lamps if needed.
We will have good conversations and deepen our friendships, so mark your calendars for June 30 and plan to be with us! Watch for the reminder closer to the date.
by WUUC | May 26, 2022 | Announcements
Teaching music has resulted in many unspoken rewards for me. However, I always kept in the back of my mind, what a Los Angeles teacher once wrote in the L.A. Times. She said, “Get your lovin’ somewhere else!”
In my early years, I gave young children piano lessons at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where I was part of the Young People’s faculty. Many teaching skills needed to be developed such as choosing music suitable to their age and developmental stage. At the same time, I was studying music education at a local university.
My favorite school district was in Long Beach, CA where they had a very well developed music program, because of the consultants in the music department who had an outstanding vision of what a school music program could be. I was a traveling vocal music teacher, visiting classrooms in K-6.
Classroom music was important, but it was in the glee clubs that selected students learned the value of hard work as they prepared 2- and 3-part songs for festivals and PTA programs. They learned the importance of perseverance and cooperation in achieving a higher musical goal. Every spring, the L.A. philharmonic performed for 5th and 6th graders. These classes were given special listening lessons to prepare them for the concert experience. Important listening skills were developed.
My volunteer work began when I moved to Kirkland in 1991. I discovered our new church and began to participate in the choir. The group needed a soprano so I sang with them until they needed an accompanist. Later on, I served on the music committee when the church was ready to hire a choir director and accompanist. I also helped the search committee discover our beautiful grand piano.
To me, a life in music reflects the ultimate source of spiritual and transcendental experiences. I feel much gratitude for having made a small contribution this source. Perhaps not very practical, but ESSENTIAL.
